Lifelines by CJ Lyons

18Dec. Kindle.

Maybe I delayed commenting on this one because I needed time to catch my breath. I could bring myself to complain some about the writing - grammar and spelling are ok, but the writing is a bit, to use a technical term which English teachers use with students, clunky. I did catch myself often thinking this or that could have been expressed more smoothly or that another word might have been a better choice. Still there simply wasn't much time for that sort of thing - I'm not sure I ever read anything with more action and less ... anything else.

The timeframe is very tight. The new doctor reports to the ER on July 1 and we wrap up with a big finish on the Glorious Fourth. And we even manage to kill the bad guys. Improbably tight - especially since in the midst of all the action, she meets, spends the night with, and gets taken home to meet Mom all within that three or four day window. Oh, yeah, she also nearly gets Mom killed and spends another night - or day - the date/time headers didn't keep me on track - in the hospital with Mom and sister who goes into labor during the crisis (that crisis).

I am anxious to read the next one to see if the pattern continues and how many of the cast continue, so I have started five other books (one in the bathroom on paper, one on my kindle, one on my NEW kindle, one on the kindle ap on my desktop, and one that the preacher handed me Sunday morning saying "I know how quickly you read, so read this and next Sunday let me know what you think") to postpone the inevitable - I don't want to get totally hooked on all that adrenaline.

Anne of the Island by L. M. Montgomery

17Dec. Kindle.

Now with Anne safely engaged to Gilbert surely I can move on and read something else before coming back to the remaining eight books in the series. I'm enjoying this reread far too much.

This is the college book. I guess I haven't read them since I started hanging out at a college all the time. I don't think my undergraduate experience was much like theirs - and I'm sure that is even more true today. Still, the issue of a group of girls renting a place together sounded a little familiar - although our sweet girl undergrads are unlikely to require a live-in housekeeper/chaperone - and they are almost as likely to have male housemates as female. And somehow I doubt if "gentlemen callers" are often restricted to Friday evenings.

The program of English, Classics, Philosophy, and Mathematics with no talk of "majors" didn't sound very much like the stuff that they are required to take these days - but the discussion of "what did they learn that was of any practical use" certainly did. Now, however, that argument would come from the students themselves rather than from the older women around them.

Dune by Frank Herbert

16Dec. Kindle.

I don't know why I was suddenly struck with a wish to reread this. I haven't read it in years, although I have worn out a couple of copies in the past. And, as with all books truly worth reading, I have spotted things which I never had before.

Herbert, like some others I could name, inserts great chunks of "history and moral philosophy" throughout. One of his devices is quite cute. All the chapter headers (I know there is a word for them, but I can't think of it at the moment.) are quotations from various imaginary works by Princess Irulan. Princess Irulan is the eldest daughter of "Our beloved Padishah Emperor" and appears only in the last few chapters. She is bartered to Paul Atreides as part of the bargain which will leave him on the imperial throne. As Paul's mother, Jessica, and his beloved, Chani, go out to negotiate the deal, Jessica tells Chani that she has heard that Irulan has literary pretensions and that hopefully she will find them sufficient to satisfy her for the rest of her life.

This book was such a success that Herbert followed it up with a long line of sequels. There was a Hollywood movie and a couple of rather elegant miniseries. I have never cared for any of them but this book - I read the first couple of sequels, then quit and never read those again. The Hollywood movie was, to borrow a word from the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, an abomination. I never could bring myself to watch either of the miniseries, although I have heard that they were better.

Perhaps part of the problem was that my friends and coworkers spent considerable time "casting" a film of Dune and other favorites of ours. Our rules would have been problematical for Hollywood producers. We could cast anyone regardless of time or proximity. For example, I always wanted to cast a young Diana Rigg as Jessica. Granted, Jessica had a fifteen-year-old son at the beginning of the story - and her hair was the wrong color, but that's manageable. I suppose that with the kind of stunts they are doing now - they could probably have done it.

Anne of Avonlea by L. M. Montgomery

14Dec. Kindle.

This one has one of my favorite anecdotes from all the Anne books. One of Anne's students at the Avonlea school announces that when she grows up she wants to be a widow - because if you aren't married people call you an old maid and if you are married your husband bosses you around. Widows are spared both. Excellent reasoning on the part of a seven-year-old - I suspect that may have been a bit of Lucy coming through.

How does she do it? These characters are all so very, very nice - but somehow they aren't boring even on lebentieth reading.

The Boy from Reactor 4 by Orest Stelmach

10Dec. Kindle.

I read this on my actual Kindle and the Anne book on my computer. And I couldn't sleep last night, so I sat up and read most of the night. Except during holidays, I seldom finish two in one day. My bathroom book is generally slower going.

This was one of the "100 books under 3.99" last month. It looked interesting, so I bought it and the sequel. Since book one ended with a total cliff-hanger, a practice which I find quite annoying, I haven't decided yet whether or not to go on to book two.

The general setting was a little different. I have read books with multi-lingual characters, but Nadia's collection of languages includes English, Ukrainian, and Russian. The heroine is a Ukrainian-American and she travels through Ukraine and Russia and Siberia with considerable focus on Chernobyl to rescue her nephew and ten million dollars (no discussion of how she is going to pack up and carry that much currency) or a secret formula which has the potential to change the political dynamics of the entire world. We also have the Ukrainian mafia following her to get the money (or the secret). These are extremely unpleasant folks. Surprised? The favorite toy of one of them is his cattle prod which goes with him everywhere and which he uses frequently. I'm not sure how he got it from the US into Ukraine - connections I think.

The book seemed to be one interminable chase. The bads are right behind Nadia Tesla (cool last name, at least to us tech nerds) from the time she gets the message from her uncle until they seem to have done each other in. The chase by train across the steppes of central Asia seemed to go on forever, of course, I suppose the Trans-Siberian Railway does just about go on forever.

I didn't have any trouble continuing to read, but I'm not sure I really enjoyed it. The problem may have been that it was depressing - and I was feeling pretty depressed without its assistance. I am putting the second book on hold for a while, however, maybe come spring break or summer I'll be ready for some cold reading.

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

10Dec. Kindle.

This is one of the series that I reread when I am tired and depressed. It is so very satisfying. Just for fun I read the wiki on Lucy Maud - in part to see how much Lucy there is in Anne - a good bit. So I have two rereads in hand, two women best known by their initials, one British, one Canadian.

Anne is one of the most engaging characters in children's literature - maybe in literature for any age. She may be extremely unlikely - considering the nature of her early childhood - but her flaws make her a delight. Who wouldn't love the scene where she breaks her slate over Gilbert's head - and the cake flavored with liniment - and never forget the time she dyed her hair green.

I am not certain that I plan to reread the entire series - all twenty or whatever of them. The omnibus edition that I have on my kindle has fourteen - maybe those are all the "Anne" books - at some point they branch out to her children. I seem to recall thinking that they became a little too sweet at some point. We'll see. I expect I'll at least reread the first three or so.

Cover Her Face by P. D. James

8Dec. Kindle.

I probably have this on my shelves, but it is so much easier to read on the kindle. Ambivalence -- I love books - the objects themselves - but I am finding reading print and paper more difficult. I commented once (about one of the Dunning "bookman" books, I think) that I could not understand people who treasured books as objects in that way. And I have considered that I could condense my library to manageable proportions through electronics, but still ...

All of which is neither here nor there - I reread this one not all that long ago, but the death of the author has prompted me to move the reread of her books to the top of the queue, and this is the first. I think I enjoyed it more this time than the last; I have no idea why.

Many features seem pretty standard: the English country house, the locked room (well, that didn't remain very mysterious for long), the gathering a la Hercule Poirot, the completely deserving victim, the least likely character as murderer - but somehow it moved beyond all that. Melancholy Dalgleish is nothing like Poirot, and his sergeant is so unobtrusive that he almost isn't a character at all - does he develop more in the later books? I don't remember. Another reason for looking forward to the reread.