nichtszusagen: November 2007

Friday, November 30, 2007

Naked Prey

***½ Naked Prey by John Sandford. Suspense.

This is a new-to-me author. I noticed several people on the JDRobb list enjoyed his books, so when I saw this one while filling up my cart at Half.com, I decided to give him a try.

Unfortunately, it's in the middle of a series about Lucas Davenport who, if I understood correctly, is a sort of cop/troubleshooter for the governor. Here, two bodies are discovered hanging in a tree: a black man and a white woman, and Davenport is sent to investigate, and to keep it from being called a lynching (which is wasn't).

The problem is, the murders are just the tip of the iceberg, and the investigation of the murders sparks a whole lot of other, only tangentially related events, involving kidnapping, prescription drug smuggling, auto theft, arson, and more murder.

I did enjoy the convoluted way one thing led to another, but at one point it got to be a little too much: everyone in this small town is involved in some sort of crime, and it just stretched credulity too far.

Also, this kind of series depends heavily on the personality of the main character, and maybe it's because I started in the middle of the series, but Davenport just didn't grab me. I didn't get much of a sense of his personality at all.

And then there was the kid. The bodies were found by a precocious 12-year-old girl who's a trapper. It's probably just me, but precocious kids, particularly in mystery/suspense novels are a nails-on-the-chalkboard thing for me. I almost always find them intensely irritating, and that was the case here, as well.

If I happen to find another book from earlier in this series, I'll probably give it another chance, but I'm not hooked enough to go out of my way to look for one.

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Categories: Books, 3.5stars, Mystery

Labels: 3.5 stars, books, mystery

// posted by Darla @ 11/30/2007 07:13:00 PM 0 comments

Hero and the Terror

** Hero and the Terror. Action/adventure.

Directed by: William Tannen.
Starring: Chuck Norris, Brynn Thayer

I watched this in bits and pieces on video while exercising.

I normally like action movies, but this one... Danny O'Brien (Chuck Norris) was nicknamed "Hero" when he stopped serial killer Simon Moon, who ended up in a psychiatric facility. Afterwards, he spent some time with a therapist (Brynn Thayer) dealing with the nightmares, and he's now living with her, and they're expecting a child.

Simon Moon escapes the hospital and makes his getaway in an ambulance, which he crashes. Everyone wants to think he's dead, but when a woman disappears from a newly renovated theater, O'Brien knows Moon is back, but nobody takes him seriously.

Thing is, this could have been a decent movie, but instead, it's just dull. We're supposed to feel for Danny and Kay, and the "heartwarming" ending, but we never got to know them beyond Danny's nightmares and discovering that Kay had been his therapist, and that she's reluctant to marry him, but considers the relationship permanent. There's a scene in a restaurant on her birthday that I think was supposed to make us sympathetic, but she ends up looking stupid, and he's so laid-back, he's nearly comatose.

I'm not sure what the point of their relationship was in the film--him trying to have a normal life, maybe, but we never see him not having the normal life, and that normal life is never threatened. If Simon Moon had captured or threatened Kay, there might have been a point.

And what's the point of making her a therapist? She's a pretty bad one--his nightmares come back, and she just says it doesn't matter because she'd already cured him. Huh? And she's seriously out of touch with her own emotions, not even aware that pregnancy heightens them. And the biggie: a romantic relationship with a patient? Not a good thing.

As for the action plot--Simon Moon was a 2-dimensional villain. There's no reason for his actions, beyond "he's evil." O'Brien knows immediately whodunit, so there's no mystery or suspense there. He also decides, without any investigating, that Simon Moon is hiding in the theater. There is a search for him, but it's long and nothing at all happens.

Maybe my biggest problem was that there was very little action to distract me from the dullness of the plot.

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Categories: Movies, 2stars, ActionAdventure

Labels: 2 stars, action, Movies

// posted by Darla @ 11/30/2007 04:24:00 PM 2 comments

All U Can Eat

***** All U Can Eat by Emma Holly. Romantic erotica.

Emma Holly is on my must-buy list for a reason.

Troy, diner owner Frankie's boyfriend of 5 years, breaks up with her directly after sex. A week later, he and his new fiancee show up in her diner. Frankie starts getting over it when young ex-Marine Mike comes by, looking for work. She hires him as a cook, and decides to let him cheer her up, but as they're sleeping upstairs, they hear a noise and discover a dead body in the alley behind the diner--the best friend of Troy's fiancee, and Frankie's the prime suspect.

Police chief Jack West has had a thing for Frankie for a long time, and now that her boyfriend is out of the picture, he has a chance--except the murder got in the way. Both Frankie and Jack investigate from different angles, and find love along with the solution.

All U Can Eat is not one of Holly's more mainstream novels. Just FYI. If you read this expecting a straightforward romance, with the h/h having sex only with each other, and nothing more shocking than some oral, you're going to be... surprised. The sex scenes are many and varied. And they are, every last one of them, integral to the plot, show character development, and are full of emotion and sensual detail.

Take the first scene in the book, with Frankie and Troy, for example. You can tell that they genuinely like each other and enjoy their sex life, but that Frankie's settling, and that there's something Troy needs that he's not getting from their relationship. It's not spelled out--it's there in how they act with each other and in the few words they say. And it's clear before he tells her that Troy's ending the relationship. All that on top of hot, steamy sex.

It's all like that--Emma Holly is not an author whose sex scenes I skip, or even skim: I'd miss a lot of the turning points in her stories that way, besides which, they're never boring or repetitive.

The characters are all vivid and three-dimensional. Nobody's all good or all bad, and they all have believable motivations for their actions. One duo that was intriguing and I'd like to see more of is Dave and Pete, the Team Boys, of Dave and Pete's garage. They'd started out double dating, and end up bisexual. There's a bit of their emotional journey in All U Can Eat, but they're really not the focus of the story, so it's of necessity brief.

The mystery was clever and had a nice twist to it, and the romance was emotionally believable.

I don't know what else to say. It's so much easier to point out the things I don't like in a book. Emma Holly makes every word count. I have all her books; she's on my must-buy-as-soon-as-it's-released list; I'm a huge fangirl.

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Categories: Books, 5stars, EroticRomance

Labels: 5 stars, books, EroticRomance

// posted by Darla @ 11/30/2007 03:55:00 PM 5 comments

Friday Flashback

This one's from January, 2002.

Wicked Widow by Amanda Quick. Historical romance.

I have to confess, I haven't read a lot of historicals, so I really don't know if this is representative or not. I think it's a Regency, but that's only because I've been told Regencies have English nobility in them. Hopefully someone here will enlighten me on the nuances before I make a complete idiot of myself. Anyway, if historicals are like this one, maybe I'll pick up a few more.

Madeline holds her own. She's smart, practical, clever, and quick. Her aunt's a hoot. Artemas, well.... Wow. "Mature yet agile" indeed.

I'm going to show my ignorance again, and ask if "Vanza" was real or if JAK invented it, and either way, if she's used any more of its followers in other books. It seems like a combination of martial arts, Eastern philosophy, and a secret society like the Masons.

Good story, anyway. Nice adventure and mystery along with the romance and historical setting---I definitely recommend it if you haven't read it yet.

You can read the whole thread, complete with smilies and silly asides, here.

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Categories: Books, HistoricalRomance, Flashback

Labels: books, flashback, HistoricalRomance

// posted by Darla @ 11/30/2007 10:28:00 AM 2 comments

Thursday, November 29, 2007

TT #76

Thirteen Name Generators
You've played these before. Type in your name, and it gives you your pirate name or hobbit name or whatever. Click on the links to generate your own names.

Your Cyborg Name:

Your Penis Name:

Fatboy Slim

Your Gangsta Name:
Jimbo da Rappa

Your Hobbit Name: Pansy Bramble of Willowbottom

Your Elf Name: Gilraen Lossëhelin

Your Goth Name: Chaotic Kittie

Your Hillbilly Name:

Ellie Mae Houston

Your 1920s Name:

Elvina Georgette

Your Vampire Name:
The Great Archives determine you to have gone by the identity:
Guinevere Beau Pre
Known in some parts of the world as:
Lodemai of The Underworld
The Great Archives Record:
Of the world below, creeping amongst the catacombs and sewers of the city.

Your Pimp Name:
Vicious D. Darla Wicked

Your Smurf Name: Dirty Smurf

Your Faery Name: Flower Honey Rionach

Your Sexy Name:

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

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

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Categories: ThursdayThirteen

Labels: TT

// posted by Darla @ 11/29/2007 10:44:00 AM 32 comments

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Hard to Kill

**** Hard to Kill. Action/adventure.

Directed by: Bruce Malmuth.
Starring: Steven Seagal, Kelly LeBrock

I watched this on video a bit at a time while exercising.

I think I mentioned that I like action movies, and Steven Seagal movies are a guilty pleasure. This, I think, is one of his better ones.

Cop Mason Storm (Steven Seagal) overhears something he shouldn't have, and the bad guys come after him, his wife, and his son. His wife dies, and Storm is in a coma, hidden away under an assumed name by the one trustworthy cop on the force.

Seven years later, he wakes up and asks his nurse (Kelly LeBrock) to get him out of the hospital--with a little extra convincing from the bad guys who start shooting up the place to get him, she complies.

They hide out while he recuperates and trains and regains his strength, then he goes after the bad guys.

Like most Steven Seagal movies, it's a little overdone, a little unbelievable, but it's fun. Seagal is the same character he always plays, and the dry, serious delivery of his lines always works for me. Unfortunately, Kelly LeBrock seemed to be trying to mimic him, and she just sounded wooden. Eh. She was probably eye candy for the male audience anyway. The little bit of romance was sweet, and the action was exciting and interspersed with humor. Best of all, the ending was very satisfying--you never need to worry about the bad guys not getting what's coming to them in a Steven Seagal movie.

Oh, yeah. One more reason to like this movie: it's got my Mustang in it.

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Categories: Movies, 4stars, ActionAdventure

Labels: 4 stars, action, Movies

// posted by Darla @ 11/28/2007 06:41:00 PM 0 comments

Cat in a Quicksilver Caper

***** Cat in a Quicksilver Caper by Carole Nelson Douglas. Mystery.

This is the 18th book in the Midnight Louie series. I'm not sure how I got behind on it--I absolutely love these books. But the good news is, now I'm not having to wait so long between books--I read the previous book just a couple of months ago.

The mystery in this one really raises the emotional stakes. Magician Max, in his undercover work to infiltrate the Synth, has to steal a jeweled scepter on display in an exhibition for which Temple has been hired to do PR. Also, a dead body is found hanging at the site, and Max is the prime suspect, leading police Lt. Molina to renege on her promise to Temple to stop investigating Max.

Ex-priest Matt, meanwhile, sensing the rift between Max and Temple, gets serious about pursuing her, and just to keep things from being too easy, Temple's romance novelist aunt Kit moves in with her for a while... and, boggling Temple's mind, begins dating the oldest Fontana brother.

This series is one very long story, one I'm pretty sure will be wrapped up tidily by the time we get to Z, unlike some other series I won't mention.

The emotions in Cat in a Quicksilver Caper are even more intense than usual--or maybe they're just more of a focus here. Max is being torn horribly between his duty and his love for Temple. He feels very strongly the importance of his work, and fears, not unreasonably, that he may lose her before it's finished. Matt's dilemma is different, but no less intense. Since he left the priesthood but not the church, it's an important issue with him to do what's right. He has some insightful conversations on the subject; as does Temple, who also consults a religious professional for advice on dealing with him.

The mystery also tugs at the emotions, particularly the second death, which Max tries, but is unable to prevent. So add some extra guilt in there as well.

And of course, there's Midnight Louie, working with his daughter Midnight Louise, the Cloaked Conjuror's big cats, and Shangri-La's sinister Siamese Hyacinth, who has a friendly body double.

And oh, yeah. Molina has a stalker, and she thinks it's Max.

I wish I'd brought the entire series with me--I'm really feeling the urge to re-read it all. I can't decide whether to read Cat in a Red Hot Rage right away, or to wait until closer to Cat in a Sapphire Slipper's release date. In the meanwhile, I also have another couple of Douglas's Irene Adler books to read, as well as the first book of her new series. One thing that's had Carole Nelson Douglas on my must-buy list for almost 10 years is that she writes in such different styles, but they're all wonderful.

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Categories: Books, 5stars, Mystery

Labels: 5 stars, books, mystery

// posted by Darla @ 11/28/2007 02:39:00 PM 2 comments

5 Rooms

***½ 5 Rooms. Adult.

Directed by: Jim Enright.
Starring: Devinn Lane, Randy Spears

This is basically the porn version of the movie Four Rooms: what happens in various rooms in a hotel, New Year's Eve, and a bellhop (a vastly amusing Devinn Lane) who gets peculiar requests.

There's the bachelorette party, with 3 rather hard-looking women whose stripper doesn't show up, so our bellhop is asked to fill in.

There's the married couple with Randy Spears as the workaholic spouse. I enjoy Randy Spears anyway, even in a non-comedy role, and his wife (played by "Dee") was very attractive--unusually so.

There are the two women who are looking for adventure who hire a couple of guys for the evening--they need the bellhop to bring condoms, which ends up being really funny.

There are the young lovers... well, she looks young ("Gauge" is really perfect for the part--she's very cute, and acted well), but he (Joel Lawrence) looked to be mid-30s at the youngest (I looked him up--he was 37 when the movie was made), and trying to act like an 18-year-old just didn't work.

And then our bellhop is cleaning up a room after a party, and discovers a naked young woman passed out, which is the funniest running storyline through the film. She gets her into a laundry cart, and... well, okay, I'm not going to tell you the whole story.

None of the vignettes alone was all that outstanding, and there was a lot of lesbian action which isn't my cuppa, but the added humor of the bellhop (who doesn't speak, by the way, until the very end) made it worth watching.

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Categories: Movies, 3.5stars, Adult

Labels: 3.5 stars, adult, Movies

// posted by Darla @ 11/28/2007 11:33:00 AM 0 comments

Speaker for the Dead

****½ Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card. Science fiction.

Now that my 13-year-old is reading Ender's Game (#42), I figured I'd better get to this one before he nabs it.

I had been warned that even though Speaker for the Dead continues the story of Ender's life, and is set in the same universe, that it's not that much of a sequel--that is, it's not the same kind of book. Which was a relief to me, to tell you the truth. Ender's Game was a complete story, and I'd been dreading the kind of sequel that would be Ender vs. a different kind of alien, which would just spoil the whole thing.

Instead, it's set 3000 years later, but due to a whole lot of light-speed travel, Ender's only in his 30s (I think--I'm not positive, and I'm not going to search for it. It's not that important. At any rate, he's an adult, in his prime.). He's become a Speaker for the Dead, the original Speaker for the Dead, but nobody realizes that. His purpose is to learn all about someone's life--not just the good things, like in a eulogy, but everything--their hopes, dreams, fears, and failings--and then Speak for them. It's what he did for the Buggers after destroying them, then published the book, earning for himself instead of the accolades he'd received, the title of "Ender the Xenocide," and his name is now reviled.

Humanity has learned a lesson, and now contact with alien races is strictly limited. On the planet Lusitania is the only other sentient race humanity has dicovered: nicknamed the Piggies. The humans are required to stay within their fences and observe only, not give any information to the Piggies. But the Piggies learn anyway, from the questions they're asked, and then the anthropologist studying them is brutally slaughtered, and nobody knows why.

Ender is summoned to speak a death on the planet, and ends up bringing pain and healing. And, well, here's the whole point of the book:

that truly knowing a person, or an alien race, understanding them completely, is to love or at least care for them. The message got a little heavy-handed for me by the end, hence the half-star reduction.

Otherwise, the story was interesting, the characters compelling, the mystery intriguing. I'll be reading more. I've already got Xenocide in my TBR pile.

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Categories: Books, 4.5stars, ScienceFiction

Labels: 4.5 stars, books, ScienceFiction

// posted by Darla @ 11/28/2007 10:34:00 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Which Book Are You?

Got this from the Jim-Butcher forums:

You're I, Robot!

by Isaac Asimov

While you have established a code of conduct for many generations to
follow, your demeanor is rather cold and calculating. Brought up to serve humans, you
have promised never to harm them, to follow orders, and to protect yourself. Living up
to this code has proved challenging and sometimes even drives you mad. If you were a
type of paper, you would be pulp.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Heh. I don't think I'm that bad, but maybe it explains a few things.

Categories: AboutMe

Labels: quiz

// posted by Darla @ 11/27/2007 11:02:00 AM 0 comments

The Teeth of the Tiger

****½ The Teeth of the Tiger by Tom Clancy. Action/adventure.

amateur book trailer

I used to read all of Tom Clancy's books until I got annoyed by the Op-Center series, and bored by Into the Storm and Every Man a Tiger (which were interesting, but dry as dust) and quit reading them altogether. Then I found this in the bargain bin, and remembered why I liked his books so much.

And wow. I checked Amazon reviews to refresh my memory (it's been 3 weeks since I read this), and there are 800 reviews with an average of 2 stars. I always gets very curious when I have such a complete difference of opinion, so I read through a few pages of the reviews. The negative ones seem to focus on two things: 1) it's not like real life, and 2) the series has moved on to the next generation. News flash: Tom Clancy books have never been overly realistic. Except probably for the nonfiction. You can pick apart dozens of things from The Hunt for Red October that would never happen in real life--that's why it's fun to read. And I applaud long-running series that move on to the next generation. Otherwise, you end up with a hero that never ages, or increasingly improbable scenarios that even I won't swallow.

So, now that I'm satisfied that I didn't miss anything, on with the review.

The Teeth of the Tiger is about an ultra-clandestine government agency set up by then-president Jack Ryan. It's such a new agency that so far, all it's done is make money (it's self-funding, mostly by quasi-legal insider trading) and collect intelligence hacked from the alphabet-soup agencies. And now they're training their first operatives: twin brothers Dominic and Brian Caruso, respectively an FBI agent and a Marine officer.... and Jack Ryan's nephews.

They get a slightly accelerated course when a routine training exercise crosses paths with an actual terrorist operation in a suburban mall.

Meanwhile, Jack Ryan, Jr., a few years younger than his cousins, has used his brains and figured out the existence of the agency, and basically applies for a job.

Interspersed with the training thread and the Jack Jr. thread is the terrorists' plot.

Maybe it's because I've just been in an action mood lately, but while I did notice a few drawbacks: the twins call each other Aldo and Enzo for no good reason, except perhaps as something to trip up readers; Brian dithers for far too long about whether or not he can kill terrorists in cold blood; and there's quite a bit of repetition; they didn't bug me all that much because I loved the story otherwise.

I found the idea of a combination of stock market traders and assassin/spies irresistible. And I loved watching the development of the agency, even--or perhaps especially--the doubts and missteps. It was new, they weren't sure how it would work, but they were willing and eager to try, and that excitement was passed on to this reader, at least.

I also found the three cousins to be fairly reasonably characterized. Even Brian's crisis of conscience made sense with his character, and my irritation with him was mitigated by the fact that his brother was also irritated with him. The twins were youngish and excitement-seeking, which explains some of their less logical decisions, like renting a Porsche instead of taking an anonymous train on their mission in Europe. Jack, Jr. had grown up privileged in the shadow of his larger-than-life father, who he admires, so it's understandable that he has that sense of duty, and yet he wants to make his own mark, and to prove himself.

And, oh, yes, I did have to ignore a bit of political b.s. with which I'd have taken exception if I hadn't expected it. I find Clancy a little naive, politically (no shades of gray), but that works pretty well in an action novel. I think I'll have to see which of his books I've missed in the interim and check them out.

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Categories: Books, 4.5stars, ActionAdventure

Labels: 4.5 stars, action, books

// posted by Darla @ 11/27/2007 10:24:00 AM 0 comments

Monday, November 26, 2007

War

****½ War. Action/adventure.

Directed by: Philip G. Atwell.
Starring: Jet Li, Jason Statham.

For a change, Carl and I saw this--without the boys--at the Hercules. Caveat #1: I love action films. Caveat #2: This is not a martial arts film.

Which is fine with me--I love action films, regardless of what kind of action it is. Well, some action films. This is one.

After an assassin named Rogue killed his partner and his partner's wife and child, finding Rogue is federal agent John Crawford's (Jason Statham) raison d'etre.

Meanwhile, Rogue's (Jet Li) purpose is a little less straightforward. Presumably working for the Triad, it becomes clear that he's manipulating the Triad into an all-out war with the Yakuza.

So basically, it's tailor-made for me: lots of action, a intriguing mystery (why is Rogue causing a war?), some nice eye-candy (Jason Statham), and a couple of really good twists.

We'll be getting this one when it comes out on DVD.

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Categories: Movies, 4.5stars, ActionAdventure,

Labels: 4.5 stars, action, Movies

// posted by Darla @ 11/26/2007 08:56:00 PM 4 comments

Gypsy Heart

**** Gypsy Heart by Sasha White. Contemporary romance.

After being wowed by Bound, I set about collecting Sasha White's backlist. This is the first one I've gotten to.

This is one of those books where "erotica" is in the eye of the beholder. The spine, however, says "romance," and so do I. Sure, there's explicit sex, but it's not more extreme or plentiful than in mainstream romances, nor is it more of a focus.

Sable Castle and Gage Dougherty are heading in opposite directions in their lives--put briefly, Sable is a good girl who wants to be bad, and Gage is a bad boy who wants to be good. Sable wants to take off, travel the world as a photographer. Gage wants to settle down and live happily ever after.

They meet at a bar where Gage's brother is celebrating his birthday and Sable is bartending. They're attracted to each other, but resist when they discover they want opposite things from each other.

If you haven't read many romances, this is a very good one to start with. It's a classic conflict of hero vs. heroine and it's sexy, and the idea of the hero being the one who wants to settle down is especially nice. On the other hand, I've read enough romances that this feels very familiar, if well-presented, so while I enjoyed it very much, it didn't have that extra something to make me love it.

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Categories: Books, 4stars, ContemporaryRomance

Labels: 4 stars, books, ContemporaryRomance

// posted by Darla @ 11/26/2007 07:19:00 PM 4 comments

The Gunrunner

*** The Gunrunner. Drama.

Directed by: Nardo Castillo.
Starring: Kevin Costner, Sara Botsford, Paul Soles, Ron Lea

I (re)watched this video a bit at a time while exercising. Then I rewound it and watched it a third time while exercising. It still ended up being rather confusing.

Ted (Kevin Costner) comes home from China to 20s Canada and he's trying to smuggle guns and trying to get people to give him either guns or money or both, and his younger brother is involved in smuggling liquor to the U.S., and then there's something about socialists. Go read the summary on the IMDB--I wish I'd read it before watching this, because I really didn't get all that from watching the movie 3 times. I certainly didn't catch that he was in love with the night club owner--I thought that was just sex and business.

The 20s atmosphere was excellent, and it's odd, but the whole confusion thing just fit with the film as a whole. There was very little dialogue, and what there was was terse. The scenes were mostly dimly lit, and if I'd paid very close attention, I could probably come up with what the roulette scenes symbolized besides the obvious all-or-nothing risks Ted was taking. (Or maybe it's not that deep, and I got it already.) All that fit together very well to make a whole. It's just that it's a period piece--a character study, where the character in question is 1920s Canada--and I prefer more story to my movies.

The Gunrunner strikes me as a movie to have playing in the background on a big screen TV while you're hosting a 20s party. If nothing else, a young Kevin Costner is definitely pretty.

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Categories: Movies, 3stars, Drama

Labels: 3 stars, drama, Movies

// posted by Darla @ 11/26/2007 06:47:00 PM 0 comments

TBR Challenge for November

The TBR Challenge for November is to read a book with a one-word title. I chose:

****½ Sebastian by Anne Bishop. Fantasy.

It had been in my TBR pile for a while--one of the drawbacks to having such a large TBR pile: I buy books when they first come out in hardcover, and by the time I get to them, they're already out in paperback, and there's a sequel. At least this time the sequel isn't already in paperback.

Sebastian takes place in Ephemera, a world affected--literally--by human emotions. To keep things somewhat stable, there are Landscapers who shape the landscape and Bridges, who connect them. And there are wizards and demons and incubi and succubi.

The eponymous Sebastian is a half-incubus. Rejected as a child by his wizard father and by other children because of his heritage, he nonetheless experienced love and acceptance during the periods when his father allowed him to stay with his aunt and cousins.

Now he lives in a landscape created by ultra-powerful rogue Landscaper Belladonna called the Den of Iniquity with others of his kind and, surprisingly, a pure and innocent young woman, Lynnea, with whom he's falling in love.

But the Eater of the World has escaped and is threatening all of Ephemera, and it's up to Sebastian and Belladonna to save the world.

The entire story is like a fable, the moral of which is the need for balance. Sebastian's history is one of love balanced by rejection--necessary to mold his character. The Den of Iniquity is just as necessary to Ephemera as Sanctuary, its opposite. Landscapers learn early on that all emotions, not just positive ones, are required to form a stable landscape. Balance is the goal of the characters in the story, even if they don't know it--it's what they need to be whole, complete, and happy. Or put another way, it's about shades of gray.

Sebastian and Belladonna are dark heroes, but despite their supernatural abilities, they're dark in a human and understandable way. This is a much lighter book than Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy, which is not to say it's a lesser book, but it's definitely different--and because expectations affect enjoyment so much, don't expect a reprise of Daemon and Jaenelle here. Kudos to Bishop for that, by the way: she wrote an excellent dark fantasy series, and now she's writing something else.

I have the next book on my to-buy list. I'm looking forward to it.

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Categories: TBRChallenge, Books, 4.5stars, Fantasy

Labels: 4.5 stars, books, fantasy, tbr challenge

// posted by Darla @ 11/26/2007 06:02:00 PM 0 comments

Monday Morning Meme

I got this from Melody:

A Reading Meme

1. Do you remember learning to read? How old were you? Yes. It's my earliest memory. I wasn't quite 3 years old. Sitting with my mom in the swing in the hallway, reading A Pet for Peter for the umpteenth time, she'd point at the words, and I'd repeat them: "'No,' said the farmer, 'that isn't the pet for you.'" And I remember being about 3 and standing up in front of church singing "Jesus Loves Me," holding the hymnal. Somebody thought they'd be cute and took the book and turned the pages--I told them the name of the song on that page, then turned to the correct page, and proceeded to sing all the verses--reading the words.

2. What do you find most challenging to read? A choppy prose style--short sentences that don't flow well, don't have a rhythm. Description-dense books, unless the descriptions are lyrical, full of emotion. Legalese or other jargon or overly-precise language. Nonfiction that's written to document facts rather than to entertain or inform (that's the only way I can think to explain the difference between dust-dry nonfiction and fascinating, can't-put-it-down nonfiction).

3. What are your library habits? When I was a kid, I'd go every week before my piano lesson, and get the maximum number of books I was allowed: 6. I quit going in college--well, except for going to the library to study--as far as I knew, the university libraries didn't have fiction, and I was reading enough nonfiction for classes. I don't know why I didn't resume going to the library before I joined the army--I was always broke, and frequently reduced to re-reading books. I tried the library when Carl was in grad school, but forgot to return books so often that with the fines I racked up, I might as well have bought books. I tried the library again when we first moved to Heidelberg, but was told I couldn't use the library because I didn't live on post. Which was odd, because we do use the library at Camp Darby when we're in Italy.

4. Have your library habits changed since you were younger? Whoops. Answered this one above.

5. How has blogging changed your reading life? I love having somewhere to share my opinions. Writing them down, or knowing I'm going to write them down makes me read more critically and has made me more aware of what I like in a book, and the reasons for my reactions to a book. I've also discovered a lot of fabulous writers, both through their blogs and through reading other bloggers' recommendations and reviews.

6. What percentage of your books do you get from: New book stores, second hand book stores, the library, online exchange sites, online retailers, other? Well, since I'm an American living in Germany, it's pretty skewed. The book section in the BX is pretty limited (moment of silence for the old Stars and Stripes book stores), and unless it's Harry Potter, doesn't get new books for months after their release, if at all. German book stores... well, their selection of English books is small, and while they'll happily order books for you, between the ordering time, the import costs, the generally higher price of books in Germany in general, and the dismal exchange rate, why bother? We do have a very well-stocked used book store on Ramstein, but it's a 15-minute drive, a hassle with the gates, and has limited hours. The libraries are hassles with gates, and apparently low budgets--almost no new books. I haven't been organized enough to really give any of the book exchange sites a fair try--the first one I tried, I ended up losing my log-in info and it would neither give me the info nor allow me to sign up again, and the second one didn't like APO addresses. So 90% of my books I buy new online, about 75-25 between Barnes & Noble and Amazon. I used to buy almost all of them from Buy.com, until Buy.com quit shipping to APOs. grrrr. The other 10% I get used, from Half.com.

7. How often do you read a book and NOT review it in your blog? Never. At least, not since I got the blog. It may take a while, but I will review it eventually.

8. What are your pet peeves about ways people abuse books? Dogearing pages? Reading in the bath? I don't have any. It's the words inside the book that count, not the physical paper and binding. The only thing is, I think if you borrow someone's book, you need to return it in the same condition in which you borrowed it--which is only common courtesy, and applies to borrowing anything.

9. Do you ever read for pleasure at work? Don't have a job as such. When I did have a job, no, I never did. Only during breaks or lunch.

10. When you give people books as gifts, how do you decide what to give them? I give them something I think they'd like. Duh. I don't generally decide I want to get someone a book and then go out and look for one--it's usually that I'm browsing, and find one that makes me think of them, and then I get it. I occasionally get people something they say they want, but mostly it's what I think they'd like--probably because I know if there's a book I want, I'll get it, and I guess I assume other people will, too, and if it's something that maybe they don't know about, chances are they won't have it already.

I'm tagging Candy, since she said she liked being tagged, but everyone else, please consider yourself tagged if you want to play.
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Categories: AboutMe

Labels: random memes

// posted by Darla @ 11/26/2007 09:41:00 AM 3 comments

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Weekend Update

We did our shopping for Thanksgiving dinner on Tuesday evening, reasoning that the commissary would be less packed than on Wednesday. It was still pretty darn crowded, and they were completely out of brown sugar, of all things. So were the two shoppettes we checked. Grocery shopping is always painful, but this was especially so, since Carl's plan was to get through as quickly as possible, meaning it took twice as long as it should have, because I had to keep going back for things I missed when we raced through the aisles the first time. *sigh*

Curran's AP European history class is watching Pride and Prejudice--the movie, not the miniseries, but still. The reason: its historical accuracy.
Dinner out this week was at our local döner stand--still reasonably priced despite the plummeting dollar. I had a pizza with feta cheese and veggies. Yum.
The dollar hit a record low this week. Oh, joy.
We went shopping on Thursday. I wanted to look for some baking and serving dishes, and some folding chairs for our Thanksgiving celebration on Friday. I did get a nice thingy for the veggies and dip, and some chairs, but completely spaced on the baking dishes.
Turns out I don't loathe all shopping after all. We ended up in a furniture store, and spent quite a long time shopping for furniture for the loft in our house in San Antonio. We both zeroed in on the same wall unit, and wavered between 4 different Wohnlandschaften (literally: living landscapes--in other words, big-ass sofas). Actually purchasing them, however, will depend on whether we get back to our house this summer or not. Currently, the odds are running 50-50 between San Antonio and Heidelberg. I'm not exactly sure how depressed this makes me. The fabulous thing is that no matter what, we will be moving out of this house next summer.
I overslept Friday morning. Didn't get up until 10, when I'd expected to get up at 8. I always get up at 8, if it's not a school day. Still, with huge amounts of help from Carl and the boys, the house was clean and the food was ready, and we were all bathed and dressed by the time company arrived. Then in the middle of wild preparations, the chimney inspector showed up.
The menu:
- Turkey: we had 2, a 15-pound, and an 8-pound. The 15-pound went in the rotisserie, then after about an hour, it got stuck and one wing got a little burned. So Carl switched them around and the little one cooked in the rotisserie and the big one finished in the oven. They both turned out moist & yummy.
- Stuffing: just regular stuffing with celery, onions, and mushrooms
- Mashed potatoes: real ones. These are the only thing that ended up being a bit late--I underestimated the amount of time it would take the water to boil. They're lucky they got them at all. I usually skip the mashed potatoes, thinking they're too boring for a holiday dinner.
- Gravy: I was totally lazy here, and just used the jars. I know how to make homemade gravy, but it's a PIA, and nobody who was there would have made it from scratch, either.
- Sweet potatoes: I keep trying to have something other than candied sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top, but everyone complains. At least I use fresh ones instead of canned. Because of the shortage of brown sugar, I used pancake syrup and left out the butter. They were a little soupier than usual, but tasted fine.
- Green bean casserole: there would be mass protests if we didn't have this. Curran made a triple recipe and added fresh mushrooms.
- Marinated broccoli and tomato salad: Camden made this one by himself. He had fun, I think, dunking the broccoli florets in the boiling water and watching them turn bright green. It's a pretty and tasty salad.
- Green jello salad: if you're from the midwest, you know this one: cottage cheese, CoolWhip, crushed pineapple, lime Jello. Another must-have. Camden made this one, too.
- Cranberry sauce: the recipe from the bag, using about a quarter less sugar, and adding chopped apples and walnuts.
- Pumpkin pie: I had just enough flour for the crusts--by the time I had the crust rolled out, I had maybe 1 tablespoon of flour left in the canister--I hadn't even thought about checking on the flour.
Dinner was great. Everything turned out well, everybody had fun. before
and after:
even the dogs had fun:
Diva

Murphy--we didn't get a picture of Jenny--she spent all her time under the center of the table.
Unfortunately, when Oma and Opa left, they hit a huge traffic jam and were stuck for three hours on the autobahn not moving at all. They finally got home shortly before 4 a.m. Thank goodness for cell phones--they were able to call and let us know, so Carl's brother and his family could take the back roads and not get stuck in it, too.
With all the busy-ness and concern over Carl's mom, not to mention Carl snoring after having several fuzzy navels (his version of holiday punch, I think), I slept rather fitfully and dreamed a lot. I only remember one, though: Kate Rothwell was married to Anthony Head (Giles from Buffy), and we saw them looking out a window of the Cinderella castle at Disney World. I'm not at all sure I want to know what that means.

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Categories: AboutMe

Labels: about me

// posted by Darla @ 11/24/2007 04:23:00 PM 11 comments

Friday, November 23, 2007

Friday Flashback

This one, from 2002, is particularly appropriate, since I just read a book by Kathleen O'Reilly, and this is where it all started:

Touched by Fire by Kathleen O'Reilly. Historical romance.

I just finished Touched by Fire. I'll have to agree with the comment from Julia London on the cover:

A wonderfully charming and poignant romance.

To start at the beginning, I was so angry with the old earl, and just wanted to take 8-year-old Colin home with me. Then seeing how his cruelty had affected the grown-up Colin, I wanted to dig him up & strangle him.... er.... I don't know where this bloodthirstiness comes from, really I don't.

Anyway, Colin was such a tragic figure, determined to do right and to live without love.

Sarah was perfect for him. Both were outsiders because of their fathers, but she was less willing to accept what fate had given her. Rather than use her fortune to make a socially acceptable marriage, she waits for the man of her dreams--a man with "sherry-colored" eyes. Colin, on the other hand, resigns himself to marrying a woman he's not attracted to so that he can save the orphanage without unleashing the beast he's sure lives within him.

I like the twist that makes the man the one who's afraid of his own passion. You seldom see virgin heroes, especially without them being emasculated, but Colin managed to seem even stronger for being able to deny himself, because he was doing it to (as he believed) protect others.

Sarah says that she wants someone to take care of her, but she's stronger than that. She takes care of herself, and when she sees what she wants, she goes after it, braving social censure and risking her heart.

I loved watching these two go back and forth. He's fighting his attraction for her, but at the same time he won't hurt her, even to protect her from himself, so his growing attraction to & affection for her is more & more evident. She keeps thinking he's pulling away because of her position in society.

Fortunately, Giles & Iris are there to nudge things along. Giles in particular was very entertaining. I loved his sarcastic, insubordinate remarks to Colin. I thought I saw sparks between Iris & Giles---

And of course there's nothing like a couple attempted murders to force a couple to admit how much they care for each other.

All in all, an entertaining, engrossing read. Thanks, Kathleen!

You can read the entire thread here.

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Categories: Books, HistoricalRomance, Flashback

Labels: books, flashback, HistoricalRomance

// posted by Darla @ 11/23/2007 02:50:00 PM 1 comments

Thursday, November 22, 2007

TT #75

Thanksgiving Thirteen

Since the relatives are all German and thus don't have today off, we're celebrating tomorrow. Here's everyone who'll be at our house: