The Zen Leaf

KonMari, Part VI: Storage

Posted on September 25, 2015 by Thistle

There are a couple of main principles to storage espoused in The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: Store only after all disposal is done. Stack vertically instead of horizontally. Don’t keep things tucked away in places you’ll never see or pull out. Store all stuff of a kind in a single location. Don’t bother with fancy storage solutions. Keep things simple, to make it easier to grab things and put them away. Make sure every single possession has a specific place it belongs.

Some of these rules were easier than others. For many reasons, it’s necessary in our house to have multiple locations for similar items, for example. Wherever I could, though, I attempted to follow these rules, with some fantastic results.

My closet shelf has now become my little place for sentimental books, journals, magazines, yearbooks, memorabilia, etc. I can see it all at a glance, instead of having it all tucked away in a trunk. My exercise equipment is on the floor next to my shoes, and (not visible here) my bags are up on hangers. In the future, I will add shelf space to my bedroom wall for stuffed-animal-and-Pony kinds of keepsakes.

In my bathroom, I have a shelf that keeps all my cosmetics and toiletries organized. Under my sink, there are now two bins – one for cleaning supplies, one for the small stock of extra bathroom stuff and medicines. Vertical storage ended up bringing me a lot of happiness in silly ways. For example, instead of keeping my cotton swabs in their bulk box on my counter, the box is now in my overstock bin under the sink, and I have a Dixie-cup full of swabs to keep on the counter! Much neater and certainly prettier, haha!

Kondo recommends using square/rectangular storage rather than circular or odd-shaped boxes. She also says that if an odd-shaped box brings you joy in and of itself, go ahead and use it. Well, this isn’t a box, but I have a few coffee mugs I love but don’t actually use (too small!). One is now holding all my pens on my desk; another all my long-tube makeup and makeup brushes in my bathroom. Yes!!

I used to have a set of drawers by my desk to hold papers, notebooks, and other random things. By the time I finished discarding, there was almost nothing left in them. Plus, I wanted vertical storage. Away went the drawers; in came a new end-table. The shelf holds my notebooks, planners, coloring books, colored pencils, post cards (to send), and tarot cards. The drawer has story cards, maps, and other odd-shaped things I use for novel-planning. On top, I keep an inbox for the things that I need to take care of (vertical inbox acquired since this photo was taken, yay!). I also have a space for my library books when they come in. I love this little table!! (And so does our older cat, Ash!)

The drawers I got rid of ended up holding all our DVDs and CDs. Unfortunately, this left my bookshelves particularly bare (the third, not pictured, is empty except for the boys’ library books!), and the drawers are not great for these heavier items. Honestly, I’d really like to replace the entire shelving and entertainment area at some point. Kristen’s shelves bring me particular joy just looking at them, and I can imagine something similar in my living room. One day.

Which brings me to lessons learned on this Great Tidy-My-Life Project adventure. But! That’s a topic for next week!

To wrap up today’s storage post, let me just say one thing. After I’d finished putting this all together, Jason was looking for the checkbook one morning. He thought I had it, because he last remembered giving it to me. I remembered giving it back, but he didn’t. I thought I might as well go through my stuff, just in case I’d left it in my desk drawer or purse. Except…everything has a place. I take everything out of my purse now. I can see everything in my desk drawer and I know the things in there. It only took a quick mental sweep to realize there was no point to me searching. I knew I didn’t have it. And I didn’t – we found it later with Jason’s stuff. The point is: I knew exactly where all my stuff was. Without having to look. And that is an awesome feeling.

Posted in Book Talk, Wellness | Tagged KonMari | 9 Comments

Wellness Wednesday #4: Invisible

Posted on September 23, 2015 by Thistle

With this whole KonMari project going on, I’ve been thinking a lot about happiness lately. Happiness and decision-making, happiness vs functionality, happiness in body image, etc. Today I want to discuss happiness, clothes, shame, invisibility, and PTSD.

True Confessions
Choosing and wearing clothes that make me happy is a relatively foreign concept for me. Generally, I’ve chosen clothes that are functional, practical, average, “normal,” muted, shielding, and that lend themselves to invisibility. No one pays attention to your clothes when you wear a plain t-shirt and generic jeans, you know? And if your clothes make you invisible, no one truly looks at you.

PTSD made invisibility a relief. All the bullying in adolescence changed me from a happy, confident extrovert to a silent, hyper-vigilant introvert. As a child, my parents laughingly nicknamed me “bucket-mouth” because I never shut up. In middle school, I would go days – weeks – only speaking if directly addressed by teachers. As an adult, I began to regain my natural extroversion, but I still strove for invisibility, especially when obese. One of my reasons for wanting to lose weight involved wishing to be visible/invisible by chose (impossible when morbidly obese).

I gained a certain amount of confidence as I lost weight, and began exploring my personal style. Mostly, though, I continued to dress nondescript. Clothing can make you super visible, and while I loved my style, it was too anxiety-inducing to dress that way all the time. My outfits, shoes, accessories, bags, and makeup continued to trend toward the invisible. One of the most difficult parts of the KonMari clothing portion was dealing with clothes that made me “safe” instead of “happy.” Nearly all my clothes fall into the former category. If I got rid of all the socks that didn’t bring me joy, for instance, I’d literally have no socks. My socks are practical and safe, not fun or joyous.

But I want my clothes to bring me joy. All my clothes. When I wear clothes that make me happy, I feel more confident, and love myself more – regardless of my size and regardless of what people think of me. It might take me some time to get to where I can dress this way all the time – clothes are expensive, and exposure is hard – but I hope to be there one day.

1. The only way I liked this first dress was with a jacket, making it look boyish. Never wore it in public. 2. Love cargo shorts/pants and clomper boots and boys’ clothing. 3. Loved this sleeveless sweater hoodie, too, but never managed to wear it outside the house.

1. This shirt was so much fun, but I knew I’d never wear it in public so I didn’t buy it. 2. I could only wear this dress for Halloween. 3. Loved this sweater, but the color made me too conspicuous, so I only wore it indoors.

1. Hoodie with built-in fingers, yay! 2. I never wore this hat in public despite loving it. 3. Not a fan of tights, but if I’d gotten the right leggings, this third outfit would have been fantastic, though still an indoors outfit…

1. Love layers but they make me feel fat and self-conscious. 2. This coat made me feel like Snape! But it also made me feel fat, so I never wore it. 3. Cargo pants and rusty-orange shirt made me feel fantastic but (again) too self-conscious. Sigh.

This is kinda like my personal fashion pinterest board, since I don’t actually have pinterest.

*****
Dear younger Manda,

I totally understand why you wear clothes that make you invisible. I understand your self-doubt, your fear of making fashion faux-pas, your fear of teasing and peer-abuse. If I could reach back in time and give you a long, long hug, I would. But let me tell you something important:

When you wear clothes that are “normal” or like everyone else, but that also make you uncomfortable, you are going to look uncomfortable. When you love the clothes you wear, regardless of what anyone else thinks about them, you’re going to feel fantastic. Take a chance, find what you love, and start living out loud. No matter your size. No matter how people judge you. No matter what anyone thinks. I know it’s hard to believe me, but really, people react far more to how you feel about what you’re wearing than to the clothes themselves.

Love, modern-day Manda

Posted in Wellness | Tagged body image, KonMari, psychology, Wellness Wednesday | 8 Comments

Top Ten Books on my Fall TBR

Posted on September 22, 2015 by Thistle

I’ve been listing my top ten seasonal TBR piles for the last year, and not once have I read more than 3-4 books off the list. Heh. Maybe this will be the season I break that pattern – especially since some of these are for RIP, and some are new books out by authors I love! In no particular order:

1. It was Me All Along by Andie Mitchell – Amanda from Fig and Thistle recommended this back when I reviewed Fat Girl Walking, and I hope it’s just as good!

2. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling – another blogger recommendation, this time from Allie of A Literary Odyssey, that I hope will be an awesome audiobook. **Also ETA: Allie’s list this morning reminded me that I didn’t put Winter by Marissa Meyer in my top ten TBR for this fall. I really ought to have – it would increase my changes of reading even more of the list!! Because that one will definitely be read.

3. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – my traditional RIP reread!

4. The Marvels by Brian Selznick – Yay for more Selznick!

5. Uprooted by Naomi Novak – another RIP read that thankfully is finally on its way to me from the library!

6. Honor Girl by Maggie Thrash – graphic novel memoir, so I’m not sure if it’ll work for me, but let’s hope so!

7. Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith – next in the series

8. Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson – While I’m a huge fan of this particular trilogy opener (Alloy of Law), I hope that it gets better, and I do love the world it’s set in.

9. Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson – new series opener

10. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo – new series opener

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged lists | 2 Comments

Gentlemen and Players, by Joanne Harris

Posted on September 21, 2015 by Thistle

St. Oswald’s Grammar School for Boys has withstood so much, from curriculum modernization to the dwindling of funds to a series of scandals buried as deep as the Board of Governors can dig. Roy Straitly has been teaching Latin there for the last thirty-three years, and nothing, he thinks, can phase him. But there’s a newbie at St. Oswald’s, seemingly innocuous and hidden in plain sight, determined to bring out old scandals while destroying the school from within. Straightly and Snyde go head to head in alternating chapters of this cat-and-mouse game.

I first experienced this book back in September 2012, on audio, for a book club. The twists in it blew me away, and I ended up going back to read it a second time in print. I wasn’t really reviewing books at the time, so my thoughts on the book consisted of only a sentence or two. My plan was to reread this one for RIP this year and mini-review it with some other rereads near the end of the event. However, a great chunk of my potential RIP reads didn’t end up working for me, and after a bunch of misses, I decided to download the audio of G&P and re-listen. Yes, despite the fact that I’d just read it. In other words, I’ve literally read this book twice in print and listened twice on audio in the last three years. Why, you may ask? Well, this (my favorite quote) might give you a hint:

A pity he has to go, really; but as my old dad might have said, you can’t make an omelet without killing people.

The whole book is filled with a light morbid humor that has me giggling constantly. Much of the narration reminded me of Nabokov’s work, which is not praise I hand out often or lightly. The characters are immaculately drawn, and I sympathize with them all (even the sociopath). I loved the back-and-forth narration, getting inside the heads of both narrators, especially the unreliable narrator. I can’t say much about the plot without giving away spoilers, but I will say it’s hands-down the most engaging mystery I’ve ever read. The big twist was completely unexpected the first time, and makes for a wonderful dual-reading-experience on follow-up reads.

Additionally, the book works well in both print and audio. While the audio, read by Stephen Pacey, is not my favorite ever, it’s still very good, and almost makes my top list of audios.

Now, I’m going to do something a little unusual with this review. My original experience listening to it was a bit unusual, but it’s not an experience I can discuss without spoilers. Because my original “review” (ie two sentences) is sitting on The Zen Leaf basically as a placeholder, I’m going to use that post to hold a spoilerific discussion of Gentlemen and Players, while using this as the primary review. So if you’re interested in spoilers, don’t care about spoilers, or have already read this book, feel free to link out to my 2012 post about Gentlemen and Players!

Posted in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2020, 2025, 2026, Adult, Prose | Tagged audio, callback, favorite, memorable, multi-read, psychology, reread, RIP-worthy, WTF moments | 9 Comments

Sunday Coffee – Bountiful (2)

Posted on September 20, 2015 by Thistle

Well. I had no idea when I typed up last week’s Bountiful post that this would be another very bountiful week! I admit to being quite grateful for it, as it’s also been a kinda wretched week in other ways, including sickness in the house, prolonged ankle pain, medicinal withdrawal side effects, and feeling rather vague as to direction now that I’m starting over in a lot of ways. But I don’t want to talk about the negatives. I’d rather focus on the small (and large) happinesses that came my way this week.

They began on Monday. My September Ipsy glambag arrived! This month, unlike last month, I loved nearly everything I received. The brow powder did me no good – my eyelashes are so thick and dark that even the darkest powder made no change – but the eyeliner and eye shadow were both amazing. The body lotion was a bit overpowering in coconut scent, and I prefer to keep using my cocoa butter. The moisturizer, on the other hand, was quick-absorbing and smelled amazing, like Fruity Pebbles, ha! Since my cocoa butter smells like Cocoa Pebbles, I’m a fully-Pebbled person right now, heehee. Additionally, my kitty loved the smells, the colors worked really well for my skin tone, and I got this great collage of makeup-me and purring-kitty out of all this:

Later that same evening, our couch finally arrived. Couch saga: We got rid of our old couch before moving back. We bought a lovely chaise-sofa and matching armchair when we arrived. The sofa broke within a week (literally one of the internal beams split in two). We brought it back and exchanged it. A few days later, the new sofa broke in exactly the same way. Obviously, this was a design flaw. We took sofa-and-armchair back to the store for full refund, and we shopping again. We picked out a rocker armchair/recliner and a couch, but both were on back-order and had to be shipped. The rocker arrived at the end of August, but the couch didn’t arrive until this past Monday. We were without living room furniture for over a month! I am quite happy to be with-furniture again, I admit, and the cute throw-blanket we found at the thrift store matches the new couch quite well!

The living room is looking quite complete now. Even more so with the addition of a new TV. This was a surprise for me that Jason brought home a few days ago. Our old TV was very small, and that’s always been okay. We didn’t need a larger one, by any stretch of the imagination. But the boys kept talking about wishing we had one larger for playing Mariocart and Super Smash Bros and all the rest of their Wii games, and we’ve been enjoying a lot of NCIS and Downton Abbey and various movies, so Jason wanted to give us all a nice treat. (So sweet of him!) The little TV moved to my bedroom dresser, and the big TV now frames the corner of the room.

Additionally, he brought home a few little seasonal treats for me on the day when I was feeling awful. An owl-shaped Tuscany candle with “monster cookie” scented wax now sits in my living room. A red-and-gold paisley tablecloth (that the kitten keeps dragging off the table, ha!) brightens the dining room. It’s looking quite cozy and autumn-like here, despite the still-high temps. I love it. 🙂

Posted in Personal | Tagged house, Sunday Coffee | 10 Comments

KonMari, Part V: Sentimental Items

Posted on September 18, 2015 by Thistle

The last culling segment of the KonMari method, in my Great Tidy-My-Life Project, involves sentimental items. This was a pretty quick segment for me, and not nearly as difficult as I expected it to be. Supposedly, this is because by now, my decision-making skills and joy-finding skills are honed. I don’t think that was the case here, though, particularly as I feel like I’m still in the process of learning what makes me happy.

I am extremely attached to memories. I’m not a hoarder or a packrat, and I don’t keep everything that has the slightest sentimental value. However, I’m the sort of person who, for example, took twelve rolls of film to France with me for my six-week study abroad program in 1999, and ended up buying an additional thirteen rolls while there. To give another example, I’ve kept nearly every picture taken with/of ex-partners or ex-friends. I may not want to be with them anymore, but those are still my memories, and I don’t treat that lightly. In other words, I can be a bit insistent about holding onto things, and a little stubborn about letting things go.

At the same time, my grasp on old things isn’t a way to cling to the past. I don’t hold onto pictures of an ex or letters from a childhood friend because I wish I was still in that time period, or with that particular person. Not in the least. I have pictures of people I have no desire to ever see again, and it makes me happy to see those photos. I don’t know if this will make sense to anyone else, but for some reason, holding on to particular things actually helps me to separate myself from my past and put it behind me. And I don’t hold everything forever. When an object loses feeling, then it’s time for me to let it go. Every few years, I dig through my memory-objects and let go of those that no longer feel like part of my life.

Still, there was a lot to go through. I decided to save all the electronic stuff (you know, the 10,000+ photos scanned into my computer…) for another time, especially since I just culled through all my photos a couple years ago when I digitized them all. Not including digital files, keepsakes still took up a great deal of my space:

several large Tupperwares
one giant Tupperware (trunk-sized)
a traveling trunk that I’ve had since college
three large boxes, each one designated for a different child
a closet shelf full of albums, journals, books, yearbooks, etc
a large bag of old artwork

Items in these locations included so much: childhood picture books, funny school reports and projects, the first bound book I put together in fourth grade, my competitive swimming medals and ribbons, old letters, memorabilia from my favorite band, coin collections and foreign money, my childhood My Little Pony collection, the hand-drawn decorations from my wedding reception, etc. It also included some of the most ridiculous keepsakes that I’ve continued to keep purely for their ridiculousness.

Example: I have a white rock that is scribbled all over with pencil. Why did I keep it? Because back in either fourth or sixth grade – I can’t even remember – that pencil was given to me by a boy I liked. That scribbling came from a pencil once owned by a crush. I’m not even sure which crush. All I know is that the marked-up-rock is so ridiculous that it became a part of who I am today, and every time I look at that stupid thing, it makes me giggle. It became more than a lovelorn keepsake, just by the pure measure of me keeping it for a couple decades. On par with this example is the phone number that a friend, Stephen Camlin, gave me at the end of second grade, because his family was moving that summer. I never saw or spoke to Stephen again, but I still have the note for the sheer ridiculousness of having it.

It didn’t take me long to realize something important while going through keepsakes. They were doing me no good stuffed inside a box or trunk. I love these things, and I want to be able to see them far more often than a glance over ever year or two. At the same time, I don’t need to set a penciled-rock on my dresser, or tack a nearly-thirty-year-old note to my wall. You know what I can do, though? Take pictures. I don’t need the physical object of some of these things. Seeing them pop up on my screensaver or desktop background – both set to rotate my photos – will bring me joy every single time.

I used this method a lot: old art, old stuffed animals that the boys loved as toddlers, old baby clothes, all my old medals/awards, old comics cutouts, old pillowcases and elementary school shirts long past ever using again… These things live inside me, yes, and now they will live in my computer, too, popping out to remind me of these things that make me smile despite how old, musty, broken, worn, and useless they’ve become. These new photos will bring me so much joy, and take up no physical space at all, and won’t be hidden away in a box somewhere. It’s wonderful.

(used to be stuffed – empty now)

The one place that did give me pause on this part of the journey was my My Little Pony collection. When we lived in our last house in Texas, there was a shelf lining the top of one wall, with a picket fence decorative edge. (It was there when we moved in, along with a lot of other chintzy things…) I kept my ponies and other keepsakes up there, where I could see them every day. When we moved to Boston, I put the ponies in a box, and there was never any place to put them in the apartment we rented. I brought them back to Texas with me, and they’ve stayed in their box. I figured that I hadn’t missed them, and I should let them go out in the world to make others happy.

I lined them up, took their photo, and put them into the donate pile. I felt wretched doing so, and Jason said, why didn’t we just build our own shelf, like in the old house, and keep the ponies? It was a wonderful idea, and so I pulled the pony-box out of the donate pile. Later, I realized I hadn’t gone through my collection one by one. When I did so, I discovered that only ten of the thirty-or-so ponies actually brought me joy, and I kept those ten, letting the others go. That didn’t make me feel wretched at all. For a moment, though, I’d forgotten that I couldn’t go through things in batches. I had to touch them one by one, and really, that made a world of difference.

All of my keepsakes are important to me, and so my way of getting rid of these was slightly different from in other categories. I could thank my clothes and books, and send them off with love. With my keepsakes, though, I couldn’t just say thank you. I had to kiss every single one of them, and hug them to my chest, and tell them how much I loved them. Maybe that’s silly, but I felt so much better when I did it, as if it was time to truly say goodbye.

Posted in Book Talk, Personal, Wellness | Tagged KonMari | 13 Comments

Wellness Wednesday #3: Choosing Happiness

Posted on September 16, 2015 by Thistle

In the spring of 1999, a professor came to my French course to advertise that summer’s abroad program in Bourges. I loved the idea, but my boyfriend objected, and I discovered I could only get financial aid in the form of a loan. Reluctantly, I let the idea drop. A couple months later, the professor came again. I saw pictures of Bourges and fell in love. Despite my boyfriend’s protests, I took out a loan and signed up to go. Not long after, I was on my way to France.

It was the best decision I’ve ever made in my entire life.

If I had to pin down the happiest, freest, most life-affirming part of my personal history, those six weeks in France would be it. In that time, I lived solely for myself. I surrounded myself with things and people and places I loved. I had adventures and romances. I left my old, worn-out, dysfunctional relationship while I was there, and I met my future husband over email through a mutual friend. I spent a hushed night in a couchette with a Venetian who didn’t speak a word of English (we communicated in broken French). I ate tons of chocolate croissants and jars of yogurt and plates of fries. I laughed so much that my stomach hurt, walked miles over cobblestones daily, and cut short the hair I’d kept long for too many years at my ex’s urging.

I have no regrets about the spur of the moment decision I made to join last-minute the program in Bourges. It may not have been practical, and other people were unhappy about it, but the decision made me happy. That was my only criteria. Everything else screamed no. My happiness screamed yes. For once, I listened to my heart.

True Confessions
That decision was the first I can ever remember making purely on the basis of what would make me happy. I was twenty years old. Furthermore, very few decisions I’ve made in the sixteen years since have been rooted primarily – much less solely – in happiness.

This has really only come to my attention recently. I’m used to making practical decisions, or ones based on necessity, or based on the best outcome for everyone else, or based on how people will judge me for it. My happiness rarely weighs in. But therapy and recent decisions have made me evaluate why I do the things I do.

Why did I choose paralegal studies? Because it was a career that wouldn’t make me feel embarrassed or inferior to admit to. WRONG. Why did I lose over 100 lbs? Because I could feel the weight of others’ judgement. WRONG. Why did I keep going to a therapist for two months when her office made me deeply uneasy and didn’t help a bit? Because I didn’t want to hurt her feelings by leaving. WRONG. Why do I refuse to self-publish? Because people would think I’m not a “real” writer if I do. WRONG. And so on.

I have a lot of decisions to make about my future right now. I dropped my paralegal course and my current therapist, and need to find new directions in both those areas. I need to decide about going back to school, and what to study, and how to move forward with my writing. I need to figure out how to balance weight loss and loving myself. But I don’t want to make any of these decisions the way I used to. I want my personal happiness, peace, and enjoyment to be a big part of that decision-making process.

*****
Dear younger Manda,

You are an extremely practical, sensible person, and I applaud you for taking a more cautious, less Gryffindor-ish approach to life. Rushed, thoughtless decisions generally make for a lot of pain and regrets. Sometimes, however, you overthink things. Sometimes, it’s okay to just let go and do things that you suspect you will love. Perhaps allow your heart to have more say in your decisions. It’s okay to have some regrets. Without them, you’ll just end up having regrets for not doing things you wished you’d done.

Love, modern-day Manda
PS – Go to Bourges.

Posted in Wellness | Tagged psychology, Wellness Wednesday | 11 Comments

Top Ten “In Spite of the Cover” Books

Posted on September 15, 2015 by Thistle

We’re always taught never to judge a book by its cover, but nearly everyone does. If we didn’t, there wouldn’t be whole divisions of employees at publishing companies carefully crafting book covers to appeal to specific markets. All you have to do is look at the Twilight-esque versions of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights in the YA section of bookstores to know that cover art is important for marketing. We are influenced by what these books look like – and sometimes, really great books get rejected because the covers turn us off. Today, I want to talk about the best of them, books that should be read despite awful covers.

(Note: Please don’t take any of the following as snarky, rude commentary. I say this all in a lovingly playful teasing manner, because I adore each and every one of these books, and their covers.)

– Genre-Cheesy: Think about all those books out there that miss out on a more general market due to extremely cheesy genre marketing. Examples:

1. Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson – What is up with the 80’s porn-star vomiting rainbows? I’ll take the British version of the book, thank you very much.

2. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones – I can see how some cover versions of this would appeal to children, but there has got to be a better way to portray the spirit of this book that would reach a larger readership!

3. the Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger – I thought these covers were for the mass market versions only, but no. They’re just that cheesy. Even though I had solid recommendations from people I trusted, I still almost didn’t read them, and avoided them for years.

– Nondescript: It’s like some artists just can’t come up with an idea, and say f-this, let’s just put some words there and hope people will buy it. Examples:

4. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke – This book is full to the brim of amazing imagery and that’s its cover??

5. The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling – Considering all the resources Rowling has and all the faith that the publishing industry has put into her, I have to wonder if she specifically asked for nondescript here.

– Wrong Story: Sometimes I see a cover, then read a book, then wonder WTF was going on with that cover, because it seems like it’s advertising an entirely different plot… Example:

6. Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy – There are plenty of different covers for this one, of course, but the one I first got my hands on was this one. The story does not have a turkey in it. Or hunters. Or pretty much anything that’s in this picture. I kinda think they just chose a generic classic painting to slap on a classic novel…

– Wrong Genre: Ever pick up a book that you think you’ll like from the cover, only to discover it was in an entirely different genre than you expected? This is like that, only reversed. Examples:

7. Crossed Wires by Rosy Thornton – This cover looks like straight-out chick-lit. The story isn’t in any way like chick-lit. It’s subtle and literary and deals with hard issues and is a fantastic cultural portrayal of two different kinds of lives in Britain. I mourn for this cover because it turns so many readers off. Boo!

8. Rowan the Strange by Julie Hearn – If I had not been assigned to read this book, I never would have picked it up. I expected RL Stine paranormal cheesiness. But instead, it’s psychological war drama. And fantastic.

– Ugly: Of course, everyone has a different definition of ugly, and what appeals to one person might not to another. But there are still some books that I desperately wish had more appealing covers! Examples:

9. Germinal by Emile Zola – Yes, I know, the story is about coal miners, and this cover is appropriate. But the drudgery of it just doesn’t do Zola justice! The book isn’t a drudge! It’s exciting and shocking and riveting and beautiful and tear-jerking, and this cover does not say any of those things!

10. The Giver by Lois Lowry – I avoided this book for years because of the cover. I would have never guessed from it the mystery, the fear, the elegance of world-building that’s in here. I understand the cover, but man it’s ugly…

(Again, please remember that I’m totally being facetious here. Totally not making fun of anyone or any book!!)

What are some of your favorite books with awful covers, or at very least, covers you wish could be redesigned?

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged lists | 8 Comments

The Girl at Midnight, by Melissa Grey (audio)

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Thistle

Echo has been raised by Avicen, a race of bird-like creatures living outside human society. Though raised by them, Echo is not fully accepted, since she’s human, and so she’s willing to work to gain their respect. She agrees to go after a weapon the Avicen can use against the Drakharin (dragon-like creatures) in their centuries-old war. Unfortunately, she ends up on a deadly scavenger hunt with an unlikely set of tentative allies. (This is a terrible summary. GoodReads does better.)

I’m not sure where I heard of this book, but I grabbed up the audio version months ago with the intention of saving it for RIP season. By the time I tentatively hit “play” on September 1st, I was pretty sure this book and I were not going to get along. I worried that it would be too surface-level for me, when I’ve been wanting thicker fantasy this season. However, I was hooked right away, and found myself racing through the book and (again) desperately wishing the sequel was out already.

The elements in this book aren’t exactly brand new. This is not a criticism – let me make that clear right away. In fact, I marvel at how the author turned so many commonly used fictional elements (scavenger hunt, teenage orphan, magical races at war, a legend most people don’t believe in, misfits, prejudice based on looks/race, living in a library, etc) into something so unique and beautiful. I loved the writing, the characters, the various ways in which love manifests itself, the friendships (longstanding and unlikely), the fact that killing isn’t glorified (and is actively un-glorified), and so much more.

I found myself thinking quite often of Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bones series, which is one of my all time favorite YA fantasy series. Many of the elements are the same – human raised by a magical race in a war with another race, star-crossed love, a secret behind the human’s existence, a band of unlikely allies…etc. After I finished this book, in fact, I saw that 1) Daughter of Smoke and Bone is referred to in the GoodReads description, and 2) a lot of people criticize the book for being too similar to it, as if this is just a recycled, inferior version. I’ll say flat-out that I disagree with these criticisms, though I agree the comparison is apt. Yes, the two books are similar, but are unique enough that they can both be good without trying to out-rank each other. Both deserve to be read. That’s all I’m going to say about that.

This was my third RIP books so far, and man I’m having a good RIP season! This one is fantastic. Highly recommended, especially on audio!

Performance: The audiobook was narrated by Julia Whalen. It was my first experience with Whalen, and she did a wonderful job. I loved all the voices she chose, each of them fitting the characters’ personalities perfectly. I hope she does the sequel, too, because I will definitely be getting that one on audio!

Posted in 2015, 2017, Prose, Young Adult | Tagged atmospheric, audio, LGBTQIA, reread, RIP-worthy, speculative | 6 Comments

Sunday Coffee – Bountiful

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Thistle

That’s a new coffee mug I’m holding, one of many wonderful things I received this week. Cool story:

The San Antonio Public Library system has summer reading programs every summer. I didn’t know until recently that there was not just a program for kids, but one for teens and one for adults. How many books required for the adult program? Four. Any four books you want to read. Easiest contest ever, right? So sure, I entered. I figured that whatever prize – if I happened to win – would be mostly library swag, like rubber bracelets and library pencils and maybe a t-shirt. I’d forgotten about the prize drawing altogether by the time I got the phone call on Wednesday afternoon telling me I’d won.

Now, I didn’t get all that excited, to be honest. I kinda wondered if I was the only person to enter at my branch. I know a couple librarians and have been told in the past that adult entries are sparse-to-nil. So really, I may have been the only entrant. Either way, winning is fun! Especially when your prize pack isn’t just library swag. Sure, there was a library t-shirt, but there was also a gift card to Half Price Books, a coffee mug, headphones, a Fiesta medal (San Antonio tradition), and an awesome bag (just in time for NaNoWriMo prep!). Ironically, my oldest son heard that I’d won and told me that “the library guy” (no idea who that is) told him the adult prize pack was “really lame.” Methinks the child has no idea what library budgets are like, because this was well and truly beyond anything I expected!

But that’s not all! That same day – Wednesday afternoon was kinda awesome, making up for a kinda horrid morning – a package arrived for me. I’d known Jason had bought something for me, but I never expected what was inside: THE RAVEN CYCLE TAROT DECK FROM MAGGIE STIEFVATER!!!!! So of course, the very first thing I did after ripping off the plastic covering was to go digging for the Eight of Swords.

The Eight of Swords is my card. The Ryder-Waite description doesn’t do much for me – bad news, conflict, censure. Meh. This card chose me (much like a wand chooses the wizard!) after I acquired the Medieval Scapini deck. The picture to the right is of the Scapini Eight of Swords. I don’t see this as bad news or conflict. I call this the blindness card. It’s a card of paralysis – making your own prison. Because really, the imprisoned figure is held by bars so far apart that he could simply walk away, and yet, he refuses to look up. He keeps himself imprisoned.

As I said before, this is my card. I am the master at paralysis and self-imprisonment. Example: “I have four submission-condition novels that I’d like to start sending to agents. But I don’t know if I should send them all out to different agents, because what if more than one agent likes a different novel and wants to acquire? But if I only focus on one novel, maybe that one will never get chosen, and I’ll just get discouraged. And even if I do focus on only one, maybe I should only send to a couple agents and wait to hear back, because if I don’t hear back, I can’t send the other novels out to other agents in the meantime, and…” You get the picture. I can talk my way in circles over food, jobs, exercise, even which book to pick up next. It reminds me of a quote from my favorite band: “Paint myself into a corner. I really like the color.” Yeah.

So you can see why I went immediately for the Eight of Swords in this Raven Cycle deck. I needed to know. And the moment I found it, I let out an audible gasp. Not only does Stiefvater also treat this card as paralysis and self-blinding behavior, the way I’ve always viewed it, but the image includes a left hand/arm with a tattooed infinity sign on the wrist. And where, my friends, have we seen that before? Oh yeah!

I am in love.

The rest of the deck is just as beautiful. And each card has a long explanation actually tied to the art, which makes learning tarot about a thousand times easier! Fantastic gift. Totally made my Wednesday.

Lastly, while it’s not a “thing,” I am so happy to have the first cool front of the season come through. This morning, it actually got into the 60s! It feels so very beautiful, and looks it, too:

I might just have to start taking my laptop and coffee out to the porch on Sundays to do my blogging if the weather is this marvelous!

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged Sunday Coffee, tarot | 17 Comments