I’ve been thinking most of today about what I wanted to write about in today’s Sunday Salon post. I’m in the middle of reading a fun paranormal mystery called Death Perception by Victoria Laurie. I wasn’t so sure at the start that I would like it, but as I got further in the story, I was hooked and suddenly, in just moments, I was deep in the magic of reading.

And I was thinking how much I enjoy that, that magical feeling of being deep within a book, regardless of what book it is. How it happens to me across genres, how it can happen whether I’m reading a literary novel, a thriller, a mystery, a romance, a YA book, a children’s book (especially children’s books, it seems sometimes).

For most of today, I’ve just been feeling so deeply appreciative of the act of reading, the wonder of it, and so I thought I would combine The Sunday Salon today with Three Beautiful Things, because tonight as I sit here thinking of three beautiful things, my thoughts are all focused on books:

1. The homey comfort of the stacks and stacks of books that form my TBR piles, and the pleasure I feel at the thought of all those books waiting for me to dive into them.

2. The joy of reading deep into the night, totally drawn into the story, while curled up in bed, glass of wine by my side.

3. The magic of words, how those specks of black on the white or ivory of paper can come together to build entire and complete worlds.

Reading is such a gorgeous, joyous thing. I can’t imagine a life without books.

It’s been a very busy week here because of work deadlines. Because I always run the risk of feeling like I’m drowning in work when I have these deadline crunches, this time around, I made sure to commit to other things which help relieve the tedium of focusing too much on work - with some truly excellent results! There’s nothing like balance to really make a person feel more energized.

I really think I’m actually working smarter because I’ve been taking several small breaks instead of charging full-steam ahead into my work without taking so much as a breath.

I haven’t managed to finish a book this week because of deadlines, but my “balanced living tools” this week have included quick dips into The Wright Three, by Blue Balliett. I really enjoyed Chasing Vermeer, Balliett’s first book about Petra and Calder. I’m about a third of the way through The Wright Three, in which Petra and Calder are joined by Calder’s old friend Tommy, and the writing and plot in this book are just as delicious as Chasing Vermeer. If it weren’t for my deadlines, I’d be zooming through this, but since I can’t, I’ve been taking my time and really savoring it. As soon as I finish this, I’m going to pick up Calder Game, the latest Balliett book.

I also managed to read through this month’s edition of Toronto Life; admittedly, I didn’t actually read all the articles, but there were some interesting items in there. We recently just subscribed, and so far I’m pretty glad we did. I’ve already picked out a handful of restaurants that I’d like to try, plus there are a few plays that I hadn’t heard about that I’d like to buy tickets for.

Not that I have time to actually go anywhere right now. But soon! In another week and a bit, I should be out of deadline crunch. And I am REALLY looking forward to that!

Yesterday, as part of my major procrastination plan, I got my husband to drop Dylan and I off at Chapters while he went and did the groceries. Having Dylan with me is supposed to stop me from plunging into another major book-buying binge, but what can I say? I’m very resourceful.

Plus the Thomas the Tank train table is located in the children’s section, right by all the sale-priced children’s and young adult books.

So I came home with two bags full of sale-priced hardcover children’s and young adults’ books, including a number of children’s fantasy novels - one of my favorite genres. Since I just recently finished The Mysterious Benedict Society I’ve been hungering for similar books, including the sequel, of course (which I didn’t get yesterday, since I was too busy plowing through all the sale books).

Since these books were released as hardcovers some time ago, most of them are now available as paperbacks. But I figure these will sit nicely on my bookshelves.

My to-be-read pile now includes:

The Riddles of Epsilon, by Christine Morton-Shaw: Jessica has moved to a remote island with her parents, and encounters both a ghost-like energy as well as three locked boxes. The story involves a boy named Sebastian who lived 100 years ago; back then he unearthed dangers which now also threaten Jess and her family.

Excerpt from the jacket: “Jess has a talent for solving puzzles, riddles, and codes. She is confronted with a series of riddles that she must unlock in order to save her mother from a dark and ancient threat. Jess is guided by the creepy presence in the cottage. The mysterious guide is called Epsilon, but is he a guide from the bright side or the dark?”

I’m really looking forward to this one; it sounds like it has all the ingredients that I like in a children’s fantasy.

I Am the Messenger, by Markus Zusak: Ed Kennedy is a cab driver who inadvertently stops a bank robbery. He begins receiving aces in the mail:

Chosen to care, [Ed] makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary) until only one question remains.

Who’s behind Ed’s mission?

This plot alone was enough to make me add the book to my growing stack of books to buy yesterday.

Gideon the Cutpurse, by Linda Buckley-Archer: This is the first of the Gideon trilogy - I just checked Amazon and the other two in the trilogy are The Time Travelers and The Time Thief. I’ve actually seen the Time Thief around a few times but never felt drawn to it, so maybe after I read this first book, I may pick these other two up, too.

Here’s the excerpt from the jacket: “An encounter with an anti-gravity machine catapults Peter Schock and Kate Dyer back to the 18th century and sets in motion a calamitous chain of events. … Stranded in another time and forced to chase the Tar Man to his lair, Peter and Kate find a friend and guide in reformed cutpurse, Gideon Seymour …”

I’m not usually fond of historicals, but this is as much a fantasy as it is a historical. I’m pretty sure I’m going to enjoy this one.

Children Of The Lamp: The Akhenaten Adventure by P.B. Kerr: I wasn’t as sure of this one, but I couldn’t resist: two children, John and Philippa, discover that they are descendents of a long line of djinn. It’s an interesting premise, so I’m looking forward to seeing how the story reads. The sequel was also on sale - Blue Djinn of Babylon - and I couldn’t resist that one either. So hopefully the series is a good one!

Here’s an excerpt from the jacket blurb: Luckily (and luck does have something to do with it), the twins are introduced to their eccentric djinn-uncle Nimrod, who will teach them how to harness their newly found power. And not a moment too soon! Because John and Philippa are about to embark on a search to locate a monstrous looking (but supposed to be dead) pharoah named Akhenaten, and his tomb, which may hold seventy lost djinn.

So there’s much excitement promised. It will be interesting to see how this one goes.

Skulduggery Pleasant, by Derek Landy: Okay, so tell me, how on earth could I resist this one? “Meet Skulduggery Plesant, ace detective, snappy dresser, razor-tongued wit, crackerjack sorcerer and walking, talking, fire-throwing skeleton -
as well as ally, protector and mentor of Stephanie Edgley, a very unusual and darkly talented twelve-year-old.”

Checking Amazon just now, it looks like there are two sequels so far, so if I enjoy this one, there’s more to come.

The Game Of Sunken Places, by M.T. Anderson: This one looked like fun. Two boys, Brian and Gregory, receive an invitation to stay at their Uncle Max’s mansion. Uncle Max is a distant relation, and from the sounds of it, just plain weird. And the mansion is even weirder. Inside the attic, the boys find the Game of Sunken Places.

Jacket blurb excerpt (these things sway me to buy, all the time): “Is the Game of Sunken Places an ordinary board game? Hardly! The Game of Sunken Places looks like a board game. And most of the time it acts like a board game. But from the moment Brian and Gregory start playing, they are caught up in an adventure that goes far beyond the board. Soon the boys are dealing with attitudinal trolls, warring kingdoms, and some very starchy britches.”

So there you have it. This is actually only about half of the books I picked up - overnight, my to-be-read pile has swelled in size. Actually, though, that’s the way it always happens around here.

Of course, I’m in deadline crunch right now, so what I’ve just done is increase the temptation to procrastinate. I also have a tendency to do this, too …

Reviews will be forthcoming, some here, some at my new book review blog.

I’ve really gotten back into reading fiction lately - I’ve recently discovered that fiction for me is really the equivalent of “filling my well” when it comes to my writing. That, and watching movies. Both of which for the longest time I tried to avoid because they take up so much time.

Reading novels can actually be quite hazardous around here. One thing I’ve been keeping my eye on is not starting a book late in the day. When I do that, chances are good that I won’t get into bed until 3 a.m., which doesn’t work for me that well anymore.

This week has been a really good week for crime thrillers. I started the week off with Caro Ramsay’s Absolution, which is set in Glasgow, Scotland. This is Ramsay’s first novel, and I will definitely be keeping my eye out for more of her writing. Having said that, though, I enjoyed Absolution more for the writing - Ramsay writes in the literary crime tradition of PD James, Elizabeth George and Reginald Hill - than I did for the actual plot and characters. First of all - and this doesn’t happen to me very often - I knew who the murderer was from the moment he was introduced. In fact, I kept reading thinking it couldn’t possibly be this person, because it was just so obvious, so there must be some sort of tricky splendid twist waiting to surprise me at the end … only there wasn’t. I also didn’t like the main character at all. But the writing made up for these two negatives for me, so Ramsay is definitely a writer I will be keeping on my to-read list.

I moved from Absolution to another Scottish writer, Ian Rankin. The Naming of the Dead is the first Inspector Rebus novel I’ve read, and I found myself wondering why it took me so long to pick up a Rankin book. The Naming of the Dead is a thick twist-filled, suspenseful crime thriller of the type I particularly enjoy reading, and I liked both Rebus and his sidekick Siobhan Clarke very much. Which is nice, because there’s a long list of Rankin/Rebus books for me to catch-up on.

My final read this past week was Kathy Reichs’ Bones to Ashes. The plot, as is usual in a Reichs book, is wonderfully twisty and filled with surprises. I’m not as fond of the writing style, though. I find the “if only I had known” endings to the chapters just a little too old-style gothic heroine for my taste, and I don’t really like stories where the protaganist is threatened by the murderer, which is something that seems to happen a lot to Temperance Brennan.

This coming week? I’m juggling quite a few deadlines, so I probably won’t get as much reading done as I’d like. But I’m prepping for NaNoWriMo, and now that I’ve discovered that I get inspired to write after I read, I’m definitely going to keep hitting those books!

It’s not been a great week for reading - when this happens, it really astonishes me because there are times I can’t think of anything but reading. This week, though, I’ve been spending time getting through the 1001 magazines that we’re subscribed to (at least, that’s what it felt like!).

Magazine reading doesn’t actually count in my mind as “reading for enjoyment”, not quite like a novel or good non-fiction. So I thought for today’s Sunday Salon, I’ll post the to-be-read pile that’s currently sitting on my bedside table. I have several TBR piles all around the house, but the one that’s beside my bed contains the books that are most likely to get read next:

	The Mysterious Benedict Society. When I was a kid present-day fantasies topped my list of great reads, and such books are still very much at the top of my list these days. I have been waiting for the perfect chunk of time to read this book - it’s one of those that I suspect I will enjoy so thoroughly, I won’t want to put it down until it’s finished. I’m hoping to find that time this week, as I’m eager to read the second instalment (which says a lot about how much I’m anticipating this first book).
	The Young Bond Series, Book One: Silverfin (A James Bond Adventure). I must confess, I’m not too sure about this one. I just really like the idea of reading about the young James Bond. Why this is, I really can’t say, since I’ve only ever read one of the original James Bond books and the movies aren’t on my top favorites list, either.
	The Risk of Darkness. I had read Susan Hill’s The Various Haunts of Men back in June, and enjoyed it immensely, even though I personally would have preferred a different ending. I enjoy dense, literate mysteries, and Susan Hill’s writing is spectacular; I think I enjoyed just the deliciousness of the writing in The Various Haunts of Men as I did the mystery itself. So I’m looking forward to The Risk of Darkness - again, it’s the kind of read I feel I need to have a good chunk of time set aside for.
	What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love I love memoirs, and this one by Carole Radziwill looks like a good one. I saw this a while back when I was at Chapters, and couldn’t resist. “What Remains is a vivid and haunting memoir about a girl from a working-class town who becomes an award-winning television producer and marries a prince.”
	Notes from a Small Island. Bill Bryson is one of my favorite authors, and Notes from a Small Island is the one older book of his that I have yet to read. One thing I like about non-fiction books is that I never find myself needing to race through one to get to the ending; for that reason, I think I’ll be finished this one first.
	The Alienist: A Novel. I am actually re-reading this one - it’s a very good, very re-readable mystery by Caleb Carr. Set in the 1890s, the protagonist is a psychologist (or “alienist”) who is trying to track down a serial killer who murders prostitutes. The writing is filled with rich details, and you really get to know the main characters.

Earlier this week I read The Secret Order of the Gumm Street Girls by Elise Primavera, a book which I added to my to-be-read pile last month.

This is one of those books that brought me right back to childhood, which was filled with the magic and fantasy of Roald Dahl, E. Nesbitt, Edward Eager, John Bellairs and so many others. It’s a particularly lovely read for those who enjoyed The Wizard of Oz, as its plot is intertwined with several Oz characters.

Here’s the blurb on the front page of the book, taken from the Preface (which starts with “Preface (which means the story hasn’t officially started but you ought to read this anyway)”):

Beware, faint of heart!

It could be that given how wonderful a place Sherbet was, and that four girls all lived on the same street and were all about the same age, you are now expecting a story about girls who are terrific friends, always “there” for one another, eager to help and support one another. Maybe you are expecting to read about their lighthearted adventures, like helping cats down from trees or solving the mystery of the missing hair extensions. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but you may as well know right now there will be no lighthearted adventures. Even worse, the girls on Gumm Street didn’t like one another at all.

Luckily, Sherbet provided lots of entertaining things to occupy the girls of Gumm Street, and so they really didn’t need one another. It had always been that way, and everyone believed it always would be that way.

Well, everyone was wrong.

This is a wonderful story about friendship, magic and our unique talents. It’s a fun and delicious read, with lots of laugh-out-loud scenes (as you can probably tell from the excerpt above), and the line drawings accompanying the text, also by Primavera (who penned and illustrated Auntie Claus), are an absolutely perfect match to the story itself.

I’m hoping there will be a Gumm Street Girls sequel. I greatly enjoyed my time with Franny, Pru, Cat and Ivy, and the world of Sherbet and below that Primavera has created, and look forward to immersing myself back into the fun and wonder of it all.