It's Like They Know Me!

Hello All, I hope everybody had a great whatever they choose to celebrate (or not) this season.  I was as always spoiled rotten.  Seriously folks my family and friends know me so well it's not even funny.  This year's haul included my Kindle Fire from the Hubbin so I can not only read any book at any time, but it is so high tech and usable I can actually write a lot of my posts on it  YAY HUBBIN!  Mammasan went WAAAAAAAAY above and beyond and got me the ultimate combo gift.  It is the book  As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride  by Cary Elwes...who I may have wanted to marry since I first saw the movie The Princess Bride.  To make it even more epic...she some how managed to have it signed by the Dread Pirate Roberts himself, Mr. Cary Elwes!!!!!  A small freak out may have commenced upon opening of said gift.  My baby sis of course found the best collection of books that not are only readable, but look amazing on my bookshelf.  I got a bunch of other cool stuff too...'cause you know...spoiled, including a Game of Thrones inspired card and an epic hand drawn dinosaur that goes RAWR...'cause we all know that is exactly what they say...no screeching here lol.  Anyways  I am looking forward to some quality reading time so if I go MIA I'm probably curled up in my reading chair with a huge stack of books.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Shakespeare And The End Of The World

Hello Readers, how's it going?  I just finished a very interesting book and then spent the next week trying to figure out how to ramble about it.  The book was recommended by my baby sis and she had a hard time trying to describe to me, but assured me I would enjoy it so I'm glad I wasn't the only one having a hard time trying to define it.  The book is Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel and here is my best attempt at talking about this (at least to me) indefinable book.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Ok, here we go.  The structure of this book is fairly non-linear with the story jumping back and forth between numerous times and places so it makes it a bit difficult to sum up in the same style as the book so I'm just gonna do this bare bones and suggest you read it your self to truly get the flavor of it.  We start at one of my favorite places, the theatre, wear the acclaimed movie star Arthur Leander is performing as the title character in Shakespeare's King Lear.  On this night, Arthur dies on stage from a heart attacked, which is witnessed by Kirsten Raymonde, a young child actress.  This night is also what becomes known as the first night of a horrific flu virus dubbed the Georgia Flu that ends up decimating over 99% of the human population.  What we see next is the various stories connecting people both past and present.  The two characters of Arthur Raymonde and Kirsten Raymonde seem to be the center points in which the story revolves, but this does not mean every story features them...this is getting more confusing then it really is.  We read the back and forth story of Arthur and the people he comes in contact with including Miranda, who becomes his first wife.  Miranda is also responsible for writing and illustrating a graphic novel called Station Eleven, about a space station gone wrong and a warring population.  This graphic novel shows up in many places through out the story and is in it's entirety help by Kirsten after the world ends.  We also read about Arthur's other wives and his one son Tyler who is still very young at the time of his father's death and the Georgia Flu pandemic.  The readers get to follow Kirsten after the fall of the world as she lives and works with the Traveling Symphony, a group of survivors who travel in a caravan performing music and Shakespeare plays, attempting to keep the arts and beauty alive in a world that is focused on survival.  The group encounters a man who calls himself a prophet who's violent ways of getting what he wants threatens every survivor his group interacts with.  Another story is the founding of the Museum of Civilization in the airport that was the final landing place of many survivors, stranding them and forcing them to start a new life there.  We also find that Arthur's son Tyler was part of that group and it is he who grew up to be the prophet.  This all comes to some sort of ending when the prophet kidnaps a few members of the Traveling Symphony to use as trade and Kirsten kills him.  They all end up at the airport housing the Museum of Civilization and we assume life continues.

I think what I love best about this book is it's indescribable nature, it is a mix of everyday life, memoir, history, dystopia, end of the world, fine arts, religious, medical, redemption, tragedy, family, and so many more things.  I have mostly seen it classified as science fiction...but I'm not sure why.  I guess the "futuristic" pieces of it could speak to science fiction, and the graphic novel that pops up as a unifying thread in the story is defiantly science fiction...but the story itself is not.  I feel it is one of those wonderful works that does not fit into any one genre, instead giving us a glimpse of a time and place through the use of contrasting the new with the old and showing us in pieces how the characters and the world got to where it was in the book.  Alright, in case you haven't figured it out the only real way you are gonna know anything of substance about this book is to read it.  I will now attempt to convey what spoke to me in this book.  My favorite part was of course the weaving of Shakespeare through out the whole book.  It starts with a wonderful depiction of traditional theatre, with glimpses behind the scenes and continues with the Traveling Symphony using it to help keep people human. My love of theatre was kept to happy levels with this book.  I also very much enjoyed the Station Eleven parts of the book.  I loved the glimpses of the story within a story and the description of the art work makes me wish it was real so I could read it.  The style of the writing was wonderful and easy to follow with the potential to get pretentious or overly sappy, but the author kept a strict hand on the sentiment and ended up with great flow.  Arg...I'm not doing a very good job here.  Hmmm.  Ok think of this as a cake with many layers and the cake itself is the foundation the main story is written about and where the author always goes back to.  The frosting is the main characters who's history and future is touched on, and all then their are the bits and pieces of chocolate, nuts and fruit scattered through out to add texture and flavor and that is probably the closest I can get to describe this book.  I give it 8 out of 10 glass paper weights and recommend it for any body who wants to read something different and thought provoking, but is not to pretentious or esoteric for every day reading. Everybody please, please, please read this and come back and discuss it with me!!!!  Happy Reading Everybody!

Holding My Eyes Open

Skyping with baby sis today and realized we both suffer from the same problem on occasion...we can't stay awake to read.  We go to bed early with the intention of reading for an hour or two (a habit that we both still have from our childhood) and lo and behold we fall asleep a couple pages in.  There are several stages to falling asleep while reading.

 First you are all good to go, you start reading, getting into it. The next stage is you realize that you have read the same page a couple of times and still don't remember what you just read.  The third stage is when you rest your eyes for "just a second" only to drag them open a few minutes later to read one word and then rest them again.  Stage four is what I like to call the tired two year old phase, and this is when you know it's hopeless, but you refuse to actually go to sleep and force your eyes open one more time.  Eventually you hit the final stage and that is when your book slips from your fingers and falls to the floor and you just don't have the energy to lean over and pick up...and you finally admit defeat.  What happens when you fall asleep reading?  Happy Reading Everybody!

Awesome Present For ME!!!!

My baby sis is back in the states from her world tour and she came bearing an early birthday present for me :-)

Private Worlds 

It's a book published and printed in 1937...and yes the first thing I did was smell it, and let me tell you it smells awesome!

Other then being a really cool find from overseas, where she got the book is pretty awesome too!  Shakespeare and Company in Paris is an old book store built...or should I say created by George Whitman who said "I created this bookstore like a man would write a novel, building each room like a chapter, and I like people to open the door the way they open a book, a book that leads into a magic world in their imaginations." —George Whitman

The builder of the bookstore and various authors who were passing through at the time used to be able to spend the night inside the bookstore.  There is a ton of history behind the store and the book and I cannot wait to explore both of them!  Thanks baby sis for a perfect present.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Melting Tingling Alice

Dear Baby Sis, please don't read this post, love your Biggest Sis.  Ok now that is out of the way, today we are going to ramble about The Collector's Society by Heather Lyons, the first in a series also called The Collector's Society.  I'm going to tell you two things right off the bat.  One I did not really like this book.  Two I am in a very small minority as the reviews on this thing show it to be insanely popular and well received.  Why is this?  I'll tell you but first, as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Alice has returned from her third trip to Wonderland as a 25 year old woman.  She checks herself into a mental institution to try and essentially detox from her adventures in the hope that she can rejoin a normal Victorian English society.  All of this gets blown to pieces when she is invited by a Mr. Brom Van Brunt to join an organization known as the Collector's Society.  The only information she is given is that without her help Wonderland will be destroyed.  She agree's and they step through some sort of doorway into modern day New York City.  Here Alice meet's a host of characters that give her absolutely no information about anything, which is fine because Alice does not share anything either.  After a bit of not sharing back and forth Alice meets Finn Van Brut...formally known as Huckleberry Finn.  She falls in instant lust, melting every single time he so much as glances her way...which happens quit a bit.  Alice (and the reader) finally find out that the point of the Society is to find the catalyst for each Timeline.  A Timeline is a world that comes to life somehow when a book or series of books, or an author becomes widely read and loved.  Apparently each Timeline has a catalyst that if destroyed will destroy the Timeline...I'm not sure in anyway shape or form how this works, or why it works, or how it was discovered, or how a Timeline can disappear when the books are still around and loved, or well all kinds of stuff that makes no sense but is never explained.  Anyways the Society sends agents (who are usually characters or related in someway to the characters in other Timelines...it all gets very meta)  into the Timelines to collect the catalysts to keep them safe from some sort of villain that for some reason is destroying the Timelines.  The majority of the first two thirds of the book however is taken up with Alice keeping some sort of secret from everybody including the reader, while also melting and having the little hairs stand up on the back of her neck every time Finn is so much as thought of.  Finn (who is an impossibly stand up guy) seems to reciprocate the melting and the tingling and the secret keeping.  So pretty much we have a very repetitive secret romance going for a really long time.  Eventually the book picks up a bit when we FINALLY get to Wonderland.  We discover that Alice was made the Queen of Diamonds and fell in love with the White King.  Because of some sort of screwed up Wonderland politics, Alice agreed to leave Wonderland in the hopes of alleviating the suffering of her people.  Alice, Finn and a couple of their friends (Victor the son of Dr. Frankenstein and Mary Lennox of The Secret Garden) go to Wonderland to get Alice's crown which is the catalyst for this Timeline.  They enter a Wonderland in the middle of a brutal war and eventually meet up with the White King who aids them in their quest.  There are some moments between Alice and the White King, but she makes a choice to stay with Finn in the new world she is now part of.  They bring the crown back and melt and tingle some more and we never figure out anything else because that is what the next books are for.

In case you didn't pick up on it, I did not really like this book.  In general it felt like a rote romance book with a potentially couple of good idea's thrown in that suffered from execution issues.  I'll go through what bugged me the most, and then tell what parts I did like.  To start with the book was in first person, so we were stuck in Alice's head, which was problematic for many reasons.  First off, she did not know ANYTHING so we didn't either and we only got an extremely limited view of what was going on in this new world.  This works if the character learns and discovers as they go, but that was not the case.  Second of all, even though we are stuck in Alice's head, we are not even privy to her thoughts and secrets so pretty much we spend the vast majority of the book with vague, yet overly dramatic phrases meant to keep everything in the dark.  This is one of my biggest pet peeves when an author drags out a supposed secret or bit of information for no other reason then to try and keep you reading.  This is especially aggravating when the secret finally gets revealed and really is not that big of a deal.  There was nothing that got revealed that made me gasp out loud.  The romance drove me absolutely batty.  I am not a huge fan of romance novels in general, mostly because they all feel like the same book to me and at least on the romance side to me this book was no exception.  Alice was supposed to be this strong kick-ass character, but she spent the majority of the book alternating between dramatically declaring to herself that she does not want to have any sort of human contact with Finn and melting and tingling and going weak kneed every time Finn is even mentioned.  This happens over and over and over and over and the worst part is the author uses pretty much the exact same phrasing in every angsty encounter.  Even worse, when they finally get together and have sexy time...well lets just say it was so tame and bland and repetitive that I would let my eight year old nephew read it (ok not really, but you get the point). Finn was waaaaaay to perfect to be of any interest to me.  He was always doing an over the top good guy thing, with his only real flaw being his getting super angry when those he loves are hurt, seriously I don't see the appeal.  The White King was a much more interesting and complex character and I would have loved to spent more time with him.  Ok let's move on.  Getting away from Alice for a few minutes the premise of the book could have been pretty cool except for the fact that I still don't really know what it is.  It felt like the author had an idea about using characters from different books to create a society to protect books, but let it get to complicated with no real world building at all.  We never really get a good explanation for anything.  There were a couple of parts I did enjoy.  I liked it when Alice wasn't getting all angsty and just had conversations or some very witty one liners.  What I really liked was the time spent in Wonderland, I really wish the author had pretty much skipped everything else and just written this future Wonderland.  I like the idea of Alice as an adult and the potential adjusting from Wonderland back to her home.  This idea would have been plenty for a really great book.  I am most definitely in the minority in my feelings on this book, the vast majority of the reviews have been very positive and glowing.  I am thrilled that so many people love.  It's books like this that prove my point that not every book is for every person and just because everybody else loved it, doesn't mean I have to.  Nor does every book I love have to be a home run for anybody else.  Overall I give this book 4 out of 10 cups of tea and recommend to anybody who enjoys romance, or some potentially good ideas.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Why I Hate My Baby Sis

I think I have mentioned that my baby sis is on a tour around the world.  Her latest stop is in Ireland, and I pretty much hate her guts.  Mostly 'cause she gets to go see all this great stuff on my bucket list.  For example, her are just a few of her amazing pics from the library at Trinity College

Yep she is one of the top places on my bucket list...lucky duck.  She is charming enough that she got the security guard to get out one of the books that is several hundred years old and let her hold it!!!!!! At least I can say that she is as big a book freak as I am and actually appreciates it.  Hope she is having a blast and continues to smuggle me pictures...I'll be over here crying jealous tears.  Happy Reading Everybody!!!

17th Century Books Or Why I Hate My Baby Sis

Sooooo...I really really hate my baby sis right now...not really, she is still by book club buddy and my baby sis of awesomeness, but seriously hate her :-)  Why this intense loathing?  Well it's not so much hate as it is insane jealousy because she and her wonderful husband are on a tour around the world.

Monastery of San Francisco 

She gets to go see things like 17th Century choir books bound in wood and displayed in a library with a whole ton of other antique and amazing books in Lima, Peru.  The upside to all of this is that she is my sweet baby sis and we do share a love of a lot of the same things, especially books, so she is constantly taking pictures for me (even illegal ones like the one above).  So while I will continue to cry jealous tears at least she will keep me supplied in new and unique literary awesomeness.  I will also continue to post the cool stuff she finds here.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Around The Fictional Worlds

My baby sis and her husband have set off on their world tour.  To say that I am extremely jealous is a massive understatement...and I may send her pics of me crying piteously every time another one of their fabulous posts gets published.   Lucky for me, while not quit as awesome as actual traveling, I do still have my books.  My books can take me to worlds beyond what any human can travel to.  Here are some places I would love to explore in person.

Narnia

This will always be the epitome of the magical land I want to travel to.  Ever since I could pick up a book I have been looking for a way to get to this world and explore it from top to bottom!

Middle Earth

I can't decide if I want to visit Rivendale, the mines of Moria or Rohan first...or maybe I'll take tea in the Shire...no climb the trees of Lothlorian...no wait...sigh so much to do.

Neverland

Flying, pirates, faires, mermaids, adventure, what is not to love about this place, I think it would be the perfect summer vacation spot.

Oz

There is so much to see in Oz, and with it constantly changing I have a feeling one would never run out of places to see in this land of color and magic. 

Earthsea

This place holds an amazing amount of diversity packed into a fairly small space.  The idea of sailing from island to island to enjoy all the various cultures is exciting.

Pern

I don't so much want to visit Pern as I want to live there, work there, ride dragons there, study there, pretty much do anything and everything all the time there.

Earth

As much as I love and adore my make believe worlds, the one we live on right now holds so many wonders and much magic just waiting to be discovered, so it too goes on  my list.

So there it is, my short list of any of the thousands of places I want to explore.  The best part about being a book lover is the ability to, at least in my head, travel to every place imaginable.  The other cool part is that people are constantly inventing new places, new worlds, new stories and new adventures for me to go on so I will never run out of places to travel.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Booksitting

So my baby sis is all grown up and heading out on a world tour for a year.  To this end her and husband are packing up the house and finding homes for pretty much all of their possessions.  Some things they are selling, some things they are giving away, but some things are to important to get rid of an must be found good and loving homes until the intrepid explorer's return.  My Mamma and Daddy get the puppies and I get the books!   Yep until my baby sis returns all worldly wise, I get to keep (and read) her books safe and sound.  Now for some unknown reason she seems to thing the ones I like may find their way permanently onto my shelf (maybe that beautiful hardcover edition of Oliver Twist?) so she marked all her books with her own personal symbol...and then proceeded to mark all her husbands just for good measure.  I will admit it is a bit bitter sweet packing up and bringing home my baby sis's books.  In one way more books is awesome, and it will give us
something to talk about when she gets back.  It also means she is one step closer to this incredible journey she and her love get to have and remember together forever.  On the other hand, one of my favorite people in the entire world, who for the last couple of years has been with in driving distance is going away from me for at least a year.  It is the end of an era, which is always hard, but the beginning of a new chapter which is awesome!  I cannot wait to see and here what my fellow book club member gets to experience and whenever I miss her too much, I will pull out one of her favorite books and read it.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Treasure Hunt

My baby sis came to visit me this weekend and I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to go on a book treasure hunt.  I made a list of a bunch of books, mostly series pieces and authors that I have been having a hard time finding and armed with a fresh gift card headed off to the used bookstore.  The best part of this particular book store (2nd and Charles) is that they have shopping carts!  Yep a whole shopping cart for us to pile high with reasonably priced books!!!!  Baby sis and Hubbin got into the spirit of the treasure hunt and before we knew it we had a pile of book booty.  We then created many many piles, sorted through them and ended up with about 20 or so books, many of which were actually on my list.  Of course being the unpredictable bookworm that I am a few non list books may have snuck in there.

Hauling the booty home was a bit of an adventure as the bookstore, in an effort to be green and save money so that they can continue to sell me 75 cent books don't use bags...so here is me an baby sis stumbling out of the store our arms so full of books they are literally spilling on the ground.  We finally fill up the trunk with our non-ill gotten gains and head home.  Hubbin had to pull the car up to the door so that we could bundle our loot into the lobby, then into the elevator, then up to the house...whew this treasure hunting is hard work.  Now we have our hard won treasure and will now spend the next week lamenting the need to go to work instead of exploring all my new books boo, and my baby sis will have to explain to her Hubby why she came home with 20 new books...   Happy Reading Everybody!

So Many Holmes

Baby Sis being the wonderful human being she is made sure that I had a new book for my birthday.  We not only share a love of reading, chocolate and The Gilmore Girls, but we also both love our boy Sherlock Holmes (and his buddy Watson).  In that spirit the book she so generously bewstowed upon me (I'm using my big girl words today) is the short story collection Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets edited by David Thomas Moore.  It was very different then I thought it was going to be, but once I got used to it I found several stories that I really enjoyed.

A Woman's Place by Emma Newman - Mrs. Hudson plays the pivotal role in this story.  We learn a fascinating secret about our ever present housekeeper that involves both Holmes and Moriarty.  This slight Sci-Fi twist on a typical Holmsian tale is the perfect vehical to show just how important Mrs. Hudson is.

A Study in Scarborough by Guy Adams - This story was my baby sis's favorite in the collection and I have to admit when I first started reading it, I wasn't impressed...but buy the end WOW!  I can't tell you any more, because as much as I love spoilers, you have to read this one for yourself.

The Final Conjuration by Adrian Tchaikovsky - This one seemed to really embody the spirit of this anthology.  In this story, Holmes is conjured to help out a magician in another world.  Despite the magical nature of this other world, Holmes logic still prevails.

The Innocent Icarus by James Lovegrove - I love stories like this one that keep our characters and settings familiar, but add just a bit of a twist.  In this case it is the evolution of various abilities in humans such as invincibility, flight, and speed.  The best part is that Holmes actually has no added abilities and accepts this by honing his wits.

All the Single Ladies by Gini Koch - Wooohoooo an awesome story where Holmes is a suave, competent, clever woman.  This story is told in modern times and gives us the meeting of Holmes and Watson in a throughly Homsian case.  Love this one!

The best and worst part of this collection is the mindset in which I had to be in to read it.  I am so used to Sherlock Holmes stories being a different version of his various cases.  I have read these set in various times and places, but always in the setting of a case.  This collection focused more on the personality of Holmes and Watson, many of these stories either did not involve a case, or the case took a back seat to the setting and story of the actual characters.  Overall, once I mentally switched gears I really enjoyed the majority of the collection and would recommend it to fans of Sherlock Holmes, Sci-Fi, Fantasy and genre mixing.  I give this collection 7 out of 10 blue beauties.
What is your favorite version of Holmes and Watson?  Why do you think the Holmesian genre is so adaptable?  Why does everybody want to make Holmes so depressed?

Family Festivities

I'm off to see the family!!!! Lil sis is getting married to the wonderful man who is also an awesome daddy to their kiddo's Lil G and Baby L.  The whole family is gonna be there which means madness, mayhem and all kinds of great memories.  This also means a ROAD TRIP, which means READING TIME!  WHOOOHOOOO! Not going to do my normal list 'cause I have absolutley no idea what I'm bringing with me this time.

 I do know however that I am bringing some Curious George for Baby L and a whole bunch of super hero books for Lil G.  I am excited to get to read with my little guys, be part of my Lil sis's big day, and talk books with my Mamma, Lil sis and Baby sis!  Posting will be a bit spotty as I will be gone and then when I get back, I head rigth back into a zillion hour work week, but I will do my best to keep on top of things.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Friends And Family And Books

Had the best month ever when it comes to books.  Not only did I finish up a couple of absolutely amazingly magical books (get ready for some super rambly rambles) but I got to talk about them with some of my favorite peoples.  Of course you all got stuck reading my excited post on how much fun I had talking books with baby sis, so there was that.  Last week one of my fellow EMT's from the firehouse stopped by and we went through my book shelves book by book and discussed them all...even the Hubbin's books.  She ended up going home with a bunch of my books which makes me excited to discuss them when she is finished (hurry up, I know you have nothing better to do then read non school books :-) )  Hubbin of course is always up for a book discussion and this week we talked about them in relation to the more logical sciences and progress (Think H.G. Wells and Jules Verne).  To top of this month of literary awesomeness I just spent three hours Skyping my Mamma, comparing books, suggesting books, and getting book recommendations.  I love how blessed I am when it comes to people to talk, discuss, suggest, get idea's and so many other things related to my book loves.  Thanks to everybody and my readers (some of which are the same people :-) )  who let me go on and on about my literary love.  Happy Reading Everybody

Books And Burlesque

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY SIS!!!!!!  My baby sis and her sweet husband came down for the weekend to celebrate her birthday, as an added bonus our brother also showed up to surprise her, fun was had by all.  Later we ditched the boys to head out to the Sax Lounge where we were not only treated like royalty but were privy to the clubs in house burlesque shows as well. I love burlesque, mostly 'cause of the musical Gypsy.  I love the old school sexy, but not completely slutty feel to it, I like that it is a bit more of a show and dance then a strict strip joint kind of deal, also you rarely actually see the naughty bits, just the idea of them. So in honor of that wonderful evening her are some books about the famous Gypsy Rose Lee for you to read and partake in the love of all things burlesque.

Gypsy: A Memoir

Gypsy Rose Lees take on her life

The G-String Murders

A mystery novel written by Gypsy Rose Lee

Mamma Rose's Turn

A biography of Gypsy's mother, who had a substantial influence on her life

Early Havoc

A memoir by Gypsy's sister June, telling a different side of the story

Gypsy

A book version of the famous and most wonderful musical

Hopefully that will give you a well rounded insight into the world of vaudville, burlesque and marathon dancing, with a healthy dose of drama and humor, enjoy.  

On a side note I have an interview in the middle of nowhere tomorrow so I may not get a post up, or it may be late, so you have been warned.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Brothers And Sisters

My lil sis has been posting videos and pics of her two sons and I have to say I love how much they adore each other.  My other two nephews are also very tight...which made me then want to call my siblings and have awesome conversations with all of them.  I love that no matter how far apart we are we are still each others best friends (and best enemies on occasion).  I love my Hubbin and his brother are close and I love that this sibling bond is being taught to the next generations in our families. My Daddy used to tell every day when we left the house, watch out for each other, then you will always have each other and this is true to this day.  Here are some of my favorite books/series that feature a some sort of sibling relationship.

Little Women by Lousia May Alcott- This has always been one of my favorite books, mostly 'cause the sisters and their relationship is very similar to the one I have with my two sisters.  We still play, fight, talk, get jealous of, tease, console and are always there for each other, the addition of my brothers wife, and my SIL have just added to the feeling of sisterly bonding that this book embodies.  And I have to imagine that my brother felt a wee bit like Laurie growing up, having to deal with all the girls with no brothers to help him out :-) (I know Laurie wasn't their real brother, but he may as well have been).

Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling-There are several examples of siblings and their various relationships throughout the books.  There is the interwoven Black family with Bellatrix and Nacissa, there is Hagrid and his giant half brother, there is the twins Padma and Parvati, there are the Creevy brothers, but of course my favorites are the Weasley children. Again the chaos, lack of money and abundance of love remind me of my own wild and wonderful family, even their "adopting" of Harry is similar to what my parents did on a regular basis.  I love that the boys are all different, yet when push comes to shove they are there for each other, and they are all so wonderfully protective of Ginny...who could probably out hex them all.  I even liked that the author put in a falling out with Percy and the rest of the family ('cause this actually happens in a lot of families) and the pain it caused and the reconciliation at the end of the series.  Love this family!

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis- Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy were the first characters that I made my siblings play in games while we were growing up (with Edmund being turned into Edwina 'cause we had three girls and one boy).  I always identified with the four kids going off and having adventures, turning on each other, fighting, making up, bossing each other, it always felt so real...'cause that is how me and my siblings acted.  It always made this book feel all that much more possible and many a hide and seek game was arranged in the fervent hope that one of us would stumble upon a magic world to share with the others. I think that by creating a play world for ourselves we did eventually find our magic, and it persists to this day.

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull-This series features a brother and sister duo.  I love reading about brother sister duo's 'cause it has all the elements of guys and girls...without the stupid romance part.  You can have the snarky back and forth, you can have the love and protectiveness, you can have the special bond and the unique angst all without the inaneness that comes with certain romances.  This series sums up all the above with an adventure twist.  Kendra is the quintessential young teenaged older sister, bossy, a bit angsty, a bit self absorbed but fiercely protective if not annoyed with her little brother.  Seth...well Seth could have been based on my brother.  Seth is an 11 year old boy through and through, he does things without thinking of the consequences, likes to think that he is fearless, and would do anything to help his sister. The two of them are very realistic as far as siblings go, and the books show their relationship grow and change as the series progresses.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin-I like the sisters in this book because it shows that as much as you may love all your siblings...you don't have to like them all equally.  Elizabeth is very clear in her preference for Jane and Lydia and Kitty may as well be best friends as well as siblings.  The other sibling relationships in this book are far from perfect as well, the Bingley sisters (especially Caroline) trying to bend their poor sweet brother to their matrimonial plans is both amusing and unfortunately way to common. Mrs. Bennets dependence on her sister Mrs. Philips for gossip and consolation and her utter need for her brother Mr. Gardiner when life gets tough shows the various dynamics one can play in a sibling role.  Of course the sweetest sibling relationship is between Mr. Darcy and his much younger sister Georgianna.  This one is different because the age difference makes it much more of a protector/protectee then one of companionship.

I could go on and on and on, there are so many books that explore the various meanings of siblingship.  There are full-blooded siblings, half siblings, adopted siblings, step-siblings, foster siblings.  Stories where the relationship is good, stories where it is bad, stories where it is indifferent.  I chose stories about fairly healthy relationships here because I am missing all my sibs today and want to focus on the happy.  Maybe later I will do a post about some not so healthy sibling relationships (I'm looking at you Jamie and Cersie).  I hope this has inspired you to call, text, message or skywrite your sibling(s) today and let them know that even though they are always wrong, you really love them and could not imagine life without them. Bubby, lil sis and baby sis, I love you guys so much!!!!!!!!

Do you have any siblings?  Do you like them?  Do you bond over Harry Potter books in the geekiest way possible like me and mine do? What is your favorite story of siblings?

Let's Go Buy Something

The title of this post refers to one of those priceless moments when my nephew lil G crawled in bed with his visiting Nana (my Mamma) at 3am and whispered oh so sweetly in her ear "Nana lets go buy something".  What can I say he's just living in a material world and he is a material dude.  In this vein I have found a random assortment of things I would love to "go buy".  Alas my bank account tells a different story, oh well looking never hurt anybody right...

I Found My Love In A Book Pendant
Sweet, simple and goes with all of my fall sweaters!

Shakespearean Insult Mug

Coffee, Shakespeare, Insulting my coworkers before 10am! Whats not to like about this mug?!?

It Was A Dark and Stormy Night Board Game

Oooh I want this soooo bad, and then I want to invite my Mamma and Sisters over to share a bottle of wine or three and play with me!

Bookworm Socks

Finally the missing piece to my Super Bookworm Girl disguise

In the Library Perfume

In the Library is a warm blend of English Novel*, Russian & Moroccan Leather Bindings, Worn Cloth and a hint of Wood Polish (this is the actual description of the perfume...how cool is that!)

What random bookieness would you like to buy? Would it be wiser to just save all my money for actual books?  How does one obtain a literary sugar daddy/mamma? Who wants to come to my house, drink wine, and play Dark and Stormy Night?

Getting On The List

As my bookshelf space gets more and more limited I like to think of my TBR list as a kind of VIP list that books are clamoring to get on. We know this is not true of course, that I am a shameless book hussy and will bring home any book with a great cover, but a girl can still pretend to have standards :-)  In all seriousness folks, it is always interesting (to me at least) to see how a book does get on my list.

Known Author/Series-as with most people, I am a creature of habit, if I recognize a name on a book I am a zillion more times likely to pick it up, or be on the look out for the that particular author.  The next book in a series is always a pretty safe bet, if I am not already rabidly waiting at the store for the next installment to come out. When I was younger this is how I got the vast majority of my books.  I stuck pretty close to series and authors I knew, only branching out when I ran out of books, or my Mamma made me (thanks Mamma!).  I will be the first to admit that these are the first shelves I go to when I hit the bookstore/library and only after I have exhausted this route do I move on to other ways of putting books on my list/in my basket. Some examples that have made it on my list (Anne McCaffery, Orson Scott Card, Robin Hobb, The Princess Series, Fablehaven, A Song of Ice and Fire)

Popularity- I used to have a thing against reading books just because they were popular (which is kinda crazy considering my penchant for certain classics, which if you think about it are probably the definition of popular books).  I was in a stage for the longest time where I only read books nobody else had heard of in some hoity toity lofty idea miasma of coolness (no seriously that is totally accurate).  The book(s) that finally broke that stupid wall down for me was of course the amazing Harry Potter series.  Of course not every popular book is a good book (I'm looking at you Twilight), but there are many many many books that are worthy of the buzz and popularity.  Since starting this blog, I will sometimes read them, just to say I have and can continue my streak of snooty superiority, snug in the knowledge that I have actually read the book.  That being said, here are some books/series that made me glad I jumped aboard the bandwagon. (The Hunger Games, The Book Thief, Anything by Jane Austen)

Movies/TV-As much as I hate to admit it movies and TV shows made from books do play a role in my book choosing.  A lot of the time I have already read the book before the movie/show is even dreamed of, but in some cases the movie actually introduces me to the book. Sometimes I hear of the movie/show, go get and read the book and even eventually watch the movie/show (my Hubbin hates it when I do this).  Sometimes I watch a movie/show and find out that it is actually a book, or it gets me interested in a book that never really held that much attraction before.  Either way several of my book choices have been directly influenced by the movie.  Here are some of my favorite books that have been bought and loved via movie/TV inspiration. (Sherlock Holmes, Stardust, The Walking Dead, Percy Jackson Series)

Recommendations/Reviews- I have found some of the worst books this way, but I have also found some of my most treasured stories through personal recommendations and reviews.  I think this is a tricky category because as I have mentioned before I feel books are like art, what person genuinely and legitimately loves, will appear to another person to be no more then splotches on a piece of canvas.  It is also really hard to get a recommendation from somebody and then hate the book and then have to find a way to not hurt the recommenders feelings.  I found the best way is to find people who share similar tastes in life with you.  My baby sis can recommend a book and 9/10 times I LOVE it.  Same with review sites, I love reviews, but find that people (as they should) always come at it with there own idea and slant...as do I.  I have however found a couple of sites that seem to sync up with my tastes and I have a 8/10 record with most of them, so that works out pretty well in my favor. Here are some awesome books I would have missed without these great recommendations. (And All the Stars, Any Tamora Pierce book, Ella Enchanted)

Covers-I know your'e not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but sometimes I can't help it.  Normally this actually works for a book.  In general if I am already gonna get a book, the cover doesn't really deter me (though I will pay a bit more for a nice cover).  Sometimes however, I am in the mood for a bit of a gamble and I will walk the stacks and let a picture, color or title catch my eye.  Oddly enough this has resulted in some AMAZING finds.  Not really much else to say about this method, so here are some books that I urge you to judge by there covers.  (Wildwood Dancing, Zombies vs. Unicorns, How to Ditch Your Fairy)

There you have it folks, 5 ways to get onto my VIP TBR red carpet list :-)  As you can probably tell there is a reason my bookshelf is full to bursting, with more books on the list, just waiting to be bought, read and shelved.  The best part is with these sources my list is essentially never ending...I should probably go get some more shelves :-)

How do you decide which books go on your TBR pile/list?  What is the oddest way you have discovered a favorite book?  What recommendations do you have for me?

The Dirty Duck

Every once in a while one of my family members will stumble upon a random book at a library sale, garage sale, used book store, etc. and give it to me to read to see if it is any good.  Some of these books are amazing, some are weird, some are confusing, but all are awesome if for no other reason then they are usually at least 20 years old :-)  It is fun to see how people viewed the world before Internet and cell phones.  20 years does not seem like that much time, but it is amazing the advances that have happened and the things we now accept as fact.  My last visit to my baby sis resulted in a paperback mystery called The Dirty Duck. It is set in England and has a Shakespearean twist to it so I thought I would give it a try.

Here is a quick spoil filled recap.  A high end tour company that caters to the very rich is currently in Stratford-on-Avon enjoying the life and times of one William Shakespeare.  The mystery starts with the disappearance of the adopted son of a wealthy man and the murder of a loner woman who is also part of the tour. The murders scenes all have a stanza of a poem that is used to help solve the case.  Jury a detective with Scotland Yard is called upon to solve the case.  As the investigation starts, we meet the members of this exclusive tour.  The head of the company is Mr. Honeycutt and his main concern is quickly solving the case so no bad publicity gets out.  Lady Violet Dew and her uptight niece Cyclamen provide suspects and entertainment to the detective and his friend Plant.  Mr. Cholmondleley is the rare Brit who is touring his
home country.  Ms. Bracegridle the unfortunate first victim who was slashed from ear to ear in a public restroom. Our main characters form the tour however are Harvey Schoenberg, who excitedly expounds on his theories of the real reasons behind Christopher Marlowe's untimely death in the time of Shakespeare.  He carries around a prototype laptop on which he keeps all his research and yammers away to anybody who he can get to listen.  The Farraday family, which consists of  James, the head of the family, his adopted son (who is missing at the start of the book) James, his adopted daughter Penny, his new wife Amelia Blue, and her daughter Honey Belle (I love the names in this book!) turn out to be the main characters of interest in the book. Soon after Ms. Bracegridle is found dead, and James still appears to be missing all of the tour participants are questioned, this leads to a few red herrings but that is about it.  Jury does find out the James and Penny are actually the children of a former worker of Mr. Farraday's who had left the children with him when she became to ill to care for them, she subsequently died when Penny was young and James just a baby.  Honey Belle is the next murder victim and the investigation turns to someone who is targeting the tour.  Another round of questioning and more Marlowe death talk from our obnoxious friend Harvey lead nowhere.  Amelia Blue is murdered and the boy is still missing and the investigation turns to a possible motive of female killing.  Meanwhile Harvey's cold and successful brother Jonathan comes to visit him in London.  Harvey's body is soon discovered mutilated like all the other victims, blowing the all female MO out of the water.  After some back and forth Jury finally uses Harvey's research into the death of Marlowe to solve the case.  SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!  The killer is Harvey!  He murdered his brother and made the body look like his own, and he then assumed the identity of his dead brother.  The murders all had to do with James and Penny's mother, whom Harvey had been in love with, but had been seduced away by his brother.  Later Harvey felt that Mr. Farraday had left her to die, and kept the children (James is possibly Harvey's natural son).  His murder of Amelia Blue and Honey Belle was to try and inflict the same pain on him.  Ms. Bracegridle's murder was simply to shut her up after she discovered one to many of Harvey's secrets.  James if found safe and sound, kidnapped by Harvey to try and make him his own son.  All is well that ends well and the non-murdered people attempt to live out the rest of their lives.

This book was...odd.  It felt like it skipped around a bit and I had trouble following everything that led to the conclusion of the case. A few things in the book were obviously allusions to pieces of Jury's life from previous books and as this was the first book I read in this series.  The bit's about Marlowe and Shakespeare seemed to be used as if the reader already knew certain facts about them, which as much as I love that era, I did not.  The drawing of the line between Harvey's research and the conclusion of the case was a little abrupt, but again that may be because I could not get a handle on it.  The characters themselves were brilliant, and I felt a bit like I was reading a script from a BBC mystery show.  I laughed out loud several times and the idea of pre-internet yet semi-contemporary settings was pretty great. The Dirty Duck that the book is named for is a bar that many of the theatre patrons go to before and after the shows.  Overall it was an interesting read, I know that the author is still writing and is insanely popular, especially in Britain.  I would not say no if a few more of her books came my way.
Do you ever pick up random books?  Do your family members delight in finding the most obscure books possible for you?  How hard is it to pick up a book in the middle of a series.