Hold Me Closer, Necromancer

Sunrise is at 7:53, sunset will be at 4:19.

Blue skies today, Rainier and the cradle of mountains surrounding us are out in all their glory, the few clouds I can see are held back by the ranges. I just fed the birds and they discovered it in seconds. We've had hummingbirds in the fountain and the maple tree all morning. The ones in the fountain seemed to be playing with the water (when they weren't trying to impale each other) by ducking in and out of the bubbler and then perching at the top and sliding to the edge, flapping back to the top, sliding back down, over and over. Beautiful, bright red throats, shimmering green backs, quick little flicks back into the trees.

With all the heavy rains and high winds, there've been some real problems and trouble, but beauty, too. I was driving to work on Wednesday, heading north towards the U on I-5, and saw a brilliant rainbow that stretched from the U district, across I-5 and down towards Lake Union in front of Gasworks park ending in the lake-what was so very cool, though, was seeing the houses through the rainbow and they were all shaded in the colors of the rainbow! I have never seen that before! And it was morning! Rainbows are pretty rare in the mornings but there it was! It wasn't long before I was no longer between the sun and the rain and it was gone. So cool.

One of the best books this season, and one that's on my top ten list for winter, is Hold Me Closer Necromancer, by Lish McBride. Took me a while to get to it but I am so glad I did! Funny, funny, funny, set in Seattle in and around U Village and campus, it's the story of a slacker burger flipper, Sam (short for Samhain), who runs afoul of a powerful necromancer who reveals that there is something very wrong with Sam's life, or maybe very right- it kind of depends on whether you really want to raise the dead.

Sam has been protected by an herbal pouch his mom made him when he was born. When it accidentally comes off, just after he dents a fancy car with a potato, the man who owns the car recognizes him for what he truly is. Unfortunately, Sam doesn't have any idea about what that means. Due to the lack of convo between Sam and his mother about why he needs this pouch, many awful things start to happen to the people he loves to convince him to take this change in his life seriously. One of those is the death of his friend, Brooke. Brooke's body is found in her apartment but her head ends up with Sam, still alive, kind of. She can talk, cry, think, and she is not happy! They have to carry her around in a bowling bag.

Did you know that you have to petition the Council and register to live in Seattle if you are Were, a 'mancer of any stripe, or any kind of paranormal "person"?

It's a really fun book, good for either sex, and it shows us a new side to life in Seattle where the underground scene may be much different from what we thought. Great for age 13 and up. (Henry Holt. $16.99. Available now.)