Time for The Most Expensive Monthly Thread where I ask what you're reading, and you tell us, and then we all buy books until both the T-Bird and the credit card are taken away! Sounds like fun, right?
Currently, I'm reading a nonfiction about focus and efficiency called The One Thing by Gary Keller ( A | BN | K ).
It's a very quick and easy read (and is only 133 pages for over $13 digitally at Amazon, which I struggled with mightily, let me tell you) (Dear God it's $24 for the ebook elsewhere. What on earth!?), and I'm stopping myself from reading it too fast. I finish a chapter and let it simmer, then go back. The book asks you to question what you're doing each day, each week, and over all, and whether what you're doing directly addresses and furthers your goals. So far, I like it, but I can't recommend anyone drop $25 on it. I mean, for that much money, the ebook should make everyone dinner or at least come with free wine.
My reward for getting my work done this week is either going to be The Smoke Thief by Shana Abe ( A | BN | K ), or Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron ( A | BN | K ) because DRAGONS.
Dragons are always an adequate reward. More than adequate, really.
Amanda: I'm reading Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld ( A | BN | K ). Just came out and I'm a huge fan! He's going to be at Boston Book Fest and you can bet your ass I'm going to his panel.
I'm also reading Blamed by Edie Harris ( A | BN | K ). Because my life needs more lady spies.
Elyse: I just finished Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover by Sarah MacLean ( A | BN | K ).
Reading Never Seduce a Sheikh by Jackie Ashenden ( A | BN | K ) and Sock-Yarn Shawls by Jen Lucas ( A | BN | K ).
RedHeadedGirl: Sock yarn shawls? That sounds like it would take FOREVERS.
Elyse: Not really. Most shawls are knit with a really fine yarn so you can see lace detail. Most of my yarn is lace weight.
Carrie: Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid, by Wendy Williams ( A | BN | K ), and Third Daughter, Book One in the Dharian Affairs series, by Susan Kaye Quinn ( A | BN | K ). This is a Bollypunk romance.
Next up – Legend of Sleepy Hollow (the original!) ( A | BN | K ) and The Third Plate by Dan Barber ( A | BN | K ), which is about food and the farm-to-table movement.
RedHeadedGirl: I'm working 14 hours a day 7 days a week. I'm just doing comfort reads I don't need to think about.
Sarah: Which books are you re-reading?
RedHeadedGirl: Trixie Belden ( A | BN | K ) and Drina Ballerina by Jean Estoril ( A | BN | K ). I'm going back to my childhood.
Elyse: I remember Trixie and how much she wanted a pony. Her mom was a bitch.
So what about you? What books are you reading and loving right now? Or reading and not so much loving? Share share!
I’m finally reading Outlander but I just had to comment because DRINA DRINA DRINA DRINA DRINA! I love that series SO MUCH.
I finished Darling Beast yesterday. I didn’t love it as much as I loved Duke of Midnight (aka The Georgian Batman). However, I love the Duke of Montgomery. Like, LOVE. Every scene he was in crackled and popped. I want more of him. I want to be his BFF (his real one not one he toys with). Who were the main characters again? I’m officially a Hoyt fan now, I’ve already bought Wicked Intentions, the first in the Maiden Lane series.
Before that I read; Beauty and the Billionaire (the cover is so pretty… sparkles… also, learned how to use the public libraries Overdrive with this!); When the Duke Was Wicked (can someone habo and give me a better Lorraine Heath recommendation? I didn’t love this, but I don’t want to give up on her); Duke of Midnight, as mentioned (I finished it one night, then the next morning got up and re-read the last third again. sigh.); and Not Quite a Husband. Jesus, Sherry Thomas can write.
Next up: ugh, a lot of non-romance that I need to read in the next couple of weeks. The Bone Clocks for book club; Radical Acceptance for a yoga workshop; a writing book for a writing class.
But yesterday I started A Lot Like Love. Because I’m a rebel! Not really. Right now I just want to read for comfort and an HEAs.
DonnaMarie – yes. Made me choke up as well. When I suggested to my husband of 46 years that he was more likely to have moved an eager replacement between my sheets than write something like this, he grinned and said: “Who are you again?”
Not many romance writers get readers’ desires for a H to feel the (admittedly out-of-the-ordinary) level of intensity and respect and admiration and affection Feynman had for his wife, and for there to be a similar degree of selflessness in his passion. Amongst a few others, Thomas and Milan and Kinsale always do.
Yesterday, I read A Scandal to Remember, by Elizabeth Essex and she well and truly nails it.
PS As an HR tragic, I found the foll interesting: Feynman went on to behave like a rake in a Regency romance for some years, before falling in love again and apparently living in domestic harmony for the rest of his life. Now that’s a HEA.
I’ve been on a bit of a multi-book at once bender, which is unusual for me. Usually I read one book at a time, but for some reason, I’ve been skipping around multiple books depending on environment.
In the car, I just finished listening to Eleanor and Park, which I’ve read and loved and was so amazed by, and wanted to re-experience but in a slightly different format. I also recently listened to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which was completely riveting and also made me smarter.
I’m about halfway through Hidden by Benedict Jacka. It’s a fairly decent urban fantasy. The main character actually has a really well-drawn divination ability, and I like the fact that he’s not a phenomenal cosmic powers type, and so has to use to some serious sneakiness to get things done.
I also finished Funny In Farsi today, which I enjoyed very much, and has made me want to try Persian ice cream in the worst way.
I am also reading Saga, which I started a couple of weeks ago and really like so far. I’ve not historically read a huge number of comic books (well, except for a couple weeks at my grandma’s when I was a kid, I was bored and all I had to read were my dad’s old Superman comics from when he was a kid and why did I not take those with me, I would be rich now). However, I have kids and we’ve found that graphic novels really, really work for my son (he has autism and is a struggling reader) and my daughter (also on the spectrum but the farthest thing from a struggling reader there is, she’s a huge bookworm) just finished a comic collection called Phoebe and Her Unicorn (which was hilarious and owes a great deal to Calvin and Hobbes) and is trying to wheedle her way into my buying the graphic novel collections of MLP: FIM. So, they’ve caused me to up my intake, but that said, there is no way in hell I’m reading Saga with them.
I think that covers it.
@julia as a rule I like Heath’s westerns far more than her regencies, which is unexpected because regencies are my favorite sub-genre. Always to Remember is a pretty mind blowing one I read recently and recommend.
Fairest of Them All, by Teresa Medeiros. I’m really enjoying it. I’m usually a slow reader, (it takes me roughly half a month to finish a standard-sized romance novel) and I had the first ten chapter read in under twenty-four hours. Love the humor and the characters.
Slightly OT, but still book related – A friend and I planning a road trip before winter sets in. The two main objectives on our itinerary are to eat at a nice, Italian restaurant, and hit all the bookstores we can. I’m hoping to come home with my arms full of shiny new hardcovers to fill the bookcases I built during the summer.
@jcp: I loved Tryst, too. Wish they’d made it into a movie when the book came out. Hillary…
I just finished inhaling K.J. Charles’ backlist. She writes m/m historical romance. Am loving The Magpie Lord Series. The Vorkosigan series, including Ivan’s book, are some of my favorite comfort reads.
I’ve had some good and bad in the last week. After reading wonderful 5 star reviews, i bought Stepbrother Dearest, only to read it and be left scratching my head. The writing was stilted to say the least and the whole second half of the book was a rehash of the first half in manuscript/diary form with exact conversations told from the male point of view. Never mind all the italics gave me a headache. I skimmed most of it. I lost a lot of faith in the book reviewer community that day. Perhaps they are all scared of the Kathleen Hale’s of the world? HOWEVER, all was not lost because I read an OUTSANDING book called The Hook Up by Kristen Callihan. Brilliantly told, sexy and unputdownable. Phew! I needed that.
Working my way through Jill Shavis’ Animal Magnetism series. So much fun !It punches all of my buttons. It makes me want a duck named Abigail. Oh, and an ex-special forces hottie, I don’t care what his name is.
This is my first foray into Shavis’s work. I know that SB Sarah has said that her favorite contemporary romance series is her Wilder Series so that is what I’ll read next. Totally looking forward to it.
I finished The Outsider by Penelope Williamson last week (I wrote Outlander first—you can tell I’m also re-reading that series!) It was a satisfying read, but oh so angsty. To recover I’m planning to read some lighter category-length books or novellas. I read a time-travel short story by Jackie Braun called Mine Tomorrow that was enjoyable but I wanted it to be just a bit longer!
I just read Patricia Gaffney’s Wild at heart, which I loved! I’m usually more into contemporary romance, but this was wonderful! Somebody actually suggested it as a HABO-book resently.
http://www.amazon.com/Wild-at-Heart-Patricia-Gaffney/dp/0451205987/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413996642&sr=8-1&keywords=Patricia+Gaffney+Wild+At+Heart
Update on A Discovery of Witches. I had to quit the book at 64%. After the heroine makes up her mind about being responsible, taking control of her circumstances and solemnly promising that she will not venture outside alone acknowledging there are good reasons for always having company, guess what she does? She goes for a walk in the immense gardens alone because it’s a beautiful morning and everyone is asleep. Obviously she can’t wait a little while or, heavens forbid, wake up someone and the reasons she agreed with five pages earlier are erased from her mind. Of course she gets herself promptly kidnapped. Thus she qualifies herself as too stupid to live and frankly I now share her disregard for her safety and she will always remain kidnapped in my mind as I am not finishing the book.