Reporting from Vero Beach Florida

Finally.. I'm Baaaack !

But I have to tell you all.. I am one exhausted and tired old lady ..so this post will not be real long .

You know you're tired when:  you haven't picked up your book you began in over a week..and still have no intention on picking it up!

The trip down went well.  We lucked in and somehow missed most of the rain up and down the east coast.  We hit 2 downpours but got thru those in about 15 minutes or so each. 

Poor Booboo kitty was so stressed out he didn't eat or drink or "do his thing" in two days!  Then on the last night at a hotel he decides to start meowing and he carried on until 3 am (and I got up at 6).  But he finally began eating some that day.  My son and I stopped at a Cracker Barrel to eat and it was so late I wasn't really hungry and so I ordered a child's portion of chicken fingers (3 teriyaki chicken fingers) and fried apples.  Considering I wasn't hungry I ate one chicken finger (which was delicious!) and loved the fried apples.  The other two chicken fingers I brought back to see if I could get Booboo to eat and he did eat them, teriyaki and all lol.

Before I left New Jersey, at 4 am the morning I was to leave "the gang" decided to give me a "farewell party"  .... 5 shots rang out, and yes there were police all over the place and this time an ambulance came and they carted someone off.  Needless to say I didn't get back to sleep.. Now when I wake up the view is a bit different..

Yup, I am glad to be away from "the gang"...and the view is really quite pretty...  but I will never be a Florida girl at heart.. and I'm glad I brought my jar of NJ Dirt with me !

Ok that's it for now.. I am falling asleep at the keyboard! and I'm not near finished unpacking!

Not Really a Post..

I know I said I would not be posting again and this isn't a post!.. it's a link lol.. 

This link is a combination of Chris's Music Monday... and a bit of hope in the process..

Check this out!

Until We Meet Again

It's down to the wire for the move now so it's highly doubtful that I will post anymore until I am in Florida and back on dsl... and then of course it will be more sporadic as Florida has thunderstorms nearly every day with the exception of a very few months in late winter.. such as it is in Florida. 

I hear some of you saying that you wouldn't mind moving to Florida because you could do without winter ...but it's not as easy as you would think if you grew up in a 4 season state as I have.  I did spend 13 yrs in Florida when I was married and nearly 10 more in southern California where there is no real winter or seasons either.

I would not lie and say that you would miss shoveling snow because no one loves it unless you are really young and "want the exercise"..heh that wouldn't be me!  But I do love Spring and Fall as most everyone does when you see new life all around you and the falling of the leaves (yeah yeah ya have to rake) to usher the winter in.  But then again.. if you are young enough to still have kids living at home (even college kids)..there's nothing like a "cool" Thanksgiving and a "white Christmas"...  85 degrees and sweating as you decorate the Christmas Tree just doesn't cut it lol... ah well.. I'm alone and it doesn't matter anymore.

If you know me at all you know that I'm not a sand and beach person.. I do love mountains and trees and rocks and dirt. Real dirt!  Brown dirt!  Dirt with earthworms in it!... *sigh* there ain't no dirt in Florida.. and oh yeah, I will miss it.  Even the smell of real dirt.    sheesh, how pathetic is that?!!  I'd better go dig up a jar of dirt and take it with me!!

I do not know  how long or how short it will be before I get back on line.  I already ordered my at&t dsl and hoping the modem will by in my Florida mail box when I get there... but my luck is not going that way right now. 

I've come to the conclusion that the old saying "If it weren't for Bad Luck , I'd have no luck at all"  is very true.  I wonder who the poor soul was that first wrote it?   Anyway.. here's why I say that:

The Weather Report says that it's going to rain the entire day we have to pack the truck and it's looking like we will be driving for 2 days in the rain.. I don't need this!

Also the news says that Florida is flooded and at the 10 day "weather.com" the forecast shows storms everyday without let up.  I now have to make some calls and hope I hear better news about flooded areas.. this could take longer than 2 days to get there if I-95 has flooded areas .  Yep.. I have no luck at all!

All month I have only read 3 books.. I am on book 4 now but due to the move if I finish it before the end of the month it will be a miracle!   Packing and last minute lists (what to do before I leave/ what to do when I first arrive down in fla) have taken over my life.  (yes .. I am bitching!)

Yesterday one of David's nieces came and took the two older cats, Princess and Stinkey, to live with her.  Oh yeah, I cried like a baby.  There are 2 more they are having trouble finding someone to take them and cat sit for about 5 weeks until a person who said they would take them can, since they too are in the process of moving.  (one cat: BooBoo Kitty, will come with me)

There is one bit of good news I heard though....  Susan Boyle moved up to the next part of Idol. I hope we, here in America, get to hear what she sang! (I will go check on Youtube) 

I went and luck that I have there are no new Susan Boyle vids to watch... so, needing, very much, to have something make me feel better I watched the first video (for I don't know how many times) of Susan singing ... and yes, I cried yet again... but it felt good.

Ok, I guess that's it.. I probably will not be posting for a week or more, but monday and tuesday I will still leave some comments on other blogs.

I will miss you all.... until we meet again...

p.s....

Book Coveting

As a part of the overall Dewey’s Books challenge, Debi’s mini-challenge invites everyone to write a book coveting post of their own during the month of May as a tribute to Dewey’s Sunday Book Coveting posts.  I was at Stainless Steel Droppings and saw that Carl did one and thought.. well , duh.. I have nothing else to write about at the moment (to busy packing) so why not? 

Below I've listed a few books that I really , really, REALLY want! I believe that's called Coveting!

The Sorceress  by Michael Scott (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel) Release date: May 26

Hardcover: 512 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (May 26, 2009)
ISBN-10: 0385735294

Amazon.com Review
The third book in Michael Scott's "Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel" series, The Sorceress, kicks the action up to a whole new level. Adding to the series' menagerie of immortal humans ("humani") and mythological beasts, the book picks up where The Magician left off: the immortal Nicholas Flamel (of The Alchemyst) and the twins, Sophie and Josh, have just arrived at St. Pancras international train station in London. Almost immediately, they're confronted with a demonic bounty hunter that immortal magician John Dee has sent their way. At the same time, Dee's occasional cohort, Niccolo Machiavelli, decides to focus his energy on Perenelle Flamel, the Alchemyst's wife, who has been imprisoned at Alcatraz since the beginning of the series. In this book, Perenelle gets a chance to show off her sorcery and resourcefulness, fighting and forging alliances with ghosts, beasts, and the occasional Elder to try and find a way out of her predicament and back to Flamel. Scott is as playful as ever, introducing new immortals--famous figures from history who (surprise!) are still alive. He also adds to the roster of fantastical beasts, which already includes such intriguing foes as Bastet, the Egyptian cat goddess, and the Morrigan, or Crow Goddess. Raising the stakes with each installment, Scott deftly manages multiple story lines and keeps everything moving pretty quickly, making this third book a real page-turner. More than just another piece in the puzzle of the whole series, The Sorceress is an adventure in its own right, and will certainly leave series fans wanting more.

Septimus Heap: The Magykal Papers by Angie Sage

Hardcover: 176 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins (June 23, 2009)
ISBN-10: 0061704164

Release date June 23

The Shadow Dragons (Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica) by James A Owen

Hardcover: 432 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing (October 27, 2009)
ISBN-10: 1416958797

Product Description
The Caretakers and the legendary Don Quixote must save the Archipelago in the fourth book in James A Owen's Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica

To be released in October.  I really enjoyed these books.  Although they are categorized as YA books the protagonists are not 13 yr old orphans, but adults.

Lastly a new book and new author for me.  This book really sounds good and I've been wanting it for some time:

The Adamantine Palace by Stephen Deas (this one is released but 4-6 wk delivery!... and I've been broke!)

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Gollancz (March 19, 2009)
ISBN-10: 0575083743

(4-6 wk delivery!)Product Description
The Adamantine Palace lies at the centre of an empire that grew out of ashes. Once dragons ruled the world and man was little more than prey. Then a way of subduing the dragons alchemicly was discovered and now the dragons are bred to be little more than mounts for knights and highly valued tokens in the diplomatic power-players that underpin the rule of the competing aristocratic houses. The Empire has grown fat. And now one man wants it for himself. A man prepared to poison the king just as he has poisoned his own father. A man prepared to murder his lover and bed her daughter. A man fit to be king? But known to him there are flames on the way. A single dragon has gone missing. And even one dragon on the loose, unsubdued, returned to its full intelligence, its full fury, could spell disaster for the Empire. But because of the actions of one unscrupulous mercenary the rivals for the throne could soon be facing hundreds of dragons ...Stephen Deas has written a fast moving and action-fueled fantasy laced with irony, a razor sharp way with characters, dialogue to die for and dragons to die by.

Dragon Strike

Dragon Strike by E. E. Knight

Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Roc Trade (December 2, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0451462351

From Publishers Weekly
The entertaining fourth Age of Fire novel (after 2007's Dragon Outcast) reunites three dragon siblings in a land at the threshold of major change. When scaleless AuRon the Gray hears rumors of his long-lost sister, Wistala, he leaves his family on the Isle of Ice to search for her. Their paths cross in Lavadome, where their outcast brother, RuGaard, now rules. Although some blame RuGaard for a recent food blight, the more likely source is Ghioz's masked Red Queen, who wants to make Lavadome part of her empire. Brought together by chance, the siblings must overcome their differences and persuade rival nations to stand together against the Red Queen's forces. Knight turns the familiar features of epic fantasy upside down in this unique world of medieval politics and ancient magic seen through the eyes of dragons.

I read the first three books by E E Knight some time ago.  I put off purchasing this last book thinking I'd never remember the other books and that they gave enough of an ending that I need not read this.  But something made me order it anyway. (after I tried to win it a few times from various blogs)

I was surprised that it drew me in as quickly as it did.  The protagonists in all the books are the dragons.  The other books tells of their beginning and near death experiences as they fought to survive in the outside world.  This book, as Publishers Weekly states so correctly, brings the sister and two brother dragons back together after years apart.

E E Knight has built quite a world full of humans and dwarfs and fairies, but mostly dragons.  It was equally interesting to read a story from the view point of the dragon, how they lived and what they thought.  He gives voice to many dragons giving them identities of their own.  Just as sibling children differ, so do the  young dragons.

These books were quite a unique reading experience.  I don't think they are for everyone, but if you like dragon books and want something quite unique you might try these books.

This series begins with Dragon Champion,  book 2 is: Dragon Avenger, book 3 is: Dragon Outcast, and book 4 is this one, Dragon Strike.

Looking Glass Wars

 

The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

 

Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Dial; First Edition edition (September 26, 2006)
ISBN-10: 0803731531

From Booklist
Alyss Heart, heir to the Wonderland throne, is forced to flee when her vicious aunt Redd murders her parents, the King and Queen of Hearts. She escapes through the Pool of Tears to Victorian London, but she finds she has no way home. Adopted by the Liddells, who christen her Alice Liddell and disapprove of her wild stories about Wonderland, Alyss begs Charles Dodgson to tell her real story. Even though he writes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, she knows no one believes her. Years go by, with Alice repressing her memories. Then royal bodyguard Hatter Madigan, determined to start a war for Wonderland's throne, crashes her wedding. Beddor offers some intriguing reimaginings of Dodgson's concepts (such as looking-glass travel) and characters (the cat is an assassin with nine lives), but his transformation of Wonderland's lunacy into a workable world sometimes leads to stilted exposition on history, geography, and government. Even so, his attention has, happily, put Wonderland back on the map again.

   I wanted you to see the beautiful cover of the book "after" the paper cover is taken off!!  I was shocked to see this cover !!  Quite a nice touch!   The excellent artwork is  by Brian Flora.

I'm afraid that due to all that is  happening to me right now, with packing and readying to move and my over all depression, that I didn't do justice to this book.   Admittedly it didn't sweep me off my feet and make it so I couldn't put it down, but then I am not sure any book could.

It is a very dark version of what "really happened to Alice in Wonderland".

My favorite part of the story was when she was being raised by the Liddlells and tells her story to Charles Dodgson who writes her story under the name Lewis Carroll. (nice touch )

The book is very good, though for reasons I don't know I can't say it was a runaway favorite.  It could be because I am not too fond of "retold fairy tales".  I think that surprises me in some ways.. I mean, I do like many Y A books, so why I wouldn't be thrilled to death with retold fairy tales is beyond my comprehension.

There have been many glowing reviews of this book, and many parts that I did enjoy, and I am glad I read it.  And more than likely I will eventually read the next book of the series "Redd"....But like the very few other fairy tales I've read, this isn't a book I will probably read again and again. 

Very mixed feelings on the book.. but then... my head is pretty mixed up right now too.

A.C. and Me..

(web photo)

This is a dear, dear man that I was privileged to meet on several occasions and speak with on the phone as well.  His name.. is A.C. Lyles, and he has a birthday coming up this Sunday May 17th.  His Birth year was 1918.

I met A.C. at a Creation Convention.  They were honoring my friend DeForest Kelley and the person they got to be M.C. for this special event was DeForest's good friend A.C. Lyles.  (many years later it would be A.C. who honored DeForest at Paramount when De passed away)

My first view of him was on stage making jokes about De.  Right away he made me laugh.. and made De laugh too.  After the show was over and I was mulling around the convention I saw A.C. talking to some people and decided to go and introduce myself.  I mean.. really.. I didn't know this man was important, past the fact that he was a good friend of De's.

Boy was I wrong!

This man has worked for Paramount Studios for over 50 years!  He began very lowly and worked his way up until he was a producer to B Westerns.  It was during his Western time that he met DeForest and put him to work in many of his westerns as one of the bad guys.

(over the years De died so many times in those westerns, that when he took the part in Star Trek he figured they hired him because he was going to die off in that too!)

(leave it to me to go on the Paramount lots looking like an idiot.  I often did things like that to make De and Carolyn laugh but not too often going on a movie lot like that!.. but A.C. was worth it!)

Once you meet A.C. Lyles you never forget him.  He is the consummate gentleman, always dressed to the 9's in suit and tie.   But the very best part of A.C. Lyles is that when you are with him, you become the most important person there is to him... bar none.  He's incredible.  I was in his office one time and Buddy Ebsen called him.. he talked to him very briefly and then told him that he had some beautiful woman in his office with him and he'd call him back later. 

Hello?

He shrugged off Buddy Ebsen?!! 

But that's how important you became when you had his attention.  He shared you with no one.

I have to say I've heard the same thing told by many people who have met A.C. he has this way about him of making anyone feel very special. 

I've lost touch with A.C. over the years when I left California and began taking care of my brother.  But he's never left my heart or my mind, and so when I ran across a blog called Dear Old Hollywood with a post all about A.C. and then an old Radio show with the complete interview of A.C., well.. the memories came flooding back.

(If you click the Radio Show link know this: it takes a bit to load, but it's well worth the wait to hear the sort of long interview)

Everything made me a bit melancholy and so I wrote A.C. a Birthday note and mailed it to him, just so he knows he's far from forgotten.

He's an absolutely fascinating man and I am so upset he's never written a book.. this man knows or knew every star there was!  Trust me on this one and if you want to hear about a few of them listen to that radio show!!  On the show he speaks of his very dear friend James Cagney and how he helped A.C. get started as a producer.

If you have an interest in Hollywood.. this is a man you should read about.

The Iris's Have It...

Tried my zoom lens yesterday..  I stood on the deck and zoomed down to the Iris's that are beginning to open...

 

Is that Iris sticking it's tongue out at me??  Pppllssssttttt.. back atcha!

 

(FYI:  two weeks from tomorrow I will be packing up and moving.. so my computer will be down for a bit until I can get dsl service set up down there..  pray for me being without my computer !!  Just saying it gives me a nervous stomach!!!)

Birthday Boy!.. and Teen Crushes

 Woo hoo!  It's Chris's Birthday!...

I wish I could help you make your dreams come true!...

But you will have to settle with just a picture of it!  (heh!)

A very Happy Birthday Chris!!!

 

Post Number 2.........

 

 Cath did a post on teenage crushes and I had to smile .. I knew who her crushes were but the ones I had were even before hers!.. gawd. how depressing lol.

Well now... I didn't have my own room so I couldn't put pictures on the wall but I had my crushes too!..though they were older than yours since I am older.. gawd. :o(

Letsee...I think I had more movie crushes since tv "back then" had more movies than anything.. so Turhan Bey from Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves was right up there with heart throbs! The movie was made the year I was born!  1944.. I was 10 when I had a crush on Turhan.. this I remember well !!

Then there was Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan .. he played Tarzan from the 30's until in the 1950's!!

When episodic shows began it was mostly westerns so Roy Rogers (1951-57)

and The Lone Ranger (however I did like Jay Silverheels (Tonto) too!) 1949-57

then more cowboys!..  like Clint Eastwood in Rawhide!  (oh woof!) (1959-66)

Ozzie and Harriet came on television and while everyone goo-gooed over Ricky Nelson I liked David Nelson! lol (1952-66)

Oh Oh! and there was The Adventures of Robin Hood.. Richard Greene!  Hello?! Can we say I was in love, love, love?! (1955-58)

By the time Trek came around  I was no longer a teenager...I was married with Children..so ..ummm no, I didn't put pictures up lol... but you KNOW it would have been McCoy! I did have a cork board later when my kids were teens and had a few small pics up of McCoy and a few others lol  Then much later when I was much older and divorced I put PICTURES ON THE WALLS!!!!   But by then it was people like DeForest Kelley and Harrison Ford and Sean Connery! lol.. ahhhhhhhhh ain't crushes grand?? 

Those Left Behind

I got the ok from Florida and will be moving to Vero Beach by the end of the month.  My son (ummm, the one born to me not Chris) will be flying up here to pack a Budget truck and drive it and me down there.  He will be here on the 27th, so for a week or so I will not have my computer...(already, I am hyperventilating!) 

When I move these 4 souls will no longer be with me.. I have to leave them behind... it tears me apart..

8 yr old Winkey...

16 yr old Stinkey

8 yr old Peanut

 

18 yr old Princess...

It's so hard to keep loosing pieces of my life.  Sometimes it feels like there's nothing left of me.

I cling to my movies and books like they were alive.  If you, who are reading this are not old.. don't get old!   

Don't put things off until "tomorrow".. tomorrow may never come.

Don't always deny yourself for the sake of what may or may not happen. 

Don't let reality spoil your dreams....

Happy Birthday Sis!!

It's Cath's Birthday!!!.... 

Happy Birthday Cath!   I Wish I was there to give you a birthday hug!!

Love, Pat

The Language of Bees

The Language of Bees by Laurie R King.

 

Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Bantam (April 28, 2009)
ISBN-10: 0553804545

Book Description
In a case that will push their relationship to the breaking point, Mary Russell must help reverse the greatest failure of her legendary husband’s storied past—a painful and personal defeat that still has the power to sting…this time fatally.

For Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, returning to the Sussex coast after seven months abroad was especially sweet. There was even a mystery to solve--the unexplained disappearance of an entire colony of bees from one of Holmes’s beloved hives.

But the anticipated sweetness of their homecoming is quickly tempered by a galling memory from her husband’s past. Mary had met Damian Adler only once before, when the promising surrealist painter had been charged with--and exonerated from--murder. Now the talented and troubled young man was enlisting their help again, this time in a desperate search for his missing wife and child.

When it comes to communal behavior, Russell has often observed that there are many kinds of madness. And before this case yields its shattering solution, she’ll come into dangerous contact with a fair number of them. From suicides at Stonehenge to a bizarre religious cult, from the demimonde of the Café Royal at the heart of Bohemian London to the dark secrets of a young woman’s past on the streets of Shanghai, Russell will find herself on the trail of a killer more dangerous than any she’s ever faced--a killer Sherlock Holmes himself may be protecting for reasons near and dear to his heart.

Wow...   what can I say?   Laurie R King is such a good writer!!! ... 

Once upon a time (where Have I heard that Before?).. you couldn't have convinced me that I would enjoy mysteries, let alone read books that include Sherlock Holmes!

As a  young person, I did enjoy the old Sherlock Holmes movies.. but I never read any books of him.

Then along came Laurie R King.  The first of her books I read was "The Moor".  This was for two reasons.  One was that it was for Carl's challenge, the second I thought that if I was going to try this book it may as well be about my favorite old movie The Hounds of the Baskerville's.   Little did I know that it would include not just a mystery but a back story of Mary Russell, an extraordinary woman, and future wife of Sherlock Holmes!

I quickly went backwards after reading The Moor and began at the beginning of these mysteries revolving around Mary Russell and her famous husband.  And thus began my love affair with Laurie R King and her writing!..

I thought the Mary Russell books were "done"... Ms King put out a stand alone book called Touchstone (which I wound up really liking too!)  So when I heard a NEW Mary Russell book was being written I was thrilled!!

Not long ago I was sent a signed ARC copy of the newest Mary Russell book called, The Language of Bees.

As with her other books Laurie drew me right into this book!  Her writing is just so enjoyable I would tell everyone to try one of her books and dare them not to get hooked!

This book begins with the fact that one of Sherlock's hives has been abandoned and left empty of it's inhabitants.  A mystery that Mary takes upon herself to solve when her husband up and leaves her alone at the house when he takes off with Damian to solve the mystery of his missing wife and child.

But are they really missing?  or abducted?   Why does Damian not tell Sherlock and Mary the full truth?  Just what is he hiding?  

So many questions... so many things to be discovered!  Once Mary resolves the hive mystery she takes off after Sherlock to help resolve a much more personal mystery.

This is a great read, as all her books are. (yep ..those are words of a fan fersure!) I don't want to give away anything, but I will say that I would be shocked if you didn't feel as if you were right there with Mary as she unravels one question after another.

If you like mysteries and don't mind reading of a woman that is every bit as smart (if not smarter) than her famous husband, Sherlock.. then you are in for a treat!!

I would highly suggest to anyone to do a little  detective work of your own and check out Laurie's own website,  to learn about her books and then go out and try one!   You won't be disappointed.  

Test.. this is only a test...

Thanks to Chris who just bought a Canon camera and was taking some photo's I decided to play with mine.   I was trying the "macro feature" on my canon powershot camera, so before my books are all packed away ,I took these pics of what few books are still "unpacked"...  I like this first picture.. not too shabby.. I'll have to try some other photo's when and if I ever get things settled where I am going.

The pictures below are used with the optical zoom.. but not without troubles!  I can't figure out why after I zoom and press the button half way down to focus that ...at times.. I can see the picture go into focus and back out again and it beeps on the blurred version (but not with the green box)... so what needs to be done?  I don't know I've read and read my little book and can't figure out why when using the optical zoom and I press to focus and can SEE it focus and then go back out of focus!!  grrrrrrrrrrrr... anyway.. eventually I can get some decent pictures.. the problem is I want to know why I can't get the optical zoom to focus every time??  

(BooBoo Kitty)

(Winkey)

I don't do well when I have to read and then look on my camera for what I read and read and then try again.. I learn much better when someone shows me what to do, or explains to me why this or that happens so I will never know a whole lot about my camera.

I do hope that someday I find out why the optical zoom does what it does.. In my old Canon SLR (the one that takes film) you can zoom and focus even when the zoom is all the way out.. but this digital one with the optical zoom  won't always focus once you have zoomed... if anyone understand that... please email me!

The Dom

It was maybe 11 or 12 yrs ago that I met Dom DeLuise.  .. What a sweetheart he was!  At the time he was doing autographs for charity and I had to meet him because over the years he made me laugh so much.

I sat watching the news with my jaw dropped open as I learned the news...

.... Dom DeLuise -- who starred in such classics as "The Cannonball Run" and "Blazing Saddles" and was the voice of Pizza the Hutt in "Spaceballs" -- died last night in a Los Angeles hospital.

We're told he passed away peacefully in his sleep at around 6 PM.

He was 75.

Dom was one of those very special people.. although he was enjoyed by many in the movies he made he was also just a really nice person, and if you ever met him you'd know  he was someone you were glad touched your life, even if for only a few moments.

I am glad I had the chance to meet him.... He will be missed.

51 and Counting

Oh how I wish that meant my age!!!.. sigh.

But it doesn't.  I was emailing with Susan from You Can Never Have Too Many Books .  She asked if I was still packing for my move.   I did mention that most of my books are packed.. all I have left are some of my tbr pile (not the whole pile mind you!).. there are 51 books still not packed. (gulp) . I have discovered that I have 82 tbr books in all.  (enough said about that! The entire pile is listed here. )

Anyway...

I have thoughtfully, set aside 5 paper back books and one smaller, hardback.  These I figure will be the last to be boxed up and I will use them to choose from to read right up until the moving day arrives.  I chose them, because, ..they are smaller in stature and weight...  see below: 

The Shadow of the Wind. 

Dragons Strike. 

The Death Collector. 

Watership Down. 

East.  

and The Looking Glass Wars

Speaking of these books there are some points to be handed out!   Let's see now...

Darla d gets a point for the Death Collector.

I already gave CJ her point for The Looking Glass Wars.

Belleza gets a point for Watership Down. (I've read that when I was young.. I want to read it again )

And if I'm not mistaken Shadow of the Wind's point goes to Carl, but it's been a while so to be honest I can't remember for sure, so Carl is a good guess! :o)

... of course that doesn't mean those ARE the definite books!.. I keep eyeing Drood! 

It, of course, would take the place of all the small books!  It is rather large.. and rather heavy too.. sigh.  The other "larger thought" (instead of a group of small ones) is The Woman in White.

Sometimes I think it's not always wise to have such a large tbr pile! 

Nor for that matter the books on the wish list that keeps growing.. mostly the ones I am waiting on for their release!   I can't believe there are NINE books between May and October due out that are all extensions of series that I am reading!.. NINE!

Damn, I need a sugardaddy to keep me in all the books I still want!.. hmm, but then I'd have to cook and clean again... maybe I'll just beg.