I'm still here...and reading!

What a looooong Christmas this turned out to be. That's the nicest way to describe it. Long in the sense that it seemed like it would never end. It might have something to do with the fact that they started showing all my favorite Christmas movies back in December. It might have something to do with the fact that my significant other had family come from far and wide to visit...and they basically stole his every waking moment. Here's where I explain that hubby is 11 years older than me. Which works out just fine for us, but since he is by far the youngest in his family means his siblings are my parents age, and although nice enough, we just don't have all that much in common. They are very traditional and old fashioned, even for their age group. I am a very nice girl, but unfortunately not in any way traditional. My horses are my children and 'hubby' and I aren't actually married. Just living in sin for the last 6 years :) You can see how disappointed I make them. So, being shy and quiet in addition to being nontraditional, I sit around feeling awkward and out of place and counting the minutes. Times like that I would pay to be one of those outgoing, positive people that have fun no matter what life hands them.
Anyways, I haven't posted much on what I've been reading, because quite honestly I haven't read anything lately that was good enough to recommend or bad enough to warn you away from.

"Horse People" by Michael Korda. I found this one to be slow. I think you'd have to like horses or Michael Korda to get any sort of enjoyment from it.

"Mr Maybe" Jane Green. A nice light read. Bought this from the thrift store and teased my 'hubby' that it's a story about him :) Definite chick lit. Not the best and not the worst. I'd read another from this author because I didn't hate it and it had some funny moments.

"Tongue In Cheek" Fiona Walker. Probably the worst of hers that I've read. Her novels are my guilty pleasure, so obviously I still liked it. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone but a fan.

"Dark Horses and Black Beauties" Melissa Holbrook Pearson. Not sure about this one. It sort of loosely explores what the attraction is with people and horses. So there is a bit of poetry, a bit of history, and a bit of autobiography. Some of it was interesting, some of it was boring. It was one of those books where I turned the last page and immediately forgot just about everything about the book, except for a vague sense that it was "OK".

Lets hope my next few reads are a little more inspirational or noteworthy than these were. Time for some more serious reads, I think.
Happy New Year!

"The Little Stranger" Sarah Waters

From Amazon.com:
"From the multi-award-winning and bestselling author of The Night Watch and Fingersmith comes an astonishing novel about love, loss, and the sometimes unbearable weight of the past.

In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to see a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the once grand house is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its garden choked with weeds. All around, the world is changing, and the family is struggling to adjust to a society with new values and rules.

Roddie Ayres, who returned from World War II physically and emotionally wounded, is desperate to keep the house and what remains of the estate together for the sake of his mother and his sister, Caroline. Mrs. Ayres is doing her best to hold on to the gracious habits of a gentler era and Caroline seems cheerfully prepared to continue doing the work a team of servants once handled, even if it means having little chance for a life of her own beyond Hundreds.

But as Dr. Faraday becomes increasingly entwined in the Ayreses’ lives, signs of a more disturbing nature start to emerge, both within the family and in Hundreds Hall itself. And Faraday begins to wonder if they are all threatened by something more sinister than a dying way of life, something that could subsume them completely.

Both a nuanced evocation of 1940s England and the most chill-inducing novel of psychological suspense in years, The Little Stranger confirms Sarah Waters as one of the finest and most exciting novelists writing today. "

Since, I really didn't like "Wideacre" (see last post), I wanted to offer up an alternative. There's no point in comparing the two books beyond the obvious: yes they're both set in England, and they both deal with people obsessed with a specific home or estate and the lifestyle associated with it.
"The Little Stranger" kept me reading well into the night. I couldn't put it down. This one reminded me of an old fashioned suspense or even horror novel. I'm thinking Edgar Allan Poe. The writing is superb, the story is stylish, and the author knows how to involve you in the story and keep you in suspense. I can't say much more since I don't want to give anything away.
I can easily see this book becoming a great movie.

"Wideacre” Phillipa Gregory

I ended up with this one, once again, from the local thrift store. Can I be honest? I hated it. Really and truly did not like this book one little bit. I guess what bothered me was that at the beginning I was reading along thinking it was OK…until suddenly it just wasn’t…and for me, it just never recovered. Let me explain – the story starts out about a girl in 18th century England. She loves the land and the estate she was born on. So much so that she assists her father in the management and running of it. She has a brother who seems uninterested, and a doting father. So, it’s all good right? This is going to be a book about the girl proving her worth, and since this is 18th century England, maybe marrying well. And maybe, if we want to be all progressive, even inheriting the estate. I was thinking Jane Austen “Pride and Predjudice” with a bit more of a ‘girl power’ angle. I was so, so, sadly mistaken. Our first clue is when she has an illicit affair with the gamekeeper. All well and fine, exciting even, maybe she’s going to really challenge conventions and marry him? But no, turns out she just thinks he can conspire with her to get the estate. The end result of which is that her father ends up being murdered…and then she tries to kill her lover to ensure there’s no one to tell how awful/guilty she is. Of course, the estate is left to the brother, and so of course, she has to sleep with him. You heard me right, she has to seduce him so she can still be in control of the estate. And the rest really isn’t worth telling…it just goes downhill from there. She pretty much manipulates everyone and everything and ruins a bunch of people’s lives. The whole time she imagines herself as totally righteous and smarter than everyone around her. I disliked nearly everyone in the book. The main character for being so generally awful, and everyone else for being so weak and stupid. I mean seriously, no one thought she was a little out of control? Maybe a little, I don’t know, CRAZY? I dislike books like this because the plot, to me, just reads as ridiculous. I never really understood why she was behaving so awfully, why the estate meant so much to her, why no one around her could see what she really was, until, of course, it’s much too late.

There’s nothing wrong with the actual writing. In fact, I have enjoyed some of Phillipa Gregory’s other books. This one though, to me, just epitomizes what I don’t like about her books. Lots of characters behaving irrationally for pages on end…lots of attempted shock factor, and ‘powerless’ women gaining control in all of the wrong ways. I sent this one back to the thrift store as soon as I could. I hear there is a sequel or two so I’m going to stay away from her books just in case I end up bringing home one of those.

"The White Tiger" Aravind Adiga

I'm on a roll at the moment - I've found another book I really like. The story follows Balram Halwai, a successful entrepreneur living in Bangalore, India. Upon hearing that Premier Jiabao of China is coming to India "to learn the truth about Bangalore", Balram starts writing him a letter. "Apparently, sir, you Chinese are ahead of us in every respect, except you don't have entrepreneurs. And our nation, although it has no drinking water, electricity, sewage system, public transportation, sense of hygiene, discipline, courtesy, or punctuality, does have entrepreneurs."
Balram follows by writing his life story to date, the story of how he became a successful entrepreneur. It's also the story of a servant, a sharp and witty observer, a philosopher, and a murderer.
The beginning of this book reminded me a little of Rohinton Mistry's "A Fine Balance" in that it tells all too vividly the other side of India. The dark, corrupt, brutal side . There's some really humorous stuff, but in the so-awful-it's-funny way. Kind of the antidote to all those beautiful, poetic stories you've read about India and I'm sensing, closer to the reality. But where "A Fine Balance" left me feeling sort of deflated and hopeless, this one left me with a smile on my face, rooting for Balram, even if he is a thief and a murderer. This one is part crime novel, part black comedy, part social criticism.
Definitely worth the read and I can't wait to read more from this author.

"Sarah's Key" Tatiana de Rosnay

Wow is all I can say. I was a little uncertain when I picked this one up. I wasn't sure whether it would really be my thing. Because honestly, a lot of novels I've read set during or about the Holocaust are so awful, so heartbreaking, and so graphic that I just end up wishing those images weren't trapped in my head forever. This book was written for those, who, whether we'd like to admit it or not, would rather forget how awful humans can be. Before I get into this, here's a quick outline of the book (without giving too much away):

The book follows Julia Jarmond, a middle aged American living in Paris with her french husband and their 11 year old daughter. Julia works for a magazine and is given the assignment of covering the 60 year anniversary of the 1942 roundups and deportations of Jewish families in Paris.
Julia soon learns that the apartment she and her husband are moving into once belonged to one such  deported and dispossessed family. She vows to find out who they were and what happened to them.

What I loved about this book was that it weaves the past and present together into a cohesive and fascinating story. I love that it addresses the fact that most Parisians would like to forget the round ups ever happened, or failing that, would like to blame the Germans. I like that this book is a friendly reminder that everyone at the time wasn't an innocent victim. Neighbours were turning on each other. The city police organized the raids. In fact that the Germans didn't have nearly as much to do with it as we'd like to think. I think this book is a good reminder about the necessity of standing up for what is right, about the consequences of your actions or in this case, so many people's inaction. And how at the end of the day, the past doesn't always disappear.

"Notes From A Small Island" Bill Bryson

Like nearly everyone else, I'm most familiar with Bill Bryson as the author of "A Short History of Nearly Everything", which incidentally is well worth reading. It's part history, part comedy, part social insights, but mostly just awesome.

So I saw "Notes From A Small Island" in a big display at the bookstore a few days ago. I mistakenly thought it was his new book. Its not (it was originally published in 1995), but that's OK, it was still worth the purchase.
Bryson has, when this book starts, been living in England for 20 years after leaving Iowa as a twenty something. Deciding it is time to return home to the US, he starts off on one last tour around Great Britain before his departure.
This book could be filed in the "Travel" section. In fact, I think it is at my local bookstore. But really, it's not just a travel novel. It would be fairly useless if you're looking for places to stay, road maps, or what to have for dinner. Where this book shines is in it's humorous descriptions of English life. His travel disasters are related in all their glory, and he has a knack for making even the most awful events seem funny and worth the experience. Some of the critical commentary in this book had me laughing out loud, but the best part is it's never over the top or nasty. His love of the country shines though even the most sarcastic entries.

"Book of Negroes" Lawrence Hill

This one was another that stole my spare time from me for a few days. I'd recommend this book to just about anyone. The main character is Aminata Diallo. We follow her life after she is abducted in Africa as an 11 year old to be shipped to South Carolina and sold as a slave to her eventual passing in London as an inspiration for British abolitionists. From a historical perspective, this book is fascinating, portraying many events that seem to  have been mostly forgotten over the course of time. On a personal level I found this book both heartbreaking and inspirational. Just when you think Aminata is really going to get ahead or live happily ever after, events or beliefs of the time conspire against her. What is truly inspiring is that she, like many other real life people in her situation, continued to persevere and continued to make the best lives they could. This is historical fiction at its best.

Top 5 Horse Books

First, my apologies to any non- horsey readers. Regularly scheduled content will resume soon :)
My $100 Chapters gift card has been spent. It took a long time for me to make my decisions because I could not for the life of me find a recommended horse related book list that didn't include sci fi, fantasy, or kid's books and it was painful sifting through the individual reviews one by one. Currently, my interest lies in training and competing young horses. So for now, this list will contain the books I've read that I've found really valuable in that regard. I have a pretty extensive collection, though there are many I haven't read that I'm sure deserve a spot on this list.  If there is some interest in my favorite horse related fiction let me know and I'll post that too. This blog is getting a bit off track, so I'll let that list wait for a later date.

In no particular order:

"Training the Three Day Event Horse and Rider" James C. Wofford
This book is great in that there's common sense advice that transcends any specific discipline. The author is pretty much the go to guy for eventing and has many accolades as a rider and trainer (understatement of the day). Add to that his talent for writing, and I end up a little jealous. You could read this book knowing nothing about the sport, and by the end you'll feel like you are well on your way to competing. For more experienced riders, there's still an abundant amount of information. I love the competition photos in this one, the advice for getting your horse fit, and the sample practice exercises.


"Dressage With Kyra" Kyra Kyrklund and Jytte Lemkow

Again, an excellent introductory book, and also one with a lot of advice for experienced riders. Again, Kyra is an immensely experienced rider and trainer. I like this book's logical approach from the basics to Olympic level. The author makes it seem so simple when in reality it's anything but. For those of you, like me, who are easily confused by complicated descriptions and esoteric terms, this is the book for you. There are tons of illustrated diagrams of the more difficult concepts, lots of pictures, and you can't beat Kyra's straightforward, simple, approach. If only there was a little more advice for when things don't go according to the book!

"101 Exercises From Top Riders" Compiled by Jaki Bell

This one doesn't exactly tell you how to train your horse, but instead, takes useful exercises from some of the world's best riders. I like how each exercise comes with a diagram, a written description of what you should be accomplishing in the horses' training and what can go wrong and how to fix it. Very handy, and excellent for referring to when you have a particular training problem you'd like to address. I only wish it came in a small waterproof version that I could refer to on horseback.

"Hunter Seat Equitation" George H. Morris

No list would be complete without this one. George Morris is THE guy to go to for hunter or jumper advice, or even horse care, or even, well, pretty much anything. This book is irreplaceable as far as I'm concerned. Once again, we're getting advice from the best of the best. George Morris is a well known rider, trainer, coach, and author. Again, we have a straightforward, common sense approach, with no magical formulas. Pretty much all you need is some talent (I wish!), and a ton of dedication, self discipline and a commitment to doing the best for you and your horse. I love that this book doesn't deal strictly with as the title suggests "Hunt Seat Equitation".  There is a lot of very valuable advice on the initial training and flat work necessary for the horse, and of course the training and fitness necessary for the rider to be successful. Again, everything proceeds in a logical manner with lots of photos so you can go from knowing next to nothing to having a fairly good grasp of what you need to do to be successful.

"Training the Young Horse" Pippa Funnel

Once again, an author who knows what she's talking about...I'm sensing a trend here! Another book that I couldn't do without. I love the photos in this one. This is one of the few 'How to" books where the pictures don't always depict a perfect moment in time. Pippa's inclusion of the not so perfect moments and her resulting critiques of herself and the horses is very refreshing and insightful. We start from the basics all the way up to some advanced level training and I just love the no nonsense, just do it approach she has. Some of the photos show horses that are a bit more lively than most of us would like to ride, yet she treats it as a normal part of training and doesn't make a fuss about it. Very inspiring.

There are about a million other books with a lot of useful advice, particularly some of the classical dressage trainers. I'll be quite honest though, most of these types of books can be quite dry and I end up picking and choosing what I read out of them. The above books are the ones that held my interest from cover to cover.

James Rollins  “Excavation”

I came home one afternoon to find this and one of the “Bourne” series books in my mailbox. A quick look at the jacket blurbs of both solved the mystery of the mailbox books. The gifter HAD to be my dad. Only he would think these would be something I couldn’t live without. I put them aside on the shelf for a few months. Then, a few weeks ago, I was home alone and in desperate need of some reading material. My partner works the odd night shift and I’m seriously like a little kid afraid of the dark when he’s away. It’s totally ridiculous. I’ve found through trial and error that if I can find the right book, preferably something light and happy, I’ll fall asleep reading in the wee hours and not suffer any nightmares. Most importantly, I won’t wake up until morning. I couldn’t have picked a more unsuitable book.

This one starts out kind of interesting in a pseudo scientific way. An archaeologist discovers a mummy in the Andes of a Spanish priest with a unique gold cross. The mummy is out of place and there’s a bit of a mystery as to who it is and how he got there. Meanwhile, there’s a related archaeological dig in the jungle. They discover an ancient temple/pyramid, of course crowded with treasure. Of course the bad guys try to kill them so they can make away with the loot, but the plan backfires and the archaeologists are trapped underground. Now this is where things get really weird. I’ll just give you a quick rundown of what the rest of the story includes so as to not ruin the whole surprise…

-Indiana Jones type traps

-hostages

-Super aggressive and hungry tarantulas

-killer bat guano

-A weird cult

-Matter that can give eternal life

-A lost tribe of Aztecs

-Lots of bad guys and gratuitous killing

-Volcanoes erupting

-Zombies

-UFO’s

OK at some point I did fall asleep. I’d like to think some of the above were bad dreams but I’m pretty sure it’s all contained in this lovely book. Sweet dreams! Thanks dad!

Jilly Cooper's "Jump"

You knew I'd never resist this one. It has horses in it, after all. This is Jilly Cooper's latest, and I think it's a bit of a success. It features Etta Bancroft, a widower who gets involved in the world of steeplechase racing in Britain. When Etta is widowed, her husband leaves everything to their children. The children sell her home and move her closer to them so she can look after the grandchildren. Etta finds an an abused and neglected horse and nurses it back to health, upon which she enters it in steeplechases. I generally like Jilly's books because they are trashy and fun without being mindless. There's always interesting social commentary, references and quotes to more 'serious' literature, and thoroughly interesting descriptions of the places, events, and settings.

What I liked:
-The fact that she's returned to a subject (the English horsey set) she seems more interested in. Her other more recent books like "Wicked" and "Score" (about a downtrodden school and a murder-mystery respectively) seemed out of touch.
-She brought back a lot of the best characters from her past books.
-Lots of funny and sometimes insightful commentary.
-The animals are characters unto themselves. The horse, Mrs Wilkinson, is a particularly endearing character.
-The descriptions of the places, the races, etc are really well done.

What I didn't like:
-The main character, while sweet, is a 70 something grandmother who let her husband, and now her kids, manipulate her horribly. When her wealthy husband dies, the kids sell her house, take all the money and move her to a nearby cottage so she can cook and babysit their kids. And they make her pay them back for the cottage too. The happy ending is that she gets a proposal from a guy who is handsome, kind and rich. I'd have liked it better if she wasn't so helpless and told her family where to go and made a success of herself on her own.
-There are about a million characters in this book. I've read her previous books, so am familiar with some of them, and still had trouble keeping everyone straight.
-I hated that one of the characters is Pakistani, and had at one time been training as a suicide bomber. The negative stereotype bothers me. Some of the discussion surrounding him and the situation also seemed a bit patronizing.
-The single people are portrayed as kind of hopeless. One in particular is apparently shunned and made fun of because she has buck teeth? Of course, once she gets her teeth fixed she gets married LOL. The women in general in this book are subservient to the men, either that or they are portrayed as bitchy workaholics. I'm no women's rights freak, but the characters do seem a bit outdated.
-This book still seems a bit out of touch, not so much as her other recent ones, but it's still there. You can tell the author is getting older as some of the views and lifestyle choices that sneak their way into the book are pretty close minded, unlike her first novels which were pretty reflective of the times.

Bottom line - If you're a fan, don't buy this one thinking it will be another "Riders" or "Polo". Its not. But it's better than her last few.
If you're not a fan, and are looking for something upbeat and fun, maybe skip this one for now and read one of the above mentioned first. They're much better. And they still have horses in them :)

Sorry, "In a Far Country"

You failed to to really hold my interest.
I have to say, this book started out with promise. Then in got very very slow. To the point where I was just itching for the heroine to do something, do anything, but be trapped in the life she has. The latter part of the book was much better than the beginning and I did like this book once the plot started rolling a bit, mainly for the descriptions of 19th century India. This author has a talent for making you feel like you're there. The main character, Pree, is also rounded out quite well and you feel like she could be someone you know. The other characters, to me, remained mysterious strangers. One in particular, Kai, is someone who Pree loves and runs to when she's in trouble. I was left feeling a little left out...the character of Kai, to me, wasn't really fleshed out enough. You're left wondering what is so special about him and what their history is for her to trust him so much and want to follow him. From what I read in the book they did grow up together, but we come into the story once he is older and more distant.
This is a fairly light read, but I'm not sure I'd pick up another of this author's novels based on this one.

I love Renos!

Mike Holmes "Make It Right"

There I was in the grocery store, minding my own business. What? There's a pile of 75% off books in the freezer section? OK I'm in!
This Book: "Hi, I'm Mike. Check out my pipes! I like to fix houses. Did you notice my pipes?"
Me: "Yes I couldn't help but notice, want to come home with me?"
This Book: "Yes, I can help you with all sorts of home improvement projects!"
Me: "Never mind about that, just get in the cart!"

Funny side note: When I was looking for an image of this book cover Google wanted me to search "Mike Holmes Married?" rather than "Mike Holmes Make It Right". Seems I may not be alone.

In all seriousness, one of my interests is home renovation and design. I've bought and sold a couple now, and had a lot of fun. I was the nerdy kid who instead of just drawing the little box house had my characters living in fabulous mansions with amenities I knew how to draw and spell but would have never been able to pronounce and had never seen in real life. My favorite Lego house had a clock tower after all.
The whole Mike Holmes thing started as a joke. I had a contractor working at my house that thought Mr Holmes was an arrogant know it all. Maybe so, but I had a lot of fun posting blown up "Make It Right" posters all over the house where I knew he'd be working. At one point I even printed off an application for the show and left it half filled out in a conspicuous location. When I saw the book, I of course had to have it so I could pretend to check the contractor's work against what Mike says.

The actual book itself is a good basic intro into home building and renos. There honestly wasn't much in here that I didn't already know from first hand experience, but I can see it being a valuable resource for people who maybe want to hire someone to do some work or are thinking about having a new home built. I think it would be pretty inadequate for someone wanting to know how to actually do things. It's niche lies in educating homeowners about construction and renovation techniques, allowing them to be more familiar and conversant in building methods and terminology so that when they hire someone to do the work they have a better idea of what is going on, what a reasonable time frame might be, and a basic idea of how it should be done. It's not a pretty picture book with lots of renovation ideas, either...it's more of a "here's how things work" book. All in all, it stays on my shelf and if you can find it at a discount and are interested in renos you might find it useful. If you want to see more of Mike, you're best to stick with the TV show.

Oh Edgar!

"The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" by David Wroblewski

I've read this one about 3 times so far. The writing is, in one word, beautiful. I cannot believe this is someones first novel. The only other book that I treasure so much just for the writing is Norman Maclean's "A River Runs Through It".
I'm sure you've all read "Edgar", so I'll save the plot summary. If you're one of the few on earth who escaped hearing about this book, just do yourself a favour and go buy it now. I won't give away the ending just in case.
Being an animal lover and owner and wannabe horse trainer, I frequently find dog/horse/animal centric books disappointing for any number of reasons. Maybe the terminology was wrong or maybe the characters, animal or human, just didn't ring true. This one has none of that. The details were, for me, absolutely and wonderfully accurate, leaving me to sit back and enjoy the story. This book just pulls you in and you feel like this story is familiar somehow. OK so maybe it is. It is, after all, pretty much a modern day retelling of Hamlet. I can tell you I'd have been much happier in high school English if this version of the story was the one on offer :) This book is seriously the only one I've ever cried over, not because I felt it was sad, so much, but I felt like it was unfair. Maybe not so much the escape I thought it would be and more a reflection of real life. Maybe a little bit because something so beautiful came to an end. Trust me, I'm as tough as they come, but this book got to me on so many levels, so much so that the first time I read it I put it down and thought I'd never have the heart to pick it up again. After some thought, of course I wouldn't change a thing about it. A nice tidy ending would have felt contrived and fake. I'm looking forward to future books from this author and I can tell you now, "Edgar" is staying on my bookshelf until he falls apart. Then I'll probably go buy a new one.

And the next book is....

"In a Far Country" by Linda Holeman

It's set in 19th century India and is a story about a British missionary couple's daughter. I'm only a few pages in so can't say much more than that :) I picked this one up while on vacation and had to pay a premium because it's printed in english...so it had better be good!
The weather looks to be uncharacteristically sunny tomorrow so I'm thinking I'll finally get some riding in. Yes, I do have horses, two of my own and also some work riding others. The book will have to wait til evening when I am cold and tired and can curl up in front of the fireplace. Warning, I may not be able to be too critical in such a content state of mind.

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

Ok, I sat down with this one last night and read...and read...and kept reading some more. Thank goodness its a Saturday and I could sleep in. This book struck me as strangely familiar - I had a roommate in college dealing with addiction and the relatively short time I spent around her and her support group is going to stick with me for life. The idea that addicts are weak couldn't be farther from the truth. They were some of the bravest, most determined people I've ever met and I recognized the ones I met in some of the characters in this book.
I liked this book. I know there was controversy as to how accurately it really portrays the authors experience. I really feel like all that has nothing to do with the value of the book. The book reads as believable and real, and has a story that is worth being told. I found his writing to be extremely effective. Addiction isn't pretty, so the bare bones style of writing suits the subject.
I'll admit there were times throughout the book when I was finding it a bit over the top. We get that you're angry and tough already! The part where he conciously decides not to argue or fight against other's beliefs in a God or a Higher Power got to me too. I'm sorry, but an integral part of the novel is an argument against the existence of anything but the here and now and the need for self reliance and acceptance. I got the vibe the argument might not be quite over :) He spoke to me though, and like many others I recognized parts of myself in him.
All in all, not my favorite book ever, but definitely one I'll keep on the shelf to read again sometime.

Wow! You really shouldn't have!

I got an early christmas present today. A $100 gift card for Chapters/Indigo. My credit card company had some kind of bonus reward thing going on and sent me this card. Yay! I can't wait to pick out my purchases online.

Honesty is the best policy...I think.

Maybe not for your second blog post, but hey, I guess I like to live on the edge. I'm going to try to post an update for whatever I'm reading. No pretending that on our recent trip to the city I ran straight to the classic literature section. Not that I'm adverse to serious literature, but the reality of it is I ran straight to find the latest Fiona Walker.

"love hunt"
Here's what the publicist says:

"The announcement of a grand Treasure Hunt sets hearts aflutter in the Lodes Valley.  The cash is only part of the appeal: a win could solve several romantic dilemmas.
New arrival to the area, Liv has picked up the scent of infidelity; Pixie is in hot pursuit of a wayward lover, while Pheely is spurred into a covert affair – and Jemima, in full cry, reins in her feckless family. Teenager Faith, meanwhile, longs to run her boss to ground – and into bed.
But it is unhappily married Trudy who finds the trail of clues leads her in quite a different direction, and one closer and closer to temptation. Is she chasing a rainbow, or just chasing her own tail?
One treasure hunt, a host of clues…but what is the ultimate prize: a dangerous affair? a distraction from country life? a tantalising seduction? When the hunt reaches its climax, the competitors find they are fighting for the most coveted treasure of all – their own happy ending."

OK, In a normal world this would be the type of book I can't stand. Everyone is sleeping with one another, love will save all, yadda yadda yadda. But the thing is, I find her books funny. And they're set in England. That's worth extra points in my strange little world. No matter how unbelievable the story line, I always end up loving the characters. And...drumroll...there are horses in some of her books! I might as well warn you now...I'm an adult who hasn't grown out of Pretty Pony syndrome. I love horses. And I've been known to buy books just because there's a horse on the cover. Imagine my excitement when I read that Fiona Walker's next book is set in the world of eventing. If you're one of the 99% of people in the world who have no idea what 'eventing' is - it's basically a triathalon for horses and riders. And it's an Olympic sport. Really. I'll leave it at that since I know you probably don't care. But you should care because it's awesome with a capital "A". Awesome. Sorry, that all just slipped out. I will try not to bore you with too many equestrian related stories. I do have a pretty wide range of interests, I promise!
Back to the 'love hunt' book. I liked it. It wasn't my favorite book of hers, but if you're looking for nice light read with some fun and likeable characters it's well worth the read. Perfect for that night once a week when your husband is working night shift and you're all alone and scared to go to sleep in case something terrible is lurking when you turn out the lights. Not that I'd know or anything. I think I'm going to preorder the next one, of course not because it has anything to do with horses...

I rescued some books today!

Yes, it's true. They were hiding in the back of the thrift store, lonely and unwanted and calling out to me. Everyone in the know knows that since the the thrift store is closed on Mondays for restocking, you have to go there on Tuesdays to get the good books. Tuesdays actually get kind of competitive, so being the non-confrontational type who can't bring herself to elbow grandma out of the way, I wait until Wednesday.One day I'll be empowered enough to fight for my literary rights.  Until then, I shop on a Wednesday with a shelf full of this weeks rejects. Here's what I picked out:

Wibur Smith's "The Seventh Scroll". I'm pretty sure I've read this at some point before, but I have a weakness for books set in exotic locales and will be happy to give this one another read. Wilbur Smith is kind of a guilty pleasure, sometimes I really like him, and other times I'm a little appalled at the treatment some of his characters recieve and the stereotypes they perpetuate. But anyways....

James Frey "A Million Little Pieces". This one was a bit of a cheat since I snagged it from the elderly volunteer before she could put it on the shelf. This book is way too new and well reviewed to be amongst the rest of the books there. I have fairly high hopes for it and can't believe I didn't pick it up when it was new. My subconcious must have known I'd find it for 50 cents one day.

Robert Ludlum's "The Arctic Event". Hey, it's set in Canada, where all great conspiracy stories take place. Just kidding. I'm wondering, though, why there are so many conspiracy/disaster type books set in the arctic. Is there something going on up there I should know about? On the jacket Booklist says "Exciting...a winner." I hope so.