The Somnambulist

I've noticed a huge difference in my pain level going off of the ibuprofen like my doctor suggested. I had been taking 12-16 a day. I know that's very high, but apparently it's also dangerous with prednisone, so he told me to stop taking it and see if I saw a change. Well, I haven't made it to work all week, Mia didn't get to school this morning, and I'm waiting for Jesse to come home so he can help me take a shower. A nifty thing about the new doctor: he's in the Aurora Health Care system. I noticed at my appointment a notice on the wall that I could email him with questions or concerns. So this morning, I signed up online with the site and sent him a note about the pain. I had a response in my email from his nurse within a half hour letting me know that he's out of the office, and I could expect to hear from him tomorrow. I thought that was great. I used to call my previous doctor and wait for six hours or more to hear back from a nurse. I just logged on again to my email and found another message from the nurse. She talked to the doctor, and he's calling in a new prescription for me for the pain. Sometimes I really love technology. I'm not waiting for a phone call, I get the info I need quickly, and he even replied on his day off. So far I'm impressed.

The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes is a delightfully quirky mystery filled with twists and turns. Edward Moon is a renowned magician in late Victorian England. Along with his partner, the silent giant The Somnambulist, Moon has acquired a reputation for solving complicated crimes through deductive process. A ham actor is murdered in an exotic manner, and the police call in Moon to help, but the too easy answer only opens the door to many frightening and confusing twists. Soon all of London is under threat of attack, and only Moon can figure out the secret of the poet. I was suffering from book fatigue when I picked up this novel. Too many books in too few days, and none of them were appealing me anymore. But within the first pages of Barnes' book, I was laughing out loud and reading passages to my husband. The narrator promises you that he's going to embellish his story and on occasion even lie to you, and I loved every moment of it! The story is hardly plausible, but that's not the point. My imagination was stirred, my funny bone tickled, and my mind thoroughly engaged. Although this is Barnes' debut novel, he writes with the assurance and flair of a well established author. He even handles a startling twist and complete upending of the story with style.

My verse for this week is 2 Cor 12:9 "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." That was the verse in the devotional I read Sunday night. A couple nights ago I started reading a book about the power of the Holy Spirit, and that verse was the focus of my last night's reading. Today, I'm reading a fiction book, and believe it or not, there it was again. Obviously God has a message for me. I just love it when He speaks to me. I know that He does it far more than I recognize, but when I do see it, it's just amazing.