Skip to main content

Reading report for January 2014

Here it is, finally: the reading report for January. (February‘s report is in the works: I have it entered into Excel and I just need to transfer it into Word, edit the layout and write the preface. It will either take a couple of days or a couple of months).

I finished 26 books in January, although admittedly a number of them were novellas. As I mentioned in my previous post, I delved into a new(ish) type of genre: gay (or M/M) romance. I found everything from genuinely sweet romance to hardcore BDSM, in sub-genres like fantasy, suspense and mystery and even a quartet of entertaining (and unlikely) rock star romances. Other books I read in January include the highly enjoyable memoir of cooking doyenne Julia Child, two straight romances, and Jennifer Worth‘s trilogy of memoirs about her experiences as a midwife in a London slum in the 1950s. I also watched the first season of the TV series based on these books and may (I say 'may') write something about this when I have finished the second series (I'm off to the post office tomorrow to pick up the DVDs).

The standouts of the "also reads" were Julia and Jennifer (especially the first book in the Midwife trilogy), and of the gay romances my favourites were the four rock star romances by Jet Mykles (Heaven, Purgatory, Hell and Faith) and Adam and Holden by L.B. Gregg. Both were well plotted and had fun and/or interesting characters and the storyline of the latter also included a juicy murder mystery. Love You, Loveday was notable for the creepy stalker storyline and the interesting twist on the “damsel in distress” trope. I can also recommend the two Tere Michaels books, especially Love & Loyalty, the style of which reminded me of a Nora Roberts novel.

The Golden Boy/Golden Man duology by Clare Thompson was admittedly well written and plotted, and while I will never, ever understand the attraction of BDSM, I don‘t regret reading them because they gave me an insight into that culture. (I must, however, admit I have no idea how representative it is of reality. Doubtless there is some poetic licence involved).

There were also some fairly bad books among the M/M romances. Since I hadn‘t done much research on the subject before being (rudely) handed a Kindle and ordered to start reading (I know, I‘m a pushover) it was hit or miss whether I picked something good or something I had rather not finish, and in fact there were three DNF stories among the ones I started reading in January (not included in the list) and a couple more I did finish but wouldn‘t recommend.

The Books:
  • Katie Allen : Private Dicks . Romantic mystery, M/M.
  • Mary Calmes : His Hearth . Romantic fantasy, M/M.
  • Julia Child & Alex Prud'homme : My Life in France . Memoir.
  • L.B. Gregg: Men of Smithfield: Adam and Holden. Romantic mystery, M/M.
  • Jean Haus : Ink My Heart . Romance, contemporary.
  • G.A. Hauser : Love You, Loveday . Romantic suspense, M/M.
  • Amy Lane : Christmas with Danny Fit . Romance, M/M.
  • Carol Lynne : Rough Ride . Romance, M/M.
  • Angel Martinez : Boots . Romantic fantasy, M/M.
  • Tere Michaels : Faith & Fidelity and  Love & Loyalty. Romance, M/M.
  • Jet Mykles : Heaven, Purgatory, Hell and Faith. Romance, M/M.
  • Terry O'Reilly : One Night in December. Romance, M/M.
  • Lucius Parhelion : A Faint Wash of Lavender.Historical, romantic, M/M.
  • Marty Rayne : A Master's Love. BDSM romance, M/M.
  • Nora Roberts : Secret Star. Romance, contemporary. 
  • Katrina Strauss : Sleight of Hand. Romance, M/M.
  • Clare Thompson : Golden Boy and Golden Man. BDSM romance, M/M.
  • Lori Toland : The Replacement Guitarist. Romance, M/M.
  • Jennifer Worth : Call the Midwife, Shadows of the Workhouse and Farewell to the East End. Memoirs.

Comments

George said…
Impressive number of books read! I alternate between fiction and nonfiction. Just finished George Packer's THE UNWINDING about the decline of America (hey, I'm living it!). My next fiction book is Minding the Stars: The Early Jack Vance Volume 4.

Popular posts from this blog

Book 40: The Martian by Andy Weir, audiobook read by Wil Wheaton

Note : This will be a general scattershot discussion about my thoughts on the book and the movie, and not a cohesive review. When movies are based on books I am interested in reading but haven't yet read, I generally wait to read the book until I have seen the movie, but when a movie is made based on a book I have already read, I try to abstain from rereading the book until I have seen the movie. The reason is simple: I am one of those people who can be reduced to near-incoherent rage when a movie severely alters the perfectly good story line of a beloved book, changes the ending beyond recognition or adds unnecessarily to the story ( The Hobbit , anyone?) without any apparent reason. I don't mind omissions of unnecessary parts so much (I did not, for example, become enraged to find Tom Bombadil missing from The Lord of the Rings ), because one expects that - movies based on books would be TV-series long if they tried to include everything, so the material must be pared down

List love: 10 recommended stories with cross-dressing characters

This trope is almost as old as literature, what with Achilles, Hercules and Athena all cross-dressing in the Greek myths, Thor and Odin disguising themselves as women in the Norse myths, and Arjuna doing the same in the Mahabaratha. In modern times it is most common in romance novels, especially historicals in which a heroine often spends part of the book disguised as a boy, the hero sometimes falling for her while thinking she is a boy. Occasionally a hero will cross-dress, using a female disguise to avoid recognition or to gain access to someplace where he would never be able to go as a man. However, the trope isn’t just found in romances, as may be seen in the list below, in which I recommend stories with a variety of cross-dressing characters. Unfortunately I was only able to dredge up from the depths of my memory two book-length stories I had read in which men cross-dress, so this is mostly a list of women dressed as men. Ghost Riders by Sharyn McCrumb. One of the interwove

First book of 2020: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach (reading notes)

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I loathe movie tie-in book covers because I feel they are (often) trying to tell me how I should see the characters in the book. The edition of Deborah Moggach's These Foolish Things that I read takes it one step further and changes the title of the book into the title of the film version as well as having photos of the ensemble cast on the cover. Fortunately it has been a long while since I watched the movie, so I couldn't even remember who played whom in the film, and I think it's perfectly understandable to try to cash in on the movie's success by rebranding the book. Even with a few years between watching the film and reading the book, I could see that the story had been altered, e.g. by having the Marigold Hotel's owner/manager be single and having a romance, instead being of unhappily married to an (understandably, I thought) shrewish wife. It also conflates Sonny, the wheeler dealer behind the retireme