50 Book Goal

[dragon_moon]

34 / 50 (68.0%)

It's been quite the week. Due to Michael's need for routine, we met for our Tuesday walk on the day that it reached 101. OMG. But we had lots of water and stuck to the shade as much as possible, so it was pretty decent all in all.

Wednesday I went out to the ranch and helped Mom clear out the porch - also, it appears that we'll be able to keep it for storage when my mom and sister get stuff packed up. That's a huge bonus. But it was a pretty big project - we started early and finished at 1 in the afternoon, though I suppose we're not technically finished since we'll be making the garbage run this weekend. The horse trailer is full of bees nests!! Yikes. Then Papa came home saying he was going to get some loads of hay. So Mom and I flew into town to grab a burger to eat on the way back, then helped Papa unload one truck load. Thankfully my sister came home in time to help with the second load. While we were waiting the cattle came into the arena and were very social, though my dog was NOT impressed that they were bugging him. LOL.

Today at work we had our annual 'barbeque', though this year there was no barbeque. Annual lunch, I guess. Anyway, Nachos came out and catered the food part so we had chicken soft tacos and then some chips with ground beef and salsa. YUM. Also, ice cream. Mmmm. Today was pretty hot but it turned out really nice anyway. I helped set up, stood around visiting for a couple hours, and then helped take everything down. So between today and yesterday, everything hurts!

Anyway, despite the craziness of this week, I did manage to read. I finished Death Note 5 and 6, Black Cat 9, and The Mermaid Chair. Absolutely lovely book. It's written by Sue Monk Kidd, who also wrote The Secret Life of Bees. It's haunting and mesmerizing. Whereas Bees was more a teenage whirlwind, this is more of a mid-life crisis type of book, but written so wonderfully and realistically that you just are immersed in the story. I highly recommend her books. ^___^

Comments

[chromatick.livejournal.com]

I should have done that book thingy.

I recently finished:

Blood Memory - Greg Iles
Harry Potter OOTP - Rowling
The Good Husband - by that hack Koontz. I'll never read another book by him again. Man he's awful.
Circus of the Damned - can't remember the authors name now. lol
Calderon's Fury -- Jim Butcher (really bad, but he wrote this in college)
Otherland Quadrilogy for the second time - Tad Williams (one of the greatest series EVAR)

Currently reading book two of the Furies saga by Butcher (much much better read cause this book was written recently)

Also reading Black Order by James Rollins.

[mojave-wolf.livejournal.com]

heh, dog/cattle meetings are usually amusing. =)

The books sound good; i need to read something other than fantasy/sf soon, will keep them in mind.

[dragon-moon.livejournal.com]

That is true! I wish I could have gotten a picture of him with the first Dexter, as all they did was touch noses (so cute!). But the next one must have freaked Nate out, because he jumped up and barked at him before striding away.

*nods* A bit of variety helps keep things interesting. ^__^

[dragon-moon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the book thingy is kind of fun. ;D

Nice list. I must confess to liking a fair amount of Koontz books, though I haven't read any lately. Circus of the Damned is by Laurell K Hamilton. I loved the first half of that series to pieces!

Isn't Calderon's Fury the first of the fantasy series? I enjoyed it. *shrug* I still haven't read the 2nd book though. (When is the next Harry Dresden book out, do you know? I'm so behind on my book news.)

What is the Otherland Quadrilogy? I've not read any of his books that I know of. I'm still trying to finish the Magician series - I have read all of the first saga, but haven't completed acquiring all of them in the second one. Have you picked up any of the Magician: Apprentice comics? I haven't seen them in my local shop, but they're advertised in some of the ones I am picking up.

[chromatick.livejournal.com]

No worries, my best friend likes Koontz and though the first Fury book was good too. :)

I didn't hate the first book, it's just clear how significantly better his writing is in the Dresden Novels (and in the second Fury book too by the way).

As for Koontz. I dunno man, I've read two of his books now and they were both just awful to me. This last one had all these blurbs about how it had one of the greatest villains ever in it, it was his best book since "something or other" and on and on. I literally read it in about 3.5 hours...and was like "Uh..that was it?" The characters were like cardboard cutouts and the villain was a joke. But hey at least it didn't take me long to read. :)

I first read Feist's magician series when I was in High School. I've read almost all his books. They are all good, with the exception of the novels he wrote based on the games..oh man those were bad. Magician series is still the best though.

Oh man, the Otherland series is just amazing. You can't even describe it. I'd say it's sort of like The Matrix, but that's a serious injustice as it was written well before that movie ever came out. It's about virtual reality, it's fantasy, it's historical fiction, it's sci-fi, it's cyberpunk, it's about life, it's about African Bushmen...it's just... Epic! And Tad Williams is a master storyteller and writer.

I had no idea that they were doing comics on the Magician series...I need to check those out!

Next Dresden novel is White Knight. It's out now in Hardback...unless you mean the next one after that.

[dragon-moon.livejournal.com]

hehe, yay!

Yeah, Koontz's books aren't necessarily that deep or innovative. I still enjoy a number of them - fun reads that keep my at the edge of my seat. My favorites are Fear Nothing and Seize the Night (these two are related, both have neat main characters and awe-inspiring animals). Icebound and Face of Fear are my other two favorites, though it's been a number of years since I've read them. The last two aren't supernatural types. Anyway, not trying to say you must like Koontz, just giving you a couple older ones that are imho better than most of his. ;D

Cool. I'll have to check out the Otherland series at some point. I've currently used up by book budget so it'll have to wait a bit!

*cough* I'm a bad Fan! I don't have that one yet. Thanks for the info! ^___^