Sheer Power: Second Chances

Have you ever read a sequel book or even a sequel movie for that matter and thought, "Man, I really should have read/watched the first one again before I read/watched this one."

I kind of thought that as I read this book. I mean, really, it's been like eight months since I read the last one. Still, I didn't find it too hard to pick things up and remember some key details. Besides, unfortunately I no longer have the first one in my possession since I was borrowing it from someone.

Alright, then. Down to business!

Title: Sheer Power: Second Chances

Sequel to: Sheer Power: Crossing Paths
Rating: 3/5
Author: Vye Brante
Pages: 327
Genre: Young Adult/Action & Adventure

Synopsis:

Things have gone relatively back to normal after the final events of Sheer Power: Crossing Paths. Juto has gone back to training his somewhat arrogant and stubborn student, Kimiten, while Seisho continues helping out around the house.

Tensions begin to rise as Kimiten becomes jealous of Seisho and starts putting pressure on Juto to fire his "maid." To make matters worse, that spark of rebellion is nowhere close to being extinguished. Before long they are once again wrapped up with powerful energy users who will do anything to bring more people to their cause, and it turns out that they have a more powerful weapon than anyone could have imagined.

The fight against Yorik Moya and his thugs is only just beginning.

My Reaction:

I had quite a few observations and random thoughts about this book. I'll try to stick to the key ones. That being said, I should perhaps mention that I started going off about different random things I thought about while reading before I deleted the whole paragraph because I deemed it unessential. Ha!

There are some elements that I think are good, strong points in this story. I particularly liked the wrap up (and no, it's not because the book was over...). We finally got to learn more about a particular point in Seisho's past that is really key to his character and was well presented. On the other hand, there was one aspect that I thought had good potential but then let me down a little bit in the end. I don't want to give anything away, but there was something in particular towards the beginning that there was some focus on, and if I recall correctly, it was one of the mysteries I wanted answered from the first book. It seemed like it was going to be more complex than it actually turned out being. Maybe that's mostly because I had an idea of where it should go, so I set myself up for disappointment (like all those people making theories for The Last Jedi only to be disappointed that all of their theories were wrong).

I believe I said something similar last time, but it's clear that Brante has a clear understanding of her world and how energy use works. She explains elements and rules of energy use and sticks to those faithfully. She did well at tying things together. Many things mentioned towards the beginning of the story came back into play towards the end.

There were some things that were more cleaned up as far as the writing itself, and I looked passed many small grammatical errors since this copy was a proof. However, I do think there are a few style things that could be strengthened. There were a few moments that felt like they went on a little too long, and a bit of wordiness at times that made it feel a bit passive. However, if you can get passed that and focus on the story itself, there are some great elements of betrayal, mystery, and action that will appeal to some readers.

There is a third book planned, and I hope the newest mystery introduced will be explored further. I wouldn't mind getting more story involving Seisho's family also. I can't remembering if I'm forgetting certain details from the last book, but I'd like to know more about his family and their "mission," so to speak. Or, I would like to see more feedback from them. Seisho's so worried about their opinion, but mostly we've just seen his mom who is super supportive of everything he does (except for maybe his OCD when it comes to cleaning). We get a little bit of opposition from his sister, but I think it would be interesting to see that familial pressure on a larger scale.

I'm curious about where things will go from here, especially concerning a new character introduced in this book.

Reader Guidance:

The book is full of physical combat involving energy use. There's nothing super brutal or graphic in terms of the violence.

Similar Books:

I still got nothing. I thought more of cartoons and RPG's than books. I'm such a nerd.

Next Book:

I am extremely happy to announce that the next book up is Red: The True Story of Red Riding Hood! This is going to be good. I can feel it in my bones! I loved Rump, and I've waited far too long to read this one.

The Effects of Reading While Sick

It was a dark and stormy night.

Probably...

Gandalf and what remained of the fellowship anxiously waited at the gates of Mordor. They were most likely all going to die. Unless, of course, by some miracle Frodo and Sam hadn't been eaten by a giant spider or betrayed by Gollum and were about to throw the ring into the fires of Mount Doom any second now...

Wait for it....

Then the gates opened.

"We're all going to die!" some random, unknown soldier cried.

Wait, a second. What is going on? Besides the fact that I'm rewriting a classic. Let me back up a bit.

Last week was exhausting. At the beginning of the week, my husband, Corey, started showing flu symptoms. We thought it would be a three day thing (his average flu length), and then it would be out of his system.

All I had to do was protect myself against the virus. I didn't have high hopes because I always seem to be the one to get sick. Just ask my family. It's kind of the family joke. It's often referred to as "Danielle's curse." Seriously, before any major family event or gathering, if some form of sickness has fallen upon me, all I have to do is say something about my curse and there will be a general moan, murmurings of, "I knew it!" and let's not forget the downing of vitamin C by everyone who will come into my presence. It especially likes to hit on holidays and sometimes trips to Disneyland. *sigh*

But what does this have to do with The Lord of the Rings? Keep reading.

Corey's ailment wasn't actually the flu at all (which is probably the only reason why my curse didn't kick in). After those three days with no obvious sign of improvement, we took him to the doctor (twice actually), and, long story short, he was having an allergic reaction which would take another 3-5 days to clear his system. Awesome.

You have no idea how extremely happy I was to finally see him eat yesterday.

One of the terrible things about being sick (besides vomiting and just feeling like garbage) is that you can't do much of anything. The best option is to stay in bed, rest, get your fluids, but sometimes we don't want to do those things. We just want to get better. But since you have all this extra time on your hands, in between sleeping and wanting to die, it's the perfect time to binge watch something OR read something.

Here comes the tie in.

Maybe you don't have to be sick for this to happen, but the only time it happened to me was when I was sick, and I'm curious if this experience has ever happened to any of you.

Some years ago, I was all snuggled up in my bed, trying to recover from some ailment and at the same time reading The Return of the King. Here I am, my body in bed, my mind in Middle-earth in the middle of a battle, and I slowly find myself drifting off to sleep. Then a very strange thing happened. I don't remember dreaming at all, although that would have been quite epic to find myself suddenly standing next to a wizard. But as I began to drift back into consciousness, I was so convinced the the war and the one ring to rule them all were real that I actually began to panic! I woke up frantically thinking, "Where's Gandalf?! We have to find Gandalf!" Seriously, a part of me thought that I was in immanent danger. It took me a moment to realize that that was only in my book and I was perfectly fine in my pajamas in bed and not in armor on a battlefield.

I've decided that this is one of the dangers of reading while you are sick, or perhaps just the dangers of falling asleep while reading.

So, has this happened to you? Better yet, have you actually fallen asleep and dreamed about the world you were reading about? I hope I'm not the only one who has panicked over a piece of fiction.

Of course you're not, Danielle. haven't you ever heard about The War of the Worlds?

That I have...and now I seem to be talking to myself.

Well, here's to a happier, healthier week!

A Swiftly Tilting Planet

Before getting to the review, I'd just like to point out that the blog now also has a twitter! Woohoo! Click on the link on the side bar and follow my book related twitter escapades!

Title: A Swiftly Tilting Planet
Rating: 4/5

Author: Madeleine L'Engle
Pages: 278
Genre: Young Adult/Science Fiction

Synopsis:

Some time has passed since the events of A Wind in the Door, somewhere around ten years, and all the Murrays have gathered together for a nice Thanksgiving feast. Unfortunately, their festivities are interrupted by a phone call from the president about the threat of nuclear war. Their only clue as to how to stop it is an old rune that Meg’s seemingly crazy mother-in-law suddenly remembers. He’s not sure how, but Charles Wallace knows it’s up to him to save the day. With the help of a new found friend, a unicorn named Gaudior, and Meg, they may just have a chance. But with time against him and absolutely no idea what he’s meant to do, can Charles Wallace save the world in time?

Reaction:

I enjoyed this book better than the last one, but it didn’t resonate with me in the same way that A Wrinkle in Time did. I think the subject matter was just more enjoyable for me. No, not the threat of nuclear war, but the way Charles and Gaudior have to go about fixing it. This book still uses the echtroi as a sort of nemesis (they were introduced in the last book and could be compared to devils who basically just want to make everything horrible for everybody). So Charles has to fight against them and his lack of time to stop a madman from setting off his nuclear weapon, and he does this by time travel. It was almost like L’Engle’s version of a Doctor Who episode.

One of the things I thoroughly enjoyed was getting glimpses of different time periods. At one point, he’s in the Salem witch trials era. At another point, he’s in the civil war era. Having a bit of interest in history, this aspect of the story really appealed to me. Plus, there’s a bit of a mystery to be solved which also made things interesting. The whole time you learn little bit by little bit with the characters until everything comes together and forms a resolution.

One of the major themes I got from the book was the idea that by trying to control everything we sometimes do more harm than good—a valuable lesson and a realization that sometimes we need to accept that things are out of our control.

Reader Guidance:

There are a few brief instances of things such as domestic violence, recollections of war, a man falling to his death—things of that nature. The war descriptions include a man getting his face blown off and another man stabbing his own brother because they were on opposite sides. The domestic violence describes a young man getting in the way of a blow intended for his grandmother. As a result, he falls down the stairs and fractures his skull.

Similar Books:

The other books in the Time Quintet:

A Wrinkle in Time
A Wind in the Door
A Swiftly Tilting Planet
Many Waters
An Acceptable Time

Next Book:

I had some other books in mind, but since I received that proof of Sheer Power: Second Chances, I decided to go ahead and do that one next. So we’ll take a break from Madeline L’Engle for now. The other two books are about Meg’s twin brothers and Meg’s daughter respectively. Since they don’t focus as much on the characters we’ve focused on in the last three books, this seems like a good place to take a break! Happy reading!

My Most Absolute Favorite White Bread Ever

Guys, I'm super thrilled right now for a couple of reasons.

Reason 1: I just got a proof copy of the second book in the Sheer Power series!

For those of you who don't know what a proof copy is, basically it's like a preview copy of a book coming out soon. It's not necessarily the final draft as there may be a few minor things that need to be fixed before the actual publication date (thing grammatical errors that drive you nuts when a publisher, editor, whoever didn't catch the mistake before the book went to the presses). It's a tool used by publishers so they can send these preview copies to bloggers and such who then can start getting the word out about the book (hopefully they have a good word to say!). By the time the actual publication date comes, hopefully a nice group of people have actually heard about your book.

Basically, I'm super excited because I'm feeling all sorts of book blogger official. That and I'm kind of honored that Vye Brante would send me a copy of her book. I feel like there's some trust going on there. No pressure for me :) Thanks, Vye, for the opportunity!

The result of my first time using a bread machine.
 It's sunken in the middle because it rose to much,
but man, it is still divine!

Reason 2: I have homemade white bread sitting on my kitchen counter.

I haven't really taken advantage of the recipes aspect that I wanted to bring to the book club thus far. I have been keeping some notes of foods mentioned in the books I read, but I haven't gotten around to trying them and transferring that experience to the blog. I wanted mainly to focus on foods from the books, but then I realized that tons of book clubs have refreshments of all sorts. I don't need to limit myself! So, I will probably separate those two categories in the recipe section. But enough about that. Let's talk bread!

I love bread. If I could live off that alone, I probably would...that and pizza and pasta which are pretty much the same family. A few years back, I became friends with someone who had taken a bread making class, and this was one of the recipes she shared with me. It is now one of my favorite loaves of bread to make ever. Having received a bread machine for a gift, I finally decided to put the machine to the test this week, and what better recipe to try than my favorite white bread!

Before I go on, here's a little WARNING: If you do use this recipe in a bread maker, decrease the amount of yeast used. When you can watch it, you can make sure it doesn't over rise. Since I put it in the machine, all I could do was watch and go, "Yep, that's too big." The bread still turned out great and tasty. It just also turned out ugly because the top collapsed. In case you didn't know, that's what happens when you let your dough rise too much.

Basic White Bread

The loaf pan version

1 tbsp yeast*

¼ cup sugar

1 ½ cups warm water

¼ cup butter, melted**

2 tsp salt

3-4 cups flour

*Use less yeast if you are using a bread machine or it will over rise.

**The original recipe calls for melted shortening, but I don't believe in shortening. I'm a butter girl all the way! But if you prefer shortening, go for it!

Directions if You're Doing it by Hand

Mix together water, sugar, and yeast in small bowl. Set in warm place. When foamy, transfer to large bowl and add 2 cups of the flour, salt, and butter/shortening. Mix thoroughly. Add flour ½ cup at a time until dough is too stiff to stir with spoon. Turn dough out on floured counter and knead until dough forms a soft round ball. Put dough back into bowl and let rise in warm place until double in bulk. Shape dough into loaf and place in greased loaf pan to rise again*. Bake at 350 for 35 to 40 minutes. Bread should sound hollow when tapped with fingers.

*In my experience with this lovely loaf, you don't want it to rise above the top of your bread pan before you start baking it or you will run the risk of a sadly collapsed loaf of bread.

Directions if You're Using a Bread Machine

Put the warm water and melted better in your machine's loaf pan. Next, heap all the dry ingredients except the yeast on top (don't mix as you're machine with do that for you). Make a little well in the flour with your finger and pour the yeast into the well. You don't want the yeast to come in contact with the wet ingredients. Choose all the appropriate options on your machine and wait for the result!

I love this bread, and I absolutely love that I now have a bread machine. It's kind of nice to not have to think about my bread again for 3 hours. At the same time, there is something fun about doing it all by hand (if you've got the time!). I've also tried this recipe with wheat flour instead of white flour and it was still just as delicious!

Try out this bread. Tell me what you think. It's excellent with some homemade jam! If you were going to a physical book club, what sorts of treats would you bring (or wish that someone else would bring)? 

Tune in next time to talk about A Swiftly Tilting Planet!

A Wind in the Door and a Follow Up on Last Week's Post

First of all, here's a little follow up on last week's post.

Thanks everyone for reading and commenting! You offered a handful of books that you wouldn't recommend, and I'll admit, I haven't read a single one of those! I also got a couple of book recommendations out of the deal, so it was a win-win situation for me. In case you are curious, here are the books that your fellow blog readers said they wouldn't recommend:

1. The School for Good and Evil - This specifically went for book one as they didn't keep reading. A choppy and predictable story line as well as an immature main character without enough growth made this book not very enjoyable.

2. Eat Pray Love - Apparently this one is hard to get into. I know that it was pretty popular at one time, but I've actually heard a few people say they didn't like it. Having only seen the movie myself, I can't make my own personal judgement on the book.

3. Across Five Aprils - There were conflicting comments on this book actually. So, possibly, this one is worth a read. It may just depend on whether or not it's your cup of tea.

4. Banner in the Sky - This book sounds quite adventurous and exciting (I just read the book description on Amazon), but apparently it's a bit of a let down and is actually quite boring.

5. Ready Player One - I've been curious about this one with the upcoming movie and all. It looked interesting and sometimes I like a good pop culture reference, but apparently the premise is really the only good thing about it. But hey, it's a bestseller, so someone obviously likes it...

So there you have it. Add those to your don't read list or possibly to your I'm going to read this anyway and see if I agree list. Seriously, the only reason why I read the The Golden Compass was because of all the negative hype surrounding the movie. It peaked my curiosity. So, the second book list is totally legitimate. And come to think of it, I went on to read the second book in that series, didn't care for it, and never read the third. I suppose that's another series that didn't tickle my fancy.

Okay, on to business!

Title: A Wind in the Door
Sequel to: A Wrinkle in Time
Rating: 3/5
Author: Madeleine L'Engle
Pages: 211
Genre: Young Adult/Science Fiction

Synopsis:

Something is seriously wrong with Charles Wallace. Up until this point, Meg has attributed it to the bullying he's received since he started going to school. But when he tells her one day that there are dragons in the twins' vegetable garden, she's forced to realize that Charles Wallace's condition is much worse than that.

Once again, Meg is called upon to fight and incredibly evil force. With the help of Calvin and some new friends along the way, they must pass three trials in order save Charles Wallace's life as well as their own!

Reaction:

I'm not as in love with this book as I was with the first one. I just didn't connect with it as much, I suppose. It's not a bad story, and it certainly isn't poorly written. It just didn't pull me in as much and therefore landed in the middle of the rating scale.

It still has some religious themed mixed in with the science, although it's not quite so straightforward in this one. If you're a religiously minded person, you can pull out parallels and similarities to things like the devil and temptation, but it doesn't come straight out and mention things like the Bible, etc. There are also some good themes about the power of knowing who you are and how love makes you the best version of yourself, the true you. So there are definitely some great themes and thinking moments. In the end, I just preferred A Wrinkle in Time. The book is still worth a read.

Similar Books:

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Next Book:

Time for the third book in the Time Quintet! We'll be reading A Swiftly Tilting Planet, which I can't remember a single thing about! There's a unicorn on the cover, so I guessing there will be unicorns. Who doesn't love that!

See you next time!

Books I Wouldn't Recommend

In the past few months since I’ve started this blog I haven’t given a single book a score below 3/5. I’ve just been lucky I suppose to have read some pretty decent books of late. However, lest you think I will recommend every book I read, there are, in fact, some books that I wouldn’t recommend to anyone. I know there are people out there who wouldn’t agree with me. That’s fine. They can keep reading those books, but I won’t. Here are a few books that I did not enjoy for one reason or another:

I, Coriander

I think the thing I liked most about this book was the cover. It's pretty intriguing in and of itself, but the book itself was a bit "meh." I read it a few years ago when I decided I really needed to go through my bookshelf and read the books that had been sitting there forever but I had never actually read them. I honestly can't remember a ton of details about this book except for mostly the fact that after I read it, it went straight into my Goodwill pile.

It has some fantastical elements to it, and as I recall, it just kind of settled into the realm of weird for me. Clearly it wasn't a favorite, and it's not one I have any interest in trying to read again. 

A Great and Terrible Beauty

I know someone will disagree with me on this one. I'm pretty sure it was pretty popular and even landed on the New York Times Bestselling list. I didn't even finish it. I almost finished it, but then it too just got too weird, but a different sort of weird than I, Coriander. This was like dark magic kind of weird, like "let's strip off all our clothes and run through the woods and kill something" weird. I think I'm remembering that correctly. If you're okay with some darkish magic stuffs, then go ahead and read it. People liked it for some reason. It just wasn't my cup of tea. And this was just the first book in a series,  so who knows what other crazy magically shenanigans filled the other books in the series.  

Blood and Chocolate

This is a book about werewolves before Jacob Black made werewolves popular. However, there are
no vampires in this story. This is another book on the ALA frequently challenged list, but I don't recall there being any big questionable content. What I remember is that I thought the story itself was lame. It's one of those forbidden relationship type stories. Werewolf girl likes normal human boy and the werewolf community frowns on that sort of thing. You get the idea. I don't want to spoil too much in case you do decide to read it for yourself, but it didn't seem believable to me, I mean besides the obvious fact that there aren't werewolves going to high school, falling in love with the normal kids. The ending was totally unexpected and in a way was a "Oh, how sweet" moment, I also didn't necessarily care for it mostly because of who the scene was with. Anyway, if you like teenage werewolf romance, you may enjoy it. There was also a movie made of it which has a completely different ending. Not the best movie ever, but again, if werewolf romance is your thing, you may find it enjoyable.

Life of Pi

Okay, there are some good things about this book. The ending leaves you wondering what was real and what wasn't real. And you know, being stuck in a small boat with a tiger has some interesting moments. Mostly the thing I didn't like it was a portion close to the end of the book that dealt with a carnivorous island that was just weird. I guess the moral of this post is if a book gets too weird on me it ends up on the don't recommend list. I never saw the movie adaptation of this book. Maybe I would enjoy that better. So I suppose there were some interesting things about this book, but not enough to make me want to keep it. I believe it was another one that ended up in the Goodwill pile.

There are other books that I could list, such as books that I only finished reading because they were required for college courses, but this is a good list for now.

Do you agree with my picks? Or are you offended because I chose a book that you actually enjoy? What are books that you wouldn't recommend to other people?

A Wrinkle in Time

Rating: 5/5

Author: Madeleine L'Engle

Pages: 211

Genre: Children's/Young Adult/Science Fiction

Synopsis:

It's been a long time since Meg Murray has seen or heard from her father--long enough for people to start spreading rumors. Meg knows that he's off doing something incredibly important, but she doesn't know what. It's getting to the point where people are telling her to move on, but she can't while there's still hope that her father will one day return. 

One day, Meg is introduced by her incredibly intelligent younger brother to three mysterious figures who not only seem to know what her father was working on before he disappeared, but they also know where to find him. And he's in incredible danger! Meg, Charles Wallace, and there newfound friend Calvin are whisked away on incredible adventure to different worlds where they learn about the war of light against the darkness. Only together can they save Meg's father, but can they resist the powers of darkness and save her father before it's too late?

Reaction:

This is my fourth time reading this book, and I must say, that I don't think I've ever enjoyed it so much as I did in this last reading. I loved it! The only slightly negative thing I could think of is that Meg is sometimes a little whiny, but given the circumstances and her age, I think it's justified. Not only that, but the fact that she has flaws is actually pointed out by the characters and is used to make a good point--we can do great things despite our flaws, and there are times where what we consider flaws can actually become a strength. So it worked in this case, and wasn't too the point where I wanted to tell her to shut up. That sort of thing happens to readers on occasion when they encounter certain characters.

But I digress.

Not only does this book stir the mind and imagination and has some great adventure and conflict, there were themes in the book that just spoke to me this time around. That classic fight of good versus evil, the idea that our world isn't perfect but having our own individuality is a blessing, or the idea that we can be a force for good no matter our circumstance. There are also some religious references in the book, and for me, being a religious person myself, I enjoyed having those in there.  They talk about how Jesus is taking part in the battle against the darkness, there's reference to guardian angels, and Meg's father quotes from the bible to bring her some encouragement. I saw L'Engle's style of writing compared to that of C. S. Lewis who is also known for Christian themes in his writing.

It's a great read that kids everywhere will love to read under their desks instead of listening to their fifth grade teachers, just like I did (Just kidding, teach your children to pay attention in class!).

Fun Fact:

This book is a Newbery Medal winner, but it is also on the American Library Association's list of  Frequently Challenged Books, meaning it is a book "that is sought to be removed or otherwise restricted from public access, typically from a library or a school curriculum" (Thanks, Wikipedia!). Did you know there was a such a list? I learned about it in my Young Adult Fiction class in college. We were given an assignment that involved reading one of the books on the list. I chose this one, and that's how I got one of my four readings in. It sounds like it's been challenged for references to witches and crystal balls, religious content, and listing Jesus alongside well known artists, philosophers, scientists, and other religious leaders as people fighting against the darkness. I wasn't bothered by any of those things at all, and I should mention that those references to witches and crystal balls aren't actually references to magic or witchcraft, not really. One of the characters even says essentially, "You know they're not witches." Anyway, no dark magic going on. Take a read for yourself and see if you would put it on the challenged list!

Reader Guidance:

I've already mentioned the Christian themes, so if that's something that bothers you, this may not be the book for you. The only other thing I can think of that might be troubling is a glimpse at a boy who didn't stay synchronized with this particular world's rhythm (watch the trailer for the new movie and you should get an idea of what I'm talking about). He appears to be in extreme pain as he is forced to synchronize. 

Similar Books:

Well, this is the first of five books, but as I recall, they also work pretty well as stand alone books. But, besides the other books in the series, another great series is The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. That series is more on the fantasy side than the science fiction side, but still a great one if you enjoyed A Wrinkle in Time.

Next Book:

Next up is the next book in the series of course, which is A Wind in the Door. The only thing I remember about this next one is that it deals with saving Charles Wallace. Let's jump in! Also, you should know, I finally got a copy of Red: The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood which I've been wanting to read ever since I finished Rump. So, just keep in mind that that book will be coming up on our list shortly!