Theme Thursday -- Weather -- The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Hosted by Kavyen:
RULES:
* A theme will be posted each week (on Thursdays)
* Select a conversation/snippet/sentence from the current book you are reading
* Post it and don’t forget to mention the author and the title of the book
* Since we may take a few days to finish a book, this event is open for one whole week.

When the rumbling stopped, freezing rain poured into the building.  Midas cursed in Ancient Greek, thoroughly pinned under his chandelier.  The rain soaked everything, turning the gold chandelier back to glass.  Piper and Leo were slowly changing too, along with the other statues in the room.
~ page 360,The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

While I'm not his target audience (which, at least a fair bit of the time, is largely 5th-7th grade boys) I like Riordan's stuff.  I liked the Percy Jackson series and I liked The Red Pyramid and look forward to the next (The Throne of Fire) in that series (The Kane Chronicles).  The Lost Hero is the first in The Heroes of Olympus series and I liked it.  Don't think I laughed as much as I have with some of in the Percy Jackson series and it doesn't have the sibling interactions that I liked so much with The Red Pyramid but a fun read nonetheless. 

Book Beginnings and Friday 56 -- Time and Again by Jack Finney

Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by A Few More Pages. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence, or two, of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading.

In shirt-sleeves, the way I generally worked, I sat sketching a bar of soap taped to an upper corner of my drawing board.   

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice. Check out the rules and join in the fun.

Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
Turn to page 56.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog. Post a link along with your post back to this blog.

 I stared out at the uncountable thousands of windows in the sooty sides of hundreds of buildings, and down at the streets nearly solid with car tops.  I tried to turn it back into a rural scene, imagining a man down there with buckles on his shoes and wearing a pigtailed white wig, walking along a dusty country road called the broad way.  It was impossible.


I enjoyed Finney's take on time travel to the past, specifically from late 60s New York City to NYC in 1882.  I was thinking, as I read, that I would probably give it four out of five stars.  But in the last 60-100 pages I started feeling desperate to know how it would all play out and turning page as quickly as I could read them (or vice versa . . . I'm not really sure).  That makes me think that perhaps it deserves five stars after all. 

The Simple Woman's Daybook

Hosted by Peggy.

FOR TODAY

Outside my window...much cooler weather -- Colorado remembered it's actually spring, not summer, I guess.

I am thinking... about my dear seven-year-old who is with her dad and feeling very sick.

I am thankful for... 35 years on this planet and the opportunity to try again today.

From the learning rooms... house-sitting for a friend starting on Sunday -- always learn new things in a new house..

From the kitchen...Brown Cow Cream-Top Plain Yogurt --  makes me very happy.

I am wearing...an over-abundance of pastels -- I look like an Easter illustration.

I am creating...ideas for what to write for Fiona's (over-due) birthday letter -- I have a book I write her a letter in every year, for her to have when she is older.

I am going...to a sunrise service on Sunday with friends I've known since I was about 12.

I am reading... The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan -- I'll finish it up today and start The Weird sisters.

I am hoping...that Fiona will feel better soon.

I am hearing... "Keep Holding On" by Avril Lavigne on the CD my friend Kacy made for me <3

Around the house...packing for house-sitting, doing laundry, and trying to get everyone well.

One of my favorite things... somebody willing to scratch my back.  :)

A few plans for the rest of the week: thinking about what to get with my Amazon birthday gift certificates from my mom and my aunt (!), send a letter to my brother, trip to the library, settle in house-sitting.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

Amy took this picture of Lilly, Fiona, and I -- sharing the love. :)

What did life teach you yesterday?

So Marc and Angel Hack Life had a blog post recently that asked 365 "thought-provoking questions".  I've picked some of the ones that stood out to me and hope to occasionally use them as writing prompts.

What did life teach you yesterday?

Yesterday was my 35th birthday.  My daughter was with me until the middle of the afternoon, when we dropped her off at the apartment she shares with her dad.  The whole rest of the night I was just thinking about how much I loved her and missed her and wanted to spend time with her and hug her and laugh and . . .

It's an old lesson, but one many of us learn time and again -- to treasure the people you love and the time you have with them, to smile more than you frown and to take life seriously -- in that you remember it's fleeting and precious and to take it lightly -- in that you remember that you might as well laugh.

Teaser Tuesdays -- The School of Night by Louis Bayard

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB @ Should Be Reading. To participate, all you have to do is the following:

• Grab your current/upcoming read
• Open to a random page
• Share 2-3 "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• Be careful not to include spoilers!

She was standing near the window. Her hair was sleep-mashed, but her posture was erect and attentive.  

"Clarissa?"

~p.221, The School of Night by Louis Bayard

Secret societies, England, North Carolina, Washington, D.C., the years 2009 and 1603, Shakespeare, Marlowe, alchemy -- lots of intrigue and a pace that somehow seems both fast and leisurely.  4/5 stars.

Pictures from Fiona's 7th birthday -- Book Club at Beth's

Fiona and Sofia

Fiona asked me to make "my" brownies --- and we put frosting on them for the first time ever.

Fiona reading a draft of a story Mikaela is working on.

Mikaela reading and pretending there aren't are bunch of kids getting ready to attack.

Sophia, Fiona, Sofia, and Jess -- what a great pic

Amy made deviled eggs and Fiona was thrilled.

Beth with brownies :)

Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis

I'd never read any of C. S. Lewis' fiction for adults before picking up Out of the Silent Planet -- the first in his Space Trilogy.  Dr Elwin Ransom(modeled after Tolkien, by the way) is on a walking holiday when he is abducted by a former schoolmate and his (evil-scientist-)physicist partner and taken to the planet Malacandra.  When Ransom escapes his human captors, he has to figure out how to survive in an alien (so to speak) environment and distinguish friend from foe.  Being a lover of language and linguistics, I enjoyed watching Ransom (a philologist himself) begin to consider the way language works on Malacandra.  I will probably want to pick up the final two (Perelandra, That Hideous Strength) at some point as well.