Notes From the Bedside Table

Cool and overcast today. A lot of the trees are bare now and the sun is at that particularly low angle that comes from living so far north. Someday, I would like to see what the light is like say, in Calgary, at this time. A fresh batch of coffee is brewing and the smell is rising through the house. Sunrise was at 6:57 and sunset is at 4:48. 4:48! Damn you, Daylight Savings Time!

It is voting day and we finally found our ballots-I will drop them into the box on the way to work. I miss standing in line to vote. Our neighborhood voting place was Washington Middle School and many different languages were spoken in the line around us - it made me feel very patriotic and aware of what our country should be about; sharing this privilege with people who may have been voting, freely, for the very first time.

The new patios are in, the plants are planted and we have a water feature that burbles and splashes in the corner. We are waiting for birds to take advantage of the new feeders. Dennis said he watched one of the little popcorn birds out there, bathing in the pool. I haven't seen that yet. I keep looking out the window and stepping out onto the new steps for a view, but I think I scare them away.

I wish I could remember everything I've read the last week- maybe they will come to me over time. I am reading Fever Crumb right now. It is written by Philip Reeve of The Hungry City Chronicles (they may also be known as The Mortal Engines Quartet) and Fever Crumb is a good addition to the canon.

The Hungry City Chronicles is this amazing series of books that take place very far in the future. There is no water, there are few resources, there are cities and villages that have been built up on engines that move them from place to place as the governors of those cities look for smaller cities to consume. This is called Municipal Darwinism.

Tom and Hester, the heroes of the series, travel together across the barren European landscape. They endure betrayal and jealousy, find cities to fight for and with, and get into adventures that take them to places that now only exist in memory and folklore.

This series is really great and anyone of any age who likes true science fiction will thoroughly enjoy them. Find them and read them! It looks like they may be going out of print, so buy them quickly! Oh, right, the library may have them, too.

So, Fever Crumb takes place in the same kind of world: Our earth, London, long after some kind of apocalypse occurs leaving the world in the hands of Engineers who are, truly, reinventing the wheel.

Fever, our hero, was adopted and then raised by the engineers, and is now considered to be an anomaly: a reasonable female, a girl child devoted to rational thought. As such, she is the first girl admitted into the Order of Engineers.

As she begins her apprenticeship with an archaeologist, in a house filled with warmth and emotion, memories begin to come to her, memories that she is sure aren't hers. Where did they come from? What should she do with them? Could it be she has the answers her world needs?

Mmmm. It's good, and if you like books that show what it's like to live after the fall, you will really like Fever Crumb. Fever Crumb is published by Scholastic, and will be out in April, 2010, for $17.99. Ages 11 and up. You can read The Hungry City Chronicles, now. The titles in the series are: Mortal Engines, Predator's Gold, Infernal Devices, and A Darkling Plain. They are published by HarperCollins Eos and, the ones that are still in print, are available in paperback. Again, ages 11 and up for these.