Remind me not to blog when I’m pessimistic and/or cynical. I shall take my own advice and refrain from commentary, merely noting that here is a somewhat delayed cross-posting of a book review that I did at Read All Over. Click to see the original post.

As a recent college graduate living in Seattle having studied (though not majoring in it) French, it’s fairly safe to say I could relate to the main character of this novel, Lexi Stuart who lives in Seattle with her parents and finds herself working in a French bakery. As no exception to the “Christian chick-lit” genre, this book leans heavily upon the tried-and-true model of an initially single character who has fallen away from her relationship with God and is at some sort of crossroads. Lexi struggles with her parents’ upcoming move and the necessity of finding a place of her own (that she can afford), finding meaningful work that uses the degree she slaved over, and the frustration that is everyone else in her life finding their perfect someone.

Somewhat needless to say the book is predictable. This is the first in a series and pretty sure I can even predict what happens in the next book just based on a few lines of conversation that were slipped in toward the end. I enjoyed relating to the character, and it was a nice fluffy read. As an English  graduate, I invariably look to more than just the number of times I laughed or rolled my eyes, I look to the writing. I’ll admit I wasn’t expecting Pulitzer quality going into it, and my expectations were met. This type of novel has a pretty standard style, and Byrd doesn’t deviate from it. She (or her editor) throws in some “illustrations” that try to be original but come off cutesy and young.

Overall, I was entertained. I wouldn’t say I wasted my time, and I did finish the book. But if you’re looking at it on the shelf, consider carefully what you’re looking to find from the book. If it’s quality literature or surprises, maybe try the classics shelf. If you just want something to accompany your mug of hot cocoa and that won’t take too much of your time, this isn’t a bad choice.

I saved some photos to share with you – of Christmas in France. I think my original purpose was another of those oh-Europe posts. And to a certain extent there is a subtle leap that happens in my heart when I see these pictures and think I was there, but it seems more apt to reflect on Christmas itself, than certain and specific manifestations of the celebrations.

This is Eric of Paris Daily Photo’s shot from last year. To be honest I like it better than this year’s picture (and, well, I saw that tree).

I’ve wondered, several times this year, about the reason for Christmas lights. I know the paganism behind a lot of the traditions we continue to follow at Christmas. As a Christian it’s an interesting potential dilemma and/or conflict of interest. To be honest I don’t think about it that much because I love the lights and the trees and the bells. It really is a celebration, though even I am often prone to forgetting the Christ behind Christmas (which to so many people has become even irrelevant).

Some lucky photographer shot this image in Strasbourg (yup, was there too), and it appeared on a New York Times page.

The giving is a little harder to forget about Christmas – although advertisers certainly want you to think it’s a time of giving to yourself.
I love finding the perfect gift for someone, and I’m usually on top of things that it doesn’t become a last minute panic type of situation (although wrapping things, that can be another matter).
The good ol’ cliche about Jesus being the greatest gift of all and following the example of the Magi and giving gifts seems a little silly, but I’ll go along with it. Sometimes it’s nice to have an occasion that reminds us to celebrate the people in our lives.

But all the same – it’s not about the people in our lives, it’s about the mind-blowing fact, should you choose to believe it, that God incarnate came to us in the flesh for the express purpose to atone for our sins.  I think I love how as I grow older the more I realize that Christmas isn’t just about the birth of Christ – it’s about the fact that Christ’s birth leads us to the Cross.

In the last episode of Bones (which you can watch on Hulu should you be so inclined), I was blown away. In case you’re not interested in watching the whole episode, I’m going to kind of spoil the ending by sharing a quote.

An anti-government character who’s pirate radio station was thought to have caused an unintentional suicide-bomber/robber to blow up, says this to his listeners:

A man died this week. By all accounts he was a good man, loved his mother, worked hard, shouldered his responsibilities. A man that any one of us would be proud to call a friend. I killed him. With this microphone, I killed him by going on these airwaves and sharing my rage with you – spreading the rage. Now you can say that it wasn’t my fault – it was a coincidence, I thought about that, thought about it a lot. But the fact is, the fact is if it weren’t for me, he might still be alive. I’m so sorry for that. And I remembered something that I forgot over the past few years, that God is not only a God of anger and vengeance.

Now my religious beliefs tell me that Christ did not die in vain, that He died to redeem us all. And I intend to show that this good, simple man did not die in vain. That he redeemed one angry shouting man. So these are the last words I will ever broadcast. I hope they’re the words you remember best. Peace on Earth.

This morning as I rode the bus I was listening to a sermon from Covenant Life Church from last year (so I’m behind a little…), and something that stood out to me was the simple fact that if Adam and Eve had not sinned – if Adam had put down the forbidden fruit – Christ would not have come simply because His sacrifice would not have been necessary.

I think the point that I have come to is overwhelming gratitude and awe at the God the Son took on human life only to lay it down so that I might be forgiven.

Maybe this is the epiphany. As Good Friday is a time of mourning for the death of Christ as he took our place in bearing God’s wrath upon sin, and Easter is a time of rejoicing at the victory of Christ over death and Satan, so the Christmas is a time of humility and thanksgiving that God became man in fulfillment of the promise He made in the Garden of Eden.

Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born…

Well! As it turns out, often in fact, there is sometimes more to a given situation than meets the eye. As you may or may not remember, a bit ago, I received my Secret Santa gift from the Book Blogger’s Holiday Swap. On my last post, I received a wise comment from Jo – she suggested that I open the book. (novel thought – perhaps might have crossed my mind if I hadn’t been leaving for the weekend an hour after opening the package. *silly face*) So I did!

And inside the book I found a handmade necklace and two pairs of earrings from my Secret Santa! And in blue – my favorite color!

Thanks Jo!

What is that, you ask? Well, it’s this award (although really if this were my game, maybe not the word I’d have used haha) that Danielle gave me.

Rules for the award:

1. Must thank the person who gave you the award and list their blog and link it.
2. Share “10 Honest things” about yourself.
3. Present this award to 7 others whose blogs you find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged you.
4. Tell those 7 people they’ve been awarded HONEST SCRAP and inform them of these guidelines in receiving the award.

Thank the person who gave you the award

Well Danielle, of all the things you’ve given me, I can’t say this is one that I am most thankful for, haha. I’m certainly one to aim more for funny than revealing with something like this, but I don’t think that’s what you were looking for, so I’ll respect that. When it comes to our 10+ year friendship, I think I am most thankful and amazed at how it has stood the test of time and differences – because for all our top-level similarities, we’re way different! I don’t have my notebooks and I didn’t pay enough attention to the terms to remember, but I love that even as our relationship goes through separating in a lot of different ways – literary taste, geography – it doesn’t mean that we drift apart. Sure the closeness varies from time to time, but we’re like those family members who sometimes can’t believe they’re related but wouldn’t have it any other way. <3

10 Honest Things About Moi (I suppose I’ll play along and make them more than the obvious)

1. I am a stalker. Yes, that means I am stalking you, IP address 66.172.120.## – but only insofar as I know that you’re stalking me and never commenting (lame!). It’s true, I have (though they be limited) ways of finding out how you arrived at my blog, and maybe even where in the world you hail from. Chillax – the information is quite limited, but all the same, person-from-my-hometown-who-visits-my-blog (by which I don’t mean subscribes via RSS or email)-weekly, I know you’re there, and since I’m being honest, yes, I am kind of creeped out that you (who probably know me in real life) never comment or leave any indication of who you are and that you’re following along with my life. (Granted, I post my blog on my facebook page. I can hardly claim surprise. But remember, I’m being honest today, not rational)

2. I think I’m lying to myself when I say I don’t regret things in my life but chalk them up to experience. I do regret. I regret the things that I didn’t do.

3. I don’t know what your impression of me is – but I am competitive. I do care about succeeding and yes, beating people.

4. It isn’t that I don’t like to be honest on my blog, but to outright state that you’re going to reveal something personal about yourself without ambiguity or a veil of anecdotes is more than I signed on for when I invited people I know in real life to follow my blog. Let’s be honest, this isn’t the first place I come when I need to vent or talk about my day. This is for my thoughts, which can be incredibly vague and un-grounded. This is so that I am forced to write in a (somewhat) cohesive manner and not let my skills atrophy.

5. Unless I’m being overloaded and or innundated with new information, I generally have a pretty good memory.

6. There was a time I would have said (and in looking back, would still come to this conclusion) that I had more friends online than I did in real life. Interpret that as you will, whether a sad commentary on the state of my real life at that time or an awesome example of online community.

7. I think my fingers are awkwardly short.

8. I categorically fall into the grouping of people who buy things with the intention of deciding later if they actually want them, fully expecting and planning to take advantage of the option to return.

9. There might be a tiny bit of me who blames some of the camera-shyness I have developed on the people who seriously/jokingly (I don’t even know) got “mad” at me for taking so many pictures. There are still some people of whom I will take photos unabashedly, but to candidly capture others, it now requires a certain boldness fueled by adrenaline or sugar or something else not naturally appearing in my blood.

10. I struggle with vulnerability (and that’s what this meme is all about). See #4 again.

Tag, You’re It!

Yes, I voyeuristically like finding out more about y’all, but I don’t think it very effective. Go for it if you want, don’t if it doesn’t strike your fancy. Chrissy, you can be tagged since I think you’ll do it.

As mentioned earlier, I received my holiday swap/book blogger Secret Santa gift!

My Secret Santa did not reveal his/her identity, but thanks for Katrina Carlson’s “Untucked” and Robert Ward’s The King of Cards, neither of which I was previously familiar with – so yay for branching out!

ETA: (see part two!)

As mentioned in the previous post. The novel is finished. Pretty crazy.

I haven’t gone back to actually read it yet. I started too but then decided it was too soon and I need more of a break from it. From the little that I have looked over in sending it to some people etc, I am very aware of it’s roughness (and already regretting that I let people read it lol). It is definitely fascinating as a look at where I was in the process though. As my roommate pointed out, the first paragraph is so obviously an attempt at ramping the word count haha. And at later points it becomes obvious that I’m trying to hurry things a long. Among things that are inconsistent, the characters, style, and pacing stand out. Part of that is only figuring things out as I went along instead of starting with a plan, but all the same, I almost feel bad for letting people read it.

It is very obviously influenced by the fact that I was reading Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf throughout the first half (can we say hello to stream-of-consciousness??).

I suppose I am my worst critic – and I feel this piece especially deserving of criticism, and I don’t shy away from it. But I think I also need to recognize the fact that it is a first draft. Whereas in college my pieces were usually short enough and I’d thought about them in advance, so I could pull off turning in my first draft. 103 page novel? Not so much. And that is okay. And I will resist the temptation to send a follow-up email to people who actually read this first draft, stating in nearly as many pages as the novel where I feel it is deficient. Or (more realistically) maybe I’ll send them a (shorter haha) piece that I am actually pleased with.

While I think I have found the happy medium that does not absolutely hate the entire thing and want to burn it, I still am not sure whether I’m going to try to salvage it and revise it to the point where yeah, maybe I’ll try to get it published. Something I’ve known about myself for a while is my desire for approval – and I don’t want to (at the risk of succeeding) publish something that I am not absolutely proud of. But maybe I could become proud of what the novel becomes down the road – who knows. At any rate, I am so thankful (and yes, somewhat proud of myself at the accomplishment) that I did this. The practice of writing every day (except one, I think) was so beneficial. Even if it was crap, at least I was writing. That’s a habit maybe I should hold on to.

Now, I am off to Spokane to spend the weekend with friends! When I return you can expect photos of my Holiday Swap gift which arrived today but I’m literally on the way out the door. And some honesty (not that I’m not always honest, haha), courtesy of Danielle Happy weekend!!