Father Tim

I just finished Jan Karon's new book A Light from Heaven. It chronicles Father Tim and Cynthia as they take on a very small ridge top church. It is a wonderful book with more delightful characters to meet.

If you are a Father Tim fan, you will be delighted by the book, but might feel like I did that it left you hanging in the air at the end. This is the last of the Mitford Year series, but another series with Father Tim is coming. I hope it comes soon and resolves these hanging questions. I was really rather aggravated after such a great read.

Reader's Bill of Rights

My friend Infomatrix posted this and had to share. I like that I am not obligated to finish a book. I used to feel like I had to finish one once I started it. It was like I had signed a contract with the author. Now I know life is too short to read a book that isn't for me.

Pennac's "Reader's Bill of Rights".
A reader has...
The right not to read.
The right to skip pages.
The right to not finish.
The right to reread.
The right to read anything.
The right to escapism.
The right to read anywhere.
The right to browse.
The right to read out loud.
The right to not defend our tastes

In your dreams

The trouble in Tom Holt's novel is just what is happening in the dreams of Paul Carpenter.

In In your Dreams, Paul discovers that he was sold to the magical firm of J. W. Wells by his parents and is curious why they would pay so much for someone rather inept at their job. His girlfriend has dumped him. So life isn't going well. To top it off people seem to think he is hero material, when really his boss's goblin mother has the hots for him and is saving his bacon.

It emerges that Paul is a key character in a war between the Fey and the human world. The Fey are using sleeping humans to cross the border between worlds. The trouble is that Paul can't remember important things from his dream and fumbles blindly through being a hero.

This is a typical humourous Holt SF novel. I really like Holt, but found this moved more slowly than others. However it might be that because Paul is in the dark, so are we. Still it was a good read. The ending is open, so there may be a sequel in the works.

This has a novel before it - The Portable Door. I hadn't read it and this read fine without it; although I would like to give it a try too.