The shame of not blogging, oh, the shame!

OK, here's how it is. On April 28th, I interviewed for a new job. On April 30th, I left for a 2 week trip to Central Europe. On May 8th, I received a job offer. On May 12th, I counteroffered. May 15th, I received a response to my counter, and accepted the job offer. May 27th was my last day at my job at Google (contract position), and June 2nd was the first day of my new job at San Francisco State University. I've been manically training ever since. Oh, and, another minor life event: in early April, my boyfriend and I set a date to get married, September 27th! During this whole process, I was also making reservations, looking for a dress, etc. etc.

So....no excuse is good enough to excuse letting my blog lag, but if an excuse were an excuse, then I'd have a doozy!

In the time since my last post, I must have read 50+ books. Most were crud, but a few wer better than others. Here's a list of those that I remember, in a vaguely chronological order:

• A Feast for Crows by George RR Martin - excellent! much better than A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords. I was ready to give up on this series, but now am onboard for the next couple of books.
• Lonely Planet Budapest - horrible! The worst LP ever. So much was out of date that the guide was useless. I spent half an hour looking for a vegetarian restaurant that had moved locations five years ago.
  
• This Charming Man by Marian Keyes - great book to read on a plane! It was engaging enough to keep me occupied for a long long time. Unfortunately, I now barely remember the plot. It was an physically abusive politician and an assortment of his exes. I love Irish chick lit.
• S.M. Stirling's Dies the Fire Trilogy and the 1st book, The Sunrise Lands, in his new tetralogy (of the same name). Trilogy included: Dies the Fire (great), The Protector's War (great), and A Meeting at Corvallis (great). Of course, those 4 books combines are a good 3-4000 pages of writing. This series is a major time commitment, but I LOVE post-apocalyptic literature, so the time was well-spent. The whole RenFaire vibe gets a little implausible at times. Basically, just keep in mind that these series, especially the first one, are just wish-fulfillment fantasies by a guy that you or I would consider to be a gigantic dork in real life. Go with it!
• The Right to Arm Bears by Gordon Dickson - an excellent collection of three novelettes about Dilbians, a race of giant alien bears whose frontier society poses problems for humans. It is wonderful! I've known and loved the first few books of the Dorsai! series for over a decade, but I never knew that Gordon Dickson also wrote such engaging, humorous fiction as well. I highly recommend it.
• Mindspan by Gordon Dickson - a great collection of short stories about humankind's interaction with other races. My favorite was the Midwestern old maid who, when given superpowers, decides not to reveal them, because they aren't ladylike.
• Dragon Bones and Dragon Blood (The Hurog Duology) by Patricia Briggs - both books were a really fast ready. Formulaic coming of age in fantasy setting, but sometimes, I want to formula! It has been popular enough to become a formula for a reason.
• Magic Burns & Magic Bites by Kate Daniels - excellent! I picked up the 2nd book in the series, Magic Burns, loved it, and had to reread the first book, Magic Bites, just to be sure that I remembered everything. It is rare to encounter such a fleshed out, original world and cast of characters in such a small paperback. The trend is toward 1000 page doorstoppers, so Kate Daniels' books look lightweight by comparison, but there is nothing lightweight about her plot. I love love love this series.
• Vanish, The Mephisto Club and The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen - Vanish was really good. It made me pick up The Mephisto Club which kind of sucked and then The Bone Garden which really really sucked. It is painful when an successful genre author gets tired of his/her formula and tries to branch out. In the case of The Bone Garden, Ms. Gerritsen indulged her desire to write historical fiction rather than contemporary medical mystery novels; the result was not good.
• Many others that I can't even remember.
  

The leaf has turned! I am recommitting my life to blogging as of today!