A Sequel

So I'm a Tracy Brown fan. Whenever her books come out, I usually have them on pre-order. I want her books the first day they are available. LOL. I just finished The Aftermath: A Snapped Novel about twenty minutes ago, and I must say I feel some kind of way about it. The very first novel I read by Tracy Brown was White Lines. I have read that book at least four times. I remember reading the first time I was deployed in 2007. I received the book in the mail, and all I could think is "This book is 500 pages." Well inside of three days, I finished those 500 pages and I wanted more. After that, I read all of her books. Dime Piece, Black, Criminal Minded, and Twisted. I'm still working on reading her short story Flirt..but you get my drift. White Lines left such an impression that I wanted to read all of her books. 

So here I am at her latest two books...Snapped and the sequel The Aftermath. I must say that I am not all that impressed anymore. Truthfully, I could probably throw Trapped in the same category as her latest two books. I think she has excellent stories, but I just feel like there could be so much more. She has yet to match a book on the level as White Lines. I would say that Black and Criminal Minded are as close as you will ever get to the great story of White Lines. Every time I read one of her books, I'm longing for that feeling of wanting more and more of the story. With Aftermath...I was ready for the story to end.

Honestly, I mainly bought Aftermath because Snapped ended with a cliffhanger, and I just had to know Misa's story. I really don't know how to describe either book without giving away too much plot. I will say one of the things that disappointed me about Aftermath was that Born (one of the main characters in White Lines) was brought onto the scene...but the time line wasn't relevant. Born mentioned something about Jada, but if you look back to the dates referenced in the White Lines, Jada and Born weren't on speaking terms in the time frame of Aftermath. That really annoyed me for some reason. Born has been brought up in other novels, but I never saw a time line problem like this one.

A basic summary of Aftermath: It picks right up after the last page of Snapped. The whole book is basically about Misa's trial, Frankie and Camille's divorce, Frankie and Gillian's affair, and Tracy also gives us more background into the other characters. I can't say I recommend either book. I want my White Lines Tracy Brown back. 

Liberation in Confrontation

It is liberating to tell people how you feel about them. You ever have that one person that just makes you soooo angry, but you choose not to say what needs to be said to them? Notice how it takes hold of you. Every time you think of the situation, it makes you angry. You're holding on this situation while the other person is sleeping just fine and not even thinking about you.

There are a few people in my life who probably need to hear the things that I need to say, so I know first hand what it feels like to allow someone to hold on to your emotions. For most others, I don't have a problem letting my feelings flow. This is not to say that you should go around just tearing people down. I do think, however, that some people are fully aware of what they're doing to anger you. I think those type of people need to be confronted (in taste) so they can know where they stand in your life.

Often times people say that you shouldn't even waste your time on meaningless people. That works for some. I'm just not in the business of brushing off things that shouldn't be brushed off. I'm very good at acting like people don't exist, BUT sometimes I think some people need to know that you're perfectly aware of the kind of person that they are. When I find that a person who has done something to me can control my emotions even when I'm not even directly interacting with that person, it is about that time to have that little talk that I like to have. Confrontation is not always comfortable, but confrontation usually brings forth results. I'm not talking about the "let me scream at you" confrontations. I am talking about very direct, no bs confrontations that allow a person to know what they have done to offend you. I think you can tell a lot about a person by how they react to when they're directly approached. Whether the person cares or not is a non-issue. The point of it all is to get this situation off your shoulders and out of you head, so that this person no longer controls you emotionally.

A lot of people say that I'm aggressive and that I like confrontation. I may be aggressive, but I actually don't like confrontation. I like respect and I like straight-up people. If I have to confront someone to get those desired results, I'm willing to do that. If I have to tell you what's on my mind (respectfully) even if it's uncomfortable, I'm willing to do that in order to be liberated from emotional turmoil. There is liberation in confrontation. You may even find during that conversation/confrontation that you have done something to offend the other person...;-)

Hot Shoe Break!

 

So...I went about 3 months without buying any shoes. I have been attempting discipline myself instead of doing my little impulse shopping. I'm quite proud of myself. ;-) Well, on February 1st, I decided that I needed to make myself smile since I have a bit of the "desert blues." Bought some shoes and did a lot of shoe browsing! Here's some of the hot shoes that I found.

These little burgundy booties....I don't know how long I'm going to be able to just LOOK at them. They keep calling my name.

Water For Elephants

So I just finished Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I must say that it exceeded my expectations. I read the book mainly because it was different than something I would normally read, and it was free.99. lol...I had to push myself through it at first. Once I got into it, it wasn't a bad story at all. Water for Elephants is told from the perspective a 93 year-old man who gets thrown into the circus after facing a great tragedy. The story depicts the harshness of surviving the The Great Depression and living on the road. It's also a love story. Would I recommend it? Undecided. I will say if you choose to read this book, get your vocabulary up or either have a dictionary handy. I consider myself to have a pretty good vocabulary (since I read constantly), but there were a lot of words in this book that completely threw me for a loop. I actually thought some of the words were unnecessary, but anyway...

Water for Elephants! It was something different and a semi-pleasant surprise.