Kristin Victoria Creates

Celebrating Shakespeare Week Some of my Favorite Plays To help celebrate Shakespeare week this year, which is the 12 - 18th of March, I wanted to share with you some of my favorite plays by the bard himself.  I've read these throughout the years and with each reread and new interpretation they remain some of my all time favorites and go-to's when I'm in the mood for a great play. Hamlet Hamlet is one of the more dramatic plays that I adore.  It's twisted, grey, and greatly adapted in a variety of mediums.  Whether on stage or screen, I love it. Macbeth Similar to Taming of the Shrew, this is one of my most reread play.  I love the characters and their flaws. In any rendition, I'm always drawn to this play and it's players. Othello I love how dramatic and gritty this play is.  I love the characters and the raw wit and emotion. This one even made it onto my favorite books of 2017 post! The Taming of ...

Top Reads of 2017 Similar to 2016, 2017 has been a year unlike any other. I'm sure this will be the trend, but I'm hoping for only good things to make 2018 stand out.  I read countless articles, magazines, short stories, and 55 books. Of all the readings I took in this year, here are my favorite books.  I've included a mini review, that are mostly spoiler free, as well as a link to Goodreads.com. Enjoy! Blood of Victory by Alan Furst The first book I finished in 2017 and I already want to reread it.  It was dark, and gritty, and just delightful. I loved the locations described in this book and now I really want to go there even more. As usual, I fell in love with the main character and couldn't put the book down.  The Art of Asking;  or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help  by Amanda Palmer I initially picked this book up after hearing about it on Booktube. And I really don't like asking for help, I ...

2017 Bookish Wrap Up and Review I usually forget to review my tbr for the previous year. This year, I'd like to change things up a bit and see how well I did.  And generally reflect upon my past reading for the year.  My top 2017 reads will be in a different post. Of the 34 books I wanted to read, I read a few, which were: Esme of Paris, Macbeth, Range of Light, The Mystery of Meteors, and Seed of the Serpent. I did start reading My Blue Notebooks, The Birth of Venus, Dancing for Degas, Mystic Fire, Maybe If I Loved You More, and Essence of Love. Sadly, I wasn't feeling any of them at all. I really did try, but it was a combination of the fact that I wasn't in the mood for them, they weren't what I thought they were going to be, I didn't care for the narration style, and for the poetry collections - I wasn't digging the love poems. Weird I know, but there were also a few others, that I can't remember now, that I started to read that I event...

Christmas Gift Ideas: Bookish Edition As Christmas is just around the corner again, I'd like to share with you some of my favorite books to give as gifts.  I've given these little treasures out many times and they're great options when you want to give something unique that pretty much anyone would love.  I've linked each book to goodreads.com so that you can read more about them there. Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World by Ella Frances Sanders The Illustrated Book of Sayings: Curious Expressions from Around the World by Ella Frances Sanders Turn Around and Run Like Hell: Amazing Stories of Unconventional Military Strategies That Worked by Josheph Cummins The Phantom Atlas: The Greatest Myths, Lies and Blunders on Maps by Edward Brooke-Hitching An Atlas of Countries that Don't Exist: A Compendium of Fifty Unrecognized and Largely Unnoticed States...

Deployment Distractions: Reading List I think we can all agree that books are a great way to escape from life for a little while.  And as my reading has been somewhat irregular as of late, I thought I would put together a short reading list of big books that I can just sink into and forget about the world.  Most of these are books I haven't read yet but have been really wanting to for a long time.  The Biography of J.R.R. Tolkien: Architect of Middle-Earth by: Daniel Grotta One of the many biographies that I want to read.  As I'm sure you know, if you've seen my other book posts, I adore Tolkien and have since I was 11. Needless to say, when I saw this at a second hand book store, I was so delighted, and was smiling the whole way home. The Life and Times of William Shakespeare by: Peter Levi Along with Tolkien, I adore Shakespeare. I've watched many versions of his various plays, read many of his plays, and watched a few documentar...

Book Recommendations: Military Reads One ever growing section on our book shelves is our military section.  Hubby and I both love reading and studying history in general and more specifically military history.  The smallest section of our history shelves is of current military books and military spouse and or relationship books.  A few of these were gift, a few we picked up ourselves.  We read a few together and separately, and some we haven't gotten around to yet.  The ones we have read, have been very informative in our lives. Regardless, though, I'd like to share with you the ones we do have.  I've linked all the books to Goodreads.com, enjoy! The Army Wife Handbook by Ann Crossley and Carol A. Keller Now you tell me! 12 Army wives give the best advice they ever got by: Sheridan Scott, B.K. Sherer, Mary Ferguson, Donna Lyons Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement: A Guide for Officers and Their Families by: ...

A to Z Book Tag Yes, I know this is from forever ago, but it looked like fun and I couldn't help myself from talking more about books. So, here we go! A uthor you’ve read the most books from: Shakespeare, then Shel Silverstein. B est Sequel Ever: The Curse of Treasure Island by Francis Bryan I loved Treasure Island, so I thought I'd like this sequel by a different author. Turns out I loved it. C urrently Reading: The Original Frankenstein and Tim Gunn’s Golden Rules D rink of Choice While Reading: Tea or sometimes coffee E- reader or Physical Book? Physical book, I have a ton on my kindle but hardly get around to reading them as I forget about them, hiding away in there. F ictional Character You Probably Would Have Actually Dated In High School: This one is harder than I thought.. Possibly Daniel from The Shadow of the Wind because he’s adorable and bookish.. or Jim from Treasure Island, or Serebin from Blood of ...

Since it's my birthday this week, and I'm a year older, but not sure about being a year wiser; I wanted to talk about books and book goals that I want to accomplish throughout my life time.  Read all of Tolkien's work I fell in love with his writing in 6th grade at the age of 11.  A long story short: a good friend told me the best lie I've ever been told while handing me her copy of The Hobbit and before I knew it, I was hooked.  Needless to say, I've read the Lord of the Rings and a few other books, by Tolkien but I can't seem to get enough. Finishing all of his writings is something that I've been longing to do for well over half of my life now. I'm working my way up to reading the Silmarillion, which when I found out how extensive it was, when I was in eighth grade, I figured it'd be better to read when I was more prepared to take it on.  I personally have two copies of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and hubby has one of his own - so in ...