Jay's Book meme...

Last week I said I would attempt this, but didn't get to do it before the Thanksgiving holiday. My DH was home for 5 straight days, I was thrilled when he went back to work yesterday. Finally, today I'm back on a normal schedule. I hadn't blog hopped in 6 days, just popped in an out of a couple of blogs when I had time. It took my 7 days to finish 2 books.

Okay, here goes, Jay's book meme:

1. 99% of what I read is romance, it's what I like, it's what I read. If that makes me a girly girl so be it.
2. I pay little or no attention to character description and rarely visualize the hero and heroine.
3. I love dialogue with the exception of Catherine Coulter's overly witty converstations, I perpetually feel somehow out of the loop.
4. I don't crack or crease the spines of my books if I can help it.
5. I could care less abou the size of a book, paperback, trade, hardback, I read them all.
6. Nothing keeps me from buying books, not even food, if I really want it I buy it--though I am getting more and more from the library, which makes my husband happy as he likes to eat.
7. I rarely buy a book by it's cover.
8. I've gotten to the point cover art doesn't bother me, except those really bad ebook covers--those are just creepy.
9. I'd take a good medieval over any other romance sub-genre.
10. I still read Nora Roberts even though her trilogies are faithful to the Nora formula--comfort read, what can I say.
11. I don't read NR's alter ego, JD Robb any more, though I love Rourke, Eve was starting to annoy me.
12. I don't read Jayne Ann Krentz for the same reason I read NR--formula, I can't explain it.
13. Linda Howard will be an auto buy until she retires, though I'm not buying her in hardback anymore.
14. I have a love/hate relationships with series, either I love them...Julia Quinn, Liz Carlyle, Eloise James or hate them...Feehan, Kenyon.
15. Give me an alpha hero over a beta any day of the week.
16. As long as the heroine isn't TSTL, I don't care what type of personality she is.
17. I don't leave the house without a book, you never know when you'll be stuck in traffic, though I refuse to read and drive at the same time.
18. I reread keepers on a regular basis.
19. I usually use whatever is at hand as a bookmark, even though I have a great cat and mouse bookmark, and if I can't find anything I'll remember the last page.
20. When riding in the car with my husband, I'll sit in the back seat and read so I can ignore his lousy driving (though he claims to be the world's best driver--LOL--hopefully he wont read this.)
21. It took me years to give up reading the last few pages of a book first.
22. I love Susan Johnson's historical footnotes.
23. I love book dedications.
24. I always read the "coming soon" sections.
25. I read in bed with a flashlight, just like when I was a kid.

If I think about it I could probably come up with a few more, but 25 sounds like a nice round number.

Have a great day and happy reading.

Tara

Will the real Santa Claus please stand up...

Yesterday morning Junior and I ran to the supermarket. Next door is a drug store that was doing pictures with Santa. So we went over and had his picture taken and he told Santa what he wanted for Christmas, "Thomas and the Jet Engine" which we "know" Santa has already gotten for him.

While we were grocery shopping he announced, "That wasn't really Santa."

Without a beat, I told him, "I know, that was one of Santa's elves. You know Santa can't be at every event, so he sends his elves to help out. You'll know when it's the real Santa."

I thought that was a pretty good save, but I'm sure he'll ask the next Santa he visits if he's the real one or an elf.

I'm not sure how much blogging or reading I'll be getting done this month. We entertain just about every weekend between now and New Years. Crazy, but we love it.

Have a great day and happy reading,

Tara

Happy Thanksgiving!

A quick wish that everyone have a very Happy Thanksgiving.

The snow has stopped, the bird is in the oven and the table is set.

Have a great day and if you have enough time to read--Enjoy!!

Tara

Romantic Suspense--good, but not great

Killing Time by Linda Howard, Blue Smoke by Nora Roberts and Superstition by Karen Robards--the three romantic suspense novels I've read in the last week. I guess the Linda Howard could be called a time travel, but it's still a romantic suspense too.

What do these three books have in common? They were all good, entertaining reads, not very good, not great, but nice solid reads. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this, on one hand I find myself entertained and that should be good enough, and yet on the other, I'm disappointed the books weren't better. Each and every one had the potential of becoming very good or great, but never quite got there.

I find this to be true with most romantic suspenses. I'm rarely wowed and yet I'm still entertained. Does this make sense? Are my expectations too high?

That's it for now, more deep thoughts later, after I clean the house.

Have a good one and happy reading,

Tara

question of the day...

Like most cute and precocious 4 year olds, my child comes up with the funny, little question and statements each day.

On the ride to school yesterday the question of the day was:

• How many F's are there in "Enough is Enough"? And before I could answer he announced 20, which was fine because at that point I didn't want to explain gh=f.

While playing at a friends house the statement of the day was:

• "You should really rethink that." This came out when his best friends brother started pounding on the floor with a plastic hockey stick.

It does my heart good that he's actually listening, but I'm not sure I like hearing my own words--LOL.

One more thought on parenting. When I was a kid, if my mom was still cleaning the house when we got home from school, it was a sign we were getting company. But, we knew better than to ask who was coming over, this would really piss mom off. It was a sure way of hearing, "What do you think I only clean the house when we're having company?" So as I'm cleaning today getting ready for Thursday, my son just asked, "Mommy, you're cleaning who's coming over?" I chose not to be annoyed.

"The Mother's Curse." It really works.

Today's going to be a busy one...

First, I want to say I had a great time guest blogging on RTB, and was relieved that people commented, thanks ladies.

School day, but also "The Thanksgiving Songfest" day. I drop him off early and come back at 10:30 an hour early, considering we live a 1/2 hour from school it's not worth coming home and going back. I'll take some digital pictures and post them tonight. My kid's a huge ham. I think I'll bring a book and just wait. It'll give me an hour and a half to read, maybe that's enough time to finish Karen Robards' SuspicionSuperstition. I've been on a romantic suspense kick. I'll have to blog about it tomorrow.

After school, we're heading to a mega store (that one I love to hate) to pick up some Thanksgiving supplies and need to start cleaning the house. My husband wants to use our back porch, he thinks we need the space, now I need to find somewhere else to hide and store all the Christmas presents we've already purchased, not an easy thing considering we have a old house with next to no closets.

My Mom is driving me crazy, she's been watching too much Food network and especially too much Alton Brown. She wants me to brine the turkey for Thursday. I'll be happy if I can get everything cooked and on the table at the same time.

I've got to go or we'll be late.

Have a great day and happy reading.

A Little of This and a Little of That

I was surprised when I received an email saying my guest column was up today over on Romancing The Blog. I submitted it last week, for some reason I didn't expect it to be up so fast.

Instead of getting ready for Thanksgiving, which is at our house this year, I've been reading. I finished Hot Spell, Killing Time and Blue Smoke. I'm posting them over on the sidebar, but I'm trying to come up with something coherent to say about them in an actual blog. But, I'm starting to get a little panicky about the holidays.

I haven't really started thinking about what to make for Thanksgiving. We went to Mass last night, so I'm heading food shopping this morning. My husband just saw on the news that we're expecting a Nor'Easter on Tuesday (just rain) and maybe some accumulating snow north and west of NYC on Thanksgiving--that's us. Sixteen people for dinner and it may snow--I'm not a happy camper.

Got to get in the shower and get shopping. Have a great day and happy reading.

Library Reading and Mary Jo Putney's Stolen Magic

Tuesday I made a trip back to the library and picked up:

• Killing Time -- Linda Howard
• Superstition -- Karen Robards
• Son of a Witch -- Gregory Maguire

I also put on reserve:

• The new Candice Proctor historical mystery
• The new Gabaldon
• The new Anne Rice (what can I say, I'm curious)
• Wives and Daughters recommended by Anne E.
• Blue Smoke -- Nora Roberts

The librarian called today to let me know the NR's book is available, which kind of surprised me because I was 300 on the list, but it turns out that was for the entire library district and I was actually first on the list for the copy at our library.

So, tomorrow I'll be returning Mary Jo Putney's Stolen Magic and picking up the NR. Amanda asked me to comment on it.

I'm going to start out by saying the book isn't in front of me and I can't remember the characters full names, not good sign. MJP is a good writer, the story is well written, but it's painfully slow and it was work for me to finish. I thought the review over at RT was generous, 4 stars, but, it must be me, because the review over at AAR is a B+. Though, the reviewer over at AAR thought that the story bogged down at times, but not enough to detract from the story. I did like the unicorn and maiden theme. So if you can get passed the slowness of the story, you'll probably like this one.

I've already started Linda Howard's Killing Time, maybe I'll have time to finish it before bed.

Have a great night and happy reading.

Some days are better than others...

This may be somewhat meandering, but it's been a rough day. I'm going to start by saying Junior is fine.

It didn't start out so bad. I was up early (5:30) took a shower and actually got Junior to school early. I picked up Hot Spell yesterday at the UBS/Indie bookstore, bought it new, not used, and started Meljean's Falling for Anthony, but didn't have time last night to finish it. Brought the book with me thinking I'd read while Junior was in school and decided at the last minute to do some Christmas shopping instead, I'm horribly behind, normally I'm finished, wrapped, with the Christmas cards written and ready to go out.

I barely made it back to school by 11:30, traffic was horrendous. And when I walked into the school the Assistant Director said I was to go straight into the classroom. Oh boy, somethings wrong.

Not 2 minutes before I got to school, Junior was running back to his seat after storytime and fell. He hit his jaw against his chair and fell backwards hitting his head on the floor. And, he was hysterical, which is so unusual for him, but falling in general is unusual for him (he's very coordinated and rarely falls or hits his head, he's not one of those kids covered in bruises) and he had really worked himself up. I get him settled down and we head for home. And once in the car he falls asleep.

Well, that made me nervous, so when we got home I called the pediatrician. The nurse there tells me to wake him every 1/2 hour and make sure he recognizes me and if he starts to throw up I'm to take him straight to the emergency room. At 12:30 I woke him, he gripes at me but talks to me for a minute--I know he's okay. At 1:00 I had a hard time waking him up and I couldn't get him to focus on me. So I put him back in the van and head to the emergency room. At this point I've talked to my husband twice and he's on a job site an hour and a half away.

Junior sleeps all the way to the emergency room, wakes up when we get there, wants to know "What's this place and why are we here?" Now, I'm sure he's fine, but since we're there I decided it's better to be safe than sorry. Two hours later we have a clean bill of health and directions to keep as quiet as possible for the next 72 hours. He's got a wicked scrape and bruise on his jaw, but he's none the worse for wear.

The people at the ER were amazingly nice and thankfully it wasn't too busy. It turned out the admittance clerk sent her kids to the same preschool and the ER doctor was the one who helped save my dad's life--an excellent doctor. One day I'll blog about my dad's medical miracle, I've started to a couple of times but I usually end up in tears before I can actually get anything written.

Junior is fine, but he is very upset about missing Tae Kwon Do tomorrow.

After he went to bed, I got to finish Falling for Anthony. It was very good. I really like Meljean's writing style and you can't go wrong with a paranormal that has Guardians (Angels), a demon, a newly turned vampire and a nosferatu, I don't have the book in front of me so I hope I spelled that correctly.

Meljean, if you read this, you hit the horror mark when Anthony is attacked on the battlefield--nicely done. I'm looking forward to seeing where you take Lilith and Hugh.

I'm taping Lost, so I can go to bed, have a good night and happy reading.

Preconceptions, Good vs. Evil and Complete Ambivalence

I've blogged about this before, I try not to search out reviews before starting a new book, this way I can avoid being overly influenced by other readers and yet many of the books on my TBR come from reader blog recommendations. Basically, it comes down to this, if the book is by an auto buy author I don't bother to look for or read a review, if I come across one I'll read it, but it probably wont influence me one way or another. If it's written by a hit or miss author I'll check around for a synopsis, and if it's a new to me author I'll take the recommendations of different readers that I've found have similar taste to mine. It's a little convoluted, but it works for me.

All of this is a long winded way of saying I really try to avoid having preconceptions about a book. But, sometimes this is impossible to avoid, sometimes it's the back blurb of the book that causes the preconception.



I knew I was going to like this book before I cracked the cover. I love sports related romances especially sports related romances by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I thought it was a little long, but I was finishing it at 1:00 this morning and that may have something to do with this thinking.

For the past month I've been trying to read Patti O'Shea's Through a Crimson Veil. It's the 3rd book in the Crimson City series. And for the life of me, I haven't been able to figure out why it's not working for me. She has a great writing style and I should be loving this book. Yesterday, it finally hit me--I have preconceived ideas about demons. The hero and the heroine of this book are 1/2 demon, and for me demons have always fallen under the evil category in the grand good vs. evil scheme of things. Why I should think differently about demons than say ghosts, vampires or werewolves? I have no idea. It probably has something to do with religious faith, which in and of itself becomes a little heavy for blog that talks about romance reading, kids and other occasional musing.

And this brings me to my third profound thought of the morning. I'm wondering if the best way to come at reading a book is to be completely ambivalent, not really, but it's a concept. I haven't read Mary Jo Putney in years. For some reason I completely lost interest in her historicals and I've only read one of her contemporaries, and I can honestly say it pissed me off to the point I stopped reading her altogether. Somewhere along my web hopping I heard she had written a romantic fantasy. When I saw it at the library yesterday, I picked it up, I have absolutely no idea what it's about, but I'm giving it a try.

Those are my deep thoughts of the day, have good one and happy reading.

The Library

Today, while running errands after school I decided to stop at our local library. I can honestly say I completely under utilize it, but now that Christmas is upon us I'm doing the frugal thing and not buying books, I may be taking greater advantage of it. Not that I don't have a huge TBR pile, but for some reason this doesn't seem to count because nothing on it seems appealing, that is at least for now.

We picked up 2 kids videos, 2 kids books and 2 books for me. We didn't have much time and after picking out things for Junior I only had enough time to peruse the "popular reading" selections which included Susan Elizabeth Phillips' Match Me If You Can and a Mary Jo Putney that I can't seem to remember the title of, I haven't read MJP in a few years, but figured 'hey, it's a library book, I'm not paying for it.'

While Junior is in Tae Kwon Do tomorrow, I'm going back with a list. Now, I actually have to make a list.

Have a great night and happy reading.

The Colorado Kid by Stephen King

I bought this book for my husband the first week it came out. He has always been a SK fan and I knew he would like it, besides I figured I'd buy him a book so he couldn't complain about the pile I bought for myself.

He's (my husband not Stephen King) has been bugging me to read it since he finished it. Yesterday was a quiet day, so I decided to read it. I enjoyed how the story was told in conversational manner, by two old, small town Maine newspaper men. The cover picture has absolutely nothing to the story being told to the young female reporter, and she certainly isn't sitting in their office looking like the that. I still loved the "Pulp Fiction" cover.

If you blow up the cover you'll see the question "Would She Learn the Dead Man's SECRET?" No damn it, you never learn the "secret." And, yet that was the whole point to the story, some mysteries never have closure.

On the sidebar I put this book under "Okay" but maybe after thinking about it I'll move it to good, not great, but good. I like closure for my mysteries.

Have a great day and happy reading.

One more thing, how can "sidebar" not be in Blogger's spell check? Didn't the OJ trail make that word completely mainstream??

Hey Erika, one more thing...

I didn't want my comment back to you regarding Lydia Joyce's The Music of the Night to get lost because of all my other posts.

One of the things I like about this book is the heroine (Sarah) is from abject poverty, but that hasn't stopped her from rising to become a Lady's Companion. The heroine is strong on her own, she doesn't need Sebastian and in fact Sarah makes him the better person. And, that's why I consider this an "adult romance".

What I also like about this book--she comes from poverty, but it's not a Pygmalion/My Fair Lady Story. She has already pulled herself out of poverty on her own, with a help from a friend, who we never actually meet. She makes hard and sometimes practical choices and lives with them, without too many regrets and always looks forward not back. She knows what she wants out of life and takes the paths that will get her there.

To be honest, Sebastian is an idiot at times and the revenge plot line doesn't ever show him in a favorable light.

It's an interesting book. I'm not trying to talk you into, just explain why for me it's an "adult romance" and why it works. I'm not on the AAR message boards very often, I'm usually over there checking out reviews. I'm kind of assuming "adult" is being used as a euphemism for "non-virgin" which would also work in this case.

A Couple of Kid Tales

I'm once again going to regale everyone with tales of my cute kid.

On the way to school the other day I told my son I was going to get my hair colored while he was in school. He sat there very quiet for a minute and then asked "Red, green or brown?" When I told him brown, he told me I should color it orange--that's his favorite color.

Monday while I was out running an errand I left my husband home alone with Junior. Hubby was getting changed and Junior was on his stomach, in the middle of the living room drawing pictures on a giant pad of paper. Somehow while my husband was upstairs for 5 minutes (so he says) our son managed to take magic markers and draw on himself green raccoon eyes, huge red clown lips, blued the top of his hands and put pink on his palms. I wish hubby had taken a picture, but he was so worried it wouldn't come off, he didn't think of it.

Two days later his palms were still pink, the rest of him washed off that night. I guess I shouldn't complain, it could have been worse, one of the boys in his Tae Kwon Do class is platinum blonde and he colored his hair with red marker and it didn't come out, he had a red patch for a week.

You could have knocked me over with a feather...

Yesterday, when I was opening several days worth of mail over at my yahoo account (I'm really bad about getting over there, it's like having a Post Office box and never stopping to check your mail) I found one with this title:

Romancing The Blog Guest Invitation

To be honest, it took me completely by surprise, a very pleasant surprise. At this point I have no idea what I'm going to write, but I don't think it will compare with todays column The Poisoned Nipple Theory (aka TPNT)--LOL, great column.

Have a great day and happy reading.

The Music of the Night by Lydia Joyce

Lydia Joyce has an amazing writing voice, so different from anyone else writing historical romance that at times she is shocking and refreshing at the same time. The Music of the Night is a rare gem in historical romances, a sophisticated adult romance.

I picked this out of the AAR review:

...I think some readers accustomed to the lighter and far less complex general run of historical romances today may find the book a tad overwritten. But, this, fellow readers, is how it’s supposed to be – complicated, challenging, sexy, and altogether adult.

There is so much going on in this book, I'm afraid to comment too much, simply put the story is packed with well developed characters and plot twists that any comment may give away too much information.

There are 2 things that keep me from saying this is a perfect book -- 1. Revenge is the driving force of the story and at times overpowers the relationship between the h/h. It also leaves me questioning whether or not I even like the hero. But, then the heroine is so different, so intelligent, so practical and on one level accepting of her lot in life and yet is constantly trying to improve herself and her life, that I'm left not really caring whether or not I like the hero, because she has become my heroine. 2. The ending is rushed and the epilogue isn't needed, and to be honest a little sappy, and I would have rather been left to my own imagination.

If you're looking for a dark, gothic styled, sophisticated romance, with well developed characters and interesting story--try this one.

I'm done gushing--LOL.

Have a great day, and happy reading.

Is this true?

So, tonight I'm watching HGTV's House Hunters International while I'm stamping "Merry Christmas" on the inside of 50 cards and I hear something I thought was a little strange.

This couple was looking for an apartment in Paris (they were living in Portland and were retiring) and the wife said that in France when you go to get a mortgage a full physical is required and your interest rates are determined by how healthy you are (but it doesn't matter if you smoke) and I wonder, gee, do they do credit checks too or doesn't that matter??

They also said that the average apartment in Paris is about the equivalent of $350,000. I don't think you can find a cardboard box in NYC for that. The apartments were great, but the kitchens were teeny tiny, and is purple a popular color for French water closets?? They found a cool apartment close to Moulin Rouge, it even had a huge patio.

A couple of updates

Just a couple of updates--Junior's stomach virus is gone and we found an allergy medication that doesn't gag him--it was a good day at our house--LOL.

I'm officially on reading hold. For some reason, which I can not explain, I decided to make our Christmas Cards this year (rubber stamp project)--what the heck was I thinking??? I also decided to make some Christmas gifts, memory pillows for some of the ladies in the family. And, I can't do anything while Junior is awake, tried it over the weekend and he ink all over himself.

I'll probably be doing a little reading early in the morning, so maybe I'll get a few books in this month. Right now I'm reading the new Lydia Joyce, The Music of the Night. I'm about a third of the way finished, it's very good, I really like her writing style, but I'm not really sure where it's going, which I guess is a good thing.

Have a good one, happy reading.

Wicked Storms

Last night the storm front that set off those horrible tornados in Indiana and Kentucky came through our area of NY. Fall and winter thunderstorms are amazing, I don't know if it's because there are no leaves on the trees to mute the glow of the lighting, but last night the sky was pure white light when lightning struck and the thunder was so loud it shook the house.

Sick Mode

Never believe a 4 year old when he says "I'm not going to throw up."

We've now spent the last several days in sick mode. The poor child has chronic post nasal drip caused by allergies, unfortunately this makes him sick to his stomach and add to that a real stomach virus and we have a recipe for disaster. For the past 2 days he's been eating the BRAT (bananas, rice, apples, toast) only we don't have any bananas in the house so I guess we would call it the RAT diet.

He actually has an incredibly sensitive stomach and we've only discovered one allergy medication that he will keep down and it's no longer available because it's being reformulated, whatever that means. All I know is I called several pharmacies looking for it and no one has it. Tomorrow we are back to the pediatrician for samples of one they think he'll keep down.

I'm done whining about my son being sick.

I reread Susan Squires' The Companion this weekend. I couldn't remember whether or not Langley from The Hunger was in it. Beatrix was, but Langley wasn't, though there is a nameless reference to him and she is anxious to get back to Amsterdam. For some reason I find myself wanting to see the characters from previous books almost as if to verify that the HEA is real. I'm trying to find a copy of The Only One which is an anthology from a couple of years ago that is part of this series. Can you tell I'm getting a little obsessive about the whole thing??--LOL

Have a great night and happy reading.

Ouch, bet that hurt!!

I found this in our local paper this morning:

Jury rules against woman in genital gluing

GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) -- A Westmoreland County jury on Friday ordered a woman to pay $46,200 to her ex-boyfriend for gluing his genitals to his abdomen.

Jurors found in favor of Kenneth Slaby of Pittsburgh in his civil case against Gail O'Toole of Murrysville after three days of testimony and ordered the payment for pain, suffering and emotional distress, according to television station KDKA.

"For all the pain and suffering I've been through, and the embarrassment, I don't think it's enough," Slaby told reporters after the verdict.
Slaby's lawsuit said the two broke up in 1999 after dating for 10 months, and he began dating someone else. After he broke up with his other girlfriend, Slaby said, O'Toole invited him over to her home on May 7, 2000, where he fell asleep.

He said he woke up to find that O'Toole had used Super Glue to stick his genitals to his abdomen, glued his buttocks together and spelled out a profanity on his back in nail polish.

Slaby said O'Toole told him that her actions were payback for their breakup, and he had to walk a mile to a gas station to call for help. He pressed charges and O'Toole pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and spent six months on probation.

But O'Toole's attorney contended that the incident was nothing more than part of the couple's adventurous, consensual sex.

© 2005 The Associated Press.

Sacrament by Susan Squires

I've finished 2 books in the last couple of days, Not So Innocent by Laura Lee Guhrke was the first. It was a good book, set in the late 1890s with a psychic heroine and a Scotland Yard Inspector with murder, mayhem and a Jack The Ripperesque villain.

I decided to read this one before Susan Squires' Sacrament, I'm afraid I'm going to vampire myself out, since I've never been a fan of Feehan or Kenyon and I had a tendency to base my opinion of the vampire romances by their works.

I started Sacrament last night and finished it while waiting to pick Junior up after school. I really enjoyed this book, and yet I don't think it was as good as The Companion and The Hunger. There is an underlying feeling of anxiety and dread as you're reading which is very compelling. I think TC and TH take the feeling of dread one step further which made them scarier books.

Off to read the new Lydia Joyce, picked it up at B&N today.

Have a great weekend and happy reading.

Sick Day

Today Junior was supposed to go on a field trip to a local volunteer firehouse, but he got sick in the parking lot of his school this morning and had to come home. He was heart broken, so heart broken I cried right along with him. There is nothing worse than seeing your child so unhappy. But, we stopped and got Coke and Gatorade and that cheered him up.

Mr. Incredible...aka so, you wanted pictures...

Snack time during our school party, please note the tiny cupcakes with spiderwebs--oh, and the kid's cute too.


Frozone isn't Mr. Incredible's only superhero friend, Batman is his other bestest friend in the whole world, aka Michael.

Working out, getting ready for lifting all that candy.

Going door to door is serious business.

No "trick or treat," no candy. That's the rule.


The night's finished and Petey Cat and Mr. Incredible are heading to bed.