Crafty Christmas Countdown: 22

I've had variations on this Doctor Who LEGO display up for a while but they've always just sat on this shelf by themselves. With the addition of some new Christmas elements, my display screamed for a backdrop. Luckily I've had some large sheets of packing paper set aside for a while. A little bit of paint set things right.

 

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 23

I'm a fan of most forms of puppets, even simple ones like this craft foam and tongue depressor construction.

 

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 24

I got a great deal on some kraft card blanks this fall so I did a series for my craft fair last month. Here are a few of my favorites (minus the penguins, which sold before I remembered to take any photos).

 

Non-fiction book review - Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli

Boy, when Rovelli said "brief" he wasn't messing around. How much can you learn about physics in under 100 pages? Quite a lot, it seems. The key is in presenting broad themes rather than deep details. While you likely won't absorb a lot in a single read, it seems like the sort of book you could read repeatedly and take away a little more each time.

Book review - Plague Land

Title: Plague Land
Author: Alex Scarrow
Genre: horror/post-apocalypse
Similar books: The Rain by Virginia Bergin
                      Bleeding Earth by Kaitlin Ward
Rating:

so many missed opportunities

Summary (provided by publisher): In this thrilling young adult horror novel from the author of the TimeRiders series the only thing worse than a virus that can kill is a virus that can think.
The reports start slowly at first: an outbreak in Africa at the end of the evening news, as a headline at the bottom of a website. They’re easy to ignore, and most people do just that. Except for Leon. His mom shakes off the concerns , sure that they shouldn’t be worried about some illness on a distant continent. Until one week later, the virus hits England and chaos ensues, dotting the English countryside with the haunting remains of liquefied victims.
But what scares Leon the most is the way the virus moves- like it’s adapting. Like it has an agenda. If Leon’s going to fight back, he’ll need a plan. But first, he needs to stay alive.

My opinion: My biggest problem with this book is scope. Within the first few chapters I couldn't see how it could possibly end with anything other than the complete annihilation of all life on earth. The virus kills to quickly, spreads too easily. And while we're given an explanation for survivors, it's not a particularly good or in depth one. I found the quick spread and, in particular, the quick evolution of the illness particularly hard to believe. I could accept that stretch if the subtext had been more coherent. But the underlying messages were all over the place. The subtext introduces a number of important messages but doesn't bring any of them to any sort of conclusion. I'd almost have liked this book better if it had been more bleak, more along the lines of The Road. Show us humans determined to keep going even when we know they are ultimately doomed. Scarrow toys with this idea but tempers it with real hope of survival, leaving us with a graphic but ultimately toothless tale.

More information: Plague Land releases December 1.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

Book review - Not Now, Not Ever

Title: Not Now, Not Ever
Author: Lily Anderson
Genre: realistic fiction
Similar books: All the Feels by Danika Stone
                      The Sound of Us by Julie Hammerle
Rating:

fun

Summary (provided by publisher): Elliot Gabaroche is very clear on what she isn't going to do this summer.
1. She isn't going to stay home in Sacramento, where she'd have to sit through her stepmother's sixth community theater production of The Importance of Being Earnest.
2. She isn't going to mock trial camp at UCLA.
3. And she certainly isn't going to the Air Force summer program on her mom's base in Colorado Springs. As cool as it would be to live-action-role-play Ender's Game, Ellie's seen three generations of her family go through USAF boot camp up close, and she knows that it's much less Luke/Yoda/"feel the force," and much more one hundred push-ups on three days of no sleep. And that just isn't appealing, no matter how many Xenomorphs from Alien she'd be able to defeat afterwards.
What she is going to do is pack up her determination, her favorite Octavia Butler novels, and her Jordans, and run away to summer camp. Specifically, a cutthroat academic-decathlon-like competition for a full scholarship to Rayevich College—the only college with a Science Fiction Literature program, and her dream school. She’s also going to start over as Ever Lawrence: a new name for her new beginning. She’s even excited spend her summer with the other nerds and weirdos in the completion, like her socially-awkward roommate with neon-yellow hair, and a boy who seriously writes on a typewriter and is way cuter than is comfortable or acceptable.
The only problem with her excellent plan to secretly win the scholarship and a ticket to her future: her golden-child, super-genius cousin Isaiah has had the same idea, and has shown up at Rayevich smugly ready to steal her dreams and expose her fraud in the process.
This summer’s going to be great.

My opinion: Loosely inspired by The Importance of Being Ernest, you're probably only going to recognize the influence on this book by the constant references. Anderson quotes Wilde (as well as a number of nerdy pop culture sources) often. The quotes both serve to influence the plot and provide a little characterization. This book tries to be a comedy of errors but doesn't quite achieve that aim. We have the element of characters misrepresenting themselves but the plot has a more desperate, less comedic feel. While it's somewhat lacking in comedy, it is engaging even though the elite camp aspect won't be particularly relatable for the average reader. By focusing largely on familial expectations, Anderson presents us with characters we can understand on some level. While the ending is weak, it's largely well worth reading.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope this holiday finds you warm and safe, in the company of those you care about. Blessings.