I spent Thanksgiving or, as non-Americans would call it, yesterday, with a part of my extended family. We had two intense discussions. We almost came to blows over who should be cast as the next James Bond—James Norton, duh—and had a generational divide over what makes one happy. […]
Tomorrow, I’m taking the train from North Carolina where I live up to Washington, DC to spend the weekend there. It’s been a tough week here–I had to put Sophie, my dog of ten years, to sleep yesterday and my husband and I want to distract ourselves from our now too quiet home.
I love trains and have traveled all over Europe in them as well as in the Northeastern part of the United States. My impending trip got me to thinking about romances with train trips/scenes in them. There’s a romantic scene in Marrying Winterborne -I feel as though there are a fair number in Kleypas’ books–I recall and I have a memory of a very sexy scene in a Christina Dodd book but can’t remember which one.
I know, however, I’ve read many more. Can you recall any? Especially if it’s one you loved?
We’ve discussed here how we feel about consent in romance–in general, good–although there are those, me among them, who feel constant questions in a love scene are hard to do well. For the sake of this week’s discussion, let’s agree asking for consent is a given. And that’s good.
What doesn’t appear to be a given is asking about pleasure. […]
In the last three recently published romances I’ve read, I’ve very little idea of what the heroine looks like. The heroes are still chiseled with piercing blue/green/grey eyes, abs like an egg carton, long silky black/blonde/chestnut hair, and sinfully full lips. The heroines are, well, I don’t know because the authors didn’t describe their physical appearances other than their heights and maybe their skin color.
There are things I like about this. Heroines don’t need to be gorgeous with lengthy lashes, ample busts, and tiny waists and the world has always been overly fixated on women’s beauty rather than their brains. It’s much more erotic to read about a lover who’s focused on the connection they share with the person they’re steaming up the sheets/carriage/back seat with than one who’s sexual interest is spurred by looks alone.
And yet….
I’m a visual person and I like to have a sense of what characters and the worlds they inhabit look like. Reading about […]
–there are spoilers ahead for the Grant County series–
I’ve recently just slogged–and, sadly, it was a slog–my way through Karin Slaughter’s Grant County series. I love the Will Trent series although I skimmed much of the torture porn. However, the Grant County series not only has one of the least likable female characters of all time–I LOATHE Lena Adams–it also subjects its women to horror after horror. Sara, the lead, is brutally raped, which makes her infertile, and her husband cheats on her. Her sister Tessa is randomly and horrifically attacked while pregnant and loses the baby and her fiancé. Lena is horribly raped and subjected to all sorts of violence and her beloved sister Sybil is sickeningly raped and murdered for no good reason. This is just the violence that happens to the main characters. The indignities, cruelties, and violent acts inflicted on all the other women in the show are endless–really, the only two female […]
Recently, a close friend of mine’s step-daughter eloped which did not make her parents happy. Her mother and father felt it was disrespectful to not have them as a part of the ceremony. This surprised me–I’d be thrilled if my children eloped because, to me, the modern American wedding is, well, insane. […]
I, like much of the writing attached world, have been unable to stop thinking about Dawn Dorland and Sonya Larson whose feud was covered in depth by the New York Times this week. Here’s the gist as summarized by Jenny G. Zhang at Gawker: […]
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a canon is
a. Literary Criticism. A body of literary works traditionally regarded as the most important, significant, and worthy of study; those works of esp. Western literature considered to be established as being of the highest quality and most enduring value; the classics (now frequently in the canon). Also (usually with qualifying word): such a body of literature in a particular language, or from a particular culture, period, genre, etc.
I do not watch and never have watched the news on TV. I’ve never watched 60 Minutes, The Daily Show, or the nightly news. This isn’t because I think it’s evil but rather because it’s not a good way for me personally to learn. I am a reading learner–hearing things just isn’t as successful for me as reading them. I’m also addicted to getting more than one take on an issue and it’s more time efficient for me to read the headlines in four different newspapers–The NYT, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Slate–than it is for me to listen to one channel for an hour. Sometimes, if there’s a hurricane or a national disaster–I am forever grateful a friend called me at 8:50am on September 11, 2001 and said “TURN ON YOUR TV RIGHT NOW.”–but those times are very far and few in between. This no TV news thing often makes me feel like a weirdo–it feels […]
Peeps–I’ve been a bit blue lately. I’m on crutches for six weeks–months after that with a cane–due to a soft tissue hip repair. Covid continues to threaten so many things. I have a neighbor who is as nasty as he can be and that just bums me out. My lovely sister-in-law suggested I read one of her favorite self-help books and I am considering it. But… I’ve never read a self-help book. When I first had kids, people gave me several parenting books and I just decided that they weren’t for me–I used this book instead–probably because I hate to be told what to do. (It’s a failing.) […]