Summer Book List (take III)

("Summer" having technically started on Friday, May 4th)

READ:

A Discovery of Witches

Percy Jackson: TheLightning Thief

A Well Timed Enchantment

Heir Apparent

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
Hunter’s Moon
Library Wars (vol 1-6)
Divergent
Wildwood Dancing
Percy Jackson: The Titans Curse
Ender's Game

READING:

American Gods
Percy Jackson: The Battle of the Labyrinth

PLANNING TO READ:

Shadow of Night

Percy Jackson: The Last Olympian
Trickster's Choice
Anansi Boys

More…?

(p.s. I seem to have slowed down this past month...)
(p.p.s I promise that there is actual homework getting done, too...even though my GEO class just ended and I'm going to try and push through the second half of American Gods with in the week.)


(Edit 8/04/12 for book reviews):

"Wildwood Dancing" was another recommended by a friend with keen insight. It's written by the same author of "Daughter of the Forest", one of my favorite books (that Katie also, incidentally, recommended to me~). This book is for a young adults (as apposed to DotF which should be read by a more mature audience) and is set in Romania with five sisters that dance in the Veil of the Faerie once a month on the full moon. Beautifully written and beautifully felt.

"The Titan's Curse" is the 3rd in the original Percy Jackson series. This book started to delve into deeper issues of the imminent prophesy waiting for a child of the "Big Three" and had true emotions from the characters being represented in believable ways not always found in young adult books.

I'll admit, if it wasn't considered a classic and if I hadn't picked it up for under a dollar at a used book sale, I wouldn't be reading "Ender's Game". My cousin is so disappointed in me that "I don't like science fiction" (especially since I cringe at the idea of reading something like "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" that is just disjointed plots and rabbit trails in space). With few exceptions (Doctor Who, Star Wars, Stargate, etc.)  I don't like aliens or space really at all (I CAN NOT STAND the movie "Space Odyssey: 2001"). I lean heavily on the "fantasy" side of the fiction spectrum. With all of that in mind, "Ender's Game" turned out to be rather interesting (...maybe because it made me think of elements from other stories like "Divergent"). I honestly needed to read the author's note, however, to truly grasp the books importance.

Food Network Iron Chef: Father’s Day Edition

In Which a Vegetarian Prepares a Steak Dinner 

She’s not very good at relaying her feelings, especially in a material way like gifts, so rituals like Father’s day (and Mother’s Day….and Birthdays….and even commercialized Christmas…) are always unnecessarily stressful to her. Not because she doesn’t love the people around her or want to show that love (which is especially not true for her dad), but because she’s (hypochondriacally)socially awkward. Hence asking what her father would like instead of just getting something (well, especially since he never wants anything).

“Cubed steak and scallop potatoes”. I can do this, it’s not like I’ve never cooked meat before, even if I have been a vegetarian for almost a decade, she thinks to herself. After Food Network searches and consultations with Amy, they set of to market for all the ingredients. Her sister decided to tackle the cheddar biscuits and the potatoes and left the meat and the gravy to her. After an hour of the two of them scampering around the small kitchen, asking over and over “does this look right?” to each other, shoeing the man in question back up the stairs, setting the fire alarm off, and spilling a bowl of melted butter—their work was complete:

And as he and Amy were the only ones eating the meat, she had to trust their opinions that it actually did come out well. And luckily, she and her dad had made a strawberry mascarpone torte the day before for dessert ;3

Actions and doing favors for people or just spending time with them is the best way she can express herself, so it was good that she was finally able to be present on Father’s Day instead of away as she had been the past four or so years.

A Mad Adventure

It may come to no surprise that I’m a bit of an Alice in Wonderland fan. And please let me clarify (somewhat) what I mean by that. I don’t hold particular loyalties or assert that the Disney animated movie or the original story are “the best” or “my favorite”. I don’t hold one particular character type or world type (ex: Technicolor, Tim Burton style, etc.) as being the representative for Alice and the other Wonderlanders (Wonderlandians? Wonderlandizens?). The best way to describe what fascinates me is the concept. The never-grow-up-and-lose-your-curiosity-about-life-ness about it. The follow-your-feet-and-see-what-adventures-you-may-discover-ness of it. The you-could-be-looking-at/through-a-mirror-so-don’t-rely-only-on-your-perspective-ness there. Even the everything-is-falling-apart-so-let’s-just-have-a-cup-of-tea-ness has become a sort of mantra. Now, keeping all of that in mind, just try and imagine what it felt like to be spirited away to a little restaurant in the heart of D.C. by my father called “The Mad Hatter”.

I was headed in on the metro to transfer from the red to the green line to head further south in order to get picked up by Kailey for a night of brownies, Avatar, Kingdom of Heaven, and more. My dad thought it would be fun to make a day of it and to head out in the morning early to actually spend some time in D.C. instead of just flying right through it. I was excited to spend time with him and to just get to have some walking sprees in the city (since I’ve only been a few times and only to specific places). We are both fond of walking and so once in the district, we set out wandering the streets to see what we could see. Or at least, I thought we were wandering. As it turns out, Dad knew where we were going the whole time, and led us up Connecticut and gestured casually at a black awning adorned shop-front asking if I thought it would due for lunch.

I can’t even think of how to describe… It’s not like it was all done up in bright colors, or the wait staff wore ridiculous costumes; it could have passed as an ordinary little restaurant and bar. There were tastefully framed photographs of well-known Alice illustrations, movie posters in different languages, and even just unknown fancy people in hats.

The walls were (Queen of Hearts)red with dark wood paneling from halfway down.

(poor Dad, neither one of us knew my camera had switched its flash on ><; )

All of the tables had tiny teacups on saucers next to their silverware wrapped in white linen that was filled immediately by our waitress upon sitting down.

The menu was themed of course, but with ingenuity so that the “Alice Burger” that I had was vegetarian and had mushrooms on it (and no, I grew neither taller nor shorter while eating either side of it~).

I felt giddy and mischievous and grateful and happy. The rest of the day was splendid as well, in that we explored, got lost, improvised, succeeded, and wondered at marvelous things. Dad is one of my favorite persons in the world, and definitely a welcomed partner-in-crime when traveling down the rabbit hole.

A Short-Cut to Blueberries

Well, it may have been a week ago, but some adventures have to be documented~

There haven’t been many times in her life that she’s gone harvesting her own fruit, but the few times she can remember have all been cherished. The time, place, people, and prize may change, but it always makes her feel like she’s part of some story. Not to sound trite, but sometimes even just being out of doors starts her mind whirring into interplanetary dimensions, through fae portals, and down todash turnpikes…

At any rate, the weather was fine for their outing; with berries so ripe they were falling of the branches at the slightest touch. Bursting with the flavor of the summer sun, many didn’t survive the trip from the branch to her bucket… they were… waylaid by quality control.

And quality is important when you plan to make blueberry pancakes, and personal-sized blueberry cobblers with ginger swirl cookies, and personal blueberry tarts…

One of the best parts of going, though, was being that crazy family people look at strangely and keep their distance from when they start hearing the cackling ;3




(pictures to come... eventually... maybe ><; )

In the City, We Never Sleep

The start of the grand journey was a bit nostalgic on multiple levels: the feeling of setting out at night after being awake all day, a group of four waiting for the train, just barely making it on the bus on time…

Well, maybe not entirely the same ^^;

After making on the Metro for DC, they were delayed many times until it seemed they wouldn’t make it in time for the bus taking off at midnight. They passed the time singing Starkid (like this~)

but when they arrived at Union Station 5 minutes before the bus was to depart from an unknown location, they were more than a little nervous. After running around the station, multiple iPhone and Siri failures to locate the Bus Deck (…), they stumbled upon the garage and endured the bus lady’s “YOU’RE LATE!!!” barrage and driving off to NYC only ten minutes late ^^;;

June 2^nd; Happy Birthday, sis :3

5am: They arrived in New York on a street in Manhattan (not anywhere distinguishable) and they headed to Brooklyn on the subway (after seeing a cute little rat scurrying around the tracks!).

"Welcome to Brooklyn"

6am: The city is just beginning to lighten but it is still shrouded in fog. Even though they cannot see the sun rise, the paling of the sky is bright enough to cross the bridge.

They even found a delightful fire-lit fountain park after crossing the bridge. 

After a quick stop in one of the many Starbucks, they set off for breakfast…

7am: McDonalds’ breakfast! Which was surprisingly satisfying, even the tea.

8am: They set off again to see what they could see~

New World Trade Center Construction

The Wall Street Bull

And having fun dance parties in the park by the docks heading out to Elis Island~

And it was good that they were not getting on the boats that were rocking quite precariously on the waves…

10am: So they got on the subway into Grand Central Station and were off to uptown :3

They passed up more Starbucks’

had 2^nd breakfast from a 7/11 ( that brought back memories… oh 7 & Holdings how you are missed…). Seeing more things like the Library,

the 5^th avenue building, or, the Daily Bugle’s HQ,

How does it manage to look CGI'ed in real life?!

And even wandering through a tiny Toys’R’Us.

11am: Time for the BIG Toys’R’Us in Time Square with THREE FLOORS!!

And the Disney Store that sells Brave toys that spoils key plot elements of the movie *grumblegrumble*….

Both places were enjoyed, however, for the plethora of Marvel paraphernalia they possessed.

12pm: By this time, the lack of sleep was starting to drag on them (considering every time they checked the time it seemed as if it should have been at least 4 hours later…) and they braved the blocks of street venders off of Time Square for some food (after leaving the T.G.I. Fridays that was charging $20 for a chicken strips…), ending up with dry and salty “soft” pretzels >___> After carefully avoiding the pigeon swarms (and baiting them a bit ^^ ) they made their way to a Starbucks to recharge not just themselves, but their apple products (except for the birthday girl’s sister who owns nothing from that company and intends to keep it that way).

3pm: They set the coordinates for the next legs of their journey into different phone and set out. They pass a mob of Wall Street Occupiers (complete with drums and banners and police buying ice cream~), and even see a Kinokuniya bookstore!!! They find Midtown Comics (where even there the Dark Tower comics are too expensive T__T ) and hang out browsing for a while in its two floors. They leave, and walk to the real Marvel HQ, which looked as it should to her: an inconspicuous, and yet tasteful door with no flashing “revealing your secret identity” kind of flim-flam.

4pm: They waited there across the street just talking for a while. And finally set out for a snack.

5pm: They walked back to the Disney Store for a purchase, bought some delicious Frozen Yogurt, and headed a few blocks over to sit in Central Park.

6pm: They leave for the subway again, which, while reminds her a little of the Tokyo JR lines, are a bit bleaker.

They arrive at the Upright Citizen Brigade Theatre for an Improv show that ran from about 7:30pm-8:45pm.  While she appreciates theatre, and laughed pretty hard at the show in the little basement venue (about 100 people? If that?), she was a bit uncomfortable during most of it since the humor they were going for was cruder than she cares for. But it was still worth it ^^;

9pm: They wander up the street from the theatre and find a little Greek restaurant for the birthday girl’s dinner. Ravenous, they inhale the Greek fries appetizer as well as half of the bottle of ketchup, and then destroy their main meals (and another ¼ bottle of ketchup ^^; ).

10pm: The night is winding to its end, and while it was a fun day, the lack of sleep and miles of walking is taking its toll. They buy birthday cupcakes and settle into a table in Time Square to enjoy the last of their time in the city.

12am: they trudge into the convenience store for provisions of juice, tea, and water, and head to the pick-up spot for their bus. They get there around 12:30am and wait to board and then finally leave at 1:15am. VERY slap happy, it takes at least 20 minutes and a person moving to a seat away from them quit laughing and calm down enough to sleep.

Which everyone seemed able to do except for her who kept waking up and not being able to tell If the feeling the bus was going to crash was lingering from  her nightmares or was a waking actuality and the distinction not really mattering to her poor shot nerves.

arrived back in D.C. by 6:30am, got some food, and waited until the metro opened at 7am for them to ride back and her to be showered and in bed by 9am.

A grand adventure indeed <3