As a NaNoWriMo participant, Kevin Kaiser's @WRIMO: 30-DAY SURVIVAL GUIDE is a motivational read. I would not dare to say that it gave me the inspiration I needed to stay focused and actually finish my 50,000 words for the month, but I will dare to say that it kept me wanting to work on my novel. It is written in the same style as devotionals which means that the chapters are short, sweet, quick to read, interesting, and motivational. There is one chapter for every day of the month. I finished it a day or two early only because I also finished my 50,000 words a few days early. I have now read this book for three years straight during the month of November. It just keeps getting better and better.
The one question I have for Kevin Kaiser or anyone on the NaNoWriMo staff is: What are the current statistics and/or how do I find them? I don't know why, but I find it fascinating to know the number of people who signed up for NaNo vs. the total number to finish.
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IDENTICAL by Ellen Hopkins is incredible! I prefer not to read books about sex, drugs, and alcohol filled with foul language, but Hopkins deals with such issues in a way that demonstrates the fact that such things can (not always, of course)--but such things CAN lead to destructive behavior. The way she handles her stories is just fantastic. I realize that many of her books, IDENTICAL included, come under the heading of "YA" Literature, but as an adult, I can't get enough of her! I LOVE that she writes prose in poetic form and that she is the only author I have read up to this point who has done this--and done it so incredibly eloquently! It's a throw-back to old English Literature such as Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, John Milton, and others like them who wrote prose in poetic form, but mostly in iambic pentameter or other consistent poetic styles. Hopkins doesn't stick with one poetic form; she plays with poetry in a manner that creates a story that not only jumps off the page because it's simply brilliant, but also because of the physical appearance of the words on the page. I loved holding my book at different angles sometimes to see if a poem held a new way of seeing it by SEEING it differently! Hopkins is genius and should be read by EVERYONE!!!
I have to say that I am excited to note that I actually figured out the
"secret" of the book before I got to that part. I did it with the help of someone who asked me a random question when I was talking about the book. He didn't even realize he'd done anything. And to be perfectly honest, at the time, I thought it was a dumb question. But it was ultimately a question that led me to question my original perception of the book and to evaluate it from a completely different view and to figure out the surprise twist before I actually read the surprise twist! It did NOT ruin the book for me to know that in advance! I was, instead, quite excited to find that I had figure it out before needing to be told--by the story itself!
Great book! Go read it!!!!
Laurie Lyda, thank you, thank you, thank you for introducing the OUTLANDER series by Diana Gabaldon to me!!! I LOVE it! I share it with everyone I can! I even bought the audio CD and downloaded it to my computer so I can share the CDs, too!!! So now I have the mass market paperback version (it's falling apart from being read so often), the audio CDs, and now the digital ebook!!! And I just purchased the ebooks for books 2-4! They're all on sale through Amazon.com (Kindle) for $4.99!!! I can't resist!!!! The digital reader is so much easier to hold than a massive book of over a thousand pages! Don't get me wrong, now. I love the actual books, but I don't mind having the ebooks, too! In fact, while reading OUTLANDER this time on the digital reader, I had to get my paperback copy out for a day or two because my digital reader wasn't available at the time!
I LOVE that OUTLANDER doesn't neatly fit into one genre category. I don't believe in genres anymore anyway. I get that publishers/libraries/book stores, etc. need to have genres in order to have places to put the books on the shelves and thus to find them quickly and easily, but yet it's ridiculous to attempt to put every single book into one simple category and expect that to be the end-all answer for what that books is really about. For a practice book,
Gabaldon hit this one out of the park!!!
If you haven't read the OUTLANDER series yet, what are you waiting for?!
And, yes, I LOVE the series as it's playing out on STARZ! They're doing a fantabulous job with the books to tv series! Jamie is even more gorgeous than anticipated!!! ;)
THE PRINCESS BRIDE is truly one of the greatest movies ever made. It isn't THE GREATEST, but it is pretty awesome and should be a movie EVERYONE sees! I love it so much, I own two DVDs and, yes, I can quote a good portion of the movie, as so many others can and do!!! I especially love to attempt the accents used within the movie, but I'm not very good at them. Cary Elwes is pretty awesome himself and his telling some of the behind-the-scenes stories of the making one of the greatest movies of all time just made me cry--in a good way!!! The movie is so special in so many ways that reading about it as told from the perspective of Westley himself just makes it that much better. Thank you, Cary
and others from the cast, for sharing so much of yourselves in AS YOU WISH: INCONCEIVABLE TALES FROM THE MAKING OF THE PRINCESS BRIDE. I loved reading it!!!!
THE MACKINNON'S BRIDE by Tanya Anne Crosby is my typical "guilty pleasure" read. Nothing extra special about it. Just a simple, quick read where I don't have to think much, but just enjoy reading for the sake of reading.
I don't know why I seem to be reading so many Joyce Meyer books lately, but as I look back over my reading list for the past few years, I have read quite a few of her books. She just has some books that I've wanted to read. I'm probably not done reading books by her, but I'm not choosing her books necessarily on purpose. With that being said, I do always receive a lot of great insight when I read books by Joyce Meyer and BEAUTY FOR ASHES is no different. If I could, I would go through and highlight her the passages/words/phrases that stood out for me throughout this book.
The only problem I have with BEAUTY FOR ASHES--if "problem" is the right word--it isn't, but I can't think of anything better that fits right now--is that Meyer focuses this book on victims of physical abuse. Because I am not really a victim of abuse, that part of the book kind of got in the way for me, but that is not to say that
the book isn't valuable even for those who have not suffered abuse. It's just that abuse is the basis for everything she discusses in this particular book.
I look forward to the day when God will "give [me] joy instead of mourning, a garment of praise instead of a heavy, burdened and failing spirit, and beauty instead of ashes" (Isaiah 61:3).
Oh. My. Goodness. Holymolyholymolyholymolyholymoley.
This is the most hauntingly beautiful book I have ever read! The illustrations alone will creep themselves into your brain and burrow down deep for nightmares to come. The writing and dialogue both have a way of whispering something right into your ear, giving chills and everlasting goosebumps. I don't think I will ever be able to explain in words how absolutely brilliant and freaking creepy and unique this graphic novel is. Emily Carroll has upped my fairy tale expectations to a point that I will probably never be able to happen across a graphic novel that will captivate my heart like this little gem did.
I just want to take a moment to gush over the cover and the illustrations. The cover effectively sets the tone for the stories and it will definitely draw you in whether or not you want to be. The woods are enchanting and inviting (just look at those white trees on the cover!) - they are raised and textured, and if you look closely enough, you can see claws branching out to grab you. You will be captivated by each and every story, and you will probably skim through the whole book needing to see the stories before you can actually bring yourself to read them. That's the beauty of this graphic novel: you don't have to read it in order to feel the eeriness. The words and the dialogue only add to the horror and suspense that you already feel.
There are five stories in this collection, plus an introduction and conclusion.
'Our Neighbor's House' tells the tale of three sisters who are left to fend for themselves when their father does not return from his hunt. What happens when a man in a wide-brimmed hat starts visiting them in the dead of night?
'A Lady's Hands are Cold' has a "Bluebeard" feel, when a young woman goes hunting through her new husband's house for the source of a mysterious song.
'His Face All Red' is my personal favorite. It tells the tale of a man who has it on good authority that the person claiming to be his brother is an impersonator.
'My Friend Janna' is about two friends who get into the medium business; contacting spirits of people's deceased loved ones.
'The Nesting Place' introduces us to Bell, who is staying with her brother and his fiancee while she's on
holiday. . .but she discovers something terrifying in the woods near the house.
And then the ending, the 'conclusion' of the entire book, is a story on its own, too. It is by far my favorite part of the book since it seems to be an obvious nod to Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. Yes, the entire book is influenced by this fairy tale as well, but here is where it all starts and ends, and it is truly brilliant!
I know these stories will linger in my mind for years to come. . .and I'm not ashamed to say that I might sleep with the light on tonight.
