Mercy Thompson Series - by Patricia Briggs

I am in that awful stage of waiting for the next book in a series to come out. The above series is a ... hmmm... how to describe it ... it's a werewolf, vampire, shapeshifter book ... but not a romance, like so many of the same type. I have really enjoyed the series - the author was one I had read before; she does a lot of fantasy type writing and is very good. This series is about a girl who is a VW mechanic. She is a shapeshifter (she can shift into a coyote) and was raised by werewolves (because her mom, who had a one-night-stand with a native american rodeo rider, didn't know how to deal with finding a coyote in the crib where her baby had been and upon learning of werewolves from her lovers' tribe, shipped her daughter there to be raised).

She is a very independent character - very likable. Not a weak female at all. I like that she is a mechanic (one of the long-running jokes in the book is about her name - Mercedes. Friends joke that she is "Mercedes, the VW mechanic.") I like that she is self supporting and is so much bigger in what she does than her small self seems to be capable of.

I recommend the books, and would love to discuss them here. However, from viewing the posts, I'm not sure that any of you are into this type of thing, so will wait and see if any of you know the books or not.

There are 5 published Mercy Thompson books so far. Waiting on the next one ...

Gate C22

A few months ago, I picked up a book at Anthropologie called ten poems to change your life again & again by Roger Housden. I bought it on a whim and I am so pleased with myself. Roger Housden has been teaching me how to read and appreciate poems. I recommend his books to anyone and everyone.  Regarding this particular collection he says, “Every one of the poems in this book has struck me a blow, a direct hit, each of them, into the heart of hearts. Every one of them, in its own way, has opened a door for me to go deeper into my own experience, my own longings, my own sorrows and joys, and into the silence that surrounds all of this, all of us, always.”

I can’t say I felt the same way about all of these poems. I am still young and have much to experience, but over time I think they will eventually begin to resonate with me.  However, there is one poem that did make quite an impression. I read it about a month ago and have not been able to get it out of my head. 

This past Thanksgiving I was spending the holiday with my Mom’s parents… my Nana and Grandpa. They just finished renovating their house, and my Nana over worked herself trying to prepare Thanksgiving for 16 people.  Thanksgiving night we had a scare and my Nana was taken to the hospital because we thought she was having a heart attack. I went with my Mom and Dad to the hospital to take turns sitting with Grandpa while she was getting checked out. Fortunately, she is ok now and everything turned out well.  But while I was sitting in my Nana’s hospital room with my Grandpa I witnessed what I believe happens in the following poem. My Grandpa’s hand was shaking in mine and I could visually see  his love for her oozing out of his eyes, his skin, and his entire presence.  I’ve never been one to believe in soul mates, but sitting in that hospital room, I think I saw the closest thing to it. My Grandparents have been together over 50 years and still have that intense love for each other that you see on love-stricken teenagers.  Very few people in life experience… let alone witness… love that deep and powerful.  The following poem, Gate C22, describes an older couple and the moment they reunite in the airport. I can imagine my Grandparents experiencing a moment very similar to this one. Most little girls dream about growing up and marrying prince charming, having their fairy tale wedding and living happily ever after.  If I ever have little girls, I hope they grow up dreaming about experiencing this moment in the Portland airport, at gate C22. I know I will.

Gate C22

By Ellen Bass

At gate C22 in the Portland airport

a man in a broad-band leather hat kissed

a woman arriving from Orange County.

They kissed and kissed and kissed. Long after

the other passengers clicked the handles of their carry-ons

and wheeled briskly toward short-term parking,

the couple stood there, arms wrapped around each other

like he'd just staggered off the boat at Ellis Island,

like she'd been released at last from ICU, snapped

out of a coma, survived bone cancer, made it down

from Annapurna in only the clothes she was wearing.

Neither of them was young. His beard was gray.

She carried a few extra pounds you could imagine

her saying she had to lose. But they kissed lavish

kisses like the ocean in the early morning,

the way it gathers and swells, sucking

each rock under, swallowing it

again and again. We were all watching--

passengers waiting for the delayed flight

to San Jose, the stewardesses, the pilots,

the aproned woman icing Cinnabons, the man selling

sunglasses. We couldn't look away. We could

taste the kisses crushed in our mouths.

But the best part was his face. When he drew back

and looked at her, his smile soft with wonder, almost

as though he were a mother still open from giving birth,

as your mother must have looked at you, no matter

what happened after--if she beat you or left you or

you're lonely now--you once lay there, the vernix

not yet wiped off, and someone gazed at you

as if you were the first sunrise seen from the Earth.

The whole wing of the airport hushed,

all of us trying to slip into that woman's middle-aged body,

her plaid Bermuda shorts, sleeveless blouse, glasses,

little gold hoop earrings, tilting our heads up. 

Books Fall Open

First off I would like to send out a thank you to Georganne for helping me with the technical aspects of posting this for all of ya'll.

Second, I had to memorize this poem in 6th grade-ish and I guess it had an impression since I still can recite the first few lines. I'm not much of a writer so I figured I'd post something someone else has already written. Enjoy!

Books Fall Open
-David McCord

Books fall open,
you fall in,
delighted where
you've never been;
hear voices not once
heard before,
reach world on world
through door on door;
find unexpected
keys to things
locked up beyond
imaginings.
What might you be,
perhaps become,
because one book
is somewhere? Some
wise delver into
wisdom, wit;
and wherewithal
has written it.
True books will venture,
dare you out,
whisper secrets,
maybe shout
across the gloom
to you in need,
who hanker for
a book to read.

p.s. on topic unrelated to books: I would like to wish a safe and healthy return to Kelly and Chelsea from the great city of New Orleans.

Broken Glass Park

I just finished Broken Glass Park, by Alina Bronsky. This book is in limited supply as it is from Europe, so it might be hard to find in US bookstores. I actually found it at an offbeat bookstore in Georgetown, Bridge Street Books. It's an amazing bookstore with really interesting beatnik and hippie books that you won't find anywhere else. I think you all should check it out! And feel free to borrow the book from me girls. It's a great read. Okay, now about the book. Here is my review:

Broken Glass Park deals with a teenage girl, Sascha, whose main goals in life are to write a book about her deceased mother and to kill her stepfather, the man who murdered her mother. Grand goals, eh. As we follow Sascha, these two goals are prevalent behind most if not all of her motives throughout the book. The book, moreover, hits on a lot of issues from immigration and cultural differences to sex and age discrepancy and the moral dilemma that goes along with it to drugs, rape, depression, and the trials and tribulations of that we experience in youth.

Sascha is a Russian immigrant who moved to Germany with her family and now lives in a Russian ghetto outside Berlin. She faces a lot of discrimination throughout the book for her status as an immigrant, she even encounters a boy who has surprisingly neo-nazi ideas towards her kind. As for her love-life, Sascha's romance with newspaper editor, Volker, is borderline creepy. He could be her father in terms of age. It even hints that Volker has a tendency to go after younger girls, including one of his interns earlier on in the book, which gives him a child molester vibe. Yet, you sympathize with him due to his nice nature towards her and his overwhelming concern for her well being. It just goes to show that life is not as black and white as we would like it to be and that people, in general, are very gray in character. You want to like Volker based on his generosity towards Sascha, but you can't help but find his generosity a tad bit suspicious in nature.

The book has a lot more components that I could dive into, but I don't want to give away too much. Let's just say that I read it in two days. I couldn't put it down. It's an easy read, very smooth writing so it shouldn't take long to breeze through. I recommend it to all of you!! The main character's life is really f*ed up, which makes it all the more interesting.

The Guernesville Literary & Potato Peel Society

I adore this book! Kelly's ardor in recommending it to me hastened it's climb to the top of my "books to read" list. And her enthusiasm was not unfounded…I devoured it in 3 days.

This novel is short, sweet, and entirely charming! I loved everything about The Guernesville Literary & Potato Peel Society including the eccentric characters (Juliet, Kit, Isola, and Dawsey are my faves), the history of the German occupation of the Channel Islands, and the beautiful language in the letters that form the novel's structure. The characters are so delightfully vivid they stayed with me in my dreams and I found myself wishing they were my friends. I wish we still wrote letters and I'd want mine to be just like Juliet's!

I loved that the authors, Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows, wove in some of the true history of the German occupation in England. The cruelty during World War II is astounding, but the wonderful community the characters build around their love of literature to deal with a harrowing adversity is an inspiring story, even if it is fictional. The novel is written in the form of letters between all of the amazing characters. The letters are simple, sweet, funny, heartbreakingly sad, and full of so much emotion it's no wonder they all became fast friends. I was partial to Sidney and Juliet's letters filled of witty repartee or Dawsey's letters that were so modest, yet the most heartfelt. ALL of the letters are enjoyable, even Adelaide's indignant complaints to Juliet and affronts to Elizabeth's morality produced a chuckle, especially as her character unfolds and we learn that she gets SLAPPED!

This blog quotes a part in the novel when Juliet explains the joy of reading, "all with no end in sight and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment." Juliet's statement is exactly how I feel about this book, it was "sheer enjoyment." In short I love, love, LOVED this book and would recommend it to everyone!

The Male Brain

When first glancing at this title, most of you may think what I thought… Well I can sum up that organ in one sentence: It does whatever the penis tells it to.  And to a certain extent this is true.  Last year I read a book called The Female Brain by Dr. LouAnn Brizendine (an accomplished neuropsychologist) and it was incredible. It made me understand a lot about why females act the way they do, especially when interacting with men.  I have read it twice, some sections three times, and I consider it my bible. Those of you who know me well, know that boy drama consumes my life… on a daily basis.  So, when The Male Brain was released a few weeks ago, I was ecstatic.  I want to share with you some fun tidbits from the book.

A significant proportion of the information Dr. Brizendine shares is fairly well known. For example:

“In reality, the male brain is a lean, mean problem-solving machine.”

This is fairly common knowledge, but the key is learning how to use it to manipulate your significant other into feeling good about himself.  I’ve found that playing dumb and letting boys fix electronics or teach you how to use a hammer makes them feel smart, useful, and proud of themselves.  So, even if you know how to change a flat tire, or hook up a surround sound system… sometimes letting your man do it, will come back to benefit you in the long run.

“We also know that men have two and a half times the brain space devoted to sexual drive in their hypothalamus. Sexual thoughts flicker in the background of a man’s visual cortex all day and night, making him always at the ready for seizing sexual opportunity.”

All females know that men think about sex every second of everyday.  But the book explained that this is because they actually have a crap ton of brain space devoted to it.  So, next time you are being talked into some hanky-panky and don’t feel up to it, just let your guy know that it isn’t your fault you aren’t always in the mood. You have half the brain space devoted to sexual drive than he does. And at the same time, try not to give him a hard time for having thoughts consistently in the gutter… he was actually designed that way.

The next thing I learned is something I don’t think most men should know… because they will abuse the information. But it may prevent you from getting upset the next time a guy you care about is caught checking out another woman.

“…the lust center in the male brain automatically directs men to notice and visually take in the details of attractive females. When they see one that lights up their sexual circuit board, their brain instantly produces a quick sexual thought, but then it’s usually over.” To a male’s brain a “buxom woman is like a bright, colorful hummingbird. She flies into the line of vision, catches his attention for a few seconds, then flies off and out of his mind. For many men this can happen several times a day… He couldn’t have stopped his eyes from looking at her breasts even if he’d tried. BUT he could learn to be more discreet.  Because this is an autopilot behavior for the male brain, men don’t think it’s a big deal, and they can’t understand why women find it so threatening.”

Something new that I found interesting was the significance of a kiss. For me, a bad kisser is a deal breaker. If you can’t kiss well, then there will be no future dates, conversations, or make out sessions. Now I know why:

“In the mating game, a kiss is more than a kiss – it’s a taste test.  Saliva contains molecules from all the glands and organs in the body, so a French kiss serves up our signature flavor. As soon as Ryan’s tongue touched Nicole’s information about each other’s health and genes was collected and secretly sent to their brains. If Nicole had genes that were too similar to his and the kiss tasted sour, it could have been a sexual deal-breaker. (The evolutionary reason for this is because in-breeding among individuals leads to health problems that make it more difficult for males’ genes to continue reproducing.) But the kiss was sweet; it led to another and then another. Scientists have learned that there is plenty of bioactive testosterone in men’s saliva, enough that it may activate the sexual-arousal center in a woman’s brain."

SOOO… kissing is obviously important, men are biologically designed to think about sex literally every second of the day (they aren’t all perverts), they can’t help looking at beautiful women, and men are wired to solve problems. I hope this sheds some light on your relationships and helps you understand the male brain a little bit better!

Genius Website - You May Thank Me Later!

So, although my first post isn’t about a specific book, I think it’s great information for true book lovers. I have to share a website that is my new looooove! It’s called Library Thing http://www.librarything.com. You can create your own library/card catalog! Isn’t that exciting?! I don’t know about you guys, but I have read so many books that sometimes it’s tough to remember what I have read. Or, whether I own a book already and shouldn’t buy it again (I’ve definitely ended up with 3 copies of the same book). Library Thing allows you to keep track of all the books you own and all the books you’ve read, but don’t own. Not only that, but you can keep a list of all the books you want to read! The site tells you what books people are reading and recommending. You can make your own recommendations and write reviews. There are also groups where people can discuss books. As you can probably tell, I’m very enthusiastic about this website. It is free to join and post up to 200 books, however if you are anything like me, you might as well just pay the $25 unlimited lifetime membership fee (there is also a yearly fee if you prefer that of $10). Happy reading and cataloging!!