The Ghost of Christmas Past arrives! In Tuesday’s installment Scrooge journeys to the past to be reminded of Christmases long forgotten.
If you missed this installment, you can find it here.
And, you can catch tonight’s installment, the last of the Ghost of Christmas past here or on the periscope app!
I started reading this a few years ago and then I stopped for some reason. I recently picked it back up. Its the story of a skateboard obsessed teen with a young mother is messes up and ends up a teen parent himself. In usual Hornby fashion the narrator has an obsession that shapes the narrative and pushes it forward. 16 year old Sam’s obsession with Tony Hawk provides a framework inside which Sam’s life comes together and then spins out of control. Tony Hawk’s memoir apparently has advice for every occasion in it, if Sam is to be believed.
This is an interesting exploration of teen pregnancy that had many likable characters. It was also a pretty quick read. It’s not Hornby’s best work but it was still pretty interesting.
Saturday we continued our reading of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens on periscope. We met Marley’s ghost and had a harrowing little chat about unfinished business. To find out what happens next join us tonight around 9 pm on periscope for the next installment.
You can find the previous installments here if you would like to catch up.
For some crazy reason I thought this was seriously a non-fiction book. It’s not. It builds off of facts of the real case about Elizabeth Short and it adds in a noir-style detective story. Bucky Bleichert and Lee Blanchard are warrants detectives in the LAPD and former boxers. They have a pretty good thing going on as warrants detectives. They’re in with the higher ups and in their spare time they go on re-po jobs and make some extra cash. But, then Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia, is found murdered and mutilated in a field on their beat and their story because focused on finding Short’s killer. As they dig deeper into the case, their own secrets start to come out and their professional and personal lives begin to crash. Can they solve Short’s murders? Can they save their own careers?
This was a dark novel but it was well written and I enjoyed it. If you’re interested in period pieces set in the 1940s, detective stories or sensationalized murders, you may want to check this one out.
I checked this book out from the Buffalo and Erie County Public Libraries
Now on to Cress. If you have been following along. You can read my thoughts about my second readings on Cinder and Scarlet there and there. Again *Spoilers*
One more book to go. I probably won’t have as many thoughts about Winter since I did just recently finished it but that doesn’t mean I’m any less excited about it.
For the holiday season Beth and I decided we’d try something a little new and special. I will be reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens on Periscope. We started yesterday evening and will continue on Saturday.
Things we know so far: Marley is dead. He is so, so dead. And, Scrooge is a jerk. He is a total, utter jerk.
If you missed the first installment, you can check it out here.
I did not expect to binge read Dream Thieves on Thanksgiving. But, I did and now I have to slow my roll down because the fourth book doesn’t come out until Spring. The Raven Cycle is about a group of teens who are looking for a medieval Welsh King rumored to be sleeping somewhere in America. If you wake him, he will grant you a wish.
From here there are spoilers for The Raven Boys.
This novel picks up where Raven Boys left off. Ronan can pull things from his dreams and make them real. Adam woke the ley line and is now its hands and eyes. Noah is still dead and Gansey is still Gansey. Blue is still a not-psychic in a family of psychics. Adam and Blue are kind of together, as together as you can be when your kiss can kill. There is a lot of pain in this novel. Adam doesn’t get why Blue keeps him at arm’s length. Blue can’t help that she’s falling for Gansey. Ronan is still broken from losing his father. None of them understand why Adam went off on his own and, as he grows into what the ley line needs him to be he feels isolated. Gansey is beat up over feeling like he’s losing Adam and he’s at a loss for what to do with Ronan at times. Oh, and Noah keeps reliving his death.
And, now some spoilers for this novel.
In addition to all the growing pains, we learn more about Blue’s family. Persephone has a connection to Adam, we find out. We also meet the Gray man who is there as a bounty hunter to collect whatever allows Ronan to steal things from dreams. I really enjoyed the subplot with the Gray man and Maura and I hope that he continues to be part of the next book. We also learn a little more about Gansey’s and Ronan’s families.
A lot of this novel really focused on Ronan, his ability and its connection to the ley line. I liked Ronan a lot as a character in the first book but he was a little one dimensional. He was Gansey body guard and enforcer. So it was interesting to get some Ronan point of view in this novel. He’s got a lot of anger and also a lot of questions surrounding his father’s life and death. Unraveling the mystery of Niall Lynch not only pushes the narrative forward but also gives Ronan some much needed character development.
We also get a lot of point of view from Adam. We learned about his family in the first novel and we got to see a lot of fall out related to that in this one. We also got to see why this quest and the ley line mean so much to him. Some of the scenes where we see Adam and Gansey together actually lead to some much needed character development for Gansey as well.
I enjoyed this book immensely. I needed to know what happened next. But, I have to say that Adam repeatedly broke my heart. That kid, man. He deserves better.
I am really looking forward to the next novel, Blue Lily, Lily Blue.
Today is World’s Aids Day and Giving Tuesday. So in that spirit, I hope that you will join me in supporting this Kickstarter. It’s by my friend Bill Bytsura. He hopes to publish his book of portraits and stories of Aids activists he collected from all over the world between 1989 to 1998. These are stories of those who fought from the beginning and deserve to get the recognition for their work to help fight this disease. For more information on this project and Bill go to www.theaidsactivistproject.org
Thank you for supporting and spreading the word. How ever you spend to day be generous. This is the time of year of giving. So give what you can, whether it’s to this or another project that is close to your heart.
Now on to Scarlet. I do love this book too. I love the no nonsense of Scarlet. The almost innocence of Wolf. Captain Thorne cockiness. Cinder’s sarcasm. Kai’s sarcasm and Iko as a ship. Just like I did with my rereading of Cinder, he’s a few observations I may have missed or didn’t think much of the first time around or just things that I love about this story. *Spoilers*
I feel like there was more I wanted to say but I can’t remember. I really should write these things done. Next up, Cress.
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2 Women, So Many Books 