The Most Intelligent Dragons Wear Hats with Earflaps

Huh?

I rarely remember my dreams, but I awoke from one at 12:50 (thanks to that Grande vanilla skinny latte), and those were the words of wisdom that I heard just before waking.  Man, I wish there were Tivo for dreams, don’t you?  I had another one about the condo and my ex-husband, but I know that’s just the stress of selling seeping through.  Anyone who understands my dream statement, please share, would ya?

I had a decent writing day today after a few crap days.  I got what happens next in the story, which means for at least a week I should be focussed when I do my Treadmill time.  Maybe all of the reading I’ve been doing is helpful.  Here’s a rundown, less brilliant, obviously, than the original, lost book review post.

On my way out to Albuquerque, I finished up Nick Hornby’s A Long Way Down.  Clever as always, Hornby gives the reader four first-person narrators, mixing up the narrations throughout.  While this offers four different points of view about the same events, it’s not as confusing as I feared when I started the book.  He manages to make each voice distinct.  I’ll admit to preferring his How to be Good.  I really enjoyed High Fidelity–movie and book, too.  I’ll read anything he puts out; I know I can trust him to give me solid writing and a good story.

Since I had packed light and only brought one book (I always pack way too many books and knitting projects.  If the plane goes down, and I have to survive in the Andes, I want some entertainment, dammit!), I stopped by my favorite bookseller in NM and browsed around.  Lisa Tucker’s newest book was out in paperback, so I grabbed that.  I studied with Lisa in Taos, and she had read from this novel last year.  I was pretty psyched to read it, and I wasn’t disappointed. Once Upon a Day follows a young woman as she leaves the creepily protective nest her father has created in order to find her brother.  She meets up with a doctor-turned-cabby, and the adventure begins.  Lisa does great things with narration, and the plot is surprising and unexpected.  There are a few different settings, but each feesl distinct from the others.  I was pretty sad when the book ended because I wanted to stay with the characters and see what would happen next in their lives.  That’s always a good sign to me!

Before I started that novel, though, Scout loaned me Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.  I started it in the airport on the way home, and I finished it just as we landed in Chicago.  There were parts I had to read out loud to Neal (I’m sure the fellow in front of me with his seat reclined in my lap enjoyed them, too), and now he’s reading it, too.  Mind you, this is the third book I’ve known him to read since we got together.  He reported that he liked it when we spoke this morning (he started it on the bus into work).  I won’t bore you with plot details, but I will say that Gruen made me fall in love with an elephant.  The story was exciting, and Gruen’s research paid off–the details of the circus and the Depression are meticulous and kept me in the narrative dream.

There are a few more books for me to tell you about, but I don’t want to tempt the fates with too long of a post.  This question has been going around blogland, but I"ll ask it, too.  Whatchya reading?

Oh, and if you know anything about dragons and hats with earflaps, do tell!