Books That I've Been Reading From the TV

I will admit that I do not like to read books that have anything to do with my job.  I also do not like to watch television shows or movies about schools.  As far as I am concerned, I am off the clock, and I'll think about work when I am back.  I suppose it is the equivalent of a doctor reading a novel about doctors.  I don't imagine surgeons reading about other surgeon's surgeries as written by Michael Crichton.  One needs a break and I will not apologize for it. I read and enjoy my forays in to other worlds that are not school-related, and everyone is much happier for it.

So I like to read silly books, supernatural cooks, mystery books, and even books about The Gray Man, a mercenary who saves the world and gets paid very well to do so.  I first became aware of Mark Greaney when his novel became a movie on Netflix or Amazon, and then I found out there were a series of books. Heaven!  I love series, because then I get to spend extra time with the characters I love and hate.  I read the first book of a Game of Thrones and was so angry I actually threw the book down and did not pick it up again until my husband mentioned it.  I am also reading books from Department Q, which was a Netflix show that my husband and I watched all of the episodes in two days. When old folks are willing to sit for long periods of time and deal with stiff bones and popping joints, it must be a good show.  And if you enjoy mysteries with a comedic vibe, you will adore Carl, the main character.  

I've enjoyed all of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, by J.R. Ward.  The Anita Blake series has also been distracting, although I wish that she talked about guns less.  It's not the guns, its the pages and pages of guns and knives, etc., but the main character is admirable and I like her tough approach to her world, which involves raising the dead.  Charlaine Harris had had a few books that were interesting as ell, like the True Blood series.

So a good mix of fun and mystery to calm me down at the end of the day and let me have a little fun while I unwind.  There is nothing wrong with that.  When need to stop being Judgy McJudgerson when I comes to books, and just let others read what they want.  Let us be.  Banning books is stupid, and it makes the person who is told to pull the books look like a complete butt.  On the other hand, it feels good these days, to be a little subversice/ 

100 Words: Search

I've always been an explorer. Not the traditional kind. I don't have the energy or attention span for that.  My explorations involve the search for knowledge.

Back before the internet that search was intimidating. No Google, no Siri.  It was all about going to the library and hitting the books until you found what you were looking for.  My first attempt at searching for answers involved Gray's Anatomy. I was only five, but I was fascinated by the heavy tome.  Here were the answers to questions I hadn't even thought of yet! 

It was love by the first page turn.



Go check out Tara's Thin Spiral Notebook, to check out the 100 Word Challenge.  Join in!  

Bookworm

Thoughts, symbols, pictures, words
Quickly flow past my dim sight
Into my narrow brain.
Ideas flood every cell,
Seducing, cajoling, persuading
And worm the darkest ignorance out of me
With each blessed page.



The prompt is the third definition of WORM.

Confessions of a Nerd

Hi, my name is Tina and I am a nerd.

I have been a nerd as long as I can remember.  I've always been a bit eccentric and off in my own world.  The first book that I ever wanted to read, when I was five, was Gray's Anatomy.  I had a habit of bursting into song at random intervals during second grade...which gave my teachers fits. I often got lost in museums, not because I wandered off, but because my parents kept forgetting that I liked to read all the little placards underneath each exhibit.

When other kids were outside playing, I was in my room, stalking the dark underbelly of Gotham City with Neal Adams' Batman.  To this day I would argue that the Joker is the biggest villain in literature, Tolkien be darned.  My parents could never buy enough books for me;  within hours after we left the bookstore with a bag of comics and the latest Hardy Boys novel, I had finished them all.  Books are like old friends, with personalities all their own. I remember most of the books I've read, and treasure the books I've read more than once.  I read for fun, but I also read to learn.  If there's something that I want to know about, the first thing I do is buy a book about it, even before I consult the Google.  As a result, I have more books than our local library.  In fact, our formal dining room was converted to a library, with floor to ceiling bookshelves, and there are still boxes of books waiting to be freed from captivity.   

 I've loved words my entire life, the bigger, the better.  And I'm not afraid to use those big words in conversation, either.  If this means that nobody knows what the heck I am talking about, that's okay.
I will giggle at innocent plays on words, and I won't care a bit that nobody gets the joke but me. If I am asked a question, I have a bad habit of overexplaining and elaborating, and often I bore others to death without really intending it.   I have 7, 642 pens.  Most of them are in the very bottom of my purse.  All of them write perfectly, and I use them often, preferring to write ideas on paper than to type them into my smart phone.  I have a habit of collecting blank journals to fill with my ideas. 

I am an introvert, preferring quiet solitude to the noise of parties.  Large groups of people drain my batteries.  I am socially awkward, but I have been known to attend social events by myself and enjoy them.

Do not confuse me with a geek.  I do not have any singularly obsessive interests; I am interested in everything and everyone.  I have the minimum technical skills needed to navigate a computer, but not much else.  I have never memorized entire screenplays, but I do enjoy reciting humorous dialogue from them.  I do not know which specific scenes in the X-files contain an appearance by the Smoking Man, but I know that he was really creepy.  I have no idea what the blood used to film scenes in The Walking Dead is made of; I just know that it looks really cool.  My husband is the geek; he can recite pages from Tolkien, can tell you the family lineage of every single character in the LOTR Trilogy, and can tell you which authors were directly influenced by Tolkien and how. 

My name is Tina, and I am a nerd.




3.) Hi, my name is ______ and I am a _______.

Randomly Throwing It Out

Is that not the very cutest?  I was so lucky to get this guy in my Christmas stocking! If I had opened ONE more cowgirl Lego mini-figure, somebody was going to get a punch in the arm.  But I'm happy with a Shakespeare mini-figure.  I guess that the skull Lego is Yorrick.  Makes me want to go dig out my Shakespeare for some reading.  Did you know that there's a series of books called "No Fear" Shakespeare?   They have the original text on one side, with a simpler translation on the other page.  I think that having those particular books around would have made Shakespeare much more enjoyable in high school.   

Source: amazon.com via Tina on Pinterest

We will probably be scheduling a time to meet with Zane's teacher this month.  It seemed as though they were conducting some sort of review of his skills during December, based on what he brought home.  I would certainly like to hear how he is doing, if only to compare it to my own observations.  For instance, I know that Zane knows all of his letters, and that he is working on the sounds.  He has one-to-one correspondence, understands words such as "more" or "less".  But we will see what the teacher says.  I may blog about that later.  (Occupational hazard--every experience is a potential blog post!)


After all of that holiday food, it's time to diet. I used some of my Christmas money to purchase something that I hope will be useful/helpful. 

Source: amazon.com via Tina on Pinterest

I have read a number of books by this author, including Eat This/Not That!  I found that series to be informative and helpful.  Most diet books are not very helpful, I have found, but I am hopeful that this one will meet my expectations.  I will let you know. 

I was very lucky to get the blu ray television series Justified in my stocking.  It's a series on FX, based on an Elmore Leonard short story, about a guy who works as a U.S. Marshal.  As soon as I heard that Elmore Leonard was involved, I was intrigued.  Once I heard that Timothy Olyphant was involved, I was sold.  He is awesome.  I watched the first episode, and was eager for more.  But as a parent, you have to watch what your child is exposed to, and Larry and I did not feel that show was appropriate for our son.  And the time slot for Justified is in that nebulous hour where the house is shutting down for the night, and we often missed the show, and after awhile, we just stopped trying. So I was happy to find the blu ray under the tree.  Larry and I watched all the episodes and went out and got the second season.  I can't wait to watch it!

One of the items I received in my VoxBox from Influenster was the Montagne Jeuness Face Mask, sent to me for review.  I immediately had to try it.  I wasn't really sure why I had to wash my face before I put it on, but I followed the directions:

So, if I dye my hair purple and throw on some lipstick, would I look like the Joker?

I waited the 15 minutes recommended, and then I went to work trying to get the mask off.   I wet the stuff with a washcloth, then began to rub.  And rub.  And rub.  By the time I got all of it off, my face was very red from all the rubbing, even though I kept hitting it with water.  In retrospect, I probably would rinse off this mask in the shower, where I could have just held my face under the water.  It's been awhile since I tried using a clay-type mask.  It could be that my skin is more crochety than it used to be.  Would I buy this again?  Perhaps.  I don't think that I will buy this face mask again, but I would consider purchasing one of the other products.  I also think that I should learn more about writing product reviews--they are hard!

I will end my random with my scary mug.  I'll be visiting Stacy over at Stacy's Uncorked.  Go check her out!

Random Housekeeping

Zane had his first "Red" mark in his behavior folder this past week.  Having read all the parenting books(okay, I read all the damn books, but Larry sat next to me while I read them. That counts, right?), we decided to discuss Zane's behavior with him. Turns out that Zane's natural exuberance made him run in the classroom, and he did not want to stop running when the teacher asked him to stop.  So he kept on running, and was given a red mark in his behavior folder.  After speaking to Zane about why running is not always the thing to do, I tried to wrap things up.

Me:  Zane, you need to do what your teacher says the first time she says it.
Zane: Yeah, that's not going to work for me, Mom.
Me: ---

I was speechless, but only because I was attempting not to guffaw.   It is really difficult to be stern and parental when you're cracking up.  Larry actually snorted. Then he had to text all of our relatives about it, so they could laugh for us. Or at us.  I've never really been sure. 

 In case you've not heard, the above book makes Fifty Shades of Gray seem extremely vanilla.  I purchased this particular book back when I was in college, and I certainly did NOT find it at Target.   In fact, I think that I had to put on a wig, trenchcoat, and sunglasses and head for a particular adult bookstore on Sixth Street in Austin.  It was totally worth it, but I certainly never expected to find this same book on the shelf at Target for 20% off.  The times sure have changed--next thing you know, Debby Does Dallas will appear on an endcap at Walmart. If that does happen, I hope that Zane is long past the "Fun with Phonics" stage of reading development.

 When you say the title out loud, it totally sounds like a porno, right?

I am seriously considering hiring a handyman.  There are several "jobs" that need to be taken care of  around the house.  Simple jobs, really.  I could probably do some of them.  Every time I've mentioned it, however, Larry says that he will do them.  Which would be fine, except that it's been over a year or more.  My husband has good intentions, but he is easily distracted, and lately he's been all wrapped up in the world of recreational soccer.  I don't want to be a nagging wife.  I am pretty sure that I can do some of these jobs, like recaulking the bathtub. The only reason that I haven't hired someone to come over and take care of all these little jobs is because my house is a complete mess.  I am embarrassed about that, but really, should that be all my fault?  I certainly try to pick up after everyone, but I am only one person, and there's three of us making the mess.  I am kind of outnumbered!  I would eventually like to hire a person to come in and clean once a month, but we have a few more bills to pay off first.  I think that that would take pressure off of me, and would probably eliminate at least a couple of the things that Larry and I fight about. 

I'm visiting Stacy today, who is over at Stacy Uncorked. Join us!

The A-List: Summer Reading, Part Two

The coolest thing about owning a Kindle is that I can order up samples of books for free.  This lets me get a "taste" of what the book is about before I plop down the cash.  If I don't like what I read, then I can just delete the sample and move along. One way I have been using the samples offered is to help me remember which books that I do want to read, even if I don't have time to read them right now.  I used to have good intentions, and would tell myself that I would come back to buy a particular book.  Then that promise would completely leave my head the second that I left the bookstore.  My Kindle has taken care of that little memory problem for me. 

More of what I've read this summer falls below.  I am on a mission this summer, to get lost in as many books as I can, so I have something to think about when I'm back at work and "too busy".  I know--you're never too busy to read--adding work to the mix seems to limit the free time that I enjoy each summer, especially since Zane will be starting Pre-K at a new school.  (Okay, so I'm reading more so I don't have to think about that, too.)

1.  Stolen Prey   Lucas Davenport is one of the great detectives, in my opinion.  He's practical with a little dash of idealism thrown in there.  He's smart and was able to get rich writing video game scenarios.  He's a hero, except when he's not.  I've read all of the "Prey" books, and they never fail to thrill me. These are great beach reads!  John Sandford bases most of his tales in Minnesota and the surrounding states; I had no idea that such a sleepy sounding part of the world was such a seething hotbed of intrigue.  This particular adventure involves the Mexican drug trade and a mugging.  I love the comfortable dialogue that seems to flow between the characters.  There always seems to be a witty comeback or a sarcastic remark that fits so well that you can just picture these characters actually having those conversations.  Nothing sounds forced or just inserted for a laugh.  I admire that in a writer, and I sure do enjoy it.

Source: amazon.com via Tina on Pinterest

2.  Reading in the Brain  I always have to complete some continuing education credits during the summer, and this book is one of my classes.  (The other 42 hours have been all about autism, in case you're curious.)  The act of reading fascinates me.  It is an extremely complex act that many of us end up able to do automatically.  In a lot of ways we seem to start learning to read the second we are born!  This book is all about the "brainy" side of reading, what parts of the brain are active, and what is actually happening.  It's probably not something that is in the least bit exciting to anyone not interested in education, but I would recommend this to anyone who has a child who is struggling with reading.  If nothing else, it might offer a bit of perspective.

3.  The Darkest Seduction  So sue me, I'm a bit of a romantic.  This book is part of the Lords of the Underworld Series by Gena Showalter.  The premise is that when Pandora's Box was opened by soldiers of Zeus who were jealous of Pandora, Zeus punished them by placing one of the demons imprisoned in the box into each soldier. Each book is the story of a different man and his demon.  This current story has Paris, the Keeper of Promiscuity, and his attempts to reunite with his True Love, who just so happens to have been stuck with the demon Wrath.   The paranormal parts of the book do not detract in the least from the love story.  I like that the heroines in Showalter's books are not fragile flowers who are helpless until the hero rescues them.  These women are downright feisty.  Good beach read.

Source: amazon.com via Tina on Pinterest

4.  Lover Reborn  J.R.Ward's series involves vampires.  Not the sparkly kind.  The Warrior kind, with the big burly chests and lots of leather.  Lots and lots of leather.  These vampires are a separate race from humans.  They don't like to feed off of humans, either, although they will if they have to.  There's an entire aristocracy in the vampire world, and they are guarded by the Black Dagger Brotherhood, which are the big burly guys who wear the leather.  The vamps in this universe mate for life, when they find the One.  Except that the protagonist of Lover Reborn is recovering from the death of his "One".  He doesn't want to let his dead wife go, and clings to her memory so fiercely that he is preventing her from entering heaven.  It's up to an angel to help him let go and move on to a new life, and new love.  It's a love story from a little different angle, I think.  Still a love story!

5.  It's Not You, It's the Dishes  I am in the middle of this book now.  I picked this up because of my undying hatred of doing the dishes.  I do most of the cooking in our house, and in my mind, that means that my husband should be taking care of the clean up.  Except that he doesn't.  It's not that he thinks that cleaning is women's work.  He probably just gets distracted by something and forgets about it.  He's not really different from most guys, who likely don't think about doing dishes until the last fork is pulled from the drawer or all the coffee cups are dirty.  I find myself getting resentful about it, however.  The people who wrote this book decided to look at marriage from a different angle--economics.  Which intrigued me.  If I look at my marriage from the point of view of an economist on such concepts as a 50/50 division of labor, then I'm less likely to feel emotional about any issues that crop up.   I'm learning something new, and I'm getting a new perspective on marriage. 

Source: amazon.com via Tina on Pinterest

Okay, got any other books I should be reading? 

The A-List: Summer Reading List, Part One

I love to read.  I carry books with me on my kindle.  I specifically buy larger purses just so I carry hardcover and paperbacks if I need to.  While I've had some time off, I've been a book fool, staying up late and reading until I can't see straight. Besides the occasional headache, I'm loving it.  Here are some of the books I've read this summer.  Take them as a recommendation, if you're looking for a book to read poolside. 

1.  Wolf Hall/Bring Up The Bodies  Okay, so there's two books here.  But they're sequential, and I read them one after the other, so they probably should count as one.  Hilary Mantel, the author, took a time period that I've read quite a bit about and did something different, and she did it in an entertaining way.  Henry VIII was larger than life, even in his own times, but he's been done to death.  There really isn't anything new to write about, from Henry's point of view.   But the main character of these two books isn't Henry, or even Anne Boleyn.  No, the main character is Thomas Cromwell, a commoner, who rose in the ranks to become indispensable to Henry.  I loved the pace of these books, even though I knew how everything was going to turn out.  Plus, I learned a little more about history, which was also a bonus. 
  
2.  Feed   My friend Evil Laura recommended this book to me. (She's not really evil.  She's more of a curmudgeon, but "Curmudgeon Laura" doesn't have the same lovely ring to it.)  This is sort of a book about zombies.  But it's also sort of not a book about zombies.  It's more of a book about what happens after the zombies show up, after they become just another part of reality for the world.  Since the zombies are the result of a virus, how the world interacts has changed dramatically, and things that we take for granted, like travel, are very different.  Bloggers are the number one news source for the world in the 2040s, and Georgia Mason and her brother Shaun are invited to ride along on a presidential campaign.  The first few chapters were kind of slow, but things started moving along pretty quickly once the two got on the road.  Some of the chapters were very intense, but the zombies ultimately were the back story in this suspenseful tale.

Source: amazon.com via Tina on Pinterest

3.  World War Z  I've heard that this book is going to be a movie starring Brad Pitt.  Yeah, I am not sure how they will do that.  The story is all about the zombie apocalypse, how it gets started in China, how it spreads, and ultimately, how the people left behind start fighting to get their country back.  Each chapter is from a different part of the world, with a different narrator telling their story.  Some of the chapters are a little disconcerting, especially when they talk about some of the difficult choices people had to make.  Ultimately, the story is about the triumph of humanity against itself.  Which is uplifting, even if there are zombies in the mix.

4.  Let's Pretend This Never Happened   What, you think that a blogger who lives nearby(in Texas, any place within a 200 mile radius is "nearby") who writes a book and I'm not going to read it? Lawson, aka the Bloggess, talks about her childhood in an extremely small town, how she met her husband, her extreme anxiety, how she got to be a mom, and her blogging.  There are some pretty good laugh out loud moments, I have to say.  The few times I've ventured into the outbacks of Texas, I've felt distinctly alien.  That was East Texas, however.  West Texas is probably completely different.  Rural Texas, in all its glory, can be difficult, especially if you're in the middle of it, and the Bloggess was right there.  Lawson's book is written in a very similar manner to her blog, which makes the reader feel right at home. If home involves scorpions and turkey buzzards.

Source: amazon.com via Tina on Pinterest

5.  Deadlocked   This was the latest Sookie Stackhouse novel by Charlaine Harris.  I've been reading the books since they came out, and I've been watching True Blood on HBO.   This last book disappointed me.  There wasn't really much to it.  It was sort of like a snack, and it left me wondering about what's in the fridge.  A large portion of the book was just Sookie going about town visiting and running errands.  And the love story between Sookie and Eric, which has been very intense in the past, is almost nonexistent in this book.  The two of them don't even act like they like each other.  Sookie is supposed to be all passionate about Eric, and she doesn't even have the energy to get worked up.  The fairies are more prominent in this book than they have been, but I've never been really happy about the portrayal of all the supernatural creatures. We've got shape shifters, vamps and were-animals--what do we need with elves, and brownies, and pixies?  After reading this, I'm not really sure that I'm going to be reading any more of this series. I'll still watch True Blood, though.  At least those guys know how to keep a plot interesting!

That's part of my reading list.  What's on yours?  Throw me some ideas!

Book talk

I've talked before about how much I love holding an actual book in my hands, but I am too lazy to go back and find the post, so you'll just have to trust me.   I love all aspects of reading.  I especially enjoy the "pregame' festivities--the reading of the book jacket, the 'about the author' bio, and of course, the table of contents. You know--foreplay.  If there is an intro to the story, I like to delve into that, as well. 

The beginning of the book is where all the fun starts.

The beginning is where we are first introduced to what I, and probably lots of people, call 'the hook'.  This is whatever is needed to get the reader interested in the story, and by extension, the characters.  For example, the main character of Lee Child's books, Jack Reacher, at first glance appears to be extremely one-dimensional.  An ex-military cop who solves crimes.  Yay--how original!  Delve into the first couple of chapters, however, and you'll find a man with more dimensions than a seven-layer-dip. 

I like that. 

If a book is a house, the beginning is where you enter the house.  Are you entering through the garage?  The back door?  Is the front door wide open, or closed?  These are clues about the rest of the book to come.  And after you walk through the door of the house, what do you see?  An entryway with coats neatly hung up on hooks?  Piles of pizza boxes and dirty laundry?  An obstacle course of children's toys?  These are also clues.  If a beginning is too cluttered with information, the reader gets tripped up, and  it can be difficult to focus on the story.  Which is a shame.  

I am not so fond of the ending of a book.  By the time the end of a book rolls around, I've established a relationship.  I've been inside the character's heads.  We've laughed, we've cried.  But at the end of the book, we have to say goodbye and go our separate ways.  That is just the way it is.  I'm not good at goodbyes.  I get clingy and emotional.  I don't want the relationship to end, and I get a bit stalker-y.  It's kind of embarrassing.  

What is your favorite part of a book?

Mamakat: Vices

 Mamakat's Prompt:   What is the one vice you can't give up?

I used to have a lot of vices. Chocolate. Drinking. Pens. Dancing. Fried food. Loud music. Mosh pits.  One by one, either by choice, or by the recommendation of my physician,  I've put aside most of these overindulgences.  I may have the occasional chocolate binge, but I can mostly walk by the candy aisle without a glance.  Moderation is my mantra these days, and if I can't be moderate, then I have just gone cold turkey.

Except for buying books.

I am a book junkie. I simply love the feel of books in my hands. The feel of the hard edges, the binding. Sliding my finger across the text. The smell of the paper.  The ruffling sounds of the pages as I turn them.  It really doesn't matter what the book is about.  I just have to have it.  I have travel books. Foreign language books.  Graphic novels. Cookbooks. Textbooks. I have purchased Fix-it and Do-It-Yourself manuals-as if!  I have enough books for a small town library.  Just in case. Screw looking stuff up on the internet--I want to hold the secret to building the perfect insect collection in my own hot little hands.

All those books cost money, of course.  Finances were thin for awhile in our house, so I tried to just go to the library.  I thought perhaps it was having things to read that was the fix for me.  Nope.  Then I tried going to the half price store, until I realized that I was buying twice as many books because they were cheaper.  Eeek! 

I finally had to face it: I cannot go into a store without buying at least one book. I tried to stop.  I tried to just not go to bookstores at all.  Borders probably went out of business because I banned myself. It was tough love. And it was pure futility.   Do you know how many stores have books?  Home Depot has books.  Best Buy has books.   Pet Smart has books.  The grocery store has books, too!  They're like magnets, pulling me inexorably toward them, even if I've never been in that store before. 

In the grand scheme of things, however, are books such a horrible vice to have?  I've thought about it for quite some time.  I can't see myself in a 12-step program for bibliophiles.  If one even exists.   I can't see my doctor telling me to stop reading books because they are bad for my health.  He actually even recommended that I buy a book when I was there for my last visit.  He even wrote it down on a prescription pad.  I wonder if my insurance covers Sugar Busters. 

My addiction to books is just something that I have to learn to accept about myself, instead of feeling guilty.  Moderation is the key.  I need to set a goal for myself, just like a diet, and work on getting there as best as I can.  Slow steps, perhaps some visualization exercises, some yoga, or meditation might help.

Wait--aren't there books on that?

The A-List: Current Literary Faves

I read. If I could, I would read most of every day. My entire house would be one big pile of books. Books are really my only vice, after drinking. As I read, I tend to fall in love with the characters; they become old friends to me. I especially enjoy when an author devotes several books to a particular character. I see it as an opportunity to visit an old friend. This is one of the reasons that I loved the Hardy Boys so much when I was a kid. My A-List today, therefore, lists some of my favorite characters from the books I've read recently.

Jack Reacher(Lee Child) I like Jack Reacher for the same reason that I loved Jack Bauer from 24; he gets things done. This character is decisive; a man of action. If he says he will do it, it gets done. Those kind of men don't exist anymore, not in this litigation-happy world, so to find one in a book is a treat. Reacher wanders about, living out of hotels, after he leaves the military. He uses his military training sort of as a mercenary investigator, except that he doesn't look for work. He doesn't look for trouble, but trouble certainly finds him. And when trouble does find Jack Reacher, he is more than happy to smack that trouble silly.

Augustus McCrae(Larry McMurtry) Who wouldn't love Gus? Philosopher, cowboy, lawman, smooth talker, romantic...hard to beat that. Lonesome Dove is such a great story that I've read that book more than any other. The reason is Gus. His relationship with Woodrow Call was certainly an odd pairing, but there was never any doubt that the two were fierce in their friendship. That kind of loyalty is rare these days, but it is admirable.

Stephanie Plum(Janet Evanovich) I actually DO laugh out loud while I am reading about Stephanie; sometimes I am laughing so hard that my husband thinks that I am having a seizure. Stephanie is not a detective. She is a bail bondsman. A bad one. Stephanie only has a job because of her cousin, she has trouble making ends meet, and her cars are continually destroyed. I am not sure if it would be safe to hang around with Stephanie Plum, but I know that it would be hilarious.

Eric Northman(Charlaine Harris) I really don't care for Sookie Stackhouse. She's too whiny and passive for my tastes. However, Eric Northman is another matter. He's smart, devious, decisive, and ruthless. He knows what he wants and he makes every effort to get his way. Yet Eric can be thoughtful and loving, too. He never shies away from a fight or a challenge, but meets it head on. I like that in my novel characters. So while I'm not too keen on Sookie, I read the books for Eric.

Tyrion Lannister (George R.R. Martin) This character is a dwarf. He's a dwarf in a horribly dysfunctional family. He was not supposed to live. Yet Tyrion is a survivor. He is intelligent, he is insightful, and he is witty. He can think on his feet, quickly, even if he's too small to lift a sword. Tyrion manages to keep all the various threads of palace intrigue straight, and he is smart enough to keep his mouth shut.

That's my A-list. Are there any literary characters that catch your fancy? Do tell!