Things that are better done alone

Things that are better done alone:

1) reading. One can catch up on a lot of books when not being pestered by others

2) movies. No arguing over what film to watch and no one to hog the popcorn or drink all the soda.

3) hobbies. I have done one painting and two drawing in less than five hours. Talk about productive

4) Netflix. Binging care free and no one scoffing because you want to watch Pride&Prejudice or Love Actually......again.

5) shopping. No one to hold the purse, BUT instead you go to whatever store you want and you don't feel guilty about how much you paid for your shoes, what size your clothes is (did they see me head for the sales rack and grab the XL?), or how long you take at Sephora finding just the right shade.

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Looking at the world from the bottom of a well

The worst lies are those we tell ourselves. Like GiGi, I recite the mantra in my head lest I forget; I am the rule, not the exception. I am the rule. Not the exception.

I had just forgotten what it was like to be alone. For a brief time at least, I was the girl being envied. I was incandescently, indescribably happy. Not one week ago I had told myself how great this year was because I finally got everything I ever wanted. Such a delusional sucker.

"How do you know, when to let go? Where does the good go?"


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2B02B

This was only my second ever Kurt Vonnegut read and the first one was about 20 years ago and it was a short story that stuck with me to this day. In a world of perfection with no sickness, balanced life, no old age or death, a world of population control....what is a man to do when his wife gives birth to triplets? For every person brn, there must be a person who volunteers to die. To die, people call the 2B02B pronounced "to be, naught to be" line and get scheduled for a humane gas chamber death. It helps control population and resources and is one of the key elements that keep Utopia running. But at what price. The new dad only has one volunteer ready to die. He now has to choose which baby will live.

I was not expecting the ending, and had to re-read it twice to make sure I didn't miss something. Super quick, short read, I recommend to any dystopian society book lover

Ender's Game

I really enjoyed this book. It took me longer than expected to finish, not because it was boring or hard, but because I kept feeling bad for everything ender had to go through. He was just a baby when he was plucked from his home and the experiences they threw at him to help mold him into who he needed to be were harsh. Maybe that's just me who is an adult woman feeling not only empathy but maternal feelings for this poor boy. 

I wish I HAD read this book as a child, it's so empowering for children. As adults, I think we forget what it was like to be a kid what we could handle and how we viewed and understood the world. Everything is different, morals, ethics, relationships, love, education...there is so much we gain by becoming adults, we can't help but want to grow up as soon as possible, but there is also so much we lose that we can't get back because we forget.

I think I might have over thought the story? Lol! Whatever, I thoroughly enjoyed it and can't wait to see the movie.

Pirates for adventure and de-stressing

Heart of Steel by Meljean Brooks:

Just the swashbuckling book I needed to de-stress and have an adventure. Of course the fact that the story had zombies, airships, pirates, rebels, and nonoagents helped. I knew I liked Yasmeen and Fox from The Iron Duke, and I'm glad they got their own story. Lots of intrigue, mystery, adventure and romance.. The ending was a little sappy for me, but still good.

The best part of this book is the beautifully immersive world building Brooks does. The characters are defined and likeable. There is also lots of history and back story that makes you buy in and care. Lots of alternate history for Europe and the East, as well as for Africa.

I love that Brooks' protagonists are not ur typical blond blue eyed English women, even though the first book centered England as its main home. Mina was mixed with Hord blood and has Mongolian features. And Yasmeen is African American. Of course, I picture whatever I like in my head, but it's nice when an author gives me more than basic cookie-cutter characters.

All of that being said, don't judge this book by its atrocious cover! It doesn't even have enough sexy time to warrant it. Who is that supposed to be anyways? Fox? Pass. There is sexual and romantic tension, and some sexy time, but it's pretty minimal and the adventure and plot weave it in quite nicely. Easy, quick, distracting, entertaining, and surprisingly sweet read.

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Encrypted by Lindsay Buroker....waters unknown!

I was originally drawn by the cover. After only a cursory glance at the description, I bought the book knowing only that the protagonist was kidnapped from her parents home for her gift with languages to decipher cryptic codes. The whole time, I thought it was a YA and that's really what made me want to read it (check my shelves, I'm all about YA) but it wasn't until the first 5 chapters I realized I was WAY off and read the actual descriptions and reviews.

To my surprise, I was pleasantly surprised to have stumbled on to my first adult Fantasy/Sci-Fi book. Being a recent fan of The Sword and Laser on Goodreads and listening to them describe these genre books, I've been meaning to read one, and I could not have picked a better one to start off with!

Tikaya DOES get kidnapped from her parents home, but she is a 30 year old woman whose fiancée was killed in this war a nation known as Turgonians started, which meant to take over her islands. During the war she was recruited to decipher war messages against them and was a key part in their stalemate and failure. After the war and the death of her fiancée, she goes back to the island, but can't make herself go back to the polytechnic school she used to work at and instead stays helping her family in their rum business. In her land and to the Nurians (the other nation that she helped) she is a hero, but to the Turgonians, she is evil incarnate and public enemy #1. When they kidnap her, everyone treats her like crap, she is hated by everyone of the Turgonian marines and the captain and if not for a fellow prisoner speaking up and distracting them, would have been raped and abused on her first night on their ship. The captain is kind of an idiot, but he is determined to guarantee her compliance to translate these weird ciphers and tells her that although her fate is decided for her war crimes against The Empire, her compliance will keep her family alive. With no choice, Tikaya starts trying to figure out the new language. One night, working on trying to make an ally of her fellow prisoner, she realizes he has seen the ciphers before. The integer level rises. Can she trust this guy with no name except for Number 5? What are the ciphers and what language is it they are trying to get her to unlock? Worse yet, why do they want it and why do her previous allies, the Nurians, wants her dead because of it?

I thought the book would get too Sci-Fi-ey and kinda lose my interest, but it didn't. It had action and adventure, mystery and puzzles, even romance (which totally won me over). And the best part was that it was written so well, I could almost picture everything like movie scenes. Best movie I imagined in quite a while!

Would love to read more from this author and definately recommend to those wanting to test the waters in this genre. I hope there is a spin off where we get to know more about Sicarius. A baby faced assassin is just to good to ignore.


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The oddessy

This is the oldest story we have as a race, and it has got to be the first and oldest Mary Sue. So....Odysseus is gone ten years battling at Troy and FINALLY the war ends but it takes him another ten years to get back. He is "brave and heroic" but really came across as a braggart and d-bag. He EXPECTS people to offer him hospitality and offer him presents, he is a CONSTANT liar. Even when he gets home, he lies about who he is to Minerva until he realizes who she is. (Never trust a man that can lie so easy.)

He is cursed for having blinded the cyclops son of Neptune. (one of his heroic deeds) But, he gets to the island of this cyclops because of his own curiosity. His men had originally landed on a neighbor island where they ate wild sheep and goats. When they see the giant's house and treasures, he wants to wait for him to see if he can get presents, then he tries to bully him telling him that if he doesn't, Jove, the guardian of travelers will punish him. WTH? if I was the cyclops I would have killed the little d-bag too. Here the poor cyclops is minding his own business tending to his pets and this guy wants presents? Well, Odysseus blinds him after getting him drunk and escapes, but not before bragging to the giants. This is why he is cursed. The cyclops prays to his father, the sea god for punishment. He deserved getting punished, if u ask me.

But what a horrible punishment too, he wanders the ocean to and for landing on islands that always seem to have beautiful Nymphs, or Princesses, or Enchantresses that are just dying for some hunky loving and end up head over heels for him wanting him to stay. (calypso MAKES him stay on her island, living as a god with her forcing him to eat her food and have sex with her for years...)

Any advancementt he makes is due to the instructions of others, Minerva, Circe, Hermes....etc. His bad luck he blames on others (mostly his men) but seemed to me, as the result of his lazy butt falling asleep. ( when the crew releases the wind from the bag that makes a storm that throws them off course, when they are on the island of Apollo and the men kill the sacred cows cuz he's meditating). The fault always falls on some one else. The curse if because of the sea god. He is held up because of Calypso.....whine whine whine....bitch bitch bitch......

The icing on the cake, though, is the fact that he finally wants to get home because he misses his land and belongings. Not because he misses his wife and son. Wow. When he goes to Hades and speaks to the dead, his questions are all about wether his wife is true to him and taking care of his property and if his son is still holding his belongings.

Could a man be more self-centered? Why do we revere and praise this guy as a hero? The ONLY reason this book gets any star, is because I love Greek mythology. I thought, like with other classics I'm reading or re-reading as an adult, maybe I can interpret it differently and appreciate it better, whereas I might not have as a teen. Nope. Book sucks. I don't care if it is a classic and the oldest recorded story of man. It is a Mary-sue of wishful thinking and just as I would harshly judge a contemporary piece that replaces good story with fluff, I gladly shuffle this book back under my coffee table, hoping it does a better job of keeping my drinks from sliding to the floor, than it did at entertaining me.


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