YouTube of the Day: Mister Rogers Rulz

Reading Room and Moovies Reviews

There are two books and one movie to review.

The first book is Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James. I didn't finish it. It was that bad. The end. I gave it 2 stars at the Audible.com site because while the story sucks, the narrator was good. She deserves a star of her own for managing to read that crap so well.

The second book is actually a collection of short stories, Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey. This one defies description without giving away huge spoilers. I'll give you the Amazon brief:

This is the story of mankind clawing for survival, of mankind on the edge. The world outside has grown unkind, the view of it limited, talk of it forbidden. But there are always those who hope, who dream. These are the dangerous people, the residents who infect others with their optimism. Their punishment is simple. They are given the very thing they profess to want: They are allowed outside.

From the first chapter I was hooked. I love this book. It's different from what I normally read, well written, compelling and interesting characters, a good mystery that builds, solid pacing. I think this is my favorite book of 2012 so far. 5 stars. And the bonus is it's only $5.99 for the Kindle.

Currently listening to Death of a Gossip by MC Beaton.

[Edited, June 8]:  Finished First Shift: Legacy by Hugh Howey on the Kindle. This is Wool #6. 4 stars. A good prequel to Wool, but it should be read as #6.

Currently reading Molly Fyde and the Parsona Rescue by Hugh Howey on the Kindle.

The one movie to review is Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I felt confused for maybe the first 45 minutes of this one, but then all the threads started to come together so that by the end I was totally tracking with it. I loved all of the cast - such a great collection of good actors. Gary Oldman as George Smiley was so good. He's a chameleon, man. So talented.

I liked that it had a late 1970s feel to it to match the actual story. I told Beau that I sort of reminded me of The French Connection only without the car chases. 4 stars out of 5. It lost one for the confusion factor.

Seven Years to One Month

Yesterday was the 7th anniversary of the day Beau and I got engaged. We bought a ring and then he taught me to shoot. A good day, indeed.

Today marks one month out from our closing date on our house. I'm getting more anxious - good anxious to be in there and making it our home and bad anxious because it means we have only 6 more weeks to pack up our stuff.

We went sofa shopping yesterday. One the one hand it was helpful - we determined that do like the same style but we differ on leather vs. upholstery; on the other hand is was extremely frustrating - two littles who were bored to tears the whole time and weren't shy to express themselves. By the time we got home I was ready to kill someone. No buying yet. We're still sort of trying to decide the placement of our current furniture. Certain pieces will determine whether or not we go for a total color makeover or not.

Either way it will be a fun challenge.

I Am Second: Brian Birdwell

9/11 Pentagon survivor. Lover of Jesus. Amazing testimony.

Powerful.

Reading Room and Bube Tube Stuff

I managed to get another audio book completed in record time. Crossed, book two in the Matched trilogy, is a good middle of the story book. It moves the plot along rather well and further develops the main characters. That each character was narrated by separate narrators made it more effective as a listen. I liked it and I look forward to the final book when it comes out in the fall.

Interestingly, after I posted my short review on GoodReads.com, I found that most of the readers there HATED it. 3 stars out of 5.

I'm now listening to The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey. It is narrated by Davina Porter, who is one of my favorite audio book narrators. This is a reboot of Jane Eyre, which I have never read. I have seen one of the movies, though, so I am familiar with the general story of Jane Eyre. This seems pretty faithful to the spirit of that classic - Gemma Hardy is still in her boarding school years so there's a long way to go to get to the Rochester character/story. I am enjoying it so far.

On the Kindle, I also started Wool by Hugh Howey. Wool was originally just a short story, but was popular and the author wrote more episodes.I have the omnibus version, which includes all of the short stories in one package. I finished the first story this morning and I can see why there are more. It's dystopian and mysterious. I wish I could read more - I really want to know where this one goes.

On the TV, we watched the final episode of this season of Masterpiece Theater's Sherlock. We watched the first season last year and were surprised at how much we loved it. I am so disppointed that they only do 3 episodes at a time. It's smart, quick, funny, good TV. The last episode of this season blew me away. Such a great show. If you haven't seen it, you must. The first season is available for streaming on Netflix. And for a short time now, you can watch this season at the PBS website.

How Fast Can You Read?

Staples has launched this fun infographic-test that will tell you how fast you can read. Interesting...

Source: Staples eReader Department

[via]

The New 'Hood

So with every day that passes, we're one step closer to home ownership. Closing is June 29.

Beau mentioned several weeks ago that he needed calling cards for the kids to set up play dates. Jesse has mentioned play dates with random people recently. But he often doesn't know the kid's last name, definitely doesn't know the parent's info, and they definitely don't know ours. Hence, the calling card idea.

Now that we're moving to a brand new neighborhood, the calling card idea became a smarter idea. Tooling around Etsy.com I found a lot of cute options. Did we want individual cards for each kid? A card for them together? A family card?

In the end I opted for the family calling card (in lime) since we will all be new to the neighborhood. As we meet people, we can hand them the card that contains each of our names, Beau's and my cell number, our home phone number, and a family email address (which I created today).

What I bought is the digital file. I'll get them printed from GotPrint.com, where I get my business cards printed.

And I'm also looking at change of address cards to mail to family and friends when the time comes.

Reading Room Reviews: The End of the Affair and Insurgent

I finished two more books yesterday. Thanks to my weekend epiphany about listening to audio books while putting on my make-up (instead of listening to TV, which is pointless), I am cranking through audio books much faster.

I also started reading on my Kindle while blow drying my hair, since most of the time I'm hunched over with the diffuser.

Multi-tasking at its best.

So I finished Insurgent by Veronica Roth in my Kindle yesterday morning. Here's my short review:

Book two in the Divergent trilogy, this middle book does its job well. It moves the story along as a pretty fast pace, increases the tension and action, and develops some of the secondary characters further.

Now I have to wait more than a year for the final book in the trilogy that is definitely going to give The Hunger Games a run for its money in the long run. It is equally as good, equally as thought-provoking about the human condition, the role of structured government versus personal liberty, and the instinctual need for independence and survival.

4 out of 5 stars.

I got home from work with only 5 minutes of listening left to finish The End of the Affair by Graham Greene and narrated by Colin Firth. Hello, Darcy! This is an Audible.com exclusive - I don't think you can find it at your library or other bookstore (although Amazon.com is partnered with Audible.)

TEofA is a modern classic that has been on my must read list for years. When I saw that Firth was narrating it for Audible, I moved it to the top of the queue immediately. I am so glad that I did. Here's my super short review:

Sublime. I am sure Firth's wonderful narration contributed to my love of this book. it's a transcendent tale of love and hate, fidelity and adultery, faith and folly, life and death. It is almost unbearably sad and yet there is redemption that lifts it just enough. This book is a new favorite.

5 stars. It is wonderful and made moreso by Firth's fantastic first person narration.

So now I'm currently listening to Crossed by Allie Condie, which is the 2nd in her Matched trilogy. And I'm reading Gospel Wakefulness by Jared Wilson on my Kindle.

YT of the Day: 10,000 Reasons

Bless the Lord, o my soul. Worship His holy name.

Monday Random

The weekend was good. We enjoyed the first birthday party of the youngest cousin in my family. She is a super cute baby and it was good to spend time with family. My 98 year old grandmother was there and while she's slowing down in her old age, she is still feisty as ever.

Mother's Day in our home was just a typical Sunday. Beau took the kids to church with him in the morning so that I could get some alone time, which I spent coloring my hair, reading, and prepping a meal to be delivered today to some church friends who have a new baby.

Then I headed to church myself to practice with the band before the evening service. Turns out the worship leader was suffering from a hacking cough and she asked me to sing lead on one of the songs. It has been a long time since I've sung anything but background vocals. I was incredibly nervous, but prayed that the Lord would be glorified no matter what happened and that helped to relax me.

I got home to find the house empty because Beau and kids were at the 4th birthday party of a little girl on our street. From the happy screaming, it sounded like much fun was being had. I got to our back deck to find kids running around with water pistols. Molly was on their deck playing with the bubble machine and covered in chocolate from the chocolate fountain. I'm told her dinner was basically chocolate dipped marshmallows and strawberries. So at least there was some fruit involved. And that was before the birthday cake.

So with my reading time, I managed to finish another audio book - Matched by Allie Condie. Here's the review I wrote for Audible.com:

Another in the plethora of dystopian YA fiction that is to be found, Matched is actually quite good and different from The Hunger Games and Divergent. It's less death-defying, which is the huge difference. There's no violence.

But there is a controlling Society who manages every single part of a person's life, down to the person whom they are to marry. And this is where this particular dystopian story differs.

This story is told well. Some of the prose is quite lovely. The characters are full people. And as a first in a trilogy, it's a good start. I'm intrigued enough to want to read the second book, Crossed.

The narrator is very good, with the perfect youthful voice for the first person narration.

I did download the next book, but I'm listening to something else in between to sort of cleanse the palate. Matched gets 4 stars.

So the new book I'm listening to is The End of the Affair by Graham Greene, which has been on my list of must reads for a long time. When Audible announced that Colin Firth was narrating, it moved up to the top of the list to listen to next. I'm about 2 hours in and it is very good, Firth is very good. It's a short listen at just a bit over 6 hours, so I'll get it finished this week easily.

I'm also reading Insurgent by Veronica Roth on my Kindle. It is book two of the Divergent trilogy. I'm about 60% in and it is also very good.

The little bit of TV I'm watching is Once Upon a Time, which is pretty much the only current TV that I care to watch. I had several episodes on the DVR to watch and managed to do that last week. I watched the season finale from last night this morning before getting ready for work. I was curious how there could be a second season if the conflict in this first season was resolved. Turns out they did a pretty good cliff-hanger. You know, fairy tales end happily, but there are a lot of them and they left many of them untouched this season. I look forward to seeing who gets featured next season as the primary tale.

My favorite episodes were the ones that featured Jiminy Cricket and Pinocchio. Also the hunter. And maybe Beauty and Beast. I thought they were really well done and touching.

We are watching the new season of Sherlock, but did not watch last night's episode live after our long day. I crashed. It totally bums me that there are only 3 episodes. Three. Really? *sigh*

And I guess that's all to share on this Monday.