Book: Overlap: The Heart of Happiness by Trevor J Petersen
Genre: Non-fiction (self help, psychology, etc.)
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
It's been awhile since I've actually done a true review here, but I wanted to feature this one a bit more than my norm has been lately.
This book takes us on a journey to discover the ultimate path to finding happiness. The author first talks about all the ways he's tried, and failed, to find happiness, and then shares this idea that he's come up with called Overlap. He says that the most important thing with regard to being happy is to "overlap" with living things. He describes it like snorkeling... you can drive by the ocean without looking, or sit on the beach and observe, or maybe wade and get your feet wet... or... you can get in and see what's out there and go snorkeling! Passing, Spectating, Wading, or... Overlapping. This is the key to everything!
He then lays out the "recipe" of 11 steps on how to do this. These include: opening up, valuing, empathizing, relishing, letting go, attending, participating, getting close (proximity,) intensity, netting (gathering) and giving. Each of these ideas gets a lot of space in the book for what exactly it entails with lots and lots of concrete and practical ways you can add overlapping to your life.
And everything is so thoroughly researched and referenced. With lots of stories and pictures to illustrate it all. It's amazing.
At some points I did think... but this is too hard! And what if I struggle to do stuff like this? And then he addresses those worries and concerns and encourages us all to get out of our comfort zone and live life. It's very inspiring and upbeat and awesome.
And you might wonder what he means by living things, so he devotes a part of the book giving a detailed list on how he defines this. It's obviously people in our lives (and not just people we know of course, but strangers as well... talk to them!) but pets, ourselves, wisdom (literature and arts and music,) food, and nature. All considered living!
I really enjoyed the experience of reading this book and hope others trying to figure out life and how to enjoy it more will discover it and give some of these strategies a try. There's A LOT to take in, but I think if we can do it just a little at time, and work on something day by day... we can do it!
My kdrama watching this past spring was taken over by kpop survival shows. This where a bunch of guys compete to survive at the end and thus be in a new kpop group formed with the winners. Many of the current popular groups were formed in a such a way. I've only watched a handful of them in real time, and a few way after the fact, because they are PAINFUL to watch. Highly emotional and manipulative and "evilly edited" as we love to say.
But on the other hand, they are awesome. Because there's always amazing performances, and you get to see the boys working SO HARD to achieve their dream, and there's just something about that that is absolutely mesmerizing. And the interaction between the boys is always fun, not competitive, but friendly and encouraging with tons of bonds being made.
And of course you fall in love with every single one of them and want them all to debut (ie. make into a group and start promoting.) So it's fun to watch, and it's painful to watch, all at the same time. It makes for great TV.
So I watched two such shows these past couple of months. Let me tell you about them.
BOYS PLANET
This one was highly produced with an amazing set and resources. It started with about 100 boys, divided into two teams... Korean kids and Global kids (everyone else not from Korea.) It was annoying for us that they were pitted against each other at first, seeing that in the end, one group would be made from them. And it's always cool to have a group made up from members all over the world. Anyway. That's how it started and it was quickly narrowed down by half. Then they had several missions to accomplish, always so fun to see what they come up with for them to do. And every mission, the boys would be randomly (ish) divided into different teams each time. After several episodes of this, it was pretty apparent which boys would rise to the top. Each week we learn their rankings to see who made it that week, until the final episode when we see who made it into the final group of the top nine boys. It's seriously so intense.
I had my favorite that I voted for... mostly because I knew him from a previous show and he barely lost that one and I felt like he had talent and charisma up the wazoo and NEEDED to be in a group NOW. That boy is Gunwook and he is only like 17 years old, but he was ready. Did he make it? SPOILER: YES HE DID! I was so surprised because he was in and out of that top list the whole show. Click here to see his fun reaction to making it. I could watch it over and over.
Park Gunwook
ZEROBASEONE
Anyway, the boys that made it are all awesome and their new group is called ZEROBASEONE or ZB1 for short and they already had their debut song come out. It's adorable. And yes, several global kids made it in, yay for that!
Already we are hearing about two groups that will have boys who didn't make it into ZB1. So obviously I'll be keeping my eye on them too. That's the other crazy thing about watching a survival show, you get invested in not only the group that wins, but all the groups that spin off from it! (Those groups have the very unique names of TIOT and BLIT. Look for them! LOL!)
Also, if you are curious what it looks like for 100 boys to be in a music video.. here's the performance they ALL did before anyone was eliminated. Though the boys with the higher rank were at the top of this thing, and the boys with the lower were on the floor. It broke my heart! Also, the boys with blue are Korean and the boys with pink are the Global kids. Just in case you were curious!
FANTASY BOYS
Just as Boys Planet was ending, this one started. I wasn't going to watch, but I was drawn in by my number one pick dude for this one, another boy I'd seen on a previous show where he didn't make it. He's so sweet and shy and adorable, but changes to be fierce and powerful on stage. It's the best. Also, I was drawn in by the four judges/producers of this one... some great icons in the kpop industry. They were fun to watch too. This particular show, though, seemed a lot lower budget and had less talented boys than Boys Planet.
Yu Junwon
Fantasy Boys
At least that's what I thought at first... until we got more towards the end and the cream of the crop rose to the top and boy.. they were all amazing too. The top 12 boys who made it the end will be in group and unfortunately, they are keeping the name Fantasy Boys. Geez. And my boy Junwon, made it to the number position. Way to go dude! There was another one I was really rooting for, but alas, he just barely didn't make it. And there are several boys that made it who are VERY young. I hope they can deal with what comes next, because it only gets harder.
These guys haven't debuted yet, but I'll watching to see what they come up with. Here's a song they did for the show though that they later made this mv for:
And then there was:
PEAK TIME
This show was a bit different in that it was a competition between groups. Some old established groups that have fallen from the spotlight, some groups that had broken up but decided to get together for this show, some groups that have been doing okay, but wanted a nice push, some very new groups that no one knows, and some groups that hadn't even debuted yet. So the range in age and experience was HUGE. They also put together group made up of a bunch of solo boys from various groups.
The premise was that each group would have a different name for the shows, corresponding to the 24 hours in the day. And their true identity would be "hidden" until they were dropped from the show. (Of course we all knew who they were the whole time, cheering on our favorites and adding a ton of new favorites to our lists.) The winning groups would get a ton of promotional help, a concert in Korea, and then the top group gets tons of money, an album produced, and a world tour. It was a great incentive for all these groups who were struggling in some sort of way.
There was huge panel of judges all from famous popular groups, and many producers and etc. They were awesome and so much fun to watch too.
This show was AMAZING! I loved it so much and hope they do it again sometime with a whole pile of new groups. The positive feeling and the love and encouragement they all showed each other was great. They competed as their own groups, but then were divided several times into random different groups so they all had to get to know each other and work together and cheer each other on. We were able to vote for our favorite teams and also our favorite individuals. (Man that was hard.)
And the performances were so phenomenal. Here are two that really stood out. This is one of the randomly assigned groups for the dance competition:
And there's one from the randomly assigned groups for the vocal competition:
Chills EVERY SINGLE TIME!
And the winning team?
SPOILER:
VANNER! They even actually came to my podunk city for a concert last year and I was out of town and couldn't go! And they only had like 50 people at all their concerts in all the cities, and they were struggling financially, paying for everything out their own pockets.
Their story is crazy good and it was PERFECT that they won this thing. Now they are popular and everyone loves them! I had several other favorite groups on this show and was sad for those that didn't make it, but so happy for the 6 groups who won in the end. And hopefully the ones that didn't make it got a ton of positive exposure. Anyway, it was so fun and like I said, let's do that again!
(I must say I'm pretty sure even if you aren't into kpop music and such, you'd still get into these shows. If you are one that feels like there's nothing good watch these days, you should seriously try this.)
Yeah, I'm so behind in talking about what I've been watching but I'll go ahead and attempt to catch up!
This one is about a dude who is a very famous math tutor. He helps kids in the after hours (Korean kids go to academy's after school to help them get even better grades) with math and the daughter of our female main lead is DYING to get in. And she does get in, but then she is sabotaged by the mean moms in the neighborhood and is promptly kicked out.
So... the dude starts coming around to their house to tutor her, because he feels bad about what happened. AND because their restaurant is the only place he can actually eat. Because he is extremely depressed and lonely, and is going to not make it if he doesn't figure out how to eat. So in he tutors, in exchange for food.
And then falls in love with the mom. Which is INSANE because she is SO NOT his type!
There's a lot of funny moments and sweet moments and sad moments. There's a cute side story with the daughter and her boyfriend, and the backstory of what our dude has had to deal with. I really enjoyed it!
Starring: Kim Yohan, So Jooyeon, Yeo Hoehyun, Jo Hyejoo, Jeong Jinhwan
Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤
I didn't really know what to expect when I started this drama, but this, I'm pretty sure, has ended up being the cutest, sweetest, most fluffiest drama I've ever watched. Yep, I KNOW!
It follows the stories of five friends, giving a lot of time to when they were in high school (maybe half of the drama), but then moving through college, and then their careers.
Our main girl has crushed on our main boy for years.. .and for a long time he resists her. But then when a new kid comes a long and shows interest, he realizes he has probably liked her all this time after all. And now he has to fight for her, and he really doesn't have that sort of personality!
So it's the fun love story between a girl who is sweet and bubbly and very open and our boy who is quiet, stand-offish and somewhat ornery at times! It's great to see him shake off that tendency in order to fight for this girl. LOL!
But yeah, it is truly sappy sweet, and very very cheesy, but in the best way. I loved it. It makes my heart warm.
Starring: Park Min Young, Kim Jae Young, Go Kyung Pyo
Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤
Another drama that took me months to watch. Not sure if this is a function of the drama, or my mood and life. But anyway, I finally finished it!
This one is about a girl who marries for her job. She has been married like 13 or times or something. She does it for when a guy needs a wife for some event or something. Or to show off to his family, or, as is the case with the guy in the drama... just someone to eat dinner with. When the job is over, she gets divorced and moves on.
Well, with our guy she has been eating dinner with him for like five years, and finally, as the drama opens, she decides she is sick of this job and she is going to retire and move on to something else. So she has to tell him that they are over. But then she realizes, she is sad to tell him and that she wants to keep eating dinner with him, as they have been all these years.
So, what to do?
In the meantime, we learn her back story and what brought to do such a job. And a new dude moves into the apartment where her "husband" lives and he ends up truly liking her and talks her into not retiring and being HIS wife too.
And then things get really messy.
It was cute and fun in parts, but very long and boring in other parts. The last few episodes were really really draggy... ugh. Usually the last episodes of a drama are so fast paced and crazy that you can't stop and you end up watching them all at once. But these last ones took me a month to get to. Sadness.
The dude who played the second male lead was someone I hadn't seen in anything before and I really enjoyed his acting. Hopefully I will find him in something else again some day.
New dude: Kim Jaeyoung
Anyway, so yeah. I mostly enjoyed it and it was a fun premise, but really lagged around way too much.
Welcome to my new format for "reviewing" books! I'm just going to do the monthly wrap up and report on my books read then, all in one post with mini reviews. Okay? Okay!
Here's what I read in January:
The Love Letters of Abelard and Lily by Laura Creedle: I really loved this one about a girl with massive ADHD and a boy on the autistic spectrum. They get together in a pretty funny and then connect through their mutual love for a book called The Love Letters of Abelard and Heloise. And they use those quotes in their texts to each other and it's adorable. They both have lots of issues to deal with and it seems like there's no way they can figure out how to be together. It's a really cute and fun story with not your typical characters.
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman: This one we read for book club in January. This author is quickly becoming a book club favorite and ends up on our lists quite often these days! It's a fun story narrated by a nearly 8 year old girl as she watches all the crazy things going on in her apartment building. She is also dealing with the death of her grandma... her crazy grandma who has sent in on a sort of treasure hunt after she's gone. And our girl ends up realizing that all the people in the apartment building have a connection. It's awesome just as all his books are, with amazing character development. He can capture people like no else!
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir: This is the book I read from my own stacks this month. A book that has been waiting for me since 2016... because I remember buying it at Powell's bookstore when we were on a trip that year! Anyway, I loved it and it gets to be my first 5 star read of the year! What a story that totally sucks you and keeps you on the edge the whole time! Our girl ends up posing as a sly and spying on the household of the commander of the school that trains soldiers to fight and suppress her people. She needs to get information so she can save her brother from horrendous jail and torture. Our guy is one of these highly trained soldiers and he has just graduated from this school. And he wants to escape. But if he's caught they will kill him. And of course their two desires somehow come together in all the crazy unexpected ways! AHH! It's all so intense! I immediately got book 2 from the library and I hope to fit it in during February.
Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson: This was a sort of Booktube read along, though I haven't really succeeded in connecting with anyone reading it yet! LOL! It's a great historical fantasy (is that what you call it... magic in the 1800's but not with steampunk sort of devices). Our girl has been raised in a great library with intentions of running that library someday, but an incident happens that sends her off to be questioned by the sorcerers and magic is so very much frowned upon by the librarians. Bad bad stuff. But when she meets a certain sorcerer, she begins to wonder if everything she has been taught is right. Because he... and the demon that gives him his magic... are pretty cool after all. And then after they become friends they have to save the world! Fun stuff, and so beautifully written.
February Plans:
Read The Last Anniversary for bookclub
Read the 2nd Ember in the Ashes book!
Read Siddhartha, or that Leo Tolstoy short story thing for a challenge
Read a king/queen book for the British Forced Phase
These are the books I read in December! Quite a few more than I normally read because I was really trying to make a push and meet that dang Goodreads goal!
And with this post I might be mostly caught up!
Atomic Habits by James Clear: I finally got to this one that pretty much the whole world has been talking about. And yes, I can see what all the fuss is about. It does lay out a plan for getting into good habits in a way that is very clear (ha clear....get it?) and relatable and that makes sense. I would love to implement something into my life, but I will probably just on about things and forget it all! I gave this one 4 stars on Goodreads.
In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren: This was our for fun Christmas book club read and it was pretty perfect for that directive. Our girl goes on vacation with her family and family friends every year, but this year is different in that it might be the last time they are able to do this. And then something happens, everything starts over, Ground Hog Day style. And she gets a couple of tries to get things right and to help fix the issues that are making everyone so sad. It was heartwarming, romantic and fun. I totally enjoyed it. Three stars on Goodreads.
Secrets of the Looking Glass by J. Scott Savage: This an ARC I got from the publisher and it needed to be read in September when it came out. Gah, ooops! It took me awhile thank you to all of lives distractions and my terrible time getting anything read these days! It's the second in the Lost Wonderland Diaries series, which is a delightful fun sort of retelling (not really, but in that world) of Alice in Wonderland. It's so very clever and funny and full of fun riddles and the like. I feel like kids will enjoy it even more than I did! I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads.
Places We've Never Been by Kasie West: I got this one for Christmas and read it in a couple of sittings, because as you know, I love her stories! Another fun YA romance that takes place on a road trip through very familiar places to me. I love that. Our characters are friends, but time has elapsed and things are now on shaking ground. It's fun to see them rekindle things. "Friends, to enemies, to lovers!" I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads.
Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool: Another book I'm reading from my shelves that has been waiting forever. This one takes place shortly after WWII about a 13 year old who has been sent to a boarding school and he befriends a strange and interesting kid named Early, who teaches him all sorts of things about life. Together they go on a quest and navigate growing up. It's very heart warming and sweet. It won the Printz honor award. I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads.
And that brings us to the end of 2022 reading! I think I might just do a monthly wrap up mini review post this year. And see how that goes. And here's hoping I read a TON more this year than last!
Oh my word, but I am so behind in reviews. They are all one the YouTube channel though! One minute review shorts!! And here I'll do the blogging version of that, mini reviews!
So these are the books rounded out my November reading:
The Maid by Nita Prose: It's about a girl who loves being a maid in a fancy hotel. One day she finds a dead dude, and the mystery that wraps up surrounding this guy and the people involved is really quite interesting. I find it fun and engaging, but not as crazy amazing as everyone seemed to be making it out to be. The ending was... surprising. And strange. And I still don't really know what to think about it all. I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads.
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry: I ended up loving this one! What a great sweet romance. Our main characters have been friends for years, going on a fun crazy trip together every summer. But denying all these years how they feel about each other. We get flashbacks to the previous trips, but spend a lot of time on the current trip where they finally figure things out! I gave this one 4 stars on Goodreads. I look forward to reading more by her! I hear Book Lovers is a must!
The Fox Inheritance by Mary E. Pearson: This is a book I've had on my shelf forever, the second in a YA SF series. In the first book we learn what happened to Jenna Fox... in this book, we learn what happened to her friends, and it's CRAZY stuff! I remember loving the first book, this one was fun, but not as compelling as that first one. I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads.
Not Going There by Terri Osburn: Another book by an author friend! This one is book 3 in the "Not" series where we are following the love stories of a group of fun friends. I totally enjoyed this one about our girl who gets fired and ends up running her own bookkeeping business and then her first client is a dude that she is totally turning her nose up at... and then, she finds out he's actually pretty cool. In fact, I myself quite fell in love with him! I gave this one 4 stars on Goodreads for some fun romantic comedy escape.
Stay tuned for a catch up post on books read in December! Here's hoping I can keep up better this new year! Thought I might keep this format... and just do mini reviews from now on... hmm....
I ended up in a pretty bad drama slump a few months ago and finally got hooked on this one to pull me out. Even though this is not a very happy drama in the end!
This is about our college dude. On the outside he looks happy and fluffy and beautiful and perfect and rich. On the inside he is hurting in the worst way because of the neglect he faces from his so called family. So he suffers a lot from putting on that front for people, and then dealing with things alone.
Then he and our girl get together. She is sweet and nice and perfect for him. And she starts to crack the wall he's put up.
He also decides he needs to be friends with this guy who is the complete opposite of him... sour, sad and grouchy... all the time. And totally struggling financial. He looks at our bright "happy" dude and thinks he has NOTHING to deal with.
And when they let each other into their lives, they both find out that there are so many issues people are dealing with that they never let on about. It's eye opening for both of them, and their friendship ends up being so beautiful and tear inducing!
I loved this one because of the heart it has. SO MUCH HEART! And dang but Park Jihoon totally blew it away with his acting. So bright and happy to a totally tortured soul. Crazy good stuff. I hear he's now in other one that I need to watch. Hopefully it won't take me forever to get to it!
A book I read for my own October reading, from my shelves, since I'm attempting to only read things from my own shelves. And wow, this was very different from what I expected! But I quite enjoyed it anyway!
It's about a girl who is raised in a shady environment in Victorian England. This place appears to be a locksmith shop, but is really employing people to steal things for them, that they pawn or otherwise sale. The lady in this house is into infant farming. Which quite curdled my blood. But yeah. And one of these babies is our girl. But the lady ends up keeping this girl to raise as her own daughter.
One day a dude that also has ties to this house comes in with a plot to scam the lady of a house he's been working at. He thinks they can get our girl to pretend to be her maid, and then they will convince the rich girl to marry him at which point they will put her in a madhouse and run off with all her money. Our girl is convinced to do it and off they go to carry forth with their plans.
But if of course things do NOT go as planned. And then the twists and turns start coming! And they just keep coming after that!
There are some disturbing scenes at the madhouse, and other... interesting.... scenes I was not expecting. But I did very much get wrapped up in the story, even if I didn't fall much for these characters. Despite being a long book, I was quite engaged and reading it at every chance I got.
I must say that this should have been a book on my reading list for Pride Month instead of Spooky Month though...
Anyway, wow. I can't say a whole lot more about it for fear of spoiling everything, so if it sounds intriguing, just go for it!
So, obviously this is technically not a drama. It's a very fun variety show that stars drama actors. I started watching not really knowing what it was all about, but dang.. this has been one of the most fun things I've watched all year! My face seriously got sore for laughing so much!
The dude that directed three different dramas took the main actors from those dramas, and managed to get them together for this retreat where they played games, competed with each other, had missions and just hung out together. At the end, they had them do a pop up restaurant to cook and serve their fans. So much fun!
The actors came from these three dramas:
Love in the Moonlight: Park Bo Gum, Kim Yoo Jung, Jinyoung, Chae Soo Bin, Kwak Dong Yeon
Itaewon Class: Park Seo Joon, Ahn Bo Hyun, Kwon Nara, Ryu Kyung Soo, Lee Joo Young
The Sound of Magic: Ji Chang Wook, Hwang In Yeop, Choi Sung Eun, Kim Bo Yoon, Chi Hae Won
And then seeing what their personalities are "in real life" (of course we'll never know for certain!) but dang In Yeop is so "cool" in his dramas, but so freaking quiet and shy as himself. And I had no idea how old he is... having so many others calling him Hyung and Oppa was so weird, I feel like he should have been a maknae of the group. (He's like 31 or something.) Dong Yeon was surprisingly quiet too. I fell so much more in love with those two actors than I even was before.
And JCW... like.. is he TRULY that adorable all the time? His facial expressions are ALWAYS spot on, and he can portray emotion constantly, just from his face. I am sure some of that is intentional, but it seems so seamless that I feel like he must be a bit like this as his normal self? I am dying to know! He blows me way seriously.
And Bo Gum... dang that boy is cute. And so sweet and nice to everyone.
Getting know Kyung Soo, someone a bit more unfamiliar to me, was fun. I need to look up more of his dramas. And the girls from Itaewon Class are freaking adorable... makes me want to actually watch this one once and for all! (This drama seems a bit ruthless for me, but these actors all really make me want to check it out now.)
Anyway, the are all so enjoyable and so funny and so... just... cool. I'm sure some of my love of this watching experience stems from my knowledge of their dramas and their normal acting selves, so I don't know what a person with no prior experience with them would think, but truly, you'd all probably die laughing too and then want to go catch up on everything they've done!
This was another book club read! The premise is quite intriguing... it takes place several years after a zombie virus outbreak, and the world has come to learn how to deal with the aftermath. Even though this book was written in 2010 (or published then I should say) it has so many similarities to our world now with the whole virus fear and constant testing and everyone staying in and social distancing... AND... the political fall out.
Yes, this book got a bit heavy on the politics for me. Our main characters end up on the campaign trail of a presidential candidate. They are bloggers and in this world, bloggers are the main news source. The ones brave enough to go out and face the zombie threat and bring people news. Another intriguing premise for sure.
But, I had a lot of issues with the delivery of this story. It's very info dumpy, a lot of telling about how this world works instead of just jumping into the story and showing us. It took a lot of time for something to actually happen. The writing style was a bit dry and just not my favorite. The characters also not so very much my favorite.
That being said, when the story actually started to get going, there were enough crazy things that happen to keep me going. A couple of unseen twists and turns. And I am just a touch curious about what might happen in the next books.
Another interesting thing is the relationship between our main characters. They are brother and sister but dang... they sure don't act like it! And we do learn they are adopted, but I still wondered about whether they are biological or not. That might come out in future books, or I missed it. I don't know. But that whole thing is intriguing to me too.
We did talk about some stuff that goes on in the next books during book club and it actually does make me want to read more. Even with all the issues I had. Go figure!
Starring: Park Eun-bin, Kang Tae-oh, Kang Ki-young
Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤
So, it took me almost three months to watch this drama. That's not normal and tells you right there that it did not grab me like it did pretty much every single other kdrama watcher. It probably didn't help that I started it when lots of stuff was going on in life, trips and other things. But still, every episode took me sometimes 3 or 4 nights to get through. Sigh.
The story was great (an autistic girl gets a job as an attorney and starts making her way in the world), the characters were great (our attorney of course, and the friends she makes there, and the dude who was their boss, and her crazy fun friend, and her dad, they were all awesome), but my problem came when so many of the episodes were spent on the cases that were being tried.
Generally I have a harder time with any TV series that has a new and different story every episode, or at least the main story gets lost and buried in favor of the story that's new that episode. And then they'd go off in MAJOR detail about the case and the lawyer-speak surrounding that case and my eyes would LITERALLY glaze over and I would fall asleep several times an episode.
When we got back to our extraordinary attorney's story, and her friends, I was all in. There were a couple of interesting cases (the dude who stole the kids and went and played in the mountains with them) and when they went on a field trip to Jeju to figure out the people who were charging an entrance fee to the historic site, and even a little bit the one where the little town didn't want the road to go through their town. I nearly stayed awake for those stories!
Our main dude was absolutely ADORABLE though. But he was only in every episode for maybe ten minutes at the most. I am so ready for another drama with him as the lead where he has an actual bigger part. But alas, he just left for his military service, so that will be awhile. I just need to go back and watch him as the villain in A Tale of Nokdu.... because dang.
Our leading actress was amazing at playing an autistic person. And I totally didn't realize it was the same girl in Do You Like Brahms... which was sadly was another drama that fell flat for me. (Also in finding those links I see my embedded trailers are all gone... do the trailers disappear after awhile? I know I'm grabbing them from main sites... sigh.)
Anyway, so in the end, I enjoyed bits and pieces of this one. I wanted so much more interaction between the characters. The ending left me feeling wanting and sad-ish too. I'm really not sure why everyone loved it so much! But.. it happens. Believe it or not, there are some beloved dramas out there that I just don't vibe with us much as the rest of the world! WHO KNEW?!!
Here's a trailer (which I guess will disappear after a bit?):
This book is book 8 in the Idol in Love series, and the second book following the stories of the boy group Sky High. They continue to break all the rules by falling in love. And THIS time it's even crazier because it's with one of their stylists! (Seriously though, we always wonder how the stylists in real life keep from doing this. Especially if they are at all near the same age as the idols. Mostly we assume they are quite a bit older, so maybe that helps? LOL!)
Anyway, our girl is basically being stalked by a dude who has bothered her for years, wanting to date her. He shows up again in her life and our idol is having none of this. And he is struggling to know if it's just because he wants to make sure she is okay. Or does he really like her? Hmmm.....
This books are very short and very fast to read and are perfect to fit in when I want something fun and swoony. I love them.
So now I'm all caught up and ready to read the next one whenever Trish has it done!
This was September's book club book. A bunch of the members of book club have been raving about this author and I've never even heard of her. So it was fun to see what all the fuss was about!
In this one we have two sisters, each telling their story, including what life was like growing up with their mom. Most of the story is from the point of view of the sister who seems a bit autistic (Fern.) And then we get journal entries from the other sister, the one who it seems feels a bit of responsibility for the other sister (Rose.)
Who is the "good" sister is anyone's guess at this point!
Rose is struggling with her husband and feels like having a baby would solve all the problems. But she can't seem to get pregnant. So Fern decides she is going to help her by getting pregnant FOR her. So she sets out to find a guy. And in the process, she actually falls in love with a pretty interesting dude. So things should be easy now, yes?
But not at all. This is when things get pretty interesting and we start getting the very strong feeling that all is not as it seems.
Most people say they can figure it out, but I can never do it, so I was pretty hooked until the end trying to figure out what was going on.
So, yeah. I really enjoyed it! It was quick to get into it and quite easily readable. I'm good to read more by this author should she come up again.
Awhile back I made a pile of books for a Top Ten Tuesday with the theme of "books I've had for years but never read." That stack has been mocking me ever since. So I grabbed one off the top and read it! So there!
This particular one was interesting to me too because of the scifi theme, since that's the sort of book I'm currently trying to finish up writing myself. So I was kind of hoping that reading this would spur me on to finishing my own story. Ha.
Anyway, I remember this one getting a ton of buzz years ago and I'm assuming many of you have read it, yeah? What did you think? I should look up old reviews!
It's about a girl who decides to go on a mission with her parents, which involves them getting frozen for 300 plus years while the ship travels to the new planet they are going to settle and start civilization there. So the catch is, someone wakes her up WAY too early and now she is part of the crew of the ship that lives and dies there while they make their way to the new planet.
She makes friends with the dude who is up next to lead this crew and there are so many strange things going on and together they get to (or try to get to) the bottom of it all. Basically, this crew and this mission in general, is not a happy one. WAH, these people are messed up!
So of course this book is just the start and to finish the story, one must keep going! I have so many books where I've read the first one and then totally forget to keep going, even if I'm intrigued. Sigh. Has anyone read this whole series? Is it worth it? Should I keep going?
I randomly ended up getting my hands on this book and was curious about what this dude had to say, so I read it.
Let me first say I have seen/heard this guy at several conferences for Youtubing and while I can admit he is knowledgable and passionate, I just always get the impression that he struggles with how to actually TEACH his ideas. In these classes, I always get frustrated that he ends up talking about what great things he's done for other creators, but never really gets down to the nitty gritty of HOW he did it, or how things can apply to all creators, or a nice clear list of stuff to do. You know? It's so very frustrating.
Well, and of course, this book is the same way. I gathered a few intersting tidbits, but mostly it's just about experiences he's had in the youtubing world and how great it's all been. I could probably do a page or two of the bottom line tips he gives, whereas this book is like, 200 plus pages. WAH!
Anyway, it was fun to read and see how it's been done for all the popular people. Not much of it can I really use in my own experience and niche. But some. Yeah, some.
Youtubing is pretty much the weirdest thing. And all these experts can guess at how it happens, and what to do to make it better. But basically, people are going to click on whatever, and there's not a whole lot you can do to make them do anything different.
My channel grew really fast and strong for the first couple of years, but then we changed directions a bit and that is a pretty big no no because your audience doesn't change with. It's so very frustrating. So now I'm in a place where I have to decide, do I keep going and try to find the viewers who like what I'm doing? or do I change directions again? Do I start over with something different? or do I just give it all up!
So, yeah, much more than any of you wanted to know about my youtubing struggles, but there you go. I've also been watching a lot of channels that talk about how to get better at this game, and those are interseting too and sometimes even motivating, but mostly, I just keep wondering why I'm even trying.
It's because I love it I guess!
Anyone else out there reading this trying to do Youtube? Let's talk!
This was last month's book club book as part of our Utah Book Month. Does anyone remember when we used to have a whole month celebrating our Utah authors? And a bunch of us bloggers hosted it? Yeah, good times, those. Anyway, we like to give a nod to those memories and still read a Utah author in our book club. It's great!
One of our favorite Utah authors is Jennifer Nielsen. She's pretty awesome, both as an author AND a person. So she often ends up on our lists. There are so many books to choose from. Personally, I'm way behind in keeping up with her.
She has a line of historical fiction books so we ended up choosing one of those. This one tells the stories of five different kids during WWI, from all their points of view and ends up weaving their stories together in a really interseting way. We have the boy who witnessed the Archduke's asscination, the girl who is trying to become a nurse like her mom, the girl who is the son of German military leader, and the Russian boy fighting on the front lines. I found all their stories to be quite compelling and hopeful.
I mostly had a problem feeling like, could kids really do these things? It was hard for me to imagine. I know others in our book club had issues with how sweetly and neatly everything was wrapped up and how it all worked out so well. Granted, this is for a MG audience, but I do agree that everything seemed a bit too perfect.
That being said, I still enjoyed reading about all these kids and look forward to trying to catch up with all the other books of hers that I have yet to read! I do wish there were more like The False Prince though. That one still remains my favorite!
Starring: Park Hyesu, Jeong Jaehyun, Roh Jeongeui and Bae Hyunsung, Lee Jinhyuk
Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤
Everyone was excited about this one because Jaehyun, kpop star in NCT 127, is in it. It got delayed for some reason or another (a scandal with the original co-star or something?) but it finally aired this past summer so I jumped on in and watched it while it was airing!
It's a cute college drama about a group of friends and roommates who are intrigued by a mysterious letter that's posted on the campus forum talking about how this person is in love with someone. They are all trying to figure out who it is and end up assuming it's one of them.
We have all the fun different romances in this one. Our main couple have been best friends forever, but the dude is suddenly realizing he likes the girl more than just a friend. Meanwhile, she is intrigued by some hot new guy in school. Another couple has been together forever (they are the campus couple) but they start having struggles when another girl comes in on the scene and obnoxiously causes problems trying to creating a rift between them so she can steal the dude. Not cool.
And then we have the quirky comic relief roommates... our lovely dude (one of my favorite kpop guys and in fact the one dude I've met in real life and had taken a picture with!) who has OCD about cleanliness and a girl who has diabetes to deal with, but a fun and crazy personality that you'd THINK would clash with the OCD dude. LOL!
Anyway. It's all of their stories with the bottom line mystery of whoever wrote the letter. It was your basic fun romcom with all the expected angst. I totally enjoyed it. I know some other kdrama fans found it annoying. But I found it all worth it to watch both these kpop boys doing their acting!
There's one moment when someone is trying to get Jaehyun's character to sing a song and he is all "I don't do ballads." I died, because this dude and ballads in real life are perfection. Seriously.
But yeah. This one is simple basic fun!
A trailer highlighting our lead couple:
A trailer highlighting my boy the OCD dude:
And a song from the drama with Jaehyun and his co-star actually doing the singing. This is him "not singing ballads" lol!
This is another one of those dramas that I at first dismissed just from the title and that it sounded silly. But of course, we all know, that is not usually how it really is!
What a cute fun romcom this one is!
The story follows the antics of a company that hires celebrities, mostly for dramas. Our girl is the PR person and solves all the crazy messes that the celebrities get themselves into. Our guy is their top star. He's HUGE in the kdrama world. And she thinks he is just awful. Except when he's not. He is intrigued by her and admits pretty fast into the drama that he wants to be with her. They have a back story (not a tragic one as is the case a lot, they just knew each other at college) and so there is a lot of banter... SO MUCH AWESOME banter!
Anyway. The situations are all funny and our couple is very fun and crazy and cute and lots of heart pitter pattering. It's great. And all the side characters have great stories too.
And in case you are wondering the ** in the title can stand for either two O's or an I and a T. LOL!
As for the leads, I was familiar with the girl (she's in Weightlifting Fairy) but the guy was new to me. And of course, he was amazing. And then one of the side characters suddenly turned out to be another favorite kpop dude, Seunghyub from N.Flying. That was a fun surprise!
Here's trailer to give a feel of what it's like:
And a song of course!
And now, I just kind of want to watch it all over again!
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