Miss Invisible (Laura Jensen Walker)

Rating:

Convinced that her larger size relegates her to a wallflower status, Freddie Heinz hides behind wedding cakes she creates as a professional baker. But life is about to change for Miss Invisible.

First of all, Freddie’s found a new friend who encourages her to come out of her shell. Then, Hal, the cute veterinarian, starts showing interest in he woman behind the delightful cakes. And when Freddie decides to break every rule in the “big girl’s” book and finds out who she really is, life gets even more exciting — and hilarious.

Finally I got to read another one from one of my favorite authors, Laura Jensen Walker. It’s no secret that her Phoebe Grant novels are my favorites, and she was the first Christian chicklit author I read about. :) I saw this book from her website and finally got the chance to get a copy through my dad.

Now, I love how the protagonist of this novel is someone who’s not into fashion, but more into food. Although I am not invisible and there’s no too much stressing on figure from where I am, I can relate to her having a hard time shopping, to her loving food and having dessert at home. Heh. Deborah, the other character is fantastic as well — she even made me feel happy about my curves. :D

The message is good, but I’m not too thrilled about how the story went. Although I think the story is fine, there were some parts of it I really didn’t like. Like Freddie’s blogging. It didn’t seem to gel with the entire story; it felt kind of out of place. And how Freddie’s love life was tackled, especially since my reading eyes were already set on Hal, but that didn’t push through. The “climax” of the story didn’t seem too high as well; although it brought tears to my eyes. The last part of the story reminded me of how she wrote Reconstructing Natalie, where instead of a continuously flowing story, it felt like she was telling me the other highlights of the story instead. Not that that’s bad, it just felt a bit…I don’t know, disjointed?

Oh, but I loved two other things in the story. First is Deborah’s house, which when described seemed SO beautiful and homey. I bet her house beats all the other Condo Hotels out there. Also, there’s all those FOOD! All the cakes that Freddie baked and decorated, as well as the food that Deborah cooked for her catering business…yum yum!

This is a good book, and I recommend it for everyone, especially for those who feel insecure about their figures. :) We are fearfully and wonderfully made! :D

Summer!

I spent some time before going to work yesterday spiffying up Aslan’s desktop. :D I’m not really much of a “change wallpaper every now and then” person — in fact, there would be times I hardly notice my wallpaper. Or I’d have no wallpaper at all because of my computer’s slowing down. ^^; Hee. But since I know Aslan can take it…okay, let’s just go to the desktop screenshot already:

Don’t you just love how cheerful it looks? :D It’s no secret that I love sunflowers, and a few days before I fixed Aslan’s, Guilo’s (my office computer) is already on sunflower mode. I decided to look for one for Aslan, and found this amazingly HUGE and bright sunflower wallpaper somewhere online. :D Whee. Looking at it always makes me smile. :)

Icons on my desktop are only two: my hard drive and my torrents folder, which is currently empty. Heh. See I made the hard drive icon into a sun, so it’s really summer?

Stuff on my dock: Finder, iCal, Mail (I sometimes use this ^^;), iTunes, iPhoto, PhotoBooth, System Preferences, Firefox, Adium, MS Word, MS Excel, Photoshop, Transmission, TextWrangler, MAMP, VLC, Keyboard Cleaner, Heroes of Might and Magic 5 and Grab, which I used to take the screenshot. And of course, the trash bin. :D That may seem a lot, but believe me, I’ve seen other people’s Macs with a FULL and tiny dock. :P

Oh, and finally, I installed ShapeShifter, this program that changes the themes for Mac OS X, and my theme right now is called Fantastic. Like I said, it makes everything look so cheerful. :D

This definitely makes me excited for summer. Which reminds me, maybe I should change my office desktop from the plain sunflower on white background into something similar like this — all blue and yellow? Hm, why not?

Summer’s hereeee! I can feel that this summer is definitely going to be better than the last — I have two beach trips to look forward to. :P And probably more to come! Good thing I have good travel insurance. ;)

Have a great day ahead, everyone. :D

Easter

This week has got to be the most book-filled week. I think I finished four books this week, and not all of them were short. Wow. Talk about enthusiastic reading.

But that is what happens to me when I take away one thing that has become more or less an essential to me every night and day - my computer and the Internet (okay, so they’re two things). And although I have successfully avoided them last year (I don’t know how I did that, really), this year proved to be a bit more difficult. Not only in this particular fast, but also in the other fast. Let’s see how I fared this Lent:

• The first fast I told myself I’d be doing this year was the 40 days of prayer and fasting…which I failed miserably. Last year I did the seven days of prayer and fasting, which I was kind of successful in doing. This year was just…hard. Every Friday of the fast, I’d end up eating too much. I didn’t even mentally prepare for the fast. And come Holy Week, I had it in my mind to really fast…but then the Holy Week started with my birthday! Ack.
• The next, which was what I mentioned earlier, was the no computer and Internet fast. I almost made it…but not without me going online for an hour each on Thursday and Friday, and finally breaking the fast yesterday. How about that for conviction. :( I bet even taking away my laptop wouldn’t help; I probably would’ve just stolen some online time from my dad’s or from some laptop rental out there. :(
• And to top it all off, I didn’t get to confess this Lent. :(

So conviction and fasting wise, I had a pretty crummy Lent. I did manage to stay away from meat every Friday…but it doesn’t feel like it’s a worthy offering, you know?

I’m sorry Lord.

I know I shouldn’t be too hard on myself with that, but I just feel like I took away some of the gifts that I planned to give to someone special. Or that I broke a promise to someone and although he says it’s okay, I can’t help but feel guilty.

Or like Peter, who promised that he would never turn his back on Jesus, but denied Him not once, but three times, a few hours later. How’s that for conviction.

There’s one book I’ve always loved reading and going back to especially during Holy Week: Max Lucado’s No Wonder They Called Him the Savior. Here’s the particular part that always makes my eyes fill with tears:

Look in Mark, chapter 16. Read the first five verses about the women’s surprise when they find the stone moved to the side. Then feast on that beautiful phrase spoken by the angel, “He is not here, he is risen,” but don’t pause for too long. Go a bit further…the verse reads like this: … “But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee.”

…If I might paraphrase the words, “Don’t stay here, go tell the disciples,” a pause, then a smile, “and especially Peter, that he is going before you to Galilee.”

What a line. It’s as if all of heaven had watched Peter fall — and it’s as if all of heaven wanted to help him back up again. “Be sure to tell Peter that he’s not left out. Tell him that one failure doesn’t make a flop.”

pp 93-94, No Wonder They Called Him the Savior by Max Lucado

St. Peter is one of my favorite saints (together with St. Paul). His stubbornness (”No, you won’t wash my feet!”) and his short temper (he cut off an ear!) were definitely his flaws, but I can’t get over his intense devotion that made him say those words, “Even though all the others fall away, I will not.” (Mark 14:29) I’d like to believe that Jesus gave him a rueful smile before he foretold of his denial, to which Peter stubbornly insisted, “Though I have to die with you, I will never deny you.” (Mark 14:31)

I see myself in that moment, especially in the past Lent. As much as I’d like to be John, who stuck by Jesus’ side all through out, I think I was more of Peter, who promised such and such to Jesus, but didn’t follow through. And I knew Jesus knew that would happen to me this year, just like He knew Peter would deny him.

I’m not saying that what I failed to do in the last few weeks was excusable, that I shouldn’t do it again next time since I failed this year and still God loves me anyway. I’m not saying that I shouldn’t bother to fast or confess next time. That’s not the point. The thing is, even in my lack of faith, in my lack of willpower, God still grants me the grace and forgives me. Jesus knows that this would happen, and yet He forgives me. And although I know God appreciates that I promise to try harder next time, He’s asking me to accept the grace He is offering. Because He wants me — as in the WHOLE me — more than He wants any of my sacrifices, just as how He wanted Peter more than His promise of sticking by Him. :)

It sounds a bit absurd in some ways, I know, but what’s faith if you’re certain about everything?

As we start on this Easter season today, I leave you with a quote I got from one of the books I finished reading this weekend:

Easter cannot exist for you and for me without a deep willingness to embrace the mystery of love at its most fundamental: he who was dead now lives; I who was lost am found. I don’t ever pretend to understand that. Even that willingness is a gift…His death paid for my sin; his Resurrection opened the door for me to new life.
- p. 264, May Crowning, Mass and Merton: 50 Reasons I Love Being Catholic by Liz Kelly

Happy Easter, everyone. :)

Eclipse (Stephenie Meyer)

Rating:

“BELLA?”

Edward’s soft voice came from behind me. I turned to see him spring lightly up the porch steps, his hair windblown from running. He pulled me into his arms at once, just like he had in the parking lot, and kissed me again.

This kiss frightened me. There was too much tension, too strong an edge to the way his lips crushed mine—like he was afraid we had only so much time left to us.

* * *

As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob—knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella has one more decision to make: life or death. But which is which?

NOTE: If you haven’t read New Moon yet, DON’T READ THIS REVIEW! You’ll be spoiled. ^^;

I really wasn’t planning to buy this one yet. I was planning to wait it out, wait for the paperback to come out, which I bet would come out a bit before Breaking Dawn does, which means I would only have a short time waiting until book four. Buut…I couldn’t wait. Plus I saw that the copies of Eclipse were running out in the bookstore nearest me…so I grabbed it and it was on sale, so yay. :) This book definitely helped me through my fasting this past weekend, and I can’t believe I read it this fast. It must be really captivating, eh?

I don’t know how I could review this novel without spoiling anyone who plans to read this book. I think this book saved New Moon. As I mentioned, New Moon was saved by Jacob Black, and I’m glad there’s more Jacob AND Edward here, which are both favorite characters. I like how there’s so many realizations happening in the story, how the characters interacted with each other, and how this story flowed more easily than New Moon did. I love how Bella finally started being nervous about her decision to be a vampire in the previous book, instead of her just wanting and not thinking of how this decision would affect other people in her life who were not immortal.

Okay, I’ll talk about three things here: Edward and Bella, Jacob and Bella and how Stephenie Meyer portrayed love in the story. There might be potential spoilers in this post (sorry, I just can’t avoid it :D), so proceed with caution. ;)

(More…)

Holy Week Break

As with last year’s notice, I will be offline starting tomorrow up to Saturday in observance of the Holy Week. Time to have some quiet time with my Greatest Love, to remember and be thankful of what He did for me way before I existed. This week carries the true meaning of what we celebrated last December, the real reason why He came into this world, and I believe that is reason enough for me to take a break this week. :D

So thank You.

I leave you with one of my favorite Holy Week songs, Why by Nichole Nordeman. See you on Easter Sunday. :)

WHY?
Nichole Nordeman

We rode into town the other day
Just me and my Daddy
He said I’d finally reached that age
And I could ride next to him on a horse
That of course was not quite as wide

We heard a crowd of people shouting
And so we stopped to find out why
And there was that man
That my dad said he loved
But today there was fear in his eyes

So I said “Daddy, why are they screaming?
Why are the faces of some of them beaming?
Why is He dressed in that bright purple robe?
I’ll bet that crown hurts Him more than He shows
Daddy, please can’t you do something?
He looks as though He’s gonna cry
you said he was stronger than all of those guys
addy, please tell me why
Why does everyone want him to die?”

Later that day the sky grew cloudy
And Daddy said I should go inside
Somehow he knew things would get stormy
Boy was he right
But I could not keep from wondering
If there was something he had to hide

So after he left I had to find out
I was not afraid of getting lost
So I followed the crowds
To a hill where I knew men had been killed
And I heard a voice come from the cross

And it said, “Father, why are they screaming?
Why are the faces of some of them beaming?
Why are they casting their lots for My robe?
This crown of thorns hurts Me more than it shows
Father, please can’t You do something?
I know that You must hear My cry
I thought I could handle the cross of this size
Father, remind Me why
Why does everyone want Me to die?
When will I understand why?”

“My precious Son, I hear them screaming
I’m watching the face of the enemy beaming
But soon I will clothe You in robes of My own
Jesus, this hurts Me much more than You know
But this dark hour I must do nothing
Though I’ve heard Your unbearable cry
The power in Your blood destroys all of the lies
Soon You’ll see past their unmerciful eyes
Look there below, see the child
Trembling by her father’s side
Now I can tell You why
She is why You must die”