But was it worth the wait?

November 25 was the release date for Book Three of Nora Roberts' Sign of Seven Trilogy. Needless to say, I was at Target bright and early, ready to grab my copy and start reading. Imagine the horror when all I found were five rows of empty bookshelves, neatly labeled with price stickers but no damn books to be found. And I wasn't alone...two other women were also staring sadly at the empty display. Take that, Harry Potter!

Three stores later, I was able to score a copy at Giant (hope my new-found friends were as lucky). And it was worth the effort. Nora Roberts is my escape literature drug of choice. Mysteries, love stories, even the trashy, oh-so-awful ancient Silhouette romances; I love them all.

The Pagan Stone is the third book in Roberts' latest straight to paperback trilogy. You have to admire a marketing strategy that basically takes one story, stretches it into three books, and then makes you wait almost a year to find out how it all ends. Sign of Seven hasn't been my favorite series. Yet another battle between ultimate evil and normal people rising to the occasion which was much more entertaining in the Circle Trilogy. But like all of Nora Roberts books, it's extremely well written. Good flow, good dialogue, and always a plot twist or two. Just when I think I know where the story is going there's a little jog to keep me interested.

Roberts' books may be a little formulaic (always have to have those matchy-matchy couples, nice mutt a bonus) but they never feel dashed off. They read as if some effort was made to craft a good story. You know that family (by birth or of the heart) is still the most important thing, that true love exists, and that it's possible to have hot sex late in life. Does a bathtub book require anything else?

"What's that girl? Timmy fell down an abandoned mine shaft?"

I picked up Santa Clawed by Rita Mae Brown (and let's not forget Sneaky Pie) to read while recovering from my recent surgery. Something easy was necessary and this book was certainly that.

Let me say right up front that I'm a big fan of Brown's. Loved Loose Lips and Bingo, and I even enjoyed the first few books of this series quite a bit. But Brown seems to have gone the way of all series writers; rushing to get a story in print without putting a whole lot of effort into it. Someone gets murdered? Check. Harry sticks her nose in where it doesn't belong and almost gets killed? Check. Animals save the day? Check and check again. Extra points if she can get a few digs in about how crass the rest of the country is compared to Virginians. I understand that Brown needs to make a living, but can't we get a little character development? We've become invested in these characters after all this time and I'd like to learn a bit more about them or else there's no point in reading on.

That said, it's a nice story for a rainy day. Certainly not wishing those two hours of my life back. And I totally want a corgi now. Or two.

I love...LibraryThing

I absolutely adore LibraryThing. For those of you who've never heard of it, LibraryThing is an online book cataloging service. You can keep track of all your books, add comments and reviews, read what other people have to say about the books, and more. If you're socially inclined there are plenty of discussion groups to join as well. Anyone can get a free account (which allows you to catalog up to 200 books) or get a lifetime subscription for $25.

One of my life goals is to get all our books entered on LibraryThing. I figure I'm about half done (700 and counting!). This would certainly be easier if a) Mike & I quit buying so many books, and b) I wasn't such a lazy slug, but I'm working on it. You can track my progress using the link to my library on this blog.

Pouvez-vous lire en français?

Today I read French Milk by Lucy Knesley. It's a journal covering a month she spent in Paris with her mother. I originally picked it up because Knesley wrote it as a senior at SAIC and the book itself is a combination of photographs and cartoons. Knesley has a real knack for capturing the essence of a person or place with her drawings, and I espcially enjoyed her snarky comments about the art she saw in France. Made me miss Beth!