I'm back! Did you miss me? I missed you. Mwah. Okay, enough of that mushy stuff. I hope all of the Americans had a safe and happy Thanksgiving. We had fun. Part of our week was spent doing some of that mad housekeeping and clutter removal that goes on when there are actually two willing adults present. Let's face it, I'm just not great at doing clutter removal on my own. So, I had a little help. Nice. And, then we did a quick up-and-back trip to Oklahoma to dine with the in-laws (excellent meal, great company), snap pics of the Golden Driller (above) and, apparently, make our clutter problem worse.
Guilty, as charged. The damage, top to bottom:- Castle Dor by Arthur Quiller-Couch and Daphne DuMaurier
- The Artificial Man by L. P. Davies
- Gerald: A Portrait by Daphne DuMaurier
- Promised Land by Connie Willis and Cynthia Felice
- Light Raid by Connie Willis and Cynthia Felice
- The King's General by Daphne DuMaurier
- Haunted and
- Dime Store Magic, both by Kelley Armstrong
- Home in Time for Christmas by Heather Graham
- Consequences by Penelope Lively
- Devil May Cry by Sherrilyn Kenyon
- The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
Good heavens. Do you realize this means I have to dig up 120 books to get rid of? 10 for every 1 brought into the house. Rather hard to fathom, but I think I know my chore for the week. However, I did part with 6 books, last week. That gets us down to 114, if I can still subtract, although I'll have to peek back at recent posts to see whether or not I've mentioned everything that has arrived in the mailbox. In case you're interested, most of the books above came from Gardner's, a delightful secondhand bookstore in Tulsa. A few were remainders and some were foolish full-price purchases, but I don't do that often so I think I can be forgiven. You'll have to ask my spouse.
I obviously have a weakness for Daphne DuMaurier's books and some of you know I've recently become a crazed Connie Willis fangirl, so that explains the two books co-written by Willis. As to the others . . . I loved the one book I read by Penelope Lively, although I can't seem to extract the title from my brain. My friend Mike has been pushing me to read The Yiddish Policemen's Union for two years and I am determined to find something to love by Sherrilyn Kenyon because she used to be in my (former) writers' group and she is such a sweet, funny, cool lady that I desire to love her books. I confess I haven't succeeded at loving her books, so far, but I'm going to keep trying. The Kelley Armstrong books gave no hint as to order, so I wild-guessed, didn't succeed, and now will have to find the first two books in the Women of the Otherworld series. [muffled curses]
In spite of the fact that I had plenty of reading time, I only managed to finish one book, last week: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. And, guess what? It was a library check-out. So, I can't swap it or give it away, but wow . . . Before I Fall is definitely a title worth checking out. The story of a teenager who dies and then keeps reliving the day of her death until she figures out what she must accomplish, the book is consistently surprising and nicely written. I've already added Lauren Oliver's second book -- which has not yet been released -- to my wish list.
I am on the verge of finishing The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley, which is also engrossing and beautifully written.
As I write, I am in a cat-less home. We boarded our little darlings for a few days and they can't be picked up after noon on Saturday, nor at all on Sunday. Misery! It is way too dull without cats in this house.
In case you're interested, in this photo Fiona was watching an anole lizard and Isabel was watching Fiona's tail slap back and forth. At one point, Izzy got a mouthful of tail, which was followed by a mild set-down by Fi (a swat on the top of the head).I guess that's about all the malarkey I've got, for now. I'll return to whipping out reviews, ASAP - maybe even later today. We shall see. Did you do anything exciting, last week?
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Oh, I love Kelley Armstrong. And I used to love Sherrilyn Kenyon - I sort of gave up on her after she built things up (and built things up, and built things up) for Acheron's story and then when his book was finally published it turned out to be...kind of boring. And his heroine didn't seem to be all that different from any other heroine in the series. Night Play, one of her earlier books, was one of my guilty pleasures. I also enjoyed several of the books she wrote as Kinley MacGregor - I remember one (Born in Sin, I think) that had a hilarious (I hope it was supposed to be hilarious) faking of virginal blood on the marriage bed. I'm not a stickler for historically accurate historical romance, though, and I'm not sure any of her historicals would work for anyone who was.
ReplyDeleteThose new books should keep you busy for a while!
ReplyDeleteI love the photo and could tell Isabel had mischief on her mind.
The Golden Driller?!? Seriously???
ReplyDeleteLibrary Girl,
ReplyDeleteI should probably ask you which series has Acheron in it. I hope it's not the Dark Hunter series!!! I guess I'll find out. :) If I remember right, Sherrilyn was still writing as Kinley MacGregor when she lived in Mississippi, but it's been quite a while since she moved away so I'm not sure. I tried a couple of her historicals and a contemporary romance but just couldn't get into them and I don't recall why. Things change, though, so maybe I'll like her writing better, now. I'm a brand new Kelley Armstrong fan and so bummed that I didn't succeed in getting the first book. I looked for Bitten, though, knowing a friend read it and liked it. No such luck. None of the stores I visited apparently carry the entire series.
Kathy,
I know! That's at least a month's worth of books for this reader.
I think it can be safely said that Isabel pretty much always has mischief on her mind. She's a great companion for Fiona, though, because Fi is still a kitten at heart and gets kind of bored when there's nobody to play with her. I just fetched them from the vet's, about an hour ago, and they've been taking turns chasing each other. They're obviously very happy to be back together and with room to run!
Softdrink,
ReplyDeleteYep, according to my husband (who is from Tulsa -- I grew up in a different city in OK), that's his name. And, he's one of the tallest free-standing statues in the United States. I had to go check him out and ponder the building behind him because he's in a rather crucial scene in The Reapers are the Angels (zombie lit) and I thought the author took some liberties. I'm pretty sure I've settled on the stance that a little artistic license didn't hurt but I'm tempted to pull the book back out for a reread.
Wow that's a lot of books!! :D
ReplyDeleteAmanda,
ReplyDeleteYes. "Seduced by Bargains: Film at 11." I'm thinking The Artificial Man might be up Stuffster's alley.
That's a pretty cool photo of the Golden Driller. Never heard of that but then again I don't think I've been to Tulsa :)
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you had a great holiday and you got books! Isn't Daphne great? I need to read more of her books. I just know I'm going to love them all. I've only read one Connie Willis but need to check out more of her books too.
Enjoy all of your loot!
Iliana,
ReplyDeleteWe lived in Tulsa as young marrieds, but I never knew what the Golden Driller was called. He's pretty cool, isn't he?
Daphne is awesome. I've been slowly trying to acquire all of her books and pretty much failing. Some of them are long since out of print. But, my Thanksgiving binge was obviously pretty productive for DuMaurier acquisition! :) I loved the two books I read by Connie Willis, so I'm really excited to have found more.