Ten and counting...
I can't believe it's less than two weeks until my vacation. I'm so excited! I have work for a full week starting tomorrow (actually, Mondays are only 4 hours, so is that even a full week) then I have my regular weekend, then I go back for 4 hours on the next Monday and I work all day that Tuesday. Then I have that Wednesday off (unpaid) then I go on paid vacation time until I get back from San Francisco (a four night/five day stay) and I'm off the day after I get home too. Yay! Considering that I hate (sort of) my job, I really need this. I'm so excited!
Living with the 'rents is going okay. Except, with my dad's medical conditions he doesn't have the most normal of sleeping scheduals (part of the reason I needed to get them out of their studio apartment, so my mom could have some space) and right now I have them in the bedroom and I'm in the living room until we get the two bedroom. Which means, when I'm trying to sleep (I go to bed late and sleep til about 10) he's trying to turn on the TV and open the patio to go smoke. It's going to take some getting used to.
And, since I forgot to do it last month, here's my recommended/not-so-recommended reading list for October and November...
As usual, bolded titles are highly recommended:
"Baked to Death" by Dean James - This is the third in the Simon Kirby-Jones Mystery series. Simon is a gay vampire from the states living in a small English village. He's a writer of both historical non-fiction books and, under a pen name, trashy romance novels. Oh, and death seems to follow him. Thanks to a handy little pill he's a vampire who doesn't need blood, so he's never the killer, but he somehow always finds himself right in the middle of every death that occurs in this small and otherwise quiet little village.
This series is always hillarious, and this book was no exception. This time Simon and Giles (his handsome assistant and possible love interest) are investigating a murder that has occured in the middle of a medieval reenactment camp. Give this series a chance, it's always fun, and this book was just as good as the others in the series.
"Blood Lust: Erotic Vampire Tales" edited by M. Christian & Todd Gregory - This was, as the title would imply, a book of erotic short stories with a vampire theme. (An all gay vampire theme, btw.) As with most collections of short stories by various authors, some of the stories were better than others. All of them were interesting, because part of the theme of the book was to take a non-traditional take on the vampire myth, so every short had its own unique feeling to it. I can't say that any of the stories were masterpieces, imo, but it was a mildly entertaining way to waste some time. Not a complete waste, but I wouldn't recommend paying full price either, if you know what I mean.
"Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer - I tried reading this. Really, I did. After all of the hype surrounding it (and the movie) I expected more. What I got was amateurish writing with a Mary Sue lead that made me want to throw the book across the room before I was 100 pages in. I gave up at about page 150, so maybe it gets better... but I doubt it.
"Swallowing Darkness" by Laurell K. Hamilton - This is book 7 of the Merry Gentry series. I have loved this series from the begining, and this book was no exception. Plus, my favorite character, Sholto, got plenty of page-time in this book, so I was happy. The only thing that was odd about this book was that it was almost G-rated compared to LKH's other books. Now, most people that complain about LKH's more recent works say that there's too much sex, so condiering there was only one and half love scenes in the entire book, I guess that should make her critics happy?
Anyway, the series is about a modern fairy princess who is surrounded by tons of gorgeous men, court intrigue, and a queen/aunt who wants to kill her or put her on the throne. At the end of the last book Merry found out she was pregnant, finally, and this book picks up right where the last one left off. It went a mile-a-minute from start to finish, non-stop action, and it was probably one of the best books of the series. Highly recommended.
"Torchwood Yearbook" by Titan Books - this is a companion piece to the official TW magazine. Everyone on my FList knows that TW is my favorite Sci-Fi series of all time, so of course I had to buy this, even if I already do subscribe to the magazine. It had some articles that I think appeared in the magazine, an episode guide for series two, and a few short stories that were actually pretty good. If you're a fan of the series you might want to pick this up.
Living with the 'rents is going okay. Except, with my dad's medical conditions he doesn't have the most normal of sleeping scheduals (part of the reason I needed to get them out of their studio apartment, so my mom could have some space) and right now I have them in the bedroom and I'm in the living room until we get the two bedroom. Which means, when I'm trying to sleep (I go to bed late and sleep til about 10) he's trying to turn on the TV and open the patio to go smoke. It's going to take some getting used to.
And, since I forgot to do it last month, here's my recommended/not-so-recommended reading list for October and November...
As usual, bolded titles are highly recommended:
"Baked to Death" by Dean James - This is the third in the Simon Kirby-Jones Mystery series. Simon is a gay vampire from the states living in a small English village. He's a writer of both historical non-fiction books and, under a pen name, trashy romance novels. Oh, and death seems to follow him. Thanks to a handy little pill he's a vampire who doesn't need blood, so he's never the killer, but he somehow always finds himself right in the middle of every death that occurs in this small and otherwise quiet little village.
This series is always hillarious, and this book was no exception. This time Simon and Giles (his handsome assistant and possible love interest) are investigating a murder that has occured in the middle of a medieval reenactment camp. Give this series a chance, it's always fun, and this book was just as good as the others in the series.
"Blood Lust: Erotic Vampire Tales" edited by M. Christian & Todd Gregory - This was, as the title would imply, a book of erotic short stories with a vampire theme. (An all gay vampire theme, btw.) As with most collections of short stories by various authors, some of the stories were better than others. All of them were interesting, because part of the theme of the book was to take a non-traditional take on the vampire myth, so every short had its own unique feeling to it. I can't say that any of the stories were masterpieces, imo, but it was a mildly entertaining way to waste some time. Not a complete waste, but I wouldn't recommend paying full price either, if you know what I mean.
"Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer - I tried reading this. Really, I did. After all of the hype surrounding it (and the movie) I expected more. What I got was amateurish writing with a Mary Sue lead that made me want to throw the book across the room before I was 100 pages in. I gave up at about page 150, so maybe it gets better... but I doubt it.
"Swallowing Darkness" by Laurell K. Hamilton - This is book 7 of the Merry Gentry series. I have loved this series from the begining, and this book was no exception. Plus, my favorite character, Sholto, got plenty of page-time in this book, so I was happy. The only thing that was odd about this book was that it was almost G-rated compared to LKH's other books. Now, most people that complain about LKH's more recent works say that there's too much sex, so condiering there was only one and half love scenes in the entire book, I guess that should make her critics happy?
Anyway, the series is about a modern fairy princess who is surrounded by tons of gorgeous men, court intrigue, and a queen/aunt who wants to kill her or put her on the throne. At the end of the last book Merry found out she was pregnant, finally, and this book picks up right where the last one left off. It went a mile-a-minute from start to finish, non-stop action, and it was probably one of the best books of the series. Highly recommended.
"Torchwood Yearbook" by Titan Books - this is a companion piece to the official TW magazine. Everyone on my FList knows that TW is my favorite Sci-Fi series of all time, so of course I had to buy this, even if I already do subscribe to the magazine. It had some articles that I think appeared in the magazine, an episode guide for series two, and a few short stories that were actually pretty good. If you're a fan of the series you might want to pick this up.