Antidepressants

What makes Young Adult books attractive is the fact that “Happy ending” is guaranteed, so you can enjoy a stress-free usually funny story and be entertained. This weekend I went through seven books by Katie Maxwell (Katie Macalister) and had a lovely time. There was Emily series, featuring the year she leaves Seattle for England up to when she comes back to US and graduates from high school. In the “The year my life went down the loo”, she gets to England, starts school there, finds out her underwear drawer is hunted, and meets some English hotties. “They wear what under their kilt?” happens when Emily and her friend go to Scotland for a month to work in a sheep farm. Yup, they start a competition to bag a Scottish kilt-wearing boyfriend! “What’s French for ‘Ew!’?” is Emily’s adventures in France. In “The taming of Dru” she is packing her bags to go back to Seattle and “Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Hotties” is when Emily is graduating from high school.
“Got Fang?” is the first book of Goth series and the story of Fran. She has strange powers, a witch for a mother, freaks for family and friends, and (just maybe) a vampire for a boyfriend. How well she deals with all? Read the book and see!
In the “Eyeliner of the gods” Jan -an untalented girl from a very talented family- goes to Egypt on an archeology dig but she digs up trouble, a cursed bracelet, a frustrating chaperon, and a cute boyfriend! Have fun digging!
After all the happy time I had with these books, I started “Room service” by Amy Garvey. Olivia is daydreaming while the hotel she has inherited from her father is falling apart around her. She walks back to have a better perspective on her dreams and falls in the arms of Rhys (a handsome chef and the finalist of a reality TV cooking show). Olivia’s uncle is threatening to take the hotel from her, her chefs are quitting, and the chandelier in dinning hall is falling down! How is she going to deal with all these and still have time to daydream about a knight in shining armor? With a little help from Rhys she can manage, I assure you!

I had some time to waste so I checked the number of new books I’ve read from the day I started this weblog. Guess what? I passed a hundred mark this weekend! Wow, more than a hundred new books in five months! It’s a record! To mark this special special occasion, I invite you too enjoy some chocolate. Bon appetite!

Blood and Chocolate!

I’m reading “Blood Bank” by Tanya Huff. It is a collection of stories under one general name, each story featuring either Henry Fitzroy or Vickie Nelson from Blood Series. When I was collecting the Blood books this collection was not published but in the new edition of books each volume includes two books and “Blood Bank” is in volume three after “Blood Debt”. Henry is an old school type vampire (he drinks blood of his victims and is not gentle or cute). He is all power and mystery, an old aristocrat. Victoria (victory) Nelson on the other hand although a child by vampire standards is acting very mature and trying to keep her new life style pretty normal. All in all, very interesting study while waiting for a bunch of new books to come out.
Again I’m in the lab, sitting in cold, freezing my nose off, waiting for the time to pass. Again no chocolate bar in site. Why I’m forgetting to bring one with me?
After some time straying from my dark chocolate (gourmet) diet, I’m back to 71% Dark chocolate again. Finished a bar of 71% Valrhona, another box of chocolate mosaic these past couple of weeks, and now am working on a bar of 70% Lindt. I learned my lesson from that rebellious period. Eating Dove bars, Hershey sticks, and a couple of bags of M&M is not satisfying. You keep eating and eating and adding to your pant size but two hours later you still crave chocolate! Now with these Dark ones (ooh, sounds like a race of vampires, maybe those from Katie Macalister’s books!) you eat one square (1/8 or 1/10 of a bar) and you don’t want to look at any type of chocolate snack. Isn’t it great?!

Later maybe!

Finished “Friends in High Places” by Marne Davis Kellogg. It is from a series with more than ten books, this one being the most recent in the series. Kik Keswik was the most notorious and daring jewel thief, but she is retired now living in a ranch in Provence with her husband Sir Thomas Curtis an ex-detective from Scotland Yard. Her nickname? Shamrock bulgur. His nickname? Samaritan Bulgur. They are minding their own business, enjoying French wine and cuisine and a quite upper crust country life with no shadow in site (except his fascination with a hot TV reporter and his often absents due to his job assignments) till Kik overhears a conversation in a party. Her past has come to hunt her and she needs all her skills and cunning (plus some uber cool cloths and make up tricks) to right the wrongs and enjoy some great parties in the process. I only read another book of this series some years ago. I’m fighting a major temptation to put hold on all the books of the series but so far I haven’t bended!
Other than that, I started “Coyote Dreams” Book Three of The Walker Papers by C.M. Murphy. The series is about a police officer and shaman named Joanne Walker, battling some strange paranormal forces. The whole thing has a Native American background, the shamanism, totem animals, demons, healing, drums…, everything. I left the books half finished because didn’t like the writer’s style. Hey, that belief system of Joanne’s felt very confusing and foreign and I am not interested in someone else’s nightmares…I have plenty of my own, thank you very much!
Colleen Shannon’s “Catspell” a paranormal romance (Ha!) happening in Victorian times is the story of two rival forces of ancient Egypt, fighting over immortality, ethics, power, and a beautiful girl –a direct descendant of queen Cleopatra, no less-. I give you this, in these cheesy romances you don’t have to look for logic or even expect a good background research from the author. Someone (!!) didn’t even know Civet cats are not from feline family but related to otters and mongoose. I’m not gonna mention all those mistakes in Egyptian mythology. Why bother anyway! He/She can assemble a bunch of nonsense with no one even batting an eye to correct her. Why would we? Not worth the effort!
Another good old fashion romance was “Beware of Doug” by Elaine Fox. Cute story of a man-hating pooch protecting his owner from advances of the suitors!
“X-Rated Blood suckers” by Mario Acevedo would have been fun if I was a guy with appreciation for crude jocks, bad language, description of sexy porn stars and action in form of lots and lots of shooting and explosion. Pretty gross for me considering a lack of necessary equipment to understand blood and gut and fire and big bangs and big … ah, well… every thing else (!). A vampire version of Sam Spade/ Rambo (with a little of Arnold thrown in) is searching for truth in the murder of an ex-surgeon turned porn star! Ah, the ways we amuse ourselves!
I am absolutely bored with all these books, no writing talent, no excitement, not even one good plot. Where are all the good books? You said "Harry Potter and Deathly Hollows"? I’m actually planning a little retreat, reading from the first book and finishing the series in a couple of weeks or maybe in a couple of days depending on my mood. I want to savor the books one by one in peace and have fun. I know I would be disappointed and the last book is sad. Right now I’m not in the mood for sad!
Later in a few days or a few weeks!

French women,Shopping, Chocolate, and Cold

I read "French women for all seasons" by Mireille Guiliano for the second time. OK, technically, I didn't read it the first time, I just leafed through the book and check the ways you can tie a scarf, but hey; I also read the recipes for the chocolate desserts so it counts! Anyway, read the book carefully for this time and am regretting it! It very much looks like ramblings of one’s grandmother and as much as I would cherish my grandmother’s advice and memoirs, I have no patience for someone else’s grandmother’s! Her first book "French women don't get fat" was interesting, having a new take on eating and dieting, chocolate and wine, and other simple pleasures of life. but this second book is totally B O R I N G.
Currently I’m trying to read a little of “Life lessons learned while shopping” by Amanda Ford in between my research on OMW thingy but it’s not possible. It’s a beautiful warm and sunny summer day outside but here in Lab I’m freezing cold and sneezing and wishing I had some chocolate to eat! I’m gonna get pneumonia if they don’t rise the AC temperature! On the bright side it is another hour here and then I’m out shopping (or at least window shopping!). yoohoo!

Witch or Wiccan? Which is which?

Been reading Kimberly Raye “Dead End Dating” the first book of Vampire Love series. Lil (Countess Lilliana Arabella Guinvere du Marchette) is a very trendy five hundred years old hot single vampire who is totally satisfied with her life, has great highlights, a fab sense of style and a wardrobe to die for and the best job ever. The job: Her matchmaking business for equal opportunity clients (vampires, werewolves, humans and others). Problems? Nothing, Nada, Zip! All those eligible handsome vampires her mother handpicks for her? She can turn them to clients with a blink of an eye (or whispering a number). And that serial killer who uses dating agencies as his hunting ground? She can find the SOB single handedly (Evie, Francis, and hot hot hot bounty hunter Ty Bonner were just along for the ride!) Yup! That’s Lil; she can do every thing even avoiding romance with the most gorgeous vamp she’d met! She can do it (hopefully! Aaam, Maybe?... If she tries really hard and keeps reminding herself of what her family would think?... Nauh, not working…).
The second book of the series is “Dead and Dateless” in which Lil is framed for murder and is trying to catch the real killer and clear her name. Ty is helping her (in more ways then one!) and the third book will be out in Sep 25, 07. Sheesh! Two months? I can’t wait that long!
“Tall, Dark and Dead” by Tate Hallaway is the story of Garnet Lacey, a witch who loves to disguise herself in Goth ensemble (Vatican assassins are following her). She is a manager in a New Age book store and is meeting a very special customer. He is a thousand years old, an alchemist, an herbalist and a vampire who walks in day light and eats regular food. Very special indeed, very handsome too! Can she study this unique species in peace? Oh no, not with a team of Vatican assassins on their trail and a moody (a hundred years old) teenager wrecking havoc. But you know what? All is well that ends well!
In “Dead Sexy”, Garnet’s past is catching up with her. Of course it is not just her cute ex-boyfriend but a FBI agent investigating death of six priests. Oh boy, can she ever enjoy her Halloweens again? Maybe! If she tries hard, casts lots of spells and be happy with what she got!
The interesting part was the use of words Witch and Wiccan interchangeably. Are witches and wiccans the same? Not an easy answer. Every magic doer can call him/herself a witch even if his/her religion preference is not pagan (means there can be Christian, Jew and Muslim witches too). But Wiccans are believers of the old religion and followers of Goddess (they worship gods too, but in their belief system the creator is the Goddess). The notion of white or dark witch is not well defined either, but generally those who hurt others are considered dark witches (or evil doers). But in some beliefs (for very narrow minded people, I might add!) every enchanter and spell caster is an evil doer regardless of what she/he does! This lead to many witch hunts in history and produced such hatred in people that even today many wiccans prefer to hide their beliefs and practices. A shame really! World would have been a better place with a goddess in charge!

“Tucker for mayor: More of the same!”

I was reading “Lean Mean Thirteen” by Janet Evanovich as slowly as I could. Her books are like a glass of cold lemonade in hot summer afternoon. Her jokes and sense of humor is childish, simplistic and really funny. Stephanie Plum is a disaster walking and all the king’s men (at least Joe Morelli and Ranger) can’t stop her from happening time and again in each book. The best part is these all happens with such a frequency that you keep laughing your way through the whole book and certainly feel disappointed when it is finished. I absolutely adore Stephanie’s character and lust (shamelessly) after Morelli and Ranger. I’m waiting for the fourteenth book and am planning to start collecting all of Stephanie Plum novels.
Reading LM13 put me in a mood for more of Evanovich humor so I worked my way through “Thanksgiving”, “Manhunt” and “Smitten” in 24 hrs where two matchmaking troublesome pooches and a cute rabbit with warm brown eyes and an appetite for clothes are finding eternal love for their owners. Very funny indeed!
The whole “Tucker for mayor: More of the same!” stuff in BBC had me quite curious, so I finished “Welcome to Temptation” by Jennifer Cruise and loved Phin, Sophie, Amy and Davy. The best part was (because I had read “Faking It” three years ago) I got the full scope (finally!). Loved loved loved those crooked Dempseys! Hope she writes Amy’s story next!
Then again for more pleasure from Cruise writing I finished “Crazy for you” and “Anyone but you” but they paled compare to Dempsey series.
Rest of my reading has been about olive oil wastewater treatment and I’m sure you are not interested in that. Lucky you by the way, you don’t have to sit in a small office with three other people and with only one computer and read about ways people screw the planet! Humph! I’m grumpy, did you notice?! I need shopping so badly I was reading my copy of “A girl’s guide to retail therapy” last night and mooning over description of goodies in that book! How pathetic! I’m going out (and not to school) right now!

Jackie is always IN!

Have been reading this book and truly enjoyed it! Jacqueline B. Kennedy Onassis was more than a lady, she was a legend, a true icon and an inspiration! I'm so in love with her style!

Frustration may consume you!

With a purring kitty cat on my lap, it is hard to concentrate on what I’m gonna write! Anyway, the newest Laurell K. Hamilton’s book “The Harlequin” was entertaining but I couldn’t help thinking Anita Blake is trapped in a whirlpool and is sinking deeper book by book. OK, here is an almost ordinary woman, a federal marshal and she is pushed into unthinkable with lightening speed! She used to feel remorse and have second thoughts when she was dating Richard and Jean-Claude in the same time, what happened to her that now she is dating (!!! her word, not mine!) and loving six or seven men in the same time, in the same bed? Yeah, yeah; people change and all that, she is a succubus and she needs sex as food, blah blah… You know what? It is not making sense for me. I have a feeling our dear author is running out of plots and stories fast and has an obligation to continue the series, so she keeps introducing new lovers in Anita’s life, going from threesome and food fetishes to S&M and bandage and dominant and submissive shit! Three quarter of this “Harlequin” is filled with her lovers quarreling and competing with each other and every male body around wanting to have sex with her! Come on! Oh, and that stupid Ulfric Richard wrecking havoc in the middle of important meetings! I keep reading her books just to follow Anita’s fate but I’m getting tiered of all this jumble of characters and twisted thinking.
Aside from that, “Daddy’s Girl” by Lisa Scottoline wasn’t that bad. Although Nat and her rotten luck had nothing to do with her being a daddy’s girl (which truth to be told she wasn’t). Yeah, being the only girl in the family with none of your brothers paying any attention to you, doesn’t make you a spoiled brat!
Yes, these two books were very disappointing. I’m in a dark mood!!! I need a good book with a good plot, strong characters, wide vocabulary and attractive style. Oh, heck! I’ve been spoiled after those great books about medieval characters! Help! Someone please tell me about a new great book!