Ah, The Sweet Smell of Brain Candy!

I'm a firm believer that sometimes, you just need some brain candy. Right now, I *want* to read Sharon Kay Penman's The Devil's Brood, and I will at some point. But my overloaded brain just didn't want to concentrate on keeping all the history straight, and I knew I wouldn't be giving it the attention it deserves. So....off into the land of sex and vampires with The Black Dagger Brotherhood! My friend Beth (moonivy) loaned me the first in the series, Dark Lover, which I read almost a year ago. Of course, being me, I picked up the next 5 soon thereafter, fully intending to read them ASAP. Naturally, it's taken me until now to get back to them.

I loved this book! It's not literature by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a page turner, and the storyline features damaged characters who connect on lots of levels. For a "lighter" read, there was actually some pretty emotional issues faced, including cancer, death, and pain. Despite the rather goofy names --Rhage, Phury, Wrath--these are characters who interact realistically and sweep me away, which is just what a good book is supposed to do.

I'm never going to apologize for reading something which intrigues and interests me, no matter how light or even silly. There's just moments when you *need* to be somewhere else, and concentration shouldn't be a major requirement. It's probably pointless for me to say that I'm going for Book # 3 just as soon as I finish the YA novel posted at the top of this page.

Nothing like the sweet smell of brain candy just when it's needed most, people.

Amazon review? I got one! Here it is: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2Y17R7UXJ3OCF/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm.

~taminator40

What's A Ghoul To Do?

I accomplished a rarity (for me these days) this weekend---I picked up a novel and read the entire thing in one weekend (and no, it wasn't a YA novel). It was just so much fun and the pages flew by. It's the first in a new series by Victoria Laurie called What's A Ghoul To Do? and I really enjoyed it--it was just the right amount of brain candy I needed right now. It's a paranormal mystery with liberal doses of humor and romance thrown in and perfect for an engrossing read. Here's the link to my amazon review:

http://tinyurl.com/332kwx

I picked up my next tbr_challenge book, Sean Astin's There and Back Again, mostly to fuel my Lord of the Rings obsession and to fulfill my May goal. It's started off a bit slow, dealing with Sean's work before LOTR, which frankly at this point isn't all that interesting. I'm thinking of skipping ahead to where he actually signs on to the movies so I can get to the good stuff. I've got bits and pieces of Fellowship of the Rings and The Two Towers on regular tv these past two weekends and I'm having the feeling that a viewing (all 3 movies in extended form) cannot be too far off. Perhaps I'll reward myself when school's out May 25.

Did I mention school's out May 25? :)

~taminator40