Book Talk: I've Been Reading...

All this Buffy watching and posting is seriously getting in the way of all my reading and posting - as if I really needed to get even further behind.  Some multitasking is definitely required.

Oh well at least this book post shows that I have at least been trying to mix it up a little reading wise.  

Lots of chick lit this time round, all of which had been sitting in my To Be Read pile for absolutely ages so it felt good to finally get to them.  Even better they ranged from being good to really really good so that's always a nice thing.  

I especially loved Maybe This Time and The Memory Collector, both by authors that I have read before and enjoyed.   In fact I've probably read nearly all of Jill Mansell's books so no surprise that I would enjoy her latest. 

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me was my first graphic novel in a really long time.  Mostly because I am really fussy and super hard to please in regards to graphic fiction.  The illustrations really have to work for me for me to enjoy them which generally means they have to be fairly realistic and not too arty.  Which I know totally goes against the whole idea of graphic novels.   Laura Dean though worked for me and the story was a realistic look of how we sometimes let 'love' or the idea of love blind us.

After that it was three really excellent reads - two non fiction and 1 crime novel.. You just knew that there had to be a crime novel in there somewhere.

Both of the nonfic were fascinating reads; the first looked at the various Scandinavian countries and asked the question "are they as happy as all the surveys say" and the second looked at whether our population really is set to keep on increasing or is it actually decreasing and what does this mean for the future.

I read both of these in one sitting as they were so good.

And finally a crime novel.  A new to me author which means I now have a brand new crime series to work my way through.  Yay for me.

The Viewing Files: Bite Me

And it's the last few episodes of the season.  Which as you can see was a pretty short season compared to most.  Obviously the studio at the time were a little nervous as to how well the show would go down with audiences.

Episode 10: Nightmares 

It's bad enough that you live on the Hellmouth where all things creepy and scary live but to have your nightmares seem to come true is seriously wrong on every level.

Suddenly there are spiders and giant wasps everywhere, Xander's turning up to class in his underwear, Giles can't read, Willow is suffering from some serious stage fright and Buffy has to face the fact that she is stupid, unloved and a vampire.  Wait... what?

Never mind because soon the real monster is uncovered and a little boy finally comforts his fears.  And the lesson that everyone learns is that sometimes the monsters we fear most are the ones closest to us.

Fav Quote: Buffy: What am I, Knowledge Girl now? Explanations are your terrain. 

Fashion: Buffy looks totally cute as a vamp so kudos to the makeup department for making that happen.  Meanwhile Giles is looking very dapper with the silk scarf draped casually round his neck look.  Swoon right there.

Body Count: None

Episode 11: Out of Mind, Out of Sight

Weird things start happening to Cordelia's friends and it takes Buffy and the Scoobies to figure out what is actually going on.

An unhappy girl with a serious case of not being seen.

Yep it's Buffy meets The Invisible Girl and it's kind of all down hill from there. 

Fav Quote: Snyder: There are no dead students here. This week.

Fashion: Major points for the cherry print pink skirt that Buffy wears for the first half of the episode and zero points for the blue scarf wrapped around her neck for the second half. Like what was that... accept just wrong on all counts.

Body Count: None

Episode 12: Prophecy Girl 

And Hell shall rise... literally.

Buffy discovers that her death is foretold and that The Master will be free bringing with him Hell on Earth, and that isn't just a metaphor.

When a group of his disciples slaughter most of what is probably left of Sunnydale High senior student body the fight is on with the motto being if you're going to die you better take them down with you. Naturally you just have to try on the pretty dress your Mom brought you for the dance before you get down and dirty.  Priorities you know.

Buffy discovers being dead really does suck, even more so for those left behind who suddenly find themselves having to fight giant man eating worms that just happen to have burst through the library floor (I wouldn't want to see that insurance claim).

Of course there's dead and there's dead and before you can say bite me Buffy is alive and well and ready for some pay back time.

Fav Quote: Giles: As the soon-to-be-purple area of my jaw will attest, I did not let her go!

Fashion: The white prom dress.  Perfect for any occasion, from dancing to slaying vampires.  For extra cool factor team with a leather jacket.

Body Count: 5 - obviously making up for the last couple of episodes

The Viewing Files: You Really Can't Trust Anyone

For a show with vampire in the title there's an awful lot of other supernatural beings in Sunnydale.  I guess that's what you get when you live on the Hellmouth.

Episode 7: Angel

The man in black finally gets an episode of his own and his 'secret' is revealed.  How Buffy did not see this coming I don't know, I mean the clues were kind of there.

Still with that out of the way she now has to decide whether to give him that stabbing feeling or not.  In the end common sense goes out the window and Buffy and the rest of the Scoobies decide that Angel is a good guy.  Mmm... I'm pretty sure that is going to come back and bite them on the ass.

Fav Quote: Buffy: Cool, crossbow! Check out these babies. Goodbye, stakes, hello, flying fatality!

Fashion: Buffy wears a headband for the first time.  Not a look that I could pull off but as it's pink it would still be totally me.  Giles awful sweater vest and lime green check shirt are also back again.  Someone should raid his wardrobe and burn these.

Body Count: No humans were harmed in the making of this video... vampires on the other hand...

Episode 8: I Robot, You Jane

And let the flirting commence.  Giles and Miss Calendar the sexy computer science teacher finally meet and their flirting bickering is just so cute.  Meanwhile Willow finally decides to stop crushing on Xander and begins an online relationship with a boy named Malcolm.

Love it seems is in the air.

Of course the path of true love never goes smoothly and Willow finds out that the cute, nice boy is actually a demon now living inside a robot body courtesy of two geek boys.  Miss Calendar must be one hell of computer science teacher.

In the end Robot Demon is exorcised courtesy of Giles and Miss Calendar (that's team work for you) and fried courtesy of Buffy's duck and dive and the Slayer and the Slayerette's are left to commiserate the disaster that is their love lives.

Fav Quote: Buffy: Okay, so a powerful demon with horns is walking around Sunnydale, and nobody's noticed?

Fashion: This time Willow is wearing the pink headband.  Her and Buffy are now swapping clothes which is cool.  Either way she totally works this look even better than Buffy did.  It's also the first appearance of one of her signature fluffy jumpers.  This one in mauve.  Obviously having an online boyfriend has made Willow get in touch with her inner girly girl which she should definitely do more so in the future.

Body Count: 2 students.

Episode 9: The Puppet Show 

Buffy and the team are roped into taking part in the school's talent show by the new principal, something that fills all three with dread.   Really though they should be more concerned by the creep as ventriloquist dummy (they certainly give me the wiggins).

A talent show and a headless corpse is soon the least of their problems, though Giles may have more serious problems what with the demon that wants to slice the top of his scalp off and take his brain.

Yep it's just another sunny day in Sunnydale.

Fav Quote: Principal Snyder: There are things I will not tolerate: students loitering on campus after school, horrible murders with hearts being removed... and also smoking.

Fashion:  Buffy in a very short, short leopard print dress, need I say anything more. 

Body Count: 3 students - at this rate there's not going to be many students left at this high school.

The Viewing Files: Being A Teacher Has It Drawbacks

Three episodes in and I've pretty much got the theme tune stuck in my head.  I seriously should have this as my ringtone.

In the meantime I'll keep on with my rewatch marathon...

Episode 4: Teacher's Pet

Just when Buffy finds a teacher whose actually gets her he winds up missing (aka dead) and a new teacher arrives causing all the 16 year boys to go into hormonal overdrive.  You just know that something isn't quite right (this probably should have been Sunnydale's motto).

In the end Xander has to face the fact that he has the worse taste in women, Buffy goes on a bug raid and mourns the lost of the one teacher who offered her some encouragement.

Fav Quote: Buffy: Destructo Girl, that's me.

Fashion: Giles is spotted wearing his first sweater vest which is totally hideous by the way as is the check shirt that he wears with it.  Is it weird that I still find him very sexy despite his terrible wardrobe?

Body Count: 1 teacher and possible 1 student (this one is only mentioned by another student to Xander we don't actually see his death)

Episode 5: Never Kill A Boy On The First Date

Going on a date is never easy... especially if you have a not-so-secret life of killing and maiming things.  Never let be said that Buffy is the type of girl to let that stand in her way.  Of course you just know that things aren't going to go right what with a visit to the morgue and all.

Worse date ever.

Weirdly Buffy's date doesn't seem to mind (red flag right there) and even seems to enjoy it (even bigger red flag).  Luckily she takes this as a clue that perhaps he isn't the right guy for her.

Fav Quote:  Giles: Buffy, when I said you could slay vampires and have a social life, I didn't mean at the same time. 

Fashion: Willow totally rocks the long hair pigtail look.  I am very envious.

Body Count: Some random strangers.  Definitely no Sunnydale High students this time round - they will be relieved.

Episode 6: The Pack

Xander tries to do the right thing and ends up being possessed by some kind of hyena spirit along with 4 other students.  Even zoo trips in Sunnydale seem to result in something bad happening.

Back at school the following day Xander is suddenly a bad boy bully with a predatory walk and kind of hot with it and being rude to his friends while hooking up with some new ones.  It's only a matter of time before the pack attacks.

Things go seriously downhill from there especially for Principal Flutie.  And another Sunnydale High teacher is toast.  Somehow the job vacancies at this school should come with a warning.

Fav Quote: Xander: Shoot me, stuff me, mount me.

Fashion: Xander should wear black more often.  Just sayin'.

Body Count:  1 high school principal, and sadly 1 pet pig *sobs*

The Viewing Files: And You Thought Your High School Years Were Bad

"In every generation there is a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. She is The Slayer."

If any show could be said to be my show then Buffy the Vampire Slayer would definitely be one of them.  There's angst and snark and bad fashion choices and a kick ass heroine who manages to be vulnerable yet brave, stupid but smart, all while dealing with life and death scenarios and wondering if she'll ever get to date let alone go to the prom.  

Naturally a rewatch seemed like a good idea...

Episode 1: Welcome to the Hellmouth

Buffy arrives at Sunnydale High with a look that is a cross somewhere between LA hooker and former college cheerleader.  With that out of the way we met some of the other high school students, namely Xander a skakeboarding klutz who is the master of snark, Willow the awkward nerdy redhead and Cordelia the bitchy popular girl. We also met Rupert Giles, the librarian who dresses in tweed and wears glasses but who is totally hot by the way or maybe that's just me.

By the end of the episode we know that Buffy is The Slayer, Giles is her Watcher, the local vampires are planning something all courtesy of this season's Big Bad The Master, a mysterious man in black seems to know it all and Xander is on the 'secret, kind of...

Note: The opening intro with the voice over is kind of annoying and cheesy, thank God that the powers that be got rid of it in later seasons.

Fav Quote: Buffy: To make you a vampire they have to suck your blood. And then you have to suck their blood. It's like a whole big sucking thing. Mostly they're just gonna kill you.

Fashion: Short skirts and boots is what every high school student is wearing... well except Willow who dresses like an 80 year grandma.  A very non trendy 80 year old grandma. 

Body Count: 1 possible high school student (I'm not going to bother counting all the vampires cause who really cares about them anyway)

Episode 2: The Harvest

Carries on where the first episode ended with Buffy about to be killed by a muscle bound vampire.  So not what you need on your first day at a new school.  

Naturally Buffy gets out of this predicament and soon Xander and Willow are all caught up on all things vampire courtesy of Giles, and Buffy is off to put an end to it or at the very least delay things for awhile as she takes out a few vamps including Mr Muscles the vampire that had earlier tried to kill her.  Revenge is sweet as they say.

Note:  This is the first appearance of Giles using the whiteboard to explain things.  It's so totally teacher-ery and him that it still makes me smile.

Fav Quote: Xander: I don't like vampires. I'm going to take a stand and say they're not good.

Fashion: The short skirt is gone for now replaced by trousers for ease of moment when one is busy saving humans and killing vamps.

Body Count: 1 bouncer and two high school students

Episode 3: Witch

It's Buffy the Cheerleading epsiode featuring a mom who doesn't know when to quit and the first appearance of Amy who seems like a nice enough girl.  No vampires this time instead it's all about witchcraft and Buffy trying to fit in and be a normal teenage girl, so being a cheerleader it is.  No surprise that things don't quite go as planned.

The ending with the statue is still kind of creepy even after all these years. 

Fav Quote: Willow: Yeah! You're the Slayer, and we're, like, the Slayerettes! 

Fashion:  The first appearance of the short, short shift dress.  Were shift dresses really around in 1997?

Body Count:  Surprisingly no one dies in this episode, which may well be the first... and last time that happens in this show.  On the other hand I imagine that some serious Post Trauma theory was on hand for quite a few of the students.  Therapists in this town are going to be rich in no time.

Book Talk: I've Been Reading...

I seriously need to do a whole run of these posts just to catch up but in the mean time the reading pile is steadying going down again which is at least something.

Reading wise I've been pretty much sticking to my tried-and-true genres of crime, chick lit with the odd YA thrown in.  Sometimes you just need your comfort reads though I really do need to get stuck into the very large pile of nonfiction that I have been accumulating over the past year.  With the weather finally starting to be sunny again I'm planning on at least reading a few nonfic before the year has ended.  Reading goal for the next few months sorted.

I'm still catching up on some series as I work through my never ending To Be Read pile so my latest two crime reads were part of this.  I'm a big fan of Linda Castillo and MJ Arlidge so reading their latest releases was always going to be on the cards and they were both so good.  I'm already looking forward to their next releases.

The Bucket List was a very different sort of chick lit novel in that it tackled the very serious subject of breast cancer while still having a sense of humour.  As for my other chick lit reads well they were wonderfully gooey and comforting so the perfect thing to read on a wet and miserable day.

I have to say that this year that YA has been pretty good all round and all dealing with a variety of subjects which makes a nice change.  Girl Against The Universe was particularly good and looked at the condition PTSD as experienced by a teenage girl.  Check it out if it sounds like your kind of thing.

September's Plans and August's Outcomes

Spring is here but the rainy weather doesn't look like it's going away anytime soon which of course means I have lots and lots of time to read and make plans.  As usual the list is long and never ending...

Crafting

I've actually made some progress on this... that is if you count sorting and tidying balls of yarn and cotton as well as downloading several knitting patterns as progress.   Sometimes you just have to take even the smallest of baby steps as a win.

Gardening

This on the other hand is going well despite the weather.  I've now dug a huge section up of weeds and patchy grass and other weird unidentifiable things (at least to me) and have it all ready to lay down some fresh grass seed.

The greenhouse is also ready for planting my summer veg and I have even got some flowers blooming here and there.

Get Fit and Healthy

Still going well *smug smile*.  I'm pretty much walking every day and on the whole I am managing to eat mostly healthy - we'll just ignore those bars of chocolate that creep in here and there.

Being Frugal

None of my cuttings took off which was a bit disappointing to say the least *sigh* but I'm gonna try again with a few changes this time and hopefully something will take, even if it's just one plant.

As for other frugal things... well I've been madly doing surveys (more about that in a future post) and now have a ton of vouchers coming my way which is rather nice.  And which will pretty much take care of all my Christmas shopping.  I'm also getting ready to sell some more things which should also bring in a little bit extra spending money.

Kondoing My Way

After watching some of Marie Kondo's TV series, because yes I was that bored, I'm going to start doing some cleaning out of areas around our house.  Both Other Half and I are generally pretty good about not having too much stuff but occasionally the odd drawer or cupboard does end up pretty messy with all sorts of stuff just shoved into it.  So a little bit of Kondoing should, hopefully, help.

Reading

Just when I've made a nice big dent in my To Be Read pile I go and download a massive lot of ebooks.  Which has pretty much put my TBR pile right back to where it started.... huge and threatening to smother me in my sleep.  

I've got the feeling I'm going to be needing lots and lots of tea with the occasional bar of chocolate to help me get this back under control.