NJ Bloggers: Dinner, Books and the Heat!

Christine, Mariana, Natalie and I decided to have our NJ Bloggers Summer's get together last Friday, July 22nd. It was the single, hottest day of the month in our area... that day the heat index hit 114℉ or 45.5 ℃ in our area. It was brutal! But, we were determined and met anyway.

Christine was coming from home, Mariana and Natalie were lucky enough to be working from home that day due to the heat, I had to go to the office but was released early -- by 3:30 p.m.  Unfortunately, buses were breaking down left and right because of the weather, and by the time I caught one and arrived home it was 5:00 p.m. and I was feeling a bit fried from commuting. Brutal!

After a quick shower and change, Christine and the ladies picked me up and we took off for our meeting place, Houlihan's in Weehawken. We sat inside because it was too hot for enjoying outdoor sitting that day, but our table had a wonderful view of New York City and the Hudson River, and soon we were all relaxing. We had a cozy, lazy time and all had tasty dinners and great drinks (I'm having one of those martinis next time, Christine!), and shared one of their delicious desserts (they're huge!). Our conversation strayed toward the personal, but I can say that we were all quite proud of Christine's dedication, persistence and how brilliantly she has met her athletic challenges. She was still sporting the identification number from her last endeavor, which was temporarily tattooed by the sun on her arm while she biked... I wanted to take a picture of it, but if you haven't figured it out yet, this is not a picture-taking group. [grin]

We left our bookish discussion and book exchange for later. This all took place after dinner while we sat on a bench by the Hudson River. Christine brought a whole box of books so we looked through those, chose our books and left the box in the trunk of her car. Mariana and I brought tote bags brimming with books, so all four of us settled down on a bench to check out what we wanted from each other.

Despite the sheer amount books available, this time I only chose six books that I've not previously read. From Christine's box I chose four historical romances:

• With Seduction in Mind by Laura Lee Guhrke
• The Seduction of An Unknown Lady by Samantha James
• The Highlander by Heather Grothaus (new-to-me author)
• Barely a Lady by Eileen Dreyer

From Mariana's books I chose two romance suspense novels by Linda Howard, plus a few first edition romances by Nora Roberts for my collection -- I've already read these books by NR and still have them all, most of them in collections of three, but I still wanted these! I split those with Natalie who is a great Nora Roberts fan and is still making her way through her backlist. Here's the list.

• Open Season by Linda Howard (Hardcover)
• Now You See Her by Linda Howard (Hardcover)
• Local Hero by Nora Roberts
• Untamed by Nora Roberts
• Blithe Images by Nora Roberts
• One Summer by Nora Roberts
• Sullivan's Woman by Nora Roberts
• A Will and a Way by Nora Roberts
• Unfinished Business by Nora Roberts
• Genuine Lies by Nora Roberts

I read Genuine Lies a long time ago and thought it was part of my collection, so when I saw it in the bunch I past it along to Natalie, who past it back to Mariana, who gave it back to me and somehow remained in my possession. I thought of giving the book to my daughter, but when I went through my books at home realized it was not there. How could that be? I MUST do an inventory of my NR books! So, thanks Mariana for insisting. You all know what that means, right? Now I have to re-read it. LOL!

Anyway while all this was going on, Christine, Mariana and I exchanged and shared impressions from our RWA experience about authors and books with each other and with our sweet friend Natalie who didn't attend. Plus, we shared our thoughts about our latest favorite books and reviews, grading reviews, ARCs, publishers and publishing... all of it as we perused and discussed some of the books we were exchanging, and tried not to think of the heat! By that time it was almost 10:00 p.m. and I'm pretty sure we were all thinking: water! shower! So, we finally drove away and said so long, hopefully until our next get together in the Fall.

One last thing... Happy Belated Birthday, Natalie!