Soup Dish: on my mind
✽Summer is flying by, but we've had a quiet week or two, recovering from two weeks of travel. I think we're all just appreciating the comforts of home right now. I have my hotel booked for #RUDC15 in Denver, and I think I'm going to give up the idea of carpooling and book a flight this coming week. Wheeeeee!
✽I might be the last romance blogger to comment on the NPR Top 100 romances, but it's always fun to comb through lists like these and see what I've read, where I agree, if I disagree, and of course, build my never-ending TBR even higher. The classics were unsurprising: Gaffney's To Have and To Hold; London's The Windflower; Kinsale's Flowers from the Storm. Lots of my personal favorites were on the list too: Outlander by Gabaldon; Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase, Julia Quinn's Bridgertons, The Beast by Judith Ivory, newer faves like the Pennyroyal Green series by Julie Ann Long, AND my all-time favorite LaVyrle Spencer, Morning Glory. And that only goes through the historicals. So many books! Being a listmaker, I'm feeling compelled to print it out and score myself on what I've read.
✽This was a fun article, although I take ISSUE with Rhett as an alpha-hole. That is a total oversimplification and does not take into account Scarlett's personality.
✽Apparently it's National Book Lovers Day. Which is awesome and everything. My problem is, I can't really see how I should do anything differently from any other day.
✽Also this is kind of cool: StoryCorps roving reporter...
What I'm reading
✽As mentioned last week, I finished the last full-length novel in Wen Spencer's Elfhome series, but I was happy to find out that there are at least 2 more books in the pipeline, Project Elfhome and Harbinger (titles may change). Plus there are a couple of short stories I haven't read yet.
✽In my ongoing support of the Reading Until Dawn conference, I nabbed a title by Cynthia St. Aubin called Unloveable: the Case Files of Dr. Matilda Schmidt. At just over 100 pages, it's a fast-paced farce, drawing from familiar Greek mythology characters. The humor worked for me and it was pretty sexy too, although it's a light touch and not a focus. Not a romance, but the beginning of a fun-looking series about a "paranormal psychologist." This title is currently free on Amazon, so grab it now and see for yourself. And of course, you could always come to the Reading Until Dawn conference and meet St. Aubin herself. Personally I'm hoping to see a short story sometime next year inspired by #RUDC15 shenanigans...
✽Similarly, I finished Beast, a Norseton Wolves novella by Holley Trent (another #RUDC15 author). Really enjoyed it, and I liked the setup. I found the heroine to be pretty unusual personality-wise; she's uneducated and sort of... beaten-down at the beginning, but she jumps at the chance to be essentially a mail-order bride, and leave West Virginia for remote New Mexico. She has some behaviors you'd expect from an abused woman, but enough spark to get her own story burning, and a cheer-worthy refusal to stay down. As a prologue to a series it's just right: there's definitely some unfinished business between Anton and Christina, which left the story feeling a little unresolved but makes you want to read more in the series. For 99 cents, why not give it a whirl?
✽Finally, I want to give a huge shout out to Sunil Patel. I've been following him on Twitter for awhile and he's delightful there - funny, and humble, and has this ability to deliver a surprise skewer, and what's more endearing that that? I read his new short story, The Merger, first over at The BookSmugglers (cannot find the link now?) but I bought it on Amazon for the deleted scenes. It's really just an opportunity to make fun of corporate-speak which I can never, ever resist. The intergalactic/alien components have a strong Douglas Adams influence, so BAM, sold. Favorite quote:
"We are pleased to see that the termination of your appendix has been successful. We do wish it the best and thank it for it's many years of service.Last Word
"The appendix doesn't do anything," said Sita, taking Paresh's hand again.
"We thank it for its many years of service," the blob repeated.
That's all for this week! If you haven't registered for Reading Until Dawn, I really hope you will. It's going to be all fun and no stress. Oh! and there's a tee-shirt! You should order one, because it's funny, even if you're not going to the conference:
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