Bitchin' Blog Posts
: Recommendations
February 07, 2012 | Tuesday | 48 Comments
This email comes from Rebekka: I don't know if you can help me, but I would really appreciate some recommendations of romances to read that address infertility. As you know, most books that even mention it barely do, and it's usually more a case of, "Oh! My dead husband was sterile!" or it's some other problem easily fixed by the Mighty Wang. The only romance I have read that actually deals with the emotional aspects of infertility - and which isn't magically fixed - is the Julia Quinn "Bridgerton" book When He Was Wicked (Francesca's story). My husband and I…
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February 04, 2012 | Saturday | 105 Comments
In the comments to the entry about the discrimination of the Romance Writers Ink published writers contest, DreadPirateRachel and Keri asked for a Good Shit vs. Shit to Avoid for f/f romance, or, in other words, lesbian romances. Keri commented, "It's easy to find m/m, but I'm having a really hard time with f/f, especially fluffier kinds. I love Sarah Waters and Emma Donoghue, who are always suggested, but their writing tends to be more literary and heavy and less "romance novel", and when I try to find others, I often just come across erotica meant for the male gaze.…
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December 06, 2011 | Tuesday | 66 Comments
A reader named Tessa emailed looking for recommendations, and I knew you would know some good books to suggest for her. I am looking for a book, actually for a type of book- I would really like more than one. I want to read something with a[n] Hispanic protagonist (I think I would prefer hero to heroine, but I would like either). I did a quick (micro-second fast) search of the site, but didn't see a whole lot, other than this is not a type of book you see often, which I had kinda already figured out. I would be ok with historical, but…
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August 11, 2011 | Thursday | 90 Comments
This request comes from Louisa, who is looking for a specific type of plot device - in the back story.
I’m looking for books that might counter-balance a very specific pet peeve
of mine. I call it the “I only THOUGHT I knew what love is” syndrome.
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May 04, 2011 | Wednesday | 70 Comments
I’ve received two email messages asking for Navy SEAL romance recommendations. I WONDER WHY. So list night I asked on The Twitter if anyone would be interested in a reader-generated list of recommended SEAL and special forces romances. The response was very, very positive. AGAIN. I wonder why. (Not.) So if you’re thinking a military hero would totally rock your reading socks right now, bring it on. Lynn Raye Harris said last night that she would want to learn more about any “Special Forces romances…. Army’s Delta Force is pretty bad ass. Marine’s Force Recon aren’t slouches either.” Hell, yes.…
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April 29, 2011 | Friday | 39 Comments
Monday I am going to speak about romance at the Connecticut Library Association conference. My session goals are to both talk about romance to librarians who may be leery or misinformed about it, and to also highlight some excellent books to have in a library collection and share ways to welcome romance readers into libraries. I’m also going to talk about what avid, rabid readers we are, and how much we love libraries with solid romance collections (I just got tingly goosebumps writing that, thinking of all the shelves of romance novels at my local library growing up). I have…
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April 25, 2011 | Monday | 41 Comments
A reader named Jacqueline contacted me to ask if I’ve ever read any Victorian romances - not romances set during the Victorian era, but written during the Victorian era. I had to think on it before I realized that if I had, they were in grad school syllabi gone by, and I didn’t remember much of them. Jacqueline reads some favorite Victorian authors every winter, and when I asked her for recommendations, boy howdy did she ever. Everyone has a favorite when it comes to romance novels. I tend to read mine just in the winter (when you can’t see…
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April 23, 2011 | Saturday | 36 Comments
Lent, the period of time between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday, is marked by many with acts of penance, fasting, and prayer. Sometimes, the fasting is of a particularly type of food. I know a few people who give up chocolate or wine or alcohol altogether for Lent. Emily did something different: Hello ladies of the Bitchery! I need your help. I am desperate for some book recommendations. I gave up romance novels for lent, can you believe it?!? I am fast approaching the end of the 40 day period and I need to know what’s new and what people…
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March 02, 2011 | Wednesday | 61 Comments
On Twitter I recently asked the following question: “If you could buy digital books in a physical bookstore, would you shop there?” I asked because I saw a eReads article about digital book kiosks in physical bookstores, an idea I would LOVE to see. I’ve been thinking a great deal lately about how I shop for books, what I look for when I go buy a book, and I realized, I seek a specific title when I go make a purchase. I haven’t browsed a romance section in a bookstore in a very, very long time. Yet I have a…
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February 07, 2011 | Monday | 151 Comments
The Jasper Fforde Thursday Next series is one of the book series that I learned about from the Bitchery, one that I keep meaning to start reading already. Now that there’s another installment coming out 8 March, I think it’s time for me to get on with it already. I definitely have a habit of waiting to start a series until there’s at least a few books for me to read in a row - I did that with Julia Spencer-Fleming and with Ilona Andrews’ books as well. And then, when I know there’s a new one, I can go…
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January 29, 2011 | Saturday | 152 Comments
I received this email and know you are going to have an absolute fiesta of recommendations. We’ve talked about YA books, including this post from 2005** about YA books that Candy loved. We’ve talked YA romance before, too, but since there is SO much to choose from, what would you recommend for a 13 year old reader who is becoming interested in romance? I’ve been a big reader since I was a little girl so it has been a joy watching one of my nieces become an avid reader. Knowing I am the big reader in the family, she has…
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January 27, 2011 | Thursday | 142 Comments
A reader and graduate student named Kate emailed me this question: “Intrigued by the concept of well-written, professionally published erotica, I downloaded some of your recommendations. After sampling several I found a pattern that bothered me and yanked me out of the story. All of the male characters - and sometimes the females too - are described physically, right off the bat, as being tall, handsome, and having perfect sinewy muscular bodies that I’ve certainly never seen anywhere besides Michaelango’s David. I understand that romance and erotica are designed to be fantasies, and that the reader is assumed to be…
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October 05, 2010 | Tuesday | 134 Comments
The BookMatcher is Billie Bloebaum, book buyer for Powell’s in the Portland Airport, and she brings the art of handselling books based on interest to folks writing in online for her help. Today’s request is from ninjapenguin: If so, I have kind of an unusual request. See, thanks to your site, I have recently been introduced to the world of well-written romance novels. (Previously I had only been cognizant of the rather horrifyingly rape-tastic old school ones my grandmother would leave out.) Specifically, I have started reading, and consequently, falling hard for Georgette Heyer. But where do I go from…
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September 14, 2010 | Tuesday | 41 Comments
What light through yonder window breaks? It's an iFrame, and it contains survey results! Clearly, I need to get over my crush on the Wufoo surveys very very soon. But not today!
var host = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://" : "http://");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + host + "sbtb.wufoo.com/scripts/widget/embed.js?w=GiwuslashElFzxOuwwuslashzzWWz6490XO66NL6PIRAn7RmJ658cPk=' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
var host = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://" : "http://");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + host + "sbtb.wufoo.com/scripts/widget/embed.js?w=wuslashZfHYuOtGyL2kcZ3OrwuBeBD5VywuslashTDy0RaUbxFKKXopHjI=' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
var host = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://" : "http://");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + host + "sbtb.wufoo.com/scripts/widget/embed.js?w=GqQON50ideSlPDheU7wuslashjW21WoFHb9nurCyzB6qfS3wuslashE=' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
var host = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://" : "http://");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + host + "sbtb.wufoo.com/scripts/widget/embed.js?w=wI9I23UZ8btu5McKubWz1s9EFskTtyMrmEZkzoewuslashil0=' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
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August 24, 2010 | Tuesday | 24 Comments
First, a link to NPR’s article on Digital Overload: Your Brain on Gadgets. According to the article, The New York Times reports that the average computer user checks 40 websites a day and can switch programs 36 times an hour. “It’s an onslaught of information coming in today,” says New York Times technology journalist Matt Richtel. “At one time a screen meant maybe something in your living room. But now it’s something in your pocket so it goes everywhere — it can be behind the wheel, it can be at the dinner table, it can be in the bathroom. We…
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