I finished the third and final book in the Divergent series this past week. I read the first two probably a year ago? They were available on the Kindle through the library which made it super easy to get. The third book is available only hard copy. I tried to wait it out and see if they would get a digital copy, but after at least 6 months, I gave up and put a hold on a hard copy.
I really enjoyed the first two books. I had asked people what they thought of the third book and they didn't have enthusiastic reviews for it, but kind of held back their two cents until I had read it. You have fair warning - SPOILER ALERTS! I was a bit disappointed with the great reveal of what was outside the fence. The story still read fine, but knowing they were in the US and Chicago no less, I was kind of like, really? That's all? I don't know why either. I guess with as different as the city and their functions had been set up I was hoping for something really unique to continue. I also felt like this book shifted to talk about factions as genetically damaged versus the divergent being genetically healed. That needed to be explained and the whole Purity war summarized. I feel like the reader got the cliff notes version of the history that caused all of this including a few passages about the people that live in the Fringe which I don't think adds to the story a whole lot. It provides some context, but those sections felt like that's all they were there for. I was just as bewildered as the characters in discovering all of this information. Maybe that's what you are supposed to feel like? I have no idea. Also, I'll say the love story between Tris and Four went through full teenage angst which I found a bit annoying. Given this is a young adult novel, I would expect something like that, but I can usually overlook it. It was just so painfully obvious. The ultimate ending I was ok with, although surprised they would actually kill off a main character. I almost give it points for doing the unexpected there, but I can't tell if that helped or hindered my view of this book.
Overall, I still like the story line, just not as impressed with the final book. It didn't help that there were a random 5 pages missing from the book. They weren't ripped out, it's possible they fell out due to poor binding. Just another random factor. I don't think those would "make" the book though. :)
Also, I saw the movie version of Divergent not to long ago. I would say, and I should preface this with - I NEVER say this, I liked the movie better than the book. I think this is because they kind of gloss over that internal dialogue from Tris about her and Four. They focus more on the discovery of the Divergent and drive the movie that way. I would say that was a good call from Hollywood's perspective. I don't think this will ever be as popular as the Hunger Games, but it's still an enjoyable story. Definitely better than The Maze Runner and what I had read of the Atlantis Gene trilogies anyway.
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
I have a birthday coming up this week and my office mate just celebrated hers Monday, so it seemed fitting to celebrate the two mid-week. Plus it's an excuse to bake something. In my world, birthdays are best celebrated over at least a week and more if you can milk it. I embrace my aging self and try to find the happiness in any age. Hating it won't change what's happening, so might as well make the most of it.
I hemmed an hawed over what I wanted to make. Something that could easily be shared, didn't take 5 hours to make, and something I know I would like, after all, it's partly my birthday thing too. :) I realized while trying to decide what to make I only had 1 egg left in the house (that's what you call poor planning), but to my surprise the recipes I was narrowing my choices down to required just 1 egg. It was a sign. It was a toss up between Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies and Pumpkin Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies. I decided to just go with plain pumpkin. To be honest, the ingredients list was smaller and that won some points. It's September, pumpkin is officially the flavor of the next 3 or more months. Might as well get in on it early!
From my Cuckoo for Cookies board:
http://www.twotwentyone.net/2013/10/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-cookies/
Folks, let me tell you, these smelled like a little slice of fall in my kitchen this evening. It was a fabulous aroma to enjoy while multi-tasking making lunches and prepping things to go to work tomorrow.
I did let the batter sit for the 15 minutes (ok, I lost track of time, but it was more than 5 minutes) as directed on the recipe, but I was a bit skeptical about how they were going to turn out since the batter was a bit gooier (ok, that's apparently a word), than other recipes I use. They turned out fine and in fact a bit poofy (not a word).
As is tradition, I snagged a cookie hot off the cookie sheet. It was amazing! Sometimes simpler is better! These were light and flavorful without being too much. Perfect for a pumpkin sweet fix. If you like pumpkin flavored things for the fall, put this on your to-bake list. I am not sure how long they are going to last at work tomorrow!
I hemmed an hawed over what I wanted to make. Something that could easily be shared, didn't take 5 hours to make, and something I know I would like, after all, it's partly my birthday thing too. :) I realized while trying to decide what to make I only had 1 egg left in the house (that's what you call poor planning), but to my surprise the recipes I was narrowing my choices down to required just 1 egg. It was a sign. It was a toss up between Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies and Pumpkin Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies. I decided to just go with plain pumpkin. To be honest, the ingredients list was smaller and that won some points. It's September, pumpkin is officially the flavor of the next 3 or more months. Might as well get in on it early!
From my Cuckoo for Cookies board:
http://www.twotwentyone.net/2013/10/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-cookies/
Folks, let me tell you, these smelled like a little slice of fall in my kitchen this evening. It was a fabulous aroma to enjoy while multi-tasking making lunches and prepping things to go to work tomorrow.
I did let the batter sit for the 15 minutes (ok, I lost track of time, but it was more than 5 minutes) as directed on the recipe, but I was a bit skeptical about how they were going to turn out since the batter was a bit gooier (ok, that's apparently a word), than other recipes I use. They turned out fine and in fact a bit poofy (not a word).
As is tradition, I snagged a cookie hot off the cookie sheet. It was amazing! Sometimes simpler is better! These were light and flavorful without being too much. Perfect for a pumpkin sweet fix. If you like pumpkin flavored things for the fall, put this on your to-bake list. I am not sure how long they are going to last at work tomorrow!
Saturday, August 30, 2014
More Book Reviews
I think I might do this on more of a continuous basis now that my summer of Pinterest recreations is over. I have to have something to blog about right? Why not offer my opinion on the books I read? Maybe someone out there can use my two cents on taking a chance on a new book.
Into the Still Blue (Library - hard copy)
As mentioned previously, I had high hopes for this book and it did not disappoint. I was very happy with the ending and thought it rounded out the series very well. I still recommend this and can now confidently say it doesn't have a crappy ending. So hey, that's got to be worth something. :)
Wool (Omnibus Saga 1-5) by Hugh Howley (Amazon Prime - Lending Library)
This was recommended to me by another friend who is a Amazon Prime member and had picked it for her monthly lending. This is another kind of dystopian futuristic kind of book. I guess I am on a kick for those lately. This book is about living life in a silo which is underground by about 134 floors. They talk about taking days to journey from the "down deep" to the "up top" and I thought that was weird. I mean it's only 134 floors, how can it take days? So we did some research on how many floors were in really tall buildings. So the Sears Tower is 104 floors, so that sort of put it into perspective. In any case, it's a completely fascinating story. Who knew how much drama could be in one silo? They talk about being sent to cleaning and the IT department with their severs and the sheriff and mayor. All kinds of good stories. Apparently it was written as mini books (1-5), but later it was put together into an Omnibus series. I would recommend reading them all together under that heading. All together they are about the equivalent of one book. He does have plans to write more Silo books which I will be on the lookout for. :)
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Strawberry Mimosas
I needed another reason to use my champagne flutes, so I decided to make a cocktail from my Cocktails! board now that I can actually have them again.
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Salisbury Steak Meatballs
Talk about comfort food. I saw this recipe while browsing Pinterest and I literally could feel my mouth watering. I love meatballs in pretty much all forms (ooo, new post idea - Meatball Menagerie) so didn't take much to convince me to look through this recipe. After reading it through, it sounded simple enough, so I figured this could be one of the last experiments before going back to work.
From my Real Food Board:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2014/04/salisbury-steak-meatballs/
I did make the raw meatballs up earlier in the day because I was worried I wouldn't have enough time around dinner time with all that was going on that day. Honestly, they came together fairly quickly compared to some other meatballs I make. I cooked them and finished the rest of the meal at dinner time so everything was nice and hot. Warning - this meal really does make close to 12 servings. There was enough to feed 3 adults and 1 toddler for 3 meals really big meals.
I did use their suggested method of cooking the meatballs in two batches. Yum Yum Yum!
Making the sauce to go with these was pretty simple.
Also, it was really "pretty" at the end. And yes, fresh parsley from the garden to top it off!
From my Real Food Board:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2014/04/salisbury-steak-meatballs/
I did make the raw meatballs up earlier in the day because I was worried I wouldn't have enough time around dinner time with all that was going on that day. Honestly, they came together fairly quickly compared to some other meatballs I make. I cooked them and finished the rest of the meal at dinner time so everything was nice and hot. Warning - this meal really does make close to 12 servings. There was enough to feed 3 adults and 1 toddler for 3 meals really big meals.
I did use their suggested method of cooking the meatballs in two batches. Yum Yum Yum!
Making the sauce to go with these was pretty simple.
Also, it was really "pretty" at the end. And yes, fresh parsley from the garden to top it off!
It was super tasty and filling and a hit with the whole crowd. I also love that this meal provides leftovers. However, in the future, if it was just my husband and I with our kids, I would probably half this recipe rather than having so many leftovers. BUT! If you have company coming over or a larger family (grown kids), this is an amazing dish. Add a vegetable for a side and some rolls and BAM. Everyone will think you slaved and in reality, this maybe took 40 minutes start to finish (the time on the recipe is right on). Easy peasy and totally delicious!
Friday, August 15, 2014
Summer Reading
I took advantage of my laid back summer to try out some new books. I consider myself a pretty avid reader. I read every day and enjoy finding new authors. A fairly new development in my love of reading has occurred in where I am starting to not waste time on "junk" books. There are so many good books out there and with all my reading over the years, I guess I have developed a knack for determining when a book isn't going to go anywhere. It's a pretty handy skill to hone when you want to make the most of your time with leisure reading.
I have a Kindle Fire which I was fairly reluctant to use for reading for a while. I have owned it for about a year and a half now and I LOVE it. It's fantastic. I can borrow books from the library with it and as an Amazon Prime member, I get a free book a month from them under Amazon First, and another book a month to "borrow" under the Prime Lending library. The Amazon First books have opened a lot of different authors and styles of writing. Some have been pretty big duds, however there have been a few hits too. Kind of the point if you ask me. The Prime Lending Library also opens up new options for reading, but typically if you find an author you like, you can read all of their stuff. Meaning you can get locked in a comfort zone. I read all of Deborah Geary's books that way. I really enjoyed them and it was completely new to me, but I spent a year (one book a month) reading them and not anything else.
So what have I been reading this summer? A lot of dystopian trilogies apparently. I guess I am just attracted to that genre right now. So here's a shake down of what I have read or attempted to read:
The Maze Runner Series by James Dashner (digital library):
I had heard nothing but good things about this series, so I thought, what the heck, maybe this will be another Hunger Games kind of set of books. For me, this was so wrong. The first book, The Maze Runner, annoyed me. The way it was written it was like you and the main character are not supposed to know anything that's going on despite the apparent need to be clued in. I understand there's usually a reason for writing this way, but this book didn't have it right. You don't really learn much until the end of the book and at that point I was like, well, maybe The Scorch Trials will be more revealing and I was right! That was a really enjoyable book. Then I read the final one thinking, it's got to be as good as the second now that they are rolling. The Death Cure was meh. I didn't like the ending and felt the author had tried to make it go one way and kind of gave up/realized there was no logical way to make it happen to they abandoned ship and kind of abruptly changed course and ended the book. Overall, only the second book I would honestly recommend anyone read, but it's kind of pointless if you don't read the other two kind of crappy books too. Not exactly what I would call worth it.
The Atlantis Series by A. G. Riddle (Prime Lending Library):
The description of this book caught my attention and I thought, hey, why not? This followed the same kind of writing style of The Maze Runner for the first book. However in this book you could tell there was going to be a big story plot working behind this "mysterious" plague that's spreading. I would call this book a bit more sci-fi dystopian because there is talk of spaceships, aliens, and the method by which they administer a "cure" I find kind of ridiculous. I finished reading the first book and there was not a lot of resolution so I did read the second book and like The Scorch Trials, I found a lot more answers in that book, but I found myself speed reading to just get the part that explained anything that was going on. If I am doing that, I really don't care about what's actually happening. I just want to have it wrapped up so I can read something else. I haven't read the third book and I don't plan to.
Moving Day: A Thriller by Jonathan Stone (Amazon First):
I read the first chapter of this book and I stopped. The set up to this is that an elderly couple is moving to their retirement home and taking a life time worth of possessions with them. They are scammed by fake movers that show up a day early and pack their house and take everything. They realize this when the real movers show up the next day. This was clearly described in the synopsis for the book, but the writing style describing these possessions and some desperate longing for all the memories wrapped up in them had me mentally checked out. If it's a thriller as it's so titled, don't waste words on making it more dramatic than is really necessary. I didn't want to waste any more time on it, so I stopped reading after two nights. I own it, but doubt I will go back to it.
Inamorata by Megan Chance (Amazon First):
This book confused me. It's about twins who flee to Venice and a poet that's looking for revenge on someone called Oldie. I have read about 25% of this book and not sure I really care if I finish the rest of it or not. It's not bad, but there's nothing making me want to know what happens. I was confused by the characters for the first 4 chapters at least. This could very well be due to my lack of attention to detail when I read. The chapter titles are the character names, but it took a while for me realize Sophie (one of the twins) and Oldie are two different people. Clearly Oldie has some issues to work through, that much I know. But unless I get really bored, I am probably not going to come back to this book.
Legend by Marie Lu (hard copy library - first in series):
This book was recommended to me by a middle school English teacher friend of mine. I loved this book. I read it in two days which is saying something considering I have an infant and a toddler at home. It's again a kind of dystopian future, but the writing is wonderful. You are submersed in the character's life styles almost immediately. There is a lot of mystery and intrigue, but the book is fast paced enough not to dawdle on mute points. It cuts to the heart of the chase and there are enough revelations to keep you saying, "And then what happens?" I love Day and June and their relationship and the course it takes throughout the book. I am excited to read the rest in the series although I have been warned the other books don't carry the momentum the first does.
Into the Still Blue by Veronica Rossi (hard copy library - third in series):
I was able to read the first two of the series on my Kindle as e-books through the library, but I guess the third is too new to have the e-book available? In any case I was able to reserve it and get a hard copy from the library. It must have been about 6 months since I finished the last book, but there are hints to what happened to help people remember, but not so blatant you are rehashing all the details. It's more like, oh yeah that's right, he can do that. I haven't' finished this yet, but I am really curious what happens and if they make it to their garden of Eden, the "Still Blue". I would recommend this trilogy for anyone interested in the dystopian genre.
Stardust by Neil Gaiman (hard copy - own):
I love this book. In my first ever blog post, I talk about how this book kind of inspired the name of my blog. I try to read this book once a year just because it's hands down my favorite fairy tale. It's fairly quick and whimsical, and well written. I have not and never plan to watch the movie they made based on the book. I have the characters and scenes in my head and I like them just the way they are. So, this one wins just for being my favorite.
That's been most of what I have read over the last two months. I have another Prime Lending Library book in my queue for August called Wool Omnibus (1-5) by Hugh Howey and I have read about 3 chapters into that and I think it's going to be a really good book too. Maybe I'll have to do actual reviews when I finish these for people who may want something new to read. I usually find myself in an author rut where I'll find an author I like and then read their entire collection of whatever they have written and thrive on it until it's done. Then I just feel sad they didn't write more and drag my feet while looking for the next author. I guess I'll just add that to my to-do list. ;)
I have a Kindle Fire which I was fairly reluctant to use for reading for a while. I have owned it for about a year and a half now and I LOVE it. It's fantastic. I can borrow books from the library with it and as an Amazon Prime member, I get a free book a month from them under Amazon First, and another book a month to "borrow" under the Prime Lending library. The Amazon First books have opened a lot of different authors and styles of writing. Some have been pretty big duds, however there have been a few hits too. Kind of the point if you ask me. The Prime Lending Library also opens up new options for reading, but typically if you find an author you like, you can read all of their stuff. Meaning you can get locked in a comfort zone. I read all of Deborah Geary's books that way. I really enjoyed them and it was completely new to me, but I spent a year (one book a month) reading them and not anything else.
So what have I been reading this summer? A lot of dystopian trilogies apparently. I guess I am just attracted to that genre right now. So here's a shake down of what I have read or attempted to read:
The Maze Runner Series by James Dashner (digital library):
I had heard nothing but good things about this series, so I thought, what the heck, maybe this will be another Hunger Games kind of set of books. For me, this was so wrong. The first book, The Maze Runner, annoyed me. The way it was written it was like you and the main character are not supposed to know anything that's going on despite the apparent need to be clued in. I understand there's usually a reason for writing this way, but this book didn't have it right. You don't really learn much until the end of the book and at that point I was like, well, maybe The Scorch Trials will be more revealing and I was right! That was a really enjoyable book. Then I read the final one thinking, it's got to be as good as the second now that they are rolling. The Death Cure was meh. I didn't like the ending and felt the author had tried to make it go one way and kind of gave up/realized there was no logical way to make it happen to they abandoned ship and kind of abruptly changed course and ended the book. Overall, only the second book I would honestly recommend anyone read, but it's kind of pointless if you don't read the other two kind of crappy books too. Not exactly what I would call worth it.
The Atlantis Series by A. G. Riddle (Prime Lending Library):
The description of this book caught my attention and I thought, hey, why not? This followed the same kind of writing style of The Maze Runner for the first book. However in this book you could tell there was going to be a big story plot working behind this "mysterious" plague that's spreading. I would call this book a bit more sci-fi dystopian because there is talk of spaceships, aliens, and the method by which they administer a "cure" I find kind of ridiculous. I finished reading the first book and there was not a lot of resolution so I did read the second book and like The Scorch Trials, I found a lot more answers in that book, but I found myself speed reading to just get the part that explained anything that was going on. If I am doing that, I really don't care about what's actually happening. I just want to have it wrapped up so I can read something else. I haven't read the third book and I don't plan to.
Moving Day: A Thriller by Jonathan Stone (Amazon First):
I read the first chapter of this book and I stopped. The set up to this is that an elderly couple is moving to their retirement home and taking a life time worth of possessions with them. They are scammed by fake movers that show up a day early and pack their house and take everything. They realize this when the real movers show up the next day. This was clearly described in the synopsis for the book, but the writing style describing these possessions and some desperate longing for all the memories wrapped up in them had me mentally checked out. If it's a thriller as it's so titled, don't waste words on making it more dramatic than is really necessary. I didn't want to waste any more time on it, so I stopped reading after two nights. I own it, but doubt I will go back to it.
Inamorata by Megan Chance (Amazon First):
This book confused me. It's about twins who flee to Venice and a poet that's looking for revenge on someone called Oldie. I have read about 25% of this book and not sure I really care if I finish the rest of it or not. It's not bad, but there's nothing making me want to know what happens. I was confused by the characters for the first 4 chapters at least. This could very well be due to my lack of attention to detail when I read. The chapter titles are the character names, but it took a while for me realize Sophie (one of the twins) and Oldie are two different people. Clearly Oldie has some issues to work through, that much I know. But unless I get really bored, I am probably not going to come back to this book.
Legend by Marie Lu (hard copy library - first in series):
This book was recommended to me by a middle school English teacher friend of mine. I loved this book. I read it in two days which is saying something considering I have an infant and a toddler at home. It's again a kind of dystopian future, but the writing is wonderful. You are submersed in the character's life styles almost immediately. There is a lot of mystery and intrigue, but the book is fast paced enough not to dawdle on mute points. It cuts to the heart of the chase and there are enough revelations to keep you saying, "And then what happens?" I love Day and June and their relationship and the course it takes throughout the book. I am excited to read the rest in the series although I have been warned the other books don't carry the momentum the first does.
Into the Still Blue by Veronica Rossi (hard copy library - third in series):
I was able to read the first two of the series on my Kindle as e-books through the library, but I guess the third is too new to have the e-book available? In any case I was able to reserve it and get a hard copy from the library. It must have been about 6 months since I finished the last book, but there are hints to what happened to help people remember, but not so blatant you are rehashing all the details. It's more like, oh yeah that's right, he can do that. I haven't' finished this yet, but I am really curious what happens and if they make it to their garden of Eden, the "Still Blue". I would recommend this trilogy for anyone interested in the dystopian genre.
Stardust by Neil Gaiman (hard copy - own):
I love this book. In my first ever blog post, I talk about how this book kind of inspired the name of my blog. I try to read this book once a year just because it's hands down my favorite fairy tale. It's fairly quick and whimsical, and well written. I have not and never plan to watch the movie they made based on the book. I have the characters and scenes in my head and I like them just the way they are. So, this one wins just for being my favorite.
That's been most of what I have read over the last two months. I have another Prime Lending Library book in my queue for August called Wool Omnibus (1-5) by Hugh Howey and I have read about 3 chapters into that and I think it's going to be a really good book too. Maybe I'll have to do actual reviews when I finish these for people who may want something new to read. I usually find myself in an author rut where I'll find an author I like and then read their entire collection of whatever they have written and thrive on it until it's done. Then I just feel sad they didn't write more and drag my feet while looking for the next author. I guess I'll just add that to my to-do list. ;)
Saturday, August 9, 2014
S'mores Dip!
I don't know who decided that chocolate and marshmallows should be melted together and sandwiched between graham crackers, but I would love to shake their hand. It's truly a beautiful combination. Usually the opportunity to enjoy this is limited to over a camp fire, which in my opinion is the best way to have them. However, we have no camp fires in our future or nearby. So what's the next best thing? S'mores Dip!
From Food Love:
http://www.southernplate.com/2014/06/oven-baked-smores-how-to-get-an-autographed-copy-of-southern-casseroles.html
I made this for our last mother's day play date with the babies and I didn't think to grab a photo of this, but I can tell you it was well loved by the mommies and children alike. The best part? It's so stupid simple! I basically just took a bag of chocolate chips and tossed them in the bottom of a 2 QT casserole dish and covered with marshmallows (was about half a bag, but I could have, and probably will in the future, added more). I plopped it in the oven for 5 minutes at 450* and it was just toasty enough on the top. We went through 2 sleeves of graham crackers, but that will vary depending on your desired ratio of delicious per cracker.
Great for a last minute dessert and great for groups of people to enjoy. Although I wouldn't judge if you made this for just your family. :) It's scalable too, so if you need to just cover the bottom of a smaller pan and top with marshmallows. Winning tasty treats!!
From Food Love:
http://www.southernplate.com/2014/06/oven-baked-smores-how-to-get-an-autographed-copy-of-southern-casseroles.html
I made this for our last mother's day play date with the babies and I didn't think to grab a photo of this, but I can tell you it was well loved by the mommies and children alike. The best part? It's so stupid simple! I basically just took a bag of chocolate chips and tossed them in the bottom of a 2 QT casserole dish and covered with marshmallows (was about half a bag, but I could have, and probably will in the future, added more). I plopped it in the oven for 5 minutes at 450* and it was just toasty enough on the top. We went through 2 sleeves of graham crackers, but that will vary depending on your desired ratio of delicious per cracker.
Great for a last minute dessert and great for groups of people to enjoy. Although I wouldn't judge if you made this for just your family. :) It's scalable too, so if you need to just cover the bottom of a smaller pan and top with marshmallows. Winning tasty treats!!
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