This week's review in terms of books and dancing

Well, another week has come and gone, and now we all find ourselves in August.  Dang!
This hasn't been the greatest week for me book-wise, but I had a great time dancing last night! 

Last night was the First Friday Swing Dance at the Town Hall in West Hartford, CT.  And what an amazing night that was!
For those of you not familiar with this event, on every first Friday of the month, Hartford Community Dance hosts a swing dance at the West Hartford Town Hall, complete with a live band.  And they always have a great band come in to play. 
This month's band was Roger Ceresi's AllStarz, and boy, were they fantastic!  They played the perfect combination of slow and fast swing numbers, keeping the crowd energetic but not exhausted.  At one point, they even had some of the band members walk amongst the dancers as they played!  The night was fun and lively, and to put the icing on the cake, I got asked to dance for almost every song the band played, by both beginners and advanced dancers alike.  When you spend half the night standing on the sidelines, it's never fun, but if you get to jump and jive the night away, well, of course you're going to have a great time!  It's even better when someone puts you through a complex dance step and you end up nailing it!  Ah, what a great night!

Roger Ceresi's AllStarz.  Good band.  Good times.

If you missed it last night and are looking for another awesome swing experience, then check out the Providence Waterfire next Saturday, August 9th!  Ceresi's AllStarz are going to be playing at the Waterfire Ballroom ,with Swing dancing going on from 7 to 11 pm (apparently there's a swing lesson as well).  Alas, I won't be able to go, but I hear this event is loads of fun!
For information about things to do at the Waterfire click here.
For more information about swing at the Waterfire Ballroom click here.

Well, enough about dancing, what's been going on with my reading?!  I seem to be slowing down a bit, but I did manage to read 2 books this week.  Although, I almost don't want to count one of them.  I listened to Lord Of The Silent on audiobook, and found out at the last minute that the audiobook was abridged!  ABRIDGED!  Why would anyone abridge a book?!  Suffice it to say, that I do plan on reading the uabridged version sometime later this month, because I feel robbed.  For a link to the book's info, click here.


The other book I managed to finally finish was Vicious, by V.E. Schwab.  Here's my review below:

Vicious, by V.E. Schwab
★ ★ ★

Synopsis: (from the book flap) Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing hidden possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could actually gain extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis inevitably moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.
Ten years later, Victor is breaking out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person he can find—aside from his own sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, spurred onward by the memory of betrayal and desperate longings, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?
V.E. Schwab’s Vicious is a riveting investigation on the nature of loyalty, the possibility of redemption, and an exploration of our darkest, most thrilling selves.
In A Sentence: A respectable, dark novel, but not 5-star material
My Thoughts: If you’re an empathic reader, this is not the book for you. What made it so difficult for me to get into was the fact that I didn’t like any of the characters. Both the protagonist and antagonist are sociopaths; there are no good guys here, just some people hell bent on killing each other. You can’t help but root for Victor, however, kind of like when you root for Walter White in Breaking Bad.
The plot was pretty well done, I thought. The book jumps back and forth in time quite a bit, which is a little jarring at first, but after a while you get used to it, and you begin to appreciate how it weaves the story together. The story is also pretty predictable, but it was still a good plot, filled with little twists and turns, ending with a decent climax and a reasonable conclusion.
Overall, this was an okay read, but I personally don’t feel like it’s 5-star material. It’s decent, but not remarkable. If you like dark novels, then you’ll probably enjoy this one.


So a bit of a disappointing week, reading-wise, but I plan to make up for it this week around.  Right now I'm reading three books; that's right, three.  Hopefully, I'll be able to finish at least one of them by next Saturday.

If you're curious about what I'm reading right now, just look on over to the right side of this blog, and look at the Goodreads shelf labeled "Lisa's Bookshelf: Currently Reading".  You can even click on the books to find out more details.

I hope everyone has a spectacular Saturday!
From Lisa, The Dancing Bookworm