seeing the light + a new baby!

Well, I finished the first episode of North and South last night, and all I can say is...wait! I have nothing to say!   

I need a lot more caffeine to think of an appropriate expression of my intense enjoyment of this series.  I have not yet seen the "fist of doom" (pictured left) as Carrie Lofty calls it, but I am starting to understand: Thornton is a man torn between two worlds. Or maybe not. It's still early in the series--maybe there is something else that makes him look like that. 

And I love all the characters...I also even sort of love how Thornton's mother talks.  I will post about it, but I'll probably watch pretty slowly due to time constraints, and also, I don't want to squander these precious moments of discovery by watching all in one go.   

Okay, also, look at our new kitty!  We have been kitty-less since Petunia died, which some of you may remember. 

It is so great to have her. She is a big fan of the bird feeder - here you see her in a rare moment of distraction from it. She is also fiercely interested in strings being dragged across the floor.  

She doesn't have a name yet. Eventually, her name will just become apparent. We actually may be getting a little brother for her soon, too. Isn't she cute?   

Guess who is joining the crusade!

Thanks to my man's current schedule, I now have total and complete control of Netflix.

Guess what I have ordered.

Now, finally maybe I will understand what everybody 

has been talking about all this time!

The many pleasures of My Lord and Spymaster

Joanna Bourne wrote one of my top two favorite novels this year: The Spymaster’s Lady. So it was enormously exciting to get an ARC of My Lord and Spymaster from a certain ravishing redhead. Thank you Katie(babs)!

Dipping into this, I felt like I was laying into something rich and exquisite, and I wanted to gobble it up, but also take my time and enjoy it. I’d say, in a nutshell, that I loved this almost as much as I loved The Spymaster’s Lady.

A bit from the back:

Raised as a poor but cunning pickpocket, Jess Whitby may have grown into a wealthy young woman, but now she must once again rely on her guile. Her father’s been wrongly accused of selling secrets to Napoleon, and he’s going to hang—unless Jess finds the real traitor…

Jess focuses on one Captain Sebastian Kennett. He’s the target of her investigation, she’s the target of his infatuation. Is he the French spy, Cinq? It’s an excellent ‘In the arms of the maybe-enemy' tale. The conflict here is the hero and heroine’s reluctance to fully trust each other without proof vs. their attraction to one another.

And then of course there is Cinq. We get one chilling glimpse into his head, and he’s nasty! And we know he’s in the thick of things…possibly their social circle, business circle, neighborhood…but who is he? Will they unmask him in time?

As is my way, this will not be a proper review. However, my esteemed colleagues Katie(babs) at Ramblings on Romance and Ana at Booksmugglers have done excellent ones. And for a thoughtful dissenting opinion, see Jennie’s from Dear Author.

Onto the many pleasures
Pleasure #1: Jess Whitby: another kickass Bourne heroine. I want to second (third?) the excellent points that Katie(babs) at Ramblings on Romance and Ana at Booksmugglers made about this being a heroine’s book rather than a hero’s book. Jess is colorful, brave and delightful, and I enjoyed her shady history, and the way it resonates with Sebastian’s past. I know people complain about the power imbalance here between Jess and the men. I do indeed see why that charge is leveled, but it doesn’t bother me for a number of reasons having to do with the reality of the times and frankly, Bourne makes it sexy in places.

Somewhere in an interview on TSL…oh, let me find it—here at Romancebandits, Joanna Bourne discussed different kinds of power, and how Grey had brute power, but it’s not “ultimately useful—none of it will get him what he desperately needs.” That’s also the case here, in my mind. While Sebastian and Adrian help her get out of scrapes and so forth, Jess is using her street contacts combined with her bookkeeping and recordkeeping savvy to crack a case all these spies just couldn’t crack.

Random fun facts: On her blog, Bourne says she pictures Jess as looking like Robin Wright (pictured). And FYI, Annique from TSL looks like Natassja Kinski. Also, her goal as a writer is a sane 1000 words a day. No wonder her quality is so high.

Pleasure #2: Being in the head of a Bourne character—so satisfying! It always feels so intimate, like when you go to somebody’s home and find yourself surrounded by their favorite furniture and little treasures and signs of everyday life, and you get them on a visceral level.

I sometimes muse about what it is about the way she writes that creates this intimacy—I think it’s a mixture of the music of the language, the closeness of the thought process, the personality that shines through in the specific things her different characters dwell on—and the specific things that don’t occur to them. Just so satisfying to me as a reader. I especially relished this effect in the first few chapters.

Pleasure #3: Kedger the ferret! I have to say, I get very nervous about pets in books—I always worry some harm will come to them. Luckily, Kedger is just as streetsmart as Jess, with an equally shady past, being that he was her accomplice back in the day. And little Kedger helps out at the thrilling conclusion—in a totally believable way. On her blog, Joanna Bourne reveals that she’s into ferrets—before they were cool. I enjoyed learning all what a ferret can do. (She also has some nice writing tips on there.)

Pleasure #4: Adrian Hawke. Ah, Adrian, the young, brilliant and talented spy trying to do the right thing, but caught in the bureaucracy. Smidge of a dark side. Adrian is just such a pleasure to read about. A number of reviewers talk about Grey from TSL and Sebastian from this book as being unexciting and even two-dimensional. I had a bit of this sense, though not as strongly as others. But Adrian just sings on the page. I can’t wait for his book.

Pleasure #5: Lazarus. Lazarus is this crazy underworld crime boss with a labyrinthine organization of renegade children and hardened criminals. He reminded me a bit of Brando in Apocalypse Now, except he’s not insane. The thing that got me most was when one Lazarus dies, another guy takes his place. Is there a historical basis for this character?

Anyway, as a youth, Jess was The Hand, Lazarus’ ultimate inner circle helper. Jess goes to Lazarus for help at one point, quite a perilous thing to do, because with Lazarus, you’re not supposed to be able to leave.

Pleasure #6: The shipping backdrop. Both Jess and Sebastian are immersed in the business of shipping, and I enjoyed learning about it. The details were interesting in and of themselves, and deeply intrinsic to the novel. There were times where their opinions on the various import-export issues sort of characterized them.

This book will be released on July 1.

Ciara's Jacqueline Carey scoop!

Ciara of Ciaralira has a very engaging and lively report on Carey's appearance at a Seattle bookstore, plus a recounted Q & A session, and news on Carey's upcoming projects!

In the meantime, I found a USED copy of Lover Enshrined. 

I wasn't sure if I was going to buy it, but the Scribe Virgin must have wanted me to read it, because it magically appeared at my UBS.  In perfect condition! Now we will see about this Rhev!

Because all the cool kids are doing it!

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

THREE cool things in blogland

Item #1: Loretta Chase Long Weekend

This is super exciting, and it starts Thursday, which is in just under two hours at The Book Smugglers.

THURSDAY - A review of Loretta Chase’s new book, Your Scandalous Ways. To wit:

James Cordier is all blue blood and entirely dangerous. He's a master of disguise, a brilliant thief, a first-class lover—all for King and Country—and, by gad, he's so weary of it.

Oh, dearest James, I highly doubt we will become weary of reading about you. Or of the Loretta Chase long weekend!

FRIDAY- collaborative post with mini-reviews from other reviewers and bloggers of their favorite Loretta Chase books. Yours truly appearing, assuming the thing I sent passes for a review.

SATURDAY - Interview with Loretta Chase herself, and Thea and Ana will have THREE copies of Your Scandalous Ways (blue blood and entirely dangerous. He's a master of disguise, a brilliant thief, a first-class lover. Hello.) to give away.


Item #2: More DIK madness.

How do I even explain DIK? (a.k.a. Desert Island Keepers.) It started with a handful of bloggers IM-ing about which books they'd bring to a desert island, and tussling about who would get to bring what, and then it expanded to others jumping ship and swimming ashore with their books.

It then devolved into the which-heroes-do-you-get-to-bring smackdown, a draft style insan-o-rama that went on for seven days and probably 2000 comments across numerous sites. And wow, thanks to the diligent and inspired work of Sarai and Tracy, it's a blog. Like our own island where 25 bloggers group host authors and entertain whoever wants to drop by. Whew! Things are happening at Desert Island Keepers.

Item #3: A major contest at Book Binge.

It's the Summer Fun contest at Book Binge! I love this contest. You can win one of a selection of cool bags, filled with books. There is a bag here for everybody, and it appears you can pick your books, too.

This a big prize. You have to follow a few rules, it's like a little scavenger hunt, but it appears to me that nobody has yet entered, so the odds are great, and you have until the 30th.

I'm so entering. Here is the bag I would fill with books. Okay, wait, I narrowed it down to 2.

One funny side note about this contest: Observe, when you go there, the mysterious 4-H clover logo they developed for the contest. The Book Binge girls, I believe, are from California, so perhaps they don't know 4-H. I, however, was in 4-H. I hung out in the farm area of the state fair. Cornfields bordered my school playground! A total wacky blast from the past to see that there.

But wait, hold on, OMG, now I can't even remember what the four H's stand for! Head, hands, heart...and health? Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Late breaking note: When I woke up this morning I decided the last H could be for HEROES.

Help! Superheroes have taken over our living room!

Look at our living room! This is actually only portions of it.

After years of hauling around 14 boxes of comics, my handsome husband is now categorizing and selling his silver age comics, which he acquired as a boy collector and budding comic book artist. He can still draw a superhero amazingly.












Our living room has actually been like this for a month, or actually more, because I can remember us sitting by the fire and reading some of these. (But scootched really far away from the fire!) And I do believe it is now June.

It’s okay - I sort of like it, because the comics are so fun to look at. And often, I’ll walk in and find him reading them. For superheroes, my man is most partial to Hulk, and he has many of them, including the mysteriously valuable Hulk 181. He also seems to like Silver Surfer.

But above all he worships Jack Kirby, and he can tell Kirby art at a glance; he could even look at a superhero’s hands and tell you if it’s Kirby’s art.

He is a special conneissuer of Jack Kirby’s period of creative freedom when he went over to DC from Marvel and had full art and story control. The New Gods at right is an example of this. This is a photo - I don’t dare take it out of its plastic to scan it!

Did you notice the sad plants in the background above? I am totally paranoid to bring a watering jug in there, for obvious reasons.

Every once in a while he will come across a comic book with a ripped up cover - he and his young friend, also a budding pre-teen comic book artist, would apparently become so disgusted with certain non-Kirby artists that they would be driven to destroy the offending covers.

Others got the treatment you see below, where the young critics simply altered the work.

Note, if you will, the werewolf’s new and improved face, done by Mark many years ago.

I sort of got a kick out of this one, because one, it’s like a little window into his boyhood world. And two, look at the books we’re reading today. Werewolves are STILL fighting vampires. Have they learned nothing?

Question of the day

Okay, I am buried in work until Friday, but not too buried to seek the answer to a burning question I now have . . . about a certain act I read about last night in No Rest for the Wicked by Kresley Cole. Gosh, I am really enjoying this series! And I also seem to be in the slim minority of people who love the titles.

 Anyway, maybe I am naive, but dearest readers of this book, do you remember when Kaderin chains Sebastian to the bed with those magic chains and then the specific thing she does while he is chained up to keep things from ending . . .  I am not going to describe that whole manhandling procedure of hers—surely you remember! 

My question is this:  Can people really do that?  Would it not hurt and/or upset a fella? Does anybody have personal experience with this? 

And if you haven't read this book, well, maybe you'll be reading it now, huh? 

Winner of the gets-stuck-in-your-head song contest!

Rachael from New Jersey!

Rachael chose the ever-evil "Who Let the Dogs Out" as the ultimate gets-stuck in your head song, chosen by a whopping 12 people in my scientific poll at left.  Rachael, you get the $25 gift certificate to a bookstore of your choice (that's not Amazon!) 

Runners up: MC Hammer, You Can't Touch This and Wham! Wake Me Up Before You Go Go, which is currently stuck in my head from typing it. 

Thanks to everyone who nominated and voted. This was a lot of fun, and it helped me with my little project I needed these ideas for. 

Where are those Sookie posts?

Where is my continuing series on secrets of the Sookie covers? What are my comments about her outfits going to be?  

Sigh. Those posts are coming! But I have gotten way too busy with day job and novel to perform the scholarly analysis these discussions require. 

Anyway, in preparation for my mom and my sisters' birthdays this weekend, I splurged on some very fabulous gifts for them. Then, walking home I passed a yard sale and got a little something for myself - this fabulous purse! For ONE dollar. Isn't it cute? 

Maybe it is totally out of fashion, and that's why the girl there was selling it at her yard sale, but I love it. It's actually more petite than it looks in the photo.

And look at the little buckles. I like things that are brown, and that are hooked and buckled. This is a very Carolyn item. I would've liked this purse even when I was 9. 

Would you like a can of Pringles?

Personally, I have a highly passionate relationship with Pringles - they call to me, but I hate them because they are delicious yet so nasty and terrible for me! I could easily consume an entire can, given the opportunity.  And then hate myself. And then come back for more!  

They are the bounder and rake of snack foods! 

Anyway, I didn't know what to think of this news item at first, but now I think it is super cool that he did this!  RIP. 

The designer of the Pringles crisp tube has died - and had his remains buried in one of the containers.   Read full story

My mom's birthday - 70 is the new 40!

Well, I just made plans to take the train to Milwaukee next weekend (the 6th) to celebrate my Mom's 70th birthday. It's my two younger sisters' birthdays next week, too, so it's sort of a joint celebration.

So what does my mom want to do? Go out to see the Sex in the City movie, because she's the hugest fan of that show ever (the HBO version, of course) and then go out for martinis after.

And it's likely the next morning that she'll try and get me to go to the club so she can beat me in racquetball. Well, maybe not beat me.

My mom's sexy and smart. She's also writing an exercise book, sort of inspirational for elderly people. It has such a fabulous catchy title, I'm not even going to say what it is.

And isn't this a fabulous photo of her? It's her at the fruit stand she worked at in Cleveland during college.

Cracking the code of the Sookie covers

Part 1: Covers 1-3

It's Sookie Stackhouse week here at the THRILLIONTH PAGE as we wait for our friend lisabea to stop drooling over the photos on her own blog long enough finish reading #8, From Dead to Worse so our joint review can finally happen.

While we're waiting, I'd like to take a moment to talk about the mysterious code of the covers in this fabulous series.

Much has been said about the relationship of the cover art to the romance plots. Non-Bill fans are known to fret over the appearance of Bill on the covers. Eric fans rejoiced when #4, Dead to the World, came out.

Many people assume - I myself did at one time - that the covers are a kind of preview for the plot of the book. However, I now suspect that these covers illustrate something more essential and abstract about Sookie's journey and her relationship with men.

Speculation about the significance of the covers started, obviously with book #1, Dead until Dark. Because clearly, Sookie and Bill are together on the cover, as they are in the plot. Sookie floats with Bill. Bill even seems to comfort or protect her, or at least warm her, because it is his cape that is around them both. In the story, however they both protected each other and in fact it was Sookie who first saved Bill's life, though he later saved hers. So why is it Bill warming and protecting Sookie? Does the cover say simply, Sookie is with Bill here, or does it suggest that Bill has an overblown sense of agency, of being the one in control? Or does it say something more sinister? Because why is he looking at her like that?

Living Dead in Dallas #2 This is one of the better Sookie books. Here, Sookie is with Bill, but he is trapped in a casket. One could see it as a fanciful rendering of the plane ride to Dallas (Bill has to ride in his coffin), but I think the meaning goes much deeper than that.

This is where Bill lost some of his standing with Sookie, and certainly this reader. Bill is present, but he is trapped in his vampireness. For example, Bill's riding in a coffin sort of emasculated him, and it certainly robbed him of the ability to protect Sookie from a minor incident at the airport. This would never happen with Eric. Eric's vampireness never seems to slow him down or diminish his power.

Club Dead, #3 - This is one of my favorites, because it's the major Alcide book, and Eric is great in it, too. Why, then, is Bill featured on the cover? An excellent question!

Please, allow me to draw your attention to the drawing of Sookie herself. Look how well she's drawn, and how hot she looks compared to her image on the other two books (and certainly later books!) where she just looks somewhat plain and even childish. The hot Sookie dances with Bill, wreathed in stars, which typically says 'dream imagery.'

To me, this cover is the first that truly bypasses the plot of the book and goes to the abstract heart. I look at this cover and it says to me, Bill waltzing lovely Sookie, showing her a good time for once...that is a dream. Because the reality is that Sookie is down there in that bar having a good time with Alcide. Maybe Sookie is at her best and most mature and beautiful when she is not with Bill. Alcide is pictured as a wolf, down below, howling. With his keen wolf instincts, he knows what he sees in the sky is not right, and it can never be real.

What do you think? Further observations welcome!

Next Sookie post: Covers 4-8

After that: Observations on Sookie's wardrobe

Hey, more contests!

In addition to my fabulous contest BELOW, check out Book Binge for a chance to win Night Keepers by Jessica Andersen. Go forth, enter, post about it yourself. And over at the lovely and talented Marta Acosta's Vampire Wire, you can win one of three copies of The Host. If you leave a haiku about it, that counts as TWO entries!

The ultimate evil gets-stuck-in-your-head song CONTEST

I’m looking for the name and artist name of a certain song.

It’s a special song that has the nightmarish power to become stuck in your head, sometimes for days, driving you crazy! It’s that song where, when the first notes come on the radio, you have been known to knock over people and furniture in your quest to change the station ASAP, or destroy the radio trying.

This song has caused you to leave bars and restaurants, furiously humming a competing song. OMG, you hate this song. What is it?

Win a $25 gift certificate!
A certain project, I won’t bore you with the complicated details, requires me to come up with a song that is one of the worst offenders in this way. For me, it’s the Pina Colada song (Do you like Pina Coladas...), as well as one by the Violent Femmes and one by Semisonic, neither of which I will name because even their titles can start up an infinite lyric loop in my head. However, all three of those are a bit obscure. I’m looking for something that is more well known, more universally hated for how it gets into ones head. And it’s worth a $25 gift certificate to the bookseller of your choice that's not Amazon.

Here’s how the contest goes: name your song in the comments. Go ahead and name multiple hated and feared songs. You have until 6 pm CDT Thursday May 29. At that time, I’ll pick the top worst offenders and create a poll and people can vote. The person who first suggested the ultimate gets-stuck-in-your-head song gets the prize!

So, my bloggy friends, what is your most hated, gets-stuck-in-your-head song ever?

The men of Sookie Stackhouse: the case for Alcide Herveaux!

I read all the Sookie Stackhouse a.k.a. Southern Vampire Novels before I started this blog, so I don’t talk about them, but they hold a major place in my pantheon of fun and exciting books to read. And now the new one, From Dead to Worse, has come out! I’m not going to talk about that yet, except to say all the men of Sookie make a significant appearance: Alcide Herveaux, Tiger fella, Eric Northman and Vampire Bill Compton.

It is a little like Bachelorette in this way. I mean that as a compliment. Also, like Bachelorette, this series brings out the total girl in me. (While I don’t have time these days to watch Bachelorette, I’m glad to see that this time around it’s a woman choosing from men instead of one man choosing from a group of women. I always enjoy those so much better. In fact, I most enjoy the parts where it’s just the guys in the house, relating to each other. It’s sort of like an anthropological study.)

Anyway, I find myself fascinated by Sookie’s clothes, and her men. In fact, I angstfully yearn for her to be with one of them. Any one of them! I just have this drive to see Sookie paired up. Unlike other people, I would settle for Sookie to get back with Bill, and even Tiger guy. Of course, I would most prefer Eric for her. But I have been thinking lately about werewolf Alcide Herveaux, and wondering if he could be the one.

I have always really liked Alcide for Sookie; he makes a spectacular first appearance in Club Dead. Or actually, it’s not spectacular. It’s very toned down and gruff and direct, like Alcide. He’s a guy’s guy. He’s in surveying and construction. And she has a bit of a thing for him. In the first scene he’s in, he comes by because he’s being forced to chaperone her on this mission, and she makes him breakfast:

This was the way life was supposed to be, for normal people. It was morning, time to get up and work, time for a woman to cook breakfast for a a man, if he had to go out and earn. This big rough man was eating real food. He almost certainly had a pickup truck sitting out in front of my house.

Sookie is into that sort of thing. She even considers Calvin Norris at one point because he has a good job with benefits. I love that about Sookie. Back to Alcide.

Alcide Herveaux looked plenty tough. He was big as a boulder, with biceps that I could do pull-ups on. He would have to shave a second time if he planned on going out in the evening. He would fit right in on a construction site or a wharf.

He was a proper man.

Charlaine Harris has such incredible control over readers, and she describes guys in such a precise way that they can make short appearances, but they are set in stone in the readers’ minds, or at least my mind. Like, this:

He sat beside me and put his arm around me. He was so big and warm. He smelled like Tide detergent, and Irish Spring soap, and man.

I had a friend from India who was in an arranged marriage, and she really loved it. She was like, our socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds are perfectly suited, and we have grown to love each other. Oddly, my husband’s family lived an eerily parallel existence to ours in another state. My point here is that...hmmm, am I overanalyzing? My point anyway is that Alcide and Sookie actually, I think, are best suited for each other in that way.

Furthermore, when you inspect the books with the level attention that I do, I think there is evidence - scant, but it exists - that Alcide has a thing for Sookie. Will Charlaine Harris surprise us soon? I would be very happy to see this union.

Update: How could I have forgotten Sam?  Ames, thanks for  pointing this out. Sam is very much in the running! Opinions are divided on his desirability.

The DIK Hero draft fever

I have never really gotten the attraction of fantasy football. In fact, I will admit to a certain amount of disdain for guys who get just a little too into it. Because it’s a game built on top of a game. A big bunch of NOTHING!

Not that I think football is nothing. Hell, I grew up in Wisconsin, where the Pack is deified, and the second coming of Vince Lombardi is awaited with something approaching the fervor of the Hale Bop Comet gang. So okay, not just a game, but fantasy football, I felt, that is just a game and not real.

And then came Desert Island Keeper Hero draft. Round four rages on at MaryKate's. I am proud of my group of heroes, though I am sick with jealousy of others. I still hurt from the loss of Drifter, and Ciara continues to taunt me. There have been threats made…all in fun, or let’s make that 99% in fun. Threatened deliveries of severed pig heads and so forth.


IDEA: I was thinking about suggesting a late round twist, maybe for rounds 6 & 7, or just 7, where the name order is randomized again, and the girls don’t pick new heroes, but get to force a trade on anybody - between themselves and another girl, or between two girls. But I am rethinking, because there is quite a bit of passion involved.

I have a pick planned today that will make somebody very angry. But just because she loves him more than I do, whatever, I want him, and I’m before her. Perhaps it is her love of him that makes me want him so much...

CURRENT HOLDINGS

1. Bridget Locke - Mr. Jules Cassidy (All Through the Night, Suzanne Brockmann), Bones (One Foot in the Grave and Halfway to the Grave by Jeannie Frost), Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy (Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen), Judd Laurens (Caressed by Ice, Nalini Singh)

2. Ana - Bowen MacRieve (Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night, Kresley Cole), Sebastian St. Vincent (Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas), Royce Westmoreland (A Kingdom of Dreams,Judith McNaught), Conrad Wroth (Dark Needs at Night's Edge, Kresley Cole)

3. Tumperkin - Mick Tremore (The Proposition, Judith Ivory), Michael McNeil (Patricia Gaffney's Wild at Heart), Christian, Duke of Jervaulx (Flowers from the Storm, Laura Kinsale), Graham Wessit (Black Silk, Judith Ivory)

4. LesleyW - John Matthew aka Tehrror (Black Dagger Brotherhood series, JR Ward), Jeremy Danvers (Women of the Otherworld series, Kelly Armstrong), Vayl (Jaz and Vayl series, Jennifer Rardin), Curran (Magic Bites and Magic Burns, Ilona Andrews)

5. Sarah - Clay (Women of the Otherworld series, Kelley Armstrong), Nathaniel (Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Series), Barinthus ( Meredith Gentry)

6. Carolyn Jean - Eric Northman (Sookie series, Charlaine Harris), Joe Morelli (Stephanie Plum, Janet Evanovich), Ranger (Stephanie Plum, Janet Evanovich), Michael (Guardian Series, Meljean Brook)

7. Christine - Acheron (Dark Hunter series, Sherrilyn Kenyon) Qhuinn (Black Dagger Brotherhood series, JR Ward) Vishous (Black Dagger Brotherhood series, JR Ward), Butch O'Neill (Black Dagger Brotherhood series, JR Ward)

8. Ciaralira - Ethan McCabe (Demon Night, Meljean Brook) Hugh Castleford (Demon Angel, Meljean Brook) Westley (The Princess Bride, William Goldman), Lord Robert Andreville (Robin) (Angel Rogue, Mary Jo Putney)

9. JenB - Vane Kattalakis (Night Play, Sherrilyn Kenyon) Angel (Angel, Johanna Lindsey) Rule, (The Demon You Know, Christine Warren), Kade, (Riley Jenson Guardian series, Keri Arthur)

10. Katie(babs) - Alexander (The Bronze Horseman, Paullina Simons) REHVENGE (Black Dagger Brotherhood series, JR Ward), James Diaz (Cry No More, Linda Howard) Gabriel "Sully" Sullivan (Gabriel's Ghost, Linnea Sinclair!)

11. KristieJ - Derek (Dreaming of You, Lisa Kleypas) Dax Silverbrake (Sky Pirate, Justine Davis) Ciaran Tamberlane (My Forever Love, Marsha Canham), Branden Kel-Paten (Games of Command, Linnea Sinclair)

12. Lisabea - Adrien English (Adrien English series, Josh Lanyon) Colin Ames Beaumont (Demon Moon, Meljean Brook), Jake Romero (With Caution, J.L. Langley), Nate (My Fair Captain, J.L. Langley)

13. MaryKate - ROARKE (In Death series, JD Robb) Lucas Hunter (Slave to Sensation, Nalini Singh), Maximillian Pesaro,( Gardella Chronicles, Colleen Gleason), Cameron Quinn (Sea Swept, Nora Roberts)

14. Naida - Edward Cullen (Twilight, Stephanie Meyers) John Atlantis (Entangled, Kathleen Dante), Frederick Wentworth (Persuasion, Jane Austen), Aragorn aka Strider (Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien)

15. Samantha Kane - Doyle/The Queen's Darkness (Merry Gentry Series, Laurell K. Hamilton) Cat, a young pirate (The Windflower, Laura London),Chief of Police Jack West( All U Can Eat, Emma Holly), Tom Paoletti (Unsung Hero, Suzanne Brockmann)

16. Sarai - Jake Riordan (Adrien English series, Josh Lanyon) Rejar (Rejar, Dara Joy),Vaughn D'Angelo (Visions of Heat, Nalini Singh), Zarek of Moesia (Dance with the Devil, Sherrilyn Kenyon)

17. Shannon - Sam Donovan (Mr. Perfect, Linda Howard) Sam Starrett (Troubleshooters series, Suzanne Brockmann), Max Baghat (Troubleshooter series, Suzanne Brockmann), Adam Hauptman (Mercedes Thompson series, Patricia Briggs)

18. Sula - Rhage (Black Dagger Brotherhood series, JR Ward) Asa McIntyre (Promises Linger by Sarah McCarty), Dain (Lord of Scoundrels, Loretta Chase), Ian Witherspoon (At Love's Command, Samantha Kane)

19. Thea - Jamie Fraser (Outlander, Diana Gabaldon) Joscelin Verreuil (Kushiel's Legacy series, Jacqueline Carey), Jacob Black (Twilight Series, Stephanie Meyer), Batman!

20. Tracy - Zsadist (Black Dagger Brotherhood series, JR Ward), Phineas Tucker (Welcome to Temptation, Jennifer Crusie), Dorian (Psy/Changeling Series, Nalini Singh), Wrath (Dark Lover, BDB series by JR Ward)

Another great Lara Adrian villain

Great Moments from last night's reading
Book: Midnight Rising
Author: Lara Adrian
Spoiler level: medium-high

I think Lara Adrian needs to get way more credit for these villains she creates and their mad and horrible plans.

Now, don’t get me wrong, the Midnight Breed romance storylines totally deliver. The romance storylines are the heart of the series, and there seems to be some girl gene in me that makes me revel in the progress of the relationships, even though I more or less know how they will unfold. But I was really astonished at this son of Dragos and what he is up to in Midnight Rising.

For starters, he is holding the Ancient. The Ancient is one of the dangerous alien vampire progenitors who used to roam the earth; he was kept in a hibernation vault for centuries, but son of Dragos nabbed him and woke him up and now he has the Ancient in a cell full of all kinds of creative and horrible restraints. The Ancient:

Many thousands of years old, he was more powerful than an army of humans, even kept as he was currently in a managed state of near starvation. The hunger weakened him, as intended, but it also pissed him off, and rage was always a factor when it came to controlling a powerful creature like the one lifting its hairless, glyph-riddled head within the cell.

And this:

The creature didn’t answer, just peeled its lips back and breathed in slowly, air hissing through the large, elongated fangs. He’d stopped speaking about a decade ago, whether from madness, anger or defeat, his keeper didn’t know. Nor did he particularly care.

Anyway, son of Dragos does all these cruel tests on the Ancient and also forces him to breed, which results in the death of a number of female breedmates—that part is awful and creepy—but I also sort of feel sorry for the Ancient. All the Order warriors are scared of the Ancient and want to kill him, but here we have a different monster holding the Ancient and really abusing him.

I don’t know what Lara Adrian is going to do with this storyline, but it’s an interesting counterpoint to this, Rio’s story.

Rio, as we know, was disfigured in an explosion, and also, part of his childhood was spent in a monstery state of wildness. So of all the Order, Rio has the most beast in him, and even refers to himself that way, like his love interest, Dylan, is a beauty and he is the beast.

I think I know what will happen with Rio and Dylan, and I am greatly looking forward to it, but what what what will happen with the Ancient? I am sure whatever Adrian does will be great. And I'm sure I'll find out tonight. Or maybe not!

Did you ever read a book where you feel a little bit sorry for the villain? 

Where is my FIX?

Like the pathetic addict I am, I awoke this morning and went right to my computer and to Sarai's blog. GASP! No DIK Heroes Draft round 2.

I began to shake my list. I have a hero to pick, and NOBODY else can have this one. I will not let there be a repeat of yesterday. Where is the post? What is happening?

But then I realized it is ONLY 8:30 a.m. where Sarai lives. She is probably still in bed. Though probably not with Jake Riordan.

I am still barely recovered from the loss of Drifter to Ciara who, if she would read this, might get a glimmering of understanding of why he was rightfully mine. And possibly still will be.

Anyway, I am sure Sarai will have the thing up at some point today. There was no time element discussed.

In the meantime, look what I got yesterday! Lisabea has it, too, and we are hatching PLANS.

UPDATE: Round 2 DIK at Sarai's is over.

ROUND 3 is now in session at Lisabea's.

Desert Island Hero Draft: Round 1 of 7

Okay, island dwellers. We have our books. But what heroes will we bring? Not everybody can personally bring Dain. Or Roarke. Or Z! But somebody needs to! Below: A list of the women who brought their six books to the now massive DIK library last week (did I miss anybody?) and their round 1 hero picks. See rules below.

1. Tracy - Zsadist (Lover Awakened, JR Ward)

2. Thea - Jamie Fraser (Outlander, Diana Gabaldon)

3. Sula - Rhage (Lover Eternal, JR Ward)

4. Shannon - Sam Donovan (Mr. Perfect, Linda Howard)

5. Sarai - Jake Riordan (Adrien English series, Josh Lanyon)

6. Samantha Kane - Doyle/The Queen's Darkness (Laurell K. Hamilton, Merry Gentry Series)

7. Naida  - Edward Cullen (Twilight, Stephanie Meyers)

8. MaryKate - ROARKE (JD Robb's In Death series)

9. Lisabea - Adrien English (Adrien English series, Josh Lanyon)

10. KristieJ - Derek (Dreaming of You, Lisa Kleypas)

11. Katie(babs) - Alexander (The Bronze Horseman, Paullina Simons)

12. JenB - Vane Kattalakis (Night Play, Sherrilyn Kenyon)

13. Ciaralira - Ethan McCabe  sob (Demon Night, Meljean Brook)

14. Christine - Acheron (Dark Hunter series, Sherrilyn Kenyon)

15. Carolyn Jean - Eric Northman (Sookie series, Charlaine Harris)

16. Sarah - Clay (Women of the Otherworld series, Kelley Armstrong)

17. LesleyW - John Matthew aka Tehrror (Dark Lover etc., JR Ward)

18. Tumperkin - Mick Tremore (The Proposition, Judith Ivory)

19. Ana - Bowen MacRieve (Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night, Kresley Cole)

20.  Bridget Locke - Mr. Jules Cassidy (All Through the Night, Suzanne Brockmann)

Step 1. Find your name. That is the order you choose in.
Step 2. When it's your turn, “Call” ONE hero in the comments. (Anybody from all of literature, but you can’t have somebody who is already picked!

Who will you pick? Tracy gets to start. Tracy, leave your hero’s name in the comments. Then Thea gets to go. And so on. After this round, everybody will have one hero, and draft round 2 will start (at Sarai's). At the end of 7 drafts, everybody will have a group of 7 heroes to bring. Yes, trades are permitted.

Don't worry about obsessively monitoring this thing. If you don't call your hero in 24 hours, we'll skip you.

RULES:
• No picking out of order. Once the woman above you has chosen, it’s your turn. (Not before!)
• Trades are permitted, but be clear about announcing the results in the comments or email so your host doesn’t have to play sleuth.
• If it’s your turn and we don’t hear from you for 24 hours, sorry, you’re skipped. But you can email your host ahead of time with your pick.

• Latecomers: SORRY,  we wish everybody could play, but there has now been a moratorium placed on add-ons, due to the record-keeping nightmare this will soon become. 

ROUND 2: (now over) Hosted at Sarai’s

ROUND 3: (now over) Hosted at lisabea's.

ROUND 4: (starting MONDAY!) Hosted at MaryKate's

ROUND 5: Hosted at Christine's

ROUND 6: Hosted at Katie(babs) & Kristie(J)'s

ROUND 7: Hosted at Sula's! 

Oh, what a wonderful monstery world

Magic Bites discussion, part 2 (see part 1 here)

Okay, well now I’ve finished MAGIC BITES, by Ilona Andrews. It was great, full of excellent tension, interesting characters and fabulously drawn monsters and villains. I’m not going to talk about the main monster, whose delicious scariness and yuckiness is built over many passages and pages, but even the minor monsters are great. Like, the vampires, who are more mindless creature than human in this world.

Here is the very ancient vampire our hero and her pals come upon and fight. This is a lot of description to stop the story for, but it never gets boring because it has action embedded into it, and the details are impressively vivid, with a kind of pop at the end.

The thing followed me on all fours. It was a vampire, but one so ancient that no trace of it having walked upright remained. The bones of its spine and hips had permanently shifted to adapt to quadruped locomotion.

The creature advanced, lean and wiry like a greyhound. An inch-high bone crest shielded its spine, formed by outgrowth of the vertebrae through the leather-thick skin. It paused, hugged the ground for a moment, and rose again, ruby-red eyes fixed on me.

Its face no longer bore any resemblance to a human, the skull jutted back in a bony hornlike curve to balance the horribly massive protruding jaws. The creature had no nose, not even a hint of a nose bridge. It opened its mouth, splitting its head in half. Rows of fangs gleamed against the blackness. It wouldn’t just puncture and rip. It would shred me.

Gulp. The fight is pretty good, too. I won’t say who wins.

A note on the romance.

I’d heard from many sources that this book is sort of light on the romance, and that’s true, and certainly nobody’s having sex here, though there is a smattering of nice relationship building - the kind you might find in the early Anita Blake. I’m guessing this will be one of those Urban Fantasy series where the relationship arc stretches long over books.

Fave character in a smart scene

Okay, my favorite character in this whole book is Nick the Crusader, who is slightly mad and also very wonderful, and not the love interest. Anyway there is this fabulous scene with him and heroine Kate at the end that is one of the best sorts of scenes, where one character gives another character advice that is full of insight. So crazy Nick gives her this advice:

“If I were on my own, packing some power, and for some reason not wanting to be found, I might lay low for a while, but I’d know that sooner or later I’d have to come out and play, because whoever’s looking for me would eventually find me. I’d start building some connections. The thing about a lone wolf? Once you corner it, it has no one to turn to.”

I love when characters provide perspective on each other like that. I find it very satisfying. Nice job, team Ilona! Magic Burns is out now, the next book, Midnight Games, will be out in 2009.

Win a box of books!

Hey! Big contest over at Rachael's What I am reading! 

You can win a BOX of books.

You really want to say NO to a box of books?  

Question of the day

What is a Mary Sue?

I see this term thrown around a lot, but I'm never really sure what a Mary Sue really is.

Sometimes I think it means a pretty  heroine everybody is in love with. Is that it? 

I know it's bad for a heroine to be a Mary Sue, and I've seen it applied to Sookie Stackhouse. Is she a Mary Sue?  What is a Mary Sue, and why are Mary Sue's bad?  

Tomorrow: more fawning and gushing over Magic Bites, the book that just gets better and better. 

Newsflash: Bloggers stranded on island!

Imagine if you will, six book-happy girl bloggers are stranded on a desert island.

Wait, back up...how did we get there? Perhaps a fabulously wealthy reader, fan of all our blogs, grateful for the hours of enjoyment we have provided, decided to send us all on a fabulous vacation together.

But, just in case our plane has to make an emergency landing on a desert island, we bring books, to found a glorious sharing library. We will miss civilization, but what do we care? We have 36 excellent books to read!

A few of our Desert Island Keeper ground rules: we can each pick six books to bring and share, and we can't duplicate any book. We need a variety of genres. And no ARCs. After some discussion and passionate horsetrading, we came up with our picks.

Find KristieJ's list here, and Sula's here, then lisabea's, Christines, and Katie(babs).

Hold the presses -  late-breaking stowaways: Sarai,  Tracy, MaryKate, Shannon, Ciaralira, and Sarah have added more books!

Here are my humble additions:

Middlemarch (George Eliot): Oh, how I love this intricate, rich and wonderful book. It is really one of the best ever written, especially for the way human behavior is observed, and the characters, the subplots. OMG, just thinking about it, I have to read it again. It takes a bit to get going, but then you are transported into this brilliantly drawn provincial world swirling around Dorothea, an idealistic young woman searching for purpose.

Kushiel’s Dart (Jacqueline Carey): I love this for its sort of exotic, strangely Medieval and richly imagined fantasy world. And really big stuff happens - stunning, fantastical epic stuff. So satisfying. What’s more, the sex is shocking. And most of all, there’s Phedre, a fabulous heroine who really does live by her wits, in the best way.  More about that here.

Demon Night (Meljean Brook): We have to have this in our library because, oh, so many reasons. There’s the emotional complexity that MJB does so well, and the finely drawn characters you get to know so intimately, and above all, Drifter, the best hero EVER. I can't believe I only raved about this once.

Dead to the World (Charlaine Harris): In my mind (and I believe that of my bloggy comrade Lisabea, and possibly others) this is the best of the Sookies. This is the great Sookie & Eric book, and it’s also quite exiting, plotwise with a satisfying ending.

The Killing Dance (Laurell K. Hamilton): With this whole series, I felt like I was back in gradeschool, where all I ever wanted to do was sit in a corner and read and life was just one big annoying interruption to the enchanted world of books. And I found this addition to the series to be the most enthralling. (Though Blue Moon comes pretty close). I just luxuriated in this book, and I could read it over and over. The werewolf stuff. Killer Edward on the scene. The contract on Anita’s life. Richard indulging his total gross-out wolfiness. And last but not least, the legendary (in my mind) bathtub scene.

House of Mirth (Edith Wharton): I love this heroine, Lily Bart, and I love the world of this novel, the glamorous yet evilly confining structures of turn-of-the-century New York. Lily just can’t bring herself to play ‘the game,’ and little by little, goes from one of the most eligible beauties to, well, there is no HEA here. But it is so good anyway. This novel was always a great friend to me in a weird way.

What would your six books be? We want to know!

A tour of my favorite worldbuilding elements of Magic Bites so far

I'm about a third of the way into this book. It’s funny, I sort of wasn’t in the mood for an Urban Fantasy when I picked it up, but I am really enjoying it, particularly the awesome worldbuilding here.

MAGIC BITES by Ilona Andrews takes place in the somewhat near future, in an Atlanta ravaged by magical mayhem; there are ‘tech’ times where technology works, and there are these magic waves where magic dominates and things like cars don’t work, and the two forces seem to be struggling on a sort of invisible level. I could have that wrong, but it’s how it feels. The portrait of an out-of-whack society where people cope and survive is so well done.

This convincing and very comprehensive world also has a delightfully twisted sort of quality. I think maybe it’s partly the names. Example: this excerpt explaining the Order of the Knights of Merciful Aid:

The Order of the Knights of Merciful Aid offered just what its name suggested: merciful aid to anyone who asked. If you could pay, they would charge you; and if you couldn’t, they would kill shit on your behalf pro bono. Officially their mission statement was to protect humanity against all harm, by magic or by weapon. Trouble was, their definition of harm seemed rather flexible and sometimes merciful aid meant they lopped your head off.

Other favorite names so far:

“The People,” this scary necro-oriented group, “Part cult, part corporation, part scientific institution” that controls vampires. (Vampires are monstery in this world—Grey Goose and designer duds not included!) What kind of fucked up name is the People for an organization like that? I love it every time I read it.

His Majesty Curran, the Chosen Lord of the Free Beasts. That’s the name for the head of the shapeshifter society here. I like the Free Beasts. You can almost imagine a kind of anarchic world where shapeshifters would sit around deciding on official names, and these would catch on with them. Chosen Lord. Free Beasts. These names feel wistfully aspirational.

Favorite architectural points so far:

The Unnamed Square, five city blocks reduced to rubble by various villains. “Even now, six years later, the city council refused to rename the empty space…reasoning that as long as it had no name, nobody could summon anything there.”

Champion Heights, a luxury high rise that seems to be semi-cloaked by magic. “Pale haze clung to its walls and balconies, blurring the crisp, man-made edges, as a web of wards worked tirelessly to convince the very magic which fed it that the high-rise was nothing but a large rock.” The effect: sections of it look like “portions of a steep granite cliff.”

Sort of humorous, yet vivid and dramatic.
Update: see part 2 of my Magic Bites discussion here.

Out at the bird feeder: the unthinkable!

There has been such drama out at the bird feeder, I can’t even tell you. But look! A bird is there! Birds come to it now, and it is so wonderful. This photo was snapped last night. It is not a good photo, but I didn't want to get too close and scare my new little pal away.

Astute readers will notice that this bird feeder is very different from the stupid cage-like one I had before.

Yes, stupid. People pointed out that it looked like a cage, and really, it made me a bit uncomfortable, but I was advised to get a squirrel-proof feeder, because if squirrels adopt the bird feeder as their feeding station, birds will never come to it.

Then the unthinkable happened. A little brown bird got trapped in there! He got right out, but it FREAKED me out.

Then this little red headed bird came by (just like the one at the square feeder, above), and this little guy couldn’t even figure out how to get IN to the bird feeder after many attempts. (Please don't think this reflects at all on you, KB.) But I thought, if this red headed bird ever does figure out how to get in, he will NEVER get out. So I climbed out there and just took the damn thing down.

So I didn’t have a feeder for a couple weeks, in case you were wondering about my radio silence on the matter. But then this week then I got this glorious one. What I also like about it is that it doesn’t discriminate against bigger birds. A giant crow could come to this feeder if it wanted. I sort of like crows.

This is a totally boring blog entry. Like, am I 92 years old? I’m going to stop now.