Shallow Thoughts Blog

I found a new blog Shallow Thoughts Blog.  She comments on books and TV shows.  We don't watch the same TV shows (The Bachelor and related shows leave me cold as do Little House On The Prairie reruns) always but I do appreciate her comments about The Real Housewives Of Washington DC.  They are hilarious as are her comments about Little Joe (Pa on the Little House show etc.)
Her book reviews are warm and funny, OK the two or three I read were warm and funny.  Anyway check it out.
What REALLY got me is her book review blog is supposedly silly and superfluous?  Mine (I thought) was all solemn and like serious....as solemn and serious as I can be anyway. 

Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos

Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos is definitely in the chick lit category. You can buy Belong to Me here on Amazon. Looking for a good chick lit book to read on your early vacation, buy this one. While most of us can relate to parts of this book not eveyone has a college degree or an impossibly handsome husband (OK I think mine is handsome but don't tell him!!) but the actual story could be anyone anywhere. Marisa de los Santos has written a prelude to this book, Love Walked In, and she has a phd and writes poetry, it shows. The book is very well written, at least for me I thought I knew what was going to happen and then no it didn't make sense and then it did. New love and hope springing from tragedies and people remaking their lives are always worthwhile reading.
Overall I give this book a 9 out of 10.

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

I loved it, it's been a month or so since I read it, I'm honest don't put on, but it's a great little read. Like most reviewers I say it's main drawback is it's too short. If you find the holidays somewhat ludicrous anyway this is the book for you. From Mr. Sedaris's stint as an Elf @ Macy's to the story entitled Six To Eight Black Men, this holiday satire is sure to entertain and amuse and that's what we ask of a book isn't it?
176 pages of pure fun, Holidays on Ice is available @ Amazon.com, clicky clicky, ok I need sleep, it's my Friday. I got my copy from my local library which is a great place, despite us having like a very small county population, remember support your local library AND your local bookstore!
BTW I haven't quit reading, just started working more hours, so am reading less and what's more have MUCH less time to write. I'll try to be a little more faithful, you haven't gotten even part of my puny unmeaningful thoughts on books I am simply panting to share with you.
OK, I'll go sleep.

The Toss of a Lemon by Padma Viswanathan

Ok, it's long, 600 pages I think. It's got strange names in it. But it's mesmerizing. It follows an Indian woman for 70 years, first as a young girl briefly, then married and bearing children to a strange Brahmin man, well he disappears with naked men with long hair into the forest and casts horoscopes, other than that he's perfectly normal. They have two children who seem to almost be good and evil, the plump golden daughter whom everyone is drawn to and the scrawny slightly misshapen son who seems to repel most. The husband dies soon after as he had predicted but had hired a servant who is of a lower caste whom you soon have deep sympathy and admiration for despite his peculiarities. The tale soon has you in it's spell from this point forward. I thought oh boy a story about a widow, just what I wanted to read about. Then it turns out she can't touch anyone during the daylight hours because of some caste rule, by this time I was glad she wasn't being burned alongside her husband. She continues on and while upholding archaic harmful caste rules she manages to do good in the world and not only raise her own children but her grandchildren also.
It's a long book, if you don't like to read it's probably not for you, you're not finishing it in one sitting. But I do know so much more about India and it's culture from this book than I did before and I ENJOYED learning it. A great read, it kept me interested up to the end without much sex or intrigue other than basic family happenings albeit they were in India and tied up with caste and exotic foods and musical instruments it's a tale that is set from the late 1800s to the mid 1900s but is timeless in it's entertainment and enlightenment value.
Amazon link here.

P. D. James The Private Patient

I read this book around new years and it was the best part of my new years, other than my husband was home and we had the day off! Yes I did sleep most of the day, no I didn't have a hangover but we did get in in the wee hours of the morning. My husband doesn't drink and I had to drive my car home, spent it with two of the kids and the oldest granddaughter in a typical Missouri fashion, in the shop, everyone has them that has a farm or a business, big tin building with a wood stove, handy for parties since most of them have plumbing now! Husband played cards with a bunch of guys, I'm not sure he knew when I came to the party? I hate pitch, did I tell you that? Back to the book.
It's a typical English whodunit but with twists, some of them modern, some of them hundreds of years old, a witch burning was one and a girl who had killed her sister but seemed to be completely without remorse. I can't recall if I had read any of P. D. James other books but I probably have. She has made a fan out of me. The freezer part was particularly horrifying to me and I don't have claustrophobia! Actually reading about the private lives of the detectives assigned to the case would have been a story in itself, maybe that's what makes P. D. James books so good, there's a story upon a story upon a story?
I'll tell you a secret, I can read Steven King on a dark stormy night, doesn't bother me. I can WATCH a scary movie alone if I want to see it and I am fine. I read a true crime book or a murder whodunit and I have nightmares? I guess the first two genres go into the file in my brain labeled fairy tale and the other two go into .....maybe this could happen..., I don't know but this didn't give me nightmares but it could have happened. I didn't see the final twist @ the end coming, the REAL motive but it does make me glad I haven't written an expose`. Saying I didn't have nightmares doesn't mean the whole thing wasn't plausible though.
If you like whodunit's or if you like England it's hard to put down and you find all sorts of reasons for continuing to read. The Private Patient is worth the read.
Once again I got mine @ the library, you can too or buy it @ amazon.com here.