Monday Musings

This week's Monday Musings prompt:

What are you reading right now?
Why are you reading what your reading? For pleasure? For review? Something else?
What did you most recently finish reading?
What do you think you'll be reading next?
What was the best book you read this month and why?
What was the worst book you read this month and why?

I'm currently reading Dark Curse : A Carpathian Novel by Christine Feehan (as you read this, you will notice all the vampire themes). This is the 16th book in this long running series and I never get tired of reading them. This book is totally for pleasure.











This weekend I finished reading the first 3 books in the Casa Dracula series by Marta Acosta. This is a wonderful new take on the vampire genre, with a feisty Latino woman as the heroine. These books are spicy hot and hilariously funny and I'm eagerly awaiting the 4th installment.







Also this weekend, I read a wonderful new children's book, The Dragon in the Sock Drawer by Kate Klimo. This will be the first book in a new series called The Dragon Keepers. It's kind of like Harry Potter meets the computer age and it provided me with a few hours of unadulterated fun reading.


I'm also reading The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas for my on-line book club. The story is very good (and there's a lot of it at 14500 pages!), but I'm having trouble with the Ye Ole English. This is the main reason I'm reading Dark Curse at the same time - to give my brain a rest.

I will be starting a re-read of The Coal Tatoo by Silas House for my October face-to-face book club. This book is a joy and pleasure to re-read.

This month, I started a new feature on my book review blog, Way Back Wednesday, and I'm going to be re-reading and reviewing books from my past. I have started with the first 2 Trixie Belden Mysteries - The Secret Mansion and the Red Trailer Mystery. These were my favorite books when I was a young girl.


This month, I also read the first 2 books in the House of Night series by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast - Marked and Betrayed. This is another fairly new vampire series for young adults and I thoroughly enjoyed reading the ups and downs of these teenage "vampires in training." I'm currently on the library waiting list for the next 2 books in this series.






Probably the best book I've read this month has been The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. Believe it or not, I read this book 3 weeks before Oprah announced it as her new Book Club book! It is a spectacular story of survival and revenge. This is the first book by Mr. Wroblewski, but I'm eagerly awaiting his next novel.


My least favorite book I've read this month is The Fifth Dimension by Rory Macaraeg. This was a book I did for a review, and although the story was okay, it was written by a novice and you could tell. The language and the dialog were faultering and hesitant, and many times I had to read the same passage over and over again to understand the meaning.