Category: books

last day of being 30… will make a “31” layout this weekend as I celebrate my birthday…

For most of my childhood I loathed the fact that my parents had named me, who was born within the month of May, MAY. I was teased, annoyed, and bothered to no end as a kid. I wished they’d switched with my middle name (Eveline) so I could be “evie” or “eve”. I tried to get that to catch on a while at school, it never did. As a teenageer and young adult I’d sneer and make obscene comments when annoying strangers would ask “durrr if you were born in June would that be your name?” and other obvious, not funny, and generally clueless comments. These days, not working in an office (thank heavens) I really don’t have these issues. Or perhaps I’ve just chilled. For the record, I was named after my (maternal side) great grandmothers, the names picked out before I was concieved, had NOTHING to do with month of my birth.

In the early years of our dating, Jason did something nobody else ever has: he made me enjoy sharing a name with a month. Yeah, I remember that the first year we dated (19th birthday) was my WORST of all time all around. Long story short- it started with finding my mom crashed (she was totally ok!) on a bridge, then all day at boring firefighter event where we carpooled to and I couldn’t get away from, then watching LAME movie w/friends… it was just all around a craptastic day.

After that day, maybe even that night I made my feelings clear to my boyfriend. The next year? He started a tradition that has been in place for 11 years now: because I share my name with a month, I get to celebrate for the WHOLE month. During the month of ‘me’ I can call out “It’s my month” and what I says goes. Now, that’s a powerful thing, and I am careful not to go insane with the almightyness of my reign. But it’s fun. and it makes me smile often.

Lesson learned: find the bright spot, look for the positive whenever you can!

So, you’re going to see some hefty “I been readin'” reports from me – because I can plop into a chair and know that novel reading = ok since I, queen of this month, declared it so.  I started Sherlock Holmes (movie) and turned it off 30min in bored as can be. So let’s move on to reading…

bottom to top:

Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris: Drama, family, conflict, more drama… and at the center of it all heroine Sookie Stackhouse who is one of my faves. What I love about this series is that Sookie is changing, growing, going places. She’s not the same exact girl as book #1.  Totally worth the hard cover price, though it wasn’t much since Amazon had it for $9.99

Savor the Moment by Nora Roberts: The most recent, and 3rd installment in the bride quartet series. Gah! I just loved Laurel and her story, and I baked my own birthday cake just ‘cuz talking about all that baking made me want to. 🙂 Add in that I got it for 50% off cover price, and I’m extra happy.

Avalon High by Meg Cabot: A teen/YA novel I found cleaning out a shelf that I’ve obviously read before, but have no memory of. Heroine finds herself in odd school where a lot of people seem to be King Arthur & crew reborn. but modern. and teenage. I liked it – and I know it’s slated to become a Disney movie. I could see that being cute.

Kiss the Bride by Patricia Cabot: This was the pen name Meg Cabot used once upon a time, and I bought it for about $1 at a used bookstore, all excited to see some of one of my favorite author’s early work. Um, I see why it’s out of print. GACK!!! It was repetitive, slow, had me saying “oh give me a break” and generally I hated on it. But that’s ok!!! Not everybody has winners always, and I still love me some Meg Cabot.

Breaking Loose by Tara Janzen: I discovered this author (all her books are a series, but can kinda be stand-alone) about a year ago and the thought of super secret ‘black ops’ + a good number of awesome tough chicks too + based out of Denver, CO… well it intrigued me. You know I can’t resist good spy/secret mission/hush hush action adventure!! Anyhow, this is her latest novel, and I’ve now read them all. This was one of the best of series for sure.  A few I wasn’t wild about – but there’s mega action and intrigue going down involving ancient Egypt, an art dealer/secret agent, missions crossing each other, and of course, a bit of romance.

I can’t tell you how good it feels to be devouring novels once again!! Taking a lot of down time when I can feels good, even if I am behind in e-mails and such.

FYI – if you are a bookworm like me you might be interested to know that I’ve started posting over at www.goodreads.com – it feels like facebook, but for books. I have already gotten some cool suggestions for books to read over there. If you’re a member – look me up!

This girl doesn’t think April Fools Day or pranks are funny. They’re usually mean, tricky, deceitful, and I’m not a fan. So no, this ‘aint a joke post.

 Know what I usually don’t like about book or movie reviews? They summarize the plot too much or over-analyze so they can throw around fancy words and sound smart. I read books because it’s a passion and hobby. I LOVE FICTION. What I want in a review? It’s personal opinion + a few select reasons you loved it, hated it, or thought it was blah. Keep it short, relevant, and give me the bottom line.  

So all that said, I’m not a reviewer but I do want to share (on a regular basis) about what I’m reading and loving (or not), watching, and anything else that I consider ‘entertainment’ and is non-craft related. At this point anything I talk about is a book I thought I’d like, purchased, and read… or a movie I rented via NetFlix. I’ve been unable to commit to a movie night, so I’ve got 3 books to talk about today:

Spider’s Bite was dark, and the heroine a very twisted but true of heart woman. Yeah she has a job where she kills people, but she’s also loyal to the few close to her and clearly has a good heart. At least I think she does. So, she’s a truly great assassin and as I follow her through a world turned upside down by her latest job I couldn’t help but be glued to every page. I was in the mood for something different, and Jennifer Estep wrote Karma Girl (a superhero romance fun novel I LOVE) so I had her on my radar when this hit. My verdict? I loved it. It’s much more gritty than my usual fare, and this marks a rare paranormal/supernatural read for me (heroine is ‘elemental’ and can summon power of rock and ice), but it’s got my seal of approval. I really strangely enjoyed it and I look forward to future books in the series that revolve around Gin.

I bought Bitsy’s Bait & BBQ on impulse from Target a few months back because I thought it would be awesome to read about a little shop in rural mid-America… I had pictures of the Whistlestop Cafe (from Fried Green Tomatoes) and I saw it being played out in exquisite detail – a story of starting over and survival and hope. Yeah!! Um, that’s not this book. This book is about a big sister who ‘fixes’ things for her little sister and thinks her sister has made a huge mistake buying this B&B (bait & BBQ, NOT bed & breakfast) in this nowheresville little town. There’s the ex-husband, the crazy ex-mother-in-law, the local pastor looking for love, the old coot who’s more than he appears… yeah it’s got a whole cast of characters I might have been interested in if the book had been written differently. Oh don’t get me wrong it’s ok – but there was nothing remarkable about anything in the plot. I loved the idea of it, but the reality didn’t hold enough descriptive language and the characters never sucked me in. I’d give it an “eh, if you’re bored go ahead and read it” rating. There are cute moments, and the “Bitsy’s Wisdom” pieces were cute but it wasn’t enough.

 

Janet Evanovich, famous for her Stephanie Plum series of books (New Jersey bounty hunting woman solving mysteries – what’s not to LOVE?!) released a bunch of short romantic comedies back in late 80s/early 90s and is re-releasing them one by one. This one was her first ever published novel. Which, of course for me made it a must-read because I was curious to see the start of this prolific author (I’ve read at least 35 of her books – I’m a fan) and her career starting debut. I kind of hated it. See here’s the problem – most of these “pre-plum” early days novels she was cranking out had this formula: girl embarrasses herself in some way in front of muscular slim hipped attractive boy. Boy falls instantly in love with girl. problems. conflict. they get engaged. the end. I’m over-simplifying of course, but I’m over that formula and the novelty of her early novels has worn off. I do like a few of them quite a bit, this wasn’t one. The ice skater turned coach + the guy she rents a room to after a disastrous day didn’t do it for me. If you’re a fan of the author it’s worth reading – I’m glad I did. But it was more to see how far she’s come and evolved than for the literary excellence. I’ll be sending my copy over to my mom & grandma (both fans of Evanovich as well) – and I won’t mind if it doesn’t come on back.

 That’s what I’ve read over the last 2 weeks or so – as always if you’re a fan of fiction and have ideas/suggestions for my next read I’d love to hear it! If you’re thinking “May, get back to crafting!” I am and I will!! Next post is coming tomorrow or sooner and will be very crafty. I swear. 

Upside of being sick + having 2 sick kids for nearly a week? I got reading time like I haven’t had in months. I just went to put a few of the books away and thought I’d take a pic + throw a blog post together real quick with 2 sentence reviews. Here we go, top to bottom.

1. Something about you has gotten rave reviews from some book blogs, and yeah it was funny and really well done but I just didn’t care what happened to the ‘beautiful and perfect’ looking people in the story. I like to care.

2. Sweetheart’s knitting club gets my award for most amazingly AWFUL book in a long time. SO NOT what I was expecting, and really some stuff that made me roll eyes, gag, or even laugh and not in a way author meant for me to.

3. Bliss Factor – no idea where/when/how I got this one but it was entertaining. He’s an FBI agent with amnesia who thinks he belongs in medieval times, she’s a pretty cool accountant.

4. Waking up in the land of glitter is probably the most memorable of the bunch. You can read my full review at Scrapbook Update – and it’s WAY more than 2 sentences.

Overall? I want to read some rockin’ mysteries now. Enough with the love stuff for now. (just for now – I’ll be back to romances soon enough I imagine) Have you read something great? I’d love to hear about it!!