the first page {poems}

I finally started writing in a new journal, which my dad gave to me for Christmas some years ago. It is beautiful, and I was so very excited to begin filling its pages after finishing my last journal. I can't wait to see what it will hold. How many moments, tears, smiles, years? What anxieties will pour forth, what thin places will be recorded?

For now, here are the first two poems:

{untitled}

Purple juice bleeds down

eager fingers, settling

in the creases of our palms--

leaves scratch, thorns grab,

chastising us for breaking

innocent spiders' webs

in greedy hunger for

blackberry cobbler.

{untitled}

It's August yet,

though crows call

to a breeze that draws

a thin time

ever nearer.

wordless wednesday

vacation reads {mini ebook reviews}

Mindspeak
by Heather Sunseri




Seventeen-year-old Lexi Matthews keeps two secrets from her elite boarding school classmates—she’s the daughter of a famous and controversial geneticist, and she can influence people’s thoughts.But after new student Jack DeWeese heals her broken arm with an anything-but-simple touch, he forces Lexi to face a new reality—her abilities reach much further than speaking to the minds of others.
(Goodreads description)





This is a fun, fast-pasted, action-packed novel. While it centers around genetic work and stem cell research, Mindspeak never takes sides on the controversial issue; it simply asks, "What if?" And it's set in present-day, which I appreciated more than I initially thought I would.

Lexi is a very relatable, realistic heroine, though I'm still questioning many of the others' motives. My number one complaint, though: the ending felt like a marketing ploy for book two. Instead of stopping where I thought there was closure and plenty of loose ends, the author went on to write a sloppy cliff-hanger.







Welcome to Last Chance
by Cathleen Armstrong




The red warning light on her car dashboard drove Lainie Davis to seek help in the tiny town of Last Chance, New Mexico. But as she encounters the people who make Last Chance their home, it’s her heart that is flashing bright red warning lights. These people are entirely too nice, too accommodating, and too interested in her personal life for Lainie’s comfort-especially since she’s on the run and hoping to slip away unnoticed.
(Goodreads description)




Welcome to Last Chance was rather cliche, predictable, and cheesy (and about 100 pages could have been added to the end, or even a second book), but I was pleasantly surprised by the tactfully done religious parts. No 180-degree conversion scene accompanied the insta-romance. Overall, I enjoyed it as a good fluffy vacation read.






Call of the Herald
by Brian Rathbone


Echoes of the ancients' power are distant memories, tattered and faded by the passage of eons, but that is about to change. A new dawn has arrived. Latent abilities, harbored in mankind's deepest fibers, wait to be unleashed. Ancient evils awaken, and old fears ignite the fires of war. When a Catrin Volker, a teenage horse trainer, inadvertently fulfills the prophecy of the destroyer, she becomes the most feared and hunted person on all of Godsland. With the help of her friends, she must convince the world that she wants only peace.
(Amazon description)




Although this book seemed rather unpolished, I still really enjoyed the story. The usual farm-boy-goes-on-adventure tale is told from a new perspective with a female protagonist, and refreshingly realistic bumbles occur along the way. Catrin does become far too comfortable with her new-found power far too abruptly, and the dialogue often comes across as rather forced and unnatural. But I loved the characters and the humanity in Call of the Herald, and I look forward to its many sequels (seriously--there are nine books in this series!).

wordless wednesday

horses and dragons and... poems by C.S. Lewis? {book haul!}

Another pilgrimage to Powell's City of Books occurred last week (aka we were visiting my in-laws in Portland), so of course I came home with a stack! And if you notice a lot of Wyoming-themed photos in the next several weeks, it's because we also spent a few days in the Tetons and Yellowstone the week before. I just couldn't not take 300 photos in such a beautiful setting! Anywho, the books:

  

The Dragon Keeper (Rain Wilds Chronicles #1)
by Robin Hobb
Dragons. Dragons dragons dragons dragons dragons. And a refreshingly simple cover that immediately captured my attention (I judge books by their covers. I try not to do the same with humans).




The Dragon Quartet, Volume 1 (Dragon Quartet #1-2)
by Marjorie B. Kellogg
More dragons! I actually bought this book because of the two-page introduction, which I read on a whim. Besides the fact that she rewrote history (and the present, and the future) with dragons in the world, Marjorie B. Kellogg apparently included her concerns for social justice and environmental responsibility in this series.




Airs and Graces (Horsemistress Saga #2)
by Toby Bishop
I actually bought this book at a local used bookshop (not in Portland). It's about winged horses--or, if you're me, "dragon horses"--and I only discovered after I got home that it's book two in a series. Maybe the library has book one...




Breed of Giants
by Joyce Stranger
I love Shire horses (they're enormous), so I was super excited to find this seemingly obscure 1960's novel in the afore-mentioned bookshop.





Poems
by C.S. Lewis, edited by Walter Hooper
C.S. LEWIS WROTE POETRY. I'd all but convinced myself this book didn't actually exist, and then I found it nestled in among C.S. Lewis' more famous works on a bottom shelf in Powell's. It took great self-control to not jump up and down in the middle of the store.



Beauty
by John O'Donohue
During a sermon by a guest speaker on Matthew 6:25-34 ("Do Not Worry") last summer, I decided for some odd reason that I absolutely had to know the preacher's favorite book, and believe it or not, as I was thinking this and how sad it was that I probably wouldn't have the courage to ask, he held up this book and very highly recommended it to us all. So I bought it.




Seraphina (Seraphina #1)
by Rachel Hartman
Oh look, more dragons! I have read so many good things about this book, so I finally hunted it down and snatched up a copy for myself. But my husband is reading it first, which, I'm ashamed to say, bothers me. I guess I'm a little jealous...

*******

Do you turn green when someone else reads your precious, brand-new book before you? What beautiful places have you travelled to recently? And I'm especially curious whether you knew that C.S. Lewis wrote poetry!