Univerze

So, think this might be the first thread I've started since I have joined this forum. I've looked and looked but couldn't find a thread on this writer, let alone this series. Can you imagine how shocked I was, this being one of my favourite series ever. I am currently re-reading the first book of this series, for the fourth (or something) time. To see if you guys know this, if not, to enlighten you further.. Mind you, I have never written a review(-ish anything), here or elsewhere, apart from the horrible ones we had to do for language in highschool. So be patient with me. Jacqueline Carey - Kushiel's Dart, Kushiel's Chosen, Kushiel's Avatar. This is a series of novels that play in a sort of alternate history medieval Europe. The main character, Phedre, is born in the country of Terre D'Ange, which would in our world, mean France. However, alternate history lines.. so.. from the blood on Jesus (Yeshua Ben Yosef) on the cross, and the tears of Mary Magdalene, from the womb of Mother Earth, is born the sacred Elua, worshipped in all of Terre D'Ange. Elua was rejected as true offspring by the one god, but instead he realmed the Earth, joined by eight of god's own angels.. one of these being the angel Naamah, who lay with strangers to free Elua from captivity, and to feed him and the company of angels who joined him. They settled in Terre D'Ange, however after the true one god saw that they'd spread their progeny across the Earth, he let them go to the true Terre D'Ange, the one that lies beyond this life, and where all men go after death. Elua, Naamah and all the other angels have since become sort of gods, worshipped and honored in all of Terre D'Ange, each angel having his or her own province in which his or her own blood runs thickest, since these angels have bred amongst humans. Most of all, there is the service of Naamah, a service that reighns in the Court of the Nightblooming Flowers. Thirteen houses situated in the city of Elua, each having his own creed, but the main being, "Love as Thou Wilt".. Elua's creed. Thirteen houses of courtisanes, worshipping their gods through the act of love.. physical love. The protagonist in this series is Phedre, a girl being born from an unwanted union between her mother, adept in Jasmine House, and her father, a merchant. They sell her to the main House, Cereus House, at age four, to be able to be together and make a life for themselves. Phedre, however, is not a normal girl. She's the first anguissette to be born in centuries.. a girl who enjoys pain as pleasure.. literally. The angel Kushiel, of punishment, brandished her with his mark.. a bloodred mote in her left eye, a bright red spot in the brown of her iris.. Phedre is adopted in the household of Anafiel Delauney, a man that is more than he appears, and he turns her into a spy.. to play the game of courts and more. Well, so far for the synopsis or whatever. I could go on for a while. These series are amazing. It's.. like no other books I have ever read. the alternate history is fascinating, these people not only believe in their gods, they accept that they are part of daily life, and in these books, they are. To read this was heart-wrenching, intoxicating and stunning. The books are beautifully written, language and the pictures they paint alike. It is hard to describe this in a language not quite my own.. These books are great for anyone who likes reading medieval-ish books, books about intrigues, court life, and of course, the life of a courtisane. However, these books might be about a courtisane, don't let it fool you into thinking they're overrun by sex scenes. They're not. The sex scenes are there, but they're very much part of the plot, nothing overtly done, and mostly, they're brief. Though they are something most people wouldn't consider even remotely attractive (pain playing a great part in them, as does humiliation and begging), since these days, it would be considered BDSM. If you're not too abhorred by this (since it's Phedre's nature) then I'd very much consider reading these books. After this, there's the Imriel series, same author, different protagonist, one that plays a minor part in the two latter Kushiel's legacy series. They're amazing too, and I love Imriel more than I love Phedre, but since you have to read the first books first.. So yeah, umm. Anyoe know/love these books?

I would try a lot of meats. I actually eat horse meat every now and then, it's easily available here and I like it lots. Ostrich you can get here lots too, but i have never heard of some of the other. But I'd try it, I'll try most things (not everything!!!) once.

I can help you out with the werewolf thing.. those are films, they're called Ginger Snaps. Therer are three films, in the first the older sister, called Ginger (both sisters are close in age, and are outsiders, they wear odd clothes and have never had their periods) gets bitten by a werewolf, changes physically and mentally while her sister starts to try and stop this. Second film, and the younger one is in a mental institution, and trying to stop herself from turning into a werewolf too by injecting herself with something made out of wolfsbane, this purple fluid. Rings a bell? Ginger Snaps (part 1) Ginger Snaps: Unleashed (part 2) Ginger Snaps Back : The Beginning (part 3) They're nice films, but a bit bad at times, as most werewolf films. Still, worth watching, yes.

I am a girl raised to be a servant of Naamah, in the land of Terre D'Ange, I'm an anguissette, born to find pleasure in pain, and eventually I will become one of the greatest courtisanes this land has ever known.

Read about this too today, and some of the other books on this list. Haven't read Twilight so can't judge, but seems to me, it's a very.. proper book, as in, very much not sexually explicit etc. Ah well, wouldn't mind knowing where most complaints come from. It's the US, so what, the Bible belt? (no offence to anyone living there or being very religious.. ) Also, disturbed me that a lot of these most challenged books have as a theme homosexuality. What, that's disturbing, or are they worrying kids might "catch" it? I mean, seriously. :tong:

75-ish pages of Kushiel's dart, by Jacqueline Carey. Gah, this remains one of my favourite books ever.

I sometimes make it, though never the sweet version. I always just use eggs, salt, pepper, maybe some red pepper, and some milk, sometimes the milk we put in coffee since it's a little more, ehh.. fat? Dunno. But I always make the savoury kind, usually when mom and brother are eating friend egg on bread for dinner since I hate that. Every now and then for lunch, here we'd do that with the egg/milk mixture, leave out the pepper and add cinnamon. Keep wanting to try, but you know, never get around to it. I like savoury things more anyway.

I have a thing for something happening to fingers.. as in I can't stand it. IN real life, or in films. I can cut myself deep anywhere but there and not care, even if it hurts, but cut myself in my fingers, and I almost pass out. So I hate it when in a film, someone's fingers get broken, cut off, or sliced into. Always nice with the torture films these days, things inserted under fingernails, or fingernails being pulled off. The Cabin Fever shaving scene counts for me too, ewww. Oh, and about Seven.. how about the murder for lust? The idea of that guy, with the big freaking knive, and the way it would slice everything up inside? Gahhh, makes me sick even thinking about it. Oh, teeth. Anything happening to teeth. Smashed in, pulled out, whatever. never used to bother me, but when I was 15, I had four molars pulled and got braces for a year. Got my teeth nice and straight, but have this fear of anything happening to teeth since then. Oddly, I am not the least afraid for the dentist, even when I had to go to the dental surgeon last year to have a molar pulled (because it split in half during eating!!) I didn't care much for it. Another one.. eyes. Poking out the eyes, seeing a needle going into an eye (like even in House happens sometimes) eeeeeek! Smashed in heads. When you see a film/series where someone smashes anothers head in with something, you know, the lovely blunt force trauma? Just the idea.. oh my gosh. A while back there was this one episode on telly of, I think it was CSI, this coach from a football team got his head bashed in during sleeping, and just in the morning, he got up, made coffee, brushed his teeth (even though they were smashed in too, that made me sick, watching him brush teeth while they were falling out and bloody), get the paper while he had half if his head smashed in. Brain damage. That made me sick, cringe, and was the worst thing I'd seen in a while. Yuck. You know, I could go on like this for a while. You'd think I wouldn't watch anything anymore, but even though these things make me cringe, or sometimes because they make me cringe, I still watch these things. Is like me still going on rollercoasters while I am scared of heights. Love the fear.

I love cooking and am not bad at it, and it doesn't matter if I follow a recipe or throw together my own things and see what happens. Unfortunately, I could use some practice. See, I rarely cooked before I moved out, then moved in with my (now) ex-bf, he was a very picky eater, not at all into trying new things, and would gladly eat his favourite dishes three times a week. Sometimes it even went so far that he'd have his food, and I would make sometihng else cause I couldn't stand another day of say, spinach with sausage. Then, we split, moved back in with my parents, and tadaa. Dad and brother both incredibly picky eaters too, brother hates anything veggie, seriously, if you throw something like peppers into food, he bitches and moans. And dad never was up for trying new food, and he thought it funny I liked to try a lot of things. Now, since dad died, I cook a couple times a week, but am hindered by brother's dislikes. Because, I could cook something my way, but it takes the fun out of it for me to have him dislike it much. Am just silly that way. But yeah, am a decent cook and most recipes I could follow, though I have to watch out, I tend to overcook and overspice things.. but have learned to watch out for this.

Ahh see, we at uni have this love two parts in our library. One's for groups, where you can talk, do group assignments etc. The other is a strict silence zone, just work alone, no talking, not even whispering. They have someone present at all time to keep this in check. Blessed silence.

I'd do whatever I do when I could buy something in a store but online's much cheaper. Check out which stores have them, go there to check the item you want to buy, but not buy it there, make your choice there, but it online. Then you can check print etc.

But, but... doesn't that mean the page gets all bendy? I have had one such a thing before, meant for books, was a larger one, but they left this indentation in the shape of the paperclip on the page, and I hated that. Right now, am using the bookmarks the book shop I bought my books at gives with every book. Not very pretty, but handy since I always lose mine. Also, another I'm using is the one from the uni library, just one with the library logo and they stamped the return date on it.

Bought Kushiel's Dart today, by Jacqueline Carey. I have read it many times, in dutch, and the later books in english too, actually have many of those in english since the library didn't have them yet, let alone in english. But never got around to buying the first one. Went to get book 4 of the Wheel of Time series today, thye didnt have it but I promised myself I could get this one if they couldn't. Started it when I was a little early at work, love it as always. Think I might give up on Umberto Eco's In the Name of the Rose.. it's not badly written, but it's kind of pointless, and can't really find any reason to go on.

Yesterday I read about 50 pages of that astronomy/astrophysics book I mentioned earlier, got the title now "Black holes and warped spacetime" by William J. Kaufman. The book's actually older than I am, which I didn't know when I got it from the library, but from what I have read they weren't wrong with their theories then, not bad actually, there are some things that they know are other now, and they sure didn't have Hubble back then so the pictures that are in there are fuzzy and black and white hee hee. But it's interesting reading, and easier than I thought, though by no means am I saying I understand it all. Still, love it. When I've come back from university this afternoon I plan to read more.

No, never do that anymore. I used to, but I found it spoiled things for me.. so I have taught myself to repress those overly curious tendencies and even start reading slower when I feel the urge to skip ahead come along. I try to make myself absorb the last bit of that page/chapter/book more so than the rest, so I don't miss out on anything.

I never got further than say, 100 pages. I hated almost every page of it. Boring, annoying and just not interesting me at all. I too, had heard good things about it, people couldn't put it down etc.. well not me.

Picked up two books from the university library today, "Planetary Sciences", and can't remember the other title, but about black holes and stellar evolution. Good reading.

Can't agree more, I adore the Stand. One of my favourite books ever. Also because I love anything apocalypse related, and apocalypse by pandemic, even better. Call me insane, but for some reason I have wanted something like this to happen to the world ever since I was like, 12 years old, and first saw the film of the Stand. Plus other such films. Can't help it, feels like we deserve it, plus, how many of us actually thinks we're gonna make it (as human race) for another, say, 500 years? Not me.

Ugh, well if the bookshop I went to today would have actually HAD book 4 of the wheel of time series, I would have been reading that today. They didn't have it. They had two times book three, and three times book 5, but no 4, no Shadow Rising. Weeeeh. And to show you how sad this is, how sad my town is, this is the ONLY bookshop in my town, at least in the center that sells anything like this. They said it would probably come in, since they order when they sell an english book.. but she couldn't tell me when they sold it. And even then it wold take two weeks. Bloody hell. Think am gonna order it online, even though that's a little more expensive, shipping costs added. Just check how long the delivery time is then. Rant over. Might do a little more reading in Shutter Island later, maybe. Is proving an easy and entertaining read.

You might want to try the book "Winter in Wartime" (I think that's what the translation is called) by a Dutch writer Jan Terlouw. Dutch title is "Oorlogswinter" and it's about the second world war, it's been made into a film recently. It's down to earth and in no way glorifies war of violence. Don't know much beyond that, I generally didn't read such books as a kid.

Well I did see the film but when at the library the other day I decided to take this book after all. Started it yesterday, and so far so good, thought it might put me off reading since I knew the clue, but it's actually nice reading.

Haha really? Well tastes differ, we all know that. And she's not unattractive, she just doesn't do it for me. Now, Michaela Conlin, or Michelle Rodriguez, or Kate Beckinsale.. those are better. Hey, does Michelle Rodriguez classify as a weird crush, I know some people don't really fancy her because she's not the typical sweet girly girl, but well, wow.

Blah no, in the series she's Abby, her real name is Pauley Perrette. I don't really like her, she's considered a hottie by a lot of guys and girls in the "goth scene" but I think she's too stereotype, plus I don't really think she's pretty. She rises up to cute every now and then, but other than that, she doesn't do much for me.

Yeah I looked it up on IMDB, he's born in february 1946.. think we don't notice he's so old cause as Snape, he doesn't look so old, and a lot of other films are from a while ago. But check the pics here: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000614/ And there you'll see, he's looking older these days. Duh.

Aww no, Alan's delicious. That voice.. Though honestly, he is (getting) a bit too old for my tastes, too wrinkly, and I am betting he's got old man body now. Okay, I just checked, he's definitely too old for me now hee hee, he's only a bit younger than my dad was. That's too old, really. I'm 28, he's 64? Nah. I mean, as Snape sure, cause he doesn't look that old then.