52 Review - March Addition

The months are moving by pretty quickly. I can hardly believe that March is over and I'm 2 books ahead of schedule for my 52 book challenge.

Here are the books that I read in March:

Geist (Book of the Order #1)

by Philippa Ballantine

294 Pages

 Between the living and the dead is the Order of the Deacons, protectors of the Empire, guardians against possession, sentinels enlisted to ward off the malevolent haunting of the geists...

Among the most powerful of the Order is Sorcha, now thrust into partnership with the novice Deacon, Merrick Chambers. They have been dispatched to the isolated village of Ulrich to aide the Priory with a surge of violent geist activity. With them is Raed Rossin, Pretender to the throne that Sorcha is sworn to protect, and bearer of a terrible curse.

But what greets them in the strange settlement is something far more predatory and more horrifying than any mere haunting. And as she uncovers a tradition of twisted rituals passed down through the dark reaches of history, Sorcha will be forced to reconsider everything she thinks she knows.

And if she makes it out of Ulrich alive, what in Hell is she returning to?

I really liked this book. For awhile I wasn't sure I was going to, but I really did. The reason I didn't think I was going to  like it was because right from the get go, there were quite a few tropes. The odd thing about the tropes though, was the fact that they were gender swapped. Almost immediately, Sorcha's husband, and work partner, is fridged (he's not dead, but he might as well be). She's then immediately reassigned a new partner who's fresh out of the academy and half her age. She's the older, more grizzled and jaded partner to his optimistic, powerhouse, youth. I'm so glad that it didn't turn into a romance. Really, really glad. Actually, I like the dynamic that the two of them had and that all three of the main characters have by the end. I'm looking forward to picking up the next book.... if I can find it.... not having much luck at the bookstores lately...

A Study in Darkness (The Baskerville Affair #2)

by Emma Jane Holloway

513 Pages

When a bomb goes off at 221B Baker Street, Evelina Cooper is thrown into her Uncle Sherlock’s world of mystery and murder. But just when she thought it was safe to return to the ballroom, old, new, and even dead enemies are clamoring for a place on her dance card.

Before Evelina’s even unpacked her gowns for a country house party, an indiscretion puts her in the power of the ruthless Gold King, who recruits her as his spy. He knows her disreputable past and exiles her to the rank alleyways of Whitechapel with orders to unmask his foe.

As danger mounts, Evelina struggles between hiding her illegal magic and succumbing to the darker aspects of her power. One path keeps her secure; the other keeps her alive. For rebellion is brewing, a sorcerer wants her soul, and no one can protect her in the hunting ground of Jack the Ripper.

If you recall January's review, I read the first book to this series. The second book in the series is very different from the first. While in Study of Silks, it's all about the high society, fancy balls and finding a suitable husband while trying to unravel a mystery. Study in Darkness is about the lower class district, with Evelina getting her hands dirty while dealing with evil magicians, the steam barons, Jack The Ripper and the lovable street riffraff.
I realized while reading it, that Evelina is actually one of my least favorite characters in the book, unlike the first where she's one of my favourites. The characters that I do love weren't in it very much at all and I wasn't overly happy with their story-lines. I was surprised that I really liked the inclusion of Sherlock Holmes in this novel. I was also happy that some long awaited mysteries were finally solved. It's hard to say if the second one was better than the first one, since they are both so very different. Either way, I'm looking forward to reading the 3rd and final instalment to the series. Stay tunes for that.

The Shadow of the Wind (El cementerio de los libros olvidados #1)

by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Lucia Graves

Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.

Don't bother....
This is the first (and hopefully the only) book that I've put down this year. Despite it saying that it's a best seller and is about mysterious books, I could not get into this book at all.
A co-worker of mine lent this to me hoping that I would like it and I really wanted to, but almost a full week went by and I was only about 100 pages into it. I actually found myself coming up with excuses as to why I couldn't sit down and read, just to avoid it.
I hated all the characters. I hated everything they did (except for going into book stores) I hated what they were trying to do to build up the "mystery". I was actually more interested in reading the fictitious book within than I was the actual book. It, at least, sounded interesting.
I looked up some Goodread reviews on it to see what other people thought and it seems like it's very split. People either love or hate this book. Guess I'm one of the latter.
Too bad... I really hate putting down a book.

Blood Engines (Marla Mason #1)

by T.A. Pratt

338 Pages

Sorcerer Marla Mason, small-time guardian of the city of Felport, has a big problem. A rival is preparing a powerful spell that could end Marla’s life–and, even worse, wreck her city. Marla’s only chance of survival is to boost her powers with the Cornerstone, a magical artifact hidden somewhere in San Francisco. But when she arrives there, Marla finds that the quest isn’t going to be quite as cut-and-dried as she expected…and that some of the people she needs to talk to are dead. It seems that San Francisco’s top sorcerers are having troubles of their own–a mysterious assailant has the city’s magical community in a panic, and the local talent is being (gruesomely) picked off one by one.

With her partner-in-crime, Rondeau, Marla is soon racing against time through San Francisco’s alien streets, dodging poisonous frogs, murderous hummingbirds, cannibals, and a nasty vibe from the local witchery, who suspect that Marla herself may be behind the recent murders. And if Marla doesn’t figure out who is killing the city’s finest in time, she’ll be in danger of becoming a magical statistic herself.…

After attempting to read The Shadow of the Wind, I really needed something that I knew I would enjoy, so I picked up a book that I had already read and knew that I really liked. I've actually already reviewed this book on here before, so you can check out my thoughts (and an actual comment from the author!!!) on it. It was actually really great to read it again. My taste in books has changed slightly since then, so it's really nice to know that one of my favorite authors still stands well above the pack and can still keep me captivated the second time around. I think I'm going to reread the other ones as well. I'm really looking forward to the second one again (it's my favorite)

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children #1)

by Ransom Riggs

348 Pages

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

This book was my TBR book for March. I don't really know what to say about this book. It's wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. The story was interesting, but I didn't really feel like I got to know any of the characters overly well. It's certainly not as intriguing as the blurb makes it sound.
The love story was not necessary and sort of made me feel weird.
I didn't realize that this was book 1 of a series until I came to the end and it left it open for much more. I'm not sure if I enjoyed the book enough to pick it up as a series. Guess I'll have to check out the second one and see if it sounds interesting.
One of the great things about the book was that it was a very easy read. It flowed really well and had relatively big print, so I felt like I was just flying through it. It was also fun to have pictures in my book. I haven't read a book with pictures in years!

Books that I am currently reading

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories
by H.P. Lovecraft
Page 16 of 360
(Still haven't pick this back up)

A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire #3)
by George R.R. Martin
Page 355 of 1128

(a couple chapters farther than last time)

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Hitchhiker's Guide, #2)

by Douglas Adams

Page 10 of 256

Killbox (Sirantha Jax #4)

by Ann Aguirre

Page 68 of 358

Also, to make my challenge more interesting, I'm going to add in this fun reading Bingo card.

Let's see how well I can do on this

Her Universe Geek Couture Contest

YES!!! I want to be a Her Universe designer! Yes, I want to showcase my design at SDCC! Yes I want to work side by side with Ashley Eckstein to help make a geeky collection for Hot Topic!

I love designing geeky fashions, but alas, I don't really have the skills to back it up. My sewing is beginner at best.

But for those of you out there who do have the know-how, this is an awesome opportunity to show off your geeky couture pride!

 

 

I love this Darth Vader fashion. It kind of reminds me of this, but with way more class

Not sure what geeky couture looks like? Check out these great drawings for some inspiration!
 

 

Be sure to check out all of the info for rules and regulation and the entry form.

Entries are due April 4th, so get working!

 

An Evening With Sue Monk Kidd

Every once in awhile a book comes along that changes your life.  

You read it over and over again as the words absorb into your skin, becoming a part of you.

Such was my experience when I read The Secret Life Of Bees.

 

 

 

Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina--a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. This is a remarkable novel about divine female power, a story women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.

 

Before this I had never read a story about Women. Sure, I'd read silly fantasy/sci-fi stuff where women are sexy sidekicks or big, tough, ass-kickers, but I'd never read anything about Women, real Women, Women coming together in their own right, in their own way. It was breathtaking.

I was drawn in by these amazing Women, held captive by the Black Madonna and swept away by the enchantment of bees. (The bees, being one of my main loves in life, made the book so much better)

 

For years, one sentence has stuck in my mind and refused to let go.

"Lily Melissa Owens, your jar is open."

It's near the beginning, after she takes the lid off the jar where she has been keeping a bee. At first, the bee doesn't realize that it has been freed. It climbs around the inside of the jar as if it's still trapped. Once it realizes, it flies away. Lily hears a voice in her head telling her that she is also free, that she doesn't have to stay within the confines of the life that she knows and thus her adventure begins.

It was then that I realized that the same was true for myself. I didn't have to stay stuck in the rut that I had found myself in. I realized that I could do anything that I wanted with my life. It was a very liberating moment for me.

 

As the next few years past, I started to find myself and figured out who I was as a person and who I wanted to be. At the time, I was struggling with my masculine and feminine self and trying to figure out what that meant. I was still under the impression of media that told me that being a Woman would never be enough. That I would never be as good as a man, that as a Woman I would spend my life proving myself over and over again to like the things that I liked and to do the things that I wanted to do. I was secretly ashamed of being a Woman. Wouldn't it have been better, easier, to had been born a man?

 

I was back home visiting my parents and had just finished reading The Secret Life Of Bees for the second time (my pick for a short lived book club) and I was talking to my Mom about it (who has also read it many times) and she recommended that I read another book by Sue Monk Kidd, which she promptly leant me; The Dance Of The Dissident Daughter

 

 

The acclaimed spiritual memoir from the author of The Secret Life of Bees

I was amazed to find that I had no idea how to unfold my spiritual life in a feminine way. I was surprised and, in fact, a little terrified when I found myself in the middle of a feminist spiritual reawakening.

Sue Monk was a "conventionally religious, churchgoing woman, a traditional wife and mother" with a thriving career as a Christian writer until she began to question her role as a woman in her culture, her family, and her church. From a jarring encounter with sexism in a suburban drugstore to monastery retreats and rituals in the caves of Crete, Kidd takes readers through the fear, anger, healing, and transformation of her awakening. Retaining a meaningful connection "with the deep song of Christianity," she opens the door for traditional Christian women to discover a spirituality that speaks directly to them and provides inspiring wisdom for all who struggle to embrace their full humanity.

 

If The Secret Life Of Bees had opened me up, Dance Of The Dissident Daughter helped set me free.

 

I don't often do this, but here is a facebook note (my early form of blogging, more about my life than about geeky stuff) that I wrote during this time to try and express what I was feeling.

 

The Sacred Feminine

 

January 14, 2009

 

I’ve been feeling strange again lately. Feeling as if nothing has any meaning anymore. I feel very lost and quite confused. But I’ve been doing my very best to ignore it.
Well, tonight it seems that I can ignore it no longer.

I had an old friend visit me tonight, and when he left I felt awkward and almost dirty spiritually. There was no cause for this except for something in the back of my mind was triggered by part of a conversation that made me second guess some of my actions from earlier in the year. I felt like I was trapped in a dream that was trying to tell me something, but that I desperately didn't want to listen to. I didn’t know what to do with myself, so I poured myself a bubble bath and climbed into the hot bubbly water. I reached for the book that I was about to start and somehow stopped myself. I put the book down and reached for a different one that I had just recently picked up again after getting away from it for a few months. “The Dance of the Dissident Daughter” is a Woman’s journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine by Sue Monk Kidd. I started reading when I came across a passage that she had found in another book that had helped to change her life. It read:“Whether we have taken the path of the fathers, educated ourselves in their institutions, learning their language, seeking their goals, energizing ourselves with success in their endeavors, or supported the fathers in their path, creating their homes, birthing and rearing their children, encouraging their dreams, healing their wounds, we have most often made beauty out of our work. We rejoice in our careers and in our children. We are proud of our spouses’ achievements and our belief that helped those achievements happen… Then one day everything is dry. Dust, Crumbled and blowing away on stale wind. Being vice-president of the company no longer matters. Being a competent wife feels meaningless… The time has come, not to reclaim what had been lost, but to descend. To find the ground of our own being we must descend.”

I cried. Right then and there in the tub. Tears burst from my eyes and I let them flow. I understood. That was exactly how I felt. Dry, dust, as if nothing mattered anymore. I realized that I had been so frantically trying to hold on to something normal, something I so badly wanted to make sense that I had lost what I had been searching for. Myself. I had struggled for a very long time trying to balance my femininity and my masculinity. My femininity had been screaming to get out and I thought I had unleashed it. And I had for a while, but sometimes the world gets the better of me and I start to conform again. I start looking for love and acceptance from the men in my life despite not truly feeling it myself. I want them to see me, to love me. I want them to control me and bring purpose to my life. When I realized this, I wanted to be sick. Being controlled? That is my wish? No, it can’t be true. I’m stronger than that. I want more from life than that. I will not submit myself to being lower. I will not allow myself to come second in my own life any longer.
I feel as if the old me is made of clay and the new me is still trapped inside. All I can do is begin to break down those old walls, to strip away that clay armor that I always thought was reality. From now on I will make my own reality. But first I must descend, to the earth, naked in my new body and embrace mother earth and my own Sacred Feminine with open arms.  

 

And you know what? I did break free. It took time and a lot of effort, but I became the Woman I wanted to be and I started to see all the other wonderful Women in my life for what they really were.

It's something that I'm grateful for everyday.

 

Thanks Sue Monk Kidd

 

 

I always wished that there was a way that I could express to Sue Monk Kidd what her writing meant to me.

Last week, I was given the opportunity. The Indigo near where I worked held a book signing for Sue Monk Kidd for her new book The Invention Of Wings

 

 

 

Hetty "Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women.

Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid.We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty-five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love.
As the stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self in the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal, unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston to find her place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements.

Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters, both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her search for something better.

This exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will leave no reader unmoved

 

Although I haven't read her new book yet (curse you hardcovers for being so heavy, bulky and expensive!) I decided that I wanted to go anyway, just to hear her speak.

I waited with a crowd of women that kept growing, along with our anticipation.

I started chatting with the woman next to me and soon I had a seat buddy, which is always nice.

 

Eventually the moment arrived and Sue Monk Kidd made her appearance.

 And I was star struck!

 



 

I find it funny how star struck I was. I've met all sorts of geeky celebrities and I was just as star struck meeting Sue Monk Kidd as I was when I met Carrie Fisher or Jeremy Bulloch.

She was amazing. She talked about her new book and the meaning that it had to her.
It's so rare to hear about the journey that the author took, but you could really feel it as she read passages from the book that gave us a glimpse of the hearts of her characters, and thus, her own heart.
It was beautiful.
 

After she finished speaking, they let us go up row by row to get her autograph. As I waiting, I started talking with a few of the women around me. The woman in front of me was feeling nervous about meeting Sue Monk Kidd, so I asked her what it was she wanted to her and it allowed her to figure it out before she got up there. Then she asked me the same question, so I told her my story and how much it meant to me that we were all coming together as women for this event.

Finally, it was my turn.

I went up, hands shaking and handed her my books; The Secret Life Of Bees for me and Dance of the Dissident Daughter for my Mom.

And I told her, with tears shining in my eyes, how much her books had changed my life and I was amazed at how her own eyes filled with tears.

I told her about how her one line about an open jar had stuck with me all this time.

She smiled at me and said, "You're jar is open... but you already knew that."

 



 

Wow! Just wow!

How does one take in something like that?

 

I am very grateful for the opportunity to meet Sue Monk Kidd, to share my experience with her and to let her know that her writing could effect someone so profoundly.

 

My jar is open....

Happy Pi Day!

Happy 3.14159265359.... day to all my nerdy/geeky friends out there!

Movies R Fun!

Are you even bored by reading the same stories to the children in your life? Do you wish there was something out there that you would find entertaining to read as well?
Introducing Movies R Fun!

Entertain the entire family with such classics as Alien

Pulp Fiction

Die Hard

The Graduate

The Godfather

Silence of the Lambs

Jaws

Psycho

And many, many more! Guaranteed to give your little one sweet dreams all night long.

Buy your own copy of Movies R Fun!

Already own a copy and are looking for more fun? Try these cuddly creature books by Joey Spiotto

Show your kids that alien encounters can be educational as well as fun!

buy Facehugs For Everone!

buy Hungry Little Hunter

Don't settle for anything less than R rated entertainment!

Thanks to Nerd Approved and Geeks are sexy who know how to entertain all of the children.