Teaser Tuesdays

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

After Chad Rivington, Autumn never had another boyfriend. It saved her from a lot of needless heartbreak. And me, well, the whole thing just let me be a good best friend. Which was all I'd wanted to do in the first place.

(Pg 37, Not That Kind of Girl by Siobhan Vivian)

Monday Ramblings

Strawberry Shortcake has been one of my favourite cartoon characters when I was a little girl, despite that Strawberry Shortcake and her friends had revamps over the years as each got a makeover with a complete new looks, clothes and style.

Anyway, when I knew that Strawberry Shortcake and her friend will be performing in one of our neighbourhood shopping malls as part of their holiday season celebrations, I was exhilarated and felt like an eight-year-old girl all over again. And what makes me happy is that my seven-year-old daughter likes this character too so the more I should go watch their performance, isn’t it?

I was lucky that I was able to get into the line so that we would have the chance to take a picture with these characters after their performance. The event was so much fun as it was filled with great music and loads of interactions between the performers and the children. Though it was only a 20-minute show, still I was glad to be there and that I had a wonderful time with my daughter as well as with the other children (their shouts of joy was simply contagious!).

Reading-wise, I had just finished reading Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn on my way to work this morning. What can I say? It was a delightful read and the premise is so, so clever! I hope to have the review up this week.

I can’t believe that it is already December and that Christmas is approaching. Have you done your Christmas shopping already? I have not; I am such a slacker but then again, there have been a lot of things on my plate lately (I suppose this is a valid excuse, no?).

Well, I hope you all have a great week!

Harry Potter: A Pop-Up Book: Based on the Film Phenomenon

ISBN-13: 9781608870080
Publisher: Palace Publishing Group
Published: November 2010
12 pgs
Source: Personal Library

I don't usually buy books that exceed S$30 (let alone a S$62+ book; USD34.95) but I find myself digging into my purse for this pop-up book after I had first seen it in the bookstore and fallen in love with it. Although I have not read the entire Harry Potter series, but I do follow every movie when it releases and I thought the latest instalment was very well done. (I can't wait to watch the last part but then again I don't want this series to end too!)

Based on the development of the films, this pop-up book is a must-have for all Harry Potter fans. It features a few main settings of the films in a 3D view when you flip through the pages (e.g. Diagon Alley, Hogwarts Castle, the Triwizard Tournament etc). Another thing I liked best is it also contains minibooklets (some posters are included inside these booklets which I think are awesome! E.g. Harry Potter Wanted poster featured from The Deathly Hallows: Part 1) which offer depictions and insights of some scenes from the films. I wish I could elaborate more on this wonderful book but as you already know, it is always best to read it and experience it yourself. That said, I attached two pictures I downloaded from B&N so you would be able to view the remarkable artworks as I mentioned above.

A Surprise Package From A Wonderful Blogger Friend

I had a wonderful surprise when I returned home from work on Wednesday and found a package waiting for me (my husband was the one who opened the mailbox). The back of the package shown that it was sent by Violet (of Violet Crush) and inside the package contains the following items:

~ A book titled Malgudi Days by R.K. Narayan (Violet said this is a famous Indian Short Story collection, set in a town called Malgudi and it's all the more famous due to the TV series which was a huge hit in India.)
~ An antique-looking mirror
~ An anklet
~ A set of hairpins for my daughters (Isn't Violet sweet?)

She bought these items when she returned to her home in India some time ago and I am truly, truly touched by her gesture.

Thank you, Violet!

Literary Blog Hop-My Favorite Poem

Welcome to this week's installment of the Literary Blog Hop, hosted my The Blue Bookcase.  What is the Literary Blog Hop, you say?

This blog hop is open to blogs that primarily feature book reviews of literary fiction, classic literature, and general literary discussion

This week's question is

What is your favorite poem and why?

Oh, Literary Blog Hop, we were getting along so well!

The fact is that I read almost no adult poetry.  I'm an elementary school teacher, so I do read lots of kids poetry, but not much for the over 10 set.  It's not that I dislike poetry, or find it boring or difficult to understand.  When I hear people read their poetry out loud I usually enjoy it, and I will occasionally run across poems that I love through random encounters.  But sitting down and reading a book of poems is just not my thing.  I think it has more to do with their relative brevity than anything else. I don't read short stories as a general rule either.  I guess I prefer the longer, overarching narrative, with lots of plot to keep me busy.

Now, my favorite children's poems are easy to identify.  Shel Silverstein's "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take The Garbage Out", and "Life Doesn't Frighten Me At All" by Maya Angelou.

The Silverstein poem is actually one that I read as a child myself, so we have a long-term relationship.  The title explains the events of the poem pretty well, but it is the disgusting imagery that I love:

Greasy napkins, cookie crumbs,
Globs of gooey bubble gum,
Cellophane from green baloney,
Rubbery blubbery macaroni,
Peanut butter, caked and dry,
Curdled milk and crusts of pie,
Moldy melons, dried-up mustard,
Eggshells mixed with lemon custard,
Cold french fries and rancid meat,
Yellow lumps of Cream of Wheat.

" Life Doesn't Frighten Me At All" is a wonderfully empowering poem for children, and in my head when I read it I can hear Maya Angelou's strong beautiful voice.  I tried to choose my favorite few lines to share, but I love it all so that I didn't want to break it apart:

Shadows on the wall
Noises down the hail
Life doesn’t frighten me at all
Bad dogs barking loud
Big ghosts in a cloud
Life doesn’t frighten me at all.

Mean old Mother Goose
Lions on the loose
They don’t frighten me at all
Dragons breathing flame
On my counterpane
That doesn’t frighten me at all.

I go boo
Make them shoo
I make fun
Way they run
I won’t cry
So they fly
I just smile
They go wild
Life doesn’t frighten me at all.

Tough guys in a fight
All alone at night
Life doesn’t frighten me at all.
Panthers in the park
Strangers in the dark
No, they don’t frighten me at all.

That new classroom where
Boys pull all my hair
(Kissy little girls
With their hair in curls)
They don’t frighten me at all.

Don’t show me frogs and snakes
And listen for my scream,
If I’m afraid at all
It’s only in my dreams.
I’ve got a magic charm
That I keep up my sleeve,
I can walk the ocean floor
And never have to breathe.
Life doesn’t frighten me at all

Not at all
Not at all
Life doesn’t frighten me at all.

While I don't seek out adult poetry, I do occasionally stumble upon it (through no fault of my own), so I'm not completely ignorant of poetry in the 20th/21st century.  "Phenomenal Woman", also by Maya Angelou is another one of my favorites.  One poem that I discovered by accident that I love is "Stream of Life" by Rabindranath Tagore.  It was used during a Sunday morning service by the minister of the Unitarian Universalist church I was attending:

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures. It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers. It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and of death, in ebb and in flow. I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life. And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.

 The imagery is gorgeous, and I love the way that the word sound together when said aloud.  The language dances and flows so effortlessly, much like the life spirit that Tagore is describing. Of course, have I ever sought out another Tagore poem?  No, because apparently I prefer my relationship to poetry to remain random and spontaneous.

Reading Challenges That I'm Giving Up

I'm sure some of you may be able to relate to this - you signed up for a few reading challenges (and then some more as you go along) but then halfway down the road you began to notice that you either could not keep up with these challenges, or you just simply didn't have the mood to read those books which you have committed anymore. As for me, I'm leaning more towards the latter so I figure I may as well give up these challenges as I don't think I will be able to complete them in time, considering it is almost the end of the year (wow, where does the time go?).

So these are the following challenges that I decided to let go:

POC Reading Challenge
I read only 1 book out of 6 - American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Thriller & Suspense Reading Challenge
And out of 12 books, I read only 6 books for this challenge:
Killing Floor by Lee Child
A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott
Faithful Place by Tana French
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
Burn by Ted Dekker & Erin Healy
Dying Scream by Mary Burton

The Romance Reading Challenge
And 2 out of 5 books for this challenge:
Ruthless by Anne Stuart
Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James

Meanwhile, I still have four other reading challenges which I'm hoping to complete so let's see how my progress is (I didn't want to give them up at this point since I may want to read those genres; and I have also completed the YA Reading Challenge). That said, I wish to thank all the hostesses for hosting these wonderful reading challenges.

As for next year reading challenges, I think I will still participate in a few that interest me but then my priority will be focused on the books I want to read from my towering TBR pile.

What about you? Have you completed all the reading challenges you have participated this year?

Patternmaster, by Octavia E. Butler

Patternmaster is the last book in story-time in the Patternist series by Octavia E. Butler, but the first of her novels to actually be published.  I find that fact astonishing on a couple of levels-first, because the book clearly mentions "past" events in the world of the characters that Butler had not in fact written yet, and because without the other books as backstory I'm not sure how an editor understood it enough to publish it.

Patternmaster tells the story of Teray, son of the current Patternmaster, the one person who hold the Pattern of thought connecting every Patternist on Earth.  The Patternmaster is the strongest of the Patternists, and his or her strength is what controls their society.  Without a Patternmaster the Patternists would not be able to live together without eventually killing each other.  Occupying the planet along with the Patternists are the Clayarks, human mutants who carry the only disease that can kill a Patternist, who can heal themselves.  Teray, just out of school, is tricked into becoming the slave of a brother he never knew he had-as Teray is the son of the current Patternmaster, he is a threat to his big brother's quest to take control of the Pattern.  When Teray tries to escape, his brother hunts for him, causing a showdown that leads to major changes for the Pattern.

The fact that Butler saw her story so clearly that she could mention past events in the arc of the story that were actually still in her future is remarkable.  I'm not talking about rather general statements that could be expanded on later, but specifics, like where the Clayark disease came from and who killed the being who bred the first Patternist.  Considering that it took Butler eight years to finish the books in this series, that is a long time to keep specific details in mind. 

But more remarkable is that this novel got published at all, especially since it is her first.  While the story is fast paced, and the characters are interesting, if I hadn't read about Doro and Anyanwu, or the Clay's Ark mission, or the creation of the Pattern, I don't know if I would have understood half of it.  This novel also doesn't carry the usual social commentary that I've found in Butler's books.  It does explore the idea of morality, in that the Patternists had a definite sense of morality that was completely different than ours.  Does that mean morality is relative?  It also explores the idea of power being a corrupting influence, and yet every character in the novel is seeking it in some way, whether it is the power to make their own choices or power over others.

I'm glad that I decided to read the books in the order of the story, rather than the order of their publication.  I don't mind non-linear narrative, but I think reading Patternmaster first would have left me without the strong sense of attachment to the story that I got from starting with Wild Seed.