Monthly Tally: January 2011

From TBR journal

1. Deadly Heat, Cynthia Eden - This was okay, but I much prefer her paranormals. 
2. Marrying Daisy Bellamy, Susan Wiggs - I was waiting for this story for a very long time and I wasn't disappointed. This is definitely a heart-tugger. 
3. Here to Stay, Catherine Anderson - This was an interesting look at mini horses being used instead of guide dogs for the blind.
4. Dragon Warrior, Janet Chapman
5. Bonded by Blood, Laurie London
6. Master of Smoke, Angela Knight
7. Finding Destiny, Jean Johnson
8. Blood Challenge, Eileen Wilks - Oh, I liked this one. The heroine was awesome. Wilks did a great job of balancing the story between Lily & Rule and Benedict & Arjenie. There's even a smidge of Cullen & Cynna. My only quibble is I'd like to see more of Rule's son.
9. Disney's Hero Squad: Ultraheroes: Race for the Ultrapods, Giorgio Salati, et. al
10. How to Woo a Reluctant Lady, Sabrina Jeffries
11. The Legend of the Golden Snail, Graeme Base
12. Sins of a Highland Devil, Sue-Ellen Welfonder
13. Tiger's Curse, Colleen Houck - This is like Twilight, but with tigers. 
14. Skin Heat, Ava Gray - I liked this one so much, I'm going back and reading the previous books. 
15. Yours for the Taking, Robin Kaye
16. Ascension, Caris Roane
17. Eternal Prey, Nina Bangs - This is my guilty pleasure series. I find the idea of dinosaurs in romance novels so ludicrous,  I can't not read them.
18. Game Over, Taylor Keating
19. Inside Out, Lauren Dane
20. Dukes to the Left of Me, Princes to the Right of Me, Kieran Kramer - Good book, but awful, awful title.
21. When Harry Met Sally, Kieran Kramer
22. Masques, Patricia Briggs
23. The Fantastic 5 & 10 c Store, J. Patrick Lewis - A picture book told through use of rebuses. Definitely for older readers. 
24. The Beast Within, Erin McCarthy, et.al 
25. Art & Max, David Wiesner
26. Angelic, Kelley Armstrong
27. Demon Bound, Meljean Brook
28. Laid Bare, Lauren Dane
29. One Week as Lovers, Victoria Dahl
30. Shadows All Around Her, Catherine Mulvany

ARCs

1. The Welcome Home Garden Club, Lori Wilde, 4/2011 - I liked the Christmas cookie one better.
2. The Perfect Mistress, Victoria Alexander, out now
3. Against the Wind, Kat Martin, out now
4. It Happened One Night, Stephanie Laurens, Mary Balogh, Jacquie D'Allessandro, Candice Hern, 4/2011 - This is another book where they all use the same plot outline. It was interesting to see where the stories were similar and where they varied.
5. Eternal Rider, Larissa Ione, 4/2011 - I love Larissa Ione, I really, really do. I was not, however, expecting this book to be what it was. The hero is Ares, Horseman of War. He's one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. You'd think I'd look at that and be, 'Hmm, this shan't be roses and picnics,' but no. In my defense, my grandmother was in the hospital and I just grabbed a book that I thought would keep me occupied while we sat with her. It's a very well-written book with heaps of violence and death. And maimings. And torture. And despair. However, despite all that, I'm still going to read the next book. I need to know what happens!

I also started The Fallen: Raziel by Kristina Douglas (2/2011), but I couldn't finish it. This book really cemented my distaste for angels books.

Category totals

Romance: 25 + 5 ARCs
Graphic Novel: 1
Picture Books: 3
Young Adult: 1

Author Autograph Wishlist

I am from a collecting family. Mom collects Disney related knick-knacks. Little brother is a transformers freak. Me, well, I collect books. The more I love an author, the more I want an autographed copy. I will call up bookstores across the country to have a book shipped to me (J.R. Ward), fly across the country myself (Nalini Singh at RomCon2010), drive three hours (Cathy Clamp at Authors After Dark 2009), or stand in line for 2+ hours at a signing (Nora Roberts at the Columbus Circle Borders, Laurell K. Hamilton at a BEA). These are the lengths I will go to for an autographed copy. I rarely resort to buying on Ebay because you can never know for certain if a signature is for real. In any case, by attending RomCon2010, I got some fabulous autographs last year (Meljean Brook, Jeaniene Frost, Carrie Vaughn, Erin Kellison, Shannon Butcher, and many more).

I don't think I'll be attending RomCon2011 this year (it depends on how the money works out & vacation time), but I definitely want to at least hit RWA's Literacy signing since it's in my neck of the woods this year. The author list won't be posted until April, but they always have a lot of wonderful, wonderful authors. So, since I'm the overly organized type, I wrote up a list of authors that I still need for my collection. I've been adding to it while I type up this entry, so consider it a work in progress! It's also in no particular order, although the top 4 are sorta my holy grails. If you're interested in what I already own, a partial list is available via my LibraryThing catalog.

Author Autograph Wishlist

1. Shelly Laurenston
2. Patricia Briggs
3. Jennifer Crusie
4. Robin D. Owens
5. Jayne Ann Krentz
6. Anne McCaffrey
7. Mercedes Lackey
8. Thea Harrison
9. Larissa Ione
10. Lora Leigh
11. Lynsay Sands
12. S. L. Viehl
13. Cynthia Eden
14. L. J. Smith
15. Sharon Shinn
16. Robin Kaye
17. Eileen Wilks
18. Jean Johnson
19. L. J. McDonald
20. Kresley Cole
21. Victoria Laurie
22. Kelley Armstrong
23. Wen Spencer
24. Ilona Andrews
25. Lynn Kurland
26. Jennifer Ashley
27. Victoria Dahl
28. Christine Warren
29. Stephanie Laurens
30. Shanna Swendson
31. Kathryne Kennedy

I plan on making a concerted effort to cross a number of authors off my list this year. RWA should help, but I'm not leaving it to chance. I'm going to be very organized this year with, like, spreadsheets and everything! Updates to follow.

Behind the Scenes: Booksellers & Authors

I know I have been quite the absentee hostess of late. It turns out that starting a new blog just before the holiday when one works two jobs, one of them retail, is kind of a bad idea.

In any case, I have half a dozen unfinished entries that I hope to bang out shortly. In the meantime, I want to link y'all to today's entry at the Book View Cafe, written by Laura Anne Gilman. I had thought about doing an entry on book signings, but Ms. Gilman offered a great summary on the experience from an author's point of view. I particularly liked this bit:

"If you sell [only] one, and manage to make the staff think you’re just an utter delight, then they will be more likely to hand-sell your book – and your next book, and the book after that."

I cannot stress how true this is. Years ago, there was a local author (not a romance novelist) who so thoroughly pissed us off with his antics, we pretty much banned his book from the store. He used to repeatedly have his family & friends order multiple copies into the store, but then they'd never pick up the books. I would come in and find his book shoved onto displays, replacing titles that were supposed to be in FOS. As a result, we kept one copy on the shelf and sent the rest back. Didn't matter how many arrived in the pallets, we kept one and just threw the rest on the returns desk. Do you think we ever hand-sold his book? Hell no.

To contrast this, I'd like to mention Nelson DeMille. Mr. DeMille was friendly with our old GM and so he used to do signings in the store whenever he released a new book. We used to get a ton of people at these events and Mr. DeMille would stay until every single person got an autographed book. At one signing, he stayed half an hour past closing. He was also always polite and courteous to the staff. Many of the staff started reading him as a result and now when someone asks us for a mystery rec, Mr. DeMille's books are usually at the top of the list.

Motto of this story? Be nice to the people who are the gatekeepers of your books.

2010 Book Tally

Here's yet another post that got pushed to the back burner due to all the craziness. There was the two job thing, a family vacation to Walt Disney World for the half marathon, and the sinus infection from hell. I have high hopes that I'll be able to turn the slump around now that things have calmed down a bit.

I know I did quite a bit of reading in January and I should have the tally up tomorrow. For 2010, I read 207 books from my To Be Read journal, a rather low number. I read 105 ARCs, which is actually higher than 2009. I did try to read at least three ARCs a week to get my numbers up. NetGalley helped immensely with this because I can get away with reading E-ARCs at the library job. If an ARC was also in my TBR journal, I counted it under that total. My cumulative total is 312 titles. This doesn't count any re-reads, which is why I suspect the number is so low. I'm pretty sure I went on a J.D. Robb & Robin D. Owens re-read kick.

I don't have a category break-down this year, but I'll try to implement that going forward. Needless to say, the bulk of the 312 books fall under romance or young adult.

01/10: 13 A=13
02/10: 14 A=6
03/10: 28 A=4
04/10: 24 A=11
05/10: 23 A=12
06/10: 13 A=12
07/10: 24 A=9
08/10: 16 A=8
09/10: 13 A=10
10/10: 19 A=6
11/10: 9   A=9
12/10: 11 A=5

Final total: 207
ARCs: 105

Monthly Tally: December 2010

From the To Be Read Journal

1. A Werewolf in Manhattan , Vicki Lewis Thompson
2. Ruthless Game, Christine Feehan - I like this series so very much more than the Carpathian series these days. It was an excellent read and the twist of having the heroine be very pregnant was interesting. I also liked the little tidbits Feehan threw in about the Ghostwalkers' children.
3. Eternal Flame, Cynthia Eden
4. In Too Deep, Jayne Ann Krentz
5. Bitten in Two, Jennifer Rardin - I am so sad this author has passed away. Such potential.
6. Day of the Dragon, Rebecca York
7. The Broken Kingdoms, N. K. Jemisin - Orbit is proving to be quite the publisher for new science fiction authors. The world building here was phenomenal, but note that a) the ending isn't quite happy and b) you really have to read & remember the first book, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms to fully enjoy this one.
8. Caped, Josh Lobis & Derin Mosielle
9. Lost Girls, Alan Moore
10. The Secret Life of Mrs. Claus, Carly Alexander
11. Santa Calls, William Joyce

ARCs

1. Devoured by Darkness, Alexandra Ivy, out now
2. The Darkest Secret, Gena Showalter, 4/2011 - I so love this series. Sabin & Gwen are still my favorite couple ever, but I'm eagerly awaiting Paris's book. This one focuses on Amun, Keeper of Secrets. 
3. Driftwood Cottage, Sherryl Woods, 4/2011
4. Kiss of Darkness, Loribelle Hunt, 1/2011
5. The Heiress, Lynsay Sands, 2/2011

Books Discovered along the way

1. Strange Neighbors, Ashlyn Chase - Got the second book as an ARC, finally got to read the first one. For fans of Dakota Cassidy.
2. Spiral Bound, Margaret Ronald - This book took FOREVER to get. I requested it from a bunch of different libraries and when it was finally filled, the library sent the wrong book. I met the author in October at the NY Comic-Con. That's how long I was trying to get it. Since October. It was definitely a good book, although not precisely my cup of tea. Now to try to track down the second one...
3. Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian, Avi Steinberg - Books about librarians interest me, for obvious reasons, and I liked this book because it wasn't so much about librarianship as what books & libraries can represent.
4. Bear Necessities, Dana Marie Bell - Shifters are usually canines or felines, so it's always refreshing to encounter a different species. The hero is a bear shifter and quite interesting. The heroine is a more traditional wolf, but an unique person with two humans as her best friends. It ties into Bell's Puma series, but I was able to enjoy the book just fine, even though I only read The Wallflower.

I also started and did not finish Goodnight Tweetheart by Teresa Mederios. Meg Cabot's 'Boy' series is infinitely better and totally blew this book out of the water. Tweetheart didn't even have a happy ending per say.

I didn't read as much as I normally do, likely due to the holidays, but I already know I'll be blowing January out of the water! 

Laydowns for 12/21/10

Dark Harvest - Karen Harper (QP reprint)

Seducing a Vampire - Michele Hauf

Trouble - Linda Howard (MM reprint)

Ignited by Passion - Brenda Jackson (MM reprint)

Hawk's Way Rebels - Joan Johnston (MM reprint)

Prelude to a Scandal - Delilah Marvelle (I wasn't thrilled by this one. Not by a long shot. The premise involves the hero suffering from sexual addiction. As those of us based in reality know, addiction isn't ever really cured. However, the hero is miraculously healed by the power of the heroine's love and no longer has the slightest craving. Bull. Shit. The second book in the series is so, so, so much better.)

Caine's Reckoning - Sarah McCarty (MM release)

Enchanted No More - Robin D. Owens (As previously mentioned, I really enjoy Robin D. Owens' books and this one was no exception. However, it only got 2 stars at Romantic Times. I think the key here is to read this book like it's not a standalone. There will be backstory you are probably missing and there will be some loose ends for the next book to tie up.)

Laydowns for 12/07/10

No Place to Run - Maya Banks

Goddess of Legend - P.C. Cast (in To Be Read journal)

Outrageously Yours - Allison Chase (in To Be Read journal)

Mine Until Morning - Jasmine Hayes

Dreams of Desire - Cheryl Holt

Explosive - Beth Kery

Star of the Morning - Lynn Kurland (MM release)

Nauti Nights - Lori Leigh (MM release. So very hot & steamy. Leigh writes passion extraordinarily well.)

Sex on the Slopes - Susan Lyons

Heart Fate - Robin D. Owens (MM release. Robin D. Owens is one of my favorite authors and this is a pretty good title. Both the hero & heroine suffer from emotional wounds and they heal together. Rec'd if you haven't read it already.)

Border Lord & Lady - Beatrice Small (MM reprint)

Day of the Dragon - Rebecca York (in To Be Read Journal)