Goodbye!

I won't be able to continue this blog, due to time constraints and new priorities. I'm sorry to have to abandon it, but I'm looking forward to new and greater things. I enjoyed writing this blog while it lasted, and I loved the comments I received! Thanks all who read and enjoyed this blog.

Sorry.

Major almost-two-months blogging failure.

The rest of Advent went well. The Christmas market not as fun this year as last.

January has been tear-my-hair-out crazy-busy. Lots of work to do, hardly a minute to myself. (For example: I had four meetings on Tuesday of this week, and worked straight through from 9:30am-11pm). Still, somehow I'm enjoying it. Minus the number of nights I've only gotten seven hours of sleep. Which includes tonight.

For your reading pleasure:

Crown of Dust by Mary Volmer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book is incredible, mesmerizing, magnificent.



In the late 19th century, a young man arrives in Emaline's town of Motherlode, a small mining start-up near the grass valley. Alex, the young man, is running from a past he doesn't want to remember, and hiding a secret that could ruin his life, and take his freedom. For Alex is not a young man, but a young woman. The story is about Emaline and Alex, and all the other inhabitants of Motherlode, with their many desires, ambitions, dreams, cares, and problems. The setting is a poor town with plenty of water in the creek and enough gold to keep the miners panning, but not much else. A town with an unfinished church, and a wild but mostly decent population.



The story is told through the viewpoints of many of the inhabitants. It is told in the present tense, which is something I just encountered (for the first time?) recently. It takes some getting used to, but it adds a completely different flavor to the story and the plot. It makes the dust and the rain of the town and the cares and hopes of the protagonists more immediate, and separates memories (told in the past tense) from the current storyline.



The writing is more calm than fast-paced, but the book still achieves an un-put-downable quality (there is still action aplenty). The characters are top-notch, wonderful, realistic creations that drive the plot and truly make the story fascinating. Near the beginning of the second half, I started to get a little impatient, and maybe didn't do justice to some of the non-Alex-related happenings. At first I was a little concerned that Alex might have forgotten his origins as a young woman, but she still narrates the story from a young woman's point of view, even though she admits it is easy to think of herself as a young man.



Final word: The ending is So. Good. Sogood.



View all my reviews

Advent, Day Seven

(NB: Days Five and Six were celebrated with mulled wine and carols. Again. Oh yeah, and with that music video.)

Onto Day Seven:

'Nuff said.

The Best Christmas Music Video Yet

Funny AND heartwarming.

Click the title of the post for the original story.

And here's a word from Mariah Carey: 

At home for the fourth day of Advent

You're a mean one, Mr Grinch. You really are a heel. You're as cuddly as a cactus, you're as charming as an eel, Mr Grinch. You're a bad banana with a greasy black peel! (How the Grinch Stole Christmas, 2001)

Today I didn't get as much done as I wanted (when is that not true?). However, I have managed to clean most of my kitchen, and once clean, I made pumpkin bread with leftover pumpkin from the Thanksgiving muffins. I mulled wine (hello, winter comfort!), and have started roasting chestnuts for the first time ever. I hope they turn out well. None of them look like they're going to explode, which is a bonus. While I've been cleaning and baking and roasting, I've been listening to my Christmas music playlist.

For a late dinner, following a late lunch, I plan to have whatever is left of the wine, a slice or two of pumpkin bread, and a few chestnuts.

Next weekend I hope to get down to the Christmas Market (see this post and this one for details on last year's market trip).

This year for Christmas, there's something I'd really like. So if you're up there somewhere, Santa, please don't bring me another bike. I don't need any ugly sweaters, and I don't play much basketball. There's something kind of special that I want most of all... I want an alien for Christmas! Bring me an alien this year! I want a little green guy about three feet high, with seventeen eyes who knows how to fly... (Fountains of Wayne)