The Mother of the Jungle

by Carol7 Comments
"The Mother of the Jungle" The Mother of the Jungle is a mythic woman, the spirit of nature, protector and defender of the jungle, who originated in Colombia, though her stories are told throughout Latin America. I read this version of the story in Once Upon a Time / Habia una vez by Rueben Martínez, illustrated by Raúl Colón, a fascinating book that tells traditional Latin American tales in both English and Spanish, side by side. A peasant boy is walking through the jungle with his dog when he meets a huge bearded  man who is proud of how much money he is making by cutting down the trees of the forest. The boy knows this is wrong, a belief reinforced when he realizes a river he visits daily has dried up. That night he hears a strange noise in the jungle, and he and his dog investigate. He finds the bearded man standing in a clearing at the center of an odd...
Read More

If…

by Carol4 Comments
If I was... a month I'd be December a day of the week I'd be Wednesday a time of the day I'd be mid-afternoon If I was... a sea animal I'd be an otter a direction I'd be South a piece of furniture I'd be a big comfy armchair a liquid I'd be hot chocolate If I was... a gemstone I'd be a sapphire a tree I'd be an oak a tool I'd be a hammer a kind of weather I'd be sunny If I was... a musical instrument I'd be a piano a color I'd be purple an emotion I'd be content a fruit I'd be an apple If I was... a food I'd be spaghetti a material I'd be wool a scent I'd be peppermint a flavor I'd be banana If I was... a sound I'd be a chuckle an element I'd be earth a mammal I'd be a fox a phase of the moon I'd be a crescent If I was... a berry I'd be a blackberry a bird I'd be a red-winged blackbird a book I'd be My Many Colored Days a place I'd be home I stole this from...
Read More

The Deepest Water by Kate Wilhelm

by Carol12 Comments
The Deepest Water by Kate Wilhelm I actually listened to this one, an audiobook narrated by Marguerite Gavin. I've never read anything by Wilhelm before, although I 'm not quite sure how I missed her. She's been writing in a variety of genres since the 1960s, including mystery, science fiction and fantasy. The story centers on Abby, whose father, author Jud Connors, was murdered at his secluded lakefront cabin. The detective in charge of the case seems to be making little progress, at least from Abby's point of view. Abby, against the wishes off her husband Brice, begins investigating the murder and her father's past, helped by Jud's lover and his closest friend, both strong intelligent women. The female characters were the highlight of the book for me. Abby seems real, devastated by her father's murder, determined to find the killer, confused by what she discovers. Wilhelm hits a perfect note with the two older women also. They each have their own personalities,...
Read More

Montana Destiny by R. C. Ryan with Giveaway

by Carol14 Comments
Montana Destiny by R. C. Ryan I'm sorry to say this romance just didn't work for me. This is the second in the trilogy that began with Montana Legacy, which I enjoyed. This centers on the second of three cousins, Wyatt, who after spending years traveling the globe has settled down at his family's ranch in Montana, in part to search for a legendary treasure, but also because it's the only place that truly feels like home. His love interest is the local EMT, Marilee Trainor, a woman who loves her independence. Of course, the two fall madly in love, face life-threatening situations due to the treasure, have a fight, get back together. I'm assuming there's a happy ending, but to be honest I didn't get that far. I mentioned to my brother the other day that I wasn't really enjoying the story, that I didn't really care about the characters. It's just too predictable and some of the lines are downright corny,...
Read More

Handwriting

by Carol4 Comments
The young man opened it and found inside an arabesque of words, scratched-out sentences, insertions, notes, marginal annotations; a cathedral of vowels, consonants, uppercase letters, lowercase letter, erasures, and changes, which Guérin scrutinized hungrily. He strained to decipher the irregular, brittle, jerky handwriting that filled every available space, page after page. Proust's downward-slanting script was exceedingly angular, entangled, hastily scrawled. (pg. 27, Proust's Overcoat by Lorenza Foschini, uncorrected proof) Our handwriting can say a lot about us and how we think, whether we want it to or not, unlike the print that computers show. There is definitely something more personal about seeing someone's actual writing, about the process they went through. I wonder what my handwriting says about me, even if I seldom write things out anymore. Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Play along. The rules are easy and I only cheated a little. Grab your current read, open to a...
Read More