Book: Creatures of Appetite by Todd Travis

Creatures of Appetite by Todd Travis is a fantastic book for lovers for murder mysteries, cop thrillers, serial killers, and a touch of horror. This book is wicked cool. I cannot believe this is Todd Travis's first book. Where have you been all my life? There are not enough words to express how much I recommend this book. Note: Like a lot of cop thrillers, the cops use a lot of blue language (profanity). Please do not let that discourage from reading Creatures of Appetite. Once I started, I kept reading until I finished it. That doesn't happy very often with me. I finished reading the book with a *Gasp!* and begging Todd Travis for more! You just cannot miss this book. Bravo, Todd! Bravo!

I'm back. Hopefully.

Hello again my dearest readers. Yes, I have not posted in nearly four months. I had a brain freeze. Not the writer's block that stymies many an author (although I am not currently a novelist, I would like to be one someday). Just brain freeze. Unable to cope with the world so my brain said, "I am not dealing with this. All systems shutting down." Of course, not a real brain freeze.... just my despair over the wickedness and injustices of this world.

I fell down Alice's rabbit hole and buried myself in the world of fiction. Tons of it. I came aboveground when school started. Since then, it has been busy, busy, busy. I am homeschooling all three boys, and they attend the local public schools part-time for electives. Eric plays his trombone in the band. Steven continues social personal skills, speech therapy, and drawing. Mark, for the first time(!), is taking electives - personal fitness and robotics.

I'm back. Hopefully. I need to find balance, and I am taking small baby steps toward that goal. But, please, do not discuss politics or the horrors of the world with me. You will just shove me back into the rabbit hole again. And, I am not sure if I will have the strength to pull myself back out. Certainly, it was not possible this time without the helping hands of family and friends.

Education: Classic Literature

 School starts next week, at least the public schools for our county. This year I will homeschool all three boys in their core academics. They will attend the public school part-time for electives, like Band and French I.

I was perusing a list of classic literature and asked the boys which of these they had read in school (since I did not remember them reading any from the list). I was right, and sadly surprised. While I cannot remember all the days of my youth, I do know that by 10th grade I had read many. Steven just finished The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Previously Steven had not read any Sherlock Holmes's stories and that just will not do. The Hound is my favorite!

So, now it is time to pick the next classic. I am perplexed. There are so many to choose from, but selecting for a teenage boy is different from what I wanted to read in school. For instance, I cannot imagine Steven interested in Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre.

I choose Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. However, I was wondering which classic book(s) do others think are important?