Persuasion, by Jane Austen

Persuasion, by Jane Austen
Narrated by Juliet Stevenson

Anne Elliot has lived with regret over being persuaded to reject the love of her life when she was very young. The objections to this match – money – were quickly assuaged when the man went to war and earned his fortune. But, until now, no contact had been initiated. To her horror, Anne now has to live in close proximity to Captain Wentworth and watch him woo other women.

Anne is the most mature of Austen’s characters. Partly because she’s the oldest, but also because she has accepted the mistakes she has made in the past, and forgiven herself. She handles tragedy and awkwardness with an aplomb which makes even Captain Wentworth believe nothing is amiss in her feelings. Sense and Sensibility has always been my favorite of Austen’s books, but Persuasion comes in a close second because of the maturity of Anne’s character and Austen’s exquisite representation of pain endured for years.

I also watched two versions of the movie. I’d never been a fan of the earlier one (on the right) because I couldn’t really understand what was going on, but after watching the more recent version – which did a beautiful job of catching the mood of the book and managed to explain Anne’s discomfort through her journaling – I was better able to understand the plot of the first movie. Now, having read the book I enjoyed both movies immensely, but still preferred the more recent version for quite a few reasons – including the passionate ending.

Shadow Magic, by Joshua Khan

Shadow Magic, by Joshua Khan
This book was provided for free by Disney Press through NetGalley
in exchange for a fair and honest review

While on a quest to find his father, Thorn is caught by slavers and sold to the executioner of Gehenna – a land where darkness and death are highly revered. There, he meets Lilith Shadow, the ruler of Gehenna, who, through ill-wrought diplomacy to end a war, is being forced to marry a disgusting, sniveling, bully of a prince. Meanwhile, an evil necromancer is haunting Gehenna, threatening everything Lilith holds dear.

Shadow Magic is a magical fantasy adventure from a debut author, Joshua Khan. Meant for 4th – 6th graders, I’d put Khan’s writing on par with Brandon Mull and Jonathan Stroud’s earlier series – as with Mull’s and Stroud’s earlier writing, there’s room for improvement to become an amazing rather than “just” a great middle-grade fantasy author. I was highly impressed. I can tell already that Khan will be another favorite author.

I loved the world-building, characters, and plot of Shadow Magic – all were creative and fun. Bonus points for being able to wrap up all the loose threads so that there’s room for a second book, but no need or expectation for one. Khan is working on the second one now, and I am eagerly awaiting it to see how the characters grow.

In which Rachel buys Peptochrome

Another good week has passed, though again with very little reading or corresponding with blogging buddies. Hopefully this silence will pass soon! I’ve just got to pass my NREMT exam and I’ll be back in the blogging world with a vengeance. This week I celebrated Easter twice – once with my boyfriend’s family and once with my own. I went to the park with my 1.5yo nephew a couple of times and found that he’s able to ride the zipline all by himself! I should have gotten a picture for you. AND I bought a new car. The old one was having “break problems.” That is, it shook violently when breaking. They’ve been telling me “break problems” for years, but I keep fixing the breaks and it never fixes the shake. I have brand new (like within the last three months) breaks and rotors, and had some rust filed down in there. None of it helped, and none of that stuff helped years ago when I first started having the problems. It’s like they simply can’t fathom that my car might shake when I break if the rotors and breaks have been put in properly. It’s always blame-it-on-the-last-guy. Finally, the shake got bad enough that I had a choice – get my next big 15k maintenance on my car, or just get rid of it before I crash and die. So I bought Peptochrome.

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Completed in March

In which Rachel passes her EMT practicum

This was a good but busy week. I passed my EMT practicum and got an A in the EMT class. Now I’m all ready to sign up for the NREMT (national registry exam for EMTs). I hear is the hardest test I’ll ever take in my life. I thought the MCAT would be the hardest test I took in my life, so we’ll see if the NREMT beats that. I’ll keep you updated. Otherwise the week was pretty uneventful. Filled with studying, going to my part time job at the nursing home, training for my part-time job as a medical scribe, volunteering, and tests. The highlight of the week is that it was the birthday of a good friend of mine and we went on a couple of adventures to celebrate.

Happy Easter to all those who celebrate!

Currently reading

This hasn’t changed since last week!

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It’s tempting to rush and read some kiddie book real quickly so I’ll have something to put here.

Watched this week

Again, nothing.

Acquired

The Five Kingdoms book is Death Weavers – the fourth book in the series. I purchased it for a palate cleanser since my reading motivation is going down, but I didn’t actually start it. Ha! Low motivation.

The other book is a medical terminology book which I will be using in my class this summer. I got it now so I can start studying for my medical scribe job as well.

Red: The True Story of Red Riding Hood, by Liesl Shurtliff

Red: The True Story of Red Riding Hood, by Liesl Shurtliff
ARC provided by Random House Children’s through NetGalley
in exchange for a fair and honest review

In this fun adventure story, Red goes on a journey to find a magical healing potion for her Granny, who’s sick. On the way, she unwillingly adopts a friend and fellow-traveler named Goldie, finds out the secrets of the Big Bad Wolf, and generally learns a lot of lessons about the value of life. This is a cute fairy tale retelling, appropriate for ages 8-12 years. It’s a bite-sized snack for those of us who gobble up fairy tale retellings – except this story is more like fairy tale fan-fic than an actual retelling. The plot is nothing like that of Little Red Riding Hood or of Goldilocks. It uses the characters and their basic personality traits to make a whole new story. This approach to the tale makes it refreshing because you really don’t know what’s going to happen next.

This book is the third in Shurtliff’s fairy tale universe and apparently pick up where her book Rump leaves off. I haven’t read Jack or Rump, and I’d say this is pretty much a stand-alone book.

In which Rachel takes a part-time job as a medical scribe

Well, my first week of tests for the EMT class is over. These were just practice tests – one practice test for the EMT certification exam and one for the National Registry practicum. I did adequately in both, and am hoping to pass both real exams soon. On next Monday I take the real practicum, on Wednesday I take the class final exam, and sometime in the next month I’ll take the NREMT (certification exam). Then I can start looking for an EMT position!

Additionally, I took a part-time job as a medical scribe. It’s apparently another great way to prepare for a physician’s assistant program. Unfortunately, it requires 30 hours of unpaid, online training, which is due two weeks from Wednesday. I may not have enough time to get through all of it while I’m studying for my last week of EMT class. We’ll see!

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The Last Week, by Marcus Borg & John Dominic Crossan

The Last Week, by Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan
Narrated by John Pruden

The Last Week brings to light the historical meaning (as Borg and Crossan see it) of the last week of Jesus as told in the Gospel of Mark. This book was very interesting, though lacked the power of The First Christmas, which I reviewed previously. The main reason for this difference is that The First Christmas told the story of Christmas by comparing all the Gospel stories, as opposed to focusing on just one. Borg and Crossan chose to focus on Mark because he’s the only one to have described the entire week in detail. However it made for a much less interesting, and more repetitive, book. Another difference was that in The First Christmas, Borg and Crossan focused a lot on why they thought some passages were parable rather than literal, and why others should be taken literally. The Last Week focused a lot less on this subject, and spent the bulk of the book simply interpreting the historical background of Mark’s Gospel for our modern times. This, of course, is a very interesting subject, but the lack of that added myth vs. literal aspect made for a much less meaty book.

All in all, I’d say each of these books has its own merits, and which you read would depend on what you’re looking for. Borg and Crossan are knowledgeable and well-researched historical Jesus scholars. So if you take the Bible quite literally and are looking to understand the historical background of the Passion of Jesus, The Last Week is the book for you. However, if you find the little “inconsistencies” of the Gospels interesting, then The First Christmas is the book for you. If you are at all interested in the subject, I would recommend one or the other (or both) of these books.

In which Rachel has her last week of EMT lectures

Happy Daylight Saving weekend everyone! Not much happened this week out here in Rachel-land. The weather is beautiful, and I’ve been able to take some nice long walks around a lake – we have 10,000 of them out here in MN. 😉

I had another moulage victim gig this week – this time I was a belligerent drunk with a tib-fib fracture and a tension pneumothorax. I got to yell at poor medical interns while they tried to convince their examiner that they knew what they were doing. It was pretty fun. My lines were “I’m going to die if you don’t do something!” “I’m going to throw up!” and “I need to sit up so I can breathe!” The rest was all ad lib. I DO wonder if I’d be able to be quite so loud if I really had a tension pneumothorax, though.

This is my last week of EMT lectures. From now on it’s two full weeks of tests. I can’t wait. *cringes*

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Season 1 of Flash and POP! Hulk were gifts for my boyfriend’s birthday. Gooseberry Bluff Community College of Magic is my real-life bookclub choice this month.

The Serpent King, by Jeff Zentner

Dill is no stranger to hardship. He’s dirt poor, financially supporting his mother, and seems to have zero future prospects. His father, a snake-handling preacher, is in prison; many of his former parishioners blame Dill. Yet Dill has two things that keep him getting up in the morning – his friends Travis and Lydia. The three are strikingly different but are pushed together by their mutual status as social outcasts.

This is a story about friendship, futures, and fighting. It’s the first book in a long time that’s made me just start bawling – I generally avoid crying if I can, but this book deserved a good cry. It was that moving. I didn’t just feel for Dill and his friends, I felt with them – which is saying a lot since I personally have not experienced most of the hardships that Dill and his friends were going through.

The characterization and mood of this book were what made it amazing. The characters were real. They were flawed. They got angry for stupid reasons or were sometimes bossy and blind to the needs of others. Yet they were perfect. They were just what good friends should be. They knew how to love, how to inspire, how to live. The mood of the book was remarkably well-kept. It somehow mixed the darkness of hardship with the light of an amazing friendship.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anybody who likes gritty teen realism. Personally, I volunteer for a texting crisis hotline for teenagers, and I find reading books like these helps me to better relate to the teens that text in. I am currently collecting books that I think would either be good to recommend to troubled teens, or help others in the crisis center to empathize with teens in crisis. I consider this an important collection, and carefully think about each book that I include. This one is a definite yes. Issues that I consider important in this book – religious extremism (and how it impacts youths), family members in prison, bullying, grief, mental illness, and coping mechanisms.

In which Rachel goes on an Ambulance Ride-Along

First of all, thanks for everyone who has been commenting on my blog despite my disappearance. I plan on getting back to all of your blogs soon, but I’ve been concentrating on studying for the onslaught of tests at the end of my EMT class. I have to do well or else I won’t pass my national exams. I’ll keep you updated on how I’m doing. 🙂

This week was fantastic, though exhausting. I celebrated my nephew’s 3rd birthday twice – it only comes around every 4 years, so it’s exciting to celebrate. We went to Rainforest Cafe at the Mall of America for our first celebration. Dinner there was terrible. It took about 45 minutes to get our drinks, and they totally forgot to bring my dad’s – he had to wait another 15 minutes for his. Plus, one of us accidentally ate a piece of plastic that was in the quesadillas. Of course we sent them back and had them taken off the tab, but that’s a huge choking hazard! The service was terrible, the food lacking in tastiness, and the restaurant had tables crushed together way too close so that you HAD to bump into another table in order to get out of your own.

The next time I celebrated my nephew’s birthday, I took him over to a friend’s house, where we discovered (horror of horrors) that both Netflix and Hulu had stopped streaming Doctor Who. I’m sure they announced it in advance, but we didn’t notice. We had to watch a couple of movies instead. Now I’ve bought the 6th series so that we can watch it at our leisure.

I also had an ambulance ride-along, which was fantastic. The trip was 14 hours, and we spent the whole of it in the ambulance. There were about 7 calls – one every 2 hours. None of them were particularly exciting, though we did have to handcuff two of the patients for our own safety. I was shocked how quickly 14 hours passed.

I also went to a high school production of Man of La Mancha. It was fantastic, other then the orchestra which had a fairly bad trumpet player. But the acting was superb considering it was a high school performance. Especially Don Quixote. Amazing acting and boy could that kid sing!

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A Room of One’s Own and Chasing the Scream were both purchased on sale at Audible. I’m starting to pile up books in my Audible queue through these sales, but how can I resist? I thought it would be nice to add in one more Virginia Woolf book this year, as I’m celebrating women classic authors right now. Chasing the Scream fits with my current interest in the state of the failing justice system here in America.