No Interest

I've lost interest in reading this week. Everything I pick up seems pointless and boring. Last night I was bereft so I walked over to my bookcase hoping that something would entice me. My eye fell upon a P.D. James mystery and I immediately knew that is what my heart wanted. I've been missing my British mysteries! So I started A Taste for Death last night and reading is a pleasure again.

Is this Realistic?

It seems the books I have been reading lately have a common element: what I call "the Helen of Troy" character. A woman of gifts, beauty and spunk. The further commonality that makes her a Helen is that not all men are attracted to her. Some hate her, some fear her, some are indifferent. But the men who are attracted to her are invariably powerful, intelligent, and charismatic. And they are not just attracted to her, they're practically obsessed with her. Is this pure fiction? Or is this a phenomenon that a simple, homely girl such as myself just can't equate to anything in my personal experience? I don't know. What do you guys think?

Fantasy Land

At work, the next genre we're discussing (in May) is fantasy. So, I'm reading a few fantasy novels right now: Tithe by Holly Black, The Blue Girl by Charles De Lint and A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. Now, I am not normally a fantasy reader so this is a departure for me, but I'm really enjoying each novel and am glad that I'm forced to read different genres.

I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron

This is a very funny, sweet and slightly sad tome on aging. I really enjoyed it. With essays on everything from body maintenance to apartment love to JFK, it is really endearing and amusing. Just don't read the final essay before going to bed. It is about death and was painful and terrifying to read. I couldn't sleep and when I did I had nightmares because it truly makes you think about death seriously. But it is mostly hilarious and entertaining and if death scares you just skip the final essay!

Something New

Well, good things can come even from a terrible gothic novel. At the end of my book there was an excerpt from a novel called Dead to the World. I read it and was interested. It turns out it was the fourth book in a vampire series by Charlaine Harris. I read an entire book yesterday. It is the strangest mix of genres I have ever seen. It's like sci-fi/romance/mystery. I had to look in like every section of the library until I finally found it in mystery. It's like the vampire part of it is more part of the setting than the main subject, which is really a mystery about women being murdered in a small Louisiana town. It's set in a world where vampires have "come out of the coffin" as they put it in the book and revealed their existence to the world because a synthetic blood has been invented so they no longer have to feed on humans (they still do, though). Anyway, interesting main character who is not a vampire, only telepathic, colorful characters throughout, AND they were written by a hugely fat Southern woman, and that just makes me feel good! It's called the Sookie Stackhouse series if you're interested. I think Niesa would really like them.

Sofie Metropolis by Tori Carrington

I read this mystery as part of the genre study we are doing at work. We had to read a type of mystery that we normally don't read. I never read P.I. novels and this one looked okay. Sofie Metropolis is from a large Greek family in Queens and has inadvertently started working for her Uncle Spyros' detective agency. She gets caught up in a mob-related, cheating spouse, murder case and in finding the missing dog of her mother's friend Mrs. K. The mystery really only takes up about 30% of this novel. The rest is concerned with Sofie's family and her love life. I enjoyed it, but I prefer more of a mystery and something a bit darker.

Finally Finished

I finished The Historian! It was pretty good. It was a bit anti-climactic. You read through like seven thousand pages of convoluted and overlapping plots for about 3 seconds worth of action and loose end tying and then POOF, it's over. Left me feeling unsatisfied. I am currently reading a blatantly bad Gothic novel called On the Edge of the Woods. It was the only book that came up when I typed in the word "Gothic" at my closest library. It reads like an R.L. Stine novel for young adults, but not as good. Ah well, it's the only thing I have to read at the moment so I will continue being amused when I'm not supposed to be until I can get something else from the library.

It just keeps going and going and going...

I'm STILL reading The Historian. It's finally starting to move at a somewhat faster pace but I've just already put so much time into it that I've kind of lost interest. I think the style of this book creates problems. 1) How do you tell people the plot of your book when there's 3 different timelines going on? I've tried to describe this book unsuccessfully several times. 2) It's like Heroes: when you're trying to advance three different stories in flashes, it takes a LONG time to make any of them go anywhere. 3) I've been reading it so long with so little progress in the stories that I'm just done. I don't know if I'll ever finish it! I will. It might just take a while.

What Southern Women Know About Flirting by Ronda Rich

This is one of my favorite books dealing with charm. I've read it 3 times now and could probably read it again and learn something new. Ronda Rich is a Southern woman who exudes graciousness, charm and kindness. I am definitely NOT a natural flirt and some of her suggestions would be terribly hard for me to even try, but she makes them seem fun and easy. Hopefully, I can learn something from her advice and become a great social flirt. Her advice might be hard for modern women to swallow, but I believe she knows her stuff. She gives tons of examples of how flirting (with men AND women) led her to get better flights, hotel rooms and restaurant service. It would be worth your time, married or single, to read this book.

Day at the Ballpark

I spent the afternoon at Phoenix Municipal Stadium with my dad watching the Dodgers (see all the blue?) vs. White Sox. It was heavenly! I will aggressively root against the Dodgers when the season starts, but it was fun to see them in action today. Brad Penny pitched and Russell Martin, Andre Ethier, Rafael Furcal and Andruw Jones all started the game and played nine innings. I just love the baseball atmosphere and had a great time today.

The Power of Charm

I read this short book by Brian Tracy and Ron Arden last night. According to the authors charm is a learned skill and they give tips on how to effectively communicate with anyone. The tips are sensible and definitely doable and don't advocate anything that would make you feel stupid or uncomfortable. I enjoyed this little gem and might even read it again.

Gothic

Anbo, I read your blog about your love for Gothic novels and decided to give it a try. I read Thirteen Tales, and I really enjoyed it. It was a thoroughly engrossing read and it was vivid enough that imagining the people and settings came naturally without being so descriptive you forgot what was being described in the first place. The library didn't have Fingersmith, so I checked out Sarah Waters' Night Watch, which is most decidedly NOT Gothic, so I just stopped reading it. I have the Historian and plan to start reading it tonight. I'll let you know what I think.

It's Almost Here!

Baseball season, that is. I am so excited I can hardly wait. Most of my reading lately has been fantasy baseball sites, doing research for Yahoo fantasy baseball. My draft will be next week, I believe. I must get good pitching this year or I am doomed. I know this is off-topic, but if there is a reason I'm not posting, this is it. Go D-backs!

This one's for you Anbo :)

I'm actually posting! Read a book titled Warprize by Elizabeth Vaughn that I really liked. It's about a country at war and it's princess who studies medicine and treats the injured enemy prisoners. When her country is forced to surrender, she is claimed by the barbarian warlord that defeated them as the warprize. My description makes it sound like some cheesy romance and, of course, she and the warlord do fall in love but it was actually a really enjoyable read. I guess this is the first book in a series so I'll have to check the others out.

That Teenage Feeling

This week I've been pondering my reading history and realized with a shock and a bit of pride that I was a great reader as a teen. My teen years were when I embarked on the most ambitious and challenging reading of my life. I read more classics of fiction, history and philosophy than at any other time. Not even in college did I read so well. I truly educated myself and laid a great foundation for all the reading to come. Why can't I do that now? I think my avid curiosity still lives, but laziness has nearly completely taken over. In order to return to those great reading years, I've decided to watch less TV and spend less time on the Internet. I'm embarrassed by my lack of knowledge on many subjects and now is as good a time as any to remedy that situation.

Genre Study

At my library we're starting a genre study to help us learn more about different authors and genres we may not be familiar with. I'd like to extend the challenge to you! For April we'll be reading and studying mysteries. This is your chance to read something you've never explored before. I'll post more later on the sub-genres of mysteries and authors you may want to consider reading if you take the challenge.

The Hanging Valley by Peter Robinson

The Hanging Valley is the fourth novel in the Chief Inspector Alan Banks series. Peter Robinson is one of my favorite mystery authors, but I find these early novels a bit plodding. And I can't help but miss the druggies, thieves and con-men of Rebus' Edinburgh. However, the country setting is a nice change. This particular mystery takes place in Swainsdale where a decomposing body has been found. The police suspect he is a hiker as he is found in the hanging valley where walkers frequently visit . Interrogating the townspeople leads them no where and it is only when a forensic odontologist is called in that they discover the victim is a college professor who lives in Toronto. The unique feature of The Hanging Valley is that Banks is permitted to go to Toronto to investigate for a short part of the novel. I don't know much about the city, but this novel makes it sound charming. Anyway, Banks learns that several people in Swainsdale have secrets and the professor knew them all. A bit of an unsatisfying ending, but in the end a good read.

Green Again

The brown was too blah. I think the original green is fresh and pretty.

Poll

The library I work for is considering merging all of our genres into one large fiction section. We currently have them split into fiction, mystery, romance, science fiction and westerns. I personally like them separated, but I'm curious to see what others prefer. Please take my survey to the right and give me your opinion!

A Gothic Kind of Girl

I really dig gothic literature. I'm currently reading Fingersmith by Sarah Waters which is deliciously gothic. Wondering what gothic is? According to Wikipedia gothic novels contain elements of "terror (both psychological and physical), mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted houses and Gothic architecture, castles, darkness, death, decay, doubles, madness, secrets and hereditary curses". Sounds good, doesn't it? Recent gothic novels I've also enjoyed are The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield and The Historian (which I haven't quite finished yet) by Elizabeth Kostova.