September Reading List

Books Read in September

134 - 01  Night Tales: Nightshade and Night Smoke, by Nora Roberts (9/1) 
135 - 02  Three Wishes, by Barbara Delinsky (9/2)
136 - 03  Flirting with Pete, by Barbara Delinsky (9/4)
137 - 04  Split Second, by Catherine Coulter (9/7)

I really wish I had stopped reading this FBI romance/mystery series a couple of books ago. It's just getting ridiculous now. This book involved a magical item as one of the subplots. The angst of whether it was morally just to judge who was worth saving magically didn't work for me, since one person was saved magically and not the other. I am very disappointed, since I initially liked Catherine Coulter's books.

138 - 05  The Husband List, by Janet Evanovich and Dorien Kelly (9/7)
139 - 06  By Design, by Jayne Denker (9/8) 
140 - 07  Manhunt, by Janet Evanovich (9/10) 
141 - 08  Accidentally Yours, by Susan Mallery (9/12)
142 - 09  The Fault in our Stars, by John Green (9/13)

First of all, this was not a book to be read when someone you love has just been diagnosed with cancer. It is also a must-read book for anyone who has ever loved someone with cancer. You will cry. You will also laugh, and will probably feel guilty that you laughed. You will love this book. You'll also hate it, and will want to re-read it over and over.

My daughter recommended that I read this young adult novel, and when I took too long to follow her advice she bought me a copy of it. It was even better than she said it would be.

143 - 10  Lie by Moonlight, by Amanda Quick (9/14)  
144 - 11  The Mystery Woman, by Amanda Quick (9/17) 
145 - 12  Fireside, by Susan Wiggs (9/19)
146 - 13  1st to Die, by James Patterson (9/22)
148 - 14  2nd Chance, by James Patterson (9/25)
149 - 15  Dream Eyes, by Jayne Ann Krentz (9/28)
150 - 16  Just One Kiss, by Susan Mallery (9/30)

GasBuddy

I have become an app junkie! It is amazing all the wonderful things that I am finding out I can do with my iphone. Why did I wait so long to get one? 

 

This morning I discovered GasBuddy. Due to some rather annoying circumstances (gotta love family drama!), I spent the night at my mom's Tuesday. Which meant that I got to watch the morning news yesterday. The only thing I really miss about not having cable in my apartment is the local news. So I made sure that I was up early enough (4:00 am) in order to watch the news before I had to leave to drive to work (at 6 am). One of the things the news station did was list the cheapest gas stations in the area. They mentioned that this information was available on their website.

So this morning, I went looking for the best place to stop for gas on my way to work. The news station wasn't really a help, but they did lead me to a link for GasBuddy.com. And GasBuddy.com just happens to have an app for the iphone! Happy dance!

You can either put in the city, state or the zip in order to find the best gas prices for a particular area or you can click a button to see what's close to your current location. I found out that there is a gas station only a little bit further from my apartment that is 2 cents cheaper than the gas station I've been going to. Two cents isn't a whole lot, I know. But if I can save a little bit of money without going out of my way, it makes sense to change stations. 

The site works a lot like Yelp.com in that it depends on members to provide data. People have the opportunity to update the information for a station. If there are people in the area participating on the website, the information is current. 

I've downloaded this onto my phone, and I'll see how well it works out. I also signed up for a profile, and I'll try to remember to add my 2 cents to the data. After all, it's worth at least that!

This is how I've spent my time

 

Since it's been so long (almost a month!) since I've posted, there's a lot of knitting to update. Despite the continual knitting and appearance of progress, I don't have any FOs (finished objects) to report.  The Sweet Tomato Socks were frogged once again. I made it as far as actually knitting the heel. Then I had mom try the socks on. I hated the way it looked. The instep was baggy. So being me, I frogged both socks.

 

Frogging the socks worked out okay, because it gave me something to do when I got stuck in a horrible traffic jam on I-95 one morning. I just cast the socks back on, and ended up knitting half a leg of the first sock.

Then, of course, I got distracted by a new knitting project.

 

I made a little bit of progress on the bibs. I actually finished the ones I promised my volunteer...almost. Her bibs just need the buttons and patches. 

 

My big distraction has been a Priscilla shrug. My mom's knit a couple of these. She knit one for herself. Then a couple of ladies at church liked it, so she knit the shrug for them. Since then, I've been telling mom how much I liked it and would love to have one for work. Mom finally listened, and took the hint. She made me a copy of the pattern. (Just wait until there's a pair of socks she wants; I'm handing her a set of dpns and a skein of sock yarn!) I had Malibrigo -- yum, Malibrigo! -- from an old project I frogged recently and the shrug is knitting up so soft and squishy. All my love and attention is going into this shrug for me.

I need to get it finished quickly, because other projects are already calling out to me...

August Reading List

Books Read in August

120 - 01  Wyatt:  Return of the Cowboy, by Cathy McDavid (8/1) 
121 - 02  The Cove, by Catherine Coulter (8/3)
122 - 03  The Maze, by Catherine Coulter (8/6)
123 - 04  The Target, by Catherine Coulter (8/9)
124 - 05  Riptide, by Catherine Coulter (8/12) 
125 - 06  Eleventh Hour, by Catherine Coulter (8/14) 
126 - 07  The Edge, by Catherine Coulter (8/16) 
127 - 08  Point Blank, by Catherine Coulter (8/18)
128 - 09  Blind Side, by Catherine Coulter (8/20)
129 - 10  Blow Out, by Catherine Coulter (8/20)
130 - 11  Double Take, by Catherine Coulter (8/22)
131 - 12  Tail Spin, by Catherine Coulter (8/24)
132 - 13   Whiplash, by Catherine Coulter (8/27)
133 - 14  Deception, by Amanda Quick (8/29)

I have approximately 350 books on my Nook that I haven't read yet. And yet I was always going to the library's website to download something to read. So I decided that I would go through my Nook's files, either reading or deleting the books. Since I had almost the entire series of Catherine Coulter's FBI mystery romances, I started with those books.

For the most part I've enjoyed them. Each mystery is wonderfully written. I was only able to guess the secret in two of the books and yet the answer is so obvious once you're told it. To me, that's what makes a great mystery -- an obvious answer that is obscured too much to guess. I enjoyed the romance of each book as well. The heroes are strong, handsome, smart, and they are always there ready to rescue the heroine. The heroines are beautiful, strong, and smart, and usually end up rescuing the heroes. I did get annoyed with the supernatural aspect that developed in Whiplash (book 14 in the series), mostly because that made me feel that Coulter was either selling out to the popular "vampire" and other-world genre that has been gaining popularity, or perhaps she's just running out of storylines and was stretching to find something new. I will be keeping this series on my Nook for possible future re-reads.