Books I read this month

e-books:

Betting Hearts by Dee Tenorio (Samhain publishing)
Wyatt's Chance by Ciana Stone (ellorascave)
Night's Promise by Sandy Lynn (Samhain Publishing)
At Cross Purposes by Sahara Kelly (EC)
Dirty Deeds by Lorelei James (Samhain)

print books:

*Twice Bitten (anthology) by Erica Orloff and Crystal Green (Silhouette Bombshell)
*Flashpoint by Suzanne Brockman
*Fatal Burn by Lisa Jackson
*The Only Suspect by Jonnie Jacobs (I can't actually remember if I read this in September or at the end of August)
*Lover Awakened by J.R. Ward
*Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (one of the best books I've read)
*Don't Be Afraid by Rebecca Drake
*Silent Witness by Lindsay McKenna
*The Switch by Diane Whiteside
*The Mephisto Club by Tess Gerritsen
*Swept Away by Toni Blake
*Vanish by Tess Gerritsen
*You Can't Hide by Karen Rose
*Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh (this book was fantastic - it definitely lived up to all the hype about it *s* I can't wait until the next one!)


I really didn't feel like I was doing a whole lot of reading but I guess that's compared to the summer when I was on holidays from the one job (I'm back to working 2 full time jobs now).

I need to get a life I think

Septembers TBR challenge

The challenge for this month was to read either a category romance or a book that is part of a series.

I really REALLY really don't enjoy category romance books but I'm determined to do something for all the challenges Angie has thrown out to us *s*. I tried to read about 4 different ones from the library but they were impossible to finish. (they made me want to slam my head against the wall and gouge out my eyes they were so bad. I actaually shouted and talked out loud at the characters in the book when they were being stupid (I did this a lot LOL). No I can't remember the titles. I couldn't have been bothered to write them down I was so grumpy about them. I gladly gave them back to the library never to be taken out by me again.

I did manage to find a few that I did enjoy ... they weren't plain old romances though they had elements of suspense and/or paranormal themes in them.

Just Past Midnight by Amanda Stevens ... from the back cover "Stalked for years, Dr. Darian West has become an emotional recluse, a woman at the mercy of a skilled killer. Threats to her family have kept her silent, but every man who has become involved with Darian has paid the same fatal price. All but closed off from life, she lives a solitary existence until a chance meeting puts her next suitor in harm's way ...
Convinced his brother died at Darian's hands, Richard Berkley has vowed to avenge his death. He'll stop at nothing until he exposes the wealthy psychologist's deepest secrets...and her darkest fantasies. But as passion erupts, the killer lurks in the darkness, waiting until...Just Past Midnight...to strike." This was an enjoyable story. It kept me engaged and I cared about the characters. The ending was a bit of a twist that I had only partly guessed. I like having a final a-ha moment at the end of a suspense so that was a good thing. I don't think I'll be keeping the book. It'll go to the library so someone else can enjoy it.

Something Inspirational

This was sent to me in an e-mail (thanks Mary)

Strongest Dad in the World

[From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly]

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.

But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.
Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike.

Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life," Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. "Put him in an institution."

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at
Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate.

"No way," Dick says he was told. "There's nothing going on in his brain."

"Tell him a joke," Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? "Go Bruins!" And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, "Dad, I want to do that."

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described "porker" who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried.
"Then it was me who was handicapped," Dick says. "I was sore for two weeks."

That day changed Rick's life. "Dad," he typed, "when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!"

And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

"No way," Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?"

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon?
Still, Dick tried.

Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? "No way," he says. Dick does it purely for "the awesome feeling" he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters.

Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

"No question about it," Rick types. "My dad is the Father of the Century."

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. "If you hadn't been in such great shape," one doctor told him, "you probably would've died 15 years ago."

So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

"The thing I'd most like," Rick types, "is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once."

Here's the video....

Yes I'm still alive

....barely *s*

The first couple of weeks back to work at school have been kicking my ass. I'm hoping to find my groove (hopefully a bruiseless one) soon. Wish me luck!

So what's new with you? Tell me something good!