Same Author, Same Story, Not the Same Reaction

I finished the first book in the series Ranger's Apprentice called The Ruins of Gorlan.  Not being the biggest fantasy fan in the terms of strict fantasy a la Lord of the Rings (I do like those books though),  I was happily surprised with this book.

Here are my surprises:

1. I'm old and to prove it I was totally digging Halt not Will, but in my defense I probably would have dug Halt as a teenager.
2. I bawled like a baby at the end and the emotional scene between Will and Halt when Will finds out about his father.
3. Definitely don't judge a book by it's cover - this cover is dark and unappealing!(don't you think?)
4. I just checked out book 2 and hope that I enjoy the rest of the series as much and I'm wondering if I'll cry again.
5. I can't wait to meet the author on November 8th - how cool!!!
6. I liked a fantasy book other than Harry Potter.

Unfortunately, now that I'm done with this audio book, the challenge is picking the next one.  After having a nice long chat with some book store sellers, I decided it's time to read some more adult books.  They recommended The Blind Contessa's New Machine so I put that book on hold, and then headed to the audio book section.  I chose two adult books.  One by a new author to me, but not new in the publishing world and the second one was from an author that I've read before and loved.

As you might guess from the title of my post, I started with the author whom I previously read.  I've never read this book before, but I've read this book before - it's the same setting, character voice and descriptions as the previous novel, which I loved.  In the past, I would have gone through all of the author's books even if it was the same, but now I don't have time for that.  I'm annoyed to be honest, do I continue on or drop it.  What would you do?

For right now I think I'll start with the other book and then go back to this one.   Do you think published authors care?  My husband does, but he isn't published yet.

Give a Hoot Read a Book

My fabulous husband found this for me and I think it's great!  I want to order some for my library!  Speaking of giving a hoot and reading a book, I am love, love, loving Ranger's Apprentice and I don't normally love fantasy.  The writing is clever without pandering to its audience and the world he creates is realistic yet mysterious.  Flanagan's word choice and use of language is spot on and I think it's great how much students want to read it and subsequent books in the series.  This is the book I'm currently listening to, so you can imagine how much I'm enjoying my commute now and if gas weren't so expensive, I might find myself making some unexpected trips throughout the day just to listen to more.  Can't wait to hear Flanagan in person in November!

Now a note about my fabulous husband and an illustration of how truly wonderful he is as demonstrated with a story about our morning.  We wake up at our usual time, only now it's even darker in the morning and the bed is too comfortable, but alas duty calls.  As I'm getting ready to leave, on time for once, I go into my 4yo's room to kiss him goodbye when the wave of smell hits me - pee, saturated pungent pee and it's bad.  So I take my son's pjs off of him while he is dead asleep, I lay out a mattress pad on his couch, transfer him to the couch, cover him up with his Hello Kitty blanket, start to strip the bed, but then go to the kitchen to tell my husband that he'll have to give our son a shower and throw the sheets into the wash.  As usual, my handsome husband has made me breakfast and coffee to take on my commute.  I'm gathering up all my items: purse, 64oz water bottle, my lunch bag and separate container which didn't fit into my bag, two books, my laptop bag, and my coffee mug.  Quite a lot and as my husband pointed out the books should go in my bag, but it was a little too late because as I was heading to the door my books started to slip and then there went the coffee all over the kitchen floor.  After a moment of stunned silence, my husband proclaimed, "Go hon, you have to go, you'll be late.  I got this."  What a guy and I felt terribly leaving him with such a 'wet' house.

One last bit of this story must be told, particularly since I shared it on Lisa and Laura's blog: http://lisa-laura.blogspot.com/2011/09/tell-truth-tuesday_20.html.  Despite feeling badly about leaving my husband with such a disaster, mostly of my making, truth be told...

I was really bummed about not having my coffee!  And with that I can happily say that Tuesday is over!  I'm not a big fan of Tuesdays, but it looks like the day will end better than it started.  Later all!