Review – The Snow Child

~ Hanna ~ Leave a comment

Today I’d like to review a book I’ve read a few months ago: The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. This book still keeps me thinking.

Picture linked from eowynivey.com¹
Summary quoted from eowynivey.com¹:

Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for a couple who have never been able to conceive. Jack and Mabel are drifting apart—he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season’s first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone, but they catch sight of an elusive, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.

This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and leaves blizzards in her wake. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who seems to have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in the Alaska wilderness, life and death are inextricable, and what they eventually learn about Faina changes their lives forever.

My Thoughts:

I mainly chose to read this book because of its setting. I love the themes of wilderness and winter. And I love Alaska. What I also liked very much but what didn’t play a major role in the book, was that the book was set in the 1920s. Ms Ivey did a great job constructing the setting for The Snow Child. I really felt the cold and the woods. I could smell the trees, the water and the snow. And after all these months, I still can.

I also fell in love with the characters. I was able to empathize with all of them even though they were so different. This also brings me to the story. Especially Mabel changes with the arrival of Faina. She becomes a happier but sometimes more restless person. As a reader, I was able to feel all these emotions and never doubted them. Ms. Ivey writes a story full of joy and sadness. She manages to balance these two components and even though a feeling of loss has stayed with me since I’ve finished this wonderful novel, its storyline and setting are so beautiful that they will outbalance this feeling.

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¹http://eowynivey.com/snowchild/

Review – Sookie Stackhouse Series – Deadlocked

~ Hanna ~ Leave a comment

To all of you who don’t know the Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris, well, it’s basically a book series about a waitress from Bon Temps (a fictional town in Louisiana). Sookie is a special woman, because she can hear people’s thoughts. (And she has no idea why) The series starts when the vampires make their existence official to the human world. Soon, Sookie gets involved with her neighbour Bill, who is a vampire…

If you like paranormal romance, this is the series for you. It is full of vampires, werewolves, shifters and many more. There’s lots of mysterious things happening in Louisiana. And I love the Southern feeling you get while reading.

Reading order:

  1. Dead Until Dark
  2. Living Dead in Dallas
  3. Club Dead
  4. Dead to the World
  5. Dead as a Doornail
  6. Definitely Dead
  7. All Together Dead
  8. From Dead to Worse
  9. Dead and Gone
  10. Dead in the Family
  11. Dead Reckoning
  12. Deadlocked
  13. Dead Ever After
Today I’d like to talk about Deadlocked which is the 12th instalment in the series.
Picture linked from Penguin Group USA¹
Summary quoted from Penguin Group USA¹:

It’s vampire politics as usual around the town of Bon Temps, but never before have they hit so close to Sookie’s heart…

Growing up with telepathic abilities, Sookie Stackhouse realized early on there were things she’d rather not know. And now that she’s an adult, she also realizes that some things she knows about, she’d rather not see—like Eric Northman feeding off another woman. A younger one.

There’s a thing or two she’d like to say about that, but she has to keep quiet—Felipe de Castro, the Vampire King of Louisiana (and Arkansas and Nevada), is in town. It’s the worst possible time for a human body to show up in Eric’s front yard—especially the body of the woman whose blood he just drank.

Now, it’s up to Sookie and Bill, the official Area Five investigator, to solve the murder. Sookie thinks that, at least this time, the dead girl’s fate has nothing to do with her. But she is wrong. She has an enemy, one far more devious than she would ever suspect, who’s set out to make Sookie’s world come crashing down.

My Thoughts:

Deadlocked was not what I was hoping for. It started all right but it did never catch my full attention. Previously, I never wanted to stop reading a Sookie Stackhouse book, this time, it was always hard to pick it up again. I wasn’t really interested in finding out who killed the girl. I also wasn’t interested in reading more about what Sookie was doing on a day to day basis (shopping, cooking, checking her e-mails, not checking her e-mails,…). I wanted to read more about Eric. But there wasn’t much Eric in the book. There were hardly any relationships in the book. And it didn’t seem like any of the characters cared. It wasn’t like reading a book written in first person narration. I didn’t really feel much of a connection this time.

It seems to me like Charlaine Harris has used this book solely to get rid of a few characters and side plots, to prepare everything for the last book in the series. Unfortunately, she forgot that her readers appreciate a good story and some emotion… I was really looking forward to Deadlocked but unfortunately, it disappointed me.

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¹http://www.us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9781937007447,00.html

Milford sweepstake – another win

~ Hanna ~ Leave a comment

I’m so very sorry, but there’s so much going on right now, I barely got time to breathe. Still, I got some posts for you in the pipeline ’cause things have been happening in the world of giveaways, sweepstakes, movies AND I’m even trying to finish a book right now, so you might get a book review soon.

Now back to today’s topic. A few days ago, I entered a Milford sweepstake, forgot about it and found a little package at my doorstep today. In it, there was a package of tea that I chose in case I won, a pen, post its and four cute magnets.

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Teekanne Beerentraum

~ Hanna ~ Leave a comment

A few days ago, Teekanne sent me two envelopes of Beerentraum tea (berry mix).

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Taste:

Head: Fruity

Body: Citrus

Tail: weak Raspberry

Smell: Fruity, Berries

Overall rating: 3 Star Rating: Recommended

Nice fruit tea, I might buy it again, though nothing special.

Salzburger Landwirtschaft – I won a book

~ Hanna ~ Leave a comment

Hi,

I recently won a cook book in a sweepstake and this is it:

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Neue Cuisine was written by Kurt Gutenbrunner, who was born in Austria and moved to the United States. There, he became a famous chef. He wrote a cook book in English called Neue Cuisine: The Elegant Tastes of Vienna and it became a hit. Now, it was translated into German and there it is, lying on my table – isn’t it funny?!

In the cook book, there are many classical Austrian recipes like “Wiener Schnitzel” but also others I haven’t heard of before, using typical Austrian ingredients. Neue Cuisine sure looks interesting!

Many thanks to Salzburger Landwirtschaft!

Movies: “Identity Thief” – “I Give It a Year”

~ Hanna ~ Leave a comment

Last week, I saw two comedies I’d live to talk about today.

Identity Thief

Here’s the trailer:

I was really looking forward to this movie because I like Melissa McCarthy, but somehow this trailer suggests less action than there actually is. There are people shooting at each other…

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I Give It a Year

I saw I Give It a Year at the sneak preview and I was positively surprised. This is an awesome comedy that isn’t your usual Hollywood romantic comedy. I laughed a lot!

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Twinings Everyday Tea

~ Hanna ~ Leave a comment

So today I’d like to introduce to you Twinings Everyday Tea

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Here’s my 3 word review:

Head: Smoke

Body: Earth

Tail: Cinnamon

Overall: bohnen5s

Head, Body, Tail,… What does this mean? Look here

Twinings Goodie Bag

~ Hanna ~ Leave a comment

I’m a huge fan of Twinings, and I was one before all this happened. This goodie bag story actually started when Twinings announced on their Facebook page that they would hold an Easter Makes, Bakes and Treats Contest. At this point, I had already been in the process of crafting egg warmers out of felt for some days and so I thought, why not give it a shot? I took this picture of my egg warmers with a freshly-baked brioche bunny of the lot I made for some friends and posted it to Twinings’ Facebook wall.

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Twinings reposted my picture, which made me very happy and now, about two weeks later, the mail man brought me this:

twiningsgoodie

My very own Twinings goodie bag! Consisting of a Twinings tea apron, Twinings Everyday Tea and Twinings Camomile & Maple Sensation Tea!

Thank you Twinings 🙂

Rating System – Magic Beans

~ Hanna ~ Leave a comment

Let me introduce…. my rating system: MAGIC BEANS 😀

Here they are:

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The more, the better the rating 🙂

Biokiste – Organic Box

~ Hanna ~ 2 Comments

Today our first Biokiste from the organic farm Achleitner Biohof arrived. There’s three sizes and lots of different boxes to choose from. You can also choose between weekly and biweekly delivery.

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This is only part of what was in the box 😀

We decided to order the small “Mutter-Kind” box. It had tomatoes, carrots, 2 small cucumbers, 2 kiwis, 3 bananas, 4 small apples, mushrooms and an eggplant in it and cost about 14€. The produce is organic and looks fresh. The box was delivered to our door. As soon as we cook something, I’ll tell you more.

Price: bohnen3s

Content: bohnen4s

Taste: tba

x Darklittle