Finished Robin Cook's INVASION

Well, it was obviously inspired by Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and was at least as scary.  The ending was much more satisfying, though.  And, true to Robin Cook, it was medically plausible.  Which, of course, made it more scary.  Loved it...LOL
Have now started Jeanne Auel's The Shelters of Stone.  This is based in what is now southern France, at some of the famous sites where wonderful cave paintings were found.  She imagines what the people who made those paintings were like, based on a huge amount of research.  After that very tense book I just finished, this is literally "a walk in the park."

Finished Dark and Stormy Knights

This books of short stories was pretty good.  Several of my favorite authors and, I guess, always a favorite topic.  I greatly enjoyed P. N. Elrod's story, set much further into the Jack Flemming Vampire Files series than I have read so far and Vicki Petterson's "Shifting Star", told through the eyes of the Tulpa, Skamar's eyes.

I have now started Robin Cook's Invasion, only the second of his science fiction books that I have encountered.  The invaders are from outer space, but are quite different from any invaders I have encountered in any story I have read before.

Finished Doomsday World

First, I must say that I found the remaining three books of the Gap series by Stephen Donaldson.  They were used, but I got them from Amazon!  Hurray.

Finished the book that was written by committee.  At times it was pretty obvious...a few loose ends unconnected...  But, for the most part, it was a very enjoyable and easy reading book.  Again, relationships between Star Trek principals were explored, but at least as interesting was the relationship between the two ambassadors (from competing federations) who started as aging friends on a world that didn't count for much and are assaulted by unforeseen conflicts.

I have now started a book of short stories edited by P. N. Elrod entitled Dark and Stormy Knights.  Stories by my favorites (Jim Butcher and P. N. Elrod) have been very satisfying.  And I may also be adding a favorite or two--especially Ilona Andrews.

Finished People of the Earth

This novel, based on the archeology of authors W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear as well as others, explores the mythology and relationships between native peoples living 5000 years ago in what is now Montana and Wyoming.  I was thoroughly engrossed.  It has taken me longer to read it than most, partially because it is long and somewhat leisurely, but also because I was interrupted by an operation (half thyroid removal--biopsy negative) and an election (worked election day and slept the next.)

I then thought I'd start Chaos and Order by Stephen Donaldson, but it turned out to be the fourth book in the Gap series and I have read only the first.  An exploration of the Internet shows that only the book I've read and the one I tried to start are actually available in paperback.  The entire series is available in a Kindle book, but I'm not into that.  So, I guess I'll start haunting Half Price Books...

The next book in the pile was another in Clark's 2001 series, but I read 2010 in the last pass across that pile, so I went another down to Doomsday World by Carmen Carter, Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman and Robert Greenberger--it is a Star Trek, The Next Generation book.

Finished The Shadow of Your Smile

As usual, Mary Higgins Clark spins a good yarn.  I wasn't quite at the edge of my seat as usual, but it had some interesting twists I had not expected.  So, certainly a fun read.

I am now about to start People of the Earth by W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neil Gear.

Finished Wicked

Of course, knowing The Wizard of Oz, I knew this could not end happily for Elphaba.  I think that the "Wizard" did not invent the prejudices of Oz, but only exploited them.  I am in hopes that the sequels will be a bit more upbeat.  But, overall, I loved the book.  It certainly makes one think and provides an adult setting for the theme that there is more than one side to any story.

I am now reading The Shadow of Your Smile by Mary Higgins Clark which has started out fairly predictably, but, knowing this author, I know there will be some surprises along the way.  A young female pediatrician's life is in danger and we like her because of how much she cares for and thinks about her patients.

Approaching Wicked Mid-Point

Uh-Oh.  I think I know where this is going.  Having just read Kingsblood Royal, which certainly goes on my list of most effective anti-racism literature I have ever read, I believe now that that is exactly where this book is going as well.

A drought has hit Munchkinland and caused widespread poverty.  The Wizard of Oz is scapegoating (sentient) Animals who have taken jobs away from humans.  Any Animals who are unwilling to give up their jobs and go back to the farm (or the wild)...well, it is perfectly OK to kill them.  Who will be scapegoated next?  The south part of the country has already been decimated in a rush to plunder very few rubies.  Who is next?  The Winkies?  The Munchkins?  The Poor???  Does the Wizard of Oz sound a bit like Hitler???Elphaba (the Wicked Witch) may be the only hope these (different from the rich) beings have.  Let's see if I am right.

Finished Kingsblood Royal by Sinclaire Lewis

Well, published in 1947 by a well known and respected author.  I can see why it started a furor and then took a nose-dive into obscurity.  I imagine that most Americans of the time (and now) can find themselves in this book and they probably won't like what they see!  Waaaaaaay ahead of its time.  But, it really shouldn't have been... 

Even though the theme is pretty heavy, Lewis writes with light hand and injects humor.  I loved Neil's search for who he was, at first just a surface search, and by the end, a very deep and meaningful search.  I also love that the ancestor Neil discovered who started this deeper journey was a man of strength and adventure, love and steadiness, who anyone would be delighted to find in their gene pool....if he hadn't been Black... 
As Neil's journey progresses, the finds the pride in this ancestor that he deserved and in himself as well.

Needless to say, I greatly enjoyed the book.  Am now starting Wicked by Gregory McGuire.

Finished Burnt Offerings by Laurell K Hamilton

First, let me say, "Aaaaaaghgh"!  I went to order The Last Dark by Stephen Donaldson (the last book in the Thomas Covenant Chronicles) only to discover that it won't be published until next fall--a YEAR from now!  If I am still alive then.  And then, I bet it will be in hardback (I usually wait for the paperback edition of everything--they are easier to read.)  So, I wound up ordering three diet soup cookbooks, though not really instead...

Burnt Offerings was the best book in the Anita Blake series yet. (I am reading them in order).  After giggling my way through the first few chapters, it was edge of my seat for the remaining 300 or so pages.  I was having trouble putting it down.

I have now started Kingsblood Royal by Sinclair Lewis, as recommended by friend Kristin.  She had mentioned that if I had enjoyed Help, I might also enjoy this.  So far (I am only about 3 pages in, but I read the introduction), I am greatly enjoying his writing style.  I don't think I've ever read anything by him before!  Don't know how he managed to escape all these years...

Finished Against All Things Ending

Wow!  I think this was the best book yet in the series.  I am worn out.  There is one book left which I need to order...today.  TR asked me if this was easier than the others.  Well, no.  I don't know how it could be and still be Thomas Covenant.  Both our hero and heroine (shero) are flawed in crippling ways, both physically and psychologically.  But both are heroic while fighting their own demons as well as real physical monsters.  The philosophy, history (of the fantasy environment), great characterization, and conflict after conflict after conflict fly by furiously.  I love this series.  I loved this book.

I am now reading Burnt Offerings by Laurell K. Hamilton, the seventh in the Anita Blake series.  I love the sense of humor in her books--I've been giggling all morning at the wonderfully black humor:  "The bellyband (holster) didn't work well under most formals because you had yards of cloth to raise before you could get to the gun.  It was better than nothing, but only if the bad guy was patient."  At least three or four comments like this per page!  Just the break from Thomas Covenant that I needed!

Against All Things Ending--212 pages in

Reading Stephen Donaldson is like reading a lesson in writing:

1.  First there are brilliant characters--both good, evil, and mixed--which he has no qualms about killing off, because he can just invent more.  Esmer--extremely powerful for both good and evil--is one of my favorites at the moment, though I love the protagonists (flawed all of them) equally as much.  And She Who Must Not Be Named is one of the most horrible monsters I've run across anywhere.

2.  He is master of environments both beautiful and terrible--a favorite at the moment is the crystal room created by the Viles in the Lost Deep.  Beautiful and terrible both, it, as do all Donaldson's environments, influences the action.

3.  Then, there is his brilliance for creating conflict.  It seems like I have been at the edge of my seat for days now, and I am only about 1/3 the way through the book.  They are not getting much opportunity to breathe, but even with problems coming as thick and fast as they do,

4. time is still taken for philosophical discussion, for good and kindness and healing to rule, and for strength born of love rather than fear to conquer.

5.  And all the time, the language and use of words is poetic, strong, and instructive.

Whew!

Finished The Return: Nightfall

This book has a very interesting pair of antagonists:  kitsune.  In The Return:  Nightfall, two twin kitsune named Misao and Shinichi play horrible games that could destroy Falls Church, Elena's town.  In a trilogy I have read by Christopher Golden--the Veil Trilogy:  The Myth Hunters, Borderkind, and The Lost.  In this trilogy, the kitsune is a protagonist.  She is flawed, but she is basically a good being, whereas in Nightfall, this fox spirit legend is very evil.  In common, they both are shape-shifters able to shift between fox and human forms.  In the Veil, that is pretty much the end of her talents.  While human, she wears a beautiful red fur coat and is lovely.  As a fox, she is very fast and tricky and can lure hunters from their prey.  In Nightfall, the kitsune can take any form they wish and can magically influence the flora in the woods as well as enchant human perception of the world.

Doing a little research through my "World of Enchantment" reference encyclopedia, I discover that the "kitsune", the fox spirit has a duel nature.  Some kitsune serve the god of agriculture--she would appear to be the Kitsune of the Veil Trilogy.  There is included in the volume I checked of a kitsune who surfaced in India--a beautiful courtesan who could shape-shift into a white fox with nine tails.  She hated children and, for entertainment, loved to see children and women suffer.  After destroying the court of the ruler of India, she fled and resurfaced in China where she again pretty much destroyed the court of the Emperor of China.  Fleeing to Japan, she attempted the same thing with their emperor until discovered by a mirror which showed her mirror image to be a fox.  This broke her magic and she fled to a remote part of Japan where she languished in loneliness until she turned to stone.  To this day, anything that approaches this stone dies.

I found no mention of a male kitsune...this would appear to be an invention of L. J. Smith.

I have now started the third book of the third and last Chronicle of Thomas Covenant:  Against All Things Ending.  Since this "Chronicle" has four volumes, I am on the ninth book of a ten-book series.  When I left "The Land" at the end of the last book, the world was in dire straights, Linden having just set in motion events which would lead to the end of the world.  So far, she has attempted to absorb the enormity of what she has done and figure out if there is anything at all she can do.  She is consulting pretty much all the historical figures of "The Land", people who have memory of history, and now has met a totally new being who appears very interesting.

Started new Vampire Diaries book

I finished Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher.  I thoroughly enjoyed the early part of the book, giggling quite a bit.  But the style became old after awhile and seemed a bit forced by the end.  I did very much enjoy all the pictures and the sense of humor evident in the headlines that graced and interior page and the book jacket.

Now I have started The Vampire Diaries, The Return: Nightfall, by L. J. Smith.  I gave up long ago on the TV show.  It just became too convoluted for me to follow with too many characters and I got bored.  But the books are great.  I'm now on page 66 and am enjoying the beginning.

Reading While Traveling

We've been traveling for the last two weeks--went to Buffalo (NY) for my brother-in-law's funeral service.  Any celebration of Lou's life would have to have been full of laughter as well as tears.  After my sister died, at the age of 46, Lou found himself another lovely lady and got gastric bypass surgery.  He lost 200+ pounds, started playing golf every day, and kept the weight off.  Later he retired and moved to Ft. Lauderdale, FL.  I hadn't realized it, but there he found several people who had been childhood friends of his growing up in the projects in NYC, and had a great retirement.  Did he die too young--yes.  69 is way too young, but I think he bought himself 15 extra and good years.  He got to see his son graduate from college, get married, have a daughter, and move to Houston with a great job.  None of that did Meg (my sister) get to see.  My family refused to let him go and he refused to leave us.  He has been included in every family get-together through this one, and will be thought of warmly in every one to come.  He was a good man, well loved.

While driving up, I finished Phantom Evil by Heather Graham.  (Well, not actually while driving--we stopped at about 6 each evening, had supper, and then read.)  In a conversation with TR and Jimmy Colburn (TR's step-son), we were discussing why I hate Stephen King (and why they love him.)  I have no idea what made Christine evil or what caused the people who died at that resort in The Shining to hang around and haunt the place.  I also don't know what there was about Jack to make him easily seduced by the madness there when the other people in the book were not.  I'll never forgive Stephen King for telling me the basement of the place was full of articles about what had happened at that resort and told me that Jack spent lots of time down there reading without telling me what was in a single one of them!  TR and Jimmy told me there are lots of things happening in life that you never get to know the background and "why" of.  I said, "I know.  And it is frustrating.  When I read, I want to know the answers.  I want to know why.  Perfectly good writers should have the ability to be less cryptic than random life."

I explained that I'd just finished reading a book set in a haunted house.  By the end of the book, I understood how all the ghosts had died, why some were good and another very evil.  I know all about the characters in the book both living and dead...all multi-faceted characters with mostly understandable motivations.  (Does evil ever have an understandable motivation?  But I knew that what drove it in life also drove it in death.)  Satisfying.  Which is why I have decided to make Heather Graham one of my regular authors.

I then started Le Morte dArtur by Sir Thomas Malory.  Because the book is so long and is, basically, a collection of short stories and novellas, I decided to divide it into three parts which I will read at different times.  Malory divided the material into seven sections.  The first four took up 200 pages, so that is what I have considered the first part.  Part One is "The Coming of Arthur and the Round Table."  Much of the foundation of the story that we are all familiar with is included in this section.  Part Two is "Arthur's War Against the Emperor Lucius."  Did you know that Arthur went to Rome to battle the Roman Emperor who was trying to extract taxes from Arthur and his people?  I sure didn't.  The third part is "Sir Lancelot du Lake."  All of the stories I had heretofore read have left Lancelot's origin something of a mystery.  Here I learned that Lancelot was the son of King Ban, a French king who was one of Arthur's earliest and most important allies.  The fourth part is "Sir Gareth of Orkney."  I had heard of Sir Gareth, but here I learned that he is as great a knight as Sir Lancelot and is proclaimed by Lancelot as his equal.  He was knighted by Lancelot.  Gareth is Arthur's nephew, youngest son of Morgaise, Arthur's half sister--daughter of Igraine.  Part Five is 300 pages long, and I will treat it as a book unto itself when I get back to this "to read" pile.  That pile also includes my Clan of the Cave Bear books.

Now I have started Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher.  It is very funny and I find myself chuckling my way through it.  I've seen her special on HBO of the same title and was afraid the book would be redundant.  Some of it is, but it is still funny.  I'm on page 48, approximately 1/3 of the way through.

Finished Unusual Suspects

The last story, A Woman's Work, by Dana Stabenow has two female justices needing to solve a crime in a province of their country which relegates women to procreation and the kitchen only.  I enjoyed this piece of feminist fiction which was also quite inventive.

I have now started Phantom Evil by Heather Graham, another mystery in which a woman seemed to have been seduced to her death by a ghost.  A team of investigators has been put together to solve the crime.  I am already very much into it.

Still Reading Unusual Suspects

In The Duh Vice  by Michael Armstrong, an environment police officer has to solve a mystery involving stolen energy in a future world of much depleted resources.   On the day after Christmas, a very old and very tired man must solve the murder of one of his elf friends in Weight of the World by John Straley.  Then, in Laura Anne Gilman's Illumination, a "talent" named Bonnie faces her father's disappearance.   Another disappearance is the subject of speculation in House by Laurie R. King.  And a serial killer is running rampant in the Nightside of London, the location of Simon R. Green's Appetite for Murder.

Continuing Unusual Suspects

I am really enjoying this book.  I've read two more stories:  In The House of Seven Spirits, by Sharon Shinn a young woman who moves into a house haunted by ghosts has to figure out how the first three ghosts to die were murdered in order to bring all of them peace.  In Glamour, by Mike Dougan, a demon has to figure out who has been stealing high magic which has hurt some of the townsfolk.  In Spellbound, by Donna Andrews, which I am reading now, a magician's apprentice and her mentor must figure out who has magically murdered an unpopular wizard.

What is new is the true mystery genre using the deductive reasoning of mystery novels with supernatural characters.  Quite refreshing.

Reading Unusual Suspects

The second story in this book was Bogieman by Carole Nelson Douglas.  The title is a play on Humphrey Bogart's nickname.  The story was very inventive.  I am now reading the third story, Looks are Deceiving by Michael A. Stackpole.  The main character, Min, reminds me a bit of Tyrion in Game of Thrones, but Min speaks in first person, tells the story, and has command of very powerful magic.  I'm drawn to the character and would like to read more of him.

Finished 2010 Odyssey Two

I haven't posted for a week, but that doesn't mean I haven't been reading.  The epilogue of Adam, Eve and the Serpent gave us a little of Elaine Pagel's experience.  She started researching early Christian thought because she wanted to find the "true Christianity."  Unfortunately, she found more variety of thought among early Christians than we even find today.  It seems, anyone can find support for anything in the Bible and that was more true before the "orthodox" church around 3-400 a.d. declared the apocrypha heretical and weeded through Paul's letters (many of which were spurious, some of which made it into the final form of the Bible anyway) among other writings and texts.  The book was enormously enlightening, but I don't think it helped me find "the right interpretation" any more than all that research helped Pagels. 

I then read 2010, Odyssey Two.  It was a great sequel.  Clark is wonderfully readable, even when he gets technical or waxes poetic.  He would have been a fabulous teacher.  I absolutely recommend the book if you haven't read it.  I am now half-way through the series and I must say, I am looking forward to the next.  One interesting note--in the Author's Note at the beginning, Clark points out that, in the book 2001, the Discovery had gone to Saturn, but in the movie, they had reached journey's end in the space above Jupiter.  In this book, the Discovery is still in orbit above Jupiter--sorry, Saturn.  :-)

I have now started Unusual Suspects, a book of fantastic short detective stories.  It started with a Sookie Stackhouse story by Charlaine Harris in which Sookie and Amelia solve a mystery for their local insurance salesman.  It was cute.

Nearly Finished Adam, Eve, and the Serpent

I have just the three-page epilogue left to read in this book.  It is basically a history of Christian thought/ opinion/ dogma about this story from Christ through Augustine (about 500 AD.)  I find the seriousness which this obviously ludicrous myth is debated amazing, but completely astounding is that the interpretation  Augustine came up with became the one the religion went with.  Over the 500 years, almost every interpretation imaginable was offered by learned theologists, some of which were very reasonable.  But it was Augustine who came up with the idea of original sin and the fact that neither death nor sex are natural, but are punishments for Adam's sin.

Finished What Child is This?

Just a short 150 page book, it was a serious tear-jerker.  Loved it!  A great Christmas story.  It started pretty slow, but I enjoyed the characterizations, especially of the teens.  Caroline Cooney is a master.

The next book in my pile is Adam, Eve, and the Serpent, by Elaine Pagels.  I found The Gnostic Gospels by her readable and insightful, so I am hopeful I won't quit this next one after the first few pages.  We shall see.

Finished Changes

As the book ends, the world is better off, but Dresden appears to be dead...however, this is only appearances and there is another book in the series.  Dead or not, he is definitely worse off than he was at the beginning of the book.  Dresden books are roller coasters and I am reading for a lighter, slower moving break.

I am starting What Child is this?  A Christmas Story by Caroline B. Cooney.  It is short and will hopefully be a slow down for a day or two...

Finished The Double Comfort Safari Club

Again, light fare quickly read.  But, for only the second time in the series, this had a real villain who created a situation most satisfactorily resolved, as well as a couple other smaller problems resolved in Mma. Ramotswe's most calm and intelligent manner.  I love this woman!

I have now started Changes, by Jim Butcher, the twelfth novel in the Dresden Files series.  Harry is a wizard who is also a detective in present day Chicago (the only wizard detective in the phone book.)  He deals with supernatural problems and mysteries.  The temptation is to draw parallels between him and Jack Fleming (P. N. Elrod's vampire detective, ) but they could not be more different.  Harry's escapades are infinitely more complicated and dangerous and Harry is much more dangerous (to himself as well as others).  The writing of both is sort of "film noir," though P. N. Elrod's books fit the genre better, since they are set in the '30s.  Jim Butcher sprinkles his books with Buffy-like quips, though, and he is eminently readable.

Another adventure awaits....  I must get to it.

Finished Mistral's Kiss

Two day fluff--I finished it last night.  I was really expecting better.  But the ending makes me happy.  I'm hoping for more interesting things for the next book.

Have now started The Double Comfort Safari Club (The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Book 11.  It will be nice to sojourn with Mma Ramotswe in her gentle world awhile.  She is looking for a tour guide who treated an American woman very well during her visit and has bequeathed him a small sum.  Mma Makutsi's fiance has had a disfiguring accident...  The world, though gentle, is always interesting.

Finished A Storm of Swords

Whew!  Such emotional turmoil Martin has put me through!  The last few chapters moved so fast my head is reeling!  The books are great.  Since I am so invested in the characters, I find myself living in their world, trying to predict what will happen next (I am never right) and starving to get back to them while away.

So, I'm on to a light erotic fantasy--Mistral's Kiss by Laurell K. Hamilton.

Officially Angry with George R. R. Martin!

If you are going to make me fall in love with characters, enjoying my visits with them a great deal, DO NOT KILL THEM OFF.  And, if you must kill them off, create others that I like equally as much.  OK, he may be doing the latter.  But I was having trouble sleeping last night because I was grieving!

Nearly half through A Storm of Swords

This is NOT a world I love to visit.  It is a terrifying world full of evil and greed.  But, like The Lord of the Rings, it has great characters struggling against enormous odds, and I love to visit them.  This book is even better than the last two, though, for the most part we are still in the deteriorating action.  Terrible things are happening and are going to happen, and I've got to get back to it right now!

Finished BURNED

Well, I'm happier with the Casts now than I was when I finished the last book in this series.  This book exemplified the qualities of hopefulness and morality that characterize this series (as well as much of fantasy literature.)  The House of Night series is back to a world I love to visit. 

I have now started A Storm of Swords, the third book in the Game of Thrones series.  This will take me awhile...it is over 1000 pages.  The second season of the HBO series spilled over into this third book and I am not yet beyond where it left off.  I'm on p 52.

Finished one, Started another

I finished Tab Hunter's autobiography.  I enjoy these celebrity bios on two levels.  First, I have fun remembering when I was and what I was doing at the time each movie came out.  Second, I can draw from memories of my own "acting career" (as small as it was) to both understand the actor's experiences and add to my own understanding of acting and the creation of ensemble art.  I find it great fun.

Now I have started Burned, by P. C. and Kristin Cast, the seventh book in the House of Night series.  The last of these books ended in a horrible cliffhanger that I wasn't sure I was going to forgive the authors for, but now, several months later, I just want to know what happens next.  :-)

P 252 of Tab Hunter's autobiography

Although once or twice I have found myself wondering if a certain account wasn't a bit self-serving (I never heard any other side of the same story, so who's to say), for the most part I continue to find this very genuine, sweet, and often funny, often poignant.  There is a picture showing some of the filming of Ride the Wild Surf that is downright hilarious.  Every time I think about it, I start giggling again.

I am enjoying his accounts of making certain movies so much that I just visited Amazon and picked up four of them.

P 116 of Tab Hunter's autobiography

After doing three movies, none of which were particularly good, Art (Tab) gets the chance to do his first stage production--Our Town!  Whew.  What a play to be the first!  But he learned a valuable acting lesson that he hadn't quite figured out before.  Other endeavors he had loved to this point had been horseback riding (he did steeplechase) and ice skating (good enough to work once with Dick Button--Olympic gold medal winner).  In both sports, he was used to individual effort with lots of practice producing excellence.   But, of course, this is not true of acting.  In theatre (and I'm sure movies), the team works together to make the whole thing into art....and by the team, I mean everyone...actors, crew, support....everyone.  Although in Gun Belt (his second movie) he learned this about stunt performers, he didn't really understand the whole dynamic until Our Town.

I find myself chuckling often while reading.  He is very forthright about his mistakes, naivete, confusions, and extreme guilt (associated with him mom, though there was nothing there he could have done better, given the circumstances) and I find myself identifying with his struggles quite a bit.  The book is very readable and enjoyable.

Reading Tab Hunter's autobiography

When I saw Tab Hunter promoting this book in 2005, I was delighted that Hollywood hadn't chewed him up and spit him out as I was afraid it had.  Although I am not very far into the book, he certainly has hinted that it tried.  He says Tab Hunter was an invention of the movie machine.  And, I certainly was manipulated by the same machine to have a mad crush on him as a pre-teen.

As it turned out, I did see him on the big screen since then in John Waters' wonderful movies.  I just hadn't recognized him.  Although, from the picture on the back of the book, he was still a very good looking man at 74.  (I figure he is probably about 81 now, and probably still great looking.)

He makes a good point early in the book about why so many great actors are gay.  Growing up gay teaches a child both quickly and well how to pretend to be someone they are not.  And what is acting?  Of course, there are other circumstances that could teach a child that, but none of them sound like they would make for a particularly happy childhood....

Finished People of the Lightning

Featuring complicated characters, relationships, and mythology, the plot of this book moves quickly and absorbingly.  It certainly has more of a plot than the Clan of the Cave Bear books which are also based on archeology.  This book was delightful and I highly recommend it.  So much so that I am bound for Amazon to get more books in this series.

I am now starting Tab Hunter, Confidential  The Making of a Movie Star by Tab Hunter.

Finished Cure

Well, as is usual with Robin Cook, I had to finish even if I had to stay up all night to do it. 

Robin is concerned with medical issues and with realism.  Although he does believe in justice, it is not his highest priority--realism is higher.  He doesn't kill off his main characters (usually), which allows for semi-happy endings, but I will withhold the fifth star on Goodreads because of a couple thread left unresolved (or at least unresolved to my satisfaction) and some preaching at the end.  But, this is a true thriller with a lot happening and, as I say, it can endanger your sleep... :-)

I have now started People of the Lightning by Kathleen O'Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear.  They have written a series of books with some similarities to Jean Auell's Clan of the Cave Bear series in that they are stories (epics, really) based on facts (some relatively recently discovered) by archaeologists.  Each of these books is a complete story to itself, each based in a different part of what was to become the United States, each in a different prehistoric time period.  This one is set in what is to become central Florida about 5-6 thousand years B. C.  It begins shortly after the end of the last ice age and the land is fairly similar to how it looks today except it doesn't have quite so many lakes. 

The book has two maps and a time chart at the beginning and a bibliography of reference works at the end.  I'm looking forward to the adventure.

3/5 through Cure, by Robin Cook

Well, now that I am on page 300, I finally figured out how to find Cure on Goodreads.  Normally, I just type the title into the space next to "Add a Book" and up it pops.  But this time the title Cure seemed to greatly confuse the program.  It kept coming up with "Quest."  So finally, today, I went to Explore and looked up books by Robin Cook and there it was...on the second page.  So, I am properly registered for what I am reading on Goodreads now.

Like Robin Cook's books, it started exciting and has just gotten more so.  I like Laurie and Jack Stapleton very much, especially Laurie, although both of them are delightfully pigheaded.  They both get into puzzle solving with their forensics (yes, I love Bones, too and I used to be a big fan of Quincy) to the exclusion of concern about most other things in their lives.  But now, Laurie has a new baby to be concerned about and that leads to further complications.

Finished Must Love Hellhounds

TR and I plan to spend much of Memorial Day weekend on the back porch with our books and a bottle of wine.  Since I last reported his reading, he read a Le Carre book on the advice of a fellow member of the Y.  He started another, but then quit reporting that he was bored by it.  He read a Jackson Brody (character) book having met the character in one of the Masterpiece Mysteries we watch.  He liked it and has said he will buy more when he can find them.  Now he is reading a John Jakes book.  There aren't many of those now that he has not read.

I have finished Must Love Hellhounds.  The last story was the best hellhound of all...certainly the most lovable.  I have just started Cure by Robin Cook.  Whew!  Jack and Laurie Stapleton and their new son, all the gang at the OCME, two stem cell patenting companies--one in New York and one in Japan...oh, wait...three--one in San Diego, four crime families--two in Japan and two in New York and I have only just started.  Thank goodness there is a character list in front to help keep everyone straight!  But, it has started with seven murders right off the bat, so...I'm looking forward to the week-end.  :-)

3/4 through Must Love Hellhounds

The good part about short stories is being introduced to new characters and authors.  The bad part about short stories is being introduced to new characters and authors.  There is an investment demanded by learning about new things that, in my old age, I find myself adverse to.  However, sometimes the characters are well worth the effort.

All four stories in the book find at least one side of the hellhounds in each story useful or even likable.  And, I've enjoyed all four of the main characters.  In "The Britlingens Go to Hell," two female bodyguards, Batanya and Clovache are hired to protect a thief as he goes to Hell on a retrieval mission.

In "Angel's Judgement,"  by Nalini Singh, Sara, a hunter and soon to be Hunter's Guild director is sent to kill/capture whoever is killing hunters.  In "Magic Mourns" by Ilona Andrews, Andrea Nash, a knight, enlists herself to help save the world from a necromancer who is controlling several vampires.

In "Blind Spot" by Meljean Brook, Maggie Wren is sent by her employer, a vampire, to rescue his nephew and niece. 

What I like about series is the ability to revisit favorite characters over and over.  I wouldn't mind revisiting any of these.

Finished The Final Reflection

Star Trek's major running theme was probably anti-racism and anti-oppression of all kinds.  At times, its exploration of this theme seems naive and clumsy by our standard today, but at other times, it was masterful enough to stand up to today's viewers.  This book is that kind of masterful.

At first, I was worried reading the review of it on Goodreads.  It was mostly gamers who liked it citing the descriptions of the games played by the characters and their relationship to war and battle.  But, what made me smile were the great characters and their interactions.  The book is told from the point of view of a Klingon Captain.  What fun to see a Federation diplomatic conference through the eyes of a Klingon.  Let alone to enjoy a growing friendship between that same Klingon and the Federation Ambassador who is also a man of peace.

Without a doubt, one of the best Star Trek novels I have read!

I am now starting Must Love Hellhounds, a book of four stories edited by Charlaine Harris who also wrote the first story, "The Britlingens Go to Hell."  It has started quite well.  This is the first story I've read by Harris that is not about one of her two usual characters.  The "Britlingens" of this story are two female bodyguards who are hired by a local to help him retrieve something he had left in "Hell" on a former trip there....

Finished The Gnostic Gospels

Wow!  Well, if you thought there was something for everyone in The Bible, add these to it and there really is!  Enough contradictions and room for interpretation exist to boggle the mind (literally.)  Basically, the orthodox church and its organization adapted best to the material in our present day Bible (by design, of course.)  The sections left out lent themselves to a more self discovery kind of theology that could exist without the structure of the early church (Deacons, Priests, and Bishops.)  Also, the Gnostic Gospels, letters and apocrypha that were not included were very complicated and difficult, not to say time consuming, to follow and probably would not have lent themselves to the rapid growth the church experienced.  However, I think there is much there to speak to us today...certainly to speak to me.

To counteract the heaviness of that book, I am starting The Final Reflection, a Star Trek (TOS) novel by John M. Ford.  It is set in the Klingon nation 40 years prior to the Organian Peace (an episode in the original series in which Klingons and humans preparing to go to battle were simply stopped by the superior race of Organians who, using the power of thought, made all weapons too hot to handle.)  It should prove quite relaxing...  :-)

The Gnostic Gospels, p 102

This is more a reaction than a report or review:

When I was 13 and studying for my baptism with my minister (American Baptist), I asked if our church believed in a literal virgin birth, or was it spiritual, or even just parable.  My minister, who had been our minister since we joined that church when I was about six, replied that there were still people studying that question.  He said that, as I studied throughout my life, I should pay attention to those feelings and beliefs that resonated with my soul, and that is what I should believe.

Wow!  He started me on a lifetime of study and seeking that will never end.  However, there was one thing I already knew.  It was not an answer to that question, but it was a part of it:  I knew that when I sang, my soul sang with me.  And, wherever I sang--in church or in the woods or on the stage or in my bedroom, I felt the same.  So my soul could rejoice anywhere--anywhere could be my church.  I've never been blessed with visions of God or with hearing the physical voice of God.  But I can sing and I know, for me, music is connected to the voice of God.

The Gnostics believed in knowledge of self--that we are created in the image of God, so to know ourselves is to know God.  Over the years, I have found many other things that make my soul sing--birdsong, the wind in the trees (and in my hair), a beautiful story, laughter--mine and that of others, and many more things.  I have come to a knowledge that what brings me close to God may not be the same things that bring others there and that that doesn't matter.  For one of the things that makes my soul sing is watching others seek out that which makes their souls sing.  Perhaps I have always been a Gnostic at heart.  Perhaps we all have...

Finished While My Pretty One Sleeps

I really enjoy Mary Higgins Clark's writing style.  The reader learns exactly what happens, what people say to each other, what characters are thinking.  We see what they are wearing and what their surroundings are like.  However, we have to draw conclusions for ourselves--we are given enough clues to figure out the mystery, but we are also given lots of red herrings.

The characters are all interesting and understandable--even the villains.  This book is no different.  Set in the fashion industry in New York with characters that include the retired police commissioner, a freelance writer (muckraker) and a publisher, as well as the main character--the owner of a posh fashion shop, the book is rich in both character and action.

TR has finished The Hunger Games series (which I refuse to read) and is now reading a John Le Carre book.  I have started The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels.  So far it is considerably more interesting than I thought it would be.  It would seem that, even with these gospels mostly destroyed, much of protestant Christianity has come around to some beliefs in common with the early Gnostics.

Finished Blood in the Water

And with it, I am now finished with The Vampire Files, Vol. 2.  The action is not completely resolved.  The next book will start midstream.  This book was pretty much entirely about Jack trying to protect his friends from the gangsters who are after him.  This is made more complicated by Jack's avoidance of killing anyone (even a gangster who is trying to kill him.)  Because Jack is not invulnerable (he can be hurt, he can get knocked out, and it is possible to kill him), these problems are not as easily solved as one would think.

These books were great fun.

I am now starting While My Pretty One Sleeps by Mary Higgins Clark.  TR has finished Catching Jay (?), the last of The Hunger Games books which I refuse to read.  The premise, to me, is down there with The Lord of the Flies and 1984...showing a belief in the baser instincts of humanity and I am not willing to read such downers.

Finished Fire in the Blood

This is the second book in The Vampire Files, Vol 2.  In this Jack and Escott are hired to find an expensive bracelet which leads them into 30's Chicago gangsterland (again.)  Now, for the first time, Jack encounters the dark side of his nature and is completely frightened by it...  Pretty good book.

Finished Art in the Blood

Finished the first book in The Vampire Files, Vol. 2.  The only vampire in this book is Jack and, in the other books, the only supernatural characters I've met so far have been related to his making as a vampire.  Most stories so far have only that one sup...  Jack was a reporter but now has a friend who is a detective and who he works with.  Jack has two talents that help him as a detective--his ability to get around locked doors and his powers of hypnosis.  Though it is difficult to hurt him permanently, it is not hard to hurt him temporarily and this can be bad for the humans he is protecting.  So, suspense exists.

The stories are set in the late 30's Chicago, so gangsters show up in most of the stories as does the "noir" atmosphere of the era.  This one centers on the art world and was quite enjoyable (a true mystery that the reader is able to solve along with Jack.)  Fun.

Finished The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

This is soooooo sad!  Sad, sad,sad.  No more new Lisbeth Salander stories to read!  I am grieving.
This book compares favorably for satisfying endings with The Shawshank Redemption (Lana Turner and the Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King.)  Wow.  I am definitely going to miss Lisbeth and Blomkvist.  Great book.  Great series.

TR continues to read the second book in the Hunger Games series.  I am starting The Vampire Files by P. N. Elrod, Volume 2.  It has three short novels about Jack Flemming:  Art in the Blood, Fire in the Blood, and Blood on the Water.  These are similar to Harry Dresden, but Jack is a vampire (of course) with a human partner who is really the detective.  I enjoy the character, but anything would be a let down from Lisbeth.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's nest. P 280

I was surprised to see so much rather dry personal history of certain characters near the beginning, but it was necessary for me to be able to see just what Salander and Blomkvist will be up against.  In some ways the writing style is similar to Mary Higgins Clark--short segments that tell exactly what is happening.  No conclusions are drawn...no opinions are expressed.  The reading is left to put together the pieces.  This is why I enjoyed teaching Lois Duncan's Killing Mr. Griffin.  I could teach both story elements and drawing conclusion skills with the book and the kids were on the edge of their seats reading it!  Ended the year with it with my slower readers--and every teacher knows... the end of the year is when you bring out your most interesting material if you want to survive until summer.  :-)

TR has finished The Pillars of the Earth and is now reading the second book in the Hunger Games series.  I won't be reading it.  People senselessly hurting people in an institutionalized way is not appealing to me.

Finished The Killing Dance by Laurell K. Hamilton

Easy, sexy fare...fun and exciting and different.  I enjoy Hamilton's books, though I really can't say why.  Same reason I love Buffy and disaster flicks...

I'm starting The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson next.  Not sure it will be sufficiently different from The Killing Dance. (feisty women who are not afraid to "kick butt.")  I'm kind of sad to start this last book by Stieg Larsson.  There will be no new ones to look forward to when I am finished.

TR is finishing up The Pillars of the Earth.  When he is done, it will go in my pile--probably in the same pile with Jean Auel's books.  He intends to read another John Jakes' saga when he finishes.

Finished Fatal Revenant

Whew!  It ended with the ending of the world set into motion, but I'm not worried.  There are two more books to go.  Yes, that is right--four books in this Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.  The other chronicles only had three each.  Thomas is going out with a bang, for sure.

I'm glad to take a break with Laurell K. Hamilton's The Killing Dance.  She has just had a hit put out on her--to be dead in 24 hours and whoever is paying is offering $500,000.  Yep, this is quite relaxing after Thomas Covenant!

Fatal Revenant, p 470

Whew, I nearly wrung this book's neck today.  The hardest part was finding its neck.  I've been through two more climactic events.  Our heroine, armed with two instruments of huge power, remains crippled against the forces that are thrown at her, regardless of how much power she throws at them.  Thank goodness for the respites in which we still have time to enjoy the beauty of the land and the special lovability of her companions.

Fatal Revenant P 365

At the half-way mark (Part 2, about page 300), I was exhausted.  The book started confused and disappointed and proceeded down from there.  By the mid-point, I couldn't believe Linden could ever survive.  But, that was the turning point and the uphill climb has begun.  Again the creation of characters is amazing.  All characters are flawed....most hold both good and evil.  And no one race or kind of people is alike from one to the next...some shared characteristics exist, but some form of individuality is always to be expected (if not always found.)  This is one author that, not only can I not predict, I can't even begin to speculate as to what might happen next.  And the language is as rich as the characters and the environment they inhabit.

Fatal Revenant P 200

Perhaps because Stephen Donaldson can create such memorable and likable characters seemingly effortlessly, he does not hesitate to kill them off.  Then in a fantasy like this, he will bring them back...but they will be altered irrevocably so that they just are not the character you had learned to love.  But, by then, he has other characters that you love...  This makes his worlds exasperating, but never boring.  And his vocabulary...  Yes, he has his own world so he gets to make up some vocabulary.  But I think he has also made up half of the words that are NOT in the glossary! 

Finished Night World #2

I read these books out of order, but it turned out to be fine.  The premise is that all paranormal beings (vampires, werewolves and shifters, witches) are part of the "night world" where it is illegal to fall in love with a human.  Any member of the Night World who does is under penalty of death as is the person they are in love with.  However, Night World members also believe in the concept of "soul mates" and now many night worlders are finding human soul mates.  Each book contains three novellas, each about a different one of these people finding a human soul mate.  One would think such a similar premise would get boring after awhile, but it does not.  Each story is different, in a different place, with different problems.  Like a good tv series, each story is complete unto itself but is also part of a greater arc.  I hope L. J. Smith is not finished--I'd like to revisit this world.

TR has finished the first Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (which he said was the hardest set of books he'd ever read) and The Hunger Games (which I am absolutely not going to read...it is totally contrary to my world view.)  He is now reading The Pillars of the Earth.

I am starting Fatal Revenant, the second book in the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.

Night World 2 "Dark Angel"

Well the first story was not entirely the cautionary tale I was thinking it might be, but it certainly was fun, furthered the Night World myth that L. J. Smith has created, and could certainly be used to teach the turning point in a book.  The turning point in this one was positively heroic as Gillian struggled to regain control of her life after somewhat impossible odds.  I enjoyed it.

Night World 2

Yes, I had already read Night World 1.  I considered reading it anyway...it was that good.  But, there are too many things I have not read.  So, now I have started Night World 2.  It should be fun although I'm thinking this first story may be a bit too predictable.  However, it could be a cautionary tale for teens intent on having the boy of their dreams and popularity regardless of the cost.

Finished The Plains of Passage

Well, after being held up a bit by income tax and a quick trip to Edmond, OK to see the Great-Grandbaby (who is 22 months and a lot of fun--she enjoyed the books we brought as well as my reading to her no end) I have finally finished the fourth book in The Clan of the Cave Bear series.  This may be one of my favorites.  The horseback camping trip across stone age Europe was breathtakingly beautiful alternating with heart-stoppingly dangerous.  There was also a huge amount of information about the formation of the mountains and glaciers as well as weather patterns caused by them.  The descriptions of how they solved problems and lived off the land was also enjoyable.  I feel like I've been on a long and leisurely trip through a strange and beautiful land.

I finished yesterday and then read a quick graphic novel-- Buffy, Slayer Interrupted.  It was set in time before the series started, but I'm really not fond of graphic novels.  I find them annoying as they skip around and try to put too much on a page.

Now I've started Night World (No. 1) by L. J. Smith, but it is starting in a very familiar manner.  I wonder if I have read it already?  I will have to continue reading it a bit and see if it stays this familiar...

P 130 of The Plains of Passage

I can't imagine that anyone who has enjoyed camping would not like this odyssey through prehistoric Europe.  Nature is both protagonist and antagonist while Ayla and Jonalan invent and adapt their way back to Jonalan's home.

I am fascinated by the process of learning and invention and the relationship between Ayla and Jonalan as well as between them and animals, plants, and the rest of the natural environment.

Finished BRAIN

Although dated this was suspenseful and thought-provoking.  I think it must have been out of print for awhile.  Originally copy written in 1979, I had never seen it before last November when I spent an afternoon browsing Amazon. 

I guess what makes these books by Robin Cook so good is that you know they not only could happen but may have happened.  I heartily recommend any and all of his books that I have read (which is a lot.)

Am now starting Jean M. Auel's The Plains of Passage, the fourth book in her "Earth's children" series.  I have already read The Clan of the Cave Bear, The Valley of Horses, and The Mammoth Hunters.  To me her books are mind expanding, they take me too a new a foreign world, and I marvel at the inventiveness of these wonderful early humans.

Finished Wolfsbane and Mistletoe

The remainder of the stories in this book were actually very good.  I'm surprised at the inventiveness...given the number of stories with these prescribed parameters, there was no redundancy.  However, there were no new series I am ready to jump into.  I may try the Kate Shugak series by Dana Stabenow.  The story was not about Kate, but I did like the story.  I may also check out books by Keri Arthur.  Christmas Past was the second of her stories I have read, and I've enjoyed both of them.

Karen Chase's Cassandra Palmer series might be of interest.  The story in this book, Rogue Elements, did not use that character so again, I liked the story but it leaves me not knowing if I'd like her books.  I may also check out some of Toni L. P. Kelner's books since, although she writes mysteries (not really my genre), she writes about some of my favorite subjects--circus, carnival, and supernatural beings.

I have now started Brain by Robin Cook.  It is already tense...

Wolfsbane and Mistletoe, P 130

This is a book of short stories edited by Charlaine Harris (the author of the Sookie Stackhouse series which became True Blood on HBO), in which all the stories are about werewolves at Christmas time.  The first two stories were surprisingly mundane (surprising because I really like Charlaine Harris and Sookie.)  However, the next four stories are pretty great:

"Lucy at Christmastime" is by Simon R. Green who writes the Nightside books.  I am not a fan and remain the same (the 'verse is just too weird), but I rather liked this short "reminiscing about an old girlfriend" theme.

"The Night Things Changed" is by Dana Cameron and is described as the first story set in her "Fangborn" world.  I will have to read more.  The 'verse is just contrary!  Everything you have ever learned about vampires and werewolves is exactly the opposite in this world and I found myself intrigued.  I also loved the characters--the brother and sister who serve as main characters and even Weems--the police officer that the brother seriously dislikes.

"The Werewolf Before Christmas" by Kat Richardson is a dark but whimsical story about a werewolf taking Rudolf's place leading Santa's sleigh one year.  It is a whole new slant on Santa and I found myself intrigued and wanting more.  The problem here is I don't think there will be any more.  This is described as Kat Richardson's first werewolf story.

I also liked "Fresh Meat" by Alan Gordon.  This is about a man who raises and trains guard dogs who is being stalked by a highly innovative and serious serial killer.  I may check into the "jester" series by this same author, but it looks to be nothing like this wonderful story.

"Il Est Ne" by Carrie Vaughn is about one of her recurring characters, Kitty, a werewolf who runs a radio talk show for the "supernaturally disadvantaged.  Right now in the story, Kitty and another werewolf she has just met are trying to solve a crime and I find it surprisingly tense for a short story.  I will have to check out more of this series.

Why I am not Fond of Arthur C. Clark

I must explain that the only other book I have read by Clark is Childhood's End, which turned me off enough to steer clear of him after that.  Our basic philosophies differ.  I think we both have a realistic view of the world (though TR would disagree that I do).  We both see political upheaval, man's inhumanity to man (and woman), and our inability to get along with each other either as individuals or nations.  But Clark's solution is an apocalyptic total reorganization of the basic human DNA.  I'm more optimistic than he is.  I love much of the world as it is and people as I know them.  I see our having moments of great brilliance and goodness and am not willing to sacrifice that.

That said, after finishing 2001, A Space Odyssey, I must point out my much more complete understanding of the story than I had after the movie.  Not only is the first scene with the monolith and the monkeys much clearer, along with the understanding of why HAL went nuts and the connection between the monolith on the moon and the space trip, but the ending with the baby is much clearer as well.  I am not fond of the ending, but I do understand it.  Don't get me wrong...many people would consider the ending of this and Childhood's End quite hopeful.  Not me...they make me sad.

Nearly Finished with 2001

Probably would have finished today, except we went to see Ghost Rider 2 3D.  Because TR is a Ghost Rider kind of guy.

The book (2001) has answered a number of my questions from the movie.  I now understand why HAL went nuts as well as what the connection was between the monolith found on the moon and the space mission was.  That is one of the things that can really make me hate a movie (screenwriter) or book (author.)  Skipping explaining "why."  And this explains why I hate Steven King.  We are told in The Shining that there were boxes in the basement full of all kinds of newspaper clippings and ephemera documenting the many gruesome deaths that might have explained the haunting of the hotel.  We know that Jack Torrence spent much of his time in that basement reading that material.  But we were never allowed to read it.  A chapter recounting many of those articles would have satisfied me.  It would have explained the woman in the bathtub, the twins, and many other things.  He did it again with Christine  in which we were never given an explanation as to why the car was acting up.   Ahhhhhhhhgh.  I stopped reading Steven King.  I like Anne Rice much better.

On P 50 of 2001

In the introduction, I learned that, although the book appeared in publication a few months after the movie, the two were actually written simultaneously.  Kubrick was filming during the day.  Arthur C. Clark was writing the book during the day.  Then they were working together on the screenplay during the evening hours. 

At the time of the publication of the edition I am reading, there were three books in the series.  The fourth book wasn't to appear for several years yet.  TR has all four and they are in my sci-fi pile...

Most people who love the movie love the cinematography, which, I agree, was really stunning.  However, I never understood what was happening in the first scene with the apes.  The book totally clarified it.  Arthur C. Clark's prose is a treat to read.  Beautiful visualizations like "One of his strangest, and most enchanting, memories of the entire trip (to the moon) was (the stewardess') zero-gravity demonstration of some classical Balinese dance movements, with the lovely, blue-green crescent of the waning Earth as a backdrop."  It would appear that I have a great journey in front of me.

Finished Dashing Through the Snow

Now, before you start accusing me of reading at lightning speed (as a friend has done), let me explain that this (like the other Christmas books by Mary and Carol Higgins Clark) is fast light reading.  This one started slowly, but stay with it.  The tension these two are known for began to build pretty quickly at the 1/3 of the way through the book mark and ended with a great climax.  If you love these characters (especially Alvirah and Willie) as much as I do, the enchantment with them alone will get you through the first third.  Light, fast, Christmas reading for the "thriller" enthusiast and a lot of fun.

I have now started 2001 A Space Odyssey at the behest of TR.  Back when it first came out, I saw the movie and was kind of left cold--I did not like it.  Now, as I see that this book was written by Arthur C. Clarke based on the movie script written by him and Stanley Kubrick, I am fairly sure I will hate it.  But, TR wants me to try, so I will.  I have read books based on movies that were not exactly like the movie, so...maybe...

Farmer's Branch ISD PTA Book Sale

The entire name of this is the Farmer's Branch ISD PTA Eleventh Annual Gently Used Book Sale.  TR and I went on the first day--Thursday.  We aimed straight for our favorite authors in the fiction section.  The only books by my favorite fantasy authors I found I had already read, but I am mostly up to date on their books (at least with paperback editions.)  I'm not up to date on Tanya Huff or Laurell K. Hamilton, but I found no Huff and the only Hamilton I found was the one I had donated. 

However, I found four Mary Higgins Clark that I had not read and one Robin Cook.  I don't really need to buy much from those authors new...I can always find them at used book sales and thrift stores.  TR was really excited.  He found 9 books he had not read--several by John Jakes.  He was able to fill out the Civil War trilogy and he just lacks one book now in another series.  So it was quite a profitable trip for us.  Now I regret not looking at their CDs and DVDs, but at the time, my back was killing me.  I guess I'll have to take the wheel chair (or maybe a folding stool) next time.

Finished Dead in the Family

After the fairy wars, most of the fairies are sealed away into their own dimension, but a few remain and not all are friendly.  Bill Compton is very badly injured and unable to heal.  Claudine, Sookie's cousin, is dead as is Tray, her girlfriend's boyfriend.  Erik and Sookie have some work to do on their relationship since he did not come to her rescue.  Add to this the visit of Erik's maker and an insane younger "brother" and a murder in the local werewolf pack in which the body turns up buried on Sookie's land.  Oh, and don't forget the conservative political movement demanding that werewolves and other "two-natured" register their addresses with the government just because they are different, and you have a pretty eventful 326 pages!  As usual, I loved it, though it wasn't as great as some of Charlaine Harris' books...but it is up there.

I've now started reading Dashing Through the Snow by Mary and Carol Higgins Clark.  I love the books they did together because they use five of my favorite characters all working together.  I know, it is a Christmas book.  But, I love Christmas.  I can read Christmas books (and listen to Christmas music) all year.

Started Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris

I finished La's Orchestra Saves the World  by Alexander McCall Smith.  What to say about it?  Slow moving, but all of his novels are.  They read like a bit of a vacation.  I don't seem to mind reading about characters who seem to have no money problems...  Overall, it made me think, reminisce, feel a bit sad and wistful.  If the measure of a piece of art, be it book, play, painting, or whatever, is to make you do any of those things, then it was successful.

Dead in the Family is the tenth book in the Sookie Stackhouse series (TrueBlood on HBO.)  I've read the others, of course, and highly recommend them for supernatural adventure and romance.  By that I include vampires, werewolves (and other were animals), etc....  I love these books and have been looking forward to this one.

La's Orchestra Saves the World by Alexander McCall Smith

Would you like to take a vacation from life in the city for awhile?  Go to the country where no one locks their doors, when people understand the definition of "neighborliness," and enjoy the smell of the grass and fresh vegetables from the garden, the gentle conversations with community members met at a local shop or restaurant or perhaps while walking, and the relaxing knowledge that nothing really has to be done today...it can wait for tomorrow?  If this is true of you, I recommend any book by this author.  I especially find myself basking in the calm country wisdom of characters who love their lives, their country, and their community.

This book is set during WWII in Suffolk, a town about eighty miles outside of London.  I'm about sixty pages in and already love La (short for Lavender) who decided to move to Suffolk when her life took an unexpected and disappointing turn.

In regard to the last series I was working on--the Meredith Gentry series--I admit to reading the first two books of the series out of order.  I had thought A Caress of Twilight was the next book in the Anita Blake series when I ordered it.  I knew I was wrong about three paragraphs in, but I was already hooked.  It turned out to be the second book of the Meredith Gentry series and I went back and picked up the first at a later date.  I doubt that men would like it...  I've had a man get furious with me for liking Paint Your Wagon because it was about one woman with two men.  If that turns you off, trust me, the Meredith Gentry series is not for you.  (This is me giggling.)

Finished A Stroke of Midnight by Laurell K. Hamilton

Though erotic fluff, this series is really good for what it is. Danger alternates with eroticism in ever more gripping spirals. There is no real ending to these books...they always point to the next book as it is all one story. Each book always leaves me looking forward to the next one. Just am I was wondering if Merry could survive the Unseelie court, as I leave this book, I am breathlessly wondering if she can survive the Seelie court (or more to the point, who of her coterie of likeable characters may not survive.)

 

I think the last four books of this series took less than a month in 'verse time.  So, when I come back to it the next book, it will probably be only minutes after this book ended.

 

TR is drawing close to finishing The Illearth War by Stephen Donaldson (second book in the first Chronicles of Thomas Covenant) and is now starting to get into it.  He likes war scenes better than I do.  He asked if I'd found the first book boring and I said, no, I did not.  I will stop pushing him to read The Clan of the Cave Bear series, though.  I'm sure he will find it boring.  If there is no war or horror (only people interacting with each other and learning) he is bored....  MEN!

Finished A CLASH OF KINGS

I thoroughly enjoyed this and as I neared the end, it became harder and harder to put down. I enjoy the way the chapter titles tell whose point of view it is told in. I'd see the title and start hoping I'd learn about this or that....   I'm not as enamoured with the actual battle descriptions, but most of the book is occupied with showing the lives of non-combatants, many of who are richly intelligent and resourceful. I love reading about smart people...

 

I had watched the first season on HBO prior to picking up the books. I'd had a bit of trouble keeping up with and following the series, but the book explained all. The description of the Eyrie really helped because that episode of the tv show had really confused me.  I might have stopped watching the series if I hadn't read A Game of Thrones. Now, I have finished the second book before the second season of the series...I intend to stay ahead of the series from now on. I think I'll understand it better.  However, I won't blow through the series like TR did.  I need a break between books.  (A different 'verse.... for a while).  I read The Lord of the Rings all the way through at once and the first two Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, but I was way younger then.

 

I am now starting Laurell K Hamilton's A Stroke of Midnight, the fourth book in her Meredith Gentry series.  Meredith (Merry) is half fey, half human and the books are adventures in a dangerous world, but are also very erotic (at least from a female viewpoint.)  I really enjoy these books.

 

I divided my "epic" pile into two piles because it was becoming ungainly.  I now have the A Game of Thrones series and The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant in one pile and the Clan of the Cave Bear series and several Arthurian legend books in the second.  I've read The Mists of Avalon and greatly enjoyed it.  On tv we are watching Merlin and watched Stars' Camelot and that has inspired me to read Malory's Morte d'Artur and White's The Once and Future King.

Great Conversations

TR has just started reading the second book in the Thomas Covenant series, which I have read.  I am reading Clash of Kings (the second in the Game of Thrones series) which TR has read.  It is kind of fun to make a comment when something exciting happens and discuss it with the other.  :-) 

I have just ordered him the second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and myself Kingsblood Royal by Sinclair Lewis (recommended by friend Kristin.)  TR and I share some things that we both love (like the swords and horses fantasies), but he is not as enamoured with the vampire fantasies (though he loves The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher as much as I do.)  I love and have read just about all of Anne Rice.  He dislikes her greatly.  He loves and has read just about all of Steven King.  I dislike him greatly.  We both love Robin Cook...

I have registered and recorded a number of ratings on http://goodreads.com.  So far, Laura who recommended it to me is my only friend on there.  I'd love more and hope some other friends sign on.

My "to read" System..Piles

I finished Tempted, which ended with a shocker!  It will take me quite a while to adjust.  Luckily, it will be quite a while before I read Burned (the next book in the series.) 

I have 14 piles of books, grouped by genre, author, or series.  The pile Tempted was in was "adolescent supernatural romance."  Right now, the House of Night series is alternating with L.J. Smith's (author of Vampire Diaries) Night World series.  I read the top book on each pile before I return to the pile I just read from.  Since Burned is under a Night World book, I will read 27 books before I get back to Burned.  I should be adjusted to that shocker by then.

I have now started A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin, the second book of The Game of Thrones series.  It is in my "epics" pile, a pile which is larger than the space I have it in...I may have to split it into two piles...

Thomas Covenant

TR, as I have said, has started the Thomas Covenant series reading the first book, Lord Foul's Bane.  He has come to this kicking and screaming.  After reading a series of nine books written by Steven King (his favorite author), he began to tell me he loved the "horses and swords fantasies."  I said, he can't say that if he has not read Thomas Covenant (Stephen Donaldson) or Lord of the Rings (JRR Tolkien).  He said they were chick books with fairies in them.

"No, TR, neither of them have fairies in them (Lord of the Rings does have elves), and The Dresden Files has fairies in it, which you love." 

"They are girlie books."

Well, then he read a short prologue to something that Steven King wrote in which he said that Donaldson and Tolkien were major inspirations.  He decided he would try the Thomas Covenant series.  But all during the first half of the book he has been saying, "I hope the story starts soon.  All there is is description.  Nothing is happening."

"The first book mainly introduces 'the land.'  Learn as much as you can about the land...everything you learn will be used.  Learn to love the land in this first book."

Now, finally, a bit more than half-way through, he says, "I love that the horses choose who can ride them." 
:-)  

"They do much more than that...they are not horses as we know them...they are magical people in horse suits."

I think, maybe, he is going to like these books.  If he doesn't, I'll never get him to read Tolkien!

Tempted, A House of Night novel

I started Tempted by P.C. and Kristin Cast (a mother and daughter writing team.)  The House of Night series is written with an intended audience of adolescent girls, which I admit composes part of me.  Lawrence Yep (a children's author who also does adult sci-fi and some Star Trek books) once told me that "children's" books are much better edited than any other print material.  It is very true.  This makes them read more smoothly.

Although this 'verse is about vampyres, they are very different from the vampyres we meet in other 'verses.  This society is matriarchal and reminds me strongly of witches of Avalon.  They worship Nyx, the Goddess, and call the elements--earth, air, water, fire, and spirit--to their worship circles.  Many of the vampyre's are blesses with gifts: prophesy, sure aim, a special artistic ability, or an affinity with one of the elements are among them.  For those of us attracted to Wicca beliefs, these novels are a lot of fun.

The novels in this series that I have already read are, in order, Marked, Betrayed, Chosen, Untamed, and Hunted.  I really love this series.

Finished Lillian Gish's Autobiography

The point I stopped reading at yesterday seems to have been a stopping point for Lillian as well.  After that she talks much less about the process of making movies and much more about the people in her life:  her mother, sister, and mostly D. W. Griffith.  She talks about his problems with money and alcohol in later life (after the silents.)  When talkies came in, she did much work on stage only doing a few smaller parts in film, but did go back to film in the 40's and then into early television doing a number of plays live for TV in the 50's.  The book was published in 1969 just after the death of her sister.

She died in February of 1993, at the age of 99.  In movies and TV, she was in 119 "titles."  This does not include her stage work.  The last movie credited is The Whales of August in 1987.  (She'd have been 93 for the filming of this.)

We will be keeping this book (most books we read get given to the Goodwill) as reference.  TR has put a number of silent films onto CD.  We never cease to be fascinated by the artistic quality and superb storytelling exhibited in these movies.  The only books I have read that really give insights into the making of these is this book I just finished and Charlie Chaplin's autobiography.

Highly recommended!

Miss Gish Goes through Problems Leaving D. W. Griffith's Company

With D.W., Lillian had been involved in all aspects of production, as had all the company members.  I was able to relate because back in the dinner theater world of the 60's and 70's, so was I.  We built sets and props.  We built and took care of our costumes.  We'd move sets between scenes and acts and keep up with our own props.  I often had to run backstage after my lines to work the lights.

Lillian didn't mention working lights or camera, but she did all else: sets, costumes, props, made suggestions, helped with script selection and writing, viewed all the rushes and helped with editing.  Because of the expense of film causing, they could do only one take of each scene  Therefore, the company rehearsed the entire story, often for weeks, prior to actual filming.  Since it was always rehearsed in the correct sequence, the company became intimately familiar with the story and had plenty of time to develop nuanced character.  They were as involved with the storytelling as I was back in the dinner theater.

She left Griffith at about the same time that the unions were coming in.  Actors were just that and were not allowed to move a set piece or manage their costumes or props.  Scenes were rehearsed and shot individually and out of order, so the actors were adrift from the story.  A number of other problems also conspired to remove her from California at this time, but the loss of contact with the storytelling was certainly a part of the reasoning for her decisions.  She made movies in Europe and went back to the stage for awhile.

Now I am about to set out with her on the adventure of adapting to the "talkies"....

The Help--Movie and Book

We watched The Help (movie) last night.  It was beautifully cast.  Minny had been my biggest worry...as my favorite character, I wanted her to be perfect, and she was even more than I'd envisioned.  I knew Skeeter would be hard to cast.  In the book, she was 6' tall and skinny as a rail with really hard to deal with hair.  They did their best to show that with costumes, short actors working next to her and camera tricks to make her appear taller than most other characters, and, of course, the hair straightening scene.  In the book, the only character taller than her was the guy Hilly had arranged the double date with.

To me, all of the young white male characters looked alike.  Was that deliberate?  I think it is funny.  Altogether really great casting.  Cicily Tyson was wonderful!

But, as usual, the book was better.  The movie was so compressed and left so much out that it came across as being a rather tame feel-good chick flick.  The book, on the other hand, was a masterfully written suspense thriller that kept me terrified and on edge worried about my favorite characters to the end and even after...

Lillian's chapters on THE BIRTH OF A NATION

Because of the repugnancy of the subject matter of this movie, I've never been able to watch more than bits and pieces of it, let alone acknowledge it as a monument in the development of the filmmaker's art.  Having read the three chapters Lillian devotes to this, I can see how D.W. Griffith was innovating with nearly every scene in the movie.  It was the first (what we would call) full length movie to be made and accounts for a great many film making techniques we see today.

The film was met with huge controversy at the time, which bewildered D.W., who seems to have been a true child of the aristocratic South.  Lillian spends much time trying to defend and explain his thinking (she wrote the autobiography I am reading in 1969.)

I am struck by what a student she was of the medium...She would have been about 22 when "Birth" was released.  She had worked on it during any free time she had during her sixteen hour days, often seven days a week--doing whatever needed doing and watching the rushes whenever she could.  On the stage from the time she was 5 and in movies from about 16 on, she immersed herself in the storyteller's art and understandably idolized D. W. Griffith.

As it turns out, the film was re-edited in the 30's and three reels were totally left out.  So, what we have access to today is not the film Griffith was so proud of.  (Of course...it might have been worse from a subject matter standpoint.)  Lillian was really just a child, and a child of the medium at that.  I wasn't even born until 30 years after this movie was released, so I am not one to put her down for her support of the film and its maker.  And I must avow a new respect for the role Griffith (an Lillian Gish) played in the development of the medium of film.

Starting Lillian Gish's Autobiography

Since all I seem to do these days is exercise and read, I've decided to share my reading. About a week ago I finished reading The Help.  Tom and Larry gave me the movie for Christmas, but I'm worried it couldn't possibly be as good as the book. Love the storytelling in first person by three characters.... A very moving book.

 

I'm going to try to fit the movie into our week-end.  Hope it is as good as the wonderful reviews I've heard from my friends.

Then I read Night of the Vampires by Heather Graham. The premise supposes that part of what made the Civil War so bloody was opportunistic vampires not only feeding on but turning fallen soldiers. A fast read that was lots of fun.

Now I am reading Lillian Gish's autobiography, The Movies, Mr. Griffith, and Me. It is longer than your average celebrity autobiography and is a wealth of information and stories about making early movies (I'm reading about the early silent films at the moment) and the development of an art form.

TR has just started reading the first Chronicles of Thomas Covenant...Lord Foul's Bane. I rather envy him the adventure which he has ahead of him. I have read the first book of the last Chronicles and have the second and third, but I break them up with other books. TR will read all nine books through without breaking.

Background

After spending 34 years teaching seventh and eighth grade reading, I guess I just want to keep sharing my reading.  During those years, I read mostly adolescent literature.  Now my reading has broadened (and, in some cases cheapened), but I am still drawn to many books for adolescents. 

My method evolved into reading aloud--a kind of reader's theatre.  I cast parts, read the harder paragraphs myself and cast myself into my favorite (character) parts.  My students loved my "feisty old person" voice which I used for Scrooge and Gandalf as well as "Gram" in Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan.  We all enjoyed reading with a drawl for Hank the Cowdog, and I even tried a Caribbean accent for Tituba in The Crucible.  I believed in reading entire books all the way through and teaching the skills of reading as they came up--of course, books had to be selected carefully to teach certain skills.  In the end, I depended on the story-telling ability of great authors to involve my students in the learning process and hopefully to establish a reading habit which would last all their lives.

This technique at least worked on me.  I am still reading and always will be.

I'd like this blog to function as a kind of easy book club.  But, I'm not fond of the regimentation of traditional book clubs. I was hoping the blog would be a place where I could share what I'm reading, read about what my friends and family are reading (though I've opened it up to anyone interested), and we could make comments and add books to our own reading lists... :-)  It is also a way to keep up with friends and family I am a long way away from, without the invasiveness of facebook.

 

I read a lot of Supernatural Romance, but I also love celebrity biography, crime drama, mystery, adolescent interest, some historical romance, suspense, and best sellers.  So, all kinds of reading are appropriate.

 

The blog is set up for comments on what I write, but don't let that stop you.  Tell me what you are reading and make comments on what others write as well.  I'd like to keep a very undisciplined blog...:-)