Black Sheep

While I was away I finished another book called "Black Sheep" by Georgette Heyer. I love Regency era books so this one written very well, was very hard to put down.

Paper Back Reader does a fun description of it: "There is only one cloud on Miss Abigail Wendover's horizon: her beautiful, rich niece, Fanny, has fallen in love with a fortune hunter. Oh, sure, he's got perfect manners and high-pointed collars that suggest a man of fashion without veering into the realm of a tulip of first stare, but his smiles don't reach his eyes, and he, well, he tried to elope with another heiress. Not good ton at all, and certainly not the kind of behavior that recommends him to Abby or her equally protective older brother."

"A chance encounter with Miles Caverleigh, the estranged uncle of Fanny's love, offers Abby a chance to form an alliance with someone who understands that this is not a match that can or should be made. If she can convince Miles that this is a battle worth stirring himself for. After all, he's the Caverleigh black sheep, forced out of England due to an indiscretion (he has some qualities in common with his young nephew), and cannot see why he should be bothered to plot against a mere calfling. Especially one as callow as Stacy Caverleigh, impoverished and not willing to work hard to change that circumstance."

"Miles, of course, cares little about his family, but finds that he's willing to aid Abby in her crusade...
And thus we have our story."

I couldn't have said it better myself

Books Completed

I have finished reading a couple of books that I have mentioned earlier- "Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict" and "These Three Remain." Both books were good in totally different ways, but both related to Jane Austen's books. "Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict" was humorous and modern, portraying a 21st century woman who was somehow transported to Jane Austen's time. The girl wakes up to find her mind is in the body of a woman living in the Regency period. The 21st century self had a loser boyfriend and was used to the modern liberties that women have these days, and yet she finds herself learning much about life and a little more self respect during her stay in Jane's time. It was a fun and entertaining book, although if you are a Jane traditionalist like myself, it might be difficult to get really into the main character since she is more from our times than the Jane Austen characters.

"These Three Remain" was outstanding, and I really recommend it if you like Pride and Prejudice. This book stayed as true to the times as possible, which is pretty amazing considering it was written by a modern day American author. In this last book of her trilogy, the author presents the final portion of the Pride and Prejudice book from Mr. Darcy's perspective. Pamela Aiden adds much to the characters and makes them so likeable and believable. I hope she writes a sequel.

Woe is Me

The flus and colds have been going around and coming around and it did finally find me. Friday night I came home with a fever and a cough that started instantly that day and carried on through the weekend and today. I'm home from work on the couch for the third day and trying not to do anything that will start my coughing fits, such as getting up and walking. As long as I sit and don't talk, I'm good. How boring eh?

Happily, I just bought the last book in the "Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman" series and have been glued to it's pages, and so it has distracted me perfectly from my condition. These are the best books! Last I mentioned them here, I was on the second book: "Duty and Desire" It was a good book but the first and last are masterpieces in my opinion. This last one is called, "These Three Remain" and I'll remind you all that the first one is called, "An Assembly Such as This."

Pamela Aidan writes beautifully and seems to keep amazing accuracy to the original spirit of jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice." These books delve into the mind of Mr. Darcy, the mysterious, in such a convincing way that keeps loyal to what I have always thought to be the Darcy way. Plus she adds some characters into Darcy's life who we would never see in P&P. Some characters introduced are Darcy's valet, and his friend Dy Brougham, from his university days. These addtions don't change the story, but just add insight to Darcy's life and social circle during those times when he's absent from Elizabeth. In addtion, the books add substance to Georgiana's character and also his cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam. If you are a die-hard Pride and Prejudice fan, like so many of us out there, these books are a must read!!

Nothing Much

I got home Wednesday night from South Carolina field work, sat down to write and couldn't think of a single point of interest. Same thing happened yesterday! Paul got home from Utah yesterday morning at 6:00 am, had an hour nap at home as I was leaving for work, and then he went straight back to work. Really, our state of affairs is at the maintenance level at the moment. We are in "Phase I of pre-moving prep" but not much prep is happening... and not many recipes being tried at the moment. Sorry to bore y'all.

One thing that I did want to share is that I went to Border's bookstore last night with Alyssa from work (and she was kind to take me and my bike home afterwards). I bought a book to replace the two that I have been trying to read at home and have not really enjoyed: "The Time Traveler's Wife" and "Onion Girl." The first has a good story but I lost interest in the characters, and the second book I found was not my cup of tea by the second chapter- too violent for my tastes.

I am starting to find that in general, I prefer classic books because I think the authors had a better talent for character development, and another key difference is that the characters they created had integrity and qualities to admire. So many modern books are about people without morals or courage, and represent what I get tired of seeing in society. There are exceptions and I do stumble upon a good book here and there that I really can get into. I love the Harry Potter books, for instance, because the characters have real trials (in the sense of jealousy, friend problems, loss of family, etc) and real faults, but they have many good qualities to admire, and are truly good human beings. Plus, the creativity is outstanding in those books. And there's the mystery aspect, the humor, and the violence is more my speed as the books are written for kids!

Anyway, so at Border's last night I picked up the second book "Duty and Desire" in Pamela Aidan's trilogy that corresponds with Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice." The fun thing about these books is that they are written from Mr. Darcy's perspective and they are written very, very well. I was surprised to see how well a woman could write from a male perspective, including the humor, the character interaction between Mr. Darcy and his friends and also between him and his hired help. I really loved the first book, "An Assembly Such as This," and the second one is already proving to be very enjoyable (hence, no dinner was cooked last night).

Odds and Ends

Yesterday finally felt like Fall in Charlotte. Paul and I had some errands to run and in general just drove around and went shopping-- with the roof down on the car to enjoy the crisp air.

We first took the birds for their grooming (nails and beaks) to Parrot U which is a great little store in Pineville that is actually filing to be non-profit. They take in birds that people don't want or can't handle anymore due to change in circumstances, etc. and they adopt them out to new homes. It's like the pound for birds except it's in a small little store. Birds are everywhere in the shop looking for new homes and since we've been going there several have been adopted. The folks that work there are wonderful and they are very experienced in bird handling, working hard with each bird to try to correct bad social habits (maybe we can take Clementine for some training) and make them more comfortable with new people. In addition, they offer about 6 or 7 free classes to the public on topics such as bird handling, behaviour and nutrition. We love what they are doing and so try to purchase most of our supplies and services from them.

We also went to the mall to cruise around Barnes and Noble and bought a few magazines -- Spin-Off for me, which has all kinds of new patterns on spinning and knitting socks and hats and it has all kinds of helpful tips and new tricks for the handspinners out there.

We also got a fitness magazine with some good workout routines and a book to read together before bed. We read the last few books of the Harry Potter series together and really enjoyed it so got another action/adventure/magical book called "The Onion Girl."

One other thing we did was stop by CVS to scan two of the patterns I used to sew my wedding dress. Friday night I was busy rounding up all my pictures and drawings and bits and pieces to work on my scrapbook today. I am sadly still working on 2004, a big year of events, and currently have invitation and wedding dress making on my next list to do for pages. We scanned in the pattern envelopes and had them printed as pictures to include in the album.

We finished off our errands by going to Trader Joe's -- a must for the grocery essentials. And then finished the day by having spaghetti while watching an old movie, "Around the World in 80 Days."