Daughter of Smoke & Bone

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor, unabridged on 10CDs, read by Khristine Hvam.

Where to start, how to start.... Twilight and Hunger Games move over! Awesome, awesome story, read beautifully by Khristine Hvam. I am so ready for book #2 and I really don't like series books that much!  

From the box:

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Spam People

I don't let your comments be published here - go somewhere else or better yet, start your own blog to publish your advertisements or, in the case of this mornings offering, nasty nonsensical gibberish.

Every Other Day

Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

"Every other day, Kali D'Angelo is a normal sixteen-year-old girl. She goes to public high school. She attends pep rallies. She's human.

And then every day in between . . . She's something else entirely."

Very intriguing introduction to this book. It was a fast read for me because it was hard to put down. Kali risked her live to save a girl she barely knows, a girl who can see the future befriends her, and the three are off to solve a mystery. All the makings of a very good teen read. 

Dance With Dragons

Song of Ice & Fire #5: Dance With Dragons by George RR Martin


Ok, it took Martin 6 years to publish this book. The last was published in 2005. By the time I started this book, I had forgotten most of what when on and the parts I had remembered, I seem to have remembered wrong. I had to look up a synopsis online to even begin to understand what I was listening to.


The language has always been far more vulgar than I like to listen to. The story is very violent and he is killing off all the characters I like. There are suppose to be 7 books in all. If it takes 6 more years to publish book #6, then I'm done now.

This World We Live In

Life As We Knew It #3: This World We Live In
Susan Beth Pfeffer, Unabridged audio, 6 CDs

One of the most disappointing third book of a series I've ever read. The last 2 or 3 CDs were painful to listen to. The characters were doing all this stuff so out of the character that you knew from the first two books, that it was painful. Miranda goes crazy, Alex turns into a closed minded idiot, and Matt is a jerk. If there are other books in this series, I doubt I'll bother.

My Best of 2011

This was a year of 55 books and 56 audiobooks. I took some time this year to revisit old favorites and to try new authors. It was also a frustrating year because so many were free e-books that tried to give me a hint at what a good book the next one would be, but failed to draw me in.

Audiobooks this year, were amazing. I listened to so many good books. Wonderful year for audios.

For good or bad, these were my favorites in no particular order. Well, sort of the order I read them in. (Extra stars given to extra good books!)

Books
**Chalice by Robin McKinley
How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks
A Pour Way to Dye by Tim Myers
Goddess of Fried Okra by Jean Brashear
Poisoned House by Michael Ford
13 Little Blue Envelopes and The Last Little Blue Envelope, both by Maureen Johnson
Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen
Misfit by Jon Skovron

AudioBooks
Blasphemy & Impact, both by Douglas Preston
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Earth Abides by George R. Stewart (an old favorite)
*Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Myer
Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict by Laura Viera Rigler
Lighthouse by PD James
**Mistress of the Art of Death & Serpent's Tale, both by Ariana Franklin
**Match Me if You Can by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
**13th Hour by Richard Doetsch
Gideon's Sword by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
***The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens
The Gardener by SA Bodeen
All the Blue Blood series by Melissa de la Cruz (old & new favorites)
***People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
Chime by Fanny Billingsley

Speaking of Reading Challenges.....

Within my Mt. TBR challenge, I have made some mini challenges of my own.

I will try to read at least 6 of my "Classic" TBR books.

I will try to get caught up on 6 of my "series" TBR books. Outside the challenge, I hope to get any new books in the series I do not have and read those as well.

ARCs are not permitted in the challenge, but I have a large number that are TBRs, so I would like to read around 10 of those.

Actually, I just decided to make a whole new blog hoping that will help with the challenge:
http://myreadingchallenges.blogspot.com/