Readers' Choice: Romance Novels

I came across a list of 100 popular romance novels . These 3, that I have never read by the way, seemed to have tied for the number 1 spot: Outlander , a time travel romance, by Diana Gabaldon; Dream Man , a romantic thriller, by Linda Howard; It Had to Be You, a romantic comedy, by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.

Check the list of historical romances and other romance subgenres on eharlequin.

Movie Review of Larsson's Hornet's Nest

This is an interesting movie review of Steig Larsson's bestselling thriller,The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. The movie review is based on the third book in the trilogy. I noticed today that the movie based on the second book, Girl who Played with Fire, is now available through redbox.

Oprah's book club pick: Freedom

I did not like Freedom. I couldn't waste any more time reading it. The characters were all dysfunctional; none was likeable. (What follows could have spoilers, if you are also reading this book.)

In the story, Patty is married to Walter and is in love with Walter's "friend", Richard. Walter is stable and husband material while Richard is a womanizer. Why would Patty fall for a character like Richard? Why would Walter be in love with Patty, a woman that was clearly stupid and naive? Patty made friends in college with Eliza, a manipulative and controlling person who established rules for their relationship. How could Patty not see right away that something was not quite right about Eliza?

Patty grew up feeling neglected by her parents yet she herself raises two children and repeats the pattern. She ignores one child, her daughter, and she overwhelms the other child, her son, with so much attention as if he were her best buddy. He grows up resenting her for burdening him with her issues. He gets his freedom by escaping and moving in with the family next door.

Walter and Patty move to Washington D.C. where Patty encourages Walter to have a relationship with his young Indian assistant who is actually in love with Walter. Patty and Walter are clearly unhappy with each other but not ready to end the marriage. Patty hooks up with Richard again.

I was intrigued with Patty's son and how his relationship with the clingy Connie was going to turn out. I skimmed the pages and saw that he actually marries her despite treating her so badly.

Yesterday, I moved on to read Crossing by Andrew Xia Fukuda. Only 213 pages so I finished in a day. It was a sad book about the bullying of a Chinese American boy in a predominantly white school. This is a mystery story where boys in his class start disappearing; in fact it is a good Halloween scary type story. There is no happy ending.

Book Your Lunch

I came across this site called Book Your Lunch while browsing the internet this morning. I love this idea of authors and readers getting together over a $25.00 lunch. This takes place in Greenville, South Carolina at The Lazy Goat and is sponsored by Fiction Addiction. Nice names.

Greenville novelist, Mindy Friddle, was there on May 26. Her second novel, SecretKeepers, deals with a dysfunctional southern family.

Georgia writer, Donna Ball, was there October 26. She is the writer of the bestselling Ladybug Farm series. Her third book, Love Letters from Ladybug Farm, was just released in October.

Coming up next on November 9 is the writer of My Only Sunshine, Lou Dischler. This is a story set in the 1960s about a rural Louisianna family.

Our Book Club Selection

We have selected the debut book by Iranian-American, Anita Amirrezvani for book club discussion in November. It is titled, The Blood of Flowers. Click on the link to read a biography of the writer.

This is an interesting interview with the writer about her inspiration for the narrator of the story, among other topics.

Children's Authors

I wrote to DearReader.com , an online book club, about my book purchasing dilemma which I addressed yesterday. I got an email response with some links to children's Authors on Kids Buzz. Here are just three of the authors that I discovered on the DearReader book blog:

First, there is the writer with the unusual name, Lit Judge, and her book, Born to be Giants, is for the 5-12 year olds with an interest in dinosaurs.

Lisa Brown has a vampire book for the 3-8 year olds; perfect for those who celebrate a not too scary version of Halloween.

Robert Forbes has a Facebook page promoting his second book of poetry for children, Let's Have a Bite!

Choosing a book for a Child

My niece turned 5 last week and I am just getting around to mailing a gift. I have been credited for helping to turn my 20 year old god -daughter into an avid reader by giving her gifts of interesting books when she was a child. My "reputation" was at stake. I had to find the perfect book for my 5 year old. I looked at the I Spy series online and they seemed like fun, especially I Spy Fantasy. The series was recommended to me by a mother with young children. In I Spy, the children get to hear or read a nice rhyme and look for hidden items in pictures. I looked at Wild About Books and Library Lion at the Waycross College library.

I liked the story in Library Lion aboaut a helpful lion and it included a demonstration of when to suspend the library rules. I didn't like how the librarian in Library Lion looked; too stereotypical. Also, it is an old story because there was a card catalog cabinet in the drawing. I could not decide on a book. I wondered if I should not just buy an item of clothing or a DVD instead.

In the meantime the days were flying by and I had to get this birthday gift into the mail right away. I decided on Library Lion this morning. Gosh, it's hard to choose a kid's book.


What kind of book was I looking for? I wanted a large book, a colorful book, a book with a good story, a book with a positive images, and a book that is age appropriate with easy words that a beginning reader could learn easily.

New Memoir: Fastest Man in the World

Charismatic Jamaican athlete, Usain Bolt, has a book out, now available on amazon.com, and it is titled: Usain Bolt: My Story: 9.58: Being the Fastest Man in the World.

Usain won the hearts of the world when he won gold in the 100-meter, the 200-meter, and the 4x100-meter relay in Beijing in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

Read the story that I was inspired to write about Usain on bukisa.com in 2009 titled, Usain Bolt Fulfilling his potential: an Inspiring Lesson.

Is it just me or is it nuts out there?

That's the attention grabbing title of Whoopi's lastest book. Take a look at the book cover on amazon.com I looked at a few pages on amazon and I could almost "hear" Whoopi's voice in my head as I read. This is a book about her pet peeves. Speaking of Whoopi, there was controversy on The View yesterday.

Whoopi walked off the set of The View in solidarity with Joy Behar. Both were annoyed with Bill O'Reilly's claim that "Muslims killed us" on 9/11 thus demeaning all Muslims, rather than saying specifically that Muslim extremists or terrorists or radicals murdered people on 9/11.

Bill was on the show promoting yet another book. This one was titled, Pinheads and Patriots.

Really, I should be asking, "Is it me or is it nuts out there in talk show land".

Stieg Larsson's trilogy or more

I don't know what to make of this article. Is there or is there not a fourth (or fifth) book in the Stieg Larsson thriller series? If there is another book, I am betting that Stieg's companion, Eva, has it and she will complete it herself and have it published.

Guy Lit

I am reading a book that falls in the category of Guy-Lit, also known as Lad-Lit or Dude-Lit. I am reading Formosa Straits by Anthony Hyde. The setting is Taiwan. The first paragraph is an exciting attention grabber. The protagonist Nick Lamp, an American businessman of Chinese descent, finds the dead body of businessman and thug, Cao Dao. Nick met with a Japanese prostitute who was hiding in Cao's apartment while he was murdered but now she too has been murdered. An american lawyer, Robert Young, out of the blue is offering Nick legal services but Nick remembers his father's word, Trust no one. I am on page 95 and it is exciting so far.