tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81290139682127968902012-02-08T12:42:00.273-07:00My Book of the Day Blog: A blog of daily (or thereabouts) book reviewsKatharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.comBlogger515125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129013968212796890.post-21969812367950732842012-02-08T12:42:00.001-07:002012-02-08T12:42:00.318-07:00

I've read a lot of YA dark fantasy romance — vampires, werewolves, you name it.  This one was about zombies, and it was a really different take on zombies.  I loved it! Lia Habel's zombies are infected with a disease that causes their death, and then reanimates them.  Depending on how long the brain goes without oxygen — before the reanimation — and whether the person is able to keep from going

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129013968212796890.post-91601089243085407552012-02-07T13:44:00.000-07:002012-02-07T13:44:55.979-07:00

I have a lot of books to catch up on, made worse by the fact that I barely posted at all last week, but before I get to that I have a fairly important announcement to make: According to a post on the Barnes & Noble forums, Dorchester Publishing is going out of business. Dorchester is a publisher of mass market genre novels, such as romance and Westerns.  Apparently as far back as 2009, though,

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129013968212796890.post-22361008141427168192012-01-27T13:45:00.000-07:002012-01-27T13:45:00.083-07:00

I fell in love with the Sookie Stackhouse books about a year and a half ago, so when I saw another book by the same author available in ebook format from my library, I jumped right on it. Grave Sight is a quick read about a young woman who travels around the country with her brother, solving murder mysteries.  She is able to do this because she senses dead people, ever since she was hit by

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129013968212796890.post-30172095705184722202012-01-26T20:03:00.034-07:002012-01-26T20:03:00.640-07:00

Fools Rush In was the last book of a run of Kristan Higgins books I checked out from the library.  I think they still have one or two more I have yet to read, but I needed a break first! Millie, the heroine of this book, has had a crush on Joe since she was just a kid, but he has no idea she exists, so once she completes her doctor's degree, she returns home determined to make him notice her. 

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129013968212796890.post-56207348033779965352012-01-26T12:46:00.000-07:002012-01-26T12:46:00.077-07:00

Just one more off-topic post before I get back to the business of reviewing books.  A couple of weeks ago I saw a story on NPR about Walter Dean Myers, the new ambassador for Young People's Literature.  In the interview, Myers talks a lot about how books are important parts of your life, and stresses that, as part of his goals, he wants young children to be read to every day. There is this idea

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129013968212796890.post-38759139161030495102012-01-25T14:05:00.000-07:002012-01-25T14:05:42.086-07:00

What timing!  Not long after I saw the CNN article about tablet and e-reader ownership doubling over the holidays, I saw this one on NPR: Niche No More: Survey Shows Tablets Are Everywhere The NPR article quotes another survey that shows an even larger percentage of e-reader and tablet ownership: 29 percent, up 11 percent from December.  In comparison, the CNN survey found ownership to be about

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129013968212796890.post-58195579585316352012-01-25T11:16:00.000-07:002012-01-25T11:16:25.155-07:00

Sorry for the dearth of posts lately!  I've actually been reading quite a bit — I've just been too busy to write about what I've read — so I have lots of catching up to do.  But first, I want to share an article I read just the other day, about how popular tablets and e-readers have become. Ownership of tablets, e-readers almost doubles in one month The number of people who have these devices

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129013968212796890.post-59570497190408894192012-01-11T14:02:00.000-07:002012-01-11T14:02:11.438-07:00

I've been reading a lot lately, but I haven't dedicated very much time to blogging about what I've been reading.  Part of the reason is this book, The Science of Battlestar Galactica — I've been struggling with what to say about it. I checked the book out from my library on a whim when I saw it among the new arrivals in our ebook catalog.  I am a big fan of Battlestar Galactica, and was

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129013968212796890.post-77590758197745837982012-01-09T19:29:00.000-07:002012-01-09T19:29:00.544-07:00

It's not a book, but I wanted to take a moment to review a fantastic app I just downloaded to my Nook Tablet earlier today.  I found out about it when it was posted to Barnes & Noble's Facebook page this morning. A little background: I'd been wanting a way to sync calendars between my iPhone and Nook.  The iPhone calendar can be challenging to use, mainly because I don't always feel like typing

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129013968212796890.post-39277693245041599702012-01-09T12:29:00.000-07:002012-01-09T12:29:15.605-07:00

I logged on to the Barnes & Noble site today to see a fantastic deal broadcast across the top of the page: If you subscribe to the New York Times ($19.99 a month), you can get the Nook Simple Touch Reader for free, or the Nook Color for half off ($99 instead of $199). I'm not a big fan of paying for newspaper subscriptions when you can get it all online, but of course the NYT is limiting

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129013968212796890.post-72976242400327492622012-01-07T10:51:00.000-07:002012-01-07T10:51:00.698-07:00

Being a horse person and the proud owner of two rescue horses, I tend to gravitate toward books about horses.  Some of them, like War Horse, I enjoy thoroughly.  Others make it perfectly obvious how little the author knows about horses. The Last Cowboy was, unfortunately, among the latter group.  Although the overall story, about a doctor who hires a handsome cowboy to train her and her mare for

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129013968212796890.post-31393454019777191562012-01-06T13:00:00.000-07:002012-01-06T13:00:07.261-07:00

I've been reading so much fiction lately.  A few years ago, my norm was about half fiction, half nonfiction — or perhaps it was about two-thirds fiction, and one-third nonfiction.  (This was a big change from my childhood, adolescence, and early twenties, when I read fiction almost exclusively, except for assigned reading in school and college.)  Although I do love fiction, occasionally I get a

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129013968212796890.post-67939441349398429122012-01-05T11:37:00.000-07:002012-01-05T11:37:00.657-07:00

After reading two Kristan Higgins novels in a row — and don't get me wrong, I love Kristan Higgins, I just needed a break — I decided to change gears and read something a little more serious.  My choice was Taylor Five, which is a children's book on a fairly serious topic: cloning. Taylor is a 14-year-old girl who is a clone of another woman, a scientist.  She lives with her surrogate parents

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129013968212796890.post-34991372131835938962012-01-04T12:51:00.000-07:002012-01-04T12:51:44.450-07:00

Out of all the Kristan Higgins books I've read thus far, I think this one might have been my favorite — primarily because I felt I could most relate to this character's tomboyish nature.  It wasn't quite as funny as the other two I've read, Too Good to be True and The Next Best Thing, both of which were hysterically funny at times, though it was still good for quite a few laugh-out-loud moments —

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129013968212796890.post-53089447564550520272012-01-02T12:39:00.040-07:002012-01-02T12:39:00.099-07:00

This was one of the books I read last week, during my week off between Christmas and New Year's.  It was also the first time in a long while that I stayed up extra-late to finish a book.  Not having any obligations (or at least a clock to punch) the next day, I finished the book at 4am on the nose. You may remember that I read another Kristan Higgins book, Too Good to Be True, back in April.  I

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129013968212796890.post-24027742328935597412011-12-31T11:51:00.001-07:002011-12-31T11:51:00.494-07:00

I'm doing something a little different this year: Instead of New Year's Resolutions, I'm making a short list of books I want to read in 2012.  These are all classics that I've meant to read for years now, and just never got around to it.  I am even making a special shelf on my Nook for these books. The Professor by Charlotte Bronte - This is the only Bronte novel (at least out of the ones

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129013968212796890.post-51188821570984185302011-12-30T13:00:00.000-07:002011-12-30T13:00:03.507-07:00

I've had some spare time lately, so I've been catching up on my reading. I've been flying through books, as you can probably tell by all the reviews that have gone up in the last week, and for the most part I've loved everything I've read.  I'm afraid Tiger's Curse is an exception. First of all, I can't say that I hated the book, but I did have some issues with it — more than my usual, I must

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129013968212796890.post-6237812455405721662011-12-29T17:01:00.000-07:002011-12-29T17:01:01.103-07:00

It was just over a year ago that I first read Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow.  I was skeptical at first but decided to try the book out, and ended up really loving it.  I followed Dru's adventures through three more books, and a couple of weeks ago was thrilled to find out that the fifth and final book had come out.  I love following a series all the way to the end! Here are the five books in

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129013968212796890.post-31124437360921375872011-12-28T13:01:00.001-07:002011-12-28T13:01:00.446-07:00

I never thought I would read Marley & Me.  I'm not a big fan of pet memoirs, although I've read several — I usually end up feeling that just because someone is famous doesn't mean their pets are any more special than anyone else's, for one thing.  (There are a few exceptions, pet memoirs that are truly about a special animal or situation.  In my opinion, Chosen by a Horse by Susan Richards is a

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129013968212796890.post-64475400621814381162011-12-27T12:13:00.000-07:002011-12-27T12:13:00.089-07:00

I've been hearing a lot about War Horse over the last few months.  The ebook has been a good price for ages (just a little over $5), and I saw a preview for the new movie a few months ago, so the book had made it onto my reading list — where it languished until, last weekend, I decided to read it and decide whether to give it to the horse-crazy girl I nanny for as a Christmas present. The book

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129013968212796890.post-37011398124897209042011-12-26T14:07:00.001-07:002011-12-26T14:07:00.172-07:00

The December selection for the sci-fi/fantasy book club hubby and I belong to was Stephen King's The Eyes of the Dragon, a fairy tale-like fantasy novel about an old king, two princes, and the villain who schemed to overthrow (or at least cause a lot of misery and chaos in) the kingdom. This was only the third Stephen King book I'd ever read, and that's only if you count On Writing.  The only

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129013968212796890.post-76279355725710727332011-12-25T12:58:00.000-07:002011-12-25T12:58:09.070-07:00

Want something a little special — and at a special price — today?  This ebook version of A Christmas Carol is an enhanced edition that includes a 1977 radio recording of Charles Dickens's great-granddaughter reading the classic Christmas book.  Unfortunately it's a special file that plays only on the Nook Color or the Nook Tablet, but if you have one of these it is well worth it! Whether you

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129013968212796890.post-23912131115827698832011-12-22T20:55:00.000-07:002011-12-22T20:55:36.308-07:00

I have a quite a few books to catch up on now — I've been reading a lot lately, ever since NaNoWriMo ended on November 30th.  One of the first ones on my list once I finished Under Heaven and Boneshaker (two books I'd been picking away at during November) was Death in the City of Light, a nonfiction book about a serial killer that was discovered Paris toward the end of the Nazis' occupation of

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129013968212796890.post-44387186755150821022011-12-19T23:10:00.001-07:002011-12-19T23:12:10.576-07:00

I noticed tonight that HarperCollins is having another of their YA ebook sales, like they had during the summer. There are some great ebooks priced at $2.99 and 99 cents. You may remember that I read Delirium earlier this year and loved it. It also made NPR's list of the top fantasy books of 2011. Less than a week later, the price has dropped from $9 or $10 to just $2.99! The next book is

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129013968212796890.post-6508676987548719652011-12-16T21:30:00.000-07:002011-12-16T21:30:18.597-07:00

I saw on eBay this evening that the eBay Daily Deal — only for the rest of the night and tomorrow — is the Nook Simple Touch Reader for only $74.99!  As far as I can tell, this is a NEW device (not refurbished, in other words), and is 25 percent off the regular price ($99).  If you've been wanting an ebook reader but haven't wanted to spend the money (or had the money to spend), this is your

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0