Random Thoughts... Reading Obsessed

2011-04-15T16:43:00.001-04:00

So, what happened to Dear Author??

Read the first 2 PB Ryan books

2011-04-06T16:04:00.000-04:00

So, I read the first 2 PB Ryan historical mysteries--not as good as CS Harris, but certainly not the smutty stuff implied in my last post. I'm back to playing Scrabble, but have plenty of books to read--I wonder what one calls their TBR pile when it's in their e-reader??

Have a great day and happy reading.

PB Ryan aka Patricia Ryan

2011-04-01T16:10:00.001-04:00

I recently discovered some of my favorite authors have had their books "reprinted" for the Kindle, in particular Marsha Canham and Patricia Ryan. I downloaded Canham's The Wind and the Sea (never read) and Ryan's Silken Threads, which is one of my favorite Ryan books. I then discovered Patricia Ryan wrote a series of historical mysteries under the name of PB Ryan--of course, others probably already know this, but what can I say, I was a little romance crazy for the last 25+ years. I read the little blurb for Still Life With Murder and read the following review...

...P. B. Ryan's Nell Sweeney's mystery was ruined for me by the inclusion of tasteless sexual details, which as they continued to surface, had to be a chosen device of the author to titillate and keep her audience reading. Since I don't voluntarily read soft-core porn, I stopped reading after the prostitute Pearl's salacious account of a very satisfying transaction in an alley with a customer; he was so "good" that Pearl was practically breathless recalling it--GIVE ME A BREAK! I should have realized the book's "slant" sooner, when the "heroine" is revealed in the first few pages to be having an affair with her employer and mentor, Dr. Greaves. Enough is enough, so I threw the book in the recycling bin. This isn't the kind of "escape" reading I enjoy, and I plan to skip the later books too.

As soon as I read "...Since I don't voluntarily read soft-core porn, I stopped reading... when the "heroine" is revealed in the first few pages to be having an affair with her employer and mentor... I threw the book in the recycling bin..." I decided this book was definitely for me. Don't you just love the condescending review??

Whenever I read Amazon reviews I always read the the ones with 1 or 2 stars, never 5 stars. This one was a 1 star. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Have a great day, and happy reading.

That Crazy Schedule

2011-03-31T14:47:00.000-04:00

Junior plays Little League. That's probably enough information to understand what havoc this creates with our already over scheduled lives. Right now it's practice on Tuesday and Thursday from 5:30 pm-7:00 pm. Right smack in the middle of dinner time. We also have practice Saturday from 11-1, can anyone say lunch time. Add to this on Thursdays I teach a CCD (religious education) class from 3:45 until 5:15. I have one child--how do people with more deal with this?? I guess it explains fast food meals.

Have a great day and happy reading.

No More

2011-03-30T08:31:00.001-04:00

Well, there is no more C.S. Harris to be read until next year. I finished Where Shadows Dance at 4:00 this morning. LOVED IT. Totally enjoyed all 6 books and am completely ready for number 7. I read somewhere that the next book wont be out until next March--that's a really long wait. I guess it's time to move on to something else.

It may be noticed that I renamed the blog to "Random Thoughts... Reading Obsessed". I'm admitting that I've moved on from Romance. Don't get me wrong, I still read romance, but I seem to be picking up other genres more often these days. Last Christmas I went on a Women's Lit binge. Then moved to rereading old favorites, which by the way were mostly romance.

What to read next?? I don't know yet.

Have a great day and happy reading.

C.S. Harris

2011-03-28T04:57:00.000-04:00

I've officially discovered C.S. Harris' Sebastien St. Cyr Mysteries. I'd heard wonderful thinks about these books, but had not read any of them. I've read the first four books in the last 3 days. I guess that would be called a reading binge. I've started number five.

Somehow I knew I would be a fan, I absolutely adore her writings as Candice Proctor--I can't even count how many times I've read her romance backlist.

Got to go, have a great day and happy reading.

The Kindle Makes Me Very Happy

2011-03-23T06:17:00.000-04:00

Three weeks ago I mentioned to my husband I was thinking about ordering a Kindle; and since he didn't object, make a face or ask my what's a Kindle, I ordered it.

This has to rank really high on my good decisions list.

A few years ago, I had asked for an "e-reader" for Christmas. My brother-in-law is supposed to be the king of gadgets in our family and he told my MIL to order a Franklin Bookman. What a waste of money. If memory serves correct, Meljean sent me Demon Angel, which I promptly downloaded onto the Bookman--it was a huge yikes to discover it took up all the space. This swore me off e-readers for quite a while.

The Kindle makes me very happy. As soon as I received it, I promptly downloaded all sorts of books--including Stephen Kings UR, which I loved. Downloaded a biography of Amelia Earhart that Junior read for a book report that is due this week. I even downloaded the Bible. And still have an amazing amount of space available. But what has me completely hooked--SCRABBLE. Yeah, happy dance, I've read nothing since downloading that last week.

Got to go, I should have been in the shower 15 minutes ago.

Have a great day and happy reading.

Things

2011-03-19T09:58:00.000-04:00

When I look at the posts listed below, there seems to be some continuity to them. They go from March 1 to March 18, the only problem--March 1 was 2010 and March 18 is 2011. What happened? Is it possible to catch up an entire year? I'll hit a few highs and lows...

Very Low... March 6, 2010--the only date I'll note. My husband collapsed at home and spent 10 in the hospital--3 in intensive care with diabetic ketoacidocis. Heck of a way to discover your diabetic. He had been sick for days and ended up going to the hospital by ambulance. We spent the first 6 months just learning to deal with diabetes. My husband has a tendency to be obsessive, so he took to the low carb, no sugar diet with a vengeance--losing more than 40 lbs. He now has a 30 inch waist. He's a little less obsessive now and the doctor says he can splurge once in a while. He does eat a no sugar added ice cream sundae every night after dinner, which makes him very happy.

We got a dog in October. She's very sweet. So sweet we named her Sweet Pea. She's a beagle mix. Our local animal shelter has an arrangement with a pound in Georgia, we take their dogs that are going to be euthanized. We figured beagle mix would give us a "smaller dog" to live in our "small house". Not our luck. Turns out she is a beagle/fox hound mix. She's a clumsy, smelly hound dog and we love her. Well, Junior and I love her, my husband isn't so sure. She's proof that a bored foxhound is a dangerous thing. During her teething stage she literally ripped apart anything that wasn't nailed down, though she didn't chew on furniture, just everything else. The picture is from the day we brought her home.
Junior got his first dirt bike for Christmas. He's ridden it once--Christmas Day. Since Christmas we had snow on the ground until last week and now everything is too muddy from all the melting. He's hoping to ride today--I'm not so sure. He's sitting in our home office with his helmet on right . If he does get to ride, it will be without goggles--Sweet Pea ate his during that teething stage.
High Note--I bought myself a Kindle a couple of weeks ago--went on a reading binge and downloaded Scrabble yesterday--makes me very happy.

So, that is basically it. I still work for our church, Junior still goes to Catholic School, little league started this week. I'm spending some time following links through romanceland. It seems that in real life and on-line things change and yet things stay the same.

Hope all are well, happy reading and have a great day.

Back... Maybe

2011-03-18T16:28:00.001-04:00

I disappeared for a year, and wonder if it's worth starting up again. Can I dedicate enough time to keep anyone besided myself entertained? Not that entertaining myself is a bad thing.

Hope all my on-line friends are happy and healthy.

Maybe I'll be back later.

Have a great day and Happy Reading!

Holy Cow--that's a lot of snow

2010-03-01T17:03:00.002-05:00

Well, it snowed for 4 straight days last week. Tuesday and Wednesday weren't that bad mostly accumulating on the grass and sidewalks, the roads weren't too bad, but Thursday and Friday--YIKES--30" of snow later and Holy Cow--that's a lot of snow. The snowbank left at the end of our driveway by the plow was over 6' tall.

We lost power Thursday night, it was back on Friday night. When the power is out there's no heat, no hot water and no stove. The house was 50 degrees by the time the power came back on. We can't complain, we know several school families are still without electricity.

When we weren't shoveling, I was reading. Finishing 3 more books from my recent UBS visit, including Meredith Duran's Written on Your Skin, which was very good. I haven't been able to get Bound by Your Touch used, so I may have to order it new. I'm currently reading Marianna Jameson's My Hero, I found this one at the UBS after reading a really good review by Rosario.

The child finally went back to school today, they had 3 snow days in a row--unheard of around here. The school's science fair that was scheduled last Thursday has been rescheduled for tonight. The child made an electromagnet with the help from Dad. So we're busy tonight.

Have a great day and happy reading.

Another binge

2010-02-18T14:36:00.000-05:00

I picked up books at the UBS on Monday and have been on another reading binge, finishing 4 Kristin Higgins books in 3 days and am now rereading a Laura Lee Guhrke.

Next week is very busy at work, so I probably wont be around much.

Have a great day and happy reading :)

Valentine's Day Card from the hubby...

2010-02-15T09:09:00.003-05:00

In the whole world,

each person is assigned

one other person

to be their

special soulmate,

their Valentine

Ha-ha!

You got stuck

with me!

We laughed ourselves silly :)

Some random thoughts...

2010-02-15T08:27:00.001-05:00

It's been a very strange winter in our neck of the woods. Very little snow, but very cold. The river behind our house is frozen over. We're expecting some snow tonight (4-8"), but certainly nothing like the Mid-Atlantic States have seen this winter.

With the snow coming tomorrow, I'll have to drag the poor child with me to work on our day off. Though I think we may make a trip to the UBS first. I made a list and realized most of the books fall into the Regency-Victorian period. I need to go outside of my current comfort zone and maybe I'd read with more consistancy rather then in reading binges, with massive dry spells in between.

Is anyone watching the Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. series on PBS? We watched last week and it was very interesting. Gates (the Gates of the beer summit) researched the geneology of 12 well known Americans. The first episode was very interesting and we (the hubby and I) are looking forward to the rest of the series.

When I was a child I LOVED the olympics. I can barely work up luke warm enthusiasm now. And it seems like children aren't as interested in them either. I wonder did the end of the Cold War ruin the olympics?? No more us vs. them.

Now that I've bored anyone that stopped by... Have a great day and happy reading.

2010-02-14T12:43:00.001-05:00

Hopefully you've found your Knight in Shining Armour :)

Binge Reading

2010-02-10T11:09:00.004-05:00

Once again I disappeared for longer than I expected, having said that I have been lurking every few days on a few blogs as time allowed.

It's snowing in NY and we have a snow day. It's giving me some time to post about my recent reading binge. I've realized like the binge drinker, who may not drink for long periods of time and then go on a bender, I binge read. A couple of weeks ago I went on a reading bender finishing 7 books in 4 days...

Book one: Seducing the Heiress by Olivia Drake was the first book of my reading binge. Olivia Drake was an auto buy for me when she wrote under the name of Barbara Dawson Smith. It was a rather inauspicious start to a reading binge as it wasn't a book that I enjoyed. Never warming to either of the leads, I was left rather blah with the whole story line and concept. Probably explains why BDS has been off my auto buy list for quite sometime.

Book Two: Ravishing in Red by Madeline Hunter. Madeline Hunter is an author I know will always provide a well written story. This was a great start of a new series. There was a wonderful balance of tension between the hero and heroine and the story left me looking forward to the next in the series. The hero is the second son living out his handicapped brother's life, a fascinating dynamic which was beautifully written.

Book Three: Shadowlight by Lynn Viehl. Like Madeline Hunter I know Lynn Viehl will always come through with a well written and interesting story. Once again she does not fail. Shadowlight is the first in a new series (The Kyndred), a spin off from her Darkyn series. LOVED IT!! Not only are we learning more about the orphans that have been genetically altered, like Alex and Samantha from the Darkyn series, they are finding one another and piecing together their history.

Book Four: Lead Me On by Victoria Dahl. There was a review of this book on Dear Author a while ago and I think it got a C+ or there about, but there was something about the story line in that review that caught my attention. And, I have to say this book worked for me. Was it perfect? No. But for some reason I understood Jane, not that I'm anything like Jane IRL. And what was not to love about Chase? The funny thing is I have no interest in the rest of the series, but this one worked for me.

Book Five: All Night with a Rogue by Alexandra Hawkins. Have you ever read a book that didn't have one likable character, not the leads nor the secondary characters are likeable, and still actually like the story? That's what happened to me with this book. It's the first book in the Lord's of Vice series and I have to admit that the "Lord's of Vice" are over indulged, obnoxious over the top rakes with bad nicknames a la Stephanie Laurens, though in this case the nicknames all seem to tie to their titles. He is the Marquess of Sinclair and his nickname is Sin, it's a concept anyway :) Maybe the fact that they are real "rakes" is what makes the book rather compelling. Maybe it goes back to my love of good redemption story. I'm currently rereading this book to try and figure out why it worked for me.

Book Six: Lessons from a Scarlet Lady by Emma Wildes. I have to admit this book made me laugh though I'm not sure it was supposed to :) The main characters are already married. The young bride wants to bring some spice into their relationship and reads and follows the directions from "Lady Rothburg Advice", a courtesan's memoir. The hubby loves the changes and yet is left wondering how his wife acquired her new knowledge and this leads to a rather forced conflict. Even with the forced conflict the story was rather fun.

Book Seven: Faith by Deneane Clark. This book slammed the door on my reading binge. The story is Regency set and yet there seemed to be a familiarity between the characters that seemed too contemporary, they never referred to one another by their titles, strange complaint but is just seemed odd. The heroine was too uptight and the conflict too forced.

So there you have one massive reading binge. Did you notice my obvious attraction to red covers?? While I was reading like a lunatic my husband was telling me to pace myself, that I would run out of things to read. Apparently he doesn't realize that huge basket next to the bed is filled with books I haven't read yet. Just waiting for my next reading binge :)

Hope all are well and happily reading :)

Busy, Busy, Busy

2010-01-13T15:29:00.000-05:00

Things get very busy at work this time of the year.
So, I'm not even blog hopping right now.
I hope all are well and reading.
because, I'm not reading anything new.

Christmas Break

2010-01-03T12:03:00.000-05:00

On Christmas Eve I decided to give up the computer for Christmas. Turned it off and didn't turn it back on until this morning. I was hoping to make it until Little Christmas (Jan. 6th), but I needed to print out a report for the church's Rosary Altar Society.

It was great. Didn't even check emails.

Hopefully all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Coming up for air

2009-12-18T06:26:00.001-05:00

This is my second Christmas working for our church. I don't remember last year being so busy.

At home the tree is up and decorated, the cards are out and I started the candy making and baking last night. Nothing is wrapped.

Nothing New

2009-12-15T06:06:00.001-05:00

That is I'm not reading anything new. I've given up on the TBR pile. I'm sure there are some great books in there, but nothing is screaming "READ ME."

I did finish Jude Deveraux's The Taming and The Conquest. Both were written more than 15 years ago. Both are old school style romances. I didn't expect to still enjoy them, but I did. Deveraux hits all my "redemption" buttons. Both have a bit of The Taming of the Shrew thing going on. In The Taming it's the Peregrine oldest brother that needs taming/redemption and in The Conquest it's the only Peregrine sister that is tamed. The Peregrine family title and lands have been stolen by a manipulative Howard going back two generations. They are taught to hate, to the point of obsession, all things Howard. Considering what the Howards have done to them over the last two generations, it's probably understandable. Slaughter, starvation and utter poverty drives everything the Peregrine's do, from how they treat each other, to how they treat their peasants.

And of course, it's love that heals them.

Ultimately, that's why these stories worked for me. They are wallpaper historicals with story holes you can drive a Mack truck through, with massive inconsistancies within each book and between the two books. And yet they still worked for me, because Deveraux took me by the hand and walked me through a story about strength, love, growth and family. And--Happily Ever After.

CALZONES AND DESSERT PIZZA aka still not reading

2009-12-10T07:44:00.008-05:00

We've been on a calzone kick at our house. Cheese filled pizza dough at it's creamy best. I usually make three, one for the hubby, the child and I split one and the other goes in the hubby's lunch box the next day. This always leaves some dough left over. Sometimes I make zeppolis, sometimes I make a small pizza. Last night I attempted my first dessert pizza--butter, cinnamon sugar, chocolate chips and chopped walnuts--yum :)

**Edited to include recipes (kind of recipes anyway :) **:

CALZONES
2 lbs of pizza dough (frozen, fresh or homemade)
I usually use frozen
1 lb of ricotta cheese
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
3 TBLS parmesan cheese
1 cup of your favorite Marinara Sauce

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Separate the dough into approximately 4 equal sized pieces. Shape each piece of dough into a 10" or 12" circle. On half of each circle layer 1/3 of the ricotta, 1/4 cup of shredded mozzarella and 1 TBLS of parmesan. Fold over dough to make half moon shaped calzones, seal the dough by pinching or rolling over the edge. Place calzones on a parchment covered cookie sheet, brush on some olive oil, poke a couple of vent holes in the top of each and bake for about 20-25 minutes until calzones are brown, serve with Marinara sauce on the side.

I don't add any extra salt or pepper, we like the flavor of the cheeses and it's salty enough from the parmesan. sometimes we put sliced meatballs or sausage as the bottom layer and mixing spinach with the ricotta sounds good too

DESSERT PIZZA (this is an eyeball recipe--the amounts depend on how thick you like your dough):

Shape the leftover ball of dough into a pizza, whatever thickness you like. Spread butter like you would sauce, not as thick as you would sauce, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, next is a layer of chocolate chips then a layer of walnuts. Use as much or as little as you like of the cinnamon sugar, chocolate chips and walnuts. Bake at 400 until dough is brown, again use parchment paper or a silpat on your cookie sheet (makes clean up easier).

Can you tell I'm not reading? Each day I post something to keep the blogging thing going, but even I know it's rather inane. Rosario did a DNF Round-up yesterday. I decided against this since any new book I've tried has been a DNF and I realize it's probably not the books. I'm out of my reading groove.

Have a great day and happy reading.

Strange Weather Day

2009-12-09T18:11:00.001-05:00

It snowed last night. Not a surprise if you watch the news--it seems to be snowing over 2/3 of the country. We had 8 inches last night. This morning it turned to freezing rain and now it's only rain. So of course, the snow was unbelievably heavy, like shoveling wet cement, especially what the plow left 2 feet deep at the end of the driveway. And, of course, the plow came after my husband left for work, leaving the blessed job of clean-up for me. Thank goodness the hubby did the rest of the shoveling, so I only had to do the end of the driveway.

Now we're having a thunderstorm. And it was hailing on the other side of the county.

Old School at its best or worst?

2009-12-08T17:20:00.000-05:00

Yesterday when I was pulling out Linda Howard's Mr. Perfect I found my original Doubleday Bookclub copy of Jude Deveraux's The Taming, something I have not read in years and years. Originally printed in 1989 it's a mini hardcover with 216 pages.

I pulled this quote from JD's Simon and Schuster webpage:

England's most valiant knights paid court to wealthy Liana Neville, but only the infamous warrior Rogan Peregrine made no secret of his powerful desires. His very caress melted Liana into liquid fire, and she vowed to capture this magnificent, wild man. Boldly the delicate beauty gave him her hand -- and Britain's richest dower. Yet he was bound to a bitter feud: for love betrayed, brothers killed, and ancestral land usurped. In Rogan's war-ravaged castle, Liana would lay her tender seige...to redeem his embattled spirit and win his untamed heart!

From the original book jacket:

No knight in England could resist the lure of her vast furtune, but Lady Liana Neville desired a man who coveted more than money. Determined to test the power of her beauty upon a man who has no knowledge o her wealth and position, Liana disguises herself as a peasant girl and entices a fierce, handsome stranger. How could she know that the warm, rough kisses of a low-born rogue could so deeply arouse her own passion? or that the peasant who had insulted and excited her is none other than Rogan Peregrine--an arrogant knight who has come to demand Liana's hand in marriage!

Despite her family's warning of a violent blood feud that has left Rogan penniless, Liana is unable to deny the fire between them. Can her love heal the scars of his cruel past? Or will his bitter obsession become a dangerous game of revenge that destroys them both?

The only thing I remember about this book, is that Rogan is a clueless bully and yet I also remember thoroughly enjoying it.

Maybe it needs a reread. I'm wondering if it's Old School romance at its best or worst :)

Have a great night and happy reading.

2009-12-08T06:08:00.003-05:00

I reread Linda Howard's Mr. Perfect cover to cover last night. It's still good :)

The Weekend...

2009-12-07T06:27:00.004-05:00

I'll start the post by saying I'm not reading anything new. I've been picking up favorites and reading bits and pieces. Nothing's been read start to finish in probably a week. And believe me it's not because the TBR pile is empty.

But I had a lovely weekend despite my lack of reading interest.

Saturday was our school's annual Tricky Tray event, which I describe as an upscale penny social. My sister and I go every year and enjoy spending time together, even if we don't win anything. She was quite happy with the wine basket she won (it featured her favorite Merlot).
It snowed all day Saturday and into Saturday night, we woke up to a winter wonderland Sunday morning. I love late fall and early spring snow, it sticks to trees and creates a beautiful snowy world.
We bought our Christmas tree on Sunday. Right now it's leaning against the side of the house, we wont actually move it into the house until next weekend. We like our trees to last until Little Christmas in January.

I still have decorating to finish and boxes to put away. It'll all get done this week and hopefully my reading mojo will come back this week too.

Have a great day and happy reading.

Not Ready

2009-12-05T18:44:00.000-05:00

How did December creep up so quickly?

I'm not ready, not even remotely ready for Christmas. The cards are done, but not mailed. The shopping is started but not finished. The inside outside decorating is partially done, but again not finished. I haven't even thought about the baking and candy making.

Christmas is twenty days away. How do I know this? It's announced daily by the child.

I love this picture. He was 4 and taking taekwondo and they had a great Christmas party.

too much... not enough...

2009-12-02T14:11:00.001-05:00

I had little bit of time to myself this afternoon, between doing laundry and washing dishes, before heading to work in our CCD office later. Not enough time to start decorating for Christmas, but just enough to do some lurking on-line...

Why do so many romance readers and writers look for the approval of the non-romance readers of the world?
Do we have an inferiority complex that makes us feel the need to justify what we choose to read and explain why?
Why do we hyper-analyze what we read?
When did simply reading for pleasure go out of style?
Why do some people stir up trouble where there isn't any?

Just curious.

Now I have to wash dishes. Have a great day and happy reading.

2009-12-02T09:52:00.001-05:00

I have two new favorite websites:

Confessions of a Pioneer Woman I could spend hours just looking at the pictures and discovering her archives. And honestly, what I've read so far sounds like a really good romance novel :)
Whipped Out I love Angie's and Jane's new website/blog. I've been toying with posting similar things here, recipes and craft ideas.

Have a great day, and happy reading.

2009-12-01T06:27:00.000-05:00

I'm completely enjoying the Sony Reader post on Dear Author

“To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband’s dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor.” – Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn --I think I need this book.
The set-up: Daphne, the heroine, needs help to find her missing brother in Egypt. The consul general is anxious to get rid of a certain problem aristocrat who cannot seem to stay out of trouble. So the consul recommends Rupert Carsington, aka Mr. Impossible, to Daphne. The following exchange takes place in a filthy jail where Rupert is currently cooling his heels after a dustup on the streets of Cairo.
“Mr. Beechey,” she said, her voice not as steady as she could wish, “are you sure this is the man I want?”
An impossibly deep voice, most definitely not Mr. Beechey’s, answered with a laugh. “That would depend, madam, on what what it is you want me for. ”

I love this book!--me too :)
“It was loaded,” he said coolly. Georgette Heyer, DEVIL’S CUB--I just reread this book, don't you love an understatement.
I will find you,” he whispered in my ear. “I promise. If I must endure two hundred years of purgatory, two hundred years without you—then that is my punishment, which I have earned for my crimes. For I have lied, and killed, and stolen; betrayed and broken trust. But there is one thing that shall lie in the balance. When I shall stand before God, I shall have one thing to say, to weigh against the rest.”

His voice dropped, nearly to a whisper, and his arms tightened around me.“Lord, ye gave me a rare woman, and God! I loved her well.”

–From Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon--maybe I need to pick this series up again, I made it to book 5.
“Lady Madelyne had sealed her own fate. She’d warmed his feet.” The quote is from Honor’s Spendor by Julie Garwood. One of my favorite Garwood books.--this has to be one of my all time favorite romances.

And the list goes on and on.

EATING, SHOPPING, READING and another list

2009-12-01T05:31:00.000-05:00

The title says it all! Our weekend consisted of eating, shopping and reading, in that order :)

We went to my sister's for Thanksgiving, which meant I had to cook another Thanksgiving dinner on Friday. The hubby doesn't like my sister's cooking--he prefers mine. After 25+ years of marriage this isn't a shock. That he's getting more vocal about it is a tad surprising. He did like the gravy at my sister's (I made it, but the stock she made was great, which of course makes great gravy.)
Junior announced at Sunday dinner he was turkeyed out--nothing but turkey, turkey soup, sandwiches and Thanksgiving left overs since Thursday. He did ask for the last of the turkey soup for lunch yesterday, so maybe he wasn't completely turkeyed out :)
Our local weekly paper has a "school section" and they occasionally visit schools and ask questions like "What are you thankful for?" Junior's answer: "All the American soldiers fighting for our freedom and pie. My mom makes good banana cream pie." Why the pie comment? "Because I wanted you to have your name in the paper too." Apparantly "My mom" qualifies as having my name in the paper too :) I made a banana cream pie on Sunday.
No, we didn't shop on black Friday, but we were out bright and early on Saturday. Toys r us was picked clean, but I managed to find some Christmas presents for our nieces and nephews. Next up Kohls--they always have great sales. Then it was on to Barnes & Nobles, they were hositng a fundraiser for our school and of course it wasn't difficult to spend money there.
Our son is a geek. Please note I've whispered this, because I believe my husband holds out hope that Junior will still be a great athlete, the child loves baseball, soccer and wants to play football next year, and Junior thinks "geek" is bad. While we were in Toys r us he had a $25 gift card to spend--he chose books--LOVE THAT :)
Sunday was family day. It started out (after Mass) as reading day, each of us with our noses in books for a large chunk of the day. And then it became rocket day. My husbands is reliving some of his youth, as a child he loved shooting off rockets with his brother. He has passed on this love to our child and they had a blast (literally and figuratively), while mommy DSed in the car.

That was our holiday weekend--it was wonderful. Have a great day, and happy reading :)

2009-11-25T14:08:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!

We'll be disappearing for a couple of days, have a great Thanksgiving and happy reading.

Even Steven or Finding Balance Where There is None

2009-11-24T16:41:00.001-05:00

The other day we watched the Seinfeld Even Steven eposide, where George is up, Elaine is down and Jerry is Even Steven. This is what came to mind today as I read through the RWA/Jane/Dear Author debacle .

I'm Even Steven. When I don't have a dog in the fight, I find myself seeing both sides. I'm always amazed by the inability of people not to see there are two sides to an issue and inevitably there is a balance that falls somewhere in the middle, sometimes right smack in the middle and sometimes somewhere closer to one perspective than another.

My take...

I have to think RWA is over-reacting, but I'm not surprisied given the romfail situation. Romfail makes me very uncomfortable. After seeing all the attention it was garnishing, I checked it out and read a large chunk of the "romfail" from 3 days ago. I don't live by the "if you have nothing good to say...", but there is a point where snark turns to humiliation, and I have to think romfail hits that point.

Having said that, Jane does more to support the romance genre than most bloggers in Romanceland... Reviews, First Sales, Interviews, Link Round Ups, Publishing News, If You Like..., Recommended Reads, and for me the mind numbing ebook information. Apparantly there isn't enough here to warrant her support of romance authors. I'm not sure what else she could actually do?

It's not the last time RWA will be short sighted and I'm sure Jane will continue with romfail. If you don't like romfail don't follow or participate, but RWA can't claim "...that indicate you do not support RWA or romance authors."

And that's one Even Steven's take. Have a great day and happy reading.

Real Life Interupts

2009-11-21T07:03:00.001-05:00

So once again real life interupted a really good reading binge. Since Wednesday we've been non-stop with work, school and cub scout things.

Wednesday I worked in the parish CCD (Religious Education) office, cleaning up some of their bookkeeping issues. Since I will only be going in a couple of hours a week this is going to be a long term project. That night our parent organization voted down our largest fundraiser. Largest means it requires a tremendous amount of time to plan, organize and run, unfortunately given the economy it only brings in a fraction of what it did in the past.

Thursday during the day I was baking Magic Cookie Bars and Pumpking Bread for the Cub Scout bake sale we're having on Saturday and Sunday after the Masses. Then it was After Care for the school and the communal baking of pies for the bake sale. We used the school's kitchen--lots of counter space and a nice sized convection oven. While we were baking the cafeteria was being used by another school fundraising commitee, putting together 100 gift baskets for an upcoming "Tricky Tray" event.

Friday it was back to work in the rectory. The bulletin for Thanksgiving weekend was due at the printer, normally it goes on Tuesday but holiday schedules always throws it back to the Friday before. The Sunday after Thanksgiving is the first week of Advent, which means--I'M NOT READY FOR CHRISTMAS!! After work I had After Care again. Junior went to see Planet 51 and I had to pick him up at a friends house. He didn't like the movie and announced he was never going to a movie with two 2nd graders and a kindergartener again--too much noise. I guess being a 3rd grader makes him old.

And in the middle of chaos the hubby has PIG FEVER. At least we think that's what it is. It started on Wednesday and we're hoping it's peaked.

Have a great day, we've got soccer and basketball today :)

SEPERATING FAITH FROM FICTION

2009-11-18T12:35:00.001-05:00

My post recently about Bed of Roses by Nora Roberts got me thinking about faith and romance. In one of my comments I used faith as a way to judge the characters and I realized I normally don't do this. Honestly, if we used religion as a basis to judge romance things probably would be found incredibly lacking. In the case of Bed of Roses, my concepts of faith comes into play because I'm left wondering why don't any of the Vows clients get married in churches--not to say I expect everyone to be married in some sort of church, but some of them certainly would have some sort of religious faith--right?

Normally I go into a book not expecting any religious beliefs one way or another and since I don't read inspirational romances, I find little or no religious belief systems in almost all the romances I read. With the exception of Linda Howard's Open Season, I can't remember a contemporary where the characters go to church together.

Most of the people who read this blog know 1. I'm a practicing Catholic, 2. my son goes to Catholic School and 3. I work for my Parish. If I used my faith as a litmus test for what I read, I'd be in serious trouble. But, I've come to realize I don't come at books using my faith. It's not my story being told, so I shouldn't or try not to judge what I read by what I believe. This works for me. Maybe in some way it's how I subconsciouly justify what I read, but I don't think so. There have been a few books over the years that cross what I would consider my boundries and I'm pretty careful to avoid books that cross that line.

So, here's the thing, if you believe in God and follow an "organized" religion, how do you seperate your faith from fiction?

Things...

2009-11-17T05:54:00.001-05:00

Random thoughts and observations from early this AM:

I really dislike the "when did you stop beating your wife?" type of questions, it always leaves me wondering why people even engage in the conversation.
We have a popular local radio station that is already playing Christmas music. I'm actually okay with this. The radio station's most populer DJ lives down the street from me. He's a pompous ass.
I was playing the station on my laptop at work yesterday and turned the music down when the pastor came into my office not because I thought the music would bother him, a Mariah Carey Christmas song came on, I hate Mariah Carey. Now I don't actually hate Mariah Carey, you can't hate someone you don't know. My dislike of her music is extreme, this also includes Whitney Houston and anyone else that does that weird flutter thing with their voices. I know they're talented, but I can't listen.
My office isn't really an office, it's a closet with a table, laptop and printer--works for me because it's really private and people can come in and out of the rectory and never know I'm back there working.
Another local radio station had a 70's Rock Weekend this past weekend and Junior is apparantely a fan of 70's Rock--right there with his mama :) Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, Elton John when he was actually good.
I'm a fan of redemption stories. Not a surprise, but it explains a good portion of what I read and what I keep. Sometimes I'm right in step with the rest of romanceland, but not always. After the discussion about rakes on Dear Author, I pulled out my copy of Georgette Heyer's Devil's Cub. I have to admit, one can not live on rakes alone.
I have a massive TBR pile and feel like I have nothing to read. How is that possible?

It's time to make the coffee, have a great day and happy reading.

Book Binge and other things.

2009-11-15T16:32:00.000-05:00

I've been on a reading binge since Friday, finishing Lauren Dane's Laid Bare, Beverly Jenkins' Captured and Bronwyn Parry's Dark Country. The best book of the bunch was Dark Country a really good spin off of As Darkness Falls. The Bronwyn Parry books are worth tracking down.

The child is at his second birthday party of the weekend. Yesterday it was a Chuck E. Cheese party. I personally think CEC is the third level of Hell. About 10 minutes into the birthday party the fire alarm in CEC went off and the entire building had to be evacuated. Today it's a bowling party--I just dropped him.

We got to visit with our new nephew today. He is very cute in that pinched baby sort of way.

Outdoor soccer finished yesterday and indoor soccer starts tomorrow. Cub Scouts is Tuesday. Parent organization meeting Wednesday. Baking for the Cub Scout Bake Sale Thursday--the Cub Master's wife wants us to bake 80 pies for Sunday's bake sale, I'm not really sure who we're selling them to, but I'll hear it if I don't show up.

The hubby is starving so I need to cook. Have a great night and happy reading.

ICE by Linda Howard (Review)

2009-11-14T07:46:00.003-05:00

Thanks to the USPS, this book arrived bright and early Friday morning.
Thanks to Wendy, I knew this was going to be short, really short.
Thanks to Dear Author and Rosie, I knew this wouldn't be comparable to her full size books.

So going into this book, my expectations were very, very low. But, hey, it's Linda Howard for crying out loud. Linda Howard on a bad day is still better than most authors on good days--so says this fangirl. And I admit it I AM A FANGIRL.

Yes, the price was obscene, but I'm going to be philosophical about it. I ordered this book at 198 pages and Stephen Kings new one at 1,074 pages, both cost $9. So I got 1,272 pages for $18. Not so bad, it was almost like getting this one free. See this fangirl can do simple math to justify the cost of a really overpriced book.

Gabriel has just made the trip from North Caroline (where he's an MP in the military) to his hometown in Maine. His dad is the county sheriff and sends him right out to check on Lolly. An ice storm is rolling in and the sheriff is concerned he can't reach Lolly on her cell phone. Gabriel's not thrilled, he thought Lolly was stuck up in high school and pushed her buttons whenever possible. Lolly's come home to prepare her parents house to be sold. Being from Maine she doesn't plan to stay in the house during an ice storm. She's picking up what she needs and heading back into town where it is safe.

Enter Niki and Darwin, meth addicts, who notice Lolly's Mercedes and figure they can score some money and stuff worth stealing if they follow her home. They're crazy in the criminal, drug addict way one would expect. They stalk and attack. Gabriel helps rescue and into the storm they all go.

The story that unfolds takes place, start to finish, in less than 24 hours. And it worked for me. Taking the time frame and story elements into consideration, we weren't going to get a romance centered story. We get a thriller, adventure centered story with hints of a romance to come. There's a good review by Sandy on AAR.

For me the only issue is price. It's not worth $22, it's not worth $9, if it had been released as a category romance for less than $5 it would have been better recieved, and worth the price. Get it at the library or wait for the paperback version, if the e-version is cheap get it.

That's it for now. Have a great day and happy reading.

ICE by Linda Howard

2009-11-13T14:29:00.000-05:00

An hour and a half and it was done.

It was MUCH better than I had expected. It probably paid to read Rosie and the Dear Author reviews.

Was it worth $9? No, but I wonder if anyone would be grumbling if it was a category romance instead?

Was it Open Season or Dream Man or Mr. Perfect? No, but it wasn't supposed to be. It's exactly what it's meant to be... a quick entertaining read. And, honestly, it would make a great action/adventure movie.

I'll blog more later as I'm working After Care at school.

Order Up

2009-11-13T07:43:00.005-05:00

The Amazon order I placed earlier this week came bright and early this am. The hubby had just pulled away to leave for work and the mail truck delivered Linda Howard's Ice and Stephen King's Under the Dome.

I'll probably have Ice finished today--mini hardcover with 198 pages. And I have no idea how long it will take the hubby to read Under the Dome--it comes in at a wopping 1074 pages. Both books cost $9 at Amazon.

Another Day, Another List Or Two

2009-11-11T13:21:00.105-05:00

Book related stuff...

Yesterday morning I read The Rake post on Dear Author. Most mornings I don't have enough time to formulate a comment for these types of discussions, of course, by the time I get home in the afternoon there are a gazillion comments and my thoughts will only get lost in the multitudes, not that I have anything interesting to add to the conversation. I love a good redemption story and real rakes need redemption don't they?
I posted this at the bottom of my Lorraine Heath post... I was 105 pages into Surrender of a Siren by Tessa Dare before I picked this one up. SOAS may end up a DNF for me, it took me 3 days to read 105 pages and I'm not even remotely interested in where the story is going. Oh, well. Unless someone tells me why this book is fantastic, I can't see how it rated B's everywhere I look for reviews. From the back blurb Sophia "wants a life of her own: unsheltered, unconventional, uninhibited." Sophia is 1. self-centered, 2. clueless, 3. unrepentant. What's the draw. I actually kind of like Gray, but not enough to care why he would be interested in "Miss Turner". I'd much prefer to read a story about Joss finding new love.
I just realized I don't have Meljean Brook's Demon Forged. I may have to stop at B&N and pick it up while we're out shopping.
For the most part I try to mix up my reading. Since most of what I read is historical I try to mix in some romantic suspense, contemporaries and paranormals between books or I'll burn out. I was digging through the TBR pile and realized I didn't have Meljean's latest, I was looking for a paranormal. I'm also missing the newest Viehl and Singh books.

We're off today, and a day off means things to do...

We have a new nephew, born yesterday to my BIL and his wife. Junior and I are heading to Kohl's for some bargain shopping--I got a $15 gift card in the mail from Kohl's and it's burning a hole in my pocket. A new baby is a perfect excuse to shop.
We had an appointment for an oil change this morning. The mechanic also replaced my headlights, not the bulbs, the whole headlight assemblies. The old ones were so fogged up that even with the brights on at night I was having a hard time seeing. New ones, clear bright and shiny. Just like Christmas--per Junior.
The house was in desperate need of vacuuming. We have an Oreck and I have a tendency to kill belts--sucking up the edges of area and oriental rugs will burn up belts real quick--of course, if I were a little more careful when I vacuumed this wouldn't be an issue. So, the vacuum had a funky smell and I assumed it was the belt. It took me a while to get to the Oreck store--why I didn't think to order belts on line I can't tell you. So this morning I'm all set to replace the belt--and yes, I do it myself--the belt is fine. The bag on the other hand weighed about 25 lbs., that would explain the lack of power and lousy suction that I had attributed to the belt being damaged. The whole house has been vacuumed. The hubby will be happy.
The child is outside playing. One of the neighborhood kids came to the door and whispered, bring the guns. We're the house with the good stuff, the stash that everyone wants, the arsenal, the weaponry--the Nerf guns, the toy rifles, the Star Wars Light Sabers, etc...

Got to go :) Have a great day and happy reading

MIDNIGHT PLEASURES WITH A SCOUNDREL by Lorraine Heath

2009-11-11T11:23:00.012-05:00

I'm not sure when I bought this book. I think it's release date was October 27th, so I must have picked it up sometime in the last 2 weeks. None of that really matters, but why was it at the top of the TBR pile? I don't know.

I dislike the title of this book, with the exception of "Midnight Pleasures" it doesn't have anything to do with a "Scoundrel" with the exception of the villains. Midnight Pleasures with a Scoundrel is book 4 in Lorraine Heath's adult version of Oliver Twist. The odd thing is I've not particularly loved this series, each story is different, readable but none have been keepers, but I've felt compelled to finish it.

Blurb:

She Sought Revenge But Discovered Desire.

On a quest to avenge her sister's death, Eleanor Watkins never expected to fall for the man following her through pleasure gardens and into ballrooms. But soon nothing can keep her from the arms of the sinfully attractive scoundrel, not even the dangerous secrets she keeps. Strong, compassionate, and utterly irresistible, James is all she desires. But can she trust him enough to let herself succumb to all the pleasures that midnight allows?

James Swindler has worked hard to atone for his unsavory past. He is now as at home in London's glittering salons as he is in the roughest streets. But when the inspector is tasked with keeping watch on a mysterious lady suspected of nefarious deeds, he is determined to use his skills at seduction to lure Eleanor into revealing her plans. Instead, he is the one seduced, turning away from everything he holds dear in order to protect her—no matter the cost to his heart.

This is a very good description of the book. I'd been looking forward to James' story as I felt he needed true love after being in love with Frannie since they were children. James isn't a scoundreal and Eleanor isn't whom she appears to be--and I'm leaving it at that.

There seems to be an odd cadence to the writing style for a large part of this book, no bad but a little choppy. Having said that the cadence and writing style left me somewhat detached from the story telling. The first half the book reads similar to a gothic novel. There is mystery afoot, but you can't quite put your finger on it. Eleanor is stalking a man who was the cause of her sister Elisabeth's death, but there is more to it. There are interesting twists to the story, which would include major spoilers if I actually included them.

That's all I'm giving you :) I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it, and yet somehow I felt compelled to finish it in less than 24 hours.

I was 105 pages into Surrender of a Siren by Tessa Dare before I picked this one up. SOAS may end up a DNF for me, it took me 3 days to read 105 pages and I'm not even remotely interested in where the story is going. Oh, well.

Have a great day, and happy reading.

Bed of Roses by Nora Roberts

2009-11-09T04:59:00.006-05:00

I finished Bed of Roses yesterday morning (after Mass and before working Bingo). I'll start by saying I liked this book. Do you hear the "but"? But I have some issues, which probably stem from working for a church. I apologize now for sounding prissy later :)

To be fair I'll list what I like about this book/series...

After a gazillion books, it is obivious Nora Roberts has writing down to an art. Fully developed, smart characters and an attention to details that is amazing.
In my list the other day I wasn't sure I liked the four women in these stories--I do like them. Their friendship, their commitment to each other, their sisterhood and love, their strengths and understanding of each others' weaknesses all of it is beautifully created and written.
I really liked Emma, she's sweet and giving. And the friends to lovers theme works for Emma and Jack.
The four heros are interesting, smart, and very different from one another.
I love the environment that Nora Roberts has created. The wedding business "Vows" is an incredible concept, owned and run by four smart women--the planner, the photographer, the floral designer and the baker. It's more than just the backdrop to the stories. it comes to life for every event.
The books are beautiful. To quote Wendy "...those trade paperbacks are really lovely to look at, touch and pet."

What I'm prissy about :)...

Do any of the "Vows" clients get married in a church instead of at Vows, not necessarily Catholic, but maybe Lutheran or Episcopal or Methodist, Reformed, Presbyterian or maybe a non-denominational church? There was a mention of a chupah [sp?] in this one.
There's something a little slutty about how they talk about when they last had sex. I don't expect women in contemporaries to be virgins, but these four seem a little bit looser than I'm used to. Now I realize my life revolves around a church environment, so I'm probably not a good judge of this :) Fast and loose can be expected in erotic romance. One of the ladies is on a sex moratorium--she hasn't had sex in 6 months and the other ladies commiserate with and feel bad for her. Maybe it's my age, or maybe it's my faith, but I believe sex is about long term commitment not just hooking up. Hooking up creeps me out. Told you I'd sound prissy.
The storyline of this one, seemed too similar to the 1st book. Mac had commitment issues in the Visions in White and Jack had issues in Bed of Roses. Both Mac and Jack are from divorced families (Jack's parents get along, Mac's mother is crazy). Carter (Visions in White)and Emma (Bed of Roses) are from large, stable and loving families. And the conflict about commitment in Bed of Roses seemed a little forced, I didn't like Jack's phobic reaction to commitment, but I also didn't like that they, the ladies who have known him for years, didn't understand his commitment issues.
This one is going to sound stupid, but I'm sharing it anyway. I don't like architect heros--strange right? My husband is in contractor sales and supply. He "hates" architects, well, not all architects, only the ones with "vision" and consider themselves artists. The hubby reads blueprints and it amazes him how often architects don't design to building code and sometimes designs aren't even structurally sound. Some architects are okay with changes or corrections to their designs, but the ones with "vision" can be and usually are difficult. Also, remember Seinfeld--George's fantasy job is being an architect. I don't want to think about George Castanza when I read a romance. Told you it was strange :)

Will I read the next one? You bet. Laurel and Del's story (Savor the Moment) comes out in May 2010. I would LOVE to read Emma's parents' story, it sounded beautiful.

Another List

2009-11-07T15:40:00.000-05:00

I've started 3 different books in the last 3 days and can't seem to settle on what I want to read. It's the middle of Saturday afternoon, and I'm bored, I decided to make a list of odd thoughts ...

My son has 3 birthday parties in 8 days this month. At what age do the kids' birthday parties stop?
This summer we finally broke down and bought the child a Nintendo DS. Guess who plays it almost as much as he does? I even have my own games.
We're making calzones for dinner tonight, I didn't have the heart to tell my husband it would have been cheaper and easier to have them delivered from one of our local pizza places.
Our local supermarket gets french bread from a bakery in NYC and it's really good. I put the oven on this afternoon to help the pizza dough defrost for the afore mentioned calzones (the dough is in a bag on top of the stove) and I could smell bread cooking. I'd put a loaf of the french bread in the oven last night planning to use it for dinner, didn't use it and left it there. I now have one giant, really crispy crouton.
We had a 9:00 am soccer game today. It was 29 degrees when we got there. The child had on 4 layers of clothing, a hat and gloves. I went to Dunkin' Donuts and bought a box of Hot Chocolate for the kids--big hit.
The child got his first pair of glasses this week. One eye is weaker than the other and he needs them for reading.
One of the books I started was Bed of Roses by Nora Roberts. I read Visions in White earlier this year. I liked VIW but I was left not really sure I even liked the 4 women the bride series is about. After starting BOR I'm still not so sure about them.
I pre-ordered Linda Howard's Ice this week along with a couple of other books and the new Stephen King for the hubby. Thanks to the on-line price wars I got the hardcovers for $9 and took advantage of the super saver shipping. I know the Howard is really short, but I'm a fangirl.

Junior just asked me to snuggle up on the sofa with him and watch the Polar Express, so I've got to go.

Have a great day, and happy reading.

To Desire a Devil by Elizabeth Hoyt

2009-11-05T16:51:00.001-05:00

Elizabeth Hoyt has become one of my favorite authors. I'm rarely disappointed with her storytelling. Once again she's hit a homerun (notice the baseball metaphor :)) with To Desire a Devil.

The blurb is very good:

NOTHING IS MORE INTOXICATING-
Reynaud St. Aubyn has spent the last seven years in hellish captivity. Now half mad with fever he bursts into his ancestral home and demands his due. Can this wild-looking man truly be the last earl's heir, thought murdered by Indians years ago?

OR DANGEROUS-

Beatrice Corning, the niece of the present earl, is a proper English miss. But she has a secret: No real man has ever excited her more than the handsome youth in the portrait in her uncle's home. Suddenly, that very man is here, in the flesh-and luring her into his bed.

THAN SURRENDERING TO A DEVIL.

Only Beatrice can see past Reynaud's savagery to the noble man inside. For his part, Reynaud is drawn to this lovely lady, even as he is suspicious of her loyalty to her uncle. But can Beatrice's love tame a man who will stop at nothing to regain his title-even if it means sacrificing her innocence?

I was really looking forward to this one. Given the high expectations, I was very pleased. Reynaud was angry and bitter. His interactions with other people are outright rude, understandable given his experiences of the last 7 years. Beatrice is giving, tolerant and understanding. Ms. Hoyt gradually gives you Reynaud's backstory and it's gruesome and sad. You feel every one of his emotions.

To Seduce a Sinner is my favorite book of this series, but this is very close. I loved Reynaud's interaction with Lord Vale from TSAS. Jasper and Reynaud have such a shared history that they were bound to reconcile, and I felt it was handled well, with frustration and anger, laughter and memories.

A good book, if you're a Hoyt fan it's a satisfactory conclusion to a good series.

Have a great night and happy reading :)

JOY IN MUDVILLE

2009-11-05T06:13:00.005-05:00

My You Tube video was deleted, so I pulled it from the

The Core Four

"It’s only fitting I think that Andy started it,
Mo finished it," Jeter said.

2009-11-04T19:38:00.003-05:00

Just Finished!! I'll blog about it tomorrow :)

Have a great night and happy reading!!

Goddess of the Hunt by Tessa Dare

2009-11-04T05:44:00.006-05:00

When I first came back to blogging "everyone" was reading Tessa Dare's Goddess of the Hunt. And just about every review left me thinking TSTL heroine. That is until I read Rosario's Review. Go ahead and read it, I'll wait :)

The best review I found for this delightful book. I was pleasantly surprised that Lucy would work for me, usually that single-mindedness creates an incredibly annoying heroine, not this time, though she does have her moments. And Jeremy :) Loved when he tried to distract himself with latin--conjugating the verb to kiss didn't work.

Surrender of a Siren and A Lady of Persuasion are moving up the TBR pile.

For the writing challenged among us

2009-11-02T12:59:00.002-05:00

I discovered Mandy's She Reads Blog over at Wendy's and decided since I'm never going to be a writer and usually lurk at sites doing the NaNoWriMo thing, that I will join her and other's in NaNoReadMo... The National Novel Read Month. Mandy's hoping to read 5 new novels this month. 5 sounds good, 10 would be better. Given my reading time, 10 is probably way too ambitious.

If it's Sunday I must have finished a book...

2009-11-02T07:58:00.001-05:00

Acutally it's Monday, but for the last two weeks I've finished books Sunday afternoon, Indiscreet and As Darkness Falls.

Indiscreet by Carolyn Jewel

I finished Indiscreet last Sunday and talked a little bit about it most of the week. Sabine Godard is the niece of an Oxford professor and is "ruined" by the good friend of Lord Edward Marrack. Fast forward 2 years and Lord Edward is now the Marquess of Foye. He's traveling in Turkey and ends up in the Godard's circle of friends and collegues. The professor is very sick and finishing his last academic writings. The attraction between Foye and Sabine happens quickly, though Sabine is cautious because of Foye's friendship with man who ruined her. Ah, but Foye has a good reason to dislike, even hate his old friend. Foye is very concerned about Sabine's safety while traveling in Turkey. She's caught the eye of a Pasha that doesn't have good intentions. Sabine wont leave her uncle. When disaster happens, the second part of the book becomes an adventure, road story.

I enjoyed this story. In the past I've found Carolyn Jewel's writing to be a bit scattered sometimes focusing on secondary characters that didn't have a story to tell. Indiscreet is very much focused on Sabine and Foye and that's why the book worked for me. Even though Sabine needs rescueing, it's not because she has done something stupid and Foye is completely dedicated to her.

Give it a try, I thought Indiscreet was worth reading.

As Darkness Falls by Bronwyn Parry

It rained in our little area of the world on Halloween. I sat on my front porch with As Darkness Falls and read while giving out candy. A dark and dreary night is a good atmosphere for reading a very dark, yet very enjoyable romantic suspense. If you are like me and expect your RS to be dark, this will probably work for you. Ms. Parry does an incredible job creating an oppressive atmosphere that revolves around a small town on the edge of the Australian Outback and the consequences of vigilante justice.

Isabelle O'Connell is drawn back to work as a detective after the kidnapping of a friend's young daughter. Alec Goddard is the lead inspector. Bella's backstory is slowly developed until you fully understand the horror she has survived. She is an amazing heroine... smart, strong, survivor. Alec's story comes in small dumps of information, but it doesn't feel like large scale info dumping. The secondary characters are smartly written, interesting and very typical of a small town. The town itself is an important charcter to the story. Bella needs closure and Alec involvement goes quickly from professional to personal. I can't imagine how difficult it is to remain professional when a case involves a child. This anxiety ratchets up the overall suspense of the story.

This book is worth hunting down. I recieved it from Bronwyn Parry after winning Wendy's book contest. I know it's available from The Book Depository and I believe the shipping is free.

2009-10-31T08:00:00.002-04:00

Hoping everyone has a scary and safe Halloween!!

They're Here

2009-10-29T17:35:00.002-04:00

The books I won over at Wendy's arrived today!! I'm very excited and am putting them at the top of the TBR Pile.

Thanks so much to Bronwyn Parry and Wendy :)

A new day, a new list

2009-10-29T13:27:00.001-04:00

I seem to be in a list mood...

We get it, piracy is bad--STOP PREACHING TO THE CHOIR!! We're not the people stealing your ebooks.
I don't want to hear how romance isn't taken seriously--how do we expect to be taken seriously when so many blogs and websites consist of near naked or in some cases naked men. It seems to me we're doing a great job of living up to the "it's porn for women" label. Book covers are bad enough, but yikes. Okay, that was preachy--I'm done.
The Child is going to be the Grim Reaper for Halloween.
Love my new hair cut--a very short bob. My parent are coming to visit this afternoon (bringing Junior a Halloween gift) Mom's going to love that it's short, "long hair isn't appropriate in someone your age". Mom started telling me I was middle aged when I turned 35, now that I'm 45 I'm almost old.
I have to bake cookies tonight for Grandparents day at school tomorrow. We're having our annual All Saints Day presentation, and the school grandparents are invited.
I haven't read anything since finishing Indiscreet, and I will definitely get to some sort of review soon.

Today's List

2009-10-28T10:45:00.002-04:00

I posted something earlier about the discussion that was going on at DA yesterday, but decided nothing I had to say was that revolutionary or different than what was already being discussed. So, I deleted it (actually I saved it as a draft to sit in blogger Never Neverland)
I have an appointment to have my hair done at a local day spa. Haven't had a good hair cut in quite a while. Everytime I went to my old salon, the stylist (my husband's cousin's ex-wife) didn't really listen to what I wanted, even though I agreed with her that her ex is an *^(#*^%
I work after care today, so I wont be back on-line until tonight.
The Yankees play tonight :)

Barnes & Noble Trip

2009-10-27T07:54:00.031-04:00

Saturday the family took a trip to B&N.

The Child has been bugging us to all week. He desperately wanted the newest installment in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, which he got plus one more WK book and 2 Goosebump books. He's already finished one of the Wimpy Kid books and started the other. For the last couple of years we thought he wasn't going to be a reader.

I picked up 4 books... Carolyn Jewel's Indiscreet, Tessa Dare's Surrender of the Siren and A Lady of Persuasion and Beverly Jenkins's Captured. They didn't have Goddess of the Hunt, so the Dare series will have to wait until I can read them in order. Somewhere I'd heard good things about the Jenkins.

Sunday I finished Indiscreet--LOVED it and will hopefully post something tomorrow.

The List

2009-10-25T07:03:00.005-04:00

Because of the fundraiser last weekend I missed most of the top 16 lists romance bloggers were posting, and didn't get a chance to post a list either. This had me thinking about books and authors that have influenced my reading and buying habits over the 30+ years (I swear I'm not that old--I started reading romance in the 7th grade).

I've been thinking about authors who have passed away, retired from writing or who have changed genres or writing styles. Here is a list of authors in no particular order that have shaped my reading habits over the years.

Kathleen Woodiwiss: The list would have to start with the queen of historical romances, Shanna and The Wolf and The Dove make me smile just thinking about them.
Jill Barnett: I don't know if she is still writing, but I adored her books especially Bewitching, Dreaming, Wonderful and Just a Kiss Away. Sweet funny stories, from paranormals to medivals to jungle adventure, she had a wonderful writing career.
Arnette Lamb: As far as I'm concerened she was the queen of Scottish historicals. She has passed away and I found it so sad when SB made fun of her old covers, her books were wonderful.
Pamela Morsi: Her historical romance back list is fantastic, must reads--Courting Miss Hattie and Heaven Sent.
Lavryle Spencer: I loved her books, my first was Seperate Beds, my favorite Years--I still reread this on at least once a year, just love Linnea and Teddy.
Marsha Canham: Retired--LOVED her entire back list, my favorites... Through a Dark Mist, In the Shadow of Midnight and The Last Arrow.
Elizabeth Lowell: Her romance background is amazing. From historicals to Silhouettes to romantic suspense, her romance novels were great.
Iris Johanson: Track down her historicals, well worth reading.
Joan Wolf: She has been getting some attention for her Regencies, which were great, but I also loved her Dark Ages series, her King Alfred the Great book was fantastic.
Candice Proctor: Every single one of her books were really good. Night in Heaven and Whispers in Heaven are two of my favorite books of all time
Jane Feather: Her "V" series are classics and I still reread The Accidental Bride once a year.
Amanda Quick: Long before her Arcane series there were her single word titles, most started with R, D, M or S, Ravished, Seduced, Mischief ... her list was endless and fun, with quirky interesting characters. Her Jayne Ann Krentz category romances were great too.
Maggie Osborne: When Westerns are being discussed her name pops up. Definitely worth reading her backlist.
Julie Garwood: Her historicals were wonderful. Loved that there wasn't internal conflict between the h/h, the stood together against outside forces. My favorite--Honor's Splendor--warming of feet, enough said.
Marilyn Pappano: Silhouettes to die for, going way back. My favorite--Within Reach--It's still on my keeper shelf.
Judith McNaught: Most people think of Whtney, My Love, but she had other great books, Paradise, Perfect and other historical romances that are worth reading.
Catherine Coulter: I'm not sure her books hold up that well to the test of time, but when her older historicals were new they were the best. And her historic backlist is huge.
Virginia Henley: Yes, I am admitting I used to read Henley. Simon deMontfort and Princess Eleanor in The Dragon & The Jewel still sits on my keeper shelf.
Bertrice Small and Thea Devine: I put these ladies together because where would erotic romance be without them? If you ever get a chance to meet Thea Devine she is wonderful to talk to, she tells great stories about how she got started.
Rebecca Paisley: I'm putting Paisley on the list because every other member of my Romance Reading Bookclub absolutely LOVED her. I could never figure out why, she never worked for me, but I read her anyway, because everyone else did.
Megan Chance, Jo Beverley, Laura Kinsale: All were influential and worth finding backlists.
Nora Roberts, Linda Howard, Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, Elizabeth Hoyt, Lynn Viehl, Susan Squires, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Mary Balogh, Liz Carlyle, and a few others I can't think of right now are have been autobuys for quite some time now and I expect that wont change anytime soon.

So, who has influenced your romance reading habits? Post them in comments or bring it back to your blog :)

Giving up for now

2009-10-25T04:38:00.003-04:00

I spent most of yesterday trying to create a black and white blog with this as the banner...

I'm HTML challenged and blogger doesn't want to resize the jpeg file I created to fit correctly. When you click on the picture it's the exact size I want it to be for the banner, but it's just not working. I'm giving up for a few days and moving on to other things.

Please note it's 4:30 am and I'm up for the day--yikes.

Can't get there from here

2009-10-24T13:01:00.000-04:00

I started messing with my template and somehow lost the old one. And since it's giving me all sorts of error messages when I try to paste the html back in, I created a new one using bloggers layout options.

NJRW

2009-10-23T20:00:00.004-04:00

Angie and Megan are going to be at NJRW. Years ago I belonged to a Romance Reading Book Club at my local UBS. The club would go down to NJRW for the Saturday Literacy Bookfair and author signing... Nora Roberts, Anne Stuart, Betina Krahn, Sharon Sala (she signed my Jackson Rule--LOVE that book), Suzanne Brockman... Great memories.

There's a great list of authors at this year's Literacy Bookfair and author signing. Wish I could make the trip, maybe next year :)

***edited***

I just noticed the tiny disclaimer at the bottom of the Literacy Bookfair and author signing link:

Please note: As in the past, previously purchased books are not permitted in the Book Fair for signing.

Way back when we were allowed to bring books, if I remember correctly it was 4 or 5, then it was 2, now it's none. Ahhh, the good old days :) Jackson Rule wouldn't have been autographed by today's rules.

Wendy's questions of the day...

2009-10-23T14:11:00.002-04:00

Wendy's questions today seems very relevent to the conversation yesterday on Dear Author (see yesterday's post)... what are the book buying habits of other readers?

What I Buy New: Paperbacks: I'm very particular about what I buy new. The budget is tight and I stick to auto-buy authors and highly recommended books from bloggers like Rosario and Rosie--my reading tastes seem to be pretty consistantly similar to theirs. Hardcovers: Rarely and I mean rarely do I buy hardcovers and usually I save gift cards that I get for my birthday and Christmas for these.

ARCs: I don't get ARCs anymore. 18 months of not blogging gets you off all sorts of lists, which is fine because I always felt obligated to read and review things as soon as I received them and hated reviewing a free book that I didn't like.

Buying Used: I try to keep a list of books that I want used... new to me authors, recommended reads by blogger other than Rosario and Rosie, and I try to get to my local UBS every couple of months. While there I'll pick up anything that looks good.

What I Get In "e": Right now I'm not getting anything "e". I have an older device that isn't backlit and doesn't have enough memory to store more than a couple of books at a time. BN's Nook looks interesting, but I'm going to wait for prices to come down and put it on a Christmas wish list for next year (let all the kinks get worked out first). I'm not into technology, I have a cell phone, but rarely use it and would probably like an i-phone because of all the apps, but I don't need one.

That's it for my book buying habits.

Have a great day and happy reading :)

2009-10-22T18:16:00.001-04:00

For a little while I actually followed today's little flare up and found it rather interesting, in a been there done that sort of way. Authors jump to conclusions and readers get annoyed. There's a new concept *rolls eyes*

Fifteen years ago a friend (the owner of our local UBS) went to an RT convention and was blasted for selling used books by a VERY popular author at that time. Not exactly the same thing, but it sounds rather similiar, doesn't it?

Can anyone take a middle of the road approach to this?

Authors need to realize readers share books, whether it's print or ebook. Isn't it more important to be read by more people, hopefully this will guarantee more sales in the future.

And readers need to realize that authors especially mid-list ones rely on book royalties to pay their bills, writing is their job, just like being a bookkeeper is mine.

In this case it seemed the authors in question were over reacting, but a little sensitivity on both sides would go a very long way.

Current Reading

2009-10-21T07:52:00.001-04:00

Currently I'm reading Karin Tabke's Master of Torment. Book two of her Blood Sword Legacy series. I read book three first then went back for one and two. The Blood Swords are William the Conqueror's elite fighting force.

I'm enjoying the series, it's been quite some time since there has beena strong voice writing medieval romances that sound as realistic as I would expect. Not being a scholar of the period, I go by what I think sounds real in speech cadences and story structure. Honestly, I can't say how realistic or true to history they are, but they're working for me.

I wont be getting much reading in today. I have work this morning, after care at school from 3 to 6 and then I'm back for a parent association meeting at 7.

Have a great day and happy reading.

Back...

2009-10-19T15:44:00.001-04:00

Well, I'm back. The fundraiser is finished for another year. THANK GOD.

Last night I finished Stephanie Lauren's Mastered by Love. Rosario had an interesting review and I thought it was worth giving a try. I haven't read Lauren's in years and years. She used to be a favorite, but after a while I found her rather repetative and the silly nicknames were very annoying.

It was okay. Something that could be enjoyed in the moment, but it certainly wasn't a keeper. I find she has interesting vocabulary choices, almost as if she writes with a thesaurus. It's almost as if her writing hasn't evolved at all--plot, characters are still very similar to her other books.

Royce and Minerva were very interesting and smart characters, they flowed very well together. I didn't particularly like some of the secondary character (Royce's sisters) and there seemed to be too many of them (secondary characters--not sisters), and I was somewhat disconcerted by how the "last traitor" met is ultimate demise.

A totally readable book, but Lauren's wont be going back on my reading list.

The Yankees come on in 30 minutes, so have a great day/night and happy reading.

Gone but not forgotten...

2009-10-16T15:28:00.002-04:00

I'm busy with a school fundraiser this weekend. I'll be back on Monday.

Have a great weekend and happy reading.

Random discoveries...

2009-10-13T05:36:00.000-04:00

I've been blog hopping again and just following links to different places, and have made some random discoveries...

It doesn't matter who talks about ereaders--the mind wanders, the eyes glaze over and the ringing in the ears sounds like every adult in a Peanuts cartoon... wah, wah waaahh. I know it's the future of books and reading, but I'm waiting for technology to even itself out and prices to start to come down. And ebook prices aren't always that great. And everyone is talking about them.
There are some really good review sites out there. I've been running Kristie's sidebar and have been lurking on interesting review and commentary blogs with some gorgeous graphics. The first few times I ran Kristie's sidebar there were an awful lot of contests and things that didn't interest me, but for the last week I've been finding some good stuff.
I need to update my sidebar to include all the good stuff I've found (see #2).
I must be a prude, but Holy Cow, there are a lot more sites that need consent warnings. Not that consent warnings actually mean anything. But at least I'd be forewarned.
I'm not ususally bothered by book covers, but I've seen a few that I would have to cover for public reading and I NEVER do this--one didn't even have people on it and it definitely would need to be covered in public, I'm leaving it at that.
Covers again, I know I just said I'm not usually bothered by covers, but everyone is bothered by AVON covers... Why do we get sucky AVON step back covers here in the States but in England the AVON covers are lovely and artsy?
RT doesn't like me. I've tried registering several times and I NEVER, NEVER, NEVER get the registration confirmation. And yes, I've checked the SPAM mailbox. Not that I need to be on the RT message boards--it's just annoying.
There are several bloggers obsessed with Lisa Kleypas heros--Kristie started a trend :)
Some of the interaction between writers and bloggers is interesting and some of it is cringe worthy. I guess that never changes.
The next time you go to Walmart make sure you don't look like a freak and if you're going to wear a pink micro-mini please wear underpants. Someone will take your picture and post it online for all the world to stumble across. And no, I don't know where I found this one, it was a link, from a link, from a link thing.

Ten is a good number to stop at.

I've got Bingo today, I wont be back until tonight. Have a great day and happy reading :)

Lightened Up

2009-10-12T09:21:00.006-04:00

Taking a break from romance blogging wasn't planned, but it did have some good side effects. During my self imposed exile I learned to lighten up and not take romance reading so seriously. Most of us read for escape and entertainment, not for enlightenment or to find a life plan, yet so many of us take the process of reading and blogging so seriously, in the past myself included.

The other day there was a review Carolyn Jewel's Indiscreet on Dear Author. It seemed like a good review, sounded like a book I'd enjoy, like one I'll be adding to my TBR pile (I'd already decided on this one, Rosie's review had already convinced me to pick this one up). The woman who posted the first comment apparently is married to a Kurdish man. This is from her initial comment...

I just can’t stand cultural appropriation. So I will have to pass. Middle Eastern/Persian/Arabic culture has become taboo, so it will be popular for exploitation

I flinched. It had nothing to do with the review or the book. For several comments it looked like the review might be hijacked, morphing into something that might cause another controversy. Was she entitled to make this comment--of course. Was this the forum for discussion--maybe, maybe not. Sarah Frantz is looking for papers, wouldn't this be a perfect topic?

My husband is Sicilian American, should I not watch The Godfather movies or the The Sopranos because they are sterotypes of Italian/Sicilian American culture, or do I allow myself to escape and be entertained.

Several years ago I read Scottish Historicals on a fairly regular basis. After numerous discussions on message boards, it was brought home how inaccurate so many of these books were in historical information and culture, to the point that I gave up on them, rather than focusing on the story between 2 characters I was focusing on the details. I've probably missed some great books because of this.

I'm not trying to diminish the need for historical and cultural accuracy or personal preferences. I'm annoyed about historical inaccuracies when I find them and I have definite preferences but these days first and foremost I want to escape, be entertained and believe happily ever after is possible.

Home Alone

2009-10-10T09:17:00.003-04:00

The hubby and child are camping.

Cub Scout camping.

Cub Scout camping in the POURING RAIN.

They're camping locally at one of the county parks. I stopped last night to see how they were doing. When I left it wasn't raining yet and everything was set up and the 3 man tent looked quite cozy with sleeping bags, blanket, air mattress and pillows. When I got home there was a call from the hubby, I apparently when I closed the door of our mini-van... "you locked the van with my keys in it." I had to go back and unlock it.

So, with all this alone time do you think I did any reading?? NOPE! I watched the Yankees go into extra innings and promptly fell asleep after Teixeira's home run in the bottom of the 11th. Honestly, the Yankees didn't win as much as the Twins lost, but we'll take it :)

Back to the campers... I get a call this morning at 6:30, that's right 6:30--good thing I was already awake. They're in the van drying off. It poured non-stop from about 10:00 last night until about 6:00 this morning. They were nice and dry in the tent until the child needed to go to the bathroom at 5:30 this morning. Not a dry spot in the entire camp, no place to sit and almost no dry firewood. It took hours to cook breakfast. I sent towels and a storage box that was to stay in the car with dry clothing. It looks like they may need it.

I'm heading over this afternoon. Junior needs his Cub Scout uniform by 2:00 and our Pastor is coming to say a fireside Mass, that is if they can get a fire going. I was planning on staying for dinner, but I think I'll come home, eat something and read--no Yankees.

Did I mention they're forecasting FROST tonight?

2009-10-08T14:35:00.000-04:00

For the first time in my life the words "I'm going to burn that book" came out of my mouth. That book being The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes. The child reads it every day, spending 1/2 an hour every morning in our only bathroom. My husband took it out of the bathroom to help get the child moving in the morning. The child found it and it's back in the bathroom.

The child actually asked the teacher if he could use it for his October book report. He's reading a Goosebump book instead.

The evolution of a romance reader

2009-10-07T08:10:00.010-04:00

Wendy has a great post up on Romancing the Blog today about romance genre ground breakers. Definitely worth a read and a thought today.

This got me thinking about my ground zero of romance. Where did my addiction to romance start and how did it evolve?

Westerns--real westerns, without love interest westerns, Zane Grey type of westerns. I was horse crazy as a kid. What is the backbone of westerns? To an 11 or 12 year old kid it was the horse--yes, I said the horse. But, even then I thought something was missing. I also read other things like The Little House Books and Anne of Green Gables please note these books also had horses and ponies :)

Harlequin Presents--HPs came next. Harlequin Presents with horses that is--LOL. I inhaled anything written by Janet Dailey (which I hate to admit since her plagiarism scandal). That is anything written by Janet Dailey with horses.

In the 8th grade I read Mrs. Mike by Benedict and Nancy Freedman--this was my epiphany. It was a true love story. The school librarian gave me the book at the end of the school year because I'd taken it out over and over again. It's probably in box packed away in my attic.

Then I started reading anything with a romantic theme. Anything published by Harlequin (the Silhouette lines hadn't started yet).

The discovery of Kathleen Woodiwiss (borrowed from an aunt) was mind-blowing. History, romance, adventure--OMG, she had it all, and they were epic--more than 150 or 180 pages. At this point I was reading other genres equally. Stephen King was getting popular and I read Carrie and The Shining, and other adult books, some books a young teenager should never have read.

Up until the mid 80's I was simply looking for romance books. Then I really started to discover "authors" other than Kathleen Woodiwiss, Barbara Cartland (even then Cartland readers didn't admit to being Cartland readers, my Regency romance passion started with Cartland and Georgette Heyer) and Janet Dailey (though at this point I'd outgrown Janet Dailey--I was amazed by her Calder series when it was new). The discovery of other authors sent me into autobuy mode... Linda Howard, Nora Roberts, Catherine Coulter, Judith McNaught, Jude Devereaux, Sandra Brown, Julie Garwood, Jill Barnett, Lavryle Spencer... I can remember the day I discoverd Lavyrle Spencer. I'd stopped in a local drug store for something else, stopped at the book display and found Seperate Beds, the main characters were my age--it was amazing.

I'm still hooked, much to the dismay of my husband--books overrun our house, if there is a flat surface, there's probably a romance novel sitting on it, actually more than one :)

Time for Eternity by Susan Squires

2009-10-04T16:57:00.003-04:00

I started the Sommerfield and decided it needed to wait until I finished Susan Squires' Time for Eternity. I've been reading Susan Squires for a long time, starting with Body Electric. I didn't read Body Electric new, I had heard good things from another blogger a few years ago and enjoyed the concept. If you haven't read it, hunt it down it's a curious read--I'll leave it at that.

Believe it or not, I'm not a huge fan of most vampire romance. Most of the vampire romances I've read aren't frightening enough, I find myself comparing them to Salem's Lot,and nothing I've ever read scared me as much. And honestly, I can't stand vampire comedy. I have several Sizemore vampire books on my TBR pile, I haven't read any yet.

None of the 3 vampire series I read are very scary, but there's something in each that I enjoy: 1. JR Ward (she continues to suck me in her stories--I can't explain it :)). 2. Lynn Viehl--I've enjoyed almost all of her Darkyn series and 3. Susan Squires--she hooked me with The Companion and I loved One with the Darkness.

Time for Eternity was another good book in a series of good books. It has morphed into a time-travel/vampire series, which has been interesting. In her earlier books the source of conflict in the story comes from an almost epic battle between vampires, but with the time travel books the time periods become character like, bringing the conflict in a different direction, simply surviving in a historic period of conflict. One with the Darkness starts in 1821 and goes back to Rome during Caligula's reign (A.D 41--love that time period :)).

Modern day San Francisco is where Time for Eternity starts and goes back to the France during the Reign of Terror, a time period I don't like to read about--the guillotine and the killing of innocent families including children is very disturbing. Frankie (a made vampire) goes back in time to kill Henri (a born vampire) before he can turn her. She believes he abandoned her. Henri would never have left her alone after the transition, we find out on page 7 he was guillotined. Why he was killed unfolds as the story progresses. By going back in time Francoise/Frankie, the heroine, finds strength she lacked during her 1st time in Revolutionary France and Henri, our hero, is the truest of heros, this time survivng the time period.

I've rattled on enough. This one I enjoyed, maybe someone else did too?

Have a great day and happy reading.

The next two weeks are crazy...

2009-10-03T06:44:00.001-04:00

In two weeks our school will host a very large fundraiser. In years past it raised half of our yearly fundraising income, but this year it looks like we'll make very little--we're taking a big hit because of the economy. Unfortunately the work load for this event is huge and we're all getting a little tense. It's crunch time and everyone is feeling it. There's snipping and snarling going on all over the place.

Next weekend Junior and the Hubby are going camping with the Cub Scouts. And that's turning into an event too. Usually we pay a fee and the pack supplies the food. This time we bring our own food, but it's specific things that they will "cook as a pack". I don't think it's going to work but I'm keeping my mouth shut. Otherwise there may be snipping and snarling going on all over the place.

This weekend the Hubby has to work and I'm manning a booth at our town's Fall festival. It should be fine. That is unless someone from the town's school board corners me again to discuss "school issues" then there will be snipping and snarling going on all over the place (actually it will only be in my head--I'm very diplomatic and can smile and nod while seething, but that's another tale).

I'm hoping to squeeze in some reading.

Have a great weekend :)

I didn't need to know that...

2009-10-01T17:01:00.000-04:00

This morning I was up early and did a quick blog hop. The last stop before having to get breakfast ready and lunches packed was Dear Author . Now I rarely read Joan/Sarah F's reviews because I'm not really into what she reads and reviews for the Ja(y)nes, but I almost always skim through her reviews, because you never know something may catch my interest.

The cover of the book caught my attention, so I start reading the review. I get about 2/3 of the way through the review and I hit a section that went beyond TMI to I really didn't need to know this :)

I may be a font of useless information, but that was information I didn't need to know and probably wouldn't admit to knowing even if it came up on conversation--LOL

Just Curious

2009-10-01T05:55:00.002-04:00

Being gone for so long I'm left somewhat confused at times and still out of the loop at other times.

This week Rosie blogged about editorial and opinion blog posts over on Access Romance. My comment was "There’s not much out there that I’d be willing to wade into. There’s more important things in life to worry about." I see most of the attention getting issues as tempests in teacups, and someone else usually posts my thoughts on a subject and probably better than I would have :) .

I came across a few things over the last few days that I wasn't really "willing to wade into", but I did have some thoughts about, so I'm going to comment here instead :)

Advertising--if you reach the point where advertising is needed to keep your blog afloat, you have probably ceased being a simple reader blog and have morphed into more of an industry one. This isn't a bad transition for people who have made this their work, part time, full time. It takes real dedication to move from a reading hobby to being part of the industry. Advertising is great, but it needs to be separate from commentary. There's a credibility issue. And to be perfectly honest, I never notice the advertising--that's probably not such a good thing or maybe it is--I'm not sure, I'll have to think about it--someother time ;)
Yesterday I stumbled upon the "petition" from last year. Wow, I truly missed a big brouhaha with that one--LOL, Nobody likes criticism (myself included), the initial reaction is usually to be defensive--I always hate myself later, whenver I do this. What I found interesting was the shock and disbelief that went with an author behaving badly over a review, even to this extreme and this was frightening in the extreme. This type of behavior has been going on forever. Authors behave badly, readers react and the mean girls on all sides come crawling out of the woodwork. This happens on the blogs now, the message boards of a few years ago, book reviews in magazines and newspapers have you ever read some of the letters to the editors? There are crazy people in the world--and they all have opinions. There will always be fans that feed the egos of authors and we need to remember there are fans of blogs that can be just as ugly. It is what it is--a sad part of human nature.
Plagiarism--what the heck? Don't authors realize, especially in this digitial age, that they're going to be eventually caught??

I'm off my soap box--have a great day, I've got a book to read :)

Next up on the TBR pile

2009-09-30T06:24:00.003-04:00

The other Church Lady in our office is a 74 year old grandma. She has been the Church Secretary for over 25 years. Every once in a while she gives me books that she's enjoyed, usually these books are women's fiction she picked up at a library sale.

Yesterday she gave me what she described as a hot romance, she stayed up late Monday night to finsh reading. Not only did she like it she LOVED it.

Holy cow, it's an old Sylvie Sommerfield. In all the years I've been reading romance I've never read Sylvie Sommerfield. This one is up next.

Don't you just love the cover--LOL

2009-09-29T07:44:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday Chris!!!

Tempt Me at Twilight

2009-09-28T08:57:00.003-04:00

Have you ever read a book that is a mess and yet totally entertaining? JR Ward books don't count :D

For me the new Lisa Kleypas book Tempt Me at Twilight is a mess. It's all over the place. Poppy (don't you love that name--it sounds very happy) discovers Harry's secret room while chasing her sister Beatrix's annoying ferret, Dodger, around Harry's hotel. Harry is not all that accomodating when his space has been invaded and to be honest you think he's going to be a very dangerous man. Nope--there was no consistancy in Harry's character development.

Poppy also is an odd mix of hot and cold. She's attracted to Harry but is convinced she is in love with another man (Michael), who is obviously a wimp unable to stand up to his father. Apparently Poppy is inappropriate bride material and Daddy plans to cut him off completely.

Forced to marry because of a compromising situation, and right before the wedding Poppy discovers an evil truth about Harry, leaving her heartbroken over Michael?? Maybe?? They rub along for a while and they start to get along until Poppy finds out Harry creates/improves war weapons. Yikes, this is bad, ultimatum time sends Poppy to dear brother Leo and home to the family. Of course, Harry follows and becomes a completely different character. Miracle of miracles, he's changed by being part of a family.

And the situation between Harry and Catherine?? Bizarre.

Kleypas is heavy handed through this entire book. How is it possible then that I actually enjoyed this mess of a book? I don't know. Maybe because the characters are likeable even in their inconsistancies.

If you suspend belief you might like this one too. Perhaps.

Good Day for NY Sports!!

2009-09-27T19:04:00.000-04:00

Well, it was a good day for New York Sports :)

Yankees won their division and clinched home field advantage for the playoffs.
The Giants won.
The Jets won.
Even the Mets won ;)

It's All About Perspective

2009-09-26T12:52:00.001-04:00

The other day I volunteered at our school book fair. I love book fair, it's like having the kids section of Borders right in the school. The shelving units supplied by Scholastic Books lined the school's downstairs hallway starting with preschool books moving to level one and two and then on to Goosebumps, etc. As I was moving toward the YA books I recognized several books I'd seen on some of the romance blogs I'd stumbled into while blog hopping over the last month--I probably couldn't find them again if I tried.

There's a part of me flinching when I think about kids stumbling into these same websites and blogs with borderline adult content when they're looking for are YA books. Before anyone is offended I realize parents should know what their kids are looking at on-line or reading, but we also know how kids are and I know I read things as a kid that weren't age appropriate either.

Being a parent of a child who has the ability to read anything changes ones perspective somewhat. I'm not going to get on a soapbox and preach against blogs that review or talk about both erotica/erotic romance and YA novels, but it's something to think about.

I'm off my mini-soapbox :) Have a great day and happy reading.

Bat Girl way cool

2009-09-25T00:41:00.001-04:00

Wendy, my son loves your Bat Girl, he thinks she's cool.

The Week in Review...

2009-09-25T00:10:00.004-04:00

I guess this post could be 2 fold. It could be my reading reviews for the week and it could be what's going on in life. Since I only managed to finish one book, the post will have to be about life :)

This was and still is a going and going week...

Monday was orientation night at school. We visit the teachers and hear all about the current year's curriculum. It was a wonderful visit with the teacher as Junior is doing well and BEHAVING himself in the classroom. You can not imagine how exciting this is after the disaster that was last year. I was there early to help hand out Gertrude Hawke Candy for our annual candy sale fundraiser. Our family has to sell 96 candy bars for $1 each--anyone interested ?? Dad's taking half of them to work--we need to get them out of the house or we'll be eating them and honestly who could possibly eat 96 candy bars in 2 weeks (that's when the $ is due back to the school)
Tuesday was our busy day. Work (Mom and Dad), homework (Mom and Junior), soccer practice (Mom, Junior and the BFF--I actually do the dropping off, the BFF's Mom does the picking up), Cub Scouts (Junior and Dad), and Church History class (Mom)
Wednesday was our quite day. I cooked dinner and we sat down to eat together. Picked up the Kleypas and Carlyle. I started the new Carlyle.
Thursday was Open House at our school. We do this periodically to promote the school. I worked Open House until about 8:15, then I sat in on a meeting to deal with private school issues. But I did find time to finish the new Carlyle--loved it :)
Friday will be another work day, I'm also working our after care program (Friday's aren't bad at after care--no homework :)) Tomorrow night there's a Coffee House at our church--I promised to bake cookies (I'm actually going to use the leftover cookies from the School Open House). I'm looking forward to the Coffee House, it's our first, I know the music will be great.
Saturday--Dad has to work, Junior has a soccer game and we have a 40th birthday party Saturday night for which we have not purchased a gift yet, so I guess that means Junior and I are shopping while Dad is at work.
Sunday--Church and Bingo, I'll be missing football.

It wasn't a good reading week. But if you only get one book finished in a week it might as well be a good one--Liz Carlyle's Wicked All Night qualified.

Next week will be much better. Tuesday will be busy but other than that we'll have normal week.

still here...

2009-09-21T16:57:00.000-04:00

I'm still here. The week got away from me.
Junior had a cold for the last 3 days. He went back to school today.
I finished 2 books (Betina Krahn and Jo Goodman) last week and started several others--kept trying to find what I wanted to read next.
I probably wont be back until Thursday.

Have a great day/night and happy reading.

Junior's question of the day

2009-09-16T16:45:00.001-04:00

Monday night Junior and Dad were watching the Antiques Roadshow and I overheard the following question:

"So Dad, is there anything old in this room besides you?"

YIKES

New books

2009-09-14T20:35:00.003-04:00

I ran around Friday like a chicken with my head chopped off. It was one of those days that kind of spiralled out of control--not bad, just busy. Ended up at B&N to get our niece a gift card as part of her birthday present and of course picked up a few books for myself. I didn't really need more books, I certainly have plenty on my TBR pile, but these beckoned and I answered...

With Seduction in Mind by Laura Lee Guhrke: Rosie has a good review of this book. It wasn't great, nor was it bad, but for me it was somewhat disappointing. I've been autobuying Laura Lee Guhrke for years, The Girl-Bachelor series has me rethinking this.
MacKenzie's Legacy (MacKenzie's Mountain and MacKenzie's Mission) by Linda Howard: As if I haven't already read these two books over and over and over and over again. And, I read them again this weekend--still LOVE them :) I've worn out two original MacKenzie's Mountain and I can't seem to find my copy of Mission. For me, this is Linda Howard at her very best. Strong alpha heros and equally strong heroines--it doesn't get better than that.
Never Love a Lawman by Jo Goodman: Honestly, I think I bought this book for the cover :) I'm about 70 pages into this and I'm not loving her story set-up. I know the point is to be mysterious, but it's not working for me. But it is a long book (almost 440 pages) so I'm going to keep at it, maybe it needs a long set-up to go with the large word count.

I was going to comment on some of the things I've seen around while blog hopping (bad romance mothers and the ebook vs print book thing), but I think I need to actually formulate what I want to say before I post something.

Have a great day/night and happy reading.

The Joy of a Boy...

2009-09-11T18:14:00.000-04:00

This morning Junior and I had an interesting conversation...

Me: "While I'm in the shower get dressed... underwear, t-shirt, socks, polo shirt, blue shorts and school sweatshirt." (please notice I list everything he needs to put on, if I don't, he'll forget something)

Junior: "I'll wear the underwear from yesterday."

Me: "Put on clean underwear."

Junior: "I think yesterday's are clean."

Me: Put on clean underwear"

Junior: "But they're clean."

Me: Put on clean underwear anyway." (I'm starting to get exasperated...)

Junior: "I'm telling you they're clean." (He's getting more exasperated.)

Me: "Put on clean underwear." (more exasperated..)

Junior: "Are you hearing me clearly?" (at this point I was stepping into the shower, not only am I hearing him clearly so is the rest of our neighborhood))

Me: "I hear you perfectly clear. Put on clean underwear."

Junior: "Okay."

today's thoughts...

2009-09-10T16:27:00.001-04:00

So far so good, Junior likes his teacher, which has me relieved as he asked during the summer if he could go to a different Catholic school for 3rd grade and come back for 4th. Mrs. R is very strict and Junior has some, hmm shall we say, behavior issues. He's not really bad, rather mischievous with a sarcastic tone (I can't imagine where he gets that :), his teacher last year wasn't swayed by his cute face, which got him through kindergarten and 1st grade without any real problems--"He's so cute, how can you get mad at him." is a quote from the kindergarten teacher, and his 1st grade teacher would say he was wickedly funny. I should have realized that wasn't good. He thinks the Smart Board in his class is way cool, and they were the first to use the playground during recess, apparently this never happened in 2nd grade. All the homework for the last two days has been mine--covering workbooks with contact paper.

The hubby is working late, which is a good thing considering he is in contractor sales and the construction industry stinks right now.

I've not read anything since the weekend. That's not really true. I reread the last 100 pages of Catherine Coulter's Fire Song, one of those books that would be a wall banger if I'd actually reread the entire thing. The first 100 or so pages aren't bad and the last 100 are good--I love a good grovel and Graelam's realizing he's in love and having to follow Kassia home to Belleterre when she leaves him always entertains me, what can I say I'm rather easily entertained, sad I know :) Junior took one look at the clinch cover from my 1985 edition and announced it was gross.

I need to start chopping veggies for a stir fry. Have a great day/night and happy reading.

Blog thoughts...

2009-09-09T06:27:00.003-04:00

I've been back for a couple of weeks and have a few thoughts...

The Great Western Drive--is a great idea, it brings attention to books that are languishing on keeper shelves everywhere and by talking about them new readers/bloggers can find some great reads. There needs to be a "break through" book that catches the attention of readers and publishers, maybe then westerns will take the place of paranormals or regencies or at least be equal to them in popularity.

Rosario still writes the best reviews--that says it all. I've been blog hopping, visiting "new to me" bloggers and Rosario still rocks, and that's not because we have the same reading tastes.

Paranormals--Dear Author's Pioneers of Paranormals post yesterday reminded me that Paranormals have been around for quite a while and weren't invented with the abundance of vampire, werewolf and demon books that we encounter now. You can find some great books listed over there all of which were written before this century :)

Gothics--there was a post about gothics at RtB the other day. I love a good gothic and like westerns they need a "break through" book to catch readers attention.

Review Blogs--Holy Cow!! I can't believe how many new bloggers writing reviews are out there. I can't keep up, and to be honest I'm rather overwhelmed by them all. I go to Kristie's to run her side bar and I'm having a hard time differentiating them. I'm sure everyone has a different style and voice, but I'm not familiar enough with them yet.

A good smack in the head--besides writing great reviews and Wendy is quite good at passing out reality checks, but then she's always been good at that.

What is going on with all the category reviews?--I can not believe how many people are reviewing category romance these days. Not a bad thing, but I don't remember them getting so much attention in the past. Is Harlequin/Silhouette sending out more ARCs or did some of the bigger review sites realize they may have been poking fun at books that turned out to be good reads? Wendy and Sybil... This is not directed at you ladies--you've been reviewing category romance forever :)

That's it for today, happy reading to all.

Back to school...

2009-09-08T16:52:00.002-04:00

Junior goes back tomorrow :-)

Several moms are going out for breakfast after we drop them off. I will not say I'm happy school's starting *wink-wink*. The hubby tried to make me feel guilty about being happy about this--to say the least it didn't work.

I may post a 1st day picture, but to be honest it's not much different from the 1st day pictures for the last 3 years. White polo, blue shorts--the only thing different is the backpack, and he has a new Yankee one for this year.

book order list...

2009-09-06T20:58:00.006-04:00

Sybil asked what came in the Amazon order:

The Vampire Quest--Vivi Anna
Veiled Truth--Vivi Ana
Dangerous Lover--Lisa Marie Rice
Dangerous Secrets--Lisa Marie Rice
Dangerous Passion--Lisa Marie Rice
Seducing an Angel--Mary Balogh
The Courtesan's Wager--Claida Dain
Untamed--Hope Tarr (the cover of this book is absolutely horrendous)

So far I've read the 3 Lisa Marie Rice and Seducing an Angel. I just realized I've read 4 books in 2 days, guess I'm on a good roll : )

I liked the Lisa Marie Rice's Dangerous... books. Rice has a fun voice, though I did find her somewhat repetative in how she describes things, and since this is a PG blog, many of the things that were annoying I wont quote here :) I probably wouldn't have noticed it so much if I hadn't read them right after the other. But, I must say they were entertaining in a suspend your belief sort of way. This doesn't bother me. Linda Howard's Burn required this also, not the wining the lottery part, the hostage taking part had me seriously rolling my eyes. I still enjoyed the book because I loved the interaction between the hero and heroine.

Mary Balogh's Seducing an Angel was a typical Balogh story. I should qualify this by saying I was hoping Cassandra was going to be a real bad girl, not the fake one she turned out to be. For me it was still a good book and it was probably the best of the series. I'm looking forward to Con's story.

Next up The Courtesan's Wager.

Book order...

2009-09-04T15:53:00.001-04:00

I finally received an Amazon order I'd placed almost a month ago When I went with the super saver free shipping I knew it would take a little longer, but apparently it needed to take the slow boat to China trip before actually making it to New York.

Cub Scouts...

2009-09-04T15:45:00.008-04:00

This post comes with a disclaimer...

I firmly believe Cub Souts and Scouting in general are wonderful
for children and I'm very happy that my son is involved.
My dislike comes from the organized and sometimes
not so organized chaos that are Den Meetings.

***I don't do chaos well.***

The Best Friend's Dad started a Cub Scout Pack affiliated with our school when the boys were in 1st grade. So therefore, if the BF is doing it Junior must too. If the BF's Dad is running things, the BF's Mom is running things too and if the BF's Mom is running something she sucks me in like a vacuum cleaner.

I am officially a member of the Pack Committee (Secretary/Treasurer)--I just finished typing up 4 pages of notes from our last "Official Pack Committee Meeting." Honestly, I put up a good fight, I truly tried not to get involved, hoped and prayed someone else would step up and say "I'll do it." But, it wasn't to be. The Vacuum that is the BF's Mom sucked me right up and wont spit me back out until the boys are Boy Scouts, though I have heard whispers that the church might be willing to sponsor a Boy Scout Troop--then I'm doomed.

So where is my hubby in all of this? The Vacuum sucks him up for Cub Scout Camping--I REFUSE to sleep in a tent. I don't princess up about much, but this is one of the few things I will not do. I'll help plan it, I'll do the food shopping, I'll help pack up the mini-van, but I will not camp. He gets to set up camp and cook and clean and hike (though they don't make him do too much of this--he has bad knees). He gets to teach fishing to dozens of kids under the age of 10. Camp days are planned right down to the last minute, from the minute they get up until the minute they go to bed something is planned. While he is roughing it I am home enjoying Chinese food and reading marathons :)

When he (the darling husband) reads this he will find out that he will be doing den meetings this fall. Our Pastor in his infinite wisdom (with a little prodding from his bookkeeper :)) has decided to hold a Church History class on Tuesday nights (Den meeting night)--thank you God!! For a few blessed weeks I will be free of Cub Scouts. If only you could see the happy dance.

Just stuff...

2009-09-04T15:26:00.006-04:00

Last night we went to a friend's house to shoot rockets. This is a man and kid thing (I know most men are kids:). The Moms weren't as into it as the Dads. There were 3 families with 8 kids combined, all the kids are 8 or under. And of course the rocket got stuck in a tree after the first launch. We did have a great barbeque and visit while the kids ran around playing for hours.

The Best Friend is sleeping over tonight. He's already here. They're playing the Wii and honestly if that child calls my son "Dude" one more time I may have to smack him (not really). I hate "Dude" especially coming out of an 8 year olds mouth. We're thinking about taking them to the drive-in to see Shorts. We're not sure it's worth the 1/2 hour drive to only see one movie. The drive-in is running a double features on 2 screens, but they're showing Shorts with The Final Destination, which we wouldn't think of letting 8 year olds watch. The other screen is showing Inglourious Basterds and Halloween II, neither of which are appropriate for kids.

I had to go into work today for 3 hours to do next week's church bulletin and write some checks. I actually enjoy putting together the bulletin. It changes week to week and I play with graphics and fonts to keep things different. That way people may be more inclined to actually read it.

Junior often comes with me to work during the summer. He brought a book with him, started and finished it (about 80 pages) while we were there. He has been reading Magic Tree House books this summer. Today's was about Clara Barton and the Civil War. Actually getting him to read is like pulling teeth, but once a story grabs him he will read until he's finished the book. Sounds familiar--the reading until he's finished part, not the pulling teeth to get him to do it :) I know he's ready to move on to more complicated books, but I don't want to fight with him about reading.

After work we went to the eye doctor. We both had appointments. I'd misplaced my glass and Kristie's "ignore lost stuff and it'll eventually show" thing didn't work. I've been using cheap magnifiers that I picked up at the grocery store, but I really needed knew ones--the magnifiers give me a headache.

It was Junior's first real eye exam. He has had the read the eye chart thing at school and the pediatrician, but never with an eye doctor. I was very impressed by how serious he took the exam, he paid attention did everything asked of him and he was good for the eye drops and eye scan. The eye doctor didn't feel he needed glasses now, but wants to see him in a couple of months and he's back in school. She feels he's slightly borderline for readers, because one eye is weaker than the other. So, we'll be going back in November.

I guess I've blathered on enough. Have a great day and happy reading.

Odd thoughts for the day...

2009-09-03T07:33:00.005-04:00

Color me surprised, Diana Gabaldon is still torturing Jamie and Claire. I gave up on the Outlander series after Drums of Autumn. My sister, the die hard fangirl, finally gave up after The Fiery Cross. I think she bought A Breath of Snow and Ashes. The new book An Echo in the Bones is over 800 pages. Will they ever get to enjoy their old age??

Why can't kids simply enjoy the summer? We were given a list of work for the summer that would keep him on track for the 3rd Grade. We were both tortured by this. He didn't want to do it and I hated fighting with him to get it done. Though I shouldn't complain, his best friend had to take a summer reading class to hopefully bring him up to grade level.

The Yankees won again :D Baltimore is having an abysmal season, but it's sad that there were more Yankee fans than Oriole ones at the game. This one's for Wendy :p Hey Detriot is in first place too.

It's September 3rd and it was 47 degrees when I got up this morning--that's just wrong, it's supposed to be summer time. We used our air conditioner 3 days this summer, 3 days--the summer that wasn't.

Since I'm trying to catch up with new bloggers, I sometimes run the links on the sidebars of other blogs. I came across my first Content Warning...

The blog that you are about to view may contain content only suitable for adults. In general, Google does not review nor do we endorse the content of this or any blog. For more information about our content policies, please visit the Blogger Terms of Service.

I don't know why I'm so surprised by this. Is this new? Do you put the content warning on yourself or does it show up after someone complains? I'd never read the "Terms of Service"--yikes.

I came across another blog with a theme song--I want a theme song. Someone tell me how :D

School starts in 6 days--thank God :) Junior's not happy--but I am--LOL!!

Demon Bound

2009-09-03T00:10:00.002-04:00

After announcing that most of my posts probably wont be about books, my first one will be about a book--which is probably typical of me :)

Before I misplaced it I had read about half of Meljean Brook's Demon Bound and managed to finish it tonight while watching the Yankees and Top Chef Las Vegas (one of my guilty pleasures). Most of the people who will be reading this post probably knows I "knew" Meljean before she became a big time published author. From the first novella--Falling for Anthony--I knew she had a unique and different voice and she comes through again :)

I enjoyed this book. Meljean always creates great characters, well developed and interesting. I loved Jake, his strengths and anxieties. Loved when he met his great-granddaughter. Alice creeped me out at first, and I have to say I really liked that--LOL

If you're not reading Meljean Brook, you should be :)

Next up--Karin Tabke's Master of Surrender, I started it when I couldn't find Demon Bound. And, I'm really enjoying it too. This is my second book of this series, read Master of Craving first and need to order Master of Torment. I have to say it's wonderful to read some decent, gritty and exciting medievals. Definitely worth a read.

why things will be different...

2009-09-02T16:43:00.000-04:00

When I was considering blogging again, it was with a thought that I would like to go back to where I was before I basically took a year off, but over the last week I realized that's probably not going to happen--going back that is, I hope to keep blogging, but it will be different.

While I was a full time SAHM, I spent a tremendous amount of time reading, visiting message boards and then eventually starting my blog in March 2005. My world was built around being a mom and my love of reading romance. Two years ago I went back to work, my son was in school full time and to be honest we needed the money. We choose to send him to a Catholic school and tuition isn't cheap. At first I worked for a company from home, but 4 months into that I was offered the job at our church and to be completely honest, I truly enjoy what I do.

Books and reading had been relegated back to a hobby for me, blogging about books took a back seat to life. I'd rather spend what little free time I have reading or with my family. But like I said in my post last week, I miss my on-line friends and I miss talking about books. While I was writing different posts during the week I realized, I'm likely to write more about life than I am books, and that will probably not hold much interest to most people in romance blogland.

I wont be reviewing books like I did in the past. I'll discuss them, comment on what I liked or didn't like, bemoan when sequels will be out. But, for the most part this blog will be about the life of a mom dealing with work, school, cub scouts, soccer, baseball and trying desperately to keep up with her huge TBR pile.

Honestly, I don't have time to obsess about what I'm reading or what's going on in the romance blog world. I want to be able to have someplace to talk about my day and my books. I will probably bore a lot of people, but I'm writing for me now, so I wont be looking for ARCs or blog hits or give-aways. It's possible I'll talk as much about Scott Hahn as I do about Linda Howard.

Don't be surprised if the blog's look changes or even the name (though you'll still be able to find me at romancereadingmom.blogspot.com.)

I hope people will continue to visit. Have a great day and happy reading :)

Book Found..

2009-09-02T09:53:00.001-04:00

I found Demon Bound in the laundry basket, though I still haven't actually put the laundry away :)

Junior is sitting with me doing some summer classwork--mulitipication. And he just realized Mom has a website. I was told "Cool! Can it make us rich?" NOPE.

The More Things Change

2009-09-02T09:40:00.001-04:00

Simple truth? The more things change the more they stay the same :D

1 Missing Book and 1 Finished...

2009-09-01T08:07:00.003-04:00

If I remember correctly Kristie has a theory that when something's lost don't look for it, it will eventually show up on it's own. I can't seem to find my copy of Demon Bound, which I was completely enjoying, love the spider thingy--even though it grosses me out :) I believe it's on the bottom of one of my clean laundry baskets and I probably wont find it until I actually put the laundry away or have to go digging for something in particular.

So, I spent the last 24 hours reading The Courtesan's Secret. I enjoy the dialogue and Sophia is fantastic--again. Loved Henry. He's completely on to Sophia and his mother. He doesn't care since he's getting exactly what he wants, Louisa. But, once again there are too many characters to keep track of. After visiting Claudia Dain's website, I realized she has a family tree listed for each book. I don't know, but if you need to create a list of characters for a book, there are probably too many to start with, just saying.

Maybe I'll just put the laundry away and hopefully Demon Bound will be found, or maybe I'll dig through the baskets instead.

Have a great day and happy reading.

Adventures in Hair Coloring

2009-08-30T08:14:00.002-04:00

I will qualify all of this by saying my natural hair color is very, very dark brown, with a Black Irish grandmother on one side and an Italian grandfather on the other, I somehow managed to get the darkest brown hair possible. My husband swore I had black hair when we met.

Ten years ago I discovered some grey hair, not enough to color but enough to bug me. My adventures in hair coloring started then. At first I used rinses, these were great as you wash them in and they gradually wash out, nice and easy :) All hair color went on hiatus while I was pregnant and nursing, and to be honest the grey wasn't that bad. The need for permanent color arrived around the same time as the peeing in the dump truck incident, please see the July 2005 archive for this.

Since our budget is tight, I color my hair myself. Why do I torment myself? So I can afford books, of course. My hair stylist understands my book obsession and tells me to avoid anything with a burgandy base, it'll turn my hair too red. Well, the last color I used wasn't burgandy based and it still turned a redish color, this time I've been told to add ash to the color I'm using to tone down the red. So last time I went shopping I picked up 2 boxes one dark natural brown and one dark ash brown.

This morning I wake up at 5:00, and the boxes of hair color were calling me from the bathroom. By 5:20 I've mixed my own color with the hope I don't end up a red head, not that I don't love red hair, it's just not for me. I'm up and ready to start coloring.

Right before I'm ready to start applying the color my husband bangs on the door--he's got to go. It's 5 stinking 20 in the morning and I can't get 1/2 an hour to myself.

We have one bathroom in our house. And it is incredibly small, everything is white, the walls, the wallpaper background, the tub, shower curtain, toilet, sink--I'm sure you get it :) The directions in the box say to use the conditioner to protect anywhere you don't want color. Well, I'd need gallons of it to protect me and the entire bathroom. By the time I'm ready to sit for the 1/2 hour to let the color set, I have to scrub me and the entire bathroom. I don't know how it's possible but I managed to even get hair color on my left knee, above the gloves up to my elbows, the side of the claw foot tub, inside the tub (I'm not sure how this happened as I was standing at the sink) and I even got a small dot on the Martha Stewart white canvas shower curtain.

Well, it's done. I'm back to my very, very dark brown sans the grey. My next adventure in hair coloring is in 8 weeks, maybe I'll talk my sister into doing it for me:)

Negotiations...

2009-08-29T14:00:00.000-04:00

Junior is at the stage where he believes everything is open for negotiations, bed times, play dates, summer classwork, going to McDonalds...

Today's negotiations went like this:

Me: Read 5 more minutes
Junior: 2 minutes
Me: I said 5 minutes
Junior: Come on! 2 minutes
Me: 10 minutes
Junior: Okay. 5 minutes

He still hasn't grasped that childhood isn't a democracy, it's a benevolant dictatorship.

Laundry, a Book Store Run, Sleeping in, Bingo and Mini-bikes

2009-08-29T10:04:00.002-04:00

I desperately need to get some laundry done today--hate it. I'll get over having to do laundry if I can get a book store run in, I've got quite a list going.

Junior wants to go to Mass tonight rather than tomorrow morning. This summer he discover going to bed late and sleeping in the morning is kind of cool. We've informed him that starting Sept. 1st it's back to school bedtimes, he's not happy. We start school really late this year--Sept. 9th. Hate to admit this, but I'm one of those moms who count down the days until they go back--11 days :) A bunch of school moms are planning a back to school lunch.

Tomorrow is bingo, I try not to complain about working bingo, even though the old people are still cranky. It saves each school family about $1,500 in tuition each year. I've just started working Sunday bingos, Junior and Dad like it since they have "Boys Day" when I'm not home. I'm hoping that when I get home from bingo I wont discover a new mini-bike in the front yard. Junior wants one and has been bugging us for the last week. My niece has a 90cc dirt bike and he'd like one of those too, but that one I think he'll have to wait on. She has been teaching him how to ride and he's loving it. The hubby has a 1000cc Honda that's not on the road right now and I'm somewhat happy since Junior's been bugging to ride with Dad too.

Got to go things to do--no point in procrastinating.

Edited--Well, I wont be coming home to a mini-bike, we got our school tax bill today--all large ticket items are on hold until Sept. 30th and that bill is paid.

Life and Books and Recomendations Welcome

2009-08-28T10:39:00.003-04:00

I was thinking about doing a "What's New" post but honestly not that much is new--LOL. Life is hectic. What's making it hectic hasn't changed. I need more organization in my life. I'm sure my husband, when he reads this, would completely agree :)

Reading has been fun. Somehow in the last 8 months I've learned not to obsess about what I read. I may not love everything I'm reading, but I'm not picking everything to pieces or throwing books against the wall. Of course, I'm rather picky about what I'm reading, with a tendency to stick with authors I know and am doing a ton of rereading.

So, what have I been reading? New authors first, I've probably read more than these, but these are the ones that kind of stood out good or otherwise:

Sherry Thomas--liked Not Quite a Husband, and have her other two books on my TBR pile.
Michelle Marcos--not a huge fan. Finished Wickedly Ever After, and found the heroine to be a bit TSTL but not enough not to finish the book. Didn't realize it was the 3rd in a series until after I bought it. Picked up the first 2 at the UBS before I finished it. I've started the other two, but you have to be in the right frame of mind to read stupid heroine stories. I've been reading romance for close to 30 years, so I've read my share of TSTL heroine books and there are worse flaws for a book.
Karin Tabke--completely enjoyed Master of Craving, once agian reading the 3rd book in a series first, found the 1st book in the series at the UBS, but am haven't found the 2nd book yet. I'll probably have to break down and order it from Amazon.
Claudia Dain--The Courtesan's Daughter was an interesting book. Loved the mother but the daughter really wasn't all that bright, I still enjoyed the book.

I've read a whole host of new books by old favorites... Linda Howard, Nora Roberts, Mary Balogh, Julia Quinn, Loretta Chase, Elizabeth Hoyt, Lisa Kleypas the list goes on.

Rereading has probably been the bulk of my reading over the last several months. Lisa Kleypas, Linda Howard, Jane Feather, Susan Elizabeth Philips are my latest reread glom.

Right now I'm reading Meljean's Demon Bound, which I am completely enjoying :)

So, what have I missed over the last few months? Recommendations are highly welcome.

Have a great day and happy reading.

Starting over again...

2009-08-27T10:00:00.000-04:00

For the last couple of weeks I've been blog hopping, and realized:

I miss my on-line friends.
My blog is a complete mess.
Only buying books at the supermarket is a really bad idea :)

So, I'm...

Starting to post comments here and there.
I've cleaned up the blog's sidebar.
And I'm keeping track of books I've had no clue existed.

Will I be able to keep this going? Maybe? Probably not. But I'm going to try.

I had to include a picture of Junior. He made his First Communion in May, and he's still cute!!

Have a great day and happy reading.