Have you ever picked up an older book from one of your favourite authors and be disappointed? Now when I mean old and I don’t a year or two ago. I mean the book was published in the late eighties or early nineties.

Well this week I decided to crack down on my to be read pile. Let’s face it I’m not going to get rid of it any time soon. I have well over 850 mass paperback and another 100 or so hard covers and trade paperbacks. I’ll never be at a loss of reading material that’s for certain.

I picked up an old (1992) Victoria Pade book. I LOVE her books. I usually devour them within a week or so of purchasing them. I picked up this book in a used bookstore a while ago. Now the book was over all well written, I would expect no less. However it didn’t have the pizzazz that her new ones do.

What do you do when this happens to you? Stop reading, remove author from your favourite list, finish the book or just chuck it saying that everyone has a bad day an author is entitled to a bad book every few years?

I spent the afternoon alone at the local cinema. What did I go and see? PASCHENDAELE. Since I’d read the book I knew what would happen. It still impacted me as much as the book did. I’m glad I read the book first. The book gave Mr. Gross the opportunity to go deeper on an emotional and detail level with all the characters. There is only so much you can put in a movie.

What did surprise me was how graphic the movie remained true to the book. The battle scene, were amazing yet quite gruesome, specially the opening one where Michael Dunne stabs a young German soldier in the face. This is a war movie so I had expected some hard to watch scenes but the attention to details that were put into PASCHENDAELE are what set this movie apart.

I recommend it hole heartedly.

If you haven’t seen last weeks show or don’t want to know what might happen in future shows. Stop reading now. I mean it!

Yep they killed off Jim last Friday. It was tender and sweet moment, but I had kept hoping he wouldn’t die or maybe they would just put him in a coma right up until the last second. What did they do? Kill him. Now what will happen with Melinda? Well I hear that guilt is going to be a big thing for her. She feels that she killed him. I have heard that he will be appearing on the show but from the other side. He will describe to Melinda what its like from the other side. What do I hope happens? I’d love to see the season end with her finding out that she’s pregnant with Jim’s baby. Now the possibilities of that are slim and let’s face it being a single Mom she won’t have time to run off in the middle of the night to go after ghosts. However it would still be cool!

Today is a day to remember and be thankful for the lifestyle that we currently have. I attended the Remembrance Day ceremony in Ottawa where the oldest WWI veteran, John Babcock spoke briefly via video feed. Why is this so important? He’s the only Canadian living WWI vet and he’s 108 years old.

They did something special during the ceremony this year. In honour the 90^th anniversary of WWI Armistice they had a passing of the torch from the sole living WWI veteran to a WWII veteran to Korean War veteran to a peace keeping veteran a “modern-day” soldier who served in Afghani. This torch ceremony is in reference to Lt.-Col. John McCrae’s famous poem, In Flanders Fields. Quite a few of us had tears in our eyes during this moment.

I hope you took a moment to thank those who sacrifices their youth and some their lives so we can have what we take for granted most days. Today I’m taking nothing for granted.

My wonderful publisher, LBF Books, received late last week the logo from the American Breast Cancer Foundation (ABCF).  I also got permission to put it up on my site. Since I can’t wait until my web mistress put it up I am putting it in my blog today.

Here it is!

Isn’t it beautiful? I certainly believe it is.

I’ve been watching CRIMINAL MINDS since it first started. I like it because it focuses on the cases instead of the investigators. However every so often they do focus on those doing the investigating like Hodges getting a divorce, the computer chick having a stocker, JJ’s pregnancy and now Spencer. We will finally find out what made him become an FBI agent. Last night we found out he lived in the same town where another child which he believed to be an imaginary friend died, actually was murdered. He’s been having the same recurring nightmare of finding a child dead in the basement, well at the end of the show we saw a little more. By the dead child’s body stood a man, when he turned who was he? It was none other than Spencer’s own father, the one who deserted him when he was young.

Now the question remains was this nightmare based on imagination playing tricks on him or did he actually see his father with the dead child all those years ago. Was his father a killer? I can’t wait until next week where I hope they go further into this.

There are tons of good things that come with fall. The leaves change colors and make our forest look like a kaleidoscope of beautiful colors. You go out for a nightly walk and you can smell wood burning from the chimneys of the lucky homeowners who have a fireplace, the real kind. Boy do I ever wish I was one of them. I love sitting by a burning fireplace.

With all those great things comes one that I truly hate, the change of time. Yep we fall back in time. What difference does this make? Well it’s dark and I mean pitch dark when I get home from work. For the first week only the sun starts to rise when I’m heading out to get the bus. I’d prefer to have the sun a little longer in the afternoon than in the morning. I find it depressing to come home to darkness. Soon I’ll be leaving for work in darkness and coming home to it.

Morning Comes Softly is a reprint for Debbie Macomber, one of my favorite authors of all time. This book finds Travis, our hero responsible for his brother’s 3 young children. He lives alone on a ranch in Montana. He needs help. Our heroine, Mary, is a lonely librarian from Louisiana in need of change in her life. What change does she take on? Well she responds to Travis’s newspaper ad for a wife. After a few letters and phone calls, Mary packs up her life and moves to Montana. Together they forge a life for themselves and try to help the children deal with their grief of loosing loving parents.

Through trial and error they learn that love and forgiveness will heal all wounds. Also owning up to one’s error is the best way to live a guilt free life.

I found the characters believable and I could relate to. Ms Macomber always creates characters that are your typical neighbor. I love that about her books.  Travis and Mary are completely different but are in desperate need of each other. Together they are better individuals. I’d recommend this book to anyone in need of a good pick me up book.

Last night’s UGLY BETTY show was all about deception and manipulation.  If you haven’t watched UGLY BETTY last night and don’t want to know what happened I suggest you stop read right now.

Betty had had enough of Kimmy’s manipulation and stepped up to the plate. At first she tried to set her up but ended up fessing up. Why? Her conscience simply wouldn’t let her. However Kimmy being Kimmy didn’t believe Betty. She let her ego take over and confront Wilhemina and get herself fired in the process. Betty saved the day and the photo shoot. What was truly different with this show is that Betty went to Daniel to get advice on how to handle Kimmy. He told her to be the bigger person and do the right thing. Did he listen to his own advice? Nope he duped Wilhemina to hire someone he wanted all along, but pretended he didn’t want to.

 I have to say Lindsay Lohan added some great chemistry and dynamics to the show. I believe last night was her last show, but I could be wrong. I do hope they consider bringing her back once in a while if not her then someone that will challenge Betty to do mor, take risks and get out of her comfort zone. As Gino used to do last season. I do miss his character in the show.

I’m looking forward to seeing Betty take on more responsibilities within Mode and see what will happen between Daniel and Wilhemina.

It’s snowing! It’s snowing here in Ottawa and I couldn’t be happier. Then again I didn’t have to drive in it to get to work. I love snow. As long as temperature isn’t 30 below zero I love winter as well.

Yesterday The Biggest Loser saw Phil go home, one week after his wife. I was really surprised by how much his team didn’t loose. While the blue team lost tons. It will be interesting to see how many pounds the blue team looses next week.

I loved the way Phil remarried his wife upon his return from campus and the fact that even though he hasn’t been able to wear his wedding ring for the past 15 years his wife kept it. Now that he’s lost weight he’s able to wear it.

Who do I think is the biggest threat still on campus? I’m not sure. Only two families are still intact. I think Brady and Vickie are the bigger family threat, but over all I think Amy and Colleen might be strong enough to take over.