The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

The Historian turned into a two-week book...for a couple of reasons. For one thing, at the beginning, I was so creeped out that I had a hard time reading it near bedtime. Secondly, it was a really long book. As I neared the end of the book, I found myself wishing two things:
1) That I had read Bram Stoker's "Dracula" before reading this
2) That the book had ended much sooner than it did. At 79 chapters plus an epilogue, I felt that it took far longer to tell the story than it could have.

At first, I was intrigued by this varied group of historians hunting Dracula through the years. I was disturbed and completely creeped out by the librarian vampire who appears early on. But by the end, I was no longer surprised or scared by anything. The various encounters seemed to take on a formulaic pattern, and I was disappointed.

Still on vampires, but much lighter reading - this week I'm reading "Living Dead in Dallas" the second book in the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris...

Dandelion Wine

I had forgotten just how much I loved Dandelion Wine. I remember now why I read it so often as a kid. For me, it was like I could have summer any time of the year. The way Douglas sees the world is so typical twelve-year-old...its a great book.

One thing I was interested to discover is that people actually did smoke corn silk. So, I have to take back everything I said about Grampy being a fibber when he talked about doing that. Guess he wasn't just making it up!

This week...The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova...don't know much about it except that its got vampires...

Dandelion Wine

My pick this week is Ray Bradbury's "Dandelion Wine". It's an old favorite, one I took out of the library a hundred times as a pre-teen. Set in the summer of 1928, it is the story of twelve-year-old Douglas Spaulding - and also of Ray Bradbury's childhood as well.

I've been looking for this book for years and just acquired it with credits from Paperbackswap.com - I'm excited to get reacquainted with it.

The History of Lucy's Love Life...

Well, thanks to some extra time off due to the flooding and sewer system issue in Warwick, I finished this book up early this week. It was a quick read, and good for something light after the serious and/or nonfiction books I've been reading lately.
Fairly predictable, but a cute story, and interesting to see the take on different guys from history.

As for me and who I'd travel back in time to "date" - William Blake and Jim Morrison top my list. Anyone want to share their picks?

A lighter pick this week

I decided to go for something light this week after the past couple books. This week I'm reading "The History of Lucy's Love Life in Ten and a Half Chapters" by Deborah Wright. The tagline under the title on the front cover says "Who would you date if you had a time machine?"

It's a cute book and I am actually almost finished with it. Definite chick-lit. In between her time travels, we see the ups and downs of Lucy and her on-again, off-again boyfriend Anthony. She uses the time machine to dristact her from her relationship. Lucy's choice of men...Lord Byron, DaVinci, Ovid...leave me wondering, who would I pick?? Have to think about that one a bit longer...

Into the Wild

Finished "Into the Wild" this afternoon. It was a good book and a quick read, but as I said, I had a hard time sympathizing with Alex. I truly feel for his family and am sorry that he died, but if he had used the slightest bit of common sense, he would still be alive. New book starting tomorrow...

One other comment - every time I picked up this book, it triggered the "Into the Woods" soundtrack in my head...and took me almost all week to figure out why I'd been singing it for days!

I broke my no-new-books rule yesterday...Building 19 had a bunch of books for 99 cents...and I couldn't resist. To my credit, I only bought three. I'll probably choose one of those for next week's book.

Also have had some luck with paperbackswap.com. I used my original 2 credits to request 2 books, which I have already received. And I've shipped a book to one person already (The Dwelling from a few weeks ago - and was I glad to get rid of that one so it would stop taunting me over not finishing it!) and just received a request for another...so that will give me more credits! I am loving this site!

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

My choice this week has been Jon Krakauer's "Into the Wild." This is definitely a quick read...even with everything I've had going on this week, I'm already halfway through the book. The trouble I'm having with it is that I'm finding it hard to feel sympathetic for Alex - the young man who gave away all his money, cut all ties with his family, and took up a vagabond lifestyle. He strikes me as far too idealistic and irresponsible. I'm hoping something will happen once he is actually in Alaska to change my mind...