Sarai Henderson's Blog, page 51

Sunday Confessions #241

 

Hello Sunday! I hope you're wearing green for Saint Patty's day. My husband and I are hosting dinner with his parents and I'm making green mimosas. Yum.

Sunday Confessions #240~Weekly Menu #547 And The Book Of The Week~February 2024 Wrap Up~Book Review: She is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran

Weekly Menu #548 And The Book Of The Week~Book Review: The Stolen Heir by Holly Black~Book Review: Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli~Sunday Confessions #242






Ground Turkey TacosChicken MarsalaChicken and Cabbage SaladSpaghettiPotato Soup

MENDING FENCES~CALICOS AND TORTOISESHELLS

23/100 2024 Reading Challenge~65/196 in my Star Wars Legends challenge~70/341 Gilmore Girls challenge~93/100 in my 100 books before you die challenge

Next week, school conferences and the start of Spring Break... Here we go.
Happy reading, friends!

Book Review: She is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran

 

Welcome to my book review of She is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran. A creepy YA novel with a cover that's to die for.

Title: She is a Hunting

By: Trang Thanh Tran

Genre: Paranormal

Pages: 352

Release Date: February 28th, 2023

Publisher: Bloomsbury YA

Rating: ★★★☆☆

 

Summary from Goodreads:A house with a terrifying appetite haunts a broken family in this atmospheric horror, perfect for fans of Mexican Gothic.
When Jade Nguyen arrives in Vietnam for a visit with her estranged father, she has one goal: survive five weeks pretending to be a happy family in the French colonial house Ba is restoring. She’s always lied to fit in, so if she’s straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough, she can get out with the college money he promised.

But the house has other plans. Night after night, Jade wakes up paralyzed. The walls exude a thrumming sound, while bugs leave their legs and feelers in places they don’t belong. She finds curious traces of her ancestors in the gardens they once tended. And at night Jade can’t ignore the ghost of the beautiful bride who leaves her cryptic warnings: Don’t eat.

Neither Ba nor her sweet sister Lily believe that there is anything strange happening. With help from a delinquent girl, Jade will prove this house—the home her family has always wanted—will not rest until it destroys them. Maybe, this time, she can keep her family together. As she roots out the house’s rot, she must also face the truth of who she is and who she must become to save them all.

 

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Review:There was something about this story that was lost on me. I found the cadence of the writing off as I was unable to keep my attention on the words and the characters didn't capture me like I hoped they would.

This was a quick read and I found the bits of Vietnamese intertwined a welcome wonder, but I don't think this story was memorable for me.

February 2024 Wrap Up

 

February is over and we are well on our way to the end of March. I always forget to do my wrap up post at the beginning of the month, but that's ok. Lets get this boat floating.

Slewfoot: A Tale of BewitcheryBrom
Set in Colonial New England, Slewfoot is a tale of magic and mystery, of triumph and terror as only dark fantasist Brom can tell it.
A spirited young Englishwoman, Abitha, arrives at a Puritan colony betrothed to a stranger – only to become quickly widowed when her husband dies under mysterious circumstances. All alone in this pious and patriarchal society, Abitha fights for what little freedom she can grasp onto, while trying to stay true to herself and her past.






22/100 2024 Reading Challenge~65/196 in my Star Wars Legends challenge~70/341 Gilmore Girls challenge~93/100 in my 100 books before you die challenge

I didn't read as many books as I could have, but February was a busy month for my family. I'm actually surprised I was able to read this many.
Happy reading in March my friends.

Weekly Menu #547 And The Book Of The Week

 

Happy Monday! Welcome back to my weekly menu where I share all the delicious recipes we will be making this week.

March is turning into a wonderful month. I've read some great books. Spent some time with treasured friends and family, and have taken time to myself to rest and reset. Don't know why I didn't do this last month.

This weeks read is Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli. I've heard good things about this book and I'm ready to dive into its pages.

Lets get to this weeks menu. Enjoy!

WEEKLY MENU

Monday

Oriental Chicken Salad

Kids - English Muffin Pizzas

 

Tuesday

Chicken Marsala

Kids - Baked Ham and Cheese Croissant

 

Wednesday

Big Mac Burger Taco

Kids - Nachos

 

Thursday

Slow Cooker Balsamic Beef over Baked Potatoes

Kids - Sheet Pan Pancakes

 

Friday

Pork Ramen

Kids - Beef Ramen

 

Saturday

Beef Burritos

Kids - Cheese Quesadillas

 

Sunday

Leftovers Night

Sunday Confessions #240

 

I know I went super nerdy on the blog this week, but I absolutely love scifi and all the shows I grew up on. You're just going to have to deal with it.
Lets recap last week's posts.

Weekly Menu #546 And The Book Of The Week~
Reading through the Star Wars Universe Part 11~Book Review: Star Trek Strange New Worlds: The High Country by John Jackson Miller

Weekly Menu #547 And The Book Of The Week~February 2024 Wrap Up~Book Review: She is Haunted by Trang Thanh Tran~Sunday Confessions #241





20/100 2024 Reading Challenge~65/196 in my Star Wars Legends challenge~70/341 Gilmore Girls challenge~93/100 in my 100 books before you die challenge

We're back! Lets keep the reading going.

Book Review: Star Trek Strange New Worlds: The High Country by John Jackson Miller

 

Welcome to my book review of Star Trek Strange New Worlds: The High Country by John Jackson Miller. A wonderful read highlighting the new characters we've come to love so much.

Title: Star Trek Strange New Worlds: The High Country

By: John Jackson Miller

Genre: Scifi

Pages: 320

Release Date: February 21st, 2023

Publisher: Pocket Books/Star Trek

Rating: ★★★★☆

 

Summary from Goodreads:The first novel based on the thrilling Paramount+ TV series Star Strange New Worlds!
When an experimental shuttlecraft fails, Captain Christopher Pike suspects a mechanical malfunction—only to discover the very principles on which Starfleet bases its technology have simply stopped functioning. He and his crewmates are forced to abandon ship in a dangerous maneuver that scatters their party across the strangest new world they’ve ever encountered. First Officer Una Chin-Riley finds herself fighting to survive an untamed wilderness where dangers lurk at every turn. Young cadet Nyota Uhura struggles in a volcanic wasteland where things are not as they seem. Science Officer Spock is missing altogether. And Pike gets the chance to fulfill a childhood to live the life of a cowboy in a world where the tools of the twenty-third century are of no use. Yet even in the saddle, Pike is still very much a starship captain, with all the responsibilities that entails. Setting out to find his crewmates, he encounters a surprising face from his past—and discovers that one people’s utopia might be someone else’s purgatory. He must lead an exodus—or risk a calamity of galactic proportions that even the Starship Enterprise is powerless to stop...

 

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Review:Huge Trekkie here! I'm absolutely loving this new series, highlighting characters that we already know, some mentioned but never embellished upon and some new ones.
I've said it before, and I will say it again. Plot lines that follow multiple characters in parallel storylines are hard to follow and if not done right, can come off messy and scattered. Because of this, I tend to avoid multiple plot lines like the plague. Glad I didn't on this one.
Four crew members of the enterprise are forced to abandon ship on a strange planet. They are separated during the process and have to survive on their own on a strange and dangerous planet where technology doesn't work.
Pike's storyline has a wild west kind of vibe, where Una finds herself in a jungle/Jurassic park type crazy ride. Uhura is dropped into a hot wasteland where she learns to communicate with lava... And Spock... Well, good old Spock has the ride of his life with Volcan pirates. Its really an odd combination, but so entertaining, especially the ending.
I really enjoyed reading through this book, following the characters I've come to love. I can't wait to see what happens to them next.

Reading through the Star Wars Universe Part 11

 

I'm really loving this part of the Star Wars universe. There are so many great stories from characters that I love. Can't wait to continue the journey.

Jedi TrialDavid Sherman, Dan CraggMy Rating: ★★★★☆
“Within twenty-four standard hours we will sit firmly astride the communications link that connects the worlds of the Republic. . . . Our control will be a dagger thrust directly at Coruscant. This is the move that will win the war for us.”
With these ominous words, Pors Tonith, ruthless minion of Count Dooku, declares the fate of the Republic sealed. Commanding a Separatist invasion force more than one million strong, the cunning financier-turned-warrior lays siege to the planet Praesitlyn, home of the strategic intergalactic communications center that is key to the Republic’s survival in the Clone Wars. Left unchallenged, this decisive strike could indeed pave the way for the toppling of more Republic worlds . . . and ultimate victory for the Separatists. Retaliation must be swift and certain.
But engaging the enemy throughout the galaxy has already stretched Supreme Chancellor Palpatine’s armies to the limit. There is no choice but to move against the surging waves of invading battle-droids on Praesitlyn with only a small contingent of clone soldiers. Commanding them will be Jedi Master Nejaa Halcyon–hand-picked by the Council for the do-or-die mission. And at his side, skilled young starfighter pilot Anakin Skywalker, a promising young Jedi Padawan eager to be freed of the bonds of apprenticeship–and to be awarded the title of Jedi Knight.
Shoulder to shoulder with a rogue Republic army officer and his battle-hardened crew, a hulking Rondian mercenary with an insatiable taste for combat, and a duo of ready-for-anything soldiers, the Jedi generals take to the skies and the punishing desert terrain of occupied Praesitlyn–to bring the battle to the Separatist forces. Already outnumbered and outgunned, when confronted with an enemy ultimatum that could lead to the massacre of innocents, they may also be out of options. Unless Anakin Skywalker can strike a crucial balance between the wisdom born of the Force . . . and the instincts of a born warrior.

Jedi HealerMichael Reaves, Steve PerryMy Rating: ★★★★☆
While the Clone Wars wreak havoc throughout the galaxy, the situation on the far world of Drongar is desperate, as Republic forces engage in a fierce fight with the Separatists. . . .
The threatened enemy offensive begins as the Separatists employ legions of droids into their attack. Even with reinforcements, the flesh and blood of the Republic forces are just no match for battle droids’ durasteel. Nowhere is this point more painfully clear than in the steaming Jasserak jungle, where the doctors and nurses of a small med unit face an impossible situation. As the dead and wounded start to pile up, surgeons Jos Vandar and Kornell “Uli” Divini know that time is running out.

Even the Jedi abilities of Padawan Barriss Offee have been stretched to the limit. Ahead lies a test for Barriss that could very well lead to her death–and that of countless others. For the conflict is growing–and for this obscure mobile med unit, there’s only one resolution. Shocking, bold, unprecedented, it’s the only option Jos and his colleagues really have. The unthinkable has become the inevitable. Whether it kills them or not remains to be seen.
Legacy of the JediJude WatsonMy Rating: ★★★★☆
Four generations of Jedi.
One common enemy.
The Jedi Temple is a place of secrets and trust. Inside its walls, a legacy is passed down from generation to generation of peace, justice, and strength. But that legacy can be broken. Sometimes the greatest enemies rise from within....
Lorian Nod is a promising Jedi apprentice. A Padawan named Dooku is his best friend. Under the watchful eye of Yoda, they are preparing to become Jedi Knights. Dooku knows their fate is intertwined...yet he is not prepared for a turn of events that reveals the dark side to him for the first time.
Years later, Dooku is a Jedi Master and Lorian Nod is a pirating outcast. With an unforeseen desire for revenge, Dooku works to thwart his former friend -- even if it means crossing his own apprentice, Qui-Gon Jinn....
When Qui-Gon himself becomes a Jedi Master, the specter of Lorian Nod still looms. As Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan Kenobi struggle to find their place as Master and Padawan, they must work together to prevent an interplanetary threat -- and to outwit a very familiar enemy....
During the Clone Wars, Lorian Nod wants to play a pivotal role as the Republic battles to keep hold of a strategic planet. On one side, Obi-Wan and his apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, must decide whether they can trust such an infamous figure. On the other side, the now compromised Count Dooku has a score to settle against his old nemesis....
Four generations of trust and betrayal.
One legacy.
Street of ShadowsMichael ReavesMy Rating: ★★★☆☆
With the Jedi all but wiped out in the grim aftermath of Order 66, the Empire’s power seems unchecked. But one lone Knight continues to fight the good fight–against all odds and when all else fails.
Deep in the bowels of Coruscant, Jedi Jax Pavan ekes out a living as a private investigator, a go-to, can-do guy for the downtrodden. Now a mysterious Zeltron knockout named Deejah approaches Jax with a case that needs to be cracked: to find out who killed her artist lover Volette, brutally murdered hours after his triumphant unveiling of a dazzling new light sculpture with obvious links to lightsaber pyrotechnics.
Finding Volette’s killer won’t be easy–too many secrets, too many suspects, and all kinds of motives. But with the droid I-5YQ’s help, and ex-reporter Den Dhur’s excellent snooping skills, the investigation is soon operating like a well-oiled machine.
Unfortunately, there’s a far more efficient machine hunting Jax. It’s a deadly game of cat-and-mouse as the clock starts ticking toward the final explosive showdown . . . to see who strikes first and who will die first.
The HiveSteven BarnesMy Rating: ★★★★☆
WHAT LIES BENEATH
Dispatched as a Republic envoy to the Outer Rim planet Ord Cestus—in a bid to halt the sale of potentially deadly “bio-droids” to the Confederacy—Obi-Wan Kenobi finds himself enlisted in a mission more desperate, and dangerous, than diplomatic. The once self-contained world has long since been co-opted by unscrupulous offworlders, whose plunder of a vital natural resource has enabled the rise of a powerful corporation that controls the economy. Ord Cestus’s native population, the X’Ting, are now mere second-class citizens in their own society.
Enter the Jedi Knight, with news that a legal technicality has turned the tables—and the corrupt forces with a stranglehold on Ord Cestus are now at the mercy of the X’Ting. Circumstances, however, are more dire than the Republic suspected.
In the wake of a devastating plague, the X’Ting’s benevolent rulers are dead, and the once tightly knit race has splintered into battling factions. Reunification can only come with the rise of new royals, whom all X’Ting are bound by blood to serve. But the eggs that will spawn those sovereigns lie out of reach, secured in a secret chamber and booby-trapped by those whose knowledge died with them in the plague. Now, to salvage a people’s destiny, Obi-Wan will risk a veritable descent into braving the unknown horrors in the forgotten depths of an alien world, on a perilous quest from which none who went before have ever returned.
This short story features an exclusive author interview—plus an excerpt from Steven Barnes’ Star Wars novel, The Cestus Deception.

Weekly Menu #546 And The Book Of The Week

 

Happy Monday! The blog is back this week with a full blow spread of posts. If I told you last week was a blast, I would belying, but it did have some really great moments that I will cherish forever, but the rest of it will be thrown in the trash.
I didn't read a single book, although I really wanted to. My mood just wasn't there. But this week, I have a few books lined up. Weyward by Emilia Hart and She Is Haunted by Trang Thanh Tran are two books I started last week that I want to finish. I also have Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli and The Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee that I borrowed from the library and need to be returned soon. Cross your fingers I have the gusto to get through them all.
Super excited to get back to cooking with my husband. I didn't realize how much I loved it until I was gone for a few days. Here is the weekly menu. Enjoy!

WEEKLY MENU

Monday

Chicken with Mustard Sauce

Kids - Chicken and Tater Tots

 

Tuesday

Oriental Chicken Salad

Kids - English Muffin Pizzas

 

Wednesday

Italian Sausage Hoagies

Kids - Grilled Cheese

 

Thursday

Instant Pot Potato Soup

Kids - Beef Ramen

 

Friday

Spaghetti Night

Kids - Mac and Cheese

 

Saturday

Egg in a Hole with Sausage

Kids - French Toast

 

Sunday

Family Dinner

Beef Burritos

Cheese Quesadillas

Hey bookish people, this is just going to be a really qui...

Hey bookish people, this is just going to be a really quick menu for the rest of the week. I've been traveling for my grandmother's memorial and I'm exhausted. Enjoy!

WEEKLY MENU
Thursday
Crispy Chicken Caesar Salad
Kids - Chicken and salad
 
Friday
Marry Me Chicken and Orzo
Kids - Grilled Cheese
 
Saturday
Beef Burritos
Kids - Cheese Quesadilla
 
Sunday
Leftovers Night

Sunday Confessions #239

 

Hello Sunday! It has been a week. Not sure if you noticed, but there wasn't much going on with the blog this week, but I promise, I haven't forgotten you. We had an all day training on Monday at work which is usually my day off and the day I write my blog posts, so not much happened.
This coming week is also going to be a bit spars since I wont have access to my laptop this weekend. Just hold tight, I will be back.

Sunday Confessions #238~Weekly Menu #545 And The Book Of The Week~Book Review: Castle of the Cursed by Romina Garber

Taking the week off.





I have a lot of catching up to do on both the Morbid podcast and the Haunted Roads podcast.


New seasons of The Rookie and The Good Doctor are out and we spent our evening enjoying a few of our favorite shows. Glad they are back.

19/100 2024 Reading Challenge~65/196 in my Star Wars Legends challenge~70/341 Gilmore Girls challenge~93/100 in my 100 books before you die challenge

There's not much going on right now, but hold your butts, I will be back soon.