Monday, November 28, 2011
My Quilt
Well I officially started my quilt on November 15. It is now November 28 and I have made a lot of progress on it. I did not have enough fabric to do all the squares I wanted so I am going to have to improvise some and come up with another plan to stretch the design and blocks that I do have. Right now I will have 6 blocks across and 6 blocks down. In between I will figure something else out. I have 8 blocks completed and hope to work some more on it tonight. I am hoping to have it done in time for Rodney and Lynn for Christmas but it may not work out that way. I will just have to wait and see.
American Nightmare
I found this book very hard to read. The writing seemed choppy and forced. It was a great story underneath but the whole thing to me felt like the author was shoveling it out super fast in order not to forget something or so he did not miss anything. But that created a jumbled mess especially toward the end. I had to repeatedly re-read whole sections and try to make sense of who was doing what to whom. There were words missing out of sentences (that may be a computer issue- I don't know) and some words that were used made NO sense at all in the context. It reminded me of when one of my kids tries to tell me something at the dinner table. They will take a deep breath, open their mouth and just start spewing out words super fast so they can get it all out in that one breath. If the author had slowed down, taken a breath, and then continued to write, it would have been a great story. It had a good foundation but lacked much else on top of that.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Brutal 2
Pretty intense and great! But TOO SHORT!!!! I need to know more about this story please. I don't know if there will be more but if there is I am going to have to find it and read it now. Great quick story that built onto the first one. I still think this is going to make a great book once it all comes together. ;)
Brutal
Pretty good short story. Would have been interesting to see where it went if it had been fleshed out and lengthened. It had my attention and kept me reading though
The Basement by Stephen Leather
Every once in a while you come across a story that has an interesting twist. This was one of those. I kind of figured it out about 1/2 way through and was sure about it a few pages later but it still was a great quick read that kept my interest. I only wish it was longer. It had great potential to be a full sized novel if the characters and the storyline had been fleshed out and expanded. But still, it was an entertaining and enjoyable read.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Jimmy
*** DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS!*** I did like it though as it kept me turning the page and I hoped that Jimmy would make the right decision. But I also knew he couldn't because he had already allowed the girls to see him and know who he was.
Talk about a book where one person's actions cause a HUGE ripple effect. This was it. It is a graphic and explicit book and one not to be read by anyone sensitive to bondage/sexual assault issues. It was pretty strong stuff. Let me see if I can sort out the characters and what happens.
Jimmy is a high school Senior with no real plans in life. He is smart, funny, good looking and likeable....if you know him. To others though he is an outcast of sorts. Up until the past few years he had been picked on and bullied by a group of boys. Jimmy has developed a taste for bondage though and decides it is time to act out his most secret fantasies of kidnap, rape, and ultimately, murder.
Brett, the leader of the boys that have bullied Jimmy, is merciless and does not know that some of the other boys have had confrontations with Jimmy and are tired of picking on him and bullying him because they fear him. They don't know why they fear him but he has started standing up to them and there is just something in his eyes that is not right. But not Brett. He keeps on and keeps on. He does not know about Jimmy's darkest secret though.
Alan is Jimmy's younger brother and looks up to Jimmy. He starts to see that something is NOT right. He sees Jimmy go on bike rides at all hours of the day and night. He sees that there is something in his eyes that is not right and his behavior is just off. But he does not say anything to anyone.
Tina is a long time friend of Jimmy and likes him a lot. He likes her too and they begin a sexual relationship just prior to going to the Prom together. It is the first time either of them have been in a serious relationship and they are both enamored and in "love" with each other.
Samantha is the first girl that Jimmy kidnaps and hides in the storm shelter of an abandoned house. He does not really have a good plan but is fascinated with hanging her from her wrists. He has not considered the whole plan though. He just knows he is going to keep her there til he is done with her and then kill her.
Meagan is Samantha's best friend and is the ONLY one other than Samantha's mom that believes she has been kidnapped. Meagan's father is the Sheriff but they don't have a good relationship so Meagan does not go to him with her fears and theories. Instead she sets of on her own search and ends up running into Jimmy. He actually set it up where she would run into him so he could kidnap her as well and take her to the shelter. This is where Jimmy's plan goes terribly wrong for him. He cannot control Meagan like he controlled Samantha. She fights him and causes him to panic. During one of their fights he hits her in the face with a metal bucket and ends up killing her.
It all unravels on Prom night. Jimmy made the mistake of throwing away all his bondage videos that he had been collecting in a trash can at school. Brett and his friend find them and decide to use them to lure Jimmy to the old house where they can beat him up. Jimmy beat Brett's friend almost to death and goes to the house where he shoots Brett, shoots his brother by mistake, and allows the police to shoot and kill him.
Now for the ripples that spread from there..... As I said, Meagan died. She was not even supposed to be there in the first place. Jimmy dies, leaving behind a girlfriend who is confused and wonders if there was anything she could have done. Samantha lives but finds out she is pregnant and at the end of the book is getting ready to down a whole bottle of sleeping pills. While recovering, Alan is trapped in the house when someone firebombs it and he is burned to death.
So one boy's decision to kidnap one girl ended up tearing apart a whole community and causing a family to lose both their sons. This was a dark book but shows that one person's decision for good or bad can cause a world of difference in everyone else's lives.
Talk about a book where one person's actions cause a HUGE ripple effect. This was it. It is a graphic and explicit book and one not to be read by anyone sensitive to bondage/sexual assault issues. It was pretty strong stuff. Let me see if I can sort out the characters and what happens.
Jimmy is a high school Senior with no real plans in life. He is smart, funny, good looking and likeable....if you know him. To others though he is an outcast of sorts. Up until the past few years he had been picked on and bullied by a group of boys. Jimmy has developed a taste for bondage though and decides it is time to act out his most secret fantasies of kidnap, rape, and ultimately, murder.
Brett, the leader of the boys that have bullied Jimmy, is merciless and does not know that some of the other boys have had confrontations with Jimmy and are tired of picking on him and bullying him because they fear him. They don't know why they fear him but he has started standing up to them and there is just something in his eyes that is not right. But not Brett. He keeps on and keeps on. He does not know about Jimmy's darkest secret though.
Alan is Jimmy's younger brother and looks up to Jimmy. He starts to see that something is NOT right. He sees Jimmy go on bike rides at all hours of the day and night. He sees that there is something in his eyes that is not right and his behavior is just off. But he does not say anything to anyone.
Tina is a long time friend of Jimmy and likes him a lot. He likes her too and they begin a sexual relationship just prior to going to the Prom together. It is the first time either of them have been in a serious relationship and they are both enamored and in "love" with each other.
Samantha is the first girl that Jimmy kidnaps and hides in the storm shelter of an abandoned house. He does not really have a good plan but is fascinated with hanging her from her wrists. He has not considered the whole plan though. He just knows he is going to keep her there til he is done with her and then kill her.
Meagan is Samantha's best friend and is the ONLY one other than Samantha's mom that believes she has been kidnapped. Meagan's father is the Sheriff but they don't have a good relationship so Meagan does not go to him with her fears and theories. Instead she sets of on her own search and ends up running into Jimmy. He actually set it up where she would run into him so he could kidnap her as well and take her to the shelter. This is where Jimmy's plan goes terribly wrong for him. He cannot control Meagan like he controlled Samantha. She fights him and causes him to panic. During one of their fights he hits her in the face with a metal bucket and ends up killing her.
It all unravels on Prom night. Jimmy made the mistake of throwing away all his bondage videos that he had been collecting in a trash can at school. Brett and his friend find them and decide to use them to lure Jimmy to the old house where they can beat him up. Jimmy beat Brett's friend almost to death and goes to the house where he shoots Brett, shoots his brother by mistake, and allows the police to shoot and kill him.
Now for the ripples that spread from there..... As I said, Meagan died. She was not even supposed to be there in the first place. Jimmy dies, leaving behind a girlfriend who is confused and wonders if there was anything she could have done. Samantha lives but finds out she is pregnant and at the end of the book is getting ready to down a whole bottle of sleeping pills. While recovering, Alan is trapped in the house when someone firebombs it and he is burned to death.
So one boy's decision to kidnap one girl ended up tearing apart a whole community and causing a family to lose both their sons. This was a dark book but shows that one person's decision for good or bad can cause a world of difference in everyone else's lives.
I Was A Brooding Teenage Vampire by Demitri Mitchell
This was a refreshing vampire read for a change....lol. It was a complete satire and farce of what all these weepy, teenage vampire books out now are all about. Poor Demitri is a teenage vampire that feels like his life is pointless. He goes to school, meets a girl who is uncontrollably drawn to him, they have sex, she has an accident of some sort that draws blood, he dismembers her, drains her blood, burns down her house and moves to another town. He can't help himself. It happens over and over and over. Finally he meets Alina and something is different. She wants nothing to do with him and he is obsessed with her. But she has a stalker who is a vampire hunter. Of course, he has a stalker too. It is just one silly situation after another with everyone stalking everyone else and all sorts of teenage angst. It was pretty silly and funny and a great change of pace. There are vague references to different books and movies and it was a short, quick read.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Sunday, November 6
It has been a LONG time since I have posted here. It has been super busy around here. Maddie has been doing great in band but we have stayed busy running with that. So I am back now, I hope. Work is good and super busy. I just got back from a two day conference in Tuscaloosa. I learned a lot about the bookkeeping system and hope it helps me do my job better.
Okay, that is all for now. I am going to head to bed and hope to sleep tonight.
Okay, that is all for now. I am going to head to bed and hope to sleep tonight.
Farm of Dead Things
Farm of the Dead Things: the Glenda Barker Story by Tennessee HicksMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
It seems that zombies are all the rage now. This is a fast paced story about a news crew that goes in search of their big break story. Nearby there has been a disturbance at a rundown, out of the way graveyard. So off they go, cameras in hand, hoping to find evidence of graverobbers. What they find is much much worse. They find out rather quickly that it is zombies coming out of the graves. They witness the zombies break free from the graveyard, killed a luckless motorist and finally, while they are following the zombies, they are trapped at a farmhouse with Glenda Barker, who admits that she called them forth in hopes of being famous and making money by raising dead people for their families. But that does not work out for poor Ms. Barker. In the end, the film crew hides out in the bathroom while the zombies eat Ms. Barker. Later, the government officials show up and "clean up" the mess. This was a super quick read but did amuse me.
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Recalculating
Recalculating by Jennifer WeinerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Interesting quick story about a woman who finally has enough of her abusive husband and takes advantage of an opportunity when it presents itself to "help" him out of this world so to speak. But sometimes the dead have other plans and don't want to stay dead. In the end, the woman learns to take control of her own life and does manage to rid herself of her husband AND his evil little gift that he left behind for her. Cute and quick and different.
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