Maureen Johnson vs. Stephanie Perkins

I finally finished my challange.  I was challenged by two friends, Eden and Anne, to read both 'Girl at Sea' bu Maureen Johnson and 'Anna and the French Kiss' bu Stephanie Perkins.  I won't say who's who, but one of my friends loves one book and hates the other; the other friend loves the book hated by the first.  Still with me?  So I took the challenge.  Still, why are these two books compared?  It's partially because something as simple as their back descriptions.  They are drastically similar.  Let me boil it down for you.  

Both books have a female protaginist in her last years of high school.  She has a kind mother and a weird crazy father.  Her parents are divorced.  Her crazy dad sends her away somewhere against her will and she is forced to leave a potential relationship with a cute boy back home.  She is miserable.  Until, of course, she meets a new boy at her undesirable location, making said undesirable location seem really really great.  Adventures happen, people are confronted, and love prevails even when a departure is inevitable.

I'll be honest, I enjoyed both books despite their similarity.  However, I did like Girl at Sea a bit more.  I'm not sure if this is because I read it first or it was simply a better book.  I do believe it is a tighter story and has much more adventure.  I would recommend both books though.  Anna and the French Kiss was cool to read since I have recently been to France and knew of the places they were talking about first hand.  Girl at Sea is more adventurous and Anna and the French Kiss is more about unrequited love.  Chose your poison.  Or, read both and tell me your opinion!

I am getting slightly behind on my goal, and the could be becouse of this non-fantasy trend of the books I'm choosing for my '25 books in a year' goal.  I'm really out of my element here with all this realistic fiction.  The next book on my list is not different.  We shall see, my extremely slow reading is not helping either.

In other news, I have stopped counting my 'CATS faces' because I simply do not have the time to make time to do that.  That does not mean I'm done with makeup design forever, just this year for the most part. 

Books read: 6

Katniss' Lamb and Plum Stew

I'm not much of a cook but from time to time I'll try something new.  If you're a fan of 'The Hunger Games' then you might enjoy this dish!

The video explaining how to make the dish is here.

What you'll need:

A stove top and a crock pot
1 large onion (you'll use 3/4 of it)
1 Tb olive oil
1 lb lamb (neck or stew meat) 2 tsp red wine vinegar 2 C of water 1 1/2 tsp brown sugar 10ish prunes (dried plums w/out pits) 3 or 4 large carrots 3 or 4 potatoes 1 stalk celery 1/2 large red bell pepper salt and pepper 1 Tb rosemary 1/4 tsp Cinnamon 1/4 C Flour 1/4 to 1/2 C prune juice




How to make it:


> Cut the lamb into pieces 
> Then cut half of the onion up 
> Pour the olive oil and the onions into the sauce pan, turn on the heat to medium low and stir till the onions are caramelized.
> Turn the heat to med-high. Add the meat and red wine vinegar.  
> Brown the sides of the meat quickly. Do not allow it to cook all the way through. 
> Once you're done, put it all into the crock pot. 
> Add the water, dried plums, brown sugar, rosemary, salt and pepper.  Keep it on low for 4-5 hours.  


Then read a book as you wait!

> Three hours before you are ready to eat, cut up the carrots, the potatoes, the bell pepper, 1/4th of the onion and the celery (optional)
> Add the cinnamon now as well (also optional) and the veggies. 


> When you are ready to eat, it is time to make the gravy. Measure out your prune juice.
> Then start to heat it in a small pot.
> In a second pot, suck up all of the juices from the stew and add flour in small amounts, then whisk it together. 
> Then add the now-boiling prune juice and some salt and pepper.
> Pour back in with the meat. Stir and serve. 


Recipe adapted from here.


Books Read: 6

Missing 'Real' Things

I finished book 4 in my 25 Books challenge!  This is the first Maureen Johnson book I've ever read and I really understand why she is so popular amongst teens these days.  The book was fabulous.  Again, it's not my genera of choice but I really fell in love with the characters and cared for what happened to them.  (Which is more than I can say for 'Requiem For a Dream' but that's a rant for another day.)  I also realized there is a sequel to this book but I think I am going to read a different Maureen Johnson book first.  (Another PPS book!)  However I do think I'll be buying book 6 from Amazon.com  That's one thing that's really making me mad, all the book stores close to me are going out of business.  Where am I supposed to browse around for books anymore?  The internet is great but just does not have the same feel and discovery as a book store.  Also, I'm a big fan of holding physical books.  Sure they take up space but it's so much more satisfying to hold them in your hands and lend them to friends and occasionally  write notes in them.  The action of putting pen to paper is slowly getting lost in all of this technology these days...(says the girl who just got an iPhone.)


I really miss the days when I had pen pals and we wrote physical letters to one another.  The personalization and art and the anticipation of waiting for a letter to come in the mail.  I miss that.  That's why I've started a new project.  I want to receive and send 100 letters, snail mail style.  I've started a new blog where you can find out more information on the project: 100 Letters.  I hope if you enjoy this blog that you will go and follow that one.


Books Read: 4

Second Helpings Book Review

With three books down and the end of January near, I am slightly ahead in my 25 book goal.  The third book I read was called 'Second Helpings' and it was by Megan McCafferty.  It is the second book in a series (I'm actually not sure how long it goes) about a smart girl dealing with High School, boys, and her seemingly idiotic peers.  (FYI, I have read the first.)  It's not my normal style when it comes to Young Adult books.  (I'm more of a fantasy/scifi, third person fan and less of a normal fiction/first person fan) however I really enjoyed the story.  In fact, ever since I started reading John Green, I have been reading lots more young adult fiction that has nothing to do with fantasy or scifi, I'm proud of myself.  Anyways, I found out about the series from reading Hayley G Hoover's blog.  Good recommendation.  I have a few other recommendations from some other friends so we'll see if I can snag them from PaperBackSwap.

In other news, my ideas for my new YouTube channel have started to come in.  I have about 4 videos in the works right now and I am planning on posting every Wednesday again.  I'd like to have a contest but not till I get my old number of subscribers back. (322) I'm close, but it may take another month or so. 


I've also started to work on getting my website back up and running.  When I first made it it was going to serve as my costuming commissions website.  I ended up not having the time to actually make costumes for other people so I left it untouched for a while.  I am going to be gradually adding photo galleries of all my old costumes anyways and perhaps when I DO have the time, I'll make some things for other people.  Swing by and take a look at what's there.  I'll be sure to update here as well whenever I add a new gallery.


In a blog comment Cassey asked asked if I am writting reviews on all the books I read (of course!) and if I'm on Goodreads, I am! Here!


Books Read: 3

The Fault in Our Stars Review (No Spoilers)

The mere notion of 'no spoilers' at this point is probably unnecessary in the fan community surrounding John Green's books, (Nerdfighters, if you will) because as far as I've found, most of the fans read it the day it came out.  They devoured it in a single sitting, to use a common metaphor, consuming it's pages of wit, joy, and despair.  I, on the other hand, took my sweet time with it.  This is partially due to the fact I have a full time job, a full time boyfriend, and no maids to clean, shop, and cook for me.  (To be fair, the boyfriend does most of the cooking).  As much as I wanted to take the rest of the week off from life and read this gem, life got in the way.  I enjoyed the fact it lasted, however.  John Green does not pump out novels like a dime store romance novelist, so letting it last was just fine.  It probably will end up in my top three John Green books, along with 'An Abundance of Katherines' and 'Will Grayson Will Grayson'.  I cried various times during the book, and not at the obvious parts.  But I cry at everything, happy things more then sad.  I cry during Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.  I cry when kids are too cute in films.  I'll probably be bawling throughout my own wedding.  So this fact is not a spoiler, not really.  When I had one chapter left I took a break for a day.  I could not bring myself to finish it, I did not want it to end and I worried for the ending.  But I finished it.  It was perfect.


I'm not one for long reviews, but I'd like to get better.  One of my New Years Resolutions is to write more.  I'd like to post here more and see my post length get longer and see my comments grow.  However time is never enough and I can count the number of people who read this blog on one hand.  It's still only the first month of the year so I am no where near giving up.  I have a few other Resolutions that I have had varying success with so far.  I want to be healthier.   I'm not athletic and I'm not a health food nut.  So for me, this means actually exercise.  In my previous journal I mentioned my workout routine.  (Watch Gossip Girl, a show I less than like, and complete a particular workout DVD)  I have yet to do it so far this year sadly.  My other Resolution is to make more friends IRL and actually hang out with them.  I've got together with the girls from work once, so I count that as 'in progress'.  Other things are the basic YouTuber Resolutions: Post more videos, Collab more, etc. etc. etc. So there's that.  I really think that this year is going to be pretty great.  2010 sucked and 2011 sucked even more, so the odds are not good but so far 2012 has been quite awesome.


I'm jumping on the band wagon with some of my favorite bloggers and tracking things this year at the bottom of my blog.  So far I'm tracking amount of books (to help with my 25 book challenge). 




Books Read This Year: 2

25 Books

A few years ago I attempted the '50 books in a year' challenge that was going around at the time. I failed but managed at least 25 if I remember correctly. My friend Eden is attempting to read 25 books this year and I am going to join her. I am a slow reader so this is probably the most manageable number with a full time job and many other hobbies. So far I've read one, it's called 'Ruby' and it's written by Francesca Lia Block (one of my all time favorites authors) and Carmen Staton. It was beautiful, poetic, and deliciously full of vivid imagery as all of Block's books tend to be. It was also heart-wrenchingly sad in moments and deals with serous subject matter, primarily child abuse. There was a strong sense of magic and fantasy as well, as all of Blocks amazing stories do. It was a quick read and I highly recommend it. If you are new to Block's works I recommend starting with 'I Was a Teenage Fairy' or 'Violet & Claire' as those were the two books I started with.  If you enjoy those you must read the series 'Dangerous Angels' starting with 'Weetzie Bat'. 

Every time I finish a book I'll post a short review here and if you want to join me, please comment and let me know what your first book of 2012 is!  I'd love recommendations of books that you love so send them my way as well. Wish me luck!

A Fresh Start

Me.

Changing ones email address, blog, YouTube, and Google + account may seem like a challenging and frankly dumb idea this day and age.  However, since they are all owned by Google, if one has to change so do they all.  Well for me, one has to change.  That being said, I will henceforth be blogging from here.  MagicCatJenny.blogspot.com  It's the same as my email and YouTube now so despite the obvious difficulty of change, at least it's not as bad as creating different names for everything.  My bigest loss (not counting the $200 in business cards that are now worthless) is the 300+ YouTube subscribers I have on my old channel.  I'll make the transition gradual but it has to happen eventually.


So that leaves us here.  With this new blog, creatively titled Magic Cat Jenny.  I say creatively because it's a creative way of letting me post almost anything on this blog.  It will be the home to behind the scenes crafting and costuming adventures.  The magic of content creation, aka, what's exciting and blog worthy.  Anything I feel compelled to share with my hopefully willing audience.  Luckily my main website will not be changing in one bit. www.jennifersargent.net is still in the same spot, as is my Twitter.  Twitter is cool like that, change your name at anytime and nothing else changes.


Overall, for those of you making the effort and following me in this change, thank you.  If any of you want to help me in any way it would be greatly appreciated.  Just send me an email to the new address at MagicCatJenny@gmail.com or post a reply here.  After time there will be a slew of new content here and my at my YouTube channel, your support is appreciated.