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Because I am in heavy book reading mode this month I thought I’d participate in the Teaser Tuesday meme over at MizB’s Should Be Reading . It’s a simple premise, open the book you are reading at random & share two teaser sentences, no spoilers. I’m currently re-reading yet another Regency romance, this one by modern author Stephanie Laurens (because I felt like exploring the fine line between masterful man & manipulative bastard. Seriously, at the end of this month I’ll have enough material for a master’s thesis on What Makes a Romantic Hero Romantic – Changing Perceptions Through Time. Now if I can only find the right English Lit program) This one is the 3rd in her 8 volume Bastion Club series, called A Lady of His Own. My random sentences: “She did her best to provide the right foil for Charles’ machinations; it didn’t truly matter which of them Nicholas decided to trust. If he ever did; despite Charles’ best efforts, Nicholas remained tight lipped.” pg 248

I’ve gotten wrapped up in books by two different authors. One is Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, which I am busily rereading before the new one comes out tomorrow. I feel obligated to reread entire series when a new book in it comes out. This is quite an undertaking with authors like Evanovich because the new book is #17 & that does not include the 4 between the numbers books. The problem with rereading 16 books in a series in a row is that things that are only mildly annoying in a single book get quite annoying in bulk. There really is no good reason for Stephanie to end up covered in food quite so often if you ask me. It gets old fast. And that bit with the hot dog costume at the end of #15 serves no purpose at all, it’s not even that funny. Plus continuity errors are far more striking. Quick! What is the name of Morelli’s aunt? Depends on which book you read. Mostly it’s Rose, but it’s also Ruth & Rosa. What’s the name of Stephanie’s parents’ neighbor?...

This won’t be a fancily laid out as previous ones because most of the books come from a single series. I bought second hand & read all the books in Sabrina Jeffries’ School for Heiresses series – 6 books, set in Regency England, including the amusingly titled last book, Wed Him Before You Bed Him , which 9 out of 10 women in Regency romances utterly fail to do, including the star of the aforementioned book. Don’t read 6 Regency romances in a row. It’s not a good idea. Especially if you are a married, 40 something woman with a cynical outlook & just starting a new sleep regimen. Do you know the 3 things about Regency romances that are the most jarring to me? 1. Mutual orgasms EVERY SINGLE TIME! I mean seriously. Every single time? I’m all for suspending disbelief to further the narrative in fiction but come on. Sometimes someone goes early or is left hanging if you know what I mean. 2. No morning breath ever. Given the level of dental hygiene at the time this has to be...

So another week on the sleep regimen has passed & really, nothing too exciting to report. Mostly I fall asleep around 1am & wake up around 6. So, it seems the ‘staying asleep’ issue is improving & the ‘falling asleep’ issue still needs work. And I have cheated on the no chocolate thing a few times to the tune of 1 Reese’s Cup and 2 dozen M&Ms with no real effect one way or the other. End of story. Now on to an even better story, which is the reason for the ‘mostly’ in the opening paragraph. I checked out two books from the library on Monday & spent Monday-Wed consumed with reading them, so much so I totally lost track of time & forgot to meet the boys’ bus Tuesday & found out just what happens when no parent is waiting… They call the house & inform you the bus is at the end of the driveway & would you please go get your kids. All that angst last year about CPS… The books I read were by Connie Willis – Blackout & All Clear . They ar...

I read 14 books in April. 4 on the Kindle and 10 dead tree books from the library. On the Kindle I read The Folklore of Discworld – which tries to be a comprehensive collection of folklore & myth on Discworld but mostly draws parallels between things on Earth and things on the Disc. Nothing wrong with that in general, but I was hoping for more Discworld myth & stories than Earth stuff. I could make nearly all those connections myself. I enjoyed it but felt it wasn’t living up to what it could have been. Anthem for Doomed Youth: A Daisy Dalrymple Mystery (Daisy Dalrymple Mysteries) – I love this series but this book was a bit of a disappointment. It was well written, the familiar characters were there (thoug...

I finished 11 new books in March, plus some re-reads. I checked out & finished from the library Third Degree (Murder 101 Mysteries) This is the 5th book in this series with Professor Alison Bergeron as sleuth. It also features her NYPD detective boyfriend. I enjoyed it, not quite as much as the others though. I think I’m having the sustainability issue I often have with modern mysteries. There are really only so many ways a professor at a small college can keep coming into contact with dead bodies. Even in NYC. And after the first couple of them I really start to wonder why the cops just don’t arrest her outright at the scene. No way someone stumbles across 5 bodies (one an ex husband) in what appears to be a less than 12 month period, unless they are somehow involved in the deaths. I think this book seemed a bit of a stretch for me. The reason for seeing the body is clear enough, could happen to ...

And I finally found time to read it. I’m at the part where Goliath Corp has taken over Spec Ops and hauled the fictional Thursday in on spurious charges of crimes against humanity, while she was in the middle being arrested along with an important cheese smuggler, not realizing she isn’t the real Thursday & there will be no actual blog post today. Obviously. It’s killing me being away from the narrative just to type this up. If you have never read any of Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next books you have no clue what the hell I am babbling about. If you have read them but not this one yet you are thinking “Goliath took over SpecOps? How in the hell did that happen?” And I’m right there with you, so I’m getting back to the book to find out, though I suspect there will be no adequate backstory to this plot twist. Book World backstories are abundant but real world backstory is seriously lacking this time around. Not a criticism. Just an observation. If you haven’t read Ffo...

I’d set a goal for myself this year of reading 100 new books. I had the same goal last year and missed it by 2. Well, not this year. I finished my 100th book, Buried Bones by Carolyn Haines, on my Kindle, on Sept 21. I didn’t even notice it was my 100th new book when I entered into my Library Thing database .  It wasn’t until yesterday, when I finished Scandal on Rincon Hi ll & entered it that I checked to see where I was on the challenge and discovered I was at 103 new books read this year. That total does not include new audiobooks, but there was only one of those. I have a tendency to listen to books I have already read because the time between listens can be anywhere from 2 hours to 2 months & if I really get into a new audiobook I’m highly likely to check it out of the library and just read the thing rather than sit through having it read to me. I’m impatient that way. And Iike being able to flip back & check things. And yes, sometimes flip ahead ...

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde First let me say, Fforde is one of my very very favorite authors, right up there with Douglas Adams, my very favorite author. Usually I rush right out & buy his newest book as soon as pre-order is available, but I held off on this one. For nearly a year. I’d heard this one was rather dark & dystopian and those are two words guaranteed to keep me from picking up a book. Dark I can’t do. I have insomnia. Dark stuff only makes it worse. Dystopian is always so incredibly depressing. Happy, flying car futures rarely end up in books these days (And really if everyone is happy what would be plot be? Unhappy people planning to destroy the happiness? I suppose that works but I guess people planning to destroy the unhappiness sells better). It’s always bleakness & misery as far as the eye can see, which, again, insomnia…worse…so I avoid it. But it is Jasper Fforde so there will be wittiness and humor right? Probably? I couldn’t bring myse...

I spent June absorbed in a large number of chick lit mysteries. (Thank you county library system. If you love to read please consider donating the cost of a new book to your local library, their budgets are being slashed across the country this year & every little bit helps keep their programs active) Chick lit mysteries, with their modern settings, are not my usual taste in books. I like historic mysteries with lots of period details and witty dialog. Chick lit usually manages the dialog but I find the period details annoying because of the rapid pace of technology. For instance, in two different series’ the characters were suddenly overcome with fascination at these things called ‘digital cameras’. Both books were published in 2005. By 2005 I was on my SECOND digital camera. I’m hardly on the cutting edge of technology either. So the gasping awe shown by both sets of characters upon seeing a digital camera was disconcerting and threw off the pace of the book. Then the...

I’ve been working my way through the pile from the library steadily. The first book I finished was Stuff White People Like: A Definitive Guide to the Unique Taste of Millions I’ve followed the blog since early on so most of it was not new to me. I find it very funny. However it did confirm that, as I have long suspected, I am not the right kind of white people. The right kind of white people are liberal urban dwellers who shop at IKEA and Whole Foods and love the outdoors.  I am a moderate rural dweller who shops at Wal Mart and is outdoorsy in that I like getting drunk on patios. But I know the right kind of white people, so I find the book very funny. Then I read Secrets of the Tudor Court: Between Two Queens Which is a fictional account of the life of Anne Basset, who was a real person and a maid of honor to Henry VIII’s 3rd through 6th wives and may have had a brief affair with him. Surviving documents show...

I read a great deal. I read 98 new books last year. 85% of them came from the library. I’m in my local library about once a week or so. Sometimes I slowly browse the new titles, sometimes I head for specific subjects. Sometimes I just head to the circulation desk to pick up some books I put on hold through their website Sometimes I use their wicked fast internet connection to upload a couple months worth of photos to Smug Mug. Yesterday I ran in looking for Photoshop CS3 for Dummies. I was just going to get the one book & then head out. But in the same aisle my eye was caught by “Stuff White People Like” which I had been meaning to see if the library had for some time now. And then I saw “A Treasure of Deceptions” by an author whose other books I had read & enjoyed. Oh and there is “The Illustrated History of Human Migrations” I bet Havoc would like that. I ran in to get one book and am now holding 4. The most direct path to the circulation desk was through fiction...

I have a rather large stack of books on my nightstand, the photo of which I can’t find right now and the camera battery is currently charging, so let me just say it is currently 12 books tall and doesn’t include the 3 I read over the weekend. The book that gets the most attention though is Mayhem’s newest favorite book He was smitten the moment he laid eyes on it. “Are you gonna make vees fings for me Mama? All of dem?” Then he went through the book and told me what he wanted made first, then second, then third, while Havoc shouted from behind me “I want the Ninja! Will you make me the ninja?” over and over. I love the little guys in this book! they are so fun to make. Naturally I went with the Monty Python jokes first Honey it’s a little man from the village   He’s come about the reaping!   None shall pass! Come back you cowards! I’ll bite your kneecaps off!   How do you know she’s a witch   She looks like one! (the last one i...

Today I went through the outlying bookshelves – the ones in the bedroom and bathrooms – and purged them. Then I did some final rearrangements of the books and shelved the new books. I now have the equivalent of about two and half shelves of open space and shelves that were packed 2 deep are now single packed for the most part, allowing for some grouping issues (I have all the Agatha Christies piled on top of one another on one shelf for instance and all the books relating to Tudor England are crammed into another shelf as well).  I’m now going through the LibraryThing booklist & matching up books. I now see I should shelve things in an alphabetical rather than an aesthetically pleasing manner. It makes tracking them easier These are the final purge totals. (I found a stash of books from the last purge on the bottom shelf of a bookcase blocked by my sewing machine cart) History 59 Esoteric 38 Fantasy 6...

The romance books are on the shelves in the far corner from the door, behind the pile of random boxes and collapsible chairs. They are the last group bunched together on the shelves and the second to last group I have to purge. After this is just general fiction and general fiction is scattered all over the place. Romance is a denial category for me. For some reason I always think I have fewer romance novels than I do. I had every intention of claiming this subject had suffered heavily in the previous purge, along with fantasy & science fiction. But the numbers just don’t bear that out. There are 197 books tagged with ‘romance’ in my Library Thing library. 189 are on the booklist. I stopped keeping up the booklist in 2005, so I have only read 8 new romance novels in about 4 years. That probably accounts for why I think I have so few. Romance novels are just a drop in the book bucket. I counted the romance books on my shelves. There are 153. minus the 8 new ones….145 subtrac...

My largest genre by far.  There are 592 books tagged ‘mystery’ in my Library Thing library. The next closest number is ‘history’ with 246. According to my booklist, I had 398 mystery books in my house prior to my last purge. I got rid of about half of them, but because it is my favorite genre I’ve probably added about a third of that number back. Giving me roughly 260 mystery novels currently. I read historic mysteries, my favorite settings being until recently, the medieval/Tudor era and the early Roman Empire. Lately the 1920’s have been growing on me, with 12 of the 15 books I recently purchased being set in that era (the Daisy Dalrymple series and the Phryne Fisher series). I approached these shelves with some dread because the vast majority of these books are old friends. All the Agatha Christies, gathered from used bookstores around Morgantown while I was in college. I remember packing them up every May (more of them every year) and carting them to yet another apartment, ...