Summertime and the Reading Is Easy ~ Storeetllr (Mary), Keeping Track in 2014: Part 5

Summertime in Colorado! Can anything be more gorgeous, especially after the long, cold, lonely winter just past? Bees are buzzing, butterflies are fluttering, birds are singing (or, rather, baby birds are cheeping; the mom and dad robins are too busy hustling to feed the hungry little critters to be doing much singing), and Nickel and I are enjoying the show from our new basement digs.

Waiting impatiently for their next meal:



"What took you so long????!!!"



* * *

About me: I'm a pretty omnivoracious reader, with an especial taste for the fantasy and mystery genres, seasoned by a bit romance and/or horror. I also like Georgette Heyer-type romances and some scifi, especially that dealing with social issues. I like themed reads to an extent: Fantasy February, Mystery March, May Murder & Mayhem, September Series & Sequels, Halloween Horror October. November is NaNoWriMo (www.nanowrimo.org), which I usually start, even if I don't always finish.

Here's my rating system for this year, stolen borrowed from Morphy, except you will never see a rating of 4 or lower, and usually not one of 5, because, if it's that unappealing, I won't finish it. I'm too old, so these days The Pearl Rule is ruthlessly applied!

10 stars - The book completely enthralled me. Could not put it down. Got something more out of it than just entertainment ~ it enlightened or educated me in some way, or it was utterly emotionally satisfying. Can definitely see myself reading it again. Will keep forever and never loan it out, but might buy extra copies to give away to friends and family.

9 stars - Not quite perfect but almost so. I will actively push this book on my friends and family.

8 stars - A really great book in all respects with perhaps some minor flaws. Highly recommended.

7 stars - Better than average but with some flaws. Recommended.

6 stars - Average. An entertaining read but probably forgettable. Will not reread. Recommended for entertainment value to readers with similar interest.

5 stars - Slightly lower than average. Some aspects of the story, characters or writing troubled me. Probably will not recommend.

4 stars - Finished but did not like. Would not recommend.
3 stars - Had some redeeming qualities or else I couldn't have finished it. Nothing to recommend it though.
2 star - I can't believe I finished this book. What am I? A masochist?
1 star - No book ever gets this rating. If it's a 1, I don't finish it.

Books Read in 2014 (bolded titles are highly recommended)

January

1. Archangel's Legion by Nalini Singh
2. Jim Butcher Dresden Files Storm Front, Vol. 1: The Gathering Storm and Jim Butcher Dresden Files Fool Moon, Vol. 1 by Mark Powers/Adrian Syaf (graphic novels)
3. Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer
4. A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman (audiobook)
5. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (audiobook)
6. The Sum of All Kisses by Julia Quinn (audiobook)
7. Kitty Rocks the House by Carrie Vaughn. (audiobook)
8. Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neal Gaiman (audiobook)
9. Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo (audiobook)
10. Kitty Steals the Show by Carrie Vaughn (audiobook)
11. Takedown Twenty by Janet Evanovich (audiobook)
12. The Ides of April by Lindsey Davis (audiobook)
13. Second Son by Lee Child (audiobook)
14. Kitty in the Underworld by Carrie Vaughn (audiobook)
15. Talking to the Dead by Harry Bingham (audiobook)
16. Spider Woman's Daughter by Anne Hillerman

Fantasy February

17. Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews (audiobook)
18. Hounded by Kevin Hearne (eBook)
19. Hexed by Kevin Hearn (eBook)
20. Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold (audio)
21. Hammered by Kevin Hearn (eBook)
22. Tricked by Kevin Hearns (audio)
23. Trapped by Kevin Hearns (audiobook)
24. Wild Seed by Octavia Butler
25. The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland by Catherynne M. Valente (audiobook)
26. Concealed in Death by J.D. Robb
27. Hunted by Kevin Hearns

Mystery March

28. Wild Strawberries by Angela Thirkell (reccied by AMQS)
29. The Mermaids Singing by Val McDermid
30. Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers (audio)
31. Wire in the Blood by Val McDermid (audio)
32. Love Story, With Murders by Harry Bingham (LTER)
33. Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovich
34. Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (audio)
35. Little Green by Walter Mosley (audio)
36. The Gods of Guilt by Michael Connelly (audio)
37. Hostage by Kay Hooper

April

38. Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold (audio)
39. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
40. Shogun by James Clavell (audio)
41. River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay
42. Switchblade by Michael Connelly
43. Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold (audio)
44. Thankless in Death by J.D. Robb (part audio/part print)
45. Suicide Run by Michael Connelly (anthology including Cielo Azur & One Dollar Jackpot)
46. Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (audio)
47. The Martian, a Novel by Andy Weir

May: Murder & Mayhem

48. Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer
49. Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover by Marion Zimmer Bradley
50. Why Kings Confess by C.S. Harris
51. Some Danger Involved by Will Thomas
52. Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor
53. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
54. World of Trouble by Ben H. Winters (LTER)
55. Quiet by Susan Cain (audio)
56. To Kingdom Come by Will Thomas
57. The Bughouse Affair by Muller & Pronzini
58. The Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan, read by Kate Reading (audio)

June

59. Soulless: the Manga, Vol. 1
60. The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold (audio)
61. The Collector by Nora Roberts
62. April Lady by Georgette Heyer
63. Monk's Hood by Ellis Peters (audio)
64. The Limehouse Text by Will Thomas
65. The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold (audio)
66. Three Weeks With Lady X by Eloisa James (audio)
67. The Hellfire Conspiracy by Will Thomas
68. Cetaganda by Lois McMaster Bujold (audio)
69. Tropic of Serpents Book 2 by Marie Brennan (audio)
70. Brothers in Arms by Bujold (audio)

July

71. The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley (audio)
72. Borders of Infinity by Bujold (audio)
73. Soulless: the Manga, Vol. 2
74. Soulless: the Manga, Vol. 3
75. Mirror Dance by Bujold (audio)
76. I Am Half Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley (audio)
77. Top Secret Twenty-One by Janet Evanovich (audio)
78. Speaking from Among the Bones by Bradley (audio)
79. Komarr by Bujold (audio)
80. Memory by Bujold (audio)
81. Moon Called by Patricia Briggs (audio)
82. A Civil Campaign by Lois Bujold (audio)
83. Winterfair Gifts by Bujold (audio)
84. Otherwise Engaged by Amanda Quick
85. Fatal Enquiry by Will Thomas (LTER)
86. Diplomatic Immunity by Bujold (audio)
87. Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Bujold (audio)
88. Cryoburn by Bujold (audio)

August

89. The Ripper Affair by Lilith Saintcrow (LTER)
90. Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley (audio)
91. Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly
92. The Poisoned Pawn by Peggy Blair (eBook)
93. The White City by Elizabeth Bear
94. A Famine of Horses by P. F. Chisholm (eBook)
95. Shattered by Kevin Hearne (audio)
96. The Axe Factor by Colin Cotteril (audio)
97. The Black Hand by Will Thomas
98. Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice
99. The Yard by Alex Grecian
100. Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs (audio)
101. The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice (audio)

September Series & Sequels

102. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (audio)
103. A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch (audio, read by James Langton)
104. The Paper Magician by Charlie M. Holmberg
105. Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs.
106. Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs
107. The Blue Girl by Alex Grecian (a short story)
108. The Black Country by Alex Grecian
109. The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness
110. Poisoned Pearls by Leah R. Cutter (LTER-August)
111. The Dog Stars by Peter Heller (audio)
112. Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs
113. Nickel Plated by Aric Davis
114. River Marked by Patricia Briggs (Audio)
115. Shield of Winter by Nalini Singh
116. Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs
117. Night Broken by Patricia Briggs

October

118. Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs (audio)
119. Hunting Grounds by Patricia Briggs (audio)
120. Fair Game by Patricia Briggs (audio)
121. Alpha and Omega by Patricia Briggs (audio)
122. Shifting Shadows by Patricia Briggs
123. The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke (a gift from Roni)
124. Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold
125. Blood Red by Mercedes Lackey
126. Unnatural Issue by Mercedes Lackey
127. A Sudden Light by Garth Stein
128. Haunted by Kay Hooper
129. Rose Gold by Walter Mosley (audio)
130. A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin

November

131. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (Audio)
132. Festive in Death by J.D. Robb (eBook)
133. Personal by Lee Child (eBook)
134. Midnight Mayor by Kate Griffin (eBook)
135. Prince Lestat by Anne Rice
136. The Burning Room by Michael Connelly (Audio)
137. Sorcery and Cecilia by Patricia C. Wrede (eBook) (reccied by Roni)

Bolded=Highly recommended!

Currently Reading

The Woman Who Would Be King by Kara Cooney (LTER-July 2014)
Olympus Confidential (LTER-August 2014)
Wheel of Fire and White Fire, two in the Agent Pendergast series by Preston and Childs, which I somehow missed reading (I think) and want to read before I get the new one, Blue Labyrinth

On Deck

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
Symphony of Echoes by Jodi Taylor
Roman Holiday by Jodi Taylor
The Iron King by Maurice Druon (reccied by RD)

Top of Mount TBR

The Borgias by G. J. Meyer (LTER)
Princesses Behaving Badly by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie (LTER)
The Masqueraders by Georgette Heyer

Reviews to do/in progress/ratings only (no review):

10. Kitty Steals the Show by Carrie Vaughn (audiobook) 7 stars
11. Takedown Twenty by Janet Evanovich (audiobook) 6 stars
12. The Ides of April by Lindsey Davis (audiobook) 6 stars
13. Second Son by Lee Child (audiobook) 6 stars
14. Kitty in the Underworld by Carrie Vaughn (audiobook) 7 stars
15. Talking to the Dead by Harry Bingham (audiobook) 7 stars
16. Spider Woman's Daughter by Anne Hillerman 7 stars
17. Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews (audiobook) 5 stars
18. Hounded by Kevin Hearne (eBook) 7 stars
19. Hexed by Kevin Hearne (eBook) 7 stars
20. Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold (audio) 8 stars
21. Hammered by Kevin Hearn (eBook) 7 stars
22. Tricked by Kevin Hearn (audio) 6 stars
23. Trapped by Kevin Hearn (audio) 6 stars
24. Wild Seed by Octavia Butler (10 stars)
25. The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland by Catherynne M. Valente (9 stars) (audiobook)
26. Concealed in Death by J.D. Robb (7 stars)
27. Hunted by Kevin Hearn (eBook) (7 stars)
28. Wild Strawberries by Angela Thirkell. 7 stars
29. The Mermaids Singing by Val McDermid. 7 stars Audio
30. Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers. 7 stars. Audio (would have been higher rating but couldn't stand the reader)
31. A Wire in the Blood by Val McDermid 7 stars. Audio
32. Love Story, With Murders by Harry Bingham 8 stars (LTER)
33. Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch. 8 stars.
34. Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (audio) 8 stars
35. Little Green by Walter Mosley 8 stars (audio)
36. The Gods of Guilt by Michael Connelly 8 stars (audio)
37. Hostage by Kay Hooper. 6 stars
38. Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold (audio) 7 stars.
39. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion 9 stars
40. Shogun by James Clavell (audio) 9 stars.
41. River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay. 9 stars
42. Switchblade by Michael Connelly (short story but counting anyway) 7 stars
43. Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold (audio) 6 stars
44. Thankless in Death by J.D. Robb (part audio/part print) 6 stars
45. Suicide Run by Michael Connelly (short story anthology including Cielo Azur & One Dollar Jackpot) 7 stars
46. Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (audio) 7 stars
47. The Martian: A Novel by Andy Weir. 10 stars.
48. Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer. 8 stars
49. Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover by Marion Zimmer Bradley (LTER). 6 stars.
50. Why Kings Confess by C.S. Harris. 7 stars.
51. Some Danger Involved by Will Thomas. 8 stars.
52. Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor. 9 stars
53. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. 9 stars.
54. World of Trouble by Ben H. Winters (LTER) 8 stars
55. Quiet by Susan Cain (audio) 8 stars
56. To Kingdom Come by Will Thomas 6 stars
57. The Bughouse Affair by Muller & Pronzini 5 stars
58. The Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan, read by Kate Reading (audio) 9 stars (Reminds me a little of Amelia Peabody mysteries, except a lot less lighthearted.)
59. Soulless: the Manga, Vol. 1 - 6 stars (my first manga; not top of my list for enjoyment, but not bad either)
60. The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold (audio) 7 stars
61. The Collector by Nora Roberts 7 stars
62. April Lady by Georgette Heyer 6 stars
63. Monk's Hood by Ellis Peters, read by Derek Jacobi (audio) 7 stars - A trip down memory lane, and a nice change of pace
64. The Limehouse Text by Will Thomas 7 stars - Third in the series that includes the LTER April novel and latest in the series, Fatal Enquiry, and read so I can be up-to-speed on events before reading it. I liked it better than the second (To Kingdom Come, though it took me about 70 pages to really get into it.
65. The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold (audio) 7 stars
66. Three Weeks With Lady X by Eloisa James (audio) 7 stars
67. The Hellfire Conspiracy by Will Thomas 6 stars
68. Cetaganda by Lois McMaster Bujold (audio) 7 stars
69. Tropic of Serpents Book 2 by Marie Brennan (audio) 9 stars
70. Brothers in Arms by Bujold (audio) 7 stars
71. The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley (audio) 7 stars
72. Borders of Infinity by Bujold (audio) 7 stars
73. Soulless: the Manga, Vol. 2 - 6 stars
74. Soulless: the Manga, Vol. 3 - 6 stars (I've decided these were fun but not enough fun to make up for the manga-ish quality, which didn't appeal to me.)
75. Mirror Dance by Bujold (audio) 8 stars (Hard to decide whether 8 or 9 stars, but I think 8. I almost quit at one point, and at a few other points I was so annoyed and/or disturbed that it wasn't fun reading, but by the end I was so very happy I'd persevered.)
76. I Am Half Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley (audio) 7 stars
77. Top Secret Twenty-One by Janet Evanovich (audio) 7 stars
78. Speaking from Among the Bones by Bradley 8 stars (audio)
79. Komarr by Bujold (audio) 9 stars
80. Memory by Bujold (audio) 8 stars
81. Moon Called by Patricia Briggs (audio) 6 stars - Enjoyable enough, but I'm not sure I'll continue with the series as it reminded me a lot of other series I've already read. First I need to get through the Vorkosigan series, to which I am currently addicted. Then I may be able to think about it and reconsider.
82. A Civil Campaign by Lois Bujold (audio) 9 stars - Made me laugh out loud a number of times. Slapstick, possibly, but very well done. I do love Miles, but Gregor is a hot second.
83. Winterfair Gifts by Bujold (audio) 6 stars - Okay novella and I enjoyed Sergeant Taura's part in it, but probably won't read it again.
84. Otherwise Engaged by Amanda Quick. 6 stars - Typical romantic fare from Amanda Quick, this historical thriller isn't as good as most. Convoluted and ultimately unconvincing plot, too many major villains (3) and minor (2-1/2), a couple of places where hints and long meaningful looks were never followed up, and uninspiring lead characters, I only finished it because (a) I kept hoping it would get better, (b) it was as usual a quick easy read, and (c) I forget what the third reason was.
85. Fatal Enquiry by Will Thomas (LTER). 8 stars. In the latest adventure of Cyrus Barker and his sidekick Thomas Llewelyn, Barker's archenemy Sebastian Nightwine (whom Barker bested in Some Danger Involved) returns to London under the protection of the British government, and suddenly the private enquiry agents are charged with murder of a lord and scarcely manage to evade arrest. With Barker gone to ground, bodies start stacking up all over town, and Llewelyn is on his own. This was a bid bloodier than the earlier books in the series, but I have to say I enjoyed it more than any except the first.
86 Diplomatic Immunity by Bujold (audio). 8 stars. Another fine Miles Vorkosigan adventure. Miles and Ekaterina are on their way home from their long-overdue honeymoon when Emperor Gregor sends them to Quaddie space to sort out a crisis that looks relatively simple on the surface but is anything but.
87. Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Bujold (audio). 8 stars. I enjoyed this one, even though Miles had only a cameo appearance. I didn't really like Tej (sp?), she seemed just too wishy-washy all the way through the book, but seeing how Vorpatril's mind worked made up for it, and the humor was there in spades! So, in this one, Vorpatril rescues a couple of shady ladies from some shadier kidnappers and gets embroiled in a scheme to rob Barrayar of some of its historical treasures.
88. Cryoburn by Bujold (audio). 9 stars. Okay, there may have been some hard-to-believe plot lines/twists in this, but I liked it as much if not more than any of the others in the series. It was humorous, intense and (at least at the very end) greatly moving. (I just finished it about 10 mins. ago and haven't stopped crying yet.) I may have it a 10 star rating yet, after I've had a chance to consider.
89. The Ripper Affair by Lilith Saintcrow (LTER). 7 stars.
90. Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley (audio) 8 stars.
91. Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly. 8 stars. Thanks to Roni for the reccie. I enjoyed it, though it seemed to drag a bit in places. The last 1/3 of it was brilliant and wonderful, and I cried at the end, so... Totally worth the price of the ticket!
92. The Poisoned Pawn by Peggy Blair (eBook) 7 stars. Second in what I hope ends up being a series after The Beggar's Opera, an Early Reviewer book I won last year and really enjoyed. Ramirez, who sees the dead, is a detective on the murder squad of the Havana police force, and Apiro, a brilliant man who suffers from achondroplasia (dwarfism), is a plastic surgeon cum forensic pathologist for the department. Together they make a great crime-solving team. In this installment, a Canadian tourist dies under suspicious circumstances while on a flight back to Canada from Cuba, after which two more women in Cuba die under similar suspicious circumstances, while, at the same time, a Catholic priest has been arrested in Canada after leaving Cuba with a laptop full of child pornography. Ramirez is sent to Canada to pick up the priest and return him to Cuba and, while in Canada, with Apiro's help, assists the Canadian police in figuring out what happened to those women.
93. The White City by Elizabeth Bear. Reread. 6 stars. I had forgotten that I already this book, and now I realize it's because it wasn't all that memorable. Still, I like the characters of Don Sebastien, the wampyr, and Lady Abby Irene Garrett, the sorceress. I wish I could easily find more than New Amsterdam and this one to read. (Others include Seven for a Secret (novella) (March 2009), Ad Eternum (novella) (February 2012), and Garrett Investigates (November 2012), all Subterranean Press.)
94. A Famine of Horses by P. F. Chisholm. 8 stars. eBook. First in the Sir Robert Carey mystery series, set in Elizabethan England. In this one, Carey (cousin and courtier to the Queen) is made Deputy Warden to his brother-in-law, Warden of one of the Marches that bordered Scotland, a place that rivaled the American Wild West of the 1800s for violence and outlawry. Once there, he finds that one of the worst of the outlaws is stealing every horse in the area, and Carey must discover what plot he's hatched and who killed his youngest son. My kind of historical mystery ~ very realistic and accurate depiction of the times, and a pretty decent mystery too. I'll defintely be reading the rest of the series, maybe for September Series and Sequels.
95. Shattered by Kevin Hearne. 8 stars. audio. Latest Iron Druid novel finds Atticus separated from Granuille, who has gone to India to try and find and save her father from a demon, and in the position of tutoring his former master, the Druid Owen Kennedy, a crusty, foul-mouthed old coot, in modern day language and customs. Each of the three druids take turns telling their parts in the tale in their own voices. I didn't care for Owen Kennedy's voice, but as usual Luke Daniels did a good job with the other voices.
96. The Axe Factor by Colin Cotteril (audio). 9 stars. Best so far of the Jim Juree mysteries set in present-day Thailand. Made me laugh out loud more than once, and I found myself liking the characters a lot more for some reason.
97. The Black Hand by Will Thomas. 9 stars. Best so far of the Barker & Llewelyn mysteries set in Victorian London. I didn't laugh out loud much, but I liked the characters a lot more than I had in previous books, perhaps because there was more of the personal about all of them (not just Llewelyn). Also, the mystery was good and, though the protagonist was no less bloodthirsty than in earlier books, there wasn't the unrealistic element of invincibility that bothered me about the others.
98. Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice. 7 stars. Audio. Reread
99. The Yard by Alex Grecian. 8 stars. Great beginning to a new (for me) series featuring the detectives and constables and medical examiner of Scotland Yard at the dawn of the new era, post Jack-the-Ripper.
100. Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs. 7 stars. Audio. Second in the Mercy Thompson series. In this one, she goes up against a vampiric sorcerer who is possessed by a demon.
101. The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice. 6 stars. Audio. Overtly sensuous, overly melodramatic and annoyingly angsty. Could have done without the loooong story of Marius, or at least a little one that was a bit shorter. Also, narrated by Simon Vance, who gave everyone the same Sean Connery lishp, like they all were Scottish and had their mouths full of mashed potatoes or really thick blood.
102. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. 8-1/2 stars. Audio. Very strange novel that reminded me very much of Turn of the Screw because of what I thought its unreliable narrator and because of the "WTH just happened?" aspect. Creepy, though. Probably the most creepy book I've read in a really long time.
103. A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch (audio, read by James Langton). 6 stars. Maybe it was the reader, and maybe all Victorian era amateur detectives are necessarily similar, but Charles Lenox struck me as an inferior copy of Lord Peter Wimsey with a dallop of Sherlock Holmes. The mystery was not great either, as I more or less figured out whodunit as well as picked up on obvious clues that the supposedly brilliant Lenox did not, although I did like it that he wasn't portrayed as some sort of martial arts master and was fearful of actual violence.
104. The Paper Magician by Charlie M. Holmberg. 7 stars. It took me awhile to get into this, and I found my interesting waxing and waning all through the book. Interesting take on magic, though. Sort of like post-Hogwarts, except a magician is "bound" to only one element and could work magic only through that element for life. I liked it enough that I'm going to continue with the series.
105. Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs. 8 stars. Audio
106. Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs. 7 stars. Audio. In this one, a fey queen is trying to get hold of a fey artifact of power that she thinks Mercy possesses, causing all kinds of havoc in her life. Samuel is hanging on by a thread when a sudden surprise meeting with someone he knew in the distant past rocks him.
107. The Blue Girl by Alex Grecian (a short story). 7 stars.
108. The Black Country by Alex Grecian. 6 stars.
109. The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness. 6 stars.
110. Poisoned Pearls by Leah R. Cutter. 8 stars. (LTER)
111. The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. 10 stars. Audio (recommended by Joanne - coppers)
112. Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs. 7 stars.
113. Nickel Plated by Aric Davis. 9 stars.
114. River Marked by Patricia Briggs. 8 stars. Audio
115. Shield of Winter by Nalini Singh. 8 stars
116. Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs. 8 stars
117. Night Broken by Patricia Briggs. 8 stars
118. Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs (audio). 7 stars
119. Hunting Grounds by Patricia Briggs (audio). 7 stars
120. Fair Game by Patricia Briggs (audio) 7 stars.
121. Alpha and Omega by Patricia Briggs (audio) 7 stars.
122. Shifting Shadows by Patricia Briggs. 8 stars.
123. The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clark. 8 stars. (gift from Roni) I really enjoyed these charming short stories ~ some lighthearted but most with a dark underside (the world of faery is not safe) ~ from the world of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Jonathan Strange appears in only one, but one is about The Raven King, and I've been wanting to read more about John Uskglass, as well as Mary Queen of Scots and the Duke of Wellington, and all the stories were compelling. My thanks to Roni for gifting me with this treat!
124. Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold. 7 stars. (Audio) Interesting and fun, but without Miles in it (except when being dissed by Elli), not a favorite. Still, glad I read it. I liked the way Ethan matured from beginning to end, and his compassion. Also, I eventually came to understand the psyche of the Athosians (sp?) at least a bit.
125. Blood Red by Mercedes Lackey. 7 stars. A different take on the Little Red Riding Hood story. I liked the protag but thought she was a bit too Mary Sue-ish.
126. Unnatural Issue by Mercedes Lackey. 6 stars. Different heroine, not as likeable. Story wasn't either, though it had its moments.
127. A Sudden Light by Garth Stein. 8 stars. A different take on a ghost story. I liked. Now I want to read his first.
128. Haunted by Kay Hooper. 7 stars. A Noah Bishop thriller, this time with Hollis, DeMarco, and Deacon investigating a couple of odd murders in a small southern town while, at the same time, a serial killer is abducting and murdering women on the nearby trails of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
129. Rose Gold by Walter Mosley. 8 stars. (Audio)
130. A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin. 8 stars. New series for me, recommended (I think) by Roni, featuring a London sorcerer who was betrayed by his mentor and murdered by a monstrous shadow he calls Hunger. When he turns up alive 2 years later, bent on revenge, he is a lot different ~ and stronger ~ than he was when he died. Original and mind bending urban fantasy.
131. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer. 6 stars. Audio. Well, I finished it, but only because I've heard the next in the series is better, the Cinder portions were pretty good, and I had invested so much time in it when it got almost unbearable that I decided to speed up the narration (I never knew you could do that!) and plow through it. Honestly, I wanted to dropkick Scarlet any number of times ~ I know she was only 16, but that was just too much angst and whining for me.
132. Festive in Death by J.D. Robb. 8 stars. Latest Eve Dallas/Roarke murder mystery has her chasing the killer of a really unpleasant victim while trying to cope with Christmas shopping and yet another holiday party being thrown by Roarke and her.
133. Personal by Lee Child. 7 stars. Reacher is drafted by a general in the Army who is an old enemy of his to find a sniper Reacher once put away before he assassinates someone at the G8 Conference in London.
134. Midnight Mayor by Kate Griffin. 8 stars. Second in the Matthew Swift/Blue Electric Angel series, which I am very much enjoying. In this one, he goes up against :the destroyer of cities: who's been called to London by a disgruntled woman who is unaware that she is a sorceress.
135. Prince Lestat by Anne Rice. 8 stars. Great finale (?) to The Vampire Chronicles begun back in the late 70s with Interview With A Vampire. In this one, old characters are brought together, previously unknown yet whispered about characters are introduced, surprises are sprung, and mysteries are solved.
136. The Burning Room by Michael Connelly. 10 stars. Audio. Years ago, a sniper's bullet hit and injured a young mariachi musician, leaving him paralyzed and causing a huge upswell of indignation amongst the hispanic community of L.A. and, not so coincidentally, sweeping L.A.'s first hispanic mayor into office. Now, the wounded man has died, and the coroner rules his death a homicide, directly the result of the bullet that had lodged inextricably in his spine. The case goes to Harry Bosch, on his last year as an Unsolved Crime Unit detective working with a young hotshot detective who is hispanic and also has an agenda of her own that involves another long-unsolved case of an arson fire that ends up connected to another spectacular crime that has never been solved. This was among the best of the series, and I thought the narrator (Titus Wellover) was perfect!
137. Sorcery and Cecilia by Patricia C. Wrede. 8 stars. (eBook) (reccied by Roni). What fun! I really enjoyed this alternate historical fantasy ~ reminiscent of the world of Jonathan Strange, but lighter and with more humor.

Strikeout=Review Done

Books Purchased in 2014 (Strikeout = Read)

1) The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker. K (for Kindle) (reccied by Morphy)
2) On the Edge of Twilight: 22 Tales to Follow You Home by Gregory Miller. K
3) Storm of Visions: The Chosen Ones by Christina Dodd. K
4) Magician's End by Raymond Feist. K
5) The Stockholm Octavo by Karen Engelmann. K
6) To Pleasure a Lady by Nicole Jordan. K
7) A Cold Day for Murder by Dana Stabenow. K
8) Burning Girls by Veronica Schanoes. K
9) Wakulla Springs by Andy Duncan. K
10) Hawaii by Michener. K
11) The Complete Novels of George Eliot by Eliot. K
12) The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie. K
13) Baehrly Breathing by Elizabeth A. Reeves. K
14) Mind of the Raven by Bernd Heinrich. K
15) Fire and Ice by Dana Stabenow. K
16) Second Star by Dana Stabenow. K
17) 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke. K
18) Modern Rustic: Greenhouses by Eric Beauning. K
19) The Stockholm Octavo: A Novel by Karen Engelmann. K
20) Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor. K
21) The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. K
22) A Symphony of Echoes by Jodi Taylor. K
23) The Devil's Path by Richard Turner. K
24) The Sand Reckoner by Gillian Bradshaw. K
25) Whisperer by Michael Bray. K
26) Teleport This by Christopher M. Daniels. K
27) Midsummer Night by Deanna Ray. K
28) On Basilisk Station by David Weber. K
29) The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion (bought another copy as a present for my daughter)
30) 3 a.m. by Nick Pirog (reccie by RD)
31) The Privateersman by Andrew Wareham
32) The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg
33) The Dragon's Prize by Sophie Park
34) Inamorata by Megan Chance
35) The Honor of the Queen by David Weber
36) Wingman by Mack Maloney
37) The Time of the Dark by Barbara Hambly
38) Spellsinger by Alan Dean Foster
39) Justice and Her Brothers by Virginia Hamilton
40) I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison
41) The Healer's War by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
42) Freehold by William C. Dietz
43) The Forge of God by Greg Bear
44) Encounter with Tiber by Buzz Aldrin and John Barnes
45) Budayeen Nights by George Alec Effinger
46) Blackcollar by Timothy Zahn
47) Gods and Dragons, a set of 8 fantasy novels; includes:
* MOTH (Moth Saga: Book 1) - Daniel Arenson
* EMPIRES OF MOTH (Moth Saga: Book 2) - Daniel Arenson
* HIDDEN, (Dragonlands: Book 1) - Megg Jensen
* MAGIC OF THIEVES (Legends of Dimmingwood: Book 1) - C. Greenwood
* CITY OF DEMONS - Kevin Harkness
* BLAZE: Tranquility - Krista D Ball
* NIGHT OF WOLVES (The Paladins: Book 1) - David Dalglish
* CLASH OF FAITHS (The Paladins: Book 2) - David Dalglish
48) Love and World Eaters by Nick Wisseman
49) When a Child Is Born by Jodi Taylor
50) Montfort, the Founder of Parliament: The Viceroy by Katherine Ashe
51) My Sister's Grave by Robert Dugoni
52) Fuzzy Navel - A Thriller (Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels by J.A. Konrath
53) Jack Daniels Stories by J.A. Konrath
54) Demon's Fury: Part 1 of the Final Asylum Tales by Jocelynn Drake
55) Confessions of a Courtesan by Elizabeth Charles
56) Sorcery & Cecelia: or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia C. Wrede
57) The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, Book 1) by Brandon Sanderson

Free / Early Review Books

1) Princesses Behaving Badly by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie (LTER)
2) Gilded by Christina Farley (Amazon First)
3) Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover by Marion Zimmer Bradley (LTER)
4) The Seventh Child by Erik Valeur (Amazon First)
5) Love Story, With Murders by Harry Bingham (LTER)
6) World of Trouble by Ben H. Winter (LTER)
7) Fatal Enquiry by Will Thomas (LTER)
8) The Ripper Affair by Lilith Saintcrow (June 2014 LTER)
9) The Woman Who Would Be King by Kara Cooney (July 2014 LTER)
10) A Sudden Light by Garth Stein (won from Bookreporter.com)
11) Poisoned Pearls by Leah R. Cutter (Aug '14 LTER eBook)
12) Olympus Confidential by Robert B. Warren (Aug '14 LTER eBook)
13) Tunnel Vision by Aric Davis (Sept. 14 Amazon First)
14) Olympus Confidential by Robert B. Warren (August 2014 LTER ebook)
15) The William Shakespeare Detective Agency: The School of Night by Colin Falconer (Oct 14 LTER ebook)

Gifts

1) The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke (from Roni of Ronincats)
2) Winter of Our Discontent by Steinbeck (from Mark of msf59)

Strikeout=read

(Idea stolen from Faith "dk_phoenix")

Books Started But Not Finished (Yet)

The Bitter Kingdom by Rae Carson - Just couldn't deal with YA angst just now, so giving it a pass, though I've read the first two in the trilogy.
Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey - I ran out of steam about 3/4 of the way through, then skipped to the end, just to see how it came out. I don't usually do that, but I just couldn't face reading it through.
Children of God by Mary Doria Russell (audio) - Library loan ran out; will get again
A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell (audio) - Library loan ran out; will get again.
Pistols for Two by Georgette Heyer - I read a few of these short stories but they were missing much of the humor and wit that her novels contain, and they just didn't grab me enough to continue.
The Honor of the Queen by David Weber - Couldn't get into this one, either, but it's on my Kindle so I'll just put it aside for now and maybe pick it up later, when there's nothing else that appeals.
A Season of Knives by P.F. Chisholm - Not sure exactly why, but I just could not get into this, the second in the Sir Robert Carey mystery series, though I gave it over 50 pages. Could be because I've been stuck on the Mercy Thompson urban fantasy series, but I confess to feeling bored when reading it and reluctant to pick it up again once I put it down. Thus, back to the library it goes.
Plainsong by Kent Haruf (CD audio) - CD player broken; don't spend enough time in car to listen to it there. Will try later in print or by eAudio.
World After by Susanne Ee (CD audio) - CD player broken; don't spend enough time in car to listen to it there. Will try later in print or by eAudio.
Raiders of the Nile by Steven Saylor - Just couldn't seem to drum up enough interest to finish it, though I got 3/4 of the way through. Gordianus as a callow youth lusting after Bethesda just didn't do it for me. Parts of it were good, but it wasn't a mystery so much as a coming-of-age adventure story.
Three Jack Reacher Novellas: Second Son, Deep Down and High Heat (audio) - Finished two of them but got bored so didn't finish the third. Then ran out of time.
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer - Just no time, and I've been on an audiobook kick.
The Edge of Desire by (audio) - Too improbable. Just couldn't stomach the melodramatic romance.
The Gospel According to Judas Iscariot by Jeffrey Archer (audio) - Started it, but though this is fiction it was too much like reading scripture, and the reader's (Bishop Desmond Tutu) voice irritated me for some reason.
The Blue Blazes by Chuck Wendig - Just not enough time or interest to get to it.
Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint (audio) Tried but just didn't get it. Yes, there was some lovely writing, but none of the stories or characters grabbed my attention.
Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott (audio) - Couldn't get into it. Story was confusingly written.
The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu - Just wasn't able to find time (or impetus) to finish it so back to the library it goes. I may pick it up again another time.
The Spook Lights Affair by Muller & Pronzini (audio) - Just could not seem to get into this, the second of the series. I think the reader had something to do with it, plus I really don't like one of the main characters, an arrogant unappealing man IMO.
Against All Grain by Danielle Walker - I'll be getting this out again once we get settled and have time to actually cook.
Evernote for Dummies by David E.Y. Sarna - Really helpful "how-to" book for using Evernote. Thanks to Morphy for the tip.
The Attenbury Emeralds by Jill Paton Walsh (audio) OMG! The WORST reader and engineering and perhaps direction on any audiobook I've ever had the misfortune to TRY to listen to. Not even Scott Brick's narration of The Passage was as bad. Low volume to the point where one can scarcely hear what is being said, and the reader is *mumblemumblewhisper*ing through much of the dialogue. Returned the audio to the library and will be getting the print version if I decide I want to read it.
Flower Fairy Picture Book by Cicely Mary Barker - Skimmed and looked mostly at the lovely pics, but didn't read all poems, etc. May renew when my niece is a little older.
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray (audio) - Loan expired. May try it again later.
Hollow City by Ransom Riggs (borrowed book) Had to return to library before starting. Will renew hold at some point.
The Midwife's Tale by Sam Thomas (borrowed book) Almost finished it but got annoyed with the main character's stupidity so put it down and just never picked it back up before I had to return it to the library.
Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor (borrowed audiobook) Will try this one again when I'm more in the mood.
The Terror by Dan Simmons (for the January Journeys Challenge) (eBook) I have tried this one several times but just can't seem to get that interested, though each time I do I get a little farther on in the story.
The Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed (borrowed eBook) Just didn't have time.
Light in August by William Faulkner (borrowed audiobook) Not for me, at least at this time.
The Mad Scientist's Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke (audio) Just couldn't get to it and ran out of time.
The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien. (Audio) Got aways in and had no idea what it was about and didn't care to find out.
The Iron King by Maurice Druon (reccied by Richard Derus) (library book) I haven't been able to concentrate on reading since we started actively searching for a new place to live; will get back to it as soon as the inability to focus ends, because I really enjoyed the first couple of chapters).
Colorado Gardener's Guide by John L. Cretti Need to re-borrow or maybe buy.
Best garden plants for Colorado by Betsy Lehndorff, Laura Peters Need to re-borrow or maybe even buy.

Oops, reserved one more than I need. Oh, well, I'll think of something to post here.

Anyway, welcome to my new thread! I hope you can stay for a bit, find a comfy seat and put your feet up, and enjoy a cool drink before heading back out into the Dog Days of Summer heat!





Some freshly made lemonade for those who prefer non-alcoholic drinks:



And for Mark and Joe and anyone else who loves ice cold beer on a steamy hot summer day:

Yum, one of those top two will do me nicely. Although I'm still pouting a bit about not getting a rise with my "Dearest Mary" last thread! :-)

ETA I was talking about the drinks pictures! The robins are really neat, too!

Ooh, is that a gin-and-tonic in the second row? I'll take one of those!

Roni's first again! Here's your pretty summery drinkie-poo. Enjoy!



Also, please forgive my oversight. I am sad to say that I'm not only left/right challenged but also thread-to-thread challenged. I completely forgot about posting that bit about "Dearest One" on Julia's thread. You are a sly one, Ms. Roni.

And here's your g&t, Julia! I'll join you, g&t is my favorite drink summer AND winter!



Cheers!

So I went raspberry picking today and managed to snag a handful without having to get too deep into the thorny patch. They are absolutely heavenly tasting! Also, what we thought was a crab apple tree turns out to be a pear tree! Here's a photo of the last raspberry before I ate it, and one of the small and completely unripe pears.

Mary, you have a good eye for photography. That is a lovely still life shot. I love the simplicity of it.

I hope you and your daughter have a very special time together. I loved to explore with my kids when they came to visit. There is so much beauty in the foothills around Denver. You are smart to get to bed early and let those youngsters wear themselves out!

Do I understand correctly that you can see that nest from your "digs"? If so, I'd find it hard to do anything but watch them all day I'm afraid. Anyway, great photos and congrats on your new thread

Wow, what a lovely, summery thread you've got here, Mary! I'll have one of those fruity drinks, please...

Mmmmm. Mojito!

Happy new thread, Mary! And I was thinking the same thing that Donna was - you have an excellent eye for photography. LOVE your still life shot! I'll join you and Julia with the g&t, please, and settle in for the duration.

I noticed that you had recently read the manga of the Soulless books - I have not read those yet, but I am looking forward to doing so. Abby loved them, but said that the first one is her favorite.

Happy Friday to you - hoping that your weekend is full of fabulous!

Checking into your new thread, Mary. It's quite warm here so one of those g&t's would hit the spot here, too. I am looking forward to when you get to Plainsong as I (and many other LTers) loved it.

Great news that your daughter is coming for a visit.

Wonderfully refreshing new thread, Mary!

Hooray for daughter's visit and spa day! I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time!

Thanks, Donna! It turned out surprisingly well, considering I took it with a cellphone camera. The iPhone camera is pretty amazing, isn't it? I'm really looking forward to seeing my daughter again, and to getting out a bit and seeing more of the mountains. Did I mention that she specifically told me she's bringing her hiking shoes? I think that was kind of a warning that she expected me to go hiking with her.

Yes, isn't that amazing, Reba? I'm sitting here now watching them ~ they get so excited when mom or dad bring them tidbits to eat. I'll be posting more photos I took this morning soon as I get them uploaded to Photobucket.

Thanks, Amber! Fruity drinks are wonderful on hot summer days, aren't they? Without or without the alcohol. :)

One Mojito coming right up, Jim!

Hi, Mamie! Lovely to see you! Thanks for the compliment! I love photography but haven't done much in the past few years. Now that I'm retired, I hope I can get back into it, though I'm not as steady with the camera as I used to be. I hope I just need practice! Yes, I enjoyed the Soulless GNs, though I'm not really a fan of manga. Of course, those are the first manga I've tried, so it might grow on me. Hope you enjoy them!

Hi, Judy! Welcome! G&T it is, and aren't there a lot g&t lovers here! I might have to open another bottle of the Bombay Sapphire before the day's over. I may not be ear-reading Plainsong. My CD player has died, and I don't drive enough anymore to listen to books in the car. It's really time for a new laptop, which is how I rip CDs to put on my iPod and iPhone, but I'm putting it off as long as possible. Maybe I can find an eAudio of it at the library, or I may just have to read it in print.

Thanks, Marianne! Really looking forward to spa day. I've been wanting to get up to Idaho Springs to do that for awhile, but the timing just hasn't been right. Also going to drag my daughter with me when I get my hair cut (my plan for my birthday) and spring for her to get a mani or pedi while she's waiting.

Had an amazing day yesterday. My niece, who was 18 months old a few days ago, slept over, and yesterday we all had a wonderful time playing in the back yard. I took her into the bramble patch to pick raspberries (her first time!), and she was enchanted with the baby birds. She helped me water the plants, and got soaked, and got us soaked. I brought Nickel out to enjoy the beautiful day, and Dylan fed her almond after almond until Nickel wouldn't take another one. They even shared a few kisses ~ Nickel is so gentle with Dylan (though my sister and I were close by to be sure nothing untoward happened), and Dylan is likewise gentle with Nickel. We saw bunnies and butterflies, and even found a ladybug, which Dylan let crawl up her arm without fear.

I swear, the baby birds doubled their size overnight and are now almost as big as their progenitors (I've been reading a lot of Vorkosigan novels, which uses that word a LOT). Here are a couple pics I took this morning:

Look at the colors on that baby bird's feathers!



Just to show the relative size of the babies to one of the parents:



I expect it won't be long before they leave the nest.

It sounds as though you had a wonderful day! No baby birds too near my place - my cats are far too fascinated by them.

I just wanted to drop by and say hello because it looks as though we read a lot of the sames books. It'll be interesting to compare notes.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Hi, Liane ~ Nice to make your acquaintance! I look forward to getting to know you better!

I finished two outstanding series books over the weekend:

78. Speaking from Among the Bones by Bradley (audio) 8 stars - I'm loving this series, even though I skipped Red Herring Without Mustard because it wasn't available from the library and I didn't want to wait for it to continue. The only thing that doesn't thrill me about these books is the unrealistic number of unrelated murders that occur in this small English village in a very short time period that directly involve this one child. I know it's a common plot device in books about amateur detectives (the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries spring immediately to mind), but it's still a bit distracting. It hasn't stopped my enjoyment of these mysteries, though, and I can't wait to get to the next one after the cliffhanger ending of this one.

79. Komarr by Bujold (audio) 9 stars - I'm so annoyed with myself for mistakenly reading this one before Memory and was concerned that I might have ruined the series for myself. Needn't have worried. I'm reading Memory now, and it's just fine, even knowing what happens next, because the happenings in Memory (so far) are completely separate from what happens in Komarr. Still, I do prefer reading series in order (notwithstanding what I wrote above about the Flavia de Luce series). Also, I had a general idea of the story arc from reading reviews prior to my having started it, so I was aware of Ekaterin and her impact on Miles. Aside from the chagrin of knowing I read Komarr out of order, I think it might be one of my favorites in the series so far, especially after reading Mirror Dance, which didn't include enough Miles. In this one, Miles is growing into his new role, one which suits his particular talents very well. I like it so well that I'm actually considering re-reading it right after I finish Memory before going on to the next.

Both are highly recommended for lovers of these particular genres (mystery and scifi).

Glad the Vorkosigan saga continues to hit the spot for you, Mary. Mirror Dance may be my least favorite (and it's still awfully good), for the same reasons as yours - too much Mark and too little Miles. Mark's role gets more reasonably-sized in the books after. I really liked Komarr, too, and have re-read it a couple of times now. How about that Ekaterin?

Oh, yes, Joe, I'm pretty much addicted to the series now! I think Mirror Dance may be everyone's least favorite, for the reason you cited and for the violence it contained, though, as you said, it's still good. I am not sure yet if I like Ekaterin or not. It may just be that I'm jealous and want Miles for myself. :) Can't wait to find out what happens next, or, maybe I should say, HOW it happens, because I've got a pretty good idea of what happens between them. I also want to see how the Gregor romance goes.

80. Memory by Bujold (audio) 8 stars - Pivotal, as Roni has said. I liked it a lot, especially since Miles seems to have, as his father said to him toward the end of the book, "grown into himself." In this one, Miles makes a stupid decision that results in almost unbearable consequences. Then, swept up in an investigation as to how Simon Ilyan (sp?), the Chief of ImpSec (sp?), ended up incapacitated, Miles must make a choice that will impact the rest of his life.

Happy New thread, Mary! Love the birdy toppers! And of course, I love those tasty looking pints. Yum. Hope the week goes well, my friend.

I gave Mirror Dance 7 out of 10 stars and there are a few I gave 6/10 stars including Memory. But 6/10 is the lowest I've gone for a Vorkosigan book and 8/10 is the highest. Most have gotten 8/10 stars.

Glad you are back in the groove with Memory, Mary! Now you can see how Komarr fits in. You are on the home stretch then, with A Civil Campaign, Diplomatic Immunity, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, and finally Cryoburn.

Thanks, Mark! So far it's been a great week, with sunny skies most every day and temps in the low to mid-80s, until evening when we've had monsoonal rains and lovely low temps for sleeping.

I think we are on the same page with the Vorkosigan series, Morphy. I gave Komarr a 9, mostly because it was the first book I read after Mirror Dance, and I was really relieved that Miles was in it rather than Mark, as well as for the "new" Miles that has emerged. Now that I've finished Memory, I see the entire sequence of events leading to Miles' growth that was evident in Komarr.

Thanks, Roni! Yes, now I see how it all fits. And being on the home stretch is both exhilarating, because I can't wait to find out how it all works out, and discomfiting, because already I DON'T WANT IT TO END. Not that I am stopping: I've already got A Civil Campaign, Diplomatic Immunity and Winterfair Gifts on my iPhone waiting to listen to them after I finish Moon Called, for which, now I think of it, I have you (or was it Morphy?) to thank for turning me on to.

>30 Storeetllr: Maybe both of us?

Ha! I wouldn't be surprised, Morphy!

So, this is turning out to be quite the avian thread. My sister posted this on my FB wall, and I think it's just too funny to not share:

LOL!

- Nancy Howe

Roni ~ :)

Nice pic, Mark! I wish Nickel would sit quietly and read with me like that, but she'd be trying to get at the book so she could shred it.

I picked up a dozen scifi ebooks from HumbleBundle's "pay-what-you-want" for charity sale:



https://www.humblebundle.com/books

It's a pretty sweet deal!

Excellent haul! You have several there that I like very much.

I'm with the majority in that Mirror Dance is my least favorite Vorkosigan book - but I seem to be bucking the trend in that Memory is one of my favorites and most often reread (I've read them all several times). I admit, I skip the first hundred pages of Memory because it's just too painful.....

Oh, yes ~ the beginning was so depressing, I myself was feeling down while reading it. But I enjoyed it, enjoyed Mirror Dance too, just not as much as the others.

I just finished Winterfair Gifts and, although it was nice to get together with Sargeant Taura (sp?) again, and to watch her new relationship develop, I figured out the "mystery" of what had happened to Ekaterin right away.

Not sure if this would interest anyone, but Humble Bundle is having a pay-what-you-want sale on Walking Dead eComics.



https://www.humblebundle.com/thewalkingdead

>122 Storeetllr: Some nice reviews there! That sleepy little town reminds one of Cabot Cove and Jessica Fletcher, doesn't it?

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Thanks, Marianne! Hope your weekend is nice too.

Glad to see you pop up--you've been MIA for 5 days!

Happy birthday and happy weekend, Mary. xx

Hi, Roni ~ Yes, been really busy the past few days. My daughter flew in last Wed., and she has been a tough taskmaster: "Go here, do this, do that." Yikes! So far, we've spent a day at the beach (!) (at a local reservoir) with my niece and her baby Dylan (which is in itself hard work; that baby kept us hopping!); a day driving around (and hiking and climbing) at Rocky Mountain National Park; a day at the Denver Botanical Garden to see the Chihuly exhibit. Today we're driving up to Frisco (near Breckenridge) with my niece and Dylan for more hiking and sightseeing; tomorrow we are going to a spa in Idaho Springs. I'm totally exhausted, but it's been so much fun, and wonderful to be able to spend time with my daughter.

Thanks so much Paul! So far this has been the best birthday ever!

Pictures forthcoming, maybe next Thursday (after Megan flies back to NYC).

Happy Birthday, Mary...a day late. If you are like me, the birthday celebration just goes on and on! In fact, I am joining friends for a birthday lunch on Tuesday - and my birthday isn't until the end of August. Jane's birthday was last week so it isn't as bad as it sounds.

Your schedule with Megan is making me tired! You are seeing some wonderful things. I hope I can make the glass exhibit at the Botanical Gardens in late September. My husband would even enjoy that!

Looking forward to those pictures. Be sure to include some pictures of Dylan. Molly has changed so much in the last month. She says a few words now and is a speedy runner. I know what you mean when you say Dylan keeps you hopping! They are soooo much fun.

Edited for Silly Spellcheck!

Likewise, wishing you a very happy belated birthday, Mary!

Dang, I missed your birthday. Happy belated, Mary!

Hope you had a wonderful birthday, Mary! I am sure you had a lovely time with your daughter. I hope you enjoy the rest of your time with her.

Bountiful Belated Birthday Blessings!

I'm so sorry I missed your birthday, Mary. But I'm glad to hear you are having such a wonderful time with your sister and the rest of the family. I look forward to pictures and a full report once you've recovered.

Belated happy birthday wishes, Mary! And what a wonderful way to celebrate - sounds like you're having a great time with your daughter!

Thanks, Donna! Yes, my birthday celebration lasted a full week ~ from last Wed. to today when I dropped my daughter off at the airport, drove home, and cried. I already miss her and wish she and I lived nearer so I could see her more often.

We had a great visit, though: I mentioned the beach, Rocky Mountain National Park and the Denver Botanical Garden with it's Chihuly exhibition.

After the Chihuly exhibition, my sister took me, my daughter, her daughter Jackie and Baby Dylan to dinner at Sahara, a Moroccan restaurant on Arapahoe. In addition to the hummus and grape leaves and other appetizers, I had lamb with pine nuts, and it was the best, most tender lamb I've ever tasted in my life!

On Sunday, we drove up to Frisco and had a lovely lunch at Vinnie's on their patio and then a magnificent sushi dinner at Kemosabe. The next day, we met my sister in Idaho Springs where we had a huge breakfast at the Main Street Restaurant and then spent a relaxing few hours soaking in the heated mineral pool at the Indian Hot Springs spa. The girls (well, they are in their mid 20s and early 30s, but they are still "girls" to me) did the mud room and cave bath, but I felt just a little claustrophobic, so I stayed in the pool and played with Dylan, who took awhile to feel comfortable but then had a blast splashing me and her grandma and jumping off the side of the pool into her mom's arms.

The next day, I admit to not wanting to do anything ~ I think the altitude was getting to me ~ so I just went to breakfast with everyone at the Bread & Salt in Frisco and then down to the Dillon Lake Marina for awhile and watched my niece's dogs and the baby playing in the water. Then I went back to my niece's house and napped all afternoon, after which I had a late light supper at Silverheels with my sister, daughter and niece and then, yes, back to bed until this morning when we drove back to Denver in the pouring rain. Whew! I'm going to need a few days to rest and recuperate, so it's kind of nice it's supposed to rain the next few days.

I'll post some pics soon as I download them, sort them, and get them into Photobucket.

ETA the bit about my birthday dinner at Sahara.

Thanks so much for the birthday wishes, Roni, Amber, Mark, Morphy, Julia and Joanne! I did have a lovely time!

Dylan and her mom walking down to the water at Chatfield Reservoir:



Dylan at the beach at Chatfield Reservoir:



Meg reading (The Rosie Project) while Dylan plays in the sand:



Dylan at the pool, after she got used to it:



Dylan splashing her Grandma while I laugh in the background:



I'll post more pics later!

Oh, lovely, lovely pictures!!

Thanks, Roni! They make me smile, just to look at them again!

Now that looks like a splashy good time! Dylan is a cutie pie.

Wonderful pictures, Mary! Looks like you're all water bugs!

I love Sahara - excellent choice!

Oh Mary, I am finally getting caught up with your lovely thread (any of those in #6 would be lovely, thank you). Love your robins and all your doings -- and happy birthday to you! And... some time while I was gone you must have reached and then passed 75. Congratulations! Hope you are enjoying your visit with your daughter. Did you see the Chihuly exhibit at night or during the day? I'm waiting until Callia gets home (tomorrow!!!!!) and then I think we'll try to go at night.

Hope you're having a great week!

It sounds like you had a fantastic birthday week! And those photos of Dylan are adorable.

Love all the photos, Mary! Dylan is a DOLL!

I love the pics, too. What a cutie!

Thanks, Julia! She is that! And we did have a good time, at least after she decided the hot water of the pool wasn't going to kill her. LOL (At first, she wasn't sure about the whole pool thing.)

Thanks, Joanne! We all love Sahara, which I discovered when I was out here on vacation before I moved. It seems odd to me, but some of the best food can be found in strip mall restaurants!

Hi, Anne! Welcome! Thanks for all your well wishes and congrats. We saw Chihuly during the day, but I bet it would be amazing at night too! Maybe my sis and I can get there before it ends (in November, so we should be able to)! Let me know what you and Callia think after you've seen it.

Thanks, Amber! I did have a fantastic birthday week. I've never had a more wonderful birthday present than Megan's visit.

Thanks, Mark! She is that!

Thanks, Morphy! Glad you enjoyed them!

Warning: More pics on the way today! :)

What adorable pictures! Looks like everyone is having so. much. fun!

Yay Chihuly!

Hi, Marianne! I'm definitely going back to see the exhibit again! In fact, since I decided to get a membership to the Gardens as a birthday present to myself, I will probably go back any number of times before the Chihuly exhibit is gone, and again after.

Jealous! Jealous! Jealous!!

Some Chihuly beauty:







We called this one the "Alice in Wonderland" exhibit:





And my personal favorite:

So cool! Love the Chihulys, Mary. And what great family photos with Dylan.

Thanks, Joe! I wish I'd had my DSLR with me but I think the iPhone camera took some pretty good images of the Chihulys.

We went to Rocky Mountain Natl Park last Thurs. Here is a pic of Meg perched on an outcropping.



More to follow.

ETA an atmospheric shot of the front of The Stanley Hotel, on which Stephen King based the hotel in The Shining.



And on the way home we saw this amazing sight.

Hi Mary! I love the wonderful photos! Thanks for sharing. Megan is also a doll! LOL. You did good, Mom!

I am glad you think of me, when you think of beer. Grins...

Great photos Mary!!

Loving the Chihuly pics! They are all wonderful, butI agree with your favorite. Amazing how those fronds organically sprout from the rocks.

Thanks for the smile this Friday morning!

Awesome pictures, Mary. Dylan is such a cutie. Megan is a doll just like Mark said. And those gardens...must go with or without DH!

I like those photos, too, Megan. That rainbow is amazing.

Thanks, Mark. I don't know how much credit I deserve, but I agree that Megan is an amazing young woman. As for thinking of you when I see a news story about beer, well...

Thanks, Joanne!

Glad you enjoyed them, Marianne! I thought of you when I was there (really!) and how much you love Chihuly.

Thanks so much, Donna! I have to say I agree about Dylan and Meg. :) Maybe when you come to Denver again, we can meet at the Botanical Gardens instead of TC? With my membership, I can get one guest in free!

It was amazing, Joe. First time I remember seeing a full rainbow that was so, well, full!

And a see a touch of a double rainbow, too!

Good eye, Morphy! There was a double, but the second was very faint.

So, I got a new app for my iPhone: Waterlogue, which turns any photo into a watercolor print. I tried it on the Chihuly I liked so much:

I meant to post a pic of my birthday dinner: lamb with pine nuts. It was so good, even my daughter who doesn't like lamb raved about it (and tried to steal more than one forkful of it)!



And today's pic, me lounging on the back stoop reading my Early Reviewer novel instead of cleaning house like I was supposed to be doing:

Ooh, that meal looks fabulous and that garden...oh my!!

Hi, Mark! Yes, doesn't it look delish! Just looking at it makes me want to go back to the restaurant and have it again. :)

It was a perfect day for being outside ~ in the mid-80s with deep blue skies and fluffy clouds and just the tiniest bit of a breeze. Something about reading in the garden feeds the soul, you know?

>5 Storeetllr: I love that you have a category for the dreaded unfinished book. I am hard on myself about finishing books and I often feel bogged down by the task of making myself finish a dud. It is a curse, but one I don't seem to be able to rid myself of just yet.

>72 Storeetllr: wow-that (double?) rainbow is amazing. I never fail to be impressed by rainbows. I wonder what the ancient people used to think when they saw one?

>84 LovingLit: Oooh, and I'm mentioned in it! *preens*

Flying by to catch up and *wave* "hi". Love the Chihuly. We've been planning to stop in Columbus, OH on the way home to see a garden installation there but wonder if it's moved on to Denver. Must check web sites.

Hi, Megan ~ I used to be a finish-no-matter-what reader, but I'm too old now to waste time reading something that doesn't please me in one way or another. Isn't that double rainbow something!

Haha, Morphy ~ I often mention you on my thread in relation to books, because so many of the ones you mention on your thread turn out to be book bullets that hit a bulls-eye with me!

Hi, Reba! Nice to hear from you again! Yes, the Chihuly exhibit was just stunning! Maybe you can stop in Denver on your way home instead. It's here through November!

89. The Ripper Affair by Lilith Saintcrow. 7 stars. LTER. This is the third book in the steampunk/fantasy series featuring Emma Bannon, a Prime (very powerful sorceress), Archibald Clare, her mentath (a Sherlock Holmsian type mentalist), and Mikal, her Shield (a protector-warrior with strong magical powers of his own). I read the first but not the second in the series before this one and highly recommend the first two be read before starting this one. Though some reviewers seem to think it is okay as a stand-alone, I think it would have been much more enjoyable had I read the second before reading this, but I was too impatient to wait.

Anyway, in this one, a series of gruesome Jack-the-Ripper style murders have shaken Britannia (literally as well as figuratively), and Emma has been called in (with reluctance on both sides) by the queen to solve the case. Clare is not as useful to her as he normally is because he is still reeling from a shock he has only recently experience, and his mental abilities are suffering as a result.

I think I like Saintcrow's Dante Valentine series better, partly, I think, because the writing is less esoteric. Sorry, not sure that's the right word, but you know how sometimes you read a novel so lyrically poetical that the writing obscures the action and/or meaning of the story? Well, this was one of those. I got it, just that it took a lot more work than I wanted to expend on something that was supposed to be fun reading. It still gets a 7 star rating, because I did enjoy it, just not as much as I'd hoped.

Hi Mary, what a lovely pictures! I really love the one with the rainbow, it's gorgeous.

Hey, Connie! Nice to see you again! Thanks, it was a pretty stunning sight in person too!

Just perusing the August list of Early Reviewer books and was thinking of all the books I won so far! Here are some stats I thought were interesting.

Total won since May 2008: 48
Total received: 44
Total reviews written: 41

Unreceived:

The Woman Who Would Be King by Kara Cooney (July 2014 batch) - Just won it; should be along anytime now.
It Happens in the Dark by Carol O'Connell (June 2013 batch)
The Tainted Coin by Mel Starr (December 2012 batch)
Some Assembly Required by Anne Lamott (January 2012 batch)

Unfinished/unreviewed:

Princesses Behaving Badly by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie (September 2013 batch) - I keep picking it up, reading a little, putting it down again and then not picking it back up. It's a series of short tales of various interesting princesses who lived at various times from the Dark Ages to the present day. I do mean to read and review it; I'm just taking an unconscionably long time to do it.
The Borgias by G. J. Meyer (April 2013 batch) - Reading it now. It's very long and pretty intensive, what with all the interconnected families, foreign names, Machievellian political shenanigans that went on back in the 1400s. Plus it goes back and forth in time to add backstory to some of the incidents it discusses.
I Want What She's Got! The Secrets of Creating an Outrageous Life by Bette Laughrun (January 2011 batch) - Same old same old self-help stuff, with a dose of religion added. I gave it to my church-going sister to read and never asked for it back.

Books I struggled to finish (or didn't actually manage to read all the way to the end):

The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire by C.M. Mayo (March 2009 batch) - Boring.
The Dark End of the Street by Jonathan Santlofer and SJ Rozan (June 2010 batch) - Meh.
A Very Private Grave by Donna Fletcher Crow (August 2010 batch) - Boring.
Cameras into the Wild by Palle Petterson (February 2012 batch) - Not about still photography. I should have checked more carefully before requesting.
Motivate to Create: a guide for writers by Nate Hendley (July 2012 batch) - More for freelance writers as opposed to fiction writers; not as much about the creative process as advertising/selling.
Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover by Marion Zimmer Bradley (February 2014 batch) - Short stories; bored me.

Most Disappointing; Not Bad, Just Didn't Live Up To Expectations

It Happens in the Dark by Carol O'Connell (August 2013 batch)
The Glass Butterfly by Louise Marley (August 2012 batch)
Grandad, There's a Head on the Beach by Colin Cotterill (June 2012 batch)

Books That Afforded a Lot of Pleasure &/or Introduced Me to Great New Authors/Series:

Love Story, With Murders by Harry Bingham (January 2014 batch)
The Beggar's Opera by Peggy Blair (November 2012 batch)
The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters (May 2012 batch)
Hand of Isis by Jo Graham (February 2009 batch)
Mr. White's Confession by Robert Clark (August 2008 batch)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (June 2008 batch)

>80 Storeetllr: I picked up Waterlogue, too (MDR's post?), and tried it on some different photos. Some of them look pretty good. I like the way your photo came out!

>81 Storeetllr: Now you're making me hungry! My work buddies and I always seem to go for Mexican when we go out for lunch. I haven't been to Sahara since last September... :( I need to fix that!

And I hope you're not too waterlogged tonight! That was quite a rainstorm that rolled through this afternoon.

Happy Friday, Mary! I hope you have a pleasant weekend planned.

Hi, Joanne ~ Isn't Waterlogue fun! I found it through MDR on FB too! Did you post any of yours to LT or FB? And are we friends on FB? Hmm, I should go look for you. Oh, I've been thinking of going back to Sahara ever since my birthday dinner. I brought home about half of my food, thinking I'd have the leftovers for lunch the next day, but my daughter ate it (brat ~ she says she hates lamb, but that didn't stop her! LOL It was that good!). We did have quite the rainstorm, yes, but I just sat inside with my blankey and book and enjoyed the show. Hope you didn't get flooded or anything!

Thanks, Mark! My weekend has no plans, so it is a VERY good weekend! Actually, I may go out tomorrow to the library and then over to see my niece and great-niece and her mother-in-law, but that's all up in the air and nothing that I must do.

Great summary of your ER experience! I'm considering doing one of my own--but it sounds like so much work--maybe not! ;-)

Thanks, Roni. It took me awhile, mostly the mini-reviews and explanations excuses for why I didn't read it/didn't finish it/didn't like it. I did a little soul-searching on those issues too, I assure you. I hate it when I don't enjoy a book, and especially when it's an ER book that I got for free. I always want to love them. I'd be interested in knowing your stats too!

ETA that my little exercise in listing ER books caused me to recall that I wanted to read the sequel to one of the books on my "Most Enjoyed" list (The Beggar's Opera), so I borrowed the eBook of The Poisoned Pawn from the library last night and am about 2/3 finished already! Even though I spent the entire morning out in the garden weeding, watering, cleaning up, straightening out and starting to get ready for winter (yes, winter ~ honestly it's only August 8, but this is Colorado, and I remember last year summer ended in early September, and I don't want to get caught out this year like I did last, used to southern California weather as I was (still am)).

ETA to wonder aloud why anyone would read the second mystery in a series when they didn't read the first and don't like mysteries anyway and in particular don't like magical realism and then pan the book because they didn't get some of the references and, well, it is a mystery with elements of magical realism. Honestly, it's just not fair to give a book a low rating just because you don't like the genre and didn't bother to read the first book in the series so didn't get references to prior things that happened.

*end of rant*

Excited! My library hold on the eAudio of Shattered just got filled, so I can start the newest Iron Druid book tonight! Woot!

Hi Mary, and a belated happy Brithday since yours fell while I was away. From what I've read and seen here, you had a wonderful one. You've been busy and doing lots of fun things.

I love to read outside, it's my favorite summer activity - if sitting and turning pages could be called an activity! ;)

>87 Storeetllr: we're now planning to skip Columbus and stop in Denver on the way home. Maybe we can arrange to meet at the Boulder used book store you all rave about--?

Thanks, Judy! I'm glad you've had a good time too on your visit home! And yes, sitting outside and turning pages of a book is a perfect summertime activity!

Reba, that would be absolutely wonderful! Do you have an idea when you might be coming through yet?

around Sept. 10 or so I think

Hi Reba! If it's a workday, the others might not be able to make to Boulder. Once your plans are firmed a bit more, we can run it by them. Maybe we could meet for dinner somewhere closer to them.

Hi, Mary! Have your baby birds fledged yet? How are you enjoying your garden in the midst of Colorado summer? Are your books settled in yet?

Hi Roni! Oh yes, the nest has been empty a long time. Summer in Colorado (at least this summer) is strange. Hot cold rainy windy stormy sunny cloudy - all in the same day sometimes. Very different from Cali. I have been enjoying my coffee on the back patio most mornings, and Nickel enjoys her breakfast out there with me, which makes cleaning her mess a LOT easier. Not all the books have found homes yet. It's a work in progress.

Hi Mary, fascinating post on your ERs! *smooch*

Thanks, Richard! Fascinating good or fascinating like a train wreck? LOL *smooches back*

>94 Storeetllr: Hi Mary, I also have an app called Brushstroke that's a lot of fun, too. My only LT and FB friend is Julia. I'm pretty pathetic on FB. My son set it up for me so I could keep up with him without logging on to his account. For some reason he didn't like that, lol.

>96 Storeetllr: Regarding your rant, I know what you mean. It makes me nuts, too, especially with a book that has few reviews.

Ooooh, Joanne ~ I'll have to try Brushstroke.

Haha, I wonder what he's up to! :) If I didn't have FB, I'd never know what's going on with my daughter and nieces/nephews. Nobody uses the phone anymore (which is okay with me as I'm not much one for talking on the phone either). (ETA: I sent you an FB friend request, but I won't expect you to jump right on it since you don't get on FB very often. :)

>96 Storeetllr: It's sooo not fair to authors! If a book is badly written, then I can see the low rating, but if you read it knowing going in that you won't like it, then rating it low is just wrong.

I heard from Reba (>99 RebaRelishesReading:, >101 RebaRelishesReading:, >102 Storeetllr:) that they're planning to drive through Denver on their way home from NY around September 10 and is hoping we can have a meet up. Sept. 10 is mid-week, so it might be problematic for some, but wouldn't it be nice to get together with her?

HAPPY 8TH THINGAVERSARY!!

Seems like we've always been around here, doesn't it?

>108 Storeetllr: Thanks for posting that Mary. I'll keep you posted as our plans firm up. Chances are we'll be in the Denver area for 2 or 3 days so hopefully something will work

Ooooh, it IS your Thingaversary! Happy Thingaversary, Mary! And what 9 books are you buying to celebrate? You joined just two months ahead of me.

Happy Thingading, Mary!

>109 richardderus: Thanks, Richard! Yes, we are the old-timers around here. We should have a porch with rockers to sit on, and a table between us for checkers or to set our books and drinks. All the newbies would mosey on over to chat awhile and listen to our stories about "how it was back in the old days." LOL



>110 RebaRelishesReading: Oh! That'll be great, Reba! For sure we should be able to plan a meet-up that will work for us all. I'll let Joanne and Anne know. I wonder if Donna will be here around that time. Let's keep in touch as time draws near.

>111 ronincats: Thanks, Roni! I haven't decided on the books yet. I was thinking of going to a used book store that is just a mile or so from the house and seeing what they have. (Not that I need more print books.) Maybe I'll also buy a few eBooks that I've been wanting that aren't at the library. I'll let you know. May take me to the end of August to complete that little task.

ETA that I think one of the books will be Sorcery and Cecelia that you've been hawking the merits of over on your thread.

>112 scaifea: Thanks, Amber!

So, I thought I'd set out my mini-reviews of the last few books I've read, especially since a few of them were really good!

91. Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly. 8 stars. Thanks to Roni for the reccie. I enjoyed it, though it seemed to drag a bit in places. The last 1/3 of it was brilliant and wonderful, and I cried at the end, so... Totally worth the price of the ticket!

92. The Poisoned Pawn by Peggy Blair (eBook) 7 stars. Sequel to The Beggar's Opera, an Early Reviewer book I won last year and really enjoyed. Ramirez, who is able to see ghosts of the dead, is a detective on the murder squad of the Havana police force, and Apiro, a brilliant man who suffers from achondroplasia (dwarfism), is a plastic surgeon cum forensic pathologist for the department. Together they make a great crime-solving team. In this installment, a Canadian tourist dies under suspicious circumstances while on a flight back to Canada from Cuba, after which two more women in Cuba die under similar suspicious circumstances. At the same time, a Catholic priest has been arrested in Canada after leaving Cuba with a laptop full of child pornography. Ramirez is sent to Canada to pick up the priest and return him to Cuba and, while in Canada, with Apiro's help, assists the Canadian police in figuring out what happened to those women.

93. The White City by Elizabeth Bear. Reread. 6 stars. I had forgotten that I already this book, and now I realize it's because it wasn't all that memorable. Still, I like the characters of Don Sebastien, the wampyr, and Lady Abby Irene Garrett, the sorceress. I wish I could easily find more than New Amsterdam and this one to read. (Others include Seven for a Secret (novella) (March 2009), Ad Eternum (novella) (February 2012), and Garrett Investigates (November 2012), all Subterranean Press.)

94. A Famine of Horses by P. F. Chisholm. 8 stars. eBook. First in the Sir Robert Carey mystery series, set in Elizabethan England. In this one, Carey (cousin and courtier to the Queen) is made Deputy Warden to his brother-in-law, Warden of one of the Marches that bordered Scotland, a place that rivaled the American Wild West of the 1800s for violence and outlawry. Once there, he finds that one of the worst of the outlaws is stealing every horse in the area, and Carey must discover what plot he's hatched and who killed his youngest son. My kind of historical mystery ~ very realistic and accurate depiction of the times, and a pretty decent mystery too. I'll definitely be reading the rest of the series, maybe for September Series and Sequels.

95. Shattered by Kevin Hearne. 8 stars. audio. Latest Iron Druid novel finds Atticus separated from Granuille, who has gone to India to try and find and save her father from a demon. Atticus is busy tutoring his former master, the Druid Owen Kennedy, a crusty, foul-mouthed old coot, in modern day language and customs while, at the same time, trying to discover who is trying to destroy him. Each of the three druids take turns telling their parts in the tale in their own voices. I didn't care for Owen Kennedy's voice, but as usual Luke Daniels did a good job with the other voices. Loved his meeting with Hispanic Jesus.

96. The Axe Factor by Colin Cotteril (audio). 9 stars. Best so far of the Jim Juree mysteries set in present-day Thailand. Made me laugh out loud more than once, and I found myself liking the characters a lot more for some reason. The mystery was pretty good too.

97. The Black Hand by Will Thomas. 9 stars. Best so far of the Barker & Llewelyn mysteries set in Victorian London. I didn't laugh out loud much, but I liked the characters a lot more than I had in previous books, perhaps because there was more of the personal about all of them (not just Llewelyn). Also, the mystery was good and, though the villain was no less bloodthirsty than in earlier books, there wasn't the unrealistic element of invincibility that bothered me about the others.

Happy Sunday, Mary! Congrats on the burst of mini-reviews. I have not read the Jim Juree series. The first one didn't get very good reviews, so I never followed through. Do they get better?

Hi, Mark! Happy Sunday to you too, AND happy vacation!

Yes, I wasn't thrilled with the first Jim Juree, but I went on and read the second, which I don't remember (mustn't have been great). The third, though, was really good, I thought. It's almost like he was introducing you to all the characters and their situations and idiosyncrasies in the first (and maybe second) book and didn't have enough time or room to tell a great story. I'm glad now though that I read the first two (they were fast reads, so not a huge loss either way, and they weren't horrible by any means ~ I think I was just spoiled by the Dr. Siri series and wanted more of the same; Jim Juree and friends in present-day Thailand are not Dr. Siri and friends in Laos in the 60s), but I think he's found the rhythm now!

Thanks for the Jim Juree info. I still have 2 books left in the Dr. Siri series, which remains one of my favorites.

Mine too! I don't think I can wait for his next (assuming there is a next) but am going to have to reread the series.

>108 Storeetllr: Sounds good to me!

Happy Thingaversary! Eight years. And they said it wouldn't last. :)

And look at you go - you're nearly at triple digits in books read and it's only August!

Glad you enjoyed Dragonsbane, Mary. I always cry too. And I get the Bear books on my Kindle, so easy peasy that way.

Hi, Joanne ~ Great! I left you another message on your LT profile page.

Thanks! it doesn't seem like 8 whole years, yet it feels like LT has been a part of my life forever!

I know! At this rate, I'll read close to 200 books by the end of the year! Well, I shouldn't have said that. Don't want to jinx it, because it would be awesome! Of course, I haven't read many doorstop tomes this year, with the exception of Shogun, which seemed to take me forever yet was over too soon. :)

Hi, Roni! I think one or two of the Bear books will be part of the 9 for my Thingaversary, along with Sorcery and Cecelia. Maybe the third St. Mary's book, and a couple of the Sir Robert Carey mysteries too. That's 5 or 6; now I only have to come up with 3 or 4 more!

Happy (belated) Thingaversary! Perhaps a list of your purchases to celebrate?

Are you out and about enjoying this great weather? Well, until the thunderstorms move in anyway...

Do you know that ALD has their big annual used book sale 9/4 - 9/7? Didn't want you to miss it! I usually go around lunchtime the first day. (Well, of course the first day!)

Happy Thingaversary (a bit late). It's looking good for us to be in Denver Sept 10, 11 & 12. At this point we don't have anything scheduled although there are a couple of things we plan to do and people to meet. Sure hope we can get together.

Mary, I am very late to the Thingaversary party. Congratulations! As a 7.5-year member, I can hardly remember a time before I was part of this great community of readers. My reading life gets better and better because of it.

I wish I could travel west earlier in September so I could go to that book sale and meet up with you, Reba, and possibly Joanne and Anne. We have a dinner to attend at the university here on Sept. 25 and will probably leave the next day. I'm looking forward to seeing my Denver buddies.

Hi, Marianne! Thanks for stopping by. Not sure what I'm getting yet for my thingaversary. I will report on it as soon as I decide.

Which may happen September 4-7 at the Arapahoe Library District used book sale, thanks to Joanne for the heads up!

Thanks, Reba! I'm looking forward to meeting up with you (and MrReba?) when you're here in a couple of weeks. I know one of your things-to-do while you're here is see the Chihuly exhibit at the Denver Botanical Gardens. If it works out, maybe we can see it together as I've been wanting to go back again. I also heard it was amazing at night.

Thanks, Donna. I know, it feels like I've always been a member of LT. Not sure what life was like before it, to tell the truth. Looking forward to seeing you at the end of Sept.!

Is anyone else fascinated by kalaidoscopes? I have two that I just dug out of a box and have spent a couple of hours staring into them. Here are a few impromptu pics from my favorite:

Those are really cool. How were you able to get the photos?

Thanks, Reba! I held the iPhone so the camera lens was pointed into the eyehole of the kalaidoscope. It took some doing, I'l tell you that, but, after I saw how cool the first pic was, I had to take more!

What a clever idea!!

Love the kaleidoscope shots. I love them--have always wanted one of those beautiful hand-crafted wood or glass ones.

Happy Sunday, Mary! You are probably off reading somewhere, is my guess. You should get the book, early next week.

Thanks, Mark! I'll keep my eye out for it!

Dropping by to wish you a great reading month in September, Mary.

Thanks, Judy! Really looking forward to Sept. Series & Sequels!

>128 Storeetllr:: Mary, you are so clever! I love these designs. The pinkish one with five figures in a circle looks like alien hummingbirds gathered around a particularly enticing flower! You can see those beaks ready to suck in the nectar.

Thanks, Donna! I like all the images, but I think my favorite is one at the bottom right. It's lighter feeling and also reminds me of a royal crest or something.

102. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. 8-1/2 stars. Audio. Very strange novel that reminded me very much of Turn of the Screw because of its what seemed to me unreliable narrator (disliked him from almost very beginning, probably mainly because of his arrogant treatment of everyone, though at the end it becomes clear the real reason for that attitude) and because of the "WTH just happened?" aspect. Creepy, though. Probably the most creepy book I've read in a really long time.

Wow! I love the kaleidoscope photos! Clever gal, you!

Thanks Amber! I could play with kaleidoscopes all day!

>128 Storeetllr: Some of those would be interesting printed and framed.

I loved the creepiness of The Little Stranger. It's not my favorite of her books that I've read, but I liked it a lot more than some.

Ha! I was thinking the same thing, Joanne! Maybe a set of three???

What's your favorite novel by Waters? I think I tried to read Fingersmith long ago but couldn't seem to get into it, probably due to my mood at the time.

ETA that I see I actually did read Fingersmith back around 2003; it was Tipping the Velvet I couldn't get into when I tried it after Fingersmith.

Lol, great minds and all that. A set would be perfect.

Have you read The Night Watch? I loved it and also Fingersmith. I still need to get to Affinity and Tipping the Velvet.

Hmm, no. I'll have to put those on my wish list. By the way, I think I'm going over to the ALD book sale this afternoon. Can't wait!

103. A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch (audio, read by James Langton). 6 stars. Maybe it was the reader, and maybe all Victorian era amateur detectives are necessarily similar, but Charles Lenox struck me as an inferior copy of Lord Peter Wimsey with a dallop of Sherlock Holmes. The mystery was not great either, as I more or less figured out whodunit as well as picked up on obvious clues that the supposedly brilliant Lenox did not, although I did like it that he wasn't portrayed as some sort of martial arts master and was fearful of actual violence.

ETA that I thought the portrayal of upper class Victorian London was good.

>144 Storeetllr: I was there from around 11:30 to 12:45ish! Did you get a chance to go over? I may have to go back tomorrow or Saturday. I was looking for some series books but didn't find them and I know they have more books to set out.

I did pick up a copy of The Last Policeman. I know that's a series you like and I'm looking forward to trying it!

My wife is taking The Last Policeman with her on our vacation, and if she recommends it, I'll read it. I'm very curious based on the premise and the positive LT reactions.

Joanne and Joe ~ I hope you'll enjoy The Last Policeman. I know I did!

Joanne ~ I didn't get to the book sale yesterday due to car issues and because I woke with a headache and just didn't feel like doing anything until late in the afternoon, but I am going today. I should be there around noon, so we might just bump into each other!

104. The Paper Magician by Charlie M. Holmberg. 7 stars. It took me awhile to get into this, and I found my interesting waxing and waning all through the book. Interesting take on magic, though. Sort of like post-Hogwarts, except a magician is "bound" to only one element and could work magic only through that element for life. I liked it enough that I'm going to continue with the series.

Went to the Arapahoe Library District annual book sale today and managed to snag a bagful of books, including two pop-ups for my great-niece, a book on mixed-media painting techniques for my niece, and a grilling cookbook for my sister. The ones I got for myself are:

1) Shorter Illustrated History of the World by J M Roberts
2) Creative Watercolor by Mary Ann Beckwith
3) Feng Shui Your Life by Jayme Barrett
4) The Wayfarer's Guide to This Beautiful Britain (no touchstone; published by Marshall Cavendish, London, 1974)
5) Complete Container Gardening
6) What Life Was Like in the Age of Chivalry
7) Organizing Plain & Simple by Donna Smallin

I also recently got two eBooks, both novels, which I include toward my "Thingaversary 8+1":

8) Tunnel Vision by Aric Davis (because I really enjoyed A Good and Useful Hurt, a previous book of his that I got for free or 99 cents from Amazon awhile back)
9) 3 a.m. by Nick Pirog (recommended by Richard D.)

The histories and book on Britain are for my writing reference library. The one on gardening I got because I plan to garden under lights this winter in my basement lair. The one on watercolor techniques I got because I found a pad of watercolor paper and a box of watercolor sticks in one of the boxes I recently unpacked, and I thought it might be fun to play with them this winter. The ones on feng shui and organizing I bought because I really REALLY need to put my disorganized house in order. It's not only costing me time looking for things, but also stress and, worse, money! (For instance, I went for an eye exam today and was told the prescription is about the same as the last. I need a new pair of spectacles because I've managed to scratch the ones I have, but I have a perfectly good pair of sunglasses somewhere, but I put them somewhere a few months ago and now CAN'T FIND THEM, and it will cost me $250+ to buy a new pair. Grrrr. And really, sunglasses are a necessity here in Denver, because the sun is very very bright all year long.)

I had to laugh. Your book list looks like you are finally settling into retirement comfortably.

>151 ronincats: I was thinking the same thing!

You're certainly looking to keep busy and busy with fun things rather than work type stuff! Well, maybe the organizing won't be fun, but it'll make you feel better. And I hope you find your sunglasses! I spend so much time looking for things. It drives me nuts sometimes.

I made a quick stop at Koebel on my way home this afternoon and managed to buy a couple more books in the brief time I had.

Well, that's the plan anyway, Roni! Who knows if I'll ever get around to any of it. But some of the books are just beautiful, especially the one on gardening and the histories. A couple of them have maps! I could look at maps all day!

I was just going through the one on organizing, and it made me chuckle. It was published in 2002, and there are no references to scanning (in lieu of filing paper), Evernote, cell phones or digital pics. And there are numerous references to long-distance phone companies and answering machines. Aside from the outdated tech, though, I already got some good ideas from the book! I mean, we still have to work with refrigerators and closets, you know?

Library book sale! WooHoo!!

I know! Love libraries - for so many reasons.

>150 Storeetllr: 3 a.m.? Meredy recommended that, not me! Can't take credit where it isn't due.

Oh! Sorry, I thought it was your book bullet, RD. So many of them are. :)

105. Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs. 8 stars. This is the third in the Mercy Thompson series and, by far, the darkest and most gruesome, and that's saying a lot. While, in the first, the mystery revolved around werewolves, and in the second, it revolved around vamps, in this one it revolved around the fey, and not the sweet, cutesy ones of popular culture but the ones who'd as soon rip your head off ~ or eat you ~ as look at you. It also explored in even more depth the wrongs done out of blind hatred of "other," and that evil comes as often from your own culture as from one that is foreign. It was hard for me to read in places, one especially, but I was glad Briggs didn't string things out for 21 books (I'm thinking of the Stephanie Plum series) but allowed Mercy to choose between her two werewolf suitors.

Stopped off at the library to pick up a couple of books on hold:

Nickel Plated by Aric Davis, the first in a series about a 12-year old boy. Not my usual fare, but here's what Gillian Flynn had to say about the novel: "Every so often you come across a book with a voice like a blast of pure oxygen. Aric Davis has that kind of voice: crackling, assured, energized. With Nickel Plated, he introduces an utterly unique character: 12-year-old Nickel, a former abused foster child, current runaway, and future force to be reckoned with (not that he isn’t already) with a keen brain, sharp sense of humor and hard-boiled self-awareness. Sworn never to return to foster care, Nickel supports himself by dealing pot, blackmailing online pedophiles, and taking on PI jobs, particularly anything involving a child in need. When pretty Arrow asks him to find her missing little sister, Nickel’s investigation uncovers a nasty corner of the suburbs involved in child trafficking. This is a dark but humane, chilling and sometimes heart-breaking work of noir, a reminder that children are vulnerable but also resilient, tough and resourceful. Davis takes on some very mature themes but never loses sight of the damaged but determined heart in his young narrator. Here is a character who demands a series, from a writer who will shake you wide awake."

Shield of Winter by Nalini Singh, latest in the Psy-Changeling series. I've follow Singh, especially her Archangel series, though she's a bit uneven and also writes more soft porn into her urban romantic fantasies than I find necessary, but her characters, plots and worlds are interesting, and I enjoy her books.

My July 2014 Early Review book, The Woman Who Would Be King, showed up the other day (left on the front porch by UPS and missed for who knows how many days because we seldom use the front door)! Read a few pages, and it looks really interesting.

>159 Storeetllr: I really enjoy the Archangel series. I've only read a couple of the Psy-Changeling series. I haven't been as impressed with them.

Morphy! Hi! Haven't seen you around lately. Hope all is well in Morphy's world! I've been kind of lax visiting others' threads the past few weeks. Between a bout of depression that I'm still battling, some medical issues I'm attending to, and just too darn much to do around here, I spend hardly an hour online each day, including FB, Twitter and an online writing class.

I'm not as thrilled with the Psy-Changeling series either, but series are hard for me to break away from after the first couple, unless they are absolutely awful, which this one isn't.

Made it to Columbia, MO tonight. We should be in Denver Wednesday afternoon. We have plans for Friday during the day but otherwise are free to get together. Would love to know when it will be because there's a cousin I want to see while in Denver and need to know when I can do that. We leave Saturday morning.

Hi, Reba ~ Joanne (coppers) is good for either Wed. or Thursday evening (I am assuming evening as she works), and I've got a message out to Anne (AMQS) to see if she will be available either evening. I of course am available anytime, happy retiree that I am.

Safe travels!

Left PM for you. Thursday would be fine.

Cold and rainy weather here in the Denver area yesterday "welcomed" Reba (RebaRelishesReading) on her way home to San Diego from Chautaqua, but she braved the rain to meet up with Anne (AMQS), Joanne (coppers) and me at the Barnes & Noble West. Anne had to leave early to finish packing for her weekend camping (in this weather!) trip and to pick up her daughter, but Joanne, Reba and I went next door to the Whole Foods to continue chatting over a warming cup of soup. We missed out on taking a pic while Anne was still there, but here are a couple of snapshots of the rest of us at Whole Foods.

Hi Mary, I wish I could have been there to meet with my Denver crew and Reba. I'm sure she had lots of interesting Chautauqua stories to share. The weather sounded awful, but I know you lovely ladies gave Reba a warm welcome.

Thanks for setting that up yesterday, Mary! It was great to get together again and meet Reba.

>167 Donna828: We missed you Donna!

It was indeed a warm welcome. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting you three. Thanks for taking the time to get together.

Lovely meet-up photos!

>167 Donna828: I do wish you could have been there too, Donna! Reba did share a lot of great stories.

>168 Copperskye: It was a fun meetup, wasn't it, Joanne!

>169 RebaRelishesReading: So very glad you made the time out of your very busy schedule to get together with us, Reba!

>170 scaifea: Thanks, Amber!

109. The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness. 6 stars. Well, this was the third of the Discovery of Witches trilogy, and I have to say that, while I enjoyed it overall, though not as much as many readers seem to have done (see reviews on the book's page), I'm glad it's over. I found the story somewhat inconsistent and, in some places, slow. I also didn't connect with the main characters ~ I found Diana unfinished somehow and Mathew too overbearing for my taste. And, Diana's powers seemed to appear without much effort on her part, just because she's "special," but it just didn't work for me. Finally, unless I missed something, there were more than one loose thread left undone at the end.

110. Poisoned Pearls by Leah R. Cutter. 8 stars. (LTER) I really liked the protagonist, Cassandra, named for the doomed seer of Trojan War fame whose prophetic warnings were ignored by everyone. Cassie, the daughter of a wealthy politician/socialite who'd been kicked out of her home as a teen when her mother discovered she was a lesbian, is now working in a sex toy shop run by Chinaman Joe and living in a tiny apartment in a seedy part of Minneapolis. She refuses to be tested to see if she may have any paranormal gifts, though she suspects she might, and continues to smoke cigarettes, though she knows they're expensive and unhealthy, because these two things are pretty much the only things she feels in control of in her life. She's intelligent, though she denigrates her smarts with negative self-talk, and funny, though she doesn't see that either. She's also lonely, having few real friends and her last lover having betrayed her for a stripper almost right under her nose. What she admits to being is stubborn and capable, which, along with her other strengths and weaknesses, make her strong and very likable.

When a gay friend of hers is discovered dead in the alley behind the sex toy shop, no sign of what killed him evident but a happy grin on his face and his pants undone, Cassie gets pulled into the investigation of a series of similar deaths of hookers and drug dealers, during the course of which she meets Samantha, a high-class post-cog working with the police and, coincidentally one of the most appealing women Cassie's ever met, though Sam's "not really her type." She also meets Hunter, an emotionally wounded veteran of military action in the Mideast whose paranormal gifts are off the chart and who believes Cassie is his "blood brother." Together, they take on the god Loki who is trying to start his own special version of Ragnarok.

Like I said, I really liked Cassie, and I liked the world that Cutter built, where paranormally "blessed" people were searched for and trained by the government in their gifts. I wasn't sure whether the Norse gods were really necessary, but she tied them into the action well enough at the end. Some of the plot was a bit less clear than it should have been, at least for me, a few perhaps minor loose ends were left dangling, and I found a few grammar errors which, as always, took me right out of the story, but it wasn't enough to make me stop reading.

Tomorrow and Saturday the Denver Botanical Garden is having a Plant & Bulb Sale! I can't really afford to buy anything, but I've decided to go anyway and then maybe stay to walk through the gardens and look at the Chihuly sculptures again. Assuming I don't buy any plants that will need to be brought home right away. Any bets against my buying too much?

When I lived in SoCal, I went to a plant sale at the Huntington Gardens and got a lovely hoya and a couple of other plants, which unfortunately didn't make it to Colorado, plus a butterfly bush which did. The difference is that I could leave my plants outside all year long in SoCal, whereas here...we already had two nights of frost, and it's only mid-September.

Shouldn't a butterfly bush be okay with frosts and snows? I seem to remember not doing one single thing with ours and it lived forever.

Have fun at the sale, and find something weird and wonderful to ornament the world with.

Have fun at the sale! It's very popular!

Walking through that Chihuly exhibit again is definitely a good idea. I would love to be there for the night shows in November.

Oh, so annoying when you listen almost all the way through an audiobook before you realize it's abridged. Ugh. So disappointing! I'm so annoyed, I'm not even going to count it as one of my books this year, but I will note it here as a dire warning to myself to CHECK WHETHER IT'S ABRIDGED BEFORE BORROWING AN AUDIOBOOK FROM THE LIBRARY! Sylvester by Georgette Heyer. *grump*

>175 richardderus: Thanks, RD! About my butterfly bush, it's in a pot, so I bring it in during the winter, but yes, they are apparently fine in the winter here in the ground. My neighbor has a huge one planted right next to my fence that is thriving and beautiful and makes me green with envy!

>176 Copperskye: Thanks, Joanne!

>177 RebaRelishesReading: I didn't get a chance to do the Chihuly again this weekend, Reba, but my sis and I have plans to go on Monday or Tuesday (depending on which day has less chance of rain), and to bring along with us her co-grandma and Baby Dylan. We're hoping to do the night show next month, probably without the baby, though she would probably love it!

>58 Storeetllr: What an incredible baby! She is so full of grace, charm and a love of life. I simply want to reach out and hug her.

Hi Mary! Great photos from the meet-up! Thank you for putting it together, and I'm sorry I had to leave.

Oh, I need to get the Botanic Gardens.

Hope you're having a great weekend!

Happy Sunday, Mary! I am back home and finally trying to catch up on some neglected threads. Glad to see another wonderful Meet-Up. I will visit you CO gals, one of these days. Fingers crossed.

Thanks for the postcard, my friend. Glad you got the book okay and I hope the print isn't to small.

>180 Whisper1: Thank you, Linda! I think so too. And thank you for reminding me to look back! I always smile inside and out whenever I look at those pics.

>181 AMQS: It was fun, and I'm just happy you were able to make it for even a little while! It's always great to see you and Joanne and new LT friends visiting the area! I'll have to get over to your thread and see how your weekend in the mountains went.

>182 msf59: Aloha, Mark! And mahalo for visiting! So glad you had such a great time in Hawai'i! I do hope you get out here "one of these days" too. That would be quite a meetup! Glad you got the postcard! Thanks again for the book. I am letting my sister read it first and then I'm going to give it a go. I think I should be able to deal with the print.

So I love the cake pictured on Ronincats' thread (https://www.librarything.com/topic/178612#4834358) and actually told my sis that's the one I want for my next birthday (haha, fat chance), but I changed my mind after seeing this one:

>184 Storeetllr: Hi Mary, OMG what a beautiful cake. I don't think I would be able to allow anyone to cut into it if it was mine.

I know, right?!? I'd want to slap a coat of lacquer on it and keep it forever displayed. Then I'd have to run out and buy a cake from Costco or some other grocery store that I COULD allow people to eat.

>184 Storeetllr: "Like"

>184 Storeetllr: Oh wow! That's way too pretty to eat.

Gorgeous cake, Mary! And disappointing about Sylvester. Hope they didn't cut any of the scenes that made me laugh out loud the first time I read it.

Hi, Joe, Joanne and Roni ~ It is an amazing cake, isn't it! Especially for a "bird person." So pretty!

>189 ronincats: I think they must have, because I only chuckled a couple of times. Stupid stupid stupid ~ the library for buying anything abridged, and me for not checking before I listened. Well, I will just wait awhile and then either read it in print or try to find an unabridged audiobook of it.

>178 Storeetllr: Oh I hate, hate, hate abridged audiobooks as well!

Honestly, Rhianna, I don't get why anyone bothers with abridged audiobooks. Or abridged print books either, for that matter. I feel I miss so many nuances with abridged books. If a book is just too boring or needs editing to get rid of deadwood (so to speak), then why bother reading it at all? At least that's my take on it.

So, I've done a bit of really enjoyable reading over the past couple of weeks that I want to comment on:

111. The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. 10 stars. Audio (recommended by coppers aka Joanne) So good, I was thinking about it days after I finished it. Same sort of premise as The Road without the grim, soul-wrenching bleakness but with excellent writing.
112. Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs. 7 stars. (Mercy Thompson series recommended by Morphy.) Read out of order. Silly me. Still a good one.
113. Nickel Plated by Aric Davis. 9 stars. Although I balked once or twice, it's truly amazing how believable this novel about a 12-year old boy who often acts and thinks like an adult is. Nickel is an abused victim of the foster care system who managed to escape, and he is not going back. To fund his independence, he engages in a number of legal and illegal enterprises, from growing and selling weed to blackmailing child predators (and then turning them in to the cops) to working as a private investigator for those who find him by word-of-mouth. When a 14-year old girl begs him to look into the disappearance of her 11-year old sister, he agrees to do it for free, partly because she's really hot and partly because he can't stand the idea of letting a child predator get away with it and hopes (against hope) that he can find the child before she ends up dead.
114. River Marked by Patricia Briggs. 8 stars. Audio. Absolutely loving this series!
115. Shield of Winter by Nalini Singh. 8 stars. Okay, I've read a few previous novels in this Psy-Changling series and wasn't all that impressed, but I think this one may have redeemed the entire series for me! There were a few sex scenes, but not as many as in the others. The characters and plot were also more enjoyable to me than the previous ones, though many of the same characters were in this one too. It all just seemed to come together much more compellingly.
116. Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs. 8 stars. Oh, God, only one more left in the series after this! How will I be able to stand it until the next one comes out? Guess I'll just have to start one of her other series *sigh* and hope it keeps me happy until then (assuming Night Broken isn't the end of the series). (It's not, is it, Morphy?)

ETA I just found out there's a Mercy anthology coming out in a few days (Shifting Shadows), and I've already placed a hold on it at the library. Not all the stories sound compelling, but there is one about Ben, and that alone will make the whole thing worth it.

Good list of good reads, Mary! 'Fess up — did you pick up Nickel Plated because of the protagonist's name? He does not sound very flighty, though. :-)

Haha, no, but I did think of Nickelbird when I saw the title. In fact, I picked it up because I got the second in the series from Amazon Firsts, then decided I had to read the first in the series, you know, first. Aric Davis is quite an author, writing books about weird happenings and tweaked characters that are not at all my usual fare. I read one by him before that I'd never have thought I'd enjoy, titled A Good and Useful Hurt, about a tattoo artist, that I got free from Amazon, and it was one of my favorites the year I read it.

I've never heard of Aric Davis before, but you've convinced me to check him out.

Yes, do give him a look. He may not be for everybody, but so far I really enjoy his writing!

I'm so glad you liked The Dog Stars!

Hi Mary! I am very pleased you loved the Dog Stars. It's a special one. I have his latest, lined up on audio and I plan on getting to it soon. Have a good week.

Hello Mary, just stopping by to say Hello. After my long absence, I am just trying to ease my way back into the lively LT life, which I missed incredible.
As usual - I can see your reading is still incredible varied, and I am looking forward to follow your thread again.

I did, Joanne! Thanks for bragging it up so I got hit by that BB!

Thanks, Mark! The new Heller sounds a bit different from his Dog Stars. I'll be interested to know what you think of it.

Welcome back, Bianca! I'm glad you're starting to post again! "Incredibly lively" is a very good way to describe LT life, isn't it. I know I can't keep up with everyone here. Sometimes even have trouble keeping up with my own thread!

Did you have any damage from the hail the other day? We didn't at home but at work (where I was) cars parked outside got dinged. I had gone out and moved my car to the garage when a weather alert said there'd be damaging hail (phew!). The trees were stripped, too. Weird for this time of year. I hope it missed you!

Wow, Joanne, glad you got the car under a roof before that hailstorm! Good thinking! We got just a short bout of hail, but it sure came down like bullets! I ran outside wearing shorts and a teeshirt and only a gardening hat and a sun umbrella to protect me so I could cover the tomatoes with a tarp. Those little iceballs sure hurt when they hit! I only lost a couple of fruit that got knocked off the tomato bushes, but there are a few left that are still okay. I plan to harvest them all tomorrow, though (fried green tomatoes for lunch! yum!), and bring all my tender plants close to the door (or inside) so I can get them under cover easily when the next frost hits.

Is it weird for this time of year here? I remember last September we had a dreadful hailstorm that ended up with my kitchen and front entrance flooded.

True story: Tonight I volunteered at the local Dem. party campaign headquarters to do some constituent phoning, and I was chatting with one woman I had called. We shared about our experience of having retired and come here from other places to be closer to family. She told me she'd moved to Colorado three years ago and likes it except for the winters, which have been a lot harsher than she'd been led to believe by her family. I told her that my family had assured me too that winters in Denver were mild. She said last winter her daughter kept telling her, "But it's usually so mild here!" We just laughed.

Well, I guess "mild" is a relative term. Compared to NJ winters, which tend to be cold, damp, and grey (I swear the coldest I have ever been was on the boardwalk in Atlantic City one December evening about 25 years ago), Denver's lack of humidity and abundant sunshine can make a winter day downright balmy. Of course, there are some winters.....

It was so good to see you yesterday! Hope you found your way home, ok. Thanks for posting the photo on the Denver thread. That restaurant was wonderful!

Stopping by to say "hi".

Hi, Joanne ~ I was born and raised and lived in Chicago until I was around 24, so I know cold winters. After nearly 40 years in the truly balmy weather of SoCal, though, I had forgotten, sort of like the reality of labor and childbirth is forgotten after the child has been born? Anyway, it looks like winter's on its way now, though I expect a few more warm days before the ice and snow descend. It was great seeing you too!

Hi, Reba!

Hi Mary, I am still smiling thinking about last Saturday's meetup. It was great to see you again. I enjoyed my third foray into the imaginative Vorkosigan world of Lois McMaster Bujold on the way home. I hit the ground running when I got home on Monday afternoon. What a busy week.

I'm looking forward to doing nothing except read and sleep this weekend. At least that's what I'll do when The Royals game is over. Not really a baseball fan but so far the playoff games have been fairly action-filled.

It was great seeing you too, Donna, and spending a few hours with my favorite LT meetup ladies! Wasn't that a wonderful meal? And I really liked that book store.

Glad you are enjoying the Vorkosigan saga. I went through that series like it was a bag of potato chips. Just read the last book set in that 'verse (Ethan of Athos), a "spin off" featuring Elli Quinn but not Miles. Now I'll have to wait awhile before starting a reread. :)

A weekend spent reading and sleeping sounds great, Donna! I don't follow any sports, but when the home team is playing in the finals, then even I sit up and take notice. I see your team won! Yay!

Happy Sunday, Mary! Hope you are enjoying the weekend. I LOVED the Painter. Heller is 2 for 2! Yah!

Hey, Mark! Hope you enjoyed a great weekend! Sounds as if you did, from what you said on your thread. Good to know The Painter is so good. I almost bought it the other day when we had our meetup in Evergreen last weekend but picked up a couple of other things instead, and there went my book-buying budget!

>192 Storeetllr: Rest easy. The Mercy saga continues. And I found Shifting Shadows quite delightful.

Oh, whew! Thanks for the reassurance, Morphy! I read Shifting Shadows and enjoyed it a lot too.

Hi Mary, I've been off-line for a few days suffering through a bout of flu but hope everything is going well with you.

Oh, hope you're feeling better now, Judy! I'm good, except for allergies. I've been busy though. Scarcely have time to get online these days, even to update my reading! But I simply must do it or I will forget. :)

Catching up on all the threads after a little hiatus. Hope all's well here with you! Loving all the Meet Ups! So jealous.

Hi, Marianne! Lots to catch up on on ALL the threads! Thanks for stopping by and saying hey!

129. Rose Gold by Walter Mosley. 8 stars. (Audio) The latest Easy Rawlins mystery. It wasn't the best I've read in the series, being a bit (to my mind) disjointed, though it was still above par, but I don't read these only for the mystery. As always, the characters and mileu (in this one, 1960s Los Angeles) are the most compelling parts of this series.

Now, a bit of editorializing: Any white person who is aware of what is happening today in places like Ferguson MO and Dayton OH and Beverly Hills CA and NYC and, in fact, all over the country needs to read this series to come to a better understanding of what the black community in this country has gone through and what such treatment does to the psyche of a black man, woman or child.

Plus, as I said, the stories, characters and mileu are worthy all on their own.

Hi Mary! Thought I would pop in and say hello. I hope all is well. I haven't read much Mosley. I know Joe is a big fan too!

Hey, Mark! Thanks for the visit! If you haven't read any Easy Rawlins, I urge you to start with the first in the series ~ Devil in a Blue Dress, which was made into a movie (though I haven't seen it yet) with Denzel Washington. I've read the entire series, a few more than once, as well as one from his Fearless series, and I have to say the Easy Rawlins mysteries are an experience not to be missed. Most are set in L.A. from not long after WWII through the hippie era, though one or two have settings in the South. I think one of my favorite anti-heroes ~ Mouse ~ is from this series, but all of his characters, even the secondary and tertiary ones, are so realistically drawn and sympathetic (or, in the case of some, the opposite), it's like I know them personally. They're really great as audiobooks.

>216 Storeetllr: I'm with you on the Easy Rawlins series, Mary. Mosley is one of my favorite authors (most recently, I loved The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey). I'm looking forward to reading Rose Gold - I've asked for it for the holidays. I'm so glad he resumed the series.

Oh, me too, Joe! I haven't read Ptolemy Grey yet, but on your reccie will do so sooner than later! I do hope you get Rose Gold for Christmas ~ have you "ear" read any of them? I love to hear the different voices with their various accents and dialects. So fun!

Oh, yay! I've been selected to receive an Early Reviewers copy of The William Shakespeare Detective Agency: The School of Night by Colin Falconer from the October 2014 batch! It's always so exciting to get a book from the ER batch, and this one looks right up my alley!

Life is good!

An LT friend (RichardDerus) is having a rough time just now and could really use some help, so here's the link to the donation page a mutual LT friend set up for him, just in case you feel able to donate a few bucks to the cause: http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/for-our-beloved-curmudgeon/179809. If you'd like to read a bit about what's been happening, here's a link to his thread, which is being maintained by proxy until he gets out of hospital and can get on the internet again: https://www.librarything.com/topic/181902.

I've been lurking instead of commenting, but I can't have you feeling lonely here! Looks like we've some shared reads coming up.

Hi mary, we all seem to be either doing more lurking or just being quiet these days. Hope your week went well and that your weekend is full of happy plans.

As for me, a whole weekend of doing very little. Hope to get a good start on my November reading.

Hi, Roni! Thanks for delurking for a moment to comment! I'm really looking forward to my upcoming reading. BTW, I think you mentioned that you didn't particularly enjoy Sandman Slim, and, while I am reading it now and enjoying it (for the most part), I can see why it wouldn't be a favorite. I'll probably finish it but won't be searching out the rest of the series, unlike the Matthew Swift series. I've already got Midnight Mayor, the second one, lined up!

Hi, Judy, and thank you too for delurking. I know everyone's threads are a lot quieter these days than earlier in the year, which is, on the whole, a relief. It was so hard to keep up with everyone and also get any reading done. :) My weekend will be spent partly with my great-niece, whose parents have left her with us while they celebrate Halloween in Vegas, and a couple of stints at the campaign headquarters in a last-ditch effort to GoTV. A weekend of little to do except read sounds heaven, and I hope to have one of those next week! Enjoy!

You are right, Mary--good memory. I went into more than usual detail in contrasting the two books in this message: http://www.librarything.com/topic/178612#4805902

It's not that SS wasn't okay, but...well, I say it all in the message above.
I think you'll like The Midnight Mayor at least as much if not more!

Yes, that's the post I was remembering!

Is it worth finishing Sandman Slim? I'm about 3/4 of the way through and kind of on the fence.

It's more of the same--never gets any deeper. But if you are enjoying it as light entertainment, by all means continue. I did finish it. But I'm not reading any more in the series. (I always think, oh, too bad, what if the author improves in later books and they become really good--but most authors only get one chance to hook me. There are just too many books.)

Hi Mary! Just trying to catch up with everyone AGAIN. Seems like that is what I've been doing a lot this year. :)

I noticed that have The Prince Lestat from the library? I saw that one at mine as well but didn't end up picking it up. I remember reading a lot of her vampire books years ago so I will probably read that one at some point. Looking forward to your thoughts on it.

>229 ronincats: Yeah, not sure whether I'll finish it or not. As you say, there are too many other books, including Midnight Mayor and Festive in Death (latest Eve Dallas mystery, which I devour like bonbons) and...

>230 jolerie: Prince Lestat, which I put on hold at the library so I could read it in October. Unfortunately, it's the last day of October and it isn't available yet, so it may be awhile before I get around to reading it. I used to love Rice's Vampire series, but it's been awhile since she wrote a new one. I did reread Interview with the Vampire and Lestat earlier this year, getting ready for Prince Lestat, but I have no desire to read any of the others (like Queen of the Damned or The Body Thief or Memnoch the Devil or the others that came later).

Anyway, Val, thanks for visiting! It's so true what you wrote about always doing a lot of catching up. It's the same for me.

Happy Halloweeeeeeeeeeeeen!!

Hi, Joanne! Hope you had a fun Halloween! We had the baby so there was definitely a lot of fun stuff going on around here ~ in the afternoon, we "raked" leaves (i.e., tossed them in the air, jumped in the pile, ran around the yard), then we dressed up and gave out candy to the hoard of trick-or-treaters who came to the door. We had quite a few, probably 50 or so, which was 50 more than I've had on any Halloween in the last six years.

My sis, niece and the baby playing in the leaves; the baby's other grandma doing cleanup (honestly, no one made her do it; she loves working the yard, so it's a kindness to allow her to do so):



Nickel, supervising:



Dylan, the Fairy Princess:



Miss Piggy (my niece) and the Wicked Witch (me):

Happy Dia de los Muertos!

Today is the beginning of Dia de los Muertos, a traditional two-day Mexican holiday that focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It's pretty big in Los Angeles, and, when I lived there, I always loved to go by Olvera Street to see the colorful (and, some might say, macabre) decorations set up around the square. Anyway, here are a few images of the festivities:

(From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Dead)

It looks like you had a fun Halloween, Mary! Love all the smiling faces. Dylan has some pink cheeks to go with her pink costume!

We had an average number of kids at the door. I was expecting more because there is a new wave of kiddos in the neighborhood. Lots of clever costumes this year that weren't hidden under coats.

Love the pics, Mary. I hope you are having an awesome Dia de los Muertos! I've never heard of the holiday before but it's so interesting seeing the different cultures and how they celebrate special occasions.

Oh, I love all of the photos! Thanks for sharing!

Love the Halloween pics, Mary! Hope you are having a nice weekend.

>233 Storeetllr:: Ah, Pictures! Princess Dylan is just lovely as always. What fun you must have had with her on Halloween. You make a great Wicked Witch, Mary. That is a compliment by the way. lol.

ETA: I forgot to mention how much I loved the picture of Nickel. It is definitely worthy of a frame. I love it that she/he (?) gets to enjoy outside activities with the family.

We had a lot more kids than we usually have. Ready? We had thirteen. Whoo hoo!

Usually we have one or two.

Lucky you--holidays are always more fun with an actual child around to enjoy it!

>235 Copperskye: Dylan's still too young to quite "get" what Halloween was about, but she had fun anyway, and, of course, loved all the attention she was getting. Wasn't it lovely weather for Halloween! It was great seeing all the costumes instead of just the legs and faces sticking out of heavy coats!

>236 jolerie: Thanks, Val! I love having pics to remember the fun times. Yes, I like learning about other cultures too. Los Angeles has a large hispanic population, so Day of the Dead was big there, especially around Olvera Street. I think I have some old photos I took of the pavilion in the square, with all the skulls hanging from it and other macabre decorations, and will see if I can dig them up. (No pun intended.)

>237 scaifea: Thanks, Amber. I know you know how important photos are for documenting our lives and always love seeing your photos of Charlie too!

>238 msf59: Thanks, Mark. It was a good, but frenetic, weekend. Hope yours was nice too, though I think I heard that your weather was a bit wintry.

>239 Donna828: Haha, thanks, Donna. And I love the pic of Nickel too, though she does look a bit raggedy just now. Between molting and plucking, her breast feathers aren't as beautiful as they could be, but I love that expression on her face, like "You missed a few leaves over there."

>240 Morphidae: Thirteen? Kind of symbolic, no? Especially on Friday on Halloween. :)

>241 ronincats: Exactly right, Roni! Having a kid around on Halloween is so much fun!

Well, as I mentioned above, the weekend was a bit frenetic, over and above Halloween, which was also frenetic but lots of fun too. In addition to Dylan staying over while her parents were partying in Vegas for the weekend, we had Dylan's other grandma, who now lives with them. She's suffering from Alzheimer's, a terrible and heartrending disease, and, it being my first experience being around anyone suffering from it, was eye-opening, to say the least.

She's spent a lot of time with us in the past few months and has been to our house a number of times, but each time is new for her, and she always says to me, "So nice to meet you!" She even forgets who Dylan is sometimes. She's very sweet, but, between her going out for walks without telling anyone, constantly asking when she was going to go home (back to Massachusetts), moving everything around, opening the front door and leaving it open, and wandering around the house in the middle of the night rifling through everyone else's stuff and taking our things, thinking they belonged to her, it was a bit much. Before she went back to my niece's house, where she now lives, we had to go through her bags to recover our stuff ~ she had come with two small bags and was leaving with four, plus a large suitcase that belongs to my sister, stuffed full of linens, towels, cosmetics, clothing, jewelry, hats and scarves, and other things that she gathered from our drawers and closets. Obviously, it was upsetting for all of us, including her, though we made sure not to blame her in any way, and my sister and I were in tears after my niece took her home ~ from pity and from the stress, and from the realization that, someday, that could be us (it runs in our family). Even writing about it is making me feel sick inside, and sad. My niece, who takes care of her every day and is always (as far as I've seen) patient and kind with her, is a saint, and we are all glad we can help out and give her a break a few times a week and, once in awhile, for long weekends.

Anyway, now it is peaceful and quiet, with everyone gone but me and Nickel, and I should be able to be online a bit more and will hopefully get caught up on everyone's threads (I swear, one or two days and I'm hundreds of posts behind!), after I do my chores for the day, which include getting my yearly flu shot, going to the library to return Scarlet, and then putting in a few final hours helping Get Out The Vote.

Thanks for "listening" to my weekend experience. I feel better, now that I have gotten some of my feelings about it out there.

Thanks so much for sharing Mary. I can't imagine how much that would take on a family day in and day out and especially so if it is someone you love and care for. Thankfully both my mom and my husband's parents are still in pretty good health, but we do occasionally talk about the future and what that may look like with parents who are getting older. It is a sad reality and hard conversations to have but we do look back and remind ourselves just how blessed we each are.
Wishing you a great week ahead! :)

Alzheimer's is just terrible, Mary. What a difficult experience for you.

We've had a close family friend and two of my mother's brothers with it, and it is so hard on friends and family, and so sad for the victim. When one of my uncles died, his wife said no need to console her now; she felt she had lost him five years before when it became severe.

So many are trying to make inroads on preventing/treating it, but it's proven so hard to begin to solve. It's a nightmare.

On a happier note, love the Halloween pics, and Nickel is a knockout!

How heartbreaking. *hugs*

Such a sad story! But you coped really well, I think.

I wish you a very peaceful week!

>244 jolerie: Thank you for "listening," Val. We only had her for two days; I can't imagine how my niece handles it day after day, with a 2 year old to care for on top of it all! Although my niece said it's not usually as bad as it was when she was with us ~ perhaps Grandma C is beginning to accept their house as her home and is more comfortable there. I'm glad your folks are still in good health and agree that "that talk" is a sad necessity of life.

>245 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. It is hard on everyone. An aunt on my mom's side, and my dad, his brother, and his mom all had it, or some form of dementia. Scary. So sad about your friend and uncles, and what your aunt said breaks my heart. Glad you enjoyed the Halloween pics, and I have to agree that Nickel is (and knows she is) "so cute" (her words).

>246 Morphidae: Thanks for the hugs, Morphy. They help.

>247 connie53: Hi, Connie ~ nice to see you here! I only coped as well as I did because I could "escape" to my basement lair when I could no longer deal. My sis and one of her other daughters did most of the coping. And thanks for the wish for a peaceful week. Now that our elections are over for another two years, I can relax.

Though not happily, what with the apparent Republican takeover of the Senate. It's making me sick to think what this may mean, so I am going to be like Scarlet and curl up with a good book and "think about it tomorrow."

So, it's November, and all the lovely green is turning to brown, and my peony bush looks like it's dying, but I don't know because I've never had a peony bush before. Does anyone know if they need to be pruned? Cut down to the base? Mulched? I looked online and found four articles that pretty much said four different things. I'm southeast of Denver, in what used to be southeast Aurora, and the peony bush is on the east side of the house, under an overhanging deck, so it's partially protected, though I am sure wind snow and ice will find their way under there just fine.

Sending a virtual hug your way. It was a rough night last night, the only bright light being Gov. Hick's reelection. I'd of hated to see him lose. (My poor husband kept to a strict no news plan today so he didn't hear until I told him later in the day.)

Sorry I can't help with your peony problem. Have you tried calling or stopping by a garden center with a leaf? I've had good luck doing that in the past.

I'm going back to hiding with my nose in a book now.

I don't think my sister does anything special for her peonies in central Kansas. Just lets them die back, and clean up the foliage.

Mary, we don't do anything with our peonies except to cut off the dead foliage. It probably would be a good idea for you to do that and use a little mulch on top for protection from the deep freezes. They are very reliable plants and should send up new shoots in the spring.

I know how difficult it is to be around someone with AD as my mother had it for ten years before she died. They tend to "act up" more when their routine is disturbed so maybe your niece doesn't have quite as much to deal with as you did. My mother's favorite thing was to empty her closet in the wee hours of the morning. I dreaded those phone calls from my poor dad!

Hugs to you, Mary for your trying experience with Dylan's other Grandma. We've had a few similar experiences here with various friends' relatives. Hope Dylan can understand that her Granny's mind broke and it's not a reflection on her. God bless the patient cheerful caregivers!

Whoa! I didn't realize it's been quite so long since I posted in my own thread, having posted in others' threads in the interim. Sorry for the unexplained (and inexplicable) absence.

>250 Copperskye: Thanks, Joanne. I needed that hug! Hugs back to you. I'm still feeling bitter about last week's disaster but, like you, so glad Hick was reelected.

>251 ronincats: Thanks, Roni! That's what I decided to do with the peonies. It's below freezing today, has been for about 24 hours, and will be for the foreseeable future (about another week to 10 days), so when the cold snap/polar vortex/crazy Colorado weather does end and temps rise, I'll probably go out and, as you said, clean up the foliage.

>252 Donna828: Thanks for the encouragement on the peony and the AD fronts. You're right ~ my niece says she's worse in the evenings and when her routine has been disturbed, like when she isn't home in her own bed at night. I think that may be the last time we have her stay overnight with us, unless there's an emergency.

>253 michigantrumpet: Thank you too, Marianne! Dylan seems to take her Grandma Cho's behavior in stride and, being a pretty resilient kid, I think she'll be okay, as long as nothing too crazy happens.

So, I recently read a couple of reviews of Fikry on (I think) Roni's and Marianne's threads, and one of them quoted something about being able to tell all you need to know about a person by their answer to the question "What is your favorite book?"

That made me think about what my answer would be. First, I thought: "Too many to name just one." But then I thought about the top ten favorites, and I realized that a couple of them were past favorites from when I was in my 20s, and a couple of them were favorites from when I was in my 30s, and so on. And I also realized that some of the books that were favorites when I was in my 20s, etc. are no longer appealing to me today. For instance, I adored Lord of the Rings when I read it numerous times in my 20s and 30s, but I tried to read Fellowship of the Ring a year or so ago, I just could not get into it, though I still recall it with love and fondness. Same with other favorites from various periods of my life, such as Dune, Salem's Lot, The Story of San Michele, Good Omens. I think it's not that the old favorites aren't good books; it's that I've moved on.

Anyway, I'm curious to know if other list-making readers include books from earlier decades on their "desert-island-good favorites" list. How about you? Have your old favorites stood the test of time, or are your favorites books you've read more recently? What are your top 5 "must-have-if-ever-marooned-on-a-desert-island" books?

One of my problems with choosing my favorite is that when a book or series is a favorite, I read it over and over to the point where I get tired of reading it and it's not so much of a favorite anymore. I still rate it highly, but it's not a favorite, if you get what I mean.

Yes, I do get what you mean, Morphy! And, speaking of series, I would put a few series (Dr. Siri, Mercedes Thompson) on my top 25 desert-island favorites but not any one of the individual books.

Making a top favorite book list is difficult for me, and I think I'd have to make a number of "favorite" lists, including "Current Favorites," "Past Favorites," "Past But Still Favorites," "Series Favorites," "Favorite Author," and so on.

So, going back to the quote from Fikry, I wonder what that tells you about me? LOL

I'd say it makes you a promiscuous reader... just like me!

>255 Storeetllr: I agree. The problem I have with naming favorite books is that I'm not sure if a book I read and loved when I was say, 20, would still be a book I would love now. The book stays the same but I'm certainly different. I have reread some that I've loved and, for the most part, they have held up. But it's a small sample really. I'm not big on rereading. I could come up with 20 or so favorites but some on the list would change from day to day.

Series would have to be counted as one book. It's only fair.

Favorite authors are easier - Alice McDermott, Margaret Atwood, John Steinbeck, Stephen King, Anne Tyler. Subject to change, of course, when other names pop into my head!

Maybe desert island books should be ones in the tbr pile. And, of course, something along the lines of How to Survive on a Desert Island.

Hope you're staying warm!

I agree, favorite authors are much easier than favorite books!

I do have a list of favorites from the last ten years, but I haven't tried it going all the way back. I imagine it would have the problem you described - ones that meant a lot to me at one age probably wouldn't make a "favorites today" list. In part because I've changed, and in part because they'd get crowded out by more recent ones. I was wowed by Dune, and still recommend it as a sci-fi book, but it wouldn't be the same for me today. Dandelion Wine and Charlotte's Web come to mind, too.

My favorite would be Pride and Prejudice, still awesome on re-reads.

Favorite authors would be easier, for sure.

>255 Storeetllr:: You raise a very interesting question, Mary. I have a list of 21 books that have impacted my life on my profile page. I'm pretty sure most of them would stand up to the test of time. I plan a reread of Angle of Repose for Mark's 2015 AAC so I can see if it still belongs on the list. The other one I'm not certain about is Sophie's Choice as it was read so long ago. I may have to reread it as well. My Top Five Desert Island books might be:

To Kill A Mockingbird
The Grapes of Wrath
The House of the Spirits
A Prayer for Owen Meany, and
A Fine Balance.

Other books on the list have impacted me more, but I tried to go for longer books as there isn't much to do on a desert island other than to try and build a boat and harvest coconuts!

Some of my favourites are from childhood and still remain on my top 5 list. I could reread them no problem whereas most books I'm done with just the one reading. A lot of books from Roald Dahl would be on the list, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peace, The BFG...I could go on and on.... The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe series would be up there as well. In terms of adult books, I would have to put Tigana and The Road on there. Completely different books but I like them for different reasons so I guess that makes sense in my head...haha!

>258 Morphidae: ;-b

>259 Copperskye: Exactly, Joanne! I only reread books that are on the desert-island favorite list (about 100 at last count), and only one in 3 stay on the list after a reread.

Keeping as warm as possible in this frigid weather. 5F the high today? Seriously?

>260 ronincats: Definitely, Roni! I have a list of favorite time-tested authors whose work I always can depend on to be consistently good, and I get so excited when I learn they are coming out with a new book, it's like I'm a kid on Christmas morning!

>261 jnwelch: Right, Jim. I still enjoyed Dune when I reread it (for about the 5th time) a couple of years ago, but it wasn't quite as wonderful as I remembered from 20+ years prior. Not sure P&P would make it on a reread, but it's one I plan to read again in the next year or so.

>262 Donna828: Good choices, Donna, especially The House of the Spirits and To Kill a Mockingbird, though I would have to reread Mockingbird to be sure. It's been 30 or so years for that one. I hate to admit it, but I haven't read any of Stegner's novels, only some critical works of his, and have been meaning to try Angle of Repose. Maybe I'll make a note to read it in 2015.

>263 jolerie: I'm not much one for children's books these days, Val, though once in awhile might work for me. I do definitely agree with Tigana, though I think I'd choose The Lion of al-Rassan over it to have with me on a desert-island. I greatly enjoyed The Road when I read it a few years ago, but I'm not sure I would put it on my top 5 desert-island favorites list.

Hi Mary, my biggest concern over desert island books is that my top 5 are different from anyone else who is on the island with me, so we can share! Unfortunately Donna and I agree on two books, To Kill A Mockingbird and Grapes of Wrath. I would add Lonesome Dove, Gone With the Wind, and Rebecca to make up my top five.

Oooh, Lonesome Dove! Excellent choice, Judy, and, like Donna said, if you're stranded on a desert island, the bigger the tome the better.

Oh, difficult choice between Tigana and The Lions of Al-Rassan as a desert island book, but I think I'd go with Tigana. Maybe it's because it was the first GGK I fell in love with, but it's my go-to fantasy. That and The Blue Sword, but it's not really long enough to use as one of my five only books.

Hi Mary -- I'm finally catching up with your thread. It's nice to be on-line and getting back in touch again. We're having a great time exploring Buenos Aires but it will be nice to be home again too. I will be very glad when the flying is over with though :)

>267 lunacat: Hi, Jenny ~ Yes, I loved both, but I think I got more emotionally invested in Lions, which is why I thought maybe I'd prefer it to Tigana for my top 5 favorite marooned-on-a-desert-island list, although I did reread Tigana once and still love it, but haven't reread Lions yet, so that could change.

>268 RebaRelishesReading: Glad you are having a fabulous time, Reba! Loved loved loved the photos you shared on your thread! I think I know what you mean, though ~ traveling to and spending time exploring exotic places is a wonderful thing, but after awhile one just wants to be home.

My top ten books since I'm keeping score here on LT are:

All books got ****1/2 from me.
The Robin Hobb book got *****

De moordenaar van de nar - Robin Hobb
Kamer - Emma Donoghue
Koekoeksjong - Robert Galbraith
Villa Triste - Lucretia Grindle
Klem - Simon Beckett
Het ijzig hart - Almundena Grandes
De witte veer - John Boyne
Een keukenmeidenroman - Kathryn Stockett
Een lofzang voor Arbonne - Guy Gavriel Kay
Citadel - Kate Mosse

Nice list, Connie! Though I've read only one (The Help), you've piqued my interest in the Beckett, Grindle, Grandes and Boyne historical novels. (I see you are an afficianado of WWI and WWII fiction ~ have you read Russell's A Thread of Grace yet? I'm about halfway done with it and have loved it so far.) Anyway, I've been meaning to read Hobb's fantasies, and Kay is one of my favorite authors, and I mean to read all his work eventually.