Thoughtful Thursday: Adoption Movies

Last night my best friend and I watched Raising Izzie.

I'm not the world's biggest movie fan. Although I've worked for movie theaters and will tolerate sitting down to watch a film here or there, they are not my "go-to" means of entertainment (video games and books are), so I don't watch many of them. 

Since November (National Adoption Month), I've been taking more notice of adoption issues, and for that reason, adoption movies are starting to pop up more. My best friend is watching a few of them and calling them to my attention (interspersed among television shows about fostering and adoption, such as The Fosters and Life Unexpected). While I'm not a fan of movies, I sit with her to watch some of these because of the perspective, and because I want the opportunity to correct errors in judgement by the movie's writers. 

Movies often want to paint adoption as beautiful, and a "miracle," which is encouraged by a society that wants to think it's doing the right thing by separating children from their original mothers.

Adoption movies tend to be more politically correct than encouraging to the people in the triad who need it the most: The adoptees.

Last night I watched Raaising Izzie with my best friend (who lives with me) while convalescing over a gallbladder attack. You can read my full review of Raising Izzie on Hubpages. As with too many adoption movies, it fell short of its mark. In order to have covered all of the important details of a transracial adoption, this movie would have needed to be covered in multiple parts, and should have focused more on the kids and the adoptive parents than on the back story.

It doesn't take long to understand that the mother is dead and that the older sister is raising the younger sister. In fact, this is covered in the movie's trailer (available on my Hubpages review of the movie).

This movie stands as a shining example of why I don't follow more adoption-related movies, and prefer to read novels on the topic. A book is far better able to express what a movie never can. I've added In Search of Eden and Orphan Train to my list of books that needs to be replaced following a flooding issue in our basement. They're on my wish list, if you want to consider helping a girl out!

Wishing for Wednesday: The Dragontooth Ocarina

Brian CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, via Flickr

"Wishing for Wednesday" is a second Wednesday meme for me to talk about the things that are on my wish list at the moment. Each week I'll feature a couple of items that I'm particularly looking forward to and you can check them out on Amazon. 

This week my wish list looks something like the image above, at least when it comes to the long, purple-wrapped item at the front of the box.

Just on the off chance that somebody loves me enough to want to provide the items on my wishlist, the Amazon wishlist is linked in the right-hand sidebar, so you're able to access it from there. Not that I'm expecting anything, but I thought I'd point that out.

Dragontooth Ocarina I've been salivating over this ocarina since before I ordered my Aria. This is my current "dream ocarina" and I want it so bad that I can taste it. I'm hoping that someone will purchase it for me on the Songbird website soon, but with a hefty price-tag ($115 including shipping), it's not likely to happen as quickly as I'd like. The instrument is large for hands as small as mine, but I find that Ava's Night by Noble is too small after playing the Tenor C Aria.

That's about it for this week's Wishing on Wednesday. I have enough books to keep me satisfied for a while and as much as I would love to get some in the mail (see my wishlist on the sidebar) I'd need room for them first. Maybe next week I'll wish for some book shelves!

Working on Wednesday: Goal Setting

Eneas del Troya CC BY 2.0 via Flickr

"Working on Wednesday" is my opportunity to share with you the current projects that I have going on. This means, at least in part, sharing with you the book (or books) that I'm reading, upcoming reviews, writing projects, and other things that are going on in my life. This is sort of a mid-week catch up that lets you see into my life a bit more.

This week, I'm working on several things:

Reading: I'm currently reading Crybaby Bridge by J. Weinhardt (and am nearing the finish line of this relatively short but difficult book) and The Next Always, by Nora Roberts. I sometimes try to have both a traditionally published and Indie published book on the go at the same time to fill in gaps, but I have to say that The Next Always isn't holding my interest as well as Crybaby Bridge is. We'll see how it works out in the end. Remind me to give you a comparison! My goal is to have both of these books reviewed by Saturday.

Writing: This week I'm focusing on books for my writings on Hubpages. It's difficult to get into a rhythm at first because a hub can take so long to write. The process is deeply involved and it takes considerable time and effort to find photos, video, and other media to add to the hub. Unfortunately there has been little return in the last few months, and I've been gradually losing hope. My goal for the time being is three hubs a week.

Music: I'm still practicing "Together" by David Erick Ramos on the ocarina. The sheet music is available here and I've been enjoying learning this song. I'll include the YouTube video at the end of this post so that you can watch and listen to the official music video. It's a great song and I'm close to having it memorized, so will be looking for something new to learn. I'd love to find some sheet music for Saria's song, so if anybody has a link, I'd appreciate it. Note that I need sheet music, not tabs or fingering tabs!

Sims 4: I don't have anything going on here right now at all, which is disappointing. I'd like to have experimented with all skills and careers before the expansion downloads in April. It's already pre-ordered. Unfortunately I've lost the Photoshop actions that make it easy to put out excellent Sims pictures, so it's going to be uphill from here, I'm afraid.

Gaming: I'm picking at Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box this week. This is also going slow because I put the game down so long ago that it's taking time to get back into the story. This particular game is more wrapped up in story line than its predecessor and I'm finding it slow going to get from one puzzle to the next one. I'll still likely finish the series, and will probably write a review of the game on Hubpages.

What are you working on this week? Do you have any special projects on the go that you'd like to share? I'd love to hear about what you're doing, so feel free to leave me something in the comments!

Hopefully I'll have the first book review up on this blog within the next two days. I'm looking forward to it!

Tattletale Tuesday: Magnificent Prose

Christopher Elliot CC BY-NC 2.0, via Flickr

Are you ready for our very first Tattletale Tuesday? I am super excited! One of my favorite things about talking about books is being able to tell you the things that I love (and sometimes hate) about whatever I'm currently reading. Yes, yes. I'm bad. (You will be too when you add your comments to mine and tattle on the book you're currently reading, won't you?)

I'll try to keep things positive, because I like to move things in an upbeat direction and who isn't encouraged by positive comments about, well, anything? 

This week I'm reading Crybaby Bridge by J. Weinhardt. 

Although it's not the type of book that I normally enjoy (I'm struggling to classify it by genre), the author has a remarkable way with prose. It's a rare thing to find an independently published novel with such consideration given showing, rather than telling what the main character is experiencing.

This is an easy book to get sucked into, and I've found myself reading it with my heart pounding as I lean forward in my seat struggling to absorb every word of the novel. It's the sort of book that you gobble up quickly and then wish you'd savored, and I have to keep putting it down because I have a seven-year-old to raise and I can't allow myself to get sucked too deeply into the narrative. Nobody likes to be interrupted while they read.

So far this is shaping up to be a 4-star book (which is about the best that I rate books unless they are absolutely remarkable in every possible way) and I'm excited to be able to ask my readers, followers, and guests to join me in reading along with it. If you've already read it, please keep your thoughts for the review. There aren't many reviews on Amazon or on Goodreads and I think this author deserves some more!

You can purchase Crybaby Bridge on Amazon.

In the meantime, I'd love to hear your tattles! What are you reading this week, and what has impressed you about it? Do you have any recommendations that you'd like to make for books I might enjoy in the future? 

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Mommy Monday: Passion for Books

Patrick, CC BY-NC 2.0 via Flickr

Some children are born with an innate passion for books, and can't wait to get their hands on books and begin reading. Not my daughter! 

Born to two adults who were reading before they started preschool and continue to devour books as though it were the same as oxygen needed to survive, Dinky loves books, but hates words. Her father, an amateur etymologist, doesn't understand how she hasn't started to pick up different words yet, and several people have suggested that the public school system could do a better job of forcing her to learn what we have seemingly "failed" to teach her at home.

It's not that my daughter can't learn at home (or elsewhere, for that matter) but that she doesn't care for the process of reading. She's as obsessed with books as any good bibliophile would wish their child to be, but it's the feel of them, the scent of them, and the stories they contain which fascinate her. She couldn't care less about the words themselves, or the individual sounds that the letters make. Phonics is hard for her, as it is for some children, and so reading has become a chore of daily memorization with a memory full of holes through while the words fall when the story is over.

And that's okay.

We don't want to push her because we understand that forcing someone to read won't foster a love of reading and of books. She's passionate about the books themselves, in love with the stories, and is capable of following a character through a series of events making up a plot or a story. Pushing her could deplete her desire to learn as time goes on, and sitting with her to read begins the process of her learning the words -- as long as she keeps her eyes on the page. 

People learn differently. My Dinky doesn't do well with Phonics, and there's time to adjust. After all, the philosophy in home schooling is that it's better late than early. She loves books, and that's one heck of a start. If there's one thing she often wants more than any other, it's new books. 

And if there is only one thing she can learn from me and her father, this is the thing I want it to be. I'm proud of her for believing in books. The rest will come later.

How Fonts Affect Readability on E-Readers

Zero2Cool_DE CC BY-NC-ND via Flickr

I most often read on my Kindle Paperwhite. This is my preferred reading device for several reasons I've spoken about recently (and do not feel the need to reiterate, since this post isn't about the reasons I like the Kindle so much).

Recently I've run into a problem of fonts. The Kindle allows the reader to change the font of a book in order to make it easier to read, but this appears to be dependent on the formatting the book received from its author. 

I've been reading Crybaby Bridge, by J. Weinhardt and though I've very much been enjoying the book, the serif font is terrible on my eyes. I downloaded this novel quite some time ago, and so imagine that there has been an update since I first obtained it, but since I cannot get an update from Amazon, I'm forced to read the book with an unbearable font or to stop reading it altogether.

Since I'm enjoying the book and find the story more compelling even than I'd originally hoped, I'd rather not have to stop reading in order to relieve myself of the horrific formatting. This is a tremendous problem for me as a completionist. 

My advice to indie authors is to check your formatting before you upload. I find that a sans-serif font is easier for me to read, and that I prefer justified edges to my text. (In fact, the left-alignment on Hubpages drives me up a wall when I read it!) Obviously everyone is different and individual preferences will vary, but it's safe to say that Courier New and similar fonts aren't the best choices for books.

If all continues as it is right now, however, I plan to rate this book on its content rather than on its formatting (since I believe that is fair to the author) and as of right now it's shaping up to be a 4 or 5 star book. My many thanks to the author for allowing the book to be downloaded for free in the first place! There's no room to complain.

You can purchase your Kindle Paperwhite on Amazon.

Setting Blogging Goals and Doing it Right

Ed Donahue CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Via Flickr

Sometimes I swear that I am the world's worst blogger. I'm terrible at keeping up with things, fail to post often enough, bore my readers, and do little to attract an active audience to my blog. I want to do better, and I know that I'm capable of doing better, but it's difficult without having goals in mind.

This is really about "doing it right" for me. I've never been able to keep up with reading goals. I'm a completionist, and so if I run into a book that I find particularly long and can't finish, it can put me off my reading goals. 

Writing goals are easier. I've kept up with three months of daily writing before. It's possible to write a blog post every day, and it's even easier to keep up with five posts a week. This is something that I can do, but I have to set the goals small or I'll fail to begin with. So if you're reading this and you're considering following me here on my blog, expect a regular update on goals. 

It helps to have something to write about every day, so I'll be looking up writing prompts as well as working on keeping up with personal memes that allow me to plan what I'll post every day. These will be marked in the categories to the right to make it easier to find everything. I hope this simplifies things and that you find something here you enjoy reading and that you choose to follow.

My current goal is to write five posts a week for two weeks, beginning on Monday, February 23rd until Friday, February 27th. Weekend posts don't count toward this goal, but I will post on the weekends as long as I feel up to doing so.

I will also be posting on Tumblr, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus in the meantime with book updates, discussions, and more. 

If you like what you see, please follow!