Year of books!

I listened to my first audiobook in January and fell in love! Listening to books while driving all over town made traffic a non-issue (unless I was hungry or stressed or late, okay traffic is always an issue).

I started with Storm Front by Jim Butcher read by the best narrator ever! James Marsters was Harry Dresdren all the way. There is no one like Harry. He's good to the core except for his arrogance that can run amuck and his bad attitude that often quadruples his enemy tally every time he hunts bad guys.

Darynda Jones' Charlie Davidson also starred in my audiobook addiction this year. Narrator Lorelei King rocks the planet. She can do any voice in any genre. Despite the steam factor in this series, and oh boy, the best of the best has to be the friendship between Charlie and Cookie. I love those girls.

There was a bit of indie author love with Jana Aston, Katie Mettner, Michelle Mankin, and Dannika Dark. I reconnected with forever favorites, Kristen Ashley, team Ilona Andrews, Katie McGarry, and Patricia Briggs. And found a new favorite, Julie Garwood (historical romance with awesomely hilarious heroines). 

There were a couple nonfiction reads in there to add a little legitimacy to my book fervor. I loved loved loved Stephen King's On Writing memoir. He narrates the audio version and it feels like a weekend long seminar on writing, life, passion, you name it. Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing made the favorites list because the woman made me laugh about grammar.

Here are a few top favorites:

Sidekick Showcase [54] Best Friend

Sidekick Showcase is a monthly bookish meme, hosted here by Jaclyn at JC's Book Haven. There are many secondary characters that are as great as the primaries. In some cases, the sidekicks actually steal the show and you like them better than the heroine or hero. Maybe they didn't have enough page time for how great they were. Anyone can play along! I will post my Sidekicks on the first Saturday of the month, then whichever day during the month that you would like to post yours, you can put your link in on my page. Just do the following:

• Choose a sidekick *or someone other than the hero or heroine* that you would like to put in the spotlight that fits in the week's topic

• Share a picture (if you can) and information about the character

• Give the title and author of a book the character can be found in

• Please don't include too many spoilers when describing why the character is such a great sidekick

• The day of your post, click the 'Sidekicks' link in my header and enter the link for your post. Here, you can also see anyone else that posted during the month to visit their Sidekick Showcase's as well.

Topic ideas for September:

Best Friend, Fun, Ball of Energy, Humorous

There are so many stories with best friends I've adopted as my book best friends. Pick any of the quartet from Morganville, or Rose Hathaway from Vampire Academy, or Jinx from The Hollows, but I've listed all of them before in my sidekick posts (more than once). So I'm going with Cookie Kowalski from Darynda Jones' Charlie Davidson series. Cookie is Charlie's receptionist, best friend, neighbor, partner in snark. I love Cookie. She's a single mom in her thirties with the most obvious crush on a guy who has a balance of hero moments and total asshat moments. Actress Melissa McCarthy would be the perfect Cookie.

“Make it quick," I said when I picked up.
"Okay. Two men from the FBI are here." Cookie said. Quickly.
Crap. "Men in black are at the office?"
"Well, yes, but they're actually in more of a navy."
Crapola. I so don't have time for men. In any color. "Okay, two questions. Do they look mad, and are they hot?"
After a long, long, pause, Cookie said, "One, not really. Two, no comment at this time. And three, you're on speakerphone."
After another long, long pause, I said, "Okie dokie then. Be there in a jiff.”
― Darynda Jones, Second Grave on the Left

I asked my own sidekicks who'd they choose. My sister's pick is Molly from Faith Hunter's Jane Yellowrock series. Molly is a powerful witch with even more powerful witchy kids. She has every reason to steer clear of Jane, but those two will do anything for each other.

My mom is going with Henry Pitts from Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone detective series. I love Henry. He's a retired commercial baker who spends his golden years baking, creating crossword puzzles, and offering Kinsey a safe refuge from her isolating, dangerous world of detective work. He's plain cool.

How about you all? Any best friend sidekicks you can't live without in a story or wish were your best friends?