Reviews

Some books and things that have been interesting or fun for me lately.

First, a novel, the first in a series.

Soulless, by Gail Carriger. Normally I stay away from books with vampires and werewolves and ghosts and all, because the authors tend to rely on those gimmicks to carry the book and there's nothing under the freaky supernatural window dressing. That is absolutely not the case in this book. There's a real plot, with a mystery. There is character development. The re-imagined Victorian Era is fascinating, fun window dressing but as a proper backdrop to real action. There's also a whole lot of humor and a heroine who doesn't put up with crap from anyone - and really likes treacle tarts. I definitely suggest reading this one.

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The other book I'm reading, well, that's kind of a funny story.

A Splintered History of Wood, by Spike Carlsen. I was at the book store a week or two ago, looped out on this damn medication, and saw a book. I read "A History of WOOL" on the spine, and bought it. A couple days ago I got it out to read and realized it was a history of WOOD. Huh. Silly me. Well, I like trees. I'm a plant freak. And across the cover it said "An NPR Best Book of the Year" and figured, heck, how bad could it be? I'm very glad I went with it, because it's awesome. Goes through how trees evolved, discusses rare and common woods, and uses for it. There are interviews with famous wood artists, belt sander racers (really) and former president Jimmy Carter, who likes to make furniture. Really cool book.

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And then, the obsession of the house.

Plants Vs. Zombies. A wild and crazy game from PopCap. You can play part of it free here, though I suggest paying $20 for a CD ROM copy of the game at your local game store (I got mine at Target). It's addictive, and the Goober LOVES to watch while I play. Then she pretends to fight zombies. The other day when I fired this up, she shouted "Hey, Zombies, Momma is going to rip your heads off your bodies!" and a week or two ago she called the husbeast "Zombie Chum". Lots of hilarity.

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In other news, we finally got our retirement rating from the government for the hubby, and we immediately signed on with a realtor and once we get pre-approval for a loan, we'll be seriously looking into buying a house. The husbeast sounds like he's resigning himself to the house I really like, or something similar (!!!!!) so I might yet get my happy ending. Considering I've worked and sacrificed twenty years for this, living on a shoestring while paying off credit cards and student loans, well, I fear I'm going to put my foot down. It's looking like all that planning might pay off, though. I hover between stressed out (if we don't buy a house by July and get our stuff out of storage, we're going to hemorrhage money) and excited. I'm trying to hang on to the excitement.

Funny moment at the realtor's office last night: First meeting, discussing all sorts of serious stuff about houses and loans. I had my 'bag of tricks' (big canvas bag) full of the hub's document case, general purse stuff, and coloring books and the like to entertain the Goober. In the midst of it, I pulled a ball of black wool yarn out of the bag and said "Hey! I've been looking for that!" and put it back.

So they already know I'm nuts. You know. Saves time later.

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For those of you addicted to Goob photos:

She's watching Mythbusters. When I turn it on, she always says "Oooo I love this show!" When they blow stuff up, she giggles and claps her hands.

That's my girl.