AtomicKnits

Abarat

Abarat by Clive Barker was recommended to me by Beth when I was going on a trip to the library in search of some sweet YA.  I really thought this was an excellent book!  It was really good storytelling, and I found I could easily escape into this world and leave my cares behind.  The artwork that went along with it is great as well and helps you to visualize the world and the characters.  The story is about a girl named Candy Quackenbush from Chickentown, Minnesota (already rules, right?!) who is kind of an outcast.  One day she is wandering is a field and finds herself taken away to a land called the Abarat.  Adventures begin and new characters are met.  I felt like this book was only setting the stage for the next books in the series, and I am really excited to get to read those soon.  I would recommend this book to anyone who likes adventure stories.  This is a fantasy, but I think it's very accessible, and readers who don't really like fantasy still might like this book.

Knit Two

I saw this one on the 'new' shelf at the library and picked it up.  I have kind of been wanting to read Knit Two by Kate Jacobs, but I definitely didn't want to buy it, and I kind of didn't want to read it.  It read fast and was pretty entertaining, which was good, and someone just didn't up and die at the end for no reason, so that was good too.  I was kind of disappointed with the development of the characters in this sequel.  Since there is no one main character anymore (she died), now we follow the other women and men involved equally.  That's ok, but I ended up not really caring that much about any of them, because I only got to know them each a little bit, instead of maybe one or two a whole lot.  I think I may have preferred that.  But, it was cute, a good ice cream sundae read, and I will probably read more books in this series if/when they come out (if I don't have to buy them).

The Help

The Help is Kathryn Stockett's first novel, and my book club picked it to read for next meeting.  I thought this was a good book. It wasn't anything mind-blowingly amazing, but it was addicting to read, and I enjoyed the characters and the story and the ending.  This book is about three women living in 1960's Jackson, Mississippi.  Two of them are Aibileen and Minny, African-Americans who work as maids, and one of them is Skeeter, a rich white lady who has just finished college and moved back home to live with her parents.  All three of the women are very bothered and fed up with the racism and segregation laws prevalent in their community.  Skeeter's dream is to be a writer, so she decides to write an Anonymous book telling the stories of what it's like to work from the maids' perspective.  Skeeter also had a special relationship with her own family maid.  Some of the things that happen are funny, some are sad, and some will make you want to cry in a not sad kind of way.  This is definitely a good chick-lit fix (if you need one), and I hope Kathryn Stockett doesn't become a one hit wonder.  I did think she did an excellent job with the characters.  I would recommend this book to anyone who likes reading about women and their relationships with each other, or anyone who likes reading about "everyday life" during a period of America's past.

Ender's Game

I never got to read this one as a kid either! Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - the first in a series of 4 main ones and I guess a bunch of extra ones too?  I liked this book a lot.  It was weird and disturbing and well-written and cool!  I had to remind myself a bunch of times that most of the characters are all little kids and only 6 years old when the story begins.  There are already rules today in some countries that limit the amount of children a family can have, but it's interesting in this book how the extra children are put to use by the government in whatever way they saw fit.  They aren't really considered people.  The twist at the end was *kind of* predictable, but it was still really powerful when it happened.  I liked how the ending started to open up another can of worms so that crazy stuff can happen in the books to come, which I definitely will read. I would definitely recommend this classic to sci fi fans, and also people who like ready stories with child characters.

Dragon Outcast

Alright, I am not going to spend a lot of time on this. Dragon Outcast, the third book in the Age of Fire series by E. E. Knight.  This book actually kind of had me by the middle to end, but it just did not deliver in the end.  It is interesting that the outcast of the clutch of dragons would be the one to rise to a relatively powerful position and how it came about, and I will read the next ones, because now I really want to know how pissed Wistala and Auron get when they see their outcast brother ruling over dragons and men and blah blah blah.  But, yeah - really cool world, lots of potential, weak delivery. Send along the next one please.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I recently joined my cousin Emily's book club, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson was the book at was chosen for next month's meeting.  I usually stay away from murder mysteries and crime novels in general, so I didn't know if I was going to like this book or not.  I am excited, however, to read some books that I maybe wouldn't choose myself.  I thought this book was alright I guess.  I really liked that it was a page-turner and kept my interest.  The female characters are awesome.  You can tell that the author really liked (yeah, he's dead) women in a respectful way.  I didn't like all of the violence in the story.  I thought a lot of it was gratuitous, especially the part toward the beginning of the book with Lisbeth Salander and her gross lawyer.  I felt like it was a really cheap way to accelerate Lisbeth's character development.  I mean, I get why it happened and why someone like her would let that happen and blah blah blah, but I would have liked to get to know Lisbeth better throughout more pages and more less gross events.  Anyway, this is a good mystery and it was very suspenseful.  I really liked the pacing and I think I'm a fan of Stieg Larsson's writing style.  I'll probably read the sequel.  I would definitely recommend this to people who like a good 'ol gruesome murder mystery and readers who like strong female characters.

Dragon Avenger

As promised, I did keep reading this series!  I just finished Dragon Avenger by E. E. Knight, the second installment in the Age of Fire series.  I liked this book MUCH better than the first one.  There were way more story elements, and that kept things moving a *little* more quickly.  So, it's looking like each book is told in parallel to the first one, instead of what happens after.  At first, I was like "what? eff this!" but, I think it will be ok.  Each book tells the individual story of each dragon in the clutch and how they go about their lives after the initial attack on their family.  But, there are only three of these dragons, and there are four books out right now and a fifth is slated to be released in December (for the love of god), so I'm assuming that we learn what happens when all of these dragons are grown up.  I will read all of the books, but I only want to know what happens.  The author doesn't write in such a way that I can get attached or really care about any of them. My favorite character in the series BY FAR is Stog the mule.  He's the best!  I found myself only caring about what happened to Stog.  I hope there are more characters like him in the next books.  I guess I would recommend these books to probably kids who like to read about dragons and battles.  I am taking a break from these series for a little bit, I will come back to it before too long!

Dragon Champion

Beth and I are doing a trade.  She is reading all of the Twilight books, and I am reading E. E. Knight's Age of Fire series, starting with Dragon Champion.  I guess I liked this book. It was OK. It was interesting to read a story from the perspective of a dragon set in a world not centered on the existence of humans.  I will give the author that - the world he created with all of the races and their relationship to one another is really cool.  However, I found that this book read kind of slow, and I thought that the descriptive parts and character development were kind of weak in general.  For a while I thought this book was just going to be about AuRon, the main character dragon dude, being shot at by arrows of various sizes and points.  Arrows and eating children.  It did get better toward the end, where you learn more about the history of the dragons and the more complicated relationships between the different races.  I did start the second book, and it is holding my interest a little better, so I'm going to push forward.

77. Go on a weekend trip with just Santina. - Complete!

This weekend, Santina and I went to Lewes, Delaware to spend a fun weekend at the beach!  It POURED on Friday and Sunday, but we had an awesome sunny day on Saturday.

We spent most of the day at the beach swimming and laying in the sun at Cape Henlopen State Park.  We got there pretty early in the morning, so it wasn't crowded for a good amount of our time there. We even saw some dolphins swimming about.

By the afternoon, it was getting pretty crowded, so we packed it in and went back to our awesome bed and breakfast!

We stayed at the Savannah Inn for both nights and it was awesome!  Our room was so nice, especially the shower, and the living room and common areas are all gorgeous as well.

We did get to go to a yarn store while we were in Lewes.  We went to Ginger Moon Yarn.  This store was pretty boutique-ey and had a lot of high end yarns.  We both splurged and bought this crazy yarn that changed fibers along the way and huge needles, so we could knit our scarves that night.  I will post more about this knitting project tomorrow.

The next day we went to Rehobeth Beach, and we took some pictures of our awesome scarves during a break in the EPIC DOWNPOUR.  I had such a good time this weekend!  The Delaware beaches are so nice and it was nice to spend that time with Santina.  I'm glad we got to do this.  I wish we could have stayed for longer!  You can see the rest of the pictures here.

Lady of Avalon

After reading two super depressing books, I was really eager to read Lady of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley.  This is the book that ties together the stories in The Forest House and Mists of Avalon.  I really liked it a lot.  This story is broken up into three parts, each telling of the lives of three different High Priestesses of Avalon.  I think my favorites were the first and third parts.  The first part begins right after The Forest House ends, and the third part is all about Viviane - the Lady in Mists of Avalon - and her upbringing.  The second part was kind of slow for me I think because there were too many battle scenes.  Another thing that was cool about this book was that there was a lot of mystical pagan stuff in it, which helped to explain why certain rituals were performed and some of the history behind them.  I would recommend this book to anyone to has already read any of the Avalon books, or anyone who is way into historical fantasy.  I will definitely be reading the rest of the Avalon books.