After a nice, long, 4 weeks of figuring out if I wanted to move this blog or not, I've decided to do so. The new link from heathermodjesky.com is adjusted accordingly. We can find the new blog @
The tumblr format provides me must more freedom in post length, editing, and layout creativity. It's not there completely, but I like it better already. You can still find all the lovely blog posts here, over there. And I've already posted a new review for you at the new site.
This Wednesday Wishlist, dear reader, is one out of necessity. I need another book shelf--two if I'm not fooling myself. Which means a trip to Ikea to grab not the cheep Billy Bookcases, but the more expensive (because mom just had to have country-looking shelving) Leksvik set, which they are slowly phasing out. Emergency trip now!
Or not. How did I discover I needed a few new shelves? Well, it wasn't really a discovery; I could have told you the study was going to need them while I was still at school, but last week a cleaned out and reorganized the room, which meant going through my books and, you know, alphabetizing and placing them. (This is not mentioning the near same amount of DVDs that also live in the study.) I thought at first about placing them by color, but I knew that would go badly. Book 1 of something on top, book 2 three shelves down: it just wasn't going to work for me. So instead I put all (most) the lit books together, a whole row of series, and that's not even half my books due to the immovable Mom and Dad book collection.
It was great to actually go through them all and realize what I have, what I don't have, and a huge pile of ones I should sell back for store credit. And it was surprisingly shocking to see how many books I refused to sell back from school. I know the first year I sold most of them back for the money. And trust me, when you get back 100 bucks on huge textbooks you do sell those babies back. (I definitely made and amazon profit for a couple semesters.) But eventually, it wasn't worth it and I realized I valued giving the book and home more than the 3 dollar return (after paying 16 dollars).
So I need to get to Ikea. With a coupon. And hope that I can escape with only 2 shelves and not 20 other items I really don't need.
Cassandra Clare, you are a cruel, cruel woman. I waited over a year to read your Mortal Instruments Series because I had life and essays and it was a series. And everyone that knows me, knows I don't go in for series books lightly because I've been burned. Twilight burned me and my little literature heart can't take much more.
Despite what I would like to call better judgment, dear reader, I started and read the first book in the Series, City of Bones, last month. Mostly because I needed an escape, I had free money on a gift card, and one of the main character's name's is Jace. (I have a Jace and thought it would be fun to see if my Jace and this Jace were the same, but THAT's a whole different story.) Yesterday, I finished the final book in the trilogy, City of Glass. It took 60 minutes of Glee mash ups, a run down the street, and three cups of coffee before I could properly form a reviewable sentence about the book. Mom, of course, waited patiently to hear it, very amused at my hyper-reading emotionalism.
You lied Ms. Clare. Lied! A trilogy. I signed on for three books. Three books. And it was CLEAR by the end of City of Glass I would be in for at least one more. Placing doubt in this reader's mind is not good. Not good at all. And now you want me to wait a whole year?! I couldn't wait 2 months for the paperback! And then I find out there are 4 more planed books in this verse! After all that the Mortal Instruments series put me through, and trust me my best friend can attest that at the end of the first book I was screaming at 2 am when I had a final the next day at 10, I deserved a little more of a happy ending. Or a little more kissing at least.
The Moral Instrument Series follows Clary Fray as she discovers that the world she knows is a lie, and that to find and save her mother she must put her trust in those who kill demons. Jace Wayland is a shadowhunter and certainly does kill demons. I dare you not to fall in love with this snarky teenager, and I dare you not to want to run around New York trying to find him and the Lightwood family. To find her mother and realize that she is more apart of the shadowhunter world than either her or Jace (or anyone else for that matter) thinks, Clary must find and protect the Mortal Instruments (angelic gifts) before time runs out and the whole world is plunged into demonic darkness.
If it isn't clear by now, I'm a huge reader. Clare's trilogy had the unique ability to sweep me away, completely away, into her vivid world angels and demons, shadowhunters and vampires. I haven't read a book so fast since the last Harry Potter books, or Twilight for that matter, or giggled and ranted as much either. This is certainly some of the best fantasy young adult lit out there and I hope that if I do finish my own book, my characters can live in the same tangible magic hers do.
That being said, I have warned you reader. Your heart will be broken during the series and, though the pieces might be put back together by the end of book three, beware: its only together with tape. I now have to wait till 2011. Angry and annoyed. Join me?
Last night I realized that after finishing the roller coaster that was the Mortal Instruments Series (post pending, I still have to quell my annoyance) and having some rather fantastic events happen professionally, I am in need of some serious inspiration. I think I've been sucked a little dry, and I'm sure the soda, and constant worrying, isn't helping keep me hydrated. This is tricky, dear reader, because inspiration is tricky. I thought cleaning out the study would inspire me -- it didn't. It just made me realized I have more books than the local library. I thought that watching The Young Victoria would, and although its an absolutely lovely movie, I didn't rush to do anything after watching it. I even thought starting to read another book would help, but twenty pages in, I'm already hoping it gets better.
All I've wanted to do for the last two weeks is write. Write anything, but just write. And I'll admit that I've gotten a little off track by a few things I simply couldn't take my mind off, but now I must wait. A week at least, two more likely, and so why shouldn't I pick myself up and be creative? Which is why I am at my present dilemma, and I was reminded of a conversation I had with my roommate last year:
Me: I need some inspiration.
Her: What do you normally do?
Me: Watch 16 hours of Jane Eyre and drink coffee.
Her: That would be what you do.
Me: But my paper isn't on Jane Eyre.
Her: When has that EVER mattered? Its probably better that way.
So after over 48 hours of trying to figure out what I needed, I remembered you always should go back to your first inspiration. Which means I'm watching at least 16 hours of Jane Eyre in the next two days, drinking tons of coffee, and, hopefully, with a little help from last year's angsty playlist, I will be writing like there's no tomorrow. Even now, the anticipation has me thinking of character retorts and dramatic descriptions.
I bet you're thinking "16 hours? How?" right? And you're right dear reader, there is no 16 hour version, but there are 7 (and counting) versions of Jane Eyre available. And I have all but two. That's 15 hours and 15 minutes of mini-series and movie magic. And that doesn't include the other 3 hours of musical theatre I could rock out to. And if that's not enough, I could always throw in another 174 of The Sound of Music for good measure. So 16 hours here I come! This could be interesting.
There's an experiment going on, dear reader, over on tumblr. Anything Period, or f*#kyeahcostumedrama.tumblr.com, is having its second Week of Costume.
What is a Week of Costume you ask? It's where Heather presents a marathon picture spam of one costume drama for a whole week! The first week was the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice, and as you can tell from the summary button on our right, the week was an amazing success.
Soon after, I posted a poll for anything period's followers on what should be the next costume drama feature. It ended in a dead tie between Marie Antoinette and The Young Victoria. And after flipping a coin, The Young Victoria took the week.
So if you love costume drama, and want to see images from The Young Victoria check back at anything period this week. And if you have a tumblr, join our fun!
A few days ago the family and I packed up and headed to the Philadelphia Zoo. Apart from the drive (which wasn't THAT bad, I always exaggerate about drives; it must be a crazy piece of my control anxiety), the zoo was absolutely wonderful. The day was lovely and all the animals were so active. And you could get so close. I never realized just how large a Silverback Gorilla was until his hand was smooshed up against the glass next to mine, let alone how tall they really are.
The zoo itself jumps out of west Philly like you would think a huge zoo in the middle of a city would. It's like walking a block away from central park and wondering if you're going to find it. Unlike central park, if you went a block past the zoo, you'd be sure to miss it. The Philadelphia Zoo's tag line is the first in the nation, and you get the sense of how old the site is just by the late Victorian houses and gates on the property. But make no mistake, this zoo is not full of iron bars and slabs of cement. It's amazingly lush and green and it was clear that extreme care goes into the handling of these animals.
I can honestly say that though I've been to zoos before, this experience was surreal. Now that I'm older and the novelty of seeing exotic animals isn't about not being able to touch them, but see them, I realize how incredibly important these animals are to us and not just how neat they are. They are so smart. I know that gorilla saw me. Looked at me and knew I was an individual looking back at him. So did the puma. It was amazing and humbling. And while I'm still conflicted about taking such amazing animals away from their natural habitat, I feel so lucky that I was able to view them up close, less than a foot close.
I can say too, with a little less awe, that I think I'm going to hang out here in farm country for a few weeks. I might want to be a city girl in theory, but I like my open spaces. Its one of the biggest differences I'm only just now figuring out about growing up in California and living here. In California, I lived in a city. A city with four high schools, two malls, and six theaters. I also lived in the middle of raisin, orange, and walnut country. Needless to say, my California city is nothing like an east coast city. It is more farm country. Our roads where wide and normally had dust or neat ranch style houses on their sides. I remember there is one main drag in Visalia and we hated driving it because there was so much traffic.
Here, there are two lane highways everywhere and a big city just pops up: congested and angry, care put to the wind 60 years ago when it was modernized. I'm as close now to a western town as I can get on the east coast, I'm pretty sure. And I think I can finally appreciate that. There is nothing like Philadelphia or Baltimore on the west coast, other than San Fransisco and even then, that's stretching it. But I didn't grow up in San Fran and I wasn't bred for big city living. Oh don't get me wrong, I'll still dream that New York is a place I want to be and I will not dress like a super country girl, but I think I can finally be happy that I live in the country; that its more like home than I've wanted to admit before. Big city driving still gives me hives, getting lost in big cities gives me more hives just thinking about it. At least here I can navigate routes and (gasp!) even maps without much trouble. Because the stupid GPS is almost always wrong and hates me. Skynet (Terminator ref) = GPS; its goal: to kill people with high blood pressure while using the stupid piece of junk.
And really, I don't mind having to drive 20 minutes for coffee. I don't buy so much coffee then. Sorry Dunks.
I don't believe it; I can't believe it; how is this happening?! Dear reader, TODAY, this Sunday The Tudors is ending. What will I do without my weekly dose of Tudor-style intrigue and sex, not to mention my weekly dose of Henry Cavill? I could certainly use many more Tudor seasons. After all Showtime, you could go on till Elizabeth brings a fierce English wind to take down the Spanish and rock the whole cable audience with a very interesting Shakespeare addition.
Our consolation though can be Showtime's new original historical drama, The Borgias. Following the infamous rise and fall of the corrupt Borgias family of Renaissance Italy, ten episodes have been ordered with Jeremy Irons leading the cast. While its not the Tudors (and I'll miss Mr. Cavill), Showtime certainly seems to be promising a proactive new house in its place.
In honor of The Tudors series finale, Costume Drama (fuckyeahcostumedrama.tmblr.com) is pic-spamming seasons 1-4 all Sunday.
The first trailer is here! And there's just enough here that you feel completely excited, but still want to see more. I can't believe I still have to wait another six months!
There is something so delightfully wonderful about Penguin books latest cloth-bound classic editions that you just want to run out the buy the whole set, or at least Jane Eyre. Coralie Bickford-Smith is the master designer behind the creative cover art. While I'll admit I don't understand some of the design choices (I'm looking at you Emma), it is refreshing to see true old-world book inspiration coming to life in a rather modern way. I want the whole collection! And most of the books I already have.
One of my particular favorites has to be Hardy's Tess. I find it simply lovely. And likewise, the Moby Dick cover is wonderful. You can find these fantastic books at most book stores; if not, penguin sells them directly online. Madame Bovary and Lady Chatterley's Lover are already in my chart. Wishlist with me!
Or not. How did I discover I needed a few new shelves? Well, it wasn't really a discovery; I could have told you the study was going to need them while I was still at school, but last week a cleaned out and reorganized the room, which meant going through my books and, you know, alphabetizing and placing them. (This is not mentioning the near same amount of DVDs that also live in the study.) I thought at first about placing them by color, but I knew that would go badly. Book 1 of something on top, book 2 three shelves down: it just wasn't going to work for me. So instead I put all (most) the lit books together, a whole row of series, and that's not even half my books due to the immovable Mom and Dad book collection.
It was great to actually go through them all and realize what I have, what I don't have, and a huge pile of ones I should sell back for store credit. And it was surprisingly shocking to see how many books I refused to sell back from school. I know the first year I sold most of them back for the money. And trust me, when you get back 100 bucks on huge textbooks you do sell those babies back. (I definitely made and amazon profit for a couple semesters.) But eventually, it wasn't worth it and I realized I valued giving the book and home more than the 3 dollar return (after paying 16 dollars).
The Moral Instrument Series follows Clary Fray as she discovers that the world she knows is a lie, and that to find and save her mother she must put her trust in those who kill demons. Jace Wayland is a shadowhunter and certainly does kill demons. I dare you not to fall in love with this snarky teenager, and I dare you not to want to run around New York trying to find him and the Lightwood family. To find her mother and realize that she is more apart of the shadowhunter world than either her or Jace (or anyone else for that matter) thinks, Clary must find and protect the Mortal Instruments (angelic gifts) before time runs out and the whole world is plunged into demonic darkness.
Me: I need some inspiration.
There's an experiment going on, dear reader, over on tumblr. Anything Period, or 
Soon after, I posted a poll for anything period's followers on what should be the next costume drama feature. It ended in a dead tie between Marie Antoinette and The Young Victoria. And after flipping a coin, The Young Victoria took the week.
The zoo itself jumps out of west Philly like you would think a huge zoo in the middle of a city would. It's like walking a block away from central park and wondering if you're going to find it. Unlike central park, if you went a block past the zoo, you'd be sure to miss it. The Philadelphia Zoo's tag line is the first in the nation, and you get the sense of how old the site is just by the late Victorian houses and gates on the property. But make no mistake, this zoo is not full of iron bars and slabs of cement. It's amazingly lush and green and it was clear that extreme care goes into the handling of these animals.
I don't believe it; I can't believe it; how is this happening?! Dear reader, TODAY, this Sunday The Tudors is ending. What will I do without my weekly dose of Tudor-style intrigue and sex, not to mention my weekly dose of Henry Cavill? I could certainly use many more Tudor seasons. After all Showtime, you could go on till Elizabeth brings a fierce English wind to take down the Spanish and rock the whole cable audience with a very interesting Shakespeare addition. 
There is something so delightfully wonderful about Penguin books latest cloth-bound classic editions that you just want to run out the buy the whole set, or at least Jane Eyre. Coralie Bickford-Smith is the master designer behind the creative cover art. While I'll admit I don't understand some of the design choices (I'm looking at you Emma), it is refreshing to see true old-world book inspiration coming to life in a rather modern way. I want the whole collection! And most of the books I already have. 