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ryanreactsI figured now would be a fun time to talk about books because WHEN IS IT NOT.
Becoming by Michelle Obama, the last First Lady of the United States
Jorf has a copy, and I had just finished re-reading all three of the books I managed to bring with me when I moved in (my life is sad). It's divided into a preface, Becoming Me, Becoming Us, Becoming More, and an epilogue. I put it on hold after Becoming Us, because that ends with Barack getting elected, and it just makes me numb because they're gone and THIS is where we are now, so yeah, this is pretty much permanently on hold for a while, perhaps a quite long while.
Anyway, yes, she really is a terrific writer. She draws you into her own head and feel something for basically every person she talks about --- family, friends, acquaintances, teachers, whoever. And she has this effortless way of speaking that makes you wonder if the book just poured out of her, maybe because she had been wanting to write it for years, so she took notes on the stories she wanted to tell and told them when she had the time, then polished them up a bit and sent them to her editor and that was that.
Honestly, this was easier to put on hold be-cause I've been getting swept away by . . .
Sweep by Cate Tiernan
The third volume of the "omnibus" arrived, so that's books seven, eight, and nine. As of this writing, math says I have another sixty-three pages of the seventh book to go. I'm honestly kind of itching to hurry up and write this so I can turn off my laptop and keep reading.
These books are honestly even better than they were in high school. (Although I don't remember too much other than the general direction of the plot, certain scenes, odd moments here and there, etc.) The basic plot of the series goes, "Once Upon A Time, there was an Ordinary High School Nerd named Morgan, who accidentally got into Wicca because a cute new boy invited her even though she was flat-chested*, but then she found out she was a blood witch, who several other witches described as the most powerful witch they had ever seen, so a lot of Drama happened" for fifteen books.
I love them because in the first book all of the Wicca stuff is mostly accurate: getting in touch with nature, casting a circle, invoking the Goddess and the God, the four elements . . . and then Morgan's magick** starts to come out and she discovers that "blood witches," from the Seven Great Clans of Wicca (who may look like perfectly ordinary humans, but oh no: they can only breed with other blood witches), have all sorts of straight-up superpowers --- seeing in the dark, throwing fire, telekinesis, instantly cooling hot chocolate to a drinkable temperature, a ritual that's described as a Wiccan mind meld which conveniently gives Morgan some knowledge to go with all that more power than anyone's ever seen, rumors that shapeshifting is absolutely definitely probably real, whatever.
Like I said, all of the Wicca stuff is mostly accurate . . . but no one ever mentions that "Wicca" has only been a thing since circa the 1950s. Still, I really like how the Wicca side of magick is treated so respectfully, with even the non-blood-witch kids in the coven getting excited by the magick all around them. I guess in the context of this series, blood witches treat magick like a religion called Wicca, which they're apparently not great at keeping secret, because it has spread to normal humans, who do not have powers and are frequently weirded out by how many Morgan has.
It sounds like I'm mocking, and that's because I kind of am, but I really do love these books.
Animorphs #4: The Message by K. A. Applegate (and her husband, Michael Grant)
This basically jumped out at me from inside a Little Free Library, so I took it. Haven't read this copy yet, but I am excited because a lot of fun stuff happens. It's the first Cassie book, which starts with her dad almost catching her de-morphing from a squirrel; the first time they morph dolphins, which are the most fun of any morph ever; and this is the one where Ax joins the team after they save him from the bottom of the ocean. At the end he makes a human morph by mixing DNA from Cassie, Marco, Rachel, and Jake. Tobias is stuck in hawk morph, so he doesn't contribute.
These books were so weird, I love them. Just thinking about this one almost brings a tear to my eye. I'm so impatient to get my claws on the whole series and review them all. Why doth money not fall from the sky? Book money.
*Yes, Morgan laments the general flatness of her chest all the time. In book seven they go shopping in NYC and she gets a new camisole, then reminds the reader about her total lack of any need for a bra, etc. It's honestly hilarious.
**Yes, it's really spelled that way all the time every time forever after the first trip to a Wicca shop called Practical Magick, where she asks why the k and gets told that it's to distinguish magic magic from stage magic, and okay, yes, that is fine, but there is zero stage magic in any of these fifteen books (unless I'm really forgetting something) and it just annoys me a little bit.
Becoming by Michelle Obama, the last First Lady of the United States
Jorf has a copy, and I had just finished re-reading all three of the books I managed to bring with me when I moved in (my life is sad). It's divided into a preface, Becoming Me, Becoming Us, Becoming More, and an epilogue. I put it on hold after Becoming Us, because that ends with Barack getting elected, and it just makes me numb because they're gone and THIS is where we are now, so yeah, this is pretty much permanently on hold for a while, perhaps a quite long while.
Anyway, yes, she really is a terrific writer. She draws you into her own head and feel something for basically every person she talks about --- family, friends, acquaintances, teachers, whoever. And she has this effortless way of speaking that makes you wonder if the book just poured out of her, maybe because she had been wanting to write it for years, so she took notes on the stories she wanted to tell and told them when she had the time, then polished them up a bit and sent them to her editor and that was that.
Honestly, this was easier to put on hold be-cause I've been getting swept away by . . .
Sweep by Cate Tiernan
The third volume of the "omnibus" arrived, so that's books seven, eight, and nine. As of this writing, math says I have another sixty-three pages of the seventh book to go. I'm honestly kind of itching to hurry up and write this so I can turn off my laptop and keep reading.
These books are honestly even better than they were in high school. (Although I don't remember too much other than the general direction of the plot, certain scenes, odd moments here and there, etc.) The basic plot of the series goes, "Once Upon A Time, there was an Ordinary High School Nerd named Morgan, who accidentally got into Wicca because a cute new boy invited her even though she was flat-chested*, but then she found out she was a blood witch, who several other witches described as the most powerful witch they had ever seen, so a lot of Drama happened" for fifteen books.
I love them because in the first book all of the Wicca stuff is mostly accurate: getting in touch with nature, casting a circle, invoking the Goddess and the God, the four elements . . . and then Morgan's magick** starts to come out and she discovers that "blood witches," from the Seven Great Clans of Wicca (who may look like perfectly ordinary humans, but oh no: they can only breed with other blood witches), have all sorts of straight-up superpowers --- seeing in the dark, throwing fire, telekinesis, instantly cooling hot chocolate to a drinkable temperature, a ritual that's described as a Wiccan mind meld which conveniently gives Morgan some knowledge to go with all that more power than anyone's ever seen, rumors that shapeshifting is absolutely definitely probably real, whatever.
Like I said, all of the Wicca stuff is mostly accurate . . . but no one ever mentions that "Wicca" has only been a thing since circa the 1950s. Still, I really like how the Wicca side of magick is treated so respectfully, with even the non-blood-witch kids in the coven getting excited by the magick all around them. I guess in the context of this series, blood witches treat magick like a religion called Wicca, which they're apparently not great at keeping secret, because it has spread to normal humans, who do not have powers and are frequently weirded out by how many Morgan has.
It sounds like I'm mocking, and that's because I kind of am, but I really do love these books.
Animorphs #4: The Message by K. A. Applegate (and her husband, Michael Grant)
This basically jumped out at me from inside a Little Free Library, so I took it. Haven't read this copy yet, but I am excited because a lot of fun stuff happens. It's the first Cassie book, which starts with her dad almost catching her de-morphing from a squirrel; the first time they morph dolphins, which are the most fun of any morph ever; and this is the one where Ax joins the team after they save him from the bottom of the ocean. At the end he makes a human morph by mixing DNA from Cassie, Marco, Rachel, and Jake. Tobias is stuck in hawk morph, so he doesn't contribute.
These books were so weird, I love them. Just thinking about this one almost brings a tear to my eye. I'm so impatient to get my claws on the whole series and review them all. Why doth money not fall from the sky? Book money.
*Yes, Morgan laments the general flatness of her chest all the time. In book seven they go shopping in NYC and she gets a new camisole, then reminds the reader about her total lack of any need for a bra, etc. It's honestly hilarious.
**Yes, it's really spelled that way all the time every time forever after the first trip to a Wicca shop called Practical Magick, where she asks why the k and gets told that it's to distinguish magic magic from stage magic, and okay, yes, that is fine, but there is zero stage magic in any of these fifteen books (unless I'm really forgetting something) and it just annoys me a little bit.
