Where is Your Bookmark? (10/01/2013)

Autumn is my favorite season. Just the feel and smell of it fills me with such warmth and excitement.  In the part of the world where I live, it is not unusual to see the warm temperatures hold out for as long as they can, often into October.  There is a definite cooling down in the evenings. If it weren't for my allergies, I would leave the windows open at night. I set out Mouse's sweater or jacket for her in the mornings these days to protect her against the chill.

Mouse has already decided what she wants to be for Halloween.  She started out asking if she could be a bumblebee, but now she wants to be a princess.  I confess I tried to sway her towards a pirate, which she considered for a while (she even told Princess Aurora at Disneyland that's what she'd be), but she's back to wanting to be a princess.  So a princess she will be.   I have the dress.  I just need the shoes and a crown.  And I need to start practicing doing her hair.  I have no talent when it comes to that sort of thing, something that makes me feel bad for my daughter.  So, if you see a photo with her hair down on Halloween, you know my attempts at doing something--anything-- failed miserably.

In other news, my husband has submitted another entry in the Windhammer Prize for Short Gamebook Fiction, which is held each year.  The gamebook he wrote last year was one of the runners up.  This year he wrote a mystery called The Independence Job, about a bank robbery.  It has a definite noir feel to it.  It is sort of like a choose your own adventure, only with dice. I haven't yet read any of the other entrants' gamebooks, but that's on my list of things to do this week and next.

Last week was dismal on the reading front.  I read not one page (unless you count Mouse's books) nor did I listen to my audiobook.  I did read my copy of Entertainment Weekly, but barely.  It wasn't an issue that particularly captivated me.

Saturday night I finally settled into a book.  I am reading Lynda La Plante's Backlash, which I will be reviewing later this month for a tour.  Sam of Booked on a Feeling actually inspired me to pick up the novel when I did as she's reading it right now too.  It's my first by the author, and so far I'm enjoying it very much.

I hope to get back to We Need to Talk About Kevin this week, which is my current audiobook.  It is proving to be a difficult book for me to listen to (and I'm still not that far in), but not for the reasons you might think.  The narration is actually quite good, and I like Lionel Shriver's writing style.  The story is captivating. No, my problem with the book is more personal.  It's a book I need to be in the right frame of mind to listen to. 

What are you reading right now?  Is it something you would recommend?

Every Tuesday Diane from Bibliophile By the Sea hosts 

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, where  

participants share the first paragraph (or a few) of a 

book they are reading or thinking about reading soon.

Here is a taste of the murder mystery, Backlash by Lynda La Plante, I am reading now:

'Quiet night so far, isn't it?'

'Yeah, an' we've still got seven hours to go before the shift finishes!'

The two uniformed officers in the night duty car were chatting whilst driving past a council estate in East London, and all was quiet in the residential street, in contrast to the numerous clubs, bars, restaurants and buzzing nightlife of Shoreditch, just down the road.  And so the van bearing the log KIDDIES PARTY DATES stood out as it failed to give way for a pedestrian waiting at the zebra crossing.

'Is he on another planet?' said the officer driving.

'Bit late for a kiddies' party,' his colleague joked. 'Go pull him over, we've nothing better to do at the moment.' 

As they drew closer the van driver began to accelerate away from them and suddenly, without any indication, took a sharp left turn down a side street.

Would you continue reading?

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© 2013, Wendy Runyon of Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Musings of a Bookish Kitty or Wendy's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.