One Reader's Ramblings

Today is the last day of 2013 which means I’m supposed to get all sentimental and retrospective.   You know, look back at what this year has meant to me and plan how I’ll improve as a person in 2014.  

I guess I’ll admit it publically – I’m a bit of a Scrooge when it comes to this time of year.   I honestly have a hard time seeing past the craziness of spending every waking moment from Thanksgiving to December 25 th doing whatever it will take to make everyone else happy when all I really want to do is climb into my big armchair and be left alone with the perfect book.   See, I'm a strong introvert, and getting together with tons of people that I don’t see all the time, even if they’re all family, is very stressful to me.   And trying to keep everyone around me joyous for the whole season just wears me out!

Confession:   I write a blog that centers around YA Paranormal/Fantasy books (obviously), but there are times, between chapters of vampire gore and werewolf myth, that I get tired of it all.   Sometimes I even question my love of reading.   When I tire of the suspense and the mayhem, the petty high school dramas, I question… what if I’m just tired of reading?   What if my life turns upside down and I end up like everyone else and turn only to mindless TV instead of a good book (I’m not knocking TV… it’s just not “me” to want that when I need an escape).    

This morning I cut my finger open… the only good thing about this was getting to finish my book series at the doctor’s office while waiting to get stitches.   So… I tell you this so you understand that I am typing with 9 fingers because these books were so freakin’ awesome I can’t wait to write about them! (wow… I just used the word “freakin’” in my writing… maybe I can write my own story from a teenage girl’s POV someday, haha)

So I picked out this book because the Amazon reviews all said things like what Kristin of Better Read Than Dead said about it: "It's been a while since I have read a really good YA vampire book. They have become so cliché that I often avoid them. Imagine my surprise when I picked up Ignite and fell in love with it by page 17."   Or another review: "YES ITS DIFFERENT AND I THROUGHLY ENJOYED IT!! I'm a vampire lover and enjoy any tale that is certainly unlike any other and that grabs and piques my interest. Ignite certainly did this." -- K.M. Whittaker So imagine my surprise when the first quarter of the book was nothing more than a Twilight re-write?!

So everyone who read my Imdalind Series post {HERE} knows that I adore Rebecca Ethington.   She is one of the most amazing authors I’ve found in quite some time.   However, I was not as blown away by Through Glass (sorry Rebecca) as Imdalind .

So now you’ve heard how I was dragged, kicking and screaming, to read these books and you are probably wondering – So what’s your assessment?   What did you think?

I’m kinda weird when it comes to bandwagons.   Either I’m one of the first people on board and begging others to join… like I was with Harry Potter and now with the Imdalind Series .   OR I see a huge bandwagon and it turns me off… like I was for years with Twilight .   Now anyone who has read my blog at all probably knows what a huge Twilight fan I am now, so as you can see – even though I can sometimes be a hard sell, once I’m sold there is no going back!

I. Just. Can’t. Do. It.   I don’t know why.   Shapeshifters, no problem.   Werewolves, who cares.   Vampires, cool.   Just don’t ask me to have anything to do with GHOSTS!

For those of you who don’t own a Kindle let me fill you in a little before I start my rant.   In the Kindle, you can make folders (I like to think of them as bookshelves that I carry around in my purse) to organize your books.    In my Kindle I have many different “bookshelves” with many different names.   As you might guess, “ Paranormal” is the largest boasting well over 90 books.   Sadly, the smallest is “ Classics” which holds only 3.  

The ton (pronounced tōne, for those Americans who might wonder, like I did, why they would name the High Society of England after a large measurement of weight).   Seldom has a set of people so inspired the literary world.   From Jane Austen, who actually lived during the period of George IV's reign and knew firsthand about them, to all sorts of modern romance writers who only pretend to know the finer details of the time.

Cormoran Strike:   Ex-military, somewhat rough around the edges, no holds barred, private detective.   New concept?   Not really.   Well written?   Absolutely.   Completely can’t-put-it-down gripping?   Ummm…  

In the last couple of days, I read 2 books and I honestly didn’t realize that either one of them was going to be a vampire story.   See, a while back I bought about 6 books at once that were all on sale on Amazon (FREE—one of my favorite things… cue Sound of Music song…), and by the time I got around to reading them, I really couldn’t remember what each one was about.   I did remember a little about each of them, just not the vampire part.

W-O-W!   I haven’t cried this hard or long at a book since… I don’t know… maybe when Dobby died.  

I’m going back a ways to write about one of the series I love (keep in mind that I have read these several times so even though I’m critical in my analysis, they are still very fun to read).   It’s been a while since I read them (can’t believe I’m just now writing about it) so please pardon me for any inconsistencies you might find in this.

 Great book.   Couldn’t put it down, really.   But for some reason, I didn’t want to read the sequel (not saying I won’t eventually, but I haven’t at this point).

Finally, I finished something worth writing home (or in this case: a blog post) about.   It’s not that I haven’t been reading, just nothing I really cared to write about.  

Guess what?  I've been invited to be on the team to promote the Imdalind Series by Rebecca Ethington.  No, I'm not being paid anything - I am just SO excited about the opportunity because if you've read my previous post {HERE} you already know that I think it's one of the best new series to come out in a LONG time.  So for me it's awesome to be able to help get the word out! So, right now most of the major e-reader platforms are doing a promotion on the first book in the series Kiss of Fire and it is FREE !!  YEA!! Check it out at Amazon {HERE} , or Barns and Noble {HERE} or Kobo {HERE} .  This is most definitely a book you should, at the very least, try.     

I know that I’ve already written an awful lot about Twilight … but please indulge me once more (it’s kind of my muse and when I don’t know what to write about I always return to it).   The reason I had to make the pun about “muse” is because the band “Muse” is what I want to write about tonight.

O nce Upon a Time, in a land far away, is the beginning of many stories that we now know as Fairytales.   These are stories passed down through the centuries.   They have been adapted through the ages from oral tradition to written works by numerous sources.   Some of the most well-known names begin with Charles Perrault ’s Mother Goose Tales , then came the Brothers Grimm’s Children’s and Household Tales , and then eventually this type of story was called “fairy-tales” by Hans Christian Anderson .   

This book would have been fine… IF it weren’t for the last 5 paragraphs (yes, I counted).   But I’ll come back to that.

I got the first book in this series for free on Kindle.   It started off ok.   An i nteresting look at Elves (I loved how it got into all their traditions, etc), but nothing too gripping.   Then about 2/3 of the way through the first book it got really good.   From there it went weird for a while but by the time it ended I felt like screaming my favorite Monica line from Friends : “Shut up!!   It Just. Got. Interesting!”   

 So not too long ago I found what was once a fairly famous blog:   twilightguy.com.   It was awesome because each chapter that he read he would immediately blog about before reading another chapter.   I loved getting his take on each chapter afresh.   Watching as things dawned on him etc.   It was almost as good as reading the Twilight series for the first time again. The most recent books I’ve been reading have been the first since Twilight that I have really wanted to slow down my reading somewhat and truly savor them: The Imdalind Series .   I know that this is the only chance I have to experience them for the first time and I have a feeling they will be ones that I return to over and over.   As certain things have unraveled I have sort of wished that I could blog as I read, chapter by chapter like Twilight Guy.     

I’ve said before that I want to learn something I can take away from my reading.   I want to gain some sort of insight into the world.   Lately, I’ve been wondering if there is anything I’m learning (the stuff I’ve been reading does seem pretty mindless).   Then, the other night, I was faced with a problem that I really just wanted to go away.   I didn’t want to deal with it; I just wanted it gone.   So when my dear, sweet hubby asked if there was anything he could do to help, I jokingly said I wanted him to call a wizard to poof it away.   He laughed and said he didn’t know where Oz was located.   

As a reader of fiction, you should really check out this article.  It makes some really great points and defends what those of us who love fiction have known all along:  that reading makes us better people. Study: Reading novels makes us better thinkers    Enjoy!  And let me know your thoughts on the matter.  

I DID IT!!!   I finished the series!   Didn’t think I would ever make it through.   

I was recommended a book (series actually).   And as you may remember I don’t typically read the books someone recommends.   Part of the reason is an irrational fear that if my assessment differs from theirs they will be offended, the other part being I just like to find my own stuff.   I broke my own rule this time for 2 reasons:   #1 is that the person recommending it was SO passionate about how great it is and told me enough to get me really interested without giving away any of the plot.   #2 is that the person recommending them has such similar tastes to me that I genuinely felt that this must be great.   

Remember a while back that I mentioned Kate and Vincent at the end of the post found {HERE} ?   I promised that I would give them their own post at some point?   Well, here it is:

This was a definitely unique look at the weather, in more ways than one.   It had a good plot:   not something I’d ever even considered before, which is saying a lot with how many paranormal books I’ve read.   In the Elementals people could control things like the weather, I’ve just never heard of people actually BEING weather.   Sort of makes you think though:   I mean, they do name hurricanes…

Travelers.   Gypsies.   The Rom .   You can’t get much more exciting than that; at least not to a gaje like me.   So you would think I’d eat it up.   And you would be right:   this time around.   But I didn’t at first.   

As you may have noticed in some of my previous posts: I have been fascinated lately with Point of View:   particularly when the POV is in direct contrast with the author’s gender and/or age.   This fascination is the reason I was originally attracted to Forever Silent .   Not because it is in contrast, but rather it is exactly the opposite of those I have been reading lately.   It was written from the POV of a High School boy, and the author was actually a 15-year-old boy himself.   How exciting!  Here I've been reading all these books about teenage boys and wondering if the author is getting it right... this is my chance to find out!

I’ve heard Andy Warhol quoted as saying “I never read, I just look at pictures.”   From what I can tell Andy Warhol was quite an… shall we say “interesting”… person, but I have to say I like this quote.   As a proclaimed avid reader, and someone who writes a blog about reading it might at first seem a little counterintuitive to think that I would not only like, but agree with this quote.   You might think something like this would offend me, after all, I do spend much of my life buried in books.   Here’s where I think maybe I interpret this a little deeper than he meant it (after all he also claimed to be a “…deeply superficial person.”)   

I have spent the last few days immersed in a place called Vesturon.   This was the second time I’ve read the Guardians of Vesturon series so you know the stories are good.  That being said… they are very poorly written and even more poorly edited.   I guess I was so into the stories the last time I read them that I didn’t really even notice that.   

Ummm… WOW!   First books in a long time that really blew me away.   This “series” (for lack of a better word… not sure what to call it when it’s only 2 books) is awesome.   I completely love Wren and Ever.   Best fictional couple for me so far this year.

This book was… as I sit here so many adjectives come to mind, but the only one that really fits is… forgettable.   Sorry Karice, but it really wasn’t anything to write home about (or much of a blog).   The reviews went on and on about how sweet it was (the snow, the Christmas spirit, etc) and it was sweet… sickly-give-you-a-toothache-sweet.   

Invisible by Cecily Anne Paterson.   This was an unusual book for me to choose.   Nothing weird or paranormal, just a good book about a young girl coming out of her shell and learning about who she really is and can be.   

I just finished what I would have to say is the weirdest book I’ve ever read.   It deals with Nephilim, which I have read about before but this one is, in a way, so different than any of the others.  

So I just finished Spark , by Brigid Kemmerer.   Can’t believe it took me so long to read the whole thing.   Or maybe I can.   I read Elementals , and Storm a while back.   They were great!   As one reviewer said: “Five hot guys with paranormal powers, what’s not to love?”   

The other day someone mentioned Divergent to me and even though I have read it before, I had to rush out and look at it again.   It’s a good book and within minutes I was re-sucked into it.   

I know I don’t normally talk about movies on this blog but a scene from this movie got me thinking about the way I view books.   The movie is Inception with Leonardo DiCaprio.   The scene is when Cobb (DiCaprio) is teaching Ariaden (Ellen Page) about being an architect in the mind.   He shows her how to build amazing scenes and she then takes them and twists them to do all sorts of impossible, mind-bending scenarios.   

I think that some of the most brilliant writing I’ve ever read wasn’t really written at all… it was what was left unsaid.   It is those 4 nearly blank pages entitled… October … November … December … January .   Each time I get to those pages, even though I know they are coming, I cry.   They tear out my heart because I know that kind of pain.   The kind of pain that rips out pieces of your life and you know that no matter what, you will never be the same.   You lose not only time but parts of you.   It takes you from a “were” state, to an “are” state and those two never cross paths.   No matter how much you long to go back to the kind of person who doesn’t truly know what pain is, you can’t.   And somehow, those 4 blank pages scream out of that precise kind of pain.    

I just got through reading The Twilight Series for the tenth time.   ( Midnight Sun was only for the 5 th or so time.   I didn’t discover it until I was already a true Twihard though now it’s one of my favorites.  Again... please, Ms. Meyer, finish it!)   Obviously, I love the books.   I mean, who reads a series (especially one that long) 10x unless they really love it.   So don’t take my criticism wrong.   (If you’ve read my previous posts you should know that I will vehemently champion these books to anyone.)   

I just finished reading Burden of the Soul by Kate Grace (again).   It’s… ok.   I wouldn’t give it a thumbs down, but I’m also not really sure why I re-read it except that I already had it on my Kindle and couldn’t really remember much about it.   It is supposed to be the first in a series, but it didn’t really bother me that I couldn’t continue reading.   For any of you who know anything about me that says A LOT seeing as how my biggest pet peeve is having to wait for the next book in a series to be written.

This may be my shortest post ever, but I need to know:   Is it normal to miss someone who doesn’t actually exist?   I mean not in an I-just-set-the-book-down-blues kind of way, but in a miss-your-best-friend-who’s-gone-away-for-the-year way.    See the problem is that I miss Edward and Bella.   Ok, so more Edward than Bella (I mean, who wouldn’t miss Edward more than Bella, he’s amazing? Right?) but still, it’s like I’m sad that I haven’t been with them in a couple months and I miss hanging out with them.   I call them my imaginary friends for a reason.   I really feel like they are people that I know and like.   So even though I’m making new friends (been reading a lot of other good books lately) there are still those friends who, no matter how long it’s been, you just long to talk to and catch up with and none of your great new friends are ever truly going to take that place in your heart. So my question to you:   Do I ne...