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After living in Vancouver for approximately 10 months now, I have come to the conclusion that the Vancouver meteorologists use no actual weather or climate science. Instead, they have a wheel that has options for rain, snow, overcast and sunny. This they spin and update the websites. Every day they spin this wheel, and this is why the weather forecast for the whole week changes nearly every day. Right now it's telling me that it will snow on Sunday, but that will most likely change tomorrow. It's also telling me that it will be mostly sunny tomorrow, Monday-Wed. This is very likely to change. They almost always take away the sunny forecasts and replace them with rain closer to the day. Even though half the time it's sunny anyway...

On another note, I watched the movie Julie & Julia last year (2009... so not really last year now is it) sometime with my Grandma. It was when the whole Scott dramas were still going on and I remember watching it and thinking how both relationships portrayed in the movie (Julia & Paul Child, and Julie & Eric Powell) were loving and supportive and healthy, all of which were lacking with Scott and served as a bit of a wake-up call, in that I wanted that kind of relationship... and I was NEVER going to have it with Scott.

Anyway, I started reading Julia Child's memoir My Life in France over Christmas. I really enjoyed it. I laughed, it inspired me. It made me want to want to cook (I really don't like cooking very often). It made me want to go live in the south of France for a year or two with Keenan. It made me want to DO SOMETHING. Do something with my life.
Linda, Keenan's mum, noticed me reading it, and also lent me Julie Powell's book - Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, the other memoir that the movie was based on. Now, I didn't mind Julie's story in the movie, although I preferred watching the Julia Child parts, but I didn't mind her.... but after reading her book, all I want to do is slap her! I really didn't like her (even less so after watching/reading interviews and a synopsis of her next book). A lot of reviewers liked her book though, said it was funny and irresistible. I had to disagree. I didn't laugh once. It was a chore to read. I kept reading, waiting for the funny bits to turn up. They didn't. And I really didn't like her as a character. Selfish, whiny, negative, self-centered... I could go on... I just really didn't get WHY she was doing it... apart from to get famous... and I looked at her blog.... and I don't get how it got so famous in the first place?

But yeah... if you get a chance, definitely read My Life in France. Take a pass on Julie Powell's self indulgent tripe.

 I had a rather exciting and pleasant surprise the other night - I was just browsing the web and came across the news that Sara Douglass has released a new book. The Infinity Gate, third book (and final... I think) of her latest fantasy series. For a moment I despaired as I did not think I would be able to read it for some time - I hadn't seen it in any Canadian bookstores - I didn't even know it was out! But then I remembered that I own a kindle, so with fingers crossed, I checked Amazon's site, and within a minute I had the book in my hands. Yay for Kindle! (Although NOTHING beats actually holding a paper book in your hands!)

Sara is one of my all time favourite authors. I will not hesitate to buy one of her new releases and I have enjoyed all of her books... and I enjoyed this one, but I found myself slightly dissatisfied with this book... 

This book was very plot driven. We've had two books to get to know a lot of characters, and I felt we really did get to know some of them quite well... but in this book it was nearly all action. Action, action, action. There was not many personal moments, and characters who were once prominent were now put on the complete backburner -  Salome for example is not even mentioned until the last third of the book. A lot of the characters felt more 2D, than the 3D rounded characters they had been in the past. And there were characters who I now wonder what the purpose of was... Hereward for example. I was very unsatisfied with her story-arc. She HAD one. I was wondering what was going to happen between her and Isiah, why she was saved when everyone around her was killed... we got to know her, I thought she had some purpose. But then she's killed off in one sentence and that's the last we hear of her. No one cares that she's dead. No one really even notices. It felt like the author just couldn't be bothered with the character anymore so just got rid of her. 

I still enjoyed the book though. It wrapped everything up rather neatly, while still leaving the way open for future books (Isiah & Axis' adventures, Ravenna & her son...). It was well written, and fast paced, all in all a good Douglass book and read. Yet I still feel dissatisfied. 

Hmmm.