The Kari AnnAlysis

I’ve never done a monthly wrap-up post, but it’s a new year, might as well try new things. Kind of like my last post on Cover Wars.

Books Read:
Dead to the World
The Life O’Reilly
Pet Peeves
Gods Behaving Badly
Truly, Madly
The Lovely Bones
Dead as a Doornail
Tainted
To read the reviews for these books, click here.

Pages Read: 2393

Bookmarks Given:
1. 0 Books
2. 2 Books
3. 2 Books
4. 2 Books
5. 1 Books
*There was one book I didn’t give a rating to because it was short stories.

Favorite Book: Tainted
Least Favorite Book: Dead as a Doornail

Giveaways:
I gave away Truly, Madly and had quite a few entries. The Duty of Love didn’t fare so well. No entries, but if you are interested, let me know. If I don’t hear anything by the weekend, I’ll give it to my church for the church book sale.

Goals for February:
1. Get some reading done for my 2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge
2. Finish up the books I have from publishers/borrowed/contests and read the ones I’ve bought
3. Read 9 books. That may be a stretch. I didn’t realize I read so many in January, but it’s a goal

Looking Forward to in February:
Starting the Private series and finishing the Sookie Stackhouse series.

Release: December 7, 2009

I met the author of this book on Twitter (@readbartharper). He is from Spencer, WV and this is his third book. One of his book was science fiction, the other was short stories and this one, as you can tell by the cover is his Pet Peeves.

This book covers everything from thongs to road rage to diapers. There were some I agreed with (movie prices and public pools), some I didn’t agree with (cheerleading not being a sport) and some I couldn’t relate with (kidney stones and all of the ones about raising children).

I like this book because it was light and fun and I caught myself shaking my head A LOT! I am the queen of pet peeves so it was nice to read someone else’s. I read this book in one day in a couple of sittings. It was nice to go through something fun after reading about a domestic violence lawsuit in my last book.

I can always count on Bart to lift my spirits and make me feel slightly uncomfortable lol. Bart is a great writer who puts in the jokes and makes reading fun. Plus, he puts his family in the middle of most of his stories. I imagine his kids love it and his wife hates it.

If you’d like a copy of this book, check out Bart’s website.

It’s hard to give this kind of book a rating. There were some I liked, some I didn’t. But it made me laugh, and I’ll leave it at that  

Oh, and I almost forgot (GASP), thanks to Bart for giving me a shoutout in this book! When you pick this up, make sure to check out the back of the second page

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I know I did and my bookshelf reflects that. No more wasting time, look at the loot I brought in this year:

A couple of years ago, I got one of the Private Series books and made my goal this year to get the rest. I had a gift card from the wedding that I bought the first few. I had my brother get me a couple and my mother-in-law got me the rest. I can’t WAIT to start this series.

Since we do Christmas with my brother at both of my parents house, I have him get me books at both places. At mom’s house he got me the Private books and at dad’s house, he got me The Luxe books 2 and 3. I absolutely LOVED the first one.

And I had my dad get me the 3rd in the Poseur Series called Petty in Pink. This was actually one of the first YA books I read when I started reading like a feign. It’s very cute and I’ve gotten one for Christmas the past 3 years.

It wasn’t all about the books though, when I finally get my TBR list down to about 25 (yes I have about 40 books on my shelf to read right now lol), I have plenty of gift cards. I got $80 worth of gift cards for Christmas this year. My family sure does know how to make a girl happy. And if you look closely at the picture above, my sister-in-law got me a Borders card WITH A WEDDING PIC ON IT! How cool is that? I will definitely be keeping that card after I spend it

It wasn’t all about the Christmas presents this week though. I also got two books from the author/publisher. First, Pet Peeves is the 3rd book by West Virginia author Bart Harper. I actually just gave a copy of this away on my blog. I’ve read all of Bart’s books and am excited to start on this. I imagine I’ll be agreeing with most of his peeves and will have many of my own to add.

The other, Truly Madly, I won on Librarything.com. I also won this on Goodreads.com so now I have 2 copies. Within the next week, I’ll start a giveaway so I can get it out and let you read it before it hits the shelves in February!

I got one more bundle this week that was sent to work and must have come on Christmas Eve. I had the day off and just knew I would get something. My boss told me today he accidentally took it with him thinking it was a resume tape. I can’t wait until Wednesday to get it! I am hoping it’s my presents for the Holiday Swap that I took part in!

Did you guys get any great reads this year????

Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season! You have a couple more hours, ENJOY!

And guess what? We have a winner for Bart Harper’s Pet Peeves! And the winner is (drum roll, please) ANITA! Congrats!

Check out my other giveaway (Duty of Love) and keep an eye out for my giveaway of Truly, Madly. It’ll be up soon!

In honor of the Christmas spirit, author Bart Harper and I are holding a book giveaway.

Bart’s new book Pet Peeves will be available around Christmas, so we’ll have the contest end on Christmas day.

What drives you absolutely up the wall? Makes you cringe? Makes your toes curl? Well, there’s a good chance Bart covers it in his latest book.

Here’s are a couple of Bart’s pet peeves:

Razor Burn!  Okay, so I suffered through my Acne stage from ages 15 thru 25 and when it was over, I was a happy man!  But from time to time, I am reminded of the dreaded pizza face syndrome by my trusty razor.  Not sure what causes it but the little read bumps dominate and I am once again humiliated!  So I resort to the unthinkable, my wife’s Covergirl.  Sometimes people notice and I say “Don’t hate me cause I’m beautiful!”

People at Yard Sales!  “Hmm those candle holders are too much.  I’ll give you $1.75,” the lady claims.  This coming from a woman who is driving a Mercedes and carrying a Coach purse!   The original price was only $2.00, so the lady has now shamed herself in my eyes!  (Guess that is how she affords the car)  She did make Bob Barker proud by so bluntly stating “Thats too much!”

To enter this contest, leave a comment with your email address. Simple right?? Well for an extra entry, leave us one of your pet peeves in the comment.

Bart always signs his books, so you can expect this will be a signed copy. Oh and did I mention Bart wrote this on Facebook? He entered a pet peeve into his status every day and the compiled them for the book. Very cool way of writing! So…. have at it. We’ll name a winner the day after Christmas!

This is Bart’s 3rd book. Check out my reviews on his other books:
Adventures of a Fat Kid
The Gentleman in Room 205