In an effort to get started on the What's in a Name Challenge I picked up Count Karlstein
From Amazon Review:
"I might have occupied my mind usefully with Improving Thoughts, but the only improvement I could imagine then was a pair of wings, to enable me to fly to freedom. And, of course, a Head for Heights. I cleaned the dust from the window and peered out hopefully, but there was nothing but a Horrid Precipice, with jagged crags several thousands of feet below." Such are the woes of young Charlotte, locked in a tower room of her uncle's gloomy Castle Karlstein in 19th-century Switzerland. Escaping this predicament seems the least of her worries: in a solemn blood pact, her evil uncle, Count Karlstein, has promised to sacrifice his two orphaned nieces, Lucy and Charlotte, to Zamiel the Demon Huntsman--on midnight of All Souls' Eve--in return for his current riches.
First, however, the heartless Count and his "lip-licking, moist-handed, creeping, smarming" secretary, Herr Arturo Snivelwurst, will have to catch Lucy, too--and it is no small task with the headstrong, 14-year-old Hildi Kelmar; her 18-year-old, handsome-in-a-scowling-sort-of-way brother, Peter; and the intrepid English teacher Miss Augusta Davenport on the girls' side. As Miss Davenport herself points out, "an English gentlewoman can rise above any circumstances, given intelligence and a loaded pistol." The events in this delightful gothic farce unfold quickly in a variety of narrative voices, artfully building in suspense to a powerful, terrifying, deeply satisfying stand-off between the Count and the Demon Huntsman of Impenetrable Darkness himself. Subplots and loose ends are gracefully, happily, justly tied up in the light of day, finally allowing readers to exhale."
I am glad that the What's in a Name Challenge brought me to finally read a Philip Pullman book but I don't think I'll be doing it again any time soon.
1. Food
2. Plant
3. Title
4. Place Name
5. Body of Water
6. Music Term
Currently "Reading":
Book - The Adventures of Doctor Who. Omnibus comprising: Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks; Doctor Who and the Revenge of the Cybermen; Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster
E-Book - The Man Upstairs & Other Stories - From the Manor Wodehouse Collection, a selection from the early works of P. G. Wodehouse
Audio - The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs
by Otto Scamfer from the author for review. It is a children's book so I opened the PDF with my son sitting on my lap. The illustrations are brilliant, with enough detail to be interesting but clear cut and colorful so they appeal to even the youngest readers. 
by Simon Guerrier. I really liked this one, actually I think it's my favorite of the Doctor and Martha books I have read. This is the first one I would love to see as part of the series, maybe in a different form now that David Tennant has moved on from The Doctor and Martha probably isn't coming back as the new Doctor's companion but still. It's also the first one I truly wanted to be a part of, the rest of them are fun reads and I love the characters but I never really wanted to be part of the story until The Pirate Loop.
by Kimberly Willis Holt I know for sure and other things but I just can't think of them all right now, I could of course look back on my own blog but then again so could you...
by Alexander McCall Smith - What's in a Name challenge and I've always wanted to try a book by this author
by Jim Stallings - short stories challenge not loving it but great for the bathroom
by P.G. Wodehouse - short stories challenge and I love Wodehouse
by Laura Kalpakian - working on my short stories challenge
by Nancy Dreyfus Psy. - book I received for review can't wait to get started on it, looks good.
