Summer

31 January 2008

January 2008 Reads

CHANGELING - Yasmine Galenorn, MPB, good paranormal, get all of this series!
SHADOW DIVERS - Robert Kurson, TPB, So good and I am not always a fan of nonfiction
JUDGEMENT OF THE GRAVE - Sarah Stewart Taylor, MPB, Good!
ILL WIND: WEATHER WARDEN Book One - Rachel Caine, MPB, Super good!
BUBBLES ALL THE WAY - Sarah Strohmeyer, BOT, not my fave, but good
THE MONKEY's RAINCOAT - Robert Crais, MPB, Good series Start, love that Elvis Cole!
BLIND DESCENT - Nevada Barr, BOT, very very good. Felt like I was right there in the claustrophobic spaces
DEAD GIRLS' DANCE: Morganville Vampires Book 2 - Rachel Caine, MPB, Supah dupah!!
THE ARCHITECT - Keith Ablow, MPB, humdingah!
DEXTER IN THE DARK - Jeff Lindsey, BOCD, #3 is #1
THYME OF DEATH - Susan Wittig Albert, MPB, super cozy start of series

THYME OF DEATH - Susan Wittig Albert

So I actually finished THYME OF DEATH in time for just one more book in January. This is good for First in Series, What's in a Name and A-Z Challenge. Very nice start to the series. I love learning something as I read and cozies are the trick. You learn herbs and makes me want to dig in the dirt. Can't wait for spring. This is almost as good as looking at High Country Garden and Wayside Garden catalogs.
China Bayles is a believable character. She is a lawyer who has moved to a small Texas town to have an herb garden and shop and have a new life. The book catches up to her after she's been in town for several years, enough time to make a name and make some friends. One is a firecracker and is discovered dead in her home. Murder or the suicide as claimed by all? China to the rescue.

29 January 2008

So next up....

I began THYME OF DEATH - Susan Wittig Albert as my next purse book. It's for First in Series Challenge, What's in a Name Challenge and should fit the A-Z Challenge as well.
Next audiobook for the car is CIRCLE OF QUILTERS - Jennifer Chiaverini. I love this Elm Creek series. This one is just right after the fun with Dexter. Mellow and soothing with a hint of mystery.
I may take THYME OF DEATH up with me as a bedside book as well as the purse book and maybe I can finish one more for the month of January.

DEXTER IN THE DARK - Jeff Lindsey

Dexter is back and in trouble. His 'dark passenger' is in hiding, his sister wants help with a serial killer who is beheading and burning his victims, and he is getting married. And his soon to be stepkids want him to mentor them in the ways of killing.
Sardonic wit always with, Dexter series makes for a good read.

28 January 2008

THE ARCHITECT - Keith Ablow

SCHNIEKEES! What a ride this book was. The reader almost immediately knows who the killer is, but you just don't care! You want to stay with it to see how they get him. And it's not like you think.
Frank Clevenger, the main character, the 'good' guy, is a forensic psychologist with issues of his own. He's a wannabe recovering alcoholic, he has an adopted son he is trying to be there for and unsure how to go about it. The son is damaged and does his best to push Frank away. They are like magnets who connect then repel.
I read DENIAL, the first in the series, several months ago. It didn't take me long to acquire more of Ablow's books, but it took me awhile to work up the courage to read another of them. I will read more of the series and look for his nonfiction works, too.

Highly recommend if you like a thrill ride.

24 January 2008

Slooooowly I read.....page by page.....

I can't seem to find the time required to read as much as I would like. I am working out on the elliptical these days instead of the recumbent bike, so no reading THE ARCHITECT - Keith Ablow there. Meetings or errands are taking longer, so no early to home to get in reading that way. Too flippin' sleepy to read at night. I did wake early this morning and read a chapter in CITY OF MASKS - Daniel Hecht. This has just been a slow reading kind of week.
I at least have my 50 mile RT commute for work, so quickly making my way through BOCD DEXTER IN THE DARK - Jeff Lindsay. I could finish early next week, depending how the weekend goes. I'd like at least one more book completed for January, especially if I want to keep on track for the 100 Book Challenge for 2008 on Shelfari.
So many books, so little time....

20 January 2008

DEAD GIRLS' DANCE: The Morganville Vampires, Book 2 - Rachel Caine

Sat on the recumbent bike for an extra 30 minutes this morning just so I could finish this book. The first of the series, GLASS HOUSES, was fantastic and my introduction to Rachel Caine's work. I couldn't wait to read the rest of the series, but I also wanted to savor them. They are like dark chocolate. So now I have the third on in the series on Mt Git'r'Read and not sure how long I can stay on this diet. I will have to move MIDNIGHT ALLEY up to near top of the stack. I think I can wait until next month. Maybe a good Valentine's Day read....

Synopsis from B&N:
Claire has her share of challenges. Like being a genius in a school that favors beauty over brains; homicidal girls in her dorm, and finding out that her college town is overrun with the living dead. On the up side, she has a new boyfriend with a vampire-hunting dad. But when a local fraternity throws the Dead Girls' Dance, hell is really going to break loose.

Without giving any sneakpeeks, I think the above synopsis says it all and you will have to read it for the whole wicked cool story.

15 January 2008

TWO BOOK FINISHIN' DAY!! WHOO-HOO!

SWEEET! I finished two books today! It happens that way sometimes. Finished BLIND DESCENT - Nevada Barr BOT on the way home from work. It was very good and easy to get into. Nevada Barr makes you feel like you are the one going through the experience and Barbara Rosenblatt is the perfect narrator. Anna Pigeon is the main character of the series and her murder solving is believable. It's not like when Jessica Fletcher shows up on you doorstep and you just want to run away screaming since murder follows her. No, Anna Pigeon goes for at least a year or two and different national parks before murder shows. I like that she is a flawed person and I love her sister Molly and the relationship the two of them have.

The other book finished today was THE MONKEY'S RAINCOAT - Robert Crais. I was going to read and finish while on the recumbent bike, but I thought better of it when I got home from work. I took advantage of the quiet house and changed into (theoretical) workout clothes and snuggled under the fleece blanket on the spare bed in the Candy Room and read for an hour and finished the book. It was another very good read and a good intro to Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. I have read other books in the series and really enjoyed them. Robert Crais' writing has developed wonderfully through the years, but this first one was a great read, if a little rough. I love the humor of Elvis and stoicism of Pike. More please!

So now I am listening to Jeff Lindsey - DEXTER IN THE DARK that has been waiting since November for me to get to it. And I will continue with DEAD GIRL'S DANCE: Morganville Vampires Vol 2 - Rachel Caine for my next purse book.

What am I reading now??

Tape 9 of 9 BLIND DESCENT - Nevada Barr in the vehicle, not sure what will be next. Maybe the third Dexter. It's been waiting patiently since November. I am almost finished with purse book THE MONKEY'S RAINCOAT - Robert Crais and I started my preview of DEAD GIRLS' DANCE - Rachel Caine last night. I know it's going to be good, but I want to keep up with my previews. Don't want to get caught in line or at the gym with a bad purse book! I read myself awake this morning with DEATH'S ACRE - Dr Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson. Just did not want to get out of bed just yet, so read until I was reasonably more awake. Didn't want to go back to sleep or I'd have overslept and missed my workout (and time with Elvis Cole).

13 January 2008

ILL WIND: WEATHER WARDEN Book One - Rachel Caine

I finished Rachel Caine's ILL WIND in next to no time. My reading time has become rather limited lately, so this was no mean feat. It was a joy to read and I very much can't wait to read the rest of the series.
I want Jo's two cars. Delilah a very sweet '76 Mustang Mach 1. O..M..G!...sadly that one gets destroyed and Jo has to move on to Mona, a '97 Dodge Viper GTS. Lordy, this woman knows how to pick 'em!! I'd read the series if only for the cars. Yay that the series is super even without the cars.

10 January 2008

Book progress....

I am on tape 5 of 9, side 1 BLIND DESCENT - Nevada Barr in the vehicle, I finished JUDGEMENT OF THE GRAVE - Sarah Stewart Taylor last night while Lady K played her Noggin.com games on my laptop. I started the newest purse book, ILL WIND - Rachel Caine. This is the first book in her Weather Warden series and I am already diggin' it. I didn't read anything last night in bedside book, DEATH'S ACRE - Dr Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson, due to not feeling so whooptee-doo. I'm feeling bettah.
I'll get some listening time in today with the back and forth driving of Boulder to work and back to Boulder back to work and back to Boulder. I am looking for the silver lining, glass is half full thing and being able to listen to the lovely Barbara Rosenblatt read me a story is that silver lining.

09 January 2008

JUDGEMENT OF THE GRAVE - Sarah Stewart Taylor

Judgement of the Grave - Sarah Stewart Taylor is a very good mystery. It could be called a cozy only in that the main character, Sweeney St George, is a Harvard professor and finds herself investigating murders or at least helping. I love this series. Sweeney has the coolest career choice of all of the 'cozies' I've read. She teaches funerary art at Harvard, studying and teaching all that that entails. In this book she is researching tombstones from the pre-Revolutionary and Revolutionary period in Concord, Mass. And stumbles upon a murdered man. It's a good character study as much as it is a mystery story.

06 January 2008

NOW...I can begin my challenges....

I can now begin my challenges:
TBR Challenge
What's in a Name Challenge
A to Z Challenge
First in a Series Challenge
Chunkster Challenge

I wanted to actually begin the challenges in the new year and not with something I'd been reading in 2007 and finishing in 2008. So here I go.

Death's Acre - Dr Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson (TBR Challenge, A - Z Challenge)
Blind Descent - Nevada Barr, narrated by Barbara Rosenblatt (A-Z Challenge)
Judgement of the Grave - Sarah Stewart Taylor (TBR Challenge, A - Z Challenge)

SHADOW DIVERS - Robert Kurston

Finished Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II - Robert Kurston. It's nonfiction and I am not always drawn to nonfiction, let alone WW II books. Granted this didn't take place in WW II, rather about a U-boat that deep wreck divers found off of the coast of New Jersey and what these two men did to find its identity and all that the journey entailed. A very good book and I could only wish for more time to read it through the last part of December and into this month.
I felt for the two main characters, John Chatterton and Richie Kohler, in their quest (it can't be described as anything else) for the identity of the U-boat and the toll it took on their personal lives. Loss of marriages and deaths of friends and fellow divers. The very warm and sad epilogue was perfect.

03 January 2008

And Another Challenge Rises...Raises...??

So, here we go again. Dagnabbit Joy!!! Chunkster Challenge...who can resist that title??
Some possibles from Mt Git'r'Read:

City of Masks - Daniel Hecht, 464 pages
Twilight - Stephenie Meyer, 498 pages (already on TBR Challenge and First in Series Challenge)
Book of Air and Shadows - Michael Gruber, 466 pages (already on TBR Challenge)
Hood - Stephen Lawhead, 496 pages (could very well make it to First in Series Challenge)

02 January 2008

I Resolve.....

For 2008, I resolve to keep better track of my challenges I join!! Books I read in the challenges, links to the challenges, and whatever else I can think of for said challenges.
I was lured into joining a few in 2007 and highly enjoyed them all. However, once the challenge was finished, I deleted the entries from my sidebars....for my own good reason at the time of making room for more of my ramblings. I will now find a way to keep track of all of (what I said in the first sentence).
I just now saw my book buddy Joy's blog of her year end wrap-up for 2007 and I just shook my cranium at how organized she is. She kept all of her info available at her fingertips. I vow now (brown cow) to attempt to do the same.

So sworn by my hand on this 2nd day of January!

First book in 2008

CHANGELING - Yasmine Galenorn is the first book finished in 2008. It was a very good story. Second in a series and I will definitely read more, preferably reading the first in a series WITCHLING and then the third released this month DARKLING. I do enjoy Yasmine's writing.

Since I am a Big Dork...a repeat of yesterday's post

Blue Christmas - Mary Kay Andrews, HB, very good and can't wait to read more!
Aunt Dimity's Christmas - Nancy Atherton, MPB, nice holiday cozy
On Strike for Christmas - Sheila Roberts, TPB, wonderful
Silent Night - JD Robb, Claire Cross, Susan Plunkett, Dee Holmes, MPB, surprisingly good anthology, all stories were enjoyable
The Archer's Tale - Bernard Cornwell, BOT, start of a trilogy, bit of a stretch for the holiday theme...some of it took place in the holiday timeframe...
The Dolls' Christmas - Tasha Tudor, BOT, short and sweet
Slay Bells - Kate Kingsbury, TPB, decent, not sure but might read more
Tumbling Blocks - Earlene Fowler, HB, good holiday book and good addition to the series
A Highland Christmas - M C Beaton, HC, good cozy Christmas story
A Redbird Christmas - Fannie Flagg, HC, my favorite of the month

8 books, 2 audio = 10
118 for the year

01 January 2008

December Books - All Holiday All Month Long

Blue Christmas - Mary Kay Andrews, HB, very good and can't wait to read more!

Aunt Dimity's Christmas - Nancy Atherton, MPB, nice holiday cozy

On Strike for Christmas - Sheila Roberts, TPB, wonderful

Silent Night - JD Robb, Claire Cross, Susan Plunkett, Dee Holmes, MPB, surprisingly good anthology, all stories were enjoyable

The Archer's Tale - Bernard Cornwell, BOT, start of a trilogy, bit of a stretch for the holiday theme...some of it took place in the holiday timeframe...

The Dolls' Christmas - Tasha Tudor, BOT, short and sweet

8 books, 2 audio = 10, 118 for the year

Slay Bells - Kate Kingsbury, TPB, decent, not sure but might read more

Tumbling Blocks - Earlene Fowler, HB, good holiday book and good addition to the series

A Highland Christmas - M C Beaton, HC, good cozy Christmas story

A Redbird Christmas - Fannie Flagg, HC, my favorite of the month