Look where I went, this weekend!

We had a long weekend visit with Eldest Son, Daughter-in-law and Grand-dog and managed to pop into New York's wonderful Strand Bookstore.  Okay, actually, we did more than pop in.  Naturally, we bought a few books but they were all from the bargain carts outside.

Top to bottom:

The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers
The 12.30 from Croydon by Freeman Wills Crofts
22 Britannia Road by Amanda Hodgkinson
The Eye in the Door by Pat Barker (2nd in the Regeneration series)
70% Acrylic 30% Wool by Viola Di Grado

22 Britannia Road and The Eye in the Door were on my wish list so I was especially excited to find both titles for $1 each.  Open slots at Paperback Swap!  Wahoo!

What I read, during my mini-vacation:

The Tilted World by Tom Franklin & Beth Ann Fennelly - I absolutely loved The Tilted World.  It has great characters, a terrific storyline and an excellent plot, all set during the Great Flood of 1927, which we hear a lot about, down here.  It's thanks to the levee system that was built after the 1927 flood that we haven't had an equally deadly recurrence during recent flood years.  

Blaming by Elizabeth Taylor was my first Taylor book and the last book she wrote.  It's sad but it gave me a good idea of why people are so besotted with her books.  I love her writing style and am looking forward to reading more.  I got my copy of Blaming at a recent book sale, along with two more of her Virago titles.  I was so excited when I saw them that I snatched all 3 and plunked them on my to-buy stack without even bothering to read the cover blurbs.

I had one book waiting for me when I got home and I completely forgot to photograph it so I'll hold it for next week's Monday Malarkey.  I'm hoping to hit the reviews hard, tomorrow.  Wish me luck!  I've been summoned for jury duty in November and I'm planning to join in on NaNoWriMo so it would be helpful to get those reviews out of the way, ASAP.  

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Monday Malarkey - Yes, we still have a kitten in the house and other stuff

The kitten is full of malarkey.  She has not yet taken a drink of my tea, but that's not for lack of trying.

This week was not a big week for reading and certainly not one for writing as I went out of my way to avoid the computer (somewhat successfully, although not entirely), but we'll start with what little there is to talk about, book-wise.  Appearances aside, this still is not a cat blog.  

Recent arrivals (2 weeks' worth):

We Go Together by Dunn & Sakamoto and

Rufus Goes to School by Griswell and Gorbachev - both from Sterling Kids for review and/or tour

Rufus is a pig.  PIG BOOK!  Sorry to shout.  Pigs are such fun.  And, a couple more . . . 

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent and

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt - both from Little, Brown and Co. for F2F discussion and review (the former in August, the latter in October). 

We only got 10 copies of each title, this time, and that's not enough to go around -- my F2F group is well-established and quite large, although attendance varies.  So, I had to set aside my plans to reread The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Gaiman to read Burial Rites.  We'll have to share so I wanted to get that done in time to give someone else a chance to read it.  It's excellent, in case you're wondering.  I'm really looking forward to the discussion.

Last week's reading:

As per my plan, I jumped into The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway and enjoyed my swim.  I hope to review that, soon.  I followed it up with a read of the pig book, Rufus Goes to School, pretty much the moment it walked in.  And, then I read Burial Rites by Hannah Kent.  After that, I started reading The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan and The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winter.  I'm close to halfway through the latter but not far into The Girls of Atomic City.  I'm enjoying both.  

The Last Policeman is a mystery -- a genre which most of you probably know I seldom read -- but this particular mystery has an unusual twist in that a single policeman (the hero, naturally) suspects murder and everyone else believes the death was a suicide.  Suicide is not particularly surprising or unusual in this story because Earth will be struck by an asteroid in 6 months. Everyone's going to die anyway.  So, a lot of people don't give a flip about the law and some people are choosing to go out sooner rather than wait for the Final Bang.  The Last Policeman is definitely a unique and entertaining diversion and The Girls of Atomic City is fascinating so it's likely I've got a pleasant reading week ahead of me.  

Kitten-wise:

Four weeks and counting.  Last week, we came to the conclusion that we'd done enough kitty juggling and it was time for the cats to spend time working out their differences.  So, Prissy (or River, depending on who you're talking to) has been out and about except at night when she goes back into her bedroom.  Things have not substantially improved, unfortunately.  The kitties can eat together but there's some growling on one side and threatening poses on the other.  The rest of the time, if Isabel's awake there is a great deal of chase/fight/hide going on.  Nap time is awesome.  The little one stays away from the kitty tree, where the two big girls hang out.  I think Isabel does wear herself out chasing poor Prissy/River and is napping a bit more than usual.  

The kitten also has resisted efforts to train her to scratch a cardboard or fabric scratching pad and has pretty much torn the hell out of our living room rug.  So, if she stays, it's likely she'll be the first declawed kitty we've ever owned.  We are against declawing, in general, but she is simply not getting it -- and we have scratching stations literally all over the house.  The other two kitties are very well-behaved when it comes to scratching in the right places.

We will have to make a decision about whether or not we can keep Prissy very soon because she's now about 16 weeks old.  Kittens are very adoptable; older cats are not.  If she's going to another home, she'll need to find a family before she gets too big -- and judging from her appetite, she's likely to be a very large, delightfully droopy cat.  Everyone loves her, so we're all wrestling with the decision but I think we all know in our hearts that it would be best for her to find a different home, if only because Isabel's attitude toward her is not softening.

Not much else is happening, here:

I'm hoping Huzzybuns will soon take a full week off work so we can work day and night getting the old house ready to sell.  Weekends alone are just not enough when you have two houses and yards to maintain and improve.  Everything we're doing is fairly minor but very time-consuming so a dedicated stretch of time would be really helpful.  Please pray or cross your fingers or send positive vibes that we'll quickly finish and get that house on the market . . . and that it will sell.  Although the housing market has improved elsewhere, houses do not appear to be moving at all in Vicksburg at the moment.  

Enough about me:

What's up in your world?  I'm sorry I haven't been able to visit other blogs.  That will probably continue at least until our old house goes on the market.  There's just too much going on.  Today, our excitement of the day was finding out we had a gas leak.  I would not have known, had the gas company not made a mistake on our bill that quadrupled the usual monthly cost.  So, thanks be to God Almighty that we didn't have to get blown up in order to find out about the gas leak.  I've never been so grateful for an erroneous statement in my life.  

Happy Monday!

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Backlog

I've read quite a few books, this month, and I have liked or loved every single one of them. But, I have been plagued by migraines and it's hard to write when you're busy holding your head in both hands. Hopefully, reviews of these books will be coming soon.

A Good American is the most exciting of this batch because it's on the verge of release, has already been featured at Oprah.com and is the #1 Indie Next pick for February. I went out of my way to acquire a pre-release copy of A Good American and am happy to report that I agree with all the buzz. It's epic. The rest may end up in mini reviews. We'll see. Till I can see straight, I wish you happy reading.

©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Well, hello there! How are you doing?

I've decided to go on part-time blogging status (Fiona is just going to be a full-time handful). That means I'll be here when I can, although not back to regular posting for a while. Blog hopping will not resume for a few weeks.

Update Thingy:

I've only finished 3 books in the two weeks I've been away from the blog:

Stash by David Klein

Benny and Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti (thanks to Care!), and

Moose Droppings and Other Crimes Against Nature by Jim Brennan

I'm not even certain how many books I've abandoned for lack of concentration or still need to review, but I'll gather them together and write a list as I'm packing Kiddo for college, purging and all that. His bedroom is scary. Teenagers.

I will be an empty nester within a week!! Like, freak me out, dude.

What the heck am I doing?

Well, besides all the tidying to pack up the Kiddo, we did kind of zip up to Alaska for a week of vacation. This particular trip was Kiddo's graduation gift. There was literally nothing else he wanted, so we offered him a vacation and he chose to return to Alaska -- which is, at this point, apparently his favorite place on the planet because it's cold! The Moose Droppings book was probably a big hint as to where we've been. I bought that at Sam's in Anchorage.

There's a bookmark view, for you -- a pic I took on the Seward Highway. It was one of the few times the sun came out on our trip, but the temperature stayed in the 50's to 60's, most of the time we were in Alaska. We cooled off nicely and we're very happy about that. A little rain didn't ruin the trip. Or, actually, a lot of rain if we must be honest.

There was a parcel from HarperCollins on my porch and may be more at the neighbor's house, as my next-door neighbor kindly watered the plants we hadn't already killed (our green pepper looks great!) and watched the porch, for us. Here's what I got from HarperCollins, "Compliments of the author":

Why Our Decisions Don't Matter by Simon Van Booy
Why We Fight by Simon Van Booy, and
Why We Need Love by Simon Van Booy

Let us pause for a moment of Simon Van Booy fan joy. Thank you Simon and HarperCollins!!! Oh boy, do I have some fun reading ahead of me. We'll see if there's more to come. I also have to go fetch the mail.

How are you doing? Read anything brilliant, lately?

Bookfool, on her 4th load of laundry and occasionally stopping to reassure the furball that I'm still here . . . it's okay . . . she can stop tearing the house apart (please, please).

Just dropping by . . .

I'm still on a bloggy break until the kiddo returns to school (next week, I assume) but I thought I'd pop in and tell you about some of the books I've read while I've been on my holiday break:

1. Among the Imposters by Margaret Peterson Haddix - The second in a series about a dystopian world in which families are limited to 2 children. 3rd children, known as "Shadow Children" are hidden. In this second installment, shadow child Luke takes on the identity of a deceased child and attends a school where things are not quite what they seem. I enjoyed this one much more than the first, Among the Hidden.

2. Beyond the Night by Joss Ware - A romance set in a future world (post-disaster) with zombies, drug lords and a surprising connection to the past. A small band of men caught in a cave during the disaster have apparently hibernated for 50 years and must learn to live in a new and dangerous world. I don't have the book handy, but it focuses on a particular couple and is heavy on romance but has some interesting twists. Not your typical zombie book. This book will be released January 10.

3. A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket - A book I happened across while cleaning and decided I might as well read before I donate it, The Reptile Room is the second in the "Unfortunate Events" series. The children are put in care of a delightful uncle who is a herpetologist but the fun eventually ends and the uncle dies. Darn.

4. Schooled by Gordon Korman - I actually finished this one before I went on break, but I haven't reviewed it, so I plunked it onto the stack. It's about a teenager who has been raised in isolation by his hippie grandmother, homeschooled all his life, and when his grandmother is injured he has to go to a real school for the first time in his life. He's made class president in order to put him in a tight spot but it turns out he's so innocent and guileless that he manages to become popular. Loved this upbeat, funny YA story.

5. Spellbinder by Helen Stringer - A British YA about a young girl who lives with the ghosts of her dead parents. When the doors between the Land of the Living and the Land of the Dead close and her parents (and all but one ghost in the world) disappear, Belladonna must figure out what exactly is going on in order to save the world and resume her everyday life. She has a little help from an Edwardian ghost named Elsie and a classmate named Steve.

6. A Circle of Souls by Preetham Grandhi - A young girl is brought to the emergency room after a dream leads to not only walking in her sleep but dangerously sleep-climbing in a place where she could have easily fallen to her death. Meanwhile, another young girl has been brutally murdered. When the psychiatrist in charge of the sleepwalking girl's care realizes her dreams are actually psychic images sent by the murdered girl, he connects with an agent in charge of the murder to help her solve it. Absolutely the most gripping book I've read in ages, beautifully written and surprisingly believable for the subject matter.

I've also finished reading How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff, the story of a young girl who goes to England to visit her cousins and then war breaks out. I am currently immersed in Custer Survivor by John Koster and Mr. Darcy's Great Escape by Marsha Altman. I'll tell you about the books I've bought over the holiday (I donated 39 and then went shopping . . . sigh) when I return. I'm just looking at the school calendar and it is truly confusing with all the tiny colored squares but it looks like school resumes on Friday, January 7th. I don't think I'll stay away from the computer quite that long. Kiddo will probably forgive me for posting, some time next week. We shall see.

I hope everyone has been enjoying the holidays. Happy New Year, a bit early!!