Book Review: The Shadows (The Books of Elsewhere #1)

Title: The Shadows (The Books of Elsewhere #1)

Author: Jacqueline West

Illustrator: Poly Bernatene

Source/Format: Bought; Paperback

Publisher/ Release date: Dial Books for Young Readers; Jun 9, 2010

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Synopsis from Goodreads:

Old Ms. McMartin is definitely dead. Now her crumbling Victorian mansion lies vacant. When eleven-year-old Olive and her dippy mathematician parents move in, she knows there's something odd about the place--not least the walls covered in strange antique paintings. But when Olive finds a pair of old spectacles in a dusty drawer, she discovers the most peculiar thing yet: She can travel inside these paintings to a world that's strangely quiet . . . and eerily like her own. Yet Elsewhere harbors dark secrets--and Morton, an undersized boy with an outsize temper.

(Read the rest on Goodreads)

What I Thought:

I was looking through some books I have and decided that I wanted to reread them, or finish their series. Right now that series is The Books of Elsewhere by Jacqueline West. I’m pretty sure I read Spellbound before The Shadows, but it doesn’t matter because I’m starting over. 

With writing that kept me on the edge of my seat, The Shadows follows Olive as her parents move into a creepy stone house. A house that came furnished with many secrets and creepy paintings. As I said, this is my second time reading it and I wondered if I still liked it. Actually, it read just as exciting, and creepy as the first time. With the way I wanted to discuss it, it would have been spoiler heavy. So I’ll keep it abstract. I think what I loved most back then was Olive’s curiosity and interaction with her environment. She steadily built confidence to deal with fears and situations that I think some readers, especially middle grade, can relate to.  Even when I first read it, I could tell where it was going with a few particular characters, but there were many things I didn’t see coming. And the end was definitely one of them. I sometimes wondered how Olive was going to get out of her predicament. By the time I was done, I knew I needed the second one.

Over all I really enjoyed rereading The Shadows. If you’re looking for a creepy middle grade, maybe give The Books of Elsewhere series a try.

Thanks for reading!

Book Review: Let Me Call You Sweetheart

Title: Let Me Call You Sweetheat
Author: Mary Higgins Clark
Source/Format: Bought; Hardback

Publisher/ Release date: Simon & Schuster; May 8, 1995

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Synopsis from Goodreads:

Kerry McGrath is a dedicated prosecutor and a devoted mother. When her daughter's face is cut in a car accident, Kerry is relieved that the plastic surgeon who treats her is the eminent Dr. Charles Smith. Then Kerry notices something bizarre. Two of Smith's patients bear an uncanny resemblance to Suzanne Reardon, a young woman killed eleven years earlier. Why would Dr. Smith create look-alikes of a murder victim? A chilling tale of obsession by America's reigning queen of suspense. (read on Goodreads)

What I Thought:

I previously read, but did not review, Remember Me by the late Mary Higgins Clark. I enjoyed it so much that I strolled around the house picking out whatever else was available. I settled on Let Me Call You Sweetheart. It’s pretty much about how Kerry McGrath cannot stop asking questions after seeing two women on two different days with the same face. A face that just happens to be that of a murder victim. The synopsis had me hooked.

I was definitely on edge the entire book. I think it’s because the main character’s obsession with getting answers. I was right along with her every page, and then some. Of course, in Clark fashion, there are multiple points of view from a range of characters. Although Kerry’s was the main POV, it leaves the reader at least two steps ahead of her. No matter how many notes I took I was not ready for the twist. For the most part, I was wrong, to which I am grateful for. I did have a couple of good guesses though. However, the revelation read quicker than I was expecting it to. And although integral to the story, I did not care for some of the POVs.

All and all, as much as I had my qualms, I enjoyed every bit of Let Me Call You Sweetheart. I recommend checking it out. Especially, if it seems interesting, or you’re looking to read something suspenseful.

Thanks for reading!

ARC Review: Twice as Hard

Title: Twice As Hard: Navigating Black Stereotypes and Creating Space for Success
Author: Opeyemi Sofoluke & Raphael Sofoluke
Source/Format: Bookish First and DK Publishing; Paperback ARC
Publisher/ Release date: DK; Jun 15, 2021

Goodreads        Barnes & Noble

Synopsis From Goodreads:

An inspirational book about what it means to be Black in the working world, with practical steps on how to overcome prejudice to find success
This book is an exercise in building your network. We've spoken to over 40 successful business people to help you gain from their advice and create space for your own personal growth. Twice As Hard is an exploration of Black identity in the working world and a blueprint for success. You will learn what obstacles limit opportunity for Black professional progress, how to understand and overcome racial stereotypes, be productive, find purpose, and ultimately thrive in business.
(Read the rest on Goodreads)

What I Thought:

Twice as Hard by Opeyemi Sofoluke & Raphael Sofoluke is a mixture of statistics, advice, and interviews. It also goes into some details about the experiences that people have as Black professionals. Besides advice, it is definitely much food for thought.

 
I barely read the synopsis, so I went into this initially thinking it was going to be mostly interviews. But, as I mentioned above, it was a mixture –which I loved. It had a lot of personal anecdotes and quotes from the interviewees. Plus, there wasn’t much paraphrasing, essentially letting the contributors add their own voices. But that’s not all. Each chapter delves into various situations using statistics, the authors’ own experiences, and the interviews to back it up. Situations like draining experiences and feeling unwelcome in certain spaces, especially in corporate ones. However, at every turn there was a piece of positive, uplifting, and encouraging advice to get through. Finally, I absolutely loved that the last chapter is full of advice from everyone, and the reflective questions at the end of all the chapters (except the final).

Over all, I enjoyed Twice as Hard and the advice that comes with it. I recommend checking it out if it seems interesting to you.

I received this book from Bookish First and DK for this review.

Thanks for reading!

The Speedpaint: Arting Part 2

This is the second part in my Arting posts. Today I’m going to talk about what I painted on my first speedpaint. You can read Arting Part 1 HERE.

As I said in part 1, I wanted to start a Spring. I need a sort of logo and I had an idea of what I wanted. I ended up with a decent amount of sketches, but I settled one (I still want to illustrate the other ones). Since I settled on Sweet Dream Afro (that can be found here) there were many elements I wanted to include. First and foremost, I wanted to make fashion like piece. The hair had to be natural, so I went with loose twist outs. And finally I wanted a dream element, the sleeping kind by the way. In this case I opted for closed eyes and a dream journal. This is a personal touch because I have been keeping a dream journal since 2013. I may talk about how I got into dream journaling eventually.

In previous iterations (and this one) I had trouble with the clothes. What color, shape; and a skirt or pants? Speaking of color, I originally imagined more pastel colors. However, I started considering darker options for the clothes when I decided to use a darker hair color. I settled on what you see now. I found other combinations I liked. So, similar to what I said above, I may do another piece with this same character. You can see the final art below, and how it came out from Spring above vs mock up. This is the first and last time I’m using that triangle as of right now. I have something else I'm designing.

All and all, the time was around 7+ hours. However, it may be way longer because the files for the sketching and line art got corrupted… Yay! 

[I'm re-editing this timelapse, it'll be back soon!]

Thanks for reading and watching. My YouTube is AdriArting.

Trying Something New (Arting Part 1)

I’ve been drawing much more recently. And I wanted to do a Teespring (now Spring). And then I realized that I never posted much of my art online. I settled on doing what I thought I’d never do –starting a YouTube. It was the last thing on my mind, but here I am. This is part 1 of Arting. I’m making it up as I go. Before I start, I think it should be said that I am not abandoning blogging. Nope, I’ll probably blog more about my adventures in art and my thought process. I’m also going to be adding a page as a sort of gallery; plus, I’m thinking of revamping my Instagram to include both my art and reviews. Today’s post is mostly rambling. The speedpaint will be in part 2.

I’m mainly doing digital speedpaints and it’ll be that way for a long time. I have always been drawing since I could remember. Watching art videos just came along naturally. Eventually, I got my Wacom Bamboo Fun, which was bundled with Corel Painter Essentials 4 and Photoshop Elements 8. That’s when I started watching digital speedpaints to try to learn the software. Also back then, I got Manga Studio Debut 4. (And you can imagine how mad young me was when I found out the cover art was done in Photoshop. I can’t recall, but I’m pretty sure Manga Studio itself had more abilities than Debut. Nonetheless, here’s a fun fact, Manga Studio is now Clip Studio Paint. Okay, back to the topic at hand.) Watching, re-watching, and editing my first video felt somewhat nostalgic to be honest. 

I had a couple of programs to get started. Like AMD Radeon ReLive to screen record and Blender to edit it. That combination was fun until I nearly killed my computer. Recording was constantly crashing my graphics card. I’m surprised I even got as many clips as I did. Especially since the files for the sketching and line art got corrupted. I’m really disappointed because I was happy with them too. I sped everything up in Blender from 7+ hours to 6 minutes. Now, to be fair, Blender is more for modeling and other things, not video editing. But my rendering time ended up being around 4 hours. I let that go over night, but I knew it was too much. So, I then tried to use Kdenlive. I love the layout and user interface a lot. But it wasn’t what I needed. I chopped up the second video I’m worked by a lot. As it turns out, you can’t CTRL + A (select all) and speed up clips nor connect them to do so. To have to manually select each clip to apply speed changes was not efficient. 

I tried so many open source programs. I’m currently taking a chance with Olive 0.1 since it's unsupported. I can’t merge clips, but the speed can be adjusted all at once. I still have to manually slide clips back together, but the render time wasn't too bad. About an hour for 23 minutes Back to the first video, I took the already rendered video and added the final image in Kdenlive. This ended up rendering in 36 minutes. I can’t wait to post it. Anyway, rambling over. Thanks for reading.