Sinner - Maggie Stiefvater

It was Leon, really, who kept me reading.  This poor guy has to drive the returning rock star to the rock star's new gig and the rock star - Mercy Falls fans know that Cole St. Clair is the rock star - keeps asking for Leon's advice and input.  And Leon is so driver-ish-ly polite and even kind.  So for Leon I kept reading.

Because I never read the Mercy Falls books, I didn't know about the passion between Cole and Isabel Culpepper, or the tragedies that befell the Mercy Falls clan.  And I am grateful for Leon because I learned to like and respect Cole and Isabel. 

Here's the story, guys.  I will only take you so far, ok?  Cole is out of rehab.  He has been offered a chance to make a new album - as long as he does it on a reality tv show based in LA.  The band, Narkotika, is defunct.  Jeremy, the bass player, is in LA with a new band.  Mercy Falls readers know what happened to the drummer, Victor, and there's no return from that, alas.

But Cole's real goal is to find and win back Isabel.  Isabel lives in LA with her mother and aunt and cousin, Sophia.  Thanks, Sophia.  I liked YOU a lot, too.

The opening of this book let's you know that there is ACTION, DANGER and DRAMA involved in the book.  The setting of a reality show just pours lighter fluid on the blaze, so to speak.   And through it all, Cole tries to convince Isabel to trust him.  And Isabel tries to remain in control of circumstances that are beyond her reach.

In my opinion, this is not Maggie's best.  But I'm not all that fond of werewolves, either.  However, I am happy and relieved that the book was lively and full of good people behaving pretty ok, mostly, and ordinary people acting like jerks sometimes, and romance and action and love - and minor characters that I wanted to meet in person.

Books update

Mister Max : The book of lost things by Cynthia Voigt was excellent.  I loaned it to my mother:

Mother:  I am just calling to tell you that I can't put this book down.

Me: Good.  What do you think of the librarian grandmother?

Mother:  I can't talk right now.  I have to finish the book.  But thank you for lending it to me.


I am now reading Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater.  It is hard for me.  But I am a grandmother who is not all that into cars, explosions and hit men.  Also, a little fantasy-weary right now.

 HOWSOMEVER!!!  if you are into hot cars, kissing dilemmas, explosions, and creepy-not-entirely-unsympathetic-hit-men types, also tortured young men and sassy know-it-all teen girls, AND a huge magical mystery, you will gobble this book up.  Even I, jaded as I am, can see that.

Enough about me.  What are you reading?

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

"Blue Sargent had forgotten how many times she'd been told that she would kill her true love." The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater.

How's that for a first sentence?  Blue lives with psychics, her mother and her aunts.  After introducing Blue in the prologue that begins with the sentence above, the action moves to the "corpse road" behind a crumbling church on St. Mark's Eve.  Here, Blue, who is notably NOT psychically talented - just psychically helpful -, sees her first spirit.  Blue and her Aunt Neeve are collecting the names of local people who will die in the upcoming year - read the book if you don't understand.  And this boy appears  - well, his spirit does.  And Blue can see him.  His name, he tells her, is Gansey.

Ahhh, Gansey and his fellow rich boarding school friends!  They have a mission and it involves the "corpse road", the ancient Welsh King, Glendower, a boy who died before his time and one who lived when he should have died - and eventually, it involves Blue.

Here is some noteworthy advice.  Write this down.  Do NOT begin a Stiefvater book in the late evening if you hope to get some sleep.  It was Thursday night after 10:30 pm, and I couldn't sleep.  So, I said to myself, "Self, just start that new Maggie Stiefvater book.  Reading might help you sleep." Hahahahahahahahahahaha!  I could not put the book down. 

The book is due out in September.  Go to your favorite book purveyor - I vote for a local one - and pre-order.  Or request it at your public library.  You will not be sorry.

The Scorpio Races

Surf and hooves!  It's my new exclamation.  Maggie Stiefvaters' The Scorpio Races deserves an exclamation all its own.  Teeth and Manes!  Could be another one, actually.  I like them both.

Imagine an island in the Northern Sea (I think).  This island loves its horses, the land-based ones we all know, and the water horses from the sea.  The flesh-eating wild water horses driven to land every Fall where they hunt anything with blood in its veins.

The Scorpio races bring tourists and money - and death - to the people on this island of Skarmouth.  The races have a history longer than memory.  Sean Kendrick has won four out of the last six races on the water horse he calls Corr.  Corr is as red as his father's mount was the year his father died in the races.

Puck Connelly and her brothers lost both their parents to the sea and to the water horses.  Now, her older brother is abandoning the family to go to the mainland.   Puck decides to win the Scorpio Races, on her own horse, or on a water horse, if she can find one, in an attempt to keep her family together.

There is the set-up, gentle readers.  And oh my, excuse the pun, but this book is a wild, wild ride! 

And I want to learn to ride a horse!!  Yes!  I want to race the wind on a horse that I love, on a horse that loves me.

And I want to be brave and alive, the way Sean and Puck are brave and alive.  But, if I can't be, then I am so happy that Maggie Stiefvater has written this book so I can imagine that braveness and alive-ness running in my sluggish veins.

Rain and randomity

Yesterday, I woke up and the heat was....gone!  Like a miracle.  Like it was all a sticky uncomfortable dream.  A breeze blew and the wind chimes clattered and I decided before the heat rose again, I was going to bake up some rhubarb muffins.  A fellow rhubarb enthusiast found a great recipe made with whole wheat flour, oatmeal and brown sugar.  No muffins stay as moist and luscious as rhubarb muffins.  And this is good because I have LOTS of rhubarb.

In the afternoon the skies opened up.  And our new "water feature" - a bucket set under the second floor air conditioner to catch the condensation - became a lake.  I don't want to dump that good rain water but I don't want to invite mosquitoes to stay either.  I will solve that dilemma in the morning if I have time to water.

I have two interests that I need to look into and they both involve water.  The first is an easier way to re-use grey water.  I scoop out my shower water and pour it on the flower beds when I have time.  But what about dishwasher and washing machine waste water?  How can those sources of relatively harmless water be tapped?

The other is to find and install a rain barrel system for watering the vegetable garden.  And can rain water be used for other things such as washing clothes?  Older homes had cisterns for catching that water and then city sewer and water became the norm.  I'm just wondering here.

I am having a dry spell with my reading.  I still have about 15 ARCs from Book Expo to finish but I can't decide what I want to read about - a disaffected teen who has been forced to relocate?  A boy whose palm bears a mysterious mark and who lives with his Uncle Phineas?

OH MY STARS AND BOLTS!!!  I just found a Maggie Stiefvater book in my BEA Bag of Swag.  Thank you, God!  I am reading The Scorpio Races this week.  It comes out in October.  Happy Desk Chair Dance!!!

If you like kids' books - and I do -, check out Delightful Children's Books, a website devoted to producing book lists on just about anything for children of almost any age.  This week's featured book list is devoted to birds.  Story program planners, take note!

So...rhubarb muffins in the kitchen.  A breeze blowing in the window.  A good book to look forward to. Lunch with a long time friend where we talked and talked.  Tomorrow is the last day of Stories in the Schools.  The Storytelling Workshop next week is full up.  Yeah, life is good.