Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Obsidian in Paperback

Read from December 26 to December 30

I know my reading page said I was still reading Days of Blood and Starlight, but I had to set that one aside because I just wasn't getting into it. Maybe it was because it didn't quite live up to the first book, or maybe I just needed a break from that world, but I had to put it back into the rotation of books to read. And in the mean time, I picked up Obsidian.

I can't say it was recommended by anyone, but my favorite book vlogger has talked about it, and when I saw the first two books on sale on Amazon, I jumped at the chance to get them. Because I'm addicted to buying books, of course. I'm sure you guys have figured that out by now. Anyway, I started reading it with only a vague idea of what it was about. Something about hot aliens living next door. I wasn't really paying attention while I read it, either. I just sort of picked it up when I felt like reading, and didn't invest much effort into it. It was good, but for what I could tell it was not the best thing I had ever read.

But then something surprising happened. I found myself picking it up a lot. I read it during commercial breaks while watching my favorite drama (Spring Waltz, if you're curious), I read it before passing out at bedtime,  and any other moment I could convince myself it was okay to read -- meaning not a work, unfortunately.

There was just something about the main character, Katy, and how she reacted to everything. Honestly, the whole story was just a tiny bit like Twilight, but better. Sure, it was about a teenage girl who moves to a small town and meets a hotter-than-humanly-possible teenage boy and things happen. The differences were many, and I think the author of Obsidian handled the whole thing a lot better than Stephenie Meyer did. The biggest reason I say this is because Katy, unlike Bella, doesn't take any crap from anyone. She is a spunky teenager who kind of reminds me of myself, and even as she is physically attracted to the main guy, Daemon, she refuses to let that physical attraction get in the way of telling him off when he's being a jerk.

And he's a jerk to her a lot. He definitely runs hot and cold around her, but after reading the whole thing, including the bits of bonus chapters at the end that are told from his point of view, it all makes sense. He is a whole person, a well rounded character who acts consistent with his personality. He's not going to be my favorite book guy, no matter how gorgeously he's described, but he feels like a real character, and that's what counts.

The world building was great, the plot flowed fairly well, and the language wasn't horrible. It had it's moments of being overly flowery when describing how Katy felt about Daemon, but it did so in a way that made sense, so it can be forgiven.

My favorite part of it all? The fact that Katy saved the day in the end. Other than the obvious ones like Hunger Games and Divergent, it's been my experience that if there is a guy who can do everything and is hotter than hot, he's going to be the one saving the day, even if it's from the girl's point of view. Sure, the girl sometimes helps, but that's about it. With this one, not only did Katy save the day once, but she did it twice.

And then there's a little something at the end of the book that made me squeal and want to read the sequel, Onyx. It's a spoiler so I'm not going to say more, but it was really good and well done.

Rating: Keeper. Possibly Re-readable.

Have you read anything where you didn't like the guy but you could understand why the girl did? How about when you couldn't understand why the girl liked the guy? Tell me about it in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

You, Who Came from the Stars

In the void left by The Heirs ending on SBS here in S. Korea, a new drama has started. In Korean it's 별에서 온 그대, and the English translation is You, Who Came from the Stars. Since I needed a new drama to watch, and now had my Wednesday/Thursday drama slot open, and because the ever handsome Kim Soohyun is the star, I decided on this particular drama. And from the first moment I knew I had chosen right.

Sometimes it takes me a few episodes to really get into a drama. Sure, the handsome guys sort of keep me coming, just to watch them, but after getting through the first few episodes the actual story and other characters have to interest me, or else I stop watching. And with Stars, man. It was love at first sight.

The story is about an alien who came to Earth -- and S. Korea -- 400 years ago and has been living in S. Korea, waiting for the next opportunity to return home. Except he has now fallen in love with the biggest Hallyu star in Korea. At least, that's the story. He hasn't fallen for her yet. If you're curious, Hallyu is the word used to describe the wave of Korean media spread throughout most of Asia and some of the world. Like K-Pop and the K-Dramas. I have a blog post about that planned for the future.

So far, I've only see tfour episodes of this new drama, so I can't really explain what it is that has me so enthralled. Other than Kim Soohyun, I mean. I haven't see enough to figure it out myself. I know that I like the female lead, which is important in my book, and I really like the worldbuilding that has been done to give Kim Soohyun super powers, but aside from that, I can't put it into words. I just love it.

Sometimes drama episodes can seem really long. Well, they are really long, compared to American TV. And sometimes it is kind of boring, so I glance at the clock to see how much time I have left. Or it's really exciting and I want to check the clock to see how much time I have left. Either way, I'm looking at the clock to see how much time I have left.

During thee out of four of the episodes I've watched so far, my eyes have been so glued to the screen I haven't even thought to look at the clock. Which of course leads to surprise and a little bit of outrage when the episode ends seemingly out of the blue because I wasn't paying attention to the time. But the drama is just too good to complain about something like that. The fourth episode was just tad boring, with a lot of talking and discussing a death that happened. 

I highly recommend watching this drama, at least so far. There are still seventeen episodes to go, but I have a feeling it will continue to be good. And who doesn't want to watch Kim Soohyun and his amazing acting? (You can't see it, but I'm smiling like a goof just thinking about Kim Soohyun.)

What K-Drama are you currently watching? Tell me about it in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

Wicked or How I Rejoined the Civilized World

Sunday I went with a friend up into Seoul to see Wicked. It was my first time in at least three years going to see a musical or anything else shown in a real theater -- other than The Nutcracker two Christmas' ago -- and the first time I've seen Wicked. I've heard a lot about it, and for a very long time, but since it's never been showed near where I've lived, then I haven't had a chance to go see it. And while the tickets were a tad expensive, as Broadway or Off-Broadway tickets are wont to be, I jumped at the chance to get a good dose of sophistication and culture. I may be a nerd and a giggly fan girl and a military woman, but I'm also a woman who enjoys things like art museums, orchestral concerts, and musicals.

Going into Wicked, I wasn't sure if it would be in English or Korean. All the advertisements for it that I had seen on the TV showed clips from the original Broadway cast, and there was nothing I could find anywhere that gave me a clue, at least until we got to the theater and saw the posters of the actors, who were all Korean. Also beforehand, I didn't know anything about the story. I knew that it was supposed to be a prequel to the Wizard of Oz, and I knew it was from the Wicked Witch's perspective, but that was all I knew.

I'm not going to try to explain what it's about, because I tried to tell my mom about it, and I think it all came out wrong. So I'll just say it was amazing. The story was exactly the kind of story that I love to hear about, and the stage was phenomenal. I'm really not used to seeing stages like that. I usually can't afford $60+ tickets so I used to go to high school musicals and local theaters, and their stages wouldn't be able to even come close to everything the Charlotte Theater did for Wicked. And the costumes were beautiful and very colorful and really showed off the characters' personalities quite well. And the VOICES. Oh heavens the voices were just amazing. I don't normally like female singers, particularly Korean female singers, but the woman who played Elphaba -- the Wicked Witch -- had such a beautiful, full voice.

The only problem I had was the entire musical was in Korean, and I've said this before, my Korean isn't all that great. I understood enough to know what was going on, but there were some parts where I missed things and so didn't understand motivations and the like. And with no previous experience with the show, I had no frame for reference. But with that said, I did understand more than I had expected, which was a pleasant surprise.

There are a few more musicals I want to see that are either playing right now or will be playing in January and February. It will be expensive, but I've been craving sophistication -- especially surrounded by unsophisticated military men -- for so long that I think I can pull together enough money to pull it off. So in the next couple of months I'm going to go see S. Korea's production of Ghost, The Three Musketeers, and The Moon Embracing the Sun, which is based on a Korean drama which in turn is based on a Korean novel. And I loved the drama, and am trying to read the book, so of course I have to go see the musical!

Do you enjoy musicals and concerts? If so, what was the last one you went to? Tell me about it in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

Winter

So winter is finally here in the wonderful country of South Korea. There’s snow on the ground, the average temperature is in the teens, and people are slipping and sliding on the ice like it’s a skating ballet. It’s been a long time since I lived through a real winter, and I've discovered I really like winter. Yeah, it’s cold, it’s slick, and it’s really cold, but still. It’s beautiful.

On the way home from work on Thursday, it was snowing. It was the big, fluffy kind of snow that muffles everything in the world. It was late in the evening as it was, so there few people out and about, and with the snow and my thick, heavy coat the whole world was quiet and peaceful. It was beautiful, and atmospheric, and so many other words that I can’t think of that would adequately describe how I felt walking home. 

I haven't really been able to appreciate the beauty of winter in a long while. Several years, at least. Yes, each Christmas for the last two years I've spent time at home in Iowa with my family, but one of those years it didn't snow very much, and the other year I wasn't really paying much attention. And the year before that I was getting ready to joining the military so I wasn't really focused on the world around me, the year before that we were in Utah, and it's not always a White Christmas there. So to have all this snow and to have the time and opportunity to really enjoy it, it really makes me think.

It's moments like this that inspire me. Moments when I feel like I'm all alone in the world, isolated by the weather and shown a new way to look at things, either through fog or snow or rain or moonlight. It's a perfect time to reflect; on my life, and on my place in the world.

That sounds so philosophical and mature and grown up, but really while I'm walking through moments like these all I'm thinking is "This is so beautiful and peaceful and quiet, it's like there are no other annoying people disrupting my world. This is perfect for some story setting."

Winter is not my favorite season. That distinction goes to Autumn, although with the climate change there is becoming less and less of that everywhere. But for all the downsides to Winter, it really is a beautiful time of year and I wouldn't skip it for anything.

What is your favorite season and why? Tell me about it in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

K-Dramas or How The Heirs Blew Me Away

It's no secret that I love watching Korean Dramas. Not many Westerners do, so whenever I talk about them at work I always get people telling me how dumb or clique or silly or any other adjective that described their dislike. But for me, K-Dramas are a refreshing breeze and are much cleaner than most American TV. There are some American shows that I like, but a lot of stuff now a days are either full of things I don't want to watch or have been going on forever and there is no way I'd be able to watch it all.

K-Dramas though, only last one season of 16-24 episodes. They are like a novel, one story that has a beginning and an end, instead of a series of mini stories that have no ending. I don't get to watch them much anymore, after arriving in S. Korea, because the website I normally watch them on doesn't have the rights to play them in Korea. However, I do get to watch a few when they are playing live. While this is a lot of fun and keeps me from marathoning them like I have in the past, there is the downside of no subtitles, and my Korean isn't that great. It's good enough, but not great.

So far, I've watch two dramas as they aired. The first one was called Two Weeks, and started Lee Min Ki as a former gangster who gets framed for a very violent murder and has to escape the police and the gangsters who want him dead long enough for him to go through a surgery that will save the life of his daughter. It was a very emotional drama and it had a great ending.

Then I watched The Heirs. There was so much expectation going into this drama. First the lead male was played by Lee Min Ho, who is a very popular, very tall, and very handsome actor from the likes of Boys over Flowers and City Hunter. Then the lead male's older brother was played by an actor I recently noticed and fell in love with because of his FANTASTIC deep voice (I'm a sucker for deep voices; must have been all that late night NPR) and his absolutely brilliant smile -- when he happens to smile, anyway. Then there was the second string male, Kim Woo Bin from one of the School dramas, who also has a deep voice and this exotically handsome face that I wasn't sure about at first but fell head over heels for by the end of the show.

What made me love this drama, other than the wonderful male cast, was the writers turned most of K-Drama stereotypes head over tail. Main guy was good, second string was jerk. Main guy's (real) mom was good. Horrible girl rival mellowed by the end. Etc. Yes, this is a drama about rich teenagers, so there's a lot of pettiness and  teenager-y things, but half the time  the teenagers were all making mature choices and decisions, and then dealing with the consequences like adults. For the most part, anyway. Lee Min Ho had a moment of weakness where he just self-destructed, which was really hard to watch.

But there was a lot of themes of different kinds of love, repairing relationships, and family throughout the whole drama, as well as a good thread of becoming better people and learning to get along. It was so phenomenal that I will most definitely buy it and watch it again, and this time hopefully be able to understand a lot more about motivations and the like, most of which I missed because they used vocab I am not familiar with.

If anyone wants to watch a good, cutesy romance that is a refreshing change from most out there, this is the one to watch.

The only problem I really had was with the English in the first two episodes, which are set in L.A. S. Korea's idea of what American's are like is really sad and depressing.

Have you seen The Heirs? Have you seen anything else with the main actors, Lee Min Ho and Park Shin Hye? Tell me what you thought in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor

Read from December 10 to December 12.

Now this is the kind of book I love to read. Where the language is beautiful and lyrical and evocative, almost on the verge of becoming Purple Prose. This is also the kind of book I want my novels to be like.

The beginning was... interesting. There were a few things that I raised my eyebrows at, but they were quickly over and I moved past them. After that, everything was a wild, mysterious, and wildly beautiful ride towards the end. I loved how except for a few scenes, the entire book was set in Prague, which is not a usual setting for a young adult novel. And one one scene out of the whole thing was in the United States. A certain aspect, not unlike one I made up a month ago for my own trilogy, gives the book the world as its stage.

The story was just fabulous. I was thrown for a loop on several twists, although I did predict one big one pretty far in advance. It was a story unlike anything I've ready before, and in YA that's always refreshing. Because like it or not YA tends to recycle the same story with different settings and characters. It has nothing to do with the lack of imagination of the writers and everything to do with the market. Teens tend to read the same type of story, gobbling up as much as they can get of what they like. And so the publishers try to churn out as much as they can of that kind of story until the market gets overrun with the same story. It's the nature of the game. So when I find something that is unique, a trend starter if you will, I always get a little thrill. This is something new, something original.

There were a couple of things I had a tiny problem with. One; There was no such thing as an average looking person. Everyone was beautiful or hideous. There was no in between, which isn't like real life at all. Mind you, this is a fantasy though and through, and there were definite reasons for the beauty and horror, but at the same time, it would have been nice to have at least a few characters who were normal. Two; It seems like writers don't know how to do real first aid.

Let me elaborate. In Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children one of the characters get's shot in the shoulder area. At least, that's the impression I got with the description. The other characters put a tourniquet on him. In Daughter of Smoke and Bone, a character get's mauled from "collarbone to bicep" and another character puts a tourniquet on him. Now, I'm not an expert, but I have been certified in professional level first aid before (years ago). And you don't put tourniquet's on injuries on those locations. It's physically impossible. So either I am imagining the injuries wrong, or the authors didn't do their research properly.

Those two things were minor compared to all the good things about this beautiful, haunting novel.

Rating: Re-Readable.

Have you read a book where the author didn't do their research and you could tell? What book was it? Tell me about it in the comments!

Have you read Daughter of Smoke and Bone? If you have, tell me what you thought in the comments.

Thanks for reading!

I Should Have Known

So sometimes I bite off more than I can chew. I'm just going to go ahead and say that right now. Chances are, I'm probably not going to end up finishing 2014 with six novels. I'm going to try, but as commenter Melody pointed out, I'm at a pretty exciting time in my life and I should be LIVING life, not sitting holed up in my dorm room all day every day.

I'll give you a quick example of how things usually go.

For NaNoWriMo last month, I hit the 50k mark on the 21st. It was pretty exciting, but it was also a little depressing, because I wasn't even halfway done with the story and I only had a week and a half left in the month. Since I wanted to finish the novel before the end of the month, I set up this elaborate plan that involved writing between 6,000 and 9,000 words a day so that I would be able to finish on time. It was a little bit intense, but I figured I would be able to do it.

I was able to keep up with this plan for maybe two days. And that wore me out, so the next couple of days I wrote nothing. Which put me even further behind. So I set new, crazier goals to finish on time, and that worked for one day. And I exhausted myself and didn't write for another few days and then the month was over.

And since the end of the month, I haven't really touched it again. I need to, because I have to have it finished before the new year so that I can start my new story, but I have to recognize that I can't set ridiculously high goals for myself, because I won't be able to reach them.

And I think that is a good thing. Even in life, I always have high expectations and plans for things like college and jobs and stuff like that, and I usually make it too hard for myself, and nothing ends up actually getting done. As in everything, moderation is the key.

So I'm setting a new goal for myself and for the coming year (a little early, I know.) From now on, I'm going to do my best to keep my goals realistic so that I can actually reach these goals. If this means I have to adjust previously made goals (like my Six in 14 Project) then so be it. Because I want to be reached goals, and it is so much better to surpass goals than to fall short.

What are ways you keep goals realistic? I would love to hear about them in the comments!

Thanks for reading!