Sad Face

To everyone who missed me or who was starting to miss 

my unusual oddness.  

I too miss you.

It has been crazy here!

The flu passed around to all three of my wee ones, then to me.

Grammy Mad Scientist was in the hospital - blood poisoning.

My father and his new wife had a rather big spat, already.

I started a new job in special collection at a Tribal college.

Needless to say, computer time was not high on my list.

So a big sad face was seen on me over the past two weeks.  

But happy news.

I should be back in full force this week!

Happy Face is back on!

My first order of business for this week is to announce 

my winner for Cowboy Angels.

Thanks for being understanding and I am most distraught over being gone for so long!

Blog Love is Upon Us....(and not in the form of Valentine's Day) [by The Victorian Punk]

 

(note:  all of these pictures were found on the internet in helping me create the collage)

First off, I'd like to tell all of you readers that I am most definitely NOT a fan of Valentine's day.  I'm sure that sounds quite a bit like the typical male response, but quite honestly, I really think it's a rather obtuse holiday.  No, I'm not the type of bloke who doesn't believe in love and all that, I simply cannot comprehend a day fully dedicated to the buying of noncommittal items such as chocolates and cards that turn people into love sick twitterpated fools. 

Not that I'm against twitterpation, it definitely has its perks.  Now, don't get all crazy on me, but there really isn't anything quite like that first bit of a relationship, if you know what I mean.  The part when things just start and the heat is on.  Personally, I'd like to delve into that part of it no matter what time of year it is.  However, it's of naught importance because that's not why I'm penning all these absurd thoughts to this post in the first place.  

In all actuality it's because the delectable MS has been on my case for some time about getting something up on the blog.  Given, she has an absolute reason to be on my case as I've been MIA for quite sometime.  But, so as not to let anyone think that I'm bothered by this (MS and her on my case *insert eyebrow movement here*), I'd like to let you know that I do it on purpose.  It is always fun to see MS with her feathers ruffled, it makes her all the more divine, but don't tell her I said so. So, to temporarily appease the trouser wearing mademoiselle, I've decided to post up the intro, as requested, for Blog Love.  

Here on Steampunkery and Reviews, we will be going over the blogs we enjoy and hopefully, be able to acquaint ourselves with the many different blogs around the sphere. 

To start off though, I being the gentleman that I am will introduce you all to...me.  Yes, I know, I am delightful, but I thought it would help get the ball rolling and give you readers a glimpse of one face behind Steampunkery.  So, as I've got a knack for the artsy stuff, I've put together this collage with items that tell different things about me and my delicious chin.  *see, I do read the other posts*  

(note:  all of these pictures were found on the internet in helping me create the collage)

Now, I also have some feeling concerning art.  Although this is not the most brilliant piece of art I've ever created, I think all art is better when viewer gets to look without an explanation.  So, for now I will give you the chance to consider the mash of photos and give a guess to who I, Noah The Victorian Punk, really am..  Next blog love post, I'll give you the inside on what they really mean. 

Cheers until next time!

And I leave you with this quote:

"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."

Dr. Suess

(because even though I'm most assuredly am not a hopeless romantic, I'd like to believe that maybe it exists, somewhere, like it should.)

Book Review... The Sweetest Thing by Christina Mandelski

The Sweetest Thing

By: Christina Mandelski
Publisher: Egmont USA, May 2011

Pages: 337 ARC softcover

Tags: Young Adult, Debut Author, Contemporary

First Lines:

I make cakes. It's what I do. It's what I love.

Why the Mad Scientist Read this Book:

The Mad Scientist picked up this book because it was my turn to read the ARC from Star Book Tours. Sometimes I can show some patience tendencies.

Concoction of a Review:

     I picked up The Sweetest Thing not knowing what to expect in the least. Ok, the wonderful cover and first lines gives a huge part of the book away. Sheridan is a young awkward 15 year old known as Cake Girl, much to the obvious but she loves to decorate elaborate cakes. The cakes you can only dream up or see in articles. The premise was very intriguing…

    

     Christina Mandelski has Sheridan, blundering through adolescents and her trifling selfish decisions that she made throughout the story made it a tad bit of a long story. She spends much of her time working and decorating cakes in the bakery that her Nanny owned. She lives with her father, chef and owner of a splendid restaurant.

     Sheridan was abandoned by her mother and it has been years since she has heard from her besides from a few birthday cards and broken promises. For some reason she can't let her mother go, thinking that she knows deep down in her heart that her mother still loves her & really wants to come back to her but she is too afraid.  Armed with this powerful thoughts she spends much of her time looking for her mother with the help of a best friend, Jack.

     The relationship between her and her father is not strong at all. It seems like just coexistence instead of a family relationship. She moans about her father not acting fatherly & lovey at all but the Mad Scientist wanted to shake her and say... your a big girl you could be the one to reach out to him. Now that her father is on his way to getting his own TV show on a food network channel that would take them to New York City. She feels hurt.  Sheridan feels like she would be abandoning her hometown, her life & friends, and would most likely miss her mother coming to find her if she left. Everyone in town is so happy and proud that her father is about to become famous. Except… Sheridan.

    
     What would this little tryst of a young adult novel be without a romance? It seems that she was never seen before but all of a sudden the "hottest" guy at school, Ethan, now has eyes for her. Sheridan turns into melted piles of goo when he kisses her and it seems like most of her common sense also is lacking. The Mad Scientist seen right through his motivation. Grr… I wanted to climb into the book for the second time and shake that girl out of her knee shaken boy coma. Of course, the new common occurrence including a twist of having to choose between another has not passed up The Sweetest Thing. Her beloved best friend Jack has a crush on her which has just recently come to her attention. She is completely confused in this department. Her friend of all friends now wants more & the most popular guy is now her boyfriend.

     Overall, The Sweetest Thing was cute in a sweet kind of way. Sheridan didn't develop much throughout the book but towards the end you could see the life light bulb turn on in her head. It will take some time to warm up to Sheridan. I only wish that I could have seen some of those cakes that Sheridan spent so much time decorating. Christina Mandelski did do a wonderful job with the cake imagery but I'm not a cake person so my minds images are probably way off. Don't get the Mad Scientist wrong.  I feel like I'm not making my point correctly.  There are flaws in this book but I couldn't put it down.  I did want to know what bad choice she would make next, about the cake she was making, and what would happen not only with her mother and father.  The Mad Scientist finished it quickly, however, what was presented in the book could of been in less pages and it could of probably turned out to be more interesting.

    

Rating: 2.75

The selfish decisions and narcissist attitude made for a longer read then needed.

Book Review... Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Delirium

By Lauren Oliver
Published By: Harper Teen  (HarperCollins)
Publish Date: February 2011 TODAY!!
Paperback 440 Pages - eBook 305 Pages
Tags: Young Adult, Dystopian, Coming of Age, Teen Romance

First Line:  It has been sixty four years since the president and the consortium identified Love as a disease, and forty three since the scientist perfected a cure.

Why the Mad Scientist Read this Book: 

Thanks to my friends at NetGalley and Harpercollins for this lovely eARC.   Which has NOT effected my honesty even if I am Mad and deranged.


Concoction of a Review: 

Delirium is the first in a trilogy of three books about the disease deliria amor nervosa, "The deadliest of all deadly things:  It kills you both when you hat it and when you don't."  I'm very pleased about this!  I devoured half of this book in book form and the other half in eBook form in the mater of a few days.  *strokes the nook lovingly*  Lauren's writing was unique and flowed in a wonderful way.   The way she made the characters feel happy, sad or in pain was in such a way that I felt with and for the characters.  I will be picking up Lauren Oliver's debut novel Before I Fall due to the inky goodness of this book. 

Before we can delve into the review of the book I feel a burning need to say that I loved how each chapter started with altered nursery rhymes, wild propaganda against love, and excerpts from the Book of Shh which is sort of the anti love guideline handbook on everything against this horrible disease. 

e-ARC & Tree Delirium

This Beloved book begins in the future dystopian United States, which believes that Love is a disease that needs to be cured before it can fall onto you and cause great harm.  Everyone is to be cured around their 18th birthday and Lena Haloway can hardly wait to join the world of the cured.  Lena abides by all of the rules of the society so she can get a decent score in her evaluations.  After all, she just wanted a decent list of eligible guys for possible matching.

In the beginning I found the world that surrounded Lena to be unique and believable.  Lauren painted a dystopian world that eliminated all of the side effects of the Delirium.  However, she did a beautiful job crumbling down the beautiful facade that she built as Lena learned more about he world she desperately wanted to be apart before... She falls for Alex despite how hard she fits it.  *swoon*  Mad Scientist fell for him too!

For Lena her perfect life is was now to be challenged around every turn.  It was bound to happen in a story about love as the main disease.  Ah, forbidden love.  What will they sacrifice to be together?

4.25 Blasts
I loved the writing style.  The plot, characters, and the world were amazing.  Mad Scientist just felt the beginning was a tad slow.

Quotes:

It still moves around us with invisible, sweeping tentacles, chocking us.

I've known time to stretch out like rings expanding outward over water; I've also know it to rush by with such force it leaves me dizzy.

Everyday the heat gets worse and worse, it creeps through the streets of Portland, festers in the dumpsters, makes the city smell like a giant armpit.

Ok... I admit it has been two days since I wrote this review.

Between then and now I went out and purchased Oliver's other book,

Before I Fall!

Yeah, this ARC made me do it.

But that is ok... I wanted to :)

Mad Scientist Refers These Reviews:

Miss Page Turner's City of Books
That Hapa Chick
Bart's Book Shelf
I Swim for Oceans

Where to find our beloved Lauren Oliver:
GoodReads
Website
Twitter

Addiction.... HUGE ADDICTION

I've come to the conclusion that I am addicted to books!

You may ask... How?

Well, it was fairly simple.

Walk into my humble chateau and you will see that I am simply lacking a library,

because books have wiggled their way into every space there is!

I should warn you that I just moved into this place (in November)

so all my books are in horrid disarray because I have no idea how to organize all of them!

Walk in and you see this shelf above the window.

(It was left here and I think it was lazy of them to not put up a curtain but it works for my books)

My desk... with my beloved touchscreen!

Built in living room bookshelf with shells & Buddhas.

Living room bookcase full of... I'm not sure, lots of romance?

The top of my entertainment center.

Night stand that is no where near my bed 0.o

Book shelf behind my door & stack of huge books and texts.

Pile of books on my bedroom TV stand that has no TV on it.  LOL!

The bottom of my head board shelf.  Scary!

The primal reading spot.  

(I really just hide in here to get a few minutes away from the wee ones.)

The only bookcase that looks nice... my headboard :)

Notice I didn't say and lastly!

I still have books I have yet to move into this place!!!

(Nor did I mention the 200+ books on my Nook)

Yes, crazy!  All of these images of evidence leads me to the conclusion that I am addicted!


*It did take a long time to gather all of these books & I pass along lots of books to family and friends.*

Now this problem leads me to the fact that I will not get all of these read for a very long long time.

Not only that but I have no clue on how I should go about organizing them now that they are all in a mess!

How should the Mad Scientist go about creating an organized library?

I was also thinking about posting a few books a week to see what you have to say about them.

No good, donate, must read, why don't you send that one to me.

What do you think?

I need to clean off my shelves and make room for new books!