Peeps–I’ve been a bit blue lately. I’m on crutches for six weeks–months after that with a cane–due to a soft tissue hip repair. Covid continues to threaten so many things. I have a neighbor who is as nasty as he can be and that just bums me out. My lovely sister-in-law suggested I read one of her favorite self-help books and I am considering it. But… I’ve never read a self-help book. When I first had kids, people gave me several parenting books and I just decided that they weren’t for me–I used this book instead–probably because I hate to be told what to do. (It’s a failing.) […]

There is chatter in Romancelandia about Helen Hoang’s The Heart Principle. Where her first two books were romances, this novel–and I haven’t read it so I’m just repeating what I’ve heard–is more women’s fiction. Readers, at least romance readers, are upset because the book is far heavier than they thought it would be. There are cries that the book was poorly marketed. […]

This week on Twitter, a famous historical romance author made the point that there are good reasons authors of historical romance break with convention. She argued authors do so not because they’re lazy or stupid but because they are deliberately making choices they feel better serve the stories they tell. I think she’s right. Authors write what they believe will best tell their specific story. Perhaps that’s why I’m not fussed when titles are wrong or language is off or characters behave in ways that seem at best unlikely. I read romance for plot, character, and believable HEAs . As long as a book has those, I enjoy it. […]

I’ve just finished reading Pachinko which I loved. It’s a multigenerational tale of Koreans living in Japan during the 20th and 21st centuries. One of the themes the novel explores is whether or not your nationality/race/ancestors define who you are. Lee, the author, makes a strong case that in places of great prejudice, it does. This I feel is true. I do not, however, believe in kismet or mystical destiny. […]

I am on my yearly week long vacation with my extended family of 21 and almost all the women in the group are reading books set in or around WWII. My daughter and I are reading Pachinko, which begins in the early 30s, my mom is reading a book about female code breakers in Britain, and on of my sister in laws is reading The Nightingale. […]

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve spent the last year listening to the Harry Potter books. I am currently at the end of book six, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and have just sobbed my way through the death of a beloved character.

Dumbledore dies.

I also sobbed my way through the finale of the last season of Unforgotten. That too had a death that gutted me. […]