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Book Review: The Book Jumper

                                       Rating: 2 stars

Amy Lennox doesn’t know quite what to expect when she and her mother pick up and leave Germany for Scotland, heading to her mother’s childhood home of Lennox House on the island of Stormsay.

Amy’s grandmother, Lady Mairead, insists that Amy must read while she resides at Lennox House—but not in the usual way. It turns out that Amy is a book jumper, able to leap into a story and interact with the world inside. As thrilling as Amy’s new power is, it also brings danger: someone is stealing from the books she visits, and that person may be after her life. Teaming up with fellow book jumper Will, Amy vows to get to the bottom of the thefts—at whatever cost.

This book wasn’t quite what I expected. Told from the perspective of Amy Lennox, a girl whose family has the ability to jump into books, I was hoping this would be a much better read. 

But before I get into what was bad, let me quickly tell you what I enjoyed about The Book Jumper. I found the story itself to be interesting. Even though I’ve read a book similar to this one (Inkheart), I find the idea of being able to immerse yourself into your favorite stories and meet some of your favorite characters to be very exciting. As someone who hopes to one day publish a story of my own, books like this remind me why I love reading and writing so much. They bring out the love in storytelling for me and make me interested in reading books I haven’t enjoyed in a really long time. 

I also liked the characters. Despite any of them having any sort of development, I found the characters to be relatable. I also loved finding out how they were connected to each other in Stormsay. Each of the characters had an important role to play and it was interesting to see how everything turned out in the end. I liked getting to meet some of the literary characters because it was nice to see how they interacted with each other. 

One of my favorite aspects of this book was seeing Amy’s ability in action. I was curious about how the author was going to incorporate book jumping into the story and wasn’t disappointed. It was interesting to see that book jumping had zero affect of the original plot of the books unless jumpers themselves decided to interfere with the story. 

I also like the book cover and the little paragraphs before each chapter. It looks really beautiful, like the story came out of a fairy tale.  I found the little paragraphs before each chapter to be very captivating. After reading this story, you understand their purpose and see how they connect to the overall plot.

Sad to say but there were so many things with this book that made it hard to enjoy it as much as I’d have liked. I found the writing to be too dense, almost as if the author was trying to pack everything in at once. And it showed. The reader can see it in the story when it comes to the plot. It’s all rushed, like the author had no time to continue writing this story. 

There’s also a lack of character development and morals in this book that bothers me. I find that even though the characters can be relatable, they don’t really learn from what happens in this story. They don’t change or progress in any way that shows that what happened in the story affected their lives. The only exception to this is Amy since she didn’t know about her abilities until she and Alexis came to Stormsay. What also bothers me with The Book Jumper is the way protecting the stories is portrayed. Throughout the book, Amy again and again is telling everyone that something is going on in the literary world. But nobody believes her or listens to her, except for Will. Instead, they get mad she’s using her abilities to go to other literary world’s when she’s been assigned to watch over one of them. Even when a literary character loses their life in the real world, nobody bats an eye. They continue moving on as if nothing happened. In many ways, it’s as if the events in this book happened in a small vacuum because nobody else in the real world is affected by the outcome. 

Even though I enjoyed reading The Book Jumper, I’m sad because it’s not as good as it could be. It had so much potential, but the author didn’t manage to pull it off. 

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Book Review: Lair of Dreams (The Diviners #2)

                                                                

                                               Rating: 3 stars

The longing of dreams draws the dead, and this city holds many dreams.

After a supernatural showdown with a serial killer, Evie O’Neill has outed herself as a Diviner. With her uncanny ability to read people’s secrets, she’s become a media darling, earning the title “America’s Sweetheart Seer.” Everyone’s in love with the city’s newest It Girl…everyone except the other Diviners.

Piano-playing Henry DuBois and Chinatown resident Ling Chan are two Diviners struggling to keep their powers a secret—for they can walk in dreams. And while Evie is living the high life, victims of a mysterious sleeping sickness are turning up across New York City.

As Henry searches for a lost love and Ling strives to succeed in a world that shuns her, a malevolent force infects their dreams. And at the edges of it all lurks a man in a stovepipe hat who has plans that extend farther than anyone can guess…As the sickness spreads, can the Diviners descend into the dream world to save the city?

Lair of Dreams was a great read for me because the story and characters made me want to find out more. I enjoyed this book because the story centered around the ability for Diviners to walk through dreams. In particular, it centered around my favorite character’s friend Henry and introduced us to Ling, both whom can walk through dreams. I found this part of the story to be interesting because readers found out more about Henry and also learned how the dream world played a role in the events that followed. I also find dreams to be a fascinating subject, which allowed me to enjoy this book even more. Especially when Ling discovered a new ability she could harness in the dream world. I liked learning Henry could walk through dreams because it’s a nice tidbit of information that Libba Bray didn’t include in The Diviners. It also allowed me to learn more about his character before he and Theta had become friends. I also liked learning more about Theta and how she plays an important role in the story. 

I also enjoyed this story because the dream world felt so real. Bray really did a good job of making dreams so powerful that nobody would want to wake up from them. She really made the place Henry and Ling went to feel so real as if I was there myself. But she also did well at showing the dark side of dreaming and how it can affect the mind. This can be seen through Henry who starts visiting the dream world more frequently because the love of his life is there. He then starts staying in the dream world for longer periods of time to the point where it affects his everyday life. You as the reader also see this through the sleeping sickness. This sickness is the main root of our character’s problems as the sickness spreads and affects one of their own. It’s up to them to stop the cause before the sickness can spread through the whole city. 

I also enjoy the mystery of the series surrounding Project Buffalo and Blind Bill. Bray gives us little details about Project Buffalo that make us continue to be invested in the series. I also like the way Blind Bill’s character is portrayed and can’t wait to find out what his main role will be in the rest of the series. 

While I don’t particularly like the ending of Lair of Dreams, it has many more flaws that’ve caught my attention. One of my biggest criticisms of this book is Evie’s character. In The Diviners, I really didn’t mind her character too much. However, I feel like she’s devolved since then. She’s now famous because of her powers and goes on the radio to show off her ability to read objects. She also no longer wants anything to do with her uncle and starts going to parties almost every night because of her celeb status. I feel like all of these things made me like her character less because she becomes shallow, vain and selfish and allows her fame to get to her head. While I understand why she’s doing all of these things, I just had a hard time sympathizing with her and wanting to read her role in this book. She becomes so caught up in city life she fails to realize how much danger she and the people she loves are in, causing her not to play as much of a vital role in the story. 

I also disliked the role Will’s character plays in the story. I hate it because Bray doesn’t really tell us where he’s gone off to and the only time we see his character after he leaves causes the reader quite a bit of confusion. I find this to be a serious flaw in the story because it leaves me with a lot of questions that don’t get answered by the end of the book. It would’ve been nice to have some answers instead of feeling more confused than when I started. 

While I very much enjoyed reading Lair of  Dreams, there were so many issues I had with it that I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as I’d hoped. 

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Book Review: Thirteen Reasons Why

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Rating: 3 stars

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker–his classmate and crush–who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah’s voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out why.

Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah’s pain, and as he follows Hannah’s recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever.

I remember being introduced to this book by an old friend of mine when I was in high school. At the time, I remember reading it, becoming so engrossed with Hannah’s character. She was a mysterious girl because when reading, you didn’t really know too much about her. She told you about the things that happened to her during her freshman year of high school and that she wasn’t the type of girl the rumors portrayed her to be. But I also felt a connection to her, having been in high school at the time and understanding the struggles she was going through.

I felt that I could relate to her. Even though I never had rumors like that about me flying around school, I was bullied during my early years of education. So I completely understood where she was coming from and could see how the events that transpired turned her whole world upside down. Even though I’m no longer in high school, reading Thirteen Reasons Why a second time around didn’t change that perception for me.

Hannah Baker is a very sympathetic character. She attends a new high school, trying the best she can to fit in only to find her peers never taking the time to get to know her as a person. They are so busy believing the rumors about her to realize how alone she was and to see that their actions unintentionally lead to her death.

Another reason this story pulls at my heart is because it’s a very sensitive topic. Suicide isn’t something a lot of people feel comfortable talking about, due to people not understanding how the smallest things can have a big impact on a person’s life. Like mental illness, people don’t know how to talk about suicide and don’t understand it as well as people who’ve felt that pain before. Despite how hard suicide as a topic is to discuss about, these discussions need to be had and I appreciate Jay Asher, the author of Thirteen Reasons Why, for writing about it. It makes me hopeful that one day, suicide won’t be such a big stigma.  This book also brought up a lot of other key issues, such as rape and drunk driving, which aren’t heavily talked about either and are just as important to discuss.

I also enjoyed this book because of the way the story is told. The novel is from the perspective of Clay Jensen, who receives cassette tapes one day after school with Hannah’s voice on them explaining why she killed herself, saying the responsibility lies with those who receive the tapes. The people involved also receive a map of their town, marked with stars of locations where the events Hannah mentions take place. I enjoyed reading this book through Clay’s thoughts and actions and Hannah’s voice. It made it seem more in depth and personal. I also liked that Asher used cassette tapes for Hannah’s death note. As a 90s child, I grew up using cassette tapes and a Walkman whenever I wanted to listen to something on the go. It made the story a little nostalgic with those elements, considering how far technology has advanced in today’s day and age.

However, I do have a couple criticisms for Thirteen Reasons Why. While I enjoyed the way this story was told, I felt like Asher had Hannah more telling the story than Clay. Yes, he’s the one who had the tapes and his thoughts about what transpired where pretty clear, but I felt like there was more telling in the story than showing. I also didn’t really see a whole lot of character development in any of the characters in this story. I think part of that is because of hearing from Hannah her thoughts about the people who affected her life made it hard for us to really get a good understanding of the other characters. We knew Hannah didn’t really like them, but I wish we could’ve learned more about them and why they were such terrible people.

I also just didn’t really get how Clay is supposedly a nice guy. He’s included in the tapes and the story is told from his perspective, but you don’t really get to know him as a person outside of him listening to those tapes. Throughout the book, he only interacts with a couple people and even those few interactions didn’t give us a real glimpse of his character. Yes, he did some nice things, helped people out, but that isn’t enough for me to truly believe someone is a nice person. I also didn’t see how this whole thing really changed his life either. I get he had a better understanding of what Hannah was going through after the tapes, but he didn’t seem all that different to me than before. But I did sympathize with him because it was evident in the story how much he cared about Hannah and wanted to help her in any way he could.

I felt like I knew more about where Hannah and the rest of her classmates lived than the characters in this story. Part of that was because of Clay going to some of the locations Hannah mentioned in the tapes and Asher describing those places in perfect detail. While I don’t mind knowing more about the world characters live in, it’s a little frustrating with this story because I wanted to know the characters better other than knowing all the terrible things they did to Hannah.

While I sympathize with Hannah, I sometimes find her character to be very weak. I understand how depression works on a person’s mind, making them feel completely helpless, but I just didn’t always understand some of her actions. For example, the incident with the sign I felt like she could’ve very easily done something about. I know she had called the police, but I felt like she should’ve told them who knocked the stop sign down. I felt this way with some of the other incidents that happened in the book too because they were things she could’ve very easily done something about. Especially all of the things that happened towards the end where she’s still struggling to make up her mind about whether to take her own life. Despite these issues with her character, I understand that she was probably already too far gone at these moments in the story to really do anything about these situations. I feel like that is probably why she didn’t stop certain things from happening and why I feel myself questioning some of her actions.

While I have all of these criticisms for Thirteen Reasons Why, I still enjoyed reading it again. It left me sad knowing the story was over and remembering Hannah being dead, but I still found it as good of a read as the last time I read it. I hope others read it with an open mind and find themselves understanding suicide being a much more complicated issue than it seems. Because even though the reasons Hannah gave seem very small and insignificant, together they created a snowball effect that resulted in her not able to get any help until it was too late.

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Book Review: Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1)

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Rating: 4 stars

After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.

Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king’s council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she’ll serve the kingdom for four years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilarating. But she’s bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her … but it’s the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.

Then one of the other contestants turns up dead … quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

I remember the first time I read this book. My sister had come home to visit from college and gave me a copy, telling me a friend of hers from school thought I’d enjoy it. I remember reading it, feeling completely mesmerized by the story within its pages, wanting to find out what happened next to Celaena. Reading Throne of Glass again, I still remember those feelings, which have returned just as deeply.

The first book in a series I have yet to continue reading, Throne of Glass made me wonder what it would be like living as an assassin. An assassin well-known for her abilities, Celaena is more than she appears, which is why I enjoy her character so much. She’s very headstrong, good with any weapon in existence, and knowledgeable about the world she lives in. Even though she’s an assassin, she cares very much about protecting the people around her, despite the circumstances she’s currently dealing with. While at times I could find the way she talked to certain characters annoying, I overall enjoyed seeing such a strong character that I can’t wait to see how she continues to develop in the rest of the series.

I also enjoyed seeing this book from Dorian and Chaol’s point of view. Having their points of view allowed the reader to better understand their characters and how they both changed as the competition continued. While both Dorian and Chaol’s loyalty belongs to the kingdom, it gets tested when Celaena’s life is at stake during the final moments of the competition. I also loved their perspectives because you could see how conflicted both characters could be. As prince of the kingdom, Dorian knew he shouldn’t trust Celaena, but at the same time you could see the relationship he had with his father was pretty rough. This resulted in him being conflicted between doing what was right for the kingdom versus his own happiness, which I believe will continue to play an important role in the series as it continues.

I enjoyed reading this book too because of the competition and how magic came to play in the story with the competitor’s mysterious deaths. Sarah J. Maas did a wonderful job at weaving both these elements together to create a unique story that keeps the reader wondering what happens next. However, I did sometimes find these elements could be a little too much because I felt like there was already a lot going on in the story. But at the same time, Maas does a good job of connecting these two things together in order to allow more possibilities to exist in the world Celaena lives in.

I overall enjoy Throne of Glass because it kept me coming back for more. I can’t wait to read the rest of the books in the series to find out what Celaena does next.

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If We Were Having Coffee: Prepare for Christmas Break

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I’d like to wish you all Happy Holidays. I know not everyone celebrates Christmas, so I want to wish everyone a good holiday, no matter what you are doing this year.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that I’ve just completed my last week of work for the year. My job doesn’t start back up until January 2017 so I’ll be off for the next couple weeks. Unless I’m able to find something else close to home or a job using my degree, I’m hoping to spend the next couple weeks enjoying my time off and look for another job. But these last couple weeks went okay. My crew did a secret Santa of our own, which was very enjoyable. I like exchanging gifts with people because I enjoy seeing the look on a person’s face when they open their gift. I also like the act of giving gifts because I like getting things for people that they want or need. Yes, getting gifts is just as exciting too, but I really enjoy giving gifts to people more. Just the idea of making someone’s day with a simple sign showing I care fills me with so much joy.

But I’m also glad this semester is done because it’s been a very trying one. A lot of things happened at work this school year that really tried my patience, made me realize I need to get a job elsewhere as soon as possible. While I’m extremely thankful that they’ve kept me on, it’s my time to move on. I need to start my career now. I need to work somewhere I enjoy, around people with similar passions and interests. Somewhere I know my hard work will be appreciated instead of taken advantage of. I know I’m not happy with this job anymore so it’s time for me to say goodbye as soon as possible. I just need to get a job somewhere else first, which is something I sincerely hope I’ll be able to do during this short break. So I’m hoping to really buckle down on job applications these next couple weeks while I’m at home so I can leave for good. Fingers crossed I’m able to find places hiring and get scheduled for an interview soon.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I’ve continued watching Criminal Minds and playing Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. I’d also like to tell you I finished reading Fell this afternoon and plan on writing my review once I’ve completed this post to publish on my blog.

I’d also like to apologize for not writing as much too. I know I’ve probably already apologized so many times for this, but I just haven’t been writing a lot lately. There are times where the flow of words come out of me very quickly. During these moments, I’ll have something to write about and you’ll notice more posts on my blog. But when I’m not writing as much, you’ll see my writing schedule is all over the place. I’ll post every couple weeks, sometimes go two or three weeks without any writing being done, or just stop posting altogether except for whenever I have a review ready.

I know my blog is mostly for book and video game reviews, but I really want to branch out with my writing a little on here too. Maybe even do more Flash Fiction Challenges or poetry, when the time feels right. Or short stories too. I don’t know. But either way, I want to have more content to publish on my blog. Because I feel like I just haven’t been posting quite as much. I don’t know. I think I could just be very critical of the way I’m blogging right now, which is also possible because I know how hard I can be on myself at times. Regardless, I want you all to continue following my blog because you enjoy the content I post. So I want to do more on my blog whenever I can. But until I figure out what that is, I hope you all stay here a little while yet. Even during the moments when I don’t have much to write about because my mind is moving all over the place.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you we are getting ready for Christmas here. I sent out my Christmas list a little while ago and Mom and I have started Christmas shopping for our family Friday night. We continued doing some of our shopping today too and will probably be doing some more in the next couple days as we prepare for my sister and grandmother to be here with us. We have yet to put up any Christmas decorations though so I’m sure we’ll be doing that too soon enough.

This will probably be the last coffee post for 2016, since next weekend will be Christmas and the one after we’ll be entering into the new year. So I would also quickly like to say too that I hope you’ve all had a wonderful 2016 and wish you all good luck in 2017 and what’s to come! I also hope this weekend and next will be a good one and I promise to be writing more on my blog again soon.

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Book Review: The Sight (The Sight #1)

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Rating: 4 stars

In the shadow of an abandoned castle, a wolf pack seeks shelter. The she-wolf’s pups will not be able to survive the harsh Transylvanian winter. And they are being stalked by a lone wolf, Morgra, possessed of a mysterious and terrifying power known as the Sight. Morgra knows that one of the pups born beneath the castle holds a key to power even stronger than her own power that could give her control of this world and the next. But the pack she hunts will do anything to protect their own, even if it means setting in motion a battle that will involve all of nature, including the creature the wolves fear the most: Man.

I remember the first time I read this novel I was in middle school. I don’t remember how I came upon it. What I do know is that the cover intrigued me and made me interested in reading the story between its pages. And so I did, several times throughout middle school and high school. It’s a story I loved reading back in those days that I felt the need to revisit.

Even though I’ve read The Sight before, I found my love for it is still there. The story is just as beautiful and enchanting as when I last read it. It’s rich in detail about wolves, making it clear David Clement-Davies did his research on the wolf pack hierarchy. As someone who finds wolves to be fascinating and beautiful creatures, the story in this book’s pages whispers to me and reminds me of why I love stories with high elements of fantasy.

I love this book too because of those fantasy elements. The story centers around this mysterious power known as the Sight. This power is rare, wolves are born with it and it allows them the ability to do things like see the future through the water’s reflection or seeing things through a bird’s eyes. This power adds a unique element to this story that intrigues the reader into wanting to find out how this ability plays out in this novel. It’s at the center of the whole universe these characters live in and makes me view wolves in a completely different way.

The storytelling in The Sight is very rich in detail and the characters are deeply developed in their own unique ways. My favorite character development in this story can be seen with Larka’s brother Fell who plays a very important role in this novel and the sequel that follows it. He’s the complete opposite of Larka, both in physical appearance and mentality. While Larka’s fur in color is white, he’s completely black. While Larka is the light of this novel, Fell’s character takes a drastic turn you don’t see coming. But in the end, he’s saved by Larka’s love for him when she realizes who he’s become. He plays an important role in the story that causes his character to shift in unexpected ways but that makes changes in his life for the better, leading up to him being in charge of his own destiny.

In this novel however, there were two things I didn’t like about it. I wasn’t particularly pleased that Clement-Davies had different names for the animals in the story, like the Omega wolves in a pack also being known as Silka. While I understand the author’s need to add some uniqueness to the story, I found that having these names without any real explanation to their origins can cause some confusion to readers like me, but also reduce his research credibility. These names also didn’t add anything to the story so I wasn’t able to really see why they had to be included.

I also have a love-hate relationship with the ending. While I understand why Larka’s sacrifice is necessary to keeping everyone free, it makes it feel like what she did was all for nothing. But at the same time, I understand that it was her destiny and she did what she felt was necessary for the sake of everyone else. It still didn’t make it easier for me though to accept, despite how many times I’ve read this story. It’s the one aspect of the novel I sometimes wish was different, but am also grateful because we wouldn’t have the sequel without it.

Despite these two things, The Sight is a beautifully crafted story, rich in folklore and fantasy that I find myself reading over and over again. It’s one of my favorite stories and I highly recommend it to any fantasy and wolf lover.

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If We Were Having Coffee: Be Thankful For the Things You Are Given

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Hello everyone! I hope you’ve all had a great week and that your weekend is everything you want it to be right now.

If we were having coffee, I’d ask you about your Thanksgiving. I’d want you to tell me how it went, would want to know about your Thanksgiving traditions. Then, I’d tell you how mine went. I’d tell you my sister came from Nashville to spend time with Mom and I and that we invited one of Mom’s friends over to celebrate Thanksgiving with us.

I’d say we have a lot to be thankful for. Because that’s what Thanksgiving is about: being thankful for the things you are given. At least, that’s how I choose to celebrate it. I choose to be thankful that I have a life and that I have clean water, food and a place to sleep. Because not everyone has these same comforts in life. I might at times complain a lot about the way things in my life are going. Life is hard and everyone has their own struggles they have to deal with. But I’m lucky because not everyone has things as easy as I do.

Yes, I’ve had my own struggles. But that doesn’t mean I can’t sit back and reflect on the things I’m grateful to have. I might sometimes hate my job and definitely wish I worked elsewhere, but I’m glad I have one even during the roughest of times. I’m grateful for my family. Because while we might be a small bunch, we are really close and there isn’t anyone else I’d want to spend my holidays with. I’m grateful for the friends I do have because while we might not talk as much, they are important to me and I wouldn’t be the person I am today without them.

I’m thankful for this blog. I love it so much because I can express my feelings and emotions in my writing to others in a welcoming community of people. I might not know every single person who reads my blog, but I appreciate everyone who takes the time to read my posts. I’m thankful for my blog most of all because I can express myself. I can be my own person here and talk to others who share the same passions as me.

So if you’re reading this post right now, thank you. I appreciate you and hope you are having a wonderful day because you deserve it. Know that you are loved and don’t stop believing in yourself.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you what all else I’ve been up to. Besides spending time with my wonderful family, I’ve also made some time for myself too. Maybe not as much time as I’d have liked, but I was with family so it was okay. I was able to write a post about one of my favorite video games Kingdom Hearts for Chapter Six of the online course I’m currently taking, which can be found here if you’re interested in checking it out. I’ve been thinking about this post a lot so I figured I’d go ahead and write it so I can continue this class and become a Creator on the site.

Along with finally writing another post, I’ve also started playing one of the games in the series mentioned Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep. I’ve felt the itch to play this series games in their true order to try the best I can to actually beat all of the games. We’ll see if I’ll be able to accomplish this or not, but I’m definitely thinking about writing a post about all of the games once I do.

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Characters from Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep.

I’ve also continued watching Criminal Minds whenever I’ve had the chance and just recently started rereading a book I haven’t read in a long time. Criminal Minds is still very enjoyable for me, probably one of my favorite crime shows today. And the book I’m currently reading is still as enjoyable to me as when I last read it, which I plan on telling you all about on my next book review.

But other than this, I haven’t been up to much. When I go back to work tomorrow, I only have two more weeks until we have our Christmas break, which roughly lasts a month. So with that, I plan on thoroughly searching for a job in my field or trying to get a job closer to home.

I hope you’ve all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy the rest of what’s left of this weekend.

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If We Were Having Coffee: Cleaning Up House

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If we were having coffee, I’d tell you with the arrival of my grandmother coming down, things have been quite busy at home. She came to visit us a couple weeks ago to see progress being made on restoring our house back to normal. While she was here, things were initially moving slowly because they had just started getting to work. So she stayed a couple days longer so Mom wouldn’t have to take time off work.

While she was here, my grandmother Meme and I spent the first couple days around the house in case they had any questions for us. I helped Meme wash her car, and we went on walks while the guys were working on what needed to be done in order to get our house back to normal. I spent a lot of time with Meme the first couple days before I had to go back to work. But even when I was at work, I’d spend time with her when I’d get off until she left to head back home. It was a lot of fun having her for a week even if it was because of the stuff going on at our house.

But it wasn’t until she was back home in Pennsylvania that the progress picked up significantly. The popcorn ceiling where the water leaked through was replaced with more popcorn ceiling, the new bathroom flooring was put down, and plywood was placed on the living room floor until the flooring Mom wanted was eventually put down too. But with all the progress that’s been made came dirt. Lots and lots of dirt that needed to be picked up. Because of the amount of walking back and forth the guys who were fixing everything did and from tearing stuff up to put new down, dirt was getting in our house.

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So we had to do some major cleaning of the house before they continued work last weekend and this weekend too. Things like wiping the kitchen cabinets and table down, wiping the walls clean, and getting rid of all the dirt on the stairs from their use. Doing this stuff on the weekend helped keep the house clean and left us with little less dirt for the next cleaning.  I also did some cleaning while Mom wasn’t at home so she could work on what she wanted to get done.

While I know we’ll be doing some more cleaning again soon, I know there’s very little left to do before they are finished. This makes me happy because we have nice new flooring that looks really nice and our house will finally be back to normal, which means I’ll get my bathroom back soon.

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Our new living room floor. It’s cherry flooring and looks really nice in our space.

I also won’t have to deal with the way Mom is stressing out anymore. Ever since we discovered this leak, Mom has been so stressed out about all of it. So stressed that I sometimes feel like I can’t handle it. I’ve become so used to our current living situation that it’s not bothering me anymore. But for Mom, her house isn’t in order, which is something that stresses her out quite a bit. Sometimes I can handle it because it’s not too bad and because she’s okay after a little while. But I feel like with this, she’s stressed out about things that are out of her control. Things like the progress they are making on getting things restored to normal, and the way they are working on it. I want to tell her things are going to be okay, that these things take time and that our house will be back to normal before she knows it.

But she’s also stressed because she’s not always happy with their work. She makes a decision on something, then ends up not being happy with the way its implemented or they haven’t completely finished working on something and start working on something else, etc. She’s fine with their work, then isn’t. She’s not happy though because her house isn’t in order right now. So even if they are doing a good job, she’s going to find something wrong with their work or complain about how long it’s taking. She says what they’ve done is nice, but isn’t yet ready to appreciate it because her house isn’t back to normal. This is her whenever she’s stressed out about things. Especially when her house isn’t in order, which it hasn’t been for the past couple weeks.

But they are close to being done now. And we are doing things now until they’ve completed their job. Things like painting the bathroom, refreshing the bathroom doors, and painting the living room so as to make it look fresh as well as continuing the upkeep of our house. This stuff allows Mom to stay busy and not worry as much about when things will be completed. And so far, it’s been going really well. Everything looks really nice and I can’t wait for everything to be done.

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Our bathroom renovations. We’ve repainted the walls to freshen them up and replaced our toilet and counter top space, but have kept our vanity cabinets. Lighting is also new because the old lights just didn’t work well with our new bathroom style. All I need is the mirror and the look will be complete.

Besides cleaning up house, I haven’t really been up to too much else. Doing these renovations have kept me so busy that I haven’t really been able to do anything else when I’m not at work. Speaking of work, things there are pretty much the same. It continues to be a stressful and tiring work environment to me. Every day there’s always some new drama that attempts to darken my mood. But I’m doing the best I can to work around it because that’s all I can do until I can get a job elsewhere.

If we were having coffee, I’d also tell you I’m still continuing to do a good job on laying off the caffeine. Now, I won’t lie and say I haven’t been drinking any soda at all. But if I do have any soda on any given day, I usually manage to do a good job of sticking to my intake of one soda a day, except every once in a while where I’ll indulge in drinking one more soda at the most. I think this is good for me because I remember how much soda I used to indulge in and am happy to see I can cut it off cold turkey.

In other news, this week has been a very interesting one. The election came up and I was able to go out and vote. But despite my vote, Donald Trump has been picked to be the President of the United States. While I was upset because he’s not the man I’d like in power of our country, I’ve come to terms that I can’t change what’s happened. He might not be the President I want, but we are stuck with him now for the next four years. Hopefully he won’t be as bad as I think he’s going to be, but we won’t know for sure until he’s inaugurated into the White House next year.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I haven’t done too much writing lately. With the way things have been at work and home, I just haven’t felt as up to it as I’d like. Meaning, I haven’t been working on my novel as much either like I was planning on doing. Hopefully, that’ll change this week but we’ll just have to wait and see.

I’d also like to say before I’m done I’ve started reading a different book. The last book I was reading wasn’t catching my interest anymore so I decided to reread a book I enjoyed while I was in college. So far, I’m enjoying The Diviners as much as I did when I first read it for a Young Adult Literature class I took at Columbia College.

For now, that’s really all I have to say. I’ve had so much going on in my life, both at home and work that’s been keeping me so busy that I’m sorry I haven’t gotten the chance to post as much here on my blog. I hope with this week I’ll be able to change that, or at least get some sort of writing done. But regardless, I hope you’ve all been having a wonderful weekend and I’ll catch up with you on coffee again soon!

 

 

 

 

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Book Review: When She Woke

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Rating: 3 stars

Hannah Payne’s life has been devoted to church and family. But after she’s convicted of murder, she awakens to a nightmarish new life. She finds herself lying on a table in a bare room, covered only by a paper gown, with cameras broadcasting her every move to millions at home, for whom observing new Chromes—criminals whose skin color has been genetically altered to match the class of their crime—is a sinister form of entertainment. Hannah is a Red for the crime of murder. The victim, says the State of Texas, was her unborn child, and Hannah is determined to protect the identity of the father, a public figure with whom she shared a fierce and forbidden love.

A powerful reimagining of The Scarlet Letter, When She Woke is a timely fable about a stigmatized woman struggling to navigate an America of the not-too-distant future, where the line between church and state has been eradicated, and convicted felons are no longer imprisoned but chromed and released back into the population to survive as best they can. In seeking a path to safety in an alien and hostile world, Hannah unknowingly embarks on a journey of self-discovery that forces her to question the values she once held true and the righteousness of a country that politicizes faith and love. 

When She Woke is a really powerful story. A story that makes me question the world Hannah lives in as well as my own society.

Chroming people depending on their crime is an interesting idea to think about. Especially because in this book, I feel like each color choosing for a crime is symbolic. Red for murder is obvious in the sense that murdering someone involves blood being shed while blue for rape represents a sense of innocence being lost. I think the idea of chroming people in general is interesting because it would make it easier for us as a society to know who’s committed a crime. We’d be better able to protect ourselves from people we don’t know who could hurt us. But at the same time, I see it has serious issues too. It would be another form of racism where people who’ve been chromed will have to deal with people trying to hurt them because of their past actions. It would create another society for people to continue hating each other. But at the same time, society would be safer because we’d know whose committed crimes and justice would be served. Either way, it’s an issue you ponder as a reader when reading this book.

This book also makes me question faith. I’m not a highly religious person to begin with because I believe everyone should be able to believe in whatever they want without someone judging them. Not everyone has the same faith and I think everyone has a right to practice their religion without fear from others perceiving them in a negative light. In When She Woke, Hannah had her own doubts about what she believed in whenever she became a chrome. Life changed for her and she found she couldn’t feel God’s presence anymore. She also realized that she missed out on so much in life because of her faith and how it perceives women. While I enjoyed reading this aspect of the book, it definitely makes me question religious institutions and the way people act towards others in the name of their faith. While I believe religion is important, I don’t think it should be considered so important that you completely disregard another person and treat them ill because of their actions. If anything, that’s when a person needs religion the most. It’s because of the way people act towards others in the name of their faith that I don’t care as much about religion as others. And this book brought that to the surface to me in ways I didn’t expect.

I enjoyed reading this book because like the two issues I’ve mentioned above, it brings a lot of interesting conversation to the table. Conversations about issues like crime, abortions, faith and racism that while uncomfortable to talk about need to be discussed. I enjoyed reading this book because these issues were included in the story and made me think.

However, there were also some aspects of When She Woke I wasn’t pleased to see. I wasn’t happy that they made faith such a huge part of this story. While I understand that Hannah was once a very religious girl, I feel like they really enforced it too much sometimes. Especially because it seemed like almost everyone in this society was religious in some way even though that’s not at all how everyone in our world acts. I felt like reverends in the story like Hannah’s lover were given celebrity status in the story for being so indoctrined in their faith. While it gave me hope that things with chroming wouldn’t be too bad, I also felt like it was trying to force a message about faith on people too.

Another aspect of this story I wasn’t happy about was the way in which Hannah becomes saved. I found so many plot holes with the whole thing, especially near the end of the story when Hannah is left to travel to Canada on her own. Especially because so much could’ve gone wrong with her traveling alone. I also just didn’t understand why this organization was only helping women who’d gotten abortions instead of helping every chrome who wanted to repent their crime. I guess I just expected more from this besides Hannah going to Canada to reverse the change. Maybe something along the lines of her and the organization stopping chroming from being legal. I guess I feel like the story isn’t finished being told and that more should’ve been written.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading When She Woke. It was a very powerful story with a lot of things for the reader to talk about. It just didn’t necessarily have enough explained in the plot for me to give it a higher rating. But I did enjoy the book as a whole and recommend it to anyone interested in reading something like this.

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