Vacation catch up with Spooks and Sociopaths

Whew, I’ve accumulated a nice little list of finished books to review.  Between home renovations, house guests, recovering from house guests and family vacationing, reviewing was cast aside.  So, here we go!

Wrath of the Bloodeye, by Joseph Delaney: In the fifth installment of The Last Apprentice series, we find Tom Ward being sent away to apprentice under Bill Arkwright a Spook who trained under The Spook, Mr. Gregory.  The Fiend is still at large and hunting Tom, and up north The Fiend uses his own daughter, a water witch to get Tom.  After Bill is attacked, it’s up to Tom, Mr. Gregory  and Alice to find Bill and deal with The Fiend, who has more than a few surprises up his sleeve.  But with the return of Graymalkin we find that she has perhaps a few more surprises.
Overall Assessment: This is another solid adventure in the series.  Meeting a new Spook was refreshing, in that he has a different method than his mentor.  The relationship between Tom and Alice is just as strong in this novel, and Tom is finally forced to decide if he wants to fight the dark Mr. Gregory’s way or with the help of Alice.
Continue with the Series: Absolutely.
My Labels: YA, series, horror

Confessions of a Sociopath, by M.E. Thomas: I picked up Confessions, on a favorable review in Bust magazine, and I have to say I was not disappointed.  The concept alone is intriguing and, initially, slightly disturbing: the thought of a sociopath working right next to me.  The difference in motivation, lack of empathy, conscious manipulation that Thomas discusses becomes, perhaps not acceptable, but more understood.  Thomas rationally outlines and reasons through many of her actions, and while I still may not like it, I can follow it, which is more than I could say before.
After finishing the book, I poked around a bit online about the book to see if I could learn more from her blog, and found out that she went on Dr. Phil to promote the book and he and others apparently thought she wasn’t so much a sociopath but a narcissist.  As a rule, I take what Dr. Phil says with less than a grain of salt, but I did roll that around (I didn’t care enough to watch the interview), and could see some of that, but I’m not a psychiatrist so who knows.  All I can do is take the book for what it claims to be, and bear in mind that as a sociopath, the writer may be manipulating certain things to further her point, which is something non-sociopath could even do.
The bottom line is this: I can run around in mental circles over it or just read it and let it be food for thought.  One thing that surprised me, was that at times I longed to be detached like Thomas.  I can certainly become overly sensitive and impulsive (just ask The Husband!) and being able to stay calm, cool and rational certainly has it’s perks.  That’s not to say I want to be a sociopath, but there are certainly times I would like to stay more rational than emotional.  As a shy introvert, I thought about how I would react and respond in situations outlined in Confessions, and there are times I would respond more appropriately, but there were times I wish I had her lack of fear.  Confessions prompted me to think about my personality and characteristics – good and bad aspects and how to balance them out, to ultimately help myself.
Overall Assessment: Well written and fascinating read, maybe not for everyone, but definitely a good conversation starter.
My Tags: Non-fiction, memoir

The Last Summer of the Camperdowns, by Elizabeth Kelly: This is my surprise find of the summer!  I stumbled across this while browsing, liked the cover and thought, “What the hell, try something you haven’t read a review of or heard of!”  I listened to this one, and while I initially had a hard time getting into it, once it hooked me – it hooked me.  Riddle tells the story of her summer as a twelve year old in 1972 in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, and what tragic events happened that summer to make Harry Devlin hate her so.  Riddle’s parents are eccentric, strong, memorable characters: Camp, an idealistic, outspoken Democrat running for office and Greer, a glamorous former movie star with a cutting wit.  Riddle becomes witness to something she doesn’t initially understand, but when she finally understands the full implications she is terrified into acting.  The events Riddle keeps trying to forget bring back forgotten love triangles, war wounds and dark family secrets.
Elizabeth Kelly’s characters are what truly bring life to the novel.  Everyone shines in their own light, be it bright or dingy, and have an aura and mystique that are hard to forget.  At the heart of these strong characters is Riddle, twelve years old, and caught between parents who want to toughen and glamor her up, but she never feels quite worthy.  Her insecurity and self-pity are overwhelming at times, but, I think it is realistic for her character and age.  The characters lead you through plot twists and turns leading to a tense climax and ending that leaves you thinking for days.
Overall Assessment: I loved it.
Favorite Quote: “Adults have no business being offended.”
My tags: Popular fiction

The Shining Girls, by Lauren Beukes: Creepy is the one word that sums up this horror, time traveling, serial killer book.  Harper Curtis stumbles into an abandoned house in Depression-era Chicago.  The house shows him a web, or constellation of Shining Girls, also living in Chicago, but killed at different times, with tokens from the other Shining Girls adorning the murder scenes.  Kirby Mazrachi was brutally attacked, but miraculously survived.  Along with the reporter who covered her case, she is hunting down the person who attempted to murder her, but all the clues point to an unlikely solution.
Kind of a weird description, I know, but it’s kind of a weird book, in a totally cool way.  Think part Time Travelers Wife (but far less romantic), and part murder mystery.  Watching Kirby sort through the articles and information on her killer, while Harper goes in and out of his house into different eras of Chicago scattering clues throughout time, you swing back and forth in time seeing the parts and waiting for the picture to come together.  The writing moves a bit slow at times, but the tension and the moving elements of the story are enough to stay engrossed to the end.
Overall Assessment: Beukes weaves all the time jumps, characters and elements into a strange, yet compelling, and thoroughly creepy story.
My Tags: Horror, Popular fiction, Mystery

Going Vintage, by Lindsay Leavitt:  Mallory discovers that her boyfriend Jeremy is cheating on her with an online girlfriend.  After dumping him online, she swears off all technology.  Inspired by her grandmother’s junior year of high school goals, she decides that she will make the list her own in her effort to go vintage.  However, finding a steady, doing something dangerous, become pep club secretary (when there isn’t even a pep club!), sewing a homecoming dress and hosting a soiree are more complicated than they seem.
This was a cute, much needed breather from the heavy, darker books I’d been reading.  The characters are a bit cookie cutter, and the story a bit predictable, but still enjoyable.  There were a lot of great scenes where Mallory discovers just how much she (and every other teen!) relies on technology for the most everyday task – driving without a GPS for example, how is it done??  It is also a playful reminder that you don’t really need all the tech stuff you have, and to be aware of just how much information you give and how it can affect others.
Overall Assessment: Cute story and concept, good for an easy beach read.
My Tags: YA, Chick Lit

Morning Glories Vol 4: Truants, by Nick Spencer: Here’s the deal, the Morning Glories are in different places in time trying to figure out how to survive this high school that literally seems like hell.  We meet The Truants, who have a separate mission and were taught by the mysterious Abraham.  Action, mystery, espionage, mystery, murder and mystery.  This volume was supposed to provide some answers, but I still have a lot of questions at the end of season one.
This book is kind of tricky to review, mainly because it is so hard to describe the action in this volume unless you’ve read the other volumes.  Plus, I still don’t fully understand what’s going on.  However, I think part of that may be because there is so much time in between reading each volume and there are details I’ve surely forgotten.   My plan is to sit down at some point, with all 4 in hand read them all consecutively.
Overall Assessment:  A fun series, but probably best to read them all together.
My Tags: graphic novel, series, YA

Coming Up Next: The Snow Child, Twenty Thousand Roads, and If You Find Me.

Challenge Failed?

In the month of July we had our annual summer yoga challenge.  My studio does a “Choose Your Own Challenge,” where, rather than the standard 30-day challenge, you pick the number of times per week you want to challenge yourself to come in and take class.  I think this is perfect because it allows all students to participate, regardless of schedule or level of fitness.  There are a lot of reasons that folks simply cannot do a thirty day challenge, but they still deserve the opportunity to challenge themselves and put their names on the challenge board (AND get stickers!).  People sign up with challenges ranging from 2-7 days a week with numbers like 3ish and 4+, which is both optimistic and realistic.  The beauty is that everyone talks about how different they feel from doing the challenge, even if they are trying to do 2-3 classes a week, which is exactly the point!

Since I haven’t done a challenge since teacher training, I decided to set my bar high, but realistically at 6 classes a week.  I average 4/5 a week, so 6 was a good number.  I made it about 2.5 weeks through with no problems, able to squeeze in the yoga, although I did have to do several classes on my own in the hot room, but that’s okay – it still counts!  Halfway through the third week Husband and I started on some major home renovations that did not go smoothly.  Here’s the kicker: I was losing the last 2 days of the challenge due to vacation AND company was coming up immediately following vacation so the bulk of the renovations had to be finished (i.e. we needed to have floors in and railings and banisters in place).  Since renovations rarely go as planned I quickly got sucked into doing a lot more than I planned on, thus not getting the opportunity take that last class.

Initially, I was really bothered by not completing my challenge, and went through a lot of mental wrestling.  I like to finish what I start, do everything all the way and meet a challenge.  Plus, part of me feels that as a teacher, I should be setting a good example and meeting my goal.  The debate in my head came to a head (ha!) Friday afternoon before I got off of work at the library.  I could cram things in and try to make the evening 6:30 class, driving a little over an hour total.  I would get home at 8:30sih, have dinner, pack for my trip, clean up all of the sawdust, put all the furniture and decorations in place, put clean linens out for the company, do laundry, etc., basically stay up late only to get up at 6am and drive for 7 hours.  Or, I could swing by the gym, do a quick workout and be home by 6:30 get all of that work done and be able to go to bed at a semi-decent hour.  Naturally, I caved.  And it’s perfectly reasonable and understandable.  Life happens.  As I was telling myself this, I had my epiphany or light-bulb moment: doing Bikram Yoga gives me a life, it is not my life, nor does it run it.  The reason I love to do the yoga is that it helps me mentally and physically to get out and live my life, including the things I don’t want to do, like the dreaded home renovation clean up.

I have a tendency to get too caught up in things and become a little too obsessive.  If I’m not careful, everything but me runs my life.  Learning to take a step back and be okay with not doing everything is my biggest challenge.  So, in my case, I’m saying challenge successful.