Hey there! It’s links time! This is where we just post and talk about interesting things we’ve seen on the internet recently (or not so recently). I see this as a nice way to impose a break in the day, especially if the day isn’t going particularly well.
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Love ambient noise? I do. I can’t work or read without something playing in the background, though it can’t be music. The National Parks Service has recently released a whole library of nature sounds, if you find those to be particularly relaxing.
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The movie adaptation of Beverly Jenkins’ Deadly Sexy is now available on Amazon! The movie can be rented for $2.99 or purchased for $9.99. If you’ve watched it, let us know what you thought.
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Kate Clayborn’s essay on romance novel scents over at Frolic.Media has sparked quite a discussion on Twitter.
That “smells like man” is often used early in a book—as a signal that we should recognize a character as the primary love interest—is a compelling enough appeal to the ways in which we’re thought to engage scent as a marker of attraction. But the story of smell in a romance rarely ends there, and it’s those complementary phrases—the ones that describe for us what “man” or sometimes “woman” smells like—that invite us to think about how our noses are being asked to participate in more subtle cultural work the romance might be doing.
What do you think about the examination of smells in romance?
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We have some book club announcements!
If you’re in New England, the first meeting of the HEA Romance Book Club at Porter Square books in Cambridge is Sunday, January 13 at 4pm. I hope to see some of you there, as we discuss Never Seduce a Scoundrel by Sabrina Jeffries.
As for February’s book, it looks like it might just be A Duke by Default by Alyssa Cole. We also have a Facebook group for voting and event reminders.
If you’re situated elsewhere in the world, the Smart Bitches Goodreads group has a monthly read along. Our pick for January is Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren.
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Have a New Year’s resolution? Well apparently, so do Jane Austen heroines!
1. Learn to play the pianoforte moderately well. Stick to duets.
2. Stop taking long walks in the rain while underdressed.
3. Throw out the expired smelling salts. Replace promptly.
4. Avoid rakes with jaunty names that start with W. Perfect sideburns are not indicative of mature relationship potential.
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Don’t forget to share what super cool things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!
Jackie Ashenden is the queen of lovers recognizing their one-true-love by smell. I used to say all her heroes smelled of sandalwood and all her heroines of vanilla. Ashenden expanded her palette in later books (where citrusy or musky notes abound), but I haven’t read one of her books yet where the hero & heroine were extremely affected by how the other smells. I like the “smell” trope, so have no problem with books that employ it.
Here’s an interesting article about how the “Seduction/Pickup-Artist” industry factors into late-stage capitalism, excessive consumption, material culture, and dissatisfaction with life in general. I submit it with a warning though: while the article is neutral about PUAs and certain techniques (such as “negging” for example), some of the men quoted will make you want to pull your hair out:
https://aeon.co/essays/pickuptm-turns-romance-into-a-commodity-for-male-consumption
This Power Point someone made arguing Belle should have picked Gaston is funny: https://www.buzzfeed.com/aliciabarron/this-powerpoint-presentation-about-why-belle-should-have
Wrong, of course. Gaston is the worst. But still funny.
National Park Service, please, not National “Parks” Service.
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Deadly Sexy is cheaper if you expand to see SD options! I think it’s 1.99 rent and 7.99 buy. I thought it was great and really well done – sometimes there was an issue with something like sound mixing but for a 70k budget holy crap did they do great! And everyone is so pretty.