Count at end of January

1. Blood and Chocolate, Annette Curtis Klause (a little disappointing but a good read)
2. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (went roaring off and was loving it, came back the next night and finished it but was a little let down and began to find the injection of magic predictable and wondered why not just do a great, straight novel, a la Barbara Kingsolver. In terms of magical realism, Gabriel Garcia Marquez she ain't.)
3. The End, Lemony Snickett

Now reading: The Golden Bough (p. 168, Diana/Artemis fertility cults)
The Ice Queen, Alice Hoffman (in this one the magic is more deeply embedded in real, if unusual, reality. Liking it.)
The Night Journal by Elizabeth Crook (starting off good, but the MC is annoyingly passive. I hope she starts to kick some ass.)
In the wings: Looking For Alaska by John Green (which I'm really looking forward to)

Books, books, books

First finished book of the year is The End, by Lemony Snickett. I have been dreadfully tired of LS for years now, really since The Ersatz Elevator. But I valiantly have read (and bought) every book and kind of hoped for something at the end of The End. Spoiler: There was nothing at the end but a new beginning. Damn him! After all this time, no big reveals except Olaf kissing Kit, and a lot of graves and Great Unknowns. J. K. Rowling better not pull this shit.
However, thanks to all the speculation about who Miss Snark is I have discovered Alice Hoffman. (Early speculation was that AH’s agent, Elaine Markson, was the divine Miss S. Now heavy money seems to be on Jet Reid.) Anyway, I may have a new love. Alice Hoffman writes lovely books like the movies Moonstruck and Mermaids. I am reading Practical Magic.
Still reading The Golden Bough, p. 145 and creeping ahead. I’m in the tree gods now. I can totally accept that spirits hang in trees. This makes me a rude savage, according to Frazer, but what can I say?

What I Read Last Year

Got this idea from 100 Books in 2007 by the owner of Park Road Books, in Charlotte, N.C. So he lists what he read in '06. I thought I'd see what I can remember that I read. I may keep adding to this as I remember things I read earlier last year.
Right now I am reading Thirteen Moons, along with The Golden Bough (i'm on p. 80).

Key: * are for ones I reread with great regularity; + are ones I couldn't finish, red text are highly recommended by moi

1. The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield
2. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: The Pox Party, MT Anderston
3. My Cousin Rachel * Daphne Du Maurier
4. Phineas Finn * Anthony Trollope
5. The American Senator * Anthony Trollope
6. Chronicles, Vol. 1, Bob Dylan
7. Eiger Dreams, Jon Krakauer
8. Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
9. Hoot + Carl Hiassena
10. Paint it Black Janet Fitch
11. Crown of Stars Kate Elliott
12. The City of Ember, Jeanne Duprau
13. The People of Sparks, Jeanne Duprau
14. The Prophet of Yonwood, Jeanne Duprau
15. Magician: Apprentice* Raymond Feist
16. Magician: Master*Raymond Feist
17. Silverthorn* Raymond Feist
18. Darkness at Sethanon* Raymond Feist
19. King's Buckaneer Raymond Feist
20. Ptolemy's Gate, Jonathan Stroud
21. The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch, Joseph Delaney
22. The Last Apprentice: Curse of the Bane, Joseph Delaney
23. Peter and the Shadow Thieves Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson
24. Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
25. On Beauty Zadie Smith +
26. Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky
27. Inkspell, Cornelia Funke
28. Phineas Redux, Anthony Trollope*
29. My Sister's Wedding, Hannah Goodman
30. The Gold Falcon, Katherine Kerr
31. The Rise and Fall of the Mind, Michael Cook
32. A Double Affair, Angela Thirkell
33. Enter Sir Robert, Angela Thirkell
34. The Curious Demise of a Contrary Cat, Lynne Berry
35. The Old Bank House, Angela Thirkell*
36. The Brandons, Angela Thirkell
37. Private Enterprise, Angela Thirkell
38. The Lives of Girls and Women, Alice Munro
39. Tour du Mont Blanc, Kev Reynolds
40. Beyond the Cayenne Wall, Shaila M Abdullah

A New Year

I just wanted to post something here to clear the clock for 2007. I threw the I Ching on New Year's Eve and got a very positive reading, best I've ever had. I will therefore assume that this is going to be a very good year. Why not? Self-fullfilling prophecies can be good, can't they? Visualization is powerful, isn't it?
I am reading The Golden Bough, and continuing the Gothic theme begun with Octavian Nothing and continued in The Thirteenth Tale, I am now re-reading My Cousin Rachel. I have to try to find Frenchman's Creek. It's the only DDM I haven't read. And curiously, the My Cousin Rachel MC Philip's older cousin who raised him is named Ambrose, a name from The Thirteenth Tale, which has so many Gothic novel quotes and references it really gets in the way.
I am plugging away at my two novels-in-progress and the romantic comedy collaboration with great enjoyment. I don't think at any point in my life I have enjoyed the entire writing process as much as I do now. My goal for the year is to get a traditional publishing contract, which I suspect will mean first getting an agent. But I feel pretty good about my actual work and that's really all that's within my control.