My parents–my mom, really–bought several leather-bound book collections when my brothers and I were little. I think it was called the World’s 100 Classics or something, and every month we would get a new book. I loved the crackle noise the spines made and the way the gilt pages felt like glass. One summer I was actually old enough to read a few of the books. I read them in my mom’s leather wing chair because I thought it made me look all the more important.

My mom still has that wing chair. Same chair, same dark brown leather(ish) upholstery, in the same spot in her office twenty-eight years later.

Since that summer, I’ve wanted my own collection. I’m moving at a much slower pace. I have these four, a not nearly as sophisticated Chronicles of Narnia edition from Barnes and Noble, and Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, which was a birthday gift from my mom this year. I told her I would love a leather or cloth bound book for my birthday every year. She thought that was a great idea. For some reason, she’s really big on giving the same or similar gift every year. She finds traditions in the strangest places.

A is for Aesop, Anderson is a post from: Pancakes and French Fries

A is for Aesop, Anderson is a post from: Pancakes and French Fries

I bought my book last week, but I’m buying every book the Phenomenally Indecisive Book Club reads because I am a sentimental fool. Some of you, though, are still on the waiting list for your library’s copy–even the electronic versions! Melanie noticed the same thing in the comments yesterday and offered to give away two copies of Rules of Civility to those who still need a copy.

I don’t know how many of you know Melanie, but you will be hard-pressed to find someone who reads more than she does across all genres. Because of her lighting fast reading, publishers like her. A lot. So she gets to read books. A lot of books. (I’m insanely jealous!) Check out her Good Reads shelf. It’s ridiculous. She reviews them all on her blog and frequently does giveaways, like today.

Melanie has been working quite hard behind the scenes telling her contacts about our club. This should help people who are overseas, on tight budgets, or have libraries with mediocre fiction shelves–like mine. Gardening fan? Visit any of the Inland Empire libraries for your pick of tomes. We’re big gardeners here. Fiction fan? Put your name on the list and in three years you might have a chance at 1 of 3 copies of the latest bestseller.

Melanie is giving away two copies–of course she’s already read the book–to anyone who still needs a copy. Since time is of the essence, I’ll close this giveaway tomorrow evening (5pm, PST) and pick two winners using the random number generator. Melanie will ship the book to the winners.

Thank you, Melanie, for doing this for us!

Some rules:

1. One entry per person.
2. To enter leave a comment.
3. Only U.S. residents 18 and up.

Rules of Civility: Giveaway! is a post from: Pancakes and French Fries

Rules of Civility: Giveaway! is a post from: Pancakes and French Fries

What does that mean? Absolutely nothing! (If you have the book and are ready to go. Otherwise, chop-chop!)

February Book Pick: Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

Read by: February 29, 2012

That’s it. This book club is going to be fun, no-stress, and, hopefully, something that exposes us at least once to a book we would normally not read. Other than that, I don’t have many concrete goals. I love books and want an excuse to gush about what I’ve read on a regular basis with people who have read the same book. That sums up the mission of our club.

Now, some answers to a few frequently asked questions.

1. Is it too late to join?
   Never.
2. How do I join?
   You don’t. This isn’t a traditional book club, at least not yet. For now, all you need to do to consider yourself a member is to read the monthly pick. Participation in the discussion would be great, but I know what it’s like to be shy. Think about it. The majority of us don’t know what we’re doing, either.
3. By when do I need to finish the book?
   We’ll be discussing Rules of Civility, at the very latest, on Wednesday, February 29, 2012. Some members of the book club have already finished the book. From what I hear, it goes by fast and is an easy, enjoyable read. Inspiring, too.
4. Are there discussion questions we should keep in mind?
   Sort of. Amor Towles, the author of Rules of Civility, created a discussion guide with the members of his own book club. This is what I plan to use. I have only skimmed it because it, at quick glance, appears to have mild to moderate spoilers. I don’t do spoilers, but if you do, go for it.

Now, I have two questions of my own.

1. How often do you want to meet and discuss the book?
   Option One: We can meet and discuss twice per month. The first meeting would occur in the middle of the month and discuss the first half of the book. The second meeting would occur at the end of the month and discuss the book in its entirety.
   Option Two: We can meet and discuss the book in its entirety once per month at the end of the month.
   Note: All dates will fall M-F so we don’t eat up weekend time.
2. Where do you want to meet and discuss the book?
   Option A: Right here, in the comments section like we discuss everything else.
   Option B: On the P&FF Facebook page.
   Option C: Twitter, with hash-tags so that anyone can follow along.
   Option D: Google+ has a chat room thing I know nothing about, but it’s been recommended.
   Option E: A private forum, set up here.

Okay, that’s it. Are you ready? Excited? I have to say, I’m really nervous! I’ve never done anything like this, and I don’t want it to suck. I really want everyone to enjoy themselves. Fingers crossed…

The Phenomenally Indecisive Book Club Starts Tomorrow! is a post from: Pancakes and French Fries

The Phenomenally Indecisive Book Club Starts Tomorrow! is a post from: Pancakes and French Fries

A good book makes me think, learn, or research. That goes for any genre, any age group. Of course, I’ve loved books that have done none of the three for me. But, I’m not talking about those today. Today I’m talking about Gentle Giant Octopus. I’ve been thinking about these creatures ever since. I’m hoping this random post will finally get them out of my system.

I bought this book for Nicholas last year. He was obsessed with sea creatures, and I thought the nonfiction book about an octopus would be someone he liked. Oddly, it wasn’t until recently, when he was sick, that we decided to sit down and read about giant octopuses. Octopi. Octopodes. (More on that, later.)

Although the story is nonfiction, it’s written in story form. Nicholas and I followed the life of a mama octopus jetting through the shadows, huge like a spaceship. First fact I enjoyed and filed away in my extensive file of useless information: the tentacles of the largest giant octopus ever found were a heart stopping 15¾ feet long. I will never step foot in the ocean again.

The watercolor illustrations by Mike Bostock are incredible.

We learned how the mama octopus moves, feels, and protects herself.

But under a boulder, a Wolf eel is waiting. His mottled gray face darts from the shadows. His teeth strike like daggers. He rips off a tentacle. Then sinks like a nightmare deep into his den.

Not to be outdone by a Giant octopus, Nicholas’s eyes opened to 16¼ feet in diameter. Nightmare, indeed.

This is my favorite illustration of the book. The mama octopus finds an easily guarded cave she can squeeze into and uses her tentacles to pull in pebbles all around her. Once inside, she lays her eggs, which hang from the roof of the cave like grapes on a string. She lays as many as 60,000 tiny eggs! As you can imagine, no sooner did we finish the last page, I was off and googling Giant octopus eggs. Amazing.

This is Nicholas’s favorite illustration. The eggs grow for five months, and during that time the mama octopus never eats and never rests. She’s essentially the Italian/Latin mother of my childhood, but without the guilt trips and high-pitched screams to clean my room.

No, mama octopus doesn’t do guilt trips. She takes it to the next level and dies.

A mother Giant octopus rests in her cave den. She watches her babies swim up through the water. A gentle Giant octopus shrinks into the shadows. Her life is over as their lives begin.

Well played, mama octopus. Well played.

As for those baby octopuses, they get their own. Only two or three out of 60,000 will live to become adults.

Which brings me my first act of google after we finished reading the book. Octopuses? Octopi? Octopodes? I thought it was octopi, but the book said octopuses. So confused!

I love learning something new.

Gentle Giant Octopus is a post from: Pancakes and French Fries

Gentle Giant Octopus is a post from: Pancakes and French Fries

The name of our new club started off as a joke that stuck, made all the more appropriate by my inability to think up a memorable name with staying power. It’s fitting. We never did come to a consensus on what genre to read other than everything, please. Like me, many of you experienced mild angst when it seemed one genre was in the lead. When everyone called out “Contemporary Literature and Fiction!” I immediately thought of no less than 12 young adult books I wanted to read, and all of a sudden the idea of a book club centered on anything else pained me. Those dozens of young adult books about dystopian societies overthrown by packs of time-traveling mythical creatures in love with humans dangled above my head like forbidden fruit. (Weird how the fruit hung in series of 3-5 and came with optioned movie rights.)

Once I decided we should read whatever sounded good, I sat down with a few avid readers to decide on our first book. It was as easy as eating a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.

Lies!

I don’t need to tell you how crazy I drove Andrea, Gail, and Erin. I don’t need to tell you because I’m sure they’ll tell you in the comments. Let me explain. It’s not that I’m indecisive. No, seriously. Nicole described me best when she said, “It’s not that you are indecisive. It’s that you over-think every decision you make.”

I do.  By training or nature, I’m a strategist. I plot, and anticipate, and foresee, and predict, and then act. Then I reevaluate and course correct, often when it’s completely unnecessary. To pick out our first book I consulted several book club forums, The NY Times, The LA Times, National Public Radio, Good Reads (you can friend me at that link), Facebook, Book List, Amazon, and countless other sources. I even consulted Pinterest (you can follow me at that link) to see if I could get a feel for popular book club pics. (Don’t ask. I don’t even know.) (In my defense, there were a lot of book club boards.) (Lots of pins on The Help.) (Even I’ve read that one.)

In the end, thanks to a flurry of emails and mad Googling skills, I decided on Rules of Civility, by Amor Towles.

Here is the description:

Set in New York City in 1938, Rules of Civility tells the story of a watershed year in the life of an uncompromising twenty-five-year-old named Katey Kontent. Armed with little more than a formidable intellect, a bracing wit, and her own brand of cool nerve, Katey embarks on a journey from a Wall Street secretarial pool through the upper echelons of New York society in search of a brighter future.

Elegant and captivating, Rules of Civility turns a Jamesian eye on how spur of the moment decisions define life for decades to come. A love letter to a great American city at the end of the Depression, readers will quickly fall under its spell of crisp writing, sparkling atmosphere and breathtaking revelations, as Towles evokes the ghosts of Fitzgerald, Capote, and McCarthy.

I picked this book (with the help of Andrea, Gail, and Erin) because it was the one book several people suggested in the comments a few weeks ago. It’s not a new release, so it should be available in most libraries. The reviews have been favorable, and it sounds like an enjoyable read.

“The new novel we couldn’t put down…in the crisp, noirish prose of the era, Towles portrays complex relationships in a city that is at once melting pot and elitist enclave – and a thoroughly modern heroine who fearlessly claims her place in it.”
-O, the Oprah Magazine

“This very good first novel about striving and surviving in Depression- era Manhattan deserves attention…The great strength of Rules of Civility is in the sharp, sure-handed…evocation of Manhattan in the late ’30s.”
-Wall Street Journal

“Put on some Billie Holiday, pour a dry martini and immerse yourself in the eventful life of Katey Kontent…[Towles] clearly knows the privileged world he’s writing about, as well as the vivid, sometimes reckless characters who inhabit it.”
-People

“Even the most jaded New Yorker can see the beauty in Amor Towles’ Rules of Civility, the antiqued portrait of an unlikely jet set making the most of Manhattan.”
-The San Francisco Chronicle

“The best novels are the ones that completely transport you to another time and place. This beautifully written debut does just that. With wit, wisdom, and rich language, Towles introduces a cast of unforgettable 1938 New Yorkers, who change the book’s heroine in surprising and absorbing ways.”
-J. Courtney Sullivan, author of Maine

“Terrific. A smart, witty, charming dry-martini of a novel.”
-David Nichols, author of One Day

“Part love story, part social observation, 100 percent absorbing.”
-Redbook

“It’s the Depression, and a gal Friday with a mouth like Dorothy Parker’s is dallying with the smart set…turns out she’s not the only climber. A joyride through the ups and downs of 1930s high society.”
-Good Housekeeping

“A smashing debut…remarkable for its strong narrative, original characters and a voice influenced by Fitzgerald and Capote, but clearly true to itself.”
-Publishers Weekly

“The characters are beautifully drawn, the dialogue is sharp and Towles avoids the period nostalgia and sentimentality to which a lesser writer might succumb. An elegant, pithy performance by a first-time novelist who couldn’t seem more familiar with his characters or territory.”
-Kirkus Reviews

I’m excited to read it, but I’m really excited to start The Phenomenally Indecisive Book Club (PIBC). (I’m still not sure about that name. I know. Kill me now.) This is a book I would normally walk past, only because there are so many books to read that I am prone to making safe selections among authors I have already read. I hope each book we pick falls outside our comfort zone and exposes us to something we wouldn’t normally experience. To me, that’s what makes a book club great.

PIBC officially starts in February, so we have two weeks to secure our copies of Rules of Civility. Next week we’ll talk about where we will “meet” and how often. And, because I’ve had this question a few times now, I want to confirm that anyone is welcome to participate. There is no official membership, unless we decide to move to a private chat area like Google +, Yahoo Groups, Facebook, or Good Reads to discuss the books.

The Phenomenally Indecisive Book Club is a post from: Pancakes and French Fries

The Phenomenally Indecisive Book Club is a post from: Pancakes and French Fries

When we last spoke about book club, we tossed around some ideas for subject matter. The front runners were contemporary fiction/literature and young adult, with an interest in revisiting the classics before related movie releases, such as The Great Gatsby in December 2012. Only one person, besides me, had any interest in reading the Western Canon. Shocking!

The most exciting mind is an open mind, and I’m hoping this applies to book clubs, as well. I’ve decided to keep it 90% contemporary fiction/literature and young adult and 10% miscellaneous so we don’t miss an opportunity to discuss the classics or important memoirs/nonfiction studies that pop up. I would like to divide the 90% adult/young adult evenly, but I also don’t want to read drivel just to keep the score even. Let’s agree to read the best of what’s available, and if that means one genre skews heavily for a while, so be it.

Next, we need to decide what we will read first. I will almost always recommend something on the adult side because that’s what I normally read. I know there are many young adult fans; I’m counting on you to put in great recommendations. Please put in your recommendations in the comments. I will take the top picks and post them in a later post. We’ll vote on what to read then. Does this sound fair? Easy? I’ve never run a book club before, so if anyone can suggest an easier way to do this, I’m all ears.

Once we do that, we can decide on a meeting place. Whew! This book club business is more involved than I thought!

p.s. Let me know if you have a suggestion for a cute name. I have a designer on standby waiting to create marketing material for the club. So far, all I have is Book Club, which is pretty much the most basic name on earth. It does make me chuckle, though, because every time I say it I think Fight Club. Jane Austen’s Fight Club.

p.p.s. I have a few books to toss into the recommendation pile, one being Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 (the cover art leads the post) and 11/22/63 by Stephen King. Swear, the only Stephen King fiction I have ever read is a collection of short stories. I find this bizarre, since he wrote one of my favorite books on writing.

Book Club: What to Read is a post from: Pancakes and French Fries

Book Club: What to Read is a post from: Pancakes and French Fries

Let’s talk about book club.

The inspiration to start one came from Amanda via Twitter. (Here is the original tweet.) I fell in love with the idea immediately. I’ve always wanted to join a book club. Minus the part where you get together with people you don’t know well and socialize, it sounds like something I would really enjoy. All the open book clubs I know of in my area are “meetups” or hosted by large stores, like Barnes and Noble. Strangers. Pass.

I put feelers out on Twitter and Facebook, and enough people liked the idea for me to move forward. Yay! Time to brainstorm.

The first thing we need to decide on is subject matter or genre. I’ll share some ideas we’ve tossed around the past month on Facebook. Let me know which one, if any, you prefer, and share your suggestions as well. Sometime next week, I will pick the most popular ones and put it to a vote. The vote will mist likely decide the book club unless, of course, the vote results in Elizabethan Poetry or Self Published Vampire Erotica. I will immediately pull rank, and with pleasure.

• Contemporary Children’s/Young Adult. I’ve read The Twilight Series and The Iron Fey Series. That is the extent of my experience with this genre, minus one or two books I’m sure I’m forgetting. If we focused on children’s/young adult books, I would like to use this club as a way to read ahead of Mikey and monitor his content. Finding books at his level with appropriate content is a challenge. And, okay, it’s an excuse for me to read books like The Hunger Games. (Nope, never read it.)
• Classic Children’s Literature/Young Adult. Nothing revolutionary here, just revisiting the classics and reading what we read as children, but with a greater appreciation for themes we may have been too naive to understand.
• Contemporary Fiction. The bestsellers, the talked about “it” books, or the whispered ones only cool people know about for the time being. These are the books Hollywood turns into movies so, no, not all of them will read like Dickens. Addictive books fall into this category.
• Contemporary Literature. Jonathon Safran Foer, Nicole Krauss, Haruki Murakami, Jeffrey Eugenides, and anyone else who puts a little meat on the bone. I admit I’m a little partial to this one. I always feel better about myself when I dip into my unread library (more on that here), and a contemporary lit club would, hopefully, give that feeling of accomplishment I sometimes deny myself.

Some other ideas are to read from lists, like the Western Canon or 100 Greatest Books of All Time, etc. Really, the possibilities are endless, and we can always combine categories. Vampiric Urban Fantasy meets Spanish Literature? Easy enough. In Venezuela they call that Hugo Chávez. (Zing!) I’ll be happy with almost anything, although I would love to focus on contemporary titles. I am so, so, so behind. For years I only read Latin American literature by the likes of Garcia Marquez, Esquivel, Allende, Puig, Rulfo, etc. It was an addiction, though now I can barely tolerate the lyrical writing. Then I went to law school. Then I had children. There is an entire decade of reading I’ve missed, with the exception of John Irving. I became obsessed with him while pregnant with Nicholas. (He can be hit or miss, don’t you think?)

So. Genre/theme/subject matter: let’s pick one.

We’ll discuss where to “meet” after we decide what to read. I can tell you it won’t be in person! (Holla!)

Book Club is a post from: Pancakes and French Fries

Book Club is a post from: Pancakes and French Fries

A number of you wanted to know which books on simplicity I have been reading. I have a large stack I’m working my way through, with another large stack on order at the library. It seems I’m not the only one in my town interested in slowing down. And maybe I should slow down on the books, too. I’ve checked out so many books on simple living, slow living, and natural living in the last month that I’m sure no one at the library would be surprised to see me pull up to the book drop in a horse and carriage, bonnet strings fluttering in the autumn breeze.

Which is silly. The time it takes to hitch a horse to a carriage is time better spent feeding my sourdough starter. Priorities, Ruth.

Here is what I have on my nightstand this week. Mind you, I haven’t finished even one of them. I can only give you a first impression of the books thus far.

The Heart of Simple Living: 7 Paths to a Better Life by Wanda Urbanska. This books breaks down simple living into 7 actionable paths: financial independence, meaningful work, housing happiness, reclaiming homemaking, cooking, gardening, and ritual and community. I have enjoyed the chapter on financial independence, and the chapter on greening up your home provided me with a wealth of ideas and sources to research.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingslover. I know, I know. I have checked this book out countless times over the years since it’s publication, but I never get to it before the due date. It’s back, again, in my to be read pile. I have heard this is a life changing book. Maybe that’s why I haven’t read it, yet.

Gotta Have It! | freedom from wanting everything right here, right now by Gregory L. Jantz, PhD. This book isn’t what I was expecting. It has a religious foundation, and the book focus not on possessions but on how our compulsions (shopping, food, alcohol, technology, etc.) possess us. These compulsions are what we use to satisfy true needs (comfort, reassurance, security, validation, control), all of which God can provide. The replacement of a compulsive behavior with the help of God or a high power has a 12-Step feel to it. I’m interested enough to keep reading.

Simplicity Parenting | Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids by Kim John Payne, M.Ed., with Lisa M. Ross. I have only just started this book, but I love it so far. Some passages are unsettling, like when the author noticed similarities between children in war torn countries and children with busy schedules in affluent England. Both sets of children presented with symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder. In writing this post, I found the author’s website (here) and blog (here). Watch the video synopsis of the book. It’s good.

Home Made, Best Made | Hundreds of Ways to Make All Kinds of Useful Things, a Reader’s Digest book. I don’t think we need to elaborate on why this book made its way home. This is right up my nerd alley.

Love Your Life! O’s Handbook for Your Best Today–and Tomorrow by the editors of O Magazine. There are a couple of reasons this title makes me squirm, one of them being the exclamation point. (!) Love Your Life!  Zip! Zing! Peppy! There is just something about admitting you like Oprah that puts a stay at home mom in a precarious position. Like, if you say at a dinner party, “I saw on Oprah…” the room will turn on you with a look that says of course you did. For this reason, I have never watched more than two or three episodes of Oprah in the 25 years she was on air. That’s a shame. I enjoyed every episode I saw and when I buy the magazine, I like that, too. One of Oprah’s producers spoke at Camp Mighty, and he was fabulous, inspiring. I better appreciate everything Oprah has done and see what I’ve been missing. The plain and simple truth is that until recently, I allowed my ego to get the best of me when it comes to Oprah. I haven’t read the book, but I suspect I will like it since it’s a compilation of features from the magazine.

Those are the books on simple living I have checked out. I also own a few, like the classics Simple Living Guide by Janet Luhrs or Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. Both books I have owned for almost a decade. The Simple Living Guide is a good book, when ideas relevant to your life are culled and used appropriately. I’m not going to sell all my possessions and live on a boat. The same can be said about Your Money or Your Life to a lesser degree.

I’ve also been reading books on health and spirituality and how it relates to disease. One book, Crazy Sexy Diet, is a book I read cover to cover in Lake Tahoe in between writing the memorial for Helena’s dad. The book is gorgeous and I love it, but I can’t look at it without getting short of breath and anxious. It reminds me of Helena and her parents and that awful, awful June. I’m tearing up right now just writing about it. ANYWAY. It did inspire several line items on my life list, including praying the rosary. I should read that book again.

I’ll stop now before I hit my woo-woo mystic pile. That’s a post in itself.

All images are from my visit to the Parker in Palm Springs last weekend.

A Long List of Books on Simplicity is a post from: Pancakes and French Fries

A Long List of Books on Simplicity is a post from: Pancakes and French Fries

Given the response to my last post, I think we can all agree I was the last person to know the Christian fiction genre existed.  The other three books I read (and loved) in February was the Mark of the Lion series, also by Francine Rivers. And, since almost every person who commented or emailed me after Friday’s post recommended the series, a post on the books would be a bit like preaching to the choir, wouldn’t you agree?

Well, for those of you who have been living under the rock next door to mine, I’ll give you a brief synopsis of the series everyone else (but you and I) read and loved. 

Mark of the Lion is a historical fiction series set in the Roman Empire, roughly 79 AD, during and after the fall of Jerusalem.  Hadassah, a young Christian, and her family are trapped within the crumbling walls of Jerusalem as Titus and the legionnaires gain control and ultimately annihilate the city.  She is sold into slavery.  Books 1 and 2 of the series (A Voice in the Wind and An Echo in the Darkness) center around the relationships Hadassah forms with her owners, the Valerian family, and how she clings to her faith (albeit secretly) while immersed in the decadence of ancient Rome.

There are many reasons I loved the first two books in the series (more on the third book in a bit).

The characters are unforgettable.  I was especially drawn to Hadassah, who berated herself for her weak faith and ultimately became Christ-like in her purity and obedience.  The character is, simply, kind.  I can’t think of another way to better describe my attraction to her, except to say that she is everything I am not but wish I was.  I am bossy and opinionated and impatient and judgmental and skeptical and selfish and arrogant and faithless beyond measure.  I found in Hadassah a character I could emulate.

Rarely do I allow myself to become so engrossed in a character that I forget I am reading a work of fiction (I’m far too adept at controlling my emotions like a dial on a radio) but to this day I will think back on scenes from the book and pull from it lessons on how I can improve in my role as a wife/mother/daughter/sister/friend.

Like on Easter, when I watched the girl in the turquoise tank top with the GINORMOUS breasts walking up the church steps.  She had to hitch her pants around her slim hips, which made her RIDONKULOUS breasts jut forward even more.  Melons.  They were just melons and in between internal eye rolls and less than charitable thoughts I was trying to decide whether or not she paid for those behemoths when she turned to me and said, “You have the most beautiful boys.”

So of course I felt like a steaming piece of turd in a field of daisies.  I swear the first thing I thought (after the guilt and mortification wore off) was, Well, I’ll bet Hadassah never walked up CHURCH STEPS on her way to EASTER MASS and took the time to think ill thoughts of a woman with insanely huge breasts.

Of course, there was no plastic surgery in AD 79 so you never know.  Maybe would have at least done a double take.

See what I mean?

I’m a work in progress.

Back to the issue at hand.

The use of Ancient Rome as an allegory for today’s societal dysfunction was obvious, but still thought provoking. In fact, I’m pretty sure the only things that separate the 21st century from the violence and hedonism of Ancient Rome is a plate of hummingbird tongues and an iPad.

The most important relationship in this novel is the one between Hadassah and Marcus Valerian, the son of her owner.  The story of Marcus, who is Rome incarnate, and Hadassah is tragic and heart wrenching.  Book 1 concludes how I expected (somewhat) but book 2 evolved in a way I did not anticipate.  I was expecting a pat “romance novel” approach and was pleased, in retrospect, to see things take a different turn.  This isn’t to say I wasn’t gnashing my teeth and reading at the speed of light to see how things ended, of course.

On to book 3, As Sure as the Dawn.  The third book in the series wraps up a dangling plot line surrounding a secondary character from the first book.  I liked it; it was good.  Really!  This book just has a completely different tone, and the difference can be jarring if you are reading them all furiously over a long weekend.  (Hypothetically.)

The first two books were filled to overflowing with drama, intensity, history, and a thought provoking commentary on society as a whole.   The third one…not as much.  It read more like a romance novel than the first two and some elements to the story were predictable.  Other elements were convenient.  I don’t want to say it’s lighter or frothier than the first two books, but the love story between the main characters, and the story overall, wasn’t as compelling for me.  Put it this way: A Voice in the Wind and An Echo in the Darkness are tough acts to follow.  If you look at this series as a three course meal, As Sure as the Dawn is rightfully positioned as the third course dessert.

Oh, dear.  I’ve gone off at the mouth again.  I imagine those of you at work have either signed off or will have to read this post over the course of three days worth of coffee breaks.  Oops.

Let’s continue this conversation in the comments section, shall we?

p.s.  For those who asked: right now I am reading A Girl Named Zippy, recommended to me by Jenny.  Next on my list is Love Walked In and Belong to Me, which Meredith recommended.

Four Great Books for Spring, Part 2 is a post from: Pancakes and French Fries

Four Great Books for Spring, Part 2 is a post from: Pancakes and French Fries