Reading Fantasies and More Pictures

One of the reasons I have not been keeping up with my blog lately is because of my Kindle!  Amazon has a whole bunch of free books offered to Kindle owners every month.  The trick is that many of them are the first in a series and they get you hooked and you have to buy the rest of the series.  The nice thing about Kindle is that most of the books are around $10 or less.  That's what happened to me and it was a book that I thought I would not be interested in but was really good.  The rest of the trilogy was under $7 so it was not too bad.  It's called The Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobbs.  The other 2 in the trilogy are The Royal Assassin and The Assassin's Quest.  They are  fantasy books located in a fantasy time and place complete with Kings, Queens, a Fool, Assassins (duh), deceit, court politics and dragons (last book of the trilogy).  Hobbs writing is good and keeps you wanting more.

  I never got into fantasy too much until I read Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and loved them.  I have to admit something about those books.  I read them at school when we had the ten minutes every hour every Wednesday to do nothing but read.  I think it took me almost 2 years to finish all 3 books of Lord of the Rings (I had read the Hobbit first as instructed by Marianne).  My students caught me crying as I finished Return of the King not only because it was sad but because there was no more to read about.  Don't you just love books like that?  I tried to stay ahead of seeing the movies and I did, which I like because the books are way better than the movies but I love the movies too.  I really would plan a whole vacation to New Zealand around visiting the sights where they filmed it!  What fantastic scenery and those sets must have been terrific too.

Back to the Assassin, I think these books would make a good film too.  Lots of intrigue, battles, heartbreak, even drugs to keep the action going.  I think I am ready to try some other fantasy books now that I have gotten my feet wet.  Of course I need to try some other genres too.  I still can't get into the vampire stuff too well.  A long time ago--even long before the movie--I read An Interview with a Vampire and absolutely loved it.  I have to say, though, that I can't get into the Twilight series.  I started the first one several years ago and couldn't even finish it.  Just not my thing, I guess.  Futuristic and Sci-fi are also not my bag although occasionally I like one of those too.

I have a lot more freebies to read plus I want to read some of the recommendations of friends as well.  Can't wait for summer to sit outside and get in some good summer reading at the cabin.  OOOOPS! I forgot for a moment about the mosquitoes, flies, and sunburn possibilities.  Silly me!

Carla and my empty chair await me at the cabin!

Here's some more pictures of what's going on here!  Click on the pictures to make them larger and hit the browse button to get back to the blog.

Mr. Grassman in less than 1 week after Easter.

Nat and Maizie wonder whether he needs a haircut after 2 weeks!

What do you think?  I vote to wait and see if they curl like Nat's

Samara getting up on the balance beam.  She does a roll over on it in the video I took.

Samara is mounting the high bar.  This was her last gymnastics class of the season.  Next week she starts swimming lessons!