Recent Good Reads

Time for a wrap-up of my favorite reads from the second half of August. I've got 3 Middle School/YA books, 1 Fantasy, 1 Urban Fantasy, and 1 book for the geek in all of us.

Theme song...

I've been trying to think of a theme song for Brenna Yovanoff's The Space Between contest.

There's been a hell of a lot of ups and downs in my life this past month. I guess I could go for something quiet and introspective, but to be honest with you, when life kicks me in the face, my first inclination is to kick back. And when I absolutely positively must kick some ass, "More Human Than Human" by White Zombie is the soundtrack.

This song has the added bonus of Blade Runner references, which satisfies my geek requirement.

So what's your theme song? You have until Sunday August 28 to enter the contest.

And lookee at Yovanoff's new book (oooh, shiny, pretty):

Demons, angels,danger, love - I can't wait! It's out this November.

I also really enjoyed The Replacement (dark but still filled with hope, love and acceptance). Somehow, Yovanoff has made the cover gods very, very happy, cause she has some great ones. This one in particular is one of my favorites.

Must-Have-Books Coming Soon

Yes, my TBR list runneth over, as usual. In the next couple of months there are even more books coming out that I really want to read. In particular, there are some continuing series and trilogy conclusions that I need to get my hands on.

In Honor of Dad - His Favorite Books

In previous posts I've talked about how influential my parents were in my love of reading - taking me to the library, bookstores, sharing books. My dad and I really shared a love of all things fantasy (mom likes fantasy, but really isn't into vampires - we kind of converted her). He made sure I watched all of his favorite genre movies - more than once to ensure that I appreciated them (it took a couple of showings of Krull before I loved it too). He was also very supportive of my writing. I think he got a kick out of reading it.

One important lesson that I took from my dad was to always make a point to talk about and recommend the things that you like. He mentioned many times that most people just complain when they don't like something, but that you should strive to promote the good. Whether we were at a restaurant, Disneyland, or even when he was in the hospital, he made a point to recognize good service, usually seeking out the manager to point out a particular employee. Dad preferred to dwell on the positives in life, and I'm trying every day to follow his example.

We lost dad last week, and in his spirit of promoting the things he liked, I'm going to spotlight a few of his favorite books.