But, that’s not the best part.  This was the cherry on the sundae…

I have to admit, I have the best in-laws.  I’ve been working on getting the ebooks I already owned onto it, and purchased Shogun to finish reading on it, cuz I thought it would be a good test.  Plus, the copy I own is very thick and has very small print — it’s much easier reading it on the Kindle. So far, I’m really happy with it! I just need to get a case…

I hope Santa was as good to you as he was to me!

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Anyway, I hope all you Thanksgiving celebrators out there had a good Thanksgiving! We traveled to Ohio and visited with my dad’s family.  We basically did nothing but eat, play games, and sleep from 8pm on Wednesday until we fell into bed at 1am Saturday morning.  Our food of choice was pie, and our games of choice were Euchre, poker, and a game called Time’s Up. There were 32 of us for Thanksgiving dinner and from 10-20 of us (depending on the time of day) at my aunt’s all day on Friday. My family is very loud and boisterous, so it was a raucous good time.

I brought some books with me, but the only reading I got done was either during the drive or while acting as a pillow for my cousin’s sleeping 1 month old.  It’s always nice to get a good baby sniff fix. I finished Last Rituals by Yrsa Sigurdardottir and we listened to Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore, which was better than some of the other Moore books we’ve listened to lately. I’m also halfway through The Book Thief, which I need to get finished for book club Thursday night. I like it so far, though it takes a little bit of time to adjust to the author’s style. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that most of my book club is going to hate it, because they probably will see the style as frippery.

Also, it is the time of year for challenge sign-ups! I have a whole mess of challenge posts starred in my Google Reader, so I’ll be posting about them in the month to come.

Now, for the mailbox! I had a few things come in this week — two books from Amazon Vine, and then some others from PaperbackSwap:

Veracity and The First Rule are the Vine books. I’ll be reading The First Rule fairly quickly, because my mother-in-law will flip over it.  I’d like to pass it on to her at Christmas.  The Outlaw Demon Wails will be read pretty soon as well, because I’ve been waiting for this to come up on my PBS wishlist for quite a while.

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I won Capote in Kansas in a giveaway on The Literate Housewife Review, and Jen was kind enough to deliver it in person at lunch last week! One of the perks of working only a few miles apart. The other three books I requested through PaperbackSwap.  The Book Thief is the book I need to read for my book club meeting on the 3rd, so it’s next on the TBR pile.  The Susan Isaacs books I requested after a recommendation from my writing instructor.  I think of it as method research!

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Killjoy and Ellen Foster are from PaperbackSwap.  The instructor of my writing class raves about Ellen Foster, so I have to give it a try.  True Blue was sent to me via Miriam of Hachette fame, and I have to confess that I’ve already read it and passed it on to my mother-in-law.  Thanks so much!

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All of these came from PaperbackSwap except for the last two.  Between Here and April was sent to me by Algonquin Books, and The Swan Thieves was sent to me by Little, Brown. Thanks so much to those publishers!

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Wasn’t that nice of her? Spooner looks to be quirky, and Roses is a family saga, which I just can’t resist. I can’t wait to read them!

By the way, here’s a pic of the three of us at lunch:

I’m looking forward to the next time we can get together, and hopefully next time Jen can join us!

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The first two are ARCs I received through LibraryThing, and the last four were from a PaperbackSwap exchange.

I hope you had great stuff in your mailbox!

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I’m writing this on Thursday and publishing it on Monday, it’s entirely possible (nay, likely!) that I’ll have Catching Fire finished by the time you read this.  I’m taking it with me on the road to Nashville this (past) weekend.  I buy new hardcovers so rarely, it feels like a treat!

Oh, and I got these also, from PaperbackSwap:

I hope you had great stuff in your mailbox!

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How to Say Goodbye in Robot is my latest snag from Amazon Vine.  A Friend of the Family came to me from the publisher, Algonquin Books.  The Shimmer, I received from a publicist.  And Society is from PaperbackSwap.

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Circle of Souls and The Widow’s Season came to me from their respective authors.  Love is a Four-Letter Word was sent to me by the publisher, Penguin/Plume, though I don’t remember requesting it. (Doesn’t mean I didn’t!) I am a fan of Wendy McClure, so I’m not disappointed. A Quiet Belief in Angels was also sent to me by the publisher, Overlook Press.  And The Spire and Huge are Amazon Vine books.

I have no idea how I’m going to find the time to read all of these.  I still have a backlog of books from LibraryThing, too!

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