Finished THE SECRET CIRCLE, THE DIVIDE

Witch hunters are in town and that is not the only problem the circle faces.  The book leaves plenty of room for sequels.  I do enjoy these action-packed easy reading books.

I have now started Night Over Water, by Ken Follett.  It is an historical thriller starting in England just after they have declared war against Germany in WWII.  A luxurious Pan Am Clipper is about to leave for America with the "cream of society and the dregs of humanity."   I am only a few pages in and, so far, we are just having a love affair with this beautiful luxurious airplane as it is sumptuously described.  I've only just barely met a couple of the characters.

Finished Maureen O'Hara's Autobiography

I enjoyed it.  Of course, I was disappointed by her reaction to some of her directors and co-stars (not to mention Disney), but I was also delighted by the descriptions of others.  Her life was not as happy or as under control as she appeared in her movies, and that is always a disappointment, but one I am used to from the number of biographies I have read.  However, in a lot of ways, the character she showed us in the movies was similar to herself.  The book was well written and interesting.


I am now reading The Secret Circle 4, The Divide.  I only just noticed that, though it was created by L. J. Smith, it was written by Aubrey Clark.  Also, by reading the quick synopsis in Goodreads I learned something I had not yet learned in the book--and, at p 170, I am already more than half-way through the book.  Having a spoiler in the teaser that far into the book is rather infuriating...  The secret circle is a coven of teen-age witches, most of whom are good witches....

Finished TEXAS CURIOSITIES

This book was fun.  It was entertaining to read the first half straight through, and, when I knew I couldn't afford to keep reading it like that (time-wise), it was fun when I relegated it to the bathroom...I didn't resent having to go to the bathroom at all.  Now, I think I will have to find another bathroom book.

Finished A LION AMONG MEN

I found the book involving, though it took a long time to warm up to Brrr.  I did immediately like Yackle, though, so I very much enjoyed the book.  Gregory Maguire has definitely left room for a fourth book in the series, though I don't know if he intends writing such a thing.



I have now started reading Maureen O'Hara's autobiography and am very much looking forward to it.  She was one of my very favorite female stars of the Golden Era and worked with just about all of my other favorites.  I hope she includes lots of behind the scenes stories about the making of her movies.

Started Reading A LION AMONG MEN

This is the third book in the Wicked trilogy.  The first 100 pages have been primarily a conversation between the lion and Yackle ostensibly to learn what Yackle knows about the Thropp family, but in it we learn a great deal about  the conversers.   Very readable.

Finished the section in LOST SCRIPTURES that I had appointed for myself...

this far.  The section was Non-Canonicle Epistles and Related Writings.  Arranged chronologically as well as scholars can date them, they were written from about 100 a.d through about 500 a.d.. and give us an idea of the development and arguments of the early church that led to what we have today.  Much of the opposing ideas (to Orthodox thinking of the time) are now incorporated in many of our Protestant churches.  Our early history is really quite fascinating and the thinking is quite diverse.  However, I will break now and finish the book at another time.

Started reading Cure by Robin Cook, but it sounded familiar.  Checked in Goodreads and, yep, I read it three years ago.  So, on to something else.

Continuing LOST SCRIPTURES

Learned an interesting thing today, while reading an epistle pseudonically attributed to Peter.   It seems that the Simon Magnus that he calls a "magician" pretending to preach Jesus' faith is none other than the man we now know of as Paul.  Paul is called the first Gnostic to assume a leadership role.  I am now reading a sermon, I think, by Ptolomy, another Gnostic who derives his thinking from Paul and Jesus.  The basic departing of the ways in the late second and third centuries seems to be the belief of Peter that, in order to be Christian, you must also keep the Jewish law, in its entirety.  Paul seems to believe that you must keep the commandments and Jesus' law only.  Ptolomy points out that keeping both is impossible--for instance, "though shalt not kill" vs "He who commits murder must die."  Or "turn the other cheek" vs. "And eye for an eye."  Anyway, Ptolomy makes a lot of sense to me and though his document has been deleted from our present day Bible, we seem to have adopted much of what he preaches.  Very interesting!

Finished ROLL OF THUNDER, HEAR MY CRY

As I was reading this, for the umpteenth time, it occurred to me it is the perfect book to help prepare Gabriel for the reading of To Kill a Mockingbird this next year.  Both deal with racism during the Depression, this from the point of view of a young Black girl, the other from the point of view of a young White girl.  I can also explain the feudal system of sharecropping (called in this book "tenant farming") that has very few differences from slavery.  The same system was used in mines and factories throughout Europe, Russia, and America until the Communist Revolution in Russia and China (and, really Europe, which when through a Socialist Revolution) and the growth of trade unions in this country (and Europe).  In Europe and here, this brought about a middle class.  This book is great for my purposes, and, really, always was.



I am now going back to Lost Scriptures, in which I will read the section on Epistles which are no longer (or were never) included in The Bible.  I am finding that some were excluded because they were fictitiously attributed to someone several centuries after he died, but, so far, the ones I have read deal with problems or concerns of the early church and all the factions and interpretations that existed then.  Once the church was resolved to Rome and became the Catholic Church, these concerns were no longer relevant.  However, they are very interesting to someone who finds the variety within the early church fascinating.