My new experiment

I have chosen eight books from my personal library. They are of varied genres - paranormal romance, urban fantasy, fantasy, mystery, young adult, and possibly literature. My goal is to read these books before the end of January, regardless of whatever else I read. I currently have an armful of books from my local library and for some reason I seem to be on a Jayne Ann Krentz kick lately but no matter what, I'm going to read these books:

Covet by J. R. Ward

Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher

Charmed to Death by Shirley Damsgaard

Lord of the Fading Lands by C. L. Wilson

Out of the Deep I Cry by Julia Spencer-Fleming

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

Wicked Game by Jeri Smith-Ready

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Here goes...

1/13/10 Update: So far so good. Got lucky with Wicked Game. I even posted the review right away. I think Charmed to Death and The Eyre Affair will be my most difficult challenges. I also must remind myself that I am not required to read these eight back-to-back but since I don't want to swallow both my Jeri Smith-Ready books in one gulp I'll move on to Jim Butcher.

1/15/10 Update: Two days after I started Furies of Calderon, I'm still working on it. In fact, I'm not very far into the story since I haven't had much time in the last two days to read. Makes me think that I'm not going to finish my booklist before the end of January. I've got two library books to read as well: The First Rule by Robert Crais and Kindred in Death by J. D. Robb. Covet, Lord of the Fading Lands and The Eyre Affair are all books I have started to read but didn't finish. I hope to have time to read this weekend so maybe that will help pick up the slack.

1/16/10: I read some more of Furies of Calderon last night and I'm having a difficult time keeping focused with this one. Starting the first Harry Dresden book was great because I was sucked right into the story and completely charmed by Harry. In Furies, Butcher is setting up massive plot lines to carry multiple books in the future and I am completely lost. It doesn't help that fantasy novels with strange names tend to irritate me more than any other kind of book but I am determined to get through this since I have the next three in this series sitting on my shelf. As far as I'm concerned, a Jim Butcher book should never go to waste :)

1/21/10: Well, this is going better than expected. I've read five out of my eight and have enjoyed all of them. Originally I had picked nine books for this thing with A Dose of Murder by Lori Avocato being the ninth. What a disaster. It was so painfully obviously a ripoff of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, minus the humor. Definitely a DNF but not a wallbanger :) I just finished Out of the Deep I Cry by Julia Spencer-Fleming this evening and launched directly into To Darkness and To Death, the fourth in that series. I had planned to next read Kindred in Death by J. D. Robb seeing how it's due back at the library on Monday but I love reading about Russ and Clare and their predicament. They finally kiss in Out of... and I was kinda surprised by it. I had wondered how far Spencer-Fleming was going to push them before everything exploded in their faces (i.e. Russ's wife Linda finds out), especially if Clare lets her guard down and takes her collar off. Turns out coming thisclose to drowning and/or hypothermia is the breaking point. Now I get to find out what happens in To Darkness... Looks like Kindred in Death will be going back unread :)

1/27/10: Finished Lord of the Fading Lands yesterday. Loved it and am waiting to get it from PBS. Hopefully it will be sent today or tomorrow. Lord was different than I expected and I like that book two picks up where book one finished. Will be starting The Eyre Affair if I get the opportunity today but am not holding my breath since I expect to busy as I have much to do. Later.

R. I. P. Robert B. Parker

I hate news like this. Robert B. Parker was found dead in his home yesterday morning by his wife, Joan. He was 77. Spenser and Hawk are two of my favorite literary characters ever and I am so sad that their creator is gone. Damn.

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Angels seem to be all the rage these days. I, myself, am looking forward to seeing the movie Legion when it comes out in theaters. Hush, Hush (not sure about where this title came from) is about fallen angels and nephilim. Our heroine, Nora Grey, meets this guy in her biology class, Patch, her new partner. She's attracted to him but she's also kinda scared of him. Weird things start to happen to Nora after she meets him - she's attacked while driving her best friend's car but when she goes to break the bad news to her BFF, there's barely a scratch on the windshield. She finds her bedroom trashed and catches the perp escaping out her window but when she calls the cops, her bedroom looks normal. And what's with the strange scars on Patch's back? I liked this book and it kept me feeling edgy until the end. I was also glad that Patch didn't sparkle :) The sequel, Crescendo, should be out sometime this fall.

Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher

As it turned out, all I needed was some quiet time so I could get totally sucked into this story. It took about 100 pages before it really hooked me good. And it took that long to introduce all the main characters. Don't get me wrong, this is no George R. R. Martin tome; at least with Butcher's books you can be reasonably sure that he's not going to kill off half the characters in one chapter but let's not get me started on Martin's books. Yikes. Anyway...

Two-thirds of my way through Furies I realized that the book reminded me of Tolkien's The Two Towers and then I saw the quote on the cover by Simon Green, comparing the book to Tolkien. Yay! I'm as smart as Simon Green :) Seriously though, there are a few similarities but this author is definitely more readable. I never did get all the way through Return of the King. Maybe someday, right? I have the next two books in the Codex Alera series and am looking forward to book two, Academ's Fury.

Wicked Game by Jeri Smith-Ready

This book is an A...for awesome :) Here's the description from amazon:

Newbie marketing intern Ciara Griffin lands a job at WMMP, a station threatened with being sold to Skyware, a giant communications conglomerate, unless ad revenue picks up. A former con artist with a canny way with people, Ciara soon learns that the DJs are undead and specialists in the musical eras in which they were turned into vampires. One of them, Shane McAllister (turned in 1995), is really hot and dangerously tempting. In order to attract more listeners, Ciara promotes a new marketing strategy and the Sherwood, Md., station becomes 94.3 WVMP, the Lifeblood of Rock and Roll, exploiting the fang factor (which no listener takes seriously) for profit. It works, until an ancient vampire cult wants to pull the plug. Also playing in is The Control, an equally ancient paramilitary group created to protect good vampires and kill bad ones. Smith-Ready's musical references are spot on, as is her take on corporate radio's creeping airwave hegemony. Add in the irrepressible Ciara, who grew up in a family of grifters, and the results rock.

This book made me want to buy more music. Specifically, the music the vamps played and the playlist in the front of the book. In fact, I spent a chunk of time this afternoon updating my iPod. I won't say any more than the blurb reveals since it covers everything and I agree with the review. I am so happy I have the next book in this series, Bad to the Bone, waiting to be read. The third one, Bring on the Night, comes out in late July. So, to sum things up: read this book!