Girl with the Dragon Tatoo
It was just OK.The story was interesting despite the complicated family tree The ending was anti-climactic and disappointing. I did like the characters Blomkvist and Salander, but I'm not that interested in reading the rest of the series. Too much hype. I would like to see the movie, but that's mostly because I think Daniel Craig is hot.
A Dance with Dragons
It was good. I particularly liked the adventures Tyrion went on and the surprising new character he discovered while at sea. Actually that boat scene where he comes to befriend everyone was pretty good. It was funny and I felt the camaraderie. I liked seeing what happened to Theon since I had completely forgotten him and I was glad to see Asha come back. Although Daenerys' storyline is getting really tired (nothing's really happening with her!), I was really moved by the scene in the colosseum pit where she is trying to get some control over Drogon (I think it was Drogon). I felt like I was right there, either as Daenerys or as myself watching her. I could hear the crowds screaming in the background and people running about in a frenzy; I could see Drogon flapping his black wings, the dust rising from the pit as a result, and I could feel the heat and see the heatwaves when he opened his mouth to release flames. It was so vivid!
Another Repairman Jack novel is out - The Dark at the End. And I'm reading it, just like I've read almost every one of F. Paul Wilson's novels. I have been reading his books for years, ever since I picked up Legacies at the Gerrard Ashdale branch of the TPL many years ago. I've read every Repairman Jack book to date, except the one I'm currently reading and the two new teen fiction novels (Secret Circles and Secret Vengeance; Secret Histories was pretty good!). I've read The Adversary Cycle. I've read Sims, Virgin, and Black Wind. I even read Implant and tried, but failed, to read Midnight Mass (vampires? Boring...) while I was waiting for the next Repairman Jack novel to be released. I think I've read more books by Wilson than any other author! Wow!
Overall, I really enjoyed The Adversary Cycle. I loved The Keep (the opening scared the hell out of me); I found Reborn a little too much like Rosemary's Baby (an opinion I've seen posted elsewhere), although I read it so long ago I remember very little, and The Touch dragged on a bit; Reprisal had some painfully disturbing parts (bone-chilling, creepy) while other parts just dragged on a bit too long... The original Nightworld was amazing. Absolutely satisfying story. I purchased the revised version from Borderlands Press last year, even though I really wanted the original, and I was disappointed at the heavy Jack-focus. Wilson had written Nightworld long before the many Repairman Jack books (except The Tomb which is part of the Adversary Cycle and introduced Jack). I think I'm just a bit irritated with and a little tired of Jack now. I think I agree with a review I'd seen on Amazon where the reviewer said that Repairman Jack was much more interesting when the stories didn't tie so heavily into the Secret History of the World; when they stood alone and didn't involve the Dormentalists, The Kickers (I wish I could kick them), and The One. They were just creepy because of some otherness that couldn't be pinned down. I already know how it ends. I must be feeling a bit like Wilson himself, who says in the prologue of The Dark at the End "I need to move on". But he's writing two other prequels that show us how he came to meet Julio and Abe and become the Jack that we know because the fans have asked for it.
Perhaps I'm also a little tired of all the focus on the Jack because I really like the other characters of The Adversary Cycle, particularly Father Bill, and Glaeken. The way they all came together in the original Nightworld was just great. Each character is unique and interesting in their own way, not just Jack. That being said, I'm still going to read all the remaining Repairman Jack novels just so I can say I've read them all. I don't actually own any Repairman Jack novels (I own Virgin, Sims and Nightworld) which I plan to rectify this holiday season. I think I'll buy Conspiracies.
I'm currently reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I usually don't like to read books that I know everyone else is reading. The fact that something is on the Oprah's Book Club list is a bit of a turn off (although I did read What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day and I enjoyed it - it was different from what I usually read). I don't want to be told what to read by mass media. But sometimes your curiosity can't help but be peaked.
A crime drama, a 30 year old mystery, a social outcast with a gift... I think it was probably images of the movie, particularly Lisbeth Salander, on TV that made me decide I wanted to check it out. Also it takes place in Sweden, not North America. A friend of a friend married a Swedish guy, they have a great social system I hear, other than that I know nothing about the place. I'm also at a point in my reading where I don't have anything I'm waiting on from the library. I was recently thinking that it's only really gotten interesting just before page 200, which makes me wonder why I didn't put it down beforehand. Is it really that interesting or am I swayed by its mass appeal and the fact that it's been made into a movie. I made the mistake of reading some Amazon reviews and the first paragraph of Wikipedia's entry, and damn if they didn't give away stuff that I didn't need to know! Ugh, I hate that! Do reviews really ever help?
I loved the first part of the story which took place in Afghanistan. I remember being caught up in the authors description of the beauty of his surroundings before Russia invaded. I was so mesmerized; it was dreamlike. I thought the characters were interesting, particularly the Hazaras with their Asian eyes from their Mongolian ancestors (cool!). I was really into the story and I cared about the characters. Somewhere along the line I made the mistake of reading an Amazon review while I was still reading it. It made some mention of the second part of the book and how it was written as if the story was meant to be made into a movie. I can't remember exact details (thankfully) but I went into the second part of the story with that in mind and it totally ruined it for me. I still enjoyed the book but I wonder if I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn't tainted by that review. Would I have come to that same conclusion as that reviewer? Probably not.
I do find myself moved by reviews. Good reviews, bad reviews, spoilers. I think it's better to save them for when I finish the book, at which point it doesn't really matter.
I'm enjoying my blog! I'm happy to see that it's taken on a focus - books! I do spend most of my time reading so it seems like the obvious choice. "A life through books" sounds a bit sad actually, like I'm not really living. Hmmm, might have to change that line but it seems fitting right now...
I'm surprised at how much time it takes for me to finish writing a post. I imagined it would be easy, that the words would just flow. I shouldn't besurprised though. It takes me forever to write essays and publications. I read and re-read, edit... I over think it because I want to flow perfectly and be meaningful. I wonder if most people have this problem...
My sister and I have attended the One of a Kind Show and Sale at the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto almost every year for the past few years. We skipped one year because we thought it was too expensive but then found ourselves missing it. We've attended both Spring and Christmas shows and have found the Christmas show to be the best and so only attend at that time.
We have bought a few items over the years: hats from Volang, leather purses, glass jewellery, chocolates/toffees, pepper sauce and jam, and soaps. I even bought some art one year! Most items tend to be expensive (my sister passed on a $59 felted hat by Julie Sinden because she couldn't justify the cost. I think she's still considering though...), and the "Sale" part of the show's title is debatable, but at $7 for an early bird ticket, it's just a fun girls day out.
My favorite purchase this year has been the soap we bought from Honey Pie, a natural product line from the Prince Edward County area. We buy from them consistently at the show and found out this year that they are at the Wychwood Barns and Evergreen Brickworks Farmers Markets every Saturday year round. We picked up 4 soaps for $20 - handmade, chemical free, and filled with nourishing oils (like jojoba and olive oil), essential oils, and herbs. For the first time we purchased the shampoo soap and I just love it! It lathers like you wouldn't believe. Bay, the proprietress, told me that the castor oil makes it lather while the jojoba oil (I think) makes it rinse out. Either way, my hair feels moisturized and clean and I'm quite happy with my purchase. I'll have to check out the markets soon.
Bath salts my friend made me
I love walking around the venue and seeing what people have created. I especially like the natural beauty products and the crafty clothing and accessories.I find the show inspiring. It makes me want to make my own products. I make my own deodorant from baking soda and cornstarch and use almond oil as a natural moisturizer. A friend of mine has been telling me how easy it is to make your own bath salts and body scrubs. When we were at the show, I looked closely at some bath salts and scrubs and felt good knowing that that I knew how to make these products myself. I made note of some of the essential oil blends that I thought smelled nice so I could potentially use them myself. I plan to make some soon as Christmas gifts. Just need to get the jars...
You Grow Girl by Gayla Trail
Gayla Trail's You Grown Girl inspires me to attempt making natural beauty products from herbs in my garden. I planted calendula flowers this year for the sole purpose of attempting her healing hand salve recipe, but alas because I'm a novice gardener (either that or essentially a really bad one), the weeds overtook my garden and none of the flowers grew. Nevertheless, I'm still inspired by her crafty activities and hope to attempt some next gardening season. Her Grow Great Grub is just as inspiring. The crafty ideas I liked were edible and easy: herb or flower-infused vinegars, herbal salts or sugars, herbal iced teas... I did grow borage in my community garden this year and put the flowers in ice cube trays filled with water, froze them, and used the ice over the summer. A simple pretty way to add some style to the everyday.
I recently finished watching Game of Thrones on HBO
and I really enjoyed it! They did a pretty good job of adapting the
book to a series, which is to be expected when you have the author as an
executive producer. I love the opening credits - the theme and the visuals
are just amazing ("wheels within wheels" as the author quotes in the
pilot). The Wall was really well done. Great job with showing how windy
it was up there. The only real disappointment was the "Others" or the "White Walkers". I thought they could have been done better. I was surprised by the amount of nudity and sex, even
though most of it is true to the story. There isn't a lot of that on
basic cable (at least not on the shows I watch). It's interesting to hear Martin's pronunciation of some of the character's names, like Tar-gar-ee-en instead of Tar-gar-yen, Cat-lyn instead of Kate-lyn, Teer-eon instead of Ty-reeon, and the pronunciations of Daenerys, Viserys, and Cersei.
Here's what I think about some of the HBO characters - this is
coming from the perspective of someone who is approximately 200 pages
away from finishing A Dance with Dragons and has read all of the previous books many many years ago (I'm going on what I remember of their characters):
Eddard Stark - Not surprising. Can't go wrong with Sean Bean!
Catelyn Stark - She does a good job of playing this strong female character (the knife scene!).
Robb Stark - Not what I imagined but he's doing a pretty good job. Love the accent; hate the dye job (I think Catelyn has the same one, but it doesn't bother me as much).
Sansa Stark - She seems a more toned down version of the Sansa I imagined. I expected more tantrums and selfish, whiny-girl attitude. It'll be interesting to see her grow into the character though.
Arya Stark - This girl is no horse-face. She's absolutely adorable and doing a fantastic job! One of my favorites.
Bran Stark - A pretty good likeness. It's also be interesting to see him grow into his character.
Rickon Stark - Isn't this kid supposed to be 3? Whoever's playing him seems too old.
Jon Snow - A pretty good likeness, but he does this weird thing with his eyebrows. Coupled with the pouty lips, he has this constant whiny expression that's a bit annoying. It's as if he's trying to act with his face.
Theon Greyjoy - Love him (again that accent!). For the role he'll play in the game, I think he'll do a good job.
Robert Baratheon - Pretty good job, although he could have been more boorish. And I'd often hear Mark's "Full Monty" character when he talked. I guess that's just his voice.
Cersei Lannister - I think she's pretty good. Although she does this weird always-frowny expression, almost opposite to Jon Snow.
Jamie Lannister - Very handsome. I think he's cast well. Where are the white cloaks of the Kingsguard?
Tyrion Lannister - I think Peter Dinklage is doing a really great
job, but I can't help but feel that he's playing a more serious Tyrion
than I imagined. His expression at times makes me think of his serious
loner character in The Station Agent . I imagined Tyrion had a smile to go along with that sharp tongue, but that's just me.
Tywin Lannister - I thought Christopher Lee would be perfect for
this role because of his voice. He did the voice work for King Haggard
in The Last Unicorn and
that's exactly who I imagined when I first encountered Tywin. Having
said that, this Tywin Lannister is scary (cold eyes and stone face). I
think he'll make a great Tywin.
Joffrey Lannister - Much like Sansa, a more toned down version of what I imagined. Not hysterical enough, but still good.
Lord Baelish - Great job of playing the ever-plotting character. That scene with the prostitutes was just over-the-top.
Daenerys Targaryen - Love the white hair! I think she's doing a good job. She seems much like a girl playing at being a woman and a leader but maybe that's how she's supposed to be. For now.
Viserys Targaryen - He was great. Exactly as I imagined: slender, egotistical and wretched. Still love that golden crown scene. Love the white hair.
Khal Drogo - Best when he had little dialogue. When he had more to say, he was over the top. Great makeup though.
Jorah Mormont - His voice is really weird, like he's having trouble delivering his lines. Aside from that, he's pretty good I guess.
I was surprised that my sister wasn't remotely interested
in watching, even though she read the book, and that my brother watched
every episode with me. It was amusing to see how upset he was that King
Joffrey's head didn't end up on a pike by the end of Season One and that Season Two isn't due out until next April.
I took the "What will you miss most about Game of Thrones?" quiz twice a few days ago and apparently, I was all about the eye-candy. I'm glad to say that after viewing the entire series, I took it again just now and I am "all about the drama". I also just took the "What house do you belong to?" quiz and I'm glad to say I belong to the honourable House Stark. It was confirmed again that if cast in the series I would be a "badass" Stark, "any Stark will do!" Woo hoo!
I took Latin classes in high school because someone told me it would be useful for working in the medical field. Back then, I wanted to become a doctor. I wanted to help people.
This past summer I worked with a librarian who also took Latin in high school
and through university. He told me he was in the last class to learn the
Classics at his school. As we talked more, he mentioned that they learned from the Cambridge Latin Course books and as he started quoting phrases from the books
("Caecilius est in horto") and listing off names of characters, it all
came flooding back to me: Caecilius, Quintus, Matella, Grumio, Clemens,
Cerberus, Pompeii, my high school Latin teacher (holding her baby!), my classmates,
the fact that Allan won the Latin award... Pieces of my history coming together.
We learned from the Cambridge Latin Course as well. The stories took place in Pompeii and taught us basic Latin phrases as well as Roman history through a fictional cast of characters. Although the stories could be quite silly, as our young-looking simply-dressed teacher repeatedly admitted and apologized for, learning Latin was a lot of fun. I felt like I belonged to an exclusive club (by OAC, there were about 6 of us left), learning a language that no one spoke, and a door had opened to the fascinating world of Roman history - everyday life, slavery, coliseums, Spartacus, military tactics and weaponry, and, of course, Alexander. The story of Mount Vesuvius' eruption was particularly fascinating (all those petrified bodies!). For the longest time heading off to Italy to see the ruins at Pompeii was at the top of my international travel list. In University I took a first year Classics course, but that was it for me. Latin and Pompeii eventually became a memory.
I'm so glad that librarian reminded me that the books were from the Cambridge Latin Course. In an effort to potentially obtain copies of the books, I had a look at the website. I checked out Explore the story for unit 1 and to my delight I could easily figure out the story! I'll admit it was a pretty simple story. The Stage 1 vocabulary and Meanings activities were fun too! I think I'll check out more units. After looking at the Wikipedia
page for the Cambridge Latin Course, it appears that we only learned
from Book 1 in high school (none of the other characters or stories ring
any bells for me). The only Latin phrase I truly remember is atque et vale (I
used it in my grad quote). If I remember correctly it means "so long and farewell", or something to that effect.
I think Latin was an introduction to what would become a love of history and historical fiction. It probably lead me to Jack Whyte's A Dream of Eagles series (The Skystone was awesome!), and after reading this Telegraph article by Toby Young, I think it probably has helped me with my reading comprehension and vocabulary. It would be a treat for more young people to be exposed to Latin. It opens up a whole other world to the learner.
I'm currently reading Edeet Ravel's A Wall of Light, third book in her "Tel Aviv trilogy". I realize I'm reading the trilogy out of order, having passed over Look for Me. I wasn't sure I was going to continue with the series after I found Ten Thousand Lovers interesting but a little annoying. What was annoying? The fact that it was a first person narrative.
Truth be told, first person narratives turn me off a lot of books. Maybe the constant "I, I, I" of the first person just grates on my nerves. I'm not 100% sure. It may be because everything gets filtered through the protagonist's perspective, which can be very limited. Of course you can still draw your own conclusions about the character and the world around them based on their thoughts, what they say to other people, and their actions in the same way that you would if the story was written in the third person. However, to me, third person narratives feel more objective... broader, more all encompassing. Ultimately it's the protagonist's voice that determines whether I like the book.
I am really enjoying A Wall of Light. A first person narrative, told from the perspective of three different people, in the past (the 1950s and 1980s) and in the present, giving insight into life in Tel Aviv. After reading the back cover, I had certain expectations of how the story would unfold: a deaf woman, a rape, and later a sexual awakening. The protagonist is not at all what I expected but I like her. I like the quirkiness of the characters, the flow of the story, and the commentary on Israel, Israeli's, Palestinians, Jews that came from Europe to Israel... What it's like for real people, through their eyes, and not the eyes of North American media.
I've wanted to try blogging for a while. A library technician in this day and age needs to be comfortable with social media. But what to write about? How to fill the empty space of the blog.. with what content? And what to name it?
It's logical to have a focus but I can't decide on what that focus should be (hence for now, "Jack of all" trades, master of none). So I've decided I will experiment; let life inspire me and let the blog run its own course.
The other day I saw the following scribbled on the door of the washroom stall that I tend to use at work: Who is your favorite Game of Thrones character and why? I'm sure the writer was referring to the HBO series, which I've never seen but now I'm curious about, but I recognized the reference - having read every book in the series except the last (which I'm reading off and on as I get it from the library) - and I felt excited. I knew my answer right away: Tyrion. No contest. Why? Because he's clever. Crude but clever. Everyone loves an interesting underdog. You can't get more interesting than a clever but crude royal imp with a healthy appetite for the ladies. He makes me laugh and I root for him.
Cover of 1st copy I read
I still remember picking up my first copy of A Game of Thrones from the paperback rack at my local branch. From the first few pages, I was hooked. I loved the characters, even the ones that were supposed to be the "bad guys". They were so well rounded that you felt for them, understood their motivation. Whenever I hear the second movement of Hovhaness' Mysterious Mountain, I remember it
was playing in the background as I read about the treacherous assent toward the Eyrie and Tyrion's imprisonment in one of the dreaded "sky cells": open to
the air on one side, above the clouds, and sloped down ever so slightly so the prisoner feels in a constant state of unrest, as if he could roll out and fall to his death at any moment. Such imagery.
The first book was by far the best, but I own every copy in the series except the last which I plan to purchase once it comes out it paperback. Hope watching the HBO series doesn't ruin my mental image of the books.
Cover images from George R. R. Martin's official website under Song of Ice and Fire cover art.
