Hmmm - What Did I Read in June?

I happen to be a part-time OCD list maker...or maybe it's selective compulsive disorder (which I think I might have just made up - hope it's not official anyway).  SCD is when people like me are too lazy or exhausted to be compulsive at all times, though we are definitely feeling the urges, we're too damned tired (or at times just too lazy) to actually ACT on these compulsive urges.  Which can lead to a high frustration level, as you can imagine.... (or Compulsive Interruptus)

I used to make lists much more frequently - lists about what I was going to buy, what I recently bought, what I'm going to read, and what I've read....  that's not the only thing I'm selectively compulsive about.  Other things are doing dishes - I stay away from doing dishes because it turns into this extreme event of SORTING before anything actually gets either washed or into the dishwasher.

1. first you have to clean off a counter
2. then you have to find all the plates, which then must be sorted from glass plates to plastic plates along with being stacked by size (see what I mean?)
3. Then it's the bowls - biggest on the bottom - separate stacks for plastic vs glass
4. then the glasses and mugs.  yup.  The plastic stackables are stacked together, of course by size...then the glass mugs in one section, drinking glasses in another and again by size...
5. the silverware....spoons have to separated and sorted (by size and which pattern is my favorite) butter knives are next, and then come forks, and then sharp knives.  large serving utensils and knives are also sorted in their respective places.
6. and then of course come the pots and pans...
7. by this time, of course, I'm exhausted and it's taken me twice as long to accomplish anything as your average normal dish washer.

That's just sorting before I wash them.  Imagine me loading a dishwasher.  Oh yes - things must be loaded a certain way, and if someone else happens to load a dishwasher, I have to stop myself from re-arranging things......which leads to putting away the dishes.... omg, life is just one big mass of compulsive urges....

I used to be like this with laundry, but I now just wash everything together - except for those towels....

I also get weird with the closet and my dressers.  shirts are hung separate from pants, separate from dresses.  Of course, things are also separated by short and long sleeve, and then by color.  It's exhausting and when I became too weak to hang my own laundry I had to bite my tongue and let helpers (like my sons or their girlfriends) hang things as they see fit....

I have a hard time with germs and microbes also - I am far from the cleanest neat freak around, but certain things....toilets must be clean.  Sinks and faucets have to be clean.  Doorknobs in my bathroom have to be cleaned, because I do not like to touch a doorknob - especially if you're not sure who's touched it lately and if they've bothered washing their hands lately.  I have to use a tissue to touch the flushing lever, open a door knob.  Which leads to my hesitation in touching a remote, a keyboard that's been used by someone else....I washed my keyboard so often, that I rubbed a lot of the letters off.  within a year of having a keyboard.

As you can see, I can rarely even post a simple post without explanations and anecdotes ....

So I indulge myself with the Monday posts and I've been having fun trying to keep my reading list updated with not only the day I finish a book, but a link to my review when I finally review a book...and now I've added a monthly recap of books I've finished.  Luckily for my fingers, I rarely read more than six books a month.  :)

June 2013 - another month where I finished reading six books.  Unless I forgot one - I do tend to forget a book here and there - forget when I've read it of that I've read it until I see the title somewhere.

Hexed
by Kevin Hearne
6/06/13

The sequel to Hounded, this is part of the Iron Druid series.  In this novel, our hero - Atticus - is under attack by yet another set of witches, these ones are some really wicked ones who spread sexual chaos and death throughout.  Not only that, but his two goddesses still manage to make life way too interesting, his lawyer is pressuring him to kill Thor, though he would rather not, and some "monster" hunters seem to be after him as well.  I enjoyed the second novel as much as the third.

Review pending (meaning I haven't reviewed it yet)

Once a Hero 

by Elizabeth Moon

6/19/13

The story of Esme Suiza, who apparently had a small part in a previous Serrano Legacy novel, and how she survives a court-martial, survives finding out the truth about a childhood illness, survives reassignment to a Deep Space Repair Ship, and then becomes one of the most important people on this huge ship full of experienced officers and admirals, as well as other long term crew members.  something to do with her amazing brain and the career track she should have been on - it just bursts forth from her very humble brain....I know that sounded very facetious - and really - I did enjoy this story, though the events were just a bit far-fetched.  However, the fact that this is after all - a science fiction novel eases my acceptance of these special circumstances. LOL - still sounds facetious, and I really didn't mean it too.  It's a fun, easy read with some harsh events described, though not graphically.  Very little info dumping, except for a certain series of therapy sessions.  Oh, My.

Reviewed

Deadlocked
by Charlaine Harris
6/12/13

**second to final, {or would this be final-eve} of the series**

Sookie helps Eric deal with a district supervisor who has been giving them all kinds of problems, deals with their blood bond, has to rethink her relationship with him, the bar is bombed while she and Sam are working one night; her cousins are acting strangely.  She discovers a secret stash of papers her granma left along with a fairy relic, and finds out that she's been in more danger than she thought from a variety of directions.
This book was much more interesting than the previous novel, though the pace is slow n easy - a build up of events and tension until by the end things are hopping.

Review Pending

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
by Douglas Adams (r.i.p.)
6/23/13

At times long winded, this is a mostly engaging read about a strange case that involves a mysterious professor, an electric monk and his horse, a former student of Cambridge, another former student of Cambridge, a weird poem, and beings from another planet.  Oh, yes - add in a ghost or two.  A story with some twists and turns, and many, many explanations...  
Dirk Gently is a character in at least two - possibly three of Douglass Adams' books.  I just found out, that Dirk Gently was also made into a BBC series.  I would have liked to see a few of them- why can't they put that on BBC America?  for that matter, why can't Comcast feature some REAL BBC channels for Americans who would like to see some series on BBC that aren't three to five years old? Except for Doctor Who's latest few seasons, I haven't been able to watch much actually produced in 2013 (unless I want to watch Top Gear...hell, this could turn into a whole other post - so I'm dropping the rant subject, now)

Review Pending


The Android's Dream
by John Scalzi {Who has just one an award}
6/26/13

Rebel Conspiracies, Government conspiracies, inter-government conspiracies, spying and inter-governmental spying, space aliens, computer geniuses, rituals of ascension, sheep, DNA, gene splicing, murder, excellent fighting, battles, etc.  It's all packaged in a book with some of the best dialogue and banter that I've read, hell, even the informational dumps were interestingly presented, almost like you're listening to the most charismatic professor or teacher telling you about fights, politics, spy gadgets, history, computer tech and software in almost laymen's language.  That is simple genius.  Brilliant.  

Reviewed

The Dead of Winter
by Lee Collins
6/27/13

A husband and wife team, Cora and Ben, travel from town to town, to sparsely populated areas hunting and destroying monsters - supernatural monsters.  They're back in Leadville, a small mining town, because they've heard about an odd monster.  What they find is something they've never come across before.

Review Pending

I remembered that there were a few books from previous years (not to mention this year, lol) that I still haven't reviewed, so I tried to get through a couple of them week before last.  I still need to review for 2009, two novels:

Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand by Carrie Vaughn

Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs

Then it's on to catch up for 2010.

All of the LOL Catz used here are from ICanHazCheeseburgers.