Three More Books

That's right everybody, three more books to blog about. That's books seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen, I think. I'm a reading machine!
The first one is called The Book of Vodou by Leah Gordon. It's just what it sounds like: a basic primer for Vodou. It covered where the religion came from and how it evolved, the different spirits and deities that play a major part in it, worship practices, and charms and potions. A good little book to start with, and I'm keeping it for sure, even though I have a couple books on my shelf that go more in-depth.
Second is The Haunting of Alaizabel Clay by Chris Wooding. And as before, when I read Poison, I was totally bowled over by Chris's work. This book is really enjoyable; it takes place in an alternate Victorian London where the Age of Reason is butting heads with the wyches (demons and ghosts and such) that have been showing up in recent decades. The language is great. The characters come from all walks of life and are easy to empathize with. The story is tightly crafted, about a wych-hunter named Thaniel and the possessed girl, Alaizabel, he finds one night while out hunting. From there it is a story of self-discovery for both Thaniel and Alaizabel as well as an exciting action story about saving London from being overrun by evil. I finished it and was half-tempted to just flip back to page one and start again. I'm definitely keeping this book, and definitely finding more of Chris Wooding's work, and if any of you dear readers are looking for good YA novels, look no further. Chris Wooding's books are great.
Third, on a totally different note, is I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley. It's a collection of essays that Sloane has written about different aspects of her life and experiences she's had. The themes run from terrible bosses to one-night stands to bridesmaids to plastic ponies. I found many of the essays to be really funny, and all of them made me pause and think for a minute. Some of them are just quintessential life experiences, like locking yourself out of your apartment, that everyone can relate to. And some of them are quite specific to Sloane's way of experiencing life, which just makes it a lot of fun. I definitely recommend this one for some light nonfiction reading. She'll make you laugh, and she'll make you look at life a little bit differently.
Speaking of life, things are plugging along. My wrist is slowly improving. No more physical therapy unless it starts hurting again, which is great for my pocketbook but makes me a little nervous. I've been babying that wrist for a month and a half; who knows what will happen when I start doing things with it again? But, I need to try. I need to see where I'm actually at.
I've started scratching at my novel a little bit again. In the interest of my healing wrist, I only do a page or so of editing when I sit down to work, so I'm really creeping along, but just the fact that I'm working on it again makes me really happy.
I've also picked up a freelance project, after over two weeks off from any extra work. My subsequent paychecks will be happy for the extra. We'll see how it goes for my sanity and my wrist!
All of this wrist stuff has led me to thinking more about the concept of balance. Clearly, it's something I need to work on. I can't just work-work-work like I was all the time, and I think that my wrist injury was the universe's way of telling me to slow down. How do I do that? How do I compromise instead of going full-tilt? Well, for starters, I don't take every freelancing project that's offered to me. And I need to remember that I don't have to do everything every day. It's okay to take a day off from my clarinet, or leave secondary activities like collaging and organizing my closet for the weekends. I need to leave time in my life to just relax. To read a good book or watch an episode of Buffy or play a video game. I'm working on it. It's hard. I always feel like I should be accomplishing something with my time. But the forced break from everything due to my wrist really helped me realize the value of taking time for myself. It's a good thing to work on.
Two more small things before I get back to work. First, I found a t-shirt online that I think I have to buy. It says "And then Buffy staked Edward. The End." Ha! Too funny! And second, I have a possible invite to play in an LGBT community band. I need to check out their website, see what sort of music they play, etc. But it might be a lot of fun!
And on that note, it's time to get back to work for me. Things are a little slow this afternoon, but that just means it's time to get ahead. Have a good afternoon!