i am not a maiden fair
Today was busy. G's 8th birthday party (he serenaded us on his guitar, and for an 8yo, he does a mean Johnny Cash impression, though perhaps "Jackson" is not age-appropriate for him and his 9yo sister to sing, *snerk* it was still adorable. I commended M&S on instilling their children with good taste in music.), doing my taxes, coloring eggs...
I need to buckle down on this remix so I can finish it and get to the other one, the thought of which is making me nearly incoherent with glee.
I also finally sat down and finished Carla Kelly's latest, Beau Crusoe.
Okay, so normally I love Carla Kelly's books (she has her own tag on my LJ, and I rec her all the time to people who are all, "I don't like romance novels!"), but this one just... didn't do it for me. Possibly I liked it even less than Libby's London Merchant, which is the only other one of hers I've read and didn't really love, mostly because of the fakeout of Nez appearing to be the romantic lead and then...not actually getting the girl (I did love the follow-up where he did, though, so that worked out. I wonder if rereading Libby's London Merchant with that in mind would make me like it better?).
There were some good things in it - the reconciliation between Susannah and her sister Loisa made me cry in typical fashion for her books, and the way Trevenen convinced the father to get rid of the toucans was hilarious - but I just didn't really like Trevenen that much, and his whole thing with the hallucinations of the dead sailor didn't thrill me, which is a problem when he's the romantic lead and so much of the story is from his POV. And I really didn't like the inclusion of Lady Audley as the evil predatory seductress, a characterization Kelly's usually dodged in her books, and which left a bad taste in my mouth in this one.
I dunno. I guess because I reread her books a lot when I need comfort reading, I have higher expectations, and this one just ... didn't meet them. Sigh.
***
So my parents were watching "Entertainment Tonight" as I was coloring eggs for the kids' baskets, and they had a snip of Justin Timberlake talking about how George Clooney was the coolest (or maybe sexiest?) man in America, and that, more than anything JT himself has done made me like him more than I ever have before (which isn't much, but you know, small steps).
Oh, and fox1013 would have appreciated the long discussion of reality television that was had over birthday cake. Family gatherings often resemble fannish ones in my family, except there is usually (but not always) a lot less talk of gay sex. My family = win!
***
I need to buckle down on this remix so I can finish it and get to the other one, the thought of which is making me nearly incoherent with glee.
I also finally sat down and finished Carla Kelly's latest, Beau Crusoe.
Okay, so normally I love Carla Kelly's books (she has her own tag on my LJ, and I rec her all the time to people who are all, "I don't like romance novels!"), but this one just... didn't do it for me. Possibly I liked it even less than Libby's London Merchant, which is the only other one of hers I've read and didn't really love, mostly because of the fakeout of Nez appearing to be the romantic lead and then...not actually getting the girl (I did love the follow-up where he did, though, so that worked out. I wonder if rereading Libby's London Merchant with that in mind would make me like it better?).
There were some good things in it - the reconciliation between Susannah and her sister Loisa made me cry in typical fashion for her books, and the way Trevenen convinced the father to get rid of the toucans was hilarious - but I just didn't really like Trevenen that much, and his whole thing with the hallucinations of the dead sailor didn't thrill me, which is a problem when he's the romantic lead and so much of the story is from his POV. And I really didn't like the inclusion of Lady Audley as the evil predatory seductress, a characterization Kelly's usually dodged in her books, and which left a bad taste in my mouth in this one.
I dunno. I guess because I reread her books a lot when I need comfort reading, I have higher expectations, and this one just ... didn't meet them. Sigh.
***
So my parents were watching "Entertainment Tonight" as I was coloring eggs for the kids' baskets, and they had a snip of Justin Timberlake talking about how George Clooney was the coolest (or maybe sexiest?) man in America, and that, more than anything JT himself has done made me like him more than I ever have before (which isn't much, but you know, small steps).
Oh, and fox1013 would have appreciated the long discussion of reality television that was had over birthday cake. Family gatherings often resemble fannish ones in my family, except there is usually (but not always) a lot less talk of gay sex. My family = win!
***