Teaser Tuesdays - January 18th

If you'd like to play along on Teaser Tuesdays, just click the button above.


Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week I'm reading



Green Haven reached the boiling point on a sweltering afternoon in May with the escape of convicted cop-killer Eduard Vasquez. Since I couldn't very well blame the weather on a notorious killer who had practically been handed the keys to the front door, I found myself sitting on the edge of the desk in my office on the second floor of our administration building, holding my head in my hands.


Click the cover to read more at Barnes & Noble

Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris

Genre: Paranormal
Publisher: Recorded Books
Release Date: 2008
Format: Audio

Sookie Stackhouse and her boyfriend, vampire Bill Compton, have broken up and leaves town on business. While Bill is away, Sookie discovers the leader of the vampires, Eric Northam, walking around in a daze and not having any of his memory. She decides to act as his protector and watch over him. Sookie lets him live with her, but she never expects it to be anything more than friendship.

To make things even more complicated, there’s a reward to anyone who finds Eric. Her brother Jason is ready to cash in on that money, but before he can, he mysteriously disappears. Sookie fears he has been kidnapped by witches and could be lying dead in a ditch somewhere. Not getting any help from the local police – they are convinced he has run off with one of his women – Sookie sets out to rescue her brother herself.

As Sookie fights all sorts of magical demons from shape shifters to werewolves to even a few vampires, she can’t fight her attraction to Eric any longer. Will Sookie give in to her feelings or is this all an act on Eric’s part?

Another great Sookie book and I absolutely love listening to them on audio. They really are a lot of fun and listening to the audio in the car is so relaxing. These are helping me fill the time until the next season of True Blood in the summer. Although by the time I’m done with these books, I won’t be able to separate the books from the TV show.



For Reading Challenges:

2011 Audio Book Challenge
Sookie Stackhouse Reading Challenge

Sunday Salon - A Lazy Day...

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We ended up with yet another ridiculous blizzard this week...another 20 inches of snow dumped on it. We usually get one blizzard like this for the entire season, we've already had two and the winter is not nearly over yet. I'm really thinking of moving to a warmer climate, but then I look at my TBR room and the thought of clearing out those books makes me able to deal with the snow a bit better. LOL

This week I completed two books...

How Sweet It Is by Sophie Gunn - Good romance. I am hosting a blog tour for this on February 4th, so I won't be posting my review until then. On January 24th I'll begin hosting a giveaway for this book.

Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris - This is another Sookie Stackhouse book and I listened to the audio version. I love this series! I actually think I'm starting to love the books better than the TV show (the TV show does differ from the books). I can almost see Anna Paquin (Sookie on True Blood) as I listen to the audio (she doesn't narrate, though, but the person who does sounds awfully close to her). I'll have this review later today.

I'm currently reading "The Innocent" by Vincent Zandri. This is for another blog tour I'm hosting in February. This one really grabbed me from page one. I've become very selective in the books I agree to review and, so far, I've been pretty successful and have picked books I'm loving. I'm on a roll! I shouldn't say that too loud though, I could jinx myself :)

My next audio book will be another Sookie book, of course! I'm up to "Dead As A Doornail".

I watched the new show "Off The Map" this week and thought it was really good. It's by the makers of "Grey's Anatomy" and "Private Practice". This show is set in South America with a clinic run by volunteer doctors from the United States. Good and likeable cast with an interesting storyline.




I love finding new TV shows that are good quality. I'm looking forward to watching Harry's Law with Kathy Bates this week. It's from David E. Kelley who did Ally McBeal, Boston Legal, Chicago Hope, Picket Fences and The Practice. All shows I loved, so hopefully this will be good too.

Other than that, it's the same old stuff this week, complete with another forecast for snow during the week. Hopefully, it won't be another blizzard.

Have a great week everyone!


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Stylish Blogger Award

Oh wow - how exciting! I was awarded the Stylish Blogger Award from Joanie at Joanie's Random Ramblings and Wulfluva at Shell's Stories. Thank you both so much. I am honored that you think so much of my blog and greatly appreciate it.

Here're the rules to receive this award:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers.

4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award!

Here are 7 things about me...

1. I live in the suburbs of New York.
2. I'm married.
3. I have three beautiful cats.
4. I'm addicted to CSI: NY
5. My favorite movies of all time are Titanic, A League of Their Own, Grease and Dirty Dancing.
6. I'm a huge baseball fan (love my Yankees).
7. I lost 85 lbs at Weight Watchers and kept it off for 2 years.

Now, I'm passing the award to these 15 bloggers...

1. Mindy at A room without books is empty
2. Diana at Adventuring through Life
3. Jenny at The Mimosa Stimulus
4. Kristin at Always With a Book
5. Annie at annies home
6. Nicola at Back to Books
7. Becky at Becky's Book Reviews
8. La Coccinelle at The Ladybug Reads
9. Debbie at Debbie's Book Bag
10. China at Books We Read
11. Hanna at bouffe e bambini
12. dollycas at Dolycas's Thoughts
13. Suko at Suko's Notebook
14. Reading for Sanity
15. Mimi at Screaming Mimi

Anything Goes on Saturday

This is a new meme I started last week called "Anything Goes on Saturday". It's a chance to choose any topic you want and talk about it on Saturday - it can be about a book, TV show, movie, a recipe or just an update on your week. Whatever you choose.

If you'd like to join in, take the button above and blog about it. Use the linky below to post your direct link to your post. Then, go and visit other blogs and see what's on everyone's minds this week. Enjoy!

My topic for this week is reviewing...I'm curious to know what kind of format you all use to review.

I've been making my reviews relatively short. I write a couple of paragraphs briefly describing the plot of the story and then I give my thoughts on the book. If the review is requested from an author or publisher, I try to include a couple of quotes in case they want to use them for promotional materials.

I try not to make my reviews too detailed as I hate to ruin the story for potential readers. Also, I tend to think people lose interest in reading long reviews.

Now, about ratings...do you use those? Do you like them? I only started using ratings last year. I always enjoy reading other people's ratings, so I figured I would do them too.

How do you feel about review? Do you like reading longer reviews? Do you write longer reviews? Or do you prefer the shorter ones? Do you use ratings?

The other part of this is - do you depend on reviews to decide what to read? I use reviews mainly to find out the plot of the book and see if it's something I'd be interested in. However, I don't use them to make my final decisions about books.

So, what's your take on reading and writing reviews?


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