Amazon discontinued the ability to create images using their SiteStripe feature and in their infinite wisdom broke all previously created images on 12/31/23. Many blogs used this feature, including this one. Expect my archives to be a hot mess of broken book cover images until I can slowly comb through 20 years of archives to make corrections.

Friday, August 29, 2014

Status Update: Lemon Drop And The Case Of Too Many Books

So I haven't blogged in over a week and I'm several months behind now in my "monthly recap" posts.

Oh look!  Here's a recent photo of Lemon Drop!

Suitably distracted by the cuteness?  OK, good.  Mission accomplished.

This photo was taken post-RWA when I made a quick weekend jaunt to Casa de Lemon Drop (oh, and Lil' Sis) to help them out with some projects.  Lemon Drop decided she wanted to see how the world looked through Auntie Wendy's glasses.

The answer is: blurry.  Very, very blurry.  Auntie Wendy is darn near blind without prescription help.

So what's been going on to keep me away from blogging?  Mostly Real Life stuff.  Nothing "bad" - just been really busy.  And on top of the Real Life busy-ness, I'm in the throes of Contest Reading.

Yep, I'm doing contest judging again.  Which means getting nine books read before the end of September.  The good news is that I'm making progress.  I started book #6 today.  The bad news?  Well, anyone who has judged writing contests will surely know.  So far the books have ranged from Unreadable (In My Opinion) to This Is OK to OMGWTFBBQ Plot Is This?! But Hey, The Author Can Write So This Is Readable Even If It Is OMGWTFBBQ Plot.

It's reminding me a lot of how I judged this same contest last year.  There were several books that made me Wendy Mad Wendy Smash angry - but down the stretch I found some Very Good Reads.  And the books I still have to go through do look very promising.  So there is hope.

I'm also painfully, dreadfully behind on review books.  And I'm checking out books via work that I've stumbled across that sound really good.  Because, you know, I need more to read.  Blessedly it's a holiday weekend here in the States and my Tigers are slowly falling off the cliff.  So maybe I won't spend the whole weekend watching baseball after all and actually get some reading done.

There's hope anyway.

So, what's everybody up to this weekend?  And are you reading anything good?  Because, you know, I need more to read.....

13 comments:

Unknown said...

I am reading the new Jill Shalvis and just checked out the new Julie Garwood from the library.

I will be watching baseball as my Brewers are a game a half ahead of the Cardinals!

willaful said...

I am so painfully behind... I don't have any ARCS coming out in September, so maybe, just maybe, I can catch up with August. *groan*

Marguerite Kaye said...

I'm taking the weekend off to recuperate from mammoth write-in of the the-book-that-refuses-to-end. So there will be cooking and eating and drinking, and I'm reading Courtney Milan's The Suffragette Scandal, which I'm totally loving.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, I'm currently disposing of a couple of books I had to read which I was pretty sure were going to be a bit lacklustre. I wasn't wrong :(

I regard it as doing penance for the very enjoyable Grace Burrowes Binge I had while I was on holiday...

PK the Bookeemonster said...

I finished the new Louise Penny, THE LONG WAY HOME. Very good. In the middle of RED MARS by Kim Stanley Robinson.

Wendy said...

Tracy: My Tigers are hanging on by their claws - but just barely. Kansas City leads the division and Cleveland is right there. And there's my team stumbling along - pitchers dropping like flies and Miggy hobbling around on a bad ankle. Sigh.

Wendy said...

Willaful: I refuse to disclose how behind I am. It's embarrassing.

Wendy said...

Marguerite: We had a long weekend here in the States and yes - there was much cooking of real meals. This from a girl who, uh, is a barely serviceable cook.

Wendy said...

Bookish: I'm currently experiencing a drought of Books That Knock My Socks Off. So far the best of my contest reading as been the paranormal! This from a girl who has a hard time with that sub genre. I've got the historical and the contemporary to go and then finite! Back to the e-reader loaded with ARCs.

Wendy said...

PK: Ooooh, Louise Penny! You know, she's one I've been meaning to try and haven't gotten around to yet. I'm back to binging on audiobooks, I'll need to see what we have of hers at work.....

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I've actually not had too bad a run recently - but I'm paying for it now!

PK the Bookeemonster said...

Louise Penny, IMHO, writes beautifully. She paints pictures with her words. I am a fairly fast reader but for her I pretty much read every word. Definitely read the books in order ... there are emotional storylines that cross over to the next books a little later in the series.

Wendy said...

PK: I'm now on the wait list at work for the first book on audio. I love listening to mysteries and it's always great when I can get plugged into a new series! Thanks for the rec!