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July 29 OLDIES BUT GOODIES 3: HORS D'OEUVRES OF FRENCH PHILOSOPHERS, APPETIZERS OF A. CONAN DOYLE
Sherlock Holmes Detective Stories by A. Conan Doyle. JH Sears & Co. 1923. This is in dodgy shape. Someone spilled liquid on it back in the day (which was a Wednesday -- if you didn't already know*). Can’t tell if it’s coffee or water. The pages are beautifully aged to a soft, antique golden sepia. The end papers’ design is pillars arranged in gothic layers. Five detective stories in this collection:
Er…what’s a “fell”? If you know, please e-mail me. I prefer to see Sherlock Holmes on tv than to read the stories. Victorian literature is a chore for me. However, The Ring of Thoth caught my eye as Thoth is a subject I’ve been reading about for a couple of years now. Scholar Patrick Boylan refers to Thoth as “The Hermes of Egypt”. In Egyptian mythology (and Atlantian – his first incarnation), Thoth/Toth is the scribe god and god of wisdom. What I find especially fascinating is the idea that wisdom and writing are deliberately paired like two halves of a whole. Atlantean/Egyptian Thoth was lucky. He was not punished for bringing writing and wisdom to the human race as Hellenic Titan Prometheus was punished for bringing fire to humans. Egyptology was very popular in the 1920s. If I’m not mistaken, the tomb of King Tutankhamen (sp?) was discovered in or about that decade and influenced popular literature. And a funny ditty by Steve Martin. French Thought in The Eighteenth Century: Rousseau/Voltaire/Diderot. Rolland, R. Maurois, A., Herriot, E. Cassell & Co. London: 37-38 St. Andrew’s Hill, Queen Victoria St. EC4. 1953. It just occurred to me that in high school and college, I loathed preparing bibliographies. The order of information was unmemorizable. This was a decade before public access Internet. Not only, but also, I hated writing book reports. I was a lazy writer. So $# years later, what am I doing? Writing frikkin’ book reports FOR FUN. Life makes less and less sense. On the bright side, less pressure to take things seriously. I bought this book at Half-Price Books on Broadway in San Antonio -- 1987, I think. Since it was printed in England, it has no ISBN. I would read it at work. It’s a very fulfilling read. It fed my curiosity. It explained several buzzwords associated with philosophy in clear English. The ideas explained within enhanced my understanding of numerous artistic, literary and philosophical concepts. Why Rousseau, Voltaire, and Diderot? Geoffrey Brereton writes in his introduction: "These three men tower above their contemporaries, yet represent in their different ways all the main characteristics of the age." According to this book, the chief legacies of the 18th century to the 19th and 20th were:
Does that ROCK or what!!! I love this book. I return to it occasionally and read parts. My favorite is the story of Rousseau, who brought us the idea of the “noble savage”. It’s a simple enough idea in that man in his natural state (i.e. country living) is innately honest, uncorrupted and happier in his lifestyle than an artificial man surrounded by and responsible for material possessions. That idea inspired Edgar Rice Burroughs to write the “Tarzan” stories. Rousseau’s writings inspired Count Leo Tolstoi to work in the fields alongside his peasants. Even Goethe and Schiller were fond of R’s ideas. (A German own-goal in the great philosopher soccer game of life!) R. was the French Thoreau. His Rệveries are France’s Walden with some Leaves of Grass tossed in. R’s greatest, most indispensable influence was the Roman historian Plutarch, author of biographies of Roman political figures. Kinda like Nick Hornby is to me. It’s incredible that one philosopher influenced other philosophers in such diverse countries as Germany, France, America, England, and Russia. It lends weight to my belief that everyone, regardless of where they come from, connects with the same wisdom eventually.
The Bruce's Song, verse 2 -- Check out Steve's 2 extra verses in the comments!!! Completely and utterly BRILLIANT. Dane Cook -- a comedian who keeps his handsomeness on the down-low OLDIES BUT GOODIES, PARTE THE SECONDE
This is the next bit in my fledgling BOOK-READERS' BOOKS series. Series seems to be a theme -- quite unintentionally. Still, with a generation starved of connections to the past, series books are a good way to make connections. That's one thing I've always found massively boring about uber-modernists (I'm not calling them "thinkers", mind you.) is that they think ALL connections to the past are pointless. Relationships with the past are critical to one's psyche. I guess "foundation" is just something that happens to other people. Anyway, enough banter. Books, yeah, let's go... The Latin Poets. Godolphin, ed. Random House The Modern Library. 1949. Bennett Cerf was one of the owners of TML. How did I end up with 2 copies of this book? I really need to catalogue this stuff. This is a fantastic portable reader. Many of the translations are by giants in the field of writing: John Dryden translating some Eclogues of Virgil; Leigh Hunt translating Catallus’s Atys: John Milton translating Horace’s To Pyrrha. Selections from 18 Latin poets are presented in English verse trans. only. It’s rare that I say this, but I like the introduction. Godolphin wrote a description of each poet. This really helped me to, first of all, tell them apart. Second, he managed to combine biography, sociology and literary criticism in each mini-essay. Wonderful! I’d been interested in Classical Latin and Greek because I love mythology, and one day I hope to atone for this incredibly crap research paper I wrote in Freshman Comp about Greek philosophers. But I saw this movie called Never Been Kissed with Drew Barrymore and Michael Vartan. Her character was talking about how Shakespeare drew ideas for his plays from the Eclogues of Virgil. Vartan’s character, the teacher, freaked out at hearing language like that from a “teenager” in a public school. I’m a teacher, and I get freaked out when one of my students has an idea that involves words of 3 or more syllables. So his shock is my shock. The New Hudson Shakespeare. The Merchant of Venice. Henry Norman Hudson, LLD. The Aetheneum Press. 1906. This edition spent time at the Morningside Meadows Library and belonged to a Miss Ella Mae of Yoakum, Texas during 1918-1919, and a Miss Evangeline of Hays St. who penciled in notes throughout the book and filled the back end papers with doodles, questions, lists and comments. There’s even bits of spilled fountain pen ink. This is a book that got used! It has extensive annotations at the page bottoms as well as tons of student material – at the beginning of the book where I like it. Nine chapters of scholarly material. The Chronological Chart is the BEST part. It’s absolutely magnificently organized. (Sorry, too much Charlie and Lola.) As it traces the publication of the plays, it correspondingly traces Shakespeare’s major life events, what was going on in other European literature, and history/biography of major personages of the times. It’s a masterpiece of brevity and organization combined. As someone who designs databases for fun, it was art to my eyes. Good-ish index to particular words at the end. Miss Evangeline marked the lines she had to learn. She surrounded the lines with parentheses and wrote “learn” beside them. The original wording from the Roberts Quarto of 1600.
The London Book of English Prose. Selected and ordered by Herbert Read and Bonamy Dobree. Macmillan Co. 1949. Printed in GB. I really like that this book has a chronological list of authors at the beginning. The organization is also helpful. Ch. 1 – Narrative: story-telling, history, autobio & journals, bio & characters, letters. Ch. 2 – Scientific: 8 sections including sport, criticism, strategy & tactics, and natural science. Ch. 3 – Emotive: 8 sections including Pathos, Comedy, Oratory, and “Occasional Writing”. And then an index of authors. The organization alone teaches much about what writing is and the possibilities available to a student if they will just try something. While I enjoy reading this book, I’m aware that the English is inescapably stolid. This classically-trained artistry has fallen out of favor in public schools. I know a lot of teachers of English/Language Arts who would not be able to handle this elevated style of language for the sad reason that they themselves are not literary. And so they fall back on whatever has a movie attached to it. Shame, really.
July 24 IN A NUTSHELL 5: A STREETCAR NAMED "OCD"
ELIZABETH LOWELL'S MACKENZIE-BLACKTHORN SERIES -- EARLY 90s A series of Silhouette Desire novelettes. Modern-day western romance. Men are men and sheep are nervous. DO I EVEN NEED TO SAY IT? Book shopping. No instant satisfaction here. ACHERON: HALF-MAN, HALF-GOD, TWICE-BORN, ALL-CURSED An acclaimed romance series. A hotly desired anti-hero with a book to match. HEAPIN' HELPIN' OF OLDIES BUT GOODIES Books that make life worth living. Book-nerd Central. ELIZABETH LOWELL'S "ONLY" SERIES -- EARLY 90s Excellent western romances. Some of the best of their kind. PRE-ORDERS: ACTION/ADVENTURE More populist fare. Soccer and spies. An irresistible combination. AUTHORS ON MY SHELF VIA SHELFARI VISITATION, WELCOME CTY., N. CAROLINA: SUBTLETY IS THE HARDEST THING. Lighthearted, happy, hey-nonny-nonny romances with mildly edgy plots. TREK MI Q'AN -- IT'S LIKE, OUT THERE, MAN; CLOTHES OPTIONAL Sex in Space. Well, what else is there to do? EURO8 WITHOUT PITY Rehashing my soccer-oriented posts. George Weah. The Fiver. PICKLED HERRING & VODKA FOR TWO Apparently, I'm a good match for a Swede. Just my luck I'm stuck in the dustbowl of the Texas border plains where men get pickled and fish get mounted. I AM CURIOUS ORANGE -- LIKE CLOCKWORK Mumska, Jog förstår inte! WHAT'S IN A NAME? HISTORY, IDENTITY & SOUL Most days, I'd rather be in England. July 23 ELIZABETH LOWELL'S MACKENZIE-BLACKTHORN SERIES -- EARLY 90s
*****SPOILERS****SPOILERS***** Just a note to the sisterhood of serious collectors: none of the covers pictured above are the original covers except for Outlaw. That's a black-haired Fabio on the cover, btw. It took me the better part of a year and a lot of driving around San Antonio to find original editions of the books. A first edition Silhouette Desire of Warrior I found on eBay just last year. The rest I found at Half-Price Books and local used book sales back in the 90s. So for about 4 years, I was steeping myself in westerns. And I learned a lot about the lifestyle. A bit like Little House on The Prairie with an adult conscience. It's been over 15 years since the first one, Reckless Love came out and first covers are getting harder and harder to find. F&R, Outlaw, Granite Man and Warrior all started out as Silhouette Desire romances. RL was a Harlequin Historical in its first incarnation. With the exception of Outlaw and Warrior, all the heroes were verbally and emotionally abusive to the heroines. Unnecessarily so. It's a trait of this genre that it can't quite shake off. Here's an excerpt from EL's author site: (basically a repeat of what I wrote.) MacKenzie-Blackthorn
Fire And Rain - SD #546 (1990) Outlaw - SD #624 (1991) Granite Man - SD #625 (1991) Warrior - SD #631 (1991) What makes these books keepers is that they are very atmospheric. Lowell really excels at westerns. Her writing shows an understanding of just how grueling day to day living is on a ranch. I especially love the tracking scenes which feature prominently in RL and W. The banter between ranch hands -- Nora Roberts, Danielle Steele, Judith Krantz could never do that. Lowell is totally committed to her characters. There are sometimes bits that strike the ear as a bit off-key, like when Lowell tries to write witty banter. It just doesn't come off well. There were a few moments in GM where Mariah is speaking and the character is supposed to be witty, but her dialogue ends up sounding like an approximation of wit, instead of genuine wit. Well, I think I've said this before -- one writer can't be good at everything. The heroes -- I just want to knock their heads together through most of the book. So self-absorbed. Stubborness without reason or moderation. Cruel, even. Cash McQueen (GM), especially. What an asshole! There's absolutely no reason on earth for Mariah to fall in love with him. This particularly abusive relationship is a throwback to the 1970s/Mr. Rochester mold of male. It's hard to relax and enjoy the story when you're so pissed off at the hero. Luke (F&R) is another asshole -- not as bad as Cash, but cut from the same cloth. And Cash plays yenta for his sister Carla and Luke. Crazy! Here's the immediate family tree:
*Case MacKenzie, a character mentioned sporadically in RL is not related to Case Maxwell of Winter Fire even though their personalities and back stories are similar. **Several sequel clues appear in the M-B stories. They are scattered like a trail of rather tall, muscular breadcrumbs. ***Thanks to Shelfari I was able to find some of the older covers. According to Lowell's forum, by her own admission, she has put westerns behind her. And she seems a bit cheesed- off that people keep writing to ask about a book for Utah Blackthorne. So to save you some embarassment, here's the final word: THERE WILL BE NO BOOK FOR UTAH. EL has moved on to other interests.
July 22 DO I EVEN NEED TO SAY IT?
I gone and done it again. My shelves and closets are overflowing. My home is a fire trap. This is getting ridiculous. But there is a bright side. I'm actually going through my boxes and getting rid of the deadwood. Dead wood!! Geddit? N-e-hoo, been waiting for DS and PiTN for EVER! And what happens? The quality of writing in these books catapulted me into Siskel&Ebert mode. For every positive, there's a negative. I guess that's just life, innit. Dangerous Secrets by Lisa Marie Rice:
The romantic/love scenes are pretty good. There's one or two drawn-out ones and a couple of rushed ones. Rushed love scenes are a standard in Rice's romances. A lot of the story is told from the hero's point of view, which is a relatively new development -- dating from about the late 70s/early 80s. I like that both the hero/heroine express reservations about getting involved and how difficult it is to stay uninvolved, but there's too much "wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am" and I don't find that romantic when it happens so often. There needs to be a logical balance of wham bam moments and drawn-out moments -- variety is the spice of life after all. And this whole thing that the heroines "don't want or need foreplay"? WTF? Are we regressing back to the pre-Kinsey Report days? It makes me wonder if maybe a man isn't writing this book after all. To be fair, though, the romantic scenes are VERY romantic. Very up close and personal, as if you're standing in the same room with them. That's good writing. One of the best things about this story is the villain -- Vassily Worontzoff. He would make a great Bond villain. His character is so vivid that everyone else in the story pales significantly. This is the "writing like a man" part. And speaking of parts: Steiner 8x30 tactical binoculars, zeks, gulags, Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft, Russian organized crime, Sacra Corona Unita, European literary awards. Fuggedaboutit. I'm hooked already. What really cracks me up about this story is the product placement: diet Coke, Bang & Olufsen. Hee! Someone's been reading Soldier of Fortune magazine. I mean, Wartsila-Sulzer RTA96-C turbocharged two-stroke diesel engine. I have no effing idea what that is but it sounds so cool! It's almost like this book is designed for men -- to make them take romance novels seriously. If a writer can do that -- more power to'em sister-woman! Phantom in The Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon:
So this agent is Terri Mitchell. She has an axe to grind, which is what BAD wants in its agents. I especially love the way Kenyon arranges for Terri to meet the man of her dreams -- his twin is dead and Terri is the agent on scene checking out the body. Kenyon describes Terri's reaction to the dead body and yummily describes how good-looking he was (shades of necrophilia, anyone?). So the reader experiences the suspense of Terri coming into contact with the gorgeous twin but she never can see his face for about half the book. And we readers are on pins and needles because we know what a treat she's in for when he finally reveals himself. But it takes for-effing-EVER. That is some brave risk-taking in a romance novel. I absolutely love it. It's a crime drama with sex, except good. It's not romantic, unfortunately. Oh well, one book can't be everything to everybody. On the whole, it's got great writing. Kenyon is flexing and stretching her writing muscles. That's mainly why I like it.
July 21 ACHERON: HALF-MAN, HALF-GOD, TWICE-BORN, ALL-CURSED
For romance readers, the DarkHunter saga is our Star Trek. Our Star Wars. Our Ring Cycle. Harry Potter for adults. Shoot, it's even our Magnificent Seven! And in August, the capo di tutti cappi of the DHs is going to finally be exposed in all his incarnations. DH lovers have been salivating, nee slobbering (myself included) over Acheron ever since he appeared in Fantasy Lover. Acheron Parthenopaeus is 11,000 years old. And he's royalty from Atlantis!! How freaking cool is that! The phrase "been there, done that, got the toga" was coined for him. He's so old, he has sex infrequently -- 1 word/not 2. He's so old, he doesn't have crows' feet, he's got eagle's wings. He says he's 11,000 but since he was born on February 29th BBBBC, he's really only 3½ thousand years old. And frankly, he doesn't look a century over 5,000. He still has the tips he made at the Last Supper! He knew Venus de Milo when she had BOTH arms. He never goes out with girls his age -- there aren't any! He remembers when the Dead Sea was only sick! He can kick the Olympians's asses any day of the week with only the air displaced from blinking. He gave the Scandinavian gods the idea to name the days after themselves, just to piss off the Olympians. He goes surfing with a Sumerian god. Walk on water? He invented water! God calls HIM for background checks. One more rebirth and he'll be tied with Hermes, the Greek messenger god. And talking about the old days for Ash? "Hey, remember that time that orange ball came up for the first time? I finally stopped tripping on stuff." "Remember when that fish turned into a frog? That was cool." "The blizzards that time? That's where having a dragon as a house pet comes in handy."
Threaded through all of them was the presence of Acheron. He's a best friend, a father-figure, the annoying cousin you only see at holidays and funerals. Your boss after a bad golf game. The evil dentist in Marathon Man, but without the whimsical charm. The goth loner on campus. Flame and hail. Hellfire and all-encompassing love. He's so powerful, it takes 2 books to capture his essence. He's cursed because, unlike the other gods, he lived as a human for his first 18 or so years. Gods don't fathom humans. They are simply a more fun species of animal. But Acheron lived as a human, so as a god, he has a soft spot for us. That puts him at a disadvantage because it gets used against him all the time -- even though, as an Atlantian god of apocalyptic destruction, he could take out any Greek or Roman god you throw at him. He tries to temper his true nature, but certain practices must be seen to if he wants to hang on to his compassionate side. Certain practices that involve a bitchy, red-haired "heifer goddess" named Artemis, Greek goddess of the hunt, and apparently, of intrigue. She pulls his strings and makes it hurt. I don't know what's in store for Acheron after his book, but I'm thinking the DH saga might be played out and Kenyon might be moving on to other gods she has developed, like Savitar maybe. That's fine with me. Series do need to end sometime. With 25 books in the DH series, I sure don't feel cheated. This has been one of the greatest series in the history of romance novels. Dark Hunters Reading Order -- Excerpt 1. Fantasy Lover, (St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2002) 2. "The Beginning", also in the back of Sins of the Night (St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2002) 3. Dragonswan, reprinted singly by Berkley (2005) (ISBN 0515140791) 4. Night Pleasures, (St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2002) 5. Night Embrace, (St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2003) (ISBN 0-31298-482-0) There are currently 24 stories; ACHERON makes 25 -- maybe 26 because it's 2 novels incorporating his human life and his life as an Atlantean god. If you're looking for accounts of Atlantean civilization, there's Timaeus and Critias and The Atlantis Dialogue: Plato's Original Story of the Lost City, Continent, Empire, Civilization, both written by Plato.
"Dark Hunters: Mad, Bad & Immortal" ______________________________________________________________><______________________________________________________________
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Travis Fimmel links: July 20 HEAPIN' HELPIN' OF OLDIES BUT GOODIESEr...have you noticed that I tend to write about books en masse? I haven't been blogging about a book, but whole bunches of books, especially since I figured out how to use the table tool, Let's face it, I have craploads of books laying about the place. And I get fixated on series of one sort or another. I've been through an Agatha Christie phase; bought a bunch of those. The opera comic books. The romance collections. My Blooms. You get the idea. There's very few areas of life in which I excel, but I have to say reading and collecting books are a couple of them. I'm no Nietzsche -- I have a life outside the covers -- but what could I do? I didn't chose to be bookish -- it chose me. And I was savvy enough to cultivate it. These are some of my antique books -- old-fashioned book-readers' books: compact, hard covers perfect for carrying about in a purse or coat pocket. I love the portability of these books. I love the earthy scent of musty closets that clings stubbornly to the pages. Books that are designed to be companions. Most of them I found at Half-Price Books in San Antonio or at library sales or charity sales. Within 2 years of living in San Antonio, I knew every bookstore and sale in town. Aye, it were good days, them; broke, but good. [I'm not going to link them because they are so old and readily available from just about anywhere.] 1. Selected Plays of Shakespeare, vol. 2; American Bk Co., 1937. It has everything I love in a Shakespeare book: woodcut illustrations, a glossary, "Dramatis Personae", the letters a and e squashed together (that and umlauts send me into a swoon!), and handwritten notes from previous owner. The end papers have a map of Shakespeare's England. In an upper corner, a previous owner wrote in blue fountain pen notes about "Romeo and Juliet": 120 - to earth doth; 119 - parting; 121 - fickle love; 132 - love moderately; 175 - no law for poor. 2. The Arden Shakespeare: Troilus and Cressida. DCHeath & Co. 1932. San Antonio Library 822.33. It still has the checkout card and pocket inside the cover. It has pencil markings from a student -- checks marks, underlining, and a note on p. 25: They see a machine but do not realize or understand he {killech has canceimed is} (sic). At the back, there's appendices: Summaries and Notes, Glossary, and Bibliography.
3. The Yale Shakespeare: King John. Yale University Press. 1927. Inside the front cover is an old bookplate with the name of an owner: I. Cordray. Sweet. The series page has what I think is the logo of Yale University -- an open book with Hebrew words. Under it is a banner with "Lux et Veritas", Latin for light and truth. So I'm guessing that the Hebrew words express the same thing. The page before the DP is a facsimile of the original 1623 folio. That is so cool! That design and wording is the basis of the Blackadder Season 2 titles. The titles are based on Jane Austen, but the artwork and credits are based on the DP and this --->. In fact, the font I used is called Blackadder. Edition contains mostly scholars' notes and awkward glossary. 4. The First Part of King Henry the Fourth. George Lyman Kittredge, ed. The Aetheneum Press. 1940. Kittredge is/was a world-renowned Shakespeare scholar. There is the ubiquitous scholar's introduction to this pet project and a thorough set of research notes at the end. A "Glossorial Index" (why not just say Glossary?) This one also has markings from student use. The student wrote 2 exclamation points by this bit by Falstaff: I must give over this life, and I will give it over! But the Lord, an I do not, I am a villain! I'll be damn'd for never a king's son in Christendom. So Falstaff is in a bit of a strop -- again. You know what he's like when he drinks. 5. The Arden Shakespeare: Macbeth. DCHeath & Co. 1915. This one is an archeological treasure. Markings everywhere. The pocket from the old San Antonio library still on it as well as a stamp from Morningside Meadows Library. Besides the libraries, it's had at least 6 owners. 3 erased, 1 blacked out, 1 in pencil, and 1 written in fountain pen. Not in any particular order: Mr. H. Traupmann of W. Gramercy Pl., Mr. H. Heaslet of Palo Blanco St. (Adv. 208?), Mr. Ed M. (Adv. 208?), Ms. A. Burke of Beck Ave. (Adv. 311?), and Mr. R. Milam. The title page has notes listed: Temptations
Here endeth Part the First To be continued hence and forthwith With due diligence...
July 11 ELIZABETH LOWELL'S "ONLY" SERIES -- EARLY 90s
Original first edition covers. They are in categorized as being "in exile" because they have been packed away for a few years now. This series is a great example of the western romance genre. Part Little House on The Prairie, part spaghetti western. Hee! Great descriptions of trail riding and camping in canyons and meadows. You really get a feel for being in the Old West. I consider it a pretty honest depiction. Living out there wasn't pretty; it wasn't easy. The heroes don't have massive sacks of cash to enhance their masculinity. They are heroes by virtue of their blood, sweat, tears and brains. Same with the women. I am exhausted after reading these books because the trail ride and the daily labor that goes into just surviving day to day in the Old West is relentless and often brutal. Chopping wood, hobbling and feeding the horses, starting a fire, setting up your lean-to, quartering your back trail for varmints, collecting water -- all this has to be done BEFORE you can fix yourself some food. I'm so glad I bought them as first editions with their wonderful step-back covers because all subsequent covers have sucked. Boring, bland, banal quasi-images representing no thing. Cheap-ass bargain-basement non-art. The cheapskate covers started, as you can see, with ONLY LOVE. Ugh. ***SPOILER SECTION**** Willow, Matt, and Whip are brothers and sister. Lady Jessica is the niece of Wolf's father's second wife. Caleb was hunting Reno in a "big misunderstanding" scenario. Wolf is a friend of Caleb's and Reno's and was having a crisis of conscience when he thought Caleb was hunting Reno. Wolf treated Jessica like crap for most of their story which got on my nerves for a bit -- very 1970s misogynist scenario; same with Reno. He was like Kirk Douglas to her Lana Turner. The best bits were how the characters would guest star in each other's stories. Plus, several of my Rules for Sequels play out in each of the stories. In fact, OL holds clues -- well, not so much clues as huge signs with blinking lights that a new series is in the works. And you know what? Going through those books again, I found 2 grammatical errors in OL, as opposed to 10 or more that you might find in any Ellora's Cave book. Another point in favor of these older books was that the stories sound like they were written my mature writers and not some post-grad with writing software. The "Only" series spun off into a duo of books about a pair of brothers from Texas: Autumn Lover and Winter Fire. AL was a mixed bag of mixed messages -- like the author couldn't make up her mind which tack to take. The heroine of the story had to take more crap than Ophelia from the hero, who was even less decisive than Hamlet at a bargain buffet. So that one I did not like so much. WF was better, the hero was more consistent and centered. At the end of the day, I miss Lowell writing these types of stories. These are keepers not because of the love scenes (which are very nice, don't get me wrong), but because they are fun, exciting, engrossing stories. Because of the attention to detail -- which in a historical romance, is vital. Fans will call an author on the nitpickiest things if they aren't careful.
July 07 PRE-ORDERS: ACTION/ADVENTURE
Omi But this is not about the tv show -- not so much. It's about a book that's coming out that is like the JAG books. It's a story independent of the series, but it's a novel based on the show. I'm hoping it will be as good as the JAG books. I read a lot of fanfiction and have even written a couple so that's how I'm going to treat this book -- like a fanfic.
Anyway, I hope Culpepper's book is as personal as L&B and Miracle of Castel di Sangro, and I really really hope it's funny. My August pre-order list keeps growing. Not good.
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