Not-so-classic Christmas movies and TV

For those of you who are tired of Christmas classics and prefer your holiday cheer with a side of monsters, terrorists, creepy animated pipe organs, or otherwise decidedly atypical Christmas additions, here's my recommended watch list.

Die Hard
Yes, it's totally a Christmas movie. Note the office Christmas party and the carols playing on the radio. And my favorite bit of the movie - "Now I have a machine gun. Ho-ho-ho." The second movie is also technically a Christmas movie as well, if you want more of Bruce Willis kicking terrorist butt.

Lethal Weapon
There's a drug bust that goes down in a Christmas tree sale yard, the good guys leave a note for the bad guys on Murtaugh's Christmas tree, plus there's a group of police officers caroling at the station and Christmas decorations everywhere you look. That's enough to make this a Christmas movie in my book.

The Nightmare Before Christmas
Watchable for both Halloween and Christmas, since it's set in Halloween Town during the weeks leading up to Christmas. Also, anyone who has been on Tumblr for any length of time probably cannot watch the song "What's This?" without hearing some different lyrics. Or maybe it's just the people I follow who keep reblogging those posts...

Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas
I honestly like this sort-of sequel more than the original. From the very creepy pipe organ trying to ruin things for everyone to the lovely Christmas themes, it's a great holiday movie. And as a kid, I thought the storybook that Belle makes the Beast for Christmas was pretty much the best thing ever.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The scene where Father Christmas appears has always been my favorite part of both the book and the movie. It's no longer "always winter and never Christmas," and it's the first real sign that the White Witch's power has been broken. Plus, the soundtrack for that scene is incredible - it perfectly captures the joy of Christmas.

Supernatural - A Very Supernatural Christmas
In my favorite Christmas TV episode, the Winchesters face down Evil Santa, plus we get flashbacks to young Sam and Dean, and a lovely piece of backstory for Dean's amulet. The bit with the eggnog at the end is great too, since Jared used real rum to spike Jensen's prop eggnog - a little bit of behind-the-scenes trivia for your added enjoyment.

The X-Files - How the Ghosts Stole Christmas
Mulder and Scully investigate a haunted house on Christmas Eve, and get psychoanalyzed by some ghosts... This is honestly a very weird episode, even by X-Files standards, but although there are parts of it that make me cringe, these tend to be balanced out by the parts that are highly entertaining.

Chuck - Chuck Versus Santa Claus
While not the only Christmas episode of Chuck, this one is my favorite. Yes, it's got some nice Die Hard references - the plot revolves around a hostage crisis on Christmas Eve, so those flow naturally. But the thing I really love about this episode is the number of strong character moments, including a couple of very important Chuck/Sarah developments.

Doctor Who - The Snowmen
I'm not a big fan of Doctor Who, or Moffat in general, but I like this episode quite a bit. Clara is seriously bad-ass, the snowmen are definitely creepy, and the Sherlock Holmes references are highly entertaining. If you're looking for another (mostly) stand-alone Christmas episode, Voyage of the Damned - which is set on an interstellar version of the Titanic - is also good.


Anyone else have other non-traditional Christmas movies or TV episodes that they like to rewatch during the holidays? If so, comment and share your favorites - I'm sure I overlooked some great ones.

2016 Reading Challenge, Part 9

I have two weeks left, in which I need to read seven books if I'm going to complete this challenge by midnight on December 31st. That works out to about 150 pages per day, which is doable. But if I'm being realistic, I'm probably going to come up just a little short, because a week of that is Christmas celebrations with friends and family. Either way, I've greatly enjoyed this challenge, and if I don't quite make it in 2016, I'll get to any remaining books in January.

41. A classic romance
     Persuasion, by Jane Austen

I'm not one of those people who absolutely loves Jane Austen - I've seen a few movies/miniseries and I read Pride and Prejudice in college, and while I've not hated what I've encountered so far, I don't think I'll ever love her work like a lot of my friends do. This book did very little to change my opinion on that front. I didn't find Anne to be a particularly likable character, mostly because she's so much of a pushover for a large portion of the book, so I never found myself terribly invested in what happened to her.   My rating: 7/10

42. A book published this year
     City of Thorns, by Ben Rawlence

This was definitely an eye-opening book. I have to be honest - I didn't even know Dadaab existed, and I knew next to nothing about current events in Somalia (and most of Africa). The book weaves the history of the camp through the recountings of the day-to-day life of various refugees, and the combination of facts and personal stories drives home the reality of what's happening over there. Definitely a book that's worth reading.   My rating: 8/10

43. A book that became a movie
     Big Fish, by Daniel Wallace

[Disclaimer: I have not seen the movie.] A quick and easy read, this book has a surprising amount of depth. I liked the narrative style very much, and whatever you conclude about Edward Bloom and his stories, Big Fish itself is a good story. And if, like me, you've ever had a parent or grandparent who was a wonderful storyteller and who seemed larger than life to you, especially when you were young, I think you'll feel a special connection to this book.   My rating: 9/10

44. A play
     Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, by J.K. Rowling and Jack Thorne

I was originally planning to read some Shakespeare for this category, but when I realized I could read Harry Potter instead, of course I went with that. While it wasn't as beautifully magical as the original books, I still liked this play. I honestly feel like both this and the Fantastic Beasts movie tried to give a less rosy and more realistic view of the wizarding world, which I liked as a concept. The execution wasn't spot on, but I appreciated the effort, and there were definitely moments where everything came together exactly right.   My rating: 8/10

45. A book you were supposed to read in school but didn't
     For the Time Being, by Annie Dillard

This is the only book I've ever been assigned in school that I didn't read, and I still managed to write a five-page paper on it for Humanities 303 back in college. I'm pretty sure five pages is about how much of the book I read before writing that paper. Reading it now, two things stood out to me. First, I loved the style of the writing very much. And second, to my mind, this book missed the mark by dismissing the only truth that could actually give a good answer to the questions posed about how we should live in this world. As pretty as it was, it ended up feeling rather hopeless, or at least rather vague in its hope, which was sad.   My rating: 8/10

2016 Reading Challenge, Part 8

Forty books down; twelve to go (actually ten and two halves). I'm not really doing a great job catching up to where I should be for this challenge, but I continue to hold out hope that it's possible for me to complete it. And even if I don't finish, it's still been a very good reading year for me, so I'm pretty happy with how things stand.

36. A mystery or thriller
     The Way to Dusty Death, by Alistair MacLean

If you're in the mood for action, conspiracy, and intrigue, Alistair MacLean's books are always good for a quick, fun read. While the plot of this one isn't as complex as some of his other books, the action moves along at a nice clip and the characters are interesting enough that the story never drags. Plus, who doesn't love a conspiracy set in the world of Formula One racing? (A confession: this book may have adversely affected the safety of my driving back in high school...)   My rating: 8/10

37. A book that came out the year you were born
     The Cardinal of the Kremlin, by Tom Clancy

I was really into Tom Clancy books back in high school, and I still enjoy them, even though they feel a bit dated now. I especially like the attention to detail regarding the science, the spycraft, and the politics, and have always appreciated how tightly the plots of his books hold together. While this book is not my very favorite of his, it's definitely up there. Filitov is a very sympathetic character, so it works well to have the story centered around him, and several of my favorite characters from other Clancy books show up in this one as well (Mancuso, Clark, etc.). I think one thing I enjoy about Tom Clancy's books (at least the Jack Ryan ones) is how interconnected they are, so the more of them you read, the better you appreciate them.   My rating: 9/10

38. A book from an author you love that you haven't read yet
     The King's Justice, by Stephen R. Donaldson

The two novellas in this book were quite different from each other in style and concept, and yet both were recognizable as Stephen Donaldson's work. The first one, which shares its title with the book, struck a very interesting balance between the intensity with which Black pursues his purpose and the detached manner in which he views the world around him. I wasn't a fan of the occasional paragraphs that were from other characters' perspectives, as I felt they detracted from the story rather than adding to it, but aside from that the story held together well. The second novella, The Augur's Gambit, was filled with grandiose language, which fit well with its setting: a small island where political intrigue runs rampant. Narrated by the queen's hieronomer, this tale of court politics and impending dooms did a lovely job of using first-person narrative to add urgency and suspense. Overall, both novellas were engaging and well-constructed.   My rating: 8/10

39. A book written by someone under 30
     A Darker Shade of Magic, by V.E. Schwab

I found this book to be a highly enjoyable fantasy adventure with a slightly darker edge. Both of the main characters were likable, and the supporting characters were given enough personality that they felt real as well. The whole concept of multiple Londons in multiple worlds made for a great story setting, and each London had a very distinct feel to it, which added to the believability of the fictional universe of this book. I'm glad this is a series, because I'll happily read more of Kell and Lila's adventures.   My rating: 8/10

40. A book you own but have never read
     The Mind and the Machine, by Matthew Dickerson

This book was given to us as a wedding gift from a college professor/mentor of ours. Sadly, it's taken me five years to finally get around to reading it. I appreciated the progression from differing views of the mind and of human nature to the logical outworkings of those views in different areas of life. Like most books of its kind, it could have been distilled down to a much shorter collection of statements, but then it wouldn't have been a book. All in all, it was a decent read, and made a few good points that I hadn't thought about before.   My rating: 8/10

2016 Reading Challenge, Part 7

I'm still behind on my reading for this challenge (this is week forty-two of the year, and I've only read thirty-five books for it), but I'm holding out hope that I can catch up. It might mean a few extra trips to Panera or a local coffee shop to help me read without distractions, but I think it's doable. I'm actually sitting at sixty-two "books" read so far this year, so another seventeen shouldn't be too hard (that count includes books and book-length fanfiction, but not comic collections).

31. A book a friend recommended
     The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss

I really thought I was going to love this book, as it came highly recommended from some people whose opinions I generally agree with. This was an exception to the rule... It wasn't a terrible book, but neither was it the amazing book I'd been led to expect. I think one of my major issues was my general dislike of Kvothe, specifically in the first-person sections. Kote the demon-spider-killing-barkeeper was quite interesting. Kvothe the overly-precocious-and-self-absorbed-adolescent, not so much. Now don't get me wrong here, I don't necessarily need to like my protagonist (see Thomas Covenant, for example). However, if I'm going to be presented with hundreds of pages of first-person narration, I need to like my narrator. And, unfortunately, I didn't. Stellar prose might have allowed me to look past that, but all I can say for the writing is that it was, for the most part, okay. Sadly, that's about all I can say for the book as well.   My rating: 7/10

32. A book set during Christmas
     The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis

I'm counting this book for this category, since my favorite scene from it features Father Christmas delivering some pretty epic gifts. I love all the Narnia books, and while this isn't my very favorite of the series (that would be The Last Battle), it's still an incredibly good book, with so much great imagery. I love the scene where Father Christmas appears, because it's no longer "always winter and never Christmas," and it's the first real sign that the White Witch's power has been broken. And I love the way the children all have different reactions to first hearing Aslan's name, and the way that spring comes all at once. I know that Aslan's sacrifice and a giant battle are still to come after that, but I always feel like the coming of spring is the big turning point in the book - the Witch is basically already defeated before any of that other stuff happens. I also like the contrast with the Witch turning people to monochromatic stone, and then Aslan coming along and breathing color and life back into the world.   My rating: 10/10

33. A book set in a different country
     Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs

While the book starts in Florida, the main portion of it takes place on a small island off the coast of Wales, which works well as a setting for the peculiar story being told. This book had just enough of the weird and fantastical to be quite interesting. The old photographs added to the sense of peculiarity surrounding the characters, and I liked the little callouts to actual history that were mentioned here and there throughout the story. The plot itself wasn't anything unique, but that's true for ninety percent of YA fiction, and that doesn't stop me from enjoying a book if it's decently well executed, which this was. I had a couple of quibbles with the way the bad guys were presented, and could have done without the romantic bits, but overall I enjoyed the book.   My rating: 8/10

34. A book based on a true story
     Valiant Ambition, by Nathaniel Philbrick

This might not be exactly what this category was going for, but I wanted to read this book and it sort of fit here, so I'm declaring it close enough. I picked this book up for one simple reason - I wanted to know more about my rather notorious ancestor. I've been to Fort Ticonderoga, but aside from reading placards there, I didn't really know that much about Benedict Arnold, which is sad since it's not like I have a lot of infamous relatives... This book did a good job covering a big-picture view of the battles, politics, and another situations that Washington and Arnold were involved in from 1776 through 1780, providing enough detail that the events unfolding made sense, but not so much that I felt overwhelmed. I'm not a history buff, so I don't know how well the book holds up from that perspective, but I found it to be both engaging and informative. And since the book ends before the war does, I think I now need to brush up on the rest of my Revolutionary War history...   My rating: 8/10

35. A Pulitzer Prize-winning book
     The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

Reading this book gave me the same feeling in my gut that hearing the theme music for The Walking Dead does - the best I can describe it is a sense of wrongness. And yet somehow this wasn't a completely depressing book. One of the things that was repeated several times throughout the book was the idea that the man and the boy were "carrying the fire," and however you want to interpret that exactly, the way that affected their actions and decisions was a large part of what made this book more than just a bleak look at a harsh world.   My rating: 8/10

Summer adventures, Take #2

Seeing as it's almost fall, I think it's time to share the highlights from the second part of my summer. When last I posted, I left off with a new house, empty of belongings and waiting on a moving truck. So let's start there...

The movers came, the movers unloaded box after box after box, and the movers left. I felt very motivated and unpacked a whole lot of boxes that first week. Then I ran out of motivation (and shelf space). The house is still sort of a mess, but the number of boxes has been decreased dramatically from what it first was, and thanks to Trevor, the closets have some more usable shelves now.

Our first house guest (Becca) arrived less than a week after the movers, so it's a good thing she didn't come expecting any sort of order :) And our first non-family guests came over that same weekend for an intense game of Bohnanza, after an entertaining round of mini golf. Since then, we've had an old college friend of Trevor's for an overnight stay, and the Baileys stopped overnight on their way through from Oklahoma, so our extra bedrooms have come in handy.

The five weeks between July 28th and September 1st contained Trevor's birthday, our anniversary, and my birthday, so we did a lot of celebrating. Nothing big, just burgers, mini golf, ice cream, a movie, and more burgers. (We're planning a bigger anniversary celebration for later, since some activities - skiing, for example - are difficult to do in mid-August.)

Mini golfing on our anniversary

The middle of August also happened to be the one time when the entirety of both our immediate families overlapped in PA for a couple of days, so we took a whirlwind trip out there to see everyone. We hit up Kennywood with my siblings (and assorted friends and a fiancée), went hiking, boating, swimming, and disc golfing with Trevor's family, had a bonfire at my folks' place, ate pancakes and played games at Yan's, and had an insanely busy but very fun-filled few days. Which of course led to us coming down with miserable colds and spending the next week coughing, sniffling, and napping at every available opportunity.

Having a little too much fun at Kennywood :)

Sleight family photo!

Trevor started a four-week instructor training course at the beginning of September, so that's been keeping him plenty busy, but we did drive out to PA again over this past weekend. We got to see Adam's soccer game Saturday morning (BCCS won, so that was nice), then spent the afternoon doing house- and yard-work at my parents' place. The plan for Saturday evening was a bonfire with friends, which went well for a couple hours, but then the skies opened up and drenched us so we relocated inside to practice bluffing and mind-reading with Mascarade and Dixit.

All in all, this has been a crazy but good summer. I'm liking Ohio for its greenery and creeks, as well as for its proximity to family and friends in PA, and that makes the upheaval of moving easier to take. It still definitely feels like we're in the transition phase right now, but things are slowly starting to fall into place (for example, I found a good chiropractor last week), and I'm looking forward to the next few years here.

2016 Reading Challenge, Part 6

Yes, I know, I'm rather behind on this challenge. It's still doable, but I need to buckle down and read more. Which will be a challenge in and of itself, since my TV shows are about to start back up later this month... I've saved a lot of the books I've been looking forward to most for this later section, though, so that should help.

Also, if anyone has a recommendation for "a book that scares you," please feel free to share. That category sort of has me stumped, since I don't read much horror. Two stipulations: no evil clowns, and minimal usage of snakes. Otherwise I will have very disturbing dreams.

26. A book from your childhood
     A Swiftly Tilting Planet, by Madeleine L'Engle

If I had to pick ten favorite books, this one would make it onto that list. I still vividly recall the first time I read it - how it left me in awe, both of the story and of the storytelling. It's good versus evil on an incredibly grand scale, and the writing itself is almost lyrical at points, making this book a joy to read. I love the way the battle for the fate of the world is portrayed as incredibly broad in scope, being fought across the entirety of human history, while at the same time feeling very personal, as everything revolves around just a few crucial characters. The juxtaposition of love and hate in this book is a perspective that has indelibly colored the way I look at the world, and I often think back to this book when the news is full of stories of hatred and violence. I've read this book many times, and I plan to read it many more, because each time I feel like I see a bit more of the truth that's woven throughout this beautiful story.   My rating: 10/10

27. A book with more than 500 pages
     Seveneves, by Neal Stephenson

I'm always a little unsure about tackling a novel that weighs in at over 800 pages - if it ends up disappointing me, that's a lot of reading time lost. Even though a Tor.com article had piqued my interest in this book, I was still hesitant at the beginning. Then I read the first sentence - "The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason" - and I was hooked. The scope of this novel is massive, as the ramifications of that pivotal event are explored in great detail, and both the immediate impact and the long-term outcome (we're talking thousands of years here) are laid out very clearly and in such a way that I never lost interest. From the technical details to the societal changes, the world-building was outstanding. As a scientist, I appreciated the attention to detail that was evident throughout, and as someone who loves a good story, I appreciated the complex way this one unfolded. Granted, the pacing was a little off at times, but I still really enjoyed this book overall.   My rating: 8/10

28. A book with a love triangle
     The Princess Bride, by William Goldman

When I was first skimming through the categories in this challenge, this one did not make me excited. Between television and YA books, I'd generally had about all that I could stomach of love triangles. And then I realized that The Princess Bride technically has one. Suddenly I was very excited for this category. The humor in this book is more nuanced and subtle than in the movie, which is probably why I only like the movie, but absolutely love the book. Plus, you get more backstory on Fezzik and Inigo, a hair-raising descent into the Zoo of Death, and all of the author's notes where he supposedly cut things out of Morgenstern's "original." (Side note: did you know I've met people who read this and thought there really was an unabridged version out there somewhere? Spoiler alert: there isn't.) All that to say, every time I read this book I find it just as delightful as the first time I picked it up, and it still stands as my favorite humorous fantasy book.   My rating: 10/10

29. A memoir
     Greater Than Gold, by David Boudia

Let's just get this out of the way: I am both a Christian and an Olympics junkie. As such, I was predisposed to like this book. And I did like it. It was a quick, easy read, but I was happy to find that David Boudia's understanding of what it means to be a Christian seems to be well grounded in Biblical truth. I had no idea until I was watching the synchro diving at the Rio Olympics that he was a Christian, but I remember watching him dive in London and being very excited when he won (see above comment about me being an Olympics junkie). All in all, it was an enjoyable book.   My rating: 7/10

30. A book more than 100 years old
     The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells

It's one of the earliest alien invasion stories, but this book holds up surprisingly well nearly 120 years later. Events are described succinctly but vividly, and the directness of the narration adds to the urgency of the story. The plot is detailed and gripping, the Martians are a formidable foe, and while some people may dislike the anticlimactic ending (preferring something more along the lines of an Independence Day-type battle, I guess), I've always enjoyed the idea of terrestrial bacteria being the Martians' undoing.   My rating: 8/10

Tomboy and girly - and that's okay

Over the last few years, I've had sort of a revelation: It's okay to like painting my toenails, and it's okay to like wearing guys' cargo shorts. I can love action and superhero movies most, and I can cry at happy endings in chick flicks. My closet can have a Steelers jersey hanging next to a vibrant fuchsia shirt. I can get excited about dressing up, and I can also wear the same pair of jeans for a week. (Or two. Or three. Because everyone knows jeans make dirt magically vanish.) I can talk football, or I can squeal about good-looking guys. And I can own twenty pairs of shoes, most of which are flip flops or boots. In short, I'm not required to choose between being a tomboy or being girly - I can be both, as it suits me.

It's taken me a long time to get to the point where I'm comfortable enough with myself to truly be myself without worrying all the time. Now let's be real here - I've never been fashionable, or popular, or anything less than nerdy. But for a very long time, that really bugged me. I liked wearing what I wanted and being passionate about what I wanted, but at the same time, I hated not fitting in. A big part of that was probably the fact that I got teased a lot, which honestly happens much less as an adult. (Seriously, kids can be vicious little monsters.) But I like to think that I've also developed more self-confidence as I've gotten older, that I've figured out who I am and where I fit in the world (at least sort of), with mostly positive results.

Of course, that doesn't mean everything's always easy. In fact, the whole issue of fitting in (or, in my case, not fitting in) is a little more front and center for me at the moment, since I'm going to have to find a new friend group out here in Ohio now. But however that goes, I know that A) I have friends elsewhere whose weirdness complements mine, B) I have a husband who loves me both in spite of and because of my various quirks, and C) I have a God who created me to be unique. So forget about fitting into one category or another - I'll just be who I am and be happy with that.

2016 Reading Challenge, Part 5

One would think that being without internet for about a quarter of the time since my last book post would have been conducive to getting lots of reading done. One would be right to think so, but most of the reading that I did was fan fiction :) However, I did finish off an awesome trilogy, revisit a short story collection that was part of my initial introduction to science fiction as a kid, read a couple books about books, and one very interesting look at a dystopian future. I'm a little behind schedule for the challenge, as I still have twenty-seven books to go, but I think I'll make it.

21. A trilogy (book three)
     Morning Star, by Pierce Brown

"All deeds that last are painted in blood." These words echoed in my head over and over as I read, through every impossible decision and every bloody battle and every tragic loss. This book was intense. At one point, I had to put it down and walk away until I could regain my composure enough to continue reading. It was definitely harder on my emotions than the first two books, which was partly due to the events in the story, and partly due to how much I'd come to care about the characters. It wasn't perfect, but it brought the story to a good conclusion. I'm always hesitant to recommend a trilogy before I've read all the books, but now that I've read them all I will certainly be recommending them to my friends.   My rating: 8/10

22. A book of short stories
     The Counterfeit Man, by Alan E. Nourse

I've read this collection several times, and I enjoy the variety in the stories. The Counterfeit Man and The Dark Door are probably my two favorites, as they feature two things I rather like - evil that can hide in plain sight, and a blurred line between truth and insanity. The Link is also a favorite, as it really resonates with me for some reason. I tend to read one story at a time from books like this, so that I can take a bit of time to ponder what I just read before moving on to the next tale, and this collection is good for provoking thought on a lot of different fronts.   My rating: 8/10

23. A book with a number in the title
     Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury

A good portion of the time, the descriptive language perfectly set the scene or conveyed the mood, but then there were those times where it seemed excessive and detracted from the flow of the story. This was especially true in the beginning, and I almost quit reading, but I remembered liking this book in high school, so I stuck it out. I'd say this book gets progressively better as the story goes on, and there were a couple scenes that will definitely stick with me. Conclusion: mostly good, thought-provoking, and worth reading.   My rating: 8/10

24. A book set somewhere you've always wanted to visit
     The Little Paris Bookshop, by Nina George

I wasn't sure at first what I thought about this book, but once Perdu and Max started traveling, I decided I liked it. It moved at a slow pace a lot of the time, but it was an easy read, and an enjoyable one for the most part. There were some aspects to the story that bothered me, but I could ignore those for a good portion of the book, so that wasn't too much of an issue (for those who care, my main issue was that the woman Perdu loved and lost was with him while in a relationship, albeit an open one, with another man). When it comes to books about booksellers learning to live and love again, I liked The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry better, but that doesn't mean this book didn't have its moments.   My rating: 7/10

25. A book with a one word title
     Feed, by M.T. Anderson

I'm really not sure how to rate this book... As far as world-building goes, it was fantastic. The future presented here was a terrifyingly believable one, and little details sprinkled throughout the book gave it a depth that went beyond what the main characters saw and said and did. That being said, the characters themselves lacked depth, and I don't just mean that they were shallow people (although that's partially true). I think some of that was probably intentional, as you're seeing everything through Titus's eyes, and he's the product of a culture that never looks beyond the surface. However, for the second half of this book to work, you need to care about the characters, and that's hard to do when they generally feel more like caricatures than real people (this is true even of Violet, who really should have more depth than the other friends). The writing style also put me off at first (I know using "like" every third word is a real-world thing, but it drives me nuts in the real world too), but after a while, I realized that the style itself was part of the storytelling - a way of showing how culture had deteriorated, that everyone was so careless with their words. Once I figured that out, it bothered me much less.   My rating: 7/10

Summer adventures, Take #1

My summer started off with sending Trevor off to Alabama for five weeks of Squadron Officer School. While he was away, I had loads of fun. First up was a trip to Colorado to vacation with my in-laws. My sister-in-law Hannah is working as a rafting guide up there this summer, so we all congregated in Colorado to hike, raft, and hang out. I got to meet more relatives from that side of the family, and generally had an awesome time.

After a long drive by myself, it was nice to get out and hike the next day, even if it was rather warm. The trail was called Tunnel Drive, and went along the river, and through several tunnels along the way. We also checked out a old dig site where lots of dinosaur skeletons have been found over the years (no, we didn't see any), and stopped for ice cream on the way home - a lovely way to wrap up a day in the sun.

The next day we were off to the Arkansas River, and spent the whole day rafting down it. We had a big enough group that we split up into two rafts, and Hannah was our guide. She did an awesome job, we had lots of fun, and we all got very wet, especially Yan and Ian up front.

The last day in Colorado we drove down to Bishop's Castle, and if rafting wasn't enough to satisfy anyone's desire to get their adrenaline pumping, climbing all over this place certainly did the trick. I made it all the way to the highest point (a little steeple on top of the highest turret that is 160ft in the air), but I was definitely clinging tightly to the framework up there! In the afternoon, we strolled around a little tourist town, and ended up stopping for ice cream again - the perfect answer to the heat.

I didn't come straight home from Colorado, but instead meandered my way through New Mexico (stopping at an old dormant volcano) and then into Texas to visit Rachel, Jacob, their pets, and their cattle. They very graciously made space for me in the trailer that's serving as their temporary abode, and I got a tour of their land, and spent lots of time catching up with Rachel, which was lovely.

Looking across the rim of the crater at Capulin Volcano National Monument

Back home again, I had the less exciting task of getting everything ready for the movers to come, but I also got to celebrate the 4th of July with folks from the Enid and Stillwater RP churches. The fireworks were lovely, as always, though it was a bittersweet evening due to the fact that I would be leaving those people and that place behind in two short weeks. Still, I'm grateful for four lovely Independence Day celebrations in Enid with people who went from strangers to acquaintances to friends in that time.

After a few frantic days of finishing sorting everything in the house, I flew out to DC to hang out with old friends and go to a wedding. The first day, Vir, Karen, Becca and I toured the monuments and memorials on the Mall, then hit up the Newseum and the American Art Museum in the afternoon. The Newseum was very cool, with the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph exhibit being my favorite. I didn't get to spend nearly enough time there, as we only had the afternoon and you could easily spend a whole day there, so that's on my list of places to go back to.

World War II Memorial

Newspaper headlines from around the world after 9/11

The next day, we met up with more old friends, wandered around the Natural History Museum and the Air and Space Museum, learned about hypnotizing chickens, ate delicious deer burgers, and generally had a lot of fun both catching up and reminiscing. Then, on Sunday, we went to Kelly and Phill's wedding! The ceremony was short and sweet, the reception was lovely, and I'm very happy for both of them :)

Some of my favorite people :)

I came home from DC to find all my worldly belongings in boxes, navigated the maze that was my house until the boxes got loaded onto the truck, then had a chance to appreciate just how wonderful my husband is as we scrubbed and vacuumed the house. I'm pretty sure we left it cleaner than we found it. We also managed to fit in a couple of last hurrahs - eating good food, hanging out with all our wonderful Oklahoma friends, and fitting in one last game night. Then we were on the road, and were thankfully blessed with a safe drive, and two not-too-traumatized animals. As of today, we have our house, but the moving truck hasn't arrived yet and the internet is proving problematic, so I'm finishing up this entry from one of the local libraries, where I have both a chair and access to the interwebs :) And that about wraps it up for the first half of my rather busy, exciting, and never-boring summer!

A few more good quotes

Since we're halfway through the year, and I'm about halfway through my reading challenge for this year, I thought now would be a good time to share some of my favorite lines from the reading I've done so far. This is the extremely pared down version, as I've written down a lot of good quotes this year. (I'm pretty sure I wrote down nearly half of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and most of The Little Prince...) Anyway, without further ado, onward to the quotes!

From The Sandman: The Doll's House:

In the beginning...

But of course we never see the beginning. We come in in the middle, after the lights have gone down, and try to make some sense of the story so far. Whisper to our neighbors, "Who's he? Who's she? Have they met each other before?"

We get by.

From Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency:

How long did the Monk believe these things? Well, as far as the Monk was concerned, forever. The faith which moves mountains, or at least believes them against all the available evidence to be pink, was a solid and abiding faith, a great rock against which the world could hurl whatever it would, yet it would not be shaken. In practice, the horse knew, twenty-four hours was usually about its lot.

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His professorship was an obscure one, to say the least, and since he dispensed with his lecturing duties by the simple and time-honored technique of presenting all his potential students with an exhaustive list of books that he knew for a fact had been out of print for thirty years, then flying into a tantrum if they failed to find them, no one had ever discovered the precise nature of his academic discipline.

From Isometry:

Choices matter because they are unidirectional, because we can't see beyond them to every possible outcome or erase them after the fact.

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"It's physics 101: time is precious because it runs out."

From Theory and Practice:

She remembered what she had always known - that we mark the passage of time in solar terms, that the cosmos to which most of us give no thought but which could swallow us whole in the proverbial blink of an eye, numbers our days. It always has.

From The Little Prince:

"Where are the men?" the little prince at last took up the conversation again. "It is a little lonely in the desert..."

"It is a little lonely among men," the snake said.

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"You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed."

From Silver Cornet:

"Stories are funny like that, ma'am," he said. "Sometimes it's the ones that are so strange and that seem the hardest to believe that have the most truth in them."

From Holy Cow:

Feelings come and go, unless you don't feel them. Then they stay, and hurt, and grow pear-shaped and weird.

From Morning Star:

Maybe that's just the nature of us, ever wishing for things that were and could be rather than things that are and will be. It takes more to hope than to remember.

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I used to think the life strands of my friends frayed around me, because mine was too strong. Now I realize that when we are wound together, we make something unbreakable.

From A Moment in the Sun:

The art of staying sane lay in the balance between holding on to the past and letting go of it.

From The 13th Sign:

"Tentative happiness," he considered. That sounded about right. A semi-normal life: fragile, handle with care. Minor imperfections may occur.

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A man on a journey owns nothing except the essentials - air, sleep, dreams, the sea, and the sky. Anything else he might stumble onto is providence and should be appreciated as such.

In other words: one takes what one can get.

From Fahrenheit 451:

"We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?"

--------------- 

"It's not books you need, it's some of the things that once were in books... Books were only one type of receptacle where we stored a lot of things we were afraid we might forget. There is nothing magical in them at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us."

2016 Reading Challenge, Part 4

Welcome to the fourth of my book posts for this year, in which I comment on one very good book, one quite enjoyable book, one rather odd book, one flop, and one book that I liked and hated in equal parts. I'm now twenty books into this year's challenge, and feeling pretty happy with it. I spent a long time figuring out how to diversify my reading within this challenge, and I think that's going pretty well overall. Plus, I'm getting to read lots of new books, which is always a good thing. I'm also managing to balance my fanfic and book reading at the moment, which is a minor miracle and the only reason I'm still mostly on track for this challenge.

16. A trilogy (book two)

     Golden Son, by Pierce Brown

There are, in my experience, very few trilogies in which the second book is better than the first. This would be one of those select few. Red Rising was about playing a game where the rules are always being bent and changed, where the distinction between friends and enemies is difficult to determine, and where any misstep could be fatal. Golden Son takes all that and ratchets it up several notches. Now, it's not a few lives on the line, it's thousands, and the dangers are larger, while simultaneously more subtle and harder to predict. There were several parts of this book where I found it impossible to step away, because I absolutely needed to know what happened next. Golden Son left me wanting more (in a very good way), and I really hope the third book can live up to my high hopes for it.   My rating: 9/10

17. A popular author's first book
     Looking for Alaska, by John Green

I didn't really like the first three-quarters of this book, and the review I started to write then was a rather annoyed rant about contemporary YA fiction. That got scrapped, because I liked the last quarter of the book quite a lot. Also, the edition I read was the special one for the tenth anniversary of its publication, which had some interviews with and notes by the author at the end. Those I really liked. I may not particularly enjoy John Green's books, but I definitely like the way he thinks sometimes.   My rating: 6/10

18. A book you can finish in a day
     Star Wars: The Force Awakens, by Alan Dean Foster

Let's be real; I can finish almost any book in a day if I try hard enough. My record is A Memory of Light, at 909 pages. This book was easy. I've read all the Star Wars novelizations, some many times, and this one, while not completely terrible, didn't hold up very well. Moments that were funny or sad or bittersweet in the movie fell very flat, and many of the added scenes and bits of dialogue felt out of character. For example, the movie version of Kylo Ren didn't match up at all with the much more self-possessed Kylo Ren you saw in most of this book. I read the novelizations in order to get added insight into characters and story lines, and this one mostly failed at that. I didn't hate it, but only because I had seen the movie twice, and so could envision the scenes based on that, rather than just relying on the sub-par writing.   My rating: 5/10

19. A book based entirely on its cover
     Ink and Bone, by Rachel Caine

As I mentioned last year, I don't usually do this. This year, my selection came from scrolling through the giveaways on Goodreads, which I do occasionally. I think this is a gorgeous cover, even though it does scream YA... After I chose it, I discovered that a long time ago, this author wrote X-Files fanfic under a different pen name, fic that I'd read and liked, which made me even more interested in this book. It didn't disappoint. It was well written, with a gripping plot and a diverse cast of characters. The best part about this book, though, was the depth of the worldbuilding. You'd think a world where alchemy allowed the Library of Alexandria to survive and create a worldwide network of daughter libraries would be a good thing, but this book explores the potential ramifications for society in an entirely unique and intriguing way. I liked it quite a bit, and am eagerly awaiting the next book in the series.   My rating: 8/10

20. A book with nonhuman characters
     Holy Cow, by David Duchovny

I picked this up in the bookstore the other day, read the first few paragraphs, laughed, then got it out of the library since I'm cheap and it seemed like a funny-once sort of book. It was entertaining, mostly. A little preachy or just plain irritating at times, but it made me chuckle to myself a lot as well, which I consider a redeeming quality in a book. It was honestly pretty much exactly what I expected, which wasn't a bad thing. Great literature it was not, but I just wanted a light read, and it fit the bill.   My rating: 6/10