The Thorn and the Blossom: A Two-Sided Love Story by Theodora Goss
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is a love story - the story of Evelyn and Brendan. I really enjoyed this book - the format is something I think a lot of people will be talking about. It's printed "accordion-style" and you can either read Evelyn's story first or Brendan's, it doesn't really matter, they both read from front to back, from different ends of the book.


Evelyn is an American who sometimes "sees things" like fairies and trolls that no one else sees and is always being told she's too imaginative for her own good and that she needs to get more serious with her life. She feels herself needing a break, and takes a week's vacation in Cornwall where she meets Brendan, who along with his father owns an old bookstore in town. He tells her of the legends of the Queen of Cornwall and her lover, Gawan, a knight who comes to her rescue. They're cursed for their true love to spend 1,000 years apart. Evelyn and Brendan have feelings for each other but Evelyn has another vision and flees to America.


Of course, years later, in America, they come together again. Can they get past the visions Evelyn has? Are they the modern version of the Queen and The Knight? Has their 1,000 year separation finally come to an end, or are they destined to be parted yet again?


As in any good love story, things come between Evelyn and Brendan, and I was anxious that their story be resolved in a happy way. I'll admit it here: I'm a sucker for a good story of Hope - the promise of happiness is so important and so many stories don't give you that.


I enjoyed this book, it's shorter than most books I read but definitely packs a punch. I loved the way the book is styled, though I kept dropping it all over the place (I blame that on me, not the book). I loved the drawings, they really added to the feel of the story. I gave it 5 stars because even though the stories aren't long, they surprised me with their charm. 


I read the book Evelyn's story first, then Brendan's story. Just in case you're interested. I'm sure it would have been different had I read his story first but it just seemed to me that's how it needed to be done.


* Note: I received a review copy from Quirk Books, but as always, my opinions and the review above are my own.


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An awesome Christmas gift for the music lover in your life!

I was lucky enough to recently receive a review copy of Quirk Books' Gig Posters Volume 2 by Clay Hayes. What an awesome book! It's huge, first of all, and loaded full of amazing posters for music shows. I personally love music posters - I grew up in the era of record albums and would spend hours looking at the sleeves and the liner notes. There was plenty of room for art and there were always all sorts of cool things inside. Music posters are, to me, right along the same line.

The book is sorted by the artists who created the posters, with assorted small pictures and a full page spread of some of their work. There are descriptions of the posters from how they were made to how the ideas for the designs came about.

Now, the quality of these photos here isn't the best because I took the pictures, but the book is really nice. There's a great variety of bands - from world famous to I-never-heard-of-them-before but the posters are all top notch and from shows in the last year or two.


The best part of the book? All of the full size posters are perforated so you can remove them from the book, frame them and hang them on your wall! Now my only problem is finding enough wall space.


Find out more about Gig Posters Volume 2 at Quirk Books' official webpage (click on link): Quirk Books.

I'll admit I find this funny.

Even my dad knows how it rolls...thanks, Dad.

Why I love my husband.













Last night, while watching TV a commercial for a highly anticipated supernatural movie coming out tonight at midnight came on. I loved the first book in the series, but even though I read all the other books, nothing lived up to the first book.


I saw the first movie too, but you know, I just refuse to see any of the other ones. I'm sorry. I just can't.


Anyway, the commercial comes on and my husband stops the commercial, freezing it on the wolves, and yells "Tony, Jessica is cheating on you with Mark!"


I would say that 99.9% of you wouldn't have any idea what that meant, but a man that can randomly reference Lumpy Space Princess from Adventure Time has my heart, always.















(LSP from adventuretime.wikia.com. Wolves from TheTwilightSaga.com

Even The Losers Get Lucky, Sometimes.

Today I read online that Jim Ladd was "let go" from KLOS 95.5 radio in LA. Jim Ladd has been a DJ for as long as I can remember - a DJ along the lines of Wolfman Jack or Casey Kasem (if you're old enough to remember them) - a DJ who played what he wanted to play, no matter what. He didn't use set lists. He didn't have a programming manager, he just played music.

Music today has become something that's corporate owned, and corporate run. I love 100.7 KSLX, the local classic rock station, but I can't tell you the crap I get from one of my best friends (who, by the way, owns a record store here in town) about how KSLX only plays the top one or two songs from all of the bands they play and you NEVER hear anything deep or different.

While they do have my heart, and my ears, I do have to agree with him.

I propose a radio takeover. One night a week, one hour a night, one weekend day, something - let's play something besides the norm. Let's hear "Even the Losers", or "Shine on You Crazy Diamond", or "Heart of Stone" or "I Saw Her Standing There" or "DJ" or "Destroyer"...the same old bands, yes, but something different. There's more than one song on those old LPs, you know. I'll even come in and play it myself, just give me the chance. I'll even bring my own LPS, how's that?

The airwaves are a little less diverse in LA today, but 
maybe we can take a little step for all radiokind. 


* yes, those are my albums.

A Little Too Frightening.

There's a Halloween store called Spirit. It used to be a good store to take the kids to buy Halloween stuff but nowadays it's just too scary for two out of the three Geek Kids. They have things like zombie babies and displays set up where the animatronic characters yell inappropriate things at you ("I'm gonna chop your head off!") or spit blood or whatever.


It's really just too much.


That being said, every day when I go to pick up my oldest son at school, we drive by a Spirit and the youngest always points it and makes everyone look. Yesterday we went in there to buy this shield and sword for my middle son's costume and I had to hide Four's eyes all the way through the store.


Today we drove by and happily (as usual) he yells from the backseat: "Spirit!"


"Yes," I say. "It is."


Four (still smiling): "Yeah! Can we never ever go there again?"