Oh, yeah. There was this time I was pinned down by this guy that played left tackle for varsity... Well, at least he used to before he was a vampire... Anyway, he had this really, really thick neck, and all I had was a little, little Exact-O knife ... You're not loving this story.

Buffy ,'Beneath You'


Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.

There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."


askye - Nov 27, 2007 9:13:26 am PST #4363 of 28344
Thrive to spite them

I'd recommend CF Roe's books about a Scottish doctor, whose name I can't remember. It's sort of country house murder stye, with the doctor juggling responbsilities of being a doctor, a mom, and solving crimes.

My dad likes those and he really liked the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency stories as well.


erikaj - Nov 27, 2007 9:16:17 am PST #4364 of 28344
Always Anti-fascist!

Patricia Cornwall has lost what remains of her shit. I think she is down to forensics and a three. Which makes me sad, at the risk of sounding like one of those "I used to love x, but then he/she did y" posters.


amych - Nov 27, 2007 9:30:14 am PST #4365 of 28344
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?

Something remained?


Kathy A - Nov 27, 2007 9:30:16 am PST #4366 of 28344
We're very stretchy. - Connie Neil

If you like the forensic mystery book, I can recommend Eileen Dreyer. Her books are all meticulously researched (she took an extended break from writing to get her forensic investigation certificate), they share a dark, almost bleak, sense of humor, and are usually set in St. Louis. She started out writing romances under the pen name Kathleen Korbel, which I also recommend--the Harlequins she wrote were equally dark, dealing with Vietnam PTSD (for her nurse heroine, one of the first times I've seen female PTSD addressed outside of China Beach), illiteracy, child abuse, and Down's Syndrome.


Sheryl - Nov 27, 2007 1:54:40 pm PST #4367 of 28344
Fandom means never having to say "But where would I wear that?"

Hmmm, for the cozy-but not too girly, maybe Donna Andrews? The series that starts with Murder with Peacocks is fun, but not too fluffy. Her other series is a bit darker and crosses over to SF.(The main character, Turing Hopper, is a sentient AI)


hippocampus - Nov 27, 2007 2:04:07 pm PST #4368 of 28344
not your mom's socks.

Turing Hopper, is a sentient AI

grumblecakes. that riff is getting old.


Susan W. - Nov 27, 2007 2:08:32 pm PST #4369 of 28344
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights

I'm toying with the idea of finding a more public place for my reading diary next year. It's currently on my very low-traffic blog, but I have some connections at reasonably high-traffic Seattle blogs, and one of them suggested I try to get my reading diary on board.

Any thoughts on pros and cons? It wouldn't be a hard-hitting review blog, but something more conversational, with a name like "One Reader's Diary" or "That Bookworm on the 303" (my bus route, where I get in at least half my reading these days). I'd talk about the books I read and try to get in some general commentary of interest to readers, especially Seattle readers--things like what I spy the 303's other bookworms reading, how long it takes to get a popular new title from the Seattle library, why Ichiro is like Mr. Darcy, maybe a bit on genre perceptions based on my experiences starting out writing romance ("Someone as smart as you writes THOSE?") to writing military historicals ("You're a woman and you're writing WHAT?"), etc.

Does that sound interesting? Can you think of anything to give it a stronger hook?

The pros that I've thought of are getting to talk about books to a wider audience, a wider audience that might buy my books if/when I'm published, and generally building name recognition. The con is that it'd take more time and energy than my current bare-bones reading diary. Anything I'm missing?


dcp - Nov 27, 2007 2:36:01 pm PST #4370 of 28344
The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.

Christmas gift suggestions sought: for my father in law. He is interested in mystery series.

Dick Francis? Bernard Cornwell? C. S. Forester? Patrick O'Brian? John le Carré? Kenneth Roberts?

Okay, so only the first one wrote mysteries, the others did historical fiction, but worth a try.


Jesse - Nov 27, 2007 2:54:09 pm PST #4371 of 28344
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

How about Jan Burke? (I can't tell what's cosy if it doesn't have a recipe or some shit in it somewhere.)


Susan W. - Nov 27, 2007 4:40:19 pm PST #4372 of 28344
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights

Bernard Cornwell wrote one mystery that's very good, IMHO, Gallows Thief, though it's not part of a series.