Merry Christmas!

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!

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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.

More history in the stories

I finished Irish Love Sunday morning while waiting for Grandma and Grandpa to come pick me up to bring me to Owatonna where Kathy and Paul would finish taking me and Grandma to the Lemmings book club (unfortunately, I'm too stuck into the plot of the book I'm currently in the middle of reading - well, actually I'm almost finished with it (under fifty pages left) - to be able to actually describe much of this book). I can say that I greatly enjoyed it and only barely resisted the temptation of checking out from the library the next book in that series - I even had the book in hand (of course, now I can't quite recall what the title was - but alphabetically it was somewhere between Irish Mist and Irish Whiskey.

The discussions at book club were much of what I expected, but that didn't make it any less enjoyable. There's too much to say here - but overall it (The Grapes of Wrath) was a very well liked book.

I'm now reading The Doomsday Key by James Rollins. I've been enjoying the bits of history that are in the book as they've mostly followed bits of history I'm already interested in. The book does have a rather different interpretation of some history than is typically used, but it's still quite believable (although reading the first part that takes place actually in history, rather than being researched in the present, might help with that sense a bit). I liked the part about St. Malachy's predictions about the popes; in thinking on this more, especially in terms of the new movie and books related to the Mayan calender which places the end of the world in 2012 - Malachy's popes stop after the 112th one - that one will see the end of the world. Pope Benedict XVI is the 111th pope, which means it is somewhat conceivable that both time lines are accurate - at least based on how they coincide with each other. Just an interesting thought I had while reading this book. I didn't like the impression I'd gotten of what Ivar and his company Viatus were trying to do with genetically modified grains (at least with the corn); however, after reading his speech of what he'd been planning to do, although I still don't like it, it's not nearly as bad as what I'd thought he was trying to do. I'm intrigued to see how this will end - so I'm going to stop here, and continue reading.

When I finish this book, I plan to move on to Syren, by Angie Sage - it's the next/newest Septimus Heap book.

Busy reading

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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!

More Reading

So, after watching a couple of shows on tv last night, (well, and taking the dog for an evening walk) I ended up staying up an hour later than I should have because I was reading more of Julie Powell's book. I was hoping to finish Julie & Julia, but at midnight decided that I just needed to go to bed and the last sixty or so pages would have to wait until morning. I'm still surprised that so much of the commentary about/by Julie's friends didn't make it into the movie. There are a bunch of great lines in the book - unfortunately I haven't yet remembered to have pen/pencil and paper handy when I'm reading, so I haven't been able to record them. Oh, well - maybe I'll just have to read it again. Or I could page through and find them, but that's more work and time than I'm willing to give at this point. Although I caught on rather quickly, a few of the acronyms Julie Powell uses still catch me a bit by surprise: MtAoFC (Mastering the Art of French Cooking) and JC (Julia Child). Also, I've been intrigued to see that in his letters Paul Child (Julia's husband) always calls her Julie; similarly I was intrigued to learn that Julie Powell's name is actually Julia, but as she doesn't feel the name fits her, she goes by Julie instead. This reminded me of a book I read in high school (for anyone who has one of my senior pictures it's the book I'm reading in it): When Christ and His Saints Slept by Margaret Pargeter (who also wrote under the name Ellis Peters). Two of the characters are Empress Maud and Queen Matilda - apparently Maud and Matilda are the Latin and English versions of the same name - but having King Steven eat dinner with Maud throughout the descriptions of his battle with Maud for the English throne was just going to be too confusing, so King Steven's wife got one version and his cousin got the other.

As soon as I finish this book, I'm going to move on to the one that would have been read before Julie & Julia, if that hadn't been on the shortened availability due to high demand. I will be starting Lifelinesby CJ Lyons. This is a book that I found misplaced on a shelf while I was shelving books a couple weeks ago - it looked intriguing enough that I wanted to read it instead of shelving it - after I checked to make sure someone hadn't reserved it after an unsuccessful attempt to find it. It looks to be a medical mystery - although the mystery part might not be too strong as it's not in the mystery section. That doesn't necessarily mean a lot, though, because having read the book, I would have put Terry Goodkind's The Law of Nines in fantasy, or maybe science fiction (but probably fantasy to keep it with the Sword of Truth series).

Inspiration (sort of) and more

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"

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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.