Its time to rate the Pendergasts

I can't believe its been about 12 years since I first picked up the Relic while in high school.  Relic is the first in the Pendergast series and, in my opinion, still the best to date.  I'm really fortunate to have picked up this book, in a drug store, I believe, because I was drawn in by the spine-chilling cover design.  Too bad, there is a new edition with, in my opinion, a much blander cover.  There have been so far around 10 Pendergast books and, I've actually read all but one and kudos to me for subconsciously turning into an official Preston/Child fan.  I suppose its time to rate them all...in chronological order

The Relic -- ★★★★★
Pendergast's debut, still pretty human in this one (grin).  If any of them deserves a five star, its the Relic.

 The Reliquary -- ★★★☆

Sequal to Relic.  I could not for the world of it get over the transformation of the grumpy but nice professor.  I get the feeling, P/C simply ran out of good villains to render a climactic ending.
Cabinet of Curiosities -- ★★★★
Solid, strong, creepy as hell suspense/thriller. And 891 Riverdrive mansion, what a house!!
 
Stilllife of Crows -- ★★★☆
One of the standalone cases.  I'd like to think of it as Pendergast taking a small detour while on vacation.
 
Brimstone --★★★★
First of the Diogenes series.  Pretty solid addition to the series.
 
Dance of Death  & Book of Dead -- ★★★
Should really be combined into one book.  Both rather mediocre.  Pendergast going through internal struggling and facing up to his worst fears.  I really need to re-read these two. 
 
Wheel of Darkness -- ★★★
Standalone.  This is my least favorite of the series.  Not that the writing is bad.  The writing is consistently decent.  But I find it extremely hard to accept the whole idea behind this "quest"....its morally flawed.
 
Fever Dream  -- ★★★★
This one gets 4 stars because the whole book focuses on Pendergast, and its a Pendergast we've never seen before.  He is extremely pissed off from beginning till end, on the verge of losing his otherwise steel-like self
control more than once in the book, he is ruthless and relentless after the villains.  And he definitely shows emotions.  In short, Pendergast is very human for the first time.  I was flabbergasted when I read one of the latter chapters where Pendergast had a "little fun" with those swamp guys....Is this REALLY the Pendergast we thought we know???  But overall, the story starts out very strong, and kinda falls flat towards the end.  Actually, the story doesn't really end, it beckons a sequal....

讀paper back的輕鬆時光

前段時間發瘋似的搜羅了差不多一打paperback推理小説。
我記得那天走進B&N的時候，設在書店一進門處就是nook的展示和銷售台，平時這裡是沒有人的。我向展示台上的nook多看了幾眼，那天展示台裏站著一個銷售員，有點小cute。他馬上問我，要不要"give you a nook tour"，當時我差點脫口而出，"I've been hesitating between nook and kindle"，還好及時gave myself a mental slap in the face。總之我回答“no, thanks”的速度慢了一點，誰知此男嘴角一翹笑了笑說，"you thought for a while" (did i mention he is cute?)，ah, darn it, don't tempt me!  I'm already losing this battle against e-books!  And truth be told, I'm slightly more inclined over kindles, but it was stupid of me to almost blurt that out right in B&N~~~ anyways~~~ having resisted another round of e-book attack (and that cute grin), I hurried downstairs to the paperback section (and why am I writing in English???)
總之，跑題了，今天的思緒非常散亂~~~想買一些“女性”的paperback mysteries,完全是因爲想讀一些輕鬆的書，適合在星期天下午，喝午茶的時候，在開滿鮮花的院子裏，或者海灘邊讀的那類書。所以，對於推理本身的質量，我是沒有過高期待的。還好沒有過高的期待，雖然都是paperback，但是書跟書比也確實能看出差距，我讀paperback推理小説是從Preston 和Child開始的，他們的小説應該是懸疑/驚悚類，比純推理類要更豐富，因爲起點比較高，所以現在讀大多數女性作家的推理小説，基本上都是波瀾不驚、以看個熱鬧、打發時間這類心情去讀。第一本讀完的"How to Wash a Cat"，總體感覺是，作者的文筆有點過於花俏，雖然我挺喜歡她塑造的Montgomery Carmichael這個人，但是文筆太囉嗦了一點。後面讀的兩本Bibliophile Mysteries，應該說，這不能太算推理小説，比較像言情小説，我有點懷疑作家以前是不是寫過言情劇本，因爲我發現裏面的言情橋斷挺多，寫得還不錯，我也挺喜歡讀，以至於到現在，誰是兇手我已經無所謂，但是卻很期待讀女主角周旋於幾個帥哥之間的橋斷，哦，而且裏面出現的男性角色幾乎個個都很帥（=.=)。以前上大學的時候，有段時間也瘋狂讀過中文的言情小説，我發現，無論是用英文寫，還是中文寫，好多橋斷、甚至具體的句子/用詞，都很相似，我都能在腦子裏實時把那些英文句子視譯成我非常熟悉的中文言情小説用爛的句子，所以經常會心一笑。比如說，His(the hot buck)eyes narrowed, lips thinned（他眯起了雙眸，薄唇緊抿）; his piercing, all-knowing gaze (他銳利的目光似乎可以穿透一切)；his lips curled into a sensual grin (他唇角勾起一絲性感的笑)之類的，讀到這些“久違”的句子，我都快笑翻了，看來英文讀者也吃這一套啊~~~

Kindle or Not Kindle? That is the question~~~

觀察電子圖書已經很久了，一直舉棋不定。

這種產品相對來說較新（雖然技術可能並不新），所以一上市就購買可能並不明智。可是對於究竟什麽時候纔是合適的購買時機，卻並不清楚。

每次到amazon網站，首頁永遠是Kindle的廣告；每次去B&N，櫥窗裏也總是Nook的廣告，所以一直有些心動，但又覺得還是再等等、再等等。

數碼相機的發明讓底片式相機幾乎銷聲匿跡，那麽電子圖書的風行會不會有一天也讓紙張圖書銷聲匿跡呢？這是我不太願意去想象的。如果生活裏沒有紙張圖書，似乎總覺得相當不習慣，而且，圖書館要怎麽辦呢？紙張圖書在可預見的未來應該還是會存在下去的吧~~~

我喜歡拿著實體書的感覺，紙張和油墨的氣味、翻過每一頁書的充實感、在空白處寫筆記的感覺、以及書架上一排排一列列的擺滿圖書的感覺，都是電子書無法替代的。當然，電子書的好處也很多：可以同時攜帶上千本書，體積十分輕便大概是對我來説最具説服力的賣點。我覺得我大概遲早會購入電子書，但現在比較猶豫的一點是會不會等有了電子書之後，還是會繼續購買紙張書呢=.=。而且，電子的東西，總帶有一定的不確定性，雖然可以備份，但一不小心，還是會呼啦一下，所有的東西都消失了。因此可靠性也是一個不確定因素~~~

又進入book stock up season~~~

Books, Cats, and Bloody Murders!!! What more could you ask for?  These are the perfect ingredients likely making up an ideal book that I will avidly add to my already sprawling "collection" (more like random motleys of books, really).  But anyways, I am totally bewitched by mysteries (as I've always been) that involve cats, little remote/scenic towns, libraries, herbs, cheese/flower shops, decadent cuisines, and....you get the idea~~~ so with these long list of keywords in mind (meaning MANY potential targets), I headed to my local B&N (for lack of better options) and started browsing up and down the mystery aisles....and.....ta da~~~~ here are the finds of the day~~~~ (I'm such a hopelessly bibliophile-spendthrift)

Kate Carlisle - Homicide in Hardcover (The Bibliophile Mysteries)

Kate Carlisle - If Books Could Kill (The Bibliophile Mysteries)

Lorna Barrett - Bookmarked for Death (The Book Town Mysteries)

 Avery Aames - The Long Quiche Goodbye (The Cheese Shop Mysteries)

and finally... (for the moment, at least)

Nancy Pickard - The Secret Ingredient Murders (A Eugenia Potter Mystery)

Oh, and the one I'm reading right now...you know, I DO believe I was meant to pick up this book which triggered a whole new passion for this mystery genre I never paid much attention to before.  The other day, I just sauntered into the B&N as I always do, and I was supposedly looking for Victorian Period novels, but I just happened to shot a random glance at the mystery shelves, and this book stood itself out...I saw the cover and I just had to have it...

Rebecca M. Hale - How to Wash a Cat

And I discovered Susan Wittig Albert, she writes the China Bayles Herb Mysteries and the Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter Mysteries, and other Victorian/Edwardian setting mysteries!!  Imagine the delight of finding an author that writes all the "right things"!!!  (Well, they are RIGHT things to me).  Anyways, I couldn't wait logging into my Amazon account...i know, i know...and then I read her blog, and found this lovely lovely saying:

I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.--Jorge Luis Borges

I meow for that~~~~

Blick + Kitties

本以爲天氣就這麽轉涼入秋，誰知雨水一停，氣溫立刻直升，據説這個星期都將是90多度，看來還需耐心等候我期待的秋冬。

不知不覺，在新家已經快住滿了一個四季
不知不覺，經常看綠色的眼睛已經不再疲勞
不知不覺，Onyx已經長成了大貓
不知不覺，韶光在一天天地逝去，歲月一天天地攀上眉梢鬢角

又去了一趟Blick Art Store，果然是守不住錢包的地方（= . =）購入了一套Derwent Sketch Set，和本來說不需要的Derwent Drawing Pencils(24)。這套24色鉛筆的質感和Prismacolor Premier完全不同，似乎油性成分更多一些，色彩果然非常適合畫鉛筆素描，都是穩重成熟的綠色系列、藕色系列、和焦黃至棕色系列，沒有任何鮮豔幼稚的顔色，在紙張上著色的感覺幾乎像pastel。我直到前幾天才知道，原來oil pastel就是小學時候美術老師經常說的“油畫棒”。我一直搞不清楚油畫棒和蠟筆之間的差別，其實是不同的（=.=|||） 。本來說只想用彩色鉛筆畫工筆畫的，現在也開始同時練習用graphite pencil畫pencil sketch和drawing，畫sketch真的很過癮，尤其是畫陰影明暗的時候。另外，一些小工具也必不可少，包括：暈開顔色的paper stump(這個東西無敵好用)，還有白色的pastel pencil，也有暈色的效果，還有一把小刷子，用來刷掉鉛筆渣滓，另外最好也備一張砂紙，用於摩筆頭。有了這些便利的小工具，真如虎添翼~~~~~

久違的夏日照片

折騰了好久，終于有照片了。這些都是這個夏天的回憶~~~

“家貓”Onyx -- 一臉睡眼惺忪的大爺樣，這是最熱的那段時間

Onyx 2010年夏天最美的照片

“家貓”肥二 - 肥二是個十足的小霸王，稍不稱心如意就揮起爪子給個耳光，不過肥二最近和灰白出雙入對起來了 ^.^

　

這盆“爛草”總算不負苦心，也好歹開了幾朵小花，仔細看其實還是挺精細的花

海棠花自從放到院子裏，充分沐浴在陽光裏之後，就瘋狂地開花

下過雨後，平時貌不驚人的草竟然開出這麽清麗脫俗的鈴鐺花

太漂亮了，再放一張

院子裏種了瓜類植物，所以黃顔色的花很多，但還是這朵最嬌嫩

院子雖然很一般，但還是有玫瑰的，可是只有一朵（=.=）

久違了的藍色小蜻蜓，這麽説來，好多年沒有見過蜻蜓了，蜻蜓果然喜歡在尖尖的東西上停留

這兩天下雨了，已經是秋雨的味道，風亦似秋風，風中聽見了冬天的腳步聲~~~