I’m lazing away this Sunday afternoon, about to dig into a patty and coco bread. The dark clouds outside are teasing me, but I still have hope they will open up and provide the perfect atmosphere to get my creative juices flowing. In the meantime, I figure now is the perfect time to offer the “where has Ann-Kat been?” update.

For a little while, I was sick (think delirious and semi-conscious) with the flu. It’s an experience I’d rather not repeat and luckily I’m all better now (yay!). The downside is that I’m racing to catch up with everything that’s fallen behind…

Writing

I’m now nearly 16,000 words behind on my NaNoWriMo project, but I hope to fill most of the gap by the end of the day—cloud inspiration permitting.

I did, however, manage to get most of my NaNo board finished and discovered the face of my female lead along with a few secondary characters. Since I promised to bring this blog back to all things bookish, you can read all about the NaNo board (and my writing progress in general) at Today, I Wrote….

Reading

After finishing Wuthering Heights, from which my head is still reeling (Kidnapping and extortion? Really?!?), I’ve moved on to The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and Fallen by Lauren Kate. I’m about a third of the way through both.

The former I remember from childhood; reading it as an adult brings some new perspectives. The latter is interesting so far, but I’ve already found a few items of contention—here’s hoping it will redeem itself by the end.

Reviews

My review queue is backlogged a bit, but I hope to have that sorted just after the holidays. Some of the books awaiting review include The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett, Dawn by Kevin Brooks, and Soulless by Christopher Golden.

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much was enthralling. I thought I was in for a true crime read, but it was more a journalist’s memoir of the book collecting world and the misguided lengths to which one man would go for his passion.

I managed to get up a mini review of Dawn since I read it for the 24 Hr. Read-a-Thon, but I do need to get a proper review online. This book certainly deserves one.

I expected to like Soulless a bit more than I did. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy it. Then again, I’ve always been fond of those B zombie movies with cheezy overacting and that’s the feeling I got from the book. Plus, it had an original premise in how the zombie apocalypse started. There are some book notes up (and a Sunday Sketch depicting a scene), but like the others, this deserves its own full review.

Arrivals

Thank goodness the book fairy didn’t forget about me while I was infirmed. A number of books made their way across my threshold and I’m excited to read all of them. The list includes:

• Finch by Jeff VanderMeer
• Defenders of the Scroll by Shiraz
• i sold Andy Warhol (too soon) by Richard Polsky
• Raiders’ Ransom by Emily Diamand
• Madapple by Christina Meldrum

Soon I’ll get a proper “recent arrivals” post up along with synopsis for each of the titles. But for now, that ends my Sunday Salon week end round-up. You have been updated.

Well, I’ve just finished reading Dawn by Kevin Brooks and I’m a bit numb right now. Figuratively and literally (my butt).

The story, for lack of a better cliche, was intense, and not entirely what I expected.

Sure, I expected some twisted bits (the allusion to something happening to her while quietly laying in bed one December night is like a flashing neon sign), but I never expected it to be that twisted and a bit heart-wrenching.

I swear I felt a tear pricking at my eye and trust me, it was not a moment when I should have been crying and certainly not for the person I nearly cried for.

Ultimately, this is a heavy novel, but much of it is written with a light touch. There are passages that had me cackling and packages that had me shaking my head with consternation.

And since Dawn likes to make lists, allow me to make a list of just a few of them:

• Dawn makes it her mission to kill God. (Although he doesn’t exist.)
• Painted snails. Yes, really. Painted snails.
• “Jesus licks his arse.” (Since I know your eyes may be bugging out, let me say that Jesus is the name of her dog. She also has another named Mary.)
• Born-again alcoholic.

I’m still trying to let the story digest for a bit before I come out with a full review. One thing is for certain though, it certainly had me glued to the pages.

In the meantime, I’ll be taking a fifteen minute break to grab some caffeine, make the rounds to see how everyone else is doing, and then start on Soulless by Christopher Golden.