My Cheating Heart
I think fiction was my first love. The B. Dalton I frequented as a teenager was shaped like an octagon, and I can still see the shelves of the fiction section in my mind’s eye. I scanned them often, looking for something new to try. Classics were first (I read Mark Twain and Jane Austen for fun, but could take or leave Hemingway), but I soon zeroed in on historical novels. John Jakes, Edward Rutherford, M.M. Kaye. It took some time, but eventually my dissatisfaction with some of those led me to romance. I can actually remember the book that was the final straw, though I’ve forgotten the title; the heroine’s husband was a sea captain, and eventually they fell out of love with each other and lost all their money. It was all horribly depressing, and it pushed me toward a life-long love of happy endings.
I still read mostly romance, but not only romance. I think this is important for two reasons: First, it keeps me from slumping. If I’ve had a month full of mediocre or outright bad review books, I read something completely different. If I have had it up to here with cliche titles, formulaic plotting, and romance conventions in general, I review something entirely different. I’m probably one of the most slump-proof people I know; I’ve been reviewing for twelve years, and I’m still not tired of it. There have been books that were tough to get through, and some I simply couldn’t get through, but I’ve never been sick of reading. But I also think it’s important to know what’s going on outside the romance purview. I wouldn’t go so far as to say one should read every best-seller or Pulitzer Prize winner (though I once vowed to do the latter), but I do think it’s nice to keep abreast of what’s happening in general.
I do this in a couple of ways. First of all, I’ve been in a book club – the same book club – for longer than I’ve been a reviewer. For eleven months out of the year (we take December off), I am guaranteed to read a book – usually chosen by someone else – that isn’t a romance. Some of them are terrible, and some are wonderful. Most are fiction, though we’ve read self-help, biography, history, and even poetry. Many are books I would never have picked up in a million years if someone hadn’t chosen them for me. Sometimes a member’s love for a book can be infectious, and sometimes it’s baffling. And some of the best discussions have been about books we all disliked (no one will ever forget our discussion of Colleen McCullough’s Tim). Staying involved in this club year after year, discussing books with women who have a variety of reading tastes is one way I keep my foot in the door. If I haven’t heard about the latest new must-read, then someone else has.
But I also have my own go-to authors. Right now I’m reading This Body of Death by Elizabeth George. I’ve been reading her books since she started writing them over twenty years ago. The only one I haven’t read is What Came Before He Shot Her, mostly because I was so pissed off by Lady Helen’s death that I simply didn’t care what made him do it. Otherwise, I find her books well-written and riveting, and I love her characters. When she has a new one out, I work it into my reading schedule as soon as I can.
I’ll read anything Malcolm Gladwell writes; I find him totally fascinating.
Connie Willis is fabulous. I actually discovered her early in my reviewing career when I was assigned To Say Nothing of the Dog. What a delicious book; thrilling discoveries on that level have been rare for me. Her latest book, Blackout, is terrific as well, but be warned that it ends in a cliffhanger of cliffhangers (but never fear; All Clear is out in October).
If I’m not reading something for bookclub, or something new by an old favorite, then I usually find myself drawn to historical fiction and Chick Lit (admittedly with varying results).
How much of your reading is straight romance? And when you wander off the romance path, where do you go?
This is the correct weblog for anybody who would like to learn about this topic. You’re aware of a whole lot its virtually challenging to argue on hand (not that I truly would want…HaHa). You actually put the latest spin more than a topic thats been revealed for numerous years. Wonderful stuff, just wonderful!
Apple iPad 2 Expert Review: Apple’s new tablet is the best of its kind, but is it really good enough? – Buying advice from the UK’s leading technology site.
Hello People! Just wanted to tell you that I found tickets to the A Perfect Circle concert on Aug 02nd. In this webpage you can find tickets for other dates too. It’s astonishing their performance on stage, this is my third time and I’m still so excited about listening them live! On this page you can see the section where you’re buying the ticket, so it’s very recommended!
I’ve had three people independently all rave to me about the Steig Larssen books, all in the last week. I think I am going to have to give them a try.
TELL NO ONE is a magnificent French movie based on American Harlen Coben’s best novel of the same name. It is also a love story. This message board cut me off on the above post before I was done but I did want to urge you all to track down this movie! You won’t regret it!
To comment on some of the other titles:
~Steig Larssen’s entire Millenium Trilogy is excellent as are the movies based on the books. If you haven’t tried these, you are really missing something.
~John Sandford’s newest Lucas Davenport was pretty good. It all revolves around his wife’s hospital where there is a pharmacy robbery which puts her and many others in grave danger. All while they are in a mammoth team surgery ordeal to separate conjoined twins. The doctor villain is especially good.
~All of Harlen Coben is really good. I have now read everything on his backlist including his Bollivar series. Amazingly, one of the best FRENCH
As to Lynley’s romantic involvements, George is putting in a new POSSIBLE one with each book. There was a woman in CARELESS IN RED whom he was kind of interested in, very casually. Now we have Isabelle the alcoholic police person. I’d say he’s at most casually involved with her as well. I see these more as signs of Lynley’s coming back to life as opposed to any grand romance developing. If Isabelle’s put into another George book, you can count on something pretty awful will happen to her anyway. She is seriously alcoholic and doesn’t think she has a problem. Knowing George’s sense of everything has to come home to roost, this means Isabelle will do something horrible in the next book and that will be that with her. I’m picturing her running over someone while bombed at the very least! As for choosing women so below Helen: After you’ve lost the big love of your life to an awful death, I think it is believable that you would bring yourself back to life with companions who could NEVER be the grand passion and romance of your life. This would be simply an act of self preservation.
I just ordered two of Sloaone Cosley’s books, I was Told There’d be Cake and How Did you Get This Number. She writes essays with some humor and has been compared to Bridget Jones Diary. I read some samples and was intrigued but I ordered them from the library. I also recently read The Help by Kathryn Stockett because I saw it listed as one of the top books for Amazon last year. I was hooked in to the story and found it hard to put down. I also read a lot of nonfiction science.
Brief update: I finished This Body of Death a couple of days ago. I did generally enjoy it, particularly the mystery portion and the parts with Havers shopping. But I really don’t care for Isabelle… particularly the idea of her
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
Being linked romantically with Lynley AT ALL. What, Lady Helen was too perfect so we now need to go with the alternative – a drunk who has no police skills that I could see?
I reviewed this newest Elizabeth George novel over at Amazon and am going to quote from that review. I gave it five stars although there is a great deal of variation over there on stars awarded to this book. To quote myself:
It has never bothered me that George killed off Helen and has had other sad things happen in her books whereas I realize this bothers other fans intensely. George makes her books very real by having both very good and very bad things happen to people in a mirror version of real life.
In this novel a number of things come together by novel’s end and that is what I expect in a George book. There is a chunk of the book which seems unrelated at first because it involves three young boys who are sentenced to prison for killing a toddler. Their case is quite a public outrage. This does not seem to have anything to do with the main mystery going on at the center of the novel, the murder of a young woman in London who was briefly a model for an art photograph which was a smash hit in a London gallery show. This young woman has a common failing of many and that is that she is always pining for a man and always falling in love with the wrong ones.
The hunt is on with Havers and Lynley back in service but this time with an alcoholic chief, someone literally running into the bathroom to guzzle down vodkas while directing the investigation of this case. Everyone reappears in this novel. So if you have been hankering to see the St James’ again, you will meet up with them again. Havers’s neighbors make an appearance again too with the little girl shopping with her to find a professional wardrobe. Sgt. Nkata, is in on the investigation as well, being sent with Havers to Hampshire. Lynley works hand in glove with the alcoholic new chief super, all as overseen by the well hated Sir David Hillier.
The way George brings the two seemingly unconnected cases together by the end is a tour de force!
P.S. I too got so angry at Elizabeth George that I stopped reading her. I picked up a used copy of “”Careless in Red”” but haven’t been able to bring myself to read it. She’s such a good writer — the scenes in “”With No One as Witness”” when Lynley has to decide what to do about Helen and the baby are so beautiful and so heartbreaking. It occurred to me that she doesn’t care much for children. I don’t think any of her main characters have them (although Deborah and Simon want them), and people who do either suffer devastating loss or disappointment.
Clearly one of the advantages of being in a book club is that you’re forced to read books you’d otherwise never even pull off the shelf in the library or book store. I’ve been in my book club forever, and I’ve got to the point where I don’t feel guilty if I don’t read the book because it’s totally unappealing, but I’ve also discovered lots of VG books. I credit my book club with the fact that I’m rarely in a reading slump because it forces me to read a variety of authors, time periods, and genres. I checked my book log and roughly half my reading is romance, 20% mysteries, 20% literary fiction, and 10% miscellaneous (YA, non-fiction, etc).
Like Blythe and Xina, it’s my bookclub that ensures I read outside the romance genre, at least monthly, like it or not. (And like Xina, nobody in my bookclub knows my love of romance. One of these days…) I like to read other types of fiction as well and would some of the time, but occasionally I get so swept away into Romanceland that I might not for a while.
I’m so grateful to have that exposure to books I would likely never read otherwise – and probably wouldn’t even have heard of. My all-time favorite book club book wasn’t even fiction – “”A Primate’s Memoir””, by Robert Sapolsky. Everyone should read this book – I laughed out loud, cried through more than one pack of tissues, and can’t recommend it enough. Don’t even bother to read the blurb – just pick it up and start it. I promise you won’t be able to stop.
I’ve always been a Tamora Pierce FANATIC so in my “”i’m sort of getting tired of romance but not really”” stage that I’m in, I’ve been exploring some YA fantasy. I’m in the middle of the “”Books of Pellinor”” series by Allison Croggon. I also just bought “”City of Bones”” by Cassandra Clare and once I finish the Books of Pellinor series, then I’ll start on that. Eventually I’ll read the Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix. I bought the last book for 50 cents at Half Price Books, so yeah. So if anyone has an good YA fantasy recs, let me know!
I read outside the romance genre at least as much as I do in it. (Heck! I **write** outside of the romance genrel). Plus I read a huge amount of nonfiction, mostly historical (Ulman Weiss, Die Lebenswelten des Esajas Stiefel oder Vom Umgang mit Dissidenten, Friedenstein-Forschungen — Band 1. 640 pages anyone?).
I like science fiction, mystery, some fantasy (urban, but rarely epic), alternate history (David Weber’s series beginning with Safehold is basically a re-telling of the Protestant Reformation with AI robot).
I honestly can’t imagine limiting myself to just one genre.
Virginia
If I’m not digging into romance I turn to fantasy and YA, first and second respectively, then the occasional mystery series (Laurie R. King, Julia Spencer-Fleming), and very seldom straight fiction. I’ll read anything by Guy Gavriel Kay and Jasper Fforde.
Another wonderful series is the Gaslight Mystery books by Victoria Thompson. You need to start with the first one “”Murder on Astor Place”” because the characters/relationships grow with each book. The main characters are a nurse mid-wife and a New York City detective at the turn of the previous century. The romance is light but to see these two grow closer with every book is a treat. I usually only read romance but this series has kept my attention. I know many of you all would enjoy this series.
I reviewed mysteries for over twenty years and finally got fed up when they became so horribly graphic. (The last one I reviewed started with the flaying of a woman in Central Park, and it was minutely described for no purpose that I could find.) After those books, reading romances has been like a breath of clean air. Now I carefully read reviews first, then avoid those that include rape, beatings, and what I consider non-romance scenes. Like someone else here mentioned, life itself has provided enough unhappy endings; I don’t need to wallow in them in my reading.
Right now it’s ‘The thousand autumns of Jacob de Zoet’ by David Mitchell – Dutch clerk goes to Japan at the beginning of the 19thC. (I didn’t like most of Cloud Atlas, though the bits I liked, I really liked, and I loved Black Swan Green. So far, it’s a great book.) And a collection of Short Stories edited by Neil Gaiman called ‘Stories’ – I’ve only read about two so far. And a book called ‘Archy and Mehitabel’ by Don Marquis which is written by a cockroach who comes out at night to type, and claims he used to be a poet in a former life. Mehitabel’s the cat. That’s the kind of book you dip into – you couldn’t read it straight through. But good fun.
My current book club book is Francine Rivers ‘Her Mother’s hope’ – I think it’s called – but I haven’t started it yet. (I’m marginally unsure about the bookclub since we couldn’t read P&P because one of those attending declared it ‘too long’. Yet ‘Her Mother’s hope’ is a doorstep of a book.)
And romance-wise I’ve the new Joanna Bourne.
I don’t think there’s any method in my madness – I’d gravitate towards romance, detective, fantasy and YA but I do read other stuff a bit as well. I wouldn’t read a lot of non-fic – when I do, it’s usually because my husband’s bought it and it’s there on the shelves.
*beetles off to Amazon to look for ‘Blackout’*
I was devastated by Elizabeth George’s killing off Lady Helen. I had heard that a loved character was going to die and I confess that I hoped, hoped, hoped it would be Deb. I read 5 pages of What Came Before He Shot Her and was still so upset that I returned it without going any further. I was really hesitant about reading Careless in Red, but it’s very good indeed and This Body of Death didn’t disappoint either. I would never imagine that my emotional response to one of the suspects would flipflop so wildly (‘nuf said to avoid spoiler). The Barbara Havers subplot is poignant, maddening and funny at the same time.
@RobinB: I too am a history major, which is why a lot of my reading tends to go that direction. When I first started reading romances, it took some time before I’d even try a contemporary.
@ Lynn M: I loved the Shell Seekers back in the day. September and Coming Home as well.
@xina: I am completely out of the closet to my book club. They know what I do here at AAR, and even obliged me by reading Heyer’s Frederica. Some of them even liked it.
Jill: I love, love the Bryant and May and the Peculiar Crimes series by Fowler and you’re only the second persor who’se ever mentioned this author and series. I discovered the ‘boys’ and their author almost 4 years ago and I wa so enthralled with the stories that I tracked down his website and sent him a fannish type of email. Four years ago his website was not as sophisticated as it is today, but I still enjoy going over there to find out what’s going on with the author and of course, B&M. As soon as I started reading the books, Peter Lawford popped up in my mind as the May character. It would be very interesting to see if anyone is ever going to film these books.
I pretty well keep 3 or four books going at once. Right now I am reading: Back Spin by Harlan Coben (audio mystery in my car), The Last Olympian by Rick Riorden (YA fantasy on my ipod) and am reading The Naked Viscount by Sally MacKenzie (funny!). I’m also reading The Story of a Life: St Therese of Lisieux by Guy Gaucher. The trick is to keep them all separate genres. I once tried to read and listen to two mysteries and got the plots hopelessly confused.
Hmmm, I definitely would never want to read just romance. Like you said, it keeps you from going into a slump. I actually am the opposite of glommer and I like to carefully intersperse my book styles/genres and authors so I I never get too much of one thing.
My reading time is limited, but my favorite after romance is mystery and then maybe a bit of of sci-fi and literary fiction. I usually as myself “”Does this have a romance? A mystery? Is it funny?”” If it has all of those 3 things, I’ll probably love it. If it has one of those things (even if it’s not the main element) I’ll read it. If it doesn’t have any of those things, I’ve learned I should steer clear. It might be wonderful, but it won’t be to my taste.
I have to admit I used to love Elizabeth George, but her last couple of books moved far too slowly and she’s beginning to be “”the author I gave up on.”” I might come back to her someday. I love Connie Willis and gobbled up “”Blackout.”” I’ve also been enjoying catching up with Sue Grafton’s alphabet mysteries on audio books.
Recently I enjoyed “”Whiskey Sour”” by J.A. Konrath (although I skipped the icky serial killer parts) and I’m starting “”Ten Second Staircase”” by Christopher Fowler. He’s a British mystery author and his Bryant and May series has clunky writing at times, but is still addictive. Funny, quirky characters, lots about the history of London and a touch of horror along with the mystery.
I’ve only started reading romance since September of last year, right after I finished the Bronze Horsemen trilogy I don’t want to read anything else other than romance. Then I moved on to Judith McNaught, then to Julia Quinn, then to Lisa Kleypas etc. I haven’t read many other genres since then. Before the spiral down to Romanceville I read a lot of fictional literature, especially historical fictions (the need to escape real life), and sometimes some non-fictions like Freakanomics, the Tipping Point and The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Recently, after reading 20 romances in about a month I had to read something else for a break, I read The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. It was great though I liked his Shadow of the Wind better, its a historical but a little bit dark. I don’t know whether romance is a passing phase for me or not but so far I am still enjoying it immensely and will only read books from other genres if they are recommended by people I trust.
I love this column!! I think you guys should review all these books and audio too! One for romance, one for mysteries, and one for audio. It works for me. Right now I’m”” listening “” to “”Shutter Island”” by Dennis Lehane. I really like him. Thank you for all the good tips.
Shutter Island was a great book too. I read the book before the movie was released so I knew the “”secret””. Lehane kept it under wraps for much of the book.
I have been trying to mix up my book genres, just to branch out of the romance section. It helps that even within the romance genre I read all kinds (romantic suspense, contemporary, historial, paranormal). I do like more paranormal/fantasy/sci-fi novels that may or may not have a romantic element in the story, but it is not the main plot line. Authors would include Patricia Briggs, Ann Aguirre, Charlaine Harris, etc. I do want to read something entirely different sometimes, and I have heard very good things about Stieg Larsson’s series, so I might check them out.
I am an Elizabeth George fan too and she is one of my non romance fixes. I could not read What Came Before Her due to my anger over Lady Helen’s death either. I would be interested to hear what your thoughts are about this new book. I am not sure I like the direction she may be taking with a couple of the characters.
I recently read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and intend to read the other two in that series. I’m also halfway through The Brain That Changes Itself, by Norman Doidge. It’s fascinating stuff about brain mapping.
But to keep myself sane in this crazy world, I read romance about 99% of the time.
I enjoy reading biography and on-the-scene nonfiction when I need a romance break. I just picked up “”War”” by Sebastian Junger and am anxious to get started on it.
I was at Costco the other day and took a stroll past the books to see what was what and I found an old-style copy of “”The Thorn Birds””. I haven’t read that in years and years so I picked up a copy and started in. I’m really enjoying it which is a reminder of the non-romance fiction I’ve enjoyed in the past, especially books by Maeve Binchy (“”Circle of Friends””) and Rosamunde Pilcher (“”The Shell Seekers””). Makes me want to explore those types of epic stories again.
I agree pretty much with KristieJ that I enjoy the safety of reading romances.
Until ten years ago I read mysteries and non-fiction ( about cultures, anthropology, animals, and the environment).
Then, I retired. I do read mysteries : Elizabeth Peters, P.D. James, Elizabeth George, Martha Grimes, Anne Perry, and my new favorite, Canadian writer Louise Penny. They all publish in hardcover so there’s usually only one a year per writer. I mostly like women writers now that Tony Hillerman and Dick Francis have died.
Romances, particularly, historical romances, provide a happy ending that’s so lacking in what I read in the news. I’m saddened by man’s inhumanity to others in the real world. Reading romances is like taking an antidote to poison for me. It’s necessary to live. :-)
There is nothing like a well-written romance book (well, a well-written suspense is really just as good). LOL Unfortunately, there aren’t that many on the shelves these days that are that well done, so I’ve become very selective within the last couple of years. Fewer authors in the romance fiction genre are on my auto-buy/reserve list compared to previous years. But that’s okay. I like the balance going on in my life currently, bouncing among many things and reading being only a part of that routine, instead of consuming it.
So, good romance, good suspense and good women’s fiction remain my reading choices, just not as frequently as in the past.
I share your Elizabeth George affection, but I’m still so mad at her that I haven’t picked this one up yet, but I will. I also enjoy John Sandford’s Prey series and there’s a new one there, as well. (Talk about page turners!) And I will devour anything P.D. James writes.
At the moment I am reading Justin Cronin’s The Passage. A massive, post-apocalyptical vampire story — and very well done.
For the most part, though, I’m happy sticking to romances.
While I mainly read romance, I agree that getting away from the genre periodically is a good thing. When I want a change I like to read mysteries, both contemporary and historical. I also enjoy what is often categorized as “”women’s fiction.”” And I’ll read some popular titles, too.
I have been underwhelmed by much that has come out recently in my preferred genre of historical romance so I have been doing a reread of Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody Mysteries. Love that series! I also enjoy Julia Spencer-Fleming and am awaiting her latest entry into the Millers Kill series.
I’m in somewhat of a funk at the moment and the romance reading isn’t really that interesting for me. I’m hoping that will change soon, but in the meantime my reading loves are mysteries and sci-fi/fantasy. I just adore mystery books and have since I was young teenager. I love mysteries set in almost anytime period but I specifically books that are set in either Roman times (Lindsey Davis and her Falco series) or California in the 40s (Raymond Chandler/Dashiel Hammet or my other all time favourite Stuart Kaminsky and his Toby Peters series set in L.A. and movie studios). And of course, I can read Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and Watson anytime I want to be pulled into Victorian England. As for sci-fi/fantasy, I’m a huge fan of Kage Baker’s Company series; Gail Carriger and her Umbrella Protectorate series and the books of Connie Willis, to name just a few. I also discovered Willis when I randomly picked up “”To Say Northing of the Dog”” and fell in love with her writing. I’m not going to buy/read her latest book yet, not until the sequel is out later this fall. I happen to be one of those readers who needs to know what’s going to happen to the characters in a book, but am waiting impatiently to get and read Blackout and All Clear.
It’s mainly romance for me, but much of my alternate reading is nonfiction, mainly current events and history. I like the series of histories that Thomas Cahill (“”How the Irish Saved Civilization””, “”The Gifts of the Jews””, etc.) has written, and since I’m a Civil War buff, I also like the trilogy by Shelby Foote (who memorably appeared in Ken Burns’s series twenty years ago). James McPherson and David McCullough are also excellent history writers whose works I enjoy. Can you guess that I majored in history in college?? :)
When not reading romance, I read mysteries and science fiction both of which were my first genres – one my mother’s and one my father’s favorites.
I also read non-fiction, mostly related to history.
I’m not a chick lit or popular fiction reader; the latest book of the moment usually has no interest for me whatsoever. I’m sure I would have problems with a book club for that reason!
I just finished, The Girl Who Played With Fire and last month read Dragon Fly Tatoo. I plan on buying Hornets Nest in the next week. As much as I love the romance genre, I can’t live on only that in my reading life. I really have to have some variety in my reading. I belong to a bookclub too. We do 6 books a year, but I love it because it has nothing to do with the romance genre and gives me a chance to get back to my roots. We’ve discussed some heavy hitters in the past 3 years. I have to admit that none of the group know my love of the romance genre. Perhaps someday I will confess. :)
I’m a straight romance only reader these days. In the past I’ve read EVERYTHING but anymore I just like the security I find in romance. I know at the end, I’ll feel good with the HEA. There is so much crap going on in the world and often in my own life, romance gives me a life line of safety. And there are enough different genres that I don’t get tired of it. Had enough of reading about history? then I can switch it up to romantic suspense or futuristics.