Good Reads

Lately, I have been kicking up my reading to a whole new level. My Tivo is hurting... calling my name.. but I seem to just want to read. :) It's a phase, but I am loving it. I started reading a trilogy by Libba Bray. The books are pictured above. I have read the first two.. and I love them. Just got done reading the second.. and have to wait till next paycheck to buy the third. :) Yah, I suck with my money. The end of the second one just left me content and in thought about life. These books are your basic good and evil, love and friendship, mystery and magic... all in one. I have to share the end of the second book though. I love how Gemma, Anne, and Felicity converse about good and evil.. and through the imagery of clouds, leaves, and wind... Bray portrays paths that we all must take at times in our lives, good or evil, to find ourselves. Highly recommend these books... especially if you liked Twilight.

Anne: "In the books, the truth makes everything good and fine. The good prevail. The wicked are punished. There is happiness. But it's not like that really, is it?"

Gemma: "No, I say." "I suppose it only makes everything known."

We lean our heads back against the tree and look up at the puff, white clouds.

Anne: "Why bother with it at all, then?"

A cloud castle floats lazily by, becoming a dog in the process.

Gemma: "Because you can't keep up the illusion forever," I say. "No one has that much magic."

For a long while, we sit, saying nothing. No one attempts to hold hands or tell a merry joke, to talk of what has happened or what is to come. We simply sit, our backs to the tree, our shoulders grazing one another. It is the lightest of touches and yet it is enough to weight me to the earth.

And for a moment, I understand that I have friends on this lonely path, that sometimes your place is not something you find, but something you have when you need it.

The wind picks up. It sends the leaves scurrying for cover until a softer breeze blows through, settling down again as if to say, "Shhh, there, there, it's all right." One leaf still dances in the air. It spins higher and higher, defying gravity and logic, stretching for something just out of reach. It shall have to fall, of course. Eventually. But for now, I hold my breath, willing it to keep going, taking comfort in its struggle.

Another gust blows. The leaf carried toward the horizon on the wind's powerful wings. I watch till it becomes a line and then a speck. I watch until I can't see anything, until the path it has traveled is erased by a sudden flurry of new leaves.