Dream Girl ,'Bring On The Night'
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."
Does Wilson approach to subject from the POV of a fan or a critic?
He's not a Celine fan. He's examining the nature of taste. But it's a very funny, well-written and surprisingly heartfelt book. He's very fair and thoughtful.
I think of it as the opposing bookend to Joe Carducci's Rock and the Pop Narcotic.
I've never been interested in Celine Dion before but now I want to read that book.
Pinball, by Jerzy Kosinski.
Would somebody mind explaining to me why do I keep returning to this one? I can see why I do so thematically: the use of music, the secrets. But, c'mon me, it's shallow. It has no depth, it's racist, and have nothing but a somewhat good idea. And the sex scenes are ridiculous at best.
Yet, that might be one of my favorite books.
Before I'm losing any respect I've ever had to my literary taste (I am the daughter of a librarian, after all), someone care to jump in with explanation?
I read it years ago and found it compelling, but I remember not a whit of it (high school, illegal pharmaceuticals - you get the picture). The only other Kosinki I've read is Steps which is...disturbing, to say the least, and probably why I've never made a proper effort with The Painted Bird.
My roommate in boarding school read The Painted Bird. One of nights she was reading it she came into my niche of the room, her eyes red, she was shaking and appalled, saying "promise me you'll never read it!" and "the rabbit! the poor rabbit!".
I have no idea what it was about, but I stayed away from the book.
I think it's both grotesque and profound. Apparently parts of it were based on Roman Polanski's life as a young Jew on the run in Eastern Europe during WWII, as well
It does Sumi!
And it would fit right next to my Joshua Slocum section. Sweet!
I just put it on hold at the library, Sumi!
Annual best/worst ballot for romance covers is up: [link]
I know two of the authors who have books in the "worst" category this year and, um, voted for one of them, even though some people on my local RWA loop are complaining about the "focus on the negative" of having a Worst Cover category. I don't see the issue, because it's not like the authors are designing the covers, or that the quality of what's on the cover is any reflection of what's inside--if anything, I think it's good to call the industry out on images that turn readers off.
Annual best/worst ballot for romance covers is up:
So, every category except the "Worst cover" is one in which you choose the "best" cover, right?
I mis-read it at first, thinking that ALL the categories were "Worst cover" within their own genre, and I thought, "Some of these covers are actually good -- what's with all the hate?" But now it makes sense.
And -- in the "Worst" category there's a book called "Big Spankable Asses" -- if I'm not mistaken, didn't our very own Amy write the jacket copy for that?
(Also in the "Worst" category -- what's so wrong with the cover of "Kink"? I'm not asking b/c of my own proclivities; it's just -- the book is *about kink*! Wouldn't flowers and bluebirds be a misleading cover? I thought the cover was perfectly appropriate and actually tasteful, given what it *could* have been.)