In My Mailbox (Nov. 29 edition)

This was a slow week for me until Saturday afternoon.

The only book I received was First Lord's Fury by Jim Butcher. I have been reading this series since it began. I am a big fan of his books about Harry Dresden too.


Codex Alera has been getting increasingly dark as the series goes on. I read the first couple pages of this one and put it down. I am much more in the mood for something lighter before I tackle this one.


Here is the blurb from Amazon: For years he has endured the endless trials and triumphs of a man whose skill and power could not be restrained. Battling ancient enemies, forging new alliances, and confronting the corruption within his own land, Gaius Octavian became a legendary man of war-and the rightful First Lord of Alera.

But now, the savage Vord are on the march, and Gaius must lead his legions to the Calderon Valley to stand against them-using all of his intelligence, ingenuity, and furycraft to save their world from eternal darkness

I also added a couple books to my Kindle this week.

Torn is the next in Julie Kenner's The Blood Lily Chronicles series. I also have Tainted for the Kindle. I haven't read it yet. Turned, the third in the series, is coming out at the end of December. I think I'll wait until I have all three before I begin. I have enjoyed Kenner's series about a demon hunting soccer mom and am looking forward to these too.

I ordered The Lost because it includes an Eve Dallas story - "Missing in Death" - by J. D. Robb. The rest of the book is just extra as far as I am concerned. I have read the second story by by Patricia Gaffney - "The Dog Days of Laurie Summer". It was OK. Basically, a workaholic mom suffers an accident and is in a coma. She comes back as a dog to interact with her family. Than manages to wake up as herself a changed woman. I am currently reading  I am currently reading "Lost in Paradise" by Mary Blayney. The fourth story is "Legacy" by Ruth Ryan Langan.

Just as a side note: I really like reading books on the Kindle. I just finished Torch of Freedom by David Weber in the print form and ended up with sore wrists. That 600 page monster required constant shifting around as I tried to find a comfortable way to both hold the book and see the words with my increasingly bad vision. The Kindle is a great size. It is much easier to hold or to put in position if I want to lay down and read.

The one advantage of buying the print book was that it also came with a CD that has a bunch of Weber's books on it. I see that I can download the Kindle versions of the books. I'd be able to have all of the Honor Harrington series in my hand. I should do that one of these days. I would like to read the first Honor Harrington again to see how Weber has changed as a writer.

Late afternoon additions:

Here are some other free books that I added to my Kindle this week.

The Twelve Liea of Christmas by Kate Johnson. This is a prequel to an existing series. I want to see if I like the author's style before committing to the rest of the series.

I added 4 books by Don Brown -- Defiance, Treason, Hostage and Black Sea Affair. The first three are in a series called Navy Justice. The last seems to be a standalone. If I don't like them, all I have wasted is a couple of minutes of download time.

I also added my very first cookbook to my Kindle since Amazon was offering it for free.

Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes for Entertaining should give me ideas to use my slow cooker.