nichtszusagen: January 2007

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

**** Touched by Darkness by Catherine Spangler. Contemporary paranormal romance.

Am I the only one who gets defensive when a book opens with a glossary? It always gives me the impression that I'm supposed to study the glossary and memorize the terms before reading the book, and that there will be a test. Follow that up with a prologue about the world's origins--more testable material--and I'm already in a negative mood before I even start the book.

Dr. Kara Cantrell has been on the run with her six-year-old son Alex ever since the death of his father. They've settled in the small town of Zorro, Texas, and Kara ~~believes~~ hopes that this time they're far enough off the beaten path to be safe.

Alex's father was a Sentinel, a magical protector, and he was killed fighting a Belian--the supernatural bad guys of this world. Kara is a Conductor--a human with the psychic ability to enhance a Sentinel's powers. She never learned much about the magical side of things, and since Richard's death, she's avoided anything to do with magic, up to and including banning video games with magical characters for Alex.

Unfortunately, it's a case of "you can run, but you can't hide," as Kara learns when Sentinel Damien Morgan arrives in town, tracking an especially dangerous Belian who he thinks must have taken over one of the town's inhabitants. Damien asks Kara to conduct for him, and she reluctantly agrees to a limited conduction--without sex--sexual activity enhancing the conduction.

He also demands to train Alex, who, as a budding Sentinel, is glowing with magic that can be sensed by Sentinels and Belians alike. Again, Kara reluctantly agrees, with limits--Damien is allowed only to teach Alex to shield his powers, not to use them.

And that's where the story lost me. Not completely--I still enjoyed it, but from more of a distance. That kind of counterproductive over-protectiveness irritates the heck out of me, as does narrow-minded fear. Kara continued to refuse training for Alex even when she knew he was in danger without it, and she continued to refuse a sexual conduction with Damien even when lives were at stake. I could believe in her character--I've seen plenty of real people like this--but I couldn't respect her or empathize with her.

That really made me think. I'd been all smug after reading a post on Romancing the Blog a while back (I'm too lazy to find the specific post) about liking characters even if their values differ from mine as long as their motivation is clear. Obviously, I was wrong. I don't mind a thief or an assassin, but some values I apparently don't budge on.
...more

Categories: Books, 4stars, ParanormalRomance

Labels: 4 stars, books, ParanormalRomance

// posted by Darla @ 1/31/2007 02:17:00 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

underwear quiz

Snagged this from Skittles' Place:

Your Lucky Underwear is Orange

You have an intense personality and crave extreme emotional experiences. And your lucky orange underwear will help you take it to a whole new level.
Adventure and danger don't faze you - in fact you enjoy dicey situations. You're the first to take a risk, and the first to get the payoff.

And while your risks sometimes result in great rewards, they also sometimes result in devastating failures.
If you want to have intense moments without always risking all you have, put on your orange underpants. They'll help you experience life with rich emotions, no matter what you're doing.

What Color Is Your Lucky Underwear?

I'm not really sure this describes me, but what the heck. The underwear's cute.

Categories: AboutMe

Labels: quiz

// posted by Darla @ 1/30/2007 03:46:00 PM 1 comments

Monday, January 29, 2007

Adios to My Old Life

***** Adiós to My Old Life by Caridad Ferrer. YA

Okay, so I bought this book out of Cherry solidarity, not because I expected to love it. I loved it anyway.

Ali is a 17-year-old musician. She lives with her widowed father, who's slightly overprotective. With the aid of her best friend Sosi, she sneaks out of the house to audition for Oye Mi Canto, a Latin version of American Idol.

When she wins the audition, her life is turned upside-down. She has to deal with her father's reaction to her deception and the conflict between what he wants for her and what she wants for herself, but that's just the beginning. Despite the fact that as the only underage contestant on the show, she has a chaperone (her father's best friend, Elaine), Ali is plunged into an adult world full of competition, backstabbing, and betrayal. Balancing it out is success, a better understanding between Ali and her father, first love, and above all, the music.

The best thing about Adiós to My Old Life is how real the characters are. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to turn on the TV and see an episode of Oye Mi Canto, or to browse through the CDs at the BX and find ones by Ali Montero or Guillermo, or Fabiana--though I wouldn't buy Fabiana's, and might hide it so nobody else could either, the bitch. Whoops. See what I mean? Real.

Other people have done much better jobs at dissecting this book--check here for a bunch of intelligent commentary, for example. I'll just say that Adiós to My Old Life made me laugh, cry, cheer, scream, and fill up my Your Music queue.
...more

Categories: Books, 5stars, YA

Labels: 5 stars, books, YA

// posted by Darla @ 1/29/2007 12:09:00 PM 1 comments

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Link of the Week #30

* * * SONGS TO WEAR PANTS TO * * *
http://www.songstowearpantsto.com/index.php

Be prepared to spend a couple hours... and maybe a couple hundred bucks... on this site.

Andrew writes and records songs from requests, both paid and free. I am so tempted.

A couple of my favorites:
Tetris (song #0309)
Savage Chickens Theme (song #0224) --the song that brought me to Songs to Wear Pants To. The theme song to... duh... Savage Chickens comic, which is also way cool.

Categories: LOTW

Labels: cool links

// posted by Darla @ 1/28/2007 06:23:00 PM 2 comments

Over the Moon

Over the Moon. Paranormal romance.

****½ "Moon Dance" by Angela Knight. This is set in the Mageverse, but deals with the Direkind (werewolf) side of that universe rather than the vampire/witch side. (Check Angela Knight's website for the details.)
Elena is a Chosen--that is, she's a descendant of one of the original Direkind created by Merlin rather than one who was merely bitten and turned. The Chosen are exclusionary and patriarchal, and Elena's father has decreed that she must marry another Chosen, the sadistic Stephen.
In order to save herself and change things for the rest of the Chosen females, Elena turns to relatively new Direkind Lucas, a cop in a nearby town, for help.
For a novella, this story has quite a lot going on. The werewolf politics are clear, and both Elena and Lucas are easily identifiable characters. It's less easy to believe the declaration of love at the end, but given the novella length, and the fact that they have similar and complementary personalities, and are in tune enough with each other to spirit link, I'll buy it.
****½ "Between the Mountain and the Moon" by Virginia Kantra. This story is apparently connected to Virginia Kantra's story in Man of My Dreams, which, unfortunately, I haven't read. Yet. But that doesn't make a difference with understanding this story.
Cait is hiking the Appalachian trail with a group of friends. An injury causes two of them to turn back, and she's left with Josh, whose interest in her wanes when she declines to share his bed.
Still, he's better than nothing, she thinks, except that when she's chased by the menacing Ursus and gets lost, he doesn't come for her, and she's left at the mercy of Rhys, a man they met the night before at a hiking shelter, and who seemed to be friends with Ursus.
Rhys is more than he seems, and, without giving away the surprises, the story involves the conflicts between duty and desire, and love and self. A true fairy tale.
****½ "Driftwood" by MaryJanice Davidson. This is a crossover story, involving one of the Wyndham werewolves and one of Betsy's vampires.
Burke is a bit of a rarity among werewolves, in that he's a loner. Serena is a vampire who wants to get revenge on the vampire who killed her best friend. But before she can do that, she finds herself stuck in a deep pit on a beach.
Burke comes to help her out, but it's daylight, so she refuses his help, whereupon he jumps down into the pit with her, freaks out (werewolves are notoriously claustrophic), changes (the full moon just rose), and claws his way out.
The next day he comes back to find what he assumes will be her body, and discovers a very annoyed, but very not-dead Serena.
These two are a little darker than MJD's usual couples, but there's still a lot of humor, and they're definitely a couple that's made for each other.
**½ "Mona Lisa Three" by Sunny. This novella follows Mona Lisa Awakening and concerns Mona Lisa and her entourage needing to move to their new territory. But before they can, they've got to go shopping. And her mother, Mona Sera, comes demanding that Mona Lisa either heal her warrior who's been bitten by a hellhound, or give up one of her own warriors in his place. I've no idea where the "three" comes from--as far as I can tell, this is the second story in the series.
Continuing in the tradition of the first book, this story is even more "LKH-lite." For a short story, there are interminable descriptions of Mona Lisa clothing her reluctant his-em in tight pants, and yet more characters who fall madly in love with Mona Lisa, including of course the warrior she heals, the hellhound, and its mistress.
There's never any question of whether she can heal the warrior--all it takes is her magical orgasm.
I'm not going to list all the parallels between this series and LKH's two series. Suffice it to say that the parallels continue, and that if you like LKH's more recent books, you'll like this one, and if you don't, you won't.

...more

Categories: Books, 4.5stars, 2.5stars, ParanormalRomance

Labels: 2.5 stars, 4.5 stars, books, ParanormalRomance

// posted by Darla @ 1/28/2007 05:13:00 PM 1 comments

Saturday, January 27, 2007

The Magician's Ward

****½ The Magician's Ward by Patricia C. Wrede. Fantasy/YA.

This is the sequel to Mairelon the Magician. A couple of years after Mairelon (known in society as Richard Merrill) discovers Kim and takes her on as his apprentice, they're living in London with his prim and proper aunt.

When Kim discovers someone breaking into Mairelon's house, attempting to steal a particular book, it leads them into a mystery involving the disappearance of people with minor magical talent, hidden treasure, and ultimately the theft of Mairelon's power, leaving novice Kim to handle the magical part of their investigations.

In the meanwhile, Mairelon's mother and his disapproving aunt are busy introducing a reluctant Kim to Society. When she begins to be courted by young men, she realizes it's Mairelon she's really in love with.

One of the Amazon reviewers called this "J. K. Rowling meets Georgette Heyer," and that's a very apt description. The Magician's Ward is just as much a Regency romance as it is a Regency-set fantasy-mystery.

...more

Categories: Books, 4.5stars, Fantasy, YA

Labels: 4.5 stars, books, fantasy, YA

// posted by Darla @ 1/27/2007 12:55:00 PM 0 comments

Friday, January 26, 2007

Blood Lines

***** Blood Lines by Eileen Wilks. Contemporary paranormal romance.

I had to go to Eileen Wilks's website to find a cover with her name spelled correctly (as it is on the actual book)--all the online booksellers have it spelled "Wilkes," though it's only on the cover. Speaking of the cover, this is not even remotely how I imagined Cynna's tattoo-spells, but it's a cool-looking cover anyway.

One more thing. I'm calling this "paranormal romance" because that's what it says on the spine, but in my little world, it's contemporary fantasy. With romantic elements, to be sure, but the emphasis in this series is more on the fantasy than on the romance.

At 2:52 a.m., Greenwich mean time, on my birthday, there's a magical surge that's felt all over the world, with different effects. FBI agent Lily and werewolf prince Rule from the previous books in the series are attending a performance of Handel's Messiah at the time, and the surge causes a werewolf onstage to change. Rule is able to keep from changing, and helps the out-of-control werewolf, who turns out to be from a rival clan, which sets into motion a deadly chain of events.

Lily and fellow agent Cynna Weaver is tasked with finding the source of the surge, because Cynna was a former follower and apprentice to Jiri, a sorceror who calls demons.

They also call in sorceror and former lone wolf Cullen to help when Rule is dying from a spell that keeps him from healing and his son is kidnapped.

There were sparks between Cullen and Cynna in the previous book, but there are more sparks now that these two very independent individuals are forced to work together.

Blood Lines is definitely a page-turner. There's so much going on, from werewolf politics to an overall increase in the level of magic in the world that there are no slow spots; no places in the story where you feel comfortable just setting the book down and leaving it to finish the next day. And it's not just the action--all the action has an emotional content: Cynna facing her past, Rule's fears for his son and Lily's for Rule, and of course Cynna and Cullen's growing feelings for each other.

Unlike the usual paranormal romance series, the couple from the previous books doesn't fade into the background. Lily and Rule are still very much front and center here, and at least this far in the series, it feels more like J. D. Robb's In Death series, which has other romance stories in it, but Eve and Roarke are still the stars. Whether Lily and Rule will continue in this role in subsequent books, I don't know, but I'm pretty sure this entire series will end up on my keeper shelves. I hope it'll be a long one.
...more

Categories: Books, 5stars, ParanormalRomance

Labels: 5 stars, books, ParanormalRomance

// posted by Darla @ 1/26/2007 02:45:00 PM 3 comments

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Booking Through Thursday

How many unread books do you have in your house, right now? (Your own books, that is--not ones that belong to other family members--and not counting things like school books, if you have them.) Clearly, an estimate will do.

To the best of your recollection, what is the OLDEST unread book in your collection? How long has it been waiting?

Do your TBR books (that's "To Be Read," if you didn't know) haunt you, make you feel guilty that you haven't read them yet?

Oh, and library books don't count . . . not unless you absolutely don't have ANY other unread book except what you checked out last Tuesday.

436. I counted. It's been a while since I counted, and I wanted to know. I think I was happier not knowing. That doesn't include the unread nonfiction books because they're not in the official TBR pile, or the books belonging to other family members that I intend to read when/if they ever finish them.
I have no idea. I've been trying to rotate them pretty well, but I'm sure there are some that have been in the TBR pile for 5 years or so. As for oldest by date, that would probably be one of the old science fiction books I bought at the flea market several years ago.
Slightly. When the TBR pile overflows its bounds, which it has at the moment, I feel guilty about letting my acquisitions outpace my reading. And when I see a discussion about a book I know is somewhere in my TBR pile, it does tend to haunt me. Speaking of which, I really need to dig out Betina Krahn's The Book of True Desires.

...more

Categories: BookingThroughThursday

Labels: BTT

// posted by Darla @ 1/25/2007 03:43:00 PM 9 comments

TT #38

Thirteen Differences between Germany and the U.S.
Part 1
disclaimer: This is from my experience and observation only, from living as an American in Germany for 12.5 years. YMMV.

Germany	United States
driving
The most obvious difference is unlimited speeds on the Autobahn. Now, whenever I mention this to German friends and family, they're quick to point out that the places where speeds are unlimited are... limited, and becoming fewer, and that's true, but they're there. And where there is a posted speed limit, it's often 130 km/h (~80 mph).	At least the speed limits aren't still 55 mph (~90 km/h) everywhere, but 70 mph (~110 km/h) is the maximum.
It takes a long time and a lot of money (3 months at least and 1000-2000€) to get through driver's training and get your driver's license. My father-in-law was working on getting his a few years back, but quit after several months when he ran out of patience and money.	Requirements vary from state to state, but in Texas, driver's ed can be from the public school, a private driving school, or taught by the parents. My daughter took driver's ed in high school for one semester, and it cost under $300.
Minimum age to get a driver's license: 18.	Varies from state to state, but almost all states allow a license at 16. Driving permits, which require an adult licensed driver in the car, can be given to teens as young as 14, depending on the state.
No right turn at a red light, unless there's a green arrow on the stop light, something you don't see very often.	Right turn on red is allowed in all 50 states.
You stay in the right lane unless you're passing, and absolutely nobody passes on the right. On those rare occasions when you do see somebody passing on the right, it's often wincing an American	You're not supposed to pass on the right, but people do it all the time, because so many people stick to the left lane even when they're going slow.
Autobahns go around cities, not through them. To get to the center of, say, Frankfurt, you've got to take narrow winding streets. Or, better yet, park outside the city and take the street car.	Interstates go through (and over) cities. It can get confusing, when the highway connections look like a Dr. Seuss drawing, but it's easy to get to downtown.
shopping
When I first came to Germany 22 years ago, stores closed on weekdays at 6 p.m., except for Thursdays, when some stayed open until 8. They were open Saturdays until 2, except for one Saturday a month, Long Saturday, when they were open until 4. They were closed all day Sunday. When we came back, stores were allowed to be open until 8 p.m. six days a week, and just recently, the law's been changed to allow stores to stay open until 10, but very few stores take advantage of it. Autobahn gas station stores are an exception, but they're not stocked like the American equivalent.	You can go shopping somewhere 24/7. If you need diapers at 3 a.m., you can get them.
Store clerks here do not subscribe to the "the customer is always right" dictum. They're doing you a favor by allowing you to shop there, not the other way around. You always say "auf Wiedersehen" to the clerk when you leave a store.	Store clerks tend to act eager to help, even to the point of being annoying.
Sales tax is 19% (it just went up the first of the year, from 16%). You don't see it, though, because it's included in the price of the item.	Sales tax varies from state to state. It's 6.25% in Texas, but San Antonio adds some of its own that varies with the type of item. The sales tax is added at the cash register, so unless you're in a state where the sales tax either doesn't exist or is a nice round number, it's hard to know exactly how much it's going to be until you get your bill.
housing
Houses here tend to be much smaller, with correspondingly small yards, and they're all clustered in towns, cities, or villages. There's no such thing as "a house in the country," or if there is, it's extremely rare and I haven't seen it. My mother-in-law finds it wasteful for people to have larger houses than they "need."	Obviously, it depends on where you live, but it's not uncommon to have a 3000 sq. ft. house on an acre of land. Our house in Texas is in a suburb, but both the house and the yard are almost exactly twice the size of where we live here.
A garage here is rare, and it's just large enough to fit a mid-size car in, and maybe squeeze out of it, if you're not too fat. We've had a garage twice while we've lived here, and were never able to use them because they were so small.	Garages are common, and tend to be for a lot more than just a car. Our garage in Texas houses the Mustang, Carl's motorcycle, the water softener, the water heater, the bicycles, lawn mower, tools, the trash cans, and a large model train layout.
Windows do not have screens. You can buy nylon screens and glue them to the outside of the window frame. The windows can tilt inward, or open like a door, which makes them very easy to clean. Most houses have Rolladen on the windows. Much to my disgust, ours doesn't.	Windows have sturdy screens in frames outside the window. They generally slide up and down, with only the lower part of the window opening. They're a pain in the butt to clean.
Bedrooms do not have closets. You buy a Schlafzimmerschrank to fit your room and your needs.	Bedrooms have closets. The closets were what sold me on our house in San Antonio--that and the back yard, and... well, okay--they didn't sell me on it, but they were a factor. Every bedroom has a huge closet.

Well. I got to 13 before I ran out of things to say. That doesn't happen often. I'll be revisiting this topic.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

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Categories: ThursdayThirteen

Labels: TT

// posted by Darla @ 1/25/2007 09:45:00 AM 28 comments

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

****½ Unfinished Business by Nora Roberts. Contemporary romance. Re-read.

In case it's not obvious, I'm on an email list that discusses a book by Nora Roberts or J. D. Robb every week. This was the book from two weeks ago. I'm just a little bit behind.

Vanessa Sexton is a concert pianist, returning to her hometown after her father's death. She hasn't been back home in twelve years, since her parents split up and her father took charge of Vanessa and her career. Now she's back, trying to rebuild a relationship with her mother, and unsuccessfully trying to avoid Brady Tucker, the boyfriend who stood her up the night of their prom.

Brady is back in town himself, now a doctor, in practice with his father. He hasn't been able to forget Vanessa either, but in a more positive way.

Complicating matters for Vanessa is the fact that she's uncertain about her future. She's always loved playing and composing music, but performing makes her physically ill, and she only did so to please her father, who was, as far as she knew, the only person who loved her and stuck by her.

Unfinished Business packs a punch for such a small book. There's humor, friendship, family issues, and even a secondary romance. It's a reunited-lovers story, which grabs me every time. But what I enjoyed most was the emotional impact. It's very much Vanessa's story--Brady has already gone through his emotional growth, and while we do find out about it, it's in the past. She has a lot to deal with, discovering that not only was there more to some issues than she realized, but that some things she believed were wrong.

It's about seeing your childhood through grown-up eyes, and your parents as human. It's about discovering yourself and learning to balance obligations to yourself and others. And of course it's about finding and accepting love. I told you, it packs a punch.

Mind you, Unfinished Business is a Silhouette Intimate Moments from 1992, and I read it as such. If it were a new single title, I think I might find it a bit dated or naive. But maybe not. It's really hard to tell with re-reads. It does have the dreaded virgin heroine, but it's explained and makes perfect sense.

Oh, and there's a lovely treat for those of us who've read the backlist: a cameo appearance from Princess Gabriella of Cordina. (yes, that website is not updated--it's Not My Fault.)

I hadn't really remembered this one, so it was quite a pleasant surprise to find that it was such an emotion-filled read.
...more

Categories: Books, 4.5stars, ContemporaryRomance

Labels: 4.5 stars, books, ContemporaryRomance

// posted by Darla @ 1/24/2007 03:50:00 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

TBR Challenge for January

For the New Year, the first month of the year, read a book that has the word "new," "one," or "first" in the title. Or, if you can't find one, read the first book of a series.

To participate, post a comment here or on your blog telling what you read, how it fit the challenge, what you thought of it, and how long it had been in your TBR pile.

I chose:

****½ First Lady by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Contemporary romance.

Cornelia Case (am I the only one who kept reading this as "Cordelia Chase"?) has been in the public eye for nearly her entire life--first as the daughter of the Vice President, then as the First Lady. And now that her husband has been assassinated, she thinks she'll get some privacy.

Think again. Her husband's Vice President, the new President, is single, and everyone (except Cornelia) thinks she'd be the best person to continue to fill that role. So she tries, but finally she can't take it anymore, and she escapes, disguised as an old woman.

Mat Jorik is a burned-out tabloid journalist who needs one good real news story to recover his integrity and his career. What he gets are his recently deceased ex-wife's daughters: a teenager named Lucy and a baby known only as Butt. When he discovers they're living alone, he loads them into their mother's ancient Winnebago--they won't fit in his sports car--to take them to their grandmother in Iowa, where they'll stay once he gets the paternity issue straightened out.

Mat and Nealy meet when her car is stolen, with all her money and belongings inside, and he offers her a ride in exchange for a loan and helping him out with the girls.

Everyone, except perhaps the baby, is concealing something. Nealy is hiding her identity and a Very Big Secret. Mat is hiding his profession. Lucy is hiding the baby's name and her vulnerability and another Very Big Secret. Despite that, they all become very close and form a family during the trip... a family that could fall apart at any moment.

A lot of the reviews called this an unusual story for SEP, but it seemed pretty usual to me--maybe we see different things in SEP's books. It has the humor and the rich emotional depth I've come to expect from her, as well as an impossible pairing. The characters were all very real--Nealy was absolutely convincing as a widowed First Lady, someone raised to public service, but for whom it's become just too much. Mat and Lucy were likewise very real. These were characters I could believe in.

First Lady had been in my TBR pile for a while--I'm not sure how long, but probably a couple of years. I'd fallen in love with SEP's writing some time ago and started collecting her backlist. I think I have them all now, but there are still some in the TBR pile. I'm glad the Challenge gave me the excuse to pull this one out sooner than I otherwise might have.
...more

Categories: TBRChallenge, Books, 4.5stars, ContemporaryRomance

Labels: 4.5 stars, books, ContemporaryRomance, tbr challenge

// posted by Darla @ 1/23/2007 03:19:00 PM 4 comments

coffee quiz

You Are an Iced Coffee

At your best, you are: hyper, modern, and athletic

At your worst, you are: cheap and angsty

You drink coffee when: you're out with friends

Your caffeine addiction level: medium

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

Well, I do like iced coffee. I especially liked the iced coffee I got in Pisa. Yummmm..... Where was I? Oh, yeah. Cheap, maybe. But angsty? No. In fact one of my answers to the quiz was the opposite of "angsty." Bah.

Categories: AboutMe

Labels: quiz

// posted by Darla @ 1/23/2007 10:05:00 AM 0 comments

Monday, January 22, 2007

Getting Warmer

****½ Getting Warmer by Carol Snow. Women's fiction.

This is Carol Snow's second novel, and I'm having the same trouble categorizing it as I did her first. Serious chick lit? Funny women's fiction? Maybe I just need to expand my definition of "women's fiction" to include books that aren't about women in their 40s who get divorced.

Getting Warmer is about high school teacher Natalie Quackenbush. Her life is pretty dull: teaching English to teenagers who couldn't care less, and living with her parents while she pays off her student loans. And she hasn't had a whole lot of luck in the romance department. So when she and her best friend Jill go out, they... lie. They invent stories about themselves, the more outrageous the better. It's fun, and it livens things up a bit.

Until, of course, Natalie meets somebody she's actually interested in, and before she knows it he and his family all think she teaches at a prison and lives with her parents because her mother has Alzheimer's.

What follows with Jonathan is pretty much what you'd expect: every time Natalie tries to come clean, she ends up deeper in the lies, but it's written with such warmth and humor that it feels real.

That's not the only curve ball that life throws Natalie. In short order, her job, her family, and even her friendship with Jill are in crisis. In the process of dealing with everything falling apart, Natalie grows and learns and becomes a stronger, happier person.

It sounds like a cautionary tale, doesn't it? "Lying's bad, mmm-kay?" But that's only because I suck at explaining books I enjoy. Fun, humor, romance, and warmth. How's that?

I'll be watching for Carol Snow's next book.
...more

Categories: Books, 4.5stars, WomensFiction

Labels: 4.5 stars, books, WomensFiction

// posted by Darla @ 1/22/2007 07:14:00 PM 2 comments

Theory #35: Readerly Theories: In Praise of Mediocre Books

Yay! I remembered Smart Bitches Day! And it's only been a month since the last time I remembered.

A friend once asked me why I bother reading mediocre books--why I don't just stop reading when it becomes obvious that the book just isn't going to do it for me, that it's not a great book, or even a very good one. I think the answer I gave her had something to do with me being stubborn, which is true, but there's more to it than that.

I may also have said something about the contrast making the really wonderful books shine that much brighter, and that's true, too. But there's still something else.

I need mediocre books. I'm talking about books that I rate between 2 and 4 stars. The ones that won't end up on my keeper shelves, and whose authors don't make it onto my must-buy list. (Although there are a few authors whose books regularly get 4 stars from me that are on that list.) These are the books that are pleasant reads, but don't leave me breathlessly in awe of the author's talent, or convinced (for a minute or two) that I don't need to read anything ever again because I've just read The Ultimate Book.

If I read too many really good books in a row, I start feeling like my head's going to explode. A really good book not only gives more to the reader; it requires more from her as well, mentally and emotionally. A really good book makes you think and feel, and if it's good enough, it's exhausting to read. I need some ordinary books in between so I can catch my breath.

In fact, I'm getting to the exploding-head point now. Of the 17 books and novellas I've read since the one I wrote about yesterday, 13 were 4.5-star or 5-star reads, and 2 were 4-star. Only 2 were truly mediocre, and those were both novellas. I find myself feeling out of sorts, needing to read something that's not challenging, something that won't make me feel bad about maybe skimming here and there or just going with the flow instead of reading with my whole brain engaged.

Sure, I complain about them. I point out what I don't like about the mediocre books, and why I find them mediocre, but the truth is, I'm a happier reader when I have a good mix of really good books and not-so-good books.

Part of it is that I read the way other people watch TV. I read while I'm eating breakfast or lunch (on weekdays, that is, when I'm by myself). I read when I'm taking a break. I read before going to bed. I read instead of watching TV. Granted that there is some good TV out there, I'd guess that most people who watch two or three hours of TV a day do not spend it all watching mentally challenging shows. They throw in a sitcom here, a reality show there, and watch to relax. It's the same for me with reading.

Another part of it is that I learn a lot more from a book with flaws than from one that's perfect, which makes me appreciate the really good books even more. It's one thing to know that, say, too much backstory is A Bad Thing, but it really sinks in when I read a book that's been attacked by the Backstory Fairy to the point where I can't see the plot anymore. And that makes me realize what a treat it is when an author is able to slide that backstory in without interrupting the story.

And the last part is that I just love books, period. Even the not-so-great ones. I'm aware of how much time, effort, and emotion goes into writing a book, and I have great respect for those who do so. Authors are my rock stars. It's rare that I can't find anything to like in a book--thus the dearth of 1-star ratings (only 3 in two years, and 2 of those were novellas).

So to all the authors who've written anything I've read, whether I loved it or not: Thank-you!
...more

Categories: Theories, Reading, SBD

Labels: reading, sbd, theories

// posted by Darla @ 1/22/2007 03:57:00 PM 2 comments

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Deed of Paksenarrion

The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon. Fantasy.

This is an omnibus of a trilogy about a female warrior named Paksenarrion.

*** Sheep Farmer's Daughter.
Paksenarrion runs away from home to avoid an unwanted marriage and joins Duke Phelan's army. She discovers that army life is both more and less than she'd expected, and that she has an aptitude for it.
***½ Divided Allegiance.
Paks has completed her initial enlistment, and, feeling increasingly dissatisfied, enters training to become a Palladin.
*** Oath of Gold.
The culmination of The Hero's Journey--Paks first has to lose everything to achieve her destiny.

The Deed of Paksenarrion was recommended to me by somebody, years ago, and had been in my TBR pile ever since. It's a trilogy, but the kind of trilogy like LotR--one really long story artificially cut up into separate volumes. So in that respect, it works best in the omnibus form. And to tell you the truth, the books really blurred into one another.

It took me a while to figure out what was going on; what the whole point was for this trilogy. It's a Hero's Journey. There's no other point to it. It's simply a biography of the character of Paksenarrion--a laundry list of events from the time she decided to leave home until she fulfilled her destiny as a Palladin of the Gods. You can go through the books with a list of Hero's Journey steps and check them off clearly, in order, one by one.

This might work, if I had any reason whatsoever to care about Paksenarrion becoming a Palladin. A lot of the reviews (and again, Amazon baffles me--144 reviews, averaging 4.5 stars--we obviously read different books again) compared it to LotR, but there's a huge difference: LotR had a Hero's Journey, true, but it also had an overarching plot. The journey in LotR took place within the context of returning the ring to Mt. Doom. There is no comparable plot to The Deed of Paksenarrion.

It would also have been more effective for me if the characters were more engaging. If, for example, I'd met the character of Paksenarrion in a previous book, when she was already a Palladin, and this was a prequel showing how she got where she was. Perhaps there is such a book, written before, but taking place after The Deed of Paksenarrion. If so, I wish I'd read it first. It's a certainty I won't search it out now.

I do enjoy military details, thankfully, so some of Paksenarrion's adventures were entertaining. The second book, where she came into her own as a warrior, was marginally more exciting. Unfortunately, that didn't last, and by the third book, I started feeling bashed over the head by the Hero's Journey concept.

Her infallibility really started grating, as well. Even when things went wrong, as when her colleagues were killed, it was only because she couldn't save them because she was serving The Greater Good. Also tiresome was the fact that each separate adventure had little to nothing to do with the other adventures in the books.

Two things would have saved this series for me: 1) a context in which to put the Hero's Journey. It could actually have been quite simple--if the evil she defeated at the end had been threatening her home at the beginning--it would have made the entire trilogy more coherent and given me a reason to want her to succeed. 2) Something other than gender to distinguish Paksenarrion from a generic Hero. She's asexual, succeeds at everything she does, and everyone except those who are evil or small-minded loves her. Give her a flaw or two, or make her have to choose between love and destiny. That would have been a story worth reading.
...more

Categories: Books, 3.5stars, 3stars, Fantasy

Labels: 3 stars, 3.5 stars, books, fantasy

// posted by Darla @ 1/21/2007 05:09:00 PM 2 comments

True-A-Day

// posted by Darla @ 1/21/2007 03:58:00 PM 0 comments

Friday, January 19, 2007

****½ Bit the Jackpot by Erin McCarthy. Contemporary paranormal romance.

Well! This second book in Erin McCarthy's humorous contemporary vampire romance series certainly lived up to the promise of its predecessor, High Stakes. In fact, I liked it even better.

This one features vampire Seamus Fox, the uptight campaign manager for vampire president Ethan, the hero from High Stakes. He's paired with Cara Kim--a virgin stripper.

Just the characters themselves would be enough to drive an entertaining story, but vampire politics are really cut-throat (heh), which ups the stakes (heh heh) for everybody.

Sorry about that--couldn't resist.

Anyway. Cara gets mortally injured; Seamus feels responsible, so he turns her. And when she has trouble dealing with vampire life and drinking blood, he tries to make things easier for her, breaking a lot of vampire laws to do so... a scandal in the making, especially at such a critical time in the campaign.

So he also tries to keep her a secret, and moves her into his hotel suite along with her dogs. And all the while, he's trying to keep his hands off her and keep himself in denial that he's falling in love. It is, after all, an unfamiliar emotion for him, since the last time he had a relationship with a woman (that ended disastrously, natch) was 200 years ago.

Cara, meanwhile, chafes at the restrictions. She realizes she's falling in love with Seamus, but she's no happier than he is, because she believes it's one-sided.

Bit the Jackpot is an entertaining story about characters I could really care about. We also get more of the secondary characters from the first book, including Brittany and Corbin, whose story we'll be getting in Bled Dry, due out in May. I'm looking forward to it.
...more

Categories: Books, 4.5stars, ParanormalRomance

Labels: 4.5 stars, books, ParanormalRomance

// posted by Darla @ 1/19/2007 10:13:00 PM 0 comments

**** The Tin Man by Dale Brown. Thriller.

Finally! My last book of 2006. My reading has definitely been outpacing my reviewing. Since it's been nearly 3 weeks since I read this, I wandered over to Amazon to check out the reviews and refresh my memory. I should have just stuck to reading the back of the book. There are dozens of reviews, mostly bad, and mostly complaining that The Tin Man isn't identical to all of Dale Brown's other books. Argh. Apparently the phenomenon isn't confined to romance authors. The ones who weren't complaining about that were complaining that it wasn't some other kind of book. They illustrate quite nicely a point recently made on Teach Me Tonight in which Sarah talks about reviewing romance novels AS romance novels and romantic comedy movies AS romantic comedy movies.

Maybe I enjoyed The Tin Man because I had no idea what to expect. Someone had recommended Dale Brown to me years ago, and I'd picked this one up at the flea market for a few cents.

It's about a former/occasional secret agent who works for a high-tech company. When his brother, a rookie cop, is injured, our hero becomes The Tin Man--wearing a suit made of the company's new bulletproof material and enhanced with some other high-tech gadgets, he's a cross between a vigilante and a superhero.

It's not all whiz-bang high tech action--there's a human side, particularly with the brother's serious injuries. And using the suit isn't without consequences--there's physical pain, and increasing urges toward violence. An alert reader could draw parallels with the effects of vigilantism in general--but this really isn't a book you read to contemplate the human condition.

Mostly, it's a rollercoaster thrill ride, a James-Bond-ish page-turner, an entertaining way to spend a couple of hours. The Tin Man didn't turn me into a Dale Brown fan, but I won't avoid his books, either.

...more

Categories: Books, 4stars, ActionAdventure

Labels: 4 stars, action, books

// posted by Darla @ 1/19/2007 05:22:00 PM 0 comments

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Booking Through Thursday

The Page 123 Meme

Grab the book closest to you.
Open to page 123, look down to the 5th sentence.
Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog.
Include the title and the author's name.

If you feel so inclined, you can tag people once you've done yours... this WAS a meme, technically, but a fun one!

Okay, the first book that came to hand is my current (re-)read, Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett. Unfortunately, it doesn't lend itself to this meme very well:

"She's a medium. Well, more a small."
"Really?"
So I'll try again, with the book I just wrote about yesterday, Unleashed. Page 123 is in the story "Red Skies at Night" by Diane Whiteside:

Gillian silently braced herself. Her expression was focused and deadly, if edged with exhaustion. He didn't speak, concentrating on fighting the steering wheel.
*sigh* Third time's the charm, right? ACK! Demon Angel by Meljean Brook doesn't have 5 sentences on page 123.
Last try. I'm giving up if this one doesn't work. Over the Moon. Page 123 is in the story "Between the Mountain and the Moon" by Virginia Kantra.

He didn't want to like her. It would make what he intended much harder.
Lying beside him, she pulsed with life and energy, solid and smooth as an egg, firm and ripe as a peach.

...more

Categories: BookingThroughThursday

Labels: BTT

// posted by Darla @ 1/18/2007 06:31:00 PM 2 comments

TT #37

Thirteen Clocks

"Once upon a time, in a gloomy castle on a lonely hill, where there were thirteen clocks that wouldn't go..."

This is on the wall in the computer room. The picture is by Eric Joyner, whose work I discovered on The Sneeze.
This one is on the wall in the bathroom. It's not like we really needed a clock there, but there was this long space that was really empty, and we thought this clock was cute. It matches the bathroom cupboards, though you can't see them in this picture.
This one's also in the bathroom. It's got a radio in it and is meant to go in the shower, but there's already too much stuff hanging in the shower. I'm not sure how good an idea it is to have a radio in the bathroom--Carl tends to listen to the news while he's showering, which is a really horrible way to start the day, if you ask me.
This one is hard to see--sorry. It's very dim today. It's on the wall pretty much between the dining room portion of the main room of the house and the living room portion. I don't remember where we got this one--I think it was a gift. There used to be a hand-made ceramic abstract-shaped clock in that spot, but it fell, so we replaced it with this one, which used to be in the computer room.
Another dim photo, which is annoying, because this is our newest clock. Well, new to us. It's an old mantle clock, and here it's sitting on top of a desk in the dining room. Click on the photo--you'll be able to see it better. When we go back to Texas, it'll go on the mantle. It's got great chimes--they sound like church bells. Unfortunately, my mother-in-law wasn't quite so charmed by them when she spent the night New Year's Eve--they're pretty loud, and kept her awake. Next time someone stays over, we'll remember to turn off the chimes.
It occurs to me that it might have been a better idea to wait for a sunny day to do 13 clocks. But I'm fresh out of other TT ideas at the moment. This clock is in the kitchen. It was a gift. It's supposedly an "atomic clock," picking up a signal for the correct time. It did that once, when we first got it. Now it works like an ordinary clock, and you have to set it. It's not alone in the Tiny Kitchen™. There are also clocks on the microwave, the stove (though that one's still on daylight saving time), and the coffeemaker. The one on the coffeemaker doesn't show the correct time because it's run on a transformer. The microwave is, too, but the microwave converts the frequency itself--the coffemaker doesn't. I took pix of them, but they didn't turn out, so you can just take my word for it.
It's a rule, I think, that every American living in Germany has to have a cuckoo clock, or at least buy one for someone back home. This one actually belongs to our youngest son, who begged for one for Christmas a couple of years ago. When it cuckoos, the bird comes out the window, of course, and a chimney sweep pops out of the top. It's located in the entryway, right above the phone. Which is possibly not the best place for it--the cuckoo can be pretty loud when you're on the phone.
This one used to be where the mantle clock is now. When we got the new clock, we were going to throw this one out, but the youngest son took it up to his room where it's now sitting next to his science project--a model of the Hubbel telescope. We've had this one for a very long time--I think it must have been a gift, though who'd have given it to us, I have no idea. It's plastic and has flowers on it. I think the cheesiness is what appeals to the kid.
This is in the older son's room. It's a clock shaped like an old Nintendo controller and was one of his Christmas presents. He also has three other non-functioning clocks sitting around his room--a dragon, a ball, and a frog that, when it was working, hopped when the alarm went off. The pictures of them didn't turn out either.
This is on the wall in our bedroom. Lots of silver-colored stuff in there.
This is on my nightstand. Notice what time the alarm is set for. *whimper*
This is on Carl's nightstand. Yes, they're identical. Note what time the alarm is set for... and he had to get up "early" today to go to Heidelberg. Grrrrr.
This is also in the bedroom. It's a clock, but also a timer. I used to try to remember to take it back to the kitchen when I was done exercising, but finally gave up on that and bought a new timer for the kitchen.