kaida46 returns after an absence

Hi! Long time LTer but I haven't been active for the last few years. I started doing the 75 book challenges and that has now become part of my yearly routine. Now I've combined it with a genuine desire to de-clutter by reading my own tomes and then donating them to thrift stores or little free libraries around town (I prefer this to the thrift stores since they just trash a lot of the books given to them).
2026 Goals: read at least 75 books-
the majority from my own shelves, a few from the local library as desired
donate the books after reading them
I'm off to a decent start, as of the 11th of Jan I have read 4 books from my shelves.
My goal is to post progress approximately each week, and I think I figured out how to do pics in my posts again (cross fingers).

#1. Best Book of Adventure Stories edited by Pauline Rush Evans
This book was an oldie from my husband's childhood, I noticed it on the shelf in the guest bedroom and made up my mind to read it as soon as I finished my current book. It contains selections from several classic and adventure themed stories, some of which I've read, some not but all a while ago so I didn't mind reading them again. Some of the works included are: Call it Courage, Ali Babba and the Forty Thieves, Treasure Island, The Voyages Of Sinbad the Sailor, Life on the Mississippi, Johnny Tremain, The Count of Monte Cristo, Robinson Crusoe, The Conquest of Everest, etc.

#2 The Wonder Clock by Howard Pyle
I had recently read The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Pyle and it was a gorgeous book (I found at Barnes and Noble) which included copies of original illustrations made by the author for the story, the text was in the early 1900's style but that just added to the charm of these timeless stories. So I sought out another one of his story books. Being unable to find it I had to settle for the kindle version of The Wonder Clock, but it did include copies of the artwork made for the book. You can see the authors meticulously detailed artistic style from the covers.

Those are lovely covers, Deb.

Starred your thread to follow your reading.

Happy ROOTing!

Good luck with your ROOT goal and have a great reading year!

ROOT#3 The Three Books of Enoch
This is a compilation of a variety of scrolls/manuscripts of the writings of the Biblical person named Enoch, considered by some to be a saint or a prophet, who is mentioned in Genesis 5 and Hebrews 11, Jude, and Luke 3:37, and recorded as the great-grandfather of Noah (of Noah’s ark). We learn that he was so righteous he did not die but was taken up to heaven by God.
The first two books tell of the Biblical creation and Enoch’s heavenly visions, much like reading the Bible and had similar content. It also tells of Nephilim, which is a controversial subject and was part of the attraction for me to read it. The third book is considered an apocalyptic Jewish text, and fragments of it were found with the Dead Sea Scrolls, this version was from Ethiopian Orthodox Church writings. This section was mostly about the angel Metatron, who Enoch supposedly turned into after being taken up to heaven. I found it was difficult to understand or enjoy reading; personally the first two books of Enoch were more relevant and interesting to me.

Root#4 The Venetian Bargain by Marina Fiorato
This one is a historical novel which takes place during the deadly plague breakout in Venice in 1576. The main character is Feyra, a female trained as a doctor to the harem of the Sultan (Ottoman Empire), who winds up in Venice. I’m a fan of historical fiction and if it involves a story which includes Italy it’s an easy sale for me! This is the third book I’ve read by this author, one I liked (The Daughter of Sienna), and one I found a bit too silly to believe but, hey, it took place in Venice (The Glassblower of Murano). All the books feature a strong female lead, are classed as Historical fiction, and several have Italy as the setting.

This is the Spotted Towhee, I only spot them during the winter where I live. One crashed into my sliding glass door and landed on the deck, but luckily was not seriously injured after being stunned for a few seconds. After that incident I put up some special bird decals to avoid further accidents!

>9 kaida46: Lovely! As a bird lover, I thank you for the decal: they are the best deterrent. Happy reading in 2026 :)

>10 Cecilturtle:, >9 kaida46: Out of my own experience I have to say bird decals are not always enough. I have them too. My sitting room has two windows opposite to each other and there is a houseplant in between. Birds often think they can sit in or fly through that plant because of the light they can spot on the other side. So I moved the plant a little.

Root #5 The Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford
This is a collection of 14 stories by the author. I’ve read a fair amount of Ford’s works and have enjoyed both the novels and the various stories. Story collections are always a mixed bag, some you absolutely love some you don’t get, some are not to your taste. There were 2 or 3 in this collection I didn’t get or particularly like, but the majority of them were interesting, sometimes bizarre, and a good reading experience. You can always expect a bit of the bizarre when reading Ford’s work. These stories cover a wide range of topics, some written from real events that happened in the author’s life. Each story has a little explanation afterwards where the author tells what motivated him to do this particular story, awards won and if it was published in another collection.
This collection includes one of my absolute favorite stories of all time, that I could read repeatedly and never tire of; The Annals of Eelin-Ok.
The story tells the tale of a little fae creature called a Twilmish, who finds an abandoned sandcastle on the beach, becomes physical and takes up residence in it. These tiny creatures live out their entire lives in just one day, then vanish back into the ether from which they came. Originally that story, heard on a podcast many years ago, is why I purchased this story collection and started reading everything by Ford I could get my hands on.
I had read my favorite story but never made my way through the rest of the book so I chose it for one of my ROOT books this year.

Here’s a statistics post from my 2025 reading:
Total Books Read: 79
Total pages read: 22,104
Fiction: 50
Non-Fiction: 29
Books that are part of a series: 16
Electronic Books (Library or Kindle): 6
My own Tomes: 64
Library Books: 15
Percentage of ROOT books from my reading: 81%
My goal this year is to read at least 75 books, with the majority of them coming from my own shelves.

>11 connie53: I've had no more problems with any birds hitting the window since, I also used a product (similar to a bingo marker dot pen) to put dots, unnoticed to the human eye, on the of the corners of the window.

Root #6 The Stars Dispose by Michaela Roessner
The book’s back cover describes this tale as taking place in Florence, Italy during the early 1500’s, persons included are the Medici family, Michelangelo and other prominent historical figures of the time. The author also created fictional characters to be a family of cooks and chefs that served the Medici family, and the story revolves around them.

I thought this would be a work of historical fiction surrounding this setting and characters. I was mistaken, it was a weird mash up of history, a soap opera about the family of cooks, the women members being revealed later on to be witches who determine the fate of the Medici and protect little Caterina Medici, describe Michelangelo’s relationship with an underage teen-who happens to be a member of the family of cooks-whose mother is a witch, and you have now totally confused me trying to follow what is going on!

At the end of the book the big reveal (which is only hinted at, never actually revealed) is about the unusual long-lived cats that have always been associated with the family of cooks that serve the Medici, and then abruptly end the book. What a train wreck, not recommended.

(picture: Florence, Italy)

Root #7 Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson

I thought the beginning of this book was odd and it didn't quite grab me initially, but once I got into it, I did not want to put it down. A bit of romance was injected into the cosmere! I fell for it.

I'm not particularly a romance fan, but I do generally enjoy the fantasy genre (within limits). Sanderson once again proves he is a master storyteller and these hard cover independently published books (this was secret project #3) are gorgeous with beautiful art.

When I finished the book and turned the last page I was sad it was over. This will probably be one of my top five books of the year.

>16 kaida46: I'm planning to get to Yumi and the Nightmare Painter this year and looking forward to it!

>17 rabbitprincess: I had it sitting on my shelf and then another person in the group mentioned it and I decided to use it for one of my ROOT books.

Root #8 Einsteins Dreams by Alan Lightman
This book is a collection of stories about fictional dreams Einstein may have had in 1905 while thinking of his scientific theories when he worked in the Swiss patent office. The ‘dreams’ all involve time in some way, circular time, time when you know what will happen in the future, time standing still, all different scenarios involving people and time. It’s like a window into how people might handle time events in varying situations. None of the stories go together so it is not necessarily a smooth transition going from one dream story to the next. A bit unusual, food for thought with the differing situations in the stories. I did not find it engaging enough to read straight through, I just dipped into a few stories at a time while reading another book for a book club, then I came back to it. I liked it better that way.

I'm returning your visit, Deb. You are making a lot of progress on those ROOTs, with 8 read already. Good luck on meeting your goals. I would like to do as well tackling my own ROOTs, but between my book clubs and some of the challenges on LT, I haven't been getting as many ROOTs read as I had hoped by now. Good for you on reading those ROOTs and donating them.

>20 atozgrl: I'm recovering from an illness, so I've had plenty of time to read lately!

Root #9 The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine
This one was a read for my book club; I had previously purchased it when the waiting list at the local library was ridiculously long. We’re due to discuss it for our March meeting so I figured I’d better get going reading it!
It’s a reimagining of the story of ‘Snow White’, complete with poison apples and a magic mirror! A young lady named Lorelei is the heroine playing the role of Snow White and her wicked stepmother steals her kingdom by mesmerizing people with her magic apples and taking control. Lorelei and her brother have been on the run for a few years from the murderous designs of the imposter queen. It’s filled with adventure and has a cute romance but is pretty predictable. Of course, Lorelei has near supernatural powers when she fights yada-yada-yada. Enjoyable, not stellar or heavy, rather fun.
I thought some of the violence in the book was unnecessary as well as the demise of an important character. Why do author’s always think they have to kill off characters just to prove they can do it? If the book is good, the reader is going to want to find out what happens, you don’t need the sympathy angle. It comes across as a cheap shot. So, I felt this was a weak plot point of the book, it wasn’t needed. More of a ‘beach read’ type of book but still enjoyable if you like these kinds of retellings.

Bird Post:
Western Meadowlarks are members of the blackbird family. They have a distinctive V-shaped dark band on their yellow chests. They have a wonderful melodious tune. I’ve been hearing them when I go to my volunteer position at the museum because our winter this year has not been too severe. First, I hear them and then I scan the brush for the birds.

I’ve also seen a lot of Golden Eagles sitting around on the side of the road on posts and on light fixtures over the highway. Because of the mild winter the critters they hunt are all out too and not hibernating as much as usual. Luckily today we are getting a proper snowstorm, it will lessen the threat of drought this coming summer.

(Image from American Bird Conservacy)

(Image from Cornell Labs)

>23 kaida46: How gorgeous! What area do you live in, Deb? I know there was an Eastern Meadowlark hanging around in Ottawa, Ontario, but they are rare, and I'm not sure we get Golden Eagles (but we do get majestic Bald Eagles).

>24 Cecilturtle: Hi Cecil! I live in the Western USA (Rocky Mtns.) In the area where I live we see the Western Meadowlark frequently, with wheat fields, meadow grasses, and even in the foothills (scrub oak, aspens, low pine) which are just across town.
We are classified as "high altitude desert" 1 mile high, or about 1600 m. altitude. Golden Eagles are pretty common, bald eagles less so with no nearby large body of fresh water for them to frequent. Red Tail Hawks will come around my yard every so often as I have a feeder for the songbirds out and they will pick off the occasional dove. I guess they have to eat, too!

Root #10 The Dragonology Handbook: A Practical Course in Dragons by Ernest Drake
This is a fun one I found on the bookshelf in my child’s bedroom (who is now an adult and has moved to their own home). We now use the room for a guest bedroom and one day I was perusing the bookshelves in there and found this.
It’s a “guide” for persons who would like to become a certified “Dragonologist”. It contains information about the “training” for the job, how to identify certain species of dragons with descriptions and where they live (like an actual nature guide), behavior characteristics, what their eggs look like, how to keep a journal of your sightings, tips to answering dragon riddles- if you ever happen to meet one, and some folklore and folk tales about dragons. Just a fun imagination stretching little book. I know my kids read at least some of this because they filled in the questions for the quizzes and puzzles in it and the application to request “certification”.

Image from Nature's Way Birds
This is a dark-eyed Junco. I saw one at the feeder in my yard yesterday after we had a snowstorm. We don't see them too often and only generally in the winter because they live farther north and only migrate south for the season.

>26 kaida46: That's a fun find, Deb.

>27 kaida46: so cute! I can confirm they like to winter in my Northern pastures. They are definitely a sign of on-coming winter.

Root #11 Tales of Unease by Arthur Conan Doyle (Tales of Mystery and the Supernatural)
This one’s been sitting on my shelf for a while. It’s a collection of 15 mystery, ghost, and horror stories by the author. There’s much more to this brilliant author than Sherlock Holmes! He has a great imagination, and these tales will keep your eyes glued to the page featuring ancient curses, odd creatures, Egyptian mummies and much more. Two famous tales included are The Captain of the Polestar and one of my all-time favorite spine chillers- Lot 249. 4 stars

>30 kaida46: That is a disturbing cover that suits the book just fine, I think.

Hi Connie,
Yes that cover is pretty bad, but in my opinion, the stories didn't fit the cover. These stories were written in the late 1800's and early 1900's, tame compared to the horror genre today!

Root #12 A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle This one has been sitting on my shelf ever since my children were young. It may have been mine as a kid but I can't remember, I do still have my copy of The Phantom Tollbooth from when I was growing up. I remember loving this story as a youth so I decided to revisit it and read the whole series as I don't remember reading anything but the first book as a kid. It's still a great ride for the imagination after all these years.

Lots of dust around here as we are doing a bathroom remodel. Gone is the giant whirlpool tub installed when the house was built. That tub could never get full enough to use the whirlpool and it emptied the whole water heater!

I am working my way through an Italian 'foodie' book and A Wind in the Door the second book in the Wrinkle in Time series.

Hi Deb. I think I've read a wrinkle in time too. But that must have been years ago.

ROOT #13 Sweet Honey, Bitter Lemons; Travels in Sicily by Matthew Fort
Written in 2009, A middle-aged British food writer travels across Sicily on a Vespa and indulges his love of food and wine on the way. This book was ok, I really only read it to get insight into the culture because my Grandparents came from Sicily and I took a trip in 2019 to their ancestral village, (which was an amazing experience). After a while the descriptions and all the eating to me seemed a bit obsessive and cringe worthy but Italians in general are quite serious about their food being the best and it is a social occasion to have meals together.
My Grandparents never made a bunch of this food which the author lauds as regional specialties, but he is getting the royal treatment from rather well off Sicilians (whose grandparents didn't have to leave their country to be able to feed their families, which was the cause of the Italian diaspora (1880 to 1940) in the first place). So it didn't connect that well with me but I did appreciate the few insights it gave into the Sicilian psyche.
If you are interested in cooking Italian regional dishes the recipes in this book use hard to get ingredients outside of Sicily and are a bit cumbersome, they also use metric measurements (if you are in the USA). There are better cookbooks around for cooking Italian such as The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Italian, an oldie but goodie and if you have southern Italian roots, Cucina di Calabria by Mary Amabile Palmer has an excellent history section about immigration along with recipes for southern Italian cuisine which has similarities common to the region of the south and Sicily. (3 stars for Sweet Honey, Bitter Lemons)

Root #14 A Wind in the Door, the second book in the Wrinkle in Time Series. This book follows the lives of Meg and Charles Wallace after the time period in Wrinkle in Time. Charles Wallace is being bullied in school and Meg, concerned for her little brother, tries to get the school principal to help her brother out. In addition, Charles Wallace, child genius and possessor of extra normal abilities is suffering from a rare disease which makes it hard to breathe and he also starts seeing unusual things in their back yard...cue the fantasy beings, adventures and a search for a cure a la 'Fantastic Voyage' style, peppered with evil mysterious beings called the Echthroi.
Although I remember loving the first book A Wrinkle in Time quite vividly, I can't remember or recall this volume of the saga. This book was rather strange and a bit dark for a kids story, using allegory to make statements about society mixing it with science fiction and youth on a grand quest. There were religious undertones throughout the story and given the changes in society which have taken place since this book was published in 1973, I wonder if it would even be published today. I had the edition with a disturbing looking eye-feather thing (shown in the picture) on the cover that I picked up at a thrift shop which, in my opinion, was confusing and quite ugly for a book cover. But it is a needed read if you want to get the whole picture of the 5-volume series.

A bird post...The house finch is generally a common little bird seen all over the USA. The male has a bright red head and chest and a twittering song. House finches build nests in trees, around barns and other buildings. They eat mostly seeds but can also eat plant buds and fruit. Their nest is cup shaped and made of plant materials such as stems, grass and leaves. If they find some animal hair, fur, string, or some stuffing from your old porch swing they might use that in their nest as well. We see many of these birds in our neighborhood.


Image from JCS Wildlife

>37 kaida46: Interesting! I didn't grow up with the series and I didn't know there were so many! Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

#15 A Swiftly Tilting Planet Number three in the Wrinkle in Time series. Charles Wallace is now a teen and he goes on an adventure with the unicorn named Gaudior, to save the world (again). The story includes interesting vignettes of peoples lives from the past where Charles W. 'merges' with them and experiences things from their point of view to get perspective about how their choice affected the outcome. The book explores free will, the interconnected-ness of time, and individual choices and their impact on history.

ROOT # 16 The Planets by Dava Sobel. This was published in 2005 and has sat on my shelf for a few years so I decided to make it one of my ROOT books this year. Since it's been 20 years since it was published I did a bit of research to find out the newest knowledge for various points covered in the book. The author included some interesting color images of art relating to the mythology, the zodiac and planets which enhanced what can sometimes be an overwhelming load of scientific facts in books like this. But you don't have to be a scientist to read or enjoy it.
For example the planetary probe New Horizons had not reached its intended destination of Pluto at the time of publication so I looked it up and found that the probe had since mapped Pluto. Reading this book rekindled the wonder of space that our society seems to have lost in the intervening years from the Moon and Space Shuttle missions, but which was warmed up again with the Artemis II mission that recently observed the far side of the moon and returned safely back to earth on April 10th.
On a Florida to the Bahamas cruise many years ago we embarked from Port Canaveral so when we returned we toured the Kennedy Space Center, it was pretty cool, you cannot imagine or describe the size of the launch pad without actually seeing it. I've often thought a good a 'bucket list' item would be to observe an actual lift off for a space mission!
If you are interested, you can watch the return of Artemis on Youtube or on Reddit there is a video of the Navy Dive Team recovering the crew. The astronauts cannot open the door from inside so they have to wait for the recovery team to open it and retrieve them! I somehow missed that detail until I watched the Navy team recovery video this morning.

Root #17 Memories and Adventures by Arthur Conan Doyle The famous detective's creator wrote an autobiography about his life. He lived a long full life and had all kinds of experiences, he was an author, father, spouse, news correspondent for the Boer War and WW1 as well as medical attendant for the soldiers, among other things. It was a bit long-winded but this was an interesting story about his life.

Root #18 The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle A great adventure story but the author should have ended it right after the characters returned from their adventure and not dragged it out further. I felt the portion of the story after they returned home was disjointed from the body of the story and in my opinion lessened it.

Otherwise, the story is quite riveting, but also very much 'of its time' written in 1912, some people may be put off by a few phrases or attitudes contained in the story but I feel we must be honest when interpreting the merits of a story by interpreting it through the lens of when it was written and not affix modern day attitudes or changes in culture to it, retroactively. (Very good adventure story if you can get past the prejudices of the time period in which it was written.)

Root #19 The Golden Age of Science Fiction A mixture of good and not so good stories. Included was This Crowded Earth by Robert Bloch (Meh)

Root #20 Haunted Heartland A compilation of reported hauntings and ghost stories from the Midwest of the USA (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and Wisconsin) There are so many stories included that after a while they all start sounding similar! (Meh)

Bird Post: American Robin

In the yard, I see and hear the Robin daily, greeting the day in the morning and saying goodbye to the sun in the early evening. The Robin is seen commonly throughout the USA, and it stays in the area year round. With grey-brown feathers and a distinctive red-orange breast, they are easy to identify. I like to watch them hopping across the grass. We try hard to use little or no chemicals on the grass as to not harm the native birds and their eggs. The Robin is an omnivorous eater, often seen pulling worms out of the grass.
(image from outdooralabama.com)

Root #21
A Treasury of Fantasy (Heroic Adventures in Imaginary Lands) Ed. By Cary Wilkins. C 1981. A collection of 11 stories. This one has been collecting dust on my shelves for years. I purchased a used hardcover without the dust cover a long time ago. I tried reading it last year but put it aside because it wasn’t quite what I expected; I was expecting a more modern type of fantasy story, not multiple stories of knights fighting in enchanted lands one after another, no matter how historical the stories were supposed to be. I kept putting it down.
Several stories used wordy language and often old English phrasing, so it was difficult to wade through. Some of the stories were just too devoid of action to hold my interest and they seemed to go on and on forever. Instead of abandoning the book altogether, which I was reluctant to do, I started picking and choosing which of the stories might interest me rather than reading cover to cover. The hardcover binding started falling apart after I read The Wood Beyond the World. I read or partially read 8 out of the 11 stories in the book.
These are the stories I read:
The Story of Sigurd by Eirikr Magnusson and translated by William Morris,
(Part of) The Quest of the Holy Grail by Mrs. Andrew Lang
The Doom That Came to Sarnath by H P Lovecraft,
The Wood Beyond the World by William Morris. I struggled with this one’s old language phrasing but after a while it grew on me and the story was pretty good.
(Half of) The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany. Old language, rather tepid action, and it went on forever…
Swords of the Purple Kingdom by Robert E. Howard,
(Half of) The Enchantment of Lionarda by Francisco de Morales,
The Rule of Names by Ursula K. LeGuin. The best story in the book. I had previously read it a few years before in another collection but was it good enough to read again.

Root #22 & #23
Many Waters #4 in the Wrinkle in Time Series
An Acceptable Time #5 and the final volume in the series by Madeline L'Engle

I've read the whole series now, which was sitting on the shelf in my daughter's old bedroom.

Many Waters caught me totally off guard. Even though the same family of characters are in this book, this one took you back to a famous Bible story, which I was not expecting. (Maybe the author just wanted to feature other members of the Murry family in a story.) This book features the twin brothers of Meg, Sandy (Alexander) and Dennis. They fiddle with their Dad's scientific equipment, which they are not supposed to touch, and are tossed back in time to where a man named Noah is building a huge boat in the middle of the desert. You can predict the rest. It's still another 'save the world' type of tale. Religious symbolism and magical unicorns, how's that for a mix up.

An Acceptable Time This was another time travel story back to the time of the Druids. Complete with saving the world through a fantastic voyage, mythical creatures, and portals to other places. It features the daughter of Meg, in the original book. Peggy is staying at her Grandparents house which is a special location for all the fantastic events to happen, gets caught up in a time warp and has fantastic adventures.

I finally figured out how to move the slider on the ticker, so here it is, proudly displayed!

#24 The Stage of Time
Occasionally I listen to podcasts where they talk about ghost stories, legends, odd occurrences, UFOs and such, I would listen in the car when I was commuting to and from work. This one was purchased because it intrigued me hearing pod-casters talk about some of the concepts discussed in the book.

After reading this book I find it hard to describe just what the heck I read! I was a little confused as well, because some of the things given reference to in here, I was not very familiar with. The only thing I can say is 'take it for what its worth and with a grain of salt'. If these subjects interest you it will certainly give you something to think about.

In the vein of the genre of Graham Hancock (never read him), and Zacharia Stitchin (never read any of his books either) but as I struggled to describe this book I looked at reviews on Amazon and that is what some of the people said they either loved it or hated it.

Bird Post : Belted Kingfisher
I saw one of these sitting and singing in the scrub oak of the foothills a week ago. It had a distinctive song and caught my eye. I didn't think to snap my own pic which I regret now because I was trying to get to my volunteer assignment at the natural history museum and you walk up via a small snippet of hiking trail from where you have to park. Evidently they are seen pretty regularly by birdwatchers but I had never seen one before.

Belted Kingfisher, pic from Wikipedia.

#25 The Saturday Night Ghost Club When I got this book I had no idea what I was buying, I was just intrigued by the title. When I opened it up I did not know what to expect. Wow! This is one book I'm going to love for a long time!

You might be expecting a horror book, as I was because of how it was categorized in the store but don't let the title fool you! There really is a ghost club in the book but this tale is really a lovely coming of age story which includes lots of 80's nostalgia, some misfit kids, the healing power of family love and an eccentric uncle who does some oddball things, but he has his reasons...(Qualifies for my Bingo-Dog Challenge as a 'new to you author').

Hi Deb! Checking out your thread today. I love your bird pics - I see most of the birds you've posted, some more than others. I do enjoy birdwatching!

I liked seeing your Wrinkle in Time posts; I did a re-read of the first book in 2015 with the intention of completing the quintet. I probably read at least the second book when I was in grade school. I absolutely loved A Wrinkle in Time as a kid but found it a bit off-putting as an adult. Seeing your comments, I can see that I do need to go back and finish reading them all - I'm ensure I'll enjoy the nostalgia.

Hi Lisa, thanks for checking out my thread! I’ve always loved birds and now I have some time to spend watching them from the deck or on a nature walk.

Regarding the Wrinkle in Time Series, I still loved the first book when I reread it after all these years, it has a sense of wonder to it. The others did not have as much of an aura of wonder to them, but I wanted to read the whole series to get the big picture.
As an adult reading them, I was surprised that there was so much religious symbolism in the books. As a child I did not even realize that was there I was caught up in the magical story. As an adult it caught me off-guard, so if you don’t like books with this included, I would suggest just reading the first one for nostalgia’s sake. I am not put off by that but even I was surprised at how much of it was in the books, but they were written in the 70’s and a different lifestyle prevailed then. To be honest I was puzzled how Many Waters even fit into the series at all except that the author may have wanted to write a story featuring the twin brothers.
I loved the youngest brother Charles Wallace as a character, but he disappears from the series after A Swiftly Tilting Planet.
Happy reading!

Root #26 Better Off Undead
A collection of 18 stories, urban fantasy, about various states of being undead. Most of the stories were “hits”; even humorous and entertaining, about two of them were “misses”, that’s pretty good odds for most story collections I have read. The last story was completely out of character with the tone of the whole collection, maybe the editors felt they needed to add some supposed “grit” at the end of the volume. It was a bomb as well as being confusing to follow, so I skipped the rest of that story and counted the book finished.



Root #27 Lock In
From a blurb about the book: Lock In is a near-future science fiction mystery novel by John Scalzi about a pandemic that leaves one percent of the population fully conscious but unable to move (called Haden's Syndrome). The story follows rookie FBI agent Chris Shane, who is "locked in" and uses a robotic body to investigate a murder, exploring themes of disability, technology, and social change as the "locked in" develop their own culture and technology.
My review:
Lock In is an engaging Sci Fi story that had interesting concepts and action and I read it in a few days because I almost didn't want to put it down. Scalzi has always delivered in every one of his books that I have read. Some are serious, some tongue in cheek, all were worth reading. Scalzi books I have read so far: The Kaiju Preservation Society, Starter Villain, Old Man's War, The Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony, Zoe's Tale, Redshirts, and Agent to the Stars. Fuzzy Nation has been sitting on my shelf for several months and I hope to read it soon for one of this years ROOT books.

>52 kaida46: That's what I remember too, a lot more religious symbolism than when I read it as a child. I do have the rest of the books, so I will likely read them anyway at some point.

>53 kaida46: Thanks for your review of Lock In and your comments on John Scalzi's books in general; I still haven't read any by him and have three of them on my shelves; I really must get to him!