Rainy Day Read

It's a rare day indeed when it rains in the southern part of Arizona. Today, was one such day. At least in Maricopa. My Beloved informs me that it has yet to actually reach the Phoenix area, or at least the Tempe area in which he works.

Sometimes there are perks to living outside the city. The rain today would be one of them. I love cloudy days. After Husband left for work and I didn't have a whole lot on my "to do" list I seized the opportunity to climb back into bed with a book as it thundered and threatened to rain more.

Tuesday, I began to read Leepike Ridge by N.D. Wilson. It is for younger readers, maybe middle school on up. But it stirred up some celebrity in our church circles as the son of a pastor in our fellowship wrote this book that was picked up by Random House. It didn't come out with the fanfare as say Harry Potter but it is a different book entirely. The imagination and story so far have been quite fun to try and figure out and I think it most appropriate for the age group. And, like Harry Potter, it will find a fan base of all ages. I digress. When I put the book down on Tuesday I was merely into chapter three. I am a slow reader more often than not... and this was after only 35 minutes on the stationary bike.

However, today I am almost half way through the book with a high potential for actually finishing it today! It's a quick read... as it should be for the intended target audience and only about 230 pages. I found it fun that I was reading the book while it was raining as the main character, Tom, is stuck in a cave and it's storming. It helped to capture the scene in my imagination a little more vividly as a LOUD clap of thunder rattled my windows. However, have no fear, there is no spoiler here.

With all that to say in a very vague way... I would recommend this book to pretty much everyone if they are looking for something fun and easy to read. Especially if one has kiddos. I think most children of any age would enjoy it. I think the ones that would enjoy it most are boys, but I think the girls would think it fun and maybe even silly as Tom has some interesting adventures in the valley overlooked by Leepike Ridge.

On a side note... after one particular loud crash of thunder I heard the rain almost immediately follow. I popped up to look outside and much to my surprise there were little white balls bouncing off the grass... it was HAILING! Only pea-sized hail... and it didn't last very long. I was just expecting big, fatty drops of rain... not hail!