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June 29 AUTHORS ON MY SHELF VIA SHELFARIHere are the authors of the books on my shelf. They fall under several categories such as I've Read, Wish List, etc.
June 27 VISITATION, WELCOME CTY., N. CAROLINA: SUBTLETY IS THE HARDEST THING.**SPOILERS**
A while back, I posted a list of how you can tell that a sequel is in the works. Well, here's another way -- naming a town "Visitation." You just know everyone and their brother is going to find their way there. In the case of Lori Foster, she makes it all okay. I love the Visitation series. I especially like that it's a spin-off of another series. I don't know why -- probably it's that the characters are very loveable. It all started with the indescribably yummy Winston brothers [Rule #1: the hero/heroine has lots of close friends/relatives who figure prominently in the story ] of Thomasville, Kan-tuck-ee. Whoo, that lot! The oldest brother Cole makes shyness quite sexy. The second brother Chase is into mild domination -- scarves and being extra bossy -- very softcore. The third brother, Zane, is a total man-whore -- until he gets his own book. The youngest brother Mack is, to hear him tell it, spilling out of his g-string big time. So they have this cousin, Joe, and he shows up in Zane's story. He meets Zane's wife's best friend Luna, thereby fulfilling sequel clue #6: F/Rs of hero/heroine are thrown together. Zane's story has a very flexible, downright stretchy, brand of logic. But the characters are so likeable you really don't mind so much. Zane is mouthwatering, and his brothers continue to be so as well. VNC series starts with Luna going to Joe for help with some relatives who live in Visitation. Foster describes Joe in mouthwatering terms. Well done! So in Visitation, Joe teams up with Adonis twin Bryan on a case. Joe's sister comes to town and immediately becomes a thorn in the side of the sheriff -- clue #6 again. Then Bryan comes to town again to hide out and protect a "prostitute". Their story is like something out of As You Like It -- the hero and heroine pretending to be someone vastly different from who they really are. Then Bryan's twin Bruce shows up and Bryan's woman accidentally exchanges tonsils with him. So that's about where the family angle ends, but Foster picks up the two loose ends -- Julie Rose, the schoolmarm and Jamie the buff psychic. Julie falls for a ruthless detective, Clint Evans, who probably has Krohn's Disease, and psychic mountain man Jamie (I really don't like that name for a man. To my ears, it's too foo-foo. It's a name for a kid, not a man.) meets up with a woman who knew him before he went into hiding. She's been biding her time to establish a connection with him. Foster likes using families -- brothers -- as a canvas. She does it often, and well. There's the 4 "Buckhorn" Brothers -- 4 brothers, 3 last names, 1 son, 2 of them married to sisters. Then the 4 Winstons, then the Adonis twins Bryan and Bruce. Familial constructs work well because the audience is built in, captive even. Dialogue and body language between family members is more riveting and drives a story more interestingly than standard narrative exposition. The Winston brothers and Buckhorn brothers are the polar opposites of Lora Leigh's August brothers. If you need a break from the non-stop sturm und drang of Leigh's books, Foster's books are relaxing and happy and funny and ain't nuthin' wrong with that.
www.amazon.com :: http://www.half.ebay.com/ :: www.ebay.com :: www.betabordersstores.com :: http://www.barnesandnoble.com :: http://www.shelfari.com/o1518324450/shelf
June 23 TREK MI Q'AN -- IT'S LIKE, OUT THERE, MAN; CLOTHES OPTIONALMILD SPOILERS. ADULT (21+) CONTENT. Ellora's Cave -- publishers of romantica (romantic erotica) :: Jaid Black
I. Bit of a rant e-books: Print books ordered from Ellora's Cave have a sort of appendix that explains why e-books are better. Plus, there's a few different e-readers available now where you can load the text and not have to explain away the saucy covers. This, to me, gives rise to some philosophical (?) and philological issues. For example, remember when "reader" used to mean that compact little print book you used in elementary school? It was full of fairy tales, legends, nursery rhymes, etc.? Now people are reading text messages (dull, moronic pasttime), e-mails (wonderful when they are done well), Internet-fashioned news stories so far removed from professional journalism that they are a species unto themselves, blogs (er...yeah), and anything else that is NOT printed between two covers and is portable. Fine. Whatever. But you know what is really, really stupid? They call glancing at those lexophobic blips "reading". They think they have "read" if they glimpsed a couple of text messages, some gossip at Perez Hilton's blog (where did this piece of subterranean excrement come from and why hasn't he been flushed away?) , and checked the weather on their iPhone. And they have the nerve to be indignant if you call them ignorant. Sad, misled, ignorant, weak-minded fools. If you don't read anything -- ever -- that is what you are. It doesn't matter what you think, that's what you are. BUT, you can change your mind anytime and pick up the slack in your reading life. So there. I don't just complain about problems, I offer a solution. Whether you get your books on a paper reader or e-reader, get your book on. Get into it. You will find yourself becoming more interesting. And when you do, others will pick up the vibe. II. Trek Mi Q'an -- Naughty, horny sci-fi Reading Order for Trek Mi Q'an series:
I would not be surprised to hear that this set of stories has done more to liven up dull marriages than any counselor. They're very sexy -- tremendously silly at times -- but sexy. I do not kid. Ladies, if you and the SI are in a rut, read these books to your hub. If they don't excite you, you will at least have tons of controversial topics to argue about. You can make up afterwards. *nudge nudge, wink wink* The first story deals with the Emperor Zor. He's the capo di tutti capi of several galaxies in the 7th dimension. He's taller than Yao Ming and proportionately large all over. He discerns his "sacred mate" on modern-day earth and that's pretty much when the fun starts. His brother Dak has a crush on Zor's wife's best friend. Dak's love story is in book 2 although it overlaps with book 1. Book 3 is Rem's love story. He's brother to Zor and Dak. He also finds his wife on earth -- modern-day Australia. Book 4 is Kil's love story. He is the fiercest brother of the four preternaturally tall and gifted royal family of TMQ. He finds his SI in 1960s America -- during a bra-burning feminist protest. Total opposites. Zor and Kil have black hair and blue eyes. Zor's wife is a redhead; Kil's has dark blonde hair. Both of the women are quite short so when they mate, it's awkward to imagine a 7½ foot man of almost 300 pounds getting on top of a woman who's maybe 5'5". At least the women are fleshy -- you know, NORMAL. Dak and Rem are blonde Adonises. Dak fell in love with an African-American woman, tall, but still.... Rem's woman is a redhead with freckles, and man, does their book really work the freckle-fetish angle. It's totally believable though, in a weird, sci-fi, freaky, unbelievable sort of way. The sex scenes are frequent, frantic, and freaky. Here's an index of sorts:
Sometimes, they even do it in a bed. Picturing it leads to all sorts of head-scratching as you try to figure out how a 7.5 foot man and a woman who only comes up to his belly can get certain body parts to reach other body parts. At that point, you just give up and go with the flow, because seriously -- 75% of that stuff is just not possible even if you're limber. Your reach is your reach and no more. Now, EC is a fine establishment who are doing interesting things in romantica. I think they even made up that word just for their product. But c'mon! Who the hell is editing these bluelines?! The series note at the beginning of the paperback lists ENSLAVED as the 4th book, but the blurb on the back says it's the 3rd. I'm confused. How did that get past the eds.? Errors in grammar abound in the worst way! Spelling, word choice, subject-verb agreement, missing words. Oh My God. I can't sell these books as new because I have circled mistakes on so many pages. Hey, if I have to proof these damn books, at least lower the price. Or pay me. Trust me, these are not ignorable mistakes. They stand out like a pork chop at a Hadassah luncheon. To be fair, THE EMPRESS'S NEW CLOTHES is one of the best books of its kind -- romantica, that is. It's a trend-setter. You get to like Zor and his wacky family after a while. The world Jaid Black created is consistent throughout the series. Except in NO FEAR, she starts to spread it out a bit and the language rules run amuck among the galaxies. She starts a lot of threads that go nowhere, and I find that irritating. Most importantly to someone like me, the lexicon stays consistent throughout the series. It consists of some old-fashioned English public school vocabulary with heavy use of articles like in Spanish. Although, they use "moon-rising" and "night" but they don't seem to be interchangeable. Consistency of specialized vernacular is very important in this genre, and that is the strongest characteristic of these books. Oh, and most of the sex is pretty cool, too.
Technorati Tags: sex,romance,erotica,Jaid Black,Ellora's Cave,Trek Mi Q'an,voyeurism,menage,exhibitionism,adultery
June 16 EURO8 WITHOUT PITY
I've got a handful of soccer books here at home that I've blogged -- not all of them, but a good few. With my days taken up by Euro 2008, I'm basically watching games, watching re-runs of the games, watching Sky News and Fox Soccer Report, and as a consequence, watching more MLS. Honestly, how do men ever get out of the damn house to earn a living!!?? Not only that, but our local USL 2nd division team is doing VERY well. AND, the fixture list for Premier League came out at 10 am their time, so guess what I'm going to be looking up as soon as I'm done here. I love summer.
Germans: Unspontaneous, micromanaging weirdos -- [Games] The title comes from Jamie Trecker's book LOVE AND BLOOD. There's a link in the WINDOW SHOPPING sidebar. Just look for the cover image. I was writing about a history book on post-Roman Europe which inspired this little gem of a blurb: Okay, so... technically, it's not about soccer. But it should be, especially with that title; especially with Euro2008 preparing to feature new-boys Croatia and Romania, and a pair of rag-tag Alpine teutons Switzerland and Austria. All the Celts, Anglo-Saxons and Normans have been eliminated -- shockingly, shamefully. The dark horse might be the Greeks. (Geddit?! Call Eric Bana now!) Next summer, it'll be the Slavs and Teutons looking to topple the corrupt Roman Empire. A Man and His Ball--No Greater Love Pt. 1 -- [Books in The Bedroom] Can you tell that Eddie Izzard is one of my idols? This entry is my EddieIzz emulation. The ideas are all mine, but the delivery was inspired by the europhile himself. I watched 3 of his stand-up shows then started this post. I think it's starting to take. Talking about A Man & His Ball: No Greater Love Pt. 2 -- [Books in The Bedroom] writing about Alan Gibbons and his 2 "Julie & Me" books. Great writing, very expressive dialogue. He does a lot of tricks with dialogue and punctuation. A writer's writer. IT'S ALL JUST SO PREDICTABLE, REALLY -- [Books in The Bedroom] a shopping trip to Barnes & Noble; bought a bunch of books, returned some the next day. What the hell was I thinking! Barnes & Noble After Christmas Mini-Spree -- [Books in The Home Office] A small blurb about 442 magazine with a mention of Arsenal and Arsene Wenger (how fortuitous that your name is so similar to the team you manage. The fickle finger of fate?) Speaking of, I watched an ESPN (!!!) show called Headliners dedicated to George Weah. How cool is that!! He won every award it's possible for an individual player to get -- in the same year! He credits Arsene Wenger with grooming him for success.
June 13 PICKLED HERRING & VODKA FOR TWO
June 12 I AM CURIOUS ORANGE -- LIKE CLOCKWORK
June 06 WHAT'S IN A NAME? HISTORY, IDENTITY & SOUL
NO ONE'D DRINK EVIAN WATER IF IT WAS CALLED BLACKBURN WATER! NO ONE'D BUY KICKER BOOTS IF THEY WERE MADE IN SCUNTHORPE! ABBA? ABBA! I KNEW THEM WHEN THEY WERE A LANCASHIRE CLOG-DANCING TRIO! Jerzy Belowsky, THE YOUNG ONES Aw jeez, my appetite is overtaking my budget! I'm such a sucker for these place names books. I don't even really know why except maybe it's because any place is more interesting than this place. A house is not a home. Hmmm...that would make a great song title. Anyways, I'm a rabid anglophile since childhood, but especially since discovering Monty Python's Flying Circus when I was about 12 or 13. The world opened up to me in that year and I got hungry. But that's another post for another day. Since I am fascinated by my native language and fascinated by that isle set in argent, I snagged these. And since my first trip to England, I've kept them close. My favorites are LITERARY BRITAIN and ENGLISH PLACE NAMES. A GUIDE TO MEDIAEVAL SITES is beautiful. I got it for my birthday a few years ago. ENGLISH HOURS is classic Henry James. You can only digest 1 or 2 chapters at a time. They are so thick with commentary and description. A COTSWOLD VILLAGE is a nice bit of fluff. When I first went to England, I spent the first four days of my trip in the Cotswolds. I LOVED IT! It was green and hilly and vast and COLD -- even in mid-summer. My spirit was a living force inside me. I was so excited to be in a place I thought I've never go to, so devastated by the natural beauty and "woodsiness" and English-ness. There's actually an expression for that feeling of being so overwhelmed with the wonderfulness of everything that you almost faint. It's called "Stendahl Syndrome". Stendahl was a French novelist who, upon beholding the Renaissance art treasures of Florence that he had read about and dreamed of seeing all his life, actually got physically sick from the sensory overload. Romantic, huh! I didn't get physically sick, but I felt my spirit as a separate being inside me, felt it being drawn out of me to absorb the landscapes, the air, the experience. I was on an adrenaline high for 3½ weeks. Nowadays, that's probably how one would explain away Stendahl Syndrome -- as an adrenaline high, mixed with endorphins. Your system is not meant to handle that for days at a time. It's meant to kick in for a fight-or-flight situation, then fade. You run too long on adrenaline and it's like racing on overdrive while down to a quarter tank of gas and a cup of oil. Your system is going to crash and crash hard! I've been back to England since then. But I want to go back again. It just feels comfortable. I've been reading about it and watching their tv shows for so long now, it was very easy for me to fit in. I speak their language. So what's in a name? Not glamour, that's for sure. A lot of English place names sound more like compass readings and map jargon. They also depict the mindset of the local populace. If you were to read a map in Latin or Anglo-Saxon, you would see names like:
Riveting stuff, I think you'll agree. Lots of English place names have their linguistic roots in Roman occupation. London was originally a Roman trading center on the Thames River called "Londinium". Cities and towns with "-cester" were Roman camping grounds. Names with "chep" or "chip/chipping" were trading posts, after the Old English "ceapen". "-gate", which appears in many London street names literally meant "gate into town". When the Vikings joined the block party, you started to see a lot of villages with "-by" in their names. So a village by the church (kirk) would be called "Kirkby". When the Romans quit the British Isles, the Celts, Anglo-Saxons, and Vikings re-named the areas they occupied. So the larger cities could ostensibly have 3 or 4 names depending on how many tribes settled in that area. In Scotland, especially, you see a lot of Scandinavian word roots to the east, and in the east of England which used to be the Danelaw. In southern and western England you see more Latin and Anglo-Saxon roots in place names. Linguistics of place names might seem dry and abstract. But it becomes more real when you understand how place names are not arbitrary. Every place has a history, and you can tap into it by tapping into the place name itself.
Technorati Tags: England,London,Anglo-Saxons,history,Vikings,linguistics,anthropology,archeology,museums,Latin,Stendahl,place names,Celts June 02 IN A NUTSHELL 4: Wiles, Wisdom, Wonderment...and WaitingTHE PHILOSOPHER'S SONG, VERSE 2 Verse 1 is in the last set of posts: THE PHILOSOPHER'S SONG, VERSE 1 Basically, I typed in the verses, then set up links to the major names. It's a great drinking song, even if you're not Australian. Although, how anyone can remember the names after a couple of thimbles of Jaegermeister, is beyond me. ROOTING OUT BLOOM'S WRITING ROOTS ROOTING OUT BLOOM 2: The Western Canon ROOTING OUT BLOOM 3: Where Shall Wisdom be Found? Harold Bloom has read more books than Cher has had makeovers. He is a polyglot of a high order. Yes, his writing style is sometimes bloated with rampant intellectualism, but as you re-read his work, you definitely feel the love, even if it's something he doesn't like. Does anyone love literature more than Bloom? Does anyone understand and appreciate the simple pleasure of reading more than he? If you don't like and/or understand Bloom? Read FARENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury. Bloom is the line between this life and the next. PRE-ORDERS: THE WAITING IS THE HARDEST PART NEW SERIES BY LORA LEIGH -- ELITE OPS (UNDER DEEP COVERS) Aahhh, romance. That brainless, flighty, ethereal rose that sometimes eludes even the most daring of us. Holding on to it is like trying to squeeze sand. Most of us tend to treat romance like a plant -- knowing we have no green thumbs. We overwater it, over-sun it, underfeed it. And it quits us. However, that does not stop it from being fun when we have it. Delicious when we taste it, quenching when we drink of it. It satisfies many appetites. MY HUMOR COLLECTION -- PRESERVING MY SANITY SINCE 1991 EPIPHANY Humor is a serious business, especially for me. A day without a laugh is like, er...night. Like the title says -- "preserving my sanity". ALL HAIL THOTH -- EGYPTIAN GOD OF SCRIBES & WRITING P. CRAIG RUSSELL LIBRARY OF OPERA ADAPTATIONS Beautiful books. Gems. I wish there were more of them. P. CRAIG RUSSELL LIBRARY OF OPERA ADAPTATIONS
Wow, these books are gorgeous! I discovered them when I went to Houston, Texas to see a very good production of The Magic Flute. That book was for sale along with the libretto and assorted other tchochkes like t-shirts and videos. But I saw the book and fell in love. Love! As soon as I could, I got on the -Zon and started hunting down other editions. They weren't that hard to find, even though most of them are out of print or close to it. PCR has done a wonderful service to the world of opera. If you've ever developed hemorrhoids sitting through 4 nights of interminable Ring Cycle or pinched your face at Pagliacci, these books can console you. They are not just for reading, they are a visual treat. Caveat: They are mostly NOT FOR CHILDREN. The Ring of the Nibelung contains sexy Rhinemaidens and an incestuous brother/sister relationship which becomes a vital issue in The Valkyrie. Salome has a father lusting after his twinkle-toes daughter who has a bent for necrophilia. {{'Scuse me. I just threw up in my mouth a little.}} The pictures are pretty, but kids don't need to see that. There's nothing of the Bugs Bunny cuteness. Operatic stories are positively venal. That's why the music is so powerful that it entangles your spirit and draws it out of you. You can feel it being drawn from you. Russell's style captures that very well. It's otherworldly, with bold colors and tall frames. Russell is very good at capturing male and female beauty. Glowing eyes, alluring features. It's dead sexy, as Fat Bastard would say. And hate. That mad clamor of revenge and wrath. He captures it wonderfully. There's blood, too. Lots and lots of blood. These are meant to be story books, so they do not contain a translation of the libretto. In the Nibelung books, they do a respectable job of recreating some of the more dramatic aria scenes. Like when Siegmund takes the sword from Sieglinde's husband's house, thus manifesting a prophesy. Pelleas et Melisande also has a very good driving dialogue that mimics the leitmotifs respectably. (I hope that's the right word.) There's a negative review at the -Zon that calls the books tacky, garish, and styleless. I can see why one would think that, but it's a frikkin' comic book. The dustjacket plainly states "adaptation". It's supposed to be garish. Restraint wasn't in Wagner's psychological makeup. If it was, we would have no Ring Cycle. We'd have James Taylor, who already has his own gig, I've heard. So here is a vital issue when dealing with mythology -- you can't judge gods and goddesses by human standards. I'm not saying the "I" word is okay if you're a god; it's repulsive and wrong on so many levels, but gods operate under standards that have no place in the human realm. That being the case, mythology makes for amazing operas. If you can allow yourself to suspend disbelief. **The Ring Cycle books are published by DARK HORSE COMICS. The other editions are published by Nantier Beall Minoustchine (NBM) Publishing.
If you happen to check out the links at H&BRecordings Direct, please reference The Festering Blurb. I have been a customer of H&B since the 90s when I used to work at their San Antonio office. That was one of the best jobs I ever had. They are wonderful people. June 01 NEW SERIES BY LORA LEIGH -- ELITE OPS (UNDER DEEP COVERS)
WILD CARD The story of Nathan Malone's recovery from his year-long ordeal at the hands of Diego Fuentes and his partner in corruption Jansen Clay. He first appeared in HIDDEN AGENDAS, then a short scene at the beginning of KILLER So not only is this his anxiously-awaited story, it's also the beginning of a new series. We'll see Nathan try to reconcile with his wife. He'll be drafted into a new team of commandos, run by his uncle, with a worldwide reach. I don't know that it's been mentioned much but Leigh can create some really scary women. Fuentes's dead wife Carmelita sounds like a scary-ass beyatch from the bowels of Hell. And Clay's wife sounds like a psycho-dominatrix-nympho-lesbian. Jeez. Vicious, much? It reminds me of when I was a kid. I grew up around women who seemed quite innocuous, but they ran offices and classrooms, politics and marriages with iron fists while their men got all the attention and credit. Here is an excerpt from www.loraleigh.com The Elite Operations, ELITE OPs was created to fight against that terror. A six man force working independent of government protocol or oversight, created to do what the others can’t do. They have only one directive. Success of the mission. No matter what it takes. Captain Jordan Malone (from Tempting SEALs) will lead the first five agents into the missions that will test their abilities, their loyalties, and their belief in themselves. The heroes from the new series are:
One of the things I love about Lora Leigh is that she does her homework. She's writing plots that used to be the sole property of male writers. And she does it damn well. The thrill is in the details with these international military intrigue plots. It's the getting ready, the gathering of weapons and intel, the strategizing, the action. She's great with details and so ends up writing fantastical stories that sizzle in the brain. They're exciting and noisy and kick-ass. Amazon lists the street date as August 26. But the larger bookstores might have it a few days sooner. Get all of the Tempting SEALs books while you are waiting for Nathan's story. SEALs Series Order:
Related Posts: Pre-Orders: The Waiting is The Hardest Part Hunters: Dark-, Dream-, and Book-
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Shay's sister has her own story. This takes place way before the Visitation series.
You're a romantic, albeit an understated and practical one.
Of all the mind types, yours is the quickest.
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