Lots of picks!

I haven't been very good at keeping up with my picks, so here are the highlights of the last few months.

On the music front, I have been really enjoying the soundtrack to the movie, August Rush. I just watched it recently, and while it's rather improbable and a little sentimental for my taste, the music has been filling my soul these last few weeks. I like the mix of styles, and I love the sounds of August's Rhapsody.

The other album that I have been listening to a lot is the newest Need to Breath album, Rivers in the Wasteland. So many of there songs are encouraging to where I am myself in my own wasteland, and I love that their sound is still what I fell in love with. Excellent album; I can't recommend it enough.

Lastly, I downloaded the full album that I've had a damaged copy of since college, Watkins Ale by the Baltimore Consort. If you love Medieval music like I do, than this is a great place to start. It dosen't sound too 'rough' while still being period accurate.

In books, I have come across some really good ones. First, Winter, the final chapter of the Lunar Chronicles finally came out, and I gobbled it down in a matter of days. I liked the ending; while I found it very hard to see the depths that all the beloved characters had to descend before things could swing up, that made their sacrifice worth it. I think we do kids a huge disservice by 'protecting' them from everything sad. After all, “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” Neil Gaiman paraphrasing G. K. Chesterson.

Finally, I have been waffling about whether or not to buy this book, finally took the plunge, and didn't regret it for one instant. This has been likened to steam-punk Hornblower; steam-punk yes, Hornblower in feel no, but a brilliantly written tale of a duty bound captain, yes. Awesome cats? Yes! Crystals? Yes! Great story? When does the next one come out--I don't think I can wait. This it the first steam-punk novel I've read (other that Wells and Verne), and it ROCKED. READ. IT.