Tales from the Mom Side: June 2010

Monday, June 28, 2010

Are you ready for some football?

Alabama Football Stadium Intro for the undefeated National Champs:

At some places they play football. At Alabama we live it.

I get chills.

Best clip from regular season is the field goal attempt by Tennessee. I know where I was at that exact moment. Standing in the southwest portal tied in knots knowing that, if Tennessee scored, our season was over.

Best clip from post-season play is anything from the SEC Championship, especially if it involves Tim Tebow on his back. Beating Florida the way we did was awesome in every way. It was near perfection. Chomp that, Gators!

Best clip from the National Championship game is on the cutting room floor. Colt McCoy and his dad walking back from the locker room. Oops. There I go again. Letting my thoughts get away from me.

Roll Tide. Let the season begin.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

My quirky literary musings: Part II

Part I was all about my favorite things. Part II is about my dislikes. We all have them.

My least favorite author of all time: Janet Dailey. I would not read one of her books if you wrapped it up and presented it to me on a silver platter. Her characters are wimpy, AND, she was accused, with good reason as I understand it, of plagiarizing Nora Roberts' work.

One of the most disappointing authors in recent times: John Grisham. Yeah, I know he's a best seller and keeps cranking 'em out. But that's how they read...like they've been cranked out of a "book mill." A Time to Kill, his first, was his absolute best. It was followed by a few good works (and movies): The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, and even The Rainmaker and The Runaway Jury. But after that, his writing and my interest plummeted.

Hardest classic author to read: James Fenimore Cooper. How did we ever get such a great movie, The Last of the Mohicans, out of the dullest read in the last century? Someone in Hollywood had a lot more determination than I along with a super imagination. Kudos.

Least favorite female character in a romantic suspense novel: Reece Gilmore in Angels Fall by Nora Roberts. Way too many phobias for a typical NR female lead character even with the lead male character trying to convince us (and the other characters in the book) that she's really strong because she's fighting through them. Yeah. Move on.

Least favorite male character in a romantic suspense novel: Griff Burkett in Sandra Brown's Play Dirty. Griff is paid $500,000 by an eccentric millionaire paraplegic to impregnate his wife. Of course there's a lot more to the story line, but it's just creepy. SB just doesn't do enough to redeem Griff.

Least favorite new release: Ice by Linda Howard. Don't bother to read it. I'm a HUGE LH fan. Cannot believe this book is hers. Sad, sad.

Least favorite new genres: Ghosts and Vampires. I would say that I'm 'over it,' but I never got 'into it.' I can take a little of the supernatural. I can even take a little time travel. In fact, I have a couple volumes of Diana Gabaldon's on the shelf waiting for the mood to strike. But I cannot seem to join the Twilight revolution.

Feel free to make your own list and leave comments. I'd love to hear them!

Monday, June 21, 2010

My quirky list of literary favorites for summer: Part I

I'm currently residing in that twitchy time period awaiting the arrival of new summer romance novels. Publishers are evil. Nora Roberts even said that she was forced to come up with the pseudonym, J.D. Robb, because she wrote too much and too fast for her publishers. They were stockpiling her manuscripts and miserly doling them out to her readers.

Well, if, in this twilight time of waiting, you have to revisit old favorites, here are a few of mine. Of course, these are subject to change as I read. And I'm unapologetically stuck on a theme: trashy romance. Specifically romantic suspense. What's romance without a little murder/mystery thrown in with hot sweaty sex? (Oops. Did I say that out loud?)

Favorite male character in a trashy romance novel: Ford Sawyer in Tribute by Nora Roberts. He is a talented graphic cartoon artist/novelist. He is totally "geeky" in that he can't handle power tools but completely understands Cilla. Just read it.

Favorite female character in a trashy romance novel: Callie Dunbrook in Birthright by Nora Roberts. A little empathy here, because Callie meets her birth mother.

Favorite novel in a Southern setting: Envy by Sandra Brown. Great plots twists and turns. Great read and also great audiobook if you're travelling. Again, just read it.

Favorite book on audio/Best audiobook narrator: Peter MacNicol narrator of Beach Music by Pat Conroy. Pat Conroy is an icon among Southern authors but is sometimes difficult for me to read. MacNicol does an absolutely masterful job of voice characterization making this audiobook memorable. Peter MacNicol was in Ghostbusters II, Chicago Hope, and, more recently, Numbers, etc.

Feel free to comment...