The Zen Leaf

The Selection: Stories, by Kiera Cass

Posted on September 15, 2016 by Thistle

Not much to say about this collection. The book consisted of two stories – “The Prince” and “The Guard” – which went through a few events of the original Selection trilogy from the point of view of other characters. Namely, the prince and the guard. I read the book as a bit of a diversion, and also because I’d mentioned when I first read the series last spring that I wished I could see this from Prince Maxon’s point of view. Which now I have, at least in limited part. And that’s just about all I have on that. Good for people who like this series already.

Note: There are apparently other books with this title that contain different short stories set in this world. I only read the edition with these two stories.

Posted in 2016, Prose, Young Adult | Tagged collection, mini-review, speculative | 4 Comments

The Accidental Alchemist, by Gigi Pandian (audio)

Posted on September 12, 2016 by Thistle

A three-hundred-year-old alchemist, a teen hoodlum, and a French gourmet chef gargoyle take up residence in an abandoned haunted house in Portland… Sounds like the beginning of a joke, right? That’s essentially the opening premise to this book, however, followed by…and then a body shows up on the front porch. Yup. Because this is a cozy mystery in addition to being steeped in fantasy elements, plus an addition of lots of vegan recipes in the text. Because cozy mysteries are like that.

The Accidental Alchemist was my first RIP book this year, an audio I’d downloaded on a whim during Audible’s recent blowout sale. I had no idea if I’d like it, but for a couple bucks, I figured it was worth a try. I didn’t realize it was a cozy mystery before starting the book. Actually, I didn’t know anything at all about it, and that made this a fun book to just plow into unawares.

Thankfully, everything worked out happily for me! The novel was deliciously fun and autumn-like, and made me smile all the way through. It wasn’t a perfect book. I’m not fond of the cozy mystery way of fitting in thematic elements, and so got tired of hearing the ingredients of every single vegan dish prepared. But really, that was minor, and I really enjoyed the rest of the book: the characters, the mystery, the little quirks of Portland, the magic, etc. I’m happy to see there are further volumes of this series that (I imagine) could go on however long Pandian cares to write them!

Performance: Julia Motyka read this book. She did a fantastic job with it. Notably, there were a few spots where she coughed/cleared her throat after reading a sentence, and those parts were not edited out, so the production felt less professional than usual. I didn’t mind, though. The rest of the performance made up for that entirely.

Posted in 2016, Adult, Prose | Tagged atmospheric, audio, food, humor, RIP-worthy, speculative | 4 Comments

Sunday Coffee: Library

Posted on September 11, 2016 by Thistle

I’m still not here very much right now. Settling in is going rough, trying to coordinate about a thousand different things. Jason is back in TX getting our house on the market, so I’m a single mom (kinda) this week (or longer). The in-laws have guests coming later this week, so the house will be very busy and full. I imagine I’m going to be a part-time blogger for the next few months until we get our own place, so please forgive me if I’m not around very often. I’m trying my best to at least get book reviews out!

Speaking of book reviews, I now have access to books again – I have a library card! That’s one of the two bits of exciting news in my life since last Sunday. (The other is that the truck finally arrived with our stuff, so I have all my crochet and coffee supplies, not to mention more clothes!) Mid-week, the whole family walked the half-mile to the library and got library cards. The library here is tiny, but it’s networked with about 40 libraries in this section of Wisconsin, and so we can get request books from any of those to be sent here. I have a bunch of books on hold already, some already winging my way. Woohoo!

Sadly, though, there is no Wowbrary. Ah well.

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged Sunday Coffee | 9 Comments

Rejection Proof, by Jia Jiang (audio)

Posted on September 9, 2016 by Thistle

Subtitled: 100 Days of Rejection, or How to Ask Anything of Anyone at Anytime

Also subtitled: How I Beat Fear and Became Invincible, One Rejection at a Time

Okay. I think the premise of Rejection Proof is obvious by the two subtitles. The book was a sort of memoir cross instruction manual cross pop psychology book. Jiang, an aspiring entrepreneur, became so overwhelmed by rejection that he chose to inoculate himself against the experience. For a hundred days, he set out to get rejected, and to blog the entire experience. He learned a lot about himself and about rejection along the way. This was a book-version of his experiences and lessons learned.

Like most people, I’m terrified of rejection. I don’t believe my reasons are the same as Jiang’s – at one point, he blows off fear of failure the same way some people blow off fear of rejection, and my fear of rejection is tied to my fear of failure – but the concept is the same. Reading about his journey was interesting, and it certainly taught me a few things. I didn’t agree with everything he wrote (see note about blowing off fear of failure) and I feel like his psychological analysis was only surface-level, but I also think he hit on a lot of points. There were plenty of things to jump from here, and to make me think it might be possible to improve my own relationship with rejection/fear/failure. That made the book worth reading.

On the other hand, I wasn’t particularly fond of the audio performance by Mike Chamberlain. The performance made Jiang sound very brash at times, and for all I know, that may be the truth – it just wasn’t my favorite performance.

Posted in 2016, Adult, Prose | Tagged Asia, audio, humor, nonfiction, POC, psychology | Leave a comment

Autumn Shawl

Posted on September 7, 2016 by Thistle

One of the first things I noticed when we arrived in Wisconsin is how quickly it gets chilly in the evenings. I’m used to wearing lots of tank tops and shorts, and our moving truck wasn’t set to arrive (with the rest of our clothes!) for more than a week after us, so I decided to make myself a fun autumn shawl. I peeked around online for different shawl patterns and eventually found this Unchained Shawl from Jessie at Home. I liked how free-form the pattern was. You reach a certain point and then repeat as long as you’d like, until the shawl is as big as you want.

I used six skeins Yarn Bee Andes Alpaca yarn for this project, in five colors: Arabesque (x2), Copper Rose, Camino, Paradise, and Rosalinda. This made for an extremely expensive project, but so totally worth it by the end. I played with the color arrangements and just let myself be fanciful with the project. It’s hard to tell from the above picture, but the triangular shawl ended up looking very spiderweb-like, lending more to the autumn feel. The colors all worked great together as well.

The finished project is extremely versatile and drapes just perfectly. It’s about as wide as my outspread arms (see below) and falls all the way down my spinal cord.

I have a few autumn/winter wearables scheduled over the next few months (after I finish building the projects for them), but I couldn’t wait to share this one. The pattern was so simple and easy to follow, and I was easily able to build this up over a long weekend. I plan to make a second version of this in the future using a lighter-weight lace yarn, as a summer-evening shawl.

And because it was too funny not to share, here is a collage of outtake photos (mostly posed by Jason):

Posted in Crochet | Tagged I made a thing., Yarn Art | 6 Comments

An Ember in the Ashes, by Sabaa Tahir (audio)

Posted on September 6, 2016 by Thistle

Laia is forced into a dangerous mission after the ruling class kills most of her family and takes her brother captive. She’s sent to spy on the leader of a military school in exchange for the rebels rescuing her brother. On the other side of the conflict is Elias, who has just graduated from this military school and is planning to desert. Before he has a chance, he’s forced to participate in a set of trials, battles to the death with several of his fellow graduates. Neither Laia nor Elias know that their fates are intertwined, manipulated together by outside forces.

That’s a stupid summary for a very good book. I loved watching both Laia and Elias develop over time. Both gather strength and courage over time, in different ways, and seeing their relationships with all the various characters change throughout the book was my favorite part of this. There’s still so much we don’t yet know by the end of the novel, to be continued in further editions. The next book just released and I’m definitely looking forward to reading it.

My only complaint had nothing to do with the book itself, but with the production. I started the book in print, but knew I wouldn’t have a lot of time to devote to it in that medium. I got the audiobook next, read by Fiona Hardingham and Steve West. I adored West’s sections, but I didn’t like Hardingham’s sections at all. They weren’t bad, but her interpretation of Laia was a bit more high-pitched and hysterical than I’d read her in print, and so I had a bit of a disconnect with it the entire time I listened. I’m not saying it’s a bad audiobook, not at all, just that it didn’t particularly work for me. I’ll simply read the following volumes in print.

Posted in 2016, Prose, Young Adult | Tagged audio, RIP-worthy, speculative | 6 Comments

Sunday Coffee – August Miscellanous

Posted on September 4, 2016 by Thistle

Because I was pretty much absent this past month, I thought I’d use my first Sunday Coffee in awhile to bullet up a miscellaneous post of books and life. Here’s how my month went:

Moving: This consumed most of the month. First the decision to move, then beginning the process, then having to move the date up drastically…it meant a month of construction and packing. There was a sudden flurry of activity in our house, which meant me spending a week in a hotel because I just don’t deal with chaos very well, and then a week of packing/loading/etc while the boys were in school. We had a weekend off for wedding stuff, and left on Monday the 29th. Our trip went really well, including two extremely well-behaved kitties, and we arrived mid-afternoon on Tuesday. Things have not been easy since our arrival, so we’re just trying to take things one day at a time.

Family: My sister got married last weekend! It was our family’s last evening in Texas before the move and it was wonderful to see everyone and be able to have that happy moment to share with all the family before we left.

Olympics: I mostly missed the 2012 Olympics because I was on vacation without a lot of TV access at the time. I wasn’t going to miss them this time, even if I was packing and working on the house at the same time! I took breaks from work to watch swim heats and gymnastic routines, and I had the TV on for hours at a time while I listened for events that I was interested in. I set up my packing station right in the middle of the living room so that it would be easy to multi-task. Ha!

Crochet: Most of my yarn art this month revolved around winter accessories and a few other larger projects which will be saved for later individual posts. I did, however, want to feature a project that was technically finished at the very end of July. I made this bookmark for Allie for a book swap, using embroidery thread and the tiniest hook ever. (Well, no, not the tiniest. There are smaller hooks. But still. After using larger hooks for so long, the 1.5-mm hook was just so small!) It was my first thread project and it came out really lovely. I plan to make a similar bookmark for myself when I find the time. [slightly-modified pattern from Crochet Nirvana]

Additionally, I was able to make a gift of homemade place-mats and coasters for my sister and new brother-in-law, done in their favorite colors. [Pattern via Moogly; Yarn: Lily Sugar’n Cream cotton]

Books: I expected books to fall to the side this month, but I ended up stress-reading quite a bit, and listening to audiobooks while I worked. I read six books total, including the phenomenal Bellweather Rhapsody, and at some point I might get to reviewing all the books I didn’t review because moving. I also participated in the above-mentioned book swap (not realizing I’d be moving partway through!). I got this lovely package from Erica before we left Texas:

She chose all my most-wanted books, and got my a mystery Harry Potter figure that turned out to be Hermione! I’ve been carrying her with me as a talisman as I deal with all this moving-related stress.

I think that’s about all for now. I’m not sure I’ll be back to blogging full-time for awhile. Things will be different while I’m living with my in-laws and with minimal stuff, plus worrying about selling a house and buying/renting a new house. My brain will likely be consumed with Other Things for a time. Hopefully I’ll be here enough to keep up with y’all a little, though!

Posted in Book Talk, Crochet, Personal | Tagged house, I made a thing., Yarn Art | 6 Comments

R.I.P. XI

Posted on September 1, 2016 by Thistle

I say it every year, and I’ll say it again: autumn is my favorite time of year, and Readers Imbibing Peril is my favorite reading event of the year. My family just barely arrived in Wisconsin two days ago, and our next few months are uncertain in terms of time (When will our house sell? When will we find a place of our own to live in? etc). I have no idea how much I’ll be able to read for RIP. However, I do know that autumn is going to be lovely around here. Midwestern autumns are my favorite, and I’ll indulge in a few spooky books whenever I can! Possibilities:

—The Creeping Shadow by Jonathan Stroud – releases mid-September and one of my highest priorities for this fall

—Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo – releases late September

—The Trespasser by Tana French – releases in October, another super high priority

—The Swan Riders by Erin Bow – I’m not sure if this’ll count as a RIP read, might not be spooky enough, but we’ll see. Releases late September

—The Motion of Puppets by Keith Donahue – This might be releasing during the upcoming RIP season? It would be a perfect RIP read though, sounds like!

—Nevernight by Jay Kristoff – Might end up being a bit too gory for me, but we’ll see.

Potential rereads include: The Night Circus, Gentlemen & Players, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, City of Dark Magic, The White Devil, Lady Audley’s Secret, Jane Eyre, The Monk, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Devilish, Rebecca, Phantom of the Opera.

I definitely won’t get all those books read, but that’s a nice spread to start with. Let the festivities begin!

Thanks so much to Carl of Stainless Steel Droppings for hosting the event, and to Abigail Larson for amazing artwork!

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged lists, RIP-worthy | 9 Comments

Sunday Coffee – Changes

Posted on August 14, 2016 by Thistle

So remember last week, when I said we’d decided to move across the country? We had a plan worked out. The boys would go up at the end of this month, and Jason and I would follow in October once we got all the house projects and such finished. We’d even booked the truck for the weekend we planned to move.

Earlier this week, we received some very bad news that is not my news to share, and so I won’t discuss the details publicly. This news changes our plans heavily, because we have a much greater need to get up to Wisconsin a lot sooner than October. And so for the next two weeks, we’ll be working our butts off to finish the house, pack everything, and coordinate our move. We will all be moving up to Wisconsin at the end of this month.

Because of the much-condensed schedule, I’m taking a break from blogging for the next little while. Unlike other breaks I’ve taken in the past, which were for my sanity or when I got sick and tired of blogstuff, this is a forced break. It’s too easy for me to sit here writing and writing when I’m stressed and worried, and instead I need to be working on the house every minute I can spare. Which means no sparing minutes for blogging. This is kinda like the equivalent of putting myself on a book-buying ban. I’m on a blog-ban!

Likely I’ll be back, at least partly, around when RIP starts. Until then, though, I hope y’all have a good rest of the summer, and I apologize for not being here for posts, comments, reading your posts, etc. See y’all in a few weeks! And please wish us luck and send all the positive vibes you can our way.

Posted in Personal | Tagged house, Sunday Coffee | 6 Comments

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, by Jack Thorne

Posted on August 10, 2016 by Thistle

(based on a story by JK Rowling, and in collaboration with John Tiffany)

Many years after the end of the Harry Potter series, a new story starts centered on the children of several characters of the original series. In play form.

I have mixed feelings about this play. On the one hand, it was fun to hear more about What Comes Later. I didn’t mind the epilogue of Book 7, and I liked seeing what it was like for the future generation of the wizarding world. On the other hand, there was a lot of this story that felt off. For example:

There was too much revisiting the old series, down to full-on dialogue, with a few tweaks. I would have preferred fewer scenes simply regurgitated from the books, and I would have preferred those that were revisited to be revisited faithfully, without liberties taken in dialogue.
The characterization and writing felt very not-Rowling. I won’t go into details because it would involve spoilers, but there are definitely things I never would have expected certain characters (like Voldemort) to do. I have a hard time believing it.
This doesn’t read like a play. This reads like a play that has been semi-novelized for reading purposes. I know that most people probably appreciate that, but I’ve been reading scripts on their own since my mid-teens, and would have just preferred a straight-up script.
A lot of the story was very predictable. There were a few surprises – mostly because of the liberties taken with certain characters – but mostly it was easy to predict in advance.
There were also some serious consistency issues, especially regarding some of the time-travel stuff. Again, can’t say more without spoilers.
I didn’t feel like I got to know the new characters very well at all, and I really would have liked to, especially Scorpius.

Despite all that, I did enjoy the play somewhat, especially in the second half. I just felt like it could have been so much more, and it fell short of that mark. I’m unlikely to reread the book, but at least for awhile, I plan to keep it snuggled up to the rest of my Harry Potter series.

Posted in 2016, Children's, Drama | Tagged Harry Potter, revisiting, speculative, WTF moments | 2 Comments