Category Archives: Reading

Feb2

Expect more of the same!

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Hanna gave me a great idea today–do a monthly notice/review of a book (maybe a free book, if I can find enough that I like enough, otherwise maybe paid but obscure, or paid and best seller, we’ll see how it goes). And–I just did that yesterday! So consider that post the first of a series. If anyone has any suggestions, I’m open. I’m partial to genre fiction and literary fiction where the characters do things. I read other stuff, too.

This book here is available on Amazon for $9.72 at the current time. It has stellar reviews. I don’t happen to be reading it; I just like the cover and the concept. So that’s the story there.

Dec28

Reading between the holidays

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The week between Christmas and New Year’s has always been one of my favorites: the big gift-dinner-family time is over, time slows down, and it really feels like a holiday. I got a Kindle from my mom this year, who does not get technology and has trouble even with her cable TV remote. She says she can’t figure out a computer and she doesn’t need a smartphone, but she’s happy with her microwave. She might be tech challenged, but Mom gets that ereaders–like hardcovers and paperbacks–are one more way to deliver books, and she knows I’ve always really loved to read. So she got me a Kindle.

I added a few books to read on the plane: two (Wish List and Vegas Moon) by John Locke, who’s made it big in the self-published ebook world. His books are fast and furious mystery-suspense type stories full of cheeky dialogue. And then I got Far from the Madding Crowd, written in 1874 by Thomas Hardy, not exactly who I’d call a light read.

However, Laura thinks Far… is ripe for a romantic comedy redo because the story is about a woman and her three romantic interests. As it turns out, by 1967 Hollywood decided that Hardy and Far… were indeed ready for a contemporary treatment, so they got Julie Christie to play in the film adaptation along with Terence Stamp, Alan Bates, and Peter Finch as the suitors. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but catch the cover for the DVD! Thomas Hardy: I hardly knew ye.

Dec12

Hop on down! Win fabulous prizes! Offer good Dec. 16-23

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The Mistletoe Madness Blog Hop is now closed. Congratulations to Wendy, who won Beth Barany’s The Writer’s Adventure Guide. Thanks to everyone for dropping by!  And may your holidays have madness only of the good kind.

If you like contests, and who doesn’t, here’s one that’s easy to enter and the prizes are many. Join the Mistletoe Madness blog hop, sponsored by 50 writers including yours truly, and you have a chance to win 50 prizes, including the grand prize: a color  Nook preloaded with many fine books that you can enjoy during the upcoming joyous holidays while your Uncle Al is yelling at the TV and your Aunt Myrtle is telling you how well her other niece is doing.

I can hear you now: what is a blog hop? I need that color Nook!

Here’s how it works. Each participating blog (that’s me) hosts a giveaway. All the blogs are linked up so blog hoppers can zip from one giveaway to the next, with the chance to win 50 fabulous prizes. (But not all of them. I think they’ve fixed it so you can’t do that.)

Except my blog doesn’t link up. The tech setup here means that you actually have to go to the sponsoring blog (the Mistletoe Madness link) to link in and get into the mix for the grand prize. An entrance form will go live there on Dec 16, and the grand prize winner will be chosen at random after the contest closes on Dec 23. (Because of various restrictions, this contest is open to U.S. residents only. Sorry!)

But if you register on this blog (no purchase necessary), or okay, even leave a comment, you are entered into my portion of the grand giveaway. The lucky winner will receive a paper copy of  Beth Barany’s The Writer’s Adventure Guide: 12 Stages to Writing Your Book. Beth is a creativity coach for writers, and if anybody can help you get that manuscript out the door, it is she. I know; I’ve read the book.

I’ll choose a winner at random after Dec 26 and ship the book out shortly thereafter–right after I get back from that annual visit to Uncle Al and Aunt Myrtle. Happy holidays!

Nov3

Feeling the weather, under and otherwise

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I caught a cold. I have all the usual symptoms, plus an earache and dizziness. I’m feeling massively sorry for myself, I’m out of soup, winter’s arrived, it gets dark too early, and the apartment is cold, too. To cheer myself up, I’m reading Dead Lagoon by Michael Dibdin, he of the Aurelio Zen mystery series, fairly recently made into a three-part BBC/Italian TV miniseries. The miniseries was very beautiful to watch but hopelessly confusing. The book–this one anyway–is a lot better. I’m enjoying it. It’s fitting my mood. In Dibdin’s world, Venice is dark, dank, narrow, smelly, dying, corrupt, fascist, and poor. And it doesn’t have any soup, either, except the kind of nasty stuff you’d find in a canal. Yup, perfect.

Oct18

Maybe I’ll begin…

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My first blog post ever! I hardly know where to start. Maybe like this: I’m reading Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie. It’s a ghost story with a handsome pedigree (an adaptation, or maybe spin-off, of The Turn of the Screw by Henry James), written by one of my favorite authors ever. She doesn’t need my endorsement, but if you’ve never read any of her books and you like a serious but comic look at relationships, check out jennycrusie.com. And she’s got a great blog.