Scribblings

Cell

I finished reading Cell by Stephen King a few days ago. I've never been a fan of cell phones and I only use mine to make a call when needed. I have mine turned on in case of an emergency--but it stays in the car. After reading this book, I guess there's a good reason for it! This is a cell phone junkie's worst nightmare--what happens if there is a massive "pulse" and you are on the phone?

We never do learn why there was a pulse. Was it an act of terrorism? Aliens? All we know is that the pulse makes instant murderers out of anyone on a cell phone at the time of the occurrence. It's a very creepy idea indeed. That's about where the originality ended though. Otherwise, the story was much like The Stand--which was a far better book!

People who survived the pulse and who weren't on the cell phones band together and begin travelling in a somewhat common destination--north. They have common dreams about the place they are to go to and about a certain person one character calls "The Raggedy Man".

Cell is unnecessarily bloody and gruesome in several places, an unfortunate trait Stephen King has picked up in the last several years. Still, I liked it better than many of his recent books. Give it a try.

Spring Reading Thing

I'm getting started on this a little late but as the saying goes: better late than never!

I am so glad that I found this site. I love to read and so this just fits in with one of my favorite activities.

Here are the rules:

Make a list of books you want to read (or finish reading) this spring. Your list can be as long or as short as you'd like.

Write a blog post containing your list and submit it to this post using the Mr. Linky below.

Get reading! The challenge goes from today, March 21st, through June 21st.

Check out other participants' lists and add to your own to-read-someday pile!

If you're so inclined, write reviews of the books you read along the way.

Write a post about your challenge experience in June, telling us all about whether you reached your goals and how the Spring Reading Thing went for you.

I'm not as fast a reader as I used to be and so my list is going to be modest to start. I figure I can read a book in a week to 10 days.

My list:

Pervasive Developmental Disorder: A Different Perspective by Barbara Quinn & Anthony Malone

I am reading this one to get a better understanding of what is going on with Tomas.

Cell by Stephen King, my favorite horror author. This one is better than many of his books recently written!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling--I figure I better get this one read before the last one comes out, eh?

Living Well With Depression & Bipolar Disorder: What Your Doctor Doesn't Tell You...That You Need To Know by John McManamy

I'm reading this one because the females in this house have one thing or the other

On the Road by Jack Kerouac. I'm reading this one because my goal has been to read a classic for every 3 other books I read.

Icy Sparks by Gwyn Hyman Rubio because it's on Oprah's list and because it looked like a good read to me. I am drawn to hardship tales told by precious girl/orphan children.

Do you want to participate too? Go to Callapidder Days and sign up!

Dubliners

I don't usually enjoy reading short stories but I wanted to give it another shot this month. I wanted to read a book by an Irish author for obvious reasons. I eventually chose Dubliners by James Joyce. I was a bit disappointed because these were more like character sketches than short stories. Some were only a few pages long and I found they ended too abruptly. I am thinking specifically about the first story, "The Sisters" which was about a boy and a mentoring priest who died. The boy and his mother went to a wake at the home of the priest's sisters--they'd taken him in and were talking about how it was no trouble to take care of him ... and the story ended. Huh? Some of the stories were quite effective. The one I found most moving was "Counterparts" about a ne'er do well type of guy who is verbally abused by his boss, hangs out and gets drunk with his friends, spends all his money, then goes home and beats the snot out of his son. Poor kid. Another one I was moved by was called "A Painful Case". A snobbish young man becomes friendly with an older married woman who shares similar interests in books and plays. This woman is neglected by her husband and is very lonely. Anyway, she and the young man meet together just to talk and books and things. One day, she touches his cheek with her hand and he freaks out, breaking their friendship. Four years later, he finds out she's thrown herself in front of a train. Does his miss her? No, he starts to get the heebie jeebies, wondering how he could ever be friends with such a "loser" in the first place. Whoa. If anyone is interested in reading classics and hasn't read this book, you might just enjoy it. Just because it's not my cup of tea doesn't mean that it isn't a work of art.

When Bad Things Happen To Good People

Not long ago I was talking to a close family member whose husband had been suffering a decline in health. Oh boy, do I remember how that felt--to have a young husband with a life threatening illness and small children to support! What can you say to "it's not fair"? Not: "Life IS unfair." It's true but it doesn't help answer "why me, what did I do to deserve this?"

Sometimes I think of life's problems like trying to swim in rough surf. Waves fall on you, one after the other, really big ones. So you catch your breath and duck your head under so that the wave doesn't throw you on the beach. When you stand up to recover and get another breath, you realize there's another big wave about to crash over your head. Just when you figure you are either going to get knocked under or dragged out to sea, there's a calm and you can get to shore. But don't tarry too long because here comes the next wave!

My pastor recommended a book to me many years ago: When Bad Things Happen To Good People by Harold S. Kushner. Reading that book helped a little although there was much that went right over my head. I told my loved one about the book. It doesn't provide the answers we want but it does provide a measure of comfort in the exploration of why bad things happen to us. After I talked with my loved one, I searched around for my copy of the book and decided to read it again.

Rabbi Kushner wrote the book after his young son died of progeria, a wasting disease that causes the child to grow very old prematurely. Why should an innocent little boy be afflicted with such a thing? That's a question we often ask ourselves when tragedies involve children but, really, it's something anyone who suffers would ask. The most well known story of suffering has to be the Book of Job from the Bible and the book covers it in great detail. Why was Job singled out for so many bad things?

I began to get "hooked" when Kushner talked about 3 basic truths we want to believe about the story of Job:

1. God is all powerful and nothing happens in the world without His willing it
2. God is just and fair so that if you are good, you are rewarded and if you are bad, you are punished
3. Job is a good man

Then he says that as long as Job is healthy and wealthy, we have no problem with the three statements being true. You have to sacrifice at least one in order to believe in the other two. The easy choice is to say well, Job must have transgressed somehow and so he's got this coming to him. But in the Bible, it's emphasized that Job really is a good man. In fact Satan says to God, well, you can't hold Job up as a good example of a righteous man because he's living the good life. I bet he'd turn on you real quick if bad stuff started happening to him. So ... if God just went ahead and caused all these things to happen to Job just to prove a point what does that say about God being just and fair? And isn't it hard to love and worship a God like that? Weren't the Roman gods like that--capricious and mean sometimes?

So Kushner takes the position that God may not be as omnipotent as we think. Now that's a hard one to swallow, right? Kushner points out that God created the world in 6 days and on the 7th day He rested. But what if he wasn't done? What if that is why there is all the chaos and nastiness in the world? That is a scary thought, isn't it? You'd like to think that God was in total control of everything but ... how can that be? Unless He is not a just, loving God and I find that even scarier.

How does this book help? Well, Kushner talks a lot about guilt and why we tend to believe we bring on the bad things that happen to us. He talks about how angry we get at God especially when other people say to us:

God needed ____ in heaven more than you did
Suffering makes you noble
God must be trying to teach you a lesson
It's all for the best
God never gives you more than you can bear

All of it's well meaning but I remember when I heard these things after Rich died I thought: why would I go to God for comfort now? Wasn't I strong enough? Hadn't Rich been noble enough? What had I not learned that it would cost me my husband's life? And how could it possibly be for the best? See what I mean? So what good is God, if He can't stop the bad things and suffering from happening to us? What I've learned from this--as Kushner did and wrote so well--God can give us a lot of things. We just have to ask. "Help me get through this, God, I am so alone," I used to pray. And I would feel Him. It was like getting a warm hug. God works in us in other ways too.

Read the book--there is so much that I think would benefit anyone who has suffered at all in life. And, after all, that would be all of us, right?

At Weddings & Wakes

The language is pretty--if that makes sense--but that's about it. I wanted to like the story. It's about an Irish-American family told from the viewpoint of the Dailey children...supposedly. The thing is, through most of the book the narrator is referred to as "the children". There's a brother and two sisters and I didn't even learn their names until near the end of the book. That was unsatisfying. The prose didn't sound like childlike, though, and that was annoying too even though the language was beautiful. The children did this, the children did that. The children missed out on all the secrets of the grownups because they had to go into another room. So I read about someone crying and someone arguing and had no idea why. The kids' mom was unhappy with their dad--"he's not the man I married" or something like that. And yet the man seemed to be a wonderful dad and husband. What's the problem here? The maiden aunt who used to be in a convent meets and marries a man...how wonderful for her! But her joy is short-lived. Why? What happened? It's not explained to my satisfaction. And then there's the shifting between one time and the next. It starts out one summer, then it fast forwards to some point in the future after the tragedy, and then it flips back. All through the book, I wondered: who *are* these people anyway? I don't feel I learned enough about any of them to particularly care. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Forever Odd & Wednesday Mind Hump

What a nice coincidence that I finish reading a book and one of my favorite memes is about that very topic.

I know that a lot of people loved reading Forever Odd by Dean Koontz. This book is the second in a series about a strange loveable young man named Odd Thomas. Odd is cursed or blessed with the ability to see dead people but, unfortunately, they don't talk. Usually he can figure out what it is that they want. Most are victims of crimes and so Odd helps the local police catch the bad guy and the traumatized spirit move on. Odd himself was traumatized in the first book in a real twist of an ending. I guess I was expecting more from this book because unlike everyone else, I was pretty disappointed.

There's lots of fast paced action and there are twists. What I missed are characters I care about. There's Odd, of course, and maybe it should have been enough that he was the star of the book. I found myself missing his friends, though, the ones who helped him through his emotional crisis: the sheriff, sheriff's wife, the fat writer, and the kind hearted boss lady. I was introduced to a new friend, one who suffers from brittle bones (Osteogenesis imperfecta). Koontz goes into great detail about the disease and Odd talks about how much his friend Danny has suffered...and I just didn't care. It didn't hook me.

Danny's been kidnapped by 3 psychos led by a particularly sick and twisted sister named Datura. I totally detested her and her two goons. There was absolutely nothing redeemable about them and so I was totally turned off by some of the banter between Odd and Datura. Ugh. I cheered at Datura's bloody end but the end of the book didn't come soon enough for me. There was an iterminable and mind boggling chase before the end of the story finally came. I kept wondering, why doesn't this bad guy just give up? What's the point? Is he driven by some kind of implied voodooism? I don't know.

It was an okay book. Maybe it's just me. I hope I enjoy the next one more. Personally, I give this one a 5.

Wednesday Mind Hump

What is the last book you read? Wow, see above!
Who is your favorite character in the book? Odd Thomas
Did you enjoy the book? To be honest, not that much
Would you recommend the book to others? No

All Quiet on the Western Front

This is one of the best anti-war classics I've ever read. I know that it's not the first one and definitely not the last but the story was told in such a way that it got under my skin. There weren't gory descriptions of wounds but still Erich Marie Remarque told me all about the horrors of war and what it does to a soldier.

When I was a little girl, there was a comic series called Classics Illustrated. I think over time I got almost every issue and read through them before I was 10. I remember All Quiet on the Western Front--it scared me. I remembered the panels in which the main character and hero, Paul, visited his dying wounded friend in the hospital and that another comrade wanted the poor guy's boots. I remember a panel in which a teacher strongly encouraged young men of 17 and 18 to go to war--it was their patriotic duty. That was one of the few comics I could not bring myself to read.

After being able to sit through most of Saving Private Ryan, I thought I should be able to read this book.

Paul Bremer is the narrator and hero of this book. While he and his friends were still students in school, their teacher practically strong armed them into joining the army. Once they are sent to France, they are sent to "the front" every day in trucks. I can't imagine what it would be like to have to endure daily bombardments and danger from poisonous gases, huddled in a ditch sometimes with dead bodies and/or water. I think I would lose my mind and try to make a run for it as some of the young recruits did.

Paul describes how he had to kill a man in self defense and then, sickened, had to huddle in that trench and watch the man die a slow, painful death. He tries to ease the other man's suffering by giving him water. He makes all kinds of promises in his head to write the man's family, to support the bereaved family and so on and so on and realizes he won't do any of it.

He describes foraging for food with his friends and the miserable conditions for those who are wounded.

Normally when a story is told in the first person, you sort of "get" that the person isn't going to die. However, after losing all of his friends to the war and realizing he will never feel at home again even when peace comes, Paul stands up one day when "all is quiet on the western front" and is shot down and killed. Surprise!

There is a reason this book is a classic. I had no idea that Erich Marie Remarque also wrote Bobby Deerfield and so I will have to go look for it.

If you haven't read this book yet, give it a try.

Late Talking Preschool Children

One reason it's taking me so long to read All Quiet on the Western Front is because I've been reading relevant non-fiction at the same time.

I ordered Late Talking Preschool Children from Amazon because I wanted more information about PDD and how to deal with it. I was hoping I'd get some good information from this book. It certainly was expensive enough, almost $30.00. What I got was a cheaply bound thing similar to what you might get at a conference or something. As if that wasn't annoying enough, more than half the book was devoted to teaching reading readiness. If I'd known that was going to be the bulk of the book, I would have skipped on buying it.

Here are a couple of lines from the opening chapter:

Children who don't seem ready to talk when their peers talk are often a challenge.

No! Ya think?

It is our experience that these children have very worried parents.

And worried grandparents--but there's good reason to be worrying, right? So far I'm learning nothing here.

Finally, something new:

Most of the late talking children we see have a characteristic in common. It is our experience that the late talking or PDD children...are risk avoidant. They fail on purpose, even when it is apparent they can do the challenges presented to them...

I remember thinking that some of the tasks Tomas was given to do during his psychological evaluations should have been easy because I'd seen him do them before. Yet he not only refused to try, he wouldn't even look at whatever it was. The book says labels like PD, autistic, and retarded are applied "when the child in a new situation (the testing situation) refused to do much of anything, pretending to be totally inept."

Interesting.

There was a good suggestion for how to deal with a risk avoidant child. The author recommended that the child be given 9 tasks he or she can succeed at for every challenging one. That makes sense--if the child can complete a task easily then he or she is more willing to take on more challenges. This short chapter was followed by a huge chapter about flash cards and reading readiness.

At the very end, there was a redeeming chapter that provided some more insight into what Tomas might be thinking or feeling. For example, the author described children who have a hard time separating from their parents--i.e. to go to school. She gave an analogy that made plenty of sense to me:

Imagine how easy it would be for you to attend an obligatory cocktail party (or more exactly, months of cocktail parties) where no one but one friend was speaking the language you speak, and then your friend decided to leave. You would not want your friend to leave. This may help you to empathize with the young child who cannot unscramble the words of all the unfamiliar people...

A new situation would mean something like--a new place, new people, and demands for new behaviors. The author recommends that a child be exposed to not more than two of the 3 situations. How to do that? Well, in Tomas's case, we visited his class before he started school and met his teacher and classmates. Before he rode the bus for the first time, he met the driver. Yes, he still had meltdowns afterwards but I sort of suspect if he'd had more opportunities to visit and maybe a trial run on the bus with his mom or me present, it would have gone a little easier for him.

So the book wasn't a total loss. But there have to be much better ones out there so I'll keep looking.

The Explosive Child

I bought the book to better understand how to deal with some of Little T's explosions. He has come such a long way since he first came to live with us but every once in a while, we'll still have a major meltdown. When I get a chance I'll set down and do an update on what's going on with our Tomas.

Anyway, the basic premise and theme throughout this book is: "Children do well if theycan"

In other words,when some kids have these tremendous tantrums it's not because they are trying to get attention or are spoiled or are obstinante or rebellious or possessed or what have you. It's because they are not able to comply for some reason. What reason could that be?

Maybe the brain hasn't developed pathways for executive skills--like being able to transition from one activity to another smoothly or to organize thoughts and actions.

Maybe there's a language processing delay.

Maybe they are developmentally delayed in the ability to control their feelings--especially to frustrations.

Maybe they are not able to "see" gray areas yet and everything is black or white.

Maybe social skills are delayed.

The idea is for the parents to act like the child's frontal lobe (what a concept!) to teach them how to develop and use pathways that will help them solve problems and communicate without exploding.

Does it sound like giving in to the child? It's not, not if you read the book all the way through.

It makes perfect sense for a parent to try and stay calm and teach a child how to work through an issue. The plan -- it's actually called "Plan B" -- involves 3 steps. All 3 steps have to be completed and in order for it to be Plan B. Everything is explained and there are lots of examples and sample conversations using Plan B.

I found it to be very informative and I think it could be an effective tool dealing with these kids.

Dreams From My Father

I bought this book a while ago from Borders, sometime after the Democratic National Convention in 2004. That was when I first heard of Barack Obama, junior senator from Illinois. He seemingly came out of nowhere, a quickly rising star and I wanted to know more about him. I'd decided I would read a nonfiction book for every 3 fictions and I chose this one for the first of the year.

I really liked his voice. The story he tells is poignant and compelling. I did not know this before but Barack Obama is multicultural. He had a black African father and a white mother who'd relocated to Hawaii with her family (from the midwest!). His mother's parents were somewhat liberal and left the midwest not only because of restlessness but because they didn't care for the bigoted views there. Still they were taken aback at the idea their daughter would marry a black man.

Unfortunately for Obama, his father did not stay and he grew up wondering about the man. His mother remarried an Indonesian man named Lolo and for a short time, they all lived in Indonesia where the young Obama saw first hand what life was like for the poor. And boy, talk about multicultural experiences!

On the road to trying to "find himself" Obama has some very enlightening experiences and encounters and he is honest about them all as he examines who he is. He eventually makes it to Kenya and meets his other family.

I thought this was a very inspiring book! Read it to hear a fresh, honest voice--one that hasn't been jaded by the politics machine yet!

Everyman

Everyman by Philip Roth was certainly a good book to read at the end of the year because of its so many universal themes. The "Everyman" in this book is a 71 year old guy in failing health--even though he works out and is careful with what he eats. He's had a successful career but not such a great personal life. There are feelings expressed that I think all of us have felt as we've gotten older--regrets for wrongs we've committed, sorrow for friendships and relationships and people we've lost, resentment for failing health and flabby skin and so on. I really could relate to a lot of it. I thought it was a great book and I was very moved at the end when the main character goes to the cemetery and talks with a grave digger. He learns that the grave digger did prepare his parents' graves and learns all the nitpicky and even gruesome details about the care taken. I don't like to think about death but let's face it, this is what we're all looking at eventually. Maybe that's why I wanted to read this book as soon as I heard about it--just as I wanted to read The Lovely Bones and The Five People You Meet In Heaven. Do we all have a morbid fascination with death and what comes after? Maybe...I would have given the book a 10 except I didn't understand why the man had three failed marriages and still was gawking at pretty women. Don't you learn by example? He had good parents in a loving marriage and his older brother was in a good marriage. So why was this guy such a slut? Oh well...but don't let that turn you off to reading it. It's worth it.

The Autobiography of Santa Claus

This was a fun book to read although it did drag a little. That's not why it took me a month to read it. The reason is that I don't read as much as I used to, something I'm hoping to change in the new year.

Anyway, I was totally enchanted with the idea of The Autobiography of Santa Claus "as told to" Jeff Guinn. Santa's always been a magical figure in my life and I think I even sort of half-way believe in him.

One of the things I liked about this book was that Santa--who started out life as Nicholas of Lycia in the Middle East in an area later claimed by Turkey--gives credit for the idea of helping and gift giving to Jesus and his birth. That eases the sting of commercialism a little, doesn't it? Nicholas's early attempts at giving presents is totally hilarious. I figured I was going to be in love with the book.

Now I get to what I did not like about the book: too much history and meeting famous people. I would have loved the story if it stayed focused on Nicholas, Layla (who became his wife) and loyal friend/partner in crime Felix. I feel like I didn't get to know them well enough. Nicholas meets and inducts into his merry band of gift givers Attila the Hun (!!!???), King Arthur, Leonardo da Vinci...get it? There's just too much history and too many characters for one book. After awhile I began to wonder what famous person is not an elf?

Still, it was fun. Try it!

The House of the Seven Gables

I decided it would be a good idea to read classics I wasn't forced to read in school...it just seemed like a good idea at the time. I knew I wouldn't be able to read a bunch of them in a row so I thought every 4th book would be a classic. The first one I picked was the slim volume The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It sounded like it would be a good spooky book, appropriate for October and Halloween.

I just finished it and that was more because I was too busy to read. That's unfortunate because you really have to pay attention with some of these stories because the language is a little hard to follow. It's a great story but because I wasn't reading consistently there were things going on that I didn't understand.

The house is haunted....maybe. Way back when, a grasping Pyncheon elder decided he wanted the land a certain poor fellow named Maule already owned. Pyncheon was a justice and so all he had to do to seize the land was to accuse Maule of witchcraft. Oh...the time period? Well, it was published in 1851 if that gives you a starter and this originally judge lived aorund the time of the Salem witch trials. Anyway, he seizes the land and builds a house with seven gables right on top of the place Maule's home used to stand. Now, is that asking for a haunted house or what? Sure enough, bad things happen to the Pyncheon family beginning with the judge--he's found dead by a young relative.

Hawthorne had a hilarious sense of humor. I loved his descriptions of the current resident of the house, poor old Hepzibah. She is a sight to run from with a perpetual scowl on her face. She finds herself in the embarrassing circumstance of having to open a shop to earn money because the family's now broke. As she tries to set up shop and serve customers, I had to laugh at some of the things she did. Poor old thing! Fortunately for her, a young relative arrives from the country, Phoebe. Phoebe's got much better people skills and the shop does much better.

But wait! Now there's a new character, Clifford--and this is one of the pieces I missed. I got the fact that he is the rather simple minded brother of Hepzibah and that she wanted to protect him. I missed the fact that he'd been in prison--I assumed he was in a mental institution considering the way he was behaving. Anyway, Clifford takes quite a liking to Phoebe and I suppose the three of them would have limped along in their dysfunctional manner if not for a boarder at the house.

Hargraves is a young photographer (I mean, dageuerretypist) who one day decides to fill Phoebe in on some of the ickier ghost stories surrounding the house, specifically--the son of Matthew Maule getting revenge on the Pyncheon family by bringing Alice Pyncheon under his spell and using her for datardly deeds. Phoebe decides it's time to go home.

There is another relative in all this, Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon--described on the back cover as "the devil incarnate". I am not sure why. He torments his cousins, Hepzibah and Clifford, that's about all I got out of it. He threatens to put Clifford in an insane asylum and the next thing you know, Clifford's standing over the dead body. Hmmmmm....so does this mean Clifford killed Jaffrey or did one of the already dead and cursed Pyncheons--or even Maule--do it?

At any rate, no one blames Clifford and he and his sister are able to leave the miserable house and live out their lives in the country.

Okay.

It's a classic--not as suspenseful as I might have liked but I think Hawthorne brought out some sore points about social classes in a way to make you think--i.e. the fact that rich Judge Pyncheon was so easily able to wrest Maule's property away. I also enjoyed the humor and I'm glad that Hepzibah and Clifford got away from that place!

Because it's taking me so long to read and finish books, I think I'll move on to Christmas themed books now.

Stones from the River

What a great book! So far I have enjoyed all of Oprah Winfrey's picks.

Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi is about Trudi Montag, first a child and then a woman with a good loving heart and a creative flair for stories. The thing is, though, she is also a dwarf and that physical difference sets her apart from nearly everyone--except for her loving father. Trudi also lives through the dangerous Nazi time period when that difference could have cost her life.

Poor Trudi! When her emotionally disturbed mother sees her for the first time, mom has a breakdown and is never the same although she does develop something of a relationship with her daughter. Trudi's early memories of her mother include coaxing her out from under the house with her stories. The mother dies when Trudi is 4 and although her father loves her, Trudi misses her mother. She has "fair weather" friends throughout her life--children who play with her for a time and then move on when they find someone "better" (normal?) to play with. The same thing happens as she grows to a young woman. What man wants to be romantically involved with a dwarf?

There are a lot of painful truths in this book yet it is tempered by the love of warmth of the father and neighbors--some of whom manage to keep their decency during the war and protest the treatment of their Jewish neighbors.

I would definitely recommend this book to others!

Howl's Moving Castle

I saw the movie version of Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones with Kristin. It was a cute movie, I thought, a little confusing but otherwise the animation was terrific. The movie followed the book's storyline up to a certain point and then they diverged. I lost track of who was who in terms of the enchanted and found myself rushing through the last quarter of the book. I'm not quite sure what the point of the book was because the characters weren't well defined. It was just okay, a good read for kids but not really my cup of tea.

One Door Away From Heaven

Aunt Gen, a lovable eccentric character in this Dean Koontz novel about aliens and redemption, asked her niece, Mickey, this question when she was a little girl. Aunt Gen didn't realize that Mickey was an abused child and although the answers were always strange and wrong, they didn't raise a red flag. That's not exactly the point of this book but it's where the title comes from. As usual, Dean Koontz didn't disappoint. I was turning pages--slowly, admittedly but that's more because I was so busy with other stuff than because of the book--and didn't want to put the book down.

There are different characters in trouble converging on each other. Troubled Mickey, now an adult, feels compelled to rescue a very bright disabled little girl from her menacing stepfather--a charming killer who believes aliens are coming to "cure" the child. Or so he says.

There is a motherless boy on the run from the government and a group of savage, relentless killers. Why are they all after him? He befriends a dog who helps him stay on the run.

Finally, there is a disillusioned detective, bitter and also self-destructive.

Somehow, I knew all these people were going to end up in the same place...and they did. What a great book! Read it!

Now I am switching from my summer time reading genre (mystery thrillers) to books I need to read and move--bookrays and rings I belong to and books that have been waiting around for over a year for me to get to them!

Back to School Pt.2/More Mystery Thrillers

Today Heidi started classes at the community college. It's such a dreary day I didn't take any pictures. Sorry, kiddo--she doesn't really like to have her picture taken. On Friday, she's going to make an attempt at passing the written driving test and then we can get her lessons on the road. Soon she'll be able to drive the car she bought from Gram! Today she's got a math class--that's it. Not too bad.

I was so happy to hear from my cousin Anne. She and her husband Gil came down from Long Island to NJ so that she could attend a company conference. They arrived the day before and so TB and I met them for dinner. We had such a wonderful time. I was glad to see them again--the last time was right before I married TB so it's been more than 4 years! We're planning to go up to LI to visit them in October--after Parents weekend at RPI.

I've been so busy it's been hard to find time to read, never mind write, but I did manage to finish 3 good books recently. This summer, I wanted to keep it all "light" and so I've been reading mysteries and thrillers. I enjoyed Cabinet of Curiosities so much I decided to go back and read all of Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child's books featuring the charmingly weird Detective Pendergast. The very first one was Relic and I was not disappointed, although Pendergast was a secondary character in this one. Still, I found myself turning the pages and reluctant to put the book down until the end. What a twist--I was expecting some kind of weirdness with the killer character but certainly not what happened! A very good read.

Next, I read Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz. He is another favorite of mine because of the frequent twists and turns he takes and because of his wacky humor. This was an absolutely amazing story of two families intertwined together in a series of predictions made by a dying grandfather. Well, it was really hard to keep up with all the twists in the book but I was determined to do it because it was so good. I spent a lot of time laughing. This is a great book for someone to read who is always waiting for the other shoe to drop...that is, someone who wonders what bad thing is around the corner even when things are going well. It's a good book to read if you've got a family member with an illness and you're just not sure what's going to happen or when. I've read a review that says it's a good book to read to teach you how to cope with unexpected tragic events like 9/11--well, I don't know about that. All I know is, it's a great book. Read it!

Lastly, I read Dr. Death by Jonathan Kellerman. I'm not all that fond of the Dr. Alex Delaware character but I have several of these group of books through Paperback Swap. I'm going to read them and then pass them along. They've been just so-so, not so terrible I'm going to put it down but not so great that they'll be stories to remember. In this one, the mystery surround the murder of a doctor who's been notorious for "euthanizing" his patients--kind of a fictional Kevorkian. It turns out an obscure, never seen serial killer is the culprit and I just sort of shrugged. So it goes.

Two out of three ain't bad.

Two Mystery Thrillers

I've decided to give mystery thrillers a try this summer although I'm not usually a fan of the genre. I finished two recently and really enjoyed one but not the other.

The one I didn't enjoy much is called White Male Infant by Barbara D'Amato. Truthfully, I thought the premise was an interesting one: the father of an adopted child (supposedly from Russia) learns that his baby could not have been born there--and so who is his son in actuality? It turns out the father is a pathologist and happened to get a sample of his son's bone marrow or spinal fragments from a test for leukemia. The doctor noticed the sample was fluorescent and began to wonder why. It turns out that only a specific antibiotic could cause such a thing to happen--an antibiotic not available in Russia. Meanwhile, it turns out the little boy did not have leukemia.

This dad kept wondering and worrying about that sample. I wondered if I would go to the lengths this doctor did--it almost seemed to me like maybe he really didn't want the child after all because after his first attempts to research the child's background instead of giving up and feeling relieved he had a healthy son, he kept going. He began looking for missing children reports and trying to match the boy's physical characteristics with parents who'd had their babies stolen--very noble, don't get me wrong. But believeable? Eh.

If the author stuck with this character, I think I would have enjoyed it more. Instead, she introduces a whole bunch of "cardboard" characters with little or no substance to them. The worst of these stereotypes was the doctor's father-in-law. There was little to no imagination in them and that's too bad.

I'd give the book a 5 out of 10. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone as a great read.

On the other hand, I enjoyed Cabinet of Curiosities by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child very much! I'd read one of their books last year, Still Life With Crows and while I enjoyed the FBI character very much--Agent Pendergast--I didn't care for the story. Later, I read some reviews about a series of books about this agent character and his evil brother. I have to say I was intrigued and interested in giving them a try. I knew there was a trilogy but wasn't sure which were the first two. Anyway, I went onto Book Swap and requested several books by the authors. This book was one of 3 I requested and received.

What a thrilling story! I couldn't put it down towards the end. The remains of 36 people murdered by a serial killer in 1880s New York were unearthed by a company about to put up a new building. Agent Pendergast took an early interest in the case, enlisting the help of a museum archealogist to help him identify the victims and to find out what had happened to them. As they began to unravel the case, a copycat killer turned up and suddenly Pendergast's life was in danger as well as anyone who helped him. But why?

I learned quite a bit about Agent Pendergast and why he was so interested in such an old case. I'm looking forward to reading the other books now. I would give this book an 8 of 10 and definitely would recommend it to others!

Books I've Read Recently

I thought I would enjoy Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden more than I did. Don't get me wrong--it's a great book! I am amazed at how well Golden writes the voice of a female character. Not only that, the character speaks in a rhythm and style that makes me picture Japanese gardens and tea rooms in my mind. I was "hooked" in the beginning--a young girl is sold (with her sister) into a sort of slavery. Chiyo is a beautiful child and so she goes to a geisha house; her unfortunate sister is sold into prostitution. Life is hard for Chiyo and it's even worse because of a sadistic geisha named Matsumomo. I'm not sure why Matsumomo hated Chiyo so. Maybe it was insecurity? She was afraid of the child's beauty? After being disgraced, Chiyo meets "The Chairman" and he becomes her lifelong "crush"...I guess that's what you'd call it. Even though she has better friends than The Chairman, she pursues him and betrays the man who is kindest to her, the best friend she had. I didn't find it too believable but...so much of the book was fascinating and I didn't mind the parts that were boring or didn't make sense. A good read, but not for the beach.

If you are a Lost fan, you must get and read Unlocking The Mystery of Lost by Lynnette Porter & David Lavery. It has everything you could possibly want: character studies, episode synopses, theories, pictures--it'll help you get through the long summer doldrums without the series.

I read Wicked: The Life & Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire as part of a book ray. To find out more about book rays, go to Book Crossing and look under the FAQs. I had very mixed feelings about the book. I thought the basic idea was pretty cool--the witch (Elphaba) isn't really wicked, she's misunderstood. She's insecure and awkward because of her green skin and feels like a social outcast. My objection was that the story didn't stay with her. It shifted to other characters like Galinda and Boq, who didn't seem to be ultimately all that important, and there was a lot of confusing politics involved. I got the idea that the Wizard was more a Hitler type than a kindly bumbling grandfatherly type. It was okay. Some people will love it and others will not. Give it a try and see.

For another bookring, I read Couldn't Keep It to Myself: Wally Lamb and the Women of York Correctional Institution (Testimonies from our Imprisoned Sisters) by Wally Lamb and inmates at the York Correctional Institution. Wow! This was a heart-breaking, inspiring book made up of the stories of women who were in desperate circumstances growing up (many sexually abused) and overcame some of the ugliness to write some powerful stories about their lives. I was very moved by the book and I sure would recommend it to anyone!

The Devil in the White City

I had no idea there was a serial killer in Chicago during the World's Fair in 1893. They weren't called serial killers then, but that's exactly what "Dr. H.H. Holmes" was. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson was very interesting in that the author alternated his chapters between a good man (architect Daniel Burnham) and a bad one (Holmes). I have to admit, though, that if it wasn't for the lure of the serial killer's story, I probably would have passed the book over. I wonder if that's why Larson twined the two men's stories together? I picked up some interesting trivia about the fair that I either forgot or never knew. Among them: the ferris wheel (a gigantic version!) was introduced at the fair. It was called "The White City" because all the buildings were painted white--and what an effect the sun had on them! Cracker Jack and shredded wheat and Juicy Fruit gum made their debut at the fair! But the book wasn't about trivia. It was about the dream and determination of a man (Burnham) to build the greatest world's fair ever and to "out Eiffel" the Eiffel Tower. It was about the frustrations and set backs and tragedies he endured along the way. Every other chapter (almost) was devoted to the outwardly charming but inwardly soul-dead man impersonating a doctor/pharmacist. He was an architect of sorts too--a castle chamber of horrors he built and to which he lured, tortured and killed at least 9 people. Some say he may have killed up to 200! I found this to be an interesting but slow read.

Prey

I got into reading Prey by Michael Crichton because of my favorite TV series, Lost. After a particularly riveting episode, a lot of people commented that the character was threatened by a nano swarm like that written about in Prey. I had to read the book and learn more about nano swarms. I can't say that I understood the technology behind it all although Crichton tried very hard to explain it in a way that readers would understand what was happening. What I got was: man messing around with stuff he oughtn't to be messing with creating more monsters and trouble than he's bargained for--much like Jurassic Park. Ah--and that was also a book by the same writer. Even though I didn't understand all the technology behind it, I still thought it was an excellent book. Michael Crichton knows his stuff--and he also knows the sometimes irresponsible behavior of corporations. When you make a mistake, cover it up. Keep the bad stuff a secret. Do things without thinking them through or researching them thoroughly just because you want to make a lot of money and gain a reputation. How many times has that happened before? It's scary to think that something like this could happen...but it sure could. Read it if you like thrillers!

The Bonesetter's Daughter

Amy Tan is a wonderful story teller, even when she's telling the same one. So far, each of the books I've read have been about mother-daughter conflicts and that's what drives The Bonesetter's Daughter too. Some similar themes in the books include traditional Chinese mother vs Americanized Chinese daughter and the daughter lives with or is married to a non-Chinese partner. The backstories are always different, though, and make for a fascinating read. I'm always pulled in. In this story, LuLing--the mother--recognizes that she's losing her memory and writes down everything she can remember about her life. Her daughter Ruth has been very busy with her career and her family--boyfriend and his two daughters--and has had some bumps and rough spots along the road with her mother so she hasn't been visiting often. This crisis of health brings them back together, though, and Ruth learns about her mother's life and why she behaved the way she did. I loved the story and would recommend it to anyone!

Velocity

I was so disappointed in this book! I started complaining about it not long after I began reading it. Velocity, written by Dean Koontz, should have been a suspenseful thriller. TB thought it was a great story. We went back and forth about it for the last three or four days. I kept complaining about the things I didn't like and he kept suggesting I just enjoy it as a good yarn, that it didn't have to make sense. It definitely didn't do that ... make sense, I mean.

So what was it I didn't like? The "hero" of the story is a bartender named Billy Wiles. He's singled out by a serial killer and forced to decide who will be the next victim. Deciding not to choose also results in someone being killed. When I read the book jacket, I thought, wow this could be a really good story! Almost from the get-go, though, there were problems with the story that irritated me and stretched the bounds of my belief. The reason poor Billy was singled out didn't make sense even when the truth came out.

And why is it that your average run-of-the-mill bartender can suddenly act like a calculating sleuth, knowing exactly how to cover up his tracks and manipulate a crime scene?

A petty annoyance: the killer is referred to over and over and over as "the freak". Freak? Considering all the evil this guy perpetrates, "freak" is a mild term!

On the other hand, there were lots of little clues planted in the beginning of the story that seemed pretty innocent ... the thing is, I thought it all started to come together really late in the story.

So why did I keep reading it? Because this was Dean Koontz and I really kept hoping it would get better. We won an autographed copy of this book and I really wanted his signature to be on one of his best books ever. Oh well...

Now Kristin is going to read the book and see what she thinks. She listened to TB and I going on about it and wants to see if it rings true to her. I'm looking forward to hearing what she thinks.

Are you more...

01) Someone who is likely to sue or someone who is likely to be sued? Not that I can picture myself doing it but I'd probably be more likely to sue
02) Apt to see David Hasselhoff in concert or apt to see John Tesh in concert? Barf! Neither!
03) Likely to wait for an opportunity to say 'no thanks' to a telemarketer or likely to just hang up on them? I say "No thanks" right away and then hang up
04) Apt to see Madonna in concert or apt to see Celine Dion in concert? Celine Dion
05) Green beer or corned beef? Corned beef
06) Apt to see Bryan Adams in concert or apt to see Billy Joel in concert? Billy Joel!
07) Loving home made pizza (for the cost savings) or loving delivery pizza (for the professional taste)? Delivery pizza
08) Apt to see Duran Duran in concert or apt to see INXS in concert? Who?
09) One who believes that the RIAA/MPAA are properly and rightfully protecting their content or one who believes they are scum-sucking, litigation-happy bastards? They are scum sucking litigation happy bastards!
10) Apt to see Bono in concert or apt to see Sting in concert? I really like them both but I think I'd be more apt to see Sting

Daddy

Originally published in 1986, I didn't come across Daddy by Loup Durand until I saw it at a library sale last year. I was attracted by the cover: a blue eye with the relfection of a swastika. I enjoy historical fiction a lot so I picked it up. It's a suspense thriller and I usually don't enjoy that genre but this is one of the best I've ever read. I think what appealled to me most was the cat-and-mouse game going on between the young hero, an 11 year old boy named Thomas and the perverted man hunting him down for the Nazis, Gregor Laemmle. There's another hero, too, an American playboy type, David Quartermain, who's almost like a third wheel.

In fact the one thing I didn't like about the book was a sudden sidetrack into what was going on with Quartermain after he was caught by Laemmle (okay, I gave something away). The story moved along very quickly and I was on the end of my seat, biting my nails, and then it came almost to a screeching halt at just about that point. I didn't like it. It was a terrible interruption of the flow. What was it for? I have no clue.

There are lots of pursuit stories out there and many with Nazi villains and heroes with secrets trying to get away. A couple of things were different about this one. The boy is a genius, entrusted with a secret by his mother. She used his genius in such a way that turned him into a cold little thinking machine. The villain seems to be something of a genius too. They are always outwitting each other. I don't want to give away any more of the book. I'd rate it a 9 out of 10 and definitely would recommend it!

Unconscious Mutterings

5. item to cook.

corned beef & cabbage dinner--so easy & so delicious

6. person to eat dinner with.

TB, of course, my best friend and hubby

7. hot-day treat.

lemonade--so thirst quenching!

8. food when you were younger.

franks & beans--what kid doesn't love hot dogs, especially grilled in the summertime!

Bad Love

Bad Love by Jonathan Kellerman is a book I picked up at a library sale sometime last year. Recently, I resolved to go and try to read through all the books that have been hanging around at least a year before moving on to the newer, more attractive pile. Heh. I also wanted to take a break from the heavy, emotionally draining (but very good) books I'd been reading recently, like Songs In Ordinary Time.

Okay, anyway...on to this book. I was attracted by the title and by the jacket description. "For Alex Delaware, the tape is the first intimation that he is about to enter a living nightmare. Others soon foolow: disquieting laughter echoing over a phone line that suddenly goes dead, a chilling act of trespass and vandalism. He has become the target of a carefully orchestrated campaign of vague threats and intimidation rapidly building to a crescendo as harassment turns to terror, mischief to madness." Wow, sounds like a great read!

It is...if you're into mystery thrillers. I thought it was just okay.

The story opens with Dr. Alex Delaware becoming involved in a complicated visitation case. He is a child psychologist and a consultant to the LAPD. In the beginning of the book, he receives a frightening tape: someone is screaming and then a child's emotionless voice recites: "bad love" over and over. I was hooked for maybe 2/3 of the book but then certain things didn't add up. When they don't add up and when they don't seem real, I become annoyed with the story. I felt Dr. Delaware was too intrusive into people's lives and toward the end he was downright whiny.

There was one teeny little clue as to the perpertrator. It didn't "feel" right to me. Maybe it's the mystery thriller genre thing...

About 30 years ago, there was a clever movie called Murder By Death. In it, five famous detectives and their sidekicks--or spouse-- are invited to the home of Lionel Twain to figure out a murder. The reason I bring this up is because of the reason Twain set the whole thing up, and I quote, "You've tricked and fooled your readers for years. You've tortured us all with surprise endings that made no sense. You've introduced characters in the last five pages that were never in the book before. You've withheld clues and information that made it impossible for us to guess who did it. But now, the tables are turned. Millions of angry mystery readers are now getting their revenge. When the world learns I've outsmarted you, they'll be selling your $1.95 books for twelve cents."

After reading this book, I kind of felt like Lionel Twain. Hopefully the next Dr. Delaware book I read won't leave me feeling the same way.

The Chains

Years ago, I enjoyed reading Gerald Green's books very much. My sentimental favorites were The Last Angry Man and To Brooklyn With Love, almost the same story. The hero in both books were dedicated but very angry, frustrated doctors. They were both athletes and strong and both were raising skinny, sickly boys (one a nephew, the other a son). But enough of that...Gerald Green wrote some other books that I enjoyed very much including Blockbuster and Holocaust. He's got a feel for language, salting the dialogue with Yiddish expressions and accents that make the settings and people seem so real.

I hadn't seen or read anything by Green in years, not since Holocaust. I'd read that he was working in TV somewhere and wasn't writing anymore. I found this book, The Chains on sale for a quarter at the library and picked it up right away. One of my favorite characters appeared in the story, Dr. Sam Abelman. He had a minor role but it was nice to "see" him again.

I enjoyed the book ... until the last hundred pages. Dr. Abelman's nephew was out to write a book about the Chains and their rise from dire poverty to gangsterism and bootlegging to respectability. I think we could have done without the ineffective author wanna-be and just told the family's story. So much of it was devoted to the founder, Jake Chain, who started out hauling wagons--a seemingly dumb ox with a good heart and very little money to support his wife and child. Circumstances change and he becomes a union shtarker--he beats people up--and from there gets involved with all kinds of nefarious enterprises. Throughout his tough life, there are many attempts on Crazy Jake's life--and in the end, he's betrayed by someone he knows.

Well, it should have been the end. As far as I'm concerned, that's where the story ended. Jake's son Mort was a lesser character in the story. He started his own bootlegging business and built himself an empire, eventually bringing dad Jake in as a partner. The focus was still always on Jake and once he was gone, I found it hard to care about Mort or the son who made the family go legit, Martin.

The last hundred pages were very boring to me.

Still, it was nice to read something by Green again.

Bad Weather and Bad Books

This cold weather is kicking my butt and all my joints. This morning all my joints were inflamed and the ibuprofen didn't work. I've become spoiled by the mild weather and I sure will be happy to see it return! I slept for a couple of hours this morning (my one escape when the ibuprofen doesn't work) and I feel a little bit better.

It seems like a good time to talk about As The Crow Flies by Jeffery Archer. Boy, what a disappointment! I picked it up for a quarter at the library thinking that it was a book on my wishlist. It sat around with a ton of other books while I bought and traded other books over the last 6 months or so. Finally, I decided NO MORE new-used books until I started going through the pile I already had.

This book is a rag-to-riches story about a young man growing up in the East End of London, becomes a self-made "honest trader" by the time he's 16, goes off to fight in World War I, comes back, gets married to his "childhood sweetheart" and then builds a department store empire while fending off a bitter enemy. It was the male version of A Woman Of Substance which was a much better book.

The synopsis I just gave is just about the way the book was written too. This happened then that and so on and so forth. The story was told by about 5 or 6 different characters which made it even more annoying because these characters would go back to repeat their versions of the same story--which wasn't all that engaging to begin with. Worse, these characters were all flat, there was no depth to them. There was plenty of tragedy in the book but the characters just seemed to breeze through each crisis unruffled.

Eh.

It's an okay book to read if you don't want to think or become emotionally involved. Otherwise, I would not recommend it to anyone.

Ten on Tuesday

Hodgepodge

I wanted to see King Kong for my birthday--which is tomorrow--and so we went today. What a great movie! Peter Jackson is a movie making genius, sort of like Stephen Spielberg and Norman Jewison (I didn't realize who he was until today) and Ron Howard. I don't want to give any of it away. The special effects and the acting was just amazing...and King Kong, well, I could believe he was real! Jack Black really reminded me very strongly of Orson Welles, it was almost eerie. Anyway, I enjoyed the movie very much! You need to see it in the theater to really appreciate it, but I have to say that sitting in those seats for 3 hours was very uncomfortable!

I finished reading We Were The Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates the other day. This was another story about a dysfunctional family but with a difference. You didn't see the dysfunction until something really bad happened to one of the family members. Again, I don't want to spoil it. The Mulvaneys seemed to be one of those close knit, well-to-do, very happy and successful families people secretly envy. Then comes this tragedy...and the family just totally falls apart. Why? If they were so happy and close knit it shouldn't have happened, should it? Well, now we see that the communication doesn't seem to be there and unconditional love doesn't seem to be quite there. The victim in the family is totally ostracized and that bugged me the most about the story. How can you treat an innocent member of the family like that? Joyce Carol Oates is not easy to read--I found myself either re-reading or just skipping stuff entirely. Supposedly the story will hurt and heal, well, I didn't feel any healing. I guess I was just too ticked off at the "parental units". I just didn't enjoy it that much after that certain breaking point. Oh well...

Unconscious Mutterings:

I say...and you think...

1. Replenish:: refill
2. People:: us
3. Trend:: popular
4. Girlfriends:: boyfriends
5. Spirit:: Holy
6. Banshee:: Irish spirit
7. Oasis:: spot of Paradise in the desert
8. Thrills:: chills
9. Fountain:: fountain
10. Boxes:: containers

Two Book Reviews

Lately, I seem to be on a "dysfunctional families" kick. The two most recent books I finished dealt with alcoholism in the family and how it can deeply affect each member. One dealt with it humorously and the other wasn't funny at all.

Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man is a touchingly funny story written by Fannie Flagg. Daisy Fay Harper keeps a journal chronicling all of her adventures from the time she is 11 to when she wins the Miss Mississippi pageant. She's a tomboy sort of girl with a Dennis-the-Menace type penchant for getting herself into trouble. She doesn't mean to, it just seems to happen. Her father is an alcoholic ne'er-do-well with lots of grandiose ideas. The kooky locals in the story are lovable, particularly Jimmy Snow. I laughed out loud a lot when I read the book and the story has to be pretty funny for me to do that! I recommend it highly!

Songs in Ordinary Time by Mary McGarry Morris is also about a family touched by alcoholism, the Fermoyles. The father is a ne'er-do-well drunk as well and as totally unlovable as can be. He is obnoxious and sloppy and violent when he's drunk and Marie Fermoyle had to get herself out of that marriage too. The difference is that she and her children struggle on alone in the same town, suffering the indignities and embarrassment of the drunken father staggering around. There are lots of interesting characters in this book and each has a tale of their own. All of their lives are threaded together in a way that wasn't cumbersome at all. A con man arrives in town...and there's a murder ... I just loved reading this book! It's not a quick read but well worth it!

Question of the Day:

How do you let your significant other know what you want for Christmas?

If I know what I want, I just come out and tell him. This year, I showed him several things I liked so he could help the kids pick out stuff too. And...I answered a meme online yesterday ;)

Dreaming Southern

I totally enjoyed the first part of Dreaming Southern by Linda Bruckheimer. The heroine, Lila Mae Wooten, reminded me of a sort of Lucy Ricardo/Carmichael from Kentucky. She means well but is so scatterbrained and impulsive, she just gets herself and her kids into all kinds of crazy messes. She even has a sort of Ethel-like sidekick with a juvenile delingquent son. I alternated between laughing and rolling my eyes at all the predicaments the Wootens get into because of Lila Mae's desire to see the sights and please her kids. The trouble is ... just when I found myself at what I thought was a truly hilarious cliff hanger, the whole thing stopped. A new story took over then, one taking place about 30 years later. Wait a minute, I wanted to say. That can't be all. What happened to...? and to ...?

I was hooked by the opening line: "Usually Lila Mae Wooten had to scream bloody murder before her kids would pay any attention to her at all..." A lot of us moms have felt that way, right? I was really disappointed, though, because I felt like I walked into a booby trap and fell down a tiger trap or something.

Oh well.

Unconscious Mutterings:

1. Quirk:: weird habit
2. Crystal:: crystal ball
3. Pet Peeve:: people who run red lights & stop signs
4. Cuban:: cigar
5. Breasts:: reduction
6. Whispers:: careless
7. Complicated:: difficult
8. Promise me:: commitment
9. Murder:: kill
10. Filament:: thin wire inside a light bulb

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

I got this book through Book Crossing one of the truly wonderful online resources for finding and reading good books at a price you just can't beat...free!

Ellen Foster

The first line of Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons reads: "When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy." Wow! Talk about a powerful hook! Eleven year old Ellen has been through more than any child should experience. Her father is alcoholic and abusive toward Ellen's mother. Ellen just about raises herself in this dysfunctional household, the "hero" in the alcoholic family. After her mother dies, she goes to live with her teacher and things would have been fine except her grandmother interferes and gets custody of her. The grandmother blames her for the death of her mother, grandma's daughter...as if the poor kid hasn't been through enough as it is. To add to the misery, grandma dies and Helen has to move on yet again, this time to an aunt that doesn't really want her. Ellen sets about finding herself a new family. She has a refreshing voice. I read that she has been compared to Holden Caulfield but I wouldn't go that far. She's a lot more resourceful and "together" than Holden was, a truly admirable character. Now I want to read Gibbons' other books!

Ireland

Scribblings been nominated as a weekly favorite in the Family & Parenting category of Blogs for Women! If you like Scribblings, please vote on the drop-down menu here. Scribblings is second on the list.

I finished reading Ireland by Frank Delaney the other day and overall, I am sad to say I felt let down. I expected to enjoy it very much, drawn to it by the plot description. A young boy is so entranced by an Irish storyteller he spends years trying to find the man. Interspersed throughout the book are the storyteller's tales. I love Irish folk talks so I was sure I'd love the book.

I did enjoy it at first but about half through, things didn't seem "right" and didn't always fit and I found myself becoming annoyed. By the time I got to the climax of the book, I just wanted to "get on with it" and hurry to the finish line. That is a real shame because Delaney has a wonderful storytelling ability. This could have been a great novel but ... it fell flat and it fell short of what I thought should have been its goal.

Meanwhile, I discovered Bookcrossing on another journal I like to read. What a concept! What a great idea, read a book, register it online at bookcrossing, label it and then leave it for someone else to pick up. It's sort of like that commercial for that car -- the one where the driver throws the keys to a total stranger who takes it for a spin and then throws the keys to another person. Well, this is the same thing -- except you give the book away to someone. It doesn't have to be face-to-face ... you can leave the book lying out in an accessible place somewhere. I've already registered a book I enjoyed reading and am going to leave it for someone to find.

QOTD:

What rules do you have for your life? (what you will/will not do)

I will love my family unconditionally, including all the inlaws and outlaws and steplaws
I will support TB and my kids and try not to put them down
I will love & support everyone else to the best of my ability WITHOUT enabling them
I will try to love myself as much as I can
I will not kill anyone
I will not cheat on TB
I will not shut anyone out of my life

What rules do you have for your home? These could be habits or procedures that are a given, or things that must take place or things that you will not tolerate.

Basically, the rules are:

If you make a mess, clean it up
Help keep the house neat and clean
Respect each other, which means no dissing and no yelling and no insults
Have civilized family discussions when needed
Don't buy snacks & sweets to keep in the house
Don't lie, don't cheat, don't steal
Be responsible for your commitments

Thursday Threesome:

Onesome:This--is pretty much the start of Spring (regardless of the snow in the east and midwest last week!); what's on your to-do list for the next few weeks to transition away from this long Winter we've been having?

I'd like to wash the windows and clean all the gunk out from around them because we'll be having them open regularly
The air conditioners need to be cleaned
All my furniture needs to be dusted off
The patio needs to be swept and the patio furniture cleaned off
The winter clothes need to go away and the spring/summer clothes need to come out of the hope chest

Twosome: Week's-- What is this week's reading assignment for you? Is there a new book on the night stand? (Students, we're not talking the Chem 104 book either !)

Well, I just finished reading Ireland and now I'm taking up The Night Room by Peter Straub

Threesome: Feature--What feature would you like to have on your web site that you currently don't have? ...or is there something you do have that you'd like dialed in just a little bit better? Just curious...

I'd like to have skins that readers could change when they come and read my blog. I'd like to be able to play little video clips. I'd like to do lots of other things that would probably use too much band width or cost too much money!