A flurry of Wednesday reading

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

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

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

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