Madapollam Monday

madapollam ~ fine cotton cloth

One of the surest signs of spring is when the big white sign goes up on the lawn of Saint Peter’s Church announcing the annual book sale. It’s an event the daughter and I used to enjoy attending together.

Unfortunately, as is the way of things, the book sale has changed over the years. What started out as a fun local event where you could pick up a book or two for pennies has morphed into something . . . less enjoyable.

First of all, they’re no long accepting donations of magazines, which means they’re no longer offering them for sale. This is a shame because in my time I’ve picked up some really good ones – old National Geographics (yes, the same ones I had so much trouble getting rid of myself), and UNESCO Couriers, which is a magazine put out by the United Nations.

They used to group the books into categories like History, fiction, non-fiction, children’s, and sometimes you could find a real treasure amongst them. They’re still pretty good about separating them, but a few years ago they started a “Collector’s Corner” as well.

I don’t know who decides what books go onto this table, but if you like old books this is where you’d find them. With jacked up prices. What ticks me off is that all the books at the sale were donated, and while I can understand separating out books that might have some value, jacking up the prices of those books seems a little unreasonable. Especially considering many of these books end up unsold.

The buyers have changed a lot too. Instead of the friendly locals we’re getting more out of towners who are out to make a buck. There’s a lot more pushing and shoving and a lot less camaraderie. This year I was there right when the sale started and I found what I consider to be a few bargains, but I don’t think I’ll be going next year.

It’s the end of an era, folks.

St. Peter’s Booksale

I wait through winter dark
anticipating spring
I watch the ice recede,
leftover snow melting.
The days extend their length
the sun stays in the sky
the wind warms up the air
we bid the cold goodbye.
But for me the greatest sign
of spring is without fail
the lawn sign that proclaims
Saint Peter’s Book Sale.

What I'm Reading

I've definitely stopped binging on the books. As fun as it is, I can't keep it up forever - real life has a way of intruding. ;-)

Electronic Books

You know, I really have to start writing down the names of the books as I start reading them on the Kindle. My memory is sketchy at best and I don't keep them unless I really, really think I might read them again. So then, when it comes time to do this post I can't remember what I've read.

So I read a short book that I thought was a Y/A and turned out the point of the story was for the main character to hook up with her stepbrother. Then I read about two pages of what I thought was erotica but turned out to be bad porn. Next was a period piece called Under the Mistletoe (I think) which was actually quite good, followed by a vampire story that really wasn't.

Meanwhile I finished The Zombie, the Cat, and Barack Obama by Christopher Antony Meade. It wasn't exactly bad, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. It was a little wordy, like it was trying too hard, and some of the parts that were supposed to be funny ... weren't. You know how sometimes you watch a movie that's so bad it's good? This wasn't like that.

Currently I'm reading book one of a two book set called The Last Sunset by Frank Montgomery. It's a science fiction set in 2040, about a lawyer named Darius who would do anything to get his wife and unborn child off the planet before a meteor hits the Earth. He succeeds in getting her a seat on one of the shuttles headed for the moon base, but he could only get one ticket so he stays behind. He takes refuge in a mini bus filled with supplies that he parks in an underground parking structure when the meteor hits. I've just got to the part where he ventures out of the shelter for the first time in two weeks. I normally like disaster books, but this one is kind of ... meh. Maybe it's because I can't quite like the main character, Darius, who's somewhat of a shifty lawyer. But I'll probably keep reading, for a while at least, to see if he redeems himself.

Tree Books

Slowed right down to a crawl here.

I've been slowly plugging away at From the Dark by Michele Hauf. I'm still not very far into it, but I do like the two main characters and the way they interact with each other. It'll be interesting to see what happens when he finds out she's a witch and she finds out he's a vampire. :-)

Re-Reads

I have finished exactly one story in Liavek, edited by Will Shetterly and Emma Bull. This is a swords and sorcery fantasy with the stories taking place in the exotic city of Liavek, which is the central theme that ties them all together.

So ... what have you been reading lately?

What I'm Reading

My binge reading seems to be tapering off and I'm settling in to a nice, steady reading pace. Maybe it has something to do with running out of new Lynsay Sands books to read. But whatever the reason, I'm back to a nice, normal, two or three books a week again. :-D

Electronic Books

I'm still working on the boxed set of Looking For Love, by Rita Herron. I finished the first book Husband Hunting 101, and the second one, Here Comes the Bride, but I'm having trouble getting into the third one, Under the Covers.

Here Comes the Bride was just as hard to put down as Husband Hunting 101. The story starts out with identical twins, Kimberly and Marci who are are totally different in every other respect. So when Marci coerces Kimberly to do a 'twin switch' with her to pose as a hunky architect's fiancée and go home with him for a friend's wedding, Kimberly's not sure she can pull it off. I won't say much more to avoid spoilers, but it was another great read.

Under the Covers is about a marriage counselor whose book on marriage advice has just made the best seller list as a sex guide. The man she thought she was married to (turns out the preacher wasn't licensed) has just run off with another man, and she becomes involved with a reporter who's looking to make a name for himself by proving her to be a fraud. I haven't given up on this one yet, given that I enjoyed the other two so much, but the idea of this guy hooking up with her to seek revenge (he blames her for the break-up of his marriage) just doesn't float my boat.

So in the meantime, I've started reading The Zombie, the Cat, and Barack Obama by Christopher Antony Meade. I'm not too far into this book, but so far it's pretty funny and puts me in mind of Beers in Heaven by the irreverent Ford Forkum. We've met the cat and the zombie (who wants to try for a spot on Britain's Got Talent), I can't wait to see how Barack Obama fits into all this.

Tree Books

Only a slight binge here this week. I ran out of Lynsay Sands and Kerrelyn Sparks books to read, but found a couple of Katie MacAlister books on my to-be-read bookcase. I think the thing I like best about her books, aside from the steamy sex and humour, is that her heroines are real women. They're not perfect - they have a few extra pounds, they speak without thinking, they even have some pretty obvious flaws. They're probably the most realistic characters I've ever read.

Ain't Myth-behaving is actually two books in one. First we have Stag Party which surprised me by being from the man's point of view. Dane Hearne (aka the Irish god Cernunnos) needs to find a bride, and fast. He needs to be married by Beltane, which is a week away, and his old goddess has run off with a salsa dancer. He's found the perfect woman in travel writer Megan St. Clair, but can he convince her in time? This book is fast paced and hilarious, and Dane is forever spouting lines that would be insanely cheesey under any other circumstances. I couldn't read it fast enough.

The second book was Norse Truly, about a group of Vikings who are forced to forever sail the same stretch of coastline unless they can find a way break their curse. Enter Brynna who's in Sweden visiting relatives. It turns out that not only is her great-great (great) grandmother the one who laid the curse on Alrik and his men, but Brynna is a hereditary Valkyrie. Brynna becomes their last, best hope for leaving the earthly plane and going to Valhalla. But Brynna's fallen in love with the hunky Viking Alrik and dreads the thought of facing the future without him, which is what will happen if she breaks the curse.

I couldn't stop there and the next book I wolfed down was It's All Greek to Me, also by Katie MacAlister. I really loved the heroine, Harry, in this book. She has a temper and she's not afraid to defend herself, not even against the brother of the hunky Greek billionaire playboy whose house she's staying in while she runs herd on the band who're there to perform for a birthday party. She's actually a writer, but she's watching the band as a favour to a friend. I loved the chemistry between her and Iakovos, right from the start, and how she wasn't afraid to act on it. I loved the way she kept deliberately mispronouncing his last name, and I loved the way she never played coy, she always said exactly what she thought. She just might be one of my favourite characters of all time.

Next I decided to start working on the 20 or so unread Silhouette Nocturnes I have my shelf. I'm starting with From the Dark by Michele Hauf, but I haven't got very far into it yet. All I know is that it's about a vampire.

Once upon a time, Silhouette had a series called Silhouette Shadows, which were paranormal romances, and the first category romances I ever subscribed to. The series was up to about #66, I think, when Silhouette was bought out by Harlequin. I guess Harlequin didn't realize how popular paranormal romance had become, because they axed the series. Then, realizing their mistake, they started the Dreamscape series, which was pretty much the Silhouette Shadows re-released under the new banner with new covers. I guess I wasn't the only outraged fan, because the series didn't last long. Shortly after that, we were presented with Silhouette Nocturne, which was just what we readers were waiting for.

Re-Reads

I started re-reading an anthology called Liavek, edited by Will Shetterly and Emma Bull. This is a swords and sorcery fantasy with the stories taking place in the exotic city of Liavek. And I have to admit I haven't even made it through the first story yet, but I'm sure it won't take me long to pick up the pace.

So ... what have you been reading lately?

What I'm Reading

Holy moley it's been a while, hasn't it? About six months, if anyone's been keeping track.

The thing about doing posts about what I'm reading is that they only work if I'm actually reading. I went through a prolonged dry spell for the first part of the year and while I've been doing more reading lately, I've also been pretty busy and I just haven't got around to doing a blog post about it.

Ready? Then here we go ...

Electronic Books

Two books to report here this week. There would have been more but I'm not going to waste space on the two books I deleted just a couple of pages in, and there was another one that I did read, but I can't remember what it is.

One book I read, and thoroughly enjoyed, was The Obituary Society by Jessica Randall. Lila Moore just wants to fit in somewhere and when she inherits her grandfather's house she has hopes that she's found herself a home. But though the small town is full of people who knew her family and are happy she's there, there are some dark secrets and a lot of strange goings on. Part mystery and part horror with a dash of romance, this book has a fast moving plot and great characters. And as a bonus, the author includes a couple of the coveted recipes mentioned in the story.

Currently I'm reading a boxed set, called Looking For Love, by Rita Herron. The first book is called Husband Hunting 101, the story of commitment phobic Zachery who's finding it hard to resist Jenna, his new advertising client who's made it plain she's ready to settle down and get married. I'm really enjoying the interaction between these two and I'm pretty sure it's not going to take me long to finish it.

Tree Books

I kind of went on a binge here. First I came into possession of a couple of boxes of science fiction books and I had a hard time resisting diving right in. Amongst the other treasures I acquired were the Catteni Books by Anne McCaffrey. Freedom's Landing, Freedom's Choice, Freedom's Challenge, and Freedom's Ransom tell the tale of Kris Bjornsen and the Catteni Emasi Zainal as they're dropped, with a few hundred others, mostly humans, on a distant world where they struggle to survive. Not only do they survive, they thrive, and eventually win their freedom from the Eosi oppression. This is science fiction at its best and if you enjoy tales of survival, you don't want to miss these books. Unfortunately, they're not available in e-format, you'll have to scour the used bookstores for them - they're definitely worth the search.

After my sci fi binge, I went on a vampire binge. Specifically, Lynsay Sands' Argeneau vampires. In short order I read, One Lucky Vampire, Hungry For You, and Born to Bite. There's like 22 books in this series now, and I'm pretty sure I have them all. They're funny, hot, and exciting. And did I mention that one bite will turn you 25 forever?

I followed these up with How to Seduce a Vampire (Without Really Trying) by Kerrelyn Sparks. Though her vampires are a little more traditional, they're still yummy. The saddest thing about this book is the notification at the end that she's going to take a hiatus from the series. Hopefully it won't be for long.

Re-Reads

You'd think with all the other reading I have (I cleaned up my to-be-read bookcases and found a vast number of treasures there) I wouldn't have time for re-reading, but such is not the case. Just this week I reread Sun in Glory by Mercedes Lackey. This is a book of stories from her land of Valdemar. Technically I guess you could call it fan fiction, because of the 13 stories only one is written by Ms. Lackey. And it's just as good the second time around.

So ... what have you been reading lately?

Mucronate Monday

mucronate ~ terminating in a sharp point

Do you think if we changed the name of the day to something else it would make Mondays more tolerable?

Yeah, I didn't think so.

I made an important discovery over the weekend. I've got a lot of books. :-)

Yeah, I know this really isn't news. But remember the SF books I was going through last week? Out of 14 or 15 boxes that I was offered, I only ended up with two full boxes and the daughter took a half a box. And quite frankly I was really regretting not taking more ... until yesterday morning.

Yesterday morning I found myself going through the two bookcases and large basket that hold my to-be-read stash of books, organizing them as well as trying to thin out the herd. Some were books I will read and keep, some were ones I will read and then discard, very few were ones I was willing to part with unread.

Still, I managed to fill three boxes with a mix of hardback and paperback books, and one box full of textbooks that will be great as kindling some night when we have a fire outside. I don't normally advocate for burning books, but these textbooks are out of date and all marked up, so I can't even donate them.

However, I still have two boxes of science fiction paperbacks, so really, I only got rid of one box of books. *sigh* But the good news is, I've been making more time to read lately, so maybe I'll even do a post about it on Friday. ;-)

This working for a living is for the birds. While the interviews I'm transcribing are really interesting, they're seriously cutting into my gaming time. And now that I've acquired all those lovely sci fi books, I kinda want to read them.

The audio I'm working from is pretty bad, which makes the whole process a little frustrating, but I'm hoping it'll get better.

The highlight of the week last week was the appearance of a mouse in the house. I heard some noises under the couch in the living room last week and one of the cats let me know there was something under there. So the hubby and I moved the couch and though I saw the mouse, we weren't fast enough to catch it. I think it ended up hiding inside the couch. Then, a couple of days later, late in the evening, it scuttled from under the couch, across the floor, and under the TV stand on the other side of the living room. Right in front of one of the cats. The TV stand is large and wedge shaped, so there was lots of room for Mr. Mouse to hide from the cat. Dante kept vigil for about an hour or so before giving up. We think the mouse escaped though the vent.

I don't know whether that is one brave mouse, or one suicidal mouse. ;-)

You'll notice that is no picture of the orchid today. Poor, sad little orchid. All of the buds did indeed open, but before the last one did, one of the blossoms fell off. I have no idea why because it was right in the middle of the stalk. And a couple of days later it's mate on the other side of the stalk dropped off too, so there are only eight blossoms still.

Guess I'm no longer the orchid whisperer.

Magnality Monday

magnality ~ wonderful or great thing

I swear the weather lately is on drugs, and potent drugs at that.

After a pleasantly warm week, Saturday was insanely hot and humid, despite being overcast and rainy. Sunday, however, was incredibly cold and rainy. We're talking "put your jacket on if you have to go outside" cold.

Colour me unimpressed! And apparently this is supposed to be the pattern for the rest of the summer.

So . . . remember how I was supposed to be weeding out books from my office? Well, a funny thing happened last week. I went to the gym on Thursday and a couple of members were talking about these books one of them had to get rid of . . . science fiction books. To make a long story short, she had a van full of boxes of books that were destined for donation to a charity yard sale, but she was willing to let me go through them first. Since her time was limited, we loaded half the boxes (six of them) into my truck so I could go through them over the weekend.

It would have been so easy to just take them all. But two things stopped me. First, my shelf space is limited (which is why I'd been trying to weed out books in the first place). And second, so is my reading time.

And I guess maybe a third thing would be how unimpressed the hubby would be. I'm already fortunate that book hoarding isn't grounds for divorce. ;-)

If I could do nothing else but read all day, I might have kept more that I did. But although I have been making an effort to work in a little more reading lately, it would take me the rest of my life to read all those books. So I showed great restraint and only kept a box and a half.

I get to go through the rest of them today. :-)

And of course just when I have all these new books to read, I pick up another oral history project to transcribe so my free time will be limited for the foreseeable future.

But don't worry, very little of my writing/editing schedule will change. What will change is the amount of time I've been wasting on games and mindless surfing. Who knows, maybe I'll even develop some good working habits for a change.

As mind boggling as it is, I now have nine blossoms open on my orchid's bloom stalk and the tenth one is almost there. The last time I was this excited about an orchid was for this one:

I grew this orchid from a seedling and it took seven years for it to blossom. And I'm really glad I took several pictures of it because shortly after this I moved it from the window ledge to a counter top where it still got lots of light, but it was also in direct line of the cold air coming from the air conditioner.

This is when I learned an important lesson about orchids. They do not like cold air.

*sigh*

What I'm Reading

Sad to say, but I haven't got a lot of reading in lately. I've been busy doing other things, like editing and crocheting.

Electronic Books

I haven't given up on my electronic reading, honest! Though I haven't made it to the treadmill or exercise bike yet, for added incentive I was given a copy of Flame and Stone, Book One of the Dunning Manor series by Jamie DeBree. You can find out more about it in last week's post. But George is all charged up and ready to go and I can't wait to re-read it!

Tree Books

I'm a little further along in Horns, by Joe Hill. I don't know that I particularly like this book, but I paid full price for it and I'm curious to find out how Ig ended up with the horns. Those two things are just enough motivation to keep me going. Ig has discovered a couple of new abilities, and for some reason snakes are really attracted to him. So there's some interesting stuff going on. And it seems like his ex-friend Lee has a couple of abilities of his own, which make him impervious to Ig's influence.

A friend of mine passed along a copy of The Minister's Daughter by Julie Hearn. I haven't got very far in it but it appears to be part historical, set in the time of the Salem witch trials, and part fantasy. Should be an interesting read.

Re-Reads

The reading is going slowly on The Fantastic Imagination II. This is not a book of light reading, this is high fantasy at its best and needs to be savoured.

So like I said, the reading has been a little on the light side lately. But the weather's been very wintery lately, cold and snowy and perfect for reading. So hopefully I'll be able to pick up the pace in the week ahead.

And also in the week ahead I'm hoping to update my Goodreads. I really need to do this before it gets ahead of me like it did last year.

So . . . what about you? Read any good books lately?

What I'm Reading

Disclaimer:
I am by no means a professional book reviewer, so don't expect to find a well-thought out, profession review here. What I will be giving is my opinion, more or less. And as such, I will only be reviewing books that I have enjoyed. As a writer myself I see no need to trash someone else's work at great length. And also, as a writer, I have writing friends. So I may also shamelessly plug one of their books from time to time. It's my blog and I'll plug if I want to. :-D

Welcome to my first monthly book review. As you can see, I'm not off to an auspicious start, being late with this post, but I'm here now, so that's something anyway. The idea behind these reviews is to encourage me to finish at least one book a month, and to keep up with Goodreads. I really need to get into the habit of adding books to Goodreads as I finish them and leaving a note or two on whether I liked them or not.

I'd like to take a moment to encourage everyone to leave even a sentence or two on Amazon, or Goodreads, or wherever the book you just finished can be found. Show some love to the authors who've worked so hard for your enjoyment. Especially if it's an indie author (self-published), or lesser known author. Reviews can translate into sales, which translates into more of the books you enjoy.

On to the good stuff!

I'd like to start with a shameless plug for a book that's just been released today by my writing buddy Jamie DeBree. The book is Flame and Stone, and it's awesome! And I'm not just saying that because Jamie is my friend. It's her first paranormal romance and I hope it'll be far from her last. Just go buy a copy, you won't be sorry!

It takes a lot of heat to melt a heart of stone…

Flames once put the heartbroken Thomas Grady under the ancient curse of an old manor house. Two hundred years later, fire fueled by an unholy passion drives Katie Watson to the same manor for protection. Assigned as her guardian under duress, Thomas just wants to do his job and go back to his perch at the top of the manor.

Katie falls hard for her new protector, even as they’re planning an intervention for her nemesis. Now that she’s found him, she refuses to give him up – even if that means she has to travel through both time and space to make it happen…

Read an excerpt from this book on Jamie's webiste
Or better yet, just go get your copy right now!
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
All Romance
Smashwords


Despite having read all those Nora Roberts books at the beginning of the month, the book I chose to review today is Hunting the Corrigan's Blood by Holly Lisle.

Before she had even taken the job, Cadence Drake, a professional finder of lost things, regains consciousness to discover herself in a sealed space station locker, her sole companion the corpse of a stranger.

But Cadence has a personality problem: she's stubborn. Trying to scare her off was the worst thing the mystery perps could have done.

Now she and her friend and partner Badger are in the employ of an ultra-rich manufacturer of top-of-the-line starships, seeking a stolen spaceship - the Corrigan's Blood, a hypership with almost supernatural capabilities. And the trail they follow, which began with the dead woman in the locker, throws Cadence into the path of smugglers, thieves, and killers, and leads to the one place in the universe that she doesn't dare go.

Home.

This book was science fiction at its best. There was adventure and amazing technology and more twists and turns than a roller coaster. I loved the character of Cadence Drake - that girl could really take a licking and keep on ticking. And even when she knows that doing the right thing could lead to tragedy, she does it anyway, because it's the right thing to do. She and her partner Badger are bound by more than bonds of friendship. Although they are not lovers, they were once, and you can't help rooting for them to get back together. Her mother goes beyond cold-hearted. The things she's done, and is still doing . . . I don't want to give out any spoilers, but there's a twist to this novel that shouldn't work, but it does. The ending does not wrap things up neatly, there are still battles to be fought, wounds to heal, and it will leave you wishing for more, but you won't begrudge Cadence some time to have a rest. She's earned it.

What I'm Reading

A few of you out there might remember how in the late spring I had the bright idea of converting the closet in my office into a reading nook. I'd seen a picture of one on Facebook and thought it would be a perfect use for the space behind my desk. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, and it took forever to catalogue the science fiction and fantasy books I filled it with, but the nook is finally done. And man, was it ever worth the work!

It's even more comfy than it looks and I don't have to fight the cats for it any more - they don't like the extra cushion I have in it for my back. :-D

Electronic Books

Still nothing to report here, sad to say. However things should pick up this coming week because I plan to get back on the exercise bike. And while the hubby likes to listen to music while he rides, I much prefer reading. And my Kindle is much easier to hang onto than a tree book.

Tree Books

I'm not quite to the halfway point in Horns, by Joe Hill. And to be perfectly honest, my interest in it is waning. It's divided into sections - the first section had the main character, Ig, waking up with a hangover and the horns starting to grow out of his head, and then as he learns about the new powers these horns give him, we also get some back story about him and the death of this girlfriend. The second section was a flashback to when Ig was a boy and how he first met Merrin. I'll probably keep reading, if nothing else than to satisfy my curiosity. So far I have rather mixed feelings about it. The story definitely pulls you along, but I'm not sure how I feel about Ig, and the situation he's in has no explanation so far.

I may have ignored my writing yesterday in favour of reading Blue Dahlia, by Nora Roberts. Yes, the whole thing in one sitting. It's the first in the In the Garden trilogy. It centered around a woman named Stella, who loses her husband in an accident and now has to raise their two young sons alone. She ends up moving from Michigan to Tennessee to be closer to her father, and finds a job working in a garden center. Of course there's a lot more to it than that, like the fact that the woman she works for is a kindred spirit, there's a hunky co-worker whom she's attracted to but who irritates the crap out of her, and there's a ghost who's seriously attached to Stella's two boys. Obviously it was a great read, and I can't wait to start the next one.

Re-Reads

I started reading Captivated by Nora Roberts, book one of the Donovan Legacy. I've read these books before, but after finishing Blood Magick, I was in the mood for more of her magical books, and this was the first one I laid my hands on. I haven't got very far in it though, I kind of got distracted by Blue Dahlia.

I finished reading The Best of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine Volume 2. I think what I liked best about this anthology was the variety of stories. Unlike her Swords and Sorceress series, they didn't revolve around a central theme. Not that I didn't enjoy that series, but sometimes it's nice to have some variety.

Considering the size of my to-be-read pile - more like a bookcase - I really shouldn't be indulging in re-reads. But sometimes the brain wants what the brain wants.

So . . . what about you? What have you been reading lately?

What I'm Reading

Regular readers of this blog will know that I kind of slacked off in the reading department over the holidays. Sometimes it was just too hard to fit time to read in. Plus I had issues with tiredness, as in it was hard to keep my eyes open some nights.

But I'm back, and further more I've been getting some reading in. One of my resolutions was to read for an hour a day and so far I've been sticking to it. Not always all at once, mind you. Sometimes I spread the hour out in bits and pieces over the course of the day.

Previously I had a bunch of books I was pretty much neglecting, so I think in honour of the new year I'm going to start fresh and only discuss books I'm actually reading.

And as promised in my 'goals for the year' post, I'll be doing a book review once a month, probably at the end of the month.

Electronic Books

Poor George. He's been very neglected as of late. Part of the problem is that I have a lot of crap on George. In the beginning I went a little crazy downloading free books. Any and all free books. And it turns out that there's a reason most of those books were free.

And another problem is that when I open a book on George it's pretty much a crap shoot. There's no blurb on the back of the book to check, so you're pretty much judging a book by its cover. Unless you have a computer nearby so you can look the book up and then make an informed decision on whether you want to read it or not.

Now a smart person would take a day (or two, or a whole week) and go through the books they have stored, checking out whether they were really worth downloading, putting them in categories to make it easier to choose a book to fit their mood . . . But no one every accused me of being overly smart. Besides, I started moving the books I was keeping into categories as I finished reading them, just to keep them separate.

So in other words, I have not been reading much in the way of electronic books lately.

Tree Books

I've got two books on the go here. The first is Horns, by Joe Hill. There was a movie starring Daniel Radcliff made from this novel, which was what attracted me in the first place. So far it's a very strange story about Ignatius Perrish, a man who's girlfriend was raped and murdered about a year before the story takes place. Ig was suspected of the crime, but there wasn't enough proof to support the claim. The story begins the morning after a night of drunkenness when Ig wakes up with a horrific hangover and a set of horns beginning to grow out of his head. And then he discovers the people he encounters tell him exactly what's on their minds. If he touches them he can learn their deepest, darkest secrets. And if he tells them to do something, they do it.

The other book is Blood Magick, by Nora Roberts, Book Three of the Cousins O'Dwyer trilogy. I'm trying to make this book last, I really am, but it's not easy. It's warm and witchy and full of romance and suspense. A friend has been lending these books to me, but I just might have to break down and buy my own set, they're that good.

Re-Reads

I finished reading Hunting the Corrigan's Blood by Holly Lisle. This was an excellent book - science fiction at its best. It was fast paced and full of twists and turns. Cadence Drake is a character you can really root for, especially after all the obstacles she's forced to overcome. My only complaint is that it's not part of a series. I wanted the adventure to continue, even after the end.

I finished reading The Best of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine Volume 1 and now I'm working my way through Volume 2. The title is pretty self explanatory. Marion published her own fantasy magazine from 1988 through 2000, and these two collections of the best of that magazine.

And that's pretty much it for now. A small list compare to some of the ones last year, but I think I have a better chance of finishing what I start if I keep it short.

So . . . what about you? What have you been reading lately?

What I'm Reading

In a perfect world I'd be able to sit outside in a lounge chair sipping lemonade and reading to my heart's content. But the world is far from perfect and circumstances seem determined to keep me from reading as much as I'd like. :-)

Electronic Books

The book I had the hubby pick out that I talked about last week? Lost it. It might have helped if I remembered what it was called, or who wrote it, or if I hadn't decided to update the books on my Kindle . . . Anyway, it got lost in the shuffle.

But I did remember to take George with me to the doctor's office where I got to read for more than an hour. I started reading Thirteen, a collection of crime stories by a group called the Mesdames of Mayhem. I'm enjoying it more than I expected - not only are the stories cleverly done, there's a good deal of humour to them as well.

Tree Books

One of these days I'm going to just sit down and finish Hunting the Corrigan's Blood by Holly Lisle. It's like out of sight out of mind - right now it's out of sight in the piles of books in my office. ;-)

One of the perks of having writing friends is when they give you their books to read before they're published. My friend Deborah Lean passed me a book she'd written, asking for my opinion. It was a departure from her usual crime dramas, this one was more of a contemporary slice of life. I'm not really sure how I'd categorize it, but I thoroughly enjoyed it despite the fact it was a BIG book. ;-)

Needless to say, I never did get back to Water For Elephants, by Sara Gruen. *sigh* Did I mention I don't seem to be able to make as much time for reading as I'd like lately?

Re-Reads

Sisters in Fantasy, is another book that I started and then promptly misplaced. I think one of the problems with it is that I like to read anthologies one story at a time and the first couple of stories were rather long. I just don't have the time to commit to long stories right now.


I've been slowly but surely moving the hardback Science Fiction and Fantasy books into my nook. I'm starting to think I just might have room for them all after all. :-)

But I'm rediscovering old favourites and it's getting really, really hard to resist them. Like . . . Michael Moorcock's Elric Saga, or Roger Zelazny's Amber series.

I think I'm ready for that lounge chair any time now. ;-)