26, 27, 28, 29) Four Completely Different Books -- just read this.

Haven't been updating lately, but have done a little reading.  Not nearly enough for the challenge I've set for myself, but considering I read about 7 books over the March Break this year I'm hoping I can catch up over these two summer months off from work (well, off from teaching -- I have a nannying job, but I'll still have plenty of time for reading in between my nannying hours).  Anyway, here are some of the books I read but didn't blog about!

26) Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
This is the fourth book in Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians YA series.  I love this series, A LOT, and really enjoyed reading this installment.  Percy and his friends find themselves on a new quest -- into the Labyrinth, to stop Luke from raising Kronos and taking over Camp Halfblood, and eventually Olympus.  It's got lots of adventure and fun, and it really sets things up for the conclusion of the series (or, what I'm fairly certain is the conclusion -- book five, The Last Olympian, which Scooter and I haven't bought to read yet).  If you haven't given these books a try, but you like books such as Harry Potter, I'd definitely read them.

27) Dead and Gone (Sookie Stackhouse #9) by Charlaine Harris
I am so cheap and refuse to buy these books hardcover, so I only just now finally read the ninth Sookie Stackhouse novel; number ten is already on bookshelves but it's still hardcover itself so I'll be waiting until next spring for that one too.  Book 9 was another great Sookie story, and I'm in love with these characters.  I also watch the television series, "True Blood" (which is probably what helps me be able to wait to read the new books in soft-cover, it sort of bridges the gap by having a TV Sookie in my life).

28) Angels by Marian Keyes
I am a huge fan of Keyes' Walsh family.  I've read these books completely out of order, but have read three of the four books that each feature a different Walsh sister (I read Rachel's Holiday first, then read Is Anybody Out There? which is Anna's story, and then read Angels, which about Maggie Walsh and comes before either of the other two I read -- the only one I haven't read yet is Watermelon, which is Claire's story and is actually the FIRST of the Walsh sister's books).  The good thing is?  It doesn't really matter TOO much if you read them out of order, as I've found.  I'm eagerly waiting for Helen, the youngest of the Walsh sisters, to have a book featured about her soon too (since I'm sure it's inevitable).  My favourite of these books is Anna's story (Is Anybody Out There?), but any of them so far have been great.

29) Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA by Ellen Meister
I picked this up off of the 80%-off shelf at Chapters (a frequent place for my book-buying, since $4.99 is a sweet price for a novel).  It was actually not bad, a good beside-the-pool read.  The characters are all going through some relationship issues, and there are some affairs/potential affairs/weird moments, but it wasn't a bad story and it had nice pacing.  The characters were likeable enough -- if a little sex-obsessed at times.

Alrighty, 29 down and ... oh.. hmm.. you know, only 71 books left to read this year.  HA. HA HA HA. /crying on the inside.

January Reading Update

I need to post more here, so I'm just going to restructure my posts to less elaborate info about the books I've read... in order to entice me to keep posting.

Books Read In December/January:

By Nicholas Sparks
The Choice
The Lucky One

Both highly recommended (The Lucky One especially). More fantastic books by Mr. Sparks. LOVE HIM.

By Charlaine Harris
Dead Until Dark (book 1, Sookie Stackhouse series)
Living Dead In Dallas (book 2, Sookie Stackhouse series)
Club Dead (book 3, Sookie Stackhouse series)
Dead to the World (book 4, Sookie Stackhouse series)

I am absolutely in love with this book series, and am going through them like CANDY. Read them. READ THEM NOW. (Here's a link to the box set that I purchased on Amazon)

Currently Reading:
Dead as a Doornail (book 5, Sookie Stackhouse Series) by Charlaine Harris
Chasing Fireflies by Charles Martin

I just joined GoodReads.com and I am addicted to this website now. You can find a link on my sidebar for my profile!

Sookie Stackhouse

During all of the Twilight hype, I started hearing about the HBO series "True Blood". We have digital cable at home, including The Movie Network on Demand, which includes the HBO Canada series on demand as well. I saw that "True Blood" was on there, so I decided to give it a go.

It's an odd sort of series, but something about it has sucked me in (see what I did there?). I've really started enjoying it, in fact.

What I can't believe I didn't know was that it's also based off of a book series! A book series that already has EIGHT books out!

So now I'm all giddy and totally drooling over this Sookie Stackhouse Boxed Set.

I can't even describe how excited I get when I find a solid series of novels to read. And I did, conveniently, receive a $40 Chapters gift card from my students on the last day of my placement - just the exact right amount for the boxed set of these books.

Ah. Reader's fate.