What was begun as an online journal of the books I read evolved...or maybe it devolved...to also feature behind the scenes goings-on at All About Romance from my perspective (mostly based on my personal feelings - okay, it's a personal pity party); topics I've gone over ad nauseum in commentary at AAR, including the nature of reviews and online behavior; and my non-cyber life (including family and items in pop culture that capture my interest, which is just about everything).

Please do not violate my trust. I restricted certain AAR-related and personal entries for a reason...to keep them as private as possible. Now that my blog is read-only, to access restricted entries you must already have a password; if you do, hold onto it so that you can continue to read restricted entries.

This blog is not part of All About Romance. I ask that you keep comments or questions regarding restricted blog content off of AAR.

Below you'll find the blogs I visit, broken out in my own odd little system of categories.

April 2008


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Survivor in Death

Tuesday, 29 April 2008 5:02 P GMT-05
Survivor in Death J.D. Robb Grade: A- Sensuality: Hot Survivor in Death is the sixth Desert Isle Keeper for me in J.D. Robb's In Death series. A new dimension is added to the world that Eve and Roarke have created for themselves, which creates some t
Category: Reading
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My First "AAR" Reviews since 2000!

Tuesday, 29 April 2008 10:46 A GMT-05
Yesterday I announced in the new ATBF column that because I missed reviewing so much at AAR, I was shutting down our advertising program (although following through on contractual obligations through the end of the year). I can't tell you how energiz
Category: Reading AAR Personal/Political
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Shoe & Bag Quick Poll

Saturday, 26 April 2008 6:38 P GMT-05
The results of this informal quick poll on shoes and handbags surprised me; based on the women I know, I thought most of us really loved shoes, bags, or both. Yet 60% of those of you who responded don't care at all - or much - about either. Perhaps
Category: Quick Polls
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Visions in Death

Wednesday, 23 April 2008 12:00 A GMT-05
Visions in Death J.D. Robb Grade: B Sensuality: Warm
Category: Reading
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Divided in Death

Tuesday, 22 April 2008 12:00 A GMT-05
Divided in Death J.D. Robb Grade: B+ Sensuality: Warm
Category: Reading
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Remember When

Monday, 21 April 2008 12:00 A GMT-05
Remember When J.D. Robb Grade: C+ Sensuality: Warm Remember When is a two-in-one release. Part one involves a present day romantic suspense story and part two moves the mystery of that story into Lt. Eve Dallas' future. Because I don't generally like
Category: Reading
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Imitation in Death

Sunday, 20 April 2008 3:18 P GMT-05
Imitation in Death J.D. Robb Grade: B+ Sensuality: Warm A copy-cat killer is on the loose, and he's re-enacting famous murders of the 19th and 20th centuries. Accompanying the murder scenes are letters written on expensive English paper, addressed to
Category: Reading

Portrait in Death

Friday, 18 April 2008 8:53 P GMT-05
Portrait in Death J.D. Robb Grade: A- Sensuality: Hot Portrait in Death is my sixth DIK in J.D. Robb's In Death series. I haven't reviewed all six yet, but I will continue to blog about them, in order, until I'm all J.D. Robb'd out. What makes this o
Category: Reading
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When Were You Born Quick Poll?

Friday, 18 April 2008 12:00 A GMT-05
I was born in the 1960s, as were just over a third of those who took part in this quick poll. Nearly 2/3 of you were born in 1960 or later while a quarter were born in the 1950s. TTFN, Laurie Likes Books
Category: Quick Polls

Purity in Death

Thursday, 17 April 2008 5:36 P GMT-05
Purity in Death J.D. Robb Grade: B+ Sensuality: Hot i know...it's looking as though Nora Roberts is paying me to review her In Death series. But since so many readers have already experienced what I'm experiencing now, even her millions wouldn't begi
Category: Reading

Reunion in Death (updated)

Wednesday, 16 April 2008 3:37 P GMT-05
Reunion in Death J.D. Robb Grade: B Sensuality: Seasoned author Nora Roberts, writing as Robb, delivers another exhilarating entry in her popular futuristic cop series featuring Eve Dallas (Seduction in Death, etc.). Dallas, a New York police lieu
Category: Reading
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The Land of Mango Sunsets

Tuesday, 15 April 2008 11:10 P GMT-05
The Land of Mango Sunsets Dorothea Benton Frank Grade: A- Sensuality: Kisses I've written before about my love for Southern Fiction, in particular, books set in and around the Low Country. Two of Mary Alice Monroe's books sit on my keeper shelf (Swee
Category: Reading

The Perfect Wife

Tuesday, 15 April 2008 7:47 P GMT-05
The Perfect Wife Mary Burton Grade: C Sensuality: Warm It's been a few years since I've read Mary Burton. I last wrote about her in September 2004, after reading two of her Westerns for Harlequin Historicals: The Unexpected Wife and The Colorado Brid
Category: Reading

Bedded by the Billionaire

Tuesday, 15 April 2008 5:16 P GMT-05
Bedded by the Billionaire Leanne Banks Grade: B- I've not read a book by Leanne Banks for nearly four years now. She's long been a comfort read author for me, but since two of the three books I last read by her were average, I lost interest. And then
Category: Reading

Romance Reading Quick Poll

Friday, 11 April 2008 1:25 P GMT-05
I never imagined that quite as many of us have read romance for quite as long as we have! My grouping - ten to fifteen years (I clock in at 14 years) - comprises about one fifth of those of us who participated in this poll. Another one fifth of us h
Category: Quick Polls
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Seduction in Death

Wednesday, 9 April 2008 11:03 A GMT-05
Seduction in Death J.D. Robb Grade: A- Sensuality: Hot Seduction in Death opens with Eve's recurring night terrors; the nightmare of sexual and physical abuse by her father, and her stabbing him to death when she was eight. Though Roarke no longer
Category: Reading
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Interlude in Death

Tuesday, 8 April 2008 12:00 A GMT-05
Interlude in Death (Out of This World anthology) J.D. Robb Grade: B- Sensuality: Warm Interlude in Death is set at the off-planet Olympus resort that Roarke owns. Eve and Roarke, and plenty of her compatriots from Cop Central, are attending a multi-p
Category: Reading
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Betrayal in Death

Monday, 7 April 2008 12:00 A GMT-05
Betrayal in Death Nora at AAR Grade: B+ Sensuality: When Darlene French, a maid at the Roarke Palace Hotel, is brutally beaten, raped, and strangled with a silver wire, Eve is at a loss to explain the apparently professional nature of the murder.
Category: Reading

Judgment in Death

Sunday, 6 April 2008 12:00 A GMT-05
Judgment in Death J.D. Robb Grade: B+ Sensuality: Hot As good as the In Death series is in general, for me the titles fall into three different tiers of "good." The top tier are the DIK and B+ reads; the ones that feature more than a few scenes I rea
Category: Reading
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More on hulu.com

Saturday, 5 April 2008 2:04 P GMT-05
This afternoon I browsed the TV offerings on hulu.com so you don't have to. The highlights as I see them: 63 episode of The Addams Family 52 episodes of Arrested Development (53 were made) 15 episodes of Barney Miller 48 episodes of The Bob
Category: Entertainment Internet
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Witness in Death

Saturday, 5 April 2008 12:00 A GMT-05
Witness in Death J.D. Robb Grade: B Sensuality:
Category: Reading

Morning Quick Poll

Friday, 4 April 2008 12:00 A GMT-05
This confirms it...we are a world of grouches! Just two out of ten of us wake up in the morning ready to face the day. Another third of us hit the real or metaphorical snooze button, and just about the remaining one-half of us would like to stop the
Category: Quick Polls
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The Game

Thursday, 3 April 2008 6:06 P GMT-05
We've not been able to get to many Dallas Mavericks games this season because of our travel schedule and the weather (our last game was the "night it snowed" in Dallas this year), but last night, after parking at Mockingbird Station, eating a delicio
Category: Personal/Political
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Klondike Doctor

Thursday, 3 April 2008 4:58 P GMT-05
<img title='Amazon Product' src='http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21nswGW37oL.jpg'border='0'/> Klondike Doctor Kate Bridges Grade: C+ Sensuality: Warm I've really enjoyed Kate Bridges' romances in the past, and finally got around to readi
Category: Reading

Hulu, Anyone?

Tuesday, 1 April 2008 3:52 P GMT-05
Have you heard about hula.com, a new website brought to you by NBC and Universal that features premium video content. Full episodes of many classic - and new - TV shows, as well as film clips, are available for viewing. I checked it out after reading
Category: Entertainment
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