Sunday, November 20, 2011

A Couple Lesser-Known Dystopians

This is my favorite genre at the moment, so sometimes I like to explore a little. Here are some of my reviews for a few dystopians that aren't bestsellers at the moment.

The Water WarsThe Water Wars by Cameron Stracher

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Technically, I didn't read this cover-to-cover, but since I basically skimmed what I didn't read, I'd figured I go ahead and mark it as read. Especially since I think being forced to skim should be part of the rating. I was interested in the book at the beginning. But...well, it just stayed mildly interesting. And then it became odd. It went to several, totally different locations, where each time, Vera seemed juuuust about to die, and then some crazy incident would happen to save her, or some random strangers would rescue her, or a helicopter would descend from nowhere...it was just ridiculous. Too many coincidences. And her logic for chasing Kai around--how she figured out where to go--didn't always make sense. I don't know, mainly, it felt like a good idea that didn't know what to do with itself. Decent read, if you can get past the fact that it doesn't seem very realistic.


View all my reviews

AwakenAwaken by Katie Kacvinsky

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I'm only going to a do a short-and-sweet review for this one. Essentially, it was enjoyable--well written, an interesting message, and a good romance for those of us who like a little romance mixed in with our dystopians. However, the message part of the book was extremely blunt, so just be aware that the political message is going to be very in-your-face. However, after I accepted that the author had a message, I got over it and found the book enjoyable anyway. I would have liked the political side to be a little more subtle, but it didn't really detract from the book too much. I almost preferred it being put right out there instead of sneakily added through a back door.


View all my reviews

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Pile O' Furniture

So, as I prepare to move in to an apartment (eventually/maybe/one day/hopefully...) I've been slowly collecting things. This set of furniture I received from my grandmother. Whose mother owned it when she was a child. So it's old, and ok-quality, but it wasn't the best-made furniture of the time. Since I wasn't a fan of the cream enamel and gold trim coloring, I had to think of something else. Stripping didn't work, because the pain was enamel. Therefore, I decided to re-paint. Before re-painting though, I had to clean, and strip.




I also had to peel off the nasty old drawer paper. It was sticky and I think mouses nested in it and the color was fading/running, so there was no choice. I used the stripper to loosen it up. Hint to anyone stripping furniture: DO NOT get to excited when you start pulling this paper off. The contact paper pulled out so quickly it flung some not-dried stripper into my eyes, and I went running through the house, freaking out and dousing my eyes in water. I was okay int he end, but it was nooooot fun,e specially because my eyes kept burning slightly...I was truly terrified for a moment, thought I was going to go blind because of my stupidity.  Fun times.



Yeah, who knew this could be so dangerous?
 First finished product (couldn't paint the top because of the surface...I mean, I can scrub paint off of it even after it's dried).















This one is semi-finished, but I sort of like the contrast of the cream and brown. I've been trying to decide if I want to leave it like this (and so do the vanity-desk the same way) or If I want to go ahead and paint everything brown, leaving those white tops and the gold-cream-antinque-ish handles the way they are. Thoughts, comments, suggestions?