The Eight is about a powerful chess service of questionable origin. Through the years, it was passed on as a gift to Charlemagne who felt a strong sense of evil when he played it. He decided this service was too powerful to be kept around and had it buried at a monastery in Montglane. From then on it was known as the Montglane Service.

During the beginning sparks of the French Revolution, all the monasteries were being turned upside down and the abess in charge of protecting the Service needed to uproot it and get it out of there, lest it fall into the wrong hands. She dispersed the pieces among eight nuns, sending them off in all different directions, sworn to protect the pieces with their lives. Two of these nuns are Mireille, a strong woman and Valentine, her more free-spirited cousin. They live together in Paris, living the high life, until the Frech Revolution really gets swinging and threatens the lives of all too many Parisians. People are being murdered on the street and Valentine’s life is taken because of the information she knows about the Service. Mireille knows she has to get herself and the pieces out of there.

After Valentine’s death, Mireille vows to discover the secret killing her cousin. She set off to distant lands and encountered historical figures along her way, including Napoleon – all of which are also somehow connected with the Service. She quickly finds she’s not just trying to unveil a secret, she’s a player in an ongoing real life chess game!

Meanwhile, in 1972, Catherine Velis is a computer expert who has an upcoming business trip to Algiers. First she receives a cryptic message from a fortune teller who seems to know her birthdate. Shortly afterwards, her friend Lily, an expert at chess, drags her along to a chess match between two world known masters. At the match, one of these men is killed. As they try to leave the match, they are shot at and discover Lily’s chauffuer has gone missing! Catherine soon finds herself sucked into the same real life game of chess that Mireille started playing two hundred years ago. She traces along the same path as Mireille trying to put all the clues together and discover the importance of the Service.

If you liked The DaVinci Code or admire historical fiction, I highly recommend this book! It does seem a little far fetched as it ties many of life’s mysteries together, dating all the way back to Adam and Eve. The ride is fun though and it’s always great to think, “What if it were true?”

This was really well done, although… I need to read the book again because I don’t remember a lot of it going down the way it did. Some things I know are totally changed. But I think the overall tone and message of the book was well conveyed. The book didn’t make nearly as much sense to me as the musical, which is partly why I want to read it again.

The sets and costumes and lighting were… breathtaking! There was a huge Clock of the Time Dragon hanging above the stage, over the pit (the backdrops on the stage itself completed the clock). It moved and breathed smoke between some scenes and between the acts. The colors were so vivid. It was overall a very pleasant experience.

The music was good too – I really can’t say much bad about Wicked. I definitely want to see it the next time it’s in town. It’s a shame, I didn’t even know it was coming. They’re pretty much all sold out now.

Seeing the musical has inspired me to get the soundtrack, read Wicked again and then follow that up with the sequel, Son of a Witch. I really liked Wicked the first time around and I suspect now, understanding a few key points a little clearer, I’ll enjoy it even more.

You know that bubble wrap used to cushion items in shipping? And how much FUN it is to pop all those bubbles? You just can’t put the sheet down until they’re all gone.

The feeling is not unlike playing this game, which consists of running a ball around the ground, picking up items that stick to it and increase its size as you roll. You start off small, picking up tacks and pencil erasers and your katamari ball continues to grow and grow and soon you’re picking up terrified farmers, then cars, then entire buidings!

It’s funny, it’s destructive, and it’s even somewhat challenging as you use both analog sticks to control the direction of the ball.

Definitely worth checking out.

I finally finished this book after nearly a week! Wicked was something of an unauthorized prequel to The Wizard of Oz. It tells the story of Elphie who will later be known as The Wicked Witch of the West. She is not wicked though, only scorn by the fact that everything she tries to accomplish in her life, including winning her own father’s love, fails miserably.

In this tale you’ll learn the origins of The Yellow Brick Road, the ruby slippers and the flying monkeys.

The first three sections of the book were wonderful. I had high hopes for the last section, which is when Dorothy finally comes into play, but the final section disappointed me greatly. It was a chance for the author to tie everything together. To explain and finalize Yackle and the Wizard. To learn more about this other world the Wizard and Dorothy come from and why that Book is so important.

Maybe the subtlety was lost to me, but I gathered no resolution at all from this book. All I really have to say about it was that I was disappointed, although I am glad I read it.

I liked Good in Bed much better than I normally like chick-lit. It was well on its way to being tossed aside as a typical chick-lit sort of book where the woman is all weepy about her lost love and needs a man to find peace with herself. Then something interesting happened: Cannie got pregnant. Although she was still pining away, she grew up a bit and realized she is a strong and independent woman on her own. She finds her way with the help of her family and friends. Finally, something a little different from all the other cookie-cutter chick-lit novels out there!

As you all know, I don’t like chick-lit. I usually can’t stand it. It’s all about weak women who only find their strength in men. Not only is it unrealistic, it’s boring! I finished Jennifer Weiner‘s first book, Good in Bed and wasn’t disgusted with it, so I figured I’d try her second novel, the one everybody’s talking about: In Her Shoes.

In Her Shoes follows the lives of three related people: Rose, her sister Maggie and their estranged grandmother, Ella.

At the start of the book, Rose is an attorney starting an affair with a partner at her firm. Rose is a strong willed woman, but insecure in her own imperfect appearance and uncomfortable around men.

Maggie is Rose’s little sister. She’s dyslexic and basically grew up with people telling her she was stupid. No one expects much of Maggie. As a result, she’s lazy and greedy. She uses people and steals their belongings and money. I really hate Maggie through much of the book and wish more than once I could knock her upside the head with a heavy ceramic object.

Rose and Maggie’s mother, Caroline, died when they were little. Their father, so in love with his wife, could no longer stand the thought of her if she wouldn’t be there for him. He packed the girls up and moved and told the girls’ grandparents the girls would be better off without them. He married a crazy bitch of a woman named Sydelle who made the girls lives hell at every opportunity.

Ella lives in Florida, hundreds of miles away from the girls in Philadelphia. She’s haunted by her grandchildren daily. It’s a thought so painful she shies away from other seniors in the community since all they ever do is go on and on about their grandchildren.

Along the way, Rose finds true love and an appreciation for herself, Maggie finds a sense of responsibility and Ella finds her grandchildren and makes some friends along the way. The journey is well worth the read.

Louise Rafkin is a professional housecleaner. She’s done it her whole life and has some rather interesting and touching stories to tell about the subject. The last chapter details Louise’s visit to Kyoto, Japan. She spends a week with a group of people who have given up everything to do humble services, such as cleaning, for other people. The last chapter really made me want to read Memoirs of a Geisha again.

Along with Louise’s personal housekeeping adventures, she seeks out others who have experience in the world of cleaning. From exotic housecleaners to the people that clean the crime scene after something gruesome happens. This was a really quick and fun read!

I have to admit, the only reason I picked up this book was because Zach Braff (of Scrubs) recommended it as his brother wrote it. Jacob Green is a young man struggling with his father’s abuse and his Jewish faith. Even though the issues are serious, the book doesn’t dig too deep and has some very comical moments. I have a feeling I’d appreciate this book more if I had a better understanding of the Jewish religion, but Braff does a good job at describing the Jewish rituals, clothing or foods.

I really loved the book up until I got to the last page and read the ending. I thought it was sort of a cop-out and didn’t really resolve anything. It’s like he only had so much material, didn’t really know how to end it, so he just did. Maybe the ending was too “deep” for me to get and held some sort of weird symbolism, I’m not sure. It isn’t that I don’t understand the ending, I just feel like there should have been some sort of resolution – good or bad, especially with the subject matter of the last chapter.

It’s a great book, but the ending sucks.

I wanted to read this book because I really enjoyed her first novel, Carrie Pilby. Right from the get-go though, this novel really irritated me in all its chick-lit stereotypical glory.

Gert is recently widowed and hangs around her two single friends, Hallie and Erika. Both are jaded to the world of dating, Hallie never having had a successful relationship and Erika constantly obsessing over her ex-boyfriend Ben. Gert seems like she’ll be the one to keep this book together. She even has the potential to be a strong, single woman. But no, right from the start she’s in a bar meeting guys because no woman can be complete without a man.

The only reason I didn’t chuck this book out of my second story window to be shred into a million pieces by the air conditioner unit below is because of the guy Gert ended up meeting at the bar. His name is Todd, he works as some sort of railroadenginieer and he’s about the greatest guy who’s ever graced the pages of a chick-lit novel. He’s kind, thoughtful and considerate and does just about everything right.

Gert doesn’t treat him as well as she should and both her and her friends agree that Todd does some things which are insensitive and warrant an apology. These things are SO SMALL I don’t understand how the woman was successfully married before. Maybe that husband of hers really killed himself to be rid of her and her childish expectations of men.

If you want a light and fluffy read, please by my guest and dive into this book. You’ll fall in love with Todd and the (honest to God) most serious problem in this book is that Todd is working long hours and is too tired to give Gert 100% of his attention.

Wow.

Todd, I salute you! You’re a great guy and don’t deserve to be picked apart so much by Gert, Hallie and Erika. Better luck next time.

I got this book a long time ago from PaperBackSwap and having no recollection what it was about, I put it in my bag as an option to read while I was in Texas. As it turned out, I read frequently when I was in Texas. I really miss reading a couple books a week and hope this will kick-start me on reading again.

The Cove is a small town Sally escapes to after the murder of her father. She doesn’t remember what happened that night, but she very well may have killed him. Or perhaps her mother killed him. Either way, both she and her mother are safest if Sally runs away. At least that’s what she thinks. An FBI agent named James Quinlan easily tracks down Sally and begins to work his magic on her trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle leading up to her father’s murder. In the meantime, strange things happen in The Cove which can’t easily be explained and James finds he has another mystery on his hands.

My description probably sounds boring, but this book was anything but. The pace is quick, which I’ve discovered I prefer in books. The mysteries are plentiful and kept me guessing. Sometimes I had aspects of it figured out and other times I was shocked to discover the truth. Overall, it was a pretty good suspense book with a little romance thrown in for good measure.