What I've been up to the past month.

Writing: I didn't get too much done in the past month. I did, however, make good progress on a short story. And also have been doing some editing of Part Three here and there - though not as much as I should be doing.

Reading: I finished six books in July, as well as finishing one today. Overall, I rated them 9/10.
Books keep getting marked off on my reading list... Observe:

The Future Door by Jason Lethcoe - A good sequel to a good book.

Crater by Homer Hickam - Loved this book!!

A bunch of random Agatha Christie - I've read three now. Murder at the Vicarage, the first Miss Marple mystery; And Then There Were None, an amazing book that every mystery fan should read! and Death on the Nile, which I just finished about half an hour ago. It was very good and had a very great ending!

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - Brilliant book, if you can get past the swearing and slang phrases. (By the way, I LOVE the idea of blotting out bad words. Thanks Writer4Christ!)

Emma by Jane Austin - I haven't been able to finish this one yet, but I'm still enjoying it! I just need to find time to enjoy it....

Sew, It's a Quest and Do You Take This Quest? by Kendra E. Ardnek - Check! These are great books. I especially liked the second one.

The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss - We're going to try and take this one out of the library, to listen to in the car on the way to my Grandma's.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - LOVED this one! Great.

Assignment: Eternity by Greg Cox - I exchanged A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court for this Star Trek novel.

The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien - now that I've finished with The Two Towers... I want to take on the final part in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I'm planning on reading this one next month.

I took Anne of Green Gables off of the list because I know I'm not going to get that one read this summer. Perhaps this coming fall or winter... or even next spring or summer.

Nerd Life:
Nerd Life (hosted by Clair over at Working Title) is sadly over. I had lots of fun doing it and actually got quite a few of my books read! Plus I got to write up some nerdy articles about the Enterprise and StarGate.
Here are the books - and their mini-reviews - that I read and finished for Nerd Life!

Crater by Homer Hickam. I already did a review for this book, that you can find somewhere. Just a recap, though.... Crater Trueblood is an orphan living and working on the moon. He is given the dangerous mission of accompanying the convoy across the lunar plains to the great Armstrong City. Crater runs across many adventures and enemies and must choose who to save, and who to ally himself with.
I really really enjoyed this book. It was right up my alley - a sci-fi adventure with quirky elements that defied the current expectations for novels. It had some violence, but nothing was described in too much detail. Go find and read this book!

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. Oh my goodness. If you need a thrilling, spine-chilling, adventure mystery, this is the book for you! Caution: do not read this book while camping on an island, it will make you frightened for your life.
Ten people are invited to an island by the mysterious U.N. Owen. There is no way off of the island and one by one people are being killed off.... The only logical solution is that the killer is one of the ten. But which one?

Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie. I just finished this one tonight, so I'm not sure it counts.... But I'm going to count it anyway.
Poirot, the detective, is on holiday. He's taking a tour up the Nile, in Egypt. Also on the boat is the extremely rich heiress, Linnet Doyle, recently married and on her honeymoon. Unfortunately, she also proves to be the perfect incentive to murder....
This book moved very slowly at first. Nothing really exciting happens until about halfway through the book. But, considering that there's probably fifteen main characters, this might be a good thing. We get to know the characters, we get to know that some of them aren't all they seem, and the tension builds.
The ending was very satisfactory, I enjoyed it. And I'm always a fan of how Agatha Christie puts so many characters into her novels that she has the reader running in circles trying to figure out who's who and if they're important or not. Also, I loved the setting. I used to want to be an archaeologist when I was younger, and though that ambition has flown away, I still retain my love of Egypt.
Though this wasn't my favorite Agatha Christie that I've read, it certainly doesn't fall short and would greatly enthrall any mystery and Egypt fan!

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. I still can't wrap my mind around this book. It was so brilliantly written and thought out and executed... And so sad. Yet, it has a lot wrong with it as well.... Mainly the swearing and slang words.

Emma by Jane Austin. I haven't finished this one yet, but I'm getting close. I have about 21 chapters left (out of, like, 50).

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. I really enjoyed this book. I think it's a sweet novelette that anyone should read if they need something short, sweet, and easy to read.

And finally... Assignment: Eternity by Greg Cox. I didn't get to this one. I might wait until fall to read it.

And there you have it!

In the coming month I hope to finish Part Three of After the Twelfth Night. I would also like to finish Emma, read another Agatha Christie, read (and finish!) The Return of the King, and read Crescent (the sequel to Crater) by Homer Hickam. As I said above, we're getting The Swiss Family Robinson out of the library to listen to in the car, so hopefully that gets done. Also, I'm hoping to get The Phantom Tollbooth out of the library, after reading Kendra's blog post on the world of that book. It interested me and I decided to randomly get it out and read it!

So there you have it!

Live long and prosper!