Back in the Saddle Again

Ok, so I kinda missed my blog...

I've decided to take up the reins again but this time in a little different fashion.  I still need to devote spare time to writing and to my on-line bookstore so I'll be taking less time with each of the entries on this blog.  It was starting to feel like a chore before, sort of like doing a term paper for a high school english class.  I always had this need to write up my review just as soon as I completed reading a book.

The other thing I noticed after doing this blog as a book review blog for over a year was that it was deeply effecting how and what I chose to read.  As I read your comments and as I followed other book blogs, I started to choose books that would be agreeable to other people more so than books that I really wanted to read.  Strange, huh?  Moreover, I found myself forming opinions about what I read based on how I felt others would want me to feel.  In essence, I was lying to myself...and reading became less enjoyable.

So now what?  Why not just drop it all together? 

Dunno.  I guess I really do miss it.  So I'll try again but this time, I won't be doing a book review blog.  I'll be writing about what I read and perhaps put in a very short blurb about whether or not I liked it...and who knows what else.  And if anybody out there would like to discuss anything, I'll be happy to give you my two cents.

Just to catch up since my last entry, here's what I've read since then (sorted by genre):

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Tik-Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum
New York, the Novel by Edward Rutherford
Fatally Flaky (Goldy the Caterer #15) by Diane Mott Davidson
Transfer of Power (Mitch Rapp #1) by Vince Flynn
Hosts (Repairman Jack #5) by F. Paul Wilson
The Pirate Devlin by Mark Keating
Hondo by Louis L'Amour
The Street Lawyer by John Grisham
The Tunnel Behind the Waterfall (Magician's House Quartet #3) by William Corlett
The Policy by Bentley Little
The Woods are Dark by Richard Laymon
Stars and Stripes Forever by Harry Harrison
The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century edited by H. Turtledove and M. Greenberg
Island in the Sea of Time by S.M. Stirling
The Crystal Cave (The Arthurian Saga #1) by Mary Stewart
Well of Darkness (The Soverign Stone Trilogy #1) by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
The Puppy Handbook by Sara John

So now we're all caught up.  As for what I'm reading now, stay tuned for the next blog entry.  That won't be for a couple of days because I'm going out of town to attend my son's college orientation session.

By the way, the picture at the top is "Abigail" our new puppy.  We call her Abby most of the time.  She's a "Sheepadoodle" which is a cross between an Old English Sheepdog and a Standard Poodle.  She'll be pretty big when she grows up but for now, we're enjoying her playful puppiness.

Sweet Revenge

Another good weekend for catching up on my alternate reality lifestyle :) I was off work on Friday due to "SkiFest" a boondoggle excuse to take the day off whether you go skiing or not. I spent a lot of time catching up my World of Warcraft warrior to get her ready for the weekend's play, especially a really long dungeon crawl we had planned for Saturday. I also spent some game time on Fallout 3 as well as watching an episode of Stargate SG-1 (up to season 4 now) and about 7 episodes of BattleStar Gallactica (also season 4).

I completed my reading of Diane Mott Davidson's Sweet Revenge on Saturday. This is the 14th of her Culinary Mystery series featuring caterer Goldy Schulz. These books have sort of become an obligation for me, rather than ones I look forward to with baited breath. I will keep reading them I'm sure, because it's like catching up on what's happening with old friends. The actual mysteries are OK but seem to be getting a little repetitive. This time around it's the height of the Christmas season and so Goldy's catering business is packed with business. This serves to drive the hectic nature of the events that occur; actually now that I think about it, all of these books are "hectic" as Goldy struggles to juggle all that comes her way.

I have to say I am a little worried about the future of this series. It is hard for the plot to top previous plots anymore and so Goldy is starting to act more and more outrageously. In this novel she acts spontaeously quite a few times with very little fore thought and gets herself into so many dangerous situations that you have to wonder at her judgement. She breaks the law to get answers to her questions, even though she is married to a cop. And even he seems to be growing tired of the way she takes matters into her own hands all the time. The supporting characters were two dimensional and added little to the plot except to be in the right place at the right time in order for Goldy to become even more of a busy body. And the residents of Aspen Meadow, the Colorado town that is the centerpiece for all of the novels in the series, are as kooky as can be. So much so that realism suffers as well as credibility.

It may be time for Ms Davidson to retire this series and begin a new one.

I also read the next entry in the Deaver More Twisted collection. Interrogation involved a good cop interviewing a villain who turns the tables on him, ingratiating himself to the cop (as well as to the reader). I will follow my "no spoilers" policy and stop there only to say that once again, the twist at the end was predictable, probably because I knew there would be one...it's in a "twisted" collection afterall. Had I read it alone or in some other kind of collection it might have worked better.

Next up, number two in J. Gregory Keyes' Babylon 5 Psi Corps trilogy, Deadly Relations, Bester Ascendent.