Books, Boys and...Fish?

I'm trying (ahem...I said "trying") to get back to the Friday book reviews. We'll see how it goes. Still not much coming out in the way of good reads, but I took a chance on an anthology of short stories called "Hags, Sirens and other Bad Girls of Fantasy" edited by Denise Little. After being sick off and on (mostly on) for the last couple of weeks, I guess I was in the mood to kick a little ass and take a few names and the title of this book fit right in with that mood. I wish I could say the same for the contents. Mostly composed of tired and not very well written re-treads of Greek myths (with a few other oddments thrown in), these stories were mostly just boring.Also, they mostly had to do with how the "bad girls" come to "bad ends." Somehow, I just don't like to think of that happening. I mean, Hera as a bag lady? Puhleez. I used to really like anthologies - short stories make great bedtime reading because you don't get the "up until 2 AM because I have to finish this novel" syndrome. Haven't read a good one since Marion Zimmer Bradley passed away, though. I miss her "Sword & Sorceress" books and the Darkover anthologies were always well done, too.

From there, I moved on to an established series that's been a pleasure to read with the possible exception of the last installment which wasn't "bad", but it was confusing. Fortunately, S.L. Viehl's latest book, "A Plague of Memory", gets things back on track. Okay, I still think Duncan Reever is a control-freak creep and am not crazy about him as the romantic lead, but Cherijo Grey Veil is a terrific character and there's no lack of action in this book or confusingly twisted plot lines (which was the problem in the last book. If you've been following the series, I definitely recommend this installment.

That's it for the books, folks. I told you pickings were scarce!

On to some pics I've been meaning to post for a while. Over the New Year's weekend, I took the kidlet to ride the train down to San Clemente pier. Although it was winter and a little chilly, the sun was out and it was one of the most gorgeous days I've ever spent at the beach. I took a few shots with my cell phone camera (which explains the crappy quality) to try to capture the scene. Here's the view of the beach as taken from the pier (the tee-tiny dots in the water are surfers):



Then, there was the cute guy on the pier who asked me out. Who knew the SC pier was a great place to meet guys:



Happy weekend, everyone!

KJ