Sitting on the Sidelines

remember when?

when you were a young person and you discovered there was a party.

a party that everyone seemed to have enjoyed but you.

As a young girl, I experienced those shameful moments.  I'd ask myself - Why wasn't I there?  Did I do something wrong?  We have all been there right?    I specifically remember one of my friends whose birthday was two days from mine and our mothers would always dispute who got that Saturday on the weekend closest.  We shared the same group of friends, you see.  

Or you went to the party but your mother asked you to be hush hush about it so that those select few that weren't invited weren't hurt by not being included.  That was crafty, and often times clique forming. Because young girls containing their glee in silent?  Not going to happen. 

This was all before the internet. Before picture shares and when people send invites, not evites.

So here I am a woman grown, trying to wrap my head around watching moment unfold that a few of us have been excluded.  Of an event I had wished to take part.  I’m not trying to make this exclusion about me, because it's not.  It was a lost opportunity to know someone a little bit better and to share in the joy of their growing life.  So now sitting on the sidelines of the internet, seeing with my own eyes actual pictures almost makes it more hurtful than when I was a child hearing the undercurrents about a party I missed.

So what do I tell myself?  The invitation was lost in the mail?  That would be nice, but I know that is not the case.  Perchance I’ll be more deserving of an inclusion next time and work on those relationships or just be a better person.  Or just get over it and grow up.  But one thing is for certain that no matter how old or young a person is . . . it still smarts just a bit. 

Days of Blood & Starlight went BOOM!

Days of Blood & Starlight

By, Laini Taylor

“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil held a wishbone between them.

And it snap split the world in two.”

With those simple words, I was sucker-punched into the second installment for Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy.  Last year when I picked up The Daughter of Smoke and Bone I enjoyed the beauty of Prague and Marrakesh, was fascinated by this strange girl with blue hair and these monsters she called her family, but I didn’t close the pages and say “boom.”   I said many things at the end of the Days of Blood and Starlight, starting with "Oh good there's a map", and ending with quite a bit of gasping and heavy breathing.

I realized that 75% of the way through it would be a 5 star for me.  I’m still trying to process the final decisions made by Karou our epic heroine.  Plot twist seems a bit mild to express what happens as a result to her decisions at the end of this devastating book.

It seems a common reaction for me with the first installments of fantasy world to feel the intrigue and enjoy the novel, but the sequel holds the guts to the story. It’s not like you visit a friends now home and tell them, “My! Your foundation is really spectacular!”   Foundations are tedious things, and essential, but it really is just that, but what people enjoy in an aesthetic sense is the architecture.  I can officially say, I’m in love with this series and may even re-think my original rating on the first.  I’m proud of fellow Portlandian Laini Taylor, and I’ll keep my eye out for her pink hair in Powell’s. Not to stalk, but just to do a smidge of fan-girl gushing. 

As always with a new series I tear through, the next installment seems immensely far away. 

Jellicoe Road

By Melina Marchetta

My first foray into the world created by Australian author Melina Marchetta did not disappoint.  This story sneaks up on you and then when it has your attention snakes a vice grip on your emotions and won't let up until you have all your questions answered.  

In Jellicoe Road, we are thrown into a rural Australian town, where three factions of kids rival for territories and our reluctant leader Taylor Markham ask all the right questions.  Throughout her voyage of self-discovery she finds her true family in the most likely of places.  It has been a while since a book has brought me to tears, but this little one did.  

I concur all around on the praise of this special little book.   And, may I say that this little library binding is such a quaintly perfect size and fits ever so nicely in my hands.