Dead Witch Walking: A Book Review

  

You should take the words “a book review” with a grain of salt as I don’t have an MFA, I didn’t major in English (Journalism at the time was my jam) and I’m not going to do a serious analysis of the merits of the writing and whether I thought this was plot driven or character driven.  Well, ok, on that last point, this was a bit of a mix of both although I’m sure that there are plenty of people out there who would disagree with me.
Dead Witch Walking was published in 2004. I don’t know how I missed out on this series throughout the years. Kim Harrison is the author and she just published the last book in the series last year. I think it was last year. It was either last year or 2013.  When you get to be my age, the years tend to blend together.  But I digress.  How did I not know about this series until just now.  I didn’t realize at that time, that The Witch With No Name was the last book. I contemplated just skipping the first 11 and going straight to this one. But then I would have cheated myself out of the enjoyment of Dead Witch Walking. Plus, I love a good origin story. And this is that in spades.
I found this to be an extremely entertaining read and am looking forward to reading the second book in the series. This series is definitely one that you could suggest to all those people who are asking for the “Adult Harry Potter” and what do we read now that we are adults and Harry Potter is over.  I look forward to seeing what other hijinks the group will get into in the next book. I’m happy I’ve got 11 more stories to read.  
And then of course, Kim Harrison has another series so there’s that to look forward to. I think she’s going to be one of my go to authors when I need something that isn’t too heavy but with the story girth behind the pages.

Poetry. Definitely not my forte.

I’m a voracious reader. Anyone who knows me in real life, or even on the interwebs, knows that I love to read more than anything. Ok, almost anything.
One area though, that I have not really gotten into reading is poetry.  I read it in school, and in college, but reading poetry on my own. For it’s own merit’s and entertainment. No, not something that ever appealed to me. But something my little girl (turning twelve next week!! Ay, where did the time go) said to me yesterday made me realize that I do like poetry.  She said her English teacher told her she is such a music lover that she would definitely enjoy reading poetry. Because what are songs with lyrics but poems set to music.  I told her I totally agreed with him and that we should find some poetry to read together as our summer project.
So what say you internet? Do we start with Poe, Whitman, or Dickenson?  Something more contemporary or even further back with say Chaucer?  Help me out! What poems do you like?