Seriously? SERIOUSLY!?!

First, I'm sorry. I know, I know... I haven't written since APRIL!?!?! A travesty!

And rest assured, I have actually been reading during that time. Sort-of. I've actually been rather swamped, but I've been trying to keep up on books (and life) by reading in the car... well, listening to books on tape.

So let me tell you a tale of three trilogies.

Remember that fantastic secret book I mentioned in my last blog? Well, I have received confirmation the bestie has received his b-day present, so cat's out of the bag. It's called the Stoneheart Trilogy by Charlie Fletcher, read by the fablous Uncle Jim (Dale). And they're lovely! I've gotten through the first two, Stoneheart and Ironhand, and the turns of phrase are absolutely fantastic... they remind me of the aussie bestie I sent it to, actually, which is maybe why I liked these books so much. They are such absolute delight! Read them.

The other two trilogies are both ones I struggled to get through my first time reading them. Oh, and I don't think they're actually trilogies, but I just liked the way "a tale of three trilogies" sounded. Foundling, is the first book of the Monster Blood Tattoo series. I really struggled to get into this gift from my aussie bestie, as the author is Australian and the book was recognized as a Children's Book Council of Australia Short-List Book. Alas, I still just couldn't do it! But listening to it? Now, there's the ticket! Narrator Humphrey Bower did an AWESOME job with the characters, at times making this feel like a full-cast recording, and making the strange and challenging vocabular unique to the MBT world flow, perhaps part of my challenge in first reading it. I'm very excited for the next book in this series, Lamplighter, which was released in 2008, with no news on a third book...

And the last of my fabulous listenings were The Immortal Life of Nicholas Flamel books. I also struggled to get into The Alchemyst, the first of the Flamel books, but after BF tore through the first two I decided to give them another go. Again, audiobooks FTW! Narrator Denis O'Hare does a solid job of narrating this one, though this was my least favorite of the faux trilogy tales.

My book pile has grown to overwhelming heights, and the two new book clubs I've joined have added to the reading obligations, but that's another tale for another blog post.