Summer Reading

I've been away from blogging for a long time (long story) and now that I'm back, I'm almost overwhelmed with all the changes! I don't take to change too well so this is going to take some time getting used to!

The cats haven't been up to much, just sleeping, and I've been doing a lot of reading. Right now I've just begun Gai-Jin by James Clavell and it is one big book!

First, one of my favorite memes: Booking Through Thursday:

Who taught you to read?

I can't remember a time when I didn't love books! The answer to the question is: my father. He was Deaf and had gone to the state school for the Deaf during the 1930s-40s. Education for the Deaf has always been rather delayed and I think my dad read at no more than a third grade level. I remember sitting on his lap while he read Dr. Seuss and other stories to me. He would point at each word as he read. I quickly figured out that the word he was pointing to was the one he was reading out loud. I went back later and looked at the stories, picking out words I remembered. It wasn't long before I was able to piece together entire sentences. By the time I started kindergarten, I was a fluent reader!

I finished three books recently. The first was Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving. His writing is circular to me in that something happens to a character and it might seem like just an anecdote but the incident is always revisited somehow years later. Don't take anything for granted in any of Irving's books! The early part of the story focuses on a logging camp, the cook and his 12 year old son, Daniel. I really enjoyed this part of the book. You could tell Irving did his research and knew about logging camps. Anyway, there was a tragic accident which forced Daniel and his father to flee and start life over in another place to avoid a cop who is pursuing them. Irving's got an offbeat sense of humor and many times I found myself laughing in the midst of what was or could be a sad event. I liked the book a lot.

I turned to two books I'd gotten at a library sale. The first was Hotel by Arthur Hailey. I've read others of his books before and enjoyed them. I enjoyed this one too, about the inner workings and people of a hotel in New Orleans called the St. Gregory. The story's a little dated, though, because one of the big conflicts was that the St. Gregory was not integrated. It brought memories of the civil rights movement to me. A better book about civil rights, though, would be To Kill A Mockingbird.

The second book, Charleston by John Jakes, was totally disappointing. The book tells the story of the fictional Bell family from 1779 to 1865. It's divided into three sections, focusing on the family members. I thought the characters seemed flat and sometimes unbelievable. Ken Follett and Edward Rutherford are a lot better when it comes to plots of revenge and animosity between characters. Ho-hum.

I think I'm going to like Gai-Jin although at the moment I'm a bit confused with the Japanese characters. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed Clavell's other books so I'm hoping I won't be disappointed!

One of the dumbest books I've ever read

I think this is actually the dumbest book I've ever read but that might be just because I just threw it down in disgust. I'd gotten almost to the very end of the book when I did that. I don't like to give up on a book unless it's just awful. About a third of the way through the book I'd resigned myself to a dumb thriller story and was going to power through it as best as I can. It just got so thoroughly stupid I couldn't do it. Oh. The name of the book is The Sign and it was written by Raymond Khoury. I looked it up on Amazon to see what other readers thought of it and it seems like the reviewers thought it was a good book. Well, we all have different tastes and mine definitely is not for this genre. I picked the book up at a library sale. When I read the back cover I didn't recognize it as a thriller. I believed it was a mystery and I was interested in finding out what this supernatural "sign" was all about. The story opens with the apparent death of a young man who was working on some type of project. I got my first clue that this might be a ridiculous book when I read that a military type just started shooting down members of the project for no rational reason. Two years later, a blazing sphere appears above the Antarctic. What is it? It doesn't seem to be manmade, a projected hologram or anything like that. It appears just as a glacier has begun majorly melting. Not long after, it also appears over the Arctic by another melting glacier. Is this a sign, a warning about global warming? I was intrigued enough with this mystery to keep reading. There's a big cast of characters and I found it annoying trying to remember who was who. The main character is Matt, older brother of the scientist in that first scene. Matt is trying to find out what happened to his brother. Someone who knew the brother contacts Matt and tries to pass him a message...but then a squad of goons show up to kidnap them both. Now, if Matt had been ex-military or a cop or something like that, I would have believed how easily he fought off his characters. He then goes on a wild adventure, seemingly an expert at handling cars, guns, and all kinds of jams. Please. Still, I stuck it out until almost the end when a reporter figures out what's really going on and who is involved. Of course, she's the next one that is grabbed by the goon squad and has to be rescued. That just asked me to suspend too much belief. No way would I believe that goon squads would run around kidnapping or killing prominent figures. I know I'm supposed to suspend belief in reality on these types of books and just accept regular people will be put in these situations and somehow know what to do to get themselves out of it. I know there's no character development and it's all melodrama. I just don't care for it. I'm sorry I read as far as I did.

Books I've Read

Recently, I finished reading two books. The first was Shannon by Frank Delaney and I enjoyed that one a lot. I'm not sure whether the book takes its name from the river in Ireland or from the name of the main character, Father Robert Shannon. Father Shannon is of Irish descendant, an American hero who served in France during World War I. He returned to the United States with a case of shell shock, now called PTSD.

He'd made almost a full recovery when he came upon a secret within his church and involving the archbishop. That secret caused such a trauma that he relapsed, becoming a bare shell of a man. It's also caused him to question his faith. Father Anthony Sevovicz begins to work closely with Robert, hoping to bring him back to recovery. The archbishop proposes a trip to Ireland for Shannon, allowing him to trace his roots. But what is the real motive for the trip? Is it so Robert can heal or is it to keep him quiet about the secret?

One thing that fascinated me was that Delaney also explored the PTSD caused by parental abuse. There is a character called Vincent Patrick Ryan that suffered horrible abuse as a child. He finds himself unable to form attachments and is surrounded by cruelty and violence.

As Robert travels up the Shannon River in search of relatives, he meets many different people, kind, interesting people. He begins to heal again slowly.

I'll stop there so I don't give away too much. I just want to say that the book is very well written. Some of the passages are beautiful, like the country of Ireland, and some are very suspenseful!

I also read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins to see what all the fuss was about over the movie and the character Katniss Everdeen. I'm probably one of the few people who read it that didn't like it much. The story is set in the future, in the ruins of the United States. Now it's called Panem and is made up of twelve districts.

Apparently there was a rebellion against the central government, located in The Capitol (somewhere near the Rockies I think). The rebellion was put down and as punishment each of the districts have to send a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18 to The Hunger Games every year. It's a televised event at which the participants are supposed to hunt and kill each other until there's one person left standing.

It could've been a great story in my opinion. The main reason I didn't like it, though, was that it was very superficial. I never felt connected to Katniss, the heroine. She just seemed like a cardboard character to me. The events that happened were predictable, which was disappointing. I would have liked a big surprise or a twist. It was all just too melodramatic for my taste. I don't plan to read the other two books in the series. Oh well.

Burn Down The Ground by Kambri Crews

As a Coda (children of deaf adults) I identified with and thoroughly enjoyed this book. I found out about it from a group I belong to on Facebook, Coda. I wouldn't have found out about the book otherwise because I didn't see it marketed anywhere.

I was hooked from the beginning when Crews recounted a trip she, her parents and brother took to attend a bowling tournament. How that brought back memories! My parents were very active on bowling leagues and every year, we attended the Deaf tournaments.

Kambri Crews' parents were proud and tried to provide a stable home for the family but it didn't work. The family lived from paycheck to paycheck. They'd fall behind and would face eviction. They'd have to move. For years, the lived in what seemed the backwoods of Texas. At one time, they even had to live in a tin shed!

Kambri's father had trouble holding down a job. I'm not sure it had as much to do with his deafness as it did his drinking. He was a paranoid, angry man but she didn't see that until years later. To her, her father was a hero.

Kambri shared some of what it was like to be part of two cultures, Deaf and hearing. There are also issues with having Deaf parents--interpreting, for one. Luckily, she didn't have to interpret often for her parents because her mother could hear a little and could interpret herself.

Another issue is that the parents seemed pretty neglectful. They let Kambri and her brother pretty much run wild. At one point, Kambri's brother became violent and terrorized and bullied her. When she tried to get help from her parents, they just seemed to shrug it off and attribute it to sibling rivalry. Years later, Kambri learned the reason for her brother's violence--something she'd been shielded from for years.

Kambri's family fell apart. The parents divorced. The brother became involved in drugs and eventually went to rehab. Although Kambri became a successful business woman, she went through a period of time when she drank, used drugs, and became promiscuous.

In a burst of violence, Kambri's father nearly killed his girlfriend and was sent to prison. That's about the time Kambri was learning all these other secrets about her father that explained why her brother had become such a bully. She had to reconcile these new facts about her dad with the image of the man she'd so admired.

It was a very honest memoir with moments of humor to soften some of the difficult parts. I definitely recommend it! Reading it, I felt inspired to write my own. Maybe I will.

Dark Shadows 2012 Trailer and Time and Again by Jack Finney

Dark Shadows started as a gothic horror soap opera in 1966. It began delving into the supernatural with the introduction of reluctant vampire Barnabas Collins. I discovered the series when Barnabas was terrorizing Maggie Evans, trying to turn her into his lost love. It gave me nightmares and my mother said no more Dark Shadows.

I couldn't stay away from it though and began to watch it again when my mother wasn't in the room. This was easy because she was Deaf and couldn't hear that I'd changed the channel. The storyline at the time was a Frankenstein one--Barnabas had been "cured" of vampirism. I was totally hooked and watched the series to the end, running home from school to make sure I didn't miss any of it.

There can never be another series like it. The actors who played the characters can never be replaced. Dark Shadows fandom lives on, even though the show went off in 1971. Every year there is a Fest, bringing together fans and actors/actresses. It's a lot of fun. I've been to three.

This year, there's a new movie called Dark Shadows starring Johnny Depp as Barnabas and directed by Tim Burton. I've seen other films by Burton and figured this movie would be offbeat and kooky. That doesn't bother me because, like I said, you can't remake the original. I'm looking forward to the movie because I like Johnny Depp and think he'll make a good Barnabas.

The trailer was released last week and it seems to have divided the fans in half--those that liked it and those that hated it. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion but I've been surprised at how hostile things became sometimes. Oh well. The debate has nothing to do with how I feel anyway and May (when the movie is released) is just a few weeks away.

Time and Again by Jack Finney is a book I always meant to read from high school on. I saw it at a library book sale and decided that now was the time I'd finally read it. It's a science fiction story about time travel and I enjoy that kind of thing.

I had really mixed feelings about the book though. Simon Morley is an illustrator in NY who meets up with a mysterious man that wants to involve him in some secret project he gives little details about. I wondered what made the guy pick Si Morley first of all and, second of all, why Morley was so willing to go with the man based on such little information. Morley meets a bunch of people in a warehouse who, once again, provide little information and convince him to join the project. Huh? Maybe 2012 me would be too suspicious to fall for that, where 1970 me might have gone along with it.

Eventually, though, it turns out that the government is working on a great experiment in time travel. They say they want to just go back and observe but I wondered to myself, why? I also wondered how this time travel was supposed to be accomplished. There were no machines or anything to go back. It turns out this was to be done mentally, although all time is a river and the past is right alongside us in the present. Okay.

After a whole lot of practice, Si takes an experimental trip back to New York, 1882. Then he goes back again to watch a specific event. Then he's sent back again, to gather more information for the researchers. Later, we find out what the researchers true motive is for all this research and it's disturbing.

Looking back, I think it was good to have an air of mystery. It was like watching an episode of Lost--as one question was answered, another rose in my mind. I also enjoyed the inclusion of photographs and drawings from the times. Some of the descriptions were very interesting.

On the downside, there was a lot of description and detail given to buildings, streets, and trees. I found it all tedious after awhile and so I'd skip those parts. Another thing I didn't like was the inconsistency of the time travel. Si had to practice and train to do it, yet some other people were able to do it without any training at all. It also wasn't really clear to me whether their minds were travelling and their bodies remained stationery or did they really disappear back into time?

The Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd

I have an update on all our adventures over the last week or so that I'll get to later.

My grandparents came to the U.S. from County Sligo and so I'm a little familiar with the culture and stories of Ireland and was totally looking forward to reading this book. I already enjoyed Sarum and London by Rutherford and expected another fine book. Alas. It might be a fine book for some but it just wasn't for me.

The back of the book said Rutherford would explore "tribal culture of pagan Ireland" but there was just a little bit of that. The very short introduction mentioned the Tuatha de Danaan and Fir Bolg, supposedly the original inhabitants sent underground in a kind of exile by man. I would have loved a whole chapter about them, even if they are considered fairy folk.

The first big section of the book did have pagan culture and Druids...but they were alongside Christians. In other words, I thought the book started later in history than it might have. I had to go online and make sure that Princes was the first in the Dublin series. I enjoyed that first section.

The second had a romance that reminded me too much of recent books I'd read by Ken Follett. It wasn't exactly the same but basically you had a couple that seemed like they were meant to be ... but they were kept apart first and foremost by his ambivalence about marriage. Then throughout their lives he thinks of her often but now he's a priest and she's married and their unavailable to each other and blah blah blah. Enough already.

As Dublin becomes a city in its own right, I felt there was a little too much focus on the English Irish and not enough on the natives. It was irritating to read about how the Irish were dispossessed of their properties and fortunes so that English nobles could be rewarded. That's the history of it but instead of following all these English families I would have preferred to have some focus on the dispossessed families.

There's a lot of history and factual information I enjoyed learning. This volume ends with the Reformation period. The next book is called The Rebels of Ireland. I'm going to request it from the library and am giving this one to my daughter to read.

Anywhere but here and The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb

Over the lovely Valentine's Day dinner Kristin prepared for us, we had a conversation about how expensive fish has become. Kristin told us the least expensive fish sold at the store where she works is something called swai. I'd never heard of it and asked what it was. She answered it was a sort of Southeast Asian catfish. "What about Louisiana catfish? Or other American catfish?" I asked.

Kristin answered hardly anything comes from the United States anymore--except for lump crabcakes, which are from Maryland. Crabs are from Canada. Shrimp and other fishes are from Asia and Southeast Asia. Even crawfish (which I associate with Louisiana) are from Spain at her store.

I recollected lately about buying leg of lamb and tenderloin beef roast on sale. They were from Australia.

So what is going on? Where do the American fishermen and farmers sell their products? Overseas?

Even our produce is from everywhere else. Fruits and vegetables come from South America.

Maybe it's a seasonal thing? It just seems wrong that we don't have more American products available in the meat, seafood, and produce sections of grocery stores. I asked Kristin if people complain about it and she said yes--they worry about the quality of the water and what might go into it. TB said he'd worry about the same thing.

I finally finished reading The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb. I started out loving it but by the end of the book, I was freely skipping sections and grimly plowing ahead to the end. It's a shame because the book had a good premise.

Caelum and Maureen Quirk are a teacher and school nurse respectively. They move from Connecticut to Colorado to try and save a damaged marriage. They both get jobs at Columbine High School. Yes. That Columbine. On that fateful April day in 1999, Maureen is hiding from the gunmen in the library while Caelum is back in Connecticut for the funeral of his aunt.

The first half of the book centers on Maureen's struggles to cope with the after effects of Columbine. Caelum, not the most sensitive soul in the world, struggles to deal with Maureen's manifestation of PTSD. They decide it would be better to leave Colorado, leave the memories behind (hopefully) and go home to Caelum's family farm.

Tragedy follows.

In more way than one--I think the book was a victim of the move too. I thought the story was going to be about Maureen's struggle and recovery from PTSD and that Caelum would grow as part of the experience into a loving, supportive husband. Well, that didn't happen.

The focus went off Maureen and onto Caelum and his dysfunctional family. It should have been its own story, like a sequel or something. Part of the problem I had with this is that I didn't like Caelum. I found him to be angry, cold and withdrawn. He was mean to people he had no business being mean to. I couldn't get away from Caelum. He was the narrator. I was willing to put up with him when the focus was on Maureen. In the second half of the book though ...

What made it worse for me was all the paperwork from and about Caelum's family. I was bored to death reading some of the letters and diary entries so I ended up skipping great chunks of it. I didn't feel I lost anything by it because Caelum usually summed it up one way or another anyway.

I really liked Wally Lamb's other books so this was a big disappointment!

And in the what else is new? department, I totally forgot about Cats on Tuesday and Kosmo has been letting me know about it since!

I had to take Kristin to the doctor for an infected gland. She's being treated with an antibiotic now that will hopefully take care of it. If not, we have to see a specialist. :P

And today I needed a shot in my left hip. I thought I was having a return of SI joint dysfunction but the doctor said it was actually bursitis. Better that, I think, than the other. The last time I had it was in 2009 and I was incapacitated a month! Anyway, the doctor gave me a shot and said I should start feeling some relieve tomorrow. I hope so!

The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon

This is supposed to be a "stand alone" book in the Outlander world Diana Gabaldon's created. In addition to the adventures of Jamie and Claire in the main series, she's written a series of shorter books about Lord John. Lord John appears in the original Outlander series of books. I tried reading one of the Lord John books once and put it down. It just didn't grab me. I decided to read this one because Jamie Fraser was in it.

The book is set in 1760, equivalent to the timing of the third in the series, Voyager. Jamie is a political prisoner of the British, paroled to working as a groom on an estate in England. Despite having disturbing dreams about his wife Claire, he does have access to his young son William. He's a political prisoner because of being involved in the failed Jacobite Rising to put Charles Stuart on the throne. Life isn't too terrible and then an old friend from the past shows up. There seems to be a new Rising brewing in Ireland but Jamie wants no part of it.

In the middle of all this, Lord John and his brother, the Duke of Pardloe (Hal), are confronted with their own problem. Things got a little murky for me here. There was something to do with papers and a poem in Gaelic and a "bad guy" who embezzled money and needed to be brought to justice. Hal decided to involve Jamie for reasons that weren't entirely clear or believeable to me. First, Jamie speaks Gaelic and could translate the poem. Yes, but there are others in the British army that could have done that too. Second, Jamie's size is intimidating and might be needed to drag the bad guy back. Like no one else but a political prisoner could do this? Well, okay.

I liked the book in some places and in other places I detested it. I could see parts where Gabaldon was trying to be funny but I wasn't amused. I guess her humor is not mine. There was too much Lord John mooning about Jamie. He's got a crush on Jamie but his feelings aren't returned. See, I am not a fan of romance novels and I didn't think the series was supposed to be ... but it started leaning that way. Along those lines there was one explicit sex scene that really didn't belong in the story. Zzzzzzzz. Sometimes I didn't find the thought patterns of the male characters believable. Do guys think that way? I didn't think so.

One other thing annoyed me about the book. It didn't end where it was supposed to. It went on for another thirty pages with something that happens to the son and something else that happens to the younger daughter of the manor. Both are resolved quickly and neither had anything to do with the meat of the book. Why was it there? I dunno.

Before I wrote that Outlander wasn't supposed to be a romance series. The earlier books in particular are full of action and excitement. As things crept along into the middle of the series, though, I noticed it's become more soap operish. There were exerpts from the next book in the series and I read them to see if I'd want to continue. I wasn't able to finish Echo in the Bone because it was so ponderous. I might give it a shot, though, because I'll probably read the next one out of loyalty and stubbornness.

Read The Scottish Prisoner only if you're a big fan of the Outlander series. Otherwise you won't get any of it. As it was, I have a feeling I should have read all the Lord John books to understand all of the references.

World Without End by Ken Follet

I so enjoyed this book but, I have to say, not as much as The Pillars of the Earth. I'll get to why in a minute.

World Without End takes place 200 years later than Pillars in the same town of Kingbridge. It opens with four children doing what kids like to do--playing in the woods. Their play is interrupted by violence: a man is attacked by two others. Three of the children are able to get away as the two attackers are killed. The fourth child enters into a pact with the surviving victim. They hide a certain something and it's not to be spoken of ever unless the man dies.

Fast forward ten years. The children have all grown up and are pursuing different paths in life. The secret something remains buried, just waiting to be uncovered. The book spans a good 25 years, following the fortune and misfortune of each of the four. There is a true love, soul mates type romance in the story that is continually frustrated. There's triumph and tragedy in the story. There is also that dreadful disease that wiped out half the population in the Middle Ages: the plague. And does the secret ever become exposed? Read to find out!

Now here's why I didn't enjoy it as much as Pillars. I think I read it too soon afterward. At first I thought the characters would be completely different but then I realized there were a lot of similarities. The lead hero and lead heroine are almost interchangeable between both books. Even the heros look alike. The love affairs go through many trials and tribulations, similar but different.
There is a cruel, amoral earl in both Pillars and World. There are kind and decent monks and there are selfish, self-centered monks in both books. In both books, there are characters that carry grudges throughout a lifetime. I don't think I would have noticed it much if I'd read a bunch of books in between the two.

I would definitely recommend both books to anyone but I would also advise not to read them back to back like I did!

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

This book was actually published back in the late 1980s and didn't make a big deal. I wasn't aware of it then, probably because I had two little toddlers to chase after. It came back on the best seller list some years back. I picked up the paper back from Costco but it stayed on my shelf from 2008 to around Christmas time of this year.

Why? Ken Follett usually writes thrillers and I wasn't sure how he'd do with historical fiction. The Pillars of the Earth has to do with the building of a cathedral in the Middle Ages and that just didn't catch my interest much. To top it off, the size of the book was daunting!

What changed my mind? Reading Sarum and London by Edward Rutherfurd. Reading about the Middle Ages could be compelling, I realized, and it was about time I gave Pillars a chance. I'm so glad I did!

As for a thriller writer being able to write historical fiction in an exciting way ... well, no doubt about it, Ken Follett can do it!

The story follows a small group of characters through the years of building the cathedral. There's Prior Philip of Kingsbridge, who has the dream and ambition of having the cathedral built. He's a good man, stern and just, but he has ambition. There's Tom Builder, the mason who's always wanted to build a cathedral and his second wife, Ellen, considered by many to be a witch. Characters who start out as children and grow up throughout the story including Jack, Ellen's son who has a mysterious background, and Aliena, daughter of an earl who runs afoul of the king. There are many secondary characters, several of whom develop into enemies of Tom, Aliena and Jack.

Of course, the building of the cathedral doesn't go smoothly. Philip's enemies do everything in their power to stymy the progress. Politics--a conflict between the king of England, Stephen, and one who wanted to be queen, Maud. Out of the conflict comes King Henry II.

I learned a lot from this book but it wasn't tedious. The book was exciting and very hard to put down. You can never be sure what to expect. A major character isn't necessarily "safe" from death or mayhem and I like those kinds of shocks and surprises. I'm half way through the sequel, World Without End. I highly recommend this book!

The Great Santa Search by Jeff Guinn

Jeff Guin's written three books in the "Santa Claus Chronicles" and this one is my favorite. The first two dragged a lot for me but this one moved along at a nice smooth and steady pace.

Santa has his biggest challenge ever because of a proposed reality show called "The Great Santa Search". The owner of a local TV station is desperate to save it. He's been losing viewers because of reality shows so he teams up with (unbeknownst to him) an unscruplous toy manufacturer to produce a live contest between the 10 best Santas in the country. The Santas will compete in different activities and the audience will participate in voting for the best Santa. Sound like every reality show we've seen?

The winner will be the spokesperson for the toy company, which produces low quality products.

Santa's horrified. Children will be confused because Santa's the spokesman of one single company! They'll become disillusioned with him because the toys he sponsors break on contact. He must do something about this contest! But what?

There's a little bit of history thrown into this story--particularly, how we got to have a Santa in every store and how Santa's helpers turned out to be elves.

There was some mild suspense with Santa worming his way into the competition and a possible cheating scandal. That's all I'll say about that.

One of my objections is this: Santa keeps trying to insist that the holday is all about loving and giving and Jesus. He says when he gives gifts, children understand the spirit of generosity and giving to others. I guess I'm cynical about that. I don't think that's the Santa message at all. I think it's about presents, presents, presents.

Even when I was a little kid, I didn't learn that Santa Claus had anything to do with baby Jesus. They were two separate beings. On Christmas morning, Santa brought us lots of gifts and, oh, yes, by the way, we also went to church to celebrate the birth of a baby I never met. Okay, so that's probably a failing on my parents' part or maybe even that of my Sunday school teachers.

I didn't make any connection between Santa and Jesus or even what Christmas was really about until I was much older, a teenager, maybe. So I don't think little kids are getting a message that Santa's gifts mean that they should turn around and give gifts or celebrate Jesus' birth. Sorry, Jeff Guin.

On another note, we took Little T back to Smithville Park for another long walk. What's really nice is he loves going on these walks along the trail. He led us again and we went down part of a trail we hadn't been down before. We were all good and tired by the time we were done!

Thirteen Ways to Happiness & Wishin' and Hopin' by Wally Lamb

I was going to write about this study I read about the other day. Children that grow up in homes with violence end up with the same types of brain responses as soldiers in a war environment. I remember my therapist told me about that and I sort of believed it but was also skeptical. How could I compare what happened to me to that of a soldier in combat? Well...there it was, all true. The thing is, I also didn't want to write about it. It depressed me.

I liked this article much better and it fit in nicely with the Thursday Thirteen theme. See, I waver between feeling up and positive to feeling depressed and negative. It's a battle to stay upbeat but I find if I can do it a couple of days in a row, I can get a momentum going and keep at least an even keel for a while.

The article talks about what happy people do differently to stay happy. There was a list of 12 things and then I added one:

Thirteen Ways to Happiness

1. "Express Gratitude". Even if the only thing you can say is you have a roof over your head and food in your belly, this helps. I think about the things I do have when times are rough--like now, with the spending Christmas season. Things could be a lot worse.

2. "Cultivate Optimism". This is something my therapist was trying out with me. It involves saying things like, things aren't going so well but they can get better.
Or they will get better.

3. "Avoid over-thinking and social comparison". In other words, instead of worrying about the Joneses' just focus on yourself. So I'll just not concern myself with all the lights and decorations everyone else seems to have.

4. "Practice acts of kindness." This is a good one. I've done lots of these and it really is true--it gets that feel-good serotonin flowing.

5. "Nurture social relationships." This is a little harder for me to practice except on the internet. I never did make any friendships here in NJ mostly because it just seems like I have to say good bye to people I've made close friends with in the two states I lived in before, MD and NY. I try to attend to my internet friendships though. I've found some of my closest friends online.

6. "Develop strategies for coping". Ah, well, this is a skill I learned as a child when there were all sorts of crisis and chaos going on around me. I would come up with a Plan A, B, C, D, and E. If one failed, I'd turn to another.

7. "Learn to forgive". That's come with age. It's not something I could do when I was younger and filled with righteous anger. Over the years, the anger's tempered and I've learned a lot about how people behave and think.

8. "Increase flow experiences". Well, that's something I need to work on. I can get into the flow when I'm writing but haven't been able to focus recently. If I developed a hobby I enjoyed I could get into the flow too.

9. "Savor life's joys". Ah, yes, like spending the day with Little T or watching a snowstorm from the safety of my home or the sun coming up over the ocean.

10. "Commit to your goals". This is another one I need to work on. I feel adrift because I don't really have any goals other than getting through each and every day.

11. "Practice Spirituality". We do that, praying several times a day.

12. "Take Care of Your Body." I could improve in this area. I could exercise more regularly and watch what I eat. I could make sure I get to doctors for regular check-ups and preventative tests like mammograms and stuff.

13. Keep your sense of humor. This my own addition. I think if I didn't have a sense of humor (albeit a dark one sometimes) I would have lost my mind already. When I laugh, I feel those feel-good endorphins flowing around.

Last night, I finished reading a book called Wishin and Hopin by Wally Lamb, one of my favorite authors. The book was funny and sweet, focusing on 10 year old Felix Funicello, his family, friends, and school teachers. I saw it marketed in the book club as a Christmas book. I wouldn't have called it that although Christmas is in it. So are Halloween and Thanksgiving. It's more a coming of age story and Felix reminded me of Ralphie, the kid from A Christmas Story. I also got a kick out of the book because it was like a walk down memory lane--the way people dressed and talked, the TV shows they watched, and how simple everything used to be. Families ate together instead of apart. It was a fast, entertaining read and I'm glad to add it to my Wally Lamb collection!

11/22/63 by Stephen King

Stephen King is one of my favorite authors--he never fails to entertain me with his page turners. Normally he writes horror and as I'm turning the pages, unable to put the books down, my hair is standing on end. 11/22/63 isn't horror--unless you count Kennedy's assassination, how the simple things you do can affect the future and the general hateful ignorance of some people. This was a time travel book and he really pulled it off!

Jake Epping is a caring English teacher recovering from an unpleasant divorce. Al, owner of a diner, has decided that Jake fits his bill nicely and takes him into his confidence. Al's become mysteriously very ill and asks Jake to meet him at the diner. He has some kind of wormhole in the back that takes you back to the same September day in 1958 every time you use it. Jake of course is very skeptical so Al has him give it a shot.

Jake comes back amazed and even more curious. Why is Al telling him all this? It turns out there's a method to Al's madness. He's been time travelling in an attempt to stop the assassination of President Kennedy. The problem is, he's become seriously ill with cancer and can no longer pursue his goal. Enter Jake, a single man with no children and no real attachments.

The whole thing seems so crazy and yet Jake is drawn to the idea. Maybe if Kennedy had lived, we wouldn't have suffered such terrible events as more assassinations, the war in Viet Nam, and the near depression. Jake decides it's worth a try.

Will he succeed? Time resists change. It might not be so easy to change things. If he succeeds, what happens to the country as a result of President Kennedy surviving the assassination attempt by Lee Harvey Oswald? What changes occur just because Jake is wandering around in the past? What happens if love comes along to complicate things?

Read to find out. You won't regret it and will enjoy the ride back in time!

Thursday Thirteen and a bad day!

Thursday 13

I got this idea because I just finished Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King and just started his 11/22/63.

Thirteen Favorite Stephen King novels

Pretend all these titles are underlined. It's too much work for me today! ;)

1. The Stand
2. It
3. Salem's Lot
4. Dolores Claiborne
5. Hearts In Atlantis
6. Green Mile
7. The Shining
8. The Talisman
9. The Black House
10. Carrie
11. Needful Things
12. The Eyes of the Dragon
13. Bag of Bones

Getting back to Full Dark, No Stars, Stephen King delivered four short stories of one type of horror or another. He always delivers, even though I think his writing has changed since he was hit by that van and nearly killed. I'm a devoted fan of his earlier books, which appear on the list above.

I wonder what kind of book King would write if he wrote about us.

This has just been one of those days.

It's raining so TB is in excrutiating pain.

He started to chew one of our bariatric supplements for omega three. These chews used to be soft and now they're hard like rocks. One of the caps on his teeth came out. I put my chew back because that's all I need. We don't have dental coverage and won't get any until January 1.

The last time this happened, over a year ago, TB glued the cap back in himself over and over. It worked for months and then he accidentally swallowed it and we couldn't afford a new cap. So now that tooth has been sitting there uncapped. This time we'll rob Peter to pay Paul to have the dentist glue it back in. Hopefully it will stay put permanently or at least until we can get the insurance.

I had an appointment to see the kidney specialist this morning. I'd scheduled it for soon after Kristin's class started and figured I'd be back in time for the last class to end 3 hours later. Okay, you guessed it. I waited an hour in the waiting room before being called back and then went through a lot of rigamarole only to have the doctor barely look at me, order up a bunch of tests and say repeatedly I should've been sent to an endocrinologist. I got out 15 minutes before Kristin's class ended and it's a half hour drive to the school. I was aggravated and frustrated and majorly stressed out.

The sound on our TV isn't working. We don't know why.

I forgot to take a chicken out for dinner last night so I took it out around six this morning. It's still frozen. I put it into a sink of cold water. Think it'll be thawed enough for me to cut it in an hour?

With the way today's been going, I doubt it. :P

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

I borrowed this book from Kristin. It's a fantasy, a genre I usually enjoy. She hadn't read it yet but said her friends raved about it. The Name of the Wind is the first in a trilogy. The reviews for it elsewhere are positive.

On the whole, though, I didn't like it very much. I did like the way it began: the setting is in an inn in a dangerous land populated with people beset by demons. The innkeeper is a quiet red-headed man, Kote. On a night populated with regulars, someone staggers in wounded with what appears to be a demon in tow. I was intrigued but then soon after a biographer called Chronicler shows up. He's figured out that Kote is really someone else, a powerful wizard called Kvothe.

Kote/Kvothe reluctantly agrees to tell his story but insists it will take three days. Get it? Each book is a day in the telling of the story. Oh dear. Here I was all about finding out this land and the demons and now we're going back into the past.

Well, the story was fairly interesting at first. A member of a travelling troupe of musicians, actors, and what have you, Kvothe journeyed around with his parents and an interesting assortment of characters. Something about a song Kvothe's parents sing enrage a mysterious group and provokes them to attack the troupe. There is tragedy and Kvothe is left to struggle on his own until he is fifteen and makes his way to the university.

For me, this is when the story really bogged down. I didn't care about Kvothe or his experiences at the university. Think of him as an arrogant and unlikeable Harry Potter, showing up other students and teachers. He makes enemies that cause him all sorts of problems. He falls for a girl who shows up, disappears, shows up, disappears...well, you get the idea. Whatever difficulty comes his way, he manages to find a way around it.

I won't be reading the second or third book. It's just not for me because I just could not care about the main character. I realize that not all main characters are likeable and that's okay with me but there has to be something that "clicks" for me to stay interested. It just didn't happen for me. I kept waiting for it to get better and it just didn't.

Sarum by Edward Rutherford

I just finished Sarum and I have to admit I rushed it, skimming through the last few sections. I enjoyed London so much so I'm kind of disappointed with this book.

I loved the first section, which dealt with the prehistoric era. I was hooked and drawn in by Rutherford's descriptions of what he thought prehistoric life was like in the area. I was especially fascinated with the Stonehenge section. I enjoyed and remembered all the characters, like Nooma the mason who worked on Stonehenge. The first part of the book dealt with Old Sarum which was located up on a hill.

The second part dealt with New Sarum and that's where I ran out of steam for the book. What was it? I just didn't find the characters as inspiring. There was a lot of detail about cloth manufacturing that I found boring. Some of the historical events, like the outbreaks of plague, I remembered from London. Sometimes I found these interesting. Other times--like with the Round Heads of the Oliver Cromwell era (these were really rigid and religiously intolerant Presbyterians)--I was just bored.

I still other books by Rutherford to read. I'll wait a while before I start one and hope for the best.

Good Neighbors

What attracted me to Good Neighbors by Ryan David Jahn was two things: reviews said the story was based on the Kitty Genovese story and it was compared to the movie Crash. I had a flashback to an incident that occurred on my lunch break years ago, when I was in my early 20s. I decided to read the book.

This is Jahn's first book. He could be the next excellent writer if he continues to write stories like this one.

Kat Marino is a young woman who goes off her late shift and returns home to her apartment in Queens around 4 a.m. Little does she know there's a predator waiting for her. Little does she know a bunch of her neighbors (some strangers, some not) are up at the time, involved in their own petty little dramas. So she is attacked by the predator and screams for help. Some people actually comes to their windows to look out but no one lifts a finger to help--not even to call the police.

The story goes on with the last few hours of poor Kat's life. There are also visits to all these other people to learn what they'd been doing and why they didn't act to help. There's a rogue cop and an EMT with vengeance on his mind.

The book is a thriller and one of those I had trouble putting down. All the same, it was also a story where I disliked nearly all the characters. Part of it was that they did nothing to help. I know there's a whole syndrome about this named for Kitty Genovese--the more bystanders there are the less likely it is that anyone will get involved. All these characters had other "stuff" going on in their lives but it was hard for me to care or feel sympathetic. The characters were also rather stereotypical which could be due to Jahn's inexperience or due to the length of the story (it's not very long at all).

My favorite character was Frank, who passed Kat's car as she was arriving home. I think he would have helped her if he'd been able to return in time.

The memory that got sparked: I was working in Baltimore City as a clerk typist. I liked to take my lunch by myself outdoors on nice days. This particular day I went to Hopkins Plaza. On one side was the Morris Mechanic Theater. I went up to the top level. I could look down on the plaza and people watch or gaze at the flowers there. I always had a book with me because I get myself settled and read while I ate. That's what I was doing when I heard the scream.

I stood up and looked down into the plaza. Dozens of people were sitting along the fountain and the flower bank, eating their lunches. None of them had screamed but they were all looking around. Then I saw a man dragging a woman along. It almost looked like he had her around the throat as he pulled her along. She was screaming "No, no!" No one got up or challenged the man.

"Hey!" I yelled from where I was. There was no way I could reach them--and no way that man could reach me. They never looked around anyway.

The man continued to drag the woman out of the plaza.

Then I saw a hard hat entering the plaza. He heard her screaming and ran to her aid. At about the same time, police or security guards came out of the federal building on the other side of the plaza and the man was apprehended.

I have no idea what almost happened. Did the two of them know each other? Were they strangers? It bothered me a lot that no one tried to help her and I wondered what would have happened if the construction worker hadn't intervened.

A Dance With Dragons and Neverwhere

I started to feel a little sad as I got to the end of A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin. I thought to myself, what could I possibly read now that would even begin to hold my interest? and how long until the next book comes out?. Martin is that author of the Fire and Ice series, now up to five books. He plans to write two more. There was a five year wait period between the fourth and fifth books and I sure hope that doesn't happen again!

It's a fantasy series but it's reminiscent of the days of chivalry and knights. The characters are rich and well developed. Most of the characters aren't totally good nor totally evil. They're people who make choices, some good, some bad and then have to deal with them. The first book focused mostly on the Stark family and those are the characters I care most about. There is also an exiled princess...now queen...that I am rooting for to regain her kingdom.

With each book, there have been new characters introduced with interesting background stories. Some are heroic in nature and others are more villainous. So far I've only encountered two characters that have (in my opinion) no redeeming qualities.

Right now the Stark family is scattered far and wide. The princess I'm rooting for seems stuck in another place and almost content to be so. The series has taken some pretty big twists and turns. It's not predictable and it keeps you (the reader) on your toes!

After I finished the book, I wondered what to read. I decided on Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. It's another fantasy and I thought it might help ease me back into the real world. Heidi told me he's a good writer so when I saw this book at a library sale, I picked it up.

Richard Mayhew is your typical young man living in London--good job, friends, engaged--until he encounters Door on the street. He finds her lying on the sidewalk, bleeding, and she doesn't want to go to the hospital so he carries her home. There begins the adventure. It turns out there are two worlds, London Above (where Richard resides) and London Below (where Door lives). Who was trying to hurt Door and why? How can Richard fully return to London Above? It was an entertaining book, funny and different. It did remind me of a more adult-like Alice in Wonderland, where Tweedledee and Tweedledum are sadistic assassins, not twins. I was glad I read this book. Now I'm able to move on beyond Martin's book and read other books.

Caravans

The last time I went to a library book sale, I picked up Caravans by James Michener. I've read many, but not all, of his books. When I read the back cover and saw that the setting was in Afghanistan I decided I wanted to read this one. The reason, obviously, is because of our military involvement there. I know next to nothing about the country.

I learned a lot about Afghanistan from this book, although some of it may be outdated as it was written in 1963 or thereabouts. Michener is skilled at telling the history of a region and its people. I enjoyed all the native characters because it was through them I learned the most about life and culture in Afghanistan 1946. I didn't care too much for the "hero" Mark Miller nor the missing girl Ellen Jaspar.

The story basically is that Mark Miller, some kind of attache to the U.S. Embassy, is sent on a journey to find Ellen Jaspar, who's run away from home to marry an Afghan engineer and then disappeared. Parents and senators are clamoring to know what happened to her. The more interesting part of the book is the search and caravaning to find her. Once she appeared, she totally turned me off. I won't get into why because it would spoil the book for anyone who hasn't read it.

I gave it three stars out of five because of it. It's probably not fair but there you go.

Books I've Read

Now that summer's here, bringing with it all the heat and humidity, I find I'm reading more often and for longer periods of time. I've been hiding from the triple H's (hazy, hot, humid) by staying indoors near the air conditioner.

Right now, I'm eagerly awaiting my copy of A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin. It's the latest in his series called A Song of Ice and Fire and relates the tales and adventures of characters I've come to love in The Seven Kingdoms and abroad. I don't want to give away too many details of the stories because I wouldn't want to spoil anything for folks who haven't read the books yet. The characters are well developed and I found myself caring about many of them or heartily despising a few. That's how well and convincingly Martin writes. I've been shocked and saddened by sometimes horrific things happening to my favorites. I've celebrated when similar incidents happen to some of "the bad guys". Starting in May with the first book, A Game of Thrones, I reread (I'd read these books twice before) the books in the series. The others are A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords and A Feast For Crows. I was a little disappointed because many of my favorite characters didn't appear in the last book. That's because the story grew so large, Martin had to split it into two books. My favorites are in the book that I'm anxiously awaiting.

I'm almost finished with The Evening News by Arthur Hailey. As I began to read it, parts of it seemed familiar. I'm not sure I read the whole thing through. It may have been one I put down out of boredom. There've been a couple of places where I struggled to go on and sections I skipped because I was so bored. Don't get me wrong. I usually enjoy Hailey's books. This one is good in most places. It's the story of what happens when a news anchor's family is kidnapped by terrorists. Hailey's very knowledgeable about each of his book topics. The problem is that the information can be dry and it's not always presented in an interesting way. I'm hoping I finish it after I've received Martin's new book. I don't really want to start a new one. I'd really like to read Martin's book first but I can't be without a book to read either. Oh well.

I also read London by Edward Rutherfurd. I'd never read any of his books before because they were so dauntingly "big". I picked this one up at a library book sale and decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did! Rutherfurd reminds me of James Michener in that he centers in on one location and writes a story that takes place over hundreds of years. With Rutherfurd, the story of London, England spanned centuries and more. He started just before the Romans came to settle and ended in 1997. The characters and stories were richly developed and interesting. I loved the book so much I went to Paperback Book Swap and requested two more of his books. I'm looking forward to reading them.

The other book I read while waiting for Martin's book was Dead By Sunset by Ann Rule. She writes about some creepy sociopaths! This guy was a real "winner" in that he probably took his then 4 year-old-son to the ambush place he'd set up for his ex-wife. He beat her to death with something like a flashlight and then set her car to drift onto a nearby highway, hoping there'd be a massive car accident and her injuries would be attributed to that. Ewwwww. I picked this book up at the library book sale. Any time I see that Ann Rule is the author, I'll grab the book if I haven't read it. She's an excellent true crime author.

Now I just watch and wait for the mail carrier!