Well, here it is the first of May already and we're back at camp in Maine for the weekend. It's a lot of work to open up but worth it. I rode my bike to the beach yeaterday and read for about an hour. It was chilly, though! I'm glad I had a jacket with me.
This is the second book in a trilogy. The third one will be available at the end of the month. I've already pre-ordered it for my Kindle. Sadly, there won't be any more "Girl" novels because the author, Stieg Larsson, died.
This one follows Lisbeth Salander as she hunts for the elusive Zala. She's accused of murdering three people and the whole of Sweden is looking for her. How she manages to elude the police and find Zala makes for non-stop action.
I'm really enjoying these books. The only problem I have is trying to figure out how to pronounce all the names! For example, one of the other main characters is Mikael Blomkvist. In my mind I pronounced it Michael Bloomquist. I don't know if that's right or not but I had to do this with most of the characters and places and sometimes found that distracting. Other than that, though, they are great and I'm looking forward to the last one, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.
I've got to head back home later this afternoon but I think I'll take a ride to the beach, first, for a little reading.
Another vacation comes to an end. It was a mostly lazy one and I loved it. No spring cleaning got done, no porch painting, no baking. But I did manage to keep up with NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month). I have to write 30 poems in 30 days. And I'm enjoying the online photography workshop I'm participating in called Picture Spring. Reading? Some but not as much as I'd hoped.
We visited our son about 3 hours south of us for two nights and that was a nice getaway. Here's the gorgeous view I had while sitting on his deck reading:
I have to confess that I skimmed through the second half of this book. It was just too....gag-me sweet! It sounded good. Two mothers struggle to accept the deaths of their teenage sons who are killed in a head-on collision when one boy drinks and drives. The struggling, single mom of the innocent boy sues the rich parents of the responsible boy. Sounds like good fireworks, right?
Nope! Everyone gets all mushy and finds religion and, oh...I'm so glad to be done with it!
Thankfully, it was a freebie for my Kindle from Amazon.
I've moved on to The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson and it's so much better!
Back to school tomorrow for seven and a half weeks until summer! Can't wait to sit on the beach and read!
I got back from Florida on Thursday evening and woke up to snow on Friday morning. And it's been snow showering ever since. That's New England weather for you!
I started this book before my Kindle mishap and didn't finish it until I got back from my trip. It's not that I didn't enjoy it; it's just that I didn't have much time to read except on the airplane. Plus, it's a long book.
Jacob Hunt has Asperger's Syndrome and is accused of murder. The story is told through his eyes and the eyes of several characters: his mom, Emma; his brother, Theo; his lawyer, Oliver; and a detective, Rich. They are all interesting and keep the novel moving forward.
I loved all the info about Asperger's and the fact that we experience it, somewhat, through Jacob.
What I missed in this Jodi Picoult book is her exquisite style. There are very few unusual metaphors or unique similes. It reads almost like a James Patterson novel. It feels like she just wanted to tell the damn story and get her paycheck.
That said, however, I did enjoy it although I felt a bit let down by the ending. It just seemed abrupt and anticlimactic.
And that picture on the cover? Jacob is 18! Sure, it talks about him as he is growing up but the major focus of the book is the present. I found that kind of misleading.
Okay, I'll stop complaining now and move on to my next book! Will I read another Picoult novel? Absolutely! If this one had been written by anyone else, I'd have loved it and not had any problem with it. It's just that I know she can do so much better.
I'm on school vacation this week so, hopefully, will get lots of reading in. Enjoy your week!
Another cloudy Sunday. Cool, too. But the lilac leaves are about an inch long and the crocuses have popped open. The daffodils and irises are about 6 inches tall. Spring is happening even though it snowed yesterday morning.
Tragedy struck Wednesday afternoon as I was getting ready to leave school. I was rearranging my podium and it tipped over a bit and my Kindle flew onto the floor with a loud slap. I'd bought a cover for it and the cover was on and is slightly padded so I hoped it would be okay.
It wasn't. I turned it on and half the screen was fine but the other half had verticle lines all over it.
When I got home, I called Amazon and explained what happened. I knew the 1-year warranty didn't cover accidents so had my credit card ready to buy a new one. (That's how addicted I am to it!) But I just wanted to double check with the support person to see if something like this had been reported before and if there was anything I could do. He had me hold the on/off switch for 15 seconds to reset it but that didn't do anything.
"It's dead" he said. "We'll send you a new one."
"Really?"
"Yes, that shouldn't have happened with the cover on it."
Since I knew I'd be traveling to Florida on Sunday, I asked if I could pay extra to get it shipped overnight. "No," he said. "That's the way we'll ship it anyway."
And there it was Thursday afternoon! I went to my archived items and was able to download all my books.
Can you tell how much I love Amazon right now?
Anyway, I'm still reading House Rules. It's really good so far about a young man with Asperger's. I'm only 14% of the way through and am looking forward to some uninterrupted reading on my flight this afternoon!
Have a good week!
A beautiful, warm Easter Sunday for a change. Yesterday it got up to 80 degrees. Amazing for early April in northern NH. I spent some time sitting in the sun reading and trying to get a little color on my white legs.
Harlan Coben never disappoints. I sped through this one because it's that kind of book. Wendy is a TV journalist who exposes a pedophile on the air. She quickly realizes that he was set up and she is determined to make things right.
What is so cool about this book is that a couple characters from earlier Coben novels pop up in this one including Win from the Myron Bolitar series.
This is a book of poetry written by a woman I've "met" on different online poetry sites. When I saw that she has a book published, I just had to buy it. And I'm really enjoying the poems. She talks about her childhood and the things that were going on underneath the outer layer of her life.
I haven't finished it yet because I like to read a few then let them digest for awhile. It's nice having it nearby to pick up whenver I want.
Woke up to cold sunshine but, now, it's cloudy. We've got a few days of cool, rainy weather ahead of us. But, that's okay; it'll give me a chance to sit in my La Z Boy and read instead of being outdoors washing windows or raking winter from the lawn.
I finished this book last Sunday night. It was a real tearjerker and I didn't want to have to read it in school for Silent Reading. Too embarrassing!
I have a love/hate relationship with Nicholas Sparks. I've liked some of his books but, for the most part, find them too smaltzy. Many of my teenage students have been reading this book and saying how much they love it so I figured I'd give it a chance.
And it actually wasn't too bad. I got into the characters and the plot was nonstop. Ronnie and her brother must spend the summer with their father and Ronnie is furious about this. She hasn't spoken to her dad for three years ever since he and her mom got divorced. So, the prospect of spending a couple months with him has her really upset. How she deals with him, the friends she makes, and the situations that arise make for a decent read.
This fast-paced novel was just what I needed after The Last Song. It's about a Wall Street investment specialist who checks his balance one night and sees that someone has stolen his identity and all his money. He spends the rest of the book figuring out who did it while trying to avoid the police who are looking for him for murder.
I like how the book explains everything so anyone can understand the financial shenanigans. Makes me wonder if anyone can be trusted.
So, it was a good reading week. I'm almost halfway through Caught by Harlan Coben and it's a winner.
Well, my husband is bugging me to get dressed so I can go down in the cellar to help him with the motorcycle he's building. Can't wait!
Have a great week!
We just had a week of spring-like weather so I was able to sit on the porch after school in the sun and read. Love doing that!
This is the latest installment of the Women's Murder Club. Lindsey is after the killer of rich and priviledged people. Yuki is trying to prosecute a woman who killed her father and almost killed her mother. Cindy is tracking the person who murdered Bagman Jesus, a homeless person. And Claire is doing her job of examining the bodies of the dead.
The mixture of their working lives with their personal lives makes for page-turning reading.
Now that spring has officially arrived here in New Hampshire, winter is going to return with cool temps and possibly snow. Wonderful!
Happy Reading, all!
