*Dance Break*

Lights up on Washington Heights, up at the break of day
I wake up and I got this little punk I gotta chase away
Pop the grate at the crack of dawn, sing
While I wipe down the awning
Hey y’all, good morning

I've talked and lightly referenced some of what I've been listening to since before Christmas. Sit back and get comfy. Let's really talk about what's going on. 

Sometime before Thanksgiving, I tried listening to the Hamilton soundtrack on Spotify. Yes I was listening to it at work, so I had a lot going on, but I just couldn't get into it. I was disappointed because at this point, almost all of the internet was in love it. Was it me? 

Some time later I tried again. And again. And again. And somewhere in that mess, I got stuck. I found myself singing a cleaned up version of the title song to my 4 month old nephew, loving the beat and suddenly realizing that I have no idea what he will be when he grows up. That realization hit me hard and I had to stop singing and kiss and snuggle him while I still can. 

Anyway. 

I had help. My friend Megan was a great supporter as I delved deeper into the wonders of the soundtrack. We would text lines back and forth, talk about it online, and during really difficult times at work, sing relevant parts of "Burn" and "The Adams Administration" under our breath. (Yeah, you know which lines.)
I told everyone about it at Christmas. Everyone. I'm not sure how it even came up in conversation, but I made sure it did. I'm sure it was a very interesting time for everyone around me. 

Somewhere between then and now, I got my hands on In the Heights, Lin's first Broadway show. I love the musical stylings and how it makes this uncoordinated white girl want to dance. (I'm sorry if anyone has to witness that. I'm not sorry it's happening, just sorry you have to see it.) I have it set to repeat on all the devices and usually play the first track before I start making my coffee first thing in the morning. I sing with Usnavi about making coffee in the heat of the morning as I shiver in my freezing cold apartment. 

And then of course the Grammys happened. And wow. The world was blown away. I can't talk about this without talking about Lin-Manuel Miranda. The man wrote two Broadway shows and the amount of work he put into them just astounds me. In the Heights was something he came up with in college and worked and worked at it. It changed a lot from then until it landed on Broadway (and is now showing in London, 8 years after it premiered in the states) and it was okay. He hardly had finished that and started Hamilton. He worked on that for years, confessed to spending a good part of a year on ONE SONG, but he kept working. My brain hurts at not having a next day solution for things. Can you imagine working on the same thing for a year, playing with words until they fit just the way you need them to? In all of this, he didn't stop living; the man got married, has a baby and continues to write, work, and perform 8 shows a week. 

I've talked a little about this before when I talked about celebrity. I know we see  only what Lin-Manuel allows us to see. He has a lot to him that the world doesn't know about, things only his wife, parents, son and close friends know. (I believe this is a good way to live, by the way.) But the drive that he makes very public is incredibly inspiring to me. And I think if he knew that I use his music and words to encourage my writing and living and life goals, he would say that his music had done it's job. 

What inspires you? What makes you get up in the morning, even the bad ones? 
Turn your music extra loud today and dance it out. And in the dance breaks that your day allows, thank an artist for the work they do that makes your life a little bit brighter.

February: In which I'm already 3 books behind. No me diga, tell me something I don't know!

Somehow, we are almost done with February. Winter months seem to slow to a crawl and then speed up with no warning and suddenly you are almost through the summer. Easter is early this year and that throws me off too. I'm not sure what the reason is, but Goodreads says I'm behind on my reading. 

Sigh.

Raise your hand if you are surprised. 
Yeah, me neither. 

I am SLOGGING through The Shadow Lamp. I'm making better progress but I just can't seem to focus on the story. I can't see what the point is or where all the stories are going. Frodo and Sam needed to get the ring to Mordor. Bilbo and the Dwarves were going to reclaim the mountain and slay the dragon. Elizabeth and her sisters are unmarried with no prospects until the very single Mr Bingley moves to town; Mrs Bennet's sole purpose in life is to see her daughters married and married well. I don't get that sense of purpose with this book. That doesn't mean it isn't well written...I just don't have motivation to finish. 
But ok, here's the thing. 
When I finish this book, I'll only have one book in the series left. Do I finish? Ugh. Trust me. I'll keep you posted. 

My friend Rachel got the audio book (read by my beloved Lin-Manuel Miranda) for Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe recently. So of course I picked up the book. Me and audio books don't always get along so I spring for the hard copy whenever I can. It wasn't what I expected but still good. If you've been around my blog, I think I've talked about Young Adult and young adult books before. This was kinda on the line between the two, but sliding more to the young adult side. 

As per usual, I picked up a book on a whim the last time I was at the library. Like, it isn't enough that I have two books waiting for me...I have to go and pick up one more thing I probably won't get time to finish. Anyway. I saw the movie Sarah's Key years ago and decided that while it was good, the story was too sad and I didn't want to read the book. But ... um, that's exactly what I'm doing. And I'm really glad I picked it up because the movie did an excellent job conveying the emotion the book evokes. 

It would be terrible for me to finish this post without talking about Hamilton, especially after the remarkable win it achieved last Monday at the Grammys! And everyone got to see the performance, right??! Outstanding work. All of it.
And because this is starting to sound like a Lin-Manuel Miranda post, I'm gonna sign off quick before I start raving about In the Heights, his first musical which is currently playing at my house. Oops. 

January: In which I am surprised that I'm on target for my reading list!

Happy January, ya'll. 
I hope everyone's reading challenge, craft challenge or life challenge is going well. With all the snow we've had this month (like the entire winter dumped on us in a single day), you would think I would only have time to read...but I spent most of the weekend knitting. Not ashamed. 

Even if I'm on track for my challenge (yay!) I'm going a little slow with the reading. I'm trying to get lots of knitting done during the winter months because when summer comes around I can't even think about touching yarn. That puts reading on the back burner for a bit. Even so, I managed to get four books read so let's talk about that. 

Luther: The Calling (Neil Cross) was the first book I read finished this year. I almost didn't finish it because even though it was really good, it was kinda creepy and gory. Not really my cup of tea, but the story was so engrossing and strange that I had to finish it. In a remarkable turn of events, this book was written AFTER the BBC series Luther because it had done so well. I find that interesting but doesn't really change the way I feel about the book. The TV series was a little violent and very dark, but intensely engaging. I'm behind on the series (I think I'm just missing season 3) but eventually I will catch up. Let's be honest--Idris Elba is my main reason for watching. Hubba Hubba. I mean, the story is written really well...

Blame (Michelle Huneven) was an office share book. It showed up in my mailbox with a post it saying "Is this yours?" It wasn't but I read it anyway. I didn't love it but it was interesting. What really threw me was the last chapter. Our protagonist gets locked in a gas station bathroom and is stuck for hours. When she gets out, though, nothing really changes. It could have been one of those scenes that gives the protagonist an opportunity to re-evaluate her situation and make changes. But she doesn't. As a reader it really bothers me. As a person, I think, maybe it bothers me more. It was a good vehicle for change and it is completely ignored. 

I am still slogging through The Bright Empires series. I had a hard time getting through book 3. There was a big gap between #2 and #3 for me so maybe that played into it. And even though halfway through each book I promise myself that I won't keep reading the series, that it is taking too much of my time, that there are too many books out there that I want to read...and then for some unknown reason, I request the next book from the library. So I currently have book #4 waiting for me. This is why I usually avoid series. Anyway...

I finished And Furthermore by Judi Dench this month too. It was very conversational, and it made me think that maybe the audiobook of it would have been a better choice. I wonder with autobiography/memoir type books if audio isn't the best way to go. Reading stories are one thing but hearing the author tell their personal stories? Possibly better. I never realized how much theatre Dame Judi was a part of. She is so much more than M (even though I love M) and so much more than any of her movie roles. 

The office is passing around the book Stiff (Mary Roach) about human cadavers. It has been on my reading list for three years so I'm excited to finally get to it. I'm not in love with it yet, but another coworker called it hilarious so I'm still hoping things will improve. 
I GUESS I'm still working on finishing the Bright Empires series. I haven't touched my Hamilton biography in ages. Sigh. Sorry A.Ham.

But the Ravenclaw house scarf I'm working on is looking A++ fabulous. 

How are your new year goals coming? Let me know in the comments! 

Goodreads Challenge Update

The surprise of the weekend is that I've completed my 2015 reading challenge with three weeks until the end of the year!

I started this post almost a month ago and well, you can all see what a great job I've done of finishing it. I meant to use the last three weeks to tell you about the books I've been reading and to mention some highlights of the year. 

For all of my anti-series posturing, I've broken that rule so many times in 2015 that I don't think it should be a rule any more. I stumbled upon an Irish miniseries called Jack Taylor. When the series was over (far too quickly, for my taste) I pulled the name from the credits and found out that there were books. Lots of books. I've read eight so far and they still aren't over. They are terribly depressing and the writing is so different from anything I've read before. And I just can't seem to put them down. 

I caught up with the rest of Liane Moriarty's work this year. I can't tell you what to read, but I would stick with her more recent stuff. She has grown as a writer and the world is a better place for it. 

Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda was an excellent surprise. I got it by recommendation of Rachel, so of course it had to be good. But truly. It was one of those books I was happy to be surprised by. 

I had four re-reads this year (Fangirl, Love Virtually, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets & Prisoner of Azkaban) so I count that as improvement. 

I had high expectation for Audrey and Bill, the story of how Audrey Hepburn and William Holden fell in love. They were, however, dashed in the depression of the entire affair. The golden age of Hollywood had some terribly dark corners to it. I also learned that sometimes I expect a lot from biographical/autobiographical books. Part of me expects to learn every twist and turn about the subject/author, so deep that I could say I know them. However, they write only what they want you to know and what they are comfortable sharing. And even though it makes me kinda cranky, isn't that their right? Don't they deserve some privacy? Maybe they shouldn't have decided to become famous, you say. Okay maybe. But since when did being famous divorce you from your right to privacy? I think we've let celebrity become too high an altar. 

Ahem. 

I read more than my goal this year and my total read count grew closer to sixty, I started to get nervous. I never though I could read 60 books in a year; how am I going to top this for 2016? What if I fail? 
I started setting goals for book reading because it gives me something to do. If I don't set a goal, I won't read. That's not quite right, no. I will read, but I will read aimlessly. I will read like a hobby. I will read like I knit (or sadly, write): during a certain season and only during that season. I love books and I love reading.

 Matt Chandler said something like when love runs into the soul, it creates discipline. He meant it for more than books and reading, but for many years I have been trying to figure out what that meant. As I'm typing this, furiously before midnight and before my laptop dies, I think I maybe finally understand what he means. It's not "Ugh, I HAVE to read so let me set a stupid number." It is so much more than that. It's more like, "I love this thing, reading, and I want to do more of it. I want to learn more, love more, meet more characters, understand what makes a story great and what makes a story okay. I want to get lost in language and understand enough to know when the spark of story and brilliance is there and when it isn't."

So yes, I set my goal. I set it for 61 books in 2016. Thanks to my inability to actually and seriously stop reading, I've already got one book down. Ron Chernow's "Alexander Hamilton" is sitting on my bedside table, mocking me as I fall asleep each night. It will be a miracle if I can finish all 800 pages of it this year. Thank heavens I have a 40 page head start.

C. S. Lewis Reviews The Hobbit, 1937

Instead of an original review today, I'm linking you to a review by one of my favorite authors, C. S. Lewis. 
I know I've had some serious words about the new Hobbit movies, but I'm 100% invested and loyal to The Hobbit in book form. Lewis's review of his friend Tolkien's book is brilliant. It gives a glimpse into what Lewis thought was important in a book and what he thought a reader wanted to know about a book. I know they were friends and all, but even without knowing that, the review is a plain old rave about Tolkien's new book:

To define the world of The Hobbit is, of course, impossible, because it is new. You cannot anticipate it before you of there, as you cannot forget it once you have gone.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Lewis review if he didn't plug his mantra that reading "children's books" was something that could (and should) be done by readers of all ages. I also love that he is an advocate of reading a book many times over the course of your life, learning something new with each journey. (On a very nerdy level, did everyone realize that in this very short review, he cites The Hobbit TWICE and does so appropriately with footnotes? This makes me love him even more!) 

And of course, the last sentence is what really did it for me: 

Prediction is dangerous: but The Hobbit may well prove a classic. 

I think you are safe in that prediction, friend. 

(Wow. As a side note, I was listening to the Hamilton Soundtrack while I was writing this...I eventually had to turn it off to focus. At first,I was just listening and then all of a sudden I was singing a long and NOT writing...) 

Happy October!

My co-worker at the office has been listening to scary stories for the last few weeks. He keeps trying to get me to try them but I am firmly anti-scary. In any conversation about scary things, I usually bring up the fact that I was terrified of The Village for a few weeks after seeing it (often times leaving out that the color red was purged from my room for at least a month because I had trouble falling asleep...). 

I do not do scary. 

Well, not real scary. I do weird and strange, sure. But not scary. 

All of this is bringing us to my October recommendation: Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch. (Oh and if you are having trouble finding the book by this title, check out the US publication title: Midnight Riot) 

My friend Lisa has been recommending this book to me since February (probably even before that) and I've just now gotten my hands on a copy. 
As the title suggests, the story takes place in London. Our narrator is PC Peter Grant who has just finished his probationary period and has been given a job in the Case Progression Unit. Basically, this means he will be filling out and finishing paper work so that proper constables can get back on the beat to protect the Queen's peace. 

This is all a disappointment to Peter, especially since this means he won't be able to continue working the case of the headless corpse from the night before or follow up on the witness statement he took from the ghost Nicholas Wallpenny that same night. 

I started this book last night and almost halfway through. It's hilarious, magical, and full of all things London. Obviously, this book is right up my alley. 
It reminds me, slightly, of that fabulous book by Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere. London is magical enough on it's own (in my opinion); so much more so, though, when you are dealing with actual magic in London. 

Are you reading any spooky-type stories this month? What do you recommend? 

PS If you are looking for more spooky titles, I guarantee almost anything by Neil Gaimain is perfect for October. Coraline (the creepiest children's story I've ever read) and The Ocean at the End of the Lane (full of magic) are two that I recommend. His short stories can also be delightfully creepy! 

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

In my senior year of college, the very last thing I wanted to do was work. Senior semester was even worse. I didn't have a lot of classes and the only one I really paid attention to was my Research Seminar aka Senior Thesis. If I wanted to graduate on time (and oh boy, did I ever!) this was the one class I really had to pass. But the sun was out and I wanted to not worry about grades and classes. 

I picked up Taliesin by Stephen Lawhead and got lost in the re-imagined Arthurian Legend. I found it at a used book store and promised myself I would only buy one at a time. I made so many extra trips out of my way before and in-between classes that semester! No one spins a British legend the way Stephen Lawhead does. I mean, yes okay, Tolkien created a masterpiece that no one can touch. No one. Full stop. Sometimes, I think of Lawhead as the modern Tolkien, doing what he did on a slightly smaller scale, but just as good. You feel like you are reading a history when you read Lawhead's books. Thing is, his books are 400+ pages. They are worth it but it is an investment to finish a series. I think I got through the first three books before graduating. I bough the fifth but never picked it up. It is sitting on my shelf, all sad and lonely, because I know that if I want to understand the story, I'm going to have to start at the beginning again. 

The Pendragon Cycle is probably the last long series of books I started but never finished. After that, I kind of wrote off series. Who has the time to finish them? I was convinced that I was never going to finish all the books I wanted to read if I kept reading series with a bajillion books in them. 

Until Percy Jackson. 

I have been wanting to pick up The Lightening Thief for a while, but kept putting it off because of the series thing. The Pendragon Cycle isn't my only unfinished series and I was worried that I was starting a bad habit of starting books and not finishing them. Coffee, chocolate and books: if I start them, I must and will finish them. It's just what I do. 

I was innocently browsing in the public library and there it was, sitting in a summer reads book display, front and center. I'm not all about signs and things but after weeks of checking the shelves and not being able to find it (or forgetting to look for it...) I figured now was my chance. 

I finished it in two days and knew that I probably was going to need to read the whole series, even if it took me forever. But it didn't! Actually it took me less than two weeks to read all five...

Guys, I loved this series! It was like Harry Potter in reverse; instead of anxiously awaiting the school year to be with his friends, Percy Jackson attends Camp Half-Blood during the summer. And when I say "attends Camp Half-Blood" I mean he starts his summers there. He usually ends up, well, anywhere but camp by the end of the summer.

Rick Riordan does a fun take on classic mythology, bringing the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus to life in a hilarious way. I mean, when you have Poseidon in khaki shorts and flip-flops, it kind of changes the way you view the gods. I keep wanting to say that the gods are humanized, but I realize how that sounds. I think maybe a good way to explain it is that Riordan infuses them with color and vitality that we lack in some of the more traditional stories about them. 

Percy Jackson was my fun summer read and I am sad that I'm finished with the series. I know there are more Riordan books about the Olympians out there. Maybe I will save them for next summer! 

P.S. This post is SO LONG OVERDUE. I apologize. I'm hoping to have more posts up soon. Reading has been slow these days because it's knittin' season, ya'll!