My July Reads, or what I FINALLY managed to finish reading in July despite myself.

Well - it is the last day of July {2013, of course} and I seriously thought I had read more books than this.  Going by my books read page, I haven't finished as many as I thought.  There is always the possibility that I've forgotten to post one or two of the books....I can be incredibly forgetful about when exactly I've read a book, which is why it's so important to me that i try to update the page as regularly as I can.  I try to do this as soon as I finish a novel, but sometimes I decide I can wait, that I'll remember and then....I forget.  Of Course. 

According to my list, I've only finished seven novels - and one of them was a novella.

 :(

Oh!  I have read some short stories though!  I do forget to list those.

anthologies that I've been reading out of (I'll just do it that way)

Home Improvement;Undead Edition edited by Charlaine Harris and Unnatural Creatures by Neil Gaiman

I rarely finish an anthology straight through (except when I'm reviewing one) - I like to savor them, reading a story here and there when I can't decide which novel to read.  Or when I prefer a quick read. 

 Below are listed the books I've finished, with links under the covers to any excerpts; the title linked to my review (if I reviewed yet); links to the author page, genre, publication date; the date I finished reading and a short description.

Sleeping in Eden

by Nicole Baart
Fiction
published May 2013
7/02/13

Weaving together two stories that converge, Nicole Baart writes of relationships, obsession, possesive love, grief, death, grieving, and marriage.  This story will hit you hard - one way or another.  An excellent read. 


Scorch
Croak #2
by Gina Damico
Y/A fantasy
published September 2012
7/07/13

The second in a series, grim reaper Lex has learned she has the ability to damn souls, as well as collect them for the afterlife.  Only this is hard - causing all kinds of danger.  Lex and friends end up being chased by a rogue reaper, Uncle Mort has been usurped and the afterlife is crumbling as well as reapers being murdered and damned themselves.  Good read, with the teen character sounding like a teen most of the time.

Sabaska's Tale
Tales of the Travelers #1
by J.A. Campbell
teen fantasy
published July 2013
7/08/13

This is one of my favorite reads of 2013, and definitely one of my favorite Y/A reads.  A young girl, grieving for her grandmother, spends the summer at grandma's ranch to sell the horses.  Or at least, that was the plan.  Really what happens is she's attacked, Grandma's horse (Sabaska) isn't all she appears to be, and some dimensional travel begins - they go to different worlds, out run bad guys, and eventually must confront their adversaries.  Sabaska qualifies as the coolest horse ever, and Anna is a strong teen, made even stronger by her adventure.

On Basilisk Station
Honor Harrington #1
by David Weber
SciFi
published April 1993
7/21/13

Science Fiction, Space battles royale, space ships, some political and weaponry overload of information, but basically a fun adventurous read with a strong heroine.  Enjoyed it enough to keep reading the series.



Pretty Sacrifices
Legend of Glory #2
Devin O'Branagan
Y/A Urban Fantasy
7/22/13

Second in a series about a girl, her special blood, a pandemic, the aftermath, evil vs good, angels vs. demons, good vamps vs. bad vamps, life vs. depression and guilt.  Lots of spiritual content weaved into the story as important elements of the story.  It's basically a story about good overcoming evil, and how sometimes evil gets the best of some of us.  Good book.

Show Dog Sings The Blues
by Devin O'Branagan
fiction/dog
7/22/13

A spoiled, pampered dog gets mixed up with her working dog sister.  How she manages to survive - it's not easy for her, but she does it.   Told in the dog's point of view, it's a fun short story about an australian shepherd.


Roil

Nightbound Duology #2
by Trent Jamieson
fantasy with steampunk elements
published August 2011
7/29/13

Weird monsters and hungry.....things invade, or rather take over a world, leaving only a few cities standing.  Though they won't be standing for long.  What does a four thousand year old man, an angry young woman and a drug addicted "wastrel" have in common?  They end up together trying to save the world from certain annihilation...  What a book.  Geez, intense in a totally creepy Angry Robot kind of way.  Oh yeah.

Books I've started reading in July, but haven't necessarily finished quite yet

In the interest of time - and by that I mean I'm tired and am completely sick of providing so many links to the books, I'm only going to post the covers to books I've begun reading in July.  I might come back and link up later on, but most likely not.  Once I'm done with a post, I'm usually done - except when I find a stupid spelling mistake.  ;) (wink, wink)

Most of the books are interesting.  A couple of them are a little wordy in some areas, yet interesting enough I want to finish them.  I just keep getting distracted....

Hope everyone has a sweet August.

August is bitter sweet for me, because it means I have 12 more days to be lazy, then it's back to work.

Although I look forward to seeing some of the kids, my last job of the day (a day care job) has become awkward.

Just have to make it through the day.  I'm sure I can do this....  yep.  One day at a time...

grin

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. 

April Round Up

http://profile.cheezburger.com/Mardel/lolz

 This is really my dog, and the beautiful curtains I used to have....before my grandchildren and the dogs kind of...got to them.  between the couch being pushed against the curtains, the grandchildren playing IN the curtains, and the animals getting caught up in the curtains....they didn't last long.  Now I just hang an old sheet from the hem - works just as well, and I didn't have to spend forty bucks on a set of curtains that are just going to get treated too rough.  I'll wait until the grandchildren are a little older....  ;)  Oh yeah, and my dog really does sit like this - all the time and for rather long periods of time.  You can even walk into a room where there is NO ONE else, and find him just sitting like that.  Randomly.  He's random.

It occurs to me that I've never done one of those end of month summaries of books read - much less end of year summary (hahaha, as if I'd ever be that prepared...)  Seems like it might be encouraging....to myself.  ;)  So I'm starting this for April, 2013.

April Books in alpha order

American Vampire (Jennifer Armintrout, UF) ***** 

Boyfriend from Hell (Jamie Quaid, UF) ****

The Burn Zone (James K Decker, SciFi) ******

Clean (Alex Hughes, SciFi) *****

Hex Hall (Rachel Hawkins, YA/UF) ****

Midnight Blue-Light Special (Seanan McGuire, UF) *****

(I usually rate up to six stars.  Five if they're pretty good, six if I Love it Lots, four if it's good...and so on)

Short Stories

Brown Goes Full Steam Ahead (J.A. Campbell, fantasy) from Penny Dread Tales 3  = loved it

Notable Children's Books

Are The Dinosaurs Dead, Dad? (Julie Middleton)

Claude in the City (Alex T Smith)

Pete The Cat: Rocking In My School Shoes  ( Eric Litwin and James Dean, illustrator)

I know I've read way more children's books - but I don't keep track of them.  Maybe I should, especially since I'm finding that I have to ask each class..."have we read this book yet?" before I read to them.  lol.  Nothing like getting forgetful with a room full of books to read to children. :)