Read in 2012 - 42 + 43: "Perilous" and "Altercation"

With these two finds of free ebooks on Amazon's Kindle store I was really lucky - they were both very good reads, and I am glad the author, Tamara Hart Heiner, did not stop writing after "Perilous" but instead wrote a sequel, "Altercation".

"Perilous" starts out innocently enough: a 15-year-old meets a group of friends at the shopping mall for the birthday of one of the girls. They browse the shops and then sit down to have a pizza together. Later, they wait outside the mall for the mother of one of them to pick them up.
So far, so mundane.

But then, the mother they are waiting for does not arrive; all the customers and staff leave the mall, darkness descends, no security guards are to be seen, and while the girls are still unsure about what to do next (strangely enough, not one of them have their mobile phones on them - the only thing I found a bit difficult to believe, especially since earlier, the other girls ring one from the group to remind her about their appointment), a dark van pulls up at one of the security doors to the mall, and the girls - well concealed in the darkness and keeping quiet - witness what very obviously is a robbery.

From then on, things happen very fast: They try to call the police from a payphone while one of them is supposed to keep watch; the watch is spotted, and next thing they know, all four girls find themselves kidnapped in the back of the van.

An action-packed, fast-paced story unfolds, with the girls escaping, being captured again, escaping again, finding unexpected help, but also finding unexpected traps along the way, until the girls (and the reader) can not be sure whom to trust anymore.
One of them is killed, one of them ends up pregnant, one of them apparently sees the entire thing as one big adventure, and one of them finds out something about her father that sets her entire world upside down.

I am not going to tell you more about "Perilous" - you should really find out for yourself, if I managed to capture your interest.

"Altercation" picks up where "Perilous" left, and if you are anything like me, you will really want to read the sequel and find out how things go for the girls.

They learn a bit more about the circumstances that led to them being kidnapped, but it takes almost the entire book for one of them to really understand what has been going on and why their kidnapper was so desperate in not letting them escape again.

As in the first book, the girls' trust is betrayed again, but help is on the way, coming from more than one direction.

The tender threads of a beginning lovestory are explored a bit further, a second lovestory is credibly woven into the plot, and although not all ends well for everyone, the outlook is hopefull for the girls who had to endure so much.

Most of the time, I found the way the characters acted and reacted very credible. I also appreciated the fact that not everything was instantly well the moment the girls were rescued, but that they had to fight with the effects of their ordeal for a long time afterwards, and it also influenced their families in a realistic way.

On her Amazon page, the author says about herself: 

I live in Arkansas with my husband and three children, two crazy boys and one pretty little princess. I used to spend a lot of time writing until I had a baby and discovered Facebook. Now you'll often find me on there pretending to have a social life.
You can find out more about what I'm writing and catch deleted scenes from my books on my blog at http://tamarahartheiner.blogspot.com.
I love hearing from readers! Feel free to start a discussion or leave a comment!

So, can you guess where I am going to go next? :-)

Fashion Calendar: November

November only had 30 days, so today is my last chance for a Fashion Calendar post this month.

As mentioned in yesterday's post, it is often a grey, foggy, wet and chilly month - therefore, it needs colours! Bright colours, and plenty of it! (See this post for some more about the topic of colours and how they can affect our mood.)

One of my favourite autumn & winter outfits is this fuchisa or magenta coloured dress by Mexx:

The above outfit was my choice for an evening out with my girlfriends. Yesterday, for this season's first stroll across the Christmas market, I wore it with the dotty tights you first saw here.

I bought it four or five years ago and still love it. It is very versatile in that I can either wear it with really warm woolly tights and a turtle-neck sweater underneath, or with a pair of more chic tights, big earrings and matching lipstick.

When I saw it in the shop back then, it was one of those occasions where you see your name written all over it and simply have to buy it! Since it wasn't expensive, I never thought twice.

November Sun

In this part of the globe, November is usually not associated with sun - it is supposed to be a grey, wet, foggy and cold month, and (if one can believe the statistics) the month with the highest suicide rate of the year.

Well, we did have nice sunny weather this month; last Sunday, for instance, was so mild and sunny, if it had not been for the lack of flowers and birdsong outside, one could have been fooled into believing it was March or April.
I went for a run and almost regretted wearing the red fluffy zip-up you saw here, but going short-sleeved would have been inviting a cold, and I have only just managed to finally get rid of that nasty cough (took me almost four weeks!).

When I woke up on Monday morning, this was the first view that greeted my eyes:

Since then, though, I'm afraid the weather has changed and is now more like what November is supposed to be. We've had non-stop rain for two nights and two days now, which has kept me from visiting the Christmas market (it opened on Tuesday).
It is nothing like the flooding I have read about in parts of the UK, though, and seen on Friko's blog, so I really should not complain.

Tomorrow, according to the forecast, we can expect it to be dry, but with quite a drop in temperature. We might even have some snow for the first Advent weekend. Anyway - I'll go dancing on Saturday night, and will be putting up some Christmas decoration in the morning, this being the only time of the year where I allow for my beloved clean, empty spaces to be covered :-)

Read in 2012 - 41: The American Claimant

Like most children, for a long time the only books I knew by Mark Twain were the Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn books, largely made popular by television during my childhood in the 1970s. Only a lot later I learned more about the author, whose real name (and I am sure everybody knows that) was Samuel Clemens. He lived from 1835 to 1910, and the book that became my 41st read of this year was published in 1892: The American Claimant.

Picture of the first edition, taken from Wikipedia. Mine was, of course, the free Kindle edition.

It shows Twain's humour very well, and although I must admit I skipped some of the lengthy speeches made in the book, and some bits were rather predictable (especially the way the love story goes), I much enjoyed it.
Just by the way it starts, you can see what I mean:

No weather will be found in this book. [...] Many a reader who wanted to read a tale through was not able to do it because of delays on account of the weather. [...] Of course weather is necessary to a narrative of human experience. That is conceded. But it ought to be put where it will not be in the way [...]. And it ought to be the ablest weather that can be had, not ignorant, poor-quality, amateur weather. [...] The present author can do only a few trifling ordinary kinds of weather, and he cannot do these very good.
So it has seemed wisest to borrow such weather as is necessary for the book from qualified and recognized experts - giving credit, of course.
This weather will be found over in the back part the book, out of the way. The reader is requested to turn over and help himself from time to time as he goes along.

The story begins with the introduction of an elderly English Earl and his son. The family have been receiving letters from American relatives claiming the Earldom for many years; now one of the last remaining relatives has died, and the claim has moved to the hands of one Colonel Sellers, who sends a most extraordinary letter. 
The Earl's son, with a strong sense of justice, wants to put things right (because, actually, the claim is apparently justified) and decides to travel to America and renounce his own claim to the title, to become a man just like everbody else, to make a living by honest work.

Does he succeed? Yes and no.
Colonel Sellers, who comes up with all sorts of quirky ideas to make money and better his and his family's position, does not know of the Earl's son's plans. At the moment of the son's arrival in his town, he is trying to capture a bank robber to earn the reward. A fire at a hotel leads to the Earl's son being taken for the "resurrected" criminal (who really died in the fire), and a chain of all sorts of events, some funny and some less so, is set in motion.

All ends well, though, and everything in between is interesting and fun to read: from the political and humanistic ideals of the Earl's son to the inventions and schemes of Colonel Sellers to the thoroughly described living conditions at a humble boarding house for working class men in those days.

Read it, if you want something truly different; amusing, but not without some deep thoughts, presented in humoristic disguise.

Old School

This post is a combination of letting you know about what I did on Saturday and an inspiration taken from this post on Monica's blog, "Beyond The Lone Islands", which I liked very much. Therefore, Monica, I hope you don't mind me nicking the idea and adapting it for my own purpose!

My hometown Ludwigsburg often features on my blog; you have seen the parks, the palace, the Christmas market, the fields surrounding the town, and of course my own place.

So far, though, you have not seen my old school.
On Saturday, I went back there. This was an official event organised by the school itself. Everybody they could find was invited - everybody who either finished school 25 years ago or attended the school during the years leading up to the finishing class of 1987 (I left before that, in 1984 at the age of 16). Now, it is never easy to find people from the past, and it is particularly difficult with women who, more often than not, have changed their surname with marriage. In my case, I have changed three times (married twice, divorced once and taken my maiden name back for several years until my second marriage), but since I happen to come across some of my former school mates at the gym every now and then, we were already in touch and so I was sent an invitation as well.

Going back to my old school was not so unusual for me; a branch of our town's library is in the same building, and so I have been there many times since leaving school. But, unlike yesterday, I have not been back inside any of the old class rooms, and certainly not with so many people from my class and others from the same year!

It was great seeing them all; some I did miss, some others I must admit I wasn't sorry about them not being there. It would have been nice to meet some more of our old teachers; only two of them (neither of them my favourites) made it to the reunion.

We shared old and new stories, some had brought old photo albums (which made for much mirth all around - did we really wear our hair like that, and go out in those outfits?!), there was coffee and soft drinks and snacks, and of course the entire event started off with some officials making speeches and showing us round the old familiar place.

A group picture was taken out in the yard, where every year we had to assemble for the school photographer to take our class photo. I don't have that new picture yet, but I'll show you what my school looks like:

Approaching the school, this part of the ground floor is the library, serving both the school and the public.

Looking across the yard, the building to the left is the school I went to after I left that other school, and the older building to the right is where I went to elementary school.

Coming up towards the main front doors of the school. Of course, it only looks so deserted because it was a Saturday.

It was built in the 1970s (as if you needed telling) and was state-of-the-art back then. We were told that, in a few years (2016 is the current estimate), the entire complex will be torn down and rebuilt according to modern standards. A lot has changed since the 1970s, mainly in terms of how energy is used in modern buildings to keep them warm or cool, and it would cost more to adapt the current building than to erect a new one.

You are probably wondering by now what my post has, so far, to do with Monica's post.
We are getting to that now: I am going to show you some of the various hair styles and colours I used to wear in the 1980s - not to mention my specs! There were some rather wild hairdos (think short, red and spiky) before that time, but only a few photos exist of me from those days, and none of them in digital format. Still, I hope you will find my little excursion into the past entertaining enough:

From top left to bottom right: 20 years old, 1988, when I finished Librarian School; same year, but a more cheerful picture; aged 19, looking daft; me at 17, when for a short time I thought I could be a blonde; 19 again and back to red Henna.

Since that time, I have seen a bit more sense and know that my hair is not meant to be long - it is far too thin for anything more than chin-length. And while for most of the 1980s I never wore my natural colour, I stopped the colouring at some stage, and it turned its mousy brown again. These days, I'd be almost entirely grey/white, were it not for the help of some cheap chemicals regularly applied. I keep saying that I'll stop it at 50 - but who knows what I'll really do in six years' time!

Read in 2012 - 40: Peterkin

Have I ever mentioned that I like reading children's books? Maybe you wouldn't think so from the reviews here on my blog, but I really do. There are several children's books authors I would name as my favourites, Edith Nesbit and Astrid Lindgren being top of the list.

The book I recently finished, "Peterkin", is by an author who, every now and then, reminded me a bit of Edith Nesbit: Mrs. Molesworth. Her full name was Mary Louisa Molesworth, and she did not only write children's books but also adult fiction, the latter under the pen name of Ennis Graham.
Mrs. Molesworth lived from 1839 to 1921; she was married (later legally separated) and had, as far as I know, no children.

"Peterkin" was published in 1902, and we are introduced to the upper middle-class Lesley family with their six children by Giles, the second son, who writes the story from his own perspective as a 12-year-old two years after it happened. Peterkin is his youngest brother; the other three siblings are girls. And it is Peterkin who sets the story off by disappearing one night in November.

Giles' older brother Clement has an idea where the 8-year-old boy may have been gone, and the two boys set out to find him. They are successful, and the story could have ended here, had it not been for Peterkin's discovery of a most mysterious parrot, speaking of a little girl in the house next door to his. The two younger boys' imagination is vivid enough that they take it upon themselves to "rescue the enchanted princess" they think they have stumbled upon, and although all ends well, the story does not lack suspense, and humour.

The writing from a child's perspective is, I think, rather credible; the adults are presented in a manner that makes you believe they would really act that way and their actions would really seem to have those special meanings to the observing children. The children among each other are not always full of brotherly love; they do get cross sometimes, as children do, but when it comes to obstacles, they stick together.

Some of the expressions in the book I had not come across before: To be "as happy as sand-boys", for instance. Nicely enough, the young narrator does not know what it means, either, and frankly admits to it.

So, this was an entertaining and enjoyable read from times long gone; 110 years later, I am glad to have come across this book as a free download from the Kindle store and wouldn't mind finding more by the same author.

Munich

As mentioned in this post, I spent last week in Munich, working at the "Electronica", a trade fair that is all about - you guessed it - electronics and electronic parts.


I do like working such fairs, especially when there are so many visitors from all over the world and not just German ones. It gives me a chance to practice my languages, and I had plenty of occasion to do that - in fact, we had only very few German visitors to our booth. There is a surprisingly large amount of people from Italy and from the UK in this industry; Russia and Turkey are catching up, too, and we had at least one or two visitors from Israel every day. 


Our booth was similar to the one we had in 2010, but not exactly the same. Here are some pictures:

The booth.

Ready for the first visitors. 

Behind the scenes - never underestimate the importance of a well-equipped back room to run a booth smoothly! Thankfully, the friend whose company I was working for here understands very well what is needed and what is not, and she always makes sure there is enough room there for me to move, and enough of everything we and our visitors may need. I've worked other fairs where the bit behind the scenes was so cramped you could hardly get in, especially when everyone else thought they have to double-use it as a wardrobe, personal conference room and storage for all the giveaways they have collected from other booths.

The majority of you have probably not heard about the power outage we had on the Thursday morning during that week; it was on all the German TV news that night and you can read about it in English here.
We were affected in that the two underground lines that serve the fair were not running for some hours, and it was impossible to get a taxi - we couldn't even get through to the taxi companies by phone, since all the lines were either down or busy. In the end, we split up so that some of us went by car (it took them an hour to get there), one of us who had the keys to the booth was able to go with some other hotel guests in their car, and I chose to wait until the trains would be running again, and arrived at the fair at 20 past 10 instead of 20 to 8.
Since hardly anybody got to the fair in time that morning, it wasn't a problem that I was later than usual - so were the visitors! And the power outage provided the perfect icebreaker in conversation; you instantly had something to talk about, comparing stories about where you were, how you eventually made it to the fair, how long it took you and so on.

Altogether, it was an interesting week, and my last fair for this year.