Finished AFLICTION

A strange rotting disease has been contracted by Micah's father.  This book introduces us to a number of new and interesting characters, me more, I suspect, than most readers of this book.  I normally try very hard to read books in the chronological order of the story, but somehow I messed up with this one and have missed three books.  This is not tragic--I have the other three and are in the correct order in my Hamilton/Rice pile.  How I messed up on this I don't know.  Interestingly the other book I am reading (in the bathroom), Night Creatures, brought up a theme touched on by this series and also the Harry Dresden series I read...that of succubus and incubus.  So, with even Night Creatures not answering my question of "what is the difference?" I looked them up on Google.  It turns out that they are the same thing--a creature that draws power by having sex with their victim as they sleep.  A succubus is female and an incubus is male.  The haunting by the creature night after night can drain energy from the victim and eventually kill them.  In "Night Creatures" I learned that they originally came about as explanations in the past of various weakening diseases.

The ending of this book disappointed me somewhat since I think she set us up so well with what would happen that it was anticlimactic.  However, the mental/moral crisis she had about acceptance of her power was quite interesting and sufficed for me.

Because I get books for the children in my life from Amazon, I can't read all of them.  I preview them on Amazon and decide from there.  This sweet book, Dragon Love Tacos is an exception because I ordered one for our house elves' daughter.  It is silly and has a touching end.  I hope the children I gave it to enjoy it.



I am now about to take a break from this frightening world and read The Handsome Man's De Luxe Cafe, the fifteenth book in  Alexander McCall Smith's The Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series.  Ah, a trip to peaceful and intelligent Botswana.

Finished THE FOUR SWANS

I had been hoping that this book would catch me up to where PBS is in the saga.  Nope.  But I did figure out that the PBS rendition is uncomplicating things, especially in order to not hire more actors.  It is making the actors they be the brunts of everything that happens..and also making the action more dire, if that is possible, than in the books.  The book explains things that were confusing and gives us a far better look at life was like near the turn of the 19th century in Cornwall.

I have now started another Anita Blake novel by Laurell K Hamilton, Afliction.  Within the first chapter, Anita gets a call at work from Micah's mom informing her that his Dad is dying of a rare and dread disease--he is rotting from the outside in and has an estimated five days to live.  As Anita starts to arrange transportation for herself, Micah, and Nathaniel, she learns that much more must be done before they will be welcome in that territory...

Finished WHOSE BOAT IS THIS BOAT?

Bought this because I thought it would be funny.  But after reading through it a couple of times, I realize it is sad and even alarming.  Not only does our president have no experiences that might help him understand what people are going through, he can't even see the destruction and misery in front of his eyes!

Finished ELIZABETH

This is a fairly comprehensive and understanding biography by a fan.  It covers her work, both acting and charity.  We follow her through eight marriages (seven husbands) and health problems--physical and addictions.  We meet her parents, brother, husbands, children and good friends.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I am now about to start two books.  The first will take me a few minutes today, Whose Boat is This Boat, by Donald Trump (by Accident).



The second is the 6th in the Poldark series, The Four Swans.  The PBS series is ahead of me in the story, not the way I prefer to read books.  I'd rather read the book before I see it on film, but I find reading after does help to explain things that made little sense when I saw it--usually motivation,though I am left mystified by George Warleggan's by both.

Finished GIANTS AND OGRES

Most of the stories in this beautiful book come from northern Europe where the legends of giants populating the Earth before we did seemed to grow from the mountains and rugged land.  These early giants possessed great wisdom and magic, but as humans began to share the planet with them they deteriorated and became easier for humans to trick and kill.  Familiar stories (Jack and the Beanstalk) mingle with less familiar, but most explain why there are no giants today...

I have now started Night Creatures from the same Enchanted World series.  This starts with the story of Grindel from Denmark, a large man-shaped creature covered hair that ate all sorts of animals, but, when he discovered man, that became his favorite food...

Finished THE NIGHT IS ALIVE

Beyond the characters and the story and the ghosts, Savannah is charming and beckoning.  The story was the kind I race through...just really fun to read.  Loved it.

I have now started Elizabeth by J. Randy Taraborrelli.  I'm not sure the author even talked to his subject during this research, but he certainly ready her autobiographical books and talked to just about everyone else he could find.  Normally I prefer autobiographies, because you get the celebrity's voice.  However, with this, the author was able to study the influences in her early life which explain probably far better than Miss Taylor ever could, her struggles through the remainder of her life.  I'm enjoying this book.

Finished REJECTED WRITER'S TAKE THE STAGE

Besides giving me lots of giggles and at least two good belly laughs, this has a real exciting climax and a wonderful resolution (or resolutions).  Considering how many characters are in these very short books, it is amazing how very different from each other they are and how heartwarmingly most of them behave.  Go to these books after reading something that has kept you on the edge of your seat for three or four days straight.

I am now reading anothe Krewe of Hunters book by Heather Graham, The Night is Alive.  I love the rich setting of this ghost influenced murder mystery.  Set in an historical tavern that was built by our protagonist's who knows how many greats grandfather and uncle in the 1750s, it was once frequented by the pirates of Savannah.  I have been to Savannah and fell in love with it, but then I was exploring locations I'd read about in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.  Now, already, this book is making me want to go back and explore the location of this book.

Finished another 100 pages of ALEXANDER HAMILTON

It is not uninteresting at all, but it is slow--fine print with a lot on the page, and for this past month, I have been interrupted by coughing fits which took about half a cough drop to calm.  For this reason, I don't recommend anyone borrowing this book from me.  This section started with the decision to draft a constitution to replace the Articles of Confederation, the writing of that, the writing of the Federalist Papers to encourage New York to ratify and then ratification.  Also Hamilton's appt. as Secretary of the Treasury.

I have now started the second book in the Rejected Writers series, Rejected Writer's Take The Stage.  One of our group of quirky ladies is about to lose the farm if they can't come up with $20,000 for the mortgage in two months.  They decide to raise it by putting on a musical show, although none of them has any expertise in this field.  It sounds like a bizarre scheme to me (and probably any reader), but I know some serious misadventures are afoot.

Finished THE DEVIL'S DIARY

It has taken me three weeks to finish this book, partly because it is a slow and appalling read, and partly because I've been sick and it is very hard to concentrate on anything, let alone read, when you are coughing uncontrollably.  I remain at a loss as to how any people could allow this to happen, but it is also scary when certain parallels can be draw to the world today.  One of the reasons given what to make more space for Germans.  And the overpopulation of today does give one pause.  Can we come to our senses and find a better solution???

I have now gone back to Alexander Hamilton, to the time period after the Revolutionary War as he participates in laying the foundation of our country and builds his family.

Finished BLACK ORDER

This author writes intelligent action/thrillers.  From the moment it starts, it is an "on the edge of your seat" roller coaster until the end. On the way, the reader is treated to knowledge about the world's scientists scramble to grab up Nazi research at the end of WWII as well as quantum physics.  The explanation of the latter is such that even I could understand it...attesting to Rollins' teaching ability as well as his story-telling ability.  The tale takes us through Europe, the Himalayas, and South Africa, holding tight to our seats the entire way.  I am about to order more of this man's books.

I have now started The Devil's Diary/ Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich by Robert K Wittman and David Kinney.  It was not planned that I would be following up a novel involving Nazi secrets, with a Non Fiction book along the same vein...  It is just the way the books came up in my piling system.  The first chapter takes us pretty much to the end of the story first, discussing the scramble for Nazi documents after the war and the reasons that so many just disappeared...making research into these subjects difficult.

Finished THE BOOK OF BEGINNINGS in the Enchanted World series.

Of course none of the books in this series claims or even tries to be complete.  They are a collection of myths from all over the world:  this one exploring how the Earth, Sun, Moon, and stars came to be, where people, animals, and plants come from and how they got their individual characteristics.  The fanciful telling of the stories coupled with lovely and colorful illustrations made this book a joy to read.

Now, to replace the last book I read in the series, I am reading Giants and Ogres as my bathroom book.  I look forward to more fascinating tales.

Finished THE STORY TELLER

An old man on the Wind River Reservation, who has the position of storyteller (keeper and teller of the oral history of the Arapaho) relates having seen a ledger book at the Denver Historical Museum and long time ago when he was a child.  Now that museums are returning sacred objects to the tribes they belonged to, the Tribal Counsel hires Vicky to find that ledger and bring it to the tribe archives along with other pieces. This ledger is a record in pictures of a history showing the Arapaho at an important massacre by one of only a handful of survivors.  This leads Vicky and Father John on a dangerous and frustrating search.  Excellent.  These books are adventure stories set in an unfamiliar (to me) environment and is the fourth one of the series I have read.

I am now about to start #3 in the Sigma Force series by James Rollins, my fourth in the series (I read Map of Bones out of order.)  This one appears to be another roller coaster ride a la Raiders of the Lost Ark or Dan Brown thrillers, smart, informative, and exciting.  This book is considerably longer than the last four books I have read, so it will probably take me a couple of weeks to read.

Finished THE MELODY LINGERS ON

Another thriller by one of my favorite authors.  Not a real mystery, but rather one of those things where the reader can see bad things coming long before the heroine does.  As usual, a very enjoyable read.

I have now started The Story Teller, #4 of Margaret Coel's Wind River mysteries.  The book opens with a professor leaving work at the University of Colorado's Denver campus and witnessing a kidnapping in the parking lot.  Then we learn that a young Arapaho staying in Denver has gone missing and Vicky (Arapaho lawyer) agrees to look for him while on her trip there.  Father John O'Malley is on the way there also on Mission business.

Finished THE FAERIE GUARDIAN

Most of the time I spent reading this I thought it was pretty simplistic even for a YA book, but I thought it was interesting enough to perhaps appeal to one of my nieces.  But, by the end of it I find I want to find out what happens next, so I'm going to have to order the next book!

I have now started The Melody Lingers On by Mary Higgins Clark.  This time the protagonist is an interior designer working in a studio run by one of the foremost designers in New York.  A while ago this boss designed a mansion for a Bernie Madoff type character.  Now, of course he has disappeared as has most of the money and his family is left with nothing but debts and notoriety.  The son asks the design studio that seeing as the original design had paid so well, he's appreciate it if they would design his mother's new town house using the furniture that had not been sold to pay off debts and do it gratis....

Finished AWAY WITH THE FAIRIES

Again I love these books.  Our heroine is a modern woman in 1928 Melbourne, Australia.  Her lover has been kidnapped by pirates and the police bring her in on the murder of a writer and illustrator of fairy stories.  So she joins the staff of a women's magazine that the deceased had worked at as well as coordinating with the matriarch of the Chinese family her lover is the heir of to try to find out what has happened to him.  So, obviously, a huge amount is contained in a pretty short book even though the writing style never seems hurried, including much dialogue as well as quite satisfactory descriptions of environments, characters and what they wear.

I am now about to start The Faerie Guardian (Creepy Hollow, Book One) by Rachel Morgan.  I kind of got this book by accident since Rachel Morgan is the name of Kimberly Harrison's Hollows series which I read the last book of.  So I saw this and quickly jumped to the conclusiion that this was the start of her new series.  Of course it is not, but, since I have it, I'll give it a try.

Finished THE PASSION OF CLEOPATRA/ RAMSES THE DAMNED

As usual, I enjoyed Anne Rice's lush world where anything is possible.  Her protagonists stay compassionat and human, even while they struggle/rejoice in not being.  Immortal Ramses chooses to resurrect Cleopatra even though not knowing what the consequences might be and then spends much of his time feeling guilty and puzzling what to do about it.  Of course, a villain arises who wants to capture the secret of immortality for his own selfish ends...  (Not that Ramses actions were unselfish...)  A great vacation from reality.

I have now started another Phryne Fisher Mystery, Away With The Fairies, by Kerry Greenwood.  A children's fairy story writer has dies under "suspicious" circumstances.  She lived in a small garden apartment complex where other writers from the same women's magazine she had worked for live.  Phryne takes a job as a fashion writer with the magazine to help her discover a possible culprit.

Finished A DANGEROUS FORTUNE

Every so often Ken Follett creates a character marked by arrogance, stupidity, and greed that has the power to completely infuriate me.  I met them in Pillars of the Earth and World Without End.  There is another in this book, although since this book is shorter, it wasn't quite so disruptive to my equalibrium.  There were certainly characters to like and admire whose history through the years drives the action.  I definitely enjoyed it.

I have now started Ramses the Damned/ The Passion of Cleopatra by Anne Rice and Christopher Rice.  In addition to the title characters, we have met another immortal..Bektaten who looks to be perhaps a thousand years or more older than Ramses.  There are others--servants and thieves, but they were not royalty.  So far, in the present, these have not come in contact with each other.  Ramses believes the newly awakened Cleopatra to have been killed again in a train and car calamity.  The mortal characters are also intriguing.  I always love to enter the Rice world of luxuriant and often luxurious beauty.

Finished KINGDOM OF THE HILL COUNTRY

The "Hill Country" in Texas is the area around Austin.  Eleven years after the nova of Beatlegeaus destroyed every unprotected piece of electronics with a solonoid, and also killed all animal life that was outdoors when the radiation hit, the country has evolved into a number of city-states with no real protection for small towners or farmers.  A culture of bandits has developed who steal what they can use (including women who they rape and leave pregnant), kill or burn everything else.  They are working their way to Austin in huge numbers and so are the refugees from the Hill Country fleeing them.  Can Austin survive?

I love this inventive, scientifically smart, not only YA author.

I have now started Ken Follett's A Dangerous Fortune.  Set at a prestigious boys' school in 1866 England, an elementary age student drowns in a nearby waterfilled quarry.  The young bully who caused it is actually hailed as a hero in the incident.

Read Another Section of WITCHES and A MAN CALLED OVE

While on vacation, TR's computer began to be very unfriendly to me, so I've put off a couple of blog entries until now.  This section of WITCHES began the slowdown of trials and accusations.  I had thought they ended abruptly, but no, they rather petered out and at least one person was executed after "spectral evidence" began to be disregarded.  This was largely because of the beliefs of Increase Mather and other prominent clergy outside of Salem.  It was Cotton Mather's condoning of  this evidence that allowed it to be accepted as long as it was.

I then began A Man Called Ove  by Fredrik Backman.  Set in Sweden, an everyday sort of  man, Ove, is a curmudgeon.  For instance the only car that makes sense to him is Saab.  If you don't have a Saab, you obviously don't have much sense.  Ove is very good with everything mechanical and does not think a grown man is worth much if he is not.  Gradually we learn about this man's past and he learns about his neighbors.  Ove's opinions do not change much, but his actions gradually show us that he (and other everyday plain people like him) might well be worth a great deal.



After finishing that, I have started Kingdom of the Hill Country, by Henry Melton.  I adore this author of science fiction with young protagonists which (I believe unfairly) classifies his work as Young Adult.  It is obviously much more than that.  I wish I were still teaching, because I would definitely enjoy introducing my students to Melton's books. 

This story starts after the supernova of Beatlegeauss has destroyed all machinery that used solonoids in the world and then killed with radiation a huge percentage of the creatures of earth (including people.)  Eleven years after, the Hill Country around Austin and Austin itself are threatened by huge marauding bands of bandits who steal, rape, kill, and burn everything in their path.

Finished DEAD WAKE

Even knowing the people we were learning about in the first half of the book would be players in the tragedy, I still found it pedantic.  I did feel the second half read much faster and did enjoy it.  I also learned a lot about the times as well as the event.

I have now returned to the scholarly account of the Salam witch trials, The Witches.  As far a being plodding in pace is concerned, it is a bit too similar to my last book.  But, since I am returning to about the middle, hopefully the pace will increase.

Finished GHOSTS

This book proved more entertaining than I had expected.  Beautiful, informative stories told through centuries and fabulous illustrations.  I think I found where the legend of the white walkers introduced in A Tale of Fire and Ice (or) Game of Thrones came from.  I have had these books so long, that the book discintegrated in my hands as I read it...the cover came off, then the book gradually broke apart of it's binding leaving me with several pieces placed in the folder of it's cover.  No matter.  They will all be kept..excellent references.

I have now started The Book of Beginnings from the same set--Time/Life books The Enchanted World.  These stories of how the world started were each a part of someone's religion, at one time.  They are to be respected.  They might well form the basis for many myths and legends we still value.

Finished HOST

As usual, I sat at the edge of my seat through the whole book.  The protagonists were hyper-brave and the odds against them were huge.  The premise was, I hope, a little over the top, but what if it is not?

I have now started Dead Wake by Erik Larson.  It has started rather pedantically, but all the books by him sort of have.  However, since the subject matter is war rather than crime, who knows...I may find the entire thing pedantic.

Finished GOOD WIVES by Louisa May Alcott

I think the edition of Little Women that I read as a child must have included this book also, since I knew everything that happened in it.  Not that that was bad.  I enjoyed the description of the men the girls married and the description of how the romances proceeded.  I remember being disappointed in how things turned out for two of the sisters, but I now am not disappointed any more understanding better how these choices came about.

The next of my piles of books was The Rejected Writer's Club.  But having just read The Little Paris Bookshop followed by Good Wives, I decided I can't take any more saccharin at the moment so skipped the next pile and went to Robin Cook's Host.  I will add my other two Alcott books to the The Rejected Writer's Club books.  Host begins with a woman whose husband died during routine surgery at a nearby hospital being murdered in a horrible home invasion.  Now another man, entering the same hospital to have routine surgery is rendered comatose and probably brain dead.  Both hospital incidents are unexplained.

Finished THE LITTLE PARIS BOOKSHOP

I completely enjoyed this book for a totally different reason than I expected to.  I could not help love Monsieur Perdu--such a gentle insightful soul, obviously caring about the people that surround him.  But, instead of a lesson in gentleness, this was a lesson in dealing with grief.  And as such, it is enjoyable, fun, but also instructive.  I also love Nina George's writing style, but actually, I am probably talking about Simon Pare's writing style (translator.)  The use of language also drew me into this gentle caring world.

Now I have started Good Wives, the sequel to Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott.  Of course, I read Little Women a couple of times when I was a child and over the years, have seen many film recreations of it, the most recent being the PBS edition.  I had known about the sequel Jo's Boys, but had not even realized that there were actually 3 sequels.  This book is the first, starting with Meg's wedding.  It may be a bit too "goody-goody" after the book I have just finished (The Little Paris Bookshop), but I'm pretty sure I will enjoy it.