23 posts tagged “books”

OK, I've been super busy. So I haven't been blogging on my personal blog as much. I'm very sorry, I just am losing my mind.

In June I completely rearranged my living room, which happens to be where I have my four overstuffed bookcases. I also painted it and the hallway a lovely orangey melon colour. (Thanks for the help, Melanie! I loves ya, MWAH!) I've nearly picked out my colours for the kitchen/dining room, too.

I also started a photography website and have spent so much time setting up the blog there and what have you. It's kept me so busy that i just haven't been keeping up with my regular blog.

I barely finished my reading for June! And July? Oy it's the 15th now and I've finished three books, one of which I can't even use for my 9 book challenge. Yikes!

I'm trying to get my house together for our new exchange student, get some rooms arranged better, that sort of thing. I've already tackled the majority of the boys' room so next up is this extra room of confusion and the spare room for the exchange student (Yay for Som!). My problem is I'm STUMPED for what to do with these two rooms. (Shameless begging for ideas here. Anyone wanna decorate and rearrange with me?)

I've also been busy with some photo jobs. Yay!

So now you know where I've been and have my appology. I promise to start things back up when I have more time. I think I need to figure out my new schedule... hahaha. It's hard to fit in reading, homeschool, cleaning, rearranging, photography business, shopping, cooking, gardening, or the 800 other things I am doing each and every day. Oh the joys of being a mom!

So what did I read in June? Well let me tell you, the challenge this month was rough. And not helped by all those books getting pulled off my shelf and dumped into four nearly tall as me stacks in my bedroom. And since I haven't decided about my baseboards, the books are still stacked in my bedroom. I really do not want to put them back up until I paint the baseboards. However that's not happening any time soon sooooo... yeah. Colour me frustrated.

June's challenge was to pick 9 books from the first 20 pages tagged "paranormal-romance" at goodreads.com.

Yikes. That scared me, but as I learned in a previous challenge that sometimes all it takes to be named paranormal-romance is for... it to be a book. (Seriously, some of those books I am STILL trying to figure out where the romance was!)

My problem was I have over 200 books, there was no way I was gonna buy any more. No freaking way. I had to struggle to find books on my shelf that were already sitting here. Which put me behind because there's a book I swore I'd read so I could put a podcast up this month. (Yeah I need to find the time to get the podcast up and running again. I need a time and space travel device... Doctor Floyd? You out there?)

Somehow I managed to do it. Whew. Lucky for me some series that I read had new books that my mother brought to me. Well she was going to anyway so I looked at that as OK. And I began reading. Got distracted. Read some more. Still distracted.

But, with three hours until midnight local time on June 30th? I finished. I closed up my last book for the challenge and sighed with relief. Whew.

I broke 75 in June with that last book. Seventy five books for 2009. Go me!!!!

Some of these books were not high on my list of "I want to read right now" but they were on my shelf so I went for them.

1. Because Your Vampire Said So - Michele Bardsley
2. Romancing the Dead - Tate Hallaway
3. Dead and Gone - Charlaine Harris
4. Undead and Unwelcome - MaryJanice Davidson
5. Dead if I do - Tate Hallaway
6. You Slay Me - Katie McAlister
7. Hunter's Moon - Lori Handelhand
8. Fire Me Up - Katie McAlister
9. Like a Charm - Candance Havens

Most were brain candy quick reads. Which worked well for me for June, what can I say. I just didn't have the time to devote to reading. Because of aforementioned distractions.

Most were interesting. But I don't even feel like giving up full reviews. So let's just go short and sweet for each:

1. Because Your Vampire Said So - Michele Bardsley -- Ok, so it's another Broken Hearts, Oklahoma story. I gotta say I still like the fact that this author just dumps every supernatural thing you can muster up into one little book. That said, this one wasn't near as enjoyable of a 3 hour escape because the main character's voice was annoying for the first half the book. She chilled and got normal after that.

2. Romancing the Dead - Tate Hallaway -- I still love that Goddess dwelt Garnet. Crazy girl!

3. Dead and Gone - Charlaine Harris -- Yes, finally the new Sookie but Oh. My. Gosh. It's gone mega on the dark. I don't want to spoil but I nearly cried at the end. Let's just say that it got bad. Real bad. I don't even know what to expect next. I was so stoked to read it but man... Charlaine got mean. To everyone. It was interesting to watch the were's "come out". Go shifters!

4. Undead and Unwelcome - MaryJanice Davidson -- I love that shoe obsessed Queen Betsy! Long unLive the Queen! This one was sad because she was dealing with the aftermath of the death of her werewolf bud. While she's off in New England dealing with that, Devil Spawn Sister goes a little nutso and that was a bit worriesome. Mama Lucy shows up, and I love that... but whew. It wasn't near as dark as Charlaine's, but wow the two back to back sent shivers up and down my spine.

5. Dead if I do - Tate Hallaway -- Yay Garnet is getting married, if her fiancee's Vambie (Zompire??) ex's curse doesn't bring the whole event crashing down. Love it!

6. You Slay Me - Katie McAlister -- This is the first Aisling Grey novel. It was OK. I definitely like the idea of a Wyvern Mate Guardian over the portals of you know where gallavanting around Europe solving murders. What a creative idea. I do love the fact she's gotta do this all while not at all sure what any of that means.

7. Hunter's Moon - Lori Handelhand -- Nazi Werewolves. Again, need I say more? Everything is better with Nazi's. Though this one had a seriously damaged main character that I had a hard time getting to the point where I cared about her.

8. Fire Me Up - Katie McAlister - Aisling number 2. She's still clueless so she goes to a conclave of supernatural sorts. In another European town. Love it! But not enough to throw this series to my "must reads" list or anything. Good filler book.

9. Like a Charm - Candance Havens - Now this was an interesting change of pace. What I liked: Library to Ghosts. Seriously? That's hillarious. What I didn't like: Hippies in country trotting business and Virgins who give it up after decades of virginity for almost nothing. You wanna throw in the smut, just don't make the chick a virgin. Thank you. It just seems lame to me. Like I WAS going to wait for marriage and all, but suddenly since meeting you yesterday I'll just chuck that out the window. After all, I'm like 30 whatever now. So sure. It's about time. *SIGH*

So there you have it. That's my update for June. Unfortunately none of these fit into the alphabet challenge. That's OK, the book I'm currently reading does! Huzzah! So here's the stats:

Books completed in June: 9
Books completed in 2009: 75
Books completed for alphabet challenge: 19

ABC Challenge Titles Read:
The) Accidental Werewolf by Dakota Cassidy
Blueberry Muffin Murder by JoAnne Fluke
Circus of the Darned by Katie Maxwell
Dead Over Heels by Mary Janice Davidson
Echoes by Nathan P Butler
Fudge Cupcake Murder by JoAnne Fluke
Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
Heaven by Mur Lafferty
I Love You To Death by Amy Garvey
J
K
Lemon Meringue Pie Murder by JoAnne Fluke
My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon by Various
N
(The) Other Woman by Jane Green
Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich
Q
(Doctor Who: The) Resurrection Casket
(The) Scot, the Witch and the Wardrobe by Annette Blair
Tall, Dark and Dead by Tate Hallaway
U
(The) Vampire of Venice Beach by Jennifer Colt
Welcome to the Jungle
X
Your Planet or Mine by Susan Grant
Z

--Lady O
PS Feel free to go see my blog posts over at emeraldlens.info if you want to see some of the photography I've been doing and more on the trips we've taken. :)

Oh dear, I'm playing with words and phrases. I believe this reading thing has run away with my brain!

Never fear, I will track down my brain long enough to get through this blog entry! Perhaps... You just never know with me!

To say my May was going to be busy? Understatement. BIG understatement. A look at my calendar said that I'd be in Baltimore 12 days out of 31. Oh and not in a row, either. No! That would be far too easy! Four days there, five days home... you get the idea. Sure there were going to be fun times, but where would I find the ability to read nine books?

Throughout April I hoped the May challenge would be easy. Maybe I could grab some of these little books off the shelves. Or ones I knew I could blow through fast. Yeah!

Alas, that was not to be for May's challenge. At first glance it doesn't sound too bad. One book for each year of the decade. That's easy, after all I have an entire bookcase of things to pick from. Surely I can find enough things to cover me from '01-'09!

Except I wasn't going to be home. What if I grabbed something and it didn't work out for me? I wouldn't be able to go grab something else! Yikes.

Then inspiration struck! Looking at my shelves, which were super packed, I noticed Harry Dresden taking up a heck of a lot of real estate. As it turns out, there's eleven of those books. I'd only read two. That means... NINE! But... they took up a lot of real estate... Yay! I can free up some much needed space! Yikes! How can I plow through those!

I checked the books out... more than 3600 pages. I looked at the calendar again... roughly 15 days. Nineteen if I could read on the business trip. I would have to read over 160 pages a day without fail in order to finish.

Maybe I could get by without any big projects, right? After all, my sewing would be done! Costume Con started on the 1st of May. Anything not completed for that? Tough! Too late! I didn't realize that I'd get all sucked into the joy of costuming even more at the convention. Ooops. I came home and in a fit of insanity decided I could make an entirely new costume before leaving for Balticon on May 22nd.

I'm a glutton for punishment.

I really needed to get those books off my shelves. All four were completely double stacked again. How many books do I currently have? I just counted. 244. That's right. How is this happening? I started off the year with just over 200 and I've already read over 60. Simple math says the number should be more like 140ish. How do I have 100 more books than that?

I can tell you how. Books breed like a hybrid between a tribble and a rabbit. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Of course things like "Hey hon! I'm taking two and dropping off three!" coming from my mother really not helpful to the great "get through the TBR and reclaim my bookcase" plan of 2009. On the bright note it DOES help the "I can't die if I still have books to read" plan!

Did I mention that glutton for punishment thing?

I finished two other books in May as well. See, I told you! My mother says it is the dancer in me. She claims anyone as masochistic as someone that dances on pointe has got to be a little crazy and an absolute glutton for punishment. I'd like to point (haha pun ABSOLUTELY intended) that SHE was the one who ponied up the cash and kept me going to dance classes. I blame any inanity on her. Dr Freud says that's OK.

Really, what happened was I needed something to read to tide me over until May hit and I could start working on the May challenge. I knew the Maximum Ride books wouldn't take very long so I went ahead and started it. I just didn't finish it until a few days into May. (I did mention Costume Con... right?) After finishing the Dresden books, I needed something to kind of cleanse my pallet. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed them... but by the time I was done I was DONE. I just needed something to unwind and get my brain reset. You know, like smelling coffee after checking out perfumes. What better than a Jane Green book. They are fluffy, they are different, and they are QUICK. So there I was on the evening of the 31st of May zipping through a Green novel.

Because I read nine books that were all in one series, I'm going to do this entry a little different. (Besides, it's long enough already, right?) I'm going to lump them together into one review. Yay!

May 9 in '09 Challenge
2001: Grave Peril
2002: Summer Knight
2003: Death Masks
2004: Blood Rites
2005: Dead Beat
2006: Proven Guilty
2007: White Night
2008: Small Favor
2009: Turn Coat

All by Jim Butcher. These are the Harry Dresden books, The Dresden Files 3-11.

I also read:
Book 10: Maximum Ride: The Final Warning by James Patterson
Book 11: The Other Woman by Jane Green

One good thing? I managed to add to my Alphabet Challenge, too! YAY! I'm nearing completion with that! I'll list it at the end under the stats for May.

Reviews:
Books 1-9: The Harry Dresden books. Harry is a PI/Wizard in modern day Chicago. Yes, wizard. Look in the phone book and you'll see one listed. Him. He's got a checkered past, as all good PI's do. He's hell(fire) on wheels. He has taken it upon himself to keep the mean streets of Chicago safe from the likes of The Godfather, I mean Marcone, as well as all manners of things that go bump in the night.

The bad thing about reading a series like that in such a little time span is repetiveness. Most series have a bit of a formula to them, and Dresden is no different. In every book his car, the Blue Beetle gets impounded. Somewhere along the way he's stomping around in his magically warded duster, throwing up a shield from his bracelet, blasting fire at something, and getting the living daylights and the snot beat out of him.

The good thing is that Butcher has a definite story arc going. While there are things you almost look forward to in each book, the characters have all developed. Time is passing in Harry's Chicago. You learn more and more about the very rich world that Butcher has set up as well as the various players in the giant chess game that is Dresden's life. There are problems that span several books. Each could stand on its own, yet there are story arcs.

I really liked that. A lot. For example, in one book, Harry burned his left hand. Bad. So bad the doctors recommended amputation. Harry, being rather attached (yes! Pun ABSOLUTELY intended) to his arm - refused! By the end of the eleventh book you can see that it has begun healing, he's even got some movement back. Sure it's not 100%, but it's slowly getting there. Another example is through several books the wizards are at battle with the vampires.

Now I must say, my favourite was Dead Beat. It was the first Dresden book I gave 5 stars to on goodreads. Why? Excellent use of necromancy on a T-Rex which was then ridden through the streets of Chicago. I mean... how do you go wrong? Sue the T-Rex really stole the show. I gotta say, my biggest complaint was Harry didn't magick her until the very end. If ever a Dresden is made into a movie... I want it to be THIS one!

Overall I'd recommend the series. I really do like how things are progressing. Characters are all growing, sometimes in surprising ways. Even the characters you think might be throw aways. You won't see them for four or five books and then boom... there they are! Complete with appropriate changes. Kudos to Butcher on that one. I stand firmly in the "Skip Storm Front" though. It was so painful I wanted to scrape my eyes out with a spork. I didn't pick up Harry again for eight years. It was so abysmal. But starting in book two, they are great and they only get better! I look forward to what happens next!

10: Final Warning by James Patterson - OK, this Max Ride book had the same humour, the same quirkyness as the other three. I love that there are new evil scientist sorts chasing after The Flock. Poor bird kids will never get any peace! But, this took a different turn. It got way too preachy on Global Warming. Now I'll admit in a heartbeat I'm a tree hugger and I hate the changes in our environment. However, it seems EVERYONE has gone all preachy and this was overly so. That aside, I did really have a good time reading it. My kids want the new book that just came out and I'll probably read it as well.

11: The Other Woman by Jane Green - Did you see Monster in Law? It's like that only set in England. The main character is actually really thrilled that her mother-in-law to be is so excited about everything! It's like having the mother she never had. The sob story is... mummy died when she was a little girl. The lesson learned is no one can replace your mother and so the poor gal starts to feel smothered. It might even ruin the marriage. I enjoyed this Jane Green book as I do all her books. There's just something about her books that make them just an absolute fun thing to read. They are perfect for a rainy afternoon. Grab a quilt, a cup of cocoa, and curl up for some reading.

There you have my reads for May 2009! Until next time, I'll leave you with the stats and update on the ABC Challenge!

Stats for May:

Books completed in May: 11
Books completed in 2009: 66
Books completed for alphabet challenge: 19

ABC Challenge Titles Read:
The) Accidental Werewolf by Dakota Cassidy
Blueberry Muffin Murder by JoAnne Fluke
Circus of the Darned by Katie Maxwell
Dead Over Heels by Mary Janice Davidson
Echoes by Nathan P Butler
Fudge Cupcake Murder by JoAnne Fluke
Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
Heaven by Mur Lafferty
I Love You To Death by Amy Garvey
J
K
Lemon Meringue Pie Murder by JoAnne Fluke
My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon by Various
N
(The) Other Woman by Jane Green
Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich
Q
(Doctor Who: The) Resurrection Casket
(The) Scot, the Witch and the Wardrobe by Annette Blair
Tall, Dark and Dead by Tate Hallaway
U
(The) Vampire of Venice Beach by Jennifer Colt
Welcome to the Jungle
X
Your Planet or Mine by Susan Grant
Z

See you in about a month with June's reading list! I'm hoping to break the 75 books read mark!

--Lady O

To say that my May was busy would be quite the understatement.  Sorry to hold this off a month, but I just had way too much going on.  Never fear, I have a great May reading blog post to write up as well!

I thought about doing the two months together, but it was just far too many books.  Instead, I'm going to split it up over two entries.  Because of doing that, I'm going to dispense with the Alphabet Challenge update until I write up May's later this week.

April was a great month.  I broke through fifty read books, the challenge was fun, and I enjoyed several of my reads tremendously.

For my group challenge of "9 in '09" we were challenged with picking nine different series and reading from them.  This worked real well especially after the challenge a few months ago for reading nine new authors.  My crowded bookcase has loads of different series on it, and I knew what series I wanted to hit up first. I pulled books for my list super fast and got to work.

It was hard work only because I had to finish up a quilt I'd started and work on costumes for the upcoming conventions.  But my favourite thing after a long day of work is to curl up on my sofa with a good book and a quilt.  The sad thing was I was so tired that many a night I fell asleep just like that.  Darn sofa being too comfy and quilts being too snuggley!

April '09 Challenge Reads:
1. Max Ride Book 2: School's Out Forever
2. Vampire Academy Book 1: Vampire Academy
3. Mercy Book 4: Bone Crossed
4. Accidental Book 3: The Accidental Human
5. Alpha and Omega Book 1: Cry Wolf
6. Broken Hearts Book 2: Don't Talk Back to Your Vampire
7. Study Book 2: Magic Study
8. Glass Book 1: Storm Glass
9. Doctor Who ??? Too many to count: Forever Autumn

I also read
10: Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

Without further ado, here's my write up!

1. Maximum Ride #2: School's Out Forever by James Patterson - I've really enjoyed this series.  I like a good conspiracy theory, especially if it involves mad scientists.  The other thing I enjoyed about this book was that my family had read it so we got to discuss it over dinner.  Even my husband read it! There was a lot of food for thought, so it worked well for dinnertime conversation.  The story was well thought out, the voice of the main character was interesting, and though it was YA it was one that adults could read and really enjoy.

2. Vampire Academy - This was the first in the Vamp Academy series.  I struggled through the first part of it because the author pulled one of those "Dump you in on the action" starts and so I had to wait to figure out just WHY the action was happening.  This was another YA novel, but I must say that I liked it.  The vampire societies were very well thought out and I liked the idea that kiddo vamps had a private boarding school.  The real interesting thing was the taboos in the culture.  Seems that's often the thing most forgotten, but not here.  I have earmarked this series for possible future reads - should I either get a hold of the books or I finish the bookcase of books.  I'm interested to see what is going to happen with the two characters and their very symbiotic relationship.  I definitely recommend this.  Especially if you like Twilight - it's far better!

3. Mercy: Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs- OK, these books keep getting better and better.  I mean seriously.  Each book you learn more about the different paranormal cultures, the characters definitely grow/develop along the way, and the further mystery of just what is up with Mercy and Skinwalkers gets cleared up more and more.  In this book the vamps have decided they are not so keen on Mercy's past actions.  Yikes.  I do like how this very much could stand alone, however the author definitely makes sure to tie in the ongoing story arc over the books.  I'd love a look at her writing room... she most have one heck of a timeline going on!

4. Accidental: The Accidental Human - OK, these books are just outright fun. I love the BobbySue Cosmetics because it is just a riot.  Once more you have tie ins to the other books yet this one could stand alone.  In the end of the last book you could see where this one was going to start off.  What I loved about this third installment is the snagging of a MAN to spin the colour wheels.  To the author - kudos on the hitting up of the drag queen pageant for Mr Make Up's first attempt to sell the cosmetics!  I also really liked the whole OTHER side of the coin of this book. In the first two you found two normal humans having accidents and waking up paranormal.  In this one you started out with a vamp and he woke up human.  He then had to learn how to cope with being human after living la vida vamp for so long.  If you want a book sure to give you giggles... this is the one for you.

5. Alpha and Omega 1: Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs - Ok so this was kind of a cheat.  This is a book that is in the same universe as the Mercy books.  It runs along the same timeline, too.  However this jumps you to the head of the North American Werewolves.  The thing I like about Briggs is she's got the whole wolf society nailed. What else I like is she introduces the Omega.  Everyone know about Alpha - that's the top dog. All other dogs come below him. Briggs sets up an entire hierarchy which is beyond fascinating, but she throws in the Omega for fun. What's an Omega? Well, that's the fun of this book... you get to find out along with the Omega herself!  I really like this world and the only problem I had with reading this book was it wrapped up that is out... so now I have to sit around and wait for Briggs to write something else. Ack!

6. Broken Hearts Book 2: Don't Talk Back to Your Vampire - These books are quick little afternoon reads.  They are definitely "paranormal romance".  This series, though, is supremely crazy.  You have seven head vamps that each have their own super power that they pass on to their "descendants". Best of all you have a town with a large number of single parents that all managed to get vamped.  Ooops.  So now the normals have fled and the paranormal community has moved in.  They have their own base of operations, and it's in Oklahoma!  I think the wacky nature of this series is what draws me to it. That and the fact it's the perfect read for a stormy afternoon.  

7. Study Book 2: Magic Study by Maria V Snyder - I was at Balticon the year MVS won an award for her breakout novel Poison Study.  I gotta tell you MVS is not only a great lady, but a great writer.  Just so you know, the study part of the title?  It's because not only is the character learning these things, so is MVS. She spends a great deal of time educating herself.  Poison Study was horrible... never go to one of her poison tastings... HAHA Just kidding... apparently her husband has the worst job on earth - he is involved with CHOCOLATE.  MVS will actually do poison tastings that deal with trying different sorts of chocolate.  So you can experience the different textures and flavours... it's like becoming a poison taster without the worry and danger(unless you are diabetic).  In Magic Study, Yelena goes off to learn about her homeland and her magical powers.  She has to deal with people not liking her, being behind her peers, and about a zillion other problems.  I liked the look into fashions of the various people as well as everything else.  I felt this a great follow up to a really great book.  I really recommend the Study series.  

8. Glass Book 1: Storm Glass - It's another Maria book.  This is set in the same world, but it involves a character you meet in Magic Study.  What was fun about this read was it was an ARC and the book wasn't on store shelves yet!  This book was definitely geared at a younger crowd in my opinion.  It was a bit easier to read, and dealt with a few more of the schoolish problems than either of the Study books that I have read.  That aside, the story was well thought out and I really liked hearing about some of these other aspects of the magical world that Snyder created.  MVS spent a lot of time learning a lot about glass making and it shows.  I feel like I learned something from this book as well as enjoying a fantastic read.  The real bummer is I forgot to take my Arc to Balticon this year to get it autographed like I was supposed to. Gah. MVS laughed with me. Oh well... next time!

9. Doctor Who: Forever Autumn - I chose this one because I knew it was a good afternoon read and I was running out of time.  The bane of being so busy, I suppose!  I didn't budget my time well for reading this month, but that's OK.  I love Doctor Who and since we're living without the Doctor for the bulk of this year, I thought it was a good option.  I'd just come off the Easter special and was raring to go.  The bad thing was the Easter Special was AWESOME and this book's story was eh to me.  Oh well, that happens.  The sad thing is that you combine the two for a contrast and it was not good.  C'est la vie!  

10. Max Ride - Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports by James Patterson - I had a couple of days and so I went ahead and snagged this book.  I figured I might as well try to get through another one while I was between challenges, since the kids and Sir Megs had already read them.  This wraps up the Maximum Ride series and I really liked the outcome. Talk about interesting.  Those bird-kids really kicked some bootie!  My favourite parts were the clips of Fang's blog. Cool.  I definitely recommend the MR series to parents.  The books are clean but thought provoking. They are fun yet series at the same time.  The science is iffy yet scarily becoming something we could see happening in the not so distance future.  

My stats at the end of April were:

Books read for Challenge: 9
Books read for April: 10
Books read for 2009: 55

Not too bad, right?  It's only reading through April and I've already 55 books... yay! That's gotta help with the crazy reading list, right? That's what you think...

Watch for the May reading list!!

--Lady O

March flew by almost faster than February! However I had a few extra days so I read more than my nine challenge books, so that was good. At least as far as the TBR is concerned.

Unfortunately, the challenge for March had me struggling. With it I gained more books to read than I planned for. EEEK. I think in May when I post about April... I might update my TBR status. See how many books I have on the TBR shelf compared to the beginning of 2009.

If I complete April's challenge I will cross the 50 book mark for the year. It's been a heavy reading cycle, but the boys have enjoyed their high load of reading as much as little ol' me!

For March, my "9 in 2009" challenge centered around the PEARL awards. I had no idea there was such an award! PEARL stands for Paranormal Excellence Award for Romantic Literature.

I read that and groaned. I suppose that technically I read a lot of paranormal romance because most books have some sort of a "romance" in them. However, I'm not specifically out there hitting up the romance section of the book stores. How hard was this going to be?

As I found out, I read a lot of books this award highlights. So does my husband. I need to tell you, looking at my husband reading the last Harry Dresden book and telling him he's been reading award nominated paranormal romance books on the VRE to and from work? Priceless! Someone, where's the romance in Dresden? Is it between Harry and his trusty ghostly skull? Yikes!

I had several books up for the award or winners of the award sitting on my TBR. I tried to make my list based off of those books.

The PEARLs cover several topics in PNR. So in other words, books that fall into several popular genres that also have a splash of romance - or no splash of romance. The topics are as follows:

Anthology
Fantasy/Magical
Futuristic
New Author
Overall Paranormal
Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Shape Shifter
Short Story/Novella
Time Travel
Vampire

The woman that sets up our challenges gave us groups based off of the PEARL groups. I wanted to read nine PEARL nominated books, but I didn't have enough.

Without further ado, here's my reading for March 2009:

Challenge Books:
1. Anthology: Blood Lite (Winner 2008 PEARL)
2. Fantasy/Magical Romance: Fool Moon by Jim Butcher (Technically not a Pearl but others in the series are, so I'm claiming it a pearl.)
3. Futuristic Romance: Heroes Arise
4. ShapeShifter Romance: Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs(Honorable Mention 2007 PEARL)
5. Time-Travel: In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker
6. Vampire Romance: Dead Sexy by Tate Hallaway
7. Romantic Fantasy: Wait Till Your Vampire Gets Home by Michelle Bardsley (Honorable Mention 2008 PEARL)
8. Romantic Science Fiction/Futuristic Fantasy: Your Planet or Mine by Susan Grant (Honourable Mention 2006 PEARL)
9. Romantic Urban Fantasy: Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs(Pearl Nominated)

I also read:

Wolfsbane and Mistletoe (Pearl Nominated Anthology)
Maximum Ride - The Angel Experiment by James Patterson

I also read half of another anthology that was also on the PEARL list. I'll save posting about it until I finish it.

In the end that turned out to be eleven books in March, seven of which were PEARL books. I completed the challenge and that makes me happy!

Now for the Reviews!

Anthology - Blood Lite: Some of the stories were great. My personal favourite was by Charlaine Harris. None of these had any sort of romance, so I'm not real sure how this even was up for a romance award of any sort. A couple of stories were gross. If you get it, skip the Bear one. Ick. Overall though, a great group of short stories.

Fantasy/Magical Romance - Fool Moon by Jim Butcher: This is the second of the Dresden Files. I bought this book in 2001. I purchased it with book 1 and book 3 and the first was so painful that I couldn't bear the thought of reading the other two. This one was absolutely fantastic. Shows an obvious recovery from "First book" combined with "First book of a series" syndrome of Storm Front. Read Dresden, but skip the first one. I love Harry the wizard PI of Chicago! What a great character! Once more, low on romance. Also, this book did not technically get nominated, as the year it came out the PEARL awards were still far too new. Several of the later books in the series WERE nominated, so I counted it as a PEARL.

Futuristic Romance - Heroes Arise: OK, this one I had to read. This was a gift from an author for interviewing her. My last year was so nightmarish that we don't want to discuss what happened to my plans to read the book. I am glad to read and review this books, though as she's a new author. This was a debut novel and I love to highlight it. She really created quite the alien society with all sorts of traditions and religious beliefs and whatnot. It shows a very well thought out story with intricate characters that were very believable and three-dimensional. She also got a very talented artist to add to the book, which was very delightful. I want to recommend this one, especially to the young adult crowd. The main character is seeking to regain his honour after a thief and well, terrorist sort, kills his wife. If he regains his honour and gets his past wife's spirit to give the OK, he can remarry. He leaves on an arduous and dangerous journey and learns a lot about himself as well as honour. I decided it could count as romance since the main character wanted to remarry, though honestly romance was nonexistent in this one.

Shapeshifter - Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs: This is the second book in the Mercy series. I read the first one in February and loved it. Working in book two made me happy. This book gets Mercy wrapped up in some vampire mystery. She learns a lot about the complexities of the vampire society. It shows just how much Briggs has put into this universe. Excellent read. And once more, low on romance unless you want to count the fact she's got guys she can't decide between. Nothing really happens so... take that as you wish.

Time Travel - In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker: So this was actually low on time travel but had romance! The story line is about how in the distant future we figure out how to time travel. So the company that owns this technology travels through time and kidnaps those who would otherwise be lost in nothingness and turns them into immortal cyborgs. These cyborgs then blend in with the rest of us to gather up whatever the company wants. In the case of the main character this would be plants that are no longer around in the future. While on her first assignment in Europe in the shadows of Henry the 8th's regime and the Spanish Inquisition, she falls in love with a mortal human. This was a great window into how things possibly looked at the time, but that's all I have to say about it. It turned out not as thrilling as I thought.

Vampire Romance - Dead Sexy by Tate Hallaway: I read the first book in this series in February and eagerly grabbed this one for March. Garnet's life is getting more messed up as the FBI catches up with her after the slaying of some creepy Vatican witchhunters at the hands of the goddess inhabiting Garnet's body. If that doesn't sound wacky enough, just check it out. I really enjoy this series. There's still one more on my shelf!

Romantic Fantasy - Wait till Your Vampire Gets Home by Michelle Bardsley: This is one I picked up specifically for this challenge. I gotta tell you, there's nothing this woman did not work into this book. Now that is the quickest recipe for disaster I can think of, but maybe it was the crazy main character or the crazy world -- it totally worked. Some of the lines in this story were just real zingers! That said, this one really was one I would consider a true romance. Vamp meets girl. Girl gets turned into dragon. Vamp and girl hook up and create fire. And by fire - I mean burn the house down fire.

Romantic Sci-fi/Futuristic Fantasy - Your Planet or Mine by Susan Grant: I see why this one earned Honourable Mention. The main character comes from a long line of politicians and is currently part of state legislation in California with presidential aspirations. She comes across an alien with information that his people plan to relocate all of humanity and take over the Earth for their own purposes. Together they want to try to scare off the alien fleet. I really enjoyed this one.

Romantic Urban Fantasy - Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs: HA! I managed to get in the third Mercy book this month! Score! Leaves me one more... To say I'm devouring these Mercy books would be an understatement. They are fantastic. This one deals with the fae and gets poor Mercy in over her head in a bad way. It is insane how these books keep getting better and better. If you aren't reading Briggs - get on it! (BTW the half an anthology I read had a short story for the companion series Alpha and Omega. Great!)

Other books:

Wolfsbane and Mistletoe: Another PEARL anthology surrounding werewolves and Christmas. Nothing says holidays like full moons with werewolves! I definitely enjoyed some of the stories. I ended up taking a break halfway through it and reading another book. It wasn't that it was bad, but I just got a little Christmas'ed out.

Maximum Ride - The Angel Experiment by James Patterson: A friend gave me the four books in the Maximum Ride universe for the boys to read. They devoured the series. I couldn't get Joram to set the things down! I needed to see what they liked so much about them, so I picked this one up for the tail end of March. I could not put it down, either. (In fact, I read the next one the first day of April!) The series has all the stuff I love. Mutant half avian half human kids? OKies. Top Secret Crazy Scientists? Gotcha. Mystery of the flying kids will save the earth but we don't know from what or how? Right on! Creepy other kids morphed into canine hybrids bent on eating the bird kids? Nightmarish. What's going on? Where are the parents? How did they get experimented on and who would be so ghastly? Read the book. Patterson really did a fantastic job with this one - it is NOTHING like his soft and fuzzy books.

There's my eleven books I read for the month of March! I'm glad I finished the challenge because it was very difficult finding a way to fit books in with these categories.

Below is my list for the Alphabet Challenge. I was able to hit another letter this month! YAY!

The Alphabet Challenge:

(The) Accidental Werewolf
Blueberry Muffin Murder
Circus of the Darned
Dead Over Heels
Echoes
Fudge Cupcake Murder
G
Heaven
I Love You To Death
J
K
Lemon Meringue Pie Murder
My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon
N
O
Plum Spooky
Q
(Doctor Who: The) Resurrection Casket
(The) Scot, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Tall, Dark, and Dead
U
(The) Vampire of Venice Beach
Welcome to the Jungle
X
Your Planet or Mine
Z

Books completed in March: 11
Books completed in 2009: 45
Books for alphabet challenge: 17

April's challenge is much easier. In fact, I'm already two books down and a third of the way through another. April will see me reaching 50 and that excites me. I'm worried about May. I don't want to lose my steam, but it's a busy month! Not that April isn't. This month I'm working heavy on some costumes and next month I'm gone nearly every weekend.

I hope your reading is going well. I am enjoying tearing through my book case. I am very hopeful that I can build off books on the TBR in the upcoming months and free up some space. If I keep up this reading schedule, can I reach the summit of Mt St Books?

--Lady O

February is a short month, and this one was super busy for me. I took part in another challenge, and I completed it. That made me very happy!

As promised, I don't have 25 books for you. Aren't you glad? This month I have 9 books and that takes me to 34 for the year!! That's awesome!

I looked at my bookcase today, and I can actually SEE the progress I've made! Woot! I've a long way to go, still, so I can't stop. I've even completed a book for March already. Woot! I signed up for the March challenge - hopefully that means I can continue to watch my progress move right along!

I got a few books down for the alphabet challenge with my selections this month. I didn't really focus on it as much, because of just how crazy my February was.

The challenge this month in my group was to read another nine books, all by authors I hadn't read before. Since I'd picked up a book I'd been itching to read to start at the tail end of January, that didn't make me too happy on that one small part. However, I had a stack of books by authors I've never read. The good news is I had some I could loan my mum, who also joined the challenge! (See, not ALL the books I read came from her... just most!) Unfortunately a couple were ones I'd wanted to read, but I was generous. I let her take them. See how nice I am?

Here's the great thing about this challenge: I read some books that probably otherwise would have languished on my shelves while I read authors I know and love. That meant, I found new authors to know and love!! There were several books I instantly fell in love with!

The bad thing about this challenge? I found a new author and a new series that I was hot for. We're talking fire hot. Smokin! And then? No, it wasn't a series... the author passed shortly before the book hit the shelves. NO!!!!!! I was crushed.

It was a good month reading. My boys joined in (sort of) and decided to try a new series/author themselves. A friend loaned them Patterson's Maximum Ride series. Man, those kids are hot for those books. They are burning the pages right up. Friend, they're hitting my TBR. I've heard too many good things. Hope I can get them back to you soon... but these challenges are making me crazy!

So, without further ado... my reading list for February 2009!

1. Tall, Dark, and Dead by Tate Hallaway: I got two words - Vatican Assassins. I love it! The main character is a witch. She fears witch hunger assassins sent out by the Vatican. But she's not got it so bad. She's just met a sexy vampire, and he's into magic as well. And with the secret to making vamps - those Vatican Assassins are hot for his bod and not in the same way she is. They might be OK except his son shows up with the Vatican on speed dial. How on EARTH do you go wrong with this story? I have book 2 and 3 on the TBR and they will get read sooner rather than later.

2. The Front by Patricia Cornwell: This was a novella. It had promise but I didn't like it. By the time I finished it (which wasn't long after I picked it up) I decided that it wasn't Cornwell or the characters I disliked. Or even the plot. It was the book itself. It was too short. I blinked and it was over. It felt like it would have made a great 350-400 page novel I'd love. Where people have time to become more than just 2-D characters. Shame. I'll probably try something by her again, I'll just make sure it's full length.

3. The Vampire of Venice Beach: OK, forget the title (which is pretty fun). It's not paranormal at all. It was a murder mystery on the zany side. I loved it. Found out it's actually like book 3 of a series or something so I need to get the other books FAST. Identical red headed twin PI's. Complete with their sidekicks: The Three Bruce's. (As in Bruce Willis.) In Venice. In between finding out who killed local "vampire celeb" at a huge goth event, they take time out to help their aunt feed the homeless. They feed while she donates Rodeo Drive Coutre clothes, spritzes them with designer perfume, and otherwise try to improve their lives. Oh, did I mention the hot pink Harley the girls tool around on? This book had more hijinks than Laugh In.

4. Blue Moon by Lori Handeland: Nazis. OMG, everything is better with Nazis. You make them Nazi created Werewolves? Ooooohyeaaaah. And they are ganking on some Native American Lore. And then there's the secret government agency hunting the Nazi created Werewolves. It's like the wet dreams of the editor at Weekly World News. Oh yeah, I loved it. Got a couple more in this series and I look forward to digging in!

5. The Haunting by Hope Tarr: OK, normally I don't do Harlequin. But this was a local author and it was set here in town. Gotta support your locals. Plus, it did have a ghost and some civil war history. Really, the story was fantastic and that was great! But the back flap snagged me. Seriously, with the way those books like to do historical romance and how historical my town is... why don't we have more stuff set here? Hello! We aren't called "America's Most Historic City" for nothing. The story was a bout a civil war ghost haunting the home of a new homeowner - the reincarnation of his earthly love. Trust me, there's more ghosts in this town than you can shake a stick at. What I loved about this book is that the character never left downtown. She hit a bunch of great local places that locals know and adore. I cackled in glee when she popped into Goolrick's. I snickered when she went to Hyperion. Everyone wants to put a book in DC or NY or LA. Or BFE farm state. If you do manage to get a nod to my town, it's always Central Park which was not here 15 years ago. (It is neither park nor central for those not from here. And my town WAS here in the 1700's... so you see the annoyance.) Locals: You gotta read it!

6. Confessions of a Werewolf Supermodel by Ronda Thompson: I loved this book so much. And was crushed when I found the author was no longer with us. Man, I hope she's writing the sequel on the other side cause man do I wanna know what was up in Nevada!!! This book had me laughing at loud in many places. She's a genetically engineered supermodel with a slight hair problem. And she's being stalked. Her confessions are the start of every chapter and they are absolutely crazy. I also liked the fact that she is a foodie. She eats. Real meals. I highly recommend this one if you are just looking for a funny read. Try not to get too interested in Nevada.

7. This Is How It Happened... (Not A Love Story) by Jo Barrett: Buy it, check it out, PBS it, whatever it takes. This is a must read for everyone. It's freaking hilarious. I heard about this book on one of my social websites last year and managed to score a copy in February on paperbackswap.com. I am glad. The story is that the main character's lying, cheating, bastage scoundrel, jerkwad of a long term "just haven't told my rich daddy" boyfriend and business partner dumped her. By email. And stole the business that she created. Oh did I mention he broke up with her by email the day she told him she was pregnant? Yeah, he deserved every bit of wrath she spit at him. It starts with her plotting his death with a friend. Does she kill him off? Does she pick up the pieces? Read the book. Trust me when I say there is so much humour in this book, you will love it!

8. Moon Called by Patricia Briggs: Not another werewolf book. Ok it isn't... but they are in there. I like this one cause it goes Native again. It plays on the Indian SkinWalker legends. In this world the fae are "out" to the world and the weres are on their way. The main character is a Walker. She's a mouthy headstrong mechanic that turns into a coyote when she wants. She was raised by wolves, werewolves that is. Let's put it this way, I'm on book 2 right now.

9. I Love You To Death by Amy Garvey: This had three short stories that were almost the same. Couple has blind date. There's a dead body. They end up "in love". I don't know, it didn't do it for me, but I know some would probably like it. I only finished it because there was no way I had time to read anything else for this challenge. It was disappointing, especially after the other 8 books. (Even The Front.)

So that is my February reading! Look below for my status for the year:

The Alphabet Challenge:

(The) Accidental Werewolf
Blueberry Muffin Murder
Circus of the Darned
Dead Over Heels
Echoes
Fudge Cupcake Murder
G
Heaven
I Love You To Death
J
K
Lemon Meringue Pie Murder
My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon
N
O
Plum Spooky
Q
(Doctor Who: The) Resurrection Casket
(The) Scot, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Tall, Dark, and Dead
U
(The) Vampire of Venice Beach
Welcome to the Jungle
X
Y
Z

Books completed in February: 9
Books completed in 2009: 34
Books for alphabet challenge: 16

I'm moving right along. I feel pretty good about my reading! March's Nine in '09 is going to be rough. I've got a semi-sort of game plan. I hope it works out. I've got a few other challenges I've found that I may try to weave in. Especially if it helps with my Nine in '09. Even if I don't get the Nine in '09 March theme completed, I am really hoping to get nine books done at least.

Now, I have a book waiting. Happy reading!

--Lady O

I started last year with a little over 100 books in my closet that I wanted to read. Over the course of 12 months, I knocked through 55 books.

My status this January 1? Over 200 books. Wait, how did that happen? They breed, I tell you. Breed! Like bunnies. Wait, bunnies don't breed fast enough. Like tribbles! Or maybe they are gremlins and they got wet?

In our last house I started with a stack of books by my bed that became two stacks that then got moved to a shelf in my closet. That shelf became double stacked and then triple stacked. It was getting worrisome. To say the least.

So when we moved, I sacrificed a bookcase. I lost a shelf in my closet, they had to go somewhere. An entire bookcase, double stacked. E-gads that's a lot of books.

So my goal is to once more hit somewhere between 50-100 books. I'm well on my way, but I also have my own novel to edit, so we'll see how the year turns out.

I needed to make things interesting. Because over 200 books isn't interesting enough? Right. I noticed a great many of my friends working through the alphabet with the titles. I decided I wanted to join that bandwagon. Here's the rules that I will abide by:
1. Read one book for each letter in the alphabet.
2. I will ignore any "the" or "an" or "a" in the title. If that's the first word, I go to the next word to get my letter.
3. I will also ignore the series names. IE: A Hannah Swenson Novel or Doctor Who or Boxcar Children. (OK I haven't read a boxcar book in forever. Nor do I plan to.)

As usual, my books will be an eclectic mix of classics, sci fi, fantasy, fiction, mystery, romance, and nonfiction. I have a big stack of audiobooks as well that i need to get through. Oh it never really ends, does it?

One of my groups at goodreads.com came up with a challenge: Read 9 books each month in 2009. Nine in 2009. Cute! Each month the way we meet this challenge is different. This month we were given nine topics that would fit the paranormal bill (it is a paranormal romance group), though we are lax and will take it even if it's not romance. (For February it's 9 books by authors we've never read before. I've already picked out my nine.)

That sounds like fun, so why not? I decided to go for it!

The final INSANE challenge I took was from my friend, Kate. Kate is a bit crazy and so am I. We decided for kicks, we would listen to Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Unabridged. Have you seen this monstrosity? It's could kill small children. Heck, it could probably kill a grown man. It's huge. Think Webster's. My iTunes states that this beast is a mean 1 day, 8 hours, 31 minutes, and 55 seconds long.

God save me. What WERE we thinking?

We'll see on that one. I haven't even started it and am skeptical.

So now you see my reading plans. I have a big load. So I spent a lot of time reading this month. Anything to get through those books. On the bright note, most of them are borrowed from my mother, so they get to leave my house! YAY!

Without further ado: Here's my books that I read. I will end the post (and any subsequent monthly posts) with a line up of the challenges I am working on. I will keep my remarks on the books very brief, since I read a whopping TWENTY-FIVE books this month. Yes, 25 books. Go me!

1. The Scot, the Witch and the Wardrobe by Annette Blair. I enjoy her witchy romance books. Each one is a little better than the last. I still have two more to go on the TBR and look forward to them! This one was great because it had a Scot in it. Like from Scotland. Mmm yummy.

2. Welcome to the Jungle by Jim Butcher. This was a fun graphic novel set in the Dresden World. Wizard PI in modern day Chicago. Things go crazy at the zoo. That's just bound to be good! I'm actually glad I read this because I've had his Dresden collection on my shelf forever. I read the first one back in like 01/02 and while I liked the world... it was a first novel. Let's just say... don't read it. Skip to book 2. So I've been told. However the first was so hard for me to get through, I haven't wanted to read the others even though they are on my shelf. Even though I like the world and the characters. This graphic novel (combined with watching the "hammered" tv show on sci-fi) made me actually WANT to pick up the other books.

3. Fudge Cupcake Murder by Joanne Fluke. OK, these books are great because they are fluffy, have great recipes for me to try, and I can read them in less than a day. Are they the best books on earth? No. But they are most enjoyable. I really like the cast of characters. Like the cookie lady who sells cookies for a living but worries about people's weight. And who falls over dead bodies like there's no tomorrow and then gets miffed when the cops tell her they can handle the investigation. HA! You go cookie lady, you are my hero!

4. Blueberry Muffin Murder by Joanne Fluke. Once more, I love these. They are just too much fun. I know, I shouldn't have fun with a murder mystery, but I do!

5. Backup by Jim Butcher. This was a novella in the Dresden world, but it was from the point of view of Dresden's half brother, a vampire. Once more, I enjoyed this tremendously. As this was an actual text book, it also encouraged me that the books on my shelf would probably be as great as I had originally hoped. So they will actually get read. In between challenges if not for one.

6. 84, Charing Cross Road. This was a fun book written as letters between an American writer and a used bookshop in the UK. They never met one another, but the staff at the bookstore and the writer had quite the relationship!

7. Lemon Meringue Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke. I had to read another Cookie Lady book. I love that gal!

8. A Wizard Alone by Diane Duane. This is in the Young Wizards series. Think Harry Potter. But better. And around for like 25ish years. You get the picture. I love these YA books and am so glad that Diane Duane picked the series back up. Check it out! Seriously, a billion times better than HP.

9. Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich. The. Best. Plum. Ever. Hands. Down. 'Nuff Said. Next time I go to Jersey, I'm going looking for this place mentioned in the book. I wanna meet the fire farter, the yeti, and the easter bunny. Best of all? Stephanie didn't just blow up a car. She blew up a mountain. A whole frigging mountain. OK, the fire farter technically blew it up, and it was a mine. But still. She was there and there was a big hill on top and it blew up. Hello, that's just awesome.

10. Circus of the Darned by Katie Maxwell. Another YA book. This is set in a world of Katie Maxwell's other pen name. Mostly it's just fun. It has carnies and vikings giving dating advice and a hunky vamp. Where can you go wrong? Especially with viking dating advice. Perfect for every young girl on her first date!

11. The Accidental Werewolf by Dakota Cassidy. This was a new series and a new author. And I gotta say, fantastic. Think your craziest Mary Kay lady experience. You get the heroine. And she's accidentally bit by a werewolf. So she starts growing hair in weird places, her blonde highlights vanish, and the poor vegan girl is craving a t-bone. Oh she's got issues. So does her tea cup poodle, Muffin, who makes nicey nice with hunka hunka werewolf love. Oh yeah. Read that one!

12. Dead Over Heels by Mary Janice Davidson. How did this slip through the cracks last year? Must have been the moved. Three short stories with MJD's cranky mermaid, shoe obsessed vamp queen, and werewolves. Awesome.

13. My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon. This was a book of short stories. The title should tell you what they were all about. Some were good. Some were great. A few were a struggle. Thank the Lord there was no L. K. Hamilton.

14. American History Stories You Never Read but Should Have. Volume 1. We read this for school. It's pretty good. Loved it. It's a classic and about early America. Check it out, really. We're going to read Volume 2 in a few months. The boys and I are really looking forward to it.

15. Doctor Who: The Resurrection Casket. This is set in the new series. It's Doctor Who. It's Steam Punk. It's Pirates. Need I say more? Also, it is an insanely fast read. I think I read it in like an hour or an hour and a half.

16. Doctor Janeway's Plauge. This was an audiobook. I don't even know where to start. It was... interesting. A guy who can't die, a weird plague somehow crossed by astronomical phenomenon. Yeah, your guess is as good as mine. Give it a listen. Free from podiobooks.com

17. Echoes. This was another audiobook from podiobooks.com. OK, I was in the middle of a wallpaper removal so I listened to a bunch of audiobooks. Cut me a break. This one was creepy. There were these ghosty ghouly things. A government conspiracy right ot the top. And dead bodies. You like conspiracy? You like speculative? This is it.

18. Drop Dead, Gorgeous by Mary Janice Davidson. OK spy mafia types in a cheesy romance. Well, it was a fast read. Major disappointment compared to her other books. Few good lines, but not sure I'd recommend it to anyone. I mostly enjoyed the reading contest Caramon and I were having while I read this. If not for that, I might not have finished. You really had to be there.

19. Doctor Who: The Price of Paradise. Also in the new series. Another quickie read. The Doctor follows an SOS and lands on a mythical paradise planet and then learns the planet is allergic to outsiders. Ooops. Oh, and there's a native population that the planet can turn into scary, homicidal beasts. Cute.

20. Heaven by Mur Lafferty. Two friend meet an untimely demise and hit the afterlife together. They decide Heaven's not all it is cracked up to be so they wander the afterlifes. I loved it. Really plays on the various mythos. Best of all, these two start bringing about the end of days to all the world religions. Score!

21. Hell by Mur Lafferty. It's the sequel novella. Armageddon has come, the afterlife is jam packed, and now our two heroes find themselves searching for some lost souls. Don't ask how God lost souls, he just did. So they are off to Hell, because obviously this had to be done by someone bad... Can I hear your best Church Lady voice?

22. Earth by Mur Lafferty. Oh yes, the novellas don't stop. Our heroes have become gods themselves and they have to rebuild the earth. Yeah, you can sure imagine how that one goes.

23. Wasteland by Mur Lafferty. The last audio novella in the series (though she says she's working on the next part of the story). The new earth got eaten by a demon when Hell invaded Heaven. Oh things are sticky. Now our heroes are banished to the wasteland between heaven and hell. What next? Listen and find out. Seriously, fantastic series and I highly recommend it! Once more www.podiobooks.com, people!

24. Accidentally Dead by Dakota Cassidy. OK, I had the sequel to the werewolf one. This has the snarky friend to the werewolf become a vampire in a freak dentistry accident. Who knew vamps had really sensitive teeth and strange side effects to anesthesia? Much better than the first one, and I'm anxious for the third one. It comes out later this year.

25. Playing for Keeps by Mur Lafferty. This is actually a full length book. Buy it. Download the podiobook. It's fantastic. My kids were gasping for air. Premise is there's superhuman powers. Those with cool ones get deemed worthy and become superheroes with all the fame and etc. Of course some think that is just poo-poo so they become super villians. Then there's the 3rd wavers. These people have powers that don't seem all that useful to the people in charge. They become worse than second class citizens. Well guess what. They just got something wanted by the heroes and the villians and they ain't giving it up. It's got destruction. It's got a bar for a headquarters. It's got a cast of people with the wackiest powers ever. It's got the superheroes with their panties in a wad. The villians with their panties in a wad. And the heroes getting more panties into worse wads. Five stars. Seriously, one of the best superhero books ever.

So there you have it. I got to listen to lots of audiobooks removing wallpaper of doom. Yay! I got to read nine new authors. I got to read all sorts of stuff. So that's it. Check out below for the challenges I completed:

Nine in '09
One book from each category:
1. vampires - You saw several titles for that one
2. werewolves - Once more several
3. shifters - There was a mermaid in Dead Over Heels
4. demons - Hell/Earth/Wasteland
5. witches/wizards - Saw several of those, huh?
6. fae - The Supernatural Honeymoon had a story with a fae. Scary Sidhe!
7. aliens - Doctor Who and the Wizard Alone both had aliens
8. psychics/time travelers - The Scot, the Witch, and the Wardrobe among others
9. dragons or mythical creatures - I read several with mythical gods. Heaven had Zeus and Odin (and their friends). Also, The Plum book had the easter bunny and sasquatch.

The Alphabet Challenge:

(The) Accidental Werewolf
Blueberry Muffin Murder
Circus of the Darned
Dead Over Heels
Echoes
Fudge Cupcake Murder
G
Heaven
I
J
K
Lemon Meringue Pie Murder
My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon
N
O
Plum Spooky
Q
(Doctor Who: The) Resurrection Casket
(The) Scot, the Witch and the Wardrobe
T
U
V
Welcome to the Jungle
X
Y
Z

Wow, 13 of the 26 letters in the alphabet, done! Awesome!

Till next month, when I promise there won't be 25 books. I don't think. HA!

--Lady Ozma
(I should be reading... or getting a life. You pick!)

Lady Ozma is in the house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I opened an email earlier today and learned I apparently made the May newsletter for goodreads.com.  How exciting! 

You may now bow and worship at my awesomeness!! 

Take a look below to see what was included.

--Lady O

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
In Westerfeld's new sci-fi series, everyone becomes "pretty" at 16 — through compulsory plastic surgery. Lady Ozma says, "The author channels George Orwell and Ray Bradbury in a Judy Blume-esque book. Take aspects from a Twilight Zone episode and mix in a little 1984, and you get Uglies."

A Foreign Affair

Coming out this April, to a bookstore near you - A Foreign Affair by Caro Peacock.  Is it worth all the hype or should you leave it on the shelf?

This Victorian era novel carries a reader into a tale of murder and espionage through the eyes of a plucky young heroine named Liberty Lane.  She collects various and assorted colleagues in her travels through the English countryside in her attempt to solve the mystery surrounding the demise of her father.

The cover art intrigues while the back flap sucks you in.  The first line captures your very soul:

Unfortunately, the excitement ends there.  The verbiage quickly loses the reader as they struggle to make their way through the intricacies detailed by the author.  Description might be good in a story to paint a picture of the setting and events, but there is too much of a good thing.

Using many novels from the Victorian era in the education of my children, I feel a strong love for the writing of the time.  I believe Mrs. Peacock endeavored to mimic this prose in her writing, but seems a few steps shy.  Given time, she might grasp the craft and capture the essence of the classical authors.  The effort, however, falls flat in this novel.

That said, I adored the plot, and in the end forced myself to wade through this book for three weeks, watching as my excitement dwindled.  I never like for that to happen, and as I am one to read the side of a cereal box when bored?  I know it is NOT a good sign when I need to force myself to pick up a book, let alone open its pages.

Minor details bothered me about the characters.  I felt as if things came rather easy to Miss Liberty and I never could quite make out her background.  One minute it seemed as though she came from the lowest of working class while in the next moment I thought her father one of the lower gentry.  I definitely did not like her taking a nap in the middle of the street (OK a trough) and she parted with her jewelry with seeming little remorse.  As the reader I felt more sadness at the pawning of family pieces than she expressed.  Perhaps that is the difference between she and me, but it troubled me anyway.

I felt my own inadequacies as an educator when reading the rigorous schedule she put the children under as governess.  I feel as though my own children follow a classical method of education akin to that of Miss Liberty's time.  However, we most certainly do not seem to fill hours upon hours on end with studies.  If this is the sort of education that Charlotte Mason endured, it is little wonder she promoted a change in education that included short lessons.  How those children must long for an escape from the school day!  I found myself praising God every time those children walked the gardens.

We foster a great love of learning in our home, yet Miss Lane's lofty schedule is far more than even we live by. 

A Foreign Affair is a first novel with an intricate and fascinating plot that gets lost in some of the overabundance of words.  If you love the classics, this tale falls in the period you prefer; however it might disappoint you in the language.

--Lady O

This February we had a whole extra day for reading, and a good thing.  My month got busier and busier each day in adventures to the Edgar Allen Poe museum, time out with friends, joining the YMCA, and all the fun of homeschooling. 

My goal for the year originally began as an effort to plow through the shelf of books in my closet.  I started with about 120 books and somehow now have about 130-140.  When I've read eighteen books now, this leaves me to question what might be wrong with my math.

Ahhh, the joys of being a book-worm!

I made the mistake of using a friend's discount at the bookstore, several friends loaned me books, my mother added a few more.  All that equals to suddenly my book stacks grow instead of shrink.  EEEK.  Something tells me it is a never ending cycle.

Short of decided to put aside all my writing goals, my work out goals, homeschool goals, and reading a book a day... I might need to come to terms that the shelf in my closet shall forever bow under the weight of my reading stack.

I am doing well for my 50 in 2008 goal, so that is good!

I did review most of the books I read this month.  I just never posted them to my blog.  I promise to release them over the course of the next week.  Last month I read 12, this month I read 6.  I vow this will not form a pattern. March shall bring more than 3 completed books!

13. Shopaholic and Baby by Sophie Kinsella
14. Specials by Scott Westerfield
15. Secrets of My Suburban Life by Lauren Baratz-Logsted
16. Extras by Scott Westerfield
17. A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore
18. Mortified: Real Words, Real People, Real Pathetic by David Nadelberg

With two anthologies in the works, a classic partially read, an audiobook almost done, and a stack of books almost half my height, I cannot wait to review for March!

Happy Reading!

--Lady O

Sometimes it can seem hard to believe, but there are women that do not know much about the financial world around them.  Not the hard stuff, but the simple stuff like balancing a chequebook or saving for the future.

In the world of finances, things can quickly get out of hand.  One bad cheque can set off a mountain of overdraft fees to make your account a nightmare.  You add onto that the complexities of mortgages, 401k plans, CD's, and IRA's and you can give yourself a migraine with MONEY written all over it.  Where's the Aleve when you need it?

Today, February 14th, Oprah and Suze Orman join forces to help women navigate their way through the financial mire that is our world today.  Until 8 PM Central you can download the e-book form of Women & Money by Suze Orman.  I wish I could recommend this book as one that has "changed my life" but I have yet to read it.  I just know that such a good resource for anyone.  I plan to read it in hopes of learning to better manage myself and also understand some of these crazy financial dealings of today. 

I will be the first to admit that I have no clue what is going on with the financial market.  We have life insurance, we have a 401k, and that's all I know.  I am trying to learn about these things so that I can know better how to plan for the future.  For me, it seems something always comes up to try to derail my best laid savings plans.

Maybe it's the new tires you need for your car or the child that suddenly had a growth spurt and needs an entire wardrobe change.  Perhaps a medical expense or unforeseen repair on your home.  Something pops up out of nowhere and you are left counting your pennies the day before payday.  Your fingers are crossed that your cheque to the electric company will clear or you can put gas in your car to get to work tomorrow.

Why is it that the more we make, the more we spend?

Maybe this book will help all of us, for I feel that there are many in the world falling into this cycle of cheque to cheque living. 

If nothing else, at least we can learn something good.

Go here to download your copy of Women & Money by Suze Orman today.

You can watch Suze Orman Saturday Nights on CNBC.  I have enjoyed her in the past and even learned a couple of things.

--Lady O

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