Robyn Jones's Blog, page 21

Sidekick Saturday [28] Law Enforcement!!!

Sidekick Showcase, previously known as Sidekick Saturday, is a weekly bookish meme, hosted here by Jaclyn at JC's Book Haven. There are many secondary characters that are as great as the primaries. In some cases, the sidekicks actually steal the show and you like them better than the heroine or hero. Maybe they didn't have enough page time for how great they were. Anyone can play along! I will post my Sidekicks on Saturday, then whichever day during the week that you would like to post yours, you can put your link in on my page. Just do the following:• Choose a sidekick *or someone other than the hero or heroine* that you would like to put in the spotlight that fit's in the week's topic• Share a picture (if you can) and information about the character
• Give the title and author of a book the character can be found in
• Please don't include too many spoilers when describing why the character is such a great sidekick
• The day of your post, put your link in below and grab the code for your post so you can see the others that post their's throughout the week as well
This week's challenge is LAW ENFORCEMENT! I'm so late with this post, but I'm just under the wire.My first thought went to Burnett James from the Shadow Falls series by CC Hunter. He polices the weird and he's grumpy almost all of the time. The few moments you catch him being sweet you feel like hugging him, but it's a passing thought since he's big and vampy. But the theme of this week in my life seems to be kick ass women so I'm going with Hannah Moses from .... you guessed it or not the Morganville series by Rachel Caine. Daylighters doesn't come out until November and I want it now! 
Hannah is former military and current human cop in the scariest town ever. She's hardcore lethal to the point that if she's smiling it might be because she just killed something, thought of how she could kill something, or found a new something worthy of killing. I love Hannah and life hasn't been roses for her but this is the chick you want to stick to like glue during the apocalypse. She's that damn tough. When I think of her I imagine a younger Queen Latifah. 
“Might as well go out flipping the bird to the powers that be killing us.”
― Rachel Caine, Last Breath
My sidekicks are pooped because we just merged households. My sister threw in the Charlie Davidson series but you know how I am with series she keeps choosing that I haven't read yet (I'm on the wait list for First Grave on the something Left or Right). My mom shook her head and spaced out. Or I spaced out when she answered it. 

Think Out Loud [22] Are you a fighter?

Last week a woman ran up to my 76 year old aunt, yanked her purse free, and then bolted. How did Aunt Sherry react? With absolute fierceness, after all, nursing her cantankerous husband through cancer will give you an edge over mere mortal assholes. My aunt chased after her attacker, jotted down the license plate, and got that .... (too many cuss words are hitting me at once) criminal arrested. Just the day before, the thief roughed up the person she was robbing. 
Back in June, my mom's purse was stolen out of her car a week before going on vacation. Quick thieving bastards. If my mom had gotten the chance she would have pummeled the assholes into the ground. I am not exaggerating. 
These two women grew up on a farm with a Great Depression era mother. They've survived and triumphed over many struggles. And when pressed, they'll kick your ass. Would I have chased down that thief? Or busted the balls of the man who smashed my car window and stole my purse (though I do not own a purse)? I'm a mix of impulsive, cerebral, and sensitive. I have no freakin' clue what part of my personality would show up to the party. How about you? Are you a fighter? 
I say it every week because I mean it, Think Out Loud in one awesome meme. Want to share a picture you love? How about a quote or song? Maybe a poem or random thought that won't leave you alone? Anything. You can post anything you want. 

Rhymes and Sleepytime Sheep! robgirlbooks' Review of Mary Had a Sleepy Sheep by Julia Dweck

Mary Had a Sleepy Sheep
Written by Julia Dweck
Illustrated by the late Wilson Williams, Jr.
Published by Xist Publishing, 9/5/13
Children's eBooks

4.5 STARS Mary had a little lamb, yes, and he followed her wherever she did go, but then he quickly fell right asleep. No fun was this tired sheep, so Mary turned creative to keep her woolly friend awake. With determination only a child possesses in droves the little girl never quit until Sheppard Sheep was finally bright eyed and possibly more than she bargained for.

I read this book with my four year old son (a bunch of times). His eyes stayed glued to my computer screen. Each attempt Mary made to wake her friend was a mini-adventure. The rhyming is great fun and the illustrations brought the tale of Mary and Sheppard Sheep to life. There are even side characters like the cat, mouse, and cranky mom. At the end of the book you discover there's a mouse hidden on each page. We had so much fun looking for it. There's also a "find the differences" activity page, which had my son insisting we "do that difference thing again!" And author Julia Dweck went one step further with a favorite sites resource guide for parents and teachers.

Mary Had a Sleepy Sheep will be available for download 9/5/13. The story is a true delight. You can catch up with Julia Dweck on her Facebook page. As a side note, I recently read and reviewed another one of her wonderful children's books, Blucy. Here's my review.

(Sent to me by author for an honest review)

Feature and Follow [15] Me and My Book!

Q: Book Selfie! Take a pic with your current read. That's a very tired me and my tired library copy of At Grave's End by Jeaniene Frost. Holy cow this is an awesome series and I'm only on book 3. Love it! Hey, if you want to follow, that's so cool. Google+ is the best place to get attention, Bloglovin' too. Oh, I'm a total Twitter girl. I promise to follow back. I'm good like that.

This is a weekly blog meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and Alison Can Read.

Here are the general rules to Follow Friday:
1. Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts and any one else you want to follow on the list
2. Follow our Featured Bloggers - This week's feature is: Spare Time Book Blog and Read In Paris.
3. Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing.
4. Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say hi in your comments
5. Follow Follow Follow as many as you can
6. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love...and the followers
7. If you want to show the link list, just follow the link below the entries and copy and paste it within your post!
8. If your new to the follow Friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!

Think Out Loud [21] Comfort Food

I recently indulged in major comfort food, by recently I mean yesterday. But the mini-adventure (and it was a tiny adventure) drew me to the many foods and circumstances that brought simultaneous tears and laughter in the past. First big one was right after I broke up with my high school sweetheart at the tail end of senior year. When I told my mom, she looked like she was about to cry. "But what about prom?" "Who cares about prom, Mom?" She's not proud of her first reaction, but made up for it when she sat me down at the kitchen counter and made me a crispy bacon and peanut butter sandwich. I kid you not, it's amazing! In college in Hawaii my sister and I hit our favorite Mexican restaurant, Peppers. In college in Washington state I discovered the power or root beer floats. When I came home from the hospital after having my first son and I was so lost I couldn't think, my mom brought over homemade bread and lasagna. 
Yesterday I had to hold Will down to for two shots and a finger poke for blood. I thought if I told him in advance that he had to get a shot he would be better prepared and he wouldn't say those terrible words he had last time, "How could you, Mom?" He started hyperventilating an hour after I told him. When the time came and he was bouncing around the room ready to bolt, I did my job, but there's a cost to a person's spirit when she has to hold a child down who is trying with all his might to escape pain. The cost must have been too great to hide because the nurse rubbed my arm, not Will's. I accepted the comfort because the gesture was kind, but I wanted to clear things up for her that I was fine. Even though I wasn't. 
After the appointment I drove us to the store. Found the Hershey's chocolate bars. Searched for the marshmallows only to find three sizes. I had no idea which size was better for S'mores since I'd never had them or seen anyone eat them. I chose the big ones, of course. No grill or fire at the ready, I went with the stove. This girl was going to knock an item off her dreamer list and it wasn't going to be pretty. John paced around me with white powder all over his face because he already started on his marshmallow. I waited and waited for it to get crispy over the burner on the stove. Yes, told you it wasn't going to be pretty. "What are you making, Mom?" "Not sure." "Will it be good?" "Oh yes." And it was, though I have a ways till I become a master at stove top S'mores. 
Think Out Loud is a "whatever you want" meme. Post a quote, youtube video, rant, poem. Post anything on your mind. It's a wonderful chance to step outside your blogger routine.

Chicks Who Kill It! robgirlbooks' Mini-Reviews of Halfway to the Grave and Magic Bites

You've seen these book covers around. Heck, I've never checked out such tattered paperbacks from the library before. And I am so happy my friends boasted about these two series until I just had to see for myself.

5 STARS Halfway to the Grave starts off bloody. With a murderous chip on her shoulder, Catherine Crawfield spends her evenings luring and eventually blissfully killing vampires. She's scary in a serial killer kind of way, a lovable serial killer. We meet Bones at the very beginning. He loves long necks and idiots foolish enough to get in his way. Cat (or Kitten) gets in his way and we're all the better for it. I absolutely loved reading this book. Cat has a ways to go with her prejudice against vamps (which seems reasonable enough to have, right). Bones is an island, yet he tangles his world with Cat's from the start. I love that they're both unrepentant killers. I enjoyed Cat's transformation from the girl with poor social skills to a confident woman. And I laughed. So much. No one does jealous like Cat. There's mystery and adventure. The breakneck speed never slows down, even the steamy scenes leave you breathless and dizzy. I'm on book 2, with 3 waiting for me at the top of my library stack. 
5 STARS Magic Bites is a fantastical read like no other. Magic has eaten away the flashy modern world, leaving behind a wrecked landscape full of underworld baddies, wonky electricity, dilapidated cities, and hunters like Kate Daniels. Oh the beasts she hunts. And let me tell you, author Ilona Andrews creates vampires you never want to cuddle with! Puppets with teeth and skin-wrapped bones. They crawl up walls. They open their mouths only to have the voice of their puppet master speaking. Ack! There is so much gore and fantasy, I gave this book 4 stars originally, but really it's a 5 star read. I can't stop thinking about it. The characters are perched on my shoulder, teasing me that I don't know enough about them. I want more. More! And never once did I step out of the world Andrews created. I loved that cars were unreliable and mostly for the rich. I loved that Kate has no qualms with riding a horse or enduring intense pain. She's scared all the time and whenever that happened, the woman opened her mouth and practically made her death a certainty. There wasn't enough romance in the first book, but that's my preference. I was scared often, grossed out just as much. The monsters were terrifying. The good guys were borderline insane. How can you resist a series like that? I cannot wait to read the next book!

Sidekick Showcase [27] Not Who They Say They Are

Sidekick Showcase, previously known as Sidekick Saturday, is a weekly bookish meme, hosted here by Jaclyn at JC's Book Haven. There are many secondary characters that are as great as the primaries. In some cases, the sidekicks actually steal the show and you like them better than the heroine or hero. Maybe they didn't have enough page time for how great they were. Anyone can play along! I will post my Sidekicks on Saturday, then whichever day during the week that you would like to post yours, you can put your link in on my page. Just do the following:
• Choose a sidekick *or someone other than the hero or heroine* that you would like to put in the spotlight that fit's in the week's topic
• Share a picture (if you can) and information about the character
• Give the title and author of a book the character can be found in
• Please don't include too many spoilers when describing why the character is such a great sidekick
• The day of your post, put your link in below and grab the code for your post so you can see the others that post their's throughout the week as wellThis week's challenge is NOT WHO THEY SAY THEY AREI love surprises in characters! There are so many that spring to mind, but I decided to choose someone who is still a mystery to me since I've only read two books in the series so far. Trent Kalamack from Kim Harrison's The Hollows Series is a beautiful looking man, tall, fit, commanding, possibly...most definitely, maybe? evil to the core! I know all you vets of this series including you, Lexxie, will snicker because you know how Trent's character evolves. He's a mystery from the moment his name is first mentioned. Rachel is clueless about him. You know how people say "He hung the moon"? Think the opposite and that's how Rachel views Trent, despite her inability to overlook his appearance. 
“Come work for me, and I’ll tell you.”
My eyes went to his. “You are a thief, a cheat, a murderer, and a not-nice man,” I said calmly. “I don’t like you.”
He shrugged, the motion making him look utterly harmless. “I’m not a thief,” he said. “And I don’t mind manipulating you into working for me when I need it.” He smiled, showing me perfect teeth. “I enjoy it, actually.”
― Kim Harrison, The Good, the Bad, and the Undead
“I took a breath, seeing from across the room the rain on his eyelashes. A sudden need to brush them free filled me. I could almost feel the dampness of the rain on my fingers, how soft it would feel.”
― Kim Harrison, Dead Witch Walking (I'm pretty sure Rachel's describing Trent as she spies on him)
My sidekicks were wrapped up in talking about the big move coming and Big Brother. My sister might have mentioned Jeanne C. Stein, but heck if I remember why. 

Think Out Loud [20] Chasing Shadows

[image error]
At the zoo a couple weeks back a little girl cute as anything spun around, her blond hair in a twirl that matched her dress. I looked at John ahead of me who once told me I would have another kid. "Take it back, John," was my mature response. The little girl was precious. "Mama, it won't stop chasing me!" I instinctively stopped. Her mom chuckled. "I can't believe she discovered her shadow at the zoo." A jolt of pure joy went through me. I waited to hear how the mom explained shadows. Was her approach going to be more successful than mine with John? I was practically chewing my fingernails in suspense. Why, you may ask? Shadows define an artist's world, shapes take form under the beauty of dark and light. Writers revel in the dichotomy of the two worlds as well, just differently. "That's your shadow, baby." I looked back at John who smiled his naughty smile. I knew what it meant, "See, Mom. There's an explanation a kid can appreciate."

[image error] Many months back John spun around like a cat trying to catch his tail. "John, John, that's your shadow. Oh my goodness! Okay, light bounces off an object, wait, where's the light source, ah, yes. Look, early morning sun, perfect!" "Mom." "Wait. See the sun beats down on you, but your body is blocking some of the light. You can draw a direct line-" "Mom." "You haven't heard the best part. I'm telling you this is so cool. There are colors in shadows. Colors! The color of the light will create a color opposite it on the color wheel. Yellowish light gives you violets and purples. Orange gives your cyan and aquamarine. Oh, oh, wait till Christmas time when people use those green porch lights. Magenta, John!" "Mom!" "Right, right, right." I stomped down on his long shadow (accented with hints of violet). "See, that. I just kicked your shadow's butt. Oh, look at that, stepped on your shadow again." He squealed. I laughed big and loud as we chased each other's shadows. Neither kid cares yet about colors in shadows.
Think Out Loud is crazy awesome. A meme like no other. Post a picture, poem, favorite word. Honest, Think did that one time. Come and hang out with us. We promise to pay attention!
(By Philippe Alès (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...)], via Wikimedia Commons)(By Sakurambo at en.wikipedia [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...)], from Wikimedia Commons)

My First Children's Books Mini-Review Marathon! Blucy, Ugly Fish, & The Sniffles for Bear

My 4 year old son and I have had the best time this summer with the most creative, playful, and lovable children's books! I thought I'd share a few of our most recent reads.

5 STARS!! Blucy: The Blue Cat written by Julia Dweck and illustrated by Erika LeBarre is a wonderful rhyming story about a peculiar and particular newly adopted cat named Lucy. Mandy loves Lucy, who turns blue, who won't eat typical cat food, who camouflages herself in all things blue. Blucy is no easy cat, but Mandy stays true and never quits looking for a way cat and girl can live happily ever after. My son told me before demanding I read it again, "This is a wonderful book!" I agree. The vibrant illustrations are a true delight and work perfectly to push the story forward. The rhymes are a treat for the reader. The message is touching; no matter how difficult, naughty, or fussy Blucy proves to be, Mandy loves her. To top off a great read, author Julia Dweck includes a cat trivia page and an activity hidden picture page. That's plain cool! (Please note: I received Blucy by the author for an honest review. Thank you for the opportunity!)
4 STARS!! Ugly Fish by Kara LaReau and Scott Magoon is a surprising read. I'll start there because Ugly Fish is mean and ugly and happy with his solitary existence. Drop in Teensy Fish. If you think this is a heartwarming tale of two opposites coming together you're only right if you mean Ugly Fish chases Teeensy Fish and eats him in one bite. We meet a few more fish for a second before grumpy Ugly Fish chomps them too. This is a total fish snuff book and I laughed the whole time I read it. My son did too. Ugly Fish gets his when bigger and meaner Shiny Fish drops in and finds his new digs a little crowded. This is a kid-specific book. I'm sure there's a lesson here, Karma and all that, but the first couple reads are still a little startling to convey the bigger picture to my son.

5 STARS! The Sniffles for Bear written by Bonny Becker and illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton is a funny and heartwarming story about a melodramatic bear getting a cold and his friend mouse coming to his aid. Bear thinks no one has ever been as sick as he is. Mouse thinks a little cheer and company will do the trick. There are a few laugh out loud moments when Bear reacts to Mouse singing and mouse a little too eager to help him with his last will and testament. Poor Bear. Mouse sticks with him and continues to care for him all the way to the next morning when it's mouse's turn to need care. The two are an Odd Couple type duo and the read may be disturbing because of the "I may not be long for this world" talk, but I loved it. My 4 year old loved it.

Butterflies At Rest

[image error] My son bounces in his seat, on his toes, in his body. I watch him. Study every cause and effect. My mind fires off theories, bright shooting stars of hope. He quotes his shows and computer games. He laughs at the funniest jokes only he hears. He smiles so big my heart swells and breaks at the same time. He struggles with noise, but is a generator of tremendous sound, high-pitched, rising and falling volumes so quick those around him shake their heads and peddle their feet in the opposite direction. He'd like to put his brother in a padded room with a lock on the door only he has the key to. He has a vision of his world with heroes, weapons, weather gods, his mom. I'm so important to him when you ask, "Will, what do you want to do when you grow up?" He says every time "Help my mom." I try to reach him always. I fail often. He's struggling with the change I'm bringing to his world and I think he's pissed. I told him he can be as mad at me as he wants. "Oh yeah. Okay, Mom."





(By Nieminen Gene, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)