Hawaii Bucket List Update

I've made a good amount of progress on my Hawaii bucket list recently! My best friend Katie was here for a visit and I dragged her along to some of the activities I've wanted to do for ages. I don't think she minded too much, though!

This is Sacred Falls, which I hiked back in April. The trail is actually restricted but I've been told lots of locals still do it. The trail and the falls were stunning, and I'm still kicking myself for forgetting to put the battery back in my camera after charging it. I was forced to take all the pictures on my cell phone (although I'm grateful I had that)!

Katie and I got up way too early (4:50 a.m. -- major yawn!) to drive over to the east side of the island to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately, the one day I finally went it was a bit of a dud compared to the brilliance I've seen in everybody else's pictures. Still, it was an experience. We went to Starbucks afterward to kill some time before the restaurant where we planned to eat breakfast opened, and I was aghast to see so many people up and about and so totally awake at 6 a.m.!

I didn't actually write this on the bucket list page of my blog, but I've been looking forward to breakfast at Cinnamon's, a restaurant in Kailua, forever. I got the guava chiffon pancakes and promptly removed that gigantic pile of nasty whipped cream. (I'm really not a whipped cream fan, strangely.)

Whenever we go to the North Shore, Jarrod and I always get ice cream at a little place in Haleiwa called Scoops of Paradise. It's soooo amazingly good that it's hard to pass it up in favor of a different dessert. But I had heard Ted's Bakery at Sunset Beach has the best pies and I finally (begrudgingly) drove past Scoops of Paradise to find out! Sure enough, the chocolate-haupia pie was delicious! (Haupia is a Hawaiian coconut pudding.) We ended up buying FIVE pie slices -- two to eat there (haupia-chocolate for me, haupia-pumpkin for Katie) and three to take home (another haupia-chocolate, macadamia nut cream and strawberry guava). By the way, I did actually eat the whipped cream atop these yummy pies.

Katie and I also did the mai tai sunset cruise on the Mai Tai Catamaran. I love sunsets and I love mai tais and I love hot shirtless bartenders!

This is Iolani Palace, the only royal palace on U.S. soil. We did the audio tour of the palace and it was so fascinating, especially since I've lived here nearly three years and have a small bit of knowledge on Hawaiian history. Apparently Iolani Palace had electricity before Buckingham Palace or the White House!

Furry Friday

Look at those gorgeous green eyes!

Book Review: "Fifty Shades of Grey"

"Fifty Shades of Grey" by E.L. James
First published in 2011
My rating: 4 out of 5
(image source)

I was excited to read "Fifty Shades of Grey" because it's not all that often that a book makes national news for weeks on end. We have the Big Three of course -- "Harry Potter," "Twilight" and "The Hunger Games" -- but those are all in YA genre. "Fifty Shades of Grey," which probably falls under the category of erotica, is decidedly not!

Anastasia Steele meets mega-rich, mega-attractive young CEO Christian Grey when she goes to interview him for her college newspaper as a favor to her best friend. Virginal, innocent, beautiful-but-doesn't-know-it Ana and powerful, intimidating, sexy, intense Christian feel an instant attraction to each other, and though Christian warns Ana that he's not the right man for her they can't seem to keep away from each other. But Ana soon discovers that Christian is not as perfect as he seems; haunted by a very rough upbringing, he has a cart full of emotional baggage and a deep need for control, and thus he favors Dominant/submissive sexual relationships. (The title comes from a line in which Christian admits to Ana that he's "fifty shades of fucked up" emotionally.)

So affected is she by Christian's presence and unwilling to lose him, Ana agrees to test the waters of Christian's singular sexual preferences. But Christian is also pulled to Ana like he's never be pulled to anyone, and he finds himself agreeing to Ana's pleas for "more" -- more of a normal romantic boyfriend/girlfriend relationship, which is something Christina's never had before. They compromise and embark on a passionate affair with lots of firsts for both of them in all aspects of their relationship, and -- of course -- plenty of juicy sex scenes. They're insatiable for each other, both physically and emotionally.

I heard so many varying opinions before I picked up the book, from friends, from patrons at the library where I work, from the media. I actually went in thinking I wasn't going to like it because I'd been told the writing was abysmal, and as a former copy editor I have a heck of a hard time reading books that are poorly written. The "Fifty Shades" trilogy actually started off as "Twilight" fan fiction and it seemed entirely plausible that a horribly written piece could become so famous just because of all the erotic sex scenes. But I was impressed -- the writing was hardly perfect and was very repetitive at times, and I was mildly annoyed by the constant perspective provided by Ana's personified "inner goddess" and "subconscious" -- but for a first-time author who had no real intention of publishing her work initially, it was not bad at all.

"Fifty Shades" is definitely not for everyone, and I can easily see how some might be offended by the incessant use of the f-word and the BDSM sex scenes (though I'm pretty sure they're BDSM-lite), put off by the fact that it's loosely based on the storyline of "Twilight," become annoyed with the writing or find themselves unable to indentify with Ana. But I think you're more likely to enjoy it than hate it, even if it's not your most favorite book ever. Something that irked me about "Fifty Shades of Grey" was that it ended abruptly, without a resolution to the problem (yes, there's actually a bit of a plot among the sex scenes!). While that got on my nerves, it also ensures that I'll pick up the second book, "Fifty Shades Darker"!

Apparently they're making a movie out of "Fifty Shades of Grey," which somewhat baffles me... it'll be hard to convey the erotic nature of the book even in a very R-rated movie. (Although that brings to mind the fridge scene from "9 1/2 Weeks," which was a total turn on without showing any actual sex; and incidentally, who knew Mickey Rourke used to be so dang hot?!) A quick Google search turned up a gazillion results about the movie, but what caught my eye was a blurb about casting Kristen Stewart as Ana. I know she's not the best-loved actress ever and she already plays the inspiration for Ana in "Twilight," but I think she'd be perfect for the role. I actually pictured her as Ana in my head when I was reading the book because I knew Ana was somewhat based on Bella, and because real-life Kristen Stewart has the super-awkward-but-lovable personality of Ana/Bella. As for Christian's character, it's all about his hair. And how sexy the man looks in a suit... and a gray tie.

Happy reading!

Furry Friday

All of my pictures of Lily seem to happen on sheet-washing day! Doesn't she look so cute and cuddly here? But she has that playful gleam in her eye -- she was probably just trying to lure me in so she could swat at my face!

Book Review: "The Lion Is In"

"The Lion Is In" by Delia Ephron
First published in 2012
My rating: 4 out of 5
(image source)

I have a confession to make: I all too frequently judge books by their covers. And how could I not be grabbed by the flashy artwork of "The Lion Is In," the best part of which is the lion chilling out in the back seat of the Mustang? I'm a sucker for animals. And bright colors. And Mustangs.

"The Lion Is In" features three women all -- literally -- running from their problems; Lana is a recovering alcoholic and college dropout, Tracee is a kleptomaniac who's clad in a wedding dress and veil when we meet her, and Rita is escaping her emotionally abusive husband and lackluster life as a preacher's wife. Best friends Lana and Tracee, making their getaway in Lana's Mustang, pick up hitchhiker Rita on the side of the highway.

Somewhere in North Carolina, Tracee dozes at the wheel and the Mustang veers off the highway, careening into a tree. It turns out to be a fortuitous event, because they happen to have crashed by The Lion, a ramshackle bar with a former circus lion, Marcel, for a mascot. The women barely have enough money for sandwiches, let alone car repairs, and they wind up taking temporary part-time jobs at The Lion. During their time there, Marcel the lion changes all their lives. Because of Marcel, the circus lion caged up in a roadside bar, the women end up confronting their problems and making progress toward inner peace and true happiness. Marcel serves as a kind of unconventional psychiatrist, hence the title.

I picked this book almost solely because I liked the picture on the front, and I nearly gave up on it because I had trouble getting into it. The cover grabbed me but the sparse, simple, adjective-lacking writing didn't. But the other day I was checking books out for a patron at the library where I work and we began comparing notes on our current reads. It turned out that she had recently finished "The Lion Is In" and had the same initial issues with the prose, but she urged me to stick with it for the story. And sure enough, I really did enjoy the story; the characters were interesting, the plot was different, and the ending was happy.

Like her sister Nora, Delia Ephron's other job is a screenwriter. Perhaps that's where the cut-and-dried, bare-bones writing comes from. However much that made reading the novel rough at times, I think "The Lion Is In" would translate into a fantastic movie.

Happy reading!

Our 4th Anniversary + Furry Friday, Wedding Edition

Today is our four-year wedding anniversary! On our first anniversary, I decided we would take a picture each year on June 15; it'll be fun to look back decades from now and see how we've changed through the years. This year Jarrod is deployed to Afghanistan, so our picture is courtesy of Skype. I miss him so much, but I'm thrilled that we're now halfway done with the deployment -- woo hoo!

This is one of my favorite pictures from our wedding. We got married on the beach in Navarre, Florida, where we lived at the time.

As promised, here's Conan being uncooperative during the photo shoot. Waves and crabs and sand are so much more fun than pictures!

Thankfully, Conan finally decided to appease us! Did I mention he served as our ring bearer?

Book Review: "Dyer Consequences: A Knitting Mystery"

"Dyer Consequences" by Maggie Sefton
First published in 2008
My rating: 3.5 out of 5
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"Dyer Consequences" had two major things going for it: it involves knitting and it was quickly apparent to me that the "fictitious" town of Fort Connor, Colorado, in which the book is set is actually Fort Collins, Colorado, the very same city where I went to college! The murder victim in the novel was even a student at Colorado State University, my alma mater.

Unfortunately, that was really all that wowed me about "Dyer Consequences." If you're not a knitter and/or have ties to Colorado, I'm not sure this book would hold your attention. There weren't any glaring issues; rather, the whole book was just kind of mediocre. The plot was ok, the mystery was predictable, the main character was mostly likeable, and the writing style was fine. The plot is pretty simple: a young woman is drowned in a vat of yarn die in the basement of a quaint little knitting shop, and amateur sleuth/amateur knitter Kelly Flynn is on the case. Nothing too dazzling.

I'd classify "Dyer Consequences" as "murder mystery lite." (I believe Barnes and Noble calls books like this "cozy mysteries," which is also apt.) And that genre has some steep competition, especially in these niche categories like knitting, quilting, tea shop, library, bakery and dog- and cat-lover mysteries, and the list goes on and on from there. My favorite "mystery lite" authors are Donna Andrews with her quietly humorous bird-themed series and Tasha Alexander with her Lady Emily books, which are set in 1800s England. Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books are on the edge between mystery and mystery lite for me, but she's one of my favorite authors in general. These writers all manage to hook me into their stories and keep me flying through the pages. And when I'm done, I'll inevitably get online to see when the next book is due out. Maggie Sefton just didn't wow me like that.

I will add, in her defense, that "Dyer Consequences" is the fifth of her knitting mystery series and perhaps I would have enjoyed her more if I'd started with book one. Maybe I'll pick up the first installment, "Knit One, Kill Two," at some point. Even if it doesn't blow me away, it's not such a bad thing to be transported to a knitting shop in my home state of Colorado for a couple hundred pages.

Happy reading (and knitting)!