I’m Back!

Published on by Rachelle

I got back home from New Orleans last night.  Have you ever needed to recover from a vacation?

pjs

That’s how I feel right now, and that’s why there was no Monday’s Minutes post yesterday.  However, I didn’t want to leave you hanging until I get back into the swing of “normal” life again, so below is what you’ve got to look forward to throughout this month.

  • #FitReaders Check-Ins will continue as usual starting today.
  • The Joy Luck Club Read-Along – the first recap will be posted this Saturday, and the sign up is still open!
  • Uprooted review – I finished Uprooted by Naomi Novik last week before I left for New Orleans.
  • Thursday’s Things #9
  • The Vampire tour of New Orleans – As I mentioned in my Packing for New Orleans post, the Boyfriend and I came up with our own tour of New Orleans based on Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles.  While we didn’t get to see every place, we saw enough for me to write a whole post about it.
  • My long weekend in the French Quarter – I’ll share the food we ate, the stuff we bought, and the non-vampire related places we visited or came across in our wanderings.  It may end up being a two-parter, and it will definitely contain tips that will save you a lot of stress and money.
  • The Never-Ending Anne Rice Reading Challenge
  • Tuesday’s Tunes, Wednesday’s Words, Friday’s Fairy Tales – I’ve got a ton of great ideas so I’ll get these features written and posted throughout the rest of the month.
  • RIP X – Vampires, Ravens, and Chthulu, oh my!  I’ll be posting my RIP X related reviews.
  • Harry Potter Discussion and Link Up – I’ll be posting the discussion post for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on the 30th.  You could be featured, so be sure to get your HP related posts linked up before then!

Packing for New Orleans…

Published on by Rachelle

As promised, here are the books that the Boyfriend and I are taking with us to New Orleans to celebrate our 2nd anniversary.  I don’t know how many of these we’ll get through since we’ll be busy eating all.the.food. and seeing all.the.things, but the 1st two are audiobooks to try out on the drive there and back.

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  • A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams – This is a full-cast recording that I found at the library when I did a catalog search for books set in New Orleans.
  • A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole – This is an audiobook I found under the same search terms.
  • Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice – I know it’s cliché, but it’s been well over a decade since I read The Vampire Chronicles, and I’ve wanted to re-read them for awhile now.  The Boyfriend just finished this one, and he demanded that I not start it until we’re in New Orleans.  He’s now reading The Vampire Lestat.  Yep, we’re both big into vampires, as long as they don’t sparkle.
  • “Drabblecast”, “Hypnobobs”, and “Pseudopod” podcasts – In the spirit of RIP X, the Boyfriend and I will listen to these gothic, horror, and weird short story podcasts if the audiobooks don’t work out.  Isn’t it awesome that I’ve found someone who loves these kinds of stories as much as I do?  I’m one lucky gal.  I might write a sort of review of them at some point or give a Top Ten list of the best short stories.

We are also taking along my copy of The Vampire Companion by Katherine Ramsland, which covers The Vampire Chronicles up to Memnoch the Devil.  All of the currently offered vampire tours in New Orleans seem a bit hoaky, so the Boyfriend and I have decided to make our own.  We’ll be combining our crappy photography skills so hopefully I’ll having something to show you when we get back.

R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril X

Published on by Rachelle
rip10500
               Image: Abigail Larson

Andi and Heather, of the Estella Society, are taking over as hosts for RIP X, and this is the 1st year that I’m participating!

It officially started yesterday, September 1st, but things have been so crazy busy since the Fall semester started that I feel like I’m I always running just a little bit behind and forgetting to do things.  The challenge is for two months (ending on Halloween), and this is the time of year when I love to read Horror and Gothic literature, and there is a reading “Peril” for everyone.  Perhaps it will help me feel a bit more grounded and get me into the spirit of Autumn.

I will be doing Peril the First: Read four books, any length, which fit the definition of RIP literature.

I don’t know what other books I’ll be reading, but the 1st one will be Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice.  I’ve been itching to re-read the series for years, and now I’m finally going to do it.  I also want to read some Classic Horror like Edgar Allen Poe or H.P. Lovecraft, but I’m not going to lock myself down to anything specific right now.

I may also participate in the group read of The Quick by Lauren Owen, but I haven’t decided yet since it overlaps with my read-along of The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan.

Are you participating in RIP X?  Are you reading any Horror or Gothic titles that you think I should add to my TBR?  Let me know in the comments!

#FitReaders Check-In #35

Published on by Rachelle
Geeky Bloggers Book Blog
  • This check-in is for August 24th – 30th.  What an exhausting week!  I thought the 1st week of school was supposed to be easy to give everyone the chance to get back into the swing of things?!  I think I’m going to scratch the 10-Week Mindful Diet Plan for Healthy Eating for now, especially since I’m about to go to New Orleans.
  • Now that I’m back in school, I’m moving around a lot more.  Monday and Tuesday wiped me out to the point that I didn’t even have the energy to get up in time to do yoga on Wednesday.  The rest of the week just added to the exhaustion, so I slept and binge-watched the latest episodes of “Once Upon a Time” on Netflix.
  • I didn’t meet my step goal (average 8K steps per day), but I did really well Monday through Thursday, and I surpassed my Active Minutes goal.  I’m hoping all the walking around New Orleans will allow me to knock my step goal out of the park.
  • If you’d like to add me as a friend on FitBit, you can find me HERE.
  • Yoga Workouts: 1/5
  • Steps: 41,780/56,000
  • Miles: 17.16/21
  • Flights of stairs: 55/70
  • Active Minutes: 231/210
  • Total Money Donated: $19.40

Discussion and Link Up: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

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Chamber

Welcome to the second month of the Harry Potter re-read!  Each month I’ll be reading a book from the series, in order, until Harry Potter Book Night on February 4th.  This month’s discussion is a bit different from last month’s.  This time around, I’d like to discuss the impact of emotional abuse on children and if Harry is a realistic example of an abused child.

While reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, I began thinking about Harry’s behavior during his time with the Dursleys and how it compared to mine when I was growing up in an emotionally abusive home.  Like Harry, I remember doing everything I could after a certain age to be as invisible as possible.  I tried to disappear and I rarely ever had more than a couple close friends at a time.  Unlike Harry, I moved so many times that I stopped making friends and retreated into my world of books.  I never learned how to deal with bullies like Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, but there were times when I stood up for myself or someone else the way Harry does.  However, Harry has a remarkable sense of justice that very few kids his age have let alone children who have been neglected or abused.  He also never acts out in self-destructive or harmful ways.

Harry doesn’t seem to be nearly as damaged as I felt, and I’ve been wondering why that is.  Perhaps it’s because the Dursley’s aren’t his parents.  Knowing this, maybe Harry understood the way he was treated wasn’t normal, and he was just unlucky in the relatives department?  That’s a bit difficult to believe since he’s known nothing else, having been placed in their “care” when he was a baby.  Maybe there’s another reason I’m just not seeing?

I also can’t decide whether or not Harry suffers from a lack of self-esteem and confidence as most abused children do.  Perhaps he does, and that’s why he shies away from special attention?  Granted, the kind of attention he gets in Chamber of Secrets is more excessive than probably any kid would want to deal with, but he also shies away from the attention he gets for defeating Voldemort.  He doesn’t seem to have a problem with the attention he gets for being the youngest member of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, though.

I would love to know your thoughts on this subject, either in the comments or a separate post.  Also, share any of your Harry Potter-related posts in the link up.  I’ll feature at least one post each month, and if I decide to do a giveaway for Harry Potter Book Night, those that link up will get bonus points.  While you’re at it, check out the other posts such as this recipe for chocolate frogs from The Daily Mayo.

Chocolate Frog

 

Monday’s Minutes #35

Published on by Rachelle
  • Uprooted by Naomi Novik
  • Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness
  • The Portable Dorothy Parker

 Uprooted Night Portable

Challenges:

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Total pages read for the week: 164

Total # of books for the year: 58.  The first week of the Fall semester is over, and I’m already so busy that the only reading I got done, besides studying and research, was listening to Uprooted during my commute.  Hopefully, things will get a little easier once I’m fully back into the swing of things.

Top Commenters: This week my Top Commenter was Shaina @ Shaina Reads.

What are you reading this week?

Review: Irona 700

Published on by Rachelle

Irona

  • Author: Dave Duncan
  • ISBN: 9781504002189
  • Publisher: Open Road Media
  • Genre: Fantasy

I received this book from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first Open Road Media book I didn’t care for.  When I started reading, I thought it would be yet another Dystopian novel and Irona would overthrow the empire somehow.  In a way, Irona believes this of herself as well, but that’s not what happens at all.  Perhaps that’s the point of the story; not everyone is capable or even wants to start a revolution.  The problem with that is it makes for a yawn of a story.

I was interested in how Irona began working within the system she had hated all her life, but I continually wondered where the story was going and why I should care.  By the 75% mark, I began to dislike Irona, and by 80%, I was thoroughly bored but determined to finish the book.  It wasn’t until I had only about 5% left that I finally found out where Irona fit in the grand scheme of things.  She is the hero of the story, just not in the way you would think, and getting there made the book seem much longer than it is (the paperback edition is 402 pages).  On top of that, the author uses rape as a signifier of true evilness, and I’m a firm believer that there are better ways to write evil without having to resort to sexual assault.  While the one rape scene wasn’t exactly disturbing to me, it may trigger others, and it certainly wasn’t necessary.

Until today, the lowest rating I’ve given to an Open Road Media book was three stars (The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson).  This one gets two stars.  It just didn’t have enough good storytelling for me to give it three.  If you enjoy epic Greek or Roman style settings or political stories, and you don’t take issue with sexual violence, maybe check Irona 700 out from the library and give it a chance.  I wouldn’t pay money for this book, though.

#COYER Scavenger Hunt #51: Read a book with a number in the title.

Review: The Lemoncholy Life of Annie Aster

Published on by Rachelle

Lemoncholy

  • Author: Scott Wilbanks
  • ISBN: 9781492612469
  • Genre: Fiction

I received this book from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

For most of the story, I thought it was clever and well written.  Annie and Elsbeth are memorable and charming characters.  There are some Fantasy elements involved, including a magic door that allows anyone who knows how to use it to time travel.  There are also some Classic Literature elements such as Annie’s obsession with the Victorian Era.  To top it off, the “present” time of Annie’s life is during the 1990s.  I had a few moments of nostalgia with little details like the sound of the dial-up modem Annie used to connect to her AOL account.

However, sometimes the dialogue was difficult to understand and made me feel as if I had somehow missed important information.  Have you ever been thinking something and tell someone when you’re in the middle of your thoughts, and they give you a confused look because they weren’t privy to what was going on in your head?  That’s how some of the characters’ conversations felt to me.  It was as if the author already knew the characters inside and out but forgot to fill the reader in on some of the background.  The same thing happened with some of the later plot points.  I got the impression that the explanation for why some things occurred was obvious to the author, but he forgot that the reader wouldn’t know.

Despite the missing information, The Lemoncholy Life of Annie Aster was an enjoyable light Summer read.  If you’re a fan of Victorian times or non-Science Fiction style time travel, and you want a book that doesn’t require a lot of mental energy, this book might be for you.

Thursday’s Things #8

Published on by Rachelle
1001 Things
Original Image: Viktor Hertz

The Joy Luck Club Read-Along

Published on by Rachelle

Joy

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan is one of those Classic books that technically isn’t a Classic since it was published in 1989.  However, it was on the list of suggested books for the Classics Club, so I’m assuming it counts.  I added it to my Classics Club list because it’s a book I always meant to read.  Despite it sitting on one bookshelf after another as I moved from place to place, I never got around to it.  That changes starting Monday, September 7th.  Since I’ve been told The Joy Luck Club is one of the essential books for diversifying one’s reading life, I’m inviting all of you to join me.

Below is the schedule.  As I’ve already said, we’re starting on September 7th.  We’ll be ending Friday, October 23rd, and each Saturday I’ll post a recap (with clearly marked spoilers for those who get a little behind).  We’ll be averaging 47 pages per week.  I’ll post a final review of the book on Saturday, October 24th.

  • Sep. 7th – 12th: Chapters “The Joy Luck Club” and “Scar”
  • Sep. 13th – 19th: Chapters “The Red Candle” and “The Moon Lady”
  • Sep. 20th – 26th” Chapters “Rules of the Game”, “The Voice from the Wall”, and “Half and Half”
  • Sep. 27th – Oct. 3rd: Chapters “Two Kinds” and “Rice Husband”
  • Oct. 4th – 10th: Chapters “Four Directions”, “Without the Wood”, and “Best Quality”
  • Oct. 11th – 17th: Chapters “Magpies” and “Waiting Between the Trees”
  • Oct. 18th – 23rd: Chapters “Double Face” and “A Pair of Tickets”

If you’d like to join in, sign up through the linky with your blog, Twitter, Goodreads, etc.  The sign up will close at the end of the 2nd week, Saturday, September 19th.