October Book Report

I was sitting here, enjoying my elevenses (pumpkin spice latte and raisin bread toast with cream cheese) and thought I would do my October book report. Only 3 books, but a couple of those were real doozies. All were enjoyable.

“Wicked Appetite” by Janet Evanovich

“Naked Heat” by ‘Richard Castle’

“Peg Leg Pete” by Mel Ellis

Evanovich’s newest series introduces a new lead character, Lizzie, but includes the already familiar Diesel and Carl the Monkey. Just like the Stephanie Plum books, this one is a real hoot. Maybe even a hoot and a half (high praise from me!). The setting is Boston and has a touch of supernatural added. This book dealt with one of the Seven Deadly Sins: Gluttony. Can’t wait for the next book in the series. Sure hope it’s Lust…

The TV show Castle is one of my favorites. I love Nathan Fillion and he is just great in this show. He plays a mystery writer attached to the NY police department. Some very bright person decided to come out with a book supposedly written by Richard Castle, (Fillion’s character) and based on the characters in the TV show. This was last year. The book, “Heat Wave” was such a hit that they decided to follow it with a sequel. It helps if you’re a fan of the show and know the characters and can see the similarities between the people in the show and the people in the book. The books can be enjoyed on their own, though. I loved them both.

Mel Ellis was a sports/nature writer, but wrote other books as well. “Peg Leg Pete” was the story of an injured mallard duck that his daughters adopted. This was NOT a Disneyesque, cute little animal story. Yes, Pete recovered from his injuries and eventually went back into the wild, but Ellis was very graphic in his description of the injuries and what had to be done to help the duck. Ellis loved animals and nature, but acknowledge that nature is wild and a lot of times capricious. Not all animals are cuddly. Some cuddly animals eat other cuddly animals. Not all of them survive the winter. That’s the way it works. To get along in and with nature you have to recognize this. I really appreciated the down-to-earth approach in this book.

intangible Grail

OK--here's my other "quest" I mentioned in the last blog...

At one point in time I had so many bookmarks on the computer that I tried to transfer all of them to word and print them out, leaving only the ones I used all the time on the computer. There was one site that I had visited a couple of times that had the first two chapters of a self-published sci-fi book. Then you’d have to buy the book. At that time I really had no discretionary funds to get that book. Some time later, I went back and tried to find that bookmark. It wasn’t on the computer and it wasn’t on any of the lists I’d printed out over the years. I went through every single one of those printed bookmarks, by the way. It was such an intriguing book, and I’ve always wondered how it all turned out. I’ve tried every trick I know of to tease Google into letting me find it, to no avail. I’ve looked at so many sites that have online books, self-published books, sci-fi books, what have you. So I will give you the basic plot line and see if any bells ring.

A man does some kind of software work. He has a girlfriend he loves. He’s fairly happy. He’s hit by a bus and killed. He wakes up in a hospital-like room. He remembers “seeing” his parents and girlfriend at his funeral. He’s naked under the sheets, and when he removes them, he sees he has no true sexual features on his body. A woman comes into the room and greets him as if she knows him. She is also naked, with no true female sexual features. His memory is somewhat spotty, but he slowly realizes that he is “home”. His entire “life” as a software guy with a family and such, was only a game. As in computer game. A HUGE computer game. People from time to time would enter this game and the only way you could tell if a person was “real” or part of the program was by the color of their eyes. I don’t remember what color was real and was color meant a program person. I also don’t remember why the man was terminated from his game and made to return. He seems to be in Heaven. God is really the computer that runs everything there. I do remember one scene where the man and his companion are going somewhere, and their mode of transportation is sitting on the grass, and the grass moves them along. I really wish I could find the site and get that book! Of course, this was all many years ago. The guy who wrote the book may not be on the Net anymore. The book may not have sold and he quit writing. Or he may have sold a bazillion of them and become famous and I have NO IDEA WHAT HIS NAME IS!

So there ya go, Gladys. A pretty little puzzle, no?

Two More Grails

Quite some time ago, I wrote about my quest for a soup plate that I could use when making milk toast. (score!)
In early summer I wrote about the glass 10” pie plates. (score x 4!)
A couple of months ago I discovered 2 more “Grails” could be checked off my list:
Lobby Broom and a bottle brush long enough to clean Marv’s Stanley thermos.

That bottle brush had been on my Grail list for many years. Marv uses that thermos every day to take iced tea for his lunch. For a long time I used an old baby bottle brush that had a nipple brush on the end, making it ALMOST long enough to scrub the inside of the thermos. The nipple brush finally broke off, and that was that. A long bottle brush was not to be found. Every once in a while I’d pour boiling water in the thermos to try and get the grunge out. I finally found a kitchen brush that was OK, except the handle was too thick. I had Marv grind it down so it would fit in the thermos, and then discovered that the bristles were too wide as well. So I took my kitchen shears and gave the thing a haircut. It was still a bit wide and not quite long enough, but it was all I had. I struggled with that thing for more years than I care to count. I would look online occasionally to see what I could find, but there just wasn’t anything for a tall thermos. THEN—oh joy! I found it! The Sigg Cleaning Brush! And I was able to locate a store that had them: Target! (score again!)

The Lobby Broom was a minor Grail that only made the list recently. When we cleaned out Marv’s mom’s apartment, we found what is basically a whisk broom with a long handle. It’s ideal for getting into small spaces, and you don’t have to bend over. Lia also enjoyed using it as a hobby horse. It was pretty old, and the straws were starting to come out. I started looking in stores and couldn’t find a new one. I went online and at first all I could find were children’s toy brooms that were indeed only for play. Then I discovered that what I was looking for wasn’t a toy, it had a real name: Lobby Broom. Home Depot has ‘em! (score once more!)

That pretty much took care of my Grail list. At least for tangible things. There is one more thing that I’ve been looking for online that I just cannot find. A certain book. I will write about it in my next blog.

September Book Report

I know this is really late, but at least it's here...
"The Hogfather" by Terry Pratchett
"Pollyanna" by Elanor H. Porter
"Tickled Pink" by Rita Rudner
"Gilbert Stuart" by Ruth Langland Holberg
"No Time Like Tomorrow" by Ted White

"The Hogfather" was another fun romp in Discworld, this time with a Christmas-like theme. I'd read the book before, years ago and had finally gotten the movie they made of it on Netflix. Tons of fun. Then I read the book again. Can't say enough good things about Pratchett. You owe it to yourself to read these gems.

I've never seen the Disney movie of Pollyanna. I picked up the paperback of this children's book some time ago, and came across it recently. Very good read. I highly recommend it. Yes, it's a bit on the sugary side, but who cares? We need a bit more sugar in this bitter world right now. Pollyanna's "glad game" would be good for all of us to play.

I love Rita Rudner's style of humor. I've always enjoyed her on the talk shows and was happy to check out her literary endeavor. Good book! Lots of humor mixed in with serious stuff. I'd love to read more.

"Gilbert Stuart" was another young adult book I'd gotten at a library sale. As I was reading about the man who painted the portraits of several presidents, I was also checking into Wikipedia about some of the peripheral characters in Stuarts life and saw a lot of the portraits mentioned in the biography. I love early American history and this had some good peeks into that time period.

The Ted White book was a young adult sci-fi novel about a young man who is accidentally dragged into the far future. This book could've been a lot longer with lots more details about this future. I found it fascinating and wanted more. I found the ending a bit of a let-down, but admit it was the best ending for the characters concerned.

So--5 books for September. I think October is going to be a bit skimpy. Only read 2 books so far and might only get one more done before the end of the month. As we head into holiday season, I doubt I'll get a whole lot of reading done.

The best part of waking up...

…is Slim•Fast in my cup!

I HATE waking up! I am NOT a morning person. I am NEVER at my best first thing in the morning. I know that breakfast is supposed to be the most important start to the day, but unless someone serves me directly, I am not in the mood to be preparing ANYthing first thing, not even cold cereal. I used to only have my favorite International Coffee Orange Cappuccino for breakfast, but found that by 10-10:30 I was starving and would need a snack. Of course, that would usually be a high-calorie snack, and I would still eat a substantial lunch. When I started getting serious about losing some weight, I went back to having Slim•Fast in the morning. I had tried it years before, when they still made the Chocolate Royale lactose-free. When they stopped making that flavor without lactose, I had to give it up. Since I was able to have dairy again, I was pleased that they still made Chocolate Royale. I put it in my fat-free milk and had that for breakfast, but I was then a bit too full for a whole cup of coffee. And I NEED my coffee in the morning. That’s usually the only caffeine coffee I have during the day. I don’t know when I had the bright idea of adding a little extra water to the Slim•Fast mix and then putting in my orange cappuccino powder and heating it up, but after that, mornings got a whole lot better. I’d still be stumbling into the kitchen sometimes with my eyes partly closed and putting everything together by feel, but sitting with a nice insulated container of hot Slim•Fast coffee and letting the morning sort of ooze into me makes the insult of morning a bit easier to take.

August book report

One good thing that came of having the computer go south for awhile was that I did get caught up a bit with my reading. I knew I was spending a lot of time on the computer, but was a little dismayed at the amount of reading I got done because I wasn't on the computer so much. So here's the list:

3 books by Janet Evanovich--"Plum Spooky", "Finger Lickin' Fifteen", and "Sizzling Sixteen".
1 Grace Chapel Inn book--"Mystery at the Inn" by Carolyne Aarsen

I love, love, LOVE Janet Evanovich! Her Stephanie Plum books are the biggest joy in the world to read. A friend at church introduced them to me and I in turn got Sarah hooked on them. They involve the misadventures of a clutzy Jersey girl who is a bounty hunter. The humor is wonderful and both Sarah and I wait impatiently each year for the new Plum book to come out.

And as always, the Grace Chapel Inn books are a treat for the soul.

Now that the computer is of use again (for however long it holds out), my reading has slowed down. I've decided to curtail my use though, and get more done around the house and certainly read more! I'm almost finished with another Terry Pratchett book...

My Little Lost Lamb

When I was pregnant with Sarah (lo, these 30 years ago) Marv got me a Nativity Scene for Christmas. I’d always wanted one, and don’t know why I never asked my parents for one when I was a kid. It was a wonderful set, and I loved it and love setting it up every year. I have very specific ideas as to how it should be set up. I try to make the scene look as realistic as possible. I don’t have everyone spread out in a panorama, with the Christ Child smack in the middle. I have Mary hovering right next to the manger, with Joseph right behind her. I have the Wise Men hovering around in a circle, the kneeling one right beside the manger opposite Mary. The one shepherd with the lamb on his shoulders is sorta on the periphery, as would suit his class. The rest of the animals would be spread around, with the 2 sheep by the shepherd. There was one little lamb that was posed like he was running, and I would have him positioned as if he was indeed running off away from the group. Over the years I added some cats, because let’s face it, you can’t tell me there weren’t rodents around an animal place, and where there are rodents, there WILL be cats! One cat lays on a straw mat at the back of the barn, one cat is peeking out from the hay loft, and one curious little cat is right there at the foot of the manger, looking in at the Baby.
I don’t know when it was that I noticed the runaway lamb was missing. I don’t remember missing it when I packed up the set after Christmas, but I do remember missing it when setting it up the following year. I carefully searched through the papers in the box, but no lamb. The years went by and I figured somewhere along the line he’d fallen off the table where I’d set the Nativity up, maybe in the wastebasket.
A month ago, when we started getting ready to do the home improvements, Marv removed the huge board-and-brick bookcase in the living room. That thing hadn’t been moved since it was put up years and years ago. We found several books that had fallen behind the shelves….AND WE FOUND THE LAMB! He’d gotten knocked off the table and had ended up behind the bookcase. What a wonderful find that was! I was a little surprised at how much of a lift that gave to my heart. He’s now in the china cabinet, waiting for December. I might have the other sheep block his path in the future…