Nobdy brght a comptr so it lks like it'll b pesky txt upd8s! Snowy Breckenridge, CO has brght on a lovely case of altitude sickness. -6 temps 2day or 2morrow!

november reads

17 books this month and I'm still pushing towards 150 for the year...doesn't look like I'll make it at this point, but I'm not giving up yet!

I'm in the process of rereading J.D. Robb's (Nora Roberts) 30+ book In Death series (futuristic romantic suspense)

Naked in Death

Glory in Death

Immortal in Death

Rapture in Death

Ceremony in Death

Vengeance in Death

The Bucolic Plague: How Two Manhattanites Became Gentlemen Farmers by Josh Kilmer-Purcell

Josh and his partner Brent buy a historic, though VERY high maintenance, mansion and the epic farming/decorating adventure begins! Brent worked for Martha Stewart for a while and he and Josh both go a bit overboard on their own home as a result. Very funny and touching!

Bertrice Small's The Channel series

Forbidden Pleasures

Sudden Pleasures

I read the first in this series last month (Private Pleasures). Mildly entertaining erotica centered around a town where women can subscribe to a "television channel" that allows them to experience any fantasy for real. If you've read Bertrice Small before, you know the game.

Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror by Bernard Lewis

A slim book and a lightning fast summation of the history of Islam and its development in the modern world. A bit dry and repetitive but overall fairly informative.

Entwined by Elizabeth Naughton

The 2nd book of Naughton's Eternal Guardians series (Marked). Greek myths, huge heroes, lots of angst and sexiness. It's not great, but it is very entertaining!

Kwaidan: Japanese Ghost Stories by Lafcadio Hearn

Hearn seems to be the imminent collector and translator of Japanese folktales and fables for the last century or so. This collection was more strange tales and stories (and that was the original subtitle of this reprint of a 1904 title), nothing too creepy. Fascinating studies of butterflies, mosquitoes, and ants (in relation to folktales and fables) at the end of the book.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

Who doesn't know what this is? I loved rereading it and I also loved the movie Part 1!

The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick's Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption by Jim Gorant

Such a good story of how many of these dogs beat the system (which usually recommends euthanization for dogs seized from fighting situations) to become therapy dogs and/or loving family pets. I thought the experience would be a lot rougher than it was. Truly heartwarming and the volunteers involved are so dedicated to what they do...very inspiring.

Mates, Dates, and Cosmic Kisses by Cathy Hopkins

2nd book in a long-running British young adult series about three seventh-grade friends learning about life, dating, and friendship. Since there are three girls, I'm not sure what will happen to the story as of book 4 but I'm willing to find out!

Under the Bright Lights by Daniel Woodrell

After Winter's Bone, I wanted to read some of his other work and I am not disappointed! This is the first book in his Rene Shade detective trilogy and it is very raw and spare, like a rangy junkyard dog, and just as snappy. Woodrell is not one for flowery language or extra detail, just the bare bones of the story scraping across your nerves. He is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.

Mythical Beasts of Japan: From Evil Creatures to Sacred Beings by Koichi Yumoto, Akiko Taki, and Hiroyuki Kano

This thick little book is composed mainly of illustrations from hundreds of years of Asian art, but the few areas of explanatory material are totally worth the journey. I picked this up after finishing Kwaidan and loved a further exploration of the world of Asian myth and legend!

150 books, here I come!

tales of passion, tales of woo

not really, but someone from another library once called the reference desk looking for that book for one of their own patrons and the actual title is "Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe." It makes me smile to think of it AND it sort of reminds me of the card throwing at Rocky Horror. It's an ADD moment to be sure.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving. If you don't celebrate the holiday, I hope you had a fabulous Thursday :-)

I was at KT's house from Wednesday to Friday and had a blast. Cookies, games, Christmas decorations, frivolity, and controlled chaos were the order of the days and I've rarely had such a rollickin' good time! I fell off the portioning wagon fairly badly but mananged to eek out a .2 pound loss for the week of Thanksgiving. And you know what? I'll take it.

I'm still REALLY loving my new used car and just zip in and out of traffic like a little bumblebee. I don't know if I'll ever want something other than such a small car. They are very zippy and fun.

So far, I've failed at my endeavors to blog more, but I did delete a few of the more obsurdly time consuming things in which I participated on Facebook in an attempt to free up more time for other things. I've frequently found myself coming in from work and getting straight on the computer for the rest of the night and not doing anything really other than staring at Facebook and hitting the refresh button. Not good. I have too many books to read and a monthly subscription to Netflix to be spending all of my time playing games and hoping my "friends" will talk to me. I'm also going to harshly weed the feeds in my Google Reader. I just have too many and the thoughts of logging on are too much to bear. I miss checking in with the sites and blogs that I really enjoyed before I got all bogged down in too much info. It's time for a fresh start!

I hope I haven't lost everyone with my blogging laziness. Are you all still there?

library archaeology

Mr. Johnson moved on to something more lucrative after Miami Vice...

Inside Bowling by Don Johnson and Jack Patterson

october reads

I'm still racking up on my reading! I managed to get in 13 books last month and am going strong here mid-November. I'm feeling REAL strong on my goal of reading 150 books for the year!

What is Man? by Mark Twain
Controversial and, dare I say, irreverent essay on the humanity of humans in the form of a Socratic dialogue between an Old Man and a Young Man. The OM takes the position of human as machine, working as programmed and motivated only by his own contentment of spirit. The YM, as young men tend to do, takes what he considers to be the high road. Great companion read to Bernard Beckett's Genesis, coming up a little later on this list.

Lirael: Daughter of the Clayr by Garth Nix
This is the middle book in Nix's young adult fantasy Abhorsen trilogy. Magic, necromancy, adventure, danger, loyalty, and bravery - something for all and I loved the whole series!

Winter Kissed by Michele Hauf and Vivi Anna

Two winter-themed tales of romance from Harlequin. Okay, but not great. LOTS of awkward dialogue.

Genesis by Bernard Beckett

One of my favorite books. It was published as a young adult novel in the author's native New Zealand and it gets catalogued both ways around the country. A young girl, Anaxamander, is presenting her historical research on Adam Ford in an attempt to get into The Academy. Adam's life was a pivotal moment for a society that had already been devastated by a world-wide plague and suffering extreme isolation for many, many years. Anax's historical research uncovers so much more than she intended or is ready for. A++

Abhorsen by Garth Nix

The concluding volume in Nix's Abhorsen trilogy. This is a great series to pick up for Potter fans!

The Red Tree by Caitlin Kiernan

A mind-bending, reality-shredding tale of dread from an author Neil Gaiman describes as "the poet and the bard of the wasted and the lost." Author Sarah Crowe is attempting to get away from her grief over the death of her lover, Amanda, but burying herself in work in an isolated New England farmhouse. Her discovery of an unfinished manuscript on the evil history of an old tree on the property doesn't help her situation much. VERY, VERY good. One of the very best works of cold, dead-weight dread I've read in recent memory.

The Curse Workers: The White Cat by Holly Black

A first novel in a new young adult series from Black, set in a universe where curse workers have been officially outlawed, but are so common that everyone is required to wear gloves so that no skin-to-skin contact, and thus no curses, can be transmitted. Of course, some people cheat, and that is what currently has Cassel in so much trouble. The audio is narrated by Jesse Eisenberg and he does a great job!

Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready

Everyone born Post-Shift has the ability to see ghosts. Aura has capitalized on that by working in her aunt's law firm seeking justice for the wrongly killed. She takes some pride in her work but it's a pain in the ass overall. That is, until her boyfriend, on what should have been the best night of his life, accidentally dies instead. Now she's caught between the ghost of the boy she loved (who still considers them to be a couple) and the possibility of new love with Zachary. This is a young adult novel, but I would only recommend with confidence to high school age and up for language, sex, and drugs.

Private Pleasures by Bertrice Small

Are you familiar with Bertrice Small? If so, 'nuf said. If not, let's just say I was more than ready to get off the YA train and in to something a whole helluva lot *bit* more grown up. In plain language, this is erotica so if that is not your bailiwick, beware! I wish WE had The Channel.

Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen

We've booked this author to speak at our library next year so the whole department is reading his books so we can start the handselling. Chaz pushes his wife overboard while on a cruise celebrating their anniversary. He was concerned that she'd found out about his shady dealings on the job and thought this would be a convenient way to shut her up. Unfortunately for him, Joey's years as a champion diver in college hold her in good stead and she's ready for revenge. Fast moving story with lots of funny characters and humor, some of it very sexual in nature, but the author's CONSTANT use of every character's full name, first and last, was SO F*&^%ing ANNOYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sometimes more than once in the same sentence. I want to read some of his other books but can't make myself do it as that was SO offputting.

Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okarafor

*sigh* I sooooo wanted to love this but it just didn't happen. It got lots of good press but it just didn't resonate with me. It most reminded me of Alice Walker's Possessing the Secret of Joy. I am newly horrified by rape and female circumcision, in detail. Lots of sperm and other bodily fluids tossed willy nilly. I could see the point the author was trying to make, or shine light upon, but it took away from the central story for me. However, I think I will remember Onyesonwu until the day I die. A job well done, I'd say.

Poems Bewitched and Haunted edited by John Hollander

The main thing I learned was that there are billions and billions of poems out there on how evil/witchy/demonic women are. Poems suitable for a Halloween collection about evil/warlocky/demonic men are apparently pretty thin on the ground. *sigh*

Mates, Dates, and Inflatable Bras by Cathy Hopkins

A long running, VERY British young adult series so it's "mates" as in friends rather than any other definition. Short, funny, and highly entertaining! Lucy is an outsider in her family and feels like everyone knows what they want to do with their lives, already, at the ripe old age of 14...except her. A new girl horns in on her BFF and the hottest boy in town turns out to be SO VERY unattainable. I really liked it and am reading the second one now. There are a lot of books in this series so I hope they stay fun!

What are YOU reading?

go elf yourself!

In honor of the fact that I am on staycation this week AND that I am indeed putting up my Christmas tree today, I present to the world my elf self! It is so much trouble getting out all these decorations that I want to look at them for way more than two or three weeks! I have lots of trips and pics to post about, but I've got to get the tree up since KT and the rest of my fav fam of five are coming over for dinner and decoratin'. Enjoy!

drag, confetti, and toilet paper..oh my!

Dr. Frank-N-Furter 2.0

He's got a little captain in him :-)

Great Scott!! I suffered a very minor rice grain to the eye during the wedding, but this was a rice, confetti, toilet paper deluge and I had my newspaper out for protection!

I had to brush my hair out on the front porch to get all the rice out and my shoes and bra were full as well, but I didn't undress outside. Rice vacuums up just fine! A few butter smears from the toast and a handful of cards for sorrow, cards for pain are all I really ended up with. And we've all decided that if we start NOW, there could be some EPIC costumes for next year!

Oh, and I am no longer a f*%&#ing Rocky Horror virgin!

That is all.

I would have signed it twice if it were ethical to do so!

Defund NPR?! These people are daft and not in a good way like Daft Punk. I absolutely DO NOT listen to any radio stations in the area except WBHM because they don't have anything interesting, enlightening, or entertaining to say. When I want news, that is the station I tune in on all my radios. I am a no-TV household and proud of it. Don't take away my public radio.

Morons. How can anyone honestly take them seriously?

Sign the petition!

poetry parade

I am enjoying my Poems Bewitched and Haunted challenge, but the glut of "women are evil and deadly" selections, while flattering in a very Dexter kind of way, is disheartening too. I really would have like to see it more balanced out with some evil and deadly dudes. I know they're out there. There have been some fairly decent ghost poems and I'll shortly have some favorites picked out to share. At the end, I'll pick out some of my favorites overall and list them here too. The spooky poems have been an enjoyable event, might have to make poetry a permanent feature. I don't read enough of it anyway.

Also, the Kia was retired in a very dignified fashion. This is the new hotness:

It's a 2008 Hyundai Accent hatchback and I'm loving it! So nice to be more confident in the fact that I can get back and forth from work without dying! The poor Kia was just falling apart on me. It was a great car but I drive 80 miles a day, minimum, on crappy Alabama roads. There's just no sane way to make a car last under those conditions and I don't expect it. I shopped via Carmax and had one of my best car buying experiences EVER!

witchy woman

one of my fav Eagles songs

I FINALLY made it through the "Hags and Beauties" section of Poems Bewitched and Haunted. It was a chore. I sure hope men get equal treatment somewhere in this book because it was depressing how hard the woman-bashing went on. I thought, perhaps, somewhere, there would be an empowering sort of hag or beauty but no, they all could have starred front and center on Days of Our Lives or some such show. Powerful, shallow, ignorantly cunning...pshaw! I was glad to get past all that.

The "Dangerous Procedures" section was disappointing. Really, it was merely an extension of "Hags and Beauties," with recipes! Blissfully short.

Now we're getting to some good stuff, "Dangerous Venues!" Edgar Allan Poe's "The Haunted Palace" was pretty good, obviously, but my favorite so far is Thomas Hood's "The Haunted House." I will set it down for you here, but I will also be posting it, a stanza per day, over on facebook. It's perfect for it! Creepy and atmospheric with a gothic spice...good stuff!

Okay, the book only has Part I of this three part poem, in total there are 88 stanzas! It's too long to set down here, but click through if you are interested!

Read scary,
Holley