Mary, Mary, quite contary, oh how does your garden grow?

Ah a new semester. Exactly what I wanted for Christmas, let me tell you. And with the new semester comes a new set of blogs, the first of which I completely forgot about until about 5 minutes ago and now have no idea what on earth I should talk about. Hamlet? Doesn't seem fitting since we are not that far into it. The books I am currently reading? Zodiac is quite creepy to be perfectly honest, and while it is quite fascinating, I'm still struggling to understand some parts of it (Zodiac is a biography written by a journalist that worked for a targeted newspaper during the time of the infamous Zodiac killer, who was never caught). Ah, but then there is Mary, Mary, by James Patterson, which I am also perusing. James Patterson is brilliant for those of you that have never read his work. Most think that he is a rather graphic author, and therefore never venture to read any of his works, but not only does he write a fantastic mystery, but also a nice, light, romance novel. And this is coming from a person that greatly dislikes romance novels.
The first book that I read by James Patterson was The Jester, which is co-authored by Andrew Gross. Oddly enough, this book was on a list of books to choose from for the assigned reading for AP World History. I picked up the book thinking that it was going to be a typical assigned reading novel- slow, mostly boring, and tedious to read (I rarely enjoy assigned reading mostly because I feel as if it’s much, much harder to lose yourself in the story, which is my favorite part of reading). Once I started reading The Jester, however, I could not put it down. Part love story, part cunning war story, entirely fascinating, The Jester is one of the best books I have ever read. The main character, Hugh de Luc left everything behind when he left for the Crusades, only to return to find everything destroyed and the love of his life kidnapped. Hugh vows revenge and poses as a jester to worm his way into the royal court. However Hugh is deceived and must learn to look close to him to find his answers. But then there’s the other story in this story about a man’s desperate search for his love, and about human’s constant quest for answers, even though the answers are right under their noses. AND THEN there is the other story in the novel about the Crusades and the corruption on the nobility at the time. James Patterson rolls all of these stories into one without seamlessly, almost as if it were second nature to him. Which it must be, because he is fabulous at it! I am only on page 52 in Mary, Mary , and I can already see three separate stories forming, which will undoubtedly become one before the end. Now, if James Patterson wrote poetry as well as he writes mysteries, he would be my idol.