Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Siemensma crew. All the best for 2012 xoxo

2011 books - an overview

I managed to read 40 books this year which was a pretty good effort for me. Here's the break down:

Aussie rural romance - 12
Teenage - 6
Non-fiction - 5
General fiction - 17

I absolutely LOVED sinking into my rural romances this year. Finding Di Morrissey helped! Again though I was bad at reading my book group ones... I was also disappointed in my non-fiction list. I usually read heaps more. But in reflection it has been a massive personal year so all in all I have done well.

Book: Paycheque

Summary: Claire McIntyre has it all: an adoring husband, a bubbly best friend, a chic townhouse and a high-flying corporate career in the city. But somehow she’s forgotten what really makes her happy. After receiving tragic news, closely followed by the loss of her job, Claire’s world is thrown into turmoil. She is then forced to reconsider everything that matters to her.

Claire soon finds herself back at the very place she’s been running from — the family property. A place where the bush telegraph exposes every secret, where reputations are hard won and easily lost, and where fortune is as fickle as the weather. Here, in the rugged beauty of the Australian Adelaide Hills, Claire starts to rebuild her life with her friends, her father and his beloved racehorses — including a promising young horse called Paycheque. But just as she begins to find happiness, and perhaps even love, fate comes to call. Now Claire must decide whether to do the sensible thing, or risk it all on her newfound passion...

Oh tragic rural romance at it's best. Loved it! Looking forward to reading her second one now :)

Clinician's Health Channel catch-up

Last Wednesday I headed to Melbourne for a CHC catch-up. It was lovely to catch-up with folk who I haven't seen for well over a year. It was also good to reacquaint myself with some of the products.

MIMS

MyDR - Consumer health website (includes videos)
MIMS Bi-monthly now called MIMS abbreviated
2,000,000 views per month!
Looking at introducing an overseas "drug equivalent"

Therapeutic Guidelines

Releases in March, July and November each year.

Ebsco

Introduction of Ebsco Discovery Service to CHC and can tailor to individual hospital to include local data. Trials happening.

Book: Vanishing Acts

Summary: Delia Hopkins has led a charmed life. Raised in rural New Hampshire by her widowed father, Andrew, she now has a young daughter, a handsome fiancé, and her own search-and-rescue bloodhound, which she uses to find missing persons. But as she plans her wedding, she is plagued by flashbacks of a life she can’t recall. And when a policemen arrives to disclose a truth that will upend the world as she knows it, Delia must search through these memories – even when they have the potential to devastate her life, and the lives of those she loves most. Vanishing Acts is a book about the nature and power of memory; about what happens when the past we have been running from catches up to us and what happens when the memory we thought had vanished returns as a threat...

I really enjoyed this one. Was sucked in from the start! Think I'll read another Picoult now!

Book: The Girl and the Ghost-Grey Mare

This was a selection of short stories from Rachael Treasure. I love Rachael's novels and she is by far one of my favourite authors. Not too keen on short stories though. This was ok. Some were good, some were average. Can't wait for her next full length novel to be released.