The Exquisite Book of Paper Flowers

The Exquisite Book of Paper Flowers

When you use the word "exquisite" in your title, you're setting the bar for your book pretty high. The Exquisite Book of Paper Flowers delivered!!!! Not only are the flowers exquisite, but the instructions are clear and easy-to-follow and there are templates for each project in the back of the book. Let's just say that thanks to this book, paper flowers are officially my new favorite hobby. 

I first found paper flower crafts on Pinterest (surprise, surprise). While the step-by-step photo instructions seemed clear, my flowers never turned out like the ones in the Pinterest pictures (surprise, surprise). I looked at a few paper flower books and after flipping through their pages at Barnes & Noble decided that The Exquisite Book of Paper Flowers looked like I was getting the most bang for my buck.

You can see from the pictures on this post that, while I am not going to be opening an Etsy paper flower shop anytime soon, the flowers actually look like flowers! There are 27 different types of flowers featured in the book. Each one comes with a template, a list of materials needed, step-by-step instructions, photos, and tips so that you can learn how to make poppies, roses, and sweat peas (to name a few). 

I can't say enough good things about this book! Instead, head over to my Instagram account @bookfaire to win a copy for yourself!

Title: The Exquisite Book of Paper Flowers 

Author: Livia Cetti

Publisher: Stewart, Tabori, & Chang

Published: April 8, 2014

Available: Amazon, Book Depository, and Barnes and Noble
Goodreads

The Art of Not Breathing

The Art of Not Breathing

The Art of Not Breathing has an intriguing plot line that's part murder mystery part adventure story. Elsie Main's twin brother drowned five years ago, but even though she was with him the day he died, she can't remember exactly what happened. Her parents have forbidden her to go to the beach, but it's only when she's in the water that pieces of her memory return. Little by little she realizes that her family and friends have all been keeping secrets from her. Only if she dives deep (literally) will she be able to answer the question: What really happened the day Eddie died? 

Intriguing, right?

Well add in the fact that Elsie's mom is an alcoholic, her dad hates the world, her brother is anorexic, her "boyfriend" randomly disappears, she's bullied at school, and has self-esteem issues. Oh, and her dead twin brother, Eddie, talks to her in her mind. Ya. There's a LOT of heavy subplot going on.

Things that seem important at the beginning of the book (Elsie hearing Eddie's voice in her head) end up being trivial (he's all but silent by the end). The fact that every character is dealing with their own drama made me wish that SOMEONE could have had their life together. It's a little draining hearing how awful and unhappy everyone is all the time. 

I was so excited to explore the country of Ireland! But, the accents disappeared after the first chapter and the vague descriptions of the town and ocean made it sound like this story could just as easily have taken place in New England. Luckily, the only time I've ever been to New England was when I was a little kid. New England is just as foreign as Ireland, so The Art of Not Breathing was still a nice escape for me.

Title: The Art of Not Breathing

Author: Sarah Alexander

Publisher: Sourcebooks 

Published: January 5, 2016

Available: Amazon, Book Depository, and Barnes and Noble
Goodreads

There is one particular quote in the book that I really take to heart:

"Go with your heart, not your head, because your head doesn't know what it wants. It only thinks about the moral high ground. And if your heart isn't happy, when you try to share it, you'll make others unhappy too."

Isn't that beautiful?

The Hobbit: Apple Turnovers

Hobbits are known for their ability to eat. I mean:

• Breakfast
• Second Breakfast
• Elevenses
• Luncheon
• Afternoon Tea
• Dinner
• Supper

And if they can eat that much, it must be some pretty delicious meals that they're cooking up! So when I think about hobbits I can't help but think of hearty country meals. I didn't have any roast chicken on hand, but I decided to make apple turnovers. 

While we were honeymooning in New Zealand I ate more than my fair share of fish and chips...and apple turnovers. And now I crave apple turnovers all the time!

Here's a great recipe (perfect for a first time apple turnover baker like myself).

Ingredients

• 2 Tbs lemon juice
• 4 cups water
• 2 Tbs butter
• 4 granny smith apples (peeled, cored, and sliced)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 Tbs cornstarch
• 1 Tbs water
• 1 (17.25 oz) package frozen puff pastry sheets
• 1 egg (beaten)

1. Place apples in water lemon mixture (prevents apples from browning)
2. Melt butter and add just apples
3. Cook and stir 2 minutes
4. Add brown sugar and Cinnamon
5. Stir 2 minutes
6. Add corn starch and 1 Tbs water
7. Cook 1 minute until thickened
8. Cool slightly
9. Preheat oven to 400°
10. Trim puff pastry sheets into squares
11. Spoon apple mixture onto center and fold corners over into triangles
12. Press edges with fork to seal pastry
13. Cut 3 vent slits into top of pastry and place on baking sheet
14. Brush beaten egg over top of each pastry and sprinkle with sugar
15. Bake 25 minutes until lightly brown

Enjoy for breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner, supper (or dessert!) It's delicious hot from the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

This Is Where It Ends

This Is Where It Ends

A quiet rural town is getting back into routine on the first day of school. The students and teachers are gathered together in the auditorium for the principal's annual "Welcome Back" pep talk. Everything is normal, until the assembly ends and the teachers realizes that all the auditorium doors are locked from the outside.

There's a shooter in the room, and this first day of school will tear the town apart. 

I have never read a school shooting novel before. I like to read to escape real life, and unfortunately violence, hate, and bullying in schools are all over the news and social media sites. For some reason though, I picked up this book and decided to read it. It was a good choice!

This Is Where It Ends is written from four different character perspectives (with a few special sections interspersed throughout). Jumping from view point to view point normally makes the story too jerky and disjointed for my liking, but Marieke did a wonderful job of keeping her timeline in order. In fact, the timeline was one of the things I thought was brilliant. 

The entire span of the book only takes place in one hour. Each chapter is broken up by different time increments (i.e. 10:32-10:35 A.M.), so you're reading in real time. The different narrators are located in various places: inside the auditorium, outside the auditorium, outside the school, so you're able to get a full spectrum of what's going on. Brilliant. 

The plot is violent (it's all about a school shooting), and every single character feels misunderstood (typical teenager). Despite the heavy subject matter, it didn't weigh down the flow of the story too much. Marieke did a good job of balancing dark backstories with hope and determination. 

While this book isn't a new favorite that I'll reread over and over again, I am glad that I gave it a chance. It reminded me that I need to be part of the good in the world. It doesn't take much to be kind, but it can make the biggest difference in the life of someone I'm kind to.  

Title: This Is Where It Ends

Author: Marieke Nijkamp

Publisher: Sourcebooks 

Published: January 5, 2016

Available: Amazon, Book Depository, and Barnes and Noble

Lily and the Octopus

Lily and the Octopus

Lily is a twelve-year-old dachshund with a tumor...I'm sorry, "octopus" on her head. Her owner, Ted, can't bring himself to acknowledge Lily's illness and does everything in his power and imagination to save her. 

I have never read a "dog novel" in my life, because whenever a dog is a main character it can't end well. Am I right? 

Lily and the Octopus received such great reviews that I broke my own rule and read a "dog novel." This was NOT the book for me to start with. Rather than being a moving fictional read about a man's love for his dog, this book was more magical realism about a man's obsession with his dog's tumor.

I understand that everyone handles grief in different ways. Ted's reaction is denial, and rather than being able to enjoy the time he has left with Lily, (she is really really old) he breathes life into her tumor. His imagination turns it into a talking octopus. 

I liked the parts where Ted had flashbacks of his life with Lily, or when he and Lily had conversations. They were just so fleeting and always overshadowed by the octopus. 

Between the talking tumor, the self-pity, and an entire section (whole chapters) about a really weird dream, this book didn't trigger any tears from me (and I have a four-year-old dog that's going blind for reasons the vet can't explain, so my baby's death has crossed my mind more than once.)

This was a book that just wasn't meant for me.

Title: Lily and the Octopus 

Author: Steven Rowley

Publisher: Simon & Schuster 

Published: June 7, 2016

Available: Amazon, Book Depository, and Barnes and Noble

Maybe subconsciously I read a "dog book" just so I could post pictures of Darcie here on the blog. Here's a little #tbt to when she was a newly adopted street mutt. 

Winter

Winter

As the final book in the Lunar Chronicles, I wanted to love this book. Cinder was such a great and engaging opener to the series, but this end book just didn't meet my expectations.

I think what made Winter a miss for me were the 50 million subplots throughout the book, most of which involved a romance of some sort. Every book in the Lunar Chronicles, builds off of the prior book adding a new subplot and a new set characters.

Cinder- Cinder & Prince Kai
Scarlet- Cinder & Prince Kai, Scarlet & Wolf
Cress- Cinder & Prince Kai, Scarlet & Wolf, Cress & Thorne
Winter- Cinder & Prince Kai, Scarlet & Wolf, Cress & Thorne, Winter & Jacin

That's a lot of subplot! It made the story a little jerky to me because every other chapter followed a different group of characters. 

I'm glad that I read it though, because the basis behind the series is so clever. I loved being able to see traditional fairy tales get such a unique twist.

Title: Winter

Author: Marissa Meyer

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends 

Published: November 10, 2015

Available: Amazon, Book Depository, and Barnes and Noble

The Story of Ferdinand

The Story of Ferdinand

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I grew up performing in musicals and plays and dance recitals, so I will always be a theatre girl at heart. Halloween gives me a reason to dress up...full-out costume.

My dog and boyfriend hate it because I make them dress up too...full-out costume.

This year our family costume was inspired by the children's book The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf.

I first heard about this book when watching The Blind Side, and I had to get a copy for myself.

A bull who loves flowers.
He's sent to a bullfight.
All he wants to do is smell flowers.
The End

The Story of Ferdinand is a simple story with black and white illustrations. There are no special effects, no superheroes, and no crazy villains. A classic story is timeless whether it was written 5 years ago or 50 years ago. It's nice to know that such a story has lasted the test of time. A good children's book doesn't trend, it stays consistently read by each generation.

Title: The Story of Ferdinand

Author: Munro Leaf

Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap 

Published: March 31, 2011 (First published January 1, 1936)

Available: Amazon, Book Depository, and Barnes and Noble

Señorita and her Matador

Olé!
(Reason #5 to never get rid of your old prom dresses.)

With our little bulls

Ferdinand the bull-dog

The Night Circus

The Night Circus

What a magical cover for a magical book! Seriously, I know they say don't judge a book by its cover, but how could you not pick up this book?

The Night Circus is beautifully written with an air of old world mystery. The two main characters, Celia and Marco, are used as pawns in a game to see which magician is stronger. Their chess board is a traveling circus where every night they must create a new object or tent full of magic that's meant to astound and mystify.

Yes, there is a love story between the Celia and Marco, but it was their magic that kept me drawn to the book. Every night I wanted to see what the new tent would hold. And every night I was not disappointed. The Night Circus creates a world that I so badly want to be a part of. I would do anything to be able to visit Le Cirque des Rêves. The setting of the book is a huge win for me because it is so unique. Circuses are generally thought of as playful with bright colors, but this one takes it to the next level as something powerful filled only with the colors of black and white. A sophisticated circus with a hint of danger...isn't it delicious?

This book is full of mystery...A circus that only opens at night. A cast all dressed in black and white. Two magicians locked in a deadly game. These are the ingredients for a memorable book, but add in beautiful writing, and you have a 5-star book!

Don't forget, all 5-star books are available for giveaway. Scroll down to the bottom of the post to enter!

Title: The Night Circus

Author: Erin Morgenstern

Publisher: Anchor Books

Published: July 3, 2012

Available: Amazon, Book Depository, and Barnes and Noble

a Rafflecopter giveaway
RULES OF GIVEAWAY:

1. Must be 18 years or older to enter (or have parental consent as I'll need your address)

2. Must live in a country where the Book Depository ships to (Do they ship to my country?)

3. Must love books

If It Sits, I Licks

Everyone needs to 1) take a look at this adorable puppy 2) take a look at the author name listed next to this adorable puppy. 

There are a lot of perks to working for a small publishing house, one of them being when they are looking for an author to write a quote book on dogs, I get to call dibs. I'm a dog person to my very core, so when Familius published If It Fits, I Sits last year, I bit my tongue and said things like "It's such a cute book." In my mind though I was thinking, "A dog book would sell better, because cats are the devil." I've only had bad experience with cats and I have the scars to prove it. 

Well, here we are a year later and If It Sits, I Licks is in the works. All the quotes for the book have been gathered, and I've written chapter intros that are now with my editor for revisions. All that's left are designing the quotes and choosing pictures to correspond with each quote. 

To give you a better idea of what we are creating, here are a few sample spreads from If It Fits, I Sits (which by the way was written by our managing editor...see what I mean about small publishing house perks?)

We are looking for high-resolution photos of dogs with personality. Whether it be loving, naughty, tail-wagging, or droopy eyed, we'd love to include a wide variety in our book. 

Here's where you can be a part of this book. Familius is looking for dog Instagram accounts that would like to be considered for inclusion in this book. If your dog has an Instagram account, comment on this post with the account name (i.e. @darciedog) and we'll take a look. 

All photos that are included in our final book will be credited, so while your dog may be the star, your name will be printed in the book's index. 

These books will be distributed nationally, and represented at international rights shows for foreign publication consideration. This will definitely bump up your Instagram game!

If you have any questions, you can include them in the comments section or email me at my work address erika@familius.com.

Sea of Poppies

Sea of Poppies

This book was meant to cover my Reading Resolution to read a book set in a foreign country. A plot surrounding a slave ship being used in the illegal India/Chinese poppy trade sounds intriguing, doesn't it?

I thought so too, until I trudged through 160 pages and then called it quits because I was tired of waiting for the story to start. Every chapter introduced at least three new character, and after 6 chapters of meeting new people, I had a hard time keeping everyone's back stories and motivations straight.

If you enjoy authentic historical fiction, then you will probably enjoy Sea of Poppies. After starting this book I realized that I prefer my historical fiction to be mostly fiction with a touch of history :)

Amitav Ghosh did his homework using authentic "seaman talk" (at least that's what I dubbed it). It's lingo that was so confusing there was a whole chapter at the end of the book just to serve as a dictionary. Normally when foreign language or lingo is incorporated into a novel, you can use context clues to learn the meaning of the word. Not so with this "seaman talk" where whole conversations would go by and I was left thinking, "I hope that wasn't important." While I understand the author's desire to keep the text authentic, when the reader has to flip back and forth from the back of the book to the front of the book just to understand what the dialogue means, it kills the plot flow.

I didn't finish the book, so I don't feel that I have a right to rate it. Other people gave it rave reviews on Goodreads. I suggest you borrow it from the library and see if it's to your reading taste.

Title: Sea of Poppies

Author: Amitav Ghosh

Publisher: Back Bay Books

Published: January 17, 2014

Available: Amazon, Book Depository, and Barnes and Noble

Life After Life

Life After Life

How do you pass the time when you're making a 12 hour round-trip drive for work...alone? 

Normally I stock up on Twizzlers and Josh Groban CDs, but this time I decided to try something new. Audio Book!

I checked out Life After Life from my local library, and I have to say it was nice company. I've never listened to a complete audio book before. I prefer the feel of having a book in my hands, to hear the character's voices how I would imagine them, and to read as much or as little as I want. 

Life After Life is the tale of one girl on a journey to get her life right, no matter how many times it takes. Through a form of reincarnation, Ursula repeatedly lives and dies throughout the book. In a game of "Is this the right choice?" Ursula's decisions lead to her drowning, dying of the plague, starving and other extreme circumstances. But as soon as her life is over, the refresh button is hit and she begins it again. What's unique is that when she is reborn, her life is the exact same but she doesn't remember any of it. 

This probably wasn't the best option for my first audio book. Life After Life involves a lot of year jumping, going from past to present and then back to the past which becomes the present. If that sounds confusing, try following it over an audio book :)

Once I got used to the time jumping, I was intrigued by the plot. It's like the choose your own adventure books I read when I was younger. One set of choices could end the story after three pages. You start over at the beginning and try a different set of pages, to find that the story lasts a little longer this time. Can you imagine living life this way? Getting third or fourth or fifteenth chances to live your life the way is was meant to be?

Life After Life shows how even the smallest decisions can have the largest impact in our life and in the course of history. What small decisions will you make today that will shape the rest of your future?

Title: Life After Life 

Author: Kate Atkinson

Publisher: Back Bay Books

Published: January 17, 2014

Available: Amazon, Book Depository, and Barnes and Noble

The spring blossoms are pretty amazing right now, so I took some shots and added a few quotes from the book. Feel free to share! 

Never Let Me Go/ On Such a Full Sea

Ever since The Hunger Games dystopian plots have taken over fiction titles...and not just YA.

Two books on my Goodreads list were Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee. Well, I went to the library and these two were both on the shelves, so I checked them out. I don't purposefully try to read books that are similar in plot lines, so I was interested to see how these two books would compare.

I know. I know. Every book is different, and you shouldn't compare one title to the next. But just because you shouldn't doesn't mean you don't. 

I read Never Let Me Go first, so I'll start here. 

Kazuo Ishiguro is an author that I read in high school. His book The Remains of the Day is considered a classic read, so naturally the English department had that on our required reading for the year. Never Let Me Go had a very similar tone to The Remains of the Day, which unfortunately was not my favorite book. 

Never Let Me Go follows a group of children that were raised in Halisham, a mysterious boarding school. As they grow from children to teens to young adults, the main characters Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy reflect on their time spent together in the secretive institution.

Ishiguro is a beautiful writer in terms of the language and his ability to create visually memorable scenes. He writes like a painter, putting emotion onto paper in a way that the reader feels his words. A wonderful writer, BUT his story is written like one long flashback. It was hard for me to get drawn into the story when the plot line kept getting interrupted by, "It reminded me of when" or, "I thought back to the year." 

The jumping from present to past to the even further past and then back to the present was jarring for me. Just when I was digging into the scenario on hand, the year would change, the location would change, the personality of the characters would change and I'd have to refamiliarize myself with story. 

***SPOILER ALERT***

The ending was a little predictable. A group of children are in a private institution...no one is allowed to leave and no one is allowed in...when the children reach a certain age they are sent away and never come back. Come on, what do you think is going on? 

Science experiments? Organ Donations? Clones? It sounds all too familiar. 

Title: Never Let Me Go

Author: Kazuo Ishiguro

Publisher: Knopf

Published: March 14, 2006

Available: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository

Then there's On Such a Full Sea.

This book involves a young girl, Fan, who leaves her city unit B-Mor in search of her boyfriend. She's pregnant and when he goes missing, risks her life and her unborn baby's life to find him. Fan meets a strange array of characters on her search, and when I say strange, I mean it feels like they are straight out of a beautiful but odd Cirque du Soleil performance. 

The book is futuristic, and Lee takes liberty to make it a bleak and crazy future. There were portions of the book that I had to reread because I'd think, "Wait, what just happened?" I felt like I was reading someone's trippy dream journal because the plot jumps from one really weird situation to the next really weird situation. It had the hint of a Tim Burton movie, where each character is so unique and memorable, but everything is so dark. 

I did think that Fan was well written and Lee created unforgettable characters and situations. There are also some very beautiful passages from this book that are both wise and poetic:

"It's not that we're too fearful or comfortable, too cautious or reluctant, but that, as we have never experienced life outside these bounds...the reach of our thoughts has a near ceiling. Imagination might not be limitless. It's still tethered to the universe of what we know, and as wild as our dreams might be, we can't help but read them with the same grounded circumspection that guided our forebears when they mapped out our walls."

"And too intense a longing, everyone knows, can lead to poor decisions, rash actions, hopes that become outsized and in turn deform reality."

Three stars. Same rating...different reasons!

Title: On Such a Full Sea

Author: Chang-Rae Lee

Publisher: Riverhead Books

Published: December 2, 2014

Available: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository