It's Monday and we're all getting sick....ugh

Being sick is not fun. It's worse when you feel sick, but you're not as sick as your husband and the husband is making all those moaning and groaning noises every time you come into the room - as if he feels the need to prove to you that he is in pain and doesn't feel good. Why is it that women are always accused of being Drama Queens when men are so very dramatic? especially when sick? At least being sick on a three day weekend means possibly missing less work.

Yesterday, before realizing that I was coming down with a cold the grandkids and I put on some music. I started dancing this weird super dramatic dance - you know (no offense meant if you're the type to dance like this for real...) the type of dancing that you see aging hippies do at music festivals? waving the hands around in mystical movements....Only I was doing with a Vogue-ish attitude, and even though I could feel this in my back and legs, I was going for it anyway because the kids were laughing and I was having a lot of fun.... Every move I made, the kids copied. Even the dog took part. Not willingly, but we made him dance too. We did this for 30 minutes. The dog only had to dance for three minutes.

Then my granddaughter and I slept on our couch because Granpa was sick...and we thought we would let him have the bed (he was coughing and making all that noise anyway, haha)

This morning when I woke up....oh..my..god!

So much pain! Dancing might have been a mistake
But it was fun while it lasted. ;)

And here we are coming up on another Monday. Time just flies by. Time now for It's Monday What Are You Reading? Hosted by Sheila of Book Journey, this is our time to discuss what we've been reading.
At the beginning of this year I decided to keep a list of books - not only a list of books that I finished reading, but the books I started reading also. Problem is, I start books faster than I can keep up....I've listed SOME of the books I've started and I actually a little bit embarrassed at the sheer amount that I've listed - especially when I compare them to the books I've finished reading. Factor in the few books that I can't remember, or the books where I've only read the first two pages, and it's even worse.
So far I've finished reading seven books for 2012. I've started more than 17. Not a good percentage. Can you tell that I've easily bored/frustrated/distracted?

And now I've gone and added two more books to my TBR pile/mound/MOUNTAIN.

I've been short of spending money - but even so, it's tough to stay completely away from the bookstore. I put in some extra hours at the library. After I was finished, I found myself in the parking lot of Barnes & Nobel. I have NO idea how I got there (coughdrovecough). Once there, however, I browsed the scifi section. I found a promising looking novel called The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi - thank goodness I actually bought something new that is the first in a series. Then I came across the first book from a series that I had mistakenly bought the second book. Crossover by Joel Shepherd has a main character who is a cyborg. hmmmm.
Now - Keeping in mind that I have 17 books that I've started (well, actually more than 17) I'm going to try like hell to concentrate on only two books this week. It's seriously very hard for me {remember I suffer from B.A.D.D., an apparently widely spread faux disorder} but I'm going to try.

The two books I'm going to try to focus on are Another Kind of Dead by Kelly Meding and SharpShooter by Marianne DeLacourt (aka Marianne DePierres of Nylon Angel fame)

Coming up? Any one of the books listed on my Books Read page - there's a section just for books I've started for this year...though I'm pretty sure there's a few that I haven't listed. ;)
There's plenty there to keep me busy for a while - I should make THAT one of my non-challenges that I'm challenging myself with. A read from your non-finished books list....except that I'm against wasting time on books that aren't working for you. Maybe a give a book a second chance before giving up on it challenge. Title too long though.

What are y'all up to?
Know what I'm missing though? A little bit of Stacia Kane's Downsider series. It's been a long time. Hope one is coming out soon

It's Monday,My 2cents on Book Censorship, and reading challenges (I fail)

I think this poster art says it all. One thing I've always hated was other people telling me what to do...so of course it follows that I wouldn't want anyone telling me, or dictating to my children (or grandchildren now) what they (or I) should read, be allowed to read or even be able to borrow or buy from a store. My parents were never the type to censor our reading. My father was always about learning and researching for your own opinions, and my mother just might not have been aware, or had any idea of what we were reading. I do know that her parents were very strict in Panama (central america) and that she was a bit rebellious herself, so it could also be that she just wasn't going to go there with us. We did benefit though, since we were able to read whatever we could get our hands on. As my own children came of reading age, I followed the tradition of not making a big deal of whatever they were reading. I have to admit that I did make a big deal out of Marilyn Manson's first couple of record albums, and mainly because they seemed so full of hate and diseased thinking. It never stopped my kids though. I did tell them not to bring the cd's in the house, but I never actually told them they couldn't listen to them. (fine lines there).

I don't want my grandchildren's choice of reading to be affected by anyone else by their mom and dad. It's no body else's business. Certainly not some other parents, or well-meaning but totally misguided people who try to ban books.

Don't Ban Books. Leave Them Be

Think For Yourself - make up your own mind

For my Monday "what's up" post. This is hosted by Sheila of Book Journey.


Saturday, I finished reading a great young adult fantasy novel - The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff. My review is here. I think it's a great book with wonderfully creepy characters. I believe it's a debut novel also. You know, debut novels nowadays are much better than some debut novels that I've read in my ...ahem... younger years. (I'M GETTING OLD! PEOPLE! OLD!!!)


I was paid my monthly little piddly paycheck (read with extreme bitterness - then move on) and even though it wasn't as much as I had hoped, even though I didn't get to buy as many books as I WANTED to, I was able to get a few...



I bought the latest young adult novel by Terry Pratchett - I Shall Wear Midnight. This is the book that I'm currently reading - in fact, I started it on Saturday and since I haven't been able to mess around on the computer (virus problems) I was able to concentrate on it and am almost finished. (See how much the computer and internet interfere with our lives? and yet I can't imagine being without if for even one day! I have to adjust though, since my computer is going on a little trip to be fixed by a computer genious...I hope) Anyway, if you've been reading any of his Tiffany Aching (young witch) disc-world novels, you'll love this one. It also features the little crazed blue men you see on the cover, the Nac Mac Feegles - they are six inches or less, kilt-wearing, fighting, drinking, clan-like little Wee Men. And they're blue. This is, sadly, the final Tiffany Aching Novel.


Another book I bought is Grave Witch by Kalayna Price. Even though this is the first book of hers that you'll see in the bookstores, on a physical shelf, this is her third published book. She's also written Once Bitten, and Twice Dead - a series about a shapeshifter who has been turned into a vampire. Imagine that. (Talk about double jeapordy!)

I also found Pathfinder by Laura E. Reeve. Now this is the third book in a sci-fi spaceship odyssey type series, but it looked interesting and the store didn't have the first two books available, so I though I would give it a try anyway. Maybe it'll be one of those books that are enjoyable even if you haven't read the first two books. Who know? I know I have tried out the first chapter, and ....I'm not sure yet. There are references to past tragedy's (of a profound and extreme nature), but this book also seems to have a standalone plot. We'll see. Sometimes I just want to read sci-fi with space travel, enhanced humans, different species, etc. The first two books are Peacekeeper and Vigilante.

Then...last but certainly not least is Bayou Moon by Ilona Andrews. So far, I have loved reading everything that I can get my hands on by this couple. Everyone has heard of the Kate Daniels series, right? Same authors. In fact, as soon as I finish reading I shall Wear Midnight, if a book that I'm supposed to review by October 10th hasn't shown up yet, I will be reading this one next. This is the second in their Edge series. "rustic fantasy"...or something like that. Whatever they call it, and their other book On the Edge, it'll be good. If you haven't seen the websites of Ilona Andrews yet, go over and take a look. They (Ilona and Gordon) have a page for each of their series, with all kinds of extras. little bits about characters, species, pictures, and extra writings. It's all entertaining and it's wonderful that they've gone that extra mile for their readers. Think of the talent, the ability to get along and produce not just one series, but TWO as well as other online or e-fiction. I mention get along, because anyone who's been married for long knows, it's not all a bed of roses - so the fact that these two can work and live together, blog together and continue to do so while raising a family, and dogs...I'm impressed.



Now that we're into October, and I'm pretty sure that I've failed at the 2010 Countdown Challenge, the pressure for me to read books written in other years is off. I had been buying a lot of books printed in 2010, but putting off reading them (unless I had promised a review - I'm so much in demand as a reviewer...snicker, snicker...LOL) and trying to read books published in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008. Folks, I didn't make it. I was able to read all of the required 2010 books (10) and all of the required 2009 books (9) and all of the 2001 books (1), but only had a few read for 2005, 2006, 2008, etc.

Well, I tried. I seriously tried. But it didn't happen. One thing I decided to do though...

I'm pretty sure that there will be a 2011 countdown challenge (the 2010 was the second of third or whatever). Instead of reading all of the current years books right away (very easy to do) I will try to alternate. One older book, one newer, two older, one newer. Maybe that will help.

The other thing that would have helped is if the host had put up a challenge page. There was the original post, but that's all I could ever find. I like the way Book Chick City, Color Online, and J.Kaye (challenges taken over by HomeGirls book blog) had set up the review pages for their challenges. There was the original post, then each of them put up a page with places to post your review links every month. I know there's more hosts of challenges who've done this, but those are the ones that I signed up for. It really makes a difference when you can keep track of challenge progress not only on your own, but on another site.

If I join the 2011 countdown challenge, then I will put up a separate page for myself, my own reviews. I did keep track on my sidebar, but it makes for a verrrrryyyyy looooonnnnnggggg sidebar. :)

Well, we'll just have to see how the many other challenges that I signed up for finish (not looking to good, but as one reader put it, it's a challenge, and if it were easy it wouldn't have been a challenge- by the way, thanks for those words, it did make me feel better.)

Stormwalker

*****

Allyson James

paranormal romance

330 pages

I had a lot of fun reading Stormwalker. I normally don't pick up paranormal romances, because I'm not usually in the mood to read a lot of sex, but even though there was a few sex scenes in this book, I didn't find myself rolling my eyes, or thinking "oh gag" due to overly mushy or purple prose. Which is refreshing, because sometimes, even in an urban fantasy (which I would expect to have pure adventure with maybe a bit of sexual tension, not a lot) where you are dealing with kick-ass women, sometimes you get some very mushy, way too tender scenes that don't fit in (well, to me they don't fit in). I'm just over the that, if I want romance, I look for a romance book. ANYWAY - that's why I usually don't pick up a paranormal romance, but I have to say that this book didn't seem to follow that paranormal romance formula (THANK god).

This is about Janet Begay - who is a stormwalker. She can pull power from storms and use the power as magic. She also has a bit of a problem - she has two types of power battling inside her. Her grandmother is a Navajo magic woman. Her mother a mysterious figure. She grew up on Navajo land, with her father's family feeling like an outcast (ME TOO! not a Navajo, but I felt different than the rest of my family) She has quite a past....and quite a boyfriend from the past that shows up. He is the only person that could "siphon off' her excess energy after using storm magic, and the only time she didn't feel a horrible hangover is when her boyfriend Mick used her excess energy.

In this novel, Janet has come to a small town to look for a missing daughter of the police chief. She has also bought an old abandoned hotel and is trying to renovate it to keep busy and have a place to stay. While she is dealing with finding a person who has been missing for a year, and trying to renovate a motel she has to deal with some hostile people (the missing girl's fiancee, who also happens to be sheriff), a coyote trickster, a snarky magic mirror (I want one) and her own magic mother who is making her presence known.

I enjoyed the narration and the dialogue of this novel. There's one electrician that's been hired that just hates Janet, and yet Janet tries to make friends with her in a snarky way. The sheriff is a by-the-book sheriff that harasses Janet as much as he can, within the law. Mick - her ex-boyfriend shows up and refuses to leave, because he wants to protect Janet and Janet can't seem to force the issue.

All of this could have been a melodramatic mess, but Allyson James works it in such a way it seemed to work well together. There were also bits and pieces of Navajo customs that were interesting to read - tidbits about characters of Navajo people and some of the rituals. I would have liked to read more about that, but it might have turned into a textbook. There is a sequel (Firewalker) releasing in November, so hopefully there will continue to be bits and pieces of the Navajo culture woven into that book as well.

The main character and a lot of the other characters were Navajo or Mexican, which reflects more accurately the world I live in - which is nice to have in books. I wished the cover model of the book looked more Navajo. She has the dark eyes, and looks like she might have olive toned skin, but it's hard to tell. There are lots of clouds and lightening and an odd tint to the woman, possibly depicting evening, but the woman is not obviously Navajo, other than the silver band on her bicep, or the turquoise jewelry at her neck, and the long hair, which with most Indian women who follow a lot of the old ways, would be a lot longer. But Janet is supposed to be a bit of a renegade. I know a few caucasion women of a certain age (50's) that all wear this type of jewelry - it was quite a fashion fad for awhile.

Stormwalker was a nice blend of mystery, adventure, urban fantasy, a touch of romance and Navajo Lore. I enjoyed it because it never got gushy or mushy in spite of the paranormal romance tag. I enjoyed it enough to keep my eye out for the second book, Firewalker. There were some parts where Janet kicks the crap out people, times where she makes a stupid decision that comes back to her, but it was a fun read and the character acknowledges her mistakes. There's only one part that had me going..."come on!" and that 's when Janet finally finds out the big mystery of why Mick can handle her extreme magic, but that's just me - the book as a whole was fun to read.

Reading Challenges

POC Reading Challenge

Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge

2010 Countdown Challenge

Silver Borne - review

Silver Borne

******
Patricia Briggs

First, take a look at the cover of Silver Borne. Mercy, in the books has one small tattoo on her lower abdomen, of a coyote paw, kind of a inner joke with herself. She really is not covered in tattoos as shown. However, the artist has created such striking tattoos, that I still enjoy the covers. My only complaint is that Mercy, who is supposed to be part Native American actually looks a little paler in this cover than all the others that she's been featured in. Not sure why, it may be unintended, since it's the same artist that has done all the other Mercy covers. I do believe that all the covers, including this one, are beautiful works of art. I just wish Mercy was portrayed with the skin tone she had on some of the other covers. Go to the Book Page of Patricia Hurog's website and you can view all the other covers. They are very striking and worth a look if you've never seen them before. The cover I like the best for skin tone is Blood Bound, which also looks pretty Kick-Ass. Mercy looks like she wouldn't be too hesitant about using that big old tool in her hand. The cover I like for body (as in not anorexic looking like some other covers flooding the market) is Bone Crossed. {I remember when I used to look like that...back when I was young, before I started having a 100 babies! LOL} The cover of Moon Called is what made me pick up the book (so long ago) in the first place. The earrings, the obviously not caucasion woman, the tattoos depicted on her arms and the slightly grimy looking bandage on her arm, along with the tools hanging from her belt. It just screamed out, "buy me, I'm different, not your normal urban fantasy woman!" So I bought it and loved this series ever since. Speaking of Mercy's imaginary tattoos, the tattoos seem to also change from cover to cover. The tats on her arms are very different in Iron Kissed from the tats on Silver Borne. Once again, I love the artwork {even if the ever-changing tattoos really don't belong to Mercy, LOL}


Second, I have never, ever been disappointed by any book that Patricia Briggs has written. {Yet, though I'm thinking I probably won't ever be disappointed- How's THAT for pressure?} Not even Cry Wolf, which although not my favorite of hers, was still a very good story, with a satisfying ending. It wasn't one of my favorites, because it seemed more like a romance, than an urban fantasy. In fact, it's listed as a paranormal romance after all, and while I have enjoyed the occasional paranormal romance, I'm partial to urban fantasies. I've read all of the Mercy Thompson series, beginning with Moon Called and finishing with the latest, Silver Borne. I've read Hob's Bargain and Dragon Bones, as well as the short stories by Ms Briggs in the anthologies On the Prowl and Strange Brew. Patricia Briggs is a wonderful writer with a great imagination. She seems to be able to write in a few genres, Urban Fantasy, Fantasy, and Paranormal Romance. (even if Cry Wolf isn't listed officially as paranormal romance, that's how it reads.)

Silver Borne was a great addition to the series. Mercy is drawn into a fae plot, and one of her friends is kidnapped to use as leverage for something that a fae wants from Mercy. While Mercy is dealing with this, she is also worrying about Samuel, the son of the Marrok (alpha to the pack she was fostered in) and a werewolf that she has know all her life. Samuel is a very, very old wolf, living away from his pack and this is something that is usually detrimental to normal werewolves. But Samuel is not your normal, average werewolf. There has been a slowly increasing worry over the last few books of Samuel going Rogue, or fading and the worry gets a lot stronger in this book. Mercy is also still dealing with the fallout (not in a standstill way, but in a slowly improving kind of way). In case you haven't read Iron Kissed yet here is a Spoiler Alert here********* In Iron Kissed, Mercy was kidnapped raped by a person that she had met and had some encounters with. She had changed into her coyote self to deal with the trauma of this, and reading the chapters where she was suffering as the traumatized coyote was so devastating that I actually teared up. I have never cried before while reading an urban fantasy book, or any fantasy book. But this just was written so realistically, that I could just imagine how it would feel. Man, I was traumatized by that book. I loved it, but it really pulls out some emotions. I was trying to hide the tears, from my family, staying in my room by myself to read it, because I didn't want anyone to see me reading and crying and have to explain..."this happened to so-and-so and it's just soooo SAD! *******End Spoiler. I like that Patricia Briggs doesn't make Mercy miraculously get better, or, like I've seen happen in other book, just not mention a traumatic event in later books. She has weaved some of the fallout throughout the stories and plots of the last few books, which feels real. In the past few books, some of Adam's (Mercy's boyfriend) pack members are not happy with Mercy being the girlfriend of the Alpha, and there is a plot against this situation.

There's a lot going on here, and although a lot get's resolved, or almost resolved, there is more that has to be done by the end of the book. So while I'm satisfied at the end, I'm looking forward to more story and obstacles for Mercy and Adam to overcome. One of my favorite character, Warren the only admittely gay werewolf has quite a few appearances in Silver Borne also. We also get to see a little bit more of Zee, that incrutuble fae that has taken Mercy under his wing so long ago. I really like his character also.

Silver Borne was good, very good and I'm happy that Mercy #6 will be out in 2011 (spring).

Patricia Briggs is also working on two of her earlier works; Masques (being re-worked and re-issued in Fall of 2010) and Wolvesbane {sequel to Masques, being edited and released in Fall of 2010}. While all of her other books have been available all along, Masques has been out of print and only available for $100's of dollars, sometimes $400, by collectors. It's amazing, I've never heard of any other paperbacks that aren't over 50 years old (while the author is still alive) being collected and sold for so much money. People are amazing. I'm happy that Masques is being edited and expanded for the rest of us.

Reading Challenges
Colorful Reading Challege 2010
Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge 2010
2010 Coundown Challenge - if anyone knows where to post links to our reviews, or even where to post our progress with this challenge, please let me know. I check once in a while and haven't been able to find anything but the first post talking about the challenge.

I though about using this book for the POC reading challenge, Mercy is part Native American, but there's few references to her race, and not a lot of information about being Native American in this book. So I changed my mind.

I also thought about using it for the Cat Challenge, since Medea (her cat) is very important to Mercy and in fact is in danger here. She (the cat) is also mentioned as the only cat anyone's ever seen that loves the werewolves...Okay I'm using it!

2010 Cat Book Challenge

Daniel X: Watch The Skies review

Daniel X: Watch the Skies




****
James Patterson

Ned Rust
young adult/sci-fi

251 pages

available now

I'm not sure who sent me the book, if I won it in a contest, or if it was a gift. If I knew, I would send a thank you note. I do appreciate it. This book is now going to be donated to the school library for the 6th, 7th and 8th grade section.

I was all ready to do to bed. I went to bed, and decided to read a bit before I turned out the light (it was already very late). I kept reading until I was finished, so now here I am at the computer again, to post this. Might as well finish up now. : )

I believe that this is the first in a series of books about Daniel X. Daniel X is a teen-age alien hunter with some special powers of his own. He rides a motorbike and can do wheelies on his front tire. He has four imaginary friends, but unlike most kids, he can materialize them and they often help him out when he needs help, or just keep him company when he needs company.

The town of Holliswood is being taken over by aliens - from outer-space. These particular aliens are able to manipulate the radio waves, and t.v. stations to control humans. They also like to eat humans, after they make them dance around, filming them for entertainment. The head alien is a director. Even though there are some horrific things that happen to humans, the way it's written it's not very graphic or gross. Most teens have watched plenty of movies and shows that contain much worse than is shown in this book.

Daniel X needs to find a way to stop the aliens from taking over the town, and eventually the whole world for the purpose of filming, eating and using the world and it's inhabitants as entertainment for the rest of the universe. But the alien in charge of this epic project, (alien no. 5) seems to always be one step ahead of Daniel X, and in fact is planning to use Daniel in the finale of the series that he's filming. Daniel X meets a young girl and her strange parents. He is has quite a challenge solving this crisis, things go wrong but he perseveres.

I found the narrative of this book interesting, and the dialogue between characters was pretty good. There's some snarky dialogue between aliens and Daniel X, and intelligent dialogue between Daniel X and his friends/family. Though gross things are happening, there isn't over the top descriptions, but there is enough to keep a teen or tween interested in the story. Daniel X also is not a do it yourself type of hero, he takes advice and help from his friends...although they are a product of his imagination. Maybe because it's written from the pov of a teenage boy, one who has been hunting aliens, but there doesn't seem to be much to his personality - there's a little history we learn as we read, and little things he quips. He seems to care about animals and humans. It's just not very in depth - the presenting of his personality.

This was a cute, light/horror sci-fi book. The only thing that kind of got to me, was more the set up of the book. There are 91 chapters in this 251 page book. How can that be, do you wonder? most of these chapters are two pages long. As in half of one page (the beginning of the chapter) and half or a little over half of the second page (that would be the ending of this epic chapter). So really, I believe this book could have been condensed into 125 pages (approximately). I don't know if the authors meant for the book to be set up this way as a dramatic way of separating scenes, or if this was done to "flesh out" the book. There were quite a few of the 2-page chapters that could have been combined. A few of the chapters were really a continuation of the previous chapter. That's my only complaint of the book, and it's not anything to do with content or writing talent.

Overall this is a entertaining book, a light read even with the horror aspects; but because of the way the chapters are split up, I might wait for the paperback if I were to buy the book. I was fortunate, though to receive it for free, and am passing it forward to my school library. I would be interested in reading more of James Patterson/Ned Rust novels or James Patterson novels. A student at my school said that his Maximum Ride series is pretty good, and I did buy the first book in that series.

reading challenges

Young Adult Reading Challenge

Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge

books read for reading challenges - WOOHOO!

Well, in the last three days, I've finally managed to finish reading two more books.

Counting toward the 2010 Countdown Challenge, the MiniChallege for League of Reluctant Adults and the 2010 Speculative Fiction Challenge I finished reading:

Personal Demons by Stacia Kane (<---click for excerpt)

Three Days to Dead by Kelly Meding.

Both were pretty kick-ass in slightly different ways. I'm writing a quick bit about each book, since I still don't feel much like sitting up at the computer.

Personal Demons - Written in the third person, at first I felt like I was going to be reading a slightly light-horror book. You know, not too heavy duty. As you on though, there is definitely some horrific moments. It's all tempered with a bit of romance and some humor. The main character, Megan is a psychologist who can see demons. She tries to keep this part of her talent quiet, but things are coming to a head for her. Her boss talks her into a radio show and after the publicity of that, things come after her, small demons, zombies, a man-sized demon (a handsome devil who's quite attractive to her) as well as a nosy reporter. Seems there is also something from her past that is catching up with her. Without getting into spoiler terrirtory (though I'm probably the last one to read this book) things get more and more intense for Megan, more horrific for her and her friends. Great book, interesting ending and some sex action. My favorite side characters are "the boys", three brother demons sent to help protect Megan. They are cockney with wonderful fashion sense. I enjoyed this book a lot, and when I was finished wondered why I waited so long to read this. I've had it for over a year, but then I do have a large TBR pile. Stacia Kane has sequel to this book out, called Demon Inside, and is also releasing a second series. The first book of the second series is called Unholy Ghosts and I'm looking forward to reading this one quite a bit.

Three Days to Dead - This book is amazing. Per the blurb for the book, Evy Stone has woken up in a dead person's body, she's been resurrected and everyone wants her dead. Written in the first person, with an interesting countdown of hours left to her at different sections, you have a sense of the passing of time and opportunity. Evy has three days to figure out what is going on, and then her time is up - again. There are quite a few twists in this story. I'm amazed at everything the Kelly Meding has come up with. There is a fresh take on Vampires and "halfies", bitten by vampires; the fey; trolls; etc. Lots of dangerous situations for Evy and anyone allied with her. Lots of action. My only complaint would be the amount of time Evy and her handler spend on arguing and feeling sorry about what happens, but then I think that's just me. It does fit with the plot and all that is going on, I'm just very impatient at times reading about emotions and feelings (Thank you very much LKH and your incessant discussions between characters). I really shouldn't let my impatience get in the way of reading a book, so as soon as I figured out where the frustration came from, I relaxed and just let the book flow. So - to recap - there are lots of action scenes, dangerous situations, heartbreak of different natures, and quite a mystery for Evy and her handler, Wyatt to solve while they are running from goblins, triads (who they used to work with) and others. If you haven't picked this book up, by all means get it and settle down for a hell of a read. There will be a sequel released, named As Lie the Dead (summer 2010)

The Better Part of Darkness by Kelly Gay

The Better Part of Darkness

******

Kelly Gay

ARC won from contest

Either I'm getting way better at picking out books I want to read, or there are a lot of great debut novels with good writing and dialogue in the bookstores today. This is one of those books that I was waiting to get, wanting to get very badly, I was lucky and won it. I'm so glad I received this book. It's worth buying, worth reading and worth looking for the sequel.

The main character, Charlie (Charlene) Madigan is a detective with the Atlanta P.D.'s Integration Task Force. She's also a divorced mother of a young "tween" (Emma). The Atlanta P.D needs the Integration Task Force (ITF) to deal with the new citizens of the world. "Offworlders" from Charbydon (similar to the biblical Hell) and Elysia (similar to Heaven) - two dimensions recently discovered by a scientist- have settled in Atlanta and with the new citizens come new paranormal crimes. Charlie's partner, Hank, is a siren as well as a good friend of the family.

The secondary characters in this book are interesting supporting characters. There is Charlie's sister, Bryn, who practices magic; her daughter Emma; her ex-husband Will (that's my youngest son's name- a good all-round name) who is fightin an addiction that helped to end their marraige,;and her boss, the chief- Chief Abernathy. Throughout the book he's mainly referred to as the chief, if his first name was mentioned I don't recall it right now, and somehow that works for me.

Besides being a cop working with paranomals, Charlie seems to have some sort of edge herself. She was recently killed and brought back to life with some extra abilities and nightmares. This is a help as well as a hindrance to her.

The plot of the book starts with the recent introduciton of a new deadly drug, an off-world narcotic (ash). Charlie and Hank investigate this and soon find Charlie's family in danger. There are important people involved and soon Charlie is being accused of murder. Bad things happen to people Charlie cares about, and her reactions are amazing to behold. I loved her reactions - from the rage, to the cold determination to her utter breakdown in emotions. Through it all, she never gives up and in fact finally realizes that she has to learn how to work with the extras she came back to life with.

The more I read of this book, the further I got into, the more I enjoyed myself. Charlie's reactions were totally believable and she is a strong woman who can lose her temper, fall into a rage, and yet doesn't come across as totally cranky and angry or abusive to everyone she comes across - she has her moments, but her character is likeable. Charlie also learns more about the off-worlders than she knew before and isn't too stubborn to admit there's more to learn.

The dialogue was also very good. I love reading a book when the dialogue fits the character's personalities. Good dialogue helps a book along, bad dialogue just can bring the whole thing to a screeching halt for me. Thankfully this is an example of great dialogue fitting in with a great origianl plot and great narration.

And the ending? chills.

If you get this book (and you should) enjoy not only the supporting cast already mentioned, but the supporting characters introduced throughout the book. A lot of interesting characters, most of whom I hope to see in future books. Books like The Darkest Edge of Dawn, which according to Amazon.fail is the second Charlie Madigan book and releases in August 2010.

Reading Challenges that I'm applying this book toward:

• Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge
• 2010 Countdown Challenge

because of the word "darkness" I considered using it for the Colorful Reading Challenge, but that would be just down-right cheating! Darkness wouldn't really be a color, right? :)

Another reading challenge ?!?

I might have gone book-challenge crazy, but this one is very simple and easy. And it's possible to use children's books with this challenge. I read children's books at least 7 times a week, not including the books read to my own grandchildren - I could totally do this....

This is the 2010 Cat Book Challenge. Read one book with a cat in the title, subject, or character. See? Simple. Children's books, audiobooks, mysteries, as long as it's cat related. Total of 12 cat books, from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010. Hosted by Beth's Book Review Blog. Sign up and more info here.

On a totally unrelated topic - sort of. Not one person has entered my giveaway. I guess the books are too boring, or maybe it's that they're used? I have a variety of books I would like to give out, some of them hardbacks in very good condition. Maybe I should list a few more in my original post? Maybe I should give up and give the books to goodwill or the public library?

Now if I could stop signing up for challenges and actually READ!

This is a fun challenge hosted by Book City Chick.

If I can stop surfing the web and signing up for book reading challenges to actually read a book, I'm going to take part in this challenge.

The goal is to read British Authors. There are a few levels

• "Put the Kettle On" - 2 British authors

"Gordon Bennett" - 4 British authors

"Bob's Your Uncle" - 6 British authors

"Cream Crackered" - 8 British authors

I have on my TBR, and wishlist books from three British authors. Those are Suzanned McLeod whose "The Bitter Seed of Magic" comes out in September 2010; Terry Pratchett whose "Unseen Academicals" is out now, and sitting in my room; and Mike Carey whose book Vicious Circle will be used in my 2010 Countdown Challenge. I also have Dead Man's Boots by the same author. I would need just one more to enter the "Gordon Bennett" level. It just occured to me that I could probably use Douglas Adams...I have "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency". I haven't read this book yet, but plan to this year.

What I like about Book Chick City and J.Kaye's Book Blog challenges is that they provide a place to link your reviews and a page to post your list of books read for the challenges they host. It's nicely organized.

That makes 8 challenges. If it weren't for the fact that many of these books crossover, I don't think I would even be able to attempt them, but I do think it's going to be fun trying.

Click here for a list of challenges hosted by BookCityChick.
Click here for a list of challenges being hosted and participated in by J.Kaye's Book Blog

both bloggers have buttons for each challenge available - some pretty cool buttons.

I must be Loony-Tunes

I can't believe I'm even thinking about it, but there's one more challenge (no. 7 for me) that I'm thinking of doing. The positive thing is that the only thing not allowed is re-reads. I'm assuming that if I pick a book for this challenge, (from my shelf of course) that the same book can be used for other challenges. There was nothing in the guidelines about crossovers, only re-reads.

The point of this challenge it to pick a number of books from your shelves, (books that you already have) and commit to reading those books. I can do this. I have over 100 books in my TBR pile. Of course I'm only interested in about 50 of them now (these are general estimates) A lot of the books I already have are books that I was planning on using for the 2010 Countdown Challenge, the Stephanie Plum challenge, the Speculative fiction challente, etc. The only one I wouldn't be able to use these books on are my flash-back challenge, of which I signed up for six books. This is totally doable and I think I just talked (wrote) myself into doing it.

.....Oh yes, I just signed up with the Mr. Linky on Miz B's Reading Challenges website. I'm going to think on the list for a week or so. I think I'm going to try for 20 books - Not sure yet of the number of books I'm going for. My ultimate goal is 55 books, but at least 10 of them will be newer books (the ten 2010 published books). A fair goal will be around 20.

This is the first time I've been on Mis B's Reading challenges page, and it's making me want to sign up for more, More, MORE! I think I like Miz B.

Another (this one's easy - for me anyway) reading challenge

I'm not sure if it's my meds kicking in, or if I'm in my right mind - but I decided to take part in yet ANOTHER reading challenge. This one is an interesting and easy-for-me reading challenge. It started in July of 2009, but I just noticed. It is the Stephanie Plum Reading Challenge, hosted by J.Kaye's Book Blog.

The easy for me part is that it only concerns the Stephanie Plum books that you haven't read yet. For me, at the moment it stands at three books, well, maybe four. I have to check the book list..... I checked - The last book I read was Plum Lucky (2008). Here's my list of unread Stephanie Plum books:

1. Fearless Fourteen
2. Plum Spooky
3. Fingerlickin' Fifteen
4. Sizzling Sixteen (coming in June 22, 2010

I have a few months to read these three, along with next Diesel book which will be coming out in August 2010. So...If I can afford the upcoming books (the Diesel book and Sizzling Sixteen) I'll should be able to complete this challenge.

Along with the signup page, J.Kaye has included a place to link your reviews here, if you choose to link your reviews. As you finish the challenge, she has included a link to a Completed List page where you can link to your completed list. I love this set-up!

Since Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series is one of my favorite (if only) mystery series to read, I am happy to take part in this challenge.

A new book challenge from The Book Chic

Here is a new totally do-able book challenge from The BookChickCity. At least it's new to me. I've just recently become aware of book challenges. The first book challenge I attempted was Rebecca's Colorful Reading Challenge (which I failed at, but I'm trying again for 2010).

There are four different levels you can choose from to participate and this host is good with crossover challenges. I am doing the 2010 Countdown Challenge (a total of 55 books), as well as the 2010 Colorful Reading Challenge (nine books) and The 2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge (12 books from the level I chose). They are all crossover challenges so theoretically I could pick a young adult fantasy or sci-fi book published any time from 2001 t0 2010 with a color in the title and I could satisfy all four challenges with one book, such as Green Angel by Alice Hoffman. It's a young adult novel published in 2003, color (GREEN) in the title, and a fantasy novel. All four challenges.

There is one other challenge that I'm thinking of joining called the Flashback Challenge. It's hosted by Aarti of the Booklust. If I understand it right (it almost sounds too simple- so of course I think there has to be more to it) there are three levels with the most challenging to be re-read more than 6 boos. Mini-challenges are to re-read a favorit book from childhood, or one assigned to you in high school (can't even remember any books from high-school. I didn't go that much.) or to re-read a book you loved as an adult. I think this challenge could also be a crossover with the other challenges.

Crazy - should I do all five challenges? one book could conceivably work for five challenges. So it is possible to do. I think I'm going to try. If I don't make it , at least I'll have tried and probably read some books I wouldn't have normally read. I already have three YA books waiting for me to read.

1. 
   
   My Soul To Take


2. 
   
   Awakening


3. 
   
   The Dust of 100 Dogs

That's a start. Besides I am on book no. five for the 2010 countdown challenge and just received in the mail Vulnerable by Amy Lane (from 2005), which counts for 2010 countdown and speculative fiction.