Paris, H&H, Bond, and Books

My knee-jerk reaction during times of great tragedy is to go dark on social media.  1) Because I never know what to say 2) Even if I thought I knew what to say there's always the chance I'll step in it and say the absolute wrong thing and 3) This is all assuming that any words I would say would be of any use to anybody dealing with a horrific tragedy like what has unfolded in the past couple of days in the cities of Beirut and Paris.

My solution is to stay positive, stay upbeat, and blog about something happy like love and romance novels.  And to leave you with these thoughts: positivity never hurt anybody.  Be good to each other Romancelandia peeps.  Hug your loved ones a little tighter, and don't let a wasted moment go by where you can kiss them, tell them how important they are to you, how life is a little better, a little easier, a little brighter, because you have each other. 

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I have a new post up over at Heroes & Heartbreakers, and surprise, surprise - it's about historical romance.  What would I love to see more of in historical romances?  Head on over and read Please Madam, May I Have Some More? to find out.

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You know how everyone on the Interwebs is losing their damn minds over the new Star Wars movie?  Yeah, that was me with Spectre, the latest James Bond / Daniel Craig offering, which I finally saw yesterday.

Final verdict: It wasn't terrible, but I was underwhelmed.  Probably a B- underwhelmed.  Here's my review in bullet points:

• I miss Judi Dench. A lot. Craig / Fiennes just don't have the same chemistry.


• Monica Belluci is criminally underutilized.


• There needed to be buckets more Craig / Waltz on screen together. 


• I never cared for the Moneypenny character in the old movies but love how they've rewritten her in the new movies.


• The opening sequence. Mexico City during Día de Muertos = inspired.  Horrible blue screen during helicopter sequence = really, really not good.  They couldn't have thrown some more money at that to make the blue screen look less obvious?


• I think I liked it better than Quantum of Solace, but nowhere near the caliber of Casino Royale or Skyfall.  QoS grew on me after I rewatched it - I'm hoping Spectre follows the same pattern.

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We had repairmen in the Bat Cave this week that required me to move my book case.  This required taking books off said book case, which in turn led to me doing a massive sort and weed as I was putting things to right after the repairmen left.

Stating the obvious, good golly I have a ton of books.  Between an addiction to used bookstores, library sales, and the multitude of books I get at conferences - it's no wonder I have TBR anxiety.  I finally admitted some hard truths to myself and got rid of things I know I'd never read.  Yes, you may be one of my favorite authors but I'm just not going to read your paranormals.  I read so few single title contemporaries, why did I pick this one up again?  Cutesy sounding historicals - that ship has sailed.  And on and on I went.  I didn't count, but I think I easily ended up weeding out a couple of hundred (did I stutter?).  Now it's just a matter of stealing boxes from work, taking them in to work, and finding them new homes.  Hopefully somewhere they won't be neglected.