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Dishing with Dee….Insomnia sucks

02 Apr

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You know when you lay down in bed and realize its going to be one of those nights? Well last night was one of those…it all started when I left work late (i mean an hour and a half later than planned, which since I start at 7am still isn’t bad), but then had to sit in DC rush hour traffic (whee! NOT!) So by the time I got home, got my workout in and chowed down on dinner, it was nearly 9:30. So I snuggled up in bed and attempted to sleep and that just didn’t work (normally, its like lights out, hit the pillow, i’m done). But last night, I just lay in bed…i’m not sure why and since I rarely get like this (maybe only one or two nights a year) its not really anything that I’m too worried about. So at 11pm, I found myself watching the Christmas episode of Call the Midwife (that somehow my DVD-R had failed to record), so that I could finally start watching the new season; as well as finishing up the book I was reading (Cry No More – Linda Howard). While doing this – I came to 2 realizations – BBC TV is frickin awesome – I love their period drama’s (except Mr Selfridge – no, just no) and I miss the golden days of romance – no one writes romance like Linda Howard back in the early 2000’s. I miss those days…

I did manage to finally eek out an couple of hours sleep – so I’m sit at work, struggling to stay awake (I’m on my second cup of coffee and have a soda standing in the wings). Wish me luck! 😉

 
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Posted by on April 2, 2015 in Dishing with Dee

 

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Dishing with Dee…Happy April Fool’s Day

01 Apr

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Am I the only person who thinks its insane that it is April ALREADY? I mean seriously, we are over a 1/4 of the way through the year and it seems like it has just gone in the blink of an eye. Of course, it still sucks that when I walked outside to my car this morning, I had frost on it – seriously, frost in APRIL!

But on a non-complaining about the cold note – its April Fool’s Day – a day of pranks and foolhardiness – I’ll admit that now, i’m not a huge fan of the practical jokes, but I did do my fair share of them in the past. One of my favorites (and it was done with my cohorts in crime), was when I was on a ship stationed in Norfolk. One of the individuals in my senior leadership was a geographic bachelor (meaning his family lived elsewhere and he traveled home to see them on weekends/holidays). Anyways, on one such weekend, we got the idea to decorate his stateroom…in Disney Princess finery – including sheets, pillow and shower curtain. Thankfully, he just laughed at it, then took a picture and send to his family and we didn’t get into too much trouble…I only wish I still had the photos from it as proof.

How about you – any pranks in your past that you are proud to claim?

 
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Posted by on April 1, 2015 in Dishing with Dee

 

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Dishing with Dee….for the love of audiobooks

31 Mar

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Its hard to remember a time when I didn’t listen to audiobooks – I think its probably been a good ten years now. I originally started listening to them when I had long drives to visit family in Michigan (driving from Virginia makes it about a 12-16 hour drive depending on where I was in the state at a given time). Mostly it was due to my fustration of trying to find a new/decent radio station to listen to every 100 miles or so, only to have said radio station fizzle out an hour or so later.

Fast forward to current day and between my daily commute into work (anywhere from 40min to 1.5 hours one way…thank you DC traffic), to working in an open workspace office (you know the kind where there are 10 people in each work segment with no real division between them), audiobooks are probably responsible for me still being sane (or as sane as you can be in a situation like this). I find they let me get lost in my world of data analysis and data inputing, as well as kinda of controlling my road rage (if you’ve ever driven in DC you know what I am talking about).

Listening to audiobooks has always pushing my reading/listening boundaries – I have discovered over the years that I am more willing to give a new author a try in the audiobook realm if its narrated by someone I have enjoyed in the past (people like Phil Gigante, Simon Vance, Xe Sands and my new favorite, RC Bray). Plus listening to audiobooks make me feel like I can enjoy my favorite hobby at all hours of the day and not just when I am at home and able to sneak in a page or two.

What about your guys – do you listen to audiobooks? If yes, do you have a favorite narrator or book? What would you recommend to a newbie?

 
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Posted by on March 31, 2015 in Dishing with Dee

 

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Dishing with Dee…the curious case of rating books

30 Mar

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It’s always hard when it comes to writing reviews for books. I don’t shy away from giving negative reviews (I mean, see the one from Friday that I wrote on the audiobook), but at the same time, sometimes that honestly comes back to bite me in the ass. I’ve never really mentioned it on my blog, but several years ago, one of the DNF reviews that I posted here was used as an example in an Indie Writer Blog on how to make sure you avoid picking bad reviewers for your books. The author’s premise – that since I read predominantly romance novels (per my Goodreads profile), that I was basically too dumb to understand his masterpiece. That is ignoring that fact that I have multiple degrees in a variety of different fields (although my primary focus is in Psychology); that I was in the military for multiple years…no, his whole hypothesis was based on my enjoyment of romance novels.

I’ve been reading for many years – I mean, my mom will tell you that when I started elementary school, I knew how to read basic words already (in fact, the one and only time – at least that I remember – that she had to have a teacher-parent conference was because I was bored in class). I’ve gone through many phases of reading, from mysteries, to suspense, to romance; through my non-fiction phase, and back to romance. I keep coming back to romance because it is my happy spot, but that doesn’t preclude me from reading other genres.

Since i’ve never really posted a “how I rate books” post, I thought I’d post something today – this is rough break-down of my approach to rating books. You will notice that I do write DNF and 1 star reviews for my blog, because I do believe in being honest and rating a book appropriately. I’ve been burnt many times by books that only have rave reviews and then wondering what the heck am I missing…and so, here it is:

5 stars – mind-blowing, I typically want to pick up the book and re-read it as soon as I finish it – this is a rarely used rating (in 2014, I only had 3 5-stars).
4 stars – well written, engaging, made me want to read more books by the author in the near future (i.e. as soon as I get a chance)
3 stars – decent writing, plot may be partially engaging, but may meander a bit; will likely read more by the author in the future, but not immediately
2 stars – writing needs work, possible serious issues with plot holes/writing style; highly unlikely to read more by the author in the future (unless they are a prior fav)
1 stars – normally the difference between a 1 star review and a DNF is that I managed to finish it
DNF – not worth my time to even finish

 
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Posted by on March 30, 2015 in Dishing with Dee

 

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Dishing with Dee…the March GNO edition

29 Mar

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Normally I’m very much a home-body – I come home from work and just do my thing, each day. But now that I have had friends from college move into the area (thank you military), we have been working on trying to get a Girl’s Night Out going each month. Although last night was only the second one we have successfully completed. We decided to try out this wine and cheese bar in the city. Let’s just say that by the end of the night you could have rolled me home – I ate so much between these killer nachos with pulled pork on them (yes, you read right, pulled pork), and a sandwich with chicken and bacon jam (because anyone who knows me, knows that I think bacon needs to have a religious following) and then Chocolate mousse cake for dessert (that I split with my friend). Of course, no Girl’s Night Out would be complete without alcohol – I have their blueberry/lemonade sangria – sweet and tart at the same time, it just hit the spot.

sea salt caramelsThen it was time for a random detour to Trader Joe’s before hitting the metro to head home. I love Trader Joe’s for really cool funky stuff. Unfortunately, there isn’t one by me, so I only go once in a blue moon. But I was really good and only walked out with a box of dark chocolate sea salt caramels. You guys should be proud of me 😉

I can’t wait for our next GNO’s and to see what kind of shenanigan’s we get into! How did you spend your Saturday night?

 
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Posted by on March 29, 2015 in Dishing with Dee

 

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Dishing with Dee…the beginnings

28 Mar

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I made my first blog post here on July 5th 2010 – I can’t believe that I am rapidly approaching my five year anniversary – how time flies. I will admit when I started my blog, I had exactly no experience with blogging, limited with writing book reviews, so it has been a learning process. My reasons for starting Dee’s Book Blog weren’t even all that altruistic – I mean, I love giving my opinion on books, I think like most reader’s do – but honestly, I had heard of a cool site called NetGalley where I could get free books from publishers to review. One of the key elements (I was told by other bloggers) was that having a blog or a platform to post your reviews on was key. Up until that time, I had mainly been posting on Goodreads or on Amazon for books I had purchased. But i soon found myself entering the murky waters of blogging and haven’t looked back.

Its weird, if I go back and look at my early reviews now, I see that my book tastes haven’t really changed – I may have become a bit harsher in my ratings – I see books back then that I gave 4 stars, that would now probably be 3-stars or lower, but that is just how the evolution of a reader comes about. I’ve picked up books in genres I never would have considered (I mean, heck, I’m listening to a horror audiobook right now that I’m pretty sure is giving me nightmares). I have made tons of friends and acquaintances thought my blogging, including lots of new favorite authors (yes, I’m looking at you Penny Watson, Rosalind James, Jamie Farrell and others). I find myself being more willing to try new authors – in fact, one of my favorite new things to do, when I have time at the library, is to just pick a random shelf and browse the books to see if I can find a new author to try. I’m considering next year hosting a random library shelf challenge (if I can figure out how I want to do it). Blogging has been a great experience for me and I look forward to many more fun reviews, discussions with authors and readers.

 
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Posted by on March 28, 2015 in Dishing with Dee

 

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Dishing with Dee….An Introduction

27 Mar

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“To Dish” – scoop, gossip (Urban Dictionary, circa 2003).

So this is something new, but I hope you guys will enjoy one. One of the things I love about the different blogs that I follow is that they always have something witty to say, or a funny story, or even just general discussion. I’ve been playing with this idea for a while about how I wanted to try and incorporate something like that into my blog and HAPPY DANCE, here it is.

But no one knows exactly what I am going to talk about – admittedly if you read my facebook timeline, you’ll find the I have a wide variety of interests from reading (obviously), to cooking, to triathlon (my friends call me a Jack of all Trades – as well as other names I’m sure).

So sit back, relaxed and enjoy. Of course, if you want to comment, please join in 😉

 
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Posted by on March 27, 2015 in Dishing with Dee

 

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