Alas! Oseike just posted, and now I’m coming in with an uber-post. I should wait a few days. But it’s WRITTEN now, darnit!
Since last we spoke, I’ve finished Shogun (Woot! Sooo amazing) and am now neck-deep the Weather Warden series by Rachel Caine. The first book was satisfying but books 2 and 3 turned out to be basically one long, slow book, and I think I’m on 4 only because when I went to the library to get 2 all of it’s friends were there, and I’m a sucker for keeping a family together.
The great events of my life this summer have been lazy, glorious, varied affairs. I sang at my grandpa’s wedding and it was really fun (and the music at the reception wasn’t crap!) and got to hang out with two of my closest friends. I went on a religious retreat called a Koinonia (spelling might be off) that Mom has been in love with forever, and I have never met so many people in the same place so filled with love for other people and with the grace and passion of God. I’m still thinking about what the retreat meant to me, but if you are looking for God and have the opportunity to go to one, you WILL NOT REGRET IT. I’ve recently started working on my Honor’s Project while at day care, and combining the two activities makes me feel both productive, attentive, and intellectually stimulated. I need to fiddle around with how I’m going to present my story. I’m also working on my internship a bit, and have to work on it more. But, I’ve come to realize that an online internship sucks when your neighbor’s wireless is only accessible to your elderly computer’s airport in the narrow bathroom, the tiny kitchen or ON YOUR BED in the bedroom, where the cord doesn’t reach unless you prop the extension cord that also powers your lamp on the third shelf from the top on your dresser (and you really can’t leave it unplugged because then the compy dies because is OLD!!
Everyone gets this rant. Don’t worry about it. But, in other news, my reading count is up to 29 total books, with 25 of them being never read before. I’ll just share with you the highlights.
Dragon Bones and Dragon Blood by Patricia Briggs. I’ve worn these books into that soft state of truly loved things. Kind of falling apart, but not really. These books (Bones more than Blood, but both are good) are like a safety blanket of happiness. Smooth, clean, fluffy, with likable characters doing emotionally charged things, and charismatic evil people. Bone Crossed, also by Briggs but fourth in the Mercy Thompson series, was enjoyable, but I was glad I didn’t buy it hardcover.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. A story about an autistic (I assume) boy trying to discover who killed a neighborhood dog. I picked this book up because my Aunt Nona recommended it, and next thing I knew I was “almost” done, so might as well finish it right? Drew me in immediately, lots of sympathy, interesting stuff happens, and it remind me a lot of England. By the end, it was like I had BEEN there, and the character was reminding me, noticing exactly things than I had forgotten. When I try to remember England, it’s never as clear as this book made it. Read it. Or at least give it a try.
The same day I read Incident also read The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, by Nicholas Meyer and enjoyed it. And addition to the world of Sherlock Holmes, this book drew me in as only the great detective could and made me admire again Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who could create a character so lasting, so profound, that reams of books could be written about him, and I can still be drawn back to the originals for their power.
The play Picasso at the Lapin Agile by Steve Martin I saw performed at my school and immediately had to own a copy of the play so that I could keep some of those lines in my head forever. The reading of it did not disappoint.
Grave Surprise and An Ice Cold Grave by Charlaine Harris were, respectively, sweet/subtle/addicting and unnerving/awkward. The Surprise (second book in the Harper Connolly [spelling!]) series left me ravenous for the third. The third left me discomfited, even though I got exactly what I wanted. Realized what I wanted for the characters was really really awkward.
Melting Stones. Tamora Pierce. Young adult. Written as an audio-book, and I could TELL. Weird.
Touch the Dark and Embrace the Night. Karen Chance. I thought Touch was horrible. Mildly enjoyed Embrace, but I also skipped pretty much everything that wasn’t dialogue or action. All those handy dandy explanations about the order of the universe, and how the weapons are supposed to work and what the heck is going on? Bulky and unnecessary. They are, respectively, the first and third book in the Cassandra Palmer series. Didn’t need the second book to understand pretty much EVERYTHING.
Spook Country has been the most intellectually stimulating book I’ve finished this summer. William Gibson writes about the future like its the present, and it just makes you believe how really really weird the present is. The book is about the value of information, and retrieving information. Spies. Kinda. Beautiful, emotive. Gibsons writes characters that are completely messed up, but philosophical, powerful, vulnerable, confused, profound and likable. Strange dark beasts seen through the distortions of silted water, through the lens of glass, but you know they have souls, and that those souls are beautiful. That said, I’m not exactly recommending this book. It’s really up to your personal taste and I wouldn’t read the book again. But if you DO read it, let me know, and we can chat, because I’m really not solid on what happened in the end. I almost want to get someone I know to read it, just so we can compare notes.
And that is summer. My eyes hurt. The weather is finally inching closer to swimming weather, with reliable 70s temperatures. Sometimes I listen to the wind blowing over the water, through the trees, through our house when everyone else is asleep and before the birds wake and up and I don’t need to think about anything because it’s beautiful and great.
