Strange Story

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

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

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)

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

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 :)

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

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

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?

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

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.