Kate over at Peace and Pekoe issued a book meme challenge and I took it up.

a) it’s a great idea

b) it lets me talk about books

c) it lets me procrastinate a little longer from writing the five book reviews I need to be writing for the Women Unbound Reading Challenge

So here they are!

the 10 books I am MOST grateful to have had recommended to me by others

1. Ship of Magic – Robin Hobb
   

   recommended by my husband, the first woman fantasy author I read, and the book that opened the door to reading three trilogies of hers. more waiting in the wings even.

2. On Writing – Stephen King
   

   again, recommended by my husband, it taught me so much about writing, myself and where i want to go in life

3. the Josephine Bonaparte trilogy – Sandra Gulland
   

   recommendation from a girlfriend and a fantastic historical collection

4. Gates of Fire – Stephen Pressfield
   

   yet another historical fiction interpretation of the Battle of Thermopylae, lately made popular via the movie 300. i loved this book long before Gerard Butler, but it made seeing the visuals in the movie much more enjoyable. oh and recommended by a random friend.

5. Outlander – Diana Gabaldon
   

   sexy Scots in kilts. no wonder my neighbour kept harping on me to read this. the closest i’ve gotten to romance. don’t start me on the latest books in this series. i’m not happy about them, but will never deny how much i loved Outlander and the next few books after it

6. Eye of the World – Robert Jordan
   

   my first fantasy love. my husband kept saying, “You’ll love this. It’s got such good female characters.” he was so right. Egwene, Nynaeve, Moiraine, Tuon, Aviendha. you girls rock.

7. Louisa May Alcott – Harriet Reisen
   

   recommended by my library. it was gold. just bought a copy. review forthcoming.

8. The Making of a Nurse – Tilda Shalof
   

   recommended by my local bookstore. led me to read ALL of her books and solidified my future career as a nurse. can’t wait. can’t wait.

9. Taliesin – Stephen R. Lawhead
   

   yet another from my husband. when we got married, i had not yet read much fantasy. so he had lots of ideas of things for me to try that i ended up adoring. Lawhead was one of those authors. this first book in his Pendragon Cycle got me to read all six books, and then his Song of Albion trilogy. his Celtic Crusades and Robin Hood trilogies are on the shelf begging for my attention.

10. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8
    

    recommended by my comic book buddy. was an easy sell since the tv series was such a favourite. i didn’t know however if the comic book would be a good medium for these characters. turns out that it’s great! and showed me what i love about visual books like comics. because of these i still peruse this new section in our library and have read some more great books like Persepolis, Watchmen, Identity Crisis and my latest favorite book about writing because it’s got me exploring new places, What It Is

and a shorter list of 5 recommendations that fell flat

1. Wicked – Gregory Maguire
   

   a rare recommendation from my little brother. couldn’t get past the first page.

2. The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
   

   like recommended by everyone. didn’t do it for me.

3. Dead Until Dark – Charlaine Harris
   

   my girlfriend that i chew True Blood over with and oh and ah over Bill and Eric desperately wanted me to read these so we could equally chew over them. i tried. i really did. but why read the same story over again? i didn’t make sense and i liked watching it better

4. The House of Spirits – Isabel Allende.
   

   a COL read that just made no sense to me. was sad because i like group reads and hearing what everyone has to say.

5. A Briefer History of Time – Stephen Hawking
   

   remember how i said my husband had so many good recommendations for me. this one wasn’t good.  i’m the one with a science degree and he’s the one who took a physics book to the beach to read. go figure. but i’d really rather listen to him muse over the crazy possibilities of quantum mechanics than read it myself. lol

Happy Saturday everyone!!!

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She asked me the question last week. The Tuesday before Easter and she wanted to know the truth regarding the existence of mythical holiday characters that leave gifts of one sort or another in the middle of the night.

With a deep internal sigh, I prepared myself for the end of the deep magic. I knew she both deserved the truth and had prepared herself for it. So, waving goodbye to another piece of her childhood, the truth is what I gave her.

And in response, without surprise but earnestness, she said, “Thank you Mom. Thank you for the presents.”

Wow was all I could register. The magic was more real than I ever could have imagined.

ps. didn’t i publish this last week? weird. when i took a look, it wasn’t there on the homepage and it was still in my drafts. too weird.

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