This is another of those entries that are hard to categorize. It could be "Off the Bookshelves," but it's not just a book review, so I've tossed it into Def-y's.
I just finished J.D. Robb's "Divided in Death." Robb is a nome de plume for Nora Roberts, who is very probably the premier romance writer of the past two decades. In addition to the scads of romance books she has written, she has also penned a series of 18 hard-edged, gory mystery/detective books, with one more book due in August, 2004. The main character is Eve Dallas, a police lieutenant in New York City, in 2059. Her husband, Roarke, is an Irishman of uncommon beauty, who has made his wealth and position through a number of shady deals in the past. Roarke has gone (almost) straight for her, and uses advanced technology created by his companies to help her crack her cases.
All of the books are good. The gore is there, and it is not a wise choice for the impressionable reader. With each passing story, we learn more about their relationship, and of those who people their world. I highly recommend this series to all of you, not just to fans of Roberts or the romance genre. Guys will enjoy her plotting to overcome the bad guys, as much as her vision of the future.
And this is how the book fits into my day:
I got up early to take my mother to exercise. We've missed almost two weeks of the session for one reason after another, not the least of them being that the woman guiding the exercise had strep throat. So, today was tough, trying to get back into the traces after such a long absence.
The library was the next stop. I'm really there as the go-fer for my mother, who is too frail to cart around all her books. We visit the library at least once a month, perhaps more often in the winter, when Mother turns to books as she waits out the bad weather.
We divvied up the grocery list and got the shopping out of the way, and then I unloaded the car and put things away. I had some lunch and picked up "Divided in Death" to finish the last chapter. I'd gone to bed late last night, trying to finish the book, but I finally had to put it down and crash.
I moved to my recliner to read, and chose not to cover myself in a quilt, thinking, "I'm only going to be here a few minutes." Well. I managed to finish the book before I fell asleep, but just barely. As I drifted off, I remember thinking that I would get in 30 minutes of snoozing or so, and be better for it. I finally woke up at 3:40. I'd slept for three hours.
I NEVER take naps in the afternoon, unless I'm ill. I don't think I was ill, but DH tends to say that "You wouldn't have slept if you hadn't needed it." It unnerved me to realize that I had slept the day away, and I was foggy for the next couple of hours, too.
We prepared a great dinner, flank steak, baked potatoes, shrooms, green beans, salad and Italian bread, and then I cleaned up the kitchen so we'd be ready for Tuesday's activities. I'm going to crash now so that we don't have a repeat of today. Repeat after me: We will get enough sleep tonight, and be ALERT tomorrow!