Heartreads

Heartreads, the February Read It 2011 theme was a little more approachable. However, my experience with the romance genre is that its fraught with danger. There are great reads, and there are absolute duds, and cover art and back of book blurbs are of little use in telling one from the other.  Luckily, I was in charge of stacking chairs at an Ultimo Library panel discussion: "Sex, Love & Passion: the Appeal of the Romance Novel", so had the opportunity to collect recommendations from the panelists as to the best authors to in contemporary, humorous and paranormal romance, and broaden my reading horizons.
I started with contemporary romance, with Jennifer Crusie's Maybe This Time and Fast Women, Susan Elizabeth Phillips Ain't She Sweet and Rachel Gibson's I'm Not In The Mood For Love. All four were set in the US and followed the romantic adventures of women in their mid 30s. They were light, easy reads, entertaining and amusing. Judging from these particular novels (admittedly a small sample), I think that Crusie and Phillips are the stronger writers. I'd have no trouble recommending all three writers to romance readers though, as long as the readers are comfortable with (not particularly graphic) sex scenes and a heavy peppering of fashion/shoe/porcelain brand names that in a movie would have to be interpreted as product placement.
Next I tried MaryJanice Davidson's Undead and Unwed and Undead and Unemployed, that fall where the realms of romance, humour and vampire novels cross in a Venn diagram: Betsy Taylor rises from the dead to find that not only is she the queen of the vampires, but her evil step mother has stolen her shoe collection. Again, this was set in the US and a light, amusing and entertaining read with plenty of fashion product placement and slightly more graphic sex scenes. I think this would be more likely to appeal as a chic-lit/vampire crossover than to readers of straight romance.
Finally, I took a stronger step in the direction of paranormal romance, reading Nalini Singh's  Slave to Sensation and Mine to Possess , books 1 & 4 in the Psy-Changling series. Set in a slightly alternative future, where humans co-exist with the Changling and mentally gifted but emotionally repressed Psy races, these books are part paranormal romance (Psy and human women fall in love with men who shift to panther or leopard form), and part sci-fi mystery. I know that some readers enjoy these for the romance and pretty graphic sex, but I found myself equally interested in the back story of the power struggle between the three races.

I don't think that I'm ready for a diet consisting solely of romance reading, but I've enjoyed my enforced month of (sort of, if you count the undead) happily ever after.

Scare Up A Good Book

I was really challenged by the January theme for Read It 2011: Scare Up A Good Book.  I can't watch horror movies or read ghost stories without jumping at shadows and leaving the lights on all night. Even with the lights on, I still get terrifying nightmares from which I wake sweating and paralised.

I chose the only horror writer I know, Stephen King, and consulted NoveList Plus (a readers advisory database available via NSW public libraries) that  suggested that King's most recent book,  Full Dark, No Stars,  would be a good starting point as it contains four strong short stories and a short piece by Stephen King explaining his inspiration for each story and what he was trying to achieve.

The stories were varied: a mans life disintegrates after he murders his wife, a woman hunts down and revenges herself upon a rapist and his accomplices, a wife deals with finding out something very disturbing about her husband of 20 odd years, and a man makes a deal with the devil to improve his own life to the detriment of his best friend's. All were well written, with straightforward narratives. The weren't particularly scary or horrifying - contrary to what I'd expected based King's reputation - but all lingered in my mind long after reading, which is what the author says he set out to do.

I'd read Stephen King again, if I wanted a good story with a disturbed atmosphere

Dipping A Cautious Toe Into Old Geezer Lit

The year did not begin well.  I can usually rely on receiving a swag of books as Christmas gifts, but this year my haul was limited to one.  And so, in early January, with my bookshelf fully read and the library closed, I was forced to resort to raiding my Dad's bedside table book pile. 

At this point, I came face to face with the challenge I'd decided to set myself of reading more widely, among authors and genres that would not usually atrract me.  My choice was limited: thriller, thriller or thriller. I decided to choose a thriller, and picked up David Baldacci's First Family.

The storyline dealt with the kidnapping of a US president's neice, foucssing on the experiences of the private investigators (ex-secret service agents) hired by the First Lady to find her neice, the kidnapper and his motivations, and the 11year old  kidnap victim. While unravelling the clues, twists and turns of the primary story line, the two private investigators (recurring characters in a series) deal with the suspicious death of one of their mothers and the developing relationship between themselves.

First Family delivered just what I expected.  The writing was clear, the plot reasonable for the genre, and consistent within itself and the characters interesting enough to keep me reading til the end.  In fact, I think it was the characters, rather than the mystery they were solving that kept me engaged. I'm not rushing out to pick up another Baldacci, but thats because my tastes don't run to thrillers, rather than any flaw in his writing.

I should add a disclaimer - I've labled David Baldacci as Old Geezer Lit solely because he's one of my Dad's favorite reads, and my Dad is an Old Geezer.  I am not sugesting that everyone who reads and enjoys David Baldacci's writing is an Old Geezer.  But they probably are.

Expanding my reading horizons

My aim this year is to expand my reading horizons, and so I’ve sent my self two challenges.

Firstly, I’m going to read outside my own areas of interest and comfort zone, and pick up books by those authors who I’ve either just never gotten around to, or that have never particularly appealed. I’m hoping that next time a library patron asks me “have you read this?” I can come up with a more interesting reply than “no, but I’ve often shelved that author’s book’s", or think to myself , (and so far, I've resisted the temptation to say this out loud) “I wouldn’t touch that with a barge pole” from a position of personal experience, rather than prejudice.

Secondly, I’m going to take part in the  Read It 2011 reading challenge. This is a monthly themed reading group that encourages Australian library users to read to a theme and tweet about what they are reading (including appropriate hash tags).
For efficiency’s sake, and to allow some time for reading what I actually want to, I’m combining the two challenges, so each month I’ll read at least one book by one author I wouldn’t usually choose on a theme dictated by the NSW Readers Advisory Working Group.