The pages practically turned themselves once I got into Erec Rex by Kaza Kingsley. I wasn't sure I was in the mood for more fantasy. But after Erec and his new friend, Bethany, found themselves in a strange magical realm, the action rarely let up. Erec's search for his adoptive mother brought him to a strange new world where all the children his age, almost 13, were taking part in competitions to find the next three leaders.
The best way for Erec to hide who he really was - a "Loser" from the non-magical world -, was to pretend to be a competitor. The contests are a combination of skill and cleverness with coded messages and dangerous tasks. It is too easy to compare the book to Harry Potter but Kingsley includes a lot of the things that make Rowling's famous series so popular. Clever puzzles, action packed contests, adults who are not what they seem, children who make childish choices, lots of danger AND a new exciting and weird sport, Springball, that can be played by normal humans and magical humans alike.
There are already two books in the series and the next time I have a free hour or two, I am reading The Monsters of Otherness, book two in the Erec Rex series.

Just checking in. Hub and I went on a 12 night cruise and got back last weekend. Re-entry is HARD! After 12 mornings of leaving the room and coming back to a freshly made bed, never having to ask for a refill of water or coffee, fascinating food, beautiful scenery and the freedom to do NOTHING but watch the ocean, reality is AWFUL I think I understand why social hierarchies exist now. It is so nice to have someone do things FOR me. Since picking up after others is sort of debasing, social hierarchies ensure that the lucky few are served by the not so lucky many. The cruise ship staff is paid, although not nearly what they are worth. If they were paid what they are worth, we couldn't have afforded this cruise.
Well, I'm perfectly capable of making my own bed but it was nice to see how the other one percent lives.

I picked up a Brother Cadfael mystery in the ship's library. I know I have read every single Brother Cadfael mystery but I have reached the age where plots blur enough that re-reading a book is not a disappointment. Ellis Peters spins a great plot and includes just enough historical detail for the reader to understand the political intrigue that underlies her mysteries. Of course, Cadfael is too good to be true but we all need heroes.

I also read How to Be Bad, a collaboration of Lauren Myracle, e. lockhart, and Sarah Mlynowski. Three girls, two best friends and a new much richer interloper, go on a road trip to Miami from northern Florida. Each girl brings along her own peculiar problems. Jesse is dealing with her free-spirited mother's diagnosis of breast cancer. Vicks desperately misses her long time steady who is a freshman at a college in Miami. Mel is the new rich girl who feels like a cipher in her over achieving family and is adjusting to her move to Florida from Canada.
I am leery of collaborations but this worked well. Each author assumes the voice of one of the girls and the story is told alternately. The adolescent foolishnesses the girls get into are believable and so are the misunderstandings. lockhart and Myracle are authors I respect and I will have to read more of Mlynowski after reading this. BTW, the book isn't on sale until the beginning of May. Being a YS librarian has some perks.

I spent a lot of time planning for my story performance last Saturday at Bear Creek ski resort. And the performance went well. (Whew!) Hub and I went back to Bear Creek last night for a Dove Chocolate tasting, wine tasting and music event. My favorite accordionist, Alex Meixner, was playing the accordion that he hopes I will buy. HA! It's way too beautiful for a schlub player like me - plus it's pretty expensive, too. Alex was amazing as always and we all had a very tasty time.
Enough checking in, for me. Good night!

Anne of Green Gables is 100 years old! Is that possible? There is even a prequel to help us understand Anne's life before Marilla and Matthew brought her to Green Gables, titled "Before Green Gables" (imaginative, yes?). I guess this is the year to hit the red sand beaches of Prince Edward Island, too. The island is preparing for HUGE doings - lots of tourists sporting red braids and visiting Anne of Green Gables Land and Rainbow Valley. Read an Anne book to celebrate!

I just heard that someone I know and love is moving to Europe, leaving her husband behind. I sighed and said, "Well, that's the way the cookie crumbled." My friend laughed and pronounced and "And so shall the cookie never be re-assembled."
I had to have the last word. "Someone could use those crumbs in a new cookie recipe."

Finding new recipes is a way to deal with life. When something is not working, or when a situation disintegrates - using what happened to build on, to learn from, can create something better or at least as good.

Hmm, talking about using crumbs, there's bread pudding in the kitchen. I think I'll make some coffee. Later.

Happy Valentine's Day! What a great day to curl up with a book you truly love! I decided this morning that I need to re-read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. I noticed when I was reading that the teen girls in that book adopted affectations that teen girls still adopt - spelling their names differently, trying out new hair styles, being cliquish and developing fads. Human nature doesn't seem to change even though the way it expresses itself does.

How would Little Women read if it was set in modern times? What would the fad be that sends Amy into a tizzy? Their father could be in Iraq instead of the Civil Warar and Marmie would have to have an outside job. Hmmm... Suggestions anyone?

Romance is in the air and if it isn't everyone wishes it was. I'm not much of a romance reader but I do enjoy romance when it flavors the other books I read.

Everything Valentine's Day has posted a list of "Top" romantic reads. One of my favorites - one of the few "romances" I've ever read is NOT on that list. For pure escapism, read Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Devereaux.

Whether you have a sweetie or not, enjoy this day of LOOOVE. Smooch.

Bobby McFerrin came to Bethlehem on Sunday (Feb. 10, 2008) to lead a workshop with the combined Moravian College and Central Moravian Church Choirs. Then, although he told the newspaper he wasn't going to sing, he "conducted" those choirs in a concert on Sunday night - probably the coldest, windiest night of the winter.

But Foy Hall was nice and warm with McFerrin singing melodies to the harmonies he appeared to create on the spot for the choirs. He made the melodies up. He also sang harmony for a number of students and audience members. And he got the audience to sing. In short, he sang for an hour and a half. His voice is so cool. He looks like he is having the best of times, all the time.

The whole experience was SO MUCH FUN! I love music. In my next life, I am going to do music all the time. One of the first things I will do when I retire is to join a fun choir. I want to sing. I frequently want to sing but I have no voice right now because of the sinus thing I complained about. So I am very grateful for my accordion (and piano and guitar).

I noticed again that I am an active audience member. While 500 other people - or maybe it was a thousand. Foy Hall was full to the brim - sat still in their seats, I rocked, leaned forward, mouthed the harmonies - mostly the Bass part since that was the part Andrei was singing - tapped my feet and bopped up and down. I really do get into performances. I must ...learn...to control...Nah!

I was pleased to see that some of the choir members also bounced around as they sang and listened.

Well, I should practice my accordion before I go to bed. Good night.

Nancy Springer has a marvelous character in Enola Holmes, Sherlock Holmes' much younger sister. In The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets, Dr. Watson goes missing. Enola has to come up with a more clever disguise - one that her very observant older brothers would never suspect - so she decides to become beautiful. There is a subplot about Enola's mother, Eudoria Holmes, who disappears before the first book in this series ever begins and Enola's efforts to contact her. And the language of flowers, a woman's domain, features prominently in this mystery as well.

The books are well-written, true to the Victorian era in which they are set and quick reads. There are enough clues to keep the reader guessing and a number of coded messages to decipher. I am not good at deciphering so I am happy that Springer interprets the codes soon enough in the story.

Stephanie Meyer's last Twilight book, Breaking Dawn, will be on sale on August 2nd. That should give me time to read the first three in the series. I will have to take the paperbacks with me on vacation. I can't read everything!

I'm home with another sinus infection and it's snowing. Is there anything better than being home on a snowy day? Hmm, probably but I can't think of anything right now.

I have a very full storytelling schedule - for me - coming up. I tell stories at Godfrey Daniels on Sunday afternoon, Feb. 17th at 2 pm, and I tell at Bear Creek Ski Resort on Feb. 18th and March 8th both at 7 pm.

Then, during the Lehigh Valley Story Festival, I will tell at Girls' Night Out, March 29th, again at Godfrey's, sharing the stage with Kathy Pierce and - oh I forget, someone really good. And on April 1st, Larry Sceurman and I will tell tales of foolishness at Deja Brew, 10 W. 4th Street, in Bethlehem, PA. Alas, Deja Brew does not seem to have a website. Neither do I!

So, come out and hear stories and my wild accordion next weekend or sometime in March or April. Enough now. I'm supposed to be resting.

Happy New Year! I have actually read a couple of books in the last week. Touchstone by Laurie R. King is a departure from her Mary Russell and Kate Martinelli series. This book takes place in England in the 1920's and introduces some fascinating characters. Big, bluff, handsome FBI agent Harris Stuyvesant is looking for the man he thinks is responsible for terrorist attacks in the US. One of those attacks resulted in seriously wounding Stuyvesant's younger brother so the search is personal.
Aldous Carson is a shadowy man of great influence in British intelligence. He leads Harris to Bennett Gray, a shell shock victim whose wounds have left him sensitive to the emotions of the people around him - so sensitive that he has imprisoned himself in a remote corner of Cornwall.
There are stately homes, members of the landed gentry, labor disputes, the passions and foolishness of the age and all of this comes into play as Harris tries to entrap the man he is sure is responsible for bombs and mayhem. There is also romance. Read the book.

Then I read Barbara Delinsky's Family Tree. King and Delinsky are totally different writers. With King, I feel the need to pay attention to every word. Delinsky's writing is much easier on the reader. Dana and Hugh are expecting their first child and when she is born, her complexion and hair belie the genetic make-up of one of her upper-middle class white parents. Hugh's family can trace their tree back to the Mayflower (or something like that). Dana has never met her father. Hugh's family is incensed at the child's birth and accuse Dana of having an affair but a paternity test proves that Hugh is young Elizabeth's father. A search for Dana's father, the support of the women at Dana's grandmother's yarn shop, the damage this does to the young couple's relationship and the revelation of their family heritages make an absorbing and even uplifting read. I have never read Delisnky before but I will read her again.

I visited the home of a local author for a Victorian Christmas event this week. Jeanne Lefevre lives in a 19th century farmhouse and the house is a major character in her novel, Whispers from the Past. She told a group of us from the library about the history of her house and about her book and described what people would do at Christmas time when visiting with one another when the house was new. Her home was so beautifuly decorated, with everything placed with care. It was delightful.

Now back to work.