a few more books under my belt...

I keep forgetting to post my reading.  I suppose it's just as well that this challenge is coming to an end.   I appear to be running out of blogging steam (See also my lack of "Etsy Find of the Week" posts for two weeks running...)  Anyway, a few more recent reads for the official list:

Book 41:  The Reversal, a new one by Michael Connelly.  I like books where you're not quiiiiite sure if the bad guy is really the bad guy or not.  This is sort of like that.  Good Harry Bosch/Mickey Haller book.

Book 42:  Still Missing, by Chevy Stevens.  Okay, this thriller definitely had a unique plot, and kept my attention the whole way through.  Really liked it.  Basically the story centers around a lady realtor who is abducted from an open house and suffers hideous abuse at the hands of her captor...  but from Page 1, our victim is telling the story, so you already know she doesn't die during the ordeal (Probably. Unless it's some Lovely Bones type of thing where the victim is telling the story from the grave. But that's not what's going on here. Oops - spoiler?)  Her life - and the investigation into her abduction - must go on.  I guess this one also falls into the "I'm not totally sure who the bad guy is" category.  I would definitely recommend it.

Book 43:  Prayers for Rain, by Dennis Lehane.  Continuing my Kenzie/Gennaro kick.

Book 44:  Last Night at Chateau Marmont, a new release from Lauren Weisberger.  You know her books; this one is similar.  I liked it because I'm a girl who reads gossip magazines and likes makeup and designer jeans.

Now then. I know that I said that I would stop reading young adult books and would focus on books aimed at my own general age group.  Which I mostly did (see above).  However, I feel I must admit that I did read a few more YA books in addition to the titles above but I am just not going to count them towards my challenge total.  I will spare you from talking about them except for one tiny little thing which is OMG THE HUNGER GAMES!!!

Kenzie and Gennaro

After hearing Dennis Lehane speak, I thought I'd give his Kenzie/Gennaro crime series a try.  I read A Drink Before the War, Darkness, Take My Hand, and Gone, Baby, Gone. (These are books 1, 2 and 4 of the series.  For some reason I skipped the third one, Sacred. Not sure why.)  Pretty good!  Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro are private detective partners in Boston.  Of course there's sexual tension, etc., and their personalities and all the stuff on the side sort of bugs me, but the action and the plots are kind of exciting.  Worth a look.

Those were Books 38, 39 and 40 for my challenge.  Home stretch!

2010 Sun Valley Writers' Conference

A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate to be asked to volunteer at the Sun Valley Writers' Conference again, and when I wasn't needed at my assigned post, I was able to sit in on a few of the events.  I'm a lucky girl.  Here's what I saw this year:

W.S. Merwin, U.S. Poet Laureate.  I can't believe I have had the good fortune to meet/listen to two Poet Laureates in my life.  Pretty neat opportunity.

Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Shutter Island).  Chatty, self-deprecating.  I had read both Mystic River and Shutter Island, which I thought were fine, but I wasn't especially driven to read more of his nooks.  However, his talk was engaging enough that I searched for the first of  his Kenzie/Gennaro crime series and also The Given Day, which sounds great.

Arthur Phillips (Prague, The Egyptologist).  Charming, handsome, gorgeous wife.  He has a new novel coming out which (I think) is called The Tragedy of Arthur, which is about this (fictional) lost Shakespeare play on King Arthur.  Basically Phillips wrote a whole play in the manner of Shakespeare, and also wrote the novel around this play.  Phillips is kind of insanely smart and all over the board.  He actually won Jeopardy five times.

John Lithgow (actor) performed "Stories By Heart," a one-man show.  His performances are stories told to him by his father.  He acts out the stories, verbatim, from their texts.  Like a monologue. (Here's a better description of what I'm trying to say.)  I saw him do Ring Lardner's "Haircut," and it was impressive. 

Finally, I caught an inspiring performance by the Hobart Shakespeareans.  O. M. G.  These tiny kids from a public school in New York just slayed me.  They performed Shakepearean monologues mixed with pop/rock songs that sort of coordinated with the scene they were doing.   A little guy whose feet don't even touch the ground when he's sitting in a chair just rocked his guitar solor, a tall skinny girl stood up and wailed out a Neil Young harmonica bit, another small boy's glasses glinted as he shouted and guffawed and acted his heart out through his bit...  it was just great. I mean, I cried. I don't even know why, because it's so cool that these kids are working so hard and just excelling at it, but I cried.   They were so, so good.

All in all a pretty interesting weekend.  We're lucky to have such amazing opportunities come to us in such a small mountain town.