Why New Year’s Is My Favorite Holiday
http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxypar4/ / CC BY 2.0
Christmas is finally over, which means it’s time for my favorite holiday: New Year’s! All week on the blog I’ll be doing a few special New Year’s related posts, starting out with why it’s my favorite holiday.
People often ask me why, out of all the holidays, my favorite is one where you don’t even get presents. Well, there are a lot of reasons.
It’s secular. Everyone can celebrate without any of that religion or country worry and mumbo jumbo. Even people and cultures who follow the lunar cycle can still also acknowledge the change of the Gregorian calendar.
There’s no societal expected norm as to who you should spend it with. It’s perfectly acceptable spend it with friends as opposed to family, but you can still spend it with family if you want to. Nobody is going around asking me why I’m not off in some other state visiting family, and also my friends don’t all simultaneously disappear for the weekend.
Reflection. It’s a regularly occurring time to reflect on yourself, your actions, your life and have a palaver with yourself and make sure your life and your behavior are what you want them to be, which leads to
Resolutions. I am all about being a self-made person. I’m about deciding who I want to be and working to be that person instead of just laying back and playing with the hand I was dealt in life, aka nature and nurture. I take initiative and choice and use it to kick nature and nurture’s butt.
Clean slate. The new year isn’t exactly a clean slate, but you can make it one if you want to or need to. You can also just make a clean slate in certain areas of your life. Maybe there’s a friend you need to come to terms with or a habit that’s bad for you that it’s time to get rid of.
New Year’s is great in that it asks you to celebrate and enjoy life, but it also asks you to take a good look at your life and make sure it’s what you want it to be. New Year’s is the best of both worlds–celebration and accountability.
Friday Fun! (Merry Christmas!)
Ayla playing in wrapping paper. You can just see her ear sticking out.
I know, I know. I’m posting on Christmas! The thing is, I have time, so I may as well, eh?
I really did have a lovely week. I was home sick Monday, and I spent the day destressing and recentering myself.
Tuesday night I went out for dinner with my friend and her boyfriend. My friend is moving to California on Sunday, so this was our goodbye dinner. It was sad, but also lots of fun. My friend chose the restaurant, so I had Peruvian food for the first time ever. It wasn’t bad, but it was a bit bland for my taste.
On the 23rd, my sister-in-law went into labor and gave birth to my niece via a C-section. Welcome to the world, Clara! She’s just over 5 pounds, and I’m excited to get to meet her next month.
Yesterday I was the only librarian in my library, something I actually enjoy. This may be a sign that I’m suited to small hospital libraries, hehe.
Today I’m actually just chilling at home. I’ve already been to see my family, since we knew my sister-in-law was due right around Christmas, and we thought it’d be best to visit prior to the baby being born and after sometime in January. Since everyone else is obviously with their families, as they should be, I’m enjoying a day of watching Lost, snuggling my kitty, baking cookies to mail to my librarian friends, and reading obviously! Tomorrow one of my best friends is coming over to hang out for the day, which will be our last chance before she goes to Israel for two months. I should go get some of that reading and baking done. Merry Christmas to those who celebrate, and happy day off to those who don’t!
Book Review: Truly, Madly by Heather Webber (ARC, Feb 2010)
Summary:
Boston socialite Lucy Valentine isn’t too keen on running the family’s matchmaking business while her mother and father take a necessary trip out of country to let a scandal settle down. You see, she lost the family’s genetic ability to see auras that has led to their matchmaking success. When she was a kid, she was hit by an electrical surge that removed her ability to see auras and replaced it with an ability to see lost objects when her palm touches the owner’s palm. When a potential client shakes her hand, and she sees a dead body wearing his ring, she gets caught up in a bit more adventure than she ever thought her ability would lead her into. It doesn’t hurt that she manages to enlist the aid of the hunky private investigator whose office shares the matchmaking business’s building.
Review:
I was excited to discover a book set in Boston that has nothing to do with the Irish mob or the Kennedy’s. Unfortunately, I have this problem with reading about the modern wealthy. I simply can’t identify, and it tends to irritate me unless the book is all about how they’re a serial killer or something. Lucy is decidedly in with the Boston wealthy. Her family owns a building on Newbury Street; they employ a driver; and she has a trust fund. Of course she refuses the trust fund, but she’s still living in a cute, perfect cottage on her grandmother’s land in the South Shore. She calls her grandmother by her first name, “Dovie,” and her mother “Mum.” *shudders* I cringed every time she said either.
On the plus side, once I manage to overlook the whole poor rich girl scenario, the plot is good. It is full of twists and turns that have a slight supernatural bent without going full-tilt building an entirely populated other world of faeries, sprites, vampires, etc… that is seen in a lot of paranormal fiction. Lucy’s attraction to Sean, the PI, is believable and progresses at a good rate. The main mystery actually managed to surprise me with the ending, so that’s a major mark in its favor.
I also enjoyed the little life details Webber put into the story, Lucy’s cat’s activities, exactly what T lines are nearby where the action is happening, etc… However, I did not like Lucy’s personality quirk of doing math problems in her head when she was nervous. I don’t know what it is with romance writers lately having their characters do some annoying thing when they’re nervous, but to me it screams that Webber couldn’t figure out a better way to signal this emotion to the reader.
On the whole, it was a fun mystery plot with a dash of paranormal set in Boston marred by the choice of making the main character part of the wealthy elite with an annoying, unnecessary personality quirk. If you enjoy paranormal and wealthy characters, you will enjoy this book.
3 out of 5 stars
Source: Received from publisher, St. Martin’s Paperbacks, through LibraryThing‘s Early Reviewers program
Projected Publication Date: February 2010
5 Year Old Me and a Bag of Kitten Food (Virtual Advent Tour 2009)
I decided to participate in the Virtual Advent Tour in which bloggers sign up for a day of the advent calendar to feature a holiday-centric post. So, happy 23rd day everyone and welcome! On to the post.
I grew up in rural Vermont with a brother 5 years older than me and my two working class, highly religious parents. Since my parents were very serious about their Christianity, to the point that I was homeschooled until the 6th grade, Christmas was a big freaking deal. Jesus being born was the fulfillment of many prophecies. Without Jesus’s birth, there’d be no Easter and without Easter we’d have no hope at all. Jesus’s birth was second only to Jesus’s death and resurrection, and that was only first because the Second Coming hadn’t happened yet. Therefore, Christmas was one busy season for us. I’m talking Advent Calendars, baking multiple goodies from scratch, multiple must watch specials and movies, two extended family gatherings, candlelight services, special church performances, and more. Of course, me being a kid, the only truly important part of Christmas was the presents Christmas morning. Although, you’d be hard-pressed to get me to admit it, and I would fervently state how much I enjoyed the family reading of the Christmas story from Luke between stockings and presents.
Since my parents fervently believed telling us that Santa was real was akin to telling us Muhammed was right, presents were gradually placed under the Christmas tree, and we weren’t allowed to touch them. This led to hours of me sitting on the rug in front of the tree pining and wondering erm, *ahem* reading a book. My brother and I became experts at determining what a present was just by its shape or determining what awesome present the unwrapped accessories under the tree went to.
Every year pretty much from the time I could talk, I asked for a kitty. We had a dog, Beuaregard, but all I wanted was a kitty to snuggle and to feel purring on my feet when I slept. Dolls shmolls, I wanted a kitty. One December morning, when I was (I believe 5, definitely before I was 7) I came into the living room and came to a dead stand-still. All you needed was to turn me to salt, and I’d be doing the perfect impression of Lot’s wife. There under the Christmas tree was a bag of kitten food. My heart raced and I did my best not to shreek in sheer joy, because a family rule of Christmas was if we guessed a present prior to Christmas morning, we weren’t allowed to have it. It was the veritable don’t ask, don’t tell of holidays. My mom wasn’t big into giving us what we wanted, she thought it’d be spoiling us, but my dad. My dad always wanted to give us exactly what we wanted, and I was certain this bag of kitten food was his way of telling me that I’d have my kitty in a few short weeks.
Christmas morning came, and I impatiently went through the stockings and the reading of the Christmas story. Present opening started, which was always a slow ordeal as we opened them one at a time while everyone watched. My first present was not a kitty. Ok. So they were waiting to give it to me last knowing what a ruckus it’d cause. I could wait. Gradually all the presents were gone from under the tree. Only the never-wrapped chocolate covered cherries and kitten food were left.
“Isn’t there something more?” I asked, as my parents got up to get some coffee. My mom’s mouth opened to go into her ungrateful speech, but my dad cut her off asking, “Why do you think there’s something more?”
I pointed at the kitten food, “Well, there’s that bag of food there.”
“Oh, that’s a treat for the dog. He loves cat food.”
No. My dad had to be kidding. He was a big teaser. “What?”
“The dog loves cat food.” At this point, my mom started tapping my dad on the arm, and recognition dawned on the two of them as I started to wail, “You mean I’m not getting a kitten?!”
According to family lore, I was inconsolable the entire day and crying a good portion of it.
Merry Christmas, everyone! May your day be filled with kitten-like presents.
The Joy of Doing Less During the Holidays
http://www.flickr.com/photos/clearlyambiguous/ / CC BY 2.0
No doubt about it, the holidays are a busy time of year. There’s presents to buy and wrap, parties to go to, people to see, travelling to do, baked goods to make, decorating to do, and more. If you’re at all like me, it can all add up to stress.
Looking back on last week, I see that I did a lot of things that should have been fun, but I was so stressed out that the stress over-shadowed the parts I should have been enjoying. I was constantly plotting to make it to everything (not to mention to stay awake) instead of just enjoying the moment. I realized this yesterday, and worked to make my week this week less stressful, but thinking about it this morning, I remembered a blog post from one of my favorite zen blogs, Zen Habits, entitled The Lazy Manifesto: Do Less. Then, Do Even Less.
The jist of it is that minimalism isn’t just about what stuff you own. Minimalism is also about doing less and enjoying it more. I think the benefits of this are easy to see if you just think about the last time you were distracted doing one activity out of a worry to get to the next one on-time. Now imagine if the first activity was the only one you were doing that day. See how that works?
If you live in the moment and enjoy it to the fullest, you don’t need to hyper-schedule yourself. Instead of going to every single holiday party, choose two for the month to go to and really go all-out at them. Don’t be afraid to tell friends or family no, you can’t come, you don’t have time, even if you don’t have time just because you want to spend that evening at home baking cookies and watching Christmas specials.
I really like this idea of doing less, but doing it to your fullest. I think as Americans we have the tendency to overschedule ourselves for god only knows what reason. Maybe some lingering Puritan philosophy about idle hands being the devil’s plaything. Regardless, there is such a thing as doing too much during the holidays, so don’t be afraid to say no and limit just how many festivities you partake in. Partake in fewer to a more full extent. I think you might wind up surprised at how truly festive you’ll feel.
Friday Fun! (Merry Chrismukkah!)
What a busy week it’s been! Full of good and bad stress. Thankfully mostly the good kind. Unfortunately stress of any kind can make me act kinda wonky, so…..sorry about that.
Over the weekend I visited my family in Vermont. My nephew is 2 and has reached the “why” stage of development. My brother and sister-in-law have grown a bit tired of it, but I gotta say I thoroughly enjoyed answering all of his “why’s” to the fullest extent. Of course, I only was around him for a portion of 2 days, lol. My aunt and uncle (who my dad lives with) were very hospitable, and I drank much wine. My dad gave me housewarming money which was fairly promptly used to buy a toaster and a rice cooker. They haven’t arrived yet, but they’re bright red and appear to be entirely awesome.
Monday was my presentation of my final team project for this semester of grad school, which means I am officially on winter break! Yayyyyyy!!! I already got my grades, and they were both just fine and dandy.
This week I hosted a Chrismukkah gathering for my group of lesbian friends (I call them “The Lesbians,” and yes they are just fine with that. In fact, they kinda love it). I had my first attempt at making latkes. I used the vegan sweet potato latke recipe from this month’s issue of Vegetarian Times magazine. I was doubtful that substituting pureed sweet potato for egg would work, but by golly it did. The latkes tasted great, although I need to work on figuring out the appropriate cooking time. There aren’t the helpful bubbles that you get with regular pancakes, so a few got a bit, erm, burnt. We lit the menorah (and I am proud to say that I can now sing the prayer), and we watched Claymation Christmas. If you have never seen Claymation Christmas I hereby order you to go find it on Youtube. It is quite trippy. The Lesbians surprised me by giving me a crock pot! This means you may be hearing about my vegetarian crock pot cooking adventures in the future.
You guys were totally going to get an adorable picture of my kitty snuggled up in wrapping paper, but I didn’t get a chance to download them to my computer. I swear these Friday posts will have pictures eventually.
I hope everyone’s holidays are going well. Try to enjoy and stay stress-free!
Book Review: All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris (Series, #7)
Summary:
Against her fairy godmother’s better judgment, Sookie accompanies the Louisiana vampire contingency to Rhodes, Illinois for the vampire summit to work for the queen reading human minds at the various wheelings and dealings. She is excited that Quinn will be there as well, but a wrench is thrown in the works of their relationship when she is forced to exchange blood for a third time with Eric. To top it all off Sookie and fellow telepath Barry have the odd sensation that something isn’t quite right at the summit. It’s a lot for small-town girl Sookie to handle in one week in the north.
Review:
I want to say the action in this entry into Sookie’s adventures is excellent, but it isn’t quite there. The minor side-mysteries are quite good, but they are meant to distract from the main event, which frankly I had figured out way way way before Sookie. It was pratically hitting her in the face, and she didn’t get it. So the mystery leaves a little to be desired.
On the other hand, the plot point where Andre is trying to force Sookie to exchange blood with him, and Eric steps up to exchange blood with her instead is excellent. Quinn is unjustifiably angry, and Sookie discovers that trading blood three times is a magical number. She is more closely tied to Eric than she is comfortable with, and she is left incredibly confused about her feelings for him vs her feelings for Quinn. This is a love conflict that is bound to prove interesting because she has feelings for Eric but intellectually believes Quinn is a wiser choice. Now this is juicy romantic conflict!
Something that has been bugging me about the series that is featured epicenter of this book though is the whole idea of the vampires arranging their kingdoms based on the states. There’s the King of Tennessee and the Queen of Louisiana, and they even call each other simply by the state (as in, “Oh hi, Louisiana”). This makes zero sense. Why would the super-powerful and, for the majority of existence, hidden vampires arrange themselves based on arbitrary human dividing lines? Sure having multiple kingdoms in the US makes sense, but not arranged based on the human-created state lines. It doesn’t fit into the characterization of what a vampire is.
I think what really bothered me about this book though was that it made me dislike Sookie. I don’t like how she behaves, her superficial focus on clothing, or her prejudiced view of northerners. (Not a single northern woman she runs into does she view as anything other than a rude bitch). I don’t always need to like my main characters, but I think in a paranormal romance that’s problematic.
Overall, the action is excellent, even if some of the world-building doesn’t make sense and the characterization can be off-putting. I think this may be a set-up for a major, character-changing circumstance in Sookie’s life, which would make it more understandable. We’ll see if I’m right.
3 out of 5 stars
Source: Bought on Amazon
Previous Books in Series:
Dead Until Dark
Living Dead in Dallas
Club Dead
Dead To The World
Dead as a Doornail
Definitely Dead
The Electronic vs. Print Books Debate
The eBook debate has been fairly consistently humming in my virtual world –twitter, GoogleReader, listserves, etc… Frankly I’m starting to wonder at the vitriol being spewed by both sides of the debate.
We have the print people who are absolutely certain that the electronic people are out to kill any and all print books leading to some sort of Big Brother society where The Man can delete our censor our books whenever he sees fit.
Then we have the electronic people who firmly believe print books are horrible for the environment and anyone who wants to still read them is a backwards, ancient person trying to hold society back.
Um, people, what planet are you living on?
I really believe the eBook vs. print book situation, if allowed to naturally play out, will lead to a world where print and electronic books coexist gracefully. A world where some people will still prefer print books in most cases but electronic books in others, and other people will prefer electronic books in some cases but print books in others. Consumers as a group are actually far more flexible than anyone is giving them credit for. Sure, there’ll be the die-hard hold-outs who will refuse to read anything not in print, and there will be the obsessive electronic fans who will refuse to read anything not on a screen, but in between these two extremes are everybody else. From what I have seen, people choose which option is best for the situation. Most people I know have a few books in each format, depending on what they need them for. Consumers aren’t busy spewing vitriol at each other. They’re busy saying “Well, I want this genre book on my iTouch for my commute, and this nonfiction book in print so I can write my thoughts in it as I go reading it in the evening.”
The reason for all the angry commentary is plain and simple: fear. People are afraid of change. Booksellers are afraid their stores will become obsolete or at least not profitable anymore if people are downloading their books. Electronic vendors are afraid the print folks will shout them down before they ever even get a chance. Then there’s the snobs who think their way is always the best way and are afraid of anything else.
Well, you know what? I doubt either scenario will happen. I see a future where booksellers have print books and stations where people can download new electronic books to their reader, and possibly even charge their reader for a small fee. I see a future where people still have a bookshelf of beloved print books, but also a charging station for their eReader. I see a future (hell, I’m already living this) where morning commutes feature people reading on eReaders and reading print books they own and reading library books and listening to audiobooks.
So, really, people, calm down and just let the change happen. It’s not going to kill anyone or anything.
Book Review: Definitely Dead By Charlaine Harris (Series #6)
Summary:
Sookie needs to go to New Orleans for both personal and business reasons. Her cousin Hadley had been a vampire but died her second death leaving everything to Sookie, so she needs to go clean out her apartment. As far as business goes, the queen of Louisiana has also requested her presence to figure out if she will require Sookie’s services for the upcoming vampire summit. When Sookie finds out that Hadley was the queen’s lover, a connection between the two purposes for the visit shows up that may be more significant than she at first realizes.
Review:
I’m glad I learned on some blog (wish I could remember which one) that a short story comes between the previous book and this one in the series, otherwise I would have thought I missed a book or something. That annoying tendency to retell things that already happened? Actually awfully helpful here, since I haven’t read that short story. You don’t need to read the short story to enjoy this book, but I wish I had and advise you to as well. If you’re interested, some investigation reveals that short story is contained in the collection of Sookie short stories called A Touch of Dead.
Also thankfully, my prediction that Dead as a Doornail was a random clunker and not a death toll for the series was correct. Definitely Dead is a step back up in quality. The multiple storylines actuall do reveal to be related and not just random throwaways designed to throw you off the scent of the main mystery. We also get the addition of a new supe–part-demons–and some serious reveals. I mean makes you rethink how you look at the entire story reveals. To give you non-spoilery hints, you learn something about Bill and something about just why Sookie is so darn appealing to the supe guys. I personally love that sort of thing, and I’m hoping these two reveals will help the series continue to grow and expand.
On the minus side, I have to come right out and say it that I am not impressed with Quinn. I’m glad Sookie has become a bit more savvy about pursuing a long-term relationship, but with Quinn? Really? The man’s looks don’t match what has been established to be Sookie’s type at all–tall and lean–he is instead the muscle-bound guy. That suits some women, but it comes out of the blue that Sookie’s at all attracted to him. Also, what’s with the purple eyes? On what planet is it sexy for a man to have eyes not only an unnatural color, but an unnatural color that’s girly? I of course dislike him for nonsuperficial reasons too. He seems far too perfect. He says those puke-inducing gushy things to Sookie that, I’m sorry, perfectly nice men just don’t say in real life, and you know why they don’t say them? Because they sound corny and false and how the man treats you is far more important than what he says to you. There’s also the fact that he originally came on to her when there was a fight to the death going on in front of them, something I find indicative of just how sympathetic he really is to other people. Frankly, I just don’t find Quinn or Sookie’s interest in him believable. Something just rings false about the whole thing. It isn’t like her interactions with Eric, for example, that are full of witty banter and internal conflict about liking this person on both sides. Quinn and Sookie’s conversations literally make me want to puke at how disgustingly sweet and false they sound. Reading their conversations is like eating a twinkie. A deep-fried twinkie.
Thankfully, there isn’t much Quinn in this book, so it’s still an enjoyable read and a sign of better things to come in the series.
3 out of 5 stars
Source: Bought on Amazon
Previous Books in Series:
Dead Until Dark
Living Dead in Dallas
Club Dead
Dead To The World
Dead as a Doornail
Indie Bookstores: Violet’s Book Exchange (Claremont, NH)
Since I am known for meandering into any indie bookstore that I happen across, I thought it might be fun to highlight ones that I visit on my blog. Obviously this will be a totally random recurring post.
As you all know, this weekend I was in Vermont (right on the border of New Hampshire) visiting my family. My dad, knowing my perpetual love of books, suggested we stop in one of only two indie bookstores in driving distance of them–Violet’s Book Exchange located in Claremont, New Hampshire.
I had been there before, but not for a while. When she started the business, Violet had a few bookshelves and an excellent store credit for books policy. To my recollection, she didn’t have any new books. Now she has two floors, a children’s room, and a wonderful mix of used and fairly priced used books. She also features arts and crafts handmade by local people on one shelf, which is an excellent way for an indie bookstore to be connected to their community.
It’s not really surprising to me that this bookstore has taken off, as the library situation in that area of Vermont/New Hampshire is dire. There is one medium-sized, up-to-date library located in Claremont, but most of the people in the area do not live within the district that would give them access to free library cards. This is a predominantly poor, working class area of VT/NH, and most of the people can’t afford the exhorbitant library fee. With often bad, still *wired* internet access, there is little to do. Violet’s cheap used and new books with an excellent rate on books you yourself bring in for store credit really helps to fill that gap. Violet clearly has business acumen, and I salute her for filling a much-desired need in the area.
While I was there, my dad picked up a cookbook (which I would totally provide a cover image for if I could remember what it was), and a book for me. I present to you: The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story
To top it all off, the clerk asked us if we had any store credit. I honestly answered that I used to, but I had thrown away the card after moving permanently to Boston. (Yes, I should have given it to my brother, but I was being dumb and didn’t think of that). Anyway, apparently in the meantime they’d computerized and lo and behold she found my store credit and we got to use it. I was seriously impressed at this level of organization.
If you can visit Violet’s Book Exchange in person, I highly recommend it. If you can’t, you can at least check out their website where you can get books shipped to you. I encourage you to consider it, because this bookstore is vital for these small towns.
Support my work with a tip or browse my shop for curated book club guides, how to guides, cross-stitch patterns, and more!
This work by Amanda Nevius is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Opinions of a Wolf 