The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

I’ve fallen head over heels for the Gentleman Bastards. 

It might be their ruthless ways, or their surprising morals, their amazing heists or quite possibly their sassy talk. But certainly the combination all wrapped up in a city full of canals, fantastic towers, blood thirsty sharks (literal sharks people, literal sharks) and a tinge of magic has me sold!

Would I recommend it? Yes!!!

 

Book at the Door: January Giveaway

I’ve got a book.

Would you like it?

That’s right, an honest to goodness hard cover book that I’m ready to put in the mail and send to your door.  But, because I’m the sort of person who would never read the last chapter first (Except for recently but that was totally an accident!) and rarely read the front matter or even the back cover to decide if I’m going to read it, I’d also like to introduce you to my favorite way to pick a book. I prefer choosing a book by reading the first page or even better the first line to see what I think and avoid any and all potential spoilers.

The first line of the book I have for you goes like this:

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderly again."

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderly again.”

The book I’m ready to send doesn’t look like the photo above, that picture is instead the paper crafting genius of my best friend Sarah. Normally here is where I would tell you a million places to track down the lovely person who donated their time and art to the giveaway. Sarah says she social medias only in technology school teachery sorts of ways and nobody wants to see that. I think that’s probably untrue, she does pretty neat things in her school under the guise of technology integration so I’m just going to sneak her twitter account in here (thinkbigmuch on Twitter) because someone is always interested.  Then, since it is a little bit sad that the book doesn’t actually look like this when you open it, I will also send along a high quality print of this piece of art. (My apologies, we are having a little technical difficulties, the printed copy will be much better quality than the photo above- promise!)

If the first line of this book sounds promising to you, all you have to do is either tell me the title of the book (Go ahead use the google, it knows all the things!) or tell me one of your long time favorite books in the comments below. Your name will then be entered in a random drawing for the book (which happens to be one of my long time favorites) and print (which happens to be made by one of my long time favorites). Win, win people, win win!Book at the Door

Contest will be open through January 31st.

The winner will have the honor of receiving a quality print of Sarah’s artwork in the mail as well as the book.

Artists of all kinds (Yes, you photographers and you who says you can’t draw and you who just wants to practice hand lettering and you who is selling paintings online and…all of you!) if you are interested in providing a small piece of work that includes a first sentence, I would love to hear from you!  

Authors, have I read your book and tagged it as a recommended read? Would you like to donate a hard copy? Let me know! 

Chaos

Jane

“Mom, what’s chaos?”

I defined chaos for Jane. I didn’t quite use the dictionary definition of “complete disorder and confusion” but it was pretty close even if it did involve more words about noise and mess. She thought about it,Janeand proclaimed, “Clara is chaos!”

Clara

Hard to argue that Jane, hard to argue that.

Weekend Invasion

When we show up at the door of a kind relative who asked us to come stay with them for the weekend (or the door of an even kinder relative who didn’t mind when we invited ourselves over for the weekend) I cringe.

Five people and an indeterminate amount of animals pile out of our truck and head to the house with smiles and hugs and an inordinate capacity to cause havoc. I don’t think my family is extraordinarily messy or unruly, but neither are we neat and calm. We rush the house while cheerfully saying hello and unload our mountain of “stuff” that we’ve brought with us.

This weekend in our almost-annual winter trip to Michigan to visit my aunt and uncle we brought the five of us, one dog, and 22 pairs of footwear for all our winter related activities.

When you have unloaded 22 pairs of footwear from your vehicle and moved them into your kind and unsuspecting relatives home, I’m pretty sure that’s when the scale tilts to weekend invasion.

We had to bring all the footwear because ice skating!!!
The OFG hits the ice for the first time in 50 years!
Uncle Jim working hard to fix the one dog we brought!
Hiking in the woods
Visit to the Air Zoo
Visit to the Air Zoo

We invade and we try to use manners but we eat lots, leave a trail of jackets, hats, mittens, lost toys and markers wherever we land and that’s not even the worst of it.

The worst of it is the toilet paper. No, we don’t bring our own toilet paper (We probably should but since I can’t keep it in stock at home I’m not about to start traveling with it). We use other people’s toilet paper just like normal people. Except that we use lots of it because four of us are girls and three of us have no concept of the amount of paper necessary to use the necessary and all four of us are befuddled by the thick pillowy sheets that others use as toilet paper. You see, at home we are a one ply family. That’s right, we use toilet paper that most would only deem fit for a government institution or a sketchy gas station bathroom because septic tanks and little girls.  I am sure it is possible to teach young girls to regulate the amount of toilet paper they use but I’ve always just been so relieved that they actually USE it and the accompanying toilet that I haven’t bothered. Instead, to prevent things like this happening we buy terrible one ply toilet paper so that even ridiculous wads of it won’t clog up the pipes and the septic. Now this is all very fine for our own home, but please remember, we just invaded a relative’s home.  My relatives, being my relatives, either have septic systems of their own, old plumbing or both. Now imagine, you are used to using toilet paper that comes off the roll in see through sheets,  you reach over and yank a big handful off to use. But, joy of all joys, it’s soft and thick and pillowy and now you have a giant armful of it and oh… this is why nobody’s been able to flush the toilet all weekend.

If septic systems could cringe I wouldn’t be the only one internally quivering as we all pile out of the truck on the next visit to the relatives.

A Man Called Ove: A Novel by Fredrik Backman

I confess.

I did it.

It was an accident, but still, I broke a cardinal rule of book reading.

I read the last chapter first.

I blame it on the e-book format and I should probably have to re-shelve library books for the next week as penance. 

Would I recommend it? Don’t read the last chapter first because that will spoil everything but also don’t let the first few chapters get you down. Give it a little time and you’ll fall in love with the grumpy old Swedish man called Ove, I did.