Friday Five

1. Weather is crazy out here in Southern Ca.  Yesterday and today topped the 90s!  This is March, not July!!!  The weather man said our temperatures are a historical record high.  And who says that global warming doesn't exist?

This senator needs to check out the West Coast and other areas that have had historical high temps and four years of drought.

2. I've been checking out a new CW series: iZombie.  Verdict?  So far really enjoying this tale of a morgue assistant, who just happens to be a zombie, eat brains of the dead to help solve who killed them.

Photo Courtesy of www.hitfix.com
Sassy dialogue and a really charming villain.  By the producers of Veronica Mars.  What's not to like?

3. And wow on this season of THE AMERICANS.  Disturbing but also has me really think including one scene where the Keri Russell character stumbles on an elderly lady and lets her know she'll have to kill her.  The woman engages her in conversation about her life and viewers see the usual badass, hard Russell's mask turn back especially when the woman asks her:

"Why are you doing this?"
Russell, "Because it will change the world for the better."
Disbelief on woman's face.  "You think by doing this to me,(murdering her) you'll do that?"
Russell, "Yes."
Woman, "That's what evil says when they do something evil."
Pan in to Russell's face that shows a glimpse of doubt on what she'll be doing.  Even pouring out the woman's heart pills with the hint for her to take all of them to basically kill herself, doesn't help.

Love scenes like this that pull back and reveal telling insights into characters.
Photo courtesy of The Biglead.com















I grew up during the Cold War and this series is brutal but also insightful.


4. Right now trying to finish this book:

As most of you know I'm LDS and my one ancestor Eliza T. Clark knew Joseph Smith and Brigham Young.  He was in charge of Winter Quarters, where the Saints went before leaving to go to Deseret(Utah) after being driven out by mobsters.  **We actually had an extermination act in place in Missouri to kill any Mormon on side.  It was signed by then governor Boggs in the early 1800s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_Executive_Order_44

My great something grandfather was a polygamist and founded Farmington, Utah.  There's a monument for him there.










Photo Courtesy of http://www.waymarking.com/



So I love to read about the Mormon pioneers.  My husband's ancestors actually were part of the handcart company that suffer mega losses and one of them settled in St. George, Utah(where this story takes place).

I really am trying to like this book but  feel that the author would have done a much better job having this come out as a nonfiction book.  Lund spent ten years researching for this new series and it shows.  There's lots of fascinating insights into what the early Saints went through--the links to how boys as young as four worked in the coal mines was especially horrific.  What makes this book really difficult to read is the dialect which I've just been skimming over(another huge reason why not to use in a novel), cheesy dialogue, and clumsy writing.  I don't 'buy' the so-called romance and cringe at the text-book spouting dialogue.  No one I know speaks that way and I seriously doubt they spoke that way then.

This is my Sunday read so I'll probably continue, hoping that it'll get better.  Right now on page 300.


5. Just finished the latest Rachel Hawkins' novel: MISS MAYHEM



Think Buffy meets Southern charm. There's so much to love about this series. Harper Price has sass and determination as she tries to help her new boyfie David even when a new challenge is thrown both their ways. 

YA Books Central review coming!











** Guilty Pleasure:

Plan to go to favorite library and drop off some Cybil's nominated books!  Julie Fitch 'gets' YA and so it's always a joy to share!


Still haven't seen INSURGENT.  Might seen either today or tomorrow.

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