I've Been A Terrible Blogger!

by 8:42 AM
Hello!

Remember how last week (or well 2 weeks ago) I had the grand plan of reading and reviewing 1 book in August?! Obviously those plans are going swell. There are a few factors that have contributed to the failure of this plan. The first book I picked was terrible, I am about halfway through but it's just not that good. Sorry, if you're reading this thinking you really loved.
On top of the book being just  bad, we had company over the weekend, although to be honest that didn't really take too much effort.


He and Andy basically just sat and watched YouTube videos. As per usual, I sniped some pictures to send Jillian so we could make jokes about their man love.



The biggest contributing factor is I have been pretty sick since about last Tuesday....you would think that has meant lots of time for book reading but, with me just about having enough energy to work the last week reading hasn't really happened. Have a picture summarizing how I have managing to work the last week.

Blankets and Disney movies are always the answer! At least I'm sitting at my desk right?! Today not so much...

 Here is the new plan  I am moving onto the second book, I already started it, it's fabulous, go find it and read it. As a reminder this one is The Septembers of Shiraz.  You can view the whole list for August Book Club here. I will review the first one in September after I have finished the rest. I am determined to finish the book (even though it's awful) because maybe there is some hope it gets better? And I hate not finishing things.

So I guess this was really just a bit of an update. Hopefully I will not be sick soon, partly so I can work and read books but, mostly because VBS is next week and that is typically one of my favorite times of the year! :)

Love you all!

First Impressions :: Borderlands Pre-Sequel

by 12:45 PM
Boderlands pre-sequel review


Alright so if you've kept up with this blog at all over the last year you'll already know that I love Borderlands 2 (thanks Jillian). So I was dang excited to pick up The Pre-Sequel a few weeks ago as a part of Steam Summer Sale. Life has been so crazy with moving and work that I haven't even started playing but, I finally got to playing it the other day!
I was really wanting to record my first play through but, do to some technical difficulties that's not happening. So you're going to just have to read my ramblings instead of listen!

Long story short if you love Borderlands 2, you're going to at least really like Borderlands Pre-Sequel, so far I feel like they are pretty much the same game which makes me love and hate it. Now it is a new story, we get new characters with new abilities and such but, for me it feels like a DLC not a brand new game.
Part of me is disappointed because I don't feel like it's very innovative. Gearbox was basically like "Oh you all really like that thing" here's more of it relabeled as a new game, like I said before, it feels like a DLC.
On the other hand this is what I love about it, they didn't go overboard trying to be innovative, they gave us more of exactly what we wanted, repacked with a new story and great new with more of the fantastic writing and humor we loved from Borderlands 2.
Also in the games defense, I have been told you need to get further into the game to really appreciate the differences. So, maybe I will have an update to this post next week once I have played it some more!

So let's get into the story a bit, this time, you're playing alongside, of instead if against, Handsome Jack and Hyperion. Honestly, being only a bit into the game, you almost like him in this story, I am sure that will eventually change. I chose to play with Nisha (a.k.a the Sheriff of Lynchwood in Borderlands 2).

I like her as a Character, her action skill is called Showdown, when activated she automatically locks onto enemies and gains increased gun damage, fire rate, reload speed, accuracy, and bullet speed. You can view her (and anyone else's) full skill tree here,  http://borderlandsthegame.com/skilltrees/nisha.html
Her melee is a whip, making her able to use it from farther away but, it doesn't do as much damage as others. Also it was a bit annoying to get used to.



In this game you're not playing on Pandora (as in Borderlands 2) you are playing on Pandora's moon, Elpis. Here is where the game breaks off from Borderlands 2. This moon doesn't have Oxygen or much gravity so the movement is different (I love the new double jump feature) and you now have to use "Oz Kits" in order to breathe. These do not last forever, you must be diligent in refilling them when out exploring, there are a variety of ways to do this! Enemies now drop "O2 cannisters" and there are cracks along the surface of the moon that let out o2. The "Oz Kit" is also what enables the awesome new double jump feature, which allows you to cross wide caverns or gain access to high buildings unlike anything in Borderlands 2. These "Oz Kits" are upgradable just like your shields and weapons, you can purchase longer lasting ones at Vending Machines.
The low gravity really does change up the combat quite a bit. Enemies also have a double jump function allowing them to lunge at you from far away, making it a whole new level of intense and exciting. You now get to battle enemies while flying through the air!

All in all this is another great installment in the Borderlands saga, it's everything we loved from Borderlands 2 with a few new added perks! I am throughly enjoying my play through and don't think I'll have much to add to these first thoughts once I am done with the game!

If any of you own this or Borderlands 2 I do play online frequently, add me (DaisyJane) on Steam!

Thanks for reading as always :)

August Book Club!!

by 10:16 AM

(photo cred: Andy Cox)

Hello!

I really have been in a funk of not reading lately, maybe it's because I'm so crazy busy, but I really just think I haven't been making it a priority. This led to me deciding that for the month of August I am going to read one book a week! A little crazy, yes, but it's not like any of these are going to be really long, we're talking 200-400 pages!

My second thought was I want you all to join me! Even if you just pick one book to read and finish by the time the post comes out! I really would love to have some conversations about these books and make this more of a virtual book club! So here's the deal. I will be writing a review/random thoughts post each Saturday on the books below until 9/5. Your job is to either read each one along with me or pick 1 to read by the date I will post each review so we can talk about it! :)

I tried to pick a variety of books so you can choose what sounds like the most interesting to you! I did end up with 2 crime mysteries because, I'm a sucker for them and they're typically pretty fast reads.
Yeah, this might be a little high school assignment like but, I really think with all the Netflix binge watching that happens, we could all probably squeeze some more book time into our life!


1. Midwinter Blood by Mons Kallentoft- Review/Discussion Post 8/8


(Photo Cred: Andy Cox)
"WHEN THE ICE MELTS, WHAT REMAINS? 
Meet Malin Fors. Be careful, though, she’s addictive. Thirty-four years old, blond, single, divorced with a teenaged daughter, Fors is the most driven superintendent who has ever worked at the police force in her small, isolated town. And the most talented. In her job, she is constantly moving through the borderland between life and death. Her path in life is violent and hazardous.
It is the coldest February in recent memory. In the early hours of a particularly frigid night, the body of an obese man is found hanging from lone oak tree in the middle of a withered, windswept plain. Malin Fors is called to the scene.
Together with her colleagues of the Violent Crime Squad at Linköping Police Department, they must find out who the man in the tree is, and how he got there. Their manhunt in the frigid wake of a ruthless killer brings Malin Fors to the brink, and into some of the darkest corners of the human heart. The first in a series of four books, Midwinter Blood will keep readers coming back for more, again and again."

2. The September's of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer- Review Post 8/15

(Photo Cred: Andy Cox)
"In the aftermath of the Iranian revolution, rare-gem dealer Isaac Amin is arrested, wrongly accused of being a spy. Terrified by his disappearance, his family must reconcile a new world of cruelty and chaos with the collapse of everything they have known.
As Isaac navigates the tedium and terrors of prison, forging tenuous trusts, his wife feverishly searches for him, suspecting, all the while, that their once-trusted housekeeper has turned on them and is now acting as an informer. And as his daughter, in a childlike attempt to stop the wave of baseless arrests, engages in illicit activities, his son, sent to New York before the rise of the Ayatollahs, struggles to find happiness even as he realizes that his family may soon be forced to embark on a journey of incalculable danger.
A page-turning literary debut, The Septembers of Shiraz
 simmers with questions of identity, alienation, and love, not simply for a spouse or a child, but for all the intangible sights and smells of the place we call home."


3. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys- Review Post 8/22

No this book has nothing to do with 50 shades of gray, hahaha, I only start with this because it took literally showing Andy the description for him to believe me! 

 (Photo Cred: Andy Cox)
"Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.
Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously--and at great risk--documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives.Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart"



4. The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler-Review Post 8/29



(Photo Cred: Andy Cox)
"The frigid clime of Tumba, Sweden, a gruesome triple homicide attracts the interest of Detective Inspector Joona Linna, who demands to investigate the murders. The killer is still at large, and there’s only one surviving witness—the boy whose family was killed before his eyes. Whoever committed the crimes wanted this boy to die: he’s suffered more than one hundred knife wounds and lapsed into a state of shock. Desperate for information, Linna sees only one option: hypnotism. He enlists Dr. Erik Maria Bark to mesmerize the boy, hoping to discover the killer through his eyes.
It’s the sort of work that Bark has sworn he would never do again—ethically dubious and psychically scarring. When he breaks his promise and hypnotizes the victim, a long and terrifying chain of events begins to unfurl.
An international sensation, The Hypnotist is set to appear in thirty-seven countries, and it has landed at the top of bestseller lists wherever it’s been published—in France, Holland, Germany, Spain, Italy, Denmark. Now it’s America’s turn. Combining the addictive power of the Stieg Larsson trilogy with the storytelling drive of The Silence of the Lambs, this adrenaline-drenched thriller is spellbinding from its very first page."

5. The Beach by Alex Garland- Review Post 9/5



(Photo Cred:Andy Cox)
"After discovering a seemingly Edenic paradise on an island in a Thai national park, Richard soon finds that since civilized behavior tends to dissolve without external restraints, the utopia is hard to maintain. (Nancy Pearl)"

Well, that's a lot of books so I am going to stop typing this to go read some of the first one! Let me know in a comment, on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram what books you are also going to be reading!

Love you all and have a great week :)







**all descriptions came from goodreads.com


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