Richelle Mead: Vampire Academy 1-3

Book review, World of Books March 23, 2014 Leave a comment

Basically, this is the reason why I haven’t been writing last week. I got hooked on another (vampire) series. And guess why?

BECAUSE SOMEONE MADE A MOVIE OUT OF IT.va1

That is how the books crossed my path – I saw the trailer for the Vampire academy. The bad news, it’s not going to screen in Croatia (have no idea who’s brilliant move that was).

But to get back to the books, I’ve read the first three, Vampire Academy, Frostbite and Shadow Kiss. All I can say, the writing seems to get better with further on you read.

So basically you have good vampires (Moroi) and bad vampires (Strigoi) and then you have dhampirs who are bodyguards to the good Moroi so Strigoi wouldn’t kill them.  But as Strigoi are getting more aggressive and Moroi are stuck in their medieval ways, the tide is not on the side of the good.

We meet Rose and Lissa being found after on the run for 2 years and returned to St. Vladimir’s vampire academy so they would finish their schooling. And the shit is about to hit the fan from there on through the three books I’ve read so far.

They will both fall in love of course, learn to master their respective skills and try to find their way in the world where the old way is no longer good enough but the “old” won’t yield to change.

I enjoyed reading the stories a lot, the only problem was again my pet peeve of teenagers being displayed as unreasonable (sometimes even stupid) characters who are ruled by their baser instincts and then later they learn they’ve been wrong. It’s one of the things I had a hard problem accepting with Rose, she seems so capable, strong and sarcastic but then the general things surpass her level of knowledge. It improved a lot by book 3 but as the story progressed only for some 4-5 months, it requires a bit of a stretch of the imagination to imagine someone could grow so much

va3as a person in that time.

But hey, obviously it can be done. 😉

I’m being mean now when actually Rose is one of the characters I loved from the start and thought was really nicely done. She’s brave, honorable and smart with a warm heart and a cool sense of humor. It also helps that she’s, well, hot.

Basically, I really enjoyed the books and lucky me, there are 3 more before I hit the end of what’s been written so far (I’m not sure if that’s the actual end or just what’s been written so far).

At the moment I’m debating whether I should read on or change the scenery for a while. Like I said, I got hooked. And unfortunately, book 3 ended with a bit of a cliffhanger…

Caps

World of Perfume March 15, 2014 Comments: 16

It seems counter-intuitive to get new caps when spring is here, but I just couldn’t resist them. I saw them on Carol’s blog and asked if she could make one or two for me.
Then I saw the colors and decided one (two) weren’t enough.
So, these are my beginner selfie attempts to show you the caps. 🙂

Please ignore my strange-looking face in these attempts.

Carol, thank you so much!

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Janet Hubbard: Bordeaux: The Bitter Finish

Book review, World of Books March 12, 2014 Comments: 5

I never thought I would get into a series without starting at the beginning.

But I somehow read the blurbs for both books and didn’t think there would be a connection, save from the main character Max getting into another mystery crime.

Seems I was a bit wrong on that count but it doesn’t matter, as all the important things can be understood from this book in reference to what happened the previous year (in the previous book).

It’s a nice crime story centered around counterfeiting wine with a little romance thrown in. I really enjoy drinking wine but I admit, now it seems I am a total ignoramus when it comes to it (and I thought how I knew a little to get me by). bordeaux

That said, chances of me ever having the knowledge the French characters in this book, who are wine aficionados, have, is basically zero. 🙂 Also, I don’t have the means to drink that kind of wine.

As a side note, what I thought was perfectly reasonably priced wine I enjoy, seems to be the cheapest, lowest quality stuff. 😦 At least when it comes to French wine.

And not only do I have no knowledge of wine industry, I also lack some serious information on the importance and complexity of cheeses. Turns out I am rather ignorant of much of what I enjoy in my everyday life. 😀 Talk about being put down in your place. 😉

Anyway, if you want a nice, educating read about wine you will probably never be able to afford, this is the book for you.

Ok, that was mean. 😉

But really, I make it sound bad when I actually  learned a lot and had fun in the process. The characters and the story could do with some more consolidation but in general, it’s a window into a world that was, until now, unknown to me.

And when the next installment is out, I’ll be reading it. It ended in such a way as to suggest a sequel.

“NYPD detective Max Maguire returns to France as bodyguard to a famous American wine critic. Max’s mother is French—so Max is not only bilingual but blessed, or cursed, with disapproving (and devious) French relatives. Max is not just escorting the critic, she’s also keeping an eye on a very expensive bottle of wine whose authenticity is in dispute, a  pawn in cut-throat wine wars involving critics, wine collectors, and auction houses. Checked into their Paris hotel, it’s not long before Max discovers her client dead in her room and the bottle stolen from the hotel’s safe. So she has no choice but to team up with examining magistrate Olivier Chaumont, the man she had fallen in love with the year before while solving a murder in Champagne. Olivier’s sidekick, Commissaire Abdel Zeroual joins in. Max has no police role in France but she stays  a step ahead of the French investigators using tactics learned back in New York, while Olivier weaves in and out of Bordeaux society where he is certain the murderer lurks. Is this something local, or is there really a counterfeit wine operation in play? Moving back and forth from Bordeaux to Manhattan among vintners, restaurateurs, auctioneers, collectors, the rich, as well as among less privileged players, everyone is propelled towards a shocking climax.”

Easing into spring with Impossible Iris by Ramon Monegal

World of Perfume March 11, 2014 Comments: 14

We had a really strange winter this year (more like no winter at all) so it started feeling like spring in the middle of February. But the spring is basically here this week. even though it seemed to have been hesitating for a while.

Like me when it comes to perfume. I’m not really sure what to wear these days, something still for the cold days or something spring-like?

So, at the moment I’m exploring the flowers with some warm undertones. Which is how I came to try and like Impossible Iris with its fruity warmth and cool iris.

Notes: Italian Iris Concrete, Cassie d’Egypte Absolute, Raspberry, Comoran Ylang-Ylang, Egyptian Jasmine Absolute and Virginian Cedarwood.

I saw that many reviews center themselves around the raspberry note. It makes sense, as that fruitiness cannot be missed and lasts for quite a while. But for the life of me, when I first smelled it, I couldn’t come up with raspberry as the fruit I smelled. I thought it was more in line with forest berries with some orange (possibly peaches) thrown in. Turns out I was very wrong.impossile

The thing is, I have a hard time putting into words exactly what I smell.

I love the fact that it feels like a cousin of Cuirelle, due to a similar grey feel (I wonder if that’s cedarwood). I haven’t explored many of the Monegal perfumes so I can’t say if there is a signature to it.

For me, Impossible Iris starts with a light cleaner-like smell, slightly citrus-y with a hint of evergreen. Hmm, looking at my notes and the official notes, I wonder what in the world do I think I’m smelling?! 😉

Anyway, the fruitiness is there from the start basically and at some point it actually overpowers the flowers. But not for long. The perfume also veers on the edge of white muskiness (or whatever kind of musks is in everything these days) but I say veer, as the musk never bothers me like it usually does, instead it feels more like a facet of the iris than anything else.

The general feel of this perfume is like the raspberry iris is resting on a warm mattress of hidden white flowers. With some cedar chips thrown in to make it more elegant. With such a beautiful aura.

That is one thing I cannot help but think about when I think of this perfume – the beautiful warm iris-y aura you waft around yourself when you wear it. Definitely helped by the raspberry note. 🙂

My sample came courtesy of the Monegal company.

Tess Gerritsen: Girl Missing

Book review, World of Books March 9, 2014 Comments: 2

I wasn’t aware of the fact that T. Gerritsen wrote romance with a dash of crime before becoming such a great crime thriller writer. Probably because I only got to know her through the Rizzoli and Isles series.

But when the chance presented itself to read one of her early novels being re-published under a new name (through NetGalley), I leaped at the chance because I love her writing.

And I wasn’t sorry. I inhaled the book in one go (during one long evening, ending up very tired at work the other day). 😉girl missing

“A beautiful young woman’s corpse is found dumped in a garbage-strewn alley. Now laid out in the office of medical examiner Kat Novak is an unidentified body that betrays no secrets—except for a matchbook clutched in one stiff hand, seven numbers scrawled inside. When a second victim is discovered, Kat begins to fear that a serial killer is stalking the streets, using a deadly drug to do his dirty work. The police are skeptical. The mayor won’t listen. One of the town’s most prominent citizens, with a missing daughter of his own, is also Kat’s chief suspect. As the death toll rises, Kat races to expose a deadly predator who is close enough to touch her.”

A huge plus for the novel is the fact that even though you follow the story and understand why (at some point) the stuff is happening, until the last moment you aren’t exactly sure who is responsible. I hate being able to guess in advance who the killer is.

And then a love story being woven into it is basically what gets me hooked on a book every time.

Even though you can tell it’s one of the earlier works, the characterizations are much better in later books.

That said, if you are a fan of Tess Gerritsen, you won’t be sorry you picked up this book. The quick pace, the thrilling crimes and facing obstacles to gain love, well, it’s all there. 😉

Sharing the perfume bug

I've been thinking, Perfume thoughts, World of Perfume March 6, 2014 Comments: 22

I can’t really say I shared the perfume love as what I chose requires more getting used to than what people generally smell in mainstream stores (god, that sounds so condescending). 🙂

Anyway, yesterday I shared my love and a little bit of my collection with my female colleagues. I already had several perfume-y coffees with one who then spread the word. So that is how yesterday I ended up giving them a crash course through what perfumery offers if you know where to look.

I admit to being ambitious and offering them 22 perfumes to try. 😀 That was mean of me. 😉 And they did!
I never expected them to find anything to love among them, my goal was to make them understand how many more notes and possibilities exist out there and that they should try and figure out if they possibly like something and might want to discover more.

What I learned surprised me. 🙂 It seems people  (women in this case) are fed up with sweet perfumes. That was what everyone kept saying, I don’t want anything sweet. And the general consensus on what they found good was also surprising (although it shouldn’t be as I love it as well).

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I made them cheat sheets with all the perfumes so they can take notes for themselves

That was Monegal’s Cuirelle. 🙂 Closely followed by Tom Ford’s Tuscan Leather. 

I shouldn’t get surprised anymore that Cuirelle is such a hit among people who smell it. Especially after reading Birgit’s interview with Ramon Monegal where he said his favorite perfume is “true leather”. It’s obvious he knows what to do with that. 😉

It was a boisterous gathering (all perfume gatherings somehow end up boisterous) and we laughed a lot. I heard some interesting adjectives being ascribed to perfumes:

– smells like toothpaste (for Vamp a NY)

– lemon peel! (Bigarade Concentree)

– Terrible! Smells like sweat. Just too much. (Tubereuse Criminelle – I had to bring that one for shock effect) 😉

– Toilet cleaner (Tuscan Leather) – actually have no idea how that came about…

We agreed to meet again with a selection geared more toward spring and summer in a couple of months.

I definitely hope to keep this up until their perfume vocabulary upgrades from: It’s interesting/ok/sweet/too much, to – Oh, I smell white flowers/amber/green stuff, etc..

That’s not asking too much, is it? 😉

 

Lost in a sea of books

I've been thinking, World of Books March 3, 2014 Comments: 9

The other day I talked about how I’m behind times in the perfume world and news reach me (if they reach me) months after everyone else has heard them. 🙂

It seems that when it comes to books, I’m even worse.books1

These days, the only way I will hear about a good (new) book is if there is a movie being made out of it (and some of those aren’t really that good either).

I have a pool of authors I follow and read, whatever they publish, but adding to that pool is rather difficult.  Even when I find a book blogger I share tastes with, some of those reviews just don’t sound that appealing to me.

I also sometimes wonder how many people are actually intrigued enough by my reviews to read a book I found great…?

In the haystack that is the book world, finding your needle is very difficult. And the blurbs don’t help. The only reason I wanted to read World War Z was because I really liked the movie and thought the book must be better. Then I read the blurbs for the book and wasn’t very sure about my choice. Luckily, this time around, I decided to ignore them.

The thing is, that book is one of the best new books I’ve read in quite a while and I wouldn’t even know it existed unless for the movie.

That’s why I’m a bit sad now. How many more books like that are passing  me by because I don’t know where to look? Or who to trust?

Do you have a way of figuring out what books ought to be on your TBR pile? And how do you select from the pool of new authors those, whose books might be worth reading?

Or is it basically luck?

Max Brooks: World War Z

Book review, World of Books February 26, 2014 Comments: 4

Well, now I certainly understand why people who read the book were upset with the movie. 🙂
After reading the book, I can say the movie is rather loosely based on the book.  I’d say the title comes the closest. 😉

Ok, that was mean of me as I enjoyed the movie and I did recognize some parts of the book that I saw in the movie but really, the movie doesn’t come close to what’s in the book (then again, what movie does?). Actually, it veers off in a completely different way.

But I want to talk about the book and not about the movie. The book I would highly recommend to practically anyone. Because the most important thing that comes out of this book is the rather good (and bleak) depiction of everything that is wrong with the world today.

The story is based on interviews with particular survivors, several years after the end of the World War Z and some of them are actually scum. Not many but there is no problem picking them out. Surprisingly, all of them are either rich or in power! Can you imagine that?wwz

The way the interviews are slowly progressing gives you the image of what and how it all happened.

If you are like me and think that a book that’s based on interviews with people cannot come close to an interesting read that you will devour, well, you would be (like me) very wrong.

It’s fun how the introduction is the explanation on how this book, from the fictional point of view of the interviewer, came to be. And how he had access to many important people after the war.

I don’t want to go into details about the story but what is rather obvious is that Mr. Brooks did some great research in writing it and I, for one, actually learned a lot in general about the world we live in.

The thing is, zombies aside, this book is a very good warning against what we as humans are capable of doing to ourselves, destroying the world we know because of our greed and power cravings.

That is why World War Z is scary.

Justin Cronin: The Twelve

Book review, World of Books February 24, 2014 Leave a comment

It’s been a year since I read The Passage and I’ve been postponing reading The Twelve to closer the release date for the last book (but it’s still not known) and I could no longer wait and had to read it.

There are obvious similarities between the two. The beginning is disjointed and it takes time for the reader to get his bearings because the story is skipping backward and forward and it takes a while before you can connect what happened in the intervening years and how it reflects on the story now.

But you do and you shouldn’t stop reading even if it bothers you.the twelve

We follow the characters from the The Passage five years after the story of that book has happened and even though there is a place where humanity survives, there are hints that all hell might break loose and overtake that little human circle.

Hmm, now that I mentioned hell, I should also mention the fact that God is a big part of the story. Not in the obvious way, but there are references to Peter being a shepherd-like figure, to hearing God’s voice/hints as to which way a character’s life lies, etc. When humanity disappears, turning to God is an obvious choice. And I don’t mean it in a condescending way, we all need some kind of comfort to hold on to.

One thing Mr. Cronin does well is describe what  might be happening in someone’s mind. The description of what goes on in a mind of a crazy person here was unbelievably believable. I hope that doesn’t mean I’m leaning toward crazy?! (since I can imagine it so easily…) 😉

You know, the thing about really good post-apocalyptic books is the fact that they make you aware how much cruelty and pain we inflict on each other and how in any possible scenario of a future apocalypse (except for meteors and stuff like that), we, as humans, will be the ones responsible for bringing about the end of our world. And I really don’t have a hard time believing it after seeing one of the characters pave the road to hell by selecting the so called “good intentions road”. And true to my prediction, he certainly did that.

And here is where it gets both interesting and complicated.

We follow some of the characters from the previous book but we also learn how previous events are going to reverberate down the future and influence our heroes’ lives and choices.

The great thing about Mr. Cronin’s writing is that you really get lost in the story and feel you are truly a part of it. It keeps pulling you in and you are powerless to stop it.

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky – the movie

I've been thinking, World of Perfume February 16, 2014 Comments: 6

I saw it two days ago and I’m still under its influence.

The main thing I got out of that movie is the fact that whoever tried to write a biography of Gabrielle Chanel probably failed. As I haven’t read any of them, I don’t want to sound like I’m passing judgment on books I never read, it’s just that this movie brought to life the complexity of who Coco Chanel was that I don’t think anyone trying to write about her life can encompass her personality and keep true about it.Coco_Chanel_&_Igor_Stravinsky

I’m aware this also sounds very presupposing after only seeing one movie but I’m blaming it on the director (Jan Kounen). After all I’ve read about her and now seeing this movie, all I can say is she was obviously a personality larger than life that kept her thoughts to herself and went through her life doing what she felt she should. Smiling a mysterious, mischievous smile of hers and dropping men to their knees after saying anything in that smoke-battered voice of hers. At least that is how I imagine her after seeing her brought to life by Anna Mouglalis (who was masterful).

The strange thing is, I now think of Igor Stravinsky as a loser. A weak man when it came to women. Again, I have no idea what their relationship was like but the idea I got is that he couldn’t handle her being more successful and well, richer. Men rarely do. 😉 I could be wrong on account of Igor though…

Basically, after seeing this movie, I feel a renewed wish to understand fashion and enjoy it more, but also to smell the original Chanel perfumes – the time depicted in the movie is around the birth of Chanel 5.

But most importantly, I would love to have met her in real life. Woman ahead of her time, one probably reviled by the women of her acquaintance but still strong and successful and enduring.

I wish I knew where women like that get their strength from. So I could find it in myself as well. She might have made some dubious choices in her life, but she made them and went on. We all make mistakes, but ours aren’t made public. How many of us would be willing to forge our way ahead in spite of them?

 

P.S. Even though the movie depicts Stravinsky’s work and worries, I admit, I didn’t really care much for his part, I just loved the way Coco was portrayed. I did enjoy the music in the movie immensely though. 😉