What I'm Reading: 8-20-14

   A friend of mine recently told me that I should probably share what I'm currently reading with everyone on my blog. The more I thought about it the more it made sense to me.  So, from now on, every time I start a new set of books I'll do a post like this. Just so you know, when I read I usually read several books at one time. Why would I torture myself by reading multiple books at one time? Real simple, I look at reading kind of like watching TV. I don't like to watch the same thing on TV all the time, so why would I want to spend days just reading one book. Therefore I pick several books & go back & forth, from book to book reading as low as 10 pages at a time before I switch reading material. Sometimes I can't put a book down & I read more. Still, I eventually have to read another book while in the middle of another, usually my max is about 100 pages before I need a break. It's nothing personal to the authors, perhaps I have some strange literary version of ADHD, but no matter the reason this is how I do things when it comes to reading. So I try & pick a book out of several different genres & a list of personal categories I made up myself. The categories are, one book from a Goodreads Giveaway, at least one book from the book club I help moderate called All About Animals, & one personal pick. Sometimes there is a fourth category and that would be one my BFF not only suggested I read, but mailed me. This may seem chaotic, but it helps me move through books faster when I hit a slow spot in another or tire of reading the same genre after a few days. Each time I finish a book I will start a new post like this to update you on how I feel about what I've read so far & what new book I've added to the mix.

  Now that I've explained the insanity that will soon be my post about the books I read & how & why I read them that I way, I will try get to the more interesting part of the post & attempt to not bore you with anymore explanations.

  First, in my stack of books currently being read, is one that I'm reading for my book group All About Animals. I found out about it when the publishers asked if I would like to read their book & review it since I was a moderator for an all animal book group. I said yes of course since I can't say no to a free book & I love anything animal related. The name of the book is Travels With Casey by Benoit Denizet-Lewis. It is a terrific book so far & I suggest that animal & dog lovers alike should add this to their Must Read book list. The book is essentially about a gentleman who decides to take a cross country trip with his dog because he not only wants to explore & understand our countries obsession with our dogs, but he's also afraid his dog doesn't like him that much & hopes the trip will help them strengthen their bond. I can see where one might initially think that this book can't possibly be that interesting, I mean how much can there be to report on the dog culture in the US & who in the world could possibly feel their dog dislikes them. Trust me, even I at first wasn't sure I would find much interest in it, but once I started reading it I had plenty of laughs, learned a lot & didn't want to put it down to read the next book in my Currently Reading selection. First off, the book starts with him in a psychologists office, who much like Freud, believes in taking his dogs to work with him. There he explains his hangup with his dog Casey & why he believes that dog would prefer a different life. From there we move onto the authors RV trip where he has preplanned many stops around the US where he will talk to people who have been talked about in dog culture, train dogs, sell dog stuff & a great many more people who do something related to dogs in one way or another. The book is jammed full of fun & interesting facts about dogs & plenty to learn even for the most avid dog owner. It is also very entertaining, not just because of some of the weird people the two of them meet, but because of the authors ability to bring an appropriate amount of humor into his story telling. From crazy NY dog parks & the war about the poop scoop laws in 70's NY city to a discussion with PETA leader Ingrid Newkirk, on over to Florida for a pet Expo & even all the way to California with famous dog Trainer Cesar Millan & many many more well known & even obscure dog people. There are also a bunch of great photos from his trip included in the book.  There are not enough words to express how much I'm loving this book, so, please grab a copy & read it with me. I'm also including a nifty book trailer my fellow book club moderator found. In the video the author shares some video clips of his trip & explains his book, please check it out if your interested or need some more convincing.





  Now for my next book selection, which falls under the category of Gooreads Giveaway. This is an important category to me since I regularly enter these & if you've read my earlier post about Free Books you know I feel strongly about reading & reviewing these gifts. This one is called The Curse of the Thrax By Mark Murphy.  On first look at this book it appears rather unimpressive. The cover illustration is a little cartooney & doesn't do the book justice. It was described by some to be a middle grade story & comparable to Harry Potter, but that doesn't seem like a correct description. Yes, like Harry Potter, the book is a great read for all ages & rotates around a group of early-teen to mid-teen friends who attend school together, but that's where the similarities stop. Honestly, it starts out reading like a fantasy with dragons & prophecy's, but as you start to understand some of the stuff the main character, 14 yr old Jaykriss, is describing you slowly start to see that things aren't what they appear. What initially seems like a book with a backdrop that appears Medieval eventually starts to look like a Dystopian world that has been covered up by a Dark King. The world is kind of what I imagine a world might be like if someone banned books & machines that were created around the turn of the century to the beginning of the 20th century. A world that fell back to the way Medieval Europe was, but not everyone is aware of what is being covered up. So far, the book is wonderful. The dialogue is great & the character motives are believable. I am actually spending a large amount of my time bouncing between this & Travels With Casey. Pretty much I read about 20-30 pages of this & then do the same with Benoit Denizet-Lewis' book. This too has become a surprisingly hard book to set aside & stop reading. It is evidently going to be part of a trilogy that is being called The Bloodsword Trilogy & I can say with certainly that even though I'm only about halfway through it that I'm extremely excited for the second book. I know once I'm done with it that I won't want to stop there & will need to follow that characters through the rest of their journey. It is a rather large book about 317 pages, but definitely a great read for middle school & up. The author doesn't dumb anything down & I truly feel that the characters are written the way they would act if such a place were real.

 

  So far we have talked about my online book club book & my Goodreads Giveaway book, but we still have two more to tackle. My next book is one that my BFF, the same BFF who told me to write posts like this one, suggested I read. Long before these posts, Goodreads, co-moderating a book club, & doing reviews for free books I was trading & suggesting books with my best friend in Las Vegas. We use to work together, since then we have moved apart, or perhaps I have since she still lives in Vegas & I live near Pittsburgh now. Still, that hasn't stopped us from sharing our favorite books & occasionally mailing each other stacks of Must Read Literature. This book is one she sent me months ago & I've been meaning to get to, but it's just so damn big. She raved about it, but unfortunately it took me waiting so long to read it that two weeks ago Starz came out with episode one of a new series based on it. Of course, now that it is a TV show I feel the need to read the book so I can watch the whole first season when it comes out on DVD. Sadly, I didn't realize what I was watching until halfway through the show & thus had to at least finish episode one before swearing off the rest of the series until I can finish the extremely large book called Outlander by: Diana Gabaldon. The general gist of the story is a British ex WWII  nurse & her teacher & genealogist husband go on a second honeymoon in Scotland after the war ends. Part honeymoon & part excuse for her husband to tract his ancestral roots. while there they visit a few places & when she decides to go back to a set of standing stones, where her husband & her had watched what appeared to be a pagan ritual the night before, to find a flower that caught her eye she is suddenly sucked back in time through one of the stones to 1743 Scotland. The Highlands of Scotland during this time are war torn as well & she has no idea where she is at first or how to get back home once she does figure it out. Evidently this becomes a series of books that my friend tells me are equally as good as the first. I personally have only read a few pages, but a wonderfully written & well researched first few they are. I'm sure as I wind down reading on one of my other books that I'm currently reading I'll pick up some speed on this one. All I can tell you is that my slow progress on it isn't from lack of interest, just a full plate of reading material. Though the show appears to be doing a fabulous job interpreting the book to TV, I have to admit that if you are the type who enjoys the details in a story then the book is filled with little bits the show misses.

  

  Finally we reach my more personal book selection. This is a category that I chose to remind myself that I need to occasionally read something for myself. That though it is great having so many people willing to send me books & suggest books, that I really need to make sure I take care of my personal reading interests as well.  I picked this book up at my favorite book sale, Oakmont Library's $5 bag sale where you can purchase a grocery bag for five bucks & you're allowed to stuff it full of whatever books catch your eye or interest. The library does this about twice a year to make room for their backstock of used books that are donated for sale in their library used bookstore. Quite possibly the best library bookstore I've ever seen. While I know this has been made into a Broadway musical, I still haven't seen or read Wicked By Gregory Macguire. This book is a particularly nice copy since it also has about 16 pages of full color pictures from the Brodway musical staring one of my favorites Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda & Idina Menzel as Elphaba aka The Wicked Witch of the West.  Right now I'm about 1/3 of the way through the book & I love it. I've always loved the Wizard of OZ & all the crazy variations people of come up with like the Sy-Fy channel's mini-series The Tin Man & so on. I will warn that this is a very adult version of the story we all know & love & is really meant for the fans who read the original books & grew up & want to read another take on the story. This take on L. Frank Baums classic story is from the witches point of view. The adult topics that are approached in the book are things like the mother of the witch cheating on her husband constantly & an OZ separated by racism. The witch is born to a relatively normal family, but it is hinted that the mother slept around & that the deformed baby that becomes the witch is not the husbands child. She is misunderstood, mistreated & later sent to boarding school with a young Glinda who is a snobby & pretty young girl initially going by the name of Galinda. By a peculiar twist of luck & some bad decisions the two end up becoming roommates & from there the story really starts to take off. So far, as far as I've read, The Wicked Witch of the West is actually a kind misunderstood girl who is green with sharp teach & goes by the name of Elpahba. I still have yet to get to the part that turns Elphaba into the witch we all know. Still, I'm enjoying every page. The author certainly has a knack for taking a well known story & turning it into something new & original. I also have another book of his that I need to read that is about Cinderella's stepsisters side of the story & he's written one about Ebeneezer Scrooge having family. A definite must read for adults who enjoy all things OZ.

 

  So, that should rap this post up. Those are my four picks for my Currently Reading pile. As I finish each book I will post updates of my final thoughts & my review & what book I will be reading next to take it's place in the category I finished. Please stay tuned for more thoughts about these four fabulous books & perhaps an author interview with one or two of them. I'm still working on writing up Mr Jeff Bauer's interview questions about his book called Sadie Sapiens, so please check back for that too. Thank again for stopping by & feel free to tell your friends about my blog & to post any comments you have about it below. Take care & TTFN.