Oh Boy!

To an avid reader like myself; I have a few pet peeves. One I encountered when I started reading Adriana Trigiani's "Home to Big Stone Gap." I was 40 some pages into the book when I became pretty convinced that there seemed to be gaps in the story. Things that the author assumed I knew and didn't. What happened to the 4 years son that died. Why their daughter married right out of high school. The mention of Italy and many trips there. Apparently this is a sequel book. I picked it up because it looked interesting. No where in the description on the book did it mention previous books or that it was the 3rd in a trilogy. I had to go on-line to Amazon and check out her other books to discover the truth. Now my dilema! Do I just get rid of this book; read it out of sequence and see if I like the author; order the other two books so that I can read them in series. I've placed them in my "cart" at Amazon but haven't decided yet. Maybe she'll write others and I'll have to wait 12 years like I had to with the Jean M. Auel's series (Clan of the Cave Bear). Who remembers everything about a book when years go by between publishing? It's like Harry Potter! I'm not 10 so I have trouble remembering everything that happened in book one when I'm reading book seven. Sure my 11 year old grandson can do that but he doesn't devour books the way I do. Plus his brain is fresh and relatively new! Mine's cluttered with years of useless facts and information. Not to mention the movies thrown in there that fall somewhere in the middle of the series so that if you've read book seven and the movie is about book five then you supposedly remember exactly what's going to happen.

Anyway, I've put aside the Trigiani book for now and have started Steve Berry's "The Venetian Betrayal." He's one of the authors that popped up after "Divinci Code." This one, so far, is jumping around from 350 BCE (remember when it was just BC?) and Alexander the Great to modern day events in Asia, Denmark, and Venice. Hope I can keep all the characters and time lines in place. I have that "old brain" problem.

From now on, I need to check the list of books written by a new author that I find. They're usually listed in the front of the book and if the titles are similar then it's a pretty good indicator that it's a sequel. (Bourne Identity, etc.)

So it's a buffet for Christmas! No time pressure to have the taties on the table at exactly a set time. No taties! I'm buying what I need for apple-tizers and horse's ovaries (appetizers and hors d'oeuvres) cause they like the munchies! The gang can come when they want and they'll be food for whenever.