Echo by Francesca Lia Block

Echo was one of the first FLB books that I cam in contact with. When I was in high school, one of my friends, Jessie Jo, was reading it for a book report. She sat behind me and when I turned around to talk to her, it was sitting there. I picked it up and began to read. I borrowed it for the rest of the day and had it done by the time I went to bed.

It is a short book but it spans years and, just like most of FLB's books, it is beautiful.

Echo is a small, plain girl who describes herself as elfish. Her father is a painter and her mother is PERFECT. Echo wants to be like her mother who is tall, simple, and beautiful. She cooks amazing dishes and never uses a recipe. Her garden is gorgeous because she listens to the flowers, putting her ears right up to their blooms. But Echo is not her mother and this becomes even more apparent when her father becomes ill. Echo feels like nobody sees her and she quits eating during the day, devouring Mexican food at night after drinking. One night she goes into the ocean and a quiet boy with wings saves her. He never talks. They never touch. Then he lets her go.

The story is told through Echo's relationships with other people. She is always falling hard but nothing ever seems quite right. Thorn can't handle her not eating. Smoke is afraid to get too close to her because he has given his life in exchange for his daughter's health. Valentine, who Echo wants to be, gets wrapped up in a lifestyle. The truth is that Echo needs to find herself. Echo needs to be okay being alone to be with someone.

FLB language is enchanting and this story can definitely be read in one day with ease.

Death of a Travelling Man- M.C. Beaton

As I've said before, I really like this series and I would love to make it through them all. However, lately I've been feeling a bit bogged down by the amount of books in my To Be Read stack. In trying to find a way to solve this problem, I thought that I might try listening to some audios. Now, I have a hard time with audios. I don't count them as reading so for the most part I assign them to my fluff books and read the more serious stuff the good old fashioned way. I just retain more information from reading than from listening. I thought I might try this series as an audio.

It was awesome.

Listening to this book made me really appreciate what audio can do. It was funnier and funner! I couldn't wait to get in my car and pop in the next disc. Once I got past the reader's accent, I felt like it added to the story. I started picking it up a little bit too.

Another thing that really helped this book was that it broke from form. There isn't a group stuck together with one of its members dead. Instead, a man who seems to really bother Hamish shows up in a travel trailer and a foul mouthed woman. At first, everyone but Hamish seems to adore the man. The first sign that something is wrong is when the man makes a pass at Priscilla. When he is found beaten to death with a sledge hammer, nobody has anything good to say anymore. What follows is a case of blackmail that Hamish sorts out in his usual sly manner. The book ends with an odd twist, one not quite expected.

I liked this book and I can't wait to listen to the next. I'm glad that I gave the audio a chance.

Blaze by Stephen King, writting as Richard Bachman

Have we discussed my love of Stephen King before? I'm sure we have. I don't really know what it is about that man. His stories never cease to surprise me. I haven't met one that I didn't like. Also, I LOVE his introductions. He makes me want to write.

This is not your typical King book. From what I gather, it's not very Bachman either. It was meant to be a throwback to the noir crime but instead it ended up a "three hanky". The main character, Blaze, is a criminal but he wasn't always going to be one. He was a smart boy who loved to read but then his father threw him down the steps three times. Now that he is grown, he is a huge man with a dent in his forehead who seems to have not so many smarts. He is planning a kidnapping with his friend George, who is dead. Blaze still hears George though and spends most of the book trying to figure out if George is a part of him.

The chapters alternate between past and present. We see Blaze grow up and fall into one unfortunate trap after another. In the present, he begins planning the kidnapping and carries it out. By the end of the book, we cannot help but feel for Blaze. We see him as a consequnce of other's actions and his hard knock life. Inside he is a teddy bear who is more concerned in the end about the baby than about the money.

I loved this book. I even sat down and read for over two hours last night, a rarity for me. When I mentioned that I was reading it to my mother, she told me it was her favorite King and that I would love it. We read two different kinds of books, Mom and me, so this must be good all around.

Castle Waiting Volume II by Linda Medley

I just finished this book less than five minutes ago and my first reaction up shutting it was, "Oh no! Castle Waiting III isn't out! What am I going to do?"

These are possibly my new favorite books. They are just so light hearted. They are funny and detailed and just generally well done.

In Volume II we learn more about the characters. There are more love stories and the main character, Jain, is explored a little more. We get closer to discovering what the baby is and the Hammerlings come to visit. The stories in this volume are not as involved as the last one where the Sister's story took up a number of chapters, even hundreds of pages. Instead, we get short snapshots of the past. The jokes seem a little my bawdy in this volume too.

Again, I just enjoy reading these. I love the characters. I love laughing out loud at the jokes. It is so easy to get sucked into this world and once I'm there I don't want to leave.

Castle Waiting by Linda Medley

When I was little, I was writing a book. It was a wonderful book. It was about princesses and witches and there was romance and adventure. I told myself the story over and over again. When I was older I tried to actually write it down but by then some magical thread had been lost.

This book was everything that I ever wanted to write. The moment I opened it, I was sucked it. It begins with a very familiar story and leads into a world that is so wonderful and enchanting that it makes the book difficult to put down.

When Sleeping Beauty wakes from her slumber and finds herself in the arms of a charming prince, she decides that she must leave and live in his kingdom immediately, despite the fact that her kingdom will be without a ruler. The castle becomes a safe house for people who need it. We are moved on to Jain, a pregnant woman who is heading for the castle to have her baby. When she arrives, she is greeted by a cast of vivid, lovely, amusing characters who are more than happy to help deliver the baby. When the baby comes, it is green and has a tail and everybody loves him, even the house sprites who have mostly overrun the castle.

I give up. I cannot do this story justice. It has everything that I have ever wanted in a story: sprites, witches, romance, humor, and bearded ladies. I want to buy it so that I can read it over and over and over again.

The Good Girl's Guide to Living in Sin by Joslin LInder and Elena Donovon Mauer

This post may get a little personal. It's only fair to give a head's up.

I have lived with a boyfriend previously and it went disasterously. First, my credit was not in the best of shape and in order for him t feel comfortable with the purchase of our house, he only wanted his own name on the mortgage and the deed. I couldn't afford to pay as much of the bills as he could so I agreed to grocery shop, use my savings to stock our new home with essentials, and clean the house. The first sign that this was all a mistake was the weekend after we closed on the house. The Ex spent literally a whole day picking up our second hand fridge while me and one of our friends painted. We painted all day. When the Ex discovered a full garbage can, he lost it, screaming at me that I was going to have to do MORE, that women can take out the garbage, in front of both of our parents. It went downhill from there.

During the week, I ate dollar microwaveable meals so that we could have steak and chicken on the weekends. I emptied my accounts trying to keep pace with what was expected of me. HE chose the couch I paid for. One month he spent $90 on shoes when I had less than that to my name. I raised his dog, trained it, and had to leave it when we broke up. I cleaned ceaselessly while also working and pursuing my master's degree. The dog would constantly track dirt on the white carpet and I would be yelled at and lectured about how I needed to take more pride in the house he bought me but every time he was angry about something else he would remind me that it was his house. I was miserable, lonely, and growing more and more withered every day. Then we broke up.

I am getting ready to live with someone again and I don't want it to turn out that way. First of all, this one is absolutely fantastic and I am smitten as a kitten. I don't want to make him feel uncomfortable in my house and I don't want to get myself into the same situation I was in before, where I never even knew what was being done to me until it was too late.

Honestly, this felt like a really solid book. It was well writen and had just enough humor without being corny. It had statistics and reasons why statistics can't always be trusted, even the ones that support the author's views. The chapters are well organized and easy to follow. Most of the advice seemed really good. The only argument I am making is that I have no intention of putting my man's name on the deed to my house until we are married and half of it is leagally his anyway. To me that just seems safer. I kind of liked the idea of a cohabitation pre-nup, but he has all of the nice stuff. Ha, ha. All joking aside, the book was peppered with real life experiences from real life women, good and bad ones. It brought some stuff up that I hadn't thought about and really did make me feel a lot better about the whole process.

One of the last chapters is about breaking up. I love love love that they included this chapter. Now that I am outside my previous experience by a couple of years, I can see that this chapter is well writen. I grew so much! And, just think, I was actually going to marry him! I couldn't have handled that! I was nuts! Two years later I have had a whole new range of experiences and I have even lived on my own. I can make my own decisions now and I have a full time job in a career I love. (I'm a librarian. Can you tell? I can't.) Adding this chapter really rounded out the experience.

So, if you are just out of cohabitation or just heading into it, I liked this book. Maybe you will too.