Finished LACED

Good setting (a castle--now inn--in Ireland and surrounding area), great characters (Jack and Regan Reilly), good antagonists (jewel thieves with a vendetta.)  As usual, I enjoyed Carol Higgins Clark's book.



I have now started Kathleen and Michael Gear's People of the Lakes.  The lakes in question are the Great Lakes and area south, including the Mississippi river.  Niagara Falls (where I grew up) figures prominently, which makes it especially fun.  It is set approximately 1000 years ago and, as usual for their books, is marked by mystical spiritualism and great ingenuity.

Finished DEAD RECKONING

Enjoyed this lark as much as the other Sookie books.  As a matter of fact, I think I may stop watching True Blood and just continue to enjoy the books, which are taking a much more reasonable direction than the series.  Fun light reading.



Have started Laced by Carol Higgins Clark.  Already about three subplots that are intermingling and I am intrigued.  Quite enjoyable.

Finished Part 2 of Les Miserables

There was only one incident in this part which was repeated in the musical and movie.  It was certainly one of the memorable scenes in the movie and very well done, but was a small and not even the most exciting incident in this section of the book, which was characterized by a run-in with Javert when it was least expected.



This section also included two very long and unconnected (to the story) descriptive narratives: one on the battle of Waterloo and the other on the purpose and value of convents.  These were tough slogging through, but the story and the writing remain very much worth the effort. 

I have now started Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris.  It is the eleventh book in the Sookie Stackhouse series (True Blood on HBO) and starts out with a fire bombing of Merlotte's while Sookie, Sam, other employees and customers are inside.  So, well into it quickly.

Finished three books and Started Another

Finished A Dance with Dragons.  I love these books and hate that I have to wait for another to come out--this will be The Winds of Winter.  However, I notice it is very difficult for likeable people to remain good or even alive in this 'verse.

Then I read Divine Misdemeanors by Laurell K. Hamilton, another erotic fantasy in the Meredith Gentry series.  Meredith continues to be stuck between a rock and a hard place, but, at least she manages to have a good time in the midst of turmoil.



I have also finished Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie.  The knowledge needed to solve this ahead of Poirot was not in my repertoire, but I had it about as solved as I was able.  However--not until just before Poirot told us, and after he had figured it out.  I enjoyed the book immensely.  Christie often makes me laugh out loud--especially with Hastings observations.



I am now back to Les Miserables, reading part 2.

Finished DARK VISIONS

Actually, I had read this before, but so long ago that I only remembered certain high tension moments--and not all of them by any means.  I went ahead and read it again because it was a good premise and because I find L. J. Smith very readable, pleasant, easy, interesting, and creative.  In this, five psychic high school seniors are rounded up (all with different powers) ostensibly to be studied and then get rewarded for their hard work with full college tuition paid for to the college of their choice.  A formidable incentive.  Of course, things will inevitably go downhill from there as they discover exactly where they are and who their benefactor really is.  I love stories about powerful young people motivated by love and a strong sense of right and wrong.  A worthy read.



I have now started George R. R. Martin's A DANCE WITH DRAGONS, fifth book in the Song of Fire and Ice series.  It starts with characters that we left at the end of A CLASH OF SWORDS, the early action running concurrent with the events of A FEAST OF CROWS, but in a different locality.  And at some point the author promises that we will pick up characters from A FEAST OF CROWS.  Then, the action will continue beyond the time slot that fourth book ended at.  However, this is not the last book of the series.  The next, THE WINDS OF WINTER, has not been published yet.

This starts with a prologue in which we meet a "skinchanger," a person who can enter animals' psyches and travel with them for awhile.  Though this person had used his powers completely selfishly, I look forward to seeing both Bran and Jon soon and learning more about how they are doing and what they are up to.

Finished OUR ENDANGERED VALUES

Though I don't agree with everything Jimmy Carter believes, it is amazing how similar our proposed compromises are.  Everything he'd like to see accomplished, he makes gentle, world protecting, people protecting proposes for.  I agree with all of his proposals...  They won't accomplish perfection, but they would go a long way to improving things.

Overall, he approaches world problems with the Christian values of peace, love, and charity.  Though he does not question the Christianity of those who don't (he thinks they are misguided), I certainly do.  The miracle of this man's thinking is that seeing what is happening in the world clearly as he does with us as the instigator of much of it (the world sees us as an example, but they tend to do as we do, not as we say, which explains much of the recent genocide in primitive countries--wasn't that what we were trying to do when we invaded Iraq?), he continues to propose optimistic, loving, peaceful, and charitable solutions which just might work, if we could move ill-meaning and ridiculously judgmental "fundamentalists" out of DC.



I am now about to start Dark Visions, by L. L. Smith (the author of The Vampire Diaries.)  This book is actually three books put together and I am looking forward to it.

Finished LE MORTE DARTHUR

I suspect some of those who have been following me on Goodreads and Facebook may have thought I'd never finish this.  I broke it into three sections and read each like a book, leaving it for two cycles of piles on my "to read" shelf (maybe a little less than a year between each section.)

OK.  It was dry.  There was no character development.  It read like a history textbook.  But I had wanted to read something as close to the origin of the story as I could get.  There are texts closer, much closer.  But I can't (or don't want to) read Old English and certainly not Old French, so this was it.  I did read a lot of stories I had not heard before as well as how Arthur, Mordred, Guenevere, and Lancelot died...which I had not really gotten before.  I will now proceed to read The Once and Future King (which the book I just finished says was the epitaph on his tombstone) to see how it compares.  But not immediately.



I have now started Our Endangered Values by Jimmy Carter.  He is definitely addressing Christian Values, but in a more rational way than we usually hear them addressed politically today.  Usually someone picks and chooses sentences from the Bible to beat us into hating whole groups of people with.  To prove to us that some human beings (belonging to different groups from that of the person doing the preaching) should not have human rights.

But, who was our most Christian president?  Really?  Who, of our presidents, most exemplifies (then and now) the values of Love and Charity that we grew up with?  If I am going to read a book, written by a politician about values, this is the author I will go with!   And he is refreshing!  A person who truly loves and respects people--all people.  In this day and age!