TSS Week 18

This week I am still working on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It is an audiobook on 17 CDs and I just began the 6th one. Part of me is dying to get right through it and find out what happens, but the other part of me wants to take it slow because I will miss this series.

I read more than half of Wide Sargasso Sea in the last week or two. A friend recommended it after Jane Eyre, and it is on the 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die list. It just wasn't doing it for me, though, and I finally put it to rest.

I'm also still reading Parachutes and Kisses, which is very good. I'm reading it so slowly because of the 300+ page book curse that is on me. The length makes me lose interest - not enough to drop it, but enough to take forever to read it. That wouldn't be a problem except I am forgetting and mixing up all of the protagonist's lovers.

Finally, I am reading Frankenstein for the first time through DailyLit emails. Boy, is it good! It seems to be a commentary on the danger of scientific advancement, which today makes me think of the danger of continual technological advances. I'm not anti-technology - in fact, I love it - but it's hard not to look at this character who overreaches, thinking that it is all he ever wants in the world, and lives to regret it. Makes you wonder.

The clock ticks as the deadline approaches... Can she do it folks? She will, or will die trying ;)

I just received word that an article I wrote has been accepted for publication in The Lipstick Pages. I'm looking forward to that, and will link to it when it's up.

In other news... well, there is no other news. I have been hunched over my desk for days and will continue to be until my Good Life feature is complete. Stay tuned and I promise I will have something for you soon.

TSS Week 17

This week, I have been totally captivated by a memoir I am reviewing for Estella's Revenge. It's called Blue Genes by Christopher Lukas. It delves into his family's history of mood disorders, focusing specifically on his mother's suicide when he and his brother Tony were children and then again on Tony's suicide as an adult. I don't want to say too much about it because I do have to write that review, but I just love it. (And isn't that a great title, to boot?)


Aside from that, I am working on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I'm also really enjoying that (naturally :) but am very sorry to see the series end. This is one of those powerful series that rarely comes around. Personally, I am not ashamed to love books that are trendy. For example, Dan Brown's novels - I know a lot of people who wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole, but I really enjoyed them. (Okay, there are tons of glaring flaws in writing and plot, but I couldn't put them down, and that says something.) Also, on another note, the Harry Potter audiobooks read by Jim Dale are fantastic. I'm hoping he's recorded Lord of the Rings because his accent and sheer talent are sounds for this American's sore ears.

I'm also still working on Pride and Prejudice. It is slow reading because it's coming in daily e-mail installments. I'm just not blown away. I'm not even all that interested in what will happen next. It has really become an issue of I'm almost done and I want to be able to finally say I've read this, but I won't ever read it again. Oh well.

TSS Week 16

This installment is spoiler-ific because I finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince today. If you have not yet read this book (or Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers), stop reading this post and go away. It's for your own good. In fact, I will put some lines below for good measure.

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J.K. Rowling keeps surprising me, which is clearly one of the reasons she is so popular. But honestly, Dumbledore's murder knocked the wind out of me. I couldn't believe it, and I was sure he was going to pull a Gandalf and return at some point. Well, he didn't, at least not in this novel. I don't know what happens in the next and final installment of the series. I have been thinking about Dumbledore all weekend, in disbelief. Wow. And I probably shouldn't admit to this, but I was kind of a Snape fan (I think because Alan Rickman is so good). I know that he is mean to Harry and all, but I preferred to think of him as misunderstood, especially after the revelation about how Harry's father James really treated him. I was so hoping he was on the right side. (He might still be, under the imperious curse or something, but that feels like a stretch.) Sigh. Book 7, here I come. (This is the first time I'm reading it, so no spoiler comments, please :)


Other than that, I am still reading Pride and Prejudice. It is okay. I know that is literary blasphemy, but eh. I'm enjoying it enough to continue but it is not living up to the hype for me.

On a side note, does anyone else find Mr. Bennet absolutely hysterical? Best character in the book, I would say, however minor.

The Writer Pokes Her Head Out of Her Study

My apologies for dropping the ball on this blog for a bit. My Good Life Magazine feature on sexual violence is due at the end of this month, so I have been pretty heads down and will be for the next several weeks. The researching and interviewing form one key component, and writing the other. The writing process, which I am about to undertake, is both exhilarating and challenging (as my fellow writers know!). I will be spending a lot of time with my laptop and the stories of so many people who have been hurt, wounded and mistreated, and who have been strong enough to overcome it. Whenever my friends and colleagues learn what I am writing about, they wince and grimace. They sympathize with me for having to focus on such a terrible issue. And yet, I feel privileged to write about it, and to share the stories of the real heroes - the survivors who not only made it through, but who speak out publicly, without shame, in order to help others. As you can see, pieces like this are really meaningful to me, and again I'm thankful to Ken Martin at The Good Life for giving me the opportunity to write them.