Susan W. - for hsitorical recs Mary Stewarts Authorian legend series. Also Parke Godwin Firelord, Beloved Exile Last Rainbow. Maybe borderline fantasy - but much more historical than fantansy IMO. (Though both authors picked a good story line over good history - and will cheerfully admit it.)

t on edit

Well did cheerfully admit it. NSM now.

My LJ friend who did the list of rules for romance heroines has tackled the heroes: [link]

Whoa...Stephenson's Snow Crash becomes even more real... [link]

Thanks for linking that, Plei! So true--and I'm so especially sick of "I hate all women because one woman done me wrong." But I feel like I can't rant about it as much as I'd like to when contest entries or CPs do it, because obviously it sells. Grr.

Susan, she's been writing some pretty funny reviews of romances, too.

Example:

I am a fan of angst. I will even read Scottish trilogies for angst

Which struck an "oh yeah, BTDT!" chord with me.

You should check out her entries.

For the Little House fans out there:

There’s a soundtrack interwoven in the stories of pioneer survival in the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, enduring music that can shed light both on Wilder’s stories and America’s musical heritage. Sadly, many fans of the books never hear the Stephen Foster classics, hymns and spirituals, string band and other music that was such an integral part of life on the prairie. For the new album Happy Land: Musical Tributes to Laura Ingalls Wilder, top Nashville musicians were brought together by Dale Cockrell and Butch Baldassari of Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music to record fresh versions of songs cited in the Little House books. The album will be released Aug. 9 by Pa's Fiddle Recordings ( [link] ).

That sounds great! She had so many songs in all of her books (more, I'd say, than Tolkien), and so many of them I've never heard of, even with knowing as many folk songs as I do. One of my favorite chapters in These Happy Golden Years is the Singing School chapter, beginning with the fractious horse who wouldn't let Almanzo into the buggy, and ending with the two of them getting engaged ("What would you say if someone offered you a ring?" "That would depend on who was offering." "If it were me?" "Then it would depend on the ring." Love that exchange!)

Thanks, Ginger! It's added to my wishlist.

I'm ordering it, certainly. I must hear "Captain Jenks of the Horse Marines."

("What would you say if someone offered you a ring?" "That would depend on who was offering." "If it were me?" "Then it would depend on the ring."

And later he shows her the ring, and she says something like "that would do nicely," right?

I love Laura and Almanzo. She seems to have really adored him, and I hope that made up for the hard times they faced.