The Chandelier

Hanging by a thread,
so fragile,
ice for blood,
hot blushing from within,
trembling like the shimmer
of a chandelier:
Sun-bleached light
trickling down
in cascading fractals,
winking with the promise of Noah.

An ethereal song slumbers
in each cut crystal
waiting to ring out
into the black night;
a twinkling token
taking up residence
among celestial bodies
to herald a birth
of Hope.

The chandelier weeps
as light streams through it:
A river blinking back sunshine,
then plunged underneath
to the green silence of
time suspended without breath.
Restored again to dove song,
crystal rivulets rain down
in a baptism
of Peace.

Broken glass
pretending to be fine,
each fractured piece
as sharp as thorns or nails,
each edge threatening
an unexpected wound
in hands, in feet, in side--
Heart shattered.
Shards ground to dust.
A hole with no light--
Until with Gethsemane's tears
All is Redeemed.

The Girl in the Spiders Web

The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This a tricky one to rate. I read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and loved Lisbeth Salandar and Mikael Blomkvist. Larsson was able to bring a real depth and humanity to the characters and an urgent readability to a mystery largely solved by paperwork, computers, and pictures. However, I couldn't get past the sexual violence and so didn't continue on with the series. With a new author, I was hoping that we could get back to Blomkivst and Salander without the sexual violence. Which Lagercrantz did, but Blomkivist and Salander weren't the same. I didn't have trouble jumping in without reading the other two books, and it is a good detective story. There is a lot of action, hit men, spying, an autistic savant boy that witnesses a murder, artificial intelligences, drama at the magazine, etc., but the book lacked the propulsion I felt with the first book. There are a lot of characters and I felt like Mikael got lost in the midst of them. Salander on the other hand, became something of a pierced, skinny Batman, with almost superhuman powers, so that she became less human and more of an enigma. If I were to review it as just a thriller, I would say it is a good solid one, with interesting plot lines and moving action. But as part of the Millenial series, I'd have to admit it didn't measure up.


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Between You and Me

Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I thought for awhile that being an editor would be the perfect job. I love words, and stories and even grammar. But I realize after reading this book that my enthusiasm for inane details would have to get downright obsessive to be any good at being an editor. Also, being an editor in New York (and for the New Yorker, at that) sounds like a glamorous job, but is in fact, the dullest job in the world. Unless you get jacked about catching a spelling error, or a comma error (these are made into several page long anecdotes); or you write letters to pencil companies inquiring why a batch turned out inferior, or you write authors to ask why three commas were misplaced; or if you would be amazed to discover there is an actual pencil sharpener museum, go out of your way to see it, and then give them your own trusty sharpener to add to the collection. The most exciting part of her day seems to be moving her car back and forth on road washing days. There may have been a few times I smiled and a couple of interesting grammar facts I learned, but grammar books themselves may be more interesting.


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Our iPods dictate what we listen to next, gadgets in our cars tell us which way to go, and smartphones finish our sentences for us. We have become our own robots.

Uxorious,” meaning “excessively attentive to one’s wife. (I once asked a married man if there was a word for a woman who was excessively attentive to her husband, and he said, “Yes: wonderful.”)

The subjective, or nominative, pronouns are: I, you, he/ she/ it, we, you, they.  "Who” is used when the pronoun is the subject or a predicate nominative, and “whom” when it’s a direct object, an indirect object,
"who” and “whom” are standing in for a pronoun: “who” stands in for “he, she, they, I, we”; “whom” stands in for “him, her, them, me, us.”

Shadowshaper

Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a solid YA book with a refreshing point of view from a Puerto Rican girl who learns that a secret family legacy has made her a shadowshaper, an artist that can tunnel spirits onto her art and animate it. The only problem is that someone is killing off the shadowshapers to try to harness their power. The plot is a little clunky at times, and some of her choices seem unbelievable even for a book of fantasy but the premise is wonderfully original, and the voice unique.


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I hold my breath
and wait for you
to make it through
the rest of Youth.

You are so perfect
just right now:
No major fouls,
fumbles, or rejects.

A few yellow cards
squared your shoulders,
made you older,
kept you on your guard,

but nothing to get
you kicked out
or down for the count,
nothing to regret.

You are up by eight,
but my eyes are locked
on the ticking clock
willing it to a faster rate--

before it's too late
and the other squad
can ride roughshod,
pull up and compensate.

Let the streamers unstring,
let the game end
with you ahead,
when the buzzer rings.

Let the other guys
knock down the chairs,
sit dazed and stare,
throw themselves and cry,

while you are covered
in Gatorade,
and accolades,
and ride upon my shoulders.

Race Against the Clock

I hold my breath
and wait for you
to make it through
the rest of Youth.

You are so perfect
just right now:
No major fouls,
fumbles, or rejects.

A few yellow cards
squared your shoulders,
made you older,
kept you on your guard,

but nothing to get
you kicked out
or down for the count,
nothing to regret.

You are up by eight,
but my eyes are locked
on the ticking clock
willing it to a faster rate--

before it's too late
and the other squad
can ride roughshod,
pull up and compensate.

Let the streamers unstring,
let the game end
with you ahead,
when the buzzer rings.

Let the other guys
knock down the chairs,
sit dazed and stare,
throw themselves and cry,

while you are covered
in Gatorade,
and accolades,
and ride upon my shoulders.

Cress

Cress by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I so enjoyed Scarlet that this one was a little bit of a let down. Meyer spends a good deal of time recapping in this one, and there is starting to be quite the laundry list of characters, so some get the shaft (Scarlet and Wolf). But we get introduced to Cress, who is not a she-girl like her predecessors. She screams and fantasizes and is a hopeless romantic. She is gifted at hacking and doesn't whine, so I didn't mind having a more girly-girl heoine. She sort of rounds out the girls. Thorne plays a bigger role in this one as well, and he quite the loveable cad. We get some good revelations that move the plot, and it is poised for the ultimate finale. Good set-up book.

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