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.

May 2007


next »

Jon Lovitz

Thursday, 31 May 2007 4:30 P GMT-05
My husband and I can't decide what the second most interesting "celebrity" factoid about my life is: that my dad was a Little Rascal on Our Gang Comedy for a year during the Depression and supported his family as "Bubbles" Strin is clearly the first.
Category: Entertainment

Stray

Wednesday, 30 May 2007 12:00 A GMT-05
Stray Rachel Vincent Grade: D Sensuality: Warm I've enjoyed many of the urban fantasies I've read, and am a fan in general of shapeshifting novels. But, when I saw that Stray weighed in at more than 600 pages, I silently groaned. Had an editorial h
Category: Reading
Comments/Trackback (4-0)

Nightsong

Tuesday, 29 May 2007 5:32 P GMT-05
Nightsong Carolyn Davidson Grade: C Sensuality: Warm Kate G. just reviewed this one at AAR and because I liked it more than she did - and yet not enough to recommend it - I'm adding my thoughts here. The story is set in the Dakota Territories during
Category: Reading

What Is It About Pie?

Monday, 28 May 2007 12:23 P GMT-05
Okay...there's little better in my mind than a fabulous piece of apple pie with vanilla or cinnamonn (even better with a little caramel sauce), but what is it about pie that I don't understand? Mention dessert to my husband, and his eyes may or may n
Category: Personal/Political
Comments/Trackback (3-0)

Face Down

Monday, 28 May 2007 11:25 A GMT-05
There's this song that has been in my brain for a couple of months now. The last time I heard it, I was in my car and texted myself three words - "to the ground" - so that I could look it up. Three words weren't enough this time. I just wandered i
Category: Entertainment
Comments/Trackback (3-0)

The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever

Sunday, 27 May 2007 1:59 P GMT-05
The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda CheeverJulia QuinnGrade: Between a B and B-Sensuality: WarmEven when Julia Quinn isn't at the top of her game, she's still better than most. If that sounds as if I'm damning with faint praise, it's more the other w
Category: Reading

Unmasqued

Saturday, 26 May 2007 8:15 P GMT-05
UnmasquedColette GaleGrade: D-Sensuality: BurningThis is another book that won't be released for a while, but it was so bad I had to mention it. Gale is a pen name for an author who apparently writes historical fiction, and she has another "treat" in
Category: Reading

The Serpent Prince

Friday, 25 May 2007 12:32 P GMT-05
The Serpent PrinceGrade: A-Sensuality: Hot The third in Elizabeth Hoy'ts Georgian-set Prince series won't be released until September, so I won't review it now, but let me tell you...it's fabulous! I really enjoyed the first book - The Raven Prince i
Category: Reading
Comments/Trackback (2-0)

Sell-Out?

Thursday, 24 May 2007 5:33 P GMT-05
It's hard to know what to make of Green Day's appearance on the finale of American Idol. I haven't watched since season three, so I'm pretty late on the news, but I tend to agree that it must be a sign of the apocalypse that this fabulous punk band
Category: Entertainment
Comments/Trackback (7-0)

How many...how much?

Thursday, 24 May 2007 4:16 P GMT-05
How many products have been developed to support Apple's iPod models? And how much money is made by this ancillary industry?TTFN, Laurie Likes Books

Brenda Novak's Juvenile Diabetes Auction

Thursday, 24 May 2007 11:16 A GMT-05
Brenda Novak and I exchanged emails today about the status of her annual auction benefitting juvenile diabetes research. She indicated that thus far into the auction, she's raised $100,000. Wow!!! Isn't that fabulous? I'm not quite sure what led m
Category: AAR Internet

LOST

Wednesday, 23 May 2007 4:15 P GMT-05
Earlier tonight I witnessed two of the most riveting hours of television I can recall ever watching. I'm one of LOST's fans who sometimes wishes there were fewer flashbacks and more time spent on the "here and now" of the show. But in the past few
Category: Entertainment
Comments/Trackback (3-0)

Swimming Lessons

Wednesday, 23 May 2007 2:24 P GMT-05
Today I posted an interview with Mary Alice Monroe I did earlier in the month. Two of the author's other books sit on my all-time keeper shelf. While Swimming Lessons isn't quite an all-time keeper, it's a very good read nonetheless.I first wrote a
Category: Reading
Comments/Trackback (4-0)

Please, sir, I want some more

Tuesday, 22 May 2007 11:52 A GMT-05
It's hard to imagine somebody getting excited about receiving a bill, but that's how I felt yesterday when Blythe requested more postage money. One of the ways we gauge how well we're doing - pipeline wise - in terms of numbers of reviews, is to loo
Category: AAR

A Thing of Beauty...

Monday, 21 May 2007 4:26 P GMT-05
John Keats may not have had the iPod in mind when he wrote "A thing of beauty is a joy forever", but no doubt he would have had he lived in 2007. I discovered last week that if I wanted to "sync" my iPod mini, I'd have to do it manually - and exclud
Category: Entertainment
Comments/Trackback (9-0)

Ticking Down

Sunday, 20 May 2007 2:17 P GMT-05
The clock is ticking down on The Sopranos. The final episode is set to air on the tenth of June, so tonight's episode will be the third from the last. As for last Sunday's episode, as soon as Christopher and Tony got into the car and started drivi
Category: Entertainment
Comments/Trackback (3-0)

Coke...or Pepsi?

Saturday, 19 May 2007 2:28 P GMT-05
Whenever I travel to New England and the East Coast, I'm surprised at how many restaurants serve Pepsi products over Coke products. When I was in college, the Pepsi Challenge came to SMU and I took it. I think I couldn't tell the difference at that
Comments/Trackback (10-0)

I'm Jazzed!

Friday, 18 May 2007 5:17 P GMT-05
Adding new reviewers to AAR's staff is totally like a vitamin B-12 shot...it's re-energized me. Knowing that near the end of the month I won't need to panic because we can't meet our goal of 50 reviews has me really jazzed. I hate not being able to
Category: AAR

The Starter Wife

Tuesday, 15 May 2007 4:40 P GMT-05
As a result of publishing All About Romance, the one "bragging rights" perk I most enjoy is contact from outside the romance world. Last summer, for instance, getting a screener for the History Channel's True Pirates of the Caribbean was the equival
Category: Entertainment
Comments/Trackback (4-0)

The Inquisition

Friday, 11 May 2007 8:29 P GMT-05
We recorded the first two hours of The Secret Files of the Inquision (PBS) on Wednesday night and watched them last night because there wasn't a basketball play-off game we wanted to see instead. Kind of dry, but interesting, nonetheless, to learn, i
Category: Entertainment
Comments/Trackback (1-0)

iTunes

Thursday, 10 May 2007 2:00 P GMT-05
Did you ever wonder how iTunes comes up with its artist and song designations? I've spent the last week going through CD's at the house, buying more songs, and loading them all onto my iPod. But before I uploaded them, I realized I needed to cull,
Category: AAR Entertainment

"That was so freaky!"

Thursday, 10 May 2007 9:41 A GMT-05
My husband is very used to hearing me come into the bedroom at ten o'clock at night, having just watched a new episode of LOST, and exclaim, "Oh my god...that was so freaky!" Last night was no different, what with Ben's backstory - including "the p
Category: Entertainment
Comments/Trackback (1-0)

AAR Ring

Tuesday, 8 May 2007 11:18 A GMT-05
I started the AAR Web Ring back in 1998, and lived through the multiple changes in ownership, style, promises made - and promises broken - that ring management went through over the years. As most of you know, I've been doing a significant amount
Category: AAR
Comments/Trackback (4-0)

The Testament of Friendship

Saturday, 5 May 2007 11:05 A GMT-05
  
Category: Personal/Political
Comments/Trackback (1-0)

Nip it! (edited to top twenty May 7)

Saturday, 5 May 2007 10:16 A GMT-05
Last weekend we had brunch and for some reason the topic of The Andy Griffith Show came up.  My husband and I both love the show even though the original several seasons were before my time, and I'm sure there are some fans among you, so her
Category: Entertainment
Comments/Trackback (2-0)

next »