Kell

it's a song by The Beatles - "I Am the Walrus"

I am the walrus - goo-goo-ga-choo!

The best hangover cure in the world is not to drink too much the night before - LOL! Personally, I swear by a large glass of water before bed to rehydrate. I don't take any aspirin at that point, but I have them ready for the morning when I drink another large glass of water & have maybe a piece of toast with peanutbutter & some orange juice (gotta replace the vitamins lost by the drinking the night before). By lunchtime I'm ready for maybe some soup & by dinner time I'll be completely back to normal.

It's an interesting thought, Linda - I think you're right in saying that the "Monster

Ooh, there's about half a dozen there on your 2006 list that I've read & enjoyed too. Nice mix you've got there. And we had a discussion some time ago about male/female authors & most of us seemed to have leaned one way or the other, if I recall. I think the majority of my books at the time were written by male authors & they still feature predominently on my shelves (well, I'm a huge Pratchett fan & I have all of his books, therefore a large chunk of shelf-space is taken up by him alone - LOL!). I'm looking forward to seeing what your reading list for 2007 looks like!

Well, true to form, I waited till midnight and started 2007 by madly delving into this book! Have just finished part one and am in two minds about it. The unusual names aren't giving me a problem, as they're all Celtic ones, so I know roughly how to pronounce them, but the place names are bugging me a bit, as they're all the old names for them and I nver have a clue from one minute to the next where people are! I am, however, enjoying the subverting of the well-known Arthur legends, with Mordred being Arthur's half-nephew rather than his son, and Arthur being a warlord who is brought in to protect Mordred from warring factions in a fractured Britain that is already broken in two halves over religion (Christianity & the old, Pagan ways). The writing style is good, though - the dialogue is mostly in quite simple language, reflecting the status and/or intelligence of those speaking at any given time, as well as being slightly "Olde Worlde" in places, which sets it firmly in its own time.

Yes, they're all on there & only available online as she's adamant that nobosy should be charged for them, so they're not likely to be put into any books for the forseeable future. If you check the left-hand column on her site & choose the online fiction link, it'll list them all for you. Happy reading!

I just received the last Kelley Armstrong newsletter of 2006 and she'll be doing two online e-fics this year. One will be a graphic novel (Becoming) which will be about Elena's becoming a werewolf (which I suspect will be a lot darker than her other e-fic has been, and a novella (as yet untitled), starring Nick (pack werewolf) in a basic plotline chosen by fans who wanted to see him take the lead for once. There'll also be two novels published in 2007 - No Humans Involved, an Otherworld novel starring the Necromancer, Jaime Vegas, & Exit Strategy, which is a completely new book - nothing to do with the previous novels. All exciting stuff!

Hmm, so the more humorous approach came later then? Interesting...

I've read all of Kelley Armstrong's e-fiction novellas, all of which were serialised, although I came to them rather late and only the last two (El Chupacabra and the last few installments of the collected 2005 short stories) were read in installments. I think this kind of approach would only really appeal to the hard-core fans who would remind themselves to come back for the next bit when it's posted, but as they're all posted in full on the website, they can be read onscreen, or printed off & read, in one go by those who want to, which is what I prefer to do myself. I found that when it was spread out over the whole year, I had to recap by reading the last wee bit of the previous installment to remind myself of where I was up to in the plot, but most of it was retained pretty well in my memory, which is quite an achievement for something I've been reading all year long! In the case of Armstrong, or other authors of whm I'm particularly fond, such as Pratchett, Brookmyre & Scarrow, I would go ahead & read them as they were serialised, but if it were an author I didn't love so much, I'd most likely wait till it was all posted & read it in one go instead.

Ooh, crikey, mrs! I think you've got enough to last you the whole year there! Got some good titles on those lists though - I'll look forward to hearing what you think of them all. Any ideas which one of the multitude will be kicking off your new year?

Perhaps it would have seemed better if you'd read this one first? The Bartemaeous books seem to be very popular. Which was written first, does anyone know off-hand? Was Buried Fire an earlier novel, or was the trilogy written beofre it?

LOL! I'm afraid not. Although she did come & clear out all the old links in my favourites that I didn't visit any more...

Definitely helpful - and interesting! I've read three or four books by Celia Rees and enjoyed them, so I might well look out for this one - thank you!

Who's it by & what's it about, KW? I often read titles aimed at young adults, but I don't recognise this one off the bat.

Title: The Eagle

Title: The Case of El Chupacabra Author: Kelley Armstrong 159 pages (PDF) Format: e-fiction Rating: 7/10 Synopsis: Sean Nast has a dilemma: he's party to a problem that ethically, he can't ignore, but intervening means "outing" himself to his family. He passes the case on to Lucas, who investigates. Review: Each year, Kelley Armstrong embarks on a creative project that will only be available on her website for free, so that anyone can read it at zero cost. In each case, the author has consulted with her fans on a wide range of aspects, from lead characters to basic plot outlines, leading to a work of fiction that involves the fans from start to finish. It

Have just finished my last book of 2006 & I have to say that The Eagle's Prophecy by Simon Scarrow did NOT disappoint! he's one of the few authors that, so far, there's not been one let-down from any of the books I've read & this was the 6th one - I'm very impressed! Now, hoever, I shall write up the last review of the year & close this thread down, tucking it safely away so it can retire & I can start my fresh 2007 thread! And I know exactly which book I will start with in the New Year - the Januray Reading Circle choice - The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell. I will, however, be taking tomorrow off from reading, as, like Liz, I don't like the thoght of carrying a book over (I know, I'm an old silly, but it would feel wrong - I want to start the new year fresh & that means with my reading too!). And so I come to the end of another very good year of reading - let's hope next year's is as good!

I know exactly how you feel, Liz - I've just finished my book & now I'm going to have to take a day off from reading so that I don't carry one over to 2007! What will I do instead??? I'm just pleased I'm not the only one who gets funny about things like that!

Reading that amount of books AND finding tmie to live the rest of your life as well as bringing up kids is amazing - I don't know how you do it! Here's to another year of good reading!

I did have Timelineon my TBR pile, but when my list got ridiculously long (there were more than 100 books at one point) I decided to trim down as there were several books on the list I'd changed my mind about reading by that time & that was one of the ones I just didn't fancy any more. I may well come back to it at a later date, though, as I have heard good things about it & I did enjoy Jurassic Park a lot (enough to read it several times).

I'm not sure what I'd do if I ever got to the end of my TBR list - possibly I'd celebrate by getting hold of some more books - LOL! Thank you for the loan-offer - I'll look forward to reading it. And tomorrow I think I shall set up my 2007 reading log. I should just have enough time to finish my current book before I close off thise year's lot...

Another book will shortly be winging it's way to me - I ordered An Open Vein by J M Warwick this evening, after seeing all the great comments left on the forum about it. I'd already read te synopsis & liked the look of it, but I usually swither about things a lot longer than I did for this - I just couldn't resist! So, that's another one to add to my mountain of books to read - I reckon I've got a lot to look forward to this coming year, seeing as I already have about 60 waiting! I'm looking forward to the challenge!

Aha! That's it! I knew there was something similar! (Shows my memory to be more & more seive-like every day too!).

Yes, I ordered direct through KW's site - dead quick & easy, so i'll be looking forward to getting hold of it - it's going to be pretty near the top of Mount To-Be-Read by the looks of things!