Book Review: "The Midnight Plan of the Repo Man" by W. Bruce Cameron

"The Midnight Plan of the Repo Man" by W. Bruce Cameron
First published in 2014
319 pages
My rating: 4 out of 5
Image from Goodreads

Sometimes you just need a silly, charming, feel-good kind of book, and that's exactly what W. Bruce Cameron delivers here -- with some mystery, a little romance, an absolutely loveable dog and the ghost of a murdered Realtor thrown in.

Once destined for the NFL, Ruddy McCann lives in small-town Michigan and works as a repo man, a thankless job taking back vehicles when people default on payments. One night he has a strange dream -- a dream in which he's chased down and murdered -- and the next day he starts hearing a voice in his head claiming to be Alan Lottner, victim of a homicide.

Ruddy, of course, thinks he's going crazy. But Alan is really inside Ruddy's head, and he was really murdered, and he wants Ruddy to solve the crime. Once Ruddy comes to terms with the bizarre situation, he sets out to find the killers.

I loved the dialogue between Ruddy and Alan Lottner, by turns hilarious and heartwarming -- especially after their relationship is complicated when Ruddy meets Lottner's pretty twentysomething daughter. I loved the moments Ruddy shared with his dog, proving that he's really just a ol' big softie at heart. I even loved learning the tricks of the repo trade -- especially the scenes in which Ruddy battles it out with a guard goose. I even loved meeting the crazy residents of Kalkasa, Michigan.

"The Midnight Plan of the Repo Man" reminded me a bit of one of Janet Evanovich's early Stephanie Plum books -- just replace somewhat hapless bounty hunter with somewhat hapless repo man. They've both got a great mix of mystery, humor, romance and a couple of almost unbelievably idiotic characters. "Midnight Plan" was a romp of a novel that made me smile and kept me turning pages. It was definitely a departure from "A Dog's Purpose" or "The Dogs of Christmas," but Cameron did a good job with his first funny mystery and I'm interested to see what he writes next.

Quotable quote: "I had my book, my dog, and my chair. What else did a man need?"

Style Challenge: Wear A Valentine's Color

The Style Challenge at Putting Me Together this week is to wear red, pink or purple in honor of Valentine's Day. We don't celebrate Valentine's Day as a couple (Jarrod thinks it's a totally commercialized fake holiday, and really, it is) but I still like to send cards, decorate and wear appropriate colors.

I actually had planned for this post to feature three outfits with a different color each day. But the pictures of my coral sweater from yesterday didn't come out at all (thanks, perpetually gloomy Ohio weather, for the horrible lighting) and today it's snowing so I can't wear the red flats I had planned. So! That leaves just one outfit -- the pink one!

I really love the way this outfit came together! I just bought the striped sweater from Old Navy and this was the first time I'd worn it. It's super-comfy, although a little lightweight for this time of year.

 

The pink flats... oh, I love them. But horror of horrors, I somehow got mud or some random library goo on them at work Tuesday! Any tips on cleaning suede would be appreciated! I found some info online, but I'm nervous to mess up my favorite shoes even more!

I'm really excited about next week's Style Challenge: wear something you haven't worn in over six months. I definitely have some things lurking in the dark depths of my closet that haven't seen the light of day in quite a while. Maybe I'll make a week of it!

Book Review: "Red Rising" by Pierce Brown

"Red Rising" by Pierce Brown
First published in 2014
First in a trilogy
382 pages
My rating: 5 out of 5
Image from Goodreads

Darrow is a Helldiver. He lives and works deep under the surface of Mars, mining an element critical to making the Red Planet habitable for humans. He's bold and fearless and brave. He's never seen the sky.

He's a Red, the bottom of the totem pole in the new world order of the future. Golds, godlike men and women, are at the top of the color-based caste system.

Darrow has been told he's a pioneer, paving the way for the weaker Colors, saving mankind. He's been lied to.

It's a shattering revelation. While Reds have toiled away underground -- oppressed, starving, miserable -- the surface of Mars has been inhabited by every other Color for generations. It's time for a revolution.

Debut author Pierce Brown has put together a gripping and unique dystopian masterpiece with "Red Rising," the first in a trilogy. The plot has elements of "The Hunger Games" and "Ender's Game" with a little Percy Jackson thrown in -- and plenty of fantastic new material of its own. The word-building is superb. Brown's vision of the distant future is both thrilling and horrifying.

"Red Rising" is the best book I've read so far this year and I'm positive it'll make my list of top reads from 2015. It's the kind of book that speaks to you, that sticks with you, that you find yourself thinking about long after you closed the back cover.

The sequel, "Golden Son" came out last month and I can't wait to dig into it. It'll be my reading material on the long flight to Hawaii when we head there for our vacation in a couple weeks. Just another reason to look forward to our trip!

Knitting Update + Valentines and Sushi

Valentine's Day is fast approaching and I just got the last of my valentines in the mail this afternoon. I'm sensing a trend here... the top two cards are from my grandma and my mom, and the bottom two are from the packs I sent out to friends and family. I guess you could say I'm a dog person! ;) 

 

Saturday was a beautiful day for winter in Ohio -- it was in the upper 40s and not overcast for a change! Jarrod and I decided we needed to get out of the house, so we went to a new sushi place someone had told him about called Fusian. It's basically a build-your-own sushi restaurant where you go down the assembly line and point out what you want on your roll, from a variety of proteins to several different sauces and toppings to finish off. I was super excited because I always end up with vegetarian sushi since I don't eat seafood, but Fusian had chicken! It was so fun to customize what we wanted on our rolls -- I got chicken, avocado, carrots, cucumbers, green onions and cream cheese with spicy mayo and tempura crunch. Mmmm, I can almost taste it now!  Yum yum yum! We'll definitely be frequenting this place!
 

 And here's my progress on the Follow Your Arrow 2 MKAL. (Here's my Ravelry project page.) I was really loving my shawl up to this point, but I'm a little disappointed in this clue. I think I should've gone with the other option, which made more of a chevron shape and would've flowed a lot better with clue 3.

On the other hand, I do like how clue 4 continued on with the nature theme I've decided I have going. I think the pattern is supposed to represent a quiver of arrows, but to me it looks like a bouquet of flowers. It's so pretty that I can't bear to rip it out, so I'm just crossing my fingers that the last clue ties everything together. I can't believe we only have one more clue left -- it's bittersweet! Mystery knit-alongs are so much fun, and there's an extra anticipation factor with this one because there are two totally different choices each week. I'll miss waking up Monday mornings and logging onto Ravelry first thing to see what beautiful clues await!

Furry Friday

Lily lounging on the loveseat.

Knitting Update: Follow Your Arrow 2 MKAL

My Ravelry project page

I am totally loving this mystery knit-along! So far I've chosen all clue Bs. This week I selected B because of the word "cables." Cables are my very most favorite thing to knit, so I didn't even consider the other option. It turns out these cables weren't exactly run of the mill, but rather "elongated cables," and they created these super-awesome arrows!

I'm thinking I'll name my shawl something like A Walk in the Woods or Winter Woods... or A Walk in the Winter Woods; all the design elements so far remind me of nature. And the gray yarn just complements the theme so nicely!

I actually have some darker gray yarn that I had planned to use as a contrast color, but I didn't have it on hand for clue 1 or 2 (it arrived the day clue 2 came out, but I couldn't wait to dive right in) and I thought it might look strange to suddenly introduce a new color in clue 3, so it looks like I'll probably have a one-color shawl. But that's fine -- this oh-so-lightly vareigated light gray Malabrigo is just beautiful!

16 Historical Fiction Books I Can't Believe I Haven't Read Yet

Happy Tuesday, fellow bookworms! I had a crazy hard time narrowing down my selections for this week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt hosted by The Broke and the Bookish: the top 10 books I can't believe I haven't read in the genre of my choosing. That was easy -- historical fiction. A quick glance at my to-read list shows that it's bursting with fabulous historical fiction novels just waiting to be devoured. But whittling my list down to 10? Impossible! So I present: 

 16 Historical Fiction Novels I NEED To Read

Some are by authors I've read and loved before, some are recommendations, some are war novels, some are tearjerkers, some are cozy mysteries -- but they all transport readers to a different time. Have you read any of these titles? Do you have any recommendations (not that I need any, clearly) that I must add to my historical fiction reading list?