Monday, February 2, 2009

Book review: Long-time Listener, First-time Werewolf

I just finished this book last night (it's 3 books in one volume, Kitty and The Midnight Hour, Kitty Goes to Washington, and Kitty Takes A Holiday by Carrie Vaughn).
I read the first two on Saturday, between 8 p.m. and 2:30 a.m. (what can I say, I was grabbed by the eyes and just couldn't get loose). I finished the 3rd one last night (started at 10 p.m. and finished at 1:30 a.m.).
Kitty is a werewolf who works the late night shift as a DJ at a radio station, mostly playing an eclectic mix of music, everything from classical to rock to metal to punk. One night, out of boredom, she poses a question to her listeners: "Do you believe in vampires?" Shockingly, she gets call after call after call, and talks to her callers on the air. Some say they are vampires, witches, werewolves, and they all seem to have problems. Kitty talks with them, dispensing advice, and before she knows it, the time for that night's show is up. When she goes in to work the next night, she thinks she may end up being fired for not following the assigned format. But her boss has a box full of phone messages and tells her the ratings were fantastic. He wants her to continue what she did the night before, and talk radio's newest show is born - The Midnight Hour.
Carrie Vaughn has created characters you care about, characters you want to know more about, characters who leap to life on the page and into your heart. I don't know if she's planning on writing (or has written) any more books about Kitty, but I sure hope so. The third book has left lots of possibilities for further development, and I sure would be interested in reading more of Kitty's adventures. (ETA: I just found out CV has 3 more books about Kitty, Kitty and the Silver Bullet, Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand, and Kitty Raises Hell. Damn, now I have to see if I can find them.)
Next on my reading list is Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series. I have books 1 through 6 and 8, and 7 is on backorder. I don't want to start reading them until I have all 8 of them in my hot little hands, I hate starting a series and then having to stop because I'm missing part of it. In the meantime, I'm also working on Kim Harrison's series about bounty hunter-cum-witch Rachel Morgan (vampires and pixies and demons and faeries and lycanthropes, oh my!). I have to admit, this is another series that has grabbed me by the eyeballs and doesn't want to let go. And yes, I'm in the habit of reading at least 2 books at the same time, sometimes I'll have 3 or more started. What I read depends on my mood - am I in the mood for romance, do I want drama, do I want hair-raising danger? Or maybe I want all of that at the same time, and can't find it in one book, so I'm finding the elements I want in several different books. My personal library is growing, and I've had to write down all of the authors and titles to put on index cards so that when I shop for books, I can refer to them to see if I've already purchased a book (but not read it yet) so that I don't end up with duplicates. I have almost 200 books now, and that's just what I've bought in the last 2 years. I gave almost 1,000 books to my son when I got married, he'd been after me for years to give him my books, since he'd been reading them from the time he was 6 (and yes, he's as avid a bookworm as I am, he's adding to the collection all the time, too). He's also like me in that he will go back and read books again and again if he really liked them the first time around. I had books in that collection that I had read 20 times, they were old friends who never let me down and I miss them sometimes. My dream has always been to have a house where I can have one room with nothing but books and a comfortable chair and reading lamp in it. Talk about heaven on earth, that's my vision of it.

6 comments:

  1. I've read all the series you mentioned, and LOVED them. In about as little time, they do just grab you by the eyeballs!

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  2. Ooh, I've also always wanted a nice big library with comfy chair in my house! But I don't figure it will ever happen, and I'll have to settle for coating the walls of non-book-devoted rooms with shelves full of books.

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  3. Dear Vesta, Thank you so much for expressing your condolences for my Mom. I really appreciate your words of kindness.

    Robyn

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  4. Sheathen - I love books like that, but damn, do they ever cut into sleep time and housework time...lol

    Gina - Yeah, I would love to line our walls with shelves of books, but I have competition from DH's collection of die-cast cars/trucks and his Navy memorabilia. He says we need a 4 bedroom house - 1 for my books and sewing room, one for his love-me Navy stuff and cars, a bedroom for us and a bedroom for guests. I guess that means the computers have to stay in the living room with the TV. Who would ever think that 2 people would need that many rooms.....

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  5. Robyn - I hope things are getting better for you (they seem to be, I've been keeping up with your blog). And isn't this weather something else? I'm hoping that the zero and sub-zero temps will soon be behind us (along with the snow). I love MN, but winter can be a bummer when it seems to drag on and on. Take care :)

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  6. Vesta, Vesta, Vesta... you have just given me a really lovely dream...

    I giant room with just books and snug places to sit. I had never dreamed of that before for myself..... but damn... that just sounds too nice. I could have my own mini-library!

    Oooooo.... drooolllllllll......

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