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