Reading Roundup - Week 14

Wow, what a week.
I picked up the stitches on the heel of my sock, and I'm sailing smoothly towards completion.
Could it be I'll be through with one sock by tonight or tomorrow?
Could be, rabbit!
And I've been very busy reading, as well.
I also got my paperwork from my professor, so I really need to sit down and focus on a syllabus with her, and get it back so I can register.
I walked into the bookstore yesterday and saw a ton of paperback books that looked intriguing.
I was tempted, but fought the urge.
I still have several books in my queue, so I can't afford the distraction of adding more books.
This week I read/finished quite a few books: The Arm of the Starfish (32), a very good novel by Madeleine L'Engle (who else) about a boy who is unexpectedly caught up in espionage in Portugal. Very good story, good scenery, and L'Engle has an interesting way of crafting these later bits of fiction that are more in the mystery genre than that of her earlier work.
Next was The Wand in the Word (33), a book I loved so much that I had to buy my own. I had this on inter-library loan for two months, but I just love these short biographies of YA fantasy writers. Brian Jacques, who wrote the Redwall series, among other books, sounds like such a great guy that I want to go onto youtube and see him in interviews. Oh who am I kidding, change the verb tense - I have gone onto youtube to see him. He's awesome, especially for a guy who grew up on the rough streets of Liverpool, and didn't start writing (without a college degree) until he was a much older man.
Then another L'Engle book, Dragons in the Water (34), but this one I believe is my favorite so far. A wonderful tale of a young boy who leaves his grandmother in South Carolina and enters into dangerous waters (waters with dragons?) as he travels with his cousin...but is it really his cousin? And what is really written on the back of the portrait? Great story, and I really enjoyed it a lot. It actually made me cry (but then so did Danielle Steel novels - I'm so easy).
Now do you ever read a series by an author, and just keep on reading the books because you're so familiar with them that you can't stop? It's almost like the proverbial Christmas letter now - the author just kind of mails it in, you receive it, think, oh, so that's what they're up to now, and go on your merry way. I literally found this Christmas letter, er, book underneath my bed half-read: St. Patrick's Day Murder (35). I'm almost reading these books now to see what the kids are doing, not to see which murder Lucy is going to solve next. See, like I said, Christmas letter. All newsy and gosh how they've grown!
Finally I'm reading books for 4th-6th grade again! I can't help it, and Michael Buckley has done a great job with The Fairy Tale Detectives: The Sisters Grimm, Book 1 (36). I'd tell you this is a new series, but it's only new to me. Hey, I haven't been hanging out in the intermediate reader section until just recently. Sabrina and Daphne have been abandoned by their parents, but then they find out that they are the last descendants of the Brothers Grimm (get it - sisters - brothers - get it?), and they move to Ferryport Landing (originally Fairy Port) where all the "Ever After" characters, or people, from fairy tales were forced to move when they left Europe. Prince Charming is a jerk, and mayor, Snow White teaches school, and Mirror Mirror actually contains a little man who keeps the storage locker for all the fairy tale goodies the Grimm's keep safe. Quite clever, and I'll be reading book two very soon.
Whew - that's a lot of house cleaning that has been avoided, don't you think?
(Don't answer that.)
Until next week, I'll continue to caveat lector.
And you should too.