Tuesday, October 31, 2006
*** Mr. Deeds. Comedy.
Directed by: Steven Brill
Starring: Adam Sandler, Winona Ryder
We watched this at home with the kids, courtesy of Netflix.
Longfellow Deeds (Adam Sandler), a small town pizza shop owner who writes greeting cards (not that Hallmark has accepted any), inherits a $40 billion business from an uncle he never met. So at the behest of the company's executives, he goes to the big city to sign paperwork until the executives can raise the money to buy him out.
It's big news, and tabloid TV reporter Babe (Winona Ryder) goes undercover to get the scoop on him.
Of course, the executives turn out to be crooked, and Deeds's small-town honesty is needed to save the day. And of course he and Babe fall in love.
It's predictable, but fun, and requires major suspension of disbelief. Not a bad way to spend an hour and a half with the kids, but not a movie to purchase for the collection.
...more
Categories: Movies, 3stars, Comedy
Labels: 3 stars, comedy, Movies
Death Drop
****½ Death Drop by Alina Adams. Mystery.
Whoops. This is the 4th in this figure skating mystery series. I read the 3rd, Axel of Evil (#18), loved it, and promptly bought the first two. Unfortunately, they're still sitting in my TBR pile. Fortunately, not having yet read them didn't affect my enjoyment of Death Drop in the slightest, even though some events from previous books are referred to.
The setting is Nationals, when a baby is found abandoned after an ice dancing practice session, and the presumed mother, former ice dancing champion Allison Adler, is discovered hanged in the costume room. It's soon evident that she was murdered, and once again, figure skating researcher Bex Levy finds herself in the middle of a murder mystery.
Everyone wants the baby: Allison's estranged father; her married coach, who claims to be the baby's father; and her former boyfriend Coop, who also claims to be the father. Coop's mother in particular is determined that her son be granted custody, reasoning that single fatherhood would be good for his image.
And as many reasons as there are for the various custody claims, there are even more motives for murder. It seems everyone has a secret, but all secrets are not necessarily lethal ones.
In addition to the murder and paternity issues, there's a nice thread involving Jeremy, the young skater from On Thin Ice, and his father Craig, who's a possible romantic interest for Bex.
As with Axel of Evil, I thoroughly enjoyed this story. The skating details were just enough to ground me in the setting and to make me feel like a bit of an insider, but not enough to be overwhelming. Bex is a realistic, likeable heroine, and all the secondary characters were well-enough developed that even though there were quite a few of them for a relatively short (233-page) book, I didn't have any trouble distinguishing them. The only thing that gave me a little trouble was figuring out Coop's secret--I got a bit confused about that by the end, between the truth, the spin, and what various characters believed. That could, of course, be attributed to late-night reading. I had an awfully hard time putting this down.
Amateur detective series tend to have trouble giving the protagonist reasons for continuing to stumble on and/or poke their noses into murder cases. So far, that's not a problem. I particularly liked the way Bex's involvement in this case was handled.
One last thing: I didn't expect this while reading a cozy murder mystery, but the bits about fatherhood and what it means, especially one particular conversation between Bex and Craig, put a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes.
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Categories: Books, 4.5stars, Mystery
Labels: 4.5 stars, books, mystery
| Your Political Profile: |
| Overall: 20% Conservative, 80% Liberal |
| Social Issues: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal |
| Personal Responsibility: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal |
| Fiscal Issues: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal |
| Ethics: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal |
| Defense and Crime: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal |
True, as far as it goes. Many of the questions were too complex to answer with a simple yes or no, though.
Categories: AboutMe
Labels: quiz
Monday, October 30, 2006
***½ Liavek, ed. by Will Shetterly & Emma Bull. Fantasy anthology.
Hmmm. Now I'm confused. I was certain I'd read one of the Liavek anthologies before, but I can't find it on my shelves, so it must have been before we moved, and the memories seem a little more recent than that. Oh, well.
Anyway, this is the first in a series of shared-world anthologies, the world being Liavek, the city of Luck. The main thing that distinguishes this world is the way in which magic works. Everyone has a certain amount of "luck," and they can access it during the hours of their birth--that is, on their birthdays, for the hours during which their mother was in labor. A wizard is someone who's "invested" their luck--stored it in an object during a ritual that must be repeated yearly during their luck time--so they can access it year-round.
I approached this anthology with skepticism, because it seemed that in the last anthology I'd read in this shared universe, every story was about rival wizards trying to find where each other had stored their luck and to destroy it &/or to disrupt their reinvestiture. And the first story, "Badu's Luck," by Emma Bull, did indeed fit the mold, although it was more about recurring character Snake protecting a wizard during their luck time.
Then "The Green Rabbit from S'Rian" by Gene Wolfe ended the one-story streak, with a story about pirates, of all things. And "Ancient Curses" by Patricia C. Wrede convinced me that there was going to be more to this anthology than I'd suspected. This story was about someone trying to summon the god Rikiki, who'd been turned into a squirrel.
"Birth Luck" by Nancy Kress is a story of revenge--a sister seeks revenge on the wizard who convinced her brother to try to invest his luck--the failure of which killed him.
"An Act of Contrition" by Steven Brust is a tale of intrigue and a convoluted plot--that does involve wizards' luck hours, but only peripherally.
Jane Yolen's "The Inn of the Demon Camel" is a short-short story, told like an Aesop's fable. And "The Hands of the Artist" by Kara Dalkey is a mystery story. So much for my presumption that all the stories would be alike.
"The Green Cat" by Pamela Dean is about a young woman who thinks life's not worth living, so she joins a suicide order--the concept is that once she discharges all her obligations, she can die. And she does, except for this cat... "A Coincidence of Birth" by Megan Lindholm is about another young woman who hires a wizard to learn her birth date.
Will Shetterly's "Bound Things" has recurring character Trav The Magician being hired by a child to recover her dolly and outwitting a rival wizard.
The last story is "The Fortune Maker" by Barry B. Longyear. It's about a garbage picker who invests his luck and becomes a rare "fortune maker"--that is, whenever someone asks him what their fortune will be, whatever's in his heart regarding them will be. It's the longest story in the anthology by far.
The problem with fantasy short stories is that fantasy generally involves a lot of worldbuilding, and trying to squeeze that into 20 pages or so doesn't leave a lot of room for the story. That's where the shared world concept comes in. Some of the stories in this anthology still suffer from that, and quite a few of them suffer from an excess of characters--too many characters with odd names in a short story makes it rather confusing.
The clearest, and therefore most interesting/entertaining stories, IMO, were Brust's (despite the convoluted plot, it was easy to follow), Dalkey's, Dean's, Shetterly's, and Longyear's.
It was better reading than I'd expected (though I'm afraid my enjoyment of Emma Bull's story suffered because of those expectations), and I'm looking forward to the next Liavek anthology in my TBR pile.
...more
Categories: Books, 3.5stars, Fantasy
Labels: 3.5 stars, books, fantasy
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Link of the Week #21
These are just very cool carved pumpkins. Here's a sample:
I found them on Do You Have Issues?. Thanks, Margie!
I found them on Do You Have Issues?. Thanks, Margie!
Categories: LOTW
Labels: cool links
Freedom and Necessity
*****+ Freedom and Necessity by Steven Brust & Emma Bull. Historical fiction. Re-read.
I first read this about 4 or 5 years ago, and it blew me away. So when somebody mentioned it a couple of months ago, I decided to take the chance and put it back in my TBR pile, and see if I still felt the same.
I did.
Freedom and Necessity was written by two of my favorite fantasy authors, but it's historical fiction, not fantasy. It takes place in the mid-19th century, and is told entirely in letters and journal entries.
As the book opens, James Cobham is writing to his cousin Richard to inform him that he, James, is not dead. He has only vague memories of the past months, up until the time he arrived, ill and injured, at the inn where he's now working as a groom. Despite his lack of memory, he cautions Richard that he might want to keep James's resurrection quiet until they can discover where he's been and what happened to him.
Working parallel to the cousins is a distant cousin, Susan Voight. She's long been attracted to and fascinated by James, and with the news of his death, she's set out to discover his past--in particular, what happened when he'd disappeared before--in order, she tells herself, to find that he was just ordinary after all and exorcise him from her heart and mind.
Rounding out the main characters is Susan's best friend, James's stepsister Kitty, a devotee of spiritualism, who's "living in sin" with Richard.
They're all intellectuals and philosophers, though James has taken it further than the rest, and involved himself in radical political reform. (Friedrich Engels is a secondary character.) As the clues emerge, it seems that a combination of politics and the sinister Trotters Club is behind James's disappearance and the continued danger to him.
The clues are revealed slowly, in bits and pieces, and the reader has to actually interpret some of them. It's such a lovely novelty to not have everything spoon-fed to you.
In addition, there's a heart-wrenchingly intense romance between Susan and James, made all the better because they're both such great characters. Both strong, both extremely intelligent, both principled to a fault. Neither one gives the other an easy time.
It's a slow, demanding read, but it's also one to savor. Normally, I get impatient with slow reads, but not with this one.
...more
Categories: Books, 5+stars, HistoricalFiction
Labels: 5+ stars, books, HistoricalFiction
Saturday, October 28, 2006
7 Zwerge: Der Wald Ist Nicht Genug
**** 7 Zwerge: Der Wald Ist Nicht Genug. Comedy.
Directed by: Sven Unterwald, Jr.
Starring: Otto Walkes
Just got back from seeing this at the Ramstein Autokino (drive-in) with the kids. We saw it in German, naturally, and that combined with the fact that the sound broadcast through the first half was full of static made me miss some of the details.
Snow White is now a mother, but her baby's in danger--the huntsman promised him to Rumplestiltskin in exchange for a full head of blond hair. The usual deal is made: 3 days to discover his name, or he gets the baby. So Snow White turns to her old friends the 7 Dwarves for help.
But all the dwarves except Bubi have scattered, trying to make something of themselves to win Snow White's heart, so it's up to Bubi, the inept one that nobody listens to, to round up the others and save the day.
There are appearances by the Magic Mirror, Hansel & Gretel, and the Wicked Witch, and references to The Tenth Kingdom (they go through the mirror to a real-world city), Lord of the Rings (Gollum), James Bond (the title means "the woods are not enough") and Harry Potter (the train platform). And I didn't catch this, but my husband did--a cameo by a famous German pop singer from the 70s, Udo something-or-other--I suppose it helped that he grew up here.
Anyway, it was over the top and silly, but a lot of fun--very much on the order of a short version of The Tenth Kingdom. And we're still humming the song.
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Categories: Movies, 4stars, Comedy
Labels: 4 stars, comedy, Movies
**** Morrigan's Cross by Nora Roberts. Contemporary paranormal romance.
I don't know what it is, and heaven knows I've tried to figure it out, but I'm just not happy when Nora does paranormal. I read the reviews, hoping something will click, but either I'm the only one it affects this way, or nobody else can figure it out either. Or at least those who have, haven't written reviews explaining it. A lot of people put it down to just not liking paranormal. Click around here a little bit--you'll see nothing could be further from the truth.
Oh. Note to PW: this isn't her first paranormal series. Not even close. There are the Donovans, the time travel duo, the 3 Sisters Island books, the Gallaghers, the Key trilogy, all those novellas in the Once Upon A... series, not to mention paranormal elements in the MacKades, Born in Shame, the Dream trilogy, the Night series (mmmm... Nemesis...), Carolina Moon, Midnight Bayou... and others I've forgotten to mention.
Anyway. Morrigan's Cross is the first book in a trilogy about a group of six who have to battle the ancient vampire Lilith and her demons, who are out to take over the world. "Morrigan" comes from the Celt goddess Morrigan, who appears to 12th-century sorceror Hoyt. He's angry and dismayed at his failure to save his twin brother Cian from being turned by Lilith, and she tasks him with putting together the group of 6 to defeat the vampires, first giving him the magical oomph to make the crosses that will protect his family, then whisking him away to the future, our present, New York.
There he meets his long-lost brother Cian and his right-hand man King, contemporary witch Glenna, Larkin & Moira from Gealle (another time, another place), and they begin training for the fight ahead.
There are some good scenes between the brothers, and Cian in particular is well-drawn. He's now over 900 years old, and it shows in his character. He'd said good-bye to his family centuries ago, and now here's his brother, his twin, offering love and asking for help.
There are also some amusing scenes as Hoyt comes to terms with the 21st century--in particular, the driving lessons.
But... It starts very slow. It starts back in the 12th century, and I found myself losing interest and skimming, waiting for the story to start. And Hoyt and Glenna as a couple seems more of a given than a romance. We're asked to just accept that because they've seen each other in dreams and they have similar magical powers, that they've fallen in love--we don't see it happen. Or I didn't.
And, as usual, the spells drove me nuts. Glenna's were the rhyming type where the rhythm doesn't always work. (see a previous TT--it drives me nuts) But Hoyt's were worse. They didn't rhyme, but they were long, and seemed like they ought to rhyme. I really, really wished that he'd just used single words or brief chants instead. The point was made, several times, that Hoyt's approach to magic was different from Glenna's, but the only difference in their spells were that hers rhymed and his didn't. Nails on the chalkboard, every time.
If you accept that Hoyt and Glenna are in love (and you pretty much have to, otherwise, you just spend the last half of the book complaining), their road to HEA was good--they had some serious complications to overcome: they're in the middle of saving the world, and Hoyt's fully expecting to be whisked back to the 12th century afterward.
Other than Cian (and King), the secondary characters were fairly bland and uninteresting, and to tell you the truth, if it were any other author besides Nora, I'd be reconsidering reading the rest of the trilogy. A latecomer to the book, demon hunter Blair, showed promise, but Moira seemed mousy and ineffectual, and Larkin, the shapechanger, seemed mostly talented at blending into walls (not literally--I'm apparently still thinking about Nemesis). It's been explained to me that secondary characters, even ones who are supposed to star in their own future books, have to take a back seat, but, well, I disagree. Not if it makes me not want to read the next book. It's also been explained that they perk up in the next book, Dance of the Gods. I certainly hope so.
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Categories: Books, 4stars, ParanormalRomance
Labels: 4 stars, books, ParanormalRomance
Friday, October 27, 2006
Friday's Mini Poll #6
***½ Full Speed by Janet Evanovich and Charlotte Hughes. Mystery.
This is the 3rd in the light mystery series featuring reporter Jamie Swift and millionaire playboy Max Holt. IIRC (it's been a few years), it's based on a romance Janet Evanovich wrote back in her Loveswept days. Jamie and Max didn't, however, live happily ever after--they keep skirting around the issue, irritating each other, working together, and occasionally losing control and succumbing to a clinch or two.
This time, they're after a crooked evangelist who's mob-connected--the same mob that tried to have Max killed in, I believe, the previous book, which is where Max and Jamie parted ways. Jamie ends up with a beat-up old truck that came with a dog named Fleas, then poses as a sex addict to go... ahem... undercover with the reverend.
Yeah, it sounds a little convoluted, and it is, but in an over-the-top, light-hearted, I Love Lucy kind of way. It's too fluffy to take even remotely seriously, but it's fun, anyway.
I didn't love Full Speed, but I find myself compelled to defend it anyway. (Yeah, I read the Amazon reviews again. You'd think I'd learn.) Seems most detractors focused on two things: it's not Stephanie Plum, and it's not romance. Well, duh. Could be partly due to the marketing, I suppose--Barnes & Noble lists it as romance, though it just says "fiction" on the spine. And undoubtedly the Evanovich name makes people think Stephanie Plum. Much as I enjoy the Stephanie Plum series, I'd be disappointed if this were a clone of it--what would be the point?
I don't think this is ever going to be one of my favorite series, simply because it's just so light. It's fast, and it's funny, and it's adventurous, but everything's just on the surface. And that's great for a quick pick-me-up, but it doesn't land a book on my keeper shelves.
...more
Categories: Books, 3.5stars, Mystery
Labels: 3.5 stars, books, mystery
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Since today is author Jim Butcher's birthday, and he's considerately written 13 books, this week's TT is:
- Storm Front:
- Paranoid? Probably. But just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face.
- I'd made the vampire cry. Great. I felt like a real superhero. Harry Dresden, breaker of monsters' hearts.
- Fool Moon:
- So I, uh, sort of threw myself out of the passenger seat of a moving car. Don't look at me like that. I'm telling you, it made sense at the time.
- That was black magic, and it was easy to use. Easy and fun. Like Legos.
- Grave Peril:
- "'Holy shit,' I breathed. 'Hellhounds.'
'Harry,' Michael said sternly. 'You know I hate it when you swear.'
'You're right. Sorry. Holy shit,' I breathed. 'Heckhounds'". - I'd hate to find out that the universe really wasn't conspiring against me.
- "'Holy shit,' I breathed. 'Hellhounds.'
- Summer Knight:
- It rained toads the day the White Council came to town.
- I don't believe in faeries!
- "In the name of the Pizza Lord! Charge!"
- Death Masks:
- "Sleep is god. Go worship."
- "Leaping tall buildings in a single bound. I should probably put on some underwear."
- I'm a disciple of the Tao of Peter Parker, obviously.
- Blood Rites:
- The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault.
- "You always a wiseass?" "No. Sometimes I'm asleep."
- An errand is getting a tank of gas or picking up a carton of milk or something. It is not getting chased by flying purple pyromaniac gorillas hurling incendiary poo.
- What can I say, inspiring anger is my gift. I have a responsibility to use it wisely.
- Dead Beat:
- Life is a journey. Time is a river. The door is ajar.
- Polka will never die!
- That sounds like a plan. I just wish it sounded like a winning plan.
- Proven Guilty:
- This is what happens when I don't wear the coat. People start thinking I'm not a superhero.
- Let he who hath never stonewashed his jeans cast the first stone.
- Hey! Are you selling me on eBay?
- White Night:
- I. Am not. Yoda.
- Furies of Calderon:
- "Are you all right?" Amara whispered.
"Fine. Apart from being beaten, capture, and scheduled for torture and interrogation. You're the one who should be worried."
Amara swallowed. "Why me?"
"I think this can safely be considered a failing mark in your graduation exercise."
- "Are you all right?" Amara whispered.
- Academ's Fury:
- "I wanted a horse."
- "I'm going to get a decent b-b-breakfast if it kills me."
"Oh. You're doing pretty well then." - "I like complaining. It's every soldier's sacred right."
- Cursor's Fury:
- “Regulations are regulations,” Max said, his tone pious. “Besides. If you’d been awake, you’d have complained too much.”
“I thought it was every soldier’s sacred right,” Tavi said.
“Every soldier, yes sir. But you’re an officer, sir.”
- “Regulations are regulations,” Max said, his tone pious. “Besides. If you’d been awake, you’d have complained too much.”
- The Darkest Hours:
- All I know is that every time I walk into a gymnasium, I get hit with a rush of memories from my own days of high school. Some people call that phenomenon "nostalgia." I call it "nausea."
- "Peter," she said, "I know that in your head, you just said something that conveyed actual information. But when it got to your mouth, it grew fur, beat its chest, and started howling at the moon."
Note: the first 9 books are (in that order) a series about a wizard detective, soon to be a TV series on the SciFi channel. The next 3 (again, in order) are a fantasy series. The last book is a Spider-Man book.
Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
- Mar's real name
- Caylynn's missing her husband
- Carmen: ghost stories
- Slackermommy: costumes
- Shannon: Halloween facts
- The Imperfect Christian: fashion-challenged (I'm not alone!)
- Ma: reminscences
- Candy Minx: lists
- Racy Li: preview lines
- Tink: Halloween facts
- Nicole: flowers
- Ghost: things she says
- Heather Harper: scary movies
- Doug: memories of Jake
- Chaotic Mom: office detritus
- Laura: love
- Jaci Burton: indulgences
- Colleen Gleason: songs
- Just Expressing Myself's week
- Norma: library sale
- N. Mallory: househunting
- Cheysuli: not a pig
- Tracie went to the fair
- KTCat: seed racing (an addiction that can ruin your life!)
- Friday's Child: A - M at work
- Sparky: Samhain facts
- You're next!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
Categories: ThursdayThirteen
Labels: TT
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
***** Parallel Heat by Deidre Knight. Contemporary paranormal romance.
Wow, wow, wow. A million thanks to Ms. Knight for bringing these to my attention. Or maybe just for writing a series that pushes my buttons so well. Either way.
Parallel Heat lives up to the promise of its predecessor, Parallel Attraction, and then some. It picks up where the previous book left off... well, allowing for the changes due to mucking about with time and parallel realities.
Marco, the royal protector and redeemed traitor from Parallel Attraction, meets King Jared's cousin Thea, and they're unexpectedly attracted to each other. It's a different thread of time--things are happening differently than they did in Parallel Attraction, but both Marco and Thea get disturbing visions of themselves and each other from other realities--visions of being lovers, and of being bitter and angry.
Those visions are only one of the factors keeping Marco and Thea apart. Thea is still rather heartsore from the loss of her presumed match with Jared, though she's slowly starting to respect and like her new queen. Worse, like Jared, she's a rare dual being, and she needs someone who can accept both sides of her, something experience has taught her not to expect. For Marco, there's a conflict between his duty as royal protector and the fact that Thea is royalty. Worse, he has a secret that's made him vow to remain celibate.
The romance, complex though it is, is only part of the story. The Antousians, the other alien race (our heroes are Refarians), are set to invade Earth. The humans, however, don't know the difference between the races, and Jared's people have to try to protect the humans while protecting themselves from the humans. Jared's right hand man, Scott, is taken prisoner, but they get help from an unexpected source: Hope, a blind human linguist.
We'd been talking elsewhere about romance trilogies and how the main couple in each book gets the spotlight, often making the other characters seem dull in comparison. That doesn't happen in this book. The romance is between Marco and Thea, but neither Jared and Kelsey (from Parallel Attraction) nor Scott and Hope (from, please, a future book) get short shrift. Their scenes are just as developed and their characters are just as interesting as Marco and Thea's. In that respect, this is more a science fiction series with romance than a romance series with science fiction.
Which is not to remotely suggest that the romance/YEC takes a back seat. It's just that we get in-depth, realistic emotions from all of these characters. Kelsey learns what it means to be queen, and she and Jared deal with the problem of fertility, and the issues of their alien/human pairing. Scott has issues about his Antousian/human background, and Hope deduces on her own that they are aliens, as well as dealing with her rapidly impending blindness.
Again, I absolutely loved the parallel realities and time travel. And I loved how pivotal events still occurred, but with different motivations, different meanings. It's like mental coffee: addicting, irresistible, and stimulating.
I'm breathing a huge sigh of relief that Parallel Seduction is due out in April. To say I'm looking forward to it is an understatement.
...more
Categories: Books, 5stars, ParanormalRomance
Labels: 5 stars, books, ParanormalRomance
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
**** Entangled by Kathleen Dante. Paranormal erotic romance.
Kiera Stevens is a toy company CEO with a problem: industrial espionage. It's particularly worrying, because her company also deals with defense contracts. So on the advice of her best friend, she hires John Atlantis, a security expert, with the plan to pose as lovers so as not to alert the spy. Sounds like a pretty standard romantic suspense story, doesn't it?
What's unusual is that this takes place in a world where magic goes hand in hand with technology, and Lantis deals with spells, not computers. And the catch is that the security spell entangles the two, with the result that the magic charge raises their sexual desire, and the excess magical energy gets grounded in sex.
I have to say, I was enthralled by the world. I read a lot of urban fantasy that puts magic alongside technology, and a lot of fantasy that uses magic in lieu of technology, but this magic that's used in conjunction with technology in an otherwise contemporary world is new. I loved the spells, and how magic was integrated into everyday life. I loved how high adepts are a sort of equivalent to computer experts.
Unfortunately, there's so much sex in the book that it overshadows the rest of the story. It was great in the beginning, particularly when the result of the security spell became apparent, but after a while, I was impatient to get back to the story. I'd also have liked a little more exploration of what it meant to be "entangled."
Still, there is a decent romantic suspense story in a really exciting world, so I'm not complaining too much.
...more
Categories: Books, 4stars, EroticRomance
Labels: 4 stars, books, EroticRomance
How Many of Me?
I found this on Writing From the Inside Out:
Frankly, I'm a bit surprised. There are also 15 people in the U.S. with my maiden name. However, there's nobody with my husband's name, my daughter's name, either of my sons' names, my mom's name, my brother's name, or my nephew's name. I think I'll email my mom and let her know she screwed up. LOL
Categories: AboutMe
Frankly, I'm a bit surprised. There are also 15 people in the U.S. with my maiden name. However, there's nobody with my husband's name, my daughter's name, either of my sons' names, my mom's name, my brother's name, or my nephew's name. I think I'll email my mom and let her know she screwed up. LOL
Categories: AboutMe
Labels: quiz
Monday, October 23, 2006
***½ The Guardian. Action/adventure drama.
Directed by: Andrew Davis
Starring: Kevin Costner, Ashton Kutcher
We saw this on Saturday, at Baumholder again. We made a day of it--first the Tierpark, (large petting zoo), then Taco Bell, then the movie.
The Guardian wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible either. It was pretty much a standard military movie, on the order of, say, Top Gun, or a dozen others. Every bit of plot was predictable, from the best friend dying at the beginning, to the cocky kid the instructor is extra tough on because he reminds him of himself, to the romance, right down to the ending.
Kevin Costner plays a Coast Guard rescue swimmer whose wife left him, and his best friend died in a rescue gone bad, and when he gets out of the hospital, he's sent to the school to train rescue swimmers. Ashton Kutcher is the cocky kid.
The beginning, with the wife leaving, sparked one of my rants on the way home--it was never explained, beyond a general "he was married to his job", and since they'd obviously been together a long time, there really needed to be a precipitating factor. I could believe there had been one, but not being privy to it, I couldn't feel sympathy for either of them. It reminded me of the Tom Clancy books with the inexplicable wives. Because women, you know, don't really have reasons for the stuff they do. (told you I ranted--be grateful I got it mostly out of my system)
The other part that really bugged me was the romance Ashton Kutcher's character had with a local school teacher. There was zero chemistry between the characters. In short, I didn't believe either relationship thread, and they seemed tacked on to fill in a checklist. It was a long movie--136 minutes--so I wouldn't have missed it if they'd just cut those parts out entirely.
The rescue scenes and the training scenes, and the Coast Guard itself, were the real stars of the movie. The Coast Guard is really underrepresented in movies, and it was nice to get a picture of them.
Quibble: why, why, why, does every single movie with a disaster at sea have the scene with characters in a room slowly filling with water, and the water always gets almost to the ceiling before they're rescued? It always happens. And in The Guardian, it went on far too long. There's a point in an action scene where tension turns to boredom. This scene passed that point.
As for the acting, I like Kevin Costner, generally, and he was fine in this movie. I've no complaints. Ashton Kutcher was fine in the action/adventure scenes, but in the romance scenes, he had the same emotional depth as in the classroom scenes. It was like Tom Cruise in Top Gun, but without the charm.
Secondary characters: I did enjoy the bartender (played by Bonnie Bramlett)--she wasn't a stock character, and had a lot of the funny &/or insightful lines in the film. I also liked the other instructor (played by Neal McDonough), mostly because he surprised me. I expected the usual rival, but instead, he behaved the way I'd expect the character to in real life.
Bottom line: if you like this kind of movie, you'll enjoy The Guardian. Just don't expect anything new.
...more
Categories: Movies, 3.5stars, ActionAdventure
Labels: 3.5 stars, action, Movies
***** Crazy Like a Fox by Anne Stuart. Contemporary romance/gothic.
Do not judge this book by its cover. Honest, the hero is not an ape-man. To be fair, the heroine might well have had big hair--it was written in 1989, and, well, a lot of us had big hair then. We didn't know any better. The cover of the reissue has better-looking people, but it has nothing to do with the story, unless it's trying to show us what happens after the story ends. Yes, they do end up at Mardi Gras, but not like that, and not with the kid. Also, the kid is a girl, and that sure looks like a boy to me.
So, the cover gods used to have it in for Anne Stuart. But she showed them. She put a fabulous story inside anyway.
When the book opens, Margaret Jaffrey, widowed and destitute (her husband was a gambler, and not a very good one), decides as a last resort to take her daughter Carrie to Louisiana, to Dexter's family home. From there, the story is pure gothic.
There's the extended family with the forceful matriarch, the big house, the gothic atmosphere, the mystery, but most of all there are the cousins Peter and Wendell. Both are handsome, in the same way Dexter had been, but Wendell is a charming lawyer, and Peter is cynical and unemployed... because he's under house arrest, kept locked in the attic (okay, a suite of rooms on the top floor), after being acquitted of his wife's murder by reason of insanity.
Margaret finds herself drawn into the family's web, blocked every time she tries to assert her independence, and unsure of their safety when the whole family seems convinced that Peter is dangerously insane. However, she's reluctant to take her daughter from the happiness and stability she's found after so many months of living hand-to-mouth. Wendell has given her a job, and offered a marriage proposal her mind tells her would ensure Carrie's and her futures, though her heart says otherwise.
For such a short book (typical Harlequin--251 pages), a lot is packed into it. Each member of the family has an agenda, and you're never quite sure what's true. There's intrigue and the mystery surrounding Peter's wife's death, and in the middle of it all, Margaret is falling in love with the very worst choice--a crazy man who'd confessed to killing his wife.
I'm slowly collecting Anne Stuart's backlist, but there are so many books that it's been slow going. This book convinces me to try to speed up the process a bit.
...more
Categories: Books, 5stars, Gothic
Labels: 5 stars, books, gothic
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Link of the Week #20
I just saw this on McAnally's (actually, it's the Jim-Butcher.com Community, but I'm used to McAnally's. Sue me.), and it had me laughing so hard I cried. Granted, I feel like crap today, so I'm much more easily amused than usual, but I couldn't resist passing it on anyway:
Top 229 Star Wars Lines Improved by Replacing a Word with "Pants"
http://www.keepersoflists.org/index.php?lid=1906
http://www.keepersoflists.org/index.php?lid=1906
And when you're done there, check out the thread on McAnally's the Jim-Butcher.com Community and laugh some more:
Labels: cool links
Saturday, October 21, 2006
***** Interlude in Death by J. D. Robb. Futuristic romantic suspense. Re-read.
Again, this is one I've re-read several times, so it's hard to think of something new to say about it. So I turned to the Amazon reviews for inspiration.
- "Charlie's Angels meet Thelma and Louise"??? I really must have missed something in my 4 or 5 times through this story. I don't see that at all. Not even close.
- "Listeners of both genders will find themselves relieved when the book's capable heroine Lt. Eve Dallas comes to the end of a reckless motorcycle ride." Huh. That was a very short, very minor scene. Hardly worth mentioning.
- "A timeless, empowering love story doesn't need "wrist units" when "watches" will do." Er. Okay, this particular story could conceivably be set in the present day, if you eliminate the off-planet setting and the legalized self-termination drugs (though those were a key clue). But much of the series as a whole depends on the futuristic setting, and has from the beginning. The mystery in the very first story, Naked in Death, for example, would be entirely different were it not set in a future in which guns were banned completely. Sure, you could change details and get the gist of the stories in a contemporary setting, but isn't that true of any book?
- "Nothing earth shaking happens in it, so this story could be "anytime" in the later half of the series." Well, unless you count the revelations about Roarke's father, which is huge in the ongoing series arc.
- "It is less than 100 pages long and about 1/4" thick. I know it is a "value" book but it's a tiny, quick read that would be more suitable to a Good Housekeeping magazine (granted not PG rated!) than a book." (this on a 2-star review) Well, duh. Buyer beware, and pay attention. Sheesh. How difficult is it to scroll down to where Amazon clearly states it has 96 pages? Granted, I too am irritated that Amazon doesn't list the original copyright dates, just the publication dates, but are you really expecting a 350-page novel for $2.99?
Eve has an unpleasant run-in with former commander Skinner, a legendary hero from the Urban Wars. He has a serious vendetta against Roarke, and tries first bribery, then threats to get Eve to help him take Roarke down. It culminates in Eve hitting one of the commander's bodyguards, who's later found murdered, with the fairly obvious clues pointing to Roarke.
Unlike in Naked in Death, Roarke's not a suspect, but Eve has to figure out why Skinner is so bent on Roarke's arrest, and whodunit, while trying to avoid stepping on toes, as she's out of her jurisdiction. There's much about vengeance, and gray areas, about how obsession can cloud and warp a mind, and the aforementioned revelations about Roarke's father.
If you haven't read the rest of the series, the characters might not be as clear due to the novella length, but then again, if you haven't read the rest of the series, why not?
...more
Categories: Books, 5stars, RomanticSuspense
Labels: 5 stars, books, RomanticSuspense
Friday, October 20, 2006
Friday's Mini Poll #5
**** The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. Juvenile fiction. Re-read.
I couldn't find a picture of the cover of my copy--unsurprising, since it's about 20 years old, and the Narnia books have been reprinted so many times, particularly since the recent movie.
I put the series in my TBR pile when it dawned on me that I'd never read them. My kids have, and I'd read this one aloud to them several times, but it seemed like a cultural thing I was missing out on, so in they went. The Lemony Snicket books are in there, too.
I have no idea what to say about The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe that hasn't been said. I don't even know how I feel about it, because the story's so very familiar. There's the heavy-handed Christian allegory, I suppose, which doesn't take much to uncover. And there's really not a lot of depth to it, nor are the characters all that well-developed.
But it is, after all, a children's story, a fast-moving tale of adventure and imagination, and Good vs. Evil. Hopefully, I'll have more to say on the subsequent books, which are new to me.
One aside: reading this always brings to mind my daughter's kindergarten best friend, who maintained that she did have a doorway to Narnia in her bedroom closet. This frustrated my realist daughter no end, because she couldn't convince her friend that it was just a story.
...more
Categories: Books , 4stars, JuvenileFiction
Labels: 4 stars, books, JuvenileFiction
Thursday, October 19, 2006
If you've been here before, you know I read a lot. So because I'm too tired to do anything fancy this week, here are some odd things about my reading habits:
- I can't just pick a book out of my TBR pile--I've got to use some version of eenie-meenie-miney-moe so as to be "fair" to the other books.
- If there's odd punctuation, particularly extra commas, I'll re-read the sentence with pauses where the commas are several times to try to figure out why the heck the commas are there.
- If a name is unusual or has an odd spelling, I can't continue reading until I can hear the name in my head. This can be a problem with certain sf/f books.
- If I'm informed later in the book that a name is pronounced differently than I've been reading it all along, it'll throw me right out of the story.
- If a nickname is a shortened form of a name, but the abbreviation changes the pronunciation, like "Mar" for "Maureen" or "Ro" for "Roger", I'll make myself nuts trying to make them sound alike, reading "Roe-ger" or "Mar-reen".
- If there's a word-substitution-typo, I'll re-read the sentence, trying to make it make sense with the substitute: "I can't loose this job" makes me picture a job tied up with tangled knots; "peaked" for "peeked" makes me imagine the character having an orgasm.
- If dialogue is written in an accent, I read it aloud, under my breath, so I can hear it.
- When dialogue is written in an accent, and the way a word is spelled phonetically sounds normal to me: like "stop'd" or "wundur", I spend some time wondering how the heck you're supposed to say the words.
- When a frequently misused word is used correctly, it makes me stop anyway, and marvel that the author got it right.
- Rhymes without a rhythm make me re-read and try to make the rhythm of the lines match.
- If a rhyme doesn't, I have to read it so it does. I always read the classic: "God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food" so that "food" sounds like "foot" with a "d" on the end.
- If I'm getting bored with a book, I'll start leafing through to the end, one page per paragraph. IOW, I'll read as many paragraphs as I have pages left in the book.
- I cannot not finish a book--even that self-published mess a co-worker of my mom's wrote. No matter how much I hate it, I've got to finish it. I may only read a chapter a day (or as many paragraphs as I have pages left in the book), and read whole books between those chapters, but I will finish it.
Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
- Candy Minx: Movies
- Silver: desk
- Caylynn: Paris
- Eveline: random
- Addie: books
- Tina: NaNoWriMo
- Katia: characters
- Carmen: Q&A
- May: to-do
- Ma: brothers
- Mar: random
- Tink: frustration
- KT Cat: confession
- Just Expressing Myself's week
- Colleen Gleason: TBR
- Chaotic Mom: morning pix
- Racy Li: New York
- Scribbit: dancing
- Mandy's husband
- Annie: acquisitions
- Barbara: staying home
- Irene: 6 fives
- Natsthename: book titles
- Julia: 12 Sharp
- Friday's Child: success
- Twiga92: happy
- Norma: posts
- Lisa: birthday
- Janice: 5 Minutes for Mom
- Melody: NaNoWriMo
- N. Mallory: wish list
you're next!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
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Categories: ThursdayThirteen, AboutMe
Labels: TT
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
*** Mona Lisa Awakening by Sunny. Contemporary fantasy.
I really wanted to like this. I love the genre and was excited to find a new author writing it.
The premise was clever: a young nurse with a bit of a healing touch discovers that she's half human and half Monère--a race of beings from the moon. Not only that, but she's a Queen, and the first mixed blood Queen ever.
When I was about a third of the way through the book, I described it like this: "It's like the offspring of Queen Betsy and Jaenelle was raised by Merry Gentry." Betsy because she's an unexpected queen with powers unusual for her kind. Jaenelle because the male Monère have a need to serve a Queen, and because there's a tendency for the Queens to become evil and mistreat the males. And Merry Gentry because sex = power.
I don't mind parallels in books. If you get a narrow genre like this, there are bound to be parallels. Even though I was very familiar with the Black Jewels books and the Merry Gentry books, the two series this is most like, I could still have enjoyed it without thinking it was a copycat. I still don't think it's a copycat.
What I do mind is characters who can do no wrong, and situations that resolve themselves way too easily.
Mona Lisa has no flaws, and thus, no character. I liked her initially, liked the young woman being thrust into a completely foreign and dangerous situation, while at the same time getting that feeling of "finally! I'm not alone!" But she always does the right thing. Everyone loves her, particularly the males, who are inclined to worship her. She's madly in love with the first Monère male she met, and she's staunchly monogamous, but she's willing to take one for the team when sex is required to heal one of "her" men. Even the council holds her in awe. Except for the evil Queens, who fear and despise her because she's so good.
What's even worse, though, for me, is the way the plot skipped from one "dangerous" situation to the next, only the situations weren't apparently all that dangerous, because Mona Lisa never had any trouble getting out of them, or saving her people. She either charmed her way out of danger, or called on some brand-new power that popped up just in time to save her.
I'd have liked the story much more--in fact, I'd probably have been raving about it--if it had had only about a third of the plot situations, and they'd been explored more thoroughly. If Mona Lisa had needed some help figuring a way out of a dilemma. If she'd had to use her wits instead of a handy-dandy paranormal-power generator. If there was some reason to believe she'd fallen completely in love with Gryphon, instead of just having the hots for him.
All these complaints sound very familiar to me, which leads me to my conclusion: if you like the latest Laurell K. Hamilton books, you'll love this one.
...more
Categories: Books, 3stars, ContemporaryFantasy
Labels: 3 stars, books, ContemporaryFantasy
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
European city quiz
| You Belong in Amsterdam |
 A little old fashioned, a little modern - you're the best of both worlds. And so is Amsterdam. Whether you want to be a squatter graffiti artist or a great novelist, Amsterdam has all that you want in Europe (in one small city). |
Hmmm. Okay. I've been there, I liked it.
Categories: AboutMe
Labels: quiz
****½ Touch a Dark Wolf by Jennifer St.Giles. Contemporary paranormal romance.
Wow. I picked this one up cold, having no expectations whatsoever. Okay, that's not true. There's a half-nekkid man on the cover and a wolf in the background--that along with the title made me think "werewolf romance"--just a wild guess.
In fact, that's one of my few quibbles with this story--it's a bit of false advertising. Yes, the hero does shapeshift, but that's not the main point of the story. Or rather, it's not your typical werewolf story, which is what I was expecting.
Instead, it's more comparable to Angela Knight's Mageverse. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Erin Morgan is confused, frightened, and on the run after discovering that the doctor she worked for, who she thought was working on an innovative cancer cure, is actually a murderer. Then her car is hit by a creature that's subsequently attacked and driven off by a wolf. She crashes, passes out, and when she wakes up, there's a naked man on the hood of her car.
Jared is the Shadowman who, in wolf form, protected her from the Tsara that attacked her. Unfortunately, in defending her, he was bit himself, and the poison from the Tsara's bite will spread until he becomes Tsara himself, dependent on the blood of humans, especially a particular kind of human--the Elan, like Erin.
Erin's torn between two goals: help Jared, who's injured and apparently feverish, and expose Dr. Cinatas. Jared's goal is to protect Erin, not only from the Tsara, but from himself and what he's becoming. Unfortunately, touching Erin is the only thing that eases his pain, even while his desire for her blood grows stronger.
Which brings me to my second quibble, and only major one: I got confused. Which is no doubt evident in my attempt to summarize. To be fair, I probably shouldn't have read this when I did--I was exhausted. The night after I finished it, I slept 11 hours straight. So a re-read would probably make it much clearer. Still, I loved it anyway, so that's saying something.
This is an exciting, action-packed story in an intriguing contemporary fantasy world, but what really makes it stand out for me are the characters. Erin's character rang very true to me--she was neither too good to be true nor too stupid to live; neither was she too credulous or too doubting. She was determined, but she was also scared. The force keeping them apart--Jared's fears that he was a danger to her--was likewise believable. While in his POV, I could feel his conflict and desperation.
There were several secondary characters I'd like to see more of; not to mention that I'd like to spend more time in this world. I hope this is just the first of a long series. In the meantime, I'll be looking for Jennifer St. Giles's backlist.
...more
Categories: Books, 4.5stars, ParanormalRomance
Labels: 4.5 stars, books, ParanormalRomance
