It's like they read my blog!!!!!

Well, hello! Happy Monday to you. Have a good weekend? We did. We went to a birthday party/cookout on Sat and Sunday we drove up to Ramstein Air Base to do some shopping, eat at Johnny Rocket's and watch Iron Man 2 in an air conditioned theater. The Contessa and I went to see Eclipse in our local theater last week and it has no a/c. It was 93 degrees outside and probably 113 inside. Holy moly!
Anyway, we had delicious, delicious (and oh, so bad for us) food, then went to see Iron Man 2 and it was AWESOME. I {heart} Robert Downey, Jr. Not like I {heart} Johnny Depp (I love you, Johnny! Call me!) and Edward (Yummy), but more in an "he's so funny and awesome and I totally approve of how he's put his life back together way." The movie was funny and very action-y. What? It's a word. Oh, and it had Mickey Rourke in it, who is a slice of fun (with a scoop of weird on the side).  If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.  It was a lovely weekend.  

So, onto the title. Did you read my Dishing It: Summer Reading post?  Of course you did.  Why wouldn't you?  Every word I write is like drops of manna from the skies. Or something like that.  Since I know you read it, I'm sure you remember me talking about the Sebastian St. Cyr series and how awesome it was and how, even though the last installment just came out in Nov 09 and I couldn't wait for the next one, even though there was no news as to when it would be coming out.  Right?  Yeah, I know you do.  So this morning I was on Amazon.com (love!) and just happened to click on my recommendations.  I don't check them very often because they are usually filled with Indiana Jones, books or toys, as I buy stuff for Indy at Christmas birthdays from them.  Today though, I thought, hey, let's see what's new.  And guess what I saw????  Guess!  Go on.  That's right!!!!  The new Sebastian St. Cyr novel, Where Shadows Dance is now available for pre-order and will be published Mar 1, 2011!  YES!!!!  It's like CS Harris and Amazon read my blog.  And why wouldn't they?  My words=manna, remember?  Sure, sure, I know it's still 8 months away, but at least now I know when and won't just be sitting here wondering how long I'll have to wait.  Not that I do that or anything.  I'm very busy. 

Dishing It: Summer Reading

The super awesome Amanda (no, I'm not sucking up, it's true) over at Serenity Now is hosting another Dishing It party and this time, I thought I'd join in because I didn't forget.  This party is all about summer reads.  Aside from shoes and Edward and Johnny Depp, there's nothing I love more than reading (oh, except my family, but that's a given).  I read all kinds of things.  Mr. HH swears we'd be ridiculously wealthy if I stopped buying bottled water and books.  First of all, I don't even like to shower in the water we have, so I'm certainly NOT going to drink it.  Ick.  And secondly, I do use the library a lot (a lot, a lot), but it takes forever for them to get some new release books and sometimes, well, I just can't wait,especially if it's part of a series and I've been waiting on it to come out. And third, shut up.

I frequently have 2, 3 or even 4 books going at one time, which for some reason drives Mr. HH crazy (he has issues with my reading, I think) and often read at least 2 books a week.   If I don't read, I feel like I'm doing something wrong.  It feels weird.  I am currently reading the following:


    














Other books I would recommend for summer reading, are:

This book is hilarious and so easy to read as it's all in email/text message format.  It's all about love, insecurity and mistaken identities.













No one throws a hissy fit like this girl.  The lead character is an interior decorator and antiquer.  What could be better?  Light, funny read.














If I had to be on a deserted island with 5 books, this would be one of them.  It's about what happens when a fat girl decided to lose the weight and how she's treated differently.  I love this book.












Okay, I haven't actually read this one yet, but I've read the other 15, so I'm not sure how I could not recommend this one.  If you haven't read this series, I highly recommend it.  The series is about a completely incompetent female bounty hunter, exploding cars (lots of them), and two very hunky men that she can't decide between.  Some books also involve a reformed 'ho,' a cross dressing rock star, a psychotic (but lovable dog), the mob,and her pistol packing grandmother.  This is a great series.  Don't miss it.







I loved all three of these books.  I  like series.  These are set in the Victorian era and are mystery/romance.  Don't be fooled by the covers, they are sophisticated books.  Each book has its own story with a secondary storyline that arcs through them all.










   













I love this series.  Love.It.  It's a mystery series set in the Regency era (my personal favorite era for lit, probably thanks to Jane Austen) and very well written.  What I really find interesting though is that the main character is a man, instead of a woman.  A sexy viscount who has a way of finding trouble.  To quote the authors site "Think Mr. Darcy with a James Bond edge." These are smart books.  The author knows her history and weaves it beautifully into the stories.  Each book is a stand alone story with a secondary storyline that arcs through all of them.  The most recent book came out in Nov of 09 and I cannot wait for the next one.  Write Ms. Harris, write!





So, those are my recommendations for summer reading.  I hope you all have time for a few great books this summer.  My TBR pile (several from the library, thakyouverymuch) is HUGE.  Hurrah for books!

My vampire boyfriend

I have caved. I was adamant the I was NOT going to read it. I hate reading popular books. Silly of me, but there you have it. I actually resisted Harry Potter because it was too popular. Of course I finally gave in to peer pressure and the world as I knew it changed. When Twilight became the "in" books I sighed (dramatically), rolled my eyes (dramatically), and scoffed at how improbable the plot was. I mean really, vampires that live among humans, sparkle in the daylight and fall in love with the average girl next door? Pffffffft! Lame. No way would I like a book about that. I was far too cool for that kind of nonsense. Shortly after the move though, I was bored. Bored. Sure, I had plenty to do during the day, you know what with the homeschooling and all, and even in the evening I could watch all 9 of our TV channels and plot and plan where I was going to put our stuff, but I needed to read. I craved it. Reading makes me happy. I can step out of my ordinary self and find something...more. Something different. I read tons of blogs by people I respected and they all seemed to be reading (and loving) it. One day Indy and I were in our pathetic excuse for a bookstore (but that's a whole other rant, so I won't go there) and the new paperback version, the one with Rpattz on the cover, was in the best seller section. I heaved another (dramatic) sigh and bought it. The book sat on the coffee table for a whole day, Rpattz staring at me, begging me to read. Finally (with yet another sigh-far more dramatic than the others), I cracked open the cover and started reading. I read, and read and read. At one point, when I finally got up to go to the bathroom, I muttered "dammit" under my breath. M asked what was wrong. I told him I liked the book. He clearly thought I had lost my mind and went back to watching whatever beat em up, shoot em up, blow em up movie he was watching at the time. The next day I ordered New Moon from Amazon and waited for it. Our bookstore had books 3 and 4, but not 2 (see, complete nonsense this bookstore of ours). More dramatic sighing ensued. When book 2 finally arrived (stupid Christmas packages clogging up the military mail), I read it in a day and a half, rushed to our pathetic book store and...wait. WHAT? They were out of books 3 and 4! I sighed (with frustration) and may have stamped my foot, rushed home, ordered them from Amazon and waited. Again. Impatiently. In fact, I was so impatient I went online and read the plots. That's right! I totally spoiler-ed myself! I didn't care though, I needed to know what happened. I could read the details later, I just needed to know. But, I read the last page of Harry Potter 7 just to see if Harry survived before I actually read the book, so I shouldn't be all that shocked. I need to know this kind of stuff. It stresses me out not to know. I suck at surprises too. Also, I used to open and rewrap my Christmas presents when I was younger. Bad me! On Christmas Eve the books arrived in that familiar Amazon box (I love that swoopy smily thing). Huzzah! Unfortunately, with the whole holiday, family, celebrating bruhaha, I had no time to read! Argh! It was a conspiracy! The day after Christmas, while M was in a left-over-turkey and action movie induced coma and Indy played with the 800 million toys he got, I found time to read! Woooooo! The evening of the 27th, I started on the 4th book. Today, I finished it. I have to admit that the writing was not fantastic. It was far too wordy at times and really JKR could write circles around Stephanie Meyer, but the story itself was great. Edward was dreamy. I love him. I was so excited to finish the books but now....what? What do I read? What do I do? Where is my vampire boyfriend??????


Mmmmmm....he could bite my neck any time. What? He's technically older than me.