Friday, June 28, 2013

Storybook Wedding

June is wedding season and there are TONS of options for the literary minded couple who want to pull off the perfect storybook wedding.
Library book wedding invitation set
Book Invitations
Start the celebration of right with these book invitations with library book label RSVP cards
Book Page Bouquet - Book Page Boutonniere -Vintage Book Paper Flowers -Paper Roses -18 Paper Stem Roses -Eco Wedding
Book  Page Bouquet
This elegant bouquet is perfect for any book loving bride
Fairy Tale Dress
With this stunning number you can literally have a fairy tale wedding
Book Page Flower Boutonnieres // Library Wedding Book Page Roses
Book Page Flower Boutonniere
Can't forget the men!
Book Cake
Of course no literary wedding would be complete without a stack of books (in edible cake form of course)

Has this inspired you to make your own wedding/party/Monday morning book themed?  What is your favorite book party accessory? Do you think a general book theme, or a specific title/author/genre theme is better?  Have people started calling you the crazy book lady/man yet?   

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Towing My Baby

My poor baby is broken :-(  I am of course referring to my little truck with the fairy seat covers that has been so wonderful to me over that last 10 years.  Today I had to have her towed to get fixed, I was oddly a bit emotional about it.  My Hubbin then asked me what I would do when she finally died and I would have to get a new truck, after a bit of thought I figured I would probably bawl my eyes out.
Rescued by the Great Tow Truck
Rescued by the Great Tow Truck
That being said, it was actually pretty cool to watch the tow truck guy at work.  And of course the tow truck itself was a pretty awesome piece of machinery. The guy was laughing a bit at all the books I had to pull out the back seat, under the passenger side, in the glove compartment and even one out from between the visor and the ceiling, what can I say, I hate to be stuck without a book.  Here hoping your day started a little better then mine, or you at least have a decent book to read.  Happy Reading!

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

100 Year Sleep

I am absolutely exhausted and there is no end in site for at least the next four weeks!  Sometimes when I feel like this I have the urge to prick my finger on a spindle and see if I can't get myself 100 years of sleep like our friend Sleeping Beauty.  I think that is the amount of sleep it would take at this point to feel finally rested, on the down side I bet I would have horrible morning breath :-)  Since 100 years of sleep is not on the schedule I will instead share some of my favorite versions of this tale in hopes that I can get some sleep vicariously.
Spindle's End
Spindles End
A whole new twist on the Sleeping Beauty tale.  All the characters are fleshed out and we get to live the whole life of our heroine princess turned peasant.  The ending is a bit Huh? but over all one of my favorites (note to self, reread and ramble)
Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep
Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep
An extremely humorous take on this classic tale.  For being such a short little book, it packs a lot of punch, recommended for everybody!
Beauty Sleep: A Retelling of
Beauty Sleep
This is part of a series of hit or miss retelling's of all the classic fairy tales.  This Sleeping Beauty retelling is actually quit good.  The love story aspect of it is particularly well done, especially since 100 years really does pass.
Briar Rose (The Fairy Tale Series)
Briar Rose
I have mixed feelings about this story, which is less a retelling and more of an allegory.  The biggest part was I wanted more of the fairy tale to be in the story, but that being said it is definitely worth reading and inspired further research on my part.
Enchantment
This may be one of my favorite retellings of all time.  The way the author combines history, magic, and great writing make this a classic for any lover of a good tale.  This is another book that had me running time and again to the computer to look up characters and tales mentioned, and yet it is still seamlessly blended into the  classic Sleeping Beauty tale.

Hopefully reading some of these books will help me feel like I've gotten sleep through osmosis.  I suppose I could try and get some extra sleep by putting my book down...hahahaha I crack myself up sometimes.

What is your favorite tale of sleep? Are you a morning or night person?  How bad would you have to pee if slept for 100 years?

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Zombies In My Head

As a bit of a treat for my Hubbin, after he was so kind enough to put up with three generations of girls under his roof for two weeks I took him to go see World War Z (mmmm Brad Pitt), which is very loosely based on the book of the same name.  This made me think of a book I just finished reading and some of the obvious comparisons I could make.  Deadline is the second book in the Newsflesh series and differs from the first one in many ways.  I am still trying to decide how feel about it.   As always
SPOILERS AHEAD

When we ended the first book Feed, our narrator and main character Georgia Mason was dead.  She was killed by her brother Shaun when she started amplifying into a zombie.  This book starts several months later and Shaun is searching for a reason to stay alive, he is our narrator this trip.  Shaun and his crew, Rebecca "Becks" Atherton, a top Irwin (somebody who essentially puts themselves in danger for ratings), Alaric Kwong, a Newsie (somebody who does there best to search out and report nothing but the cold hard facts), and Dave Novakowski, another Irwin are in the field trying to get Alaric's field license.  Shaun is out with them when they run into a pretty sever zombie pack, which they barely survive.  Shaun used to love moments like these, using them to boost his ratings, but now he can barely manage to muster up enough energy to run his news blog After the End Times.  Upon arriving back to there secure apartment, they meet Kelly
Connolly, a CDC researcher we met in the last book.  She tells the crew that she in her team have been looking into the unusual high number of deaths of people who have reservoir Kellis-Amberlee condition.  This is where a human has a reservoir of active "zombie" virus in there bodies, in Georgia's case it was her eyes.  She also informs the crew that her team mates have been killed off one by one and that she is only one left. She escaped by making a clone and "killing" it, leaving it behind to be discovered.  Shaun goes to the roof to think things over and we learn that he still talks to Georgia in his head.  His conversations are a bit unnerving because he speaks his responses out loud and even on occasion hallucinates that he could see her. The team discover that Kelly brought a bug in with her unawares and they make a run for it.  Dave sacrifices himself so the team can make it out of the building.  They head to a fellow crew mate, Magdaline "Maggie" Garcia, a Fictional (somebody who writes fiction, poetry etc.) who's parents are owners of a major pharmaceutical business.  With all that money Maggie is able to provide a safe house, complete with beyond top of the line security.  Shaun and his team continue to follow Kelly's findings down the rabbit hole and stumble upon a Dr. Shannon Abbey, a "rogue" researcher who pretty much tells the team that some people with reservoir condition may be immune to amplification of the zombie virus. The kicker to this is not everybody with the reservoir condition is immune, in fact most still amplify and need to be shot.  Shaun and his team continue to do research and finally catch a break when Mahir Gowda, the head of the Newsies learns that each new strain of the Kellis-Amberlee virus is actually man made and that people with reservoir condition are being killed off before each release of a new strain.  Shaun, Becks, Kelly and Mahir decide to make a cross country trip to Memphis which houses the CDC headquarter and try and find out just what the heck is going on.  They leave Maggie and Alaric home to hold down the fort and head off in one of Maggies vans.  They arrive at the CDC, sneak in and are confronted by Dr. Wynne who was supposedly helping Kelly escape, but instead was using her as a means to track down news team.  Dr. Wynn tells the group that the CDC is trying to make a virus that they can manage and people with reservoir syndrome can mess it up.  With this justification of his action he is able to stab Kelly with a pen before he is shot in the head.  Kelly realizing that she has been injected with the live
virus tells the rest of the team to make a run for it while she stays and distracts security.  The team leave and drive home in the middle of a hurricane like storm, they notice that the roads and towns are eerily deserted, but cannot find a radio station or get online to find out what is happening. They arrive home to discover that the virus has mutated and can now be spread by insect bites, significantly upping the amplification factor.  A massive out break occurs and the state of Florida is declared a loss.  Between this news and the knowledge that the government is trying to track them down and kill them, they decide it is best to move on.  As the team races for Dr. Abbey's new facilities they are attacked by zombies and Shaun is bitten.  He is immediately placed into isolation and he is fully prepared to turn into a zombie...but it never happens, seems like Shaun is immune.  During this whole time Shaun is having full on conversations with his dead sister, so realistic in fact that on occasion his friends speak to her like she is actually there.  We end with Georgia Mason waking up in a CDC facility without a trace of her reservoir condition, or any child hood scars. She discovers that she is a clone and a not is sent from a Dr. describing  a PT who was bitten, but never amplified.
This again like the first book was about how people lived after the zombies appeared, but seemed to focus more on the team and their families than the first one.  My two biggest problems with this book was 1) After the whole premise of the last book, Senator now President Ryman is hardly even mentioned.  The complete change in tone from something as mundane as a political campaign to the more harrowing and traditional government conspiracy story was a bit jarring.  I really loved how they combined the mundane day to day living with the constant danger and horror of zombies.  I wanted to at least hear from President Ryman, or at least Rick, who by the way ended up as vice-president. 2) It felt a bit less original and more run of the mill zombie apocalypse book to me. There was more of a "Ah look out behind you" type of feel, vs hey we have been living with zombies our whole live, while annoying we are fairly used to them so lets focus on something else type of feel.  Don't get me wrong, it is still a great series and a page turner.  Clocking in at over 500 pages I still managed to read it in 2 weeks, and that was with psycho crazy life allowing for almost no reading time. The medical stuff seemed to be pretty sound for the most part, but even rereading some of the parts did not quit make it clear what the conspiracy was and what reservoir conditions had to do with it.  I'm not 100% sold on the whole Georgia as a clone thing, hopefully it will work itself out in the third book.  Shaun as a grieving, half-crazy narrator was a weird mix of almost pathetic, to much needed humor.  I also liked getting to know some of the other characters and some insight into how the medical field works in a place like that.  Overall it was a good book, I did not like it quit as much as the first one, but I seem to be in the minority.  I would recommend it to anyone who has already read the first book and plan on finishing the series.  I give it 7 out of 10 zombie dogs. Go, Read, Enjoy.

Monday, June 24, 2013

And Now Back To Our Regular Programming

Ok folks I'm back...for the moment :-)  I have had a whirlwind of a couple of weeks and now get a brief week of sanity before I dive right back in.  One of the things I did was visit the National Geographic Museum and it was AWESOME!!!!!  My favorite part was the Real Pirates exhibit which featured the crew of the Wydah Gally captained by Captain "Black Sam" Bellamy.  To make it even better my amazing Hubbin bought me a book to go with the exhibit.
The Mammoth Book of Pirates: Over 25 True Tales of Devilry and Daring by the Most Infamous Pirates of All Time
The Mammoth Book of Pirates
I have to say I am very excited to start reading this.  Sounds like the perfect summer adventure, learning the tales of true pirates.  It also makes me want to start a trip that hits all of the old major strongholds of the pirates!  Tomorrow I will resume with my Ramblings and we shall get on with our summer reading!

Friday, June 21, 2013

GrAwErBlah

Have had absolutely no time to read at all lately, getting a little frustrating.  I am going to do my best to finish at least one book by the weekend so I have something to blog about!
(via amandaonwriting)
Thanks for all your patience, normalish posting will resume on Monday.  Happy Reading!

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

I Buy Books

I have not had time to read more than a couple pages at a time for the last week...so what do I do with the little free time I have?  BUY MORE BOOKS! Because that my friends is the only logical thing to do. Here are some wonderful quotes to encourage all of us to buy more books.
So what are you waiting for?  Go buy some more books!?!

Monday, June 17, 2013

Books Grow

I am just in love with this image
Flower Book
Hope everybody is having a great week, I know I am.  Now it is off to the bookstore to feed my habit.

Friday, June 14, 2013

Daddy Dearest

Sunday is Fathers Day, a day to celebrate all of the Daddy's, Papa's, Fathers, and any other person who has had a influencing role as a father figure in your life.  I am lucky and have the bestest Daddy in the world.  He spent many hours when I was young reading aloud to me and my younger siblings.  He was not afraid of our young age and introduced us to chapter books early on, I remember us begging him to read just one more chapter, thus beginning my habit of staying up way past my bed time for just one more page.  Here are some of my favorite Dad's through out my reading experiences.

Mo is the father of the main character Meggie in the Inkheart Trilogy.  He is not only an amazing single dad, but he is a book binder as well!  As if these two things don't make him cool enough he has the special ability to read things out of books.  Essentially sometimes when he reads aloud, and object or person will actually come out of the book he is reading.  The downside to this is that sometimes people and things can get read into the book as well, and sometimes get lost, this is what happened to Meggies mother, which left Mo as a single dad.  My favorite part about Mo is that even in his grief over losing his wife, he does his best to make sure that Meggie grows up with an insatiable love of books!  Love him so much.

Aurthor Weasly of the Harry Potter series personifies the perfect comfy dad.  He is the dad who is always up for something new, as curious as his kids are and secretly proud when they discover something on their own...even if it is through methods that his lovely wife may not approve.  He is a perfect balance of love, discipline, worry, understanding, and absentmindedness that a good book dad should be.  I also love that while he may appear to be a bit bumbly and pre-occupied he is incredibly smart and able to hold is own in even the most dangerous of situations.  He also does not let his exuberant child like side overide his need to be a good parent, especially when his children, real or adopted are in danger.

The Jane Austen classic Emma features Mr. Woodhouse the most doting of fathers.  His overindulgent, overly worried care and love of his daughters and anybody whom he considers family makes this potentially obnoxious character endearing instead.  He is a man obsessed with the happiness and comfort of others, convinced that none, especially his dear sweet perfect daughters will have even a bit of joy unless they are at home with him in the familiar confines of home.  His worry however does not extend to actually stopping his beloved daughters from heading out into the world and finding happiness of there own.  In fact it is the consideration the girls give to Mr. Woodhouse, despite his overly protective tendancies that shows what a good father he really is. His ability to let them go, in the face of all his fears for their well being proves the point.

Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird is the epitome of a good example.  When you hear a kid say she/he wants to be just like Dad when they grow up, you really hope it is the type of dad that Atticus is.  His children Scout and Jem learn so much from this man, they learn a sense of right and wrong, even if it is hard. They learn to look past the surface and find that justice should (even if it does not always) descend any pre-concived notion of a person.  I love the fact that this story is shown from the children's point of view.  It is always amazing watching how a child views a parent.  In this situation Atticus's actions reached much further than just the courtroom, but also help shape the lives of his very own children.  One can only hope that there are other fathers like this out there.

Mr. Quimby from the Ramona series always felt like the most realistic of good dads.  He worked hard, provided for his family, went back to school, lost his job, got another job all things most normal people can relate too.  What makes Mr. Quimby a special dad, aside from the fact he is willing to work even the most menile jobs to provide for his family is his special connection to every member of the family.  It is clear that he respects as well as loves his wife, is able to be there for his teenage daughter Bezus and of course he always is the one member of the family who seems to understand our quirky little Ramona. His ability to get down on her level, regardless of her age and really try and understand why she does some of the things she does vs just responding to them, just melts my own little weirdo heart.

There you have it, some of my favorite dads in literature.  There are of course many examples of wonderful fathers, but I like to think that this little cross-section hits a variety of them.  Happy Fathers Day to all of you wonderful people out there, weather you be a biological, step, fill-in, in-law, outlaw, or just somebody who stops in from time to time to make sure your okay dad, we love you so much!




Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Hurricane Mamma

My Mamma is coming!!!!!! I am so excited!!!!!! Poor Hubbin is already getting out the ear plugs.  Of all the wonderful, amazing, stupendous (hey I spelled that right the first time), awe inspiring things my mother is, one of my favorites is that she is a book lover like me. She is also quit the character and reminds me of some of my most beloved children's book characters.
All Hail the Birthday Queen
All Hail the Birthday Queen
Any of the "Queen" books illustrated by Ms. Engelbreit remind me of my Queen Mother 
Eloise
Eloise
Mischief is a staple in my Mamma's life, she has this look that means trouble...now her four-year old grandson lil G is showing the same look!
Fancy Nancy
Fancy Nancy
These books always make me think of my Mamma, I swear Creativity is her middle name.
Ramona the Pest
Ramona Quimby
Everything about these books reminds me of my Mamma, I always like to think if I could go back and watch her grow up, this is what she would be like.
"Boots" McFarland
Her visits are always eventful, and we "joke" that we always have bail money handy when she comes to town :-)

I am very excited to see her and we will be traipsing all over the country side so my posting may be a little spotty.  I will do my best to at least get something up, but if you don't see anything for a couple days, don't worry I probably did not get kidnapped by the Canadian Mob...probably :-)

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Is It A Story Or A College Essay?

Just finished a quick read Genesis by Bernard Beckett.  I am not going to follow my usual synopsis pattern because this is not really a book you sum up, so without further ado I am just going to dive right in and then we can discuss what it means after that.  SPOILERS AHEAD WARNING BIG SPOILERS AHEAD

Essentially the book is told in the form of an oral examination of Anaximander, a student trying to gain entrance into the esteemed Academy, which pretty much controls her whole society.  We learn that Anax as she is called, lives in a fairly ideal society.  Everybody is safe, has plenty to live on, learning is encouraged and gender does not seem to be an issue.  Near the end of their learning term, young ones are encouraged to study intensively a topic of their own choosing, and Anax chooses to study Adam Forde.  Adam Forde was a young man who played a pivotal role in the history of Anax's society, being responsible for bringing about the Final Dilemma which apparently was the catalyst for the current ideal state in which Anax is living. Anax is approached by a man by the name of Pericles who agrees to be her tutor.  The book is broken up into each of the four hours of the exam with a break section in between each one.  This is where we get our story.  Anax tells the Examiners...and us about the history of her world, starting with the 2030's.  The world as it is wont to do devolves into chaos, wars are raging, resources are becoming scarce and devastating plagues
were released.  Among all this a man with a vision, and a fortune established what became known as the Republic.  The colony was based on an island described as "near the bottom of the world".  A huge sea wall was erected around the island, seeded with mines and anti-aircraft weaponry.  Absolutely no outsiders were allowed anywhere near the isolated Republic.  Within the society, Plato (that of course was the name of super rich dude) was able to put his own personal philosophies into place.  People were divided by genome into four classes, the lowly Labor class, the protector Soldier class, the able Technician class, and the ruling elite Philosophers class.  People were also divided by gender, living only among their own sex in communes.  They were encouraged to marry and have children, but always returned to the communes, only able to spend time with their spouse through earned "share-time" credits.  Children were taken away as soon as they were born and tested on their first birthdays to see what class they would be placed into, or if found unsuitable they would be terminated.  The thinking was, if everybody was loyal only to the state instead of to each other through those pesky family bonds, they could avoid the same chaos that brought about the need to isolate themselves in the first place.  This worked out well for the first generation, but as the subsequent generations grew up, the fear that kept there grandparents and to some degree their parents in line was no longer as big a factor.  Among these was
Adam, a boy whose genetic markers hinted that while brilliant, he may have a tendency towards behaving erratically.  As a result of all this Adam ends up killing a comrade to rescue a refugee, stating that he acted on his instincts and humanness.  The higher ups sensing a rebellion brewing tried to make an example out of Adam, telling the people he endangered the whole society on a whim, trying to instill fear back in the people.  This only had very limited success and instead of executing him as was the norm, they had to find an alternate means of punishment.  They decided to use him to "teach" an prototype android named Art.  Art's creator had given him the face of an orangutan and an electronic brain capable of learning. We learn that this all has to be done in secret as an earlier prototype went "crazy" and killed seven children, as a result Art has a directive in his protocols to never harm a self-conscious being. We spend a lot of time with Adam trying to convince Art that as a human he is superior, his ability to "feel" and act on that is something Art will never have.  Art in the meantime is trying to convince Adam that not only is he superior to humans, but that the Idea is superior to both humans and AI's.  Anax's recital stops here.  After that there is only speculation on what happened between then and the Final Dilemma.  The Examiners have noted throughout the presentation that Anax has taken liberties, and filled in some emotions with speculation. Anax agrees, but state that from all of the extensive research she has done, she feels confident that her analysis is correct.  The Examiners that tell her that they have the missing footage of what happened between the end of the recorded transcripts and the Final Dilemma.  Anax is both excited and scared to see what will be revealed.  We are then shown a hologram of what happens next.  Adam and Art have come to an uneasy truce.  To this end they have agreed to help each other escape.  Adam is not 100% sure of Art, or his reasons for helping him, but he has to take whatever help he can get.  The two orchestrate a violent escape and end up in the computer mainframe.  Once there Art uploads his program and disseminates it to every computer driven thing in the society, including a plant that will build more
androids like himself.  Adam realizes that he was set up and the guards are coming to kill him.  He asks Art why he betrayed him and Art tells him that as Adam had vigorously argued before, Art is not human, he does not think like a human and to that end just used Adam to get where he needed to be.  Art wanted the chance to upload himself and spread his programming all over the Republic and that his body being destroyed would not mean anything once he was in the system.  Adam realizes that it is all over for him and begs Art to kill him instead of letting him get shot by the guards.  After a brief hesitation Art reaches over and kills Adam.  Anax is horrified as Art's programming was supposed to never allow for him to harm a human.  This is where it is revealed that Anax, her Examiners and the whole Republic are all androids.  Apparently after Art downloaded himself and enough replicas were made, the androids decided the only way to protect civilization was to eliminate the human factor.  They considered themselves the next step in the evolution.  After the Great War, the androids who decided to fashion themselves to look like orangutans (in a nod to  Planet of the Apes).  The Academy was formed to carefully balance the individual vs a stable society.  This has worked for the most part, with only one real obstacle, the Idea.  The thinking is along with the interaction between Adam and Art, Ideas that Adam possessed "infected" Art, making him capable of overriding his programming and killing another sentient being.  The only androids who know about this are the Academy.  The thinking is as long as the others do not know that they are capable of this kind of thing, it will never be a problem, the only glitch in this is that every once in a while a "mutation" happens which makes an android more human than normal.  These "mutations" always show an unusual interest in Adam Forde, and tend to have the capacity to behave in an irrational manner.  These "mutations" are sought out under the pretense of an entrance exam to the prestigious Academy and are then terminated. In case you haven't guessed it, our Anaximander is one such deviant, even though she did not know it and is promptly terminated. The End.

I'm not really sure how I feel about this book.  It was full of some great questions, what does it mean to be human, when does the good of the whole outweigh the needs of the one, individuality vs stability, are androids really better humans than humans are?  I kind of like that the book never really gives any concrete answers to the tougher questions.  By the end we are left wondering if indeed to be "human" actually means what we thought it did.  I would say the vast majority of the book is devoted to questions and discussion of these questions.  The way it is written, in an oral examination form makes it read almost like an essay for a philosophy class.  This is good and bad.  The book was short enough that it didn't bog down to much, but the style did not lend itself to anything other than cold, quick facts and then of course the philosophy.  I also never quit got if the androids just took over the isolated island, or if they took over the whole world.  I also found it interesting that after all the talk of balance and allowing individualists as part of a healthy society, that the androids still felt it necessary to take a lot of free will out of the picture, choosing, as the super rigid society before them to eliminate a possible threat instead of seeing what would actually happen.  Over all I would recommend it for anybody who likes to have those endless conversations/arguments over a nice glass of red wine, you know the ones where there are no real answers but the conversation is such fun.  It might be a good book for the older teenage/college set to start off various discussions.  Over all I give it 6 out of 10 Orangutans.
What do you think of books based on philosophy?  Do you think there are definite answers to every question?  What does it mean to be human/sentient?  Do I count as human before I've had my coffee?

Monday, June 10, 2013

Around The World In A Zillion Variations

One of my favorite things about fairy tales, mythical creatures, and fireside stories is the prevalence of them around the world.  I love to see the differences and the similarities between these old familiar tales and characters told in different places and through out time.  Some characters, creatures and stories are specific to a place or time, but most have a similar counterpart in most places.  To further my research on my favorite at the moment I acquired a book by Heidi Anne Heiner who also runs the SurLaLune site.  This book in particular is about the mermaid tales from around the world.
Mermaid
This is a nifty not so little book that is an incredible resource for people who want to delve into the stories of these fabled creatures.  This book contains observations, history, analysis and most importantly stories from around the world and through out time.  
Sleeping Beauties: Sleeping Beauty and Snow White Tales from Around the World
Sleeping Beauty
There are several of these books, each focusing on a different story, it's origins and variations.  These are not sit down and read like a regular book type of books (does that make sense?).  They are more of a pick it up and find out interesting tidbits here and there. They also make for great resources if you are trying to write a new story, or just want to find out more about the originals (there is always more than one).
Cinderella Tales From Around the World
Cinderella
Unfortunately the hard copy editions of these books are pretty pricey which sucks 'cause I would like to see all of them lined up on my book shelf looking all pretty. However here is where e-readers are awesome because I can get all of these (there are like 15 of them so far) for closer to 10 bucks a pop instead of the 30-40 bucks the hard copies were costing (and that was for paperbacks!).  Like I said before, these are long, non linear, research type of books.  The content is wonderful and the illustrations awesome!  So anybody who wants to know more about there favorite fairy tale would enjoy the thoroughness of these books.  Anybody want to loan me a couple hundred bucks to buy the set?

Friday, June 7, 2013

Mission Accomplished

Well folks, today the impossible has happened.  My little brother, also known as Bubby has officially grown older than me :-)  This may have something to do with me refusing to have any birthdays past a certain point, but really who is counting?
You Wait till I'm Older than You
You Wait Till I'm Older Than You
Happy Birthday Bubby, I love you so much!  And don't worry in two years Lil Sis will be older than both of us :-)

Thursday, June 6, 2013

On Fire

Man we have been extremely busy at the fire station, not just my department, but around the country.  Please people stay safe, be smart, and hopefully me and my friends will never have to show up at your door.  If you just can't resist the lure of fire, here are a couple books that might a safer way to get your fix.
Fire
Fire
Catching Fire (Hunger Games Series #2)
Catching Fire
The Fire Within (The Last Dragon Chronicles Series #1)
The Fire Within
Cold Fire (Circle Opens Series #3)
The Circle Opens: Cold Fire
Fyre (Septimus Heap Series #7)
Septimus Heap: Fyre
Hopefully these suggestions will keep your fires fictional and contained.  Again folks please be safe out there, and to all my brothers and sisters in Fire/Ems/Law Enforcement stay safe and have fun :-)

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Bookstore Musings

Got to spend some time in the good old bookstore last night, made me a happy girl :-)  As I was walking through the store several random thoughts and occurrences popped into my head, here are some in no particular rhyme or reason.

Walking through all of the shelves of books, with all the different genre's, authors, topics, styles, stories, characters, covers, and page counts I realized as screwed up as this country is on occasion, how awesome is it that I can walk into a bookstore and pick up any book I want and not have to be afraid that I will be arrested, or punished for it.  Not only that, but you can write about whatever you want to as well, now these big box stores are not exactly known for there diversity when it comes to stocking lesser known titles, but if you compare the variety to some other places we kinda kick hinney!  Not to mention there is always
somewhere either in person or online that you can get access to just about any book you want, I love that.
Hubbin was following me around laughing at my little puppy excitedness and angst over having to just choose one book (not enough cash for my normal three :-( ).  We were in my favorite SciFi/Fantasy section when he picks up a random book and starts laughing.  As I make my way through the stacks I turn around and realize he is following me while reading the book, which is normally something that is more my territory.  Apparently the book caught his attention enough to not be able to put down, which I took as a sign that I had to buy it immediately.  We have decided that it will be our car book and I will read it aloud to him on our daily commute, a little bibliophile bonding if you will.
Since we had some extra time I wandered into the sections I rarely go to unless I need something specific.  I ended up in the Math/Neuroscience/Electronics section and sat myself down to see what kind off books this lesser visited area had to offer.  Oddly enough I actually found a couple interesting books, but what really struck me is the enthusiasm lovers of this area have.  Just because I may not find it interesting does not mean other people are not passionate about it, and in some of the books the passion really came through.  The other thing that stuck with me is the zillions of applications some of these topics have that I would never have thought of...even though they made sense after I had seen them (Steampunk robotics anyone?!?)
The sheer variety of people and the odd places you find them in a bookstore is always awesome.  You see
the business woman in the SciFi/Fantasy, the teeny bopper picking up a Jane Austin, grandpa with his arms full of Manga, and a young dad reading Fancy Nancy to his even younger son.  Bookstores just seem to be a place where it doesn't matter what your life is outside the doors, when you are in there you are a reader and that makes you part of the coolest group in the world!
What sort of musings strike you when you are in a bookstore?  How do yo convince yourself to just buy one book? No seriously tell me 'cause I may have spent grocery money on more books then I should have!  What is your favorite section in a bookstore?