I managed to contract one of the raging flu viruses and was down for three days. I slept for two and one half days and I still do not feel up to par. I wish I could say I made good use of my sick days reading but I slept for most of them, waking only to find my medication then back to sleep.

As March begins I hope we are finished with snow, I am looking forward to beginning to work in my gardens. I pull out bunches of day-lilies last fall and would like to replant that area with a butterfly and hummingbird garden. I am also thinking of developing a runoff or rain garden. Rather than sending all of the water that runs off the house and driveway out into the storm sewers, a runoff garden holds the water (run off) in a low spot until it percolates down into the earth. This results in less pollution in streams. We have a boggy area that is the result of water from the drive that should work well when I take out the grass. You can read more about this type of garden here.

I have done some reading over the past two weeks and ticked off a few of my 888 books. On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan is the story of a newly wedded couple on the first night of their honeymoon. Innocent they both harbor fears of what the night will bring. Using flashbacks and insights into human emotions McEwan’s story builds to an unexpected and tragic end.

I buzzed through two YA novels. Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan and The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga. Loved them both. Nick and Norah live in New Jersey but make the club scene in NYC. Nick plays in a band, Norah is the daughter of a music executive both are on the rebound from a broken heart. Thrown together on a fateful night the question is will they really connect or just bounce off each other. Lots of new metro teen talk here, at least to me. Fan Boy is miserable, currently a sophomore at the head of his class he has only one friend, his mother is remarried to the step-fascist and pregnant, his only refuge is his love of graphic novels and his determination to become the next great graphic novel writer. When along comes Kyra, Goth Girl. Kyra is wild and unpredictable and loves comics as much as he does. She lures him in and when he shares his graphic novel and desire to publish she pushes him to work harder. Both Fan Boy and Goth Girl live in their individual world of secrets and are in danger. An engaging story that will not let you down.

The last book I finish was The Tenth Muse My Life in Food by Judith Jones. Growing up in New York in the first half of the 1900’s Jones’ family ate in the English tradition. Most food was bland with few if any spices added and garlic and onion were banned. Despite this Jones developed and interest in cooking and loved to eat. After college she persuaded her parents (this was in 1948) to allow her to take a trip to France with friend. The friend returned, Jones stayed in Paris until 1951. It was in France that she found both of the loves of her life. Her husband Evan Jones and cooking. Back in the states she is appalled at the state of American cooking, every thing was aimed at fast and easy with no thought to taste. Hired by Knopf to edit French translations she had no thought of editing cookbooks until 1959 when the manuscript from Mesdames Julia Child, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle arrived on her desk. The rest of the story is history. With the publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking she began her career editing and publishing cookbooks and in the process improving the state of cooking in the US. Her story is an exciting, funny and fascination mixture of the process of developing a new cookbook, her personal philosophy about food and cooking and her life with her husband and family. A throughly enjoyable book.

I don’t know about you but snow days make we want to hibernate. I usually do two things. Sleep and read. Well sometimes eat but I have tried to avoid that. As of 6:00 AM this morning I have read all of the backup books in my house. I must make a run to the public library this morning no matter what the roads are like.

So you ask what did I read? Well first three of the books from my 888 challenge books. Markus Zusak’s I am the Messenger (loved it, more later), Bone Rattler by Eliot Pattison, and the Black Stallion by Walter Farley. Yesterday I began Sherman Alexie’s Flight (and finished at 6:00 AM this morning, I was up to check the school closings) plus a nondescript paperback mystery or two I found on a bookshelf.

Zusak the author of the Book Thief (if you haven’t read it, do so soon) is a fabulous author. His stories are simply not what you expect. I am the Messenger is an excerpt from the life of nondescript Joe average Ed Kennedy. Ed, age 20, drives a cab, hangs out with his three best friends and his dog, the Doorman, playing cards, drinking beer and not much else. None of them appear to have any ambition at all. Then they witness a bank robbery and Ed becomes a hero stopping the robber’s escape. His name is in the paper and he has his 15 minutes of fame. He thinks it is over when he receives the Ace of Diamonds in his mailbox. The card has three addresses and times on it. What is he supposed to do? It is for Ed to figure out but he knows it is a message he must deliver. The Ace of Diamonds is followed by the Ace of Clubs then the Ace of Spades until he finally reaches the Ace of Hearts. Each card carries a message that Ed must figure out and then act upon. None are easy but they do change Ed’s life. Read it and find out how.

With Bone Rattler I again (like Guns Along the Mohawk) was in the western New York region only it is at the time of the French and Indian War. Duncan McCallum is on a convict ship full of Highland Scots bound for New York Colony where they will be indenture servants for seven years. Duncan is the son of a family nearly wiped out by the English after the Battle of Culloden. Only he and his brother are left. The brother is an officer in the Black Watch regiment of the English army also in the colonies. During the voyage there are several mysterious deaths and other odd events on the ship. Duncan, because of his experience as a medical student, is ordered to solve the mystery. Written by Eliot Pattison (his previous title The Skull Mantra won the Edgar) this is a very unusual mystery. There is a large cast of characters including Lord Ramsey, the owner of a large frontier estate, his stern Anglican minister, Reverend Arnold, Mr Lister a secret Scot and member of the crew, the beautiful mystery lady Duncan saves from drowning, a supporting cast of Iroquois, Moravian missionaries, white Indian captives, members of the Black Watch regiment and others. The story is complex and engrossing.

The last challenge book I read was The Black Stallion by Walter Farley. This was the first of a series of books written by Farley about race horses. Like many little girls back in the 50’s, I dreamed of owning a horse. In the Black Stallion Alec Ramsey (why do boys always have all the fun) is marooned on an island with a huge wild black horse. As the days pass he manages to keep them alive and to tame the horse. I loved it in the 1950’s and I loved it again.

The last book I read this week was Flight by Sherman Alexie. The anti-hero of Flight is Zits a 15 year old orphan half Indian boy who is lost in the foster care system. Zits is very angry, his father left before he was born, his mother died when he was only six leaving him to the mercy of the foster care system. Shuffled from home to home abused and neglected he is an angry possibly violent young man. While in jail after an altercation with his last foster parents he meets Justice a white boy who trains him to seek revenge. Justice teaches Zits to use a gun and sends him to a bank to shoot as many people as possible. Zits begins to fire at the the people and is shot in the head. He then begins an odyssey through history. Flight is an adult book despite having a 15 year old main character, some of the language and situations may be offensive to younger readers.