As for my absence in the blog-o-sphere. I have to admit I've had no desire to read YA or romance; with the exception of Lola and the Boy Next Door which I just picked up from the library and Maureen Johnson's The Name of the Star, hello, it's about Jack the Ripper. I'm so in! I've actually been reading a lot outside of my normal genres. My book club read the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which I loved and then devoured the rest of the series. Followed by a viewing of all the Swedish movies courtesy of Netflix. 
I also read Devil in the White City about the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The story alternates between the struggles of building the fair with the serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims. Sounds pretty interesting right? Unfortunately, it was fairly boring. The architecture portions were too long, the serial killer sections too short. Although there was a lot of really great info about Chicago. It was also interesting to read about some of the brands that first appeared at the fair. It contained a lot of interesting tid bits. For example, did you know that the "Blue Ribbon" in Pabst Blue Ribbon came from the blue ribbon it won at the World's Fair. Also, the White City is what influenced both Frank Baum's Emerald City in The Wizard of Oz and Walt Disney's amusement parks?! Fun stuff. But overall I found the book pretty tedious. However, Devil in the White City referenced the scandal surrounding Frank Lloyd Wright's affair that apparently rocked Chicago's world back in the day. That intrigued me so I picked up Loving Frank by Nancy Horan a fictionalized account of Wright's affair with Mamah Borthwick Cheney, the wife of one of his clients. It was really good as well. 
I'm currently reading In Cold Blood by Truman Capote which is everything a non-fiction book should be: engaging, well-written, and utterly disturbing. Of course I keep telling people I'm reading In True Blood....oops!
I've started back to grad school as well. It's a Master of Education in Instructional Technology. I'm only taking one class at a time but class has definitely encroached on my leisure reading time and my desire to blog. But I wanted to let y'all know that I'm still here plugging away. I've been reading your blogs but haven't been commenting. Sorry, blogger friends! Hope all is well with you!
