Dumber than a sack of hair...

Yep, that would be me. Have you ever wished someone a happy birthday and apologized for not mailing the card, but wished them happy and let them know how glad you are that they are them and that you have been thinking about them all day... yadda, yadda, yadda...

Well I did that very thing. Yesterday. June 9th. Of course it's JULY 9th that is SL Wendy's birthday, but she got effusive felicitations from moi yesterday.

Yesterday morning her birthday popped up on my PDA calendar. Or at least I thought it did. I was thinking about her all day. after my faux pas I checked my calendar again and sure enough it's listed on July 9th.

God knows how I did it what I did. But, I did it. In the interest of full disclosure I have to admit I even wrote myself a sticky note "Wendy B-day. Email!"

Of course, because Karma works this way, I will probably not remember her birthday at all next month. *heavy sigh* Fortunately, we will be flying out to RWA together, so I can always buy her a drink on the plane a few days later.

Mea culpa SL! You have a friend who's dumber than a sack of hair. And, in the (likely) event I screw up in the reverse next month...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

F R I E N D S

Look!

See?

This lovely thing came in the mail.

What am I doing with it when it doesn't release until August?

My favorite librarian, SL Wendy, sent it to me. Seems Dorchester was giving ARCs of WILD ROAD away at BEA. Knowing my love for MML Wendy snagged one for me. What a friend. A pal. A fellow lover of the written word.

How or why she found the time on Saturday to mail it to me, I'll never know, but I got it on Monday. You gotta love a friend like that.

I bow to you SL and thanks so much for the wonderful surprise and the quick delivery.

Gargoyles people! Gargoyles!!!

This was too exciting not to post. May list will be up tomorrow.

Where am I?

Scroll down.

Can you guess where I am and what I'm doing today?

FIRST...


THEN...


FOLLOWED BY...


HERE ...


AND THEN...


SO? DID YOU GUESS?

My October Reading List and What the Cat Dragged In

Ummmm...yeah, we don't have a cat. Shmoo is allergic and GG doesn't like 'em so that title is just a tease and I'm a dork.

Later than usual I know, but here's my October reading list.

An Enchanted Season - An anthology with Maggie Shayne, Nalini Singh, Erin McCarthy, and Jean Johnson
Decadent - Shayla Black
Caine’s Reckoning - Sarah McCarty
Secrets Volume 9 Anthology - Kimberly Dean, Kathryn Dubois, Bonnie Hamre, and Lisa Marie Rice
Trouble - Sasha White
Return to Me - Julia Templeton
Evermore - Lynn Viehl
Dark Hunter - Christine Feehan (Manga Version)
Mine Til Midnight - Lisa Kleypas
Beauty and the Black Sheep - Jessica Bird
His Comfort and Joy - Jessica Bird
All About Men - Shannon McKenna Anthology
Forbidden - Suzanne Brockmann
Demon’s Captive - Stephanie Snow
Demons on Horseback:Nate - Beth Williamson
Bring It - Louisa Trent
Lord of the Fading Lands - CL Wilson
Ice Storm - Anne Stuart
Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night - Kresley Cole

Nineteen books read. Three of the books are e-books. For the first time in over a year I had several new-to-me authors. The new ones were Wilson, Williamson, Snow, Templeton, White and Black. I got one ARC and won a couple of other books. Overall October was a pretty darn good month. Favorite read of the month would have to be EVERMORE by Lynn Viehl. I can't wait for it to come out so we can all talk about it.

Now for the stuff the cat dragged in...I suppose since I'm writing this I'M the cat. Hmmm....food for thought that.

Work is crazy busy. Home is crazy busy. New tires yesterday on one car...new brakes today on another. Thank God we don't have car payments. Cars have been a real trial in 2007. Speaking of which, there is some good news relating to cars. We think we've finally gotten the settlement finalized with the insurance company handling Shmoo's car accident which was over 8 months ago. It's going to be a relief to not have to deal with it every month. Halleluia!

On the TV front: Finally! We had a half way decent HEROES episode last night. Praise be. Hopefully we will get a couple more good eppys in before they go on holiday hiatus.

Reading update: I just finished Suzanne Brockmann's ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT and am looking forward to starting A GENTLE RAIN by Deborah Smith. It came in the mail while we were out of town. I also picked up a couple of Jillian Hart westerns at the UBS after reading this review by SL Wendy a couple of weeks ago.

My sister emailed me her pictures from our trip to Las Vegas. The picture of the birthday people and the nieces and nephews have been replaced. Hers were much better. I'm leaving you with this photo. For some reason our family likes to take photos where we are either making weird faces, tickling one another, or in this case pinching each others arses. Check it out.

(click to see larger)

Tea in the OC

New and Recycled Romances in Costa Mesa is one of my favorite used books stores ever. While it sells all manner of books it is very romance reader friendly. When my brother worked down in Newport Beach we worked together on a series of short stories for over a year. We had delusions of getting published but the project ended up being a labor of love more than anything else. Someday I'll talk about that and maybe even link to one of the stories.

Anyway, I never visit any place for very long without looking for a good used book store. You just never know what treasures you are going to find. I've had a list of books I'm looking for in my purse for the past 20 years. Unreal.

So I guess it's been about 18 years since I first walked into Toni's store. A friend gave her 700 books to start the store and Toni was off to the races. For many years I'd stop in about once a month or so when I was in the area. In the 90's Toni started having her author teas. So much fun. But then GG had pacemaker surgery, Mom got sick, my brother got sick and my trips to the used book store in Costa Mesa just disappeared.

I was delighted to get my invite to a tea commemorating her 20 years of business. I realized that she's been in business the length of Beanie's life. Wow! I immediately emailed Wendy and asked her if she'd like to meet at the tea. As it happens, in conversation when we first met and were discussing UBS that rock Toni's store came up in conversation for both of us. Freaky fun coincidence, isn't it? Anyway, I was glad when Wendy was up for going too.

The authors present were Meryl Sawyer, Mary Castillo, Brenda Novak, Cheryl Holt, Sylvia Day, Sarah McKerrigan, and Lauren Royal.

Besides Meryl Sawyer and Cheryl Holt I have to admit I haven't read these particular author's books. Meryl Sawyer's MIDNIGHT IN MARRAKESH is on my keeper shelf. I haven't read any of her suspense recently, but I have lots of fond memories of MIM.
If you've read this blog for any length of time you know I've read Cheryl Holt. She's a guilty pleasure (yes, I have lots of those) but I have a sort of love/hate relationship with her books. Some of them I love and some of them I...well you get the drift. There just doesn't seem to be an in-between for me. Cheryl has a new book coming out in September that, knowing myself as I do, will be buying.

I bought Sylvia Day's book PLEASURES OF THE NIGHT to read in anticipation of the tea, but alas I didn't get it read before going. Bummer. BUT, I did buy another copy while I was there and I will be giving away a signed copy of the book. Due to Ms. Day's sweetness and generosity the book giveaway includes a shiny RED Sylvia Day book bag and poster.

Look. See? Yeah, it's kind of blurry, but you get the idea, right?




Here's the lovely Ms. Day...



What do you have to do to win? Nothing. I'll just put everyone who comments on my blog this week into a hat and have one of the child units draw a name on Saturday August 18th and I'll post the winner on Sunday. The more you post the more chances you have to win. Yes, even you dear ones in Canada may enter. What's the cost of postage among blogging buddies?

Here's a few more photos. Our dear Super Librarian has a friend who loves all things Fabio. So we snagged this pillow off of one of Toni's chairs and took a picture for Wendy to send on. That Fabio...he's everywhere, isn't he?


I think everyone had an enjoyable time. Toni and her staff are so enthusiastic and fun and it's contagious. Everyone seemed pretty happy with the results.

More photos.



L to R: Meryl Sawyer, Mary Castillo, Brenda Novak's absolutely gorgeous daughter, Brenda Novak and Cheryl Holt





A look at the ladies under the tent. To the left that gentleman is Toni's husband Don who took photos and helped with the goody give away.




The lovely lady in the hat is Toni. She's standing between Cheryl Holt (L) and Lauren Royal who's blocked *sigh* by the tent poles.

Of course Wendy and I talked our heads off and were giving recs...but only to people who asked us. :) Yes I left with a bag of books. This post has gotten so long I'll post about the lastest stash and show you my newly organized TBR loaded into five rubbermaid tubs.

Nosy Nora and the Blog Roll

Every time I've been away for more than a day or two from my blog I go through a laborious process of actually going to each site on my blog roll and catching up on any posts I might have missed in my absence. When I'm home and keeping up with things I just click my Kinja and I can see the most recent posts and just go to those. That, however, is a fruitless endeavor when I've been away because virtually every one of my favorites has posted (usually) something in my absence.

I only call it laborious because I simply must visit each and every web page on my Favorites. I refuse to miss or skip any blog that's on my list. I'm just too...let's call it curious? Yeah, that's it, I'm "curious" to see what everyone's been doing, reviewing and reading. I'm not being nosy...huh uh, not me. My brother has a name for this affliction. He calls it "FOMO" (pronounced with long 'o'). Fear of missing out. I got me a bad case of FOMO.

Anyway, when I've been away for several days it takes several more days to catch up with everything and everyone. Don't think for a moment that all the sites I visit are linked on my blog. Oh my goodness no...I have others, several others that I like to visit that I just haven't taken the time to add to my page. And I can't just read the most current post, not me. I have to go read all the posts I've missed. It's sad really. Haven't you noticed you sometimes get several comments in a row from me on a single day within minutes of each other? Well, that my friends is a catch up day.

Which brings me to my current conundrum. You see, while I AM a list maker I have been known to procrastinate a time or two or three. Right now I'm thinking of putting Kinja behind me and going with Google Reader. The only thing stopping me is my own laziness and fear. I'm comfortable with my own little routine and dragging my feet about changing. Both Wendy and Nikki have done posts recently talking about how great Google Reader is and time saving. You'd think the whole time saving thing would be incentive enough. But I got rocks in my pockets, I tell you and just can't make the leap for fear of drowning.

I've also pretty much had it with Blogger. Although, and I hope I'm not jinxing myself here, just lately everything has been operating pretty nifty keen. But I'm thinking about Word Press or Live Journal. What do you think?

What about your blog roll? Do you keep up or binge? Do you have a routine? Do you play catch up when you've been gone for a while? Will I ever get with it and move my blog roll to Google Reader? How hard is it to move to Word Press? ::knock:: ::knock:: Anybody out there?

Books, UBS, & Other Stuff

Books. The reason I decided to start this blog in the first place. Books. Although you wouldn't know it as I get so caught up in my own life and meanderings sometimes.

Anyway, as many of you know, I recently found a new UBS thanks to Wendy. Halleluia, virgin book territory to explore! I found some great books there, and then a couple of days ago on the way to an appointment I found that the "other" UBS in my area has new management and decided to check it out. It's still a little dark and dank, but the organization of books has improved and she has a huge back inventory of older historicals. Particularly Harlequin Historicals. Since I've been on a western binge lately that was absolutely sterling news. ::batting lashes:: Long story short, between two trips to the UBS and new purchases I've gotten quite a haul of books lately. For instance...

FROM WENDY'S UBS
Cheryl St. John
JOE'S WIFE (which I've already read and really liked)
SAINT OR SINNER

Cheryl Reavis
THE BRIDE FAIR
THE FORBIDDEN BRIDE (Already read this one too)

Candice Proctor (SCORE!)
WHISPERS OF HEAVEN (Kristie isn't this your fave Proctor? Or was it Cindy?)
BEYOND SUNRISE

Terri Brisbin (Tara Marie review interested me in these)
THE EARL'S SECRET
THE NORMAN'S BRIDE
THE COUNTESS BRIDE

Mary Burton
THE UNEXPECTED WIFE (Read on the beach in Georgia)

Jenna Kernan
WINTER WOMAN

Ruth Wind
IN THE MIDNIGHT RAIN


FROM MY NEW UBS
Cheryl St. John (damn you Wendy...I'm hooked on her books!)
DOCTOR'S WIFE (Hooray! Finally, I've been looking for awhile now)
THE GUNSLINGER'S BRIDE (Montana Mavericks)

Cheryl Reavis
HARRIGAN'S BRIDE (Already read this one. Civil War story. Pretty good.)

Mary Burton
THE PERFECT WIFE

S.L. Viehl
STAR DOC

Barbara Samuel
LUCIEN'S FALL

Linnea Sinclair
GABRIEL'S GHOST

Candace Camp
SO WILD A HEART

Linda Castillo
DEAD RECKONING


NEW BOOKS PURCHASED
Lara Adrian
KISS OF MIDNIGHT
KISS OF CRIMSON
I've read both of these already while on vacation in Georgia. They were good. I agree with comments I've seen else where that there is a similarity to J.R. Wards' series, but no name dropping and no M/M innuendo. I liked 'em.

Meljean Brook
DEMON MOONThis is an amazing book. MB writes so smart! You can go to this post on her blog for a list of places that have already done reviews. I was going to review this book, but Janet at Dear Author put my thoughts to words more eloquently than I ever could. If you only have a minute, read the first paragraph of her review, she sums up the reading experience of DEMON MOON perfectly.

Cheryl St. John
PREACHER'S DAUGHTER

Eloisa James
DESPERATE DUCHESSES

Jacquelyn Frank
GIDEON

Linnea Sinclair
GAMES OF COMMAND

Kelley Armstrong
BITTEN

Reading this over it is obvious I have a serious addiction. I soothe myself by remembering how fast I read. I have to keep myself supplied with a wide variety of things to read don't I? Who needs food when you have books?

Okay so this is a long ass post, but it clears stuff off my to-do list and here at NOBODY ASKED ME...we're all about crossing off the to-do list. Speaking of lists, one last thing -- isn't Romantic Advances the coolest? Sure helps with ye olde book shopping list doesn't it? If you haven't been by, go check it out.

If you were wondering that is 29 books in all. I've already read 7 of them.
Adrian 2
Brisbin 3
Burton 2
Proctor 2
Reavis 3
Sinclair 2
St John 5
Wind/Samuels 2
Armstrong, Brook, Camp, Castillo, James, Frank, Kernan, and Viehl with 1 each

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

Does a mild mannered librarian and romance junkie by day who is a kickass super hero by by night wear a cape? Inquiring minds want to know.

The totally cool Super Librarian Wendy took pity on my sad tale of having no decent UBS any more and told me about a great store in our area. We were able to meet today and not only did I score some awesome books (Cheryl St. John and Terri Brisbin!) we were able to have lunch together. It was great to meet Wendy and be able to talk, in person, about books and book stores and the blogs we have in common.

Now I'm hoping we can all convince her to go to Dallas so we can get the scoop from four different POVs and voices. While they each love romance Sybil, Jane, Kristie and Wendy all have their own inimitable voices. Frankly, I can't wait to hear, see and read their tales.

Thanks Wendy, it was fun AND I found a good UBS once again. As for the cape...I'll never tell.

Thinking Blogger

Wendy, bless her, tagged me with the thinking blogger award. I'm honored especially since many days I proof read my posts to find incomplete sentences and words with the last letter missing. Oh, I'm thinking alright, just not about what I'm doing. Always with the multi-tasking am I. You think I'd get a clue.

Anyway this is all part of an experiment. At least I think that's what it is. Go read this original post and you can decide exactly what's going on. My job is to pass on the rules to the blogs I am tagging.


The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,

3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote. (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).


Here are my five:

1. Web Petals - Author Marjorie Liu's blog. Lots of info about writing and pictures of her dogs too!


2. Post Secret

3. Diary of an adult runaway - Gabrielle Luthy's blog. An Aussie writing in Paris.


4. Samantha Winston - Sam is the busiest and most interesting woman whose life I spy on through her blog.

5. The Sandbox - This is a blog started by Garry Trudeau of Doonesbury fame. I've mentioned it before. It's a place where the military and their families can post. I don't read it daily any more because it can be depressing. But it's about real people and makes the war(s) real.

I haven't a clue if any of the sites I've named will respond because, damn those nuns, I'm trying to comply with the original post about blogs that make me think, so there you have it. Which by the way, if Wendy hadn't already been nominated, she'd be on my list. So would KarenS and Dear Author, already tapped of course. Love, love, love all around out here in Romancelandia.

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.

My Haul from the Bookstore

Ames posted a great review of DARK FEVER by Karen Marie Moning. While I'm a KMM fan I wasn't sure whether I wanted to buy this book in hardcover since it has the fae in it. For some reason the fantasy, fairy, elf world just doesn't appeal to me. But what with Ames' review and the excitement of Halloween and all the cute little kiddies dressed up I lost my mind and bought the book. Yeah it was actually part of my November book allowance and I put quite a dent in it last night with my purchases.

Here's the list:

DARK FEVER by Karen Marie Moning

PASSIONATE THIRST by Cameron Dean (new to me but somebody recommended her and I'm giving it a try)

KNIGHT OF DARKNESS by Kinley MacGregor (aka Sherrilyn Kenyon) This is a Lords of Avalon book. I have the other one in my TBR. But I didn't want to chance not having this if the first one is good.

THE RULES OF SEDUCTION by Madeline Hunter

CONSPIRACY GAME by Christine Feehan

VALLEY OF SILENCE by Nora Roberts (Book 3 in Circle Trilogy). I now have all 3 books and have yet to crack one. But now that I have them all, maybe it's time to give them a go.

I went to the store to get Kresley Cole's book NO REST FOR THE WICKED, but no such luck. I have to work again today, but I'll go looking for it again on Friday.

I just finished MAIL ORDER BRIDE by Maureen McKade. I'm so glad I found this author thanks to Wendy (Super Librarian). Ms. McKade has been a real find for me. This wasn't your typical mail order bride book seeing as how the groom was dead in a mining accident upon the bride's arrival. It was a good read.

Now I'm anxious to read Feehan's book as I've been enjoying her paranormal series and of course I'll probably read KMM's book right away too. I'll be too curious to leave it and it IS a hardcover after all.

So, what's everyone else reading?

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.