What Are You Reading Today?

 

It’s that time again. Inquiring minds wanna know what you are reading today!  Please take a minute to share.

I finally decided to find out for myself who this Terry Pratchett guy is, and why

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Poem of the Day by Ogden Nash

A Word To Husbands

* Ogden Nash *

To keep your marriage brimming
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you’re wrong, admit it,
Whenever you’re right, shut up.

NOTE:  Just a wee bit of Wednesday morning humor, in keeping with the theme of the approach of Valentine’s Day!

Poem of the Day by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How Do I Love Thee

* Elizabeth Barrett Browning *

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, — I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! — and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

NOTE: With Valentine’s Day (and coincidentally, my wedding anniversary) fast approaching, I thought maybe some poems of love would not go amiss.  And of course, when thinking of poems of love, How Do I Love Thee must surely be among the first to come to mind.  Enjoy!

Quote #66 – Dorothy Parker

“This wasn’t just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it.”
     ― Dorothy Parker

NOTE: When quoting Dorothy Parker, one finds oneself spoiled for choice.  Picking only one is hard to do! The only answer is to quote her more often.

Poem of The Day by Leo Marks

The Life That I Have

* Leo Marks *

The life that I have
Is all that I have
And the life that I have
Is yours.

The love that I have
Of the life that I have
Is yours and yours and yours.

A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have
Yet Death will be but a pause.
For the peace of my years
In the long, green grass
Will be yours and yours and yours.

Leo Marks wrote this lovely, bittersweet poem on Christmas Eve, 1943, in memory of his girlfriend who had died in a plane crash. According to Wikipedia, in 1944, the poem was issued to Violette Szabo, who was a spy tortured and killed by the Nazis. For more information on this story, check here.

Dog Days by John Levitt

My Rating: 3 of 5 Stars

Well, I’m not sure what to say about this book.  It has good points. And it has bad points.  I’m still pondering them to see

Cover Art – An Interesting (And Exciting) Find

John Paul Pfeiffer a/k/a Harry Dresden

Some of you know that I really enjoy good cover art. Sometimes it’s an overall interesting or intriguing design, and sometimes it’s a particular model that catches my eye. For nearly two years, I’ve been Googling around trying to find the model

Quote #65 – Deborah Harkness

In a Question and Answer session quoted on Meyer Lane’s Short Attention Span Press (a blog I’m learning to really enjoy), Deborah Harkness  had this advice for writers:

“Say yes.” The world is asking you to try new things, have fresh experiences, meet people, see foreign places, and learn things. Most of the time we say no. Say yes. Go for it. Try. Live. Dream. Refuse to be negative. Be generous with your own time and gifts. See what happens then.”

     —Deborah Harkness (A Discovery of Witches)

NOTE: This seems to me to be pretty darn good advice for ALL of us, doesn’t it?

 

Release Day!

Released Today!

For those who haven’t been watching my ” countdown tickers” in the right sidebar, today is the release date for Kim Harrison’s  Ever After, the next book in the Rachel Morgan/Hollows series.  I’ve been eagerly awaiting this book, in the fervent hopes that a certain two characters who shall remain nameless, but whose initials are Rachel & Trent, finally figure out they are destined to be together.  Oh, and of course, there’s the whole “save the world, stop the wars between the elves and the demons, and make life happy for all of Mankind” thing, too.  But still.  For a romantic like myself, it’s all about those two unnamed characters.  I highly recommend this series to any Urban Fantasy fan.  It has everything you want in a good UF, in spades! Check it out, starting with the first book, Dead Witch Walking, and read the books in order.  It would be pretty much impossible to follow the goings-on if you didn’t.

I’ll be reviewing this book as soon as I receive my pre-ordered copy.

Ever After (Rachel Morgan)

If you decide to place an order with amazon, clicking through from my links will give me credit.  If you are enjoying  my reviews on Bookin’ It, it’s a great way to let me know!  Thanks!

Dangerous Talents by Frankie Robertson

My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars

My last post dealt with authors who blog on WordPress, especially self-published authors who may not have become household names yet. (Though, of course, we know they ALL will get there someday, right?)  Frankie Robertson isn’t a beginner, by any means, but I don’t think I would have discovered her books if I had not found her on WordPress,

Do You Read WordPress Authors?

I find myself constantly surprised at the number of writers with WordPress blogs, ranging from beginners to very experienced and well-known authors, whose names you would probably recognize immediately.  I have been trying to research

Aaah….That Explains It!

Ever walk into a room with some purpose in mind, only to completely forget what that purpose was? Turns out, doors themselves are to blame for these strange memory lapses.  Psychologists at the University of Notre Dame have discovered that passing through a doorway triggers what’s known as an Event Boundary in the mind, separating one set of thoughts and memories from the next!  Your brain files away the thoughts you had in the previous room and prepares a blank slate for the new locale.  Who knew?

Thank goodness for studies like this.  It’s not our age.  It’s that damn door!

Ummm…did I post about this already?

 

(NOTE: Received this in an email from a friend.  Have no idea where it came from, but it was too good not to share! Enjoy!)

 

Mortal Ties by Eileen Wilks

My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars

Author Eileen Wilks was once best known for her light romance novels, which she has written in great number, and which have been very popular over the years.  But hiding inside this Romance writer was an Urban Fantasy author begging to be released.  At least, that’s my take on it.  When Wilks created the World of the Lupi in 2004,

What Are You Reading?

Well, the New Year is here, the holiday madness is over (though mine lasted through this past Sunday, believe it or not), and life is getting back to normal.  Time to find out what everyone is currently reading. 

I’m about 3/4 of the way through

Quote #65 – Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

“January, month of empty pockets! Let us endure this evil month, anxious as a theatrical producer’s forehead.”

  –Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

 

(Nuthin’ in MY pockets this month, except lint!)

 

There Oughta Be An Award

Anyone else think that plastic jewel box cases for CD’s and DVD’s might just be the most infuriating and annoying storage devices ever invented? Have you ever managed to use one more than 3 times before it fell apart, and then you’re stuck with the lid falling off every time you open it?  So you have to fit those two tiny little peg thingies back into those two completely invisible holes and hope the top will stay closed until the next time you want to play the CD, at which point it will all fall apart again?  There ought to be a Most Useless Piece of Garbage Award.  If there were one, I would definitely put CD Jewel Cases at the top of my list.  Where’s the tie-in with this blog? Audio books. (No, I don’t listen to them myself, but if I did, the frustration of dealing with the jewel cases would cure me of doing so pretty quickly.)

Quote #64 – John Gardner

“In nearly all good fiction, the basic – all but inescapable – plot form is this: A central character wants something, goes after it despite opposition, perhaps including his own doubts, and so arrives at a win, lose, or draw.”
     –John Gardner

Let’s Get Digital by David Gaughran

My Rating: 5 of 5 Stars

If you have any interest in writing and publishing a book of any kind, and you haven’t yet checked out both David Gaughran’s blog and his book, Let’s Get Digital, you really should.  I downloaded

Quote #63 – Henry David Thoreau

“Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.”

     –Henry David Thoreau

(Maybe this will be of comfort to those of you whose days are currently filled with an excess of those cold, white flakes?)

Steel’s Edge by Ilona Andrews

My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars

I have often said that the husband and wife team of Ilona Andrews simply can’t  write a bad book–just varying degrees of good ones.  There was nothing in Steel’s Edge to change my mind about this.  The only thing about it I didn’t enjoy

Some Really Exciting News!

A Wonderful Collection of Poems, Short Stories,  Essays, Novel Excerpts, and Stage Play Scenes

(Fresh From Silver Birch Press)

One of the most exciting things in my whole life happened to me just before the end of 2012–I was invited to submit a poem to Silver Birch Press to be included in their new anthology, appropriately entitled Silver!  It was close to the submission deadline, and all I had pertaining to the overall silver theme was

Quote #62 – Ralph Waldo Emerson

(Click to See Quote & Photo Full Sized)

“The roses under my window make no reference to former roses or better ones; they are what they are; they exist with God today. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence.”

     –Ralph Waldo Emerson

How beautiful is this quote?  And how perfect is the message that we should live in the moment, never comparing ourselves to anyone else, but accepting that we are each beautiful in our own unique way?  This is a card made for me by my very good friend and fellow gardener and rose lover, Nicki.  The photo is from her own garden, and is of an old-world rose called Souvenir de la Malmaison, which we both grow and love for its beauty and fragrance.  Thank you, Nicki, for taking the time to make this for me, and for tucking it into my Christmas “basket.”  It is keeping me company on my desk even as I type, framed to protect it for many years.  I have resolved to read the message often, and strive to remember these words every day!

Quotes #60 and #61 – Erma Bombeck

“When humor goes, there goes civilization.”

“If you can’t make it better, you can laugh at it.”

–Erma Bombeck

 

(These two quotes pretty much sum up my general philosophy of life. Remember to laugh today!)