Scrabble With Anyone?

Another odd week! Don't get it. 

Two days off in a row from work. Today was a little bit better. Full of intrigue. Not really. Just coffee and several tea lattes. People are getting really into those at Starbucks lately, I guess. 

Granted, the only one customers know is ... the London Fog. *sigh* Must I send EVERYONE to the ChocolaTea to brush up on their tea education? 

How is everyone doing this week? 

One of my besties, Faith invited me over yesterday so I could meet her two new kitties. They're very fluffy! One is a calico named Chloe and the other is a cream colored Persian named Kitty-Kitty (though I think they're going to try and change her name). They made me smile. Kitty-Kitty is what I guess you could call a 'flopper.' As soon as you start calling her over to pet her, she kind of flops over onto her side and rolls onto her back which is really CUTE. It definitely reminded me of Gypsum since my little kitty does that too. Teehee. 

THEN ... Faith had to pull me into an AWESOME new Korean drama. It's called the Master's Sun and it's basically about a girl Tae Gong Sil who sees ghosts and helps them pass on messages to the living. Problem? They look REALLY creepy and kinda freak her out. So of course, when she meets Joo Joong-won and finds out that he has the ability to make the scary ones dissipate when she touches him ... she clings to him like glue, much to his chagrin. 

It's kind of hilarious. I just finished Episode 3 (sorry Faith for jumping ahead) and can't wait to watch more. If anyone is interested, you can watch them on Hulu or just go to Drama Fever and you can look it up. 

Still, I'm aware that I have to step AWAY from the dramas or I'll get sucked into it more and more until I can speak fluent Korean. Wait. Is that a bad thing? *shrugs* Oh well.

I DID finish a book this week. 

This week .... I will brag about only two. 

 

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green is about Colin Singleton. He's a child prodigy who fears he will never MATTER in the world. And he's just been dumped by his 19th Katherine. This spurns him to take his best friend Hassan with him on a road trip that will help him discover his 'Eureka' moment and his place in the world. He just didn't know that he would find it in the small town of Gutshot, Tennessee. 

This book is a John Green book, so straight from that point alone, one can guess that it's really good. It was. However, I only give it 3 out of 5 stars on my rating scale. Want to know why? 

It was simply because I had to hear the word 'fugging' WAY too many times along with 'jew fro' and 'kafir' and 'spitspinkler'. Seriously, Mr. Green, we get the nicknames already for this kid. Move on. 

I think the only thing that could make it worse is that they're turning it into a movie so I'll have to hear the words all over again. On a big screen. Oh well. Moving on ...

Insurgent by Veronica Roth. 

I'm not done yet. But I'm halfway through. It takes place DIRECTLY after the events in Divergent. This time, Tris and Tobias are both learning just what it MEANS to be Divergent and how they will play a role in the war against the factions. Meanwhile, Tris has to deal with the ever engulfing guilt and loss over the death of her family, friends, and faction. I'm loving it so far. 

I'm NOT ashamed to admit it. This series is WAY better than Hunger Games. Sorry, Suzanne Collins, but your plot has NOTHING on this. 

All I know is that I'm addicted to reading and ... I have no problem with aforementioned addiction. 

Speaking of which ... is it really all that bad that I ALREADY want to go back to Barnes & Noble. That stinkin' gift card is burning a hole in my wallet and I want to buy a book. SO. BAD. What am I going to do? I want ALL the things. ALL the books.

I think that the only thing holding me back from doing just that is the snow. It's all blustery and cold again. Hello Winter. Welcome back to Michigan, I guess. Good grief. This has indeed been the oddest winters we've ever had. I can't tell you how many snow days I've counted for the schools. Poor kids. They're going to be getting caught up on school in SUMMER at the rate this winter has been going. 

I'm just wanting more hours at work and I can't get them if the snow is making people NOT buy things. Like books. And coffee.
Maybe I should stand outside Barnes & Noble holding a sign that says 'Come Inside. I'll Make You A Caramel Flan Latte'
And then I'll post THIS next to the sign that says 'Bring Your Pooches! They Like Lattes Too'

Aww! Doggy likes a Caramel Flan Latte with Nonfat Milk and Extra Whipped Cream and Sprinkles. 

Well I think I shall have to call it good for today. I'm cold and kinda shaky for some reason. I blame the anxiety disorders today. All flare-y for some reason. Oh well. Time to get a cup of something calming and head home. 

Farewell my dear readers

Be Open, Be Loving, Be Yourself

Taryn

Uh Oh!

It looks like life is getting a chance to start kicking. 

My battery has reached the end of its usable life. Poor Wilbur. This computer's battery has lasted me ... what ... 5 years? That IS a long time. Still, I had had high hopes for a longer life on it. At least until I had put away a bit more money and NOT just threw it all on student loans. 

Okay ... I DEFINITELY want to share something with you on the subject of saving money. My mom and I have been doing this ... thing that someone sent to her. Basically, every week for 52 weeks, you put away a certain amount of money and at the end of that 52 weeks, you should have about $1,052.00 put away. 

See? Now .. I've had to do this a bit haphazardly. I just put away $20.00 into the jar today. Even though I think ... if I'm doing my math correctly (which, let's face it, I'm probably not), it's supposed to be about ... $8.00? And .. I've already put away the majority amount of $52.00 away too. Then I've just been checking off which box I've completed. I feel like I should have a tidy little nest egg by the time this is done.

So what do you think? Anyone interested in doing this with me too? You can start ANY time. No limit to when you can start. Hard to believe how quickly it all adds up, huh? :D 

How I'm trying to look at it is this way. It only LOOKS like it's going to take forever to add it all up. And ... you can cheat on this if you want. It's not a set in stone plan. My mom is doubling it as she goes. So instead of winding up with the $1300 or so ... she'll have DOUBLED that. I'm just doing this like this! "Hey, I found a $5.00 bill. All right. Let's put it in the jar and call that good and then we'll still put in my $3.00 or so at the end of the week.
I'm a bit of a procrastinator. 

All right ... I'm a HUGE procrastinator. In college, I had to have sticky notes all over my dorm rooms to keep me on track. My roommate thought I was a crazy because I would even have sticky notes on the cabinets saying things like 'Suitcase in here' or 'Ravensbruck Concentration Camp started the Siemens Electric company'. They were the only way I'd get assignments done BEFORE they were due. 

Now ... I have to have a theme for today's post, right? 

I don't. I"m a little on the random side today. But that's okay. Because that's how I'm feeling. Let's face it, readers. I'm not going to be enigmatic, charming, and articulate every time I post. I'm human and ... I'm me so I go off on tangents, have feelings and am not going to censor that from you. 

I want everyone to know that I'm normal. A NORMAL human being. Can you believe that? :D 

I get this question a lot and I wanted to share this answer with you. 

Question: Why do you read and write so much? 

Answer: It's very simple. It's because life sucks. It's hard and complicated and overbearing. 

Let's face it! Of course I'm not saying that every day is bad ... because we ALL go through periods where there's nothing but good things. Nothing but happy thoughts, jovial things happening, and peaceful lives. 

But sometimes, I wonder why college didn't just tell me the truth. WRITE THIS DOWN, EVERYONE! College tells you that life is going to be nothing but smooth sailing for you because you'll have a degree to back you up and pad your resume and then ... you step outside those doors, diploma in hand. Hope surges through you. 

The truth is this. No, there is no right answer because what you learned for that test is NOT going to actually help you in the real world. The real world does not play fair. It cheats and leaves you to follow the rule book to the letter, knowing that every outcome is this.... Compared to what we're told, we only get a FRACTION of the good that we're TOLD we're going to get out of it. They say that when we make plans, God laughs. It's true. No matter what we do to try to squeeze everything into these perfectly thought out plans .. life will ultimately throw THIS into your life's game of Tetris (look below) 

Oh yeah ... that does bite. Life is scary. It feels like when you're walking down a long, dark alley and you have that constant fear of someone following you but when you whirl around, no one's there. Life is the dream that you have where you're falling and you feel the scream build up in your lungs but nothing comes out and the pressure is so much that tears prick your eyes and you see the earth come closer and closer and closer until you wake up in a cold sweat. 

That's why I read and write. It takes away my anxiety ... for even a moment of the scary things in life. I can be anyone I want to be when I read. I can be ... Juliet, Nate's best friend in J.H. Trumble's 'Don't Let Me Go'. I can be Scout Finch in 'To Kill A Mockingbird', I can be Alice Peterson, fighting off the ravages of loneliness and her growing feelings for her master in MY novel, I can be Cath in Rainbow Rowell's book 'Fangirl' who is facing her first year in college and scared to show her true colors. THAT'S why I read and write. Because life sucks. 

Now ... I want you to take what I told you to write down ... and TEAR IT UP INTO A THOUSAND PIECES AND BURN IT! 

Because here's the kicker. You already knew all that, but THIS is what I hold onto and it's a couple of verses that have stuck with me the past few days. I've seen them everywhere. On my bestie, Faith's kitchen counter. In a devotional I JUST got from my aunt Donnette and heard in a sermon a couple of weeks ago at church. 

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Another verse... 

Matthew 6:25-34 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? ...

There you go! (points up) 

Those are what I hold onto. It makes life a little bit ... better, you know? Makes the dark alleyway filled with light. Makes me grow wings in my dream to stop falling. Gives you back those good feelings. Gives you hope. 

THAT is what I've been holding onto lately and THAT is how I'm going to leave you for today. I wish you all very well. 

Be Open, Be Loving, Be Yourself

Taryn

Bit Too Much Today

I ran away from home today.
Not Literally.

I just ... had to get OUT of the house and that was odd considering that I was barely IN the house for an hour before I bailed. 

As previously mentioned, my family has a lot of dogs ... being dog sledders. With this warm weather that Michigan has gotten since the Polar Vortex soared over us in a Snowmageddon ... I think that they've all gotten just a bit too active for my taste. I get home and it's like listening to an out of tune Puppy Choir. 

Woof, Woof, Woof.
Woof, Woof, Woof. 
Bark, bark, bark. Bark-bark.

(And yes that WAS supposed to be the doggy version of Jingle Bells to the best of my knowledge)

So YAY for you, dear readers ... you get a blog post ON TIME for once. Thank the dogs for that! 
Plus, I get some peace and quiet to apply for more jobs here in town and OUT of town again. Have you ever seen Seattle? Me either. But I applied to a job there too. 

All right! I gave you an entire post on books, an entire post on teas, and now .... you get my Overactive Imagination. 

I'm a daydreamer. I got into my head for my first novel about what would happen if a vampire, (no teasing. I wrote the outline for this novel back in the 8th grade. BEFORE Twilight) took a human as a pet. Much like we would have cats or dogs or chinchillas or alligators or what have you. And what would happen if that vampire started to form an attachment to his pet and the pet developed an attachment to her master?
From there, my novel took form. The still untitled novel. I've rewritten the whole thing three different times and I'm pretty sure I've scored a homerun with this last rewrite. 
But all because of daydreaming did it come about. 
I leave no idea left unnoticed. You never know if something is chosen for you for a reason. Also because I have no idea when inspiration will strike ... most of my ideas are stored in VARIOUS notebooks.  
Want to know the Writer's Secret? 

*leans in to whisper* 10. Cent. Notebooks.

Typically, they look just like this (above) and they're generic spiral-bound in different colors. Around the Back-To-School sales at Meijer or Walmart, they put out BOXES of these notebooks and sell them for about $.10 a piece. My bestie Jeanne and I used to raid these boxes every year for PILES of them. The only difference is that I would use or LOSE my notebooks so much faster because Jeanne's handwriting is so cute, dainty, and delicate where mine is usually a hastily written scrawl. 

Either way, the invention of the $.10 notebook was genius. 

So there IS an upside to having an overactive imagination. Especially when you can kind of stare off into dreamland, thinking of a time when you would stay up all night on Christmas Eve playing with your Polly Pockets and waiting for Santa Claus to show up. I never caught that tricky guy. *shakes head in shame* 
Or ... when I was in the middle of a crowded mall and someone pushed me out of the way. On the outside, I said nothing and just kept walking. But in my head, I whirled around and leapt up high in the air (because of course in dreamland, I have mega Ninjitsu skill) and then knocked the guy to the ground and demanded an apology for his coarse behavior. BAM! Dream Taryn wins. 
I owe my imagination to books and stories. Once you get into a good book, it's really true what they say ... it changes you. Whether you know it or not. 

I'm pretty sure that the only reason I read so much is BECAUSE I can imagine myself in a story so easily. 

Like .... when I was reading The Selection by Kiera Cass. I was reading one part where America runs out into the garden to get some fresh air and I could ACTUALLY see myself having her same conversation with Prince Maxon ... but not saying all the STUPID stuff that gets her into so much trouble. OH if you could shake some sense into a character. And my goodness do I wish I DID live in that world. I would show America how NOT to get herself into so much trouble. UGH! She can be dumb. Still really recommend that series though. Just saying. 

*sighs* 

I think I've decided to share some of my randomness with you all. I think you've deserved it, don't you? 

To Breathe Again

Written by Taryn Elizabeth Love

Prologue

                “Come on now, Miss Carraday! Put the gun down!” the cop ordered her. “You don’t want to hurt anybody do you?”

                “How do you know what I want to do?” Beth demanded. “How do you know? You don’t know me. You didn’t know my parents. You don’t know what’s been going on in my life.” She put her finger to the trigger and pointed her gun at the intended target. “My life has been completely destroyed this past year and I’ve had enough of it. I just want it to stop.”

                “Hurting somebody or yourself isn’t going to stop that, now is it?”

                “SHUT UP!” she screamed. “Just shut up!” Then she pulled the trigger.

Chapter One

                Tilda Foster hadn’t spoken to her younger sister in over 16 years. Her niece, Beth had been two years old the last she’d seen her. She had moved to Lemon Grove, CA, opened her store and had tried, without success to not think about her estranged family members.

                Thursday was an ordinary day. Tilda tied her waist-length hair into a tight braid; she burned incense to her goddess and walked downstairs to open the store she owned, Little Wonder-Land. She had just turned on the OPEN sign when Tilda heard the phone ring. She picked up on the third ring and greeted breathily, “Blessed Be! This is Little Wonder-Land, how can I help you?” In just a few short sentences on the other line, Tilda’s world came to a crashing halt. Time stopped and her heart ceased its beating. The music in her shop slowed to an impossible speed, the people on the streets froze in mid-step. And Tilda was afraid to process what the man on the other end of the line was trying to convey to her.

                “Say it again,” Tilda breathed out. “What happened?”

                “Ma’am! We need to know what you plan to do. This is extremely important.” But Tilda heard no more. The phone dropped from her hand and clattered to the floor. Tilda sank down behind the counter and hugged her knees to her chest. She clutched a small pendant in her hand and began to rock back and forth as she stared, without really seeing, out in front of her. Her sister was dead. Her brother-in-law was dead. Her niece was badly injured, but was stable. This couldn’t be happening. Not to her sister. It was impossible. Her sister had always had God of hers on her side. Tilda had believed that He would have protected her from everything under the heavens. And now she was dead and her niece was alone in a hospital in Chicago, Illinois. The bell above the front door to her shop rang and Tilda shook her head slightly to clear her mind. She stood up slowly and forced a smile on her lips as she greeted the customer walking into her store.

                “Tilda Foster, blessed be!” The customer was a regular. Her name was Margo and she’d been a practicing Wiccan for over thirty years. Margo had actually introduced Tilda to her coven, and it had made Tilda feel right at home in such a new city when she was just moving in. Margo approached her now and she furrowed her brow in puzzlement. “Now I know that something is wrong, my dear. Your aura is so dark. What is it deary?”

                “Margo, I have to go to Chicago.”

                “The goddess certainly loves to give us obstacles. It’s her way of showing her divine love. You know that,” the woman gushed.

                “Yes, but I’m afraid it’s worse than that.” Tilda took a breath. “My sister and her husband have been killed. And my niece is all alone at the hospital. I’m just not sure what to do.”

                “Oh my!” Margo came around the counter and hugged Tilda. “Uphold your strength, my sister heart. You will get through this.” She disengaged from the embrace quickly and cleared her throat. “If there is anything that either I or the coven can do for you, let it be known.”

                “Please keep me in your prayers. I do believe that I will need your strength,” she replied to her friend.

                “Consider it done.” Margo looked around the store. It was very clean and tidy, much like Tilda herself. “Now, first things first. You have to lock up and go upstairs and pack for Chicago. If you’re going to go and check on your niece, you can’t exactly do that with a whole shop full of people.”

                “I guess not,” Tilda said, forcing another smile. “Thank you Margo.”

                “You’re welcome. Now shoo!”

There! That's the first chapter of the novel I am currently repairing and editing. I realized how much was flawed with this one. It's about Beth Carraday. She was the only survivor in an 'accident' that took her parents lives. The only relative left is her Aunt Tilda and their lives clash as Beth, a Christian is forced to live with her aunt, a practicing Wiccan who left the Christian faith some 20 years ago. 
It's supposed to be a story of redemption and how God can mend ANY relationship. But then ... somehow the story got REALLY confusing so I'm revamping it. 

I hope that this is a suitable hook to pull you into the story. I thought so. 

Well ... I think it's time to take off. It's been a long day and I ran out of tea. Time to go home.

Be Open, Be Loving, Be Yourself
Taryn

All About Tea

I think you read that accurately. 

All about the tea today. Last week, I talked about books, remember? And I gave you WAY more than you actually NEEDED suggesting to read. Still, it was an impressive list. 

Deemed the drink of the year (in my mind), tea seems to be on the rise all over and everywhere lately. Here in my hometown, we even got ourselves a Teavana.  

Pardon the tone when I say this .... ChocolaTea is better. No question there. the tea is richer and there's more variety. Not that Teavana doesn't have it's merit. Generally, I go in there for the Youth Berry tea and for the Yixing clay tea pots. 

Winter Dragon tea pot! (shown above) The Yixing clay is found in the Jiangsu province of China. It's a red clay and teapots made from this help to "season" tea. This means that it takes on the FLAVOR of your tea and enhances it with each cup. 

They are not what I would recommend for a sporadic tea drinker, because it should only be used for ONE type of tea. Black, White, Green, Oolong, Herbals, or Reds. I personally use the Glitter and Gold tea in mine because it's my absolute favorite tea and I love how much more the flavor has been enhanced with every steep. The clay it's made from absorbs and soaks in the tea's natural flavors and it really can't get any better. 

Now I do want to talk about one of the most popular teas to date. 

Green Tea. 

Many people choose it because of the good antioxidants naturally derived from it. But what else is good about it? How do you get green tea? Does it come from another plant than the Black teas? 

When you hear the words 'green tea' what do you think of? I'm GUESSING that the majority usually see these images come to mind. 

The classic box of green tea bags found at your local grocery store 

<------------ Looks pretty, doesn't it? You read the box and you see the words 'HEALTHY ANTIOXIDANTS' 

   Then above, you have the beautiful glass teacup with the full leaf green tea steeping. It's an iconic image. You get blasted by the information that says 'DRINK GREEN TEA. LOSE WEIGHT.' 

Now of course I'm not denying the medicinal properties of green tea. It IS quite good for you, but there's MORE to green tea that antioxidants which ... let's face it ... no one has any idea what that really means. So let's explore that shall we? What are antioxidants? Why are they important to our bodies? 

In laymen's terms, an antioxidant is simply a molecule. It's found in ... not only green tea, but in many fruits and vegetables that we regularly eat. 

The body needs these molecules because they help us fight off infections and disease, even keeping away serious heart disease and other forms of cancer. 

The most famous antioxidant is Vitamin C which is water soluble. The second most famous is Vitamin E, which is fat soluble. 

Why are they important? It's simple. All living things need oxygen to survive, right? Basically, oxygen creates the necessary functions for us to breathe, metabolize, and use energy. Antioxidants found in the green tea (since that's where I'm going with this) keep what are called 'Free Radicals' or molecules ALSO formed by oxygen from attacking our otherwise healthy cells. Therefore .... we love green tea. :D 

Green tea is made from the Camellia sinensis tea plant and unlike the Black tea, it undergoes a very minimal oxidation process which I covered in a previous post. 

Then there's the different TYPES of green tea. 

Chinese Green tea! 

The most popular is the Silver Needle tea. This tea has a robust flavor other than its more subtle brother, the White Silver Needle tea. 

 See how it has pointed edges on its leave and an almost silvery hue to it? Originally found in the Hunan Province where it is cultivated today. 

Then there's the Japanese Green Tea. In Japan it's called simply 'tea' or 'Japanese tea' though it WAS brought to japan from China during the Song Dynasty. 

Sencha Green tea is the most popular and famous blends of Japanese Green tea. These leaves are exposed directly to sunlight. It has a very full flavor in the first and second flushes. 

See how green it is? It's from its exposure to sunlight. It also has a very grassy look to it because the leaf bunches up and holds in that flavor before steeping. 

Next ... another common form of green tea is Matcha Green Tea. 

It's a ground down tea and in Japan, it is very expensive and usually only used in tea ceremonies because they have the purest form of it. It seems to be getting more popular in the United States. And because it can be sweetened easily, you'll find it in a lot of ice cream flavors AND it's the reason that your green tea latte at Starbucks is so sweet and delicious 

Again, see how powdery and fine, this tea is. It can NOT be steeped in a normal infuser because of it being ground so fine. All you do is mix it directly with steamed milk or hot water to create your perfect matcha tea blend. 

So there is your tea education for the day. I hope it was informative and not too lengthy. I try to make it as interesting as possible when I go on my tea rants. :D 

I love my teas! 

I LOVE MY TEAS!!! 

But of course ... I can understand that people do NOT want to read only about teas so I try to mix it up and have a variety of topics to discuss. Next segment, you might be AFRAID to read as it's going to be my Overactive Imagination bit. Prepare for randomness galore on that day. 

Well perhaps I should leave you all to your day. I do have to close the cafe at Barnes & Noble tonight. So if you're in my area of Michigan, come on in and say hello! I love visitors and am happy to get to know my treasured readers. 

Be Open, Be Loving, Be Yourself

Taryn

(I am going to finish reading another chapter in the Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper)

2014!!

When did that happen? 

Here I am sitting at the ChocolaTea (shocker, I know) and sipping my custom made tealatte with chocolate-tea and raspberry, (Caitlin has very good taste in teas), and I ponder the entire last year.

I have moved back home and starting to get settled in. I'm not sure if that's a good thing. I worry that I am getting complacent and too comfortable. I hear about my friends who are having babies, moving to far away places, and getting the big jobs. 

I pray to God that He will show me what's my place in His world and though I haven't gotten an answer (or at least one that I can see), I am trying to maintain my faith in His timing. So pray for me, my friends, that I can maintain my patience, my peace, and my peace of mind during this difficult transition period. 

Because my fears are growing as I listen to my family's conversations about me that THIS is going to happen ....(look below) 

... and I'm about to fall on my face. Ouch! 

Granted, I believe that this is my anxiety talking. It's all in my head and patience is key. Hence the request for prayers. 

*takes in a deep breath, holds it for five seconds, lets it out*

Let's return to a more happy topic, shall we? That would be the first word in my blog title. Books. 

I have been reading like CRAZY and I have some I'd like to share with you. These are books that I do recommend, don't recommend, are currently reading, want to read, or am about to begin reading.
(Wow, that was a mouthful. My advice? Go back and read that sentence again and again until it makes sense) 

First book to talk about ...

Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter. 

This is the book that I recommend. 

The think I can NOT stress enough, however, is this ... if you're looking for a modern day retelling of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ... This. Is. Not. It. 

The title is quite misleading in that regard. 

Alice Bell is a normal girl in a normal family. Well sort of. They're not allowed out after dark and everyone thinks her dad is a crazy who is an alcoholic and talks about monsters all day long. 

Alice thinks he's insane as well ... until the night her entire family is killed and Alice is the lone survivor in the accident when she witnesses the horror of zombies consuming her family in front of her. Seeking revenge against the monsters, Alice moves in with her grandparents and tries to find out everything she can about the zombies. That's where Cole Holland comes in. He is a part of an elite group of students (I know. Odd, right?) who fight the zombies by night. But they're growing stronger in number and strength and Alice may be the key to truly stopping them. 

The book is quite entertaining and Alice is kind of a badass. (sorry grandma for the language. It had to be said.)
I give Alice in Zombieland ... 3 and 1/2 out of 5 stars. Which is a pretty good rating considering that I picked it up under the pretense that it was an Alice in Wonderland retelling. Read it. I recommend it. 

Now ... I do have a book that I think should be AVOIDED!!! I read it and ... kinda felt like my time was wasted. This doesn't happen very often but when it does ... I just want to scream, cry, and throw the book around like a crazy chick. 

The Farm by Emily McKay. 

This book was a complete waste of time to me. I thought the premise was interesting and then it FAILED me miserably. I was only glad that I had gotten it from the library so I didn't have to have it stinking up my shelves with its suckiness. 
Okay, I have to be fair. I put the link there for a reason so my dear readers can read it if they desire and make up their own mind. I'm just putting it out there right now that I DID NOT LIKE IT. AT ALL. 

Basically, the story is about Lily and her twin sister Mel. They live on this 'farm' where under the guise of safety, people live together with barely enough food or shelter to avoid these genetically engineered vampires called 'Ticks'. Rule breakers are put out as bait to keep the ticks away. But Lily wants to escape. Basically, the entire book is about them getting OUT of this farm but it then started to get really ridiculous and ... I don't really remember much of it because I was just trying to get it over with. There's a book two and I'm going to run away as fast as I can from it. 

That got a measly 1 out of 5 stars in my rating scale. If you value your reading lives at all ... just stay away. 

Next! The book I am CURRENTLY reading...

The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper. 

This is technically considered a Young Readers series, but it's amazing. You can actually buy the ENTIRE five book series in one volume for only $15 at Barnes & Noble. 
Here's another little tidbit for you. You'd never guess that this series was originally published in 1979. It's that good. 
Susan Cooper did a fantastic job to write the book in such a way that it could still sound relevant to today's time. This one's kind of hard to explain, so I'll leave you with the synopsis. 

The relentless battle between the Light and the Dark has raged since the beginning of time. Neither side has ever been able to claim absolute victory...and so the fight continues. But every so often the evil surges, and a member of the Light must step forward if the world is to find its way out of the darkness.

It is at the center of this epic struggle that three ordinary children, and one not-so-ordinary child, find themselves. The danger is overwhelming and the stakes have never been higher. Will the Light finally be able to conquer the Dark—or will all good be lost forever?

The not-so-ordinary child is Will Stanton and so far ... for a 12 year old who has all the powers of the Ancients ... he's pretty interesting. One of my bosses at work, Scott, told me to read this and I have been addicted. I admit I was a little scared when I saw how BIG the book was, but once I got over the initial scare, I got really into it. 

Onto the book I WANT to read. And don't get me wrong ... there are a TON ... but I'm going to quickly post just one that's definitely on the pile. 

 Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. 

Everyone has been talking about this book and go figure, I got this for Christmas and I happened to GET this book for at least TWO people. *laughs* 
This book describes a piece of every ultimate reader/movie fan. 

In Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl, Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan, but for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

Sometimes, I think that readers (and this does include myself) get so into a universe created by an author or director and it's hard to let go. Take a look at the MULTITUDES of Harry Potter fanfiction out there. And Rainbow Rowell really knows how to talk about how hard it is to let go ... but that obsessing over something that intensely isn't any good either. 
As I said, I was guilty of this. I AM guilty of this. The first time was Harry Potter. Loved the books, willing to admit that I read them 16 times each, except for the 6th and 7th because they were absurdly long. The most recent fandom I fell into is the Mortal Instruments series. Cassie Clare created a world that I would love to live in and wish really existed. Now I got better. I've only read each book at least twice. So look ... improving. :D :P 

LAST but certainly not least ... the book I am ABOUT to begin reading...

 Insurgent by Veronica Roth 

Tris Prior is back in book two of the dystopian trilogy by Veronica Roth. And this time, she has to deal with the guilt over losing family and friends in the final fight at the end of Divergent. On top of everything, Tris has to deal with a new relationship in her life and her divergence in the faction system she lives in. What will become of her?

I waited so long to get my hands on a copy of this and now that I do, I'm SO happy. I can't wait to read it. I'm going to get started very, very soon. Probably tonight. Yes, I do indeed read more than one book at a time. And no, I do not get confused (that's actually a very common question, believe it or not) 

So there you have it. That's my list of books. Maybe the next time I'm able to post *coughs* hopefully Monday *coughs* ... I'll focus on the tea aspect since today was all about the books. 

I hope that I gave you all a great new set of books to add to your own 'to read' piles. It was a little bit of a Young Adult genre day, but that's all right. I know. I'll leave you with another book that I really want to read. I found it at work the other day. This is in the Fiction and Literature section for those who don't simply want to read Young Adult like I do all day, every day. 

Here it is! One last book and then I promise I will leave you to your entertaining evening. Still, what's more entertaining than reading my blog? *winks* 

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. 

This is set in 1920's Alaska and the cover immediately caught my attention. Then I read the synopsis. Here it is: 

Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart—he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone—but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.

This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.

Definitely sounds fascinating doesn't it? A co-worker, Carrie, said that it's based on an old fairy tale but I can't remember which one now. Still, when I read the description, I was like 'I must read this'. 

All right, I solemnly gave you my word that was the last one. So I really am going now. I hope that everyone had a great New Years and were safe on the roads because here in Michigan, we've got snow galore. YAY. I wish you all a wonderful week and an even better weekend. *hugs to all* 

Be Open, Be Loving, Be Yourself
Taryn