Haven’t posted for so long

It’s been such a long time since I have posted anything on my blog ((

I even started feeling sorry for it.

But during the day I do so much writing, editing, and reading, that when it comes to my blog, I have no strength left to post something. Which is a shame, ‘cause I’ve been doing lots of interesting things, working on new projects, and where else should I talk about them if not on my blog?

After I got into the zero waste lifestyle a few years ago, I’ve started a Facebook blog about it, and recently have finished writing a book about my life as a zero waster. Now I’m trying hard to get it published :)

I’m also working on my fiction: the 2nd book of Abracadabra series and other new things.

There are other things going on too, both good and bad, and as I look at it all, I can see why at the moment I don’t have time or strength for my blog. With the quarantine in the world it might seem that people have more free time than they used to, but I don’t think we do. Those who worked hard before the quarantine, continue so during it, and will keep working after. 

I could just delete this blog and forget about it, but I don’t like the idea. I started here, and I love looking back at it. Gosh, it seems to be so long ago when I just started my journey of writing and publishing in a foreign language. And it still hasn’t gotten easier, ha, ha!

So, I may not post on my blog as often as I’d love to, but each time I finish a project I will write about it.

Your loving witch,
Irena

The Godfather by Mario Puzo

The Godfather by Mario Puzo

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is one of those rare cases, where the movie is sooo much better than the book. I am angry with myself for wasting my time on this book, but it was solely my fault, or rather, my silly habit of finishing a book once I’ve started it. I should’ve thrown it away after the first 4 chapters. But then, I admit that there were two chapters that I skipped in the middle, because one of them was about the Don’s godson, a Hollywood celebrity who couldn’t do anything on his own (yes, the famous horse scene) and that 100-paged chapter went on and on about his boring life, his mediocre personality, and his uninteresting misfortunes about losing his voice and not getting movie roles. I couldn’t give a damn about Johnny Fontaine and his lousy existence, no matter what real-life celebrity he was supposedly copied from. What the hell was that character doing in a book about mafia?

The other chapter was about a woman with whom Sonny Corleone had an affair and her whole story was about her big vagina. Yes, you read it right. She had a very large vagina and that’s why the godly endowed Sonny (we read a lot about his size) made her feel good. Then she met a doctor who performed a surgery on her vagina... No, I’m not making this all up. This was in a book about mafia. A book on which are based two fantastic movies. This is where I have to thank F.F Coppola for shooting something so good based on a material so average and dull. The prose was boring, repetitive, lifeless. Sometimes it read like a draft, not a finished book. The characters were mere mannequins. And Puzo seemed to be in love with the character of the Godfather, because I lost the count of how many times he mentioned the Don’s “genius”. How many times in a single book can you say that the Don was pure genius, his ideas were genius, his actions were genius?

There were so many things wrong in this book, but I won’t be spending my time mentioning them. I better find something more interesting to read.

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Confessions by Kanae Minato

Confessions by Kanae Minato
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This review might contain spoilers.
I bought this book as soon as I read the premise, because it was just too intriguing. A teacher’s little daughter has been killed by her students and she seeks revenge. It sounded interesting and the beginning did capture my interest, but the more I read the more I rolled my eyes. There was too much of everything in one short book. How come there were so many sociopaths and bullies in a single class of 13 y.o. kids? And not just the kids: there were 3 mothers in the book and all 3 were weird in one way or the other. One was abusive, the other dotted on her kid too much and in the end decided to kill him and herself, and the third, the teacher, starts a revenge which results in the death of an innocent student, but she doesn’t even feel guilty. Not in the least. She does something else in the end, which again was just too unbelievable. I know that grief might drive people to madness, but that was too much.
Also, one of the evil kids was too genius, the other too stupid. In the age of internet and technology, a 13 y.o boy in Japan doesn’t think about testing his blood at a lab or googling AIDS which he thinks he has contacted? Not plausible. As for the genius, he was smart but also an idiot to tell of his evil plan on his website. Oh well...
A lot of things in this book were implausible and if I start writing about everything that bugged me, this will become a very long review.
As I said, the premise was interesting, but I was expecting something else. I don’t know, something more serious. This book read like a young adult revenge story, not an adult thriller.


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Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A book that broke my heart. Turned my world upside down. Made me a better person.
And isn’t it amazing that a single book can do so many things to you, break your heart and mend it, then shatter it again and squeeze the blood out of the shards? Someone might say, “it’s just a book, it can’t do so many things.” And I’ll tell them, “go read it yourself and tell me you’re still the same person.”
In the last decades whenever someone would ask me what was my favorite book, I wouldn’t know which one to name. I’ve read so many fantastic books and each of them has given me something, and it’s always hard to pick just one. Well, I know now that if I get asked that same question, I will always think of “Flowers for Algernon.”
Thank you Daniel Keyes for giving me this lesson on humanity.


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Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was such an interesting story, but so unbelievable. Everything was great: the writing, the pace, the characters, but I can’t make myself believe that the doctors and the whole asylum would go to such lengths. Guess I can’t suspend disbelief that much, because the truth was just too unbelievable for me.
And still, this was suspense at its best, when you feel that something’s wrong, but you can’t quite put your finger on it. I hadn’t watched the movie so I went into the book knowing only that there’s some kind of twist in the end. I took the wrong path at first, thinking that Teddy’s partner was never there and just his imagination, but because the other characters were interacting with the partner, I stopped suspecting something was wrong there. The author fooled me nicely and I loved it.
I recommend this book if you haven’t watched the movie. But then, read it nevertheless: it was so well written :)


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The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hannibal Lecter is unarguably one of the most chilling and creepiest book characters. And the scariest thing is that he’s not just the product of the author’s imagination. Serial killers like him lived through us, and my god, they still might be among us.
I decided to read the book after I rewatched The Silence of the Lambs few weeks ago. That movie is outstanding, and of course i was curious to get to know the source material. This is one of those rare cases when the movie is as good as the book, maybe even slightly better. Mostly because of Hopkins’s performance. I also think that they did some things better in the movie, like showing Buffalo Bill applying make up and dancing naked near the end of the movie, unlike the book. That scene in the movie made the hair on my nape stand up. It was the moment when I realized that he can never be reasoned with, and that made him so much scarier.
But back to the book. My favorite parts were of course the interaction between Lecter and Clarice. Whenever Lecter appeared on the pages, I’d read his scenes slowly and meticulously. The most interesting aspect of Lecter is that he can’t be categorized, ‘cause he’s simultaneously too smart and too evil. Is he a psychopath? Sure. But why? That’s the interesting part about him: the reason. Why is he a psycho? The book doesn’t give an answer. And it ends with him gaining freedom, making the story even scarier, leaving the reader with the knowledge that this person with no feeling of remorse or love is out, hunting someone just for fun.


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E-books vs Paperbacks

I took this photo for my instagram page and it led me to this thought: how many people still buy paperbacks?

I know I don’t. And probably never will. I just don’t have space for paperbacks anymore. But it’s not only that. Recently I received paperbacks as gifts, and I still haven’t touched them. I think I’ve become too used to a Kindle and don’t want to go back to leafing through a book, feeling it’s weight in my hands, to not being able to highlight a line or click on a word and instantly know what it means.

E-books changed my life. I love them.

And it seems that 99% of my readers are like me. I sell 1 paperback against 100 e-books.

And that’s just great!

The day is close when print-on-demand will be the only way to buy paperbacks. I don’t see anything tragic in that. On the contrary, this is one of the better changes happening in the world: saving trees.

I know that e-books are also about spending resources, but one e-reader against thousands of printed books is a good solution.

Happy women’s day, beautifuls! 💖🌟

I love female characters. 
In my books they are always colorful, fun, and oh so unique 🧛🏻‍♀️🧝🏻‍♀️🧙🏻‍♀️🧜🏼‍♀️🧚🏻‍♀️

My characters aren’t just international, they are interracial: #dryads, #nymphs, #mermaids, #elves, #faes and many other #fairytale creatures dwell on the pages of #Abracadabra. They are magicians, witches, spellbinders, and sorceresses 🔮💫🦄 

And of course young #magicians!

Writing them was so much fun 🖊📖

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

The Vegetarian by Han Kang
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A very strange book, and sadly not in a good way. This is not about a woman’s journey to become a vegetarian in a society which looks more than strangely at people who refuse meet. This was about repressed desires and childhood traumas.
I think the story tried to touch too many subjects simultaneously: women’s position in society, domestic abuse, human indifference, anorexia, and mental illness. There was too much of everything in this single short book, and the story had no closure. I’m not looking for happy ending in every book I read, and I don’t mind sad and depressing stories, but I wish author made a point with the story. Or maybe the point was there, but I just coudn’t see it.
Overall, I didn’t enjoy this book. I wish I had picked up something else for the weekend.

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Molly's Game by Molly Bloom

Molly's Game by Molly Bloom
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A few days ago, when I was skimming through the channels of my TV, I stumbled upon a movie starring marvelous Jessica Chastain. The movie was called “Molly’s Game”, and it started like yet another sports drama. But the things were happening rapidly and I kept watching until I was totally hooked. I’d never heard of Molly Bloom and I’m not a poker player, but I watched the movie in one breath and even rewatched it the next day. I loved Molly’s story and during the end credits I was already downloading the book to my Kindle. Who doesn’t love a good story about a strong, determined and fearless woman doing her own thing on her own terms.
Unfortunately, the book wasn’t as captivating as the movie. It was still an interesting story, but quickly became a bit boring and was lacking tension and passion. The movie told a bigger story as some of the events happened after he book had come out, and I’m glad to know that Molly Bloom wasn’t sentenced. As the judge said, people have been doing so much worse and getting away with it. Molly Bloom was organizing poker games for rich men in L.A. and later New York. There was a bit of Hollywood gossip in the book, some A-list actors, a lot of poker playing and money collecting, some scary encounters with the Italian mafia, more friendly encounters with the Russian mobsters, and a lot of money. Whoever wrote the script for the movie did a great job eliminating the boring parts of the book and adding more tension.
Overall, it was an interesting look into the life of underground poker in Hollywood. You need the guts to do something like that for so long.

P.s. I was surprised to see that the book had been traditionally published. Considering the amount of punctuation and grammatical errors, I thought it had been self-published.


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Plastic-Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too by Beth Terry

Plastic-Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too by Beth Terry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“Plastic-Free” is the best book I’ve read on the subject. Beth Terry has done an incredible research, covering all the aspects of our lives and teaching us how to use less plastic. Only after you start reading this book you realzie how deeply we’re stuck in this endless plastic pit. Beth manages to tell about the horror that’s happening in the world right now and manages to sound unpreachy or condescending.
Once I began reading I kept highlighting important passages, but soon realzied that this is the kind of book where every sentence gives the reader valuable information. I’ll probably read it again this year and will recommend it to all my friend who, like me, are into zero waste and minimalism lifestyle.
Very big “thank you” to Beth Terry. You opened my eyes to a lot of things I didnt know.

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The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett

The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

God, I feel so guilty for not liking this book. It had everything I love, and Mr. Pratchett’s imagination is something that needed insurance, but every time I picked this book up, I had to put it down again. I was losing the thread. It’s not Pratchett’s fault, it’s me and my attention deficit disorder. I’d start reading, then realize that I haven’t been paying attention for many, many pages. That’s a shame, ‘cause I’d thought this was going to become a favorite. But after 3 honest attempts, I have to put this book away and move to something else.

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Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I think after 5 Gaiman books I finally understood my problem with them: I don’t like Gaiman’s protagonists. Not one of them. I find them all whiny, weak, and uninteresting. Throughout the book I never once cared about Charlie Nancy. He was annoying, mopey, couldn’t stand up for himself, and so uninteresting that I didn’t care if over the course of the book he was going to change. He just wasn’t interesting enough for me to follow his possible growth. There were other characters too, and again I didn’t care for any of them. I kept putting the book away, then picking it up again, hoping the story would keep my interest, but somewhere in the middle I jumped to the end, just to be over with it.
Well, at least now I know my problem with Gaiman’s book and in all probability I will be skipping them from now on.
I have to admit that I quite enjoyed the chapter at the end of the book titled “Where do you get your ideas?” I loved it. And if Gaiman ever writes a non-fiction, I’ll give it a try. :)

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The Woman in Cabin 10 By Ruth Ware

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not a bad detective story, but oh so predictable. Reminded me of my beloved Christie’s books. Only, with Dame Christie I almost never could guess the identity of the bad guy, while with “The Woman in Cabin 10” I knew what had happened when I was 30% into the book. Or maybe even earlier. But then, it’s probbaly because I read Christie when I was a kid. I’m 20 years older now and have read a lot of detective stories, so the twist has to be something really incredible for me not to guess it.
Still, I was enjoying this book until the heroine (who was very, very slow) learnt the truth. After that it kind of became slow and a bit tedious. So much that I was ready to abandon the book without reading the last 30 pages. I persevered, of course, and the ending was a bit disappointing. You really need to suspend disbelief to believe that the things could end up that way for a certain character.


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A few updates

I know I haven’t been active for ages, posting only book reviews. I have started so many side projects, that have no second to post on my blog. Which is a shame, ‘cause I love posting here and sharing my progress.

But am I having a progress? Not sure. I’m working on too many books simultaneously, and maybe that’s why I haven’t published anyhting new for a while. All my books are still in the process of being written. I know I should focus on one thing and finish it, then start the next project, but somehow I end up piling up all the projects then get lost in them.

I’m actively working on Abracadabra: The Factory of Magic. And so far I’m loving whatever I’m writing. Really loving it. And it’s a great news, actually, because if I’m loving the story, then I’ll write it more quickly.

Recently I tried a free promo for Abracadabra, and ended up with no results. $125 and nothing. A few years back my books would end up with 2000-4000 downloads, but today not even 1000. Yes, too many books. Too many FREE books. 

So what to do? No idea. It’s like trying to break a concrete wall. Hitting and hitting it and then hitting some more.

What I think will help is writing more. I know, I know, there are already so many books out there, but that’s the reason that there are so many books out there: it’s the only way to survive.

Just don’t forget that writing more doesn’t mean publishing a low quality content. Edit your book a thousand times, then hire a good editor. It’s hard to find a good editor. My last editor sent me back Abracadabra, and I spotted 50 (!) errors after his edit. 

Gotta go now. Too many projects, too little time. But I’ll be back soon. And meanwhile, work hard on your next book.

Bossypants by Tina Fey

Bossypants by Tina Fey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Umm, I guess this book is for Tina Fey’s fans. All I knew about Miss Fey before starting her bio was that she was one of the most famous American female comedians, she had worked on Mean Girls and was in that movie with Steve Carell. I never liked Mean Girls and consider the Steve Carell movie to be one of the unfunniest comedies I have ever watched.
I didn’t find this book funny. I never once smiled. Most of the time I didn’t know what the book was about, maybe because I don’t get the humor, or maybe because there were too many pop culture references, too many names, too many movie titles. And the things that Tina Fey was telling about were just not interesting to me.
When I was nearing the end of the book I checked out 30 Rock. Again, I didn’t smile once. So I guess it’s not Tina Fey, it’s me. Yes, it’s me who doesn’t get the humor. I’ve come to realize that humor is a cultural thing: Russians don’t get Americans and vice-versa. Well, I’m Armenian and our humor is different too. And I happen to like it more:))
P.S. I don’t know what Saturday Night Live is. And am too lazy to check.

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The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld

The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Warning: review contains minor spoilers.

I have always avoided books about child abuse and paedophilia, because I know it’s a subject matter I cannot handle. Not even in books. I had no idea The Child Finder would go into such details and wish it had been made clear in the description, but that’s not the reason for my low rating. Once the scenes of child abuse began I could stop reading, no one was holding a gun to my head, but I persevered, because I wanted to see the end, to see how that sonofabitch got what he deserved.

But reading this book felt like a slow torture. Being such a short read it moved so slowly that once I reached the 50% point I skipped to the last 10%. I hate skipping books, but recently all I’ve been doing is skipping books.

My problem was that there was nothing new in this book. The protagonist, Naomi, was yet another PI with a dark past, who did the job better than a whole PD, and who was antisocial and didn’t trust anyone, but was so alluring, mysterious, and captivating, that everyone was momentarily smitten away by her.

I didn’t find it believable that Naomi had such a high success rate of finding lost children, because all she did in the first half of the book was walking around, talking to people, and roaming the woods. Her accomplishments were based on pure luck.
Also, the characters were not a bit believable. Everyone’s behavior was amateur, everyone spoke like they all were from a Daytime Soap.

Now the kidnapped child. I yet have to see a 5 y.o. girl behave the way Madison did in the book. Near the end she was badly beaten up by her abuser, but next day when the investigator finds her, the girl is described as “bruised and dirty.” After such a beating I expected an 8 y.o. to end up in a coma, not just be bruised and dirty. And she had even managed to open the lock with an old, rusted spoon. If a 40 y.o. man beats up a girl the way it was described in the book, she wouldn’t have a healthy spot on her body.
And after she’s saved, the girl isn’t hospitalized, isn’t in care of psychologists, she’s at home, drawing. A 5 y.o. girl goes missing, three years pass, she’s found, she recognizes her parents immediately and she’s at home, drawing. I’ve been a lawyer for 13 years. This doesn’t happen, sadly.

The writing wasn’t great either. Sometimes I finish the book I don’t like because the writing is superb, like in “The Thirteenth Tale”. Here, it was not. “He looked away, and she could see the reflection of trees in his eyes.” How’s that even possible? And the POV shifts were distracting.

One more thing. If you give someone a nickname in Spanish, you don’t have to use the “la” article. Naomi wouldn’t be called “la reina” by her Mexican friend. It’s like nicknaming your friend “queen” then saying, “Hello, a queen.”

Usually I don’t write such long reviews, but I needed to rant a bit, lol. It happens when I’m angry with a book. Obviously a lot of readers have loved this book and it’s great. We all look for something special in a story. I just didn’t find it in this one, but I’ll keep searching.

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The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I waited for a whole week to review this book, so that i could understand at last how I felt about it. Sometimes I’m still thinking of it. So I guess the story has left an impression on me. Yes, it wasn’t believable that a society of that kind could grow so quickly and that the women who just a couple of years ago were wearing bikinis on the beach had turned into birthing machines, but that improbability didn’t make the book unreadable. In fact, it kept me reading. Some people seem to hate the ending, but i liked how the book ended. I don’t think there could be any other way to end this story.
The Handmaid’s Tale wasn’t as great as I had expected, but I enjoyed it and recommend it to readers who like dystopian novels.

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Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson

Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Usually I’m not proud of myself for finishing a book (cause it’s not a big deal), but I’m really proud now for reading this one till the end. I did that without skipping a single page, despite that I wanted to do so after the first 10%. Before I Go to Sleep is overly long, overly boring thriller, where in the first 90% nothing thrilling is happening. Day to day the reader follows Christine, the protagonist who suffers from amnesia and reads her dull and repetitive journal entries.

I’m not one of those people who claim to know the outcome of a book and are never surprised. Not at all. If I can’t guess the twist till the end, I say so. Here, I guessed the outcome halfway through the book. And it made my reading harder. I just can’t understand how the characters in one book can be so dumb. Or how stupid is the staff at a hospital. Or how uncaring could be a doctor, a best friend, a husband, and a grown-up son. I mean, come on!
There were too many inconsistencies, too many coincidences, even too much fantasy. Yes, fantasy, because otherwise I couldn’t believe the things happening in this book.

One more thing that bugged me was the narrator’s voice. The book is written in a first person POV, but it was so obvious that the writer was man. I can’t really explain why, but somehow it was obvious.

This book went on forever. I can’t believe it’s over and that I can move on to something else.
2.5 stars.

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The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The blurb of this book made it seem like something between Practical Magic and Big Fish. And because I needed something lighthearted and fun, I immediately downloaded The Sugar Queen to my kindle. Little did I know that under magical realism was hiding nothing but a chic-lit. And chic-lit isn’t something that I read and enjoy. I tried to get into this book, but alas, I just couldn’t understand what was going on or what exactly I was reading. It started interesting, but after a while the book was nothing but releationship drama and pining. And it didn’t help when the main heroine, who was 27, acted like a 15-year-old. And her biggest sin that she tried to hide from the whole world was that she kept sweets in her closet. I mean, seriously?
This book was absolutely not for me. I was bewitched by the adorable cover, but now I wish that the publishers would be more specific with the blurbs.

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