Under the Skin

The gods were smiling down on me.  Seldom do I win anything, maybe because seldom do I enter to win anything.  But books are one of my best friends in the whole wide world.  So when a book is on the giveaway table, I enter.  Yes I do.  When my blog friend, Vicki Lane, hosted a drawing for three copies of a bound galley copy of her new book, Under the Skin, there I was with my greedy little hand held out.  I'll bet you figured out by now that I was one of the winners.  I WON!

This book is the fifth in the Elizabeth Goodweather series, set in the shadows of the Appalachian Mountains.  The other books are Signs In The Blood, Art's Blood, Old Wounds, In a Dark Season, and The Day of Small Things.  Read them.  All of them.  You will be very glad you did.

Vicki Lane takes me to a place I have visited a few times and fell in love with through touristy eyes.  She invites me into the mountains and introduces me to the superstitions and ways of Appalachia.  I have not finished reading Under the Skin, but what I have read so far has not disappointed.  It is a darn good book!

Now for an unexpected observation - at least unexpected  to me. You see, I've been enjoying my not so new anymore toy, The Nook.  It goes everywhere with me.  I download books from the library and from online stores.  My cookbook is with me when I go to the store.  If I need to know a recipe ingredient, all I have to do is wake up my Nook and look it up.  My Nook library includes some of the Classics like Little Women and Pride and Prejudice and The Bible.  And for the record... Angry Birds is addictive.  I love my Nook. 

The unexpected observation is:  I miss my books.  When I pulled Under The Skin out of the envelope and held it in my hands, it felt good.  As I flipped through the pages, it felt good.  I'll even admit that I sniffed it.  It smelled good.  As I soaked in hot, soapy, water, reading, it felt good.  (I dare anyone to take a Nook into the bath tub... double dog dare even...).  Books are an experience, an event, a get away - whether paper held in hand or swiping fingers across a device.  But there is nothing like a good BOOK.  And that is what I am holding in my hand today.  A good book.

Thank you Vicki Lane.  Thank you for sharing your mountains with me, autographed "For Deanna, my online friend!  Vicki Lane".  I treasure it.