Links of Joy, Fuzzy Feelings, and Really Beautiful Men

Want to grin? Have some happy, thoughtful links.

An Ode to Emilie Loring, romance author. Thanks to Holly G. for that link.

Q: Which romance authors (you can only name one) remain enduring favorites through every single book they wrote? New or older authors, doesn’t matter.

(I predict the top three favorites from the comments will be Heyer, Roberts, and McMaster-Bujold. My choice is Julia Spencer-Fleming, mostly because I’m going through a palate-cleanse of mystery reading and I can’t stop turning back to her books to enjoy and savor her character building and small-world-building skills.

Mills & Boon has a new charity calendar for 2011, featuring the men of the Leander Rowing Club. It appears that the men in the calendar might be without apparel – but the behind the scenes video makes me want one even more than the rumor of nude rowing.

The calendar proceeds support the Leander Trust, which helps children learn about rowing as a sport, and supports athletes at the world and Olympic level.

Q: Which sport should have a nude charity calendar next? Curling? I vote curling.

 

 

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  1. Katherine says:

    Those rowers are yummy! Ix-nay on the curling calendar – ice = shrinkage!!! I’d vote for swimming.

    Fav author – two:
    Nora Roberts (I have re-read the “Born in” series again and again)
    Lisa Kleypas. It’s not so much the world-building that does it for me but the rich emotional development. She’s got just the right balance of salty and sweet. I know there is going to be a HEA, there is going to be angst/sadness/miscommunication/drama, and that I will probably become verklempt and I will enjoy every moment. (Many other authors do the emotional angst, but some I find too painful or eye-rolling-get-over-it-already).

  2. Niveau says:

    Hockey! Tell me you wouldn’t want to see Henrik Lundqvist or Marc-Andre Fleury in the buff.

    I am drooling at the prospect. That would be So. Totally. Awesome.

    Author-wise… Jennifer Crusie for stand-alones, India Grey for series. And Tamora Pierce for YA! Not technically romance, but her books do feature it…

  3. CT says:

    Okay, here’s a rough-and-ready tally of all positive mentions.  I didn’t limit it to people’s #1s or account for pseudonyms—just a general guide of where else you might want to look for Good Reads.  I also didn’t redo the list to ensure accuracy, so YMMV.

    Andrews, Ilona 2
    Austen, Jane 2
    Balogh, Mary 3
    Blake, Jennifer 1
    Brent, Madeline 1
    Brockmann, Suzanne 4
    Bujold, Lois McMaster 18
    Cabot, Meg 1
    Chase, Loretta 5
    Clare, Pamela 1
    Cole, Kresley 3
    Coulter, Catherine 1
    Crusie, Jennifer 13
    Darcy, Clare 1
    Dunnett, DOrothy 1
    Duran, Merredith 2
    Foley, Gaelen 1
    Gabaldon, Diana 4
    Garwood, Julie 2
    Greene, Jennifer 1
    Grey, India 2
    Hawkins, Karen 1
    Heath, Lorraine 1
    Heyer, Georgette 15
    Holt, Victoria 1
    Howard, Linda 4
    James, Eloisa 3
    Jordan, Nicole 1
    Kenyon, Sherrilyn 1
    Kinsale, Laura 2
    Kleypas, Lisa 8
    Krentz, Jayne Ann 7
    Layton, Edith 1
    Lindsey, Johanna 3
    Lowell, ELizabeth 2
    Maxwell, Anne 1
    Maxwell, Cathy 1
    Mayberry, Sarah 1
    McNaught, Judith 1
    Moning, Karen 1
    Morgan, Sarah 1
    Palmer, Diana 1
    Peters, Elizabeth 3
    Phillips, Susan ELizabeth 8
    Pierce, Tamara 1
    Plaidy, Jean 1
    Quick, Amanda 2
    Quinn, Julia 10
    Robb, JD 6
    Roberts, Nora 10
    Rown, Lee 1
    Saintcrow, Lilith 1
    Samueal, Barbara 1
    Sayers, Dorothy 1
    Shalvis, Jill 3
    Singh, Nalini 2
    Smith, Joan 1
    Spencer-Fleming, Julia 3
    StClaire, Roxanne 1
    Stewart, Mary 1
    Stuart, Anne 1
    Thomas, Sherry 2
    Ward, JR 12
    Weale, Anne 1
    Wind, Ruth 1

  4. CT says:

    Correction:  I’m betting JR Ward is supposed to be “2,” not “12.”  I used a “1” untilt he second mention, when I replaced it with a “2.”  Carry on.

  5. Jessica MD says:

    For me, Nalini Singh has been excellent every novel.

    For the calendar, rugby.  Don’t really watch it—or any other sport—but every rugby player I’ve ever seen a pic of has been super hot.

  6. Rachel says:

    Elizabeth Hoyt. Good characterizations, interesting settings & plotting, a fine way with words & she can bring teh sexy.

  7. Mags says:

    Gotta go with Susan Elizabeth Phillips.  She’s definitely my go to comfort re-read.  (I like Bujold, Gabaldon & Chase, but contemporary romantic comedy is my favorite genre.)

  8. Every single book? Hmm. For older authors, Jan Cox Speas. For newer authors, Kelley Armstrong.

    And curling? I’m with you all the way, Sarah—especially if the calendar includes our own John Morris… http://guingel.livejournal.com/323195.html

  9. Karin says:

    For romance, Mary Balogh-not all of her books are keepers but every single one is good. She never wrote a clunker. For mysteries with romantic subplots, I’m surprised no one has mentioned Patricia Wentworth.  I also feel Liz Carlyle should get an honorable mention.

  10. Marianne McA says:

    Bujold, but she’s not romance. (And I haven’t read Falling Free, so it’s technically possible that I won’t love them all.) And Heyer: I love most of them, really I do. But not The Conqueror, or Royal Escape or Penhallow, so that disqualifies her. And Mary Stewart is disqualified by her later books, and Julie Cohen by the sex-tape-making aliens.
    Be easier if we only had to love 95% of their oeuvre.

    I can’t, for the moment, think of a Judith Duncan book I don’t like, so I’ll plump for her.

  11. Tessa says:

    I’m still making my way through Heyer, so far so good, but I suspect that Loretta Chase’s fabulous dialogue will edge Georgette into second place.

    But if only one author, I second the Dorothy Dunnet vote.  Because of Lymond, since I threw the 4th Niccolo against the wall at the (profoundly out of character) ending, then stayed away for 6 months in protest before finishing N. so I could start Lymond.  She’s brilliant and gives you so much to chew on in each book.  I love the romances in each, but it takes a richness and depth (of character, of world-building, historical research) to make me reread anything, much less more than once.

  12. Literary Slut Kilian says:

    D.E. Stevenson is my go-to author.  So happy whenever I can find one of her books.  Tied for second are Georgette Heyer and Elswth Thane.

    I’d like to see some nude archers.

  13. shalimar subagja says:

    I’m a sucker for any books by Johanna Lindsey, Meg Cabot, and Candace Bushnell.

    The other romance authors I luuurve are Nancy Warren, Vicky Lewis Thompson, Lori Foster, and Jo Leigh. Their writings are hawt!^^

  14. Hannah says:

    Just an FYI: There is already a nude women of curling calendar that has been made for several years.

    The link below is NSFW but the first picture is from the 2008 calendar I believe:
    http://www.nerve.com/archived/blogs/naked-women-of-curling-2008

    Here’s the site for the 2010 one (SFW unless you follow the link to the news article about the calendar):
    http://www.thecurlingnews.com/blog/women-of-curling-calendar-2010/

    Apparently the athletes/models receive money from the sales. So, it’s high time they did a calendar for the men, no?

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