Books | The TaterTwins

Game of Thrones

20 Sep posted by Jayme

I have been reading the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin and now that I’m on the third book, decided to start watching the series on HBO. I was curious to see how closely they stuck to the books, and since the novels are so very long, how much they included in each episode.

I’ve been more than pleasantly surprised with the series- Game of Thrones is really good! I’ve only watched the first four episodes, but so far I haven’t felt like they left anything important out.

The actors portraying the characters are just spot on- the ones I don’t like in the book, I also hate on the show. The casting is fabulous- Tyrion the Imp played by Peter Dinklage is awesome. He is exactly how I pictured him in the novels. His voice totally reminds me of Eddie Izzard.

My favorite character is a child- Arya- who’d much rather be a knight and learn how to use a bow & arrows and a sword than the lady she’s expected to become and learn courtesies and needlework. In the show she’s played by an adorable girl named Maisie Williams, who really brings her to life.

I’ve surprised myself lately with the types of books I’ve been reading and thoroughly enjoying. I guess in the past I generally stuck to chick lit and detective stories, but lately I’ve been exploring new genres. I have found it’s not so much the classification of the book, but the story within, and how well it was written.

In the past, I’d have never picked up a book that was an epic fantasy novel (let alone part of a huge series!) with knights and dragons and a medieval feel. But I am loving the twists and turns in these books. You can never fully know who is a good guy or a bad guy- and when you think you have the protagonist figured out, he gets killed off.

Another area of literature that I’ve just begun to explore is more sci-fi- or more specifically, dystopian. I would have never in a million years thought I’d enjoy books like The Hunger Games trilogy, but I absolutely loved those books, as well as others that were recommended because I enjoyed them.

Then again, I never expected to like playing a game like World of Warcraft either…

3 Comments
Filed Under: books, TV, WoW

Famished

25 Aug posted by Jayme

The other day I was reading a friend’s blog and came across her review of a book called Famished. Pamela’s review of the book really sparked my interest in the book, so I wanted to know more. I looked it up on Amazon, and discovered it was priced at only $1.49 for the Kindle, so I downloaded it.

Once I started reading it, I couldn’t stop. I read it straight through, in one sitting. I was pleasantly surprised, because lately the cheap and free Kindle books I’ve found have been rather boring.

From Amazon:
There is no United States. There is no world. An asteroid has destroyed what the human race knew as earth and The Great Famine has wiped out most of the surviving human population. For the few remaining survivors, food is scarce– precious–a luxury. A luxury that most humans can’t find.

Seventeen year old Georgina Carver is fortunate. She’s survived the destruction. She eats three times a day while the rest of humanity is plagued by The Great Famine. And she’s safe, hidden away in an underground colony with her family and several other families of survivors.

All of that changes the day she’s randomly selected to be a gatherer. Georgina must leave her safe yet simple world and venture out into a world unknown. A vast, dangerous, destroyed world that could literally eat her alive.

After Georgina is severely injured, her life begins to fall apart. She can’t remember how she got home or what happened to her while she was on the new earth. The boy she is crushing on avoids her and she keeps having visions that involve an unknown person with violet eyes.

As Georgina begins to unravel the truth, it doesn’t take her long to figure out that maybe her safe yet simple life isn’t that safe at all.

What Amazon leaves out of their product description is the plot twist that has me anxiously anticipating the next book in this trilogy. As soon as I read the last page, I was on my laptop searching for any info I could find on the rest of the series and the author.

I’ve surprised myself recently by loving dystopian fiction. In the past, it was something I’d basically avoided, feeling like it was too sci-fi or something. I’d hear about books like The Hunger Games and read the description and think it wasn’t going to be something I’d enjoy. I finally caved and read The Hunger Games series and absolutely adored it. In turn, that prompted me to read The Giver when my cousin mentioned that similar to another book I’d enjoyed… and I loved that one too.

I read a lot. Last year, I finished 101 books. However, I rarely blog about specific books, or take the time to dedicate a post to them. But I wanted to recommend this one to you guys, especially since it’s currently available for such a great price!

Click here to buy Famished (The Wasted Series) on Amazon.com

What books would you recommend for me?

6 Comments
Filed Under: books

Lili’s Book Review

30 Jun posted by Jayme

Olivia wanted to write something for the blog- she decided she’d like to write about her favorite books. Then she saw in the front of one of her Magic Tree House books that there were letters to the author sharing how much they enjoyed the book series and wanted to submit her own. I’ve forwarded her letter over to the author, Mary Pope Osborne, but also wanted to share her thoughts with you- in case any of you have a child around her age looking for some summer reading.

I love Magic Tree House books so much that I think I want to marry it. If you stopped writing them, I would scream or cry. Right now my favorite author is Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, and lucky guess, Mary Pope Osbourne.

I love the books because I think I’m where Jack and Annie are in the book. But I have a question, is Jack and Annie names that are in your family or something?

Olivia Tate (age 9)

She cracks me up! I am so glad she’s inherited my love of books, she constantly has her nose in one.

I think she might be ready for her own blog soon too…

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Filed Under: books, by Lili

Sunday Thoughts

7 Feb posted by Jayme

I didn’t watch the Superbowl, and I don’t care. I read a book instead, and the kids played outside. Aaron played WoW and put a new hard drive in my old laptop for E. Now, to figure out the best way to send it to him…
Speaking of books, I’d read The Hunger Games trilogy based on a recommendation from my cousin, and despite the fact I’m not a science fiction fan, absolutely LOVED them. She recommended a couple more books, one of which she said reminded her of The Giver. I’d never heard of it, so I looked it up, and saw it won awards so I decided to read it and found myself loving yet another book that is not something I’d have picked up on my own.
Have I mentioned the issues we’ve been having with our washing machine? Not the machine itself, that works fine- but the water doesn’t drain fast enough, so you have to stand right there and stop and start it 200 times to do a load of laundry. Well we finally got that taken care of this weekend, yippee!!
I was looking for something and found an old SimCity disk, and have been playing that instead of WoW lately. Then I went to look for my Sims stuff and remembered I’d sent it to E. So I bought myself Sims 3 since it was half price at Target.
I titled this ‘Sunday Thoughts’ but it’s already technically Monday.
Also? I was reading this blog, and got linked to another and another and eventually found myself reading a blog about conjoined twins. I always get sucked into things like that, and of course I didn’t bookmark it and now I want to go back and read the rest.
My internet just went out for a little bit- and I went to go take a look at the modem and I can’t find it. WTF? It’s not like it could just get up and walk away. I’d ask Aaron but I sent him to the store. But apparently it’s working again.

So what are everyone’s big Valentine’s Day plans?

4 Comments
Filed Under: books, random thoughts

I got nothin’

27 Jan posted by Jayme

Okay well that’s not entirely true. I have a lot on my mind that I’d love to blog about, for some advice, commiseration, etc… but it has to do with topics I really can’t post about publicly. So I’ve got all this stuff going through my head and it’s keeping me from being able to think of other things to talk about. Sigh.
I’m guest posting tomorrow on my friend Cindy’s blog. I had a hell of a time writing that post as well. Definitely not my best work- I hope her readers don’t hold it against me.
Aaron’s back at work. I miss him.
I read The Hunger Games series last week- LOVED it. I highly recommend it. I was skeptical, I’d heard good things about it, but when I read the description of the first book, I thought it was not something I’d be interested in. But now I’m sad it’s over. Do you have any recommendations for me?
I am signing up to do the March of Dimes walk again this year. The walk this year is May 14th- exactly one month before the twins 2nd birthday!
In other local fund raising news, there is this company that rents bounce houses and stuff and they are teaming up with Relay for Life and doing a talent show this year to help raise money for the American Cancer Society. I was talking about it with Aaron last night and the girls were trying to figure out what our talents are- it was funny. They’ve decided my talent is baking cakes. I may have to look into participating in that event as well, to honor Ryan.