What I'm Reading Now -- Inkspell

Not much to say about it yet, I'm not that far in. But it's the second book in a trilogy, and I absolutely loved the first book, Inkheart.

They're written for kids - the main character is a 9-year-old girl. In the first book, she discovers that her father, a bookbinder, has the rare ability to bring characters literally to life when he reads aloud. The unfortunate consequence of bringing characters into the world is that someone from the world has to go into the book. In Inkheart, Meggie, Mo, and some characters that Mo has read aloud all go on an epic journey to discover what happened to Meggie's mother many years ago, and to face the villain (another of Mo's creations) who created all the trouble in the first place.

So Inkspell is installment #2, and with any luck it will be as good as the first one. Inkdeath, the third book came out about a year and a half ago, so I have my work cut out for me.

The Almost Moon -- Take 2

I finished The Almost Moon the night before the day 1 of the big exam. My take: disappointing.

I figured out why I was so motivated to keep reading though. The author started out the book with multi-page flashbacks about Helen's earlier life, followed by pages about her current mishaps. As the book progressed, they were more paragraph-length flashbacks, and by near the end some of them were only parts of sentences. It built to sort of a frenzy, which was great for the suspense. But I found the ending, once I got there (5 weeks after I started) to be a bit of a let-down.

Oh well. I guess not every book can be the best book I've ever read.

It's Over!

Finally! For good or ill, the bar exam is over!

Now maybe I can get my life back in order....

It's a Rat Race

As I was studying yesterday, I realized something: life is a rat race.

Right now, I'm cramming my brain full of as much legal jargon as I can, and on Tuesday and Wednesday, I'm going to be emptying all that info out so someone I've never met can tell me how smart (or not smart) I am.

But you know what? It's not over after that. Then it's job time. Applications, resumes, cover letters, interviews, way-too-hot suits in the middle of summer, competing with loads of other recent graduates (or worse, full-fledged practicing attorneys who have been laid off due to our recent economic troubles), all to get a job. And then? The party continues. Dragging myself out of bed every day to go to a job that, with any luck, I won't totally loathe.

When does it get fun?

And it's not like I didn't know any of this before, but...do you ever have those moments when all the sudden it feels like you see everything with a clarity that you didn't have before? Even if it's all information you knew before, for whatever reason it comes together in a way that makes it seem much more salient. And those moments usually come out of nowhere, at least for me. Yesterday, I was just sitting on the couch studying Equity, and there it was.

But to answer my own question, I guess it gets fun when you make it fun. So I'm going to keep studying, and then (after the bar), hopefully I can make things fun!

Mmm...Food -- Chocolate-Covered Raspberries

PSA:

July is chocolate-covered raspberry month at Bissinger's!

For anyone who can, get there ASAP!

For anyone who can't, well, that's too bad.

What I'm Reading Now -- The Almost Moon

Despite the fact that I should be spending every waking minute studying for the bar, I can't help myself. I'm reading The Almost Moon, by Alice Sebold (of The Lovely Bones fame). I'll be honest: it's a strange story. I'm almost finished with it and still haven't quite warmed up to the plot, although it is enthralling enough to keep me reading, just to find out what happens.

What's great about this book, though, is the character development. One of the first things that happens (minor spoiler alert) is that the main character, Helen, kills her mother. Rough start. But through the rest of the book, you learn about what led Helen to this point in her life. The writing is in first person, so information about Helen isn't thrown at you by an all-knowing narrator. You just pick up tidbits here and there, in how she talks to her ex-husband, and especially through flashbacks to her childhood. Really well done.