I didn’t touch my knitting needles at all today.

If you want a beautiful sweater – look at Sylvia’s Shawnee Parkway Cardigan

Me? I read, listened to some audio tracks and thought about names. Place Names, people’s names.

It really seems that those names you hear regularly as a child seem totally normal to you no matter how they sound to others. As an adult, the unfamiliar can be strange. I would say it is not a function so much of language, but that might not be completely true.

I grew up speaking a variant of American English know as Mid-West. Not all that many contractions, few abbreviations and a clear but occasionally flat diction. No extra dropped or added syllables, not an extra “r” in site. This has carried on to the present, unless I spend too much time around other regional accents. Give me a few days and my speak slides toward their norm.

But it doesn’t mean that I understand the localities naming conventions like I understand and think that Anglicized Native American names are normal. I can better deal with some German place names, since I never translate them than I can with Martin’s Heron, Canadian Water, or Middle Wallop.

I think I should start a meme about interesting or nonsensical place names. Even worse, I could add the issue of those poor children whose parent’s name them after a place. (Would you really want to grow up with a first name of Arizona, Dallas, Montana, or Kentuck if you were not a country and western singer?)

Books

Since I have obviously not been knitting, these are some of the books in the pile from the last week or so.

Beyond Reach – Karin Slaughter. Absolutely hated it. Too ugly, too violent and a really nasty ending. She is an excellent writer, but her grittiness, realism and lack of my type of ending means this is the last book of hers that I will read. I want to enjoy to a book, not to be horrified. And I want an ending that has the good team winning.

I think I have already mentioned some of the following:

Iron Kissed – Patricia Briggs. A quick and good read.
Predatory Game – Christine Feehan. Like a couple of her other series, the story is the same retold with new characters. Getting repititious..

Grimspace – Ann Aguirre. Great new SciFi voice with an origirnal character and plot twist.

Shadowing Ivy – Janelle Taylor. Female Police Officers simply aren’t this helpless and stupid. The plot and development are fine. Too much effort is put in to make this a romance and not enough research into police procedures.

And then there is

A Curious Affair – Melaine Jackson. Actually understanding cat speak? Unquestionably a mixed blessing.

Heart of Stone – CE Murphy. A new series featuring a kick-ass attorney and a gargoyle. Not bad at all. For some reason, probably being asleep while ordering, I have two copies. Anyone want the extra?

em>House of Cards – CE Murphy. Second in the series mentioned above. The action keeps moving and the character development is both believable and clever.

Cast in Secert – Michelle Sagara. I like the series for fun escape reading. Perhaps the middle book is better. In any case, this book really can’t be read as a stand-alone. But I would recommend the series, especially when they are finally released in paperback. No clue as to when that would be. I would not recommend any of these in electronic format. The publisher just doesn’t get the concept of lower prices for electronic distro.