Kat’s Passions

46) Dead to me , Anton Strout. AWESOME! I loved this one! Simon is fascinating and so it the Department of Extraordinary Affairs. Set in New York, the twists and turns are fascinating. I love the idea of cultists setting up as a for-profit company. LOL. Very similar to an idea I had for a novel a while back… and no, not going to tell you just in case I finally get it written. All I am going to say is if you like urban fantasy, get this book!

44) On the Prowl, Patricia Briggs, Eileen Wilks, Karen Chance, Sunny. If you like urban fantasy/paranormal romance… get this book of novellas. Okay, so I am not sold on Sunny’s Mona Lisa series even after reading a couple of her novellas, but the other 3 tales… awesome! Big fan of Patricia Briggs’ series and really like the byplay between Charles and Anna in Alpha and Omega.

45) Birthright, Nora Roberts. Interesting premise; a child is kidnapped as a baby, never told she was adopted and suddenly stumbles on her birth family. Set this on top of the archeological find of the century. An enjoyable read, though I admit I picked this one up because of the whole archeological find aspect. And that wasn’t really explored - a ‘B’ story than gets relegated to ‘C’ level.

39) Summoned to Tourney, Mercedes Lackey and Ellen Guon. Sometimes earthquakes happen and sometimes the bad guys try and make them happen. A story from the beginning of the Bedlam Bard series and one of the good ones.

40) Wheels of Fire, Mercedes Lackey and Mark Shepherd. How I wish it were true that elves were there to rescue kids who were being abused. It would make the world a better place. Here the elves are not only trying to save a child from abuse, they are also taking on a radical religious cult. Another reason why I have rejected organized religion; there are far too many people in the world you use it to justify horror, abuse and violence against others. Oops, better not get onto that tangent…

41) Fire Me Up, Katie MacAlister. So not the book to read after a book about child abuse. It was just too fluffy and light. Needless to say; didn’t enjoy it much.

42) Sacred Ground, Mercedes Lackey. Clearly I needed to go back to one of my fave authors. This was about environmental and aboriginal issues. For not being Native, I think Misty did a great job. Of course neither am I so all I can say it that it felt good to me.

43) Over the Moon, Angela Knight, MaryJanice Davidson, Virginia Kantra, Sunny. Four paranormal romance novellas (in other words kissy kissy stuff with werewolves, Fae and other spookies). Interesting tales; liked MaryJanice Davidson’s best. Light, but the byplay between our two potential lovers was deliciously snarky.

35) Bloodfever, Karen Marie Moning. Not all Sidhe are good Sidhe. Heck, not even the good ones are all that great, as MacKayla Lane has found out. This is the 2nd in a series that is really shaping up well. Lots of twists and turns, with interesting characters.

36) Every Secret Thing, Laura Lippman. After reading The Last Place, I was keen for another Lippman book, but this one just didn’t resonate with me. Not sure why. It was good, with lots of twists, but something just… I dunno.

37) By a Spider’s Thread, Laura Lippman. I enjoyed this one much better than the last. Maybe it was because I already knew the characters, though one of the people in Every Secret Thing did make an appearance here. Like the last one, there were plenty of twists.

38 ) Hound the Falcon, Judith Tarr. When mysteries are leaving you feeling a little flat, do a switch! Pick up a fantasy novel - in this case a trilogy (all in one book so I’ll count them as 1) set in the Crusade period. With elves. Nice elves. And evil churchfolk (and some nice ones too). And kings and princes and saints. A nice break from reality…

24) Seven Towers, 25) Daughter of Witches, 26) Shadow Magic, 27) Harp of Imach Thyssel, by Patricia Wrede. After reading Caught in Cryrstal a short while ago I got the bug to read more of Patricia. So I pulled all the books of hers that I had and read them again. I still admire her economy of phrasing.

28 ) Wolf Moon, Charles de Lint. While pulling out my Wrede books I discovered this tale by one of my all time favourite authors (and a heck of a bodhran player as I discovered when I stumbled upon him one night in a pub in Ottawa). Not my fave book of his, but still good.

29) Love is Murder, Linda Palmer. A murder mystery set in the world of soap operas. Well, I like mysteries, but not a fan of soap operas (despite my continuing to watch CSI: Miami), still this was more fun than I thought. Quirky characters and silly situations. Nice.

30) The Last Place, Laura Lippman. Was still in a mystery mood, so picked this one up from my ‘found in my personal library’ pile. This was a wonderful book; Tess Monaghan is definitely in a mess this time with court-ordered counselling and then a job searching domestic abuse cases. Cases that involve far more than meets the eye. Fascinating twists and turns, and bizarre characters.

31) Dead Man Rising, Lilith Saintcrow. When I first stumbled over the Dante Valentine series, I admit I sneered a little. Both the name chosen for the main character and the name of the author just seemed so fanciful… but I stopped sneering fast. Affectations aside, this is an excellent series. This is the second in the series and here Dante is trying to drown her sorrow (sorry, not giving away what happened in the first book) in work. Unfortunately she gets pulled into a situation where she has to deal with the worst of her childhood. And a truly horrible childhood it was… If you thought pedophiles were bad, wait till you meet the people who tainted Dante’s early life.

32) The Devil Inside, Jenna Black. What a cool premise: voluntary demon possession in order to do good works. And when it isn’t voluntary, you call in our heroine, exorcist Morgan Kingsley. When Morgan discovers she has been forcibly possessed by a demon, a demon who doesn’t want to be in her any more than she wants him to be, the two of them have to work together (sort of) in order to try and figure a way out of the mess. And their ally? A demon-possessed man who is very much into sadism.

33) The Vampire of New York, Lee Hunt. When I was reading a lot of fanfiction (still reading lots, but of a different genre) there was this writer who always got to me. Her stories started out wonderful and got better and better and then… over. She came up with great premises for stories, and was a wizard at writing the beginnings and middles, but when it came to endings she fizzled. This book is very similar - I was fascinated, entranced, spellbound… and then it was just done. Learnt a lot about NYC during the Civil War, though. Just wish the conclusion had been as promising as the rest of the book.

34) Dog Days, John Levitt. Now, I am a cat person… but the ‘dog’ in this book is very likeable. Of course, the focus is on the human, who is definitely someone I can understand. Not that I can play jazz guitar ot anything, but I do understand that whole ‘you have such potential… if you’d only….’ scenario. Been hearing that one my whole life… Anyway, interesting characters and situations. I also enjoyed the fact that it was set in a truly believable world; our own, just with some people who have a little bit more umph to them.

The last two books are part of the pile I picked up on the weekend - yes I have another stack to add to my as yet unread stack. Going to put them aside though; have to get the library books read first. And maybe even take a break for a bit (also got DVDs to watch).

I have about six books that I have already finished reading (but have yet to post here), a stack of books I bought back in December which I have not yet started, a bunch of books I rediscovered while unpacking boxes, and a pile that came in via the library, so what I am doing this weekend?

Going out to buy more books!

Hi. My name is Kat and I am a book-aholic. (Hi Kat).

I have a list of authors who have just released new books, as well as some new authors that others have twigged me to, and I am going to pick up as many as I can. After all, I’ll soon be bedridden for a few weeks so I might as well make sure I have enough supplies laid in, LOL.

I will have house guests coming soon (to look after me post-surgery), and as I only have one bed in the house and I am not going to share it… I need to get a bed for them to use. Seeing as space is an issue and I really don’t want a whole bed frame, I thought I’d get one of those blow up beds. A friend of mine has one, that I used while visiting him a while back, and it was very comfortable and easy to set up. Definitely a good option.

Until I tried to get one.

I headed over to the Canadian Tire website to see what they had, and found one on sale (yippee). Then I clicked on the “availability at a store near you” button. And they were available! Double yippee. So I pulled on my jacket and trudged over to the store.

I got there and headed to the Sporting Goods area. I found a sign for the bed, proudly touting the sale price, but the beds located right next to the sign weren’t by the manufacturer I was looking for. The boxes to the left of the sign were by that manufacturer, and the same price as the bed, but they were all tents (wonder how many people they fooled with that). I managed to track down a salesperson and asked about them, and he shrugged and said “must be out of ‘em.” Then he walked away. I called him back and asked about the price on the ones that were right there. Major sigh, and then he went off to look it up. $50 more expensive than the ones I was looking for.

I told him that I had just been online and checked the availability there and it said they had them in stock. I was told that ‘that thing is never right’. I asked him to look it up and see if they did have them in stock. Sure enough, nope. I asked where did have them and the list he came back with beared no resemblance to the list that was coming up online (the list that gave me several nearby stores that supposedly had them). I was also told that when I called I should just ask the stores to do a visual check, because ‘the systems are never right’.

Wow! Surly, unhelpful sales associates AND a useless inventory system! Whyever do I not shop at this place more?

That was sarcasm, BTW.

I am sure that the whole idea behind Canadiantire.ca is that you are supposed to buy online, but if that is the case then then first thing they have to do is change the design. When you first come to the site one of the first things you are asked to do is enter your postal code. To me that would mean that they are interested in giving me the best results for my geographic area, but now I am wondering if it has any purpose for the customer at all.

If you are going to have a ‘check availability’ button, could you at least make sure it comes up with REAL results? Putting that button on the site indicates that Canadian Tire understands that people want to purchase in store rather than online, but don’t want to waste their time heading to the store if it is not there… but if the inventory list that comes up online doesn’t relate to the actual store inventory it renders the whole process useless.

And if the product is no longer available in store, remove the signage! Talk about a ‘bait and switch’ scheme.

Oh, and if you want people to come to your store, try and make sure you hire people who are actually helpful. The guy who served me was horrificly rude, and getting information out of him was like pulling teeth. I do tend to like to shift for myself, so I only look for help when I really need it. And the help I got from him was no help at all. He would answer a specific question only, offered no extra information at all and denigrated the store’s systems the entire time.

So now I am off to check Canadian Tire’s competitors for the product… I’d rather pay more at one of them than bother wasting my time trusting Canadian Tire again.

The problem with deciding to record a list of every book I read is that I appear to have, unconsciously, challenged myself to read lots and lots of books. I mean I feel guilty if I am not reading! Like I am somehow cheating myself of something (what I have no clue). Weird, hunh?

Well, HA! I am not going to be controlled by my need to read! I had an opportunity to go out to a basketball game (Raptors vs Lakers… we lost, but dude, it was to Kobe Bryant! May be an unfaithful playah, but one hell of a player) and I went. I also rented some movies (Van Wilder, which I had never seen, and Zodiac. Also some TV shows) and watched them. I did errands. I went out for dinner. I was free! Free, I tell you…

And I also read these two books (sigh. I have no will power. When did reading become crack?)

22) Already Dead, Charlie Huston. Vampires in NYC. Heck, vampires controlling NYC…. very gangland. I loved the diversity of the types of groups: corporate uptown-ers; 60s radicals, motorcycle gang-ers, tai chi higher being-seeking vamps, gangstah vamps… and of course our hero, a well-connected ‘rogue’ just trying to find his way in the world. And what a fucked-up world it is. This story will suck you in, turn your stomach, and yet leave you wanting more. Which is why…

23) No Dominion, Charlie Huston. In the first book the Harlem gangstah vamps are just acknowledged - here you get to meet them. And if you thought the other factions were messy… I think I learnt more about the ins and outs of how to ruthlessly maintain power from this book than four years of poli sci at university. Okay, so maybe not, but it was still an education on backroom dealing.

Okay, off to try and convince myself that I have a life outside of reading (just let me finish the one I am reading now…)

Posting a mega list this time…

12) Magic Bites, Ilona Andrews. This is set in some sort of future-world Atlanta where magic and tech don’t really coincide - more like compete with each other. So one minute you are in a tech-based world where electricity and all works, and the next magic is the name of the day. Understanding that was the easiest part… still not exactly sure about the whole ‘vampires as ride-able bug-like creatures’ thing. Not sure I am fully sold on this new series… or maybe it just caught me at the wrong time. Will give it a re-read sometime later and see if I get into it more.

13) Revenant, Carolyn Haines. For a bit of a change of pace - a mystery! Despite suspecting whodunit almost immediately (and yep, I was right), I really enjoyed this. Fast-paced when it needed to be, introspective when it mattered. And the characters were very sympathetic. I looked Haines up and based on the back jackets of her other books, this is very much a darker turn for her. I give it two thumbs way up and am hoping for more.

14) Rogue Angel: Lost Scrolls, Alex Archer. This series is like popcorn; good fun but not too deep. I like the heroine, Annja, but it is getting to the point where she can’t ask a question without someone trying to blow her away for it. This one is case in point… there was so much gunplay you could skip through several pages of it and not lose the storyline. And the storyline in this one was pretty darn weak too. Usually the stories are pretty fun and at least somewhat believable… not this time.

15) Bedlam’s Edge, ed. Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill. A great collection of urban fantasy stories (heavy on the elves) by some great writers (some I’d heard of before and some new ones for me to watch). If you live The SERRAted Edge or Bardic Voices books, you’ll love these stories.

Right about then it was a few days before I had to go to the hospital for a procedure… and I was getting anxious and stressed. What do you do then? Fall back on your old faves by your best authors. So naturally I turned to…

16) Summon the Keeper, 17) The Second Summoning, and 18 ) Long, Hot Summoning, Tanya Huff. Huff is definitely my fave author, and I have always enjoyed the Keeper books (yo! Tanya! When is a new one coming out????). They are extremely well-written urban fantasies, that have characters you fall in love with almost immediately, situations that are scary… but funny, and extremely witty dialogue. You will never look at guest houses, angels, Kingston, cats or minivans the same way.

19) Music to my Sorrow, Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill. Misty is also one of my fave authors, and I was still in stress-soup so picking up another old fave was a must. I am very anti-organized religion, so this was definitely the book to read if you think that much of the tele-evangelical movement is a crock of crap. Of course I don’t believe that it is that way because of manipulation by Unseleighe forces (or do I?)… but manipulation is definitely at work. But I better not get off on this tangent…

20) Caught In Crystal, Patricia Wrede. Talk about old-school! Found this one (and the next) while unpacking one of my many boxes of books. Came out almost 20 years ago (and it shows). Still enjoyable though.

21) Witchdame, Kathleen Sky. Published over 22 years ago, I think in many ways this was a Deryni wannabe, owing to its calling on archangels and such. Interesting take on a pagan Elizabethan England (or Englene) though.

Phew! That is a lot of books! Even so, the pile next to my bed just never seems to get smaller. As I mentioned, been unpacking books so I kept finding old ones to re-read even though I haven’t yet gotten to many I only recently bought. So I have a long way to go yet… better get to it, hunh?

8.) Scrum Bums, Darby Conley. Get Fuzzy cartoons are addictive… you can’t read one without wanting more. Which explains…

9) Say Cheesy, Darby Conley. And…

10) Bucky Katt’s Big Book of Fun, Darby Conley.

11) Hex Marks the Spot, Madelyn Alt. OMG! Not a Get Fuzzy book! What is the world coming to? Well, actually I read all of these because I was getting bored with the book I was really reading… and am still only halfway through. Sigh.