Tuesday, October 28, 2014

#WWReadathon: 2014 Summary post

It's been a very good Wonderfully Wicked Read-a-thon this year. Organized by April and Kat at My Shelf Confessions, The Wonderfully Wicked Read-A-Thon has been a time when online book fanatics got together to dedicate the days of October 17-27 to as much reading as possible.

For me, this was a successful read-a-thon. As the read-a-thon began, I was just starting out on a four and a half day road trip. Hubby was driving and I was reading as much as possible. In those five days, I completed five books. In the remaining six days, I only managed to complete one more book—though I was getting close to finishing a couple more.

Completed books:

Book Cover: V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton Book Cover: Magic 101 by Mercedes Lackey Book Cover: Burning Water by Mercedes Lackey Book Cover: POD by Tobias Roote Book Cover: Children of the Night by Mercedes Lackey Book Cover: Stone Guardian by Danielle Monsch

Books in Progress:

Book Cover: My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares Book Cover: W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton Book Cover: The Oblate's Confession by William Peak

Thanks so much to April and Kat for organizing the read-a-thon and for their encouragement all throughout the event. I had a lot of fun posting to Twitter and following everyone else through the shared #WWReadathon hashtag. Looking forward to next fall and a repeat of this event.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Sunday Summary: 26 October 2014

I've said it before: “I love a road trip.”. I spent all day Sunday and Monday reading in the car as hubby took care of the driving. I'm linking up with The Sunday Post, hosted by Kimba @ The Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

Where I've been reading

My week started with the last two days of our very quick road trip to Las Vegas and return. We drove from Flagstaff, Arizona, to Santa Rosa, New Mexico, on Sunday. Then from Santa Rosa to home near Dallas on Monday. The down side of taking a vacation was that when I returned to work I had a huge backlog of e-mail to deal with and was plunged into a brand-new project with a very short delivery time. Tuesday and Wednesday, I barely had time to read, but things began to settle down a bit by Friday afternoon.

The Wonderfully Wicked Read-a-Thon is still going on and although I haven't posted a status update in a long time, I'm still trying to keep an eye on the Twitter feed.

What I've been reading

Book Cover: Burning Water by Mercedes Lackey Format: Kindle
Source: purchased in July 2014
Completed: 19 October

After reading Magic 101, I continued reading the Diana Tregard paranormal mysteries by reading Burning Water by Mercedes Lackey. This is a fun series originally published in 1989-1991—probably one of the very first “urban fantasy” books. It predates Laurell Hamilton's Anita Blake series by 4 years.

Book Cover: POD by Tobias Roote Format: Kindle
Source: Kindle Lending Library
Completed: 20 October

POD is the second book in Tobias Roote's Pattern Universe. I've borrowed both books from the Kindle Owner's Lending Library and enjoyed both of them. The characters are appealing and the plots are innovative, but the books do have a significant number of flaws. The author doesn't seem to know when to use apostrophes. And there's just an “awkwardness” throughout the book. I have the feeling that a good editor could help this author develop into a masterful storyteller.

Book Cover: Children of the Night by Mercedes Lackey Format: Kindle
Source: purchased in July 2014
Completed: 20 October

Returning to the Diana Tregarde paranormal mysteries, I read the third book, Children of the Night. It seems that I have read the novels in the order they were published instead of in the order of their own internal chronology, well, except for Magic 101 which was published this year and specifically noted as a prequel to the series. It doesn't really matter, however. The series has captured my attention, and I'm going to be sorry to complete it when I read the fourth and final book.

Book Cover: Entwined Realms, Volume 1 by Danielle Monsch Format: Kindle
Source: review copy from NetGalley
Completed: 23 October

I really liked this book—up to a point. What ruined Entwined Realms for me was that I was turned off by the explicit description of lovemaking that popped up near the end of the first story in the collection. The plot and characters and the setting were amazingly well done and it's the beginning of a series that I would have very much enjoyed continuing to read—except it's just too much for my taste.

Book Cover: The Oblate's Confession by William Peak Book Cover: W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton Book Cover: My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares I'm continuing to read The Oblate's Confession by William Peak. It's an intriguing book so far, but it's not a “fast read”. I find that I can only read it for a while and then I need to take a break and pick up another book. I do keep returning to it, however. I also started reading W is Wasted, the 23rd and most recently published book in Sue Grafton's popular Alphabet mysteries. It's borrowed from the library, so I needed to give it the highest priority. And, as much as possible, I'm listening to My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares. I'm getting close to the end and anticipate completing it this next week.

This Week on the Blog

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Stacking the Shelves (9)

Did you get any new books this week? You're invited to join the fun at Stacking the Shelves. According to the reviewers at Tynga's Reviews who host the meme:

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

Earlier this week, Jason Segel was a guest on Jimmy Fallon's show, promoting his new YA novel, Nightmares! My local library just signed up for Overdrive and as soon as I got my login information, I looked to see what books were in their catalog. I was tickle pink to see that Nightmares! was available, so I checked it out right away.

Later in the week, I received a notice from another library where I have a card that a book I had placed on reserve was available for pickup. So, I logged into their Overdrive catalog and downloaded a copy of W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton. After I've read this book, I'll be caught up with the series and just waiting for the next book to be released.

Lastly, I received a gift from an online reading pal. MsJoanna sent me a copy of The Book of Secrets by Elizabeth Arnold. It's been on my wishlist since March and I'm looking forward to finding time to read it.

Book Cover: Nightmares! by Jason Segel Book Cover: W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton Book Cover: The Book of Secrets by Elizabeth Arnold

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Top Ten Tuesday: 21 October 2014

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week they provide a prompt and book lovers join in with their own top ten list.

This week's theme is “Top New Series I Want To Start”. They clarify “New..let's say within the last year or two”, but I want to take a slightly different tack on this prompt. Rather than looking at new series, I want to focus on “new to me” series, some of these will be backlist books from authors I've recently discovered or even classics. Also, given that I'm designating 2015 as my Year of the Juvenile Novel, some of these will be middle grade or young adult series.

  1. I've never read the entire Wizard of Oz series. Although I did read the first book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz while I was in high school, I think it's time for a re-read as an intro to the series. (There are 14 novels plus some short stories!) Since all of the books are in the Public Domain in the US, I'll be downloading copies from Mobileread.

    Book Cover: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum   Book Cover: The Marvelous Land of Oz by L Frank Baum   Book Cover: Ozma of Oz by L Frank Baum

     

  2. The Lyra Novels are a series of five fantasy novels set on a mythical world named Lyra, where in a time long past humankind shared the land with folk who had magic in their blood and bones. The author says, “These books share a common setting on a world named Lyra. The books are only loosely connected ... take place in widely separate locations and times, and don’t include continuing characters ... and so may be read in any order.” I'll be borrowing the omnibus eBook edition from my local library.

    Book Cover: Shadow Magic by Patricia Wrede    Book Cover: Daughter of Witches by Patricia Wrede    Book Cover: The Harp of Imach Thyssel by Patricia Wrede

     

  3. While browsing books available through my library's subscription to the Freading service, I stumbled upon a very appealing series: the Alan Graham Mysteries by Malcolm Shuman. This five volume series features archaeologist Alan Graham as he tackles both ancient and contemporary mysteries in Louisiana's Bayou country. And, these books show consistently high ratings at Goodreads.com.

    Book Cover: Burial Ground by Malcolm Shuman    Book Cover: The Meriwether Murder by Malcolm Shuman    Book Cover: Assassin's Blood by Malcolm Shuman

     

  4. I'm cheating just a little bit with this series—I read the first book in James Alan Gardner's The League of Peoples in 2009, and then set about trying to accumulate the rest of the books so that I could read them in order. I was hung up on the second book, Commitment Hour, initially published in 1998, until the entire series was republished as eBooks by Open Road Media earlier this year. So, I'll re-read Expendable and then relish the rest of the series.

    Book Cover: Expendable by James Alan Gardner    Book Cover: Commitment Hour by James Alan Gardner    Book Cover: Vigilant by James Alan Gardner

     

  5. I first ran across Erica Kirov and her Magickeepers series in the online card catalog of my library. This series for middle grade kids stars Nick Rostov who has discovered he is part of an extended Russian family of magicians: the Magickeepers. He lives with his eccentric relatives in a hotel and casino in Las Vegas, where they perform daring feats of magic—real magic.

    Book Cover: The Eternal Hourglass by Erica Kirov    Book Cover: The Pyramid of Souls by Erica Kirov    Book Cover: The Chalice of Immortality by Erica Kirov

     

  6. I love adventure stories written for kids. I grew up with the Bobbsey Twins and read Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series twenty years ago or so. But, I've never taken the chance to read The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner. I have no intention of reading all 125 books in the series, but I will read at least the first dozen or so.

    Book Cover: The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner    Book Cover: Surprise Island by Gertrude Chandler Warner    Book Cover: The Yellow House Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner

     

  7. A rather short series that I intend to read in 2015 is Virginia Hamilton's Justice trilogy. It starts with Justice and Her Brothers, where we meet Justice and her twin brothers, Levi and Thomas. These teens manifest psychic abilities which enable them to travel to a future world where they battle an evil entity and attempt to rescue the inhabitants of the barren Dustland.

    Book Cover: Justice and Her Brothers by Virginia Hamilton    Book Cover: Dustland by Virginia Hamilton    Book Cover: The Gathering by Virginia Hamilton

     

  8. The first book that I read in 2014 was Mockingjay, the final book of the Hunger Games trilogy. I'm a real fan of dystopian science fiction novels, so I've been looking forward to reading the Divergent series by Veronica Roth. With the release of a movie made from the first novel, Divergent, I feel even more pressure to read the books so that I can see the movie when it comes to cable TV.

    Book Cover: Divergent by Veronica Roth    Book Cover: Insurgent by Veronica Roth    Book Cover: Allegiant by Veronica Roth

     

  9. Another series that I found in the online card catalog is Lucinda Landon's mysteries for early elementary kids (ages 7-9, grades 2-4) starring Meg Mackintosh. Reviews mention the appeal of these books as being similar to Encyclopedia Brown and Cam Jansen—well-known young sleuths.

    Book Cover: Meg Mackintosh and the Case of the Missing Babe Ruth Baseball by Lucinda Landon    Book Cover: Meg Mackintosh and the Case of the Curious Whale Watch by Lucinda Landon    Book Cover: Meg Mackintosh and the Mystery at the Medieval Castle by Lucinda Landon

     

  10. I spotted a series that looks like a lot of fun at the Freading web site: Real Mermaids by Helene Boudreau. There are only four books—so far—and doesn't appear to follow the stereotype of the svelte and sexy mermaid. In fact, Jade is described as “a plus-size, aqua-phobic mer-girl”. Lots of fun, right?

    Book Cover: Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings by Helene Boudreau    Book Cover: Real Mermaids Don't Hold Their Breath by Helene Boudreau    Book Cover: Real Mermaids Don't Need High Heels by Helene Boudreau