Top Ten Tuesday

Hey ya'll: trying something new again today.  This being a very new blog overall, I get to experiment.  This is a neat weekly feature over at a blog I really enjoy, The Broke and the Bookish.  They read some books similar to some that I've been reviewing, and they're fun and they write well.  Totally worth checking out.  

The Top Ten Tuesday theme for today is: Top Ten Goals/Resolutions for 2014.

On a side note, there's a white board in my work break room where people pose questions and anyone can answer.  Right now it's "What is your resolution for 2014?"  Before that it was "What do you want for Christmas?"  Always something light and fun.  Right now the only answer on the board is "My progress isn't determined by the Gregorian calendar.  Always upward; always onward."  Love it!

N and I "don't set resolutions."  

Yeah.... that's what N says, that "we don't set resolutions.  It just sets you up for failure."  He says it all straight-faced.  And Kelso above?  That's me, on the inside.  Because we totally have resolutions!  He just maybe doesn't know.  :)

Marie's Top Ten Resolutions for 2014

Every year, I say that I'd like to meet or beat last year's reading tally!  Last year I read 265 books.  That's going to be a hard goal to meet or beat!

Write reviews of at least 65% of the books I read.  From reading other book review blogs, this seems to be at the low end of reasonable expectation.

Re-read the Anne of Green Gables books.  I'd love, love, love to re-read all 7 (? 8?) books, but I guess I could settle for just re-reading the first three.  But it's been TOO LONG since I last read them!  Oooh!  Idea for a blog feature:  I could get my mom to re-read them too and we can compare/contrast.

Exercise/work out at least 3x per week, but aim for 4x-5x.  Ya'll, I'm 28.  I've only got two more years to develop the health habits that I'll carry for the rest of my life!

(See here.)

N and I have GOT to start eating better, ya'll!  It's sad.  We're grown up people and we will still pig out on some Wendy's every two weeks or so.  And the dinners I cook in between are often casseroles or have cheese or noodles.... we need more greens!  Less butter!  And I've got to eat more and get better.

I'm always striving to be a better, more caring person.  A more Biblical wife.  A more involved sister, sister-in-law, daughter, daughter-in-law, aunt.  A better coworker.  I don't have anything specific, but I'm always striving.

Take a vacation.  This may not sound like something to "work on" for most of ya'll... unless you've met N.  He's much, much, much more into "staycations" while I'm into going.  We had such a blast in AZ last year that I want to make it a yearly goal to GO AWAY.

Increase church attendance.  Sunday School attendance is pretty spotty, even when I'm not working, and night service attendance... that doesn't really happen.  I need to go to the night service on Sundays that I work (meaning I have to miss Sunday School & the morning service), and I need to go to Sunday School every Sunday that I don't work.  I have no excuses.

The well is running dry on coming up with two more resolutions... Ok, I will get specific on bettering myself: no more active or passive participation in gossip of any sort.  That's not cool, and it's started to scare me!  Like, if I listen to so-and-so talk about such-a-person, what might they be saying about me when I'm not around?!  In 2014 I'll be uplifting in my speech.

Final resolution, because I'm plum out of ideas:  worry less.  NO CLUE how to go about doing that.  :P

So those are my resolutions, bookish and personal, for 2014.  I'll see if I can remember to do a check-back mid-year or at end-of-year.  What are your resolutions, bookish or otherwise?  Leave it in the comments!  

Awakened by PC & Kristin Cast | Audiobook Review

My Thoughts

This is my first audiobook review, but it won't be my last.  One of my goals for 2014 is to review at least 65% of the books I read, so there'll be some audiobooks in there.  My commute is about half an hour on a really good day; it can be upwards of 45-60 minutes during typical rush hours.  I log a lot of audiobook hours in traffic!

Audiobook reviews are really hard for me.  I so often feel that my opinion of an audiobook gets really heavily flavored by what's going on while I'm listening to it.  For instance, in 2011 I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer via audiobook.... while painting my kitchen.  Ya'll, I detest painting rooms.  Especially kitchens!  I was huffing and puffing (inhaling paint fumes, of course) moving a very heavy stove and refrigerator and taping and re-taping and priming painting and painting a second layer and putting allllll the really heavy appliances back into place while I was listening to the book.  I was just generally irritable because I'm one of those people who really prefers to have their house in nice, clean order at all times and my kitchen was a wreck for three days.... And I gave the book a double thumbs down.  I know!!  I'm a horrible horrible horrible person.  I re-read the book in physical book form two years later and loved it.  It's a great work of literature.  I'm so sorry Ms. Barrows and Ms. Shaffer!!!  

All that to say that you really probably shouldn't completely rely on my audiobook reviews.  You might have a totally different experience.  But here we go anyway... 

Awakened is book 8 of the House of Night series.  I've been binge-listening to these back to back in my car, so I'm a little fuzzy sometimes on where one left off and the next began plot-wise.  This is the review I posted to Goodreads, and it applies to the series as a whole:

"This series is like junk food.  Like Lucky Charms cereal for the mind.  So unhealthy.  So saccharine.  A random mixed bag of characters.  Some of the books leave you feeling slightly sick... definitely regretful.  But I keep going back to the drama circus.  Why?  No clue.  On to Destined..."

So rest assured, good reader:  I won't be posting reviews of each of the twelve or so books in this series!

Sunday Dinners by Diane Cowen | Cookbook Review

Sunday Dinners by Diane Cowen

My Thoughts

This cookbook started strong and then went downhill.  Maybe I just got bored with it after the sixth pastoral family or so.  But I was really pretty done reading about halfway through the book.

The concept of the cookbook intrigued me enough to request it from the library, and I am glad I followed through on reading through it.  Diane Cowen interviewed many pastoral couples from megachurches across the US about their food-centered family memories and traditions, and then included about a half-dozen recipes from each family.

First, all of the pastors in the book were heads of megachurches.  Celebrepastors, if you will.  So I was a bit turned off by that.  There were a few included in the book whose ideologies N & I disagree with.  So there's that.  I'd have liked to see some more conservative or less-known pastors included.  Did anyone think to contact Billy Graham?

Second, nearly all the pastors talked in the interview about eating healthy... then the recipes that they gave for inclusion in the cookbook were sweets and rich sides and fried foods.  Say what?

But I did copy a few recipes to try, so that says something.  I've already tried the Southern Fried Apples from the Bishop T.D. Jakes family and they are GOOD.  I've already made them twice!  They're not healthy, but they're a great pancake topper!  (The apples aren't actually rolled in flour and fried; they're cooked in a pan with melted butter and cinnamon.  Mmm.)

So three of five stars for this one.  It might resonate more with someone who's a fan of any of the megapastors included.

The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal | Book Review

The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal

(Wow! What a cover!)

My Thoughts

I want to give this book twenty five of five stars!  Five of five just doesn't do justice.

Setting the stage:  It's 1572 in Scandinavia in the royal courts of King Christian V on the eve of his eldest daughter's wedding.  (Aren't you already excited?  It's a fairy tale with princesses.)  However, poor Princess Sophia is unwell.  You see, her mother has The Italian Fire and has had it since before Sophia's birth, so Sophia also suffers from it, and perishes on the night she is to be wed.  Here in the courts of King Christian V, nothing is as it seems on the surface.  The long-suffering princesses and prince?  What's really afflicting the royal family?  The king is unwell also.  And one of the newest courtiers is scheming... This is a tale of a royal family in decline, the schemings of the royal court; the "magic" that always seems to take place in the presence of the court's single black slave; the hopes and aspirations of a simple peasant girl-turned-court seamstress.  And the madness of a Queen inflicted with syphilis.

Susann Cokal skillfully weaves the tale through multiple perspectives, never losing the reader, never losing the trail of the story.  The scenes are set so well you'll feel the chill of Scandinavia, the tensity in the presence of the ever-maddening Queen, smell the sickness in the nursery, hear the cries of anguish during a murder.

Yes, murder.  Folks, this may be a "YA" book but it's not for the faint at heart.  There's plenty of action in the bedclothes and plenty of discussion of the illnesses royals can contract from carelessness thereof.  There's intrigue... and murder.  There might also be a childbirth (I don't want to give anything away...)  The final part of the book is rife with illness and bodily fluids.  It's the 1570s.  The "physicians" are still "treating" people with leeches.  So it's all very real and pertinent to the story, I promise.  No *gratuitous* sex & violence.

And oh, how you will cheer for one of the main characters, Ava!  Ava, who had a very poor upbringing and who has already experienced such hardship and heartache before the book even begins!  You will cheer her on as she just tries to survive day to day in the palace.  Again, I don't want to give anything away, but just know that it's ok to keep cheering for Ava.

The author herself describes the book as a "syphilitic fairy tale" but it's so much more.  It's gorgeous and full of actual history facts (the author even includes an afterword explaining the history) and full of princesses and redemption.  And WOW--is it a rollercoaster of emotions!

Asunder by Jodi Meadows | Book Review

Asunder by Jodi Meadows

(Isn't that a gorgeous cover?)

My Thoughts

I absolutely loved Incarnate and now I absolutely loved Asunder!  A trilogy that keeps getting better and better.  Exciting!

**Stop reading right here if you haven't read Incarnate and you don't want me to ruin it for you.  No spoilers for Asunder, but naturally there'll be be spoilers for the preceding book.  You've been warned!**

The book opens nearly exactly where Incarnate left off.  Hardly any time has passed; only enough that the residents of Heart are starting to rebuild and return to their everyday routines after Templedark.  Nearly everyone is, naturally, rather suspicious of Ana after the part she played in Templedark.  And imagine:  they're suspicious not even knowing the truth about Meuric!  So Ana is, understandably, quite anxious to get out of town for a little while.  The book opens with her and Sam heading back out to Purple Rose Cottage and to Menehem's lab for some investigatory work.  How did Menehem make Templedark happen?  Can it (will it) happen again?  How can Ana and Sam stop it from happening?  Or should they actively try to make it happen again?  SO MANY QUESTIONS.  (Or at least I had questions.  Maybe you won't.  Maybe I'm slow on the uptake.  But I loved letting the story carry itself, and me, along at it's own pace.  Jodi Meadows is most excellent at world-building.)

Of course that's only the beginning of this book.  Along the way there's more conflict.  Sam and Ana must decide whether to share their newfound knowledge from Menehem's lab with the Council or with the other residents of Heart.  They'll also start seeing births of other Newsouls like Ana, and everyone in Heart has to refigure their thinking on that subject.  Or not.  Finally, there's another foray into the Temple, and this time Ana's not alone....

I think this book was even more enjoyable than the first because I already had the Range in my head.  I could concentrate a lot more on the characters and their interactions without having to think so hard about wrapping my mind around this entire other world with sylphs and dragons and Temples oh my.  Also, it didn't feel like Jodi Meadows was making any kind of declaration at all about Christianity or any organized religion or creation or Creationism AT ALL this time.  It just felt like a really good fantasy adventure.  Maybe I went in with a different mindset?  I only read them months apart.  Oh, and this is important, ya'll:  ANA IS MUCH NICER.  I guess she's relaxing a little and finally accepting that Sam and Stef and Armande really do like her, so she's a lot less defensive and a lot more awesome.  I can't wait to see where she and Sam end up.  And Li died during Templedark so that's a big load off her mind.

I still totally love the relationship between her and Sam.  It's so sweet!  You know no one but Li talked to her until she was 18, and you know Li didn't tell her about the "behind the bedroom door" stuff, so she's super naive about where their relationship goes next.  She's just so excited to kiss Sam occasionally and play a lot of music in between kisses.  Awww.  And she has friends, too, in this book.  Her life's getting pretty swell.  If only the Council would get off her back...

So I'm really looking forward to reading Infinite.  I wonder if there'll be a big jump in time between the two books.  At the end of Asunder, the first "replacement" Newsouls are just being born; it'd be neat if we got a glimpse of what their lives are like in Heart and what their little personalities turn out like.  I like Ana SO MUCH:  I just want a happy ending for her and Sam!  Please!

The Duck Commander Devotional | Book Review

The Duck Commander Devotional by The Robertson Family

My Thoughts

This is totally not an un-biased review. This is probably my fifth or sixth Robertson book and I've loved them all.  I'm also a huge Duck Dynasty fan.  So I pretty much knew I'd like the devotional before I even started it.  :)

The Duck Commander Devotional lived up to and surpassed my already high expectations.  I just love that this whole family is willing to live their faith out loud, and yet they never feel "preachy."  The Robertsons just continually point to God in every action.  They are definitely a family to aspire to be like.

In the Devotional, each day starts with a Bible verse, is followed by a family member's thoughts on that verse and it's application to their life, and ends with a heartfelt prayer for God to move in their/your life.  The family members take it in turn to write the devotional for each day, so you get some written by Phil, some by Alan, some by Willie, etc.  The Robertson ladies contribute too.  And here's where I got a little surprise:  some of the older Robertson kids contributed too!  What a great example that is for young folk.  They're just as well-spoken as their parents.  I recommended this book to a relative who has a 10 year old Duck Dynasty fan.  I also went out and bought the book for N.  It's a good recommendation when I go out and buy a book when I've already read the library's copy!

Adventures in Yarn Farming by Barbara Parry | Book Review

Adventures in Yarn Farming by Barbara Parry

My Thoughts

Let's just start this review with one of the book's chapters: "Lambies in Jammies." Let that sink in. And there's photographs! There's actual pictures of actual baby lambs in actual lamb pajamas! If that doesn't make your heart smile... well, you might be a robot. Because that's darn-tootin' cute, y'all.

So let's start there, with the photographs. This book is chock full of breathtakingly beautiful photographs of Barbara Parry's Massachusetts farm. WOW. I want to live there! I do not have the words for the sheer beauty of this book: you'll just have to go read it yourself. Totally 100% look-worthy. And the animals! Who knew livestock could hold such emotion in their eyes? Who knew sheep were so matronly & loving? Rams so handsome? Or llamas so stately? Seriously: the photographs make LLAMAS look STATELY (and majestic).

(N, my lovely curmudgeonly hubby, did NOT enjoy my squeals of delight at every new photograph of sheep/lambs/llamas/goats but what does he know?)

I also read this book. Admission: I didn't expect to read this book. I thought I'd look at cute pictures of lambs and then return it to the library from whence it came. But I got totally sucked in! Ms. Parry has a way with words. I loved the way the book was arranged by season, to take the reader through a full year on a yarn farm. And who knew it took so much work! You can't just buy a couple sheep & raise them in your backyard. You need rams and llamas (sheep guardians) and hay and multiple pastures. It's a LOT of work. I really appreciate my yarn more deeply now. The book never gets bogged down in too many details but yet is chock full of information.

Go get this book. At least look at the pictures. You should probably read the words too, because it's a great book. Now I'm off to convince N that we should be fiber farmers....

(Lambies in Jammies.  You're welcome.)