A Sea of Ink

Wow. Just...wow. What a ride. Starring Aidan Turner and Eleanor Tomlinson,  Poldark  is a BBC television dramatization of the Poldark book series by Winston Graham. A young Cornish man named Ross Poldark (played by Turner) leaves his family, friends, significant other, and ancestral home to fight alongside the British in the American Revolutionary War. Following a head injury, Ross's family in Cornwall loses contact with him, and he is presumed dead. When he returns home, he finds his father passed away, his former sweetheart engaged to his cousin, and his inheritance in shambles-- an estate and copper mine riddled with debts and picked clean of funds. However, Ross is no ordinary man. He is determined to rebuild his life in Cornwall, all the while striving to improve the lower classes' quality of life and help the less fortunate, much to the confusion of his wealthy peers. The first season covers the plot of the first two Poldark books. A second season recently ai...

**contains spoilers**   5 stars. Based on storyline alone, I wouldn't rate this book higher than a 3, possibly a 3.5. However, this was the most emotional book I have ever read. The story was heartbreaking and beautiful and magnificent. I bawled.   I have never shed more than maybe two tears for any other book ( Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare, to be specific), but for Maybe One Day , I couldn't stop sobbing. (Though one contributing factor to the waterworks could have probably been the fact that I was listening to the song "Wildest Dreams" by Taylor Swift during the climax of the book. I remember bawling through the chorus. "Say you'll remember me...") I don't usually read books about cancer, but I picked this one up because the main characters were ex-ballerinas. I wasn't a fan of the frequent cursing in this book, and the [small amount of] romance felt somewhat unnecessary, but the emotions felt by the characters throughout the s...

Obviously, I wasn't able to read every book published last year, but I did read a large [two-digit] number of them. Below are listed my top 6 releases of 201 6 . Enjoy, and happy reading! 1. Tales From the Shadowhunter Academy by Cassandra Clare (5 stars) 2. My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows (5 stars) 3. Stars Above by Marissa Meyer (5 stars) 4.  Salt to the Sea  by Ruta Sepetys (4 stars) 5.  Vassa in the Night by Sarah Porter (4 stars) 6.  Crooked Kingdom  by Leigh Bardugo (4 stars) My rating criteria includes, among other things, plot, characters, maturity of writing style...and, of course, how much I never wanted to put the book down. *find me on Goodreads @ goodreads.com/hattiejean*

**contains spoilers**   4 stars. This book, for me, was hard to rate. I absolutely loved the first chapter; I was hooked right from the beginning. The writing style was absolutely fabulous. It was super twisty. The way the author would repeat words or use a carefully placed metaphor painted a beautiful picture of the plot.   I also was really intrigued by the setting of the girls' prison. It was so sad that, even though (most of) the girls there had done terrible things, they were treated so terribly. It was heartbreaking to hear the thoughts and know the feelings of some of the "inmates." I was surprised to find in this book ghosts and people who could see the future. I picked up this book because the blurb said one of the characters was a ballet dancer. However, the paranormal-ness fit right in and I loved that almost spooky aspect of the novel. Unfortunately, about halfway through, I became somewhat disenchanted with the book.   Vee at first was, to me, a v...

                 Few people besides foodies understand the consequential differences which separate hot cocoa from the class of hot chocolate. This widespread ignorance only serves to hurt the consumers themselves and damage the reputation of hot chocolate everywhere, resulting in mislabeling wintertime drinks and an absence of the true joy which could be felt in wisdom.             Contrary to popular belief, hot chocolate and hot cocoa are not synonymous titles. Hot chocolate has a long and noble past, one of hard work and effort leading to the creation of the drink of kings and princes, while hot cocoa is a watery substitute for the poorer masses of society, a con’s tool, one used to dupe the unaware into accepting less than they could have if they only knew better.             The fundamental difference: hot chocolate is a wo...

Feminism is a dirty word. Kicking men like puppies, belittling mothers who have chosen the family path, burning bras—feminists the world over have become a symbol for man-hatred and aggression. But this is not and need not be the case. Feminism: a word symbolizing unity, a word embodying peace and equality, an idea of possibilities for strength and harmony. Feminism should mean women and men standing together, working together for equality—not women working together against men, standing together to belittle the opposite gender. Feminism—equal pay, equal representation, equal standards. Equal opportunity. The first feminists did not fight for the right to shun the domestic sphere; rather, they fought for the right to choose the domestic sphere. Mary Wollstonecraft, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton—these women were not anti-family, anti-marriage, or anti-man, only anti-injustice. The traditionalism they opposed boxed them into one corner—cleaning, cooking, caring for c...

Shoes and Stereotypes: How Feminism Has Reorganized the Twelve Dancing Princesses “There was once upon a time a King who had twelve daughters, each one more beautiful than the other” (Grimm 596). Drugging those who endeavored to help them, lying to their king father and holding their own desires above the good of others, the princesses of the Grimm brothers’ “The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces” took the role of antagonists in the original story. However, in more recent retellings of the beloved narrative, the princesses are given virtues of bravery, compassion, and fierce integrity, along with noble motivations for their previously negative actions. The twelve princesses of the Grimms’ story have evolved from the villains of their tale into the heroines we know today due to the change over time in the expectations placed upon women in the real world. In the Grimm brothers’ original story “The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces,” the twelve princesses are selfish, cruel,...