See, it's not so much the series, it's that the author has written a long explanation of why this character died, and you can't even begin offering it up as evidence in the discussion without saying too much. And she does talk about reader backlash, so it's not like her audience all took it lying down.

Mostly she's in line with my read on WiR, although she doesn't explicitly state it--whose death hurts the most, without taking out a lynchpin character of the franchise? Dollars to donuts, it's a chick. And that's outside of any societal frisson gained by women in danger. It's just that you're hero's most likely a straight guy, so the SO in question is a chick. His mother is more vulnerable than his father. That sort of stuff.

But she does say much more. Thought it was interesting outside of any bearing it has on my Refrigerator thoughts, but still feeling fingertied.

So, mr. flea read The Road on Saturday, and woke me with the volume of his sobbing at least twice, and reread parts of it yesterday, and keeps talking to me about it. I had been deliberately avoiding this book because I really don't need the trauma, thanks (I find literature to be anti-cathartic, as a general rule). But at this point I feel like I've got much of the trauma and none of the potential joy of actually reading the book. Should I go ahead and read it, and risk REAL trauma? Or just hope I forget the things he keeps talking about?

Just whitefont everything? Headline all posts "Spoilery WIR discussion", so people know which discussion is white fonted?

Should I go ahead and read it, and risk REAL trauma? Or just hope I forget the things he keeps talking about?

I think you should read it. It's definitely sad, but it's also, strangely enough, one of McCarthy's most optimistic novels. My wife loved it, too, and has declared it harsh but worthwhile.

flea, I suggest you seek out a lolcats/Cleolinda version, laugh your ass off, and then not read the book itself. That is what I am planning to do.

(Because I have read my fair share of post-apocalyptic literature in which nothing exciting happens*, and, bored now.)

• If any of McCarthy's characters suddenly don feathered headdresses and go chase each other around the desert in souped-up dune buggies, I imagine I would have heard about it by now.

Not really "Literary" as most of the world would call it, but something I know many Buffistas and the Smart Bitches Trashy Books enjoy...Suzanne Brockmann has a new book Troubleshooters book coming out this summer (her Navy SEALS books that are now not all SEALS). One thing I love is that she writes about gays, alcoholics, interracial romances, and in this one apparently a character who is deaf (due to injury, but still). I love that for an author who started writing about buff military men, she doesn't just write about straight perfect white people.

I'm going to have to go through my romances when I get home tonight--I have an old Silhouette Special Edition in which the hero is a double amputee (both legs near the knee) which I thought was a Brockmann, but according to her backlist, I guess not. It's a really good book, too.

Damn, it's going to drive me nuts until I can find out who wrote it!

Kathy, if you can't find it on your shelves, I bet you could track it down with a Help a Bitch Out request on the Smart Bitches blog.

I know I have it somewhere in my romance bookshelf (I have all of my romances crammed into a 1-yard-square bookshelf in my bedroom--double-stacked two deep and with more books on top, and that was after I weeded out about 3/4ths of my romances before I moved two years ago).

I can see the cover in my head, and I'm pretty sure I have more books by the same author, but I'm damned if I remember who that is. Oh, well, I'll find out when I get home tonight.

I have a heckuva reading list for the summer. I just found out that I'm definitely teaching a 12th grade non-AP class, and I'm inheriting a summer reading list from the teacher who was supposed to have the class originally. The students can choose two books from a list of about ten. I've read only a few of those ten, and I should probably re-read them as well since they aren't fresh in my mind.