Blog Feed – Page 14 – Reading Responses at 2am

Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George, The Princesses of Westfalin #1

January 1, 2021 – January 3, 2021

Oh to read again! I took a break for forever and a half because of NaNo and then because of my garbage book, but now I’ll slip back into happiness.

And this book had a wonderful happy ending. I don’t know why I put on the spoiler alert- everyone knows how this story goes of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. I have a beautifully illustrated copy of the story that swings it differently with the details, but the guy being kind to an old lady who gave him a thingy to make him invisible and then was a gardener and fell in love with a princess and the worn out shoes and the him following for three nights (three is important in fairytales for some reason) and then he saves the day and gets to get married to the princess who loves him back and happy ending!

Honestly I was disappointed that there was no wait for this book. It is such a good book that more people should be reading it!

Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life by Emily Nagoski

August 9, 2021 – August 20, 2021

I can not stress enough how important and life-changing this book was for me. I’m not talking about my sex life, I’m talking about how I relate to and view myself. I highly recommend it to anyone who has women’s anatomy or is currently in a sexual relationship with a woman and if given the opportunity will probably recommend it to couples before they get married.

It is NOT written by a conservative and goes into more detail than the books I’ve read by religious authors on the subject, but the author is tasteful and, most importantly, honest and empowering. It doesn’t just go into the anatomy of the woman’s body but goes into great detail about what goes on behind the scenes in a woman’s brain. Once again, can’t recommend this book highly enough.

Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson, The Stormlight Archive #4

December 15, 2020 – December 31, 2020

AAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wit can’t be harmed!!!!!! He CAN’T! And it isn’t just because of this book and his role in it, it has to do with every other book in the Cosmere that he is a part of! So many of them where he is just THERE, like a presence that somehow made everything ok. The intermediary between the Shards and the characters, the mortals who are trying to fight and survive, and the beings that rule over them – the good and the bad. I feel like having his memories wiped is the same as wiping clean all of the books from each series that came before. :,(

Ok, so that was my flat our reaction to finishing the book three minutes ago. My ACTUAL response to the whole book is pretty much a giant rant since there was A LOT that happened and of course, I just can’t be like a “normal” person and not have everything I read pour and rip and change everything inside me like a river on a landscape.

Reading is dangerous for me.

But then so is living, and I’m not going to stop doing that either.

Speaking of which – I was NOT expecting Kaladen to invent therapy! It reminded me of Well of Ascension when Amit was being all “joking” and told me there was a talking dog in it. -_- I still haven’t forgiven him for that.

ANYWAY! I have a ton of mental health stuff and wanted to laugh when my “which Radiant are you?” came up with Windrunner – since my brain is pretty much broken like he’s is. Ok not exactly, I didn’t see my brother that I swore to protect hacked up before my eyes or any of the other junk he had to go through, but I have had my own demons to face. So that beginning part…. was a little too close to home. But then Sly and Adolin show up and I could breathe again. And weirdly enough the therapy scenes helped me. It made me happy that Sanderson is using his platform to advocate for mental health.

But I wouldn’t say that these beginning scenes didn’t screw me up royally for a couple of days. Because when I read about Shallon and Veil and Radiant, I realized that that was all my books were – fake things that aren’t real. The characters that I invest so heavily in, that I draw strength and truth from – they aren’t real. Amit told me to keep reading, that Kaladen and Shallon get better, but for a few days, I couldn’t draw any comfort from that and stopped reading. Even though they might get better, they aren’t real. I am, my pain and broken brain are, and they are only just a different hair color. They help me like Veil and Radiant did, but they just plain aren’t real.

Obviously, I kept reading and have mostly gotten over my existential crises – only to have my face punched in with the attack on the tower. Oh man, I had to read that part in tiny sections. When Adolin got arrested I was chill because I could see a way for everything to be alright because of Maya, but with the tower, I was having a heart attack and not in a nice way. I just couldn’t see how they could get out of it, especially with Kaladen having a mental break down. I honestly thought that they were going to kill all the radiants because if I was a bad guy there was no way I would have let them live! Amit stepped in and reminded me that Sanderson isn’t that kind of author, which helped, but only a little. Then I found out Sibling was alive and man, I could breathe again, because I could see a way out.

Have I mentioned that I have issues with feeling helpless? Oh, I have? Like five thousand times? You don’t say.

After that things got better and I was able to enjoy the book and feel my heart soar when Kaladen said the words. This book ended up being everything I hoped it would be.

One last spaz note: Harmony’s letter to Hoide. OMGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My guess is that the next five-book series is going to be the war between the Shards.

Oh yeah, another last thing. For Christmas, Amit got me the beautiful leather-bound Warbreaker, and my dad got me a necklace of the symbol for it. Neither one coordinated with the other – I’m just too easy to read apparently. 🙂 When Vashner was blabbing to Kaladen I just wanted to scream because he was so close to saying everything I’ve been dying to hear him say since I first had a heart attack and found out that he and Nightblood and everyone was in this series, but it was all just a tease! I’ve been running fanfic in my head about what’s her name and Vasher going at it fighting each other because he was dumb and world hopped and lost Nightblood, since she said she was after two fugitives, and everyone going crazy and having no idea what the heck was happening.

It’s a happy thought.

I’m going to read all four of them before the fifth one comes out.

Maybe I’ll even put off NaNo for a few days so I can burn through it because it is pretty much a given that it’ll be released in November. -_- ❤

Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer

December 2, 2020 – December 2, 2020

Yeah. You read that right. One day.

This exactly the perfect book I needed right now.

I just finished writing the last book in the trilogy I’ve been working on for seven years, and it was exhausting figuring out the climax to a series where the void is trying to break through the barrier of souls to consume all light.

I needed something that was completely different but was soooooo delicious. So, yeah, this book was exactly what I needed.

So much delicious craziness and self-discovery and locked-in-a-rescue-center-during-a-power-outage and seven hour make out session.

Of horrible tension when things go south and not being able to stop reading because I NEEDED to see things work out.

This book was everything my brain needed right now.

The Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan, The Memoirs of Lady Trent #2

October 31, 2020 – November 22, 2020

That was fun and weirdly relevant.

First the fun! Dragons! Everyone loves dragons but not as much as this girl! The naturalist need to understand the “WHY?!?!” rang more than true with me, it was the bases of my daydreams of being a middle or high school science teacher, to somehow create an environment that would spark the “why?!?” What? You don’t fantasize about what you would put on tests?!?

Anyways, this book also reads so much like The Belgariad as in I felt like the author just plain wants to play with made up societies – which I didn’t mind except my fun brain had trouble keep names that were unfamiliar straight. I know it was all important and building up to the exciting ending but sheesh, it was rough for a while there.

And then for the naturalist part, that reminded me of Murderbot in that she rambled about a bunch of technical stuff but I didn’t feel bored.

Now for the weirdly relevant stuff.

First, I don’t know if you paid attention to the year but 2020 had been screwed up in its view on science. I mean, on a normal year I want to smack anti-vac and people who don’t get their flu shots because VACCINES ONLY WORK IF A SIGNIFICANT PERCENTAGE OF THR POPULATION TAKES IT! I mean, people act like they don’t have a basic knowledge of statistics, which I guess people don’t.

Then there are the masks and the social distancing which are no brainers but have become political because SOMEONE keeps blabbing over and over in VERY long VERY public statements how stupid they are and how the VP refused to wear one when visiting the Mayo Clinic and AHHHH!!!! This isn’t rocket science!!!

There was one line in this book that science can’t be separated from politics and I have to agree that there are few things that couldn’t be more true.

Which brings me to climate change. My husband spent six years studying how atmospheres work around habitable planets and engrossed in that scientific communities orbiting that area (haha) – not the ones that get shoved in the spot light but the real scientists who actually do the work. And they all say the same thing: it’s real. But does anyone around me ask him?!?!

Guess the answer.

I’m being a jerk, but this is what I feel is right and no one reads this blog and this is MY writing journal so I get to rant.

There. That’s out of me. I feel like I can breath now.

I didn’t finish the first book in this series. It was too painful and the author was needlessly cruel to kill her husband. Yes I’ve had it explained to me how he would hold her back after what they went through, but then she could have swung it another way.

Because I loved Jacob and when he died I felt her pain and agony as if I had lost my own husband.

But it wasn’t just her pain of losing her husband, it was also the isecurities she had about being a mother. She touched on briefly how she avoided her son because of how much he brought up the lose of her husband, but the majority of her issues with motherhood was the fact that she just didn’t feel like she was equipe to be the type of mother that very young children need that she rightly points out can be handled by a nursemaid just as well if not better. I do think that she missed a lot of the small moments, but I’m not one to judge since I missed most of those moments with my own children.

At the end, when she is on her way back and she becomes determined to find a way to be a mother to him in the way that she could – It made me want to cry because that’s how I feel all the time.

I am disabled in so many way and am not able to be a traditional mother to my children, but she made me feel like I wasn’t alone. That there are other women out there that are like me.

When I think about the things I can do, it weighs too heavy on me that I can’t write it down.

It is just too much. All of it is – but maybe this author, who had pushed me away in the last book by taking away a loving and supportive husband, managed in this book to draw me closer and into this world of mothers who are trying the best that they can.

The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer, Enola Holmes #1

October 26, 2020 – October 31, 2020

That was a really fun book and one I’ll enjoy shoving in my kid’s faces when they hit middle school.

I found out about these books from Netflix when they made a movie based on it. I’ve watched it four times now with the latest being with my husband for date night. He asked why I liked it so much, and really my reasons are the same as why I liked this book.

Her relationship with Sherlock and how his option of her changes from apathetic to some semblance of respect and caring. Her adorable relationship with “love interest”, as my husband named him. How she figures stuff out to accomplish goals, where you get to ride along with her while she solves puzzles and figures out her next step.

And then of course there is the theme of women being stepped on and crushed by the world. Even though it is infinitely better than it was then it is still a theme in almost every part of society and woman’s mind.

Yay for fun Sherlock spin offs!

The Immortal Heights by Sherry Thomas, The Elemental Trilogy #3

October 17, 2020 – October 18, 2020

I can’t tell you how good this trilogy has been for me and my complete confusion that it isn’t better known and blabbed about.

The whole time I felt like I was marching toward my doom as much as Titus, scared stiff that he was going to turn into a tree. I had faith in how good the other books were that she was going to swing it for a happy ending, that she wasn’t setting themselves up for a miserable “but he died saving everyone just like he always knew he would!” and “it isn’t like she sprung it on you, she had been telling pretty much from chapter one” to a good old “Sanderson killed of his main two characters and you survived that and cried and felt good and happy about that ending, so have some faith that when they both die it will feel good too!”

Ug.

Not this book, not the way they kept saying “and they lived happily ever after” over and over again. I had no idea how the visions would work out, because he does freaking die, but then I remembered a few paragraphs before they did and K….(sp?) has been reading Frakinstine and I KNEW how it was going to be ok and was so freaking excited!

But then in the Epilogue when it had been SIX years since they fell in love I wanted to scream “but all that time lost! I get why they waited, but they missed so much….” and then they didn’t and I wanted slap them as hard as she slapped him for making me freak out that way!!!!!

I’m so happy. And even more so that she found out about Sleeping Beauty. And even more happy about rose petals.

They didn’t get engaged, but the said they would.

It was one of the best trilogies I have ever read.

And I feel more motivated than I have since that fall when I wrote every day for two hours while the kids napped and then again from seven till midnight.

Because Kailin and Aiden deserve a story just as epic as these two.

The Perilous Sea by Sherry Thomas, The Elemental Trilogy #2

October 16, 2020 – October 17, 2020

I still can find nothing wrong with this book, and it was a split time/place story that just WORKED so perfectly I just want to swoon.

If them falling all over themselves in love again didn’t do it for me. It reminded me of what he said in the last book about them meeting in a different time and place, and then her freaking out that he only loved her because she was convenient – and then when there was none of that they still fell for each other.

It was so perfect, and once again there is that theme that was in that one other book– he gave her a place to feel unsafe, to let her self-doubt (because that’s what it really always is isn’t it?) and her anger to run its course and to have him still be there, to still be reaching for her…

I’m still annoyed that she never got to see that he made sleeping beauty look like her, but with everything else that happened I can forgive that.

I felt thrilled to death when I figured out a paragraph before they did that West was Bain, and then again my heart just started pounding when the mom said that Wes….(sp?) had been gone from her for 72 hours! AHHHHH!!!!!!

They couldn’t run fast enough! They couldn’t figure it out fast enough! I thought they had to move fast before when it was West, but NOW! AHHHH!!!!!!

The bees. She is brilliant, and that’s why he loves her. Because she is brilliant and brave and strong and all the things that makes him respect her and makes him in awe that she is there in his life. You know, everything that a woman wants a man to feel about her. 😜❤️

I need the next book.

Who cares about MY book. Why would I read a piece of garbage when I can read a masterpiece instead!

The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas, The Elemental Trilogy #1

October 13, 2020 – October 16, 2020

That was wonderful and miserable at the same time. Wonderful because it was such a good book, miserable because I could sense how strongly that gap was between where my book is now to ever reaching where this book is.

I know that sounds dumb, because I haven’t even published my first book and this is an experienced and established writer, but I literally couldn’t find anything wrong with this book. Every plot and character development progressed at just the right speed. The balance of the three worlds, the love story between them. I felt so happy.

November is only a short few weeks away, and I have so much work to get done before I am ready for NaNoWriMo, so I guess I have my book on my mind more than normal. I have to rewrite the ending, and re-work the scenes that have been giving me trouble for years, but it needs to be done. No matter how hopeless it feels that I could bring my stories to life as brilliantly as this story felt to me.

Things to learn, and things to hope for.

Monster by Frank E. Peretti

October 11, 2020 – October 13, 2020

I’ve only read a real thriller once or twice, but never one as supernatural as this. I wasn’t expecting to like it, but then I did.

In the beginning I was freaking out that Reed was going to die and texted someone asking if he did, but they hadn’t read it yet- so I had to just plow forward. Because that scene in the beginning at night, wow, you could teach a class on the power of getting a physical reaction from a reader!

And yes the bathroom light is on and the door open and yes that’s how I slept last night also.

Once the science stuff came in, this was hardcore like Jerrasic Park and it all just sort of blended together into this mix that didn’t really seem to want to let me go. I really couldn’t stop and I didn’t mind that.

But each time Reed thought she died and then got hope then thought she was dead again and back – Ug! That was so painful! For him and me to go through together, even though I knew she was alive! I knew they would be ok, it just felt like the story would suck if they weren’t, and everything was building to this story not sucking. So it was easier to get through those parts, knowing they were all going to be ok. But I did have a honest moment of extreme doubt when Sing got shot. I mean, I’ve run into authors who have ruined perfectly good books with stunts like killing off a main character. Luckily this guy isn’t one of them.

So it turns out that Bigfoot is real, but they are really good at not causing waves. I loved Rachel, and the way Beck got through everything with a big mama looking out for her. Part of me was sad when they parted, but the rest of me feels good how it ended.

This was so fun to read. I wouldn’t say it was a fun book, but it was definitely fun to read.

I’m still sleeping with the light on, even though my bedroom ceiling isn’t high enough for certain creatures to fit.