Lolly's Library > Recent Status Updates

To my Goodreads friends: I apologize for my lack of activity over the last several months. There's no easy explanation as it involves many health and personal issues. Suffice to say I'm working on getting those issues fixed so I can get back to being more social. Until then, thanks for your patience, and if you'd prefer to unfriend me, I perfectly understand. Be well!

I really shouldn't read stuff like this, stuff so well-written it blows my feeble little mind away. Because it always makes things so much harder when I go back to my writing. *sigh*

I swear, I'm reading, even though I'm not updating (which I seriously need to do). I don't know why I haven't felt like spending time here; after all, I love Goodreads and its community. Maybe it's the ennui which comes with turning forty... lol.

Please explain something to me: Every writing advice article/book I've ever read discourages the use of 'that'--it's lazy writing, they say, and agents/publishers won't take your work seriously--and tell you to use 'which' instead, yet in seemingly every piece of fiction I read, all I ever see is 'that', never 'which'. Excuse me, but I believe there's some kind of disconnect going on here.

"...they were open, dark smoke creeping along the top of the door jams." I've never had door jam before--I wonder what it tastes like? And does it go better with toast or English muffins? Good lord, where the hell are the editors and why aren't they doing their jobs? Door jambs, people.

I will say, though I'm a bit confused by the world Lakey has set out--I hate info-dumps as much as the next person, but they're sometimes necessary when setting out the rules of the world an author has built--I find myself already connecting to the characters, especially Tam and Cheobawn.

Now this is more like it. This book is reading like a lost episode of the show--so much better than the previous novel!

Uh, I'm thinking DeWeese didn't read the show bible or watch a single episode before writing this because most of the terminology is incorrect. Troi would never call Picard by his first name while on the bridge; she'd only use 'Captain' or 'Sir'. Only rarely did Picard use 'Mr.' when speaking to a crewman, especially Data or La Forge; he only used the title when he was peeved. And it's 'Commander Riker'. Jeez!

I still can't believe what really happened. It feels too much like a nightmare and yet all too real. Donald Trump, President-Elect of the United States of America. How is this possible? How did so many Americans allow themselves to be duped? Talk about one helluva a hangover once reality finally sets in. What a sad state of affairs that we'd rather have a misogynistic rapist in the Oval Office than a woman.

Yes, I'm still reading this. Slowly, ever so slowly... Stupid brain.

Watching a marathon of "Downton Abbey" - I didn't realize Cliveden was mentioned. First episode of second series, Cliveden is where Lady Mary met Sir Richard Carlisle for the first time. As might be said, "How marvelous!"

Took me a while to want to pick this back up, after reading this on pg. 36: "Every evening in the kitchens, fat from a PUPPY dog was boiled in water to prepare a beautifying emulsion for the face..." (emphasis most definitely mine). I know people historically did (and still do) crazy-ass things for beauty, but this was one bit of trivia I could've lived blissfully ignorant of for the rest of my life.

Yeah, I know, you all thought I'd forgotten about this one. Neener-neener! Now I'm discovering the evolution of the Empire line. Pretty much already knew all this stuff, but at least there's some new fashion plates here I've never seen before. One interesting tidbit: the Revolutionaries were the first to take innerwear outside, featuring a dress with an external lace-up corset. Take that, Madonna!

Moving a lot slower on this one, thanks to all the Goodreads First Reads and Amazon Vine books on my TBR list. Shame, because it's pretty good. Massivement tragique, bien que, thanks to all the star-crossed lovers.

I'm convinced that had a different Tsar and Tsarina been in control of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, had Nicky and Alix merely been minor aristrocrats, the Russian Revolution wouldn't have occurred or, at the very least, wouldn't have come on when it did and with such terrible consequences.

Argh! First my computer freaks out and leaves me in the dark, now my cat's sick. I swear, life is just one big dung ball and we're the beetles trying to corral all the crap.

This is why I hate getting nonfiction from the library: too much to absorb and not enough time in which to do it! :/

I don't know, there's something... off about this Audrey Rose (god forbid we call her simply Audrey!). It's as if the author is trying too hard to make the character quirky or interesting or whatever. Instead, she seems rather bipolar at times.

Tant la tragedie!

Putting this on hold for now--I don't know if it was that long-ass introduction or my mood, but I'm just not feeling this right at the moment.

I'm still on the introduction and, good lord, I've got 43 more pages to go! It's, like, a sixth of the entire book in length! That seems a bit... unreasonable.

Good lord, Harrod-Eagles really doesn't like women! Not from the way she writes them, anyway. I mean, so many of the female characters need a damn good slap in the face. Flora especially. Not because it'll make 'em nicer, just because it'll make me feel better. Crystal Allen's quote from "The Women" comes to mind: "There's a name for you ladies, but it isn't used in high society... outside of a kennel."

It's interesting to see the American Revolution from the British side of things.

IDK Katherine seems sappier than I'd always imagined her to be, especially with her being a daughter of Isabella of Castile.

Yeah, I get the enmity between them now. Still, Lady Mary... what a cold-hearted bitch!

Okay, I'm confused. At the end of Book One, Jemmy and Mary seemed to have reached some sort of accord in their marriage; it looked as though, if not love, at the very least some sort of affection was developing. Now, though, they hate each other again? WTH? How- why did that happen? God, talk about frustrating--argh!

Holy moly! After a week of intermittent-to-no internet, it feels like I've come back from Siberia. So this is what civilization looks like... send me back! ;D

I never thought I'd loathe someone as much as Annunciata. Happily, she seems to have mellowed with age, allowing India to step up as Queen Bitch of Morland Place.

I've been sitting at 23% of the book for the past three days and I just can't get motivated. I'm sorry, I loathe e-books. I do. I can't help it. They're not fun to read, they're not particularly easy to read, and even with the wonderful gift of an e-reader from my friend, I still avoid e-books like the plague. They're not real books, dammit!

I am not a regular romance novel reader by any stretch of the imagination, but... crappity, crap, crap, crap! I am really loving this book, despite the use of the "s/he'll never love me!" plot device.