Making the Grade

One of the most compelling reasons I started reading blogs and then writing my own was to see and share thoughts and opinions about books. Reviews. That still holds true almost three years later. I'm always curious to read, see, and hear about what someone else thinks about a book we've both read. Or, might read.

Real nirvana is sitting with a whole group of people up close and personal to chat on and on and on about favorite books and characters. I've had that good fortune and experience with the SoCal Bloggers and it was so much fun I can't even tell you.

Anyway, Holly recently wrote a post for Book Binge about her review preferences. I found myself agreeing with many of the points she was making. For instance, I completely agreed with her thoughts about the blurb. That said, I have to say what really stood out were her comments on grades. Specifically, the grade the reviewer gives the book.

Holly noted she always looks for a grade in the book review. Me too! I immediately thought, "Good, I'm not the only one." Holly's article goes on to list other points that are important to her about reviews, but I was stuck on that first one. Grades.

You might be thinking, "What's weird about that?" Well, when I started my blog I made a conscious decision to NOT put a grade on my reviews. My logic, which seems sort of dumb now, was that I frequently waffled in my feelings about some books. I didn't feel confident about being able to nail a specific measurement on a book. Additionally, I have to admit, that while I always try to give reasons 'why' I did or didn't like a book, I really didn't want to have to start defending any given grade I might slap up.

I realized when I was reading Holly's remarks how important looking for a grade in a review had become for me. Particularly now with so many posts to read each day, I will skim reviews and look for the grade. So picture it, there I am trolling through Romancelandia looking for the grade on everyone else's reviews and I'm not putting any on mine. Sometimes I'm such a dork.

Thanks to Holly we are making changes here at Nobody asked me... The bottom line? Starting with my TBR Day review of Beau Crusoe I began putting a grade on my reviews. I thought it might be more momentous for me, but it wasn't. In fact, it was sort of liberating and anti-climatic at the same time.

I guess since I've been grading books, sort of, on my personal spread sheet all along it's not going to be that big of a deal. Who knew?

September Reading List

Here they are in all their glory. September's reads. I'm back on track with 18 reads this month. Although the ebook by Louisa Trent was woefully short to be really called a book. I believe it was something like 45 pages.

I just cut and pasted my list from my spreadsheet because I wanted to review the list here and see what my impressions are now with some distance from the reads. I try to wait to enter the books on the spreadsheet sometimes because I sometimes have a change of heart about a book as I live with it a couple of days. So I thought I'd look at the list here and see what bubbles up.

The Black Lace book by Maya Hess was a DNF for me. It was a sort of time travel where a female air freight pilot finds herself crashed in what was a distinctly primitive, like caveman primitive, culture. Ugh! No pun intended. Well, maybe a little bit...

I enjoyed Maya Banks book which made me happy after purchasing a trade sized books. I've had mixed luck with her ebooks. I've listed the books in the order I read them. You will see I read two by Nalini Singh and two by Leda Swann. I'd read other short Silhouette Desires by Ms. Singh, but this one, SECRETS IN THE MARRIAGE BED while a bit predictable, was good. Of course, I liked CARESSED BY ICE and think she gets better and better in that series. You can tell those psy-changeling books are well thought out and she's soooo consistent with the world she's created.

THE PRICE OF PLEASURE by Leda Swann was a pretty good read. I liked it much more than Ms. Swann's SUGAR AND SPICE which was a sort of anthology about three couples in Victorian England who go to a place called Sugar and Spice to realize some fantasies or help their relationships. It was an okay read is about the most I can say for it. I enjoyed WHITE HEAT by Cherry Adair and she's a hit or miss for me. Sometimes I really like 'em and sometimes not. This was a good one...thank goodness since I bought the hardcover.

Wendy snagged GOSSAMER by Rebecca Hagan Lee off the shelves at UBS when we went to the author tea back in August. It was a great historical set in San Francisco. It's a book that's stuck with me since reading it. The hero was raised in Hong Kong and marries a Chinese woman. While his family isn't thrilled they do all they can to have the couple accepted into society. When his wife dies the man leaves the painful memories of Hong Kong behind and moves to San Francisco where he meets the heroine who has arrived in San Francisco to live with a brother she discovers is dead from an opium overdose. The hero has four daughters who need a governess. Problem solved when the two meet. Good conflict. Good book.

Let's see what else, I've written about FAIRYVILLE, LOVER UNBOUND, and the Hoyt books. I just finished THE COURTESAN'S DAUGHTER today by Claudia Dain. For those of you who frequent Dear Author you know that Jane and her Ned have been doing a clever book trailer for this book.

Since my reading of it is so recent and I'm finding I have mixed emotions about it I really don't have a definitive grade. In fact when I entered it on the spreadsheet earlier I didn't give it a grade yet. I've enjoyed Ms. Dain's books in the past, but I'll have to let this one ferment a bit. I CAN say it wasn't what I was expecting. It was a lighter read than I thought it would be for some reason.

FOR HER PLEASURE by Maya Banks
THE PRICE OF DESIRE by Leda Swann
MY IMMORTAL by Erin McCarthy
BRIGHT FIRE by Maya Hess
CARESSED BY ICE by Nalini Singh
IF HIS KISS IS WICKED by Jo Goodman
THREE ON THE FOURTH by Louisa Trent (ebook)
FAIRYVILLE by Emma Holly
SECRETS IN THE MARRIAGE BED by Nalini Singh
SPYING MAID by Lilith Payne (ebook)
WHITE HEAT by Cherry Adair
KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE by EC Sheedy
GOSSAMER by Rebecca Hagan Lee
THE SERPENT PRINCE by Elizabeth Hoyt
THE LEOPARD PRINCE by Elizabeth Hoyt
SUGAR & SPICE by Leda Swann
LOVER UNBOUND by JR Ward
THE COURTESAN'S DAUGHTER by Claudia Dain

Ponderin'

PINKY & THE BRAIN
ANIMANIACS
Warner Brothers & Steven Spielberg


16 May 98 - Brain Food
"Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
(Pinky) Whoof, oh, I'd have to say the odds of that are terribly slim Brain.
(Brain) True.
(Pinky) I mean, really, when have I ever been pondering what you've been pondering?
(Brain) To my knowledge, never.
(Pinky) Exactly. So, what are the chances that this time, I'm pondering what you're pondering?
(Brain) Next to nil.
(Pinky) Well, that's exactly what I'm thinking, too.
(Brain) Therefore, you *are* pondering what I'm pondering.
(Pinky) Poit, I guess I am!

I have no expectations that people are pondering what I'm pondering at any given time or on any given day. However, here's what's been racing around my gray matter the past few days.

GRIEF
As I've mentioned before when some tragedy happens in the world. It is sometimes pretty unbearable to watch or read the news about those happenings. However, I feel the least we can do is bear witness as citizens of the world and do what we can within our small sphere of influence to change things.

Today I'm full of grief for the family and friends of the people who were murdered at Virginia Tech yesterday. I grieve for my country that refuses to make the changes we need to with regard to gun laws. The Bill of Rights giving us the "right to bear arms" is over 230 years old. We live in a different time and century. We have to do something to stop the violence. Is it more important to perserve the right to carry a gun than to have a free, safe and open society?

PRIDE
Sometimes I shake my head and lack the understanding for the fights and muckraking out here in the blogosphere. Conversely I'm pretty proud to be a part of a community that has taken on the tough subject and discussions that have been raised recently with the rape/forced sex issue brought up with the current release of CLAIMING THE COURTESAN by Anna Campbell. Yes, there are as many opinions as there are people, but most of what I've read while put in strong terms has been a free and open dialogue without personalizing it or name calling. If for some reason you have seen where the conversation broke down and got nasty, please don't link or mention it here. I've been happy to see the topic discussed intelligently without deteriorating to generalities and snark. Some of the sites where I've seen good posts and discussion are: Dear Author, Wendy aka Super Librarian and Argh Ink (Jennifer Crusie).

SOMETIMES
How many times have I put clothes from the washing machine to the dryer? I've been married 26 years. I have one husband and two children. I do laundry a couple of times a week. So how many times? Sometimes I'm shaking and tossing clothes into the dryer with impatience, sometimes resentment, and sometimes with a joyful thanks that I have these people to do laundry for. Sometimes, like today I feel connected to all the women of the world who are beating their clothes against rocks, walking miles to get water to do wash, carting clothes to a laundry mat, or like me walking out into their garage laundry room to wash their family's clothes. As different as we are, we are also the same.

REVIEWS
In my blog travels today Marg mentioned she was caught up with her reviews. I asked her if she had review deadlines, was reviewing for other publications or organizations or if she reviewed everything she read. She answered that she reviews everything she reads. Holy crap!! Was my thought when I read her reply. I have no where near the patience, talent or perseverance to review every book I read. In fact the thought of doing that is overwhelming. My current book count for the year is 113. There have been 107 days in 2007 and I've read 113 books. Yes, I had a truly slothful January and read like crazy. Yes, there are some shorty ebooks in there, but as you can see this comes to more than a book a day. I can't imagine trying to review them all. Kudos, to you Miss Marg. I admire you greatly for your steadfastness and your reviews. I love reading your reviews and other readers who are as prolific in their book reviews. Sadly, I will never be among your ranks.

However, I am going to be posting my thoughts on Linda Howard's latest Silhouette Nocturne in the next couple of days. I read it over the weekend. Anybody else had a chance to read it yet?

That about covers this series of ponderings. God knows what it will be next.

About Book Reviews

I sometimes wish I was as disciplined a reviewer as Rosario or had the biting wit of Bam or that I was as concise & honest as the Ja(y)nes at Dear Author. I have opinions about books but I get frustrated condensing my thoughts coherently.

Recently I wanted to write a review of EC Sheedy's WITHOUT A WORD. I ruminated for several days when Dear Author did a review that really nailed the book for me. In a weird way this released me from the merry-go-round in my head that had been writing the review over and over again. My thoughts were now out there thanks to Dear Author and I no longer felt compelled to do my own review. Whether or this is a good thing (I'm thinking it is) or a bad thing I don't know, but I do feel grateful.

While I read 4 to 5 books a week there has to be some intangible something that makes me want to review a book. With EC Sheedy even though I had some issues with the book all I thought at the end of it was that I wanted to read more books by this author.

With the last book I actually reviewed, NIGHT IN EDEN by Candice Proctor, I wanted to comment on how nice it was to read a historical with sexual tension that still had lots of color, detail and layers to the characters. I never know what it is that will make me feel like I want to share my views on a book. Frankly I want to review more books, but this remains a largely unrealized goal for lack of discipline to make myself review something without my woo-woo nudge.

As mentioned above another reason is my feeling that I don't get my thoughts and opinion condensed and coherent. I sometimes feel my reviews are a pointless ramble. Yet, I so enjoy reading what other readers think about books, no matter the format or lack thereof. It is one of my very favorite things about the blog-o-sphere.

Today I just feel moved to mention how humbled I feel by all of you talented people out there. For the variety of books you review, old and new, for the reminders of favorites, for opening doors to new genres and authors, and most of all for your honesty, thank you, thank you, thank you. My reading has changed because of it and I can no longer imagine my book buying experience without it.

About Book Reviews

Do you review every book you read? I don't. In fact, while I love reading reviews by other readers, the one aspect of my blog I feel the least secure about is my reviews. I'm not worried that a person visiting and reading my review, even the author, might not agree. No I'm worried about sounding like an idiot.

I read reviews at Smart Bitches and Dear Author all the time. Those are some seriously smart women. They frequently discuss aspects of a book that I don't give much thought to. Or, if I did have some feelings about the subject matter, I sure couldn't articulate it like they do. I call it reader reviewer envy.

When I like a book, when I like it alot, it is almost always because it resonated with something in me -- something personal to me or my history. Translating that in an articulate manner in a reader review is sometimes very difficult...or too revealing. Consequently, I end up not reviewing everything I read.

AngieW was recently wondering whether or not it was better to post on her blog that she hadn't time to post or just post nothing. I commented that I like a post just saying...hey my life is busy see you soon. At least then we aren't wondering what happened, for better or worse, to a person we've come to know.

I mention this because I was wondering about the reviews. Is it better to write a review of what you are reading even if you are going through a phase of just "meh" books? How about the content between book reviews. Do you like reading about personal stuff, life observations? What do you like to read on other people's blogs?

I don't like to post a bad review. I don't mind reading them. In fact, I very much appreciate them, if they aren't just a personal vendetta against an author. It gives me something to think about when I'm making purchases. Also, writing my blog has given me a new appreciation for authors. I can't imagine sweating to write a book, edit and re-read it a couple of times to prepare it for publishing and then have some chick in Southern California (me) with no particular experience writing a book review armed with a long history of reading books, romances in particular, give my book a review.

So, when I don't like something, I don't usually review it on its own. I might mention it briefly with alot of other books, but I won't single it out and say for instance, "This book sucks".

I also have never done an e-book review. I don't mean a published work that is also an e-book, but a book written for an e-publisher. Since most of what I purchase in e-book format would fall under the romantica, erotic romance category I haven't yet conquered the right tone to bring to such a review. I should also mention here that most of these books fall under the "Well, I didn't hate it..." category.

So what about you? How much thought goes into your reviewing? Do you have a set plan for reviewing...so many a month, whenever the spirit moves you? I'm back to my first question...do you review everything you read?

Book Reviews

It's hard to believe sometimes that I started this blogging business because I wanted to express my opinions about books and stuff I was reading at other sites. It has come to pass that I mention books less and less often. Part of the reason for this is that I'm not very comfortable writing the reviews. For one thing I can't be arsed to give the blurb about the book. I just want to tell you what I thought. Secondly, the book has to be pretty damn sucky or utterly fabulous to move me to write about it. And, finally, there are so many great places to check out book reviews. I do it all the time. There are some people out there who are damn good at it.

Here are some of my favorite places to check for book reviews:

1. Bam

2. Paperback Reader

3. Karen Scott

4. I Just Finished Reading

5. The Misadventures of...Super Librarian

6. Smart Bitches who Love Trashy Novels

There are many, many more reader sites and blogs I read and check out periodically but these are favs right now. Anyway, after checking these out I feel even less inclined to write a review. There are so many great places to go that I've gotten lazy about writing my own reviews. Each of these sites seems to have it's own presence and voice. I love Bam's reviews because it feels like you are sitting across the table from her in a bar, restaurant or bookstore cafe and she's telling you about a book she just read.

Having said all that, I am going to make an effort to write about some stuff I've read recently. The most I can say is that nothing really moved the earth for me...that's a review in and of itself.

I have decided to start keeping a running list of the the books I read on an Excel spreadsheet. I've never written things down before (except titles I'm searching for) and have recently purchased a couple of books I had already read and didn't realize it until I was on about chapter 3. I didn't have the books at home because I had already traded them. I was frustrated with myself for not remembering I had already purchased and read them. Besides I'm curious to see how many books I read in a week, month and year. It should be interesting.

Where I Have No Point at All

I've been keeping myself busy resting. Yes, you read that right. I've been busy resting!! I've been sleeping and reading and generally taking it easy. I assign myself a couple of chores each day, but other than that I've been living on easy street since my early retirement five weeks ago.

Well, two weeks were vacation, one week I had a sister visiting and a sister having surgery and then last week I went to help the sister who was visiting unpack...Sort of. That adventure is a story for another day. Anyway, I haven't been completely loafing, but mostly. It's been marvelous actually. Well, except for the unfreakingbelievable heat we are having. Holy Hannah it's hot!!

I've read quite a few books the past few weeks. I just finished Susan Donovan's A KEPT WOMAN. It was one of those occasions that I picked the right book at just the right time to read it. I'd read a couple of EC books before it and felt a little overloaded on the heavy breathing and heaving breasts. So this was a great change. While not as meaty as some romantic romps or as witty, still satisfying. Know what I mean? A satisfying read...bliss!!

I read on another reader blog recently that the reader didn't review every book she read. While she read many more books than she reviewed, there were only a few she picked out to review. She said her choice to comment/review was based on whether she had something she wanted to say about the book and not just whether or not she liked it.

Boy, she really nailed my feelings to the 'T'. I read many more books than I comment on. If something about the book speaks to me I usually give it a mention here. Short and sweet. I struggle sometimes expressing my thoughts sometimes about books. Don't come here for synopsis or in-depth analysis. I serve the diet plate reviews here. *wink*

Speaking of reader blogs, color me completely agog to realize that I had missed a Linda Howard book. Quite by accident while following a link on Karen's page (regarding Queen Bees of Romance's opinion on Jan Butler's letter in RWA) I found a Linda Howard interview from 2004 which she states she did a paperback book TO DIE FOR released in 2005 between hardcovers. The title didn't seem familiar. I did a quick review of bookshelves and guess what. I didn't have this book! No kidding, I couldn't believe I'd missed one of Ms. Howard's books. For better or worse I'm enough of a fan(addict) of Ms. Howard that I went out and purchased the book. Sheesh! I was stunned to think this got by me. What else am I missing? *gasp!*

Of course it is pretty hard to get too worked up about the continuing shenanigans in the romance world (Ms. Butler, et al) or a missed purchase when such horrible news is coming out of the Middle East. As a citizen of the world, I weep for us all. As a mother of sons I'm terrified. I'm praying for all those trapped in the conflict. I pray for families every where who either have family living in the Middle East or have a loved one serving in some capacity or another in that region. What a sad and sorrowful mess. God help us all.