CATHEDRAL OF THE SEA

by Ildefonso Falcones



Cathedral of the Sea has been compared to Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth, and I believe the comparison is a fairly good one, though they are not exactly alike. In fact, there are more differences than similarities, but the feel of the stories is the same. Pillars of the Earth is the story of many people in an English town growing up around the building of a cathedral. Cathedral of the Sea does provide a somewhat similar setting, albeit in an already-established 14th century Barcelona, and a wide variety of characters, but the only ones explored in any real depth are the main two: Arnau Estanyol and his father, Bernat.

Most of the other characters may remain a bit flat for some readers' tastes, but the story in which they live is complex and absorbing. Bernat's escape with his infant son from his cruel lord, their struggle to gain their freedom in Barcelona, the rise of Arnau to prominence and his trial under the Inquisition, all is told in detail rich enough to forgive other short-comings this novel may have. Readers looking for more along the lines of Pillars of the Earth and World Without End should give this one serious consideration.

Quote To Contemplate:

I just read this passage in Thomas L. Friedman's The World Is Flat, and I had to pass it on in light of not only everything going on in this presidential election the last couple of days, but also in recent past elections:

Politicians can make us fearful and thereby be disablers, or they can inspire us and thereby be enablers.

I'm sure no commentary by me is required. :-)

Released Today

What is this? A book related post?? These seem to be in short supply here lately. But I promise that is changing very, very soon. Within days we will be back to our regularly scheduled programming of Books and Books and Reviews and Border Collies. I give my solemn pledge! I have about 120 pages left of Devil's Brood, which is being released today and is a fabulous book!! Then I'm going to go crazy with shorter books with bigger typeface. :-)



In addition to Devil's Brood, there are some other great books coming out today. Here are a couple that I'm pretty sure will be in my personal library within a matter of days, if not hours:



To Hold The Crown by Jean Plaidy -- The story of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York



I Can Has Cheezburger? by Professor Happycat -- An LOLcat Colleckshun. A must have!!


Coming next week:



A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire -- The much-anticipated third volume of the Wicked Years, we return to Oz, seen now through the eyes of the Cowardly Lion -- the once tiny cub defended by Elphaba in Wicked.

I also have Paul Auster's Man In The Dark waiting for me at the library, and an Anything Agatha Challenge that I haven't even started yet. Lots of good stuff to get to!

Happy Reading, Everyone!

Confession: I Love Old Music Videos

I'm still grinning from that Andy Taylor video I embedded on my post from last week. I looooooved that song when it came out! And there are so many that I never thought I'd get to see again, but thanks to YouTube they're out there for me to love all over again.

Many regular readers of this blog know about my musical alter ego, but what you may not know is that the biggest musical and performing influence in my life was Paul Stanley from Kiss. I idolized him. I loved his voice, I loved his stage presence, I coveted his awesome platform boots with the chains on them and that black feather jacket.



Big sigh. . . That chest of his was nothing to scoff at either. ;-) But seriously, he was the performer I wanted to be and I still watch him with awe. Love him or hate him, you couldn't help but pay attention. This video is from Kiss' extremely short lived disco era. I think it lasted one song. :-) The song is "I Was Made For Loving You", the album was "Dynasty" and this tour was the first time I ever saw Kiss live, the first of about eight times that I saw them:



Come to think of it, that costume was pretty fabulous, too! Very romance-novel-heroish with the puffy sleeves and cool cape. I wonder what other fun videos I forgot about that I could find. Whatever they may be, I'm willing to bet there will be lots of hairspray involved. :-)

It Was A Beautiful Day!

And I mean that literally and figuratively.

It started out cold. I got to the trial grounds at about 7:30 am and found the tent covered in frost. Chilly, chilly out! But it warmed up quickly and turned into a perfect sunny but comfortably cool day for running with the dogs.

Only Max and I competed today. Peter went out canvassing for Obama (Good job, Sweetie!) and planned to compete tomorrow. The short version of the results are that Max Man Q'd three of his four runs, and only missed getting the fourth because of mistake I made. He was such a good boy today! And his last run was picture perfect! Exactly the kind of run that makes you say, "That's why we do this!" It's an amazing feeling when everything clicks! And he did get first place in all of his runs, but he was the only dog in his category. I like to think he'd have gotten first anyway. :-)

His hips held out great. I gave him his aspirin after the second run, and we walked a lot before, after and between runs. By the end of the day he was still walking fine and didn't appear to be uncomfortable at all. He did so well that I decided it would be irresponsible of me to bring him back and do it again tomorrow. We ended on a high note, and it's more important to sustain his health than earn more Q's this weekend. Why push our luck, right? I'd feel horrible if he ended up limping because I let him push too much. We'll only do one day of trialing on weekends from now on, and that should help keep him going strong longer. Peter decided since it's supposed to be really cold and rainy all day tomorrow, Skye will stay home, too. Skye won't mind. He's liking herding better anyway.

So, that's it for this weekend. Max did a great job, and I might get to actually read! No, seriously!! :-)

Audio Update

Well, that was interesting. I wasn't able to play the CD in the car or on a boom box, but, luckily, it played just fine in the PC CD player. Consequently, I was able to finish up that last disc of Portrait of an Unknown Woman while I worked. We can all sleep soundly tonight. :-)

And sleep soundly I must, as it is trial time again! Yippee! The boys had a great practice yesterday. Max-o jumped at his new lower height, and while he still had just a bit of stiffness/soreness, it was very minimal compared to the last few lessons. He is in denial that he has any problems. I cut his lesson a little short as soon as he showed signs of discomfort, and he was not at all happy with me. Crazy dog. He only has four runs each day this weekend, which is significantly less than what we do during lessons, so he should be fine. But I'll be keeping a close eye on my little man. Skye is competing on Sunday, and I fully expect him to be his usual surly but stellar self. He'll be glad it's only for one day for him this time!

After this trial, I'm planning to get those darn reviews written and Devil's Brood finished off. I'm anxious to get back to my normal reading pace. My output may have temporarily slowed, but that TBR pile didn't get the memo. :-)

Have a great weekend, everyone!


More LOLDogs here.

The Downside of Audiobooks

So, I'm driving home from work yesterday. I pop that final CD for Portrait of an Unknown Woman into the player all excited to see how it ends. And . . . Nothing. Nothing at all. The CD is defective and won't play. I hate when that happens.

Happy October!

Wow. October already. I'll miss summer, but on the upside it means it's almost time for the NBA to get started! Go Wolves!! And it also means the election is almost here and over so I can get back to normal. I feel as if I've been incredibly lax in my reading, because I'm spending so much time online and in front of the television watching the presidential campaigns unfold. I used to get a lot more done when I didn't care which chef was in the kitchen, you know what I mean? So here's my pledge: Since I already know where my vote will be cast, and with the exception of the debates, I pledge to turn off the TV and get more reading done!

I'm loving Sharon Kay Penman's Devil's Brood, but it is taking a long time to get through due to distractions and 700 pages of teeny, tiny type. I plan on taking up something a lot lighter once I close the cover on Henry and Eleanor. Perhaps Wild Boy: My Life in Duran Duran by Andy Taylor which I won during BBAW for my "You Might Be A Book Addict If . . ." answer? (Thanks, Amy!!) Nothing like some good Duran Duran gossip to get the reading up to speed again! In case you're curious, my answer was: You might be a book addict if you have the hard cover, you've read it, but you buy the paperback anyway because, "the cover is sooo pretty!" Yup. I've done it. So have you. Come on. 'Fess up. :-)

With the way the reading year has been going, my September feels rather paltry:

82. The Conqueror by Georgette Heyer
83. The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory
84. The Tsarina's Daughter by Carolly Erickson
85. Confessor by Terry Goodkind
86. The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria
87. The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran
88. Cathedral of the Sea by Ildefonso Falcones

Links from the list are to my reviews. I've been remiss in getting my review written for Cathedral of the Sea, but I'm having trouble focusing enough. The election, Max's hip trouble, general antsy-ness. . . If any of you have any questions about that one, let me know! Maybe that will get me moving a little more quickly. And someday I'll write my thoughts on the whole Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind now that I've finally polished off the whole thing. I've also received a couple of wonderful awards from some great friends, and I need to get to those soon also. I'm so thrilled to get them!

Here's to hoping I can get back to normal very soon! While we're waiting for that to happen, here's a cool Andy Taylor video from back when I had to walk uphill both ways to school. :-)



Happy reading and good viewing to all!