Books, books, and more books

After posting my rant against The Road, here's a list of better stuff I've read lately...

• First 3 books of the Shopaholic series (fun, flighty, fast reads)
• Wicked (fascinating, a little heavier into politics/philosophy than I expected) (also, I must note here that books which publish their own questions/topics for book club discussion as an afterward are a bit pretentious)
• Books 6 and 7 of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (light and enjoyable reads, not heavy on the action, but beautiful language and engaging characters)
• Magyk (a mediocre YA fantasy to fill the Harry Potter void)
• The Twilight series (much better YA fantasy to fill the HP void with vampires instead of wizards)
• Women's Murder Club series, books 3 and 4 (actually been listening to these on unabridged audio, I'm way behind on this series)

Top Ten Books I read in 2007
(in alphabetical order, because it's just too hard to rank them...)

1. The Book of the Dead (Agent Pendergast series, Book 7) by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
2. A Breath of Snow and Ashes (Outlander series, Book 6) by Diana Gabaldon
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7) by J. K. Rowling
4. Katherine by Anya Seton
5. Lean Mean Thirteen (Stephanie Plum series, Book 13) by Janet Evanovich
6. Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich
7. On Writing by Stephen King (honorable mention to Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill, son of Stephen King)
8. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
9. To Darkness and to Death (A Rev. Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne Mystery, Book 4) by Julia Spencer-Fleming
10. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

So, you might have noticed from my list that I'm a sucker for serial fiction. If a writer is a decent storyteller and makes me emotionally invested in the characters, I keep coming back for more. Last summer I discovered the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich and quickly caught up on all 12 novels so I'd be ready for number 13 this past fall. It's fun reading.

Lately, I've been all about fun in my reading materials. If I want bleak reality or ethics and morality debate, I can tune into the evening news or (gag) presidential campaign coverage.

(My blogger template replaces numbered lists with bullets! ARGH. Anybody know how to fix this in the template HTML?)