It's Monday, and....

"Here we go again....feel the chemicals kicking in....I want to run and hide..." (Neon Trees)

Well - Here we go again, another Monday...but at least it's time for It's Monday, What Are You Reading? Hosted by Shelia of Book Journey, this is the ONE weekly meme that I try very hard not to miss, even when I'm feeling very sick - I still forced myself to do this (possibly a little OCD, not necessarily a good thing. *g*)

Finished Reading
there I was, happily reading Dead in the Family, and Spirit Thief, when in a surprise move, Married With Zombies JUMPED back into my radar, and took over the main reading spot in my brain. (braaaaainnnnns...)

I can't really say WHY I picked this one up. It totally looked like a chick lit novel that just happened to have zombies in it, and it fact seemed like it was going to start out that way...but there is plenty of black sludge, gore, and zombie killing to keep me interested....interested enough to seriously consider buying the sequel, Flip This Zombie (out now) and if I enjoy THAT one, then the third novel Eat, Slay, Love (June 2011)


Currently Reading and/or almost finished with...

I'm reading Dead ln The Family, by Charlaine Harris, and it's enjoyable - enjoyable like an old comfortable friend. But so far, it's not grabbing my attention (not quite yet, anyway) like the next book....




Back to The Spirit Thief, an enjoyable romp of a fantasy by Rachel Aaron complete with wizards, villains, odd animals and mischevious bad-boy thieves, swordsmen and...oh yes, a Demon Seed! Fun read with lots of nefarious plotting going on. (rubs hands together wickedly...)

I even read the first few chapters of Devil's Kiss by Sarwat Chadda. So far, it's interesting - Young Adult fare. If you enjoyed his Goddess series, you'll be happy to know that he's starting a new series about a young girl set in India. This girl has some issues of her own, half human, half demon, recently has moved to India with family because her dad has a new job.... more details about Ash here.



Finally Bought....


My copy of Silver Rush - the third story (or episode) in the Into The West series by J.A. Campbell. I've been waiting to find it on Amazon (convenience) but it's still not available through them (as of Sunday....late, late, late, Sunday into Monday) so I bought it through Smashwords. I've read the first chapter - very good. Would have read more, but I was also distracted by all the free downloads they had available....

BTW - this Into The West series is a FUN series to read. There is just enough paranormal to make this interesting, just enough tension to keep even an older reader like me engaged, and though it's meant for the younger reader, I'm having fun reading it myself. Fun and well written with great characters.


COMING UP

Y'know, it's a good thing that this blogging and reviewing thing isn't my JOB, because I'm not that regular at it. I still need to announce the winner to The Cold Kiss of Death

I still need to review Defiance, Bleeding Violet and now Married With Zombies...
and to my utter shame, I still need to mail the package to the last winner (cringing now - should have done that weeks ago -= and I will, I promise!) I'm going to do the old name in a hat deal, and if the winner happens to be the same as last time, then I can catch two birds with one grab ....(haha - I didn't want to say kill two birds with one stone, so barbaric)

I'm Going To Read ....

Oh hell, I don't know!
I have book attention deficit disorder!

One last item -

I just found a cut on the back of my neck - right where I can't see it. Everyone else is in bed, so I can't ask anyone what it is...it feels like a skinny quarter inch long cut...either a bone spur is coming out of my neck (highly unlikely) or a computer chip as been inserted into my neck (another unlikely event). But really, what else could it be?

y'know, besides a cat scratch, a dog scratch, a bug bite, a grandchild scratch, a vampire bite gone wrong, a hair washing mishap, a zombie bite with a slow incubation period.......

Any thoughts? Ideas?
advice?!? (no name calling!)

birthdays, a party, a cd player, appt., and a good book

no Teaser Tuesday today....

I've had a very busy weekend

My Granddaughter's fourth birthday party....

my son's 22 nd birthday

my appointment for a surgical consult

The Birthday....

My grandson, his mom and I went to two stores looking for a pinkish cd player for my granddaughter's birthday - for her room. she loves music.

there ARE no pink cute cd players at the stores we went to,

I ended up buying a black small player (it's her first one and she's only four - later I'll get her a huge sound system...yeah right.)\

I felt disappointed about the color - so we bought some stickers for her to decorate the radio/cd player. Of course, later that weekend I found out that I could have bought a pink player at Toy's R Us, but there was not time at this point.

So, before the party started, Elliott (grandson) and I wrapped her presents (we also bought a Disney Radio Mix cd) and had her open it before other people got there.

Her words....

"Grandma - I think there's a mistake. this must be for someone else"

Oh yeah, she said it. But remember, she's four and four year olds tell it like they see it.

Of course, today I was told that she decorated the cd player with some of her stickers and has been laying on the floor listening to her new cd.

:) Win!

Son's birthday - I really didn't have to do anything - just was tired anyway. Babysat my grandson for two nights and ...

for my son's birthday, he - himself treated all the family that came over in the morning to omelets made with bacon, mushrooms, bell peppers (green and yellow) sauteed onions and fancy-smancy cheese.

Very yummy, and very sweet. I don't think I'm going to tell him that we should have made him breakfast - it was damned good!

and Now - the appointment

I've been having some neck and spine issues, with all that goes with those type of issues.

My doctor referred me to physical medicine, and that doctor referred me for a surgical consult.

Now, I haven't been having any good thoughts about having surgery on my back.

The last major surgery I had to repair a shoulder injury resulted in a staph infection,

and I almost lost the use of my arm - still have quite a bit of pain in it but...

My son drove me to the Oakland for the consult.

we had all the parking issues, finding the place, wandering around a building that seems to be in a state of .....being built or renovated.

and it seemed, that no one but us was wearing any type of deodorant.

Really - lots of .....odors floating around.

I had another x-ray and then finally had a visit with the surgeon who asked what I like to do (read - "what do you read?" urban fantasy...."is that where urban living is fun?" hahahahahahaha)

explained the workings of the spine and my particular problems in detail, easy to understand...

unfortunately for me...or fortunately for me, depending on the moment

it seems as if the risks of surgery probably outweigh the benefits for me.

So for now, I'm not going to go for the surgery

I have mixed feelings - I'm relieved and at the same time it's a little scary to think that I'm not a good candidate for surgery....

Life.

What can you do but just live it.

So my plan is to try to force myself to go on little walks,

continue with the mild yoga-ish stretches that I've been trying to do,

and to tell my doctors to PLEASE up the pain meds.

But, I just can't help but feel extreme relief about NOT having the surgery.

I really didn't feel positive about it.

or about having to travel to a different city away from family to do this.

On a more positive note, or more postive notes

I am almost finished reading The Bitter Seed of Magic (Suzanne McLeod)

So Good.

I would have been finished reading it on Saturday, but family stuff was going on.

:)

I am enjoying reading all about Genny Taylor, Malik and Finn.

And boy, does this installment have some twists in it, as well as some twisted happenings (happy reading for me!- love twisted stuff)

Almost done and...

The Bitter Seed of Magic

Lovin' It!

It's Monday...new books,....I fail at a challenge... :(

banned book week

think about it

Of course I took too long to get started on this, and now it's very late (again!). My solution, a mostly link-less post.

It's Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. One of my favorite Memes.

found my missing book (inside a pair of pants...what's up with that!)

A good paranormal romance, with good balance of real action and ...well...romance. Past the halfway mark, heading towards the finish!!!

written by J.K. Beck - her first paranormal romance

Over the halfway mark with The Replacement - good Young Adult novel....chills and goosebumps...
I wish I had more time for reading!

By Brenna Yovanoff - a debut young adult novel.

"Ask, and you might get..." I asked a couple of my sons for money for a bookstore run. I think they might have felt some sympathy for me...I hardly ever ask for money - (Who asks their kids anyway?) and they pooled some money for me to go bookstore shopping. The sweet things. :)

I found some of Tanya Huff's

Science Fiction Series - they look good

One thing I've learned,

Tanya Huff writes very well!

BRAINS.......

"A heartwarming tale of terror in the middle of the zombie apocalypse." -->

I've just skimmed a couple of pages, so far. Looks great, some laughs and a little bit of horror - can't miss with that mix!

Will be reading it soon.

Update on my 2010 Countdown Challenge. Well, I have 13 days to read about 20 or so books (rough estimate). I think I have massively failed on this challenge. Oh well. All you can do is try.

I'm sure there will be a 2011 Countdown challenge. If so, I'm going to try, and this time I'll focus on reading the earlier year books first, since it's extremely easy to read the books that are current releases. Of course, I'm using some of the books I had planned to read for the 2010 challenge, for the 2011 challenge. I wish they (I don't even know who they are) had put up somekind of post and pages to mark progress like a lot of other blogger who host challenges have done (check out Book Chick City, and Home Girl's book blog - links later, of course). They have pages for the challenge, and for the months. Great way to feel like someone is paying attention to the challenges.

Okay, later for now - of course, I need to get to sleep as once again, I'm wide awake and have to work tomorrow (or rather later today!)