literally

Yay!!  A library list from Laurie!!!  I know that's what you're saying. 

Here's what's on hold at the library.... actually not true at all.

I already have the Alan Bradley book, the Marie Laveau and Joss Stone's album which I LOVE.  Oh and the final season of Girls and P&R season one.  Okay!!!  I only don't have Adele yet.  But I currently have them all but in my possession.  Truly.

Alan Bradley and the famous Flavia DeLuce.  I have been in love with this series since Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie when I blogged about it in 2012.  Just type in Bradley in the search on the right to see what I said about them all.  You may run into a post about Bradley tomatoes... just sayin.  This is his eighth book in the series.  I honestly have not read 7.5 but its a digital version that the library has and I don't have a kindle.  I'm more of a for real page turner anyway.  I'll get a hold of it one day.

I started watching Girls and few months ago and truthfully I didn't much care for it at first.  Millennials I thought.  Which is true.  But as I started following their lives from episode to episode I fell pretty hard.  I just finished the final season and can't believe it's over.  Six seasons.  It is HBO pals so beware if you don't like hearing the F word or seeing people's butts and boobs.  Lena Dunham is a genius and I would love to have a piece of her brain.

Adele 21.  I have a special place in my heart for Adele.  I mainly want to listen to these songs at home very loudly and anytime I want.

AND Joss Stone.  Can I say on the internet (uh yeah) that when I first heard her voice I would have put money on her being a much darker skinned individual.  She's white and I'm shocked.  I thought only a voice like that could belong to Aretha Franklin and Jennifer Hudson.  Dang.  I'm in awe and I love her.

Knowing that my seasoned love of Girls was about to be over I decided to look up a few TV on DVD shows that I've never really watched because seriously it is so much better without commercials.  I rarely watch normal TV.  Parks and Recreation I started Sunday and watched a couple of episodes.  It made me laugh a time or two.  I finished the season tonight after work and immediately got on the library's website to get the next two seasons.  It's not my all-time favorite but it'll do and it is funny which I like.

Oh VooDoo Dreams.  Even though this is mainly a fictional story... Marie Laveau was an actual person and the actual VooDoo Queen of New Orleans.  I don't mind whipping up a spell for fun every now and then but I ain't eatin no raw chicken heart.  Nu Uh.  I'll just read about it.  I think the story will be a tad fascinating.  I've read the first few pages and haven't forgotten a thing but have to finish my Flavia book first.

Current Book Crush

I would like to report that I am the very first person to rent this particular book from the library.  And that just tickles me to death!  I have loved this series by Alan Bradley that began with The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.  I read this first book in the series in October, then proceeded to read the next three in the line through December.  I found that fifth book was due out in January and my library already had it on order, so I put my name on the request list to read it.  Low and behold, it was in transit last Thursday and when I got it I noticed the date on the outside of 1/31/13.  Meaning.... I am the first one to read this book... not the story itself ... just this one book.  OOhhh I like it!  And I am on the tenth chapter and already have some favorite parts.  One of them is this:

"A seed is a remarkable vessel," he told me.  "Our one true time machine.  Each of them is capable of bringing the past, alive, into the present, Think of that!" 

I just love living normal life and then being lucky enough to have the interest of popping into a story of someone else's life, mostly fictional lives but still, to look around and see their world and meet people related to the story line.  And mostly with this one, I can't wait to see if five hundred year old seeds are collected and successfully germinated to bloom.  If that really happened I would be in awe.

Book Review

Two weeks before Christmas I was wishing I had a good read to sink in to.  Something to keep my mind on track and semi away from the Holiday jumbo.  As luck would have it I logged on to the library's website and typed in Alan Bradley, the Flavia de Luce creator and found a fourth book in the Flavia series!  I was so tickled.  The book name is I Am Half-Sick of Shadows and it is based at Christmas time.  How ironic that was!  I requested it and picked it up in a few short days.  It feels so good to wrap my mind around a good story with twists and turns.  Here are a few of my favorite lines from the book.

Flavia: Most chemists, whether they admit it or not, have a favorite corner of their craft in which they are forever tinkering, mine is poisons.

Phyllis Wyvern: Kitchens are the hot beds of scandal.

Flavia: Grumblers are deaf to any voices but their own.

Dogger: I believe a man named Aristotle once said that we delight to contemplate things such as dead bodies, which in themselves would give us pain, because in them, we experience a pleasure of learning which outweighs the pain.

I recited that last one to myself when I was helping my husband gut a deer shortly after I finished the book. 

I currently have found myself hooked on another book to be reviewed soon.  And also I found a cool website called Goodreads from a friends blog who uses it.  I have desired to find a place to compile a list of books that I want to read and so forth without having to request them from the library before I am ready.  This seems to be partly what this website is all about.  I was hooked on it for over an hour last night.  Once I have finished my lists I plan to post them under the Reading tab of my blog.

In Admiration

In admiration of the author's chosen words.  Words that stick out and slap me as relative.  Relating to my life and way of thinking.  Isn't it refreshing to be knee deep in a novel and discover a piece of yourself right there amongst the pages.  And only for a brief moment in two or three sentences that I read and reread several times.  Then search for a pencil on my nightstand and jot the page number down on my book mark so I will remember where to look for the passage that will find it's way to my journal penning.  I finished the third in a series of books (I am starting the second one now) by author Alan Bradley. 

Quote 1:  Whenever I'm with other people, part of me shrinks a little.  Only when I am alone can I fully enjoy my own company.

Quote 2:  It always surprises me after a family row ti find that the world outdoors has remained the same.  While the passions and feelings that accumulate like noxious gases inside a house seem to condense like old smoke, the out of doors is different.  The landscape seems incapable of accumulating human radiation.  Perhaps the wind blows anger away.

Quote 3:  I think there must be a kind of courage that comes from not being able to make up your mind.

Quote 4:  We always want to love the recipients of our charity, but it is not necessary.  Indeed, it is sometimes not possible.

current book crush

while toting a large bag of books back in to the library about six weeks ago, i noticed, in passing, a small group of colorfully spined books on the top shelf of a row of fiction books.  i am not completely familiar with where all the different types of books are in this branch of the library yet.  i do know where the antique and decorating, children's, cookbooks and hunting books can be found.  also i recently have strolled through the dvd section and have fallen in love with taxi once again, seasons one and two.  i am still working on season three. 

back to the green, yellow and red group.  after i handed my books in, i took a trip back to the aisle i had passed and somehow picked up the first of three in a series, and read the back.  it turned out that they are mystery novels, which i am very fond of.  nothing will keep my nose in a book better than suspense.  i truly loved the first book, by alan bradley, the sweetness at the bottom of the pie.  i finished it and only had to renew it once.  i wanted to move directly on to the second in the series but alas my library didn't have it.  it is currently being transported to my closest branch just for me.  in the mean time, i check out the third book, a red herring without mustard.  i couldn't really get in to it at first, feeling like i was missing something by skipping the second book.  as i got to the second or third chapter, i was sucked in.