BOOK & BLOG

November 22, 2010

 Books of the Week:

• Harper Connelly audio books
• Latest "Twenty Palaces" book by Harry Connolly

I don’t know if you would strictly term this “reading,” but I’ve been listening to my Harper Connelly books in audio form.  They’re read by Alyssa Bresnahan in a completely different style from Johanna Parker’s much-praised reading of the Sookie Stackhouse novels. Bresnahan has a crisp, clear voice, and she doesn’t try a southern accent, which is fine with me. (I don’t think of Harper as being especially southern in the way she sounds.)  Bresnahan has recorded many other audio performances, by the way, so you may recognize her voice.

I had the chance to read a manuscript of Harry Connolly’s next “Twenty Palaces” book.  You may remember that in past blogs I’ve related my enjoyment of Game of Cages and Child of Fire. Connolly’s next book is just as action-packed and thoughtful as the first two. Ray Lilly continues to be an interesting character, both dedicated to a cause he’s found to propel his misspent life and sick at heart because part of that cause involves killing. I’ll try to remember to post a reminder when Connolly’s third Twenty Palaces novel is due to hit the shelves.

If I extend “Books” to “Media,” I did go see the latest Harry Potter film, and I loved it, for what that’s worth.

BLOG

When I was in Texas recently I noticed crews of men with bucket trucks going from house to house. My son told me they were putting up Christmas lights for all the houses in the affluent suburb through which we were driving. I was astonished. This may be old hat to many of you, but I live in a small town where people either put up their own lights, or their house goes unlighted.

I had two reactions to this revelation.

1. I thought it was great. The whole process of Christmas lightning – prodding my poor husband, who rousted out the boys and went through the interminable process of checking all the lights; who climbed the roof or watched anxiously while one of the kids got up there; who remembered every night to turn them on; well, I feel sorry for him every year, and yet it isn’t a job I can perform, since I’m both very short and very phobic about heights.
   
   
2. I thought it was awful. For exactly the same reasons. Putting up lights is one of those excruciating family rituals that marks the holiday season, like the trip to Aunt Mabel’s, whose house smells funny, or Cousin James’s, who serves unfamiliar food you don’t want to try. And light-stringing is an outdoor sport, of sorts. The indoor counterpart is putting up the tree, also good for a few quarrels or at least a few deep breaths. (That’s my side of the job, on the whole.)

Anyway, it’s something to chew over. Are such chores part of being a family? Will you remember those annual arguments in years to come as fondly as the happy memories? Is paying someone to put up your lights a valuable time- and stress-saver, or is it a cop-out?

Do families have to suffer together to be real families?

Charlaine Harris