Ruth Reads

More Books

2011-09-07T08:36:00.000-07:00

So, I did finish Lord of the World. I enjoyed it, but I'm not quite sure about the end; it was left a little open and I'm not fully sure what happened. I have the general idea and a few ideas as to the specifics, but nothing exact.

I then decided that I wanted to read The Midnight Tunnel: A Susanna Snow Mystery by Angie Frazier next - it sounded as if it would be somewhat like the "Mandie" books by Lois Gladys Leppard which I'd enjoyed immensely and it would be a quick read so that I'd still have time to read the next book club book before we meet on Thursday. Both of my assumptions were right with this book and I'm thoroughly hoping for more to come; based on the subtitle for this one, I highly suspect there will be more. I was not very impressed with Zanna's uncle, the famous Bruce Snow (Boston's Sherlock Holmes)- he seemed more interested in a big show of effort and success than in finding the truth.

I have now started Gail Godwin's book, Evensong; I hadn't known much about it when I started it - just that it was about two Presbyterian ministers (a husband and wife). I'm quite enjoying gettting to know the two of them and am eager to see where they go from here (I'm about 1/3 of the way through, so far). I'm often somewhat reminded of Jan Karon's "Mitford" series with this book, and keep thinking that Margaret and Adrian Bonner should be Episcopalian, like Fr. Tim from Jan Karon's books - I just have to remember that they're not. As a side note, when looking up Margaret's name (she's the narrator, so her name isn't mentioned as often as some of the other characters' names), I just learned that she's the title character from another one of Gail Godwin's books - Fr. Melancholy's Daughter, so now I'm going to need to read that as well; and this might lead to me reading much of Gail Godwin's work in general. These people feel very real and that is, I think, what makes it so easy for me to know them and to want to learn more about them - sometimes I think I'd like to have a chat with them myself.

Sort of slow reading period

2011-08-29T11:15:00.001-07:00

I'm still working on Lord of the World, but haven't gotten too much farther into it - I'm still only about 1/3 of the way through it. It's been a busy several days and I found that another book I had checked out is due soon and someone else had reserved it so I couldn't renew it. It was book 4 in a series and I needed to read book 3 first (this was checked out already when I found book 4). I decided to quick add these first so I didn't have to bring them home again.

First I read, Theodosia and the Eyes of Horus by R. L. La Fevers. Theodosia is a young girl who can see/feel the ancient Egyptian curses attached to the artifacts that come into her parents' museum, and she removes them. In the process she has met with a few groups of people who know about the artifacts and the reality of their power. One group hides these away, a second wants to use them to bring chaos to the world, and a third is harder to describe - something of a religion and she turns out the be the goddess for it - they're a bit weird. In this one she (along with her brother) find a green tablet that although the group that hides artifacts away for safekeeping says it's worthless and harmless, lots of people - some from the other two groups and another for whom she doesn't know quite the motives - seem willing to do anything to get their hands on it. This was quite entertaining - as were the first two in the series. Sadly for a good part of the first third to half of the book I wasn't quite sure if I'd read it already or not. Parts of it were quite familiar, but the farther in I got the less sure I got that I had already read it - by the end I knew I hadn't.

Book four in the series is Theodosia and the Last Pharoah. In this book Theodosia travels to Egypt with her Mother to learn more about her past, help on-site with an excavation she's already researched a bit, and to (secretly) return the green tablet from the previous book. She learns much - and seems to stumble into new dig sites. This book left me a bit uncertain as to whether there will be more in the series or not. I would like there to be; there is definitely more that could happen and more about her life we could learn (she is only 11 - almost 12 at the moment), but it almost felt as if this were the end. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Another Posting Delay

2011-08-24T07:21:00.000-07:00

So, I was going to post something last Tuesday, but ended up not having time, and since then it's been a bit crazy around here.

In the middle of reading Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?, I quickly read through Wizardology: the book of the secrets of Merlin by Dugald Steer. This is part of the -ology series (i.e. Dragonology, Monsterology, etc.) and is as fun as the rest of them that I've read. I had a hard time finding one of the objects hidden throughout the book, though. I was just about to give up on finding the Cloak of Invisibility when I happened to glance at it. The copy I read was clearly well-used/loved; some of the moveable bits didn't work so well anymore, but I could tell still what was supposed to happen with them.

I did finish Steven Tyler's book on Thursday - I had a good bit of time between my shifts at work. I mostly enjoyed it, and learned a lot. As with the rest of the autobiographies I've read, now I'd like to have a conversation with Steven Tyler about some of what he wrote, but, also as usual, I rather suspect that won't happen (but at least he's still alive, so it's slightly possible). I was a bit sheepish to find that when he spoke of his daughter Liv, he meant Liv Tyler from Armageddon and The Lord of the Rings movies. Also I hadn't known that "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" from Armageddon was an Aerosmith song/recording.

I decided to quick read the next two books in a fun series that I started a month ago or so. The first one I read was I So Don't Do Make-up and the second was I So Don't Do Famous (the first two books in the series are I So Don't Do Mysteries and I So Don't Do Spooky). These books, by Barrie Summy, are about Sherry (Sherlock Holmes Baldwin) and her Mother, an ex-cop ghost, who work together to solve mysteries as a part of the Academy of Spirits. In the third installment of the series, Sherry's make over birthday party runs into trouble with some sabotaged make-up. Sherry is determined to get to the bottom of this mystery before more people get hurt. In the newest book, Sherry wins a contest and gets to go to L.A. for the award ceremony - at which yet another celebrity is robbed; it's part of a crime spree. In this I rather guessed who the culprits were early in the book (although not the why or how and such). Also, while there, her Mom is determined to solve the mystery of Marilyn Monroe's death. These were some fun quick books and I'm slightly disappointed that there won't be any more in the series - I'd read more if they were written.

After I finished those, I decided I'd better read the book for the Lemmings book club next Sunday, and since I wasn't quite ready to go to bed yet, I started it late Friday night. We're reading Persepolis (in two volumes, or one big volume) by Marjane Satrapi. This is an autobiographical graphic novel. Marjane grew up in Iran and then when fairly young was sent to Austria for school because it would be safer. The books are about her experiences there, and then also a few years later after she goes back home. I still haven't decided what grade I'd like to give the book, but I suppose I ought to give it a pretty good grade because I stayed up till 2 or 3 in the morning to finish it.

From there I moved to one of the books Andrea Mariani gave me, The Lord of the World by R. H. Benson. So far I'm enjoying it pretty well, although there are parts that make me wonder if it is translated to English from another language or not (apparently not). Also, early on I had to check and see when it was published because there were some major historical events not mentioned (WWI and WWII) and the Roman Catholic Mass (and at least many prayers) were still in Latin. It was published in 1908, though so both of those are understandable. I'm not yet very far into it - too much else has been going on (as I already mentioned). Driving to and from Chicago to help move my brother back to college for school ate lots of time - especially when I was navigator for much of it. Oh well, I look forward to seeing what's going to happen. Oh and as I'm reading it, there's talk of this mysterious "Felsenberg (I don't remember the exact name off hand) working for the Masons. With all of the mystery surrounding him, I've been reminded of The Stealers of Dreams by Steve Lyons. In this Doctor Who book, there's a mysterious rebel leader that no one knows about and few have even met him - the character in this book almost sounds like the character in this other book I've already read. I'll have to see how right (or wrong) my initial impression is.

A flurry of Wednesday reading

2011-08-13T08:45:00.000-07:00

After posting Wednesday (and getting back home to the then current book) I proceeded to finish it. Ruby Red was a lot of fun, even if I was able to predict some of the details (slightly) earlier than they were actually revealed. Also, in looking at the book more, I discovered why Amazon.com listed two authors and the book cover only listed one - it was translated from German by the second author listed. One disappointing thing about the book is that it's part (book 1) of a series (trilogy?) that somewhat leaves you hanging and the next book doesn't come out until next year - darn wait. Oh well, I do that for enough other books, I'll just have to do it again. If I'd read just a few pages more before the last post, I'd have known how they knew that the time-traveling "gene" skipped her; although the explanation of how they got it wrong didn't come until much later.

After I finished Ruby Red, I skipped momentarily what had been the next book in my stack so that I could read the shorter (probably (and actually) faster) Fr. Andrew Greeley book I had checked out. It's called Star Bright! and is a wonderful little book - everyone should read it! I felt a bit odd reading a Christmas story in August, but the book was so much fun that I didn't care. It's about this South-side Chicago Irish young man, a student at BC (Boston College) who also takes one class at Harvard, who meets a young woman (Russian mystic), a Harvard art student and their encounters together - the way they change each other and those they encounter. It reminded me a bit of his book Irish Gold - the story of how Nuala met Dermot. Reading this book reminded me just how much I enjoy Fr. Greeley's books, and that I need to read more of them - there are at least a dozen or two novels of his that I haven't read yet. This is a travesty that must be remedied shortly.

Having finished that, I started what had been the next book in my list Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?; it's Steven Tyler's autobiography. I first decided to add my name to the wait list at the library for this because 1) I liked the title and 2) after watching him as one of the American Idol judges I was intrigued to learn more about him - all I knew at that point was what I saw on the show. I've been finding a lot in the almost 100 pages I've read so far that cause me to laugh - he's a vary humorous guy - and even more that makes me smile because I can so hear him say that! At this point in the book he's only just barely formed Aerosmith - and just wrote their first song.

The order in which I'll be reading the next few books in my stack might (probably will) end up changing. Last night at the end of School of Community, Andrea Mariani gave me two books he thought I would enjoy (one of which I've already read, and did enjoy, but will read again because it's come up so often since I last read it) - thanks again, Andrea - and we have tentative plans to meet and discuss the books when he gets back from Italy.

I've returned

2011-08-10T08:15:00.000-07:00

Well, technically I never physically left, but I am going to start keeping this blog again.

It's been so long since my last post that I highly doubt I could ever remember the title of each book I've read since the last post (to be honest for a long while, that was part of why I didn't start up again somewhat early in the break - and then the longer the break was, the easier it was to continue with that pattern). I don't plan to even try commenting much on most of them - although some may get mentioned every so often.

Walking to church this morning, I finished The Clockwise Man by Justin Richards. It is a BBC book/Doctor Who series book (starring Billie Piper as Rose Tyler and Christopher Eccleston as The Doctor) and a fun, quick read. The title and theme somewhat reminded me of The Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare, but for the most part, the plots of the two don't match. Now that I've started watching the new Doctor Who shows, I'm quite enjoying reading the related books. If I like a character, whether from a book, movie, tv show, or whatever, I'm always happy to meet them in other formats as well - although sometimes I will complain about differences (i.e. ways the new format got it wrong - even if the new format was officially first (Temperance Brennan)).

Immediately after finishing that, I started to read Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier and Anthea Bell. I don't remember what exactly compelled me to read the cover flap in the first place, but I was hooked almost immediately. This book sounds as if it will be a combination of The Time Traveler's Wife (Audrey Niffinegger) and A Discover of Witches (Deborah E. Harkness) with a bit of Sabrina the Teenage Witch or Twilight thrown in (the last two for age references more than anything). Gwyneth's family has visited the past often, but she has been told that the trait skipped her so she hasn't been trained for it at all. Then, it turns out she's the one who time travels as she suddenly finds herself appearing in the past (I haven't actually gotten this far yet - she still believes her cousin Charlotte is the one who will be travelling). I'm only ten or so pages in so far, but already I can't wait to read more - and wish I'd brought the book with me for now! Oh well, I'll be back home soon.

Another Delay

2010-06-10T18:03:00.000-07:00

Yet again I focused more on actual reading than on keeping this updated. So here goes another marathon post.

I finished The Doctor Digs a Grave pretty easily (although I did stay up until 2am to finish it). I quite enjoyed it and have plans to find the next book in the series soon. It was easy to read, hard to put down, and the characters were quite likable as well.

The next day I started Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead - this is the fifth Vampire Academy book. I mostly enjoyed it - although it seems again that people are giving Rose too hard a time. Also, I agree with her and some of the other characters - the new rule change is NOT a good idea. I was extremely annoyed with the way the book ended - it's just like An Echo in the Bone - every things left hanging, unresolved. The only benefit to that is that it seems to guarantee another book in the series. Again, I stayed up late trying to finish the book (around 2am with eighty or ninety pages left, I voted I just wasn't going to make it). So I finished it on Tuesday morning instead.

Right after finishing that I moved to The Making of the Pope 2005 by Andrew Greeley. This was mostly a fascinating book. Fr. Greeley got a bit repetitive at times, but I suspect that was related to the nature of the book, as mostly journal-type entries. To an extent I suspect I should have read his other "conclave" book first, but, once I'd started this I figured I'd finish it. Although Fr. Greeley seemed initially unenthusiastic about Cardinal Ratzinger as Pope, by the end he may have changed his mind a bit. I would enjoy speaking with him about this, now that he's been Pope for 5 years. Often Fr. Greeley's comments about JPII disagreed with my own experience, but I enjoyed seeing a new perspective on it. It would be interesting to be able to see what would have happened if he'd been more what people were expecting when he was elected in 1978. I did quite enjoy the sociological job description for the Pope that Fr. Greeley spoke of - "a hopeful, holy man who smiles."

Having finished that (again pretty quickly - again staying up later than I should have) I moved to Fr. Greeley's other Pope book, The Making of the Popes 1978: The Politics of Intrigue in the Vatican. This was also an interesting book to read. I had more difficulty in understanding all of Fr. Greeley's comments to the extent I'd been able to with the first one of these I'd read - I didn't know/remember what JPI's name was before becoming Pope - although I did figure it out partway through the first conclave story - Albino Luciani (sp?). I rather wonder what life/the Church/my faith experience would have been like if he hadn't died so quickly (I also wonder if the rumor's of poisoning are accurate). I was surprised by Fr. Greeley's description of Cardinal Wojtyla. Fr. Greeley says he's a large man, with broad shoulders - football linebacker type. I'd never gotten that impression myself, even in the photos of him as a young man - maybe it's the in person part that changes that, or maybe my impression was just incorrect.

In the middle of reading that, a book I'd learned of from the two Pope books arrived from the ILL office, so I quickly read it first. It was shorter and I knew I'd be able to finish it in time to return it to the library the next day. Women I've Met is a collection of Fr. Greeley's poetry. I'd read some of the poems in his autobiographies already, but I still enjoyed them much - I'm thinking of buying my own copy of this book, but as it's no longer in print, I have to decide where to get it.

After finishing both of those, I moved on to a second Robin Hathaway book, Scarecrow: A Mystery. I'd found this at the same time I got the other one - this one's from a different series, though. I enjoyed this one at least as much as the last one, and possibly even more. I don't remember if there're more books in this series or not yet, but I seriously hope there are.

I quickly finished that book and moved on to Piers Anthony's Key to Survival, the fifth and presumably final book in the ChroMagic series - the author's note at the end left a possible (but not entirely probable) hint of a coming sixth book. I enjoyed the story pretty well, although as with a few other series I've read, I think the first book was my favorite. A lot of time passed between this book and the previous one - almost 20 years. I mostly guessed who the Makers were before Havoc and the others figured it out, but not as early as Piers seems to think people will claim to have known it (I figured it out in the middle of the book, but had no clue in the other books). I'm not sure anyone could accurately say they knew all along, as we hadn't heard of the Makers until this book.

In the middle of reading this book, I read a shorter book I'd found at the library: Letters from the Inside by John Marsden. The story was about the meaning of friendship, and one way it can form - not the normal way. It was quite interesting getting to know both girls, but at times I wanted to know more than what they were sharing in their letters (the book is a collection of the letters they wrote back and forth to each other). Although it is in keeping with the format of the rest of the book, I really wish we'd been told exactly what happened to the one of them (I can't remember her name for sure) - I kept expecting that the other girl (I can't remember her name for sure either) would get a letter from someone else telling her what's up, but that never happens.

I'm now reading Ted Dekker's newest (? - at least new-ish) book, The Bride Collector. So far the book is quite intriguing, although the one character is a bit disturbing to read about - his mind is rather strange at times. The main character is working on a serial killer case they're calling the Bride Collector - a man who's been killing women and gluing them to the wall (he also drills into their heels and drains all of their blood). I presume the killer will be caught, but because of the rain, I'm not that far into the book yet. I look forward to finishing it, though - I want to know what happens.

Too much delay!

2010-05-29T20:16:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I've let posting be delayed this long - I have so much to add.

So I did finish Happy are the Meek and enjoyed it much. It's been so long, I don't have much memory of what all happened - which is actually rather sad. I do know that I enjoyed it - and I still really like Fr. Blackie (and would like to meet him). The story did end happily with two couples getting together and with no more deaths. I was surprised by who actually killed the husband (I've forgotten their names - and admittedly regret that) but it does make sense with the rest of the clues in the story. My heart went out to many of the characters - they've gone through quite a bit of trouble - so they're due some happiness! I look forward to reading the next book in the series (even if I don't remember which one is next for sure).

After I finished that I started Charles de Lint's newest book (in a way) Eyes Like Leaves. It was a fascinating story touching on lots of myths/legends/what-have-you from all over. Near the end of the book I was trying to figure out how/if it connected with Riddle of the Wren, which I read a long time ago. I would like to meet these characters again sometime - so hopefully there's more to come. My only real complaint with the story has more to do with the particular copy RPL has than with the story itself. The book is listed as having a Bonus Materials section for Part Four - the copy I read did not have this part, even though it was mentioned in the table of contents and in the author's note. However, the story itself was wonderful - and I'd recommend to everyone! I can understand why it didn't get published when it was written, and am glad that the "real world" (so to speak) stories CdL wrote exist, but I'm also quite glad that this got published too!

In the middle of reading this, another book by Angie Sage that I'd had on hold at the library came in for me, so I quick read it - it only took about an hour, at the most. It was Araminta Spookie 1: My Haunted House. Araminta lives with her aunt and uncle in their huge house, but one day she learns that her aunt has decided to sell it so they can move elsewhere - all after one more battle with the boiler. In Araminta's mind, this is the worst thing that could ever happen, so she does everything she can to sabotage the sale. Although an easier read than the other Angie Sage books I've read, it was still quite enjoyable and I will read more of the books soon.

Having finished both of those, I moved to a book I found while shelving. I'd actually been shelving a different book by Naomi Ragen but was intrigued by both of them (this one just a bit more than the other). The Ghost of Hannah Mendes tells the story of one Spanish Jewish woman who became one of the richest and most powerful people in the 16th century (might be 15th or 17th) and some of her descendants as well. We learn her story as they learn her story while they search for remnants of the document she wrote about herself, while finding true love, faith, and happiness along the way. I liked a couple of comments from one character a lot. First she was talking about interfaith marriage and compared it to mixing cuisines for the soul. When kids are raised as both Christian and Jewish, it's like asking their souls to survive/withstand the same thing as asking one's stomach to survive eating Hungarian, French, and (something else I can't recall) cuisine at the same time. It just doesn't work that way. She also, near the end of the book, commented that one's ancestors are with one and big family events because their DNA/cells are a part of one's own body/DNA.

Having finished that, I moved to her other book The Covenant which was about both the current conflict in the Holy Land and about the Shoah (Holocaust), especially what happened in Auschwitz. Although I'd expected the other book to be better, I actually preferred this one, I think. They're both pretty good, though. I was intrigued by all of the interconnectedness that showed up here, but it was almost a bit unbelievable.

After these two books I was able to move to the beginning books in a series I've been wanting to read for awhile now. I started with Ilona Andrews' books Magic Bites and Magic Burns. These stories are sort of a vampire hunting story, but with many twists and turns. I was somewhat reminded of the Twilight series though, because of the apparently typical animosity between vampires and werewolves (or as their called in the series shapechangers - because their not all wolves). The history of the stories is quite fascinating. Sometimes what we'd currently call normal technology works, but sometimes it doesn't - when their are magic shifts. I thoroughly enjoyed the books and look forward to learning more about Kate Daniels and her life and world.

Next I started a book by Julie Klassen (I've read another of her books - that's actually what drew me to this book initially - the cover reminded of the other book). The Silent Governess brings to life the role of governess in England at one point (I don't remember the exact time frame for the story - possibly at least almost victorian times - I think actually a bit later though). This was really rather similar to Jane Eyre in many ways, but not quite. Throughout the story I wanted to know more and more about each of the characters and the plot in general. It was hard to put the book down. I rather knew that the two main characters (again, it's still been rather too long since I read it, I've already forgotten their names) would get married by the end of the book - or at least I sincerely hoped they would.

Wait, I read two shorter books before I started that one; first I read Septimus Heap: The Magykal Papers by Angie Sage. This book rather gave general background for the world of the Septimus Heap series. It was a quick, enjoyable read. The other shorter book I read was Don't Hurt Laurie! by Willo Davis Roberts. this little story about domestic child abuse was quite touching - it had me in the all-out, headache-inducing tears that some books bring me. My heart ached for Laurie and all her doubts and troubles. I'm glad that she finally found the courage to share what was happening to her, and found people who she could trust about it.

Then, I read Andrew Greeley's first novel, The Magic Cup. This was a retelling of the Irish version of Arthurian legend. Even if it didn't have the connection to reality that most of Fr. Greeley's books have, I still quite enjoyed it. It didn't actually need as much reality - but it did have some - just with a much older period of reality than I usually find in his books. I suspected that Brigid was going to be Cormac's princess/future wife - but that's not too impressive a guess as Fr. Greeley hinted at it enough. Cormac was an interesting man who I could perhaps quite enjoy (he rather reminds me of Dermot Coyne from other Greeley novels as well as Jamie Fraser from Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series) meeting/knowing. Brigid reminded me of myself at times too - although, I suppose I find bits of me in many fictional characters.

In the middle of reading that book, while at work, I found a couple of cute kids books that I just had to read. They were A Girl and Her Gator and A Boy and His Bunny. These books were about two siblings that woke up to find they had animals one their head/in their hair, and discovered what they could do with these new additions to their appearance. There appears to be a third book in the series about a boy who finds himself atop a bear, but I didn't get to read that one.

After finishing these, I started Harry Kraus, M.D.'s book The Six-Liter Club. I also found this book quite interesting - there was a fair amount of action that occurred, but there was also lots of character development as well. Camille is now going through a difficult time. She thought she'd made it into the "boy's club," but is starting to discover what she's lost/had to deny to get there. At the same time, she begins to be haunted by events from her childhood in the Congo. As with Brigid from The Magic Cup, I found myself identifying with Camille in many ways. Often in the book I really wanted to slap her boyfriend, I think his name was Mark, but Camille and Tina learned what he was up to, and it all worked out.

I'm now reading The Doctor Digs a Grave by Robin Hathaway. This is another book I found by shelving a different book by the same author. So far the story is entertaining, but I'm really not that far into it. Mostly they've found a possible murder victim - at the very least her freshly deceased body was dumped in a shallow grave, but we don't yet know why. I look forward to finishing the story soon, but probably not before I next stop past the library - especially after spending so much time here working on the update. Soon, though.

The Punk is Back!

2010-05-13T15:38:00.000-07:00

So I have finished The Way We Live Now - with a few hours to spare before the book club meeting tonight. I did enjoy it much more than I expected, but I suspect that I'll vote one read-through is plenty. I'm intrigued to see what everyone else thought of it. I'm not sure I believe Felix's final part of the story - his actions seem a bit out of character to me, but oh well.

Having finished that, I've started Happy Are the Meek, by Andrew M. Greeley. This is the first in the Fr. Blackie mysteries - more particularly the first one in the Beatitudes series. So far I'm enjoying getting to know the Punk (aka Fr. John Blackwood (Blackie) Ryan) better, especially through his own thoughts. In the previous books that he's part of, we mostly just get to hear what he tells someone - sometimes even with the "someone's" paraphrase of it. I'm not far enough in the book to say with any much accuracy what it's about, but it's going to be fun. You can't go wrong with the Punk and a broadsword in the same story! :)

Posting Delays

2010-05-11T06:52:00.000-07:00

So, I know it's been a long time since I last posted - it's been a busy week or so.

I did finish Rite of Spring - and have to say I did enjoy it. The story did get a bit more normal, and the "other" characters did play a bit more of a role later in the story. It turns out that Ciara wasn't just a figment of Brendan's imagination - he was just supposed to think that - she had some powerful friends who'd gotten worried about her safety - unnecessarily, however. Brendan did eventually find her again - and also figured out who'd tried to kill him, and also found and eliminated the threat to Ciara. Happy ending after all - even if it was starting to look unlikely!

After I finished that I started another Andrew M. Greeley book - St. Valentine's Night. This was another very good book of his - one of my favorites so far (especially of his non-Nuala Anne McGrail mysteries). Neal Conner (Cornelius O'Connor) attends a 30-year grammar school (St. Praxide's) reunion and his life is changed forever - after a bit of struggle, of course. He's been so determined that he'll never go back to his old neighborhood, that he continually fights with himself and those around him when chance brings him there after all. The famous news-reporter falls under attack as well, from all over. He also gets to meet again Megan, the girl he first fell in love with in grammar school after he saved her by carrying her out her burning house - he was able to notice the fire while he was delivering the paper. Her father claimed Neal had set the fire, but everyone else knew differently and considered him a hero. I also like that Neal gave Fr. Blackie and his assorted crew of mystery solving/researching assistants their nickname - the North Wabash Avenue Irregulars (and then became a part of it too).

Afer finishing that I had a bit of a dilemma. I'd been planning on reading a couple of ILL books I'd had checked out - to finish them, and because they looked short, but the next book for the St. Francis Church book club arrived - and it's 800 pages long and the meeting was a little over a week away - I'd suspected this was going to be a bit more boring of a book, so I wanted as much time as possible to read it.

I decided that I'd quick read the ILL books first. I started with Ghosts of Albion: Astray by Amber Benson and Christopher Golden because it was due sooner. This was an interesting little clip into Tamara and William Swift's lives. We first meet Serena in this story - although she's not so friendly in this one - at least for the most part. The Swifts are still learning about their abilities and duties in this story but have mostly adjusted to being the Protectors of Albion.

The second book was Ghosts of Albion: Initiation, also by Amber Benson and Christopher Golden. This book was bit stranger than the other one at first. It has three stories in it - the first two of which were the scripts/screenplays for the first two episodes of the show Ghosts of Albion - and therefore we get the story of what happened to the Swift family - especially the two siblings at the beginning of their role as Protectors of Albion. It was quite clear that Tamara was much more willing to/interested in taking on this role - somewhat she believed more readily that what was happening was real; the other books I've read supported this idea, as well. The third story was an actual short story/novella that took place after Ghosts of Albion: Astray. I almost wish I'd read these four stories in chronological order, but I didn't know what that order was until I'd gotten through most of them already.

After finishing those I moved to the book club book: Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now. This is an interesting, but quite long book about the economy/economic folly in England in the late 1800s. There's also quite a bit of social commentary regarding marriage and promises - especially as regards engagements. I'm finding the book much more interesting than I'd expected to, but I've still got about half the book left to read with two and a half or so days left - my cousin's wedding this past weekend killed much of my reading time - but that's okay, it was nice to see everybody for a bit :).

Strange Story

2010-04-29T15:29:00.000-07:00

I'm still reading Rite of Spring - I'm about a third of the way through the book so far. It's not quite like the other Andrew Greeley books I've read, but I do still think I like it. I'm not sure how it's going to work out - Brendan Ryan (narrator/main character) keeps hinting that Ciara Kelly really doesn't exist, possibly never did - she's maybe sort of a figment of his imagination or something like that. I wouldn't have been able to guess that was going to be the case, if he didn't keep mentioning it - she seems too real right now. I suppose some of that could be from the fact that in many ways she reminds me of a character from many of Fr. Greeley's later books: Nuala Anne McGrail. I have still found that some of the characters I've met in Greeley's other books do appear in this book too, but not in a very major way, at least not yet. I suspect that when Ciara (apparently) disappears (or whatever she does) the others might become a bit more prominent. I do however, look forward to seeing how this story unfolds.

Supposedly more Blackie

2010-04-26T07:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I finished Angels of September pretty much just in time to return it while at work. I quite enjoyed it - it was lots of fun learning more about characters I'd met in other books. In my last entry I suggested that Fr. Greeley was basing some of Mike Casey's childhood on his own childhood experiences; I would now like to add that I suspect that he also based at least part of Anne Reilly's experience in the academic world with his own - taking into account different situations leading to the same results. I still think it would be lots of fun to meet Fr. Ryan in real life. I rather wonder, with the current intertwining of characters from various books, if the young priest who was Fr. Ryan's assistant (so to speak) was Fr. George Coyne - I suspect it is, but without getting a name I can't guarantee anything.

After finishing that I started Rite of Spring also by Andrew M. Greeley. I almost got his book, Patience of a Saint, from the library first as it is listed as coming between Angels of September and Rite of Spring, but decided that I was trying to read all the books about Fr. Ryan - Blackie - and so would stick to those books for now - but with an expectation that I'd go back and read that one too at some point. Although Blackie is supposed to be in this book (according the one list/article I'd found), he hasn't shown up yet. I'm only about 30 pages in, so I'm not giving up hope yet. I am enjoying it so far. Brendan Ryan is a pretty cool guy - at least so far. At one point he was reflecting on himself and I loved his comment about his appearance: "All in all, until Ciara, being a psychic was of less importance in my life than being five feet eight inches tall and having silver-blue eyes which women from four to eighty-four find 'cute'" - this reminded me also of a comment Fr. Greeley made in one of his autobiographies (I think it was in Furthermore); he mentioned at one point, while slightly (or perhaps a bit more than slightly) bored at a book-signing, he began making eyes at/watching (I can't quite recall the actual word he used here - that was perfect) with a young woman at that very flirtatious age of eighteen to twenty-one (I think that was the upper range used) months. I think I have to agree about that being a very flirtatious age, often - unless stranger anxiety has started and/or not finished yet.

As I plan to focus a bit on at least one tv show I've got checked out from the library, I'm not sure exactly how much reading I'll get done for now, but I look forward to it - as usual I want to know what happens next.

It's been longer than I thought

2010-04-23T07:35:00.000-07:00

Wow, I'm more behind in posting here than I'd thought.

I did finish Deep in the Darkness; it was rather strange and I don't know whether I'd say I enjoyed it or not. I was intrigued by the disease theory that Dr. Michael Cayle came up with as for who the "others" (I've forgotten the term used to describe them) truly are. I also wonder how long ago that disease would had to have occurred for the story to work.

After I finished that, I read Ruined by Paula Morris. From the back of the book, I kept wondering if I'd already read this book or not, but I did end up remembering the name of the actual book I was remembering - Walk of the Spirits by Richie Tankersley Cusick. In actually reading this book, I quickly realized that they were most definitely not the same book. This was a fun little ghost/voodoo-type curse story. I was able to guess at why Rebecca was seeing Lisette fairly early in the story - I'm surprised that once she heard the story of the supposed curse she didn't figure everything out. Life got quite interesting for her - but thankfully the curse is now over. I almost want to wonder why her aunt told her to stay away from those three families - although I can understand why Rebecca was supposed to avoid the cemetary.

Having finished that, I moved to Robin Burcell's The Bone Chamber. This book was a lot of fun - I kept wanting to read more to learn what happened next. I do, however, have to agree with Tasha and Sydney when they argue that it would go (or would have gone) easier if Sydney was told everything from the start. One of my earliest "fun things about this book" was that it felt quite a bit like the show Bones, but from Angela's perspective instead of Temperance's. As the story continued, however, it started to feel a bit more like National Treasure and The Da Vinci Code - both of which I also enjoyed. I'm tempted to suggest this for the next Lemmings meeting - except I've had this book I've been waiting and waiting to suggest, and I might actually be able to suggest it next time.

I then started Andrew Greeley's book Angels of September. I am quite enjoying it so far - partially that has to do with knowing lots of the characters, but only in their future selves. It's been interesting to learn more about these characters. The Punk's (Fr. Blackie's) comments have been pretty funny too - they remind me a bit of Dermot Coyne's comments, as do Cardinal Sean's comments. I look forward to learning what all is going on with these characters. I slightly wonder if Fr. Greeley based some of Mike Casey's character/childhood on his own. My heart goes out to both Mike Casey and Ann Reilly - I suspect I would find this book a bit sadder if I didn't know where they end up later (presumably at the end of this book).

Last night, while in the middle of this book, I read a kid's book I found at the library and just had to read: No Talking by Andrew Clements. In this book, the 5th grade boys and the 5th grade girls don't get along very well, and then one day (slightly inspired by Gandhi) a contest is formed. Who can speak less (fewer words) from lunch-time Tuesday to lunch-time Thursday, the boys or the girls? The ground rules are no words (but other sounds: whistling, etc. are acceptable) and in response to a question from a teacher or other adult only three words are allowed - any more count as points for the other team and the team with the most points wins. This was a fun little book about an interesting discovery about language and the use of words.

New book, new author (for me)

2010-04-16T06:39:00.000-07:00

I finished Artemis Fowl yesterday, and plan to read more of this series later. I'm glad (but not terribly surprised) that Artemis and the Butlers survived the bio-bomb.

I have now started reading Michael Laimo's Deep in the Darkness. This is another book I was supposed to shelve, but ended up bringing home instead. Dr. Michael Cayle moves his family to a country-ish house to get his daughter the education he and his wife would like her to get (they used to live Manhatten). The quaint little town he moves to seems so nice, except for the unbelievable legends that he starts to suspect might actually be true - even if he doesn't want to accept it. I'm currently not very far into this (most of the summary here comes from the back of the book, so this isn't really a spoiler for anyone). I think I'll enjoy the book. It almost reminds be of Barbara Michaels' books, but it's too early to tell.

From Dragons to Fairies

2010-04-15T14:02:00.000-07:00

I have finished reading Dragon Keeper - it was quite good, but I'm a bit disappointed with the ending - it's a bit too abrupt. At least there is a sequel to continue the story. In particular I want to know what's up with Copper and/or what the gold dragon wanted the one keeper for (I've forgotten their names). I can't wait to be able to suggest the sequel to the library for purchase, but I have to wait, at least a little bit longer.

In the middle of that, a book I'd put on Interlibrary Loan came in for me, and becuase it was going to be such a quick read, I finished it on Tuesday: Clemency Pogue: Fairy Killer by J.T. Petty. I'd seen a book on CD version of this get returned at the library and was intrigued, but needed to be a bit patient as we didn't own a bound version of it and I was going to be picky, if I had any choice in that. It was an amusing little book - I may have to read more about Clemency. I do think she got lucky in learning Chaphesmeeso's name. It really was an accident - but it all worked out in the end.

I am now about halfway through Eoin Colfer's book Artemis Fowl. This was a book in which I've long been intrigued to read (well, not just this book, the whole series). After Easter, when my Aunt Kathy suggested that I really needed to read these as I hadn't yet, I decided I'd better. So when I got the Enchanted Forest series from the library, I also got this one. I'm quite enjoying this book and look forward to the rest of the series. I was a bit uncertain about the book near the beginning - I hadn't realized that Artemis was a criminal mastermind and part of a long-standing criminal family - but he's working in such a fun way at the moment - and it's fun that he's only 12. I particularly like the given etymology of the word leprechaun - LEPrecon - the recon branch of the Lower Elements Police. Artemis has abducted Holly of LEPrecon and is holding her for ransom at the moment - even her employers don't know that for sure yet - they're afraid a war is about to break out. I don't thin Artemis plans to bring it that far, but I don't know for sure.

Ghosts and Dragons :)

2010-04-13T07:53:00.000-07:00

So, I did finish Ghost Huntress Book Two: The Guidance yesterday. I quite enjoyed it - as I expected. I would like to know a bit more about Courtney's animosity and it's cause, but at least she's not being totally rude to Kendall anymore - not that I'm glad that she had to go through what she did (except in that it led to the kinder behavior). I'm still amazed that Kendall hasn't figured out who Emily really was - between Loreen's initial comments about their connection, and her comments to Kendall's mom I was pretty sure I knew - especially when Emily said she's always been with Kendall and that she and Kendall were friends until Kendall was told that she shouldn't have imaginary friends. My suspicion was confirmed when Kendall's mom saw (and reacted to) Celia's drawing of Emily and even more so with the vision Kendall had at the end of the book about Emily and how she died. I don't know the exact details, but I hope the third book will explain that. I also suspect that I'll be a bit disappointed at the end of the next book - it is supposed to be the final book in the series and I think I'd enjoy reading more about these friends so it will be sad.

I have now started Robin Hobb's new book Dragon Keeper: Volume One of the Rain Wilds Chronicles. So far it is quite good - I have fairly quickly returned the world of The Farseer Trilogy, The Liveship Traders Trilogy (the first of her books I'd read), and The Tawny Man Trilogy. I also like that characters from these other books are also in this one, even if they're not the main characters anymore. The new dragons are hatching, so to speak. I am however, not very pleased at the moment with Leftrin, but do have to agree with one of his thoughts: "Of those other 'logs' that had been sawed into timber for ships, how many had contained viable dragons? No one spoke of that. Not even the liveships willingly discussed the dragons that they might have been." Wizardwood, so useful, and yet, so wrong to use. I'm reminded of the stories of many endagered species through the experience/ideas about dragons.

Dragons and Ghosts

2010-04-12T07:22:00.001-07:00

I did read Dealing with Dragons, as well as the other three books in the series: Searching for Dragons, Calling on Dragons, and Talking to Dragons. Kathy was right - these books are great! The characters are lively and well portrayed - they're people you'd enjoy getting to know. I'm amused by the method of melting wizards (apparently lemon juice is quite dangerous when added to soapy water). Morwen's cats were quite entertaining as well - and I must agree with her that although it might sometimes be nice to be able to understand what another witch's cat says, in reality it's probably a good thing they can't. The cat's are rather snarky and rude - but highly entertaining at times. I think my biggest complaint with these stories comes mostly from the final book (also a bit from the end of the third one) - I don't like the name Cimorene picked for her son; in my opinion Daystar is an odd name for a person. Although, I suppose the same could be said about the name Killer for the rabbit (I'm also amused by the transformations poor Killer went through).

Having finished that book, I went on to the next book in a different series I'm reading - the library just finished purchasing it (as I requested). This is Marley Gibson's book Ghost Huntress Book Two: The Guidance. So far I'm quite enjoying it, but I'm rather annoyed at Courtney and at Kendall's Mom - although I suspect both are intended by the author. In some ways this reminds me of the show Ghost Whisperer, but almost more as the early Melinda - only more of Melinda's family (especially her grandmother) was rather more supportive of her. I was also happy to see in the acknowledgements that I recognized one of the names of the author's friends in the paranormal community: Chip Coffey is cool. I haven't met him personally, but in some ways, after watching most of the episodes of Paranormal State and watching him in many of them, I somewhat feel as if I do know him. I can at least say I know of him, though.

Coming Princesses

2010-04-08T13:53:00.000-07:00

Well, although it's been slow going because I was working on so many other things instead, I did quite enjoy The Haunted Rectory and hope (and presume) there are more books to come in the series. I may have to find some of the other books by this author, from a different series - I know the library has them as I saw them with this book on the shelf. I may have learned a few new things - such as the ring/crown of thorns trapping/containing evil. I wonder about the suggested meaning of Fr. Rich Melo's birthmark - but I'm not sure how I'd go about verifying that. I also rather suspect that it was pure fiction for the story - but you never know for sure. I'd quite enjoy talking with the author - and for that matter, Fr. Melo and the members of The St. Francis Xavier's Church Hookers. It would also be fun to learn to hook rugs.

I'm moving on to a series that I have recently been told I have to read. My Aunt Kathy (well one of them) was shocked to learn I hadn't read them yet, and so now I will. It's funny because I'd seen the books come through and been intrigued by them, but hadn't ever actually read them, and I'd also remembered Kathy referencing this one series of books about the non-typical princess, but I couldn't read them because I couldn't remember what series it was. Turns out, it's the Enchanted Forest series by Patricia C. Wrede. So I'm about to start Dealing with Dragons!

Ghostly Antics?

2010-04-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

So, I stayed up late Friday night to finish Blood Promise. Although for quite a while I hadn't been entirely sure I liked where the story was going, at about the point in which I'd hit the end of my available time for reading the story was starting to shift so that I thought I would still be able to want to know what happened - to like the story itself. By the end I did like it - although I was suspicious that Rose hadn't completed the task with Dimitri after all. I was also glad that she was able to "get there" to help Lissa defeat Avery before everything got too out of hand. I'm also glad that the experience gave Rose the wisdom to accept Lissa's refusal to heal Dimitri earlier. However, I can tell that Rose is still seeking to try that. I'm intrigued to see how easily (or not) Rose will convince Lissa of the necessity of the next task she has in mind.

I have since started The Haunted Rectory by Katharine Valentine. This is another book I found while shelf reading at work. So far it's pretty good, but I'm only about thrity pages in so it's a bit hard to tell. It seems as if it will be a combination of a Catholic version of Jan Karon's Mitford series and a ghostly/demonic haunting/attack.

Posting Delays Again

2010-04-01T14:23:00.000-07:00

Yet again I was too distracted reading more/watching tv to post much about what I've read since the last post.

I plowed right through Shadow Kiss. I was happy with what Rose has been learning about herself and her abilities and with the way she and Lissa and Eddie and Christian have grown/developed more fully. However, I was not pleased with what happened to Dimitri - and I understand completely why Rose felt the need to leave St. Vladimir's Academy to find (and stake) him. I also understand how hard it will be for her - and how hard it was for her to leave Lissa and to not graduate. I hope she'll be allowed to finish school/graduate when she returns - I presume she will return. I wish that she had shared sooner what was happening to her, and that some of those in charge would have listened to her better. Oh, and Tatiania (sp?) is getting on my nerves too. I almost wish that Rose would be/have been kinder/friendlier to Adrian. He actually seems pretty cool, even if he has a bit of a bad reputation and can be annoying.

After finishing that I started Tillie Olsen's collection of four short stories, Tell Me a Riddle. I recognized the first story in it, but as I'd read it for class in college, I'd expected that. However, I also found much in the final story familiar too - I'm not sure if I'd read this book already or not. I think I may have read the title short story in another book (also called Tell Me a Riddle) that had this story and lots of commentary on it - I remember checking the book out from the library, but I also know I skipped the commentary. Perhaps I did read the story portion though. I enjoyed all of the stories, although I think the first one is my favorite. I wish I could remember which of the two characters was the one I had thought may have been based on Tillie Olsen's own life - when I'd commented on that to my prof, she was surprised as she'd always thought Tillie based the other character on her own life. I don't remember who I picked and who Sr. Mara picked. Maybe I should email her and ask - she should be able to tell me.

After quite quickly finishing that, I started a book I'd found while shelving: The Glass Maker's Daughter by V. Briceland. I was first drawn to it because the title reminded me of some other books I'd read (and enjoyed): the Glasswright's Apprentice series and The Apothecary's Daughter. I'd thought that this book would be a combination of both. It somewhat was, but not quite. I wish could have actually seen the bowl that Risa made - it sounds so pretty. I liked the characters; they were well-written (and felt real). A few of the characters were quite annoying though. I'm intrigued by the whole idea of the world of Cassaforte. I was not quite expecting the end as it was (although I did expect that saving Dom was going to be big - like the fairy tale theme of helping someone and finding out they weren't who you thought they were). I'm surprised that Milo doesn't guess/know what special task/job that Alessandro plans to give him is. It seems so obvious to me - although at one point, I'd thought that perhaps Risa was going to get it. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and hope that V. Briceland writes more - in Cassaforte or not.

After I finished this, I moved on to the next Vampire Academy novel, Blood Promise. Rose is now off in Russia and Siberia trying to find Dimitri. She has also met a new part of the Moroi world that she hadn't known about before - the Alchemists. I'm already entranced and hope to finish internet stuff quickly so that I can move back to it. However, with the Triduum this week, I'm not sure I'm going to have much time to read - especially as I have to work a lot too. We'll see - I'm sure I'll find ways to squeeze in a few minutes here and there.

I finished those

2010-03-29T07:41:00.000-07:00

So, I've finished almost all of the books I listed in the previous post - the only one I'm still working on is the Guissani one for CL - I'll read that slowly as the rest of the group does - discussion will go a bit better for that.

The two Junie B. Jones books I listed were rather what I expected - they were similar to the rest of the series.

Give Up the Ghost was pretty interesting, and didn't go much the way I expected. I could, however, easily understand why Cass had done much of what she did. I was a bit reminded of both Ghost Whisperer and Ghost Huntress: The Awakening, but not quite either. I enjoyed the book a lot - and almost wish there was a sequel so I could see what happens next, but at least at the moment, and probably for good, I'm out of luck.

After I finished those books, I started reading the next Vampire Academy novel: Shadow Kiss. I'm excited for Rose's internship and I agree with why she's guarding Christian instead of Lissa, but I also understand her frustration with that. I also think she's making a big mistake not telling anyone about seeing Mason every once in a while. I do rather understand her reasons for it, but I still think it's a mistake. I suppose I'll have to read and find out, but that won't happen much today - I'm going to try to watch the last few episodes of Quantum Leap: The Complete Third Season first.

Sneaking in

2010-03-25T14:02:00.000-07:00

The next (final?) two Junie B. Jones books were returned at the library today, so I'm slipping these in between the other books I've already listed that I'm in the middle of. Junie B., First Grader, Aloha Ha-ha and Junie B., First Grader, Dumb Bunny should be as cute/amusing and quick-to-read as the rest of the series has been - hence the slipping them in part.

I have read more of Giving Up the Ghost and am finding it a bit strange, but interesting. I do want to know what's going on and/or what's going to happen, but I'm not far enough in to know for sure yet.

More Ghosts

2010-03-24T19:53:00.000-07:00

Walking downtown this morning I was fairly easily able to finish Look Through My Window - I did enjoy it; and like that I can identify the title's reference now. It is similar to saying "walk a mile in my shoes' or other related phrases. The biggest distraction for me during much of the story involved trying to find the connection between this book at what happens (happened) in the following book, Kate. It took me an inordinate amount of time to figure out/remember that the main character of each book was a different one of the friends and not the same one. Although I don't think it exists, I'd be interested in reading more of what happens to this group of friends. I also enjoyed much of the poetry in the book. To an extent I was reminded of a few other books I'd read (I don't recall off hand who wrote them): Katie John and Honestly, Katie John - I suspect they were written at about the same time.

I have now barely started the next book in my stack - one I brought home from work yesterday: Give Up the Ghost by Megan Crewe - the author keeps reminding me of Sarah Crewe, an early/original? version of A Little Princess (but only because of the last name). The book is about a girl who prefers spending time with ghosts as opposed to "breathers" as she calls them. She uses her ghostly friend(s?) to learn all her classmates' secrets, but then someone learns her own secret. Mostly I know this summary from the front cover of the book, because I'm not far enough into the book at the moment, but I hope to hit that point semi-soon. I might not read it too much for a while as I plan to watch much of Quantum Leap: The Complete Third Season so that I can return it when it is due next week.

I've also barely started Is It Possible to Live This Way: Volume 3: Charity by Luigi Giussani (sp?) for a new church group I've joined - I'm a bit behind the rest of the group, but only about 35 pages so far, so hopefully I can finish that before we meet on Friday evening (I'd expect I'd do fine, except apparently it's pretty deep and may take longer than the type of books I've been reading currently). I expect to enjoy this one too, though.

I need patience/Getting the back story

2010-03-23T21:19:00.000-07:00

So I finished reading Ghost Huntress: The Awakening. I quite enjoyed this story and can't wait to read the next installment - hopefully the library will order it, otherwise I'll have to ILL it. I loved the writing - even though it covered a rather serious topic, there was also a good bit of humor included. I loved the description of Jason's eyes (from before we knew his name - although it somewhat remained throughout the book): they were "Dasani bottle blue" - oh and I also accurately guessed that Jason was Taylor's brother, not her boyfriend. I find this story/type of story fascinating - to an extent I was reminded of a show I have started to really enjoy - unfortunately we don't get the proper channel to watch it on TV - I watch it a bit on the website, but mostly I watch the full season once it's on DVD - the show is Paranormal State - I was also quite happy to see it mentioned a few times in the book. I want to read the next book now.

Instead, I have started Jean Little's Look Through My Window; I haven't read this story yet, but I know quite a bit of what's going to happen in it somewhat, as I've read the book that came after it. I'd read the back of the other book to see what it was about, and was intrigued enough by the description to check the book out and read it, but shortly into it, I realized that it didn't seem to be what I was expecting. On reinspecting it, I saw that the back description was for this, earlier, book. So far I'm enjoying it, but I'm only five or ten pages in, so it's perhaps too early to tell for sure. I'm expecting to enjoy it though, based on the summary I've seen, as well as based on what else I've read by this author.

Ghost Hunting

2010-03-23T07:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning/early afternoon I finished Frostbite. I enjoyed learning more about the characters and getting to see more clearly the relationship Rose has with her Mother - and how it develops and changes throughout the story. She learns as much about her Mom as about herself in this book. I was not pleased with what happened to Mason, although it does, to an extent, solve a few problems for Rose - one less thing to worry about.

I also enjoyed learning more about the powers that spirit wielders have - or at least could have. A few of Adrian's comments make me wonder a bit more about the connection between Rose and Lissa, the bond, and if Rose really was taking on (and eventually diffusing) Lissa's slight depression from the magic. Richelle Mead hinted a bit at that - Rose wondered about it briefly - but I'm not sure if that's where the story is going to go or not as Rose decided it was all from her own stress and confusion.

I've started, and read a bit of, a new-ish book by Marley Gibson (I've never heard of her before but the book caught my eye when I was shelving at work): Ghost Huntress: The Awakening. Purely based on the title of the series, I've been guessing at a bit of what has been happening to Kendall so far, but she hasn't figured it out at all yet. I'm intrigued to see where the story goes, so I shall head off to read more until I need to go to work.

One more quick comment

2010-03-20T20:27:00.000-07:00

In finishing Irish Tweed I have figured out that this book does come after Irish Tiger. Near the end, Dermot comments that they took their usually Christmas trip to Carraroe (where Nuala's parents still live) and that somehow he managed to avoid his usual cold/flu - it usually starts on/during the flight to Ireland and stays for at least most of the trip - Hooray for health!

I re-read Fr. Greeley's note at the beginning of the book, and see that Dr. Angela Agnes Tierney is, unfortunately, not a real person. I suppose I should have expected that, but it's still disappointing.

Now, if I were smart, I'd head off to bed.

Slightly Early Posting

2010-03-20T19:18:00.000-07:00

So, I've almost finished Irish Tweed and I plan to stay up long enough to actually finish it tonight. I was happy to see that this one has both the modern and the historical mystery - and I'm enjoying both. I am not pleased with what the school is doing - especially with allowing bullies to essentially run the school and randomly (so to speak) assigning the students' grades. Students apparently shouldn't be rewarded because their parents are smart, so even if the teacher thinks your work deserves an "A" (as is the case for the Coyne children), you might (for the Coyne's, will) receive an "F" to make it "more fair" supposedly. The new principle (who is easy to dislike - I enjoy the kids' nickname for her - Dr. Lecher - they've slightly misremembered Dr. Hannibal Lector's name) says the school is following the Catholic ideal of preference for the poor. I have no problem with allowing for/caring for the poor, but this seems to be rather missing the point. At the very least I can understand their frustation in this situation.

I'm intrigued a bit as to why Finnbar was thrown in the river - although it did remind me a bit of an earlier book in the series - however the men trying to throw Dermot into the river that time weren't very successful - they ended up in the river instead of Dermot. I'm interested in learning/reading(and may have to research) more about Dr. Angela Agnes Tierney (I presume she is real - if not I suppose I'll have a bit of difficulty in this). She seems to be an amazing woman - also a bit like Nuala - possibly intentionally.

At the moment, I'm starting to wonder if Irish Tiger came after this book and not before it as I'd first assumed. Nuala just mentioned that she has another Christmas special coming up (that she should be preparing for) and much of Irish Tiger was about a Christmas Special of hers - and she said she thought it would be the final one she'd do. I'm not sure I'll be able to figure out for sure one way or another through this book, and, for that matter, I'm not sure it entirely matters.

After I finish this book, I plan on starting the next book in the Richell Mead series I'm reading (Vampire Academy), Frostbite. I enjoyed the first one enough that I need to see what comes next in the story. This will probably be another quick read, although I won't have all day tomorrow for reading - Hooray for a Lemmings meeting.

I can't believe I did that

2010-03-19T21:30:00.000-07:00

So, with a dedicated session of reading this morning, I was able to finish Secret of the Seventh Son before I went to work today. The story pulled all sorts of various story ideas together into one well-fitting set of events. I was intrigued by the "true" reason for Area 51 according to this book. Sometimes I wonder how in the world writers can come up with the stories they've written and this is one of those times. I enjoyed the book and almost want to suggest it to the Lemmings for the next book, but I'm not sure if everyone would enjoy it.

While walking to work I started the next book in my stack - a book I interlibrary loaned from the Red Wing Public Library (I think that's the correct library); Ghosts Among Us by Leslie Rule. A few lines in the forward and the introduction sounded familiar, but I thought I must have just glanced through the book a bit after I first brought it home. However, as I continued reading, I noticed that more and more of the book was looking familiar - it had the Seattle Fish Shop (where they toss fish around all day) story, and through paging forward it had the story of Roselyn (the filming site for the show Northern Exposure - I had already read this book about a year ago. So I ended up not having a book to read on my break at work, or for the rest of the walk to work. To fix that, while on my break, I checked out Andrew Greeley's Irish Tweed, which unfortunately appears to currently be the final (or at least most recent) Nuala Anne McGrail mystery. So far it's pretty good - Dermot's got a few good lines so far, although I don't entirely know what the mystery is going to be at the moment - I'm still that near the beginning of the book. I suspect I may come pretty close to finishing it tomorrow - unless I watch some of The Twilight Zone: The Complete First Season as I probably should - it's due back soon enough that I should try to finish at least some or even most of it.

Secrets

2010-03-18T20:44:00.000-07:00

I've been reading Secret of the Seventh Son during much of my free time last night and today. I'm now almost halfway through it (I think there are only about ten more pages for that).

I have finally reached the historical mystery portion of the story as well - I thought I'd hit it early this afternoon - walking home from work - with a passage from the late 1940s, but now have come to a few chapters (three so far, I think) from the early 780s (well, the first one (or maybe two) was (or were) from the late 770s). I should have continued to expect these passages as the back of the book talks about a character born in the year 777.

I think I've figured out the method behind the "Doomsday Killer" in the book, and the more I read, the more certain I become. Initially, I guessed it while Will and Nancy were "babysitting" Lucius. I think that the killer isn't the real killer, but instead has somehow learned when these people will die and just sends them a postcard telling them that. This would easily explain how Will (and the rest of the FBI) is having such a hard time finding connections between victims other than the obvious one of dying after receiving the coffin postcard.

I'd almost like to predict that I'll have finished this book by the weekend, but I'm not sure how certain of that I can actually be - it would be nice, though - so many good books to move on to (at least I presume they'll be good books; not having read them yet, I can't say for sure, but I hope and suspect - which is why I've checked them out from the library to read).

However, now it's bedtime - although I might first read just enough to reach the halfway point - but I have to be careful with that or I'll be up another two hours or more happily reading; sleep is good though.

Wow

2010-03-17T16:52:00.000-07:00

Well, I did finish Her Fearful Symmetry today. I still haven't quite figured out the connection to The Time Traveler's Wife, but I wasn't expecting the first big twist in the story. Every so often, as I continued the story, I would think about that twist, and had a bit of trouble understanding exactly how it worked/what happened. It's still a bit confusing - although possibly more so for some of the characters involved. Although it wasn't much before it happened, I did guess/suspect the second big twist in the story. I'm not sure I'm happy it happened that way, but the given explanation makes sense and it does seem to turn out okay in the end, but still...

I have since started Secret of the Seventh Son and am somewhat enjoying it, but it's a little slow starting, and I haven't found any of the "historical mystery" that the cover suggests is blended into the story. So far, the modern day thriller part isn't too bad though. I'm hoping the pace will pick up a bit - I suspect it will as the one character has been assigned to the case. I keep almost picturing him as Special Agent Seeley Booth from the tv show Bones, but I think only because they're both FBI Agents - the rest of what I've read so far leaves no real connection between the two of them.

Although I can't remember who or why, in one of the last few books I've read, one of the characters kept reminding me of a tv show character with the same name - I wish I could remember the name of the character, the book, and the tv show, but I just can't right now.

More Symmetry

2010-03-17T07:09:00.000-07:00

I'm a bit over halfway through Her Fearful Symmetry - actually just a bit closer to three-fourths of the way through it - and am continuing to enjoy it. I believe I've figured out what the title is referring to, at least partially - there are two sets of mirror-image twins in the book.

In adding this book to my reading list on Facebook, I saw the first line or two of someone's review of the book, which mentioned some sort of connection to The Time Traveler's Wife. I keep waiting and watching for this connection, as well as guessing various possibilities, but I haven't yet seen it, at least that I'm aware of.

I'd rather like to be able to meet and talk with the characters from the book, as real people, but as usual, I'm out of luck on that one.

Once I finish this book - which is one of my plans for today - I plan to start Secret of the Seventh Son by Glenn Cooper.

Not as much reading as I'd hoped

2010-03-15T10:42:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't done as much reading (and therefore, somewhat, as much posting) as I would have liked and had hoped to do in the past almost week.

I did finish (and start) Vampire Academy which, although quite interesting and enjoyable was not quite what I expected. It wasn't really much like either Harry Potter or Twilight - with the only similarities coming from a more college/university-like school and actual vampires. I almost found parts of the book to be a bit more like the show Angel, except for the whole dead vampire thing. In this book, only the evil vampires are dead - many are alive (although that number is becoming smaller and smaller). I look forward to reading the next book in the series, Frostbite, when I can get to it.

I also finished (and started) reading The Unwritten Volume One: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity for the Lemmings book club - we meet on Sunday. I did enjoy this too, but I'm ready for the next volume, which doesn't appear to have been written yet, perhaps. I'm intrigued by the history of literature (and the cause of/inspiration for specific stories). The implications of this book's premise is quite entertaining and deserves more exploration. It could be an interesting idea for those who form crushes for various literary characters, as well. I liked the literary "map" that Tom Taylor's father left for him/taught him.

I have now moved on to a book I just got from the library - it's on hold enough that I get it for a shortened length of time, so it got pushed to the top of the list. I am reading Audrey Niffenegger's book Her Fearful Symmetry. I quite enjoyed her book The Time Traveler's Wife, so I was interested to see what this book was like. So far I'm enjoying it, although at one point yesterday I had to stop reading so that I could mark/comment on one sentence in it: on page 41, Jack, one of the characters, is thinking about his twin daughters and it says "He imagined Julia and Valentina safely ensconced at Harvard or Yale, or even at Sarah Lawrence; heck, Bennington would be okay." I found this passage amusing because my sister went to Bennington and I suspect she'd be a bit annoyed (although possibly amused as well) at it - even if it did mean her school was mentioned in a major (possibly best-seller book (I haven't checked any lists). So now I hope to finish this soon as I have too many good books waiting in line.

Oh, and if our Lemmings meeting is on Sunday, I really ought come up with some suggestions for the next book.

Presumptive Posting

2010-03-09T07:07:00.000-08:00

So, I'm still reading Irish Tiger, but I expect to finish that later this morning. I continue to enjoy the book/series, although I'm still waiting for the historical mystery portion of the book (I'm far enough in that I suspect there isn't one this time - a tad disappointing). I'm getting annoyed at some of the characters - although they are the ones I'm supposed to be annoyed with so I suppose I shouldn't complain about it. The kids are growing up, and it's fun to see, but also a bit sad because they were such cute little kids.

After I finish this book I'm planning to start two books at the same time. I will start to read Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead. I kept seeing this book and its sequels being returned at the library and finally decided I needed to read them too. My opening suspicion is that they will be a cross between the Twilight series and the Harry Potter series, but I won't know for sure until I try them, so that's the plan for now.

I'm also going to start the next book for the Lemming's Book Club: Unwritten Volume One : Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity by Mike Carey. It's a graphic novel so it will be a bit different from normal, but it sounds pretty interesting and amusing. Besides that, the meeting is coming up soon and I should have the book finished before that.

Another Posting Delay

2010-03-06T22:10:00.000-08:00

I've not been very good lately about keeping this updated. I have a few things to add here, but not quite as much as I'd like. I spent a bit too much time watching a bunch of movies I'd gotten from the library (many of which weren't that great, but were about what I expected).

I did finish Lord Peter fairly quickly. I particularly enjoyed the last two - Lord Peter as a father is just rather amusing. My biggest complaint with them was that Harriet Vane didn't seem like the same character she'd been earlier. I especially enjoyed Lord Peter's comment that in unsettling times/moods (I can't recall the exact phrase and I've already returned the book) he naturally turns to the common man. So he went to the butler room and they humanely let him polish the silver (admittedly, Harriet was in labor for 24 hours (or so) and he was doing the nervous father waiting thing).

Having finished that I quickly read a Young Adult book I found while shelving. It was called Lessons from a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles. This was a rather touching, but sad book. In some ways I found myself relating to the main character, Laine, more because of some of her emotions/reactions as opposed to what happened to her. I don't know if I'd recommend this to others or not, but it was rather interesting, in a way.

I'm now in the middle of Irish Tiger by Andrew Greeley - it's the next Nuala Anne mystery in the list for me. I'm currently enjoying it, but I'd like a bit more of Nuala and Dermot - even if it is nice to hear about the current mystery's background directly from those involved, as opposed to reading about it, or hearing about it from some other character related to the one(s) involved. I'm not sure what I think about the goons coming over (following two of the characters?) to the Coyne/McGrail household with salami (or was it summer sausage) as weapons - it does make for an interesting image, but I'm just not sure how effective they would be.

I plan to finish this book soon, but I don't know quite how soon I'll be able to finish it - I have a few tv show seasons from the library that I need to try and finish.

After reading part of that I quickly read another book I'd gotten from the library, Almost Perfect by Judy Duarte. As has happened with the other similar books I've read, this was about what I expected. I wanted to complain to Jake (I think that was his name, I can't recall for sure now - and again I've already returned it) in regards to not realizing that if he changed the ranch the way he was thinking, for kids like his niece, he was going to need a doctor on-site and that it would be a good way to keep (nuts, I can't even come up with a guess for her name, I think it maybe started with an M, but I could be wrong). You can tell how life-changing I found this book (or more accurately, didn't), I suppose.

In the middle of Irish Tiger I also read Joyce Sweeney's Waiting for June. This was, at times, a very strange book, but it was quite enjoyable and intriguing. There were lots of mysteries to be solved, and mostly were, but a little bit of the mysterious remains. In a way, this book was rather similar to the semi-recent movie Juno, but not quite exactly (which I suppose is good, especially in terms of copyright issues). I particularly enjoyed most of the whale parts, even if they were odd.

However, it's now well past bed-time, so I'd better call this good, especially as I don't have more to say about what I've read so far.

Catching up from a bit of a break

2010-03-01T08:02:00.001-08:00

So, I really haven't posted in awhile, again. I have done some reading, though.

First, the last time I completed a big catch up list, like this one, I missed a little book - Junie B., First Grader, One-Man Band. It was a pretty good book; much like the others in the series. Junie B. is ready for the first grade kickball tournament, until an unfortunate practicing accident involving a watering can.

Okay, so I did read The Valentine Box before finishing Muse and Reverie. It was a pretty good story, but even shorter than I expected. Grabbing it out of the "checked in -ok" bin, I thought it was a children's chapter book, but it was a bit more of a long-ish basic kid's book. I still enjoyed it, though.

Then, I decided to read Not Quite What I Was Planning, Revised and Expanded Deluxe Edition: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure. I had mostly just been filling a bit of time while Mom was checking email - I couldn't go to bed till she was done, and this was going to be a bit easier to leave off in the middle. However, it was also a quick read, so I finished it that night as well.

Then, at work the following day, I found Junie B., First Grader Boo...and I Mean It. Hoping I could finish it before we left for St. Cloud, I tried started it, but it wasn't quite that fast of a read - although we were leaving pretty quickly, and I also needed to finish packing a few things.

So, on Saturday afternoon, while helping my Aunt Jan with a session of "Peaceable Kingdom," I finished both the Junie B. book and Muse and Reverie. I enjoyed both books, but I have to say I preferred the CdL book. The characters and the whole setting in general is great, and then when such a good author writes about them it just gets better.

Having finished all of those, I started the book for the St. Francis Book Club, as it looked like a book that, though short, would take some time to read because of the amount of reflection it was going to require. However, it was actually a pretty quick read - but a very good one. I suspect that it will be easier said than done to act on the suggestions/advice in the book. The book is Henry J. M. Nouwen's Can You Drink the Cup?.

After finishing that I started one of two little books I'd grabbed from the library, Expecting the Doctor's Baby by Theresa Southwick. It was a pretty good story, about what I expected, but I suppose it can't quite count as great literature perhaps. It was entertaining and a quick and easy read, and as happens with enough books, got me to cry a bit at the sad parts. (the funny thing with it is when I went and looked and another stack of similar books I'd gotten earlier, but hadn't read yet, I found another copy of this book - apparently it was a book I was supposed to read)

Having finished that book, I read the other one of those books I'd recently gotten, I Still Do by Christie Ridgway. Again, it was pretty good, but about what I expected, and also made me cry a bit at times. There were some quite humorous scenes in this one too.

After finishing that book, I switched to a new Dorothy Sayers book the library got Lord Peter: The Complete Lord Peter Wimsey Stories. I'm currently still in the middle of this book - I've spent lots of time watching movies and tv shows that I checked out from the library.

I've also sort of read Dorothy Sayers' book Lord Peter Views the Body - I'd thought it was listed as being the book in which Lord Peter and Miss Vane first meet, but in looking back at the description, I see I missed a title (I was really looking for Strong Poison), but later saw that it was 1/2 to 2/3 of the book I'm already in the middle of. I just returned it without actually reading it - the stories are pretty good so far, but a mystery just wouldn't be as interesting when reread this close to the original reading time - I'd remember too well what happened exactly and wouldn't be even a bit surprised at the ending.

In the midst of reading this, I've also read one other book by Barbara Park, Junie B., First Grader, Jingle Bells, Batman Smells (P.S. So Does May). It went pretty much the way I expected it would. I'm intrigued now, though, to see if Junie B. and May will get along better. I suppose I have to wait until the next book (whatever one it is).

CdL and more

2010-02-18T14:14:00.000-08:00

I finished Kate pretty easily last night - there were a lot of commercials during American Idol. I did enjoy the book, and like Kate, I didn't figure out right away where the trouble between her dad and the rest of his family started, even though I should have guessed it. I'm a little disappointed with where the book ended - I'd like to see more of what happens. Oh well.

Having finished that I started the newest collection of Newford tales by Charles de Lint - Muse and Reverie. I have always loved his stories (both in Newford and elsewhere)- he is an amazing writer who I'd recommend to anyone. The first book of his I read was Jack the Giant-Killer (I was making my way through as many of the Fairy Tale Series, all written by different authors) and from there fell in love with his work and haven't stopped reading them since. It's always an exciting (but dangerous, for me) day when I find a new book of his at work. I'm enjoying the first story in this book so far, but I'm pretty sure I've already read it elsewhere - but I don't care - it was a good story, and I'll read it again anyway (won't be the first time I've reread a story of his, or the last, for that matter).

In the middle of this, I'm going to also read Maud Hart Lovelace's book The Valentine Box because it sounds interesting and will be short enough that I can quickly finish it and return it tomorrow.

Busy Days

2010-02-17T15:42:00.000-08:00

I've gotten a fair bit of reading done so far this week.

Much of my time has been spent finishing/reading most of Phoenix Transformed. As I expected, it was fun to read - and easy to get lost in that whole world. Although there'd been hints at it, I wasn't actually expecting the Mageprice for Calling Kareta to be quite what it was. Both Harrier and Tiercel were keeping secrets from each other throughout much of the story, I'm not sure everything would have worked out properly if they hadn't; similar, I suppose, to the eventual correctness (most likely) to the Elves' official action/help. I suspected that Ancaladar would come back - but not quite the way he did. I like that though - surprises can be nice.

After finishing that book this afternoon, I decided that I wasn't ready to go downstairs and watch some of the TV show I have checked out from the library right now, so instead, I stayed in bed and started Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia by Brandon Sanderson. I've already read the first two books in this series and thoroughly look forward to the next one (or more likely two - as there were hints in this one that there were to be five books (or I suppose, at least five books)). The Smedry's are quite amusing people and Alcatraz gets into such trouble at times. Also, I love their Talents. This series seems a lot like a blend of Harry Potter and the Series of Unfortunate Events. I would recommend this to everyone!

Having finished that, I'm now in the middle of Kate by Jean Little. I'm enjoying it so far - even if it's not the book I was expected. I missed, when getting the book, that the back is describing the preceding book, not this one. I'm going to have to find the other one soon I think; I'm still interested in that story too.

Too long!

2010-02-15T06:56:00.000-08:00

I've been gone way too long since the last post. I read a good number of books - some of them pretty quickly, but as I was starting to list what I've read, I realized I spent a bit too much time finishing movies I'd checked out from the library (Sinner, Dear J, Quantum Leap: The First Season, and one or two more that I can't remember) - I haven't actually read as many books as I thought I had.

I finished The Citadel pretty easily a few days after I'd started it. I was quite amused by one of the first "treatments" used in the book - blowing up the sewer seems a bit unorthodox, but it worked. I enjoyed this book thoroughly - even if I was a bit annoyed at Andrew a bit at times, and I looked forward to more of A. J. Cronin's works.

After finishing that, I decided I should read the next book that was due as opposed to the next book I'd actually checked out from the library (I had renewed The Keys of the Kingdom), so I read Peter and the Sword of Mercy by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. I enjoyed this about as much as I enjoyed the three previous books in the series. Although I hadn't expected any more of these books, I'm quite glad it came. Some of the Peter Pan story that I'd wondered about a bit was answered in this book. Also, although it had been offered that Captain Hook and crew were going to get off of the island of Neverland, I didn't quite expect success - Peter Pan wouldn't have been possible otherwise.

This book took me less than a day to read - so I was able to return it pretty quickly and move on to the next book in my list (again the next one due, not the next one I'd checked out), Ghosts Among Us: Uncovering the Truth About the Other Side by James Van Praagh. This book was relatively good, but it didn't have as many ghost stories per se as I was expecting. I was amused by some of his stories - most memorable for me is perhaps the woman who was followed by a man with dark glasses - he thought he should know who this man was, but just couldn't figure it out. Then, after talking to the woman (whose name I've forgotten - sorry) he found out she was the widow of Roy Orbison - he commented that he was glad Roy Orbison still had his "Pretty Woman." I thought that was a cute story and comment. I do think it would be rather interesting to ask James Van Praagh why he based Melinda's character on the experiences of a friend of his, rather than on his own - my main guess is that it's to match gender better - otherwise perhaps he thought there would be more story possibilities this way. Who knows (well, presumably, he does)?

Having finished that I moved on to The Keys of the Kingdom by A. J. Cronin. I enjoyed this story quite well too (although I wanted to yell at/complain about some of the characters at times). I had expected to enjoy this story as I'd already seen the Gregory Peck movie version of it - this also led to me picturing all (or at least most) of the characters as the actors from the movie. Again, finishing this story didn't take too long, but it took me a bit longer as I'd started making my way through the movies I had from the library.

Having finished that, I moved onto the book I'm currently reading, The Phoenix Transformed: Book Three of the Enduring Flame by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory. I've read all five books that precede this one (although not quite in the proper order - first the first book of this trilogy, then the three books of the preceding trilogy, then book two of this one). I'm not quite sure what's going to happen, but I'm rather enthralled. Finishing up those movies, as well as watching the Olympics a bit has distracted me from finishing the book, but hopefully I'll get to finish it soon (I hope to return it to the library when I work next).

One more thing distracted me a bit from this book - the next Junie B. Jones book was returned on Saturday, so that afternoon I spent a little time reading Junie B., First-Grader, Shipwrecked by Barbara Park. It was about like the rest of the series so far. Her commentary and thought process are quite amusing at times, although I also quite understand the opinions of the adults in her life as well.

Goals sort of met

2010-02-01T07:32:00.000-08:00

As I was reading Footprints in a Darkened Forest on Friday evening, I started to think that I'd be able to finish before I needed to go to work on Saturday afternoon. So I set that goal for myself. Then, when I got up to my room to try to read it a bit more after the first half of my night prayer session, I decided I was just too tired. I finished night prayer and went to bed instead. I then woke up with plenty of time to finish it on Saturday morning, but was reading downstairs while Dad was watching TV and didn't focus as much on the book as I could have. I also chose to go grocery shopping with him, even though I didn't have anything I was looking to buy. Because of all of those factors, I didn't quite finish the book in time.

I had been enjoying the book quite a bit - even if some of the stories/ideas were repeats both from earlier parts in the book and from other books of his that I've read. I also enjoyed Sheen's references to Theilard de Chardin(sp?) (especially his book The Divine Milieu) - I was already a bit familiar with those ideas through my "Development of the Christian Tradition" class at college. I was a bit confused by some of the marginal notes placed by some previous reader of the book - I found it interesting that my basic thought was that it was a she, but my Mom kept saying "he" - I suppose one of us has to be correct, but I don't really know who, or even why we each chose the pronoun we did.

My next goal for myself was to finish reading this book, and the next one in my stack The Restless Dead: Ten Original Stories of the Supernatural (edited by Deborah Noyes) by the time I switched houses on Sunday. I didn't think I was going to make this goal, once I decided to play Heroes III on the computer instead of reading. However, I had too little left in the first book (30-ish pages) and they didn't take me too long. Then, after I'd finished a fourth game (I only won the third one - disappointingly), I finished packing up as much as possible, and then got into bed to read cozily - with a Tia pup snuggled next to me as well. The Restless Dead was a rather quick read - it only took me an hour and a half or so to read the first two-thirds or so of the book. I suspect much of this speed came from the fact that these are short stories, and therefore at least mostly not quite as complicated as some books can be.

I enjoyed the short stories pretty well, although I will admit that most were pretty strange. I was a bit amused to recognize part of one story - it's based on a historically documented haunting story (although the full validity of the story is still in a bit of doubt) that not only had I read an official (so to speak) account of it, but it also appeared in another book I'd already read (Barbara Michaels' book Other Worlds).

I did end up finishing both of these books by my (new) goal, and have now barely started A. J. Cronin's book The Citadel - so far I like the story, but I'm only one chapter in, so it's perhaps too early to tell for sure - but I did enjoy the movie based on another book of his (The Keys to the Kingdom).

Sheen!

2010-01-27T15:39:00.000-08:00

As I planned, I finished The Book of Lies this afternoon. It didn't end quite the way I expected it would, but all in all it was good. The shape of the book somewhat reminded me of National Treasure - but only a bit. I plan to try more of Brad Meltzer's books once I get my current stack a bit smaller.

I have moved on to [Arch]Bishop Fulton J. Sheen's book, Footprints in a Darkened Forest. I'm only one chapter into it so far, but I'm going to enjoy it. Despite its age, it is still worthwhile - which doesn't surprise me, as that's how I've felt about all of his books I've read (and his show). Also, I shouldn't be too surprised because books don't have to be new to be relevant - many aren't. I don't expect I'll get too much more reading done today - the next CSI event at church is tonight and I'm going - actually I've got to head off soon for that.

Superman and more

2010-01-27T08:36:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning I finished reading An Echo in the Bone and discovered that there has to be at least one more book in the series. I'm both happy and sad at that - I enjoy the series and would like another book, but I want to know what happens, right now, instead of waiting for the next book to come out. I've somewhat been finding that my thoughts form themselves in a bit of a Scottish brogue (which I like) - this must be from the book. I was amused by Jamie's story of how/why he lost the fourth finger on his right hand - although it wasn't true. I hope that Willie comes to terms with what he just figured out about his dad (either of them - for that matter). I'm not surprised he was able to figure this out though. I wonder if Brianna's coworker Bob is a descendant of the Cameron mentioned in the eighteenth-century part of the book - I suspect we'll learn he is. I'm still annoyed at him for taking Jem - but at least Jem's okay - at least for now.

At work yesterday, I found a cute little kids book called Baby Food; I don't remember the authors' names, but they're the same people who made/wrote How Are You Peeling?, another book I enjoyed. In this book, they took a variety of fruits and vegetables and cut/shaped/combined them to make baby animals. Many of these are incredibly cute and I'm in awe of the creativity and imagination the authors must have to come up with this.

Last night I started the next book in my stack, Brad Meltzer's The Book of Lies. I'm already over half-way through the book, and I still want to know what happens/what's going on. When I saw this book on the shelf at the library and read the "about the book" passage on the front flap, I was highly intrigued by the combination of the creation of the Superman comics and the Biblical story of Cain. I still am, actually - I'd like to see fully how the author will connect these together. I like a few of the points the author makes about Cain's story. First, he points out that the Bible never says what Cain's weapon was - I'd never really thought about it, but it doesn't. In the book, Ellis speaks of imagining it was a rock when he was a kid, but I guess I've always figured it was a scythe - or similar item) - Cain was a farmer and offered some of his grain to God - he had to harvest it somehow. The second point Meltzer makes that I like (and also hadn't thought about much) is that this is a story of the first instance of forgiveness as well as the first murder. By not killing Cain, God is offering forgiveness for Cain's act. I'm interested in seeing if the translation variations mentioned in the book in regards to this are accurate or not. Supposedly, when Cain traditionally says, "My punishment is greater than I can bear," it could also be translated as "My sin is too great to forgive" (p. 148). This puts a very different spin on the whole story. I need to reflect on this more - and plan to. I also plan to finish this book later today.

Singing

2010-01-24T11:26:00.000-08:00

So, I didn't get to do too much reading yesterday - although I admit I'm the one to blame. I chose to watch that movie and those TV shows instead. However, I did also get some time this morning before church - one benefit of getting there 45 minutes early.

I'm still enjoying the book. I do find Roger's new job a bit strange however - you'd think the assisant choir director should be able to sing well perhaps. He still can sing a bit, and used to sing quite well (something about being hung and almsot dying causes a bit of trouble sometimes), and he's working with the kids now too! They seem to think he's pretty cool because of it - and he thinks they might be expecting him to bring some six-shooters next time (I think that's the guns mentioned in the book).

Moving along

2010-01-23T19:19:00.000-08:00

I'm much farther into An Echo in the Bone, but I'm still not finished with it. I've been enjoying it and can't wait to find out what all will happen. It's a bit interesting that Claire and Jamie figured out ways to communicate with Brianna and Roger (and Mandy and Jem) but I wish there were a way to reverse that communication as well. However, I suppose they somewhat get that with the dreams Jamie sometimes has. I'm not sure if I'd enjoy them or not. I'm enjoying the time difference jumps - even if they might bother some people (I'm not one of them, at least usually).

Reading about Jem getting in trouble at school reminded me a bit of a story in the movie The Secret of Roan Inish - I love that movie, even if I haven't seen it in a long, long time. I'm bothered by the fact that anyone would get in trouble for speaking in their native tongue at school - especially when their in their native country - England was (and at least somewhat the U.S. still is) quite picky about that. At least Jem's a bit of a hero to all of his classmates now though.

Speaking of movies, I suspect this whole series would make a wonderful set of movies, if that hasn't already been done (or at least started). I for one would enjoy seeing them, despite the trouble with fitting everything in the movie - the same problem that the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings movies had. I'm not sure who I'd pick to portray any of the characters though - although I have some pretty good mental images of them, I'm having trouble thinking of actors who fit those images.

I may just have gotten the wrong impression so far in terms of one character's role in the book (and/or in history) but if not, I'm going to have review Benedict Arnold's history because my memory of his story is not quite matching up with his portrayal in the book - granted this is fiction and Diana Gabaldon could have changed it, but that seems like too big of a change to make.

All of this time-jumping, and the incorporation of actual historical events is reminding me of the Nuala Anne McGrail mysteries by Andrew M. Greeley that I've been reading - which reminds me, when I finish a few more of the books I have checked out from the library, I really should get the next one of those in the list. I'd like to know what happens there as well. Oh, and the Gaelic-ish text connects these two stories as well (even if one is the Scottish version and one is the Irish version).

Brief Interruption

2010-01-21T19:39:00.001-08:00

I spent most of yesterday catching up on movies I'd had checked out for a long time, and I was running around much of today, so I'm not that much farther in An Echo in the Bone. I'm enjoying the story - especially now that we've gotten back to Jamie and Claire. Maybe it's just that they were really the first main characters, but they're my favorite.

I did also spend a bit of today reading the next Junie B. Jones book, Junie B., First Grader: Cheater Pants. This was a cute little story. Junie B. doesn't like cheaters, but it turns out she might be one, too. I also really liked a few of the poems in this book (they were writing cinquains).

Finished

2010-01-19T07:21:00.000-08:00

So I stayed up a bit later than I should have last night - about an hour - but I did finish The Missing. It got a bit better by the end. The cheap romance book parts stopped appearing much, just about right after what I'd posted on last night. I don't mind.

I was correct in who the killer was, but I didn't pick up on part of the reasoning of why he was killing.

I was a bit surprised that there was quite a bit of story left after they caught him, but I suppose they couldn't quite work out the other issues before he was taken care of.

I'm now just barely reading (I think I've read one page - and it only had four lines or so on it) Diana Gabaldon's newest book (at least in the Outlander series) An Echo in the Bone. I expect I will like it, but as I said yesterday, there are lots of books I wanted to read next - this one won out because it's got a long enough holds list that I only get it for two weeks - and I won't be able to renew it.

Brief Update

2010-01-18T15:32:00.000-08:00

I'm still reading The Missing - it's not quite what I expected (a combination of Ghost Whisperer and Medium), and it's much more like a Harlequin (R) (or is it (TM) or (C)?) than I would like, but I think I'll still finish it because I want to see if I'm correct in guessing who the bad guy is - I think it's Leon.

Six-Word Memoirs and Other Ideas

2010-01-18T06:45:00.000-08:00

At work on Friday I found this fun little book called I Can't Keep My Own Secrets: Six-word Memiors from Teens Famous and Obscure by Larry Smith. It was quite amusing - some of the answers were quite creative/clever and some were heartbreaking. It is a cool little book - I'd like to find the other books in this series.

After quickly reading that book, I also finished Libyrinth. This was a very interesting book - the ending seemed a bit too easy in my opinion, but it was still good - enough that I almost suggested it for the next Lemmings read. In thinking about an earlier comment I made on this book, I'm not sure I can say I like the books talking to her as much as I did before. I realized that having the book speak itself to Haly is sort of like listening to a book on tape (or CD), which I've tried to do and just can't quite succeed with - I like to be able to turn back the pages a bit too much. I loved all the quotes from other books though! I think my favorite was "The most dangerous parasite of Pern was Thread" (I'm not sure I have the exact phrase anymore) Dragonflight or any Pern/McCaffrey book is cool, and I'm almost surprised to have found it there. I was also amused that we were discussing Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl a bit at bookclub yesterday as it is the most quoted book in the story.

I'm now reading a book called The Missing by Shiloh Walker (funny side note - when I was searching through the visual bookshelf list on Facebook to add this one to my list two other books we'd discussed as possible next Lemmings' reads showed up in it - I'm not sure why they were in the list - possibly Miss was accepted as matching Missing). I'm rather enjoying this so far, but I'm mad at both Cullen (although him first) and Taige. They shouldn't have fought the way they did. However, if I remember the back of the book properly, they'll meet up again, so that should be good, though perhaps a bit awkward. I'm also some what confusing Cullen up with Edward from the Twilight series - I'm not sure why it's only him - unless perhaps because he's one of the leads and the only one of the Cullens to qualify for that. I'm not yet too far in, but hopefully I'll be able to fix that this week - something about three days in a row off, essentially - especially when I'll be the only one home during the day, seems to make that a bit easier. However, I better not spend too much time online, or that just won't happen. I'm not planning on letting that happen, however, I've got too many good books waiting (there's three, at least, that I want to be the next one I read - which can't quite happen. One of them will have to be first).

Talking Books

2010-01-14T12:20:00.000-08:00

Yesterday evening I finished 206 Bones, although not quite as quickly as I had hoped - I wanted to finish before supper was done, but had to stop with about 15 pages left. I was half correct in some of my guesses as to what was going on, but was completely correct. I was a bit wary of suspecting the person I most wanted to suspect - this person seemed a bit to obvious to be behind everything. She was behind part of it, but more just encouraged another character's actions. I didn't suspect this other character much, although there were hints of it, so maybe I should have. I knew Brennan wasn't making all the mistakes she was accused of making. I also have to agree with Kathy Reichs encouragement of all who have taken the time and made the effort to become accredited - it doesn't sound easy, but can help make sure the innocent are not punished while the guilty go free.

Having finished that book, I did move to the book I'd been planning on reading before that one came. I am now reading Libyrinth by Pearl North. I am enjoying the book so far - I like the idea that books speak to Haly. I am, however, glad I'm not her during the yearly bonfire for the Eradicants - listening to all of those books go silent as the fire consumes them is not something I'd care to hear. As I've been reading this, it has somewhat seemed to perhaps be a bit of a fantasy version of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. I'll have to see as I continue to read. According to the Eradicants, "when a word is spoken, it is born, when it is written, it dies." I'm not sure I agree with that - and neither is Haly - but she's got the benefit of hearing the books (essentially they read themselves to her). The ability for her to understand the stories, even if they've been written in a language she doesn't know is also interesting. I hope - and assume - she'll get out of prison - hopefully sooner than later. I have enjoyed trying to recognize the books that talk to her as their quotes come up - but I haven't known all of them - mostly because I haven't read all of the books quoted - but fortunately at the end there's a list of what books were quoted in each chapter - with the quote repeated for memory's sake.

Chicago

2010-01-13T08:38:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, during my break at work, I finished Irish Linen - much of which fascinated me. I was intrigued to learn that so many of the characters in the German/WWII story were real (although I'd recognized some of the names). Although I perhaps shouldn't be, I was surprised by the U.S.'s statement that the man who unsuccessfully tried to assassinate (tyrannate (sp?)) Hitler did so because he was Catholic and therefore had to be Anti-Semitic. I'm most confused by this argument because if Hitler's command began the Final Solution, why would someone with anti-semitic tendancies try to get rid of him - and not too far behind is an argument that being Catholic does not mean one is also anti-semitic. I have to agree with Fr. Greeley's character Timmy Pat, that the U.S. is not acting properly here. I was glad that Des was able to come home - although I'm amused (sort of) that his Mom was annoyed at him for that because he had the indecency to arrive home (he finally got a bit of help in that) after she'd arranged and had a memorial service for him. I was surprised a bit to see that although Timmy Pat was no longer living, as Nuala and Dermot had been hoping, that Anne was - I hope they do get the chance to meet with her on their next trip to Ireland.

After finishing that, I had a book all picked out to read - the next earliest one due (Liberynth - I think this is the proper spelling, and I don't recall the author's name at the moment), but one of the books I'd had on reserve came to the library for me to pick up yesterday and there are enough people in line for it after me that I only get it for two weeks, so I switched the plan a bit, and have started 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs. Even if the Temperance Brennan in these books isn't the Temperance Brennan I like (and know so well) from the show Bones, these books are still very good and I still like this version (so to speak) of her as well. I just have to think of them as two different people who happen to share the same name and job. This book so far has been a bit odd to read because the beginning of the book has mostly taken place in Chicago so far. With all of the ensuing Chicago references I keep expecting Nuala or Dermot or their kids to appear in this book, but (surprise, surprise) they haven't. Someone seems to be out to get Dr. Brennan, but we haven't learned who yet - the person who would have most been able to help has just died so he's not actually going to be much help. Brennan (and Ryan) have both just gone back to Montreal for a new case - she's not quite pleased with that, as she'd had plans for a bit of a Christmas vacation with her daughter Katy, but that's no longer possible. The very beginning of the book was a bit strange because her thoughts were very brief - admittedly she'd just regained consciousness - and not very helpful. I'm looking forward (in a way) to her remembering enough so that the back story catches up to her in the tunnel or whatever it is she's in. I might get to that a bit today, but Jimmy and I have tentative plans to watch part of Roswell Season 3 today, so I'm not positive.

late night

2010-01-10T17:01:00.000-08:00

In my last post I missed adding one book that I'd read in my posting break - Junie B., First Grader, Toothless Wonder. This was another amusing little book, but it wasn't much different from the rest of the series.

On Friday morning, before I went to work, I finished The Haunting of America: From the Salem Witch Trials to Harry Houdini. This finished in about the same way it started - although the aliens never came back after the first chapter. I was amused (and slightly saddened) by Harry Houdini's little feud with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

After that, I moved on to Maria V. Snyder's next book, Sea Glass - which was just as amazing as the rest of her books. I ended up staying up until three in the morning (or so) to finish the book (at least ninety percent of the reading was done that night). (I stayed up even later that night to finish the movie I'd started earlier).

I am now immersed (again - and happily) in another Andrew Greeley mystery - Irish Linen. I extremely enjoy this one so far - I love so many of the quotes - but most of them need too much extra to explain their full humor or greatness. Patjo has now also joined the family as the newest of the childer - he's got three older siblings who (from the one scene) seem to dote on him - none of them have had much part in the story yet though. War is always terrible and this book shows a bit of that, at least so far. I hope (and assume) Des is okay - and I hope they do find and get to meet Timmy - even if he's at least ninety-five now!

Catching Up

2010-01-07T06:59:00.000-08:00

So, although I didn't finish Irish Crystal on Christmas Eve, I have now finished it. As usual, it was a very enjoyable book - I have the next book in the series (Irish Linen) currently checked out from the library and would have suggested my Mom read it a couple days ago when she was looking for something to read, except for the fact that there are so many books that come before it.

After reading that I quickly read a Young Adult book I'd also gotten from the library - Gayle Forman's If I Stay. This story was pretty well written - at least most of the characters felt like real people. The story was quite sad, and for about the last half of the book I was in tears, but still, that in no way makes it a bad book/story. It's been awhile - over a week now- since I read this so I don't remember all of my thoughts. Mia has a very difficult decision to make and she works her way through it quite well, all things considered.

Having finished that, I realized that I only had two weeks to read the books for both of my book clubs - so I slightly panicked and rushed to read those next.

The St. Francis book club meets first (a week from today) so I read Crow Lake by Mary Lawson first. I quite enjoyed this book as well, even if it was also quite sad. Living in a snowy, wintry climate, there was much that connected to my own experience - although I didn't actually grow up in a farming community or with a one-room school. I really like the reading shelf added to the spinning wheel from the beginning of the book. This was an exploration of how tragedy (in various forms) can affect the relationships within one family and the surrounding community as well.

I finished that book faster than anticipated, but was okay with that as it meant I could move on to the Lemmings book club book. This is our next book and a movie meeting, so we are reading Robert Fitzgerald's translation of The Odyssey and watching O Brother Where Art Thou. I'd already read a translation of it, but I'm not sure which one I read. I also somewhat remember it taking awhile to reading, although I did much prefer it to The Iliad. This led me to worry a bit that I wouldn't be able to finish it in time - however, again I was wrong. Having started it a day or two earlier, I spent much of New Year's day plowing through it (with a bit of a nap in the middle). By staying up until 12:30 I was able to finish it - which meant I could leave it at the house I was going to be at the week of the book club - I'm all for hauling fewer things back and forth if possible. I did enjoy the story as much as I remembered enjoying it before. I was confused a bit at first because some of the story wasn't told in the order I remembered it being told, but I'm sure that's from my memory's delay, as well as a blend with the Wishbone episode version of it. Having finished the story so quickly, so to speak, I did also read the Introduction (by Seamus Heaney (I think)) as well as Robert Fitzgerald's ending commentary - I've momentarily forgotten what he called it. I loved all of Seamus Heaney's poetic comparisons (even if they don't surprise me too much as he and Homer are/were poets), but my absolute favorite was his alteration of a line from Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem. I can't recall off hand if Heaney was refering to Homer or The Odyssey, but he said he/it "is (was?) charged with the grandeur of Greek."

Having finished that I moved on to The Haunting of America: From the Salem Witch Trials to Harry Houdini by William J. Birnes and Joel Martin. So far I'm enjoying this book, although it's not always what I was expecting, and much of it is actually things I'd already read about, at least a bit, in some of the Time Life (R) Mysteries of the World books. That mostly just makes it more fun as I can connect more things together, although I might find parts of the book a bit more fascinating if I hadn't heard much about them. There aren't as many ghost stories per se as I expected - more it's a biography of some famous "spirit rappers" or "spiritualists" or mediums and such. There's more about seances than about hauntings. However, I was amused that both hauntings that formed the basis/background for Barbara Michaels' book Other Worlds were included at least briefly in this one.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T13:17:00.000-08:00

With the holidays, it's been quite crazy around here - I have stolen a few minutes per day these last few days for reading, but haven't done too much. It is rather my fault though because I have chosen to nap and play Mah Jong and help cook and watch movies with family instead. Also, last night before the Christmas midnight Mass, I chose to be smart and pray the rosary a little earlier than normal (before I go to sleep) so that I wouldn't be up too late instead of reading more because I'd still like to know what's going on.

I should really get back to the movie we're currently watching, so I'm off for now. For those wondering, we're watching Julie & Julia - both Mom and Erin got it for Christmas, and Rachel hasn't seen it and wanted to. Poor Jimmy, we keep watching movies he's not very interested in. The next one should be one he wants to watch.

Oops!

2009-12-22T06:46:00.001-08:00

After publishing that last post, I remembered more things I'd wanted to say about The Thirteenth. I'll add them now instead. First, although I knew the reference had to be for something else, but I really think L. A. Banks ought to have written one more book before this one - it's currently the twelfth book in the series. I'm also intrigued by this book's suggestion for the origin of silver's negative affect on vampires and other hell creatures - a connection to Judas' betrayal of Jesus for "a few pieces of silver" - although I would argue that 30 is more than a few.

I'm still reading Irish Crystal. Dermot has been making some interesting (and amusing) comments about Nuala - sometimes just to himself and other times in conversation with the Adversary (which is technically still himself). I was also amused with the very last thing I'd read so far - Nuala complains that she still wishes Dermot were there too - but she's got no right to complain as she'd told him he wasn't allowed to come (although he hadn't considered the option of coming until she mentioned it).

Depending upon how quickly I read, and how well the final bits of Christmas shopping go, I just might finish this book today - so I may have to find something new at work today. I'll probably go for the next Nuala mystery, but who knows.

A Bit of Reading, Little Internet Wandering

2009-12-20T21:29:00.000-08:00

So, it has yet again been awhile since I last posted. This past week has been a bit crazy - Jimmy is now home for Christmas/between-terms break - and it's almost Christmas. I suspect this next week or two might be just as busy/internetless.

I rather quickly finished Irish Cream, partially to find out what happened/get to know the characters better and also because I needed to finish two of the other books I'd checked out by the day after Christmas. I'd gotten the one because the last book (at that time) I'd read in the series contained an excerpt from it, the final book in the series. After actually getting the copy of this book at the library (having them order it and everything), I learned that there was a book in between it and the other one I'd read - and the library didn't yet own it either. Thankfully, library staff was willing/able to order that one as well. Then, while waiting for that book to arrive, the first one was placed on hold by someone else, so now, I was unable to renew it. I'll discuss more on these books later.

I did enjoy Irish Cream, even if many of the temporary characters were a bit hard to like (also, although I didn't like them much, I was still sad at what happened to them at the end). It's been so long (sort of) since I finished this, that it's a bit hard for me to remember much more of what happened and what my impressions were. I do rather wish I were able to see the Day's paintings though - that I do remember.

Having finished that, I dove straight into the two final Vampire Huntress Legend books, both by L. A. Banks. The first book is The Shadows, followed by The Thirteenth. I will discuss these together as they have somewhat blurred together in my mind - something about reading them in a row. I liked how the non-Guardian/civilian characters were brought together and made a part of the action - the family is growing. I also wish I could be on Atlantis with everybody - it would be interesting to meet all those little kids - and I bet they're quite cute. Ayana in particular is impressive - but so are all the others. I was saddened by the end of Fr. Pat's life on Earth, but I did like Uriel's use of his final battle/gift to fool Satan! JL's (I think it was him - sadly, even after this many books, some of the characters blend together a bit in my mind - maybe I need to read them all again) discovery at the beginning of the first book was exciting - I can easily understand the energy he got from it - he was almost bouncing off the walls. I was intrigued by Sebastian's accidental addition of Vlad/Dracula to the Vampire Council.

After reading those, I moved on to a book I found by shelving it (sort of - it only stayed on the shelf for an hour or so). I was intrigued enough by it that I decided to see if we had a different copy of it at all (it was the Large Print version), but as we didn't, I did go back and get it. The Seven Year Seduction by Heidi Betts was about what I expected. It was a rather cute story - that like similar stories, did bring me to tears at a few points (but most stories in which I begin to care for the character(s) at all does that). I enjoyed it I suppose - although it wouldn't win any prizes for Great Literature. Although I could have guessed at most of what happened in the story, I did not expect the miscarriage surprise. This book only took the total of a couple of hours to read - even if it was spread out between Friday night and Saturday.

Having finished that, I continued on to what I'd originally intended to read after Irish Cream, Andrew Greeley's Irish Crystal, which just happens to be the next one in the series. Although I'm not far into it (much of my time today was spent knitting while watching football - with a bit of Christmas shopping as well). So far, I'm rather annoyed at the three or four temporary characters who have been complaining about Maeve and Fiona, the two dogs (Irish wolfhounds), and also Day (who walks them). I like all three of them, and am therefore inclined to dislike any who don't like them.

Back to the Irish

2009-12-12T13:52:00.001-08:00

So, I stayed up last night to finish Missing Mark - I had pretty much started it earlier that morning and just kept reading - well, when I wasn't at work or watching Bones with Mom. I quite enjoyed it, although I'm not sure I liked it as much as I liked Stalking Susan. I knew quite early in the story who caused Mark's disappearance, although I'd had no clue about the reasons for it. I was also intrigued by the face-blindness described in the book. I can't imagine what that would be like. In some ways I'd like to argue that it (in a mild form) is the reason I have some trouble recognizing people in large crowds and remembering people's names, but I don't think it's true. No matter how convenient that could be, I'm not sure it would work quite that way. I suppose, though, it could also explain why I sometimes say this person reminds of this other person and (often) everyone else gives me a confused stare and argue that they look nothing alike.

After finishing that book, even though it was already late - probably almost 1am or 1:30am (I don't remember what the clock said, even though I did look at it) I decided I wasn't ready to go to bed yet. I started another book I'd checked out from the library - another one I'd had on hold that I was only going to get to keep for two weeks (I suspect that many people are interested in it for the same reason I was). After the title intrigued me, although I can't place what about it did that, I decided I was going to try to read it because it was written by a Mayo doctor and was inspired somewhat by real occurrences. This book is The Blue Notebook by James A. Levine, M.D. It wasn't quite what I expected and I can't decide if I want to say it was a good book or not. My heart goes out to Batuk, and especially all those who live what she did in the story. I appreciate that Dr. Levine is donating all proceeds from the sale of this book to help missing and exploited children. I ended up staying up to finish this book as well last night (probably finishing around 4:30am, maybe a bit closer to 5am). In some ways, it could be interesting to have a one-on-one conversation with the author about his book, but I don't actually plan on that ever happening.

After a bit of debate on what to read next, I decided I needed to move to the next Nuala Anne McGrail book, Irish Cream. So far (I'm only 15-20 pages in), I'm enjoying this Andrew Greeley book, too. In some ways I'd like to move to some of his other series' too, but I don't know how to pick one, and there are so many. I may just wait until I've read all of these - at least that have been written so far. I don't really know what the historical mystery is in this story yet, but I'm sure there will be one; there've only been hints as to what the modern one is so far. I'm amused by Day's character so far, but it's a bit early - although I suspect he's a character I'm supposed to like, so it's not too surprising. I am amused that he's related to the little bishop - although I suppose I'm also still amused that he's called the little bishop. Hmm, I wonder if Nuala and Dermot (and kids) appear in any of the Blackie Ryan mysteries. I suppose the best way to find out would be to read them.

Snowy Day

2009-12-09T06:54:00.000-08:00

On this cold and snowy winter day I am starting to read Julie Kramer's second book Missing Mark. Her first book was this year's first book for the St. Francis book club. As soon as I'd read that (Stalking Susan), I put this one on hold at the library - I wanted to know what happened next, and it was an enjoyable quick read. The book was finally available for me yesterday, so here we go.

I did also get the next two Nuala Anne McGrail books as well, but as Missing Mark is still on hold enough that I only get to keep it for two weeks, I'm going to start with it, even though I also expect I'll have finished all three of them before that two weeks is up. I am still planning on mostly watching Angel season five today and tomorrow though.

I have now officially lost some of my prime reading time for a while. I like to read on my walk to and from work, but it is now too cold and snowy, and I have to be able to watch/prepare for icy spots on the sidewalk so I'll have to wait until spring for this opportunity again.

Now what?

2009-12-07T17:04:00.000-08:00

So I just finished reading The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane at supper today. I did quite enjoy it. I suspected correctly who the "bad guy" was. I was slightly wrong with the prediction I made in my post yesterday. Connie did not stay in Granna's house as I expected - however, I was correct that the house didn't get sold. Grace sold her house out west and moved into the house she grew up in instead. I was intrigued by the suggested meaning/identity of the philosopher's stone that Liz (Connie's roommate) made at the end of the book. It wasn't something I expected, but it makes a good bit of sense.

However, I don't have much checked out to read now. The only book I have left is the final book in the Vampire Huntress Legends series, but when I checked it out from the library (after requesting that they purchase it) I learned that there was another book before it, but after the last one I read (this was slightly hard to expect as the last book I read didn't list this one, and had an excerpt from the last book in the series). I'm currently waiting for the middle (ish) book to come in on hold for me, after it is purchased and processed into the library catalog.

Tomorrow after work I'll find something else to read - probably the next Nuala Anne McGrail book by Andrew M. Greeley. I've never had much trouble finding something new to read at the library - usually I find too many options at once. I also have yet to read the next chapter (chapter five) in the book for the Bible study at Church, but I might have some time between Church activities tomorrow morning, so for now I'm saving it for then. Anyways, I'm hoping to finish the final season of Angel this week, so I can return it to my boss' boss when I'm at work on Friday - I don't want to keep this one as long as I kept the last one - almost two months at least, I think. Thankfully, I don't think he cared much - at least that's what he said. But still, that's too long. Unless I get extremely distracted - which is possible - I should have no trouble with that. Time to watch that first episode.

Memories

2009-12-06T14:13:00.000-08:00

So, last Wednesday afternoon/evening I finished The Lost Symbol. It was similar to both Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code, which I suppose shouldn't surprise me too much as they are both in the same series. Near the end of the book, when the fact that the whole adventure started only about ten hours earlier appears, I found it hard to believe at first. So much was packed into that time frame that I wanted to say it just wasn't possible. I suppose in general it might not actually be possible, but according to the story it was exactly the truth. This book didn't seem to have quite the same glaring inaccuracies that the other two books had, but it is still merely a story. I am still interested in learning more about Katherine Solomon's research - Dan Brown says at the beginning of the book that it really is a field of study, so I'll have to look into it at some point. For much of the second half (last third?) of the book I was sure that the Washington Monument was important in some way - was maybe the large rock/stone mentioned - but didn't know for sure why I thought that. Now, in thinking back on it, I think it hearkened back to an early passage in the book when Langdon is flying over DC, the plane about to land, and he reflects on it.

After finishing this book, I read The Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw by Jeff Kinney. I'd already read the first two books in the series and was a bit intrigued to see where the story would go next. Sometimes I found it hard to understand and/or sympathize with Greg - especially as regards his trouble with clean laundry - it's not that hard to do laundry and clean clothes are so nice to have. The story was about as I expected based on the other two. It wasn't bad enough for me to quit reading, but it's not really that great of a book - granted the fact that it's intended for a much younger audience might make a difference in that. As I'd hoped, I also finished this Wednesday evening - I could sort of be under the ten items checked out at a time limit I'd imposed on myself - officially I had a book for Mom and a book for Dad both checked out, but as I'd already read them I didn't worry about including them in the list.

Having finished that book, I started the other book I'd had on hold at the library that came in the same day as The Lost Symbol. This was Katherine Howe's The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane. I've been greatly enjoying this book - I can't wait to see exactly how it will end. I guessed pretty quickly that Connie was related to Deliverance Dane somehow - why else would some things apparently hers be in Granna's house. I sometimes felt a bit of kinship with Connie - in some ways I think we are quite alike - but obviously not in every way. When I started this book Wednesday evening, my first thought connected to a book I read a year or so ago, Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason's The Rule of Four. Both of these books made me a bit nostalgic for college/paper-writing - again I almost want to assign myself a research paper or a writing project (maybe something similar to my Brit Lit after 1700 research project), but I'm a bit afraid it will have a similar result to the assignment I'd given myself after reading The Rule of Four (great book, btw) - my brain was too fried after trying to understand Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem "The Wreck of the Deutschland" and I was unable to finish anything. Unlike Connie, I can't imagine knowing enough about any topic - especially something as broad and New England history - to be able to spend three or four hours answering any and all questions posed about it - I suppose that means it's a good thing I'm not looking at being a doctoral student. I'm enjoying the little bits of historical story amidst the modern-ish main story. I've always been a bit fascinated by the Salem witch trials - horrified too. One prediction I have for the end of this book is that Connie is going to decide to buy/keep Granna's house instead of putting it for sale on the market. Oh, I'm also still surprised that Connie hasn't realized that her ability to know what her mother is doing at a particular moment - even seeing her sometimes - despite being on opposite coasts of the U.S. is something that is quite unusual for most people. It almost seems as if she thinks everyone can do that.

Friday afternoon/evening I came up with a solution for one slight problem I had. I wanted to be still reading The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane this morning, but I was reading it a bit too fast for that to work well. However, I realized that if I were to read the final book I'd checked out with it first, that would solve my difficulty (although it did end up leading to me staying up much later than I should have Friday night). Friday afternoon/evening/night (I stayed up until about 2am) I read I am the Wallpaper by Mark Peter Hughes. Much of this was also as I expected it to be - although at times it was hard for me to picture Floey as 13 and even harder for me to picture Calvin (I think this is the right character - I've already forgotten some of the names) as 15. I did enjoy the story - as evinced by my late night. As with many books I read - especially the YA ones I find while shelving or shelf reading - I found I was crying at times. Not as much as I did for many books, say especially Mercedes Lackey's Arrows of the Queen, and partially it's sequels, Arrow's Flight, and Arrow's Fall.

New books

2009-12-02T08:51:00.000-08:00

So, yesterday evening I finished Irish Stew! - I thoroughly enjoyed it. I wasn't very close to the correct solutions to either mystery, but I'm not usually, so that's nothing new. A couple of posts ago, I commented that Nuala and Dermot's third child was born premature just as I was. As I was reading the book and Socra Marie kept going back to the hospital because of health issues, I kept thinking that I didn't have that much trouble when I was born (at least from what I've been told - not too surprisingly, I don't remember much (if anything) from then myself). However, near the end of the book, Nuala lists how many weeks early Socra Marie was born, and I realized that she was born more than twice as many weeks early as I was (15 weeks, compared to my 7); this quite likely is the reason behind the difference. I was quite angry with the couple Nuala and Dermot were talking with at this point in the story - they told the two of them that they should have treated Socra Marie as a stillbirth/miscarriage and not continued fighting for her life (despite the fact that Socra Marie was fighting on her own for her life). The doctors had also suggested this to them at the beginning of the book, but there was something in particular about the way this couple said it that really bothered me. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Socra Marie was more six months old and was doing quite well - in some ways better than full-term babies her age.

I tried to move to one of the books I'd had on hold at the library that came in for me pretty much right after finishing this one, but between the extreme difference in theme and tone, and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular on tv I just couldn't get into it. A few hours later, I had no trouble and am now over 1/4 the way through it - almost 1/3 finished. I'm reading Dan Brown's newest book The Lost Symbol. I'm interested enough in this, and Dad would like to read it as well, so I'm going to finish this instead of watching those other shows, so that I can find out what happens and Dad can finish it before it's due back in two weeks. Briefly at the beginning (mostly) it reminded me of National Treasure. I am intrigued by the research that Katherine Solomon is doing in the book - I may have to look into it, if I can. It could be interesting to read any studies from it.

Haymarket Riot and Stew

2009-12-01T07:32:00.000-08:00

I'm still reading Irish Stew!, but considering all the tv show watching I did yesterday, it's a bit surprising I'm almost halfway through it. As the mystery unfolds, I keep wondering exactly how it will be solved. I'm kind of interested in researching more about the Haymarket Riot, but I know that Andrew Greeley has done a lot of research for the book, and at the end of the story he put a note about the "true" aspects of his story. I think I'll wait for those, and if I need to, I'll do more research after that. Nellie's reactions to/interactions with Socra Marie are quite amusing and cute. In the last part I read, she was the only one able to soothe Socra Marie - because she hadn't paid any attention to her in the last few days and Socra Marie was mad at her for it. :)

Stew!

2009-11-30T08:41:00.000-08:00

So, I finished Alcatraz versus the Scrivener's Bones soon enough that I was able to return it to the library on Saturday afternoon. The book kept up the amusing asides from Alcatraz and many of the jokes from the first book. We get to meet more of the Smedry family and learn more about the Librarians evil plan - all while visiting the library of Alexandria. It could be a tempting place, all those books, but the price for checking out your first book is a bit higher than I'd like to pay - even if one person has figured out to solve that problem.

Having finished that, I moved to a book that I've been wanting to read for a while now - ever since I first heard about it (when my Mom got her copy in the mail). This is Awista Ayub's However Tall the Mountain: A Dream, Eight Girls, and a Journey Home. This book is quite enjoyable, and I can't wait for it to go into paperback editions, so I can suggest it for the Lemmings book club. My biggest complaint with the book is connected to what is possibly my favorite part of it. My possibly favorite part is the mention of Barbara and Duaine Goodno (although Duaine is never actually given a last name, Barbara is, and he's listed as her husband, so . . .) - and then my biggest complaint is that she's Barb, not Barbara - even though I know that Barbara is her full first name. Barb and Duaine are my aunt and uncle (Barb is one of my Mom's sisters), so I had a fun connection to the story. I am quite impressed with the story of these girls - I can't help but admire them. Because I got to read the copy Barb sent to my Mom, I did also get to learn one additional fact. Barb was not hiding the salt and sugar from the girls, as they thought she was; the salt and sugar are normally stored in the cupboard. I would recommend this book to almost everyone, if not everyone!

Having finished that yesterday (partially so it could stay at Mom's house as it's her book), I have now moved on to the book I checked out on Saturday at work - I chose not to resist the temptation. I'm reading Andrew Greeley's Irish Stew!, and would have the next book in the series waiting as well, if it had been available at the library on Saturday. This story has reminded me of lots, some of which is from the earlier books in the series, and some of which is from my own life. Nuala and Dermot's third child is born prematurely (at 25 weeks) and spends a few months in the hospital (presumably the NICU) because of that. I was also born early - but not quite as early as Socra Marie. Ned Fitzpatrick reappears in this story and we get to learn more of his life - and he's quite helpful in getting firsthand accounts of the historical mystery their solving this time - having a journalist around appears to helpful so far - especially as he's so willing to keep a journal of what's happening. This is a good way for Fr. Greeley to add the historical portion of the story. Although I didn't mind Dermot's mini research papers from the first few books, this is quite an enjoyable way to learn about the events, and the accounts don't feel as much like a textbook. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next.

I don't know how much reading I'll be able to do in the next week or so - I have to watch season one of The Big Bang Theory by Thursday, and then I need to finish the first five discs of season one of In Treatment, as well as watch The Lost Tapes, both of those by next Tuesday. Perhaps I shouldn't check out so many tv shows at once.

Smedries and their talents

2009-11-27T08:05:00.000-08:00

So, last night I finished A Pound of Paper, which really wasn't quite as good as I expected, but there were some good bits.

I have now moved on to Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener's Bones, the other book I have checked out that I'm quite looking forward to (even if I live in the Hushlands). Even though I'm only a few pages into the story so far, I've already returned to much of the odd quirks of the story. One of my favorite parts are the talents the Smedries have - Alcatraz breaks things (like an airplane or the bathroom wall) and his grandfather arrives late to appointments (such and bullet wounds and disasters). Brandon Sanderson had lots of fun with this book (well, the whole series, really) and this allows the reader to do the same.

Catch Up for Now, and a Bit of the Future

2009-11-22T22:17:00.000-08:00

So I finished The Doomsday Key pretty easily Tuesday evening (or perhaps it was Wednesday morning - but I don't think so). I found the ideas and solutions throughout the book, and especially at the end quite fascinating. as I rather mentioned already. I am especially intrigued by the author's proposed history for the Black Madonna "cult" (if memory serves correctly, that's how it was described in the book).

Part of why I think I actually finished that on Tuesday comes from the fact that I was well into Syren by the time of my Aunt Stephanie's birthday lunch around noon on Wednesday. I'll admit that it's a quick read, but still, I was over hundred pages into it at that point - possibly even over two hundred pages. I rather recognized/anticipated a few of the themes/plots purely from the book title, but that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story. I think that my favorite character in this story was Miarr - and the CattRock (sp) Light. That sounds like a really cool/fun lighthouse. I'd argue about the probability/possibility of adding (sometime way back in one's family tree) some cat background, except for the fact that science or technology is getting pretty close to that, as well as the fact that this is a fictional, fantasy world - it doesn't have to follow normal earthly laws. In general, I do have to agree with Kris Hickman (a friend of mine from high school); this book is mind candy - not really any deep literary/philosophical aspects to the story, but despite that, lots of fun. I really enjoyed Beetle's thought at one point in the book: The smell of burning dragon is never good when you're on the dragon 500 feet in there. It's also not very good for the dragon, either.

I finished this book later Wednesday evening. On Thursday, I started the next book I'd had checked out from the library. When I was shelving this book at work, the title briefly caught my eye - just enough for me to choose to read the front flap to see what the book was about. This description drew me in enough for me to bring the book home with me after all. The Texan's Touch was a fast read - and as with Syren, it probably counts more as mind candy than great literature, but I did enjoy the story. The more I read of it, the more I suspected the accurancy of one thought I'd had while bringing it home - even though this copy was sorted with the general fiction, I wondered if it actually qualified as a romance book (and was only not there because it was the larger hardcover edition of the book). I know there are similarly titled books in the romance section (I'm pretty sure they're even by Jodi Thomas - the author of this book) - something about the/a Texan in the title. My favorite line was probably near the end of the book: "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today in this dusty dugout, awaiting our brother's hanging, to join this woman and this man . . ." Nick (Nichole) and Adam were finally getting married - which worked to their benefit later that day (or maybe the following day) when Wolf (Nick's brother) arrived quite enraged with Adam.

Thursday evening after work, I was able to finish this book - while waiting for supper, mostly. After finishing this, I read the short-ish book I'd found at the library earlier that day, The Mystery Girl - Boxcar Children #28 (created by Gertrude Chandler Warner). This was an even easier, quicker read than the previous two books I'd read - not really surprising as it was shorter, and a kids book. I suspected parts of the reasoning behind the title character's actions, although I didn't know nearly all of the story. More mind candy.

Friday morning, I moved on to a book I'd checked out from the library the previous week. It was John Baxter's A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict. I'm enjoying the book, even if it's not quite what I was expecting. The book contains a lot more background into early sf culture (for lack of a better term), and then some book collecting stories/background. This is much more an autobiography or memior in general as opposed to the book collecting stories/history/tradition that I'd actually been expecting. I am learning a bit from this, but I learned more in Harold Rabinowitz's A Passion for Books: A Book Lover's Treasury of Stories, Essays, Humor, Lore, and Lists on Collecting, Reading, Borrowing, Lending, Caring for, and Appreciating Books - which I read a little over a year ago. I would recommend it.

When I finish this book, which might take awhile (I plan to spend much of this next week actually catching up on the tv shows/movies I've got checked out from the library and/or have borrowed from others), I'm going to start Alcatraz vs. the Scrivener's Bones by Brandon Sanderson - I'm intrigued to see what Alcatraz Smedry is up to now; I've alreadly read the first book in the series: Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians, which was extremely amusing.

Busy reading

2009-11-14T13:25:00.000-08:00

It's been a few days since I've posted anything, but that's because I've mostly been too busy reading (I've also had a few things going on the last few evenings).

I finished The Darkness on Wednesday pretty easily, but only by staying up later than I should have. I took too long of a nap that afternoon and had too much else that I chose to do instead of reading I guess I just delayed reading a bit, and then couldn't put the book down, added to which was a desire to finish it so I could return it to the library the following morning while I was at work. I greatly enjoyed the story and look forward to the next on (with a little sorrow that it will be the last one in the series). There were, as expected, more battle scenes. It was a little tense for awhile as I couldn't tell for certain that Carlos was going to survive, but was glad he did. I rather suspected he had to, after all of the rest of his amazing/fortunate/unbelievable survivals he's already had, but you never can tell. I am also happy for Yonnie (Yolando officially - I just realized that his nickname doesn't match his real name as well as I'd thought it did - wonder why it took me this long) and Val (her nickname works with her real name (Valkyrie) much more sensibly). As usuall when reading this book, my personal, conversational prayer strengthened and deepened - I don't know how long it will last - but hopefully at least until the library gets the final book in the series and I get to read it. I really needed this book right now (I suppose the argument could be made that that's why I searched to see if this book was already available in general and if so (as it was) to get a copy at the library so I can read it).

After I finished that book, I started a book I'd checked out from the library on Tuesday (skipping a couple of books I'd already had checked out - in hopes of finishing it quickly and returning it on Friday to get my items checked out list back down to ten - I cheated a little). I skipped ahead to Andrew M. Greeley's Irish Love, the next Nuala Anne McGrail novel expecting that I'd plow through it as I've done with the rest of his books. I haven't quite yet finished the book, but that's no reflection on the quality of the book itself; rather it connects to this being a busy week for me and that I've been staying up too late watching tv online with Mom, leading to me choosing napping instead reading during the day around the work schedule. Thursday night was the bookclub meeting at church (quite enjoyable - they're a great group of women and we had some good discussion about The Good Earth - even if I never could get a word in to be able to share my idea of why O-lan was so quiet and stoic - I expect that as a slave in the "big house" she probably could have gotten into much trouble for sharing her ideas and talking in general and for showing any emotion - especially contempt for those she served. Also I suspect that if she'd shown much joy at anything, her owners could have done whatever they could to remove that joy from her. I suspect that her whole experience as a slave could have taught her that it was much better to hide her true thoughts and feelings). Friday night Mom and I went to the IHN-Greater Rochester Area annual concert. This was a lovely concert, but it took up much of the evening - my available reading time. I have been finding it interesting that Nuala and Dermot are back in Ireland - they've bought a cottage in Connemara and are living there for now - also Nuala has given up her singing. Their family has grown quite a bit now - in addition to Nelliecoyne they've also got a young son, mostly referred to as the Mick (officially named Micheal (shucks, I can't quite remember the exact middle name - to an extent his name is the inverse of his fathers though), and Fiona (the wolfhound) is expecting (or actually at this point in the story now has) three puppies - two girls and a boy - all as white as their mother. We knew this ahead of time because Nuala's a dark one. I find it interesting that in most of the Nuala mysteries so far she's been referred to as fey, but now in this one the phrase dark one has been used much more. I suspect it may have something more to do with living in Ireland again/for now perhaps, but I don't know. I do like the phrase though - it reminds me of "The Secret of Roan Inish" - actually much of this story (as well as some of the previous one) has reminded me of it. Nuala and Dermot seem to be talking about much of the time period and area that the movie utilized/referred to. The Maamstrasna (I think I've got the spelling correct) story portion of this book is maddening - it's almost laughable that this could ever happen - however, I suspect Andrew Greeley researched it well enough and in addition, as Eddie says, it's not much different to what happened in the U.S., both with the Native Americans, as well as with African Americans (similar to the themes found in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird) (which may also still happen to some extent - but I certainly hope not).

Also, on Thursday at work, I briefly read another kids book - I've the other two, similar books already. Llama Llama Misses Mama, is just as cute and touching (with the same endearing rhyming as Llama Llama Red Pajamma, and Llama Llama Mad at Mama. This was a fun story about the first day at school.

Similarly, at work today, the next Junie B. Jones book came in, so I checked out Junie B., First Grader at Last. I read it walking to and from the bank after work so I could get cash - and then I got to return it before coming home. At the beginning, first grade isn't looking so good to Junie B. - and she needs to get glasses - she's not that pleased with this idea, but is told she has no choice. Although a few of her classmates - one in particular, teases her about them, many of her other classmates think they're pretty cool, so by the end of the book she's thinking first grade might not be too bad after all. I would rather like to know what her teacher's real name is (and/or how it's spelled) because she says he said his name is Mr. Scary and I rather doubt that's true - at least she says she does think he "just made [it] up."

The Big Battle Continues

2009-11-10T07:09:00.000-08:00

As it has probably been at least a year since I last read any of the Vampire Huntress Legend series, I wasn't quite sure how easily I'd reconnect with the story, but it has been going extremely well, so far. More than anything, I keep getting disappointed that I need to stop reading for various reasons - but some interruptions can't be avoided.

The characters still draw me in - they'd be cool to know (I suspect I think that about most of the main characters in books I actually like - and the better I think the book is, the stronger this idea is).

I'm ready for the big fight again, but I know that as I'm not even a third of the way into the book, I've got a bit of wait for that.

Damali's wings would be fun to see (I also would like to have seen the expression on Inez's mother's face when D showed her wings). I was greatly amused at the initial argument that she should go with to get Inez's family (her mother and her daughter) instead of Carlos - but there was a very valid point. In battle D's wings would have been much more comforting and acceptable than Carlos' battle bulk (especially the fangs).

I was also amused at Lucifer's offense at being called a human - but my heart goes out to Fr. Pat, as well as Carlos, D, and the rest of the team.

Reference has again been made about D's music - I still wonder if there's a CD made with some of it, and if there isn't, I think there ought to be - the clips (lyric bits) included in the books are amazing.

Lots of news

2009-11-08T20:33:00.000-08:00

There's a lot of updating I've got to do here - which is kind of sad considering it's only been a few days.

First of all, I stayed up a little later than I should have on Friday night to finish Irish Eyes. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening (and read) - although with a Tia puppy in my lap and half of an admittedly large mug of tea (officially it's two and a half to three normal cups of tea) to go, I wouldn't have minded if it were a bit longer, or if I'd had the next book in my stack with me as well. Near the beginning of the book, I'd been amused that one character had only ever (in the whole series) been listed as either George the Priest's boss, or the Little Bishop (I'm not quite sure how he got this nickname exactly, but oh well). I'd been wondering if he was going to actually get a name. Then, farther into the book, he's at the Coyne house having dinner with Dermot and Nuala as well as their babysitter and her boyfriend (whose names I seem to have forgotten at the moment) - they were trying to do a little matchmaking/mending. During dinner, however, the Little Bishop comments that they should call him "Blackie." I had to laugh at this because, at least to me, that means he's Blackie Ryan - the main character in a bunch of other books by Fr. Greeley. From the little I've read about him (he's referenced a bit in the two autobiographies Fr. Greeley has written and I've also read Virgin and Martyr in which he's one of the major minor characters - if that makes sense), he's a character I'd like to get to know more - one of those characters one wishes were a real person - someone to chat with or get to know - sort of, say, bounce your ideas/thoughts off of them. I guess I'm just out of luck. In the other books in the series there's usually been at least a slight connection between the modern mystery they have to solve and the historical mystery, but that wasn't much the case in this book. But that's okay, I think I like it better this way - everything fit together a little too nicely otherwise.

So, Saturday morning, I started the next book in my stack (after a bit of debate on skipping ahead to the following book in the stack - I'd renewed this one and wasn't sure I'd be able to do that with the next one if need be - but I decided I'd be better off sticking to my original plan and my rule of reading them in order of when I got them - except in very particular situations). The book was Witchery: A Ghosts of Albion Novel by Amber Benson and Christopher Golden. I'd already read the first book in this series (Ghosts of Albion: Accursed) and had been looking forward to this next one. I did enjoy the story - Victorian England culture with fantasy/sci-fi twists is quite fun. The characters are mostly quite enjoyable - some are still a bit of a mystery to me (mostly John) but I also think they're supposed to be, so I'm not too upset by this. In this story, girls (both human and fairy) have been disappearing - and a few have been found murdered as well. The Protectors of Albion, especially Tamara, are interested in solving this, but have some difficulty as the fairies don't want their help (until the very end once Tamara determines what the actually cause is). The witches in this book aren't quite what I expected of witches - I'm a bit interested in doing some research to see how much (if any) of the depiction in this book is actual lore and how much is pure fiction. I was also amused by the New Orleans trip and the references to Marie Laveau. By the end of saturday, I had finished this book, and was tempted to start the next book in the stack, but ended up deciding that it was actually getting late and if I were smart I'd go to bed - so I did.

This morning after church, I started that book (another Andrew Greeley book); it's called Home for Christmas and is quite interesting. In some ways, it reminded me of The Shack, but I suppose that's mostly in the talking with God part. I cried through much of the book, but I did quite enjoy it. Oh, and Blackie makes a brief appearance in this story too! This book is the story of a couple who were meant to be together, but almost miss out - God intervenes a bit with an NDE (near death experience). It is a sweet and touching tale that I'd recommend to most anyone. I'd rather like to suggest it for the Lemmings bookclub, except for the fact that it's so new, I suspect it's not in paperback format yet, so it's not allowed. I may have to suggest it anyone, as a "for anyone who's interested" book.

Having finished that book early this afternoon, I'm about to start L.A. Banks' book The Darkness. I'd have started it earlier today perhaps, except I'd had plans to knit this afternoon, and it was already packed up for the trip to Mom's house. Instead, I took a nice long nap - probably too long, however. I'll get to this one soon, though.

Back to the Irish

2009-11-05T20:31:00.000-08:00

Last night I ended up staying up late - reading just one more chapter (about ten times, I think). Finally having reached the 3/4 of the way through the book, I decided I really needed to go to bed so I stopped. Then, this morning, I just barely finished reading The Good Earth before I had to go to work.

For quite a while, I was reminded of The Grapes of Wrath while reading this - the whole traveling elsewhere looking for work during a famine, with a result of barely being able to keep fed. I was intrigued at all of the Chinese cultural descriptions, although I don't know for certain that they are (or perhaps at least were) accurate. I didn't really like that their success essentially came from theft (especially after Wang Lung's statement to his younger son that "we may be beggars, but we're not thieves." For Wang Lung at least, the theft was mostly unintentional/random chance, but still it just felt a little funny. At one point in particular Wang Lung reflects/comments on O-lan's large feet; until her response that her feet weren't bound because the time her parents would have started the binding process she was about to be sold into slavery, I hadn't realized he meant unbound feet when he said large feet.
I'm looking forward to seeing what the rest of the book club thought of this book and to hear what discussion there is.

Having finished the book club books, I'm moving on to the next book I'd checked out from the library: Irish Eyes by Andrew M. Greeley. This is another Nuala Anne mystery - Nuala and Dermot now have have a daughter - Nelliecoyne - I wasn't quite sure I liked the name chosen until I read the discussion of how it was chosen; she's named after Dermot's grandmother Nell Pat (aka Ma) but they couldn't use the exact same nickname and the coyne part of her name is actually her last name, that just gets elided into the Nellie part. As usual, I'm quickly falling back into this world and this family - I love these people. Sometimes I still wish they were "real" people that I could meet and/or sit and talk with, but I'm just out of luck.

I'm also starting to read Build a Highway for God: Isaiah 40-55 by Kevin Perrotta. This is the book for a fall/advent Bible study at church. So far, I've only read the introduction, but I think I'm going to enjoy the Bible study, even if it may involve more group discussion than I'd really prefer - besides that discussion part will be good for me. I was intrigued to learn, somewhat by accident that the NAB translation of the Bible does not have Ezekiel 11: 22-23; chapter 11 just stops after verse 21. Included in the main text there are recommended readings that expand the current topic a bit more - usually they occur where Kevin Perrotta is referencing a Bible passage that wasn't part of the assigned reading and he gives the reference for it so that if you're so inclined you can read it for yourself. However, because of this discrepancy, I'm going to use my grandmother's Bible instead - her translation does have those verses.

Keeping Up

2009-11-03T07:43:00.000-08:00

In an effort to keep this updated better than it has been so far, I'm posting again even though the last post wasn't that long ago.

I'm about 50 pages into The Good Earth so far and am quite enjoying it. The pace is pretty fast and it is written so that the reader seems to almost know what's going to happen next, but only almost.

I'm slightly surprised at how much prosperity came just from getting married, but the extra pair of hands for housework and farming can make a big difference. O-lan was impressive with her solo child-birth, but I'm still not sure that it was the best idea. I can perhaps understand her choice of no help coming from the house where she used to be a slave, but no one at all?

I'm hoping there will be more background into her life before the book takes place, but I'm suspicious that I'm just going to have to be disappointed in that matter.

Well, I'm off to curl up cozy in bed with the book and a cute little Tia pup.

Apologies and Moving On

2009-11-02T17:51:00.000-08:00

I must apologize again to anyone who's following my blog - I have been terrible about keeping posts current. There was a mission at church that kept me quite busy and I didn't get to do too much reading; also the book was a bit slower paced and hard to read in short sittings.

However, I did get to spend a few hours reading today and have now finished The Grapes of Wrath. Over all I enjoyed it as much as you can enjoy reading about all of those troubles. Through much of the Joad family's plight (and that of all Okies) I was rather reminded of the current illegal immigration problem, especially in terms of their treatment by most everyone, their living conditions, and their motivation for being here.

In particular I found the final image interesting. I mostly guessed this action on their part before it happened, but only by a few paragraphs margin.

I'm now moving on to read The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. So far I've only read the quotes at the beginning of the book - I was amused by the Swann's Way quote; mostly because my sister read that book not too long ago (she somewhat enjoyed it).

Interrupted by Another Book

2009-10-21T08:34:00.000-07:00

I apologize to anyone who's actually reading this - it's been a crazy almost week, and I haven't done much reading in that time anyway.

I am still reading The Grapes of Wrath, but because of a busy schedule and trying to finish tv episodes either taped from this week, or checked out from the library, I still haven't gotten to do much reading for a set time. I am continuing to enjoy it more - I got a bit of steady reading time before Mass on Sunday while Mom was practicing with the rest of the choir. I did not like the used car salesmen chapter - they were annoying, nasty people; however, I'm not sure I was intended to like them.

Yesterday while I was at work, a book I've been waiting for was returned for my opportunity to check it out and it's still popular enough that I only get it for two weeks, so I'm going to interrupt The Grapes of Wrath with Stephanie Meyer's book The Host. I'm not yet very far into it, but I think I'll enjoy it - even if it's not quite the vampire story I was expecting. So far it's rather hard to decide who's the good guy and who's not. The main character, Wanderer, seems pretty much good, as does the Healer, but it's somewhat hard to like either of them when you consider that they are essentially stealing someone's body as their own.

Sleepy

2009-10-14T19:02:00.000-07:00

With working yesterday and catching up on tv shows from last week (and watching the first three episodes of that other show I'd had checked out from the library) I didn't get to do too much reading yesterday, but I did get a bit in. The story is starting to catch my interest more - I'm not quite sure what's going to happen next (admittedly, knowing the gist of the story I do have bit of an idea, but no real details). The beginning portion of the turtle story (as told almost more from the turtle's perspective), reminded me of a story my aunt and uncle told at the last Lemmings book club meeting about rescuing a turtle that was on it's back on the side of the highway.

I have yet to get to any reading today, sadly, but I've been way too sleepy and I took a long nap instead. I also watched a few episodes of Angel Season Four - I need to learn what happens next in that as well.

Sad day

2009-10-12T20:47:00.000-07:00

It's been a very short reading day for me today; I barely opened The Grapes of Wrath today. I've been spending too much time trying to finish the tv show seasons I've got checked out from the library that are due back tomorrow and are unrenewable. I'll finish the one set, but am debating on whether it's worth starting the other one or not. I'd like to spend tomorrow morning reading, but if I start the other show instead, I can probably figure out if I'm interested enough in it to bother putting it on hold again. Well, I suppose I'll see how I feel about it in the morning.

It all leads to dust (for now)

2009-10-11T17:40:00.001-07:00

In my last post, I said that I hoped to finish Lifelines that night - I did, even though I shouldn't have. I stayed up until a little after three am to finish the book, but it was quite interesting. The romance portions of the book were not as strong throughout the book as they seemed they would be from the beginning of it. The solution to the mystery part was not something I expected at all - I'd pegged somebody else as the trouble-maker, although I did have the motive correct. A day or so after finishing the book, I realized that one question in the plot was never quite answered. CJ Lyons hinted at the cause of Amanda's symptoms, but never quite brought it to the forefront of the book. I'm happy everything worked out in the end for the "good guys" of the book; but I did expect it had to work out that way. As happens with many books I read - I'd like to know what else happens to these characters - I want the day-to-day "normal" stuff as well. I do understand why the story ended where it did, but I came to like the characters and would like to learn more about them.

Yesterday after work was the first chance I got (without staying up even later after finishing Lifelines to start the next book on my list. I first saw Beth Fantaskey's book Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side in a stack of books that were going back to the bookmobile after being returned at the main library. From the little I could infer based upon the title, cover picture, and the beginning of the front inside cover description of the book, I was expecting something rather similar to the Twilight series. There were a lot of similarities - good looking high-school vampire, pretty high-school girl, secrets kept from most everyone else, and another teenage love interest for the girl - but much of the plot was different as well. The parents were in on the vampire secret for one thing, no glittering for another, and the occasional fangs as well. This book really seemed to be a blend of Princess Diaries (the movie) and the Twilight series with a little of the Harry Potter series (mostly just the first book) thrown in. All in all, I enjoyed the book and, yet again, stayed up too late (around 1:30am) to finish it, while wishing that I could know what happened after the ending.

Going back to a book I've already written a bit about, I remembered that one last comment I wanted to make on Julie & Julia. Near the end of the book, Julie is at the butcher shop getting the marrowbone for her final recipe. The butcher asks about the end of the project, and then also asks if she's getting the marrowbone for (I can't remember what the exact word was, but he was right about the purpose) because if she is, he can cut the bone in half for her - this comes after hours-long attempts involving lots of painstaking scraping the marrow out of the hollow portion of the bone (which at least the first time came after attemps with a hacksaw (I think it was)) for multiple recipes in the past. Her thought: "Now he tells me."

One last section for this post. There's about a month left until the next Lemmings book club (mostly family members and their/our friends) meeting, so I'm thinking I really ought to make sure I'll finish that one in time - especially as the same week as the Lemmings book club meeting is the meeting for the book club at church and both books are rather large. I am about three pages into The Grapes of Wrath at the moment. After fifth grade (or maybe sixth) I tried starting this book, but found it too boring that time. I'm intrigued to see what I think of it now - I don't know if perhaps some of the themes will make more sense to me now or anything. Choosing that book now also partially came about because I'd finished all of the library books I'd had and it was on hand - I needed something to read and was going to need to read it, so here I go.

Talk about a terrible first day of work

2009-10-09T19:56:00.000-07:00

I still haven't quite decided if Lifelines should be catagorized as a mystery or not, although as I read, I'm also starting to wonder if it shouldn't be in Romance section (I suppose though it's not really different from the Nora Roberts books I've read, and none of those were in the Romance section either, so maybe not).

I can't imagine starting your first day at work as the ER attending physician and having the Chief of Surgery's son die on your shift - and then have him blame you for it and try to end your job, if not your career. Granted, some of that comes from an inability to see myself being a doctor and especially being an ER (or ED - Emergency Department) doctor in the first place. But still, there's not much that could beat that as the "Worst First Day Ever."

I'm hoping to finish the book tonight (as normal, I'd like to know how it ends), but with over a hundred pages left, I won't guarentee that will happen - even if I could perhaps stay up later as I don't have to be up quite as early tomorrow.

I'm somewhat curious how much of the descriptions and/or situations are based on the author's experience (she is a doctor). I often wonder this with books I've read - but it also makes sense to pick that sort of a theme for a book you're writing (the whole write what you know idea). Not everyone chooses to do that (to an extent fantasy writers in particular don't - although enough of the situations/characters/events could be similar to Earth/real-world ones).

Back to the book!

Inspiration (sort of) and more

2009-10-08T15:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I finished The Law of Nines, which I thoroughly enjoyed. In the last thirty or so pages Jax's last name is finally disclosed - although I must admit, at first it didn't occur to me that she necessarily had one (it should have) - and I really should have guessed her last name. It makes so much sense and brings so much of the story full-circle that I should have known, but I didn't.

Tuesday, while I was at work I was able to pick up a couple of books I'd reserved at the library that had been returned and were now available for me. After finishing The Law of Nines, I started with one of those, instead of the book I'd had longer. Julie & Julia had enough holds on it that I'll only get it for two weeks - and therefore it's due back before that other book was. I'm not terribly worried about finishing it in time - I'm already almost 2/3 of the way through it. The story it pretty interesting, even if it doesn't always surprise me. I'd seen the book come through at work often enough, but didn't know fully what it was about and didn't worry about finding out at all. Then, I started seeing commercials for the movie based on it, and learning the generals of the story, I wanted to see the movie. Then, after seeing the movie, I had two ideas, both of which have now come through at least somewhat. First, I just had to read the book, so I put a hold on it at RPL. Secondly, I had the urge to start a blog for myself, and following Julie's example a bit, I was going to write about books I've read - one of my passions (if I'd been following her example more, I'd have picked the ALA's top 100 books list or something like that, and vowed to finish all books on it in one year (while having to debate about re-read some or just reading the one's I hadn't yet read) but that seemed a bit too unreasonable, and would prevent my reading whatever caught my eye).

I've been a bit surprised at times at the ways in which the movie differed from the book, but I can see why it did. As I was reading on my break today, I would have preferred to stay and finish reading it, or at least read more of it, but I'm not paid to sit and read books. I was able to get a bit more reading in today than the last few weeks - there wasn't any rain to speak of yet today, so I was able to read on my walks to and from work! Happy day!

Keeping it "Rahl"

2009-10-07T08:27:00.000-07:00

So, as I stated in the previous post, The Law of Nines was a new book by an author whose big series (Sword of Truth) I'd already read. Near the end of the first hundred or so pages, readers of this book learn that the main character's name is Alex Rahl - so maybe the Sword of Truth series was only partially ended. Knowing some of the ancient history background to the story has been quite interesting - although not as useful in the immediate plot of this book as I'd prefer. However, I'm not quite surprised that it's not more helpful. I'm not quite sure how Alex and Jax are going to get out of their current trouble (although I haven't had direct evidence that Jax is there too (but the implication is strong). I look forward to finishing the book so that I can know what happens - although I won't be surprised if this is only the first book in a new series (the last one had at least nine books that were each at least about 500 pages and sort of one short one (more of a novella) - it's setting was the same world as the rest of the series, but rather earlier in time than the series - only one character was in this book and the series).

Fun connection

2009-10-05T16:47:00.000-07:00

Early this afternoon, I finished Irish Mist, but was too stuck in that world to move on to the next book in my stack: Terry Goodkind's new book The Law of Nines.

In Irish Mist, I enjoyed the story well - I wanted to know what happened, and what would happen. I loved the reference to another favorite character of mine, from a different series; Brother Cadfael is great fun. I also enjoyed all the songs that Nuala sang throughout the book, but especially those she sang with the monks - I know them and/or have them on CD - even if the English translations of the Latin didn't always match the one I knew. I also enjoyed Fr. Greeley's comment about what inspired the CD Nuala had just released in the book - it was a CD I'd given Erin (my sister) for Christmas a few years ago (Faith of Our Fathers). Even though I have a lot of books I own that I should read, I am quite tempted to get the next book in the Nuala Anne McGrail series. We'll see how well I resist temptation at work tomorrow.

From the other books I've read by Terry Goodkind, as well as the first paragraph of The Law of Nines, I think I will enjoy the book, but it's possibly too early to tell for sure. I do like the picture of him on the back of the book - he's got this great half-smirking smile going. :)

Slow weekend

2009-10-04T05:17:00.000-07:00

Because of work, and sleeping in, and catching up on taped tv shows, and the rain, yesterday was a slow day for reading. The story is moving along in Irish Mist; I don't quite understand why Dermot doesn't think the Deputy Commissioner's one story doesn't connect with the O'Higgins story - Nuala did see a house on fire on the airplane. But I suspect he'll figure it out eventually.

I did enjoy Dermot's fight with the kidnappers - he finished it quite matter-of-factly; I'm getting used to these fights a bit though. So far every story (I think) has had at least one.

Today will also be a short day for reading - we've got church and then a birthday party for my aunt.

Nuala Anne McGrail again

2009-10-02T18:13:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago, I was checking the RPL catalog for a book or a movie called Confessions of a Catholic Priest. I did not find that one, but Confessions of a Parish Priest: An Autobiography by Fr. Andrew M. Greeley was listed. Even though it hadn't been what I was looking for, I got it, and the one right next to it on the shelf (Furthermore: Memories of a Parish Priest). In both books, Fr. Greeley describes and/or quotes some of his other books - greatly increasing my list of "books I'd like to read someday."

On my break at work today I started my fifth fiction book by Fr. Greeley: Irish Mist. This is the fourth book in the series, and I'm greatly enjoying them so far. The characters (at least the main characters) are great - people I often wish I could meet, talk to, and/or be. I have come to care for them deeply and hope that all works well for them. I dread the day that Fr. Greeley stops writing about them (and the Ryan clan, that I partially met in his other fiction book I've read - Virgin and Martyr).

So far, Nuala and Dermot, have arrived in Dublin where she is giving a charity concert. Their (i.e. her) welcome has been both warm and rude - warm from her many fans, and rude from a small but noisy group full of jealousy for her success. I'm already slowly starting to regain the Irish tone/phrasing as expressed in these books - the more I've read, and the more recently, the stronger the connection is (this is similar to my non-question question phrasing that came from the elves in Mercedes Lackey's The Enduring Flame series and The Obsidian Trilogy).

A Quick One (or three)

2009-10-02T17:54:00.000-07:00

A year and a half or so ago, I decided that the one kids series I kept seeing come through the bookdrop might be worth trying, so I've been checking them out as the next one in the list gets returned. Today, that book was Junie B. Jones is a Graduation Girl. This was, like the rest, a cute little story about being in kindergarten, or in this case, leaving it. Junie is such a funny little girl, even if I can understand the frustration of those adults who know her.

At work today, I found two other kids books that sounded cute - partially I'd already read a different one (Little Pea) by the same author. Little Hoot is a cute story about a young owl who likes everything about being an owl, except the staying up late part. It is terrible to have stay up and play for another hour! Little Oink is about a young pig who is very neat and would rather not have to mess up his room ("I'll let my kid clean up their room as often as they'd like").

Bees

2009-10-02T17:45:00.000-07:00

The Secret Life of Bees was an interesting story. Although I didn't enjoy every part of it, others were quite good. I was amused and a bit confused by all of the uses for honey described - especially the spoonful of honey in the morning to wake them up and the spoonful of honey at night to put them to sleep :). For the last hundred pages or so of the book, I was almost always in tears - leading to the annoying stuffy-nosed, clogged ears, headachy feeling. Fortunately, I finished the book before I needed to leave for work, and with some time to recover from that as well.
This book reminded me of my impression from many years ago (I think mostly from the movie Fried Green Tomatoes) that I would enjoy having an apiary and processing honey (I was about to say making honey, but that's what the bees do). I suspect this would not be the best job for me, however; the last time I got stung, my hand swelled to double its normal size. Oh well, I still enjoy working in the library!

Finished and about to start another

2009-10-01T08:50:00.000-07:00

So, I just finished Out of Sight, Out of Mind. This book was not quite what I was expecting - there wasn't as much paranormal activity as I imagined - even if it was a large part of the background/premise of the story. Although often Amanda, the protagonist, is not very likeable, the story does explain well her reasons for her actions. Marilyn Kaye offers an interesting perspective on the stereotypical snottiness of the "popular crowd." Tracey's gift was also quite interesting - I'm sure everyone has at some time or another wished they could be invisible (I know I have) but it is also sometimes frustrating, as Tracey shows. This was not by any means a difficult read, but all in all it was enjoyable and I will be looking into more of the series, if only to get a better understanding of some of the other gifted students.

Having finished this, I'm moving to the next in my stack. This book is one that I've had many people tell me is a really good book, but I've never read it. Last week, at work, it was on a cart of books that I was shelving. I chose to not shelve it, but instead check it out. So, now I'm about to start The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. I know very little on what the book is about, but I shall soon find out - as long as the rain stays stopped for the moment.

New author for me

2009-10-01T06:57:00.000-07:00

A week or two ago, I was making sure that books that had gone into the exceptions bins after being run through the AMH (an automatic sort system that discharges books automatically) were actually discharged (removed from patron accounts) and one book rather caught my eye. Unfortunately, when I got to it, Marilyn Kaye's book Out of Sight, Out of Mind was reserved for someone else. I placed my own hold on it, and luckily for me, there was only the one other hold on it. On Tuesday, I was able to pick this book up for myself and have now briefly started reading it. With the page and a half I've read so far, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.

This is the first book in the GIFTED series. The given description of the series (from the back of the book) as much as I can read/predict around the library's barcode is "Nine Teenagers. Nine Secrets. An Ordinary [. . .] with a few ext[. . .] [possibly extreme] exceptions.

Time now to go read.

Finished late

2009-10-01T06:52:00.000-07:00

So, as I commented in the last post, I shouldn't start reading Glimpses of the Devil if I don't have much time to read. With sixty-ish pages left last night, I started reading, only intending to read for five minutes. An hour or so later, I'd finished the book.

I did enjoy this one, but I do have to say I found the first account in the book much more satisfying than the second one. There are just too many unanswered questions left from the second one. From his comments at the end of the book, I suspect the author feels the same way.

Having finished this around 1:00am, I was highly tempted to start reading the next book in my stack - despite already having stayed up later than I should have. I was smart that time and didn't start it.

Opening Entry

2009-09-30T17:55:00.000-07:00

Today, I've got less than 100 pages left in Glimpses of the Devil: A Psychiatrist's Personal Accounts of Possession, Exorcism, and Redemption by M. Scott Peck, M.D.

This was one of the many books I've found through my job. Sometime's it can be amazing what books I can find just by sorting the books returned to the Rochester Public Library. I was emptying the 0-500 (really 599) bin of nonfiction books and the title caught my eye. After reading the front flap I decided I just had to check this book out.

I've been enjoying this book - the stories are interesting and I'm intrigued by the comments the author has in combining and comparing his career with the possession/exorcism ideas. The text is easy to read, and tends to draw me into the story. I'm learning (as happens with most books) that I shouldn't start reading this book if I've only got a minute or two to read - I just won't want to put it down again.

Ruth Reads

More Books

Sort of slow reading period

Another Posting Delay

A flurry of Wednesday reading

I've returned

Another Delay

Too much delay!

The Punk is Back!

Posting Delays

Strange Story

Supposedly more Blackie

It's been longer than I thought

New book, new author (for me)

From Dragons to Fairies

Ghosts and Dragons :)

Dragons and Ghosts

Coming Princesses

Ghostly Antics?

Posting Delays Again

I finished those

Sneaking in

More Ghosts

I need patience/Getting the back story

Ghost Hunting

One more quick comment

Slightly Early Posting

I can't believe I did that

Secrets

Wow

More Symmetry

Not as much reading as I'd hoped

Presumptive Posting

Another Posting Delay

Catching up from a bit of a break

CdL and more

Busy Days

Too long!

Goals sort of met

Sheen!

Superman and more

Singing

Moving along

Brief Interruption

Finished

Brief Update

Six-Word Memoirs and Other Ideas

Talking Books

Chicago

late night

Catching Up

Merry Christmas!

Oops!

A Bit of Reading, Little Internet Wandering

Back to the Irish

Snowy Day

Now what?

Memories

New books

Haymarket Riot and Stew

Stew!

Smedries and their talents

Catch Up for Now, and a Bit of the Future

More history in the stories

Busy reading

The Big Battle Continues

Lots of news

Back to the Irish

Keeping Up

Apologies and Moving On

Interrupted by Another Book

Sleepy

Sad day

It all leads to dust (for now)

Talk about a terrible first day of work

More Reading

Inspiration (sort of) and more

Keeping it "Rahl"

Fun connection

Slow weekend