The Last Word

Ready ... Set ... Go! 

Okay, here's where I begin. Supernatural. Not the genre. The show. 

My besties Ashleigh and Emily sucked me into it. I was told for YEARS (literally) to watch this show.
My reasoning for not watching it was always a very simple phrase .. "Heck no! I'll have nightmares for months" 

I caved. 

I started on season 1 with my head buried underneath my blankets and one eye fixed tentatively to the screen. There was so much screaming and lots of fake blood spraying all over the place that I thought that my friends really were completely insane for liking this. 

By season 2, I was still having to hide momentarily, but I was vastly getting more and more involved in the lives of Sam and Dean Winchester and their fight against the forces of evil.

Season 3 ... I was hooked and couldn't look away. The entire series can be summed up as kind of like a creepier version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

And incidentally ... I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Anyway, my point is that the show has 100% captured my attention and I'm now on the last season available on Netflix. Season 10. 

Between Castiel getting his grace back and Dean being all rampage-y, I have so many questions as to what's going to happen next and want to talk to my friends about it. 

This show reminds me of my reading habits as well.
Have you ever been so stuck on a book that you just want to shout to everyone around you about it? 

That's what is happening to me with Nettle King by Katherine Harbour.

This is the third (possibly final) book in the Night and Nothing series and every time I read, I wind up with a hundred more questions. 

Like ... what is happening to Lily Rose since she returned from the Ghostlands? Why is she so affected by iron and hallowed ground? Did Seth Lot do something to her? 

Who really IS Moth? What did Absalom do to him? Is he actually on Finn's side? Why is the shade of Jack killing everyone of the blessed ones? Will Finn and Jack wind up being okay together? Or will Finn wind up being turned into a Fata herself? 

All I have ever wanted is to find a loyal fanbase of this series and talk about this book at length with them. I even wrote a nice letter to the author herself, complimenting her on creating something that has had me so enthralled. It doesn't take much to hook me on a series, but it DOES take quite a talent to HOLD my attention to one series even after I'm finished. 

Needless to say, I will be very sad when I am turning the final page of this book. 

Sometimes, I have this vision of being able to turn around and grab the first person I see by the shoulders, give them a shake, and demand to know what they think about the books I'm reading. It's a funny image to say the least. I can even imagine the look on their faces because they have no idea what I'm talking about.

My friend, Faith, was almost always the one who would suggest a book for me to read. We'd both read it at our own pace and then would have these lengthy discussions about them. Arguing over who the best characters were seems to be our favorite topic. I still maintain to this day that Irial was the best in the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr.

(stolen from google btw) 

See, Faith? Irial had it all! The punk look. The dark eyes. The enormous wings. *sighs* You're missing out. 

I do believe that books can maintain that grab on a person. If you let it. I actually had a customer come in and ask me if I was being honest about being able to like anything that I read. I told him yes. I may tend to lean towards my Teen Fantasy stories, romances, and Sci-Fi books, but yes, I can and will read anything that is suggested to me. The customer proceeded to tell me that he thought that I was fibbing about that because there was no way that I would be interested in just any subject. I gave him my example. 
I was an English Major. I hate math. I am not strong in science. I am not all that fascinated by Biology. But when I saw a book called 'Naming Jack The Ripper' by Russell Edwards, I still picked it up because something about it caught my attention. I told him that even though the book was filled with mathematical formuli, chemistry equations, and Biological factors involving testing DNA strands, I still couldn't put the book down. 
I believe that we can be fascinated by any book. Not just what's in our comfort zones. When you walk past a book on the shelf that catches your eye, you never know, it could be something that you'll enjoy as long as you keep an open mind about it. 

Needless to say, the customer was speechless. I don't think he expected me to actually have an answer to his question. He still comes in and asks me questions about other books and whether I've read them. He doesn't even question my taste anymore. He just comes in and asks what I've been reading lately. 

Truthfully, I say that you can love any book. You can ask questions about any book. I think you've earned your right to say that you're a true bibliophile when you are able to look beyond your favorite genre and say that yes, you'll read ANYTHING that's set in front of you. School will even be improved in your mind so long as you take a moment to clear your mind and enjoy your textbooks. 

All right, I think I've stood on my soap box long enough. 


Farewell everyone! Until NEXT time!

Be Open, Be Loving, Be Yourself
Taryn

Read It And Weep ... Literally

Dear Readers,

If you are reading this letter, then what that means is ... that I have died ... of sheer boredom.
I have been sitting at a computer in the Test Center and staring at a panel of computer screens, watching for potential cheating. 
There's just one thing wrong with this. It's Summer semester. There's no one here except for a bunch of mechanics taking their re-certification exams. 

I'd much rather be staring at the black and white pages of a book.
I am currently reading the second book in a series by Colleen Houck. It's called Tiger's Quest. 
For those who have read this and really, really, really love it ... I'm sorry.

I will give the publisher this much credit. The covers are very pretty and well-done. As to the author, I give her minor credit for coming up with a sorta decent storyline. It's poorly executed and reads like a late 90's Disney Channel TV show. 
The main character is Kelsey Hayes. She's 18 years old. Her parents are dead. She lives with her perfect foster family. Then out of the blue, she decides to go to work for the circus to pay for school books when she goes to college. When she's there, she meets a fuzzy white tiger named Ren and for some reason, she becomes obsessed with him. 
Fast forward a little ways ... Kelsey gets 'permission' from the foster family to randomly cross the ocean to India with a man they only met ONE time to help deliver the tiger to its rightful home. 
That's when it happens! Oh wait! Ren isn't really a tiger. He's a 300-year old prince trapped in the BODY of a tiger. Wow. Didn't see that coming. And naturally, he's also madly in love with Kelsey who is prophesied to save him. 

To make the plot even weirder, Ren has a younger brother who ALSO is stuck in the body of a black tiger. His name is Kishan and hundreds of years ago, Ren's then fiancee left him for Kishan, triggering a whole new unnecessary love triangle between Kelsey, Ren, and Kishan. 

Throw in some weird Indiana Jones rip-off adventure scenes, ancient creatures that are poorly described, and one seriously messed up love relationship, you get this book series. 

Book 2 is no short of the same weirdness. 
Kelsey has left India to return to her home in Oregon. Guess what? Ren can't live without her and follows her like a creepy stalker to the States.
Here's the other weird part. When she got home, she finds out that she's been moved out of her foster family's house (which they are totally okay with) and moved IN to a huge house in the middle of nowhere right NEXT to Ren's new house. 

It makes no sense.

Okay, my rant is mostly over. Don't EVEN talk to me about the shark fin soup incident on page 51. 
Screw it! I'm going into it anyway. Here's page 51. 

"then dinner was served: fish to symbolize abundance, a whole lobster to represent completeness, Peking duck for joy and happiness, SHARK FIN SOUP to grant wealth..."

That's IT RIGHT THERE!!! I don't care that it was supposed to be a traditional Chinese ceremony. Shark fin soup is ILLEGAL in the United States and for obvious reasons. Short answer. Because it's INHUMANE! 
Do you know what shark fin soup actually IS? Let's back up a bit.
For starters, the shark is NOT a willing donor of its dorsal fin. Nor is it humanely killed for it. The fishermen who capture the LIVE shark haul it on deck, hack the dorsal fin off and then toss the still living, still breathing shark back into the ocean. A shark can NOT live without its dorsal fin. What happens next is this. The dying shark, unable to move the way that it is supposed to, slowly sinks further and further to the ocean floor, to depths beyond its capabilities. The sharks gills are unable to provide it the oxygen it needs, so it is suffocating on the way down. When it lands on the ocean floor, it is immediately set upon by crabs, parasites, and other bottom dwellers and is eaten ALIVE as it slowly dies. 

I apologize for the graphic violence of the photo, but this cause is serious to me. I follow several groups that are trying to STOP shark finning. It is murder. Plain and simple.
Colleen Houck made a nasty faux pas to me by mentioning the soup.

Here's the actual reason behind this little rant. Shark fin soup is a mostly tasteless broth soup. It is flavored with chicken stock. The shark fin itself is tasteless. It provides no nutrition. The only thing it does is add a texture to the soup. Yes, it is still being practiced in China, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. It is also only catered to the wealthy, but it would never, never, NEVER be found here in the public eye anyway, of the United States because we have recognized this to be an inhumane and unjust practice. 

What I really want to tell Colleen Houck is this. "Learn your facts before you write them down". She could have easily looked up marriage rituals for here in the United States and wrote them accurately without mentioning an archaic, brutal, and now illegal practice. 

All right, my rant is offically over. I solemnly promise. It was just something that affected me greatly as I read that one sentence in an otherwise ... mediocre book. 

Welcome Back!

Hello Again,

It has been a couple of YEARS since I updated my blog.

Here is an update.

1.) My computer died a tragic death. 

2.) I couldn't afford another one

3.) I have two other jobs on top of Barnes & Noble that keep me hopping.

4.) I forgot about my own blog

5.) I am still reading.

Let's start with my job situation. 

I am definitely still a barista at Barnes & Noble. I still love it. It's crazy to think that I have been there for 4 years and am about to start my 5th. I am still in love with my co-workers and I definitely still love my books. 

But now I am also employed at my local community college in the Test Center. Basically, I hand out tests to the students and proctor exams. 

My third job is ... I am Editor-In-Chief at Line By Lion Publications. We are a small-press publishing company and we specialize in creating a quality book with the author at the center.

Remember how I always said that if it was possible, I would drop everything to join the Renaissance Faire? Well that is how I met my amazing boss, Amanda. Naturally, where does my eye land at any Renaissance Faire? The books. I was wandering around Blackrock Medieval Fest by myself (no one was able to go with me that day) and I meandered into this tent. I couldn't believe how amazing the company sounded. There's a broad selection of all types of genres from children's books to graphic novels to cyberpunk fiction. I had casually brought up about how I was looking for a job in the publishing field as an editor and she immediately started telling me about the opportunity available to do just that. Then I said that I really wanted to work at the Ren Faire and she asked me to come back the next weekend to WORK for her. It was amazing.

Naturally, I am already rambling. 

This photo was from my first weekend working with her. As you can see, my little friend on my shoulder is my faithful companion, Mystery the Dragon. Although, I advise extreme caution before going out and hatching a dragon. They're notorious for sneezing sparks and they are complete bed-hogs.
Anyway, I look forward to sharing my adventures as an Editor with you all. 

Next, I want to share with you all that I am severely sorry for forgetting about this blog. Time ran away from me. I never replaced a computer which only exacerbated that problem and now here we are, a couple of years later and a grotesquely overdue posting. 

I am here before you on my knees (figuratively) and begging for your forgiveness. 

*stands back up* 

So ... do you want to know what I've been reading? If I gave you a list from the past two years, we'd never leave this place, so let's just stick with what I am currently trapped in. 

Yes, indeed! I am finally on George R.R. Martin's fifth book in the Song Of Ice and Fire series. Will I be around for book six? No one knows. ;) I'm pretty sure that George is going to outlive us all and no one will have any idea what we were all excited about by the time that Winds of Winter is released. 

I love how he writes. He has so many characters and yet he makes it so easy to keep track of all of them. It's fascinating. Danaerys has made some momentous changes in her life since she began her story with Khal Drogo in book one. Tyrion is as feisty and clever as ever. Cersei ... well, I still kinda can't stand her, but I've also come to sympathize with her too. Then of course Jon Snow is always worth reading because life on the Wall with Ghost can't be an easy life

(Before anyone starts cringing and thinking I don't know what happens ... I have seen the show and I don't completely live in a cave. I know what happened. I am in DENIAL. But I know what happened)

Now the next book that I have been reading is in the Young Adult genre. I ... THINK ... it's supposed to be a romance, but as of yet, I don't see it. 

So far, from what I have seen, Kestrel is the daughter of a wealthy and very successful General. She's been raised to join the military herself. But she ... is only so-so at combat and much more impressive when playing at the piano. One day while she is out with a friend, she sees a slave up for auction. Something about him catches her attention and she bids and wins. The man's name is Arin. But there's something about him that Kestrel doesn't know about yet. And it could affect her entire life if he succeeds. 

I just don't see the chemistry between them. It seems like they play a board game in the evenings and then she ignores him during the day. I guess I have to give this more of a chance though. After all, this is only book one in a trilogy. 

All right, that's all for now. 

Let me get back into the swing of things. I haven't written in a long time. Give me a break. 

Be Open, Be Loving, Be Yourself

Taryn