Monday Malarkey or A Shocking Look at What May Happen During a Brief Blogging Break

The photo above is not what my time away has looked like (photo from our trip to Costa Rica in 2009).  ;)  Oh, well.  One can dream.

I'm back to catch up on a bit of malarkey, but I'm not sure if I'll manage to get any reviews written for a few more days.  I have, however, managed to build myself one heck of a review backlog and have hacked away at the beginnings of one review. It doesn't feel very cohesive but I may soon post the review and move on.  We shall see.  In the meantime . . . a bit of malarkey:

Arrivals since I last posted:

From HarperCollins for review:

• Fallout by Sadie Jones
• When the Cypress Whispers by Yvette Manessis Corporon
• 50 Children by Steven Pressman

From Sterling Children's for review:

• Who Were the American Pioneers? by Martin W. Sandler
• What Was America's Deadliest War? by Martin W. Sandler
• How Does a Seed Sprout? by Melissa Stewart
• How Many Planets Circle the Sun? by Mary Kay Carson
• How Does a Caterpillar Become a Butterfly? by Melissa Stewart
• How Does the Ear Hear? by Melissa Stewart
• Why Does Earth Spin? by Mary Kay Carson

    all from the Good Question! series

• Who's in the Tree? by Craig Shuttlewood
• Is That My Cat? by Jonathan Allen
• A History of the World with Google Earth by Penny Worms and William Ings
• Ode to Childhood, ed. by Lucy Gray
• Goodnight Songs (with CD) by Margaret Wise Brown
• Dinosaur Numbers, Dinosaur Shapes, Dinosaur Colors and Dinosaur Opposites, all by Paul Strickland

From Paperback Swap:

• Nefertiti by Michelle Moran
• View from the Air by Hugh Fosburgh

This is the point at which your eyeballs pop out in shock, right?  I'm not even certain that's everything.  I sure hope it is.  On the night the first of two boxes from Sterling Kids showed up, I was in a very bad mood. We'd had three days of heavy overcast and cold, dreary rain. Amazing how that surprise box lifted my spirits.  Oh, yes . . .

Checked out from the library:

• The Returned by Jason Mott
• Redshirts by John Scalzi

Last week's posts:

Nada - been gone.  Still halfway gone.

Books finished since I vamoosed:

• The Rosie Project by Graham Simsion
• On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee
• Is That My Cat? by Jonathan Allen
• Who's in the Tree? by Craig Shuttlewood?
• Why Does Earth Spin? by Mary Kay Carson
• Nick and Tesla's Robot Army Rampage by Pflugfelder and Hockensmith
• Who Were the American Pioneers? by Martin W. Sandler
• The Making of a Marchioness (also known as Emily Fox Seton), parts 1 & 2 by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• The Returned by Jason Mott
• Goodnight Songs by Margaret Wise Brown (and I'm listening to the CD, as I type).
• All four of the dinosaur books by Paul Strickland (listed in arrivals)

Talk about casting yourself into review backlog hell.  I don't know that I'm even willing to update my sidebar with all that mess. I may have to have a Children's Week rather than a Children's Day (my usual method for tackling a pile of children's books), soon.

Currently reading:

• Fallen Beauty by Erika Robuck
• A History of the World with Google Earth by Worms and Ings (learning a great deal from this children's book and having a blast armchair traveling to various historical sites)
• The Sunne in Splendour by Penman . . . still . . . occasionally. Only on p. 350 out of about 950 pp. but fortunately one can walk away from this book for a week or more and return without forgetting what's occurred.

I didn't get far into the Sterling book about The Middle Ages so I'm going to set that one aside, for now. I've got some other non-fiction that I need and desire to read.

Other reading notes:

I discovered the local thrift shop sells used books for 10 cents each. This is not necessarily something I need to know.

The Making of a Marchioness and its sequel, The Methods of Lady Walderhurst, are paired together as Emily Fox Seton and available for free download via Project Gutenberg.  I was all set to put The Making of a Marchioness on my list of books to look for at Persephone Books, the next time I'm in London, when Tasha informed me that I could load the set for free.  And, then I discovered that The Making of a Marchioness is already on my wish list at Paperback Swap.  Funny.  My interest was piqued after I watched The Making of a Lady, which is loosely based on the books.  You can read about The Making of a Lady in The Telegraph.  I didn't realize The Making of a Lady was based on a Frances Hodgson Burnett book until I watched the credits roll. So, why did I watch this period drama, in the first place?  This is why:

James D'Arcy.  Fabulous actor.  I loved him in Master and Commander and he was frankly terrifying as Alec in The Making of a Lady.  Apparently, he's gained a reputation as something of a chameleon. The two roles in which I've seen him would bear out that description. I found this article about James D'Arcy in The Guardian.  It made me appreciate him even more. I did enjoy the books but this is one case in which I love what was done to make the story more dramatic for screen, although I didn't always understand what they were trying to say and there's a particular scene that still doesn't make sense to me after having read the books.

Addendum:  I completely forgot to mention that Shadowed by Grace by Cara Putman was a DNF.  I'll remove the image from my sidebar.

That's all for now!  Happy Monday!

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