Happy ?!? Valentine's Day

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Well...thanks to a local establishment's awesome Valentines/Presidents Day sale, I bit the bullet and got a new laptop. Now I will have to spend the next several days living at our public library as I install and download updates on all the stuff I want to load back on this new one. As you can see Bruiser (our 15 lb FIV+ rescue kittie) thinks he is going to do this for me!

Not exactly how I'd planned to spend Valentine's day, but I figured at least I could sit and watch the Olympics and the Uof Md (sibs + inlaws are grads) vs Clemson (daughter's alma mater) ladies basketball game while I made backup discs, and did basic installs.  These I can even do while listening to an audio book.  However...........NOT to happen on the TV end....

Suddenly our TV satellite has decided to dump all the network TV stations leaving us a screen that says:

No need to call us- we are aware that this TV station is temporarily unavailable.  We'll have this channel back as quickly as possible.  Sorry for the interruption.

How quickly we become dependent on technology.  I don't watch much TV, but really do enjoy the Winter Olympics and women's basketball.

Anyway, I did manage to get some reading done. Right now, I'm reading two different books and listening to a third. They all seem to have a rather depressing premise: corruption is part of everyday life in each of these. I'll have post reviews when I finish each of them, but this premise of humans having to be immoral to get something done is handled differently in each.  I'm currently reading

• The Singer's Gun by Emily St. Martin .  Here the protagonist (and perhaps murder victim?) is dealing in stolen goods, black market documents, etc.  The setting is NewYork and the island of Ischia off the coast of Italy (although we haven't spent much time on the island yet)  With over 1/2 the book finished, I'm still not sure if I'm supposed to like or feel sorry for this gentlemen, and I'm certainly not likely many of the other characters or their morals.  This is a book that had better show me more in the second half if it's ever going to get me to recommend it to anyone. It's an ARC from Unbridled books, and it's readable enough that I'll finish it and give it an honest review.

• Buried Strangers by Leighton Gage.  This one is set in Brazil, and I checked it out of the library having seen it recommended someplace, but can't remember where! Chief Inspector Mario Silva seems to be the only honest person in the entire country's crime fighting bureaucracy and while it's interesting, this is not yet a Brazilian Commissario Brunetti (by Donna Leon).  The plot is riveting enough, and the settings well drawn, so I'll probably get this one finished tonite (particularly if there's no TV!)

• The Case of the Missing Servant: A Vish Puri Mystery by Tarquin Hall  I just finished this one on audio, and it was delightful.  Private detective Vish Puri leads a motley crew of cunningly named operatives (Tubelight, Flush, FaceCream) as they try to find a missing servant named Mary who has disappeared from the household of a wealthy attorney who has been accused of her murder. Quite different than his normal business of screening prospective spouses for India's numerous arranged marriages, Puri must wend his way through layers of bribes, payoffs, and corrupt doctors, lawyers, cops, judges, etc.  Tarquin Hall gives us a picture of present day India by juxtaposing the haves with the have-nots.  At one point, I wondered if anyone was above palm-greasing, but in the end, the reader should be satisfied with the outcome.

So, the rest of my Sunday is going to be spent trying to get pills down Bruiser's throat-he' suffering from a severe upper respiratory infection and his wheezing sounds like a coffee pot as it perks its last drops into the pot.  He likes to sit in my lap while I do needlework and/or read, so maybe, just maybe he'll let me con him.

Wish me luck...........

Review: Homer's Odyssey

Author: Gwen Cooper
Format: Audio  9hr, 34 mins                            
Characters: Homer the blind cat
Setting: South Beach FL, Manhattan
Source: Overdrive Audio download from public library

While this book is billed as the story of a blind cat named Homer, it's as much the story of his owner Gwen Cooper  and her struggles to come to grips with adulthood, relationships, and life with three cats.

At first I thought it was just going to be another one of these "isn't he a miracle--look, he's blind and he can still function'" stories. But when Ms. Cooper moves to New York from Florida early in 2001, and ensconces herself and the three cats into a 31st floor apartment only 6 blocks from the World Trade Center, you knew what was coming. Her story of the heroic efforts of ordinary people, the mind numbing panic of trying to find out what was happening, and her subsequent rescue of 'her babies' was the best part of the book.

I listened to the audio version of this, read by Rene Raudman.The narration is excellent. I also thoroughly enjoyed the interview at the end of the book with Ms. Cooper and her husband.

Even if you're not a cat lover, this book has enough to offer for everyone.