I have not updated my reading list in a long time. Mostly because I haven’t finished a book in a long time. Long for me. I took almost a month to finish one book. With a sick kid forcing me to spend hours on the couch this week, pretending to be a cushion for him to sleep on, I’ve managed to finish a second.

Courting Miss Adelaide by Janet Dean. This is a Harlequin Love Inspired romance. Talk about a sub-genre that I normally avoid. I don’t read much (any) “category” romance (i.e. the monthly Harlequins that the grocery store carries). And I don’t read inspirational Christian. I am Christian, yes, but not the bible-thumping “the answer to everything is in the Scriptures” type. Actually, I’m Catholic, which is not considered “Christian” as far as Christian publishing is concerned. Anywho. Not to say that this book was bad. It was very enjoyable, actually. And the inspirational part wasn’t terribly heavy-handed or I might have never finished it. I do admit that the main reason I read it is because it is set in Noblesville, IN in the late 1800’s—which is about 15 minutes away from where I grew up.

Mr. Cavendish, I Presume by Juila Quinn. This is the follow up to The Lost Duke of Wyndham. I’d never read Julia Quinn before The Lost Duke, but I will gladly seek her out again. Warning, that this book does not really stand on its own without The Lost Duke. I’d have been lost, or a little bored, without having read the first book. There are too many references, many shared scenes, and a whole lot of context that you’d miss. I would almost say that the two should have been one single volume. But the shared scenes are re-told in a different viewpoint, and I think the story would be missing something without the multiple views. And, of course, there seems to be a huge push in Romance and in publishing in general to get away from longer novels. Sad, really, as I really miss some of the 600+ page historicals I used to read in high school. But then, no one asked my opinion.

Sometime by the end of the year, I want to make an accounting of both the non-fiction books that I've read (or mostly read), and of a couple of fiction books that I've started and never finished this year. I have a couple of anthologies of novellas that I've only read parts of, and at least one book that I abandoned altogether (yes, it was that annoying...and I have its two follow-up books in pristine condition...Ebay here I come)

In the mean time, here's the running totals (both of the books this time went into my "historical" category).

General Fiction - 8
Contemporary Romance - 10
Sci Fi/Fantasy - 5
Historical Romance - 8
Women's Lit (Chick Lit) - 3
Total 34 books