Book 26: After the Golden Age

After the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn takes the impossible task of writing a novel about superheroes without making it cheesy and holds the joy of reading a comic book. It’s definitely one of the toughest tasks to take on by a writer since it’s so easy to get into the really campy.

I love Carrie Vaughn. For the past couple years, she’s my favorite author that still currently writes. I get more joy out of her Kitty the Werewolf Series. Everything I’ve read from her was just a joy. So when I learned about After the Golden Age, I was excited especially when I read the preview chapter, I realized she was doing what I so seldomly see-a well written book that takes on the essence of a comic book without using any graphic arts. And it never disappointed.

The book immediately captures you and takes you into a rare view at a superhero-being an adult child to the city’s favorite superheros. Celia West is the daughter of Warren and Suzanne West or better known as Captain Olympus and Spark (two of the founding members of the Olympiad). Celia knows all about her parent’s vocation and the other members of the Olympiad (Dr. Mentis and Bullet). In many ways, it was like what if Batman and Wonder Woman had a child and she grew up in the Justice League headquarters. I loved it.

Plus I really enjoyed how hard it was for Celia to pull her life together. She didn’t have the super powers like her parents. She was just an accountant although a good one. At one point, she let her teenage angst and need to fight her parents to join up with the Destructor (the supervillian). Celia was never at ease around her parents especially her dad. They had this monumental following since they were saving the city on a regular basis but they had flaws like any other human being. You could tell she was at the age where she wasn’t hurt or really that mad at her parents for being them, but at the same time, there was that residual feelings that last a lot longer and takes longer to reconcile fully.

There was one complaint I had with the book, there was occasional point of view shifts that were kind of weird. The narrative voice would get muddled or seem to switch. It wasn’t a big problem. But at times, I would have to reread what was going on. Because of those occasional point of view shifts, a busy schedule and trying to savor the book; this was the first Carrie Vaughn book I didn't read in a day.

Product 21: Habersham Naturals Solid Solution

This is one of the coolest new products we got in at Schillers. It’s a solid moisturizer for the skin. It’s so cool. It just melts into your skin just by having contact.

It also is one of the hardest products to sell. It’s not a product people readily see. They see the little sample rosettes, they think it’s soap that they can sniff. But as soon as they rub it on their skin, then the product sells itself.

There are four different solid solutions options: pink grapefruit patchouli, sage, lavendar chamomile, and unscented. I like all the scents to be honest. Although my favorite is either the pink grapefruit (the patchouli scent is very very subtle) or the sage one. Both are so nice yet very different scent profiles.

The feel of the moisturizer is so nice. It's something that just went into the skin well but it never feels too heavy. It was simply feels good and it will just stay on the skin for a bit.

Plus one of the things I love (which I seldomly comment on), the packaging. It's simplistic but pretty. There's nothing to it but yet I love the streamline way it holds the lotion block. I don't have to gift wrap it really, I can just leave it as it is and put it into a package.

Product 21: Swan Creek Candle Co in the vanilla pound cake scent

If you like aromatic candles, this is the candle company for you. The aroma is intense. I loved the vanilla smell that came off the candle both while it was it burning and just sitting out in the room.

But if you like long burning candles, this is not the candle company for you. I burnt through the candle pretty quickly especially compared to another candle that I started to burn at the same time. The Swan Creek Candle burnt out in half the time while my Kmart value candle is still going.

Like most soy lotion candles, this candle burns cleanly. You don’t get smoke. It’s just that nice clean burn to the candle. It’s good thus far.

Book 25: Dancing to the Precipice

Dancing to the Precipice is one of my favorite biographies in a long time (I exclude the memoirs since well they read so completely different from a true biography). It's immensely rich in content and descriptions but it didn't read like a text book.

I love the French Revolution/Revolutionary War/Napoleonic era. So much so when my mom heard I got a biography on Lucie de la Tour du Pin, I wasn’t surprised to hear her say “So you are reading that stuff again?” What can I say I’m drawn to that stuff especially court life by Marie Antoinette and salon life.

Lucie de la Tour du Pin is a fascinating woman who lived through so much drama. She was a lady in waiting for Marie Antoinette, lived briefly in America, was asked to be a lady in waiting for Napoleon’s court, was an ambassador’s wife and lost nearly everything. As a gift to her family, she penned her memoir in order to give them her account of what it was like to be in such a turbulent age which was published by her great grandson for the world to enjoy. So it made perfect sense to read a biography about Lucie de la Tour du Pin.

One of the things I loved in this book were the descriptions. They were so fanciful and yet crystal clear. Most of them came from writings of the time. One of the descriptions I loved most was “Republicans and royalists, attempting to reinvent themselves in this Consular Paris, where everything changed every day and no one knew what would happened next, ‘played together without liking each other, but without fearing each other either, rather as poor toothless dogs might play with cats which had had their claws removed.’” Only one time I was questioning Caroline Moorehead’s disgression for including a little TMI about a noble who had a disease causing problems with his penis. Interesting fact in a way but really just too much information on that one.

I would recommend this book to anyone who was a good look into the time frame in addition to a well written biography. It was a fantastic read. It wasn’t dry like some books. Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser (which was a source for the book) wrote a wonderful book that was well researched but it was a dry read. I was so glad that Dancing to the Precipice was able to balance the wonderful research with the narrative to a life.

Book 24: The Reckoning

The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong was the last piece in the Darkest Power Series. Well by the looks out of the Kelley Armstrong site there is another piece to the series even though the saga I just read is over. I really enjoyed this book. I read it in about a 24 hour span thanks to some insombia and just a great read all in all.

I loved the continuation of the saga from the Awakening. It just grabs you. So much action that grips you. But it’s not soap operaish- it has some self-deprecation to Chloe’s narrative and the fact they were in this Victorian for the better part of the book. It’s not so over the top in drama.

I loved how almost all the loose ends are tied up from the Awakening. The developing love triangle is squashed and you see the start of a deep relationship. You see character growth from Tori who was one of the weaker characters from the first book (at least of the ones I read).

So now I’m glad that I finished up a nice little dip into the occult section. I still love the balance of different magics: necromancer (or how the ghost said in her day they were mediums which is a much kinder way to say it), witches/sorcerers, and of course one of my favorite’s werewolves.

The only thing I'm still wanting to learn more is about Chloe's necklace. You see it's the importance of this necklace even more then in the first book. Then Margaret gives you a teaser about the necklace that it could mean something but she dismissed it as crazy talk and only a superstitious trinket. Yet you see it's more then a trinket. I want to know the mysterious idea about what happens when it changes color like Chloe's did.

I’m glad I’m reading some Kelley Armstrong again. It makes my desire to read my other favorite occult author even stronger.

Book 23: Eleven Seconds

Eleven Seconds: A Story of Tragedy, Courage, and Triump by Travis Roy with E.M. Swift lives up to the name. It’s about how the tragic events completely changed the life of a promising hockey player.

So I chose this book not for the autobiographer per say. I actually thought he might have been related to Patrick Roy. Which that would have been cool. I have to admit that there are parts of hockey history I’m painfully unaware of since I wasn’t suppose to like hockey. I’m a figure skater first and it wasn’t a popular sport in my house. But in college, I got into hockey especially Flyers hockey. So I was using this book to find out about hockey history. Plus I love E.M. Swift. Swift helped to write two of my favorite memoirs of all time (My Sergei by Ekaterina Gordeeva and Only With Passion by Katerina Witt).

Travis Roy was a hockey player from Maine. He was able to secure a full scholarship to the hockey powerhouse Boston University. If he played well, he had a good chance to make it to the NHL. But he only got to play eleven seconds. Then he took a very unfortunate hit which shattered his vertebrae. From that moment on, he became a quadriplegic and everything changed in that instant.

It’s an amazing story. He speaks honestly and it gives you a really good picture at how hard life is now. There are things you just forget about and he helps to show how hard things can be. But he’s not bitter. You still get to see his humor but you can see the lost too. It’s real and complete. I like that.

One of the things that struck me was how much hope he had in the research and reminded me how much hope existed for fixing spinal cord injuries in late 90s. This is when Christopher Reeves raised so much money and awareness about spinal cord injuries. You really thought it could happen. But 13 years later, we really haven’t made the strides you would think. That hope seems to have flatlined a bit which is a shame. I feel like we should be further along with the research and changes.

But I enjoy this book. It’s not a hard read. It’s easy and straight forward. It’s a look into a life that is difficult yet he hasn’t given up into the sadness that could take over.

Book 22: Honeymoon in Tehran

I recently red Honeymoon in Tehran by Azadeh Moaveni. This book is an amazing memoir in the sense it’s so rich with data about a way of life that the Western world seldom gets to see.

Azadeh’s profession is clear from the start. She’s a reporter for Time Magazine. Because she’s a reporter, she takes the time to write clearly and really gives an on the ground approach. Plus one of the things I really like, she takes the time to talk about her approach to work.

So I will admit I picked up this book specifically to learn more about life in Iran. I actually had her first memoir in my hand and I was going to buy that one. But in the end, I put down Lipstick Jihad in favor to see what marriage is like since that’s one aspect I never got to see from my previous dips into Iranian culture (mainly graphic books by Marjane Satrapi).

This book is so complete in the things I was looking for: the politics especially how they changed with the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, marriage and courting a husband, and women’s views about having to wear the scarves and the conservative dress. Plus it included so many facts I didn’t really realize: the economic hardship despite having so many educated people especially women, the fact dogs are shunned as a pet and how the overinflated prices for weddings happen there as well. Although I wasn’t surprised that this book ended up with some heartache and leaving the country when things changed.