Reading in the Garden

Happy Birthday, Sue Grafton! I have to admit that I am not a big fan of series.  I hate the feeling of being obligated to read the next book. There are too many books, too little time to dwell on one character. After all, variety is the spice of life. I especially dislike it when a book leaves you hanging and you have to continue on to the next one to find out what they should have settled in the first book. Isn’t that entrapment? Shouldn’t that be illegal? 😀 I would be lying if I said I never read or even wholeheartedly enjoyed some series. I was just as wrapped up in the Twilight saga as the next vampire lover.   I was also biting my nails as Lisbeth was dragged into a dark world of rape and murder in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series . And with my book club, I dove right into The Hunger Games trilogy, even getting my son and husband engrossed in the dystopian future where kids are forced to fight to the death for the Capitol’s viewing pleasure.  

Happy Birthday, Charlotte Brontë! April holds a month of celebrated birthdays. My daughter, mother, and father were born in April. 😀   So were artists and inventors like Joan Miró and Leonardo da Vinci; world leaders such as Queen Elizabeth II and Ulysses S. Grant; actors Charlie Chaplin and Alec Baldwin; and authors Hans Christian Anderson, Washington Irving , William Shakespeare, Tom Clancy, Maya Angelou, and Harper Lee, to name a few.   Another famous author born in this month was Charlotte Brontë. Charlotte Bront ë, one of the three renowned and talented writing sisters, was born April 21, 1816.  Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bront ë wrote J ane Eyre,   Wuthering Heights , and Agnes Grey respectively, each using a male pen name and published their novels in the same year. Jane Eyre  was an instant success.  In her journal, Queen Victoria noted that she was reading Jane Eyre  to her dear Albert. She had high praise for the book remarking that it "proved so interesti