February Wrap-Up

As we say farewell to the shortest month of the year, it’s time to take a look and see how I’m progressing on my goals/resolutions for the year.  Here we go….

Books Read in February:

1. The Ghost Writer by Alessandra Torre
2. I Am Your Judge by Nele Neuhaus
3. Clean Sweep by Michael J. Clark
4. Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet by Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler

Collected Comics:

Top Ten Tuesday: Book I Could Re-Read Again and Again

Time for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl).  This week’s topic is the books we could read multiple times.

I’m going to include some old favorites and some new ones that I love reading to Shortcake.

Review: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas & Ms. Marvel, Vol. 8: Mecca

A good book can take places you’ve never been.  

A great book n only takes you to places you’ve never been, but has those places linger in your thoughts after the final page is turned.

In the past couple of months, I’ve read two books that have taken me outside my typical worldview and have lingered in my thoughts long after the final page was turned.  The first was the much (deservedly so) lauded The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas and the other, as unlikely as it may seem, was a new collection of Marvel’s Ms. Marvel comic book, Mecca.  

Top Ten Tuesday: Love Is In the Air

Love is in the air for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl).  In honor of Valentine’s Day, this week is a “love freebie.”

My top ten this week centers on pop culture couples I’ve enjoyed.

1.  The Taylors on Friday Night Lights.  The initial hook of the show was about football in a small town. But what kept me hooked for five seasons was the characters and the relationships. And the centerpiece of that was Coach Eric Taylor and Tami Taylor. They had their ups, their downs and everything in between.  And it always felt authentic. If you haven’t checked out Friday Night Lights yet, please add it to your “to be watched” list.
2. Buffy and Angel on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  While many fans hold up season three as the pinnacle of Buffy greatness, this fan prefers season two.  At the center of that was the relationship of Buffy and Angel.   Over the course of 22 episodes, the two get together, consummate the relationship, and then have it all go to hell, ending with Buffy having to sacrifice Angel to save the world.  I love season two and the roller coaster ride that is Buffy and Angel that year.
3. Sheridan and Delenn on Babylon Five. One of the best sci-fi romances out there. If you haven’t watched Babylon Five, consider it a must-see.
4. Bill Adama and Laura Roslin on Battlestar Galactica.  Another sci-fi show that gets the romance angle right. The slow burn between Adama and Roslin is just part of what makes this one of the best shows ever made.
5. Sam and Diane on Cheers.  Cheers is a master’s course on how to do comedy — and how to do a romantic comedy.  I’ve been visiting the series again and I’m pleased with how well it all holds up, especially Sam and Diane.
6. Lois and Clark on Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.  The first season is a screwball comedy delight and season three when Lois figures out that Clark Kent equals Superman has some high points.  The series really jumped the shark when they had the five-part wedding storyline that ended with the characters not married and Lois suffering amnesia and falling in love with her therapist (but I’m not still bitter…noooooo, not at all!) But even when the series got completely off the rails, the chemistry of Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher made this show.
7. Hildy and Walter from His Girl Friday.  The perfect screwball comedy, this one is a joy to watch. I love the chemistry between the two divorced reporters and how we know from the first scene they share that they’re going to get back together.  If you haven’t seen it, consider this one the second add to your watch list recommendation from this list.
8. Posey and John from Bless Her Heart by Sally Kilpatrick. Hard to pick just one couple from Sally Kilpatrick’s romance novels, but this one was the most recent and freshest in my memory. Part of it may be that Posey and John are both flawed characters with unique pasts but can still fall in love. It’s not a smooth road and the ending doesn’t wrap it all up with a nice bow. It leaves our lovers in a place that feels authentic and that there’s potential for a great future together.
9. Rory and Amy Pond from Doctor Who. Notice that I don’t put Rose and the Doctor here. I won’t spend eighteen hundred words going into why I didn’t care for their “romance.”  Instead, I prefer Amy and Rory from the (superior) Moffat-era of the show.  While it’s not perfect and the two have their ups and downs, I couldn’t help but enjoy their relationship.

Top Ten Tuesday: Longest on the TBR List

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) takes a look at the TBR pile and asks which books have been languishing on there the longest.

Here are mine:

Review: The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen

About two-hundred pages into The Wife Between Us the unreliable narrator notes that there are three sides to a marriage — his side, her side, and the reality of the situation.

This thought occurred to me long before Vanessa pointed it out to her readers. I also found myself wishing that the cover blurb and marketing materials hadn’t teased that there were twists contained within the pages of the story and that we’d question everything being related by the narrator. It would have made the surprises much more unexpected when Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen begin pulling the rug out from under us and playing with our assumptions.

After her husband divorces her, Vanessa is left trying to pick up the pieces of her shattered life. She is apparently obsessed with the woman who will soon be marrying her husband and will do anything in her power to warn his next wife of the secrets she hid before, during, and after her marriage. Vanessa teases tidbits to come that led to the demise of her relationship as well as the truth of what was really happening in her life and her marriage.