Bitchin' Blog Posts
: Mothers
May 09, 2011 | Monday | 59 Comments
I started reading this book because it contained some tropes I like, and a setting I thought I would enjoy. Vineyards! A winery! A small town/small community setting with a character returning home for whatever reason - I usually enjoy this kind of story. The problem here is that most of the characters go too far into negative territory and I was afraid that the author wouldn’t be able to get them out. About halfway through I was worried enough that I went seeking a review to see if the story would have a happier resolution than I thought would…
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April 12, 2011 | Tuesday | 44 Comments
Beverly Cleary has always been one of my favorite authors. I think I read every book she wrote, and while I liked the Ramona books just fine (I was, after all, an older sister who had acres of sympathy for Beezus), I loved Cleary’s teen books. Fifteen was one of my favorites, but my absolute mushy love is reserved for The Luckiest Girl. From a romance perspective, this book is a perfect construction of romance tropes and expectations. There’s the plucky, pretty, enthusiastic and sensitive heroine, Shelley, who is invited on what seems like a whim to live with her…
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March 01, 2011 | Tuesday | 10 Comments
If you tuned in to the Book Club Chat last week, you heard me announce that the next pick is Bitter Melon, a YA novel by Cara Chow. It’s probably the very best part of the book club that I get to select books that I’m excited about. This book grabbed my attention because it’s set deep in a particular culture, but the heroine’s experiences are universal and I had a great deal of empathy for her predicaments. Here’s the cover copy: Frances, a Chinese-American student at an academically competitive school in San Francisco, has always had it drilled into…
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February 21, 2011 | Monday | 79 Comments
Hi, sorry, sorry. This semester is kicking my ass, and all my classes are things I actually give a rat’s ass about (I’m taking law in the Ancient World, and it’s the best ever), so there’s a lot less procrastination on my plate this semester than last semester. This is also the first book I’m reviewing from my brand new Kindle, which I adore more than is reasonable. I got it for school (really) and also so people can’t judge me for the covers of what I read. Yay for eink! This book is so deliciously fucked up, you guys. …
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May 04, 2010 | Tuesday | 27 Comments
Usually with any conference or event I attend, there’s always one memory or item I remember best, something that sort of encapsulates the entire event. Sometimes, it’s not a good thing (Pittsburgh’s RT, while hosted by my home town, was a hot mess of groping and asthma attacks for many) and sometimes it’s something outside the script, like at RT in Orlando, when Beth Ciotta turned to Heather Graham and remarked that she couldn’t believe Heather’s daughter, who had just danced onstage, was no longer 3 years old. That moment reminded me that although many people disagree about RT and…
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March 30, 2010 | Tuesday | 26 Comments
I just finished this book. My eyes are stinging, and I have that doofy smile on my face that comes from good book bliss. This is a book for vacations, for quiet afternoons or evenings when it’s just you, a book, and a few precious hours to yourself, for escape and respite, and for bittersweet and beautiful historical romance. (Yes. I liked it. A lot.) Lady Jane Cummings is better known as “Lady Jane of Society Fame.” She’s a natural in a party setting, she was the toast of London society, and she desperately misses her ability to truly enjoy…
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October 07, 2009 | Wednesday | 30 Comments
I first read about this book in the recent Wall Street Journal article about Amish books and how they are huge sellers right now. I was curious about the books themselves, both as romances and as fiction that’s popular with Christian readers. I grew up in Pennsylvania, and spent a lot of time as a kid driving through southern PA towards New Jersey, passing through a lot of Amish country, particularly Lancaster County. I’m passing familiar with Amish society and its rules, and have a lot of respect for a people who eschew modern conveniences due to their beliefs. The…
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June 22, 2009 | Monday | 98 Comments
An Anonymous Librarian sent me the following query, and asked for your help: I work in a high school library—my alma mater’s, no less—and my responsibilities include selecting and purchasing books (when we have a budget). While most of our fiction purchases are either YA or supportive of the curriculum, we definitely have an audience for grown up romance novels. Kids who devour Cabot or Brashares are entitled to explore more mature options. Our collection still includes a few Mary Stewarts, some Victoria Holt, some Danielle Steel, and, of course, DuMaurier, but when it comes to current romance authors, I…
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May 29, 2009 | Friday | 1 Comments
If you’re on Twitter or online researching publishing, digital development, social media, DRM, or the intersection of the web and the publishing industry, you’ve probably run into Kassia Krozser at Booksquare.com or in person at conferences like Tools of Change in Publishing, which was sponsored in part by Booksquare.com. Kassia’s a holy shit savvy interview subject and great at examining the present model and looking ahead in terms of how book production and reader connections can create new models of bookselling: KK: I’m actually quite enthusiastic about the prospects for books, if not the publishing business as we know it.…
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December 31, 2008 | Wednesday | 26 Comments
What a perfect way to end the year: DocTurtle finishes another review. Part 5: Chapters 20 through 26 All things must come to an end, and so it is with Heyer’s tale of Waterloo. After several truly engaging chapters, we come down from the mountaintop and finish out with a series of chapters focusing on the battle itself. Eighty-eight straight pages of blow-by-blow on the battlefield! Ouch. I wouldn’t mind a few highlights, but I’ll be damned if Heyer doesn’t tell us of every last little manoeuvre either side makes. I’ll go light on the details below. Ready? Here we…
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December 30, 2008 | Tuesday | 10 Comments
When I redid the re-captioning of Wayne Jordan’s book from the Uncyclopedia definition of romance, the book itself caught my eye. The synopsis sounded very interesting, so I ordered it. Mason Sinclair is recovering from a terrible injury sustained in the line of duty when his mother tells him that the man the thought was his father was not, and that he has three brothers he never knew about. Lianne Thomas is undercover protecting a little boy and his mother. They’re both in Barbados. Could this potentially rock? It seemed to me that yes, oh yes, it could. Caribbean setting?…
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November 13, 2008 | Thursday | 50 Comments
I have a few rules for gift giving, the first being that I put a good amount of thought into the gift I give, and the second that I do not ever, EVER give someone something that suggests they need improvement, or that there is something wrong with them. I don’t like gifts that might possibly hurt feelings, and I’m a big fan of the non-tschotske gift, because gifts that ultimately take up space and require dusting are not necessarily gifts I enjoy as a recipient. I love experience gifts, too - for Hubby’s birthday one year I drafted an…
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September 08, 2008 | Monday | 93 Comments
It’s a busy morning in Smart Bitch HQ, where I’m hard at work wrestling new software and correcting graphics - something cool is coming, I promise. At least I think it’s cool, anyway. Maybe you will, too. Anyway, I’m under my desk cursing at the wiring and trying valiantly to pretend like Photoshop and I are good buddies, but I have a couple of questions: I don’t have any premium channels, but I am dying (ha!) to know what y’all thought of HBO’s True Blood. I’m going to try to watch it online (thank you HBO) later, but I’m so…
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August 29, 2008 | Friday | 8 Comments
Summer is almost at an end here in the US. If school hasn’t started yet, it soon will, and the stores are filling up with corduroy and tweed and heavy fabrics. But in case you need a lift and a mental note to go run in the sprinkler while it’s still warm, here’s two baby moose this past June, playing in the sprinkler with their mom.
Thanks to Diane for the link.
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