I thought I’d give a shout out to a few blogs I enjoy reading. This is not an exhaustive list!
Limecello is a romance reader whose blog is a newer one (2011, I think), although she is a long time member of Romanceland, and has been blogging at various spots for almost ten years. Right now (through August 21, so hurry) she is running a comment drive for charity. Just make a comment, and contributors will give money to Save the Children, to benefit those suffering from the effects of drought in the Horn of Africa. Visit Limecello’s blog for reviews, author interviews, and giveaways.
Sunita is another long time member of Romanceland, who reviews at Dear Author. She’s an academic — a social scientist by trade — who mixes up blogging on issues of interest to romance and other readers with her takes on current events, like the U.K. Riots. Her specialties include debunking science reporting of recent “research”, especially as it bears on readers and reading, and historical accuracy — what it is and why it matters (or doesn’t).
LizMc, a Canadian English professor, is a frequent blog commenter and Tweeter, but she is new to blogging. Like Sunita, she often blogs a unique take on current Romanceland discussions, but she brings her own scholarly and other interests to posts including one on Uncomfortable Reading, and this one on Slow Reading.
Vassiliki and Infogenium are the team behind Shallow Reader. They don’t post much, but it’s like a little fun surprise every time they do. Most recently, we had Alphabet versus Genre, in which Vassiliki, a librarian, is “struggling to decide upon whether I like the genrification of libraries or if I would like fiction, to once again, be a roll call of authors on shelves.”
Heroes & Heartbreakers is hardly a “small” blog: sponsored by Macmillan, with paid administrators and writers, subscribing to H&H in your feed commits you to no fewer than 40 posts a week by dozens of bloggers and authors. I actually don’t subscribe, but I do regularly check in, because the H&H team gathered some of my favorite bloggers to write on a range of topics not usually covered by romance blogs, including not just other genres, like YA and SFF, but film and TV. I think H&H’s treatment of the romance genre as another form of popular culture is very fresh, and I especially enjoy their fun thematic posts, like Sometimes I Want to Slap Her: Anita Blake, Merit, Rachel Morgan, Kitty Norville, and Sookie Stackhouse , and If He’s Hot, He’s an Anti-Hero; If He’s Not, He’s a Villain. (In the interest of full disclosure, I have written a couple of posts for H&H since they launched 6 months ago. It was a great experience, and I would do more if I had the time.)
Lux Lucas is a very new (and infrequent) blogger who takes a literary approach to romance, in posts on Judith Ivory and Epilogues: the Cost of Sentiment. Like Liz and Sunita, this blogger likes to riff on others’ posts, extending the discussion in unusual ways.
From the About page:
Open Letters is dedicated to the proposition that no writing which reviews the arts should be boring, back-patting, soft-pedaling, or personally compromised. We’ve all had the experience of reading a review that sparkled—one that combined an informed, accessible examination of its quarry with gamesome, intelligent, and even funny commentary. These are the pieces we tell our friends about and then vigorously debate.
I really like Open Letters. It’s a monthly ‘zine, and also great for linkage and commentary. The writers succeed in avoiding the kind of pedantry that makes me run from most lit blogs, and they also review pretty widely across the spectrum. Recent posts like ‘What a Brain must Mine be!’: The Strange Historical Romances of William Harrison Ainsworth and On the Scent: Materialism, about perfumes, showcases the kind of quirky and diverse topics OLM covers.
What about you? Read any newer/smaller/off the beaten path blogs lately that deserve a mention?
Related posts:
Wow – thanks for the shout out – and to be in such exalted company! I’ll have to endeavor to be more… yeah who are we kidding. There’s a reason I didn’t thrive on (in?) professional school.
Maybe when I grow up…
Although I do hope to one day write brilliant posts like you guys, where there will be thoughtful amazing comments!
I’m pleased to see I subscribe to 5 of these already (I am current! I am in the know!) and will check out the others.
I’m so glad you’ve shared these. They’re delightful.
Gosh, thanks for the lovely words, Jessica! I’ve really enjoyed writing the blog. I should warn people that I am kind of all over the place, depending on what hits my interest/outrage button at any given time. And I’m not very reliable about posting, although I’m trying. I haven’t mastered that whole “write a blog while driving cross-country” thing yet!
I would also recommend frequent clicks on the blogs you list on the right side. There are a lot of really interesting writers and thinkers in romancelandia.
Thank you so much for the mention. Chuffed to be listed with so many impressive bloggers.
Thanks for the suggestions! Despite my fear that info overload is decimating my memory, I’ll be checking out the ones I’ve not heard of.
@Sunita: That’s how I originally found yours, Sunita.
@Linda Hilton: oh dear. I just deleted that side bar. I’m making some changes to the blog. Hopefully they will all be back, but in a different format.