9. Northern Lights

Book 9: Northern Lights by Nora Roberts (A-)

Such an interesting book! I bought this book at the City Lights bookstore for $1, and I really wasn't expecting much from it. I naturally figured that a book for a $1 had to be marked that low for some reason. So, my expectations were low. Maybe that was why it was such a thrill to read. It was hard to put down.

 ~

In a small town called Lunacy in Alaska, a new chief of police, Nate, comes in from Baltimore. He is running from a dark past of an ex-wife who cheated on him and a partner dying in his arms. Nate decides to dive into his depression in the middle of an Alaskan winter when there are only a few hours of daylight. Instead, he surprisingly finds love in the town with a girl, Meg, who refuses to make a commitment, except to her dogs. They obviously fall in love as the town's secrets become exposed.

A few boys went hiking up a nearby mountain called No Name and discovered a frozen corpse with an ax in his chest - the corpse of Meg's father who checked out of her family sixteen years earlier. All hell breaks loose with the local newspaperman and family man shooting himself in the head with a typed confession on his computer of killing Meg's father. Then, strange things began to occur in the town like Meg's house getting baited with meat causing a black bear to attack her dogs, a local elderly dog being brutally murdered in the middle of the town, and strange vandalism. As the reader, you try to put together the clues with Nate while falling in love with the town of Lunacy and hoping Meg opens up her heart to a heck of a police chief.

I haven't read a murder mystery in awhile, and I readily enjoyed it. I believe I've read Nora Roberts before. I forgot she's such a good writer!! Did you know she's written over 150 books?!! My gosh!!! That's got to be some kind of a record. 
I was quite impressed with how detailed the town was and how even minor characters played important roles in the story. The plot was also so much more than just trying to find out who murdered Meg's father. That's something I need to work on in my own books - multiple plot lines and depth that go below the main crisis.
Ultimately, this book has kind of been tainted thanks to the made-for-TV movie that followed. I believe it premiered on Lifetime... don't hold me to that but it wouldn't surprise me if it had. I don't know if the movie's bad or not, but the whole reason it's sort of "tainted" is because the two lead actors had an adulterous affair with each other in real life during or shortly after filming. And, they just got married like last weekend to each other! Kind of makes you not want to support the movie... or maybe even the book!

Overall, a very enjoyable book. Definitely pick it up!! You might get an awesome read for $1 too!!

Photo of the Day April 30

My Ballroom Dance Recital was two days ago and Ma got this shot!!!!! I think it's freaking fantastic!! I'm doing the tango and am just sooo dramatic. Such a great night.
Love it!

8. Wicked

Book 8: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire (A++)

Wow, I am so excited to do a blog post on this book because I am in absolute love with it!!! I honestly didn't think I was going to enjoy it. I have shunned the musical for years because I hated the film and book The Wizard of the Oz so much!! I don't know what it was about it, but I never enjoyed the story. But Wicked!!! Now, that's a story.
It was so much deeper than just the story of the Wicked Witch of the West, whose real name is Elphaba. Through a five part novel, the reader follows the complete story from birth to death of the Wicked Witch of the West from the original The Wizard of the Oz. In its pages, the reader explores the magical Oz that Dorothy never shows you. And, Maguire does an unbelievably amazing job of writing a beautiful, emotional, deep story with undeniable detail and charisma. I could hardly put it down!!

From the musical Wicked

Not only are readers able to explore the behind-the-scenes of the classic book everyone knows but there's also deep discussion about life, death, evil, religion, and the rights of Animals - animals with souls that can speak, think, and feel. An example of these intellectual conversations appears in a banter between Elphaba and her lover Fiyero:
"You have no soul," he teased her.
"You're right," she answered soberly. "I didn't think it showed."
"You're only playing word games now."
"No," she said, "what proof have I of a soul?"
"How can you have a conscience if you don't have a soul?" he asked despite himself...

Elphaba and Fiyero

"How can a bird feed its young if it has no conscience of before and after? A conscience, Yero my hero, is only consciousness in another dimension, the dimension of time. What you call conscience I prefer to call instinct. Birds feed their young without understanding why, without weeping about how all that is born must die, sob sob. I do my work with a similar motivation: the movement in the gut towards motivation, fairness, and safety. I'm a pack animal wheeling with the herd, that's all. I'm a forgettable leaf on a tree."
"Since your work is terrorism, that's the most extreme argument for crime I've ever heard. You're eschewing all personal responsibility. It's as bad as those who sacrifice their personal will into the gloomy morasses of the unknowable will of some unnameable god. If you suppress the idea of personhood then you suppress the notion of individual culpability."
"What is worse, Fiyero? Suppressing the idea of personhood or suppressing, through torture and incarceration and starvation, real living persons...? (255-256)"
The entire book is equally as intellectually probing and downright deeper than a tale about a green-skinned witch.
Another favorite passage of mine is Fiyero's wife telling Elphaba about different types of anger.
"Tribal mothers always tell their children that there are two kinds of anger: hot and cold. Boys and girls experience both, but as they grow up the angers separate according to their sex. Boys need hot anger to survive. They need the inclination to fight, the drive to sink the knife into the flesh, the energy and initiative of fury. It's a requirement of hunting, of defense, of pride. Maybe of sex, too."
"Yes, I know," said Elphaba, remembering.
Sarima blushed and looked unhappy, and continued. "And girls need cold anger. They need the cold simmer, the ceaseless grudge, the talent to avoid forgiveness, the sidestepping of compromise. They need to know when they say something that they will never back down, ever, ever. It's the compensation for a more limited scope in the world. Cross a man and you struggle, one of you wins, you adjust and go on - or you lie there dead. Cross a woman and the universe is changed, once again, for a cold anger requires an eternal vigilance in all matters of slight and offense. (364-365)"
I find these statements about anger to be extremely respectful and most often correct.
My only problem with the book was the part IV In the Vinkus. I felt this part slowed the book down and didn't carry on an important part of the story. It developed who Sarima was and how that affected Elphaba and their life together, but wasn't as impressed with this part of the book. The first three parts were so amazing and beautiful that I felt let down when we ventured down into the land of Vinkus to confront Fiyero's wife. I just wanted Elphaba and Fiyero to stay in Emerald City forever as Elphaba did her secret terrorist work against the Wizard and Fiyero wrote letters to wife while loving on Elphaba. The sad thing was that character Elphaba wanted the same thing, but it wasn't meant to be.
My suggestion is to definitely read this book! I don't know about the musical, but if you whether you disliked The Wizard of Oz or not... you must read this novel!!!!

Maguire, Gregory. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1995. Print.

An Open Letter to Stuart

Easter Day, April 24, 2011

Hey baby,

 It's been a crazy day with my family... as all days with my family are. I miss you very much, but I know that even if I was in Raleigh today, we still wouldn't be able to be together because you're so busy at work.

I woke up very early this morning because I had to sleep on the mattress from the couch bed meaning that I actually slept on the floor because you know how awful those springs are. Sparta and I slept in my old room together, which has been turned into a mash-up of mine and Anne's personalities. On the floor, there's an ocean of pink things like Hello Kitties and princess accessories which spell disaster for my feet should I step on them. Then on the walls there are cut-outs of celebrity pictures from Entertainment Weekly and a Cher poster on the ceiling from where I left behind evidence of my living in that room for over ten years.

As you know, everyone speaks here in a loud voice and screams. My Southern accent (which somehow I managed to escape speaking in all while growing up) has arrived on my tongue in the strongest of fashions. It wouldn't be going away until I leave Gaston County again... Gassten Coun'ee. There are a bunch of screams,  barks, and meows. Remington hates Sparta and Sparta hates Remington and Piddy Paws seems pissed at both! Ma talks about the hardships of life and how line dance classes are going. Then she screams about something. Kate talks veryreallyfastandIcan'tkeepup and then screams that Seth pinched her or something. And Anne just screams in general before lapsing into babbling.

Nothing has changed except the size of Remington. He is blossoming into a handsome young cat! His tail is a giant Q-tip of a puffball and his face is round and regal like a lion. He's hardly bullet gray anymore taking on a deep, dark brown and saddle tanish color. But good grief has he gotten HUGE!!

Ma and I went to church this morning to listen to a lovely sermon on the Resurrection.  Shockingly enough, there weren't any extra videos about the crucifixion or any skits.  Typically, my church can get a bit theatrical on holidays but this Easter, nothing but the fog machine during worship hour. Afterwards, we dined at Sonic and got burgers - hers with tots, mine with fries.

Then it was calm until Kate and Anne showed up. I wandered around in the backyard with  Sparta and read a few chapters of Wicked. Then I played Endless Ocean 2 on the Wii for awhile after switching from NetFlix (which I'm now sharing with the family via the Wii system). Last night, I showed everyone Stomp LIVE, which was a huge hit!! We didn't get to watch the whole thing  but I made sure they saw the newspaper bit and the sink part. Anne has now found my  NetFlix and is currently watching the Strawberry Shortcake movie.... help me!!!

When Father showed up with Anne, I ran over to his house to dump Sparta off since he was so upset over being in a house with other cats. Then, I drove back to Mount Holly for the annual egg dying and egg hunting.

  Speaking of driving, Little Honda got an oil change yesterday thanks to Seth and she'll need brand new tires tomorrow. The current tires are completely bald and worn down to the metal. I feel horrible for never noticing and being an official Terrible Car Owner.

I'm missing you and Nutmeg!!! I didn't get nearly enough time to play with the hamster and rest with you before I had to go back to school. Two more weeks, baby, two more weeks!!!!!!

Dinner is a-cookin' and we dine at 6:00-ish. Remington and Piddy Paws have to be locked in the laundry room because they beg for food that badly... more like steal food that craftily. When they were put up for dinner last night, I let Sparta out of the back bedroom and bragged about what a good cat he was. He never tried to grab food once. Kate is peeling the egg shells off of Ma's deviled eggs and later we're going to be enslaved to peel potatoes for her mashed potatoes. I'm sure there will be another chore or two because of this massive ham she's baking. Yes, that's right: ham! As you know I despise ham, so I get to eat corn-on-the-cob and orange sherbet for dessert! Yay for me!! And now Kate has been fired from shelling eggs because apparently she... sucks.

Dinner was a colorful affair of Seth eating everything in sight and making love to the honey glaze on the ham and the rest of us shouting over each  other to pass something or other. It ends calmly with fake Scottish accents and orange sherbet and apple pie. How all three of things go together, I don't know... only at Ma's house.

I best go,  baby!! I'm am so, so proud of you and I can't wait until this summer!!!! It's going to be so great to be with you and Nutmeg with Sparta on a regular basis! One big happy family... with Fox!! :)

Yours,

 Lex

Photo of the Day April 24

Happy Easter, everyone!!!

This is a photo of a house in Greensboro that Joe, Anna, and I hope to rent. It's a bit of a fixer-upper but it has great potential. Currently, the room that would be mine has fluffy white carpet and bright baby pink walls. The kitchen is open and airy! The living room has a brick fireplace with a wall-to-wall built-in bookshelf.
I think  that with some honest work, this house could be home!!! My bedroom is the on the right side, second window.
And yes, there's a cat on the rafters!

Kodak Moment: Nutmeg

So... Morgan and I got a hamster. We hadn't meant to buy one this early - it was supposed to be a summer pet, but last night, we looked at a pet store's hamsters and we fell in love with this one.

Meet Nutmeg, named for her brownish fur and Morgan's love of cooking!  She a sweet, very active hamster! Since she's been home, she has run on her wheel non-stop!!! She's awesome!

Meeting Sparta

Food time!

Coming home in a box

In her exercise ball because she was chewing up her box

New home

The Tough Romantic Questions Part 4

1. How would you describe the most romantic night of your life?

WNC Nature Center

I think that was the entire week that Morgan and I had alone in the apartment between the end of exams and Christmas Eve. We got to experience each other without the school work, the jobs, and the roommates. It was the perfect opportunity to strengthen our relationship and say good bye before we started our long distance relationship.

2. How would you describe "intimacy?"
Being completely exposed by sharing thoughts, experiences, and passions. I find it to be less physical and more of verbal explorations of each other.

3. How would you describe "love?"
You're willing to sacrifice your life for theirs because it'd be easier than living in a world without them.

4. If someone you were in a relationship with were to become mentally disabled, like through the means of a car accident or stroke, would you continue in the relationship with them?
Morgan and I were actually just talking about this quite recently. He said, it'd depend. I said without a doubt, yes, I would continue being in the relationship with him. Would it be hard? Absolutely! I'm not scared of hardship if it deals with staying with the person I love or not or else I wouldn't have willingly and knowingly jumped into a relationship that I knew would become long distance in less than four months. If Morgan became disabled today, then I'd spend my life taking care of both of us.

5. If you were to become a mother of a child who was born with some type of birth abnormality, how would you react?
That's hard to say because I'm not a fan of children to begin with. I'm assuming my feelings for my own child would be different from my overall attitude to children. I would hope that my heart would melt and I would feel that "mother bear" protectiveness that I have felt for my boys and Kate or any animal I've ever come across. And if that happened, then it wouldn't matter that my child wasn't perfect medically. I'm not perfect medically! It'd be a shock and a major adjustment but I'm sure we'd all get through it. As long as I never became like one of those mothers in a Jodi Picoult novel... if I ever acted that sad and desperate, just take me out.

6. If Morgan had to travel for one reason or another, and you were not able to come along, how would you react in waiting for me?
This question is null and void.We all know how I'd react. I'm reacting to it right now . I've been reacting to it for four months.

7. If you were offered five million dollars in exchange for leaving everything you have behind (including Morgan), would you do it?
I've always believed in the Moulin Rouge-philosophy of love before money. No, I wouldn't leave Morgan for $5 million. What would I have? That buys me nothing that equals or is greater than him in return.

8. If someone you were in a relationship with were to become physically disabled, would you continue in the relationship with them?
More so than question 4. I could handle physical better than mental but the answer still stands. Yes.