Morbid Romantic

Book Review & Personal Blog

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:
Grab your current read.
Let the book fall open to a random page.
Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
Please avoid spoilers!

The townsfolk gathered in the meeting house burst forth in a fresh torrent of commentary as Goody Oliver pressed her lips together in satisfaction. She surrendered her disposition to Elias with great ceremony, remained standing a moment longer than was strictly necessary, and then resumed her seat.

- The Physick Book of Deliverance Dance (Katherine Howe), pg. 57

1. Get a driver’s license.
2. Finish remaking layouts for the various websites I have been neglecting.
3. Finish up my doujinshi / manga scans.
4. Finish going through coppermine galleries to reorder pictures.
5. Go through my clothes and give away what I don’t want anymore.
6. Reorganize my bookshelves.
7. Reread old essays, as well as type up those not digitized, and make appropriate edits.
8. Read at least 100 books.
9. Watch at least 150 movies.
10. Buy nephew a Blue’s Clues plushie.

Thanks to Travels of a Bookworm for allowing me to win a copy of Afraid by Jack Kilborn. This book has gotten really good reviews on Amazon.com, so I am looking forward to it.

Welcome to Safe Haven, Wisconsin. Miles from everything, with one road in and out, this peaceful town has never needed a full-time police force. Until now. A helicopter has crashed near Safe Haven and unleashed something horrifying. Now this merciless force is about to do what it does best. Isolate. Terrorize. Annihilate. As residents begin dying in a storm of gory violence, Safe Haven’s only chance for survival will rest with an aging county sheriff, a firefighter, and a single mom. And each will have this harrowing thought: Maybe death hasn’t come to their town by accident . . .

It’s obvious by what is written on my sidebar but I have a degree in history as well as a certification to teach social studies to 6-12 students. For those two reasons, my history major senses are tingling with pure joy at this win. I just won a copy of A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy by Thomas Buergenthal from So Many Previous Books, So Little Time.

Not many children who entered Auschwitz lived to tell the tale. The American judge at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, Czechoslovakia-born Buergenthal, is one of the few. A 10-year-old inmate in August 1944 at Birkenau, Buergenthal was one of the death camp’s youngest prisoners. He miraculously survived, thanks, among others, to a friendly kapo who made him an errand boy. Buergenthal’s authentic, moving tale reveals that his lifelong commitment to human rights sprang from the ashes of Auschwitz.

Do you keep track of what and/or how many books you read? How long have you been doing this? What’s your favorite tracking method, and why?If you don’t keep track, why not?

I do have a method of record keeping… this blog! I keep track of the books that I read thanks to my reviewing every single one of them. I know the date I finished a book because I record it in the entry and on my actual ‘Books Read’ tally page. It really is enough for me. I hesitate to do anything more involved (though I would like to) because I realize two very important things about myself:
1.) I would likely never be able to make it completely perfect and suitable to my particular tastes.
2.) I would lag in updating it and it would become utterly useless.

Even though it’s a simple and small system, it works well enough for me. I can just go to my books read page and see a nice little cover display of everything I have read, am reading, and plan to read. If I want more information like my review and dates, I just click on the cover for it.

Guess what I got in the mail today? I got the whole Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn thanks to Hachette Book Group (thanks Hachette… you’re one of the most awesome companies I have ever had the pleasure to work with).

Kitty and the Midnight Hour (Kitty Norville, Book 1)
VAMPIRES. WEREWOLVES. TALK RADIO. Kitty Norville is a midnight-shift DJ for a Denver radio station—and a werewolf in the closet. Sick of lame song requests, she accidentally starts “The Midnight Hour,” a late-night advice show for the supernaturally disadvantaged. After desperate vampires, werewolves, and witches across the country begin calling in to share their woes, her new show is a raging success. But it’s Kitty who can use some help. With one sexy werewolf-hunter and a few homicidal undead on her tail, Kitty may have bitten off more than she can chew…

Kitty Goes to Washington (Kitty Norville, Book 2)
Celebrity werewolf and late-night radio host Kitty Norville prefers to be heard and not seen. So when she’s invited to testify at a Senate hearing on behalf of supernaturals, and her face gets plastered on national TV, she inherits a new set of friends, and enemies, including the vampire mistress of the city; an über-hot Brazilian were-jaguar; and a Bible-thumping senator who wants to expose Kitty as a monster. Kitty quickly learns that in this city of dirty politicians and backstabbing pundits, everyone’s itching for a fight.

Kitty Takes a Holiday (Kitty Norville, Book 3)
From Publishers Weekly
Having established a successful radio show, revealed herself to the nation as a werewolf and testified in Senate hearings on the supernatural, Vaughn’s plucky series heroine, Kitty Norville, is ready to lay low in a remote Colorado cabin and work on her memoirs. Her plans get derailed when werewolf hunter Cormac Bennett shows up at Kitty’s hideaway with her lawyer, Ben O’Farrell, who has been bitten—and infected—by a werewolf. Soon after Kitty takes them in, hoping to help Ben adjust to his new predicament, she discovers gruesome animal sacrifices at her door. It becomes apparent that a malevolent force is staking out the cabin, targeting one of them, and Cormac’s hunt for it takes them all in some unexpected directions. Kitty’s matter-of-fact voice continues to mine the horror and romantic material for laughs—especially in her prank calls to a rival DJ—and Vaughn’s universe is convincing and imaginative, providing enough series mythology to satisfy without slowing down the narrative.

Kitty and the Silver Bullet (Kitty Norville, Book 4)
Kitty’s radio show is as popular as ever and she has a boyfriend who actually seems to understand her. Can she finally settle down to a normal life? Not if this is just the calm before the storm. When her mother falls ill, Kitty rushes back to Denver–and right back to the abusive pack of werewolves she escaped a year ago. To make matters worse, a war is brewing between the city’s two oldest vampires, threatening the whole supernatural community. Though she wants to stay neutral, Kitty is again drawn into a world of politics and violence. To protect her family, her lover, and herself, she’ll have to choose sides. And maybe become what she hates–a killer.

Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand (Kitty Norville, Book 5)
Already the alpha pair of Denver’s werewolf pack, Kitty and Ben now plan to tie the knot human-style by eloping to Vegas. Kitty is looking forward to sipping fru-fru drinks by the pool and doing her popular radio show on live TV, but her hotel is stocked with werewolf-hating bounty hunters. Elsewhere on the Strip an old-school magician might be wielding the real thing; the vampire community is harboring a dark secret; and the irresistible star of a suspicious animal act is determined to seduce Kitty. Sin City has never been so wild, and this werewolf has never had to fight harder to save not only her wedding, but her very life.

Kitty Raises Hell (Kitty Norville, Book 6)
Sometimes what happens in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas. Kitty and Ben flee The City That Never Sleeps, thinking they were finished with the dangers there, but the sadistic cult of lycanthropes and their vampire priestess have laid a curse on Kitty in revenge for her disrupting their rituals. Starting at the next full moon, danger and destruction the form of fire strikes Kitty and the pack of werewolves she’s sworn to protect. She enlists the help of a group of TV paranormal investigators – one of whom has real psychic abilities – to help her get to the bottom of the curse that’s been laid on her. Rick, the Master vampire of Denver, believes a deeper plot lies behind the curse, and he and Kitty argue about whether or not to accept the help of a professional demon hunter – and vampire – named Roman, who arrives a little too conveniently in the nick of time. Unable to rely on Rick, and unwilling to accept Roman’s offer of help for a price, Kitty and her band of allies, including Vegas magician Odysseus Grant and Kitty’s own radio audience, mount a trap for the supernatural being behind the curse, a destructive force summoned by the vengeful cult, a supernatural being that none of them ever thought to face.