History of Fashion

The book I've just finished reading is Tim Gunn's Fashion Bible: The Fascinating History of Everything in Your Closet, by Tim Gunn. It's a book I saw at the library, and since I think he's a pretty awesome guy I decided to give it a go. The name throws me a little. I first saw this at the library in the beginning of October but was too busy then to check it out. Later, when I could read it, I looked to see if the library had "History of Fashion" available, and it said the book didn't exist! But "Fashion Bible" came up. It should have been titled something closer to "History of Fashion", or leave out the main title and go entirely with the subtitle.

Basically he takes various category of clothes and shares it's history, like what it used to be like in history and how it became what it is today, as well as various high and low points in it's history. It was enjoyable but I think it would be best read spaced out. As a library book I had to go through it all at once, if it was something I owned I think it may have been more something I would read now and again over the course of a few months. But then I don't tend to read a lot of non-fiction. It was an interesting book, though, and I am glad to have read it. I learned a few things and I feel more inspired to look closer at my clothing.

I also enjoyed "hearing" his voice. I liked that, that as I read it I could read in his voice.

Firestarter starts no fires here

So I decided to read Firestarter, by Stephen King for Halloween, but it took a lot longer to finish it than I thought it would. My book has a picture from the movie on it. I saw the movie a long time ago and thought it was a good movie, and I had this book, so I thought, why not.

So, why not? Because it is tedious. It drags on and on. I'm not saying it's a bad book, because it's not. It's just... not very interesting. The basic plot is that the daughter of people who were part of an experiment can light fires with her mind, and is being hunted by the government, which is a plot I could totally get into, but I just couldn't. Even at the end it drags on. I almost put it down a few times because it just wouldn't grip me but I kept plodding on and finally finished it. My memories of the movie have faded enough that I don't know for sure I'm correct in saying this, but I'm thinking that if you're interested in this story you should see the movie instead of trying to read it.

Glitz

The latest book I read was Glitz: A Novel, by Elmore Leonard. It is about a detective on medical leave in Puerto Rico who becomes involved with a prostitute, who is on her way to work at a casino in Atlantic City. He runs into a man whom he had previously put in jail, a man who wants to kill him. However, this guy fails to really get the detective's attention, and kills the prostitute to get it. The detective spends a lot of time getting involved in the criminal world of Atlantic City while trying to solve the mystery of who killed her, before he figures it out.

I won't give away any more and I doubt my description was very enticing, but it really is a good book. It was fun, I liked the way people talked in it (it was a sort of unique dialogue style, kind of refreshing), and I'm glad I read it. It's not the sort of thing I got caught up in, but it was a good, fun read. Not heavy on the detective aspect, not heavy on the action, not heavy on the crime organization stuff, just a light mix of everything. We also see things from the bad guy's perspective, which was a little chilling at times.

two more books

So I have finished another two books. I seem to be doing two before writing about them lately, lol. I am also reading a 3rd right now.

So first we have Mine Is the Night: A Novel, by Liz Curtis Higgs. Basically it's the story of Ruth set in 1700s Scotland. I almost put it in the get rid of pile because everything works out just too perfectly and smoothly. But I'll hold onto it for now, see how I feel later. I won't get too into what this book is because I'm sure most people reading this have a basic idea of who Ruth was and what happened for her, but the short is basically that Ruth and her mother-in-law went back to the mother-in-law's hometown and met a wealthy man who winds up marrying Ruth. So that is basically what happens here, with some things added in.

The second book is Night Magic, by Charlotte Vale Allen. I actually put it down not 2 chapters (3 chapters?) in and decided I didn't want to read it. But I picked it back up and skimmed through the rest of it. Why did it get an almost instant dismissal from me? Because, while the back cover does let us know the "woman" in the story is 16 it failed to mention the man is 31 when they meet. (they're 17 and 32 when they get around to doing stuff though, as if making her one whole year older makes a difference) He is disfigured from a car accident, his face a ruin. She's a rich girl who thinks she's ugly. They instantly fall madly in love. After only seeing her once he thinks thoughts like "dear sweet beautiful child, such a child would ruin me" and becomes creepily obsessive over her and all that she could do to him. She becomes psychotic and, after having only seen him twice, threatens to kill herself if he doesn't call her back. Finally she convinces him to give in to her and they spend countless nights together. At no point do any of the adults in her life go "hey, he's twice your age!" No, in fact her father gives them his blessing! So during these nights of magic with him she sinks into an unhealthy obsessive state in which she does not eat and winds up in the hospital. She also hopes she gets pregnant, because "that would show him!" because she thinks he needs a baby to make him grow up. Finally, her father dies and she runs off and marries this guy who's almost old enough to step into her life as a father figure. She dooms herself to a life she comes to resent, consistently calling it claustrophobic over the many years the book follows them through. Finally, she's about 35, and has repeatedly been terrified of bringing up children and any time she has brought up children he either goes down on the floor crying because no one loves him or he goes into a rage. Then she's on a train and is witness to someone jumping in front of it. A stranger nearby comforts her and offers to drive her home, she wonders at such a simple thing that her beloved husband could never do for her and winds up going to his house the next day. Her husband follows her, sees her and runs home to claw his face off and almost kills himself. After being in a stifling relationship seemingly built on lust and a need to play nurse, I can see why she'd want some normalcy, doesn't make it right but I could see it happening, but she doesn't seem to see it that way, doesn't know why she's there and winds up almost being raped, and then hops on the next plane to England where her husband stalks her for a few weeks (and sees her bruises and puts the pieces together that she didn't cheat on him). She spends this time hating herself for everything, for the way she treated her husband (I guess she felt bad about occasionally turning on the light to shower, because you know he can't stand to see himself and forces her to do everything in the dark), for being mean to her best friend (who told her to stfu cause she's being a selfish whiner for being 35 and feeling her biological clock ticking, think of how her husband must feel with her constantly whining to him for a baby), for being at this hot young guy's house (because, well, ok, that one was wrong of her), for not telling her husband she wasn't on birth control anymore (it had only been for a week while she waited for an operation and she didn't tell him because she was terrified of his reaction because the last time he had a bad reaction to something he threw a stool out a window and cut his hand). Though the book shows them across the span of about 17 years neither of them grew up at all throughout the book. They are the same people in the beginning that they are in the end. The one thing that changes is that, finally, after watching her wander around England for a few weeks, he realizes she does actually love him (*gasp* what gave it away? Surely not the 16 years of marriage!) and they can go ahead and have a baby. He wanders up to her, tells her he's been stalking her, which she thinks is charming, and they go back to the hotel to get started on that baby. The end.

I don't feel bad about giving spoilers about that book. It was awful and has already been placed in a box headed for the thrift store. I understand it was meant to be somewhat based on Phantom of the Opera, which I have not read, and I did get that since I've seen the movie, and I understand it was meant to loosely show bits of Beauty and the Beast, but it could have been done so much better. Now, you know I love angst, but this was too much even for me. I skipped pages and pages and pages of whining, angsty nothings. I'm all for tragic pasts and healing each other, but I had no patience for this. I may try to pick apart other books to find things wrong with them, but I don't even have to try with this one. I wouldn't even recommend it for a lazy, sunny, sick day. And trust me, this is a sick day for me, and the only reason I don't regret wasting it on this book is because I can now shake my head and marvel that this drivel got published.


The 3rd book I mentioned I've been reading while deciding if I wanted to skim the rest of Night Magic or move on. I'll post about it when I'm done with it.

More books

I've got two books to write about today. The first one is The Final Prophecy (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, Book 18), by Greg Keyes. This is one of the better NJO books, I think. I enjoyed it a lot. A lot of awesome stuff (and some funny) happened in it, and it makes me sad that the rest of the series is packed away in storage where I can't get to them right now. Or I'd be reading those next. I'm this close to the end, finally. I've been reading the NJO for, probably, a good 7 years at least. I did take a break for a long time, though. But I'm so far behind on Star Wars books. After this I have the Dark Nest Trilogy (which I got for Christmas last year!) and then the Legacy series. It has occurred to me that I had best catch up as quick as I can before Episode VII comes out because I don't want spoilers for the books. o_0 I know that makes almost no sense, lol, but it's how I feel.

On to the second book, which was a gift from a friend: The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel, by Neil Gaiman. It's about a little boy, told from his point of view as an adult. Rather, it's about a man who sinks into memory. (see? I made a water joke!) It's about his adventures with a girl who lives, as the title says, at the end of the lane, and the magical powers she and her family have, and they wind up battling magical creatures. I wouldn't say it was spectacular, but it certainly wasn't bad either. I am glad I read it because it was entertaining. I liked the boy we follow, and I liked that he was an average kid. A lot of books that follow kids have them being better than the adults or somehow more mature or intelligent than they should be, they're given free passes. But this boy was a regular 7-year-old. I wouldn't say it has a happy ending, but it's not a sad one either. Kind of a thoughtful ending, I think. I liked the questions to make you think (or whatever they're called) at the end, like book group questions.

The Hostage

The last book I read didn't take very long at all. The Hostage (The Chicago Fire Trilogy), by Susan Wiggs.

I didn't know it was the first of a trilogy when I started it. If I happen across the others I'll read them but I don't think I'll go out of my way to find them.

It is about a rich woman who, on the night of the Chicago fire, is visiting with her father to try and get out of the arranged marriage he's forced on her. A man, who is constantly called "crazed", is also on a mission that night, to kill her father. Instead he abducts her and holds her as hostage. Now maybe it's because I knew that the hostage situation was the setting for this romance but he didn't seem like a very scary captor. I had trouble believing the situation. Until they're really falling in love they seem to stick together because... why not? I do like that she tried to escape, though. Anyway, he takes her to his home, which is an island up north, where she learns why her father is hated (his mining company didn't bother with safety and an explosion killed a bunch of people and then he paid the judge to look the other way). She fits right in with the people who were so far below her just a week ago, and learns how to quilt and hang laundry and cook and other things, all of these things, like making beds, make her feel alive and happy. And then the lake ices over and she becomes stuck on the island with her captor who hasn't truly held her hostage in some time. There is also a plot about her fiancee having raped her, and this is not a spoiler because we find out in the first few pages. It doesn't tell us that but come on, anyone can figure it out. All the loose plot threads get tied up at the end, and rather nicely too.

I enjoyed it, anyway.

Green Rider 5

I have finished Mirror Sight: Book Five of Green Rider, by Kristen Britain. I have been reading Green Rider since 2000, which I think was a year or two after the first book was published. Altogether it is a wonderful series, and I consider myself a big fan. The last book, however, book 4, was weird and had a lot wrong with it. I expected book 5 to explain away the problems with book 4. I half expected the cliffhanger at the end of book 4 to change time so book 4 never really happened, as time travel is a thing in this series and Karigan (the main character) has changed some things before through time travel. Nope. I'm going to have to hold out another 3-4 years for book 6. Book 5 was different, and it didn't fix anything from book 4. If anything it made things worse. Is it better or worse than book 4? A little of both.

The rest of this has spoilers.

The steampunk era Karigan travels to did not annoy me greatly, but it was certainly a change. I did not think much of Cade, he didn't have a lot of depth to him, and Karigan seems to only like him because she's just that lonely. I did not understand why they loved each other (except that he like the novelty of a woman who could think and fight and that she knew he was the only one who was really on her side), but I just kinda accepted it and tried to not think too hard about it. After spending the last 4 books watching Karigan and Zachery fall in love and the strains and hardships of that and their fight against the attraction it was different to see her just randomly throw herself at someone. I'm definitely on Team Zachery but it just doesn't seem to be something that's going to happen, and it is getting a bit much to see every other character in the series going "he wouldn't treat just any rider that well", so I suppose something had to happen to quieten them down a bit because at this point he either needs to get rid of Estora or Karigan needs to find someone else because the waiting is starting to be just too drawn out. So I suppose Cade was a good break from that, but since she changed the future he probably doesn't even exist anymore and if he ever does exist he's almost 200 years past her time so there's no chance for them anyway. So will the rest of the books show her getting over Zachery while idolizing Cade? Will time and distance cause her to obsess over him and hold all over men to the idea of Cade causing her to remain alone for the rest of her life as no man can measure up to this idea of perfection she will create? Will Estora die and let Karigan finally get a word in? I absolutely did not appreciate that everything Karigan wants and deserves is just handed to Estora who couldn't care less either way. It was bad enough, but forgivable, when she was engaged to Zachery, she had no say in the matter as it was a political marriage. But what really makes me mad (but not at Estora since it's still not really her fault) is this: Some magic users thought Karigan was very, very early (like implantation was still happening) pregnant by Cade, and traveling back in time caused it to disappear (as Cade doesn't exist in her time) and suddenly Estora, who was pregnant, is now suddenly having twins and it comes about by Karigan's going back in time changing everything. So again what was Karigan's is now Estora's. And, you know, for all Zachery's wishing for Karigan he sure had no trouble getting Estora pregnant, did he.

So, anyway, the point is that the book does not exist. All of Karigan's time spent in the future is gone now that she is back in the present again. She changed the future so it can never happen. And rightfully so, as the steampunk era she was in was horrible, mills and slavery, women without any rights whatsover, everything being controlled by the empire, etc. But I get it. The mirror Karigan shattered in book 4 had to give her mirror sight (which I suppose means she can see the future out of one eye?), a new dimension to her regular powers to cross time. This whole 800+ book's purpose was to give her this new power (which is also a disability as she can no longer use one of her eyes!), and possibly give her a new enemy for future books. And also, possibly, to put a damper on the Zachery/Karigan thing.

I also now understand why book 4 spent so much time with Karigan learning to use the bonewood cane, abandoning her swordsmaster training. Because in book 5 she was basically undercover and couldn't be carrying a sword around, but a cane was acceptable. So, while it makes little sense in-universe, I can see from the author's perspective of needing Karigan trained in an alternate weapon.

I did like the ending, though, I liked how she went a little mad trying to write down her memories of the future before they disappeared. I like the very last part when Karigan receives the drawings of people she saw in the future and it helps her remember. I even teared up a little.

All in all, it was a weird break from the regular Green Rider stuff, and I'm not entirely sure I like it. I spent a lot of the book thinking that what I was reading was alright but how it ended would determine if I actually liked it or not. But I still don't know. Book 6 will, hopefully, let me know whether or not books 4 and 5 are acceptable. It's just hard because now I have another 3-4 year wait.

Also, I did not re-read the prior books and it showed, there was a lot I'd forgotten about. Perhaps next time I'll go ahead and give them a re-read before book 6 arrives.

Books

I know it's been a while. I've since finished two books and started a third.

The first is The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. My version is a translation. It was a beautiful book. There's almost no words to describe it. I teared up at the last page, it was that good. There were a few improbably things that happened in it but they didn't really detract from the story.

The second is North and South (Wordsworth Classics), by Elizabeth Gaskell. I'd previously seen the show (I think there are two out there? I saw the one that is on netflix) and loved it. I was excited to try out the book. And now that I have I'm going to have to re-watch the show so I can do a better comparison! I saw the show last spring, I think. The show is about as true and untrue to the book as you'd expect, no complaints either way, except that the show really didn't need the whole "boucher smoking in the mill" scene, it wasn't in the book and didn't add a whole lot to the show except to make Margaret out to be less smart than she is. The book was hard to get into at the start, it took quite a while before I could read it easily. She also jumps viewpoints mid-paragraph a lot, which doesn't really bother me because I struggle with that very thing. Sometimes you just want to tell the start of a scene from one point of view and the end in another, sometimes it just works out best that way. So, while it didn't bother me, I don't know how others feel about that.

My current book is Mirror Sight: Book Five of Green Rider, by Kristen Britain. I have been reading the Green Rider series since I was 13. She only puts out a book every so many years so this is only the 5th one. But I very much enjoy them. Except book 4 was awful. Book 5 is her chance at redemption for me. Book 4 ended in a cliff hanger and the jacket of book 5 tells you nothing except a recap of the last 4 books. So I went into reading this with absolutely no idea what I was going to be reading, which was kinda fun! The rest of this has spoilers, which I think are mostly minor. I'm 49 pages in and so far I've gone back and forth on whether or not I'm ok with what's going on. I have this to say, if Karigan gets back to her own time (she's time traveled) and she can get Zachery away from Estora I'll be ok with this. Even if she can't get Zachery and we have chapters and chapters of angst if she winds up finding someone she can be with who helps her get over Zachery I'd be ok. But what Estora has done is unforgivable and I can not be ok with Karigan getting back to her own time and not having anyone and Estora just wandering the castle all shoving it in Karigan's face. We've been waiting for Karigan/Zachery for 14 years. It's been getting more intense with each book. There needs to be a resolution. And she needs to give up the stupid staff and get back to swords, she spent 3 books becoming a swordsmaster only to abandon it to take up a staff? But right now I'm still trying to keep an open mind and find out how things are going in the weird Nazi-fied Victorian world she's found herself in. It is interesting, at any rate, and I'm really not that far into it yet. btw, what is up with the sea kings and the awesome zorro-like cousin of Zachery who abandoned his lifestyle to run to sea? Book 4 really had a lot of problems. I really expected for book 5 to start with whatshisname, Agemon? the keeper of the dead, I expected him to hear Karigan pounding on the tomb and open it up and be all surprised. I expected the time line Karigan had jumped to is one where she died in book 3 or beginning of book 4 and gets a do-over. I was wrong, but I do hope she, the author, justifies book 4 somehow or I may not buy book 6 if there is one.

Two more books

I have finished two books since I last posted. The first was Pendulum, by Ruby Jean Jensen. It's about a little girl who uses a pendulum to tell fortunes for people, some with unhappy results. The wording in the book is very spooky, things like describing tree limbs scraping windows, how the moon shines through the trees, eerie Halloween decorations, things like that. Not scary, just scene settingly spooky. The book seems to have two stories running at the same time, and, at first, you're not sure how they're connected. Eventually they all combine rather soap opera-like. There's a few loose ends, but I love the telling of the story anyway. The teacher, especially, Miss Upton, I loved watching her character's evolution. More on that in the spoiler-filled review. Overall, the ending left me slightly confused but it's easy enough to make my own assumptions and conclusions on the things left hanging. But that could just be my view as an adult. I think a pre-teen (which seems to be who this was aimed at) would find it very entertaining, ending and all. It's a keeper.

Now the spoiler filled review. If you want to skip this just move down to the next paragraph where I review the second book. So the pendulum was given to the girl by a gypsy who happens to be the grandfather of a boy who was bullied into drowning. The kids who's futures were foretold with unhappy endings are the ones who did the bullying. All of them get futures that predict they'll die or have unspeakable horrors. So, to all appearances, this is a story of revenge from beyond the grave. The little girl is cousins to two of the bullies, and it's their parents who refused to allow gypsy trash into their house, so, naturally, the ghost boy wants revenge on them too and winds up killing both of them as well. At the end of the book all the bullies are dead except the girl's cousins and one other. Where's their death? Did the ghost give up? Or was the horror of losing their parents enough? Why did one of the kids become a werewolf instead of dying? Running parallel to this story is the one of the teacher, Miss Upton. At first you see her looking at the little girl, seeing in her the fiancee or husband (we're unsure at this point) who cheated on her and you feel bad for her. As the story progresses you unlock bits of her history and she slowly transforms into a sad character into this monster who "had to resort to seduction" to try and get this guy because she delusionally had herself convinced he was hers and then killed him when he refused her! And we find these things out over the course of the whole book in bits and pieces so that you find out her character in dawning and growing horror. I think she was actually one of the most well written characters I've come across in a while.

The second book was Stardust, by Neil Gaiman. I don't know how popular this book is, I know it was made into a movie. I saw the movie in the theaters with my sister so when I saw this book I figured I'd get it. It was a good movie. The book was good too. Beautifully done. I'm definitely keeping this one, and if I see any of his other books for cheap I'll probably give them a try. I'm also going to have to re-watch that movie now!

May the Fourth be with you, always

Today is May 4th, known to some as Star Wars Day. A day of celebration, a day of happiness. All Star Wars movies have come out in May, and May also holds George Lucas's birthday. This month is Star Wars month, the 4th being just a starter to a wonderful month of celebrating and memories. It is spring in most places, snow is melting or long gone, new life has begun and all the hopes and dreams for summer lay just out of reach, tantalizingly close. Flowers are blooming and birds are singing. It is a wonderful, beautiful month for Star Wars fans everywhere to come together and enjoy a fandom that has for so long been a part of our lives. It's not just movies, it's the books. Over a quarter of a century's worth of books, of characters, of places, of stories. Comics, though not always adhering to canonity, have had their place for longer than the books. There's video games, as well. There's collector's items, action figures, posters, there's toys and lego sets. There's costumes and role playing games. Some fans are not even old enough to remember a time before Star Wars. Without the expanded universe, the books, the comics, and even the video games, Star Wars would not be as big as it is today. The expanded universe kept it afloat when others would have let it drown. Proper recognition and respect must be shown to the books first and foremost, regardless of your own perspective and opinions, because they, more than anything, are important in our history, in our lives, in our fandom. The movies are great, there is no denying that, they are the foundation of all that has come since. They paved the road for the stories, the characters, the very lives of hundreds of unique people that, though fiction, are so real to so many. Where would we be today without the books? The movies? It is an alternate universe I would never want to see. And yet there are some who would have it so. For lately we have had very disturbing and grim news. Star Wars is no more. At least not as we knew it.

It is with the deepest regret that I look upon it's corpse, laying here before me. It is with sadness and a sense of hopelessness that I see it's murderers kicking it's body and spitting upon it. It is with a rising sense of panic and frustration that I see the funeral attendee's watching on and shrugging, some cheering them on, some not understanding what the big deal is. A few others grumbling but doing nothing, though who can blame them since none have the power to change anything anyway. How did this come to be? It started with cries for more. None could realize that a good thing can not last forever, that a person can not keep going without stumbling. "More!" they cried, "More!" Here is your more. Here are your 37 years worth of movies, books, comics, games, here is 37 years worth of time, money, energy, effort, emotions, wasted, dead, senselessly and mindlessly murdered for the sake of more. Here is your more! Are you happy? Cries for more have destroyed the more you already had, the wealth of books all but rounded up and burned, as though a dictator has risen up and wishes to rewrite history through the destruction of previous knowledge. With so much time covered in the books of course new movies would need their own timeline, of course they couldn't have squeezed new movies into perfectly good openings between books, of course the fans don't matter. They're the ones who cried for more, they're the ones who brought this upon us. The ones in charge will kill everyone we have loved and held dear for all our lives. The new movies will not even be released in May, as though our entire history is not so deeply entrenched in the month. It gets worse, though, as "new canon" even overwrites the original movies themselves, with the supposedly canon tv shows. Most recently announced was the list of actors the new movies will have. "Wait, is that one going to be Jaina," you ask. Perhaps, perhaps. After all, though they have decided the books don't exist they are still going to rape them for character names. "This is Jaina, she's just been born at a different time in a different place under different circumstances has lived an entirely different life with a different personality and is everything she is not," they say. True fans will know better. Newbies will not. The average person will not. It will become a widespread lie, something true fans will come to hate. Everyone will talk of it and they, like so much breath pushing against a brick wall, will fall down into distant memory, forever lost to lies. And no one will care. No one will care as our beloved fandom falls down around us, lost without it's leader, lost without it's base, it's foundation. Lost to confusion, to half-remembered truths, to confusing and convoluted timelines. "But comics have always had messed up timelines", well Star Wars is not a comic, Star Wars is better than other fandoms who can't keep their own stories straight. It will be a joke in later years, cruel though it is now. It is not just disrespectful to the books, to the fans, but to the characters themselves, and especially to the authors, the authors who wrote day and night and worked and struggled to birth to us these characters, to bring life to them, to maintain their lives and give them personality. If anyone should feel outrage it is the authors. And it doesn't end here, it is not enough to crank out a new episode every other year when previous episodes have taken 3 years apiece so quality and care could go into them, they are going to crank out new movies every single year in a vain attempt to cash in on the "coolness" of some characters. Our very own beloved Boba Fett may be turned into nothing but a lame action hero with even lamer catchphrases, abandoning his book-personality in lieu of an alcohol swigging womanizer. I shudder to ponder the thought, my very being recoiling at the thought.

Perhaps what could be considered one of the most twisted, sick parts of this is that the ones in charge believe they are "reviving" something that was not dead, but in fact they are putting the final nails in a coffin of their own creation. I will continue to bury my head in the sand, to pretend this isn't happening, to avoid spoiler-filled reports and rumors. Though is denial not a step of grief? Perhaps in later years I will be able to look back on this with a dull sense of sureality and accept what has happened. But not now. Not today. Today, a day that is supposed to be one of celebrating, is a dark, dark day indeed. Not a day of happiness, not a day of fun, but a day of mourning, a day of sadness, a day where we should be crying out in one voice for the ones in charge to stop this madness. I feel a sense of pity for those celebrating today, those who are like a distant family member who has only vaguely heard that someone died but does not quite truly realize it yet.  Then there are those who do know, who do realize, but, like me, have chosen to deny it and are trying to cover the quiver in their gut with a pretense of cheer, as though trying, desperately, to cling to a sinking ship while proclaiming it unsinkable. I pity you, I feel for you, I wish I could join you in your celebration, but I can not. The pain is too fresh, too new, for me to smile and pretend all is well. I can but think sadly, fondly, of what once was.

So as we lay Star Wars to rest I urge you not to think about the future, bleak and depressing, but to remember the past. Remember the books, the comics, and most of all, the movies. Remember the characters, the lives so carelessly thrown away. Remember your happiness, a life-time of joy. Remember Star Wars as it was, not as it is and will be. Remember the 4th and all it once stood for. And always remember, the Force will be with you, always.

All My Heart Can Hold

The book I just finished was All My Heart Can Hold, by Jessica Douglass. It's about a woman who leaves Virginia with her brother and sister to go to California. Along the way they meet a man who leads them part-way there and he's all rugged and silent and mysterious.

The non-spoiler review is that it was ok. I mainly read it because the excerpt at the beginning was just so silly and cliche. Like what might happen if you were trying to write a ridiculous romance spoof. The book was a little more serious than I thought it was going to be, and when I got to the part the excerpt was from it was a lot longer and not as humorous. The main female was annoying. And a lot of their problems would have been cleared right up if she hadn't been so persistent in her delusions. I wouldn't call it a good book but it was a good time killer. The beginning especially was good. The whole thing, after the beginning, felt really rushed and half-finished. Like originally there may have been a longer book but someone decided it needed to be smaller to fit a word count limit or something. The book could have been very good if a different story had gone with the beginning. Because the beginning of the book was pretty good.

btw, I will be giving this book away if anyone wants it. As always, for free to certain people, cost of shipping for everyone else.

Spoilers here on out:

The woman is annoying for many reasons. She's very pushy and practically makes the man love her. She decides to snare him and "make sure he notices me tonight"! And when she all but shoves him down and kisses him for the first time she comes away from it proclaiming her undying love for him. Naturally, he freaks out a little and tries to get away from her but she persists. With the threat of Indians around their wagon train and an order for no one to leave camp she sneaks away to make him come "rescue" her so she can force him to spend time alone with her. When it comes to their first love scene she gets all "no, no, I don't want this, wait, yes I think I do, no wait I was wrong, ok maybe we should", and she seemed pretty ok with just throwing herself at this guy she's known for, what, 2 weeks? 3? The book takes place in the 1860s, and she was part of high society back in Virginia. Yet she just seems to give herself away without a second thought, or even a guilty thought later or a "oh what would my society friends think of me my reputation would be ruined if I was back home", nothing. And for being so upper class she's ok with working and getting dirty and actually impresses the rough men around her with how low maintenance she is. And then a long series of misunderstandings occur and even when presented with the truth she tells him he's lying and refuses to believe him and forces herself to not trust him... in the same breath she decides to marry him and sleep with him every night.

The beginning of the book starts out well enough, she and her brother and sister are on their way to California to live with their uncle after their parents died. They have to stop in Missouri cause the sister got sick. Then the guy comes along and they all head west and make it as far as New Mexico. It was during that part of the book, the trip, that things started make me roll my eyes.

She is captured by Indians, and her transition from hating them to learning their culture and their ways would have been somewhat interesting if we were shown more of it. It basically goes from one page where she hates them to the next page where she's one of them. I would have liked to have read more of that transition. Because something like that doesn't just happen overnight.

There's more to the story, like trying to take out a group of comancheros and the guy being a secret agent in that mission and stuff, and she knows he's doing this and then thinks he's truly one of them when he starts doing stuff with them, more of what I mean when I say she seems to be trying to make herself hate him. It's all very silly. She even almost kills him at one point because of the character he's playing as, and later when they're talking about it he was all "what did you want me to do!? If I'd reminded you I was just playing along they'd have killed me!" And then through a series of convenient, but foreseeable plot twists, everything about this mission is resolved within a chapter or two.

At the end of the book they decide to stay together and the book ends with them kissing. We don't know what's going to happen next. Is she going to continue to misinterpret and mistrust everything he says and does? Are they going to get married? Where are they going to live? And what happened to the her brother? At least with the sister we know she died. The brother basically just walks away and we never see him again.

Reading

I know it's been a while since my last post. We moved and I just haven't felt like making a post. So I've had some extra time to read and I've actually read a few books since my last post.

First was Timothy Zahn's Star Wars: Choices of One. It was pretty good. I enjoyed Luke and Mara working together without their realizing it. It's one of those things where you wonder if, in later years, they were talking and happened to mention that event and go "wait I did that!" "Omg that was you?" It's just kinda cute. They're such a cute couple. Good book, excellent work, as always, but what do you expect, Zahn's the best.

And then I moved on in the NJO some more. I fought my way through Remnant: Force Heretic I (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order), Force Heretic II: Refugee (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, Book 16), and Force Heretic III: Reunion (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, Book 17)  They were ok. Not the best in the NJO but they were ok. I was expecting a little more from Zonoma Sekot. Course I still have two more books in the NJO. Tahiri is intriguing, and I love Jaina/Jag. I always love Jacen, though. I'd say he's one of my favorite characters. I only vaguely know what happens to him in Legacy of the Jedi or whatever it's called, but I don't want details at all. I'll get there when I get there.

As for the new announcement from Lucasfilm about the EU.... I say this: *sticks fingers in ears* lalala I can't hear you! It's the only way to stay sane. I have to make myself forget about it or I'll puke or something. Seriously, the announcement makes me physically ill. If you don't know what I'm talking about google it because I don't have the heart to put it into words, makes it too real.

Tommy and Crafts

Two posts in one day! So this one will have pictures of Tommy and recent crafts:

Update

Let's see, I believe the last post I made I was watching "Elizabeth R." I finished it and the actress did finally appear to start aging, and wikipedia says this was how it was in real life as well. So, ok. A good show, but it is my first one from her era that I've seen so who am I to say.

Other things I've watched, I saw "Carolina". The description on netflix is wrong. The description says that the main character is Southern and that she is embarrassed by her family and moves to California to escape them and then meets two men she likes. This is wrong. Yes, it takes place in the south. It does take place in California, but the family lives in California as well (though I think they're a little outside of town?) and she does not move anywhere to escape them. The movie starts off with her already knowing one of the two men. And the point of the movie is not so much the romance but that she needs to accept her family as they are. If you want to avoid spoilers skip ahead to the next paragraph, otherwise read on. So, she has a best friend who is a guy. Gee, we all know where this is going to go. He likes her family. She is embarrassed by her family and meets this rich guy who is appalled by her family's behavior. Eventually he says they can try to make it work anyway. She tells him, no, this is what I am, I am poor, my family's a little trashy, my family is embarrassing, this is who I am, I have no desire to become anything more in life, and dumps him. The majority of the movie is focused on her family and her coming to terms with her family and accepting them and she even decides to start becoming one of them, which at that point in her life is lowering herself back down from the level she had struggled so hard to get to. Oh, and at the last minute she gets together with the best friend, almost as an afterthought, as though someone making the movie went "Oh wait this was supposed to be a romance". I suppose in and of itself it's not a bad movie it's just not what I was expecting based on netflix's description.

Currently I'm watching The Forsyte Saga. Wow. It's so depressing. Like nothing good ever happens to anyone. And if something starts to look like it's going good it's quickly squashed. I'm about half-way through the first season.

In other things I'm up to, I'm reading Star Wars: Choices of One. Yay, teenage Mara! And inexperienced Luke, wow, I'm used to NJO Jedi Master Luke, not young "I just came from a farm" Luke.

Still playing Skyrim. If you ever want to mod it so your follower can have horses do not use Horses for Followers or Ultimate Follower Overhaul, neither work. Use Convenient Horses. You have to jump through hoops to get it installed but once it is it is awesome. Never playing without it again. For one thing you get to put all your finds in your horse's inventory. Yes, the mod gives your horse an inventory. An unlimited one. I am a packrat in these games so this is very, very handy. I have well over several thousand weight in my horse's inventory and it makes me so happy. You get a horse call that makes your horse come to you. You can make your horse follow you (unless you're sneaking then it stops) or wait. You can choose it's fighting techniques and health points. You can give it armor. Oh, and your follower gets a horse which was my intended purpose. If you want the mod go to youtube for the tutorials, that's how I did it. Couldn't have done it without them.

People with gardens are not freak shows

So I've been spending my free time mostly crocheting, playing Skyrim or Binding of Isaac, and watching netflix. I'll post my crochet projects some time. I have 2 of them that are mostly done but I need buttons. I'll probably be going to the thrift store soon so I'll see if they have a bag of buttons, I'm pretty sure they usually do. I've already spoken of just how awesome Binding of Isaac is. Skyrim, well, I'm sure by now everyone knows Skyrim's a great game, so nothing more to be said there.

So, my netflix watching. I gave Extreme Cheapskates a try. I figured, hey, I'm cheap, this should be good for a laugh and occasional empathetic nod! Well, no. Not really. The show just upset me is all. Ok, for those who have not seen it, in each episode a guest is brought into the show at some point to see the cheapskate in action and share their thoughts. What made me upset the most was when the guest would get freaked out by.... gardening! Seriously? Like one episode this woman made a salad with greens she foraged for. She made a cake topping with strawberries out of her garden. And the guest was grossed out by this! They were all "omg ew did you at least WASH this first, ewww what if an animal peed on it!? Are you  sure this food is safe to eat!?" Uh... it's just garden food, people. Where do you think your food comes from? I guarantee there's far worse things than a little animal pee on your grocery store produce.  Nevermind the chemicals on it, let's focus on the store end of things, sometimes that stuff falls out of the case and rolls across the floor before being put into the bins with the employee's bare hands only to be picked up by gross old ladies (not all old ladies are gross mind you) who squeeze and inspect it, or children with Lord knows what on their hands,  before being discarded back into the bin only to be picked up by you and set into your cart and then onto the belt and handled by the checker's filthy hands (money is filthy, ask any checker). How is that better? I would also not consider a garden to be a "cheap" move. At the start you have to by tools and fencing. You can spend upwards of 100-200 dollars just to get started, depending on the tools you buy and the kind of fencing you need (obviously deer-prone areas would need better fencing than, say, if you just want to keep dogs out). Naturally you can do it for cheaper, but it really depends on the tools you buy. And then there's the time and effort required to actually garden. It can take 2-3 years for your land to truly be garden-able. Sure you can plant before then but the quality and yield won't be as good as it will be a few years after you start. Gardening can take a lot of time depending on the size of your garden. There's weeding and watering, harvesting, storing the food either through canning or dehydrating, either of which require special tools and equipment. Gardening can work out cheaper in the long run, but I wouldn't outright call it a cheapskate move. And then there's foraging, which I don't really consider to be a cheapskate move either. Yes, it is cheap, certainly, but there's nothing wrong with it. It's a good skill to have, to be able to identify plants and herbs and how to use them. Even I have a tiny bit of knowledge in this area. Both gardening and foraging, but especially gardening, are basics of living. There is nothing "cheapskate" about them and the "guests" in the show irritate me by showing contempt, confusion, and concern over the "cheapness and grossness and omg why aren't you people normal" garden food. Omg, people, gardens are normal! You are the one who is not normal!

Other things that annoyed me about the show are:

The guy who gets his apartment for free by doing yardwork for the owners. He has roommates. And charges them rent. Seriously? What a jerk. I hope the roommates saw that episode and made him pay them back.

The guy who took his family to a restaurant and then paid the 80 dollar bill in change. As if those employees had nothing better to do than to count out 80 dollars in pennies and dimes. Also, if you wanted to save money and go to eat somewhere nice and decided on a buffet, why go to where this guy did? I have been in some nice restaurants that offer buffets that cost only about 5.50 a person, which, for this guy's family, would have been 33 dollars, not 80. The place he went to looked like a fast food place. He could have saved a lot of money and pleased his wife at the same time by going to a different restaurant. How is poor planning cheap? btw, this same guy is baffled by his students (he's a teacher) who drop change and don't pick it up. He says he must earn about a dollar a day picking up after his students. You know they do that on purpose, right? He's the butt of their jokes, they like watching their fat teacher waddle over as fast as he can at the sound of change hitting the floor. It's also a good way to disrupt class.

The guy who considers himself cheap because he haggles. He took his wife to a designer store where they were originally charged 100 dollars for 3 shirts. You, sir, are not cheap. You are a haggler. As someone who has worked at a store I know all about the haggler. I hope he realizes some day that the people he pressures into doing price changes are risking their jobs for him. Each and every price change is recorded on the computer and it is reviewed each week and too many changes or too big a change could mean that person gets in trouble ranging from a slap on the hand to being fired. Also, I did a lot of paperwork. Price changes are recorded in the department's paperwork, which is signed by the department manager weekly and kept for a min of 3 years. So you are not only hurting the customer, but the department and its manager. And what really bothers me about this one is that the person in this episode of the show clearly has money! They don't need to be haggling like that! If you insist on haggling do it to locally owned merchants/stores as they may not have a computer system set up and answer only to themselves.

It also kind of annoyed me that the guest in one episode thought it was odd that the woman had clothing she used to wear 12 years ago. What's odd about that? I still have and wear shirts and pants I had that long ago too. What of it? When you're poor you can't afford to update your wardrobe every year or two. And this woman in particular, I think, seemed like she had been hit with being poor at least for a time, because she talked about how she'd lost her job a while back. Personally the last item of clothing I bought was a pair of jeans from the thrift store in June. A lot of the shirts I wear I bought 5-8 years ago, some of them 10 years ago.

As for dumpster diving, it's a way of life where I live. Everyone does it. You can find some really good stuff at the dump. I have a dresser that is in perfect shape except for a small spot on top of it that's warped. As if that's a reason to throw it out? I once found perfectly good binders someone had thrown out because their schoolwork was in them. Uh, just open them up and dump your schoolwork out. The binders are still in good shape. I would never get food out of a dumpster, certainly, but furniture and other things, sure. As long as they aren't too dirty, why not? The woman in the show who said people set things next to the dumpster if they consider them to still be good is correct. That is why people set things next to or on the edge of a dumpster. They don't care if it gets thrown out, but they're saying "anyone who wants this it's still in good shape!". I had a computer chair for years and years because the plastic covering on one of the arms was broke off a little and they'd set it next to the dumpster. Maybe for people with money dumpster diving is a cheap move, but for poor people it's often a choice made because there is no other option. It's also a good way to re-use something, so it could be considered "green" as well, in fact there are several sites set up that help people connect their used items with people who need said items, which helps keep these things out of the trash, so I suppose you could say it's a modern method of taking other people's trash. And people saying ew about it must have nice, comfortable lives and lots of money.

On another episode one of the highlights of the show is when this woman takes her daughter to a thrift store to go clothes shopping and then limits how many items her daughter can purchase. Ok, what exactly is wrong with this? Personally I think unnecessary clothes shopping is out of hand amongst some children and teenagers. I see nothing wrong with mom cutting back. I do think the dress she started out in needed to be burned, as the child said, but when she later changed to a shirt there was nothing wrong with the shirt, nothing wrong with going to the thrift store, and nothing wrong with mom helping her daughter have good spending habits. How is that being cheap? It's every day life for poor people as well as those with sense. (though shopping at real stores is ok as well, I am not saying real stores are nonsensical, I myself shop at Ross and Target for clothes sometimes and I love Wal-Mart's line of danskin clothing I more meant that limiting spending was sensible)

I will not be watching any more of this show. I don't know if it gets better later on, but I'm not willing to find out.

Sooo.... in other netflix watching, I did finish The Tudors. I'm no historian so I won't sit here and say what they did right and what they messed up. I will say I did enjoy the show. I really liked the hairstyles. If I could I would go through the whole show again just to screenshot the ones I liked. However, I don't have that kind of time!

I wish they showed just how much time has passed, though. I got a general feel for time by watching people age. But it would have been nice to have a better idea of the time passage. I'm getting a little irritated and lost watching Elizabeth R. now, too. Elizabeth R. shows no passage of time. Full years pass with no notice. The actress looks the same age when "young" as she does "old". So how am I supposed to know how much time passed? I only have a general idea of what all happened in this time period so I don't know when certain events happened in her life, sometimes I didn't even know these events happened at all! When watching the show it appeared as though Mary reigned for maybe a year or two. I didn't know, the show didn't give any implication that any more time than that passed. But apparently it was 5 years, I looked it up. Seriously, the time jumps are horrible. One scene she's doing this or that and the next scene after could be the next day for all they show us. But then one of the characters mentions something in passing about something that happened that you know took a long time. Like between episodes 2 and 3 apparently several years pass. Because in episode 2 they talk about how young Elizabeth is. Now in episode 3 they're talking about how old she is. A little info here would be great. How old was she before? How old is she now? How many years passed? The actress does not age. (though perhaps in later episodes she will at least have grey hair to show her age, I dunno, I only finished the 3rd episode last night and there are 6, so I guess she can't possibly be that old in the 3rd one as they were talking about though I suppose for back then even 35 would be old for a woman).  The whole show is set up and acted out as though this were a recording of a live play. It is from the 70's, I believe, and definitely shows it. But not in a bad way, more in the quality of the filming sort of way. Again, not a historian here so I can't comment on accuracy or costumes or sets or anything. I'm not generally so interested in this era, but I dunno, I guess it's my thing right now. I'm sure I'll move on sometime. But Wikipedia has become my companion for the duration of this whim, and I'm actually learning a lot. I still have a lot of reading to do, though.

Book Giveaway

Ok, it is book give-away time again! Local people can get them for free, anyone I would have to mail them to will need to pay shipping (except Weiss, I don't mind paying her shipping!).

In no particular order we have 3 non-fiction books:

Fireplaces and Wood Stoves: It is a Time-Life book. It shows various types of woodstoves/fireplaces and how to install and care for them.

Complete Book of Hunting, by Clyde Ormond:  It talks about preparing for hunting, equipment and clothes, guns, how to camp, how to locate and track game, various game, and how to dress and skin. There is a chapter on bow hunting as well as a section devoted to birds. There is an appendix about caring for firearms and stuff.

The New Singer Sewing with a Serger: Title pretty much says it. This is a basic serger sewing book, goes over the basics, has tension charts, shows how you can use it in various projects, etc. It's in the get rid of pile because I have a different serger book I actually like better (Serger Secrets) and I never refer to this one anymore.

Now for the fiction books, again in no particular order, just whatever hits my hand first when I delve into the pile:

For the Defense, by Ellis Rubin: This book, as well as a lot of the other crime books, came to us through Victor having received a bag of various books for free before I even met him, and I thought they were things he wanted so I have packed them up and dragged them around with us so it's time to get rid of them. It is missing it's front cover page. But the description on the back basically says it's about a lawyer who plays by his own rules and shows a few cases he did. Sounds exhilarating.

Disturbed Ground, by Carla Norton: It's about a granny who kills. That actually might be interesting, lol.

Innocent Blood, by P.D. James: Ah, as best I can figure from the cover it's about a child who is alone in the world and finds her mother and it's shocking for some reason.

The Revenant, by Brana Lobel: I reviewed this one a while back. It starts out as a horror book where there's ghosts and stuff but then it turns out that there's actually just a time-shifting spot where the "ghosts" are actually people from the past just living their lives.

The First Man in Rome, by Colleen McCullough: I am actually interested in this book, and I did start reading it. But there are sooo many characters, and all their names are so alike and there's a new set of characters with a new backstory and life and point of view like every chapter and I read like 5 chapters. I still had no clue what was going on or who I was reading about and people I had been introduced to in previous chapters showed up and I didn't even recognize them because I had forgotten about them already or confused them with someone else who's name is only slightly different.

Innocent Blood, by Terry Ganey: Ok, that is kinda weird that two books have the same name, this one does have a subtitle that says "A true story of obsession and serial murder" so I guess that makes it different. This one tries to grab your attention by name dropping but turns out it's just about a murderer who tries to twist the legal system and of course it talks about the customary fbi agent who nearly loses his job to win the case.

Independence Day, by Amy Frazier: I have no idea where this book came from. But here it is. It's a romance book about a middle aged woman having a midlife crises, as far as I can tell. I didn't read it.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: This one I'm getting rid of because I have 3 copies so I picked the one I wanted least. This one has the original pictures, and the golden afternoon poem as well as a letter from Lewis Carrol dated from Easter 1876. This one is the Aladdin Classics version. And it only has Alice's Adventures, it does not have Through the Looking Glass.

Wolf's Lady, by Mary Butler: I reviewed this one a while back too. The picture on the cover has more action in it than the whole book put together. And that's fine and all but why lie about what's inside the book? It is a pretty decent story though, except for a little bit of some things being just too convenient.

Blacklist, by Sara Paretsky: Someone's trying to solve a murder, it leads her into a tale of sex, money, and power, blah blah something about darker aspects of the patriot act, oh, apparently the character's name is V.I.

Final Option, by Gini Hartzmark: This lawyer finds her client dead, she becomes a suspect and tries to solve the murder and becomes a potential victim herself.

Time After Time, by Constance O'Day-Flannery: It is a hardback and there is no cover sleeve and no preview inside the book so I had to go to amazon to see what this was about. A time travel tale of a woman in modern times who lost her husband and is now in the civil war era and finds a man who lost his wife. The man looks so much like her dead husband and she looks so much like his dead wife. Yeah, I can almost see the incestuous side of things if they find out that the man is her great grandpa or something. I'll pass, thanks.