Thinking About the Weekend

2 Comments / Daily Dose, Day to Day /

It’s only mid-day on Friday and I’m already looking longingly at the weekend, in my Filofax. What to do, what to do?

Stay home and clean house?

Go out and do something fun with TW?

Stay home and clean the house?

Go out and do something fun with TW?

The house could use a really good cleaning and maybe I can pretend it’s spring while I’m doing it? Spring seems like an awfully nice thing to think about, though I suspect it’s just going to skip us this year.

Or, if we go out and do something fun — what might that fun thing be? A museum? A just drive until we get lost or find something interesting? A movie, (gasp!)? A new restaurant?

Decisions, decisions. What should we do? (Assuming the weather doesn’t jump in and make the decision for us…)

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Two Graphic Novels

2014, Books in Bed, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Non-Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

One Cybil, one not. The Lost Boy is from the Cybils shortlist and it was good. Though if creepy talking dolls scare you, then maybe this is not the graphic novel for you. I got a little confused at the end so I think I’m going to go back and re-read it to see if I can sort out the confusion. Though it might just be confusing as a set up for future books and not me reading while I was tired.

A Matter of Life is not a Cybils book and is also not YA and it’s not fiction. I just got tired of looking at it on the library shelf and decided to check it out so it would quit staring at me when I was looking for something new on the graphic novel shelves. It was… ok. The jumping around bugged me. Jeff as adult, Jeff as a young boy, Jeff as adult, Jeff as teen. All very confusing. In some cases the panels flowed well, in others the jumps were too jarring and I was left saying, “huh?” a lot.

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The Best Flea, Antique, Vintage and New-Style Markets in America

2014, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

Impulse pick-up from the library, The Best Flea, Antique, Vintage and New-Style Markets in America — that’s a lot of words for a tiny little book. It was fun to flip through and think about taking a lot of little road trips to buy all of the funky, weird, things. We should really see about the National Road Yard Sale one of these years, before we leave this godforsaken part of the country — it’s not that far to US 40 and it would be a fun road trip, right?

And, we should head back to Philadelphia and visit some of their markets, too.

Also, go back to Austin and and and… yea, I want to take all the road trips.

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While Beauty Slept

2 Comments / 2014, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction /

When Sassymonkey says “you should reserve XXXX for TW” I usually do. I don’t always read these books but I often do. And I almost didn’t read While Beauty Slept because I don’t love Sleeping Beauty. It’s my least favorite fairy tale. But, TW said it was really good and I should read it.

So I did.

And she was right. And Millicent was hella creepy. Shudder. Excellent re-telling. I liked it. (I hope I don’t have nightmares.)

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The Good

4 Comments / Daily Dose, Day to Day /

I am tired of grouchy people and snarky comments and while I don’t really want the world to be all rainbows and puppies all of the time, a little more “If you can’t say something nice then just move along to something else that interests you”. I don’t mean that folks should avoid debating and sharing alternate points of view on social or political topics or even when it comes to something like designer damn Rice Krispies treats. But sometimes it would be nice if people just quietly rolled their eyes and moved along. In fact, I’m gonna do more quietly rolling my eyes and moving along — because odds are high that I’ve been a part of the problem, from time to time…

Speaking of moving along, JMP is doing some serious moving along.

Here he was in these cute pajamas last September.

Here he is in these cute pajamas today.

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The Dead In Their Vaulted Arches

1 Comment / 2014, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction /

I waited a long time to get the new Flavia deLuce book and then I kind of took my time reading it. The Dead In Their Vaulted Arches was kind of freaking me out.

Flavia was kind of freaking me out.

This book was good but it was really just a tying up of loose ends (Harriet and others) as well as setting Flavia up for the future. I don’t usually do spoilers when I write about books but here comes one…

So Flavia’s mother’s coffin is in her bedroom. Flavia gets the idea to bring her back to life and tracks down all the necessary chemicals with which to attempt this. She’s foiled, after going so far as opening the coffin and finding the will, by a pathology team who arrived to do an autopsy.

Flavia doesn’t freak out thinking SHE COULD HAVE SAVED HER MOTHER, she just lets it go? If she really thought she could bring her mother back to life, wouldn’t she have at least tried to get in there to postpone the autopsy? Wouldn’t she have shown a little despair at having been prevented from saving her mother? I know Flavia is an unusual person but… that was weird and freaky.

Also, here’s another spoiler… so Harriet has been missing for 10 years but when Flavia opened the coffin her mother hadn’t really deteriorated 10 years’ worth, at least it doesn’t sound that way… so that means for 10 years she’s been… where? And was only recently killed? That… is confusing, particularly as we begin to realize who it is the finger points to as her killer.

And one more… “Harriet, it was I.” = wah? Is that a red herring that Flavia’s going to eventually have to sort out or is that for reals?

So many questions and far too long to wait for the next book. There will be a next book, right? sheesh.

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Reading in February

2014, Books in Bed, Reading /

I read 20 books in February, which isn’t a bad number for a short, hectic month. I’ve got three in progress, (one print, one audio, one on my Kindle.)

The breakdown looks like this:

2 Audio
7 Cybils
11 were books in a series that I was keeping up with/catching up with.
1 Non-fiction
4 Graphic Novels
14 were YA/Children’s/Middle Grad books.

None from my stacks, though the Kindle book in progress is so I’ll have at least one for that category next month.

Good month, with a lot of very good books.

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2 Graphic Novels

2014, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Young Adult /

Both of these are from the Cybils Shortlist — and both are good. One is exceptional.

First, Nathan Hale is back with the story of the Donner Dinner Party. Just like the other Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales — this is long, long, long. But I’m not sure how it could be much shorter because that’s a lot of story to tell via graphic novel. I particularly like the last pages — the list of people who died and how, the mythbusting at the end. I’m a fan of this series, in general, and this one was just as good as the others.

March — the first volume. This series is one nobody should miss. Congressman Lewis is telling his story, via graphic novel, and it’s one hell of a good story and a really great idea. I couldn’t put this first volume down and suspect the next two books in the trilogy will be just as good. Must read — for everyone.

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February In Review

Daily Dose, Day to Day, Filofax /

Thank goodness February is OVER. I’m done with it. There’s a reason why February is a short month and it has nothing to do with cycle of the moon or sun or anything calendar related. It’s because February is a DICK.

But, it wasn’t really all bad. I kept my “To Dos” manageable and have only two things left un-done. One was a carryover from January and I must do that in March. Sooner rather than later — I must fix my coffee pot. The grinder is clogged or something and it won’t grind beans — so I’m stuck using pre-ground coffee, which I keep buying so I’ll have coffee even though I have a ton of beans. Gah.

I didn’t quite manage the #tcblove photo a day challenge. I was late for two of the days, one because I’m a procrastinator and the other because I forgot TW had a dental appointment and it would be dark before we left the building. Oops. I suppose I could have not planned to take that photo in the afternoon and managed it on time but see that procrastinator thing? Also, work is NUTS right now. I skipped one day completely because the theme just didn’t work. In fact a lot of days the them didn’t work for me — I’m not a marshamllowy kinda person. lol. It was fun, though. I’m glad I did it and I’m looking forward to 17 Days of Green in March.

Still not finding time to art journal, though moving a handful of gel pens to my desk did cause me to do some doodling a couple of times. I’ve got plans to schedule art journal time into March and since that’s helped me get a ton of work done on JMP’s Christmas stocking, I think I might see some success with that next month. I hope.

All in all, a good month — consider February sucks so hard. Onward!

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