{Sunday Post} - Jack Reacher, Stephen King, and a Bit of Caffeinated Bliss

Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer!

Good Morning, Everyone! 

I hope everyone reading this is safe and sound and wasn't affected by the devastating tornadoes that hit the midwest and southern states over the weekend.

My Coffee Fix

When I think of Christmas, the one thing that pops into my mind - Holiday Blend coffee! The only problem is I couldn't find any ground or K-Cup pods in the store. On Thursday, my mother and I went clothes shopping for my grandmother. I ran inside a Price Chopper and found one box of Green Mountain Holiday Blend coffee! Now I can have a cup of caffeinated bliss on Christmas morning.

Family Updates

The last I heard, my grandmother weighed 98 pounds. Depending on if she is lucid, there are some days when she eats at least half her meals and other days when she won't eat anything. That's why my mom and I were looking for smaller clothes for her for Christmas. We did find some.  

My aunt drove up from southern to go through the storage unit and took what she wanted. Yesterday morning, we donated two van loads of stuff (mostly ceramics) to Salvation Army. My mom took a couple of big things, and I took all the empty boxes (more on that down below). So, bye-bye storage unit.  

Boxes, Lots of Boxes

There's a simple answer to why I kept the empty boxes. As soon as the holidays are over, I'm getting rid of books. Yes, I did this last year, but I have way too many books and only want to keep the ones that I want to read or will one day reread. Plus, I need to make room for future books, more on that next week.

Words Can Be Complicated

I've been trying to push through my writing drought, and it hasn't been easy. It took me forever to write the review for Star Trek: Coda: Oblivion's Gate. I just had trouble getting my words out. Somehow, I pushed through it and got the review posted last Monday. Then I got two other reviews published. So, maybe my writing block is over.

Humidifier Comfort

Either I'm turning into Cameron from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, or I'm getting old. For some reason, I cannot get to sleep unless I have a humidifier running. If not, my sinuses and allergies go through the roof. It was getting to where I had to replace the filter every two weeks, which wouldn't be a bad thing if it wasn't for the fact that the humidifier barely worked correctly. Yesterday, I broke down and bought an expensive filter-free humidifier. So far, I'm impressed with it. It's putting out a good amount of cool mist.

 

What Am I Reading?

I finished The Christmas Promise by Richard Paul Evans on Saturday afternoon. Next, I'll be reading Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memories of the Mistress of the Dark by Cassandra Peterson. I borrowed the eBook from my local library via OverDrive. Then I'll get started on a reread of Star Trek: Deep Domain by Howard Weinstein. 

Recent Reviews

Star Trek: Coda: Oblivion's Gate

by David Mack

The Debutante's Code

by Erica Vetsch

The Forever Purge

What's in the Mail? 

Some Star Trek novels have never received Kindle releases, such as 1995's Star Trek: The Ashes of Eden by William Shatner (co-written with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens). It's the first in the "Shatnerverse," which is non-canon with the other Trek literature because specific events and the fact that Captian Kirk is alive never gets mentioned in any other non-Shatner-related book. I've been looking for The Ashes of Eden for many years, and I bought a used hardback on eBay with three books in a buy three one free deal. From what I've read about the book, the USS Enterprise-A gets destroyed, somehow.  

The other three titles are Sandworms of Dune, Dune: House Harkonnen, and Dune: House Corrino by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. 

On Tuesday night, I had ordered Christmas gifts for a few friends via Amazon.com. Afterward, I removed and added a few things to my Amazon wishlist. On Friday night, I received an Amazon package containing the newest Dune prequel, The Lady of Caladan inside it. The book is a Christmas gift from a friend in North Carolina. I guess she must be following my wishlist because I never mentioned anything Dune-related to her. 

Dune is on my winter read list along with Outlander, Jack Reacher, and Star Trek novels. 

What's New On the Bookshelf?

I stopped by the local thrift store and picked up Never Go Back and The Midnight Line by Lee Child and Frankenstein: The Dead Town by Dean Koontz for 10 cents each. 

After buying the Jack Reacher titles, I remembered seeing two Lee Child titles for sale at the library the last time I was there, which had been a while. On Thursday morning, I stopped by the library, and the two books, Night School and Make Me, were still there. I paid $4 for the pair.

While waiting in line to checkout, I noticed a "Free Books" sign way over on the northeast corner of the library. There were at least 100 books there, if not more. I pulled out a few titles and noticed almost all of them had $2 price tags on them. I asked the librarian if the books were free or not, and she said as far as she knew, all the books on the "Free Books" section were free. So, I picked up three Stephen King hardbacks - Insomnia, Dolores Claiborne, and Different Seasons. Everyone knows I love collecting different editions of Stephen King books, and that happens to be why I wanted these three. I own paperback copies of them, but not hardcovers. Plus, I've never seen these covers before.

Later on Thursday, I found the newest Jack Reacher book Better Off Dead at a Walmart. Also, I picked up a copy of another Jack Reacher tale - Blue Moon.