2010 Books 34-38

Getting behind posting books again, I don't think I posted any at all in August!  And although everyone teases me, I feel so far behind my normal pace for the year - so here are a few to start catching up: 

 

#34

Running With The Pack

Anthology

Werewolves, Urban Fantasy/Paranormal

 

This anthology featured short stories by:  Carrie Vaughn, Steve Duffy, Marie Brennan, Jeffrey Ford, Samantha Henderson, C.E. Murphy, Stephanie Burgis, Laura Anne Gilman, Molly Tanzer, Mike Resnick, Genevieve Valentine, Lawrence Schimel, Maria V. Snyder, Karen Everson, N.K. Jamison, Geoffrey H. Goodwin, Mike Brotherton, Amanda Downum, Jesse Bullington, Peter Bell, Erzebet YellowBoy, & Susan Palwick.

 

& no, this wasn't a particularly thick anthology with that many authors - the short stories were mostly all just really short.  Normally that would not be my thing, but I enjoyed almost every single one which is rare with a collection of this many authors, many of which I hadn't read before.

 

#35

Some Girls Bite

Chloe Neill

Chicagoland Vampires Book 1

Urban Fantasy/Paranormal

 

This is me judging a book by it's cover again - although it was actually the cover to the 3rd book that caught my attention, then I had to go back & find the first book.  I like this series, it's not like "Oh my God best thing I've read lately" but it was a fun read, if a bit quick.

 

#36

Naamah's Curse

Jacqueline Carey

Kushiel's Legacy Book 8 (Moirin Book 2)

Historical Fantasy

 

I know I have some readers who've also read this series, and I just have to say, I was really uncertain if I was going to enjoy the narration for Moirin's POV, but she gets into just as much trouble as Phedre (the narrator for the first 3 books).  I can't wait to read the third book of this trilogy, yet at the same time can't help but wonder what will come after Moirin's tale is told ... I love this world & I certainly hope Jacqueline finds another muse & continues to write in it.

 

#37

Undead & Unfinished

MaryJanice Davidson

Queen Betsy Book 9

Urban Fantasy/Paranormal

 

I was confuzzled by the time I finished this one.  Time travel can do that - and the epilogue didn't help matters any.  Still, I like these books, they always make me laugh out loud.  I love MaryJanice's writing style - and found I can get even more of it over at her self titled blog, which you can check out by clicking HERE.

 

#38

Friday Night Bites

Chloe Neill

Chicagoland Vampires Book 2

Urban Fantasy/Paranormal

 

Kind of a lull in the 2nd book, lots of setup-type stuff going on ... I wasn't exactly bored, but I felt I could have been more entertained.  I've got the 3rd book out from the library right now but haven't started it yet.

 

This is not fully caught up, but it's a start =)  I'm off the next 2 days from work so I'll try to fit a few more in - especially since my internet seems to be fixed now - the service tech that came out on Monday ran a new line from the pole to the house after finding the signal in the yellow zone, and I haven't had any problems since so far (*knock on wood*).

 

Thanks for reading.

 

~Colette

Books 39-44

#39
The Enchantment Emporium
Tanya Huff

Tanya Huff is one of my favorite authors (yes, I'm aware how often I say that LOL) & while she has a couple other series that I would have loved to see another book for, after reading this one now I'd like it to have a sequel =) At least in part because there are so many unanswered questions, or questions just partially answered.

#40
Undead And Unwelcome
Queen Betsy Book 8
MaryJanice Davidson

Betsy is, in answer to a long-spoken prophecy, Queen of the Vampires. Which is nowhere nearly as dramatic as it sounds, if I had to give this series a genre I think it would be something like comedic romance, because MaryJanice Davidson is an author who can literally make me laugh out loud ... which can draw some strange looks from non-readers I'll admit.

#41
8th Confession
Women's Murder Club Book 8
James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

I like being able to discuss these books with my friend, but she likes them quite a bit more than I do. Sometimes they're hard to fit in when I have other books that I really would prefer to be reading. I did squeeze this one in but I'll admit I'm kind of glad that there's not a release date for a 9th book LOL.

#42
Raven's Shadow
Patricia Briggs

I've been reading so much urban fantasy lately I thought I might have trouble getting into something like this that is more high fantasy, set in a created world rather than kind of just an altered version of our own reality, but Patricia Briggs sucked me right in within the first couple of pages.

#43
A Bone To Pick
Aurora Teagarden Book 2
Charlaine Harris

I kind of hate to say it, because I really like Charlaine Harris, but this book kind of bored me. Not that it wasn't a good book, as a mystery it was really good, but it was just so ... normal. No supernatural happenings at all, and for me to tolerate that, I guess I need more than a whodunit murder mystery.

#44
Kushiel's Dart
Kushiel's Legacy Book 1
Jacqueline Carey

I recommended this book to my friend, and when I picked it up for her & took a look "just to refresh my memory" I was 84 pages in before she even came to get it & had to go get another copy for myself & re-read this along with her. I think I originally read this 2 or maybe 3 years ago, and I wanted to re-read it eventually, but she gave me a good excuse. I was really nervous about her liking it, because it's beyond totally opposite of what she normally reads, but she got sucked right in & at this point has finished this first book & started the 2nd =) And at 700+ pages in the hardcover, this is a doorstopper of a novel, and it's not because the author can't shut up, it's because there really is that much story to tell.

And I'm still not caught up ... but I think this post is long enough for now LOL. Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Books 29 thru 38

Catchup time! I didn't realize quite how far behind I was, hehe... So here's a very VERY long book post. I think I'll try to keep myself from dropping the ball quite this badly in the future LOL. I tried to write a little something about each book, but a couple of them there just wasn't anything that still stood out as worth mentioning after this long. Kind of filler in between other books I looked more forward too I guess. Of course, a couple are just so far down the timeline of the series it's hard to not give huge spoilers to earlier books.

#29

Curse the Dawn

Cassie Palmer Book 4

Karen Chance

You know, time travel can be tricky. There are so many ways to come at it, and of course you have to be careful with the space-time continuum. But, even though the main character does have the gift to shift herself through time & space, this book almost all took place in the present, which was kind of a nice change from the jumping around that went on in the previous 3 books.

#30
Dead And Gone
Southern Vampires Book 9
Charlaine Harris

Some of you may be familiar with the TV series based on this series of books, HBO's True Blood. The second season actually starts this Sunday, 6/14 & I am super excited to see what happens. Even though I've read the books, the TV show has already made some changes to the storyline, so I don't feel confident in what I think is going to happen next. The good thing is that so far all of the changes have been good ones - best example may be Sookie's friend Tara, who has been in the TV series since the first episode, but who didn't actually make an appearance in the books until the end of book 2.

#31
Fire Raiser
Melanie Rawn

This book was hard to enjoy because I felt like the author was kind of preaching at me. I mean, most fantasy is on the more liberal-minded side of things, but there's a difference between including it & shoving it down your throat. And this was perilously close to shoving.

#32
Dead If I Do
Garnet Lacey Book 4
Tate Halloway

I always get an added kick out of this series because it's set right over the border in Wisconsin. Lots of little midwestern jokes that probably aren't as funny to people from other areas LOL.

#33
Under Cover
Anthology
MaryJanice Davidson

An even more local author - MaryJanice Davidson lives right here in Minneapolis and many of her stories are set here. It's endlessly entertaining for me to see artistic license taken with my own area.

#34
Guardian
Time Hunters Book 3
Angela Knight

Time travel again, which as I've already said can be tricky. This series however the "present" is really in the future, and the time travel is more of the sci-fi variety (mechanical) than the fantasy variety (psychic power).

#35
Magic Strikes
Kate Daniels Book 3
Ilona Andrews

After I finished this, I looked to find out when book 4 is coming & had the disappointing discovery that while Ilona has a book set to drop in the fall, it's from an all new series & I don't see a release date for the next in this series. =(

#36
Santa Olivia
Jacqueline Carey

After I read this, I saw on the authors own website describes the genre of this book as "postmodern fable". It's a whole different kind of feel than her other 2 series, focusing around a heroine who doesn't feel fear. Even open-minded as I went into it - I was trying not to expect anything - the storyline still wasn't anything I could have expected.

#37
Backup
Dresden Files Book "0"
Jim Butcher

This little novella is actually told from Harry's brother's point of view. Most websites I've seen classify it as part of the Dresden Files (which are otherwise all told from Harry's perspective), but I really wouldn't mind a full-length novel from this angle.

#38
Skin Trade
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Book 17
Laurell K. Hamilton

Yeah, that's right, number 17 and yeah, that's a crapload of books to have in a series. Which is absolutely wonderful as far as I'm concerned. This one was quite long (almost 500 pages) but I had been looking forward to it so much I finished it in 2 days last weekend.

So, I'm caught up with books for the moment =) Now if I can just get caught up with everything else...

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Books 8, 9, 10 & My First Poll

HA! Bet you almost forgot about the books & I've really been slacking pretty bad ... last year I was going strong 10+ books a month, and here we are mid-February & I'm only on number 11. I've got to get my butt in gear, but considering I just spent most of my day off napping ... well, there's always tomorrow!

#8
4th of July
Women's Murder Club Book 4
James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

So instead of just ending with a twist, this one also started out with a twist. Can't tell you what the twist is without spoiling it of course, but I was surprised by the path this one took, a lot different than the first 3 books.

#9
Really Unusual Bad Boys
MaryJanice Davidson

This was a nice break from the Women's Murder Club. Instead of trying to figure out the twist or identify the killer, I'd classify this as pretty light reading. Technically an anthology, still all 3 of the stories kind of linked together so that it kind of like just one book.

#10

5th Horseman

Women's Murder Club Book 5

James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

In addition to a twist, this one ended on something of a cliffhanger. A girl at work that has also read the series promised that things would be explained in the next book, but my friend has 6 (even though she hasn't finished 5 yet...) so I've got another copy on request & until then have a couple books from other series I will be catching up with.

So, I also set up my first poll! Check it out in the upper-right corner.

After my friend wanted to borrow a gold for Valentine's Day & I ended up pulling down literally every shoebox, I'm reconsidering my sorting system. Right now everything is by brand, and I'm strongly considering switching to by color. I mean, when I'm looking for a color for myself, I know exactly what I want, but when someone else is requesting something, they're usually not as sure. The next day my mom asked for a gold, and I kind of had a "d'oh!" moment because I'd had them all out & put them all back away in their respective boxes.

So, how do you store your polish? Vote in my poll & let me know! I think I'll leave it running through the end of the month. Thanks for reading!

~Colette

Confessions of a Bookworm

It says right up top: "Nails, novels & other stuff that makes me happy." So where, you may be wondering, are these supposed novels?

I confess that sometimes my other hobbies get in the way of reading, and sometimes I get irritated with myself for being so easily distracted. Even though I have already read 5 books so far this year, a part of me feels a little bad because last year at this point I had already read 11 books.

Actually keeping a list & tracking how much I read came about basically from people at work teasing me. "How many books did you read this week?" Ha. Ha. Except it actually did get me to wondering. I knew I read 2-3 books a week most of the time, but I had never really tried to keep track before over a longer period of time. So, at the begining of 2008, I started keeping a list, and at the end of the year my grand total was (insert drumroll here): 130 books. I even impressed myself a little, surpassing my initial estimate of 100 books.

This part of my blog is still a work in progres. I mean, I'm getting a comfort level with the polish-related stuff, I'm doing better than I thought I would, but how much rambling about books will be tolerated in between? What kind of info should I include? What ... are other people posting on this subject?! And so it dawned on me: there are probably as many if not more book blogs as nail blogs. Why in the world hadn't it occured to me before to check them out?

So I did. And it was good. And you'll notice my "other blogs" little section is no longer so little. In fact, the book blogs may need their own little area like the nail blogs soon. On one of them (Bookish Ruth actually) I found a little quiz (I love online quizzes, so often they're just spot-on accurate), which I think summed it up nicely:

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Literate Good Citizen
Book Snob
Fad Reader
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

That is so me.

Anyway, my main distraction to date this year has been reading blogs, writing my own blog, and shopping for polish that I suddenly realize I must have after seeing swatches. But I have managed to get a few books in & here's what they were:

#1:

Fish Out of Water

Book 3 of Fred the Mermaid

MaryJanice Davidson

#2:

No Rest for the Witches

Anthology

#3:

Moving Targets & Other Tales of Valdemar

Anthology

Edited by Mercedes Lackey

#4:

1st to Die

Book 1 of the Women's Murder Club

James Patterson

#5:

2nd Chance

Book 2 of the Women's Murder Club

James Patterson & Andrew Gross

Next on my list is the rest of the Women's Murder Club series. I started these books because my friend quit smoking & started reading instead, so to support her I decided I would read what she was reading so we can talk about it.

I can't say I intend to post reviews of every book I read, kind of like you don't catch me swatching whole polish collections - there are other people who do it better in both cases. But you'll probably catch me waxing poetic on some of my favorites, as I do with my favorite manicures. I can admit that almost every post I've made has turned out longer than I thought it was going to be when I started.

So. Maybe new record for longest post, and maybe not even on anything you care about if you've come looking for some NOTD. But I've been reading even longer than I've been painting my nails. And! Since I usually get all my books from the library, it's a much cheaper simple little pleasure than my nails tend to be.

If you're still with me, please feel free to let me know what you think! (Or even just what's on your mind ^^ ) That always goes, but especially for this first book post. And, as always, thanks for reading.

~Colette