Books, Books, Books, and Books

Can you guess what I want to talk about today? [g] I promised a post on books last week and just didn't get there.

Saturday I went to the library with my little sis and her sister KT. We spent almost 2 hours there. I'm not sure who was more reluctant to leave. And we all came away with a handful of books. Plus we'd gone to the library the weekend before...We also take lists from their mom with us. [She's started calling me her personal librarian.]

She's gone through my TBR & storage piles to the point I don't have anything else for her to read. I got her hooked on Elizabeth Vaughan's trilogy - Warprize, Warsworn, Warlord. She'd call me every morning to "gripe" at me that she stayed up late reading them. She couldn't put them down. Mooner, her husband, picked the first one up the other day making comments about "romance novels" but actually stayed up late to read the first one. Which is - literally - a first for him! Or so he says. Next we'll get him reading Suzanne Brockmann's books.

So here's what I've been reading lately:

Never Lie to a Lady by Liz Carlyle
*****Fabulous. Loved it. Stayed up late to finish it. On a week night. Want more. And whaddaya know, the next book in the trilogy is apparently already out! Yippee!!! 2 Carlyle's in one week. How'd I get so lucky?

Web of Love by Mary Balogh
****It's a Balogh. Must I say more? Good read, follows Gilded Web. Not my favorite Balogh, but enjoyable.

The Fated Sky: Astrology in History by Benson Bobrick
*Would have been great if the author would have stopped trying to use every big word he knew in every sentence. For pete's sake!!!! Returned to library unread.

Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati
*I could not get into this one. It was a BB recommended read, and I'm surprised I don't like it. Maybe it's my dislike of books that pull characters from other books the author didn't write. This one pulls in the characters from the book the Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper. I don't like that. Too jarring for me for some reason. I also didn't like the writing style. Irritated/aggravated me somehow. I know it's her first book, and there you have it. :) Felt to me like a first time author attempting to write in the style of one of the literary greats. I'm just too picky. So I put it down (spent several hours trying to get into it yesterday afternoon.) It seemed a poor attempt at copying "Shanna" by Kathleen Woodiweiss. But not really. It wasn't similar at all. Bizarre, but I couldn't get that thought/book out of my head. Or my favorite The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare. Anyway. This book is now in the "return to library" pile.

The Raven Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt
TBD - just started last night. So far so good, but I'm only 5 pages into it.

Multiple papers on Legal & Illegal Immigration in the U.S.
***because it powered up my brain and I'm just freaky weird in that I enjoy this stuff. ;)

Sooooo. My TBR pile is small, mainly because the mood I'm in lately nothing really sounds good. And then when I read stuff by good authors, like Carlyle and Balogh...well, nothing else works afterward. [g] Good thing Suz is having another book out on August 15th. But what I'll do after that is the question. I'm probably good until the 17th. Then I'm in trouble...