Christie's Manifest

I'm still reading Kim. Slowly but surely I'm making it through. I don't know why I'm struggling with this one... probably because I've been putting lots of other stuff on my plate and haven't given myself much reading time. Hopefully as I get my schedule/routine down better I'll find more time.

One Two Three or how to spend an entire morning at the car dealership

The week flew by. So did my resolve to post on this blog every day. However, today I finally opened "The Thirteenth Tale" and now I can't put it down!! It has already provided me with a quote for Tuesday and a word for Wednesday.

A quote:

"Politeness. Now there's a poor man's virtue if there ever was one. What's so admirable about inoffensiveness, I should like to know. After all it's easily achieved. One needs no particular talent to be polite. On the contrary, being nice is what's left after you've failed at everything else." ~Vida Winter in The Thirteen Tale

(I disagree with her. Of course, I come from a poor family........)

And, a wordie:

amanuesis: (I had never, ever seen this word before in my life) pl. a·man·u·en·ses (-sz) KEY
One who is employed to take dictation or to copy manuscript.

Top 100 Thursday? I am giving up "Where Angels Fear to Tread". Almost done but have to return the book tomorrow. It's already overdue.

Christie's Not Finished

Hello? Is there anyone else out there?

No, I know you all are busy and sometimes can't make it to the computer. But I hope you all have a fabulous holiday weekend... and if you can fit some reading in, then good for you!

I'm not done with Kim, but hopefully I'll get some reading done this afternoon as I have the day off.

Christie's Top 100

I am reading #95 on the Top 100 List, which is Kim by Rudyward Kipling. I think I'm up to Chapter 5. I'm still not as into it as I would like to be, but I am at least learning to ignore the end note indicators and just read through the story.

The main characters, the lama and his disciple (Kim), have been traveling for several days in search of the lama's sacred river. There have been interesting descriptions and lots of talk about a religion and way of life that is, of course, way different than my own. It's interesting and I'm sure as the book goes on it will present passages that are meaningful no matter your religion or your way of life... I just hope I'm paying attention when it does!

Christie's Wordies

From The Beautiful and Damned:

1. maelstrom(s) (237): whirlpool(s)
2. cupidity (238): extreme greed for material wealth
3. sinecure(s) (239): position(s) that require minimal work, but that still give payment
4. hoary (251): ancient; white or gray with age
5. pusillanimous (275): lacking in courage and manly strength and resolution

Christie's Treasure Trove

From Hope for Each Day, which is a daily devotional by Billy Graham:

"God's love did not begin at Calvary. Before the morning stars sang together, before the world was baptized with the first light, before the first blades of tender grass peeped out, God was love" (p. 112, April 5).

Karen's Manifest Monday

Hey y'all. I am technically in between books at the moment. But as of tonight I will be reading Kim by Rudyard Kipling. I just got it from the library today and will probably start it tonight when I go to bed, or if not, definitely tomorrow morning on the way to work.

Kathy's Manifest Monday

For those who follow, you know I am taking a break from Shocking Pink Thread. However, part of the reason is so that I can focus on the other blogs that mean something more to me right now, including this one!

I never started "The Thirteenth Tale" last week. I decided to read "Where Angels Fear to Tread" instead and I'm about halfway through. I expect to finish it today or tomorrow so my book for the next week (or two) will be "The Thirteenth Tale". Christie gave this book to Grama last year for Christmas and I wanted to read it then. It's taken me this long (more than a year!) to get to it.

Cindy asked last week what the book was about so I'm cheating. I went to Amazon and looked at the reviews. This one makes me even more excited to read the book since Gothic romance is one of my favorite genres:

"Vida Winter, England's most famous and reclusive writer, is nearing the end, and before she goes she wants her amazing life story to be recorded for posterity. For this, she engages a lonely young biographer, Margaret Lea, who has a few secrets of her own. When these two forceful women meet, the stage is set for an ever-mounting series of shocking surprises. I've always been a fan of the Gothic style of romantic mystery, and some of my favorite authors are the Brontës, Daphne du Maurier, Mary Stewart, and Robert Goddard. If you share my love of windswept moors, bleak houses and strange families, you're in for a real treat. THE THIRTEENTH TALE is a masterful, deliberately old-fashioned story of secrets, ghosts, sexual obsession, murder, madness--you name it, and it's here. This is a beautiful book. I'm going to give copies to a few friends, and I plan to read it again. The only other books I've actually read twice are GREAT EXPECTATIONS, WUTHERING HEIGHTS, and REBECCA. What else can I say? Enjoy. "

Christie's Manifest Monday

I have moved onto my next Top 100 Book, Kim by Rudyard Kipling. It is apparently about a young man who becomes the chela (disciple) of a Tibetan lama and they are to travel around India to the "Four Holy Places" of Buddhism- where Buddha's faith was created, where he delivered his first sermon, where he died, and where his relics are enshrined.

I had kind of a hard time with the first chapter. The version I have has end notes, and there were lots of end note indicators that I found distracting. I would actually prefer not to know what something is than have the end note thing just about every other word keeping me from being focused on the story. It got better towards the end of the chapter and I'm looking forward to seeing where the two main characters go and what they experience in the rest of the book.

Finished!

I finished Thunderstruck last weekend, just before I started the one I'm on now. It's the second of his books that I've read, and I must agree with Christie and say I liked Devil in the White City better. This one was good and I really like the way he sets up the story within the historical context, but the set-up took about two-thirds of the book before it got to the murder mystery part. It's really interesting how he incorporates the mystery into the history (sounds like a rap) and how the two interact and affect one another. Overall, I would suggest checking out this author, Erik Larson and recommend either of these books.