Love, Lydia - Notes from a geeky, plus sized artist.: July 2014

Saturday, July 12, 2014

June/July Books!

Hi folks,

June was a good month for reading, however July might beat it.  After over a year and a half of living in Raleigh I finally got a library card July 3rd.  I strongly believe that the reason it took me this long is because my husband decided to use his library card as an ice scraper this winter completely destroying it, leading to him not really wanting to go and ask for a new one.  It was just too much bother.  I ultimately got Bryan to take me to a library by finding a great trivia night event to go to for our double date night with his younger brother Davey & Davey's girlfriend.  (Post trivia, which Bryan and I actually won, we headed to Mellow Mushroom for an awesome dinner.  Then we headed back to our house to introduce Davey's lady friend to some anime she would like in the form of Fruit's Basket, an all too adorable series that involves a cute overload and decent amounts of comedy to balance it out.)

Anyway, since then we've swung by the library twice and I've loaded up on books big time.  But I need to recap the June books before I get too absorbed with the news ones I've picked up.  So, as I mentioned before I was reading Pinterest Power, which I have not yet finished, and The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.  I was really enjoying The Long Earth with the aspects of possible earths, other species, and exploration with what is essentially a fully sentient android.  I was enjoying it a lot....and then it came to a fast cliffhanger ending, because it's the start of a series, which I did not realize until it was too late.  I don't really mind, but will now need to go find the next book.

Other things I've read recently are Changers: Drew Book One by T. Cooper and Allison Glock, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, The Reluctant Reaper by Gina X. Grant, and Relish by Lucy Knisley.
Changers: Book One Drew was an interesting read that revolves around the idea that a small part of the population will spend a part of their life living in different bodies to experience being both male and female, as well I would assume other races in future books.  So in part this book looks at sociological issues that accompany differences in appearance.  It's a pretty good read if the idea of being in someone else's shoes is something that intrigues you.

The Fault in Our Stars, which the recent movie of the same name was based on is a book I've been looking forward to reading for a while.  Bryan, however, had convinced me to wait until after watching the movie to read the book.  Usually I read before watching the movie, but I agreed to try out Bryan's idea this time.  I feel that the book isn't all the different from the movie, and enjoyed both pretty equally, for various reasons.  The additional characters in the books and more teenage feeling conversation between characters was an interesting contrast to the slightly older and more lonely feeling movie characters.  I like the individuals cast in the movie quite a bit though, and felt they did a great job translating the book in a way viewers could connect to.

The Reluctant Reaper was a fun little read that reminds me of the TV show Dead Like Me (a good series headed by one of my favorite writer/producers Bryan Fuller).  To summarize, a stolen soul gets sent to hell and starts to understand living for the first time.  It's a light book targeted to a YA audience, and the start of a series, which I'll probably get around to reading more of eventually.

Finally Relish by Lucy Knisley is a graphic novel I've been looking forward to reading for a while now.  The book is a bit of an autobiographical look at how Knisley grew up and the large part that food and cooking played in shaping her experiences.  There are recipes included at the end of the chapters that I look forward to trying out in the future, as this is a book I'll probably be buying soon (if it's not something I get for my birthday anyway).

I've also started reading Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northrup, Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel, The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean, and am about to pick up volumes 17 & 18 of the Fables series of graphic novels, plus many other things from the library!  All the library choices will be prioritized by what I feel like at the time, as I really like being spontaneous and having several book options available at a time so I can choose as my mood dictates.

Til next time....
Love, Lydia