Let's Bust a Recap : The Lunar Chronicles

I finished this series shortly before Cody and I finished The Lord of the Rings, and let me tell you: between the two, I came away with a serious book hangover. I've watched a lot more TV recently than I normally do because it's been hard to jump into something else.

If you had told me a couple months ago that I'd love a book about cyborgs and androids and a war between the Earth and the moon, I'd have laughed in your face. But here we are.

My BFF Christina got to select our book club's book for June, and she chose Cinder by Marissa Meyer. I was aware that this was the first in a series called the Lunar Chronicles, but I was under the impression that because these were fairytale retellings, each book in the series could stand alone. So I checked Cinder out from the library thinking it would be a one-and-done for me and came home in my blissful ignorance. 

My BFF Christina failed to mention that I would need Scarlet near at hand immediately upon finishing Cinder. And so on and so forth with Cress and Winter, the other two books in this series. Ergo, I found myself in great distress on a Friday night as I came to the end of Cinder and the library was closed. And then was equally distressed when I was able to check out Scarlet and Winter the next day, but had to wait for Cress to come in from another library in the interstate system. Because what if it didn't come in time??

We survived, obviously, but what I'm saying is: this series is seriously unputdownable, and if you are contemplating starting it, have all of them ready to go, for the love. And don't y'all even try to let Christina off the hook for this. This was not her first rodeo with The Lunar Chronicles. She knew. 

The Lunar Chronicles is a Young Adult dystopian series by Marissa Meyer which, if I had to sum them up in a few words, are like fairytales meeting Star Wars. 

And I'm here for them in a big way.

Cinder is the first book in the series and was originally published in 2012. The loose fairytale retelling is of Cinderella, but in Cinder our protagonist is a teenage cyborg mechanic living in the Eastern Commonwealth in the Third Era. A plague has been wreaking havoc on the Earth, and the prince-turned-emperor is having to make some tough decisions about forming a marriage alliance with the evil lunar Queen Levana. 

I mean, does it sound laughable? Yes. 

Did I love it? Also Yes. 

The second book, Scarlet, was published in 2013, and roughly parallels the fairytale of Little Red Riding Hood. In it, we are switching back and forth between Scarlet's quest to find her grandmother, and Cinder's escape from prison and subsequent fugitive life on the run from pretty much everyone in the universe. 

Oops. Did I forget to issue a spoiler warning? Consider this your notice for the rest of the post. I mean, I'm not giving up any of the big plot twists, but if you like to go into a series completely blind like I do, then it's high time you got out of here.

Eventually, Cinder and Scarlet end up on the same team together which leads us to the third novel...

...Cress. Published in 2014 and the novel mirroring the Rapunzel fairytale. We learn that a character we met back in Cinder has actually been trapped in a satellite doing hacking and spying for the evil Queen Levana, but she's more than ready and willing to join the side of justice and help Cinder if she can. This novel was just as fantastic as the other three but took me the longest to get through because we are switching back and forth between a lot of different perspectives which just slowed it down for me until they finally all ended up together. 

The series concludes in the epic 827 page Winter which was published in 2015 and parallels the Snow White fairytale. Winter is the winsome stepdaughter of evil Queen Levana, and she has slowly been going insane from the effort of refusing to use her Lunar gift of bioelectric manipulation. (I can't even get into it with y'all. You'll just have to read them to understand that.) When Cinder and her band of misfits dramatically show up on Luna to prevent the royal wedding between Queen Levana and Emperor Kai, Winter immediately and unquestioningly decides to help them in any way she can.

Oh. My. I can't even begin to tell y'all how much I got sucked into these books. I immediately added them to my amazon wishlist, and I guarantee these are ones I'll read again. The overarching story is excellent. The way Meyer brings these fairytales and characters together is flawless. The action and drama and romance are all on point. I couldn't get enough. It was very fun looking for the fairytale connections in each of the books, and I thought Meyer's parallels were strongest in Cress and Winter. Her writing is clever and funny, and I even texted my book club asking about another possible fairytale correlation that I was picking up on. (Iko as Pinocchio? Anyone? Anyone?!) My only bone to pick with Meyer is that I would have liked a couple more chapters in Winter to resolve Winter's personal storyline. I felt that in the culmination of everything, a few things I wanted to see happen with Winter (and her love interest, hey-o) were not settled in a satisfying way. Meyer has also published a collection of short stories entitled Stars Above about these characters, but as mush as I loved this series, I don't have very much interest in the short stories. I read one that was included in the copy of Cinder I got from the library, and it didn't do much for me.

Overall, would highly recommend these for a fun, slump-busting, escapist read. Once again, blessing all the stars that saved me from discovering these before they were all published and out in the world for me to zoom through as fast as I could, because if I was waiting a year in between for each new installment: Heaven help.

Have you read The Lunar Chronicles? Who's your favorite character from the series? Favorite couple? I'm here for the fandom. Let's talk all about it. What book surprised you with how much you enjoyed it?

North Carolina

Hello again! Three posts in one week, can you even believe it? You know, when I started this blog, posting three times a week was the norm. Ha! That didn't last. But I'm very determined to get caught up this year and end 2022 with all the books I've read neatly recapped and logged here so we can start 2023 fresh. 

But today we're not talking about books: I'm chronicling our trip to the Outer Banks in North Carolina which was the special thing we did to check this state off in our endeavor to #SeeAll50. If you're not sure what this #SeeAll50 is about: my husband and I have a goal of visiting all 50 of these United States and doing something unique to each state when we visit (so driving through a state doesn't count towards the goal). We had done a bit of traveling together to visit family and what not, but we didn't officially start working toward this goal until November of 2016 when we drove down to the Keys to check Florida off the list to kickstart this venture. After we visit a state, I record it here on the blog, and I also create a spread in my scrapbook. North Carolina is our 15th state which puts us 30% of the way toward our goal. What with the global pandemic and all, this whole thing has been on hold since our last state trip to Maryland and Delaware in October of 2019, but since moving to NC last year, it was the natural next state to check off our list!

2015

We're obviously no strangers to the Tar Heel State. We've visited North Carolina together nearly every year of our marriage, and now we even live here. Prior to moving here, I thought we might visit the Biltmore Estate while the tulips are in bloom as our special North Carolina thing. But now the Biltmore is practically in our backyard and I even delivered there while I was working for Amazon so that kindof took the bloom out of that idea. It would have been like going to Disney World as our Florida thing. So instead, we decided to drive eight hours out to the Outer Banks and explore the Wright Brothers National Memorial.

We made the drive out early on May 20th, and rolled into Nags Head right at lunchtime where we went to Tortuga's Lie for lunch and the most delicious key lime pie we had all weekend. We then headed over to the memorial and spent the rest of the afternoon taking in all the exhibits, walking the distance of Orville and Wilbur's first four historic flights, and climbing the hill up to where the monument is erected.

I call this next sequence "First in Flight: A Progression".

We really enjoyed this little national park. The museum is colorful and engaging, and the way they've set up the grounds, flight markers, and monument is all very interactive and fun. We learned a lot and would recommend a visit. 

After we had our fill of the Wright Brothers National Memorial, we got checked into our hotel where our balcony opened out on this:

Ahhh, my happy place. We unpacked, took naps, got cleaned up, then headed out to a little pizza place called American Pie. Highly recommend. This is maybe the best pizza we've ever had in our lives. And we like our pizza. We weren't super impressed with their ice cream (which they're also famous for), but the pizza was off the chain. That night, we relaxed at our hotel and watched The Amazing Spider-Man. 

The next day we spent reading on the beach, swimming in the hotel pool, going to lunch at The Black Pelican, watching The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and just relaxing together. The Black Pelican was a fun spot. It's a historic building and has lots of fun Wright Brothers memorabilia and great food. 

That night, we wanted ice cream, but all the local places were closed by 7 so we ventured to the lone Dairy Queen and I think every single person in the OBX was there. We got our ice cream though and headed back to the hotel to crash for the night.

Sunday morning, we got up and had breakfast, got packed up and checked out, stopped back by the Wright Brothers National Memorial for a few souvenirs, and then headed home. 

It was a quick weekend, but it was the perfect way to celebrate our 10th Anniversary, and we owe a big Thank You to my parents for surprising us with this trip and Cody's mom for sending us spending money for all our meals and souvenirs. We had a wonderful time, and I hope we get to go back. OBX is gorgeous and there are so many more fun things to do there.

North Carolina : done.

Have you ever visited North Carolina? What's one of your big bucket list goals?

A Word for Wednesday

"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. 

But that is not for them to decide. 

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

~from The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien~

Let's Bust a Recap : The Lord of the Rings

Y'all. I know I wrote a novel-length post on Friday, and today we're diving right back in with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. These are the books I have finished the most recently, but I am ready to talk about them, and I can't promise that this will be a concise post either. So for that, sorry. But also: not sorry. 

Also, we're definitely going into spoiler territory with this one. The Hobbit is 85 years old and The Return of the King is nearly 70, so I don't feel too bad about this, but if you've been holding out on this classic saga to read it for yourself: reader beware.

And while we're issuing warnings, we're going on a deep dive into my history with Lord of the Rings so if you're not interested: I get it. 

Why all the drama for these books, Hannah? Fair question. It goes way back for me, so buckle up.

Way back when I started this blog, I talked about my LIFE LIST OF BOOKS I WANT TO READ BEFORE I DIE. It's a real thing and it's very serious and The Lord of the Rings has had a permanent and prominent spot on it since I was a literal child. I grew up loving C.S. Lewis. My dad read us The Chronicles of Narnia before we could embrace them for ourselves. I wrote papers on Lewis in high school and college. And his books even now show up on every single annual book list I make for myself. He and Tolkien are inseparable in my mind, and I've been equally aware of The Lord of the Rings since I was very young. I've read The Hobbit and loved it. But for whatever reason, The Lord of the Rings has always intimidated me. I'm not sure if it's the sheer length, my history with the film franchise (don't worry, we're getting to that), or the fact that the few times I tried to start reading it, I gave up very quickly. But this trilogy definitely falls in the Big Fish category, and I had a hard time pulling the trigger. (And yes, we mix metaphors around here. I apologize for that, too.) I have literally pulled them off the shelf every single year since I started making my book lists, and every single year, they haven't made the cut and have gone back to their spot on the shelf. 

Every. Single. Year.

But 2022 is the year that all changed. I attribute this in part to the fact that my sister-in-law read them last year, and I had a serious case of FOMO over it. So this year, they were the first books I pulled and they were non-negotiable. I pulled The Hobbit as well, just because I know it and I love it and I figured it would be a good way to ease into Middle-earth before tagging along on Frodo's epic adventure. My husband committed to reading them, too, because he's been in the same boat with me of wanting to read them but putting it off. He even borrowed his sister's copies so we wouldn't have to share. 

Speaking of my husband, let's go ahead and circle back to my experience with the movies. Peter Jackson's blockbuster adaptations of this trilogy were coming out while I was in high school, and at first I couldn't be bothered with them at all. I didn't want to watch them without having read the books. And on top of that, I wasn't dying to watch a bunch of bloody orc wars, and elves and dwarves and other mythical creatures on this quest. So while all my friends and my brothers were wearing these movies out and dying for the next installment, I was just living my life, you know? 

But when The Return of the King came to theaters, the family I was nannying for at the time was beyond excited to see them and convinced me to go with them. So I brilliantly decided to try to marathon the first two before we went to see it. 

Bad idea. 

I cannot emphasize this enough: if you've never seen these movies, take them slowly. I couldn't stay awake, and finally had my brother give me the Cliffs Notes version right before leaving to see the culmination of Peter Jackson's paramount work in the cinema.

I was so lost. I had no idea what was going on, and I stood up to leave the theater no less than three times because I sincerely thought the movie had ended. I volunteered to do every single bathroom run with the kids and after we left, I wrote the movies off forever. 

Fast forward eight years, and now I am dating my husband. These are his favorite movies. And I'm not saying it would have been a dealbreaker for him if I had refused to watch them, but I'm also not saying it wouldn't have been. Ya feel me? He tells me that I'm going to watch them and not only that, I'm going to watch the extended versions. There are extended versions?! Oh yes. And that's what I was going to watch if I wanted to stay in this relationship. So for one whole week shortly after we started dating, I went to his house every single night and we watched half a movie at a time with his younger siblings. After each part was over, they would all quiz me on what was going on and who the characters were and ask me how I felt about every single aspect of the story.

Y'all. When I say that is one of the all-time best weeks of my entire life, I'm not kidding. I fell in love with the story, the movies, the actors: all of it. I gave them to Cody for his birthday the first year of our marriage, and we watch them at least once a year. And now my husband and I have been happily married for ten years so there's that. 

Hannah, for the love of Frodo, are you ever going to get to the point? That's fair. 

If you're unfamiliar with The Lord of the Rings, it is the tale of a fellowship of men, hobbits, a wizard, a dwarf, and an elf who undertake the mission to destroy the One Ring of power in order to prevent the dark lord Sauron from taking over Middle-earth to rule by his wicked power. It was meant to be a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book entitled The Hobbit, but it grew into something much bigger. In The Hobbit, we get to go with Bilbo Baggins on his adventure to win a share of treasure being hoarded by the dragon Smaug. In The Hobbit, Bilbo acquires the One Ring, and in The Lord of the Rings, he passes it to his cousin Frodo who ultimately ends up destroying it and saving all of Middle-earth in doing so. Tolkien is considered a pioneer and authority on the high fantasy genre, and The Lord of the Rings is one of the best-selling books ever written with over 150 million copies sold. 

And let me tell you: with good reason. 

My husband and I eventually decided to just read them aloud together, and we loved them. I wanted to hit these right out of the gate while my resolve to read them was high, so The Hobbit was the first novel I read this year, and upon finishing it I immediately started The Fellowship. But after the first chapter, I stalled. I wanted something cozy and familiar while the world outside was wrapped in snow, and then I had to read books for book club, and I ended up setting The Fellowship aside. Cody started it as well, and also stalled. Sometime towards the end of February or early March, we decided to join forces and read them aloud, and while that meant going through them more slowly because we had to wait for times that we could be together to read, it was the best decision. It feels like a fitting way to get my introduction to the books reading them with the man who made me fall in love with the story in the first place. And we both now have an even deeper affection for this story. By the time we came to the final chapter last week when Frodo leaves Samwise to go to the Grey Havens, I was sobbing so hard Cody had to take over reading. This story is so beautiful and powerful, and I truly cannot say enough good things about it. I am genuinely sorry I didn't read The Lord of the Rings sooner in life because it's a book I would have already read again. 

As for the movie adaptations, Peter Jackson did a magnificent job with them. I was a little worried that my love for The Lord of the Rings adaptations was misplaced after Cody and I went to see the first two Hobbit movies and hated them. (I was so angry after the second one, I still have never seen the third one.) But he was much more faithful to the books for The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the care with which he handled it shines through. We can still enjoy the movies after reading the books which is a relief. And hilariously, after reading The Return of the King, I'm now disappointed at how rushed the ending of the movie is. I'm not sure why Jackson decided to give Aragorn such a struggle with his identity; in the books Aragorn is very sure of himself and his place in life, and he is the undisputed leader of the Fellowship unlike in the films where it seems more like Gandalf holds that role. I wish he would have done better by Faramir and Éowyn, and I'm disappointed that Beregond was not portrayed at all in the films, but overall, a fantastic effort to bring this epic to life. 

It's very hard to choose a favorite character overall from this brilliant tale, but after being immersed in Middle-earth and becoming more intimately involved with every character for the better half of this year: my love and esteem for Master Samwise Gamgee is unmatched and unrivaled. He is the true Hero among heroes, and I will love him till the day I die. (And maybe even after. I think these books have possibly won a spot in Heaven.) I'm so glad I went to Middle-earth this year, and I hope to go back before my life is through. This trilogy gets all the stars and my highest recommendation with the advice to push through The Fellowship (it was a little slow to get started) because it just keeps getting better and better. 

Have you read (or seen) the Lord of the Rings? Who is your favorite character? And what books have you been reading lately?

Casual Fridays

Wow. It has been a hot minute since we've caught up around here. I think this is the longest I've gone without blogging since I started this whole thing, and let me tell you: the temptation to just throw in the towel is real because there is a stack of books waiting to be recapped sitting in my little home library and some of them still date back to last summer. We're doing great. I'm sneaking this post in today so that when I look back at the blog archives, it will seem like I only missed one month instead of three which is the actual truth because the two posts I published in May were technically scheduled and ready to go in April. Oy to the vey. Let's ease back in with a chatty Casual Friday, shall we?

First of all: hi. This is what we look like in case you forgot. And if you missed it, we've been North Carolina residents for over a year now. So this photo is basically in our back yard. We are nestled right in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains and sandwiched between a national forest and a state forest. There's a waterfall around every corner.

And speaking of living in NC now: it snows here, y'all. We got nearly two feet of snow in January and we didn't know what to do with ourselves. I'm sure our neighbors thought we were crazy because we were outside playing in it like a couple of kids. We were sledding down all the roads in our neighborhood, laughing and squealing like we were ten years old. All Cody's winter wonderland dreams came true, and you know what? Sitting inside by a cozy fire drinking something hot and reading a good book while there is a blizzard outside is not a bad life. Driving in it was terrifying, but we survived. 

In April, we went down to Myrtle Beach, SC for my littlest sister-from-another-mister's wedding. Funnily enough, this was the first time we've ever taken our dogs to the beach, and I think Cody had the most fun he's ever had on a beach in his life. Meggy was a beautiful bride, and her reception turned into a mini-Class of '06 reunion for me which was fun. I also convinced two of my BFFs to share an Airbnb with me so the whole weekend was basically one big party.

Also in April, my baby had a baby. I can't. I'm very "in my feels" about it, and you better believe I immediately drove down to Georgia to snuggle that little man. 

And speaking of being "in my feels" (as the kids say), my best friend and her babies came to visit a few weeks ago and I took her oldest out for a little date to one of my favorite spots and don't mind me crying into my Dr. Pepper over here while I stroll down memory lane remembering the day she was born. She's totally a teenager now and an amazing artist and writing her own books and somebody please stop time, for the love. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go back to May... 

...in May, I got to exercise my constitutional right to vote in the 2022 primaries. This was my first opportunity to vote as a resident of North Carolina. I'm so very grateful to live in a country where I'm afforded this opportunity. Even though politics and politicians can make me want to bang my head against a wall sometimes, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. God bless America. 

Also in May, Cody and I celebrated ten years of marriage. I actually got back into my wedding dress and my husband patiently indulged my request for a mini-backyard photo shoot. We watched our wedding video together, looked at photos, and went on our traditional date to Barnes & Noble and the Melting Pot. We also officially checked North Carolina off on our goal to #SeeAll50, but that's a post for another day. May is a crazy month always, and I blame my blogging failure entirely to that fact. Just in our immediate family, we celebrate three anniversaries and four birthdays. My brother and sister came in to celebrate our Mom's 60th birthday, but I have been strictly forbidden from posting the photos I took with them online. Oh wait! We did take a nice family photo at the Olive Garden. So here's that:

May also turned out to be my last month delivering packages for Amazon. I made it almost a full year. It was a good job, but I don't miss it. After a few too many less-than-safe driving experiences and being so entirely exhausted on all my days off, my husband and I decided the cons were starting to outweigh the pros of me having this job, and I gave my bosses my notice. I had great bosses, and delivering packages in the mountains of Western North Carolina certainly whipped my body into shape. I don't know if I would necessarily recommend being a delivery driver, but God provided for us through this job and I'm glad I was able to do it while it lasted. 

The first weekend of June saw us on a roadtrip to my beautiful Florida. Two of our nieces were having their first dance recital and there was no way we were going to miss cheering on those tiny dancers. We, of course, had to spend an afternoon with our boy, my sisters and I went to the beach for a day, and I got together with my book club. It was a jam-packed weekend trying to see as many people as we could and do as many of our favorite things as possible. (You know I came home with a stack of books from The Book Shelter.)

As I already alluded to, my best friend and her kids came for a visit the first week of July. Auntie Hannah had all the fun catching up with these babies. Our 4th of July fireworks got rained out, but that couldn't keep us down. We ate a lot of food, played a lot of games, and had a lot of fun. 

Y'all. I have a bush of the most gorgeous purple hydrangeas in my yard. Let me start this section off by saying I have the blackest of black thumbs. My house is where plants come to die. But these hydrangeas have been blooming on their own like crazy this summer and it has brought me no end of joy. 

And while we're on the subject of nature, deer and bunnies and all kind of fun animals hang out in our yard. We see them on a daily basis. There is also a mama black bear with two small cubs that have been making the rounds in our neighborhood, but I haven't caught them on camera yet. I tell ya: it's a whole new world for me up here in NC. We've gone from lizards and sand hill cranes and gators to woodland creatures, and it's a fun change. 

And one more backyard photo. Because apparently I'm turning into my mother and taking pictures of things like spiderwebs. Here's a handy link to when I recapped Charlotte's Web on the blog. You're welcome. 

Last week we celebrated my Gramma's 89th birthday. And because we are so redneck and Polk County people till the day we die, we stuck a giant match in her cake when we couldn't find any birthday candles. Gramma and I have been alone on the mountain a lot this summer because my parents and Cody have had to travel a lot for work and having her all to myself has been really special. We have a standing Wheel and Jeopardy date each night which basically keeps me going while Cody's away. 

Are you still with me? I know: this has been a lot. But that's what's been going on around here lately. I also have to tell you that Cody read Little Women (one of my all-time favorite books) and watched all three of our movie adaptations with me this summer. He loved the book, and was properly indignant over the liberties taken in the films. His favorite was actually the newest adaptation starring Saoirse Ronan as Jo. 

Anyway, I leave you with this photo of my puppies, because aren't they just the sweetest? Be on the lookout for some actual book recaps coming your way next week, and drop me a line telling me how your year has been going!

Ten Years

 Happy Anniversary, my Cody Aaron!

For me, it's you.

Let's Bust a Recap : The Elephant in the Room

(It's actually a little ridiculous how much time I spent trying to balance those elephants on top of each other for this photo.)

But anyways, let's start this post off with a little True or False.

True or False: It's May 2nd and we're still recapping books I read last year.

Answer: True. But after today's post, I think we're down to four books read in 2021 that I'm still planning to recap. So...progress?

This surprise book showed up one day in my mailbox from my best friend, and I sat down to read it pretty much immediately. Given that it was right before Christmas and I was down to the wire with my unread book bingo, this book filled the "a book bought for the cover" slot. Even though I didn't technically buy it (I had not even heard of it), I definitely would have upon sight (which is why my best friend sent it to me), and even if I had absolutely hated it (I loved it!), it would have sat on my shelf for the rest of time just for that perfect cover. Elephants are my favorite animal, and actually the book I was planning to read for the bingo card was another book I had bought with an elephant on the cover (still haven't read that one). 

But enough about me and my love affair with the most majestic creatures God ever created: on to the recap.

The Elephant in the Room is a brand new middle grade book by Holly Goldberg Sloan. It just came out in March of last year. In it, we meet Sila who's mom has been in Turkey for almost a year trying to clear up an immigration issue. Through the course of the novel, Sila and her dad befriend Gio, a widower who recently won the lottery, and because of this friendship, Gio ends up purchasing Veda the elephant from a traveling circus. Sila and her new friend Mateo end up spending their summer at Gio's helping out with Veda. 

This book tackles some heavy topics—loss, friendship, immigration, autism, animal welfare, injustice—but it does so with a hopefulness and joy that were absolutely irresistible. I loved every word. I loved Sila and Mateo's friendship. I loved Gio's generosity. And I absolutely loved Veda. 

Holly Goldberg Sloan actually got her start writing, producing, and directing movies. She was the first woman to direct a live action film for Disney when she wrote and directed The Big Green (one of my favorites) in 1995. Her first novel was published in 2011, and her second novel (Counting By 7s) has won or been nominated for a whole slew of awards. I don't know how she's completely missed my radar for so long, but I'm so glad my friend sent me this book, and I'll definitely be following her from now on. 

100% would recommend The Elephant in the Room. It was so sweet, and it's one I'd definitely read again.

What's your favorite animal and do you have a favorite book featuring that animal?