BOOK REVIEW! NO.1: TEMERAIRE BY NAOMI NOVIK

Good morning, everybody!

As I mentioned in my last post, I am currently rereading Naomi Novik's Temeraire series ( the first book is called His Majesty's Dragons). I have read these books countless times. Well, maybe not countless, but certainly very often. Last summer I inhaled books 6 and 7 in, like, three days when I was in Alaska, and only last week I started again. Because of school and birthday parties and that sort of thing I'm much slower than I was on vacation but I'm not enjoying myself any less!

Let's start at the beginning.

Temeraire is a fantasy series. It is also surprisingly historically accurate. How does that work? Easy. The story is set around the time that Napoleon was conquering like, all of Europe (I know that's not entirely true, but I'm no historian and I have better things to do while reading than drawing a timeline). We follow British Royal Navy Captain William Laurence as he captures a French frigate carrying... a dragon egg. This is where the fantasy element comes in.

Dragons are nothing extraordinary in this alternative universe. They have served humanity for centuries. Together with their companions and captains, they form the Aerial Corps, which is the only aspect in Temeraire that does not follow history. The reader is witness of aerial battles and military manoeuvres that take place during, for example, the historic battle of Trafalgar. If you simply take away the dragons, all events in this series happened almost exactly in both the books and history, which serves as a nice bonus while reading.

The dragons in Temeraire are perfectly sentient beings, some of them more intelligent than their companions, with very different personalites. They are treated with fear, distrust and sometimes disrespect from the ignorant, but Corps members treat them as equals who happen to be thirty tonnes and capable of eating an elephant in one bite (depending on the dragon breed). Dragons serve in wars, accompanied by their Captain and crews, which can mean a lot of people depending on how big the dragon is.

Let's talk about contents.

Our main protagonist is Captain William Laurence, who, through a series of seemingly unfortunate events, is the one harnessing (and thereby sort of taming) and naming the hatchling from the egg on the French ship. This means that from now on, he is no longer a captain of the Royal Navy, but an aviator who works for the Aerial Corps. At first, he is extremely unhappy about it, as the aviators' lifestyle completely contradicts his own plans and ambitions. Soon, however, he develops a tight bond with the young dragon he named Temeraire (after a warship that actually existed - there's a painting of it in my English textbook).

Now, this bond is nothing unusual to those of us who are experienced in the genre of dragon fantasy. But that does not mean that it is any bit less heartwarming and beautiful to observe.

As Aerial Corps members, Laurence and Temeraire are rushed through their training so they can join the active troups as quickly as possible. At first, Laurence is met with resistence and rejection because he does not come from their own ranks, but as time passes he and Temeraire both slowly earn their comrades' respect.

So far, there are seven books in the series, and I really don't want to spoil anything for potentially interested readers, so I'll stop by saying that Laurence and Temeraire have a lot of adventures coming for them. Seriously. A lot.

Now, why do I like these books so much?

First of all, the concept is unusual and strange and exciting. Sometimes I come across pieces of military strategy that I don't entirely understand, but so far it hasn't stopped me from enjoying this rather unique reading experience. The story is wonderful and exciting and challenging enough that you don't feel as if you're just sort of swimming through the plot.

The characters the reader is introduced to are one and all very well planned out and incredibly interesting to watch. Although this is about military in the early nineteenth century, we are not confronted with an entirely male "cast", so to say. That is because the Longwings, a poison-spraying dragon breed forming the heart of Aerial Corps military strength, exclusively accepts women as their companions - so we are introduced to several almost badass women in high positions who plunge into battles just as enthusiastically as their male colleagues. This causes quite a bit of confusion and ideological crises along the course of the series which is really enjoyable to read!

Character composition and interaction offers a lot of wonderful friendships (and love affairs!) which warm my heart every single time whithout being cheesy.

Also, writing style. Even before I decided to be a writer myself, style was incredible important to me. No matter how interesting the story is, if the style annoys me I can't bring myself to finish a book. Temeraire is written in a very brief, precise kind of military-style due to the main protagonist's background but that in no way influences the emotional aspects. I admire Naomi Novik's writing skills even though I only read the books in the German translation!

Just read the books. Seriously. You probably won't regret it.

Love and kisses,

Jojo

(Sorry this is so long, I got a little carried away as I do when talking about books I love!)

SCHOOL'S OUT! WAIT WHAT?!

Greetings, my friends.

It's only three weeks to go until the summer holidays over here and all the exams are written. In fact, I had a little mini-party after my last test on Monday. It involved mostly sweatpants, chocolate buiscuits and lots of zoo documentaries on TV. You know, party hard.

I don't have to prepare for exams any more and also there's not that much stuff going on in school anymore so I'm basically already in relaxation mode. As a real treat, I started rereading one of my favourite book series - Naomi Novik's Temeraire - which is seven volumes up to now and I usually don't take the time to read that long a series all in a row (although I made an exception for A Song of Ice and Fire).

But that's not really what I wanted to talk about today. I want to talk about the problem, which is this:

Although there are no more tests or exams this schoolyear, we're still doing important stuff. We even start new topics. And everything we do now we will need right after the holidays. Because I am finishing school next spring, my next schoolyear is much shorter than a regular one, the first half being over right before Christmas when it's usually around early February.

Because the summer holidays are very late this year, we will have to write our first exams as early as three weeks after coming back to school. So all of us, not only our teachers, feel the pressure to get stuff done now so we don't have to rush through in September.

Now the problem is that we also want a break. We've all been working hard. The weather is crazy at the moment (floodings last week - students had to help dry out the school cellar and gym), most exams are graded and there's only two weeks of proper lessons left as the last week before the holidays usually contains all the extra stuff like running for charity and a kind of awards ceremony for students who did something special.

Seriously? I'm done. I just want a couple of weeks to relax, sleep in, and do all the stuff I don't have time for during school, like reading or learning Elvish like I've been planning to do for almost two years. Also I'm currently starting to really plan my novel-project, and I could really use some time off to work on that. Then there's university applications I'll have to think about, and possible gap year planning,

Even though I am generally a very relaxed person who isn't bothered by stress too much I appreciate and need breaks as much as the next person. So... could summer please come sooner?

Love and kisses,

Jojo

FIELD TRIP TIME! THE COLOGNE ZOO

Hello, my friends.

Last Saturday, I had the chance to visit the Cologne Zoo, something I had wanted to do for a long time now. I am a great fan of zoos in general (my mum took us to the closest zoo all the time when my brother and I were little) and there are a few that are kind of on my bucket list of zoological gardens.

Cologne Zoo was awesome. Their enclosures are very open and well-proportioned, with lots of hiding spots for the animals in case they don't want to be stared at all day. The park is layed out in a very visitor-friendly way, offering a roundcourse that brings you to all the animals in about one hour depending on how long you linger and signposts showing you the way everywhere you might want to go.

Zoos are visited especially by families, mothers with little kids being the great majority, probably because zoos are great to distract the little ones for a couple of hours. I remember that when I was a kid myself, I especially loved spending hours on the playground. The ones I saw in Cologne looked so great that I was seriously tempted to try them although I am a seventeen-year-old teenager and probably would have been hopelessly stuck on the constructions. I can also account for a great many beaming childrens' faces while I was there!

I took an awful lot of pictures, of course (about two hundred that is) but a lot of them were out of focus and some I will delete as soon as my friend saw them because I have WAY too many elephant photos. I'll put the nicest of them below, including comment!

One of three extremely smug-looking camels. They're currently shedding their winter-fur, so I decided to capture only this one's face.

Here you see the raccoon, engaging in his natural activity of looking both very cute and very sleepy.

I love cheetahs. I took about a dozen pictures of this one alone, but most of them were either out of focus or weirdly composed.

I don't know why I think tapirs are this interesting, but they certainly look cool!

I was so excited when I saw these two okapis! I'd only ever read about them or seen pictures in books, but I'd never seen a real one before!

These are honeybadgers. The most badass animals on earth. Even hyenas don't dare attack them. And they're just lying around cuddling.

Seriously! This is both adorable and disappointing.

I have no idea what this bird is called, but it's beautiful. Also, it was moving so fast it took me about a thousand attempts to get this shot.

Gotta love giraffes. My favourite animals. Period.

Here we have the extremely cute baby elephant Bindi right next to Europe's tallest male with a shoulder height of 3.18 metres.

This sea lion was kind of modelling for the visitors while also acting like a true comedian. 

I really wish I could have gotten more photos of big cats because they always fascinate the hell out of me and I find them incredibly inspiring. Unfortunately, every single one of them was either hiding in the last corner of their enclosure or lying behind very milky glass so I couldn't.

I spent an awful lot of time in the elephant house, which is very big and light and airy. I was a little surprised that they keep the bulls with the females, I'd never seen that before, especially because they currently have two little ones. They do have a seperated area, but the info signs say that the bulls get along so well with all the others and even the babies that they decided to keep the herd together.

I'm hoping to visit the Münster Zoo in about a month, they have a baby rhino at the moment! That is extremely special, because in the past one of the females killed two or three of her little ones by accident. It's a different mother this time, and the baby seems to have good survival chances!

That's it from me for now. I hope you have a good week!

Love,

Jojo

TIME

Manchmal fehlt die Zeit

Zu warten

Manchmal fehlt die Zeit

Zu atmen

Manchmal fehlt die Zeit

Zu denken

Manchmal fehlt die Zeit

Zu sprechen

Manchmal fehlt die Zeit

Zu sehen

Manchmal fehlt die Zeit

Zu fühlen

Manchmal fehlt die Zeit

Zu hören

Was dein Herz dir sagt

***

Sometimes there's no time

To wait

Sometimes there's no time

To breathe

Sometimes there's no time

To think

Sometimes there's no time

To speak

Sometimes there's no time

To see

Sometimes there's no time

To feel

Sometimes there's no time

To hear

What your heart tells you

What you (hopefully) just read was the original German and the translated English version of the latest entry to my Writing Journal. Fun fact: I wrote it late at night when I was actually trying to sleep, but then I panicked when I realised I still had to write something. But even though it's basically just me freaking out that it's so late, I think it's still kind of nice.

I usually don't share poems with anybody except a few very close friends. Although "Time" is nothing too personal, it's still a rather big step to publish this on the Internet (even though I know that there's not that many people reading my blog). I'm hoping that I'll find the courage to publish more of my inspiration-based pieces in the future, it would mean I'd finally gathered up enough confidence to actually tell people what I do.

I'll see you around.

Love,
Jojo

A WRITER'S JOURNAL

Greetings, my friends.

If there is one thing I have too much of, it is journals. (Not books. One does not simply own too many books.) There are big ones, small ones, spiral notebooks, hardcovers, lined, blank, patterned, everything. Too. Many. I can't ever use all of them, but I recently found a purpose for one I bought simply because it is beautiful (it's Hobbit-themed with Thrain's map imprinted on the front,. Also, it was on sale).

I'd heard of Writer's Journals before but never really considered starting one myself simply because I was sure I would never keep up with it. Knowing me, that was a pretty realistic worry.

My friend Nele started an Art Journal sometime last year, which is basically the same but for artists. It is kind of like a diary but in creative form, meaning the owner transfers thoughts and emotions into artwork. Although that can be very personal, Nele was so lovely as to show me her work every now and again, and as always, I was extremely jealous of her skill and talent.

A Writer's Journal can work the same way, like a diary, but I thought that if I were to use mine like a diary I'd just end up writing down reports of my days and whine about my problems. So instead I decided to use it to practice skills and build up my confidence when it comes to writing.

So I wrote and signed a commitment, swearing I would work on my journal at least every Tuesday and Friday to avoid abandoning it - so far, that has worked very well, I even exceeded my goal. As of today, I wrote a sense-experience account of a walk through nature, a list of why I write like Shakespeare, a poem on why writing is hard, and several sort-of-short-stories based on creative prompts I found on the Internet.

And guess what - I'm proud of all of that. I like what I created. And that's a new feeling. I might even share a few of those pieces here on the blog, which is terrifying as I usually only publish FanFiction online. I can read through what I've written before and not cringe at clumsy sentences or bad choice of words.

My journal is helping me to gather the courage to create because I'm basically forcing myself to do it. I feel way more confident and also I pay more attention to the world around me, simply so I can find something new to write about. Inspiration comes more easily now.

I can only recommend starting a creative journal of some sort, be it for art or writing or photography or music (although you may have to change the physical journal to a metaphorical or virtual one). It certainly did not harm me at all and I am slowly building up creative confidence - at least, until I look at Nele's drawings again.

See you soon (hopefully)!

Jojo

FICTION ADDICTION

So, YouTuber danisnotonfire recently uploaded this wonderful video about what fictional characters and universes do to you.

Incidentally, Fiction Addiction is one of my Fields of Expertise.

The basic concept of Fiction Addiction is that if you consume too much material of a specific fandom too fast, this fandom and with it the fictional universe and its characters become part of your life up to the point that they might feel much more real to you than the actual real world.

No, honestly, I'm not kidding.

Now, a lot of people don't take this seriously, usually those people who have never experienced this kind of total self-sacrifice that is a fandom. To those people, I can only say I'm sorry for them. Really. I pity you.

Fictional characters can be very good friends. They don't just leave you without reason (unless they die. Which happens a lot in certain fandoms). They don't argue with you, they never turn their phone off and they don't mind you waking them up in the middle of the night. They are incredibly good listeners because they never interrupt you. If you know them really well, they will even answer your questions. Not without reason do we ask ourselves: What Would Captain Picard Do?

But, as with every addiction, there are unfortunate side effects.

Sometimes you are so absorbed in this fictional universe that you start mixing realities. Suddenly, you're incredibly annoyed that you cannot inherit the family house because even though you're older than your brother you're still just a girl and sons come before daughters when it comes to heritage. Suddenly you draw your pencil and try to inflict the Tickling Curse on that guy in your class that you can't stand. Suddenly you wonder why the photos on your wall don't move.

And then there's the "It's Over"-Effect.

This is what happens when your fandom is no longer updated. That means there's no new books anymore, the show was cancelled, you name it. Or maybe it's just over for now and you have to wait for, like, an eternity until your heroes return to the page/screen.

Do not underestimate the "It's Over"-Effect. It's devastating. It leaves a hole in your heart and in your world. You wonder what the purpose of life could be if you cannot continue watching Downton Abbey right now. Especially if it's over forever. I mean, honestly, what are you going to look forward to now?

I don't know how to cure that. I'm still busy trying to recover from multiple bouts of Potter Depression and I'm suffering from severe Doctor Who and Sherlock withdrawal (and that although the DW finale was only yesterday). So don't expect any real help.

But to lighten the burden there are a couple things you can do:

1. Rewatch. Reread. Reboot.
2. Watch or read interviews. Making ofs. Background material. Blogs.
3. Create art. Record songs. Write FanFiction.
4. Join a forum or even a Facebook group. Talk to people. Works like support group.
5. One word: tumblr.

Good luck. I'll see you around (unless I'm busy with a Doctor Who marathon. In that case, hush, don't interrupt).

Jojo

TAG-CHALLENGE-SOMETHING!

'Ello.

So, a very good friend of mine from over here tagged me in a so-far-nameless blog tag like, ages ago (sorry!). The point is to state 11 facts about yourself, answer 11 questions, make up 11 questions and then tag 11 other bloggers. I'll leave out the last part because I don't know 11 other bloggers for the life of me. So yeah. Figure that out.

11 Facts About Me.

1. I talk to inanimate objects. Like books. Or my computer.

2. Both my desk and my comfy chair are more like... storage space. All the business happens on my bed.

3. If I don't like the first two chapters of a book, I don't finish it. Unless it's for school.

4. I reread good books multiple times.

5. I have about 300 books on my shelves but because I reread most of them so often, I often feel like I don't  own any books.

6. I like poetry. Weird thing, huh?

7. My brain is constantly working in several different realities, depending on what I'm currently reading/writing/watching.

8. I am terrible at drawing.

9. I used to have piano lessons but although I love to play piano I am just not good at it.

10. I don't like my knees. They are not aesthetically pleasing to me.

11. I am incredibly glad this is the last one because hell this was difficult.


11 Questions asked by Nele from nelephantastic.

1. If you could be a Disney princess, which one would you be?
I would like to be Mulan, but really, that's not gonna happen. I'd probably be Belle from Beauty and the Beast. 'Cos BOOKS!

2. What do you do when you're incredibly tired?

Sleep, I guess? Or drink cocoa. Lots of cocoa.

3. Which language would you like to speak fluently?

Hindi. Or Japanese. Or Sindarin (that's Elvish). Or Klingon. Sigh. So much to learn.

4. Which book/film would you never give away?

Of those that actually belong to me and not my parents, my signed (and partly dedicated!) copies of John Green's books. Or my beautiful edition of the Lord of the Rings. Or the Black Magician Trilogy. Or my entire collection.

5. What is your favourite season (as in, time of year)?

Autumn. See the post below.

6. Where would you like to travel someday?

Japan. And Greece. And India. And Rome. And Edinburgh. And Narnia.

7. What is your best childhood memory?

Watching The Jungle Book with my parents. I still almost cry when I watch that now because it's basically my childhood.

8. What is your favourite quote?

"My thoughts are stars I can't fathom into constellations." ~ John Green, The Fault in our Stars

9. Who do you admire and why?

Oh, that's a tough one. I'm going to say Joanne K. Rowling because she brought magic into my world.

10. Crisps or chocolate?

Chocolate. Because it cures sadness and there are more chocolate varieties that I like than there are crisp varieties I like.

11. What annoying habit do you have?

Cracking my knuckles.

As I said, I won't tag anybody, so there's really no point in me figuring out questions to ask. There's another post coming up, though!