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The kids have been up there for about three weeks and Mom says she's hustling to get a job so they can get out of there, but Cathy has her doubts.

Through Book Four, Part One.

Chapter Two, wherein the family leaves home in the middle of the night to go to Corinne's childhood home. When they get there, they're silently whisked up to the attic and locked in with clear instructions to leave no evidence of their existence. The kids' life so far has been so idyllic that although they see all the bad omens, they can't imagine what it all means.

Chapter 1, Goodbye Daddy: The writing is definitely more hammy than I remember it, with dialogue like "I had to see it for myself. For, you see, I found it hard to believe too." Also, the state troopers break the news of Cathy's father's death by describing the accident in great detail in front of dozens of onlookers. Not what I would have done.

Earlier this year I revisited a book from high school that I hated, A Separate Peace. This time I'm revisiting a book that I loved as a teen to see how it holds up. I expect it'll still be entertaining if I can resist the urge to nitpick it to death.

Through Book Three, trying to at least get through Book Four by the end of the year. If I don't make it through the Epilogues by year end, that's not such a bad thing.

Chapter 4: That failed test really seems to get to Gene, which shouldn't be surprising given the previous mentions of the super-competitive environment at Devon. Gene gets to resenting Finny and imagines that Finny is sabotaging Gene's academic efforts so Finny can be the top dog.

Chapter 3: Musing about how a person's frame of reference seems to lock in at some point in their teens and everything else is seen in comparison to that. Plotwise, Gene lets Finny talk him into a trip to the beach, then he gets back just in time for a Trig test which he fails.

I had to read this in high school and hated it. Now more than twenty years later I'm giving it another chance. The writing so far isn't too bad, and knowing how it'll end, Gene's musings don't seem quite so pointless.

Through Chapter 18 (I think), wherein the author unveils her idea of GPS for Stupid People (patent pending). I could totally see that happening to my wife if we moved to an actual city. She can easily drive you to that Thai place with the awesome soup, but she couldn't tell you what street it's on or how to get there.

Now that the book has settled in and the plot is moving along, it's not that bad. By the standards that I'd apply to romance (or "romance") novels, I'd say it's about average.

End of Book Two. Tolstoy really knows how to end each section. There's always some elegant passage about the beauty of the world, leaving childhood behind, or the possibility of a fresh start.

It's been several years since I read this. I remember the general plot just fine, but there are exchanges that I hadn't noticed before and bits that I thought belonged to later books, like Zaphod's brain thing.

I fell into an audiobook slump where nothing sounded appealing, so to break out of it I decided I should do something short and comfortable.

Ana's about to read the contract. The author has her moments of grace, but they never last long. There's always some clumsy phrase, cliché, or product placement just around the corner.

Reading this for credits toward maintaining my professional license. First impression, it seems like a standard management book full of feel-good talk about visualizing and breaking through barriers.

Wow, this is... interesting. The author's choice of words seems really arbitrary at times. Sometimes she'll invoke obscure words when simpler words will do, but she's also described someone's expression as "impassive" six times in the first three chapters.

A lot of the teachings here overlap with the Old and New Testaments, so I wouldn't exactly say I've learned a lot from my reading so far, but it has helped me interpret those volumes differently.

Through Sura 20

This has been an interesting read, intertwining the story of the position of Left Tackle with the story of Michael Oher, but sometimes it feels like the author falls into the usual mindset that black players are physically gifted rather than talented or smart.

Reading 10: 8:41-9:93

6:111 to 7:87. (one day behind)

Day 3 (2:253 - 3:92)

Day 2 (2:142 - 2:252) - Facing Mecca to pray, not worrying about the haters because facing a certain direction doesn't make you a good or bad person, fighting back against oppressors, rules for sex and divorce. Then it's back to fighting, with a reminder from the book of Kings that a small force can do great things if they have faith.

The biggest thing here seems to be tying the Qur'an in with the Torah. They make extensive mention of the Israelites of the Exodus and the constant guidance and patience they needed (they were incredibly whiny and fragile). There are also some stories I don't recognize, like the one where they're supposed to sacrifice a cow and they keep going back to Moses with questions. Seems like something they'd do though.

Front matter: About 35 pages of historic context, the Prophet's life and the early history of the church, discussion of the writing style used, and notes on the translator's approach to the text.