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Life and Blog Update

It has been so long since I actually blogged. I miss being able to write with ease. It became quite a chore for me and the words would not come. Anyways, I posted about my thoughts about being a librarian the other day which you can find here, and just wanted to talk a bit more about what’s happening in my life. Anna Maria Island First off personally everything is great! This is the happiest I…

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Thoughts on Identity

I am a librarian.  Truly I am! I’m not just quoting Rachel Weisz in The Mummy. I went to graduate school for information specializing in libraries and archives. I work in a library. My title is librarian II. I do collection development for science fiction, westerns, and all of our digital collections. I am a librarian. But I may not be for much longer.   I was always a bookish child. I don’t…

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Review: My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine

This is a romance between a vampire and a human and I really loved it. Being evicted from her apartment, Cassie Greenberg has no choice but to respond to a too good to be true craigslist ad for a $200 a month apartment listing. The owner of the apartment Frederick J. Fitzwilliam is a bit eccentric to say the least, but Cassie doesn’t find anything too awful about him, until she finds the blood in…

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Review: Lugosi: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood's Dracula

It was a dark and stormy night in a land called Hollywood. There in that place there was an actor who terrified men and seduced women in his role as Count Dracula. That actor was Bela Lugosi. I always had a soft spot for old Bela. His Count Dracula is one of my favorites and as someone whose Hungarian ancestors came over to America around the same time that Bela did also endeared him to me. So,…

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Review: Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark by Cassandra Peterson

There's more to the Mistress of the Dark than meets the eye!

Man, this book was really good! I will preface this saying I knew next to nothing about Cassandra Peterson outside of the fact that she was a showgirl before creating Elvira, and she came out as bisexual in this book. So, not a lot. Elvira herself is inescapable as a figure of Halloween pop culture. I mean I didn’t see any of her work until I was an adult when I finally watched Elvira: Mistress…

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Review: Garlic and the Witch by Bree Paulson

This was another charming read. The sequel to Garlic and the Vampire, we join Garlic on a new adventure, this time to find the magical market to help her friend the Count find an ingredient to a new blood substitute. Garlic is also dealing with becoming human. Honestly, I didn’t see this coming. I mean I knew it was happening because it’s in the synopsis of the book, but it was unexpected,…

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Review: Ghostly Tales of Michigan's Manistee National Forest by Roger Meyer

Recently while I was working on a hot summer day my mind drifted off to thoughts of my favorite season, fall. I then decided to put a whole bunch of haunted Michigan and spooky books on hold, because I am a librarian. Well, I bit off a bit more than I could chew and I only managed to read one of those books and that book was Ghostly Tales of Michigan’s Manistee National Forest by Roger Meyer. My…

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Review: Garlic & the Vampire by Bree Paulsen

This children’s graphic novel was absolutely adorable. It’s about Garlic, who is garlic brought to life by the witch Agnes. She lives with the other vegetable people Agnes has created and they tend the garden and go to market together. Garlic has anxiety which is super relatable and her best friend Carrot helps her out when he can. The story really gets started when a vampire moves in next to…

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Another Year Another Birthday Reflection

Well I made it to 27.

Last year around this time I had a complete breakdown about turning twenty-six. I have since learned from my friends that they also had breakdowns around this age which made me feel a little bit better, but it was pretty bad. I felt like I was aimlessly going through the motions of life and I stopped talking to friends and loved ones, becoming very isolated. I am so happy I got help, seeing a…

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Review: When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn

I seem to like every other Bridgerton book.

It’s 2023 and I am still not done with the Bridgerton books. I started reading them last winter and I made it through book 5 which was Eloise’s story which I wrote about here, and I wrote about books four and three here. When we went to Scotland we toured the Georgian House which is set up to be how it was during the regency which is the period the Bridgerton books are set! This book is also…

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Review: Happy Place by Emily Henry

This book made me cry, but it made me work to get there. The premise of this one was a group of friends goes on their yearly vacation to Maine, and shock and horror one of the group has broken up and they haven’t told any of their friends for some reason. The couple in question pretends to still be together over the course of this vacation and hi-jinks ensue. I absolutely did not like the first…

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Review: Atalanta by Jennifer Saint

Atalanta was okay

Atalanta is admittedly not one of my favorite adaptations of Greek myth. I really for some reason had higher hopes for this book. First off the cover is stunning with the blues and the silhouette of Atalanta with her bow drawn. But the content was meh. I didn’t really get into the book until about half-way through it. Which may be a me thing as I have been having troubles with that lately. I just…

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Review: Agrippina: The Most Extraordinary Woman of the Roman World by Emma Southon

Me in Bath, these are some of the only ancient Roman ruins I’ve seen in person on site and it fits the theme Agrippina the younger has fascinated me from a young age. I would watch a lot of History Channel and I would get so pumped for ancient Rome week, although ancient Egypt was my first fixation. I can quote that Engineering an Empire ancient Rome episode nearly verbatim. This was probably my…

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Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

There's nothing quite like baseball to kick off summer!

*Crack* the ball soars over the field and heads over our heads! Everyone starts to take cover on the Pioneer State Insurance Deck. An older man is standing on the stairs leading down to the picnic tables and the ball lands right next to him as he jumps away. The ball then rolls away and lands two tables away, perfect for the little girl at the table to pick it up. We’re at a West Michigan…

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Review: Fifth Sun by Camilla Townsend

I really liked this book about the Aztecs!

I like to think I know a lot about the Aztec civilization. I was really into them in about fifth grade, when I was learning about Mexico the one year I took Spanish, and I also studied their art and the codices that were produced after the Spanish conquest in my Rethinking Renaissance Art class I took in college. Yet, I was surprised by how little I actually knew about the culture and that the…

[stormgambit]

Review: Fifth Sun by Camilla Townsend

I really liked this book about the Aztecs!

I like to think I know a lot about the Aztec civilization. I was really into them in about fifth grade, when I was learning about Mexico the one year I took Spanish, and I also studied their art and the codices that were produced after the Spanish conquest in my Rethinking Renaissance Art class I took in college. Yet, I was surprised by how little I actually knew about the culture and that the…

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The Local Spins Fest, Antiquing, and a Grand Rapids Staple

Music echoes throughout the city. We make our way closer and closer to the sound. Our goal is the Local Spins Festival in Grand Rapids. We have to be there at seven to see the Kari Lynch Band and the clock is inching towards that. We see the building we’re supposed to be at and we cross the street. Then we make a left turn and try to cut in through the alley to the courtyard we want to be in. Our…