I'm.so.sick. I have a head cold that's been holding me down all week. I have no energy - I feel like sleeping all day - and then can't sleep all night! Grrr.... I hope things will be better this week.

Weekly Reading with Anna Dressed in Blood and The Alchemist

Recently Finished Reading

Anna Dressed in Blood, Kendare Blake. Cas Lowood kills the dead. He travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before.

My reaction: In one word - Intense!
I loved the plot surprises, the pace of the story is fast moving, and the book is action packed. If anything, maybe the book moved a little too fast because I wished there was more development of Carmel and Thomas, the 2 "sidekicks", and even the jocks. I also didn't buy for a second that Cas moves to a new high school and almost instantly the most popular girl starts talking to him. I didn't go to an American high school, but I doubt that sort of thing happens that fast or that easily. But the main characters - Cas - the ghost killah, and Anna, the ghost he is currently trying to kill - were deep. Anna is both a killer and a victim, a horrible monster and an innocent girl - I couldn't decide if I wanted Cas to man up and kill her quick, or if I wanted them to ... to what ... connect ... ghost & human - well, stranger things have happened, like chimp and human in The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore; or zombie and human in Warm Bodies.

The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho. This story is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls himself king, and an alchemist, all of whom points Santiago in the direction of his quest.

This book is written in a parable/ fable style - and aimed to give some valuable life lessons. Now I'm not a "self-help" type book reader, but I, surprisingly, liked this one. It's a simple, quick read and I got what the author was saying. Listen to your heart - listen enough until you understand it - and it will guide you on the right path. This book will definitely not appeal to everyone - and it gets a bit long-winded in the middle during the journey through the desert - but overall, I enjoyed the telling of the story. If you like to occasional read books with a moral to the story, then you'll probably enjoy this one. If you find those types of books preachy, then you will not like this.

Currently Reading and Next

77 Shadow Street, Dean Koontz. Being sick has made me not in the mood for reading, but so far, this book is creepayyyy!!!
The Pendleton stands on the summit of Shadow Hill at the highest point of an old heartland city, a Gilded Age palace built in the late 1800s as a tycoon's dream home. Almost from the beginning, its grandeur has been scarred by episodes of madness, suicide, mass murder, and whispers of things far worse. But since its rechristening in the 1970s as a luxury apartment building, the Pendleton has been at peace. But now inexplicable shadows caper across walls, security cameras relay impossible images, phantom voices mutter in strange tongues, not-quite-human figures lurk in the basement, elevators plunge into unknown depths.

Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout. Chosen by my book club.
At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town and in the world at large, but she doesn't always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance: a former student who has lost the will to live: Olive's own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.

And I just got Divergent from the library - so excited to get to it! What are you looking forward to reading this week?
- Inspired by Book Journey - It's Monday, What Are You Reading?