Cool, cool. That book has intrigued me; I've wanted to read it for some time. I've been a dinosaur freak since I was a kid.

It's very funny, all the alternate/hidden world stuff. But at its core, it's a detective story.

Ain't nothing wrong with that. I had an Agatha Christie phase back in the day, too.

Happy Bloomsday!

Just finished City of Masks by Daniel Hecht. Deb mentioned the 2nd book in the series upthread. It has been a long time since I have wanted to read everythign by an anuthor NOW. Cree Black is our main character , but I think what drove the story was the fact that I was introduced to all the characters and know some of them better than I know Cree. Somehow learning about each person solved the ghost story/mystery. Really a rich book. Hard to put down, not because I needed to know what happened next, but because I fell so hard into the world of the book.

I'm re-reading Mirabile by Janet Kagan. Gotta love an author who can come up with creatures like the kangaroo rex and the frankenswine.

Happy Bloomsday to you, Steph!

Now that I'm an aspiring romance author, I feel like it behooves me to know more about the genre in general, and not just my little ghetto of favored historical and Regency authors. In particular, with the exception of a few Kathleen Eagle books, I've never read contemporary romances, at all. They just don't appeal to me for a variety of reasons, ranging from my overall preference for fiction set somewhere or somewhen other than my everyday world, to a preponderance of plot devices that annoy (secret babies*, big city girl finds REAL happiness by going back to hometown and marrying h.s. sweetheart who's now the sheriff, etc.), to heroes that just don't appeal--what's with all these cops and cowboys and Navy SEALs?

So, I'm asking for a reading list. Give me a highlights of contemporary romance, ideally ones that won't feel too much like homework. Help me be able to nod sagely when my fellow romance writers talk about the appeal of various authors.

*OK, so my work-in-progress kinda sorta has a secret baby plot device. Only it's set in 1811-12, and the heroine has legitimate reasons to believe she'll never see the father again. And when he reappears in her life, within 24 hours she tells him he has a son.

Bloomsday

I've never read Ulysses. It's one of those things, like eggplant, that people say you're supposed to appreciate, but which I've never been tempted to try.

I've got pretty much nothing myself, but I know melymbrosia reviews romance sometimes--there's a set of them in her memories here.