A Discovery of Witches

Great read! Reminded me of The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. A Discovery of Witches is by Deborah Harkness and was featured in the March Bookpage. It deals with magic, witches of course, vampires and other supernatural beings...all at University level, finally the author even throughs in a little time travel. I found it to be a unique story given how much current supernatual books there are out there. I recently e-mailed the author after enjoying the book so much and found out from her that this is the 1st book in a trilogy...the author replied same day.:)

Radiation Safety Information from CDC

For information on Radiation Safety, visit the CDC's website.

The Ides of March

I did a quick "ides of march" general keyword search on our library catalog. Here's the results:

Julius Caesar by Phillip Freeman (copyright 2008)

The Life and Times of Julius Caesar by Jim Whiting (copyright 2005) - part of the Biography from ancient civilizations series.







No cover art available:  The Ides of March by Thornton Wilder (copyright 1948)

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Middlesex: I didn't know much about this book - assumed it was about the region in England. (It's not.)  My husband recommended it, as did another friend of ours who has read it at least three times. And I'm slowly working my way through it.  It's not the material that's causing the slow pace - it's the attention span of the reader who has too much on her plate to stick with any one book for long.

This book won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. And I can see why. It's the story of Calliope Helen Stephanides and three generations of her Greek-American family.  The story starts all the way back in the hills of Greece, where her grandparents escape the chaos during the burning of Smyrna to start a new life in America. Through twists and turns in genetic fate, Calliope ends up being born with an mutation on her 5th chromosome ( 5-alpha-reductase deficiency) which dramatically impacts her life.

I tend to read in spurts - this one keeps me captivated for hours on end. But then real life intrudes and the cats must be fed. I'm hoping to finish it in the next month.