Review - The Witch's Daughter by Paula Brackston

Title: The Witch's Daughter
Author: Paula Brackston
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Publish Date: Jan 18, 2011
Hardcover, 305 pages

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The cover of this book is what initially grabbed me. The boots are fabulous and against that beautifully colored skirt, I was instantly intrigued. I read the back and discovered it's about a witch and the curse her mother inadvertently placed on her. If anything I was sure this would be a fine read.

It completely went above and beyond "a fine read." It was SO much better.

If you've read A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness, this has a similar feel. It feels haunting and purposeful. The woman in this story is smart, strong and likable. In fact, I felt the detailing in the story pulled me and made me like each and every character for a different reason. I equally enjoyed the history put forth. I liked that it spanned many centuries and stayed believable.

Every other chapter has the present day story of the main character Elizabeth, told by Elizabeth to a girl who has wormed her way into her life and heart after centuries of being alone. Through this story Bess teaches Tegan of the trespasses of the man who has betrayed Bess her entire life.

Summary -
My name is Elizabeth Anne Hawksmith, and my age is three hundred and eighty-four years. Each new settlement asks for a new journal, and so this Book of Shadows begins…

In the spring of 1628, the Witchfinder of Wessex finds himself a true Witch. As Bess Hawksmith watches her mother swing from the Hanging Tree she knows that only one man can save her from the same fate at the hands of the panicked mob: the Warlock Gideon Masters, and his Book of Shadows. Secluded at his cottage in the woods, Gideon instructs Bess in the Craft, awakening formidable powers she didn’t know she had and making her immortal. She couldn't have foreseen that even now, centuries later, he would be hunting her across time, determined to claim payment for saving her life.

In present-day England, Elizabeth has built a quiet life for herself, tending her garden and selling herbs and oils at the local farmers' market. But her solitude abruptly ends when a teenage girl called Tegan starts hanging around. Against her better judgment, Elizabeth begins teaching Tegan the ways of the Hedge Witch, in the process awakening memories--and demons—long thought forgotten.

Part historical romance, part modern fantasy, The Witch’s Daughter is a fresh, compelling take on the magical, yet dangerous world of Witches.Readers will long remember the fiercely independent heroine who survives plagues, wars, and the heartbreak that comes with immortality to remain true to herself, and protect the protégé she comes to love.

Wordless Wednesday - The Birds

My sister and I used to go to the zoo together all the time with my niece. Each and every time my sister loved feeding the birds. I wanted to so badly, but got scared every time. I couldn't do it. She tried every time to get me to feed the birds. She was very patient with me, but I just couldn't do it. Just recently my boyfriend, niece and I went to the zoo again and I DID IT!! For the first time ever I actually stuck out my hand and had a bird (or two) land on it and then eat the apple. HOLY COW IS IT NERVE WRACKING!! It is so scary to have a live animal perch on my arm and eat. What if they miss? What if they peck my eyes out? What if - what if--- Animals are so amazing to me. I cannot get enough, but the fact is, they are wild and can never predict what they will do.

(not so) Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday - Tune In & Teaser

An incredibly beautiful song played during the Oscars that falls in the background. My niece used to sing this when she was younger. I think they sang it in a class when she was in elementary school. I just remember her cute Minnie Mouse voice singing this.

What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong






Coop
A Year of Poultry, Pigs and Parenting
by Michael Perry

"We are going rural in hope that we might become more self sufficient in terms of firewood, an expanded garden and perhaps a pair of pigs. Whether through prescience or too much nervous reading, we have developed a low-key doomsday mind-set regarding the imminent future, and we believe the time has come to store up some potatoes and teach our young'uns how to forage."

Review - Confessions of a Surgeon by Paul Ruggieri

Title: Confessions of a Surgeon
The Good, The Bad and the Complicated
Life Behind the O.R. Doors
Author: Paul A. Ruggieri
Publisher: Penguin Group
Publish Date: Jan 3, 2012
Paperback, 272 pages

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I absolutely love books that detail another part of life I wish I had time to experience. I have always dreamed of being a doctor. Who doesn't want to learn how to save people? Who doesn't want to live on the edge and experience anything and everything that can happen? Can you imagine holding someone's heart in your own hands? The possibilities are amazing.

I really enjoyed this book. Dr Ruggieri gives a very detailed behind the scenes look at being a doctor. Definitely details the good, bad and ugly. I really enjoyed reading about how Ruggieri feels he has no real human emotions when being a surgeon. He cannot feel the loss because the family has more; he cannot feel the stress at complications that arise because he has to fix them immediately; he cannot be mad at another surgeon who fumbles a surgery where he comes to the rescue and then is blamed for the problem. He must be robotic like and just get the job done. Not even close to being as serious as cutting open people, I feel his pain when it comes to working in retail.

I found the insurance and lab result information incredibly fascinating. He talks about how it can take up to a week MINIMUM to receive results back and then the doctor has to find the time in between all his other patients and to do's to read and research the results. With patients who call the day after a test is taken. The fact that a doctor cannot utter the word "cancer" until it is 110% sure. The stress of watching the patient beg for an answer and the doctor who thinks he knows, but cannot say until he has the papers in hand for fear of retribution.

Dr Ruggieri did a fabulous job of telling us how it really is to be in the O.R. room. I really enjoyed how much information he gave and how he told it in the experiences he had. Wonderfully written.

Summary -

As an active surgeon and former department chairman, Dr. Paul A. Ruggieri has seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of his profession. In Confessions of a Surgeon, he pushes open the doors of the O.R. and reveals the inscrutable place where lives are improved, saved, and sometimes lost. He shares the successes, failures, remarkable advances, and camaraderie that make it exciting. He uncovers the truth about the abusive, exhaustive training and the arduous devotion of his old-school education. He explores the twenty-four-hour challenges that come from patients and their loved ones; the ethics of saving the lives of repugnant criminals; the hot-button issues of healthcare, lawsuits, and reimbursements; and the true cost of running a private practice. And he explains the influence of the "white coat code of silence" and why patients may never know what really transpires during surgery.

Ultimately, Dr. Ruggieri lays bare an occupation that to most is as mysterious and unfamiliar as it is misunderstood. His account is passionate, illuminating, and often shocking-an eye-opening, never- before-seen look at real life, and death, in the O.R.

My eye went to Chile and came back with a disease

On Wednesday, we had inventory at work. This means a very long day of counting, recounting, scanning, verifying and other monotonous tasks. It should have been easy, but about halfway through the evening my eye started to throb. I couldn't see anything. I kept asking people, "Do you see anything?" The pain was just unreal. I have never been hit in the eye, but I am pretty sure this is what it would feel like. Around my eyeball itself felt like someone took a knife and sliced it open. Every time my eye moved there was stabbing pain. When I made an expression that involved my eyes, I would feel like I was kicked in the stomach. It was ridiculous.

I was sure I hadn't hit it on anything. Yes, I am a klutz and it is very easy for me to have a few bruises consistently. And having a random pain is not uncommon, but my eye???

The only thing I could come up with was maybe my cat had kicked me in the middle of the night. Izabel tends to crawl up on my chest and lay on me like a shawl - with her feet by my neck and head and her head on my stomach. She occasionally steps on my windpipe and other painful parts. I have figured out how to sleep through this 15 pound cat crawling up on me and walking around til she finds a comfy place. So it is possible she kicked me . . . . right?

When I finally got home from inventory it was early the next morning. I took the opportunity to flush my eye with lots of eye saline. Hoping it was maybe a stray cat hair in my eye or something that would disappear in the night. But in the morning it was still throbbing and stabbing pain.

By mid morning, I gave up and called the doctor. Thankfully they got me right in.

When I went in the office, they had me perform an eye test. Oh yes, the one where they have a four foot letter E. WHO MISSES THAT? I couldn't see past the third line. And I had lasik!! I was praying it wasn't anything serious.

By the time my doctor came in, she had this look like she just knew what it was. She performed a few tests, flipping my eyelid around, putting eye drops in and checking for foreign objects. She made a lot of "hmmms", but I am sure she knew what she was looking at.

She finally says, "Heidi you have a Chilean eye."

"WHAT?" What could that be? It sounds like a foreign disease. Did my eye have an affair I didn't know about? Who was this handsome beauty who made my eye stray and come back with a disease?

She explained a bit about it, but overall what I heard was . . . . we don't know what causes it; we can't do anything to fix it and it will eventually go away on it's own.

UHM WHAT?

Why do I always get the diseases that doctors know nothing about and can't cure?

Her answer was, "Well I could numb your eye?"

Seriously?!?!? That sucks. I'd rather suffer through the pain.

I asked the Nurse to write it down, so I could research it. It not a Chilean eye. It is called a Chalazion. Normal eye glands swell up from crap and it becomes ugly.

So here I am with a defective eye. It is a bit cloudy and my vision is off in the far side of my right eye. It is swollen and red like a worm crawled up and took a nap in my eye. I lived through a day of work before giving up and hitting the pharmacy for over the counter eye gel. Oh relief. It really helps. The pain is not so severe. It doesn't stab me when I roll or move my eye and blinking doesn't make me want to pass out.

The morning my boyfriend was coming to visit for the weekend the song in my head was, "Will you still love me tomorrow?" I feel like the guy from Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Yes, I am feeling sorry for myself. Or at least I was.

Now a couple of days later, gel in the eye and a heating pad for the eye couple times a day. I am doing okay. I love it when people are talking to me and then stop, at which point they have realized my eye is gross. They stop and swallow, then slowly raise their hand to point at my eye. And then proceed to ask me, "Your eye . . .?"

Wordless Wednesday - Hawk

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday - Tune In & Teaser

YO TUESDAY!! It's been a few weeks since I have participated. Last week I really wanted to post a Whitney Houston song, but alas, it has been INSANE. I have been working long 10+ hour work days due to inventory. I have driven to other cities to help them with their inventory. I have been whipping my store and my people into shape. Along with us hiring like six new people who I have been mercilessly training. Poor lasses!

On continuous loop when I remember to push the play button!
It Will Rain by Bruno Mars




Reading a really fantastic book right now and so many more I want to check out from work, but with inventory I cannot. I am so excited for Butterfly Clues by Kate Ellison and Fever by Lauren DeStefano and The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M Danforth. OMG the list goes on and on.


The Witch's Daughter
by Paula Brackston

"Now roll it up and come and stand beside me close to the fire. First, I will say a prayer to speak to those who might linger between worlds. If I help them to find their true home, they may help us when our moment comes. After that, we will consign your writing to the flames."