Bitchin' Blog Posts
: Guardian
January 20, 2010 | Wednesday | 33 Comments
First: Robert Parker, mystery novelist and creator of the Spenser series, died yesterday at the age of 77. Parker wrote over 60 books according to the Guardian, and judging by my inbox was a favorite author of many Bitchery readers. I confess: I haven’t read any of Parker’s books. Which would you recommend? Second: Erich Segal passed away yesterday as well at the age of 72. Segal is best known for “Love Story” but I was a huge fan of his novel “Doctors,,” which was one of my gateways into romance reading. Segal took a lot of crap for being…
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July 31, 2009 | Friday | 10 Comments
AJ has the hots for Ryan, but as the story opens, Ryan’s dad is about to marry her mom, and so now it’s all icky stepbrotherlust. Whoa. Could have stopped there - plenty of conflict. But no, there’s more! AJ is a vampire and she can’t tell anyone. Not even Ryan knows. And she’s able to live among humans with a great deal of subterfuge. While she has some problems controlling her fangs and lust for havoc and blood, she’s pretty much totally covered. She has younger siblings, and Ryan has younger siblings, and even though the sibs never snack…
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February 17, 2009 | Tuesday | 36 Comments
This week’s cover snark is dedicated to the editorial assistants of the world. Y’all work hard for not a whole lot of money, and given the trend of layoffs, your work world probably just got a lot harder. So, in grateful thanks to the editorial assistant who sent me a steaming, shiny, altogether brilliant pile of these cover cards, and to all the editorial assistants who kick ass and take names, this snark’s for you. Sarah: The Guardian of the war butterflies watches as two mutated specimens pry each other from their silky cocoon. But it’s way, way too early.…
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December 03, 2008 | Wednesday | 48 Comments
Thanks to FD, I have a link to an advice column from the Guardian penned by one Mariella Frostrup which addresses the emotionally unavailable man. As FD said in the email to me, the part in the beginning where she ladles on the pathos in an attempt to establish empathy was irritating, and her assumption about Mills & Boon heroes is way off the mark imo, but her point about the emotionally unavailable man is thought provoking. I have to wonder if everyone went through the “tragic mate” phase in their 20’s, finding partners with the urge to fix and…
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November 26, 2008 | Wednesday | 17 Comments
It’s that time of year - when lights are on the houses, when the days are shorter, when the long, chilly nights are full of the promise that you get to read sex scenes out loud. Why? It’s time for the Literary Review’s Bad Sex Award . Oh, the things we have to be thankful for. A throbbing, turgid congratulations to Rachel Johnson’s Shire Hell. You can read more about the short listed books in last week’s Guardian article. The shortlisted excerpts are majestic to say the least. My fave of the excerpts: There was nothing but obliterating sensation as…
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November 23, 2008 | Sunday | 22 Comments
Thanks to Rebecca, here’s a thoughtful article from The Guardian about the value of reading bad books. Self-absorbed books, pretentious books, poorly crafted books - they all combine to help you appreciate the miracle of a great book when you encounter it, according to Stuart Evers. There are only a finite amount of books you can read in one lifetime, so spending time with one that you know within 50 pages is going to stink like two-day-old roadkill in the sun seems counter-intuitive. It makes far more sense to put it down and pick up something else from the ever-increasing…
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