Blog Tour and Giveaway links

one of my favorite couple of characters happen to be dogs.  That's right. 

Dogs.

One is a vampire hunting dog named Doc.  His story takes place in contemporary time, and his human is named Kevin.  There are quite a few short stories available featuring Doc and friends.

The other dog is named Brown and her human is Elliott.  Brown has a way with ghosts.  Being border collies, both dogs have this thing called....

The Eye

if you've ever been stared down by a herder dog, you will know what I'm referring to.

anyway there is currently a blog tour happening that's featuring Brown.  I've read all (i'm pretty sure I've read all of them) of Brown's stories, and they are very entertaining - especially if you enjoy dogs.  You will recognize doggy behavior in these stories.

The entire blog tour, complete with links is listed on Campbell's website, but just in case...

Intro - June 11th @ J.A. Campbell

Part 1 - June 12th @ Sam Knight

Part 2 - June 13th @ Bea's Book Nook

Part 3 - June 14th @ Amaleen Ison

Part 4 - June 15th @ Jen Wylie

Part 5 - June 16th @ David Riley

Interview with Brown - June 17th @ Anne Michaud (can I just say, I love when people do interviews in a character's pov - shows the imagination off a bit, and is just very fun)

J.A. Campbell (aka Julie) has quite a variety of writing projects that she's finished, and is always working on new projects.  On top of being a very talented writer with all kinds of characters living in her brain, she is the caretaker of cats, an intense dog named Kira (the dog is a border collie, i.e. - intense) and is a horsewoman.  No, she doesn't turn into a horse at full moons, nor does she have a horse head, or a tail...she owns a horse and rides Triska as much as she can.  Girl is living the life; horse, dog, cats, books in print and a sailor boyfriend who is absent enough to be in love with.  (haha - that's my weird take on relationships - if you're apart regularly, you appreciate each other more.)

Keep your eyes open for J.A. Campbell - there will be more coming from her.  everytime I hear about a new project, I'm happy because I KNOW it's going to be interesting and fun to read.

other works by J.A. Campbell

This is the Clanless series - a third is in the works.  Teen vampire, learning to maintain and keeping her friends safe.

Serpent Queen is a steampunk style of short story - novella - that I would love to see more of. A vampire pirate who's airship is attacked. 

J.A. Campbell has many other works available online as free reads or e-books.  You won't find ridiculous prices for these books either - like $14.99.  Nope - all of the e-books are affordable and all are great reads.  Visit her website for more info on all available and upcoming projects.

The Giveaway  is for Science Fiction Trails #10 - which I can assure you is a very fun mag full of short stories that run the range in styles.  A great issue to have - I have a copy and love it.  Click on the cover and go enter the drawing.

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. :)

Who's Who? My little confusion

I've been a little confused.

How common a name is Armintrout?

doesn't seem like it's that common, right?

I kept seeing these posts about this new series - the Lux series, and thinking they were by Jennifer Armintrout, of American Vampire fame - until I read some author bio about how the author lives in West Virginia.  

Huh?  (I thought)

I could have sworn that she lives in Michigan.

Apparently there are TWO Jennifers with very similar last names.

Jennifer Armintrout;

and then there is Jennifer L Armentrout who also writes under the name J. Lynn.

Confused?  I am/was.  It's not helped by the fact that they BOTH write adult AND YA novels.

My question - How can there be two last names that not only are so quirky sounding, but so very similar; and how can they ALSO have the very same first name?  Talk about coincidence - this is a hell of a coincidence.  I almost thought they might be the same person, using pen names, but they live in different states,which is what first clued me in to the fact that these were in fact not the same person. 

Jennifer Armintrout, also known as Abigail Barnette - is the Jennifer that I first read, the one I thought both Jennifers were - writes the Blood Ties series (I've read the first of the series - The Turning - and wouldn't mind reading the second), and also a young adult series (Lightworld/Darkworld novels) including the Queene of Light; she writes a blog titled Sweaters for Days.  She is delightfully outspoken. 

(god, I sounded old right there)

Her twitter account is @JArmintrout;

her fun little blurb includes descriptions of herself such as...

'hobbit'

'devourer of heads',

'part-time lady'

'servant of Morgoth'

and includes the info that she DOES NOT have a brain tumor (caps are from me)

I don't do twitter, so I don't usually pay attention to twitter info - but I do like her self-descriptions.  How can you not?

love humor like this.

The other Jennifer is Jennifer L. Armentrout, she also writes as J.Lynn, who lives in West Virginia and writes YA novels - The Lux series, including Obsidian. Her J. Lynn pen name writes adult novels.  Jennifer L. Armentrout writes a blog and has a twitter account which, of course, sounds very similar to the above Jennifer, @JLArmentrout.

                 

Cool thing - the Lux series is about ALIENS, i.e., SciFi - so that actually is enough to make me want to read it, even though it's YA. I've mentioned before, that I rarely read YA, unless it's by an author that I've already read and loved (i.e. Lilith Saintcrow writing as Lili St. Crow) or by an author that I've already grown to like and respect (i.e. J.A. Campbell).  But once in a while...a YA novel rears it's little YA head and catches my interest.  After all, sometimes it just feels a little off to be reading YA with all the little YA issues, the super young characters, and the emotional YA angst that can rear their little YA emo heads.  I know that sounded a little negative, but I didn't mean it too.  It's just a bit of a stretch at times, to read about very young people when you are rounding the corner into older age, dealing with hot flashes, changing body, joints that MAKE NOISE when you move, etc.  ;)  But when I read fiction by Lili St. Crow or J.A. Campbell, the characters go a bit beyond the usual or perceived young brain emo/issues/thoughts/problems.

I took a quick read of Obsidian and judging by some of the pages I was able to read, this one is going to be interesting - hello, ALIENS = SciFi + enemies from yet other planets = great reading fun!  

Geez - no wonder I was confused!

All this time - ever since the first Lux novel came out, I really thought they were from the same lady!  I've heard of authors with the same name as others before, of course there is going to be some with the same name - but two names with just one letter different, in addition to the very same first name?  

After reading a sample of two of the Lux series, I'll probably end up getting a hold of a copy of them.  Though in high school, the characters don't sound like fluffy high school characters, but like older teens going through some major issues - life and death issues (alien invasion, hunting, enemies....) - enough to keep me interested.

And while researching the difference between these two writers, I also was able to read a sample of Jennifer Armintrout's recent American Vampire novel - sounds similar to Rachel Caine's Morganville setting - a town where no one leaves, but it's a bit difference.   I put it on my wish list at Amazon (which I forget to update regularly, haha)

I think this is enough rambling for now - laters, y'all

Combo! It used to be Monday-What Are You Reading and Teaser Tuesday!

I Can't Believe I missed another Monday post!  my excuse is.....falling asleep atypically early on Sunday night.  yeah......that's it!

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? has been one of my favorite weekly memes, and until recently, the one meme that I never missed.  Hosted by Sheila of Book Journey - it's a place/time/site to get together to share what we've been doing book-related.  And this last week - the week that I miss, (or am late) is the one week that I read more than one book - I actually read THREE. 

Read Last Week:

Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner

Magic Without Mercy by Devon Monk

(It's so damned frustrating!!! I can't get these book covers lined up on a single row!!!stupid blogger and their new "improved" interface...HA!) 

Currently Reading:

Mirror Space by Marianne de Pierres

She, Myself & I  by Whitney Gaskell

Thinking About Reading:

I really have many books that I've already started to read and then...in my usual B.A.D.D.   fashion, end up putting aside for various reasons.  The most common reason is my inability to focus on one book at any given time.  Seriously - even when I'm reading the most interesting book ever, I'm thinking about  this book that I started last week, or that book that I started last month, or those books that I started to read LAST SUMMER....it's that bad, guys - really.  There's mixed good/bad news here - bad news is that we're living on less money than anticipated this summer/good news is that I have more reason to get through the 100 or so books that I have waiting for me - and some of them are by authors that I already KNOW are good, even excellent writers.  I'm just weird like that.  

Some of the books include;

• the rest of the Dreamfever series by Karen Marie Moning - I read the first tw0 - actually need to get hold of the final
• The rest of The Spirit Thief - a book I was thoroughly enjoying (I was HALFway through the book, for god's sake, why didn't I just FINISH it?  B.A.D.D.)
• fantasy novels by Patricia Briggs - Raven Strike, Raven Shadow, Dragon Bones (which I started) & Dragon Blood
• The last three books of The Zodiac series by Vickki Pettersson (great writer), of which I have ALL the books.
• Marianne de Pierres aka Delacourt's Sharp Shooter - of which I went to extreme-ish lengths to get, since it's only available overseas - then I promptly put it on the shelf, then started (it's good, too) then read the next release by Monk, or Andrews, or Briggs....one of them....  There are now 4 in this series.

I could go on and on - but I'll spare you.  There are at least 100 books in my shelves (and that's just in my bedroom).  There are some more in the garage.  I have a serious problem with books.  I also need to get rid of some of the books that I've already read - but every time I try to list them, NObody seems to want to get them.  Which is strange because there are some serious book addicts cruising these internet sites.  Sigh.... I also have a few books downloaded onto my laptop.  Any - the goal for the summer - get through as many novels as I can.  I would love to find one of those lounge chairs - the ones you can lay way back on, to lay out in the back yard, with the birds in the background, the dogs laying in the sun, kicking back and getting my Vitamin D while I'm reading.  Heaven.  Only thing better is reading at the ocean, with the surf and the sound of gulls and kids playing in the background; other people's kids - there's no way you can relax reading at the ocean when you have your own kids at the beach.  The ocean is hungry for little kids.

I almost forgot about the Teaser Tuesday post - oops.

Teaser Tuesday is the Tuesday post with a teaser included.  Just in case you were wondering - (*g*).  No spoilers, we tease from our current read.  Hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

I am currently reading She,Myself & I 

by Whitney Gaskell

it's fiction (no fantasy, no horror, no SciFi - just fiction)

from page 119

     ' "Let me get this straight; You're inviting me over for dinner, and you want me to bring the dinner? And the dessert?" I asked.

     "And although I can't have any, you might want to consider bringing a bottle of wine, too.  Who knows how long Mom and Dad will be able to stay in the same room without going for each other's throats?  Truce or no truce." Sophie said.'

An interesting book -I'm enjoying it.

                                              

update

It's been about a week since I've posted anything; my energy level has been at an alltime low.

I'm not feeling too bad about that though, since I have to return to work in two days, I'm just going to enjoy them with reading and watching tv.

In the last week though, I've read...

The Pack by L.M. Preston

Undomestic Goddess by Sophia Kinsella

City of Ghosts by Stacia Kane

put a good dent in Spin State by Chris Moriarty

Let me just say though, that after reading City of Ghosts I kind of feel like I did after reading Magic Bleeds (Ilona Andrews)...like nothing much is going to measure up....thus side trip into Heavy or Hardcore Science Fiction. Absolutely nothing like urban fatansy or Young Adult.

I plan to write the reviews of these books soon, but not much else.

It's also my 31st wedding anniversary...which feels kind of odd.

We've been together for 31 married years, a bit over 34 total years.

That's a big chunk out of my life.

Since I was at the end of my 15th year.

wow

I say with a sense of humor here, I can see how a relationship can go from obsessed love to comfortable love to almost hate, and back to close friends, almost enemies, back to love...and that's just one day!

just kidding...

really we've been together so long I can't imagine life without him....although sometimes I have to say, if feels like it could be calmer without ---but in the end, this is the man who's been with me through all the good times and all the bad times....he's a little cranky now, but then I'm pretty sure I am too!

(I know I am)

Whatever - we haven't had an easy life - just like so many Americans, we've spent most of our adult lives living from paycheck to paycheck.

After a life like that, we've both earned some cranky time, as well as the knowledge that we can survive just about anything together.

I just don't feel like being tested anymore...knock on wood (hey universe - doesn't mean I'm tired of living yet! I would just like some of the years to come to be a bit easier)

Can't complain too much though, because even when we were at our wits end, somebody would end up laughing at some point.

Sometimes it's one of the kids that would start it, sometimes one of us, but we all have a very strange, morbid (at times) and twisted sense of humor - courtesy of life.

Happy New Year's

Happy New Year's to All

I hope that 2010 finds everyone in good health, or at least as healthy as can be expected. I wish good things for all.

I don't really make resolutions on New Year's. I generally just make a few easy to attain goals. For myself, at this point in my life (Grandma Time!) it's not about pushing myself to ever increasing heights - it's about learning a little more each year about life and how to deal with life. Not in any structured way, more just learning to accept things, continuing to try to be the best person I can be and always admitting that we all, at any given time, have things to learn until we stop living (you know, until we DIE)

Personal :

This year, for my health and to hopefully lower my pain level I need to walk at least three times a week - no matter what the weather is like. My physical health has been declining. I've recently found out that I have "degenerative arthritic" changes in my neck and lower spine. It's possible that these "arthritic" changes are in more areas of my body - indeed the pain is all over. I need to find information on degenerative arthritis, possible alternative treatments and outlook. I need to walk and do stretches to keep from losing mobility - This I've figured out on my own. It's already clear to me that pain medicine by itself isn't going to do the trick. I've been having increasing and spreading amounts of pain, and all along I've been being treated for chronic pain management (work injury) and it hasn't been working. Obviously I'm going to need to do a combination of things to manage this.afterI really just want to curl up in my bed and read books all day long, but I'm going to have to push myself to MOVE around. If anyone has any experience with degenerative arthritis I would appreciate information. I do have physical therapy sessions planned. That's enough of this, I usually don't get too personal on this blog.

Physical Goal

• walk three times a week
• daily or more often {3 times a day (?)} stretches

Mental Goal

• watch some comedic shows - standup comedy, Modern Family or other funny sitcoms
• Read some funny books - laugh out loud funny
• smile more often - just smiling can make me and others around feel better, if only for a moment.

Book and Blog related:

This year I want to try to finish all the reading challenges that I've entered (in the side-bar). Since they mostly crossover each other, this should be an attainable goal- which is fortunate, since I signed up for SIX challenges. I don't know what I was thinking. *g*

In 2009 I challenged myself to finish reading 30 books. I did that then increased the goal to 40 books. I did that, and for the year 2009 I have finished reading 43 books. Not a lot by some blogger's standards, but for me and my B.A.D.D., and scattered last few years (health issues and stress) it's quite an accomplishment. I used to be able to read over four books a week, but those days are long gone.

I signed on officially for one reading challenge, the Colorful Reading Challenge hosted by Rebecca of Lost in Books. I was not able to complete the challenge. One of my problems was that I didn't start the challenge until April (it went from January to December) which really isn't a good reason- it's only NINE books. My main problem is that I had a hard time getting into the few color titles that I had left to read. However, I did manage to read and review six colors.

1. BLACK - White Witch, Black Curse by Kim Harrison
2. RED - Red by Jordan Summers
3. BLUE - Blue Diablo by Ann Aguirre
4. GREEN - Green Angel by Alice Hoffman
5. WHITE - Black and White by Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge
6. YELLOW - Crome Yellow by Aldoux Huxley

I'm going to try the 2010 version of this challenge, which has updated rules of no mandatory colors, all picked by you (or me, for myself)

Along with the 2010 version of the Colorful Reading Challenge, I have entered 5 other Bookreading challenges (links are in the sidebar)

1. Stephanie Plum Reading Challenge - 4 books
2. Flashback Challenge 6 books
3. Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge 2010 24 books
4. 2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge 12 books
5. Colorful Reading Challenge 2010 9 books
6. ***the Biggie**** 2010 Countdown Challenge 55 books

I'm looking forward to another year of great books and blogs. There are so many interesting book blogs out there - I've been having a lot fun surfing the blogs, entering and hoping to win books from giveaways ( I've won a few, which is so much fun). Before this year, I've never won a contest - so winning a book here and there is exciting for me. I've been enjoying Bloggers who review, bloggers who write fiction and bloggers who write fiction and review. There are quite a few books that I would never have heard about, much less tried if I hadn't seen the cover or read a review about it on the 'net. I don't have a huge following or uber-exciting content (that's not why I started blogging in the first place for) but I hope I can bring a book or two to the attention of a reader, just as I've been able to "discover" a "new" book for myself from other blogs.

I've like to get an idea of what other regular readers think about a book from not only blogs, but online bookstore reviews. I take some of them with a grain of salt, and I also pay attention to whether 99% of the reviews are 5* reveiws or 1* reviews - those reviews I tend to think are either all friends or enemies of the writer. I could be way off base, but I believe the odds are against 99% of people either all hating or totally loving a book. However, I do occassionally read these reviews and it occurred to me that I rarely post a review (like I'm a professional reviewer! *g*) on Amazon, Borders, etc. I do write about a book on The Library Thing or Goodreads, especially if I'm fortunate enough to get a book from them. I'm going to work on this in 2010. I figure if I like a book so much that I'm willing to write about it on my blog, buy the sequel and tell other people about it, I might as well spread the love as much as I can. So when I post my little amateur reviews, I'll post them on Goodreads, Shelfari, The Library Thing, Powell'sBooks.com, Amazon.com, Borders.com, Barnes & Noble and The Book Depository. All of those sites allow customer and member reviews. The reviews at all the sites will sound a lot a like, but if I especially love a book, I should help get the word out, even if it's a small word from a little blog, every little bit helps - right?

I plan to keep reading and writing a bit about books that I enjoy. I can't promise that I'll be a regular blogger -- I don't think I have it in me to post everyday and find entertaining content to post about every day like a lot of the blogs that I read, but I'll write what I can, when I can.

Book and Blog related goals:

• read and review 55 books
• review on many different sites when I "LOVE" a book (B&N, GoodReads, The Library Thing, etc)
• finish six book reading challenges
• try to post three times a week - it won't always be a book review, it might just be what I'm currently reading or Teaser Tuesdays, etc.

I'm hoping finish The Better Part of Darkness (which I won from Sara's Urban Fantasy Blog). It'll be the first review from me of 2010. Next up is one of the Young Adult books - for the YA Challenge - Dust of 100 Dogs. That one will qualify for YA challenge, Speculative Fiction, and the 2010 Countdown Challenge. That's three challenges with one book. I love this type of thing. The Better Part of Darkness will qualify for Speculative Fiction Challenge, and the 2010 Countdown Challenge.

To quote the old witch-woman from Princess and the Frog "Dis Gon be Good! hahahaha". *read the "hahaha* as a cackle* Loved that movie.

One last thing for tonight/this morning. I have some books that I should "recycle". I figure that I can afford postage for a book or two everyonce in a while. I'm thinking of have a giveaway or trading books. Now these books are previously read. Some are used, gently used. Some have been used hard. Some have been barely opened, and then I lost interest. Is anyone interested in "winning" used books? Should I go for it? For instance I have Fanged and Fabulous by Michelle Rowan. This one has been used hard. The binding is coming loose. It's tapable though ( tape- able ) I read it and I think it's funny. Fluffy, kind of a tame vampire/danger book - "vampire light" you could say. Another book is called Marked by Moonlight by Sharie Kohler. I have to say that I could not finish reading this book. There is a plot, a handsome man, a woman going through changes she doesn't understand. Lots of danger and angst. The problem for me is that it reads like a romance. Change the setting to the old west (for the danger and hunting), change the characters from werewolves and werewolf hunters to say....an accidental criminal and bounty hunter (in those days it was dead or a live), keep the chemistry and OOh-La-La and you have a romance novel. Just not really my taste. I'll post pics of the books tomorrow.

Books, and Books, and Books

I'm a little weird about lists. I love to make lists. Lists of Books, Lists of Birthdays, Lists of Things To Do (don't always work on those ones, or finish them), Lists of Old Coins I have. I used to even list the magazines I had (got rid of all of them). The problem is I don't always maintain lists. Another thing I used to do, but I don't any more, is try to keep my books in alpha order, by author. Within each author section I used to try to keep the books not in title order, but by publication date. How weird is that? I must be the laziest OCD person alive. I have the tendencies, at least for the milder forms - like list making - but I am way too lazy to carry it out on a regular basis. Probably a good thing. Anyway! in honor of lists, I am listing the books that I have read in 2009 - and not in any particular order, just by an estimated first finished to latest finished. I say estimated, because I might not even have that right.

first; a review on my arbitrary rating system, using stars { * };

• * = being the worst book I have tried to read, I really couldn't finish it, no will to do so


• ** = not much better than one, I had to force myself to finish the book


• ***=not that bad, not that great, just not impressed with the book - buy it used, or borrow it


• ****=a decent book, but could be better


• *****= I liked it a lot, I would recommend it to others, will probably read other books by the author of this one


• ******= KEEPER! I loved the book, I would recommend it to others, am looking for other books by this author, and this author will be on my "auto-buy" list, I wish the book was longer

And here is the list (as of June 7th) of books that I have finished in 2009:

1. Magic to the Bone - Devon Monk ******


2. Demon Bound - Meljean Brook ******


3. Island of the Sequined Love Nun - Christopher Moore ******


4. The Summoning {YA} - Kelley Armstrong ******


5. Remember Me? - Sohpia Kinsella *****


6. Bone Crossed - Patricia Briggs ******


7. Mona Lisa Blossoming - Sunny ***


8. Mona Lisa Craving - Sunny ***


9. Unclean Spirits - M.L. Hanover ******


10. White Witch, Black Curse - Kim Harrison ******


11. Strange Angels {YA} - Lili St. Crow ******


12. Pride - Rachel Vincent *****


13. Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand - Carrie Vaughn *****


14. Midnight's Daughter - Karen Chance *****


15. Red - Jordan Summers *****


16. Blue Diablo - Ann Aguirre ******


17. Magic In the Blood - Devon Monk ******


18. Blood Noir - Laurell K. Hamilton **' (the ' is a half star)

And now, books that I am currently reading. I've started these and have been going back and forth between some, or will read through:

• Dead and Gone - Charlaine Harris


• Close Encounters - Katherine Allred


• Eve of Darkness - S.J. Day


• Any Given Doomsday - Lori Handeland


• Tekgrrl - A.J. Menden


• Red-Headed Stepchild - Jaye Wells

That is probably enough lists for now. I was going to list the books I want to buy, but there is over - what the heck, I'll list the ones that are newly released or coming very soon that I want:

1. Once Dead, Twice Shy {YA} - Kim Harrison


2. The Sweet Scent of Blood - Suzanne McLeod


3. Angels' Blood - Nalini Singh


4. The Beginning - Drew Silver


5. Unfallen Dead - Marc Del Franco


6. Prey - Rachel Vincent


7. Hotter Than Hell - Jackie Kessler


8. Bad to the Bone - Jeri SmithReady


9. Madhouse - Rob Thurman (did you know Rob is a woman?)


10. Deathwish - Rob Thurman


11. Street Magic - Caitlin Kittredge


12. Skinwalker - Faith Hunter


13. The Enchantment Emporium - Tanya Huff


14. Darkness Calls - Marjorie M. Liu


15. The Women of Nell Gwynne's - Kage Baker


16. Dying Bites - D.D. Barant


17. Black and White - Jackie Kessler/Caitlin Kittredge


18. Soulless - Gail Carriger


19. Phenomenal Girl 5 - A.J. Menden


20. Skin Deep - Mark Del Franco

Well that's my top 20 wanted list. Geez, that's at least $160 worth of books, if they're all mass paperback size, which they probably are not!

Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris

In exchange for the use of my car by my son....I charged the price of a book. Probably not very nice of me, but I really wanted this book.


I also have tried twice, so far to buy Street Magic from Borders. It came out on Tuesday. It wasn't there. I waited three days, then went back tonight. It's still not there. I guess if I want to get it, I'll have to drive into downtown and go to Barnes & Nobles to pick it up, although I hardly go into town.

My next decision- which book am I going to read? I've been waiting to read quite a few books, but haven't yet...mainly because Magic in the Blood came out and I HAD to read that one. Books that are waiting for me to finish reading them...

• Red Headed Stepchild Jaye Wells, halfway through it
• Close Encounters by Katherine Allred, on third of the way through
• Eve of Darkness by S.J.Day, a quarter of the way into the book
• Any Given Doomsday by Lori Handeland, read the first chapter (pretty good)
• Blood Noir by Laurell K Hamilton, halfway through, all the dialogue keeps slowing me down

Books that I am waiting to start (I know I'll finish them once I start them), partial list;

• Magic Strikes, by Ilona Andrews (must be savored)
• Undone by Rachel Caine
• Embrace the Night by Karen Chance
• Curse the Dawn by Karen Chance (I'm really behind with this series)
• The Demon's Librarian by Lilith Saintcrow
• Hunter's Prayer, by Lilith Saintcrow
• Steelflower, by Lilith Saintcrow
• Personal Demon by Kelley Armstrong
• The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong
• Doomsday Can Wait by Lori Handeland
• and now, Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris

Some books I started, but can't yet force my self to finish:

• The Accidental Sorcerer by K.E. MILLS
• Stardoc by S.L. Viehl
• Queen of Dragons by Shana Abe

I don't know why I can't finish the last few, the plots are good, the writing - especially by Shana Abe- is excellant; I'll pick the book, or books up, start to read them, then get distracted to something else. If a book seriously interests me, then not much distracts me, except work, sleep and my grandchildren.

I have been forcing my self to finish Laurell K Hamilton's Blood Noir. I made the mistake of buying it, so I am being stubborn about finishing it. I don't like to dis and author on the internet, but I am glad I didn't pay hardback price for this book. In fact, I wish I still shopped at used book stores. Unfortunately, the used bookstores in my area are far away from my house; and I'd rather buy new anyway- it's a whole tactile thing, I like the feel and smell of a new book.

I also have quite a few books by new (to me, anyway) authors that I am waiting to read at some point. These include;

• Amazon Ink, Lori Devoti
• Tekgrrl, A.J. Menden
• City of Pearl, Karen Traviss
• Night Child and
• Flash of Hex, both by Jes Battis
• Dancing with Werewolves, Carol Nelson Douglass (there are two newer novels out now)
• Magic Lost, Magic Found, Lisa Shearin (also has sequels out that I don't own -yet)

These lists show a few things:

• I'm a little list-obsessed
• my BADD is going strong
• I have a huge TBR pile, these are only some of the books on them
• I am greedy for books (I want more)
• I can't stop messing around with font colors
• I might be a little weird.......nah

Well I have the whole summer- okay, really two and a half months- to catch up on all the books I have to read. I think my TBR pile has exceeded 75 books. I also have quite a few books that I wouldn't mind re-reading; Terry Pratchett books, Devon Monk books, Ilona Andrews books, and Lilith Saintcrow's books. Those are always worth reading and re-reading.

I have actually read and finished a few books in the last few weeks. I had made a New Year's resolution to finish reading 30 books. I only have 35 more to go before I reach my goal. At one time this would have been extremely easy, not so easy anymore. But I have read four books in the last few weeks.

Of course the reason I was able to read so much is because I was down with a flu or cold. Whatever it was laid me out for two weeks. I'm still coughing, but I feel better. Now if I can get around to walking on a regular basis I'll probably start feeling even better. The chronic pain that I have been suffering has increased, and I have noticed a new foot pain. I'm sure that the back, knees and the foot hurt more because of the extra weight I'm carrying, so I'll have to work hard at losing it. It seems that when I decided on the goal of losing weight by walking though, then I catch a pretty bad cold that stops me. So I just have to push myself to start. It's hard when I'm in so much pain though, sometime I just want to take my medicine and climb under the covers, because it's so bad. (sinking into a morass of discouragement here, no more pain talk this post). I need some encouragement now. If anyone knows of a good exercise plan that is extremely easy on the arms, hands and shoulders (besides walking) that a tired overweight, short of breath woman can do, I'd appreciate hearing about it. I'm tired of living and feeling like this.

So here are the books I finished:

The Summoning - young adult by Kelley Armstrong. Pretty good book, glad I read it. A fifteen year old girl (Chloe Saunders) is a student at an art school. She studies film-making and deals with stressful situations by putting them into film perspectives. The problem is she is a late bloomer, feels like a freak because she stutters when stressed, hears voices and sees people that no one else sees. She keeps seeing ghosts, gets pretty scared, ends up in a group home for disturbed teens with a diagnosis of schizophrenia after an incident at school. She has to deal with quite a few teen-age personality types. There is Derek, very moody and freakishly strong and his "brother" Simon, who is the only one that doesn't attend counselor meetings, Rae who is obsessed with fire, Tori the Mean Girl, and Liz. Things get thrown and people get hurt when Liz is mad, though she never actually throws anything. It's written in the first person, with only a few words and phrases used that I wouldn't expect from a teenager. Examples; "...a swarm of kids engulfed him..."; "I awoke several times...";"...directed me to...". There's a few suspenseful episodes (my heart was actually pounding while I read - not many books do that to me anymore, not since reading The Shining when I was 18 - so long ago!) and a cliffhanger ending. Definitely not a happily-ever-after ending. This girl has a lot to overcome. There is some mystery surrounding her early childhood and the death of her mother. She has a pendant from her mother that she has worn since she was small and has nightmares involving a basement, ghosts and her child self. Kelley Armstrong has a sequel to this (The Awakening) coming out in May 2009. I'm buying it.

Mona Lisa Blossoming and Mona Lisa Craving by Sunny. umm.... I don't know why I read these; they're okay if you like reading a lot of metaphors and flowery descriptions of sex, with lots of gushy love stuff thrown in. I probably read them because among all this flowery emoting, suddenly a horrific violent episode will occur. There seems to be to or three authors all rolled into one. One thing I do respect though, is that even though Sunny's writing is close to LKH's style (ahem- her most recent style), at least she has the cojones to actually kill characters off, even though they may be special to the main character. Mona Lisa is a one-quarter human, three-quarters Monere woman. She has just recently discovered her own power and heritage, becoming a Monere Queen. In the first three novels (these two included) She gains powers through sex, gains a Demon Prince's love, gains and loses Monere men, and struggles to come to terms with her Monere background- difficult to do with her human sensitivities and morals. Mona Lisa does continue to have a lot of sex, some kinky, and to gain new powers. Apparently the gaining of new powers comes with the Sexxing-up of her men. The Monere men (these people are Monere, used to live on the moon, or another planet - forget which exactly) can also gain powers from their queens. However most of the queens don't allow their men (who are treated like slaves, except for Mona Lisa's men) to gain much power, and are in fact pretty sadistic and cruel toward their men. I'll probably read more of Sunny's books, but I think I'd feel better buying them used. She has written another series starring the Demon Prince's sister, Lucinda. I wonder if that will be written in the same style - could it be better?

Remember Me? by Sophia Kinsella. Sophia Kinsella also writes the Shopaholic series (Confessions of a Shopaholic, Shopaholic Ties the Knot, etc). This particular book's main character is nothing like the Shopaholic's main character. The book opens with a Lexi Smart having a stressful night out after a stressful day at work. She falls getting into a taxi and wakes up in the hospital with amnesia. Except it's three years later and she seems to have a husband she doesn't remember and a boyfriend who insists they are having an affair, which she doesn't believe. She has to re-integrate into her life, finds out she's been pretty successful financially but it seems she has lost her friends. She's not happy. This was a very good book. I was interested from the first page (even though it wasn't an urban fantasy). There is no sudden memory gain, Lexi has to learn about her past three years watching videos and talking to people who don't really want to talk to her. She doesn't recognise her current self, doesn't feel like she fits in with her current life and has to figure out what went wrong. There is a hint of a happy ending. A very satisfying read. Makes me want to read some of her (Sophia Kinsella) other work, like The Undomestic Goddess.

I am currently reading Lonely Werewolf Girl by Martin Millar and Desire Kills by Keri Arthur, skipping back and forth because I have BADD (book attention deficit disorder - a very real - to me- disorder) .

I'm very open to reading recommendations and ideas to exercise my tired old body. Please comment with recommendation, if anyone has any.

latest book read, books enjoyed and some flat ones

After suffering from BADD (Book Attention Deficit Disorder)I have finally finished a book! For the past year I have had a hard time actually finishing a book. I have over 60 books that I have bought in the last year, and I have started about 30 of them, lost interest in some, misplaced a few and finished about 10. Ten in about a year. I used to read at least two books a week. I have bought, and passed around enough books to stock a used book store.

I'm not sure what to blame this Book Attention Deficit Disorder on (yes I know it's not a valid sydrome - but it's mine and I'm sure it should be a real syndrome) .

Possibilites for why I have developed BADD

1. Three new grandchildren within two years; a beautiful very intelligent and spirited granddaughter who at the age of 22 mos has quite a sense of humor, keeps me on the run and was my first grandchild; a beautiful, sweet baby boy that was born with a birth defect (relatively minor compared to what could have been) that will involve surgeries throughout his childhood (he has already had one of them and he is only eight months old) who is so sweet and full of smiles for his grandmother; and a oneyear old step grandson who I like to just claim as a granchild. He has just came into my life three months ago. He is full of laughter and a lot of fun to be around
2. A slightly stressful end of one job, and a very stressful beginning to another job - general suck assness. If it weren't for the fact that I really enjoy children and need to actually pay rent and eat, I would have quit.
3. I suffer from chronic pain, and sometimes have difficulty holding a book - but I'll hold one as long as I can. I'd rather read a book than listen to audio books. I like to imagine the voices of the characters. Have you ever read a book that was enjoyable, had an idea of what a character sounded like (the wolf in Tenth Kingdom, the Hungry, dangerous wolf) then watched the movie and had to listen to the actor/or director's intrepretation of the character (i.e. whiny unpleasant wussy voice of the wolf in The Tenth Kingdom? Though the movie was pretty good, I was very put off by the movie wolf, when the book wolf was kinda cool. Sad for me.)
4. I take a lot of medicine, one of them a newer drug for nerve pain; I worry that it might affect my memory at some point. Don't really want to travel down that worry road, then I'll start worrying about brain damage via medication, or onset of Alzheimer's (that one is scary for me) anytime I can't think of a name of a person. I misplace a lot of books in the middle of reading them. Are they in my car? under my bed? My granddaughter's toy box? (she likes to pretend she is reading my books), did I loan any out and forget?
5. Recently moved from a cramped apartment to an actual house (hallelujiah) and have a lot of my books still in boxes.

Those are probably enough reasons to develop Book Attention Deficit Disorder, can't think of any other reasons at the moment (oh my god, there's that memory problem again!). At any rate I am very pleased that I have finished a book, started another one and am almost finished with that one. Some of the memorable books for 2008 for me were written by Lilith Saintcrow, Patricia Briggs and Terry Pratchett. The books that I finished (the ones I remember anyway) and really Enjoyed are

• Working for the Devil (Lilith Saintcrow) five books in that series
• Dead Man Rising (")
• Blood Bound (Patricia Briggs) three book series so far, more to come
• Iron Kissed (")
• Nation (Terry Pratchett)
• Making Money (")
• You Suck (Christopher Moore)
• Stormborn (Richelle Mead)
• Magic to the Bone (Devon Monk)

Some of the less memorable books lately (within the last two years)

• Incubus Dreams, Danse Macabre, The Harlequin, etc. by Laurell K Hamilton (hey I loved her first few books, enjoyed the middle few, but the last few? What? Why? - hey what happened? It went from horror, to just ... um.... yeah.... She has a way with words, used to have a good story , yeah okay hope it gets better.
• the Mona Lisa books by Sunny. Kind of ...um.... yeah.... sappy. A chip off the recent LKH block of ....um....yeah whatever. Okay, but not really enjoying the insecure-I- must- protect-all-the-supernaturally-strong-men-around-me-even-though-I'm-physically-weaker-and-human-just-found-out-I'm-only-part-human-type of heroine. Even though Sunny can be a good writer, and has interesting ideas with bits of humor thrown in, the dialogue between her characters are kind of lame, making them appear (to me anyway), as a little - stupid. (Hey -I know I can't do better than that - I'm a reader - not a writer, no real imagination here...)
• Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead. I was ready for some kick as Succubus demon action...good concept, but I would rather my succubus demon be less angsty, or whiny and guilt-ridden. Wasn't horrible, but really wasn't driven to buy the sequel, though I liked her other book (Stormborn), though I almost didn't buy it based on the style of Succubus Blues.
• Nightwalker (Jocelyn Drake) Couldn't finish it. Not sure why. I looked forward to it for a while (I surf the web for new authors to read), but just lost interest. I will actually try to read it again though.....as soon as I find it...where did I put it?...

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the above are horrible writers, they just didn't hold my interest either at the time, or anymore. Or in the case of LKH, she lost me. I still think she's a good writer, or could be, but ...that's a whole other post. Soon. I don't really want to post about books that straight up suck for me.

Just finishing up (two chapters to go - but here I am typing away, or is it keyboarding away?) Demon Bound by Meljean Brook. Great book. MelJean Brook has written (I think) four novels and one or two short stories. I've read her other three novels and they are all exceptional. She writes a good story, no lame dialogue ( I hate lame dialogue between characters that are supposed to be intelligent and ubertough - ruins a book for me everytime)

The book I just finished is Magic to the Bone by Devon Monk. It's set in Oregon in an alternate world, where magic has recently been discovered. The general populace actually believes that magic has in fact only recently developed or appeared. In this setting, using magic costs the user a price in body pain or memory loss. Miss Monk has developed a world where corporations are making money with magic and all the byproducts of magic use. "Offloading" where users don't have to pay a personal price , storage of magic, rights to magic, blackmarket magic uses, etc. Devon Monk has brought up a lot of interesting concepts. The book has suspense, murder, romance (nothing too sappy though - tired of sappy romance, probably a symptom of my encroaching aging), twists and turns. The heroine (Allie Beckstrom) doesn't have it easy, suffers from memory loss when she's not careful with her magic offloads, and doesn't have a special happily ever after. I really enjoyed this book a lot. I'm hoping Devon Monk is writing sequels to this....

I just searched the web for Devon Monk, because of course I haven't before this. The only site I could find that was close to a homepage for her was the Penguin book co... thing. She apparently has written many short stories, published in many SF magazines. This is the only novel I could find by her.

So Miss (actually she's a Mrs) Devon Monk, here's hoping that you write another Allison Beckstrom novel. Please. I would buy the next book by you, just seeing your name on the cover.