Thursday Morning book talk!

I am procaffinating and procrastinating.   I have had a hard time getting my "happy" on for work these days.  Probably just a phase, as I am tired, not sleeping well and it makes me "edgy"  I can't afford to be "edgy" at work.  Loud noises bother me when I am like this and I work in a lively place where people make a lot of noise.  I grit my teeth and try not to over-react.  This too shall pass ( I like to add "like a kidney stone")

I woke up thinking about first lines from books that draw you in "Last Night I dreamed I went to Manderly again."   and "Call me Ishmael"  Books that have an immediate "voice to them.  "The Outsiders" was one such book for me.  It was the first "teen" book I read, back when the genre was not as thriving as it is now.  Teens were the forgotten readers and it may be why so many teens did not read once we reached Junior High.  We were force fed "classic" literature, which ( and I can say this, I have a degree in English) was downright BORING.  Recently I discovered a mash up of Jane Austen called "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies"  Not THAT is something I could get my teeth into.  Instead of being the simpering fortune hunting girls, the Sisters Bennet are..... NINJAS, well sort of ninjas, they are trained in the shaolin form of martial arts and are deadly and somewhat crass.  I liked Lizzie MUCH better.  Can I admit to NOT being an Austenite?  Sorry, she always left me cold.  I listened to the book on tape.  I am in the car a lot.  I am still "reading" the Stephanie Plum series.  I really prefer Ranger and I wonder if the author is steering Stephanie toward him.  Joe Morelli loves the idea of Stephanie, but he doesn't know her at all.  Ranger understands her and trusts her on a much better emotional level.  Joe want to turn her into a "cupcake"   his "little wife"- NOT that there is anything wrong with choosing to be a homemaker, if YOU choose it.  He seems to expect her to give up her job and her life to be married to him.  It's like the old WWI song says "How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm, after they've seen Par-ree?"  I doubt she would be happy trying to be the domestic goddess her mother is.  Stephanie's idea of fine dining is a peanut-butter and olive sandwich ( What is it about fictional detectives and peanut-butter sandwiches?  Kinsey Milhone makes peanut-butter and pickle sandwiches!)  I hope she doesn't "Settle" for what everyone expects of her and that she follows her heart.  Unlike the Kinsey series, which is thankfully wheezing to an end, these are numbered and may go on until Steph gets a walker.  I stopped reading the Kinsey series when I realized what a judgmental pig Kinsey has become.  Every woman has some flaw that she needs to point out ( mostly she fat-shames)  and every man is either old and balding or wants to jump her bones.  I don't like what Henry has become either. I don't like the people in these books, so why would I "hang out" with them?