The Winner's Curse, a book review

Kestrel a bird of prey and also our main character in The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski, is the daughter of the Valorian emperor's favorite general. She is wealthy and beautiful and has everything she could want. Yet still she has pain and difficulty.

Kestrel struggles within herself and with her father over the strictures of her culture. She purchases a slave, against her own moral compass.

Eventually, she struggles for her life in a storm.

Kestrel loves to play games. The question: will she always win in the most important plays?

I enjoyed this book maybe more than I would if I'd read it before the second and third parts of the trilogy. I enjoyed knowing how things brought up (loose ends, if you will) in this part reappear and/or tie up and conclude in the second and third parts. I didn't mean to do it that way. However, I think it's a testament to the good storytelling of Rutkoski that the story of this book is enjoyable even when the rest of the trilogy has already been enjoyed.

This is youth to young adult fiction. It is enjoyable to read and has only a few steamy scenes, though not graphic at all. I will wait to allow my now twelve year old to read this until she's at least sixteen more because the inter-relations of characters and the internal goings-on is of a mature nature and tone.

What do you think of The Winner's Curse? What did you like about it?

observations: late night brings out the weird

It's not a new realization.  Much in life is really repeating the same lessons... hopefully at levels of greater understanding rather than the same one over and over again.  I've certainly experienced loads of paradigm shifts, so I'm pretty sure I'm climbing the  mountain rather than endlessly circling the base!

The time I've spent working to build this blog and my other author-focused social networking outlets has provided me with confirmation of the truth that the later the hour, the stranger the peeps.  Well... until around 3am.  By then, at least where I am, I'm pretty much the only customer.  The only other people in my Whataburger are the employees.  Those are usually my most productive hours... between 3am and 5am.

I do recognize that I am among those strange folks so am one of them.  I'm working through a season of chaos before the onset of greater order.  I have a lot of thoughts about that lately.  Watch for a post in the future!

Often enough, the weirdness I observe is due to alcohol.  Sometimes, though, those out late are just other folks like me.  Maybe they, too, have a touch of insomnia for one reason or another.  Maybe their job is a third shift thing and they need to keep on their schedule even on their days off.  We can't know unless we ask... and I'm here to work, so I haven't asked.

Watching folks sure is interesting.  Especially when they are a bit weird.  What makes them weird?  Basically, behaving in ways that are not generally accepted by society is pretty weird.

For instance, one particular Friday night at my Whataburger found me watching one guy in one corner yell to a woman in the other.  They went back and forth.  No fighting, mind you.  In fact, I think they may have been flirting.  It was crude and I was rushing to put my ear buds in to listen to something less gross.  I'd say that's definitely weird.  They were inebriated.

At another time, a guy was tossing ice from the drink machine down a main isle... like he thought he was in a bowling alley.  *sigh*  I was worried about someone slipping on the melted ice, so I leaned out of my corner booth and very quietly asked him to stop.  He was very meek and did.  That was refreshing.  I'm pretty sure he was also drunk.

Earlier yet, a guy sitting in the middle of the dining room spoke to me about GrA.  For me to hear him, he had to speak loudly.  That's kind weird.

A group of guys let a drunk lady take their picture.  The drunk lady... well, she was drunk.  But those guys were kinda weird... I mean, they didn't know her and who knows where that picture will end up now.  That's weird to me.

Do you think late night hours bring out the weird?  What have you observed?

The Key to Rondo by Emily Rodda, a book review

This is a good book. It's a good story. It is an adventure/action driven tale. The main characters are a boy and girl, so it can readily be attractive to both tween guys and girls.

By reading this book, I learned (or re-learned) that I tend to prefer relationship (particularly romantic relationship) driven stories. It was rather difficult for me to get “into” The Key to Rondo by Emily Rodda because it isn't driven by a romantic relationship. I mention this in hopes of conveying how my review is skewed.

My two oldest children really enjoyed this story. My eldest urged me to read it. She is twelve at this writing, so I think she's a better gauge of whether children would enjoy it. I think they will because she adores it.

I like that there is obvious character development through the course of the story. I rather dislike that a good portion of that happens most obviously when the characters get new clothes.

Some of the lesser characters are silly but enjoyable with good character development.

The end of the story does leave room for continuation, but not in a cliff-hanger sort of way. I'm sure my two eldest daughters will look for more by Emily Rodda when we return to the library.

my thoughts: on family

What a great training-ground, right?  I mean, for real... what better way to pass on important knowledge, both spiritual and temporal?  Can you think of one?  Most of the institutions established for much the same purpose really do a barely adequate job.

I believe that the family has been ordained and organized by God.  Among his innumerable purposes for families, I believe we are meant to learn all the important lessons about God and his plan... the purpose for our lives.  He wants us to have folks we care about with whom to practice the most important functions of a society.

Hopefully we learn about honesty being the best policy without lying and having to rebuild lost trust.  We learn about consequences, both natural and imposed by parents who are our very first authority figures.  We learn about leaders and how to lead and how important our example may be.  We learn about love, like, joy, happiness, faith, hope, and so many other positives and their opposite.

As a tale from Tori... when I was about 24, I thought I had improved dramatically in patience.  I just really didn't get angry much or easily.  By the time I'd been married for a year or two, I realized how impatient I yet was.  Another couple years, and our first child, proved to me in wholly new and amazing ways how far I had to go to become truly patient.  Each additional child has revealed to me how sorely lacking in patience I really have been all along!  So... as an example that is also true of many other things, family provides growth opportunities.  Family enables us, when we are willing, to see into ourselves more fully... as if shining a light into the corners we didn't pay attention to before.  It is revealing and ripe with potential for transformation.

Our family of origin as well as the family we form when we marry, potentially provide us with more opportunities of this sort than any other single relationship.  Trial and blessing all in one... as must needs be since opposition is necessary to true and deep understanding.

The One, a book review

Continuing the story of America, Aspen, and Maxon Kiera Cass started in The Selection and continued in Elite, Ms. Cass winds up the tale in The One. America continues to make her way through the difficulties of palace life and being past of the selection as one of the elite while also making her final choice while also awaiting to learn Aspen's and Maxon's final choices!  

This is, as with the first two, an enjoyable story. It is super easy to read. Once you start, if you're like me, you'll want to keep going until you're done. I started it one Sunday and read for a few hours. Finished it up by staying up late that night.  (I have a difficult time sleeping as a result of postpartum hormone re-normalization, so might as well spend the time doing something productive or enjoyable.)

This book, as with the first two, is youth fiction and appropriate for older teens and adults who want to enjoy a love story without dealing with characters who get too hot and heavy. As with the other two in the series, I won't let my twelve year-old read it because some of the subject matter really is for more mature audiences. My twelve year old girl might have the opportunity to read this series when she's fifteen or sixteen.

Have you already read it? What did you think? If you read it after finding out about it here, let me know what you think!

observations: discomfort with being watched

I've noticed lately... or maybe I'm just seeing more clearly?  Anyway, I've observed how many and even most people seem very uncomfy with being watched for any length of time.  I know I am... especially if the watcher is male.

Altogether unintentionally, I have found myself staring at people now and again as I sit in Whataburger and do my writerly stuff.  You know, working hard to schedule blog posts, Facebook posts on my author page, research and study to improve my ability with the social media outlets, sometimes just trying to figuring some things out, learn new programs (steep learning curve for me in some regards!), and sometimes actually get some writing in.

Often, I catch myself staring at the employees as they go about their jobs in the dining room.  I don't mean to, really, but I have to tell you something I've realized about myself... I feel more relaxed while watching my Whataburger employees working around me.  Is that totally weird?  You do know, of course, it's not really "MY" Whataburger.  I just sit in here and write frequently.

July 15, 2016 a sweet elder lady named Shirley asked, "Do you live here?"  I'm pretty sure she was joking... but she has seen me here really often.  And with GrA and the wraps, I'm pretty recognizable. We've also interacted a few times.

The few times I've caught myself staring at other folks just here to eat, I realize they think I'm staring at them because of the way they keep looking at me and away.  It's almost as if they desire to say, with their eyes, "Please look away from me... this direction is good."  When I re-enter the present (rather than focusing on whatever writerly work I was doing in my head), I look away quickly.  Interestingly, I often look out the window.  That's safe, right?  Well, not so much if I sit on one side of the building because then I might just be staring into someone's car!

In our culture, looking long into someone's vehicle whilst they are in it is generally really not a good thing.  Have you ever noticed that?  We folks in the U.S. really don't like people watching us.  Is this true the world over, I wonder!

Big Black Bear, a book review

Big Black Bear by Wong Herbert Yee, the author, writer, and illustrator is he!

A story that's fun, 

within a rhyme spun.

The pictures have lots of color but are rather plain, 

yet my children's interest they did maintain.

I have to say,

even my baby GrA!

Reading the rhyme

was really sublime.

The content of the story

was as good as “Finding Dory.”*

Without the questionable parts,

I give this children's book FIVE hearts.

                                                              There's even a bit of a lesson within.

                                                              I tell ya, it's totally win-win!

my thoughts: on marriage

If you remember my thoughts on the purpose of life, you might recall that I believe one purpose of life is to marry and have children.  I believe marriage is a figurative house, spiritually built by three (the man, woman, and God) individuals who promise God before other humans that they will be faithful to each other and potential offspring.  I believe that the energy of creation of the marriage is an actual spiritual shield and provides a form of protection for the children that simply isn't there without marriage.

My life has provided some specific experiences through which I have felt the reality that marriage is not just an ephemeral idea or just a word.  It is a living, breathing house for those joined together and the children they bring into it.  It is a sort of being.  It is more than just those who began it, even if there are never children brought into it.  The time and energy put into the relationship between the two who began it actually build rooms and beautify the house that the marriage is or can be.  This is the exact thing that Proverbs 14:1 is referring to when it says, "Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands."

It is daunting to realize the problems in marriage.  Even more difficult to realize that the only person whose problems we can ever improve are our own.  I know, though, that as we improve ourselves, our spouse will improve, too.  That's a result of the truth in the Mandelbrot Set and the reality of our spirits being tied together.  There are exceptions, of course.  Those are very sad, especially when one partner wants to make it work and the other will not consider it.  In general, though, as we focus on fixing what we actually can (ourselves), our partner will improve basically all on their own.  How awesome is that?

Marriage.  Defined by God.  And created as an awesome vehicle for self improvement!  We realize how far we have to go when we unite with another person, don't we?  I know I sure did.

What do you think of marriage?