Urania

Review: A Dog’s Purpose by W Bruce Cameron

Posted by

1

dog's purposeThis book was so much better than I expected. I’m not really sure *what* I really expected…but this wasn’t it. I won’t say much about what happens as it’s a simple plot that would be very easy to give away. I will say this, it is a book that is written in very simple prose. I imagine a tween would have no problem reading and following along. Having said that, it’s still a beautiful story. It’s not in the writing, it’s in the telling and of the actual story itself. Dogs might seem to lead a simple life….especially dogs that have a *home*. But just like people…dogs seek purpose too….and without that purpose they are nervous and whiny…much like people 🙂 Once your dog figures out what his purpose is, there is nothing they won’t do to live out that purpose. Loyalty in that purpose is immeasurable. Yes, this is a simple, easy read…however, it will enlarge your heart and make you not just look at the next dog you see differently…hopefully it will make you happier and more satisfied with what you have….and yes, I hope it makes you a better person…if you’re very lucky, it will make you more dog-like 🙂

Until next time…

Urania xx

Buy it now A Dog’s Purpose by W Bruce Cameron

Review: When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

Posted by

0

engulfedMaybe it’s because I’ve heard him so often on BBC radio…but whatever the reason, Mr Sedaris is seriously growing on me. I loved this one! It’s the 3rd book I’ve read/listened to by him. Having him read the books so adds to the experience! I admit, after the first book (MTPOD) I wasn’t sure I was a fan….but after this one, I most definitely am! So funny and brutally honest! I would have to say, having DS as a close friend would be both exhausting and exhilarating! Did I mention how much I love this guy now?

I must warn you though, don’t read a DS book unless you are willing to hear random things that just pop into his head. They are not always appropriate. He dares to say what others only think….He makes no apologizes for who he is….and he doesn’t believe in political correctness when it comes to being an arse. If you are an arse he will not hesitate to tell you exactly that. If you are a such a complete moron, he will not hesitate to tell you and to ask you, LOUDLY, just how it is you manage to tie your shoes each morning…

If you can’t laugh at yourself, don’t bother picking up this book. If you’re offended easily, again, perhaps you should pass this one by…but if you understand sarcasm…and if you sometimes wish you had the courage to say exactly what everyone is thinking but too afraid to voice it aloud…well go on…pick it up….not only will DS be happy to voice it for you…he’ll do so in a very loud voice and have you laughing for more….He would be hard pressed to like, except for the fact that he is usually laughing at himself the most…

Until next time…

Urania xx

Buy it nowWhen You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

Review: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Posted by

0

*1***Spoilers without spoilers***

yea…you read that right…..

So I won’t go into the whole entire picking the novel apart bit by bit….there’s really no need for that….it’s been done waaaay too many times…..This book is studied in schools, banned in schools, made into an opera, a film and is on so many book lists it’s just insane….is it deserving of all of that hype? yea…I reckon it is….I read a quote funny enough whilst reading this book….A story came out in The Guardian and it went like this…

“Some books haunt the reader. Others haunt the writer. The Handmaid’s Tale has done both.”

Yea….I reckon I can see that too….it certainly has haunted me and I can see how Atwood would feel haunted as well….

So I am gonna skip all of that and just tell you….read the book. If you love it…well, you’ll be glad you did….but this is one you can hate and still be glad you read as well….there is so much to ponder here…I can’t see how you would regret not trying this one out….

I would just like to briefly touch on the ending…

Here is the spoiler not spoiler bit I mentioned at the start…..

So many people hated how it ended….I for one loved it….but I often do love those types of ending….

but further than that…..why did it end like that?

This is what I have pondered the most about….obviously Atwood wrote all of her musings AFTER the fact…so why did she stop…..we know that she must have survived at least for a bit after the novel ends, right? She cared enough to write what she did….why? Did she have hope? For Luke? The child? Mankind? Women? Herself???? Was she offering hope? Was she trying to tell everyone that there wasn’t hope? Why…why…why…..more importantly….why did she stop writing?

I wonder if she stopped because she lost all hope…..if without the slim light that her hope offered…well…if it all just extinguished for her…her writing…her hope….even her life….

or was that hope realised and she just chose to walk away from the memories of the past….

I’m pretty sure it’s one of the other….I don’t think in my mind there is any other way….I don’t believe she died in the midst of her writing…I don’t believe she lost the book….

I believe she walked either into that light…or away…

So it leaves me ponder….is there life if there is no hope?

Until next time…

Urania xx

Buy it now The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Review: The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice

Posted by

0

*1Although I’m far from an expert in regards to Anne Rice, this did not feel like an Ann Rice book to me. It seemed….errrrr….well….it just wasn’t complicated enough…The characters didn’t seem complex enough….and finally….errrr…and….it was boring….

I really enjoyed the first part of the novel…perhaps even the first two-thirds of the novel. It was entertaining and full of possibilities. I loved the take of the Wereman superhero aspect. The downfall in this novel for me was when the hero met the other weremen. As in real life it seems that if you put a group of old men together they just start rambling and telling stories…talking over themselves, each vying to be heard. It seemed to become repetitive and rambling. I lost complete interest in it at this point and just wanted it to end…I might have even nodded off a time or two…it was just so awful…it was so bad that I actually resented Rice a bit…She almost had me hooked and then, wham…she ended it with that and I regretted spending my money and my time on the entire novel….I’m 98.3% sure I won’t continue on with the series…

Until next time…

Urania xx

Buy it now The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice

Review: Carrots by Colleen Helme

Posted by

0

@@1I absolutely loved this book. Every word of it. I’ve found another series to make me laugh out loud. The characters were so much fun.

Basically you have a stay at home mom that takes a hard knock to the head and can suddenly read everyone’s thoughts. She finds herself involved in all sorts of mischief….including police investigations, murder attempts, mob bosses, and all sorts of other shady characters….including a young work associate that is trying to entice her her husband away. All the while she is trying to NOT read everyone’s thoughts….especially those of her husband’s and children’s’!

No, this isn’t a great masterpiece that will have you thinking about it for weeks after. It’s not complex and won’t keep you up pondering life late into the night…..But it will provide you some great entertainment and will let you happily escape *real life* for a few hours. It’s a quick, entertaining read…and I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series. From my understanding, they just continue to get better and better, and as I mentioned before…I absolutely loved every minute of this one…..

Come on….give it a try….it’s a brand new year and what better way to start then with a funny new series?

Until next time…

Urania xx

Buy it now Carrots by Colleen Helme

Review: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Posted by

0

*1Pride and Prejudice is one of my daughter’s favourite books. She has multiple copies and has read it more than a few times….I confess I did not read this book until I was an adult…shocking I know! However, to make up for lost time, I have now read it twice and I reckon I need to read it at least one more time! Since her birthday is coming up next week I wanted to post a review just for her…so here goes….

Ok, so I didn’t know anything about this book (yes, I know I know…sometime I feel as if I must live under a rock). I saw a great local play of it that really helped me out in following the book (This play was also the start of my daughter’s love affair with the novel). That’s it though. I haven’t read the book before now and I haven’t watched the movies, so I went into this blind. This review will be based on that fact! I haven’t read all the blogs and I am not an Austen fan that knows all the background history…Please keep that in mind if my review is way off base and ya wanna kill me 🙂

The first thing that comes to mind is what did Austen really think about “the dating scene” back then? The people who really stood out to me are the parents. Even the difference between the sisters themselves. You have one side that sees it all as a joke really and the other side that takes it to the extreme. I just had to wonder, was Austen making fun of society at large throughout the entire book? Pointing out how shallow people were (still are) and how easy it is just to make a quick judgement against people based on what “society” expects?

I *really* want to know what Mr Darcy was feeling during all of this. Yes, we know what he tells his beloved Elizabeth, but I want to feel his emotions as he getting to that far away point of blurting out his feelings…both in the middle and the end of the book.

That is what did it for me. Austen really just gave me enough details for me to gobble up the whole story line, but left enough out to drive me crazy with my imagination working overtime! It’s not that she didn’t tie up loose ends. Or she left something undone. She gave us *just enough* to be satisfied yet yearn for more. I so totally understand why people read this book multiple times. I think to truly appreciate it, you need at least one re-read….but alas…not today…..

I hope you have a wonderful and happy birthday, Amanda…I love you…

Until next time….

Urania aka mom xx

Buy it now (FREE!!!) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Prison Noir edited by Joyce Carol Oates

Posted by

0

*1This is a collection of short stories edited by Joyce Carol Oates. The authors of the stories are all prisoners in the United States prison system.

If you’re a fan of short stories, this is well worth your time. If you’re not a huge fan of that genre but are interested in the correctional systems, again this is well worth your time.

Some of these stories are *really* good! They are so good that it is easy to forget that they were all written by inmates. Having said that, what the hell does that even mean? Like it is unheard of that an inmate can actually write….psssffffttttt…..

It really made me stop and think about society’s narrow-minded view…..about my own narrow mindedness….I’m not exactly sure what I was expecting when I started this book. What I expected the stories to be like….however, it wasn’t what I was expecting….

I can only be reminded of a line from Charlie Chaplin’s great dictator speech “You are not cattle. You are men.”

Yep…pretty much sums it up for me. Regardless of how they got there…or why they are there….Prisoners are not just numbers. They are not just some faceless shadow on a wall that we dare not look at….

These stories demand that we take a look at them….they demand that we look eye to eye….sure, you might not like what you see….if might not change your feelings one way or the other….but damnit…you will at least see them…..

Until next time…

Urania xx

ARC provided by Edelweiss for an honest review

Buy it now Prison Noir edited by Joyce Carol Oates

Review: Julie and Julia by Julie Powell

Posted by

0

*1Well, since Thanksgiving is tomorrow (although being in the United Kingdom now we don’t celebrate this one :-/ ) and since this is a novel about a food blogger…and well….I am a kinda sorta blogger myself….I reckoned it was a good idea to post this review now….

If you check out the reviews for this book they are all over the place….I reckon this means that you either love this book or you hate it…Well, not me…I really enjoyed it….I didn’t love it…but in no way did I hate it….I thought it was charming. Julie was bit of a drama queen, but I loved her. I understand her sarcasm perfectly! It started as a blog and of course if you read any blogs you can understand how witty, engaging and entertaining her blog must have been. This is a movie that I have actually seen for once and I thought the movie and the book went along quite well together. Amy Adams was a perfect fit for the role and I had no problem imagining her as I read this book. If you’ve ever wanted to start out to do something fun and it rolled into something that totally stressed you out and encompassed your entire life…yet you were too stubborn to back down and throw in the towel…or you cared too much…..If you became so obsessed with it that you sometimes forget the other “going ons” in the *real* world….well this is a book you can relate to….I laughed out loud at times and I totally cringed at other times….and I sincerely felt her frustration and the “I’M. AT. THE. END. OF. MY. ROPE. AND. I. JUST. WANT. TO. LAY. DOWN. AND. CRY. PLEASE. DON’T. TALK. TO. ME. FOR. AT. LEAST. 5. DAYS. I. CAN’T. BE. BOTHERED”…..

If the book lets you down at points, well one must only remember that this started as a blog and with momentum and life it rolled into a movie and a book….If it had started out as a book, then turned into a movie and then finished with a blog, well it would have been written in a totally different style I think….

This book gives me hope that it’s true…we all have a book in us just waiting to be written down….

Until next time…

Urania xx

Buy it now Julie and Julia by Julie Powell

Review: Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris

Posted by

0

NPHHave never really been a fan of NPH…but that’s only because I’ve never really watched him and I am not one to follow celebrity gossip. I had no clue he was married and had children. I barely knew he was gay to be perfectly honest…..NO…..my home is not under a rock on the moon!

Now that I have made my disclaimer, I will say, I really enjoyed this book. It was a pretty quick read. I loved the “choose your own ending” type of books….and this was no exception…haha….really, he did a brilliant job with that. It could have been a complete disaster. But really, isn’t that how his whole life (up to this point) story goes? There are so many different events that NPH has been though that many others would have handled differently….I think many of his choices could have ended in complete disaster. However, he seems to meet them head on and always seems to come out the other side, if not gleaming, well….at least confident that he made the correct choice for HIM….that’s perhaps what makes him so attractive and successful. He doesn’t seem to bend to the rules (even whilst he is, indeed, bending to the rules). He is confident, even in his uncertainty…

He is refreshing in his honesty. He doesn’t make apologies. He doesn’t try to back-step and cover up any wrong mistakes. He stands a bit straighter, throws back his shoulders, brushes off any lint, and steps fully into the spotlight and proclaims, “here I am”. He doesn’t seek the spotlight and demand everything be about him….but damnit, he won’t back down and he’s not afraid to make his feelings heard in a very loud and unquestionable way. I have to admire that. Here we have a guy that should be worried about his personal image. It’s how he makes his living. But his take it or leave it, I am who I am is what is so utterly refreshing about him. He leaves no doubt that if push comes to shove, the fame and hollywood image is nothing he is not willing to sacrifice for love of his family.

Yes, it took him a long time to get there. I imagine it was never easy for him. But unlike many childhood actors, he seems to have kept on a somewhat straight (haha…see what I did there?) path to get to where he is. He didn’t crash and burn. He didn’t use his success as an excuse to make poor decisions. Now that he knows who he is, he makes no apologies and remains true to himself. That is sometimes very hard for anyone to do….let alone someone who is so securely in the public spotlight….Bravo, NPH….I might not have been a massive fan before, but I sure am now…..well done you….

Until next time…..

Urania xx

Buy it now Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris

Review copy provided by Edelweiss for an honest review

Review: What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

Posted by

2

*1I absolutely loved this book. The scenario is simple enough….Alice bumps her head and wakes up and can’t remember the last 10 years of her life.

Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong. Sure we can run into a friend that we haven’t seen for ages and judge them….how much have they changed….how much have they remained the same….are they thinner? Thicker? Do they act the same? Are they still lovely? Are they cynical? How much can someone change in ten years? How many life events can happen?

But stop all that….forget about your husband, you children, your parents, your siblings, and your friends….let’s stop for a second and look at ourselves. Whoa….that’s right….how much have YOU changed in the last 10 years? How has the changes you’ve made effected how people perceive you? How has it effected how you perceive OTHER people?

Not so simple now is it? We all know that people change…but it happens year by year….month by month….week by week…and day by day…..it happens so gradually that perhaps we don’t even realise it at all….until we wake up one day and ten years have passed….and we wonder…where did I go?

But Alice has no idea why she has changed. Why people treat her differently….she has only the view of herself from ten years ago…she has none of the newer memories that changed her to explain why….so she is left wondering how this could have happened. She is left judging herself and trying to figure it all out.

The novel gives you much to think about. The more you think about it, the more you have to think about. Imagine yourself 10 years ago…..now imagine your younger self looking at who you are today…with none of the knowledge of how you got there…..what would they see? WHO would they see? Would they be happy? Would they be a bit surprised? Disappointed? Would you feel confident that you had chosen the correct path and that you had made the right choices?

If not, would you be brave enough to make the changes your younger self desired? Sure we have all heard that saying….”If I only knew then what I know now”…..but really what does that mean? If you know it NOW, why not do the best you can to rectify it? Why assume that just because it was in the past that it’s too late to change yourself and try to make things better? Do we just use sayings like that for an excuse to take the easy road and not make changes in our life?

Again…so much to ponder here….I do believe I need to hurry up and read another Liane Moriarty book….this was pure bliss for me….

Until next time…

Urania xx

Buy it now What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty