According to Travelodge in the UK, this is the Books left behind Top 20 for 2012
20. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy John Le Carre

19. The Confession John Grisham
18. StrengthsFinder 2.0 Tom Rath
17. Room Emma Donoghue
16. The Fry Chronicles Stephen Fry
15. The Brightest Star In The Sky Marian Keyes
14. Diary Of A Wimpy Kid Jeff Kinney
13. Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography Steve Jobs
12. A Tiny Bit Marvellous Dawn French

11. One Day David Nicholls
10. The Help Kathryn Stockett
9. Mockingjay Suzanne Collins
8. Catching Fire Suzanne Collins
7. Fifty Shades Darker E.L. James
6. The Girl Who Played With Fire Stieg Larsson
5. The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins
4. Fifty Shades Freed E.L. James
3. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest Stieg Larsson
2. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Stieg Larsson
1. Fifty Shades of Grey E.L. James Yep, I’d believe this.

And just because I can, here is my list of

20 Erotica books that are better than 50 Shades of Grey…..

20 – Switching Hands (Black Lace Series) by Alaine Hood

19 – Continuum (Black Lace Series) by Portia Da Costa

18 – Black Lipstick Kisses (Black Lace Series) by Monica Belle

17 – Bedtime Stories Volume 2: A Celebration Of Australian Erotica by Various Authors

16 – Perfect for the Beach by Various Authors

15 – Exit to Eden by Anne Rampling

14 – Story of O by Pauline Réage

13 – Shadowfae (The Shadowfae Chronicles, #1) by Erica Hayes

12 – Belinda by Anne Rampling

11 – Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

10 – Seduced by Moonlight (Merry Gentry #3) by Laurell K. Hamilton

9 – Lipstick by Amy Valenti

8 – Bad Boys To Go by Various Authors

7 – Cooking up a Storm (Black Lace Series) by Emma Holly

6 – Men at Work by Various Authors

5 – Wicked Nights (Castle of Dark Dreams #1) by Nina Bangs

4 – Night Play (Were-Hunter #3) by Sherrilyn Kenyon

3 – Beauty’s Release (Sleeping Beauty #3) by A.N. Roquelaure

2 – Beauty’s Punishment (Sleeping Beauty #2) by A.N. Roquelaure

1 – The Claiming Of Sleeping Beauty (Sleeping Beauty #1) by A.N. Roquelaure

Please note I haven’t gone heavy on the ‘romance’ and I have missed SOOOOO many authors. Main thing is pretty much ANY book that contains a sex scene is better than 50 Shades of (bleeping) Grey so once you’ve finished with that utter shit… give these books a go.

Most of the authors above have many many books on offer, so get googling and get happy.

I haven’t posted one of these in quite a while and thought I had better catch up a little.

We’ve been averaging 7 attendees at the Vision meetings and there have been 2 instances over the last few months where we’ve been booted out of our room at the Queensland State Library with very little notice and it was through the brilliance of the Brisbane Square Library that we were able to go ahead with our meetings.

I have written 12385 words since the last blog. Most of those were for the burn bright website.

I have read, as of May, 34 more books. Which is a total of 81 books. I’m happy to meet that resolution.

On my review TBR pile I have

Dollhouse in Ebook by Anya Allyn
Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan
All These Things I’ve done by Gabrielle Zevin
A Killing in the Hills by Julia Keller
The Blind Goddess by Anne Holt
The Geneva Trap by Stella Rimington
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Tangle of need by Nalini Singh

And on order for review are
Undeadly by Michele Vail

Spark by Brigid Kemmerer

For my own personal reading *and perhaps review*

Roil and Night’s Engines by Trent Jamieson

Exile and Sactuary by Rowena Cory Daniells

This doesn’t even include the other books I should catch up on like the last Laurell K Hamilton.

To get through these books I have been endeavouring to up my pages read per day count to 150 rather than 100.

Wish me luck.

Oh and the biggest and coolest things to happen to me since the last at a glance blog were getting to meet the two wonderful authors Isobelle Carmody and Charlaine Harris.

A little bragging photographic evidence

Life is a wonderful thing, even through colds and migraines and dealing with day to day life.

Though we haven’t had a regular few weeks. With the kiddo winning the first prize in a Japanese Speaking competition against 3 other schools, and her coming second in the district for high jump in her age bracket, I was walking on air.

I can not believe my little girl is officially 11 years old as of last week, and the day before her birthday was competing in the regional athletics carnival. She feels like she didn’t do so well, but I remind her when she is in a moment of self doubt, she was one of only 2 untrained girls in her age bracket at this level of competition. The fact that she’s made it this far makes her a champion in my opinion. She was the ONLY girl from her district high jump competition to even compete at the regionals. I was a really proud Mum.