BOOK REVIEW: 5 stars for Karen Marie Moning's Iced

This book is said to be a spinoff of the fever series and able to stand alone. I don't think that I agree with that. Had I not read the Fever series I believe I would have been lost. With that being said, the Fever series is one of my all time favorite series and this edition did not disappoint. I would like to have seen more of Mac & Jerico, but this was not their story. This is Dani's story. Thanks to the adventures of miss Mega we also get a look at Ryoden as well as one of my new favorite characters, Lor. If you have read the Fever series and liked it, I highly recommend you continue on to Iced. If you didn't like the Fever series, well then, what is wrong with you?!

Book Review: The Great Gatsby

I'm a member of a book club with very few limits. Our only limitations are to pick something in paper back so that it is more affordable for everyone, and if it is a series be sure to pick the first. So, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was chosen. This was a book I was assigned to read while in high school and chose to skip, but I did enjoy the movie with Robert Redford.        
The book read like one long alcohol induced dream, everything seemed hazy around the edges and disjointed. There was never a transition between topics, and everyone was constantly drunk in a life that was nothing but a 24 hour party. I found not a one of the characters to be likable, all of them were liars and weak. The book could have been told in a short story in only a few pages and would have translated across just fine. From someone who is usually a fan of anything from the 20's era, the only thing I can think to say nice about this book is that it is short and I only had to pay $2 for it.

Book Review: The Back of Beyond

This review is for Alan Peter Ryan's collection in titled The Back of Beyond: New Stories.

I should begin by saying the copy I am reviewing is an advance readers copy, so the refined copy may be different.
In preparing for Halloween I wanted to read something scary. Seeing as how this was provided to me by Cemetery Dance Magazine I had high hopes. I was disappointed to find that out of the 4 stories in this collection 3 of them read like an outline. It seemed that Mr. Ryan was making notes on the stories he hoped to write, maybe trying to jot down a dream upon awaking before he lost it. Nothing in the first 3 stories is developed and there are no endings. Just as you think some thing may be about to happen the stories are over. Based on the first 3 stories this book would have received 1 star from me, but the final story earned it a second star. Mountain Man is a bit more fleshed out and does have a bit of a plot. It still reads as if it's not finished and is just the idea of a story to come, but it did have dialog between characters and did have something take place.

Decisions

So I'm really excited about getting back to the vegan lifestyle.  Of course I'm not going to just jump in, I'm going to work up to it.  I vowed to go pesketarian to begin with, although I've actually been vegetarian since starting back on this road.  I'm trying to decide if I should start a new blog dedicated to my journey back to veganism or if I should just keep it here and let this blog be all inclusive. What do you guys think?  All thoughts are welcome.

Old Ways

The holidays were great, I hope all of you had wonderful holidays as well. But now they are done and it's time to get back to the grind of everyday life.  For me that means back to school. I have promised myself that I will really buckle down this semester and do some true studying. We shall see how well that goes.

Anyhow, on to more pressing matters.  If you know me then you know that I've gone through trying to be both vegetarian and vegan before.  The last time I did very well with it and ended up loosing 14 pounds in the process.  There was only one reason as to why I had to give it up.  When I started back to school there wasn't any time for cooking.  I was going to school twice a week at night and working full time 5 days a week.  That didn't leave much time for cooking on top of studying. And living in a small town doesn't offer many opportunities for grab and go lunches and dinners that fit into the vegetarian lifestyle, much less the vegan lifestyle.  Things seem to have calmed down a bit now.  I'm not working now and I'm only going to school twice a week.  This means I have time to plan and prepare meals.  So I'm gong back to my old ways.  I'm going to start out with pescetarianism and work may way through the stages to becoming vegan again.  Wish me luck.  The first few weeks will be the toughest. 

That Time of Year Again

It's now mid October, which means there are only 2 months left till Christmas.  I have no job this year in which to buy gifts with, which is a bit depressing.  However I have lots of yarn.  With that said, a few of you will be getting a homemade gift from the heart :).  I figure that with my study schedule as tight as it is, I should have gotten started on all of these gifts 3 months ago. With that said I'm going to give you a small sneak peak of what I've been working on.  The pics below are not of gifts that will be going to any followers of this blog, sorry.  And I'm not telling who they will be going to or what the project will be when finished.  Wouldn't want you letting it slip.  I'm just going to post a little peak at the stitches and colors.  Enjoy!  Once the gifts are given I'll post full pics.

These should be Royal Purple and Teal.  Don't know why it looks so drab in the pic.

 

Study TIme!

So, I've had a hectic week these past two weeks.  Week before last we had two test on Monday, a head to toe health assessment check off on Thursday (which I passed with flying colors), and then our health assessment final on Friday.  By Friday night I was so frazzled that I thought I'd come down with a case of alopecia (hair loss).  I made it through the week though only to find out I missed the mark and will have to repeat the course. UGH!!!!  This is heart breaking.  I feel like a failure.  But if I'm being 100% truthful, I have no one to blame but myself.  I was always the student who never had to study. Through my A&P classes, Biology, Microbiology, and all the other classes I've had to take up to this point I've never studied for the first test.  I'd go in and come out of the the class with nothing lower than a B.  But this first semester of Nursing School has shown me that is not going to be the case any further.  After I made a D on my first test I have started trying to teach myself to study.  This is proving to be harder than I thought.  It's like teaching an old dog a new trick.  I'm more determined than ever now though.  I will bring this up!  I will do GREAT this semester! And when I retake Health Assessment next semester I'm going to knock it out of the park.  Just watch me :).