Struggling

I have been struggling, as of late, to get thoroughly involved in a good novel. I should have loved, Year of the Flood, but I found it too horrific. I tried to read The Childrens Book by A.S. Byatt. Again, I should have loved it: beautiful language, the creative process, historical (Edwardian age with the Great War in development), women's rights. It's all there and I became engaged immediately, but I couldn't sustain it and returned it unfinished.

Similarly, I was very excited to get Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel. I typically enjoy Booker winners and this one grabbed my attention from the first page. I have read numerous works regarding this era and this books should have engrossed me. Again, I just couldn't make the time to read and again, it was returned unfinished.

After a week of vacation, I think I have identified the problem: I've been too exhausted to be engaged. I've also been too busy with my mind focused on other issues including the hosting of Christmas this year.

This cannot continue.

I love reading and enjoy a good book so I'm going to make some changes in my life.

Step one: I've noted all the things have have to been done daily, weekly, monthly and I will post them in the new year. The goal is to create some ebb and flow so that if we're really busy, some things will have to go to the way side in order to give M & M some opportunities to relax and rejuvenate. It will help us prioritize.

Step two: schedule date nights and planned family activities.

Step three: schedule some alone time. M gave me a membership to the AGO. It's perfect since I love art, and I need to set aside time to think and rejuvenate.

Goal setting: Also, I'm getting a little bored with this blog, so instead of limiting my comments to books, I'm going to focus my efforts in creating my own personal MBA -- something I've been doing for years. I'm going to discuss 12 issues in 2010. I've accumulated a number of good books, but I haven't made notes about them and different issues. I'm going to set up a program for myself. If I read a good fiction book in the meantime, then such entries will be an added bonus.

So here is to goal setting and making a plan.

Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown

Talk about reading the polar opposite of "Year of the Flood." What can I say, the flu season was getting the best of me. Dan Brown's latest work was entertaining, but I kept having the nagging feeling that the publisher told Brown to stop referring to elements in Europe and appeal to his core audience -- Americans. He did that in spades. I wonder if tourism to Washington D.C. will increase as a result?

In short, entertaining but forgettable.

Here is the publisher's blurb:
As the story opens, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol Building. Within minutes of his arrival, however, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object -artfully encoded with five symbols - is discovered in the Capitol Building. Langdon recognizes the object as an ancient invitation . . . one meant to usher its recipient into a long - lost world of esoteric wisdom.

When Langdon's beloved mentor, Peter Solomon - a prominent Mason and philanthropist - is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes his only hope of saving Peter is to accept this mystical invitation and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon is instantly plunged into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and never-before-seen locations-all of which seem to be dragging him toward a single, inconceivable truth.

As the world discovered in The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, Dan Brown's novels are brilliant tapestries of veiled histories, arcane symbols, and enigmatic codes. In this new novel, he again challenges readers with an intelligent, lightning-paced story that offers surprises at every turn. The Lost Symbol is exactly what Brown's fans have been waiting for . . . his most thrilling novel yet.

Year of the flood.

Nope, I couldn't do it. I gave up on Atwood's latest. I even read the last chapter before putting it on the shelf because the reviews said it is hopeful in the end. Again, the brutality depicted is just too much for me. Maybe at a different time or stage in my life, but I just don't need to have horrific images floating around in my mind right now.

What's next? I'm not sure... I'm sure something will grab my attention. Something a lot lighter.

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

I just started this work and was horrified to discover that the pigs from Oryx and Crake are back. Those swine give me nightmares! Thankfully, a hold came in from the Library so I switched to Dreamfever by Karen Marie Moning. I only have two weeks to read it. What a change! I went from "literature" to pure entertaining bubble gum. We all need that now and then... I will return to Ren and Toby, though. I liked their characters immediately. If I were a more patient person, I would re-read Oryx and Crake before returning to Year of the Flood, but I doubt that will happen.

The Year of the Flood -- From the Publisher
The long-awaited new novel from Margaret Atwood, The Year of the Flood is a brilliant visionary imagining of the future that calls to mind her classic novel The Handmaid's Tale.

Adam One, the kindly leader of God's Gardeners - a religion devoted to the melding of science and religion - has long predicted a natural disaster that will alter Earth as we know it. Now it has occurred, obliterating most human life. Two women have been spared: Ren, a young trapeze-dancer, locked inside a high-end sex club; and one of God's Gardeners, Toby, who is barricaded inside a luxurious spa. Have others survived?

By turns dark, tender, violent, thoughtful, and witty, The Year of the Flood unfolds Toby's and Ren's stories during the years prior to their meeting again. The novel not only brilliantly reflects to us a world we recognize but poignantly reminds us of our enduring humanity.

Mama makes up her mind by Baily White

I have no idea how this book came my way... It must have been recommended to me, and for some reason I read it. I read it all. It was mediocre and still I finished it. I blame it on the summer time. How did it reach the best sellers' list? It was obviously not the Globe and Mail's best sellers' list. I'm sure people from the south love its down home, folksy charm just as Canadian's love the Vinyl Cafe, but give me Stuart McLean any day... I'm aching for a good book.

From Publishers Weekly
White is known to fans of National Public Radio's All Things Considered for her endearing true stories about rural South Georgia where she lives and teaches the first grade. Her first book, which brings together some 50 of these short pieces, rich in humor and folksy charm, should delight her listeners, as well as readers new to her storytelling. Many of the selections deal with White's mother, who has never seen a movie as good as Midnight Cowboy, and other relatives and friends with similar eccentric wrinkles in their personalities. Other pieces are culled from the events of White's everyday life--gardening, her school's annual Christmas Party.

Consequences by Penelope Lively

This is a beautifully written novel, however, it was not very satisfying. After the first two main characters died, everyone else seemed somewhat the same and sadly, forgettable. Maybe I never forgave the author for killing off Matt and Lorna. I had to slog through to finish. I'll have to try the Book Award winner...

Here's the publisher's blurb
A chance meeting in St. James's Park begins young Lorna and Matt's intense relationship. Wholly in love, they leave London for a cottage in a rural Somerset village. Their intimate life together-Matt's woodcarving, Lorna's self-discovery, their new baby-is shattered with the arrival of World War II. In 1960s London, Molly happens upon a forgotten newspaper-a seemingly small moment that leads to her first job and, eventually, a pregnancy by a wealthy man who wants to marry her, but whom she does not love. Thirty years later, Ruth, who has always considered her existence a peculiar accident, questions her own marriage and begins a journey that takes her back to 1941-and a redefinition of herself, and of love. Told in Lively''s incomparable prose, Consequences is a powerful story of growth, death, and rebirth and a study of the previous century-its major and minor events, its shaping of public consciousness, and its changing of lives. "Her greatest gift, though, is her ability to see beyond mere cultural ephemera and grasp the unchanging essence of life.." - The Wall Street Journal "Her characters are beguiling, and her blend of romance and stinging social commentary is tonic." - Booklist (starred review) "A flawlessly constructed mini-epic." - The Telegraph "A beautifully written novel." - San Francisco Chronicle "A fine novel: intricate, heartbreaking and redemptive." - Publishers Weekly

Incident Report, by Martha Baillie

Initially, I thought this book would only appeal to people in the library field. The majority of"incidents" are Library examples, but as the book develops, other incidents surface and a complex and rich story develops.

The cover is painfully plain -- the death knoll for many works -- but it works for this work.

Publisher's blurb:
In a Toronto library, home to the mad and the marginalized, notes appear, written by someone who believes he is Rigoletto, the hunchbacked jester from Verdis opera. Convinced that the young librarian, Miriam, is his daughter, he promises to protect her from grief. Little does he know how much loss she has already experienced; or does he? The Incident Report, both mystery and love story, daringly explores the fragility of our individual identities. Strikingly original in its structure, comprised of 140 highly distilled, lyric reports, the novel depicts the tensions between private and public storytelling, the subtle dynamics of a socially exposed workplace. The Incident Report is a novel of gestures, one that invites the reader to be astonished by the circumstances its characters confront. Reports on bizarre public behaviour intertwine with reports on the private life of the novels narrator. Shifting constantly between harmony and dissonance, elegant in its restraint and excitingly contemporary, The Incident Report takes the pulse of our fragmented urban existence with detachment and wit, while a quiet tragedy unfolds.

The Gargoyle, by Andrew Davidson

I walked past this book many times and noted its cover. There was something very compelling about it, but the title was off putting. The word Gargoyle is so connotative and takes me back to childish fears of the dark.

One day, though, I actually picked it up and read the publishers blurb -- actually, the inside back jacket -- and discovered that Andrew Davidson is Canadian AND from Manitoba. I was enticed and took it home.

I have to admit that it took me awhile to become engaged. Firstly, the opening seemed contrived and I didn't appreciate the narrator speaking directly to the reader. Reading about the pain and disfigurement of the horrific burn actualized those childish fears of the dark. The fact that the author was Canadian encouraged me to read on, and I'm so glad I did. Yes, there were times when I rolled my eyes, but I was hooked and couldn't put it down. I guess am truly drawn to aspects of the world that are outside the classical rigours of symmetry and proportion prescribed as beauty. I may come to see Gargoyles as beautiful, after all.

I think this review from the Edmonton Sun sums it up nicely, “A wild page-turner and a boldly impudent work that flirts with the trappings of gothic romances, historical novels and fantasies while skirting their clichés and remaining defiantly unique.”

I would recommend this book to most, and especially to those who enjoyed Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet.

Publisher's Blurb:
An extraordinary debut novel of love that survives the fires of hell and transcends the boundaries of time. On a burn ward, a man lies between living and dying, so disfigured that no one from his past life would even recognize him. His only comfort comes from imagining various inventive ways to end his misery. Then a woman named Marianne Engel walks into his hospital room, a wild-haired, schizophrenic sculptress on the lam from the psych ward upstairs, who insists that she knows him - that she has known him, in fact, for seven hundred years. She remembers vividly when they met, in another hospital ward at a convent in medieval Germany, when she was a nun and he was a wounded mercenary left to die. If he has forgotten this, he is not to worry: she will prove it to him. And so Marianne Engel begins to tell him their story, carving away his disbelief and slowly drawing him into the orbit and power of a word he'd never uttered: love.

Barbara Hambly

Recently, our hot water heater died a slow and watery death... water, water, everywhere and not a drop to drink... And in hind sight, we were lucky. We didn't have significant damage but 2 boxes of books had to be thrown out. As I was sorting through the titles, I found two long ago favourites by Barbara Hambly, and I'm happy to report that I enjoyed the stories as much as I did -- dare I admit it -- 20 years ago!

The first book I read was the The Ladies of Mandrigyn, featuring the main characters, Sun Wolf and Starhawk -- mercenaries. Magic, deception, love, action, suspense -- it has it all. I just love these two characters. With a bit of research, I discovered that there are three titles in total that have Sun Wolf and Starhawk:

1. The Ladies of Mandrigyn (1984; Locus award nominee, 1985)
2. The Witches of Wenshar (1987; Locus award nominee, 1988) -- I can buy it used as a trade paperback for $128!!
3. The Dark Hand of Magic (1990)

Dragon's Bane (out of print) is also delightful. I loved the witch Jennie and the reluctant Knight, John. Funny, fantastic, and delightful.

So now I'm on the hunt of these other titles. In the meanwhile, I've started the Raven Sisters story (two titles) and then I'll start The Benjamin January Mysteries. Perfect summer reading.

Foreign Tongue: A Novel Of Life And Love In Paris by Vanina Marsot

This book was recommended to me by another staff member. At first, I wasn't impressed. It was an old story of someone trying to mend a broken hear in Paris -- the City of Love. Whatever. Even the translation of the erotic story seemed contrived as a opportunity for the author to flex her erotic writing skills.

After a few chapters, I came to enjoy the book. Not for the story, but rather for the exploration of language. Pages were devoted to the art of translation, and the nuances of the two different languages. I'm not sure if someone without some background with French would enjoy this work, though.

Here is the publisher's blurb:
Paris, the storybook capital of romance - of strolls down cobblestone streets and kisses by the Seine - may not be the ideal location to mend a wounded heart. But pragmatic professional writer Anna, who has been unlucky in love in L.A., has come here with keys to her aunt's empty apartment. Bilingual and blessed with dual citizenship, she seeks solace in the delectable pastries, in the company of old friends, and in her exciting new job: translating a mysterious, erotic French novel by an anonymous author.

Intrigued by the story, and drawn in by the mystery behind the book, Anna soon finds herself among the city's literati-and in the arms of an alluring Parisian-as she resolves to explore who she is . . . in both cultures.

Little Black Dress: How to make the perfect one for you

What a title! And no, this isn't fiction. See the publisher's blurb -- it's the stuff dreams are made of... I can't wait to review it. I'm waiting for this book to come in for me. In the meantime, I signed up for a sewing class to make my own classic shift. I purchased some lovely silk shantung in a warm ochre. I'll let you know how it goes. Right now I'm in the process of creating the muslin version and I'll have it fitted next week.

Publisher's blurb:
Every woman needs it! The Little Black Dress is the ultimate timeless, fail safe garment. But where is a girl to find an LBD that’s tailor-made, fits perfectly, and compliments her body? The answer: make one! Expert dressmaker Simon Henry guides even the sewing-impaired through the entire process. He explains all the materials and the techniques, and shows how to construct and fit a personalized body block that forms the basis for every pattern in the book. Choose from three classic styles: a chic shift, a fashionable wraparound, and an elegant strapless cocktail dress with a jacket and hat to match!

The Sad Truth about Happiness by Anne Giardini

Reviews have called this work "over written" and "deeply flawed," but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Perhaps, more note worthy is the fact that I want to discuss it with someone.

For example, why did the author decide not to mention Philip in Maggie's life once he leaves her care? Did Charles really leave her that house? Did Lucy ever talk to her again? Again, what about Philip??

And her analysis of the state of happiness is intriguing. Is it merely chemical like Janet; is it an emotional state; it is something that comes to you rather than something to be pursued? Here is an excerpt, basically the end of Maggie as narrator, as she describes her happiness:

Happiness is more ephemeral than thought. It can't be observed without changing its nature. Its ingredients are subtle, and there is no guarantee that a formula or recipe for joy can be written out or passed on or repeated even once again. Happiness evades capture, dissolving like a melody into the air, eluding even the most delicate, careful grasp. It frustrates any systemic search, responding better to random fossicking and oblique approaches and its rewards are infuriatingly arbitrary, stingy or abundant by purest chance...

...We work it out, how to be happy, but sooner or later comes a change -- sometimes something small, sometimes everything at once -- and we have to start over again, feeling our way back to a provisional state of contentment.

I used to float along in all of this, like a leaf on a coursing stream, but I am heavier now, less easily moved, more resolute and steadfast. I am no longer in pursuit of happiness. As I stand here at my front door, key in hand, I think it is just possible that happiness, at least for now, today, this hour may be in pursuit of me.

Another aspect that I loved about this book is Maggie's reference to other authors. Like my own degree, mostly male authors were studied. Maggie gets a "second degree" by reading the following (the authors in italics are those who I haven't read): Mary Shelley, the Brontes, Virginia Woolf, Margaret Drabble, Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Doris Lessing, Joyce Carol Oates, Edna O'Brien, Nadine Gordimer, Jane Smiley, Amy Clampitt, Carol Shields, Barbara Kingsolver, A.S. Byatt, Annie Proulx, Muriel Spark. I have a new reading list!

Sad Truth about Happiness by Anne Giardini

Finally, a book has grabbed my interest. I've tried a number of titles, but nothing has been compelling until now. I've been so desperate for a good read that I was reading Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie again.

Once again, I'm reading a book that describes the relationship between 3 sisters. While Flavia was the precocious youngest, Maggie is the calm, perfect middle child.

Here is the publishers blurb:
MAGGIE IS 31 YEARS OLD, single and solvent. As the perfect middle child of eccentric parents, Maggie has allowed herself to become a cool observer rather than an engaged participant in her own life. Only when she accepts her roommate Rebecca’s invitation to complete a magazine quiz does Maggie’s outlook begin to change. She answers the question “Are you happy?” with “no,” a response that threatens to shave decades off her life. In fact, the quiz predicts that Maggie has only three months to live.

Maggie’s sisters—stormy Lucy, who has just returned from Rome pregnant and unmarried, and self-absorbed Janet, who has found contentment in a single daily pill—distract Maggie from seeking her own measure of happiness. But when it appears that Lucy will lose custody of her newborn child, Maggie is forced into action. On the road with baby Philip, Maggie is helped by a succession of women who speed her, like a heroine on an old-fashioned quest, on her way. Is Maggie’s journey the route to happiness, or is happiness simply too mysterious, too elusive to lend itself to capture?

Anne Giardini has intuitive storytelling ability, an affinity for the interior voice and a warm affection for her fallible, lovable characters. The Sad Truth About Happiness is a witty and deeply felt novel that explores the vexing problems of family, love, work, friendship, loyalty, the ingredients of happiness and sorrow, and our purpose and role in the world.

Sweetness at the bottom of the pie

What a fun read. I finished it last week and just can't stop talking about it. I'm recommending it to everyone I can and I even joined the fan club Web site. Maybe it's because I can relate to Flavia. I too have older sisters!

Here is the publisher's blurb:
Winner of the 2007 Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger
A delightfully dark English mystery, featuring precocious young sleuth Flavia de Luce and her eccentric family.

The summer of 1950 hasn’t offered up anything out of the ordinary for eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce: bicycle explorations around the village, keeping tabs on her neighbours, relentless battles with her older sisters, Ophelia and Daphne, and brewing up poisonous concoctions while plotting revenge in their home’s abandoned Victorian chemistry lab, which Flavia has claimed for her own.

But then a series of mysterious events gets Flavia’s attention: A dead bird is found on the doormat, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. A mysterious late-night visitor argues with her aloof father, Colonel de Luce, behind closed doors. And in the early morning Flavia finds a red-headed stranger lying in the cucumber patch and watches him take his dying breath. For Flavia, the summer begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw: “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”

Did the stranger die of poisoning? There was a piece missing from Mrs. Mullet’s custard pie, and none of the de Luces would have dared to eat the awful thing. Or could he have been killed by the family’s loyal handyman, Dogger… or by the Colonel himself! At that moment, Flavia commits herself to solving the crime — even if it means keeping information from the village police, in order to protect her family. But then her father confesses to the crime, for the same reason, and it’s up to Flavia to free him of suspicion. Only she has the ingenuity to follow the clues that reveal the victim’s identity, and a conspiracy that reaches back into the de Luces’ murky past.

A thoroughly entertaining romp of a novel, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is inventive and quick-witted, with tongue-in-cheek humour that transcends the macabre seriousness of its subject.

Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

So far so good. In fact, it is exceeding my expectations.

You have to love any book with a precocious, 11 year old protagonist who has to suffer under the torment of older sisters (she dishes it out, as well). I love her! In my mind's eye, she has red hair -- a British Anne of Green Gables type!

Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

Just got this new work of fiction by Canadian author, Alan Bradley. Let's see if it lives up to all its hype!

Coventry by Helen Humphreys

I am still revelling over Humphrey's latest work, Coventry.

It is a breathtakingly beautiful book even as it takes place during a time of utter hell. it is filled with such prose that would make most writers weep. I loved it and will probably sit down right away and read it again. I had expected great things from Humphrey after The Frozen Thames, and I was not disappointed.

From the Publisher
On the evening of November 14, 1940, Harriet stands on the roof of the cathedral in the British town of Coventry and marvels at the magnificence of frost glittering beneath a full moon. But it is a bomber’s moon. The Germans are coming to unleash destruction.

For Harriet, Jeremy, the young man who shares her duties as a firewatcher, and his free-spirited mother, Maeve, this single night will resonate for the rest of their lives. In a story of breathtaking beauty, with the wondrous poetic style that has earned her international acclaim, Helen Humphreys recreates the terror of the infamous Second World War bombing raid on Coventry. As Harriet and Jeremy make their way through the burning city in search of Maeve, their trek becomes a journey of fear and awe as they witness butter from the dairy flowing down the streets in a burning stream and landmines on parachutes swimming like jellyfish out of the darkness. Cold dread brings to life both a grief and a love that Harriet thought she had put behind her forever.

Drawing on actual events of that horrific night in 1940, Coventry is an astounding work, at once tense and lyrical, shocking and exquisite. Touching on themes of love, loss, loneliness and remembrance, Humphreys has crafted a story that will seize readers’ hearts and imaginations.

Read it. Own it!

The Shack by William P Young

I'm currently reading The Shack by William P Young. It was recommended by word of mouth as "a good read" that illustrates our "connectiveness." I was warned that it has a child abduction in it -- ever since Lovely Bones I don't read anything that discusses attrocities to kids -- but it was worth the read regardless. After skimming over the child abuduction part, I'm finding that I'm enjoying it. It is an easy read albeit awkward and didactic but I'm keeping an open mind. It reminds me a bit of of Tuesdays with Morrie. I'm trying to get through it as quickly as possible since I picked it up on the Quick Read shelf at the local library. I have a week to get through it.

Although it was recommended to me, I had no idea of it was building such momentum. When the National Post covers it, it's pretty main stream. Here is a summary from the National Post: http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=1288635

From the Publisher
Mackenzie Allen Phillips's youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation, and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later, in this midst of his great sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change his life forever.

Added note:
I just placed a hold for Sweetness at the bottom of the pie by Canadian author, Alan Bradley. I love this success story:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090213.wbradley0214/BNStory/Entertainment/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20090213.wbradley0214

Faefever by Karen Moning

I was looking forward what I thought was the LAST installment of this fantasy series. I had so many questions. Who is Barrons or more aptly, what is Barrons? How is Mac ever going to get home? How is this going to be resolved? Will she get her revenge?

Instead, at the end of book THREE I just felt unsatisfied -- there is another book coming. The ending was so dire that the author felt compelled to add an end note and ensure the reader that good days were ahead for Mac. Smart move. I was ready to ditch the series.

As you can probably sermise, I don't like multiple title series. If you can't do it in 3 books, then you're toying with the reader. I'll comment on this opinion when the 4th book comes out. I wonder if I'll still give a flying fig about Mac and Barrons...

Publisher's blurb:
The New York Times bestselling author of Darkfever and Bloodfever returns to Dublin’s Fae-infested shores in a bold, sensual new novel. Hurtling us into a realm of seduction and shadows, Karen Marie Moning tells the enthralling tale of a woman who explores the limits of her mysterious powers as she enters a world of ancient sorcery—and confronts an enemy more insidious than she could ever have imagined.

He calls me his Queen of the Night. I’d die for him. I’d kill for him, too. When MacKayla Lane receives a torn page from her dead sister’s journal, she is stunned by Alina’s desperate words. And now MacKayla knows that her sister’s killer is close. But evil is closer. And suddenly the sidhe-seer is on the hunt: For answers. For revenge. And for an ancient book of dark magic so evil, it corrupts anyone who touches it.

As All Hallows’ Eve approaches and the city descends into chaos, as a shocking truth about the Dark Book is uncovered, not even Mac can prevent a deadly race of immortals from shattering the walls between worlds—with devastating consequences.…

Love in Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

More on this later. I've been reading more than I have been writing!!

Publisher's blurb:
In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy, well-born doctor, Florentino is devastated, but he is a romantic. As he rises in his business career he whiles away the years in 622 affairs--yet he reserves his heart for Fermina. Her husband dies at last, and Florentino purposefully attends the funeral. Fifty years, nine months, and four days after he first declared his love for Fermina, he will do so again.

When all you have is hope by Frank O'Dea

When all you have is hope is not typically the kind of book I read. I'm not into memories, or Oprah books, but I heard that Frank O'Dea is an engaging speaker. And I have to admit, I was drawn to this work for another reasons:
the cover was well designed. All that white space and the well cropped image attracted me to the work.

And the book itself was easy to read and engaging. One had to wonder how this person ended up on the street and then succeeded in escaping them. His three step program can be easily embraced by anyone and applied to both one's personal and professional life: HOPE, VISION, ACTION.

Publisher's blurb:
For entrepreneur Frank O’Dea, it was a long road from street life to the high life. Born in Montreal to an upper-middle class family, Frank’s life took a downturn as a young man when he was sexually assaulted by a priest. He began drinking at an early age and was soon destitute, living in degradation on the streets of Toronto. By way of a sympathetic employer, the Salvation Army, and Alcoholics Anonymous, O’Dea quit drinking and started a small business that developed into the Second Cup coffee chain. Over the years, his philanthropic activities extended to AIDS fundraising, child literacy in the Third World, and landmine removal. His message is simple: HOPE, VISION, ACTION.

Angels & Demons by Dan Brown

Am I confusing you? I was completely absorbed in the Karen Marie Moning books and then a week later, I'm commenting on a 2000 thriller!? Yes, my reading is a little disjointed these days. What is one to do -- I'm waiting for the 3rd installment, Faefever, and when Angels & Demons passed into my hands I thought it would be fun to read. After all, the movie version is coming out and I need to be in touch with the masses.

So what did I think of A&D? It was a fun and entertaining read, just like the Da Vinci Code. I was impressed with the effort the author took to create the graphic images and it also acted acted as a refresher of my art history background.

Now, what to read next? City at the end of time? or prehaps Through Black Spruce... Decisions, decisions...

Here is a fun test you may want to try... Here is Jolie Laide classified by Dewey Decimal:

788 Wind instruments

Class:
700 Arts & Recreation

Contains:
Architecture, drawing, painting, music, sports.

What it says about you:
You're creative and fun, and you're good at motivating the people around you. You're attracted to things that are visually interesting. Other people might not always understand your taste or style, but it's yours.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

Darkfever, by Karen Marie Moning

I wanted fun and fantasy and this work is certainly living up to it! It is definitely taking my mind off "issues" and creating a fun filled adventure. Just what I need right now -- a macabre mad cap race through Ireland.

I also have City at the End of Time in my book bag, so I think I'm going to have a good reading week, indeed!

Lavinia by Ursula Le Guin

I need a good science fiction fix but I didn't find it with Lavinia by Ursela Le Guin. It sounded intriguing, but I couldn't get into it.

I'm going to look up City at the End of Time, by Greg Bear -- a friend is reading it right now. I'm also going to explore this blog and see if I can find some other titles... http://futuretrilogy.wordpress.com/
I need a good Sci-Fi or fantasy fix...

This is the publisher's blurb for Lavinia...
In a richly imagined, beautiful new novel, an acclaimed writer gives an epic heroine her voice.

In "The Aeneid, "Vergil''s hero fights to claim the king''s daughter, Lavinia, with whom he is destined to found an empire. Lavinia herself never speaks a word. Now, Ursula K. Le Guin gives Lavinia a voice in a novel that takes us to the half-wild world of ancient Italy, when Rome was a muddy village near seven hills.

Lavinia grows up knowing nothing but peace and freedom, until suitors come. Her mother wants her to marry handsome, ambitious Turnus. But omens and prophecies spoken by the sacred springs say she must marry a foreigner--that she will be the cause of a bitter war--and that her husband will not live long. When a fleet of Trojan ships sails up the Tiber, Lavinia decides to take her destiny into her own hands. And so she tells us what Vergil did not: the story of her life, and of the love of her life.

"Lavinia "is a book of passion and war, generous and austerely beautiful, from a writer working at the height of her powers.