Review Update

Sigh. This was supposed to be posted Friday, my travel day but the stupid scheduler didn't work. Oh well, WHATEVER (accompanied by eye rolls).

Well, I've actually got a ton of reading done here in Chicago. Much more than in Manitoba when I did absolutely nothing. LOL Here we've been running like mad but I got lots read. Go figure. The one hour train ride downtown and back did wonders for Lord of the White Hell. Should be finished book 1 tonight. Looking forward to book 2 when I get home. I also like to show off my signed page to my kid daily so I can get a good eye roll from her as I lovingly stroke it. LOL

Moonspun by Lee Benoit (140 pages)
Loose Id

Jamie is a young playwright who has moved to another city but is having trouble working on a new piece. His roommates are noisy and very out gay and while Jamie is gay, he's not out. One day, sent to pick up some draperies, he meets Spider, a tailor who also does his own weaving. Spider's family is from the Dominican Republic including his wacky "aunt" who is into Santeria, the religion of the islands and senses that Jamie and Spider are meant to be. However, there is a kink. Spider is compelled to weave from moon rise to moon set, not matter what. He just weaves like his grandfather and what shows up shows up. He finally confesses to Jamie who it seems writes similarly and is soon wring the Grandfather's life story without realizing it. So there is sort of a mystical element here and both Jamie and Spider are virgins who move in together on day 2 but don't actually do much, even kissing for weeks, if not months, despite sharing a bed. I found that a bit ... weird. 22 year old healthy guys, in bed together, not even kissing? Right. They didn't even seem to jerk off privately. It was an okay story although I would have liked to get some explanation of the whole weaving thing, but I guess the mystery is the point. So if you like mystical stories it's well written.

Wicked Good edited by EM Lynley (260 pages)
Ravenous Romance

This is as it says, an anthology of angel/demon stories. Sometimes both, sometimes just demons, various combinations. Like any anthology I liked some better than others. Some stuck to a very religious theme of trying to save the souls while a demon tried to win them, others went for a lighter look at the whole situation. I particularly liked Kiernan Kelly's Demonology 101 about a demon who teaches that course at a university in an effort to educate humans about the reality of demons. When he catches a demon hunter in his car, he decides to take him home and educate him as well.  Cute with a demon who hungers for good BBQ ribs and classic cars. I also enjoyed Suriel's Sword by Jay Di Meo, which has angel warrior Suriel confused by his attraction to demon warrior Arioch who he keeps helping secretly, although someone's helping him secretly in battle. When they are forced to go on a mission together (angels and demons work together), Arioch leads him to act in ways which get him nearly kicked out of heaven, then when Arioch is injured Suriel has to make a decision which way to go. Most of the themes were not new, angels falling in love with humans and being made human to be together or some version of that with demons and angels, those who enjoy the theme will enjoy it as they are all a bit different.

Getting Gabe (Moon Pack #7) by Amber Kell (
Silver Publishing

The author has taken up her alphabet series again. Gabe works for Anthony, the alpha mate and is attacked one night. He confused and wakes up with the pack told that he must have latent were genes and now he's been changed, like it or not. While figuring this out, in walks twin fae Vielle and Vien. Gabe instantly attacks one deciding he's his mate, however before long he's figured they are both his mates, however the guys are clear, no touchy between the twins. They'll be naked in bed together but don't have sex together (pity that) but Gabe prefers that anyway. On the mutant werewolf side, Gabe is sent with the twins to see the fae king to ask for help, it seems there is much corruption in the fae kingdom and after returning Gabe is attacked by his best girlfriend who wants to make him mutant. I didn't quite get her role, but there was more learned about the mutants and which fae may be aiding the mad scientist in his pursuit to wipe out the regular shifters. I'd say this is an improvement on the previous books which were published under a different publisher, fewer errors and are a bit like candy, a quick read that leaves you looking forward to the next, especially now I'm kind of invested in figuring out the mutant werewolf thing. Hopefully it won't take quite so long for H as it did for G.

Vacation Update

So, finally getting the energy to post. Okay, I don't have the energy but I'll forget it all if I don't. We've been touristing our butts off. For those wondering how wacky the Eminem concert was, this is the field from the top of the Willis Tower we went to on Sunday. You can see a small crowd in front of the stage on the left upper corner. Imagine that red square COMPLETELY filled with bodies, hot sweaty high bodies. :-) The yellow box is the stage, the tiny red dot just in front of the stage was us. Then we had to fight our way out of that mass of bodies and back to the Willis Tower (across the street from the train station) in 40 min. Ack. Definitely an experience.

 

Tons of sail boats out on the water.

So after going up the tower and looking around (I highly recommend the City Pass which gets you into several museums and sights and lets you by-pass all of the regular lines. It was like being a VIP.), we went to the Aquarium. It was pretty good. We enjoyed the sharks and the belugas who were quite playful and there was a special jelly fish exhibit which was cool. 

When we came out of the museum we expected to catch a cab to the train station thinking 40 min. would be PLENTY of time. Oh no. It was absolutely pouring rain, there were no cabs, we missed the bus, we had no umbrellas so were soaking wet. Ugh. Finally got to the train station 10 min too late and the next train didn't come until 2 hours later meaning we would have gotten home at 10:00. My friend we're staying with drove all the way downtown to pick us up and ordered Chicago style pizza which we picked up on the way home and crashed. Ugh. The weekend train schedule sucks. But hey, we saw a rainbow over the Planetarium. 

Monday my friend Jenn picked us up and we went to the zoo where she is the head nutritionist. Also my friend Tracy had to leave for an unexpected business trip so we are left cat/house sitting. The zoo was really very nice and it was fun to have Jenn who knows all of the animals by sight and can give you their history and who's been sick and who's on a diet or won't eat or had how many babies. The polar bear was a total ham and was playing it up for the audience and their dolphin show as really very good. Oh and of course there was the little baby wombat (well, he's pretty chubby but was absolutely adorable). It was fun to spend the day with her and her husband. We made it home in good time and had leftover pizza for dinner. :-)

Tuesday we went to the Field Museum (which is a natural history museum) and the Planetarium. Both where good but when you've seen one gigantic dinosaur you've pretty much seen them all. The special horse exhibit which we paid extra for was very worth it though. After we finished up we caught the water taxi across the harbour to the Navy Pier where they have the big Ferris wheel and some rides with small shops and restaurants and theatres. We walked around, ate dinner then JUST missed the damn train home AGAIN. Sigh. At least it ran every hour. So I read more of  Lord of the White Hell and hoped like hell my friend's car had not been towed from the Park'n'ride at the train station because we could not for the life of us figure out what our parking space number was so I just plugged in 250 and hoped no one noticed there was no car in spot 250. It was still there. Whew.  :-)

Today was another adventure. Driving in Chicago. My friend suggested we take her car to the Museum of Science and Industry because it's rather far south of downtown. So I mapped it out on Google Maps and we did really well, except at 10:30 in the morning hit a massive traffic jam. Sigh. But we made it in a little over an hour which was expected. The museum was HUGE and had lots of very cool stuff. The Omnimax movie about tornadoes was amazing, then the weather section with a tornado and the lighting machine and lots of fun stuff was great. There was a baby chick hatchery and an actually German u-boat which was captured during WWII. Seeing how they got it in there was cool. There were so many interactive displays and I find at many museum only about 50% were working but here I'd say 95%. The interactive periodic table where you could use magnets to drag elements and put them together to create compounds was a big hit with my chemistry loving kid. I love the real body displays, the actual nervous system or the muscles of real people was amazing, freaked the kid out, she couldn't look. LOL Guess she won't be going into medicine. Anyway, I'd say a must-see no matter your age. Some stuff for little kids but lots for grown-ups too.

Then to get home we had to go right through downtown at 4:30. Actually downtown was fine, until there was a construction detour, but we were patient and everything went fine. I didn't get lost although it took us nearly 2 hours to get home. Ugh. Then we went to Target to check it out because you have cool products we don't and cheap things like Ben and Jerry's ice cream for $3.25!!!!!!! If I can get it for $5 on sale at home I get it. So we got two and got $1 coupons for more. Hell, I'd exist on nothing but Ben and Jerry's. I got Red Velvet Cake (yummy) and the kid got Phish Food. Then for dinner we went to Sonic. My child's dream has been to go to Sonic. The deliver your meal to your car on roller blades. *shrug* It was a burger. The strawberry lime-ade was tasty though.

So that's it. Tomorrow we are hitting the shopping district. We've done no shopping except for a couple of t-shirts for the kid. Not really looking for anything but who knows. We might go for a boat tour, we'll see how we feel. My friend gets home from her trip late tomorrow night and we have to leave at 6:30 Friday morning for the airport. Whew. A very busy trip but we are having a good time. Will take my feet a few days to recover. :-)

A minute by minute Lollapalooza experience

Okay, maybe not minute by minute, but kind of like live-blogging after the fact.

11:00 - make it to the train station, get tickets, train is only 4 min. late. Yippee. Oh wait, track construction, we arrive in Chicago 25 min. late. At least I had a book and a gorgeous black guy on the other side of the train to distract me. Like model gorgeous.

1:30 - we finally get to the festival and pass through with no lines to get in. Pick up our program and whoo hoo, two $40 itunes gifts cards. That helps off-set the cost of tickets.

1:40 - the great dilemma over which t-shirt the kid will get. HUNDRED of shirts, from the festival and every band there. Finally decided on this one.

 

1:50 - I'm starving. We find the food area and end up hearing the last song of  An Horse.

2:00 - Go and find drinks (you can't buy drinks in the food area, only from the bar tent) and head over to the stage where we want to catch the 2:30 concert. Find our space on the grass and sit thanks to garbage bags supplied by my friend Tracy since it rained and the ground is wet/muddy. Catch the last couple of songs of Typhoon.

2:30 - have moved to the hillside for Skylar Gray concert. Kid goes and stands up near stage, I remain sitting on the hillside.

3:30 - we walk through the Farmer's Market and get Wisconsin fried cheese and a smoothie. Then go to check out the band Dom.

4:00 - I'm bored, they are okay but we go and check out the market area. Didn't buy anything but then work our way to the other end of the park  - wait, where did all the shady trees go because the clouds and rain are gone and it's sunny - find a spot in the middle of a HUGE field and listen to the end of Mayer Hawthorne and the County.

4:30 - after buying a beer and iced-tea, we spin around to face the other direction and watch Big Audio Dynamite.

5:00 - I'm whining I'm too hot, so we go and find a shady spot by the Dell lounge (whatever that is). I pull out Lord of the White Hell and the kid lays there. All of a sudden she shoots up and takes off into the Dell lounge. Okay, whatever. Someone clears a picnic table so I move there and continue to enjoy my book. Kid comes back 45 min. later shaking. She got to meet the YouTubers she follow and actually had her picture taken with them and got to chat with them. She's now floating on cloud nine. 

5:45 - I'm starving, she has to go to the bathroom. She goes to get in line, I go and buy some food, a Scotch egg (shortest line). I go back to the picnic table and wait and wait and read and eat and FINALLY she comes back. After telling me the horror that is the port-a-potties, I decide I'm not thirsty after all. Dehydration is my friend.

6:15 - we get a spot pretty close to the front (as in 75 yards) for Cee Lo Green. Interesting costume consisting of a long dress with spiked shoulder pads and an all-girl band.

7:30 - we decide to stay put because if we leave we'll never get back near the spot for Eminem at 8:30. Kid has not eaten since a giant burrito at 1:45 but claims if she doesn't think about it she's not hungry.

7:30 - 8:30 - If my child has never smoked drugs she now has a contact high and I have a wicked headache. Also lots of cigarettes, cigars, booze and idiots trying to push through the crowd. We chatted a bit with a couple of young women and some shirtless guy. It is soooooo hot, but thankfully the sun is now behind buildings, but there is no breeze I think because of so many people blocking it off. 

8:30 - Eminem starts right on time and the crowd suddenly rushes about 10 yards forward. Kind of weird and freaky and I had visions of being trampled as people behind push forward. However we settle down, squished in like sardines. I've not been pressed up against that much semi-naked flesh in ... ever. However everyone is sweaty and gross feeling, although thankfully everyone used their deodorant so it wasn't smelly, just hot and sticky.

8:30 - 9:50 - Everyone is rocking out to Eminem except me and the guy beside me. LOL It was okay, but I'm hot, sticky, my feet hurt and I don't even care for his music that much. However he did bring out Bruno Mars which was a nice treat. The kid was very considerate and kept asking me if I was doing okay. Also Skylar Gray showed up for her duet she recorded with Eminem. I have no idea what it's called.

9:50 - he's finished - I know there'll be an encore - but we start moving towards the exit, or what we hope is the exit. We stop for the last song then join the masses hoping they know where the exit is. Some young guy latches on to me and we're weaving through trees and OMG, we're going THROUGH a hedge. LOL We get out and then head across the park to the main exit and ... people funneled down on a mostly blocked bridge. It was going soooooo slowly. FINALLY get out on the street and are racing to the train station. Everyone is chatty and at  light some young guy tells us he lost the girl he was with but he needs the 10:40 train too. Let's run. Excuse me? Run? So I run a block and then say fuck-it. I'll take a cab if we miss it because I'm going to be dead if I keep running.

10:39 - we race down the stairs of the train station, find our train and get on and it pulls out before we find a seat. OH. MY. GOD. I'm thirsty, have to go to the bathroom, can't breath, hot, sweaty, gross. And the car is not air conditioned.

10:45 - we listen to the drunk girl accuse some guy of having teleportation skills. The conductor then tells us the car two cars back is air conditioned. Drunk girls leaves, stops by another young guy and goes "I know you. Shape shifter." Then moves on. LOL

10:50 - we can't take the heat so move back to the air conditioned car, sitting in the seat across from drunk girl (whom I later learned was Britney). She is now having an in depth conversation with some guy about the chances of the Brewers going to the World Series. He's doubting her but she's pulling out statistics drunk though she is.

10:55 - discussion turns to her wanting to get sexy texts on her phone, when cute bearded guy sits behind her I suggest she get him to send her some which starts her deciding she needs to start a website called dickpics.com and he should be her first star. He's not convinced. However I just happen to have a picture on my phone of a naked guy (okay, sometimes when I click Tumblr links on my phone it downloads the pics - honest) so I show her and that's when I learn her name since we now appear to be best friends.

11:30 - a couple on the upper level decide they don't like all the fun we are having in the lower caboose (as we now call it) and start calling her names. I'm thinking "oh shit, fight on the train", but we all just kind of ignore them.

1:40 - I tell Britney it's been a pleasure and we get up to leave. Oh wait, seems she's leaving too and as the conductor comes to unlock the doors she tells him the people were mean to her and before long she's in his personal space with her leg wrapped around him. I think he was quite relieved when the train came to a stop and he could open the doors.

11:45 - 20 min. walk back to my friend's house. We crash, Kristen finally eats something, I drink two huge glasses of water in about one minute, we get on-line for a bit, I wash off the sweat of 200,000 people and go to bed.

So was it worth $90? The kid thinks so. Me? Eh. None of the bands were really my faves. I think the Friday line-up was better. However we went for her and she had a blast and was so excited to meet those YouTubers I think it was worth the $90 to see her so thrilled. I did like the smaller stages with trees and shade, I don't care for being jammed in the middle of a crowd of several hundred thousand people and concerts where the performers insist "put your hands up" are annoying because you can't see for shit then. LOL The food and drink inside the park were not that expensive compared to say our hockey arena and was pretty good. It was an experience. However as we were limping around the house on sore feet she said "I don't think I could go for all three days. I'd die." Yep. I can't imagine doing it again and again. Ugh.

The train ride home was a blast, in general most people were polite and respectful during he crush of the concert (save for a few who believed they need to push through and be closer), I didn't see anyone so drunk they were sick or obnoxious (at one point while waiting for Cee Lo, this young guy drops to his knees beside us, pulls out a can of coke and a baggie of something. Oh, he's got alcohol. He opens the coke, pours some out and opens his baggies. Another guy going by says "Ooooh, double baggie, smart." to which I reply watching him try to pour whiskey into a coke can from a baggie "He's got it down to a science." Guy on his knees looks up and slurs "I've been doing it for 10 years." Guess he learned double baggie works better.) So on the whole and interesting event and worth it just to say we were there I suppose.

Guess I better get up and get ready if we're going to catch the 12:00 train to the aquarium today. Hopefully I can still walk. It will be a shorter day.

Megan Derr story inspired by my pic

Okay, not MY picture, that would be in the horror group at Goodreads, but for the m/m Hot Summer Days story writing extravaganza, I posted the following pic, and the talented Megan Derr came up with Permanent Exhibit: The Guardians. A very cool fantasy story with some steamy smexin' of course. It is part of a series of stories called The Gallery that you can read by clicking on Megan's name above. I'm looking forward to "touring" the exhibits soon. :-)

So if you are a member of the group stop by and check out the story, and all of the other stories, as there are I think over 1000 pages of stories by authors we all know and love, along with some people who are new to me. If you're not in the group and read m/m, or are interested in it, what are you waiting for? Obviously I haven't read them all, but I try to read a few when I get the chance. Just click on the story title.

Thanks again to Megan for taking up the challenge so well.

Life in the country

Wow, now I know why I don't live in the country. LOL Sure it's lovely, but there is nothing to do. People keep saying "So do you have any plans?" To do what? Go to the grocery store? Walk to the corner and back? There are no museums or other entertainment sources here. Sigh. Last night we went to my uncle's and picked raspberries. :-/

Sure we get to see family but it's a bit boring especially for my daughter. And I really don't cope in the small town where everyone knows my business very well. I've been gone too long to ever come back. Maybe I'm just too much of an introvert and like being able to go shopping without having to stop 5 times and be polite to people you know vaguely.

Saturday night I did get to meet my cousin's youngest daughter for the first time. She's almost three, and saw some other family so that was fine. Sunday my daughter and I went to the rodeo and had a fun time watching her friend race and all the events and I had my first every corn dog. Monday was a holiday here so we did not much of anything, Tuesday was lunch out and berry picking and not sure today and tomorrow. Friday morning we have to get up and leave for the 5.5 hour drive back to the city to catch our flight to Chicago.

So here a few pics, either of rodeo stuff or just the scenery including rush hour traffic down the main street of my parents' town. If two cars pass on the street that is damn near a traffic jam. You can go nearly an hour between vehicles. LOL Yes, it's that small.



16 year old girl competing in chariots, missed out by a nose. She races against adults of both sexes and a woman took the overall title for the weekend. There were only 3 of them racing against about 20 men.



Lots of good bucking bronc action. There was even a couple of Australian cowboys (or stockmen as Kris calls them, but really, that just sounds stupid.)



You can see how flat it is where I grew up although there is a "mountain" in the background, it's a valley between two small mountains. Also how quiet the town is, and the second biggest store is the greasy spoon, bus station, liquor store, movie rentals and junk food store. On stop shopping.

 

Some of the other rodeo action. I'm not sure I'd be thrilled to leap off a racing horse onto a cow with with 8 inch horns. One young bull rider got his leg stepped on, but he limped off. These cowboys actually get scholarships to go to US universities that have rodeo teams. Kind of odd, but a scholarship is a scholarship.



Update on Holiday

Well, I'm struggling with my parents' computer so you get a book update rather than a holiday update. I read these before I left. I haven't gotten much reading done except for some yaoi I need to get sent off. We've been busy, rodeoing, visiting family and just kind of hanging out. Hopefully I'll get some holiday snaps up tomorrow or Wednesday. Have a great week everyone.

Lucky by KM Mahoney (219 pages)
Amber Allure

Alli is a very unlucky fae. After being rejected by his people for being gay, he’s forced to live in the human world, however his magic reacts badly on earth and he ends up being a walking disaster. Michael is a bear shifter whose seeking something more and decides to settle in the same town which is known to be friendly to paranormals. He literally saves Alli from being run down in the street and somehow is tasked with caring for him. Alli has attitude. He has no intention of getting close to anyone because he’s been burned and he doesn’t want someone to have his bad luck. However Michael doesn’t take no for an answer and basically insinuates himself in Alli’s life. When someone attacks Alli’s shop writing gay slurs on the walls and suddenly seem to be stalking him, Michael calls on his family for help along with the local deputy who keeps an eye on Alli. I really liked this story. The difference between cynical crabby Alli and go with the flow mellow Michael was fun to watch. I enjoyed seeing Alli bowled over by a guy he couldn’t scare off. So all in all a really cute story with a touch of stalker. :-) But it wasn’t really a major part of the story, it was more Alli dealing with his bad luck and watching Michael break down his walls.

Jumping Into Things by Julia Talbot (220 pages)
Torquere Press

This is a double feature with two brothers. The first is the story of smoke jumper (forest fire fighters who jump out of planes) Eli and pilot Jed. Eli is from Oregon and comes to Colorado to work. He ends up spending the night at Eli’s because they don’t have a hotel. Before he knows his, they’ve slept together and Eli freaks out and pushes Jed away. Things are a bit prickly but eventually Jed convinces Eli to give it a go, especially after he breaks his ankle and is stuck in town unable to travel. However when he’s cleared to fly he can’t seem to get out of town fast enough, but eventually he agrees to move back to Colorado and give it a whirl. Book 2 is Ross, Jed’s “straight” brother who’s a skydiving instructor in the military. He meets Kevin, a civilian employee and is surprised to find himself attracted but goes for it all out. At first Kevin is freaked out because he thinks Ross is playing at being gay, but soon he settles down and they are living together. In general I liked both stories; I especially liked Ross and Kevin (although the whole DADT thing was never addressed). My issue lies in the sequels which I haven’t even read yet and won’t be. In #2 Kevin and Ross have issues and in #3 Kevin leaves him and Ross finds romance with someone else. Umm. No, just no. If someone is with a jerk and they break up great. If the first guy dies, fine, but I adored Kevin and I don’t know why he breaks up with Ross and I don’t wanna know. I’m disappointed I checked it out. Well, maybe not, because I’d be really annoyed if I bought them, so I’m just going to pretend that didn’t happen and they all are living HEA.

Drawn by Sean Michael (220 pages)
Torquere Press

Another of the Hammer novels, Giles is a “crazy” artist who literally runs into Harrison while escaping from the stress of his opening. However Harrison is intrigues and goes to the show and helps Giles out by taking him away from the show. However he soon sees that Giles has issues, he’s a cutter, although Giles won’t discuss it. Harrison figures that Giles needs pain to focus and clear his head, and he can offer it through BDSM. However Giles thinks BDSM is something in books and pretty much ignores the whole thing and even when Harrison is doing it, tying him up, flogging him, he doesn’t really “get it”. Lots of sex telling him why he needs it, and I did find the whole thing where Giles thinks Harrison is very sweet (in part because he’s gives Giles the peace he needs) which rubs big bad top Harrison the wrong way. He is NOT sweet. Giles had a twin sister who was his manager and very supportive of him and his relationship with Harrison, however another older sister who had Giles committed to a psychiatric hospital at one point was never really used in anyway, just said she existed. Having her freak out what have added some tension. For those who like the Hammer series you’ll enjoy it because it has all of the hallmarks you’ve come to expect. I think my patience with Giles would have run out about day 2 with the whole ‘have to be crazy to be creative’ thing going on.

At Torquere Social again ... sort of. Sigh

Today was my day at the LiveJournal site again. I wanted to give updates on all of my weekend polls. Of course all week LJ has been having a royal hissy fit. So it FINALLY got back up and running tonight so I posted a bunch of posts all at once before the damn thing crashes again.

So if you are curious what the results were (plus there are a couple of surprises there), stop by and have a quick look. Click on the banner below again.

Tomorrow is my last day of work and I have to get packed as Sat. morning I have to leave for the airport at 5:30 AM. That's rather cruel and unusual punishment isn't it? And of course the pet sitter showed up tonight rather than tomorrow and my house looks like a disaster hit it. Oooops. She said she might hang out and "Don't be surprised if I do some cleaning." LOL Okay, now I feel doubly guilty. But apparently someone is staying at her house and she's looking for a bit of escape. I told her to help herself, watch TV, see if the cats will actually come out of hiding, make yourself at home. :-) She's a friend of my daughter's and seems like a good kid.

Okay, you know that cleaning stuff? Going to see if I can do some now. Really. At least put the laundry in the dryer. Have a super weekend and I'm sure I'll be checking in periodically from vacation.

Two For Tuesday

Yay for drinks. :-) So we have had a break in the heat finally. I guess it's supposed to warm up through the week but yesterday was downright cool. It's kind of weird being kidless for a week, but my daughter made it off to both sets of Grandparents on Saturday. It was her first ever flight by herself but she's an old hand at traveling so had no issues. Only 4 more days at work counting today. Yay. Not that I'm counting down the days or anything. Noooooo. ;-)

A Change of Scenery by JM Cartwright (185 pages)
Torquere Press

Con works in construction in Chicago and when his promotion is denied in favour of an owner's relative, he's tired of the games in the big city and takes a job working for a smaller city in West Virginia. His first day there he runs across a guy with a flat tire and reacts oddly because he's straight, has always dated women. However as chance has it, his apartment is over Stephen's shop. He determined just to be friends with Stephen but the first time he gets him alone they are all over each other. However he quickly runs and Stephen realizes he's got a closet case on his hands. The question is, how long is he willing to put up with the hot/cold Con, even if he caves to the he-man attitude regularly. I liked that Stephen FINALLY grew a spine. He was much more patient than I likely would have been. When Con wasn't thinking about if he was "gay", he was sweet in that alpha-male guy, when he started thinking about he was an ass. Thankfully he figured it out and it was a sweet story with touches of humour and some sexy bedroom times with a D/s edge.

Muscling Through by JL Merrow (60 pages)
Samhain

This is a wonderful story of opposites, all told from the point of view of Al, who is big, tattooed, scarred and not all that bright, but he's got a good heart. He meets Lawrence, an art history professor in an unusual way, which when told from Al's perspective is hilarious and you totally get how different perspectives can be of the same event. Larry is sure he's about to be murdered, and Al is just helping a poor drunk guy home. Once Larry gets over his freak out, he finds out Al has a lot of art talent and he just likes the guy and his simple outlook on life. It's not easy, Larry's family and friends don't get it, beyond a sex thing, but that doesn't stop the two men who eventually move in together. A misunderstanding with an art model causes some stress, but in the end, Larry's sister helps out. A couple of times I wanted to slap Al with a clue stick, but because you hear his thoughts about what's happening, you kind of understand how he viewed things in a very literal way, and Larry didn't help by running off and not talking about it. He should have known how Al would think. Al's Mom was a hoot, even if Larry's parents were snobby, I was glad his sister came around. I thought it was a very sweet story and you couldn't help but adore Al and his innocence and Larry's fascination with a gentle giant.

Join me at Torquere Social today

I'm spending the day at the Torquere Live Journal site today. I'm making it poll day, so lots of polls and topics up for discussion, including the ever popular "How much body hair is just right on a guy?". :-) Just click on the picture.

Fun with Statistics

Eyre inspired me to do this post when she did her own stats over at her place. These numbers are mostly for 2011 and I think they are pretty accurate but I'm sure I've read something and forgot to record it. I also learned a lesson. When I input books in Goodreads I generally don't put the date read, but if you don't, it assumes you read them ... I don't know. Never. So I have to remember to add that because I had to go back and put the "date read" on all of these for 2011. Arrrgghh. Not so fun.

So far I have read 250 stories (I love it when I get a nice even number). As you can see by all the sip and daydreams pictures, lots of shorts. Mostly in the 3 and 4 star range. Not too many books I rated 5 stars. I seem to be harsher as I read more and more m/m. You REALLY have to blow my socks off now to get 5 stars. :-)

So how many pages? So far over 18,000 pages. Ack. Maybe ignorance is bliss, no? These numbers are up to maybe a week ago. Yesterday was the 200th day of the year, so more or less, I have read 92 pages per day. Now I know sometimes the numbers are off, counting copyright pages, credits, author bios, etc., but probably between 80 and 90 pages a day. A novella a day. Holy shit, I'm starting to hyperventilate!

The longest book I've read this year is Bent, at nearly 500 pages. Whew. Didn't realize it was that long. I wish the pie chart could remove m/m because they are all m/m but seems like no one will be surprised that shifters is a big chunk of the pie, along with "other paranormal" which for me means anything from ghosts to elves to wizards and witches. Not many vamps this year so far, but there haven't been many.

The next stats are for my shelves in general. Right now I have 1,289 on my "read" shelf and of those 1,201 are m/m or m/m/m. The hyperventilating is getting worse, considering I only discovered this genre in 2008. 

And which of the lucky authors am I supporting single-handedly and putting their kids through college? My top 20 authors of all time that I've read are: 

Of the bottom 10 they are only a few books out of 10th spot, and Sherrilyn Kenyon is the only het author that made my list. That was the summer I went on a total PNR binge, just before I dumped the girls for m/m. :-)

We'll have to see if I make it to 500 books. Not likely with a couple of weeks vacation upon me. :-) I'm thinking closer to 425 by the end of the year, but I guess we'll see how many shorts I read. I should probably go by page number to account for all the shorts I read, and go with 30,000 pages. A nice round number. :-)

Yes, we are melting here. It made to 47C (115F) with the heat index yesterday. Although my house is relatively cool. I'm trying not to put on any lights that give off heat or turn on the stove, so it's bearable and with a/c in my bedroom I'm okay. Today is supposed to be better. Still hot but as I left work yesterday to walk to my car I said to a colleague "I now know what a baked potato feels like when you toss it in the oven". Stay cool everyone as I know there are places in the US that are even hotter than us and it at dangerous heat levels.