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...