Finished reading AURIEL RISING ...

My last exam was on Saturday afternoon (egads! what a ghastly exam schedule!) so I had the rest of the weekend to relax and read. I haven't decided for sure how I feel about this particular book. It was good in that it kept up a fairly quick pace and kept you guessing about certain characters and their motives. It was interesting in that it dealt with alchemy and British politics / royal history. A couple of the characters had brief romantic moments, but the romance wasn't overdone. There was quite a bit of violence, but not out of keeping with the setting. However, the book lacked something I can't quite put my fingers on. Has anyone else read AURIEL RISING? Your opinion?

On to a new book ... ANGELS & DEMONS by Dan Brown (author of the DaVinci Code, which I have yet to read). So far, I can hardly stand to put it down! It seems particularly fascinating since we were recently subjected to a Papal Conclave and change of Popes. I can hardly wait to finish it and move on to the Davinci Code!

Here's a little snippet from ANGELS & DEMONS that really gave me pause for thought:

"Mr. Langdon, I did not ask you believed in God. There is a difference. Holy scripture is stories . . . legends and history of man's quest to understand his own need for meaning. I am not asking you to pass judgment on literature. I am asking if you believe in God. When you lie out under the stars, do you sense the divine? Do you feel in your gut that you are staring up at the work of God's hand?"

I love these kinds of conversations / debates, even if engaging in such makes me a little unpopular within certain religious groups!

Besides reading, I managed to get out and about walking in the sunshine. I discovered the Chinese Store with absolutely tons of wicker baskets on sale, (One can never own too many wicker baskets, right?) and also treated myself to a DQ treat. I've got two weeks now until classes resume, so may do more of the same, assuming this nice weather holds!