Sunday News #9

Sunday Post and Sunday Salon are blog news memes hosted at Caffeinated Reviewer and Reader Buzz, respectively. It’s a chance to share news, recap the past week on your blog, and showcase books and other things.
Feeling

I’m feeling accomplished. This week was spring break for my university and I used it to get caught up in most of my classes. I’m still not caught up in one class because I had a second bout of the stomach flu this week. Overall, though, I feel great about what I did accomplish and I hope I can catch up in the last class over the next few weeks.

I’m also feeling happy and nostalgic because tomorrow is my 24th wedding anniversary. Sometimes I can’t believe Corey and I’ve been married as long as we have. It’s been hard and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Blogging

This week on the blog:

Reading

I finished reading and posted a review of THE SOUND OF STARS by Alechia Dow this week. I want to start reading NINE PERFECT STRANGERS by Liane Moriarty or FANGIRL by Rainbow Rowell today. It just depends on if I’m feeling well enough. I’ve stated before that when I’m sick, especially with a stomach bug or major headache, I can’t read. My brain doesn’t let me.

Listening

This week I’ve been listening to Star Wars prequel music because the teaser trailer for the new Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ show dropped. I John Williams SOOOOO much. I especially love the Star Wars score and the prequel scores are absolutely beautiful. “Battle of the Heroes” from Revenge of the Sith is one of my favorites from the prequels.

Watching

I watched the new Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ teaser trailer and it looks amazing!!! I’m so excited! I love Ewan McGregor. And, I don’t care what people say; I also love Hayden Christensen as Anakin. Here’s the teaser trailer if you haven’t seen it yet:

Corey and I also watched The Adam Project with Ryan Reynolds on Netflix last night. We both really enjoyed it. It was funny, full of action, and very heart-warming. The kid they got to play young Ryan Reynolds was perfect! He acted just like Ryan Reynolds did. If I didn’t know he was his own person, I would’ve thought he was Ryan Reynolds’ younger self. Hmmm, do you think I can say Ryan Reynolds again? Ryan Reynolds…

Loving

I’m really loving bingeing How I Met Your Mother with Corey. It’s been a lot of fun. I’m really enjoying watching the whole show since I’ve only seen some of the pivotal episodes. And, I love spending the time with Corey.

Wanting

I want to get over this flu that I’ve now had twice in the last two weeks. My intestines are still cramping up horribly and I can’t eat much more than rice.

Needing

I need to see my doctor because of how sick I’ve been. My husband and I are worried I might have a mild case of C. difficile. I made an appointment, but his soonest opening isn’t until April 18. I also sent him a message through my patient portal, explaining what’s going on. Maybe, he’ll try to squeeze me in next week. Either that or hopefully someone will cancel so I can get in sooner.

How was your week? Anything exciting happen?

/22 Comments/by
, ,

Review: The Sound of Stars

Review: The Sound of StarsTitle: The Sound of Stars
Author: Alechia Dow
Series: The Starry-Eyed Universe #1
Genre(s): Romance, Science Fiction, YA
Pages: 432
Source: Library
For: Black History Month
Rating:
Sexual Content: 1 Flames

Goodreads Amazon

Goodreads Synopsis

Seventeen-year-old Ellie Baker survives in an Ilori-controlled center in New York City. All art, books and creative expression are illegal, but Ellie breaks the rules by keeping a secret library. When young Ilori commander Morris finds Ellie’s illegal library, he’s duty-bound to deliver her for execution. But Morris isn’t a typical Ilori ... and Ellie and her books might be the key to a desperate rebellion of his own.

My Thoughts

I really wanted to read a book or two for Black History Month this year by supporting a Black author. Goodreads had a post at the beginning of February showcasing a bunch of books written by Black authors and THE SOUND OF STARS and THE KINDRED by Alechia Dow, companion novels in her Starry-Eyed Universe, caught my eye. Time got the better of me and I didn’t finish reading either of them in time. Fortunately, I finished reading THE SOUND OF STARS this week. Better late than never, right?

It took me a little bit to get into THE SOUND OF STARS. Once I did, though, I couldn’t put it down. I stayed up late reading it a couple of nights, savoring the story I was reading.

One of my favorite things about THE SOUND OF STARS was its message of inclusivity. There were so many LGBTQ+ characters, including Ellie. Dow didn’t shove a pro-LGBTQ+ agenda in your face or anything; she just had characters that identified in different ways and the other characters were accepting and considerate of them and their pronouns.

Some people were always valued, and some people never were. … We asked for equality and they thought we were asking for more.

I also loved how Dow used the invasion of Earth by the Ilori as a way to talk about racism, prejudice, police brutality, and other current hot topics. It added to the story by giving it more depth, strengthened Ellie and M0Rr1S’ connection, and made the story more memorable.

I really enjoyed Dow’s creativity. THE SOUND OF STARS was fun and engaging. I look forward to reading more books not only in the Starry-Eyed Universe, but written by Alechia Dow as well.

Have you read THE SOUND OF STARS? If so, what did you think?

/10 Comments/by

Top Ten Tuesday #8

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
Books with My Favorite Tropes/Themes

This week’s prompt is fun, isn’t it? There are so many tropes/themes I love. For this post, I’ve decided to focus on romance tropes since there are so many good ones. My favorites include: friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, fake relationship, forbidden love, soul mates, etc. I even don’t mind a little bit of instalove now and then. Just keep the love triangles away from me and I’ll be happy. Here are my top ten 12 books with my favorite romance trope/theme in them:

Forbidden Romance
Forbidden Romance
Forced Proximity
Supernatural Lover
Enemies to Lovers
Enemies to Lovers
Hidden Identity
Hidden Identity
Marriage of Convenience
Friends to Lovers
Forced Proximity
Enemies to Lovers

What about you? Which books have your favorite romance trope/theme in them? Do we have any in common?

/28 Comments/by

Sunday News #8

Sunday Post and Sunday Salon are blog news memes hosted at Caffeinated Reviewer and Reader Buzz, respectively. It’s a chance to share news, recap the past week on your blog, and showcase books and other things.
Feeling

I’m feeling a lot better emotionally than I have in a long time (other than being worried and sad about what’s happening in Ukraine). It’s really interesting because last weekend I was in a pretty low place from losing my friend. Because of a few comments from my readers and the tools I’ve learned in therapy, I started to look at what happened differently.

Even though how my friend handled the situation is what upset me the most, I realized her feelings mattered just as much as mine did. I also realized even though I’m still sad, this is for the best and I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of me because I’m no longer wondering what’s going on.

Blogging

This week on the blog:

Reading

I finished reading THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER by CS Lewis on Monday. I started reading THE SOUND OF STARS by Alechia Dow again. I’ve been sick with the stomach flu or really bad food poisoning so I haven’t made much progress. (I can’t read when I’m sick. My brain doesn’t let me.) Now that I’m starting to feel better, I’m hoping I can finish THE SOUND OF STARS sometime this week.

Listening

This week because I have been sick, I haven’t been listening to anything really. So, here’s one of my favorites songs, “Cristofori’s Dream” by David Lanz. I’d love to learn how to play this on the piano.

Watching

Corey and I watched the first episode of the new season of Star Trek: Picard! Holy ! It was amazing!!! I’ve never been this excited for a new season of Star Trek before!!!

Loving

I loved the season finale of The Amazing Race. It couldn’t have ended any better than it did, IMHO.

Wanting

I want my friend and her family in Ukraine and all her country people to be safe and not to have to worry about their freedom being taken away by Putin’s need for power and control. I hope the Ukrainian military and people can continue to defend themselves and that the rest of the world steps up and helps them. Also, you, Putin. #IStandWithUkraine

Needing

I need my body to recover a little faster from this flu or food poisoning that I’ve had this week. I’m no longer in the bathroom every five minutes, but I can still only eat rice and drink water. If I eat anything else, my intestines cramp up horribly. I just feel like my digestive system is sore and needs a break.

How was your week? Anything exciting happen?

/20 Comments/by

Narniathon: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

There are spoilers for THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER in this post.

Narniathon: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER is the third book in the Narniad (in published order). I finished reading it for the Narniathon21 I’m participating in on Monday. (The Narniathon’s hosted by Chris at Calmgrove.)

This is my favorite installment of the Narniad. I love how Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace get to Narnia, and I love reading about their adventures while sailing the Dawn Treader with Caspian and his crew. I think all of the different circumstances they find themselves in on each of the islands are interesting. My two favorite islands are Dragon Island and the one with the Dufflepuds.

I’m glad Dragon Island is one of the first islands they sail to. I don’t think I could’ve taken Eustace’s constant nagging, complaining, conceitedness any longer. The interesting thing is that Eustace actually becomes one of my favorite characters in the Narniad after his time as a dragon. I love getting more of Reepicheep in this adventure. He’s such a fun character. If I had a chance of meeting him, I’d be exactly like Lucy, wanting to pick him up and cuddle him. I him so much.

I said this with LWW and PRINCE CASPIAN, but I think every one of these books in the Narniad ends kind of abruptly and a little bit weirdly. THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER is probably the least out of the three so far because it at least winds down unlike the previous two.

As with the previous two, a few things regarding the allegory stood out to me during this read. I thought the way Eustace explained how he transformed back into a human with Aslan’s help was really interesting. It was almost like he was baptized and had his sins washed away. And, instead of Aslan bleeding like Christ did in the Garden of Gethsemane, CS Lewis turned it around by making Eustace hurt and bleed after Aslan cut through his dragon skin with his teeth or claws (I can’t remember which).

The other thing I noticed about the allegory is how Aslan was really only in THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER via second-hand accounts and the characters seeing visages of him when they were in danger. It was almost like CS Lewis was trying to portray Aslan as those of us who believe in Christ talk to Him through prayer.

I do like the ending when Aslan tells Lucy and Edmund the reason the Pevensies came to Narnia in the first place was so they’d recognize Him in their own world. It helps me make sense of why Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are now too old to return to Narnia, even though in my mind no one is too old to be in Christ’s presence since, you know, Aslan is Christ.

Also, over on Chris’ blog, he asked what we thought the significance was of the characters sailing east. I think the significance is part of the allegory. There are many scriptures that say when Christ comes again, He’ll appear in the east. Chris commented:

“I’ve no doubt that the journey to the east is meant to allude to Eden. Most medieval graves and many modern ones are literally oriented towards oriens, the ‘rising sun’ so that on the Day of Doom the faithful are facing the Second Coming. Lewis signals the symbolism very strongly with his references to the sun getting bigger, and the very name of the ship alludes to the theme.”

I didn’t even think of the name of the ship alluding to the theme of going toward the rising sun or pointing toward Christ, if you will. I think THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER has a lot about it that is very interesting to think about in terms of the allegory, again making it my favorite installment of the Narniad.

I’m looking forward to reading THE SILVER CHAIR this month. I don’t remember anything about it, except that Eustace returns to Narnia.

Have you read THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER? Did you like it? Why? Why not?

/8 Comments/by