Gone Girl: a brief review

taken from Goodreads.com

Holy crap, this book.

I literally just finished the last page and my eyes are still bugging out of my head a little and my brain is still saying "what the heeeeck...?" and "holy crap, this book" seems like the only logical thing for me to say, but that's probably not enough. So I'll say more. 

Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl is one of those that's been on my radar for a while, just because it's been really popular and seems to be everywhere. I mentioned in my Books-to-Movies Challenge post back at the start of the new year that I wanted to read it sooner rather than later because it's being turned into a movie this fall. (A little bit more on that in a minute.) It's forever on the waiting list from the library but when stumbled across it available last week on the library's website I snatched it. And then proceeded to absolutely devour it.

Nick and Amy Dunne are celebrating their five-year anniversary in their newish home in their newish zip code in Missouri, having relocated from a posh and carefree life in New York City. Stories from their early relationship paint a picture of a genuinely happy couple, playful and excited, but perhaps things aren't still quite so perfect. When Nick comes home from work and finds the front door open, the house a mess and Amy gone without a trace, the town - and soon, the country - becomes obsessed with figuring out what happened. Where is Amy? What happened in their home? Who is responsible?

I honestly can't even tell you how swept away with this plot I was. It was basically from the first page; I couldn't put it down, and when I had to I thought about it almost constantly. I really can't remember the last time I felt that way about a book...that I was that obsessed with finding out what happens next. I've always wanted to be the person who could stay up super late at night reading, but I get tired and fall asleep. I'm human. This book, though, had the opposite effect on me in the middle of the night. Okay...have I painted the picture for you enough? I really and thoroughly enjoyed this crazy book. From an entertainment perspective, I really did devour it. Couldn't get enough, couldn't stop thinking about it, couldn't stop wondering what absolutely insane thing was going to happen next. Yeah, I think you get the picture.

That all being said: I do need to give a disclaimer. I read mostly Young Adult books, and therefore review mostly Young Adult books on this blog. That's not because I have anything against books written for adults; it comes from my background in teaching middle school Language Arts and I've gotten comfortable with the genre for lots of reasons. Gone Girl, let me be very clear, is not a Young Adult book. Not that anyone would think that, but I just needed to say it. There's quite a lot of vulgar and sexually descriptive language (although not much actual sex) throughout the book in its entirety, which wasn't my favorite and makes it harder for me to actually recommend, but the plot is mind blowing...which I think I've already covered.

As far as the movie goes, it's far away and coming out in October, so there's not even a trailer to get jazzed about yet. There is, however, a full cast list on its IMDB page, and I had a ton of fun with it while reading the book. Most of the time, I read the books well in advance and then get super annoying and vocal about how Hollywood cast the characters wrong because they're not how they look in my head. Sometimes, though, I read the book when there's already a Hollywood framework in place and I get to spend a lot of time flipping back to my IMDB app on my phone to see who they cast for this new character. And sometimes, that is super fun. I have to say, the cast list for the movie works really well for the characters in this book. Time will tell whether the movie will actually be good, but (in my opinion) Ben Affleck is a great choice for Nick, Neil Patrick Harris is a shockingly terrifying but excellent choice for Desi, and I even think Tyler Perry will do a good job with Tanner Bolt. The only one I'm slightly unsure of is the choice of Rosamund Pike for Amy, just because she will always always be sweet and wonderful and perfect Jane Bennet from Pride & Prejudice, but I'm sure she will be great.

So...those are my thoughts. I really do think, though, that I could have gotten away with only saying "holy crap, this book."

The Continuing Dryer Sheet Saga

So...a little while ago (a month ago? a month and a half ago?) I wrote about making my own dryer balls to replace chemical-laced dryer sheets. What actually happened was that I wrote about how the hubs made me some dryer balls because I didn't have a sliver of the patience or fine motor skills needed to wrap all that wool. Between the annoyance of actually making the balls and the fact that one of them unraveled in the dryer the first time I used them, they had their share of issues. I thought they were working pretty well, though.

But then there were a couple of times I pulled my flannel shirts out of the dryer and they were super static-filled. And then I noticed that my microfiber cloths were full of static...as well as most other things. I shrugged it off. The fateful day came, though, when the hubs was examining his closet and pointed out that all his clothes had quite a bit of dog hair on them. For someone who wears a whole lot of black Harley t-shirts, this wasn't going to work. The dryer balls might have been doing a decent job of getting our clothes dry and a mediocre job of getting rid of static, but they were officially doing a terrible job of eliminating our 75-pound baby's hair off of our stuff. So back to the drawing board I went.

Thankfully, this was a pretty easy process and has been painless so far (I say "so far," acknowledging the fact that there may someday be a follow-follow up post about how this current solution isn't working anymore, but fingers crossed). I had seen the cleaning product brand Seventh Generation in various stores, and knew they boasted their clean, eco-friendly products. I figured that was as natural (no pun intended) place to start as any. I did some minimal research and confirmed that fact that they don't have dyes, bleach, or chemicals, and figured that about crossed off everything on my minimally-informed list. I have officially used them for a full day of laundry - meaning that they were put to the test with towels, sheets, a comforter (covered in previously mentioned dog hair), and all of our clothes, and they worked like champs. No dog hair to be found, and no static at all. Win win.

Obviously, they're more expensive than the regular dryer sheets I was buying at Costco before my minimally-informed self decided to switch things up, and they're more expensive than the homemade dryer balls with a one-time cost of the $8 wool. But if they're free of chemicals and do everything I need them to do, I think it's probably worth it.

In other news, I now have three tennis ball-sized wool yarn balls who need a purpose...

A New Cleaning Schedule

I've been following the blog I Heart Organizing for a couple years now, and have gotten lots of great ideas for how to make my home more efficient and organized (not that I've followed through on all of them yet, but ideas are ideas folks). For the last couple of weeks she's been blogging about her quest to keep a cleaner house in less time. She's decided to tackle that by doing one small cleaning task a day, and even though I was intrigued with that concept I decided it's not best for me right now. I know a lot of people prefer to break their cleaning up into multiple days, but that's not appealing to me at this current stage in our family. I don't enjoy cleaning day - which happens to be today...ugh - but it's one day and I can end the day knowing that the house is clean for another week, give or take a couple tasks that need touch-ups in between Thursdays. My days fill up faster than I expect them to and it just works better for me to have one day out of the week that I tank with things I don't enjoy, like cleaning and laundry, rather than spread them out all week long.

That all being said, I have taken away some great ideas for ways to clean our house differently from Jen's cleaning challenge over at IHeart. She's blogged about some things she's cleaned that have made me say "oh...duh...that's embarrassing that I've never done that." So I've decided to switch things up the tiniest of bits in my cleaning regimen, but I'm actually just adding quite a few tasks that will show up on a monthly and bi-annual basis. My weekly cleaning schedule won't change, and just because it's pretty basic I won't share it here. But here are my new additions:

Monthly Cleaning:
-clean all windows
-vacuum out cars
-clean microwave
-cycle clean appliances
-vacuum mattresses
-wipe down all doors
-clean inside of fridge
-clean out freezer
-clean oven
-clean out pantry
-purge unneeded items around house
-reorganize a drawer or closet

Bi-Annual Cleaning (spring and fall):
-scrub baseboards
-clean screens
-complete clothes overhaul and purge
-purge entertainment

Since it's the middle of a month, I decided to wait until April to start with the monthly cleaning, and I chose May and October for my spring and fall cleaning. Yes, there's only five months between May and October, but I figured no one would want to be cleaning screens in either April or November. I'm excited to see how this changes the maintained cleanliness as well as the functionality of our home. I definitely won't blog about every item I tackle on these lists, but I will try to at least share some before/after pics and follow up on how it's working. I'm sure it will need to be tweaked over time and I'm also sure I'll add to the lists as I find/discover/come up with more that needs to be done.

The Book Thief: a brief review

taken from Goodreads.com

Have you ever finished a book and needed some time to sit quietly and digest? Like...don't talk to me or ask anything of me for a while, because I am filled with both love and the deepest of sorrows and I'm not sure how to proceed. That was me last night. I truly loved this book, everything about it, but I'm finding it a little hard to put into words why. Not because it isn't obvious, but because it's so special I just want to hold it close to me and cherish it. That might sound odd - and it very well might be - but all I've done since finishing it is sleep and eat breakfast so I'm still in an emotional state.

Markus Zusak's The Book Thief has been well-known and well-loved since it's creation, but it's become wildly popular since Hollywood turned it into a movie. In fact, that's when it got bumped from my "I really want to read that list" to my "I now have a deadline to read it before I see the movie list." I loved it from the first page; as someone who is attempting to write a novel of her own, I can't even put into words my level of respect for Zusak and his incredible ability to describe, explain, and paint his characters into existence. One of my favorite examples of his characterization comes from the beginning of the book:

She was good at being furious. In fact, you could say that Rosa Hubermann had a face decorated with constant fury. That was how the creases were made in the cardboard texture of her complexion. (page 32 on Kindle)

As far as an actual plot description, here's my attempt: Liesel Meminger's mother is forced to place both Liesel and her brother in a foster home in pre-WWII Germany, but on the journey to their new town Liesel's brother dies. When she arrives at the Hubermann's home, Liesel is young, alone, and terrified. Her initial observations of her ill-tempered foster mother and grumpy foster father, though, quickly become brushed aside as she realizes the depth of their love for her. Whether it's sitting with her all night after a nightmare or expressing affection through vulgar nicknames, Liesel quickly finds her home with the Hubermanns on Himmel Street. As time progresses and the war begins, she finds love in other places as well, like the next-door neighbor boy Rudy who is intent on kissing her, and the stranger Max who has moved into the basement. Through it all, Liesel finds solace and excitement in the books she steals and the way they bring all of the people in her life together.

I can't even describe the happiness and the heartbreak that this book brings. You will absolutely adore the characters; you will absolutely adore this book. Zusak took an interesting approach when writing this book by using Death as the narrator. It sounds a little odd, and it does take a little bit of time to get used to, but it's also a completely appropriate choice given the content. I'll end with one of my favorite - and most haunting - paragraphs in the book, as told by Death himself.

Summer came. 
For the book thief, everything was going nicely. 
For me, the sky was the color of Jews.
When their bodies had finished scouring for gaps in the door, their souls rose up. When their fingernails had scratched at the wood and in some cases were nailed into it by the sheer force of desperation, their spirits came toward me, into my arms, and we climbed out of those shower facilities, onto the roof and up, into eternity's certain breadth. They just keep feeding me. Minute after minute. Shower after shower. (page 349 on Kindle)

Read this book, if you haven't already. 

And for added excitement/incentive, here's the extended trailer for the movie (which comes out on DVD today, actually).

DIY: Dryer Balls

Long time, no blog! I've been slacking, I know. But I wanted to finally write about how I got rid of dryer sheets with our nifty DIYed dryer balls.

I shared in this post about how and why I got rid of all my cleaning products and made my own. I knew then that I wanted to stop using dryer sheets, I just needed to find the right tutorial and get the supplies. Here's the tutorial I found on Pinterest, and even though my post will pretty much be a carbon copy from hers because we followed it exactly, I figured I should give credit where credit is due.

Materials needed:
-100%, non-washable wool yarn
-panty hose
-essential oil (optional)
-an incredible amount of patience

So here's the total and honest truth: I couldn't make these stupid dryer balls to save my life. Maybe if my life was literally on the line I would have been able to pull it off, but every time I tried I ended up making some grunting noises, sighing heavily, and throwing it down within about seven minutes. The tutorial I followed made it seem so easy...and maybe it is for everyone other than me, but it was no fun at all for this girl. So once again I called on my wonderful and ever-patient hubs to help me make them entirely for me. You'll notice that it's my fingers in all the demo pictures, which is really misleading because I've already confessed that the hubs did it all for me. Those were taken during a brief stint in which I thought I could make them myself.

Step 1:
Wrap the wool around your fingers (about as much as what's in the picture).

Step 2: 
Wrap the wool around in the other direction. 

(This is where I would start to lose it. I still have no idea what my issue was.)

Step 3:
Bring the ends together to form the small spherical center of the ball.

Step 4: 
Keep wrapping the wool, alternating directions as you go to eventually build up a tennis ball-sized ball. 

You will notice that this picture doesn't show much, and certainly doesn't show a tennis ball-sized ball. That's definitely my fault. Between my frustration and the hubs actually making this entire project for me, I failed big time in the photo opportunities. Womp womp.

Step 5: 
When you finish each ball and it's the size you want, tie a knot in the end of the wool and tuck it under some other wool. This is a pretty important step, which you'll see later in the post. 

Step 6:
Put the balls into the panty hose, tying a knot in between each one. We made four balls because that's how much our 400 yards of wool got us.

We did make four, but as you can see one was a little bit teenier than the others.

Step 7:
Wash and dry the balls, in the panty hose, at the highest temperature. According to the tutorial I followed, this helps fuse the wool together so it won't unravel. Also key to the prevention of unraveling, as it turns out, is that knot and tuck I mentioned in Step 5.

We lost one - the smallest baby one, thankfully, in the first run through, but the rest are still kicking, and they're working well! Once you put them through both the washer and dryer one time in the panty hose, you can cut them out and they're good to go. I just keep mine in the dryer.

Here they are! (except for that baby one which is no longer with us. No way I was going to rewind it again.)


The essential oils I mentioned as optional in the materials needed is just if you want the fresh scent of a dryer sheet. You would probably need to apply the oil to the dryer balls every four loads or so; I have opted to not use any at this point and I haven't really missed the scent.

They were a pain to make - and it's possible I'm exaggerating...I don't want to scare you away from making them because I have such a short fuse - but they've been pretty awesome little additions to our home in the weeks since. And the best part is not having our clothes, sheets, and towels covered in the chemicals of a dryer sheets.

One last thing: I have heard that the more dryer balls you have, the faster the clothes dry. I'm using three and I think everything is getting dry at the same rate as before, so maybe someday when I'm feeling extra patient I'll make a couple more just to see if it makes a difference. Until then, though, this is working well.

Requiem: a brief review

from Goodreads.com

When I finished Lauren Oliver's second book in her Delirium trilogy, Pandemonium, I was eager to plow ahead right away and read her conclusion as soon as possible. Pretty soon after I started reading, though, the Olympics started and then I got a stomach bug where I just wanted to watch 30 Rock on Netflix instead of read my book...and then came the shocking email reminder from my library that my book was going to disappear from my Kindle in two days. Oh right...it's a library book. After a little research I discovered that I can't renew it because there's a hold on it. But the great state of Virginia decided to be blasted with snow for the 47th time this winter, and the 15+ inches (it's still snowing) outside have allowed me the gift of a reading day. And I finished before the library took it away from me. Boo-ya.

I really want to try to give a minor description of the book without giving anything away, but just like I said last time, that's hard. So all I'll say is that the plot picks up right where the last ends, and this time the chapters switch back and forth between Lena and Hana, her best friend from Portland who doesn't appear at all in the second book. There are a couple of truly great "whaaat" moments, a couple twists that you see coming but that still make you smile when they happen, and plenty of action and suspense. There's even a love triangle, and even though the fact that there seems to always be a love triangle started to annoy me years ago, it works well enough.

I talked quite a bit in my last review about how I didn't love the first book in this trilogy, Delirium, but I enjoyed both Pandemonium and Requiem a lot. The action and suspense kept me hooked, her tactic of switching perspectives between chapters (through place in time in Pandemonium and through characters in Requiem) kept me really engaged, but I think the discussion of what love is and how it really affects us is what puts the trilogy on a deeper level than some other dystopian novels out right now. In the end, both Lena and Hana see the pros and cons of their very different situations and question their life choices to the core. Lena certainly learns that having freedom doesn't make life as simple and ideal as it seems. They're good books: entertaining, engaging, and thought-provoking.

Delirium and Pandemonium: brief reviews

Okay so this post is going to look a little different than most of my book reviews. I read Delirium, Lauren Oliver's first book in her YA dystopian trilogy, about a year ago. I was in a blogging slump, though, and a review was never written. So since I just finished the second book in the series, Pandemonium, and since I'm freaking out about it, I figured I might as well do a really short review of what I remember from the first one too.

In Delirium, the stage is set: Lena lives in a world where love is a disease to be feared above all. According to her government and the new system they've set up, love - the delirium - is the source of all of our world's problems. Any strong emotion, whether negative or positive, is unnecessary and dangerous. So all 18-year-olds receive the cure, which removes your ability to feel those emotions. You are matched with a spouse and you raise children, but no emotional attachment exists. Everyone does their job and follows the rules and become good, complacent and content adults. Lena is a strong believer just months away from her own cure when she meets Alex, an uncured boy living in plain sight in Lena's community. It doesn't take long for Lena to begin questioning everything she's been taught her whole life...no matter what the risk.

When I first heard about this book, I was really intrigued with the plot. I thought it sounded like a great new worst-case scenario idea on what the distant future might hold. I was a little disappointed with the book, though, and when I finished I was curious enough to continue reading the series but not in much of a hurry. I thought some of the writing was a little slow and over-detailed, and I just didn't think it was as mind-blowing as a plot as I had anticipated. The second one, though...

taken from Goodreads.com

I finished Pandemonium this morning, and I'll be honest...my mind is a little blown.

This one picks up almost right after the first one ends. (So I'll try not to spoil too much but it might be a little impossible.) Lena is in the Wilds, and has been found and nursed back to health by some people living in a settlement nearby. As she spends more time with these people, she joins them in an underground resistance movement against the government so determined to keep everyone in their robot-like state of complacency. Eventually, Lena gets caught up in a kidnapping gone slightly wrong, and is locked in a cell with none other than the son of the leader of the Deliria Free America, poster boy for all things cured. (I told you it was going to be super hard to keep from spoiling something.)

Whoa. I might not have loved Delirium, but I really enjoyed Pandemonium. I didn't notice the slow-moving plot or too many details like I did in the first book; the plot flowed smoothly and fairly quickly. But the plot itself was so much more interesting, I thought. I felt like Delirium was a little slow because of the foundation of plot that needed to be set, whereas in Pandemonium she was able to zoom forward to new information. The most important part, though, was that she split the book into two different places in time: Lena as she's being rescued and nursed back to health in the Wilds, and Lena six months later working with the resistance in New York City. By flipping back and forth with each chapter, my interest was so piqued. I was being given little breadcrumbs into what would happen eventually, but yet at the same time there were so many gaps in information I needed to keep reading to find out what was really going on. I got hooked pretty quick. And with the mind-blowing ending she left me with, I'm pretty stoked to start book 3, Requiem.