Awkwardness and Characters.

So if you’ve been following my blog for a while, you know I have awkward encounters with men, usually awkward business encounters. They’re what make my life entertaining. So the other night, I’m working and I come out of a room with garbage and stuff and I put it in the trash thing and I go to mark something on our sheet. A male co-worker is there and he goes: “Sooooo, you’re a woman.” Why, yes. Thanks for noticing. “So you watch romance movies.” It was more of a statement than a question. Well, yeah, some. I don’t make a habit of it. I’m starting to get nervous, where this is going. I felt like we were going down this road where he was going to ask me out and I was scared. Let me explain. With me leaving soon, I don’t want to date. I don’t want to get emotionally involved with anyone. This guy isn’t my type either. We get along we can keep a conversation at work but he’s a little high strung? Worrisome? He’s to uptight. I am not to his extent but I’m similar. So I was worried. Mentally, I was like, I don’t want to say yes but I’ll probably say yes to be nice. But he goes on while I’m mentally panicking. “Have you seen ‘The Time-Traveler’s Wife’?” Yeah, books better. I’m still confused. “Well, I was thinking about time-travel. And I was thinking about time traveling in the past and living in the past. And I was trying to think about movies with that instead of time traveling all over the place.” Then there’s a conversation about ‘Dr. Who’ and ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’. I wish I could get non-awkward encounters.

Talking about awkward encounters, friend-ish acquaintance got yelled at twice for picking on me on Sunday. I’m amused that he gets yelled at for picking on me and no one ever catches me giving him crap right back. I can handle crap and dish it out. But I did have to laugh. He did try to protest, but there was no winning. My hypothetical damsel in distress will always trump his jester ways.

So MJ and I were emailing yesterday and we got on the subject of sex. Actually, it started off with our characters and sex and then it sort of morphed into us in a way. We also talked about drinking and what kind of alcoholics we would be/are. It’s weird how spot on we have our characters with our personalities. MJ and her character are very stubborn and would/are entertaining drunks, if in their right mind. Me and my character are the sensible ones. On the sex front, we’ve been talking about the characters actions during and around sex. The old wounds seem to come up and affect how sex happens. We’ve also been talking about characters who were supposed to be minor turning into major game changers. This subject always gets me going on a tangent. I love when there are characters introduced and you’re like “oh, minor character.” BOOM, they’re saving your life and you want to make babies with them….That may or may not be true with one of the characters in our book and me. But I love those surprises. I’m a girl that kind of, or really majorly, predicts the end of books and am usually accurate. So when these characters come up, I get a little giddy. Sometimes, in a good book, I don’t realize that the minor character becomes a major one. I had to go back and re-read our beginning of the story to remember that a major player in the story was supposed to be a minor sidekick. But really, what greater surprise is there than to have an unexpected character that you love and grows into your heart? There isn’t one at this moment. Give me a moment or two and I’ll come up with another great thing.

Talking about books, trying to get through Winter’s Tale. It’s going slow. I’m having a hard time getting past the writing.

I talked about hair the other day. I had 3 residents obsess about my hair last night when I was putting them to bed. That doesn’t happen. Is there a full moon? People freak out during full moons.

A Truth Univerally Acknowledged?

I had to get out of the house tonight. Right after a man with a fortune wanting a wife, getting out of the house every once in a while is a truth universally acknowledged. My old high school does random musicals that no one’s ever heard of in the spring and that’s what I did. Super exciting right? That’s what you do in a small town, you go to high school stuff. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t quite good either. I don’t know how to explain it though. It was good to talk to my former English teacher/drama coach/speech coach. There are worse things.

Tonight after I got back I heated some leftovers up and was talking to my parents. We started talking about something that happened in the 1980’s and being born in 1988, I sure do remember this. So I mentioned that when I was alive in the ’80’s I was kind of preoccupied with pooping, eating and sleeping. My father asked if anything had changed. “Not really, I pooped before, I’m eating now and I’m thinking about going to bed.” It’s kind of true. All I kind of want is to poop, eat and sleep. It must be tough being an infant. Maybe that should be my truth universally acknowledged. I need to center life around sleeping, eating and pooping.

Book Front: I’m trying to get through John Adams. It’s not that it’s a bad book, it’s just that with working at the home and working at home, I’m tired and need mindless entertainment or the afore mentioned sleep. I like sleep. It might be a love thing going on. I’m to tired to tell.

MJ and I are still email writing. We’re up to 74 emails and a lot of pages and words and sentences. (which is what writing and emails are generally made up of….generally?) Here’s an excerpt from my portion:

They walked down the board walk in what now was a comfortable silence. Jane didn’t know why but it bothered her that she didn’t tell Brad that she broke up with Edward. She had to tell him. “Brad, I skipped a confession back at the pizza place. I broke up with Edward after I found out he was working with Jenny.” Brad sighed and patted her hand as they walked arm in arm. He all of a sudden dropped her hand and ran into one of the stores that were scattered along the boardwalk and came out with something small. It was a small Ariel from the “Little Mermaid” doll and he handed it to her. It was Jane’s favorite movie and she loved the doll. Brad leaned in and said, “It’ll help you tread water in the hard times”. Jane was touched. They quietly walked around and finally decided to go back to the house.

Okay, granted, probably not my best writing and it probably needs to fleshed out and corrected, but give me a break. It’s my fun writing that I don’t necessarily have to flesh out and I think I can convince MJ to let me flesh this out later. Right MJ? Because I have a feeling you’re reading this. Email me MJ.

We did talk about showers and how I need a portable shower bench because when I come home from work and need a shower, I don’t want a bath but I don’t want to stand for a shower. I don’t think that portable shower benches exist. She tells me that they do. Someone research that for me so you can prove right.

I do apologize for my posts being random and not having a cohesive thought to them. But that’s my life.

The Bronze Horseman Book Review

I finished The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons tonight. I wrote that, folded my hands on the desk and sighed. How does one accurately explain how I feel about this book? I have wanted to read this book for a while and I had a gift card from Christmas so I put it on my Nook. I figured that if I didn’t like it, I could always delete it off. But I have a hard time getting rid of books, even if they’re electronic. If you haven’t heard about this book, here’s what it’s about.

The golden skies, the translucent twilight, the white nights, all hold the promise of youth, of love, of eternal renewal. The war has not yet touched this city of fallen grandeur, or the lives of two sisters, Tatiana and Dasha Metanova, who share a single room in a cramped apartment with their brother and parents. Their world is turned upside down when Hitler’s armies attack Russia and begin their unstoppable blitz to Leningrad.

Yet there is light in the darkness. Tatiana meets Alexander, a brave young officer in the Red Army. Strong and self-confident, yet guarding a mysterious and troubled past, he is drawn to Tatiana–and she to him. Starvation, desperation, and fear soon grip their city during the terrible winter of the merciless German siege. Tatiana and Alexander’s impossible love threatens to tear the Metanova family apart and expose the dangerous secret Alexander so carefully protects–a secret as devastating as the war itself–as the lovers are swept up in the brutal tides that will change the world and their lives forever.

For future reference, for this post, there will be spoilers.

I have a hard time with how I feel about this book. Remember my last post where I complain that characters in books seem to fall in love immediately? This book started that rant inside me. They ran into each other kind of by accident and then they walk a few times and bam, they’re in love. It’s so quick. Who falls in love that quick? Now don’t get me wrong, it’s a lovely love story with real problems, obstacles and there are fights between the two. But here’s my problems. First Tatiana seemed like the stupidest person alive, really immature and not ready to be in a serious relationship and then by the end of the book she was saint like and giving birth. I also felt that if they talked about her moaning during sex one more time I would have removed her voice box. Get the picture, don’t be so loud when there’s danger of people hearing you and killing the love of your life. She must have amazing breasts with how much Alexander wanted to be attached to them. But maybe he’s just a guy that likes breasts. I don’t know. How many names does that girl go by? That would drive me insane.

Alexander seems to be a great guy, does some protecting and standing up for Tatiana, loves her a lot. Good for him. But let’s really think about this. Alexander gets engaged to Dasha, Tatiana’s sister. HER SISTER! I get that characters need flaws, any kind of flaws, but really? You get engaged to the sister and the world is supposed to be okay? It would have been over for me. And he must be one hell of a lover to make Tatiana that noisy with her moaning. I did get a little annoyed with Alexander telling Tatiana to stay. Get the picture that there’s a chance she won’t stay.

I did feel bad for Tatiana. She lost her entire family. I would be devastated if I lost my family. At one point I wondered if she matured way to quickly. Then I thought about it. This is a country in war. This is a country in war that isn’t America, in the 1940’s and these people are more politically knowledgeable than I am. (or at least Alexander is) A person is going to grow up fast. So was it growing up to quick? Maybe, maybe not.

Marina, the cousin, was pointless. Someone want to explain why she was in the book?

I was fascinated by the Dimitri character. What bad thing was he going to do next? Was he going to make a pass at Tatiana or was he going to out Alexander’s secret. He is definitely a Jafar to Alexander’s Aladdin. No. Wait. That’s not an accurate analogy. Dimitri would have been the Jafar if Jafar was Aladdin’s friend-like person. What would be a good analogy for that? I don’t usually have a positive fascination with the “villain” of a story, but, I want to know why Dimitri is how he is. What makes him tick? I don’t know, but I want to know. As much of a fan I wasn’t of Tatiana’s, I did want to punch him when he made a “pass” at her near the beginning of the book.

The writing had some ups. There were some gems of lines that kept me going through the book. I like WWII history and Russia is interesting. Here are things I highlighted and commented on:

There was a section in the beginning where it talks about how everything was after like, after the revolution, after the worst but before anything good and I commented how interesting that seemed to me.

comment: I think a lot of people don’t understand war like they say they do.

Highlighted: “Really, Papa?” said Tatiana. “Which of your children would you like not to worry about?” pg 16.

There were other things but who really wants my comments and highlighting?

The next book I think I’m going to read is The House Girl by Tara Conklin.

Luke and Violet Book Review

First-Catch up on my life? Yes? Okay. MJ and I have been going back and forth with this story and we can only write 15 sentences of the story and we can’t have it for more than 5 days and we have to give a rule for the other person to follow in their section of the story. It’s epic. There’s awkward pictures and a Steve and blackmail. That description doesn’t even give it justice. I have also learned through this process that I should not be writing when I’m tired because I start mixing up things like there, they’re and their. That bothers me.

I finished my CNA classes and I passed the class and now I’m orientating and then I take the state test to actually be certified.

So I’m orientating on nights tonight, so I work from 11:45-8:15, sleeping, going an hourish away tomorrow night to go to something, then Sunday, I’m going an hour in another direction to hang out with a friend. So much for a relaxing weekend.

Valentine’s Day is coming up. Boo. I’m anti-Valentine’s Day. If I were dating someone and in a serious relationship, I wouldn’t want a specific day just to show our love. Show me in the little things all the time. Open my door, tell me I’m having a good hair day, (because talking about my hair is the way to my heart, I’m kind of vain about it) hold my hand, things like that. I’m easily impressed. No need for a whole day of love. For me it’s not necessary. I’m low maintenance. Anyway.

I started my thyroid medicine this week. Knowing that something is wrong with me like my thyroid kind of bothers me. I also have eczema and knowing that there’s something I’m doing that I can’t control is unnerving every once in a while. I know that both things are very manageable but I’m kind of funny about it and I want it fixed. But I’m working on this.

Book time. I read The Destiny of Violet and Luke by Jessica Sorensen. This book is in the same series as the Callie and Kayden books I talked about last year. I’ve read other books/series by Sorensen and they haven’t impressed me as much. Here is a synopsis of the book. (there will be spoilers after the synopsis)

Luke Price’s life has always been about order, control, and acting tough on the outside. For Luke, meaningless relationships are a distraction-a way to tune out the twisted memories of his childhood. He desperately wishes he could forget his past, but it haunts him no matter what he does.

Violet Hayes has had a rough life. When she was young, she was left with no family and the memory of her parents’ unsolved murders. She grew up in foster homes, living with irresponsible parents, drugs, and neglect, and trying to fight the painful memories of the night her parents were taken from her. But it’s hard to forget when she never got closure-and she can’t stop dreaming about what happened that tragic night. To make it through life, she keeps her distance from everyone and never allows herself to feel anything.

Then Violet meets Luke. The two clash instantly, yet they can’t seem to stay away from each other. Although they fight it, they both start to open up and feel things they’ve never felt before. They discover just how similar they are. But they also discover something else: The past always catches up with you.

I loved Luke in the Callie and Kayden books. I also knew that Luke was to developed as a supporting character to not have his own book. So this book came out and I was totally excited. I get to find out more about Luke and he gets himself a girl but from reading this book, getting the girls aren’t his problem. We also find out more about Callie’s roommate, Violet. She’s a character isn’t she? And let’s start from the ending on this. That ending. Sorensen does know how to write a freaking ending. You kind of see it coming and then everything explodes into something so much larger than you expect and then you’re sitting there at 4 in the morning dwelling about these characters and wondering what’s going to happen. (That’s what I did with the first book, last year) I’m bitter that I don’t know what’s going to happen and mad that it’s not ending like I want it to end.

Characters: Let’s start with my favorite from the beginning: Luke. Before this book, I kind of knew he was a man whore, I knew he had issues with his mother, his father wasn’t around and probably a deadbeat and his sister committed suicide. Here’s what I know more. He’s more of a man whore than I realized, issues didn’t necessarily change (until you get to the end of the book) and his dad isn’t that bad of a guy. I still kind of love Luke through his drunkenness and his slutty ways. I know how he was protective of Callie and how he reacts to Violet so I respect him.

Violet: She was kind of a surprise for me. Sort of. All of Sorensen’s characters, that I’ve read, have major issues. They’re real issues and the issues aren’t skirted around. I didn’t expect some of her issues. Like the dealing and she was a virgin. Not that being a virgin is an issue, but it was something that surprised me because of how much she was alone with guys in the first 2 books, which if you think about, that’s genius. You’re getting just the narrator’s p.o.v., then you find out there’s so much more than you realize. I felt for Violet through the whole thing. She’s scared, she’s hurt and she’s surviving. Part of me kind of thought this was going to be somewhat similar to Callie and Kayden but it wasn’t. I feel like Violet was more scared.

Grayson and Seth: Seth disappointed me. He was so much more judgmental than I thought he would be. I was impressed with Grayson, I’m kind of looking forward to their story now.

The creepy “foster father” of Violet: I can’t remember his name off the top of my head. BOOOO. He was definitely a nemesis in this book. I don’t like him. Throw him in the river next book. I’m sure he owns a van and it can be parked down by the river to live in so it could look like an accident. If he doesn’t have a van, shame on him, he’s a drug dealer. He needs a van from the ’70’s.

I really liked the book. This series is what I need every once in a while.

The Books I Read this Year.

So being that I will be quite busy the next couple days with being done at the museum and moving and the such, I’m going to do my year-end book look back now. I won’t bore you with all I’ve read, but I’ll give the overview. There was a total of 51 books and a total of 15,559 pages. Here’s a few of the books I read and what I thought about them.

The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden and The Redemption of Callie and Kayden by Jessica Sorensen. I loved them. I got kind of obsessed by them. Lots of angst and just something I don’t normally read.

The Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. I definitely was one minded while reading this series. I read them in quick succession because I really liked them and really liked learning more about mythology in this form

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. It was okay. Not my favorite Austen but it’s up there

Love Seen from Hell by John Emil Augustine. YUCK. I wasn’t a fan. There are few books that I should never pick up because they bother me so much and this was one of them.

Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman. I loved this book. I have read very few books that take place in my home state of North Dakota and this is the only one I’ve liked. I liked the characters and the real situations the characters were put in. Go read it. Now. I loved it.

I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris. This was another one I wasn’t a fan of. Something that I would have adored in high school but now I have to many opinions on dating and know more what I want and what I need. I didn’t need this book/devotional/whatever it is, to tell me what I need. I think I had more issue with the reviews I read about it on GoodReads.

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. I liked it more than the movie. The book didn’t give me nightmares. Is this a sign that the movie will one day not give me nightmares and I will lose this obsession eventually? Maybe. To soon to tell. It something I would think about reading to my kids one day.

The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon. This is the first Lord John book I liked and it was because there was more Jamie Fraser in it. I also like that it was in the 20 year period where Claire was out of the picture. If you like the Lord John series and the Outlander series, you’ll love this book.

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. Meh. I see why the show is popular and the books are popular. I just couldn’t get into it. If I had more time to devote to the series, I could totally get into the series and become obsessed.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. This took me a long time to get into but once I did and I got invested in the characters and started to love them. I do not see myself re-reading it though.

The Fault in our Stars by John Green. So good. I loved how John Green pretty much pulled off narrating from a 16-year-old girl’s point of view. It was funny and serious and I may have crushed on John Green for a while.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. Good but I was still coming off from the John Green high. If I had read it before John Green, I would have adored it but I didn’t. I just got mad at Anna for being a typical teenager. That (me getting mad at teenagers for being teenagers and this coming from the girl who is about to teach in a high school) does happen on a regular basis.

Several Steve Hocknsmith books. It was more of the Home on the Range books. I really like these westerns because you get the western feel but near the end of the heyday of the cowboys so they’re a little bit more sophisticated more. I enjoy the humor and how they’re written.

Beyond the Highland Mist by Karen Marie Moning. Not that bad but I got recommended this book based on my interest in the Outlander series. Yeah, doesn’t hold up. But it’s good and an easy read. I am a little obsessed with Hawk now. I don’t know why. Well, I kind of take that back because I have an idea why, I just don’t want to talk about it.

Panic by Jeff Abbott. I think I joked about this book the most because I couldn’t figure out who to trust. I did reference this book a lot when I was reading it. I think it was because it stumped me and not many books do that.

Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati. Another book that was suggested because I liked Outlander. This one fared better than Beyond the Highland Mist. I liked the characters and that it was a continuation of The Last of the Mohicans. Lots of good things about it and then some other things I wasn’t to into.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. I just did a review on this. So I won’t talk about it too much. Just go back a post or two and read about it.

P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern. Not that similar to the movie but I still really enjoyed this book. I loved the family dynamics and I love just enjoyed the love that carried on.

So that’s a selection of what I’ve read. I’ll try to post in the next couple of days but don’t count on it.

Day 2: Favorite Side Character.

DAY 2. – Favorite side character.

This one is easy. Luke from The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden. He’s so developed for a side character. He’s getting his own book now but you didn’t know that with the Coincidence. He’s very sturdy guy with a lot of stuff that went on in his past. I didn’t even consider anyone else. Luke is my guy.

What I like about him as a side character is that he isn’t comedic relief. He is a sidekick to a point but has his own life. He just happens to be Kayden’s best friend. I never really see him as a full side character or side kick. The Callie and Kayden books never really paint him as being dependent on the main characters. He is his own man. He’s strong, he takes care of himself. Luke has his own opinions. I feel like with a lot of side characters, they don’t have their own opinions. They just latch on the main character. Luke was very vocal about his dislike for Daisy at the beginning of the book and I totally agree with him. Wouldn’t it be interesting to have a book about Daisy and how she came un-whoreish? Because let’s face it, she’s a whore. I wonder how many guys she cheated on Kayden with. Anyway, back to the subject, I would totally go for a guy like Luke if he were real and didn’t smoke.

It would have been so easy to write Luke as a comic or a skeptic or a meathead football player. He is those things. BUT he’s more. I love Jessica Sorensen writing him as his own person. As you can tell, I love Luke. He needs to be real. Like 5 years ago he needed to be real. And what I think is the best part about this is that at 16-19 I probably wouldn’t have gone for a guy like Luke. He’s an athlete, definitely has his own flaws and demons but the older I get the more I see that having your demons isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I have my own demons. I see how you deal with your demons a single of a person’s strength or potential strength. And now Luke is getting his own book and I’m thrilled. I can’t wait until January for that book to come out.

Book Side Note: My friend R is reading Jane Eyre for the first time and she’s updating me on what’s going on and her opinions on what’s going to happen. I keep being cryptic about it. Pretty sure she hates me for that. I’m making her thing which I don’t think she hates me for but she’s not happy that she doesn’t know the ending yet and I do.

Side Note: My friend Ashley just started to blog. Her one post she has up is very well written and everyone should go check her out. She has a beautiful soul and is an amazing mother and the whore moved away from me. I blame her husband. Boo.

Civil War and my Day.

I’m a nerd about certain things. Some pieces of literature, really cool stuff, things like that. Today we were looking something up in our genealogy files and the Great-Great Uncle of the doctor’s wife in town was in the Civil War and the uncle wrote letters and we have the typed up version of these letters. They’re not worth anything because they’re a replica but we have one of the copies of the typed up version. How epic is this? I love the language that are in these letters. It’s so lovely. Favorite quote so far, “I am in hopes to write you some gratifying news before a great while. Until then guess yourself into numerous fits of jollity”. It’s really fun to read because it’s a first hand account of things that are going on like the typhoid in this camp, the injuries, the feelings toward the government (some of this being the same feelings as people have now), the people he sees, etc.

This guy is very good-humored, I laughed several times, and a man who is torn away from his family by war. He writes a lot to his sister, Cassandra whom he calls Cassan, and begs to have her and others write to him. At the beginning he talks about being sick and seeing the wounded and I’m flipping through the pages hoping to find what happens to him, like a novel. I hit a picture of him, good-looking guy, and the next page I find out he dies in May of 1864 at Cold Harbor, Virginia at 24. I was torn up. I sat back in my chair and said “Ahhhhhh man!” really loud. Yeah, that happened. It was like Jamie and Claire from Outlander had died (and I think they will die in this next book) but this guy was real. He lived and died for what he believed in. He has a sister, brother, parents and cousins that he wrote to that he loved and loved him back. None of my cousins or siblings have been in the military so I don’t know how it feels to lose a loved one in war. I can’t imagine.

I obviously nerded out over these letters. But it’s not every day that you find stuff like this. I spent 2 hours reading these letters. I was involved with this man. We were friends. For a while, he wasn’t writing to Cassan, he was writing to ME! It’s a little for me to wrap my head around that I know people who have ancestors that fought in the Civil War and have the letters. I know that things like this are possible and probably more common on the East Coast but this is southwestern North Dakota. The only Civil War battle around here was the Battle of the Kildeer Mountains. I think.

I just started watching “The Cape” on Netflix. Can someone explain to me why no one guesses it’s Faraday? I mean, first few episodes he’s wearing just a hoodie. Please. Simplest cover up ever. I could just cut the hood off. You could un-disguise him in like 2 seconds. I never understood super heroes for that reason. No one really guesses their true identity. And how do they change so fast in their costumes? I mean, as a female, I generally take longer than a guy to get ready but by being low maintenance, it doesn’t take me long. So I want to know how Superman gets in that unitard and Batman gets in all that business. And I want to know why everyone was so quick to accuse Faraday. He was a good man. Was it because there were bad cops in the force previously? Am I overanalyzing this? Yes, they’re super heroes. I should shut up and accept their awesomeness.

After Months of Promising: Jane Eyre

Originally, I wasn’t going to post today. Someone very close to me announced something on Facebook that was kind of hard to hear. I’ve been dealing with that today while working. Haven’t gotten much done. But then I realized that she wouldn’t want me to wallow and she’d want me to post. I think this announcement wasn’t to make my day worse, but to keep me updated and to help me prepare myself for what’s to inevitably come.

I love me a good, classic Gothic novel. Something that’s set in a remote place with a spooky house and some kind of weird going on. Then put a moody man in there and some kind of woman to be there for him and bam, you have a Gothic novel. I would say I love a good contemporary Gothic novel but honestly I haven’t read anything contemporary for the fear of it being a to literal Gothic style. Jane Eyre being my favorite. I promised a long time ago that I would talk about this. So let’s talk about this. I might not get into a lot of this because I did my senior paper in college on this book, so I have opinions.

Let’s talk about Jane. I kind of like her. She was an orphan. Jane was alone pretty much her whole life. She was a version of being socially awkward, she could deal with people (she could deal and adjust and socialize if she had to) but really liked to be alone. And can a person blame her? She was an orphan, her aunt and cousins didn’t want her, the school she went to was not very warm and fuzzy and then she goes to live in this remote manor to be a governess to a little bastard girl. Being alone is what she knows. Recently I’ve been re-evaluating my opinion of her. I always thought her about this strong, independent woman in the mid-nineteenth century that was almost 21 century. Yes, she was independent but probably not to our height of feminism. She did get engaged to a man who could have been her father and had a wife and had some……..encounters with many other women, she took a lot of help from St. John (yes, he’s her cousin and he did propose but they didn’t know that the whole time), and then went back to the guy with the wife. If this book was written now and not 166 years ago, she would have been okay with being without any man. I also have a hard time remembering that this was published 166 years ago. Women acted and were treated different. So yes, you can draw parallels between women now and Jane but it’s still not the same.

Then enters Rochester. He’s a jerk. I know that some people would argue that he’s a romantic character and that he has a mystery about him. I disagree. He has his moments where he’s vulnerable but it’s when it suits him. And honestly, let’s look at this. He leads Jane on to think that him and Blanche are going to get together, gets Jane in this frenzy and then goes, “hey, b.t.w. I love you, not that money whore”. Any guy that does that to me is getting a black eye. Let’s remember that Rochester is double of Jane’s age. I honestly wish that Jane wouldn’t have ended up with Rochester. She’s to good for him but he does sort of admit that. Rochester does kind of redeem himself at the end when he does try to save Bertha from the fire. It’s a great quality in a man when he tries to save a life that he doesn’t necessarily care for. I also think it’s interesting that he lives with scars for the rest of his life. It’s like he’s wearing his sins. I mean that’s an interpretation, but interesting to think about.

Let’s bitch about St. John for a while. I honestly said it Saint John for years instead of pronouncing it Sin Jin. I still am resisting that change years after college. He got close to Jane, yes, and she’s your cousin, yes, and she could help you when you’re a missionary, yes. But don’t propose to your cousin, take her as your like sister. That would make more sense to me. But again, this was published 166 years ago, things were different? To me, St. John is the Bronte equivalent to Mr. Collins in P&P. I will be forever in his debt for helping Jane out, but I just don’t like the man. He gets on my nerves.

I’ve said a lot of negative about the characters of this book, maybe leading you to a point where you think I don’t like this book. That’s a lie, dear reader, because I love this book. I love the independence of the main female character, I love the plot twist of the crazy wife and ultimately I love that Jane is happy at the end because she has had kind of a rough life. There are other things I love, those are just off the top of my head.

This is kind of a rant and rave post without much direction but I finally got a Jane Eyre post in. YAY!

Into the Wilderness- Book Review.

I did finish Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati. Which is a pen name, it’s published in the “About the Author” section of the book. Now someone has to explain to me why you say you have a pen name and then admit it and tell your real name in your book. That shakes what I know about pen names.

Google suggested this book to me for something to read after Outlander. Overall, it wasn’t bad. Being recommended to read after Outlander, I thought there was going to be more sex. I know that in the last book review I did, the sex was aggressive and now the sex was not like I wanted. No pleasing me right?

Let’s talk about the characters. I didn’t know this until I started the book but this is a continuation of The Last of the Mohicans. It mainly is about Hawkeyes son but Hawkeye is still in there. I love Hawkeye in this book. I don’t remember liking him as much as I do in this book as I did in Mohicans. He’s definitely more grandfatherly and I may or may not have pouted when his father died. His son’s name is Nathaniel and he wasn’t horrible. The one thing about this book compared to Mohicans was that it wasn’t as intense. So Nathaniel wasn’t as intense but still nice and manly. The one thing about him was that he married Sarah. There was some love there yes, but I think that they got married for the wrong reasons, which Nathaniel admits. They married each other to become more like the other’s race.

Then there was Elizabeth and her family. When they called Elizabeth’s father anything but judge, it threw me off because “judge” is what he was 95% of the book. The father was really not a good guy. If my father tried to get me to marry some random guy to pay off his debts, I’d leave and probably not look back. But my dad knows better. He doesn’t get himself in situations like the judge. The brother was a complete ass. Even on his deathbed he was an ass. Let’s talk about this. He impregnates a girl and only marries her like 2 seconds before he dies so she gets his part of the land to spite his sister. And he’s a drunk and kind of an instigator in everything. Just didn’t like the character, but there’s at least one in every book. With Elizabeth, I don’t know if it was me or if this was legitimate but I felt a definite switch with her after she fell in love with Nathaniel. She was still very independent, probably way more independent for a woman at this time, but it was like she didn’t want to be that independent anymore with a guy. I mean she was 29 and a content single. I hope I wasn’t the only one that felt like that. I also feel like right after she got there and before she was out and about, she was kind of ill-informed.

Let’s talk about Nathaniel and Elizabeth together. They had pre-marital sex. That surprised me because who does that? Obviously, I know this happens but this is a historical fiction. I did like them together for the most part. Like I said before, I feel like Elizabeth fell in love with Nathaniel and she lost some of her spunk. She did keep most of it though because she learned some survival skills and she did keep some toughness. Their love felt pretty genuine though.

Robbie, what a Scot. I loved him and loved that the dog went with him. I wish that there was more of him in this book.

Then the dreaded doctor. You get this history of him and how he was taken by the Native Americans, (I tried explaining what a Native American was to my niece and nephew this weekend, it didn’t go well) and he was raised Native American and trained as a warrior, he came back and was trained as a doctor. You get introduced to the doctor part of him. Then all this goes down between Elizabeth like wooing him and the legal stuff and whatever and he appears and he’s like Daniel Day Lewis going off to get his Cora. He was a warrior. Like I am man, hear me roar. I obviously wasn’t a fan of this man because he wouldn’t let this whole situation go with Elizabeth and he was kind of a prick but still, he does warrior and then doctor well. I’m glad all this got resolved.

Now, let’s talk about situations: I didn’t mind most of this book. I did feel like parts dragged for me. This book was over 700 pages, you could have left out some words, I’m sure. There was a lot about being proper in the beginning, which makes sense but I hate being proper.

Things I highlighted or commented on.

it’s page 26 and you can tell who’s gonna hook up. great.

(they mentioned A Vindication of the Rights of Women quite a bit in this book and here’s my reaction) I love that she busted that out.

What’s with a very attractive heroine? Impress me with an average looking one.

He’s going to be Gaston in this book isn’t he?

I was home this weekend and I saw my niece and nephew both Sunday and Monday. Sunday my niece comes up to me and whispers, “Can you drive?” yes “by yourself?” yes. “okay” and runs away. Then yesterday the kids were playing with my tablet on the couch and the niece did something while the nephew was playing and the nephew pushed her off the couch. I walked in with the niece in tears and my nephew frustrated as hell. They told me what was going on, I took the tablet away and I came in to talk to them what went wrong. I told the niece that you don’t help people on their turns and I turned to the nephew and I said “is that how you treat your sister?”, he replied and said “No, but she was bugging me”. There’s logic there, I guess?

Reading Bubble

Small Rant: I deal with people all the time. Tourists, museum board members, staff and volunteers, city and county commissioners, random people on the street, the media, vendors, family and friends among many other people. I can handle most people. If I can’t, I usually get myself out of the situation. But the one kind of person that I can’t get away from EVER is the slow talker. I know you want to think before you speak and how you speak but hurry up with it. I can keep up with you, I promise. If I don’t I’ll ask you to repeat what you said. If only people would talk and respond as fast as my brain worked, we wouldn’t have this problem of me getting annoyed. Rant over.

I have another fair to be at this weekend. 😦 I dread county fairs.

Funny Story: My nephew had his first music class in school the other day and he told his mom, my sister-in-law, that they got to dance and sing but not play any instruments. His mom said that they probably wouldn’t be playing any instruments for a while to which the reply was “What? We have to be 14 to play?” No, just in the 4th grade to be in band. I feel like he’s going to continue the grand tradition of our family being involved in music. We all thought my niece would hit that stage before he would but surprise, he’s interested.

I have this problem. I read a book and I’m really into this book and I’m in the middle of a reading marathon and then the character is addicted to coffee and I look up and go “Coffee”. I then crave coffee for like a week. And I was just weaning myself off of coffee. Sigh. I suppose I should be glad this happened with coffee and not something horrible like heroin. I don’t just do this with coffee. I’ll be reading a contemporary piece and they’ll be at a café, eating a burger and I’ll go “mmmmmm. Cheeseburger”. Books can lead me to crave random things and dream ridiculousness. It’s like pregnancy.

I’ve noticed some interesting things about myself when I’m reading. I don’t necessarily eat (I’ll crave things but not eat), I forget to drink if I have a drink by me. These things just are a distraction. I usually look homeless when I’m reading (remember my laundry attire? same thing) and it’s seriously like being in a bubble. When I go Book Marathoning, nothing can be going on. No television, no music, no speaking. Just me, the actual silence and the words (honestly words can be noisy enough). It’s weird to me that I do that with literature. I do that with nothing else. Not with music, not with work (let’s face it, I have to pay attention to 300 million things at work. I can’t be in a bubble). What makes my life so bad that I have to block it out, get lost in someone else’s life and read? Nothing. I have it good compared to some characters that I read about. Can anyone say Jamie Fraser’s jail experience?

I think I do this reading bubble thing because I lived far from my friends growing up. When you live 17-20 miles from the majority of your real friends growing up, you need a substitute. Books were my substitute. I’ve gotten very good at making myself a reading bubble and not letting anyone in. It also makes me an awesome speed reader. Reading was my highest score on my ACTs.

Someone said this before but they transform into the characters when they start reading and really get into a book. They start worrying about the character’s worries and start thinking about the characters. I do this too. Because I sure have to worry about the Jacobite uprising or if Mr. Wickham will ruin my family. I almost develop an accent when reading a book.

These reasons are part of the reason I am really good at living alone.

Speaking about reading, still reading Into the Wilderness. I have some notes on it all ready and it should be interesting how this all pans out. It’s interesting to read or listen to reviews on this book. People generally love it but there are a few that don’t like it for whatever reasons. I almost like reading the negative reviews more because it’s easy to love a book but when flaws are pointed out, it’s easier for me to read it with a clearer head.