While trying to decide what I should read and review next, I decided that the easiest way to go about it was to start with the people who follow my twitter account.  After announcing my intentions I was extremely blessed when Scott Nicholson sent me six novels that I could choose from to read and review.

I believe I’ve mentioned before how much I love getting free books, so this was incredible for me.   I’m was grateful to his generosity that I quit reading the novel I was a couple of chapters into and shifted my focus to the first novel he sent me, in order to get his review done as soon as possible.  It certainly wasn’t a difficult task; I was hooked from the very first sentence, and that’s not an exaggeration.

I have never read a suspense novel that was suspenseful from the very beginning; usually they take some time to warm up and lay out the characters and setting and then drop the characters into the plot.    In this novel, however, the character is already in the middle of her own suspenseful world.   The reader discovers that the main character, Julia, suffers from panic attacks as the result of ritual abuse as a child.  As the story progresses, her attacks become more severe as she remembers more and more about her past, as the result of therapy.   However, the past hasn’t stayed the past;  she is hunted by those who abused her and wish to finish their sacrifice to Satan.  Throughout the novel Julia has no idea who to trust, as those who are the closest to her continue to betray her.  By the end of the novel the reader feels as strung out as poor Julia.

Not only was the plot compelling and suspenseful, the writing style was incredibly sensory.  The use of simile and metaphor was masterful and without a doubt contributed to the overall dark,  sinister and simultaneously hopeful feeling of the environment in the novel.  The author paints amazing images and feelings with his words, and underneath it all is woven the subtle light of faith, as Julia searches for hope, trust, and ulimately someone to save her.

The only complaint I have about the novel is that while the plot kept me reading and remained suspenseful, it wasn’t entirely original and therefore a bit predictable.  I knew rather quickly who could be trusted and who was a bad guy, and I was a bit annoyed at Julia for being the ‘helpless female’.  It seemed to me that the clues given off by her supposed friends would have scared me off long ago.  By the end of the novel I was ready for her to show some backbone and take control of her life.

I enjoyed this novel particularly because I don’t often read much suspense, and I was pleasantly surprised.   I’m very happy that I have the other novels he sent me, for when I’m in the mood to read one again.

You can find this novel here:

The Skull Ring

****

When I woke up this morning it was with every intention on doing a Sunday Favorites review, however, I felt that the review should be more Dad oriented, in honor of Father’s Day.  The problem with this is that none of my favorite books are about dads, and that got me thinking; there must be dad books out there somewhere.   So, I asked for suggestions on Twitter (no results yet) and went searching the internet.

Today is a good day to search for Dad stuff, except that most of my searches yielded results of books that dads would like to read, not books about dads.     It took me three hours to search the internet and read synopsis and reviews of books and novels touted to be ‘about dad’, and you know what I discovered?   All the novels on the subject of dad were depressing, or about how a bad dad affected a kids life, or about adjusting to life without a dad.  I didn’t find a single inspirational, uplifting novel about a dad.   Clearly this is a subject that needs to be expanded on.   Good dads are amazing people and effect the lives of their children in glorious ways, why can’t/don’t people write about that?

If you have a good dad book to recommend, please let me know in the comments, otherwise, here’s a list of non-fiction dad books that you might want to give a try:

Geek Dad by Ken Denmead – My husband is a geek and I have two boys.  When I saw the title of this book I immediately thought, “AH!  I should have got this for Father’s Day!”  Instead, I didn’t know about it and he got World of Warfare 2 for his PS3.

The premise of this book is cool geeky projects that dads can do with their kids.  I know that some day my husband wants to work with our boys to put a camera on a rocket, shoot it up real high and take pictures and/or video.

The preview that Amazon.com gives you is for the project is “Ice Cubes Fit for a Geek” (How to make Lego ice cubes), and the book’s Amazon page also lists “Fly a night-time kite ablaze with lights or launch a video camera with balloons”, “Construct the “Best Slip n’ Slide Ever,” “Build a working lamp with LEGO bricks and CDs”, “Create a customized comic strip or your own board game”, “Transform any room into a spaceship” and “Make geeky crafts like cyborg jack-o’-lanterns or Ethernet cuff links” as other projects.  Maybe not as advanced as my husband’s rocket/camera idea, but fun sounding, nonetheless.

The Council of Dads:  My Daughters, My Illness, and the Men Who Could Be Me by Bruce Feiler -  This is the true story of a man who is diagnosed with cancer and how he deals with the idea of of leaving his daughters without a dad, by asking his six close friends to help raise them.  This book is the author’s journey as he is diagnosed with and battles cancer, and his mission to find friends who will help raise his daughters and teach them all he feels they need to be taught about the world.

There is a brief interview with the author on Amazon’s book page that answer a lot of the burning questions one gets on reading the book about his inspiration, friends and the council they create.  This would be a great gift to pass onto any family member who is struggling with a cancer diagnosis and how to prepare their children.

Shit my dad says by Justin Halpin - I decided to add this to my book list because I follow it on Twitter and it’s always good for a chuckle.   The Twitter page started a phenomenon that has branched out into the Novel and TV show.

Readers can expect tidbits such as “Engagement rings are pointless. Indians gave cows…Oh sorry, congrats on proposing. We good now? Can I finish my indian story?” (June 17′s tweet).  While I haven’t read the novel, if it’s anywhere as funny and straightforward as 140 characters can be, then it’ll be worth the read.

For The Dad Who’s Best At Everything (The Dads’ Book) –  The titleof this book appeals to me because this IS my dad.   My dad is a Renaissance man/dad –  he can build anything with wood, to basements, to decks, to wooden boxes to decoy ducks. He’s an electrician, a guitar player, a baseball coach, a biker, a horseback rider.  So I’ve also wondered, what do you get the dad who’s best at everything?

This book doesn’t give you what you expect, but it’s still good for dads.  The problems is that the title is misleading; it should be ‘for the dad who WANTS to be best at everything’.  Included in this book is practical advice from other dads, on a ton of different subjects, from how to change diapers to how to make bows and arrows.

Punk Rock Dad: No Rules just Real Life by Jim Lindberg -  This book was actually recommended to me to add to this list, by my husband, who is a long time fan of the Punk group Pennywise.  The author of this book, Jim Lindberg, is the lead vocalist and guitarist for Pennywise, and this book is the story of what it’s like to be  both a dad and a famous musician, and how it is to combine the two lifestyles.

It sounds like an intriguing read.  The Publishers Weekly review on the Amazon page, writes how it is a mix of memoir and parenting manual. The author shares his views and challenges of raising well adjusted children, while remaining true to his non-conformist, Punk Rock heart.

One of the problems with doing a lot of reading is you’re always looking for something to read next. Quite often I’ll just pick a genre and look it up on Wikipedia then find the defining authors of it and read something from them. Sometimes it works out great, sometimes it doesn’t. Today while I was browsing one of my favorite blogs, Lifehacker,  I was excited by a post about a new book recommendation site YourNextRead.com, the screen shot of the site looked great and the article promised a site that would give you a nice matrix of books related to the one you liked. Sadly, all the traffic from Lifehacker took the site down so I’ve not been able to review it yet. This did however lead me to some other similar sites.

First up, WhatShouldIReadNext.com. A simple site that asks for a title/author or ISBN and gives you recommendations based on that. As a test I put in my favorite book, Neuromancer by William Gibson and it gave me back a couple dozen recommendations. The first thing it recommened was The Wizard by Gene Wolfe. A strange recommendation for sure, but since most places tend to tie sci-fi and fantasy together I can accept it. The rest of the recommendations it offered were more in line with the writings of the father of cyberpunk. I even found a very interesting sounding book in Diaspora by Greg Egan.

Next we have BookSeer.com. Basically the same as What Should I Read Next you enter a book and author and it gives you recommendations. The results on this one were far less useful however since it simply culls its information from Amazon and LibraryThing recommendations. Amazon tends to just recommend things from the same author and LibraryThing offers up a very limited range of recommendation (Necromancer returned just 3 predictable options) . BookSeer is only really useful if you’re looking for things from the same author and can probably be skipped and just go straight to Amazon.

Lastly is Whichbook.net. Unlike the previous sites this one gives you several sliders and lets you pick 4 of them. These sliders control things like the feeling of the book in several ways  (Happy to Sad, Expected to Unpredictable, No Sex to Sex etc.), then gives you recommendations based on this. Alternatly you can search based on character (sex, age, race etc), plot type (limited options here), and setting (a clickable globe, what about off-world books? hmm) so if you want to read a book about a black woman struggling against the odds in France this thing has a recommendation for you. This site is pretty cool and lets you find all kinds of different books based on what you might feel like reading. It seems to tie into the UK library system as well so if you live over in jolly old England it’ll be even more useful. Give it a test drive.

Once Your Next Read is up and running again I’ll post an update on it. Enjoy your next read!

When I reviewed “Parallel Attraction” I mentioned that I was only able to find one other book in the series.  At the time, I thought that “Parallel Fire” was the second in the series, but I was wrong; the second is called “Parallel Heat”, very easy to confuse the two.    ”Parallel Fire” is actually the novella which completes the series.

While the first novel in the series is the story of Jared and Kelsey, this novella is the brief glance at the beginning of the relationship between Anna and and her commanding officer, Nevin.  While the heat and passion of the first novel is still there, and I really enjoyed reading it, I felt that a lot more could have been added to this novella to flesh it out into a novel.    What I really wanted to see was Anna’s back story, and more about her being a secret protector to the king.  I feel, however, that I can’t say much more on the back story, because this is the last one in the series;  there very well may be a lot in the previous novels that I’m not aware of.

Back story aside, giving the benefit of the doubt and assuming the back story was already covered in other novels,  I still would have enjoyed the story a lot more if it hadn’t been rushed.   The story concept was great and the relationship developed was powerful, however, I felt like it just came out of no where and developed like a lightning strike.   Perhaps that was the point?  It could be that I’m prejudice against novellas; I like them only marginally better than short stories.  The problem for me is there isn’t enough time to develop a connection between characters and the reader so I end up being an observer, rather than feeling involved.

I feel that all my problems are based around not having read the rest of the series; I enjoyed reading it, but it didn’t whet my appetite.  This it really unfortunate, because I can’t get the novels unless I order paper copies from Amazon.com (which is inconvenient for me, being in Canada).  That, and I’d really rather buy (Kobo) ebooks, cuz I don’t have anymore room for new books on my bookshelf.  Rest assured that I will be keeping an eye out for the other novels or ebooks in Canadian stores, and snatching them up as I find them.

In the mean time, you can find this one, here:

Parallel Fire

A lot has beset Marion in the last few days.  Since her trial she has been in prison for weeks.  Mr Black has alternately starved her, left her to freeze, used sleep deprivation and used a wide variety of torture devices in an attempt to get her to confess to Witchcraft and name co-conspirators.  In the end she could take no more and has confessed and named a handful of women recently deceased, unwilling to implicate any living innocent.  All that remains, now, is her ending, (but don’t worry, there’s more to come in Part II):

****

Finally the day arrived when they came from her.   The Sheriff came, along with Mr. Black and the Minister.   While the Sheriff bound her arms behind her the Minister kept up a mumble of prayer that she supposed was meant to beg God for her soul.  She stopped listening when he paused long enough to ask her to convert her faith while she still had the chance.  She looked at him with hate and disdain and he didn’t ask again, but kept up the act of praying for her when she knew he was laughing inside.

When they stood her up from the pallet she was surprised to notice that her mangled knee didn’t hurt nearly as much as it used to, though it was still painful. That was the only indicator of how much time had passed. She couldn’t bend it, however, and was forced to hobble along at the Sheriff’s side while he supported her on her bound arms.

They walked out of the jail and Marion was confronted with the beauty of the day.  The sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon and the clouds of the new day were painted with pink and orange and purple and seemed to glisten with the liquid gold of sunrise.  The colors were mirrored on the ground, as it had snowed the night before and a fresh thin layer covered everything with dazzling sparkles, as if the night sky had deposited the stars on earth before retreating before the approaching sun.

From the jail they walked the short distance to the center of town, where a large pile of wood and rushes sat below a small platform with a pole in the middle of it.   Marion knew what it was, she had seen it in her dreams so long ago, when all of this had started.   It seemed like hundreds of people had gathered in the town center, to watch her die.  She searched desperately for her the faces of her family, conflicted.  She wanted to see them one more time, so badly, but she didn’t want them to see her like this, to know that she wasn’t strong enough.

She was lead to the platform and up the few stars to the top of the pile.   The Sheriff unbound her hands, then tied them again, securely behind the pole, then did the same with her feet.    She stood staring out at the sea of faces before her, feeling nothing for these people whom she had lived and laughed with for the last 12 years.  They had brought her to this and in that instant, for the first time in her life, she knew what hate was.

Mr. Black approached her then and turned to the crowd to read out the charges and her confession.   She only listened to him with half an ear as she continued to scan the crowd for her family.  Then he was talking to her again and she was forced to abandon her search.   “Leniency,” he was saying.

She looked blankly at him, indicating she hadn’t heard what he had said.  “I said,” he repeated impatiently, “that because of your confession you are accorded some leniency.  You are to be strangled until dead before your body is burned and cleansed.”  She looked at him for a moment, her eyes devoid of emotion, before she looked away.  Some leniency, she was thinking.

She tried not to think as the executioner slipped a leather band around her throat.   It began to tighten and the world around her began to buzz.  It seemed that all the sounds were amplified in that moment and she could hear people whispering and moving their feet awkwardly.  She wondered if they felt guilt.   The Minister’s droning voice then filled her mind and she recognized The Lord’s Prayer.   She began to recite it along with him and when she ran out of air, mouthed the words.

The world began to go dark and fuzzy around the edges.  It felt like she was tingling all over. In those last moments her eyes fell on one face in the crowd. His eyes, filled with love, streamed with tears.  He held a sleeping baby on his shoulder and he huddled silently with those who loved him.  And loved her.   She silently mouthed “Amen,” as the prayer ended.   She kept her eyes locked with his for as long as she could, oblivious to her own tears falling down her cheeks to drip off of her chin and jaw.   Slowly the world went quiet and black.   Then Marion died.

****

Do you like lists?   I’ve stumbled upon the ultimate book list:  The 1001 books you must read before you die, courtesy of listology.com.   I saw the list and I wondered just how many books I’ve actually read that are on the list, especially considering that with my English degree, I’ve read a fair amount of the classics over the years.  Let’s face it though, 1001 is an awful amount of books; if I read two books a week (and that’s pushing it), then that’s ten years of reading.

So, I figured, if these are MUST reads, then I should probably make an effort to read them, although, to be honest, if there’s one thing my degree taught me, it’s that I’m not a very big fan of the classics.   Nevertheless I’m going to make an effort.   I’ve added a page to the blog with the list and I will link the books to reviews, once I get to reading them.   In the mean time it’s there for you to figure out how many you’ve read.

And just cuz I’m sure you’re curious (humor me), here are the books on the list I’ve read:

72. Cryptonomicon – Neal Stephenson

93. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden

209. The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul – Douglas Adams

210. Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency – Douglas Adams

242. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

258.  Neuromancer – William Gibson

301. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

320. Interview With the Vampire – Anne Rice

427. Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut

456. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

494. The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien

496. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

527.  Foundation – Isaac Asimov

529. The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger

579. The Outsider – Albert Camus

587. For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway

619. Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell

636. Tropic of Cancer – Henry Miller

649. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

689. The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway

736. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce

780. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

794. Dracula – Bram Stoker

808. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy

833. The Portrait of a Lady – Henry James

896. Moby-Dick – Herman Melville

897. The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne

902. Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë

904. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë

932. Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen

933. Persuasion – Jane Austen

936. Emma – Jane Austen

938. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

966. Émile; or, On Education – Jean-Jacques Rousseau (though, not all)

974.  Fanny Hill – John Cleland

Wow…35.   On one hand that’s good, on the other, that’s pretty bad considering the size of the list.  There were a lot more names that I recognized, and a handful of books that I couldn’t remember if I’d read or not.   All in all, I think it’s something admirable to aspire to, so I’m going to challenge you to do it to.   How many books have you read on the list?

I think that one of the greatest things in the world is a free book.   A typical trip to the book store for me can end with my spending $100, so to stumble upon a free book is wonderful.  It’s one of the reasons I bought the Kobo, remember, because it came with 100 free classics.

A while a back, on Twitter, @randomhouse posted a link to the Suvudu Free Book Library, where you can currently get a copy of Naomi Novak’s “His Majesty’s Dragon.”    Thrilled, I went to the site and downloaded the ebook and loaded it on my Kobo, except it wouldn’t work!   For some reason, the Kobo said the file was locked and to get the key from Kobobooks.   So, I went to Kobobooks, and lo and behold, they had it for free, also!   A bit of messing around later (long story), and soon I had a new free book, and I was happy.

“His Majesty’s Dragon” is the story of the Napoleonic wars, if there were dragons involved.  I was thrilled by the concept!  I absolutely love historical fiction, because I’m a big history buff, and to add a fantasy element, particularly dragons, is fantastic.   I love dragons!   The story is told from the perspective of a British Navy Captain, Will Lawrence, who unwillingly harnesses a newly hatched dragon after capturing the egg in a battle.   He has to give up his position in the Navy and join the Aviators, those who provide air support on dragons during battles, as well as acting as messengers.  The story is of his growing relationship between himself and Temeraire, his dragon, and the development of his role as an aviator.    Sprinkled throughout the novel are exciting battles important to the Napoleonic Wars, but the novel is really a coming of age novel, between a man and his dragon.

The language of the novel is incredibly formal and sophisticated, given the perspective of a well bred English gentleman, and often left me thinking in an English accent and using big words.  While this certainly did a lot to add to the feel and personality of the novel, it was also a weakness, as when discussing something unfamiliar, like arial tactics and maneuvers, the formal language made it difficult to understand and easy to gloss over.   There was a lot of discussion and planning of tactics in the novel that I’m sure I ended up skipping over, simply because I couldn’t easily envision them in my head.

The other thing I had trouble envisioning was the scope of size of the dragons.   The size of the dragons was often referred to in tons, however, to say something weighs ten tons means nothing in my mind and I can’t see the size in my head.  Therefore, I was a little shocked to find that dragons held a complement of gunners, bombers, spotters, etc., upwards of 20 men, because in my head, the dragon wasn’t that big.   At the very end of the book, there was an appendix, of sorts, giving more detail on European dragon breeds, that also gives dimensions of the dragons in feet, the knowledge of which would have been helpful in the story.

All in all, this was a great story, excellently researched which lead to a feel of sincere authenticity.  The main characters of Lawrence and Temeraire were well developed, though supporting characters were left a little shallow.  As a result, the length of the novel made it easy to forget who a minor character was.  The novel wrapped up well enough in the end that it could act as a stand alone novel; it doesn’t force the reader to get another book to complete the story.   The excerpt of the next novel in the series is tempting enough, however, to  encourage further reading.  There are six books in the series, at the moment, and I think they will all be worth reading, if they hold up to the same standard as this one.

While the ebook is free on kobobooks.com, Amazon.com and at the Suvudu Free Book Library, you can get the paper copy here:

His Majesty’s Dragon

****

It’s been a lot more difficult to keep up with daily posts, than I first envisioned when I started this blog.   I’ve compensated with excerpts from  my novel, and tech reviews and even reviews by my husband.   It’s worked so far, except now I’m reading a much longer novel and I’ve run out of post ideas.

Luckily, I’ve been  inspired by one of my most favorite blogs, Cakewrecks, which has a feature called “Sunday Sweets”.  Based on the same principle, I’m starting a feature I’m going to call “Sunday Favorites”.   It will allow me to review all of the books that I have read seemingly a hundred times, yet, even as the pages may tatter, the story never does.

The first novel of this feature is going to be “Wicked” by Gregory Maguire.   I first read this novel around twelve years ago, when I was in the middle of my first university career.   I had found it in this little independently run bookstore and coffee shop, the smell of which I still remember:  coffee, books and incense.

I remember opening it and being instantly lost in the story.  I read it on the bus all the way home, and when the stranger sitting beside me interrupted to ask what I was reading, I was too annoyed with his interruption to notice what was probably a clumsy attempt to flirt.

“Wicked” is the ‘true story’ of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West of “The Wizard of Oz”.  It follows her throughout her life, from the strange circumstances of her birth, though childhood to University and beyond.   It is while in school that Elphaba becomes an Animal rights activist, and it is this activity which shapes the rest of her life.

The first twist of the novel, compared to the original story is that the Witch is not wicked at all, she’s just misunderstood.   Her strange green-skin condition is the result of her mother’s extra marital affair with a strange man in a balloon (the Wizard!).  She is incredibly smart, magically talented, politically motivated and very strong and independently minded.   Her character is very easy to like, as we quickly learn about her inner person as she shows how caring she is, both of her friends, family and strangers.

The second biggest difference is that this is not a story for children.   Not only is it very political, but there is also strong violence, language and sex.  Gone is the happy-go-lucky innocence of the original Wizard of Oz.  Even the Wizard is no longer a kind bumbling old man, stuck in Oz, but a mean, vengeful tyrant with visions of ruling all of Oz with an iron fist.

Behind it all, “Wicked” is really a social commentary on the natures of good and evil.  Its message is that good and evil are the purview of the beholder; what seems right to someone is based on their circumstances, history and beliefs.  Another person with different history and beliefs may see this view as evil.

The best thing about this novel is that every time I read it, I understand it on a different level.  When I first read it it was just a good, topsy-turvy story.  As I grew older, I began to identify more with the characters, and understand the strong political currents throughout the novel.

Although the novel now has two further novels in the series, “Son of a Witch” and “A Lion Among Men”, none of them have had the same message as the first. Gregory Maguire  has also written other true fairy tale novels, all of them enjoyable, but they are more of how a true story can become fairy tale, than about any underlying message or lesson.

Wicked is a deep, complex, enjoyable novel that should be on everyone’s ‘to read list’.

You can find it here:

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

From the moment that Apple announced the iPad I knew it was going to be a great alternative to the traditional ‘eReaders’ on the market. While the iPad can do a great many things I’m going to focus here on how it functions for reading things (obviously given the theme of this site). For some time I’d been reading books on my netbook and while it worked fine the size of the netbook limited where I could read stuff. The netbook was just too bulky to carry around with me. When the Kindle hit the market I was interested, the idea of being able to wirelessly grab books wherever I was was very appealing, however it suffered the same drawback I saw with every other reader on the market: no backlight!

What? Reading on a lit screen will hurt your eyes? You can’t read long term on a screen? ePaper is just better? I disagree. ePaper is great, it’s readability is wonderful, however much of my reading is done at bed time, after my wife has started snoring so being able to read in the dark is a must and book lights just never cut it. The iPad solved all these problems. The screen is lit, the form factor is small enough to cart around, and it does all the cool stuff and more that the Kindle does.

When it comes to reading novels on the iPad there are several choices open to the end user. First and foremost the iPad comes with iBooks, Apple’s own book reader and store. However, you  can install apps from Amazon (Kindle), Kobo, Barnes & Nobel (Nook) and several other standalone readers such as Stanza, in addition to many, many, single books built as apps. While they all offer slightly different reading experiences they all do basically the same thing, present words on a digital page.

My personal favorite has been iBooks for a few reasons. Firstly, since it’s an app built by Apple itself it has access to things that none of the others have, namely a brightness control that can change the actual brightness of the screen. The other apps can achieve something similar but what they’re really doing is darkening the page not turning down the light emitted by the device. Secondly, many of the eBooks I have come in various formats (pdf, lit, mobi etc) and while converting isn’t an simple task I find it easier to convert to iBooks ePub format as there are more tools out there to do so. Third, iBooks has a built in dictionary, I highlight a word and I can get a detailed definition right at my fingertips, it’s beautiful! Lastly I get a kick out of the page turning animations that iBooks presents, it’s cheesy and unnecessary but I enjoy it, makes me feel more like I’m reading a real book.

The iBooks app comes attached to the iBookstore, this is where it all starts to break down. The functionality for browsing the bookstore and downloading/buying books is fine, it’s all tied into iTunes so it works alright. However, the Canadian version of the iBookstore doesn’t have anything in it other then the ‘free’ books (books that are out of copyright and everyone can offer, Pride & Prejudice etc etc.) so there’s really not point in even browsing around there. This makes finding new books hard and when I run out of books I already own I may have to relegate myself to using the Kindle or Kobo apps. I may buy my future books from the Kobo store because my wife already has an account and the books are already in ePub format.

Overall reading novels on the iPad is a very enjoyable experience. With the connectivity options and the various apps and bookstores it makes obtaining and consuming written media a joy.

The other reading I’ve been doing on the iPad is comic books. As a teenager I was really into comics, I had a pretty good sized collection and more then a few still reside in my basement to this day. However, it’s been some time since I picked one up so when I tried a free sample on the iPad I found the experience to be the most happy surprise I’ve had as an iPad owner. This device almost seems like it was designed with the sole purpose in mind to read comic books on. The form factor is almost identical (if a lot heavier) to a standard comic book and the high resolution and incredible clarity of the screen make the images in a comic book or graphic novel really pop. Pair this with apps like Comics and the Marvel app (Comics repackaged to only offer Marvel titles) and you have a glorious device with a comic shop right at your finger tips.

Overall I have to give the iPad a solid ‘A’. That said, it’s much more then just a reader and while the reading experience is a good one if all you want is something to read books on (and don’t care about the lack of a backlight) check out the Kobo review posted earlier but if you’re looking for more full featured device you can’t really go wrong with an iPad.

Marion has spent the next two days in anticipation of her exoneration and making plans for her return to her family.  All that lay in her way is the trial :

****

Just then the judge, wearing voluminous robes, and a hat on his head, entered the room and seated himself at the very front of the room.   He nodded at the man at the table, and stared at the crowd until they were completely silent.   Then he turned to Marion and with a completely emotionless look, began to speak.

“Mrs. Douglas.  You are here to be tried for the accusation of witchcraft.   Do you understand the allegations against you?”

“Yes.” She answered, strongly.

“Do you agree that an interview was undertaken two days past, in preparation for this hearing?”

“Yes.” She said again.

“Good.”  He nodded then, at the tall man in black, “Due to unforseen circumstances, you will now be questioned by Mr. Black, here.  Unfortunately, Mr. Grady met with an accident and is unable to attend the hearing, however Mr. Black has obtained his notes and assures me he is able to act in his place.”

“Uh…okay…” answered Marion uncertainly.   All of a sudden she wasn’t at all certain of the outcome of the hearing, and that scared her tremendously.

“Do you swear to God that you will tell the whole truth during this proceedings, Mrs. Douglas?”

“Yes,” she answered, fully aware what a hesitation to that question would have meant.

“Good.  Let’s begin then, shall we, Mr. Black?  I’d like to be home for lunch.”

Mr. Black rose from his position at the small table, and turned to smile at the gathered crowd.   His good looks and piercing eyes produced a noticeable sigh from the women in the group.  He smiled at them, almost winking slightly, and then turned his gaze on Marion.   It was as if he had sliced right into her with those eyes and it was all she could do to not look away.

“Mrs. Douglas,” he drawled in an obviously English schooled accent.   “Are you aware of the accusations that have brought you here today?”

“Not, entirely,” she answered, not at all fooled by the artificial charm he was plying her with.

“It is alleged,” he consulted the paper on his small table as if he had forgotten the charges, “that you removed a woman’s womb for purposes of witchcraft and then cursed her to illness and death in revenge for her husband’s treatment of you.”   He looked at her curiously, “How do you plead?”

“Not guilty,” she answered with out hesitation, “the charges are ridiculous.”

“Why do you feel they are ridiculous?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Because anyone who knows me, and knows what kind of person I am, also knows that I would never purposely hurt anyone.”

“And what kind of person are you?  Mrs. Douglas?   Isn’t it true that you are Catholic?”

“Yes, but that has nothing to do with the type of person I am…”

“Doesn’t it?  I think that a person’s beliefs are the very foundation of what type of person they are.   Do you believe in witches, Mrs.  Douglas?”

Marion hesitated, and licked her lips, looking out at the crowd eagerly awaiting her answer.   She sighed, and answered truthfully, remembering her promise before the questioning began, “No.”

A gasp issued forth from the waiting crowd, and Mr. Black leaned eagerly forward, his eyes sparkling, as if he was seconds away from catching her in a trap.

“Oh?  And why do you think that?”

She sighed again before answering, “because I believe that superstition, such as the belief in witches, is the recourse of the cowardly who would rather blame the unknown than try to deal with the life as it is presented to them.”

The silence in the courtroom was deafening.  For a full four heartbeats no one said a word and no one moved.  It was as if time had stopped.

“Are you aware, Mrs. Douglas,” Mr. Black practically growled at her, “that you just called your King a coward?”

“No…” she began, but was cut off.

“Are you also aware, that you have just denied a fundamental teaching of the bible?   The bible teaches that witches do exist!!”  He exploded with furor.  “Do you believe in the bible?!”

“Well, of course…” Marion stammered.

Mr. Black cut her off again, turning to the judge.  “Your honor, it is my position that Mr. Grady did not sufficiently question this woman to determine her innocence.  I find her answers deeply troubling, and request that she be retained for further questioning.  Furthermore, it is my opinion that Mrs. Douglas has acted in highly suspect circumstances and should be arrested as a witch until, and if, further questioning should prove otherwise.”

“So be it.”  The judge answered, “Sheriff, take the woman back to her cell.”

“NO!!!” Marion screamed as she was forcibly removed.  All pretence she had ever had of remaining restrained and dignified was forgotten as she struggled to return to her family, to hug her children, to kiss her baby.   Her hands reached out towards them as if in supplication as she was removed from the courtroom, the images of their horrified tear stained faces burned in her memory forever.

****