Hannah's List

When I'm in the right mood, I really enjoy Debbie Macomber's books. She writes contemporary romances with little to no sex and more on the light-hearted side. The Romance Dish blog has a give-away going on right now, well until May 9, for a free copy of Macomber's latest hardcover Hannah's List. The contest can be found here.

Set in Seattle, like so many of her other books, Macomber revisits some of her previous characters from Summer on Blossom Street, Twenty Wishes, Back on Blossom Street, and other Blossom Street books, in this book about widower Michael Everett. The reviews of this book have been mixed. The majority of reviewers like the book, but have questioned some of the sub-plots and the quick wrap up of them. I guess I'll have to read it for myself and find out if they are right. Here's hoping I win a copy from The Romance Dish.

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The Time Traveler's Wife

Looking for a good read? Then have I a suggestion for you—The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger has moved me to tears several times. I have just finished listening to it as I drive back and forth to work and to school. I can't remember a book that has made me laugh, smile, and cry as much as this one. As I write this I am three or four tracks from the end of the last cd. The climax has happened and we are moving on to the resolution of the story. As readers, we have known about the climax for at least one cd now. I really like the way the story changes from Henry's point of view to Claire's point of view. I didn't want to see the movie, but after seeing who is playing the leads (see below), I might (emphasis on might) be interested in seeing it.

AS I looked up the book at amazon.com to find out the author's name and "borrow" a picture, I couldn't help but read a few reviews. The majority of people (1185 of 2075) liked the book and gave it five stars. There were 174 reviews that only gave it one star. I could see their points: directions and streets given that weren't necessary, some poor development of secondary characters, and jumping into situations that are clear to the reader are just a few.

I also went to imbd to learn about the movie. I saw that Eric Bana was playing Henry and Rachel McAdams was Claire. But what I really noticed was that "Traveler's" is spelled with two "l's" in the UK title. That intrigued me.



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Why does the cat…?

Why is it that every time I do anything on my computer the cat (Greymalkin) wants to curl up on my arm? Not happy next to me or anything, it has to be on my arm!

After the last post, I added labels for all the posts of the last year (only 61). I think either this post or the last one will make this year equal all of last year. I have been working on scrapbook pages and actually finished two dps' (double page spreads). I still often think in yearbook publication terms. I haven't taken any pictures of them, but I might and I might post them.

Last year at this time I was reading Randy Pausch's and Jeffrey Zaslow's co-written book The Last Lecture. While reading, I wondered "is he still alive?" The day I checked was July 25 and he had just died that day. I finished reading the book, but now the poignancy was almost overwhelming.

This year, I was thinking about reading Teacher Man by Frank McCourt. Both Jeff and my parents gave it to me for Christmas in 2005. I had just read that McCourt had meningitis and was gravely ill. Last Sunday (7/19) he died. On Wednesday, I picked up the book to read. Again the poignancy was there, but not quite as much as McCourt lived to be 78, nearly 79.

I hope no one minds that I borrowed the images from Amazon. I then opened them in Photoshop and deleted the "see inside" arrows. I could have scanned the covers of my books, but it seemed too much trouble when they are right there on the web for the viewing.