Monday Movie Meme – Date Night

15 Comments

Feature Presentation…
MONDAY MOVIE MEME
This week’s movie topic is all about Date Night…Share on your blog your best or worst movie date, movies featuring movie dates or how you use movies for dates these days.
  
I’ve been on many a date night starting in high school, less through college, with a resurgence in my after college life.  As I think back it’s hard to come up with a best or worst movie date night,  most of them blur together. 
 
I can tell you what our movie dates look like these days.  Jason & I both love college basketball (Jason is more obsessive about his Spartans than I am about my Buckeyes) and March Madness is truly that here.  We print out the brackets and make our picks and we have done this since we were married over 11 years ago.  We make the same bet every year.  The winner gets to choose the next 5 theater movies we see.  Usually we take turns choosing so this is a big deal.  I am the reigning champ, having won for  2 years in a row 🙂  If I win I make sure I pick at least one that we both like, but after that it’s chick flick city.
 
So, I’ll be filling out my brackets today and if any of you have some insight on a good pick leave me a comment and let me know.  I have movies and pride on the line.
Go Bucks and Go Spartans! (The mean tournament people put us in the same bracket this year:()

Deadly Illusions, by Brenda Joyce

8 Comments

Cover ImageFinished 3-13-09, rating 4/5, romance, pub. 2005

This is Book 7 in the Deadly series (Book 1) (Book 2) (Book 3) (Book 4) (Book 5) (Book 6)

Francesca had always assumed she would one day marry a man like her father, someone respectable, admirable, honorable, a reformer and an activist – someone like Rick Bragg.  Instead, she was engaged to the city’s wealthiest businessman and most notorious womanizer.  She still remained uncertain as to how this had happened, and so quickly.  One moment she was friends with the enigmatic and oh-so-charismatic Hart and he was under suspicion for murder.  The next, they were secretly engaged – until he had taken matters in his own hands, tired of her procrastination, making a public announcement.  How had she fallen in love with Calder Hart?  And was it even love?

Chapter 2

It’s now April 1902 in New York City and the beautiful heiress and brave sleuth Francesca finds herself engaged to a man whose very look can make her heat up.  When she begins investigating a murder Calder tags along and she is again caught between her fiance and former flame, Calder’s half-brother, Rick Bragg, the police commissioner.  Rick has enough personal problems of his own as his estranged and now handicapped wife comes home from the hospital.

The mystery in this one was very good.  Women were being attacked and even killed by the Slasher and there was no shortage of suspects.  And I love how there is never a wasted character in this series – they all show up again at some point, making it easy to get invested in their lives.  I loved this as a continuation of Francesca and Calder’s love story, but all is not smooth sailing for the couple.  They are both plagued by doubts and Francesca’s father has decided not to allow the engagement to continue. 

This was from my personal library.

Donating Books

15 Comments

I have two purposes for this post.  The first is to thank giveaway hosts and to accept donations from any of you who would like to donate to a good cause.  The second is to share info on this very cool book that I won from Dawn at  She is Too Fond of Books.  This may be long because I’m in a rambling mood.

I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned New Clevelanders, a welcome group for ladies who move to the east side of Cleveland.  We’ve lived here almost 10 years now and I’ve been involved with New Clevelanders for 8 of those years.  The great thing about this social group is that they never kick you out 🙂  When you move without kids or a job it is very difficult to meet people so this group was essential to my mental health.  There are around 150 members right now and I’m in my fifth year on the board, my second year publishing the 8 page monthly newsletter.  It is mainly a place to make friends, so many of the activities are for fun, but once a year we have a British Tea at a country club where we drink tea, dine on some delicious food and raise money for a local charity.  Last year we raised over $11,000 for the Karen P Nakon Breast Cancer Foundation.  We mainly raise the money by silent auctions on many donated items.  I always donate a Mary Kay basket, but there are big ticket items like Cleveland Cavs tickets, Florida condos for a week, etc.

I have been blessed to win many books over the past few months from many of you awesome book bloggers.  I decided to keep only a few a donate the rest for a nice basket of books to be auctioned or raffled off for the British Tea.  This year we are raising money for Providence House, a crisis nursery offering emergency shelter to children.  So, I want to thank all of you who have randomly chosen me as the winner of your book giveaways 🙂 

Interested in New Clevelanders?  Click on over.  Do you have a new book that you’d like to donate to the cause?  Let me know by leaving a comment or emailing me and I’ll get you my address.  I have about 3 weeks before I need it done. 

Now on to my second book donation topic.  I won Give + Take from Dawn and there are were a few rules.  Concord Free Press published this book for free and they only ask that you donate to a charity in the amount of your choice.  Then you read the book and pass it on to someone who agrees to do the same.  I have made my donation to The City Mission on Cleveland that do amazing things for the homeless, the poor, the addicted.   I volunteered there a few years ago by sorting the donated clothes once a week and I have the greatest respect for the place.  So, I made my donation and logged it on the website.  Next week I plan to read the book and then pass it along.  If you would like to be the next person to read this book, make a donation, and pass it on, let me know. 

Color Scattergories Quiz Results

16 Comments

Thanks to all of you who played Color Scattergories!  To score points you had to be the only one to name that title.  10 points per unique title.  I have decided to offer bonus points this week.  I’m giving 5 EXTRA points for 7 titles that had 2 colors in the title.  Here are the overachievers…

The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother (McBride) – Molly

Violets are Blue (Patterson) – Heather

A Yellow Raft in Blue Water (Dorris) – Heather

Black Swan Green (Mitchell) – Jackie

Riders of the Purple Sage (Grey) – Linda B

Black Rose (Roberts) – Calila

Seduction of the Crimson Rose (Willig) – Nise

And here are the other uniques titles.  There was less overlap than I thought there’d be.

Red Light Wives (Monroe) – Em,  Ravishing in Red (Hunter) – Calila,  The Man with the Red Tatoo (Benson) – Carol,  Woman in Red (Goudge) – Nise,  Careless in Red (George) – Kathy,  Red Sox Rule (Holley) – Molly,  Red Sky at Morning (Bradford) – Linda B,  The Red Pony (Steinbeck) – JoAnn,  My Hands Came Away Red (McKay) – Hannah,  The Red Heart (Thom) – Susan,  Red Dog Rising (Schettler) – Bermudaonion

Gathering Blue (Lowry) – Staci,  Blue Diablo (Aguirre) – Calila,  Blue Like Jazz (Miller) – Carol,  The Blue Zone (Gross) – Nise,  The Deep Blue Good-by (MacDonald) – Kathy,  Blue Shoe (Lamott) – Molly,  The Blue Flower (Fitzgerald) – Jackie,  The Blue Star (early) – Linda B,  Blue Latitudes (Horwitz) – JoAnn,  The Blue Parakeet (McKnight) – Hannah,  Island of the Blue Dolphins (O’Dell) – Susan,  Blue Notebook (Levine) – Bermudaonion

Black Ship (Dunn) – Candice, Bitter is the New Black (Lancaster) – Jenners, Black Coffee (Price) – Em,  The Black Moth (Heyer) – Calila, A Black Tie Affair (Bodine) – Carol,  Black Olives (Dudman) – Nise,  Black Cauldron (Alexandra) – Heather,  The Black Flower (Bahr) – Linda B,  Black Like Me (Griffin) – JoAnn,  Black Dogs (McEwan) – Susan,  Mennonite in a Little Black Dress (Janzen) – Bermudaonion

Woman in White (Collins) – Stephanie D,  A Heart So White (Maras) – Em,  Vision in White (Roberts) – Calila,  The Devil in the White City (Larson) – Carol,  Hypocrite in a Poufy White Dress (Gilman) – Molly,  White Fang (London) – Linda B, White Picket Fences(Meissner) – Hannah,  White Horses (Hoffman) – Susan, White Cat (Black) – Debbie

Green Rider (Britain) – Carol,  Jewel of Gresham Green (Blackwell) – Nise,  Shamus in the Green Room (Kandel) – Hannah,  Green Darkness (Seton) – Susan, Green (Dekker) – Debbie,  Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes (Salinger) – Candice (short story, 5 points)

Good as Gold (Heller) – Em,  Gold (Rhodes) – Jackie,  Five Golden Rings (Michaels) – Calila,  The Golden Tulip (Laker) – Linda B,  The Gold Coast (DeMille) – Susan,  Golden Compass (Pullman) – Debbie

The Yellow Wallpaper (Gilman) Jackie, The Yellow Star (Deedy) – Linda B, Yellow-Lighted Bookshop (Buzbee) – Hannah,  The Yellow House (Falvey) – Bermudaonion

Wearing Purple (Alexander) – Em,  A Purple Place for Dying (MacDonald) – Kathy,  The Purple Emperor (Brennan) – Heather,  Purple Hibiscus (Adiche) – Candice

Rose Matter (King) – Em,  The Name of the Rose (Eco) – Hannah,  Rose Hill (Grandstaff) – Debbie

Mr. Brown Can Moo…Can you? (Dr. Seuss) – Jenners,  Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective (Sobol) – Molly,  Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (Martin) – Heather

Lessons from a Scarlet Lady (Wildes) – Calila,  The Scarlet Thread (Rivers) – Heather,  Scarlett (Ripley) – Jackie

Five Quarters of the Orange (Harris) – Heather,  Oranges are Not the Only Fruit (Winterson) – Jackie, Blood Orange (Campbell) – Debbie

Princess in Pink (Cabot) – Candice,  Nightmare in Pink (MacDonald) – Kathy,  Silver Swan (Black) – JoAnn,  Silversword (Whitney) Susan,  Devil in Amber (Gatiss) – Carol,  The Amber Photograph (Stokes) – Hannah

The Sound of Turquiose (Gregory) – Jackie,  Violet Dawn (Collins) – Nise,  The Picture of Dorian Gray (Wilde) – Jenners,  A Tan & Sandy Silence (MacDonald) – Em,  Ice Cream War (Boyd) – Jackie,  Copper Beech (Binchy) – Molly,  Emerald Garden (Kane) – Jackie,  Midnight Bayou (Roberts) Calila,  Deception of the Emerald Ring (Willig) – Nise,  Plum Lucky (Evanovich) – Em,  The Book of Peach (Stokes) – Hannah,  Under the Lilacs (Alcott) – Linda B,  The Stream & the Sapphire (Levertov) – Hannah,  Chocolat (Harris) – Debbie,  American Rust (Grandstaff) – Debbie,  Ash (Lo) – Debbie,  Vermilion (Whitney) – Susan

So what are the point totals?  Check here to see the results of week 1.

War & Peace & Natasha

7 Comments

No picture this week, but I encourage you to hop on over the Molly’s post where she shares the state of her book and the notes she has taken in the book.  My cover isn’t as beat up, but it does look similar on the inside.  This is a book just begging to be marked up.

We finished Volume II this week and it was high in the drama department and it was all my Natasha’s fault, so I’ll start with her this week. 

Natasha is a messed-up, boy-crazy 16-year-old who I’ve liked until this week.  Natasha has ‘it’, you know, that spark that certain people have that draws everyone to them.  The men can’t get enough of her.  Boris, Prince Andrei, and Prince Anatole all proposed marriage to the girl and even Pierre admitted his tender feelings.  And as much as I hate to say it she treated them all poorly (except for Anatole, but who cares about that jerk?).  She doesn’t have a self-confidence problem, but she doesn’t seem to use her brain very often.  Maybe it’s the hormones and she’ll recover.  I hope she does because she’s going to run out of potential husbands soon.

Prince Andrei recovered from his deep depression and he became interested in military study going as far to submit his ideas to the top Russian decision makers.  Though they did not accept his ideas they did appointment him the head of the Legislative Commission.  He met Natasha and felt youth returning to him.  So much so that he proposed.  His father disapproved and Andrei decided to wait one year to marry.  During that time their engagement was to remain secret.  He went away to heal and when he came back a year later he found that Natasha had refused him.

Maria is a tough one to understand.  Her two loves are her religion and her family.  At one point she had decided to becomes a religious wanderer, without home or possessions, but luckily it has not happened.  She loves her brother Andrei very much and hates Natasha before they even meet.  She doesn’t like the woman who will take Andrei away.  When the two finally do meet the dislike is intense and mutual and she is happy when the engagement is called off.  Her father is still hateful to her and has told her to move out.  I think that would be the best thing for her.

Vaska Denisov was nowhere to be seen this week.  The only thing I learned was that Molly’s Prince Nikolai took over his regiment.  I hope he’s okay.

We’re at the halfway point.  Thanks so much for following along with us.  Now head on over to Molly’s post.  The pics of her book make it worth your time.

Lake Magic, by Kimberly Fisk

6 Comments

Cover ImageFinished 3-1-10, rating 4/5, romance, pub. 2010

“I don’t need to look at any contract.  I am the sole owner of Blue Sky Air.”

He muttered something under his breath, and Jenny had the sinking feeling she should be glad she hadn’t  been able to understand what he’d said.  “You’re exactly like Steven described.”

“Excuse me?”

“Just like Steven said.  All package, no product.”

For a moment she couldn’t breathe.

He was lying.  Steven would never have said anything like that about her.

Chapter One

Jenny was trying to run the fledgling business that she had started with her fiance before he had died nine months before.  Jenny is not the black sheep of the family, but she is the youngest sibling and the one everyone protects from harm.  Jared blows into town and announces that he is a partner in the Blue Sky Air charter business and he would like Jenny to buy him out.  Only Jenny can’t pay him because the business isn’t making any money.  So, Jared moves in with her and helps her get the business in order, all the while waiting for the money that will give him the freedom he craves.

This is a sweet romance with lots of family drama.  I loved Jenny’s family and the way they all came together and loved each other even if they didn’t always get along.  Jenny’s sister and nephew are important characters in the story and Jared himself is a great hero.  The author does a wonderful job of really digging into Jared’s history and psyche. 

I really enjoyed this one, but I wish that Jenny and Jared could have been a little less physically perfect.  This is what Jared though about Jenny, “She’d look completely at home frolicking around Hugh Hefner’s mansion in a bunny suit.”  His nickname for her was Bunny.  As for Jared, “he was one of those men who always looked good, whether they’d gotten off a motorcycle, out of the shower, or out of bed,”  and so on.  For me, their perfection made them less interesting.  A flaw or two can make a character endearing, but being reminded the Jenny was drop dead gorgeous every time Jared called her Bunny was a bit much for me.  Maybe I’m just jealous 🙂

I received this from the Library Thing Early Reviewer Program.

Color Scattergories Quiz

25 Comments

This is the first round of Round 2 of my 2010 quizzes.  This round will last until May 18.  There will be a possible 100 points a week for 11 weeks.  Please don’t cheat by copying off other commenters (in this quiz it won’t help you).  Your first answers will be the only ones accepted.

Ever play the board game Scattergories?  This week’s game is a little like that.  At the beginning of the year I joined the Colorful Reading Challenge and I need to read 9 books with 9 different colors in the titles.  And I haven’t read any.  So, the game is for you to list up to 10 titles (& authors is possible, but not required) with 10 different colors in the titles. 

Like The Color Purple by Alice Walker could be one, but you couldn’t gave me another purple title. 

Where does Scattergories come in?  The title only counts if you are the only one who lists it.  If there are repeats no one gets points.

So, you may come up with 10 titles and get 0 points or give me one title and get 10 points.   Tricky, huh? 

I’m looking forward to seeing what titles you come up with 🙂  Feel free to browse your own blogs or bestseller lists for ideas.  You have until Thursday night to submit your answers.

Monday Movie Meme – the Oscars

21 Comments

Feature Presentation…MONDAY MOVIE MEME (for other Oscar posts check out the Bumbles)
This week’s movie topic is all about Oscar…Share on your blog your thoughts about Oscar
 
I love the Oscars (and the Golden Globes).  I love watching the beautiful Hollywood people arrive in their Sunday best the most.  It’s a girl thing.  Last night there were a few offbeat dresses that I loved.Fashion at the Oscars: Jennifer Lopez in Giorgio Armani Prive & Sarah Jessia Parker in Chanel Haute Couture
 
 
I also love the acceptance speeches. Last night Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges gave moving tributes to their parents.  Then there was this uncomfortable moment.   I love the spontaneity of the moment and I appreciated that there was no speech reading last night.
 
 
I sometimes get excited about the hosts and last night Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin did not disappoint.  I thought they were fun.  Of course, Steve Martin makes me smile most of the time.
 
 
I thought last night’s show was the best I’d seen in a while.  I liked the way they honored the Best Actor/Actress nominees right from the opening of the show and I loved the John Hughes tribute.
 
 
I don’t always think the winners are the most deserving.  When I posted my 5 picks for movies that everyone loved and I hated, 3 of them were Best Picture winners.  And I don’t think they always give the Oscar to the best actor or actress either.  Sometimes, if a respected actor or actress has been doing good work for a while, they will get the Oscar even if they were not the best that year.  And no I’m not naming names!
 
 
So what about you?  How do you feel about the Oscars?  Did you have a favorite dress from last night? 

Deadly Promise, by Brenda Joyce

11 Comments

Deadly Promise by Brenda Joyce: Book CoverFinished 2-28-10, rating 4/5, Romance, pub. 2003

Book 6 in the Deadly series (Book 1) (Book 2) (Book 3) (Book 4) (Book 5)

“You have made this so very complicated by wishing to marry me.  A part of me wishes we could go back to the way things were a month ago!”

“A month ago Rick’s wife hadn’t returned and you were denying all the passion you feel for me.  Poor Francesca.”  He was only half-mocking.  “Torn between tawdry lust and true love.”

She trembled.  “That isn’t fair,” she tried.

“Life is rarely fair.  And do you deny it is Rick that you love?  Do you?  I am the man you merely wish to bed.”  He stared, waiting for her response, his eyes as hard as obsidian.

Chapter 1

It’s 1902 in New York City and Francesca is back from a month out of town when she went off by herself to contemplate her romantic predicament.  She is in love with Rick, an unhappily married man, but his half-brother Calder is her best friend and she accepted his marriage proposal.  But can she go through with a wedding when she loves another man?

There are young, beautiful girls being kidnapped from the streets and sold to brothels and Francesca is determined to find these girls alive.  Only this time Calder insists on accompanying her and causing more tension with Rick.  This book is more about the heat between Calder and Francesca and it was hot!  Calder is one of those bad boys that girls think they can tame, only Francesca doesn’t want to and he doesn’t want to stifle her ambitions either.  I love them together.

I know you are wondering when this series will end and you only have two more Sundays to read about Francesca’s exploits.  I encourage all you romance lovers to give this series a try.

 This book is from my personal library.