Etc - and a review

Me again.  And I knew this would happen.  As soon as I’m back into the blog and feeling closer to groovy then I have for quite some time, my brain goes dead for topics to blog about.  But I want to make it a habit so until the lightbulb goes on over my head, I’ll post some reviews I’ve done over the months.  While life was difficult, thank goodness I didn’t hit readers block and was still able to read, most of it done while Wolf Blitzer was hosting CNN. 

I really don’t like him.  He has no sense of humour, asks really stupid questions in his monotone voice and has not one, but two blocks a day.  At least the others are interesting for the most part. 

One segment I really did enjoy was with Anderson Cooper when he was interviewing Stormy Daniels attorney, Michael Avenatti and the twit lawyer representing Michael Cohen.  The twit lawyer said every time Michael called Cohen a thug, they were going to sue him.  So Michael starting saying ‘thug’ thug, thug, thug and counting on his fingers.  And poor Jeffrey Toobing is stuck between the two of them.  Anderson just kind of looked at us, tipped his head and smiled.   I tried to find a small clip but they were all too long. 

I found the whole exchange vastly amusing and can I just say if I ever get in legal trouble I want Mr.  Avenatti as my solicitor.

See what I mean?  Way, way too much CNN.

 

And now, as to keep from going on about CNN, a Review

The Protector by Elin Peer – Book 1 of Men of the North series

 

I noticed this one on for a good price on Book Bub.  Since the price was right, the cover model appealed to the shallow in me and the storyline sounded intriguing, I thought I’d give it a shot.  The book takes place 400 in the future.  There’s been a devastating third world war that wiped out billions of people and much of the planet is uninhabitable.  Civilization as we know it has been changed forever.  The dark times have passed however and society has been revamped and is moving on.  The biggest difference is most of the women live in one area and most of the men live in another area and there is a huge border wall that divides them.  Men are rough and tumble and definitely alpha while women are calm and practical.  They trade with each other on occasion but other than that the two different sides have no interaction with each other.  This changes when one of the women, Christina Sanders, a professor and archeologist by trade, crosses the border to excavate a site in the north and she gets to see what men from the north are like and they get to see what a woman from the south is like.

The first word to describe this book is, well, fun.  It’s cute, it’s quirky, it’s a bit silly and I enjoyed it ever so much.  The two sides, men and women, have some real goofy ideas about the other side.  The women think men kidnap women, hold them against their will and do all kinds of ‘things’ to them.  All of their preconceived perceptions are wrong of course though the men of the north are extremely overprotective of the the women they do have as men vastly outnumber the women in the north.  The way they choose their wives are hilarious and once they do find a wife of the very few women, sadly the women live rather a stifling life. 

When she arrives, Christina is assigned a ‘protector, Alexander Boulder.  There is a definite attraction between them but their ways of life couldn’t be more different and the last thing Christina wants to do is spend the rest of her life in this upside down society.  Or so she thinks.  There were many places in this book that had me smiling or chucking at the difference between the sexes.  I loved Boulder as he was mostly known as.  Though overprotective like the rest of his brothers, it’s truly for Christina’s safety.  All things considered, he’s more enlightened than many a ‘Man of the North’ though he does think the Momsies, as the men call the women, are bonkers in a lot of the things they do and think.  I found him such a hoot.

Christina makes for a great heroine.  She’s rather flummoxed when she discovers many of the men’s customs but she manages to adjust.  Thanks goodness some of the worst she thought she knew about them are just more like urban legends.  For example, men are NOT cannibals.  She’s an adventurer at heart and the society of the women tends to suppress the more adventuresome so once she breaks through those walls and stereotypes she’s heard about, she adapts wonderfully.

I really got on board with this book and have since read the rest that have been published and preordered the one after that hasn’t.

 

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

 

Outline: 400 years in the future, men are few and women rule the world.
Except for the area formerly known as Canada and Alaska, which is inhabited by the Men of the Northlands, a group of strong men, who refuse to be ruled by women.

Christina Sanders, an archeologist and professor in history, is fascinated with the past. As a modern woman of year 2437 she knows that women are better off without men, but longing for an adventure, she makes a spontaneous decision and volunteers for a job no one else wants. Now she’s going to lead an archeological excavation in the Northlands, the most secluded place on earth where the mythical males live who are rumored to be as brutal and dangerous as the men Christina has read about in her history books.

What will happen when Christina crosses into the men’s territory? Will they allow her to do her job and is there any way they’ll let her leave again – unharmed?