Sunday 30 January 2011

Weekly Hotboy - Australian Edition

In honour of Australia Day, which was last Wednesday for the unbelievers here's some Aussie manflesh, hot - just the way we like 'em!

First up is Ryan Kwanten, he's best known in America for True Blood, Summerland, but in Australia, he'll always be Vinnie to us! Okay, maybe not to me, I've watched him in TRue Blood mainly, which is the perfect place to watch him really - he often gets nekkid! Then there's Flicka, he's just so darn cute in it, not to mention Tim McGraw and hello, pony show!

Then there's Chris Hemsworth, another Home and Awayer, he was Capt. Kirk's papa and now he's Thor, the preview of which is fantastic - check it out.
Until next time, enjoy the hotness and stay classy

C.

Tuesday 25 January 2011

December 2010 reading

This is way late I know and I still need to finish my best of 2010. In some ways 2010 was an awesome reading year, there were some great new authors, I managed to complete two of my reading challenges, one whipped my butt - I'm looking at you 1010 challenge, ( I managed a dismal 62, I blame the books, they kept sidetracking me dammit).

Here's my December books list, which took my total to 144 books read for 2010. Not all of them have reviews, cause I wanted to finish posting this on LibraryThing - that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

115. Call me Mrs. Miracle by Debbie Macomber

I thought I’d start December off with some Christmas spirit and my first Debbie Macomber. As expected this is light fluff, enjoyable, but a rather predictable, by the numbers book. It’s the sequel to Mrs. Miracle, both of which have been made into movies. Even though it’s nothing new this is an easy read, perfect for some Christmas reading. I’ve been meaning to try Macomber before this and I’ll end up reading some of the Blossom Street stories, but to be honest I’m not going to be running out because I have to read it ‘right now’.

116. That Perfect Someone by Johanna Lindsey

This is the 10th in the Malory series, set in Regency England. Julia and Richard are the reluctant lovers, who’ve been betrothed to each other since early childhood. The problem being – they detest each other and at their last meeting 9 years ago they both vowed that if they ever saw each other again, they’d kill each other. So it’s no surprise that on their next meeting there’s fisticuffs and just a little bit of seduction, as you do. This was a fun read, I don’t read a lot of regency romance, but I did enjoy Johanna Lindsey’s writing and her characters, obviously explored more in the other Malory novels.

117. Private by James Patterson

Mike as a character is not particularly likeable, sure he’s dealing with shit from his past, but he doesn’t treat the ladies in his life very nicely. Over all, I did enjoy the story, it was a fast paced, if slightly predictable, thriller. And what up with all the James Patterson AND ……. I don’t really get the new phenomenon of authors writing with other authors, it can get kinda meh, and at least they’re not related. Don’t get me started on offspring who write. *hulk*

118. Family Ties by Danielle Steel

Ugh. Here's what I learnt from this book:

1. A woman must sacrifice everything for children, you can't have a career AND children - it's too hard.

2. Relationships between different cultures don't work, (the one in this was between a non- practicing Christian and Muslim) - they're just TOO hard.

3. All people who have tattoos and piercing are bad bad people who spread AIDS and Hepatitis.

4. It's ok to be an indiviual and go your own way, as long as you learn your lesson and realise that you have to be the same as everyone else by the end of the book.

Harsh I know, but I was really pissed off by the end of this and don't get me started on the repetative, descriptive paragraphs. Enough said, moving along. And swearing to never read DS again.

119. Burning Up by Susan Anderson

OMG! How awesome was this!! Way awesome I tell you. This was lots of fun to read and my first book by Susan Anderson, but it definitely won’t be my last. I think fire fighters are the new vampire/werewolves. This is the third series I know about featuring fire fighters hot enough to scorch the words right of the page. It features one very bad girl, one super hot fire fighter, a hunky Irish rocker and a not so good primary school teacher *gasp*, with lots of steamy situations, flirting, and fried chicken (very tasty – I made it for tea on the weekend).

120. Obsession by Karen Robards

121. The Ugly Duckling by Martin Powell

122. Don’t Blink by James Patterson

123. Angel: After the Fall by Joss Whedon, Brian Lynch & Franco Urru

124. Dreaming of Dior by Charlotte Smith & Grant Cowan

Beautiful vintage dresses, the downside – I wish the illustrations, beautiful as they are, were photos. I would’ve loved to have seen more detail.

125. Classic Tales of Horror by Various

This was a collection of 19 stories. Some were quite dry, not very scary and a bit meh. I did enjoy The Brazilian Cat by Arthur Conan Doyle – Cousin tries to kill his cuj to inherit the families wealth. The Corpse Light by Dick Donovan – ghost wanting to get his body discovered. The Lame Priest by S. Carleton – warewolves. The Eyes of the panther by Ambrose Bierce.

126. Worst Case by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge

127. Mackenzie’s Mountain by Linda Howard

128. Alpha by Rachel Vincent

129. The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks

This was fang-tastic and a nice move away from all the vampire novels of late (although I now think 'Angels' are the in thing). It features a group of vampires, trying to survive, aided by two humans.

130. Irresistible by Karen Robards

131. The Other 51 Weeks by Lee Welch

132. Fundamentals of children's services by Michael Sullivan

133. Spellbound by Nora Roberts

134. Orchard Valley Grooms by Debbie Macomber

135. Crazy For Love by Victoria Dahl

This was lots of fun, although the male lead was kinda annoying sometimes (he has a need to take care of everyone), which can get annoying sometimes. But this is full of sext sassy writing, just what I've come to love from Dahl. I also enjoyed the side story between the main characters bestie and brother.

136. No Place To Run by Maya Banks

This was brilliant and I gobbled it up, the second in the KGI series, it's a romantic suspense, rather thatn the usual eotica that I read from Maya, but it still has her trademark Southern charm and alpha male hero's. I'm really looking forward to the other brothers stories (there'll be at least 6 books in the series & if we get lucky, we might get some of the side characters from KGI get theri own story). Well written, fast paced and lots of fun.

137. Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard

This wasnt quite what I expected it to be. It tells the story of Elizabeth, Amarican girl, navigating her way around Paris with her French husband Gwendal. How she adapts to life. I wasn't 100% about this when I started it, it's seemed to move quite slowly, but as I kept on reading I got more and more into the story. I love the relationship food played in the book, bringing the characters together despite language barriers, plus there's the added bonus of the recipes at the end of each chapter. This was our last book club book for 2010 and we had a French night for our breakup. One lady made the mini almond meal and raspberry cakes - devine!

138. Trailer Park Zombies by Jason H. Jones

This was one of the better written zombie novels of the year - but not for the faint of heart, it's quite voilent and graphic in it's description of zombie mayhem. So if gore isn't your thing I suggest you stay away, but I thought this was a well written novel and I like the twist in the zombie ethos.

139. One Hundred Great Books in Haiku by David Bader

And with this - finally - I've started my Popular Penguin category for my 1010. This was a lot of fun and amazingly correct descriptions for some of the books.

140. Poems of John Keats by John Keats

What is more lovlier than Keats, ok so I'm being romantic, there are other fantastic poets out there, but Keats is a delight.

141. Six-Word Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak by writers famous and obscure

An interesting concept, that works suprisingly well.

142. Secrets of a Proper Lady Victoria Alexander

Regency romance, that had me laughing out loud, I'm going to be tracking they others in the series dwon in 2011, perfect fodder for my 11 in 11 challenge!

143. The Bad Widow by Barbara Elsborg

144. Better Late than Never by Savannah Stuart

C.

Monday 17 January 2011

Oohh 2011 you're all any shiny!

Happy New Year everyone. Hope you Christmas and New Year was brilliant, I had a quite one with family in Adelaide. Perfect beach weather, not too hot. And lots of time for bubbles with friends and some very scary grappa! There was also time for new books :) I was lucky to get my copy of No Place to Run by Maya Banks before I left. Which was fantastic, it's the second in the KGI series, sadly I now have to wait until March for the third one.

I'm going to try mix it up a little here, I'm of teh suckage when posting, especially last year, so I thought if I had stuff I posted each week, it would make me remeber to post, (I'm all about the ideas). What does that mean? It means for starters I'm bringing sexy back. That's right you heard me...Weekly Hotboy is back!! Who's first off the ranks, why it's Matt Dallas, talented actor in the now defunct Kyle XY tv series (which I'm halfway through at the moment - hence the lusting). He was also in Eastwick, but I don't think that lasted long either. But he's got a few things coming out this year, so hopefully we'll get to see a little more of him :)

What else have we got to look forward to this year? Book reviews, movie reviews, Friday 56 and anything else that takes my fancy. I'm heading to Sydney at the end of March for the ARRA (Australian Romance Readers Association) conference, which should be lots of fun. There'll be author talks, signings, a goodie room and I'll be staying at the resort where the conference is held, right on Bondi, hello beach and hello spa days! I can't wait it's going to be awesome!!

Plus I have uni to look forward to, the rate I'm going I'll be going to uni on my zimmer frame. We now have trimesters, so I do an extra subject eact year now, so that should cut down on the time it takes me to complete it...providing I pass everything O.o I've only got one core subject left, then its electives after that. Easy done. Time will fly and I'll finish it all *pep talk*

C.

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