WWW Wednesday – 6-12-2013

It’s WWW Wednesday. This meme is from shouldbereading.

hi. it’s me and i’m pooks and i spilled iced tea on my macBook Air yesterday and one shift key isn’t working right now. since this is a very bizzy day, i’m not going to fight it. So let’s turn this into a game.

Which shift key isn’t working?

okay, i didn’t say it was a hard game. or even a fun game. So, sue me.

Anyway, here’s the thing. i feel like a very unloyal fangirl. i discovered a new writer who writes urban fantasy set in london, and damn i love this stuff. Ben Aaronovich, author of Rivers of london aka midnight Riot in the us, and if you click here you will see where i complained about the us habit of changing covers and titles which is rarely for the good. Feel free to go look and compare and come back and let me know what you think. i’ll wait.

Back? Good. okay, so here is what makes me a bad fangirl.

• What are you currently reading?

i’m reading Fabric of Sin by phil Rickman. What makes me a bad fangirl? Well, after falling in love — in LOVE — with Ben Aaronovich and his fabulous world of river gods and goddesses in modern day london, after reading one single book in that universe, i meandered over to his blog and saw what he was currently reading at that time and went, huh, that sounds interesting. And that is how i discovered phil Rickman. And i am now reading the ninth book in his merrily Watkins series and haven’t made it to book two of Ben Aaronovich’s series.

ooops.

So. I went to war this morning with my desk.

And just as i was getting my desk cleared so i could:

Go to work on the edits that are due oh-sometime-soonish.

Fiddle more with CreateSpace for my first attempt at POD.

Write some on the not-a-prologue.

Fill a fountain pen with ink to be ready for all the work.

Amongst other things.

I spilled iced tea across my MacBook Air.

All hail the genius of solid state engineering and Apple! It dried out.

One of my shift keys isn’t working. So far, that’ the only prob and maybe it will start working soon.

So much for best laid plans. it’s time to leave Robbie Burns behind and follow the philosophy of Scarlett.

Tomorrow is another day.

(What? You thought I was going to say fiddledeedee?)

In the meantime, here is something pretty to look at.

Meet Cecil. Coming to Amazon and Book View Cafe July 17, 2013!

WWW Wednesday 5-15-2013 Guest Post from Steven Piziks

WWW Wednesday. As always, this meme is from shouldbereading.

Steven Harper Piziks

Put your hands together and give a WWW Welcome (do I sound like a demented camp counselor, yet?) to Stephen Harper Piziks! Yesterday, Roc Penguin released the fourth in his steampunk series. Read more about it (and see its wonderful cover) after he shares his current WWW with us.

To play along, Stephen, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

• What are you currently reading?

I’m alternating between two books, actually.  On my nightstand is Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, by Sean Howe.  I love behind-the-scenes stuff about how things get made.  The other is a book on everyday life among the Vikings.  It’s research for IRON AXE, my current novel.  Oh!  And I’m reading one of my own books, Dreamer, on audio just because I can. [So, Stephen, does this mean we can get an audio of it, too? I didn't find one. How big a tease are you, anyway? Harrumph. ~ pooks]

• What did you recently finish reading?

Bill Bryson’sA Short History of Nearly Everything, which lives up to the  title.  Do you get the feeling that I read a lot of non-fiction these days? [I adore Bill Bryson and have listened to most of his books in audio. Not this one, though. Must amend that pronto. ~ pooks again]

• What do you think you’ll read next?

Probably yet more non-fiction.  I have to do some research about trolls in folklore.  And I just got Carpe Jugulum, my favorite Terry Pratchett book, on audio, so that’s coming up when I’m in the car. [You do this, too? I have read and reread Martha Grimes' Inspector Jury series, but now have turned to listening on audio. So much fun. As for Sir Terry, yes, his books were absolutely made for audio. So clever. So veddy British. ~ pooks, who can't shut her gob]

Hey, it’s me again. Pooks. Didja miss me? Okay then. Finally, as promised, more about The Havoc Machine, the fourth novel in the Clockwork Empire series that began with The Doomsday Vault.

In a world riddled with the destruction of men and machines alike, Thaddeus Sharpe takes to the streets of St. Petersburg, geared toward the hunt of his life….

Thaddeus Sharpe’s life is dedicated to the hunting and killing of clockworkers. When a mysterious young woman named Sofiya Ekk approaches him with a proposition from a powerful employer, he cannot refuse. A man who calls himself Mr. Griffin seeks Thad’s help with mad clockwork scientist Lord Havoc, who has molded a dangerous machine. Mr. Griffin cares little if the evil Lord lives or dies; all he desires is Havoc’s invention.

Upon Thad’s arrival at Havoc’s laboratory, he is met with a chilling discovery. Havoc is not only concealing his precious machine; he has been using a young child by the name of Nikolai for cruel experiments. Locked into a clockwork web of intrigue, Thad must decipher the dangerous truth surrounding Nikolai and the chaos contraption before havoc reigns….

Paisely Vandermeir requests the pleasure of your presence.

What about you? What have you been reading lately? Put the link to your WWW Wednesday entry in comments, or just tell me!

I’m keeping a running total of my reading challenges–the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge (see banner at the bottom of the right sidebar) and my own challenge, the Embarrassment of Riches Challenge. The January wrap-up is here and here is the February Wrap-Up! And if you missed it, the March Wrap-Up is here and April here. (I haven’t posted mine yet, either!)

WWW Wednesday 5-8-2013

WWW Wednesday. This meme is from shouldbereading.

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

• What are you currently reading?

I’ve yanked myself up by the short hairs on the back of my neck and forced myself to stop reading the series that have swallowed me whole recently. I’ll soon have finished them and then will have to wait for more, so I decided to try something different.

And I’m glad I did. I am loving reading The Chalice, by Nancy Bilyeau, just as I loved her debut novel, the first in the series, The Crown (now available in paperback as well as hardcover, audiobook and ebook). These are medieval mysteries set in the time of Henry VIII, with Joanna Stafford at their center. A novice nun, she has her vocation and life’s work yanked away from her before she can take her vows, when the King severs his ties with Rome. Politics, religion, mystery, history. These books are wonderful. How wonderful? The amazing historian and bestselling author Alison Weir said of The Crown, “A stunning debut. One of the best historical novels I have ever read.”

I’m listening to Tana French’s Faithful Place, the third in her Dublin Murder Squad series. I listened to her first book (In the Woods) years ago and liked it, but never bothered with any of the others. Recently I loved The Likeness (with one major exception, but nothing that stopped me from wanting to listen to this one now). These are character-driven mystery/thrillers set in Ireland and the world is so real and characters so rich, I feel like I’m living in the midst of them, watching everything happen around me.

Frank Mackey is a bitter, snarky, wonderful Irish undercover cop and his mother is amazing. Just saying!

• What did you recently finish reading?

I finished The Remains of an Altar which delves deeply into the music of Edward Elgar and esoteric theory from The Golden Dawn and my list of books to read grows and… yeah, every Merrily book I read adds to my TBR pile o’ books with subject matter I want to investigate further. The music? Right now it’s paralleling my own world-building and writing and so pleasure is combining with research.

I also am flying my way through the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear. I just finished the Seventh in the series and only have three left before I have to do like most other readers and just cool my heels while I wait for more. Set between the World Wars in England, it explores the era with poignancy and pain as Maisie (who served as a casualty nurse on the battlefield of Flanders) solves murders and mysteries. I’m certain I would love reading these books, as well. But right now it’s the listening I am enjoying, and the reader is terrific, the production values excellent, and there is even a bit of musical intro and outro (?) that fits the tale well. The name Maisie surprised me, though. For some reason, I think of Maisie as someone who should live in Brooklyn in the early part of the 20th Century.

• What do you think you’ll read next?

I’m just overflowing with wonderful books, but the one that has me most excited is the first of Martha Grimes’ Inspector Jury series. I’ve waited years for them to come out in digital. My battered paperback has been read several times and I’m looking forward to collecting them all on my Kindle.  I prebought it today so that it will arrive on my Kindle automagically on May 14! I can’t wait. Each of the books is titled with the name of an actual English pub, and the first is: I Am the Only Running Footman. Fun, eh?

Paisely Vandermeir requests the pleasure of your presence.

What about you? What have you been reading lately? Put the link to your WWW Wednesday entry in comments, or just tell me!

I’m keeping a running total of my reading challenges–the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge (see banner at the bottom of the right sidebar) and my own challenge, the Embarrassment of Riches Challenge. The January wrap-up is here and here is the February Wrap-Up! And if you missed it, the March Wrap-Up is here and April here. (I haven’t posted mine yet, either!)

WWW Wednesday 5-1-2013

WWW Wednesday. This meme is from shouldbereading.

But before we get down to business… I’m looking for a few New Adult readers/reviewers. It turns out that even though it was written before NA was a thing, I am being told that Scandalous is NA. That I should let people know that. And I hesitate, because I don’t want to hop on a bandwagon and mislead people if it doesn’t really fit. So, anybody who likes NA and wants to read it and review it (honest reviews, whether you like it or not, that’s fine) or at least confirm or dispute the idea that it’s NA? Truth in advertising, that’s my goal. Let me know! I’ll get you a copy in either epub or mobi format. Thanks.

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

• What are you currently reading?

I’m still reading Phil Rickman, his Merrily Watkins series, and still loving it to bits. I think seeing me talk about it gets old and so I haven’t been posting a lot about it, but how do I love it, let me count the ways…  It gives me a glimpse of a dream, living in an English village. It dabbles in spiritual matters from Celtic pagan to High Church Anglican to Roman Catholic to agnostic.  It delves into history with plots that are rooted in each village or town’s unique story, finding the seeds with which to build a situation that calls for investigation by a reluctant exorcist.

It turns out that even the bookcovers are historically and locationally accurate, for each of them is a photograph of location significant to the plot of the book. I like how the publisher is staying as true to the series as the author is to the world he writes about. Although I have to admit that these covers don’t particular call to me. Ah well.

Right now I’m reading  The Remains of an Altar which delves deeply into the music of Edward Elgar and esoteric theory from The Golden Dawn and my list of books to read grows and… yeah, every Merrily book I read adds to my TBR pile o’ books with subject matter I want to investigate further. The music? Right now it’s paralleling my own world-building and writing and so pleasure is combining with research.

You might have heard the old chestnut, “Write what you know.” Well that’s just silly. What does JKRowling know of wizards? She invented her wizards. They didn’t exist for her to “know” until she created them. No, the chestnut should be, “Write what you want to know.” Where want equals passion, desire, fascination. Where the idea of digging more deeply into a location, a time in history, the actual research involved is enticing and magical. That’s what to write.  I can tell Phil Rickman ascribes to that theory, as well. It shows up in his plots and the worlds he writes about.

Phil Rickman is a superb writer. His plots are intricate and his characterizations rich and nuanced. I can’t recommend this series highly enough.

How about a spot of Elgar?

• What did you recently finish reading?

In The Smile of a Ghost the town of Ludlow in Shropshire is brought to full, magical life. It sounds so perfect, I regret never having been there myself. Of course the Merrily Watkins books don’t view the world through rose-colored glasses, so we also see the societal problems that exist everywhere in the 21st Century, even a magical English town. Bullying, meth labs, and in this story, a haunting, aging rock diva who is guaranteed to send chills down your spine.

I also am listening my way through the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear. Set between the World Wars in England, it explores the era with poignancy and pain as Maisie (who served as a casualty nurse on the battlefield of Flanders) solves murders and mysteries. I’m certain I would love reading these books, as well. But right now it’s the listening I am enjoying, and the reader is terrific, the production values excellent, and there is even a bit of musical intro and outro (?) that fits the tale well. The one I just finished, An Incomplete Revenge, peeled away some layers of Maisie’s past I hadn’t expected, and deepened the stories of those around her. Nice world-building, excellent story-telling.

• What do you think you’ll read next?

I’m giving this old supernatural novel a shot, The Human Chord. It’s referenced in the current Merrily Watkins (see above) and intrigues me.

Paisely Vandermeir requests the pleasure of your presence.

What about you? What have you been reading lately? Put the link to your WWW Wednesday entry in comments, or just tell me!

I’m keeping a running total of my reading challenges–the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge (see banner at the bottom of the right sidebar) and my own challenge, the Embarrassment of Riches Challenge. The January wrap-up is here and here is the February Wrap-Up! And if you missed it, the March Wrap-Up is here and April here. (I haven’t posted mine yet, either!)

Embarrassment of Riches TBR — April 30 Check-in!

It’s time for April stats!

The original  blog meme is here, along with the links to the previous months’ check-ins.

What are you reading? Did you like it or not?

I’ll tell if you will!

Thissing and Thatting

It’s Friday and my plate runneth over. I am going to park a long need-to-do list here, but first–

I found some cool stuff this week.

I bought this book, Harry Potter’s Bookshelf: The Great Books behind the Hogwarts Adventures by John Granger (hey, any relation…?).  Harry Potter’s Bookshelf: The Great Books Behind the Hogwarts Adventures explores the literary landscape of themes and genres J.K. Rowling artfully wove throughout her novels-and the influential authors and stories that inspired her. From Jane Austen’s Emma and Charles Dickens’s class struggles, through the gothic romances of Dracula and Frankenstein and the detective mysteries of Dorothy L. Sayers, to the dramatic alchemy of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and William Shakespeare, Rowling cast a powerful spell with the great books of English literature that transformed the story of a young wizard into a worldwide pop culture phenomenon.  Not sure when I’ll get to read it but I had to have it in print so I could mark it up.

I read a really good article about the terrific state of publishing today for writers who aren’t crying in their beer like Scott Turow is. I agree with Kris Rusch, in that I have access to so many books today in digital format that would never have been reprinted. Life is good for readers and writers, both.

This fall I’m offering my Blueprinting Your Novel class for those who have been waiting for it and have already taken the Basics class, but I’m offering it much earlier in the semester than usual. So if you’ve been waiting for that class drop me a line, or keep following this blog and/or my facebook page and/or my classofpooks blog.

Now, that plate that runneth over.

Here are a few things I need to do:

Bite my nails over good news I can’t announce yet.

Do my taxes.

Change my front page here on this site, since the big “buy my book NOW!” push isn’t hot on the top of my list, though of course, I would love for you to buy any of my books NOW.

Pull Scandalous from the BN site because they are doing annoying things and truly, life is too short.  So if you have a Nook and were wanting it, get it soon before it disappears.  Otherwise, all my ebooks are available at Book View Cafe in .epub (Nook) or .mobi (Kindle) so it will still be available, just not at BN.

Mail last two print books off to be scanned and sent back to me for release as ebooks. I’ve already paid for this service so you’d think I’d get right on that, right? You’d think.

Revamp the cover to Some Enchanted Season to match the new cover style I’m using on all my romance novels, yay!

Work on cover designs for last two romances.

Get pub dates from Book View Cafe.

Design new book page for this site.

Split script of Redemption away from novel La Desperada, so people can get whichever one they want and not have to get both.

Switch facebook cover page and avatar from the current Scandalous promotion which I love because it’s pretty, but it’s time for a change.

Finish reading good book I’m reading for good writer and write notes on it.

Work on short story.

Work on trilogy series (what do you call a five-book series? oh, a five-book series).

Research Medieval Ireland, Tudor Ireland and Arthurian connections to Ireland. (Got references? Let me know in comments!)

Read the really good books that are sitting my TBR waiting to be read.

Oh, yeah–record my March reads in the Embarrassment of Riches Challenge, oops.

Bite my nails over good news I can’t announce yet.

Do my taxes.

That’s some of what is on my plate right now.

What about you?

Sometimes, All That Matters Is the Cover

I have to own this book. Possess and caress this book. Have it on my shelf.

The title–Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe–grabbed me.

GRABBED ME.

The cover just upped the ante.

Ordered!

And I didn’t even read to see what it’s about.

Are you ever that much a victim of a book’s cover?

WWW Wednesday 3-13-13

WWW Wednesday. This meme is from shouldbereading.

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

• What are you currently reading?

I feel absolutely decadent. I’m propped up in bed with a hot cup of tea reading. The Magicians and Mrs. Quent by Galen Beckett has been on my TBR pile for years.

What I’m Reading This Morning

I spied the lovely cover and snatched it up and bought it when my Kindle was fairly new, and I never managed to make myself actually read the book because it was a print book and not on my Kindle. I’ve come to the conclusion that such decisions were largely made because I find the adjustable font-size on my Kindle so much easier on my eyes, but at that time all I knew was that any time I picked up a print book I put it down quickly and went back to the Kindle.

You’ll also see my current Kindle on the bed (linked above–the Kindle Touch). It’s my second. The reason you might not recognize it is because it’s in a leather cover. This makes me purr with happiness. The feel of it is much like an expensive old book and it totally satisfies any desire I have to hold something weightier or more lush or more “real” than an electronic device. Plus, it’s so beautiful. Verso makes many beautiful covers but is a bit pricier than you have to go. There are some great covers for 9.99.

I’m also working in bed. I have notes I made in my Moleskine. Gotta get to work on the current novel, which has me more excited than I can even express. But enough of this, back to what I’m reading. I’m really, really enjoying The Magicians and Mrs Quent. I can’t imagine this book sitting on my shelf looking pretty all these years while I ignore it.  I am now waiting for Mr Rafferdy to discover that he is a magician, which I am sure he must be. (I hope.)

“You do read nicely, Miss Lockwell,” Lady Marsdel said one evening. “You have no impulse to insert your own comments or observations. You are content to defer to the wisdom of the author at choosing the best words. Quite unlike Mr Rafferdy, who turns everything into a comedy. You cannot trust him at all when he reads. He once tried to convince me that a book of famous members of Assembly contained an entire chapter pertaining to monkeys.”

“Well, if it didn’t, it should have,” Mr Rafferdy said to Miss Lockwell in a conspiratorial tone.

I am totally crushy on Mr Rafferdy. I’m glad to know this trilogy is already complete so I can keep reading without waiting for the rest to get written. I also will be keeping this book in my library. It’s pretty and thoroughly enjoyable. Two good reasons to call it a keeper instead of culling it out. It totally fits in with my desire to only have books I really, really like on my physical library shelves, not every book that I’ve ever managed to drag into the house. I no longer keep books just because they are (gasp) books.

I’m also listening to Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan. I’ve seen it all over WWW Wednesday and now I know why. So far, loving it. A weird cult of code-breakers (that is not Google) and wonderfully quirky genius coding-chick (who does work for Google) and a 24-Hour Book Store that is very, very strange… that is a piss-poor description but it’s the best I can do right now. Quirky, smart, fun.

And I’m also reading a book by Katharine Kerr that is not yet available for you to read. ~taunts you~

• What did you recently finish reading?

I mentioned this one before, Eleven Pipers Piping: A Father Christmas Mystery by C C Benison. It’s the second in the series, and I really am enjoying them. This time it’s Burns Night and there is such a blizzard coming down, half the participants have bailed out. They are left with eleven pipers, Tom Christmas (the local vicar) and an unexpected stranger with ties to the village from the distant past. All the elements needed for a murder and a mystery. Benison does an excellent job of characterization and clues, and is particularly deft at having Tom seem like not only a real dad and a real man but a real vicar with all that entails–and yet the books are never religious or even about religion. An interesting touch is that he’s raising his young daughter as Jewish, to respect her preference which reflects his late wife’s wishes.

• What do you think you’ll read next?

No idea. No freaking idea.

Paisely Vandermeir requests the pleasure of your presence.

What about you? What have you been reading lately? Put the link to your WWW Wednesday entry in comments, or just tell me!

I’m keeping a running total of my reading challenges–the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge (see banner at the bottom of the right sidebar) and my own challenge, the Embarrassment of Riches Challenge. The January wrap-up is here and here is the February Wrap-Up!

WWW Wednesday 3-6-13

WWW Wednesday. This meme is from shouldbereading.

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

• What are you currently reading?

I mentioned this one before, Eleven Pipers Piping: A Father Christmas Mystery by C C Benison since it’s a library book and the clock is ticking. I got a notice this morning that in three days it returns to the library automagically. If you’re wondering how this works, I’ll tell you how it works with my Kindle and Overdrive, the system my library uses.  I go to my library’s website and choose a book or books. Sometimes I have to get on a waiting list. This time I did.  Eventually I get an email telling me that it’s my turn, the book is now available.

I go back to the library site and my account and click the appropriate things to tell it yes, I’m ready for it. And it downloads via Amazon, just like any other book from Kindle, most of the time. It comes through wifi. And 21 days later it disappears automatically, too. No late fees EVER.

But three days before it disappears I get a reminder like this:

Your digital library book will expire in 3 days. If you purchase Eleven Pipers Piping: A Father Christmas Mystery from the Kindle Store or borrow it again from your local library, all of your notes and highlights will be preserved.

That makes it easy to buy the book if I decide I want it. It means that if I did highlight and make notes they will still remain if I buy it and keep it. And it means I now need to finish it pronto, which in this case is not a problem. It’s a good book, easy read, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it.

Occasionally there are books that for some reason require me to download to my computer instead, then drag and drop them into my Kindle’s document folder. No big deal. And yes, at the end of 21 days the book can’t be read any more, even though it’s technically on my computer and Kindle. I have no idea how that works.

• What did you recently finish reading?

I think The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach must be a relatively short book. I know it’s a very fast, easy read, and I liked that about it. I look forward to seeing the movie and comparing it to the book. From what I can tell, there are some significant differences, the kind of changes they’d have to make to make the movie be the kind of story it is. This doesn’t bother me at all. As much as I liked this book, it’s not a book that I got so attached to, I’ll be angry that they actually dared change something. (Hmm, those sound like famous last words. Stay tuned for rant when I see movie and get mortally offended that they Changed Something.)

I also listened to The Bones of Avalon by Phil Rickman. I’ve been listening to the Merrily Watkins series by the same author and I do love them. I’m also very annoyed that for some reason Book Five, The Lamp of the Wicked, isn’t available as an audiobook so I can’t keep going with them without switching media and I usually don’t like to do that. For some reason several more of the series are available as audiobooks, but they aren’t in sequence. I guess it’s time to shift over to the Kindle for them, but I hate losing a series that I really enjoy listening to. I’ve got to have something to keep me entertained when I’m doing housework, y’know.

Oh. But Bones of Avalon. Stellar book, a mystery set in the time of Elizabeth I that involves Dr Dee, Glastonbury Abbey and King Arthur. And lots, lots more. Rickman really does know how to turn a phrase. That’s the one benefit of shifting to reading–I may actually remember to share some of them with you. The only one I recall (sort of) right now was “a vague smile settled like mist over her face.” Or something similar. I’ll do better next time.

• What do you think you’ll read next?

Two more library books are ticking away in my Kindle. I think I’m not in the mood for Gone Girl. I also liked The Apothecary’s Daughter enough to check Maid of Fairbourne Hall out of the library, but am not sure whether I really want to read it right this minute or not. So I may end up letting both of those go back while I read other things.

I also bought two books for my Kindle that happen to be by friends, and I’m wanting to read them both. Will one of them be next? As you can tell, I’m very much dictated by “what am I in the mood to read this very minute?” which means I have books I’ve been dying to read for a year or longer that haven’t managed to be the right book at the right moment yet, so yeah, no guarantees but I might choose this fun mystery by Diane Patterson.

Or I may read The Chalice, a book I’ve been waiting for ever since I finished The Crown last year.  Watch the trailer. It’s very dramatic and I really love it a lot. Another Tudor mystery. I seem to be reading a lot of them. Well, hardly surprising. I almost wrote one, but chose Regency fantasy instead.

I haven’t been doing one thing I really intended to do–I haven’t been reading my actual hold-in-the-hand print books that are patiently waiting in my TBR stack. Okay, that settles it. One of them is next. Stay tuned next week to see which one.

Paisely Vandermeir requests the pleasure of your presence.

What about you? What have you been reading lately? Put the link to your WWW Wednesday entry in comments, or just tell me!

I’m keeping a running total of my reading challenges–the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge (see banner at the bottom of the right sidebar) and my own challenge, the Embarrassment of Riches Challenge. The January wrap-up is here and here is the February Wrap-Up!