Liz Loves Books

I ... um ...

ALL OF THEM!

I suppose there is some book somewhere that I don't want to read, ever.  I just can't imagine what it is.  Maybe something that is mostly gross pictures. 

There are three books I am looking for copies of, but I have previously read all three of them so I am not sure if they count.  I'm going to use them, anyway.

The first is a romance that comes up fairly often in discussions.  It's a wonderful, epic book:

The Far Pavilions, Volume 1 & Volume 2 - M. M. Kaye 

I used to have a copy and I may still, but it's become buried on my bookshelves if I do.  I am not paying $16 for a new copy.  I really want a kindle version, just because I want to read it again but it is too thick for me to easily read even the paperback with my messed up wrist.

The second is a book my parents owned and let me use sometimes, but guarded zealously.  I do not know what happened to it after my father died.  There are copies available used but I'm not willing to pay that much, especially for a book that has (justifiable) wine stains on it.  However, it has a lamb shank recipe in it that I want so badly I could cry.  Maybe I should have used this for my book that makes me cry yesterday.

With a Jug of Wine - Morrison Wood 

The poor cover is screwed up.  :(

The third is a book I don't know the title or author of.  It is a children's picture book with lovely illustrations.  It's about a family of anthropomorphized dogs (poodles, I think, though there were other breeds in the book).  It's set in late Victorian or Edwardian time.  The eldest daughter of the family was engaged to be married, but ran off with a poor poet dog.  I remember the mama dog swooning and collapsing on her chaise.  I also remember the two younger children playing in the park with a hoop and stick and a little sailboat.  That is all I remember but I want a copy of it very badly.  If anyone knows the title or author, I would appreciate the information!

Didn't we already do sad books? I guess this is slightly different. 

I could list almost every HP I've ever read, although sometimes those were tears of exasperation.  I could list obvious tearjerky stuff like Ol' Yeller.  I could list half the romance novels I've read in the last year.  Maybe 3/4 even.  I apologize if I sound irritable but today's challenge is just ... irritating.

I don't like being emotionally manipulated, so if I know a book is going to make me cry, I'm very careful about when and where I read it.  I have two books on my kindle that I have purposefully not read, even though they come highly recommended and even though I have every intention of reading them, someday.  In both cases, it's because numerous people have said these books are guaranteed to make one cry.  Of course the first is ironically titled Cry No More - Linda Howard  and the second is The Reluctant Dom (Siren Publishing Menage and More) - Tymber Dalton.  I swear I'll get around to reading these, someday, but only when I deliberately want to make myself cry.

I have done that once before, with Second Chances - Lauren Dane.  It's a very good book for that and one of the better examples of a heroine not putting up with a hero's manho ways.

Nom nom nom. :)

Cheaper by the Dozen (Perennial Classics) - Frank B. Gilbreth, Ernestine Gilbreth Carey I believe I was 9 the first time I read this book. I was reading it over and over at the same time I was reading Best Friends - Mary Bard. Illustration by Jill Elgin and that started in 3rd grade. I basically alternated reading these two books, though I preferred Best Friends.  Both books have a kid who feels out of place and at times unwanted as central characters so I could easily identify.  Cheaper by the Dozen also had the cool turret bedroom. I wanted one so badly!  I also read the second book about the same time but never re-read it. I forgot about Cheaper by the Dozen for many years. I rediscovered it about 10 years ago and I'm glad I did. It's a comforting, heartwarming and well-written story.

This book turned out to be a mixed bag for me.  There are 4 or 5 stories I thought were very funny or interesting and I mentioned two of those (the owl and the eels) in a previous post. There were a handful that made me want to reach into the book and smack the chefs who wrote them. The majority were just kind of blah and repetitive.  It seemed as though these celebrity chefs' agents or publicists called them up and asked for an innocuous story that could be added to this book to "get their name out there."  Most of them aren't catastrophes, they're just bad nights at work. They're not badly written but they are also not very interesting.

As for those that stood out...

"He was always grabbing my biscuits as he passed by..."

-Jamie Oliver

Don't Try This at Home: Culinary Catastrophes from the World's Greatest Chefs -  

I could not possibly choose one.  These are some of my favorites and firsts from a variety of subgenres.

I'm not going to write about each of them.  I will just point out that Baby of Shame was my first HP and I read it because the title is flat out awesome in its awfulness and because all the reviews sais, "wow, these people really hate each other."  Being somewhat new to the romance genre, I was wild with curiosity to discover how that made for romance. Heh. I was a clueless newb.

A Table for Three was my first menage romance. I knew that it was menage when I bought it and was unsure about it. It sat in my tbr for months. When I finally decided to read it, I had forgotten what it was and thought it was a book about food. It was quite tasty!

Game for Love was my first sports romance and got me hooked on that subgenre. I am now an unrepentant addict though Kate Angell' s are my favorites.

Her Wildest Dreams is a good button pusher for me. It's a big-brother's-best-friend book and I am such a sucker for those and it's just crazy hot.

I am perilously close to writing about all of them, so I will stop there.  I am leaving out many romances I have enjoyed very much.  I'm also leaving out all of the few historicals I've read even though I enjoyed them, and of course all of Jane Austen due to my own restrictions.

Run the Risk (Hqn) - Lori Foster is so-so romantic suspense at its so-soist.  It had all the problems romantic suspense can have though it still managed to be somewhat entertaining. It was at least entertaining enough that I would call it barely okay but not good.  I'm not sure it merits a long review but I am in the mood to write about the things that can make romantic suspense not really work for me, so...

(Big spoilers behind the pagebreak!)

I don't think this means favorite book that happens to have been turned into a movie regardless of how good it was.  That would just be my favorite book.  I assume this means favorite movie based on a book.  

I was enthralled by movie version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: 100th Anniversary Edition (Books of Wonder) - L. Frank Baum  as a child of 5 or 6 and um ... several (47) years later, I am still enthralled.  It is close to movie perfection. It is not my favorite movie (Casablanca is not based on a book) but it is a close second.

Please don't hate me but ...

Mackenzie's Mountain - Linda Howard 

Every single review or even mention I have ever read of this book was positively glowing.  It is apparently one of the most beloved romance novels of all time.  Or at least one of the most universally liked. So I started reading it expecting this incredible, awesome romance.

So, the good news is, I didn't hate it.  It wasn't bad, exactly.  It was dated, stale and (despite the titular mountain) flat.  I liked but did not love the hero.  The heroine had a few characteristics of my ideal heroine, but she was also finger-wagging and preachy.  The plot was okay but not great. It was too simple. I've read a lot of romantic suspense I liked better.

Again, it wasn't bad or even fair. It was somewhere between okay and good. But I was expecting amazing.  I bought the complete collection and I've never felt any desire to read beyond this first book.

Forgot to put a link in earlier, so here's my contemporary romance discussion group.  All genres welcome, as long as they are contemporary. All steam levels welcome as well.  Please come join us!

I'm thinking about starting a contemporary romance group with these rules:

Rules:

1.  Don’t be a jerk.

2.  No self-promo. At all.  Ever.

3.  Different people like different things.  Different people have different kinks.  That’s okay.

4.  This is not a group dedicated specifically to erotica, but it will no doubt discuss adult themes, relationships and activities.  There will be strong language.  There may be discussion of drugs/alcohol/sex.  Please do not join if you are under 18 or if you are offended by such things.

5.  This group is for the discussion of contemporary romance and contemporary erotic romance, though PNR with a contemporary setting or feel is also welcome.

6.  Pull on your big girl/boy panties and don’t be a jerk.

Ideas? Suggestions? Comments?

Edit:  Done.  Will upload a picture later.

One of my favorite smackdowns ever:

From the very beginning— from the first moment, I may almost say— of my acquaintance with you, your manners, impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form the groundwork of disapprobation on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike; and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry.” 
― Pride and Prejudice (Puffin Classics) - Jane Austen 

This is where I got to cheat a bit.  Because I have prohibited myself from using Jane Austen's works for more than one category, but since I am using one of her novels as my favorite book, I also get to use it today. I could have chosen almost anything in the book to be my favorite quote.  But I love a good smackdown and Elizabeth's is one of the best ever.  I think my second favorite quote from P&P is what Mr. Bennett tells Elizabeth after she has told him of Mr. Collins's proposal:

"An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do."

Pride and Prejudice (Puffin Classics) - Jane Austen 

Day 16 is as difficult for me as day 15 was easy.

There are quite a few characters who come close to my ideal: a woman who is adventurous, self-confident but with humility, loyal, intelligent, just and willing to fight for justice but not preachy or  a finger-wagger, generous, doesn't take shit and she has a good sense of humor.  That's not too much to ask of one fictional character, is it?

With regard to my Dead Tree Books, I'm a Curator.  I used to be more of a Librarian, but when I moved into my current home 12 years ago, I quit alphabetizing and started putting books where I'd intuitively find them.  They are now grouped in a way that I feel satisfies the books' preferences as well as mine. 

I have at least as many Kindle books now as I do Dead Tree Books.  My Kindle collections are by genre/sub genre and I usually sort them by most recent rather than alphabetically, so I guess I am a Curator rather than a librarian when it comes to my ebooks as well. I also use Calibre, though I have so much metadata to enter there that the thought of working on it makes me run away screaming.  I need to figure out a way to break it down into small, manageable tasks and easy to reach goals so that I am motivated to work on it some more.

Atticus Finch.

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee