Izzy's Turn and a Reading Update

I am a busy girl, today, so I'm giving Izzy a turn to bury you in an avalanche of cute and then I'll give you a quick update on what I'm reading. Isabel is an avid tunneler and wrapped herself in both the green towel and brown blanket shown below.

You know what I'm reading just by looking in the sidebar, but let me tell you a bit about how far I've gotten and whether or not I'm enjoying the reading. Short version: "Of course I'm enjoying the reading of all of them or I'd ditch them -- I do that, you know."

Voice of America by E. C. Osundu - A book of short stories set in Africa, they're . . . well, kind of whiny. I'm finding it fascinating that I will quickly ditch whiny/desperate/hopeless stories set in the U.S. and yet I'm fine with "whiny in a foreign land where life is justifiably worth a great deal of complaint." I'm about halfway through this one.

Christmas 1945 by Matthew Litt (history) - I've learned some fascinating little tidbits about the WWII years from this book -- how Americans refrained from lighting Christmas trees to save energy for the war effort, for example -- but I unaccountably set this one aside for quite a while. I've just started reading, again, and I'm not far into the book but I'm loving it.

The Shifter by Janice Hardy (fantasy/YA) - I just started reading The Shifter, which is about a young girl who can heal one person and shift the injury/illness to another, this morning. I'm only on chapter 3. This book sucked me right in and I have a feeling it will be a very fast read.

Pemberley Ranch by Jack Caldwell (historical fiction) - You're going to think this is so weird because . . . well, it is. The beginning of this book takes place in Vicksburg, Mississippi (um, here) in 1863 and I had trouble figuring out where the action occurred. I couldn't bear to read on till I had that figured out, so I asked my husband. He told me where the Texas redan was located and now I "get it" and can read on. It was a weird reason to stop because I'm pretty sure the rest of the book takes place in Texas, not Mississippi. At any rate, I'm going to focus on this one, tonight.

Gunslinger by Ed Gorman (Western) - I'm not a Western reader, in general and I'm hard-pressed to figure out how I ended up with this book but I think maybe, just maybe I bought it as a closeout when the bookstore in which I used to work closed and the boss moved the store to Florida. It was on my son's shelf and he put it in the "get rid of" pile, but the book is so shiny and pretty and SHORT that I figured I could whip through it before passing it on. I've read one story, which was set during the Civil War, and it was surprisingly good.

The Mental Floss History of the United States by Eric Sass (history) - This book has very short sections and is perfect for reading in short bursts, and I've been reading it just that way. I'm about 84 pages in and it's shocking me! The lies they told us in history class!! Oh, oh, oh. Also, I'm having an awful lot of fun with the reading. Eric Sass has a terrific sense of humor.

6 books at one time -- that seems like a bit much, doesn't it? I need another readathon day, but I'm going to also require a housekeeping fairy if that's ever going to happen. There's that Christmas thing to consider, you know. We're still pondering. Tree? No tree? Tree somehow tied to ceiling and bolted to wall? It's a dilemma when you have one kitten and one kitten-at-heart who routinely rock their 6-foot kitty tree whilst playing chase-up-and-down.

Happy Tuesday!