Book Recommendation: A Coming Evil by Vivian Vande Velde

No, this story doesn't come off as one of those horrifying thrillers with (what?) kids as protagonists. Nope. It's better and lighter (in most parts), but still thrilling in a not-too-graphic sense.

If you can see that red symbol -- and I think almost everyone knows this -- it's the Nazi symbol. That dreaded symbol was used in the days of War, or more specifically, during World War II. So there you go, with barbed wires and a young girl looking at a pretty transparent guy with the Nazi symbol below (and don't forget the title), it's a pretty complicated story with a historical theme and supernatural lore.

(When can I write a proper book review?)

Lisette is a 13-year-old French girl who was sent to the countryside by her parents (who obviously think that staying far away from the big, big city is safer) to live with her Aunt Josephine. Lisette's may not be liking it (with an annoying cousin in tow!), but she got more problems ahead: her Aunt was actually hiding 2 Gypsies and 3 Jewish children! And on top of it all, she met a ghost who died during the Crusades!

First off, the story is nice, it gives off the wary feeling (them soldiers are lurking everywhere), and the lots of what and why you will encounter later in the book. As far as I know, lots of information will be exchanged, an escape plan will occur, and lalalala!

I'm sorry, I just can't help trying to lighten the slightly dark mood a bit. I also love Lisette and Gerard's (the ghost) relationship. But I will still ask the why --

Anyways, Velde's one of my favorite authors, so I'll give the link to her website here: www.vivianvandevelde.com



Night, everyone :D

An Experience That I Call: An Experience

It feels funny when your dog suddenly pounced on you after not seeing each other for 2 months.

Yes, I missed the old guy too, and he probably missed me too, but either that or he just wanted to eat some of my leftovers. I humbly chose the latter, of course.

He was an orange-brown mutt, a crossbreed of multinomial genes from different fathers. That is how unique the dogs here in our area are. His mother, proudly named as Inday Rosing, mothered probably a huge group of pups. I'm not even sure myself, but I can remember losing count of the pups that we gave and have. The word 'huge' doesn't do it justice, though.

It was summer, the months where people in the West go basking out in the sun, and where people in the East stay all soggy and groggy within their houses and lazily fanning their hands to give them short-lived pleasure. You don't believe me? We are all bummers. We all do that.

And since it was summer, it was the time where lazy days suddenly gets faster like a cow running after the car that has that oh-so-yummy-green-grass, where days suddenly slows down like a turtle running to get the last Nutella on sale. Both amazing and traumatizing. You simply sit around.

But not with my dog. That dog, who barks like a dog, but he barks like a cow too, for crying out loud. (Sounds familiar? Check out this link that has my What? poem: http://limbaroaclarice.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-dog-that-acts-like-dog.html) He was like a person whom you are talking to and you suddenly find out that he wasn't listening to you, but rather, he was looking at you hungrily. No, not that kind of hungry.

Not the I-want-to-eat-you hungry. Not the I-will-attack-my-owner hungry.

No, it was more of the I-want-to-jump-on-my-owner hungry.

Of all the I-am-hungry categories that he has chosen, he has chosen that one. I shuddered every time I actually remembered. Those claws. A dog's claw is something both fluffy and terrifying. A fluffy patch of cuddly fur compared to a human's perfectly plain and extremely-sensitive skin-oriented hand. And simply one of the most terrifying parts of the complex dog anatomy: the PAW.

It can:
*Scratch your eyes out
*Scratch you with the CLAWS
*Hit you with the POWER

And yet it was one of the best plushy toys that I get to touch once every time he attempted to stand up on his hind legs and I will hold both of his paws to get the feels. The fluffy and puffy feels.

But it never feels the same anymore. Especially when two -- no, wait, four paws of heavy gallons of dog strength was suddenly on me. And the dog was acting like a silly dog who just acts like a dog (you know, there are dogs that doesn't act like a dog. My dog is one of them, in some ways).

While I was staring absentmindedly at the blue, blue, wonderfully blue sky, my dog was chasing his tail around and around and around, until the silly and adorable one was able to catch it with his mouth. And he let go, and the chase started again. And of course, I would try to stop him, because I did that thrice (I don't have a tail, I'm sorry, I don't chase tails), and the results were both remarkable and headache-causing.

All in all, he was the best dog. One of the best experience. The best of the best experience will remain reserved for now.

A DOG THAT ACTS LIKE A DOG

A DOG THAT ACTS LIKE A DOG

A Poem By Clarice A. Limbaro

Sometimes, I do wonder

If my dog is a dog

He chases flying leaves and will ponder

On things that will make him sit on a log

He just stares at cats

He's scared of large crowds

He doesn't take a bath

He barks like a cow, for crying out loud

Yes, I do wonder

If this dog is my dog

This dog that makes me wonder

This dog that makes me sit on a log

And how I love that orange mutt

For he is a dog that acts like a dog

Though he sometimes sniffs my butt

Together, me and my dog will sit on that log

Book recommendation: Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

British writers are simply amazing.

Lots of years have passed, and the book itself starts to age.

But Sir Doyle's Sherlock Holmes who later became well-known as the world's most famous fictional detective will never age (alright, there are stories that shows Sherlock as a man of cranky old age -- oops, I'm spoiling it) , along with his loyal companion Dr. John Watson, and the many mysteries that they have shared.

First of all, there are an interesting pair. Holmes is what you would call a cold type of person, a person who prefers to be in solitude and tackle mysterious chemical experiments. He is a man who prefers mind over emotions, has ridiculous conclusions that usually ended up as correct, and one thing that I like about him is the fact that he plays the violin. His tastes in books and music are well and average; interesting and quite unusual mysteries will always seize his fancy.

Watson, however, according to my personal view of him, is a man of gentle nature -- and I do mean somehow gentler than the first man I've discussed. As I have mentioned earlier, he has the word 'doctor', meaning he had practiced some medicine back then. Watson was later turned into an army surgeon and was sent to Afghanistan (I think this was during the time Afghanistan fought against Britain for independence), shot by a dangerous bullet, was sent back to England, and he lived a lonely life back then. Poor Watson.

But fear not, for in A Study in Scarlet, an introduction of Watson's life before and with Holmes was told. Old-fashioned first-person narrative, very descriptive, lots of vocabulary that I still need to learn, it was an amazing portrayal of a detective tale.

I simply recommend this book (or any collection of Sherlock Holmes novels and stories) for it tells in a way that can allow the reader to explore the story for himself. Simply put, it's as if, the reader is within the very story itself. And you just can't stop reading about it.