You never know what you will find at The Friends of the Library!

I periodically go to the Friends of the Library bookstore - I try not to buy books, since I'm more interested in freeing up space on my bookshelves.  But they have a great selection of greeting cards that are only $1 each.  And I like to get cheap kids books for Frankie - who loves his basket of books. And I have found some gems!

I saw this on in the bargain basket - and since every book I have read by Karen Hesse has been wonderful - I got it.

Wasn't sorry either. 

 

It's about a nuclear meltdown at a power plant in New England. There are devastating consequences. 

 

Our heroine lives on a sheep farm.  There are some lovely parallels drawn to shepherds and sheep raising.

 

It's a good read - and a quick one - this is after all adolescent fiction!!

A new fave!

Harry and I have been watching the PBS series Victoria - and thoroughly enjoying it! 

After reading a few Wikipedia pages, I decided I needed to read the real thing, so I got the current biography of her, and it was a really great read.  It is thoroughly researched and annotated - but reads like a novel.

 

As a BYU English major, I managed to completely avoid the Victorian era - and didn't even know much about Queen Victoria - guess I avoided English history too!

 

She is a fascinating, complex woman.  I may try another bio - there are many out there - I have been reading the reviews.

 

We really love the series - but will have to wait awhile, since they haven't even started filming Season 3 yet!

 

Of particular interest to me is the information that after her death, Queen Victoria's daughter Beatrice went through and edited and transcribed her mother's letters and journals - and then destroyed the originals! It's referred to as the worst case of censorship ever.  

One reviewer, though, said that we needed to realize that Beatrice believed that she needed to do it - she had not been instructed to do so by her mother - to preserve her mother's legacy.

Questions abound about Victoria - her relationship to John Brown for starters - and those destroyed pages could probably answer them!

Will keep you posted on what I find out!!

Up all night reading once again!

It's been a busy winter - have not done much reading!! I need something compelling to read when I'm busy - because I just don't read if I'm not really into the book!  Last month's book group selection was not very compelling reading - I gave up after 42 pages!!

I did get immersed in a bio of Queen Victoria - but you can put it down - so I may be awhile.

And I am Home/Hospital teaching 3 students and have to read the core novels they are reading - they are all books I have read before - The Cay, The Book Thief, and The Great Gatsby - but I do have to review them!! But they don't count as reading books!

The book was compelling at first - bogged down past the halfway mark - I usually  enjoy Lisa See, but I think she lost her focus in this story. 

The initial narrative was very compelling and informative - I love getting my Chinese history via a good novel - but then it seemed to be trying too hard to be too many things.

And the ending was a little pat.

But last night I only had a chapter to go - so I stayed up late reading.  Was a little disappointed at the predictability of the ending  -  but there was one surprise!!

It would be good airplane fiction though.