Nimavenl - Nicole's Random Ramblings

Stormqueen! by Marion Zimmer Bradley My rating: 5 of 5 stars Interesting, intriguing. A story with a clear line to it, no jumping about from scene to scene, no confusion. Reading the Darkover books in the order they were written in has been a little confusing, however thankfully there are others who've read the books before me, have written notes about the books, who help me understand and take away some of the confusion with handy maps and explanations of who's who. This book did not feel like a confusing jumble as some of the other (earlier) Darkover books have, it felt like a clear story with a beginning and an end, a story I enjoyed reading and felt a part of. Although the story of Darkover intrigues me and I am determined to read all the books, I am glad that in this book I was able to get to know the characters, to really get into the story and feel that I was part of the action. View all my reviews

These quotes were all found through Goodreads' Popular Quotes section. “Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson “We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.” ― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods “The poetry of the earth is never dead.” ― John Keats “I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.” ― E.B. White, Letters of E. B. White “Looking at beauty in the world, is the first step of purifying the mind.” ― Amit Ray, Meditation: Insights and Inspirations “We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have...

The Struggle Within by Christopher L. Bennett My rating: 5 of 5 stars Very much enjoyed this story. My only complaint is that it was not nearly long enough! Found the Kinshaya story fascinating, the Talarian story a little less so, although equally interesting. View all my reviews

  If you've not read this book yet, you may want to read a spoiler-free review first! You have been warned! Paths of Disharmony by Dayton Ward My rating: 4 of 5 stars I enjoyed reading this book, however have a few things I would have liked to change, if I could. While I understand that making me 'happy' with the book would require it to be changed into something it's not (a novel that's a lot longer and a whole lot more detailed than this book is), I'm still going to write some of those thoughts dow. I felt it was a pity that we didn't learn more details about the Andorian reproductive crisis itself. Learning about an alien race that has four genders instead of two is fascinating however being me, I would have liked to read more about the way they reproduce - which gender does / contributes what and why / how. The sentence "And that, my friends, is where baby Andorians come from" would have been perfect at the end of a looooot of detail...

The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet by Alicia Silverstone My rating: 5 of 5 stars Enjoyed reading this book and checking out the recipes. Before starting to read, I already agreed with a lot of what Alicia Silverstone says about the way we eat, what we put in our own bodies and the way we (humans) treat, use and abuse other living beings. A lot of what this book explains makes sense to me and sounds very logical. Still, I'm not an expert on nutrition or anything like that, so judge for yourself! I highly recommend reading The Kind Diet, if only because it's important that we all think about what we eat and where our food really comes from. View all my reviews Goodreads may not be the place to share my thoughts on eating meat or consuming dairy, however my personal blog - most definitely the right place! I'm not much of a meat-eater myself. Would say I'm about 95% vegetarian, actually. If not more than that...

I love it when a plan comes together... Err... No, wait... I mean... I love it when someone else likes books / authors I like! Six authors mentioned on this list of Paranormal Staff Picks. And five of those six write books (and series and short stories and...) I really, really really (really, REALLY really) enjoy! Five authors I love and one I've never read. Guess I know whose books I'll be looking up today! * Doing a Happy Dance while heading over to Goodreads... * Check out Paranormal Staff Picks from Hope Ellis - Penguin USA Blog Posted by Anne Bishop's Courtyard on Friday, 12 June 2015

Rough Beasts of Empire by David R. George III My rating: 4 of 5 stars Third Typhon Pact book focusing on Spock on Romulus, the Romulan people, Benjamin Sisko and the Tzenkethi. I enjoyed the Spock part of the story and loved reading about the Romulans - they're always interesting. Scheming, devious, always several steps ahead and never disclosing all they know. Would have liked more Donatra time, though. Bringing the Vulcans and Romulans closer feels logical and sensible (in general, not just in this book) as they're basically 'cousins' who chose different paths in life, yet this book left me thinking that perhaps reunification wasn't all that necessary or even desirable. If the idea was to convey the (general?) Romulan view of possible reunification - why would we, we're fine as we are - then bravo and well done, I agree with the Romulans. Missed getting into Spock's head and really understanding what motivates him to be where he is. Found the Sisko part o...

Being of the Field by Traci Harding My rating: 5 of 5 stars There are some authors whose next book you simply must read no matter what, because you enjoy their work and the way their minds work. Traci Harding is one of those authors. I've been a fan of her writing and her thinking for over a decade now (fourteen-ish years? Seriously? Wow!) and while sometimes a character makes me wonder if maybe they're not too perfect (and good at almost everything to boot!), it is the story that keeps me coming back for more with every book. Traci Harding takes her readers on an amazing adventure that I hope will continue through many more books, stories, characters, countries, worlds and universes. I enjoyed getting to know Taren, Lucian, Zeven and the rest of the crew of AMIE. They were new characters yet felt like old friends - books two and three explained why that was, exactly. I actually squealed and couldn't stop smiling upon realising where these books were taking me. The ideas t...

Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop My rating: 5 of 5 stars I very much enjoyed this book and loved reading more of the adventures of the well-written characters in this series. Meg's development was very interesting to read about; getting to know more of the Others was lots of fun and the way the blood prophets learn to find their place in the world made me both happy and sad. I would love to live in this world and get to know the many Others who inhabit it. The way the Others see the world makes so much more sense than the way the humans live and makes me wish humanity in the real world thought more like the Others in this book. Loving the land and living in harmony with nature and each other makes so much more sense than attempting to destroy, dominate and control both the planet and other beings. I wrote this last month about the same book and thought I'd include it in this review: Brilliant. Awesome. Amazing. Heart-wrenching. Sweet. I love Anne Bishop's work and the intri...

Dracula by Bram Stoker My rating: 4 of 5 stars I tend to enjoy books featuring magic, vampires, were-animals and supernatural creatures. Not because I'm such a big fan of horror and gore, but because I like reading about worlds similar to yet different from our own where people live mostly as we do, however with several huge differences. Dracula did not disappoint - I enjoyed the story and am glad I finally read this classic. Written as a series of diary entries (and letters and a newspaper article) by the main characters, Dracula is a gripping tale and kept me reading right until the very last page. I like the Diary format as it allows one to really see events from a character's point of view; to get into their heads and experience events as they lived them. Even though I knew (in general lines) what would happen in the story, I still wanted to read a very detailed diary entry of how those events would play out, simply to experience the book to its fullest. This book w...

Fair Game by Patricia Briggs My rating: 5 of 5 stars A fun and interesting read that I enjoyed a lot. Possibly one of the best books set in this universe. View all my reviews

Burka en Blahniks by Ebru Umar My rating: 5 of 5 stars Wat een heerlijk boek om te lezen! En wat een heerlijk oprechte schrijfster zonder blad voor de mond of politiek correcte non-mening! Zo lang mogelijk uitgerekt maar nu toch echt (twee keer!) uitgelezen. Een ding weet ik zeker: Ik haal dit boekje over een paar maanden met heel veel plezier weer uit de kast. View all my reviews

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali My rating: 5 of 5 stars What a book. What a story. What a journey. What a woman. I once wrote that I hoped that reading this book would help me meet the real Ayaan Hirsi Ali, not just the woman I read about in the media and saw on television. The book did not disappoint and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. WOW! View all my reviews

Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan My rating: 5 of 5 stars I've put this book down countless times since I started reading it, intending to start again from the beginning and take notes. It's almost like I'm afraid that without doing some serious prep work first, I might miss something or not quite understand the historical context of a situation. Yet the book keeps drawing me back in: Looking at it turns into reading a few sentences turns into reading another chapter. The writing style makes the book easy to read, there are plenty of in-text references to ensure I don't need (to take) notes and learning more about the revolutionary Jesus that Aslan describes keeps me coming back for more. "Zealot" bring the Holy Land of Jesus' time almost close enough to touch, which makes it an entertaining, interesting and thought-provoking book. UPDATE: Having read through the Notes section and finished the book, I am even more amazed at t...

Book of Psalms: With an Interlinear Translation by Menachem Davis My rating: 5 of 5 stars I very much enjoyed reading the Psalms and working on my (very basic) Hebrew at the same time. While reading left-to-right English from right to left can be confusing, I have to admit that the directional arrows helped me adjust easily, just as the introduction promised. The interlinear translation makes the Hebrew easy to connect with while ensuring that the English-language sentences make sense to the eye and the mind. View all my reviews

Today, totally out of the blue, I came across a review in the St. Louis Post - Dispatch for a new book by one of my favourite authors. The reviewer sounded like he enjoyed the book and explained a bit about the books in the process - always fun to read a review like that! I first picked up a book by Laurell K. Hamilton a few years ago after being introduced to her work by fellow fans of Anne Bishop's books. Enjoyed the first few books in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series a lot and by the time I'd read those, was hooked enough that I kept on reading as more books came out.  The Anita Blake books have taught me a lot and have helped me deal with real-life issues. The question " What would Anita say / do ?" crosses my mind several times a month even when not actively reading or re-reading the books. Anita Blake starts off as a tough as nails animator and vampire slayer - a professional who is good at her job, enjoys it and draws a lot of satisfaction from livin...

I've never been one of the "popular girls". I'm also not at all someone who seeks fame or fortune. I never wanted to be class president or Miss Something-or-Other. Never wanted my photo in the newsletter or to be "famous one day". I'm happy being in the background, doing a great job supporting those whose face is in the newsletter and whose name is above the door. While I love taking photos, I have no interest in being the subject of them myself. I want to be appreciated for what I do and what I contribute, not for my familiar face or the power of my name. I want my work and my actions to speak for me! Having a blog, a Facebook page and an Instagram account (Oh, and Goodreads and Twitter and who knows what else!) feels strange and natural at the same time. Strange because even though I don't sign my post with my real name or have a mugshot on display, I am putting a lot of information about myself online for anyone to read and view, and for anyone ...

I've been busy. Both in real-life and in the online world. How busy I've been online over the years shows itself in the amazing amount of emails I receive about Friend Requests, New Posts, Great Offers, New Games and more. The thing is - these aren't spam emails, they're newsletters / updates from websites and social networking sites I've subscribed to over the years. So, I've started a huge clean-up action. I plan to keep lots of online community subscriptions - Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Goodreads, Youtube and Google are the keepers, off the top of my head. Thing is, these are websites / communities I actually use. Some of the ones I no longer use are Hyves, Yahoo, Bebo, MySpace, and several others I can't even remember the names of, just that I un-subscribed from them yesterday. One inspiration for doing this was Googling my name and coming up with a whole list of hits that weren't about me but someone with my exact same name. Not that strange...

One really cool and unexpected "side effect" of reading Patricia Briggs ' Mercy Thompson books is learning lots of new and interesting things. One of the things I'm learning about is Washington State. I'm currently reading the sixth book in the series, River Marked, and wanted to get a better idea of the area Mercy and Adam went to. Now sure I could take the "short-cut" way of learning more and get my information from the Forum on the website , however doing a Google search tends to come up with lots of interesting info as well. I knew the Twilight books by Stephenie Meyer were set somewhere in the US. I'd looked Forks up on a map once, just to get a general idea of what it looked like. What I didn't know was where it was in relation to other places. Such as Canada, state lines, and such. Reading Mercy Thompson meant doing more research into Washington State, and this book, being set mostly away from the Tri-Cities, meant checking out more ma...

The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon My rating: 4 of 5 stars I enjoyed this book but did find it a little hard to read at times. I found the story very interesting, and was fascinated with the descriptions of how a Jewish state could have been, had it not been for the country of Israel. Definitely a good read, and worth the time it took me to finish the book. View all my reviews