The books of June 2014

How is it already July?! I can not believe how fast this year is going. I know it's just now really getting to be summer, but as usual, I'm over it and ready for fall.

Crafts:
I got a few gifts I'd made to the right people for birthdays. This one was of a drawing I did in Paint...the pattern turned out a little weird, but it's still funny. Me and my BFFs for a BFF birthday:

Hmm...a little blurry, but it's the three of us, represented in stitches from a stick figure drawing.

Another of my favorite people had a birthday in June. She got some sunshine:

Good day sunshine!

And some cloud cover:

It's so angry...

I worked a little on my scarf again...it's always my go to when I feel like I need to do something crafty, but don't feel ready to start something new.

Movies:

In June, I saw three movies...not very many, but I enjoyed them all on different levels.

A Million Ways to Die in the West was pretty hilarious. Like Ted (and Family Guy...and American Dad) parts of it were slow, parts of it were ridiculous, and parts of it were offensive. But if you just listen, there are tons of things to laugh about...especially if you imagine it's Brian the dog saying it all. I'll definitely watch it again when the DVD comes out...I know I laughed over a lot of it.

Our art theater finally got Only Lovers Left Alive. Jim Jarmusch is someone who I tend to see his movies and am occasionally mystified over why I wanted to see them. Not this time. Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston as a vampire couple (non-sparkley, non-teenagery) were quite good. I really liked the story, even though Kit Marlowe as a vampire has been done before...albeit in a book that came out after the movie was a concept. I don't know. I just liked a lot of the details. Some of it was truly funny and watching Tom Hiddleston for a couple of hours wasn't a bad thing either. 

Last weekend, I saw Transformers: Age of Extinction. It was just as insanely silly as the others...better than the second one, but not as good as the first or third ones. I laughed out loud way more than I probably should've, but seriously, robot/transforming dinosaurs? How can you not laugh at that? It was fun and Stanley Tucci, as usual, made it completely worth my time.

Books:

This month I read: City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, Book 6) by Cassandra Clare, That Summer by Lauren Willig, Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King, Lover Unbound (Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 5) by J. R. Ward, The Whole Fromage: Adventures in the Delectable World of French Cheese by Kathe Lison, Insurgent by Veronica Roth, and Allegiant by Veronica Roth.

The last book of the Mortal Instruments was a good conclusion. As usual, Clare left a window open for continuing the stories, but the crux of this 6-book series seems to be fairly wrapped. It had been a while since I finished the fifth book, so it took me a little bit of reading to remember the storyline. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, so if you have read the other books, read this too. I will probably read whatever's next from her about this, but I don't think I can bring myself to read the prequel books (Infernal Devices). Warning though...this one did make me cry a little. Brace yourself for a big battle...and a case of the sniffles.

That Summer was another Willig book outside of her spy series. Willig is fantastic at creating concurrent timelines for past and present in her storytelling. This was no deviation. In the present, a girl's relative passes away in England and she inherits the family house. She leaves New York and gets completely caught up in a mystery surrounding the family tree going back to the 1800s and pre-Raphaelite painters. In modern day and in the 1800s, there's the intrigue and the love triangles to keep you interested in both. I have yet to be disappointed with anything I read from Willig. If you need a nice escape that will make you laugh and want to read more about history without being overwhelmed by facts, pick up one of her books.

Mr. Mercedes was not my favorite of this new wave of Stephen King books. Maybe I wasn't prepared to be that involved in the killer's thought processes? I didn't have this problem with 1963 (possibly because it was history-based), nor did I have it with the continuation of The Shining. The killer mows down several victims in a massive, pre-meditated hit and run at a city event. They never catch him. The lead cop on the case retires, only to be dragged back into it by the killer who's trying to goad the cop into killing himself. I think if King had spent more time with some of the B-characters, I would have enjoyed it more, but it's not one I'd read again. 

Lover Unbound was more of the same formula from the Brotherhood. This time Vishous finds his mate...a human doctor. We learn more about his family...as does he. Things don't go as easily for the couple, but in the end, there's always a way to work it out...even as implausible as this one got. I'm still having fun reading these. 

The Whole Fromage is a book I've been reading a chapter here and there over the past couple of months. Basically, Lison decided she wanted to know more about French cheeses, past and present. She travelled to several small cheese farms throughout France, learning about the different techniques and what rules there are for making the cheeses. Some people who claim to be old school in their ways have succumbed to modern technology for cheese making. Others believe that science only improves the business. With cheese, it seems that there isn't truly a right or wrong, just the taste. People spend their lives perfecting their cheeses and techniques. It is an interesting craft...very labor intensive in most cases. If you like French cheese, or want to know more about it, this is a cute book to read. Lison's love of cheese definitely comes through. Make sure you have some cheese and crackers handy while reading. You will get hungry for it.

The last books I read in June were the other two in the Veronica Roth's Divergent trilogy. I enjoyed the first book and I enjoyed the movie, but I wasn't overly eager to read/see more. Several friends really enjoyed these, so I decided to give it a shot and finish the trilogy. All I can really say is, well, I'm done. The second one, Insurgent, was not something I enjoyed. I had to struggle to force myself through it. The last book, Allegiant, was better. It's also possible that I wasn't in the mood to read more of their story and was just glad to be done with it. I felt like this could've easily been two books instead of three. I don't know. People really liked this series. I was more ambivalent about it. Like the Hunger Games, I felt like it went downhill from the beginning. I think maybe I prefer my post-apocalyptic genre to include zombies, vampires, or some other mutation/super-natural twist. Somehow, I find reading about humans turning against each other over petty things really unsettling. I'd rather there be monsters than read about the human race destroying itself. It's just kind of downer, even when the sacrifices made by a few are told with such deep respect. 

July is up next. Later!