Nicole’s giving away a paranormal romance on October 3 and another on October 10 – stop by and leave a comment for your chance to win.
Don’t forget about Chaos’s birthday contest!
Hey, if you live within an hour of Portland, Maine, and are looking for a job (PHP hacker/JavaScript genius with library-data experience, graphic designer/user interface guru, or brainy & overworked assistant), use me as your referral and I’ll split the $1000 with you! I think working for LibraryThing would be awesome.
Did you know that it’s Banned Books Week? Like the ALA says, “Free people read books freely” and “Closing books shuts out ideas.” Some of the challenged books of 2007 include The Golden Compass, The Color Purple, To Kill a Mockingbird, the Harry Potter books, Of Mice and Men, and Slaughterhouse-Five.
Reading Update
Solstice Wood by Patricia McKillip. A contemporary fantasy about the power of handcrafters…
Summer Pleasures: Second Nature / One Summer by Nora Roberts. Although there are still an apparently infinite number of Nora Roberts books to read (you should see the stack I took back to the library unread!), I think I have this one under control now. Whew!
Any Given Doomsday (The Phoenix Chronicles, Book 1) by Lori Handeland. I received this book as an advance copy via Library Thing Early Reviewers, so you get more of a review than I usually provide. 🙂 The pros: A strong female protagonist and an intriguing premise suggest that The Phoenix Chronicles might be a worthwhile series to follow. The cons: This reminded me way too much of Anita Blake, post ardeur. Since I think the onset of the arrdeur is what turned that series from a great paranormal fantasy/romance series to a soft porn series, this wasn’t a positive association. To further the Anita Blake similarities, the protagonist, Liz Phoenix, is torn between two men – one with vampiristic characteristics, the other with wereish characteristics.
Hotter than Hell, edited by Kim Harrison. Although there were several decent stories in this collection, it wasn’t anywhere near as strong as the Dates from Hell or Holidays Are Hell collections.
Hell Hole (A John Ceepak Mystery) by Chris Grabenstein. Another intense Jersey Shore mystery – I suspect that fans of Robert B. Parker will particularly like Grabenstein’s style.
One Bite Stand (MacKenzie Vampires, Book 4) by Nina Bangs. Yes, lured by another cheesy title, I found this a surprisingly enjoyable read and will have to read the first three books now.
A Dose of Murder, The Stiff and the Dead, One Dead Under the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Deep Sea Dead (Pauline Sokol Mysteries, Books 1-4) by Lori Avocato. This humorous mystery series is strongly modeled after Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum mysteries – simply substitute Pauline for Stephanie, Jagger for Ranger, Nick for Joe, Uncle Walt for Gramma Mazur, Goldie for Lulu, Fabio for Vinny, Adele for Connie, Spanky for Rex, Connecticut for New Jersey, family dinners at the Sokols instead of at the Plums, and being a bumbling medical insurance fraud investigator for being a bumbling bounty hunter. Fortunately, the fourth book was a lot better than the third, which needed at least 100 pages hacked out of it.
“Aw, shucks, you guys. You are too kind! Thank you all.” -Chaos