Finished: Splendors and Miseries of Courtesans (de Balzac) I just finished my ninth de Balzac book, a part of his body of work called La Comedie Humaine. This book continues the story of the main character of Lost Illusions, the charming, good-looking, but completely broke Lucien de Rubempre. I hesitate to call Lucien the "hero" or the "protagonist" because he's such a horribly selfish person. In Lost Illusions he took nearly every penny from his mother and sister just to promote himself in society, and he betrayed the closest person he had to a brother, David Sechard. I don't know why Lucien wasn't on my list of Least Favorite Characters....maybe I found him too pathetic before. In any event, after his behavior in this book, he belongs there now. As the book opens, Lucien has sold himself to the human incarnate of the devil, the evil Vautrin from Le Pere Goirot. Vautrin and Lucien had met in the last pages of Lost Illusions...Vautrin on the run from the law, and Lucien having lost every penny to his name. Vautrin will sink lower than low to get money to promote Lucien in society, hoping to benefit from it for the rest of his life once Lucien marries into a rich family and gains a title. The problem, though, is that Lucien is in love with a beautiful young courtesan, Esther, and she with him. Lucien would be happy to spend the rest of his life with Esther, but Vautrin (in the story disguised as a priest, Father Abbe) has different plans. Vautrin convinces both Lucien and Esther that Lucien must be married to a wealthy society woman, and then he can keep Esther as his mistress on the side. Both of the young people reluctantly agree, however it becomes a mute point. Despite Lucien's ability to quickly make the rich, young, not very attractive Clotilde Grandlieu fall in love with him...her father the Duke will hear nothing of courtship or marriage until Lucien brings a one million dollar estate to the family as proof of his worth. Conveniently for Vautrin, Esther has been espied by the multi-millionaire Baron de Nucingen. Completely smitten, the baron has become ill with instant love. He will do anything to find the mysterious girl he saw walking in the park and make her his wealthy mistress. Here's where Lucien goes past the point of moral character return for me. He agrees to let Vautrin arrange for the baron to meet Esther, and save her from her debt by paying off several false notes that Vautrin has forged. Lucien knows that Esther will basically have to become the baron's lover for his plan to succeed. Ugh. Through a series of underhanded events, Vautrin quickly bilks de Nucingen of five hundred thousand francs using the beautiful Esther. Esther, unaware of exactly what is going on just knows that she's helping her beloved Lucien by going along with the plan. When Esther realizes she is supposed to become de Nucigen's mistress, she becomes distraught. The baron actually gives her over a month before he expects her to consummate their relationship. He's getting a house ready for her and says they will wait until the housewarming. This buys Esther a little time, but just the thought of being with anyone but Lucien, who she had an exclusive, loving, five year relationship with, makes her contemplate suicide. There are lots of characters who come into play, all trying to one up each other, to spy on each other, to undo each other's plans...to gain their cut of the money as everyone strives to dupe the baron. Just when it looks like Lucien is about to convince the Duke that he's got the money, and has been all but given his blessing to marry Clotilde, the house of cards comes tumbling down when two detectives with their own stake in the game uncover Lucien's lies and inform the Duke of Lucien's dubious character. In the meantime, Esther is being lavished upon by the baron and has began enjoying dinner parties with old friends. However, when she hears of Lucien's troubles, her heart breaks for him. Little does she know, as we readers find out at the end, Esther is really the heiress of a seven million dollar fortune. However, when Lucien comes to her lamenting his loss, he tells her how he still loves her, but how he's got to try and get Clotilde to marry him despite her father. Heartbroken, Esther goes through with the consummation of her relationship with the baron, and then takes her own life...days before she would have found out about her own wealthy status. Someone finally recognizes Vautrin and he is arrested. And, Lucien is also arrested for fraud and as an accomplice to a murder that Vautrin has committed to hide their illegal doings. That is the end of the book! I'll need to do some research and see if Lucien turns up again in another book. What a sad, sad ending for Esther, though. :-( On the only happy note, one of my favorite de Balzac characters, most prominent in Le Pere Goriot, Eugene de Rastignac, shows up here and there at various social events in Splendors and Miseries. :-) He's in several of the books of the La Comedie Humaine. Despite the sadness of the tale, I definitely enjoyed this book and really like Honore de Balzac as an author!

Finished: Some Luck (Smiley) A very low-key, but interesting book about four generations of an Iowa farm family, concentrating on the main family, the Langdons, Rosanna and Walter, and their six children, Frank, Joe, Mary Elizabeth, Lillian, Henry and Claire as they are born, grow up, live their lives, have their own children, etc. Each chapter is a different year in their lives and the point of view switches from person to person, even within chapters. We see the true highs and lows of a farm family starting in 1920 and the hardships they had to deal with, the weather, the depression, the wars, etc. We get to know a little bit about each person, and grow to really care for them. Frank, the oldest boy, is brilliant, but hard to get a read on whether he truly loves anyone back or not. A large part of the story is spent about his time in World War II. Joe becomes a farmer like his father, and becomes even more successful at it than he does. Mary Elizabeth dies as a baby in a freak accident. Lillian becomes the perfect daughter who finds happiness in marrying and raising her own family. Henry is a smart college student when the story ends, who loves books of all kinds, but mostly 18th century literature. And Claire, the baby, is a young teen when the book ends. She has grown up closer to her father than her mother and is devastated at the end of the book when 57 year old Walter, who knows he's not as healthy as he should be, goes out to the farm land, lays down and dies. Of course, Rosanna and Walter are the backbone of the family and their story is one of love, dedication, sacrifice and hard work. Walter's death is at the end of this book which is supposed to be the first book in a trilogy. Darn it. I'll probably have to read the next one to see what happens to everyone! Smiley is a very nice writer and I enjoyed the book very much. :-)

Finished: Henry VIII (Shakespeare) I always love reading Shakespeare, but this one was harder for me to get interested in for some reason. Henry VIII was the son of Henry Tudor (the VII), who won the crown from Richard III. I really enjoyed reading all those Shakespeare "histories", so I'm not sure why this one didn't grab me. Surprisingly to me, it wasn't very much about his seven wives. As a matter of fact, we only meet two of them...his first one, Catherine of Aragon, and then the one he divorced Catherine for, Anne Boleyn. The story was more about how King Henry put so much trust in Cardinal Woolsey, only to find out that Woolsey was being duplicitous. Of course, he didn't find that out until after Woolsey had been responsible for the beheading of the beloved Duke of Buckingham. Anyway, by the end of the play, Anne Boleyn has given birth to Elizabeth and the future Queen has just been christened. Not my favorite, but I'm still glad to have read it! I always feel smarter, yet really dumb at the same time, after reading a Shakespeare play, lol.

Finished: A Daughter of the Land (Stratton-Porter) A fine, old book that belonged to my great-grandmother. It reminded me very much of a grown-up version of the Little House on the Prairie books with it's wholesome values and lesson-learning events. It tells the story of 18 year old Katherine "Kate" Bates, the youngest daughter of sixteen children, of a hardworking farming family in the late 1800's. All their lives the Bates children work the farm so that when each son reaches the age of 21 his father gives him 200 acres of the huge farm to go and get a bride and build a home of his own. Even the daughters work towards this goal, because being women, they won't need land of their own when they get married. (ugh) Instead, when the daughters turn 18 they are sent to Normal School, which is a weeks long program in the summer to teach them to become teachers. Kate, of course, is very headstrong and would love her own 200 acres. However, she's resigned to the way of the family and is at least excited to go and learn to become a teacher. Shockingly, her parents have other ideas. Since Kate is the youngest, they expect her to stay on at the farm indefinitely, continuing to help her mother run the house and do her share of the farming as well. Kate is understandably upset when her parents refuse all reason and begging. Kate takes matters into her own hands and goes to her oldest brother for a loan of the money required to go. Adam doesn't want to buck his father, but his feisty wife, the only sister-in-law worth a darn, gives her the money to go! And so Kate begins her life of adventures, including falling in love, spurning the love because he's illiterate and rich, refusing her father's job suggestion and therefore being banned from the family home forever, marrying a man who doesn't love her, having a set of twins, finally getting her "share" of her father's inheritance when he dies, investing all her money in a sawmill that is about to open and be profitable when her drunkard husband accidentally burns the whole thing down and dies in the process, raising her twins in near poverty, finally going back home to help her mother where she and her children both thrive on the farm, etc. etc. It was a good book that kept me reading...not really deep, but good enough. Oh, and Kate finally got land all her own when her mother died and left her and only her the original acreage of the homestead! No matter what, it was very surreal reading a book that my great-grandmother, and probably my grandmother, held in their very own hands!

Finished: Flight Behavior (Kingsolver) Book Club Book #7. A deeply moving and well written book about the "miracle" of the sudden migration of millions of monarch butterflies to a little mountain farm in the Appalachians and the ramifications this event has on the people on the farm, the town folks, the scientists who come to study the migration, and mostly the young mother who first discovers the huge, fluttering field of orange. Dellarobia Turnbow is an unhappy, 28 year old mother of two small children, married to her high school sweetheart because they got pregnant. Even though they lost that baby, Dellarobia and her husband, Cub, stayed married and continued living in a small house built on the Appalachian sheep farm of his parents, Bear and Hester. When we first meet Dellarobia she is running away from her marriage...leaving it all behind, including five year old Preston and 18 month old Cordelia. She's headed up the mountain for a rendezvous with a younger man and plans to finally run away and leave behind the life she never wanted to be tied down to. Oh, she apparently loves her children, but it's hard for me to reconcile that when we first meet her completely prepared to ditch them. Anyway, on the way to her rendezvous, Dellarobia stumbles upon a valley of undulating orange...and not just a valley, but every branch of every tree seems to be covered with the mysterious orange hangings. She doesn't know what in the world it is, but she takes it to be a sign that she should not be doing what she's doing and she returns home. When she hears from her husband Cub that his father is thinking of cutting down all the woods above their house to pay for a near-defaulted balloon mortgage on the farm, she suggests that Cub needs to first go and see what is in those woods. After that, things happen pretty quickly with town folk, the preacher, the media and scientists all descending on the area. The orange mass is actually millions of monarch butterflies who have accidentally come to the Tennessee mountains for the winter, instead of to their natural migratory place, Mexico. Soon we meet Ovid Byron, the scientist who sets up camp in a trailer by Dellarobia and Cub's barn, and creates a lab to study the butterflies in a part of that barn. Dellarobia, some of the town folk, and the preacher...and even Dellarobia's very cold, businesslike mother-in-law, all feel that the trees should not be cut down. They feel that nature should not be messed with when God has brought this miracle to their backdoor. They are afraid that Bear will not listen to reason and will destroy the butterflies. Ovid, on the other hand, is more concerned with global warming and what could have possibly caused the butterflies, with hundreds of years of instinct and distinct migratory patterns to suddenly light here. His fears run deeper than cutting down the forest. He's afraid that the cold mountain winter will freeze all the butterflies and completely destroy the species. Though she never went to college, Dellarobia finally finds a subject to spark her intellect and her passion, and for the first time becomes a working mom as Ovid pays her to work every day in the lab and on the mountain. Little Preston is also very interested. He's only in Kindergarten, but smart as a whip and relishes the time that Ovid spends with him. Needless to say, Dellarobia falls for Ovid, or she thinks she does. I think mostly she just finds a fulfillment there of her self-worth that she doesn't find with Cub. Ovid is happily married, though, and never even aware of Dellarobia's feelings. He's only concerned with the butterflies and the significance of this huge event. In the end, Dellarobia and Preston do witness the coupling of a male and female butterfly, even after Ovid said they'd all frozen in the snow. It turns out, huge numbers of them did not freeze and end up flying away in a huge swarm at the very end of the book. But, also by the end of the book, Dellarobia has "found" herself and lets Cub know that she's never been happy. She has a conversation with Preston and tells him they are going to live in the next town with her best friend, Dovey, where there is a college that Dellarobia can attend, thanks to some strings pulled by Ovid. Poor Preston realizes the implications of them leaving his father behind, but as he does the whole story, takes it like a little man. I really don't think I can forgive Dellarobia for telling him all this the day before his birthday. Basically she sits him down to tell him three things: 1) before he was born there was another baby who would have been his older brother who died, 2) oh, but I've got a really great surprise for you for your birthday, you finally get a little computer phone, that we have to share, to look up all your science questions, and 3) but yeah, also we're moving away to live with Dovey and leaving your dad here on the farm. Don't worry, you and Cordie will get to see him. You'll be just like the butterflies migrating back and forth. Huh. I just can't say that Dellarobia is one of my favorite characters a story has ever been written about, but I do have some pangs of sympathy for her. I can't imagine being born and raised in a world so cut off from most of the outside world and having your future be laid out for you with practically no choice. Well, they did make that teenage sex choice, but that stupidity is not singular to a small town Appalachian girl. Oh well. In all, it was a very well written book with lots of wonderful phrases. And, it was deeply moving, probably in a different way for me that it was intended.

Here are a couple of memorable quotes:

They all attended Hester's church, which Dellarobia viewed as a complicated pyramid scheme of moral debt and credit resting ultimately on the shoulders of the Lord, but rife with middle managers.

And the next one, which really resonated with me. Lately I've myself been kind of mourning the lost knowledge of my dad and brother. I mean, there are so many questions I'd like to ask them that I'll never know the answer to. Sigh. Here's the quote:

As a child she'd never thought to ask, and now she would never know. So much knowledge died with a person.

Finished: Cancer Ward (Solzhenitsyn) A moving, well written book about a group of men in a Russian cancer ward in the 1950's. Having a husband who has battled the insidious disease, who still gets scans and oncology appointments every 9 months after 13 years, this look into the deepest fears and feelings of the patients really resounded in me. I can't quite put it into words, but I felt deeply for each of the sick characters as their personal stories unfolded. A while back I asked my son, who has his masters in Russian History and is currently pursuing his PhD in the same field, who his favorite Russian author was. I was totally expecting him to say Tolstoy or Dostoevsky...but instead he said, hmm, probably Solzhenitsyn. Solzhenitsyn's life mirrored pretty closely the main character of Cancer Ward, Oleg Kostoglotov...both had been exiled in their own countries when the political tides had shifted...and both had cancer. Solzhenitsyn beat his cancer and died in his 80's. We leave Oleg at the end of the book at only age 34, but with many cancer treatments under his belt....but pretty understandably NOT having totally beat cancer yet...heading back to his exile camp. I guess it's a sign of a pretty good book when you keep thinking about fictional characters when the book is done and you want at least one more chapter to wrap things up. I kept flipping the last page back and forth thinking there must be more. Anyway, the book is also sprinkled with lots of political statements, as most of those Russian books are, but they didn't overshadow the personal stories of all the patients, most of whom were pretty doomed. So many were very young...two with legs amputated...one 45 year old with a wife and four children who is eventually "cured" and released, but with the doctors really telling themselves, he'll be back. Oh, and that's another thing...they never tell a patient he's got cancer. They only say things like lymphoma, melanoma, carcinoma, etc. Of course, those are cancers...but they avoid the "c" word. We also meet the super compassionate doctors and nurses. The two main oncology and radiology doctors are women! One of them develops a very close relationship with Oleg, which they almost carry to the point of considering a future together...but in the end when he's discharged from the hospital, Oleg doesn't meet her as they planned. He realizes that he can't drag Vera back to his exile camp, away from her career, and towards a future with a man with nothing to his name and most likely no ability to procreate after his intense treatments. It was sad. :-( The other female doctor, the clinic leader, who has dedicated her life to the clinic and her patients, ends up sick herself by the end of the book with cancer of all things. Years and years of breathing in the radiation has mostly likely done her in as well. Anyway, I'm kind of just writing down a jumbling of thoughts. This is definitely one of those books that will resonate in me for awhile, but one I'm so glad I read!

Finished: Voyager (Gabaldon) Jamie and Claire are finally reunited in the third book of the Outlander series! A good book, rather long as all of them are. In Voyager, Claire does travel back in time with her daughter Brianna's blessing, to find the love of her life and Brianna's father, Jamie. Claire leaves Brianna with her blossoming love Roger, and though it breaks her heart to do so, they all know she must go. So, of course, Claire does find Jamie working under an assumed named. It's been twenty years so he faints...the big, strong Scottish dude faints when he sees Claire! There are a lot of things they need to tell each other that happened in those twenty years, i.e., love lives, careers, near deaths (lol), etc., but their love and attraction are as strong as ever and they soon fall back into each other's arms. Fergus, the young French boy Jamie pretty much adopted is there and now thirty years old! Also, Jamie's sister Jenny, her husband Ian, and their brood are all in tact. As a matter of fact...their youngest son, fourteen year old young Ian is the impetuous for the story as he is captured by pirates which leads Jamie and Claire on a voyage to Jamaica to bring him home. Eh, all the ship adventure stuff really wasn't my cup of tea, but I still couldn't stop reading. :-) Claire has a few surprise revelations about Jamie...like how he married the widowed Laoghaire (the girl who was in love with him in the first book and was responsible for having Claire nearly put to death as a witch) to keep her and her daughters out of harms way and provide for them. And, Claire finds out about Jamie's young son, Willie, late in the book. John Grey makes another appearance as the new Governor of Jamaica, and his love for Jamie is still very evident...another shock for Claire. However, he does help them find Ian and escape the clutches of the military who are still after the seditious Jamie. The biggest shocker of the book is that the person responsible for kidnapping young Ian is the very much alive Geillis Duncan, the "witch" from the first book. She's actually a fellow time-traveler like Claire and she has gone mad, presumably with syphilis. She plans to sacrifice Ian at an alter and time travel back to Claire and Jamie's daughter, who she believes to be the fated savior of Scotland and England, now that Geillis  knows of her existence. Mother bear Claire puts an end to Geillis  and Jamie, Claire and Ian flee the magic rocks on the island before they can suck Claire forward in time again. Yes, there is apparently more than one set of magic rocks throughout the world. So, once back on the boat, a huge hurricane hits and nearly kills them all. Shipwrecked on what they think is yet another island, but being cared for in a home by a nice lady....when Jamie and Claire ask where they are, the lady says, why, you're in the Georgia colony of America...and the book ends. So, book four will pick up with Jamie and Claire's (and young Ian's and Fergus') adventures in pre-Revolutionary War America I suppose. At least they can be themselves and Jamie no longer has to run from the law.  :-) I'm going to take a break from Jamie and Claire for awhile, now that they're together and read some other books I've been wanting to read!

Finished: Ah, Wilderness (O'Neill). I thought I'd try out what is supposed to be Eugene O'Neill's "funny" play, and it was pretty good. I really wanted to read another play of his after seeing his summer house. And, the house is apparently where he wrote Ah, Wilderness. The play wasn't as funny as I thought it would be, with many undertones that could take it to darker places, but I guess for the usually dark O'Neill, it was considered light, lol. Anyway...I'm glad to have read it! I was hoping that there was more of the town involved, since it was set on the 4th of July in the little coastal town of New London, Connecticut...but it was set mostly in the house and built around numerous family scenes. Nat Miller, who owns the local paper, his wife Essie, their children Arthur, 19, and a Yale student, Richard, 17, and a dramatic, poetry reader, Mildred, 15, and a flirty, typical teenage girl, and Tommy, 11, the youngest, along with Essie's brother, Sid, and Nat's sister, Lily, all live together in the big Victorian house. The underlying dark tones concern Sid and his drinking, and how it has apparently kept Sid and Lily from getting married all these years, even though they're in love. With the upcoming 4th of July picnic that the men are going to (I think it was a men's only thing at the club), Lily is nervous with anticipation that Sid will get drunk. He has promised to take her to the fireworks, but no...that doesn't happen. He does in fact get drunk and come home sloshed. The main thrust of the story is the lovesick Richard. He is in love with Muriel, the daughter of a business associate of Mr. Miller. Muriel's father has stormed over to the house to show Nat all the love letters that Richard has written Muriel, most of them using the poetry and language of "forbidden" authors. Even the thought that Richard's favorite authors seem to be Oscar Wilde and Bernard Shaw is disgraceful. Anyway, things come to a head between the fathers and before storming off, Muriel's father leaves a letter for Richard from Muriel (which unbeknownst to Richard, her father dictated), saying that she doesn't want to see him ever again. Richard becomes despondent over the news and ends up going off with one of his brother's college friends to a house of ill repute where one of the "ladies" tries to get him to go upstairs. He refuses to betray Muriel, even as mad as he is...but he does proceed to get very drunk...having the first drinks he's ever had. His parents wait up for him til he stumbles home at midnight, and his good old Uncle Sid takes care of him. All the next day he sleeps while his father and mother discuss punishing him. In the meantime, Muriel has sneaked a letter to Richard's sister, Mildred. In it she tells Richard that her father made her write the other letter and will he please meet her that night. She's sneaking out! Richard and Muriel meet and after a couple of quarrels, finally decide they are still in love, and what's more, she finally lets him kiss her! He declares that he'll stay home from Yale next year and get a job with his father so they can get married right away. She says, no, you need to go to college. Back at home, Nat and Essie are still discussing Richard's punishment, especially since he is out again without permission. However, this time he told Mildred to let them know where he was going and he'd accept his punishment later. When Richard gets home, his father finally tells him that he knows he learned his lesson about not drinking. (Earlier Richard had told his mother that is was awful and made him sick and he didn't want to do it again.) However, he still had to punish him to learn some responsibility, so maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't let him go to Yale the next year. Richard brightens up and says that's exactly what he would want, actually. Nat huffs around and says well then, you are definitely going to Yale and staying there until you graduate! And, that's about it. I mean...there were really too many depressing facets in it for me to consider it a comedy. I would look to Wilde and Shaw for their comedies wayyyyyy before I'd look to O'Neill. I suppose in that day and age, though, given all the depressing stuff he'd written, it was amazing that he wrote something that would draw some laughs. I must say that I thought his Beyond the Horizon, though very sad, was so much better. Glad I read it...now moving on. :-)

Finished: Dragonfly In Amber (Gabaldon) I am now hooked on this Outlander series! I don't know if I have the will to read the next six books in a row though. I might just start speaking with a Scottish brogue! I think I'll read a couple of other things before diving into the third book (though I really want to dive into the third book, lol). In the second book, the story starts 22 years after Claire has gone back through the stone from 1746 Scotland. Or, I should say it starts 222 years later...in 1968. She's now got a 21 year old daughter, Jamie's daughter, Brianna. Claire has taken Brianna back to Scotland, where the adventure began, to investigate what happened to all the clansmen she knew back in 1746. Had they all died at the horrible Battle of Culloden, where the Scottish clans followed "bonnie" Prince Charles into battle with the English Redcoats to try and take back the thrown? Claire knew because of history that it would be a slaughter, and the end of clans as they were known back then...and so she had warned her beloved Jamie. Claire has assumed all these years that Jamie died in battle after forcing her to go back through the stone into the future for the safety of herself and their unborn child. She waits until her first husband, Frank, who took her back after being gone three years, raising her child as his, has passed away before taking this new journey to Scotland. Once there, Claire sees a shocking reminder of Jamie and ends up blurting out the entire story to Brianna and Roger, the young boy who had been adopted by Frank's close associate and friend in the first book. Of course, Roger and Brianna feel instantly connected and most assuredly will become an item. Anyway, once Claire blurts out that she traveled back in time 200 years, and what's more, Brianna's father wasn't Frank after all, but really a clansman from 1746 named Jamie Fraser, the book heads back in time. It picks up two months from where it left off in book one. Claire is pregnant with Jamie's child, and they are both headed to France with a plan to try and stop Prince Charles from gathering the support and money needed to fund his battle campaign. To do this, Jamie must befriend the prince, and act as if he is, in fact, also one of the Jacobites. Lots of adventures and strives surround Claire and Jamie, as usual. For one thing...they come face to face with the presumably dead John "Black Jack" Randall who mercilessly abused Jamie, physically, emotionally and sexually in book one. They also meet Randall's younger brother, Alexander, who is a much nicer person. And...they discover that it was the Duke of Sandringham who made attempts on both of their lives while secretly funding the Jacobites, but outwardly speaking against them. Once again, I can't possibly recap the entire book. Claire, though, does lose her baby. :-( And, it takes 'til the end of the book for us, and Claire, and Jamie to find out she's pregnant again during the most dangerous time of this snippet of history. Jamie swears to Claire that he will first lead his small, loyal band of Scotsmen from his homestead Lallybroch to safety, and not let them die in the battle...and then that he'll turn around himself and go fight to the death rather than be taken by the English as a traitor. With a heartfelt goodbye, he insists that his beloved Claire go back through the stone to safety. Then, we are back in 1968 in the book. Brianna is furious at her mother, who she thinks has gone crazy. Roger actually believes her! Brianna finally believes her mother when she witnesses someone else "travel" through the stone. When they all come across information that Jamie may, in fact, have not died back in 1746, that is where the book ends. You can tell that in book three, Claire will go back 200 years to see her beloved Jamie, 20 years later. Sigh. It's a love story that I'm definitely hooked on. As I said, though, I don't think I can just delve into so many more books in a row. I think I'll read a couple of other things before going back to the series. :-)

Finished: Outlander (Gabaldon) I have really enjoyed reading this time-traveling love story between 1940's British, Claire and 1740's Scottish clansman, Jamie. Claire, a married nurse during World War II is on her 2nd honeymoon in Scotland after the war with her husband, Frank, who she has been separated from for five years during the war. Claire truly loves Frank, and they enjoy renewing their love. Frank is a historian and fills Claire's mind with all kinds of genealogical information about his family who he is in Scotland to research during the honeymoon. Frank takes Claire to the mystical giant slabs of stone, on the hill of Craigh na Dun, which are formed in a huge circle, and they witness the village women performing a centuries old dance around the stones. Claire goes back the next day to gather some flowers and feels drawn to one of the stones. She puts both her hands on the stone and is instantly transported into 1740's Scotland! She's in the middle of a battle between some clansmen and the British redcoats and, understandably disoriented, she at first thinks she's stumbled onto a movie set. When she comes face to face with her husband Frank's great-great-great-great-great grandfather, John Randall, a dangerous redcoat known as Black Jack, she's in extreme danger. Though she's rescued by a Scottish clansman, she's also forced to go along with HIM, because they're not sure who they've come upon! A British spy? A French spy? The clansman takes her back to a cabin where Dougal Mackenzie, the war chief for the Mackenzie clan has gathered a few men. Among them...the injured Jamie Mackenzie, his nephew The huge, rugged, handsome, copper-haired 23 year old Scot is in pain and holding a dislocated shoulder. Claire insists on jerking the shoulder back into place rather than letting one of the men do it and risk ruining it for good. They are all surprised at her skills, and in awe of her. She and Jamie share an instant connection. Even so, they will not let Claire go on her way. At this point, she just wants to try and get back to the stones to get back to Frank. She's realized she "fell" back into time. Dougal will not let her go, however. He takes her back to the Castle Leoch to his brother, the clan leader, Colum Mackenzie. The story becomes really complicated as we soon are not even sure whether to trust the motives of Colum and Dougal in regards to Jamie, their sister's son...whose real name is Jamie Fraser. He is in hiding from the British with a bounty on his head for a murder he did not commit. The story is too lengthy to tell and recap. Just know that Jamie and Claire become more and more attached and attracted to each other until they are forced to marry to save her from being turned over to the evil John Randall who they all have another run in with. He's the same evil being who had whipped Jamie to his near death the year before. Anyway...I love the story between Jamie and Claire. The book turns very dark in its second half. I'm watching the TV series, which is following the book pretty well, but I wonder if it will take the several dark turns in the second half of the TV show...including Jamie whipping Claire with a belt across her bum when she doesn't do as she says she will and stay hidden while he has a dangerous meeting. Captured by the evil John Randall when she doesn't stay hidden, Jamie and the rest of the Scotsmen are forced to put all their lives in danger to attempt Claire's rescue. They succeed but Jamie must teach Claire a lesson that she's simply got to understand their ways and not disregard what he says. Things turn even darker after Jamie is later captured and sent to prison and horribly abused emotionally, physically and sexually by the deviant John Randall. Claire mounts his rescue and nurses the near death Jamie back to health, but it's a long, upward battle. Finally at the end of the book, we are left with the cliffhanger of Claire hinting to Jamie that she's pregnant after they've been together for nearly a year. Oh, and before the story got too dark, Jamie and Claire made it back to his family home Lallybroch where he was reunited with his beloved sister, Jenny after many, many years, and her husband Ian and their toddler, little Jamie. Claire helps Jenny give birth to her new baby daughter days before Jamie is captured by the Brits and taken to the prison. I loved this book and am already ready to start reading the next looooonnnnggg book in the series! :-)

Finished: Close to Home (Jackson) Eh, not my favorite Lisa Jackson book, but ok for reading on the airplane. I never really became attached to any of the characters, since most of them weren't really that likable, and the story was super predictable. Usually her books are much more page-turning. And, this one had a couple of ghosts thrown in, which isn't really my cup of tea. Anyway, not bad, just not great either! On to Outlander I think!

Finished: The White Queen (Gregory). A nice, page-turning historical fiction account of Elizabeth Woodville, i.e., the white queen, from the time she meets King Edward IV of England to the time, as his widowed queen, that she goes into sanctuary as his younger brother betrays her young son, the rightful heir to the throne, and has himself crowned king. This is the first in a great series of books that deals with this time in history...the time of the tragic "princes in the tower". Those princes, ages 12 and 9, are Elizabeth's sons by King Edward, Prince Edward and Prince Richard. Right before King Edward dies, he still trusts his younger brother Richard implicitly and names him the protector of Prince Edward who will soon be a very young king. Of course, instead of honoring his brother's wishes, Richard has the marriage between Edward and Elizabeth declared illegal, making her children illegitimate and the boys no longer first and second in line to the throne. This makes way for Richard to be crowned the new king. He has the boys imprisoned in the Tower of London, but supposedly never intends to harm them. In the television show, it is implied what happened to them, and that it wasn't Richard who had them murdered, but perhaps his own wife...or perhaps Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry Tudor, who defeats Richard in battle and actually steals the crown from him. In the book, the Margaret Beaufort theory is put forward, and Richard has a passionate scene with Elizabeth swearing he didn't harm the boys. In any event, in real life (as in the book) the bodies of the young princes were never found, so no one ever knows what exactly happened to them. The book is a great, compelling tale of the three brothers, Edward, George and Richard...but mostly it is the tale of the love story between Elizabeth and Edward, told from her point of view. It definitely includes many battle scenes that happened during that period, including the scene between Edward and his former father-figure and mentor, the "kingmaker", Warwick. And the book realistically shows all the betrayals...including King Edward finally realizing he must have his own brother George executed for treason. George picks his own punishment...being drowned in a barrel of wine! As the book ends, we are left with King Richard about to go to war with the young Henry Tudor and his many supporters. And the prize for the winner, other than the crown....Elizabeth's oldest daughter, also named Elizabeth. She will marry the winner of the battle and become queen of England, and eventual mother to King Henry VIII! I might just have to read more books in this series. :-)

Finished: Henry VI Part II (Shakespeare). More great words by the bard. I'm so glad I decided to finish reading these particular plays in Shakespeare's histories! Though the characters can be confusing, I just keep my little cheat sheet open and then I know who he's talking about when he calls characters by titles instead of names. In this book, York and Warwick declare war on King Henry because York believes he is the rightful heir to the throne. York's three sons, Edward, George and Richard come into prominence in part III of Henry VI, when Edward becomes the next king. There is alot of seemingly quick beheading in this book, but I guess that's just the way it was back then. And, there's a huge tangent where a rebel, Cade, tries to raise troops to go against the realm and declare himself king. One of the reputed best lines of the play comes from that section, "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers". However, I don't like that line since my son's dear friend Zach just finished the bar and became a lawyer. :-)  In correlation with reading the histories, I've been reading The White Queen, which I'm almost finished with, so I am about saturated with the sons of King Edward III, their progeny, their battles for the crown, white and red roses, the greed and ambition that apparently trumps brotherly love, etc.. I've truly enjoyed it though...and am heartbroken only by the horrific fate that the two young princes in the tower met at the hands of their "protectors". I think I may tackle Henry VIII next after a small trip out of town.

Finished: Henry VI Part I (Shakespeare) I'm really enjoying reading these Shakespeare histories! Of course, I had to draw myself a little genealogy chart to keep track of who begot who, who succeeded who, etcetera, etcetera. :-) In Henry VI Part I, the play opens with the death of Henry V and all the kinsmen descend to begin fighting over who will be the prominent regent in the baby King Henry VI's rule. The war continues between England and France, and somewhere along the line, suddenly Henry VI is a youth who is now ruling. I guess the years pass. :-) Anyway, the most moving part of the play to me is when the previously undefeated warrior, Talbot of England, is left to battle his last battle with France with his own son by his side. The exchanges between them are heartbreaking, as Talbot wants his young son to flee home, but his son refuses to besmirch the family name, and his father's great warrior name, by leaving the battle like a coward. So, die together they do. Sigh. Meanwhile, a war of roses is brewing between Richard of York (who has claims to the throne through his father Edmund of Langley, King Edward III's 5th son) and the Duke of Somerset (a Beaufort who has claims to the thrown through his father John of Gaunt, King Edward III's 3rd son). I believe that sets the scene for Parts II and III to come. At the end of the book, La Pole, the Earl of Suffolk, convinces Henry that he should marry Margaret of Anjou, the young princess of France, to unite the countries. This coincides with the church of England declaring that the war should cease and the King of France should be a Viceroy under Henry as King of both England and France. We'll see how that holds up. :-)

Finished: Henry V (Shakespeare) "But we in it shall be remembered---We few, we happy, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother." King Henry V speaking to his much outnumbered army as he encourages them to face the mighty French army in yet another great Shakespeare play. I had no idea that the Band of Brothers term came from Shakespeare, but why am I surprised? :-) I mostly enjoyed this play during all the scenes where Henry, the grownup Harry/Hal from Henry IV, was spurring his army on to have courage...and when he wandered among his men in disguise to see what their true feelings were. In this play, King Henry continues the battle with France, which he thinks he's the rightful heir to. The French King is incredulous that Henry feels like he'll have success against his huge forces, and constantly sends a messenger to Henry asking him for concession terms. However, Henry always sends back the same message, that he will die rather than concede. With greatly diminished troops, Henry does win...overwhelmingly in fact, and it is then King Charles of France who is asking for terms when all is said and done...including offering his daughter, Catherine, to be Henry's wife and unite the two countries in peace. Truly another joy to read! One of my favorite scenes was earlier in the battle when King Henry was first rallying his troops in spirit and courage:

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility.
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger.
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favor'd rage.
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let it pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon. Let the brow o'erwhelm
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English,
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war proof!....

I could keep going, but I think that is the gist of it. :-) Onward to Henry VI, Part I!

Finished: Henry IV Part II (Shakespeare) "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown"..."Wake not a sleeping wolf"...."Thy wish was father to that thought". Just a smattering of Shakespeare's sweet words in Henry IV, Part II. Oh how I've missed reading Shakespeare. I left off with Henry IV, Part I, skipped over the middle, and read Richard III next. I've finally decided I need to read everything in between, which includes Henry IV, V and VI. In the meantime, I will make The White Queen my treadmill book to read at the gym in the mornings. I just can't give Shakespeare the respect he deserves by reading him at the gym, lol. Anyway, this will be neat because we watched the series The White Queen, and it deals with Edward, who usurped King Henry VI, and Edward's love, Elizabeth Woodville (the white queen.) It all ties in! :-) Having dived back in, I must say I truly enjoyed Henry IV, Part II...mostly because I like the way Prince Harry (soon to be Henry V) completely changes, gives up his partying ways, mourns his father's death, and accepts the crown as his sovereign responsibility when the king, his father, dies. I didn't enjoy the Falstaff scenes so much...but was so glad when Harry denounced him and his vile ways after his coronation. Also, I think my favorite passages were the deathbed scenes between the king and Harry. Sigh...and so my mini-marathon of Shakespeare's kings begins. :-)

Finished: Dead Souls (Gogol) What is supposed to be a brilliant, funny piece of Russian literature, satirizing the Russian way of life from the government, to the nobility, to the peasants, just seems kind of like the average, preachy-tangent-going piece of Russian literature to me. I'm not meaning to knock any of the Russian literature I've read, or this book in particular, but I think I'm finally understanding that maybe "you just had to be there" to really get the intricacies of much of the humor of Russian literature. The premise is rather unique. The main character, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, is a man of about middle class stature, yet born of some nobility. He lives the high life and wants to continue living the high life, but doesn't want to at all work for it. He loves the money he has accumulated and comes up with a plan to take his two servants and drive around through unknown country towns getting to know and basically schmoozing the rich landowners and political figures of the towns. Then, he swoops down on these newly acquainted landowners and convinces them to sell him their dead souls. Dead souls are the peasants that they have working for them who have passed away, but are still on their books because peasants remained on the books, with taxes to be paid on them, until the next governmental census was taken. In other words, a peasant could die the year after the census was taken, but remain a live person to the government in terms of taxes, etc., for ten more years! So, Pavel Ivanovich decides he will buy up as many dead souls as he can from as many unsuspecting landowners, and when he's got enough, he will mortgage them to the government (because that was allowed), and then run off with the money! Before he can buy up too many souls, the landowners start comparing notes. The towns get up in arms thinking that Chichikov is some grand swindler, maybe even a wanted outlaw, and he leaves town in the middle of the night with his money and deeds to the dead souls in tact. All the while, Gogol describes in great detail the lives of all the various levels of people involved, and assigns certain characteristics to them that I suppose were meant to really be scathing towards certain Russian people. The next time we catch up with Chichikov, he's moved on to another town and some other rich landowners. This time he's more into seeing how they run their estates and earn money on them. He'd love for a rich estate to just fall into his lap. This is where a chapter or two are missing from the actual manuscript of the book, so there are some big holes. As it turns out, though, Chichikov somehow forges the will for a deceased rich lady in favor of himself. He ends up being thrown into a jail cell by the prince, but there are so many unscrupulous government officials around that they actually come to HIM, willing to release him and let him go for payment. The book ends in the middle of a sentence with the prince admonishing all the government people who work for him. It was a book that started off with promise for me. I wanted to see if Pavel Ivanovich got away with his scheme...but then it deteriorated into the author's statement about Russia in the second half. Oh well! Each book I read is still worth the read. :-) (ok, except for Finnegan's Wake. I will never say that about Finnegan's Wake!)

Finished: We Were Liars (Lockhart) Eh, an ok young adultish book about three privileged cousins and a best friend who spend all their summers together on the family island until one summer things go terribly wrong. A bit predictable, but still nicely page-turning....just what I needed while doing my treadmill walking. I was able to figure out what happened to one of the cousins, Johnny, when two years later his mother wandered the island wearing one of his old shirts. Even though Johnny showed up to the narrator, Cadence, along with their other cousin Mirren, and friend Gat...it was pretty clear to me that perhaps Johnny was a figment of Cadi's imagination. I didn't bank on Mirren and Gat also being figments, but I wasn't surprised. Anyway....just a so-so book. :-) Onwards and upwards!

Finished: Disgraced (Akhtar). Pulitzer-prize winning play that rips right into that oft avoided topic at dinner parties...religion. Manhattan attorney, Amir Kapoor, and his white wife, Emily, have her art dealer friend, a Jewish man, and his wife, an African American woman, over for dinner. We've already seen when we first meet Amir that he's anxious about becoming the next partner in his law firm and being American born, but with parents from Pakistan, he's worked his butt off to make a name for himself, all the while distancing himself from any Muslim roots whatsoever. His wife, on the other hand, is an artist who paints with an intense Islamic theme in her head and heart. Amir is going along pretty well until his nephew comes and begs Amir to show up at the hearing for a local imam from his mosque. The imam has been arrested on trumped up potential terrorist money-raising charges. When Amir shows up at the hearing, not to represent, but to support, the NY Times quotes him and implies that his firm is defending the imam. This does not sit well with Amir's Jewish law firm partners. On the day of the dinner party, Amir has already had a tense meeting with one of the partners, who didn't know that he'd changed his name from his parents...and...who didn't know that Amir's parents were Pakastani, since Amir had put Indian on his application. He's arguing with his wife, who he felt pushed him to go and support his nephew's imam...and the dinner guests show up early. As it turns out, Jory, the wife of the art dealer, is also a partner at the law firm with Amir and unbeknownst to Amir, she has been offered a partnership that should have rightfully gone to Amir. Also, unbeknownst to Amir or Jory...Emily and Isaac, the art dealer, had a one night stand after one of her art shows in London. As the foursome settles down for dinner and the drinks flow, religious talk ensues and things get very dicey between all four. All kinds of intense anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, and even an anti-African American is thrown in to the conversation. I think there are definitely words said that would make most play-goers squirm in their seats. For instance, as much as Amir has distanced himself from his culture, and doesn't approve of the restrictions of the Koran on "his people", he said he couldn't help but have a smidgen of "we won" pride when 911 happened. Needless to say, his wife, Isaac and Jory are appalled. Amir tries to say to Isaac, come on...are you telling me that you don't get the least amount of pride when Israel bombs someone? Anyway...things go downhill from there. When Amir leaves to clear his head and pick up something else for the party, Jory goes with him and intends to tell him about her partnership offer. When they leave, Isaac, who has never been able to stand Amir, puts the moves on Emily and tries to kiss her, but she pulls away from him...but not before Jory comes bursting back through the door because her talk with Amir didn't go well, and sees them. It's a huge mess. Jory and Isaac leave, and Emily confesses to Amir that she did, a long time ago, have the one night stand with Isaac. Amir once again goes back to something they were talking about that night, something that Amir has worked hard to distance himself from...how the women in the Muslim religion must submit to the men or be beaten and/or killed. He gets volatile and severely hits Emily three times. In the last act of the play, Amir is alone in the apartment packing up their belongings. Emily comes in, but it's clear that she's leaving him. Also clear is that he's lost his job. What a nightmare, an intense one...and what a scary thought that scenes like this could really be playing out today.

Finished: 11/22/63 (King). "The past is obdurate..." Awesome book about a high school English teacher in 2011 who travels back in time to try and stop the assassination of JFK! Jake Epping is shown a time traveling portal by his friend and diner owner, Al. Al is dying of cancer and needs to pass the secret on to someone he trusts to use it wisely. Going through the portal always takes Jake (and Al before him) to September of 1958. Al's goal had been to go back in time, live the necessary 5 years back "then" until 1963, and then stop the assassination of President Kennedy. He discovered his cancer, though, and realized he wouldn't live long enough to get the job done. Even though he spent a few years in the past, every time he comes back through the portal to 2011, it's only been 2 minutes in 2011 time. So...Al wants the younger, healthier Jake to go back and do the job himself. It's complicated, though, because he needs for Jake to be sure that Oswald acted alone and that it wasn't a conspiracy. In other words, it's more complicated than just going back in time, killing Oswald, and then stepping back into 2011. Jake has another mission on his mind to test out the theory of stopping a tragedy. Harry Denning, the janitor at his school, has written a night-school English essay about the horrific Halloween night of 1958 when his drunken father killed his mother and siblings right in front of his eyes with a sledgehammer. Jake means to go back and stop that from happening as a test to see if he can stop a major event. The book is so well written that it just keeps you turning pages. Of course, the book's catch phrase..."The past is obdurate"...becomes critical as the past itself becomes a character that tries to stop Jake at every turn from being successful in changing it. Jake manages to stop the murder of Harry's family, only to come back to 2011 and find out that, not only is Harry not the janitor at the high school...but he was killed in Vietnam at the age of 19. So....what impact did saving his family, but killing his drunken father have on Harry? Was Harry better off? The other kicker is that when Jake travels back through the portal to 1958 to live for five years and then prevent JFK's assassination, everything he did the first time he traveled back is reset. He's got to go and murder Harry's father all over again before he can set off for Texas. Jake and Al have discussed the ramifications of JFK not dying, and they think that one of them would be the non-escalation of the Vietnam War, and therefore, Jake hopes, the non-death of Harry in Vietnam...along with thousands of other lives saved. While living in a small town outside of Dallas in 1958 Jake falls in love with the librarian at his school, Sadie. Jake's relationship with Sadie complicates things...along with how close he grows to the seniors he teaches and the other teachers and administrators. On the sly, every so often Jake slips into a seedy apartment he's rented in Fort Worth and keeps tabs on the despicable Lee Oswald and his beautiful, abused wife and their baby daughter. To help fund his investigation, Jake also places a few bets with bookies on sporting events that he obviously knows the outcome of, and gets himself in trouble with some seedy characters. In the end, Jake does succeed in preventing Oswald from killing JFK, but loses Sadie to a bullet in the process. Though he's a hero, when he goes back to 2011, he goes back to a world that has completely changed and which has been marred by nuclear war. The major non-assassination change in history has had a huge "butterfly effect" and the world is no longer the same place he knew. It is many times worse worldwide than things were in 2011. Jake figures if he goes back through the portal one more time, he can reset all that by not saving JFK. It would also mean that Sadie would be alive in the past. Jake wants badly to just go and meet Sadie and not do any of the other heroic things so there won't be a huge affect, but he realizes that even that small change in history would have an affect somewhere. He goes back in time to write the book we are reading, and then he goes back to 2011, where things are back to normal. He uses the Internet to find out that Sadie is, in fact, still alive and is 80 years old living in the same small town. He is now 41 (because even though it's only been 6 minutes in 2011, Jake's body aged the amount of years he spent in the past). Jake packs his bags, heads to Texas, and approaches Sadie for a dance. She feels like she knows him from somewhere. He's just happy being with her even if she'll never remember their love. At over 800 pages, there is obviously alot of detail I"m leaving out...but what a great, great read...especially for those long travel days I just had! :-)

Finished: Clybourne Park (Norris). Pulitzer Prize winning and Tony Award winning play about two different groups of people who interact in the same house fifty years apart. Act One takes place in 1959 and centers around a 40ish white couple who lost their son in the Korean War and is selling their house in their white neighborhood to move to another job. The couple has an African American maid whose husband comes to pick her up right when neighbors/friends have descended upon the selling couple to let them know that :::gasp::: a black family has bought their house and that simply will not do. All manner of fast-paced conversation takes place between the seven characters with nothing resolved for sure except the couple is moving and the house has been sold. Act Two takes place fifty years later in the same house and this time black and white neighbors have gathered (played by the same actors in different roles) to discuss the proposed teardown of the house and look at the neighborhood bylaws in regards to the gaudy plans that one white couple has for building a huge new house there. We find out the female half of the black couple present is related to the people who bought the house fifty years ago and feels like the house should be keep intact for historical significance. Much banter ensues, polite at first but with racial undertones, with one white guy being the obnoxious "black joke" telling guy. Things deteriorate and there's never really any resolution. The play is just a smartly written, fast-paced, true to every day conversation, racially contemplative gem. I would love to have seen it on the stage! It also just so happens to be written by a high school mate of my brother's who shared the stage with him in a few productions at our dear old Alma Mater in Houston. :-)

Finished: American Pastoral (Roth). A very good book spanning the 1930's to the 1990's, a Pulitzer Prize winner, about an innately good man...really, almost a man too good to be true, who marries the outwardly just as beautiful Miss New Jersey, and together they produce a child who grows up to be their antithesis in every way....so anti-Vietnam War and so anti-American that she blows up a post office, killing an innocent person. And thus begins the downward slide of Seymour "the Swede" Levov's once fairytale, or so he thought, life. Swede Levov is a tall, handsome, blond haired, blue eyed Jewish boy...a rarity in his community in Newark, New Jersey, who is so athletically talented that he's considered the star of the town for many years. As humble and good as he is talented, all Swede wants is to be happy, raise a family, love his country, thrive in America, etc. He's the son of a Jewish ladies glove maker who took over the family company from his own father. Even though Swede is drafted to play baseball out of high school, he instead decides to learn the glove making business from his father from the ground up so he can take over some day. He works hard and eventually does just that, thriving in the business and moving his wife and baby to the country. His polar opposite, annoying, bratty younger brother goes off and becomes the heart surgeon of the family, while the Swede lives his American dream married to Dawn. In constant, near stream of conscious writing we go back with the Swede to relive his early, happy years as a husband and father...and then onto the heartbreaking years where his daughter, and only child, Merry begins stuttering and spends her adolescence tortured by the stuttering. At age 11 Merry witnesses a monk on the television news setting himself on fire in protest of the war, and from that moment on, the bright girl is immersed in the world around her and political concerns, etc. She grows into a six foot tall, overweight, stuttering, stringy-haired sixteen year old who her parents can't control. She starts hanging out with some radical activists, and the next think you know, she's bombed the town post office in the early morning hours accidentally killing the town doctor who happened to be there to mail some bills before going on call. She becomes a fugitive from the FBI and is in hiding for five years. Needless to say, Swede and Dawn's lives fall apart. Dawn suffers two suicidal hospital stays, and finally decides to get a face lift and move from their house, basically wiping away all traces of Merry. The Swede stays the course and tries his best to keep everyone else on an even keel, always squashing his feelings down. However, we as the reader get to see many of those feelings and it's so sad. :-( So, after five years, the Swede gets a letter telling him that Merry is hiding out right there in Newark under an assumed name. He goes to see her and is devastated all over again at her condition. She's under 100 pounds and says that she now belongs to the religious group the Jains who believe in non-violence towards all organisms...she won't even bathe for fear of harming another organism. She's living in poverty in a run down, dangerous part of town. He tries to talk sense into her and have her come home to deal with everything. He's certain that she was used by a radical group and that she can get off for being so young when the bombing happened. She explains, don't you see? She went on to set more bombs off in Oregon, killing three more people...she was the one who knew how to make the bombs. It was on her, and she doesn't appear to be remorseful. Oh, and on the run, she had been raped several times. She also tells him that the first few days after the bombing, her speech therapist, who the Levovs trusted as a good friend, hid her out from the law and her parents! It's all just too much for Swede to comprehend. And still, Merry doesn't want anything to do with her parents or their way of life. Basically, it is dawning on Swede that she's mentally crazy. He can't reason with her, so he leaves her there for the time being. He calls his brother who tells him he'll come right now and drag her home for him, but the Swede doesn't want to be violent like that. Trying to figure out what to do, he doesn't tell his wife yet. They are having dinner that night with some friends, which happen to include the speech therapist, and his parents, and he'll figure out what to do. During the course of the dinner, he privately confronts the speech therapist and he inadvertently discovers that his wife is having an affair with their "friend" the architect of their new house. The Swede appears to be realizing that the final threads of his world are coming unraveled. The book doesn't really end with any resolution except that it sounds as if Swede is going to turn his daughter into the police before his brother or the speech therapist can (though they never indicate they are going to do that.) It is a sad, spiraling tale...told by a writer who was best friend's with the infamous Swede's younger brother...and told after finding out that the Swede had died of cancer after remarrying and having three sons, but never ridding himself of the guilt he felt that somehow Merry's actions were all his fault...the good man, the outwardly untouchable Swede. Dang...now I have to adjust my Top 100 because this definitely deserves to be on that list!

Finished: Pale Fire (Nabokov) Now THIS is the Nabokov book that should have been in the Top 100...not the utterly despicable Lolita. I'm so glad I gave this author another chance. He really is a great writer....which is probably one of the reasons that I was so viscerally moved in the negative way by Lolita. Anyway, Pale Fire is totally different...rather quirky, weird, but brilliant, really. Divided into three parts the book is about this absolutely exquisite poem, Pale Fire, written by sixty-two year old author and university professor, John Shade. The poem itself makes the book! It is about his life...his marriage, the loss of his daughter, his heart attack, is there life after death?, etc. Where the book takes the quirky turn is that the foreword of the book is written by Charles Kinbote, an editor and fellow professor of Shade's who moves next door to him when he gets his university job. Kinbote becomes rather obsessed with John Shade and his friendship, and though they are friendly enough to him, it doesn't look like John or his wife Sybil return the strong feelings. So, the entire forward in the explanation as to how Kinbote becomes both the editor of the poem and responsible for its publishing after John Shade is murdered! Kinbote gets Sybil to sign some documents that give him the complete rights the day of the murder even though she regrets it later and begs him to let some other publishers at least co-edit. Kinbote is beside himself with indignity because he swears to keep every word in tact. Then, the third part of the book is the "note" section. OMG, this is the majority of the book and where we get to the meat of the story. Kinbote goes off on all kinds of tangents about his own life in notes that should be simple statements about the poem. The first thing we understand is that Kinbote had truly believed in his heart that Shade's poem was going to be all about HIM and the life story he had been telling Shade about. The life story was the tale of the exiled King of Zembla, Charles. The story gets more and more bizarre and we begin to see just how insane Kinbote is as we hear the details of King Charles' young life, his reign, the overthrow of the government, his imprisonment and escape, and his eventual fleeing to America. Of course, we also get the story of the murderer, Gradus, who is a part of a secret order in Zembla who is tasked with the job of assassinating the escaped king, once they find out exactly where he is. Honestly, it's so out there that it's fascinating and I found myself really getting caught up in this obviously fake world of Zembla and Kinbote's crazy imagination. And, naturally, we soon discover that Kinbote is, in fact, the runaway king himself! He is there the day that Gradus comes to the house and accidentally shoots John Shade instead of himself, the king. In reality, the killer supposedly is an escaped mental patient who comes to kill the judge who normally lives in the house that Kinbote is leasing for the school year. Anyway...it's a wacky story, but brilliantly done! Even the index at the back goes through all the characters again and every so often has a little added jab, lol. Sadly, we do lose John Shade who was a wonderful poet. I will definitely read the poem again! This book will go into my Top 100 for sure. :-)

Finished: Black Sheep (Heyer) A fun book...kind of a Jane Austin-light book, quickly paced with happy endings or assumed happy endings for the main characters. It ends in the middle of a conversation between the heroine and her beloved...but a happy conversation. It was number 102 on my Top 100 list, so I thought I'd give it a try and see why it ranked so high. :-) Abigail Wendover is an heiress and is the ancient age of 28. Gasp! She lives with her sister and her motherless 17 year old niece, Fanny, at their estate in Bath. Fanny has always listened to Abby's advice, but now an odious fortune hunter, Stacy Calverleigh, has turned her head, and Abby is concerned. Stacy Calverleigh, more Abby's ages than Fanny's, is about to lose his family estate, Danescourt, and is in severe debt. He is shamelessly begging Fanny to marry him, even to elope, since his charms have not worked on Abby or her older brother (the keeper of all the family money), James. Enter Stacy's "black sheep" uncle, Miles Calverleigh. A good 10 years older than Abby, and not classically handsome, and basically immune to the conventions of society, he comes to Bath after 20 years of family exile in India. (He had scandalously tried to elope with an heiress himself 20 years earlier and been sent off by his father.) Everyone assumes he has no money of his own, but of course a smart reader knows better, lol. He has accompanied Oliver Grayshott, the son of a prominent family home by boat, as Oliver became terribly ill in India. Oliver just happens to be the brother of Fanny's best friend, Lavinia, and she thinks of him only as a brother, but it soon becomes obvious that Oliver is in love with Fanny. Anyway....when Abby first meets Miles, the sparks fly, as they both have humorous, stubborn, fly-in-the-face of convention personalities. Abby begs Miles to help her put a stop to his nephew Stacy's attentions from Fanny. Miles claims to have not a care for his nephew and says he won't mingle in the affairs. However, soon he is declaring his own love for Abby, and we know he will take matters into his own hands. He does so with quite a wonderful ruse that has Stacy dumping Fanny for a "rich widow" who breezes into Bath, thus breaking Fanny's heart, but opening her eyes. Of course, the widow is really just an actress...but now the truth about Stacy's character is known. In the meantime, Oliver has quietly lent his shoulder to Fanny, so that we can assume that in the future, they end up together. Meanwhile, Miles is begging Abby to marry him, but her sister insists that her marrying the black sheep of the Calverleigh family will be too disastrous and what's more, she will lose her beloved sister since head-of-family, James, has threatened to disown her if she marries a Calverleigh. Whatever shall she do? As it turns out, Miles has made his fortune in India! He buys the highly mortgaged Danescourt, also his family home, from the flummoxed Stacy (who had also been convinced of his uncle's monetary non-status), giving Stacy just enough money to get out of debt, but to still lose his good name and reputation. Then, he takes Abby for a ride in the country and lets her know that to take the decision out of her hands, he's abducting her to go and get married! Of course, she half-heartedly objects, but when she demands to be taken home, he stops the horses and says, if that's truly what you want, I'll take you home. She says that she can't tell a lie....meaning she does, in fact, want to marry him. In the middle of their conversation, though, the book ends! Such a strange ending, but nicely wrapped up in that you can see a happy future for both Miles and Abby, and eventually Fanny and Oliver. :-) I wish there was a sequel!

Finished: Foundation (Asimov) My first venture into a truly Sci-Fi book and I liked it. :-) I'm not counting Brave New World and 1984. I guess I consider them more futuristic than Sci-Fi. Maybe it's the same thing? Anyway, obviously set thousands of years in the future, Foundation is the story of how one psycho-historian, Hari Seldon, is able to predict the downfall of the Galactic Empire, and so convinces the powers that be to let him set up refuge on two outlying planets with his fellow scientists, with the pretense of documenting the history of the galaxy. In reality, Hari Seldon knows, due to his ability to predict social behavior on a massive scale, that the empire will soon crumble and go into 30,000 years of darkness, barbarism, and turmoil, while all the outlying planets vie for power. With the creation of his foundation, and their strict following of his "plan" even after he dies, he declares that he can shorten that time of darkness to just 1000 years. The book itself doesn't see too much of Hari Seldon alive, but we see him at different intervals in messages that he brings to the other people in the future. I think my favorite of his followers, who comes 50 years after the creation of the foundation, is Salvor Hardin, who follows the Hari Seldon line of thinking to a tee. He rises in power on the small planet of Terminus and using peace and clever negotiating with the surrounding "kingdoms" of planets, is able to avoid war with one of the kingdoms that is trying to invade Terminus and incorporate the planet into its kingdom. Instead, Salvor ends up instilling foundation religious beings at each of the kingdoms, as they are the only ones who are in charge of the nuclear power...therefore associating the nuclear power with the religious and spiritual necessities of the people. In other words, he completely flips things around and gains control over the kingdoms. :-) My only problem with the book is that it is divided into five parts that take place years and years apart, so I only get to see some of my favorite characters briefly, and then they become a part of history...often referred to, but still history. Anyway, this book is a series and I might just read another one at some point. Hard to believe that Asimov was only 21 when he wrote this first book of the series!!

Finished: The Light Between Oceans (Stedman) Book Club book #6. A pretty good summer read, but sad. The story of Australian WWI vet, Tom, who inwardly scarred by what he had to do in the war, decides to live a pretty solitary life as a lighthouse keeper. He will only get supplies every three months from a boat from town, and will only get to make a trip to town himself every three years! Of course, in the days before he heads off for his post at Janus Lighthouse he meets the free-spirited Isabel. They fall for each other pretty quickly, and after he leaves, she writes him a letter which he gets on the three month boat. By the time the 2nd three month boat comes, they have agreed to be married. Tom gets special permission to go to town to be married and honeymoon, and then Isabel leaves her parents to go and live with Tom on the lighthouse island. Isabel and her parents have suffered the enormous loss of both of her brothers in the war, but they all love Tom and know that he will take good care of her. Tom and Isabel both long for children, but sadly Isabel suffers two early miscarriages. When she suffers the loss of a third baby, this one at the seventh month of pregnancy, Isabel is beside herself and ready to die. Six years on the island and though they love each other, so much heartbreak. Two weeks after they bury their premature son, Isabel hears a baby's cry. Tom hears it too and rushes to the water's edge. There in a small rowboat is a dead young man and a very much alive tiny baby wrapped in a woman's shawl. Tom, a very upstanding man, is ready to alert the authorities and log the event in the books, but Isabel convinces him that the mother must also be dead...for why wouldn't she have been with the father and child? She falls in love with the baby and convinces Tom they should keep her. Tom is soon also in love, though his conscience always bothers him. They name the baby Lucy and live blissfully for the next 18 months. They don't even tell Isabel's parents, or the boat friends, Ralph and Bluey who deliver the supplies every three months, that Isabel had the third miscarriage. They just let everyone believe that Lucy is their child, born on the island. They get their three year shore leave when Lucy is 18 months old and Isabel's parents meet their granddaughter for the first time. Isabel's grieving parents finally have a new life to live for after losing their sons. In a shocking turn of events, though, Tom and Isabel hear about the tragic local story of a young mother, Hannah, who lost her husband and infant daughter to the sea!! Her young husband, Frank, had run away from an angry mob towards the docks and thrown himself and the baby into the rowboat to escape the baby being torn from his arms. Frank was a native of Austria and though he had nothing to do with the war or Germany, many of the town's men got drunk and felt very belligerent towards him when celebrating their fallen sons and brothers one night. They determined to take his child away from him as some of their sons had been taken from them! Frank, a mild-mannered baker, and a very good man, had a bad heart. Though the town and his young wife never knew what happened to them, Tom and Isabel realize that the dead man in the boat was Frank and that their beloved Lucy is Hannah's baby girl! Tom feels like they should do the right thing and immediately give Lucy over to Hannah, as heartbreaking as it will be, but Isabel is distraught and refuses. They head back to the island...but not before Tom sneaks an anonymous note into Hannah's mailbox telling her that her baby is alive and being cared for. Of course, this just fuels Hannah, who most of the town thinks is crazy in her grief by now, to push the authorities harder to find some answers. Without completely typing out the whole plot, needless to say...eventually everyone finds out that Tom and Isabel have Hannah's now nearly 4 year old little girl, Grace. The authorities come to arrest Tom and Isabel and reunite mother and child, but Tom says it was all his doing...that he insisted to Isabel they keep the child. He doesn't want her arrested. Isabel is so furious with Tom for his anonymous actions for the past two years leading to the discovery that she lets the authorities believe his story. It is so heartbreaking for all the parties involved, but mostly for little Lucy who has no idea why her "mamma" and "pappa" are being ripped away from her...and why the intense other lady is insisting that she's her mother. Lucy is so devastated that Hannah is beside herself realizing that the baby she loved is now someone else's. After several weeks, she heartwrenchingly decides that Lucy would be better off with Isabel, because she believes the story that it was all Tom's doing. She tells Isabel that she will give Lucy back to her to raise if Isabel will testify against Tom so he'll see prison time. In a twist that I didn't see coming, Isabel actually chooses Tom instead and goes to turn herself in. In another twist, Hannah actually ends up realizing that she would be better off trying to forge a new future with her daughter and not seeking revenge, so she testifies in favor of Tom and Isabel...that they probably saved her daughter from imminent death when she was a baby. Tom and Isabel are sentenced to just a few months in jail each, and then leave town never to see Lucy again. In six months time, with patience, perseverance, and the ingenuity of Hannah's father, Lucy's "Grandad", Lucy (Grace)...now called Lucy-Grace, starts to think of Hannah as her mother and her memories of Tom and Isabel fade away. It's all so sad. :-( Not that I condone what Tom and Isabel did at all...but I've also never lost my mind over three miscarriages in a row, so who's to say what my actions would have been. Anyway....20 years later, Tom and Isabel have settled in a town far way and have lived a quiet life by the ocean. Isabel has just died from cancer and Tom is lost. A car comes up the road, and a pretty young blond woman steps out. It's Lucy! She hadn't forgotten them as much as we thought, and upon hearing of Isabel's illness, had hoped to get there to see her. She has with her, her own little 3 month old son, Christopher. She and Tom have a quiet reunion and he gives her a letter Isabel had written for her in case Lucy ever came looking for them. Lucy promises to come again soon and Tom is left once again reflecting on his life, but just a bit happier now. A pretty good read, but such a tough subject. Glad I"m through with that one. :-)

Finished: The Color Purple (Walker) A book about one African American woman's life that hits you right between the eyes with it's stark, sad reality. It's always so hard for me to grasp how human beings can treat their fellow human beings so despicably. And, we're not talking about a book on slavery here...we're talking about that period of time where black men themselves treated their women like dogs, worse than dogs, really. Did this all filter down from the way slaves were treated by slave owners in the first place? Possibly. Anyway, the harsh realities of men beating their wives, sexually abusing their wives, daughters, sisters, cheating on their wives, expecting their wives to work out in the field, as well as in the home, while sometimes they just sat on the porch watching. Women were nothing much more than property to fathers and husbands. This is the story of Celie from the time she's a teenager to the time she's a grown woman with grey hair. Celie spends the first part of the book writing her feelings down to God. At a certain point, after she's given birth to and had taken from her two children by her own father (later discovered to be her step-father); been forcibly separated from her beloved sister; been married off to a man who only wants her to keep his house and existing children; found out that her mother was crazy before she was murdered; and on and on...Celie begins to question whether there really is a God. Her friend, Shug (who also happens to be the woman Celie's husband has been in love with for years), gives a long dissertation about the existence of God and a couple of my favorite statements come from that. Over the years, Celie and Shug have become the best of friends, and more. When Celie one day tells Shug that her husband "Mister" beats her, that's the last time Shug ever sleeps with Mister. From then on, it's Celie and Shug who develop the deep relationship. Anyway, after Celie stops writing to God, she starts writing to her sister, Nettie. She and Nettie haven't seen each other since Mister forced Nettie to leave years before because Nettie refused Mister's advances. Nettie has since been in Africa for years as a missionary with a married couple and their two adopted children (in a keen twist of fate...the same two children that Celie was forced to give up!) One day, Shug and Celie discover that Nettie has been writing Celie letters for years and years and Mister has always hid them from Celie. The one person who loved Celie unconditionally has been kept from her in the most malicious way. :-(

This is Celie writing to her sister Nettie about Shug and God. "She say, Celie, tell the truth, have you ever found God in church? I never did. I just found a bunch of folks hoping for him to show. Any God I ever felt in church I brought in with me. And I think all the other folks did too. They come to church to share God, not find God."

"Here's the thing, say Shug. The thing I believe God is inside you and inside everybody else. You come into the world with God. But only them that search for it inside find it. And sometimes it just manifest itself even if you not looking, or don't know what you looking for. Trouble do it for most folks, I think. Sorrow, lord."

"Listen, God love everything you love--and a mess of stuff you don't. But more than anything else, God love admiration. 
   You saying God vain? I ast.
Naw, she say. Not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it."

I love that! The color purple. Also compelling in the book is the side story of Sophia, who marries Mister's oldest son, Harpo. Harpo wants and expects a pushover wife like Celie has been to his father...but Sophia is a tough woman with different ideas. If Harpo tries to beat her, she puts a whooping on him that's much worse than he could do to her. Harpo asks his father's advice, and he tells Harpo to beat her. Harpo looks over at Celie, and she just agrees with Mister and says beat her. In a heartbreaking exchange, Sophia comes up the drive to visit Celie and bring back the curtains she made her. Celie suspects she knows what's wrong, but the words that Sophia directs to her are heartbreaking.

"She say, All my life I had to fight. I had to fight my daddy. I had to fight my brothers. I had to fight my cousins and my uncles. A girl child ain't safe in a family of men. But I never thought I'd have to fight in my own house. She let out her breath. I loves Harpo, she say. God knows I do. But I'll kill him dead before I let him beat me."

I couldn't help but conjure up Oprah talking to Whoopie in that scene! Anyway...a really good book. I'm glad I finally read it. I'm so glad I'm off of my list of Top 100 and now on to books that I've been wanting to read. :-)

Finished: The Tale of Genji (Shikibu) omg, I'm finally finished with the behemoth, 9th century Japanese tale of the many loves of Genji. The story spans four generations with dozens of characters, four different emperors, scads of princes and princesses, and even more concubines. Genji is the son of the emperor at the beginning of the story. His mother is one of the "lower class" concubines, so rather than make Genji a prince to potentially become the crown prince, the emperor makes Genji a commoner...but still, a very rich and privileged commoner...who also happens to be handsome, charming, etc. He grows up getting practically everything he wants, and is hard for anyone to resist. He becomes known as the "shining" Genji. He falls in love with several women over the years and we get to hear of each one in detail. I was able to keep most of them straight...Murasaki, the Akashi lady, Oborozukio, the Orange Blossom lady, etc. However, when they started having their own children. And when Genji's best friend and rival To No Chujo started having children with his many women. And when Genji's brother, the crown prince, started having children with HIS many women. And, then all those children started growing up and mingling, the story was a little harder to follow! I'll just say this...I would not have wanted to be a woman in 9th century Japan, lol. The courting was very formal back then, i.e., the men were not allowed to see the women at all. They had to speak to them from behind screens or curtains. And, they constantly sent notes in the form of little poems to each other as communication. The poems would be mostly about nature, but apparently with strong innuendo that many times I didn't understand until the author explained what it meant. Anyway...the screens were not really such protection if a man wanted to be with a woman. Several times Genji, and then his ancestors, would "push through" the screen and "touch the woman's sleeve". The next thing you know it would be "dawn" and there had been relations began that usually the woman was unhappy about! I suppose it was the way of the world there and then. I just couldn't really get myself interested in or be compelled by Genji's dramatic emotions knowing that he had his wife, Murasaki, who he loved more than life waiting for him at home having to look the other way. Once Genji dies in the book, then the tales keep going with one of Genji's sons (who is really not his son, but shhhh, don't tell Genji), Kaoru. His best friend and rival is Prince Niou, his cousin, and mostly like the next emperor. The book ends rather abruptly as if there might have been more to the story, but at 1090 pages, I'm rather glad it ended when it did. Does it belong in the top 100 books? It's not for me to say, I guess. I mean...to think that such an intensive book with so many story lines and characters woven so intricately was written in the 9th century, with many a poetic verse, well perhaps it belongs there. It just, once again, wasn't really my cup of tea. The good news??? I'm DONE with the Top 100 Book List!! yay! Now, I can keep reading the many books I have put on my list to read and not worry about that goal any longer!

Finished: My Antonia (Cather) Another descriptive story by Willa Cather that just draws you in with her lovely writing! Such a simple story, with no blatant tragedy used to propel or end the story...just life. Ten year old Jim moves from Virginia to Nebraska to live with his grandparents after both his parents die. At the same time, the immigrant Shimerda family from Bohemia makes their way to their new home (basically a cave) in America in the vast expanse of Nebraska. Nearest neighbors, Jim and 13 year old Antonia (pronounced ANT-oh-nia) become the best of friends, perhaps even soul mates. For awhile Jim is in love with Antonia, but mostly they just remain in each other's lives through the harsh farming years, through the suicide of Antonia's father, through Jim and his grandparents moving into town, through Antonia coming to work in town and both of them being taken under the wing of next-door neighbor, Mrs. Harling, and her children, through Antonia developing a bit of a wild streak, to Jim going off to college, through Antonia going to get married, only to be left before making it to the alter...only to come home pregnant and in disgrace, through a twenty year space of not seeing each other, through Jim finally going to see Antonia after all those years and meeting her then 11 children and husband (not the one that left her earlier). They come back together where they first met and the peacefulness of their beautiful surroundings brings them full circle. A lovely story, really. One line I liked explaining why Jim kept putting off going back to Nebraska for all those years was so true: "In the course of twenty crowded years one parts with many illusions. I did not wish to lose the early ones. Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again." I love that!

Finished: The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Gaiman) Thanks for the recommendation, Caroline! A very good story, hard to put down, and I want to know if the little boy ever sees Lettie again?? I just realized that his name is never said or known, but I feel like I know him well. Anyway, a very good story, but very short...leaving me wanting more. The boy is only 7 years old, but a very bookish boy, and though his mother sets a huge table for his birthday party, nobody comes. :-( He has no friends, really. He lives with his mother, father and sister. When things get tight money-wise, he's got to give up his bedroom so they can take in renters, the first of which is a scruffy old opal miner who accidentally runs over and kills the boy's brand new kitten, Fluffy. :-( :-( Not long after, the old renter takes their family car down a country lane and kills himself because he's spent all the money people gave him to invest in America. The boy has gone along with his dad to get their car, and they are shocked to see the dead body. An eleven year old girl, Lettie Hempstock, whose land they are on, offers for the boy to come back to her house for a bit while the police do their thing. Here the boy finds a new, protective friend, and meets her mother and grandmother. She learns that Lettie considers the pond out back on their farm to be an ocean. He also soon learns that there is more to the Hempstock women than he could ever have imagined. They never exactly say what they are, but not witches. They are ageless, though, and have special powers. When Lettie and the boy come across an evil, huge, bat like "flea", a being that wants to escape into our world and thrive, Lettie tells the boy not to let go of her hand as she starts reciting old language to contain it and put it away. However, the flea throws some kind of fireball at the boy and he instinctively reaches out to catch it. At that moment, he feels a sharp pain in his heel, and unbeknownst to Lettie, who thinks she's contained the flea, the flea has entered the boy! The next day the boy and his sister have a beautiful but sinister new nanny, Ursula, who wreaks havoc on their family. Having found the new hole in his foot, and pulled part of a slimy worm from it, the boy just knows that this is the evil being. No one would believe him if he said anything though. The flea takes control of his father when the boy tries to leave the yard and makes the father get angry and nearly drown the boy in the bathtub! (The mother suddenly has a new night shift job.) The flea has threatened to lock the boy in the attic if he tries to leave the property again. The next night, the boy hears his father with the nanny and though he doesn't know exactly what they're doing, he figures they'll be preoccupied for awhile. He climbs out his window and makes his way to Lettie's....but not before Ursula comes flying through the air after him. Lettie protects the boy and Ursula flies back to his house. Lettie, her mother and grandmother all know that they must rid the earth of the flea, but she has created a "door" inside the boy which is her portal. The grandmother pulls the portal out of the boy's foot, and Lettie and the boy set off back to his house to put the flea back in the portal. (Why the grandmother and mother don't do this, I don't know...I guess they figure Lettie is capable.) Anyway, Ursula refuses to go back into the portal so Lettie must summon the awful "hunger birds" to come and literally eat Ursula away. They won't leave when they're finished though because they say there is still a little bit of Ursula's portal left...inside the boy! Lettie puts the boy in a safe faerie circle and tells him not to move no matter what. It takes her all night but she comes back with a bucketful of water from her "ocean". She has the boy step in the pail and suddenly he's immersed in a huge ocean and he knows all things! He can see how earth was created, how it will end, and everything in between. When he comes out of the ocean, he is actually exiting onto Lettie's property, and though the piece of Ursula's portal isn't removed from his heart, he is protected on her property. When he comes out of the ocean, his mind starts getting blurry and he forgets all the wonders he just knew. So, Lettie, her mother and grandmother know there is a battle to come with the hunger birds. They don't count on them being so relentless though. Even though they can't swoop down and take the boy, they start eating everything surrounding the farm in sight, the forest, a fox, a constellation! The boy, seeing that everything in the world will be destroyed because of him, breaks free from Lettie's hold and runs to the edge of her property. Once off their land, the hunger birds swoop down on him to eat his heart. Lettie throws herself on him, though, and in that time the grandmother has come out. She's very powerful and admonishes the birds and they fearfully leave....not before they have done apparent irreparable damage to Lettie though. :-( She appears to be pretty lifeless, so her mother carries her into the "ocean" where a huge light-filled wave envelops her. They are all very sad and the grandmother tells the boy that they may see Lettie again someday, but they don't know. It will take a long time for the ocean to heal her if ever. The ladies take the boy back to his home and thank his parents for letting him come to Lettie's going away party...she's off to Australia with her father. A bit confused, the family and even the boy come to know this as the real story and forget all else that has happened. When the boy is a man with two grown children and a divorce behind him, he goes back to the area for a funeral. He makes his way to the pond and suddenly everything comes back to him! The grandmother makes her way down to sit by him and says that Lettie wanted to see how his life turned out...was her sacrifice worth it? Was he a good human being? The boy says he can't believe it took him so long to come back. The grandmother says, oh you've been here before, twice before....he just doesn't remember. They always take the memory from him. At the end, he heads back to the funeral reception and Lettie fades from his head again. Pooh, I really wanted some communication between Lettie and the boy at the end! No matter what, though, it was a really good book and makes me want to read more from Neil Gaiman! :-)

Finished: The Leftovers (Perrotta). eh, not as good as I hoped it would be. This is supposed to be one of my summer page-turners that I can read on the treadmill, but this Left Behind rip-off, sans in depth Rapture angle, wasn't as page-turnery as I hoped. In this story, we are focused on the town of Mapleton where in one instant, people of all ages, shapes, religious affiliations, and morals suddenly disappear. There is no apparent rhyme or reason, though there is a contingency of people who do believe it was the biblical Rapture. These people form a group called the Guilty Remnant, leave their families, live in a commune, begin wearing all white, take a vow of silence, and start smoking cigarettes...yes, that's a requirement. In pairs they creepily stalk and follow other people who are trying to get on with their lives in the town. During the course of the story, two GR's are murdered and skittish town folk are suspected. By the end of the story, there is a third GR death, and the reader comes to see how far down the road to martyrdom the Guilty Remnants will go to make their point. One of the main characters of the story is Kevin Garvey. He and his wife, Laurie, are a normal, busy, harried couple with two teenage children when the event occurs. None of their family disappears! However, 13 year old Jill's best friend disappears before her eyes. College freshman Tom becomes too freaked out by the whole thing and leaves college to go and follow the whackadoodle man, Gilchrest, who forms a sort of cult across the country when his young son vanishes. All kinds of young folks follow him, and he eventually gets a big head and starts taking young teenage "wives", trying to father the "chosen" son who will lead them all to some kind of salvation? Anyway, Tom gets mixed up in that group. Meanwhile, Laurie, the mother who should be thanking her lucky stars that her family remained intact can't get over the where, why, and how of it all. She leaves her family to join the Guilty Remnants!! Ugh. I hate, absolutely abhor, mothers in stories who abandon their children. I think we are supposed to feel something for her, but nothing I feel towards her is positive. So, three years later, Kevin has tried to pick up the pieces and he's become mayor of the town. He rarely speaks to his son who sometimes calls from the road. And, Jill, a former straight A student, has shaved her head, let her grades slack, and fallen in with the druggie group...including her new best friend Aimee who moves in with Kevin and Jill. Jill clearly aches for her mother and can never understand why she left them. On the other side of town there is another mother, Nora, whose husband, 6 year old son and 4 year old daughter all disappeared from the dinner table in a snap. She's considered somewhat of a town hero as she's considered the "most affected", having lost everyone. Nora and Kevin attempt dating, but Nora truly can't get over her lost family. She spends most of her days watching reruns of her son's old favorite cartoon, Sponge Bob Squarepants. Anyway...blah, blah, blah...the story follows everyone as they make decisions on where to go next with their lives. The problem is I just never grew to care that much about the characters. The ending does supply a couple of surprises, one a bit nice that might actually draw Kevin and Nora together. And, one that is a little shocking that regards that martyrdom issue and Laurie. As I said in the first sentence, eh. However, lol, I think I will tune in and watch at least one episode of the upcoming television series just to see how closely they follow the book. :-)