Happy October!

Wow. October already. I'll miss summer, but on the upside it means it's almost time for the NBA to get started! Go Wolves!! And it also means the election is almost here and over so I can get back to normal. I feel as if I've been incredibly lax in my reading, because I'm spending so much time online and in front of the television watching the presidential campaigns unfold. I used to get a lot more done when I didn't care which chef was in the kitchen, you know what I mean? So here's my pledge: Since I already know where my vote will be cast, and with the exception of the debates, I pledge to turn off the TV and get more reading done!

I'm loving Sharon Kay Penman's Devil's Brood, but it is taking a long time to get through due to distractions and 700 pages of teeny, tiny type. I plan on taking up something a lot lighter once I close the cover on Henry and Eleanor. Perhaps Wild Boy: My Life in Duran Duran by Andy Taylor which I won during BBAW for my "You Might Be A Book Addict If . . ." answer? (Thanks, Amy!!) Nothing like some good Duran Duran gossip to get the reading up to speed again! In case you're curious, my answer was: You might be a book addict if you have the hard cover, you've read it, but you buy the paperback anyway because, "the cover is sooo pretty!" Yup. I've done it. So have you. Come on. 'Fess up. :-)

With the way the reading year has been going, my September feels rather paltry:

82. The Conqueror by Georgette Heyer
83. The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory
84. The Tsarina's Daughter by Carolly Erickson
85. Confessor by Terry Goodkind
86. The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria
87. The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran
88. Cathedral of the Sea by Ildefonso Falcones

Links from the list are to my reviews. I've been remiss in getting my review written for Cathedral of the Sea, but I'm having trouble focusing enough. The election, Max's hip trouble, general antsy-ness. . . If any of you have any questions about that one, let me know! Maybe that will get me moving a little more quickly. And someday I'll write my thoughts on the whole Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind now that I've finally polished off the whole thing. I've also received a couple of wonderful awards from some great friends, and I need to get to those soon also. I'm so thrilled to get them!

Here's to hoping I can get back to normal very soon! While we're waiting for that to happen, here's a cool Andy Taylor video from back when I had to walk uphill both ways to school. :-)



Happy reading and good viewing to all!

April Fools!

It's not really spring! At least not here in Siberia. Oh, wait. I mean "Minne-snow-ta". About six inches fell yesterday. Big sigh. I hear it's supposed to get to 50 degrees by the weekend and melt this mess, so I guess all I can do is cross my fingers, right?

Anyway, not too bad a reading month for me. It was a little busy, as usual, but I still managed to fit nine books in between work, three nights a week of dog school, and watching Timberwolves games. I looooooove my Timberwolves, and I'll be sad when the season ends in two weeks, but I will be happy to get my reading time back! :-) The list of what I read is at the bottom of my blog. For anyone wondering about those non-reviewed books, I will be writing about Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth" series that I've been listening to, but I wanted to get well into it first.

Here's where I stand with my first year of Challenges:

Non-Fiction Five starts next month, so I'm 0/5
Spring Reading Challenge -- 8/27
Anything Agatha -- 0/10 (I'll be getting to this soon)
Pub Challenge -- 2/8
Chunkster Challenge -- 1/4
888 Challenge -- 6/64
TBR Challenge -- 6/24
Bookmarks' Best of 2007 -- 1/10
A-Z Challenge -- 12/52
Decades Challenge -- 5/8
Short Story Challenge -- 2/10
100+ Book Challenge -- 23 Total

Hmmmm. Doesn't look very impressive on paper. I better get moving! :-)

Reading for this coming weekend will be put on hold as we have a full weekend of CPE Dog Agility competition. Yippee!! Max will be thrilled! His birthday is on Friday (he'll be 4), and he gets to spend his whole doggie weekend doing what he loves most: Run, Run, Jump, Jump, Weave, Weave! You can read about our trial last month here. Skye could potentially earn three Titles this weekend. Max only has a shot at finishing up one, but he earned two at the last trial, so we're off the hook a little this time! If only we could earn that elusive Snooker Q. I am soooo bad at that game.

Other than that, we're off to the T-Wolves game tonight, so despite the 10,000 feet of snow, I'm a smiling chick! I'm hoping Craig "The Rhino" Smith makes a bunch of baskets tonight, because they play the cutest video of a charging rhino on the Jumbo-tron when he does! When it's this stupidly cold at this time of year, you just have to focus on the little things, ya know? Besides, I have a huge crush on him. Too bad I'm old enough to be his mother. :-) (Though their mascot, Crunch, has a special place in my heart, too. He reminds me of a crazy Border Collie!)

Happy reading, everyone!
Lezlie

In Like A Lion. . .

Welcome to March! It's nearly spring!!!

I have to say I was quite ready for February to be over. I was sick the entire month, Peter got sick, our cat Jack got some weird lip infection and our whole household mourned the loss of Cleopatra. It was all I could do to keep the house from looking like it was taken over by a band of monkeys. Needless to say, I didn't get much done in the realm of literature. I hate when that happens.

Five. That was my total for February. And two of them were audiobooks!! If I'm going to get all my challenge books read this year, I'd better get moving. A new month, a breath of fresh air, and I'm all ready to get back to some serious reading. Well, if not serious reading, then at least lots of fun reading anyway! My goal is to finish and post my review for Swann's Way this weekend, then dig into some less time-consuming books for a while. And just think . . . By the time I do another monthly summary, it will be Spring! I can envision the iced tea on the patio now. . .

We're almost there. . .
Lezlie

Happy February, Everyone!

February 1st, and we're creeping closer to spring!! It's Friday, the temperature is above zero, and we get to take the boys to agility class tonight . . . I'm thinking it's a very good day! Next Sunday we have our first agility competition since Peter wrecked his knee in September. I'm so excited to be going back! Since Peter still can't run, I'll be running both Max and Skye, which will be interesting. I'll be sure to post the results here and let you know how they do. Or how I do. The dogs always do great! It's Handler Mom who messes them up sometimes. :-)

My Minnesota Timberwolves are having a great stretch, and I'm thrilled for them! 4-2 in the last 6 games. Too bad Big Al Jefferson didn't make the All Star team, but he will eventually. The guy is amazing! Not to mention he seems like a nice guy in general.

On the book front, I feel like I didn't get a lot read in January, but I did finish off 3 really big books: War & Peace, World Without End, and Wizard's First Rule. (The running tracker is below the posts.) Mrs. Dalloway is taking me way too long, but Peter and I have been busy. I'm on a mission to finish that off tomorrow.

I'm very excited about discovering and entering the world of Reading Challenges! I joined *way* too many, pledged to read approximately 110 books between now and Dec. 31, and I'm loving every minute of it. I have no idea if I can actually finish all that, but all I need is half a reason to try. I'm meeting great new folks out here through all of it and looking forward to meeting more. One of the things I'd like to do over the course of the next 11 months is to learn enough about how all this blogging, Mr. Linky, etc., etc., works and host a Challenge of my own next year. I'm keeping a list of ideas. . . Ancient History, anyone? Tudor England? So many possibilities. . . If anyone has any tips, please let me know!

Lezlie