Space Station Mir

55. Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule by Jennifer Chiaverini (audiobook) The story ostensibly focuses on the relationship between Julia Dent Grant and her childhood slave, Jule. Julia, who grew up on a plantation near St. Louis, Missouri, married Ulysses S. Grant, who later led the Union army to victory. During the war, Jule, as well as eventually the Dents' other slaves, escaped, and she later became a hairdresser of some repute in Washington D.C. and New York City, overlapping respectively with her former mistress' time in those two cities. However, although an intriguing concept, the story actually centers on the love story between Julia and Ulysses Grant, and defending the pair from every allegation made over the course of his career (he wasn't drunk, he had headaches!; he didn't know his officials were corrupt!). Jule was frankly the most interesting character, but the main character least deployed. Overall, this is an obviously well researched historical romance, bu...

Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at the Broke and the Bookish ! Top Ten Books I Wouldn't Mind for Hanukkah 1. Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert I've already read it, but I want to re-read it and I feel like it's a book I will enjoy referring back to. 2. Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin I have it out of the library right now, and I've already read and renewed it twice. 3. The 8th Habit by Stephen R. Covey I have it out of the library right now, but I feel like to really use it right I have to own it... 4. Anything by Jen Lancaster She makes me laugh out loud so much. I got Bitter is the New Black from the little Free Library and I'm not giving it back anytime soon. I also have The Tao of Martha out from the library right now, but she has a ton more books that I'm sure I'll enjoy just as much. 5. Marriage; A History by Stephanie Coontz I've wanted to read this forever, but flip-flopped on buying nonfiction I...

The Circuit: Earthfall by Rhett C. Bruno *Published Dec. 13, 2016* Earthfall is the incredibly satisfying conclusion to Rhett C. Bruno's The Circuit trilogy. Although I wouldn't recommend reading it without having read the other two first, I thought it was the best of all three books in terms of pacing, writing, and character development. The plot has a clear arc from the outset, and develops naturally from there. It never slows down too much, but nor does it feel convoluted. And most importantly to me, although it wasn't exactly what I would have hoped for, there's an ending that feels appropriate for each beloved character. The concept of the Circuit is what drew me in, but it's the characters that kept me reading. What I love about the Circuit is that it's not dystopian, but it's far from the pie in the sky, colonize the stars dream of 1950s and '60s scifi. Humanity managed to escape Earth's demise, but society is stagna...

Yesterday was the last day of NaNoWriMo 2016. I hit over 25,000 words. That was not my original goal for the month: I was aiming for the traditional NaNo goal of 50,000 words in 30 days. However, a little bit more than halfway through, I evaluated my progress and decided to change my goal to 25k. I'm proud of reaching my secondary goal, and I think I did a good job, considering. However, I'm still a little bummed that I didn't hit 50k like I did last year, and I want to figure out why. First, I've had less time to devote to it this year since my work schedule is different. Second, I wrote historical instead of contemporary fiction, and did less research instead of more, due to the aforementioned different work schedule. Third, though, it wasn't my first rodeo. Last year, I was motivated to win my first NaNoWriMo. I followed my scheduled writing plan exactly, and I got a huge head start, finishing 4k in the first day alone. I've been reading Gretc...