Just Throw a Brick

I finished Starbird Murphy and the World Outside  this week, so that was good. It was a fun little quick read, everything ends as you want it to, although a bunch of questions remain. It wasn't tied up enough for me, but for a short little YA general fiction book it did all right. I'm glad Starbird decided to stay in Seattle and go to school, and that she and Ben ended up together instead of her and dumb Indus. And personally, I believe her father is Iron John, not EARTH. That guy's a few fries short of a Happy Meal. This week, I reached out (on the recommendation of a friend) for Brandon Sanderson's Steelheart . Normally the science fiction genre isn't my favorite, but I trust E's opinion so I'm taking a whack at it (said in Parent Trap style). *"Bad to the Bone" plays in the background*  That being said, my stomach has been on strike lately (Rice Chex and water, anyone?) so I haven't felt like doing anything other than laying on a cou

I'm not going to beat around the bush guys - I'm stressed a lot of the time these days. Figuring out how to move across the country will do that to a person. But what's my guaranteed stress-reliever? Say it with me - BOOKS! READING! WORDS! Thank goodness for books. This week, I'm currently in the middle of Starbird Murphy and the World Outside  by Karen Finneyfrock.  pic courtesy of Goodreads I've been in the middle of a Kimmy Schmidt kick lately, and this book is definitely on that track. It follows Starbird, a teenage girl growing up in a share-everything type church/commune in Washington. In their religion, they believe that everyone receives a "Calling", which is what they can do to help their little community. It is decided that Starbird's calling is to help be a waitress in the restaurant their group owns, which takes her away from her friends, her family, her crush, and everything she knows.  I'm only about halfway through, b

Outside, the night's as young as us Tonight, it's just the two of us Pretend, pretend for the weekend. (points if you know the song without Google.) It was a good weekend, people. A busy one, but for the most part a good one. It started with a late-night movie in the great outdoors. P doesn't like Cinderella because it's too girly so she enjoyed making this face at me the entire night (Side note: I guess you get what you pay for with an outdoor free movie, but what's with people clapping during movies? What is that about? Why is it a thing now?) Also, I made a  thing! Well, a couple things. These are the ones I could get pictures of. The cross-stitch is for my friend M's wedding, she's a big Dr. Who person and although I'm not really into it I figured she would enjoy it. The embroidery on the phone booth took a lot longer than I expected but it turned out awesome.  Then, I got this book on crocheting hats for cats at the librar

This week I managed to finish Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke by Anne Blankman. *obligatory spoiler alert* This was was as good, if no better than Prisoner of Night and Fog . In that one, the title really says it - she was a prisoner in her own house and frankly, in her own land. In Conspiracy , we see her and Daniel a few months later, living safely in England with her psychiatrist buddy and his family, who love her like a sister, and it's really refreshing to finally see Gretchen have a family life that isn't terrible.  However, nothing stays good for long. Daniel is being accused for a murder he didn't commit back in Germany, so he decides to leave without warning Gretchen and clear his name. Naturally, because she's Gretchen and she's tough and awesome, she goes back to help him. She starts in Munich, and then for the majority of the time is in Berlin. This book centers around the Reichstag Fire and the political uproar it caused, leading to the Enablin

I know, the blog has been spotty at best the last few weeks. I'm sorry(?). While I once sat at work doing hardly anything and had lots of time to plan out posts and find pictures, etc, now I spend all my spare time Chicago-ing (read: I look for jobs, apply for jobs, look for housing, email about housing, fb message C about things he's doing and jobs he's applying for, etc.) It takes about all the time I have right now. And while I'm looking forward to having more time to write on this blog someday, that day is not today. I am feeling rather conflicted today. Go Set a Watchman  came out, and while I really really REALLY want to read it, should I? Was Harper Lee taken advantage of? She said multiple times she never wanted to publish another book after To Kill a Mockingbird , and then all of a sudden, at 89, suffering from dementia, and in a rest home, she decides she wants to publish it? I find that highly questionable. :/ I feel like she may have been taken advantage o

This week (or rather, Sunday afternoon) I picked up The House at Tyneford . *spoilers ahead* Thanks Goodreads! This book follows Elise Landau, a wealthy young woman enjoying her life in pre-WWII Austria as the daughter of an illustrious singer mother and a novelist father, with an amazing violinist as a sister. She however, feels left out since she has no musical talent. Her parents decide they're all going to America, but since they don't have the money for everyone in the family, Elise will be sent to a manor in England to become a housemaid. She arrives, has difficulty learning to be a housemaid, figures out how to be a housemaid, falls in love with the son of the head of the house, etc. Okay. When I saw the title for the first chapter was "General Observations on Quadrupeds", I knew I was going to like this book. And I did, mostly. However, it was highly predictable (not that that's a bad thing, just not as fun that way.) Things I liked: -Why I have

America party time, that is! The Fourth of July was awesome, as always. Since it's one of me and C's favorite holidays it's always a fun day.  This year brought the afore-mentioned Candy Bomber, which was amazing. He flew over three times with two other planes with him, and it was awesome. History! I saw history! I got to see one of my favorite people in the whole world do what I've always want to see him do. It was amazing.  Waiting for the flyover to start. We didn't dare attempt to enter the hordes of people at Scera Park, so we hung out by a  nice business building across the street and got to sit in the shade on nice grass :) First flyover. Didn't get the third plane in the picture, but whatever.  Halvorsen was in the big plane on the bottom.  Yesssssssssss There he is! Yay parades! (sorry for the picture B, but I just like it for no explainable reason. Your face definitely has something to do with it though...) And can I just say, if

This week, I picked up Greg Proops' book, "The Smartest Book in the World". Oh, you don't remember Greg Proops? Maybe this will help you remember... That's right, Greg Proops of WLIIA fame wrote a book, just like Colin Mochrie (although unfortunately, Colin's book isn't at the library.) He breaks the book into sections about music, movies, poetry, women, and historical figures you should know. I get bored in the movies and women section, since they're all movies I haven't heard of and the women usually bimbos, but the rest of it is fairly interesting. I think my favorite section so far is the one where he creates his ideal baseball team out of famous women in history that actually did something instead of star in movies. That said, this book is purely bubblegum entertainment. Like a friend asked me, "So, it's basically a book about topics you can bring up when conversation lags at a party?" Yeah, pretty much. Entertaining,