Read React Review

Rethinking romance and other fine fiction

Archive for December, 2008

Romance Blogging Resolutions for 2009

Dec 31

Posted by Jessica in Blogs and blogging | 37 Comments

So I remember what I planned to do, and can berate myself appropriately next year at this time.

[I am sure there are already answers to a lot of the questions below. I will probably in most cases just adopt one of the answers already proffered.]

1. Read some African American romance (have just ordered a Brenda Jackson and an Adrianne Byrd)

1b. Figure out if there is non African American black romance

2. Read some m/m romance (have just ordered a JL Langley and a Josh Lanyon)

3. Read some gay romance that is not written by straight women or for straight women, that is shelved away from the Romance section, in the Lesbian/Gay section [possible #2 fits this bill. I don't know. Would save me some time if so.]

4. Figure out the difference between (2) and (3)

5. Figure out why there is such a demand for m/m romance and erotica among straight women

6. Think about why romance is the only genre where “escape” connotes something weak or bad

7. Read Neil Gaiman

8. Keep blogging at least 3 times a week until my one year anniversary in August

9. Avoid the one or two romance blogs that specialize in fallacious reasoning and make my blood boil.

10. Post on objectivity in the evaluation of literature and how I define it

11. Figure out if any feminist theorists have engaged seriously with romance in the last 15 years.

12. Attempt to refute bad quasi-feminist arguments in favor of romance

13. Write a post entitled “Why feminism is not ‘about choice’”

14. Read more Patricia Gaffney and Judith Ivory

15. Revisit (maybe even reread) an olde skool romance, like Rosemary Rogers

There’s more, but I’m already way over my head with this list.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Tags: ,

I’m over at Dear Author Today

Dec 30

Posted by Jessica in Uncategorized | Comments off

Head over to Dear Author to read my Letter of Opinion, Romance and the Boundaries of the Self, in which I get all metaphysical on your ass (and also defend some kissing of TPTB’s ass).

img_3362

all this guest blogging is tiring me out

I’m Over at The Book Smugglers Today

Dec 28

Posted by Jessica in Uncategorized | Comments off

I have serious metaphysical problems with this post title, but I wanted you to know that my review of A Candle for Nick (with some meditations on Jewish romance and readers’ moral judgment of characters in fiction) has been posted as part of Smugglivus, Ana and Thea’s wonderful anniversary celebration. Check it out!

Bodice-ripper Romance: Why Does This Genre Need An Adjective?

Dec 28

Posted by Jessica in Genre musings | 18 Comments

Which one of these things is not like the other?

  1. Mystery
  2. Science Fiction
  3. Fantasy
  4. Historical
  5. Thriller
  6. Bodice-ripping romance

Why does “romance” always get an adjective (usually “bodice-ripper”) from the mainstream press when other genres don’t? Is there some other kind of romance that I don’t know about?

Edited to add: I am not trying to rehash old debates (asking why romances get no respect, etc.).  I am just making note of three things about the term that interest me:

1. Romance novels are always referred to using the same (derogatory) adjective.  I wonder, if the dismissive view of romance is as uniform as it appears to be, why is it necessary to use any adjective at all. Why not just say, for example, “Allende has not written literature, she has merely written a romance.”, where everyone understands romance to mean “crap”? What would “romance”, simpliciter, be to these critics?

2. The adjective “bodice-ripper” is used much more widely than I thought, not just to refer to melodramatically sexy elements of non-romance fiction, but to non-fiction, and even to non-books, i.e. things like dance,  art exhibits, and political imbroglios. I am merely pointing that out.

3. Point number 1 makes me think it’s possibly a good thing we still have an adjective, albeit a demeaning one, since it opens a space for folks like to Mary Bly (Eloisa James) [link at end] to distance themselves from “bodice rippers” while embracing the label “romance writer.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , ,

Meet Our Hero, In Bed with Another Woman

Dec 26

Posted by Jessica in Genre musings | 14 Comments

Some great romances begin with the hero in bed with another woman.

beast_175

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , ,

The Kitchen is Now Closed

Dec 24

Posted by Jessica in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

It is now 9:00pm and the kitchen is now closed. The kitchen will reopen at 6:00am.

The management is sorry for any inconvenience.

However, OSHA regulations require that the cook’s shift must end at this time.

***

Thank you for your queries.

To address them in order:  the kitchen is not open for post dinner snacks, second dessert, or pre-sleep nibbles.

The kitchen is now closed.

***

The management regrets that you are hungry. However, it wishes to note that your dinner plate, when cleared by management, did, in fact, contain food. We regret that this food is now composting instead of being digested by you.

Read the rest of this entry »

How Google Search Terms Have Ruined My Life

Dec 23

Posted by Jessica in Blogs and blogging | 14 Comments

Who reamed Roger Rabbit?

I seriously do not know, but apparently my blog is one place to find the answer to this important question.

Although it is a bit deflating to realize how many of my hits must be irritating mistakes to the people who visit, overall, checking out how people found my blog via Google search terms used to be fun.

A lot of people come to the post Top Nine Most Romantic Love Scenes in Romance by Googling “top love scenes.”

I do feel sorry for all the people looking for “orgasm on command” who hope to find some assistance here, but instead find this post.

Some of the other terms are pretty amusing:

“transforming men into pretty sluts”

“luscious butts”

“oldhumansex” (one word, of course)

“rfp tofurkey”

I wonder how many pages of Google search results the folks looking for “Jon Stewart”  had to wade through to find my blog, because a search for him yields over 6 million hits, and I’m pretty sure my Hanukkah post is not in the top, oh, 5.99 million.

Sometimes people (authors, reviewers) are Googling themselves, never an activity you want to be caught doing.

And I’ve lost count of how many folks found my blog looking for the name of the cover model for Lisa Kleypas’s Seduce Me at Sunrise.

My absolute favorite has to be “I saw something nasty in the wood shed”, which is a line from a terrific movie, Cold Comfort Farm. I used it in my review of Nora Roberts’ Born in Fire.

But I now realize there is a dark side to  search terms.

Sometimes people are looking for spoilers, and it is a great and terrible irony that those people are sometimes spoiling me by doing so. There is nothing more disappointing than being halfway through a series like Sookie Stackhouse or the Black Dagger Brotherhood or the Twelve Houses and finding out what happens in the book I haven’t read.

I guess I can display more self control and just not look at the search terms, but that would require not visiting my stats page and that’s way more self control than I have.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Tags:

Review: His Mistletoe Bride, by Cara Colter

Dec 22

Posted by Jessica in Reviews | 3 Comments

n273532

My Take in Brief: If you hate the First Amendment, you will love this book!

Acquisition note: This is a Harlequin that just came out. I got it on the $.50 charity table at my market. Woohoo! Excerpt here.

Heroine and Hero: Rural Snow Mountain, Washington cop Brody Taggert is dealing with the death of his brother 6 years ago and the impending loss of his dog to cancer.  He doesn’t like Christmas and is in no mood for love. Lila Grainger, a.k.a. Miss L. Toe, moved to Snow Mountain to open a Christmas shop and get away from memories of a stalker. She’s more in the mood for love.

Plot: Snow Mountain’s town council has decided not to fund their annual Christmas display on Main Street in favor of buying a police cruiser. Lila decides to spearhead the effort to “Save Christmas in Snow Mountain.” Lila, the niece of Brody’s boss, and Brody are attracted to each other right away, but Brody fights it.

Distinctive feature: Longest synonym for fart ever in a Harlequin: “a sound like air being released from a balloon.”

The Racy Romance Review: I was joking about the First Amendment, although I did find it highly amusing that I was reading this book the same week Washington was in the news because the governor allowed some atheists to put up a sign near the Christmas displays in the capitol.  Then some mayhem ensued, prompting the Democrat governor and Republican AG to issue the following statement:

The U.S. Supreme Court has been consistent and clear that, under the Constitution’s First Amendment, once government admits one religious display or viewpoint onto public property, it may not discriminate against the content of other displays, including the viewpoints of nonbelievers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , ,

© 2008-2010 Read React Review All Rights Reserved