Replace with your own answers and then tag some folks. Got tagged by CookieAsylum!
Name: Sabrina
Nickname: Sabs
Birthday: May 16th
Gender: Female
Sexuality: Workaholic (Opportunist)
Height: 4'10"
Time zone: EST
What time and date is it there: 7PM
Average hours of sleep I get a night: 4-5 hours on school nights (not including my many naps during school), 8+ weekends
Last thing I googled was: 'The Wolves of Andover'. Really good historical fictional novel about the English Civil War and a 7ft tall pikeman who executed the king that Oliver Cromwell defeated.
Most used phrase(s): "Sweet Jesus Christ" or "God bless it!" I am -0% religious but y'know. Also: "I'll figure it out." As I so often get myself into situations that require figuring.
First word that comes to mind: Thyme. Last word I heard in 'Will Ye Go Lassie Go" that I'm listening to.
What I last said to a family member: "OKAY CHRIST" b/c my Da nags like an old woman.
One place that makes me happy and why: The banks of the little pond back home. Caught many a fish out of there.
How many blankets I sleep under: One because it's disgustingly hot atm. Usually 3+ in the winter.
Favorite beverage(s): The apple cider I make in Fall! Almost time to pick apples and start in on the cider/shine making.
Last movie I watched in the cinema: How To Train Your Dragon 2.
Three things I can’t live without: My work! My tools, my Dad.
A piece of advice to all my followers: Kindness doesn't cost you a thing, but you can earn a lot with it.
You all have to listen to this song: "Comfort Me" by Fiest. It's just good. Also: "I Am Going Home" by Cold Mountain Soundtrack. Shaped note chorus of an old, old song. Gives me chills.
Tagged: By no one, I just saw this and thought it was cool.
Rules: In a text post, list ten books that have stayed with you in some way. Don’t take but a few minutes, and don’t think too hard — they don’t have to be the “right” or “great” works, just the ones that have touched you. Tag [ten] friends, including me, so I’ll see your list. Make sure you let your friends know you’ve tagged them.
1.) Outlander by Diana Gabaldon: A WW II nurse is sent back in time to the 1740's and finds herself involved with both the Jacobite uprisings and a young Scottish highlander named Jamie Fraser. It's wonderfully researched and I stayed up til the early hours of the morning reading this 800+ page book in one sitting. It's honest and I have such a soft spot for love stories, really.
“Jamie, I had found out by accident a few days previously, had never mastered the art of winking one eye. Instead, he blinked solemnly, like a large red owl.”
2.) The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein: A family's story told through the voice and eyes of their dog, Enzo who has always desired to be human. My Dad, the tough old cowboy that he is, bawled like a baby when he read it, containing equal parts humor and philosophy. What faith I have and some of the better parts of me can be attributed to this book.
“To separate oneself from the burden, the angst, the anguish that we all encounter everyday. To say I am alive, I am wonderful, I am. I am. That is something to aspire to.”
3.) You Can Go Home Again by Gene Logsdon: Another book that both my Dad and I treasure greatly. The biography of a contrary farmer, and ex-monk, reflecting on life and his longing--and eventual return to the farming life that he was born into.
"If the whole country [where I live] were covered with fresh fallen snow and all the tracks of my wanderings over it were imprinted there...my crisscrossing footsteps would be so numerous as to pack the snow solid."
4.) Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier: The Odyssey retelling of a Civil War defector and his journey home across the mountains. Frazier is one of my favorite authors, and this is set in the heart of Appalachia, my own home. He knows his subject, and the people that inhabit that hollows and mountainsides. He writes beautifully and with a languid sort of prose that I'd associate with an old master. My heart aches reading some of his passages, I know so well what he describes.
“He tried to name which of the deadly seven might apply, and when he failed he decided to append an eighth, regret.”
5.) The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher: The up's and down's, and twists and turns of a wizard detective in Chicago. I credit this series in no small part to getting me through loosing my home a few years back. Butcher is skilled at threading his stories together at just the right pace and making everything click together at the end. The protagonist, Harry Dresden, is probably one of my favorite fictional characters. Ever.
“Holy shit," I breathed. "Hellhounds."
"Harry," Michael said sternly. "You know I hate it when you swear."
"You're right. Sorry. Holy shit," I breathed, "heckhounds.”
6.) The Tale of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski: This book fucked me up. I'll say that right off the bat, it is down right disconcerting and uncomfortable for me to read because it is so close to how I grew up. Edgar Sawtelle is a dog breeder's son and mute, possessed of a natural connection to dogs and a sharp intellect. I grew up a dog breeder's daughter and an only child as well, and there are passages that feel drawn from my own memories. I don't like reading it that often, but it's still a powerful book.
7.) The Last Summer (Of You and Me) by Ann Brashares: Another...disconcerting book. It makes you think, I mulled this book over for hours and days after I read it, and I'm still not quite sure what to think. Well written, and emotionally raw. I want to say it's almost a female version of Catcher in the Rye, embodying the same loss, scrambling for explanations in a changing world.
8.) The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch: Just a damn good, swash-buckling, snark filled novel. Thieves. Need I say more?
“I've got kids that enjoy stealing. I've got kids that don't think about stealing one way or the other, and I've got kids that just tolerate stealing because they know they've got nothing else to do. But nobody--and I mean nobody--has ever been hungry for it like this boy. If he had a bloody gash across his throat and a physiker was trying to sew it up, Lamora would steal the needle and thread and die laughing. He...steals too much.”
9.) Animal Dreams by Babara Kingsolver: I'd be amiss if I didn't include at least one of Kingsolver's books on this list, and this being the first I've read, I thought it fit. I didn't want to like this book particularly, the narrator is pessimistic and tough and not all that likeable, but I found myself reading on, drawn into this woman's world, as dark as she made it out to be. But there's light in it too, and Kingsolver breathes life into the desert, a strange place filled with inarguably human characters.
10.) Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg: What's not to like? It's rich in history, humor, there's great food and also some lesbians.
