book nook: what i did for love

what i did for love
susan elizabeth phillips

yep, it's yet another book review.

i've been trying to burn through the pile of books i borrowed from the library since i figure in a week, when i go back to school, leisure reading will have to take a back seat to anatomy textbooks, ot journals, and other school related things. ughh. (where did summer go?)

this one centres around the protagonist, georgie york - a washed up actress, recently dumped by her first husband, with a string of bad movies behind her name. basically her life isn't the greatest at the moment, and with the paparazzi coming at her from every direction now that her first husband is remarried and is having a baby with his new wife, it's at an all-time level of suck. anyway, the story is about how her and one of her past co-stars whom she hates, bramwell shepard, basically try to use each other after a stint in vegas until things eventually...um...change.

all in all this book was quite an quick and easy read although it was a little predictable which, i guess, was kind of to be expected. this book definitely doesn't make it to my list of favourites, but it's still pretty enjoyable all the same. :)

book nook: the other bolelyn girl

the other bolelyn girl
phillipa gregory

the other bolelyn girl was on my list of books i wanted to read for a while, so i was pretty thrilled when i was finally able to track down a copy.

this novel is considered to be part of the sub-genre of fiction, historical fiction, and is based on the lives of anne and mary bolelyn, the second wife and the mistress of king henry VIII. gregory creates a world rich in descriptions and good story-telling - i could visualize scenes playing out in my head while i was reading, so that was a plus. the story is set in historic england, centred around the two bolelyn girls, and written from the viewpoint of mary bolelyn (anne's younger sister in the book, but according to historians she's actually older than anne.)

it became pretty clear why hollywood chose to do a movie based on this novel; it's full of everything hollywood loves - drama, betrayal, sex, more drama, royalty, scandals, and even more drama. who would have thought people could be so incredibly sneaky, conniving, and power hungry? at times i couldn't help but put the book down briefly because there was just so much drama it became a little overwhelming sometimes, haha. at times i had to remind myself that this book (while based on historic facts) was, at it's very core, fiction.

i began reading it during a weekend away at a friend's cottage, and finished this book sometime within the next week. despite some unnecessarily graphic scenes, it was actually pretty addictive once you got into its pages. for my first venture out into historical fiction, it was quite a good read. :)

lightning, lightning, and more lightning

^ image taken from daily dose of imagery
(click the link for more awesome lightning shots.)

yesterday toronto got caught in the middle of a massive thunderstorm and, as luck would have it, we found ourselves smack dab in the middle of that storm driving home after visiting family out in the west-end. needless to say, the drive home from sauga was chaotic - lane markers were next to impossible to see, hazard lights were blinking everywhere, the road was one big puddle, and sheets of rain were pouring down so hard it felt (and looked) like someone was throwing massive buckets of water at us from all sides.

it was crazy.

the craziest part of the storm though, was the lightning. there were literally lightning bolts going off every 5 seconds which came in a variety of shapes and sizes, and i couldn't help but be mesmerized by all of them. some were streaks of light that resembled harry potter's scar, and others crawled across the sky like a network of veins, while others were just bright flashes that illuminated everything in their path and burned my retinas.

i'm sure the thunder was just as impressive and frequent as the lightning (one just doesn't happen without the other), but i think it was drowned out for the most part by the sound of the rain...and the random screaming, haha. :)

summer conference 2009: one ekklesia

this past weekend i found myself back at laurier not as a student, but as a participant of my church's summer conference. for the first time in years this conference housed members from all three congregations at our church (canto, mando, and english) and i actually really enjoyed the fact that we were all there together. the speakers were good and while i generally enjoyed their messages (despite some kinks in the method of translation), my favourite part was hearing the members of our other congregations share about their testimonies and what their congregations are doing - it was a great opportunity for me to have a more holistic view of my church and hear what about going-ons beyond the walls of the inner court. what really struck me though, was how through hearing these sharings i gained a much more realistic view of where our congregation is at...

i think my heart broke a little this weekend.