I totally paused!

I think I can speak for everyone when I say I’m soooooo happy that summer is finally here!  I’ve been anxiously awaiting warmer weather so I can read comfortably on my patio, and have been thinking about what new outdoor furniture I might need!

To celebrate this awesome fact, I’m holding a giveaway for a book I read recently PLUS an amazon.com gift card!  Just use Rafflecopter via the info below to enter for a chance to win The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold (author of The Lovely Bones) and a $15 gift card to amazon.com.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This giveaway is open to anyone who lives somewhere that Amazon will ship to!  It’s going from today through the end of May, and the winner will be notified sometime in the first couple of days of June.  Good luck!!! 

Title: The Almost Moon
Author: Alice Sebold
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 304
How I Read It: Hard copy purchased by me.

Stay tuned for a giveaway on this book!  I’ll be posting it later today!!!

Synopsis: With fierce intelligence and emotional intensity, Alice Sebold brings us a searing portrait of a mother-daughter bond that descends into murder.

Clair and Helen Knightly are a parent and child locked in a relationship so unrelenting that they have become the center of each other’s worlds.  But as this electrifying novel opens, Helen crosses a boundary she never thought she would approach.  And while her act is almost unconscious, it somehow seems like the fulfillment of a lifetime’s unspoken wishes.

Over the next twenty-four hours, Helen’s life rushes in at her as she is forced to confront the choices that have brought her to this one riveting crossroad.  As a woman who spent years trying to win the love of someone who had none to spare, she now faces an uncertain and dangerous freedom.

With her unflinching ability to confront the violence and danger that lurk beneath life’s everyday surface, Sebold explores the complex ties within families, the meaning of devotion, and the thin line that separates us from our most haunting impulses.  The Almost Moon is unforgettable, a raw and powerful story of passion and redemption written with the strength of voice that only Alice Sebold can bring to the page.

*Synopsis taken from the book

My Review: I loved The Lovely Bones and I purchased this book solely on that recommendation alone.  I liked this book, but it was not the same type of book and in many ways I had a much harder time with it than the authors debut book.

As the reader, we know from the book jacket that Helen murders her mother – but that fact was still a bit of a surprise to me.  I think somehow I thought maybe it was just a metaphor, or somehow Helen was living in a fantasy world to an extent and performed this act there.  Because this is a very real event in this book, it made the whole thing very difficult for me from the start.

Helen’s relationship with her mother is not a healthy one, with her mother who is both mentally ill and agoraphobic.  It’s clear that Clair is descending into the last phase of her life, becoming more detached from reality and treating all the people in her life more and more poorly.  I found it difficult to tell if this was as a result of her aging, or if she had truly been that nasty her entire life.  As we follow Helen through the book, it becomes obvious that Clair wasn’t entirely cut out for normal society or raising children, which makes things all the more sad.

I found Helen’s actions throughout the book to be more and more confusing, which is probably the point considering it takes quite a bit to murder someone to begin with.  The steps she takes over the twenty-four hour period we watch her are just baffling, I can’t even describe how it makes me feel.  I will say that this book is not for the faint of heart – the subject matter is extremely difficult and there were times I had to set it down to take a break.  I liked it, but I also can’t see myself reading it again because it was just so hard for me to read.

Even the most healthy mother-daughter relationship has times of frustration, and this book takes many of those frustrations to the extreme.  It makes me wonder what things are going to be like when my own parents start to decline, and I’m grateful that I have other siblings to share that burden with.  One of the tragedies of Helen’s life is that she is really alone in taking care of her mother, and she never manages to escape the small town life she so desperately wants to get away from.  Her actions during the day we witness further solidify that she will continue to live in some kind of prison for the remainder of her own life – whether that’s physical or in the one she creates in her own mind.

This book will likely make you confront ideas and conventions in your own relationships.  It highlights what can happen if you manage to cross the line into the unthinkable.  And makes you wonder what on earth could be going on to drive people in the directions they go.

Read this book if: I think this one is going to draw a lot of emotions from a lot of people, so go into it warned.

My Rating: 3.5/5 – Two thumbs up, fine holiday fun!

This week I’m featuring a song from a band originally from Colorado, The Northern Way.  I haven’t seen anything new from this band in awhile, but I adore them and hope they’re working on something else.

This song is a cute little bouncy tune with kind of a sad message in the lyrics. One of my favorite kinds of songs!

I was too busy to watch TV or do a roundup for the last couple of weeks, so I spent a lot of time catching up on shows this week.  Several of my shows are having their season finale this week, which makes me oh so sad!

What is even more sad is I learned this week that Ringer and The Secret Circle have been cancelled.  I don’t care as much about The Secret Circle, but I really liked Ringer and I’m sad to see it not get a second season.

Castle
What a season finale!  This one does kind of the same thing as the finale for last season – it both wrapped up some stuff and asked  a whole set of new questions.  If you haven’t watched the finale yet, you may want to just keep moving, cuz I’m going to spoil some stuff for you…

It becomes clear early on that the murder in this episode is ultimately tied to the murder of Beckett’s mother.  Which isn’t good, because the only reason Beckett is alive is cuz she hasn’t been looking into that thing.  Because of that association, Beckett doesn’t tell Gates what is going on, which as disastrous consequences later in the episode.

Esposito is on board with going their own on this one, but Ryan is having second thoughts on that plan, and he ultimately tells Gates what’s going on.  In some ways, it’s the right call because Beckett would have died if not.  But this ultimately ends up with both Beckett and Javier being placed on suspension – and Beckett makes the decision to quit the NYPD when she gets suspended.  I think this has been coming for awhile – she hasn’t been getting along with Gates and it’s becoming more obvious each time they interact.  I’m not sure if it’s gonna stick, so we’ll see what happens next season.

Also, this episode shows that maybe I watch too much TV, or at least a lot of Joss Whedon shows…they show a very grainy, black and white photo of someone (who ends up being the episode villain), and I immediately said “hey, that’s Tahmoh Penikett” – aka Agent Ballard from Dollhouse.  I don’t like him being the bad guy, but I do like him showing up in another one of my shows!

In the meantime, because Beckett wasn’t going to leave the case alone after Castle tells her all the truth, he says he’s done.  Walks out, all that stuff, and he’s serious.  He even tells her that he knows she knows what he said when she was shot.  But after her near-death experience (the newest one), and she quits the force, she comes to his house and tells him that all she could think about was him.

And the scene they’ve been building to for four whole seasons finally happens – Castle & Beckett kiss for real.  It’s not a fantasy, dream, or period episode.  It’s not them trying to get away from some bad guys.  It’s real, honest to goodness passion for each other.  Presumably they go on to doing what people do after they start making out, but we don’t get to see any of that.  Damn network TV!!!

The murderer, Tahmoh (I will call him this because they totally don’t tell us his character name), is not caught in the episode and ends off with a threat that he’s going to kill Beckett no matter what.  We’ll see what happens with this, if she stays off the NYPD and doesn’t investigate stuff anymore, maybe it won’t happen.  Somehow, I doubt that Beckett is going to stay away – maybe she’ll apply to work at a different precinct or something, or go into private investigative work.  The plus is we’ll probably get more Tahmoh next season!

Revenge
This was a flashback episode where we saw the beginning of Emily’s quest to find out the truth about her father.  The episode mostly takes place in 2002 and shows Nolan, Jack, Victoria, Conrad, and of course, Emily as Amanda.  She finds a friend of her fathers at a New Years Eve party held by the Grayson’s, someone who was going to help her uncover the truth about what happened, cept the Grayson’s think he is already threatening them so he ends up murdered at the end of the episode.

I liked seeing more of the origin of Emily’s story, but I would have preferred to see this episode earlier in the season.  On the one hand, I do think the writers of this show are pretty smart and I trust them.  On the other, I know networks will change the order in which episodes are aired, so there’s no way for us to know when this was supposed to come on originally.

We’ve got two more episodes for the season, and they are gearing up to be good ones.  Emily is planning on marrying Daniel, but it also looks like she might kill someone on the next episode, so it’s really hard to say what is going to happen.  Either way, they didn’t set a wedding date so that will likely be saved for season 2.

I don’t think the whole thing will be resolved by the end of the season, otherwise I don’t know what they’ll do for a second season.  Then again, I said the same thing about Ringer and they’ve set that up for an interesting second season should it get renewed…they’re on different networks, but nonetheless, something is likely up their sleeves.

One thing is for sure – Conrad is losing control of his company and that is going to carry over to another season.  Additionally, Emily JUST found out her father was actually murdered, so she’s going to be on the hunt to find the person who actually killed him, so there’s that story to follow as well.

The Vampire Diaries
This was another season finale and again, if you didn’t watch yet, you should stop right now.  I’m going to talk about what happened, and boy was this one a doozy.

So, towards the end of the last episode, Bonnie put Klaus down – he claims to have sired the bloodline that the Salvatore’s (and basically all the other vampires on the show) come from, so they can’t actually kill Klaus.  But thanks to Bonnie’s mom, we learned that it’s possible to put a vampire to sleep, essentially.  They intended to do this to Vampire Alaric,  but end up doing it to Klaus instead.  It’s kind of a win.  Even though I’ve been saying for awhile that the ultimate resolution to this situation is to just turn Elena into a vampire.

Through the course of this episode, Vampire Alaric is very busy.  He: tells the council that Tyler and Caroline are vampires, manages to stake Klaus, almost kills Damon, and just generally wreaks havoc.  Before he stakes Klaus, Bonnie does one of those body switching spells, so Klaus is actually in Tyler.  I’m not sure when they decided to do this, but it means that the bloodline doesn’t die.  Which we all knew it wouldn’t, because you can’t really do this show without the vampires.

However, no one knows right now, other than Bonnie and Klaus himself, that he’s in Tyler.  I’m not sure how this is going to play out next season, since his actual body burned.  I can’t necessarily see him wanting to stay in Tyler forever, other than it gives him the chance to be with Caroline.

The really ultimately shocking thing that happens in this episode is that Elena really dies.  She drowns by driving off the same bridge that her parents drove off.  The whole episode is a half flash back depending on what is happening, which doesn’t make sense at first in the way it’s happening, but by the end when we see that she drowns, it does.  She almost died at the end of the previous episode, and having read a couple of the books, I knew she would eventually become a vampire anyway.  So, if you didn’t guess already, this episode ends with her waking back up in the hospital, presumably in the morgue.  Dr. Crazy gave her vampire blood earlier in the day to prevent her from dying, so when she drowned, she had the blood in her system and, well, you know how it goes from there.

We’re going to have to wait until September to find out what happens, but it looks like Bonnie will be making another daylight ring!!!

The Secret Circle
Because of the series being cancelled, this season finale has turned into a series finale.   As season finales go, it wasn’t bad.  I’m sure if the writers had realized that the show was being cancelled, they probably would have made a few changes to the script, because this one left a lot of questions open.

Pretty much every character is experiencing some kind of temptation with their magic, the notable exceptions being Jake and Diana.  At the same time, both Cassie and Diana have no one left in their lives adult wise, so who is going to take care of them until they’re 18?  Diana herself is completely leaving town because she wants nothing to do with the circle anymore, but it’s clear that she is irrevocably tied to Cassie and their other Blackwell siblings.

I am sorry that we’re never going to  learn if Cassie and Adam find their way back to each other.  I think that’s a plot line that either would have been resolved in later seasons, or was one story too many for this season.  And maybe that’s one of the reasons this show has been cancelled – too much going on.  There were at least three major plots going on the whole time, and it was undoubtedly hard to give enough focus to each of them.

Hopefully we’ll see Britt Robertson (Cassie) in something else again soon, I really like her and would love to see her trying something new, again.  I’ll be curious to see what the CW comes up with in this time slot next season.  Maybe it’ll be Archer?

Scandal
This one was a mix between present day and two years ago, when Olivia joined the then Governor Grant’s campaign for president.  It showed the beginning of the affair between the two of them, and flashed to how they’re all dealing with the events that have happened in the interim.  There wasn’t a lot of movement on the current plot, since we were just learning a lot of history of everyone.  Including kind of the origins of Olivia’s staff, which was cool.

The most important thing that happened is Gideon (the reporter) figured out who Amanda Tanner was really having a relationship with.  It turns out to be the Vice President’s head of staff, or whatever that position is.  He was the one who got her pregnant, and because she wouldn’t go along with his plan, he also had her killed.  When Gideon figures this out, the VP dude stabs him in the neck with a pair of scissors.

Since Quinn had spent the night, and was on her way to get bagels for the two of them, she will be headed back.  I’m hoping she finds Gideon in time to save him, because I quite like him.  Next week will be the season finale, and it’s crazy to think we might have two deaths in the span of a half season!

One thing that I did decide is I want to be Olivia Pope.  She is super awesome and I love her.

This is a weekly meme run by Book Journey!

Post the books completed last week, the books you are currently reading, and the books you hope to finish this week.

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme that was created by Marcia at The Printed Page, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).  It is hosted at Martha’s Bookshelf for the month of May.

*****

This week was slightly less busy, and I’m prepping for a lovely visit from a dear dear friend next week.

Books completed last week:
The Almost Moon – Alice Sebold: This was a really difficult read for me, it’s tough subject matter and I totally had to take breaks when reading it.  My review went up on Royal Reviews on Friday, and will be up here later this week.  I will also be doing a giveaway for this book, so check back on the review!

Books I’m reading this week:
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – John Le Carre ~ Page 124: I became interested in this book after watching the movie when it was out last year.  We’re having a spy week on Royal Reviews so I’m reading it for that!

Books ongoing:
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte ~ Page 310: A slight bit of Jane progress this week.  I’m having a hard time motivating myself to read it right now, because I just abhor this part of the book, it breaks my heart every time.

Books I acquired this week:
The Homecoming of Samuel Lake – Jenny Wingfield: I won this one through LibraryThing , it came in the mail this week.  It sounds interesting!

What I watched this week:

• Fashion Police, The Soup, Chelsea Lately,  The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, 1 girl 5 gays, The Ellen Degeneres Show, The Graham Norton Show
• Castle – Eek, it was the season finale this week!
• Khloe & Lamar
• The Secret Circle – turns out this was the series finale, the CW has cancelled this show.
• Modern Family
• The Big Bang Theory
• Scandal
• SavageU
• The Big C
• The Vampire Diaries – what a crazy season finale!
• Ironman 2

This weeks Sunday’s Sizzler is a rare one in that I’m highlighting the President for publicly supporting same sex marriage this week.  It’s a cause dear to my heart, and I think it takes a lot for any politician to take this stance.  This isn’t a popular viewpoint in many ways, but it’s the right thing to do and I’m proud of him for doing it.

I already quite loved Barack Obama, and there’s no one would convince me to vote for anyone else, but him making this statement this week really solidified his place in my heart.  Mr. President, thank you so much!

I’ve been feeling a bit run down lately, I think both because my schedule has been very busy and because it’s allergy season so I wake up feeling icky every morning.  So this week was a bit slower than the last few have been.  This week I:

• Went to this awesome dessert & cocktail bar with a good friend.  We’ll definitely go back!
• Deliberately watched a lot of TV – three of my shows had season finale’s this week.
• Watched some superhero movies in preparation to see The Avengers soon!
• Had a surprise happy hour, which was tons of fun.
• Took the beastle for a couple of awesome walks.
• Found some great deals shopping at Old Navy.
• Played around with a lightning bolt nail polish tip technique.

Title: Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief
Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher: Disney Hyperion Books
Genre: YA Fantasy
Pages: 377
How I Read It: Hard copy from the library.

Synopsis: Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school…again.  And that’s the least of his troubles.  Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy’s Greek mythology textbook and into his life.  And worse, he’s angered a few of them.  Zeus’s master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.

Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus’s stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus.  But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.

My Review: My introduction to the Percy Jackson series was through watching the movie for this book, which piqued my interest enough to get me to read it.  Good job movie!!!

The first thing that struck me not too far into the book was how much the movie varied from the original work.  After reading the whole thing, this disappointed me quite a bit, because there were a lot of pretty cool scenes in the book that I would have loved to see on screen.  I assume that was done to fit the movie into standards that work for the target audience, but it would have been so awesome to see some of these explosions and fights!

This book does a lot to set up potential future conflicts, feeding into the continuation of the series, but in a subtle way that makes you enjoy it more than if it were blatantly obvious that a series was the goal.  Percy is a character that you want to see succeed, he’s a great, yet misunderstood, kid and it’s obvious that he’s going to mature into an interesting teenager.  His character alone makes me want to continue reading the series!

I also loved that this combined something we know a bit about, Greek mythology, with the modern world we’re familiar with.  To a large extent, the magic I felt while reading this book rivaled how I felt for Harry Potter when I first started reading that – with the notable exception that I found Harry to be somewhat annoying in his younger years and I didn’t get that with Percy.

One thing that did confuse me was why the Gods thought Percy had stolen the lightning bolt…sure, they could claim motivations from his father, but don’t they have better logs of who has visited them?  Couldn’t they have just looked at the visitors from the day the bolt went missing and figure out from there?

I really liked the fact that Percy had to visit the Oracle pretty early on, and learn what the prophecy meant from there.  Although I’ve seen the movie, there were some surprises due to the deviation from the book (the Oracle itself), so there were a few things I was totally not expecting!  I liked this more realistic approach to how this world might go – there are going to be all kinds of people/monsters/whatever interfering in Percy’s life, larger scale things that no one knows about or can predict.  I’m not going to spoil things for anyone, but I can definitely say that I liked the more intricate workings of the villains in this book, and the larger story line they are building up to.

This is a series I am eager to continue reading, and I plan to pick up the next book as soon as it fits into my schedule!

Read this book if: I think this is a fun fantasy series that will likely appeal to fans of Harry Potter.  It’s not quite the same kind of magic, but since we’ve got no more Harry, this is a nice substitution.

My Rating: 4.5/5 – Borderline amazing!

I’m lucky enough that I have friends with really awesome taste in music, which they like to share with me.  I learned of Santogold from a dear friend and now I’m going to share her with you!

I just adore this song! I want to remix and dance to it too!

OPI recently released a Holland collection, and I bought a few of them when at Ulta recently.  The first one I’ve tried is a blue one, which I just loved!

I didn’t have any blues quite this shade, it’s almost like a dusty blue, and has a slight bit of shimmer to it as well!

On the whole, I was happy with this color, and would recommend it to other people looking for a blue like this!