Stacking the Shelves (113)

Stacking the Shelves

I’ve decided not to make this any worse and shift anything not currently on the list to next week. Where I’ll hopefully have my double-screens back and be in our new home. Or at least have ended this journey.

Today (and last night and tomorrow morning) we’re in Silver City NM with Cass and her adorable kittens Ripley and Vasquez. Our cats are very confused, but as glad as we are not to be on the road.

They don’t know that their holiday present is going to be a Katris just like the one Cass’ kitties have. It’s awesome.

For Review:
The Awakened Kingdom (Inheritance Trilogy #4) by N.K. Jemisin
Blood Moon (Moon #3) by Lisa Kessler
Bring On the Dusk (Night Stalkers #6) by M.L. Buchman
Cannonbridge by Jonathan Barnes
Clash of Eagles by Alan Smale
Ghost Killer (Ghost Seer #3) by Robin D. Owens
Give it All (Desert Dogs #2) by Cara McKenna
The Inheritance Trilogy Omnibus by N.K. Jemisin
Of Silk and Steam (London Steampunk #5) by Bec McMaster
Pirate’s Alley (Sentinels of New Orleans #4) by Suzanne Johnson
Romantic Road by Blair McDowell
Shadow Study (Soulfinders #1) by Maria V. Snyder
Vacant (Mindspace Investigations #4) by Alex Hughes

 

The Sunday Post AKA What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 12-22-13

Sunday Post

This is not one of my traditional Sunday Posts. But then, this is not a traditional Sunday, at least not for me.

We woke up in the middle of box city. I should have taken a picture, but it’s a bit too traumatic.

The move continues. I’m grateful that the holidays mean that this is only a three-day work week. I just hope I can figure out the bus schedule from my new address.

Cass has stepped in to review/post the early part of this week, in the hopes that I can get my act together by Thursday. Or at least get my desktop computer back in one piece!

The Sunday Post AKA What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand? 12-2-12

I probably should should be writing about where my nightstand is, instead of what’s on it!

My nightstand, and the rest of our worldly goods, are probably pulling into Boise, Idaho tonight. At least, that was the driver’s next stop. Us, we’re in Seattle. Until the furniture arrives–hopefully Wednesday, possibly Thursday, we’re in a hotel.

Effectively being dissed by the cats. My promises of a future mega-cat-tree are falling on pointedly deaf ears. Or deaf pointed ears.

In spite of the kitty dissing, and other moving events, the blog went on. So what happened?

First, we have a winner! The winner of the Fall in Love Blog Hop is Katie Amanda. She’ll have her chance to fall in love with my favorite Chicago wizard, Harry Dresden. The prize was the winner’s choice of any book in the Dresden Files series under $10.

B+ Review: The Buzzard Table by Margaret Maron
B+ Review: Spectra by Joanne Elder
Echoing Walls
Comics Review: Kevin & Kell by Bill Holbrook
A+ Review: Cold Days by Jim Butcher
Hot Holiday Hop
Stacking the Shelves (24)

So what about next week? Seriously, there’s a next week? Yes, there’s a next week. And a next post, and a next review.

Because of the holiday season, there are a lot of blog hops this month. Isn’t it marvelous? So many different places to get a chance to win books and gift cards. On Saturday, Reading Reality will be participating in the Holiday Gifts of Love Blog Hop, along with over 200 other bloggers and authors.

But the rest of the week is wide open. And wildly open. I’m looking at putting together my best of the year lists soon, and my most anticipated books for next year list. That made me realize I need to get out my most anticipated list for this year, and whoa, there are some books on there I forgot to read! Whoops!

So many books, so little time.

Speaking of time (don’t you just love segues?) I have a question for all of the bloggers out there who have day-jobs? How do you do it? Do you have any words of wisdom you’d care to impart as I start my new full-time job on Wednesday?

I’m going to have plenty of time to read on the bus on the way to and from work every day. Finding time to write is going to be a challenge. But so worth it!

Echoing Walls

The rooms echo. It’s always a surprise how much the furniture dampens the noise we make. And how quickly a team of movers can ship it all away.

Another adventure.

Our stuff is somewhere down the road. The driver said his next stop is Boise. We’ll see him again next week. Hopefully Wednesday. Probably Thursday. We’re beat.

The car is inside the truck with our furniture. Watching them drive it inside the semi was surprisingly cool. It’s also amazing how small a percentage of our stuff the car makes up, at least by volume. Maybe not by weight. Maybe compared to the books, I don’t want to know.

The cats are not happy. It’s like sharing a hotel room with three very leaky teakettles. Everyone hisses. Steam explodes at inopportune moments.

Our current hotel room has a chair. Everyone keeps trying to hide inside the chair. The chair will not accommodate all three cats at once. Once in a while, the feline version of World War III breaks out. Ten minutes later, it’s nap time again. Until the next battle.

The bed, thank goodness, is a platform bed. For once, they are not hiding under the bed. Getting them all to the vet for their health certificates (we’re flying them to Seattle) was enough fun without that.

Jim Butcher’s Cold Days is awesome. I never thought I’d want to read on my iPhone. I was wrong. On weeks like this, having something to read in my back pocket is a life-saver.

 

The Sunday Post AKA What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 11-25-12

I feel a certain amount of nostalgia as I write this Sunday Post. This will be my last Sunday Post posted from Atlanta. Next Sunday I’ll be in Seattle. Our stuff will be somewhere in the middle, but I’ll be on the west coast again. I’m looking forward to it.

My cats, probably not so much. We’re flying them again. It’s about five hours on a plane vs. five days in a car. There just aren’t enough tranquilizers in the world for that trip, no matter who the tranqs get administered to.

But this past week has been anything but tranquil. It was Thanksgiving week here in the U.S. And speaking of thankfulness, there are a couple of thankful type-winners announcements!

Kelsey Summer won the Black Friday Blog Hop and Erin Fender won the copy of Ice Cold by Cherry Adair. Congratulations winners!

One specific Thanksgiving note. I spent Thanksgiving in Little Rock, Arkansas with Galen’s sister and her partner. Because we were in Little Rock, I was able to meet up with Jo Jones, the blogger behind the Mixed Book Bag. Jo was in Little Rock visiting her family. Us book bloggers sure do get around!

 

Reading Reality got around last week, too.  Here’s what happened:

A Labor of Love: Picking the Best Ebook Romances of 2012
B- Review: Promise Me by Tara Fox Hall
C+ Review: Broken Promise by Tara Fox Hall
Guest Post: Tara Fox Hall on the Love of Books
B+ Review: Whip Smart by Kit Brennan
Fall In Love Blog Hop
Black Friday Blog Hop
Stacking the Shelves (23)

 

 

 

 

The Fall in Love Blog Hop is still open! The giveaway here at Reading Reality is the winner’s choice of any one book in Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files, under $10, print or ebook, to any country that Book Depository will ship. I love Harry Dresden, and I want everyone else to fall in love with the poor unlucky wizard too.

So what will be happening this week? I confess, I’m going to be spending a lot of this week moving. There will be pain, and anguish. And three cats locked in the spare bathroom.

On Tuesday, I’ll be reviewing Spectra by Joanne Elder. This book is very cool. It’s science fiction. Not science fiction romance, at least not so far, but science fiction. At the heart is an ethical dilemma. What if you discovered an alien race that were spirit only, no bodies? And what if exposure to them made you smarter, but killed them? And no one would know what you were doing, but you became really, really brilliant? But really evil. I’ve just gotten to the good bits.

And speaking of Harry Dresden…well, I was, just a few paragraphs ago. The latest book in the Dresden Files is coming out on Tuesday. Cold Days, just in time for winter. I’ve already pre-ordered my copy. As a treat to myself, in the midst of all this drama, I will read it, probably immediately, and review. I can’t wait.

What’s exciting in your world this week?

Unacceptable Risks and Collateral Damages

On December 18, I will be hosting the blog tour for Jeanette Grey’s new book, Unacceptable Risk. This is the first time I’ve ever hosted a blog tour, and I’m really excited.

And two weeks from today. Today! OMG! We’re moving again.

For anyone who knows us, that again comes with a serious groan. We moved less than six months ago, from Gainesville Florida to the Atlanta suburbs, and here we go again.

But this is different. We are not moving because we planned this. We are, as so many people are right now, collateral damage in someone else’s story.

We rent. We do move a lot. And buying and selling property would be difficult even without the real estate meltdown. So we rent. You could say we beat the trend. Renting is difficult enough for us, because we have four cats. Two wouldn’t be a problem for most landlords, but four does give some people pause, no pun intended.

There was enough drama in finding this house. We didn’t know there was more to come. If you ever rent a place where they offer you a lease where either party can get out of the lease with 60 days notice, it just might be the proverbial ‘red flag’. We saw it as an advantage to us. Silly us.

The owners of our current house invoked the option because the current economic crisis has caught them in serious difficulties. They will be moving into this house, and the house they have been living in (it is closer to a McMansion) is a casualty of the economic downturn.

Unlike many people who have been renting houses or apartments and paying the rent faithfully each month, only to face eviction because the owners have not made mortgage payments, we did get those 60 days notice.

Since we received that notice at Halloween (do the math, it put the expiration at New Years’), we’re moving in mid-December. Weather in Atlanta in December isn’t a big deal, but the Holidays are the Holidays pretty much anywhere.

We did have the usual drama finding a place, but that isn’t the point. We just went through this. We’re doing it again. The expense of the move, while less than the cost of moving to a different state (we’ll even be in the same town) is not trivial.

We haven’t completely unpacked yet. We still have about 2,300 books. We’ll be going through them again, seeing if there are a few more (maybe a couple of hundred more) we can sell or give away. What Powell’s doesn’t want to buy, I may do some giveaways right here on this blog, so stay tuned!

Anything we haven’t unpacked since June, I wonder if we still need it?