I was part of a four-person committee force (or task-ittee?) with Michelle Monkou, Sherry Thomas, and Bobbi Dumas to determine the NPR’s Summer of Love list of 100 Swoon-Worthy Romances. After a ton (a TON) of nominations via Google and two very long (whoa long) conference calls, the list has been announced.
Have a look at the NPR top 100 Romances!
AND ALSO THE GRAPHIC which I LOVE SO MUCH, and was created by Mary McLain at NPR. Applause and champagne for Ms. McLain!
We tried to build a list that would show the variety of the different types of romance while highlighting titles that readers love to recommend. If you’re curious as to why a particular book didn’t make it, Petra, one of the NPR Books editors, write about that part of the process, too.
I’m sure there’s a book of six you think should have been on the list – and I know NPR wants to hear about it (and so do I if you’re inclined). This was a lot of fun – so thank you to NPR for inviting me.
And apologies to everyone who might have to add a bunch of these to the TBR. Oh, the dangerous temptation of lists.
@Coco:
I get that it can be confusing, especially since there’s not much representation of bisexuality in popular media, and on the rare occasions that it shows up, it’s often stereotyped and inaccurate.
I am married to a man, but I am still bisexual. I still find women sexually attractive, much like I still find men other than my husband sexually attractive. I know some people say that they don’t find anyone other than their chosen partner attractive, but I’ve not found that to be the case for myself. I live in a world where Joe Manganiello and Eliza Dushku exist, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find them both smoking hot. Bisexuality is a sexual orientation just like homosexuality or heterosexuality (and others). It has to do with whom I find sexually attractive, regardless of whether I’m having sex with them. If a straight person had never had sex, they would still be straight, because that is their orientation. They’re not asexual; they’re straight. The orientation remains the same. If I had never had sex, I would still be bi. And I’m still bi even though I’m not having sex with women.
You asked, “if I happened to be in a relationship . . . and he designated himself as bisexual during our relationship, I would feel very insecure. And I wonder if that’s an issue?”
It hasn’t been for me, but came out to my husband at the very beginning of our relationship. His reaction to it was one of the things that made me feel safe enough to fall in love with him. He didn’t fetishize it, nor did he act revolted. He just accepted that it was part of who I am. Not all of who I am, just part. I am faithful to my husband. We are monogamous. It has never been difficult for me to remain so because I love him. I’m not more likely to stray just because I’m capable of finding more people sexually attractive than he is.
You judges had an impossible task, and no way to please everyone. You did an AMAZING job. Brava all around.
@Coco – First, I have spastic cerebral palsy and use various kinds of mobility assistance, and have never found a heroine who comes close in that regard; so, I just want to say that I absolutely agree with all that you’ve said re: disability in romance. Thank you.
Second, I’m bisexual and, while it’s different for everyone, I think most would that bisexuality is a self identify rather than sexual identification. I once saw a comic strip that explained it this way: let’s say you buy a sofa bed. When it’s closed, it fuctions as a sofa. When it’s extended, it fuctions as a bed. But it is always, no matter its situation, a sofa bed. That is its core identity and no matter how that sofa bed is put to use, it’s still a sofa bed.
I think I just repeated myself, but hopefully that helps clarify things. No matter who I’m in a relationship with, I am a bisexual woman.
Ack. When I said “rather than a sexual identification,” I meant “rather than a identification of sexual activity.”
Yay, books I nominated made the list! Irons Seas, McKenzie’s Mountain et al, Bet Me, Jane Eyre. I wish one of the old skool’s I put up had made it, though. How does Kathleen Woodiwiss not make the list?
On the other hand, I made 33 ticks as I went down the list, so I can probably bang the rest out in the next two years.
@Coco – I second what DPR and Kate said. A few other random musings:
I’m also a bi woman in a monogamous relationship with a man – to me, being bi is as much about who I am as it is who I sleep with and who I love. And it’s also my history. My ex-girlfriends are as important as my ex-boyfriends. To me, to say that I stopped being bi when I married my husband would be to erase part of my past that I don’t want to erase.
I think sexual orientation is about identity and also about possibility. For me, the possibility exists to fall in love or lust with men and women. Whether or not I chose to act on it. Someone who is celibate still has a sexual orientation – whether it is bi, straight, gay, asexual, etc – they just chose not to act on that possibility.
The sexual orientation spectrum is a different line than the monogamy / polyamory spectrum. I know people who are bi and poly and I know people who are bi and monogamous.
@ Kate @ Cleo
Thank you! Such good explaining!
I think without realizing it I have assumed bisexuality and monogamy between two individuals was not a thing. I apologize. It just never occurred to me.
The analogy between a straight person who is celibate still being straight not asexual, and the sofa bed too, absolutely make sense. I am a straight person who is celibate. Just because I never unfold doesn’t negate the bedding part of me;-) This I get.
Also, of course our histories make who we are, if there were prior relationships, those count. Those still are part of the equation. This I get.
I identify as a straight person, and I am a straight person. But I do find that I can be mentally or emotionally sexually attracted to women, but never in a physical way. However, as an artist I prefer the female form. I find the female form exciting, but not in a physically sexual way. Do you suppose you can be mentally BI? Or am I just terribly open minded?
Thank you, soo much, for answering my honest questions with honest answers and not assuming that I’m hateful. This place is probably the only one I would have dared ask such questions. It’s nice to have that safety.
And @ The DPR! Sorry, I didn’t mean to leave you out!
I like the graphic, but my mother would be appalled. It violates her “no reading at the dinner table” rule. (A rule I routinely ignored.) But my first thought was, “Is he drinking his wine with a straw?”
@ Violet Bick
Me too! I am totally down with reading at the table, but don’t drink your wine with a straw. Please. That ain’t right.
I’ve found an increasing representation of disability in romance the last few years. While I’m able-bodied, white, cis, hetero, etc (all the privilege), I love seeing all kinds of diversity represented in the stories I love, and moving away from “defaults.” Two romances with heroines with physical disabilities: Sweetest Scoundrel, part of Elizabeth Hoyt’s series which is on the list. Heroine is severely visually impaired, after we’ve seen her vision decline in previous books. And a contemporary new adult The Year We Fell Down by Sarina Bowen, heroine receives sports injury in senior year of high school, starts college in a wheelchair and will never walk unassisted again.
And I appreciate the discussion of bisexuality in the comments – I also found it helpful to have elaboration from those with lived experience, so thank you for sharing. Somehow I gained an understanding of L G and T from friends and the media, but despite having friends who identify as bi, I never reached the same level of just “oh ok I get now, that’s what makes this a thing, and that’s how it’s not so much a thing that it completely defines you or aligns with stereotypes.” (I honestly think the lack of representation is a huge factor, knowing people who are bi helps you see they exist and are normal people but you don’t get the sense of inner life that books and movies or even newspaper articles can give you.)
As for racial diversity, it was great that this was an integrated list, and an integrated committee. I’m super psyched to read more Jeannie Lin and more Beverly Jenkins, along others. Add this to the “white people aren’t the default” picture Sarah talks about, and the exciting Twitter stories about the diversity discussions at RWA, and I’m really happy about how romance is progressing.
Finally…I’m not sure if someone did this on purpose, but it was hilarious that Inspirational romance was immediately followed by the Erotic.
@ Coco — RITA Winner for Best Romance Novella – His Road Home by Anna Richland features an Afghan vet recovering from injuries. Also 40% off at Carina until 7/31 (see sale post for 7/29). I had this in my TBR and just finished it yesterday. Very good romance novella.
This list is so awesome! And anyone else think Tessa Dare and Victoria Dahl were having a bit of a drinking game while they replied to comments?
@Anna Richland – It sure looked that way! And I practically shnorfed my drink up my nose when that arse suggested that Victoria Dahl might be embarrassed by nekkid man pictures. VICTORIA DAHL?? She who nicknamed her current hero “Cunnilingus Gabe”? I’d say not bloody likely 😀
I feel like I need to be friends with all of you crazy gals. That’s my cuppa! Grumbling and plotting! Raging against stereotypes!
And so many new books to read. Great list! Kudos for mentioning Motorcycle Man. Great read! Now if only I could get into the sequels. Same with the Joanna Wylde Reaper/Silver MC books. Loved the first ones. Can’t seem to go gaga for the others. Maybe Sons of Anarchy ruined me.
That was a fabulous list. I do have a quibble that Carla Kelly should have been represented by a better example-one of her Napoleonic Wars military hero books, for instance.
On the subject of bisexuality, just want to mention that AutoStraddle just had a huge (900+ comment) open thread for bisexual women who date men – http://www.autostraddle.com/we-see-you-an-open-thread-for-bisexual-women-dating-men-300258/#comment-535294
@cleo – here’s a better link: http://www.autostraddle.com/we-see-you-an-open-thread-for-bisexual-women-dating-men-300258/
And I like this tumbler for finding books with bi characters – http://bisexual-books.tumblr.com
@Dread Pirate Rachel said: Some glorious day, I will find a romance about a bisexual, atheist, childfree feminist, and she won’t be vilified for any of those things, and she won’t change her mind, and I will live happily ever after.
@DPH, at my current pace of production, I will be writing that book in, oh, about five years. But it shall be written. Oh, it shall. 😉
[…] of course, it wouldn’t be a good discussion of romance if I didn’t include NPR’s Summer of Romance 100 Swoon-Worthy Romances list. Curated by a committee of authors and romance experts, this list has everything: historical, […]
It’s a pretty good list. But I would replace MM Kaye’s The Far Pavillions with two others: instead of reading the first half of her book read Kim by Rudyard Kipling and instead of the second half of her book read The Lotus and the Wind by John Masters. They did the same things better and earlier.
Is it just me or is the link to the list broken? Keep trying to access it and I get an error message that page does not exist. Rats! Would love to see it.
What, no Soulless by Gail Carriger? If these are better than that, I’d better get my reader stocked up, although I found Iron Duke decidedly “meh.”
@Coco I think you might want to check out Dana Marie Bell’s Steel Beauty. The kickass shifter heroine was knocked over by a car in an earlier book in the series, and has to go through surgery, PT, etc., etc., and though good things happen to her (finding her fated mate, moving to a place where she isn’t a pariah, new friends—and enemies (okay, the new enemies aren’t a good thing)), she walks with a cane and is in constant pain.
Here is a tool for those readers who want to know more and to keep track of what they’ve read: .https://goo.gl/cmnrfd
It’s a Google spreadsheet that can be copied or downloaded and used by individual readers to track their progress through the list. Please share!