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.