poppy done to death

poppy done to death
charlaine harris
aurora teagarden mysteries #8
fiction/mystery/thriller/romance
penguin group usa
published 2009

When Aurora finds her sister-in-law murdered in her home she discovers that people just weren't who she thought they were.

Finally, the last in the series.  At least for now.  Charlaine Harris has said she might revisit Aurora, but she makes no promises so as of now this is the last book.  The mystery in this book is sort of secondary.  It seemed like Harris planned on this book being the last so she was busy tying up loose ends and creating a 'happy' ending for Aurora.

I suppose this was a satisfying end to the series, though to be truthful I wasn't a huge fan of these books to begin with.  Aurora was snobby and self-centered.  There were times when I just didn't understand why she couldn't keep out of it, but then I guess that wouldn't make for a very exciting book, would it?  Though they weren't really that exciting...

things can get ... stressful

2021 has been a challenging year so far.  Seven and a half weeks in and Emma's probably been sick for 4 of those weeks.  First it was a cold, then some kind of stomach virus and then a UTI and now that UTI just won't go away.  She's been on antibiotics for 21 days so far with 9 more days to go.

Yay.

This time she took her dose in the morning and about 3 minutes later threw up.  We gave her water and another dose and she promptly threw that up.  After talking to a pediatrician (hers is on vacation) we decided to try an anti-vomiting medicine to try to get her to keep the antibiotic down.  Otherwise she has to go in and get a booster shot of antibiotic.  She had to have this last time she had a UTI a year ago and she STILL talks about it.  Every time we go to the doctor she asks if she's going to get a shot.  I so don't want to have to take her in to get a shot.

As she's throwing up for the third time in 2 hours this morning she was crying to me saying she just didn't want to be sick anymore.  I don't want her to be sick either.

Thankfully, Olivia wasn't cranky today, but she still needs attention and junk and Emma was feeling so awful it was going to be difficult to get her motivated to go to the store to get some Gatorade.  I mentioned that I needed to go out and get some Gatorade and 10 minutes later two friends showed up in my driveway with bottles of Gatorade and PowerAde in various flavors.

My friends are amazing.  Seriously.

last scene alive

last scene alive
charlaine harris
aurora teagarden mysteries #7
fiction/mystery/thriller/romance
penguin group usa
published 2009

In the first Aurora Teagarden book, Real Murders, Aurora teamed up with mystery writer Robin Crusoe to solve the murders.  Robin went on to write a book about the case and moved out to Hollywood.  Now he's back with an entire film crew to make the movie based on his book in Lawrencetown.  Aurora is less than happy about the film, especially because everyone wants to know who this quiet, rich, librarian is who the main character is based on.  And it turns out someone else doesn't want the movie to be made...

I discovered that while reading this book one of the main reasons I enjoy reading series is because I like getting to know the characters.  I like following a character throughout several installments.  They become people I know and I enjoy that.  Charlaine Harris has succeeded in spoiling that for me in almost every turn.  With the exception of very small bit characters she's continually removing characters who could possibly play a large part in Aurora's life.  I miss Martin & Angel.  Though Angel does make an appearance in this book, it's brief.

Nonetheless, the story took longer than usual to get going and there were quite a few times when I wanted Aurora to ditch her Southern manners and tell someone where to stick it.  But of course, she doesn't and that starts to get annoying.  The mystery itself was kind of blah.  I felt like this was more of a bridge book to show how she was getting over the loss of Martin and moving on.  There's one book left in the series and from all accounts this is the last one so I'm interested for sure to see how everything ends for Aurora, but I'm glad I'll be finishing up.

true blood: all together now

true blood: all together now, volume one
alan ball, david tischman, mariah huehner & david messina
graphics/horror
idw publishing
published 2011

Sookie & the rest of the regular cast are hanging around Merlotte's when a squid like monster traps them inside the bar killing patrons and forcing them to tell their stories of shame.

Oh.  My.  God.  This sucked SO HARD.  At first I thought, wow, Sookie and Bill are just as annoying in comic book form as they are in TV show form.  Then as I read more and more I realized that the entire book was shite.  Serious shite.

They tried to make it sound like Tara from the show, or Lafayette, Sam, Eric & Jason, but it didn't sound like any of them.  Nothing that came out of their cartoon mouths was anything I could imagine them saying on the show.  And certainly not the books.  wth.

I just can't get over how holy freaking horrible that was.  Poor Charlaine Harris.

dramacon

dramacon, volume one
dramacon, volume two
dramacon, volume three
svetlana chmakova
ya/graphics/romance
tokyopop
published 2005-2007

Christie attends her first Con with her jerk boyfriend who flirts with every cute cosplayer who stops by their table and treats her like dirt.  She runs into (literally) Matt in tears and he comforts her and so begins a sweet little love story set in Anime Con carnival.

I really, really like Svetlana's work.  I loved Nightschool and so I went out and found Dramacon just so I wouldn't be so sad to have finished Nightschool so quickly.  This story was fun, silly, cute and a couple of time a little serious.  I loved every single one of the characters, though I wish we could have found out what was wrong with the bitch at the next table in Volume Two.  Blech.

Cute cute cute overload.  But I love it.

tantalize: keiren's story

 
tantalize: kieren's story
cynthia leitich smith & ming doyle (artwork)
tantalize series
graphics/ya/horror/suspense/fantasy
candlewick press
published 2011

This is a retelling of the novel Tantalize, but from Kieren's point of view instead of Quincie's.  Kieren is a hybrid werewolf.  His family has to keep their were status a secret and in a few short weeks Kieren will be leaving to join a pack.  He's been putting off telling Quincie, his best friend and biggest crush, but when strange, bad things start happening in their town - all centered around Quincie's family restaurant - Kieren knows he can't leave until he makes sure Quincie is safe.

I wasn't a huge fan of the novel, but I thought it was kind of fun.  It seemed silly and I wasn't really sure if it was that way on purpose.  Reading this graphic novel I felt like they were trying really hard to be serious.  Somewhere in the retelling all the fun got left out and now it just seemed corny.

The artwork was definitely not my cup of tea.  I thought it looked awesome - from the cover, but the cover artwork was done by Sam Weber.  Newcomer Ming Doyle's style just isn't my favorite.

scott pilgrim is awesome like ninja

scott pilgrim series

scott pilgrim's precious little life

scott pilgrim vs. the world

scott pilgrim and the infinite sadness

scott pilgrim gets it together

scott pilgrim vs. the universe

scott pilgrim's finest hour

graphics/ya/fantasy/humor/romance

oni press

published 2004-2010

Scott Pilgrim is 24 without a care in the world.  'In between' jobs, dating a high school girl and in a band...how can life get any better?  Until Ramona Flowers starts skating through his dreams.  Then life gets a little complicated for a guy who is about as uncomplicated as you can get.  When he falls for Ramona and convinces her to go out with him he finds out if he wants to keep her he's got to fight all of her exes!  Is he up to the task?

Scott Pilgrim is hilarious!  I love the video game background that pops up every now and then.  Scott is an idiot, but he's a lovable idiot.  The supporting cast of characters are awesome.  They're almost better in the story than Scott!  I'm pretty sure I'd read a book about Kim.

There's always a couple of lines in each book that give me a chuckle out loud moment.  For instance, trying (against her better judgement) to help Scott find a job, Kim says to him 'Scott, if your life had a face, I would punch it.  I would punch your life in the face.'  Later on, Stephen Stills tells Scott, 'Scott, if you life had a face, I would punch it in the balls.  Seriously.'

Cute little one-liners that get me every time.  I haven't seen the movie, wanted to wait until I finally got around to reading these, but now that I have I'm not all that interested in seeing Michael Cera is Scott, but maybe I'll change my mind later on.  Right now I'm just going to enjoy the magna-influenced Scott.