A Good Read

Happy first Sunday in November, everyone! For some reason November feels like a reading month to me. The weather is generally lousy (around here, anyway) and I spend more time indoors.

I spent late yesterday afternoon and most of the evening reading Made in the U.S.A. by Billie Letts. It's the type of book I just couldn't put down. Lutie is 15 and her brother, Fate, is 11. Their mother is dead and their father is an alcoholic jerk who left them with his girlfriend and took off for Vegas to make his fortune. When she dies unexpectedly and wanting to avoid foster care, Lutie and Fate take off in the dead girlfriend's car to find their father. Their adventures in Sin City are something else!

I have to go to a baby shower this afternoon (Hate those things! If they start with the stupid games, I'm outa there!) so I don't know how much reading time I'll have, but I'm determined to carve out some to finish this book.

Finally!

I don't know why I coudn't get into this book. There was just something missing in the characterizations. Every time I picked it up, I had a hard time figuring out who the people were.

Sherry Moore is blind but if she touches the hand of a dead person, she can "see" the last 18 seconds of that person's life. The premise sounds so intriguing but...I don't know...I guess there just wasn't enough about Sherry herself. There were so many characters that I couldn't keep them straight.

I'm glad to be done with it!

Memory Lane

It's 2:15 on Sunday morning. I woke up an hour ago and couldn't get back to sleep so got up to read for a bit. It's stormy out and I can hear the rain hitting the windows.




This was a quick read but diffferent and enjoyable. Anna is the middle child of three girls. She's shy and practically invisible. How she deals with this invisibility and overcomes it makes for an interesting young-adult story.

I'm glad my former student lent it to me. Thanks, Elise!

I'm slogging through Last Breath and am almost ready to abandon it. For some reason, I just can't get into it.

With retirement looming and a home in Florida to pay for, I've decided not to buy any more books (except when I get gift cards!) but to make use of the library instead. So, one afternoon this week I visited the library in town for the first time in about 30 years. Unbelievably, they still had my old registration card from when I was about 6 years old. It was a mess with several addresses so the librarian decided to make a new one for me and I asked her for the old one to use in my visual journal. I got a kick out of my signature and business address! St. Patrick's is the elementary school I attended. Here's a picture of the page:






















These are the three books I picked up at the library this week.

Here Comes Winter!

It's 7 am here in northern NH and the temperature is 20 degrees! There is a layer of frost on everything and just about all the leaves are off the trees.


It took me all week to finish this book and it wasn't because I didn't like it; I was just so darn tired from closing camp, reorganizing things at home, teaching school, and attending meetings. Finally, yesterday afternoon I had a chance to sit and read for an hour and managed to get through it without falling asleep.

This is one fast-paced book that takes place in the space of twenty-four hours. The thing with Iles's books is that his characters are so very human. They make mistakes and do things that make me squirm but I can't help liking them anyway because they never forget to be noble in spite of their downfalls.

Last night while the Red Sox game was on I started The Woman in the Wall by Patrice Kindl. This young-adult book was loaned to me by a former student who has difficulties with reading. She comes in to school to visit every once in a while and just gushed about how she loved this book. It didn't look that appealing to me but I felt that I should give it a try. I read about half last night and should get it finished tonight.

And, you know what? She was right; I'm enjoying it!

Today, my husband and I are going to North Conway to ride on the lunch train. Our daughter is in charge of the food service and she made reservations for us. While I've been typing this post, the sun has come out and turned the morning into a strawberry so it should be a beautiful trip.

Golden Reading Time

Another sunny Sunday here in Maine. This is our last weekend at camp and I'm glad the weather is gorgeous. I'll be hitting the beach one last time until next May. Sad, sad, sad!

I started this book while I was sitting on the beach last Sunday. The temp was in the high 50's and windy. I had a windbreaker on over a fleece and wrapped my towel around my legs. BUT, I couldn't leave! The book just grabbed me and wouldn't let go!

I read over half of it right there and it was a delightful fairy tale. I finished it in bed later that evening. I like a quick gulp of a read like this once in a while.

The following picture was taken Wednesday night when my daughter came up to visit with our granddaughter, Kylie. She just loves books and snagged Grampy to read a story to her.

Brrrrr

Good Sunday morning everyone, looks like we're in for a sunny day here in southern Maine. It's chilly, though. When I got up at 7 am, it was 38 degrees.


I finished this book last night in bed. I can see why the kids at school like it so much. It's a cool story about forbidden love and vampires . And I can understand why parents also approve of it because the message of control and abstinence is loud and clear.

Stephanie Meyer did an excellent job of blending the two together.

So, today I get to begin a new book. One of my tenth-graders gave me Sundays at Tiffany's by James Patterson so I'll probably start that. She said she really enjoyed it.

Happy reading!

An Award!

Thanks to Dar at Peeking Between the Pages for this award! It feels good to be part of the reading blog world!




Finished this book earlier in the week and it was fast-paced and exciting. I loved the way Lisa Scottoline wrote what the main character was thinking in italics and how it compared with what she actually said. That aspect gave this book a humorous edge.

If you are looking for something to read in a weekend (or less!) try this one and you'll be happily busy the whole time.

What's it about? A law professor goes to a prison to help the inmates and ends up in the middle of an escape plot.

You can escape with this book, too!