The Thief's Gamble by Juliet McKenna

A pretty entertaining book. In the The Tale's of Einarinn series. This page has a pretty good summary of the plot: http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/9/9749.phtml

I liked that the female protagonist was not a princess, is not hidden royalty, isn't romantically atwitter with -Does He Love Me, I Will Die Without Him- thoughts. She's more like a male in her, ahem, relationships.

There is a kidnapped person, he's one of their band...which allows the band to rally round and decide to find him. A common theme in fantasy but he's not a prince or a prince who doesn't know he's a prince, he's just a minor Mage.

And his rescue isn't what one normally finds in this type of book either.

The book ends with the Livak (the female protagonist) finding her partner in crime after leaving the banded company of Mages. There are 5 other books to this series (yay) so who knows if the partner adds to the band or if Livak is having to go at new adventures alone.

Good read, 495 pages so there is lots to keep you entertained. Warning the font is extra small (like size 9) so wear your reading glasses! I found myself so engrossed that I read it in one day, but it did tire my eyes.

Waiting

I'm waiting for the plumber. Supposed to be here between 1 and 3. Ok, I know it's not time yet but one never knows if they're really going to show early, on time or late. I guess I should count myself as lucky because lots of places give you a 4 hour window instead of the 2 hour the plumbers gave me.

The plumber needs to fix a running toilet and a leaky bathtub faucet. I have no idea how long that takes. The later he gets here the sooner I hope he fixes it. Why? Cuz I'm going to Susan's to watch Dr. Phil, that is if he's done by 5 mins of 4:00. It's Murphys Law that he won't get here til 3 ya know. And then if Murphys Law really kicks in hard, it'll take him 2 hours to complete the job.

As an aside, I hate being here when workers come. I don't know if it's because I have a bit of a mistrust issue ever since I got mugged many, many years ago. But whatever it is, I prefer not being the one who lets them in and waits for them to get done and leave. It gives me the heebie jeebies & I'd really prefer that Bill deal with all fix it guys.

It's weird because overall I believe people are mostly good, it's not likely someone is going to do something to me while they're in the house and I have at least one dog in the house too. Like I said, heebie jeebies.

Ok, going to open the gate to let the guys drive up the driveway when they get here.

Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog: John Grogan

Some 300 pages of author Grogans life with a giant yellow lab. It's clear thru the pages that Grogan and his wife (and later, kids) have a lot to deal with raising Marley the puppy who grows into a 100lb full-of-vim-&-vigor dog.

I've had dogs all my life, and I appreciated the trials and tribulations of owning a dog, especially a big dog that takes a long time to mature. There were a few things about his methods that I didn't particularly like such as: Taking his dad's advice to always get the dog that doesn't scare, who jumps to you when you deliberately try to scare the puppy. Not doing any research at all before you jump into getting a dog, waiting to train a dog when he's *older* and reading how disabled Marley was without trying to find ways to ease his pain from hip dysplaysia.

Much of the book revolved around the Grogan family, early marriage, getting pregnant, having small kids with Marley being the center of attention in that everyone had to work around Marley rather than Marley working around the family.

It was a bit entertaining to see how Marley ran the family. Overall I liked the book because I liked Marley, not because I liked the author. Grogan did capture the doggieness of Marley especially his puppyhood, although his puppylike unbridled energy was only curtailed by getting physically decrepit.

So Marley was a good character, he emanates unconditional love and so too does the family because even tho he was the most destructive dog, the most expensive dog due to the house destruction, they kept with him, always offering him a home and a place with the family.

I wouldn't allow a person who's never had a dog to use this as a guide to having dogs tho. It fails in that regard. But that isn't the intention of the book, or at least I hope it's not.

Don't buy the hardback, borrow it or skip it. Even tho I enjoyed it, it didn't really enrich my life or my 2 dogs lives.

Multiple Reads

In the past couple of weeks I've been reading multiple books at the same time.

Kate Elliott, In the Ruins
This one, a serial book. Don't bother. Liked the first couple, this one is total male/female relationship. Total girl book.

Carol Berg, Daughter of Ancients
Better than the above book mainly because there is warfare, strategy, but it's still a relationship book. It's just not so in your face.

Dr. Phil, Ultimate Weight Solution: The 7 Keys to Weight Loss Freedom
I got this book for free when I went to see the Dr. Phil show a few weeks ago. The book is fine but it's not compelling enough for me to read in a few days. I am about 2/3's thru it. Don't get me wrong, it's good but it's not perfectly suited for someone who doesn't really have food issues as it tackles some of it from the psychological standpoint as well as a practical standpoint. But the psychological is 90% of it.

Yesterday, me and the hub went to 2 different book stores, one in the afternoon, one in the late evening. And I ended up buying books at both stores. I got:

Two Julie Czerneda books: Surival and Migration: Sci-fi.
The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem: Sci-fi. Read 4 stories and it makes me smile so far. Love the illustrations.
After the Ecstacy, the Laundry by Jack Kornfield: A book about buddhism and enlightenment.

I'm supposed to read, Marley and Me for book club. I didn't buy it because I already know it's a quickie book and my friend Kim has a copy. So I am going to borrow it from her. I already know it's a heartwarming book as per Kim. But I also know it's a one time read, and won't take much thinking on my part. (not that thats a prerequisite, as per the couple of books above that were pure time fillers rather than great enriching stories.)