What if a high school girl was an apprentice Godmother? I liked the idea of this book, but four-letter words and some uncomfortable scenes make it suitable for high school readers. Second book in a series. I don't know when I read this.
Too many pages. 881. But I finished it. Story is ok, supposed to be really accurate science, but I couldn't tell. I would have hooked up with a ham radio operator when the fishies cut the trans-Atlantic internet cable, they gots connections to the internets that bypass cables.
Smoking Quote:
Set the scene: The ship they are on is sinking:
Tarry black smoke drifted towards them. "Have you got any cigarettes?" she asked.
..."They're Lights," he explained.
"Oh, the healthy option..."..."Very sensible."
Turner finds when he moves to Phippsburg, Maine, that life is very different from Boxton. They don't even pitch baseball the same. His only friend is a Negro girl from Malaga Island. And talking to Negro girls is not the kind of behavior expected of a minister's boy.
A very good historical novel. A bit wordy, sometimes I had to go back a re-read a paragraph. Some sly humour, some tragedy, some growing.
Quote:
"Oh hell," said Mrs. Cobb, "it's warm here. Get me a ginger ale."
Holling has to stay in school alone on Wednesday afternoons because he isn't Jewish nor Catholic. Hard to read the last quarter, as I was crying so much.
How can this not already be in here? I own the book, and have for many years! I first read it back in the 60s, and I've read it several times since then. I enjoyed it very much.
Frances plans to go to summer camp with her best friend Agnes, but her mother decides to go to a retreat in Oregon. Frances has to stay at her nerdy Aunt Blue's for the duration. I liked the book a lot.
Quote:
"Some mistakes are worth making." "How do you tell which mistakes those are?"
Also edited by Paul Diamond. Twenty-seven repudiatedly true stories of cycling adventures gone bad. Some are funny, some are sad, some are exciting. Twenty-five Count and Spin Cycle were very funny, but my favorite was It's All In A Name, in which we learn how Carla earns her nickname from her bike club.
Read:
12/2007
Contents: The home front / Brian Stableford -- Aboard the beatitude / Brian W. Aldiss -- Odd job #213
/ Ron Goulart -- Agamemnon's run / Robert Sheckley -- Grubber / Neal Barrett, Jr. -- Sandman, the tinman, and the Betty B / C.J. Cherryh -- The big picture / Timothy Zahn -- A home for the old ones / Frederik Pohl -- Not with a whimper either / Tad Williams -- The black wall of Jerusalm / Ian Watson -- Station ganymede / Charles L. Harness -- Downtime / C.S. Friedman -- Burning bridges / Charles Ingrid -- Words / Cheryl J. Franklin -- Read only memory / eluki bes shahar -- Sunseeker / Kate Elliott -- The heavens fall / S. Andrew Swann -- Passage to shola / Lisanne Norman -- Prism / Julie E. Czerneda. Expecially liked the cat story by Franklin and the story by Zahn.
Twins Josh and Sophie become embroiled in a war for the survival of humanity, to their dismay. Book one of how many to come? The author says many of the characters are based on historical and mythological figures. Pretty good!
Words I Had To Look Up:
sigils (pg. 314) -- Signs, words, or devices held to have occult power in astrology or magic pergola (pg. 366) -- An arbor or a passageway of columns supporting a roof of trelliswork on which climbing plants are trained to grow.
Quote:
...Sophie leaned over and hit the windshield wiper switch. The heavy blades activated...and simply swept the bird off the hood in a flurry of feathers and a shrill croak of surprise. (pg. 98) Mere mortal SUV wipers can sweep a Dire-Crow, "huge" bird, right off the hood? A bird that can peck through windshield glass? I think NOT!
Book six of the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel. I started this series four years ago, and now it is finished. Some weeps at the end. I enjoyed the series, and especially the occasional humor. I am sure my neighbors wondered what I was chortling about.