Sheila's Reads

What a week.  Very busy.  Monday I went to a lecture by Colum McCann who wrote Transatlantic which is the One Book, One Read book for Allegheny County, PA this year.  He was interesting.  I liked his philosophy of leaving his books open ended so the reader can think and decide how it ends. 

Wednesday I found out that George Donaldson of Celtic Thunder died.  I love that group.  RIP, George. 

Thursday was a special book club at the library.  The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien is The Big Read book for the year.  While called a novel, it is short stories about a few men in a platoon during the Vietnam War.  It was interesting to hear the different perspectives of those attending.  I was a child during that time but one woman's husband was in the Navy during that time.  A couple other attendees were college students during that time.  The Veteran Affairs person from the community college was there and he was deployed to Iraq.  Everyone got something different out of the book.  A very interesting discussion!

Friday night I went to see Tony-award winning musical, Once.  An Irish street singer is going to give up his singing until a Czech woman convinces him otherwise.  Some very good music and humor here.

Yesterday I went shopping with my mom and sisters.  Nothing very spectacular but I got my food for work's St. Patrick's Day party.

Today after church I went to the Pittsburgh Symphony.  They were doing The Sorcerer's Apprentice (you know the music from Disney's Fantasia (1940) when Mickey is directing the brooms to clean and it gets out of control) and Ravel's Bolero.  I love Bolero.  It was Ravel's favorite piece.  A fun day!

Now my books for this week:

Naked in Death by J. D. Robb

5 out of 5

First book in the Eve Dallas series. I like her writing better as J.D.Robb than Nora Roberts. Eve Dallas is a kick-ass cop who will speak for the dead no matter who it leads to or what danger she puts herself in. Roarke begins as a suspect but becomes something more. Had some of the mystery but not all figured out by the end. Needed Eve to tell me how it went down.

This is the third time I've read it but the first time I noticed that Roarke's thoughts are in the book also. From the beginning he's intrigued and in lust, if not love. What a revelation to me!

Powertools by Jayne Rylon

5 out 5

I loved it. This is books 1-4 of the Powertools series. It started slow with Kate's Crew. I loved the interaction between the crew. I also loved the honesty between them. I liked how Mike could tell when something was not right with one of the men or Kate. I felt that Kate's Crew ended abruptly. It got better with Morgan's Surprise. Again the honesty comes through and it was just a fun read. Continuing with Kayla's Gift, this series got better. The honesty is there and I liked that Kayla was a naturist and was able to say it without being put down for her outlook. This book ends with Devon's Pair. Again the honesty came through though James tried to hide his fears about the possibility of losing Neil. I liked how Devon was willing to give up what she wanted to keep from ruining what James and Neil had. I'm glad everything worked out though for all the couples and the crew.

Love Under Construction by Jayne Rylon

5 out 5

This is a continuation of the Powertools series, specifically books 5 and 6. No new people are added to the crew but they have to struggle with how the primary relationship will work along with the individual relationships. As individual couples marry, how will the group interact with one another especially as some are thinking of starting families. Watching the development of the relationships and what they try to work out so everyone is happy and included was interesting. I liked the openness of the group. I also liked how the characters matured. Again everything came down to honesty and communication between the whole group. The sex was hot! But I liked how they could read one another and could let each other be who they were while giving the support that is needed as the relationships start to change and when problems occur. I loved this series and look forward to the companion series, The Hot Rods.