It was my birthday! A visit home and birthday news, with a few pictures.

The good news is that August missed me, and would like to celebrate my return with cuddles. It's not frantic behavior, she's just a little velcro'd and very fuIl of purrs. I was worried that she wouldn't care that I had left or returned, because I'm paranoid like that, and so I'm beyond relieved and it feels even better to come back to this home, to my city, to my babycat. The bad news is that it's about a thousand degrees outside, as summer would like to go out with a bang this year. But touching the black long-haired cat is still worth it.

I was gone because it was my birthday! I'm now 26. I went down to Corvallis last Tuesday evening. My sister is living with my parents for a few weeks before her semester abroad (in Italy) begins, so I was able to go home on my birthday, Thursday the 18th, and see everyone for homemade pizza and flourless chocolate torte. (I also renewed my driver's license on my birthday, the day it expired.) On Friday I went home for a briefer day visit, and picked out a few of my mum's quilts to hang in the Portland house. On Saturday Devon and I ran errands in the blistering heat, but now I have bedding and shoes on their way to me. I'm ridiculously excited for them, because they're a long time coming. The bedding is a birthday gift from my parents (and, depending on how much of it they decide to buy, the rest will be purchased with birthday money from my paternal grandfather and his wife), and it'll be a huge step towards pulling my Portland room together. The shoes are a longtime wish finally fulfilled (and none too soon, as my current shoes are dying)—they're Sketcher's Parties - Mate, and I sure hope I love them. I also came back with some BPAL, Boy's on-the-day birthday gift (as the big gift was August, who came just a bit early), a few books from Border's funeral party, and some chocolate that will probably be used for baking because by my lofty standards it's not fit to eat. On Saturday evening, Devon's family stuffed me full of chocolate cake. On Sunday morning, I took the train back to Portland.

( This is my birthday torte. )

And this is what happened to the candles in the 90 seconds they were lit.
It was pretty ridiculous, but hilarious. It's a good thing the wax came off easily once it had dried.

( Also, Jamie says hi. )

I saw Jamie, and Woof, and Dude and Madison (and so help me if Madison isn't the size of a grapefruit—that cat is so small). I saw everyone, really, and went everywhere, and felt like I was doing nothing but eating celebratory food but I suppose there are worse evils than that. It was an unexpectedly busy trip, and a fantastic one, and I am just as glad to be back.

( For my own records, my birthday gifts. )

And now it has grown too warm to be sitting here at the computer. Happy belated birthday to all my fellow Leos! For about as long as I can remember, about half my friends have been born in this fire time of the year, and we all get a bit swamped by the concurrance. But I had a great birthday—and I hope you did too.

Book Review: Wildwood by Colin Meloy, illustrated by Carson Ellis

Title: Wildwood (The Wildwood Chronicles, Book 1)
Author: Colin Meloy
Illustrator: Carson Ellis
Published: New York: Blazer + Bray, 2011
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 541
Total Page Count: 107,092
Text Number: 309
Read Because: turned on to the novel by century_eyes, ARC received from a GoodReads First Reads giveaway
Review: When her baby brother is ripped from their safe, quaint neighborhood and flown away to the Impenetrable Wilderness, Prue—accidentally accompanied by her classmate Curtis—must risk it all to enter the woods, and there discover places and dangers unknown. With an epic adventure and journey, as well as an antagonist, in the style of Narnia and locales that mirror Redwall and other classic fantasy settings, Wildwood falls somewhere between homage and derivation. Unfortunately, this means that Wildwood reads more like a book that wants to be a classic than one that is: the right pieces are often there, but they're a little too familiar and so too often predictable; the book offers nothing more, be it startling originality in a Harry Potter-like world or the numinous qualities of a Narnia-like metaphor, to make it stand out. This doesn't mean that it wants for a Jesus analogy—but it does want something bigger, something more unique and memorable, to make it a classic or a must-read.

Instead, Wildwood is just a good book. At a hefty 500 pages, it's an unapologetic epic—and Meloy flows smoothly from city to woods, indulging in the joy of a rambling journey without losing pace, maintaining a sense of humor without becoming twee, and altogether building a compelling tale. Ellis's stylized illustrations do even more than the prose to make the story vivid and unique. This is a book to lose yourself in for hours, which is a pleasure in its own right. Although it occasionally grows too quirky and cute (which is a mixed blessing as a St. Johns local—the depiction of the area is idealized, but no less delightful for that), Wildwood is also surprisingly dark. Without forgetting the age of its intended audience, the book recognizes and refuses to romanticize its violence—and so, however sure the reader is that all will turn out well in the end, there's a distinct sense of danger and loss. (Now if only Meloy would stop preferring humanoid lives to anthropomorphic ones.) Not all supporting characters are so lucky, but Prue and Curtis are fantastic—each is distinct, each is remarkably normal, each achieves something beyond their own expectations and perceived limitations, and that's almost exactly what I hope to see in all children's and young adult fiction. Wildwood wants desperately to be something more than this, but it's not—which may be its downfall, making it feel more disappointing and derivative than it really is. But even if the book is disappointed in itself, I'm satisfied with it: this is a solidly enjoyable, if ultimately unremarkable, tale, and I'm glad for the chance to read it. With those caveats, I recommend it to readers of all ages. (And yes, this first installment does stand alone.)

Review posted here on Amazon.com. (Will update when the review goes live; also fuck you too, Amazon Vine.)