Fiction: The Witch Apprentice

This month's Words for Wednesday is hosted by Cindi at her blog, Of Dandelions and Sunshine. For more takes on this week's prompt, visit Cindi's blog here.   
    This week's challenge: They say a picture is worth 1,000 words. Write at least 100 words about the image below.

Fiction: The Witch Apprentice
The forest was thick with trees and slivers of footpaths. Genie sighed as she stepped over a fallen twig. It had been hours since she walked from her house, through the town square, down the road, past a river, past the king's castle, down another road, and toward Misty forest. She had followed the instructions in the letter from Witch Hazel. But as Genie turned round and round, she saw nothing but trees after trees. Bits of sunlight filtered from above between the branches. She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand and adjusted the strap of her bag. A light wind swept past her but it did not make the day any cooler. She turned and walked down another smaller path.
    Genie let out a long breath as she stepped into the clearing. Surrounded by tall elms and high bushes, was a low building with vines crawling over the walls like tentacles. It was slanted slightly to the left. Its roof was shingled in light pink with a tall chimney. The three windows seen between all the greens reflected the bright blue sky.
    Genie smiled. She was finally here. Today will be the best day of her life. Toda—
    Her view was suddenly turned upside down. Something had gripped both her ankles and now she was hanging from a tree. The contents of her bag ran past her and down to the forest floor. "Let me go!" Genie shouted. She had no fears of wild animals nor magical creatures. Living with four brothers and two sisters, how could she fear anything? She had been tricked, trapped, misled, stuck on the head, gotten poisoned, locked in cages and even ate a spider all for her siblings to test out their theories.
    "Let me go now and I'll think about forgiving you." She crossed her arms over her chest. Her head was pounding.

Retitling Books As How-To Titles

This week's Top Ten Tuesday is a Freebie which means I choose my own topic. So I'm listing books I'll most likely never read and turned them into how-to titles that I make up based synopses and reviews. If I'm wrong about any of these, feel free to correct me. I added links for book info in case you actually want to read them. And remember, these are for fun.

Be aware: There are spoilers for The Midnight Library by Matt Haig; Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia; maybe You by Caroline Kepnes and maybe Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins.

Tolkien Blog Party 2021 - Tag Answers

Rachel at The Edge of Precipice is hosting a Tolkien Blog Party celebrating all things Tolkien. You can visit the party here.
    I'm not a big fan of Tolkien but I am a fan of The Lord of the Rings movies and I do plan on reading the book (it's not a series as I just found out, it's a long book divided in three volumes). I wasn't going to join in but after much thought and some lunch, I thought I answer the tag Rachel had created to sort of join in. All my answers are from The Lord of the Rings movies because that is the only Tolkien thing I know. You can also answer the tag in your blog.

1. Aragorn: Favorite Tolkien hero/heroine
My favorite heroine is Eowyn but mostly because she is the only female character I can remember from the movies that I like but I also like that she's bold and strong and can fight just as well as any man.

Eowyn

2. Boromir: Favorite Tolkien character arc
I wouldn't say I have any favorite arc or story. I like the ones where he/she doesn't die at the end. I'm all for happy endings that doesn't involve death.

3. Frodo: Favorite song or poem by Tolkien
I have no idea. I have not heard any songs or read any poetry by Tolkien.  

4. Gandalf: Favorite wise Tolkien quotation
"It is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life." - Bilbo Baggins

5. Gimli: A Middle-earth location you'd like to visit
Anywhere but Mordor. The whole time Frodo is trying to get to Mordor which makes me believe it's not a place for the faint of heart, definitely not a place for a tourist.

6. Legolas: Favorite Middle-earth Weapon
I like bow and arrow but not because of Legolas but I've always liked archery.

7. Merry: Favorite way to celebrate Tolkien's stories
Watch the movies instead of reading the books? I suppose if I read/know more of Tolkien's books, I might have an answer. Maybe with the movies, we can play 'Which male character have the best hair? or which character suffered the most?' - it might be fun.

8. Pippin: Favorite funny Tolkien quotation
"Certainty of death, small chance of success... What are we waiting for?" - Gimli

9. Samwise: A Middle-earth food you'd like to try
Funny, but I do not remember any of the food in the movies. It always seems like everyone's eating some unidentified grub. I guess dessert that looks good with nothing moving or crawling about, I would try but then again, I'm not that adventurous when it comes to food.

Fiction: Quin and the Girl in the Orange Coat

 This month's Words for Wednesday is hosted by Cindi at her blog, Of Dandelions and Sunshine. For more takes on this week's prompt, visit Cindi's blog here.
    This week's challenge: They say a picture is worth 1,000 words. Write at least 100 words about the image below.

Fiction: Quin and the Girl in the Orange Coat

He was the quiet one. The one who was like the calm before the storm until he released his lop-sided smile. It was not often that Quin smiled. When he did, it was as if he was laughing at some joke only he knew. Most people thought he was mute as he had never spoken nor made any sound. Other times, they thought he was blind as his grey eyes would dart here and there and never land on any particular thing. Sometimes he would tousle his short black hair and make it even more of a mess.
    Then there was the girl. She was slightly taller than the boy. Often, her steady gaze would look straight at you. Like Quin, she had grey eyes but they were darker and wider. When she grinned, a dimple would appeared on each corners of her pale cheeks. The girl did not speak much but she often sang, loud and clear, a song about dreaming in a boat. Her voice would scatter like the wind and echo into houses and people would stop to listen even though they have heard it many times before.
    No one knew who Quin and the girl were nor where they came from. The two of them appeared holding hands one late summer afternoon in our neighborhood while the light was dimming and a cool breeze was gliding through the streets. The girl wore an worn orange coat with the hood pulled over her head covering most of her blonde, curly hair. In her hand, she held the strap attached to a small camera though no one saw her took any pictures. From time to time, Quin would turn to look at her and smiled. It was the only time he kept his eyes steady.
    We only knew Quin's name because it was stitched in navy blue threads across the front on the right side of his faint red coat. The girl did not have a name or perhaps since she spoke so little and had a habit of not answering questions, we never heard her said anything resembling a name.
    As the summer turned into autumn, Quin and the girl continued to walk around our neighborhood. Just before winter ended, we stopped seeing them. Many of us wondered if they had gone home or perhaps they were just a dream we all had dreamt up.
    A year later, on an late summer afternoon, as the light dimmed and a gentle breeze began to wind its way around the neighborhood, Quin appeared. He wore the same faded red coat with his name though it was much too short for his tall frame. There was the same calm look on his face. His eyes still never settled on anything but there was a sadness in his gaze. In his right hand, he clutched the strap attached to a small camera.
    Quin, with his camera in his right hand, continued to appear in the neighborhood on late afternoons, just as the light was dimming and a cool breeze started. He would always walk close to the right of the sidewalk with his left hand held slightly at an angle as it he was still holding the girl's hand. Every now and then, he would turn to his left and released his lop-sided smile.

Reasons why I would not make a good book blogger

This week's Top Ten Tuesday is Books on My Fall 2021 To-read List since I've never made reading lists. I decided to list some reasons why I would not make a good book blogger. Please note, I have no idea what makes a good book blogger because I'm not one but I do read a lot of book blogs so I can judge by them, right?

01 | I don't really write reviews — I write rants in which I complain or praise books with any or every thought I have after reading them. Often, I had a lot to say when I don't like a book but I have very little to say when I do like a book. So it means I can't write reviews consistently.

02 | I don't know any of the book lingoes —  Well, I know some lingoes when I read book blogs and watched video book blogs but the info doesn't stick in my head. The one thing I kept hearing and remember all too vividly, is the phrase chef's kiss which is used whenever someone loved a book or when they think the book is great. I just really hate that phrase (for reasons even I can't say) and wish book bloggers would stop using it.

03 | I can't stick to a reading or review schedule — Maybe you don't have to have a strict schedule to finish a book or post your reviews but I imagine a lot of chaos if I don't have a schedule for reading/writing the review/posting the review. But I don't seem able to stick to a schedule very well. If it's not in my face, I won't even remember to do them.

04 | I'm not a wide range reader — I'm very hesitant to try new genres because I'm a creature of habit and I like to stick to what I like. But I don't always know what a book is in what category as I always just check out books that sounds interesting to me and then decide if I want to read them without caring what category they fall under unless its horror, then I really wouldn't read it because I like to be able to sleep at night. Whatever I read sticks in my head for days if it's especially scary or memorable so I try to read books that does not have imaginary I can't handle.
    
05 | I don't do social media — I'm pretty sure it's hard to promote books if you are not on social media, at least these days. A blog is like social media to me but most people don't think that way.
    To me, book bloggers are promoters of books. I often do not like to promote anything. If I like a book, I'll blog about it and that's it. I guess since I don't do social media, it would be kind of hard to promote anything. And I'm too lazy to post my reviews at Goodreads or Amazon or any book-related places. I honestly don't like to duplicate my reviews to other places since it's already on my blog. I suppose a good book blogger would post their reviews at least in two places.
    
06 | I don't follow book trends — I don't know anything about trends only that I don't like them but maybe I just don't understand them? Let's just say I don't read what's popular and I'll never read a book because everyone says it's great or it had a hundred awards. I often like books that are not popular and I rarely read recent releases.

07 | I can't promote a book if the cover is horrible — Okay, not completely true but if I have to promote a book with a bad cover, I might not be at all that enthusiastic about it. And I might even criticize how badly it was designed. (I'm a graphic designer so some book covers annoys me even if I try find reasons why they shouldn't.) Maybe I'm a bit judgmental about book covers but honestly, if I have to look at a cover for a long period (which I always ended up doing because I read reviews and check out book infos which will always display the cover), I would like it to be something nice.

08 | I'm more likely to quit reading a book than finishing it — In the past, I would never not finish a book but now I quit reading a book without any regret. There are far too many books out there and new ones are released every day, so why would I finish reading a book that bores that heck out of me? So maybe some books takes a while to get going and maybe one has to read the boring stuff to get to the good stuff but what is the point in that?

09 | I'm a moody reader — I only read books when I feel like it so there are a lot of pauses in between finishing a book if I especially find it daunting or boring or for some other silly reasons so often, this results in #10.

10 | I'm a slow reader — Sometimes it takes me a month to read a book even if they might be just 300 pages. In #9, I said I can quit reading books just like that but sometimes I just kind of want to finish a certain book for reasons even I can't say.
    But these days, the books I read are from the library and they have a 21 day limits which sometimes propel me to read faster and not have any long pauses in between reading - definitely a great motivator. But then again, there is also such thing as renewing the load so it's not always just 21 days to read a book.

What do you think makes a good book blogger or do you think anyone can be a book blogger?

For more Top Ten Tuesdays, visit That Artsy Reader Girl here.

Some stuff & maybe a few cohensive thoughts

'Follow the rain home'

Just some stuff that may or may not be worrying me. The above art had nothing to do with anything I said below. I just happened to redo it and I thought I share it.

01 | Email subscriptions for this blog is... still unknown. I still can't decide which service to use so I decided to not decide, at least for now.
    I was going to go with mailchimp but they needed a mailing/physical address for reasons I can't understand. I'm not comfortable sharing my address with a company or any company that I might not like it enough to keep using it. It's always a pain to have your account deleted and I had a lot frustrated experiences with that.
    If you have email subscription for your blog, which service did you use? Do share.

02 | One of these days, I might switch to Wordpress or some other blogging format because these days  I find Blogger to be less friendly, less likable and more likely to frustrate me. Here are things that are currently on my 'stop annoying me' list:
    (a) Why did they removed the edit tools for the gadgets on a blog's front end? I don't know but I'm certain it's a dumb move. Now whenever I want to edit one of the gadgets I have to go to the Dashboard and under Layout. It's not a terribly hard thing to do but why did this change this at all? What was the point?
    (b) Don't know if it's just some glitch or the fact that google had updated FeedBurner and shut down email subscriptions for all blogs that makes some blog link list on people's sidebar not updating or not showing the recent post. I have noticed a few blogs where they have my blog on their link list and it's not showing any updates. Technically, I started this blog after July so it may had an effect, I don't know. I just thought I bring it up to see if anyone's else blog is like that.
    (c) Why aren't we allow to turn off autosave? Technically, autosave is good because it saves the post we are working on but sometimes it's bad. Last week, I lost an entire post because autosave saved a blank post before I could close the post. This rarely happened to me but when it does, it usually happened when I have time constrain or when I'm at the most annoyed.

03 | Finally Strand Books "announced" the winner to the tote bag design which I had entered in July. I put quotes on the word announced because as much as I tried to find out who the winner was after the contest is over, there wasn't any type of notice on any of their social media. Only this month, I found out who the winner is in an subscription email (I subscribe to their newsletter or whatever they are called these days.)
    The winning illustration is by Luke Wohlgemuth. (I thought one of the rules was to use four Pantone colors but clearly this seems like they had used full colors which is a completely different process but whatever, I guess they can just change the rules.) Wohlgemuth's art does have charm but it's not what I would have chosen. I guess I have different taste than most people or maybe I have no clue what people likes. So what do you think of this art? Worthy of being printed on a tote bag that one carries around?

Photo source: Luke Wohlgemuth

04 | Passwords are annoying sometimes. One week, (I forgot which week but I'm pretty sure it wasn't yesterday), I forgot my computer's password and I sort of freaked out. I had set my computer to start without having to sign in so I never had to use my password. So one day, when I needed to use it, I completely blanked out.
    I searched for ways to recover the password and there are ways but they all seemed a bit complicated. Then I look through my various accounts and one of them reminded me of the password. So I suppose I should set my computer so that I have to sign in so that I can use the password every day so that I can remember it, right? Did I do that? No. Because it's a hassle to sign in and because I shut my computer down every time I used it and not because I want to save energy (which it kind of does), I just know if my computer is on all the time, I would be using it all the time.
    I really wish there are no such thing as passwords for gadgets - every single gadget you own (computers, phones, etc.) has password protection - yes, it's good that it has it but it's bad for those of us who doesn't even use it. Plus, if someone stole your phone, for example, I'm pretty certain they can get pass the password without any problems. So what these passwords protection is mostly used for is against their users.

05 | I'm hoping to finish The Cursed Princess and the Land of Happiness before the end of the year. I still would like readers to choose one of the options or give their opinion/feedback to continue the story. I've already completed the second part which means you now have the choice to choose what happens in the third part. It really is more fun if more people are participating. Here's the link to the two parts so far.

How is your September going?

Daughter Earth

Daughter Earth

I was going to share a bunch of thoughts with this new art I've finished but decided I prefer to just show this piece alone. I've worked on this for almost a month because I can't get the sunlight to my liking but I think it turned out well.

closeups

I call this piece Daughter Earth, like perhap she's a child of earth or something like that. I don't know. Perhaps she's an ordinary human or an angel. Not sure if you can make the wings since they are like her shadows. I've looked at this piece a long time so I can see them very well but those seeing this for the first might not.
    This is hand drawn and digitally colored in Adobe Photoshop. The background is a train and its design is based on new and old NYC subway train interiors. I was going to add more things like poles and advertistments but I like how spare this looks. Click on the images for a larger view.

Fiction: The Midnight Bridge Club

This month's Words for Wednesday is hosted by Cindi at her blog, Of Dandelions and Sunshine. For more takes on this week's prompt, visit Cindi's blog here.
    This week's challenge: They say a picture is worth 1,000 words. Write at least 100 words about the image below.

Fiction: The Midnight Bridge Club

In the semi-darkness, a man on a motorcycle slowly drove toward the entrance of the Mackinac Bridge. The wind blew a few strands of his black hair and caused them to flap against the scar down the side of his forehead. After a few minutes, he got off and steered his motorcycle pass the toll booth and onto the bridge deck. In a white button shirt tucked into black khaki under a black denim jacket, some might mistook him of heading toward an office meeting even with the pointed leather boots.
    The time was a little after midnight. A low fog hovered around the bridge.
    A few distances away, an old gentleman was making his way toward the deck. Underneath a dark jacket that was much too large for his frame, he wore a blue pineapple pattern shirt and gray shorts that ended at the knees revealing skinny, hairy legs and feet covered in white, slip-on sneakers. He carried a large brown box on his left arm and a blue and white cooler on his right. A faint scent of smoke followed him.
    The two men paused at the center of the bridge. The younger man, a head taller than the older one, nodded and the old man mirrored his gesture along with a wide grin.
    "Hey you two!"
    The men turned their heads.
    A woman was half running, half walking toward them. The hem of her long skirt flipped up and down. She was dragging a suitcase with a a baby blue Remington typewriter tied at the top. They had heard she had lost the cover to her typewriter years ago on a trip. It fell into a river while she was typing.
    "I don't like this fog," she said with hurried breaths. "But it is a good time to write."
    The men nodded having heard the woman repeated the same phrases every time they met. There was always a fog no matter the season and she was always in the mood to write unless it was daytime.
    She was the youngest of the three, perhaps by a decade or less. With her semi-gray and brown hair in a bun and large black-trimmed eyeglasses, she appeared much aged. Once, out of the blue, she had explained her premature grays were from years of raising a child, going to law school and holding a waitressing job while still in her early twenties. This year, she turned thirty. The men merely smiled. Many a time, she had offered details of her life that was either amusing or pitiful but the men never laughed at her. Their lives, if they were honest, were just as messed up.
    Yellow lights from the lamps on either side of the bridge created three dimmed shadows across the floor of the bridge. The three had met when they had all wandered onto the bridge during a sleepless night. They did not questioned why the toll booth was not manned nor why they were the only three individuals there nor why there were no cars either. They, however, had all agreed, it didn't matter. They had some place to go during their insomnia.
    The woman set her typewriter on the ground. Then she slipped off her low-heeled shoes, sat down beside the typewriter, crossed-legged and spread out her skirt. She unzipped her suitcase revealing a tall stack of paper. Taking a sheet, she inserted it into the typewriter and her fingers began flying among the keys.
    The old gentleman was already taking out firecrackers and matches from the brown box. He set a couple of firecrackers down on the ground in the center of the bridge, lit the wicks and ran back to the two. A flame shot up into the air and exploded. The bright patterns broke up the dark sky. This was repeated a few more times.
    The younger man was leaning against the guard rail with his arms crossed beside his motorcycle. His head was tilted up toward the sky. A faint smile crossed his lips.
    In a slow manner, the old gentleman passed around bottles of beer from the cooler.
    The woman kept typing and taking a sip from her beer now and then while the men, with their bottles in their hands, watched as more light erupted and painted the darkness all shades of hues.
    A cool wind glided back and forth over them. The bridge swayed lightly but the three had been used to this gentle movement and none of them were concerned by this. They were silent while the fireworks whistled, clapped, and fizzed in the sky with a light sound of tapping from the typewriter. During this brief time, they were at peace, not the peace from being contented or the peace from enlightenment but the peace that settled in their heads and bodies and made them think, at that moment, their lives were not so bad.
    Just before dawn, the three packed up, gave each other a smile and a nod before they parted ways. They knew they were going to see each again. There was no need for long goodbyes.

Dumb or nearly dumb reasons why I will read a book

This week's Top Ten Tuesday is Books With Numbers In the Title. Honestly, I find this prompt a bit mundane so I'm listing some Dumb or nearly dumb reasons why I will read a book or at least check it out. So maybe these are not dumb but sort of dumb reasons but I thought them up haphazardly so I may not even agree with them later on.

01| Really good cover art — The cover shouldn't be the way to judge a book but I do it anyway because a good cover can somehow invoke nice thoughts about the book and also, it's the first thing you see so I think they are for judging.

02| Fun titles — like cozy mysteries with their pun titles like Dim Sum of All Fears by Vivien Chien and titles like The beginning of the world in the middle of the night by Jen Campbell and A swiftly tilting planet by Madeleine L'Engle - I do like long titles more because they say a lot.

03| Includes a grumpy but lovable character — you know those spunky characters who appear like they they don't care about anything or they have a sarcastic, snarky, humorous remarks for everything, without them, books would be kind of dull.

04| Magic — it can be the witchy kind or the mystical kind or the kind that makes no sense - you know, magic.

05| Orphans — For no reason, I mostly end up reading books with orphans in it. I suppose I like the idea of found family or maybe I'm just sick of all those books about children trying to find that lost parent or lost sibling or lost relative.

06| It's short — As in under 300 pages or just a little over 300 pages. I read long books too but sometimes (okay, most of the time) it's just nice to read a short book or even finish one in a few hours.

07| It's a fairytale retelling — So I haven't actually read that many retellings lately but whenever I see one, I want to read it. My favorite is still Beauty and the Beast (or East of the sun and west of the moon which have a similar story) but I have read too many of those so I don't look for those as much.

08| It have illustrations in it — So I'm rather too old to still like having illustrations in my books but I like them. I think illustrations adds to the story and/or makes the story more easily accessible or maybe I just like looking at artworks.

09| Someone recommended it — I do sometimes read books because someone had recommended it. They would most likely had great things to say about it and I can't help but want to check it out.

10| Not a series — I'm really sick of books series because there is always a larger plot, a expansive story that sometimes gets dragged on to ten or fifteen books for no reason. I often seen books that says they can be read as a standalone but is part of a series and often times, it's not true. What's really true is how some books are broken into a series for the sake of being series. I have read some book series that really should have been combined together. What is the point of breaking up a book into different books when they aren't even long?

What reasons, dumb or otherwise, do you have for reading a book?

For more Top Ten Tuesdays, visit That Artsy Reader Girl here.

Fiction: Views From Above

This month's Words for Wednesday is hosted by Cindi at her blog, Of Dandelions and Sunshine. For more takes on this week's prompt, visit Cindi's blog here.
    This week's challenge: They say a picture is worth 1,000 words. Write at least 100 words about the image below.

I just wrote whatever came to me when I saw the image. Let's just say this was moody writing but it's fiction and perhaps open to interpretation.
 
Fiction: Views From Above

1 | The Moon
He was there to watch but what he often saw would have brought an ache to his heart if he had one. As the years slowly passed, his eyes never left the world below. From where he was, he saw only faint shadows and tops of things that didn't matter to him. His light fell below but whether someone took the time to see where the light came from or whether they had any use of it, he would never know.
    Once, he had a taste of humanity but it left him before he knew what it was. He had not liked it but now he relished for it for reasons he could never articulate. If he ever tasted it again, he would try to hold on to it a little longer.
    Yesterday, he averted his eyes but today, he returned to look down, to study, what he never was and never will be - temperamental beings with a temporary existence.
    
2 | The Goddess
If anyone look up, they would not see her. They would see the clouds and maybe a few solitary birds and perhaps tree tops or the edge of a skyscraper but never her. Often, she pretended to hide but what was the use of hiding? She was not easy to catch even for those with faithful eyes and opened hearts.
    She was the invisible hand that make people suffer or make them bold and unyielding. There had always been her kind that lived on in the sky. For hundreds of years, she had tried to keep a balance between good and bad, below her and above her. She was alone now and her powers had been diminishing with time. 
    Some nights, she searched below and above for something or someone, to tell her she was wrong. She should have just left them alone. There was no fight left in her. There was only a calm that had settled decades ago. A calm that often fluctuated by what she saw below.
    Once in a while, she tried to mend the holes that they created, patch the wounds that were cut opened and alleviate the pain that came but her efforts were lost in the pity that many felt but could not get away from. All she could do was avert her gaze. What was the use of catching a view of someone's suffering?
    It was getting harder to ignore them. The humans. They were not her kind but she had often felt their disharmony, their anger, their broken thoughts and their shattered dreams. If some day, she went below and became one of them, would she know how to live?

3 | The Orphan
The view from his sky home was always dim and full of rooftops. All the movements he saw were insignificant or too small for him to take notice.
    Was he too high up? He hesitated to think about it. He was an orphan when they brought him here. They pitied him for losing his family at so young an age. The sight of him made them uneasy, lonely even. How could one small being like him do that, he sometimes wondered. Here, above everything, they thought he could mend, slowly, but surely.
    All he was and all he had done, was to witness the sunrises and sunsets - light that fell in between the high-rises - light that many dismissed with a glance or two. There were sometimes flashes of dreams that invaded his thoughts but he did not know what to do with them. Did he missed what he once was? Perhaps. Sometimes, he thought he missed things that he could not remember. Only a small, fractured feeling was left of what he knew of his past self. But that small bit had been fading without him noticing.
    Day and night, he stayed inside, surrounded by the high walls. He was safe from the things that were eroding the world below. Most nights, he could not sleep. He wandered through his garden and tried not to disagree with himself. Whether he should looked or not, things, terrible and good, kept on happening. If he wasn't here, he would be down there. And yet, he knew, wherever he was, he would still be looking for that one view he wanted to call home.

Books Guaranteed to Put a Frown On Your Face

This week's Top Ten Tuesday is Books Guaranteed to Put a Smile On Your Face. Somehow I just don't feel like making such list today. So I'm going to do the opposite - Books Guaranteed to Put a Frown On Your Face or what I originally titled, Sad book recommendation for happy people. These are also some of my favorite books. These books don't end well, that is, they are not happy ever after endings. If you read these and they make you cry, pretend I didn't recommend you these books.

Eight Books Guaranteed to Put a Frown On Your Face

01 | The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw > link
Sorrowful, surreal, charming, though the situation is dire and the ending is extremely sad.
Sadness Rating (5 being the most sad): 5
Favorite Quote: "She was being shut down, paralyzed, physical avenues cordoned off. Thank goodness, she thought, she had done what she had when she had. She had waded in the Ganges, felt downy snow fill her mouth in the Alps, breathed deep to get the last of the oxygen from the high altitude of mountains. Swum. She had once swum."

02 | Snow Hunters by Paul Yoon > link
A story that starts kind of sad and ended kind of sad but there are some bits of hope there too.
Sadness Rating: 4
Favorite Quote: "He thought of these years as another life within the one he had. As though it were a thing he was able to carry. A small box. A handkerchief. A stone. He did not understand how a life could vanish. How that was even possible. How it could close in an instant before you could reach inside one last time, touch someone's hand one last time. How there would come a day when no one would wonder about the life he had before this one."

03 | Postcards from a Dead Girl by Kirk Farber > link
It's a dramedy of sorts. There may be some sadness involved that the reader may or may not be surprised by.
Sadness Rating: 3 and a half
Favorite Quote: "Because the happy moment was lasting all day long. It was an endless happy moment, an inexplicable thing I didn't trust - something so extraordinary and awesome that only a complicated, paranoid evil plot could balance out the universe."

04 | Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens > link
This is a little depressing in that there aren't that many things to be happy about there are some optimism here especially with the Amy Dorrit character. I may have been a little bit influenced by the mini-tv series with Claire Foy and Matthew Macfadyen as I still can clearly see these two actors in the roles of Amy Dorrit and Arthur Clennam. This ends with a happy ending, it's really not as depressing as I made it sounded.
Sadness Rating: 4 and a half
Favorite Quote: "At first in the chair before the gone-out fire, and then turned round wondering to see her, was the gentleman whom she sought. The brown, grave, gentleman, who smiled so pleasantly, who was so frank and considerate in his manner, and yet in whose earnestness there was something that reminded her of his mother, with the great difference that she was earnest in asperity and he in gentleness. Now he regarded her with that attentive and enquiring look before which Little Dorrit's eyes had always fallen, and before which they fell still."

05 | The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro > link
He had to sacrifice certain things and maybe it's sad in that regard but he's fulfilling his life's work and maybe there is joy in that.
Sadness Rating: 3
Favorite Quote: “I do not think I responded immediately, for it took me a moment or two to fully digest these words of Miss Kenton. Moreover, as you might appreciate, their implications were such as to provoke a certain degree of sorrow within me. Indeed - why should I not admit it? - at that moment, my heart was breaking.”

06 | The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman > link
It's a sad love story with a sad ending but not tragic or depressing but just slightly near it. I do sort of see this as a happy ending.
Sadness Rating: 3 and a half
Favorite Quote: “How could I tell the doctor what was wrong with me? I didn't understand it myself. I couldn't articulate the pain; it was the pain of nothingness. My fear was of the weather, the atmosphere, the very air. What good did safety tips do me now? Avoid water, metal objects, rooftops; stay off the telephone in a storm, don't think glass can protect you; even if a storm was 8 miles away, you're still not safe from a strike. Avoid life perhaps that was the answer. The number one safety tip. Stay away from it all.”

07 | The Book Thief by Markus Zusak > link
I don't usually like reading books about war or stories set during a war because there is guaranteed death and sadness but I almost loved this book and it was quite more enjoyable than I expected even though there's one character that I really wish didn't die.
Sadness Rating: 4
Favorite Quote: "I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race — that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant."

08 | Gathering the Water by Robert Edric > link
To describe this book I guess would be one man's way of dealing with sadness and tragic losses. There was one scene that talked about what someone would to do to conquer a tsunami and the person sent arrows against the waves which sounds silly but how would one conquer water that is coming at you, ready to destroy you when you have no other resources other than an army of people with arrows?
Sadness Rating: 5
Favorite Quote: "Starting anew, I began to discern the light and the landmarks of the possible future. There was a time in between, of course — a period of confusion in which life went on and I acted out my part within it — but it was never starting anew, never a rebirth, merely a succession of lesser endings, during which I severed my ties one after another — my family, my work, my connection to Helen's family, to her sister, to my colleagues, and finally upon reaching the shapeless centre of that darkness, my hopes and expectations for the future."

What sad books would you recommend or do you prefer books that are happy and optimistic?

For more Top Ten Tuesdays, visit That Artsy Reader Girl here.

Books Read and Shows Watched in August 2021

Books I Read In August 2021
Every time I start a book, I don't seem to want to finish it. This month, I have managed to finish reading only two books. Whenever I'm in a reading pause (I won't use slump because it's never a slump), reading middle-grade books helps me get back to reading or at least I think so. Here are the two books that I had read in August (both middle-grade):

01 | The Starspun Web by Sinead O'Hart > link
This was whimsy, quirky, serious, fun. I enjoyed it a lot. I like the idea of parallel worlds and also slightly mad scientist or would be scientist like Tess. Tess, Wilf, Thomas and all their friends are fun characters and they actually like each other's company. I really rather wish the book was longer as there seem to be a few loose ends. Even though I could sort of predict what would happen at the end, I still enjoy reading this.

02 | The Unicorn in the Barn by Jacqueline Ogburn and illustrated by Rebecca Green > link
This was a light, fun, short read with bits of sadness thrown in. The illustrations are cute. This may be a little bit less middle-grade, more for younger children but I still enjoyed it plus there is a unicorn.

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Shows I watched in August 2021
I watched more tv shows than read books but I'm not going to list the shows that I re-watched, just the ones I have seen for the first time which equals to two shows

03 | Walk into Your Memory > link
This show is just like any other romantic comedy/drama but it has one unique thing - the main female, An Ning, can see into other people's memory. So she would know if you have been a jerk or done something bad. There is your typical male lead/love interest, bad temper boss. There are a couple of romances going on but I like the one between An Ning and Long Hao Qian. I honestly didn't care about the romance between the head chef and the head wait staff - they aren't a good pair. I really like An Ning's colorful, fun fashion style. Even though I don't like wearing bright colors - I kind of want to dress like An Ning.
    I enjoyed the show a lot and I like the unique element of An Ning's ability. But I think if you prefer a romantic comedy, I recommend you stop watching after episode 16 but if you're more into the drama part, then carry on from episodes 17 through the end (episode 24) but know they got very depressing. If you have seen many dramas, you'll know what might happen so there will be lot of crying, angst and sadness. It's still worth watching toward the end but it does dragged a bit for the last few episodes but still, there is a happy ending.

04 | My Name is Busaba  > link
This was my second Thai series but I still find the language a bit to daunting to listen to but I think I'm starting to like it though everyone speaks so fast, sometimes too fast so the subtitles would fly off the screen two soon, at least for me anyway.
    I like the main character Busaba. She didn't change for anyone and that's admirable. Saran, the male lead is okay but still your typical leading men/rich guy type, nothing special which makes me wonder why the women around him keeps scheming to get him. Dr. Kim, the second love interest, seemed a bit bland and kind of like he's faking being nice but he's not - I seem to read his character this way for no reason. I really don't like it whenever he raises his eyebrows which is a lot of times - why does he do that? I didn't see any reason for it.
    There are a lot of talk and showing of food which I appreciate because I have not heard of any of the dishes mentioned. Also, there is a cooking contest portion is kind of fun. (SPOILER > During the cooking contest, a cobra is introduced as one of the ingredients to which I say what!?! Yuck - what were they thinking? < END SPOILER)
    I must say the women in this show are all quite hot-tempered and feisty and modern thinking which I like but they also are quick to call each other names/insult each other. I think all the female characters are more entertaining than all the males in the show. I still think the loser cook, the one who schemed to win the cooking contest should have something bad happen to him like not being to work in the cooking industry again but no, he just got scolded a bit and then disappeared and never heard from again. Even his sister who helped with all the scheming, nothing happen to her either. In other words, there are no bad people, just bad intentions.
    The question about whether you should choose someone who is suitable for you or someone who is right for you seems confusing to me. Maybe it's the translation but suitable and right means the same thing, don't they? I think the question should be choosing between someone who is suitable for you and someone who you love. I think even if someone is your perfect match, it does not necessary guarantee happiness nor choosing the one you love.
    This is a good series but sometimes a bit too sentimental for my taste but I do like this better than the original, My Lovely Sam Soon, which this is a remake of. The ending was good because they didn't drag out anything and it was a happy but sort of an expected ending.

Have you read any good books or seen any good shows in August?