All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot

 

I have probably read this book about three times and it is always good. Just like The Andy Griffith Show or I Love Lucy. Always entertaiing. Never going sour.

 

Mr. Herriot writes down to earth yet descriptively and you find yourself reading and reading and reading. Then when you look up from the pages you wonder where the time has flown and did the sun actually set? It's no wonder since you have been transported to Darrowby helping this country vet deliver lambs, calves, stitch up dogs and wrestle ornery cats. You feel as if you have been there with James as he placates yet another old farmer who knows better than you how to castrate his bull and tells you so while he leisurely leans up against the fence and puffs on his pipe filled with aromatic tobacco.

James weaves every story with humour and each chapter is its own tale.

 

You want to breathe the air he is breathing and have a pint at the end of the day in the nearest pub. It's a sad day or evening when you read the last page and have to close the book, putting it back on the shelf to await another good read in about a year or two.

 

Thank you, James.

LAST breath by marian STEWART

 

I accidentally reread this one! Have you ever done that? You pick a book off your shelf and begin reading the first page and at the back of your mind you are having a deja vu but putting it down to your imagination. But as you keep turning the pages you say to yourself, "Yes I do believe I have read this already". But you also remember it was good, and that you don't have another book in the wings, so you continue and enjoy it all over again.

 

This one has archaeology in it (I minored in Anthropology so Archaeology is a close second) and a lost civilization (who doesn't love that) which was found in 1908 by Dr. Daria McGowen's great-grandfather. He brought the lost treasures back to his University which he founded in the states. But the guardians of Shandihar didn't take kindly to that act so for one hundred years they have been biding their time until they can get their hands on the goods again and punish those that defiled their goddess.

 

But Dr. Daria McGowen (a renowned archaeologist), who has been asked by the president of Howe University to resurrect the collection in the abandoned museum on campus in order to garner much needed money for the school, knows nothing of the tragedy that has and will continue to befall those who have acquired the treasures. It's life and death and you are not sure who will be next or who are the guardians that have made it their life's mission to avenge Shandihar and carry out the evil punishment.

 

But an FBI agent comes to the rescue. And a dog.

 

Woof!

The Final Planet by Andrew M. Greeley

Once again, a good find at Goodwill. And what a surprise it was to me to see that Andrew Greeley had written a Sci-fi! Then I read 'about the author' at the back of the book and learned he had written God Game before this one so I may have to find it and read it as well.

As you may have read previously in one of my blog entries, I bring my Dad with me sometimes to pick out books to read. He loves going to Goodwill because "some of these books are like brand new" he declares! He likes to get hard backs. I do too. Why? I guess they feel more substantial. They have beautiful jacket covers like this one. And I love a good jacket cover. I like to see if it also matches the story inside the covers. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. Then I want to design one myself or go to the Publishing House and say, "What were you thinking? That's misleading and doesn't depict the story at all, at all." (You'll get that double wordage if you read this book).

I saw this book and nearly jumped for joy. Why again? Well because my dear mother loved this author. She liked his style of writing but most of all she was intrigued that a priest was a writer and that he wrote about women. What?!!!

She always wondered if he had experiences with women before he became a priest. She was brought up Catholic, so to have a priest write about making love to a woman was compelling. He certainly writes about women in this book. He will write "She" in referring to God as well. So as I read this book I also wonder and wish my Mom was hear so we could discuss it. I kind of do it mentally with her. Sort of like a spiritual ESP. My mom would like that notion. She had a good sense of humour and we 'got' each other. Are you smiling up there in the great beyond?

At any rate I picked this book off the shelf in honor of my mother and wondered if she had read it. We would talk about the books she read and I don't have a memory of a chat about a sci-fi. But she could remember the names of the characters long after she read the book and, if I had read it even recently, I would be rummaging around in my brain for the names. She had a great mind. I loved her mind.

But back to this book ... it was published in 1985, so in its day that was pretty original in itself to be written by a priest. But in the standard of sci-fis today it is mild. Nevertheless it's really a love story between Seamus Finnbar Diarmuid Brendan Tomas O'Neill (a red bearded man of the Holy Order of St. Brigid and St. Brendan who travels on a space ship called the Iona, a pilgrim vessel). But the Iona is old and crumbling so the pilgrims on board have one final trip they can make ... to find a place to land and call home. Seamus is sent down to check it out.

Enter Seamus O'Neill's 'proper woman' who he meets on the planet Zylong and falls in love with even though she is a formidable young woman by the name of Marjetta. And she's a Lieutenant. But that doesn't stop him wooing her gently as they figure out together how to save the planet from itself.

I haven't finished it but I just wanted to write about it today on this overcast, book reading/writing morning.

It feels good to write.

Here's to you, Mom. We'll discuss the ending when I get to it.