Monday, October 14, 2019

Blogging Break

Image result for Taking a Break

Ever since my brother died, I have been trying to find myself again. I'm still on my journey through grief, and I feel like I need to take a step back from some things. I've tried to keep the blog alive, but I think it is time to just leave it alone. 

Thank you to everyone who still comes around now and then. I hope you are still around when/if I decide to come back. 

I will still be actively updating Goodreads, and I'll still post my mini reviews on Instagram. I'm not giving up my reading, just my blogging. 

I have decided to drop several of my reading goals as well. The only one I'm keeping track of is my Goodreads goal. I just want to read things I'm in the mood for and not stress about what to read for some challenge or goal. Reading has become a little bit of a chore, and I want it to be fun again. 

Thank you for your understanding. Hopefully I'll see you later! 

Tuesday, October 1, 2019

September Stats

Books Read:  10

24820. sx318  Manga Classics: The Jungle Book
A Grief Observed Ivy and Bean Make the Rules Manga Classics: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Pumpkinheads Strawberry Girl Talking to Dragons (Enchanted Forest Chronicles, #4)
Great Expectations Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

Pages Read:  2,293

1 Star:  0
2 Stars:  0
3 Stars:  4
4 Stars:  5
5 Stars:  1

My reading took dive in September. I caught the gaming bug, and I've been playing my Nintendo Switch a lot. I'm trying to balance both activities, but sometimes I'm just not in the mood to read. 

Goal Progress:

I am 15 books behind on my Goodreads goal. Ya, I fell behind a little. Hopefully I can catch up.

I only read one book off my nightstand. Dang.

I read one Newbery book! Yay me! (7/20)

I re-read one book. (11/20)

I did make a dent in the Pioneer Book Reading Challenge. I only have 12 more books to go! (32/44)

Friday, September 27, 2019

Manga Classics: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn


Goodreads Synopsis:    Chafed by the -sivilized- restrictions of his foster home, and weary of his drunkard father's brutality, 14 year-old Huck Finn fakes his own death and sets off on a raft down the Mississippi River. He is soon joined by Jim, an escaped slave. Together, they experience a series of rollicking adventures that have amused readers, young and old, for over a century. The fugitives become close friends as they weather storms together aboard the raft and spend idyllic days swimming, frying catfish suppers, and enjoying their independence. Their peaceful existence ends abruptly, however, with the appearance of the King and the Duke, an incorrigible pair of con artists who take over the raft. After many difficulties, Huck and Jim escape their tormentors, and with the help of an imaginative rescue by Huck's old friend Tom Sawyer, Jim gains his freedom. Manga Classics breathes new life into this American Classic with a faithful adaptation of Mark Twain's masterpiece. 

My Thoughts:

-    I first read Tom Sawyer when I was in middle school, and I've loved the story ever since. Yes, I read it because of Wishbone. I've always wanted to read Huck's story, but I could never get into it. It has a different feel to me.

-    I've been loving these Manga Classics, and I thought this would be a good way for me to finally read the story. I still struggled. I had to push myself to finish.

-    I thought Huck's adventure down the river would be more adventurous. It was more like a series of meetings with terrible people. The "duke" and the "king" were the worst. Huck should have ditched them WAY sooner. I wish the story had focused more on Jim and reuniting him with his family. 

-    A lot of the dialogue is spelled phonetically, and I struggled to understand what a lot of the characters were saying. There is a note at the beginning of the book explaining that they were trying to preserve Mark Twain's original works and the dialects and accents of the time. I get why they did it, and I can appreciate it. I just had a hard time translating it sometimes. I had to have my hubby help me with a few panels.

-    The overall story isn't terrible. There are a lot of good things that happen, and I liked Huck and Jim a lot. This story just isn't as fun to me as Tom Sawyer. 

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Top Ten Tuesday: Fall TBR

Created by The Broke and The Bookish in June 2010 and moved to The Artsy Reader Girl in Jan 2018

Books On My Fall 2019 TBR

I haven't done a TTT for a while. I almost forgot it existed. Whoops! I hope I can get to all of these!

Guts Hunter (Hunter, #1)
Miss Hickory A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic, #1)
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats The Fifth Letter
Ruby Red (Precious Stone Trilogy, #1) Monster Blood (Goosebumps, #3)
Truly Madly Guilty Redwall (Redwall, #1)

Monday, September 23, 2019

Pumpkinheads



My Thoughts:

-    When I saw that Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks had made a book together, I was SO excited! I love both these authors, and I knew anything they did would be good. It didn't disappoint. 

-    Combine Rainbow Rowell's fab characters and wonderful friendships with Faith Erin Hicks's colorful and fun illustrations and you have a mix for magic. Add everything wonderful about fall, and you have Pumpkinheads. 

-    The story was very simple, and I really enjoyed it, I did. I just wanted a little bit more. I also wanted to know more about that hilarious goat. 

-    I loved the characters. I love the contrast between Deja's outgoing spontaneousness and Josiah's stick to the rules shyness. 

-    This is the perfect book for fall! The food, the pumpkins, the corn mazes, etc. This book has it all, and I loved it. 

-    I really hope there is another book in the works because I want to know more about Deja and Josiah as they go off to college. I can just imagine the shenanigans. If there isn't another Pumpkinhead book, then I hope these two authors collaborate again in the near future.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Pikmin



My Overall Thoughts:

-    I played, nay, conquered Pikmin 2 and 3. I've played them both several times through, but I've never picked up the very first Pikmin game. After watching Arlo play through, I had a major itch to play Pikmin. Luckily our friend had a copy, and I was able to play. 

-    You can tell it is an older game, but it holds up alright.

My Thoughts on Game Play:

-    The story is fun, and Pikmin 2 picks up the story perfectly. Olimar crashes on a planet, and he needs to repair his ship by collecting all his ship parts. The catch is you only have 30 days to collect all the parts. Some of these parts aren't necessary, but it isn't hard to collect all 30. 

-    At first I thought the 30 days would be hard to beat, but it wasn't. I was playing pretty casually, and I was able to collect 1-3 parts a day. I had plenty of days left over when I finished.

-  There are no extra pikmin in this one. There are just the standard red, yellow, and blue pikmin. I loved how quickly I was able to collect all three. 

My Thoughts on Control:

-    I will admit that I didn't pick up the first Pikmin game because I was afraid the controls weren't going to be as good as 2 and 3. It wasn't too bad. The pikmin were a little dumber, but it was okay. For instance, when you throw a pikmin on a pellet, it doesn't automatically take the pellet back to the onion, you have to throw another pikmin to pick it up. Also, when going over a bridge, some of the pikmin fall off the sides. The pikmin controls just weren't as intuitive as 2 and 3. After I got used to it though, it was fine. I was still able to thoroughly enjoy the game.

-    It was fun picking up that gamecube controller again. I loved it! It is my favorite Nintendo controller. I was so excited to have that c-stick again! Being able to move my little army around me and run them into things with the c-stick was pure joy.

-    Sometimes the camera was in an awkward position and it took me a few tries to get it where I wanted, but for the most part, the camera controls were great.

My Thoughts on Graphics:

-    The graphics are older, but I think they still look great. Pikmin has great environments and characters. If they ever remaster this for Nintendo Switch, it wouldn't take much. They would need to up the graphics to HD and fix some of the lighting. I know that is a big job, and it will take a while, but I don't think anything would need to be re-rendered or re-created. I would LOVE for Pikmin 1 and 2 to be remastered!!! 

My Thoughts on Sound:

-    The music was good ole Pikmin music. It is very soothing and fun. I enjoyed it. I think the music is broken in places though. Sometimes when I was just walking around, the boss/baddie music would just start playing, and I'd look around, but nothing was there. It weirded me out.

-    The Pikmin don't sing as they walk like they do in Pikmin 2. I missed that.

Friday, September 13, 2019

Arlo

I'm a gamer. I love video games. I have a lot of fond memories of playing them with my family, my husband, and now I play them with my kids. Well, I haven't played for a while because I can only juggle so many things at once, and my down time was consumed with reading and knitting/crocheting. Lately, I have been playing a ton, and my reading and knitting are suffering for it. It is all because of Arlo.
Image result for arlo muppet
My husband discovered Arlo's YouTube channel a while ago, and he will talk about him occasionally, but I never really watched Arlo myself, until now! One day, not so long ago, I decided to watch Arlo's review of a game I was interested in, and now I am SO hooked. I love Arlo. I watch Arlo videos every day now, and I want to talk about him all the time. I have to admit, I'm even a bit Arlo brainwashed. If Arlo likes it, I want to play it. If Arlo tells me to get on Twitter and tweet about remastering Thousand Year Door, I will go and do! 

Why do I love Arlo so much?

-  I feel like we are kindred spirits. He loves animals and Pikmin, and he is blue.

-  He is an all around nice guy. 

-  He isn't another game reviewer who just swears and rants about video games, just to swear and rant about video games. 

-  Arlo always finds good things to say about something, and when he has a criticism, he always mentions how it could be better. 

-  He is happy just stating his opinion and hearing about other's opinions. He doesn't think his opinion is law or truth or a commandment, it is just his opinion.

-  When he doesn't like something, he can usually see how someone else might like it.

-  He randomly breaks out into song!!! I love this!

-  He is clever and funny. 

-  He knows who is audience is, and he caters to that. 

-  He tells me how awesome, fantastic, and beautiful I am and sends me his love every day.

-  He does his research, is very knowledgeable, and has a passion for what he does, and that passion is contagious. 

If you love video games, and if you love Nintendo, please go check out Arlo. He is awesome! I just love him!

Tuesday, September 3, 2019

August Stats

Books Read: 21
The Iliad Beastly Bones (Jackaby, #2) Cheshire Crossing
Inferno: Special Illustrated Edition (Robert Langdon, #4) Johnny Tremain The Dark Between Stars
Britt-Marie Was Here Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea Calling on Dragons (Enchanted Forest Chronicles, #3)
Ghostly Echoes (Jackaby, #3) Can You Keep a Secret? Understanding Your Grief: Ten Essential Touchstones for Finding Hope and Healing Your Heart
Half Bad (The Half Bad Trilogy, #1) Manga Classics: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Life of Pi
Rabbit Hill Half Wild (The Half Bad Trilogy, #2) Smile
Sisters Charlotte's Web Glitter (Glitter #1)

Pages Read:  6,115

1 Star:  2
2 Stars:  1
3 Stars:  9
4 Stars:  4
5 Stars:  5

I read the same number of books in August and July. That is pretty cool. My page count is higher for August though. Woohoo! I'm trying to be more dedicated to my goals, and I think it showed. Hopefully I can keep up the pace and momentum for the rest of the year.

Goal Progress:

I am only 13 books behind on my Goodreads goal! I'm catching up, so hopefully I'll be on track soon. (94/160)

4 of the books I read last month were from my nightstand. Huzzah! I made a small dent to my nightstand stack.

I read 2 Newbery books! Yay! (6/20)

I re-read 4 books from my shelves! Also yay! (10/20)

I finished 6 books from the Pioneer Book Reading Challenge. I'm getting closer to finishing. (27/44)

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Bout of Books 26 Progress

Bout of Books

Day 1
August 19

Books Read:  0
Pages Read:  290
Total Books Read:  0
Total Pages Read:  290
My Thoughts:    I didn't read as much as I wanted to, and I abandoned one of the books in my line up. 

Day 2
August 20

Books Read:  1
Manga Classics: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Pages Read:  124
Total Books Read:  1
Total Pages Read:  414
My Thoughts:    Again, didn't read as much as I wanted to, but I finished a book. Hopefully day 3 is better.


Day 3
August 21

Books Read:  1

Life of Pi
Pages Read:  427
Total Books Read:  2
Total Pages Read:  841
My Thoughts:    I had a great day for reading! I'm hoping to finish another book on day 4.


Day 4
August 22

Books Read:  1

Rabbit Hill
Pages Read:  212
Total Books Read:  3
Total Pages Read:  1,053
My Thoughts:    One thousand pages in a week is pretty good. I'm really happy with my progress for this read-a-thon.


Day 5
August 23

Books Read:  0

Pages Read:  9
Total Books Read:  3
Total Pages Read:  1,062
My Thoughts:    Well, that was an embarrassing/sad reading day.