Book Thirty - The Mist

I am still shaking off the heebie jeebie spiders after reading this one, but it was a lot of fun. The Mist by Stephen King was originally published as a novella in "The Skeleton Crew", but it works well as a stand alone novel and at 230 pages is long enough to stand alone as well.

Although I enjoyed reading The Mist, I have already seen the movie so the plot left few surprises. It is very well written, and I did find the book to be better than the movie. The ending was changed for the movie, and I would be hard pressed to pick which ending I preferred, although I can see why they went with the more shocking movie ending.

The Mist begins following a terrible storm in a small town in Maine. Our main characters notice a strange mist across the lake then father and son head off to the store to get groceries. Then all hell breaks loose, the mist covers the town, the doomsday whistle blows and people start dying. All kinds of creatures start coming out of the mist and the cast of the book have to figure out how to survive, or at least how to not go crazy.

There are a lot of characters in the book, and if it had been fleshed out into a longer novel it might have been easier to know one from the other. There are a few that stand apart, but some I couldn't keep track of. Also it would have been interesting to hear some more stories of survival from other points of view.

I am going to read the rest of the Skeleton Crew soon, but I was glad to be able to find "The Mist" packaged on its own, it was a nice quick, pleasant yet terrifying read.

Book Twenty Nine - The Woman Who Wouldn't

I am going to be straight up, with so many books to read and so little time, I have been cruising my local library for shorter books. A girl has to do what a girl has to do. So "The Woman Who Wouldn't" caught my eye since it falls around 160 pages, but also it retained my attention when I saw that the author was Gene Wilder. I have a soft spot for the man since I was a huge Wonka fan as a child. I know that there is more to Wilder than that, and now I can now think of him as an excellent story teller as well.

This novel is a very cute story of a man who ends up in a "spa" in the black forest at the turn of the 20th century. He has a cute madness to him and has been sent to the spa to recover. He is a concert violinist and had a public breakdown that sealed his fate. Upon arriving at the spa he meets a young woman and what follows is a tale of flirting, courtship and love and how love can conquer all. I can't help but think that he rewrote history since he couldn't save his own wife from her fate in his real life, this must have helped him with the never ending grieving process.

It is a simple tale, but a rather beautiful one. It was a pleasure to read and I look forward to reading more of Wilder's work in the future.

Book Twenty Eight - Grace

Grace by Lin Ullman is a novel about death and coming to terms with that transition. It is translated from Norwegian, but it is very easy to read. In the book we follow Johan as he receives his diagnosis of an unspecified disease, most likely cancer, and how he reacts to this and how he plans to finish out his life.

He describes different parts of his life, his first marriage, his childhood and his current wife. It is written very well and it made me picture someday ending up there with my partner. We would all be so lucky to have someone love us enough to take care of us at such a difficult and inevitable time.

The book touches on euthanasia and the attempt to die with dignity. I was interested to learn that it is actually legal in a few European countries. The book takes small moments, just the two of them reading together at their cabin in the woods, it is very relatable and understated but pleasingly so.

Today I witnessed a car accident, I didn't see the actual crash but we turned the corner right after it had happened. The driver was having a seizure and we had no choice but to keep moving (many others were already assisting) it affected me profoundly, put a lot of my little problems in perspective. Then to read this book today, really made me cherish the things that I have and made me realize that I have to appreciate all the good that I have and try to make the best of my life.

Book Twenty Seven - Point Dume

What an amazing book! I just dove right into this one and barely came up for air. It just flowed from point to point, nice concise chapters with varying narrators, an intriguing story concept and a very satisfying ending too.

Point Dume by Katie Arnoldi is about a California beach town where local surfers are resentful of the influx of rich wine growers with their wives and army of nannies. As well it is about the marijuana being grown in public lands by Mexican drug cartels.

Book Twenty Six - A Waist is a Terrible Thing to Mind

Halfway there!!! I might just make it if I read like a madwoman for the next two months!

The tag line for "A Waist is a Terrible Thing to Mind" by Karen Scalf Linamen is "Loving your body, accepting yourself and living without regret". This appealed to me quite a bit as I have struggled with my weight since I was quite young. After I had my son I was well over 200 lbs, when he was around 2 years old I lost 50 lbs, most of it due to the fact that my ex husband didn't have a job and I had no money for food. We would watch the Food Network just so we could remember what food looked like, food porn indeed. After my divorce I lost those same lbs again and I have managed to stick to that weight, give or take a few ever since. This spring I decided to get back on the health wagon to lose the rest of the pounds I have been lugging around. I have had success so far and I feel that I have the right attitude.

Book Twenty Five - How I Became a Famous Novelist

I picked up "How I Became a Famous Novelist" by Steve Hely in the new fiction section of my library and I found it to be quite an humorous and entertaining read. Who among us has not imagined showing up an ex, and at their own wedding nonetheless. That is the basic premise of this novel, written by a Letterman staffer (and though I won't hold it against him, he also writes for American Dad).

Tackling Under the Dome Again

So a while back I took Under the Dome out on a 7 day Superloan from the library. I tried to take it on but I think the deadline intimidated me and I only read a pitiful 200 pages in that time. I returned the book, gave up for a while and mostly forgot about it. Then today while out at the grocery store a beautiful sight came upon me. It was a smooth soft new copy of Under the Dome. I snatched one into my arms and gave it an embrace, now you are mine. Budget, what budget, this is important!

Now that I can take my time I am going to enjoy reading it when I have time to read it. I am also working on a couple more books and I am hoping to at least get close to my quota by Halloween. I have a 7 day holiday in Disneyworld coming up so I am sure I will be able to get some quality reading done while I am there. I am also having surgery mid september (nothing serious, and no it is not a boob job) so when recovering for a few days I will also be sure I have a lot of books beside my bed.

I have been working real hard in other areas of my life, I have lost 17 lbs since May 31 and I have been getting lots of exercise in the summer sun. We have had excellent weather here. Today it is raining a lot but it is a nice break after all the sun. It has given me the time to clean the house since I have been outside so much it was neglected.

Check out my other blog if you are interested