It's definitely the rich girls of Riyadh -- they take vacations to Europe and sometimes the US pretty often, and they almost never seem terribly concerned about money.

Also, I've been noticing that, in contrast to most similar-type American and British books that I've read, there are very few descriptions of clothing (aside from wedding dresses and things like that), but the description of someone's makeup can go on for an entire page.

It's written as if it were being sent out, chapter by chapter, to an email list, by an anonymous Saudi girl, with little bits at the beginning of each chapter of the "author's" reactions to what everyone's been saying about it. That was wearing a little thin for a while, but it's starting to pick up again.

I'm trying to finish Susan Wiggs' Just Breathe. Not sure I'm going to get there-- it was one of those cases where the book is thisclose to really going somewhere interesting and unique and the author chose the cliché, every single time.

That and the lead character is a complete waffle.

Barb, I'm quoting this post of yours in GWW because my response to it belongs more there than here.

I'm trying to finish Susan Wiggs' Just Breathe. Not sure I'm going to get there-- it was one of those cases where the book is thisclose to really going somewhere interesting and unique and the author chose the cliché, every single time.

That's a shame! Her historicals are some of the few romance books I have that survived the purge, because she *did* go somewhere interesting so often.

If you want, Plei, I'll send it to you when I'm done. Could be I'm completely cracked.

Has anyone read the novel Good Faith by Jane Smiley? I'm listening to the book on tape in the car, and I am finding it very boring. I can't tell if it is the book or just the narrator.

Barb, on your recommendation, I got A Rake's Guide to Pleasure from the library. I plan to start it this weekend, so I'll let you know what I think.

I'm also reading Virgins of Venice: Enclosed Lives and Broken Vows in the Renaissance Convent, which I stumbled upon a couple of weeks ago, when we were talking about "get thee to a nunnery" in Bitches; I googled that phrase to make sure I wasn't talking out of my ass when I said "nunnery" = "whorehouse," and one of the links led to a review of that book, which sounded intriguing.

(Hey, I went to Catholic school for 12 years, and I currently work freelance for nuns, so they fascinate me, *especially* the account of these Renaissance-era Italian convents.)

Eoin Colfer to write sixth Hitchhiker's Guide book

Must also chime in on the wrongness of the very thought.

I keep thinking Zaphod for the kitten, too.

Barb, you're probably not cracked. I've noticed a lot of writers of unusual and awesome historicals somehow fail to translate that to contemporary.

Oh for the love of all that's good and holy. A published friend of mine, who writes dark paranormal romances, just got a reader letter where the reader "loves" her books, but is concerned because each book gets less and less "safe," and I quote, "really bad things happen to 'good' characters, 'nice' characters turn out to be the absolute worst of betrayers--"

Remember, she loves everything about the series-- the plots, the character development, the interactions, but she needs to know that the main/key characters are safe--that nothing too bad will happen to them during the book and she wants my friend to write her and let her know if she's going to continue down this path.

What

The

Fuck??

This is what makes my head absolutely want to explode. That the average romance reader, in particular, has become so utterly and completely milquetoast in their expectations, that they want their favorite authors to write stories that fit within their limited parameters and world views.

I mean, doesn't this reader get it? So far, in this series, my friend has done some pretty hideous things to both lead characters and secondary characters who are "nice," but in the end, the hero and heroine get their HEA-- and thing is, the payoff is so much better for the trials the couple's endured. That's what makes stories like these work.

The really sad part is, as both a writer and a reader (with respect to romance, at any rate) I'm in the minority. I know this. And still, I'm like freakin' Don Quixote, tilting at those damned windmills.

I can't even close the rant tag on this one, because it remains permanently open.

Feh.