Review - Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris

Title: Deadlocked
Author: Charlaine Harris
Publisher: Victor Gollancz
Publish Date: May 1, 2012

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At this point in the Sookie Stackhouse series, book #12, I am at a point in reading where I never thought I would arrive. I could in fact read these books til the day I die. I completely and utterly infatuated with Sookie and the other characters in these books. I really hope Harris never stops writing these books. I would love to read them til Sookie is turned vampire or old and grey - like I will be one day. It is honestly like having coffee with an old friend.

It absolutely amazes me that Charlaine Harris can keep Sookie so prim and proper, yet pull her into crazy situations. I love that she would put any of her friends before herself, but somehow manages to survive each time.

I find it truly sad that she is struggling from one relationship to another, though I suppose dating a blood sucker has it's natural hazards. One being that he is dead. The other that he needs live people blood to survive. The other that he is a well respected vampire that others would like to kill or have a hold over.  The list goes on with danger.

This is the first series I have ever read and then bought again in order to reread. I have yet to reread a book all the way through. I remember them too easily. These books will be the first, and maybe the only, ones I continue to read and read and read.

Thank you Charlaine Harris for an awesome series!!

Summary -

With Felipe de Castro, the Vampire King of Louisiana (and Arkansas and Nevada), in town, it’s the worst possible time for a body to show up in Eric Northman’s front yard—especially the body of a woman whose blood he just drank.
Now, it’s up to Sookie and Bill, the official Area Five investigator, to solve the murder. Sookie thinks that, at least this time, the dead girl’s fate has nothing to do with her. But she is wrong. She has an enemy, one far more devious than she would ever suspect, who’s out to make Sookie’s world come crashing down.

Wordless Wednesday - Hiking

Wordless wednesday

Tuesday - Tune in and Teaser

Celine Dion - Because You Loved Me

 

While I waited, a thick mist drifted in and around me. The top of the wall disappeared, which was just as well. When you're tired and scared, thirty feet looks about the length of a football fields, and that can be pretty demoralizing. Scaling a wall happens one foothold and one handhold at a time. Thinking beyond that can weaken your resolve, and it's your will that gets you to the top as much as your muscles and climbing skills. 

Peak by Roland Smith

I will not die of embarrassment

I have been very busy realizing that I am immensely out of shape. I went hiking with my father (thankfully he went) on two different mountains and really thought I might pass out. I was struggling so badly to breath. At one point I felt my throat tighten up. It scared me into breathing - I think. My body is so doable with pain growing up as a swimmer it is (oddly) a comfortable feeling. But I have never had a problem breathing.

I looked up online and found that learning a 2,2 or 3,2 breathing method when walking or jogging will help. I also found swimming or jogging in water will help as the pressure will build breathing so that out of the water it's easier.

With my trip to Yosemite coming up, I could either kill myself of embarrassment when the other women left me dying of breath on the mountain or I could kill myself trying to get back in shape.

For the past week, I have been working out either walking, jogging, running, swimming, bicycling and/or yoga.

I realized that my breathing may not be totally my fault, so I went ahead and went to the doctor who diagnosed me as having sports induced asthma and gave me an albuterol inhaler. I use it before I go workout and/or as needed. Both my doctor and my pharmacist said it will make me jittery right after I take the inhaler. I kept thinking, "do these people know me? I am already a bit of an energizer bunny."

With my inhaler I have had much more success working out. I will admit (out loud) that my body is in pain. Especially my hamstrings. They are so tight it actually takes me a minute to get out of a chair. My shoulders are in agony over the amount of planks my yoga instructor likes to do.

One day I was so excited. Not only was I going swimming, but I was going to bike to the gym. WOHOO! Course the bike is downhill to the gym, and yes, uphill home. I packed all my stuff, took six pedals and realized my tires were flat. ARG! I rolled the bike back in the garage and drove. As I was getting in the pool my goggles strap broke. And broke again, a million little times in pieces as I tried to tie it back together just to manage my time in the pool. In the end, I tossed the goggles and swam without. No big deal, but my eyes were a bit sore after. Join the rest of my body.

The other day, I swam for a half hour then joined a new class at the gym - Hoola Hoop Yoga! Taught by my crazy ass yoga instructor. She is so awesome. I really love her. She is the epitome of I love to hate her! We started by becoming one with the hoola hoop (and trying not to giggle out loud). Then we learned how to move with the hoola hoop. Thankfully I am pretty good at the whole hoola hooping thing. (once won a contest at a bar) Then we learned some moves with the hoola hoop - around the world, over the head, back and forth. Then we danced while hoola hooping. Every time we dropped our hoop we had to jump and make a WOOP! sound so we could learn not to take the hoop seriously. I loved every minute of it and I was sweating by the end. Then I pulled out my yoga mat and did full on tough yoga. So proud of myself. It was a full two and a half hours of working out.

I have noticed a change. Sadly not around my middle (yet), but my mind is very clear during the day and I sleep like a rock at night. I also find myself wanting to figure out new ways to workout.

I have been doing my best to eat healthy too. I stuck to salads, sandwiches and only 3 meals a day (much smaller than normal). I cut out my daily mocha. I did have one at the end of the week, but it was a tall with half the mocha. I only had a few Hersey kisses for sugar each day to curb the sugar cravings. I enjoyed a vegetable day without any kind of meat.

I have a few more weeks of working toward my goal, but now I am thinking of having a new goal. Swim Alcatraz! Something I will look in to doing next year some time. I wrangled my old swim buddy in to doing it with me as I know he has been looking to shape up as well.

The Avengers Movie

I don't remember ever going to a Midnight showing of a movie before. As a child, I was too busy swimming to actually think about doing things that took me off my schedule. As an adult, it just never seemed important enough. I always knew I could go to the movie later in the week and without all those people. However, we put together a small group to go see Avengers. I still almost backed out. I am just not a late night person and I have been exhausted this week. Truly squeezed dry.

Got there almost two hours before the movie started. Two hours! And the line was already wrapped a few times around the movie theater. We were lucky though because one of the people in our group had cousins who had been there since 4pm. FOUR! That's six hours waiting in line.

We gathered together hanging out in this enormous crowd of people. The occasional eruption of screams due to costumed people and recognition of friends arriving. And there were a lot of costumes. Grown men and women wearing The Hulk makeup, Iron Man masks, free flowing super hero capes and dyed hair. It was great. The crowd was so energized and so happy. A great crowd to be around. It put excitement through the air. It felt like everyone knew each other. We were all a bunch of kids for just a short time. (Or maybe it was just that I live in a college town and the crowd was mainly college students. )

About an hour before the movie starts, we were let in the theater. Which was shocking because I had no idea the would let us in so early. However, once we saw the amount of people streaming towards the food counter, I got it. A business move. I can't even begin to imagine the amount of money the theater made last night in that one hour.

It was incredibly easy to entertain ourselves before the movie. We talked continuously. We craned our necks to check out the people. We took pictures of ourselves. We met new people. We laughed hard. I really enjoyed the people I went with. We were lucky too because two in our party didn't know show up right away. One I had to pull through the front doors after we had funneled through the side door. The other we held his seat til about thirty minutes before the movie started. And I made the woman in front of us take a few pics of us. As the other peeps didn't authorize this pic so I'm using the dark one.

As the lights went down, the level of cheering was heart stopping. I wasn't sure about the noise that would be attributed to the packed theater, but I felt it made the movie that much better. We were lucky. We didn't have any idiots in our theater. No one too loud, laughing like a hyena, phone users, etc. It was hilarious to hear all the comments after the trailers. Each person had their own opinion, but the moment the movie began it grew quiet. There were a few moments the theater erupted in applause, but it was appropriate and in the moment. It made the good parts even better.

The movie was AWESOME!! It was so good. My least favorite character was Nick Fury (Samuel Jackson) because he was so boring and predictable.  My favorite character had to The Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) she was frickin' incredible. The moves she makes are amazing and her sense of humor was awesome. The opening act with her was just hilarious and left my jaw hanging open. You could not see her and not be in awe. Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) played a huge role in this movie. He was great too! For all the jokes, arrogant tactics, I really was surprised how much I loved Downey's character. He did such a great job. The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) has never been a movie I liked, but this movie really brought out the heart of the character. He was so filled with humanity that I couldn't help, but feel for him. It was obvious the actors had serious chemistry off the set as it was so well done.

I didn't fall asleep once, though there was a lot of yawning going on. And I am so happy I went. It was a fun and exciting experience. I would actually like to see the movie again in the theaters. The special effects were so good, if I was a fan of 3D I would say this would be a good movie to see that way.

Review - The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey

Title: The Flight of Gemma Hardy

Author: Margot Livesey

Publisher: Harper Collins

Publish Date:Jan 24, 2012

Hardcover, 447 pages

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Reading this book I found myself wanting to put the book down. I kept thinking, I'll read a little more and then see if I still like it. I really debated the entire way through this book. It wasn't that I didn't like this book, but I wasn't completely involved in this either. Or maybe it was just a really tough book to read. Margot writes this book like poetry. It was beautiful and in depth. It was much more intrinsic that I usually read. There is nothing light and airy about this book.

Gemma has a really tough life, but she has this wonderful spirit that just keeps ticking. I found myself rooting for her, but the circumstances seemed to get worse and worse til I felt bad. She is just destroyed at the boarding school and no one wants to help her. I can't imagine being that alone and still feeling the hope she pushes.

I want to tell you about her wonderful love story she finally has with this man who makes her feel alive and wants her to be more than she has ever had someone believe in her. She finds her true worth when she learns she can be a good teacher with her au pair. She has a few people who really do want the best for her, but life is not dishing Gemma much luck. 

I hate to tell too much about this book as the journeys she has intertwine each other. It is so worth the read, but it felt like I was trying too hard to read it too.

Summary -

 Acclaimed, award-winning author Margot Livesey delivers her breakout novel: a captivating tale, set in Scotland in the early 1960s, that is both an homage and a modern variation on the enduring classic, Jane Eyre

Fate has not been kind to Gemma Hardy. Orphaned by the age of ten, neglected by a bitter and cruel aunt, sent to a boarding school where she is both servant and student, young Gemma seems destined for a life of hardship and loneliness. Yet her bright spirit burns strong. Fiercely intelligent, singularly determined, Gemma overcomes each challenge and setback, growing stronger and more certain of her path. Now an independent young woman with dreams of the future, she accepts a position as an au pair on the remote and beautiful Orkney Islands.

But Gemma's biggest trial is about to begin . . . a journey of passion and betrayal, secrets and lies, redemption and discovery that will lead her to a life she's never dreamed.

hininininin

Wordless Wednesday