dead beat

I've been a dead beat. I have horribly neglected my page due to inactivity. I'm sorry. Really sorry.

I have been reading on my new Kindle (which is AWESOME) and have not been sharing what I read with the six people who actually look at my page.

I'll do better.

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love

--http://twitter.com/blackeros77/status/13031893695987712'>Brandi Evans (@blackeros77) has shared a Tweet with you:

"blackeros77: “Love is or it ain't. Thin love ain't love at all.” -- Toni Morrison"
--http://twitter.com/blackeros77/status/13031893695987712

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Finally: NEW Books

  

no time

I simply having had the time to finish a single book for weeks. No updates, no new books, not even the old ones. I have fallen off of my game.....must...get....it....together.

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New job disruptive to reading schedule.

I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TIME OR CONCENTRATION TO READ THE LOAD OF BOOKS THAT I HAVE HANGING AROUND.

Finally got a new job and I can't even find enough mind power to read a Hemingway novella. Now that's just crazy. Hopefully I'll find my rhythm soon and get things back to normal.

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Ok, so Carlos is this super hot Brazilian were-panther, who everyone assumes is gay and he's got a serious problem. Carlos and a few were-panther children seem to be the last of their kind so he needs to find a mate in order so the species will survive. Working for McKay Investigations gives him the opportunity to search around the world for others just like him. Caitlyn Whelan has been fired from her job, finds her long lost sister, then finds herself working for a vampire and falling for a certain Brazilian were-panther. Carlos is more than a little attracted to Caitlyn but he knows that this attraction can go nowhere because Caitlyn is mortal and can't have little were-panther babies. Their boss sticks them together on a mission that is destined to either make them or break them. But it's just a matter of who breaks first.
Along the way, they fight less than truthful guides, get married by a village elder, and awaken an ancient vampire from decades of slumber.
     This is a nice addition to the series but I can say that I was a little disappointed in what seemed like a promising story for Carlos; there just wasn't enough there for me. Carlos is on a serious mission to save his people and wants to make sure he does the right thing. I think my biggest issue was with Caitlyn and her development as a character. She, at first, seemed to be a quite serious and then she turns into quite a hussy chasing after Carlos all the time. I don't know...It seemed rushed and a bit frivolous but a fun tale, nonetheless. This is a book that I could have waited for a library copy but sometimes you just never know.

Brandi Evans (@blackeros77) has shared a Tweet with you:

"blackeros77: Eat,Prey, Love by Kerrelyn Sparks. Just finished. Cute story but I was hoping for more. I liked it though."
--http://www.twitter.com/blackeros77/status/27510668160

Eat, Prey, Love

 I couldn't help myself! Eventhough I already have a pile of books that I have not been able to get through, I figured that I owed it to myself to buy at least one new book. (Defining new by the fact that it was purchased this week. Not to be confused with books purchased last week or the week before but have not been read yet).
I have been waiting for Carlos to have his own story; as a shapeshifter among vamps makes for an interesting story. Plus, the fact that he is sexy and South American does not hurt at all.

A Nobel Goal

So, I have decided to embark on a new literary journey: for the next year, I will read the works of Nobel Prize winners in literature. The purpose is both academic and for bragging rights. I want to see what I can learn from these standards of literature and to be able to say that I have read all of the Prize winners.


I have already read Hemingway, Camus, Morrison, Heaney, Faulkner, and Garcia but I feel as if I have to go back and read them again because I cannot say with certainty that I have learned all there was for me to learn.

2010 Nobel Prize for Literature: Mario Varga Llosa

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2010 was awarded to Mario Vargas Llosa "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat". (http://www.nobelprize.org/)
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter: A Novel
Conversation in the Cathedral
The War of the End of the World
The Feast of the Goat: A Novel


Other Prize Winners:
2009 Herta Muller The Land of Green Plums
2008 Jean-Marie Gustave le Clezio The Prospector, The Interrogation: A Novel, Desert (Verba Mundi)
2007 Doris Lessing The Fifth Child, The Summer Before the Dark (Vintage International), The Grass Is Singing: A Novel (P.S.)
2006 Orhan Pamuk The Museum of Innocence (Vintage International),Istanbul: Memories and the City
2005 Harold Pinter Complete Works, Vol. 1
2004 Elfriede Jelinek The Piano Teacher: A Novel
2003 J.M. Coetzee Disgrace: A Novel, Summertime: Fiction,Waiting for the Barbarians: A Novel (Penguin Ink) (The Penguin Ink Series)

Heaving Bosoms

Library read: The Wedding by Julie Garwood

Veil of Night: A Novel by Linda Howard


My rating: 3 of 5 stars


By far, the best (or worst) Bridezilla ever. Jaclyn Wilde is a Atlanta events planner who has the worst client in history and on top of that, she has an unpaid parking ticket. Her day gets slightly better when she runs into Dective Eric Wilder coming out of an elevator...[insert interesting dialouge, sex, and murder investigation].


So, I liked this book. A lot. The dialogue was awesome and so were the characters, especially those involved in the Hee Haw Hell wedding. But the whole murder investigation? WTH? Did I miss something because I'm not sure how Eric was able to come up with a murder suspect and the murderer never gave a reason why he/she did it. I'm confused.


The book was still quite entertaining but it was like reading a Silhouette Desire novel in hardback form. It just wasn't as well developed as you could expect from Linda Howard but it's worth reading. Just knowing that someone silenced that bitchy bride, Carrie was enough to make it all worth it.




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What's His Is Mine by Daaimah S. Poole

 Just recieved an autographed copy of Poole's new book What's His Is Mine. Can't wait to dig in to the gritty world of professional sports.  Thank you, Ms. Poole!

Library visit

So, I went to the library today and picked up some pretty good stuff: The Book Thief, The Weddingby Julie Garwood, Midnight Pleasures by Eloisa James, The MacKade Brothers: Devin and Shane: The Heart Of Devin MacKade\The Fall Of Shane MacKade, The MacKade Brothers: Rafe And Jared: The Return Of Rafe MacKade\The Pride Of Jared MacKade both by Nora Roberts and a few others. All of these are re-reads with the exception of The Book Thief, which I have been meaning to read but never got around to.

So while I was wandering aimlessly around the library trying to kill time and save pretrol (simultaneously), I thought that I might as well find another classic that I should have read by now. Now I'm wandering lonely as a cloud in the classic section (cause who else would be over there) and I don't see anything that I feel compelled to wade through for endless hours. And then it came to me...the reason that I had been able to get around reading these tomes was because I HATED THEM. The ones that were there were the who's who of the classical literary world ---Henry James, Charles Dickens, D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Hardy, etc., and I couldn't bring myself to take them home. 

Then I thought, I'll try more Russians (I like the Russians) but that didn't work out either. Did I really need to read War and Peace or Lolita? No. OK, so maybe Les Miserable? Again with the "no". It's like 2000 pages of stolen bread, severed heads, and Jean Valjean. Nope. There was also a consideration for Hawthorne and Washington Irving but I'd already sat through an entire semester in Early American Lit. I hated that class; each night I wanted to tie my bottom jaw to the door with a tow chain just to have something else to focus on. So, "no" again.   I finally came to the conclusion that whatever classic I had already read, that was it. If I can't get my fix from Austen, Bronte, Dostoevsky, Marlowe, or the Bard, then....

You're All I Need by Karen White-Owens


My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Tia Edwards is doing her boss a favor when she agrees to act as a guide for a French lawyer from the home office of her company. She never expected to fall for Christophe Jensen. He's handsome, kind, funny, educated and caters to her every need---nearly everything her boyfriend, Darnell, was not.
Chris is drawn to Tia immediately but when she lets him know that she is already in a relationship, he decides to remain in her life as a friend. Then Darnell is found cheating on Tia and Chris seizes the chance to romance Tia. Though everyone around them can see that Chris is clearly enamored of Tia there is a slight problem: Chris is white and this soon causes problems with Tia's family once Chris makes his intentions known.

This is a good read however, for me, I would have liked for their to be a little more resolution to the issues presented in the book. Racial issues aside, Tia's twin sister and mother are constantly at each other's throats and the real reason behind their rocky relationship is not addressed until the end of the book. (Maybe there is another story in this from White-Owens)? Also, the ending is a bit unfinished for me. I like to interject my own theory about what happens after THE END as much as anyone but I was left looking for at least one more chapter. Though this wasn't my favorite from this author, I will be picking up her books in the future.




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TBR Pile

                          

Chains of Fire by Christina Dodd


My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The latest of the Chosen Ones series is the best so far. Samual Faa and Isabelle Mason have been at each other's throats since the beginning of the series but until now, no one knew the depth of their feelings. This is the best of love/hate relationships. Though both were adopted and grew up in the same house, their upbringing couldn't have been more different.


Isabelle is the protected daughter of one of America's first families and takes her obligations very seriously; while Samuel is a gyspy of indetermintae origin and also the butler's son. They have been connected since their first meaning and the connection has only grown stronger thru the years despite their continual betrayal of eachother.


I love the way Dodd takes us back to where Sam and Isabelle began; it gives the reader a chance to know the characters better but at the same times, stays within the action of the story. Each one of novels builds from the last---both they myth of the Chosen Ones and the personal connection between the characters. Another thing that is wonderful about the Chosen Ones series is the weave of world myth, the battle of good versus evil, and the presence of God. Dood does this in a very subtle way, as not to smash the reader in the face with a message but still managing to connect and anchor the entire story to a Christian senssbility (or at least that's what I got from it).


Great book and I can't wait for the next in the series. I hope it's about Charisma and Alekandr, which would prove to be a complicated and satisfying story.




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