Morning!

It has taken me ages to log in this morning. I think there is something wrong with my modem, but eventually I have managed to get in.

Since I last updated I have slept for about 8 hours, been to the shops, done some dishes and some washing, and now I am having some breakfast.

Reading wise I finished Tales from Outer Suburbia, which I really loved. Shaun Tan is an amazing artist/storyteller. Now I am about 40 pages into The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner.

I only have an hour or so before I need to start getting ready to go out, so I am planning on reading for at least some of that time, and then when we get home I will be having a concentrated reading time. That's the plan anyway.


Running totals

Minutes read: Approximately 115

Pages read during official readathon: Approximately 280

Pages read so far this weekend: Approx 580

Books completed during official readathon: 2

Books completed so far this weekend: 3

And I'm off ...

This time to bed!

I have just finished reading Coraline by Neil Gaiman which was deliciously fun to read, and I am taking Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan to bed with me. Not sure how much I will read, but I might get at least a few pages read.



Running totals

Minutes read: Approximately 75

Pages read during official readathon: Approximately 200

Pages read so far this weekend: Approx 500

Books completed during official readathon: 1

Books completed so far this weekend: 2

Good night everybody!

And we're off!

Actually it's a bit of a stuttering start for me! Because it is 10pm on Saturday night and I have been up since 6am, I am not going to get a lot of reading done tonight, and then I will have a few hours out tomorrow because of a prior commitment, but I should be able to read for a few hours in the morning and then again tomorrow afternoon. That's the plan anyway.

I did read for a couple of hours this afternoon. It probably won't count officially for the read-a-thon, but I really wanted to use the whole weekend to get some books off my TBR list. This afternoon I read about 280 pages and finished reading the ARC I had of Don't Bargain with the Devil, which is the new book in the School for Heiresses series that is due out soon by Sabrina Jeffries.

I started reading again about 45 minutes ago and got through about 45 pages of The Swan Maiden by Jules Watson, and I have read the first couple of chapters of Coraline by Neil Gaiman. That is probably the book I will concentrate on now before I go to bed!

To everyone just starting and reading through our night time - good luck and have fun!

More Susan Boyle!

Susan Boyle seems to have taken the whole world by storm!

Here's a link to a recording of Cry Me a River that she did 10 years ago for a charity recording!

Absolutely beautiful to listen to.

Editted to add a Youtube Video - the link and the video are of the same song

D'Oh!

So it turns out that 8am Saturday on New York time is not 10pm Friday night our time - it is in fact 10pm on Saturday night! I actually knew this but was obviuosly having a moment when I was thinking things through!

This actually changes things quite a lot for me in terms of participating in read-a-thon because my day on Saturday is pretty clear, but Sunday I have a bit on, so while I will read as much as I can on Sunday, I am also going to try to take advantage of my clear schedule on Saturday and do some of my reading today. I am not sure how we are going to go though. I already woke up tired which isn't really conducive to reading.

My Read-a-thon books

I thought that I had my list of books for the read-a-thon set in my mind, but then I went to the library to pick up several more books, and I am now having to rethink! This list is therefore my list of possible reads, and may yet be subject to change:

Emma by Kaoru Mori
Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon
Smooth Talking Stranger by Lisa Kleypas
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
The Dreaming Place by Charles de Lint

I know a lot of people are suggesting reading shorter books and so it may be a bit of a surprise to see Cross Stitch in the list, but I know that Diana Gabaldon's books are books that I find very difficult to put down and where I get lost in the words quite easily. Sounds like a perfect book for long term reading spells to me!

I've hit the wall ...

Reading and blogging wise at least. It isn't often that I find myself not reading, or blogging, but at this point in time I haven't finished a book in over a week! I have at least at 3 posts that I need to write, about half a dozen posts that are half written and if I just finished writing would have new content and I am hundreds of feeds behind in Bloglines.

Part of the reason that there was no Teaser Tuesday post this week was because I am still reading the same books as last week. I guess I don't have far to go with Silver Phoenix, but I don't think I am even a third of the way through The Terror, despite the fact that I am really enjoying it. My problem is that the book was due back at the library a couple of days ago, so now I need to decide whether to keep it and hope I finish it soon (no one else has it requested), or to take it back and then try and reborrow it straight away.

I will however do a Library Loot post! I took a whole heap of books back unread this week, and only picked two up:

The Wedding Officer by Anthony Cappella - Thanks to a mention from Rosario

Away with the Fairies by Kerry Greenwood - I did have this out on audio book but had to return it because I bought a new MP3 player but can't figure out how to get to the stuff that I save on it!

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner - Thanks to a rave review from Jenclair at A Garden carried in the Pocket.

What is the best thing to do when you are not reading. Buy books? Or perhaps contemplate signing up for the read-a-thon that is happening this weekend? I know straight up that I won't be completing the whole 24 hours, but I am definitely thinking about doing as much as I can. I have been thinking about what books I might want to read. I am pretty sure though that my eyes aren't going to cope particularly well with long stretches of reading - not until I go and get my eyes checked and new glasses at least! The other thing is that it officially starts at 10pm on Friday night here, but I am going out, so I will probably start on Saturday morning, and try and fit in stuff like house cleaning etc to give my eyes a break!

Who else is doing the read-a-thon?

Incredible Voice

Part of this clip was shown on one of our morning TV shows today, and then I saw it posted on 1morechapter.com. By the end of it, I was moved to tears - an absolutely amazing voice!

A close shave

I have mentioned before about the DVD player that I own that is obsessed with Richard Armitage. I bought it early last year and the first DVD I played in it was North and South (over and over and over), and then I followed up with repeated viewings of The Vicar of Dibley Christmas special (where Dawn French marries Richard Armitage) and the first season of Robin Hood (featuring Richard Armitage as the dastardly Guy of Gisborne). I never had any issues with the DVD player until I tried to play a DVD where there was no Richard Armitage. After another couple of months of trying to watch other DVDs, the player gave up the ghost completely and wouldn't even play RA movies.

There was nearly a very scary outcome yesterday - a very close shave!

A couple of times a year we have a hard rubbish collection where you put out all those items that you no longer want but that are too big to put in your normal bin. As I was looking around thinking about what I should get rid of, I spied the DVD player and thought that there was no reason to keep that anymore, so gave my son instructions to take it out and throw it out on the pile. He was just walking out when I said to him that we should just check to make sure that there was no disc in there. He gave it a shake, and yes there was definitely a disc in there. Only problem was that it was no longer on the disc tray. It was now rolling around inside the housing. So in order to retrieve the disc, I had to dismantle the whole case. And what do you think the disc was? Yep, a Richard Armitage disc!

I had mentioned on someone's blog a few weeks ago that I haven't been able to locate disc number 1 from North and South for a while now, but I have now got my complete set back again. I haven't quite been brave enough to try the disc in the replacement DVD player. What happens if that one gets obsessed as well?

There is no doubt that the original DVD player had impeccable taste, but I will definitely sleep better at night knowing that something that gets so obsessed is now out of my house!

Blue Diablo winner!

Whoops! I am running a couple of hours late. I was busy, erm, watching Australia! You judge whether it was worth the delay or not!





Anyway, I allocated everyone a number in order of the comments that have been left, fed that info into a random number generator, and the winning number was 8, so our winner is:

Limecello!

Congrats to you Limecello. Hope you enjoy the book!

Don't forget to keep leaving your comments about what makes a keeper as there is still a chance to win a $10 Amazon gift certificate. Entries for that giveaway close on Friday.

How much room is there in a suitcase anyway?

In the time honoured tradition of music channels and radio stations for long weekends, one of our music channels is having a Top 1000 80s vs 90s countdown! I was pleasantly surprised when they played this song, even if the video is just a little disturbing!

Ann Aguirre guest blog and giveaway

I am very excited today to welcome author and guest blogger Ann Aguirre, with a special guest appearance by reader Alice Anderson. Ann Aguirre is touring blogland to help celebrate the release of her new book, Blue Diablo, first book in her new Corinne Solomon series. Click here to see where the other stops on the blog tour are going to be! Be sure to check to the end of the post for details on how to win a copy of Blue Diablo and a chance to win a $10 Amazon Gift Certificate.





Because I don't want everything to be about me, I have decided to share the spotlight with a reader. Meet Alice Anderson.

What it Takes to be a Keeper

Alice: It's no secret that I adore romance novels. At last count, I have a little over a thousand. You're probably thinking man, that's the mother of all keeper shelves. Are all of them keepers? No, not really. But it's what you might call a collection. I have numerous bookshelves as well as boxes full of books. But I do have an illustrious Keeper Shelf.

Ann: I love romances too, but lately cross-genre fiction has been a big win for me. I had that many at one time, but a basement flood before I moved out of the States decimated my book collection. Let me tell you, I cried.

Alice: So what makes a book a keeper and what's on my keeper shelf?

A keeper, to me, is a book that is unforgettable. Unput-down-able. Rereadable. It's a book that, as my husband says, gives me the warm fuzzies. They're the first romance novels I ever read. The ones that got me hooked on romance way back in the beginning of all this. They're the books that kept me up into the wee hours of the morning and made me late for work the next day. They're the books that I think about often, reference frequently and tell all my friends about.

Ann: For me, it's any book I can't bear to get rid of under any circumstance because I may want to read it again. And let me tell you, that is rare.

Alice: Books like the Marcelli Bride by Susan Mallery...that start with a bang and keep me turning the pages all the way through. I fell in love with the hero almost instantly and I rooted for the (odd) couple until The End. Stories like Night Play that got me hooked on both Dark Hunters and Sherrilyn Kenyon. And oh yeah, hunky super hot (and rich, oh yeah!) werewolves. Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark are there and so are Jennifer Estep's superheroes and ubervillans. I'm still not sure about Fiona Fine's fashion sense but at least her outfits are fireproof.

Ann: Oooh, we're naming names now, are we? Larissa Ione, Lauren Dane, Victoria Dahl, Carrie Lofty, Eve Kenin, Kresley Cole, Sharon Shinn, Patricia Briggs, Robin McKinley... I'd better stop.

Alice: You'll find my all time favorite authors on my keeper shelf because well, all time favorite authors are just keepers. A few of my Rebecca Winters books are so old that the pages are yellow, the spines are crumbling and the covers have creases. And I've reread a few of them no less than twenty times. These books are like medicine. They keep me calm when I have reason to panic (plane liftoff, anyone?), keep me occupied when the world is crumbling around me (death in the family), and in general make me feel better (like when I have the flu for two weeks right before Christmas!).

Ann: I lost all my old books. So anything on my keeper shelf has been purchased in the last four years.

Alice: You'll also find recent additions such as the historical romance that made me fall in love with historicals. I was a hold out for a long time but now I'm addicted. I'm thinking I may need a bigger keeper shelf.

Ann: So glad you mentioned this! I love Elizabeth Hoyt lately, and Anna Campbell and Meredith Duran. OMG, yum!

Alice: In short they're books that I fall in love with at first read and fall in love with again each time thereafter. They make me feel something. They teach me something. They give me new words for my vocabulary...like uber (my new favorite!) I find the characters fascinating. I want to be friends with the heroines and date the heroes (shh, don't tell my husband!). They change the way I think about things, make me want to be a better person, and they give me hope. Keepers sit high and proud on the top shelf and always keep me coming back for more.

Ann: What she said.

Alice: What about you? What makes a book a keeper and what's on your shelf? I'll give a $10 amazon gift card to one person who answers by April 15th.

Ann: I'm giving away a copy of Blue Diablo. Winner chosen in 24 hours. I'll talk more about my keepers in comments, too.

About Alice
Alice Anderson is, as yet, an unpublished romance writer. She lives in the Southeast with her husband, dog, three kitties, and beta fish. When she's not slaving over her latest novel, she's hard at work creating designs for other authors and promoting romance to the world through her creation, the CataNetwork. Visit her online at http://www.alice-anderson.com.



So how about you all?

Leave a comment for your chance to win a copy of Ann's book or the $15 Amazon certificate. Please be sure to leave a valid email address so that we can contact you easily if you win!

The giveaway will close at 7pm Saturday (Australian East Coast Time), which is 4am New York time, and 10am London time on Friday. Hopefully you can figure out what time that is for you from one of those times, because I am terrible at working things like this out!

April Card Swap

I haven't been mentioning much about card making recently, simply because I really haven't been making anything. I think this year I have only made some bookmarks if you don't count the two classes I've been to. In a couple of days I will hopefully post some images of the cards that we have made in the classes we have had this year so far. Of course, I have still been buying stuff for card making!

Today though I sat down and used some of the things that I bought recently. That is quite unusual in itself. Normally I have to have something NOW, and find it months later and wonder what it was that I was intending to make.

The reason for suddenly getting busy is that at our last class, I volunteered myself into the April card swap, which meant that I really needed to hurry up and make the 8 identical cards that I needed to produce in time for next Friday! I am not finished yet, but I just need to finish cutting out the dragonflies and sticking them onto the cards and then I will be done, and there is every chance that will be no Thursday night rush this time!

The theme for the card swap this month was Autumn. I suspect that a lot of people are going to do lots of leave type things, but as soon as I heard the theme I knew that I wanted to use the diamond paper that I had recently bought because I thought that the colours were very autumnal.

Normally when I start making something, I have a fair idea in my mind, but I am never quite happy with the way the finished product turns out. There's always just something that is not quite right. With today's cards I knew what I wanted the feature to be but I didn't know how I was going to implement it. I have to say that for a change I am really very happy with the finished result.


I am not sure that you can really see it from the photos, but the wings on the dragonfly have been folded upwards so that this is very much a card with extra definition.




Originally I bought the diamond paper so that when I try and make more bookmarks I don't have to sit there and measure out the diamonds and cut them out by hand, but now I will have to buy more because I have used it all on this card. That is because the yellow colour you can see is on the reverse of the diamonds! Never mind.

It does a readers heart good to read this article

From News.com.au

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd won't tell Australians how to spend their stimulus bonuses, but says if he is eligible for the handout, he would blow it on books and music.

Taxpayers earning less than $100,000 will receive a one-off bonus of up to $900, as part of the Federal Government's $42 billion stimulus package.

Speaking on Nova radio in Sydney today, Mr Rudd was asked how he would spend the money if he was eligible for the bonus.

"Some people have accused me of being a nerd from central casting,'' he said.

"What I would probably do is go down to the bookshop and buy some books I've been wanting to buy for a while. A bit of music, that sort of stuff.''

I am not sure that Kev and I would have the same taste in books or music but I am pretty sure that I could quite easily spent $900 on them, if I didn't have other expenses!

Library Loot and Grasshopper Award

Once again this week I picked up more books than I returned, but only by 1 so that's okay right? Right? I need you to enable my library addiction people! The books I picked up were:

The Rosary Girls by Richard Montanari - Kerrie from Mysteries in Paradise recently reviewed the third book in this series and gave it a seriously good review! Because I can not possibly start anywhere other than the beginning of a series, this is the first book!

The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong - New series + Kelley Armstrong = No brainer!

Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin - Whether this author is writing under her real name, Diana Norman, or this name, I really enjoy her writing, and I am looking forward to catching up with Adelia Aguilar and her friends again.

Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan - A couple of years ago I read The Arrival by this author and absolutely loved it! I had every intention of reading anything I could find by him, but that kind of hasn't happened. This is his latest book which came out last year.

*************

I mentioned Kerrie from Mysteries in Paradise a bit earlier in my post. A couple of days ago, she was kind enough to award me The Grasshopper Award:






1) display the grasshopper award on your blog knowing you have touched someone you may never meet IRL.

2) pass this on to any fellow bloggers who have taught, inspired or entertained you.

When I was thinking about who I might pass this award on to, it came to me! With this award I want to honour those people who host weekly memes that I participate in, thereby influencing my content regularly. I am therefore giving this award to:

Alessandra from Out of the Blue and Eva from A Striped Armchair, who host Library Loot each week.

Miz B from Should be Reading who hosts Teaser Tuesday each week

Raidergirl3 from An Adventure in Reading, who each week asks the question "It's Tuesday, Where are you?. I tend to answer this one in the comments on her blog but I do participate regularly in the meme, and it is one that I look forward to each week.

Teaser Tuesday

I wanted to start this post tonight by letting you all know that we are currently hosting a giveaway of Susan Higginbotham's book, The Traitor's Wife, which has just been rereleased by Sourcebooks. Head over to Historical Tapestry for details on how to win.

Now, on to Teaser Tuesday.


Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Should be Reading:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!
  

I thought I would share two teasers this week, both from YA books that I am reading at the moment. I generally try not to read two books from the same genre at the same time, but it has just worked out that way this time. Luckily they are sufficiently different for there not to be any confusion.

The first teaser comes from page 297 of Marked by P C Cast and Kristin Cast:

No, they managed to trick me and tired their best to freak me out. But why? Wait! I knew what they'd been up to.

The second comes from page 137 of Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon. Isn't this cover just gorgeous?

The trio walked in wide circles, among the trees and along the path, calling Feng's name, but to no avail. Li Rong's shoulders sagged, his usual jaunty manner gone.

Premio Zombie Chicken Awards!

I was very honoured to be awarded another Premio Dardos award today. This time it was from Melissa from Remember to Breathe. This is a totally new blog to me, and Melissa emerged fro lurkdom to let me know that she had awarded this to me, which I think makes it all the more awesome! Hope you stick around Melissa, and thanks!



I was also lucky enough to receive the Zombie Chicken Award twice in the last couple of days, once from Sharon at A Bookworm's Reviews and also from Sheree at The Eclectic Reader. I must confess that opening my emails to see a comment saying about the Zombie Chicken award made me smile first thing in the morning. It's not a phrase that you see often!

The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken - excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all...

I don't want to risk the wrath of the zombie chicken so I am passing this award onto

Carolyn Jean from The Thrillionth Page
Thea and Ana from The Book Smugglers
The girls at Book Binge

Michele from A Reader's Respite
Rosie from Nobody Asked Me

The Pagan Stone by Nora Roberts

It had been the Pagan Stone for hundreds of years, long before three boys stood around it and spilled their blood in a bond of brotherhood, unleashing a force bent on destruction ...

Gage Turner has been running from his past for a long time. The son of an abusive drunk, his childhood in the small town of Hawkins Hollow had been rough. His only solace was his friendship with Fox O'Dell and Caleb Hawkins. But, when the trio turned ten, an innocent boyish ritual accidentally unleashed an ancient evil on their town. Every seven years murder and mayhem reign, events that seem to be escalating with each cycle.

Now Gage has returned home to help his friends finally defeat the evil force. Helping them will be Layla Darnell, Quinn Black and Cybil Kinski. Gage finds himself drawn to the smart and savvy Cybil, but a lifetime as a loner has made him wary of emotional ties. And who can make plans for the future when their present is so uncertain? For unless they can find a way of using the Pagan Stone against the demonic force, everything they know and love will be destroyed ...

Whilst I have liked this trilogy, I don't think it has been the strongest thing that Nora Roberts has produced. It was therefore something of a surprise when I found myself crying while reading this (on the train no less) three times! Normally I can walk from the train station to work without being talked to by anyone, so of course on Friday morning when I had been crying at this book three people stopped me to ask questions or say hello! Always the way!

So what was it about this book that touched me so much. Mainly, it was to do with the fact that the Gage, whose father was a violent alcoholic and whose mother died when he was very young, was adopted by Fox and Caleb's families. Whilst my dad is an alcoholic and has pretty much been absent for most of my life through a series of circumstances that were not only of his own makings, I am not motherless. It is pretty fair to say though that none of my family has a particularly strong relationship when I compare it to those that other people have with their mothers. I often wondered what it said about me that where my sister was 'adopted' by several different families over the years, that never really happened for me. It is something that I should really be over by this time in my life, but if there is something that is almost guaranteed to get me going it is happy or dysfunctional families - doesn't really matter which - both have the potential to distress!

The thing that Nora Robert is great at is dialogue, and the representation of relationships, in particular friendships, but in this book it was the dialogue about adoptive families. The particular passages that touched me:

He knew what he wanted to say, Gage realized. "You always let me in. I was thinking about things today. You and Fox's mother, you always let me in. You never once turned me away.

"Why in the world would I?"

...

"You and Jim, you made sure I had a roof over my head - and you made it clear I could have this one, I could have yours whenever I needed it. You kept my father on at the center, even when you should've let him go, and you did that for me. but you never made me feel like it was charity. You and Fox's parents, you made sure I had clothes, shoes, work so I had spending money. And you never made me feel it was because you felt sorry for that Turner kid."

And a bit further on with Fox's mother:

With a sigh, she put her arms around him, laid her head on his shoulder. "All of your life, as a parent, you wonder and you worry. Did I do that right? Should I have done that, said this? Then, suddenly, in a fingersnap it seems, your children are grown. And still you wonder and you worry. Could I have done this, did I remember to say that? If you're very lucky, one day one of your children..." She leaned back to look into his eyes. "Because you're mine and Frannie's too. One of your children writes you a note that arrows straight into your heart. All that worry goes away." She gave him a watery smile. "For a moment anyway. Thank you for the moment, baby."

Anyway, enough about my issues.

Given that in the first couple of books, Cal and Quinn initially and then Fox and Layla all buddied up, there was an inevitability to Gage and Cybil getting it together that even the characters commented on, but there was definite chemistry between them as well as their shared gift of being able to see the future. Their destiny was something that was perhaps a little bit of a cliche, but it is fair to say that it was not the only cliched aspect of the storyline. Then again the symbolism in those moments was also a very important element in the final showdown, so I guess it had to be there.

In many ways the final showdown against the demon, far from being the crescendo of the trilogy, was a bit flat and a bit rushed, especially compared to some of the earlier battles. In the end, I am glad that I have finished the trilogy, and I am ready to see what comes out next from Nora Roberts.

In closing I am going to focus on a really deep issue. How boring is this cover from Piatkus? The whole trilogy has had this 'stony' cover on it (just in different colours). Yes, I get the symbolism, but really ... boring! I do wonder if maybe because it is Nora, she will sell by the bucket and so they don't think that covers matter or something?

Rating 4/5

March Update

This month was a pretty good one reading wise. I ended up reading 17 books, but it is fair to say that I had a very average reviewing month, with only two reviews written! I do have a couple of reviews nearly written so we will see how we go with actually posting them!

New Year's Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini (4/5)
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson (4/5)
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (5/5)
The Chocolate Run by Dorothy Koomson (4/5)
Silent in the Sanctuary by Deanna Raybourn (4/5)
Living with the Dead by Kelley Armstrong (4/5)
Death Before Wicket by Kerry Greenwood (3.5/5)
Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich (3.5/5)
Angelique and the Sultan by Sergeanne Golon (4/5)
Wife for Hire by Janet Evanovich (4/5)
The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen (4.5/5)
Night of Flames by Douglas W Jacobson (4.5/5)
Superior Saturday by Garth Nix (4/5)
Venus in Copper by Lindsey Davis (4/5)
An Offer You Can't Refuse by Jill Mansell (4.5/5)
The Pagan Stone by Nora Roberts (4/5)
Forbidden Fantasies anthology (4/5)

The end of the month means it is time to check out the progress on my challenges and to do my 'I Suck at Challenges' update.

By reading Silent in the Sanctuary, I finished the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, but I also joined two new challenges, Once Upon a Time III and The Love Bites Challenge. I have already read one of my books for Once Upon a Time III (Superior Saturday by Garth Nix) but haven't yet read anything for my other new challenge.

I managed to read two books for the Book Awards Reading Challenge - The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson. You might notice that I rated The Graveyard Book as a 5/5 read - my first, and only, so far this year. I think I still have four books to read to complete this challenge.

I read another book for the War Through the Generations challenge this month as well - Night of Flames by Douglas W Jacobson, so have three more books to read before the end of the year for this challenge.

I have read 37 books for the 100+ Reading Challenge, and 27 for the Library Challenge. My target for the Library Challenge is 50 books, so I am over half way through.

One more book to go to complete the Victorian Challenge after I read Silent in the Sanctuary in March. I just picked up Silent on the Moor from the library tonight so that may well be the third book for the challenge, although I do have at least one more book that fits so maybe it will be that one instead.

Silent in the Sanctuary also fitted for the Chunkster Challenge, so I have 4 books left to go to complete that challenge. The book that I am currently reading (Comanche Moon by Larry McMurtry) fits for this challenge too.

Plum Spooky was the book I read for the 2009 Pub Challenge this month - 2 down, 7 to go!

Library Loot!

Only one visit to the library this week which is possible a good thing given my tendency to always borrow more than I take back!

I do have something to whinge about a little this week about my library. Actually I have been thinking about writing about it for a few weeks but have decided that today is the day to actually put it all down.

A bit of background first. The area where I live has quite a fast growing population, thanks mainly to a lot of development between here and the city. Along with shopping centres and other infrastructure, the local council has decided to build a new library branch. All good so far, right?

Well, yes and no. As a library patron I am pleased at the thought of a new branch, but there does appear to be a down side, and that is that they have ordered loads and loads of new books, but they are not adding them to the catalogue until the new branch opens, which I think is in August some time.

I totally get that they want a lovely new library with lots of lovely new books, but what about the existing patrons who want to read specific books? Here are a few of the books that I want to read now, but that won't be available for at another 3 months yet:

A Silent Ocean Away by DeVa Gantt
Men of the Otherworld and Made to be Broken by Kelley Armstrong
The Temptation of the Night Jasmine by Lauren Willig
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See (I know that this one isn't out yet, but still)
City of God by Beverly Swerling

There are loads more, but that will do for now. Okay, I have finished being a little petulant now, so we will move onto what I have been able to borrow this week:

All the Rivers Run (DVD) - This is something of an Australian TV classic. Set in the 1880's, the mini-series originally showed on TV here back in the early 1980's (I think). I read the book that this was based on years ago and remember loving it, so I am looking forward to revisiting old friends.





Jewels of the Sun by Nora Roberts - now that I have finished the latest trilogy it is time to go back and discover one of the earlier series, before her next series starts.













The Piano Teacher by Janice Y K Lee - I have had this on my TBR list for a while now and finally got around to requesting it from the library.











Silent on the Moor by Deanna Raybourn - the third book in the Lady Julia Grey mystery series.













Good Reading Magazine (March 2009) - I haven't really spent much time reading magazines about reading, but the other week Kerrie from Mysteries in Paradise posted about the magazine! Because she is one smart cookie, she suggested I look at my library and see if they order the magazine, and they do! Who knows if it will be a good thing or not, but I am happy to borrow them for a couple of months at this point in time.


And now for an almost completely unrelated video moment! One of the reasons for borrowing All the Rivers Run is to do a guest post. I thought I would try my luck and see if there was any footage on Youtube. No luck, but the search did bring up this Australian classic from Hunters and Collectors (who I saw live at Sound Relief a few weeks ago) - When the River Runs Dry.





****Library Loot is a weekly meme hosted by Alessandra from Out of the Blue and Eva from A Striped Armchair****

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Should be Reading:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!
  

This week's Teaser Tuesday comes from page 161 of Tiger Claws by John Speed. I read the prequel to this book (The Temple Dancer) a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it, partially due to a very unusual setting - 17th century India. I am not sure that I am enjoying this one quite so much as, even though it has some of the same characters, it feels very different! I also had a bit ofa hard time choosing a teaser that wasn't either incomprehensible without at least some explanation, or a spoiler, but I think I found one in the end.

Khalil pulls back from the edge with a sudden violence. "A Turtle! There can't be a turtle in a well that deep!"

Forbidden Fantasies anthology

Step inside Ellora's Cave, where passions run wild and the sexiest fantasies come true....

I must confess that I was very surprised when I went to the library the other week and found this book in one of the shelf end displays. I think I had just naturally assumed that there would be no erotic romance in my library. Or, maybe, because I haven't previously read any erotic romance, I just haven't looked for it!

The only thing that was a little disappointing was that the vast majority of these stories/novellas/whatever you want to call them are part of ongoing series, and you know that I can't stand reading series out of order. Oh well, when I started reading them I wasn't aware of that, and so I guess it didn't really affect the reading experience. All of these authors are new to me and there are a couple of them at least that I will be reading more from in the future.

Bossy & Clyde by Jaid Black

Psychic artist Kandrea Kane hires Damon Clyde to design her cozy new apartment, but she doesn't predict the erotic energy his masculine touch ignites in her voluptuous body.

One of the shorter entries in the book, at first I was thinking that this was one of the better stories in the novel. Instant conflict masks overwhelming attraction between Zandra and Damon. I did find the whole story very rushed, but I guess that's what happens when you have to get from conflict to happily ever after in just a few pages.

Legend's Passion by Jaci Burton

A night of anonymous ecstasy in the park with a gorgeous werewolf is a red-hot sexual release for Chantal Devlin — until a case of mistaken identity leads to a dangerous surprise.

Chantal Devlin has avoided getting involved too much with the pack werewolves as there is no way that she is ready to get tied down with a mate. When she arranges a hot date with an out of town werewolf, she gets amazing sex, but also big trouble when it turns out that he is now who she thought he was.

The man she had such hot sex with was actually a federal agent who was investigating a series of murders and now Chantal is drawn into assisting him with his enquiries.

Apparently this is part of the Devlin Dynasty series. This story felt quite complete, and I do like the world that this was set in, so if I can, I will be trying to read more.

Eternal Triangle by Ann Jacobs

When mortal master Chad Lalanne and his sensuous vampire submissive Katie invite Philippe d'Argent on an erotic trip into a Cajun paradise, the lovers unlock wild, forbidden desires on the bayou.

Chad is master of Katie, who also happens to be a vampire. He knows that he can not meet all her needs and so they invite Philippe on a trip with them. Philippe is a vampire, but he is also a submissive who has recently lost his master. Before long Chad is rethinking his strategy and deciding that he may want more than just a short time with his immortal bed partners.

Lady Elizabeth's Choice by Sahara Kelly

After a raw, passionate encounter that claimed Lady Elizabeth Wentworth's innocence months ago, Lord Spencer Marchwood decides the only way to win her love is to seduce her with sexual pleasures she can't refuse.

The first time I read this through I was a little disappointed. Yes, it was a historical but there didn't seem to be much recognition of the fact that Elizabeth would have been ruined by such a "raw, passionate" encounter. I read it again, and the second time around this didn't bother me quite so much, and I just enjoyed it for what it was.

When Spencer returns from his duties in Europe he finds that the woman he was planning to claim as his own has become engaged to another man. He decides that drastic measures are necessary, and so abducts her on the night that her engagement is to be announced to the ton, and sets about changing her mind.

Selfless by Sherri L King

While researchers try to determine who — and what — beautiful Eva really is, she relinquishes her darkest fantasies to the primal call of confident, golden-haired Dante, who rescued her from an evil scientist.

Compared to many of the other stories, this one took a long time to get going, as there was a lot of explanation to the be done of who Eve was and how she came to be at the centre where she was. Another story that felt quite complete, and had quite an interesting premise. This is part of a series, but I couldn't really figure out what other books were in the series.

Wild Ride by Cheyenne McCray

DEA agent Santiago towers over Tess with a Stetson on his head and smooth bronze skin she longs to caress, putting her on her naughtiest
bedroom behavior — and exposing her to a risky game of hot pursuit.

I think that this was one of my favourites in the whole book. Sexy DEA agent Santiago takes one look at Tess when in a bar at night and wonders where the quiet woman he kind of knows has gone. What follows is a passionate interlude, until his job interrupts in a most unexpected way. Again, this is appears to be part of a series, and I think I will be going out of my way to find out more. If this short is anything to go by, then I will definitely enjoy her other work.

Wicked by Lorie O'Clare

Tight-bodied lunewulf Jaynie Rousseau loves her freedom too much to mate...until strong, aggressive Cariboo lunewulf Perry Roth tempts her animal senses and arouses her lustful appetite.

When a description starts with 'tight-bodied', it's a bit of a worry, but in the end I quite locked this short. Jaynie finds herself in trouble with her adopted pack, and may find herself bought into submission unless she can get away, but will Perry Roth expect submission too, or something more.

First Sharing by Jory Strong

In order to save their people, handsome, feather-winged Laith and his muscle-bound, bat-winged friend Rykken must convince delicate Cyan to abandon her earthly art for a life of carnal indulgence in a land far away.

For a couple of days, I have been trying to remember where I have heard the name Jory Strong, and today at lunch time I remembered. Not long ago this book was mentioned at Dear Author, and again in the last few days at Katiebabs there was a post about Jory's next book, Ghostland, which has a gorgeous, gorgeous cover. This was an interesting read, and like the Sherri L King entry in the collection was very different to read.



Over all this felt like a good introduction to erotic romance, and I have found another couple of authors that I will be trying to read more of! I am still surprised that I found this book at the library, and may just find myself checking the shelves in the romance section to see what other surprises I can find there.

Rating: 4/5

Love Bites Reading Challenge

How cute is that challenge button! No, even though I have joined challenges just for the buttons before, that is not my only reason for joining this time! I do enjoy some paranormal romance, and have plenty to read, I just need to hurry up and read them. This is a simple challenge:

All you need to do is read three paranormals with a romantic theme between 1st April and 30th June 2009.

My three books will most likely be:

Marked by P C Cast and Kristin Cast
Full Moon by Keri Arthur
Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs

This challenge is hosted by Royal Reviews, and there are some other great buttons available too, incuding a couple of Bill and Sookie from True Blood and Edward and Bella from Twilight.

Weekly Geeks #12

I have been such a bad weekly geeker lately. Even on those weeks when the theme is one that I am really interested in (like last week's Historical Fiction theme) I just haven't gotten around to writing the post! So now that I am up at 5.15am on a Monday morning, this seems like the perfect time to write up a WG post! As to why I am up at this time, I went to bed early to read, fell asleep and then woke up at just after 4am and couldn't get back to sleep!

This week's theme is revisiting a theme that Dewey had last year about linking to each other's reviews. Here are the details:

1. Write a post encouraging readers to look through your archives (if you have your reviews in a particular place on your blog, point them there), and find the books that they have also written reviews. Tell them to leave a link to their review on your review post. For example, I've written a review for Gods Behaving Badly and Jane Doe leaves a link to her review of Gods Behaving Badly in the comments section of my review.


2. Edit your reviews to include those links in the body of the review post.


3. Visit other Weekly Geeks and go through their reviews. Leave links for them.


4. Leave a note somewhere on your blog to let people know this is your new policy.


5. Write a post later this week letting us know how your project is going!


This is a big undertaking but as Dewey put it, it's 'community building'. Have fun!

I have instituted this as a permanent policy on my blog, as evidenced by the "Linking Reviews" statement on my sidebar, and the feed footer comment that goes out on my RSS feeder every time I post! Having said that, it would probably be a bit more effective if I had actually written any reviews lately. Anyway ... I have an alphabet index that you can access here. Feel free to have a look through them and leave a comment either on this post, or on the actual post and I will add the links in as soon as I can.

French and Saunders and friends do Mamma Mia!

Last year when Mamma Mia came out a group of us girls went along to see it. Since then I have watched it a few times, most recently last Saturday night during out Goddess Day after we had imbibed quite a bit of champers! That particularly viewing involved lots of singing and dancing around my friend's lounge room. I hadn't seen it quite like this before though:

Save the Contemporary

Jane from Dear Author and Sarah from Smartbitches have teamed up to try and Save the Contemporary. Now I am probably not the best advocate for contemporary romance, because I really don't read a lot, but when there is a chance to win one of 20 copies of the upcoming Lisa Kleypas novel, Smooth Talking Stranger, and also a chance to win a 20 book pack from St Martin's Press, then I am definitely interested.

I am not really sure why I don't read a lot of contemporaries. I don't have any real aversion to them, but the only ones I seem to be reading lately are really the previous two novels by Lisa Kleypas, Nora Roberts and Jennifer Crusie. I do own a few that I haven't read yet.

Are there any authors writing contemporaries at the moment that I really MUST read?

Speaking of DA and Smartbitches, how is everyone going in DABWAHA?

Library Loot!

This week's Library Loot includes the confession that once more I borrowed more than I took back, but I still am under 50 books out...just!

Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland - I think this is about the fourth time that I have borrowed this book. I really do want to read it, but I keep on having to return it before I have even started it yet. Maybe this will be the time when I actually read it!

Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon - Michele from A Reader's Respite and Amy from Passages to the Past are hosting the Outlander challenge. I haven't officially signed up, but the idea is to try and reread the book in the series in anticipation of the latest Outlander book, An Echo in the Bone which is due to be released on September 22. I actually own two copies of this book, but I lent it to one friend who I have since lost touch with (in fact, she has the first three books in the series). Once I realised that I wasn't going to see them again, I went and re brought the first three books again, and then lent the first one to a girl I work with who has had it for probably two years and hasn't finished it yet. I did ask her for it a couple of times, but because I am tempted by the reread challenge I have borrowed it from the library. I will definitely be nagging my colleague to give my copy back though. I don't really want to have to buy it for the third time.

The Iron Hand of Mars by Lindsey Davis - the next instalment in the Marcus Didius Falco mystery series set in Ancient Rome.

Sabriel by Garth Nix - Now that I am up to date with the Keys of the Kingdom series, I am looking forward to reading some of his other books.

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher - I have been trying to pick up this book for weeks, but the last time I had it on request the library catalogue suggested that it was the hold shelf, but I couldn't find it. Fortunately no such issues this time.


****Library Loot is a weekly meme hosted by Alessandra from Out of the Blue and Eva from A Striped Armchair****

Teaser Tuesday

Last week I was all excited because my son was given a book to read at school that I have already read! This week is not so exciting. The teacher has changed the book because Mister Monday was too long. Instead the kids have now been allocated The Day My Bum Went Psycho by Andy Griffiths. I am trying to convince my son that he should still Mister Monday but I am not sure how persuasive I am being! Anyway, on to Teaser Tuesday!


Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Should be Reading:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!
  

I am having difficulty deciding which book to use for Teaser Tuesday this week. I am almost finished two books, Superior Saturday by Garth Nix and Venus in Copper by Lindsey Davis. It's a good thing that I am nearly finished because they were due back at the library two days ago! I have also started reading the book I got last night, and I am already carrying my next book around in my bag, mainly because if I hadn't been too busy chatting on the way home on the train tonight I would actually have finished Venus in Copper and been ready to start the next book!

Choices, choices.

I think I will go with Venus in Copper, simply because I love Lindsey Davis' voice in these books. Her Roman detective is cynical and a little shady, with a very rocky love life, but he reminds me of the gumshoe detectives of old - a lot of fun to read!

I am going to bend the rules and post a paragraph. The teaser comes from page 175:

The members of my family saw no reason to alter the habits of a lifetime just because I had produced an Imperial guest. Titus had already edged in, looking startled, before Helena and I could emerge with the kind of refined welcome he had learned to expect. My relations immediately grabbed him and sat him on a stool with a bowl of olives on one knee, to watch his turbot cooking. Next thing I knew everyone seemed to have introduced themselves without waiting for me, Helena was testing the fish with a knife-point, Petronius shoved a full winecup under my elbow, and the chaos redoubled while I stood there like a drowned vole in a thunderstorm.

Another award

Aarti from Booklust has awarded me the Proximidade Award. Thanks Aarti.

"This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this clever-written text into the body of their award."

I am passing this award onto:

Dar from Peeking Between the Pages,
Kathy from Oklahama Booklady,
Kat from Book Thingo,
Rosie from Nobody Asked Me.
Ana O from Cosy Little World
Susan Higginbotham from Medieval Woman: Blogging with Historical Fiction Writer Susan Higginbotham
Cath from Read Warbler
Susan from You Can Never Have Too Many Books

An unexpectedly bookish day

When I left home for work this morning, there was no reason to think that my day was going to be any more bookish than normal. I had only one book in my bag because I knew that I wouldn't finish the one I was reading today. If there is any chance that I will finish my book I always take a back up just in case, but it wasn't at all necessary.

Then around lunchtime I got a text message from someone I know just a little bit (we'll call her A. for the purposes of this post). A. is a friend of a friend really but I did see her on Saturday, and whenever we do spend time together we get along quite well. Anyway, she had purchased tickets to go and see an author event in the city, and the person who was going with her pulled out at the last minute, so she wanted to know if I would like to go. I did think about saying no, but in the event the lure of an author event pulled me in, so I quickly arranged babysitters and said yes.

I was already leaving work early to do something in the city. Once I finished my appointment I still had about an hour and a half to fill, so I wandered down to the specialist romance bookstore. A couple of weeks ago I had gone to Borders fully intending to buy three books, and they didn't have any of them in. Today I went to the bookstore looking for those same three books and still no joy! Then I wandered up to one of the bigger bookstores in town to see if they had any of the books I was looking for. They had one of them (Wanderlust by Ann Aguirre), so I quickly snapped that up, had a bit of a conversations with some of the ladies who were in the romance section about the fact that they should really read Elizabeth Hoyt and Lisa Kleypas, a quick bite to eat, and then off to meet A.

After a lot of chat about mutual friends and then about various books (I really love talking books), we listened to Irish author Cathy Kelly talk about a few different things - her life, how she started writing, her new book, being friends with several other Irish authors including the fabulous Marian Keyes. I must confess that I haven't read any Cathy Kelly other than a short story in the Irish Girls About Town anthology so I was probably at a bit of a disadvantage, but she was warm and funny, and so of course I had to buy her new book which is called Once in a Lifetime while I was there, and seeing as she was there, I got her to sign it as well!


Funny thing happened while we were in the queue. A. met a woman who she used to know back in country Western Australia a number of years ago. The lady was on holidays in Melbourne with a friend and they decided to come to the event. A. had thought about not going tonight when her friend originally cancelled, but if she had she would never had met this person completely coincidentally! I love it when things like that happened!

So I went to work with one book and came home with three. Can't complain about that really! Although I really would love to have got my hands on Angel's Blood by Nalini Singh and The Sins of Lord Easterbrook by Madeline Hunter which are the other two books that I am trying to get hold of at the moment!

It's time for Once Upon a Time III

It is time once again for the Once Upon a Time III challenge, run so superbly by Carl V from Stainless Steel Droppings! This is an annual event where the focus is on fantasy, fairy tales, mythology and folklore, and runs from March 21 to June 20.

fan⋅ta⋅sy: a genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting.(Wiki)

fairy tale: a fictional story that may feature folkloric characters such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, giants, and talking animals, and usually enchantments, often involving a far-fetched sequence of events. (Wiki)

folk⋅lore: the traditional beliefs, legends, customs, etc., of a people; lore of a people; The traditional beliefs, myths, tales, and practices of a people, transmitted orally. (Dictionary dot com)

my⋅thol⋅o⋅gy: a body of myths, as that of a particular people or that relating to a particular person; a set of stories, traditions, or beliefs associated with a particular group or the history of an event, arising naturally or deliberately fostered. (Dictionary dot com)

As he has done for several of his more recent challenges, Carl has designed a number of different levels of participation. I have chosen to accept Quest the First:

Read at least 5 books that fit somewhere within the Once Upon a Time III criteria. They might all be fantasy, or folklore, or fairy tales, or mythology…or your five books might be a combination from the four genres.

Checking through the books I currently have on my to be read sooner than later (also known as the library books out list), the following books will form at least part of my list:

Superior Saturday by Garth Nix
Marked by PC Cast and Kristin Cast
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Fish Out of Water by Mary Janice Davidson
Beguilement by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Dreaming Place by Charles de Lint
Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie
Full Moon Rising by Keri Arthur
Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs
Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
Tangled Webs by Anne Bishop
Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon

For the full details of the challenge check out this link.