Plum Lucky by Janet Evanovich

Plum Lucky is a between the numbers installment of Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. It takes place after the 13th book. You could probably read it at any point in the story and not be confused. Or skip it altogether and not miss anything. It is shorter than the numbered books, but the basic idea is the same.

In this installment, Grandma Mazur finds a bag of money. Like any respectable senior, she immediately buys an RV and heads to Atlantic City. Stephanie, Lulu, Connie and Diesel follow her. Ranger and Morelli are not in the book at all, except by phone to conveniently be busy. The whole thing takes place in about 3 days. And that pretty much sums it up. It was funny, but not the funniest of the books. I definitely missed the guys. I'm really glad I didn't pay for a hardback copy of it, as slim at it is (Thank you paperbackswap!) In fact, it's not really worth wasting a blog post on, but since I've already typed all this...

Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich

I keep wanting to start this post with "Lean Mean Thirteen is the 13th Stephanie Plum novel." Duh. But since it IS the thirteenth, I am not going to summarize the plot for you. This is a typical Stephanie Plum- cars get destroyed, Ranger is HOT, Grandma Mazur is a pip, and Stephanie wears mascara. Evanovich's novels are always entertaining. They aren't great plots, but they certainly keep you turning pages.

That said, I'm a Ranger girl through and through. Don't get me wrong, Joe is a great guy, but Ranger? Whoa. Babe. My very favorite scenes are the ones with Ranger and Stephanie, followed closely by Ranger and Joe talking about Stephanie. This one certainly provided on that front. I keep trying to cast actors in the roles, and am having a tough time. Who do you think should play Ranger?

Next up is finishing A Fistful of Charms by Kim Harrison. I'm off work this afternoon, so should be able to make a good dent in it.

Paths Not Taken by Simon R Green

Paths Not Taken by Simon R. Green is the 5th Nightside novel. Like the previous ones, the situation is getting more and more unrealistic and unbelievable. In this one, John Taylor is on a quest to find the origins of the Nightside. His powers are growing, as is his ego. This was not my favorite entry in the series plotwise, as it barely advances the story at all. The characters go on such amazing adventures on their way to one tiny clue to the overall story of the series. It's still fun reading, but much like Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books, the story doesn't much go anywhere. In fact, I'd compare them in a lot of ways- quick easy reads, insanely unbelievable details, a very slowly advancing plot, and lots of fun.

I started reading A Thousand Splendid Suns last night and so far am loving it.

It's Friday, it's Friday!

It's finally Friday. It's been a very very long week at work, and today had promise of being super-sucky. So it was with mixed feelings that I had to call in sick (ok, call in late) to work with a sick child. Really! His fever was at 103 and there were disgusting things happening. So I'm home this morning and my husband will be home with the monkey this afternoon. And the monkey? Thrilled to be home with mom.

Here's a few little bits of stuff, none of which is quite enough for a full post.

First, do you watch American Idol? Have you been to Television without Pity to read the recaps? I about died laughing at the recaplet of this weeks results show. I can't wait for the full one.

A few weeks ago Michelle at 3M pointed out that I have all the ingredients to complete the Reading Through the Decades Challenge without adding any more books! So I'm headed over now to officially sign up.

And speaking of 3M, a month ago (or more, who can keep track of time any more?) she nominated me for the Thinking Blogger Award. This is an "award" that you give to 5 people whose blogs make you think. Then you link back to the originator of the award with a nice looking icon. I LOVE the idea of this, that you're singling out some blogs that you love, and in turn those people acknowledge 5 more. Here's the catch though- every time someone goes back to the originator he gets clicks, and his site has advertising. I am a bit cynical, and well, to me it seems a little bit like a very well thought out way to get thousands and thousands of visitors to click on your site. I am torn though, as I am honestly thrilled that I made someone's list. I want to continue it, I want to list five people that make me think, that I enjoy, but I don't want to link back. So I'm not. Here's my five blogs:

1. Mary Elizabeth William's neighborhood
2. Journeywoman
3. Maggie Reads
4. Random Musings
5. one plus two

And speaking of Maggie Reads, I still need to pick my choices for the Southern Reading Challenge- I had intended to do that now when I started this post, but got drawn into all the choices. The challenge doesn't start until June 1st, so I'll come back to it later.

Next, a friend emailed me a link to StandingWomen.org today. You can follow that link to read more of the background, but here the action part:

Please stand with us for five minutes of silence at 1 p.m. your local time on May 13, 2007, in your local park, school yard, gathering place, or any place you deem appropriate, to signify your agreement with the statement below. We ask you to invite the men who you care about to join you. We ask that you bring bells to ring at 1 p.m. to signify the beginning of the five minutes of silence and to ring again to signify the end of the period of silence. During the silence, please think about what you individually and we collectively can do to attain this world. If you need to sit rather than stand, please feel free to do so. Afterwards, hopefully you and your loved ones can talk together about how we can bring about this world.

If you are in Rapid City, South Dakota (as I am) the stand-in (stand-off? moment of silence? big event? bell ringing?) will take place at the Memorial Park Rose Garden by the Civic Center. This is on a Sunday, Mother's Day.

The only book I've completed lately was Plum Lovin' by Janet Evanovich. It was very short, and very typical Stephanie Plum. I did enjoy the book, but Morelli and Ranger were both absent, so it was not a favorite. I am glad that I did not pay for it (I got it from paperbackswap and have already mailed it on!)

This weekend will either be crazy busy with family stuff, including at least 8 hours in the car, or crazy sucky with a sick baby. Either way, I'm hoping for lots of reading time. I'm 30 pages from the end of my current book, and have big plans for others.