Columbine by David Cullen

Yvette of True Crime Book Reviews is hosting another free book giveaway. Details are here. You don't need a blog to join. You can sign up with your email if you are interested. And it's free book, y'all. So why not join? Contest ends on May 21,2009. Good luck.

Shhh! I'm Reading...or Listening?

I finally got my audio book of The Gargoyle. My friend Suzanne from Chick with Books recommended this to me since I needed to listen to something while I drive home to Louisiana. Even though I have an abundance of mp3s and music CDs, they can get pretty old during a 16 hour drive.
I don't usually "listen" to books since I do prefer reading a real book with my feet up while taking a few sips of french vanilla creamed coffee from my Shhh! I'm Reading mug.

What can I say? I'm old school. I'll probably be the last person on earth to get the Kindle. I realized that I needed to be open minded so I downloaded a free audio book of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. I thought it was going to be boring, but it wasn't! I actually enjoyed it. I listened to it while I was packing and by doing so made my task bearable. The narrator's voice was engaging, and I can tell she enjoyed doing the narration and the voice overs. I haven't finished listening to it yet, but I look forward listening to the next chapter.

So...do you listen to your books often? Are you like me who prefers to read? Do you have any audio book recommendations? Please share your comments below. I would love to hear them.

Two Weeks and Counting

I can't believe this month had flown off the page of my calendar. In about two weeks, I will be moving back to Louisiana...and I still have a long way to go in regards to packing. Seriously, why does it feel like when I've packed a bunch of stuff, it feels like there's more? Well, at least that's how it is with my books. Yesterday, I sent a text to one of my friends at work to save some boxes for me just so I can have a place for my precious books.

Even after donating 35 books (12 hardcovers and 23 paperbacks) to my local library (and I have four more sitting in the trunk of my car) and sent 5 boxes of books to my parents' house, I still have these boxes sitting on my kitchen floor...and yes, those are all books inside.

Some of these books I had just bought in the past six months, and some of them I haven't read yet like the Suite Francaise. I still haven't packed The Elements of Style because I use that for my reference when I'm writing my short stories.



Then there's my reference books. Even though I haven't read any of my books from med tech school in years (and who reads their old school books anyway?), I still keep them. I thought about just keeping Clinical Diagnosis and Management by Laboratory Methods and donating my blood bank, immunology, chemistry, and urinalysis atlas books to the library. In the end, I kept them because I just didn't have the heart to give them away. And I call my parents pack rats...yeesh. I guess it takes one to know one.

More books....

And some more...

And then I found these sitting in my storage closet outside. My manga books...and seeing them were like seeing old friends.

I used to watch Sailor Moon and Ranma 1/2 when I was in the Philippines. I LOVED THEM! Well, really I loved Mamuro/Darren/Tuxedo Mask/Tuxedo Kamen back then. I thought he was hot while running around in that tuxedo while throwing roses. I wish they would have made him stronger in the anime though because they made him such a wimp. On that note, I couldn't get into the English-translated Sailor Moon anime...and they couldn't stay true to the manga version. Mainly because some of the parts were homosexual themes though there weren't any graphic sexual scenes, and the show was geared towards children. Seriously though, who would believe that Haruka/Amara/Sailor Uranus and Michiru/Michelle/Sailor Neptune are really just cousins? Well, maybe kissing cousins. Ahem.

Still as controversial and strange the stories these mangas may be, I enjoyed them. I was entranced by the romance between Usagi (Sailor Moon) and Mamuro, and laughed out loud on the antics of Ranma and his fiancees from Ranma 1/2. Of course, even though I don't read them anymore, they will always be my favorite classic manga books (if there is such a thing).

So now I must go back to packing, my friends. I probably won't be updating my blog/blogs as much as I would like to in the following weeks. Moving is always tough, but I'll be glad once I'm settled in Louisiana.

Maybe I should invest in the Kindle 2 or in the Sony Reader. Hmmmm.

New Reads and a New Review

I've decided to kick off my Classics Challenge list by reading The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. I've also written a review that was very favorable. I was afraid I was going to be bored by this book. Maybe because I thought it was just about fishing...and of course, I'm really not the "outdoorsy" type. Yet, the book really surprised me because of the several themes it touched.

Another classic I've started reading was Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Dialogue is very abundant here so it's an easy read. I may be finished with it by the end of this week.

Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas was listed in my WWII challenge book. The book touched on Japanese internment during WWII. Very interesting read...but disturbing also. It is part historical fiction and mystery.

I wasn't going to start reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett until later but after reading just a few sentences I was sucked right into the book. It's about three women - Skeeter (who's white and fresh off college), Aibilene (a black maid whose pain which she had bottled for so long but afraid to speak up) and Minny (a black cook whose outspoken ways landed her into trouble at times.)

I'm already halfway through the book and so far I've enjoyed the drama and the humor. I fell in love with the characters immediately. The setting's in Mississippi, 1962, around the Civil Rights Movement. It's a definite must read.

I WON!!

I didn't expect to win a free book but I did! This was my first contest to join, and my first contest to win. Sweet! The book I won was Ann Rule's Mortal Danger and Other True Cases. Thanks to Yvette of True Crime Book Reviews for holding this free book giveaway contest.

She is also holding another free true crime book giveaway. The book is Anna Nicole Smith A Blonde Ambition by Rita Cosby. The details are in Yvette's blog if you are interested in joining. One of the rules for joining is to describe Anna Nicole in one word. Frankly, I think she is just a lost little girl in a grown up body. I'm not a fan of hers but it's really sad what happened to her.