Bev's Books

It’s a dog’s life ;-)

Bev(BB) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:06:56 +0000

Okay, here’s the deal. I was going to post something thoroughly insightful today but that didn’t pan out. No, seriously, I was but I’ve been feeling like crap for the last two days. Nothing specific, just yuck. If I didn’t know better I’d swear it was the weather, which has actually been rather great but I think that’s a big part of the problem. It’s like we’re already having spring when we should still be having winter and my sinuses are acting up like it’s the middle of summer. I hate feeling this way because I can’t concentrate at all and certainly not on writing posts when I’d rather be outside instead of inside where I’m hot one minute then cold the next. That’s when I’m not feeling like burying my head under the bed the rest of the time. Oye. So, anyway, while I was debating about whether to cobble something ...

Information – where do you look?

Bev(BB) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 19:57:54 +0000

I need some feedback before I share some of my all-time favorite reference books. Or to put it another way, I’m nosy and downright curious as to what everyone else uses. To set the stage, though, I’m currently in the middle of researching how to create and/or layout a small kitchen garden at the back of the house. I’ve wanted one for years but never quite had the inclination to go for it. Still not sure this is the year it’s going to happen but I’ve been digging into some of my old gardening books for inspiration and ideas. At the same time I’ve been looking things up online here and there and that’s when I remembered a list I’d made months ago about the types of reference books I have on my personal & family reference shelf (or shelves as the case may be). You know the type of ...

Happy Valentine’s Day

Bev(BB) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:00:46 +0000

As many years as I’ve been reading romances I’ve never taken the time to look up the history of Valentine’s Day. So, this year I did some reading online and found it fascinating but one reference in particular caught my eye because I suddenly realized I might’ve stumbled across the origin of “scrapbooks” in a rather unexpected place. Check out this quote and see if you catch what I did: Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began selling the first mass-produced valentines in America. Howland, known as the “Mother of the Valentine,” made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as “scrap.” Today, according to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated 1 billion Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year, making Valentine’s Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are ...

How… odd

Bev(BB) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:00:40 +0000

I decided I would make a list of all the Valentine romances that I have to share for today’s post. Only thing is that when I dug around my shelves, my book database, my e-book files and, well, just about anywhere I could think of I came up with only one Harlequin paperback and 2 e-books that even just mention Valentine’s Day much less have that as a theme. (And the two e-books are basically erotic romances, too.) o.O Like I said. Odd. I mean think about this. Longtime romance reader. Huge collection of romance novels. Only 3 Valentine themed romances. Shouldn’t there be more? At least in the paperbacks? Or am I looking at this backwards? Or something. Okay, at this point I became curious and went digging for how many Christmas and Halloween themed romances, well, books, period, I have. Yeah, there are other “holidays” but those two also stand out as ...

How’s the weather your way?

Bev(BB) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:00:42 +0000

I could care less whether or not Phil sees his shadow on Groundhog Day tomorrow, however, it did get me to thinking about the weather and reminded me to mention something else that has become very dear to my heart. A couple of years ago, I became a volunteer Weather Spotter. What most people think when they hear “weather spotter” is someone running around in a car chasing storms, i.e. what’s commonly called a storm chaser, but that’s not what I do or have even been trained for. Oh, it’s true that the Weather Service does offer elite training for what they call mobile spotters and there certainly are people crazy enough to get out there and chase storms, but here’s the thing – mobile spotting is only truly useful in areas that have a lot of very flat land because otherwise it’s difficult to see over distances far enough to ...

Run for your life – no really

Bev(BB) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:00:24 +0000

I love cozy mysteries. Watching them. Sometimes reading them, too. But don’t think it’s because they have a “lighter” tone than other mysteries do. Cozies tend to be more quirky, sure, but the one thing that cozy mysteries have that most other mysteries don’t is a very large body count. Don’t believe me? Well, check out this quote: Why would anyone be down on cozies in particular? When you think about it, just how cozy are they? How cozy would you feel tucked away in your pristine English country village, at your church potluck supper or your Tuesday evening quilting circle, with neighbors dropping dead all around you? Honestly, if they’d stopped to consider the body count she leaves in her wake, the people of St. Mary Mead would have locked Miss Marple in her house and never let her out. via Back Away From My Cozies and No One Gets Hurt. Nowadays this is ...

One of my favorite places on the web

Bev(BB) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:14:39 +0000

I’m not sure how long it’s been part of the LOL network but I fell in love with Set Phasers To LOL from the first moment I saw it. Partly because like the other LOL sites it has lots of funny stuff, but also because it has its only unique slant/approach to doing things. Which generally involves a combination of the normal captioning of pictures (or in this case screen captures) the LOL sites are known for with a liberal sprinkling of fandom lore that I find equally fascinating. Such as the It Came From Science Fiction post illustrated below: see more Set Phasers To Lol If you click through to the post itself, you’ll find a list – illustrated in multiple book covers no less – of “words that began in science fiction but made it into science fact” and that’s definitely fun brain food for even the not-so-diehard fan in ...

Want now please ;-)

Bev(BB) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 15:06:00 +0000

I reblogged about this on Tumblr but couldn’t resist mentioning it here too because he’s just soooo cute and happy looking as a Transformer. If you don’t recognize The Mystery Machine, I don’t know you. So just go away and let me have my fan moment in peace. Heh. Related Posts: Where are you, Scooby Doo?

Oh, my aching back

Bev(BB) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 21:05:47 +0000

I cracked up when I ran across this over on one of the LOL sites: see more Set Phasers To Lol In case you can’t figure it out, it’s a fantasy author attempting to imitate the poses on some of, I think, his books. They may not be all his books but whatever. It’s still hilarious that he basically ended up almost doing injury to himself in the attempt. Related Posts: Why do I keep falling for this stuff when I know what’s going to happen eventually? A hand, but what’s it doing? another body parts puzzle

Why do I keep falling for this stuff when I know what’s going to happen eventually?

Bev(BB) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:00:48 +0000

I had intended to post on another topic today but between slowly recovering from a cold, a bad elbow that’s limiting my typing and family activities over the weekend that post isn’t ready yet. However a mini-rant came to me out of the blue a couple of nights ago so you get the benefit of that. Anyway, I was in the mood for some detective shows and had sat down to watch the TIVO recording of Monday’s episode of the new Hawaii Five-O and immediately noticed that the description was only two sentences – not unusual – but one was about McGarrett’s personal life, the other was about Danno’s and there was nothing about any case they might be investigating during the episode. My brain did a full stop and I haven’t yet been able to bring myself to watch the episode. Now, my reaction could be totally unfair here but ...