Another goodbye and a book review

Song of the day: “I hope you dance” by LeAnn Womack. Had it in my head before, will have it again.

There really isn’t all that much to tell, yesterday was all about rushing from here to there, first by dropping the Land Rover off at the garage (new brake pads and front lock) then heading on over to Malaga where mom had to apply for her driver’s license because her expiration date ran out. *sigh*

Y’all know how much I LOVE bureaucracy, right? I’ll spare you my rant today. Hah. Let me just put you out of your misery and inform you that we’ll be back there on the dot, three weeks from now. *double sigh*

After that, we got lost in the industrial area of Malaga a little, and that while I really had to go to the bathroom. How come my bladder always gets the size of a peanut when I’m somewhere I can’t get to a bathroom? It’s a filthy twist of fate, I tell ya.

Oh, and let me warn you before we go any further. The day didn’t have the most auspicious beginning, and that was mostly due to the fact that one of the dogs had to be put down.

Creo was her name, and she was a 9 or 10 year old Basset Hound whose health had been going for a while now. Though necessary, (she was half blind, bled from her skin at the drop of a hat, had a stuffed nose every day, and according to the vet had severe arthritis that must have been pretty painful. Poor, brave Creo) it is never nice to have to make this decision.
Let’s just wrap this up by saying that she is better off this way. For the past five, or six years she had a wonderful life here with many other dogs to play with, and we’ll remember her forever.

Well, that is depressing. What else…well, yesterday there was gardening, and building fences around yet another potato patch. It was wonderfully relaxing after spending the day on the road (did I mention that two hours after we got home we had to go out again to pick up the Land Rover? Well, we did. Blast it!) and I wished that we could have done it all day instead of the driving around bit. Hah. The plus thing about yesterday was that while we were out the sky was cloudy all the time. Yay.

Today, on the other hand the weather was splendid, and we spent most of it doing stuff in the yard again. Watering, transplanting seedlings, putting a broken citrus tree in a pot and putting thyme and rosemary in the planters of the greenhouse.

There was cooking and…well, who cares anyway?

I did a review for an Indie Published author the other day, so I’ll finish up with it and leave it at that for today. Maybe the next time I’ll be in a better mood.

For Marise Ghorayeb’s “Sorcery in the Alleys” I’m going to have to go with Five stars of the seven I’m allowed to give (according to me) for reviews.

* * * * *

This has more to do with technicalities and structure than the delightful story and its diverse characters.

First off, SORCERY IN THE ALLEYS is a relatively short story of 85 pages, describing the rather peculiar life of a young girl, who is, as you’ll discover, a powerful sorceress trying to save the universe as we know it.

I liked the way Ghorayeb managed to apply a casual tone (1st person narrative) that was entertaining, personable and engaging. Her main character Liz is a spirited and…multifaceted character, which kept my attention, despite the few hiccups I stumbled over:
I would have liked to see a bit more description about the background of Ghorayeb’s world of sorcery. She refers to an organization, a big group of humans and aliens alike, taking care of humanity’s safety, but then leaves her reader guessing a bit. Also, there are many references to friends, relations, and so on, which seemed to have little more purpose than atmosphere.

Though I maintain that Ghorayeb’s story was a pleasure to read, there were a few points that tripped me throughout her narrative about fighting the evil wizards, and fate: Technicalities.
This talented and creative author could definitely benefit from a good editor who’d help her format her story so that people like myself (the slightly lazy reader) have an easier time of following along.
There are parts in the story where one barely has chance to draw breath, due to a barrage of--albeit entertaining--descriptions that could have been better with some strategic enters, commas, and some general “cleaning up”. The same cleaning up would improve her occasional multiple character conversations, which required me to reread sections just to be sure who had said what.
Also, there were quite a few typos, which on themselves did little to diminish the reading pleasure, but confused the matter somewhat.

Lastly, though Ghorayeb has a flair for creating characters, there were so many of them intimately described (only 85 pages after all) that there were times where I was left wondering “what? Who?” I would have liked to see her focus more on the vital members of the story.

But despite these, mostly technical, problems, I had a lot of fun reading Ghorayeb’s Sorcery in the Alleys. And even though I am not the biggest fan of 1st person narrative, I will be looking towards more of this author’s work…if for no other reason than to see how she will improve on her talent in the future, and reach her potential.

For those who enjoy first person narrative, YA, Sorcery in the Alleys is definitely worth a look.

Here’s the link: http://www.amazon.com/Sorcery-Alleys-Marise-Ghorayeb/dp/1607032236/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316889797&sr=8-1