Jun 13, 2014

What I'm Reading




On the one hand, I may need to learn to pace myself, but on the other hand, I have so many books on my Kindle that I really do need to step up my efforts to get them all read. :-D

Before I get into the books though. . . anybody else out there on Goodreads? I signed up a couple of years ago and I think it's a great way of keeping track of the amount of reading a person does. However, for one reason or another, I fell behind in entering the books I've finished into my account and now with the year half gone I'm wondering whether I should try and catch up (at least with the books I can remember reading), enter the current books, or just leave it until the new year. What do you think?

Electronic Books

Reading while riding the stationary bike has given my electronic reading a big boost. A little too big at times because I tend to keep reading once the ride is over. And furthermore *hangs head in shame* I have not been reading the books I already started.

Therefore, there was no progress on The Cobweb Bride by Vera Nazarian, Mr. Love by Sally Mason, or Dark Love by Claudy Conn. I'm still leaving these ones listed because I will finish them. Eventually.

I finally finished the Darlings of Paranormal Romance collection. The final book was Keeper, by Tiffany Evans. I was actually enjoying it until it abruptly stopped so you'd have to buy the next book to find out what happens.

So . . . I didn't even have to think twice about deleting Darlings of Paranormal Romance from my Kindle. While the adult stories were somewhat interesting, they were for the most part poorly written, the exception being Tuesday's Child, by Dale Mayer, which I downloaded as a standalone. While the young adult offerings were better reads than the adult, all but one ended on a cliff hanger.

Now there are cliff hangers and there are cliff hangers. Sometimes a story is so big it needs to be told in segments that span more than one book. Each segment tells a piece of that bigger story and reaches a logical conclusion before moving on to the next segment that moves the bigger story forward. Are you following me? Think Lord of the Rings. Each book told a segment of the story as a whole. But these Y/A stories did not come to any kind of conclusion within their segment, they stopped abruptly in the midst of the action and as far as I'm concerned, it's just a ploy to get you to buy the next book.

Have I mentioned that cliff hangers are a pet peeve of mine? ;-)

After washing my hands of the Darlings, I was in the mood for something completely different, so I opened up Fashionably Dead, by Robyn Peterman. This is a hilarious story of a woman who goes to get hypnotized to stop smoking and ends up getting turned into a vampire. To make matters worse, she's saddled with a foul-mouthed guardian angel who looks like Oprah and a Faerie who looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger whose job it is to train her to fight in an upcoming battle against the forces of evil - namely her mother and her demon father. For a good time, go ahead and download it. It's free. :-)

I finished that one pretty quickly, and now I'm about halfway through Do Me, Do My Roots, by Eileen Rendahl. So far most of the action takes place during the monthly hair dye and munchies get together between three sisters. The story centers mostly around the youngest sister, Emily, who's been widowed for two years and is ready to get back into action.

Tree Books

I still haven't gotten back to Hunting the Corrigan's Blood by Holly Lisle. One of these days . . .

Re-Reads

I read another couple stories from Sword and Sorceress V, which puts me just over the halfway point. What can I say, this is a book to be savoured. ;-)

And I've kept up my interest in Memory and Dream by Charles de Lint. I've only got about a third to a quarter of it to go, but I'd like to take my time. It's just one of those stories you never want to end.

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