Book Review!!!!!!! Echo of a Song

This image was gotten out of Amazon, which is why it is not so good. 

Echo of a Song is about a business woman who throws herself into her work at the cost of her relationship with her husband. She has an underlying need to be successful and that really drives her life. Her philosophy is "when life gives you lemons, fight to get your fair share, do your damnedest to make a buck, and don’t let anyone get in your way.” But when she has a terrible day that includes losing her job and being told that her husband is cheating on her, she flees out of town to the house of her deceased aunt where she just wants to be left alone. While there she encounters some quirky neighbors who are determined to draw her out of her shell.

My favorite part of the book, to be honest, was the prologue. It was the greatest way to start the book. I had a friend read the prologue shortly after I got the book and read it and she agreed: it's very intense and draws you in like no one's business. If you are someone who likes to skip prologues (shame on you) and you read this book, you're really missing out on a very interesting and very important part of the story.

The story, in my opinion, is a little slow at the start when it talks about her career, but that is just because it's business-y. It's really cool though too, because the main character is a writer and she starts out with the business aspect of her writing and then throughout the book rediscovers her artistic writing side. I think the fact that business shtuff is not everyone's cup-o-tea is well acknowledged though because she intersperses it with other non-business related segments.

The book does focus on emotions and emotional turmoil, but it focuses are more underlying emotion rather than dramatic outward emotion. The nice part about it was that I wasn't ever reduced to a teary blubbering mess, which was good because sometimes I find that really tiring. If you don't like crying when you read, I don't think you have to worry about that too much here and I think that is because the character often turns her negative emotions into sassy-ness. So the heavier emotions are more palatable.

So for me, the ending of the book is the most important. If I don't like the ending, I probably won't like the book just in general either. At the end of this book I was very happy that I read it. And I spent the next week or so thinking a lot about it, but in a pleasant manner. (Not like the movie Dancer in the Dark (<3) where you think about it for months after and feel terrible whenever you do.)

I definitely recommend this book. It was sweet and sassy and thought worthy and really funny. I actually was reading the book in class (instead of paying attention of course) and I burst out laughing out loud in a very quiet classroom. I think it's hard to make people actually laugh out loud in books but I don't see why you wouldn't with this book.

If you are interested in this book, you can get it here.

I hope you all have been reading sassy books and are having a good day! <3

Book Review: The Descent of Alette

I've been mulling over these past months on this blog and I realized that there are more things I want to add to the blog in terms of what I write about. I was really into posting in January but quite frankly I ran out of ideas for posts. So I'm going to be expanding topics to other areas I'm passionate about.
But for now, a book review!

Source

The Descent of Alette, by Alice Notley
I was introduced to this book in my literary arts class. My teacher assigned it as homework, but honestly I couldn't wait to read the next section at the end of each assigned chunk. The Descent of Alette is an epic, which means it's a long poetic piece of writing that focuses on a main hero. It is separated into books and sections rather than chapters. It has a very unique style where every "Few words" "Are marked with" "Quotations." Which is supposed to cause people to slow down and appreciate the words and sentence structure. It takes a bit of getting use to, but it really does make you pay attention more and it's a perfect book for it. It's a book that I recommend reading out loud because it really is beautiful. I read every page out loud to myself, which I found helped me accept the punctuation and begin to read it as sentences.

Content-wise, the book is feminist/transformation story about a woman who lives in a surreal underground world which is ruled by the Tyrant who doesn't let the citizens go above ground. The woman goes on a journey to discover herself and to defeat the Tyrant. I don't want to give anything away, so I'm going to stay vague. The best part about this book is that it is basically one huge metaphor, but at the same time really concrete. The metaphors are definitely metaphors, but you also have to take them as what actually happens in the story. The story has tons of twists and turns, I was often very surprised at what was happening (and I'm usually pretty good at guessing what happens next in books) and best of all, I had no idea how it was going to end.

I cannot recommend this book enough, it is one of my favorite books. I plan on buying myself a copy since I had to return the copy that my teacher gave out. At the time I read it I was having trouble writing and this book inspired me. It's one of those books that makes you think about it weeks after you've finished it. What I really liked about it was that it was fantastical-not-so-sweet-fairy-tale-ish. Reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland almost. It's very abstract, so if you're an abstract person you'll love this. If you're not abstract you'll still love it. It's one of those pieces of writings that goes beyond mere story and to art.

So that's what's been going on with me, sort of. I hope all of you are doing well and reading inspiring books. <3

A Whole Lot 'o Nothing

Source, I'm on a birdcage picture streak this week.

 My newest and most short-lived darling little parrot has taken to throwing temper tantrums when he's left to his own devices. He's been screaming for the past ten minutes and I first it was annoying, but now I'm curled up in the chair laughing. Can't say he isn't determined. I can't wait until he goes to a good home. Often I've thought of keeping him but after my father throws a fit because I took him out of the cage and he throws a fit for being back in it, I see that this can not work out.

Source. These pictures really have very little to do with the post content.

I've been reading the Stephanie Plum series, written by Janet Evanovich. In fact, that is mostly all I've been doing. On Thursday I started book one, and by noon today I had just opened book seven. I've heard they've just recently made a movie about the first book, but since I've little interest in the movie, I couldn't tell you much about it.
The main plot throughout the books are fairly straight forward, they are about a woman named Stephanie Plum who lives in New Jersey and, after loosing her job, went to work for her cousin as a bounty hunter. They remind me a bit of the Temperance Brennen series, which I've also been reading on and off, except that Stephanie doesn't get kidnapped in nearly every book. Throughout the books she meets all sorts of characters, and develops a knack for indirectly, and totally accidentally causing her and her friends cars to blow up, get stolen or get crushed. 
As far as the writing goes, I wouldn't put it next to Shakespeare, but I wouldn't set it by Twilight either. It's a bit mouthy and has a few sexual bits here and there; but not enough to keep my mother from recommending it to her teenage daughter. They are all about two hundred pages, so while I won't be reading them for a while, I highly recommend them for a quick book that is funny in an "Interrupt your class because you've discreetly been reading and have now burst out laughing" kind of way. Since I am very big on neutral faced reading at school, you can be sure that these books are absolutely hilarious.
She's written about two a year, there are eighteen and as far as I know she's still writing. The first books are very big on car phones. There are a few mini books here and there, but the main books start with "One for the Money" the second is "Two for the Dough" third "Three to get Deadly." The names go on like such, but they get lamer book four and out.

I won't rate it out of ten, because I get annoyed wasting days reading on end and will now avoid these books like the frosting-covered plague and give it low ratings. Back when I was reading them, I had a very different opinion. What can I say; I'm weird about books, but this was suppose to be a beaming review.  

Source. All well, I gave an effort.

 Other than that I've been looking at what jewelry inventory I have at the moment. I figured if I wanted to start an Etsy store this summer I'd actually need things to sell. But believe it or not, making things has been a long learning process that isn't anywhere near over which means some of my older things are not as lovely as other recent creations. I'm having one more local jewelry sale before I dive into Etsy. The local sale will be where I sell my less than clean-cut items to friends for dirt cheap ($1-$7), along with things I don't particularly want anymore, but don't feel the need to alter. Along with that I've been working on taking apart some jewelry that I'd love to redo with my newer set of skills.
This is along-side my ever waiting supply of parts that I have decided to puzzle together.
But more interesting, at this moment anyway, is that I've also indulged into teddy bears. Exploring the internet I have found that there aren't nearly enough interesting cuddly things for those of us who'd like to decorate their room without having to do the work to decorate the decor. Although I suppose I'm excluded for this group these days since I'd be doing the work for others.

There is only a week and a half or so until my giveaway closes. So make sure to get in on it. Remember, I'm not counting entries unless they are spoken for in a comment at the bottom of the page.