THE LITTLE PRINCE -- POPSUGAR READING CHALLENGE #22

image from Goodreads

This was one of the harder ones so far to fill for me.

Number 22 on the Popsugar Reading Challenge is: a book recommended by a celebrity you admire.

I'm not really into admiring celebrities much. Maybe a shallow glance at Facebook and People magazine blurbs about them. So it was hard to find one that I truly admire.

I ended up choosing Emma Watson. She is an advocate for many things. She also took her education seriously despite becoming a star as the bookworm witch, Hermione Granger.

She recommended The Little Prince.

I look back on the book and I still have no idea what I read. It was an amalgamation of children's story, philosophy, fantasy, life lessons, and I don't know what else.

It's the sort of book that takes two or three readings to get the deeper meanings of the work.  It's worth another read.

What does The Little Prince mean to you? Let me know in the comments below.

CRAZY RICH ASIANS -- POPSUGAR READING CHALLENGE #25

image from Goodreads

So I was at Walmart last Sunday. I was doing a bit of shopping and ended up passing the book section. (Yeah, okay, I deliberately went there. That section just calls to me and I cannot resist its temptations.)

Anyway, I saw this and picked it up. I had seen the movie with my sister when it went into Red Box. I enjoyed the movie enough to check out the book.

I'm glad I did. The book had way more drama than the movie. Not that the movie didn't have drama. Only the movie was more geared toward the comedic side of things.

The con is that there were A LOT of characters to keep track of including family members, and friends, and friend of friends, and kids of friends.  Also, there were footnotes that translated the language. They were translated the one time but sometimes things were used more than once. I didn't want to go back and look for the translation again.

I enjoyed the book.  Oliver has got to be one of my favorite characters in the movie and the book. Peik Lin Goh is another. I totally had Awkwafina's performance in my head as I read it.  She was amazing.

One of favorite lines that Peik Lin says is: "I have no idea who these people are. But I can tell you one thing—these people are richer than God."

Have you read or watched the movie? Who was your favorite character?

THE MARTIAN -- POPSUGAR READING CHALLENGE #14

image from Goodreads

This was on my reading list for the longest time. And I mean the loooongest time.

I saw it at the library and put it on my reading list (in hardback). I watched the movie; it was still on my reading list.  I got the paperback last year --- and it was still on my reading list.

So I finally broke down and picked it up for the Popsugar Reading Challenge #14: A book set in space.

Let me tell you, I loved it!!! I highly recommend the book.

The book was intelligent and funny and just plain cool.  The book had a bit more depth (naturally) and had some great new bits not seen in the movie.

One of my favorite scenes is still the moment where he calls himself a space pirate.  My other is when he razzes Carl Sagan about colonizing Mars.

So what were your favorite scenes or lines from the the book or movie?

GOOD 2019 EVERYONE!!

I've been busy for the last few months. The real life job has been full of books, books, and more books.

I had to use up the money from (I think) three grants before they expired. That meant A LOT of processing.  The good thing is that our public library now has a decent manga collection that I feed with my regular funds. 

The cool thing is that the stats for the collection was astounding. It had super high stats for the year.  It did better that some of our other collections. Woot!

Image from Playway.com

And it was not only books. There were a ton of playaways. Those are audio books. Tiny, portable, and can go just about anywhere.  They run on a AAA battery. 

I had two major projects in the works that had to be done. A major weeding of my Juvenile and YA sections.

Other than that, life has been going on. We were sadden to lose one of our fur babies. She was 17.

We were all depressed.

A month later, my brother brought home an impy little turd named Reba. She is a tiny 7 lb. bundle of Speedy Gonzalez energy. She has two motions stop and light speed.  She is also a sand worm from Dune. She burrows under the covers like one.  Nothing like getting a frigid nose butting your arm at 3 a.m. so she can bury herself under the covers.

I have decided to do the Popsugar Reading Challenge again. 

I know, I know. I tried in 2015 and didn't finish. This time I've planned ahead and found books to fit the categories ahead of time. So now I just have to read them.  Plus, I decided to do a reading log to go with it.

I've labeled the reading log with each of the Popsugar challenge categories ahead of time. Now I just fill in the pages with the books I choose.

I've also decided to pledge a set number of books in the Goodreads reading challenge, which I've never ever done before. I officially read 300 books (okay, mostly manga) last year. This year I said 250.

Sounds like a lot, but it's not really.

I also want to downsize my billions of books. So I'm bound and determined to read them and get rid of the ones I don't want anymore. 

So how has your January treated you?

A SHADOWED SPIRIT BY SARA C. SNIDER

Okay, peeps, I'm doing something entirely new and different here.  A blogging friend has a book coming out, and I have the honor of posting about it.

Isn't the cover soooo pretty?  I just love the feel of it.  

The muted background  enhances the gold sparklies.

Where to find the Awesomeness:

Kobo
Apple
Barnes & Noble
Google Play 
Goodreads 

Plus, she is having a giveaway on her blog between May 17th through the 31st.

So swing on over and try your luck!

The mystical Blurb: 

She used to be called Emelyn. She used to be nobody. Now she is Siyan--a creature of magic known as an And'estar. But Siyan doesn't understand what that means, just as she can't control the power that has woken within her.

Addigan worked her entire life to master the Art of magic and become a respected Magister, only to fail her final test. Scarred and desperate to prove her worth, Addigan pursues rumors of trees of power and a mysterious people called And'estar.

When Siyan heads into the dense and dangerous forest searching for answers, she doesn't realize Addigan is coming for her. In this twisting chase of hunter against hunted, Addigan must choose how far she is willing to go to prove herself. And Siyan must let go of everything she knows--and everything she loves--if she is to gain control over her power. Even if it kills her.

In a journey that follows the intertwined lives of two women, A Shadowed Spirit is a mystical tale that redefines the boundaries between life and death, dreams and reality, and what one is willing to sacrifice to achieve the happiness she seeks.

And last but not least Where to find the Author:

Blog
Facebook 
Twitter
Pinterest

READING CHALLENGE 2015 #15 -- A BOOK WITH MORE THAN 500 PAGES

The five Hitchhiker books and short story

I find every once in a while I love to read something off-the-wall strange and something totally rack-your-brain weird. This set of books-in-one takes the cake on all accounts.

This is the chronicles of the misadventures of Arthur Dent, a mild-mannered and boring Englishman, and a motley crew of misfits including Marvin the Robot, Trillian, Zaphod, Ford Prefect, and a host of other strange, strange beings.

As the series goes on it gets stranger and stranger, but it all works in a strange sort of way.

By far my favorite book is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy followed by Restaurant and the End of the Universe. My next favorite is So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish where Arthur meets Fenchurch.

I recommend these for those who like going on an acid trip through words.

READING CHALLENGE 2015 #14 -- A CLASSIC ROMANCE

Okay, I had two ways I could have gone for this category.  I could have read something along the lines of Jane Austen or Bronte or whatever else is classified in that genre.  My other choice was go the more simplistic route and choose an actual romance romance.

As you can tell I went with the tried and true romance.  Johanna Lindsey has been writing romances since I was a kid.  For me, I would classify her in the classic romance authors.  I mean she's still publishing after twenty plus years (give or take).

Anyway, this book is the second in the Callahan-Warren whatever (I'm not sure if it's a duology or if there will be more).

Max is wanted by the law and Degan goes after her without knowing that she is a she until he captures her.  Then it's a trek through the wild west with bullets flying and ex-fiances popping up to say howdy.

A pretty good book, but not the best she's written.

BOOK CHALLENGE 2015 #13 A BOOK THAT BECAME A MOVIE

Okay, I admit to bawling my brains out at the end of the movie when I was a kid.  What?! How could anyone not cry at the end?

Anyway, the movie actually followed the book very well. All the pertinent points of the story were there.

What they did not have in the movie did not detract from it at all. The minute details that filled the pages of the book were so neat.  There's back story on Schmendrick and more details about Haggard and his lands. Lir's story is there as well.

Also the world has more people and places that fill the story.

I liked this book.  As I read I watched the movie in my head when the scenes were the same.

Sigh.  And now I have America singing the theme song to the movie stuck in my head. Brick wall here I come. 

BOOK CHALLENGE 2015 #12 -- A BOOK WITH A LOVE TRIANGLE

So this is the second book in this series.  We find Cassie and company in the chaotic aftermath of the first book.  A new agent appears and has connections with Dean before he joined the group.  The game's afoot (heh heh) as a murder victim is found on a college campus.

The love triangle comes in as Michael, Cassie, and Dean (with a bit of Lia mixed in) deal with their feelings.  Cass has feelings for both Michael and Dean, but she doesn't know which one has her heart more.  Michael keeps pushing her into realizing her true feelings.

This book was fun because if you like sick and twisted serial killer stuff then this .  I liked that the triangle because it doesn't overwhelm the rest of the story.  Personally I thought that it created some of the actions in the story.

READING CHALLENGE 2015 #11 -- A BOOK WITH NONHUMAN CHARACTERS

Chronicles of Nick book 4

Okay, I've come back to this series because in this book 99% of the characters ARE NOT HUMAN! Most of the characters are demons, gods, and various other entities.  If I'm not mistaken there are six true humans in the entire book:  Nick's mom, Bubba, Mark, Casey, Alan, and Tyree. Alan and Tyree only show up for maybe two chapters, and Casey shouldn't count because she's possessed.

Anyway, Nick has more fun, fun, fun adventures trying not to get killed or drained or kidnapped by beings that want his powers.  Also, he's on the outs with Kody because Death (aka Grim) has to screw with him. How else can he bring about the Apocalypse, I ask.

All in all, it was a good book, but it took me longer to finish because I was not enjoying the Casey moments.  It was one of those things where I wanted to bash her head in because she made my skin crawl, which happened to be about a third of the book in the middle.

Once that was over, the rest of the book was awesome because the action happened and the shiznit hit the fan in a major way.  AND THEN THE ENDING!

Omg! That ending was a WTF if ever I read one! 

BOOK CHALLENGE 2015 #10 -- A BOOK MORE THAN 100 YEARS OLD

Okay, I had to fudge on the cover for this book.  The version I read was from Arcadia House and published in 1950.  It held the novel Kidnapped as well.  I could not find a picture of it like I did with Oscar Wilde.

Anywho, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was written by Robert Louis Stevenson and published in 1886.  This was a novella technically.

It's about a Doctor Henry Jekyll who created a solution from different compounds that transformed him into his purely evil side called Edward Hyde.  Only somewhere it went wrong and the doc lost control of his metamorphosis.

Hyde did all the doctor wished he could do.  It's almost like he wanted to be Dorian Grey only he didn't want to own up to his dark desires.  He just wanted to reap the benefits and live vicariously through his other persona.

I was somewhat disappointed by the fact that most of the actions were after the fact.  I was hoping I to live through the adventure, but that was not the case.  We get to see the aftereffects through Gabriel Utterson, Jekyll's lawyer and friend.

Other than that, it was an interesting book, which put me into the mood to read Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin and watch the movie with Julia Roberts and John Malkovich. 

BOOK CHALLENGE 2015 #9 -- A BOOK BY A FEMALE AUTHOR

This is an author I have never of before, but I loved the interesting cover so much that I wanted to see what it was about.

Let me tell you I was enthralled with the blurb!  The premise is a tiny bit far fetched, but still plausible. Who knows what the government actually does in reality, I don't.

Anywho, I ate this book up. I was sucked in from the first page to the end.  That hasn't happened in a long time.

So it starts out with Cassie working at a diner.  She was taught to read people by her mother before she died.  When she's approached by a young man, her world is drastically changed.  She becomes a part of a group of teens that work cold cases for the FBI.  They are all classified as Naturals.  Their talents to read people and crime scenes are being honed.

Then a serial killer targets Cassie with a cat and mouse game for the highest stakes.

It's a fun glimpse of BAU training and has the slight hints of I Hunt Killers.  

A to Z Challenge -- G -- ENERGY, BOOK, AND DEITIES

GRIMOIRE --  A grimoire is a book containing rituals, formulae, preparation of equipment, and a host of other things.  It is sometimes interchangeable with book of shadows, but others prefer that they remain separate.  They have been around for centuries.

GROUNDING --  When raising power for ritual, many times there it can leave excess energy.  To ground oneself is to release and disperse said power after the completion of it back to the Earth, in some other object (plant or stone) or in some other manner.  

The symbol for the Triple Goddess

GODDESS --  The Goddess is many, one, or both.  It all depends on the person.  There is no set way to worship Her.  She can be the Triple Goddess, Isis, Hera, or any one or combination.  The Goddess is who She is needed to be.  She is life.

To name the Goddess is completely up to the practitioner.  

Symbol for the Horned God

GOD -- The God can be one or many, or all.  He can be the Horned God, Zeus, Odin, or whichever god is preferred.  There is no set way to worship.  He represents the masculine energy.  His power coincides with the Wheel of the Year. waxing in summer and waning in winter.  He symbolizes the death and rebirth.

GREEN MAN -- He is the spirit of the forest. He is symbolized by a human face through foliage. He is known by many names like Jack-in-the-Green or Green Jack.

In, modern day, he's usually part of the spring rites like Beltane or May Day along with the May Queen.

He is the archetypal representation masculine energy in nature.  One theory is that he was a fertility god before becoming the newer Green Man.

The Green Man has been traced back to ancient Rome, but there are cultures with little Roman influence that have a similar figure, including Nepal, Iraq, India, and Istanbul.  In Rome, He may have connections to Dionysus before his image morphed into the hedonistic party animal.  He was a god of agriculture and fertility of nature.

He is found in many churches in Britain in the architecture.  These early churches most likely had pre-Christian believers carving the stonework.  So the pagan tradition survived as the church took over.



Disclaimer: None of these pictures belong to me.  I found them on Google.

BOOK CHALLENGE 2015 #7 A BOOK ON THE BYU HONORS LIST

An Ideal Husband (Image from Amazon)

The BYU Honors List has many titles to chose from from different periods of history and places around the world.  It was a difficult decision, but when I saw that Oscar Wilde was on there, I thought, "Why not?"

Since I was thinking of choosing another one of his works for a different challenge (Well, I still am, but that's beside the point), I went with An Ideal Husband.

I had watched the movie based on the play and thoroughly enjoyed it.  It stars Rupert Everett and Minnie Driver as Lord Goring and Mabel respectively.

So, I read it and am surprised to say that the play was even more amusing than the movie.

Main premise of the play is that Arthur, Lord Goring, has to help his friend who is being blackmailed by an old acquaintance.  Mrs. Cheveley wants a scheme to pass the House of Commons despite it being a swindle.

Taking place within 24 hours, the play is fast paced within the three acts.

A funny misadventure with witty banter among the characters.

BOOK CHALLENGE 2015 #4 -- A BANNED BOOK

The Giver

The Giver ranks as one of the most challenged books since its publication and has made the ALA's  two Top 100 Banned Books decade lists.  It was 11th on the 1990-1999 list and 23rd on the 2000-2009 list.

With the movie out, I wonder if it will make the 2010-2019 list.

It's about a boy named Jonas who learns that his world isn't what it seems and that it had lost much of what makes humans human.

BOOK CHALLENGE 2015 #3 -- A BOOK FROM AN AUTHOR YOU LOVE THAT YOU HAVEN'T READ YET

Snow Kisses

Okay, I admit I really like her books.  There are more hits than misses with this author for me, which is a miracle.  

The two novels in this book are Snow Kisses and Lionhearted.  I've read Lionhearted before but Snow Kisses was new.  They are reprints of some of her older works.  I love reprints because I can read older works without having to scrounge for them.  

Abby and Cade are at odds with each other.  She left for New York at eighteen after he rejected her.  Four years have passed, yet they haven't figured out how to tell each other about their feelings and the misunderstanding it caused in the past and present.  All the drama and angst is there as they fumble around trying figure out what each other wants instead of just talking.  

Gotta love romance novels.  

COMPOSERS FOR RELIEF: ONE YEAR LATER

Okay so i'm totally copying this from Sam's Facebook post, but she totally has way better words than I do.

So, without further ado in Samantha's Words:

Today, November 8th, marks the one-year anniversary of Super Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda. The world's most destructive storm devastated the Philippines, killing over 6000, displacing over 4 million and drastically affecting the lives of over 14 million people....

Over the past year, an incredible international team of composers, musicians, writers, graphic designers and films students, led by Peter Ebbinghaus, worked together for a creative solution in support of the relief efforts for the Philippines. This unparalleled collaboration gave rise to theComposers for Relief organization.

In honor of these continued efforts, the Composers for Relief will launch a new web site and release a CD version of the album! Please show your support by purchasing the album and companion ebook, Beyond the Binding, newly listed for $0.99!

Watch this heartwarming documentary, filmed by Jamal Daood and Ray Kril's talented team, YOLANDA'S GOT TALENT!

Yolanda's Got Talent

YOLANDA'S GOT TALENT PREMIERE 8 NOVEMBER 2014- the one year anniversary of the tragic storm Yolanda COMPOSERS FOR RELIEFhttps://www.facebook.com/composersfo...

YOUTUBE.COM