This is how we do crazy :P

It's Friday!!! I love Fridays... do you know why? Because half the early birds at my company do not work on Fridays... so that means I can blog and surf the net without having to check over my shoulders every two minutes! Also, it's sooo quiet and we're really all alone :D

This morning, I forgot my key card to get in the company... it didn't bother me, because the man I found very intimidating that's here really early was absent!! Yep, one less checking on me :P So instead, I had 20 minutes to read LOL :)

So this morning, I started my experiment and had all the time to blog-hop... and came across Ames' post :P Yep ppl, she's back and she went "crazy" book shopping yesterday :D She bought 3 books... hmmm. Okay, considering her new rule, the "Read 2 books from TBR and allowed to buy ONE book," I guess she did go a bit crazy LOL :P but then, she said that the rule wasn't in effect till October. So she bought 3 books... I couldn't help it... had to at least chuckle...

LOL Ames, you seriously have more willpower than me :) Here, let me show you how I do crazy :)

Monday, I read a review of Just Wicked Enough by Lorraine Heath. It sounded good and I haven't decided which book to read yet, so I decided to go buy it. At the same time, I have this coupon of 5$ off if I buy more than 35$ in store.... So here is what I bought:

- Just Wicked Enough by Lorraine Heath : B+
- Sex and the Single Ghost by Tawny Taylor : D
- Passion by Lisa Valdez - heard so much good about it
- If his Kiss is Wicked by Jo Goodman - everyone who read it seemed to love it
- One Last Breath by Laura Griffin - nice cover :P

*all cover pictures are on the sidebar

Then, on Wednesday, I decided to go to the UBS to look for You Slay Me... instead, I found:

 Squeeze Play and Black Silk were great finds... unfortunately, didn't find You Slay Me... ah well.

Then yesterday, I don't know... I saw Kristie posting up her list of books to read and Mine Till Midnight was there. Now, I'm not a great fan of historicals, but I do read them. I'm not a great fan of Lisa Kleypas, but I do read her. Mine Till Midnight really, really has a nice cover... and Cam's story... hmmm. So I checked out Indigo/Chapters online to see if any bookstore had it. Yes, they did! Well wait a minute, that book is only coming out next week... This mean a couple of next week's new releases are probably in store... and I know one of the bookstore in downtwon has You Slay Me. See, there are two bookstores downtown, from the same company, almost next to each other. For me to go downtown is no longer a detour, since I have to pick up my sister. But still, to go to both will take some time... and I might be stuck in traffic. So I called my sister to see if any of her friends had the I-Rewards card that makes you save 10% on the book... (I mean, now that the CDN $ is so high, I'm already over-paying the book... I don't really want to have to pay the regular price anymore)... So none of her friends had it... Okay, just join me at Indigo... where I bought:

- Tombs of Endearment by Casey Daniels
- Sexiest Man Alive by Diane Holquist
- Fire Me Up by Katie MacAlister
- Demon's Kiss by Eve Silver
- Queen of Orcs: Royal Destiny by Morgan Howell
- One Piece volume 39


Hmm, with all these books, you'd think I could wait for You Slay Me right? Well nope. I give my sister a choice: to buy it now or she'd had to go the next day (meaning today)... She chose now. So we walked three blocks and I am now the proud owner of... tada:

Don't you see something missing? Yeah, I didn't buy Mine Till Midnight in the end, because that was at a third bookstore... but hey, I'm considering going later today... should I? Should I not?

See Ames, this is how you do crazy, LOL.

Burning out?

Lately, I've been wondering if I'm close to a burn-out. I'm sooo tired... but that's probably the lack of sleep. See, when I was in high school, classes started at 9h30 and I lived 5 minutes away. So I could go to sleep very late and still have a decent amount of sleep. As a result, I'm used to going to sleep at midnight. Once I started university/college, I kept the same hours... I mean, you never have 8 hours of class right... there's always some breaks here and there and so, it's not as taxing. Now that I'm at work, I've chose to work from 6.30 am to 3pm in order to avoid traffic jam. That means I have to be up at 5.30 am.... but here's the killer, I still go to sleep around 11.30 -12 pm. I feel like I've wasted time if I go to sleep before :( Like I could be doing something instead of sleeping. The problem is sooner or later, my body needs to catch up on the sleep and I end up falling asleep like yesterday... from 8ish to this morning. Sigh.

The worst however is not the fatigue, but the lack of motivation... everyday, I come to work, do an experiment and can't wait to go home. At the end of the day, my body weights a ton. Then, you add in the mood swings... Also, everyone has been commenting about my mood... apparently, I look like I'm in a bad mood. at least, that's what my mom and co-workers have been telling me. The truth is, I'm in no mood. takes too much energy. Anyway, all I know is I need a vacation... Of course, in about 3 weeks, there's a great possibility that I'll be out of job.... so I'm looking at a few months of unemployment. Why does that look more attractive than keeping my job and signing, possibly, a one-year contract? I can't even summon energy to care about my employment status. In my head, I'm already out of job in three weeks. (well you should know about my company... very bad management and all, so I really don't get my hopes high... not worth it). Oh well, I guess I'll have to figure something out soon for it.

Finally, I miss my friends... I think that was the most difficult element about starting a job. You go from seeing some people daily to not at all :( We've all gone into different directions and getting together is hard :( Can't even do it weekly... Luckily, I have you guys... I don't know what I would do without you. (be bored out of my mind).

Okay, now the depressing stuff has been talked about, let's get into a more cheerful mood :D

I updated my sidebar!! You like? So that's one thing crossed out of my list to do! Yay! that was easy :P I've started to sort through some books, but that's going slowly. I've also started cleaning my room...

and anyone caught the premiere of House on Tuesday night? I love season one and two of House... I thought season 3 was a bit of a let-down. I lost interest in it mid-way through the season, when that cop was on House's back. Also, the ending where Chase, Cameron and Foreman all quitted or were fired sucked. However, the premiere this week was interesting :D and I can't wait to see next week's eps. LOL :) Sounds promising.

Oh and one last thing! I've been asked by the girls at Book Binge to guest blog... anyone has a topic as a suggestion? something you'd like to read about?

Have a nice day all!

This week To Do list

Hello everyone :D

How have you been? My week-end was quite dull, but relaxing. I work from 8h30 am to 9 pm at the White Fathers place... Got two visitors and not even 10 phone calls the whole day. I had time to catch up on my chinese tv series (yep, I have access to TV) and read Agnes and the Hitman, which I've already reviewed :) LOL, it's so funny, because each time I show up at the Fathers' place, I have at least 3 bags: my purse, one bag of tapes and one bag of books :P Then, I slept half of Sunday and read, the other half. Very dull indeed... very lazy also ^^; See, I've been meaning to reshelve my books for, hmm, 2 months now? I've also wanted to clean my room, because it's a huge mess... also, can't really reshelve my books without making place in my room first. In addition, my room is driving my parents crazy... they've been nice so far, but I know that soon, they'll run out of patience.

The problem? Well I work on the week-end... albeit, not a lot, but enough that I don't feel like spending Saturday morning cleaning. I want to do it when I come home from work during week days; however, now that I have to pick up my sister in downtown... i get home later, around 4.30pm... Then, I usually have a book I can't wait to finish or blog-hop or have a headache like yesterday :(

This is the reason I've decided to do a list... So the following should be done by Sunday, midnight:

1) Clean my room - it includes vacuuming. (ugh)
2) Box/shelve my books. Best would be to purge a little too.
3) Update my blog (the books on the sidebar ^^;) and change the template
4) Work on reviews
5) Work on ________________ (it's a surprise... kind of)
6) Clean my hard drive (I bought an external hard drive a 1.5 month ago ^^; It's out of its box, but that's pretty much it
7) Catch up on my manga and anime

Doesn't sound too much right? So hopefully, I should be able to make it ^^;

Sigh. (LOL, can't help it!)

Review: Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer

So how was everyone's week-end? Mine was okay and I got to read some good books... one of them was Agnes and the Hitman... yes, I finally got my copy :D


Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer

published by St. Martin's Press in August 2007 (hardcover)

Agnes Crandall, a food columnist better known as Cranky Agnes,knows she's in trouble when a dognapper invades her kitchen one night, seriously hampering her attempts to put on a wedding that she’s staked her entire net worth on. Then a hero climbs through her bedroom window... That’s Shane who has his own problems: he’s got a big hit scheduled, a rival trying to take him out, and an ex-mobster uncle asking him to protect some kid named little Agnes. Then Agnes turns out to be not so little and the problem turns out to be a missing five million bucks. Agnes and Shane have their hands full with a bunch of lowlifes looking for the money, a string of hit men coming for Agnes, a lot of wedding guests arriving for the wedding, and—most of all--with each other.

Genre: contemporary, romantic comedy
Series: none

Why did I get this book? Because Ms Crusie is an awesome author :D The books she wrote are so funny! Almost always great reads :D

My thoughts: Hmm, I'm sure I'm not the only one who has been wondering why Ms Crusie has been collaborating with other authors lately to write books. I mean, not that the books aren't good, but to me, Agnes and the Hitman was quite a classic Jennifer Crusie and I didn't see much of Mr Mayer in it. Anyway, for those who were disappointed with Don't Look Down, Ms Crusie and Mr Mayer come back very strong with this book :D Agnes is an awesome heroine, Shane is yummy, the secondary characters are hilarious, the plot ties up well and there's a dog :D I LOL so many times while I read this book :) it's really what I needed.

The Characters: There were sooo many characters in this book, but I think they all contributed to the laughs :D First, Agnes was awesome :) and she's not called Cranky Agnes for nothing :) I really enjoyed her character as well as her anger management troubles LOL As for Shane, great hero. He's the serious, cool type... we know very little about his past, but you know, he's a man you can depend on... he's also very capable and sexy LOL :) I think that Agnes and him were really a match made in heaven :) I did have a little problem with Shane's job, even if it was for the government... I know I shouldn't feel this way. I mean, what's the difference btw Medina from Linda Howard's books and Shane... but I guess it's the setting. After all, this was more a comedy than a romantic suspense book... The other secondary characters were great and each had a purpose... none seem superfluous and all contributed to the laughs :D

The Story: I really enjoyed the story and the ridiculous situations... Ms Crusie is one of the few authors who can take outrageous and ridiculous situations and not only make them funny, but work. But seriously, the plot was really compact. I mean, everything fit and there was no loose ends, which was a great accomplishment, given that this plot was a bit complicated :)

What I liked? Pretty much everything. It was truly funny, without trying too hard... and I really felt like reading a classic Crusie. Also the cover, I think the cover was great and it represented the book well :D

What I didn't like? Well as I said, Shane's profession... and Brenda!! OMG! that woman, LOL, I loved it when Doyle/Frankie was bitching at her... she totally deserved it. such an unlikable character.

Grade: A-. Definitively a great book :D

By the way, anyone has funny read to suggest? I've been feeling like reading something funny, but haven't found anything really. I've read all of the Crusie and she's the only author with Janet Evanovich, whose books make me laugh out loud as much.

Review: Dead Girls are Easy by Terri Garey

Dead Girls are Easy by Terri Garey
published by Avon Romance in August 2007

I took this synopsis from the author’s website, which seems to be a bit more complete than the one on the back cover of the book:

When a former Goth girl has a near-death experience and returns to life with a whole new outlook, she isn’t happy to find that she’s brought a ‘sixth sense’ back with her. Restless female spirits now sense a kindred soul in Nicki Styx, but she’d far rather they take their tales of woe elsewhere. If becoming a reluctant ‘ghoulfriend’ to the dead isn’t enough to turn that pink streak in her hair to white, she still has a vintage clothing store to run and buried secrets to keep from the emergency room 'hottie' who’s doing some digging of his own.

Joe Bascombe gets a second chance when the pretty young woman whose heart just stopped comes back to life, and he’s determined not to waste it. Too much work and responsibility have made Dr. Joe a dull boy, and a quirky gamine-faced girl with a zest for life might just be the cure he needs. Too bad she thinks she sees dead people.

A carefree lifestyle suited Nicki just fine, but life changes after death passes her by. Never one to meddle in other people’s affairs, she now finds herself burdened with the responsibility of seeing justice is done in her friend’s murder. The dead woman’s spirit claims that her live-in boyfriend, already arrested for homicide, is innocent and needs to be set free. When Nicki balks at playing detective, the bosom buddy she had in life becomes a pain in the neck in death, landing Nicki in deep Voodoo. Growing feelings for the wholesome and responsible Joe complicate the issue, and Nicki finds herself longing for something she never expected - a normal life.

In the end, Nicki learns that the ‘dearly departed’ don’t always tell the truth. Her ghostly friend wants revenge, not justice. But no ghost is going to get the best of this former Goth girl. Together, Nicki and Joe make sure justice is served and the troublesome spirit is sent on to the other side.

Eventually, Nicki may find that dealing with dead girls is easier than dealing with reality, but for now Nicki and Joe have found something to live for. The hereafter will just have to wait while they enjoy the here-and-now.

Genre: paranormal romance, ghost
Series: Nicki Styx series, Book #1

Why did I get this book? I was looking for something to read/buy. To be frank, I picked up this book, read the back blurb and went: “not another one!” Especially when this book sounded very similar to another one I read a couple of months ago. I mean, let’s face it, Near-Death-Experience (NDE) coupled with abilities to see ghosts afterwards plots have been done and re-done. But I still bought the book ^^; I guess I wanted something to buy :)

My impressions? This was a light and fast read for me. Yes, the plot is familiar, but the characters are not and I think that’s what saved the book for me. I liked Nicki and I thought Joe was very sweet :D They make a good pair and there are some twists in this plot that makes this book worthy of a try. Also, it turns out that this is the first book in the Nicky Styx series and I think it shows potential.

The Heroine, the Hero and the Romance: Well, let’s start with Nicki, our heroine. She was adopted as a baby by free-spirited parents and after their deaths in a car accident, she bought a store with her best friend, Evan. She’s on the gothic side, very bold and outspoken; however, she’s not too tough either. I think that she’s pretty vulnerable and actually is not as tough as she would like people to believe. She’s a very likeable heroine and reminds me a bit of Stephanie Plum, minus the clumsiness and the crazy family.

You know the next-door girl? Well Joe the doctor would be the next-door guy. In my opinion, he has two things going on for him: 1) he’s not in law enforcement and 2) he’s not an alpha. LOL :) Instead, he’s the more serious, responsible, dependable guy… and definitively sweet.

The romance was nice… Joe was definitively trying and you know, they’re building up something. No soulmate or instant mating… just a healthy dose of attraction and a few dates. I did think that the relationship was evolving a bit too fast, I mean, they didn’t fall in bed together immediately, but still it was a bit fast to my taste, given their situation.

The Story: So once Nicki gets over the fact that she can see dead people and starts to believe it, it gets interesting. She gets the visit of a few unrelated ghosts as well of a supposedly friend who’s been murdered and asked Nicki to prove that her man was not the killer. However, the supposedly friend is not very friendly as a ghost and Nicki stats to suspect that something is wrong when the supposedly friend “hurts” Evan once Nicki refuses the help. Turns out that some voodoo is involved.

Meanwhile, there’s also Joe. Nicki is not sure what to do with him… She knows he is attracted to her and she is to him too; however, he has also asked if she could be a subject in his NDE research. The most interesting twist in the book however, would be the fact that Joe is married... to Nicki’s twin sister, or at least, that’s what he believes.

What I liked: I liked that it was fluff and fast to read. I liked Nicki and Joe and both together. I even liked the best friend, Evan.

What I didn’t like: The voodoo aspect of the book. Never liked voodoo and this book didn’t change that.

Grade: B. This was a good effort from the author and the storyline does have potential to become better. I guess we’ll have to see with the next book; however, the synopsis and excerpt sure are promising.

Heroes: my verdict

So Monday, I asked if anyone here was watching Heroes and they thought about it... and if I remember correctly, only Cindy and Rosie said they watched the show. The good news was that both enjoyed the show :D The majority of you said that you haven't watched the show, but heard good things about it... which was another plus. Nobody seemed to have heard any negative about this series... and this is rare :D

So you guys want to know what happened next?

LOL, I download a couple of episodes on Monday evening and the next day, decided to go buy the boxset LOL :) So I am now the proud owner of Heroes on DVD and have managed to watch the whole season in two evenings. Yes, I did fast-forward and skip some parts - but that was so I could go to sleep ^^; I'm now re-watching the whole thing to see what I miss, but seriously, I really enjoyed this tv series :D

So here are my thoughts:

- I really enjoy the tv series and you have to give credit to the whole cast, directors and producers. As the guy who came up with the idea said, superheroes have been done and overdone, but they still manage to create something great and compelling.

- the fact that all these people have powers remind me a bit of X-men, but that's to be expected. What i wonder about is that they all seem to have recently acquire their powers and no one knows when and what and understand them.

- there are a lot of characters and storylines going on at once and so it's a bit confusing, but that doesn't matter :D This series is very compelling... there's a lot of twists and turns and you keep wondering is this person good, bad, both? What I like is that it's not entirely black or white, but there's many shades of grey :D

- I have to admit that I think the cast is perfect. Everyone fits their role and they act very well :D my favorite character is probably Hiro Nakamura :D He's so cute and funny and full of optimism :D I understand why the actor was nominated at the golden globes and emmy.

The one thing that I disliked was the lack of friendship/camaraderie. The pacing of this series is very fast, one thing happens after the other. Each character or group of characters have a goal that they are pursuing and as a result, characters only cross each other. I mean, how many times did Hiro and Peter meet each other? not more than 5 I think... What I'm trying to say is that the characters don't have time to get to know each other, sit down and develop a frienship... and I understand why and everything, but this is something I'd like to see in the next season.

So yeah, Heroes will probably be my obsession for the next few weeks :D Especially with the new season starting on Monday :D however, that doesn't stop me from reading :D

Quiet week-end and books!

Hello everyone :D

wow, this week-end was really quiet... Summer is over, fall is here... it's been quite chilly these last few days :( Sunny, but cool.

I've pretty much did nothing this week-end. Chalk it to exhaustion and laziness. I had plans to re-shelve my books... actually, I've had this plans for weeks... but it didn't happen :( Sigh. I've been trying to convince a friend to come over and help me... but smart girl, she refused. I went shopping with some friends on Sunday... bought a tank top. Got 50% off on the tank top... which was already on sale at 1.95$ LOL :) Yeah, I saved bunch!

This week-end was a rather good reading week-end. I read Dead Girls are Easy by Terri Garey, It's In His Kiss by Julia Quinn and The Wedding Party by Robyn Carr. All the books were okay read, nothing wow :( I went to the bookstore this week-end and there was nothing to buy... see I've pre-ordered most of the books I wanted for September and there wasn't many coming out to begin with... So today, I skipped lunch and went to the UBS... I bought 16 books... the ones that made me think "lucky me" were Family Tree by Barbara Delinski and Castle of the Wolf by Sandra Schwab... The rest were books that sounded interesting... and lucky me, the UBS were still holding the buy 3 get the 4th free sale.

Later, when my mom came home, she brought in 3 Chapters/Indigo online packages! That really made my day! So what books did I get? Caressed by Ice by Nalini Singh and Die For Me by Karen Rose. These two books, I ordered back in August, but somehow, it seems my order was lost somewhere... I ended up buying them at the bookstore. Seriously, do you think I would have waited 2 weeks before I could read CBY? No way... I already promised CBY to a friend, but if anyone wants my 2nd copy of Die For Me, feel free :D I also got Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer... Finally!!! and Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder... I want the tradepaper format... I figure it'd be an investment :) and finally, tadada, Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik!!! This is the 4th book in the series and I'm a bit anxious about reading it... I'm afraid I've been building up too much expectations... Sigh.

Last but not least, I've become kind of obssessd with Heroes, the tv show... Anyone has watched this? What's your opinion? I had friends who enjoyed it a lot and since I'm bored, I thought of watching it... but I'm not sure yet and so, I don't want to spend money buying the dvds yet...