"Simply Chakras" ~ Sasha Fenton

I've had a recent interest in chakras so I bought "Simply Chakras" by Sasha Fenton.  Because the first thing I do with anything I'm interested in is go find a book.  I liked this book.  It was easy to follow and well laid out.  The information was good, but not overwhelming.  I also like how she acknowledged where traditions differed, but basically said do what feels right to you.  It starts with some history about chakras and them moves on to the individual chakras. Each chakra gets it's own chapter andthe author provides the basics of what each chakra does, the influence of too much or not enough, the physical link and the spiritual link.  The later chapters deal with physical chakra healing and spiritual/emotional chakra healing. 

My one wish is that she had included some exercises to go with the chapters.  I have a chakra meditation that I love and would have liked some new things to try.  The book is beautifully illustrated and I feel it will serve me well in a reference capacity.  It also gives me something to refer to while I wait for some classes to become available.  I'm looking forwarding to learning more about them.

I'm So Happy For You" ~ Lucinda Rosenfeld

This was a recommendation from the page-a-day calendar and I was really looking forward to reading it.  Then I started it and and now I'm so happy these aren't my friends.  There is a part of me that just wants to rag on how much I did not enjoy this book, but another part of me wants to be respectful to the effort that the author put into her creation.  Someone liked it enough to not only buy it, but publish it.  I'll be honest, I didn't even finish it.  I got part way through, read the end, and felt no desire to go back and find out what happened in between.

The story is about the friendship between two New York best friends in their 30s.  Wendy's life is ok.  It's not overly exciting, but it's stable.  It's made more stable and superior, by the crazy instability of her best friend Daphne.  Wendy's life seems so much better when compared to Daphne's.  Then just as Daphne's life take a series of improbable upticks, Wendy's starts going downhill.  This is supposed to be a witty, insightful look at the reasons why some women stay friends.  That was not my experience.  The main character, Wendy, and I got off on the wrong foot when she used her low salary at work to  justified her constant emailing, on-line shopping, and being late for work.  Then there was her need to cement her BFF role with constant gossip and speculation.   She touches on it briefly to say she really shouldn't do it and then proceeds to keep doing it.  I couldn't decide if Daphne was just crazy or oblivious.  Either way I didn't really care. I saw Wendy and Daphne as two sisters, with Wendy saying "But MOM, Daphne got one more present than I did!!"

 It may be I have a different definition of friendship.  The people in my life like Wendy and Daphne are not people I like to spend time with.  They aren't people I call close friends and certainly not best friends.  They are acquaintances, people I know.  I trust my best friends.  They're the ones who know and love me warts and all.  A close friendship, for me, is about support and trust and a belief that my life is better by having this person in it.  This was not the book for me.

"Snuff" ~ Terry Pratchett

British author Terry Pratchett can be an amazingly funny writer while at the same time being amazingly thought provoking. His best books are the ones that have a great balance of the two.  "Truth" being a great example and one of my favorite books.  The satire present in every book is used to skewer society and culture in both broad and small, sly ways. Just consider this quote from "Truth"

 There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who, when presented with a glass that is exactly half full, say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!

 The books about the City Watch have always been among my favorites because you're mixing my fantasy and mystery genres again.  I do have to say that the Moist von Lipwig books "Going Postal" and "Making Money" rank right up there as well.  Ah, but the Watch...what a group of characters.  An odd collection of misfits that you can't help but love.  And Sam Vimes, what can you say, when your creator starts you drunk in the gutter, there really is no where to go but up. 

"Snuff" is a City Watch book and I have a feeling it might be the last one.  Maybe because of the author's health or maybe because he's just come to the end of the story.  Either way it feels like an ending.  While the humor is there, this comes down on the more the serious side.  There is alot of self reflection going on inside Sam Vimes.  At the beginning of the book Lady Sybil has dragged her husband Sam, kicking and screaming, off to the country for a vacation.  What's a city boy to do in the country.

"The countryside! What's to amuse you in the countryside?  Do you know why it's called the countryside, Carrot?  Because there is bloody nothing there except damn trees, which we're supposed to make a fuss about, but really they're just stiff weeds! It's dull!  It's nothing but a long Sunday!"

 That might be funnier to me than others because my dad had to plant two trees for evey one he cut down.  Of course Vimes finds all kinds of things going on in the countryside. Pratchett explores where the law starts and stops, personal resposibility, slavery, and justice verses law.  And it does it all in his own trademark style.

"But of course, who would tell anything to a twerp like Flutter?  He wasn't even a henchman - you needed a certain amount of tactical thinking before you could properly hench - but henchmen hang about, and when they're with someone as thick as Flutter they don't always gaurd their tongues."

 I've read that some people feel this book isn't up there with Pratchett's best work.  I don't disagree, but it's still pretty damn good in my opinion.  If you've never read a City Watch book, don't start with "Snuff".  Start at the begining with "Guards! Guards!"  otherwise you're just not going to appreciate this book as much as you should.  You need the history and the growth to understand where Sam Vimes is now and the questions he's struggling with.  I also enjoyed having Sybil present as a main character in this book and having her and Sam truly interact as a couple.  Last, but not least I laughed myself silly at the "Pride & Prejudice" send up.  If you haven't read Terry Pratchett, start now.

"New York to Dallas" ~ J.D. Robb

"New York to Dallas" is the 33rd (I believe) book in J.D. Robb's In Death mystery series.  I will stop what ever I'm reading as soon as I have a new In Death book in my hands.  I recommend this series whole heartedly, but just start at the beginning.  The author takes all my genres and mixes them up into a fantastic combination.  Nominally a mystery series, it is set about 40-50 years in the future, where the main character Eve Dallas is a New York police officer.  Roarke is the gorgeous, rich, reformed bad boy who Eve marries by the 3rd book.  Here comes my romance genre sneaking in.  One of the things I love is the married relationship between Eve and Roarke.  Neither had a happy childhood and watching the author have these two characters develop and build a life together is a testament to the series.  I also love a good mystery and while it's hard to not have themes get repetitive with 33 books, I never feel like she is recycling stories.  There are stories that stay with me from all points in the series.  The futuristic element plays out in easy, but not too unrealistic ways.  Like Eve being able to hit the vertical lift in her car to take her up and over traffic while in pursuit.  They have stunners and blasters instead of gun.  She also uses a specific slang that helps set the dialog apart.  It takes some getting used to, but it's not too bad.  Over the course of the series, there have been great supporting characters introduced and I love seeing who's going to show up in a book.  Another thing I love is that Robb always makes room for character beats and development.  Time passes, life goes on, and people mature.  With too many other mystery series that doesn't happen.

"New York to Dallas" is like the season finale of season four of your favorite tv show.  You been with the series awhile.  You know who the players are.  You watched them work through the beginnings and build some history.  You've been through a few twists and turns and you have a solid sense how they might behave given a particular situation.   The story starts with a particularly nasty abuser and murderer of young girls, Isaac McQueen, escaping from prison.  He escapes with the thought of revenge on the rookie cop who put him there, Eve Dallas.  This brings Eve back full circle to her beginnings as a cop and when McQueen sets up shop in Dallas, it brings her back to her past.  Eve was found as an abused child alone in the streets of Dallas.  It's interesting to see Eve and Roarke basically on their own again working in an unfamiliar city with unfamiliar people.  I really liked it.  It reminded me how much I like them.  It was also interesting to watch Eve's struggle to cope with her past while pursuing this killer in the present. There is one scene with her cat that nearly made me cry.  Of course, my cats have done that for me in the past so I can relate. This book does deal with some strong subject matter, murder, rape, and pedophilia, but it fits within the context of the story and I never feel it's used gratuitously.  Did I feel there were a few "take this with a grain of salt" situations, yes.  Did I care, nope.  There is some unexpected resolution for Eve that took me by surprise, but left my satisfied.  All in all, I liked the book and thought it was an excellent addition to the series.  For those who don't know, J.D. Robb is Nora Roberts.

"A Reliable Wife" ~ Robert Goolrick

"A Reliable Wife" came from the page-a-day recommendations and I now know it is a pretty hot book club book.  Taking place in 1907, Ralph Truitt, an older, wealthy Wisconsin business man advertises for a "reliable wife".  Younger woman Catherine Land answers the ad and comes to Wisconsin with a plan.  She is going to marry him, kill him slowly and be left a wealthy widow.  Now before anybody starts yelling "SPOILERS!!!" at me, it tells you this on the back of the book.  I was immediately intrigued and couldn't wait to read it.  What I discovered is this is either a love it or hate it book.  I loved it (mostly).

The writing is spare, clean, and cool.  I know, cool, what's that?  It's the only way I can explain it.  There is nothing extra, no exuberance, no extrovertness to the writing.  The writing was almost meditative for me.  This is reflected in the characters of Ralph and Catherine.  The story alternates between their points of view and while you, the reader, are exposed to their inner thoughts and dialogue, the rest of the world isn't.  These are both people with secrets to hide.  They are both careful and aware of the persona they are projecting to the world around them.  About half way through, a third character is introduced and then the story alternates between the three to the end of the book. 

Having said all that there is a tension that starts and then builds throughout the book.  Starting with, is she going to do it?  When is she going to it?  Why is she going to do it?  Who is this person?  What are her motives?  Is Ralph going to figure it out?  There is a surprising amount of action sprinkled throughout the book.  The settings of rural Wisconsin and St. Louis are the fourth and fifth characters rounding out this book.  Goolrick highlights the lives of many types of people with out preaching about it.  The long, dark, harsh, lonely winters in Wisconsin.  The excesses of the rich and the plight of the poor in St. Louis. 

This is not a happy book.   Those who hate it will say the language is to simple, it's to dark, I didn't like the characters, etc...  I don't disagree per se.  Everyone is trapped to some extent by their circumstances.  I enjoyed reading it and I kept turning the pages, because I wanted to know what was going to happen.  Somethings I thought I figured out I got right and others I got wrong. I liked Ralph and Catherine...well, you'll have to make up your own mind.