I picked up Three of Diamonds by Anthony Horowitz at Ollie's last weekend. It took me an evening to read all three Diamond Brothers mysteries included. If you like dumb wordplay (although some it is actually clever) and action, you'll like the Diamond Brothers. And they are not very demanding either.
Horowitz other series-es, Alex Rider and the new Power of Five are serious action adventure thriller books. Adrenalin junkies will appreciate the roller coaster life of orphaned teen MIA agent Alex Rider. The explosions and razor close escapes are amazing! The pages turn themselves.
Power of Five is new and I haven't had time to read Raven's Gate. It has a supernatural/horror flavor from the blurb on Anthony's website (www.anthonyhorowitz.com) so maybe I'll let one of you read it first. Horowitz also writes one of my all time favorite BBC series, Foyle's War which takes place in Hastings during the bombings of England in WWII. But this blog is NOT about TV or DVDs - except sometimes.
It appears that British writers dominate my reading. I apologize, sort of. I need some American action adventure writers recommended to me. Please. Also some good American fantasy writers - Holly Black is certainly pretty darn good. Is Patrice Kindl American? Even Jenny Nimmo is British or Aussie or something like that. I will work on this. You can all make suggestions, though.

The Case of the Missing Marquess : an Enola Holmes mystery by Nancy Springer is my latest read. Add another clever, strong female character to the list. On Enola's 14th birthday her mother disappears. When her two much older brothers come down to the estate from London, Enola learns that her mother has been siphoning money from the estate since their father's death ten years before. Mrs. Holmes did leave Enola a birthday gift and by using this gift Enola escapes the finishing school that Mycroft, her eldest brother, has chosen for her. As she searches for her mother, she also solves the mystery of the disappearance of the young Marquess of Tewksbury. Springer does a credible job describing late 19th century London without going into distressing detail. What she describes best are the disgusting fashions that young ladies of good breeding had to don at this time. We cringe at the foot mutilation of young Chinese girls but the obsession with tiny waists that "well-bred" English society had and the corsets that young ladies had to wear to achieve these tiny waists worked together to keep women "in their place". No wonder women swooned, developed consumption, and were taken with the vapors. The poor things could not breathe.
In this book, the vagaries of fashion actually become the method of Mrs. Holmes escape from financial dependence on her oldest son. And later, they help Enola escape as well.
Another very quick, very enjoyable read! I hope to see more books about the redoubtable Miss Holmes.

Internet Classes. Hmmm. Well, on one hand making school kids take an internet course would help them if they ever take an internet class while in college.
And what SD said about missing out on the class experience is true... for college students. I'm sure high school students (in their minds) spend more than enough time in a classroom. But in reality, is there anything that we are going to teach today's high school kids about computers and navigating the net? Downloading files, finding web pages, and uploading files; these are all things that most students can do in their sleep. The only difficult part that I can see, about an online class would be the deadlines for homework assignments. It's one thing to remember an assignment when someone is constantly reminded about a due date, it is another when the responsibility is left up to the student. Heck, even I had a hard time with that in college.
So is this whole internet class a good idea? I really don't know.

What I'm reading now:

Tales of Pain and Wonder by Caitlin R Kiernan. It's a book of short stories in the gothic horror genre. Not a read I would recomend to everyone. But I'm enjoying it.

Last night, I read Shakespeare's Secret by Elise Broach. This is kid's book -4th grade and up should be able to read it without difficulty. I sat up to finish it - the sign of an enjoyable book. The book promises a mystery and that part moves slowly but the author incorporates info on the immortal Bard and the controversy about his "true" identity. Were Shakespeare's plays really written by Edward de Vere, Lord of Oxford? Was Oxford really Elizabeth I's illegitimate son? I almost put the book down to get a history of the 1500s.
The heroine, named Hero by her Shakespeare loving parents, learns that the house her family just moved into is rumored to have a very valuable diamond hidden in it. Her older neighbor and the police chief's 8th grade son help Hero look for the diamond. There is a subplot about the 8th grader's mother that is wrapped up a bit too conveniently. So what? The book was fun and educational, too!
I'm at work as I write this and I just spent the last 45 minutes doing Peep research for our April Teen Meeting. We are going to use marshmallow Peeps (JustBorn) to create sculptures in celebration of Spring! If you are a teen in the Parkland School District, check out our website to find the date for our April TITO meeting (www.parklandlibrary.org) There is a weird underground cult surrounding Peeps. I found all kinds of websites featuring "scientific" experiments using Peeps - including surgery to separate quintuplet Peeps joined at birth, Peeps in the library, Peeps at the beach - even a slide show "The Fellowship of the Peeps". Wait, wait, let's do Harry Peeper and the Goblet of Fire whahahahahaha! Never mind. I have to do real library work now. Bye.

Okay, back to books. I got hold of Under the Jolly Roger by L.A. Meyer, the third book in the Bloody Jack series. There had better be a fourth book! I learned a whole lot about the working of the Royal Navy during the blockade of France in 1804 (or thereabouts) and a lot about the British treatment of Irish common folk as well. I think I am learning to like historical fiction but it takes an irrepressible character like Mary "Jacky" Faber to keep me interested. Wait 'til you read what pickles she gets into in this book. I have to get this on audio book for the library.
Anyway, this book is for mature teens and adults. There are some "situations" (cough, cough) although Jacky manages to preserve her virtue throughout and there is some graphic violence as well. Hey, it was wartime and for half the book Jacky is in the Royal Navy.
Does anyone else have any ideas about Internet courses becoming a requirement for graduation from high school? Shadow's post opened my eyes. I have heard other people complaining that online courses are not as convenient as they sound. Is this the kind of expertise most people are going to need?
I certainly agree that there is more to life than sitting in front of a computer screen.

Back to books again. I am almost finished Kathleen Norris' Dakotah. She ends up revisiting ground she covered in Cloister Walk but she also gives a view of the emptiness of the western Dakotahs that is intriguing and forbidding at the same time. Norris' book may be controversial to Dakotans but to the rest of us it is a fresh look at the way geography can enrich one's spirituality and also at the way a person who is searching for God can find evidence anywhere.

Internet classes are great if you don't have a car to drive to and from class, but you lose a great deal when you are not in a classroom setting. Also, if your internet goes down or if your computer crashes some teachers are not as considerate as other. I took a couple classes online which I could not finished since I moved and lost my internet connection. My teachers did not grade assignments quickly which meant for me, who likes to work ahead, I got the same deductions on each assignment with a note saying "I thought I told you to correct this" Yeah, someone didnot look at the sent date. One of their big things is that you can go at your own pace, well that frankly is a lie. You have to turn in assignments on specific due dates like any other class.
Yes, I think they should teach students to be internet savvy, however there is a great deal more to the world than sitting in a chair in front of a computer screen.

Michigan is looking into making high school students take an internet course (offered by the shool districts I guess) in order to graduate. Their argument is that more and more business is being done online and that most teens use the Internet JUST to socialize or for entertainment.
Taking a course online will teach high school students how to work with other online.
What do you think of this idea? Do you feel that IMing and setting up profiles on Myspace.com is good enough?
I'm intrigued by the idea. A class you could take at 3 a.m. when you can't sleep, or on your laptop when you're visiting your grandmother - cool. Now don't think I'm advocating bad sleep habits or dereliction of family duties but you know what I mean. I learn tech skills ONLY when I absolutely have to - and I don't think I'm alone. This requirement would force non-tech people to get some Internet literacy skills.
Downside - what about kids who don't own computers? What about over scheduled over achievers who have no extra time? Is the state of Michigan going to make sure all students have classroom time and computer accessibility?
let me know what YOU think.
(And this really does have something to do with reading - in a way - I think.)