TSS – 25 July 2010

Currently reading:

Am I picking books based solely on their cover colors?  Possibly.  How about setting?  Also possible.  It’s been unbelievably hot and both of these books have quite chilly atmospheres, plus their cool blue covers.  I’m dreaming of cooler times.

Books reviewed this week:

I think I liked this one?  But I really have no idea.  I can’t tell if I have no feelings about it or ambivalent ones.  But other folks have loved it.  Click the photo to read my full review (if you can call that list a review…).

Things posted at At the Bridges this week:

Going somewhere?:

Welcome to Parismina!  We save the turtles.
We conserve nature… it is our future.

I might be going here in October.  I originally thought I would be going to Spain, but I’m beginning to lean toward a volunteer experience in Costa Rica, Peru or the Galapagos Islands!

Happy Sunday!

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

I’m having trouble being articulate today, so when I am inarticulate, I make lists about books.  Here are 7 things that I felt while reading How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff.

1) Strange narration style, but not in a bad way.  There is an abrupt shift at one point and it’s confusing, but okay.

2) The narrator is annoying and her problem in the novel is totally ultimately totally unnecessary and I wish it had been cut out. EDIT: As unnecessary as that second totally.

3) There is a war.  We don’t know why.  I didn’t care and actually really like that it was never explained.

4) Too much talking, walking and reacting.  Not enough action.

5) SADNESS.  Lots of it.

6) Parenting fail, but at least the lack of any kind of adult figure is explained.

7) Cousin love!  That is somehow not creepy?

Does all that equal a recommendation?  Mostly.

So go read  this!: now | tomorrow | next week | next month | next year | when you’ve exhausted your TBR

So go read  this!: now | tomorrow | next week | next month | next year | when you’ve exhausted your TBR

TSS – 18 July 2010

I always think of summer as the finish line.  I am done with school, I have countless hours to read by the pool, on the beach, or just on my couch in the air conditioning.  Every winter and spring this is my mantra – just get to summer, you’ll be reading more then.  But the truth of the matter is that I never read more in the summer than I do in the winter and I always end up baffled by why this is.  I suppose it’s really not so complicated though.

This summer, I have the first full time job of my entire life.  I don’t think I noticed because the job I had last summer was so mentally demanding that it felt full time and I often ended up working from home when I wasn’t in the office.  This summer my job is so much fun, though occasionally stressful, and even though I’m working really long hours, I love it.  I come home and by the time I work out, eat dinner, spend some time with the people I love, I’m exhausted.  I end up going to bed around 10:30 every night, with little time for anything else.  This doesn’t leave much time for reading, unfortunately.

I have found a little time each day to pick up a book though, so I am reading, just slowly. In the mornings I read Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier while work is very quiet for half an hour.  After 7, all the kids arrive and I can no longer read until I get home.  Usually I try to read some more in the day, but some days it just doesn’t happen.  And you know?  I’m totally okay with that.  I don’t really have anymore blogging commitments now that my round of Nerds Heart YA is up and I’ve just been enjoying the leisurely reading.  It’s really what summer is supposed to be, right?  Nothing telling me what to read or when to read, just the pleasure of reading what I want when I get a few minutes.

You know what I have missed though?  Continuously blogging.  With no books to review, I’ve struggled to come up with posts that fit into Regular Rumination.  Though I have not shied away from writing about my personal life here in the past, the posts I’ve wanted to write simply haven’t fit into what I have created as Regular Rumination’s standard.  I know that I could change that in an instant, but honestly I really felt like for the posts I wanted to write I needed another blog.  I used to write in a journal daily, but have lost that as the years went on.  Now I have started a new blog, it is called At the Bridges and it will be a completely personal blog.  If you’re at all interested, I’d love for you to stop by.

Starting At the Bridges was greatly inspired by an email I received a week or so ago from Vicki at So Very Vicki.  She had really enjoyed my letter to Elizabeth Strout that I used as a review for Olive Kitteridge and asked if she could reprint it (with credit, of course).  At first I was wary, it seemed like a strange request!  But I thought, let’s check out Vicki’s blog and see.  I loved it!  It was a complete and total inspiration.  She is wonderful and the things she posts about are simply divine.  (One of my favorite words is joy too, Vicki!)  The things that Vicki had to say about Regular Rumination and my review of Olive Kitteridge were so amazing to hear.  She’s really wonderful, so please go check out her blog!

I made it my goal at the beginning of the year to find the simple, joyful things in life every day.  With school and exams and commuting, that was difficult and I eventually gave up on that.   Vicki has inspired me to start that over again.  I really feel like I should record the wonderful things that are happening, and even the not so wonderful ones, so I have them somewhere.  Everyone needs to be reminded now and again that there is joy in this world and we encounter it every day.  I won’t lie, I have my melancholy moods, but slowly reminding myself to enjoy what is beautiful about each day has been remarkable the past few days.

So enjoy your summer reading and enjoy the wonderful things that life has to offer!

Review – Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

When I sent out a plea for a good fantasy series, my former (SAD!) roommate She was out of the country livin it up in Europe, so she didn’t hear my cries.  But as I was looking for books to put on hold at the library, I knew exactly which book she would have recommended – Poison Study.  I remember when she read the entire series sometime last year and she absolutely loved it.  So I knew that I had to put it on my list.  I devoured this over 4th of July weekend and it was everything she promised it would be.

Poison Study is about Yelena, who murdered her former master’s son, who feels no remorse for the crime she committed and has accepted her death sentence.  In Ixia, under a military commander’s rule, all murders are punishable by death, whether you killed for self defense or not.  There are no exceptions… unless the commander’s food taster has  just died.  Then the next person who is to be executed will become the next in line, trained by the mysterious Valek.

Poison Study was exciting and had everything I was looking for – danger!  Romance!  Betrayal!  It was exactly what it promised to  be and nothing more or less.  My biggest complaint with the novel was the romance.  Though I don’t want to give away who it is, I will say that I found it to be a little underdeveloped.  I wanted there to be more explanation and more development between Yelena and her love.  I’m told we learn more about him in the following books, so I’m definitely looking forward to that.

Poison Study was not only a joy to read, but it was unique.  Instead of a traditional monarchy, there is a militaristic government that adds another element entirely to the story.   I will absolutely be reading the next book in the series.  This book was exactly what I was craving!

So go read  this!: now | tomorrow | next week | next month | next year | when you’ve exhausted your TBR

Also reviewed by: Dear Author,  Em’s Bookshelf, Grasping for the Wind, Bookalicious, 25 Hour Books, Booklust, Book Airl Mur-y-Castell, Book Nut, Book Minx, Reading Rocks, bookshelves of doom, Literary Escapism, The Story Siren, Today’s Adventure, One Librarian’s Book Reviews, Capricious Reader.

Review – Mendoza in Hollywood by Kage Baker

Mendoza in Hollywood is the third book in the Company series by Kage Baker.  Please follow the links for reviews of the previous two books, In the Garden of Iden and Sky Coyote.

The Company novels are a series of books that chronicle the lives of immortal humans, who are more or less cyborgs, as they go throughout history.  The Company, known as Dr. Zeus, discovers time travel and also discovers that while you can’t change the past, you can do a little tinkering.  The company takes orphans that fit specific requirements and make them their employees and also immortal.  From the moment they are “born” they are given a specific job to do, like Mendoza who is a botanist.  She gathers all the plants that will eventually go extinct so they can be preserved and reintroduced to the wild in the future.  It’s an ingenious idea and one I’ve loved from the beginning.

Mendoza in Hollywood is my least favorite in the series so far, but with the interesting twist at the end, I’m really excited to see where this story goes.  So far, the books have been narrated by Mendoza and Joseph and I liked Joseph as a narrator much more.  Fortunately, the next book follows Joseph and the mysterious Lewis.

I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, because it concerns major spoilers for book 1, but from the beginning of the novel we know that Mendoza is undergoing investigation for something that happened while she was in the field in Hollywood in the 19th century, long before the movie stars took over.  Baker always artfully combines real history with her own creations and it’s seamless.  The same is true of Mendoza in Hollywood, Baker uses recorded history but fills in the blank with the exploits of her characters and it’s perfect.

Like all the Company novels, I’ve found, there are some slow moments in the book.  It’s not all action and even though this isn’t always a bad thing, I didn’t think it did Mendoza in Hollywood much favors.  I’m really looking forward to the next installment and if Mendoza in Hollywood is the most disappointing book of the entire series, then there won’t be very much to complain about at all.

Part of me wants to inhale all of these books, but I know I should savor them.  This is such a nice series to have to go back to when I don’t know what to read, because I know it’s always going to be something I enjoy.  I can’t stress enough that if you love historical fiction and if you love science fiction this is a series you need to be reading.  If you only love science fiction then maybe the Company novels will change your mind and vice versa.  So please, get to reading!  These books are awesome.

So go read  this!: now | tomorrow | next week | next month | next year | when you’ve exhausted your TBR

Also reviewed by: Jenny’s Books.  Other than that?  NO ONE. Clearly you must all begin reading.  Now.

July 10, 2010

Dear Grandmom,

I didn’t think about you when I woke up this morning.  I would say I’m sorry, but I don’t think you mind.  In fact, I didn’t even think about you until Dad called, like something was on his mind, and I realized what day it was.  It’s been two years.

It hit me pretty hard at first.  I was ice skating – random, right?  Well we went with camp on Wednesday and I had so much fun, I told C I’d take her on Saturday.  I had fun again today.  I only fell once, but it was a hard fall.  C told me she was worried she’d have to figure out how to drag me off the ice.  I got up again though, don’t worry, and we all had a good laugh about it later.  Then I took Z out for dinner for his birthday, 15cent shrimp!  We made blueberry cobbler and watched Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe.   You know, it was pretty wonderful.

I think that’s exactly how you would want me to spend today, not thinking about it.  Today is not the most difficult day of all of this.  It’s every other day.  It’s everything that passes without you in it, not just July 10th, but all the other days in the year.

Everyone gets together to commemorate this day and I just can’t do it.  I just… can’t. I tried last year and it didn’t feel right.  I should not be trying to make this day matter, in fact I should do everything possible to make sure it doesn’t.

That day, two years ago, K the older and I were walking on the beach when we saw a double rainbow.  Before, we’d both been questioning any possibility of the afterlife when someone in our family had told us that she believed rainbows were the way people we loved and lost communicated with us.  K the Older and I thought that a little silly – why rainbows?   But the appearance of those rainbows was too much for either of us.  We both broke into laughter, the first we’d heard in weeks, and now it’s become a running joke.  Every time one of us sees a rainbow, we text the other to let her know that you say hi.  We know it’s not, but we like to pretend.

This picture of you and Grandpop is my absolute favorite of you.  I know you hate pictures of yourself, but you have to admit, you look pretty fabulous in this picture.  You’re so full of life and vibrant here, I can’t even imagine that you’re gone.  It doesn’t seem real.  Look at your smile!  You’re laughing and probably no one will ever remember why, but it doesn’t matter.

I can hardly believe two years have passed.  That June and July in 2008 seems so vivid, like it was yesterday.  I wish I remembered all the years that came before it so well.   Two weeks before that, I remember the last time we spoke on the phone.  You never failed to make me smile, to make me happy.  I was eating Chinese food, I was wearing the red dress I wore two days ago.  We were so excited for our extended vacation together that was only three weeks away.   I remember how much I smiled when we talked on the phone.  I’ll never lose that.

Love you Grandmom.