An Apologetic Apple

I do declare. I owe you all an apology. Despite my excuses and promises to do better at blogging, I have failed you. As it turns out, I really have a lot on my plate. That, and I have no chair at my computer. And it's not all that much fun to spend an hour on my feet typing away. It's just the truth of it. I've not been all that inspired to blog lately, my energy is just sapped.

Life has gotten very busy and chaotic and stressful these past few months. We are living in a tiny apartment with no furniture to speak of, and my only "office" area is a corner of the counter in the kitchen, where my computer sits. It's really not conducive to well written reviews. Or anything really. It's only temporary, while my husband goes to school to change his job in the Coast Guard. We'll only be here a few more weeks, then we'll be moving to Clearwater, Florida.

And therein lies a lot of my current stress. We are not only moving, we are buying a house. (picture me PANICKING) Not only are we buying a flipping house, we are buying a flipping house without ever seeing it! Egads. We are insane. I mean, who does that?? We do, apparently. A lot of my time lately has been spent doing paperwork and errands and panicking. My poor husband has been going bonkers trying to balance kids and school and sleep and all the details of buying a house, not to mention the incredible amount of time he's spent on the phone lately. Our lender and realtor are very nice and helpful and they deserve an award for their prompt return calls.

Add to that, my kids. The Goob is four and his imagination has gone wild. And The Bean is so very, very two. He never stops moving, never stops getting into trouble. It's all I can do just to make sure I feed everyone most days. I have to do a bedtime limb count to make sure nobody lost anything during the course of our day. If tummies are full and all limbs are accounted for, I consider it a good day. Anything else -baths, brushed teeth, using the bathroom by myself... it's all just a perk if it happens.

I also just finished up school. I spent the last year doing a certificate program to help me on my way to being a pharmacy technician. I just finished everything up a week or so ago. Hallelujah! Next up is taking the PTCB, a national exam to get me my certification. I won't be doing that until after we've moved and are somewhat settled though.

All that said- It's been pretty busy. This hectic limbo-period won't last forever though, and I do hope to get back into blogging for real. I miss it. I miss YOU. I want to blog about books and be all awesome-nerdy with you guys. I really do! I'm hoping to be closer to some good book events in Florida so I can bring you exciting news and giveaways.

Until then, all I have to offer is sporadic reviews, my one big giveaway that is still going on (despite my lack of participation, expect a post about that soon), and maybe some more personal updates.

I hope you are all doing well, and I look forward to getting back in to blogging soon! :)

-Literati

Tricky Trivia Tuesday (#7, #8)

I'm feeling a little too much like Brittany Spears.

Oops, I did it again!

I got so busy last week that Tuesday passed me by with hardly a glance. To make up for it, it's another double question week. :)

If you're new to the game or just need a refresher, all the details about Trivia Tuesday and the BBoB giveaway are HERE. The rules are there too.

On to the good stuff!!

Tricky Trivia Tuesday question 1: What were the names of the four sisters in Lousia May Alcott's Little Women?

Tricky Trivia Tuesday question 2: In Little House on the Prarie, where does Pa Ingalls decide to move the Ingalls family? (town and state)

Good luck and thanks for playing!

Tricky Trivia Tuesday (#5, #6)

Whoops! Looks like I missed a Tuesday! Last Tuesday I was busy showing my mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law around and enjoying their visit, so I completely spazzed on putting up a question. To make up for it, this week will have two questions. You can answer both, and whomever guesses correctly for one or both will get the respective entries into the Big Box of Books giveaway. :)

Don't forget to check out the details and rules HERE.

Tricky Trivia Tuesday question 1: "We'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat." - Who says this to Ginny, in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone?

Tricky Trivia Tuesday question 2: Who wrote the following poem?

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow--
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand--
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep--while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

Really Ravishing Review (The Fault in Our Stars)

Hello there, what's this? A REVIEW!

First, I want to say that I'm a huge John Green fan. I mean, come on, who isn't? (If you answered, "Me", then I suggest you stop right now and go read one of his books. Because if you're not a fan, you clearly have not read a book by him.) Being a declared fan, I have to warn you that this review will be biased. He is an extremely talented writer, my favorite nerdfighter, and he graduated from Kenyon College. I went to elementary school on the same street that he honed his literary brilliance. I also ate in the same cafeteria on many occasions, know a number of the faculty, and generally used the campus as my own personal lounge. For all I know, I sold him Girl Scout cookies.

Title: The Fault in Our Stars
Author: John Green

Hazel is a normal 16 year old girl. She wants to make her parents happy. She likes to observe and offer her unique point of view on all things. She has stage IV thyroid cancer, complete with a mobile oxygen tank she has named "Philip." And she will die. Sooner rather than later.

I will admit I was apprehensive about reading TFiOS. Everyone I knew said it was a guaranteed tear jerker, but brilliant and moving and fantastic and inspirational. True, all. I don't make a habit of reading books that seem to be super depressing. Before its fame, I picked up The Hunger Games, read the synopsis, and set it back down. It sounded horribly depressing. On both accounts, I'm glad I muscled through the sadness and read the books.

The Fault in Our Stars was, in no exaggerated terms, phenomenal.

When I read the last of it and closed the book, I wasn't sure how I felt. The whole book had been amazing, but I just didn't know how I felt. I wanted more closure. But then, that's the whole point, isn't it? And it's the brilliance.

I continued not knowing my own feelings about it until I was discussing a cancer-ridden cousin of my mother-in-law's with said mother-in-law and my grandmother-in-law. This cousin's end seems near and we were discussing the whole thing, and the sadness. She has young children and a husband and no one knows what to do, how to help, what to feel. This made me instantly think of the book, so I brought it up. I explained the whole thing, how the characters dealt and related and lived their lives. How Hazel's chief worry was what would happen to her parents after she was pushing up daisies. Would they come together and be stronger, or become one of the more common couples that file for divorce not long after their child's death because they can't even look at each other, the pain is so great?

My mother-in-law is, of course, very distressed about her cousin. After I had said my piece about the book, we all just sat there, mulling. I offered to loan The Fault in Our Stars to her, and she gladly accepted. This, my friends, is the power of books. I have no doubt that this book will help my mother-in-law to understand better what her cousin might be feeling. Especially the worry her cousin is probably feeling about leaving her family to live on. How will they cope? I told her to read it and loan it to whomever she pleased.

I glanced (I say glanced because I didn't waste my time reading) at a negative review for TFiOS, saying that they couldn't believe that an author would choose to write about, of ALL THINGS, CANCER?!?! My thought was, why the flip not? GOOD FOR HIM, I thought. He's got GUMPTION, I thought. He is taking a "whisper" topic and talking about it in frank, normal, honest terms. This, I love. More people should do this.

It should come as no surprise then, that I give The Fault in Our Stars

5 out of 5 beautiful, faultless stars.

*second cover is not a published cover, it was made by Kaiasaurus on deviantart. I thought it was a lovely cover. :)

Bad Blogger Blues

I'm not really blue. I just have been (and continue to be) a bad blogger. I am sorry. What have I been doing instead of writing those reviews?? I've been reading a lot... and

But I do have some reviews coming up. Really! I do! Things like The Fault in Our Stars, and The Name of the Star, and Crossed, to name a few. I know, you'll believe it when you see it. ;-)

YOU WILL SEE IT!!

Tricky Trivia Tuesday (#4)

Hello again! Happy Valentine's Day to all you lovely folks! In honor of this day of death (You thought I was going to say love, didn't you?) we are going to have a Valentine's Day themed question.

Valentine's Day originated way back when to honor the many Christian martyrs named "Valentine." These include but are not limited to Valentine of Rome, Valentine of Terni, and the Valentine the Catholic Encyclopedia says was martyred in Africa with his companions. So in fact, it started because they were all killed. Saint Valentine's head was preserved and kept in the abbey of New Minster, Winchester and venerated. Delicious! (Might I suggest that for Valentine's Day next year you present your love with a beheaded tedddy bear? After all, it would be more historically accurate.) But HEY! It's not all doom and gloom. A very famous poet wrote a poem about "Valentines" in the 14th century. And you guys thought poetry wasn't important! ;) 

After that poem, it seems that we linked the unspecified Greco-Roman February holidays of fertility and love to Saint Valentine's Day. Voila! 

In honor of all the men who were killed because of their religion and a poem, I present you with this:

Now, to the question!

Tricky Trivia Tuesday Question: Who is the famous poet that wrote the historic poem speaking of "Valentines"?

No search engines! Click HERE for the rules and details of Trivia Tuesday. Happy guessing!

Tricky Trivia Tuesday (#3)

Tricky Trivia Tuesday is an ongoing trivia game/contest here at Literati's Literary Library. Click HERE for the details and rules! :) (please read the rules before playing!)

This week we are doing a question in honor of Charles Dickens. Today is his (or rather, would be his) 200th birthday! 

Tricky Trivia Tuesday Question: What was Charles Dickens' first serialized novel?

Remember, no search engines! The first person to answer correctly gets their name entered into the Big Box of Books giveaway! Good luck! 

Share Spectacular Stories

I just wanted to make sure you all knew about this fantastic thing going on- World Book Night. Sign ups have been extended until February 6th, so make sure you check it out!

On April 23rd givers all over the US will be running around giving out BOOKS to non or light readers. Isn't that AWESOME?! All you have to do to be a giver is sign up, pick up a box of 20 special World Book Night editions of the book you selected and pass them around. Brilliant.

Twenty books... that must be expensive! Nope. It's FREE. You just sign up, pick up your books, and give them to people who really need them. So really, you have no reason not to do this. Go, my loves! Go spread those spectacular stories!!

The list of books you can choose from:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian - Sherman Alexie
Wintergirls - Laurie Halse Anderson
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou
Friday Night Lights - H. G. Bissinger
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz
Kindred - Octavia Butler
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
Little Bee - Chris Cleave
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Blood Work - Michael Connelly
Because of Winn Dixie - Kate DiCamillo
Zeitoun - Dave Eggers
Peace Like a River - Leif Enger
A Reliable Wife - Robert Goolrick
Q is for Quarry - Sue Grafton
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
The Stand - Stephen King
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
The History of Love - Nicole Krauss
The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien
Bel Canto - Ann Patchett
My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult
Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot
Just Kids - Patti Smith
The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

You get to pick your top three choices of book to give out, and they will do their best to accommodate. (So you're giving out twenty copies of the same book) (And they're free!!!)

Sign me up! I want to give out books!