I'm not having the best year so far choosing new ebooks to read. I've DNF'd over half the new ebooks I've tried to read. I mean, they sounded really great or I wouldn't have chosen them. Right? But when the rubber meets the road, there's been something that made me stop reading them.
This week, the lead reason seems to be that the story is just weird. Don't get me wrong - I like weird - but these were jarringly so. Like one I tried recently - it was an urban fantasy... no, a science fiction... no, a fantasy... All genres I enjoy, but the only part that worked was the UF, which the author discarded after the first chapter.
I DNF'd a book last night that I had great hopes for. It was a billed as a thriller and it started out really well, but then the author started throwing in supernatural elements, which I really didn't mind at first but then it got bizarre. Suspension of disbelief broken. Close book, move on. =o\
Then there have been the books with editing issues. Some of those I can read past without a problem, but sometimes they slap me upside the face so hard I can't forgive them. Not every bit of dialogue needs a tag and not every character has to be named every time you mention them. Come on, guys.
Reading those makes me fear ever trying to publish without an editor backing me up. On the other hand recognizing those flaws are helping me edit my own work. So I guess they were good for something.
I'm not giving up on my mission to try new authors with few reviews. I've found some amazing books that way. And the amazing books I find help ease the pain of the others. Like I said in last week's Reading Wrap-up - any week I finish at least one good book is a good week. The others I'll just have to wade through to get to the good books.
I downloaded three new ebooks last night. Here's hoping at least one of them is a good one.
How's your reading year going? Finding some good stuffs or getting lots of clunkers?
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Sunday, February 9, 2020
Sunday Update - Week 6
Another week on the books for 2020. I wish I could say I had accomplished more.
Let's not talk about writing, shall we? Or editing. Or marketing. Basically, I was either a toad and did nothing, or my efforts were for naught.
I did a bit of reading last week. Finished two good books and DNF'd three not-so-good books. I picked up a boatload of new books - both ebook and hardcopy - so yay.
On the activity front, I did active stuffs 4 out of 7 days, so not really that bad, but I feel like I should've done more. On the upside, I'm at 179.6 lbs and that's 3 pounds down from the start of the year. I think that's because I've cut ice cream and chips from my diet, and added fruit and yogurt. This was a week where I actually expected to gain or hold steady because it was shot week. :shrug: I'll take a loss however it came.
I made more granola bars this week. It's a regular thing now, so no big woohoo. The applesauce bread I made last week is gone, so I will probably make some more of that after I get to the store and buy more applesauce.
I went fishing last Sunday. Didn't get a single bite. Of course, I expected that would happen. It's too cold to fish and the fish aren't biting anywhere I can reach them anyway. Still, it was nice to be at the lake for a while instead of sitting here.
Speaking of weather, we were supposed to get hammered on Wednesday, but only got a dusting. I think the system dropped all its snow in Oklahoma - sorry, Okies - and didn't have much left for me. Oh, shucky-darns. ;o)
Not sure what the week ahead will bring. I need to spend some time giving myself a stern talking to again. Here's hoping I have better and more interesting things to talk about next Sunday.
How was your week?
Let's not talk about writing, shall we? Or editing. Or marketing. Basically, I was either a toad and did nothing, or my efforts were for naught.
I did a bit of reading last week. Finished two good books and DNF'd three not-so-good books. I picked up a boatload of new books - both ebook and hardcopy - so yay.
On the activity front, I did active stuffs 4 out of 7 days, so not really that bad, but I feel like I should've done more. On the upside, I'm at 179.6 lbs and that's 3 pounds down from the start of the year. I think that's because I've cut ice cream and chips from my diet, and added fruit and yogurt. This was a week where I actually expected to gain or hold steady because it was shot week. :shrug: I'll take a loss however it came.
I made more granola bars this week. It's a regular thing now, so no big woohoo. The applesauce bread I made last week is gone, so I will probably make some more of that after I get to the store and buy more applesauce.
I went fishing last Sunday. Didn't get a single bite. Of course, I expected that would happen. It's too cold to fish and the fish aren't biting anywhere I can reach them anyway. Still, it was nice to be at the lake for a while instead of sitting here.
Speaking of weather, we were supposed to get hammered on Wednesday, but only got a dusting. I think the system dropped all its snow in Oklahoma - sorry, Okies - and didn't have much left for me. Oh, shucky-darns. ;o)
Not sure what the week ahead will bring. I need to spend some time giving myself a stern talking to again. Here's hoping I have better and more interesting things to talk about next Sunday.
How was your week?
Saturday, February 8, 2020
Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 2/8/20
Hello. Welcome to the Saturday Reading Wrap-up. If you've been here before, you know how this goes. If you're new, this is where I wrap-up all the book stuffs from the week before. (For a complete list of all the books I've read this year, go here.)
It wasn't the best reading week with the DNFs (they always give me a sad), but hey, any week I finish at least one good book is a good week and this week I finished two.
This past week, I picked up a slew of new ebooks - 2 mysteries, fantasy, suspense, contemporary fantasy, urban fantasy, thriller. Woohoo. And I'm caught up with last month's ebooks. Also woohoo. Then yesterday, I was in town with time to waste, so I stopped by the thrift store. Picked up 4 paperbacks and 2 hardcovers - two westerns, a mystery, two biographies, and a suspense. So much to read... YAY!
Books Read:
13) Blood in the Sand by Kelly Clayton (2/6/20) - Mystery*# - 5 stars. New to me and underappreciated as far as reviews go. Picked up for free after seeing a friend recommend it on FB.
Review: "Neat murder mystery with plenty of twists and turns with a little romance for added seasoning. Quite an enjoyable read."
12) The Christmas Cookie Shop by Ginny Baird (2/4/20) - Romance* - 5 stars. New to me and could probably use more reviews, but not totally underappreciated. Free off the ENT newsletter.
Review: "Such a cute little holiday romance! I loved it."
DNFs:
2/5/20 - paranormal romance - free. I liked the premise and the writing wasn't bad, but I started to dislike the heroine about two paragraphs into meeting her and I wanted the very likeable hero to run the hell away from her.
2/3/20 - suspense - Picked up during the thrift store's end of year 8/$1 sale. I seriously wanted to like this book because I like the author, but try as I might, I couldn't. Stopped 135 pages in, which shows you how much I tried. But life's too short to force myself to finish books I'm not enjoying.
2/1/20 - mystery - 25c at the thrift store. Meh. It just wasn't doing it for me. I totally wasn't feeling the mystery. At all.
Currently reading... a paperback western from 1966 I picked up at the thrift store yesterday. I needed something to read while I was waiting for my shot appt and I was between reading stuff at home, so I grabbed one of the books I'd just purchased and started reading in the doctor's office.
What happened in your reading life last week?
It wasn't the best reading week with the DNFs (they always give me a sad), but hey, any week I finish at least one good book is a good week and this week I finished two.
This past week, I picked up a slew of new ebooks - 2 mysteries, fantasy, suspense, contemporary fantasy, urban fantasy, thriller. Woohoo. And I'm caught up with last month's ebooks. Also woohoo. Then yesterday, I was in town with time to waste, so I stopped by the thrift store. Picked up 4 paperbacks and 2 hardcovers - two westerns, a mystery, two biographies, and a suspense. So much to read... YAY!
Books Read:
13) Blood in the Sand by Kelly Clayton (2/6/20) - Mystery*# - 5 stars. New to me and underappreciated as far as reviews go. Picked up for free after seeing a friend recommend it on FB.
Review: "Neat murder mystery with plenty of twists and turns with a little romance for added seasoning. Quite an enjoyable read."
12) The Christmas Cookie Shop by Ginny Baird (2/4/20) - Romance* - 5 stars. New to me and could probably use more reviews, but not totally underappreciated. Free off the ENT newsletter.
Review: "Such a cute little holiday romance! I loved it."
DNFs:
2/5/20 - paranormal romance - free. I liked the premise and the writing wasn't bad, but I started to dislike the heroine about two paragraphs into meeting her and I wanted the very likeable hero to run the hell away from her.
2/3/20 - suspense - Picked up during the thrift store's end of year 8/$1 sale. I seriously wanted to like this book because I like the author, but try as I might, I couldn't. Stopped 135 pages in, which shows you how much I tried. But life's too short to force myself to finish books I'm not enjoying.
2/1/20 - mystery - 25c at the thrift store. Meh. It just wasn't doing it for me. I totally wasn't feeling the mystery. At all.
Currently reading... a paperback western from 1966 I picked up at the thrift store yesterday. I needed something to read while I was waiting for my shot appt and I was between reading stuff at home, so I grabbed one of the books I'd just purchased and started reading in the doctor's office.
What happened in your reading life last week?
Thursday, February 6, 2020
Thursday This n That
The worst part about working on a truck farm was picking the jalapenos. Every tiny papercut, every hangnail, every little scrape burned like the dickens. And for godsakes, don't rub your eyes!
Yeah, I've had a lot of different jobs throughout my lengthy employment history. Picking vegetables, mucking stalls, executive secretary to the president of a multi-state private school corporation. I'm a jack of all trades. LOL
Gimpy buck seems to be like 95% now. I think the problem was he had an abscess on his leg which was making it all swollen and gross and hurty, but then it burst, so now he's on the mend. Lucky buck.
Yeah, I watch a lot of vet shows. I love Dr. Pol. He's my kind of guy.
If a veterinarian can diagnose and treat a wide variety of species for a wide variety of ailments, why can't doctors treat one species for a variety of ailments? Jus' sayin'.
The other day I gazed at the weather forecast and noted that Wednesday was supposed to be craptastic. I had a doctor's appt on Wednesday. (Okay, it's really a nurse's appt. I don't see the doctor very often.) I called to get it moved to later in the week and they told me my appt actually wasn't until next Wednesday. But I'm sitting here staring at the card they wrote out for me that says 2/5/20. (Okay, it really says 2/5/19, but it was written in November, so the year thing was an easy mistake.) Neither of us was sure how that happened, but we did get my appt moved to tomorrow.
I'm doing pretty good at remembering to write 20 in the date instead of 19. I've only screwed up once and then I only got the 1 out before I remembered and changed it to a 2.
And that's all I've got for you today. What have you got for me?
Yeah, I've had a lot of different jobs throughout my lengthy employment history. Picking vegetables, mucking stalls, executive secretary to the president of a multi-state private school corporation. I'm a jack of all trades. LOL
Gimpy buck seems to be like 95% now. I think the problem was he had an abscess on his leg which was making it all swollen and gross and hurty, but then it burst, so now he's on the mend. Lucky buck.
Yeah, I watch a lot of vet shows. I love Dr. Pol. He's my kind of guy.
If a veterinarian can diagnose and treat a wide variety of species for a wide variety of ailments, why can't doctors treat one species for a variety of ailments? Jus' sayin'.
The other day I gazed at the weather forecast and noted that Wednesday was supposed to be craptastic. I had a doctor's appt on Wednesday. (Okay, it's really a nurse's appt. I don't see the doctor very often.) I called to get it moved to later in the week and they told me my appt actually wasn't until next Wednesday. But I'm sitting here staring at the card they wrote out for me that says 2/5/20. (Okay, it really says 2/5/19, but it was written in November, so the year thing was an easy mistake.) Neither of us was sure how that happened, but we did get my appt moved to tomorrow.
I'm doing pretty good at remembering to write 20 in the date instead of 19. I've only screwed up once and then I only got the 1 out before I remembered and changed it to a 2.
And that's all I've got for you today. What have you got for me?
Tuesday, February 4, 2020
Commercial Rant
If I hadn't been using TurboTax since like 1998 (when I first got a computer), I would stop using them now just because of their stupid and annoying commercials. Yeah, it's free (if your taxes are simple), we get it. Do you think the people who use your free edition are so stupid they need to be told it's free over and over and over again, ad nauseum? How insulting.
There's a commercial out there, not sure who it's for, where there's a pilot and at first you only see his face. Then the camera pans back and he's sitting on the john. Umm, gross.
Speaking of gross, if you can't do it on TV with people, don't use cartoon bears. I'm looking at you Charmin. Although it does remind me of a crass joke involving a bear and a bunny relieving themselves in the woods from back when I told crass jokes on a regular basis.
No, I haven't seen any of the 'Super Bowl Commercials' yet. If I happen across them when I don't have the TV muted and I'm not doing my standard 'read during commercials' thing, I'll try and make note of them.
Gah, I can't believe the number of commercials out there with obnoxious music (sometimes I'm already reading and forget to hit mute). Does that stuff really sell burgers or school clothes or what have you?
Don't get me started on political ads. Fortunately, so far, I've only really been exposed to them when I'm watching the local channels. And that's rare, so not really a big deal.
Also, don't get me started on what I like to call 'the dishwasher bitch' commercial. I hate that kid. If that was my kid, she'd be washing dishes by hand until her 18th birthday. Snotty little brat. I will never buy Cascade again.
The big elephant in the pistachio commercials is alternately amusing and annoying.
The new Gieco commercials riffing off the old commercials are amusing me. I love the raccoons and the woodchucks. I love the woodchucks so much, I keep riffing off the 'Hey! You woodchucks! Stop chucking my wood' thing. "Hey, you woodpeckers! Stop pecking my wood!" and that sort of stuff. And of course, the raccoon with his 'STOP! I think I saw half a cheesesteak back there." I think he's my spirit animal. ROFL
On the other hand, I'm sick of Flo at Progressive. Jamie still kills me.
Yes, I do watch too much TV.
What commercials annoy you? Any you particularly enjoy?
There's a commercial out there, not sure who it's for, where there's a pilot and at first you only see his face. Then the camera pans back and he's sitting on the john. Umm, gross.
Speaking of gross, if you can't do it on TV with people, don't use cartoon bears. I'm looking at you Charmin. Although it does remind me of a crass joke involving a bear and a bunny relieving themselves in the woods from back when I told crass jokes on a regular basis.
No, I haven't seen any of the 'Super Bowl Commercials' yet. If I happen across them when I don't have the TV muted and I'm not doing my standard 'read during commercials' thing, I'll try and make note of them.
Gah, I can't believe the number of commercials out there with obnoxious music (sometimes I'm already reading and forget to hit mute). Does that stuff really sell burgers or school clothes or what have you?
Don't get me started on political ads. Fortunately, so far, I've only really been exposed to them when I'm watching the local channels. And that's rare, so not really a big deal.
Also, don't get me started on what I like to call 'the dishwasher bitch' commercial. I hate that kid. If that was my kid, she'd be washing dishes by hand until her 18th birthday. Snotty little brat. I will never buy Cascade again.
The big elephant in the pistachio commercials is alternately amusing and annoying.
The new Gieco commercials riffing off the old commercials are amusing me. I love the raccoons and the woodchucks. I love the woodchucks so much, I keep riffing off the 'Hey! You woodchucks! Stop chucking my wood' thing. "Hey, you woodpeckers! Stop pecking my wood!" and that sort of stuff. And of course, the raccoon with his 'STOP! I think I saw half a cheesesteak back there." I think he's my spirit animal. ROFL
On the other hand, I'm sick of Flo at Progressive. Jamie still kills me.
Yes, I do watch too much TV.
What commercials annoy you? Any you particularly enjoy?
Sunday, February 2, 2020
Sunday Update - Week 5
It's Groundhog Day. Woohoo! Okay, not really. It's a day for us because of some personal stuff, but it's not really a big deal otherwise. The rodent doesn't really do anything for me.
Anyway, here's the skinny on my week...
No writing was accomplished. No editing either. Not the best end to a month when that started out gangbusters. I hope to get back on track this month.
In marketing stuffs, the Project Hermes sale ended. I had one person on FB tell me they got the book, but I never saw a sale and the rankings never changed, so not sure what was up with that. I did get a new ranking on Goodreads - 4 stars - so maybe the sale went through a pirate site :sadface:. I also had Blink of an I set for free Wednesday thru Friday. That went well enough that it got me into the top 100 rankings in Post Apocalyptic and in Dystopian, so I extended the freebie through today and its rankings continue to rise. I hoping it will sit high enough to get noticed by the Kindle Unlimited crowd and I'll see some page reads. Then yesterday, Sleeping Ugly went on sale. I haven't seen anything from that yet.
I read some stuff, but it wasn't a banner week in reading. One old favorite and one new awesome UF, with a couple DNFs and a couple days where I didn't read at all.
Yesterday, I got a wild hair and went recipe hunting. I found a recipe for something called Spiced Applesauce Bread. Way too many spices, but the base recipe was sound, so I tweaked it to suit my tastes. It turned out really yummy and it was super easy to make. Recipe below.
On the activity front, I wasn't really active. I managed the first two days of the week and then the last two days, but the three in the middle was mostly me sitting on my butt. The upside to the week was I'm now at 180.4 lbs. Down 2.2 from the beginning of the year. If I lose 2 pounds a month this year, I'll be sitting pretty by the end. Umm, not expecting that to happen, but it could. Anyway, I did get back to walking the loop again. Ugh, I let myself get out of shape enough that it was hard taking that hill. Woof.
Other than that, nothing much going on here at Sanderson Acres. What's up in your world?
Recipe:
Anyway, here's the skinny on my week...
No writing was accomplished. No editing either. Not the best end to a month when that started out gangbusters. I hope to get back on track this month.
In marketing stuffs, the Project Hermes sale ended. I had one person on FB tell me they got the book, but I never saw a sale and the rankings never changed, so not sure what was up with that. I did get a new ranking on Goodreads - 4 stars - so maybe the sale went through a pirate site :sadface:. I also had Blink of an I set for free Wednesday thru Friday. That went well enough that it got me into the top 100 rankings in Post Apocalyptic and in Dystopian, so I extended the freebie through today and its rankings continue to rise. I hoping it will sit high enough to get noticed by the Kindle Unlimited crowd and I'll see some page reads. Then yesterday, Sleeping Ugly went on sale. I haven't seen anything from that yet.
I read some stuff, but it wasn't a banner week in reading. One old favorite and one new awesome UF, with a couple DNFs and a couple days where I didn't read at all.
Yesterday, I got a wild hair and went recipe hunting. I found a recipe for something called Spiced Applesauce Bread. Way too many spices, but the base recipe was sound, so I tweaked it to suit my tastes. It turned out really yummy and it was super easy to make. Recipe below.
On the activity front, I wasn't really active. I managed the first two days of the week and then the last two days, but the three in the middle was mostly me sitting on my butt. The upside to the week was I'm now at 180.4 lbs. Down 2.2 from the beginning of the year. If I lose 2 pounds a month this year, I'll be sitting pretty by the end. Umm, not expecting that to happen, but it could. Anyway, I did get back to walking the loop again. Ugh, I let myself get out of shape enough that it was hard taking that hill. Woof.
Other than that, nothing much going on here at Sanderson Acres. What's up in your world?
Recipe:
Cinnamon Applesauce Bread
1 cup sugar
½ cup
vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 Tbsp milk
1 ¼ cups
applesauce
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking
soda
½ tsp baking
powder
1 tsp
cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
Preheat oven
to 350F. Use cooking spray to lightly
coat 9x5” loaf pan. In a large bowl,
blend together sugar, oil, eggs, milk, and applesauce until well combined. In a separate bowl, sift together flour,
baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
Add dry mixture by thirds to wet mixture, each time stirring until
smooth. Pour batter into prepared loaf
pan. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until
toothpick comes out clean.
Saturday, February 1, 2020
Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 2/1/20
Look at that... a whole new month for reading. But let's finish up last month, first, shall we?
I didn't pick up any new books this week and I only have two unread ebooks left - romance and paranormal romance - so I better get on that this week. I'm 6 books ahead on my goal as of last night.
Books read:
11) Legally Undead by Margo Bond Collins (1/31/20) - UF - 5 stars. New to me, but no necessarily underappreciated with over 100 reviews on Amazon. Picked up for free off the Freebooksy newsletter.
Review: "Wow! This is a pretty awesome urban fantasy with some seriously unexpected twists and turns."
Note: Available in audiobook.
10) The Integral Trees by Larry Niven (1/27/20) - SF - 5 stars. An old favorite I've been looking for in paperback for a while now. I finally found it at one of my go-to thrift stores for 25c.
Review: "I checked this out from the library numerous times as a teenager, but hadn't read it since. It's as good as I remembered. Better even, because I understood more of the science behind it."
DNFs:
1/30/20 - Free - Mystery. The beginning was all backstory for the two main characters, neither of whom I liked, and I got tired of slogging through it to get the mystery started.
1/30/20 - Free - Medical Thriller. Too much description/explanation. If it's going to be a thriller, don't drag it down with heavy exposition. And the dialogue was wooden. If I hadn't been bogged down and it was thrilling, I probably wouldn't have notice the wooden dialogue so much.
Currently reading... I finished that urban fantasy at about 7:30 last night, so I didn't pick up anything to read yet.
What did you read last week?
I didn't pick up any new books this week and I only have two unread ebooks left - romance and paranormal romance - so I better get on that this week. I'm 6 books ahead on my goal as of last night.
Books read:
11) Legally Undead by Margo Bond Collins (1/31/20) - UF - 5 stars. New to me, but no necessarily underappreciated with over 100 reviews on Amazon. Picked up for free off the Freebooksy newsletter.
Review: "Wow! This is a pretty awesome urban fantasy with some seriously unexpected twists and turns."
Note: Available in audiobook.
10) The Integral Trees by Larry Niven (1/27/20) - SF - 5 stars. An old favorite I've been looking for in paperback for a while now. I finally found it at one of my go-to thrift stores for 25c.
Review: "I checked this out from the library numerous times as a teenager, but hadn't read it since. It's as good as I remembered. Better even, because I understood more of the science behind it."
DNFs:
1/30/20 - Free - Mystery. The beginning was all backstory for the two main characters, neither of whom I liked, and I got tired of slogging through it to get the mystery started.
1/30/20 - Free - Medical Thriller. Too much description/explanation. If it's going to be a thriller, don't drag it down with heavy exposition. And the dialogue was wooden. If I hadn't been bogged down and it was thrilling, I probably wouldn't have notice the wooden dialogue so much.
Currently reading... I finished that urban fantasy at about 7:30 last night, so I didn't pick up anything to read yet.
What did you read last week?
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