merging

soooooo, it’s becoming more clear to me that i’m in love with my new blog happynesses and perhaps i never really found proper footing with the bookend.  and i had this thought:  my new blog has to do with all things that make me happy and make me appreciate the life i have…don’t books fall into that?  they absolutely do!  basically, whenever i read a book, i will post a review on it at happynesses. that way, i don’t have to feel forced to keep the posts strictly book-related and there will be posts to view EVERY DAY. which is a new and brilliant concept for me 🙂  so, goodbye to the bookend.  but hello to new beginnings 🙂

happynesses

i have a new blog (in addition to this one)! happynesses!  please visit and tell me whatever silly things make you smile 🙂

mockingjay :)

as if i have time to be on here right now. i’ve been in the middle of moving (hence my absence) so my world is on fire at the moment, but there’s always time for an amazing book 🙂 happy reading!

random quote

well, it’s not a quote really. i just remembered something out of a book i read years ago. i have tried so hard to make myself forget it but it comes back at the rudest times and pisses me off. i can never remember the name of the book right away. i just always think of the movie adaptation that had Jennifer Aniston’s character falling in love with her gay roommate or something.

AHA! I just IMDB’d it: The Object of my Affection. anyway, whilst reading this book, i came upon a scene where Nina pours herself a bowl of cheerios, sprinkles it with powdered milk, then runs it under the tap. why am i so sensitive about this??? i swear that this scene will only pop into my head when i’m halfway through a bowl of cereal, then i gag and get pissed. why at such an inopportune time? through the years, i figured myself out well enough to know that i need to empty my head before eating cereal lest a terrible thought come into my mind. it’s almost like, “i know there’s something i’m not supposed to think about or i won’t finish this bowl–LA LA LA LA LA LA!!!!” people should learn to not writing disgusting things in their novels. stupid authors.

i am scarred. this is tragic.

beginning On Writing by stephen king

ok, i have to share. this book had me giggling to no end the other night. i must have been in a strange mood, but here is the passage that got me going:

…I was enchanted by the idea of shitting like a cowboy. I pretended I was Hopalong Cassidy, squatting in the underbrush with my gun drawn, not to be caught unawares even at such a personal moment. I did my business, and I took care of the cleanup as my older brother had suggested, carefully wiping my ass with big handfuls of shiny green leaves. These turned out to be poison ivy.
Two days later I was bright red from the backs of my knees to my shoulderblades. My penis was spared, but my testicles turned into stoplights. My ass itched all the way up to my ribcage, it seemed. Yet worst of all was the hand I had wiped with; it swelled to the size of Mickey Mouse’s after Donald Duck has bopped it with a hammer, and gigantic blisters formed at the placed where the fingers rubbed together. When they burst they left deep divots of raw pink flesh. For six weeks I sat in lukewarm starch baths, feeling miserable and humiliated and stupid, listening through the open door as my mother and brother laughed and listened to Peter Tripp’s countdown on the radio and played Crazy Eights.

yeah, i know. i’m picking up tidbits of writing advice but i’m mostly just entertained. on a sweet note, i did find an inscription from my dad:

kindred by octavia butler

the cover of this book is so misleading. it features a young black woman above some old housing units. the picture is sort of faded and muted which brings to mind old 19th century photographs. my first impression is that it’s some historical fiction novel. i am not interested. i do not like stories that deal much with history. not to my surprise, the story of Dana is set amidst slavery on the Weylin plantation. but what stunned me about this novel right off the bat is the extremely paranormal piece of it. the paranormal event was the perfect hook to get me into this novel and it was well-placed at the beginning of the story. yes, the novel deals with the lives of slaves on a plantation and explores the hierarchy of command of the plantation owner and his family, but it is only a backdrop of the more intriguing story of how Dana fits in to all of it.

the flow of time in this tale is interesting. it opens with the ending, then starts from the beginning, then proceeds to bounce back and forth through time. without giving away any of the awesome surprises, Dana, who is a young well-educated back woman, becomes eerily connected to Rufus, a white boy who is heir to the plantation and all its slaves. Dana must fight for Rufus’s life or it will mean she will never exist (paradox!), all the while she must adjust to life on a plantation and fight also to save and be with her husband, Kevin (who is white, which helps to twist up the plot).

i found Dana and Kevin to be an incredibly sweet and endearing couple. the understanding and love they shared was absolute. Dana was tough and smart, and she seemed to be much more thoughtful than i would have been in her situation. it is a beautiful story and one that i very much enjoyed. it ends bittersweetly and leaves a few burning questions.

and just in case you’ve read it, what is the significance of her arm?

book nite

a few of the girls preparing edibles

every couple of weeks a few girls and i get together and discuss books. we also talk about what’s going on in our lives since we all pretty much work from home. we pass books around and talk about upcoming ones we are excited about—–>like Mockingjay!

we’re totally going to have a Mockingjay party once it’s released. i’m trying not to go overboard, but this kind of thing doesn’t happen often. sooooo, i was thinking i’d try to find some mockingjay pins like Katniss wears. and maybe make some cupcakes with a mockingjay on it. in “catching fire” a cracker with a mockingjay makes an appearance so maybe something with that, too.

i recently stumbled upon mockingjay.net and found that Hot Topic is now carrying themed t-shirts.  they look amazing!

blog award!

i’m excited! i just received a blog award from Zee at Zee’s Wordly Obsessions!  thank you, it’s been a while since i’ve received an award!  so now i’m supposed to share 7 things about myself:

1.  i have a bachelor’s degree in Physics & Astronomy from the university of georgia.
2. after i worked really hard to get that degree, i decided that was enough of that. my real passion is reading and i hope to be able to get my master’s in library and information science so i can become a librarian–whenever the stars align.
3. i have been married to my high school sweetheart for almost 5 years.
4. we have two dogs, sugar and chewy, who are pains in my ass but i can’t seem to let them go.
5. i have an obsession with anything old and antique. i like to mix old and new. i also like to take old things and turn them into something more beautiful and functional.

a tarnished old candelabra...

plus a few old mismatched teacups...

becomes my new jewelry stand!

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6. i hated reading all through high school and a lot through college.
7. my nephew was born last month! in doing so, he created two sets of grandparents and a bunch of aunts and uncles for the first time!

william and me

i’m supposed to give this award to 15 other bloggers, preferably ones that i just found,  but i’m afraid i haven’t yet gotten that many!  i’m slowly working my way through the blogosphere.  but here are my picks:

Alita.Reads.
Badass Bookie
Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog
Eep! Geek!
Mindful Musings
The Book Junkie’s Bookshelf
The Ladybug Reads
Habitual Viewer
The Sweet Bookshelf

battle royale, finally!

part 1 review
part 2 review
i am completely surprised.  i cried at the end of this book.  out of the freakin’ blue the author was strumming my emotions like a guitar.  who knew that by the end of the novel Takami had developed an arsenal of well-developed characters?  i really didn’t see that coming.  i may have been distracted by tediously long descriptions of how to make a bomb and the locations of buildings, houses, etc. on the island–to name a few.  i think i could have skipped pages at a time before the plot started rolling along again.  i wouldn’t be surprised if another reader gave up less than half-way through due to this.  but those over-achievers out there will be nicely rewarded at the end.

i thought Takami did a great job of helping me keep the characters straight.  since each chapter is from a different character’s perspective, it can get a little hairy.   even if i didn’t recognize who the character was right away, at some point Takami would reference something to spark my memory.  i wouldn’t recommend flipping back through to sort everyone out though.  when i rarely didn’t recognize someone, i just moved on, no harm done.

the killings continued to be descriptive, gory, and extremely troubling.  since Takami provides the train of thought of each character, you can’t help but sympathize with some of them.  those that come off as inherently evil at least garner some pity for circumstances beyond their control that turned them that way.  the complexity of each character was described or at least hinted at.  so everything is not always as it seems.  and that helps keep the story intriguing. and the last page: poetic.

new books!

my husband dropped me off at books-a-million yesterday while he took care of some business–bad idea.  i spent about a million dollars on books.  but i’m truly excited about them!!

the bell jar by sylvia plath

brave new world by aldous huxley

the book thief by markus zusak

linger by maggie stiefvater

angelology by danielle trussoni