Sorry it has been a few days since I posted. What a busy time! Arrived back in Greenville Sunday evening and crashed, happy to be in my own bed. Got up early yesterday to get Sophie from the "cat condo" and she was beside herself upset that I had left her. She caterwauled all the way back to the condo. Even an audiobook didn't quiet her down like it normally does in the car. Then she covered me in fur all day long. Poor baby - she sheds when she is upset. Right now she is sleeping in her bed by my feet. When I am home she doesn't let me out of her sight. She even slept through the night quietly last night. What a surprise that was! But, she was not happy when she realized I was headed to campus and leaving her home alone today. She was at the door when I opened it this evening.

I did actually read a book since I got home! It was a very quick read - Terry Trueman's 7 Days at the Hot Corner. I was anxious to read it as I so enjoyed Truman's presentation at the IBBY session at ALA Midwinter. He has a wicked sense of humor! And, I loved his first two books - Stuck in Neutral and Inside Out. I liked Cruise Control, but it didn't make my heart hurt like the other two did. But, before you read Cruise Control, read Stuck in Neutral first. Focus changes between two brothers - one who thinks his father wants to kill him. Trueman doesn't pull any punches in his early novels - they are, to a degree, based on his own children so they resonate a truth/pain that radiates from the page. They are raw. And, I suspect Trueman also knows baseball, due to the depth of detail he shares in 7 Days at the Hot Corner about what happens on the baseball field. But, it isn't the fact that the main character is a hotshot baseball player that intrigued me - it is the relationship between two best friends that changes when one admits that he is gay. Scott all of a sudden cannot think of anything but his friend Travis' blood all over him. Travis is gay so it is a good chance Scott is dying of AIDS - well, that is what Scott is hyperventilating about and heads off to the clinic to be tested. Even though he is reassured that it is unlikely he has been infected it is a very long seven days of waiting for the results - and Scott learns a lot about himself, his father, his best friend's parents, and one of the other baseball players. Like all of Trueman's books, this is a quick read, but it keeps niggle naggling at you and you want to read it again. And I will!