Last week I was unofficially diagnosed with migraines (and there's apparently nothing to be done about it while I'm nursing). For the most part, I get some visual hallucinations that last twenty to thirty minutes (this is apparently called a migraine aura) and a slight increase in the headache that I've had for two weeks now. Sometimes, though, I get the awful stereotypical migraine headache pain. This makes for shoddy mothering skills, to speak nothing of my inability to care enough to review books.

I'm fighting a lot of doubt in my ability to be a decent mother, an adequate homeschooler, a reasonable wife. The constant pain clearly isn't helping.

Strangely (or not so much), I have still been managing to read. It helps that I've packed my ebook reader (Cybook Gen 3) with "quick reads" that aren't terribly thought-intensive. I've enjoyed all the books that I've read so far, but I can't bring myself to care enough to actually review them. Suffice it to say, these are good books and you should read them if you get the chance:

Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris
Changes by Jim Butcher
Lover Mine by J. R. Ward
Heart's Blood by Juliet Marillier

Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth

I was lucky enough to receive this book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program. The premise for the book is that Nathaniel Cade is a vampire in the employ of the President of the United States. He's bound to stop the forces of the Other Side.

This isn't a new concept. Think Hellboy crossed with general political thrillers. With a little Heroes thrown in, maybe. But it was still original enough to be intriguing. I didn't expect much from the story and was pleasantly surprised to find that I had a hard time putting it down. I'm fairly certain that I was supposed to become more endeared to Zach as the book progressed. Truth be told, even at the end I still felt that he was a sad replacement for Griff. Cade, on the other hand, was awesome. How could you not like a vampire who has a conscience, but also freely admits to being evil?

I look forward to future novels featuring Nathaniel Cade. The paranormal aspects of this book made the political thriller side of it less dull and predictable. I'd like to say that I have someone in mind to pass this book on to. But most people I know who like politcal thrillers aren't really big on the whole paranormal thing. There's an audience out there for this book, no doubt. I just don't know them personally.

And then there were five.

Well, the Beast was born a week ago Thursday. I'm finding that reading has taken a back seat to life for now. Reviews will resume as I find the time.

I'm still working my way through the fourth (third for me) Indiana Jones book, but it never seems to be conveniently located. My ebook reader is soon to be filled with fast and fun books to read while nursing the monsters - provided I can manage to have my reading glasses handy.