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Here are books 26-50.

Roberts, Nora: Dance of the Gods (03/20/07)

Roberts, Nora: Valley of Silence (03/26/07)

Moore, Christopher: You Suck (03/28/07)*

Flock, Elizabeth: But Inside I’m Screaming (04/01/07)*

Picoult, Jodi: The Pact (04/05/07)*

Montgomery, L.M.: Anne of Windy Poplars (04/07/07)

Montgomery, L.M.: Anne’s House of Dreams (04/11/07)

Montgomery, L.M.: Anne of Ingleside (04/15/07)

Montgomery, L.M.: Rainbow Valley (04/16/07)

Montgomery, L.M.: Rilla of Ingleside (04/18/07)

Roberts, Nora: Angel Falls (04/19/07)

Evanovich, Janet: Four to Score (04/23/07)

Evanovich, Janet: High Five (04/24/07)

Evanovich, Janet: Hot Six (04/25/07)

Evanovich, Janet: Seven Up (04/26/07)

Evanovich, Janet: Hard Eight (04/27/07)

Evanovich, Janet: Ten Big Ones (04/28/07)

Evanovich, Janet: To the Nines (04/28/07)

Evanovich, Janet: Eleven on Top (04/29/07)

Evanovich, Janet: Plum Lovin’ (05/07/07)

Evanovich, Janet: Twelve Sharp (05/10/07)

Evanovich, Janet: Visions of Sugar Plums (05/10/07)

Haydon, Elizabeth: Rhapsody (05/10/07)*

Haydon, Elizabeth: Prophecy (05/19/07)

Haydon, Elizabeth: Destiny (05/21/07)

Since I did so much reading this year, I want to post a list of everything I read. It’s too long to put in one post, so I’m breaking it up into groups of 25 books. The * denotes an author I had never read before.

Sunny: Mona Lisa Awakening (01/01/07)*

Saintcrow, Lilith: Working for the Devil (01/02/07)*

Saintcrow, Lilith: Dead Man Rising (01/03/07)*

Gaiman, Neil, and Pratchett, Terry: Good Omens (01/05/07)*

Shayne, Maggie: Prince of Twilight (01/06/07)

Hendee, Barb and J.C.: Thief of Lives (01/12/07)*

Hendee, Barb and J.C.: Sister of the Dead (01/14/07)

Bennett, Janice, Blayne, Sara, and Ellis, Monique: Lord of the Night (01/16/07)*

Montgomery, L.M.: Anne of Green Gables (01/18/07)

Brashares, Ann: Forever in Blue (01/19/07)

Montgomery, L.M.: Anne of Avonlea (01/19/07)

Montgomery, L.M.: Anne of the Island (01/20/07)

Lisle, Holly: Courage of Falcons (01/24/07)

Lisle, Holly: Sympathy for the Devil (01/26/07)

King, Stephen: The Shining (01/27/07)

Stackpole, Michael A.: Talion Revenant (02/01/07)

King, Stephen: Secret Windows (02/19/07)

Marillier, Juliet: Lady of the Forest (02/22/07)*

Marillier, Juliet: Son of the Shadows (03/07/07)

Marillier, Juliet: Child of the Prophecy (03/10/07)

Evanovich, Janet: One for the Money (03/11/07)*

Evanovich, Janet: Two for the Dough (03/12/07)

Evanovich, Janet: Three to get Deadly (03/13/07)

Kopelman, Jay Lt. Col.: From Baghdad, With Love (03/15/07)*

Roberts, Nora: Morrigan’s Cross (03/17/07)

I finished reading the anthology, Holidays are Hell. Pretty entertaining read, although I don’t usually do short stories. I like to get much more involved with the characters. I did enjoy the Rachel Morgan story, from before the series. That was pretty good, although I missed Jenks. I’ve read Lyndsay Sands as well, and this was a good short story, too. I’m glad there was a story by Marjorie M. Liu, since I’ve been hearing good things about her. This gave me a chance to sort of preview her writing, and I was impressed, so I’ll probably be buying more of her stuff. The story by Vicki Pettersson was interesting to me. I liked the whole set-up of the world, it was an interesting take on superheroes. All in all, a good read, just a little bit short.

I like thick books. I like to get involved with the character and the world, and all the intricacies of plot and just lose myself in the story. That said, I’m now reading my favorite book ever. Gone with the Wind. Again. For at least the twentieth time. I’ve read it at least once every year since I was eleven. (I left it kind of late this year, so I may not finish before the first.) Even though I know every single thing that is going to happen, I still love it. I have the first line memorized (and the second and third), and the last line, of course. Kind of nerdy, I admit, but that just sort of happened by accident.

I think Scarlett O’Hara is a great character. She’s flawed, definitely, but that only makes her more interesting. She’s self-centered and conceited, but she’s smart enough to realize she’s different from everyone else she knows. Except for Rhett, of course, and I think he’s a great character, too. I get so mad every time I read this book! I just want to slap Scarlett and shake some sense into her, and tell them both to quite being so prideful! So, that’s all I’m reading now, just getting lost in the world of Southern belles and the Civil War.

I’ve actually done quite a bit of reading over the last couple of weeks (while I was avoiding NaNo). Two books in series I’ve previously read, three new authors, and one author that I normally don’t read.

I read Confessor, by Terry Goodkind, the last in the Sword of Truth series. I really like these books, and I’ve enjoyed all of them. I discovered them quite by accident. I read something about one of the books, I think it was Temple of the Winds, and thought it sounded good. So, I went to the bookstore to get it. And discovered it was the fourth book in a series. I decided to try the first one, and was completely enthralled from the first sentence. I devoured that, and had to go back the next week to get the other three books. Terry Goodkind is not afraid to be very, very cruel to his characters, and I know I cried several times while reading the series. Parts of it are funny, parts of it are very serious. There are so many layers to the series that it amazes me. Confessor was a fitting ending to the series. I enjoyed it a lot, and I think he wrapped up everything neatly (although I would still love to read more in this world). Richard and Kahlan are great characters, and after reading the series, I feel like I know them personally.

Next up was Halfway to the Grave, by Jeanine Frost. I heard her speak this summer at Conestoga, on a panel about vampires, and I was impressed by what she had to say (Plus, she gave away really cool cover flaps of her book.). Halfway to the Grave is about a girl who lures vampires and slays them, in amateur fashion. One of her attempted murders goes awry when she tries to stake Bones, who takes her under his wing and trains her so they can go after a really bad vampire who is kidnapping and selling women. I wasn’t too sure about the first part of this book, but I ended up really enjoying it, and I’m looking forward to the next in the series. I thought Frost’s writing was strong, and she did a good job with this story.

The High King’s Tomb by Kristen Britain was a very enjoyable story. I stumbled over the first book in this series, and have been hooked ever since. (Strangely enough, I was checking Amazon to see if she had written anything new, and it happened to be this book’s release day). The characters are great, especially Karigan, and even minor ones are well-drawn. There is always a lot of action and mystery, and I enjoy that. (And dang it, I want Karigan and the King to get together!) I think I read somewhere that Kristen Britain is a protégée of Terry Goodkind’s, so the story quality is definitely good.

For some reason (my mother made me), I read Nicholas Sparks’ A Bend in the Road. I don’t normally read Sparks, because I’ve read several of his things in the past, and I just don’t enjoy them. This one wasn’t a bad story, and the writing was fine, but I figured out what was going to happen early on, and I’m not a big fan of predictability in my reading.

Also read Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. I’ve heard a lot about this book this year, so I decided to read it. It was…a little strange. Mind you, I had to force myself to put it down at night, but it was an uncomfortable book to me. I thought it was odd that the characters’ names were never revealed, and the whole world was depressing to me. Good writing, just not a book I would read again.

Last up is A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. LeGuin. I’ve never read anything of hers before, and tried this one on a whim. I enjoyed it, despite its brevity and the formality of the language. Ged is an interesting character to me, and he grew a lot in this story. I’m now working on the second book in the trilogy.

I haven’t done much reading in the last week. In fact, for me, two books is quite sad. I read Keri Arthur’s Kissing Sin, which is the second book in the series. I actually like the main character, Riley, and her brother Rhoan quite a bit. She’s a pretty independent woman, which is always a good thing, in my opinion. A lot of the mystery from the first book , Full Moon Rising, is carried over, and some of the questions actually get answered. There are a lot of strong secondary characters, all sorts of strange critters, along with plenty of murder and mayhem. My only real problem with the book was some of the more…physical aspects, which seemed to be thrown in without regard to plot relativity. I understand that these werewolves are very sexual creatures, I just found it odd that Riley would be that fixated on sex (and with a stranger, at that), while she was running for her life. Maybe it’s just me. It’s certainly a lot tamer than anything Laurell K. Hamilton writes.

I also read Touch the Dark, by Karen Chance. I really liked this book a lot! The MC, Cassie, is a clairvoyant running from her old vampire master. The vampire senate turns up to help her, but she thinks they have ulterior motives. And she’s right. Cassie’s pretty funny at times, and her sidekick, a ghost named Billy Joe, is a trip. I like most of the vampire characters, and there’s even a war mage. All in all, a pretty cool book. I like the worldbuilding. I’m currently reading the sequel, Claimed by Shadow. It’s great, too, and I’m determined to finish it before NaNo starts!

Slightly off topic, but does anyone else watch Moonlight? I like this show. Surprisingly. I usually have issues with vampire movies/TV shows, but I enjoy this one a lot. It helps that the MC, Mick, is pretty attractive, but leaving that out, I think they do a pretty good job. Not terribly original, I guess, but still entertaining. And I hardly ever watch TV! Normally, all I watch is Lost (which of course, isn’t back on until FEBRUARY!). Now I’ve also added Moonlight and The Big Bang Theory, which completely cracks me up. Last night I laughed so hard I almost fell on the floor. (The line about Home habilus discovering his opposable thumbs almost did me in.)

One last thought. I’m going to try to post my NaNo progress here every day. My goal is to at least get my daily word count and total word count posted, along with any other thoughts. Good luck to any of you doing NaNo!

I haven’t had quite as much time to read this week as I’d like. Still, I did get a little bit of reading done, most of it quite enjoyable.

I finished reading the Kitty books by Carrie Vaughn, Kitty Goes to Washington and Kitty Takes a Holiday. I enjoyed both of these way more than the first book in the series. Kitty developed into a character I actually liked and cared about. Some of the developments in the third book caught me off-guard. (Ben? Didn’t see that one coming.) Plus, there were some pretty cool additions to the world. I like the skinwalkers concept a lot.

I also read Something Wicked by Catherine Mulvany. I don’t normally read a lot of things that are marketed as romance, even paranormal romance. Not that I have anything against romances. I started reading them at a young age, and I’ve read a ton of them. There are some very talented authors out there writing romance, and I still enjoy a good one every now and then. That said, I don’t pick up a romance unless it has another strong element to it (mystery, historical period or place I’m interested in, etc.). In addition to loving the title, Something Wicked, I liked the premise behind it as well. A vampire searching for a spring of miracles? Interesting. A vampire biker gang with a vendetta against said vampire? Even better. I liked the MCs in this book, and the history/flashbacks as well. Regan is a strong female character, which of course is always a good thing. And Nash was suitably conflicted and noble. This is actually the first book by Mulvany I’ve read, but I think I’ll be picking up more of hers in the future.

I’ve actually had some time to read this week. I read some things I really liked, too, which is always a good thing. Hmm… Where to start?

I read Kimberly Raye’s Dead End Dating and Dead and Dateless. They were both pretty funny. I like Lil, the main character. She’s a trip. I’m not much on shopping or name brands, myself, but it’s such a life-or-death matter to her that it’s hysterical. Sometimes she’s shallow, and she makes no apologies for it. And her family! Whew. Makes me tired just thinking about it. I loved that her mother is just horrified her brother is getting serious with a human woman. And her dad’s feud with the werewolf next door is a hoot. And the bounty hunter, Ty, well, he’s a great character.

I’ve also read Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn. I liked it, although I really didn’t care for Carl and Meg. Not a bit. Plus, the end was sad! Good character growth, though. Kitty changes a lot over the course of the book, and I liked that.

The best thing I read this week was The Bone Garden, by Tess Gerritsen. I’m a big fan of her work, and I really enjoyed this one. I likedthe two-stories-in-one aspect of the book, although I was really entranced with Rose and Norris’s story (set in the 1800s). It was appropriately bloody, and kept me guessing as to who the killer was (always a good thing). This one made me cry, though. But I do highly recommend it. Gerritsen is always a pleasure, and this one was no exception.