Summer finally showed up toward the end of August...that hot, humid, icky kind of summer that makes me want to stay in the air conditioning 24/7. That will go away soon right? Like, really soon? Ugh. I've been working through a lot of craft projects for birthdays and stuff, but I can't post them until I've given them away, so nothing this month.
Movies:
This month, there was only one movie I wanted to see, so I saw it twice...once even in IMAX 3D! Guardians of the Galaxy is awesome. If you've not seen it yet, stop reading and go right now. It's got everything: lots of action, lots of funny moments, lots of classic music, and most importantly, lots of Groot. It has 100% more Groot than other movies this year :) I don't want to give anything away on this one, but it's just really, really, really fun. I just loved it...both times. Go sit in some nice air conditioning and enjoy yourself for a couple of hours. It's totally worth it!
Books:
This month, I did manage to read a few books, despite the crafting and the heat making me want to do nothing for a couple of weeks. I read: Love Avenged (Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 7) by J. R. Ward, The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla by Lauren Willig, The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman, Landline by Rainbow Rowell, and The House of the Four Winds: Book One of One Dozen Daughters by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory.
I think I'm finally tired of the BDB books...which is unfortunate as there are still about five left to read. This one was about the Sympath-Vampire hybrid, Rehvenge. He owns the club where most of the Brotherhood go. He deals in drugs, prostitution, gambling...whatever makes money. He's the brother of Bella, married to Zadist. In this book, he falls in love with a nurse at Haver's clinic, loses his mother, has his secrets revealed to those who matter most to him, breaks up with the nurse, fakes his own death, and gives himself up to the sympath community. That's when things get interesting. Seriously. It took more than 2/3 of the book before I was like ok, this is something I want to read. But it also kind of wasn't because spiders and scorpions aren't something I like to picture in my head, so I may have skimmed some of this ending. Anyway, like the other books, things work out as they should and the Brotherhood triumphs, despite evil still being evil and trying to win. They set up the next book pretty well, but I needed a break.
Lauren Willig's new Pink Carnation book, The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla, was just as fun as all the others! This one was about Turnip's sister, Sally. On a dare, Sally went into the local vampire's yard, Duke Lucien Belliston, only to run into the man himself...and see that the rumors of vampirism were very much just that...rumor...and she decides she will help him, whether he wants it or not. After some comical moments of Sally forcing her company on the Duke, they come across a dead woman. As they investigate who would murder and try to pin it on the Duke, old secrets come out and it turns out that Sally is needed more than she could know. The spy story isn't as strong in this one as the others, Miss Gwen is still there, as is a spy backstory involving the Duke's parents, but this is mostly just a good story of how two people found each other, despite the obstacles in their way.
I've waited a while for the third book of Lev Grossman's Magicians trilogy. I remember thinking the first one was ok and that the second one was better. The third one. The Magician's Land, was on par with the second one. This time, Fillory is dying and they need to save it. There are spells, adventures, gaps are filled in by story characters...it's just a good read. If you've not read the first two, reading this one will do you no good though. It's no Harry Potter, but what is, you know? It's more grown up and less good triumphs over bad. Overall, I enjoyed the trilogy as a whole, but you can not go into it thinking it's going to be like the Harry Potter books, because it isn't. They're darker in the human world and in the magical world.
Landline was a nice change for Rowell. This book was about a married couple who were having problems with their schedules and making time for one another. We join them at the breaking point. As they separate for Christmas, the wife ends up staying at her mom's house and calling her husband on her old landline princess phone...and the phone, once plugged in, works as it did the last time it was used...the week the husband broke up with her in the past and then drove hours on end to surprise her with a proposal. This is actually a pretty interesting study of therapy without an actual therapist. The phone is where they talk through their issues, only with the husband as a young adult and the wife as she is in the current day. I liked it.
Lastly, I read the new Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory book. I love Lackey's 500 Kingdoms books, like the Elemental Masters series, and like the one-off fairy tale books. So I thought I'd give this one a chance. In a small kingdom, the royal family has 12 daughters and 1 son. The son, by law, will inherit, but there's not enough to provide for all the daughters. They are brought up learning trades so they may make their own fortunes when they leave home on their 18th birthdays. Clarice is the oldest and this is her book. She learned swordplay, so she goes out to be a hired swordsman and then maybe a teacher. She books passage on a ship that turns out to be under a pirate scheme. She falls for the navigator, but she's pretending to be a male, so her Facebook status would say "it's complicated". There's punishments, fighting, mutiny, hard work, more pirates, lots of magic, and lots of treasure. As fantasy books go, it was ok. As pirate books go, it was also just ok. I don't know that I'll read more of the series like I did with some of the other series. It wasn't bad...just not immediately awesome.
Alright, me finishing this hopefully means summer is done and now it's fall...
Later!
