Daily Update: April 9, 2012

Alleluia! Today is Easter Monday, the second day in the Octave of Easter. With no Saints to honor we note that on this date in 1865 the Commander of the Army of Virgina, General Robert E. Lee, surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to the Commander of the Union Army, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Today is also the birthday of my Aunt Dee-Dee in Jacksonville (1919; I presume she is still with us, as I have not heard anything otherwise) and of my Internet friend Laura in Georgia (1967).

Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin

This is the book I read for my Sci-Fi Fantasy Book Club meeting, and I liked it better than I thought I would. It is set in the age of steamboats on the Mississippi River, and contains vampires, which sounded very unpromising to me; but I stuck with the book, and it became surprisingly good. (The author is also the author of the A Song of Ice and Fire series (five books so far, out of a projected seven), of which the first book is Game of Thrones.)