What I'm Reading

Like my header? It's only one of my fourteen bookcases. :-)

You'd think with me spending so much time sick last week I'd have got more reading in, but frankly I really couldn't focus well enough to read. But I did get some reading in . . .

Electronic

Okay, I have a confession to make. When I included Electronic as a reading category, it was under the assumption that I would resume my daily reading routine. AKA reading my Kindle while riding the exercise bike. However, I've been sick so this did not happen. So I have not yet started The Cobweb Bride by Vera Nazarian. Incidentally, it's free on Amazon right now if you want to get your own copy. It looks like it's going to be really good - it's a fantasy set in an alternate Renaissance based world.

I did read a book on my lap top last week though. Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig. While I've read many of Chuck's articles before, this is the first of his fiction I've read. It was . . . interesting. It centers around Miriam, a foul-mouthed young woman with a special gift that she neither asked for nor wants. Her main source of income is robbing the dead. The language and violence are pretty graphic, so it's not for the faint of heart. Still, the story pulled me in and you can't help rooting for Miriam as she tries to change the future.

Tree Books

I finished reading Black Creek Crossing by John Saul. It was a long book. And pretty creepy. As I said last week, the story centers around Angel Sullivan, whose family has just moved into the house at Black Creek Crossing where a man stabbed his wife and daughter to death. Angel is a bit of a misfit, as is her only friend, Seth. The bullying these two undergo seems really extreme, but maybe I'm just being naive. And there's a scene where the bullies kill a cat . . . yeah it was a ghost cat and it reappears later, but it was a bit stomach turning, especially to a cat lover. I liked how the cat appeared at opportune times to help the kids and lead them to the spellbook, but I'm puzzled as to why it didn't just disappear when the bullies attacked it. The ending was both graphic and a little surprising. That was not the way I saw it going. To be perfectly honest, I'm just happy I made it all the way through.

Re-reads

I've only managed to read two more stories out of the Sword and Sorceress anthology. There's a reason for this, of course. It's my downstairs bathroom book. What? You don't keep books in your bathroom? What's the matter with you? I read the entire Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov in the bathroom. Took me forever, but I did it. :-)

An interesting bit of trivia, regarding the Sword and Sorceress series. Vera Nazarian made her first sale to Marion Zimmer Bradley for this series.

I'm just a font of interesting facts, aren't I? ;-)