Book reports and Easy Street

What have I been up to?  Well DH and I took a whirlwind trip to Prince George (approximately 1600 km) so we could see his sister and two nieces and a nephew prior to Christmas.  We decided to take the bus – way cheaper price and not much longer time wise.  The trip down was great.  We had seats to ourselves most of the way and I read and slept.  We had three and a half days in Prince George and were due to leave on December 21st at 11 pm to arrive home in the very early morning of the 23rd. 

Well coming home was a typical Christmas travel time night mare. The bus was 2 1/2 hours leaving and we were about three blocks from the bus station when the driver announced that he had no high beams and no speedometer and he was going back to the station.  We spent the night on the bus sleeping while waiting to see if a) the bus would get fixed, b) there would be and alternate bus or c) there would be some other solution.  Over the course of the night we were told a) the bus would not be easily fixed, b) we could take the morning bus 1/3 of the way and would have priority seating on it, c) if we took the morning bus then there would be a bus that we could take to the 1/2 way point and d) there would be no bus going all the way to Whitehorse until the next scheduled one that was to leave Christmas Eve at 11 p.m. 

So we went back and spent the day at my s-i-l’s and were fortunately able to get out on a plane that evening – both to Vancouver and then up to Whitehorse.  We were supposed to have two hours between planes but the first plane was late and we had about twenty minutes to traverse the whole length of the airport to the gate for the second plane.  We did make it though and got home at 1:30 in the morning. 

The next day DH got us a little tree.

We spent Christmas Eve at DD # 1’s home in Whitehorse, had a mad present opening session the next morning, then went home for Christmas evening.  On Boxing Day we had our big family meal with twelve attending and a ton of food. 

I did read four books over the last week and here are my reviews. (All photos from Amazon).

This book is in Mr. Grisham’s usual style.  An easy read, interesting, well written but not too deep.  It gave me a much clearer picture of how litigation works in the US of A.  Worth reading.

 

 

The Night Circus by Erin Morgensten.  The book is about a night circus and all the magic and mystery it holds.  The first 7/8ths of the book are fascinating as the circus and it’s many fabulous offerings are richly detailed and the story line is intricately woven.  I found the ending to be a let down.  It felt like the author just got tired of the story and wrapped the whole thing up in a few short words just to have it done.  I read this on my e-reader but would have liked a hard copy so I could easily go back and check dates and places. It is set in the 1800s. Worth reading.

I listened to this book on tape while I worked on my Easy Street blocks one afternoon.  It is a mystery story with a female heroine who solves the case.  Well written and gutsy it is a fun book to read.  I definitely will be looking for more in the series.

 

The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay was a fantastic read of the “don’t want to put it down” variety.  Set in the 1800s in New York it follows the plight of one young girl from the poor side of town. The writing is wonderful – making you feel like you are there at that time and place.  Ms McKay explains how she got the idea for the book through her own family history, which makes it all the more interesting.  Definitely worth reading.

And here are my Easy Street blocks so far.  I’ve worked on Steps 1, 2 and 3 so far. 

Janet