I love Bloglines! I hate Bloglines!

So, lots of you use Bloglines, right? I do too and I'm having trouble here. I was scrolling through today and realized that Marg and Cindy hadn't posted in forever, and they're usually really regular about posting. So I went to their sites, and they had a bunch of posts that I hadn't seen! Who knows what else I'm missing! :) What's the deal?

Actually I think it might be because they switched to Beta blogger? But then Ames switched and her posts still show up. I don't get it. Anyone have any suggestions? Maybe if I delete them and then add them again. I'm clueless about this stuff. Still don't really get what an RSS feed is.

Title: Venetia
Author: Georgette Heyer
Published: 1958 originally, reissued 2006, Harlequin
Category: Historical Romance
Rating: 9/10

How much do I love Harlequin for rereleasing all these Georgette Heyers? I saw this one in the bookstore last week and pounced on it. MWAHAHA! More Heyer! I discovered her last year and went on a major binge. I've only found one dud, and the rest have all been delightful. And Venetia is one of the best yet!

Venetia Lanyon is 25 and still unmarried. She has lived a very isolated life in the country until the recent death of her reclusive father. Since that time she's been taking care of her younger brother and handling the management of their estate while her older brother is off enjoying himself in the military. One day when taking a walk, she meets Lord Damerel, a rake of infamous repute who owns a property nearby. He is taken with her beauty and does a little ravishing (just some kisses, this is Heyer after all). Venetia, of course, objects to the handling, but the two proceed to talk and tease each other and hit it off very well. Soon they become fast friends. But there are plenty of problems that must arise in the relationship of a green girl and a notorious rake.

How I loved these two characters. Venetia is very innocent, but she's never naive or silly. She isn't shocked by Damerel's past. And Damerel is just the right sort of rake--world-weary with plenty of mistakes in his past, but with a good heart. At one point Venetia is telling Damerel that she doesn't think he's so bad as people suspect:

"With what improbable virtues are you trying to endow me? An exquisite sensibility? Delicacy of principle?"
"Oh no, nothing of that nature," she replied, getting up. "I allow you all the vices you choose to claim--indeed, I know you for a gamester, and a shocking rake, and a man of sadly unsteady character!--but I'm not so green that I don't recognize in you one virtue at least, and one quality."
"What, is that all? How disappointing! What are they?"
"A well-informed mind and a great deal of kindness," she said...

The interaction between the two of them is brilliant. They are both so intelligent, and their conversations are a riot. I love that they become such good friends first. They have a real meeting of minds, and just "get" each other. They laugh together. Yes, they are passionate about each other too (actually this is probably the spiciest Heyer I've yet read) but what made this most romantic for me was the fact that they were so comfortable together. So ready to share their burdens and take care of one another.

I do have to say that the action slows down a bit at the end and the conflict seemed just a little contrived. But I'm not complaining. Tiny problem compared with how much I enjoyed the book.

If you've never tried a Heyer, this would be a great one to start with. Don't be scared off by the slightly dense writing. (I noticed one paragraph that went for two full pages. No one writes that way anymore.) It goes down like butter! And her dialogue--ah, so fine.

I'm never pre-ordering anything from Amazon ever again.

Because I'm too damn impatient. I had trouble the last time I pre-ordered a book from them too--I had it shipped to my apartment, but no one was home to sign for it, so I had to wait longer. This time I thought I was being clever by having it shipped to my office, thinking those lovely mailroom men would sign for it and sweep it up the elevator to my desk. But I'm a moron and forgot to put my company's name in the address. So when I tracked the package on Friday, it said "Returned to sender because of incomplete address." My head almost exploded. I was stomping my little foot just like Tinkerbell there. It's not that big a building. They couldn't look up my name? Bah!

And it's Sara Donati's Queen of Swords. The latest in the Bonner family saga. I LOVE THESE BOOKS! And it went on sale on Tuesday! I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO HANNAH! I had mistakenly believed that when you preorder a book on Amazon, they ship it before or at least on the day it goes on sale. Um, no. I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO JENNET! So I'm never pre-ordering a book I'm really anxious for ever again. If I lived in some podunk town in the middle of nowhere, it would be different. But I live in the biggest city in America where there's like 50 bookstores within a 5 mile radius. (I completely made that number up, but there are a lot.) It's not often that I NEED a book on the actual release date, so I'll just pay full price in the bookstore from now on.

Which is what I did yesterday. I was so fed up, I just took myself down to B&N and bought a copy of Queen of Swords. And, yes, it cost $27 (ouch!), but it's really long--over 500 pages, so I can deal. And hopefully Amazon will let me cancel my order.

And while I was there I had to buy Santa Baby, the Christmas anthology with a Crusie novella in it. It's JMC's fault, she reminded me about it.

But I am making a vow. A public vow and if I break it you can all yell at me.

I solemnly swear I will buy no more books until 2007.

It's going to be tough. When I told Twin she did a snort-laugh. She obviously doesn't think I can do it. BUT I THINK I CAN. I THINK I CAN. I THINK I CAN. I have so many good books already that I need to read. So, inspired by Dance Chica, I am making a list of books I'd like to finish before the year is up. There are 8 weeks left, and I think I average about 2-3 books a week, so I'm listing 25 books. That will probably be too many what with holidays and so on.


1. Venetia, Georgette Heyer
2. Queen of Swords, Sara Donati
3. Home to Big Stone Gap, Adriana Trigiani
4. Motor Mouth, Janet Evanovich
5. Nature Girl, Carl Hiaasen
6. Beyond Paradise, Elizabeth Doyle
7. Cold as Ice, Anne Stuart
8. Santa Baby, Jennifer Crusie et al.
9. Trust Me, Jayne Anne Krentz
10. Shining Through, Susan Isaacs
11. My Lady Notorious, Jo Beverley
12. After the Night, Linda Howard
13. Twilight, Stephanie Meyer
14. Kushiel's Dart, Jacqueline Carey
15. Season of Storms, Susanna Kearsley
16. The Smoke Theif, Shana Abe
17. Ceremony in Death, J.D. Robb
18. Dreaming of You, Lisa Kleypas
19. Thunder and Roses, Mary Jo Putney
20. Jackdaws, Ken Follett
21. Morning Glory, LaVyrle Spencer
22-24. Donovan Legacy trilogy, Nora Roberts
25. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens (because I read this every Christmas)

See, I am excited about reading everything on that list, so there's no need to buy any more books. Plus my parents always get me a bunch of books for Xmas, so anything I want I'll put on my Xmas list. :)

Green Gables prequel?

Penguin Canada has announced that they're going to publish a prequel to Anne of Green Gables next year in honor of the book's 100th anniversary:

The prequel, Before Green Gables, which tells the story of Anne's early life in foster homes and an orphanage in Nova Scotia, will be written by Governor General's Literary Award finalist Budge Wilson, the award-winning author who has published twenty-nine books in more than 10 countries and whose stories have been included in over 90 anthologies, including the first Journey Prize Anthology.

I've never heard of this Budge Wilson, though she has a pretty cool name. Budge. Trying to imitate the style and feel of such a beloved classic sounds dodgy to me. And Anne's life before her adoption is supposed to be quite depressing. I think one of the reasons so many people love the Green Gables books is the homey, idyllic quality of them. Anne as an unloved orphan might not be quite the same!

But apparently Penguin is also going to put out a collectible 100th Annniversary edition of Anne of Green Gables. Ooohh! Might have to replace my poor little mass market copy that's falling apart.

Title: The Dancing Floor
Author: Barbara Michaels
Published: 1997, HarperCollins
Category: Mystery/ Romantic Suspense
Rating: 7/10

I'm having trouble deciding on the category for this. What are the Barbara Michaels books? Sort of gothic suspense. Romantic suspense. Mystery. They don't fit neatly into any genre I can come up with. Anyway, I've read a few of this author's Amelia Peabody mysteries, written under the pseudonym Elizabeth Peters, and liked them, so I decided to give this a try.

Heather Tradescant is traveling through England touring gardens. She had planned to go on the trip with her father, but on his death, she decided to make the trip alone. The action begins when Heather arrives at Troyton House, whose garden she particularly wanted to see because an ancestor of hers was the gardener who designed it. But the new owners, eccentric millionaire Frank Karim and his son Jordan, don't permit visitors. She goes looking for a back way in and finds a spooky maze. As she rushes out of the maze frightened, she comes upon Frank and Jordan. Frank takes a liking to her and has the odd idea that a descendent of the original landscape architect is just the person to help him restore the gardens, so he persuades her to stay on for a while to help.

I do like Michaels/Peters style of writing. It's very neat and clean and straightforward, if that makes sense. And her sarcastic sense of humor is funny to me. Her characters are like normal people. With lots of flaws. Sometimes irritable and not very nice. Once when Jordan is trying to discuss something with Heather he says, "You see, you're the only one I can talk to. You do seem to have the rudiments of a logical mind."

But I have to say I didn't love this. The mystery seemed a bit tepid. Not quite as gripping as I would have liked. I was horrible and read the last page first (I hardly ever do this, but I was trying to figure out whether there was any romance involved). And as I was getting near to the end, I kept asking myself, how is she going to get there from here?! The romance was a little abrupt. Again, if I hadn't known who Heather was going to end up with, I wouldn't have guessed at all. I would have liked to see a little more development there.

But I'm not giving up on Michaels. I'm going to try another, because though this particular story didn't do much for me, I think that others of hers will work better for me.

Boo!

Happy Halloween everyone! Eat lots of candy.

Title: Tall, Dark & Dead
Author: Tate Hallaway
Published: 2006, Berkley
Category: Paranormal Romance
Rating: 5/10

This is my entry for Angie's TBR challenge for October, which was to read a paranormal romance. I picked it up because I'm always on the lookout for books with witch heroines, but this one didn't do too much for me.

Garnet Lacey is a witch on the run after the rest of her coven is killed by Vatican witch hunters. (Yeah, don't read this book if you're really Catholic.) While trying to save her coven and avenge their deaths, she called an evil magical goddess named Lilith into her body. Lilith is really powerful, but she also takes over Garnet's body and Garnet is unable to stop her sometimes. Garnet meets a really old vampire, Sebastian, who is being hunted by the Vatican because he has a magical potion that creates vampires who can be out in the daytime. But now Lilith wants control of the potion too, so Garnet has to try to figure out a way to keep Sebastian away from the Vatican and keep Lilith under control.

Do you like the cover? No. That cartoon is really bad.

Did you enjoy the book? Yeah, not really. But I think a lot of my dislike was just because of the genre. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't get the vampire thing. Sorry for all you ladies who are vampire-crazy. Next time I'm seduced by the popularity of a vampire book, will someone please remind me that I don't like them? Like in this book, Sebastian almost kills a girl because a Hunger comes upon him. And Garnet decides that this is a bad idea and she doesn't want to see him anymore. And then in the next scene she just completely changes her mind for NO apparent reason. Sure, he might luuuurve me, but then he might rip my throat out. Great!

Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again? New to me, and I won't be reading anything else by her unless she moves away from vamps.

Are you keeping it or passing it on? Passing it on.

Um, can I have a dare instead?

This 5 Truths meme has been spreading around like wildfire. Megan and Mailyn tagged me.

So, I will try. Let's see--five things I know to be true:

1. As long as I have to use a laundromat, I will never be able to force myself to do my laundry until every piece of clothing in my wardrobe is dirty. Don't know why, but this of all domestic tasks is the worst for me.

2. Nearly every time I go to the dentist I will have a cavity. "Just a small one!" the dentist says all jolly-like. Umm, I don't care if it's small, its remedy will still involve novicaine, drilling, and an exorbitant fee 20% of which I will have to pay. (Thank God for insurance.) No matter that I am religious about brushing/flossing/mouth washing. Oh no. 'Tis faulty genes, methinks. *Shakes fist at parents.*

3. Thinking is best done while walking. I love walking and hiking, which is a good thing as I am only too happy to pass on all other forms of exercise. If I have a problem to figure out or something to mull over, I always come up with a better solution if I take a walk.

4. I'm a pressure crier. Sad movies don't make me cry. Not even Hallmark commercials. Ditto sad books (usually, though I can think of a couple). But put me in a situation where I have to defend myself against an antagonistic person, and I will tear up. It sucks.

5. Calvin and Hobbes was the greatest cartoon ever. I still miss it.

I'm not tagging anyone specifically, but if you haven't done it, consider yourself tagged. :)

Title: Lord of Danger
Author: Anne Stuart
Published: 1997, Zebra
Category: Historical Romance
Rating: 9/10

My first Anne Stuart! I have been wanting to read her for a while now, and got this one because it was on Cindy's (Anne Stuart's stalker biggest fan)
top 20 list. OMG!! Thanks, Cindy! Because I loved this book soooo much. I have been in a little reading slump lately. I read all these romances, and so many are just so average, or fine, or meh. I get frustrated and think, why am I so hooked on this genre when it's all crap? Then I read a book like this (well-written, funny, smart, deliciously romantic) and it restores my faith. And the world makes sense again. :)

The setting is medieval England. Alys and Claire are two illegimate half-sisters of Richard the Fair, a high ranked Englishman only a few steps removed from the throne. Claire is the younger beauty, Alys is older, plainer, and smarter. Richard has brought the sisters from the convent where they have been living because he plans to marry one of them off to Simon of Navarre. Simon is believed by most people to be an evil magician. In fact, he is simply an herbalist/healer who has cultivated this fear people have of him to give himself power over them. He chooses to wed Alys, intrigued by her intelligence. Alys is afraid of Simon, but she is determined to marry him, first to save Claire from him, and then because she finds herself strangely drawn to him.

Stuart is known and loved for her dark, dark, brooding heroes. I, myself, do not usually get the dark hero thing. I like my men nice. But Simon is a f*ing fantastic character! He is jaded and thinks that humanity is a pathetic lot. He may not think he has a conscience anymore, but we, and Alys, see that there is still good in him. Alys is great too. She's so smart, but never pushy or annoying. She's such a curious mixture of brave and scared, which is very endearing. And Richard is such a disgustingly awful, wonderful villain!

Definitely going on the keeper shelf! I finished it and immediately started flipping back to reread parts I especially liked. My favorite scenes: the one on the battlements, in the rain. Uh, yeah! And when Alys is in the prison/carriage thingie and Simon creeps up in the night. *SWOON!!*

So I need more Stuart recs!! Give 'em to me, peepz. I was at the bookstore today and wanted to buy one, but they only had Cold as Ice and I want another historical. Are any of her historicals even in print still? Mailyn, which is the one you like best? Rose... something?

Title: A Reason to Live
Author: Maureen McKade
Published: 2006, Berkley
Category: Historical Fiction - Western
Rating: 5/10

Going camping last week put me in the mood for a rustic story. Lol. So I picked up this western. People seemed excited that a new western was actually being published, and it was getting pretty good reviews. I thought it was nice, but, well, pretty meh.

The setting is the south right after the Civil War. Laurel Covey is a war widow who was a nurse through the war. Whenever a soldier died on her watch, she wrote down his last words. Now that the war is over, she's vowed to visit all those soldiers' families to deliver their final messages. On the way, she meets Creede Forrester, who is the father of one of her patients who died. Laurel is mentally scarred from all the horrific things she saw nursing, and has a great deal of guilt over not being able to save everyone. Creede is dealing with his grief over his dead son. Together they travel through the south delivering messages.

This was just...fine. Nice enough. I thought Laurel's fears about her mental stability were interesting and realistic. I can only imagine what nursing on a battlefield would do to one's psyche. The love story was sweet.

But it just didn't really grab me. I found myself not caring all that much about the characters. And the writing did not seem very inspired to me. Too often falling back on tired and overused phrases. Maybe I'm being too harsh. I did think it a nice story. And the cover is so pretty! ;p

Fun book vocabulary.

For those of you who don't know I work in the production department of a book publisher. This means I deal with all the many (many, many!) details in the manufacture of books (their physical selves). Printers and paper and scheduling. We also keep track of the profitability of books once the manufacturing costs have been taken into account. For example, an editor may come to us and say, look I have this great book I want to publish and the author wants it to be full-color throughout, but we only want to charge $12. And the sales department says, well we could maybe sell 10,000 copies of a book like that. So I figure out how much that book would cost to print and run a profit & loss statement. This estimates how much profit the book would probably make. Then I tell the editor the bad news that the beautiful color book he wants to create would end up losing the company money. And we try creative suggestions, like how about a regular one-color book with an 8-page color insert? That would make money. Or how about using this cheaper paper? Or a lower page count, or smaller trim size. Or raise the price.

I like to think my job is important (haha!). Obviously the quality of the writing is what ultimately makes a book successful. But the aesthetics of what the book looks like has a pretty large part in bringing it to people's attention. I love gorgeous books (like Eragon above). Quality paper that you want to pet. Nice interior design that's readable and attractive. And maybe most importantly, pretty covers with foil and nice illustrations. Romance readers are forever lamenting the fugly covers so many books get, with good reason. What a book looks like matters a lot--booklovers like to be surrounded by pretty books.

One of the things I enjoyed learning when I first starting working was all the vocabulary of books. (Yes, I am a dork, shut up.) So I decided to share a bit of this with you all. Plus Twin has been trying to teach me to use Photoshop, and this was good practice. If anyone is interested...

A hardcover or casebound book:



Hardcovers have jackets (paperbacks have covers). The case is the hard covering of the book. Cases used to be covered in cloth, and were sometimes called cloth-bound, but cases are almost always just covered in paper nowadays. The papers that are pasted to the inside of the case and run onto the first sheet of the book are the endpapers. Endpapers are usually a solid color. You can see above that Eragon has printed endpapers (special illustrations that go with the book, in this case a map of Alagaesia). Printed endpapers are pretty expensive, so they're only done for books with big print runs. The headband is the little thing that looks like a tiny rope that is glued to the top of the spine. It's completely ornamental, has no function whatsoever.

A trade paperback book:



So, like I said, paperbacks have covers. Jackets and covers can have lots of fancy special effects: lamination, embossing, and foil. Lamination is the coating put on the cover/jacket. The lamination can be matte or glossy, and a lot of books are spot gloss, where most of the cover is matte, with some bits glossy. Embossing is when the cover is stamped, so that little bits of the cover bulge out. Debossing is when the cover is stamped so that little bits bulge in (in concave depressions). Foil is, well, obviously it's foil. It's shiny, see. Special effects make covers quite a bit more expensive, so again, the big books get them, and they're sometimes dropped for reprints.



This copy of Montana Sky is what we would call a premium trade paperback. When publishers put out fancy editions of previously published, popular books, and charge more for them. ;) Premium trade paperbacks are bigger and have nicer paper. They often have french flaps on the cover. And the front edge of the text paper isn't trimmed smooth, leaving a rough front. For some reason, rough front looks more classy.

A mass-market book:




Lots of mass-market books (and occasionally a trade paperback) have a glossy first page with an illustration. (In romance, usually with the mullet man and half-naked chick embracing passionately.) This is called a stepback or tip-in. Covers are sometimes die-cut--have bits cut out of them, through which you can see parts of the stepback.

Book interior:




There's lots of vocabulary for parts of the printed page of a book. Right-facing pages are rectos (and are always odd-numbered). Left-facing pages are versos (and are always even-numbered). Running heads are the lines that repeat at the top of each page, usually the author's name on versos and the book title on rectos. Running heads can occasionally appear at the bottom of the page, in which case they're called running feet. The page numbers are called folios. Often on chapter openers, the folio is placed at the bottom of the page and is called a drop folio. If the folio occurs at the bottom of each page throughout the book, it's called a foot folio. The gutter is where the page drops down into the binding. The fore edge is the outer edge of the printed text block, usually trimmed smooth.

So that's most of the basic vocabulary I can think of. This has turned into the Very Long Post. If anyone is still reading, bravo. ;p

Title: Archangel
Author: Sharon Shinn
Published: 1997, Ace
Category: Fantasy
Rating: 7.5/10

I was inspired by Dear Author's Sharon Shinn week to give this new-to-me author a try. The Ja(y)nes and Janine described Shinn as fantasy with a strong romantic element, which is the kind of fantasy I like best. Janine gave Archangel an A. Rosario just gave it an A+. I didn't love it quite as much as them, but it was good.

The world of Samaria is made up of humans and angels. The angels are not really the celestial beings we think of. They are more like regular humans who are able to pray to the god, Jovah, to grant favors (and they have wings and can fly). The angels are led by the Archangel, an angel who rules for twenty years and who is chosen by Jovah. (Jovah's decisions are communicated to the angels through his oracles.) The archangel must also have his angelica, a wife who helps him. At the start of this book, Gabriel is about to ascend to archangel. But first he needs to find his angelica. He goes to the oracle who tells him that his mate is named Rachel. Gabriel goes to find her, and discovers that she is not the noble-born woman he was expecting, but rather a slave. Gabriel takes Rachel back to his home of the Eyrie, a mountain-top retreat of angels. But Rachel sees this as just another sort of prison, and has no wish to love Gabriel or help the angels.
So poor Gabriel has a stubborn wife who won't go along with anything he says and he discovers that the current archangel, Raphael, has decided he doesn't want to give up the power of his position. He will do anything, including killing Rachel, to secure his power. But he has also been corrupted to the point that he does not even believe in the god anymore, and abuses his power by giving favors to the rich, while ignoring the poor downtrodden.

This is a very original, very interesting story. The world Shinn creates is fascinating. The book is just a great big fat rich thing, full to the brim with detailed characters and settings. The writing I thought was just beautiful. I liked this line near the end, when Rachel is finally free to make her own decisions, but seems unable to do so: "It was as if every strand of her life lay scattered before her like so many threads awaiting the weaver's skill, but she could not lift her hands and work them into a design." The characters all have personalities and motivations that are complex but never inconsistent.

So why didn't I love it? Well, Rachel is really not an easy character to like. She is contrary and stubborn and difficult. The kind of character you want to shake and scream at. She has been rescued from slavery by an angel. She is the chosen mate of the leader of the world. Does she see this as an opportunity to help people? No, at least not at first. She's whiney. And irritating.

Also the whole predestined lovers thing never really works for me. What can I say? I like my characters to have a bit more free will in choosing who they love.

And the religion, which pervades every line of this book, made me a little uncomfortable. Rosario mentioned that she tried to ignore any parallels that could be drawn between this religion and the organized religions of our world. And I did the same thing. For one thing, as a pretty much areligious person myself, I am shamefully ignorant of biblical stories. I wish that Shinn had not given all her characters biblical names.

That said, the Samarian religion was interesting. I like the idea of a religion based not on good and evil, but rather on harmony and equality. The god is portrayed as a pretty much unfeeling being, who won't go out of his way to help people unless he's asked to by the angels.

***SPOILER***

I bet the Pope wishes he could make a display of God's power the way Raphael called down Jovah's power. I bet that would help church attendance. Yeah, just smite all the unbelievers with a lightning bolt. But this episode in the book bothered me. It takes all the mysticism out of religious faith. And can belief in a god after incontrovertible proof of his existence even be called faith? Isn't faith by its very definition belief in something that can not be proved? Okay I've gone off on a tangent. And this book did inspire a lot of thought on my part, so maybe that means it was a really good book!

***/SPOILER***

Anyway, I do want to try more Shinn, but I'm not sure I can take more Samaria. I think she has books set outside this world, so I might try one of those next.

OH and I forgot. Can someone explain to me why this was published as a science fiction novel? And the blurb on the front page: "Generations later, the armed starship Jehovah still looms over the planet of Samaria, programmed to unleash its arsenal if peace is not sustained..."
Umm. What? DUDE, there are NO spaceships in this book. It's straight fantasy. Old-world type setting. WTF?

Whew! The blues are gone!

So I just have to say that the dark cloud of bad mood that has been following me around all week is gone! YAY! I just slept for 12 hours straight. The icky rainy weather we've been having is gone and it's a beautiful, chilly, fall day. I have absolutely nothing that I have to do this weekend. And I splurged and bought this sweater last night at Anthropologie. It was a little pricey but it's so warm and cozy. And the bright salmon color is my favorite. I hate being cold and the winters here are tough for me. I should have moved farther south, not north!

Hope everyone else is enjoying their weekend!

Why do I have no time?

Sorry for the lack of posts this week! I have been in a funk all week. Boo! Too much work, too little sleep and two visits to the dentist. Ugh. [Side note: I went to a new dentist, and was shocked by how young he was! He looks my age. It's a little scary to me that fully trained doctors could be my age. I'm still a kid! Sort of. But he was also very cute, which made visiting him slightly less unbearable. ;p]

I was going to blog about Archangel tonight. But I really can't summon up the energy to do it justice. This weekend I will actually write a review or two.

In the meantime, check out this beautiful book--it's all photographs of fantastic libraries! Dance Chica was just talking about the library in Beauty and the Beast (the Disney movie). But these are almost as good!

Oooh, I'm mesmerized...

I'm back now.

I spent the weekend camping with my sister and dad at Hither Hills State Park, which is in Montauk all the way at the tippy end of Long Island. The campground was great--right on the ocean. Literally, it was beach, then a dune, then our campsite. The facilities were acceptable. (We only camp in places with flush toilets and hot showers. NO exceptions. I like nature, but I don't like it THAT much.) The only problem with the campground was that almost everyone there had RVs and generators! Bunch of pansies. I hate the rumble of generators when I'm trying to enjoy some much-needed peace and quiet.

The weather was gorgeous during the day--bright and sunshiney. But it was frigid at night! Oh, I went to sleep with many, many layers on. We went hiking and saw the lighthouse at Montauk Point. And we wandered through a couple little towns in the Hamptons to see how the better half live. (I'd live there if I had a couple million $).

Twin took some very pretty pictures and made a Flicker set here.

Bye bye yucky city. I'm off...

To beautiful Montauk! I've never been on Long Island before, but I've heard it's gorgeous. And look at that picture! My dad is coming up to take Twin and me camping for the weekend. YAY!

Of course, the weather has suddenly decided to get serious about fall, so we might freeze our little tooshies off. But I've packed lots of fleece so I should survive. Julie is sure to take pics so I'll post some when I get home.

Have a good weekend everyone!!!

Title: The Shadowy Horses
Author: Susanna Kearsley
Published: 1999, Jove
Category: Romantic Suspense
Rating: 9/10

This author caught my eye on Rosario's blog because she compares her books to Barbara Michaels (who I've never read, but I've read her Elizabeth Peters books and liked them) and Mary Stewart, who is the GODDESS of the classic, old-fashioned romantic suspense novel and one of my favorite authors of all time. And it's set on an archaeological dig and I love archaeology, so I was completely sold on getting this book.

Verity Grey is a curator and archaeological artifacts supervisor. She is hired to work on a site in Scotland which the head archaeologist, Peter Quinnell, believes to be where the mysterious 9th Roman legion met their demise. This would be a find of some importance, so Verity is of course very interested. But when she arrives there, she finds out that Peter is basing his hypothesis on the fact that a psychic 10-year-old sees the ghost of a Roman legion pacing the fields there. At first Verity doesn't believe it--but soon she starts seeing things she can't explain.

This is every archaeologist's dream! To be able to communicate with an inhabitant of the site you're excavating? To know the name of the person who wore the artifact you uncover, to know exactly what happened to that person and how they felt? AWESOME! Figuring out the stories of the real, everyday people who lived in the past is what always interested me most about archaeology and this book really captures that. And all the archaeological details were handled well and were so interesting (to me, anyway!).

It did feel a lot like a Mary Stewart book (not quite as good, but close which is saying a lot as I love ALL Stewart books). Mary Stewart never did any ghost stories, but the tone of the writing I thought very similar. There's a slightly old-fashioned feeling to it, and I mean that in a good way. The ghost story was just a little creepy without being too scary. The love story is subtle but so sweet. Kearsley is of the implied sex scene school of writers. You know, they go into the bedroom together and they look into each other's eyes and smile and the chapter ends. Then the next day they feel just fabulous. *wink, wink*

There were a couple of tiny rough bits in this (like the part with Fabia at the end I thought was way abrupt and odd), but I can easily overlook them because I so liked the story and characters. It makes me sad that this book has gone out of print because it's really lovely.

My library has one Kearsley book still in circulation, Season of Storms, so I've requested that. I'm going to have to try to find used copies of her other books.

I also picked up a Barbara Michaels book to try. Does anyone know if her books have any romance in them? Or are they straight ghost stories/mysteries?

Oh no she DIDN'T!!

Yes, yes she did. You know my messy TBR? (See the picture below that I posted a couple days ago.) I come home from work tonight and Twin has rearranged it. BY COLOR.

I'm sorry, but that's about the most ass-backwards way to arrange books that there can be. Am I right? No true booklover would do it.

But Julie is a designer. She has an eye for shapes and color which I completely lack. She stole all my artsy genes in the womb. So here's a picture of the TBR now. It is pretty, isn't it?



To retaliate I may have to move things around in her crafting corner. Should I rearrange all her fabric? They shouldn't be by color! Surely there's a "better" way. Hmmm, I will have to consider how to best disrupt her organization. Mee hee.

Title: The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood
Author: Susan Wittig Albert
Published: 2005, Berkley
Category: Cozy Mystery
Rating: 7/10

Y'all are going to laugh at me when I tell you that I read and liked this book. See all those teacups? Yeah, this is about the coziest cozy mystery I've ever encountered. I don't read cozy mysteries very often, seeing as they usually bore me to tears. But my usual type of book was not at all appealing to me this week, so I thought something totally different might be good. And I'm always on the lookout of grandma-appropriate books. (My grandma turns 91 in a couple weeks, but she's sharp as a tack and is always asking for new books. Problem is, she would be COMPLETELY appalled by 99% of what I read.)

This is the third book in Albert's series, The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter. The author has taken the basic facts of Beatrix Potter's life (you know, the author/illustrator of the Peter Rabbit books) and made her into a character. Set in 1907, the book is all about Beatrix's little farm in the country, and her little friends, and her little farm animals, and her little village. And it's just so ADORABLE!!! The cats and dogs talk to each other, and the attic mice dress in little clothes, and Beatrix goes fairy hunting with the local children.

Okay, maybe it would make some people (maybe a lot of people) completely gak, but I was charmed by it.

I think what I liked most were all the descriptions of setting. They were just lovely. I would look up an example for you, but I'm too lazy. Suffice it to say, I wanted to move to this little village and get me some sheep to raise. She really does capture a lot of the charming whimsy of Beatrix Potter's books. And everyone has to love Peter Rabbit.

I didn't used to have a TBR...

Now look at it! Lots of good stuff here though.

I've been having trouble getting into a book this week. You'd think with this huge pile, I'd be able to find one that fit my mood. I was trying to read The Gladiator's Honor and it just wasn't happening. I hate that, because I really wanted to like that book. The writing just seemed so unremarkable, so blah. I might go back to it. I mean, it's a romance set in ancient Rome! It should be interesting, right?

I also just picked up a new pair of glasses. They're a slightly different prescription, so now everything looks really funny and my depth perception is off. People who wear glasses know what I'm talking about. Tricky. I know my eyes will adjust soon, but it feels so weird. I really like the frames I got--they're regular brown tortoiseshell on the outside, but inside they have this crazy leopard print. Hee hee!

School days...

This week I started the two editing classes I'm taking this semester at NYU. I'm taking "Disk and Online Editing," which so far is completely disappointing because the instructor obviously has never taught before and really has no idea how to. That's the problem with these professional classes--the instructors aren't full-time teachers. They may be very competent and efficient in their editing jobs, but a lot of them can't teach for shit. But I've only had one class, so I'm keeping an open mind. The company I work for, like almost all trade publishers, still edits completely on paper. I am actually happy about this because I would much prefer staring at paper for hours on end than destroying my eyesight trying to edit on a computer. But computers are obviously the future--they have tools that are very helpful in editing and the ease of transmitting electronic files is certainly a plus. A lot of scholarly and textbook publishers already edit on computer, and I imagine trade publishers will follow suit soon.

My second class is "Grammar for Publishing Professionals" and I will admit that I'm a total dork and super excited about this class. For one thing, the instructor has been teaching the class for 10 years and is fantastic. We're going to learn about the subjunctive and restrictive clauses and dangling participles and other fun things. Who wouldn't be excited about that?? I've just been to B&N to pick up the books I'll need:



And of course I couldn't leave the bookstore without buying something fun, so I picked up The Smoke Theif by Shana Abe. I'm a sucker for romantic fantasy and the pretty gold-foiled cover caught my eye.

Title: Heart Throb
Author: Suzanne Brockman
Published: 1999, Ballantine
Category: Contemporary Romance
Rating: 7/10

I somehow had the impression that all of Suzanne Brockmann's books were romantic suspense. Not sure how that happened. I ordered this one on recommendation without reading any blurbs or anything. I cracked it open because I was in the mood for a little thriller. Uh, oopsie. Maybe I should read the blurb first next time. But look at that cover! That screams romantic suspense. And the tagline: "Falling in love is risky business..." But this is just a romance. No suspense.

Jericho Beaumont is a has-been actor who is also a recovering alcoholic/substance abuser. He's been clean for 5 years and is trying to get his career back on track. He signs on to play the lead in a movie being produced by Kate O'Laughlin. This is Kate's first attempt at producing a movie and she's not about to have her project screwed up by Jericho having a relapse. So she makes him sign a contract saying that he'll submit to drug tests and constant supervision. But then Kate ends up being his babysitter during the movie shoot. Of course, how can she resist the sexiest man on the planet?

So even if it wasn't what I was expecting, I did enjoy it. I thought it an interesting story--a man whose childhood was so difficult that he took to hiding behind the characters he played. And how he comes to actually trust himself and someone else enough to really be himself. And Kate has to decide when Jericho is actually being genuine and when he's acting.

The little side romance between Jamaal and Susie was sweet, though I'm always a little skeeved out by a 15-year-old falling in love like that. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I just find it a little hard to believe.

My one complaint was that it was a little overwrought in places for me. Just oh-so-emotional. Feel the pain, Jericho, feel it, become one with it and then let it out! It wasn't so bad that it really annoyed me, and I guess actors are generally expressive, emotional people, so it is appropriate. Don't mind me, I'm repressed.

I'm definitely willing to try some more Brockmann. A lot of her books are actually suspenses, right? Can someone recommend a good one? The only other of hers I've read is The BodyGuard.

Title: The Bridal Season
Author: Connie Brockway
Published: 2001, Dell
Category: Historical Romance
Rating: 8/10

Okay, I think I'm jumping the gun here a little bit, but Connie Brockway might be a new favorite author for me. Yippee! This is only the second book I've read by her, so I'm not going to say for certain, because two books really aren't enough to make that kind of important decision. But if I keep liking them as much as I have, I think she'll make the list. [How many "favorite" authors am I allowed? Does the term become meaningless if you have 20 favorite authors?]

Letty Potts is in a bit of a jam. She's a musical comedy actress, who does a little small-time confidence tricking on the side. She's can't get any work in London and is running from Nick Sparkle, her sometime associate who has been trying to get her involved in more serious illegal activity. So when Lady Agatha Whyte, who owns a wedding planning company and is on her way to the country to arrange someone's wedding, drops her train ticket at Letty's feet and decides to elope to Paris, Letty takes the ticket and blesses her good luck in having an easy way out of the city.

But when she arrives in Little Bidewell, she is mistaken for Lady Agatha herself. She decides to play along for a couple days. But things escalate and soon she's planning a wedding and getting to know the bride and her family. She has everyone fooled, except for maybe Sir Elliot March, the local magistrate.

I really enjoyed this book. I might have liked it even better than Bridal Favors. The story is so light and sweet and funny. Something about Brockway's humor just works for me. I liked the Victorian setting, and I liked that Letty, as someone who is slightly outside of "polite society," is a little more free of boring restrictions than your average historical heroine.

I've got two more of her books in the TBR: The Passionate One, the first of her McClairen's Isle trilogy, and her new contemporary, Hot Dish. Maybe after those two I can decide for certain whether she's going on the favorite authors list.

Nora Roberts on the little screen

Has everyone heard about the Lifetime movies being done for four Nora Roberts books? I hadn't. They're doing:

• Angels Fall starring Heather Locklear and Johnathon Schaech (most recently from That Thing You Do).
• Carolina Moon, starring Claire Forlani, Oliver Hudson, and Jacqueline Bisset
• Montana Sky, starring John Corbett, Ashley Williams, Charlotte Ross, and Diane Ladd
• Blue Smoke, which is still being cast

I think all the movies are going to air in February. I'm not thrilled by the idea of Heather Locklear as Reece in Angels Fall. And I don't know who most the rest of those people are, even after looking at their credits on IMDB.

But I'm definitely going to check out Montana Sky. First because I think it's my favorite Roberts book of all time. Maybe partly due to nostalgia, since it was the first of hers I ever read. But I still think it's one of her best. And I LOVE John Corbett. And he's been in some crappy movies, but he's always good. I think he'll make a damn fine Ben McKinnon.

Title: Magic Study
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Published: 2006, Luna
Category: Fantasy
Rating: 9/10

Y'all know how much I was looking forward to this book. After reading Poison Study and loving it, I was completely impatient to start this one. But I tried to keep cool, because I'm always wary of sequels, and especially wary of middle books of trilogies. Strange in-between stories that are so often unsatisfying. And there's nothing worse than being disappointed by a book that didn't live up to your high expectations. But I'm happy to report, that I loved this one just as much as the first. YAY!

At the end of Poison Study, Yelena is exiled from Ixia due to her burgeoning magical abilities. With her magical mentor Irys, Yelena heads south to Sitia to be reunited with the family that she was kidnapped from 14 years previously. She meets her parents and brother, as well as the rest of her clan, who all live in treehouses. [Cool!] The reunion is marred however, by the reactions of her brother, Leif, who is resentful and hostile toward Yelena for reasons she doesn't really understand. Soon Yelena leaves her family and travels to the Citadel, the capital of Sitia, to start her magical training. On the way, she is attacked by a man named Cahil, who claims to be the last living member of the old royal family of Ixia. He thinks Yelena is an Ixian spy and is determined to use Yelena in his quest to retake Ixia.

The plot tears off from there at a high pace, and a lot happens. The action is really nonstop. Yelena must deal with all the strange Sitian customs, her magical training, the distrust of most everyone, and a rogue magician who is killing young girls. It takes all of Yelena's ingenuity, strength and magical abilities to make it through it all. She does has some help from a certain someone who appears with an Ixian diplomatic envoy. The yummy Valek.

Where to start with why I liked this book? Yelena, who was a tough chick in the first book, gets even ass-kickier. She is so independent, and even though she now has friends and family, she still goes her own way and takes charge of any situation. But I do love the way that she and Valek are somehow magically connected and he is able to help her from afar when she needs it. Valek knows how strong she is and lets her take what risks she needs to, but he's always there watching, ready to help.

I thought Yelena's reunion with her family was well done. The varying reactions of everyone seemed very genuine. Yelena's anxiety at meeting them, her parents' relief and wonder, and her brother's guilt and confusion all rang very true to me. I love all the secondary characters--the new ones: Cahil, Moon Man, Esau and Perl, the master magicians, and the horses. And old friends who return from the first book, especially Ari and Janco.

This is the kind of book that as I was reading I made myself read slowly, so that I could savor each page. You know you've got a good book when that happens. :) It's a world that I will enjoy returning to on future re-reads.

And now I can't wait for the third book in the trilogy, Fire Study. It's out sometime next year. *sigh*

The postman was trying to trick me.

I love it when Amazon ships you books earlier than their on-sale date. I'd pre-ordered Magic Study, the sequel to Poison Study, and was super excited to see that it shipped earlier this week, even though it's not technically on sale until 10/1. Then I was tracking the package online at work on Friday and squeeing a little because it said it had delivered.

And then I got home and it wasn't there. Oh, the disappointment. I got quite snippy with Twin. "But the computer SAYS it's here, it must be here!" And Twin's all, "Well, it's not. Suck it up."

I went downstairs and accosted my landlord. Did you STEAL my Amazon package?? (OK, not really. I was very nice about it, seeing as she has the power evict me. Or maybe not evict me, but at least withhold maintenance and adequate heating.) She didn't have it.

So I went to bed without my new book to read. Next day, I'm waiting for the mailman. He comes and he doesn't leave any package. Now I'm worried. I'm going to have to complain to Amazon and make them resend the books. Do they believe you if you say you never got your package?

In a fit of frenzy, I head back down to the porch. Just to make sure it hadn't magically appeared. And sure enough, there was my little box, hiding behind the deck chairs. Stupid mailman, playing tricks on me! And it had rained overnight and the box was all soggy. I rip it open, thinking "My books, my precious books, they're ruined!!" But that smart Amazon shrinkwraps the books. Thank goodness.

So, anyway, I'm enjoying Magic Study. Finally.

Title: Rapture in Death
Author: J.D. Robb
Published: 1996, Berkley
Category: Romantic Suspense
Rating: 8/10

In Death #4: The One with the Subliminal Messages

Are these books getting better or am I just more invested in the characters, and so liking them more?

What's going on: At the tail end of Eve and Roarke's You honeymoon they discover a young man who has will committed suicide. But the send victim appears to have had no reason to Jennie want to die. Soon three other, seemingly unrelated people happily all kill themselves with no apparent motive. your Eve thinks this is rather fishy and decides to money look into the matter. Could and someone or something all be affecting these people's subconscious your and making them kill books themselves?

Eve is now Mrs. Roarke (though she doesn't go by that name, she's still Dallas, Lieutenant Eve). Peabody becomes Eve's official sidekick.

What's yay: Best one yet! The mystery is less a whodunit, than a how-dunit. It's pretty obvious who the villain is, but we don't know how they're managing it. And the idea of people planting emotions and ideas into your head without you knowing it is completely scary. It would be a horrible violation. Roarke and Eve are properly furious after it's done to Roarke--such a strong emotion is planted in his head, that he actually hurts Eve a little. And I love Roarke's reaction to it: "But the man would pay, Roarke promised himself, for wedging even one instant of fear and distrust into their relationship." Hmmm, he can be scary. In a good way. :)

What's blah: Yeah, I still can't think of anything.

Final thoughts: So often with romantic suspense, I'm annoyed by over-theatrics. But I never have that problem with these books. They're exciting and suspenseful, but Robb never goes crosses the line into over-the-top.

I don't think we're typical media consumers

According to this interesting article about media trends in PW, on average people spend $97.04 a year on books. And they spend 107 hours per year reading books.

Yeah, I'm definitely not the average person. I wonder how many hours I spent reading last year? 107 hours a year is only 2 hours a week. I might average more like 2 hours a day. Actually, probably more than that once you figure in weekends.

And $97 a year for books? Ha! Though I have instituted a monthly book budget, which I probably won't be able to stick to.

Compare to TV: people spend $306.70 and 1,673 hours per year on the boob tube. *sigh*

Title: Immortal in Death
Author: J.D. Robb
Published: 1996, Berkley
Category: Romantic Suspense
Rating: 7/10

This is the third In Death book. I'm stealing Samantha's mini-review format for this one. Because, though I am enjoying these books, they are all basically the same.

What's going on: Eve's friend Mavis is suspected in the murder of a model who was trying to market a drug called Immortality, a highly addictive stimulant/beauty-enhancer which also turns out to be a slow-acting poison. Meanwhile, Eve and Roarke's wedding is fast approaching. And Eve finally remembers what happened to her father.

What's Yay: Good plot on this one. Better than #2, imo. Spoiler: It's the one with the dirty cop. I knew he was the bad guy when Peabody says that he told her she had a "jelly belly." Yeah, he's a baddie. We get to see lots more of Peabody, who is great. And Roarke is so understanding about Eve's tragic past.

What's Blah: Yeah, I can't think of anything.

Final thoughts: I love the TV show Bones. Anyone else watch it? It occurred to me while reading this book that I could picture the woman who plays Temperance Brennan as Eve. Very similar characters.

News to me

Today I was wandering around the web wasting time instead of working, and I discovered two things today that made me happy, happy.

Kelley Armstrong's next Otherworld book, No Humans Involved, is due out in May and it's going to be about Jaime Vegas, the necromancer. (*whisper* I see dead people.) Yay! I love Jaime! Only bummer is that she's going into hardcover this time. Boo! She has excerpts up. The prologue is creepy!

They've released a trailer for the movie Eragon, which is out Dec 15. It looks really good. Though a bit darker than I imagined the book. John Malkovich is playing Galbatorix. Whooo! He's eeeeee-vil. And the kid who plays Eragon is a total cutie.

I own Morelli. All of him. Oh, yeah.

Today is my 3-year anniversary at the company I work for. It seems simultaneously like a very long and a very short time. Can I retire yet?

I took a vacation day today to celebrate. It seemed appropriate. But the weather is truly rotten here today. It's been pouring all day. So I've been cozied up with a book. Lovely.

Before I get back to my book, I have to brag because my mom just sent me the entire Stephanie Plum series. See here's a picture of them on my shelves:



Thanks, Marmee!

Title: Breathing Room
Author: Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Published: 2002, Avon
Category: Contemporary Romance
Rating: 5/10

I'm a pretty big fan of Susan Elizabeth Phillips and have read quite a few of her books. I've picked Breathing Room off library and bookstore shelves many times and put it right back after reading the first line of the blurb:

She's Dr. Isabel Favor, America's diva of self-help.

She's a self-help guru. God help me. I don't do psychobabble. I can't watch Oprah or Dr. Phil or any of those people because they annoy the crap out of me. But I was in the mood for SEP and this one was right there on the library shelf, so I decided to give it a shot. I tried to keep an open mind, really I did. But I just couldn't really like it.

Isabel Favor is a famous self-help, what, psychologist I guess. She's got bestselling books and lecture tours and whatnot, but she also has a crooked accountant who has been embezzling and scamming both her and the IRS. So her company is destroyed and she's a laughing stock because she's been preaching on the ways to keep your life organized and hers has just fallen apart. And she's been dumped by her fiance. So she goes to Tuscany for a few months to regroup and decide what exactly she's going to do now. (I bet other people who lose their jobs wish they could just jaunt over to Italy for a couple months. Sheesh.)

In Italy she meets Lorenzo Gage who is an actor, famous for always playing bad guys. The two meet and are attracted to each other, and decide to have a fling. And they think they can keep it cool and just have a fun, physical relationship. Someone should have told them they were in a romance novel. That never works.

There were some things I liked about this book. Phillips always does great dialogue--snappy and funny. I loved the Italian setting. And the characters were interesting and more complex than you sometimes have. But I just found Isabel irritating. One of those people who think they know better than everyone else. About everything.

And the psychobabble was too much for me. Troubled childhood=need to control everything. Troubled childhood=low self-esteem=only able to see himself as a villain. You want your characters to grow and change and discover things about themselves, but this just felt too heavy-handed. Like I was being beaten over the head with the message. And they talked, talked, talked, and I was bored, bored, bored.

I think this is one of those books that people either love or hate. I didn't hate it, but I wasn't sorry to see the end of it.

For Temeraire fans

From Publisher's Lunch today:

Director Peter Jackson has taken an interest in computer programmer-turned-novelist Naomi Novik's TEMERAIRE series and hopes to develop it for both the screen and computer games. Jackson says, "As I was reading these books, I could see them coming to life in my mind's eye. These are beautifully written novels, not only fresh, original and fast-paced, but full of wonderful characters with real heart.... Téméraire is a terrific meld of two genres that I particularly love - fantasy and historical epic."

Novik says, "Jackson has not yet decided whether he will make one movie or three or if the books can be introduced by other media first. He is using his own funds to option material before approaching any studios with his plans."

I haven't read these books yet, but have heard very good things about them. Here is a story in the Guardian.

Title: Poison Study
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Published: 2005, Luna
Category: Fantasy
Rating: 9/10

I'm having such good luck with books right now! This one was a recommendation from Samantha. Here is a link to her very good review.

This is a really good book. I loved it. *sigh* And it's the first in a trilogy! Oh, how I love a good trilogy.

Yelena is a young woman who's been convicted of murder and sentenced with death. As an alternative to the noose, she is offered the job of food taster to the Commander. He is the leader of the military government which is currently in power in this world, and is very wary of being poisoned to death. Even though she knows that the life expectancy of the food taster is very short, Yelena agrees. She is trained in the various types of poisons and how to identify them by a man named Valek, who is the cheif advisor to the Commander.

I was excitedly telling Twin about the plot of this book. I got to this point and looked at her like, isn't that cool? And she says, "So what, that's it? This girl just tastes the guy's food for poison? Here's dinner. Oh, phew, she's still alive. No poison this time." And I realized that it does sound sort of lame if you put it like that. But it's not at all! Yelena's got many enemies to avoid (including the father of the man she killed, who obviously wants to revenge), burgeoning magical abilities that she doesn't understand and can't control, and an escape plan to put into action.

It's very exciting. I couldn't put it down, and when I finished it I went right onto Amazon and pre-ordered the next book in the series, Magic Study, which is out Oct 1. Squeee!

Yelena is a wonderful character--such a survivor. A kick-ass kind of heroine. She has not had an easy life, but she just keeps going, salvaging whatever she can to keep alive. But she's never annoyingly martyr-ish. She is not infallible, but honestly flawed which is very endearing. Lots of very interesting secondary characters too.


***Slightly spoilerish****


And the love story, while subtle, is so sweet. I love romances where the H/H start out as enemies, or in this case maybe not enemies, but they are at least wary of each other. As they get to know each other, they slowly come to respect and trust the other. And it creeps up on them so slowly that they barely recognize it at first. And I have to say that it was refreshing to read a completely PG book. In these days of racier and racier books, it was a nice change of pace. Now that I think about it, aside from a few violent scenes and the talk of rape, it could have been a YA book.

I've been having such good luck with books, I'm afraid to start anything else. This run of excellent books can't go on. The next one's bound to be a rotter.

Top 20! Err, I mean Top 15!

A while ago, Kristie and Cindy came up with this idea of everyone posting their top 20 romances (top 20 by 20 different authors). I didn't think I could do this at first because I haven't been a hard-core romance reader all that long, but I decided to try. And as of now I've only got 15. And it took me a month to finally getting around to posting them. But finally, here they are.

Now some purists may argue that a few of these are not romances. But in my opinion they are--they all have HEAs and I would say that the love story is the most essential part of the plot.

Top 15

1. The Blue Castle, L.M. Montgomery
2. Persuasion, Jane Austen
3. This Rough Magic, Mary Stewart
4. Faking It, Jennifer Crusie
5. Born in Fire, Nora Roberts
6. Lord of Scoundrels, Loretta Chase
7. The Nonesuch, Georgette Heyer
8. The Far Pavilions, M.M. Kaye
9. Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
10. Into the Wilderness, Sara Donati
11. Kathryn in the Court of Six Queens, Anne Merton Abbey
12. Ain't She Sweet, Susan Elizabeth Philips
13. A Summer to Remember, Mary Balogh
14. A Civil Campaign, Lois McMaster Bujold
15. To Sir Philip, With Love, Julia Quinn

I'm sure this list will change lots in the future. Some will stay (those top three ain't goin' nowhere, that's for sure), and others will fall off. But for now, I'm pretty happy with it.

You know how some people stay away from books with children? Well, I kind of feel that way about dogs. This occurred to me last night as I was reading a book in which the heroine's dog is poisoned and she actually considers committing suicide. Because she can't live without her dog.

That's just sad.

Shocking confession: I'm not a dog person.

Now admit it, you're all thinking, "Man, she's a heartless bitch." It takes a brave person to admit it. Poor, innocent, kind creatures that they are. I don't care. I like playing with other people's dogs. I think they're cute as long as they're not slobbering on me. I mean look at this picture of the puppy!! (Courtesy of CuteOverload) He's adorable. But I feel an enormous sense of schadenfraude when I see people picking up dog shit in the park, and shouting "COME HERE NOW, ROVER!!" as their dog runs in the opposite direction. Hee hee.

So books in which dogs play a big role don't do much for me. And I really hate it when authors use a character's love of animals as code for this is a really good person. Just because a hero takes care of a dog doesn't mean he's a prince. I'm going to need some other reasons to care about a character.

Now, don't all you dog-lovers hate me. I'm sure your dog is special and wonderful.

Title: Slave to Sensation
Author: Nalini Singh
Published: 2006, Berkley
Category: Paranormal Romance
Rating: 8.5/10

The Ja(y)nes at Dear Author can be happy to know that their viral blogging experiment worked. At least on me. After seeing this everywhere in blogland, I had to pick it up and give it a try. And OMG it was really good!

I was totally surprised because let me count the reasons I shouldn't have liked it:
1)Cheesy title and cover. Twin has been making fun of me all weekend. "Are you a slave to sensation??!!" And I said, "No, but I'm a slave to this book!" Because I could not put it down. Even after the weather turned all beautiful, all I wanted to do was finish it.
2)It's very paranormal-y. Not my favorite category.
3)It has A LOT of sex. And gratuitous sex generally bugs the hell out of me. I mean, if I want erotica, I'll read erotica, thank you very much. Explicit sex scenes in regular novels are just distracting to me. But it worked here because it actually helped move the story along.
4)Hero is a total alpha. Literally, he's the alpha of a pack of panther/humans. Not my favorite kind of hero.

But despite all these things, this book sucked me in and didn't let me go till the very end. The reason is because it is simply a very compelling story.

In this alternate reality, there are three species of humans--regular humans, changelings (people who can change forms into animals), and the Psy. The Psy are like regular humans except that they have special mental abilities, like telepathy or telekinesis. A couple hundred years before the start of the book, the Psy were having trouble with a rampant murder rate among their population. Their solution is to condition children from birth to have no emotions. They don't love, or hate, or feel jealousy, they don't have any feelings at all, even simple things like food preferences. They're just super-efficient robots.

Sascha Duncan is a Psy who believes that she is terribly flawed--though she has been through the normal conditioning, she does feel emotion. Emotions that keep getting more and more overwhelming. She has to hide this from the rest of the Psy because if they find out, they'll send her to this institution where her mind will be cleared and she'll be turned into a vegetable.

She meets Lucas Hunter, the alpha of one of the most powerful changeling packs. He's a panther and rrrowr. Yeah, he's sexy. He is investigating the death of several Changeling women, and suspects that a Psy is the culprit. Sascha agrees to help them. And she's introduced to the world of sensation and feeling. Not only does she fall in love with Lucas, she also begins to understand the support and affection given by a family--something that is alien to most Psy.

I just thought the premise of this was so interesting. The battle between hot-blooded emotion and cold reason. We all feel overwhelmed by emotions sometimes, but what would we be like without them? And what makes us human? Our emotions or our ability to overcome our emotions with intelligent logic? Maybe I'm overthinking this, as it is just a romance novel, but I was rather fascinated by the world that Singh creates.

One minor complaint which is also a spoiler: The identity of the bad guy was obvious. We knew it was a male Psy and we'd only been introduced to one character that fit that description. So duh, maybe it's him! But it did little to spoil the enjoyment.

So I loved this book. I loved seeing Sascha emerge from her cold little shell. The romance was very romantic--star-crossed lovers who don't end up dead at the end. ;) I thought it was really original and very different from anything I'd ever read before. There's a sequel due out in the spring. YAYY!

Title: Bridal Favors
Author: Connie Brockway
Published: 2002, Dell
Category: Historical Romance
Rating: 8/10

I picked this book up because Rosario has it listed on her sidebar as one of her Best of the Best. And as she seems to have generally very similar book preferences to my own, I thought I'd try it out. And I'm so glad I did.

I didn't give it a perfect score like Rosario did, but I did think it a lovely, delightful book and I might well consider bumping that up on future rereading. It's a book that will become a friend worthy of revisiting. It kept me up very late on Friday night, which is really saying something as I usually act like an 80-year-old woman on Fridays. I don't get enough sleep during the week, so by Friday I'm worn out and I usually fall asleep on the couch around 9:00. It's sad, but true. Takes massive amounts of caffeine or alcohol to keep me alive.

So, Bridal Favors. Set in Victorian England, it tells the story of Evelyn Cummings Whyte and Justin Powell. The two first meet when Evie is 15. She catches Justin emerging from a married woman's room at dawn, and draws the natural conclusions. Justin asks her not to tell anyone and gives her an IOU for future services if she keeps mum. Ten years later, Evie decides to cash in on the IOU. She has taken over her aunt's wedding planning company and needs to use Justin's ancestral home for a fancy society wedding. Justin agrees to let Evie use the house, as it will serve as an excellent cover for one of his espionage missions. Did I mention Justin is a spy? So Justin and Evie end up staying together for a month in the country while she manages the wedding and Justin does his spying thing.

This book is the opposite of the dark, brooding, dramatic romance. I think it's really a comedy more than anything else. From the very beginning I was laughing. When Evie catches Justin emerging at dawn from the married lady's room:

He stood staring down at her a second before raking his hand through his hair. "What the devil am I--Damnation!"
"Probably," Evelyn agreed.
He glanced down, clearly startled.
"Oh," she said caustically, "your comment was rhetorical rather than prophetic."

The characters are delightful. Justin is actually an important spy, but he disguises this fact behind the facade of an idle, useless gentleman. He endures the ridicule and disappointment of his family to be successful in espionage, which is very admirable. Evie is the plain, resourceful type, very confident in her abilities, but also self-conscious about her looks. But there's very little "Oh, poor me" about her, thank goodness. I love this:

But she didn't want to catch a husband. Because, as much as she was realistic about her looks, she was equally realistic about the good qualities that she did own. She was proud of her accomplishments, and she would not marry a man who didn't appreciate them, too.

At the beginning I thought that the spy subplot was really confusing and kind of lame, but it got much better toward the end.

This is my first Brockway, but I'll definitely have to get some more. Apparently she has her first contemporary coming out this winter.