1) All of you must have downloaded Ilona Andrews‘ free Kate Daniels novella by now right? If not, well – you probably have 10 days left to get MAGIC GIFTS. I raced through it over Christmas – I loved visiting Kate and Curran again, and it’s got me all excited about their next book, GUNMETAL MAGIC. It was a really generous and unexpected present from the authors and totally made my Christmas Eve.
2) I’m way behind on my 2011 book log. Arrrghhh. Serves me right for procrastinating. I’m starting to get a bit panicky about this as I’ve been seeing everyone’s 2011 favourite books posts start popping up around the internets. Ummm. You won’t mind seeing my 2011 favourites sometime in 2012, would you? At the rate I’m going, it may be summer.
I’m planning on spending some time on this over the next few days – so if you follow me on Goodreads, you may just get a flood of reviews from me. Sorry. I’m going to be reposting them here as well. At some point.
3) Reading-wise, apart from MAGIC GIFTS, I have been taking full advantage of time off from work and just reveling in my TBR. I have so many good books that are just waiting to be read and for once, I have the time to do so. It has been rather blissful. I’ve sniffled my way through Carla Kelly‘s COMING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS, devoured the Carina Press m/m romance anthology MEN UNDER THE MISTLETOE, and finished Diana Gabaldon‘s THE SCOTTISH PRISONER. Amongst many others.
4) New-to-me author: Sonya Bateman. I picked up her novel MASTER OF NONE on impulse and liked. I hesitate to compare it to Jim Butcher’s Dresden files just because it’s an urban fantasy with a wisecracking male protagonist but… well. It has a slightly unusual UF twist – djinns (or genies) aren’t the most popular of supernatural creatures – and that together with some fast-paced action was enough to keep me engrossed. It wasn’t perfect (I skimmed over the whole background to the conflict because it made my head hurt and I’m not really feeling the relationship) but I’ll probably pick up the next book soon-ish.
5) I love Sarah Rees Brennan‘s tumblr. And cannot wait for her 2012 release UNSPOKEN.
Me and My Books 
I should buy the first Ilona Andrew’s book with my Christmas gift cards…
I love these books, but the first book is the weakest IMO. It took me a while to pick up the second after reading the first book, but that was the one that really got me hooked.
Agreed with Li. For me, it took Magic Strikes to really hook me 🙂
Li, thanks for the heads up on Ilona Andrews’ Magic Gifts, I got it a few days ago and meant to come back here and thank you. 😀 Also, I read a couple of the stories in Men Under the Mistletoe and really enjoyed them as well.
Happy New Year, Li!
Oh, you’re welcome! I’ve really appreciated the effort they put into getting a free Kate novella out to us readers.
And I have loved the Carina Press anthology. It’s rare I’ve liked all stories in one anthology, but this was a good one.
I say those who had their Favorites of 2011 posts up eve now are over-achievers!! LOL.
Magic Gifts was really a great gifts from the authors. I really enjoyed it and I’m now re-reading Magic Bleeds 🙂 I just love Kate’s humor and the politics 🙂
How long are you still on vacation?
I read Master of None and I do like the hero… but I didn’t care much for the world 😦 So far, I have yet to pick up the second… so if you do before me, let me know how it is 🙂
Am back to work today 😦 Along with everyone else – lots of gloomy faces on the Tube today!
I am rather close to picking up the sequel to MASTER, but have a few books to read first 😉
Let me know if it’s better than the first one 🙂