Hairballsrus 2010

Howdy, I'm hairballsrus and this is my third year in the 50 year challenge. This is the first year I've actually started in January. My last two reading years began and ended in October. I haven't really thought about what I want to accomplish this year. Since I haven't read anything in over a month, I guess the first thing to do is get a book in my hand!

I wish all of you luck in 2010! Go out there and read!

Books Read in 2010

1. The Hour I First Believed
2. How to be a Villain
3. Julie and Julia
4. The Blue Last
5. The Horse You Came in On
6. Why Girls are Weird
7. Scratch the Surface
8. Dust
9. Five Bells and the Bladebone
10. City of Glass
11. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
12. The Magicians
13. Gil's All Fright Diner
14. The Film Club
15. Inside Job
16. The Day the World Came to Town
17. Skulduggery Pleasant
18. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
19. Homer's Odyssey
20. Flight
21. New Moon
22. Making Rounds with Oscar
23. Peeps
24. Doctor Who The Writer's Tale The Final Chapter
25. Blood Music
26. Hatter M The Looking Glass Wars Vol. 1
27. Masterharper of Pern
28. Queen of the Road
29. The Lost City of Z
30. The History of Love
31. In a Perfect World
32. The Handmaid's Tale
33.About My Sisters
34. Shades of Grey
35. Dopplegangster
36. The Marriage of Sticks
37. The Gate of Ivory
38. The Dead and the Gone
39. Monster
40. Divine Misfortune
41. Practical Demonkeeping
42. Old Twentieth
43. Changeless
44. Bet Me
Audio Books in 2010

1. 3546797::Remember Me
2. 71730::Lightning
3. 82856::Relentless
4. 4988329::100 Cupboards
5. 8470::Summerland
6. 60585::Doctor Who and the State of Decay read by Tom Baker Doctor Who
7. 3461328::Wetworld Doctor Who
8. 1580039::Catch-1782 Doctor Who
9. 1823187::Memory Lane Big Finish Doctor Who
10. 2917::The Cat Who Went Underground
11. 5959::The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts
12. 2720::Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
13. 40217::The Cat Who Turned on and off
14. The Doomwood
Curse
15. 223612::The Know it All
16. 12488::The Big Over Easy
17. 449996::The Fourth Bear
18. There's a Slight Chance I Might Be Going to Hell

Hey Paula! Glad I've caught your new thread early. Now that I've posted on it I won't be able to lose it in the sea of new threads. :) I look forward to following your reading again this year.

Thanks for the vote of confidence. How the heck did I create two threads...? Uh boy.... Still reading Proust?

I don't know about you, but I am glad to say goodbye to 2009.

I finally finished Proust in September. He's wonderful! I read two other biggies after that, Les Miserables and Middlemarch, both just excellent. It was a great reading year for me.

Yeah, I don't mind ushering out 2009. It had its ups and downs, and I'm glad to wave goodbye to the downs. Hope you & the clowder are well and have good things coming up this year.

I admire the challenges you give yourself and even more the fact that you finish them!!

Yeah, 2009 was no joy. Our clowder is now down to seven. We lost Spelunk in early December to a series of strokes-side effects of either her kidney disease or hyperthyroidism. Once again I feel as much guilt about being used to losing cats as I feel from having lost them....

First book of the year is something I started on New Year's Eve: The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb. Enjoying it. Also listening to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Snort. One book I have to absolutely read this year is Black Out-that's the new Connie Willis. It comes out Feb. 2nd and YES I do have it preordered from Amazon. However did you guess?

I'm so sorry to hear about Spelunk. Bless your heart, it was a rough year. My mom's kitty just died, too, when I was visiting in Texas. The day after Christmas. He was only 11. I loved that little guy. He was an only cat, so she's down to two dogs now.

I will be picking up Black Out and All Clear when they're published this year. May not get to them this year, as I've got a backlog of other Willis to read. I did read Miracle and other Christmas Stories and All Seated on the Ground in December, and I've been reading a short story now and then from The Winds of Marble Arch.

I'm sorry about your mom's cat. That's rough and at Christmas too. 2010 is going to be a better year. Wish it and make it so. The power of positive thinking, not to mention Jean Luc Picard. :)

Technically, I shouldn't be buying any books this year, but that's an impossible task for me. I ordered The Writer's Tale-that's Russell T. Davies memoir about bringing back Doctor Who.... And there was the 5 day sale at HalfPriced Books where everything was an additional 20% off. I HAD to stock up. You know, in case there's a nuclear war or something.

Speaking of the Doctor, what do you think of the new one?

I definitely need to be like Captain Picard this year. :) Hubby & I are slavering to get our hands on a DVD (or video file) of last year's Royal Shakespeare Company Hamlet. David Tennant as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart as Claudius! Woohoo!

I said I would buy fewer books this year and read more off my shelves. We'll see.

We're not so sure about this Matt Smith, but we're trying to reserve judgment and give him a fair shot. Steven Moffat has earned our trust thus far, so we're hoping that he's made the right choice. From what little we've seen of Matt Smith (regeneration & next season trailer), we find him vaguely annoying, but we're probably not being fair. But hey, I had my reservations about Tennant at first, too. I was a big Eccleston fan. What's your feeling on new guy?

My copy didn't have a trailer for next season! Phooey!
For all of the thirty seconds I've seen of the new doc, I can understand the annoying vibe. For some reason the way he tapped his forehead really bugged me. I did enjoy his delivery of "Geronimo!" though. And Ten's whiny "I'm going to die" crap has been going on for too long in my opinion. Let's cast off the universe weary Doctor and return to a character who loves life.

Just recently I developed a crush on another young British actor-Andrew Lee Potts. What a British name! I wouldn't mind seeing him in the part. Sigh. I guess I'll just have to settle for him chasing after dinosaurs in Primeval and playing the Mad Hatter in SyFi's Alice. At 30, he's actually older than Smith, but doesn't look it. "Do I need a reason to help a pretty girl in a very wet dress?" :)

As for Hamlet, I'm sure a file exists. On Demonoid maybe?

Brrr. It's twenty degrees outside. I do live in Dallas, right? Sometimes it's hard to tell.

Next season trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SXUr0fyRCo

And Ten's whiny "I'm going to die" crap has been going on for too long in my opinion.
I hear that! And I, too, am getting annoyed at universe-weary Doctor... which is why I kind of wanted to throttle Russell T. Davies for bringing back the Time Lords, only to send them back! I thought, woohoo, maybe we'll stop the "last of my people so sad" vibe. Or not. :)

I'll have to check out Andrew Lee Potts. And I'm sure Hamlet's out there. It's ok, I want to reread Hamlet (haven't read it since high school) before I watch it anyway, and I'm too swamped this month to get to it.

My family told me about the weather. Goodness! And I was there, of course, for the white Christmas. I seem to remember the meteorologists saying you guys were going to have a warm, wet winter. Sounds like they got it half right!

Oh yeah! I forgot about the snow. Twice before Christmas, totally bizarre. And the second time it almost lasted a day! :)

Yeah, I didn't get the bit about bringing back the Time Lords and then yanking them, either. The new show makes them out as total baddies, and they never were before. Also, Rassilon wouldn't have been President at the start of the time war if the Doc was in his 8th life. Rassilon was long dead, right? Romana would have been President. And what would be the big deal about killing the President, anyhow? The Doctor was accused of that before. Of course, I'm thinking of time as being a straight forward thing. Which is never the case in DW, is it? The war must have started in the past, but then that would mean the rest of the Doctor's history never happened.... Wait, wait, I'm thinking straight forward again, aren't I?

I want to know who the woman was supposed to represent. The hubby thinks she was the White Guardian, but I'm leaning more towards her being part of the Doctor's family instead. His wife? Mum? Nanny? :) No wait, if they use the "weaving" bit of DW, the Doc wouldn't have a Mummy. She obviously meant something to him, though. Waaa! I want Gallifrey back. And of course the Master escaped. He'll be popping back up I'm sure.

After watching the trailer.... Am I the only one who thinks the new logo looks like a toaster on fire? ;) He does look like he has an old soul behind his eyes in the last scene. I'm willing to give him a shot. He looks like he's having fun anyway. Thanks for the link. I'll show it to the hubby.

Well, off to the post office to mail an extremely late Book Mooch!

If you don't mind me joining your discussion, I've heard suggestions that the woman was his mother, Romana, or Susan (his granddaughter, right?). I like the Susan theory best, honestly.

The last half-dozen or so episodes have been boring and self-indulgent to varying degrees (and as much as I enjoyed Stolen Earth and Journey's End, they were incredibly self-indulgent as well). I too am that glad RTD is done.

Hairballs:
Wait, wait, I'm thinking straight forward again, aren't I?
Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey. :) And lol @ the toaster on fire.

Yeah, the new series seems to have further complicated the already-complicated mythos of the old series. I haven't seen much of Old Who, so when I saw the Time Lady, I just assumed she was a random Time Lady. And then once I saw fans on a board going at it, I figured it was RTD's gift to the fans. I don't really think even he knows who the lady in white was, but she could probably be anybody you want her to be!

Agree, bluesalamanders, on the last half-dozen episodes. I feel like RTD has really been phoning it in. At least he didn't do the "let's bring everybody back to all fight together!" thing--when I saw spoilers on which actors were returning for the show, I thought, "Again?!"

And I did think that the episode was a waste of Timothy Dalton. They brought Timothy Dalton in just to play a cartoonishly evil Time Lord? And now I get New Rassilon mixed up in my memory with Edward Rochester from the 1983 Jane Eyre. :)

But I'm just carping. I'm looking forward to new episodes!

Bluesalamander and Medellia- So we all agree that the last year of Who has been lousy. Going over the same ground, yick, yick, yick. Cookie cutter companions and weeping moments of angst that the fans stopped caring about long ago. Not to mention, no Doctor has ever taken that long to die. Sort of reminded me of Paul Rubens at the end of Buffy the Vampire Slayer-The Movie.

The Susan suggestion hadn't occured to me. Interesting. Giving 007 a part in Doctor Who and then only letting him spit (literally) his lines out in maniacal fashion... What was that about? Rochester! I remember watching that on A&E. She was a better Jane than his Rochester though. I've got to read Jane Eyre this year.

I'm also extremely tired of both Dalek and Cybermen storylines. Hello! It's a big universe out there. Surely there's some other races he can battle.

All righty then. On to books....

1. The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb This was a multi-media feat, read and listened to on the computer-when the operating system wasn't crashing because of the excess cat hair sucked up into the fan---;)

***Spoiler Alert***
I'm not sure what exactly this sprawling novel was supposed to do, besides depress me. It did end on an up note, but the 600+ pages and the 21 audio CDs required to finish the beast seemed a bit much. The first third of the novel was fairly straight forward, being a retelling of the Columbine shootings from a fictional character's point of view. The narrator, Caelum Quirk, is an English teacher at Columbine High, called out of town because of a relative's illness just before the shootings occur. His wife, Maureen, however, is working as a school nurse the day of the massacre and after having to hide in a cabinet for four hours in fear of her life, she suffers Post Tramatic Stress from the event. She spirals down, unable to work, addicted to narcotics, eventually they leave Colorado to return to New England and the Quirk family farm Caelum has inherited.

After many trials, Maureen returns to nursing only to also return to drug abuse and she accidentally kills a teenager by striking him with her car. Off to prison she goes. Not a bad commute, only a mile or so down the road-a prison started by Caelum's great grandmother! Meanwhile, Caelum is suffering trials of his own, working two jobs trying to pay off both Maureen's medical bills and legal fees, living in fear of losing the farm in a wrongful death civil suit, drinking in excess , finding two infant skeletons buried under the apple barn, discovering his mother wasn't his mother....need I go on? That's only the plot in the present day. There's also the chapters of family history involving the Civil War, Mark Twain and prison reform. Not to mention the Free Love movement, Hurricane Katrina, and statues of the Virgin Mary that cry blood.

Walking wounded. That's what the book's about. They're all walking wounded. In the end, Caelum stops trying to control his destiny (if that were even possible) and feels all the better for it. He makes it through and has an epiphany. What that epiphany is ---is left open ended.

For all its length, it was an extremely readable book. Actually easier to read than to listen to.

2. How to Be a Villain : Evil Laughs, Secret Lairs, Master Plans and More!!!

I had to work overnights this week and amused myself with this gem. I needed something to make me laugh since the work week was pretty awful. There was too much work and too little time and we were taken to task for cutting corners. It's hard to be a craftsman and fast, ya know? Anyhow, I suppose I ought to edit this post because you aren't supposed to complain about work on line, but it was so satisfying to write it...I think I'll leave if for a few days.

The book takes you through the steps to world domination, starting with your name ( after some thought, I decided on Mistress Scarlett Maggot) and motivation and then moves on to your choice of careers,etc. This book also ends on a happy note, telling you to go forth and be evil! The book isn't as original as I would have liked, but it was fun while it lasted.

I've decided to list my audio books this year as well.

AB1. Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella Following an automobile accident, a young woman wakes up in hospital having forgotten the last three years of her life. She struggles with her new "perfect life", including a husband she doesn't remember, a new job as the Boss from the Hell and a lover who wants to pick up where they left off. Funny and stupid. The actress reading the book gave the lover a Scottish accent, although nowhere in the story is he described as Scottish. She just needed to separate the character from the husband.

Eh. I picked it up on clearance at HalfPriced Books. It was either this or the History of Cod, both for three dollars. Now I'm sure the cod book would have opened my eyes to a whole new world, but the fishy smell would have also made those opened eyes water.

I've also decided to list books as I BUY them this year, in hopes that it will curb my spending.....

A trip to Half Priced Books on Friday night produced....

1. The Blue Last This is a Richard Jury mystery. I LOVE Jury mysteries, but the series has really suffered with the past few books. Very depressing. Never the less, this is one I haven't read and I found it as a hardback. I've been trying to mooch it, but the only hardbacks listed were large print. Now I know I'm middle aged, but I'm not blind yet. :)

2. The Children of Men by P.D. James. I do love a good Dystopia and couldn't resist it for a buck.

3. Thunderbird Falls by C.E. Murphy. Now I've got book one and two of this urban fantasy series. Kinda sounds like I should read them...

I have also joined the Books off the Shelf Challenge to help with my addiction!

Yes, when I saw Daleks in the trailer for next season, I grooooooaned. Really, Steven Moffat? Really? I had faith in you. :(

I had a Jane Eyre movie binge a few months ago and watched the '83 with Timothy Dalton, the '73 with Sorcha Cusak and Michael Jayston, and the 2006 one. The '83 was great, my favorite, '73 wasn't bad (got better as it went along), and I hated the 2006 version. Too many modern liberties, and all the original dialogue was changed--boooo.

You're doing better than I am with books. I've been reading P.G. Wodehouse books for three weeks and will be 'til I get my project finished and have my brainpower back. :) I started a thread on the Books off the Shelf Challenge in Dec, too, but it's at the very bottom. The group got really chatty really quickly and cluttered up my talk, so I panicked and put it on ignore. When I have some time again I will go back and update probably once or twice a month.

Apparently Every Doctor Must Face Daleks (And Cybermen) but I agree, it's getting old. Haven't they been Completely And Utterly Destroyed five or six times now?

Medellia- You missed some. What about the one with Orson Welles (my personal favorite) and wasn't there one in the seventies with George C. Scott? I have a futuristic Jane Eyre novel around here somewhere, that I started and then misplaced....Jenna Starborn I think it's called.

Daleks and Cybermen. Yuck. I'd rather get attacked by a comfy chair!

#18: I bet next time the Daleks will really be gone. I'm going to bet all my money on it!! And hold my breath!!

Oh, I want to see the Orson Welles one. I just couldn't find it online. I've been considering whether I ought to give Netflix a try. I have a bunch of literary adaptations I want to see & can't find many of them online--and can't afford to buy them all. I did watch a little of the George C. Scott version and wasn't won over. Maybe someday.

Netflix tempts me too...

3. Julie and Julia by Julie Powell
I did this one backwards; watched the film, then read the book. Explored her blog afterwards, much of which is translated word for word into the book. Can't say she's convinced me to eat steak with marrow sauce... There's quite a lot to the book that has nothing to do with the cooking challenge. Mostly Julie saying amusing things about her friends and family. Sort of a Bridget Jones feel. Sort of subtracted from the story though.

I read an article about her the other day-apparently she apprenticed at a butcher shop for her second book.

Reading Update:

Currently, I am 300 pages into Sunshine by Robin McKinley, but to be honest with you, I was 300 pages into it five days ago as well. If you had asked my opinion of this vampire tale when I was only 100 pages in, I would have said "fabulous, fantastic, great world building!", but now 200 hundred pages later and with still another 100 to go..... I want to like this book; I really do, but nothing happens! All characters but the narrator are underdeveloped.

It being a first person account, there aren't nearly enough actual conversations in the book. Rae (i.e. Sunshine) goes on and on about her tight family unit, but then allows no one to help her when she encounters trouble. Her mother is always only in the background and her boyfriend is admired more for his "bouncing" ability at the family bakery/restaurant they both work at, than for anything he might bring to their relationship.

And I realize the main vampire in the story is supposed to be an enigma, but come on...

I am also really, really tired of Rae baking cinnamon rolls...

This is sad, because Beauty, another McKinley novel is one of my favorite fantasy reads.

The good thing is if I manage to finish this sucker, it will contribute to my "books off the shelf" challenge. And then I can mooch it!

Also reading The Blue Last. The more I read of it, the more I think I have read it, don't you hate that feeling? It's one thing to reread something 'cause you loved it, but to reread something because you forgot it...whoops!

AB2. Lightning by Dean Koontz A comfort listen. This was one of my first Koontz novels and still one of my favorites. A german soldier from WWII continously travels to the future via "the lightning road" to interfere (for the better) in a young woman's life.

Yes, yes, oh the shame, I have bought some books this week, which I will list in the next post....

I'm getting really tired of making this kind of post, but we lost one of our cats yesterday. Bloomers, our beloved long haired calico, lost her battle with an unknown disease on Sunday evening. Our best guess is cancer. We'd had her since at least 1996 and were shocked at the swiftness of her demise. I guess that's a good thing; she didn't suffer long. But we didn't know we were saying goodbye until it really was goodbye. We're going to miss her. I can't think of what else to say...

Oh no...I am so sorry for you and your family. Sometimes it does help when it's fast; I lost my cat of twenty years this winter, and it was terribly sudden. In a way, a swift illness sucks, and in another way, it's comforting.
My most heartfelt condolences for your loss.

So sorry, Paula. Hugs. Your kitties must have such wonderful lives with you. You care so much.

Estarriol and Medellia- Thank you for your concern. Sometimes being a cat "mom" is really, really hard. Five cats lost in the last two years, three in the past eight months. All over the age of 12 though, so senior citizens all. The jury is still out whether long illnesses or abrupt departures are harder. Unfortunately, I have experience with both.

With some trepidation and more than a little guilt, we went kitty shopping this week and are in the process of adopting two new charges. "Jitterbug", a black three year old Manx, is already in residence (actually the master bathroom). His age is a guess; he was rescued from a "cat hoarder", a home with 52 cats. We named him Jitterbug because we went to a Big Bad Voodoo Daddy concert last night. :)

Our other new cat is also black, also three years old, but in this case a bombay/mixed breed beastie named Samantha. She has to stay at the Plano Shelter through Tuesday so she can get fixed. She was rescued with her three kittens some time ago, but because she has a deformed eye, she was hard to place. We lost Spelunk, our one-eyed kitty in December and I must admit she reminds me a bit of her. She's a love bug and a wiggle worm and I'm considering renaming her Ricktickitavi because she reminds of a mongoose...but in a good way! Did I mention my husband's nickname is Weasel? Long story.....anyway... I'm supposed to be cleaning house today in preparation of cleaning our carpets so the new cats won't add to what our other cats have already done! But instead I am online..shame,shame.

On the book front, still haven't returned to Sunshine.

4. The Blue Last I'm almost positive I've read this one before . Bit of an up in the air ending.

AB3. Relentless Also by Dean Koontz. Read or listen to too much of author and their style starts to get stale. He had me for most of this story, but it just started to get too ridiculous towards the end.

Currently reading The Horse You Came in On -another Richard Jury mystery. Listening to Percy Jackson in the house -just dipping in and out of all the stories and not trying to listen all the way through and listening to Summerland by Michael Chabon in the car. It's well enough done, but it seems to drag.

On the books off the shelf front, I printed off my Book Mooch list in an attempt to get a handle on the things I need to read. Woooweeee! I'm behind. Maybe I should post some of the titles to give myself a goal.

"Books off the Shelf" Options...

This isn't all of them of course, just some of the books I've mooched from Book Mooch that I'd like to include in the challenge. Feel free to offer opinions if you've read any of them.

1. If Chins Could Kill
2. A Short History of Nearly Everything
3. The Reformed Vampire Support Group
4. Issac's Storm
5. The Stars my Destination
6. Gil's All Fright Diner
7. Gathering Blue
8. Why Girls are Weird
9. The Mercy of Thin Air
10. On Chesil Beach
11. The Girl Who Heard Dragons
12. An Assembly Such as This and its sequels
13. Thirteen Phantasms and Other Stories
14. The Brief History of the Dead
15. The Space Tourist's Handbook
16. I & Claudius:Travels with my Cat
17. The Real James Herriot
18. The Divingbell and the Butterfly
19. Roastbeef's Promise No, this isn't about food! :)
20. The Probable Future
21. The Sunday List of Dreams
22. Abby Cooper, Psychic Eye
23. The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf
24. Welcome to Higby
25. Scratch the Surface
26. Middlesex
27. Uglies and the sequels
28. Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town
29. Good Grief
30. Round Ireland with a Fridge
31. The Company Car
32. Dragon Harper
33. Masterharper of Pern
34. The Accidental Demon Slayer
35. Alphabet Weekends
36. Crystal Sage
37. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
38. Peace
39. First Meetings: In the Enderverse
40. You Suck: A Love Story
41. The Years of Rice and Salt
42. Mr. Darcy Presents His Bride
43. Phoenix Unrisen
44.The Man Who Turned into Himself
45. The Man Who Loved Jane Austen
46. The Wilde Women
47. The Gates of Sleep
48. Einstein: A Life
49. Enchantment
50. The House in the High Wood

Of course, everytime I try to limit myself to a list, I go off it! :)

5. The Horse You Came in On by Martha Grimes
This is not a mystery. This is a tour of Baltimore. But it qualifies for the Books of the Shelf Challenge. Yes! Snoopy dance! Snoopy dance!

6. Why Girls are Weird Chick lit about internet journaling. A woman creates on on-line persona, only to have her internet life intrude into her real one. You knew what was going to happen from page one. When I originally mooched this, I thought it would be quirkier. It's okay, but it doesn't have anything to make it stand out from other blog semi-autobiographical tales. At least it was an easy read and now that I've finally read it, I can mooch it! Woo hoo! Three stars.

Blackout by Connie Willis arrived this week from Amazon. It's time to pre-order the sequel, due out in the Fall. I'm toying with leaving it until the second book is in my hands so I can read them together. Hmmmm....

I'm focusing on easy reads right now so I can get my numbers up early in the year for the Challenges.

Is anyone trying for the 1010 Challenge? I'm curious about it.

AB 4. 100 Cupboards Children's fantasy novel.

Dipping in and out of several novels, finished this one last week though. Started the 1010 Challenge and hoping I haven't bitten off more than I can read!
Enjoyed the fabulous snowfall we got here in Dallas and I've been listening to my roof drip all day. Alas, it didn't last long. Happy Valentine's Day to all.

7. Scratch the Surface by Susan Conant

This is the first and apparently only book in a new series by Conant involving an amateur detective-actually an author who writes about an amateur detective named Prissy LaChatte. The author, Felicity Pride, focuses hard on a sub-genre, lets call it the "cat who" genre of mystery novels. Her created character relies heavily on the help of her two cat companions, Morris and Tabitha.

The catch?

In real life, Felicity doesn't own any cats, has never had a pet of any kind and now someone has deposited both a dead body and a drugged cat on her doorstep. She feels compelled to both care for the cat and solve the murder of the unknown man, not because she has any desire to become either a detective or a pet owner, but because the PR value is so high! The situation could really boost the sales of her books.

Personally, I liked the set up. It's a clever addition to the kitty-litter clogged cat-mystery genre. Felicity's fussy personality creates a lot of humor. There's a lot of room for growth and with this first novel, Conant has designed a solid foundation for the series and set the tone. This one is strickly for laughs.

I hope for other books in the series, but in the meantime, I'm even tempted to read a book from Conant's other series-GASP!-the Dog Lover's Mysteries. Of course, I'll have to wear a trench coat and dark glasses when I do....

"Whenever Ronald and Felicity wanted to eat out together, they confronted one of the many incompatibilities in their friendship. Ronald favored small ethnic restaurants that Felicity dismissed as "third-world holes in the wall". She claimed to be more than happy to eat anywhere else, but habitually rejected suggestions of establishments she considered to be either shamelessly expensive or suspiciously cheap. She also insisted that a restaurant be within a twenty-minute drive of her house and that it offer ample parking, by which she definitely did not mean valet parking, a service that she viewed as legal extortion. She insisted that she loved food and enjoyed almost anything, with such minor exceptions of broccoli, cabbage, hot peppers, fennel, curry, shrimp with the shells left on, and all seeds and nuts, including oils and extracts, especially sesame oil and that detestible almond flavoring that ruined so many potentially delicious chocolate desserts. If pressed, she admitted to disliking bitter flavors. She was none too crazy about rice."

Ab5. Summerland by Michael Chabon

Aside from the mangled eighth tape of this ten tape adventure (yes, I drive a car that has a tape deck! Deal with it! :) ) I've finally listened to this book. At first, I wasn't sure if this story was for me; it's a 500+ page children's book about baseball, or in my case a 10+hour set of tapes. It's a mix of myths with Coyote as the chief mischief maker and fairies known as ferishers. There's werefoxes and wererats, werewolves and ice mice, bigfoot and big liars. Changelings and Clam Island. Not to mention Nubakaduba. And baseball. Lots and lots of baseball.

Can a baseball game be played to determine the destiny of the universes? You betcha. It's the Shadowtails gainst the Hobbledehoys. But watch out. Coyote never plays fair.

It turned out to be a very enjoyable adventure, causing me to drive around and around my block to finish tapes!

8. Dust by Martha Grimes I'm on a Richard Jury kick. This one's the latest. For the past few books, the Jury series has had continuing storylines. Naturally, having not read the book before this one left me confused. My fabulously depressed detective has gained two lovers since I last met him. :) More power to him I suppose.

THIS is my problem. I am sitting here reading blurbs on librarything instead of reading. Period.

Plus, I hab a code in my head.

I am also now seven work hours away from vacation.

And I'm apparently bored enough to write this stupid entry.

I'm getting up and heading to the bookcase right now.

No, seriously, right now.

Maybe I'll listen to an audio book.....

Catching up. Hope Jitterbug & Samantha are settling in nicely! And do get well soon--bummer that you're sick on vacation time.

I'm going to wait & buy Blackout when All Clear is published as well. It would drive me crazy to read the first volume (which I hear ends pretty abruptly) and not be able to proceed directly to the second!

Hey, Medellia. Nice to see you. I stayed in bed for the weekend and finally stuck my toe out of the house today-to go to the library of all places. :) An exciting vacation to be sure. The new cats created chaos in the household. Cappa moved into the cat tree and refused to come out and Oreo moved into the linen closet and yelled obscenities at me each time I passed by. They have just recently rejoined the cat colony. Samantha (new name Adorabelle Dearheart-a Terry Pratchett character) thinks she's queen bee and Jitterbug won't sit still long enough to get his picture taken.

Sounds like sound advice to take with the Willis books. She was in Houston last Friday for a signing, but I was in no shape to make the trip. :(

9. The Five Bells and the Bladebone Another Martha Grimes. Took me ages to read this. I can't read when I'm sick. Very average for the series.

I'm creating a new category-BE-Book Events. Signings, etc. Things associated with books that don't qualify as a "reading".

BE1. Nation by Terry Pratchett On Feb. 16, we went to see the film of the play of the book (whew!) by Terry Pratchett. Good, but with not enough of a punch to be great. Novel production. Bloody loud! Insane ticket prices. It's a great idea though, filming National Theater events and allowing people, who wouldn't otherwise be able to make it to England to see the plays, access.

I will forever associate this book with the parrot now and the actor who played him. KNICKERS!!

Dropped over from the 75 Book Challenge group to star your thread after seeing your comments on bluesalamander's thread. Come visit me over there! And read some of your unread Bujolds!

Ronin-I'd be happy to visit you. Ahh, the dreaded TBR pile....decisions, decisions... It's so much easier to buy a new book!

10. City of Glass Third in the Cassandra Clare Shadowhunter series. Started last March and finished today. Woohooo!! I was really impressed with this series last year. I wasn't as enamored when I picked it up this week.

Too much time had passed and the joy of these books was the thirst to know what happened next RIGHT NOW! Reads like fan fiction, but good fan fiction. The author was forced to decide between foreshadowing the solution for her main characters' big problem or producing it deus ex machina-she went with the former. Took some of the suspense out. Not that you didn't know everything was going to be wrapped up neatly, but.... At least there was a nice fat epilogue, unlike Harry Potter. My favorite character is still Magnus Bane.

She has another series in the same world starting in August and apparently there's now to be a fourth book (in the trilogy no less) to be published in 2011.

In other book news, I bought some books today, but they don't count! They're to be listed on BookMooch. Come on, I'm on vacation; I had to make at least one pilgrimage to the Mothership-Half Price Books in Dallas. I cruised in around 10:30 a.m., chosing to approach the building from the backstreet. Approaching it from the front requires a sling-shot turn off of Central Expressway, shooting onto Northwest Highway and across five lanes of traffic to make a left turn half a block later. :) I don't recommend this during rush hour. No, really. Don't attempt this at home. Greenville Ave is so much safer. Nobody can make that turn without losing a hubcap. Well, maybe James T. Kirk, but nobody else.

I came in through the cafe, ordered my cherry coke and perused the cookies. Passed on the cookies. Never can get up any lust for those chocolate dipped almond looking things. The cake is good, just expensive. Besides, this lousy head cold has taken all the joy out of food. I was going to do a bunch of fancy cooking this week, but so far all I've produced is a pot of mashed potatoes and a crockpot of chili, neither of which I could taste. Each time I open the fridge door, my pot roast sits there and mocks me. Are you going to cook me today? Well, are you? Red meat can be so rude! I never get that kind of lip from chicken thighs.

There are days when you go into a bookstore and everything screams BUY ME!
Today was not one of those days. It took me over an hour to buy $3.25 of stock. Throw in the $1.35 Coke and it was a very frugal trip.

The books: another copy of The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. I bought the first copy in Denton last spring, still haven't read it and I overpaid! THis is supposed to be an excellent time travel novel. Come on people, sell me on it. Tell me why I should be reading it RIGHT NOW! The second book: The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach. A German sci-fi writer who is supposed to be fantastic, at least according to the dj. Any info? And Dead Lines by Greg Bear. I'm a Bear fan from a few years ago. Enjoyed Darwin's Radio, although I didn't care for the sequel.

Okay, I'm off to the bookcases to pick my next victim...

You should read The Anubis Gates RIGHT NOW because we are doing a group read of it, with discussion starting March 1st. Go the the 75 Book Challenge page and find the Steampunk group discussion in the description--that will be it! This is the first of our Steampunk reads, one of the classic books that generated the genre. And it IS a good read.

What exactly is steampunk?

That was everyone's question and why we're exploring it. Basically, from Wikipedia, "the term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used — usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era England — but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date."

So Soulless would qualify. I read that a few months ago. Still not sure I want to tackle Anubis.

11. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane Poor bunny. Love hurts. And I hated not knowing what happened to Lucy the dog. Children's authors should be more reassuring than that!

Well, another book off the TBR mountain! Snoopy dance!

Perhaps I would be getting more books read this week if I weren't watching so many episodes of Northern Exposure. Hmmm....

Just had to drop by to say I really liked the Cassandra Clare books, but you are so right: Don't lose momentum! If you slow down, they definitely lose some of their draw. Nonetheless, I will definitely check out her upcoming book!

Mini Doctor Who audio marathon:

AB6. State of Decay An actual episode read by Tom Baker
AB7. Wetworld A tenth Doctor adventure. The first scene is funny with the
Tardis sinking in a swamp, but after that it goes downhill....tee hee.
AB8. Catch-1782 A Big Finish adventure involving Doc #6 and Mel. Mel's trapped in the past, a victim of her own family's history.

12. The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Harry Potter in college as channeled through the cast of St. Elmo's Fire. Throw in some Narnia and you've got it. Well done, fabulous world building, but I found it next to impossible to care about the main characters. They're obnoxious, self-serving, pompous brats. You're meant to have sympathy for their struggle with ennui; they're forced to realize early on that they can do anything they want....but there's nothing they want.

Just drop them in a burlap sack and drown them in a lake.

Problem solved. :)

Your reaction to The Magicians seems to be the general trend--I'm passing on that until it hits the library.

13. Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez

A werewolf and a vampire walk into a diner.... No, it's not the start of a joke, but it is the start to this comic novel. Duke and Earl, werewolf and vampire respectively, are out to save the universe and the diner from Tammy the teenaged-witch, her cult of one and her goal to release the "old Gods" upon the world. Along the way Earl manages to find love and acquire a ghost dog.

This story is full of great comic touches, from the magical tongue of the ancients(i.e. Pig Latin) to an extremely rude Magic 8 Ball to the local law enforcement officer-Sherrif Marshall Kopp. :) At the center however, is the friendship between Duke and Earl, best buds through thick and thin. Very enjoyable.

@46...you nailed it! It's definitely an overly emotional, ennui-ridden read. I actually liked The Magicians until the last chapter or two, though. I suspect that, like The Historian, I am going to be the only person who enjoyed it!

OMG. I'm dead. I haven't read any of those.

Est- You liked The Historian ? The longest, dullest vampire novel ever? :) Well, I liked The Magicians until they graduated too. Loved the bit about the South Pole.

Elay-Don't feel bad. The amount of books I haven't read scares me. There's no way to keep up with these people! Just read what you like.

Some books to add to the TBR pile after a trip to one of the local Goodwills.

In a Perfect World
Night
The Thief
A Version of the Truth

More audio books....

AB9. Memory Lane Big Finish An eighth Doctor (Doctor Who that is) adventure. Charley and C'rizz along for the ride. This one's pretty clever and has a nice sense of humor. What's the scariest thing in the bakery? Attila the Bun! :) Okay, maybe you had to be there.... Lots of fun trapped in an endless housing addition with a sinister ice cream truck and time out to play with Legos.

AB10. The Cat Who Went Underground Talking about Lilian Jackson Braun on another thread gave me a hankering for the audios. I'll listen to anything George Guildal(sp?) narrates! He has one of those bell tone voices, like old radio announcers.

AB11. The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts
AB12. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Loved, loved, loved this.

Working overnight this month. Yawn... Can't seem to get all the touchstones to work.

14. The Film Club by David Gilmour Canadian author David Gilmour agrees to let his fifteen-year-old son drop out of school on one condition: Jesse must sit down and watch films with his father three times a week. Part memoir, part movie trivia, part intro to French New Wave, this book was an entertaining easy read. It really hasn't any great insights, except to say if you stay in touch with your kids, your kids will come to you with their troubles. It's obvious the author loves his son and the three years of the "Film Club" created a bond between them that wouldn't otherwise exist. Jesse is now in college.

15. Inside Job by Connie Willis What happens when a medium starts to channel a spirit who in real life was a debunker of psychics? This is a one joke novella. It's amusing, but there's usually more meat to a Connie Willis story.
I would like to learn more about H.L. Mencken. Inherit the Wind was way back in my high school days.

16. The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede Sobbed and sniffled through this one. True stories of the passengers from trans-Atlantic flights who were forced to land in Newfoundland on 9/11 following the close of American airspace. The small town of Gander, as well as the small towns surrounding it, went out of their to make their 6,000+ unexpected guests welcome during a tragic time. Apparently there was a documentary aired during the Winter Olympics about this event, although I didn't personally see it. A friend of mine mentioned it when he saw I was reading the book. It's funny, my friend used to be a ballet dancer in Canada and had visted Gander more than once. It's truely a small world.

17. Skullduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy A fairly violent but entertaining tale of a skelton detective (yep, you read that right), an Irish skeleton no less, and his new sidekick Valkyrie Cain. They kick butt and take names, bantering wildly along the way. It reads like a television script, which, I suppose, is the point. First in a series.

Lots of more irons in the fire, re-reading Watership Down and keep meaning to pick up Peeps. I should finish Sunshine, although I loathe the idea. I tried to read Roastbeef's Promise, but was put off by the author's style. I made the mistake of mooching the book believing it was a non-fiction account of a young man scattering his adopted father's ashes throughout the 48 land-locked States, but it turns out to be a first novel by a joke writer for David Letterman. There's nothing wrong with being a joke writer, but the rhythm is all wrong for a novel, even a comic one. A punch line in every paragraph gets annoying. :( Give it a rest pal. You're trying too hard to be funny. Let the situation deliver the laughs.

Also working on Leave me alone I'm reading. This book reviewer for NPR's Fresh Air is rather wordy considering her reviews are only allowed to be 4 minutes long on the radio. Still, I love books about books. I also seem to be in a non-fiction mood so I'm going where the Book Winds take me.

What do all the books I've read have in common? They're library books! So much for working on my TBR pile!

18. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Another library book. Very enjoyable.

Finally, another TBR book! Woo!

19. Homer's Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale, Or How I Learned About Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat by Gwen Cooper

Having had my share of disabled pets over the years, I'm well aware of the joy they can produce in your life. Animals are quite capable of adapting to all sorts of tramas; their only restrictions are the ones you place on them. Reading about Homer's adventures reminded me a lot of some of my lost brood. Gone but not forgotten. I miss them; I really do. They made a large mark on my life. I currently have eight cats, which to non-cat people I know sounds insane, but to me the house feels only half full!

This book also gave me yet another perspective of 9/11: the pets'!

And as a last note, if the only trouble Gwen has ever had with Homer was one illness that lasted less than a week, she should count herself extremely fortunate. My husband and I have put in our time with administering forced feedings, pills, syrups and other magic elixirs, sitting with cats hooked up to IVs so they could receive life saving water treatments, buying every cat food on the market trying to find one Mr. Bat wasn't allergic to (we think we finally found one-YES!!) and for one mememorable four month period, tube feeding Taliesin the Wonder Kitty twice a day until he decided to eat on his own again.

Also the vet (the one she did not name) who insisted she stay in the other room while he examined Homer was a moron. I've never heard of a vet doing that. She had every right to complain.

Cheers to Homer the blind kitty! Long may you catch flies!

20. Flight Another Sherman Alexie And another TBR! Yippee! This was interesting. It made you think; it asked a lot of questions, but I'm not sure it answered any. Maybe that's the point. Violence, regardless the circumstances, is not the solution. Everyone is guilty. Everyone shares the wrongness of their acts. Not sure any of this makes sense, since I'm writing it at three in the morning!

The ending was also way too easy.

21. New Moon One of those books you feel you have to read. I still dislike Bella. I'm depressed! He dumped me! Waa! Waa! Waa! I tried listening to the audio book at least two years ago and couldn't get past her angst. Okay, if she's depressed, she's depressed, but does she have to talk about the hole in her chest for 500+ pages?

Also, I've lost my original impressions of these characters. Now all I see are film actors in my head when I read.

AB13. The Cat Who Turned on and off

Reading your post about Homer urged me to put the book closer to the top of the pile. I am a dog person, but like cats (other peoples' cats) and really all animals.

Other peoples' cats, huh? :)

22. Making Rounds with Oscar My Feb. Early Reviewer Book!

Being a "cat person", slave to eight and master to none, this book was a perfect fit for me from the Early Reviewers program. I was very interested in reading a book about a cat with an almost supernatural gift to sense the impending deaths of Alzheimer's patients.

As extraordinary as Oscar is, and there are several testaments about his talent, he's just part of this story. The true point of the book is to reveal the heartbreaking experience of losing someone you love to dementia--to have to say goodbye to the person they were and to learn to love the person they become. There's no cure. There's very few treatments. There's no turning back. To paraphrase the book--While they're robbed of their memories, you're left only with yours.

The book is very emotional, filled with experiences from the author's medical practice, and I certainly shed a few tears. I feel it was good introduction to the disease, trying to take some of the mystery out of the process and emphasizing you're not alone. Whether you're a caregiver or a patient, it's okay to seek help.

Is Oscar a wunderkind? In my own personal experience, none of my cats have ever reacted in this way. At least, not to a human. However, I am convinced they are quite capable of predicting their own deaths. And they can feel grief. So, anything is possible.

Besides, it really isn't important whether Oscar is psychic or just has a sensitive enough sniffer to smell dying cells. What's important is dementia patients are still capable of enjoying interactions with animals. And the animals seem to help the families cope as well. So it's a "win-win" situation to have them in nursing homes.

In the end, given a choice between an ICU visit and the harsh reality of end stage treatments, or having a cat sit vigil at my bedside while I die, I agree with the author-I'm picking the cat.

**I admit my review is a bit biased. I'm a cat person. I can't help it. There were some odd word choices, some spelling errors and the scenes between the doctor and the head nurse were a bit amatuerish. Three times the doctor "rolled his eyes". Who rolls their eyes outside of fan fiction? Still, dementia is an important topic and I'm glad I read it. Here's to you Oscar. I'm glad you're on the job.**

AB14. The Doomwood Curse Sixth Doctor/Charley adventure. A good laugh.

23. Peeps Finally got around to reading this library book after renewing it twice! :) Very enjoyable young adult "vampire" novel with a definite twist on the subject. A satisfying read.

24. Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale The Final Chapter This is a fantastic look backstage at the creation of Season Four of the new Who and the series of TV Specials that spanned the year between Doctor Ten (David Tennant) and Doctor Eleven (Matt Smith). It's told completely in a series of emails between the head writer of DW-Russell T. Davies and a writer for Doctor Who Magazine, Ben Cook. I found so many things I could relate to as Davies described the writing process: the procrastination, the late night work schedule, the characters talking in his head, the massive span of the Maybe. There's lots of eureka moments revealed: so many so THAT's why they told it that way epiphanies! It's amazing how many things now accepted as the only way to tell a story were made up at the last minute to fill a hole in the original plot!

Being the head writer, I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised by how much control Davies had over the other writers product, but my heart still went out to them when he ripped apart their scripts. One writer lost their story after over a year of development, although, now that I've seen previews for Season Five, it looks like it found a new home with the new Doctor. Russell Davies is above all things-a fanboy-and he insists he did it all for the good of the show. Argue all you like about his writing style and choices, but he did make DW a success and get it back on the air after a long absence. His trivia knowledge alone makes it obvious he was a great choice for head writer. The Doctor has been very important to him for a very long time.

It's a very frank memoir and reveals so much about the control of the DW empire and Davies himself, not to mention all those trips to Tesco each morning! Thank you for letting us inside your head. And good luck in LA!

One negative point: Having bought the extended version with two years of emails as opposed to one, the paper binding isn't really up to the task of 700+pages. I'd like to refer back to the book as I rewatch Season Four, but I'm afraid I'll break the spine! Perhaps a hardback edition for the American side of the pond would be in order, if it doesn't already exist.

25. Blood Music

This is definitely a "whoa" book. Hard sf ages quickly and there are a few visable cracks in this 1985 novel ( video screens and floppy disks to mention a couple), but the ideas behind the story-science gone awry, observation as a force of evolution, etc. etc...do what all good science fiction books should do-THEY MAKE YOU THINK! I really enjoyed it.

Granted, the characters get a bit of a bum rush, some storylines just deadend, but the concepts keep the story afloat. I can definitely see the beginnings of Darwin's Radio in this book.

26. Hatter M The Looking Glass Wars Vol. 1

Graphic novel. Not a retelling, the adventures of Hatter M on Earth. I wasn't impressed.

27. Masterharper of Pern

We lost another one of our cats on April 23rd. Flame was a beautiful orange tabby, over 14 years old. While he had several medical problems, his death still came as a shock. It always does. We loved you Flame. We loved you lots. You will be missed.

AB15. The Know-It-All One Man's Humble Quest to Become to Smartest Person in the World

He isn't as funny as he thinks he is, but it was still an interesting listen.

28. Queen of the Road The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 Miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband, and a Bus with a Will of Its Own She's also not as funny as she thinks she is.

29. The Lost City of Z This book certainly spiked my interest in the Amazon.

So sorry to hear about Flame.

Sorry to hear about Flame. Losing a family pet is hard.
--TJ

OMG. That's terrible. I'm sorry. I'm sure he's happy and loving you from above. I'll pray for him.

Thanks for bumping this up, eley. I'm also sorry to hear about Flame, Paula. 14 years is a long life. You must do a very good job of taking care of your kitties.

Thanks for your concern. I appreciate your condolences.

Unfortunately, it's been a really hard year in this cat dominated household. We had to make the right decision yesterday for Mr. Bat, Flame's brother. After a long and nasty battle with IBD and a seriously crappy head cold at the end of April, Mr. Bat decided to throw us into a tailspin by developing kidney disease.

This is commonly treated by a filler heavy diet since protein is so hard on kidneys--but Mr. Bat was allergic to wheat and could only tolerate protein-- canned rabbit food (or Bunny in a Blender as we came to call it) and we suddenly were out of options. It was a case of deciding what would kill him first. Not fair.

He was ready to go. Fourteen years is a long life for a cat. We keep coming up against this barrier and losing. There are now only three senior citizens left in the house....Banzai is 16, Cappa (the last of the Mr. Bat's brothers)14+, and Oreo is 13.

Beautiful, mischevious, boisterous Bat, a black cat with one white whisker. He was a bully and a brat and the apple of his mother's eye. I'll miss him waking me up at 3 a.m. to be fed, his sticking his nose in my ear, his raspy meow, his constant bids for attention. I loved that darned cat. Knowing we made the right choice does not help at this point. Acceptance comes later. I've had an unfortunate amount of practice at this.

It's hard when you have a litter--they all seem to develop health problems at the same time. I've lost 2 this year and am likely to lose a third, so I have an idea how you feel. They are all such individual characters, they leave a huge gap in our lives.

Thanks Ronin-you know exactly how it feels.

I find myself posting only one kind of comment this year-the crummy kind. We lost our 16+year old cat Banzai today. He's the kitty on my Profile page should anyone care to look. He was another beautiful cat with a heart of gold and a cold nose to match. I liked to call him "Handsome Kitty" and "Banz" for short.

I'm just a bit angry with my vet about this one and I'm not it the mood yet to be forgiving. Let's just say in the end his fatal ailment was FIP and leave it at that. How he got to that point is another story for another day once I cool down.

There needs to be a serious amount of research put into FIP. A disease with no defining test, no cure and an iffy vaccine. How do you fight a phantom?

I'm so sorry to hear about Banzai! He was a handsome fellow. They have such wonderful personalities.

After $700 worth of care and dental surgery, my third seems to have stabilized and is terrorizing the youngsters again. But I miss Fritz and Honey, and Sugar misses her sister a lot too. She spends lots of time as close to me as she can get.

*hugs* Sorry to hear about Banzai. He was beautiful. I've always loved that profile pic.

Been thinking about you the past couple of weeks, actually. Last week in the evening we found a cat wandering our floor of the apartment building. Took it in for several hours with the help & supplies of another neighbor who owns cats. Turned out to belong to our next door neighbor, so she was returned to them full and sleepy. Since then, I've been thinking seriously about adopting a cat or two. And since you're the kittiest kitty person in my life, you've been on my mind. :)

Thank you for your thoughts. Taking the kitty plunge is always a good thing! The household is now holding steady at six: Cappa (15 yrs and a grumpy blonde), Oreo (13+ yrs)- Cappa and Oreo are the last of the cats we moved to Texas with ten years ago. Crazy! We had 14 when we moved. Mikey arrived in 2007 and Jitterbug and Ms. Adorabelle Dearheart (both roughly 4 years old) arrived last Feb. Our newest is Sherpa, who arrived at the end of April, all of four weeks old. Sherpa is a terror to the older cats and smart as a whip. She plays fetch!

All right, I haven't been on here in months. Bear with me while I try to remember what I've read.

30. The History of Love A TBR!
31. In a Perfect World A TBR!
32. The Handmaid's Tale (I always expected there to be more to this than there is )A TBR!
33. About my Sisters library
34. The Big Over Easy AB library/TBR
35. The Fourth Bear AB library
36. Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron library
I'm still not a big fan of Thursday Next, although I listened to part of The Well of Plots, the Nursery Crime novels are just plain silly, but I really liked Shades.
37. Doppelgangster This series continues to be dumb, but I like the cop. Library
38. The Marriage of Sticks Jonathan Carroll being strange. :) Reread
39. The Gate of Ivory by Doris Egan Beginning of classic SF/Fantasy tale. Currently waiting for the second novel to arrive since I was only able to find 1 and 3 of the series. Poo!
40. The Dead and the Gone TBR
41. Monster by A. Lee Martinez
42. Divine Misfortune by A. Lee Martinez The God of Luck is a raccoon and wants to sleep on your couch. Need I say more?
43. Practical Demonkeeping It's obvious this is the first of Christopher Moore's novels, but it's still funny.

I was in a bit of a dystopia funk after Mr. Bat died in June.

There's more most likely....

I tried and abandoned many things, as usual. A biography of Einstein, a murder mystery with a south Texas flair (bleah!), 16338::The City of Fallen Angels-boring true crime novel, 4979986::The Hunger Games-it's around here somewhere, 3930263::Geography of Bliss-due back at the library dang it! 6497617::Slow Death by Rubber Duck-great title, but also due back at the library before I got to it!

I have a list of books on my library site that I've read, but the Allen Library is currently trying to disconnect itself from the Plano Library System and half the functions don't work, including that one!

What's with the Touchstones? Is this site having a mental breakdown too?

44. Old Twentieth by Joe Haldeman
45. There's a Slight Chance I Might Be Going to Hell AB
46. Changeless Sequel to Souless. Eh. Not much happening. This is a book to set up the next book I think. I just hope there's more to the next in the series.
47. Bet Me by Jennifer Cruise YES! A nice, fat, contemp. romance. And I'm counting it! It got good reviews at the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books website. I agree. But if you're looking for a sensual novel, look elsewhere.

Also tried Keeping it Real (yuck), Father Knows Less or Can I Cook My Sister-the title was the best part, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close-just couldn't get into it, the jumps in storylines were jarring and Cemetery Dance -an Agent Pendergast adventure that was just way over the top. I was listening to the AB and after several CDs of zombie noises, I bowed out. Too obvious.

Between your completions and your trials, it looks like you've been keeping busy!

48. Clockwork Angel The "New" Cassandra Clare series doesn't have much "New" in it. Shame.

59. The Thief of Always I read this for the first time about a decade ago. Feels more kiddie to me now.