*Book source ~ NetGalley

Jeremy Johnson Johnson of Never Better can hear voices and ever since he made the announcement as a child the townspeople have treated him like crap which got worse after his mother skipped town and his father became a recluse. But Jeremy usually doesn’t let it get him down. He has the ghost of Jacob Grimm as his companion and a goal to go away to college to keep him going. Until one day Ginger Boultinghouse turns her considerable charms on him and things go mostly downhill from there. With one of the Brothers Grimm by his side, do you think Jeremy has a happy ending?

This fairy tale retelling is a weird one to follow. Jeremy is kinda boring except for his ghost friend Jacob and his daring friend Ginger. But the tale is told from Jacob’s POV so it’s actually more interesting than it starts out. Jacob is supposed to be protecting Jeremy from someone or something called The Finder of Occasions. As the story is told, Jeremy goes about his fairly unremarkable life, trying to figure out a way to keep from getting evicted and the tension builds and builds and builds because this sinister-sounding Finder takes plenty of time (nearly the entire book!) to show up. The suspense was almost unbearable! I kept wondering when the shoe was going to drop. And when it does? Holy shit! Yeeeks! I can’t really go into detail without giving it away, so I’ll just say I was unsatisfied with the Finder’s part of the story. The why is left hanging. Or maybe I missed it. Not sure which. Anyway, this is still a decent read.

I made an exciting adventure to a flea market in New Castle DE today and while there were not many book tables, they had really good deals, so I did get some random stuff just for the heck of it. Cuz...books. Also found some other neat things. Altogether I think I only spent 70-80 dollars on the whole lot. There was another table of books, but the lady wanted like...30 dollars a hardback and 10 dollars and paperback--they were good looking books too....but I was like...nu-uh.
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The first book I picked up is a beat up hardback about horse racing, as I wanted to be a female jockey when I was little, before moving to English riding. Then I picked up the second because of the lovely cover, a book about a mans adventures in the south of France.
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Now I have yet another Pilcher in my collection, being the third, and from what i can gather, it's set in the 30s and 40s, during WWII. I like the cover. The second is a little vintage childrens book that caught my eye, a hardback with black and white illustrations.
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These two books are definitely me, the first being a little book of glossy photographs of The Longwood Gardens, and then a small guidebook to the birds of Eastern North America, a hardback.
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Then I found a vintage collection of short stories by Hemingway and a very large maritime saga set in 1896. Should be interesting. {I also saw someone with a pug near the table where I got these books. So ugly, yet so cute.}
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Two mysteries, one by an author who I'm a pretty big fan of. I'm mad I couldn't procure the first William Monk novel, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to read "Slaves Of Obsession" until I do. I have read a few of Perry's Thomas and Pitt novels {1, 2, 3, and 4, I think}, but not any of her William monk. "Dying For Mercy" sounded interesting from the inner flap. We'll see how it goes.
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These last books came from a place in a store on the inside building part of the flea market, which is lined with stores--it's the only book place in the whole building and called Between The Pages--it should really be called Between The Sheets, as it consists of nothing but romance novels--mostly smut and books with half naked guys dipping silk clothed damsels, but I was surprised this time to find it well stocked with historical romances, my favourite and my dessert as far as books go..my girlish indulgence. I was in a hurry as my mom was sweating to death, so I snatched up "The Fountain" without even looking at it, but I'll give it a shot. The others besides "End Me A Tenor" I found through scouring the book laden shelves for authors names that were familiar or were mentioned in the Historical Romances Goodreads group. Both are Regency, I believe, though I maybe wrong. "End Me a Tenor" just looked like a light fun read.

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Now onto the non-book stuff... :)
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I bought these two DVDs out of nostalgia and love.

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Then I found a lovely blouse with purple feathers and blue...what I'm assuming is waves, and a floral dress that looks just about my size. Also, a little pair of strawberry earrings! :P



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Lastly, and what I love most of all besides the books, is this darling figurine which is also a spinning music box.  The poor gentleman lost part of an arm, but my fathers trusty glue-gun will turn him alright again, I'm sure. I shall have to think of names for them..
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I think this may be the last of my hauls for a while, unless temptation sneaks up and points me in the direction of an nearby secondhand bookshop---the older stuff always lures me and I'm still waiting till I find a Virago Modern Classic at any thrift store/flea market/etc-this doesn't seem to happen in America, but I heard the UK peoples are lucky. For now, I will read what I have unread on my shelves. I had a really great day and also got a delicious strawberry banana smoothie and got to be outside in the sun, though I appreciated it much more than my mom did...On a side note, I convinced my mom to get some Danielle Steel books for herself, as she's her favourite. I may just turn my mom back to reading yet...

Seriously? What the fuck is this crap? I wanted a true crime story...not a freakin' 20-21st century history of the evils of fundamental Mormonism. Skipping until I have more time and patience.

I think I'm starting early on my New Year resolution of not wasting time on books that I am not enjoying. Seriously, if a book doesn't interest me in 50 pages or 25% of a book...I really need to just move on unless there is a definite reason to continue. 

There are too many great books out there and not nearly enough time to read them all. 

I read Arthur C. Clarke's Imperial Earth back in the late 70s when I was 15 or 16 years old. It was published in 1976 as a sort of tie-in with the American Bicentennial. Isaac Asimov published The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories around the same time. I was just old enough to view these tie-ins as a marketing ploy and did my best to avoid them. But Clarke was smart enough not to put the word "Bicentennial" or any reference to the USA in the title and thus I started reading Imperial Earth as just a book by one of my favorite authors. (Asimov's book of short stories turned out to be pretty good but I didn't discover that until much later.

I found my current copy of Imperial Earth at a used book store for $8.00 in hard cover. Back when I read it for the first time as a teenager much of it went over my head. Back then I saw it as both a "book of wonder" (as in wow, living in the future as a clone on Titan and traveling through space is really cool) and a mystery novel. But as a mystery it was slow and subtle. Somebody dies but there is no murderer. The characters in Imperial Earth act cagy but in the end there is no crime. 

In rereading Imperial Earth nearly 37 years later it's become the great novel that it always was. Clarke requires his readers to come to his books with enough knowledge of history, science, and mythology to truly follow his references and innuendo. The book opens with the hero, Duncan, as a youth discovering a magnificent sound. It could be a storm on the surface of his world (Titan, a moon of Saturn), or a rocket ship, or a monster. He shares the sounds with his best friend Karl. I now realize it's one of the best opening chapters in all of Science Fiction. 

Clarke paints a picture of the future where skin color and sexual preferences are of little importance. A world where the Earth is at peace and humanity is looking out to the stars, listening for alien civilizations or maybe alien monsters.

I don't want to give the book's secrets away but it all fits together like a pentomino puzzle (one of Duncan's favorite pastimes . (And by the way, Clarke predicts the smart phone and the Internet in this book.)

Two items popped up with the name Lawrence today. One was about D.H. Lawrence, the author. He is mostly noted for long fiction like "Women in Love" and "Sons and Lovers," but he also wrote poetry. Apparently he wrote lots of it because there is new volume of his poems out from Cambridge University Press that runs over 1,400 pages long. Critics praise his poetry as much as his prose. But if you want to read all of it you'll have to cough up $250 for the book. Ouch. 

The other Lawrence in the news is T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia). A new book about his life and the history surrounding him is just out as well, entitled "Lawrence in Arabia" by author and journalist Scott Anderson. As Arab Spring continues to turn to a hot, arid summer this new history seems well timed for anyone wanting more background on the Middle East. The book is from  Doubleday, around $29.