Posting Delays

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

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

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

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

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

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

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