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Monday, March 31, 2014

The Rainmaker by John Grisham

*This post contains affiliate links.

Today I am reviewing The Rainmaker by John Grisham. I just finished this book last night, and it occurred to me that it has been far too long since I posted a book review.

Plot Summary (from Amazon)
It's summer in Memphis.  The sweat is sticking to Rudy Baylor's shirt and creditors are nipping at his heels.  Once he had aspirations of breezing through law school and punching his ticket to the good life.  Now he doesn't have a job or a prayer...except for one: an insurance dispute that leaves a family devastated and opens the door for a lawsuit, if Rudy can find a way to file it.

By the time Rudy gets to court, a heavyweight corporate defense team is there to meet him. And suddenly he's in over his head, plunged into a nightmare of lies and legal maneuverings.  A case that started small is exploding into a thunderous million-dollar war of nerves, skill and outright violence--a fight that could cost one young lawyer his life, or turn him into the biggest rainmaker in the land....


My Review
The characters in this book were a little confusing. The main reason for this is that there were things you didn't know about all of the characters. The main characters, like Rudy, felt relatively one dimensional, because there seemed to be quite a bit of backstory you never heard. That meant that it was hard to predict what the characters would do, because it was hard to predict their motives for what they were doing. There were also a very large number of characters, and by the end, they were a little difficult to keep track of, especially since the ones who seem important often aren't, and the one's who don't often are.

The plot was enjoyable. I liked the main story quite a bit, and the trial was fun.There were a couple of subplots which were a little strange. One of them ended up feeling rather unresolved, and the other almost too resolved. In fact, one subplot comes to it's climax after the main climax of the book, and it kind of seemed to steal the thunder of the main story. On the whole, I liked the story, despite these shortcomings. On the whole, it is a very black and white story, good and bad are pretty clearly defined, and for the most part, it's always obvious who the bad guy is, and who you should root for.

The writing was good, but not amazing. In my way of reviewing writing (see the link in the header), I would put it slightly below Harry Potter. For the most part, the writing faded behind the story. This means that it's an easy read, and one where the story pulls you along without you even noticing the writing for the most part.


Who Should Read This Book?
I would recommend this book to people who enjoy legal stories, and those looking for a fun, easy read. 

Monday, March 24, 2014

Animal Kingdom and Heading Home {Disneyworld}

You can follow along with the rest of our Disneyworld trip here.

On Saturday, we went to Animal Kingdom, the park that feels the least like a Disneyworld park. There were times when it felt like I could have been at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle (where I have been many, many times).
This girrafe was literally three feet from the truck. Isabelle's head helps show scale. :)

The first thing we did when we got there was go on the Kilimanjaro Safari, which is really cool.

We went on the ride Dinosaur, which is a lot like the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland, except with more dinosaurs, and less Indiana Jones. We saw a musical of Finding Nemo, and went on the Kali River Rapids, where we got really wet, and mom in particular got soaked.
Resting in the shade.

At the end of the day, mom and Isabelle went on Expedition Everest, the largest roller coaster in Disneyworld, but I whimped out and watched from the side. They actually have a viewing area that was entirely filled with people waiting for friend and family members who were going on the ride.
Mom and Isabelle after riding. The mountain the ride is on is man made, but is the tallest mountain in Florida.

The next day, we went back to Magic Kingdom again to do a few last rides like Space Mountain, the Tomorrowland Speedway, and a few repeats like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and the Buzz Lightyear ride.
Shopping.
Mom, Minnie, and Mickey. They really love their shrub sculptures there.

One last picture with the castle on our way out.
We left for the airport at 2:30ish, and got on a plane to San Diego at 5pm, two planes later, we made it to Seattle at midnight local time (though it felt like 3am to us), and drove home, arriving at our house a little before three (6 to us).

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Epcot {Disneyworld}

This is a continuation of these other posts about our trip to Disneyworld a few weeks ago.
The entrance to Epcot.

On Friday, we got up early and went to Epcot. We spent the first part of the day in Futureworld, which is where most of the rides in Epcot are located. Part of this area is divided into two parts: the Land, and the Sea.

The Land had rides like Soarin' (which is identical to the ride in California), and a ride where you go on a boat through Disney's experimental gardens, which were pretty cool.
After exiting the Nemo ride.

In the Sea, there is the Finding Nemo ride, and a small aquarium area.
Hidden Mickeys are HUGE in Disneyworld, and I found this one on the bottom of the dolphin tank. It can only be seen from that angle, otherwise it looks like random rocks.

We spent more of our time in Epcot at the World Showcase, which is a a huge area where eleven (or twelve, I'm not sure exactly) countries are represented with buildings, shops, restaurants, and small versions of local landmarks.

China

Germany

Italy
America. We saw a fantastic a cappella group singing Americana songs there.

Japan


That night we ate dinner in Mexico (well, actually a restaurant in the Mexican area of the World Showcase), and watched Illumination of Earth, their fantastic nightly fireworks show.

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Dancing, Gaming, and Blogging {Life Update}

The blog's been a little quiet lately, so it seems like a good time to do a little updating. First of all, some blog stuff. The rest of the Disneyworld posts are coming, I just need to finish writing them. There are two or three left, and should all be up by the end of next week. Also, there are several book reviews that are coming soon from books I read some time ago, but forgot to review. Homeschool posts should be coming back this week as well.

My mom is on spring break (she works at a community college), which is awesome. She also has a two week spring break this year, which is even more awesome. I'll still be doing school the whole time, but having her home and getting to sleep in are vacation enough. :)

I've always thought of myself as a geek, but the one part of that that I've been lacking in is my tabletop gaming skills. This week, I think I've managed to remedy that by learning to play two major geek games that I'd heard plenty about but never played: 7 wonders, and Magic: The Gathering. The second one I've resisted learning for probably two years, but I succumed to peer pressure. :) It actually was sort of fun, though mainly really confusing. I actually had to leave before finishing the game, but I promised my friend that I'd play again so that he could finish teaching it to me. 

Last weekend I danced in a dance show. It was fun, and it made me realize how much I want to try some other dance styles. I've done Irish dance for almost two years, but I'd really like to try jazz, tap, and maybe ballet. I've always kind of dismissed ballet, since it seems like if you're older than about eight you're too old, but it's not like I would expect to dance professionally or anything. It would just be for fun.

I've been sick the last week, and I was actually feeling pretty bad during our dance performances, but I made it through our two on Saturday (which were at nursing homes), and felt a bit better for our bigger show on Sunday. I wish I hadn't been sick, since I think I would have danced better then, but it still went well I think. :)

I also went to see a movie called "Walking the Camino" on Thursday, which I'm going to review in a separate post sometime in the next week or two.

I also have a post in the works about reading and why to read different types of books. It's still mostly an idea, but it should be done in a week or two as well.

So, the blog should be much less quiet soon! Is there anything you want me to write about, or any books you think I should read? Let me know. The post will probably happen, and I'll try to read the book, though my reading schedule is pretty packed. :)

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Hollywood Studios {Disneyworld}

After a long break, I am finally getting back to telling the story of our Disneyworld trip. You can read about our arrival in Florida here, and our time at Magic Kingdom here.

Thursday, Mom had a meeting in the morning, but that was the end of her conference. That day, we went to Disney's Hollywood Studios. We got there around 11am, and stayed until they closed.


They have some really good rides there, including The Great Movie Ride, and Star Tours, which we actually went on twice. The Toy Story ride is one of the most popular in all of Disneyworld, and we waited about an hour to get in. Amazingly, in three days in the parks, that was our first long line, and ended up being our longest for the whole trip.


A lot of what they have at Hollywood Studios are shows, not rides, and we went to a few. We saw Beauty and the Beast, and we went to the American Idol Experience, where people sing, and you get to vote. Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures that day, so I don't have much to put here!

That night, when the park closed, we went to the show they have there, Fantasmic.

A boat came around with all the characters on it at the end.

It is based loosely off of Fantasia, but has lots of other Disney characters in it too. Sorry I didn't have many pictures from that park. I have lots from the next few days to make up!



Saturday, March 8, 2014

Quick Update

I'm sorry I haven't gotten all the Disneyworld posts up yet. I've been having some technical issues getting the pictures to show up, but I think I might have fixed that. If I have, I'll try to get the rest of our trip up over the next few days.

Things haven't slowed down at all since we got back last weekend. All week was the normal list of school and activities, and then last night was our homeschool movie night, where we watched Groundhog's Day. In the early afternoon before the movie, my sister and I also helped some friends of ours put in floor. They hosted the movie night, and wanted to do it in that room, so we were on a bit of a schedule. 

Today, I'm going to a birthday party for a friend of mine which should take up most of the day and evening. Tomorrow, I don't know if I have any plans during the day (though I'm sure something will come up), but I do have a dance rehearsal in the evening. It's not likely to slow down next week, as we have all the normal stuff plus several rehearsals for our dance show, which is next Sunday.

I'm also hoping to start Driver's Ed sometime in the next month or two. I'd really like to be close to getting my license by September, when I'll start taking classes at the community college.

Monday, March 3, 2014

Magic Kingdom {Disneyworld}




It's Monday morning, and we just got back from Florida. We flew in at about midnight last night, and got home about 2:30am. Now, I'm going to go back and share pictures and stuff from our week. I'm going to do it in a few parts, since it would be ridiculously long otherwise. This post is going to cover Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Castle at night.

On Tuesday, we spent the day at the hotel, swimming and hanging out, while mom was at her conference. At about 8pm that night, we got to the parks for the first time. We started at Magic Kingdom. With a few exceptions, Magic Kingdom at Disneyworld basically is the same as Disneyland in California. We went on a few rides before the park closed at ten. It was late enough (and a weekday) that the park was pretty empty, and we just walked on to Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, and It's a Small World.

Peter Pan. We would have waited 40 min, without our fastpasses.

Wednesday, we got to the park about 3pm, and stayed until about 9. It poured rain the whole time we were there, so it wasn't the most fun, but the lines were really short. We went on Pirates and Haunted Mansion again, since the lines were so short, and then used some of our fastpasses for Peter Pan (which ALWAYS has a long line), Winnie the Pooh, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (one of my very favorites). We stayed and watched the fireworks, and then headed out.

If you've never been to a Disney park, fastpasses are these things you get that save your spot in line for you. You run to the ride when you get there, and then get your passes (using your park tickets), and then it tells you when to come back (maybe between 4:25 and 5:25). At least, that's how it worked when we went to Disneyland a few years ago.

Now, at Disneyworld, at least, it is completely different. At the beginning of the day, you can go to a kiosk (or to their website), and sign up for three passes. The selection process is a little convoluted, but the result is that you have three fastpasses loaded on to your tickets.

Me wearing my Magic Band.

Because we stayed at a Disneyworld Resort Hotel, we got these things called Magic bands. It is your park ticket, your hotel room key, your fastpasses, and your credit card while you are there. You touch the mickey on the front to the scanner at any of those places, and it will get you into the fastpass line, into a park or your room, and you can also buy things with it, since it is linked to the credit card you booked the room with.

That is our first days at Disneyworld. Tomorrow, I'll post about our day at Hollywood Studios.