Excellent – a book blogs search engine. You can also check to see if your favorite book blogs are included and request that they be added.
Curious about what paranormal, urban fantasy, scifi, or fantasy releases are scheduled for April? SciFiGuy.ca has a great list.
Well, I just capitulated and ordered an ebook reader – I went with the EZ Reader (aka the Hanlin V3 and the BeBook), which is $229 after $20 mail-in rebate from Fry’s through April 3. It supports a pretty amazing list of formats. Yeah, yeah, I know, I was just saying that I was going to make my Palm Tungsten E2 last forever… but I finally got frustrated with 25 words/screen.
Like your book browsing to be atmospheric? Check out Obsidian Kitten’s post about some of the most beautiful libraries in the world and then look at pictures of some lovely bookstores. The Barnes & Noble in the Historic Chateau Theater (Rochester, Minnesota) isn’t on that list, but it should be. (Bless flickr for having some photo sets of it.) I have fond memories of going to movies in that theater when I was very young and hoping a princess would come out onto one of the balconies.
Reading Update
A Taste of Magic by Tracy Madison. This was a completely delightful read! It’s classified as a paranormal romance, but only because there’s a bit of magic (along the lines of Like Water for Chocolate). I think I’d even recommend this to the dedicated contemporary romance reader.
The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance. This is an excellent collection containing 24short stories from authors including Kelley Armstrong, Carrie Vaughn, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Meljean Brook, and Rachel Caine.
Unusual Suspects: Stories of Mystery & Fantasy, edited by Dana Stabenow. This is a follow-up collection to Powers of Detection: Stories of Mystery & Fantasy, which I really, really enjoyed. I enjoyed some of the stories in this collection (such as the stories by Simon R. Green, Laura Anne Gilman, Dana Stabenow, and Donna Andrews), but I also skipped several stories I couldn’t get into. Sadly, the blurb on the front cover (“Includes a new Sookie Stackhouse story”) was the best part of said Sookie Stackhouse story.
Body Movers by Stephanie Bond. Romantic suspense. Probably a bad sign that I wanted to smack the two main characters for being stupid… throughout the entire book. I passed this one on to CursingMama – we’ll see if she has the character smackdown urge or not.
Master of Darkness (Primes Series, Book 4) by Susan Sizemore. Haven’t read the first three books in this series – I picked this one up solely because of the very nice Nathan Kamp cover. It was an ok paranormal romance. I might read some of the other books in the series. (Although I was amused that Nathan Kamp, with shaggy dark hair, was used as the model for the book’s hero, who had very long platinum blond hair. Heh.)
Passion Unleashed (The Demonica Series, Book 3) by Larissa Ione. Really, really good paranormal romance. I was utterly unable to put this book down and am glad I started reading it early enough so I didn’t have to stay up all night reading it, because I would’ve. I highly recommend this series! The only problem I have with this particular book, which is Wraith’s story, is that the dysfunctional Wraith feels a bit too akin to a mixture of Wrath and Zsadist from the Black Dagger Brotherhood. (However, Wrath’s and Zsadist’s stories were my favorite of the BDB, so…)
The Bride of Casa Dracula (Casa Dracula, Book 3) by Marta Acosta. Ah, Milagro De Los Santos, how complicated is your life! I’m eagerly awaiting the next book in this series to see what Milagro manages to get up to next. I think Acosta does a nice job of getting me thinking on issues of ethnicity and individuality, too, without beating me about the head with them.
One Hot Mess by Lois Greiman. Cocktail waitress turned psychologist Chrissy McMullen has a gift for finding trouble that’s second only to Milagro’s (see previous reviewette). And of course, brooding LAPD Detective Jack Rivera and his lecherous father, former California Senator Miguel Rivera, continue to spice things up. If you’re a fan of Lori Avocato or Janet Evanovich, you should give this series a try.
Mayhem was the long skinny upside down kitty in yesterday’s post. (While Chaos does love to sprawl upside down, he’s, um, not quite as svelte.) Here’s a tummy closeup for your tummy scritching pleasure. And her tummy fur is far softer than it looks. *scritch scritch scritch*
*sprawl* -Mayhem
Heh, because of the sunbeam, I thought at first I was looking at 2 different kitties!
*scrirch scritch scritch*
Doggies have good bellies for scritching, too.
*scritchscritch*
Damn! I just spent the day in Rochester while my sister had her follow up visit at Mayo, i’m sure i could have squeezed in a visit. I work a block away from the main St. Paul library. It is a thing of beauty and I visit often. I’ll be interested to hear how the ebook thingie works out.
I can’t believe you’ve slipped into ereader land and abandoned the palm!
I’ll let you be the test subject 😉
(I’m secretly waiting to see if apple releases an ipod touch with a larger screen) (guess that isn’t a secret anymore)
That Palm really does have a small screen! I hope the EZ Reader works out for you. : )
Chris- May’s tummy looks like it needs a raspberry!
Can’t wait to hear what you think of the EZ Reader after using it a while! I’m tempted to buy something, but I don’t know which one.
Aw, kitty tummies are the best tummies.
Book blogs search engine?!
:: following the linky ::
*scritch* *scritch*
I finally took advantage of your Amazon links – thanks! It makes for easy wishlist adding for when I get done with the million Charlaine Harris books piled up. I had to listen to the one book on tape out of order just so I can return them in a timely fashion!
Three is something so inviting about a kitty tummy.
Oh, I dunno. The softness of kitty tummies is lovely, but the reward one gets from the expression on the face of a horse in the midst of a good belly scritch is priceless.
Chewy LOVES to lie like that in front of the fireplace. He’ll pad up and sprawl out on his back and sleep all spread-eagle like that…we have a number of vulgar terms for his choice of position. 😉
Thanks for the link to my library post. I love that you remember hoping a princess would come out onto one of the balconies of the movie theater. Those grand old movie houses were like that. Kudos to B&N — it looks beautiful.
Me loves kitteh belleh! *scritch scritch scritch*
Thanks for the links–I never win anything but I won the bamboo yarn and I’m very excited. It wouldn’t have been possible without your great blog!!!
Hmmmmm, tummy fur……meow!
Why didn’t you opt for a Kindle? I love getting the smaple chapters of books but it’s far too easy to buy a book and have it in a few seconds!
Oh man. I really want a Kindle, but can’t quite justify the price since I have a million books around here already that I haven’t read. Let me know how you like the one you bought.
I think we can assume it’s the female agility we are seeing with Ms. May.
Congrats on your new purchase! I love my Kindle soooo much.
So I just finished the second brotherhood book. It took me all of a day. I’m trying to decide whether it’s smart or stupid to go out and buy all the rest tomorrow. 😉
I thought it was 2 cats as well. Love the book blog search engine, thanks for the link
How could that tummy fur be softer than it looks?!? 🙂 It looks like melted butter or cashmere or maybe baby angora! LOL
scritch scritch scritch
I used to love going to the Wilson Library when I was at UNC Chapel Hill. It was easy to forget about time. Plus there would be some nice old books still on the shelves. It was so easy to forget about time that they had a phone number on the inside of the door to call if you got locked in.
tummy nuggies too. I downloaded the Kindle reader for the iPhone last night and tried hard not to read the entire “Dog On It” (by Spencer Quinn) on it while working today.
Thanks for the mention. The book blog search engine is a great idea.
Scritch scritch! I love the book blog recommendation site.