Anna Tan's Blog, page 51
March 11, 2018
March 6, 2018
#bookreview: Pearls on a Branch: Arab Stories Told by Women in Lebanon Today
Pearls on a Branch: Arab Stories Told by Women in Lebanon Today by Najla KhouryMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Every country has its own folklore, stories from ancient past handed down from generation to generation. As with all oral traditions, similar stories with a single origin are spread over a wide district, changing along with the ever-evolving culture and circumstances of the storytellers themselves. Most of the time, the differences are only in the details. The thirty translated stories in Pea...
March 4, 2018
#musicmonday: Come Alive | Hugh Jackman
[Ensemble]
Come one!
Come all!
Come in!
Come on!
[Anne Wheeler]
To anyone who's bursting with a dream
[Ensemble]
Come one!
Come all!
You hear
The call
[P.T. Barnum]
To anyone who's searching for a way to break free
[Ensemble]
Break free!
Break free!
[Chorus: Ensemble and P.T. Barnum]
When the world becomes a fantasy
And you're more than you could ever be
'Cause you're dreaming with your eyes wide open
And we know we can't go back again
To the world that we were living in
'Cause we're dreaming with our eyes wide ope...
February 28, 2018
#bookreview: Hall of Heroes
Hall of Heroes: A Fellowship of Fantasy Anthology by H.L. BurkeMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
If you're looking for a fun anthology of short stories, this is the book for you! Each of the 27 stories in this anthology features a hero of some sort, whether they're heroic friends or warriors or parents, and since it's written by the Fellowship of Fantasy, all of them include some form of magic, superpower, or fantastic creature! There's a little bit of romance in some of the stories, but nothing more th...
February 25, 2018
#musicmonday: O My Soul | Audrey Assad
Rivers and stones and the trees of the field, they sing in the night
And a thousand tongues lay deep in your lungs to raise to the sky
Don't lie to yourself, O my soul - love your God.
Don't lie to yourself, O my soul - love your God.
Deep in your heart you feather and tar your folly and fear:
Expose them all for the fools they are, and the world becomes clear.
Don't lie to yourself, O my soul, just love your God.
Don't lie to yourself, O my soul, just love your God.
Love your God.
Your worries will n...
February 22, 2018
#fridayflash: Tides | for the living
Grief comes in stages, like waves lapping on the shore, the crashing of the surf. Softgentleharshpounding.
You sit, staring at nothing, as grief curls its tendrils around your heart, squeezing, bleeding. There are no tears, because tears would mean you feel. You cannot feel. Not yet. Not now. When tears come, they come in floods, fast-rising waters from which there is no escape. You do not wish to escape. You are flotsam on the tide, drifting where grief would take you, tossed between happy me...
You sit, staring at nothing, as grief curls its tendrils around your heart, squeezing, bleeding. There are no tears, because tears would mean you feel. You cannot feel. Not yet. Not now. When tears come, they come in floods, fast-rising waters from which there is no escape. You do not wish to escape. You are flotsam on the tide, drifting where grief would take you, tossed between happy me...
February 20, 2018
#bookreview: The Song of All | Tina LeCount Myers
The Song of All by Tina LeCount MyersMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I’m gonna give this novel like a 3-star/3.25 star rating because the beginning is so so slow I wanted to die, like legit can I stop reading yet 2 stars.
Part of the problem is that there are so many long-ass multi-syllable words “drawn from various Saami languages” (as stated in the Author’s Note) in just the first chapter alone that I kept going what. What. Who. What. Which is weird because I read (and write) a lot of fantasy with l...
February 18, 2018
#musicmonday: Drawn to You | Audrey Assad
'Cause after everything I've had
And after everything I've lost
Lord, I know this much is true
I'm still drawn to You!
After everything's been said
After everything love costs
Lord, I know this much is true
I'm still drawn to You
---
Audrey Assad on Evergreen:
'But I’m able to come at that from a place where I’m [saying], “God transcends all concept of God.” God transcends everything that I’m saying about God right now.'
February 13, 2018
#bookreview: The World Awakening | Dan Koboldt
The World Awakening by Dan KoboldtMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
The problem with third books in a trilogy, especially when the second one came out about a year ago, is the fact that as much as you really liked the earlier books, suddenly you're thrown into a world that you have vague memories of.
The World Awakening starts in the middle of the action. Honestly, I feel the book loses part of its impact for this sole reason--I had to backtrack a little and skim through parts of The Island Deception to...
February 11, 2018
#musicmonday: Mmhmm | Relient K
Aesthetic of the month, really.
---
What happened to us
I heard that it's me we should blame
What happened to us
Why didn't you stop me from turnin' out this way
And know that I don't hate you
And know that I don't want to fight you
And know I'll always love you
But right now I just don't
---
And I'll let it be known
At times I have shown
Signs of all my weakness
But somewhere in me
There is strength
And you promise me
That you believe
In time I will defeat this
Cause somewhere in me
There is strength
