Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
What are you reading?
Guests / August 29, 2005

well I haven’t posted my reads in a couple weeks, but they haven’t changed much since I’ve been so busy. LOL Two weeks ago I went home to PA for a week’s vacation and though I took several books with me, I barely got any reading in. In paper I’m reading Gabriel’s Ghost by Linnea Sinclair. I’ve been working on this for about 3 weeks. it’s a good book I’ve just been too busy for more then a chapter at a time. After I finish that one it will be one of MANY review books in paper to read, either Dark Desires by Eve Silver or Jackie Ivie’s book that comes out later this year since I’m interviewing her in December. In audio I’ve gotten a little more done. I finished Left Behind Book 5 while I was home and have Book 6 to start. I also “read” two Jude Deveraux abridged books – Temptation and High Tide. both were good though I think I liked Temptation better as it was an historical. I also relistened to Key of Valor by Nora Roberts before I took it back to the library. I’m currently listening to part one of The Fiery…

no more happily ever after = marriage?
Guests / August 24, 2005

Ah, the formula for a romance is gone. Did you know? Not get that memo? “Romance fiction has annual sales of $1.41-billion (U.S.) worldwide, according to Avon Books. Half of all paperbacks sold internationally are romance titles, and a third of all popular fiction sales are romance titles. There are 64.6 million readers of romance fiction in the United States; 22 per cent of them are men. “The endings of the stories have changed over time. “What was described as a happy ending 40 years ago may be quite different now,” says Marleah Stout, a senior public relations manager at Harlequin-Silhouette, which publishes 115 romance titles every month. “The woman might not necessarily end up with the man who has been there throughout the story. It could be a hopeful ending instead of a happy ending. There’s always hope.” So, that explains the new thought at Harlequin — NeXt with women in their forties being pregnant or regretting the lack of children (huh?), Bombshell with a quasi kick-ass protagonist, not afraid to sleep around to get the job done; Red Dress Ink with a “hopeful” conclusion (well, they always work in publishing and they NEVER get a man, but their…

What I’m reading…
Guests / August 17, 2005

So, I have been so busy lately that I haven’t been reading a lot, but I have started The Bitch In the House: 26 Women Tell the Truth about Sex, Solitude, Work, Motherhood, and Marriage, edited by Cathi Hanauer. It has been an entertaining book for the short stories, but more so for the looks I got with a pair of snarling lips on the cover with the word Bitch in capital letters. Needless to say, it made for quite an entertaining trip to St. Louis a few weekends ago. If I could figure out the image thing since Blogger changed it, I could share the cover with you. Once I finish Bitch, I am adding The Bastard on the Couch: 27 Men Try Really Hard to Explain Their Feelings about Love, Loss, Fatherhood, and Freedom edited by Daniel Jones to my TBR list. It is a guy’s response to Bitch, edited by Hanauer’s husband who is also a journalist and author. I guess these could be classified as chick lit, but they are along the same lines as the Chicken Soup for the Soul books, without the sappyness. Also coming up on the horizon is the next installment to…

Default Title
Guests / August 9, 2005

Just finished the ARC of GABRIEL’S GHOST (Bantam Spectra, October 2005) by Linnea Sinclair. It’s advertised as a fast-paced space adventure with elements of religion, technology, romance and adventure. And it was. You got your basic religious fanatic, a mixed bag of galactic species trying to overcome natural and taught prejudices to work together as a team, a rouge troop of adventurers out to effect a “good mission” plus some good romantic entanglements. Reminded me alot of FireFly which I finally got to watch as SciFi channel is showing the entire season as a ramp up for the Serenity movie release. I missed the original broadcast and for some reason, tom wasn’t interested in the DVD. He never was a Buffy fan, so I think that colored his perception. But I love Firefly and all its occupants and I’m especially entranced by the chemistry between Mal and Inara. But back to the “ghost.” I liked the book just as much as I enjoyed her previous book — Finders Keepers — another book previously epublished that’s been rewritten for the “paper” trade. The only problem, for me at least, is it’s a great universe Sinclair invented, but the books aren’t connected…

What I’ve been reading this week
Guests / August 8, 2005

Well in paper I finished Crimson City by Liz Maverick last night before bed. Next up in paper is an ARC of Gabriel’s Ghost by Linnea Sinclair. In electronic I started reading a WAY advance copy of Of Man and Monsters by Saje Williams. I’m about 6 or 7 chapters in to it so far and it’s been really good so far. I can’t even imagine what surprises Saje has coming yet. I guess after I finish that one I’ll start over again with the review book I was reading that I just couldn’t get in to so had to set aside for awhile. In audio I finished Key of Knowledge by Nora Roberts. I then started Fire Along the Sky by Sara Donati on CD. I’m on disc 9 or 10 of about 19 so far. But I know I’m missing a lot so I’ll have to relisten. This is how pathetic I am… I listened to the first three books in her series on tape, borrowed from the library. They didn’t have Book 4 in audio and when I asked if they could order it, they send they don’t take order requests for audio visual materials. Something about…

Ever Read the Award winners?
Guests / August 7, 2005

I guess this goes along with the movies too, but how does knowing a book took a prize affect your consideration of the book? I just posted the 2005 RWA RITA(tm) winners here and I found that only a few had been entered in the database at all — which means no one else requested them in the past year. Odd, don’t you think? And when I entered them, a good third are no longer in print (the category ones) with no plans to reissue them — even a small print run. So what’s the point? I don’t mean this in a mean way, but is it just a small pat on the head? I’m confused (and have been about this for years). If a movie is nominated for Golden Globes or Oscars or even Palm de Ore (spelled wrong I’m sure, but too busy to go and look it up at the moment), they release, perhaps in small theaters, but at least they do in the big cities, so viewers have the opportunity to go out and check it out. Sorry, cash in on the award so to speak. But the Ritas don’t make that happen at all. If…

a gripe about book covers
Guests / August 6, 2005

Yeah I know we all complain about them sometimes but I had to post about it since one if the books I just recently read that is sitting on the table in front of me, drove me nuts when I read the story. I don’t want to say what book as some of my comments on the cover may give away some spoilers about the story. Anyhow, in this book, a 30’s or so year old man is abducted mistakenly as the kidnappers wanted his brother. The kidnappers brought in the heroine, a psychiatrist that’s best in her field of deprogramming of minds, hypnotherapy and similar stuff. Well on the cover, they have this woman sort of leaning over the man, who is leaning back against the wall and she’s holding up a crystal dangling on a string. The implication being that she is hypnotizing him. Well that is ALL wrong. The man was drugged almost the whole time and in bed lying down, never once until they escape ever referenced as being in anything but pajamas and the cover has him in jeans and a t shirt. And not once in the book did the heroine ever try to…

I never posted last week’s reads. And here it’s almost time to post this week’s!
Guests / August 6, 2005

Well not quite as much reading over vacation as I had hoped, but I did get through several. In paper I finished Oceans of Fire by Christine Feehan while I was getting a pedicure though that was actually last Friday (the day I started vacation). I read The Charmed Sphere by Catherine Asaro (long book and probably a big reason I didn’t get as much reading in this week since that one took a while), the Charmed Destinies anthology by Rachel Lee, Mercedes Lackey, Catherine Asaro. I also read the prequel book to the Family Secrets series by Silhouette, Broken Silence. But it was an anthology of stories by Maggie Shayne, Eileen Wilks and Anne Marie Winston. I also read the first book of the Family Secrets series itself, Enemy Mind by Maggie Shayne. And I started the book Crimson City by Liz Maverick as well. Presently I’m about one third of the way through it. (Don’t worry Sara you got dibs after I finish. I also have Book 2 you can borrow after I finish it too.) After I finished The Charmed Sphere, I was able to knock off almost a book a day. In audio I finished Legends…

Reading update
Guests / August 3, 2005

Well, I’m still searching for what happened to my summer. If anyone finds it please let me know. While I’ve been searching I’ve also been reading. I haven’t read as many books as this same time last year, but I’m pushing hard to get close. I finished Conspiracy in Death by Robb. I didn’t care for this one as much as I have some of the previous ones. For some reason I had trouble getting my brain to engage, and realize that I did know what the words on the page meant, and even worse than that that I truly did know how to read. At some points it seemed like I was just staring at the page wondering what those marks on the page were. Once I got my brain to function properly(yes, some of you might argue that it’s still not doing so) I was able to read the book. I do firmly believe this brain glitch detracted from my fully enjoying Conspiracy in Death. From there I read First Kiss by Kylie Adams. This is is the second book in the Bridesmaid Chronicles, and one that did nothing for me personally. The heroine is self centered, and…

Catching the Big Wave — or keeping up with the Jones in reading THE HISTORIAN
Guests / August 2, 2005

Every year there is a book that is a “must read” either designated by the critics, the media or word of mouth. The book you either do read or must be seen having in your possession. Well, I succumbed and picked up THE HISTORIAN by Elizabeth Kostova. After all, the magazines, the buzz, the hype, it can’t be all bad, can it? Oh, my! Well, first it is HUGE and hardcover — thus means buying at Costco when I’ve got some spare change or can hide it along with the bottles of wine and salmon — sorry, Costco means wholesale shopping and they were out of fresh flowers so I compensated with the HEAVY book. And after finishing Harry Potter VI, another heavy book meant aching wrists! Sheesh, can’t they make it lighter? Or aren’t you supposed to lounge when reading? Anyway, I got this big book and it was about a series of historians — thus history, chasing after the theory of Dracula, or Drakula, or some other death defying guy from eastern Europe. By a narrator with NO NAME (shades of Rebecca), and flashbacks with journal entries and lots and lots of history. If you’re a fan of…