Snakes and Seahorses and Sarcophagi , Oh My

This weekend I read a delightful book called Sister Snake by Amanda Lee Koe, and I wish I could give it six stars. It was a spectacularly weird mix of magical realism, fantasy, dark humor, and straight up horror. The premise is that a green viper takes care of an injured white krait over a thousand years ago, and they develop unbreakable bonds. After consuming magical lotus seeds, the sister snakes morph into semi-human vampire-like creatures. Then the shenanigans begin as the immortal girls travel across the globe ~ I learned interesting tidbits about both snakes and Singapore. Can’t recommend this book highly enough.

I began a diamond art painting craft. This one is a seahorse in all blues and white, and my plan is to put it on my bathroom wall. For some dumb reason, the manufacturer printed the color grid in TWO places right next to the picture, so it's going to be difficult to mount/ hang. I will have to carefully cut around the picture, glue it to some kind of blue backing, and attach that all to the wall. I'm a bit annoyed that I can't just plop the final product in a standard frame, and I assume my turtles pic is going to be similar (haven't opened it yet), though it's probably my bad for not reading the descriptions more thoroughly. 

The Curse of the Kings by Victoria Holt is the latest Holt book I finished. This was an interesting story with well-rounded characters. She really does (did) a fantastic job of creating compelling personalities with both attributes and flaws. According to Goodreads, lots of reviewers didn't enjoy this book much, but I did. The love story and the archaeology adventures were given equal footing, and there were unpredictable twists and turns. As usual, there was a bunch of family type drama, including some nebulous parentage issues, but TG no switched babies (close though). Holt loves to give her characters a reason to travel to exotic lands and engages in lush description of both the journey and the destination ~ in TCOTK it was Egypt. My favorite way to travel is vicariously in a book, and I gave this one five stars.

I watched Gone Girl on Hulu Saturday night. This was a second viewing for me, and I enjoyed it more than I did the first time. At that point, I had recently finished the book, and naturally the movie wasn't as good. But this time, years later, I had forgotten most of the book, so the movie was fine. LOL. It’s a suspense story with several exciting twists.

Otherwise, my weekend was quiet and uneventful, just the way I like it. No, I don't want to slide screaming into my grave, covered with chocolate, and yelling woo what a ride. Ick. I would prefer to expire quietly wrapped in a cozy blanket with a good book and a nice cup of tea.