The Zen Leaf

Shadows for Silence (collection), by Brandon Sanderson (audio)

Posted on January 11, 2017 by Thistle

This audio collection contains two novellas by Brandon Sanderson.

Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell
Silence is the owner and proprietor of a safe way-stop in the Forests of Hell, where Shades are attracted to movement, noise, and violence. She seems a crabby matron, but in truth, she has a secret – at night, she has a secret identity, collecting bounties of criminals in order to fund her way-stop. This story takes her through the night of her attempt to capture one of the most notorious criminals in the Forest.

Thoughts: I was sucked into this story and this world immediately, and remained on tenderhooks the entire way through. Kate Reading reads this novella and does an amazing job (as always!) with all the characters. I don’t want to give anything away, but I love Sanderson’s blend of positive and realistic in his treatment of characters, and the world-building, in even such a short work, is fantastic. Loved it!

Perfect State
The God-emperor Kairominas, liveborn and living in a perfectly-simulated world of his own, must leave his realm to visit neutral ground. Purpose: to have a date and procreate with another liveborn from another perfectly-simulated world. Existential crisis follows.

Thoughts: I had a really hard time getting into this one. That’s partly because it’s more sci-fi than fantasy, but it’s more than that. Kairominas (Kai) is a difficult character to sympathize with in the beginning. He feels very robotic in a way, which makes sense given the environment he’s in. There was also the audio narrator, Christian Rummel, who wasn’t bad but also wasn’t my favorite kind of narrator. I think I would have preferred to read this one in print. However, once Kai got into the neutral world and I met his date, Sophie, things started to change and I got hooked. I do admit that the whole story fell a little flat for me, though, by the end. It was okay, but I definitely preferred the other novella in this collection.

Posted in 2017, Adult, Prose | Tagged audio, collection, Cosmere, mini-review, speculative | 6 Comments

2017 Book Priorities

Posted on January 10, 2017 by Thistle

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday asks about the books we meant to get to in 2016 but didn’t. Happily, I actually managed to get through my entire 2016 book priorities list, either reading, culling, or forwarding to 2017 (in the case of changed release dates) every single book. Having a list of priorities actually worked really well for me last year, and so I thought I’d do the same thing this year. This list, compiled at the end of December, includes the handful of unread books on my physical/virtual shelves, some books scheduled for release this year, my waiting Audible queue, and a handful of books I have earmarked to investigate.

My Unscripted Life – Lauren Morrill*
Shadows for Silence (collection) – Brandon Sanderson*
Arcanum Unbounded – Brandon Sanderson*
The Goodbye Year – Kaira Rouda
Sorcerer to the Crown – Zen Cho
Me Before You – Jojo Moyes
After You – Jojo Moyes
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife – Meg Elison
Bird by Bird – Anne Lamott
The Elephant Whisperer – Laurence Anthony
Nim’s Island – Wendy Orr
Twelve Angry Men – Reginald Rose
Flicker and Mist – Mary Thompson
The Young Elites – Marie Lu
Leaving Atlanta – Tayari Jones
Sandlands – Rosy Thornton*
Phantom of the Opera (unabridged version) – Gaston Leroux*
Wires and Nerve – Marissa Meyer (Jan)
The Scarecrow Queen – Melinda Salisbury (March)*
Strange the Dreamer – Laini Taylor (March)
The Savage Dawn – Melissa Grey (July)*
Wonder Woman: Warbringer – Leigh Bardugo (Aug)
Oathbringer – Brandon Sanderson (Nov)*
The Gatlin School for Vigilantes – Marissa Meyer (Nov)
The Empty Grave – Jonathan Stroud (TBD)*
The Elusive Elixer – Gigi Pandian (TBD)*
untitled (Gold Seer) – Rae Carson (TBD)*
untitled (Cormoran Strike) – Robert Galbraith (TBD)*

That sounds like a reasonable list to me, about the same as 2016’s list in size and balance. Wish me luck, and if you have any recommendations or reservations about the above books, definitely let me know!

*guaranteed reads

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged lists | 7 Comments

Sunday Coffee – Best of the Best

Posted on January 8, 2017 by Thistle

If you use GoodReads regularly, I’m sure you saw the whole “2016 in books” feature that popped up at the end of the year. I never take advantage of their stats because I have so many rereads, and those rereads don’t show up in the year’s review on GoodReads. This year I glanced over it, though, and one fact popped out at me. Apparently, of all the books I read in 2016, Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson was ranked highest.

Since that was my favorite book of the year, I was quite pleased to see it ranked highest. I was a little surprised, though, to see just how high its average rating was on GoodReads – over 4.75 stars average, with over 90,000 ratings. Usually when I see super-high rated books, they’re ones that only have a small handful of ratings, often little-known books read mostly by friends-of-the-author, or childhood favorites that almost no one bothers to put on their GoodReads lists. So for WoR, with 90K+ ratings, I expected there to be enough poor ratings to drag the average down.

I decided to take a look at something. Of all the 1000+ books I’ve marked read on GoodReads, excluding those with the handful of ratings I mentioned above, what was the highest ranked books I’ve read? As it turns out, Words of Radiance is the highest-rated book in my entire list. The only two books higher than it are a virtually unknown play with only two ratings, and a virtually unknown children’s picture book with only four ratings. I wouldn’t count either of those in a comparison. So WoR is top dog here.

Then I thought, okay, well it’s a sequel, so maybe that’s just because no one would bother reading it unless they liked the first book, which might explain the bump in ratings. I kept looking down my rating list. The next highest non-one-off kind of book on my list is Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo, another sequel. After that? The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson, the series opener before Words of Radiance. With nearly 150K ratings, it still rates higher than 4.6 average. I guess it’s not just being a sequel that puts WoR so high! Of course, this makes me very happy, because I love that book so much that it very possibly may have displaced Possession by AS Byatt, which has been my favorite book for over a decade now.

I wish I could get more people to read this series. I know the books are long, but they are so worth it!!!

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged Cosmere, Sunday Coffee | 10 Comments

The Great Hunt, by Robert Jordan (audio)

Posted on January 6, 2017 by Thistle

Book 2 of the Wheel of Time. To avoid series spoilers, I won’t add a book summary, and instead simply state my impressions of The Great Hunt.

First, let me say that I read the first book in this series, The Eye of the World, back in 2013. I read it only because my favorite author wrote the last few books of the series and I wanted to get to those books. I hoped this could be a series I would enjoy, but I didn’t enjoy the first book. I found many of the characters wooden and two-dimensional, too much of the plot obvious, and the whole thing kinda boring. After I finished it, I decided not to continue the series despite Brandon Sanderson’s involvement.

I am, however, a huge believer in second chances. It’s always possible that my feelings about a book are influenced by other things going on in my life. Perhaps it was just the audio version that made me dislike it or the fact that I was not really in a reading mood for most of 2013 and didn’t read any books I really loved that year. I decided to give the Wheel of Time another go. I went into the second book blind, remembering almost nothing from my original reading. While I did eventually remember some of the main characters, there are still many others I don’t remember at all. There are plotlines I don’t remember and never came to remember as I listened. Thankfully, that didn’t end up being an impediment, as it was fairly simple to figure things out as I went along.

While this still isn’t my favorite series, I did enjoy the second book more than the first. The characters were more developed, and there was more from characters who I felt didn’t get enough attention in the first book. There were again some this-should-be-obvious moments like in the first book, but far less of the boredom. I’m not compelled to immediately pick up the next book, but I’m also not opposed to reading it later on. That is a definite improvement over my last experience, and I hope that the improvement will continue as I get deeper into the series and as the characters/stories develop over time.

Performance: Michael Kramer and Kate Reading read this book. They did well, especially Reading, who is by far my favorite audiobook narrator.

Posted in 2017, Adult, Prose | Tagged audio, speculative, WTF moments | 2 Comments

Wellness Wednesday #41: January Challenge

Posted on January 4, 2017 by Thistle

Per my 2017 goals, I’m going to assign myself one fitness and one nutrition-based challenge each month.

Fitness
For the last couple years, Adriene (Yoga With Adriene) has led a 30-day yoga challenge in January. This year, she’d doing a 31-day challenge, and it has come at a perfect time. One of the big things I need to do for my ankle is to stretch and loosen my Achilles tendon and the surrounding areas. I specifically asked about yoga, and I’m good to go as long as I modify any pose that hurts or puts pressure on my foot. Add to that yoga’s ability to help my PTSD and mental health, and I think this is the perfect January challenge. I don’t know that I’ll complete all 31 days – we have a couple events scheduled this month, including some travel – but I’m going to attempt to get a good chunk of it done, and aim to fully complete it.

Nutrition
This month I’m working on lowering my insulin levels, especially after the sugar-filled Christmas holiday. For my challenge, I’m cutting out sugar and flour this month. I’m not going to worry about small amounts in things like jerky, ketchup, or salad dressing. I’m also allowing a few exceptions:

When I’m traveling and have limited food choices, I just need to minimize flour and sugar as much as possible.
I’m allowed a measured tablespoon of honey in my yogurt, though the bulk of sweetening should be done with fruit.
Each night, I can have one small piece of chocolate. (Because I’ve never been good with all-or-nothing deprivation!)

I hope these two challenges together will help me recover from holiday eating and get me back into a regular routine for fitness without hurting my ankle. Wish me luck!

Posted in Wellness | Tagged fitness, food, goals, Wellness Wednesday | 8 Comments

2017 Goals

Posted on January 3, 2017 by Thistle

It’s that time of year! Time to decide what I want to accomplish in 2017. Last year, I didn’t make any goals, and I really regretted that. Even in years where I only focus on one section of my goals, I feel like I’ve accomplished something. Last year? Nothing. So this year, I’ve definitely made goals for myself! [Bracketed sections in italics indicate results.]

Health: For my health, I’d like to lose weight, improve my health numbers (especially my insulin levels), improve my strength, improve my nutrition, and redevelop regular exercise habits and routines. To do this, I plan to:

heal my ankle** [done]
do 100+ weight bearing workouts this year [about 80% complete]
spend the warmer months walking to complete the Appalachian trail on the Wii Fit U (687 more miles)** [done]
average 3+ fruits and veggies daily [done]
create and complete monthly challenges to improve nutrition and fitness [did this through May, after which my Summer of Nightmares interfered and life changed drastically]

[Overall in Health: I maintained my weight, improved health numbers (though I don’t know about my insulin), and made a small amount of progress toward redeveloping exercising habits. Otherwise, the crazy changes through the year disrupted my ability to complete anything more.]

**An MRI late in December showed that I didn’t just sprain my ankle (regardless of what the initial xrays said), but fractured the top nubbin of one of the larger foot bones (where the bruising is in the picture at the above link). It didn’t slide out of place, so it’s partially healed, but not nearly as healed as it should be given the time that’s passed, and is still not fully connected to the rest of the bone. For the next six months, I’m instructed to only do low-impact exercises (so the walking goal above will depend on how quickly the ankle heals), as well as a few other things that the doc hopes will finally heal this stupid thing. My goal to heal my ankle is mostly a commitment to the doc’s instructions.

Social: My goals this year will focus on two things – keeping up my strong current ties with friends and family in Texas, and creating new ties in my current location. To do this, I will:

participate in the Run 4 Hope 5K (an annual tradition with friends) in San Antonio [done-ish]
spend Christmas in San Antonio with family [moved back to SA…]
meet my newest nephew, Rory, in person [done]
send 25+ non-Christmas cards/letters [I forgot this was a goal]
go to 25+ new-to-me local places and/or events [done, then I moved away]
participate in NaNoWriMo here to find other local writers [moved away, didn’t participate in SA either]

[Overall in Social: I never did create any new ties in my then-current location, despite many attempts. But I moved back to San Antonio in August, so in the end, that didn’t matter. I continued to connect with friends and family in SA both before and after the move, plus I met with a few book bloggers for the first time this year.]

Writing: My goals are simple here – to redevelop regular writing habits. To help with this, I plan to work on edits for my current manuscript, write a second draft of one pending manuscript, and draft something entirely new during NaNoWriMo. While it’s not necessary, I’d love to get back to an average of at least 10K words monthly.

[I did absolutely nothing with my writing this year.]

Books: Another simple area, as I’m happy with my current book-and-blog life. This year, I’d like to make good progress into the Wheel of Time series, and get through my backlogged Audible queue.

[I read a few books into the Wheel of Time series before deciding that I didn’t want to continue, and I did indeed finish up everything in my backlogged Audible queue.]

Other: This category is a kind of everything else catch-all. Other things I’d like to accomplish in 2017:

get out of credit card debt [hahahahaha…no – another cross country move, lots of construction, and Jason’s job loss meant NO]
replace our roof [done]
finish our current weekend project list (house repairs/improvements) [done]
finish making my in-progress afghan [nope]
use up my current yarn inventory [not even close]
get two specific tattoos that I’ve been meaning to get for almost three years now [nope]
do 10 tarot readings (for myself or others) [if I count single-card daily readings, then this is a done, otherwise, only 6 readings done]

[Overall in Other: Extreme changes in plans this year meant that a big chunk of these goals were no longer valid, particularly ones related to money or time.]

Yes, that’s a lot of things, and no, I don’t expect to complete them all. I like having a plan and a structure, though, and I’ll do my best to complete as many of them as possible. To keep myself accountable, I’ll check in here quarterly. Wish me luck!

Posted in Personal | Tagged goals, lists | 9 Comments

Sunday Coffee – Putting 2016 Behind Me

Posted on January 1, 2017 by Thistle

Let me start my first post of the year by joining my voice to the many shouts of HURRAH that 2016 is finally over. Woohoo! Yay for the first day of the new year!

Have you heard the superstition that whatever you do on January 1st determines what you’ll do for the rest of the year? It’s silly, and I don’t actually believe that, but it’s a cute little tradition that I’ve participated in over the last couple years. To be honest, I don’t really even remember most of my January 1st choices/actions because they ended up totally insignificant through the rest of the year (as expected). I do remember this last year, though. A year ago, I hosted a brunch for friends, and during the rest of the day, I wrote, blogged, read, exercised, drew my tarot, and a bunch of others things that have slipped my mind since then. I basically stuffed my day with lovely things, so full that I didn’t really have time to stop to appreciate any of them. (This is, notably, pretty much the definition of the Ten of Coins in tarot – having so many blessings that it’s hard to see any of them clearly.)

While the superstition is silly, last January 1st really did end up corresponding strongly with the rest of 2016. It was a year stuffed full of things both good and bad. It was a year that was rushed and productive, often pointlessly productive. It was a year of trying to experience everything all at once, instead floating through it without really experiencing at all. There has been a lot of that feeling over the last few years, and I desperately want and need to Slow Down.

This year, I have no set plans for today. I’m going to drink my coffee. Maybe I’ll read a book, maybe take a bath, maybe cuddle up on the couch with a movie. Whatever I end up doing, though, I want to truly experience it, deliberate and fully present. Maybe it’s a silly superstition, but it never hurts to make your intentions for the year known from the start.

Cheers to all of you lovely readers and friends! Happy 2017!

Posted in Personal | Tagged Sunday Coffee, tarot | 12 Comments

2016 in Books

Posted on December 30, 2016 by Thistle

It’s that time of year again! The book geek in me rejoices, for it’s time for stats, lists, and the End of Year Survey from the Perpetual Page Turner. This year I’m going to start with my stats because I made some pretty pie charts for them, heheh! Note that my stats are more extensive than the ones listed on the official survey. Also, I apologize in advance for the length of this post.
Continue reading →

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged end of year | 3 Comments

Wellness Wednesday #40: One Word for 2017

Posted on December 28, 2016 by Thistle

Awhile back, I mentioned the possibility of making Discipline my one-word for 2017. In many ways, it would be a good word for me, as I want to redevelop lost healthy habits and establish strong routines. As the new year approaches, though, I’ve come to reconsider that word choice. Discipline carries too much of a punitive connotation. Given how much I’ve beat myself up these last few years, I don’t want to give myself a word that might fuel the self-chastisement. At the same time, I really do miss the discipline I built for myself from 2011 to 2014. I loved that my default was healthy, be it exercise, food, stress relief, or coping techniques. I miss the way my body and brain felt back then, and how much easier I adapted to challenges – physical and mental.

(Queen of Coins – the tarot embodiment of NURTURE)

After several weeks of thinking, a light bulb went off in my head: NURTURE. To nurture is to care for and protect, but also to support, foster, and encourage during a period of training or development. I really, really love this idea: to care for myself while simultaneously creating the structure and habits I need back in my life.

I came to see it like an art metaphor. Discipline felt like taking a block of stone and chiseling away pieces to create a sculpture, whereas nurture feels like molding a sculpture from clay. Neither is a better method for creation when viewed objectively, but the artist will gravitate toward one or the other. Right now in my life, it is nurture that I need, the act of building something wholly new rather than breaking away pieces to find the art within. The end product may be the same, but the process to get there is very different, and I’m choosing a new path for myself in 2017.

Posted in Wellness | Tagged goals, tarot, Wellness Wednesday | 13 Comments

The Best of 2016 (non-book)

Posted on December 26, 2016 by Thistle

I think it’s no secret by now that 2016 has been a really hard year for me and my family. A year ago, after another really hard year, I sat down and made a list of the best moments of 2015. There were sparks of bright light even in the dark of that year, and it felt good to highlight them. This year, I’m attempting to do the same. I want to look back at the brighter parts of what can accurately be called a wretched year, both personally and in the world (yikes!). So here goes, in time order:

1. Library Palooza – I went to this event with my friend Stephanie, and the two of us not only got to hear from many fantastic writers, but WE MET BRANDON SANDERSON!!!!!

2. Run 4 Hope – For my birthday this year, I requested no gifts, but instead for my friends and family to come out to a 5K with me to benefit the Rape Crisis Center in San Antonio. It was amazing to have everyone out there with me, and to be able to do so much good!

3. Maldralith – For just a few months this year, on the right combination of medications, my brain cleared enough to allow me to write again for the first time in a couple years. It was glorious! I finished a manuscript that I’d been working on for about a year then, and I’m really looking forward to working on the edits soon.

4. Haircut – It’s silly, perhaps, but the haircut I got last June was probably the most confidence-bolstering thing I’ve ever done and I was completely in love with it. It’s unfortunate that I’ve never found another stylist to replicate it, and the stylist who did the original left the salon to go elsewhere. Boo.

5. Vacation – I may not be particularly happy that I moved up to Wisconsin again at the moment, but our two weeks here this summer were incredibly peaceful and happy.

6. Wedding – My sister Becky got married the day before we moved across the country this August, and it was so wonderful to see her and Jeff so happy on that day.

7. Baby – My sister Aaren had her second son in September. Circumstances have prevented me from going back down to Texas to meet my nephew, Rory, but it’s still a wonderful thing to see pictures and to facetime-meet him and to have another member of the family join us.

8. Kitties – One of the lovely things about moving again is that we got my older cat, Ash, out of that old house. He was depressed and sick the whole time we were there, and since we moved, he’s been loving and kind, sitting in my lap again, acting playful, purring again. We thought he was depressed because we’d gotten a second cat, but now think it was all the gunk (mold, termites, etc) in our old house that caused his changed demeanor.

9. Movies and TV – I’m not sure what I would have done the last few months without various TV shows and movies to keep my brain steady. Particularly good experiences have included Ghostbusters (the new one), Me Before You, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and Finding Dory.

10. Zoloft – This speaks for itself, I think.

11. Stick – I couldn’t end this post without including one of my favorite photos from the year. Jason gave me this shirt for our anniversary this year. Most people will look at it blankly and wonder why I’m so excited about it. This is a booknerd photo, most specifically a booknerd photo related to my very favorite book of the year, Words of Radiance. There’s a brief appearance of a character – yes, a stick – which speaks to one of the main characters for a few minutes. The stick says, “I am a stick.” (“The stick was not particularly eloquent.” – Brandon Sanderson) This still won’t make a lot of sense to those who haven’t read the book, but I love that particular scene, and my boys got a kick out of it when they heard the audio version (Kate Reading does an amazing job of narrating the stick’s conversation). I’ll wear this shirt with pride – once it’s warm outside again, of course!

That’s it! I hope 2016 has been a better year for many of you, though I know it’s been rotten for many as well. Just a few more days to the new year, though, right? Hang on!

Posted in Personal | Tagged Cosmere, end of year, lists | 4 Comments