Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Acheron, a demi-god, born into the body of a human and forced to live in the mortal realm away from his family in the royal family in Greece, is the twin of Prince Styxx.  Because of a birth defect - his eyes being different from everyone else's - he is disowned, shamed and sent away to the city of Atlantis to his Uncle Estes to become a whore; to become nobody; to be ignored.  This is until his older sister Ryssa receives a collection of letters, which she thinks is from him, stating that she should come and collect him before it's too late.  When she does, she barely recognises her brother as he is treated like a slave by anyone who approaches him, his rooms are kept dark and he's beaten if he does not obey and does not pull in enough money for Uncle Estes.

Ryssa takes him away from Atlantis and brings him back to his original home of the palace, where the family learns soon that if Acheron is treated badly, is starved or beaten, his brother - Styxx - suffers in the same way.  The family learns that if Acheron dies - so does Styxx; and so they begin to look after the one they have been embarrassed of for so long; still hiding him from the public.  However, the Greek Gods have been watching over him... so has Artemis; who tricks him into her service; until his twenty-first birthday, when Acheron receives the most astonishing gift of all.  He is given all of his powers and is turned into the God of Destruction.

Over 11,000 years later, Archeron has adjusted and become a citizen of the 21st Century.  He's a God who can walk among humans, travel within a blink of an eye and see the past, future and know the thoughts of every human around him.  This is until he meets Soteria, archeologist from Greece; a human he can't read at all.  Acheron is warned by his mother that this woman has discovered where Atlantis is, found Ryssa's journals and she orders him to protect her at all costs.  However, without knowing what she's thinking, how is he supposed to know what to do?  The first thing he has to do is let her into his life; and after more than a life time of distrust from anyone he has been in contact with, can he trust this one human with his heart, mind and soul; as well as his massive secret that he's not exactly what she thinks he is?

Wow! What a book!  I found this book with a bag of other books outside a house on Kingston Road last year on my way to the bus stop to go shopping.  And going by the size of it, I knew it was one heck of story.  So, I waited until this year to get my nose into it.  It took me almost a month to read and I'm glad I took my time; as there was so much detail in it.  However, I found that the first part was hard-going, but the second part was a lot easier; as the characters were already established and - with all the high tech devices - it was easy to relate to the characters and have a bit of a laugh with some of the Gods and Goddess who hadn't kept up with the times.

The #1 New York Times bestselling author, Sherrilyn Kenyon, who is proud of her Cherokee mixed heritage, lives a life of extraordinary danger... as does any woman with three sons, a husband, a menagerie of pets and a collection of swords that all of the above have a major fixation with. But when not running interference (or dashing off to the emergency room), she's found chained to her computer where she likes to play with all her imaginary friends. With more than twenty-three million copies of her books in print, in over thirty countries, she certainly has a lot of friends to play with too.
In the past two years, her books have claimed the coveted #1 bestselling spot twelve times. This extraordinary bestseller continues to top every genre she writes. Her current series include: The Dark-Hunters, The League, Lords of Avalon, BAD Agency and the Chronicles of Nick. Since 2004, she has placed over fifty novels on the New York Times.
Her Lords of Avalon novels have been adapted by Marvel and her Dark-Hunter novels are now a New York Times bestselling manga published by St. Martins.

June Book Buys!

Just like last month, I didn't have the urge to buy a book until the last few weeks of the month; and what great purchases I grabbed!  The reason for this is because I didn't get to go out until I went to my Chiropractor's and the best book buys I find are over at Springwood's Book Warehouse where the prices are a quarter of what they are retail.  How can I shop anywhere else when I can get an absolute bargain there?

My first purchase wasn't anywhere near a bookstore; it was at Life Line at Logan Central.  I had to it up to $5.00 for efpos and so, I perused the store and found 'The Mambo Kings' by Oscar Hijuelos.  I've always wanted to read this book as it was turned into a film; and I have the movie poster as well because it looked so hot!  And now, I have it, there's no excuses for me not to read it!

Before I bought that one, I found the place closed, so I wandered to 'Sam's Warehouse' and found 'Vampire Academy' by Richelle Mead.  It cost me $11.99, but it was worth it.  Besides, if I don't like it, I can always register it on Bookcrossing and offer it up for grabs; no great loss.  And I'll do that after I write a review on it here... hehe.

When I walked out of 'Sam's Warehouse', I found 'The Book Warehouse' had opened up again.  The shopkeeper must have stepped out for one reason or another, so I went in and had a quick look around and found the second book of a trilogy I've been looking for: 'The Temporal Void' by Peter F Hamilton.  I have now have the second and third books of this trilogy; all I need now is the first one and I can read them all in sequence.  How good is that?  Might get in and ask at QBD and see if they have it or can order it in for me in the next few months.  I'm in no rush to grab it - as you can see from my post below I have plenty of books to choose from to read right now; I won't mind the wait to read this trilogy.  Well, until my next post, Happy Reading!

Book Count

As an avid reader and collector of books from all different genres and languages, I didn't think I had a very big collection.  About three years ago, I counted up my four book cases and lost count at around 600 or so; mind you, I was trying to catalogue them at the same time (you know, kill two birds with one stone!  I'm tellin' ya now, that doesn't work, it gets so confusing).  

So, the other day, while I had some time on my hands and I was on Bookcrossing I came across a topic where one of the members mentioned she was adding to her ever-growing number of books; and really had to stop.  It got me thinking that I didn't know exactly how many books I had in my little office here.  So, I grabbed a notebook, pen and found the calculator on my mobile phone and began counting each shelf.  After adding up the numbers from each book case and making a total from each of them (which was in the 200's), I added them all together.  By the third bookcase the number was well over 700 books!  When I added on the forth bookcase, I found I have 929 books weighing down this little room above my kitchen!

I was so amazed at how many books I could fit into this room, all I could do was sit in my chair at the computer and just look at the many books I had sitting around me and wonder:  how in the hell am I going to read them all in my life time?  And to think, I only started out with around 100 books when I moved into my townhouse 8 1/2 years ago and one book case.  The one question I have is: will I find the time seeing I'm a Bookcrosser and will have many more books arrive through the mail as well as family buy me more - and I'll also purchase more as the years go by.  Most of all, where will those books end up if I don't find space around the house?  And soon.  This little office won't be able to hold them all... no... soon I will have to find a bookcase that will make my collection venture outside the boundary of the door of my office; something I don't wish it to do (I made it a firm rule that I must contain my collection within my spare room; and nowhere else or it may take over my house; a good rule when I think about it now).  How many books do you have in your collection?  Have you limited yourself to a small number due to space problems; or has it gotten out of hand?  Does it take over the garage and shed, or have you found a way to store your books (a bit like I have) where you can purge them when you need to?  Well, until my next post, Happy Reading!

A House Made For Books!

I was looking around on Bookcrossing this morning and found this link to a site which showed a house built with books in mind.  How's this for the book-loving house hunter?

house made for books 



Now, to try and fit this kind of thing into my house.

Book-Friendly Neighbours

Isn't it wonderful when you have neighbours who know you enjoy the written word?  I definitely do.  Yesterday, I was on my way to the post office and walked past one unit where a Grandmother lives with her family, Betty is her name.  She was sitting out in her carport having a smoke and taking in some fresh air when I greeted her with a good morning.  She sat up eagerly and said: "Just the person I'm looking for!  We've got a bag of books for you!" and gestured to the side door of their unit.  I walked over and found a massive, heavy-duty paper bag full of books!  I was amazed to find they were all modern books with great titles such as 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' by Stieg Larsson, 'The Jester' by James Paterson & Andrew Gross, 'Dead Man's Dance' by Robert Ferrigno, 'The Wild' by Esther Freud and two Allison DeBois books as well as a biography by Ruth Cracknell.  All up, there are twenty-one books covering quite a few genres; from mystery-thrillers, to biography to animals.  All of them have been read and now I've got them, I'm looking forward to reading them and handing them onto another fellow reader.

I do love it when a collection of books sees their way to me; and I find out what people have been reading.  Some people have a wide variety - like this person did - and others stick to just one genre.  However, it's a nice, good and cheap way of obtaining books without spending a cent on them.  Until my next post, Happy Reading!

Been Busy Reading

It hasn't been a very busy time for me lately; thus giving me time to get my nose into some good reading... even if it means to cocoon myself into my duvet late at night and read some twenty pages of my current book 'Tipping The Velvet' by Sarah Waters.  This book arrived in the mail last Friday and I'm already up to page 80 or so; and loving it.  It's all about the UK and London; a place I've definitely been, and can relate to.

My other read I've only just returned to today while sitting in the afternoon sun to dry my hair is 'Acheron' by Sherrilyn Kenyon.  I've read the first very long and detailed section of this man's tortured life where he was treated dreadfully, found out he was a demi-God and was really angry that his powers were kept from him until he was 'of age'.  And now, I'm up to the part where it's jumped to the present day where he's still around and living with humans on Earth from day to day, knowing everything about them (as he's cursed to do), until one day he meets a woman who can't read, he can't hear her thoughts and doesn't know anything about her and she intrigues him to no end because of this.  But she doesn't want to know him... a typical romance.  However, this book is a right tome of a book - a real doorstop if you will - and so I'll keep on plodding through, because I like the style of the writing and the author takes us to Greece, Atlantis and New Orleans... all the places I want to go in my life.

So, what are you reading right now?  Is it interesting, boring or have you just started?  Let us know.  Until my next post, Happy Reading!

Winter Reading Time!

Here in Brisbane, the mercury has dropped well below the 20 degree Celsius mark; perfect for curling up on the lounge under the feather duvet with your favourite books in your Winter pajamas for a good delve into another world.  So, what would you be poking your nose into this Winter?  Some classics such as 'War of the Worlds' by H.G. Wells or something a little more romantic and close to the heart to warm your insides?  Me?  I'm reading 'Acheron' by Sherrilyn Kenyon; which an absolute tome of a book, but it's worth every word and page of the 800 page or so.  It's also a first of a very popular vampire series, so I think it's worth reading up on the history of how it all began.

As for the rest of the world, it's coming into Summer.  So, what would guys be getting into?  Warmer, longer days of Summer where you can sit by the pool or out on the deck and read to your heart's content while the kids run around in the yard while you sip iced tea in the shade and read your favourites you've been meaning to get to.

My books I'm hoping to get my nose into this Winter are:

'Acheron' by Sherrilyn Kenyon

'The Cinderella Complex: Women's Hidden Fear of Independence' by Colette Dowling

'A Virtuous Woman' by Kaye Gibbons

'Everyman's Rules For Scientific Living: A Novel' by Carrie Tiffany

I'm hoping to read these by the end of Winter - seeing it's going to be a very cold one for us here.  So, do tell us, by leaving a comment or two, what you plan to read this Winter - or Summer.  Have they been on your Reading List for a long time or have they just arrived?  Until my next post, Happy Reading! 

Legacy By David Suzuki

Our world - our planet - as we know it is suffering.  We are killing it at a phenomenal rate and we aren't doing anything to stop it.  We are running out of natural resources faster than we're using them; and yet we don't have a back-up plan, we didn't think we'd need one.  In this book, David Suzuki looks at what we're doing to our one and only home and asks the question:  can we fix what we've stuffed up?  If so, how?  If not why not?  He also poses the argument that we are looking at this planet in the wrong light.  David asks what kind of legacy are we leaving behind for generations to come?  Will they be the ones who will have to clean up our messes, or will we be able to do it in time?

I've admired David Suzuki's work my whole life; and have always wanted to meet him.  However, when he visited the Gold Coast, I missed out by accident (Mum didn't get enough tickets, oh well, next time).  I've loved all his programs that have shown on television; and would love to read his autobiography one day just to see how he made it in this life.  He's been an inspiration to me in how I look at my home, my planet and the world.  This book has such a clear and concise way of telling it as it is, I couldn't put it down.

David Suzuki, Co-Founder of the David Suzuki Foundation, is an award-winning scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster. He is renowned for his radio and television programs that explain the complexities of the natural sciences in a compelling, easily understood way.