What did I find waiting on the doorstep this evening?  Why, books, of course!

I've generally given up on anthologies, because I resent paying $8 for what usually amounts to one short story that I enjoy and three or four filler stories by authors who don't interest me.  But Meljean Brook posted last week that the First Blood anthology, with her " ( Read more... )

This past Wednesday was TBR Challenge day.  I've been negligent about the TBR Challenge lately, but I did pull a book off the TBR this month, so here's my belated report.

Title:  The Bellini Bride
Author:  Michelle Reid
(c)2001 Harlequin/Mills & Boon

Why this book?  I bought a bunch of used Harlequin Presents a while back, part of the backlist of ( Read more... )

I'm failing Avidbookreader's TBR Challenge 2010.

This month's TBR book, Girl Overboard by Justina Chen Headley, was very appealing.  Loved the blurb, liked the non-white heroine/protagonist, enjoyed Chen's debut, Nothing but the Trusth (and a Few White Lies).  But I couldn't get past the half way point of Girl Overboard.  There wasn't anything wrong ( Read more... )

It's that time of year again. March Madness! Opening day for MLB! No, the really important thing that happens this time each year for the last few year? The Washington Post's Peeps diorama contest. Check out this year's finalists, taking a close look at my faves, "Peeps and Prejudice and Zombies" and "Where the Wild Peeps Are". Other book- ( Read more... )

The date for posting about your February read for Avid Reader's TBR Challenge was last Wednesday, but I missed it.   Better late than never, right?

The proposed theme for February was virgin heroes, but I couldn't find one on my TBR shelves.  It's possible that he could've been hiding there, but I didn't feel like making a huge effort to find one.   ( Read more... )

Avid Reader's TBR Challenge is good for me and my TBR.  It is slowly (very slowly) winnowing down the TBR mountain.  Sometimes I wonder why some of the occupants are on the shelves, though, since so many of the books I select for the challenge wind up unfinished.

This month's book: Fashionably Late by Nadine Adjani

(c) 2007 by Forge/Tom Doherty ( Read more... )

It seems sort of appropriate to SBD about the reading-related resolution I made this year.

The heart of the resolution is not new -- reduce the TBR mountain -- but the mechanism for it is different.  Instead of deciding that I must read X number of books, I must clear X off the shelves each month no matter what, whether I've read them or not.  And I ( Read more... )

The TBR is huge, but I still look forward to adding to it! Here are some of the books I'm looking forward to in 2010. March, April, June and July look to be exceptional months for reading at Chez JMC.


( Read more... )

The book selected for this last TBR Challenge of 2009 was Melissa Nathan's The Waitress. I'd heard good things about Ms. Nathan's work. Alas, i left it unfinished, and couldn't really pinpoint why. Was able to set it aside easily, never really engaged by the characters. It's me, not the book, I'm sure.

This month’s TBR Challenge book is Ariana Franklin’s Mistress of the Art of Death.

Why this book? Avid Reader reviewed it when it was first released, and it sounded interesting. [I’ve been intrigued by the Plantagenets since first reading Jean Plaidy’s historical novels, grabbing them from my mother’s stack of library books. Henry II in particular, ( Read more... )