A Friend Gets a Blessing

The only news really to report is one of my closest friends just got a kidney transplant when he needed it most. He is recovering and will be sequestered from most people to prevent complications and prevent rejection, but he will recover. God is great and has blessed him mightily.

The wife and I are feeling better. UK won one on Wednesday against Lamar but lost two players in a terrible head-to-head collision that sent one into the locker room for ten stitches and the other to the hospital. He is still out indefinitely with a neckbrace. UK then dropped a game yesterday against #21 Miami University (Florida). In an unusual turnaround, they play again today at home against a smaller school, Mississippi Valley State.

The Legend of the Lone Ranger by Gary McCarthy

Silver bullets, white stallions and a masked vigilante out to right the wrongs of frontier Texas. This adaptation of the 1981 film was very good and invokes traditional images of the Old West. I really enjoyed reading this one. The story is familiar to those of my generation and older, but the retelling of it brought back fond memories. The book is short, and fast-paced. There could have been more description and detail in the scenes, but as often happens in novelizations of movies, they get right to the point. There is a chase scene at the end where I could hear the pulse-pounding William Tell Overture (the traditional Lone Ranger theme) playing in my head. That alone puts this book in the good read column in my book. ***

Guardians of the West by David Eddings

Part One in the Mallorean, a five-volume series following the author's Belgariad series. I love these books. Eddings brings back the large ensemble cast years after Belgarion's battle with the evil god Torak and the restoration of the Rivan throne to confront a new evil, and another dire prophecy. This one involves Belgarion and Ce'nedra's newborn son. The story centers around his kidnapping and features more sword, sorcery and siege--what we have come to expect. The story is comfortable yet infuses more political intrigue than earlier works, a welcome addition. I'm going to notch it down a half because a lot of time (about the first half of the book) is spent on exposition (as can be expected for the 1st in a new series) and I anticipate that the rest of the series will be a more enthralling read. I love reading these books, and look forward to finishing the series. ***1/2