Monday again? (also Sunday) What are you reading #2; Sunday post #14

I'm linking up with the Sunday Post hosted here: http://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/ and also It's Monday! What Are You Reading? hosted here: http://bookdate.blogspot.co.nz/

Let's see ... what's been happening lately ...

It was spawn's last day of school for the year on Thursday, so he's settling in for the long summer break. (I'm using the word "summer" in its loosest possible term, the weather outside is actually pretty bad [which is my favourite kind of weather]).

So I need to try and think of some things to do with him, while I'm still at home.

We went to see Santa on Friday, so that's done for the year. All of my shopping is done (thank you online shopping!) so I can tick that off the list.

I just need to make a list of what I want for the boys to choose from - lol.

The kittens are growing apace. It's nearly impossible to get decent photos of them, but I'll try for next week's post. We have trouble telling them apart, but I discovered that Felicia has a tiny white patch at the base of her belly, so that will help.

Casper's leg has been re-stitched, and the vet is pleased with his progress. So one more visit next week to get the stitches out, and he should be fine after that.

For myself, I haven't really been doing very much at all, but for now, that's all right. If I'm still sitting here in a month's time saying the same thing, then that will be problematic. But for now, it's nice.

I did a little stitching last week; some reading, and I've been obsessively playing two games - Dragon Age; Inquisition (of course) and on the iPad, Monument Valley: http://www.monumentvalleygame.com/ which I just absolutely love.

It's not a particularly long game, but there's something very relaxing about playing it, and I highly recommend it.

As for what I'm reading .... I finished Witches Abroad by Mr Sir Terry Pratchett on Saturday, and loved it. Laughed out loud a few times. So there will be a review of that some time this week.

Right now I'm reading A Private Gentleman by Heidi Cullinan. It's an M/M Victorian romance novel about Wes, the second son of a Marquis who is the despair of his family. He's shy, suffers terrible social anxiety, and stammers badly. He meets Michael, a whore who has a history with Wes's father. The two Fall in Love and Overcome Obstacles.

I'm enjoying it quite a bit, I have to say. I've read a couple of Heidi Cullinan's books before, and enjoy her style.

I also have The Gaugin Connection by Estelle Ryan on the go, and STILL The Sunne in Splendour.

Up next is Uprooted by Naomi Novik, then I think I might tackle Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older, and possibly Sorceror to the Crown by Zen Cho.

What's going on with you? What are you reading?

It’s Monday What Are You Reading?

Now hosted here http://bookdate.blogspot.co.nz/ :)

It’s been … a while since I did one of these posts. Or, looking at my blog, any post. Whoops.

Anyway. At the moment, I’m reading Northern Lights, book one of His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. It’s a re-read for me, and it’s just as emotionally trying as the first time around. I do love it, though.

I’ve also still got The Sunne in Splendour on the go, though it has been a while since I picked it up, but I have good Intentions.

I picked up a book on iBooks that had an interesting premise and is the first in a series: The Gauguin Connection by Estelle Ryan. It’s a mystery series featuring an insurance investigator who is also a body language expert. Promising start, anyway.

Up next, hopefully, is The Girl on the Train, because it’s due back at the library on Saturday, and possibly Witches Abroad, by Mr Sir Terry Pratchett.

So. What are you reading?

Sunday post - 10

The Sunday Post is a chance to catch up with the blogosphere, as well as people's lives and to bring the blogosphere up to date with your own.

Hosted here: http://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/

I missed another Sunday last week, but the school holidays took a lot more out of me than I expected. Being home the whole time was certainly ... an experience. Spawn is pretty good at entertaining himself but he's also LOUD and has taken up rather a lot of space in my head these past two weeks.

Not a bad thing, but it has left very little room for my own things and thoughts.

Back to school tomorrow though and as much as I'd step in front of a train for him, I'm relieved!

I haven't been doing much this past week really. A little bit of stitching, which has been nice, and I'm making pretty good progress on the Grey Wardens pattern.

I read Dawn by Octavia E. Butler for A More Diverse Universe, and I'm hoping to put a review up for that tomorrow.

Possibly optimistically, I also listed The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri and the collected works of Hone Tuwhare for the challenge, but I'm not sure if I'll get to them or not - the #SalemAlong has begun and I need to catch up on that also.

Having said that though, I might try and get through Hone Tuwhare's book - he was a poet, so it's really a collection of poetry. I'll see how I go.

I did finally manage to blog last week, and wrote rather rushed reviews for The Namesake:
http://lifetheuniverseandcats.blogspot.co.nz/2015/10/the-namesake-review.html  and also Mad Max Fury Road: http://lifetheuniverseandcats.blogspot.co.nz/2015/10/mad-max-fury-road-review.html

There was no movie watched on Friday night as I ended up playing Inquisition instead. The peace and quite of a sleeping household cannot be underestimated - lol.

Hopefully - in addition to the review for Dawn, I'll also update my progress on the Grey Wardens pattern - I'm really happy with how it's coming out. Optimistically, there'll also be a review of the Hone Tuwhare book.

We shall see.

How's your week looking?

Sunday post - 9

Hosted here by Kimberley: http://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/ the Sunday Post is a chance to catch up on what's been happening around the blogosphere, as well as updating your own blog/life/everything.

I missed last Sunday, I don't think I felt I had a lot to say. Along those lines, I've only done a couple of posts in the past couple of weeks, too.

One life one: http://lifetheuniverseandcats.blogspot.co.nz/2015/09/life-in-void.html

and one review: http://lifetheuniverseandcats.blogspot.co.nz/2015/09/the-calling-by-david-gaider-review.html

Other than that, eh. It's school holidays here now, so I'll have spawn home for a couple of weeks. I have a few more meetings with the job search consultant and then I'd better put on my big girl pants and start applying for jobs.

My super payout did come through, so that was a relief. We are - as of right now - credit card and debt-free, which is a very good feeling.

I finished Dragon Age: The Calling, which took me far longer to read than it should have, for no good reason.

Now I'm reading The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, which I'm liking a lot so far.

I keep tripping up on the dates of things and losing track, so I've started writing things down. With no framework (ie work), my days are merging together a bit.

I know that A More Diverse Universe is coming up at http://www.aartichapati.com/ and Dewey's readathon is on the 17th of October, I believe: http://www.24hourreadathon.com/ and there's a readalong of Salem's Lot coming up also: https://bkclubcare.wordpress.com/2015/09/22/how-about-a-pie-post-ilovepie-salemalong/

There's way more than that of course, but those are the nearest things that I'm invested in taking part in, anyway.

I haven't signed up for the readathon yet, but I think I'm just going to be a reader this time, because I'm the world's most useless cheerleader. Having said that, cheerleading is fun and awesome, and you should give it a shot, if you can't make the time commitment for reading.

What else.

The library here is having a book sale. I went on Friday morning and did all right, I think. I also went to the local gaming store and got Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls 3 and 4. I've never played either game but they were both GOTY editions and also super-cheap.
For the books, I got The Autumn Castle by Kim Williams, The Year's Best Fantasy second edition, ed, Ellen Datlow and Terry Windling, The Secret Books of Paradys: The Complete Paradys Cycle by Tanith Lee, King of Ithaca by Glynn Iliffe, The Wood Wife by Terry Windling, Memoirs of a Master Foger by William Heaney (actually by Graham Joyce), Myrren's Gift by Fiona McIntosh and Jingo by Mr Sir Terry Pratchett. That little haul cost me a whopping $3.50. I had to remind myself I couldn't save all of the books.


I started my Grey Wardens pattern over - I found an "I" for the first word of each line that I liked better than the one I had, and threw some colours at it. I'm pleased with the progress I've made so far. Also I'm glad I did start over, because in my head I had the first two lines transposed.  So far so good and hopefully the end product will be worth it. :)




I caught up with friends this week and had lunch which was nice. I was meant to go to one friend's last night for our weekly stitch and watch, but Spawn had a stomach bug, so I begged off. It turned out to just be a 24-hour thing but friend's mother has dementia and is rather fragile, so I didn't want to unwittingly carry any bugs with me.

Instead I did a bit of stitching (see above) and finally watched Mad Max: Fury Road, which was insane. And great. And insane. I'm planning on reviewing it this week.

What else. I've also been playing Inquistion a lot, because I keep mistaking game progress for actual productivity.

How was your week? What's coming up?

Sunday post 8

What's kicking world?

The Sunday Post is a chance to catch up - chat about what's been going on on your blog and in real life, and what's coming up.

Hosted here: http://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/

It was my first week as a non-employed person, but spawn was sick for much of it, so I haven't quite settled in to any kind of a routine yet.

It was one of those weeks where you feel like you get absolutely nothing done but you're still exhausted by the end of it.

I did manage to blog a couple of times though.

I reviewed Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay: http://lifetheuniverseandcats.blogspot.co.nz/2015/09/in-effort-to-broaden-my-own-reading.html#comment-form

and also the movie Scream, which I watched for my Friday movie night: http://lifetheuniverseandcats.blogspot.co.nz/2015/09/scream-review.html

Coming up this week, hopefully will be reviews for The Rest of Us Just Live Here, by Patrick Ness and Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller.

I pretty much inhaled the Ness in a couple of days, and I have about 100 pages to go on Our Endless Numbered Days, so fingers crossed. Hopefully spawn will be back at school this week, and I can settle in to something that looks like a routine.

Up next, for reading, I have The Calling, by David Gaider, which is a Dragon Age novel, Prophecy by Ellen Oh, which I picked up at the library and fits with my personal 1/3 diversity reading challenge, and either Uprooted by Naomi Novik, or Finders Keepers by Stephen King.

For non-reading ... I didn't watch a movie this past Friday; instead I watched a couple of episodes of Empire, in order to clear some space on my hard drive. I love Empire - it's so, so, so clever. It's basically King Lear, set in modern times at a recording company wherein the owner is trying to decide which of his sons will succeed him.

I finished my 10 hours of stitching on Circe (I stitch in a rotation, of sorts) and I've started my Grey Wardens pattern. Which I'm keeping very simple because I'm floating without a net on this one.
I'm doing it on 28-ct lugana (I think) hand-dyed purple haze (I think) and I'm using 336 and 415 for the wording. I just need border colour ideas:
https://twitter.com/justaddbooks/status/642244102721945600

I met with the job consultant on Thursday, and I have "homework" of a sort to get done. Nothing taxing - just working on updating my CV and registering with job websites. Our next meeting is Tuesday week.

Speaking of, my redundancy payout came through (yay) so I can feed my family and pay my rent for a bit, which is nice. I'm still waiting on the superannuation though. So that's on the to-do list for this week for sure.

I'm hoping to finish Empire, and maybe Salem this week. I need to choose a movie for Friday night (suggestions welcome) and I'm hoping to finish Our Endless Numbered Days, and read Prophecy. I want to at least catch up on my Goodreads challenge.

I'm still batting at Inquisition and playing it badly but it's so pretty. *_*

How's your week been and/or going?

Sunday post 3

Hosted here at http://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/ the Sunday Post is a chance to chat about what we're reading, what's coming up, the week that was and the week that will be (maybe).

Well, clearly my last week was a bust from go to woe. I was sick last Saturday, and we lost a beloved cat last Sunday, so the week itself was spent convincing myself that yes, I really did have to get out of bed, get spawn to school and go to work myself.

It sort of worked. I was feeling progressively better but still had some digestive issues until Tuesday, and I missed Morgana so very much. I still do. Losing a cat is always hard, but losing a cat like that - that's there 30 seconds after you sit down because she was the lap cat's lap cat - well, I'm still upset.

I ended up taking Friday off work, because I was sad, and tired and just ... used up. If that even makes sense. I feel like I'm veering into the melodramatic.

Anyway. I finished two books - one on Friday, and one on Saturday.

They were The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherine M Valente, and I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson.

They were both great in their own way, and honestly I'd recommend The Girl Who ... to anyone with  a daughter aged between about 8 and 12. So, so magical.

I finished I'll Give You the Sun in a day, and it's just that kind of book. I honestly could not stop reading it. Hopefully I'll have my act together a bit better this week, and will be posting reviews.

For what I'm reading now, I'm still picking through The Duchess War by Courtney Milan, which I'm really, really enjoying. It's such an engaging story. It's slow going because it's my lunchtime iBook read, and I don't always have time for a lunch break.

I'm also diving back in to My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier, for this book tour: http://she-is-too-fond-of-books.blogspot.co.nz/2015/07/explore-classics-in-august-daphne-du.html#more my review is due to go up on August 18, so keep an eye out. I've only read Rebecca, but I loved it  a lot so I have high hopes for this one!

I'm also hoping to get back into The Sunne in Splendour this Thursday. Last week I wasn't much good for anything so spent a lot of time doing very much of nothing.

This post is getting long. I know I hinted at blogging about a major life-changing event last time and that post - like every other post last week - just didn't happen.

The short version is this:

I work as a layout/copy-editor. At least, I do, until September 4. My major life-changing event is redundancy. I could have applied for another position, or re-applied for my position - my department is being cut in half, and those interested could re-apply but the whole idea of it made me .... tired.

I'll have enough of a payout to pay off our debts, and a year's grace to find something else. I'm equally terrified and elated, to be honest. The what-ifs are piling up fast, but on balance, I'm thinking of all the things I can do - be home when spawn gets home from school. Read more. Tackle a really large cross-stitch project. Maybe do some volunteer work. Maybe write a book and accidentally become world-famous. Who knows?

I'm wary of getting all navel-gazey and saying I'm trusting in the universe because that's not really my thing, but .... I'm rolling the dice for sure. If this hadn't happened, I would have held on to that job for as long as I could, and perhaps that's not healthy either.

Change and growth are good, right?

Right?

Sunday post - 2

Hosted by http://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/ the Sunday Post is a chance to chat about the week - and blog - that was, and talk about what's coming up in both, also.

It has been ... a week. Well, really a weekend.

I haven't blogged much this week but I did do a "review" of Station Eleven: http://lifetheuniverseandcats.blogspot.co.nz/2015/07/station-eleven-review.html and also of Lady Knight, a book I ended up wanting to like more than I did: http://lifetheuniverseandcats.blogspot.co.nz/2015/07/lady-knight-review.html

Now I'm reading The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, which is really, really charming so far; The Duchess Wars on ibooks which was recommended to me, and for my Thursday night chunkster I started The Sunne In Splendor by Sharon Kay Penman. I compiled a shelf for Thursday night's reading and here is what it looks like so far:

My only criteria so far for Thursday night reads is that the book has to be over 400 pages. I was able to cull this lot from my own shelves. The only thing I want to change about it is that it is rather lacking diversity. So if anyone has suggestions for books by non-white writers - same criteria applies - I'm open for suggestions!

Now. On to the less fun stuff. There is one major life event that I'll blog about next week. I'm not deliberately trying to be cryptic, I just need to know it's set in stone before I talk about it here.

As for the weekend ... On Saturday morning I woke up at 4am with *ahem* digestive issues. Luckily the traffic was all one way, so I spent a lot of time sleeping and a lot of time in the loo. I think it was something I ate, but I can't be sure.

Fast forward to just before midnight. I get woken up by spawn, saying he doesn't feel well.

Me: "The bathroom! The bathroom!"

Spawn *Hurls all over my bedroom floor and THEN the bathroom floor.*

So J and I cleaned that up and got him back into bed.

We''re both feeling ... tentatively better today.

Now. Today. We have lost two cats this year, because of age and infirmity. I expect that. But today ...

This is Morgana, the tabby on the left. The tortie on the right is Freya.

About 4pm today, spawn said, "Where's Morgana? I haven't seen her all day." I assumed she'd be around, so I went outside to call her and saw - on the other side of the road - a cat that had been hit by a car.

Sure enough, it was Morgana. We'd never known her to even go on the road, but there she was, bowled, and gone. She was the sweetest, most loving cat, and I was never without her on my lap of a night watching TV.

So. It's not been the most stellar of weekends.

Coming up this week ... I'll blog about the life change I spoke of so obliquely, and hopefully have a couple of reviews.

I hope your week has been better than mine :-)

Reaper Man - review

Reaper Man is the eleventh novel in the Discworld series by the late and very much lamented Mr Sir Terry Pratchett.

I have slowly but surely been working my way through all of the Discworld novels over the past few years, and every one of them is a real treat.

In Reaper Man, Death sort of ...takes a holiday. Unwillingly, and it's a working holiday insofar as Death ends up tilling soil rather than souls, but a holiday.

The trouble is, the second you give Death some time off, Life starts to pile up in very inconvienent ways.

One of the first to notice, is venerable wizard Windle Poons, who is beyond ready to shuffle off his mortal coil. Unfortunately, his mortal coil clings to him rather inconveniently.

I actually read this on my lunchbreaks at work, and hoped that no one thought I was madder than a wet hen when I started quietly giggle-snorting.

The shadowy entities who banish Death to work on a farm have no idea what chaos it will unleash on Ankh-Morpork and the Discworld at large.

Let's just say ... there are shopping trollies, upwardly mobile vampires, and of course, the Death of Rats.

Reaper Man is loaded front, back and sideways with Mr Sir Terry Pratchett's biting wit, satire, and his humanity.

A real treat.