B.A.A. Book Share #2 - Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore

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Old Cover:

New Cover:

So I know I said I was going to feature a book every week, but the holidays got me WAY behind. Many apologies. This week's book is called Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore.

I liked vampires before they were cool. I was the weird girl who read Anne Rice novels and watched WAY too much Buffy. When my cousin discovered my vampire novel reading only went so far she quickly suggested this book to me. I started reading and couldn't stop!

The story is about Jody. She's an average woman, living an average life, and she's less than averagely happy about it. That is, until she finds herself under a dumpster, partly burned and craving blood! WTH? Christopher Moore does a fantastic job making this a funny read with a deep underside. I fell in love with Jody's character, and you can't help but fall in love with the nerdy Safeway night-clerk she picks as her day minion.

This story is hardly a romance, hardly a comedy, and hardly a drama. Which makes it a "ramedy"? Cheers to Mr. Moore for giving us a fantastically funny, and deeply seductive story.

I'm back! And it's a new year!

I do apologize for the brief hiatus for the past few weeks. The holidays were a lot busier than I expected them to be. Most of the free time I found was spent sitting on my bum, sipping a cup of coffee in a near coma. I even fell behind on some of my favorite TV shows *gasp*

Luckily, things are getting back to normal and I'm finding time again! For one I have found time to watch my new Seasons 1 & 2 of Vampire Diaries (thank you Santa!). Also, I happen to do a lot of writing during nap time at work.

Wait, what? That's right, I said NAP TIME at WORK. Unfortunately this doesn't mean I get to nap, I just get to watch a bunch of toddlers sleep the afternoon away while wishing I could curl up and join them. For the past few weeks it has been near impossible to get on my computer during this blessed downtime. Alas, ALL the children are asleep today *knocks on wood* and I have some quiet TIME.

So, one might ask as we start off this lovely January, "What is your resolution for 2012?" Actually, I have a few. Thank you for asking!

The first, and most pertinent to this blog, is to publish my first novel. I'm almost halfway through it and I'm hoping that 2012 is the year I join the ranks of self-published authors. I've known for quiet some time that I wanted to write a book, but every time I sat down to do so it felt forced and it never got past a page or two. Then suddenly, last spring, I was feeling inspired during my "nap time downtime" and I started writing. I wrote a good 10 notebook pages of content before my toddlers started waking up and I was forced to stop. Later, when I transcribed the notebooks pages to my computer, I was sad to see my 10 pages of hard earned writing was only equivalent to about 2 pages of word document writing. The story kept coming to me and the words kept flowing. Now I'm just over 30,000 words, the most I've ever written on a single work.

The others are less interesting like successfully planning and executing my May wedding, going on a honeymoon, and hopefully conceiving a child. All in all I plan for 2012 to be an excellent year. Now let's get on with it and see what comes of my planning.

Merry Miss-mas

Wow, what an insanely crazy busy week I had last week. I hardly accomplished anything this weekend because I was busy decompressing. I'm hoping that this coming week will give me some time to improve my word count.
I recently wrote my first love scene and my muse sort of stalled there. It's not as if the scene was forced, it happened naturally and is a crucial point in the story line. The problem was that it was incredibly hard to write. All I could think about was my mother reading this scene and I just wanted to die. Moms are not supposed to know the dirty thoughts that happening in your head! I've started to get past the reservations, but now I lack the time to sit and write.
However, with last week being finals week and the Christmas celebration bonanza for my work, this week will be significantly less stressful.
Now, if only I could finish wrapping all the presents for Christmas. ;)

BAA Book Share - The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

Ms. Kingsolver's Website

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This book was an unexpectedly pleasant find for me. I was supposed to read a classic book for a high school English class and I had no idea where to start. My teacher gave me a list and I randomly picked this book.

The story is about Taylor Greer, who is a small town girl looking for some more. She doesn't know exactly what she's looking for, but she hopes that she'll know when she finds it. After graduating high school she decides to set out on an adventure to find whatever it is she's looking for. A suitcase, determination, and her old VW Bug are all she brings with her as Taylor hits the road.

When Taylor reaches Tucson, AZ she gets a feeling that this is where she needs to stop. It's only been days since she left home and already she has acquired a baby. After being left on her front seat at a gas station she realizes she is all this child has now, and she makes the best of it. She finds a place to live and starts making friends in this big new city, in her strange new life.

The Bean Trees is a heart warming (and sometimes heart wrenching) story, about a young girl embracing the issues in her life and using the lessons she learns to become an adult.

This is one of the many books I've read that doesn't fit into my usual collection of paranormal-esque books, but it's fantastic. If you haven't read, I suggest you do. If you have read it, please let me know what you thought of it.