Book Club Mondays: Deadlocked

In an attempt to get back into regular blogging, I (obviously) need to get back into my regular weekly posts – so, for the first time in several weeks, here is your Book Club Monday – featuring the 12^th book in the Southern Vampire Mysteries (AKA, the Sookie Stackhouse novels), Deadlocked, by Charlaine Harris!

Now, I’ve been watching True Blood fairly religiously for as long as it’s been on television (the fifth season just started last week! Fifth! Where does the time go?), and once I found out it was a series of books, I was all about it. I picked up Dead Until Dark at the local Half Price Books, and an obsession was born – an obsession that involved lots of DVR’ed True Blood episodes and a lot of trips to two separate Half Price Books locations, but I read the first eleven books really fast – even for me, and I’m damn near a speed reader.

One thing that I’ve noticed about the books (if you haven’t noticed, here’s a cold slap of reality), is that besides the first few, the show doesn’t follow them at ALL. There is a solid storyline laid down in the book, that, much like the show, doesn’t make any damn sense half of the time, but that’s moderately awesome at the same time. There’s always going to be plot points that nobody cares about, or that only some people care about, and there’s always no less than ten separate storylines happening at one given time. That’s awesome, I get that.

The thing about Deadlocked is that for one, I had no idea it was even out until I happened to be at Barnes and Noble and saw that the 11^th book, Dead Reckoning was out in paperback, so I knew that the next installment had to be out (just as a fun bibliophile tidbit – books typically come out in paperback around a year after their original hardcover version is published). I went home, took to my Kindle, found it, read it, and digested it all in the space of about three days.

And you know…. I don’t necessarily think that anything moved forward in the book whatsoever. I felt like it was a lot of random storylines thrown into a mixing pot and Deadlocked was what emerged. From about the sixth book on, it was what I’d come to expect, but this was different – this felt like I was reading the “ohmygodIamsosickof thesecharactersandthesestorylinesandthesepeoplejustkeepmakingmewritethesebooksbutMANARETHOSEHBOCHECKSNICE” ramblings of someone who was absolutely and completely OVER what she had created. And you know, for Charlaine Harris, I suppose it would be understandable. For me, she could have quit after around the fifth or sixth book, and I would have been okay with it.

Here’s the jacket description:

It’s vampire politics as usual around the town of Bon Temps, but never before have they hit so close to Sookie’s heart…

Growing up with telepathic abilities, Sookie Stackhouse realized early on there were things she’d rather not know. And now that she’s an adult, she also realizes that some things she knows about, she’d rather not see—like Eric Northman feeding off another woman. A younger one.

There’s a thing or two she’d like to say about that, but she has to keep quiet—Felipe de Castro, the Vampire King of Louisiana (and Arkansas and Nevada), is in town. It’s the worst possible time for a human body to show up in Eric’s front yard—especially the body of the woman whose blood he just drank.

Now, it’s up to Sookie and Bill, the official Area Five investigator, to solve the murder. Sookie thinks that, at least this time, the dead girl’s fate has nothing to do with her. But she is wrong. She has an enemy, one far more devious than she would ever suspect, who’s set out to make Sookie’s world come crashing down.

One thing I learned about five or six books into the series is that the jacket description means NOTHING, since they lovingly leave out the fact that there’s so many other storylines and things happening in the background that just barely tie it all together that you get pulled away from anything you remotely thought was in the book.

All I can say is that if you’ve already read the first eleven books in the series, you might as well read this one. I can’t give it a gleaming review or an awful, disdainful rant about how bad it was, but if I could rate it, it would get a good ‘meh’.

Please, be patient with me...

As much as we like to think we know what's coming, or what's going to happen, we don't. Everything was planned out, I had a future to plan for... and it was all taken away from me.

Now, I'm back to the drawing board, back to being by myself and trying to re-create a life I can be proud of. While I don't place blame or wish ill will, it just isn't the right time for us right now. I still have a lot of love in my heart for what used to be. Whether there is a future or not, only time will tell - all I know is that it will not be an easy road.

Please be patient with me while I find my voice again. In the week since this has happened, I have been doing a lot of thinking, a lot of soul-searching.. and even a little bit of crafting. Trying to re-build a life on my own, rather than a life with another person.

Thank you so much for continuing to read, and continuing to care. I appreciate it more than you know - and this is definitely not the 50th post I was expecting to celebrate.

Book Club Mondays: Mockingjay

I have finally completed the Hunger Games series. Mockingjay, the third book, definitely kept up the expectations created by both The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. I will say, of the three books, Catching Fire was likely my favorite.

Mockingjay did a great job of maintaining the excitement level of the series. It chronicled Katniss' evolution from a two-time Hunger Games participant into a main player in Panem's new rebellious attitude, becoming the rebels' own Mockingjay. It chronicles life in District 13, once thought to be uninhabitable, but where all the members of District 12 were moved after the firebombing after the Quarter Quell in the second book. Katniss and Gale join the rebel army, go through training, and set off to kill President Snow.

The book kept my attention just fine, but I almost felt like the ending was rushed, especially for such a thought out and fleshed out trilogy. Still a wonderful end to a great trilogy.

How-to Tuesday: Keurig K-Cup Storage!

If you checked out my earlier post today, you know just how much I love our new Keurig Elite B40 single-cup coffee maker. In my excitement to try all kinds of different flavors, I rushed out and bought a huge variety pack, as well as a couple of other packs. This led to Mount K-Cup on my kitchen counter:

When I priced out the different drawers and carousels that Keurig makes, I was a little surprised that anybody in the world would pay that damn much for a metal drawer or metal carousel. I knew that there was a way to make something that would serve the same purpose for about half the price, so I set out to do just that!

You will need:

• A three-drawer storage box of some variety (I got mine for around $12 at Target)
• Scrapbook paper
• Self-adhesive letters
• Scotch tape

I'm sure you can predict what's about to happen here. Just in case you can't, here goes!

1. Slide your scrapbook paper into the front of one of your drawers, and mark off the height of the drawers on the paper - this will be important.
2. Fold the paper lengthwise three times, just in case you make a mistake and need extra (I know I accidentally bought 8.5x11 sized paper!)
3. If there are indents in the fronts of your drawers, mark those as simply as possible.
4. Grab your self-adhesive letters and write out what you'd like your drawers to say! (Mine say 'coffee', 'tea', and 'etc.', but use any words you'd like.)
5. Fit the drawer front into the drawer and Scotch tape into place (I tried other ways of doing this, and none worked better. 
6. Repeat for the number of drawers in your container!

There you have it! A very simple project, that allows you to store quite a few cups, that's cute and will go with any kitchen decor! You could even update the colors with the seasons, if you wanted! So, before you run out and spend $25-35 on a Keurig K-Cup storage solution, think of the good you could do at home with just a few simple supplies!

Stuff I Love: Keurig Elite Coffeemaker

Mike and I aren't really big coffee people. I drink it now and again, and he likes teas and other hot drinks. We've seen the Keurig machines around, and thought that it was a pretty rad idea, especially since both of us are a little picky, and we've been talking about getting one. Well, it's not every day you happen to have what seems like a sign...

Last Thursday, I won $100! So, since it wasn't money I was expecting, I decided to just spend it on something for the house, something that both of us could enjoy. That brought me back to the Keurig machine we'd been admiring in the stores!

Now I was initially looking at the Mini model machine, but the store I went to was out of them, so I just opted to spend the extra $20 and get the Elite model. Let me just say that I'm so glad that I did! Being the kind of person that doesn't want to drink an entire pot of coffee at a time, or even coffee at all, it's a great little machine to have. Check it out here!

Likes: 

• The large water reservoir on the left side. It holds the likely equivalent of a pot of coffee (if not more), and warms very quickly. 
• If the machine is coming from off to on, it takes around four minutes for the water to heat up. Not long at all!
• Two different cup sizes! 
• Easily cleanable, and easy to read display.
• If we wanted, we could use our own coffee with the My K-Cup!

Changes I'd Make:

• More cup sizes. I find that the larger cup size only fills most of our mugs about halfway.

Not even kidding, that is the only change that I would make. We love having this thing in our house! I am personally obsessed with the apple cider, and my Batman cup. 

Overall, I am definitely excited that I decided to take the plunge and make this purchase. I'm having a great time collecting different flavor variety packs and deciding what we like and don't like! I do wish that there were a few more stores who sold the 3-cup sample packs, though!

In short, if you are thinking about getting a Keurig machine, do it! I am so happy that we decided to make this purchase, since we aren't really... coffee people by typical standards. I'm looking forward to our Keurig Elite being part of our household for a long time to come. 

Check in later to see the K-Cup storage solution I came up with in this week's How To Tuesday!