Feet On the Ground

Summer TV started tonight. USA has cornered that market and I have been looking forward to new episodes of my shows. Of course, nothing can top my boys from Psych but until they come back I’ll be satisfied with my Michael Westin posse, HankMed and Matthew Bomer’s ridiculously blue eyes.

At times, it could be accurately said that I love TV more than breathing. I can’t seem to get enough of it. I find Michael Ausiello to be the biggest tool of the web but I envy his job SO much. He does nothing but watch TV and write about it. Entertainment Weekly, if you’re looking for someone prettier and far less annoying than Aus, I don’t have to go to law school.

Burn Notice and Royal Pains are a really odd pairing for the same night. I know that USA was trying to boost RP’s Nielsen ratings by using the Burn lead-in, but pairing an awesome show with a pretty good show makes the contrast look even worse. I think it would have worked better to pair Burn and White Collar (to better prepare for the crossover episode that better happen or I will take a page from Fiona’s book and go trigger happy) and then run RP with Covert Affairs or In Plain Sight (which to its credit is stronger this season than ever before) while leaving Psych on Wednesdays. Burn and Psych have pretty rabid fans while RP seems to pick up casual viewers. Ah, well, what do I know? Rather than running a network, I’m not getting paid to blog!

Regardless, tonight was a good night of premieres and I’m excited to see where the seasons go. Burn started off with a bang and several booms right away, which is a good sign in my eyes. I love the action. I loved seeing Michael come in and hug Madeline. I loved how Sam and Fiona just roped him into a little mission right away with no fanfare regarding his return. I loved how Big Ed put the biker jacket on Winston at the end. I love that I wished Michael had shot Vaughn when he had the chance but am also glad that he didn’t. I did not love that a 43 minute episode seemed to last about 3 minutes.

With Royal Pains, I loved seeing Evan’s antics finally return. He doesn’t need to be sad. I loved that Hank punched his dad in the face because I have neither the strength or opportunity to punch my own father. I hated, and I mean HATED Jill’s outfit. I mean, ick. I hated the entitled surgeon. I loved Spencer. I love that Mary Lynn Rajskub is going to be a future patient. I liked that Hank is going to make some headway with Boris. I hated that Evan sold his car because, well, I have epic car lust. I will be infuriated if Divya leaves. I still love Evan, and I still am not very moved by Hank’s character. I don’t know if it’s the actor or the character, but he’s falling flat for me. It’s probably the hair (Shawn Spencer would agree).

Despite my RP criticism, I’m incredibly thrilled that summer TV is starting and filling up my roster. I have eps of several shows that I haven’t seen yet from this spring, but I need to get crackin’ because summer is starting to sizzle.

Tags: Burn Notice, Royal Pains

I am pretty thrilled to review The Bride Collector for Hachette. Ted Dekker is my favorite male author, and I always anxiously await his next release. I’m so thankful that Hachette gave me the book to review ahead of the release. There’s a certain rush to holding an ARC of a book from a really awesome dude.

I’ll preface my review by saying that Ted is my favorite author for many reasons, but one of them is his consistency. His books can fall into many different genres, but he is consistent with perfectionist writing, a relevant theme, and unbridled passion. My least favorite Ted book is going to be much better than the best book of most authors. It’s ironic that he writes books about killers. I went to The Gathering last year and heard Ted speak and talked to him when he autographed my book. He’s soft-spoken and mild-mannered. He seemed like he would rather be with his characters in his writing cave than in front of hundreds of adoring fans- almost uncomfortable at the attention. Yet behind his calm demeanor lies a lightning fast mind and a passionate spirit. The passion he feels for his recurring theme of good versus evil keeps his books captivating.

So, yeah, I’m biased. But I’m going to be as objective as possible, and if I sound negative about it- rest assured that I found it to be a fantastic book.

Two things about this book I found especially captivating. First of all, the connection that the FBI agents had to other characters in the story and the case itself made them more important to the story than other law enforcement agents in Ted’s previous books. (Sinner, for example.) Brad Raines is not simply employed to work on this case. It becomes his life. He is changed by the encounter with the Bride Collector himself. His outlook and motivations are completely spun around by people he encounters. Usually, the victims and the killers are the ones most impacted by the case and those in law enforcement are pretty static characters. The approach to this case, however, was different and therefore refreshing.

The other aspect were the, um, “consultants” used to help solve the case. In a nutshell, the FBI asks some residents of the Center for Wellness and Intelligence (CWI) to lend some of their insight to the patterns of the killer. CWI is a posh residence for members of society who have astronomical IQs and abilities- yet are impaired by certain psychological conditions. Andrea, for example, is young, beautiful and her mind works in an almost unfathomable way with numbers. She can glance at a page of a book and know exactly how many words are on the page. Yet she is obsessed with cleanliness and takes multiple showers a day. She is manic depressive, apologizes incessantly, and hears voices telling her how stupid she is. Brilliant and broken- as are all of the residents of CWI.

As someone who holds a degree in psychology, I was absolutely fascinated by the inclusion of CWI and these characters. Ted took a leap, a big one, and it worked. They lend a layer to the story that saves it from being about yet another serial killer. I usually am most intrigued by Ted’s villains. He writes them almost too well. Slater, Marsuvees, the many foes of Thomas Hunter. Ted has a grasp of evil that most people, especially Christians, desperately avoid seeing as reality. This is why his books are so important and his theme always relevant. This time, though, the story felt like it was woven together intricately. The killer, CWI, and law enforcement were all connected through strong emotional ties. This made the so much more interesting, and in my opinion, is much better than BoneMan’s Daughters.

However, I don’t mind gong on record saying that I miss old Ted. The Ted who wrote The Circle Trilogy. The Ted who blew my 16 year old mind with Thr3e. It was the first Ted book I read (and it’s now autographed!) and I remember sitting on an airplane somewhere over the Atlantic, finishing the book, closing it, staring wide eyed into space as I contemplated the ending, and flipped back to the beginning to start the book over from a different perspective. Thr3e had a slow beginning, but at the first boom it rocketed forward and never stopped. It was slightly bogged down by some writing weirdness that isn’t visible in Ted’s work now, but it was intricately planned and the characters were almost like flesh and blood. Thinking about Slater creeps me out to this day.

Let’s not even discuss Adam this late at night.

Bride Collector? Not so much.

In some of Ted’s most recent books, the good/evil theme falls a little flat. I respect that he is trying to reach a larger audience and I’m absolutely thrilled that he is getting more recognition and appearing on bestseller lists. I don’t think that the message of the gospel needs to be shoved in the faces of readers. But I do think that he needs to focus more on the reasoning behind good and why it trumps evil. In The Bride Collector, good trumps evil because of love. It is one of the most satisfying endings Ted has ever written. But when the discussion of who is love and who is the only truly good being that has ever existed is removed, the theme loses power.

Ted, you’re still fabulous.

Tags: book review, Ted Dekker

Excited to be doing yet another book review for Litfuse! It’s so much fun to get these books in the mail from them. This one is a prairie story written by Tricia Goyer and Ocieanna Fleiss. Tricia is super sweet! I’ve talked to her on Twitter and through e-mail and I love getting a peek into her eventful life. She’s done some amazing things and has great plans for the future too!

Anyway, about the book!

Basically, it’s a prairie story. Obviously. Julia Cavanaugh works for an orphanage and when it closes down, she travels with the girls on a train out west to give them over to loving families. When she gets to the last stop, she finds out that her caregiver had arranged for her to be given over as a bride to a not-so-desirable man. Her options are pretty bleak, and she spends most of the book trying to find a way back to New York while simultaneously carving out a life on the prairie.

The book was such an easy read, which is always appreciated. The characters were believable and I really felt Julia’s pain and uncertainty when she was uprooted and had to wait it out in a foreign place among strangers. If you’re looking for more than a Christian prairie story, though, you’ll be disappointed. The spiritual conversions were too convenient and sometimes felt like it was written mainly for the standards of CBA. I was kind of waiting for a twist that would be a bit unfortunate for someone and make it seem more real, but it didn’t really happen.

Not that it’s completely a bad thing, of course. We need books that are good, fun, easy reads where everything works out in the end. Those are great for encouragement. You just have to know what you’re getting into here. I felt like the authors totally had the capability to take the story beyond the expected, but they chose not to do so. Maybe it was the genre. Who knows. I’d love, though, to see them dig into something deeper.

Soooo here’s another book review I’m doing as part of the blog tour for LitFuse Publicity. It’s a book called Pearl Girls, and basically a bunch of authors and speakers sent in short stories with “pearls” of wisdom. Info about the project can be found here!.

I enjoyed reading what these women had to offer, especially the ones that I’d heard of. It feels like a peek into someone’s life and it’s so special to be allowed to know what they’ve experienced. Some of them were quite painful, but they have all come out of them with a special understanding of life and grace and it illuminates the point that we have to find the lessons in the hard things that we endure in life.

The thing that really bothered me about this was that each story was too short. There are many stories here, but the book itself is pretty thin, and I felt like each story should have had another page. I’m sure that it was planned out that way, because it seems like every single story that I read wasn’t concluded. Most of them had happened years earlier, and I wanted another page of how the woman was affected by what she went through. It just didn’t seem like there was enough to satisfy me. And maybe that’s just totally my personality. I know that it’s a good point that life isn’t wrapped up and concluded in nice little packages, and that our stories keep going. I just wanted some more, and I wonder why the project didn’t feel complete.

Okay, so I watched the new House tonight (Instant Karma) with my parents and best friend. There were lots of comments about how it was like the old episodes and some people are liking it better. The show got a lot of flack from getting rid of the old ducklings and then hiring on all of the new ones. Honestly, I think House was at his most fascinating when he hired 40 new people and then fired them (or Amber tricked them into quitting). I loved the journey with the new ducklings, but I know someone who just completely quit watching the show just because they brought on new people even though it had previously been her favorite show.

Which doesn’t make sense to me. At all.

I’m fiercely loyal to things even if something changes. I will stick through until it dies, or gets canceled, or just tells me to go away. Sometimes it works against me, because I just refuse to give up on things even if it’s to my detriment.

But with House, did people really think that it could have longevity if he had stayed with the same staff? Clearly the show would not survive without House, but the rest of the characters could come and go. I always want more Wilson, but if the same thing had happened each episode with the same people, it would have gotten boring. It’s okay to have different people and different things happening. Sure, the show has to have something that stays the same to keep people coming back and feeling a certain sense of security, but if it’s the same all the time, it’s boring.

Does life have longevity if it’s boring and safe? Who wants to be a part of something that never changes, never offers excitement?

I think that we should get used to change. It’s a welcome relief from what can quickly turn into drudgery. And it can bring about something good, and better. If House had kept the original team around, the people who were starting to understand how to handle him, he may never have went down the path that eventually led to beating his addiction. Sure, he could have, but I think this was more fun.

Tags: change, House

So I’m doing another book review for LitFuse Publicity and I totally love these! It’s for a book by Susan May Warren called The Great Christmas Bowl. You can go here to find more reviews and info about it.

When I first saw the book I was disappointed because it was so small. I like a good thick book to really settle into. However, despite the fact that this was a quick read, it managed to be a fulfilling story. If Susan had tried to pack more into what it was, it wouldn’t have worked at all. I ended up loving it. I cracked up and teared up throughout the entire thing. I loved that she tied in the ideas of traditions, both in families and in churches, and the importance of allowing new ones to form and not hold on to the “same old thing” just for the sake of doing it, while maintaining the strong plotline of the football team.

I’m not a sports fan. But lately I’ve come to appreciate how something like a football team can bring together a community and give them something to be excited about. This whole theme was carried across very well, and even I got into the spirit of rooting for the Trouts. Honestly, I just had fun reading it. It’s not a groundbreaking story or one that will totally change your life, but it’s worth reading just because it’s fun. The more I got into it, the more I loved it. And isn’t that what reading is all about?

About The Great Christmas Bowl:
Marianne Wallace is focused on two things this holiday season:
planning the greatest family Christmas ever and cheering on her
youngest son’s team in their bid for the state championship.
Disaster strikes when the team loses their mascot-the Trout. Is it
going too far to ask her to don the costume? So what if her husband
has also volunteered her to organize the church Christmas tea.
When football playoffs start ramping up, the Christmas tea starts
falling apart. Then, one by one her children tell her they can’t come
home for Christmas.
As life starts to unravel, will Marianne remember the true meaning of
the holidays?

About Susan:
Susan May Warren is the RITA award-winning author of twenty-four
novels with Tyndale, Barbour and Steeple Hill. A four-time Christy
award finalist, a two-time RITA Finalist, she’s also a multi-winner of
the Inspirational Readers Choice award, and the ACFW Book of the Year.
Her larger than life characters and layered plots have won her acclaim
with readers and reviewers alike. A seasoned women’s events and
retreats speaker, she’s a popular writing teacher at conferences
around the nation and the author of the beginning writer’s workbook:
From the Inside-Out: discover, create and publish the novel in you!.
She is also the founder of www.MyBookTherapy.com, a story-crafting
service that helps authors discover their voice. Susan makes her home
in northern Minnesota, where she is busy cheering on her two sons in
football, and her daughter in local theater productions (and
desperately missing her college-age son!) A full listing of her
titles, reviews and awards can be found at: www.susanmaywarren.com

Link to Buy the Book:
http://www.christianbook.com/great-christmas-bowl-susan-warren/9781414326788/pd/326788?event=AFFp=&

The Great Christmas Bowl website: http://thegreatchristmasbowl.blogspot.com/
The website features a note from the author, fun updates from Big Lake
Gazette, info on how to host your own Great Christmas Bowl Tea to
benefit a local ministry or charity and a fun Recipe Exchange contest!

CONTEST: Be a part of the Great Christmas Bowl recipe exchange!
Susan loves getting recipes from friends, and sharing the delicious
cookies, soups, breads and other fun fixings that go with celebrating
the Christmas season. More than that, she loves the crazy stories
about favorite Christmases – serious, touching, funny…whatever. Find
the recipe contest here:
http://thegreatchristmasbowl.blogspot.com/2009/07/recipe-exchange.html

It’s obvious that one of the themes that I’ve dealt with lately (okay, so, my entire life!) is fear. I’m constantly battling it, and when this book came available to review for Thomas Nelson’s Book Review Bloggers program, I jumped on the chance. Here’s the info page on Thomas Nelson’s site where you can watch the video trailer and read the first chapter and other review and whatnot. But first, look at how pretty the cover is:

The computer screen doesn’t do it justice- the blue is stunning in person.

Okay, so down to serious business. Here’s the review.

Max takes several verses from the gospels where Jesus addresses different types of fear. It’s clear that He sees no use for it and wants His followers to understand that fear is completely unnecessary because He is present, in control, and loves them enough to take care of them for eternity. Many fear-inducing issues are addressed here: the welfare of children, fear of the future, fear of challenges, fear of disappointing God. He approaches them all with both scripture and real-life experiences. Rather than saying that Christians should be in denial about what they’re afraid of, he challenges us to approach them head on.

Max’s writing is absolutely beautiful. The way that he strings the words together has a calming effect. I found myself re-reading sections just because I wanted to soak them in again. My favorite chapters were The Villagers of Stiltsville (the fear of not mattering) and Caffeinated Life (fear of what’s next) because they are by far my greatest fears. For the former, he used the verse that so many of us are familiar with, about God even caring for the sparrows. Most of the time, when I hear that verse, it doesn’t really effect me. I’ve heard it too often. But Max’s illustration about the villagers and Punchinello made me realize how silly all of this worry about how other people finding me significant really is. I still struggle with it, but I have some more perspective now. Then, the Caffeinated Life chapter really challenged me about not expecting life to be perfect or easy while not being afraid of what really could happen. Even if my imagined worst-case scenario came about, the VERY worst-case scenario, being without Christ, will never happen. He will protect me and guide me through everything, and facing it with courage is much more admirable than rebuking demons out of every doorknob.

In short, I loved the book. I loved the reminders that I received and the perspective that it gave me. Reading it was such an enjoyable experience because of the writing style.

Recap: Vandalism and general creepiness is occurring at Old Sonora, a fake Wild West town that functions as a tourist attraction. Lassi hires Shawn and Gus to check it out. They discover a dead body (and subsequently run away in terror) and the case heats up. They end up figuring out that there is a gold mine under the town and someone is secretly mining. They figure out who the murderer is and clear the name of the lead suspect, the owner of the town and Lassi’s old friend. Yay team Psych!

This episode is definitely in my top 3. It was absolutely hilarious, and Shawn got to pretend to be the sheriff and wear spurs. Comedy gold. Gus had some fabulous lines as well:

“If this turns into Blazing Saddles, I’m out of here!”

I love black jokes made at Gus’s expense, by Gus himself. Another great exchange:

Lassiter: Well, while you two are sitting here playing cowboys and Indians…
Shawn: Huh-uh, just cowboys, Lassi.
Gus: Injuns is offensive.
Lassiter: I didn’t say Injuns, Guster.
Gus: That’s what I heard.
Shawn: Me too.
Lassiter: Would you just shut up? *blusters and stomps out the door*
Shawn: Man’s all hopped up on cactus juice.
Gus: *plays harmonica*

No mention of Abigail, from what I can recall. I’m glad we got some backstory on Lassiter. I mean, okay, daddy issues is kind of unoriginal…but at least it’s something. It was really nice to see his attachment to the town and Hank, that he could be motivated by something other than shooting his gun. Also, it was nice to see that Shawn got sentimental about Old Sonora too, and Henry was the one that realized it. Shawn usually has no problem distancing himself from everything and everyone, but this required some effort because he was seeing the town through Lassi’s eyes.

Bromance? Maybe a stretch. But Shawn cares. *sniff* It’s so precious, really.

Tags: Psych

Obligatory recap: Shawn and Gus find a billionaire who crashed his plane, and Warren Clayton’s dying wish is for then to figure out who killed him. The police think it’s an accident, but Warren’s widow, Alice, hires Shawn and Gus to figure out who killed her husband. She fires the pair when Shawn states that one of the family members killed Warren, but then they are put back on the case by Chief Vick and save the day.

Honestly, the cases on the show don’t fascinate me that much. There have been a few, of course, that were interesting, but mostly because of the environment (can we say Shawn Spenstar and Gus “TT” Showbiz?). This episode returned to the roots of why I started loving the show- the dynamic between Shawn and Gus. From Shawn using Gus as his “note to self” to introducing him simply as “Jazz Hands” to their identical assessment of someone’s golf swing. They worked so well together. I love their bromance.

The rest of the characters were a bit lame. I’m ready for Lassiter to grow some hair (did I mention that I hate buzz cuts?). I did think it was interesting that Gus reminded Shawn to check in with Abigail, and Shawn actually listened. The best lines of the show:

“There is no ‘relationship Shawn’ or ‘boyfriend Shawn’. There’s only regular Shawn and Malibu Shawn, you know that!”

I’m starting to feel like the name “Shawn” looks and sounds really weird because I’ve typed it so much in this post.

Abigail’s meddling with Shawn (!) and Henry’s relationship is really only going to land her in trouble. I’m interested to see how it changes them, and to see how ‘boyfriend Shawn’ handles things. Is it just me, or was he really testy about Henry this ep? I feel like things have improved greatly for them over time, and the bickering is just there because that’s all they know how to do. It doesn’t seem to really have much of a basis now.

Psych writers, please give us more Buzz McNab action. I love him.

Overall, this ep didn’t really advance anything about the show, just reminded us how perfect S&G are together. I’m okay with that, but very excited about “High Noonish” coming on in 48 hours and 44 minutes. This should be quite interesting.

Tags: Psych, TV

So I know I’m like 6 days late, but I really wanted to start doing reviews of a couple shows when the new seasons started up to add something a little different to my blog. I love TV. Watching the stories unfold and the characters grow and change is so much fun. In my opinion, so much more rewarding than movies, which are over so quickly. Psych is probably the most hilarious show, um, ever. You should watch it.

Quick recap of this episode: Shawn and Gus go to Vancouver for a ski trip. While there, Shawn recognizes this man- Pierre Despereaux- as an art thief that Lassiter had been hunting for a long time. Lassi and Jules head up to help Shawn sniff him out, and Shawn and Gus get into plenty of trouble on their own. More likely, Shawn gets himself and Gus into plenty of trouble. Including getting arrested and Henry coming to bail them out of jail because Shawn has already maxed out Gus’s credit card.

There are some wonderfully comedic moments and lines in this episode. Like when Shawn and Gus are skiing down the hill trying to chase Despereaux: “Pizza slice to slow down, french fries to speed up!” Or when Gus is trying to get through the security laser beams in the museum with Shawn’s instructions: “Spread your cheeks if you can. Scratch that. Abort cheek spreading!” And, of course, “Right hand green! Right hand green!” “That’s Twister, Shawn!” “Oh, right. Why don’t we play that anymore?”

Gus makes it through, panting and triumphant. Then Shawn walks straight through the beams. The lasers were turned off.

So of course there were some amazing comedic moments, but what I really love about this show is that it’s so funny while having some poignancy simultaneously. Lassi was thrown off by having his gun taken away and everyone thinking that he worked for “Head Detective Spencer.” He is completely defined by his job and all of his confidence comes from his performance there. But Shawn gets thrown off too, as Despereaux tricks him repeatedly and no one believes him. He has become so accustomed to his ‘job’ and the thrill of solving the puzzle that he is really similar to Lassiter in this regard, just with a completely different style.

Then there’s the whole relationship angle. Although James Roday is adorable, Shawn would be the worst boyfriend ever. I love his interactions with Juliet, but he plays with her emotions so much. Typical man- unable to commit. Anyway, I wouldn’t mind them getting together if Shawn could settle down a bit, but Jules doesn’t deserve being thrown around like this. I wonder why Shawn could so easily commit to Abigail, who wasn’t even in the episode yet was so prevalent the entire time, and refuse to admit to how much he really cares for Jules.

Overall, this episode retained the qualities that made me love Psych to begin with while setting up a few angles to explore in future episodes. I’m anxious to see what will happen now that Shawn is in a relationship and Lassi is divorced. Where is the chief’s child? Even her husband. I need more Buzz, stat. Gus needs a woman. Jules needs more of a life. Lassi needs to grow his hair out immediately. I hate buzz cuts on men.

New ep tomorrow!! Yay!