Tonight – a very rare and special, once in 20 years blue moon! Looks like we’ll have cloudy skies here in Minneapolis, but maybe you will be luckier… Happy New Year!
Don’t forget to leave a comment on the contest post by 7 pm CST, January 6 for your chance to win a copy of Wren Boudreau’s new m/m romantic suspense, Ice Cream on the Side!
Janna’s giving away an ebook copy of Bronwyn Green’s steamy romance, Cuffed and Dangerous – leave a comment by midnight, January 7, for your chance to win.
Don’t forget to stop by Sweet Vernal Zephyr for her near daily updates on new book contests.
Donna (Fantasy Dreamer) shows us that it’s a big week for urban fantasy and paranormal romance releases. And SciFiGuy covers both in his weekend update, along with all sorts of other fun things. Don’t miss his overview of the January paranormal, urban fantasy, and scifi releases, either.
This is a great time of year to get reading ideas as people post their favorite books of 2009 lists. I’m sure we’ll see many more of these over the next few weeks. I might even put one together.
- Jenre’s favorite m/m books
- Jessewave guest reviewers’ favorite m/m books
- CJ’s favorite books (as part of a very funny guest blog at Book Smugglers that includes her predictions for 2010)
- Best of Awful Library Books (well, ok, this is more a what you shouldn’t even consider reading – because really, how useful is a book about telephones from 1962, beyond historical interest?)
Keira’s got some great book links over at Love Romance Passion. So does Dear Author, including a link to free ebooks at All Romance eBooks.
Certain ebook readers make it very easy to track your reading habits – how much does your reading privacy matter to you?
Shrink Pic looks like a really useful Windows program to resize pictures on the fly.
HP ink costs more than blood?! This graph makes oil look like quite the bargain, doesn’t it?
How did I not know that the magnetic north pole now is shifting nearly 37 miles a year?!
Gizmodo has another handy flowchart of inappropriate times to use your smartphone. Plus a little Snuggie humour…
Unsurprisingly, one of these calendars is on its way to me right now.
Evidence continues to mount that Chaos isn’t simply a minion, but is actually Basement Cat.
Those wacky engineers are at it again – this time they’re playing laser tag with cats.
I think we all need an antivirus kitten, don’t you?
Cute burn warning! (I know you’ll all click anyway…)
Reading Update
Deep Kiss of Winter by Kresley Cole and Gena Showalter. Kresley Cole’s story is part of her Immortals After Dark series, featuring vampire Murdoch Wroth and Ice Queen (literally) Danii. Since this story ties up all sorts of open storylines, it’s a must read if you follow IAD. This was also my favorite of the two stories. Gena Showalter’s story is part of her Alien Huntress story, and it too ties up some open storylines. While it was pretty good, I didn’t feel as invested in this one.
Tigers and Devils by Sean Kennedy. ebook. Excellent and highly recommended m/m romance about an Aussie Rules football player, a film festival director, and the complexities of getting involved with someone famous and closeted. If you’ve put off reading m/m romance because you’ve heard it’s all sex, sex, sex, Tigers and Devils would be a very good introduction to the genre – it’s touching and heartfelt: at times I was laughing out loud; at times I was sniffling. I did have some trouble with the Aussie phrases – famed Aussie m/m blogger Kris (and nearly neighbor of Sean Kennedy) directed me to several sites that helped with the lingo barrier.
Thaw and 
The Stroke of Midnight by Jordan Castillo Price. free ebook shorts. Two sweet holiday PsyCop shorts – one from Vic’s perspective, the other from Jacob’s.
Patient Eyes by Andy Eisenberg. ebook. Good m/m romance about a college freshman who is nearly starving until one of his housemates gets him involved in gay-for-pay pr0n. While I really liked the first 2/3 of this book (I figured I’d be gushing about it without reserve here), I found the last 1/3 disappointing – several critical scenes were skipped, then glossed over in brief flashbacks. There also was a sort of extraneous plot element (hello, stray stalker) that just didn’t feel fully integrated into the story.
Unrequited by Abigail Roux. ebook. Ok m/m romance about multiple unrequited love situations.
Caught Running by Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux. ebook. Very good m/m romance about the star high school jock and the nerd, now back and teaching at that same high school ten years later.
Cut and Run by Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux. ebook. This m/m romantic suspense about two wildly different FBI agents had a lot of potential, but it just didn’t quite work because it dragged on. Since I know that Urban and Roux can write some great stuff together, it was particularly disappointing.
Pyromancer by Amanda Young. ebook. After mentioning that Young’s m/m books haven’t seemed to really grab me, Tam convinced me to try Pyromancer, which is about a man who can control fire, but only to a certain extent. He can also be incredibly dangerous to the people around him. While I did like this more than the non-paranormals, I ultimately didn’t get completely drawn into this one either.
Burn Card by Laura Baumbach. ebook. So so m/m romance about a crime scene investigator and a guy who owns a security company. I did wonder whether this was part of a series… but not enough to go figure it out.
Seducing Light by K. C. Kendricks. ebook. Ok m/m romance – the title touches on one character being a photographer and the other a famous actor whose last name is Light. The next two books are also by Kendricks – I’ve concluded that while I may find the storylines intriguing, the excessively gushing language always ends up putting me off.
Tango in the Night by K. C. Kendricks. ebook. Another ok m/m romance, this time about two law enforcement agents, one of whom was seriously injured a year ago when his life partner was killed taking a bullet meant for him.
Taming Triton (Southern Cross Resort, Book 1) by K. C. Kendricks. ebook. Again, an ok m/m romance about a guy who’s always suspected that he’s bisexual, but has never acted on his attraction to men until he takes a vacation at the Southern Cross Resort.
Grey’s Awakening by Cameron Dane. ebook. Steamy m/m romance about a high-powered businessman who’s always kept his emotions in tight check. Will that change when he meets a sexy truck driver/artist while taking a vacation?
Time After Time, Liar, and Date Night by Jane Seville. free ebook shorts. These all take place after Zero at the Bone and provide some insight into life after the epilogue.
Tom or an Improbably Tail by Ruth Sims. free ebook short. This was a very cute m/m paranormal romance about a stray cat who isn’t always a cat…
“Ok, deep thoughts are boring. I wonder how this bag will taste?” -Mayhem
The poles are shifting that much, yikes
“famed Aussie m/m blogger Kris”
O_o
Ok. What do you want??
Dammit! Does that mean I have to give my kids all the things I promised them over the last couple of years when the moon was blue?
Hope you have a wonderful 2010!
We’ll be seeing clouds, too. But then we’ve rarely seen midnight so that’s just how it is.
Happy New Year, Chris, Chaos and Mayhem!!
Oh, I love me some Reuben! He’s just so CUTE!!
Oooo, I’m not sure what we’ll see tonight. The rises to the east, and it’s been very bright, so with any luck!
Happy New Year to all of you! One of my highlights of 2009 was your visit in September. 🙂
We taught Neatnik all about blue moons last night (saw the nearly full one as we were going out for a walk). How cool to come home to see the story on the Yahoo homepage about how infrequently it happens on New Year’s Eve!
Happy New Year, chaotic peeps.
PS – There is a definite theme to the reading links here…
My New Years reading goal is to wade through all of the free ebooks I’ve loaded in the last six months…
Happy New Years
While I should be worried about what people would find out about me from my book searches and reading habits, I really am not. I just need to finish loading my laptop with all of my goodies, so I can put an ereader on my Treo and call it a day.
Happy New Year Chris, Chaos and Mayhem!!
Thanks for all the nifty linkage and book reviews.
Forgive me for not entering contests right now, I’ve got books tumbling off the shelf and my e-reader is full… lol
Wishing you everything wonderful in 2010!
Best
Les
Probably plasticky, May.
Chris, happy new year!
Hi Chris
Happy New Year to you & your family.
Thanks for your wonderful blog,
Laser beam cat was great!
Happy New Year!
Chris- Wishing you and Chaos and May the best of New Years. I think the blue moon signifies luck and prosperity.
Kitty In A Bag (TM). While I love my boys, I have to say I’m coming around to black kitties – thanks to Chaos, Mayhem and little Reuben Taylor.
Happy New Year to the entire tribe!
I have Gizmodo in my Google Reader and read the headlines every damn day — how come I haven’t seen ANY of the Giz pages you linked to? Giz likes you better’n me, wahwahwah…
A blue moon! How cool!
Here’s wishing that 2010 is an excellent year for you, Chaos and Mayhem. We shall drink a toast to you this evening …
Happy New Year! (And I was a little freaked out to see that “Janna” was having a contest — then I realized it wasn’t me!)
A Blue Moon… I can not wait!
I am hoping that you have a very wonderfully Blessed, Healthy and Happy New Year’s!!!!!
Cheers to you honey!!! Enjoy your evening!!!
Oh hon, thanks for mentioning my giveaway!
(@janna: no, that was me :))
‘Tigers and Devils’ is on my new ereader now 🙂 and so is Caught Running! And thank you so much for recommending The One That Got Away! The second half of the book completely delivered after the built-up anticipation of the first half. I LOVED it. Definitely one of the best M/M reads of the year!
These linky post are taking me longer and longer to get through…
I love Urban and Roux work – Cut and Run was such a good read for me….
Burn card was a sweet read as well … love the connection between the two….
Blue Moon – I am so in awe of this – My Mom is having a glow moment with this event as well..
I have had Cameron Dane on my tbr list now for two years -I need to read something by this author…
Thanks for the links hon…
Makes for an interesting few hours
E.H>
.-= Erotic Horizon´s last blog ..Monthly Reading List – December – Year end round up… =-.
Happy New Year to you and the kitties!
Wait I thought the poles were just shifting a few cm, but 37 miles! I don’t want to live in the tropics.
No blue moon viewing here either, but at least it’s not raining. Happy New Year to you , Chaos, and Mayhem.
.-= Sydney´s last blog ..Post Christmas Wrap… Uh Unwrap =-.
And that’s the black ink…
.-= lisa´s last blog ..saved by hawaii =-.
Oh, and Happy New Year to you and those kitties!!!
.-= lisa´s last blog ..saved by hawaii =-.
Reuben is so cute 🙂 I totally love the smartphone flowchart – I know some people who could use it. The calendar is so cute, I would have gotten one if I hadn’t gotten a New Yorker cats calendar for Christmas!
Happy New Year – scritches to to the kitties!!
.-= mrspao´s last blog ..A quick FO before the end of the year and a small house guest =-.
ok I thought about going to see if I can see the moon but I’ve had two woodchucks so I’m too sleepy.. ;op It’s supposed to be a lunar eclipse, too, I think.
Happy New Year! Odds are I’ll be asleep before midnight. ;o)
.-= JessaLu´s last blog ..Ten on… =-.
Hi Chris!
We can’t see the Blue Moon either, but who knew that Once in a Blue Moon was really going to happen, lol?
I hope you have a great New Year!!
Dottie 🙂
.-= Dottie´s last blog ..Happy New Year!! =-.
No blue moon in my zip code. Ice storm over our snow instead. Hope you had a great New Year’ Eve!!
We could see the moon! It was lovely.
I hope May found a tasty portion of the bag!
.-= Nicole´s last blog ..Blog In Review =-.
The moon was sooooo beautiful. I was able to enjoy it before the clouds moved in. Hope you have a happy, happy new year. 🙂
.-= J. Kaye´s last blog ..Happy New Year! =-.
I was under the impression that it was our atmosphere that protected us from the sun/space, not the magnetic field.
As to Chaos and the soymilk? I TOLD you not to dress him up (even in bibs).
Vengeance is Mine, sayeth the Cat.
.-= Marji´s last blog ..c’est fini! =-.
Happy New Year!!!
I knew about the blue moon but I forgot to look!!! But I heard it didn’t look very blue. I love that the new year rang in on a full moon though. 🙂
Loved the snuggie cartoon, it’s my thoughts exactly on the whole slanket/snuggie debacle. LOL!
I still need to read Deep Kiss of Winter. I’ve read a lot mixed feelings about it.
.-= Donna-FantasyDreamer´s last blog ..Holiday Giveaway Winners! =-.
Happy New Year, Chris! The kitties here send “meows” to the kitties there.
.-= Lorette´s last blog ..Happy New Year! =-.
You’re a binge reader aren’t you. LOL I noticed you tend to read a lot by one author. I do the same. Not always a good thing I’m finding. But I still do it. Sigh.
I tried with Pyromancer. Maybe her style just doesn’t mesh with you. I can’t read JM Snyder when she uses that present tense. It just doesn’t work for me. Such is life.
Thanks for the mention and your links always make me smile!
PS – i love your short and sweet reading updates!
.-= Miranda´s last blog ..REVIEW: Seducing Serena =-.
Happy New Year (late, of course) to you and the kitties! Wishing you much happiness, great reads and lots of furry purry moments. 🙂
You’ve been reading some fab books. Almost makes me want to do some re reading! 🙂
.-= Sarah´s last blog ..Best Ménage àtrois from 2009. =-.
I was in Madison WI and the moon was huge, bright and high in the sky – we all went out for a walk on Lake Mendota just before midnight. Happy New Year!
actually SAW the blue moon here for a few minutes – it was huge and incredible – and due to the stormy night and lots of clouds, it truly looked”blue”
and this photo of May looks more like her!
I’ve looked at Caught Running several times but haven’t never hit the “add to cart” button. I think I’ll do it now. 🙂