Only 5? But... but... that would only last me a few weeks at most! I'd better be rescued soon!

Okay... that being said, my top five are:
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
A Knight in Shining Armour by Jude Devereaux (because you've got to have a little bit of fluff)

Many thanks to all of my librarian friends (you know who you are). Without the daily reminders of what your careers entail, I'd still forget that the library near my house is open late on MW and that I can try out books that I'd never bother with if I were buying them. Sometimes this is a good thing. Sometimes a bad.

Good: The Recreationist by M.J. Rose - fun, fast-paced, interesting, mystical-mystery type book - perfect unwind from a crazy day type book.

Bad: The Rosetta Key by William Dietrich - bleah! It's one in a series. I barely made it past the first couple of chapters. I just didn't have any patience for this rambling stream of consciousness style of writing. I also have a hard time with first person stories.

Bad: Opening Atlantis by Harry Turtledove - Huge disappointment. I like speculative fiction and alternate history. I liked the premise of this - that there is an 8th continent in the middle of the Atlantic between the Americas and Europe found around the start of the War of the Roses by a Breton fisherman, who tells it to his English buddy and trading rival (salt cod), and colonized primarily by the English. You'd think there would be more conflict in the colonization bits. But no. The only natural predators on the continent seem to be these incredibly agressive eagles. Most of the other fauna are seriously stupid birds and some snakes. There are no other humans. No wolves. No mammals at all. Seriously, the settling of the continent - lame. The political wrangling that starts around the 1600s - lame. The characters - boring. Sole motivation - to keep the King of England away from Atlantis. There were moments when the story showed promise, but then Turtledove dropped the ball as a story teller and resolved any potential conflict before it got too interesting. I didn't finish the novel. So disappointed.

Free book picked up at Dragon*Con: Seize the Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon - Definitely a guilty pleasure. Fun, vampire/demon romance. Enjoying it so far. :D


I'll be heading back to the library tomorrow before heading to Po-town for a visit. If it's available, I might pick up Twilight. I need some light reading. Any other recommendations?

Edited: Whoops! AND is NOT open late on Fridays (which is why I'm not swinging by there tonight after work).

I can't tell you how disappointed in this book. I really wanted to like it. It's technically historical fiction and a romance to boot. What's not to love? Everything. The characters - especially the main characters - are two dimensional, the plot is incredibly predictable, the writing goes beyond pendantic to stilted. I highly recommend that you give it a pass if you run across it. I'm not even going to bother with her next book.

Two thumbs down. :P

YES! The next book in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon has been announced! It should be out September of this year! Yes!!!!

http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~gatti/gabaldon/gabaldon.html

*doing a happy dance of joy* :D