Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Friday, November 20th, 2009
LaRue Foster is the lucky winner of three e-galleys and six print galleys of upcoming Avon books. Not to even mention the supercute pink and green tote bag.
We thank everyone who took the time to enter. And, of course, we thank Avon for their generosity and creativity in putting together such a terrific prize package.
Don’t forget that until December 12th, you can save 20% off the price of Avon Books when you shop in the online Harper Collins store. Just enter the code AARAvon20 at checkout.
-Sandy AAR
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
With the premiere of New Moon looming, suddenly everyone’s talking about vampires. The diehard Twilight fans I know never entirely stop talking about it, but the chatter grows ever louder. I’ve read all the books and I suspect I’ll end up seeing all the movies, but there is so much more to read once you’ve run through Bella and Edward (and Jacob)’s story. If you’re hooked on vampires, there are a ton of good books out there.
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Tags: Polls, Reading, Twilight, vampires
Posted in Books, Lynn AAR, Polls, Uncategorized | 28 Comments »
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
I normally adore Bookmarks magazine. While more than half my reading is romance, I read all kinds of other books as well and Bookmarks gives pretty good coverage of the non-romance world. They tend towards covering mainstream fiction without a lot of pretentious B.S., and their historical fiction articles by Sarah Johnson in particular have given me fantastic reading suggestions. However, when I saw their Guilty Pleasures article in the November/December 2009 issue, I was rather taken aback. The article (part I in a series) goes through types of books the author considers “guilty pleasures” and ranks them as Paradise (practically guilt-free, you could even be seen in public with these), Purgatory (nightstand reading) and Hell (books the author says “shame on you” for reading).
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Tags: Bookmarks, insulting romance, Reading, Romance
Posted in Lynn AAR, Reading, Romance reading, Uncategorized | 35 Comments »
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
This confession will probably give some of you a heart attack, but I haven’t read any of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. I know, I know. It’s like I’ve been living under a rock buried 3 miles below the surface of the Earth. But lately I’ve been thinking about giving the first book a try. So I sent out a half-joking tweet on the subject. To my surprise, I received a personal response from my local library letting me know that Outlander is available for checkout, should I so desire. Now granted, I’m kind of a dork, but I thought this was really cool. So cool, in fact, that I decided to explore more of the digital/virtual features my local library offers, and get the perspective of the Sacramento Public Library’s Digital Services Librarian Megan Wong on the subject of libraries in the digital age.
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Tags: ebooks, libraries, online services, Outlander, Reading, Sacramento
Posted in Books, E-books, Katie AAR, Online, Reading, Techno News, Uncategorized | 16 Comments »
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
Recently, I reread Thornton Wilder’s The Ides of March. It’s a book I’ve read with great pleasure before; this time I was particularly struck by the way the relationship between the poet Catullus and society lady Clodia is portrayed. He loves her with all his heart and writes great poems to her and about her; she sometimes admits him as her lover and spends time with him before jilting him again in favor of a rival. The novel leaves no doubt that Clodia is cruel and capricious; however, at this reading, I suddenly felt that I understood her right to jilt him, and her urge to do so. In spite of the undoubted depth of Catullus’ feelings, it is quite clear that Clodia does not feel as deeply for him. Yes, she might have treated him with far less cruelty, as Caesar points out to her, in ending the affair. But for the first time, my reaction as a reader was sympathy with her desire to regain her autonomy in the face of Catullus’s overwhelming love and of his general wonderfulness.
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Tags: Books, Carla Kelly, Charlotte Smith, Georgette Heyer, Jane Austen, lovers scorned, Thornton Wilder
Posted in Characters, Reading, Rike AAR, Uncategorized | 25 Comments »
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
A friend recently started a book club, and I was delighted to join. Sure, what I like best to read are romances and mysteries, but to include one book per month that was outside my usual reading range sounded like a great idea. So far we have met twice, the one book I have read until now was not quite to my taste, but still interesting to peruse, and I like other participants, all women. None of the other women read romance extensively, although one is like me in that she openly and unabashedly prefers happy endings. The other thee women are more into literary fiction, with some women’s fiction and detective stories added. So far, so good. There is only one thing that is driving me up the wall.
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Tags: Book Club, Reading
Posted in Life, Reading, Rike AAR, Romance reading, Uncategorized | 18 Comments »
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
Earlier I posted about the revisions to the FTC guides which will take effect on December 1, 2009. So, what do these mean to AAR? This site is not strictly a blog, but we are a set of volunteers providing reviews of books. As many of you reading already know, we receive most of our books free of charge from publishers and authors, so we quite probably fit within the FTC’s guidelines on dislosure.
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Tags: AAR, FTC
Posted in All About Romance, Lynn AAR, Techno News, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Thursday, October 8th, 2009
First of all, a disclaimer – Nothing in this piece is meant to be taken as legal advice by anyone reading here. Individual situations may vary widely, and anyone with a legal question should consult his or her own attorney for a legal opinion on this topic.
When I saw in the New York Times that the previously rumored changes by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising had indeed been adopted, my first inclination was to hit the blog immediately. Oh, dear God! The sky is falling! Whatever shall we do? Then I did my research. Research before comment – gotta make my old Admin Law prof proud every once and again.
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Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments »
Thursday, October 8th, 2009
We have a winner in our Great Gabaldon Giveaway! From all the entries featuring the correct answer to the trivia question, random.org selected Jennifer Feltwell for us. Congratulations! I hope you enjoy the book!
-Lynn Spencer
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
