Black Oil, Red Blood by Diane Castle

Black Oil, Red Blood
By Diane Castle

The thing about cancer is it’s hard to prove somebody gave it to you on purpose—but Chloe Taylor can prove it. In fact, she proves it for a living. She sues oil refineries that would rather save a buck than comply with safety regulations designed to do important things like, you know, keep people alive. 

Rating: 2 of 5 "It Was Okay"

I'm sorry to say that I struggled to get through this book. I'm going to give it two stars for "it was okay" because really that's what I'd have to say about it. It was okay.

The characters were overwhelmingly cardboard (with the exception of Nash, who actually seemed to have some complexity) and the plot was so-so. I feel like the story was an excuse for the author to lecture me about Big Oil. Characters randomly broke out into long-winded speeches and rattled off statistics as if they were reading it right off of wikipedia. The dialogue throughout these long stretches of texture-less expository chunks was brittle and constructed at best.

The action scenes were pretty okay, until the point that they inevitably reached a level of absurdity even I was taken out of the book. I'm all for camp, really, but if the main character noticed Nash's "chiseled torso" one more time at the very wrong time I was going to flip my desk. That, and the results of said action scenes were unsatisfactory. Chloe spent too much time being tossed from one action wave to the next without discovering any information on her own. She might as well not have been the main character of this book.

At any rate, there were several redeeming qualities that kept me going throughout. Miles, Chloe's gay paralegal, was entertaining comedic relief (even though the obviousness of his role in the story did irritate me by the time I hit the half-way point.) And normally I don't like the use of pets in books but I found myself oddly pleased by Lucy's simple pleasure in car rides and usefulness as a midnight look-out.

My roommate read this book at the same time I did, and she found much more enjoyment in it than I did. However, she didn't read the whole book, just popped in and out and read over my shoulder for the scenes that made me laugh. I'm not sure what that says for the book beyond saying it has potential that wasn't properly exploited.

Then again, maybe this isn't my kind of story? Unsure. I'll go compare notes with other readers and see if I'm just the odd-man out on this one.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
By Ransom Riggs

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

 Rating: 3 of 5 "I Liked It"

I really really liked this story. It's obviously set up for a series, so this book is all about introducing the characters and the world they live in. A couple story-points in the book were a little bit choppy, but overall the progression of the storyline and the development of the characters was engaging and exciting. But that being said, I probably won't read the rest of the series, which is why it gets a 3 instead of a 4.

This is a really good book that you can read in one day. Pick a free weekend and enjoy!

If you're up for spoilers...

Cursed by Rhianne Aile

Cursed
by Rhianne Aile

Upon their grandmothers death, Tristan Northland and his twin, Will, come into possession of her Book of Shadows and the knowledge that their family is responsible for a centuries-old curse. Determined to right the ancient wrong, Tristan sets off across the ocean to reverse the dark magic. (Adult Fiction)

 Rating: 4/5

This book was so much fun!! It involved all of my guilty pleasures wrapped up into one book: werewolves, true love, absurd levels of homosexual pairings, mysterious estates, magic, drama and happy endings. It felt like my version of the paperback romance novels you find old women and nurses reading behind the counter-- that is meant entirely as a compliment. The paperbacks I refer to are addictive, honest in their intention, and incredibly fun to get lost in for an afternoon or two. I fell in love with the characters in Cursed, enjoyed the werewolf lore in this world, and not to mention the explicit material was well-written. I've got a handful of friends who will enjoy reading Cursed, so I'll definitely be passing along the word.

I Feel Like a Pro

It took me forever to figure out, but I finally worked out the question-answer confirmation python script that's been driving me crazy for days. Anyone who uses Python can totally borrow this. It's designed to check multiple answers. If you've got a suggestion to make it better, lemme know!

#VALIDATEQA##########################################################
# validateQA() does the following:                                  #
#    asks the question                                              #
#    compares answer to valid options                               #
#    returns list of answers as a string                            #
#####################################################################

def validateQA(question, valid):
    counter = 0
    while counter == 0:
        validAnswerList = []
        givenAnswerList = raw_input(question).split(' ')
        for answer in givenAnswerList:
            if answer in valid.keys():
                validAnswerList.append(valid[answer])
                if len(validAnswerList) == len(givenAnswerList):
                    counter = 1
            else:
                sys.stdout.write("\nAnswer the question, bro!")
    result = ' '.join(validAnswerList)
    return result

Example...

    renameQ = "Would you like to rename this? (y/n): "
    renameA = {"yes":"yes",   "y":"yes",    "ye":"yes",
               "no":"no",     "n":"no"}

    rename = validateQA(renameQ, renameA)

    whichQ = "Which characters would you like to rename? (separate with spaces): "
    whichA = {"john":"johndoe",   "doe":"johndoe",    "john doe":"johndoe",
               "jill":"jillian",   "jillian":"jillian"}

    which = validateQA(whichQ, whichA)

Like magic!

Script Frenzy

Is anyone participating in this year's Script Frenzy?

For those of you who may not know, Script Frenzy is basically the NaNoWriMo of script writing. 100 pages of script (properly formatted) in 30 days (April.) The rules are a little bit different than NaNoWriMo which keeps things interesting. Here's the breakdown:

Copied from http://www.scriptfrenzy.org
The 5 Basic Rules of Script Frenzy

1) To be crowned an official Script Frenzy winner, you must write a script (or multiple scripts) of at least 100 total pages and verify this tally on ScriptFrenzy.org.
2) You may write individually or with a partner. Writing teams will have a 100-page total goal for their co-written script or scripts.
3) Scriptwriting may begin no earlier than 12:00:01 AM on April 1 and must cease no later than 11:59:59 PM on April 30, local time.
4) You may write screenplays, stage plays, web series, TV shows, short films, comic book and graphic novel scripts, adaptations of novels, or any other type of script your heart desires.
5) You must, at some point, have ridiculous amounts of fun.
Still unclear? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions.


I've chosen to do a graphic novel script, and the story I've chosen is called 'Mahogany'. Filled with magic, intrigue, and plenty of comedic moments. I think I'm going to really enjoy this!

www.aMagicCat.com

This is just BEGGING to become an internet meme....

Once you and I make eye contact, we are bonded forever. Never will we part. I am truly “A Magic Cat!”




Magic Cat Looking Forward At You
 
Magic Cat Looking to His Right At You. 
 Magic Cat's Eyes, Ears and Face Followed You.
 
Again, Magic Cat Looking Forward at You. 
 
Magic Cat Looking to His Left At You. 
 
Magic Cat Looking Down at You.
 
Magic Cat Looking Up at You.

Oh boy... It seems my book line-up just got a WHOLE lot more interesting...

I just won two more books on Goodreads, bringing my lineup to a total of 8. None of them have arrived yet, but I've been informed that Danger Money is in the mail. I'm debating if I want to get two more lined up in the mail so I have a nice round 10, but I'm unsure. I think I've got plenty to work with for now, so I'll lay off the raffles and let other people pick them up.

Anyway, these next two books are going to be FANTASTIC (in a good and hilarious way in that I can't believe I actually won these books and I'm excited to read them but I have NO idea if they'll actually be good or not.)

Diaries of an Emotional Prostitute by Beatrice McClearn

People snare when I tell them that I’m an emotional prostitute. But after my rebuttal, they begin to realize that they are one too. Like me, they have pimped their emotions for the affections of another. Like me, they’ve gone through life tormented by the idea of living a happily ever after, not realizing that the ever after isn’t so happy.

Yeah, I know that one sounds really depressing, but we all need a sad book to read now and then. This next one will wow you. It's a perfect apology for the downer...

Queer and Pleasant Danger: The true story of a nice Jewish boy who joins the Church of Scientology and leaves twelve years later to become the lovely lady she is today by Kate Bornstein

Kate Bornstein--gender theorist, performance artist, author--is set to change lives with her compelling memoir. Wickedly funny and disarmingly honest, this is Bornstein's most intimate book yet, encompassing her early childhood and adolescence, college at Brown, a life in the theater, three marriages and fatherhood, the Scientology hierarchy, transsexual life, LGBTQ politics, and life on the road as a sought-after speaker.

Wild, right? I'm stoked.