It's Monday - Books and Good Music - what more is there to life?

It's that time again - Monday. For me a more relaxed Monday - coming off a week of long, long days at school, where we had early release for the students. This means everyday we had to keep students occupied and happy for SIX HOURS every single day and still keep them up to date on their homework and reading. And we did this on the hottest week we've had all summer long. triple digit weather. We barely survived and yet I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Great bunch of kids and a great bunch of workers.

Hosted by Sheila of Book Journey we get together to talk about what we've read, reviewed, plan to read and for this one time I'm adding a bit about my wild Saturday Night at a place called Chris's - Really, I'm bragging about my son the drummer and the band he's a part of....

This is quite a post. In the Book World I feel like I've accomplished more than normal - reviews and reading. Not as much as a lot of other bloggers, but more than I've done in a long time. But first, I also finally had a Saturday Night Out (which I kind of paid for on Sunday, having had a few drinks that I didn't feel until later-I normally don't even drink)

On Saturday night - (one of my rare weekend-nights without a grandchild) we went to Vallejo to watch a band called Wilken - my son is the drummer, but regardless of being related, I think they are a pretty kickass band. I don't have access to video from Saturday night, but here is a sample of one of their songs. This is when there were only two members to the band - the guitarist/singer and (my baby) the drummer. The singer writes his own music and lyrics for most of their songs. My son has written the lyrics to at least one of the songs - though not the one posted here. Wilken's music is a bit of a blues rock - love it. Reminds me of a cross between early LedZeppelin and White Stripes, just a bit more bluesy.

They've added a bass player now, and although I thought they were pretty kickass before, it's just that much better with some bass action. I've always loved percussion. Always. In fact, when I was a little girl way back in the 60's/70's and just starting to pay attention to music (this started in 1965 when I was five and "discovered" the Monkees) I wanted to be a drummer. But little girls weren't usually encouraged to be drummers. Thankfully - my son allows me to mess around on his drumset once in a while. Pretty cool of him (of course, I did give birth to him)

They have more songs posted up on YouTube and I would love to have one of those sweet large monitor setups with the stereo speakers - so I can pretend to be at the shows....his father and I try to make most of their shows and I always enjoy myself. Even if I'm usually one of the oldest people there. Always appreciate music though.

Wilken played right before a punk rock band - The Connies. The Connies are a very good band (that many punk rockers have probably heard of already) and they've been at a few of the same shows as Wilken. In fact, the lead singers of The Connies came on Saturday night WEARING a shirt from my son's band. How cool is that? They've been around for a while, and they seem to be very supportive of newcomers to the music scene. When they headline, they stick around to listen to the bands that play after them...great guys. To me, that shows a lot of class.

Now for the bookish news;

Finally - I have read quite a few books over the summer, yet have rarely reviewed them. This is the main reason I started this blog after all - to say something about books that I'm reading. Not just to list books that I've read. I've been lazy when it comes to reviewing...lazy and a bit shy.

Some of the books I reviewed this week, yet read weeks ago:

My Life As A White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland

Hammered (Jenny Casey #1) by Elizabeth Bear

Right Hand Magic by Nancy A. Collins

Currently, I'm reading Peacekeeper by Laura E. Reeve. It's one of those books that feel like I should have read at least one before it, and yet it's the first in a series. Interestingly flawed character with some sort of traumatic act in her past that leaves her feeling massively guilty. Not sure if I'm into it, and yet I also feel like if I stick with it, I'll end up enjoying it. I giving it a few more chapters to see if it's for me or not. I hope it is, because for some reason I have the third book in series (and yet not the second. go figure. my book buying is not always rational)
The other book I'm currently reading is Jaine Fenn's Principles of Angels. Sent to me by a favorite British writer - this is an interesting SciFi with fantasy blended in...(sidhe) - by the way, I seem to have two copies of this one - if anyone is interested.
I finished reading Shotgun Sorceress by Lucy A. Snyder. Reviewed it. Good, though there were things that bothered me about the writing format. Overall, though - good book with a good plot. Most likely I'll buy the third book, if only to find out what in the hell is up with the ending in this second of the series. One of the few times I can say that I actually was irritated with the way a book ends. Usually I'm pretty good at taking a book as the author intends. To just sit back and enjoy.


I was planning on finishing Principles of Angels, and then in my usually B.A.D.D. fashion, I ended up grabbing Working Stiff. Working Stiff is a book that I bought just because is was a new series by Rachel Caine (though I did get tired of reading the Weather Warden series after the 6th or 7th book), I do enjoy Caine's writing. I remember thinking in the first chapter that I this might not be the book for me, then BAM! Things started getting weird and by weird, I mean interesting weird. So I kept on reading it and finished it in like...12 hours. Laid in bed all day reading it. :) Good thing after a Saturday night out (read below for more on that)

From the anthology Hexed, I read and reviewed a short story by the writing team Ilona Andrews titled Magic Dreams. Wonderful short - from the first person pov of Dali - the half-blind vegetarian white tiger shapeshifter. I think it's great that Ilona Andrews uses a variety of other characters from the same world as Kate Daniels when they write for anthologies.

Some good news-As a matter of fact, I was recently hoping that they would write a complete novel with one of their other characters and I just noticed today, that they ARE. A novel featuring Andrea (the hyena) and Raphael is in the works and they've posted a snippet. Great stuff, too. I also love the way all the other characters see Kate. Very interesting. Not exactly the way Kate sees herself, but isn't that always the way? Well, needless to say, I am looking forward to this new novel.