squeezing-in#953072

river deep, by rowan coleman, c. 2004 wcl

next-in-list#191310
half of a yellow sun, by chimamanda ngozi adiche, c. 2006 bc6295472
in the winter dark, by tim winton, c.1988 lcl

quotes#994534 My one hundred adventures

Is this what it is to get older, to have adventures you can no longer tell your family because you are moving apart from them? Is this why my mother likes to have Ned around, so that she has someone to whom she can always tell her adventures? Or do you grow up and have adventures you tell no one? Are some adventures only yours alone? Will my mother have adventures she won't even tell Ned? p257

Ginny feels bad that she can't help me and is very upset with her mother, who doesn't seem to care that camp is making Ginny miserable. That ginny counted on her summer to work on her dress designs. Now at the end of her day she is too tired to be creative. She says she feels like a steam kettle with a plugged hole. Any moment she will pop. p140

quotes#148894 The Wedding-Night Affair

"I am still a woman," she added waspishly, despite some people seeming to think I am a cross between a robot and a scarecrow." p72

Owen groaned. "You're a hard woman."
"Don't be silly. I'm as soft as butter."
"Yeah, straight out of the freezer." p15

quotes#733852 Great possessions

It was not Flynn's fault that at nineteen she felt as dried-out as the ostrich egg Margot kept in her drawing room, gaily painted, fragile and empty. p232

Lonnie cupped her hand round one of the flowers, feeling the coolness of the petals and breathing in the fragrance that rose from its golden heart, and felt comforted. She ought not to have needed comfort; most people would have seen her as the luckiest girl in the world, but Lonnie knew that always, except when she was holding Rosemary [child] or was completely swept away by the sexual passion of which she was vaguely ashamed, there was something missing in her life, an empty place waiting to be filled. p226
[cliche i know]

quotes#516008 Afterdark Princess

And Joe Quail wanted to laugh. He wanted to laugh and laugh until his sides split like baked apples. p95

"Of course," said Alice. "And once you have put on your moonglasses on you never forget. It's just that most people think there's only what they see wth their ordinary eyes. They don't realise that even the name, Forest Street, is a clue to the magic world secretly tucked inside the ordinary one lie a pea in a pod. They don't know about the Street Forest and they wouldn't want to. It's a funny thing, I don't know why, most people don't care for sorcery and danger." p22

another-squeeze-in#531650

the afterdark princess, by annie dalton, c. 1990 - wcl - predecessor to a book that i am currently reading

quotes#396888 the afterdark princess

Alice Fazackerly was not the kind of girl to give anyone a nasty surprise. She was as sensible as brown bread and butter. p1

quotes#718956 from my notebook Cinderella Rules

She didn't know why she'd worried about Shane needing to leave home for adventure. He'd just brought the adventure home to live with them. p398 [not profound but still good for me to note:]

Darby tried to squash the little leap of hope. Dangerous things, those little leaps. p377

squeezing-in#276768

anneke and i are going to read a few books together -- and will do the same with margaret as she gets into chapter books more.

the dream snatcher, by annie dalton, c. 1998 lcl

next-lot#335827

my one hundred adventures, by polly horvath, c. 2008 -- wcl - new red jfic
shadows on the shore, by jessica stirling, c. 1993 -- bc 6803169
turn left at bindi creek, by lynne wilding, c. 2000 -- lcl, paperback
50 management ideas you really need to know, by edward russell-walling, c. 2008 -- wcl new
contented dementia, by oliver james, c. 2008 -- wcl, new

quotes#893012 Comet in Moominland

"It's all over now," said Snufkin. "Don't cry any more Sniff."
"The garnets," Sniff moaned. "I didn't get a single one."
Snuffkin sat down beside him and said kindly: "I know. But that's how it is when you start wanting to have things. Now I just look at them, and when I go away I carry them in my head. Then my hands are always free, because I don't have to carry a suitcase."
"The garnets would have gone in the rucksack," said Sniff miserably. "You don't need hands for that. It's not the same thing at all just looking at them. I want to touch them and know they're mine."
"Never mind, Sniff. We're sure to find some more treasures," said Moomintroll comfortingly. "Now cheer up and get a move on. It's getting cold and creepy out here." p51

adding-in#235727

Bridget Jones's Diary, by Helen Fielding, c. 1996

next#596088

The Mitford bedside companion, by Jan Karon, c.2006 - from patron
The wedding night affair, by Miranda Lee, c. 1999 bc 6782604
Comet in Moominland, by Tove Jansson, c. 1946 - request, ecl
The Cinderella rules, by Donna Kauffman, c. 2004 - request,ncl
Cole for Christmas, by Darlene Gardiner, c.2003 - wcl

quotes#128874 Chrissie the Wish Fairy


[only cos it's close to Christmas]

"How do they work?" Rachel wanted to know.
"My Magic Card makes sure Christmas cards spread Christmas wishes of joy around the world," Chrissie explained. "The magic of my wooden spoon makes Christmas food taste lovely, and means that wishes made by people stirring their Christmas puddings will be granted." p27

quotes#170916 Singing bird

"I was thinking of something Proust wrote," he said, looking into the empty glass with a wry smile. "There is nothing like desire for preventing the things we say from having any resemblance to the things in our minds." p176

"Enough talk for two sets of teeth," Donal whispered. "But a great cook." p89

quotes#274393 Singing Bird

At six o'clock, I waved goodbye to the cheery trio of removal men and went back inside. I stood for a while in the kitchen. The house was quiet. I opened the French windows and walked to the end of the garden. The brickwork glowed pink and gold in the evening sun. A frill of red leaves curled down the edge of the back wall. The scent of rosemary filled the air. I walked back up the path, wrapping my memories around me, like a cardigan. p43
[sold house]

quotes#552671 The Marriage Merger

"Great." She threw up her hands. "I'm not only a mendacious female, but I'm one with the memory span of a goldfish." p126

kids-book#928412 My favorite thing (according to Alberta)

delightful colours ... it starts of as "Alberta is a girl of particular tastes ...."

my favorite page ... the page about loving orange

book that flips between horizontal and vertical - the way the words are put on the page

love this dedication "In memory of Rob Moss, who liked jazz, classical literature, beautiful women, and telling stories. I don't know what his favorite thing was - but I hope he's got a lot of it, now."

am going to read to Riverside kindy tomorrow.

next#358872

My favorite thing (according to Alberta), by Emily Jenkins, c. 2004, jpb, wcl
Geography, by Sophie Cunningham, c.2004, afi, wcl
A life at work, by Thomas Moore, c. 2008, 204.4, scl - returned to wcl
The new man, by Janice Kay Johnson, c. 2003, bc6759933
Going to the chapel, by Sharon Sala, Dixie Browning and Stella Bagwell, c. 2002, bc6725810
Great possessions, by Kate Alexander, c. 1989, bc6759937

quotes#171403 The Italian billionaire's secret love child

Charlotte automatically reached down and smoothed some of the dark curls back into position, "Okay. Now, you're sure you've got everything?"
"Sure!"
"How sure?"
"Two thousand sure." They grinned at each other, enjoying this little game they had been playing before school since time immemorial, and then they were off. p28

quotes#349578 Instructions for living someone else's life

Because Chris's thought contained, like a grub in an apple, a question no one would ever want to be asked; one that it would be terrible to consider even if you weren't required to answer it. p207

The human spirit is a powerful, powerful thing, and there's very little that it can't achieve, if it's out of spite. p166

quotes#014716 Cloud Busting [by Malorie Blackman, c. 2004]

I started writing poems for my own amusement long before I began to write stories. Nursery rhymes, playground songs and pop songs were as much a part of my life as breathing. I was reading at an early age, but this was a deliberate, though fun activity. Reading was something I had to be taught, something I had to sit down and do. Poetry was different. Poetry for me was in the way the branches of the trees danced in the wind, in the way snow fell to the ground bringing silence with it, in running water, in smiles, in music, in skipping songs, in insults, in chants - poetry was everywhere.

quotes#855347 Heart and soul

She found herself looking up at the old buildings which had been there since the first Elizabeth was on the throne of England. She saw the lines waiting to go and see the Book of Kells. Imagine monks decorating that, nearly seven hundred pages of it, instead of getting on with things. But maybe they weren't doing anyone any harm. p420

"so should we get the Guards?" Fiona asked.
"She specficially asked Lidia not to make any fuss," Declan said.
"But she must have been so upset."
"I know, Fiona, but what's the point of asking your friends not to make a fuss if you can't trust them to do what you ask?" p377

kids-book#617855 Sunshine showers and four o'clock flowers

by Pauline Stewart and Nick Mayland, c. 2000 "This is a story about new beginnings and hope. The seeds and words which are sown today bear fruit tomorrow."
love the sentiment and illustrations
kids picture book

quotes#538776 Heart and Soul

Vonni smiled at them with pleasure. Not everything worked out well. But some things did.
This was what she had to hold on to. p302
[not literary - but worth remembering]

When you have so much happiness yourself it seems meanspirited not to share it. p235

squeezing-in#894013

Heart and soul, by Maeve Binchy, c. 2008 - reserved - pcl copy
Instructions for living someone else's life, by Mil Millington, c. 2008 - reserved - pcl copy

quotes#927673 Come Fly With Me

But as a free spirit and a wanderer who needed to be alone more often than not, Alexandra hd soon found her own place. p21
[boarder. not literary but this piece reminded me that i need that self-time, too]

[as an aside .. i have seen 4 different chevy blazers today about town -- beasties]

left-at-wcc-today#570316

lilley and chase 6725814
little earthquakes 6725812
going to the chapel 672581o
intensity 6725807

for my sanity.

caught-my-eye #130876 Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman

Journal entry 1 by davemurray101 from newcastle, New South Wales Australia on Saturday, September 13, 2008
Be careful what you wish for. A small town librarian lives a quiet life without much excitement. One day, she mutters an idle wish and, while standing in her house, is struck by lightning.....

so have reserved it from the library.

squeezing-in#432551

Come fly with me, by Jill Shalvis, c. 2003 -- lcl, but returned to wcl

quotes#473592 One Red Paperclip

As soon as you believe there was someplace in the past where things were better than they were today, you won't operate at your full potential now. You are where you are, and if you aren't, it's probably a good idea to figure out how to get to yourself. p164

The grass isn't necessarily greener on the other side, but maybe it is. Listen to the advice of other people, but remember that we all see colour differently. What my be less green to someone else might be greener to you. p125

quotes#057295 Ice Age

Nature has random kindnesses; she was unmistakably his. p206

The pace of life suited her. And it was beginning to suit Anthony, too. For the first time, he began to imagine that he could perhaps lead a real life away from London, a peaceful life with a peaceful rhythm. As he hacked, his mind turned vaguely towards projects - if there was any money left after the Riverside Scheme's final stand, he would stay in Yorkshire, he would dig and grow his own vegetables, he would let people like Molly and Tim hang around year in and year out, he would struggle no more to do, he would learn to be - and if there wasn't any money left, if he had to sell High Rock, he would get a job, in a school. He would teach. Why not? A country school. A school for the handicapped. Vague, idealistic notions drifted very pleasantly round his mind; fantasies of peace and virtue. He would opt out; surely, after the unpleasant experiences he had suffered during his attempts to opt in, he would have a right to make such a decision? And anyway, what was there wrong in a quiet life, digging one's own garden, being pleasant to those that need pleasantness. It would not have suited him when he was younger, but whyever should one's life show any consistency? p 172


squeezing-in#787533

One red paperclip, by Kyle MacDonald, c. 2007

quotes#255493 Berlin Poplars

He took the old hand; the familiar, busy hand. All the things it had done, everywhere it had been, in wash buckets, around the food, on the knitting needles, among the fruit bushes behind the barn. He laid his cheek to it, and it felt the cold. The skin smelt a bit rank, like the smell you sometimes got under a watchstrap. p212
[of ill mother]

- he couldn't make the effort to remember what it was called - and they sang about birds, how their little broter had been a migrating bird, a summer visitor who suddenly flew away when it got too cold. People sobbed openly along the pews, blew their noses and dabbed their eyes with stiff, helpless moments. The aisle at the back of the church was packed with people. Three youngsters clutched each other. On the floor lay a much-trampled hymn sheet, sodden and grey. He longed to be alone in here; perhaps he would borrow the key from the verger one day soon, lock himself in and stay for a while, listening to the voices from the walls, without feeling ashamed of not believing in heaven or hell any more. p170
[funeral director]

quotes#675167 Berlin Poplars

He worked with a kind of warm and extended happiness within him. A happiness that occasionally made him catch his breath and pumped small jabs of adrenalin into his diaphragm. p40
[cliche but still good to remember]

The doctor had given the mother a sedative; the father didn't want one. It was a classic case; men tried to manage without, keep their heads clear, not break down or lose control. Instead, he paced the kitchen floor with his hands behind his back. Margido didn't envy him the night ahead. p15

quotes#589335 Baby come back

But Molly Meredith wasn't the type to collapse for long. Looking on the bright side was her religion. If God had sent her a plague of locusts, Molly would have decided they were good for greenfly. p216

In the end, given that it was another glorious summer's day, she chose white linen trousers and a loose, flowing white silk top with a deep V, plus wildly expensive white trainers that had as much relationship to real running shoes as a Jaguar car has to the furry thing you find in the jungle. p155

quotes#112231 Six Pack Two

There was a tiny weatherboard house, a boat pulled up on the sand below it, and a long fishing line strung out on poles into the estuary. Beside the house, in a clearing striped with sunlight, the air warm and still and dusty, was a wooden picnic table, at which a fat woman was reading a book. A small boy in yellow togs decorated with skulls and crossbones waded out of the water and ran towards he, cannoning into her side; she dropped her book and pushed him away, saying in a lazy, good-natured voice, "Get off, you, you're soaking wet."
I watched them. The boy lay down under the long line and covered himself with sand. The woman went back to her book. I decided to walk past them along the shore. p84
[comment: not literary but i like the scene]

"... mother," Kathy says, the next night when Tim phones. Two hours, twelve minutes. They are both going to have an early night. While they sleep the well of their conversation fills up again. p59

comment-for-me#988734 The Six Pack Two

first story - by faith oxenbridge - deals with teenager dealing with misdiagnosed mother - depression and bipolar.

quotes#895387 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Excuse my unburdening myself. My worries travel round my head on their well-worn path, and it is a relief to put them on paper. p134

Thousands of those men and boys died here [in Guernsey], and I have recently learnt that their inhuman treatment was the deliberate policy of Himmler. He called his plan Death by Exhaustion, and he implemented it. Work them hard, don't waste valuable food on them, and let them die. They could, and would, always be replaced by new slave workers from Europe's occupied countries. p104
[not nice to think of; but still important to remember]

quotes#016508 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

But you want to know about the influence of books on my life, and as I've said, there was only one. Seneca. Do you know who he was? He was a Roman philosopher who wrote letters to imaginary friends telling them how to behave for the rest of their lives. Maybe that sounds dull, but the letters aren't - they're witty. I think you learn more if you're laughing at the same time. p87

It was so kind of you to write to me about your experience during the Occupation. At the war's end, I, too, promised myself that I wouldn't talk about it any more. I had talked and lived war for six years, and I was longing to pay attention to something - anything - else. But that is like wishing I were someone else. The war is now the story of our lives, and there's no denying it. p68

sneaking-in#913032

The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer, c. 2008 -- pcl - reserve
[as it's a popular novel i am schooching it up the list]

quotes#683044 The Sunday Night Book Club

She wanted to go home with at least a faint tan or Sadie would accuse her of spending a week in the shade with her book like an ancient spinster. p166
[comment: from cruise]

"Tell you what," says John seeing the horror written all over my face, "I'll read one page, you read the next."
"Isn't that cheating?"
"What do you mean, cheating?"
"This is the book Mum said if I read it all, she'd take me to the cinema." p26
[what I do with my girls when reading. in this case John is teaching someone to read]

next-lot-of-books-to-read#937175

Life before birth, by Peter and Mary Harrison, c. 1983 -- bc6659214
The marriage merger, by Liz Fielding, c. 2002 -- bc6659216
The singing bird, by Roisin McAuley, c.2004 -- wcl paperback
Chrissie, the wish fairy, by Daisy Meadows, c.2007 -- wcl, purple kids book

quotes#271390 I believe in unicorns

That same day I borrrowed my first book from the library. I chose Aesop's Fables because I like the animals in them, and because the Unicorn Lady had read them to us and I had loved them.
I read them aloud to Mother that night when she came up to say goodnight to me. I read to her instead of her reading to me. It was the first time I'd ever done that. Father came and listened at the doorway whilst I was reading. He clapped when I'd finished. "Magic, Tomas," he said. "That was magic." There were tears in his eyes too. I hoped it was because he was proud of me. How I loved him being proud of me. And Mother hugged me harder that night than she'd ever hugged me before. She could hardly speak she was so amazed. How I loved amazing Mother. p53
[ts: serendipity moment cos I was writing about Aesop Fables earlier that day]

But church or not, Sunday was always the best day of the week. In the cold of winter Father and I would go tobogganing on the hillside. In the heat of summer we'd swim in the lakes and stand there under the freezing waterfall, laughing and squealing with joy. Sometimes we'd go off for long tramps up the hills. We'd watch the eagles soaring out above the mountain tops. We'd wander the forests, always on the lookout for telltale signs of deer or wild boar, or even bears. Sometimes we might even catch a brief glimpse of one through the trees. Best of all we'd stop from time to time, just to be still, to feel the peace and breathe in the beauty. We'd listen to the sounds of the forest, to the whisper of the wind, to the cry of wolves, distant wolves I longed to see but never did. p16

squeezing-in#033152

Refuse to choose, by Barbara Sher ... read to p45 for now

The Sunday Night Book Club, by various authors, c. 2006 -- lcl

quotes#392511 The Forger

They would not quit, if only to avoid the shame of quitting. p269
[cliche: but it struck my eyes]

And suddenly, set free from the seemingly endless training, I knew I could do it. The complexity was all there in my head, too much to grasp in any single thought, but all there, bunched up and tangled; and the only way to untangle it was simply to work and not think about working, but just work. p207
[painter]

quotes#612731 The Forger


"You were a painter. A great one, from all I hear."
"All right," he said. "Maybe I was good. But I exhausted myself. I got so tired in here" - he bounced the heel of his palm off his forehead. "Some days, I would set up the canvas and stare at it for an hour and then be so exhausted I'd have to go back to bed. But with restoration, it's different" - he drew his fingers close together, like a man learning to pray. "It's about the creation of the paint itself. Using only those materials available at the time. Then the lacquer. Then the ageing process. The precision of it. The cheating of time! Do you know that my finest work in that Gericault is the part Gericault got wrong." p71

The next morning I woke, as usual, to the sound of muttering voices in the Rue Descalzi. I could smell the particularly sour, perfumy reek of Matelot tobacco, which was the cheapest brand. p53
[ah ... trivia]

quotes#793912 Buddha or bust

"Practicing?" he asked in a pedantic style that immediately put me on the defensive, as it was intended to do. "I love it when I hear Americans say they 'practice' Buddhism. To a Japanese person that would be like saying, 'I practice being Japanese.'" The practice of which I spoke, meditation, is called zazen in the Japanese Zen tradition. In the tradition called Pure Land Buddhism, it's the recitation of the name Amida Buddha - in Japanese, Namu Amida Butsu. The nembutsu, as it's called, means "thinking on the Buddha." p206

The United States has 78 persons per square mile to China's 348. p169

quotes#611730 Buddha or Bust

"You must each be a lamp unto yourselves," he said in the last hours of his life. p120

"My case is not progressing," he went on, eager to share his experience, "but I am much more detached. It's the craving that causes miseries. This is what we learn. I actually feel blessed to be at Tihar. Otherwise, I would never have learned about vipassana." p98

next-pile-of-books#572691

Berlin poplars, by Anne B. Ragde, c. 2004 -- pcl - reserve
Dared to dream, by Tammy Hilz McCallum, c. 1997 - bc6416129
The ice age, by Margaret Drabble, c. 1997 -- bc5486499
The Italian billionaire's secret love child, by Cathy Williams, c.2007 -- mcl

quotes#647393 Buddha or bust

"You cannot travel on the path until you become the path itself. -- THE BUDDHA" p49

"But I was made privy to a more relevant mantra that would follow me around the world, like my own private Jiminy Cricket. Come close and breaking the privacy rules of the Cult of Rehab, I will whisper it: "Core-trunk stablization." This regime of simple floor exercises, designed to strengthen the muscles surrounding the whole pelvic region, were demonstrated by a physical therapist in Encino, one of those look-alike towns along Ventura Boulevard in the Valley. Core-trunk stablization kept me in the vertical position for the duration of my travels and does to this day. Every time I did the exercises - on the bare floor of some very funky hotel in India, on the richly carpeted floor of the Four Seasons George V in Paris - I thought of that Encino therapist stuck in a strip mall upstairs from a Pep Boys and a Taco Bell, and I sent her lotuses of gratitude." p9

quotes#732970 Chasing Harry Winston

"It says here that blue curacao is a sweet blue liqueur made from the diced peel of bitter oranges and that it's used to add color to cocktails," she read from the label. p101
[trivia for me]

quotes#585466 Books. A memoir

At Booked Up one of our favorite eccentrics was a gentleman we called the "little book" man.
Once or twice a year this customer would show up at the shop with a ruler and work his way around the main room, measuring the books.
He was not cheap in the least, and seemed to have no exact height limit. Every time he showed up he spent $2,000 at least, and often more. He never said much - indeed, I can't recall him saying anything. But he always went away carrying a box of short books. p138

As a book buyer I had visited Lowdermilks several times, but my visits were brief and hardly scratched the surface of their massive stock, which occupied three floors of a large old building downtown. The third floor had not been visited (except by favored customers) for about ten years, or at least that was the legend. This floor contained a huge accumulation of nineteenth-century books. p99
[aaah: nice]

quotes#432885 Flight

So, okay, now I'm dressed and I limp out of the tent to join the other soldiers. Everybody else is already lined up in neat rows - or semi-neat rows, I guess. All of these soldiers are young and hungry. I wonder how long they've been on the march. They're not starving to death, but they look hollow-eyed and barren, like they've been fed just enough food but never enough happiness. p82
[context: time travel and in soldiers body. am always interested in "happiness," or lack of]

I can feel this body remembering. Every part of you has different memories. Your fingers remember the feel of a velvet coat. Your feet remember a warm sandy beach. Your eyes remember a face. p109
[cliche, but good for me to acknowledge]

quotes#727473 Nanny diaries

"Hey, have you eaten yet?" he asks as James opens the door for us.
"'Night, James," I call over my shoulder. "It depends on what you mean by eating. If you consider a fistful of Goldfish and a few dry tortellini a meal then I'm stuffed." p115
[comment: after having moved back to NZ I haven't had Goldfish in ages!]

and on the ninth floor of the electric porcupine that is New York City ... p88

books-i-am-squezing-in#757427

These are popular titles that I thought I should read pretty soon:

Flight, by Sherman Alexie, c.2007 lcl - reserve
Books. A memoir, by Larry McMurtry, c. 2008 lcl reserve
Chasing Harry Winston, by Lauren Weisberger, c 2008 -- ncl, reserve

quotes#555047 The Nanny Diaries

The following Monday on my way to meet Mrs. X I make a quick stop at my favorite stationery store to stock up on Post-its. Today my Filofax only has two Post-its: a tiny pink one imploring me to "BUY MORE POST-ITS" and a green one reminding me that I have "Coffee, Mrs. X, 11:15." I pull off the pink one and toss it in the trash as I continue heading south to La Patisserie Gout du Mois, our appointed meeting place. p26
[only because i like post-it notes]

quotes#836328 C'est la vie

Chez Francis, a bistro made famous because of its direct view of the Eiffel Tower, was between the bus stop and the Plaza, as we called the Plaza Athenee. Mike and I had been regulars for years; we had even celebrated some of our New Year's Eves there. Chez Francis was still one of my favorite places in Paris, because of the view and the sense that you owned Paris. Though it had memories of my husband, it did not make me sad. Instead, I smugly sat and wrote in my notebook, sipped my coffee and listened to the hum around me: the hum of many tourists who hoped they would come back to Paris. I never spoke English to the waiter, lest he mistake me for one of them. p193

quotes#956448 C'est la vie

While Americans have come to expect a certain regular availability of produce because of international buying and shipping and alternate seasons below the equator, in France it has never mattered if the goods were available or not; tradition was tradition, there was right and there was wrong. It truly mattered what season it was; only heathens (or Americans) ate fruits or foods out of season. Because of this unwritten law, the good times were especially appreciated for their bounty. The market basket was a symbol of summer. p146

While I normally travel alone, on this trip two friends accompanied me because they were worried about me and thought this was an appropriate gesture of support for a widowed friend. One companion was a girlfriend from San Antonio, also a widow. The other was a Chinese friend who insisted I needed a translator and protector. They were bookends to my grief and a circle of strength as I started back to work, p123

two-more-kids-picture-books-read-today#631750

Seven ways to catch the moon, by M.P. Robertson, c. 1999 - book came in the courier bin today - one that i would read to a little one in bed - love the placement of the words on the pages.

Is there really a human race?, by Jamie Lee Curtis & Laura Cornell, c. 2006 - am lucky that i work in a library and this book caught my eye as I was wanding it's return - as always i enjoy Jamie Lee Curtis (one of her other books I read over and over with my daughter - that was called Today I feel silly) "do some of us win? do some of us lose? is winning or losing something i choose? why am i racing? what am i winning? does all of my running keep the world spinning?"

kids-books-that-I-read-at-lunch#695187

I picked these off the shelf prelunch to enjoy ...

You're different and that's super, by Carson Kressley, c.2005 - a unicorn struggling to find his identity and place in the world. ages 3-8 -- delightful black and white illustrations - horses' names that caught my imagination -- Tuckabuckaway and Wooligan - Unicorn was called Trumpet

The Gruffalo's child, by Julia Donaldson, c. 2004 - saw several copies of this book today so thought i should pick it up - in the end it was a mouse with a big shadow that spooked the monster - mouse knew how to defend himself - love the rhyming nature of the words.

quotes#047793 C'est la vie

I often had to force myself to one more party or one more dinner, when all I really wanted was to stay home and watch TV. I went out only because I heard the memory of my mother's voice ringing in my brain, an echo from when I was twenty-two years old: "No one ever met anyone while sitting at home reading a book." p61
[but reading a book sure is fun]

I took his wedding ring from his left hand, removed my wedding ring from my left hand and switched both of them over to my right hand to signify our marriage had crossed over to the spiritual realm. His larger band was held in place by my smaller one. At 7:30A.M. I called his doctor.
"He's dead?" the doctor asked, stunned.
"I don't think he's faking," I managed to say. p6

quotes#593577 Never Look Back

One morning in March Matilda found the daffodil bulbs she planted in tubs during the fall had finally opened in the sunshine on the veranda. Flowers were rare in this town, the pace was too fast, people too intransigent to think of planting a garden. Just the sight of them brought tears to her eyes, and a nostalgic whiff of England, but at the same time their bright colouring seemed to suggest it was time she put aside her sorrow at Zandra's death and looked to the future. p532

quotes#688434 Never Look Back

"Someone long ago once asked me what I wished for from life," she said. "My reply was, that by the time I died I wanted to have felt I had made a difference, for the good, in someone else's. It's still my wish, and that's my middle road, Captain." p508

It certainly wasn't a desire for gold which prompted this hazardous trip by sea. Zandra had enough money to see out her days in luxury, but her curiousity and her adventuring spirit made her want to discover if there was any truth in the rumour, and if so, to be an observer of the madness which would surely follow. p452
[gold rush San Franciscso]

quotes#375867 Never look back

[not-literary-but-useful-for-reflection]

Captain James Russell watched as Matilda walked away. He had been intrigued by her right from the first day she came to him asking to join the wagon train. He was always reluctant to take any women travelling on her own, for that usually spelled trouble, especially if they were as pretty as Mrs. Jennings. On top of that she was English, and the few women he had taken out West were all a pain in the rump, always complaining or praying, and he didn't know which was worse. p358

But the Hamilton children had been given a home by a Baptist minister and his wife in Chicago and collected two weeks ago, and Giles had used his connections in the church to find a job for Alice. He sighed with contentment as they went back into the empty house. "I never knew silence could sound so good," he said. p309

quotes#113232 Never look back

She supposed that his advice to 'never look back' was wise and kindly meant. But did he really think she could forget her past and origins that easily? Surely all those hard times had given her something which was worth carrying on into a new life? p55

"Things will get better, just you see. We got our 'ealth and strength." p24

next-on-list#127873

C'est la vie, by Suzy Gershman, c. 2004 - ecl - reserve
The nanny diaries, by Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin, c. 2002 - pcl - reserve
Buddha or bust, by Perry Garfinkel, c. 2006 - lcl - but was returned to wcl and i snaffled it
The forger, by Paul Watkins, c. 2000 -- bc
The six pack two, anthology, c. 2007 -- bc
Baby come back, by Maeve Haran, c. 2000 -- bc
The littlest viking, by Sandi Toksvig, c. 2008 -- wcl jf
I believe in unicorns, by Michael Morpurgo, c. 2005 -- wcl jf

couldn't-finish#310056

secrets of the sea, by nicholas shakespeare
the difference between women and men, by bret lott

quotes#088834 The Playground Mafia

Then there's Anne, a mum whose little girl has only just joined the school and is in Ben's class. The poor woman looked as nervous as I did on my first day so I introduced myself in the playground and after quite a long and bizarre chat I invited her along too. She's an intuitive therapist and yoga instructor and tells me I should take fifteen minutes for myself each day and just 'be'. Apparently I'm a human doing rather than a human being at the moment, and should practise being a tree, imagining my roots going deep into the ground so that I can be a firm foundation for Ben. After I stopped laughing, I told her I don't have time to spare fifteen minutes each day, but I might try to get to one of her yoga classes. p314

Kids-book-I-read-some-time-ago#930520

Just recording that I have read On Angels Wings by Michael Morpurgo -- at WCL.
Catching up with myself.

Musings#269613 Sea Glass

As always I find it spooky that I tend to read books for reason. This time I am reading this when the global credit crunch widened (Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy). Characters in the book are coping with the Wall St Crash of 1929.

quotes#540275 The End of the Alphabet

The Englishman handed her a thin bauble, a boncuk. He told her that Turkish mothers pin the blue glass trinket to their children's clothes. To keep them safe. p101

In all the years we talked about Venice and pictured Venice and dreamed of Venice, did we ever once imagine it might smell? p128

quotes#152958 Sea Glass

But first he wants to check out the coast road. An open road always tempting, promising surprises, the possibility of luck. It's why he is a traveling salesman, why he chucked it all back home. Nothing better than to find an unfamiliar road on the map, see where it takes him. He got the Claremont Bank account that way, and the Mutual Life account in Andover. p35

quotes#888376 The Apple Tree

... I know what your generation is like. My mother is the same. Always on the go. I think it's partly having gone through World War Two. You had so much responsibility then, you ladies. You can't seem to shake it off." He got up to go. "Do you enjoy reading?" he asked.
"When I have time," Madge said.
"Well, now you have," he pointed out. "Get a pile of books from the library van and lie back and read them all. And if you fall asleep reading, so much the better." p278
[hee, hee - not literary but I like it anyhow]

quotes#060802 The Apple Tree

Her mother was full of folklore like that. Break two of anything on the same day, for instance, and you must then prevent a third breakage of something precious by snapping a match in half. p62

After lunch, Madge said, "I think I'll go and have my little nap. I've missed it the last day or two and I always feel better for it. Just to lose myself for a little while." p52
[comment: nothing literary, but I do like the sentiment]

next-on-list#460277

the playground mafia, by sarah tucker, c. 2006 -- wcl
secrets of the sea, by nicholas shakespeare, c. 2007 -- lcl
the difference between women and men, by bret lott, c. 2005 -- bc 6212163
never look back, by lesley pearce, c. 2000 -- bc 6416107

quotes#542526 Lots of Love

Then she dragged out the vacuum cleaner and sucked up enough Cornish sand from the upholstery and footwells to make a twenty-four-hour egg-timer. p412

"Nothing's happening," she said, goosebumps popping out on her goosebumps until she was convinced she must look like a figure in a Seurat painting. p339

quotes#610832 Lots of Love

Spurs turned to Ellen and smiled. "See what a good influence you are on me?"
She narrowed one eye speculatively.
"Do you still love me?" he asked, only a hint of mischief in his voice.
"A bit." She yawned. "You?"
"To death - anyone who brings me tea like this wins my heart." He took a long gulp.
"I didn't think you had one."
"Grew it back last night."
"I'll notify the tea ladies of Britain." p203

She breathed in the scent of freshly cut grass, which was perhaps the only smell, besides that of the sea, that could make her shudder with uncontrollable happiness the moment it hit her nose." p169
[comment: I can relate]

quotes#367843 Road to Paradise

Gina oohed at my dry wit and my swearing. Candy didn't. We gulped our coffees. I got out my notebook. I wasn't sure what to do. I'm always unsure what to do, which is why I usually end up doing nothing. Opening the notebook always made me feel, perhaps falsely, that I was about to devise some kind of plan and do something. "All right, girls," I said. "What do you see as our options?" p185

quotes#313130 Road to Paradise

What if the answer you get is not the answer you want? You forgot to ask yourself if what you want is truth or comfort? p137

The words flapped in the air like clothes on a line. p135

quotes#358953 The Monk Downstairs

Maybe that was what real love was, being willing to charge toward the busy, noisy place that someone else inhabited and find what comfort there you could. p140

She felt like making phone calls: to Bonnie, to her mother. The situation called for consideration at length. But she suspected that both women would be unreservedly supportive of the kiss and its potential consequences. Bonnie believed that love could be competently assembled from available elements like a casserole, and Phoebe believed in destiny; this made both of them a little rash in matters of the heart, in Rebecca's opinion. Certainly she didn't have Bonnie's confidence in her own cooking skills. She had believed in destiny herself, of course, once upon a time; but Rory had been her destiny then. You looked at your destiny differently after a slightly messy divorce.
Am I spoiled for life? Rebecca asked herself. Ruined by cyncism? Truly, I don't think that I am. I am a woman who bailed her first husband out of jail last night. I am a realistic single mother with too much to do already. Love is all very well, but the bathtub hasn't been scrubbed in weeks. p176

next-on-list#094369

Feng shui for today's living, by Mary Lambert, c. 2008 wcl
The apple tree, by Elvi Rhodes, c. 2004 wcl
The end of the alphabet, by CS Richardson, c. 2007, wcl
Sea glass, by Anita Shreve, c. 2002 bc

quotes#496210 Such a Perfect Sister

"It's our busiest night. I need you here," he'd insisted. "Ronan spends more time poncing around than doing any work, and Ian's about as much use as a chocolate fireguard." p124

Phoebe looked around the kitchen. It was gloriously cluttered, warm and inviting. The mismatched assortment of china on the old Welsh dresser was almost hidden behind piles of letters, family photos and old copies of the Guardian. A fat ginger cat dozed by the Aga. Thw whole room was filled with the rich fragrance of cardamon and turmeric. Gina was obviously a dap hand with a Madras.
It was the kind of room Phoebe had always dreamed of having herself, a complete contrast to her own mother's joyless, interior designed kitchen, with everything ruthlessly in its place. p225
[comment: not literary at all, but still enjoyed the setting]

quotes#678916 Inside the Taxi

Ross says the great thing about driving taxis is the spontaneity with which things happen. p64
[comment: I value spontaneity in life]

quotes#647615 I'm not in the mood for love

"The only good thing to come out of the breakup with Lonny is that my writing is going surprisingly well." She found comfort in her writing. Comfort in being transported for several hours a day into a world she created when the reality of her real life sucked. p96
[comment: quote is certainly not literary ... but i record it as it means something to me]

quotes#458053 Chicken Soup for the Beach Lover's Soul

I am blessed to live near the beach and get my daily exercise. I enjoy walking on the boardwalk. The sounds of the sea are rhythmic and soothing, so I've developed the habit of listening as well as looking while I walk.
I puff along, arms swinging, boards trembling beneath my feet, or occasionally stepping down and strolling close to the water's edge, where lapping waves pack the sand firm enough for a steady pace. Walking alongside the ocean is a delight offering an ever-changing vista and the comforting sounds of the sea. p121
[comment: some wise old soul told me one day to stop, look, feel, hear, smell, taste. as a way of grounding myself]

quotes#029954 Chicken Soup for the Beach Lover's Soul

Josh, the four-year-old, suddenly spied a flock of seagulls. He had never seen these creatures before and was totally fascinated with them. My son, who needed to experience everything for himself, scampered after the birds to get a closer look.
The birds at first scurried away from the oncoming charge. Josh slowed momentarily when he saw they were running from him. He was not dissuaded and decided to try again and darted after those birds like a bullet. The seagulls took to the air, landing several feet away. Josh ran as fast as his little legs could carry him - a new destination, but the same goal. He was determined to get one of those birds.
That's when I heard it. When the game repeated itself, I heard Mom laugh. Although briefly, she did laugh at the funny sight of a boy chasing birds he'd surely never catch. p99
[comment: I can relate. Mom, in the story, was grieving and didn't laugh often]

not-so-literary-quote-but-means-something-to-me#216573 One Night with the Sheikh

Hazily Mariella noticed that the red geraniums she remembered tumbling from the urns in the outdoor courtyard had been changed to a rich vibrant pink to match the colour of the flowers of the ornamental vine softening the walls of the courtyard. p162
[comment: geraniums remind me of my childhood]

next-on-list#653615

i'm in no mood for love, by rachel gibson, c.2006 wcl pbk
inside the taxi, by geoff young, c.2002 wcl nf
such a perfect sister, by donna hay, c.2002 bc and salv army
the monk downstairs, by tim farrington, c. 2002 bc
road to paradise, by paullina simons, c. 2007 wcl
lots of love, by fiona walker, c.2003 trademe and bc

nature-quotes#299521 Bah Humbug, Baby

Along the other side of the street behind an identical mound of snow, Allison could see brightly colored hats and bare heads bobbing along. Occasionally, one would disappear from view, only to reappear a few seconds later. A green umbrella passed. A black-and-white spaniel clambered up the other side and slid toward the street. There was a bright red bow around his neck and a jingling brass bell. Two little heads appeared over the mound. Then two children, dressed in bright red snowsuits, scrambled over the top and chased the dog down the street. p134
[comment: not a literary quote at all, but it teases the imagination]

book-pure-entertainment-no-passages-last-night#671868 Do you hear what I hear by Lori Foster; in anthology A very merry Christmas

quotes#852523 Anne of Green Gables

"I'll win that scholarship if hard work can do it," she resolved. "Wouldn't Matthew be proud if I got to be a B.A.? Oh, it's delightful to have ambitions. I'm so glad I have such a lot. And there never seems to be any end to them - that's the best of it. Just as soon as you attain one ambition you see another one glittering higher up still." p235

Anne and Diana found the drive home as pleasant as the drive in - pleasanter, indeed, since there was the delightful consciousness of home waiting at the end of it. It was sunset when they passed through White Sands and turned into the shore road. Beyond, the Avonlea hills came out darkly against the saffron sky. Behind them the moon was rising out of the sea that grew all radiant and transfigured in her light. Every little cove along the curving road was a marvel of dancing ripples. The waves broke with a soft swish on the rocks below them, and the tang of the sea was in the strong, fresh air.
"Oh, but it's good to be alove and to be going home," breathed Anne. p199

quotes#348959 Anne of Green Gables

Anne drew a long breath of happiness as she sharpened her pencil and arranged her picture cards in her desk. Life was certainly very interesting. p161 [comment: i can relate to the feeling]

quotes#469826 Anne of Green Gables

"This is my little girl, Diana," said Mrs Barry. "Diana, you might take Anna out into the garden and show her your flowers. It will be better for you than straining your eyes over that book. She reads entirely too much" - this to Marilla as the little girls went out - "and I can't prevent her, for her father aids and abets her. She's alaways poring over a book. I'm glad she has the prospect of a playmate - perhaps it will take her more out-of-doors." p76

next-on-list #005671

The How of Happiness, by Sonja Lyubomirsky, c. 2007 -- wcl 158.1
One night with the sheikh, by Penny Jordan, c. 2003 -- bc 6266362
Chicken soup for the beach-lovers soul, by Jack Canfield et al, c. 2007 -- ecl
In the spaniard's bed, by Helen Bianchin, c. 2003 -- bc6266364

quotes #522197 Lucky Man

Angry or not, my only immediate recourse was to just get on with it until I could figure out some way to get out of it. p187

quotes #099662 Lucky Man

It seems to me that the quality of a moment in time is not always a reflection of the moment in and of itself - what happens before and what happens after are often what gives it its savor. Having forestalled a professional crisis, that monkey was, at least for now, off my back - and with no way of anticipating the gorilla that was waiting for me in the fall, the rest of that summer was a parenthesis of bliss. p30

- believing, as I do, in a bit of wisdom gleaned from amongst the more scatological offerings scrawled on a toilet wall door in Vancouver's Arts Club Theatre, circa 1978: a creative mess is better than an idle tidiness. p6

quotes#364451 The Leninsky Prospekt

Viktor had written the poem in his head some time ago; tonight it was the poem he decided he wanted to write down. It would make no difference if the guards came and took his pencil away; it would make no difference if they made him wash the wall or if they painted over the poem. It was hardly legible anyway. He would always have the poem in his head. He would write it down again some place else, another time. Or he would recite it, to tell it to others, again and again, to anyone who would listen, inside prison or out, until they, too, could repeat it. He'd always go on writing, spreading his word, whenever he had the chance. p120


The guards came for him just before he lay down to sleep. They wouldn't throw him into solitary after a cosy night's snooze and a strengthening if shitty breakfast; they'd throw him in now, tired out. Let him soak his feet in the standing, icy water covering the floor, then let him slump all night on the stone bench. The bench was too hard, too narrow, too cold for sleeping. p118
[comment: ah the freedoms we have in life; sleep in warmth; context: political prisoner]

quotes#475459 The House Has Three Walls

Think of the sun staring at the earth, of it frowning through the clouds, alternating with periods of concentrated effort, day after day willing the seed to burst from the unseen world into the open. And you get an idea of how Judith's Russia was able to flourish and take over the life she led with Neil in the Wairarapa. p23

passages-that-made-me-wish#066677 from The Last Week in May

And the presents - from Cathal and Gaby, a thing for all the world like a giant furry boot that heated up when you plugged it in. Then you put your feet in, apparently, both of them, and it kept them warm. He'd never heard of such a thing, often wished for some magical solution for his chilly feet. He'd try it out the minute they were gone. p288

She slid the soft-poached duck egg onto the slice of toast. Such laziness, nearly midday and still in her dressing-gown, breakfast on the table when she should have been getting lunch.
Ah, who cared? Who was there to see her, an elderly woman sitting in her own kitchen on a Saturday morning? She picked up her fork and poked it into the egg, watched the dark orange yolk slither slowly over the toast. Such luxury, not to have to rush anywhere. She reached for the salt cellar. p239

just read Little Elephant Thunderfoot by Sally Grindley & John Butler ... also a storytime pick by Diana W.

quotes#937921 Six For Heaven

he was what we called a 'gum-nut' this being the college colloquial for a 'swot' or genuine lover of books. p140

they all gathered in the stable-yard to see us off. If Jake was taking a lady out they were making it a family concern. I made a joke of scrambling into the saddle because I didn't want to look idiotic. Better to laugh at myself, and very loudly, than give them the chance to do it quietly amongst themselves. p120

squeezing in next lot #205546

The Cat Mummy, by Jacqueline Wilson, c. 2001 [recommended by acl]
The Last Week in May, by Rosin Meaney, c. 2007 lcl
This House Has Three Walls, by Lloyd Jones, c. 1997 lcl, fiction

quotes#440424 Pursuit of Happyness

My short-lived life of crime had the fleeting effect of making me grateful for what I had at home and at work. It also taught me the major principle that there ain't so such thing as easy money. Banging on that anvil, that was the way. p164

By this point, I had learned the power of asking questions and knew that the best doctors didn't mind being asked them. p131

quotes#645629 The Pursuit of Happyness

Books, as always, fulfilled my need to find power through knowledge. Over the next few years, I journeyed through black history by reading whatever I could get my hands on. Moms would never discourage me from reading any book, although she was slightly alarmed when I came home with Die Nigger by H. Rap Brown and Soul on Ice by Elridge Cleaver. p94

The full details were never revealed to me or my sisters. All I got from this time was a mechanism for becoming still when scary forces preyed on me. Fear of losing my life, losing the life of a loved one, or the fear of losing everything I have - those fears followed me for years. Stillness has been my refuge and my defense. Even later, as an adult, I would cope by being still. Very still. It's not something I would always feel good about, but it's where I go whenever there's too much chaos around me, when the world seems like crumbling, when I suddenly fear that everything or everyone I cherish is going to be taken from me in the blink of the eye.
I get still. p58

In my twenty-seven years of life so far, I have learned a little already about the power of information and about the kind of currency that information has become. Now I see an opportunity to get some inside information, I think, and so I draw out my trusty sword - a compulsion for question-asking that has been in my survival kit since childhood. p4

quotes#191548 The Business Arrangement

"Out? Why do we have to go out?" Amy asked, curled up in the corner of the sofa. "I'm reading." p95

... likes yellow flowers (adds energy to a room). p75

quotes#467522 Dies the Fire

"We don't call anyone evil because of their faith. There are many roads to the Divine. We'd just like you to promise to reciprocate, as a demonstration of goodwill." p402

quotes#763381 Dies the Fire

It was good to laugh with friends; good to have some problems that looked solvable, as well. And sometimes the Goddess just gave you a bonus. p343

All you had to do was to stop the part of your mind that was always telling itself stories. p231

"The Mother-of-All's been good to us, Dennie. But She's giving us a message, too. We have to pay back, if we don't want the luck to leave us - threefold return for good or ill." p115

Dies the Fire is very similar to Burning Road. Read the latter in 2006.

kids reading #992587

anneke - the snow spider by jenny nimmo - much enjoyed - read it in one sitting
margaret and myself - a book on tooth fairies -- i need to edit the title at some point

Squeezing In #463793

One of our patrons was talking about this book yesterday - how he read it when Hurrican Katrina was on in New Orleans.

"Dies the Fire," by S.M. Stirling, c. 2004

Birthdays #969532

10th Dad took me to Canterbury Public Library - the old brick one - looked up Cobbs, Seattle
20th Homemade Baileys made by Pip in pub on corner of George St and London St; research done to find the name of it -- Albert Arms
30th Macaroni Grill in Miami, Jackie with us, just newly pregnant with Anneke
40th Wainuiomata Library; family party day before with all the cousins

quotes #934918 Liars & Lovers. A Travel Memoir

On my second-to-last night, Percy and Sarah put on a dinner party for us and some other friends. Their house as I remember it was somewhat chaotic, and perhaps this was why I related so well to them. They were magpies like me, with books and papers and clothes strewn everywhere. It was just the kind of house I aspired to. A house where people lived and loved and made room for everything. p235

"Inshallah," he said again.
"What does that mean?"
"God willing." p208

quotes #458950 Liars & Lovers. A Travel Memoir

About ten years later I discovered that I never know what I want to write about until I actually start doing it. Like a sculptor, I have to chip away at the surface until I find the essential form underneath. And usually something in my own life sets off the process. p169

I was also blessed or cursed with good old pragmatism. A particularly New Zealand trait? p106

I think that contrary to common perception, people become more curious as they get older. Maybe it has something to do with too many hormones whizzing round the brain in one's teens and early twenties. p62

quotes #238222

Some quotes from Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing:
During chemo, you're more tired than you've ever been. It's like a cloud passing over the sun, and suddenly you're out. You don't know how you'll answer the door when your groceries are delivered.
But you also find that you're stronger than you've ever been. You're clear. Your mortality is at optimal distance, not up so close that it obscures everything else, but close enough to give you depth perception. Previously, it has taken you weeks, months, or years to discover the meaning of an experience. Now, it's instanteous. p221

The only way for a woman, as for a man, to know herself as a person, is by creative work of her own. -- Betty Friedan p76

"When I asked how my job was, I said, "Okay."
"Really?" he said."
"No," I said. I told him that I wasn't sure I belonged in publishing. "I'm getting worse instead of better."
"You keep talking about whether you're good at this or not," he said. "The real question is, do you enjoy it?"
"I might hate it," I said.He reminded me that I loved books.
"I don't read books," I said. "I read manuscripts that aren't good enough to become books."
"What do you think you'd like to do instead?" he asked.
I said that I'd been thinking about writing a series of pamphlets called "The Loser's Guide." .... p174

list #372102

"dearly departed. everything you want to know about the afterlife," by georgina walker, c. 2008 wcl
"the english doctors dilemma," by lucy clark, c. 2004 bc6244429
"the business arrangement," by natasha oakley, c.2005 bc6244431
"the pursuit of happyness," by chris gardner, c. 2006 lcl
"six for heaven," by lucy walker, c.1952 bc5520243

Next on my list:

Liars & Lovers, by Diane Brown, c. 2004 wcl 928.21
Webmage, by Kelly McCullough, c. 2006 wcl
The Princes Love-Child, by Sharon Kendrick, c.2004 bc622-9537

note to myself ... current read "so much for my happy ending," bipolar

next books on my list ...

"Vows," by Denis Edwards, c. 1997 -- lcl request
"the speed of light," by elizabeth rosner, c. 2001 -- ecl request
"the times of our lives," by louise hay and friends, c. 2007 -- wcl
"the girls guide to hunting and fishing," by melissa bank, c. 1999 -- bc6194555

from current read: "50 harbor st," by macomber

He didn't generally reveal his emotions; he was the kind of the man who showed his love through the things he did, not the things he said. p82

Saturday pile ... after netball and soccer this morning ...

So much for my happy ending, by Kyra Davis, c. 2006 wcl
Shining on, anthology, c. 2006 wcl ya
The midwife's miracle baby, by Amy Andrews, c. 2005 bc
Huia short stories, anthology c. 2007 wcl

ahh, decided to postpone reading the following two books - too much going on at work etc and wanted escapism for a bit instead of self-help:

Ordinary miracles, by Rebekah Montgomery, c. 2000 -- wcl --231.73 mon
The hidden gifts of the introverted child, by Marti Olsen Laney, c. 2007 -- lcl -- 155.418 lan

and .. tried
The colour of magic, by Terry Pratchett, c. 1983 --teen PCL - d borrowed it for ACL -- but couldn't get into this at all

so these are my next few books ...

australian womens weekly. april 2008
Switchcraft, by Lowri Turner, c. 2004 bc 5933182
The daydreamer, by Ian McEwan, c. 1994 wcl
Kept by the tycoon, by Lee Wilkinson, c. 2006 -- harl -- wcl
Paging Aphrodite, by Kim Green, c. 2008 wcl
50 Harbor St, by Debbie Macomber, c. 2005 wcl

“less than a week, and I’ve lost count of how many pairs of pyjamas you’ve got.”
She shrugged. “Do you know how many pens you’ve got?”
“Two thousand three hundred and fifty-nine.”
Her jaw dropped and then closed with a click. “You’re joking.”
He put a hand over his heart. “I never joke about inventory. But in the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that there are more than that. Maybe a couple dozen. Link has got tucked away someplace. The extra specials, he calls them.”

in the circle of light Julia’s hands are foreign, mechanical contraptions covered with skin, with a life and purpose of their own. The needle flashes and pierces the linen stretched taut in the circular frame, and the thread follows it.
There is comfort in this work. It is orderly, and small enough to be contained; she will know when she is finished. Her needle makes its way, tracing the ghost of the original stitches, each as clear and clean as a footprint in the snow.

netsuke

Julia talked. She told him about the weather in a city halfway across the country, the quality of the particular kind of cold that comes off Lake Michigan, the way the city seems to glow on a sunny winter day, so mercilessly bright that people go out in N-3B parkas and sunglasses, like high-mountain hikers. The plain hard work of getting dressed to walk a block to the el stop or the grocery store when the windchill hit twenty below. How layers of clothes suddenly felt like the thinnest silk when a wind came shooting directly off the lake. Julia talked about Chicago in the winter and her face was alive with memories.
The stream of talk began to shift very slightly, a story about trying to navigate an icy sidewalk with arms full of shopping bags; how quickly a clear bright January afternoon could metamorphose into something very different.

“but everybody gets the blues now and then,” said Beate.

it was easy to lose track of time when the shop was busy. something Julia liked best about being on the floor. People came in emptyhanded and went out with a shopping bag or two to make room for the next customers. Except today it didn’t work that way. Today her customers didn’t leave, they just lined up along the windows to watch Halloween unfolding.

“you’ve got to choose,” Mayme said. “You can go over to your aunt Paulene’s and eat her dry turkey and green Jell-O mold with the peas and carrots, or you can come have your dinner with Nils and me at Tindell’s.”
If she wasn’t so mad at her sister, Mayme might have found something comic about her daughter’s expression. Bean loved eating out and she especially loved eating at Annabeth Tindell’s place. But it was no small matter, being turned away from the family dinner table because your mama was dating a white man with a funny accent who wasn’t even a proper Southern Baptist.

The Pyjama Girls of Lambert Square by Sara Donati, c. 2008

Next on the pile ...

Oh forgot to add the "The Pyjama Girls of Lambert Square," by Sara Donati, c. 2008 - squeezed it in -- wcl -- new book

The glass heart, by Sally Gardner, c. 2001 -- wcl -- red graphic
Ordinary miracles, by Rebekah Montgomery, c. 2000 -- wcl --231.73 mon
The hidden gifts of the introverted child, by Marti Olsen Laney, c. 2007 -- lcl -- 155.418 lan
The colour of magic, by Terry Pratchett, c. 1983 --teen PCL - d borrowed it for ACL

This week's pile:

12 days, edited by Shelley Silas, c. 2004 -- TCL -- must have been returned to WCL for me to get it
The Story of You, by Julie Myerson, c. 2006 -- WCL
A Family to Belong To, by Natasha Oakley, c. 2005 -- WCL
Wise Up, by Lindsey Dawson, c. 2006 -- WCL 155.66

Back again with a pile of books ...

Tarik's Mountain, by Dana James, c. 1988 bc6017414
Dangerous Bargain, by Kathryn Stewart, c. 1991 bc6017417
The Confession of an Unrepentant Lesbian Ex-Mormon, by Sue-Ann Post, c. 2005 -- wcl 927.927
What I Know Now, by Sarah Ferguson, c. 2003
Princess in Disguise, by Lilian Darcy, c. 2006 bc6017420

Last couple of quotes from book, Fragile:

That morning remains in my memory as a hazy, dreamlike blur, shot through with splinters of pin-sharp clarity. p178

I'm not, as I have mentioned, the most sociable person in the world and I can actually be, by turns, crippling shy and miserably misanthropic. One of the reasons I loved the Twins List was that I am so much more comfortable with the written rather than spoken word. The distance that stood between me and the other listees had, paradoxically, made me feel safe enough to open up much more than I would have under normal circumstances; I felt protected by this anonymity and so had developed a level of initmacy with the group that I would generally find oppressive. Now I was going to actually meet one of the people to whom I had poured out my heart and I had a horrible sinking feeling that, not only would we not get on, but we would be forced into fake amity once a month for the rest of my life. p141

Normal is actually an incredibly elastic concept. p151

Thursday choices:

Next on my pile:

Doctor and Protector, by Meredith Webber, c. 2004 -- bc 5967589
Getting Over It, by Anna Maxted, c. 2000 -- bc 5992324
The City of Ember, by Jeanne DuPrau, c. 2003 -- PCL, red kids book

Tried Gravedigger -- with not much luck ... shall return it without finishing it.

Next in my pile of books:

Jimmy Zest, by Sam McBratney, c. 1982 -- red WCL -- junior
Vicky Angel, by Jacqueline Wilson, c. 2000 -- red MCL -- junior
Volcanic airs, by Elizabeth Pewsey, c. 1996 -- bc 597 6072
Delilah alone, by Jenny Nimmo, c. 1997 -- red LCL -- junior
Footsteps of the Gods, by Hana Hiraina Erlbeck, c. 1998 -- JZ 398.099
Fragile, by Niki Shisler, c. 2006 -- LCL 362.82 adult

A couple of quotes from current read, Winter Blessings:

If there is a God, we're all it. -- John Lennon, p155

One night I was feeling particularly down and was questioning why I was still in bits after all these years, and what value this hardship could possibly have. Surely, I reasoned, it made much more sense for me to use the talents that had been given to me, instead of lying down doing nothing? I picked up a spiritual book that I'd been drawn to and asked for guidance and an answer to my questions. I opened it at random and read a most inspiring passage. The answer I was given couldn't have been clearer. It made me understand that we're often very hard on ourselves. Our treadmills seem to get faster and faster. We need to stop and rest and reflect. Our spirits and our bodes need to renew themselves, just as the earth needs to rest and renew itself over the winter. p30

"Drybread," -- vg read

Saturday night musings ....

Next in pile to read,

"Winter Blessings," by Patricia Scanlan, c. 2005 -- LCL book -- retd today shelf
"The Girl Who Fell Into A book," by Julia Lawrinson, c. 2006 -- WCL -- J purple
"Confessions of a Bad Mother," by Stephanie Calman, c. 2005 -- BC 5955969
"The Thirteenth Tale," by Diane Setterfield, c. 2006 -- WCL

ACL read "One Way Ticket," by Iona McNaughton, c. 2004 -- Canadian family moves to NZ.

MRL is getting better at reading every day ....

ACL inhaled a book from Anthony & Lisa ... "Utterly Me, Clarice Bean" by Lauren Child, c. 2002

quotes from the book I am reading ... "The Road of Bones," by Anne Fine, c. 2006

"We'd learned from the bitter experience of others never to call the attention to ourselves by standing out from the crowd. Safer by far always to plod along as close as you could to the centre of any group, with eyes downcast. Still, it was easy enough to steal a glance as we trudged past. One of the men on the first truck was wrinkling his nose at the stink, and staring in astonishment at the vast hummocks of excrement behind the latrines." p162

"In winter I'd warn him not to panic the first time he woke and found himself unable to lift his head. 'You won't be paralysed. It'll just be your hair frozen fast to the bedding.'
Perhaps he'd laugh, not quite believing me. I'd show him how to sleep with feet jammed into a jacket sleeve for extra warmth, and how to thicken his overcoat with rags, and wrap his face with more rags against the stinging winds." p163

I am motoring through my current read, "Diving Through Clouds," by Nicola Lindsay. This is narrated by someone was has passed away.

Next lot of books on the horizon:

"Happily Ever After," by Susan May Warren, c. 2003 -- WCL
"Fogheart," by Thomas Tessier, c. 1997 -- bc 5578888
"Fresh as a Daisy," by Valerie-Anne Baglietto, c. 2003 -- PCL
"Eyes Right, and They's Wrong," by Joe Bennett, c. 2007 -- WCL new book stand
"Moonbirds, the," by Jenny Jackson, c. 2007 -- LCL kids book
"Daybread," by Owen Marshall, c. 2007 -- LCL book
"Gravedigger, the," by Peter Grandbois, c. 2006 -- LCL book

My current read "The Healer," by Jean Brashear is intriguing. Ancient healing meets western medicine ... in a superromance.

Next pile of books to be read:

"Driving through the clouds," by Nicola Lindsay, c. 2001 -- from ret'd today shelves LCL
"The road of bones," by Anne Fine, c. 2006 -- teen WCL -- picked up for acl but she thought the cover was too scary
"The very smart pea and the princess-to-be", by Mini Grey, c. 2003 -- kids picture book, LCL
"The day of the jackal," by Frederick Forsyth c. 1971 -- woa comm centre -- bc 587 5482
"When you can walk on water, take the boat," by John Harricharan, c. 1986 -- bc 5875 495
"Roland Wright, future knight," by Tony Davis, c. 2007 -- new book WCL -- "red kids"

from "Amy's Honeymoon" ....

... trying to get him focus on actual details was about as easy as an oil tanker doing a three-point turn in a paddling pool. p277

To his surprise he found himself thinking about the doctor who had cured his spot. Her life was about more than parties and photoshoots. He suddenly wished he could talk to her. Where was the meaning to it all? He'd always mocked them, but he was beginning to see how Guy and Madonna had fallen for all that Kabbalah stuff. And maybe Tom had the right idea when it came to Scientology? p218

Not a thread was out of plac, not a cuticle loose. All the women were so brown they looked like saddles with eyes. p222

Two books to return in the morning ..

"The Kingfisher Treasury of Bedtime Stories," chosen by Nora Clarke ... ACL enjoyed.

"Blenheim Orchard," by Tim Pears, c. 2007 ... didn't read this time round, reserved from LCL

Wednesday night post, although it seems like a Sunday ... as it is Waitangi Day here.

Will be returning two books in the morning;

Starry Nights, by Judith Clarke, c. 2001 -- ACL really enjoyed this one. Unread by me at this stage.

Cross Stitch for Christmas, by Anne Marie Petersen, c. 1990 -- from PCL -- needs revisiting but also needs conversion from "danish flower thread" to DMC

Next to read:

Living with little quilts, by Alice Berg et al, c. 1997 -- lcl
The Hornbeam tree, by Susan Lewis, c. 2004 -- bc 584 0028
Blue fire, by Sarah Holland, c. 1994 -- petone ubs -- bc 572 7403

Adding in a romance here .... for variety's sake. Randomly chosen to read:

The Scarecrow and the Servant -- then

"Seven Year Seduction," by Heidi Betts, c. 2006, WCL harl

then

Old Bones -- then

"Tempt Me," by Caroline Cross, c. 2006, WCl harl

then as per previous posts -- nut after "Amy's Honeymoon" ... "The Healer," by Jean Brashear, c, 2003 -- bc 5826934

"The Worry Tree," by Marianne Musgrove, c. 2007

Juliet's a worrywart, and no wonder! Her little sister, Oaf, follows her around taking notes and singing "The Irritating Song" all day long ....

Delightful book

"All Because of You," by Melissa Hill

Nice piece of escapism.

Dang it lost my post ... ACL and I had a nice trip to LCL today while DML was testing bikes. [MRL is still in Wairarapa with Lilley family]. ACL is on the mission to complete the Gahoole series by Lasky.

Please tell me if I am unusual .... I read more when at home, in routine, than I do when away on holiday. Why?

"Boobela and Worm,"

Enjoyable pictures, espec between vignettes. Interesting enough story.


Next books on my list:
"The Scarecrow and his Servant," by Philip Pulman, c. 2004 -- wcl -- red fic
"Old Bones," by Bill Nagelkerke, c. 2006 -- wcl -- red fic
"Babyfather," by Joanna Kendrick, c. 2007 -- wcl -- ya fic
"The Sledding Hill," by Chris Crutcher, c. 2005 -- wcl --ya fic
"The Blacksmith," by Jenny Maxwell, c. 1996 -- bc 5486434
"Amy's Honeymoon," by Julia Llewellyn, c. 2007 -- ecl -- request

"Library Mouse," by Daniel Kirk, c. 2007

Inspirational. The book just came into work the other day.

from library jacket ...

"Sam was a library mouse. His home was a little hole in the wall behind the children's reference books, and he thought that life was very good indeed ..."

[green picture book wcl]

There are some beautiful passages on libraries, and the fun of reading in "After You've Gone." As of bedtime I'm at p162 of p340 (47.6475%).

"I was at the library."
"You and your library! It's a wonder you're not cross-eyed with all that reading. Are you on your way home?" p162

"He was there, writing at his usual table. Willa wondered why he chose to write in the library and not at home but perhaps he wouldn't want his mother peering over his shoulder and asking what he was writing. Having seen her, Willa thought that possible. She looked like the kind of woman who would want to know everything. And, in an odd way, which Willa understood, the library was more private, in spite of all the other people around. p158

Started "Santaland Diaries," last night. It is a pretty quick read. I found the tongue-in-cheek a little bit to handle, but on the whole it was readable.

Next couple of random reads ..

"All because of you," by Melissa Hill, c. 2006 - ecl - reserve
"The worry tree," by Marianne Musgrove, c. 2007 -- pcl -- kids red book -- on end cap

armchair travel from Liverpool to Kansas ... 07128 and 08001