Marley and Me

Ok...I am a self-confessed cat-person. I like their independence. I like that they keep the house mice-free (I HATE rodents) and I like that they are neat and loveable (at least mine are) but this book reminds me of why dogs are so great. Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World's Worst Dog by John Grogan is a WONDERFUL book, even if you are not a dog person. Marley is a yellow lab who is owned by the Grogan family. He is big, goofy and loveable, but eats non-stop, including items that are not food, jumps on people, scratches up drywall, crashes through screen-doors, and was actually kicked out of obedience school. BUT he is the world's sweetest dog and this is his story.

It is so touching to read how Marley loved this family, and how he was so patient with the kids. It reminded me of the dogs that we have had in my life. If you love dogs, this is a great book!

Happy Holidays

I just wanted to wish everyone Happy Holidays (whatever holiday you celebrate). May our next year be peaceful and prosperous!

Fun site:
In case you did not get to go out and look at Christmas lights, may I recommend the following site:
http://www.uglychristmaslights.com
And will someone explain the whole palm tree Christmas display to me? I saw severla houses with a lighted palm tree in the yard. I don't get it.

Things that annoy me about Christmas

Ok, since Beadinggalinms posted about what makes her happy about Christmas (and I responded!) I am going to post what annoys me about the holidays.

1. Traffic...my library is on a major road past a huge shopping center and a mall. It takes me almost twice as long to get home because of everyone going shopping.

2. Crowds...people seem to lose their minds in stores. Kids screaming, parents ignoring them, and people standing in the middle of the aisles in a daze. Hello? We are trying to get by.

3. Christmas parties! Uggh. Not that I am invited to any other than the one at work. Which is probably a good idea, because my idea of h*ll is being forced to socialize at a party.

4. My lack of control! There are just too many good things to eat.

Ok...done complaining for the moment.

Funny book:
This is one of my absolute favorites!
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
The end of the world is at hand. There is just one small problem, agents of h*ll have lost the antichrist. Luckily for us, the antichrist has been allowed to grow up normally and the representatives of heaven and h*ll have both decided that they kind of like earth. This book is one that makes me laugh out loud. Watch for appearances by the four bikers of the apocalypse: Death, War, Famine and Pollution (Pestilence quit in a huff with the invention of antibiotics!).

Crashing

We had our staff Christmas luncheon today. Since we are a public library, we had to spread out the celebration over 2 hours because we still had people to help. I ate too much and now I have crashed from the sugar high!

Fun link of the day from the Test Pattern http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4326967/ blog:
Snowball Fight: http://www.elfmovie.com/swf/snowball_fight/index.html
Hit the elves with snowballs.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to B! My nephew will be 8 years old tomorrow (December 17th). He is so excited! There is a week between his birthday and Christmas, so we always make sure that he gets birthday presents and he gets Christmas presents. AND the b-day presents are NOT wrapped in Christmas paper!

Depressing thought of the day

Its almost tax time. Today the library where I work recieved a shipment of over 21 boxes of federal tax forms!

Nasty Weather

The nasty weather continues! The storm that was moving up the east coast hit us here in VA today. Snow then sleet then freezing rain then finally all rain. Luckily the rain washed the ice away, and the temperatures were above freezing, but its bad enough driving in heavy rain showers. Could be worse I suppose. Further west in the state, they had much more ice.

The book I just finished yesterday is called Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. Its yet another vampire book! This one is a romance. Even though its written for teens, its such a well-written book and nice story that adults would like it too. Bella moves to Washington state to live with her dad. There, she meets the gorgeous, mysterious Edward. They are both drawn to each other and Bella is determined to find out his secret. But the more she finds out about Edward, the more she puts herself in danger.

Christmas

I just realized Saturday that there are less than 2 weeks until Christmas! I still have presents to buy, none of them are wrapped and I'm going into more and more debt. Its really hard to be in the holiday spirit, especially since I am a Scrooge just about every holiday. In fact, I've always said that the Grinch and Scrooge were just misunderstood!

I'm still reading some manga (Fushigi Yugi: The Mysterious Play) and yet ANOTHER vampire novel. I swear I'm not planning this! They just happened to come in at the same time.

Fun site for the day:
Urban Legend Reference Page: http://www.snopes.com
All of those stories that happened to a friend of a friend and of which we're never sure are true.

Undead and Unwed by Maryjanice Davidson

I must be on a vampire novel kick. This is another unusual one. Humorous paranormal romance. Even if you hate vampire books, give this one a try. Betsy Taylor is having the worst day ever! She broke her heel, got fired, and to top it all off got hit by a car and died. She wakes up 3 days later in the funeral home wearing a tacky pink suit and knock-off pumps that belonged to her stepmother, craving blood. Betsy is a member of PETA and a vegetarian and can't stand the thought of hurting anyone. But Betsy is a rather unusual vampire. She can control the craving for blood, sunlight does not kill her, she can still wear crosses and holy water just tickles. All she wants to do is live her life. But then a group of vampires come around and start calling her the vampire queen and asking her to overthrow the current vampire leader, a centuries-old vampire. Whats a girl to do?

"Wintery mix"

Two posts today! More winter weather is headed our way here in Virginia. This time of the "wintery mix" variety. Meaning some snow and lots of sleet and freezing rain. Here's hoping that if we do get anything overnight that its at least enough to close the library! I have pictures of my earlier snow, but my internet connection is slow this evening. So they'll have to wait.

Peeps by Scott Westerfeld

This is a teen book but very good. A different kind of vampire novel. In this novel, more and more of the earth's population is being infected with a parasite. This parasite drives them insane, makes them stay away from sunlight, and crave blood. The infected are called Parasite Positives, or Peeps for short. Cal is unusual. He was infected when he was nineteen and had a one-night stand with a mysterious woman he met in a bar. BUT, he has been able to suppress the insanity and blood-lust. He is a carrier: super-human strength, and able to see in the dark, but still maintaining his sanity. And as for blood, usually just eating lots of red meat helps.

Since the parasite is tranferred through bodily fluids, Cal must be careful not to get to close to anyone. If he even kisses someone, the parasite can be transferred. And unfortunately, the parasite really makes him crave intimate companionship. So he limits his contact to other carriers in a secret organization known as the Night Watch. An organization older than the county itself, dedicated to stopping the parasite invasion. Until the day he meets a woman named Lace on a routine assignment, who really starts to test his resolve.

"Significant Snow Event"

Our significant snow event lasted for about 12 hours, and ended up as about 3-4 inches. This is very unusual for my part of Virginia in December. If we get anything its usually freezing rain or sleet.

As far as books go, I've been reading a lot of manga and other graphic novels. I still don't understand why some teens ONLY read these, but the stories in some of them are good. The one that I've been reading is called The Mysterious Play by Yu Watase. Its about a modern Japanese girl who gets pulled into an alternate world (like ancient China) and it thought to be the priestess to a goddess. She must find the seven warriors in order to find her way home. The only bad thing is that I just finished volume 7 and the story is still going. I don't know what I would do if the library did not own these.

Snow

Uggh! We are under a winter storm watch. And it is coming in from the south so that usually means we will get hit with something. I don't DO snow! I am a big wimp when it comes to driving in it. And it will probably be just enough to make the roads messy and not enough to keep me home.

Cold

It was maybe a high temperature of about 40 today. Its so cold. I think that we went straight from summer to winter here in Virginia, AND they are calling for a "significant snow event" early in the week. I hate winter!

Cats

My two cats definitely have their own personalities. Calvin is 10 years old and acts like an old man. He wants attention when he wants it, and when he doesn't, then you better leave him alone. Thats him in the picture. Bella is only a year old and is quite the sweetie. She is very affectionate and likes to sit on my lap while I am at the computer. Or she likes to walk on the keyboard.

I've also been reading a lot of cat books. There is a book of cat photos called Bad Cat that is very funny. There is also a web page at www.mycathatesyou.com. Very funny. There are also lots of cat mysteries including series by Rita Mae Brown and Lilian Jackson Braun. There is just something about a cat.

Introduction

Welcome! I am going to use my blog as a way of talking about all of the books I read. And I read A LOT. Can you tell by the name? My favorite types of books are the ones without a message: fantasy, thrillers, romance, science-fiction, kids books. You name it, I'll try it. Not that I have anything against "Literature." I just like to read for the fun of it.

My latest read:

Bare Bones by Kathy Reichs. This is a mystery/thriller with forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan as the main character. Just when she is about to go on vacation, Temperance is called to identify remains in 2 separate incidents. One is a small plane crash, the other is bones found at a picnic given by her daughter's boyfriend. At first the two incidents seem unrelated, but then Tempe discovers they are connected and someone will do anything to keep her from finding out the truth. Really good.