Weekend Plans

Many around the book blogging community are participating in a GoodReads Catch Up Readathon hosted by Once Upon a Chapter. I thought about it. I do so love my readathons. But then I started thinking about everything else I wanted to do this weekend and next week. And the readathon started to seem like a chore. So I won't be participating this time around. I have some other things that I want to get done today, tomorrow, and Sunday:

Library crawl -- Yep that's right, a library crawl. I've lived in Omaha for over 6 months and still haven't been to most of the branch libraries. So I decided this would be the perfect time. And the library closest to my house just reopened after a huge renovation project. I want to find the best magazine, children's, and graphic novel areas. Those always seem to be lacking at the branch I usually go to (it's right between home and work).
Prep my huge collection of March posts -- I'm gearing up for a month long event celebrating my 30th birthday. I have posts scheduled every day. Plus, I'm hosting a big giveaway (tune back in March 1st for details). I need to have all of that basically ready to go by March 1st so I don't get behind.
Finish my Disney trip scrapbook -- I have less than a third to go...
Catch up on Downton Abbey -- I just started season 2 the other night and have been itching to get back into it
Catch up on The Vampire Diaries -- I'm only one episode behind. Unfotunately, I have to watch it on cwtv.com because our server went down the other day. It's rebuilding, but will probably take a few days.
Laundry/dishwashing/bathroom cleaning -- Oh the joys of chores. I need to schedule these, otherwise they never get done.

Quite a list of things for this weekend. And on top of all that, I am toying with a self-imposed readathon on Sunday... But I guess I have to get through most of the list first.

Btw: A double check on my GoodReads Challenge shows that I am 8 books ahead of my goal (total 200). I think that will hold me for awhile.

The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance

Title: The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance

Edited By: Trisha Telep

Publisher: Running Press 2009

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Pages: 532

Rating: 4 / 5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer Romance - Paranormal

If love transcends all boundaries, then paranormal romance is its logical conclusion. From the biggest names around, here are 24 tales to take you to another time and place.
Let Alyssa Day, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Cheyenne McCray, Jeaniene Frost, Ilona Andrews, Kelley Armstrong, Maria V. Snyder, Carrie Vaughn, Allyson James Marland, and others show you powers beyong your wildest imaginings.
Within these pages mythical beasts, magical creatures of all shapes and sizes, heart-stoppingly handsome ghosts, angels, and mortals with extra-sensitive sensory perception play out the themes of extraordinary desires.

Overall, I really enjoyed this anthology. There were a few stories that I didn't really love, but I think that has more to do with the style of writing. I did absolutely adore a few. My favorites:

"John Doe" by Anna Windsor -- Really loving the angel theme stories lately. This one intrigues me. Definitely want to read more from the author.
"The Tuesday Enchantress" by MJ Putney -- Two Guardians meet in a surprising circumstance. Neither can deny the attraction. Whole story takes place in the span of a few hours. Great meet and instant attraction story.
"Pack" by Jeaniene Frost -- A great werewolf story. Love Frost's writing and characters. When I get the rest of the series, I am blasting my way through the Night Huntress books.

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris

Title: Squireel Seeks Chipmunk

Author: David Sedaris

Illustrated by: Ian Falconer

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company 2010

Genre: Humor

Pages: 159

Rating: 5 / 5 stars

Reading Challenges: Amazon -- Customer Favorites

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary is a collection of animal-themed humorous short stories by memoirist and humorist David Sedaris.
If animals were more like us, if mice kept pets and toads could cuss, if dogs had wives and chipmunks dated, sheep sat still and meditated, then in the forest, field, and dairy you might find this bestiary, read by storks, by rats and kitties, skimmed by cows with milk-stained titties. "I found the book to be most droll," might quip the bear, the owl, the mole. Others, though would be more coarse. "Bull," could say the pig and horse. As to the scribe, they'd quote the hen: "Trust me, he's no La Fontaine."

Delightful collection of stories. Some funny, some sad, some thought provoking. Make not mistake about it, these stories really aren't about animals. Unless you consider humans just to be another species of animals. Then, yes, it is about animals of the upright two-legged kind.

My favorites:

The Parenting Storks -- What happens when we try to answer the touch questions? What kinds of answers do we get? One stork thinks she has it all figures out. Unfortunately for her and her child, her answers aren't real or logical. Poor stork!
The Crow and the Lamb -- The cruel things we do to each other. Makes for a great story about a lost sheep and lamb and the selfish crow.
The Judicious Brown Chicken -- Pride goeth before a fall. Haven't I read that somewhere? Another take on the phrase.

David Sedaris has certainly hit another home run. Just amazing!

My Partial TBR List

As part of the Bout of Books Readathon Actin' Up with Books is holding a contest: Pick It Up, and Then Pile It Up. Mind you these are only the books on my current TBR bookshelf (ignore the yearbooks on the second shelf). I have at least 4 boxes of books in the garage that I want to read. And that ottoman us full of library TBR books. Plus I have an iPad floating around here with my NetGalley books. I'd say I have enough to keep me busy. Oh! But I forgot about Borders closing sale. I'm sure I'll be adding to the pile this week.

Men in Kilts by Katie MacAlister

Title: Men in Kilts

Author: Katie MacAlister

Publisher: Onyx 2003

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Pages: 352

Rating: 4 / 5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer Romance - Contemporary

So far, Kathie WIlliams has made a good show as the only American at a mystery writers' conference in Manchester, England--what with that falling asleep in public thing behind her.
The sight of Iain MacLaren wakes her up. Clad in a deliciously woolly sweater, the burly Scotsman seems to be holding up a wall at the cocktail party. So Kathie makes her move...and winds up stark naked with him in bed, where his thick Scottish brogue, thick manly chest, and thick...other parts...drive her to do things she's never done before. Like fall in love.
And if things aren't moving fast enough--and on the wrong side of the road, no less--Kathie is about to visit Iain's sheep farm in the Scottish Highlands and meet his sons. She's feeling a wee bit nervous. Because she can't tell where this mad affair is going--except north...

Everything in the summary happens in the first 20 pages. Based off of that, I thought I was going to hate this book. I thought "that's it, just jump into bed with some guy. We all do it (yeah right). And so as you get to the Highlands, everyone will love you and that'll be it."

Thankfully I was wrong. The book really gets going after Kathie arrives in the Highlands. Turns out Iain hasn't been completely forthcoming with his acquaintances and other details of life. Not that he should have bared his soul that first night in Manchester, but it does make an interesting adventure for Kathie to find out all the details.

The characters are great. Kathie is generally someone I would like except for those sobbing episodes. I tend to get mad, not burst into tears when someone is mean to me. Kathie is a crier. Other than that little part of her personality, I love her. She's got the sarcasm, the intelligence, the craftiness, to make her interesting. Iain is all muscle and Scottish accent. He's more eye candy than character, but surprisingly it didn't bother me that much. Bridget is entertainingly evil and the housekeeper is irritatingly annoying. Iain's first wife and Kathie's mom are like two peas in a pod. Great little side characters.

Spoiler alert!!!

The book continues past the pont of the usual romance end: the wedding. Thankfully we get to see a bit of life after the big day. There are a few unanswered questions about the farm and various acquaintances. There's also that bit about the sheep seasons. I thought it was going to wear me down, but amazingly I loved that section of the book. We get more than the usual romance, and I defiantly appreciated that!

Overall, a good light romance read with some nice not-so-graphic sex scenes. A welcome change from my recent string of bad luck with tired romances full of tired plots and characters.

Lucky Girl by Cate Lord

Title: Lucky Girl

Author: Cate Lord

Publisher: Entangled Sept. 6, 2011

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Pages: 268

Rating: 3 / 5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer Romance - Contemporary

Jessica Devlin isn't looking for love. Heartbroken after being dumped by her unfaithful ex-fiance, she's determined to have a fabulous time during her vacation in England where she ll be maid-of-honor at her cousin s wedding. After working overtime as beauty editor of Orlando's O Tart magazine, avoiding dating, and putting on ten pounds, Jess is ready to toss her past like an empty lipstick tube and party like a single gal.
But when she steps into the church on her cousin s wedding day, she sees the one man who could sabotage her plan James-Bond-gorgeous Nick Mondinello. She s never forgotten the London marketing exec who held her in his arms after her beloved grandfather s funeral two years ago. Ambitious, and lusted after by women everywhere, Nick is completely wrong for guarded, Plain Jane Jess.
Could Spy Man Nick ever fall for her? Nope. Not unless Jess is one lucky girl.

Very predictable contemporary romance. Girl's been hurt by a jilted lover. Girl thinks she's fat and ugly. Girl spies gorgeous man whose way out of her league (or so she thinks). Girl and guy dance around their attraction, she never really believing he could like her. Girl gets guy into bed. Girl (or guy) makes a stupid mistake/lie and loses guy. Girl gets buy back through some dramatic act or he just shows up on her doorstep.

Overall, a very quick read. But I'm now having issues with all these romances novels where the girl constantly thinks that she's ugly. When are we going to ease up on body issues? Not everyone can be/should be/wants to be a size 0 with no hips or boobs. I prefer real women curves. Jess's insistence that she's ugly (even though she's like a size 4) gets her into these awkward situations with gorgeous man Nick. Can we get some stronger (no physically strong, but emotionally strong) women in these romance novels? I think the damsel in distress act has run its course.

Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall by Bill Willingham

Title: Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall

Author: Bill Willingham

Publisher: Vertigo 2008

Genre: Graphic Novel; Fantasy

Pages: 144

Rating: 5 / 5 stars

Reading Challenges: Support Your Local Library; Fables Series

A volume full of backstories about the fairy- and folktale characters who figure in the hit comic book Fables gets the kind of classy treatment success merits. Every story in it is drawn by a different artist who shows off his or her distinctiveness in manners ranging from traditional comics realism and photo-based naturalism to Maxfield Parrish-Howard Pyle sumptuousness and a panoply of caricatural styles.

I absolutely loved this volume. Another Fables volume lives up to the promise of a great story. All the backstories were entertaining. Variations on the fairy tales of yore. We start with Snow White becoming Scheherazade on a mission to secure the Sultan's alliance against the Adversary. Very nicely woven as the background to the other tales. The real Scheherazade even makes an appearance. Then we get stories involving Snow and PC and the dwarves, Reynard the fox, the Frog Prince, Bigby, an unlucky rabbit general, Snow and Rose Red and Frau Totenkinder (with appearances from other Fables), a mermaid, and King Cole. Each story flows into the next with crossover events and characters. Throughout we see the real history of the Fables before they escaped to NYC. Very entertaining to hear of the origins. I think my favorite was Frau Totenkinder's story. The evil witch isn't all she seems. She's become one of my favorite characters in the entire series. And of course, the artwork was amazing. Each illustrator had their own style, but remained true to the fairy tale magic throughout. Great side volume for the Fables series!

Ringworld by Larry Niven

Title: Ringworld

Author: Larry Niven

Publisher: Del Ray 1985

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 342

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Science Fiction; 2011- With a Twist

A new place is being built, a world of huge dimensions, encompassing millions of miles, stronger than any planet before it. There is gravity, and with high walls and its proximity to the sun, a livable new planet that is three million times the area of the Earth can be formed. We can start again!

This book was really mixed. J warned me that it was harder scifi than Have Spacesuit-Will Travel and Ender's Game, and it certainly was. I liked parts of the book and then got confused about other parts. My knowledge of physics ans space travel is not on par with J's and I found myself drifting during those passages. And those passages take up about a third of the book. I kept having to reread sentences; stopping to think about what he was trying to explain. Sometimes, I completely glossed over a concept because I couldn't figure it out in a few mintes. Those were the pages that drained my reading stamina. I had to take a few reading breaks with this book. I couldn't do it all in on sitting.

On the good side, I loved all the parts focusing on interactions between the alien species. Their cultural and language differences intrigued me. I also found the explanations and mysteries of the Ringworld civilization fascinating. Those parts redeemed the book for me and kept me reading. I guess deep down I'm more of an anthropologist than a scifi geek. And that's okay.

Ringworld

#1 Ringworld
#2 The Ringworld Engineers
#3 The Ringworld Throne
#4 Ringworld's Children
#5 Fate of Worlds: Return from the Ringworld (with Edward M Lerner)

Fables: The Mean Seasons by Bill Willingham

Title: Fables: The Mean Seasons (Vol. 5)

Author: Bill Willingham

Publisher: Vertigo 2005

Genre: Graphic Novel; Fairy Tales

Pages: 168

Rating: 5 / 5 stars

Reading Challenges: Support Your Local Library; Fables Challenge

The title story here depicts the year after the attack from the Adversary. Summer sees the birth of Deputy Mayor Snow White's sextuplets (the father is Sheriff Bigby Wolf); fall, Prince Charming's election as mayor; winter, bad decisions by the new administration; and spring, plans to counterattack the Adversary. Two shorter pieces show Bigby Wolf on a secret mission during World War II and Cinderella entrapping a Fable who is collaborating with the Adversary. Tony Akins draws the shorter stories with less detail than Mark Buckingham does the big one; both uphold Fables' snappy good looks. Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Loving this volume. We get to see Cinderella as something more than a vapid princess. And we get a little bit of Bigby's history. He is fast becoming my favorite character in the series. As much as I enjoyed the two shorter stories, I must say they don't hold a candle to the long story. The setup is perfect. We see the changing tide through the changing of the seasons. Very inventive! And we get to meet a few new characters, especially the interesting and mysterious Mr. North. I can't wait to learn more about him. We also get more mysteries as Beast and Beauty take over for Snow and Bigby and Prince Charming becomes mayor. They all find out that many things are not what they seem in Fabletown. Oh yeah, and the return of Rose Red. I thought her character had more potential than the rebel sister and she's starting to show it. Can't wait for the next volume...

Fables:

The Lightkeeper's Ball by Colleen Coble

Title: The Lightkeeper's Ball (A Mercy Falls Novel #3)

Author: Colleen Coble

Publisher: Thomas Nelson 2011

Genre: Historical Romance

Pages: 292

Rating: 4 / 5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer Romance - Historical

How I Got It: Borrowed from the library

In 1910, New York socialite Olivia Stewart resists an arranged, socially advantageous marriage, and the mysterious death of her sister Eleanor in Northern California is an unhappy but convenient excuse to go West to investigate. On the way, she is thrown off a Bay area ship and nearly drowned, so she has a number of reasons to hide her identity when she arrives in Mercy Falls, Calif. Her shipboard rescuer turns out to be her dead sister's fiancé Harrison Bennett, about whom she has suspicions. Harrison in turn has his reasons to distrust the Stewart family. In this atmosphere of deceit and suspicion, attraction between Olivia and Harrison grows.

I had read the first two Mercy Falls novels way back at the beginning of the year. I had been waiting for this one to release and thank goodness the library had it. Another good mystery/historical romance.

I like Coble's characters. We see the spirit of Olivia. We also get appearances by the leading ladies of the first two novels, Katie and Addie. Together they make quite the trio. I loved the side characters, Mrs. Fosberg, Mrs, Bennett, Mr. Bennett, Nealy (the dog), Euguene, Goldia. They added to the realness of the novel. I also appreciated the tone. Just like the others, I could see the Christian angle, but it was overwhelming. Any conversation the characters had about God seemed natural. I didn't suffer through the 3-page sermons like many CHF books.

My only complaint about this one: the rushed ending. I felt like the book was moving along at a nice pace until the last 30 pages when all the reveals happened one after another. How realistic is it for all the secrets to come out to different people at practically the same time. A bit far-fetched. But the other mystery was well done.

Funky Times

It's official, I'm in a funk. A reading funk that is. After averaging 15 books a month, I've hit a dry patch. I've read 10 books so far in April. Seems like a lot, right? Taking a closer look, many of those books were under 200 pages. I read a few graphic novels (or are they trade paperbacks? see J, I did listen). I haven't delved into many longer novels this month. I feel a bit off kilter. I've been reading the same book for over 5 days. 5 days! My usual for a ~400 page book is 3-2 days. It's not that the current book isn't interesting. I love it. A book of short stories centered on zombies and romance. Perfect fit for me. Yet, I can't finish it. I don't want to give up, but something needs to change. I have declared this weekend A READING WEEKEND! I want to focus on my reading. Knock some books off my TBR piles (yes I said piles). I've organized the ~60 library books into piles according to due date. I want to start with those that I've had for weeks and will probably need to return soon. I've always weeded out the contemporary romance from the piles. I'm really sick of this genre right now. I want to focus on historical fiction, science fiction, and paranormal books.

And lucky me, I've found a group that doing a read-a-thon this weekend... Kristen over at Bookworming in the 21st Century is hosting The Catching Up Readathon

Do you go on Goodreads? Are you doing the Reading Challenge? Does it say you're behind? Astronomically behind? Well, it does for me. 28 books behind! I need a kick in the butt. With the long weekend coming up (thanks to a certain Christian holiday), I figured now is as good as any to try and get caught up.

And why not share the readathon love?

And to make it fun... you can win a prize from my book stack of giveaways (which I will post later). One random participant will win a prize. Woot! :)

So details, details.

When: Thursday, April 21st through the end of Monday, April 25th. Any time zone, start when you want, read when you want. Where: Here, on your blog, on your couch, on Goodreads.. wherever! What: Read books - duh! If you'd like to make a goal, go ahead.

My goal... is to cut that number in half, not have more than 14 books behind after the readathon. So that could mean 14 books or even more.

My goals this weekend:

Finish Hungry for Your Love (that stubborn book!)
Read at least 4 other books
Include some science fiction in my reading
Write reviews for all books read (I'm going to prepare the templates tonight to cut down on that time)
Blog about my progress once a day

Tentative reading list:

Hungry for Your Love
No Rest for the Witches by MaryJanice Davidson, Lori Handeland, Cheyenne McCray, and Christine Warren
Notes from a Spinning Planet: Ireland by Melody Carlson
Death's Excellent Vacation edited by Charlaine Harris
V for Vendetta by Alan Moore
Love Finds You in Tresure Island, Florida by Debby Mayne
Notes from a Spinning Planet: Papua New Guinea by Melody Carlson
Notes from a Spinning Planet: Mexico by Melody Carlson
Watchmen by Alan Moore
Watchmen and Philosophy by Alan Moore
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
Love Finds You in Sisters, Oregon by Melody Carlson