I've been a major slacker about what I've read. I might have even missed a couple but I'll try.

Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse - An anthology featuring Stephen King, Cory Doctorow, Octavia Butler, and many more. This book features 22 apocalyptic stories. I read them all, but didn't really care for some of them. I wish I could remember whose I liked the best but it's been a while since I finished this.

Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy - This was absolutely hysterical! I finished this off in a couple of hours. I loved where Jenny wanted to eat an entire jar of mustard.

The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations by Brian Fagan - I saw the author on the Daily Show one night and this sounded like an interesting book. Of course, I didn't understand everything discussed in the book but it was very interesting.

Index to Murder by Jo Dereske - This was the latest in the Miss Zukas Mysteries. I've stopped buying these in the store and get them from the library. I found the MC less annoying in this book than the last. The reason behind a couple of deaths was sort of weak, but overall it was okay.

A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane - theemmer and I watched Gone Baby Gone a while back and it made me want to read the other books in this series. This is the first book in the Kenzie/Gennaro series. It was an EXCELLENT book and I can't wait to read the rest.

Panic Free Pregnancy by Michael Broder - I was expecting more from this book and in a lot of places he contradicted everything I had read in several other sources about things you can/can't do during pregnancy. It was a quick read and I finished it in one sitting. Not very helpful overall.

What I'm reading now... well I've started and stopped several books lately, so I have 4-5 where I'm 1/4-1/3 of the way through. But yesterday I picked up Eve Kenin's Hidden (the latest Shomi book and the follow up to Driven - which was one of my favorite books last year) and I can not wait to dive into it.

It's been a long time since I updated on what I've read this year.

I Am America (and so can you)! by Stephen Colbert -- I'd been waiting for this one from the library for a while. It's very funny and just like The Colbert Report. Eventually I'll probably have to find a copy to go with America, The Book.

The Revenant by Carolyn Haines -- A small town Mississippi reporter (alcoholic, self-destructive, major issues from her past) helps solve the crime that has shocked the town. A grave has been discovered with five bodies from twenty years earlier. It's no doubt a serial killer, but then suddenly new bodies start showing up. I really enjoyed this book. The main character was damaged and destructive, but still managed to keep her crap together to do her job. I believe this novel was a stand-alone, but I would love to see this character again.

Black Magic Woman by Justin Gustainis -- Okay, I kept hearing about this book online and had it on my TBB list. But when I picked up a copy in the store I was thrilled with the couple pages I read so it moved to my library TBR pile. Quincey Morris (descendant of THE Quincey Morris) and Libby Chastain (bi-sexual, white witch) are on the case of solving a Hatfield-McCoy feud that's lasted since the Salem witch trials. I ended up loving this book and can not wait for the next one in the series.

The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski -- After her passenger, Marissa, dies in a car accident, June Parker finds a list Marissa had written: 20 Things to Do by My 25th Birthday. The items on the list range 'go braless one day' to 'change someone's life'. June ends up learning about Marissa's life and her own in her quest to complete the list. Again, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I bought it as a whim in the store and it ended up being a very delightful read.

What Happens in Vegas... by Jodi Lynn Copeland, Anya Bast, Lauren Dane, and Kit Tunstall -- Okay, I can really only give my opinion of two of the stories in this anthology, because I only read two of them. The other two I tried to read, but for different reasons, I couldn't finish either one. Stripped by Lauren Dane and The Deal by Anya Bast are both hot, sexy reads.. which if you know their work already, you won't be surprised by that. I loved the characters and stories in both. It's one reason they're both on my auto-by list.

I only have two books to update that I've read lately. I think I might be missing one or two. That's what I get for not talking about books right after I've read them.

Shockball by S.L. Viehl - This is book 4(?) in the StarDoc series. I enjoyed this book much more than the previous book in the series. I thought the medical/disease mystery in this one was a little more interesting because it wasn't some strange alien virus that she had to seek out a cure for. We also saw the elimination of one of the main baddies that's been pursuing Cherijo across the galaxy, so it will be interesting to see how the series develops without that foil in their way.

Death Masks by Jim Butcher - I have sort of a roller coaster relationship with the Harry Dresden books. When I start them I'm always a little bored in the beginning, then I really get into them, then I get to a point where I'm going 'come on, come on, get on with it', and finally the endings always just pull me in. This book was no different. Now, that isn't to say that I don't like the Harry Dresden series, I love it. Harry, the Shroud of Turin, the return of Susan, the Knights, and lots of ugly baddies - what more could you ask for? I have the next book waiting for me at the library.

I've started four other books over the last couple of weeks (a couple Blazes, a couple urban fantasies) and nothing is grabbing my interest. So I'm turning to non-fiction for now.

Finally an update on what I've read recently.

Tex Appeal by Kimberly Raye, Alison Kent, and Cara Summers. This was a Blaze with three interconnected stories. I didn't realize they were interconnected though and read the middle one first. But that didn't ruin my overall enjoyment of the stories. My favorite of the three was Alison Kent's and made me think that I really needed to read one of the books I have by her in my TBR pile.

Mine to Possess by Nalini Singh. This was the latest in her Psy/Changeling series. Such a great series - passion, action, great worldbuilding, and a continuing story arc that you can kind of see where she's going but it never seems like everything else you've read.

A Likeness in Stone by J. Wallis Martin. This was a mystery novel I read for the book club I tried to attend last month. The book club was a bust but the novel was decent. There was a bit of head hopping and jumping from present day to past events so fast that it'd make your head spin. But once I got adjusted to the author's style I could settle into it. The last quarter to third of the book was actually kind of suspenseful.

Grimspace by Ann Aguirre. There are so many others that have written reviews that would be much better than anything I write. Basically, I loved this book. The only thing I didn't like was that I couldn't read the next book in the series immediately after I finished this one.

Witch Blood by Anya Bast. I knew going in to this one that I would love it and I was right. I've never been disappointed by one of her books and this was no exception. When Thomas was introduced in Witch Fire, I was hoping that he would get his own book. He and Isabelle have great chemistry and make an incredible pair. Now I have to sit impatiently and wait for the next book.

Well that was annoying. I just did my taxes. I'm getting a whopping $85 back. I suppose it's better than owing something. I'll have to try and not spend it all in one place. Actually I'll just throw it toward a credit card. I'd hoped to get a little more so that I could do something fun with it, like get an ebook reader. Oh well...

Speaking of books, I haven't been updating about what I've been reading. I've read two Harlequin Blazes - The Defender by Cara Summers, which was the third book in a connected series. It was enjoyable but the three books overlapped in so many places that by the third book I found myself skimming chunks to get to information we hadn't learned in the first two books. Shadow Hawk by Jill Shalvis, had two ATF agents on the run. I liked this except I wished she'd left out the secondary romance.

The Art of Detection - Laurie R. King - This was the latest in her Kate Martinelli detective series with a nice little nod to Sherlock Holmes. There's even a short story within the novel. One thing I really like about this series is that it feels like real police work not tv police work. They're filling out paperwork and spending time on the phone and driving places. It's not always exciting but as the reader you also don't get bored. There's always a point for everything they're doing.

Night Season - Eileen Wilks - Another great book from her Lupi series. This one focused on Cynna and Cullen. Can I just say that the more Cullen, the better! Yummy. And I'm liking Cynna the more we see of her. But it does look like the next book in the series will return to Lily and Rule and I'll be happy for that.

My reading has been a little slow in the new year because I keep starting things and putting them aside because they're not clicking with me or I'm simply not liking them. But I finished one today that I really enjoyed - Blood Magic by Matthew Cook. It is a dark fantasy about a nercomancer named Kirin. The chapters alternate between present events and Kirin's past with the present chapter told in present tense and the past chapters told in past tense. I was worried at first that it might be confusing but I never lost track of the two different threads and enjoyed seeing how Kirin came to be the person she is when we meet her in the beginning of the book.


Reading Next: Haven't a clue! My TBR pile contains just short of 90 books.

On Tuesday night I hardly slept, so my plan last night was to go to bed early. So about 8:30, I decided to lay in bed and read for a little bit. Just come down from the day and relax before falling asleep. I picked up Tempted and was up till 11pm finishing the damn book!

It took me longer to get into this book than Dirty or Broken, but once I hit a certain point in the book it was like a bullet train that I couldn't get off (and I didn't want to). I felt at times like I was holding my breath while I read the book. There was a moment late in the book where Anne says something to her husband James (I won't say what it was for fear of spoiling anything) but it was, at least for me, like an emotional kick to the solar plexus.

It's funny because earlier in the day, I'd been reading a different book during my lunch hour. It's the fourth book in a paranormal romance series that I've enjoyed up till this point. Something happened at the end of chapter 2 or 3 that made me just stop short and go WTF? Really? I was beyond annoyed by how both the hero and heroine were acting so early in the book so I'm not even going to finish it. I was lamenting in email to theemmer about what had happened in the book and how disappointed I was. She said I should just move on to another book, because I had plenty of good stuff to read at home. And Tempted was the epitome of that. Of course, now I'm spoiled on reading and whatever I read next is probably going to pale in comparison so I'm completely switching genres and reading some straight sci-fi.