It's Monday ...and I'm baaaad blogger

** warning - this might be a bit wordy - but there's lots of book cover pics!  *grin* **

**I try to link book covers to excerpts when I can - if I can't find an excerpt then the link will take you to either Goodreads or the author website

First - a minor complaint.

Well - it's been an odd two weeks for me.  A bit lazy, a bit stressed, a bit...weird.  Week before last was the last week of school, and normally I would have been officially through with work.  However, this year I was working in a day care school program, and because I am a 10 month employee I had to work exactly 10 months...to the day.  So my daycare boss scheduled me to work until the 11th of June, only because school was out, I had to travel to a different site to work; I was the only one from my site to go to this particular site, and all the kids from our site were at another school.  But I was pleasantly surprised when I walked in the door the first day to hear a "HI...(my name - I go by my middle name online..)"  I felt this feeling of relief - because a brother and sister from my regular school was attending this site.  The girl was in my granddaughter's kindergarten class and the boy was in the other Kinder class.   And though I still felt like the whole time was a bit awkward, it was made more bearable just knowing the two kids that were there.  

The staff at this site had no set duties for me, so combined with my social anxiety, my shyness and awkwardness in new situations....I had to try to figure out what to do - with NO input from staff.  Seriously - I felt like I did hardly any real work - and most of the kids ignored me. I had to be very firm with a few kids with no back up from the staff.  The whole thing was awkward as hell.  If you happen to work where people are dropped into your area - PLEASE make them feel like they matter - seriously, it felt like I was just an extra body taking up space.  by the second week, I ended up with a migraine and severe neck pain (a whole other story) and I ended up taking the last two days as sick days - something I normally would have avoided at all costs.

For the first time in my whole working life, I felt like the most ineffective employee ever - and it wasn't a fun feeling.  I was left with a decided lack of respect for the way the supervisor or lead person didn't handle me, no one explained a thing to me and the only ones that made me feel welcome were the two kids from my site, a few of the little girls who have just finished kindergarten and first grade who wanted me to color with them and an older lady that ended making me learn how to do lanyards - weaving lanyard.  At least I now have a new skill.  

And summer vacation has now started for me. 

Okay - it's Monday time - Weekly meme:  It's Monday, What Are You Reading? hosted by Sheila of Book Journey.  By now everyone knows the particulars, so I'll skip all that.

You would think that with most of the last two weeks spent either sick or off work I would have read lots and lots of novels...You would be wrong.  I FEEL like I read a lot, but can't think of any more than two novels that I finished in two weeks....  hmmmm

Week before last, I finished Hexed by Kevin Hearne

I'm pretty sure I read more -I feel like I did - but I can't figure out which ones... maybe it was the anthology reading I did....  hmmmmmmm

Last week, I finished reading Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris.  This one is one of those slow starting novels, which then tend to pick up pace as the plots progress.  There were some twists that I didn't begin to expect until I was about halfway through....good book.  Now I'm waiting for the last novel to come out in ppk - so not reading any reviews about Dead Ever After.

I also read the last few stories in Science Fiction Trails #10 edited by David B. Riley - very fun issue.  It's not quite a magazine, not quite a novel.  It's SHAPED like a mag, but there isn't all of those magazine ads, or other filler.  Just page after page of good storytelling.  And tonight, there is an interview with one of the characters of one of the stories that is featured in the collection.  Brown - the ghost hunting border collie is being interviewed at Anne Michaud's blog as part of J.A. Campbell's blog tour.

Current Reads
I have many, many, many current reads.  Because I cannot decide what I really, really, really want to read.  As I'm typing this, I'm hearing that song...."tell me what you want, what you really, really want....

I'll tell ya what I want, what I really really want.....

I wanna --- I wanna ----, I wanna....."

It's now ear-worm time, folks!
courtesy of Spice Girls!

And of course, as usual when I really really try to use the embed/share button the video doesn't show up - so if you really really want to hear this, you really really have to click and follow link to youtube.

haha - no apologies
(they're not so bad - you can dance to this, and find out what you really really want!)
So - back to bookish items...
I am currently reading the following books - or rather, these are the books that I've started this past two weeks.  Now which ones I end up reading toward the end is another matter.......


I have begun these (among others...)

M.J. Scott's Shadow Kin, part of a series about a half fae who is enslaved by vampires; she is a deadly assassin....haven't gotten past the first half - so far, not too sure about how deadly she is...  Another book I've recently started reading is The Dead Of Winter by Lee Collins - this one is set in the 1800's, or as I like to call them - "the cowboy days" - and features a woman who hunts monsters.  I've only read the first chapter because I am easily distracted by new books or shiny covers.... or Science Fiction. 

The novel that's held my interest for more than two days is...

Once a Hero by Elizabeth Moon

One of her Serrano Legacy series, this is a SciFi novel - not a new one, but one that's been around.  After a bit of a slow start (the first chapter of her books never capture me right away, but they always end up to be fun reads, so I keep on reading), the story engaged me and I'm about halfway through - and this is in between marathon sessions of Farmville 2 (need to stop this computer game crap).  I love reading SciFi, especially when it's about ships in space, women in different positions (jobs, people, not THOSE positions) and just enough of the Science Fiction gadgets to make the story work - not overwhelm.  :)  R.M. Meluch is good at this, as is Elizabeth Moon, Ann Aguirre, Marianne de Pierres and Elizabeth Bear.

Some anthologies that I've been dipping into -  I've read all but one of the stories in Science Fiction Trails #10 (or as I am going to fondly start referring it to as SciFciT#10 - finished! )
Unnatural Creatures - Neil Gaiman
Different Dragons - Dana Bell
Home Improvement - Charlaine Harris

               

Most of these anthologies are pretty recent publications - but Home Improvement has been out for a while.  It wasn't til recently that I was able to get a copy though.  I was the lucky recipient of a short story that was in the collection though - which I totally loved.

What I love about anthologies is being able to have it around, read one or two stories out of it and then put it aside for a bit...then coming across it and opening it again and the feeling that it's still fresh, because it's just full of short stories, not one long one that you've been trying to read for eons....

And this week, I'm inflicting a bit of a wish list on y'all.  I have some books that I just keep forgetting to order - because I can't find them in my virtual bookstore - or my real life bookstore.  I kind of hate to walk in there anymore because EVERY.  SINGLE.  Time  I walk in, I get the question

"would you like to pay us money to save money?"

nope

"I see you come in often, you could be saving money...."

yeah, but I have issues with having to spend money to save money - y'know?  and if they recognize me why can't they STOP asking me?  I'm not going to break down and buy their stupid saving card.......it really puts a damper on my whole walking around and being in a bookstore vibe..... when I get asked EVERY time I shop there...it's irritating to have to go through the whole thing every time I shop there - and once in a while you get a very insistent cashier who does NOT want to drop the matter.  

   Now I can't find this book anywhere.

            

 

 

  

Of course, there's many, many other books out there that I really, really want!  But .....  not enough time, not enough space, not enough money.  I also still have quite a few here I need to go through, decide whether I'm going to read them and just get busy reading them!

So  ----  What's up with everyone else?
Having a good summer?
any frustrations
good books
horrible books
fun movies?????