Last Lecture

Last Lecture
Author: Randy Pausch

Being that it seems everyone has read this book since Oprah mentioned it on her show, so a quick run down if you have been living in a cave for a year or two...Randy Pausch is dying and he gives a "Last Lecture" to the college that he was a professor at.  He reflects on the lessons he has learned in life and his advise on how to achieve your childhood dreams.

Good book, very insightful and full of good advise.  It is kind of sad throughout the book, not because of what Randy writes, but it's overshadowed by the fact that this person is only going to live 3-6 more months and you really want this guy to live and spread the good advise for years to come.  I highly recommend this book.  What I don't recommend is getting toward the end of the book and reading it on the elliptical machine.  It is extremely difficult to read, cry, sweat, and try not to fall off on the machine.  I call that "extreme multitasking!"

Christina Dodd-Darkness Chosen Series

Christina Dodd-Darkness Chosen (Four Book Series)
Scent of Darkness
Touch of Darkness
Into the Shadow
Into the Flame

Basic premise of this series is that a thousand years ago the devil and a really bad guy made a deal that the bad guy and his desendence would do the devil's dirty work in exchange for the ability to change into a preditory animal, produce only males, have fast healing abilities, and long lives.  To seal the deal, the really bad guy took the family icon and killed is mother.  The desendents were evil and therefore would rape, pilage, assasinate for hire, and never marry (the heartless fiends), until one of them did and it shook the foundations of the pact.  In order to break the pact, the one that married's family must find the icon that was scattered throughout the earth...and fall in love apparently.

There is some predictable "he only loves me because I can save him and fate dictates that he must love me..." but overall it has 4 good books that I am glad that I have read.  It had a strong backstory/history and some good romance.  These books are really good.  It was a little difficult to get into the series at first, but after that, I read the series back to back.

I look forward to reading her spin off series called The Chosen.

Skin Trade

Skin Trade
By: Laurell K Hamilton
560 Pages
Anita Blake Series (Book 17)

Skin Trade is the 17th Book in the Anita Blake series.  This book places Anita in Las Vegas to battle a vampire beasty that has killed a preternatural SWAT team and sent the head of one of the fallen SWAT members to Anita personally.  There is not much involvement from many of the stars of the Anita series, which is almost refreshing, but also a little disappointing all at the same time.  The latest installment did not have as much risque sections as some of the later books in the Anita Blake series has included.  Skin Trade has more of the mystery and suspense that first endeared me to the series a few years ago and lacks the scene after scene of sexual situations that Anita just happens to be placed in and must "endure" to survive.

Good:  Brings back the "old" Anita Blake feel and removes many of the erotic situations that were distracting in the previous few installments of the series

Bad:  Every page found Anita trying to analyze whether certain actions would be considered weak or submissive to those around her...I think she is thinking too hard sometimes about whether she seems weak around people instead of impressing people with here knowledge of all thing preternatural and finding out where the vampire beasty is and what he wants with Anita.

Book 17 has hints of the old Anita Blake in it and I hope that Laurell K Hamilton is getting back to her roots that the first books in this series embraced and made me fall in love with all of the characters and plots.