Finished BLOOD AND CIRCUSES

My experience with a small Shrine circus in the southern Midwestern US was somewhat different from the circus described in1920's Australia.  I saw no such hierarchy among/ between performers as was going on in this book.  As a costumer (not hired by the circus, but rather by individual performers), I hung with my friend, who was a clown, and two of his friends who were high trapeze artists.  Other performers and workers (roustabouts) were friendly.  Nonetheless, I loved this book.  I'm drawn to circuses, carnivals, festivals, craft and art shows...well all kinds of outdoor entertainment that don't qualify as "sports" and this was a good story.  I enjoyed the new characters we met in this one and the solving of a crime on two different fronts.




I have just started A Perfect Blood, by Kim Harrison, book 10 of the Rachel Morgan series.  I find this series clever, inventive, fun, and satisfying.  I love both the characters (Rachel, Jinx, and Ivy) as well as the setting (post "change" Cincinnati--ie. a future world.)  I have only just started, but already I am into it as Rachel is having radical identity--not theft--loss issues and to relieve a couple of those issues, she takes on a very challenging case assigned by a very scary vampire....  I'm looking forward to it.

Finished SON OF A WITCH

Totally enjoyed this one.  It was much more upbeat than Wicked (first in the series), though that couldn't be helped.  How can you write an upbeat book about the witch in The Wizard of Oz?  Characters were every bit as great in this one as the last, setting equally as multivaried, types of people and animals equally intriguing, and villains equally as evil.  Can't wait to get the next one in the series.



Have now started Blood and Circuses by Kerry Greenwood.  This is one of many Phryne Fisher mysteries.  We first encountered Phryne on PBS and loved the series, so TR started to read the books.  He has now convinced me to start them.  The stories are set in 1920's Australia and are wonderfully quirky.  Phryne is a free spirit--wealthy lady of leisure who loves to dabble in solving crime.  She pushes the limits of what might be consider moral, but is irreproachably ethical.  This is the oldest of the books I could find around the house, though TR says we have more.  This is #6 in the series, I understand.  My experience spending a summer with a circus in my adventurous youth has me really looking forward to this one.

Finished THE HOBBIT

Finished preparing The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien to read with Gabriel.  Two days this week a friend of his, Jacob, joined us as we read Tuck Everlasting.  We are more than half way through after one week, so we may just finish all three books (or come close) this summer.  I'd love to be able to finish The Hobbit with them.

Now I am reading Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire.  It is the sequel to Wicked which I very much enjoyed.  I am almost half-way through and am enjoying it, though maybe not as much yet as I enjoyed Wicked.  It is a totally different book with a new character and a new set of problems.

Finished THE WHITE MOUNTAINS by John Christopher

Pretty good "after the apocalypse" sci fi for children.  The apocalypse in this case was the invasion about a hundred or more years ago by alien machines called Tripods, hence the name of the series.  Three children head out for the "white mountains" (Alps or Pyranees), two from England and one from France in search of freedom from the Tripods and, perhaps, resistance to them.  This book recounts their adventurous journey.  A little mundane for an adult sci fi reader's taste, but hopefully it will interest Gabriel.  Teaching is always easier with a book the child(ren) is (are) interested in.



I have now started The Hobbit.  I know, I know.  I taught it to at least one class all 34 years I taught and I practically know it by heart.  But this is a different edition that I am used to.  I had been afraid, since it calls itself "revised" that lots of good part might be left out, but so far, that is not true.  I think the cockney accent of the trolls has been toned down a bit.  My students had a really hard time figuring out what they were saying, and I think this edition is a bit easier, though still somewhat cockney.  That is the only difference I have found so far.  So, I am marking up my copy of this edition as I go (as I did the other books I will read with him) which takes a bit longer.  I'm not even sure we will get to this book this summer--it always took me from spring break until summer to teach it and sometimes we didn't finish (depending how much we were interrupted for testing and assemblies, etc.)  But, my students were terrible about doing homework, so all I ever assigned was outside reading with the supervision of parents (kids with more involved parents did a lot more reading which was, of course, good for them and kids without could still do well in my class by paying close attention during class time.)  Gabriel, on the other had, will do his homework--his mom will see to it!  No worries there.



This is a picture of the 1965 edition.  I can't even find a publication date on the book I have and can't find it in any of the editions included on Goodreads...  This is about as close as I can come, but...NOT.