Saturday, so it's really a busy day, combining family time, social responsibilities, oh, yes, a business to run. When I took on this challenge to actually blog for a week I forgot to ask if I'd get off the weekends, so here goes, just in case I've got to blog 7/365.

Yesterday was a strange day -- filled with worked and uncooperative email systems -- but I was excited when I saw the new book at 11pm. Woo Hoo! Another one I got to vote for. Yes, occasionally I am asked to vote on a Fresh Pick, I figure it's only when they really need a tie-breaker, or geez, it could I'm like Cheney ::shudder:: But I digress...you may notice I do that too much in this blogging thing.

Saturday's pick is ALREADY DEAD by Charlie Huston! Oh, man, oh, man. I loved AD when I read it last year. It was the first Huston book I'd ever read but I had to go out and get everything else he'd written -- The Harry Thompson trilogy which were not as good as ALREADY DEAD. And, yes, for those of you sighing, it's another vampire book. Oh. well.

But you know, there are "vampire books" and there ARE "thrillers that happen to have vampires as some of the characters." This is of the latter category. The vampire society is part of the background fabric, but the plot thrills and pace are what makes it an exciting read.

Highly recommend ALREADY DEAD. I'd go into more details, but that family obligation stuff is calling!

Enjoy!!!! I certainly did, Might be time for a re-read!

Every Day a New One...

I'm tired -- I was up until 4:45am working and got up at 8am to start again, so I'm just filling in space. But a resolution is a resolution. And this is one of the reasons I'm not so fond of blogging, there are so many out there that just don't say anything, or are at a loss of topic that farting in a gym becomes an entire blog entry. Sorry, it's just not in me to discuss my bodily functions with world. HOWEVER, I did discuss books on my morning ramble through what felt like North Texas. Look, when you're operating on less than 4 hours of sleep with gritty contact lenses and driving in Dallas traffic, holding a decent conversation is totally amazing.

G has this goal of reading one book a month. Well, one book a month she can discuss in book club. Trust me that is a real goal for her. She's our expert on shall we say the "spicy" side of literature. Those she reads MUCH faster but there are not always book club discussion options. Especially in public places. Anyway, she started THE ALLELUIA FILES by Sharon Shinn. She's had it for years, but since we moved and she went off and back to college, the first book -- ARCHANGEL is missing in action. So the big discussion was about starting to read a book in a series, the confusion with characters, should the reader "know" little details about some secondary character, the layers of ambiguity. It is hard to start some books in the middle of a series. Personally, I find it easier to jump mid-series into a fantasy or science fiction set, but other readers have complained it's worse.

So, bottom line from this long conversation, since she remembers me RAVING -- it must have been memorable -- about how much I loved ARCHANGEL in the 90s when it was first released, she's thinking of her options since the book is MIA. One, get it from the library -- where other people ::shudder:: have touched it, or, two, use her Borders gift card and buy it. Somehow, I really think she's going to be passing by a Borders tonight. I could be wrong.

Back to the Fresh Pick, I am SO confused and the week is almost over. If it isn't demons but is evil, what the heck is the theme? Today is THE THIRTEENTH TALE which I haven't read, but it's highly recommended by people who understand my tastes in reading. "She" said she'd tell us the theme on the last day. Hummmpt!

CLOSE ENOUGH TO KILL???

Great title, isn't it? And a book to chill you to your bones. CLOSE ENOUGH TO KILL is our book club's October pick. And we also talked to the author, Beverly Barton, on the phone during our meeting. Apparently we were noisy and having a "good time" scaring the men off to various other corners of the house during our A Tasty Trip to Sergio and Raoul's Villa evening.

To be totally honest, the evening's theme is based on the menu and not the book or author chosen.


Barton is a delightful woman to have as a guest -- even via the telephone -- and she answered all our burning questions with ease. You know, the usual mundane but must ask the author questions -- what does she read when she's not writing, how does she do her research, what television shows does she like to watch, plus our queries book centered -- how is the book related to other books, does she know a serial killer personally, etc. Okay, I don't think we actually had drunk enough wine to ask that one, but she handled the rest very well. She watched Medium, loves Lost, and Jericho and we advised her to not miss Dexter. Isn't that a crazy show? She reads all her pals: Linda Howard, Iris Johansen, Linda Randall Wisdom and I missed a few...the wine was good, it had a bull on it! TORO!

And obviously, CLOSE ENOUGH TO KILL was a good read - very very gritty, with surprising twists. What else could you ask in a romantic suspense?

Drat...I was told my "demon theme" was WRONG! Sheesh, what is it?

Ah, re visitation -- WORKING FOR THE DEVIL

The Fresh Pick committee works from a theme. This is an FYI for those not in the know or who haven't figured it out to this point, and the committee mastermind, who shall remain nameless, always comes up with a theme of the week; it might be a movie opening, a national holiday, a honorific, or sometimes, I think, just her mood :-)

Personally, I get a kick out of trying to figure out what the theme is before I have to give in and ask, which I must admit pisses her off sometimes, because, you know, it's so OBVIOUS! Amazing other people roll their eyes as well. So, the theme for this week is obviously spooky, but not quite Halloween spooky, I know she's got something truly exotic in mind for that week. It's definitely evil, and I think I've got it now! THE DEVIL!

When I saw today's book pick -- WORKING FOR THE DEVIL by Lilith Saintcrow -- I went ooooh, that was one I voted for cause I fell in love with the kick-ass heroine. She's like this bounty hunter in hell type. Yeah, yeah, another bounty hunter, it's like there's a bounty hunter, vampire hunter virus going around the publishing circles, but this one was actually a pretty good read. So much so, I went and BOUGHT it last year when it came out and begged for a peek at the review copy, WHICH I DID NOT GET SO I HAD TO BUY ANOTHER COPY (yeah, still steamed!). But let's not digress too much.

WORKING FOR THE DEVIL is the first in a series with Dante Valentine, a necromancer. For those who are "a what?" that's someone who can raise the dead and get them to talk before putting them back in whatever existence they're "residing." First, loved the name -- Dante Valentine -- cool combination that resonates: a little naughty and a little nice. Second, Dante is a well-drawn character. Very understandable and maybe not "likeable" but she's not bad to read about what's happening in her life. Third, the plot just keeps twisting and twisting and twisting -- fast paced and forces you to keep read to catch up. Fourth, the villains are so SEXY! So, when I've got a book with FOUR things going so well in sync, it's definitely a keeper.

The next book out in the "Dante Valentine" series is DEAD MAN RISING. Don't mess around, go get the set! You'll enjoy....

Wonder what evil lurks for tomorrow.

By the way, if you'd like, you can sign up and get the Fresh Pick every day in your mail box or just stop by FreshFiction.com and check the top of the page (except for this blog since the programmer extraordinaire (moi) hasn't figured out how to mix php and blogger. ::sigh:: on the to-do list. And if you missed any, the last week of Fresh Picks is available here.

A soothing nightcap....THE WORTHY

Last night I was rather tired ... still recuperating I think... so I definitely needed a bedtime reading that was short, light, and not too thought provoking. It would be nice if it wasn't too heavy to hold as well, so that left out an assortment of ARCs, hardcovers and other miscellany waiting for me to read as "homework." Ah, when did my reading turn from purely pleasure to "homework." A dreaded term, isn't' it?

So I settled for a light weight, at least in heft, book. One I've been urged relentlessly to read for months now. I'll be honest, his first book took me FOREVER to get through and I really didn't understand it at all. Figured it was my age, but from the moment I read the first paragraph of THE WORTHY by Will Clarke, I was hooked.

Yes, I'll admit I have a skewed sense of humor, not exactly sophomoric, never did get into those slapstick comedy bits, but the humor in THE WORTHY was subtle and invigorating and appealed to me. I stayed up way past my assigned bedtime, past the third ridiculous episode of Dexter to finish every last word of THE WORTHY and to chuckle to the confusion of my husband.

Here it is in a nutshell, Conrad goes off to college, the rich spoiled scion of a Shreveport family, to get drunk, laid and rushed -- ah, join, his father (and uncle's) fraternity. As a legacy (previous family males were members) it was a given. and Conrad manages to revel in every minute of college life -- especially the parts of being drunk, laid and pledge of Gamma Chi. All works well until he can't stand another second of the relentless, painful, not-quite-right hazing and is struck down by the psychotic fraternity president, Ryan. Obviously demented -- Ryan works out, whitens his teeth, beats ups his girlfriend, snorts cocaine, and is generally a blight on society, or in other words, a future bank president.

Conrad is dead but not gone and finds being a ghost not exactly as advertised. No one can hear him, even if he shouts, oh, except for the old, crotchety house cook, Miss Etta. Since she's black, it's Louisiana, no one takes anything she says seriously, so Conrad is stuck. No revenge on his murder by Ryan, no stopping the relentless beating of the beautiful Maggie, no consoling his ex-girlfriend Ashley, no putting cocaine snorting, psychotic Ryan in his place. Until, well, Conrad perseveres and finds he can inhabit sleeping, comatose bodies -- preferably ones that are drunk. And let's be serious here, finding a drunk body to "borrow" isn't a problem on a campus (LSU) with a keg party every night.

It doesn't go as planned, but then that is the charm of a good book by a talented author. The storytelling of THE WORTHY is fabulous. It sucks you in to find out what happens next to Miss Etta, Conrad, Maggie, Ashley, and even the rotten Ryan. None of these characters are "heroic" but they are all charming and you probably know someone like them :-)

A new start of a week, another stab at a resolution. After all, it's not a good idea to advocate other people performing chores I'm hesitant to do. So, for fifteen minutes, WITH A CUP OF COFFEE, I'm going to blog. And blog about books I'm reading or interested about.

Had a spot of emergency surgery last week and managed to contract a really nasty chest and lung infection with it. What is it with going to the hospital and all those germs attacking poor defenseless sick people? I mean, really, how rude! Anyway, the thought of a nice hot bath, complete with bubbles and a nice book or two sounded very appealing. Only problem, I've got too many hardcover and trade size books -- definitely NOT accident resistant -- so I settled (what a nice way of putting it) -- for a couple of older favorites.

Suzanne Enoch's first adventure into contemporary. A mistress of the big historical romance, FLIRTING WITH DANGER is her first published trial of the chick lit meets a bit of suspense tome. Set in Palm Beach, based on the lovely classic movie, To Catch a Thief, FLIRTING WITH DANGER does a switcheroo -- the heroine is the jewel thief, the victim aka hero, is the rich handsome lord who she's robbing. After all, jewels and such belong in museums for the public to see.

Now, I've got to admit, I live in Texas. Our museums are small places with small installations and so are, bless me, pretty boring places. I miss the museums of the east. sigh. But anyway, I know for a fact, being a member, and hearing all the background scoop from my museum working daughter, the iceberg part of ANY museum is stuffed away in storage, so I've got a basic problem with "art" deserving to be seen by the public and if it belongs to a museum it will be. Usually under funded, the "collections" are stored away and lost in warehousing, never to be seen by anyway. So, if some rich dude wants to have a "collection" on his walls or in a house where at least he, his posh guests and the cleaning crew can see it, more power to him. But I digress.

FLIRTING WITH DANGER was a fast paced, slightly improbable. Okay, very improbable bit of fantasy. But I liked it last year when it came out and it was a perfect fit for a lazy evening in a tub of scented bubbles with warm water gently rocking my bruised and aching body. Everything was fine, we started the first heist, our lovely thief dressed in black rescues the half-naked rich guy and then, I decided to start the whirlpool. Oh, well. Sad to say, FLIRTING WITH DANGER is now a sodden mess -- the whirlpool is very efficient, what can I say? And I've got to find book two she promised to write -- DON'T LOOK DOWN.