Reading Saturday-1

It's Saturday and that means..well it actually doesn't mean anything for me. I still have to get up at the butt crack of dawn and work, but I usually devote a good deal of my time on the weekends to reading. So the weekend will be used to catch up on bloggy things, read my selections for the read-alongs I've signed up for and tidy up around the house.

So what's on the menu for this weekend?

The Great Gatsby  to pg. 45
The Scarlet Letter-Ch. 1-4 (due jan. 3rd)
Pride and Prejudice-Ch. 1-7 (due jan. 8th)

This will be plenty and of course any other book I need to catch up on for the week! :) What are your plans for this weekend?

Read-a-Long: The Great Gatsby

I have been meaning to read this book! I gave away my copy but do have it on my nook! I don't think the pages are the same but I will do my best to keep up with the rest of the readers! If you want to sign up click on the button up there ^ and join in!

Schedule:

Beginning Thursday, December 29th and ending Friday, January 27th.
READING SCHEDULE:

Week #/ dates :: Place in which to STOP

Week One/ December 29- January 5 :: page 45 (THIS WEEK'S READING)

Week Two/ January 6- 12 :: page 90
Week Three/ January 13- 19 :: page 135
Week Four/ January 20- 27 :: page 180 (The End)
POSTING SCHEDULE:
Post #/ date post should be up on blog:
Start up Post/ Today!
Week One/ January 6th
Week Two/ January 13th
Week Three/ January 20th
Week Four/ January 27th (Final Review)

** Please don’t forget to come to this blog each Friday and share your thoughts in the comments section of the weekly Read-a-Long discussion (see below for more information).**

Teaser Tuesday

*Grab your current read

*Open to a random page

*Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

*BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

*Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My selection comes from The Night Circus


"Follow your dreams, Bailey," she says. "Be they Harvard or something else entirely. No matter what that father of yours says, or how loudly he may say it. He forgets that he was someone's dreams once, himself."pg. 87

I showed you mine! Now show me yours!

What are you Reading Monday?

I hope that everyone had a great holiday this year! I know I did! I didn't get anything really, but I had a lot of fun! :) As you can see I have a LOT of books on my reading list! I'm still participating in the Wrapping Up 2011 Read-a-thon, so I do want to get as many books read as possible! Most of these ebooks are really quit short so I'm not worried! I do however have A LOT of reviews I want to get written and posted, so I'm gonna be busy!

Happy Reading!

To Read:

• (finish) the Night Circus
• The Night Eternal
• Zombie Fallout (Ebook)
• blood and Sex (ebook)
• Clockwork Prince 

Books Needing Reviews

• Bad Taste in Boys
• Enclave
• Henry VII: Wolfman 
• Dearly, Departed 
• Plague of the Dead
• Dust and Decay
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone
• Blood Rights

Merry Christmas!

I hope that the big man brings you all the book goodies that you are wishing for! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Wrapping Up 2011 Readathon

Look what I found!  This readathon will take place over the Holiday break so from December 22nd all the way to January 1st!  So if you want to head over to the button just click the button. 


The hashtag for this is #wu2011r , so come on and chat us up and keep us motivated!

My book list:

• Blood Rights (finish)
• The Night Circus
• I'm not sure about the rest...

SO there you have it folks! I will be updating probably daily if not more often. It all really depends on how I feel and how well I do.

*this is a sticky post to keep my updates*

Update 1: 12/22
Book: Blood Rights
Start: 104
Finish: 290
Pages Read:  186
Books Read: almost done with the book. I will finish tomorrow.

Update 2: 12/23
Book: Blood Rights (FINISHED)/ The Night Circus
Start: 290 (BR)/ 20
Finish:392 (BR)/ 56
Pages Read:  138
Books Read: 1 (blood rights)

Update 3: 12/24
Book: The Night Circus
Start: 56
Finish: 69
Pages Read: 13
Books Read: 1 (blood rights)

Update 4: 12/25 -No Reading (sad panda)

Update 5: 12/26
Book: The Night Circus
Start: 69
Finish:120
Pages Read:60
Books Read: 1 (blood rights)


Update 6: 12/27and Update 7 12/28 (combining the two days)
Book: The Night Circus
Start:120
Finish: 387
Pages Read: 267
Books Read: 3 books (blood and sex) (blood rights) (the night circus)

Update 8: 12/29
Book: Halo (ebook)
Start:1
Finish:50
Pages Read:50 (put the book aside) 
Books Read: 3 books (blood and sex) (blood rights) (the night circus)

Update 9: 12/30
Book: The Yoga Club
Start: 1
Finish:
Pages Read:
Books Read: 3 books (blood and sex) (blood rights) (the night circus)

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser is from Blood Rights by Kristen Painter, which by the way is excellent so far! I'm thoroughly enjoying it!

"'I knew Jonas was no good. Mortal." She filled the word with the same disgust Mal felt toward the being responsible for his curse."

What are you Reading Monday?

To be honest, I don't have a plan this week.

As I said in my Sunday Salon post,  I'm going to try to finish as many books as I can by the end of December and schedule as many reviews as I can to kick 2012 off with a headstart! I fell behind this year, due to all sorts of things and my blog plans went bye bye. Soo with that said and done, my next two weeks will be me reading and getting things in tip top shape for the new year!

My goodreads tracker thingy says I'm about 28 books away from my goal. There is NO way I am going to make that goal unless I read from morning til night everyday until the 31st. Yeah..no way. So with that in mind, stay tuned for my next post which will be my personal read-a-thon starting line. I will read as much as I can when I can and see how many I can finish up! My son is on break until the 3rd, so he may just join me!

Wish me luck!

The Sunday Salon

So from now until the new year I plan on reading as much as possible, and getting my blog all scheduled up! I want to get a nice steady queue of reviews scheduled, so I am holding off on the review posts (unless it's an obligation) until around then. I will still post, but probably won't be so regular! Trust me 2012 is gonna be good!

So don't forget to check out my giveaway for Eden: A Zombie Novel that ends tomorrow! 2 lucky winners will get a copy (US only.)

I'm also considering a personal read-a-thon. I think that it will help me get those reviews piled up and ready for the new year! Don't you? Plus hey...any excuse to read my butt off I'm gonna take it! So that's my plan..look for it tomorrow for the "official non-official" start.

Today I'm finishing up:

  So far this has been pretty good! I am seeing why there are TONS of positive comments and reviews about it! Woot!

What are you up to this Sunday?

Blog Tour: The Noctuary

About the Book:
Struggling writer Simon Ryan’s life has gone to Hell.
Shadows are pouring into his reality and his words are not his own anymore. He has been chosen to become a scribe for some of the worst creatures of the Underworld – the ones whose sole purpose is to torment human souls – The Dark Muses.
As Simon writes, he falls deeper into the abyss and before long he has no sense of what is real. With the help of another scribe, old and mutilated, Simon comes to discover that his writing can mould people and places –- that he can write things out of existence.
To become a scribe Simon has to pass a test and the Muses offer him a chance to rewrite his horrible past.
All he has to decide is how the story ends….

About The Author:

Greg Chapman is an emerging dark fiction author from Australia.
In 2009 he was selected in the Australian Horror Writers Association’s Mentor Program under the tutelage of Melbourne author Brett McBean.
Since then he has had short stories published in The Absent Willow Review, Trembles Magazine and Morpheus Tales and Eclecticism.
Damnation Books published his first novella “Torment” in March 2011 and will release his second, “The Noctuary” in December 2011.
Apart from his writing ability, Chapman is also an accomplished horror artist with publication credits in Midnight Echo Magazine and Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. He is currently illustrating a graphic novel for horror authors Rocky Wood and Lisa Morton, to be published by McFarland in early 2012.
You can find him on the web at www.darkscrybe.blogspot.com

My Review:
This little novella kept me up way past my bedtime! I thought it was a deliciously twisted story of desperation, horror, and redemption. It's a good old fashioned mind-screw, and it was really rather good! I'm not that head over heels in love with novellas, I will admit to that.  They usually feel incomplete to me. The Noctuary; however, did what it claimed to do. It wigged me out.

I enjoyed this straight shot of creepy and twisted fiction. Mr. Chapman has a way with words that is akin to other writers that have made my skin crawl, and I mean that in a good way. I thoroughly enjoy a delightful romp through the strange and demented now and then, and this definitely settled any cravings I had for a dose of gore and madness.

I'm Reading...

I've got a few books on my plate today! I've got a case of reader's A.D.D. it seems and can't just settle on one, so I figure I'd just roll with it! Right?

The Noctuary by Greg Chapman. I've got it on my Nook and so far it's a creepy little bugger!

I haven't quite gotten too far into it but I can already see it's got potential galore! I've heard so many good things about it on Monday, I just couldn't resist!

and last but not least...
My Secret Santa gave me this! I am loving it so far!

Well that's my Thursday selections of fun! :) Gonna refill my coffee cup and read-on!

Surprise Giveaway!

I have 2 (two) copies of this book to give away! Please fill out the form to enter! Sorry only US residents for this one!Contest runs from Now (dec 13th) til Dec. 19th.
Good luck!

Blog Tour: Eden

 

About the Book: 
Inside its walls, a community of survivors scratches out a terrifying existence.  Outside, hordes of undead pound relentlessly against the barriers and rattle the gates of the humans' last sanctuary-- Eden.

Overnight, the world transforms into a barren wasteland ravaged by plague and overrun by hordes of flesh-eating zombies.  In the aftermath of the gruesome destruction of New York City and its inhabitants, a small band of desperate men and women stand their ground in a fortified compound in what had once been the outer borough of Queens. Those who built the walls of Eden fell prey long ago to the undead…those who remain survive by sheer determination, camaraderie, and human ingenuity, making forays into the outside world through the network of pipes under the city streets.

Harris—the exceptional honest man in this dead world—races against time to solve a murder while fighting to maintain his own humanity.  Ultimately, the danger posed by the dead and diseased masses clawing at Eden’s walls pales in comparison to the deceit and treachery Harris faces within.

My Review: 



First things first, I love zombies. My love of them is requisite for each and every review I write on this blog. I gorge myself on the genre when I can and love every dripping, gory minute of it! I state this not to show my "zombie cred," but to demonstrate that it takes a lot to irk me or turn me off of a book pertaining entirely of the creatures. Now with this disclaimer, I will start my review.

I like the Dawn of the Dead type style of this book. You get the stories from various different characters, all surrounding one in particular. That is awesome. It helps the reader "see" how things got to where they are. All good and groovy, BUT the first complaint I have is the way this is done. I'm not sure if it's the format that irked me a bit or what, but the bouncing from one time frame to another without any clear indication ahead of time is slightly jarring. It brings me out of the story and sort of flailing around trying to figure out who is doing what and when. It kills the delicious immersion I love so much about these books.

The characters are not at all cut and paste. THIS was a winning point. I felt like such care and detail were given to everyone from the main guy Harris to even the briefly seen, zombie. Nice job to you Mister Monchinski! Well played, sir. This is a big sweet plus sign for Eden.


Now the idea that the main character is racing against the clock trying to figure out this big puzzle is just awesome! To know that HE knows his doom is coming, well that just clenches my gut and had me hoping that a miracle happened.  Harris had his flaws, but it seemed that deep down he was a good guy. You want him to beat the odds.

I liked the book. I was a bit upset about the ending. I won't ruin it but it does feel really hurried and rushed. You KNOW what is going to happen but when it does it's like "bam!"

So long story short. This is one to put in your collection if you are a zombie freak like me. It was good, not the greatest but it has it's merits. I will possibly look out for the sequels.


EDEN: A Zombie Novel (Gallery Books; on-sale December 6th; Trade Paperback; $15.00)

What are you Reading Monday?

Well I had a slooow reading week last week! I finished Dust and Decay. That's it, but it was exxxceeellleeennnnttt. So I am pleased. I won't plan out my books this week (besides Eden..which is a blog tour book) as I plan on trying to plow through many. I will list some possibilities. My goal is to write and schedule all the reviews I have backed up and try to put a dent in my Review Stack! It's getting fricken' insane!

List O' Possible Reads:

• Eden-blog tour so not so possible as actual
• Don't Breathe a Word
• The Night Eternal
• Tangled Tides (ebook)
• Zombies Don't Cry (ebook)
• Halo
• Brass and Bone (ebook)
• 11/22/63 (ebook)

These are just SOME of what I have to choose from. So if I pick something else don't get all shockered. 


Upcoming Reviews: 

• Bad Taste in Boys
• Enclave
• Henry VII: Wolfman 
• Dearly, Departed 
• Plague of the Dead
• Dust and Decay

Mah Plans for the Rest of 2011

So I have two stacks of books. One stack are the books I WANT to read before the end of the year and my other stack is for my books I need to review. So basically from now until the 31st, I'm going to be plowing through as many books as I can! I foresee lots of coffee and lots of late nights! Yay! So prepare! I have things a'coming!

For this weekend though I plan on finishing up Dust and Decay and reading Eden. Zombeh weekend for me!

**poor bicycle girl..she just wanted to get to her kids***

Luckily we have Daryl Dixon to save the day! (Yes, I really need the Walking Dead to come back!)

It's Monday! What am I Reading this Week?

Well last week I got some things done! The Holiday #Readathon helped! So onward week the 4th! Hey ho! Let's Go! And all that jazz...


Reading This Week:

• Dust and Decay
• Eden-Tony Monchinski
• The Fallen Queen- Jane Kindred (Ebook)
• Tangled Tides - Karen Amanda Hooper (ebook)
• The Night Eternal-Hogan and Del Toro
• Don't Breathe a Word

Upcoming Reviews: 

• Bad Taste in Boys
• Enclave
• Henry VII: Wolfman 
• Dearly, Departed 
• Plague of the Dead

Blog Tour: Black and Orange

Forget everything you know about Halloween. The stories are distortions. They were created to keep the Church of Midnight hidden from the world. Every October 31st a gateway opens to a hostile land of sacrificial magic and chaos. Since the beginning of civilization the Church of Midnight has attempted to open the gateway and unite with its other half, the Church of Morning. Each year they’ve come closer, waiting for the ideal sacrifice to open the gateway permanently. This year that sacrifice has come. And only two can protect it.
Martin and Teresa are the nomads, battle-hardened people who lack identity and are forever road-bound on an endless mission to guard the sacrifice. Their only direction is from notes left from a mysterious person called the Messenger. Endowed with a strange telekinetic power, the nomads will use everything at their disposal to make it through the night alive.
But matters have become even more complicated this year. Teresa has quickly lost ground battling cancer, while Martin has spiraled into a panic over being left alone. His mind may no longer be on the fight when it matters most…
because ever on their heels is the insidious physical representation of a united church: Chaplain Cloth.

 Benjamin Kane Ethridge’s fiction has appeared in Doorways Magazine, Dark Recesses, FearZone, and others. His dark fantasy novel BLACK & ORANGE (Bad Moon Books 2010) has won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in First Novel. Beyond that he’s written several collaborations with Michael Louis Calvillo, one of which is a novella called UGLY SPIRIT, available in 2011. He also wrote a master’s thesis entitled, “CAUSES OF UNEASE: The Rhetoric of Horror Fiction and Film.” Available in an ivory tower near you. Benjamin lives in Southern California with his wife and daughter, both lovely and both worthy of better. When he isn’t writing, reading, videogaming, he’s defending California’s waterways and sewers from pollution.
You can visit his website at BKEthridge.com
Say hi and drop a line at ben@bkethridge.com

My Review:
I love the horror genre. I love books that throw you off kilter and make your head spin like it was a top! This book melds the two together into a whirlwind of quirky horror. (I think I just created a genre!) At times it felt like an action/horror movie and other times like a ..well I can't think of a proper way to describe it, but whatever it is it's good! This is a fast paced, attention grabbing, balls to the walls, joyride of a book!


I give it four and a half smashed pumpkins and a happy face!



Upcoming Tour Stops:

Tuesday, December 6th
Review at Sweeping Me
Wednesday, December 7th
Interview at The Plot Thickens
Thursday, December 8th
Guest Post and Review at Family Reads
Friday, December 9th
Review at Jasmyne’s Reviews
Monday, December 12th
Interview at Laurie’s Thoughts and Reviews
Review at Emeraldfire’s Bookmark
Tuesday, December 13th
Guest Post at Emeraldfire’s Bookmark
Wednesday, December 14th
Review at Working for the Mandroid
Thursday, December 15th
Interview at Beyond the Books
Friday, December 16th
Review at Booksie’s Blog

Second Annual Holiday #Readathon Update Post

You know me! I can't say no to a read-a-thon! I've signed up and so can you! Just click on the button and go at it!

There are tons of challenges and even a very special one! The mini-challenge set up by the hostess of the 'thon, Liza Wiemer, is hosting a challenge that goes like this:

1. Pledge a penny or two or three (or any amount you want!) per page that you read. Put a minimum number that you will pledge. For example: 100 pages – $1.00. And then donate the amount to your favorite charity.
OR
2. ANY type of donation for the holiday season – a can(s) of food, book to a library, Toy for Tots, gently used books or clothes donated to a shelter, school – qualifies. Just list it. (Feel free to come up with your own ideas!)

..Isn't that awesome? I'm going to try and do both. I think this is an awesome way to help out the community and spread good cheer!

So far there seems to be about 15 other challenges so there's bound to be something awesome for you!

My Goals:

1. Participate in at least 5 challenges
2. Read at LEAST two books! 
3. Participate in the chat on Twitter (#readathon)
4. Oh yeah! Have fun! 

My books:

• Plague of the Dead
• Black and Orange
• Arcadia
• Dust and Decay
• The Night Eternal

******
Some people have started a bit early so I'm going to hop on that bandwagon right now! I won't be able to stay up too long, but I will get some reading squeezed in!

12/1 :
Book: Plague of the Dead by Z. A. Recht.
Starting Page: 63
Ending Page: 94
Total: 31 pages


12/2 :
Book: Plague of the Dead by Z. A. Recht.
Starting Page: 94
Ending Page:204
Total: 110

12/3 :
Book: Plague of the Dead by Z. A. Recht. (FINISHED)
Starting Page: 204 (PotD) 1 (black and orange)
Ending Page: 303 (PotD) 32 (black and orange)
Total: 335



12/4 :
Book: Black and Orange by Benjamin Kane Ethridge (Finished!)
Starting Page: 32 (B&O)  1 Dust and Decay by Jonathan Maberry
Ending Page: 423 (b&O) 55 Dust and Decay

Total:954 pages

Challenges: