My Favourite Things

Two posts on the same day? During work hours? Huh, you'd think I had nothing to do. Oh, wait. I don't.

Yeah, how much do I love sitting in bumper to bumper traffic for 2 - 3 hours a day to go to a job where I have maybe an hour's worth of work to do? Such a great use of my time. And seriously. It's tuna. There's 110 g. in the can. It comes in flakes and chunks. What more is there to say?

*sigh*

But, I realized that I've been a little negative about other people's books lately, and really, I love to read. I love books. I'll read anything I can get my hands on. I even have a Reading Buddy at work. We sit together at lunch, but we read instead of gossip. (Yeah, I know. I'm a geek.) And my bookshelf, well.. there's 7 in my house crammed full (i.e. each shelf has stacks at least 10 - 20 high, and two to three piles deep.) (And that doesn't count the three giant bags hidden in the closet that I need to find shelf space for.)

And I have some favourite authors.

If I had to pick just one absolutely all time favourite romance novel... Gentle Rogue by Joanna Lindsay. There's just something about James Mallory.... pirate, member of the ton, damn sexy....

And my new favourite author, Erin McCarthy, who I discovered through the Brava Novella Contest. Seriously. Funny, sexy, and in Bad Boys Online she has a 100-page sex scene. Awesome. I want to be her when I grow up.

I also recently discovered MaryJanice Davidson and her "Undead" series. Funny and vampires, which at first I thought was an odd combination when I picked up Lindsay Sands' Single White Vampire, but found that I like them so much better. Oddly enough, I remember reviewing one of MaryJanice's YA books back when I did that for a website I don't remember... It was very cool to be able to google myself and see my name under the review, which used to be on her website. It's not anymore. Oh, well.

And I really got started in category romance, which I'd hardly ever read before I interned at Harlequin, with Lori Foster. Actually, I wrote the back cover copy for Scandalized, which is printed on the B&N site. Very cool. (who'm I kidding? eeeeee! :) ) It's always funny when I go to job interviews, because that cover (and the other one I wrote) are in my portfolio. Here I am applying for a job as a technical editor or writer and here, look at my romance novel covers *grin*. Though some interviewers get really sort of wierded out by that, especially since being Pres of that local chapter I no longer belong to is on my resume... I can't tell you how many times I've heard "You know there's no romance writing in this job". No, really? You mean a Financial Institute doesn't publish romance? I never would have guessed...

Good lord, this is hard. I have so many authors I make sure I read...
Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books (though I really hope Stephanie starts to grow as a character, she's getting a little boring making the same mistakes over and over again (though how good would Vin Diesel be as Ranger in the movie version?) )
Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake and Merry Gentry series. (And I'd really like to know what kinda crazy ass shit went down on her blog that she had to take down her comments and message board pages)
And naturally, I have to have everything written by Jennifer Crusie. I loved her launch book for the Love and Laughter series... the one with the cougar heroine and the hero who wore Daffy Duck boxer shorts.
And I loved Alison Kent's gIRL gEAR series.

I'm currently re-reading Erin McCarthy's Smart Mouth, and when I'm done, I just bought A Connecticut Fashionista in King Arthur's Court by Marianne Mancusi, which I've heard good things about.

And I'm always looking for new books to read, new authors to discover... I'm open to suggestions.