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Monthly Archives: December 2006

Meet Colleen Gleason, the author of The Rest Falls Away, the first book in the Gardella series, this Thursday, January 4, 2007. She’ll talk about the inspiration for her Regency-set vampire hunter series and you’ll have the chance to win a copy of her book!

A promising, enthusiastic beginning to a new paranormal historical series … Gleason quickly establishes an alluring world all her own. Publishers Weekly

With its vampire lore and Regency graces, this book grabs you and holds you tight to the very last page! R J Ward

Posted in Risky Regencies | Tagged | 1 Reply


Hope you all had a great holiday! I got my very own chocolate fountain (just what I need after all the holiday eating I’ve been doing!), plus several Barnes and Noble giftcards, which are already spent, and two new Little Thinker dolls from the Unemployed Philosophers Guild catalog to add to my collection (I now have Shakespeare and Elizabeth I to add to Jane Austen, Monet, Emily Dickinson, Frida Kahlo, and Van Gogh–who comes complete with removable ear). I also got DVDs and the Marie Antoinette soundtrack, and that doesn’t count sundry little Hello Kitty items. A great holiday all around!

When it comes to “end of the year reading” lists, I always wish I had kept a log of all the books read. I forget, and probably leave out some stories I really enjoyed. But here are a few that have stuck in my mind:

The Flamenco Academy by Sarah Bird: What I loved about this one was the vivid descriptions of Albuquerque and northern New Mexico (where I grew up), plus the evocation of flamenco culture and artistry. The story centers around Cyndi Rae, a shy girl from a, shall we say, unusual family, her intense high school friendship with fame-seeking Didi, and the man who comes between them–intense, sexy, but (of course) highly unreliable flamenco guitarist Tomas. The story is puntucated by the story of Tomas’s aunt Dona Carlotta during the Spanish Civil War (this part really could have been its own book). Obsession, romance, finding oneself–it’s all there. (One quibble I had–I’ve been taking flamenco lessons for a couple of years, and started ballet when I was 3. I don’t believe that a girl could take an intro to flamenco class her freshman year of college and become a professional before she graduates. No matter how obsessed).

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl: I tend to be a bit wary of highly hyped books. Sometimes they are great; oftren they are disappointing. But this was one of the great hyped ones. Our heroine Blue Van Meer has spent her young life traveling around the country with her professor father, and lands at the St. Gallway School for her senior year. There she gets involved with a mysterious, charismatic teacher and a group of odd students called The Bluebloods. Coming of age and suspense built around an imaginary syllabus of a Great Works of Literature class. Big, rambling, wonderfully geeky. The New York Times said it is “flashily erudite”, and that seems like a good description to me.

The Bronte Project: A Novel of Passion, Desire, and Good PR by Jennifer Vandever: Serious scholar Sarah Frost is looking for lost letters of Charlotte Bronte; glamorous, flamboyant Claire Vigee easily upstages her with her “Diana Studies” (as in Princess). This books hilariously skewers academic pretension and the silliness of pop culture, while introducing us to a plethora of eccentric secondary characters–two New Yorkers who pretend to live in the 19th century, a Hollywood producer who falls for Sarah and also wants to change Charlotte’s story into the latest “feel good” romantic comedy.

Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution by Caroline Weber: I’ve been doing a lot of reading about 18th century France for research lately, and this was one of my favorites. History as fashion, yay! Each phase of Marie Antoinette’s life is detailed by what she chose to wear and how her use of stunning, extreme, unique costumes to project an image of power and influence backfired. Beautiful descriptions.

Invisible Lives by Anjali Banerjee: a sort of “Bollywood chick lit.” Lakshmi helps run her mother’s Seattle sari shop, and has the magical gift of seeing others’ secret dreams and fulfilling them through the right sari. But what are her own dreams–an arranged marriage to the “perfect” man, or American Nick? A fun read, and more fashion!

A few of my “honorable mentions”–Elisabeth de Feydeau’s Scented Palace: The Secret History of Marie Antoinette’s Perfumer; Ian Kelly’s Beau Brummell: The Ultimate Man of Style; Michelle Styles’ Gladiator’s Honor (a romance set in ancient Rome, which wonderfully evokes the era).

Happy New year! Here’s to many good reads in 2007. 🙂

In thinking about the best books I’ve read this year, I realized I had to expand to make it the best media I’ve experienced this year.

First off, my current obsession of Sean Bean, fueled by watching the Sharpe series on BBC America. I still haven’t made it to the last Sharpe, but I’ve watched maybe 10 of them, all featuring Bernard Cornwell‘s fantastic anti-hero Richard Sharpe. Sharpe is honorable, in his way, but he also fights dirty, doesn’t care whom he offends, and looks down–way down–on the nobility.

I’ve been reading the Sharpe series, too, and also diving into other Cornwell books, most notably the Holy Grail trilogy, which begins with Vagabond.

I’ve continued, and continued to love, J.R. Ward‘s vampire series. Lover Eternal and Lover Awakened were both excellent reads, and I already have Lover Revealed on pre-order. Ward writes the sexiest, most tortured vampires, and you can’t help but fall in love with them.

This year also brought two Eloisa James‘ books: The Taming of the Duke, and Pleasure For Pleasure, both of which I enjoyed. James is fantastic at creating situations and dialogue that seem real, regardless of setting, and her characters behave like people you might actually know: Flawed, selfish, selfless, insecure, smart, and wanting to fall in love.


In music, I’ve been rediscovering some way-old favorites, particularly The Jam, a British group that drew on the mod influences of the ’60s to create their brash, abrasive, politically-charged music. The hero of my next Regency-set historical would be a fan of The Jam, if Regency-set heroes listened to new wave. I’ve also been listening to some old James Brown, whose funk is unparalleled. RIP, James.


I’ve also been watching a few (a very few) television shows, especially The Wire, whose plot twists and turns are equal to the most well-plotted suspense novel (no surprise, since authors George Pelecanos and Dennis Lehane have worked on the show). The characters of The Wire are equally well-done, and I was very sad to see its season finale.

My seven year-old son has gotten into Top Chef, and dragged his parents along with him, so now I watch with bated breath as a chef gets eliminated–or not–each week.

It’s been a fun year, loving old favorites, finding a few new ones, working on my own writing, and learning cool tricks from music, television, and film as well as books.

Have a healthy, happy New Year, and we’ll be bringing more Risky behavior in 2007.

Megan
www.meganframpton.com

Great discoveries, whether of silk or of gravity, are always windfalls. They happen to people loafing under trees.”
Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex.

I’ve read a lot of good books this year, tried bravely with a lot of books that I tried to like and couldn’t (but I’m not telling you what they are) and wanted to share with you the following results of my own loafing under trees.

Top of the heap, Kate Atkinson’s Case Histories. Its back cover blurb describes it as a literary detective novel, which I suppose it is. The book is about a group of people who you think at first have nothing in common, but as the book progresses, you see how their lives are linked together. Two murders are common threads, but there’s a lot more going on; at the end, you know more than the characters do, and it’s a pleasure to put the pieces together. Wonderfully written, wry, and funny. A sequel has just been released and I can’t wait to get my hands on it.

I was a bit nervous of Emma Donoghue’s collection of short stories, Touchy Subjects. I loved her first book, Slammerkin, and found myself wondering with her next full-length historical, Life Mask, how such a good writer could make such an interesting setting and group of characters so, well, boring. But I loved these short stories, ranging from the touching and mysterious to the ribaldly funny (hint: gentlemen, do not choose a hotel in Dublin where everyone knows you for an attempt at artifical insemination with your wife’s best friend).

Somehow I missed Jeffrey Eugenides’s brilliant, erotic, funny Middlesex when it first came out in 2003. We’ve been passing Middlesex around at work, and we’ve all been enchanted and thrilled by it. It’s hard to describe what this book is about, a huge, rich, rambling chronicle of a Greek-American family, a cross between Greek myth and Tristram Shandy, spanning decades and generations.

Another book I loved this year, because it had the power to take you into another time, was Kate Dolan’s Restitution. Set in eighteenth-century Maryland, it tells the story of ordinary people caught up in the tumultuous years before American independence; they’re not called upon to perform heroic acts, but they do have to make choices and sacrifices. Restitution blends both fictional and historic characters and paints a wonderfully vivid picture of colonial life.

And, guess what, I actually read some romances this year! And enjoyed them. First, Pam Rosenthal’s wonderful The Slightest Provocation–another book that blends fiction and history. This is a complex, challenging, adventurous read; Rosenthal blends the past and present of her characters, and her hero and heroine are annoying, frustrating, human people who don’t always behave well, but are completely convincing in their frailty. They have a strong sense of the ordinary about them, of people caught up in extraordinary events and times, and trying to make the best decisions. Read the Riskies interview with Pam here.

That’s what I also enjoyed about Eloisa James’s The Taming of the Duke–ordinary people (although more caught up in the trappings of the aristocracy than Rosenthal’s) dealing with ordinary, stupid, human tragedy. I loved the way James dealt with her Duke’s alcoholism–not a hint of modern theory of disease, but a thoroughly believable and moving account of his attempt to remake his life and confront his past. And chock full of literary and theatrical references, a real treat. A perfect romance–why can’t they all be this good?

And a couple of contemporaries, both written by smart Englishwomen (well, Julie’s from Maine, but she sounds English to me, and lives in my home town). Portia da Costa’s Entertaining Mr. Stone is a very funny erotic novel. It’s set, mainly, in a labyrinthine local government office where everyone, er, misbehaves. Imagine Kafka in a good mood letting his hair (or pants) down. A great naughty read. Again, ordinary people faced with the extraordinary. Is this a theme, class?

And Julie Cohen’s Delicious is, in a word, delicious. He’s a superstar chef, she’s a teacher–ordinary people again, more or less. It’s all about taking risks and allowing yourself to trust–nothing new, but beautifully written, and written from the heart, and with deep sympathy for the adolescent kids, who, in a lesser writer, would have been only wallpaper.

My best re-read of 2006 was Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend, which I blogged about a few months ago here.

Happy new year, everyone!
Janet
www.janetmullany.com

Last year around this time, I joined a book discussion group. I was getting stale reading only romance novels and historical reference books. I figured my life and my writing would both improve from reading outside the genre. So far, the experiment is going well. I found something to enjoy in each of the group’s selections and I’ve enjoyed the socializing, too.

BUT.

If I thought that this year I’d read some literary novel that blew away all my favorite romance authors along with Georgette and Jane and the Brontes, or even came close to the reading pleasure they’ve given me, it didn’t happen. I think the other book group members were also somewhat disappointed in this year’s reads. So first I’ll describe some that came close but were NOT my favorite reads of 2007.

One was ATONEMENT, by Ian McEwan. Brilliantly written and the characterizations and dense but evocative (slow for some readers) prose appealed to the Anglophile in me. Still, parts seemed too self-consciously clever and I was disappointed to learn of the controversy regarding what certainly appear to be barely modified passages from the autobiography of Lucilla Andrews, an author of hospital romances.

Another beautifully written book was MY SISTER’S KEEPER, by Jodi Picoult. It deals with a difficult and heartwrenching topic and the writing is strong and eloquent, but I was disappointed in the ending. Not because I expected anything but a bittersweet one, but because it felt contrived, as if Picoult had burned out near the end and fell back on deus ex machina. Nevertheless I hope to read more of her books.

THE MERMAID CHAIR, by Sue Monk Kidd, author of THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, was a bigger disappointment. Her writing is truly lovely but characterization and plotting fell short for me. It was also galling to read a B&N reviewer’s statement that it read like a cheap romance novel.

Anyway, my point, FWIW, is that pretty wordsmanship is not enough for me. (Neither is it the exclusive hallmark of literary fiction any more than cliches are necessary in romance.) To love a book, I have to love its bones too, regardless of genre.

Based on recommendations from friends whose taste is similar to mine, I expect I’ll love THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES and THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE, previous book group selections I have high on my TBR list. But I haven’t gotten to them yet, so my two favorite reads for 2007 are romances.

Having loved MISS WONDERFUL, I was eager to read Loretta Chase’s MR. IMPOSSIBLE and I wasn’t disappointed. It’s Loretta Chase at her witty, heartwarming best. The setting is different–Regency Egypt, and the characters are delightful and different. I love that she has been writing heroes who are younger sons–although I look forward to catching up on the story of the oldest brother in this series, LORD PERFECT.

My other favorite read of 2006 is THE PROPOSITION by Judith Ivory (aka Judy Cuevas). It’s her RITA-winning Victorian historical featuring a hero that’s a rat-catcher and the lady who undertakes, a la Professor Higgins, to transform him into a gentleman. It’s warm, funny, sexy, and in places just brilliant. I’m slowly trying to catch up on Ivory’s backlist while hoping for many more.

For 2007, I look forward to reading more book club selections and catching up on the books I mentioned before. But along with those, I’m also going to continue savoring the works of favorite romance authors.

For Christmas I received this hardcover copy of SEIZE THE FIRE, by Laura Kinsale. It’s definitive proof that bad covers happen to wonderful authors. It also goes a long way toward explaining why some members of my book discussion group would never pick up a romance. But based on how I feel about Kinsale’s other books, I’m pretty confident I’ll love what’s inside. 🙂

OK, without spoilers, has anyone read any of the books I mentioned and what did you think of them? What genres do you regularly read besides romance? What are you looking forward to reading in 2007?

Elena
LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE, RT Reviewers’ Choice, Best Regency Romance of 2005
www.elenagreene.com

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