Tim and Jen Live Here

Holy crap! Where did the first half of 2009 go? I know I saw it around here somewhere just a minute ago . . .

As usual, I spent a significant chunk of that time reading or listening to books. A brief summary of what I’ve read so far this year, with a few highlights of books I’ve loved:

• 34 books read
• 39 books listened
• new author challenge – should have read 25 new authors to meet goal
• new author challenge – I started out slowly, but I actually got exactly 25 in the first half of the year!

Up next – I’ve got a lot of books lined up, but I’m particularly excited to read the next installments in series by Leslie Langtry and Toni McGee Causey. Also, I realized that between following authors on Twitter and reading authors’ blogs, I’ve got a LONG list of authors I follow whose books I’ve never actually read. I’ll remedy at least a few of those in the New Author Challenge in the second half of 2009.

Highlights:

I keep reading the Troubleshooters books by Suzanne Brockmann and absolutely loving them. All of them. I also enjoyed my second book by her husband, Diary of a Serial Killer, by Ed Gaffney. He writes seriously good thrillers. I recently found out the two of them co-wrote a play being performed in NYC next spring. My mom and I are strongly considering taking a trip there to shop for dresses to wear to my brother’s wedding next summer. Of course, we’ll go when the play is being performed and see it!

I finally read the last two books by Lani Diane Rich that were on my bookshelf and awaiting a read – Maybe Baby and The Comeback Kiss. They’re a pair, and I loved them both. Fun, sexy romps in the world of bird thievery and wine making. So enjoyable!

As far as listening goes, I love anything written by Neil Gaiman, and if he narrates the audiobook, so much the better. This year, that translated to Coraline and The Graveyard Book for me. Both were wonderful. I listened to and loved my first Terry Pratchett book – Going Postal. I also was introduced to Ariana Franklin and Garth Stein, both of whom will be featured when I get caught up on the new author challenge posts.

Finally, though I could definitely have lived without the prologues in which an old man tells of the stories to little children (and you realize that these are very explicit, hot, sexy stories), I could listen to Dick Hill read anything. I really enjoyed his reading of the Circle Trilogy books by Nora Roberts.