Day 25 - Goodbye 2008

So it's time to say goodbye to another year - 2008. It's been an interesting year for me. Nothing really stands out at the precise moment. I do know that I am ready for 2009 to start. I'm ready to make some changes, start new things, wrap up the old, and just be happier. I just want to be an all around better person and I think breaking away from certain things in my life will enable me to feel better about myself. So maybe a change in atmosphere is what I need.

Spring semester will be starting in a week or two. I'm not really that excited about that. I liked having this break from school. Just reading and working and not having to do much. But who doesn't like breaks?

Tonight won't be that crazy for me. My love will be with me, which is always a blessing. I'll be with my mom and neice and my sister will get off of work in enough time to watch the ball drop. Won't be partying really. I dont' necessarily feel the need to. I'm just anxious to get the 'show on the road' and start the new year. And I'm ready to dive into my pile of new books!! ^_^

I do hope everyone has a safe new year's eve though.

Day 24 - Guilty Pleasures

Guilty Pleasures
Laurell K. Hamilton

Synopsis [ from laurellkhamilton.org]

My name is Anita Blake. Vampires call me The Executioner. What I call them isn't repeatable. Ever since the Supreme Court granted the undead equal rights, most people think vampires are just ordinary folks with fangs. I know better. I've seen their victims. I carry the scars...But now a serial killer is murdering vampires -- and the most powerful bloodsucker in town wants me to find the killer...
Encounter with a Vampire!
I arrived at Guilty Pleasures a little after midnight. Jean-Claude was standing at the bottom of the steps. He was leaning against the wall, utterly still. If he was breathing, I couldn't see it. A lock of black hair trailed across the smooth paleness of his cheek.
"You smell of other people's blood, ma petite."
I smiled at him, sweetly. "It was no one you knew...."


Review

I should have started this series ages ago! Shame on me. I absolutely loved the book. Anita is definitely a bad ass but she's got this soft side that I find so endearing. She's not a tough gung-ho chick that goes into things guns-a-blazing. She's just very....prepared (= And since the book is in first-person I got to read her hilarious thoughts that went through her mind. From how much she loves stuffed penguins to her worrisome thoughts of what her neighbors would think of her if they saw her hanging in her hallway with her gun drawn in the wee hours of the morning. I immediately liked her in the opening scenes of the book and she didn't let me down even a little. I liked her even more when the book came to an end.

Anita is an animator for a living. Raising the dead has gotta have it's perks, right? She's also a vampire slayer better known as the Executioner. Since she lives in a world where vampires are legal citizens, they are held accountable for their unruly actions just like humans. Instead of going to prison vampires are pretty much given a death sentence. Anita even works with the police by lending her "gifts" at crime scenes involving the supernatural.

We meet some interesting characters along the way...
Jean-Claude- the alluring vampire that seems more friend than foe,
Ronnie- Anita's female bud who is a tough chick in her own right,
Phillip- the lost stripper/vampire addict that I just couldn't help but like,
Aubrey- psycho vampire that just likes to hurt people and control them,
Winter- human bodybuilder/bodyguard extraordinaire
Valentine- a long time enemy of Anita's that bears holy water scars on his face [Score one for Anita! =D],
Nikolaos- the child-like evil master vampire who wants Anita to hunt down the vampire murderer in town,
Zachary- mysterious fellow animator,
and Edward- Anita's not so sane hit-man friend that she's worked with before.
There are also a number of smaller characters thrown into the mix as well. Ranging from Anita's money hungry boss to scary WereRats in the underground of the city's clubs. The character development in the main characters I thought was pretty well done. For the unfortunate few that didn't get quite enough time in the limelight, I have a feeling, will get their time to shine in following books.

Anita has to find out who is murdering the master vampires in the city pretty much against her will thanks to psycho Nikolaos. Speaking of Nik...whew, what a time bomb. You can almost immediately see how strong she is when we find out her age and the fact that so many people are afraid of her. However, her child-like appearance is unnerving at best.

I definitely recommend anyone who hasn't started this series to get to it! ASAP (= I'm looking forward to the Guilty Pleasures graphic novels as well. Both volumes will be arriving shortly at my door thanks to a BN gift card from my love and I'm very excited to see how they turned out. So I know I'm behind in this serious but I will definitely be continuing along.

By the way, I have heard that this series goes down the drain around book 7-ish. That's so sad to hear. I will continue the series until I find a reason not to. Who knows, I may very well enjoy the whole series Ms. Hamilton has written already. All I know is, book 2 here I come!!

Day 23

Christmas went well. The house finally has full electricity now, which is such a relief. Sometime right before Christmas our whole neighborhood completely blacked out for maybe 10 minutes. As soon as I found enough candles to light up the main rooms the lights came back on, but only for half of the house. And having our Christmas tree up along with all the lights outside didn't help. We had extension cords everywhere!

So everything is back up and running and the holiday is sort of winding down. Not so much at work I'm afraid. Today seems to be 'National Bring All the Children You Know to the Aquarium Day'. Hah. Kids everywhere! And we've only been open for two hours. sigh. We were busy this past weekend as well.

Waiting for 2009 is driving me crazy. I have a bunch of books I'm excited to get started on but I can't until the new year comes. So since I finished Guilty Pleasures I had to find something to keep me preoccupied for the next couple of days. I picked Bush vs. The Beltway because it was just lying around. An ex of mine left it at my house and I was never really interested in reading it. I'm still not, hah, but it's better than nothing. I might not even finish it because once Jan 1st hits I'm ditching it for the good ones.

Lunch time is coming up. I'm trying to lose weight and since I drink so much starbucks I was going to cut it back to just getting it on the weekends. And I know today is Monday but I really think I'm gonna get a coffee today =( Not a venti though. I'll get a tall. Hah, I'm terrible.

Day 21 - Graphic Novels Challenge

The Rules:

1. Choose a level of participation:

Minor: Read 6

Major: Read 12

Masters: Read 18

Doctorate: Read 24

2. Challenge begins Jan 1, 2009 and ends Dec 31, 2009. You may join at any point during the year.

3. Can I Overlap? Titles may overlap with any challenges and your list can change at any time.

4. Join the Blog!

I'm gonna start with the Minor level, but I hope to upgrade sometime throughout the year (=

Graphic Novels Challenge

1. Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures Volume 1
2. Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures Volume 2
3. The Boys Volume 1: The Name of the Game by Garth Ennis
4. The Pro by Garth Ennis
5. We3 by Grant Morrison
6. The Filth by Grant Morrison

Info for this challenge

Day 18 - Happy Holidays!

I know it's still a bit early but I'm not sure if I'll be getting on much to wish everyone Happy Holidays. My sister will be working tonight and tomorrow night and my mom has to work tomorrow morning so we won't have much time to spend together. We're working on a way to make it happen as best as we can. So be safe and have fun. I'll continue to be reading and hopefully I'll come back here with a review (= I'll definitely have it up before the new year.

Day 16 - Sunlight Moonlight

Sunlight Moonlight

Amanda Ashley

Synopsis [from back cover]

Sunlight

He came from across the universe - a tawny, powerful stranger more perfect than any mere mortal. Yet when Micah crash-landed on earth, not even his boundless strength could help him resist the temptations of one stunning beauty. Trapped on a world not his own, tracked by enemies bent on destroying him, Micah fought to preserve his very life even as he ached to claim the love that would take him to heaven and beyond.

Moonlight

Long had Navarre dwelt in darkness, yearning to end his cursed solitude. A vampire doomed to eternal night, he had searched through the ages for a woman brave enough to desire him, a lover bold enough to embrace him. And when Navarre at last found her, he swore that together they would savor the joys of undying ecstasy and surrender the dawn.

Review

I finally finished this book. And I gotta say I was really disappointed with the book. I remember picking up an Amanda Ashley novel when I first started to read paranormal romance. I liked the first couple of novels I read so much that I decided to go read some of them on her backlist. I like to read in order, even if it's not in a series. I've been disappointed with a lot of them of her older novels. And now I get to Sunlight Moonlight and I just wanted to put the book down repeatedly.

Sunlight really drove me crazy. Lainey's feelings towards Micah are so over the top crazy. She fell in love with someone she had practically just met. From the first few pages I wanted to close the book and throw it at Lainey herself. She just blew off all of the strange things happening around her and just acted so clueless. It wasn't innocent and cute, it was annoying and naive. When she spends the night at the abandoned house and a fire randomly starts, she just stays there claiming she feels completely safe. And then when the orange juice magically manifests itself the next morning she doesn't seem all that bothered by it. I instantly disliked her and I suppose that ruined the rest of the story. I just kept rolling my eyes at every scene pretty much. I was just very disappointed and I thought Amanda Ashley could have done a lot more with the story. I needed a lot more character development. I mean I really liked the concept of the plot and the fact that Micah was an alien. That was really interesting and I have yet to read many books about a stranded alien that falls in love with a earth-woman. But I mean come on, this was just ridiculous.

Moonlight was much better than the first part. But I still felt that this story was lacking. Navarre was given a lot more development than the characters in the first story with his background and how he spent most of his life locked up just to become a sacrifice. But his attraction to Katlaina made me roll my eyes too. It just seemed annoying to me that these couples were falling so hard and so quickly without knowing anything about the other person. It basically drove me bonkers. Adrianna's attraction wasn't much better. She repeatedly threw herself at Navarre. I do like that he at least didn't just throw his hands up and say "Oh, I'm so in love with you". But he ends up doing just that after putting up a small fight to keep her away. I just felt that the entire book was thrown together very quickly without a lot of effort or thought given to the development of the emotions or story.

I don't mean to sound so harsh. I really enjoy Amanda Ashley. It may just be that this book was a complete turn off for me. Maybe I've just read too many stories like this one that was done a little better.

Day 16 - Challenges

I can't help but join a few more (=

Read Your Name Challenge 2009

• Magic Bites :: Ilona Andrews
• Industrial Magic :: Kelley Armstrong
• Strange Angels :: Lili St. Crow
• Host :: Stephenie Meyer
• Everything Sucks :: Hannah Friedman
• Lament :: Maggie Stiefvater

Info for this challenge

What's In A Name 2

• Profession: The Smoke Thief :: Shana Abe
• Time of Day: Veil of Midnight :: Lara Adrian
• Relative: Daughter of the Blood :: Anne Bishop
• Body Part: The Lovely Bones :: Alice Sebold
• Building: House Rules :: Heather Lewis
• Medical Condition: Burned :: Ellen Hopkins

Info for this challenge

I think I'm going to start going to the library and get my books there. I have this weird thing with owning my books and not sharing well with others (hah, I share it's just I like to collect and own my books) And sadly I don't have the money to spend on every book I read. Besides I know my mom secretely hates it when I bug her to buy books for me every few months, even though she says "Of course you can get more books." So I think I'm going to just invest in the ones that I really really like and purchase those and just read the rest. (= Since I'm getting a BN gift card for Christmas I won't be going to the library anytime soon but I wanted to join nonetheless. This list will be updated in the months to come...

Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge

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Info for this challenge

Day 14

Back to work. I had the last three days off and while it was so nice to sleep in all three days I spent them all with my mom. Which isn't bad, mind you, just...exhausting. I won't go into detail because I do love my mom with all my heart but she can be a bit frustrating. But I found myself wishing I was at work a lot of the time.

Ah, so I have a Christmas party to go to tonight with the fam. Going to visit my mom's brother and assorted family members that we aren't even close to. Hah. It's sad really. I don't consider them family at all because of the way they have treated my mom her whole life. But she has repeatedly begged my sister and I not to say anything to them about their attitude on life. Or comment on how horribly hypocritical they are. Whatever. I suppose they'll get what they deserve sometime in the future. I'll just go and put on a smile and pretend everything is wonderful. It's what I do best.

Sunlight, Moonlight is driving me crazy. It's taking me much too long to get through it and I really would like to put it down. But I won't. I'll finish it. I'm just ready to review it and move on to another book. Sigh. I'll save my comments for the review, which will be up hopefully by Monday or Tuesday. Speaking of which I should go read it...

Day 10 - Driven

Driven

Eve Kenin

Raina Bowen knows she can handle herself just fine against anything the harsh Northern Waste throws at her. Until it throws her an enigmatic stranger called Wizard. First, she has to haul him out of a brawl he can't hope to win. And next, her libido is shooting into overdrive at the feel of his hard body pressed against hers on the back of her snowscooter. But there's something not quite right about this guy. Before she can strip bare Wizard's secrets, they're lured into a race for their lives, battling rival truckers, ice pirates...and a mercilessmaniac with a very personal vendetta.

Review

This is definitely a great addition to the Shomi line of books. Raina Bowen, a strong, kick-ass, independent woman is on a mission to win a trucking race for some big prize money in order to help out her sister, Beth. I immediately fell in love with her when she fended off advances from one of the truckers at the stop she was at while waiting for our male lead, Wizard. Her "stay outta my space" attitude was just strong and great to read.

Then she meets the extremely hot and mysterious Wizard. A guy who was supposed to be giving her some passes she needed in order to finish the race. However, she ends up pulling him out of a fight with the big bad rival truckers, the Janson. But Wizard isn't as helpless as Raina thought. He ends up having enhanced abilities that make him all the more alluring to her. Poor Raina. Throughout the entire book she becomes sucked in and drawn to Wizard. She puts up a pretty good fight, trying to knock some sense into her head and remind herself that she needs no one, but he's too irrestible.

I liked Wizard a lot too. I found him oddly cute with his short and robotic-like conversations with Raina. And watching him develop into such strong feelings for Raina was really nice. I loved following him as he found his emotions after being programmed his whole life to be an assassin.

And yes, there is a very hateable (I'm not sure that's even a word) bad guy. Duncan Bane. Scum of the Earth kinda guy. Loved having him in the book. Because it just emphasized how great the other characters were.

It was fast-paced with tons of action throughout the entire book that I really loved. And there were so many great and likeable characters thrown in there. The one thing that bugged the hell out of me though was the author, and her fetish with the word frig. I swear Raina said that word so many times I wanted to scream. I understand some people don't like cursing in books or in general. I personally don't mind it at all, I actually curse a lot ^_^. However, if she didn't want her heroine cursing, that's fine by me, but it really annoyed the crap out of me reading 'Frig this, Frig that, Frigging Hell, Frig, Frig, Frig" pretty much on every other page.

Just say fuck for jeepers sake. Which I will point out, Wizard does say, once...ugh.

But who knew I'd enjoy a book about trucking so much. Very different but in a good way. Overall I liked the book, anyone into the Shomi series will enjoy it as well (=

Day 10

So I'm all done with finals. How great it is not to worry about schoolwork for a while. My grades? All A’s. Which is nice. I’m extremely happy. Spring semester is starting on the 12th of January. Too soon if you ask me. But in the meantime I'll be doing a lot of reading, so I'm super excited. It's really hard to do schoolwork and put the study time in when all I want to do is get back to whatever book I'm reading. It's frustrating. So I know I'll be dealing with that a lot come next semester. But I'll worry about that when the time comes.

Another rainy day here in Virginia Beach. Which is strange. The weather was unbelievably nice yesterday. Definitely not winter weather. I think it was around 74 degrees with lovely breezes. I love breezes. It was great. Now it's all gross and wet and just blah weather. The kind that makes you want to stay in bed all day and do nothing.

I woke up "late" this morning. And when I say "late" I really mean on time. I either get up at 7am for school or 7:30am for work and sometimes get a little confused. This has happened to me once already. I'll set my alarm for 7:30 and for some reason I'll wake up before it goes off and look at the clock. I immediately start freaking out because I think I'm late at 7:30. I had class at 8am and I have to be at work at 8:30am. So I sometimes mixed the two up. And yes, I only give myself half an hour to get ready. Because I like to sleep as much as possible. Anywho, last time I freaked out I got to work 45 mins early. This time I realized it as I was hopping around on one leg trying to get my pants on with my uniform shirt wrapped around my neck. Needless to say I felt pretty retarded.

Day 5 - The Iron Hunt

I'm not very good at reviewing books. I either like the book or not. And I always get confused on whether to summarize the entire book or just say how I felt about it. But since so many books I find it hard to remember the details of each one. So these reviews are more for myself, I suppose.

The Iron Hunt

Marjorie M. Liu

Silver smoke winds around my torso, peeling away from my ribs and back, stealing the dark mist covering my hands and lower extremities…tattoos dissolving into demon flesh, coalescing into small dark bodies. My boys. The only friends I have in this world. Demons.

I am a demon hunter. I am a demon. I am Hunter Kiss.

By day, her tattoos are her armor. By night, they unwind from her body to take on forms of their own. Demons of the flesh, turned into flesh. This is the only family demon hunter Maxine Kiss has ever known. The only way to live—and the very way she’ll die. For one day, her demons will abandon her for her daughter to assure their own survival—leaving Maxine helpless against her enemies

But such is the way of Earth’s last protector—the only one standing between humanity and the demons breaking out from behind the prison veils. It is a life lacking in love, reveling in death, until one moment—and one man—changes everything…

Review:

If you read the prequel to the series in the anthology Wild Thing you get a pretty good introduction to the series. Maxine Kiss is a complicated woman. And I think the writing style and story itself mimicks her perfectly. It's fast paced and can be choppy at times but once you become accustomed to the writing you get sucked into the story.

It was a slow start at the beginning for me. Like I said, you have to warm up to the writing style. But the story itself was intriguing. Maxine is someone I definitely liked. A demon hunter, the last of her kind, clearly given a purpose and meaning in life and yet many questions remained unanswered. Throughout the book there are new twists, that involves new characters, at every turn. I did feel there wasn't much background information and that I jumped right in the middle of Maxine's story. But that didn't necessarily put me off. Maxine was struggling as well. So it was as if I was riding along with her watching together as her life unfolded.

The boys...How I love them. Especially Dek and Mal. Little demons passed down through generation after generation of hunters. They have a big appetite and a cute sense of humor, but they are fiercely loyal to Maxine. And Grant, Maxine's ex-priest boyfriend. How great is he? He obviously cares a lot for Maxine and for once she has someone she can be herself around. No need to hide her tattooed body or the boys themselves. Grant in fact has his own special powers that indeed help Maxine fight demons.

There are a number of characters thrown at Maxine that the reader becomes quite familar with. I personally found myself a little frustrated. For some, I didn't like at first and then they went off and helped Maxine, for reasons not quite clear, and my feelings changed. Some I quickly wanted to dislike but couldn't. Especially Tracker and Oturu. I get excited just thinking of all the different possible stories related to them. And the Meddling Man, who might in fact be Maxine's grandfather. Her one link to a family she no longer has. Don't get me wrong, there are bad guys. But they too, seem complicated in their intentions. I felt bad for Maxine as well. It seemed everyone she met was somehow intertwined with each other and she seemed to be the last one to find out. How frustrating that must have felt, I can only imagine.

One thing I must point out: there wasn't much romance in the book. Which wasn't a complete let down for me. Sometimes I tire of the romantic scenes. While I was looking for them somewhere in the story, I wasn't upset when I didn't find any. It seemed there was no room in the plot to add romantic scenes. Well, okay, I take that back. There were one or two parts where Ms. Liu could have helped Maxine out a little. But mainly the story was so exhausting for Maxine, I can see where she didn't find the time.

Another thing that sort of threw me off was the back cover. Seems to me there should have been a strong male lead character that affected Maxine in a big, big way. Maxine is already involved with someone and it's hard to pinpoint who the man was in the book that changed her life.

Even though, to me, this wasn't Ms. Liu's best work, I found myself not wanting the story to end. I was left with more questions than I had at the beginning of the book and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm anxiously waiting for the second addition to the series. While the writing style and plot may be a little tedious and different than what most of Ms. Liu's readers would expect, I very much enjoyed the book. I recommend you at least give it a shot and see how you feel about it.

Day 3 - Random Additions

So while browsing the internet I came across this on CollegeHumor. Definitely a new favorite website. I felt the need to document this. It made waking up this morning worth it.


Planes, Trains, and Plantains - the author is my new hero.



On another note, I will be joining some more book challenges in hopes of completing at least one for the upcoming year.

• 1st in Series Challenge 2009
• 2nds Challenge, 2009

Basically read 12 books that are the first or second book in a series between Jan 1 09 - Dec 31 09, respectively. I got so excited I made lists for them already. Hopefully I will be able to stick to them and complete them.

1st in Series Challenge 2009

1. P.C. Cast, Kristin Cast :: Marked
2. L.A. Banks :: Bad Blood
3. Savannah Russe :: Dark Nights, Dark Dreams
4. James Patterson :: 1st to Die
5. Lili St. Crow :: Strange Angels
6. Julia Quinn :: The Duke and I
7. Christopher Paolini :: Eragon
8. L.J. Smith :: The Awakening
9. Ariel's Journey :: Doug Kane and Christy Wood
10. Wake :: Lisa McMann
11. Wings :: Aprilynne Pike
12. Katherine Allred :: Close Encounters

2nds Challenge, 2009

1. Kelley Armstrong :: Stolen
2. P.C. Cast, Kristin Cast :: Betrayed
3. L.A. Banks :: Bite the Bullet
4. Susan Hubbard :: The Year of Disappearances
5. Janet Evanovich :: Two for the Dough
6. L.J. Smith :: The Vampire Diaries: The Struggle
7. Christopher Paolini :: Eldest
8. Philip Pullman :: The Subtle Knife
9. C.L. Wilson :: Lady of Light and Shadows
10. Colleen Gleason :: Rises the Night
11. James Patterson :: 2nd Chance
12. Laurell K. Hamilton :: The Laughing Corpse

Day 3

Venti, non-fat, no whip white mocha. Extra hot. 12pm, lunch time, I have a date with you.

Dragging myself out of bed today was a struggle. Not that I did anything draining yesterday. Just sleepy. Another exciting day at work will no doubt stimulate me. Hah, sarcasm much?

Procrastination has seem to become my beloved companion these days. We share a love-hate relationship. The end of the semester at school was dealt a pretty hard blow by my evil friend. However, finding out that I was exempt from two of my finals makes me smile. Seems my friend hasn't dragged me down yet. 2 points for me!

I was driving to the AQ* this morning on a very well-used busy road here in town that just happens to be under major construction. Apparently the city wants to fit more cars on an already busy road. Try to make it easier around traffic time. Yeah, not happening when you add to the equation. And all the orange construction cones and conjested area makes driving on it tons of fun. Probably get to do it for a year or two more, lovely. Anywho, the point is there's a lot of machinery on both sides of the road. Different sized excavators and cranes. And as I look at them I always think of them as living creatures. Sleeping giants that could come alive at any moment. Silly, I know. Maybe too much transformers when I was a kid, I don't know. But it made me smile as I passed them.

Day 1 - 100+ Books for 2009

I must admit 100 books is probably pushing it for me. I will barely reach 40 this year so maybe I am just running a race I know I won't win.

But who cares?!?

I'm going for it:

• 1) Because I like to catalog the books I read
• 2) Why the hell not?
• 3) It'll be nice to have a goal for a change

So. Jan 1. You. Me. This list begins...

100+ Books, 2009

1. Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures Vol. 1 :: Laurell K. Hamilton (January 09)
2. Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures Vol. 2 :: Laurell K. Hamilton (January 09)
3. Mercy :: Jodi Picoult (January 09)
4. Stolen :: Kelley Armstrong (January 09)
5. Dime Store Magic :: Kelley Armstrong (January 09)
6. Dark Curse :: Christine Feehan (January 09)
7. Marked :: P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast (January 09)
8. Betrayed :: P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast (February 09)
9. The Year of Disappearances :: Susan Hubbard (February 09)
10. The Black Dagger Brotherhood: An Insider's Guide :: J.R. Ward (February 09)
11. One Silent Night :: Sherrilyn Kenyon (February 7th)
12. Dark Nights, Dark Dreams :: Savannah Russe (February 11th)
13. The Host :: Stephenie Meyer (February 19th)
14. Bad Blood :: L.A. Banks (February 24th)
15. Bite the Bullet :: L.A. Banks (February 28th)
16. Chosen :: P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast (March 2nd)
17. Untamed :: P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast (March 5th)
18. Eragon :: Christopher Paolini (March 13th)
19. Eldest :: Christopher Paolini (March 22nd)
20. Close Encounters :: Katherine Allred (March 28th)
21. Ariel's Journey :: Doug Kane and Christy Wood (April 2nd)
22. French Bred :: Frederic Guarino (April 2nd)
23. Finding Grace :: Donna VanLiere (April 4th)
24. House Rules :: Heather Lewis (April 9th)
25. Girl, Interrupted :: Susanna Kaysen (April 12th)
26. The Duke and I :: Julia Quinn (April 16th)
27. One for the Money :: Janet Evanovich (April 21st)
28. 1st to Die :: James Patterson (April 23rd)
29. Hunted :: P.C. & Kristin Cast (April 27th)
30. Step Into Darkness :: Naomi Bellis (May 2nd)
31. Waiting :: Ha Jin (May 4th)
32. Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story :: Carolyn Turgeon (May 8th)
33. I Am Legend :: Richard Matheson (May 12th)
34. Synarchy Book 1: The Awakening :: DCS (May 12th)
35. Burned :: Ellen Hopkins (May 14th)
36. 20 Boy Summer :: Sarah Ockler (May 17th)
37. Remember the Sweet Things :: Ellen Greene (May 20th)
38. The Five People You Meet in Heaven :: Mitch Albom (May 21st)
39. The Laughing Corpse :: Laurell K. Hamilton (May 28th)
40. Gauntlet :: Richard Aaron (June 5th)
41. April & Oliver :: Tess Callahan (June 9th)
42. Strange Angels :: Lili St. Crow (June 12th)
43. Circus of the Damned :: Laurell K. Hamilton (June 18th)
44. The Chris Farley Show :: Tom Farley & Tanner Colby (June 22nd)
45. A Worthy Legacy :: Tomi Akinyanmi (June 23rd)
46. The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening :: L.J. Smith (June 27th)
47. The Vampire Diaries: The Struggle :: L.J. Smith (June 30th)
48. The Vampire Diaries: The Fury :: L.J. Smith (July 4th)
49. The Vampire Diaries: Dark Reunion :: L.J. Smith (July 6th)
50. Running With Scissors :: Augusten Burroughs (July 12th)
51. Wake :: Lisa McMann (July 14th)
52. Undone :: Karin Slaughter (July 27th)
53. Eye of the Whale :: Douglas Carlton Abrams (July 30th)
54. Benny & Shrimp :: Katarina Mazetti (August 3rd)
55. The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker :: Leanna Renee Heiber (August 8th)
56. Water Witch :: Deborah LeBlanc (August 11th)
57. Wings :: Aprilynne Pike (August 13th)
58. Falling into the Sun :: Charrie Hazard (August 18th)
59. Wait Until Twilight :: Sang Pak (August 22nd)
60. Along for the Ride :: Sarah Dessen (August 28th)
61. Once Upon a Nightmare :: Lee Moylan (August 31st)
62. Dancing With Ana :: Nicole Barker (September 2nd)
63. The Lovely Bones :: Alice Sebold (September 8th)
64. Royal Blood :: Rona Sharon (September 22nd)
65. The Sari Shop Widow :: Shobhan Bantwal (September 26th)
66. Everything Sucks :: Hannah Friedman (September 29th)
67. The Tear Collector :: Patrick Jones (October 2nd)
68. The Blue Pen :: Lisa Rusczyk (October 5th)
69. Testimony :: Anita Shreve (October 9th)
70. Magic Bites :: Ilona Andrews (October 11th)
71. Legacy :: Cayla Kluver (October 19th)
72. The Bargain :: Mary Jo Putney (October 22nd)
73. Cleopatra's Daughter :: Michelle Moran (October 26th)
74. Hush, Hush :: Becca Fitzpatrick (October 28th)
75. Kissing Games of the World :: Sandi Khan Shelton (November 2nd)
76. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time :: Mark Haddon (November 4th)
77. Playing House :: Fredrica Wagman (November 6th)
78. The Recipe Club :: Andrea Israel & Nancy Garfinkel (November 9th)
79. The Sugarless Plum :: Zippora Karz (November 30th)
80. The Better Part of Darkness :: Kelly Gay (December 12th)
81. Rising Shadow :: Jacquelyn Wheeler (December 20th)
82. The Christmas Secret :: Donna VanLiere (December 22nd)
83. The Shimmer :: David Morrell (December 25th)

Day 1

Instead of racking my brain for clever and insightful titles I will simply lable by numbers. Seems reasonable enough when one feels as lost as I do. Although I do see myself changing that idea sometime in the future. I seem to be a very indecisive person and that causes my brain to change its mind every so often.

You know, I used to be able to think clearly and rationally, but something happened, and to put it bluntly...I became an idiot. I'm afraid that t.v. and the internet has made my brain entirely too lazy and my creative side has completely run away. It's hard for me to think for myself at times. Sad, huh?

I'd like to be a better person. Maybe fake-blogging will help. I say fake because I would never consider myself a true blogger. How I envy those who actually blog and blog well. The concept is simple really. Write about your thoughts or about things in your life that you are interested it. Well then, why am I freaking out about it? Hmm, I don't know.

I suppose this "blog" is more for myself. To keep track of...everything, I guess.

If anyone does read this, and you feel the urge to comment, please do so. They will be welcome.