La la la

[colliemommie]

We watched Follow That Bird again. I have Big Bird singing stuck in my head. And I want a purple Daimler with bat wings like the Count.

I also have my usual pregnancy insomnia. It doesn't help that Baby K is still hanging out breech and tap dancing on my bladder. And taking a bath to help me get sleepy isn't going to work; my tiny little bathtub isn't up to it anymore...baby belly island.

I still need to wrap the present for the birthday party we're going to tomorrow afternoon. Bruce swears he's going with us, but he's working overnight so I don't know if that will happen. It's for the son of one of his coworkers, so it would be nice if he could make it, but it's not as though it's difficult to make conversation with other parents of toddlers when the kids are there. Plus cake.

The air freshener mom gave me makes we want pumpkin bread all the time, but it's been too hot to actually bake any. This is sad because pumpkin bread is yummy.

I put the last coat of sealant on the new slate floor(!) and it should be dry by morning. I cannot wait to actually use the family room again; it's been under construction since last September. I wish I had taken pics before we started renovating, because it looks like a completely different room. We raised the ceiling quite a bit and made good all the half-assed projects the previous owners did, including leveling the floor and actually using hardbacker board under the tile.

I'm going to make some tea and finish rereading Envious Casca in bed. I have been on a major Heyer binge, what with the ebook sale on Amazon, and I'm taking a short break from the Georgians and Regencies to revisit a few mysteries. Behold, Here's Poison is next because of Randall. Oh Randall. I don't think I will ever outgrow my pre-adolescent crush on Randall.

Comments

[pinkminx.livejournal.com]

Oh, Randall.

I loved that book, but I have to admit the default masterful Heyer hero gets a little tiresome after a fashion, at least when paired with a standard issue silly girl heroine. This would explain why favourite Heyers are The Talisman Ring and The Grand Sophy-- masterful women! I quite enjoyed Unknown Ajax as well, simply because the hero was a kind man and not up to the usual sneering hero standard.

This reminds me there are still Heyers I haven't read. Amazon, did you call my name?

[colliemommie.livejournal.com]

I always warn tyros that Heyer books are like chocolate...addictive, but one can have too much at once.

My favorites tend to be the books with all the verbal sparring between the main couple, which generally means the heroines have a bit more personality. Grand Sophy, Black Sheep, Lady of Quality, Venetia.

I find it surprising how many of her books I love because of the secondary characters. She's better than Dickens. (Needs to read False Colors again.)

And I am in the apparently small minority that likes Regency Buck, and is not ashamed. Yes, Judith is a huge pain at times, but she's 20. If I had that much money and that much freedom I would have gotten up to some stupid things ar 20 as well.

Amazon has a bunch of Heyers on sale for $1.99 right now. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to which ones, though.

[pinkminx.livejournal.com]

Oh oh oh! How could I forget Black Sheep? Miles and Abigail must be some of my favourite fictional people of all time-- smart, funny and irreverent... which I suppose comes with having a sense of humour. That they were the leading couple was merely an added bonus. And I agree, verbal sparring is a necessity. Venetia delivered quite excellently in this respect, too.

I quite like the more humorous & adventurous Heyers, too, The Talisman Ring first among many. The Corinthian, the love story felt glued on but the rest was hysterical. Although I have to admit I have not yet found anything written by Heyer that I didn't enjoy, but some novels of hers I certainly enjoyed more than others.

[colliemommie.livejournal.com]

I agree about The Corinthian; The Foundling struck me the same way.

They both illustrate a point I frequently try to make to people who haven't read Heyer: these are not "romance novels". It's unfortunate in a way that the Regency genre she created has become "Regency Romance" (leaving aside the fact that a bunch of the books are really Georgian, which frequently seems to escape people). The love stories aren't the point, any more than they are the point in a Jane Austen novel. Heyer was just the first person to do Regency historical fiction. As my aunt puts it, she's the first "non-resident" to write extensively about the era.

I completely forgot about Fredericka last comment, which is ridiculous. That is one of my all-time favorites, mostly because of the secondary characters.

Moving Talisman Ring to the top of my Heyer TBR list.

[filkferengi]

Randall rocks!

Did you ever read the Jane Aiken Hodge biography of Heyer? According to it, the mysteries were puzzles she and her barrister spouse constructed together. Given that I'm married to a lawyer & like mysteries, I found that, as they say, relevant to my interests.

:)

[colliemommie.livejournal.com]

I don't recall if that was the book, but I did read that somewhere. I also remember a quotation something to the effect that she never quite got how the solution to No Wind of Blame worked, which made me feel better about not understanding it myself.