Haunting Violet

By Alyxandra Harvey
My Rating: 5 of 5 Stars


Goodreads Synopsis
Violet Willoughby doesn't believe in ghosts. But they believe in her. After spending years participating in her mother's elaborate ruse as a fraudulent medium, Violet is about as skeptical as they come in all matters supernatural. Now that she is being visited by a very persistent ghost, one who suffered a violent death, Violet can no longer ignore her unique ability. She must figure out what this ghost is trying to communicate, and quickly because the killer is still on the loose.

Afraid of ruining her chance to escape her mother's scheming through an advantageous marriage, Violet must keep her ability secret. The only person who can help her is Colin, a friend she's known since childhood, and whom she has grown to love. He understands the true Violet, but helping her on this path means they might never be together. Can Violet find a way to help this ghost without ruining her own chance at a future free of lies?

My Review

When I pick up a book and sit down and begin to read it, I always want to love it. Haunting Violet by Alyxandra Harvey is one of those books that does not disappoint because I loved it the entire way through. It was a great book to be stuck at home with during Hurricane Sandy.

Haunting Violet is a story that is well written with all of the components I wish for in a book. It flawlessly blended mystery, historic fiction, young love, and paranormal elements into seamless page turner. Neither of these elements took over the story. It wasn't solely about ghosts or solving a mystery because the plot was so well fused it just seemed like an interesting story! I also loved the characters and found myself fond of or hating characters quickly with their short written developments. Towards the end, my opinions even shifted. I love it when books keep you on your toes!

The love elements of this book made me giggle. This is exactly the type of love story I would have wanted to read when I was a teenager. Something as simple a meaningful finger brush are so much more exciting than some of the erotic novels that are currently popular. It is nice to see an age appropriate romance that projects a little more reality and value in this day and age. I also loved that there was a small love triangle centered around Violet and that she chose well in the end based on sound reasons.

I loved this book and am looking forward to following Harvey to read some more of her work!

When James Met Sandy

Although lacking the love story that When Harry Met Sally had, When James Met Sandy has the potential to be a comedic tragedy.  Something tells me that the two are not getting along well. Specifically, the James River is flowing currently flowing backwards from Hurricane Sandy. Talk about women ruling the roost!

Today, I will be taking photographs of the pier on the James River outside of my home from the kitchen window. Although I like to write about exciting things, the major part of me hopes that this story lacks a lot of excitement. 

It is also pretty cool to compare with Hurricane Irene because I made similar post last year. Click Here!

Monday, October 29
8:00 am

The river is up to just underneath the pier. As you can see by the droplets on the window, it is raining! However, there is very little wind.

Monday, October 29
10:00 am

It has stopped raining, but the James is now up and over the pier. The river is also flowing the opposite direction in which it usually flows. 

Monday, October 29
11:00 am

It has begun raining again! The wind is picking up. I zoomed out on the picture below because the river is actually completely over some parts of the pier.

Monday, October 29
12:00 pm

There has been relatively little change since 11:00 am . However, the water has risen a touch and wind is picking up a touch more. Every once in awhile there will be a strong gust, but it is relatively calm for a hurricane... so far. Below is a close up shot of the water.

Monday, October 29
2:30 pm

Crate Myrtles are starting to bang into the house and the rain is now a full out rain as opposed to a hard drizzle. You can see in the picture below that the tide is starting to move out rather quickly as well. I can see the pier... and a broken tree limb from banging into the house...

Monday, October 29
4:00 pm

I just took a magical nap with the rain hitting the windows and the roof, sounding like little drunken fairies. The whimsical wind was caressing the house outside. I woke up to another magical turn of events: the tide is going out quicker than it came up!

Tuesday, October 30
11:00 am

Sandy and James have finally broken up. Sandy moved on to find some new bachelors like the Hudson River. They had it worse than James did. We have a few partially flooded roads and some broken tree limbs. I feel blessed that James and Sandy's break up did not cause any further devastation. I leave this post with a picture from this morning and a much calmer pier that is happy it survived another James River break up.

Addis Ethiopian Restaurant

Addis Ethiopian Restaurant
Style: Ethiopian
Website: Addis Restaurant

My Rating: 3/5 Stars

Likes: Vocabulary dictionary on the menu, food was tasty and not too spicy, not stingy with the injera (scooping bread), decent beer selection, cumin vinaigrette

Dislikes: It was just like Ethiopia- I had a fly in my beer! (seriously), meat portion could be more 



The Fleenor-Thomas dinner club strikes again when we have a Groupon for something different! This time I was the only person who had eaten Ethiopian food prior to our excursion. However, it had been nearly ten years since I had eaten it last!

The restaurant had a menu with a glossary attached to it. This was very helpful because the items are written in Amharic. Here are some of the words I learned and thought was helpful:

The Table's Spread

Injera- The spongy bread that is used to scoop the food

Tibs- Usually beef, unless otherwise noted

Wat or Wot- Stew

Berbere- Red chili seasoning used in hot stews

Awaze- Red chili powder mixed with spices like tumeric

Once we were seated, we joined the Thomas family and ordered some water and I ordered an Allagash Wit to go with dinner. I originally wanted a Dogfish Head 60 minute, but they were out. I got over it. 

They gave us the option of placing the orders on a separate plate or putting all of the entrees on a large plate in the middle. We chose to do separate plates. They brought out a plate of injera rolled into logs. This is the bread that we used to scoop up the food. We then noticed that there were napkins on the table... and no silverware.

There were a lot of distractions in the restaurant. They had a projector and a large screen with contemporary  Ethiopian music and dancing. It was cool to see, but they bobbled around SO MUCH. I think I got whiplash just from watching them. There were also little gnats everywhere. They buzzed around the food and in your face as you ate. I also had one in my beer. I  was almost done so I wasn't too upset, but I felt like perhaps that was a little too much culture bending for one evening.

Overall, the food tasted roughly the same because of the spices used. There were differences of course because some had peppers, others had onions. They all had a various level of spices. Each plate was served with lettuce and tomatoes that were covered in a vinaigrette dressing that had a thick cumin taste. At first I thought this was odd, but it was very tasty when it was paired with the meat. Each meat and lettuce pairing was served atop a large circle of injera.

Whitney ordered  a chicken dish:

Brent ordered a lamb dish:

Brad ordered a beef awaze dish. It was not as spicy as it looked, but it had a lot of sauce which soaked through the bottom shell of injera. It was difficult for him to sop up the awaze with the bread because it was so saucy.

I ordered the special Addis beef tibs. It came on a sizzling plate with onions and peppers. It oddly had a lot of jalapenos in it. Brad and I have had a few conversations on how Ethiopians found jalapenos in Africa. We believe this may have been an American addition... and by the way, this was really good. It tasted like fajitas in a way.

Ender's Game

by Orson Scott Card
My rating: 5/5

Goodreads Synopsis:

In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister. 

Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives. 
Ender's Game is the winner of the 1985 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 1986 Hugo Award for Best Novel.



My Thoughts:

I received a copy of Ender's Game as one of someone's favorite books of all time from my book club. I was very excited to have had the opportunity to read it! A story about a child learning to fight aliens in a war was intriguing.

Ender Wiggins is a child who is handpicked to be trained a commander in the future's army against alien "buggers." He begins near the first grade and is chosen to go to battle school where he plays games. He quickly excels and begins beating preteens. The adults manipulate his situation to see what he can actually accomplish. 

The theory about using a child as a tool in war is something I have never thought about before. The adult reasoning was that a child could win a war if they could win a game because they have a different outlook than adults do. This theory led to a surprise ending for me. Honestly, it was worth reading the book just for the last forty pages!

I became very attached to Ender in the book. He had formed some very militaristic characteristics after going to battle school. He had hurt people as part of the game and he understood the nature of combat. Yet even though he was completing mature achievements, he was still a child. It was interesting viewing a war commander through a child's eyes. 

One example of this situation was the relationship with his friends. He had a large cohort of other "students" that he was in command of. He had to learn the value of their friendship, but also that sometimes friendship suffers under command. My favorite quote of the book was at the end of an actual battle. They were wondering what they would have to do after the battle. Ender's friend Petra says, "We're kids. They'll probably make us go to school. It's a law." The humor underlying that quote was deeply inlaid because you have think, What more can these kids learn from school that they haven't learned already?

I loved this book and I can see why it is known as a classic in certain sci fi circles. I would really recommend it to anyone who loves alternate realities or war games (like The Hunger Games).

Five Forks Cafe

It doesn't have to be fancy in order to be awesome.

Five Forks Cafe
Style: American Diner
Website: http://www.fiveforkscafe.com/

My Rating: 5/5

Likes: Friendly servers, awesome diner food, fancier than normal diner specials, lots of creamer on the table, they have the old men "usuals" who come every morning

Dislikes: Parking is not so hot, it's so popular that if you don't get there early for breakfast on the weekends, you will wait (and you need resistance so you don't hop over the counter and stuff your face with pancakes right off the grill... seriously)

When you have an officer who comes home at 6:00 am from the night shift, he often wants to eat. He just doesn't want to eat a bowl of cereal all the time either. He wants greasy diner man food. When this officer has a foodie for a wife and will pretty much ride any excuse in order to get a good stack of pancakes and some hash browns, then they end up at Five Forks Cafe... a lot. 

I love walking into Five Forks Cafe because there are always the same two servers there who greet you. Everyone is friendly. It is hard not to be friendly in this atmosphere of laid back diner lovers. Every time we go here, there are two or three old men there. This time we went, we saw them sitting in booths next to each other and they were carrying on a conversation as they read the newspaper. The funny part about this is that they were both sitting in the same direction so one was looking at the wall and the other at his back. Brad secretly wants to be like the old men... but we need to get him a newspaper instead of reading the news off of his razr maxx.

Brad reading his "newspaper" while subconsciously wanting to be like an old man.

The first thing that I love about Five Forks is that they have an excellent coffee service. As you sit down, the two wonderful servers ask what you want to drink. They are used to people saying coffee. They bring two good sized mugs full of joe and there is already a huge bowl of creamer on the table so that we can use as much creamer as we want. At 7:00 am, this is a wonderful thing.

Although when I first started coming here, I used to try a few different things. They have excellent omlettes and waffles. They also have really neat specials, too. Sometimes they have things like Sweet Potato Pancakes or Sirloin Tips with mushrooms and onions. 

But my favorite is always the same. I have gotten this every single time I come: Banana Pecan Pancakes. You can ask for them in a combo. You can order them a la carte. You can dowse them in maple syrup and admire that they are larger than the size of your face. They are amazing. They have lots of pecan pieces and large sliced bananas in them. Sometimes I order them with a side of hash browns. Their hash browns always taste a little bit like onions... and sometimes peppers... or whatever it was that they just cooked on the grill. I love this because it is the total diner experience. Today I ordered them just plain, but you can also get them LOADED.... soooo good.

Two Banana Pecan Pancakes (falling off the plate on the other side) with a side of hash browns

Brad usually orders the same thing, too. He likes corned beef hash served with fried eggs and toast. They prep their own corned beef in house so it is always fresh. They also serve THE BEST rye toast. Although you can choose from a variety of different types of toast, why would you when rye is there? The toast is thick cut and already buttered. They give you two full slices of toast cut in half. This makes it perfect for Brad to give me one of them (before he ruins it by putting jam on it) when I share my hash browns with him.

This is always the best breakfast in town. If you're in Williamsburg, go here, but go early. It will be very difficult to sit outside and wait for a table when you know of the culinary goodness that awaits you inside!

Where She Went

Where She Went (If I Stay, #2)
by Gayle Forman
My Rating: 5/5 Stars

Goodreads Synopsis

It's been three years since the devastating accident . . . three years since Mia walked out of Adam's life forever.

Now living on opposite coasts, Mia is Juilliard's rising star and Adam is LA tabloid fodder, thanks to his new rock star status and celebrity girlfriend. When Adam gets stuck in New York by himself, chance brings the couple together again, for one last night. As they explore the city that has become Mia's home, Adam and Mia revisit the past and open their hearts to the future-and each other.

Told from Adam's point of view in the spare, lyrical prose that defined If I Stay, Where She Went explores the devastation of grief, the promise of new hope, and the flame of rekindled romance.

Watch a Video 


My Thoughts

I just wrote a review of this book on Goodreads. It was so deep and introspective that I had to erase it because it ended up being like a journal entry! I did not necessarily need all of those thoughts in the public arena. That being said, this book made me think a lot.

There sure is a lot of depth in this "young adult" novel. I find it interesting that my young adult self could relate to parts of this book. My "decade past young adult" self can also currently relate to this novel at an entire deeper level. Picking up pieces. Acceptance. Moving on. Forgiveness. 

I think that this book tells two different stories. The first is between Adam and Mia and their ability to overcome and continue their relationship. However, it is also speaking about how two people find themselves. It is both a love story and a personal journey of two separate people. I congratulate Forman for creating a work that has the potential to touch anyone that has been through a life altering change.

I loved this book.

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Maple Frosting and Caramel Drizzle

Happy husband on his Birthday

My husband loves cake. He really loves cake. Therefore, when his birthday comes around, I always try to get him a cake or at least take him out for cake. 

When I first met him, I was not so good at making cakes. The first cake I ever made was for him. It was a plain yellow cake with plain chocolate frosting from boxes and store bought containers. They were sufficient, but not the best.

Then, we would go out. Cheesecake Factory has cheesecakes that are good of course. We also bought donuts from Dunkin Donuts once.  And then last year, my amazing hairdresser also makes amazing cakes. I purchased a pumpkin cake with maple cream cheese icing from her. It was delicious! It was then that I decided with all of my baking skills, I should probably figure out how to make a cake for my husband's birthday. 

Pumpkin Cake with LOTS of Maple Frosting and Caramel Drizzle

This year, I created a rather tasty cake for Brad's birthday. I researched a bunch of different recipes and looked for common themes, like how much cinnamon to use or how much maple to put in the cream cheese. I also made a lot of icing because he is in love with it. The cake has double the amount of creamy, whipped icing than most normal cakes.

This cake was really AWESOME

This is what I created.

Pumpkin Spice Came with Maple Frosting and Caramel Drizzle Recipe

Ingredients

Cake
1 box yellow cake mix (I used Betty Crocker)
1 cup of canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup oil
4 eggs
2 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie mix
1/8 teaspoon of crushed cloves

Icing
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
8 oz. cream cheese at room temperature
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1 container of cream cheese frosting (I used Betty Brocker)
4 Tbsp Maple Syrup
Caramel syrup for drizzle (I used Smuckers Butterscotch Caramel Topping)

Step 1: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Using a mixer, beat together cake mix, pumpkin, water, oil, eggs, pumpkin pie mix and cloves. Pour the batter evenly into two 8 or 9 inch cake pans.

Step 2: Bake the cake rounds for about 30 minutes. Then, let them cool

Step 3: While the cake is baking and cooling, make the icing. Beat together the butter, cream cheese, confectioner's sugar, and 2 tablespoons of the maple syrup with an electric mixer. When well mixed, add the cream cheese frosting and the rest of the maple syrup. Beat the icing  until smooth and well mixed. Place in the fridge to set while the cakes are cooling.

Step 4: To assemble the cake, spread a thick layer of icing over one of the cake rounds. Then, drizzle a small amount of caramel over the icing and spread it around using a butter knife. Place the second round on top. Spread more icing around the sides and then the top. Drizzle a desired amount of caramel over the top of the cake, letting it run down the sides.