Category: Uncategorized

Halloween month adventures

Hero with Chi Three


This week was a lot of fun. I had three days off in the middle of the week, and got lots of reading done. I’m also stockpiling my TBR of graphic novels for Dewey’s readathon (coming up on the 22nd). No, I don’t plan on only reading graphic novels, but I know that if I sit reading for 24 hours straight my eyes are going to be blurring over at the end. Thus, easy reading choices.  

Selfie with supermoon
On Saturday I went to The Trail of Terror with my best friend and my boyfriend. We got to enjoy the supermoon. The supermoon is supposed to be at its best at moon-rise this (Sunday) evening, so check it out! The Trail of Terror was fun – it was a set of maybe five little fun/spook houses, a wooded walk (shortened because of flooding), and a heated “maze” all surrounding a karaoke bar. There were also spooktacular rides, games, food booths, and three bars. 

I didn’t really find anything scary, but there were a couple of times I felt thoroughly lost in the spook houses and maze when there were too many strobe lights or too little light. I have this weird thing where my vision starts flashing whenever there’s not enough light, making it even harder for me to find my way in darkness. (Apparently I have an inner strobe light?) I had to just hang on to my boyfriend to guide me through those parts because they were very disorienting. But I guess that’s the point. 

Today I plan on carving pumpkins with my nephew and my best friend. I’m sure I’ll have some pictures to share in my next update. 

This week on my blog I wrote one book review: The Fifth Child. It’s a spoiler review, so watch out. That was my one Halloween book for the season, unless In the Woods counts (it’s a mystery). 

Books Completed

I finally finished Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which I hadn’t been making very quick progress on despite loving it (again). I then sprinted through The Fifth Child, by Doris Lessing – I didn’t expect that to be such quick reading. And because my eyes were getting blurry from all that reading, I settled down to read one of my graphic novel stack: Chi’s Sweet Home Volume 3. Adorable!

Watched

I watched the first two Terminator movies with my boyfriend.


Currently Reading: 


The Fifth Child, by Doris Lessing

WARNING: This review contains spoilers. 


This story begins with Harriet and David standing apart from the crowd. They observe the crowd as outsiders would – they are old fashioned & reserved; they have morals. But when they see each other, they instantly recognize a similar soul.

They become a happy young couple who defies social norms and wants to have at least six children. The first four children are splendid, but the fifth comes too early. A terrible pregnancy produces a child which seems only partly human – Ben is some mutation or maybe a fallback to neanderthal times. Ben is endlessly hungry. He’s angry and brutal. 

Harriet’s maternal instinct tells her to love Ben, but she struggles to do so. As Ben grows, she feels blamed for his brutish personality. The doctors and teachers imply that there’s nothing wrong with Ben, the problem is that she doesn’t love him enough. Her family blames her for having so many children to begin with, and then afterwards for not institutionalizing him. The family falls apart as she focuses all her attention on Ben.

This story was disturbing and poignant in so many ways. To a certain extent, it was left open to interpretation about whether Ben’s problems were exasperated by everyone’s loathing of him – or did he simply not need love because he was not “human?” It’s possible that the sequel, Ben in the World, answers that question. I may pick it up after mulling this one over for a while longer. I’m going to have to assume for the time being that Ben was human and needed love, however.

This is a story about intense self-involvement. Harriet and David begin as incredibly self-absorbed individuals who blossom into a self-absorbed couple. Everything is about them. They want a large house they can’t afford? Ask daddy for money. They want more children then they can pay for? Ask daddy for money. They want to have children faster than they are physically capable? Ask mommy to move in. They selfishly take and take, only feeling a little pang of injured pride that they aren’t able to show the world that they can do it themselves. Even their thank-you’s seem just-for-show. 

Then Ben comes along. Outwardly, it would seem that everything becomes about Ben. He needs a lot of attention in order to keep his brutality in check. Harriet focuses her energy on Ben and David focuses on work, and the other children are emotionally neglected. In reality, everything is all about Harriet, not Ben. Even when she rescues Ben from certain death in an institution, this rescue is not about saving a life – it’s about saving Harriet’s morals. She can’t just let Ben die, that would sacrifice who she is. But she doesn’t save him because she feels he should live. She saves him because she couldn’t live with herself if she let him die. Thin line, I know.

From reading other reviews, most people seem to feel that this is a book about a mother trying her hardest to love a child no matter what. And I do feel that Harriet wanted to love Ben. But, again, I question her motives in wanting to love Ben. Did she love him out of maternal instinct that was repulsed by a “changeling?” Or did she want to love him because she had self-pride in her old fashioned morals? The latter, I think. 

Maybe upon reading the sequel and re-reading this book I’ll look at Harriet differently. I hope so. I wanted to like her. But she just seemed so selfish to me. I do think she did the best she could, though…and a good bit more than many people would have done.

I’m going to pair this book up with a memoir about a real mother raising a violent child – The Price of Silence.


Birthday week

This was a pretty good week for me. On Monday I went to a steakhouse with my family to celebrate mine and my mom’s birthdays. I’m one of the lucky ones who can say that I love spending time with my family. And on Wednesday, I went out to celebrate again, this time with my boyfriend and my best friend at a woodfire grill. Yum! On Thursday, I saw my nephew play football. This time the teams were more evenly matched, so it was a good game, even if it did start raining at the end.

I got over-eager this week and started signing up for stuff in the blogging world, which I’ve been trying to cut down on since I know I’ll be busy with my Bible group read next year. (Yes, I keep bringing it up, but that’s because I’m excited.) I signed up for Dewey’s 24hour Readathon. I’ve participated once before, but have never had an opportunity to go the full 24 hours. I’m going for it this time. I’ve already borrowed a bunch of graphic novels from the library to read when my head starts getting weary. Here’s my reading list below (the readathon isn’t until the 22nd, so this is subject to change):

I also signed up for a reading of Men We Reaped, by Jesmyn Ward, with the Social Justice Book Club over at Entomology of a Bookworm. I voted to read Neurotribes for November’s edition of Doing Dewey’s Nonfiction Book Club. And I joined Litsy. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Litsy, it’s like an Instagram for book lovers. As far as I can determine, it’s a social network that is available only as an app on  your phone. It’s pretty darned amazing. I’m @the_hibernator. 

On my blog, I wrote two posts about How to Read the Bible  (Chapter 4 and Chapter 5), by James Kugel, and a review for To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. 

Currently Reading: 


Happy October

Happy first day of October everyone! October is my favorite month because I love (normal) October weather here in Minnesota. And who can argue with Halloween? 

This last week was uneventful. My newly rearranged schedule worked out, and I managed to make all of my scheduled goals for the week. Work is going well, and I got lots read and lots published on my blog. 

On my blog, I published notes on chapter 2 and chapter 3 of How to Read the Bible, by James Kugel, which I’m reading in preparation for my Bible Group Read next year. I also published a review of Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, by Robert Sapolsky.

Watched: Tremors and the third season of Castle




Currently Reading: How to Read the Bible, by James Kugel; Stiletto, by Daniel O’Malley; and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, by J. K. Rowling. Yes, I know, they’re the same books I’ve been reading for two weeks. And at the rate I’m going, they’ll probably be the books I’m reading next week, too. 



Kitty’s first vet appointment


It won’t surprise anyone that knows me that I love cats. Sorry dear boyfriend, bunnies are just ok. And even less ok when they eat through the furniture. My precious little babies haven’t destroyed anything yet. Except my bank account. This week I took all three of them to the vet. Boy is that expensive!

Overall the week went well. It was my first week in my new dialysis clinic for work. It was nice meeting all my new patients. I miss the old ones, but I’ve found some friendly faces in my new work-home. 


I’m currently reading: How to Read the Bible, by James Kugel; Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, by J. K. Rowling; and Stiletto, by Daniel O’Malley. 
I have acquired: The Literary Guide to the Bible, by Robert Alter and Frank Kermode. This is a book of essays about each book or section of the Bible, and I will peruse it as I’m reading the Bible next year for my Bible Group Read. 
This post is linked up to Sunday Salon (on Facebook) and  Deep Fried Fruit‘s Lovin’ Life.

So much, and so little

This is one of those weeks in which I feel I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off, yet there’s nothing much to say about it in my update! With my new job (with strange hours) ramping up, I feel over-committed to family, friends, and volunteer work so that I have very little free-time for myself. I ended up having to borrow free time, missing two events last week. But I’ve now rearranged certain aspects of my schedule – hopefully that will help.


I am sadly behind on my book reviews, but I have penciled into my calendar to write a review for The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm on Tuesday and Why Zebras Don’t Have Ulcers on Thursday. We’ll see if proactively planning my reviews gets me caught up!

The activity my blog HAS seen this week is that I decided to organize a full Bible Group Read through the year 2017. I already have a group interested on LibraryThing, if you prefer that venue. Or if you would like to casually or all-out join me reading / blogging about the Bible next year, let me know!

This week I completed To Kill a Mockingbird, and I loved it. Though the ending made me laugh because it reminded me of when my mom told me “I didn’t understand that book…” When I got to the ending I understood why. lol. Mom. So literal. 
In light of my new plan to read the Bible, I decided to read some preparatory non-fiction. I’ve temporarily set aside The Myth of Sisyphus, which I started last week. Also, The Fifth Child won last week’s vote, so that’s what I’ll be reading for Halloween. This week I’m reading How to Read the Bible, by James L Kugel, Stiletto, by Daniel O’Malley, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, by J. K. Rowling. 


I’m linking this post back to the Sunday Salon (on Facebook) and Caffeinated Reviewer’s Sunday Post. Oh, and oh, so cute, I found this Loving Life Meme too. Check it out! What I love about life today is my friend Charity, whom I haven’t seen in months – got to see her last night as a surprise hang-out. 


Red Queen, by Victoria Aveyard

Red Queen, by Victoria Aveyard
Mare Barrow struggles for survival in a world where there is a ruling class, the Silvers, who proudly proudly display their superpowers in order to make the powerless Reds feel belittled. The Reds are forced into poverty and are slaves to the Silvers’ war. All Reds who don’t have any special skills (like sewing, fishing, etc.) by the age of 18 are forced to fight and die in the war. Mare is approaching the age of 18 and is becoming increasingly disobedient to the laws of the Silvers. But she has a few lessons to learn. 

This is one of the better teen dystopias I’ve read in a while. The world-building is unique and the characters are engaging. It’s unlike many of the dystopias lately in that it gives you the opportunity to see how the bad guys aren’t all bad. But it does also has some typical aspects of teen dystopias with female main characters. I’d like to see more teen fantasy/sci-fi with male characters these days, as I find them more to the point and less about messed up romance. 

Overall, if you like teen dystopia, you’ll like this book. If you don’t, you won’t.


I emerge from Hibernation (again)



Well, it’s certainly been a while, hasn’t it. I haven’t been blogging lately because I fell into an interviewing / reading / blogging funk. Interviewing is such a draining process! But the good news is that I got a good job at a major dialysis company and have been training there for about two months. So it’s time to re-emerge. That’s my big news for over the last couple of months, so I’ll just settle down to a weekly update now: 


It’s been quite the week! I came down with some sore throat / cough illness early in the week, and it’s just lingering on – so I won’t be able to donate platelets as planned on Labor Day. (I know, I get sick a lot, don’t I?) 😦 Also, I’ve run into problems with the police. Remember how I bought a new car in March? Well, I traded in my old car, but something went wrong with the transfer of the title or something illegal happened because I’m now being investigated for a hit-and-run on top of notifications that the car has been impounded! They’re threatening citation and reports to collections, which would affect my credit. On top of that, I wanted to order flowers for my friend’s mom’s surgery, and I kept running into problems and 1800flowers called me up and canceled the order, and said they refunded me. But I’ve got TWO (not just one) charge on my bank card, so I need to call them up and figure THAT out. Also, I went to back up my computer and found that my back-up hard drive was shot! I lost some stuff. Luckily, I have a back-up back-up, so most of the stuff is still on there – I lost a few things because people made fun of me for having a back-up back-up, so I stopped using it recently. 🙂

Today I’m going to the Renaissance Festival with my friend and boyfriend, though to be honest I’d rather be sleeping off this illness. Hopefully it’ll be fun, anyway. I’ll probably perk up once the morning blues have worn off. 🙂 Tomorrow I’m going to the AMC theater showing of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factor AND Blazing Saddles. I have two tickets and hoping my friend will be able to join me, but her mom gets out of the hospital tomorrow and we’re not sure she’ll come. So I might have two tickets but go alone if I can’t find anyone. I’d still enjoy it. 🙂

On the reading front, I finished two books this week: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J. K. Rowling (for fun book), and Red Queen, by Victoria Aveyard (book club). Reviews to come. As far as I remember, I haven’t watched anything worth mentioning. 


I’m currently reading: The Ear, the Eye, and The Arm, by Nancy Farmer as my fiction (for fun book); Stiletto, by Daniel O’Malley as my audiobook (book club book); and Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, by Robert M. Sapolsky for my fiction (for fun book).




In which Rachel has been interviewed

Ever since getting my EMT certification about 3 weeks ago I’ve been applying for jobs like crazy. In fact, one morning I woke up to discover that I’d actually applied to several jobs in the middle of the night and totally forgotten about it! This week, I’ve had two interviews. Both jobs seem very interesting. We’ll see what happens. 

I also went to the confirmation of my boyfriend’s brother. It took place in the Cathedral of Saint Paul, and was a beautiful ceremony. 

And there was a little emergency that happened in our family too. My sister called me around midnight on Tuesday to say that she was in the ER with her 2 year old son. He’d had a “bad” seizure. It turned out to “only” be a febrile seizure – when a young child gets a high temperature sometimes they seize. It was very scary because it was the first seizure my sister had ever seen – and to see it in her own son! We spent several hours in the ER, but he turned out to be ok in the end. Phew!

Currently Reading

I changed the books I am currently reading because I remembered that Doing Dewey has a monthly non-fiction book club, and they’re reading Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson. With my interest in the justice system, I couldn’t pass this book up. Even though I promised myself I’d focus on mental health for my own Mental Health Blog Hop (for which I’m reading Ten Days in a Mad-House). I’m also reading Roots, by Alex Haley for the read-along hosted by True Book Addict. 

Watched this week



Acquired this week







Book Blogger Hop question of the week: Why did you start your blog? 

My Answer: I started my blog because I enjoy writing reviews about books. I’ve always wanted to be an author (I know, join the club), and I thought this would be a good way to practice writing and figure out how to market. But I never started marketing on my blog, I just enjoy reviewing books too much. 


This update is posted to Book Blogger Hop @Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer, Stacking the Shelves @Tynga’s Reviews, Sunday Salon, Sunday Post @Caffeinated Book Reviewer,   and It’s Monday What are You Reading @Book Date

The Corinthian, by Georgette Heyer

The Corinthian
Written by Georgette Heyer
Read by Georgina Sutton
The ridiculously wealthy Sir Richard Wyndham has just been bullied by his family into proposing to a cold-hearted mercenary woman whom he does not love. They day before his proposal, he goes on a drunken walk through the night-time city, and a boy climbs out of a window into his arms. But the boy turns out to be Penelope Creed, a young heiress who is likewise being pressured by her family to marry someone she doesn’t love. Penelope is about to set out on a journey, and Wyndham feels obligated to escort her. 

The Corinthian is a fantastic adventure for both the characters and the reader. This is only my second Georgette Heyer book, but it’ll probably end up to be my favorite. The characters made lovably silly choices all the way through the book, with humorous outcomes. The book remains light-hearted while sticking to a believable story-line. I can’t wait to read another Heyer book – in fact I almost went ahead and picked up another right away. I’ll definitely read another within the next few months.