The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
“Everybody has a story. It’s like families. You might not know who they are, might have lost them, but they exist all the same. You might drift apart or you might turn your back on them, but you can’t say you haven’t got them. Same goes for stories. So,” she concluded, “everybody has a story. When are you going to tell me yours?’
It’s been a while since I have read a really good book. The kind you get lost in. The Thirteenth Tale was exactly that type of book for me.
World renowned author, Vida Winter, has been telling tales for six decades. All of which have brought her much fame and fortune. However, none are as sought after as the missing thirteenth tale. For years reporters and would be biographers have hounded Ms. Winter for this mysterious story or for the story of her life, but all have walked away empty handed. It isn’t until she is old and frail that Ms. Winter seeks out the daughter of a bookshop owner, Margaret Lea, to tell her story to; the real story.
The Thirteenth Tale is a perfect book to curl up on the couch with on a rainy weekend, enjoy a cup of tea and get swept up in an old fashioned tale that will have you guessing until the end.
All morning I struggled with the sensation of stray wisps of one world seeping through the cracks of another. Do you know the feeling when you start reading a new book before the membrane of the last one has had time to close behind you? You leave the previous book with ideas and themes — characters even — caught in the fibers of your clothes, and when you open the new book, they are still with you.
Breaking Dawn ~ Stephenie Meyers
Hallelujah!!! I am finally done with this damned series.
Ugh, what a long winded ordeal this was. The entire book revolves around the imminent war between the Cullens and these ancient Italian vampires.
Bella and Edward get married, they consummate their marriage on some island, and Bella immediately gets pregnant. Vampires can reproduce in such a manner? Apparently so. This is before Bella has been transformed into a vampire, mind you. This means that the baby is a half-human, half-vampire combination. The birth of the baby nearly kills Bella, but Edward manages to “save” her by injecting her with his venom, thus turning her into a vampire – finally. Apparently there is a law amongst vampires that it is illegal to turn a baby into one of the undead. The child is witnessed by another vampire who reports it to the Italian dudes and thus imminent war.
It is truly unfortunate that Meyer had to drag this book out to some 500 or so pages. It really could have been half the length and still gotten the point across. It got so bad that I was hoping for the Apocalypse to happen and kill everyone; humans, vampires, werewolves, etc. The predictability really started to get boring.
I haven’t watched the movie – yet. I did, however, waste some bandwidth and downloaded it the other day. I guess I’m just a glutton for punishment.
Dead and Gone ~ Charlaine Harris
I have now caught up with the author, meaning there are no more Sookie books for me to read until Harris cranks out another one. At least the next season of True Blood will be starting soon and I can get my vampire fix that way. The books are definitely fun. The best way I can describe them is that they are like pieces of candy. They are sweet little books with fun characters and a nutty story line. I’m not sure what else Harris can come up with. We have vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, witches, fairies, and demons. I suppose there’s always some hobbits and trolls.
Whatever she comes up with, I hope Harris doesn’t take too long to bring us the next installment of the Southern Vampires
New Moon ~ Stephenie Meyer
OK, at what point did anybody else start getting irritated with the main character, Bella? Plus the whole love triangle thing between human, vampire and werewolf just really isn’t working for me. Having said all that, I will finish up the series. It looks like there is only one book to go. Apparently, the author had written a draft for another novel. This somehow got leaked and ended up all over the Internets. There is a little sample of the draft available and it looks as if she is going to pull herself up by her boots straps and actually finish the dang thing. Oh, goody.
Twilight ~ Stephenie Meyer
Well, I sped through the Sookie Stackhouse books and am now caught up with the entire vampire series by Charlaine Harris. So, in order to keep going on the whole vampire kick that I am apparently on, I decided to embark on the Twilight series. Talk about a quick read. I got through the first book in two days; nowhere near as racy as Harris’ vampires, but then the intended audience is much younger also. There are some similarities between the two writers as far as story line goes and Meyer is definitely not going to win any awards for her writing skills, but the story was fun, the characters likeable, a bit predictable. Book two is waiting for me at the library. It will be interesting to find out what happens with Bella and her obsession with Edward.
2010 F1 Schedule
Date Location Mar. 14 
Sakhir - Bahrain Mar. 28 
Melbourne - Australia Apr. 04 
Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia Apr. 18 
Shanghai - China May 09 
Barcelona - Spain May 16 
Monaco May 30 
Istanbul - Turkey Jun. 13 
Montreal - Canada Jun. 27 Valencia - Spain Jul. 11 
Silverstone - Great Britain Jul. 25 
Hockenheim - Germany Aug. 01 
Budapest - Hungary Aug. 29 
Spa-Francorchamps - Belgium Sep. 12 
Monza - Italy Sep. 26 
Singapore Oct. 10 
Suzuka - Japan Oct. 24 
South Korea Nov. 07 
Sao Paulo - Brazil Nov. 14 
Abu Dhabi - United Arab Emirates -
