Eviltammyland

So I've been on this decluttering kick. Still way too much stuff in the house :) But less than there used to be.

But I've just finished this book - Throw Out Fifty Things: Clear the Clutter, Find Your Life by Gail Blanke. At the end, she wants you to complete these four sentences:

I'm ______ and I'm the one who _____ and nobody does it better.
My vision for myself and for the world is ______.
The toughest and most important thing I'm going to let go of to make sure that happens is _____.
And my song is ____.

The song part is this - think back to a moment when you felt like a million bucks (childhood, high school, adulthood, whatever) - what song encapsulates that moment? What song do you sing to motivate yourself for an important meeting, a job interview, a date with with your SO? The examples in the book were My Sharona by the Knack, the overture from The Lion King, The Bitch Is Back by Elton John, and I'm the Greatest Star by Barbara Streisand from Funny Girl.

So, what's your declaration? Your song? I'm still thinking :)


cross-posted in slightly different form to unclutter_365

Best books/graphic novels/series I've read so far this year:

Ex Machina by Brian K. Vaughan - graphic novel series about a superhero turned NYC mayor. 8 volumes so far.
The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman - graphic novel series about a post-zombie apocalypse America. 11 volumes - still waiting on library to get #11. Coming soon to tv.

Fire by Kristin Cashore - fantasy, sequel to Graceling. Supposedly teen, but that's much too limiting.
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins - sf, sequel to The Hunger Games. Same as above.
Terrier by Tamora Pierce - fantasy. Same as above.
Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce - sequel to above.

The Dragon Factory by Jonathan Maberry - sf/horror, sequel to Patient Zero. Brutal action, warped genetics, kickass hero.

A Night Too Dark by Dana Stabenow - mystery, newest in the Kate Shugak series, one of the best heroines around. Set in Alaska.
Shoot To Thrill by P.J. Tracy - mystery, newest in the Monkeewrench series, anti-authoritarian computer geeks team up with police. Set in Minneapolis mostly, Minnesota definitely.

Feed by Mira Grant - sf/horror. Post-zombie apocalypse with an emphasis on Internet bloggers. First in a trilogy, I think. Zombies, bloggers, a presidential campaign, a vicious conspiracy, lots of action. (Oh, and the title has a double meaning - zombie feeding and rss feed. The cover image is the rss image drawn in blood.)

Oh, and I'm up to 84 books so far this year ::beams sweetly:: [g,d,r]

Placeholder list:

Authors: EUXYZ
Wormwood by Susan Wittig Albert
Without Warning by John Birmingham
Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly
Danger In a Red Dress by Christina Dodd
Wings of Wrath by C.S. Friedman
Crosscut by Meg Gardiner
Night of Thunder by Stephen Hunter
Spooker by Dean Ing
Dark Summer by Iris Johansen
Schooled by Gordon Korman
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Bahamarama by Bob Morris
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
Bone By Bone by Carol O'Connell
Sail by James Patterson & Howard Roughan
The Perfect Poison by Amanda Quick
Shinju by Laura Joh Rowland
The Traveler's Tool Kit by Robert Sangster
The Smart Traveler's Passport by Erik Torkells
No Future For You by Brian K. Vaughan
Mounting Fears by Stuart Woods

Titles: Z
Arctic Drift by Clive Cussler & Dirk Cussler
The Bell At Sealey Head by Patricia McKillip
Contagious by Scott Sigler
A Deadly Silver Sea by Bob Morris
Empire of Lies by Andrew Klavan
First To Kill by Andrew Peterson
Grifter's Game by Lawrence Block
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Injustice For All by J.A. Jance
Jamaica Me Dead by Bob Morris
Kill Chain by Meg Gardiner
Lessons From the Fat-o-sphere by Kate Harding and Marianne Kirby
Midnight Graffiti
Nation by Terry Pratchett
The Outfit by Richard Stark
The Poet by Michael Connelly
Queen's Own by Mercedes Lackey
Running Hot by Jayne Ann Krentz
Stalking Susan by Julie Kramer
Takeover by Lisa Black
The Unseen by T.L. Hines
Voodoo River by Robert Crais
Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
X-Men: Visionaries
You Kill Me by Alison Gaylin

Place holder post for 2009 YA Challenge. Not going to list any - am just going to get them throughout the year :)

1. Schooled by Gordon Korman - A commune-raised teenager gets thrust out into society when his grandmother is hospitalized and he's placed in a foster home. Totally unprepared for the outside world, Cap is elected 8th grade class president as a joke, but ends up having a profound effect on the students of C Average Middle School. (also A-Z author, 100 books)
2. Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix - Jonah, who's always known he was adopted, and his friend Chip, who finds out suddenly, are both receiving the same messages in the mail - "You are one of the missing" and "Beware! They're coming back to get you!" The two boys and Jonah's sister, Katherine are determined to figure out what's going on, especially after a note appears on Jonah's records at the adoption agency, which leads them to the FBI and a mysterious aircraft. Pretty good (not unusual for a Haddix book), total setup for next book in series. This one is mostly a mystery/thriller with some SF/fantasy aspects - it'll be interesting to see how those aspects are played in the second book. (100 books)
3. Stolen by Vivian Vande Velde - Six years after a child went missing, a girl of around 12 years is found wandering in the woods just after an old witch, who was accused of stealing children, is possibly burned to death in her cottage. Is the girl the missing Isabelle? Did the witch's death free her from a spell? Why can't she remember anything? Figured out the girl's identity early on, the real reason behind the disappearances took a bit longer. Satisfying ending. Not VVV's best, but still a good read. (100 books)
4. Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon Hale - graphic novel. Interesting idea twist on Rapunzel - and other fairy tales. Just didn't thrill me. (100 books)
5. The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeiffer - set at the same time as Life As We Knew It, when a asteroid knocks the moon closer to the earth and sets of a chain of climate changes, this book details the experiences of 17 year old Alex Morales, the son of a building superintendent in Manhattan. His father was at a funeral in Puerto Rico in an area hard hit by tsunamis and his mother, a nurse, never came home from the hospital - he suspects she died in subway floods. Alex must now take responsibility for his two younger sisters in a city rapidly turning into a deadly wasteland. Liked the first one better, but still a good read. Alex is a very real, conflicted character and Pfeffer uses Manhattan very well to show the claustrophia and vastness of a city disintegrating. (100 books)
6. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - Postapocalyptic - the remains of the US are divided into a capitol city and 12 districts - a 13th district revolted and was annihilated - and to drive the point of being subservient home to the districts, a yearly lottery picks one teen boy and one teen girl for the Hunger Games. These 24 are prettied up, trained, and paraded on TV and then cast into the arena to fight for their lives, with only one survivor. Katniss, who volunteers to take her younger sister's place, is our heroine and is a fairly tough, yet kind of bland character. Lots of violence and death, this is a fast-paced and absorbing read. First in a projected trilogy - I'm looking forward to the next one. Funnily enough, one of the Amazon editorial reviews is by Stephen King, who notes its similarities to "The Running Man" and "The Long Walk" by some guy named Bachman :) (A to Z title, 100 books)
7. Nation by Terry Pratchett - Mau is the only one left after a giant wave destroys his island village - the only one until he finds Daphne, the lone survivor of a wrecked ship. Other refugees come to the island looking for help and hope and they begin to rebuild a society. I... didn't really like this - I understand why people do - it's a thought-provoking novel, very well-written, with interesting characters. And I did read the whole thing :) but I found it kind of tedious. I like my Pratchett with more humor :) (A to Z title, 100 books)
8. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness - Young Todd Hewitt is the last boy in his town, a few days from the birthday which will mark him as a man. In a town where all thoughts can be heard and all the women died from a germ made by the natives of the planet, he and his dog are suddenly on the run after he finds a place of absolute quiet. And then Todd meets a girl from a crashed spaceship, an advance ship for a colony. He worries that the germ that killed all the other women will kill her too - and then the three of them cross over a river and Todd discovers that everything he believed is a lie and he's in more danger than he ever believed. Wow! Excellent. Found it a bit hard to get into but well worth it. (A to Z author, 100 books)
9. Graceling by Kristin Cashore - Katsa thinks her Grace, her gift, is the ability to kill and she is forced to use it in the service of her King. Then she meets Po, a young foreign prince with a mysterious Grace, who comes in search of the old man she secretly rescued. After rebelling against her King (and cousin), she and Po set off to find out why the old man had been kidnapped. Along the way, the two fall in love and discover that Graces aren't always what they seem and neither are the people who weild them. Excellent. Wonderful world-building and characters. Can't wait for the next one. (100 books)
10. The Will of the Empress by Tamora Pierce - first entry in the 3rd series featuring Sandry, Tris, Daja, Briar, and the other mages from the Circle of Magic and the Circle Opens series. The quartet are back together after two or so years apart, but their travels have put mental distance between them. Sandry's beloved uncle asks the other three to accompany her on a semi-forced visit to her homeland to see her cousin the Empress and to check on the family lands. But the empress has less than honorable reasons for getting Sandry and her friends there and she has no intentions of letting them leave. The quartet must reunite their magics to thwart the will of the empress. Very good. Would love to see books of the the stories between the Circle Opens and this set.(100 books)
11. The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau - Ember's only light comes from floodlights spread around the city - floodlights that are having increasing blackouts. 12 year olds Lina, a messenger, and Doon, a pipeworker, seem to be the only ones looking for a solution to Ember's worsening problems. Lina has found what seems to be an old official document that might lead the people out of the city and into a better world, and Doon helps her find the path down in the the underground near the river. But when they discover that Ember's mayor is corrupt, he sets people after them, and they are forced into following the path unprepared for everything. Good story, looking forward to the sequel.
12.

Storm From the Shadows by David Weber - newest entry in the Honorverse. Main character is Mike (Michelle) Henke, Honor's old friend, who starts off the book by becoming a prisoner of Haven and, after offering her parole to be a messenger to Manticore's queen, gets sent off to a different front to protect Manticore's newly expanded empire. Some action on the homefront with Honor and the queen, but mostly in the newly annexed areas. Lots of military action, lots of sneaky villains. Bit slower than usual - and all the military tech goes straight over my head - but good characters.

The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan - got this from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program. Here's the review from there: Brutal and inventive. A horror thriller invoking the threat of biological terror and giving the vampire story a new twist. Gory, but not too much. Good characters. Nice melding of del Toro's vision and Hogan's writing. Want parts 2 & 3 NOW!

The Warded Man by Peter Brett - Stealing from above - brutal and inventive. Three different storylines converge near the end in a world beset by demons, where humans have lost many of the wards of magic that kept the demons at bay. Arlen, who loses his mother due to another's cowardice, becomes a messenger and a seeker of ruins to find old wards, and almost loses himself in his hatred and determination to destroy demons. Leesha, scorned by her village after her bethrothed claims he deflowered her, becomes an herb gatherer/medical worker and leaves her small town for a much larger city. Rojer, the son of innkeepers, loses his parents and becomes the apprentice of a jongleur/traveling entertainer, and discovers his music has more power than he believes. Excellent.

Queen's Own by Mercedes Lackey - Okay, how the hell have I gone so long without knowing about the Valemar books? This is an omnibus: Arrows of the Queen, Arrow's Flight, Arrow's Fall. Read her newest one - Foundation - and really liked it. Finally got me to read this. Want more! (A to Z title)

Minerva Wakes by Holly Lisle - wasn't much impressed. Which depressed me as I usually like Lisle's books.

The Perfect Family by Carla Cassidy - Marissa's husband has been dead a year and she and her children are trying to move on. But the man who killed him in a hit-and-run has also decided that it's now time for them to become his perfect family. Good, fluff thrills.

Pursuit by Karen Robards - Jessica Ford, a new young and ambitious lawyer, is the only survivor of a car crash that kills the First Lady - and she knows it was no accident. Then there's an attempt on her life in the hospital and she's forced to lean on Secret Service agent Mark Ryan for help. Problem is that she's sure some of the agents were in on the killing - but was Mark one of them? Solid entry by dependable author - very readable.

Intent To Kill by James Grippando - Ryan James, a minor league baseball player with a chance at the majors, loses almost everything when his wife is killed in a car wreck, though his young daughter survived. Now, three years later, out of the game and cohosting a sports radio show, he's trying to raise his daughter and not fall into an alcoholic spiral, when he gets a message that the accident wasn't an accident. And the tipster claims to know who killed her. Ryan's investigation puts him and others in danger. Enjoyed it, but it didn't thrill me.

Bad Penny by Sharon Sala - Cat and Wilson are settling down and healing up on his family's farm outside of Austin, TX, but trouble is heading their way. A Mexican investigator is looking into a murder with a trail leading straight to Cat and a junkie with a grudge against Wilson is looking to complete his failed murder attempt. Fun, fast.

Loitering With Intent by Stuart Woods - Stone and Dino go to Key West. Stone gets involved in murder, gets laid, and solves the case. Dino provides backup and witty banter. Quality of the series has declined a bit, but still fun. Glad it was a library book.

So far this month, I've read 9 books - 8 thrillers and one SF :) So, here's the odd one out...


Inside Straight - Early Reviewer copy from LibraryThing - and this is the review I did for LT:
Sixty years ago, an alien virus spread a wave of mutations around the globe. Jokers got more visible mutations, aces became more like superheroes. But now the whole thing is a bit more mundane and Hollywood is cashing in reality TV style - a Survivor-type show to choose the newest American Hero. But reality TV gets overtaken by reality, when a couple of the cast-offs and one of the production staff, who has gained new powers, head to Egypt where the assassination of the country's ruler has lead to genocide against the changed.

I read a couple of the Wild Card books back when they first came out, but don't really remember them. And it's not really necessary for understanding or enjoying this one - the background is woven into the story, though some of the references to past Wild Cards would be easier to catch if you had read others.

This is a shared universe novel, with different parts written by different authors, and woven together into one story. Daniel Abraham's pieces - blog posts written by Jonathan Hive - do an excellent job of anchoring the story, wrapping up chapters and setting up the next parts. I really enjoyed the book - though the switch from Hollywood to Egypt seemed very abrupt, but that may also be because the type of action changes so dramatically - from reality TV challenges to real battles. Not sure I'll go back and read the older books, but I definitely think I'll pick up the new ones.

Oh, and as one other reviewer noted, the blurb on the back of the book is for the sequel, not this book.

So I got a Kindle (LOVE it) and in my initial book order, bought a book by Patricia Briggs to see if I'd like her stuff. Oh, yeah! These five books and one short story are all hers - and all Kindle ebooks. Link above is to author, not doing individual titles. All are in the urban fantasy genre.

Moon Called
Blood Bound
Iron-Kissed
Bone Crossed - This is the Mercy Thompson series. Mercy is a mechanic and a shapeshifter, who can become a coyote. In her world, supernatural beings live alongside humans, mostly hiding their abilities from the world at large. The lesser (less powerful, less scary) fae were forced into the public eye by their leaders because of advances in technology and forensic sciences that made them less invisible to the public, so they came out to help the scarier, more powerful fae stay hidden. Mercy, whose mother was human, was raised in a werewolf pack, but returned to her mother in her teens and has been a loner ever since. She lives in a trailer beside the estate of Adam Hauptmann, an affluent businessman and the local pack Alpha. In _Moon Called_, she gives a job to a homeless teen - she's sure he's a runaway and she knows he's a werewolf. She introduces him to Adam, as the boy is a fairly new were and doesn't belong to a pack. But there are people hunting the boy and trouble comes calling. _Blood Bound_ introduces us more to the vampires. _Iron-Kissed_ delves into the fae. _Bone Crossed_ wraps up some loose ends from _Blood Bound_ and gets further into Mercy's growing paranormal abilities.

Lots of fun - Mercy is a tough, no nonsense, take care of herself kind of woman. Fully developed characters, who grow and change. Side characters are interesting, not just there to fill a spot.
I read the first one and immediately splurged on the next three (plus the other two mentioned below) and I'll probably end up getting physical copies.

Alpha & Omega
Cry Wolf - Alpha & Omega series. Related to the Mercy Thompson series, can be read seperately with no problems, but reading the others gets you a bit more background of the universe. The short story introduces the main characters, Anna and Charles, but you can just start with _Cry Wolf_ - most of the background is there, just spread out. So far, this is mostly just the werewolves (the pack that Mercy grew up in). Anna is very different than Mercy - she was changed into a werewolf against her will and was severely abused by her pack. She is an Omega wolf - she has the ability to calm other wolves and help them control their beasts. Lots of stuff here on werewolf pack behavior. Also throws in an evil witch :)

So far, this is more of a paranormal romance than urban fantasy - and taking place in a rural forest area rather than a city is a big part of that. Still good characterization. Anna is a very damaged person, who is basically learning that almost everything she learned in her pack was wrong, and dealing with falling in love, moving from the city, and joining a new pack on top of it. She has a very strong inner core - now she just has to learn to let it out.

I'd recommend these for older teens too - the sex isn't very explicit and the violence/gore factor isn't that bad either. Lots of sticking up for your friends and what's right kinds of things :)

Triple Cross by Mark T. Sullivan - The Jefferson Club, a super-elite resort in Montana, is currently hosting six of the richest men in the world for a very snowy New Year's Eve, when the place is taken over by anti-globalists, who free the men's families, but keep them to put them on trial for crimes against the world, broadcast over the internet. The problem for Mickey Hennessy, the club's security director, who was injured in the initial attack but managed to escape, is that his fourteen year old triplets (2 boys and a girl) are still inside, trying to find him. I really enjoyed it - over the top action, a damaged hero, spunky but not irritatingly so kids determined to find their dad, nasty bad guys, plot twists.

Watch Me by Brenda Novak - third in a related trilogy, stands alone without reading others. Twelve years ago, teenagers Sheridan Kohl and Jason Wyatt were attacked. Sheridan lived. Now some new evidence in the case has turned up and she's come back to Whiterock, TN to see if she can find out what happened all those years ago. And is immediately attacked by a masked man, who drags her out into the woods to bury her. She's saved by Jason's stepbrother, Cain Granger, who takes care of her after she gets out of the hospital. The problem is that Cain is a suspect according to the police, but Sheridan doesn't believe it. It got rave reviews over on Amazon - possibly reading the others might have made a difference. I found it a perfectly serviceable romantic thriller - good reading, but easy to put down and glad it was a library book. (S/T)

Woo! and that ends the Suspense/Thriller Challenge too!
Here's the full list with review links.

Wormwood by Susan Wittig Albert - Newest China Bayles. China heads to a Kentucky Shaker village for some rest, relaxation, and herbal classes. But she's soon drawn into a case of escalating vandalism, possible embezzlement, and murder - in a mystery that has its roots back in the Shaker village and the not-so-quiet passions there-in. Nice background setting, but all the back story was very different than the usual China Bayles mysteries - could have done with less then and more now. And was weird not having all the usual side characters. Still interesting, but less so than the others in the series.

Danger in a Red Dress by Christina Dodd - Dodd winds up two series here - Lost Texas Hearts with the Prescotts and the Fortune Hunters with the Manly brothers - Gabriel, adopted by the Prescotts, finds his biological brother (the legitimate one) is Carrick Manly, whose father was accused of making off with millions stolen from stockholders and employees and disappeared. Now Carrick's mother is being pressured by the government to divulge what she knows. Carrick hires a nurse to look after his mother - and to spy on her. But Hannah Grey has no intention of doing that. But she and the older woman become close and Mrs. Manly confides in her shortly before she dies - a death that Hannah is accused of causing. Now Gabriel is intent on finding her, finding the money, and helping his half-brother - if only he wasn't starting to believe in her innocence. Fun fluff.