What I've been reading (and, more cats)

So, today has been a nice, accomplish-y day. Being woefully behind in laundry, I did about seven loads today, which wasn't even all of it, but it was most of it, so things are looking much better in that department. And, because the laundry's in the basement, I got in about three dozen flights of stairs, so that counts as exercise. Then I cleaned up the kitchen counters, doing some hand dishes and loading and running the dishwasher. As a reward, I made brownies (yum). And of course, there was copious cat-lap-ness throughout the day. It's been good. I may finish it off with a movie, as I got a couple out of the library the other day. I'll have to decide if I'm more in the mood to watch Chocolat or Howl's Moving Castle. The brownies may swing the vote to the former, which I've been wanting to watch again.

In between trips, I also read. I got the latest Robert Parker out of the library too, Spare Change, and it's due back on Monday. I enjoy his books, mostly, and they are a quick read. This one is a Sunny Randall, not Spenser, and though I'm not thrilled that Parker's brought Susan into Sunny's series, she's not as bad when Spenser isn't mooning over her and how utterly perfect she is. Somehow, when Sunny is the one looking at her, it isn't quite as soppy. I enjoyed the book, though boy, Sunny has issues, doesn't she? She and her father ... well. We get to see a lot more of him in this one, and he seems like such a nice guy, but the dynamics in that family are something else altogether. No relationships are simple in Parker's world.

I enjoyed the latest by Charlaine Harris, An Ice Cold Grave, more. It's the third in the Harper Connelly series: since she was struck by lightning as a teenager, Harper can find dead bodies, and tell what they died of. This series is definitely growing on me, though I still like the Sookie Stackhouse books the best. What's interesting to me about this author is that I find her previous, "straight" (no supernatural elements) mysteries to be rather ordinary: not bad, but not anything that grabs me. I've tried some of them, and I was halfway through one before I realized that I'd read it a few years previously. It just didn't make much of an impression on me. But the Harper books are good, and the Sookies are one of my favorite series right now. (Sookie's a telepathic waitress, in a world where vampires have come out but werewolves and other 'things' have not. If you like some supernatural with your mystery, give them a try!)

I also read the new Dick Francis, Dead Heat, written with his son Felix. (What would I do without the library?) I thought it was good, if not one of his absolute best. I'm glad he's decided to write a few more after all, since for a while after his wife died, that was very much in question. It was strange to see Felix's name jointly on the cover, after all those only attributed to Dick (his wife helped him a great deal, but her name was never on the cover). Last year's Under Orders was the first since Mary died, but it didn't have another name on the cover.

One I'm looking forward to reading is Dexter in the Dark, by Jeff Lindsay, but my request hasn't come in yet (or rather, none of the three has: I have library cards in three local systems, so I have them racing each other to see who can get me a copy first). Dexter is a charming sociopath, a serial killer who kills serial killers, and I really liked the first two in the series. I haven't seen the Showtime series based on the books yet, but I look forward to that. Now that Season 1 is out on DVD, I'll have to see about getting that out of the library too. Busy, busy!

In conclusion, more cats! I caught Harold this morning, lounging on the bed. He didn't like the flash too much:


So I went without it, lending a certain art-house quality to the shot:


This was actually a yawn:


Later on, Harold was on my lap and Pan on the cushion when Harold rather abruptly decided that he needed a bath, and moved in on Pan, who was happy to oblige.

Is anyone watching us?


Top of the head...


Ooh, get under the chin!


Uh-oh: busted! The paparazzi are everywhere!