I've found an easy way to add some extra reading time into my day. I now ride the Express bus home from downtown jury duty and have found it's a perfect 45 minutes to an hour of peaceful reading. The new Newbery Honor Award book, Hattie Big Sky, by Kirby Larsen reads quickly on the ride. What a great book that is!! It reminds my of Winter Wheat by Mildred Walker.
I finished Casino Royale by Ian Fleming earlier this week and I really did enjoy it. The movie was quite a faithful rendition as well. I look forward to watching it again sometime soon. I had thought that I might read another of Ian Fleming's books but have read some recent blogs mentioning the racism in them....guess I want to read too many other books to waste my time on such as that.
I started reading a nonfiction account called, America's Women, 400 years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines by Gail COllins. Although it doesn't read as quickly as fiction it is a fascinating collection of women's stories over the last 4 centuries of history in America. I have decided to buy the book so I can take my time reading it and really study and learn. I want to combine my discount coupon AND my birthday gift cards!! Yippee!
The library had 3 reserves come in for me this week. What a great thing to be thankful for. It appears that I may lose my 45 day checkout period as they are disbanding YAAC (young adult advisory council) at the Dobson Branch. Jennie has served on the council since she was 7th grade and having a prolonged checkout period was a great perk that she got. She and I have really gotten used to it. She also enjoyed the free galley books and the monthly meetings. They published a quarterly book review publication too and she will miss writing and publishing reviews. Although it often became a challenge to read and keep abreast of what others might like I know that she did enjoy it. To remain positive I'll be grateful for the time that she has had to be involved and serve.
Jury Duty is still tremendously interesting. I can't write or tell anything about it but it is beginning to be on my mind more and more. It really is becoming part of my life. It will be hard to go back to my real job tomorrow - yet being around little kids is just what I need! They keep life happy and positive.
3 comments:
I don't think you'd be wasting your time by reading another of Fleming's books, especially since he improved after Casino Royale. Live And Let Die, the next book in the series, is considered racist by modern standards, but one has to take into account that the book is over 50 years old, and its racial attitudes at least aren't hateful, though patronizing. It's also a better written and more exciting book than CR.
You may or may not have read my review on Live or Let Die. I would still advocate skipping it if I were you. I saw the the racism as a bit stronger than patronizing and I'm not a person who usually lets things like that bother me in fiction. However, Moonraker, the third in the series, is fantastic and so far Diamonds are Forever is as well. Don't give up on Fleming if you enjoyed him. He seems to really improve in the writing with each book.
Ia - Thanks for your encouragement in the series. I am trying to focus on the character development and have far more respect for what I had thought was more a cardboard type characterization of James Bond. Thanks for the heads up on the racism.
Carl V. - Thanks for your insight and recommendations as well. I will take your suggestions and skip Live and Let Die and go right to Moonraker. I want to do a little research on Ian Fleming as well. Do you know what his background was or how old he was when he penned these novels? Thanks for the comments.
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