Read the first 2 PB Ryan books

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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...

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.

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

Binge Reading

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

• 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

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

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

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

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

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.