Congrats to Sarah!

The voting is over and the results are in...nope this isn't about the presidential primaries, folks. I'm talking about the AAR 2008 Annual Reader Poll.

There's lots of good books on the list, but I wanted to give a quick shout out to a fav author and an awesome book that I really loved. Congratulations to Sarah McCarty and Caine's Reckoning for taking the Best American History/Frontier award!!! That's a mainstream category and speaks a lot, I think, to Sarah's ability to write a compelling story that doesn't only rely on erotic content. (Although, lord knows, the heat level totally works for me and I lurve it). So yeah, congratulations Sarah!

Now hurry up and give me Sam!

The 100

Lo and behold, after many hours devoted to the development and honing of this list (hours that I should have been spending doing homework for my managerial accounting class tomorrow), I have finished my top 100 for the AAR poll. I'm exhausted! But what a trip down memory lane. I'm almost embarrassed to show my list because it's VERY heavy on historicals and seems to be very predictable. But I did try to be honest and think back over my entire history of romance reading. I guess I'm a dependable run-of-the-mill historical reader. *g* And if you're wondering what the picture has to do with my list? Absolutely nothing other than the fact that you can never have too many hot Gerard Butler pictures running around, and besides, he looks like he could be the hero in about half of the titles listed below. Also I figured that if the list bored you, at least you could come for the eye candy. Cheers!

1. Outlander - Diana Gabaldon
2. Dragonfly in Amber - Diana Gabaldon
3. Dreaming of You - Lisa Kleypas
4. The Duke - Galen Foley
5. Lover Eternal - JR Ward
6. By Posession - Madeline Hunter
7. All Through the Night - Connie Brockway
8. Into the Wilderness - Sara Donati
9. Silk and Shadows - Mary Jo Putney
10. Devil's Bride - Stephanie Laurens
11. The Secret - Julie Garwood
12. Lord of Scoundrels - Loretta Chase
13. If His Kiss Is Wicked - Jo Goodman
14. Romancing Mr. Bridgerton - Julia Quinn
15. Beast - Judith Ivory
16. The Serpent Prince - Elizabeth Hoyt
17. Shadowheart - Laura Kinsale
18. Shattered Rainbows - Mary Jo Putney
19. Perfect - Judith McNaught
20. Lover Awakened - JR Ward
21. Moonrise - Anne Stuart
22. The Bridal Season - Connie Brockway
23. The Black Angel - Barbara Samuel
24. Iron Rose - Marsha Canham
25. Then Came You - Lisa Kleypas
26. A Secret Love - Stephanie Laurens
27. By Design - Madeline Hunter
28. More than a Mistress - Mary Balogh
29. Lord of the Silent - Elizabeth Peters
30. The Wedding - Julie Garwood
31. After the Kiss - Karen Ranney
32. Beyond a Wicked Kiss - Jo Goodman
33. Welcome to Temptation - Jennifer Crusie
34. Passion - Lisa Valdez
35. To Have and To Hold - Patricia Gaffney
36. Menage - Emma Holly
37. Angel Rogue - Mary Jo Putney
38. The Devil in Winter - Lisa Kleypas
39. Voyager - Diana Gabldon
40. Pale Moon Rider - Marsha Canham
41. And Then He Kissed Her - Laura Lee Guhrke
42. The Stanislaski Brothers - Nora Roberts
43. A Season to Be Sinful - Jo Goodman
44. Promises Linger - Sarah McCarty
45. Suddenly You - Lisa Kleypas
46. All About Love - Stephanie Laurens
47. The Bride - Julie Garwood
48. Dancing on the Wind - Mary Jo Putney
49. Lord of Fire - Galen Foley
50. When He Was Wicked - Julia Quinn
51. Untie My Heart - Judith Ivory
52. Thunder and Roses - Mary Jo Putney
53. The Prince - Elizabeth Minogue
54. Flowers from the Storm - Laura Kinsale
55. Night of Fire - Barbara Samuel
56. The Lady's Tutor - Robin Schone
57. The Raven Prince - Elizabeth Hoyt
58. Drums of Autumn - Diana Gabldon
59. Everything I Ever Wanted - Jo Goodman
60. It Happened One Autumn - Lisa Kleypas
61. Voices of the Night - Lydia Joyce
62. Slightly Dangerous - Mary Balogh
63. The Gift - Julie Garwood
64. To Love a Scottish Lord - Karen Ranney
65. Miss Wonderful - Loretta Chase
66. Mistress - Amanda Quick
67. My Pleasure - Connie Brockway
68. Dark Lover - JR Ward
69. By Arrangement - Madeline Hunter
70. The Proposition - Judith Ivory
71. The Leopard Prince - Elizabeth Hoyt
72. Rules of Attraction - Cristina Dodd
73. Beyond Innocence - Emma Holly
74. The Fiery Cross - Diana Gabaldon
75. No True Gentleman - Liz Carlyle
76. Someone to Watch Over Me - Lisa Kleypas
77. Let Me Be The One - Jo Goodman
78. Kingdom of Dreams - Judith McNaught
79. Wild Child - Mary Jo Putney
80. Saving Grace - Julie Garwood
81. Black Ice - Anne Stuart
82. Dance of Seduction - Sabrina Jeffries
83. Full Moon Rising - Keri Arthur
84. Secrets of a Summer Night - Lisa Kleypas
85. Pirate Prince - Galen Foley
86. Ravished - Amanda Quick
87. He Shall Thunder In the Sky - Elizabeth Peters
88. Beauty and the Spy - Julie Anne Long
89. Scandal's Bride - Stephanie Laurens
90. Mine Till Midnight - Lisa Kleypas
91. The Duke and I - Julia Quinn
92. Mischief - Amanda Quick
93. Scandal in Spring - Lisa Kleypas
94. His Every Kiss - Laura Lee Guhrke
95. When It's Perfect - Adele Ashworth
96. All About Passion - Stephanie Laurens
97. Cooking up a Storm - Emma Holly
98. The Devil Earl - Deborah Simmons
99. Slave to Sensation - Nalini Singh
100. Arousing Suspicions - Marianne Stillings

romance, how do i love thee...let me count the ways

So I have been putting off the creation of my top 100 list for the AAR poll, but time is a ticking. I've been working on it tonite and wow, it's like a walk down memory lane. I started by listing authors in a spreadsheet and then adding another column for book titles and a column for little notes to remind me of the story/plot/characters. So far I have 66 and I'm not done fleshing out all of my fav authors' backlists, so I don't think 100 will be a problem. Putting them in ORDER...now that's another story. still, the whole exercise is interesting. I can see how I've definitely tended towards historical romance until more recently. Some authors that I don't read much now, but who will be on my list include Garwood, McNaught, Laurens, Quick, and Putney. Their work made up the core of my reading during my undergrad years and I consider a lot of it to be classic (at least for me). More recent (to me) authors include Kinsale, Ivory, and Quinn as well as Loretta Chase, Madeline Hunter, Karen Ranney, and Jo Goodman. Then there are the much newer ones like JR Ward, Elizabeth Hoyt, Galen Foley, Emma Holly, Sarah McCarty. Of course the top of the list is reserved for my all-time-all-time-ALL-TIME favorite, Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. We'll see how the rest of them shake out.

I started a book last night and finished it this morning, and I think it will be on the top 100 because I was highly entertained and want to read more of the series. Full Moon Rising by Keri Arthur. Not sure if it qualifies as a romance, but it's going on my list anyways.

Anyways, that's enough of me talking...Go vote!

Meet and greet

Today I had my first experience meeting AAR folks live and in person. I've met lots and lots of people through my other online community, but this was a first. It was interesting and a lot of fun. A little strange to be able to talk about romance novels with other people face to face. I don't think I've ever done that. In many ways, my romance reading feels like my little secret. I get books from the library, buy them at Borders or online and read them alone in my room. I don't have any friends or family that read romance, so no one to discuss with. Just my online peeps. Anyways, they were all very nice and we had a good time over lunch. GailK and I took a quick spin through Borders before meeting the rest. Fun to cruise the shelves and poke fun at some of the covers. A little like doing it on the forum but in real time. *g*

It took me about two hours to drive back home. Part of why my bf and I bought a second car was so that we could drive further than to work/school and home. The other car has 200k miles on it and just isn't reliable enough to take far. This new one is an 01 Honda Civic with 100k. It's still a stick shift which is somewhat new to me. I only learned when we moved to Virginia a year and a half ago. Occasionally, it still freaks me out to be driving on big roads with fast cars and know that if I accidentally pop the clutch or something I could grind to a halt. lol. So far so good though and this car gets great gas mileage. 36 mpg in the city.

Now I am curled up on the couch upstairs transferring season 1 of Bloodties to VHS. Yeah, I know...VHS is ancient technology but I don't know how (nor have the hardwear) to get things from my DVR to anything else. I need to create some space on the DVR for new seasons of upcoming shows, so I gotta save the keepers. Besides, it is always nice to sit and watch Henry. *sigh*