Friday Funnies: How to Read Gang Signs

Welcome to Friday Funnies! Because everyone needs a good laugh on Friday. 

Now maybe the next time you're around gangsters, you can totally eavesdrop on their sign conversation! :D

Hope this gave you a laugh! Have a great weekend! :D

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Teaser Tuesday: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

So I just started a Harry Potter read-along, courtesy of Book Journey. Go HERE if you want to join us. I haven'tread the HP books in years, so I'm super-excited! Here are some teasers from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone:

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"As Harry and Ron walked back to the castle for dinner, their pockets weighed down with rock cakes they'd been too polite to refuse, Harry thought that none of the lessons he'd had to far had given him as much to think about as tea with Hagrid. Had Hagrid collected that package just in time? Where was it now? And did Hagrid know something about Snape that he didn't want to tell?" (pg. 142)

What are YOU reading this week?

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Historical Tidbit: Robert Lincoln and Edward Booth

Robert Lincoln (Source)

Did you know...that a year before Abraham Lincoln's assassination, his son was saved by the brother of John Wilkes Booth?

It's true. The exact date of the incident hasn't survived, but it's believed to have happened in late 1863 or early 1864, roughly 1-1.5 years before Lincoln's assassination. Robert Lincoln was the eldest son of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, and the only one to survive into adulthood.

As he recalled in a letter:

The incident occurred while a group of passengers were late at night purchasing their sleeping car places from the conductor who stood on the station platform at the entrance of the car. The platform was about the height of the car floor, and there was of course a narrow space between the platform and the car body. There was some crowding, and I happened to be pressed by it against the car body while waiting my turn. In this situation the train began to move, and by the motion I was twisted off my feet, and had dropped somewhat, with feet downward, into the open space, and was personally helpless, when my coat collar was vigorously seized and I was quickly pulled up and out to a secure footing on the platform. Upon turning to thank my rescuer I saw it was Edwin Booth, whose face was of course well known to me, and I expressed my gratitude to him, and in doing so, called him by name. (Source)

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Edwin Booth (Source)

he reason he knew Edwin's face was that Edwin Booth was a famous actor at the time. He was renowned for his work on the stage, especially in Shakespearean plays. As the Lincoln family obviously favored the theater, they would have known Edwin Booth. Of course, Booth's accomplishments have been overshadowed throughout history by the deeds of his sinister brother.

At the time, Robert Lincoln was just pleased to have not only met someone famous whom he admired, but to have been saved by him.

This is such a strange twist in the Lincoln story. I'm not sure you'd exactly call it serendipity, but maybe just a strange twist of fate, as though something was trying to forewarn the Lincolns that their family would soon be inseparably intertwined with that of the Booths.

It would make a terribly interesting story, don't you think?

What's your take on this strange historical occurrence? How would you handle it in literature?

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Friday Funnies: Grammar Jokes

Welcome to Friday Funnies! Because everyone needs a good laugh on Friday. Today is all about nerdy grammar jokes!

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Hope one of those gave you a laugh! Have a great weekend, Everyone!

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Thoughts for Thursday: Story

Thoughts for Thursday is a feature hosted by Musings on Fantasia and LKHill.  In this meme, we share thoughts or quotes that we know or have recently come across. Each week there is a specific subject or theme. These can be quotes from books, quotes by famous people, (quotes by YOU, perhaps ;D). Anything from anywhere is game, though we do ask that you keep your quote to a few sentences at most. Don't quote, for example, entire passages of a book or essay. These can be funny quips, cool sayings, hair-raising antidotes, movie lines, any kind of quote you can think of!

Just have fun, collect awesome sayings by awesome people, and try to be inspired!

This week's theme is Story. Check out my other blog for more quotes.

But how could you live and have no story to tell?--Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Do not lose hope--what you seek will be found. Trust ghosts. Trust those that you have helped to help you in their turn. Trust dreams. Trust your heart, and trust your story.--Neil Gaiman, Fragile Things

...If we don't tell strange stories, when something strange happens, we won't believe it.--Shannon Hale, The Goose Girl

Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark. Begin at the beginning. Tell...a story. Make some light."--Kate DiCamillo, The Tale of Despereaux

If you are not the hero of your own story, then you're missing the whole point of your humanity.--Steve Maraboli

Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.--Alfred Hitchcock

Which quote about story is your favorite? Do you have one to add?

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Book Review: The Cuckoo's Calling

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Bought The Cuckoo's Calling right around Christmas last year and am just now getting around to reading it, but it's no secret I haven't done as much reading this year as I did last year. I'm just glad I finally got to it. :D

Story: When a young, beautiful model falls to her death one snowy night, it is generally believed to be suicide. You know, a young woman cracking under the pressures of fame. While an investigation is conducted, nothing ever comes of it, and the official findings are consistent with suicide. Months later, the model's brother, convinced his sister was not suicidal, hires down-on-his-luck private detective, Comoran Strike to look into the case. With the help of his scrappy "temp" secretary Robin, Strike plunges them into the case, looking for truths that perhaps the police, the public, and paparazzi might have missed. 

Overall, I had no complaints about the story. It was a great whodunit that kept you guessing. I think I considered the real culprit about half a page before it was revealed, so she obviously did a good job. That said, I wasn't blown away either. But satisfied with the ending. 

Characters: As with Harry Potter, most of the characters in this book are very ordinary. With the exception of the model in question, they aren't beautiful people or particularly well-endowed in any area of life: looks, love, finances, etc. And there's something that's just so compelling about those types of characters. They feel more real, more human than other, cookie-cutter characters do. And Rowling/Galbraith just has a knack for writing them. 

My one complaint is that I wish she could have tied Strike's back story into the current story a bit more. He lost his leg in the war and is going through a hard time both financially and in the love department, so it's not like we don't get a good sense of his background. And it definitely does have a bearing on him now, as he's broke, and has to wear a prosthetic all the time, but that's not really what I mean. I wish he could have used something he learned from one or all of those hardships to help him in the present. To break the case or something. I just think it would have been more powerful that way, but that's not what she does. Not that what she does is terrible, I just think it could have been stronger.

Writing/POV: Here's where I had the biggest complaint. Any writer worth their salt knows that changing POVs in random places is a huge no-no. Yet she does it in this book. Constantly. She changes POVs mid-scene, and sometimes mid-paragraph. Okay, granted. She's J.K. Rowling, so she can get away with it, but that doesn't make it okay. Trying to figure out whose head we're in now always pulls the reader out of the story. ALWAYS. And you don't want that. It really bothered me in this book. I tried to think if she ever did that in Harry Potter, but HP was always from Harry's perspective, right? We didn't ride around in anyone else's head, if I remember right, so she wouldn't have had the chance to do it. I really am all about multiple POVs to tell a complex story, but it needs to be done right. I felt like this could have been a lot better.

Comparisons: Just be advised: this is definitely. Not. Harry Potter. This is an adult novel with plenty of curse words (including the f bomb), violence, sexual innuendo, drugs, etc. It was kind of shocking at first because, even knowing consciously that this is not Harry Potter and you shouldn't expect it to be, you still just don't think she'll go all R-rated movie on you. But she does. You've been warned.

Overall: While I had a few complaints, I actually really enjoyed reading this book. If you like mystery/crime/whodunit-type fiction, you'll enjoy it. It doesn't have the magic of Harry Potter, but it does have it's own, grown up kind of charm. If she writes more Comoran Strike novels, I'll probably read them. If you aren't into crime fiction, or only want to read Harry Potter from J.K. Rowling, then skip this one. You probably won't be impressed. 

Has anyone else read The Cuckoo's Calling? What did you think of it?

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Teaser Tuesday: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

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"The carpet glittered with shards of glass, the coffee table shattered. End tables were on their sides, books slid across the floor like a card trick. Even the heavy antique ottoman was belly-up, it's four tiny feet in the air like something dead. In the middle of the mess was a pair of good sharp scissors." (pg. 23-24)

What are you reading this week?

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