Random Friday, with a Tag

I just read a Google Alert that revealed that one of my books is being sold on eBay! I always tell people to hold on to them, one day they might get a lot of money on eBay for it. I didn't mean $3.38. That's for the trade paperback of Against the Rules, AUTOGRAPHED, and that's not even the book someone said is the WORST BOOK EVER on Amazon. I'm very curious who got rid of it. The seller appears to be a dealer of some kind in Arkansas. I've never been to Arkansas.

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Saw Pirates last night. 11:30 show, with four of my friends and some of their friends/family. I tell ya, seeing a movie with an extremely hunky, all-grown-up Orlando Bloom with Misty is an experience. She had the row of teenyboppers behind us cracking up.

I won't go into a full-blown review. I loved the movie. It was surprisingly dark and rich and deep. One of the women I was with heard someone coming out of an earlier show saying, "Did you have any idea what was going on?" I can understand that, a bit. First, because all the movies have kind of had that element. They deliberately made them events that are better the more you see them. And also, there was betrayal upon betrayal as everyone struggled to stay on top and achieve their ends, both noble and not.

Some of my friends were less than thrilled with a specific plot element, and I know my daughter will hate it, but I thought it was perfectly done and you'll all be surprised that I think so, once you see it yourselves. :)

I will say, I do not advise anyone to take young children to see it. It was much more violent and dark than the previous two. It depends on the kid, and I know I'm more conservative than many on this issue, but my recommendation is no younger than 10. The opening sequence is pretty disturbing, the fight scenes are a bit more graphic, there are multiple sword run-throughs (with accompanying squishy noises) and one really horrible death by Davy Jones late in the movie. (Not OF Davy, BY him--I'm not spoiling anything, honest. :) ) If Number One had not been totally obsessed with POTC for the last year and matured a lot over the same amount of time, I wouldn't let her see it--I'm still feeling like I shouldn't. She's been warned when not to watch and her father will be standing guard to make sure she doesn't.

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Have I mentioned we need a new A/C unit? The thousands of dollars it will cost make me choke. They have a financing program, but that's really just forestalling the pain. But we can't survive without A/C. It will be bad enough this weekend, as temps go to 88 and beyond. Luckily, they got us on the schedule for Tuesday. The guy kind of pointedly said something to me about trying to get people to schedule their service in March (it was during routine maintenance that he discovered lots of problems not worth fixing, on this very old unit). I was annoyed, since I paid the service contract on April 2 and they didn't call me to schedule until five weeks later. Anyway, it could be worse. It could be August.

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MaryF tagged me! Okay, it was Tuesday. I didn't know until Wednesday, maybe Thursday, and my week has been weird. So I'm just now getting to it.

The Little-Known Favorites Meme Rules:

List and describe three of your favorite books that other people might not be familiar with. Then tag five people. See, easy!


Ha. Not so easy. I don't really have favorites that I go back to read again. Harry Potter is the only one anymore, and obviously that's not little-known. I was going to list three of my "rated 10" books from this year, but they're Jim Butcher, CE Murphy, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, JD Robb--not exactly wallowing in obscurity.

I could name some of my friends' books, because a lot of really talented writers haven't yet built names for themselves. But if I do that, someone I don't name (I only have three slots!) might be hurt. I really hate to hurt people's feelings.

So I thought back to childhood. Even then, the books that stand out most in my head aren't little-known: I read over and over all the Nancy Drews, the Hardy Boys, the Sweet Valley Highs--Carolyn Keene and Beverly Cleary. Robert Heinlein and Douglas Adams. Nora Roberts and Dean Koontz. Piers Anthony and Sandra Brown. Not an obscure author among them.

Okay, I thought of one. I read most of the Silhouette young adult romances. There was one with a heroine named Mariah and a hero named Brian (I think) and I found it heartbreaking and uplifting. No idea what the title was, but the cover was orange dominant.

There was a Silhouette Romance (purple border) book by Dixie Browning back in the early 80s, when I wasn't supposed to be reading adult romances. It was an old-fashioned plot: Domineering businessman and pregnant secretary, marriage of convenience (necessity?). One of those where both characters thought the other disliked them, but both loved deeply. Another heartbreaker, and probably one I would hate nowadays. For some reason, it sticks in my head 20 years later.

Okay, one more...here we go. The Fluffy Duck. Which apparently is no longer being sold, at least that I can find. It was a children's e-book written by a child, and very cute.

Whew, that was tough. I won't tag anyone in particular--go ahead if you think you can show me up. :)