Fat Book Reading Challenge

I am taking my inspiration for this challenge from the 2011 Chunkster Reading Challenge (check it out, I heartily endorse it even if I can't participate directly!). The basis of the challenge is to commit to reading anywhere from 4-8 books that are at least 450 pages long, and some of the books at some levels of the challenge have to be 750+ pages.

I want to do this but I mainly read on an e-reader, and the Chunkster calls for dead-tree books only. To keep the spirit of the challenge, I am choosing only books that also have a physical edition that has 450 pages or more.

My self-challenge, inspired by the Chunkster Challenge, is to read 8 books of 450+ pages in 2011, of which 4 will be 750+ pages.

I don't know all of the books I will be choosing but I know that one of them will be Outlander and at least one will be one of the longer Dickens books, perhaps Bleak House or Little Dorrit.

Happy 2011!

Okay, folks, this is where I start working on this blog thing seriously. My reading new years resolutions:

1. Read more books, less blogs and computer ephemera

2. Review all books read here.

3. Build ties to the book blogging community where I've been a passive viewer for so long.

4. Participate in some reading challenges.

5. Come up with some theme days for weekly blog posts. Under consideration: a day to look back at old favorites, a day for simple lists, maybe down the road doing interviews with authors or other people involved in book publishing.

6. Use this blog to get the word out about less well known authors, especially indie authors whose work I like.

7. Write a reviews policy for that hoped-for time when people will be approaching me to review their books.

8. Read one canonical classic a month, 12 for the year total. Undisputed Great Works such as Hawthorne, Dickens, Austen, etc.

9. Read one work of non-fiction a month, 12 for the year total.

10. Read one work per month recommended by another blogger/reviewer, that I otherwise would not have considered or known about, 12 for the year total.

Ruthless

Ruthless by Anne Stuart

Mira, 2010, 400 pages

$7.99 mass market paperback; $5.49 Kindle e-book

This was my first book by Anne Stuart, whose work I have been meaning to read. The main word I have heard to describe Stuart’s novels over the years is “dark”. The term particularly applies to her heroes, who tend to be men whose past experiences have twisted them to some extent, but who are ultimately redeemed by falling love with a woman who is always intelligent if not always conventionally attractive. Under the hero’s tutelage, the heroine discovers her own strong sexuality.

Lord Francis Rohan fits this type perfectly. A titled noble in both France and England, he presides over the “Heavenly Host”, a secret society of upper crust men and women who meet periodically for revels that include various sexual diversions such as orgies and sadomasochism. Rohan is tired of it all, no longer entertained but goes through the motions. His interest is piqued only by the appearance of an innocent interloper at the latest party.

Elinor Harriman and her sister Lydia spent their childhood coddled in upper class surroundings, but that was long ago, before their mother left their father for a new lover in France, taking the girls with her. Since then their mother has been on a downward spiral of drunkeness, gambling, debt and increasingly unsavory lovers, with the result that she is now physically and mentally ill. With two faithful servants who are more like family, Elinor and Lydia are hanging on to impoverished respectability by their fingernails, and Elinor can see no path for them but downward once their mother dies.

As the Heavenly Host’s revels begin, Elinor’s mother takes the last of their saleable jewelry and heads to the party to gamble and frolic. Elinor goes after her, and catches the eye of Rohan, who hides her away from the partiers and shows a surprisingly tender side when he sequesters her with his own faithful servant. Ultimately, of course, he seduces her and they begin an affair of denying attraction while indulging it, and denying emotional involvement even as their lives become increasingly entangled with each other.

I enjoyed the story and sped through it, not wanting to put it down. I liked the darkness in both hero and heroine’s pasts, and it was interesting to read a story featuring desperately impoverished characters rather than comfortably wealthy ones. And of course, the fantasy of a rich “prince” rescuing the good but poor girls from squalor is one that is always fun to see play out.

Besides the main storyline, there were several subplots that kept things moving along. Two different villains schemed against Elinor and made attempts on her life and that of her family members. These characters were rather one-note and only served to move the plot along, but were both enjoyably evil and deserving of any comeuppance they received.

I was more disappointed by the short shrift given to the secondary romance between Lydia and Charles, who is Rohan’s friend. Lydia is the impossibly sweet and good girl who shines even in their impoverished surroundings and Charles is too nice and upstanding to be comfortable in the Heavenly Host’s environment. Their developing attraction to each other was apparent but neither character was well enough developed to make it really interesting.

The Georgian era when this story takes place was an exciting time if you were in the aristocracy or comfortably wealthy, but as in other favorite romance novel periods, that world was a different, darker and more dangerous place if you were not well off. I like books that pay attention that that setting rather than focusing solely on the most privileged of society.

Overall I enjoyed Ruthless very much, and immediately started on the second book of the trilogy, Reckless, and plan to read the third book as well. Watch this space for those reviews, coming soon!

I recommend this book for: historical romance readers who like flawed heroes

Hi, FTC: I received an e-galley of this book from Mira (an imprint of Harlequin) via Net Galley. Thank you!

Gil's All Fright Diner

Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez

Tor Books, 2005, 268 pages

$14.99 trade paperback; $7.99 mass market and Kindle e-book editions

I loved this book, laughed my way through it. With a zombie-addled diner, a couple of grumpy rednecks who also happen to be a vampire and werewolf, a touching romance with a ghost, a teenager determined to raise the Old Gods and bring about the end of the world and even a ghostly dog, what more could anyone want? It was like Christopher Moore meets Jeff Foxworthy, or a bit like Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens
with a Texas twang. I would love to see this book as a movie, preferably one with Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi involved.

I recommend this book for: anyone wanting a fast and funny sci-fi read!

Hi FTC: I bought this book for myself.

Hello World

I've meant to start a book tracking/review blog for years, a place to record what I read and how I liked it.  So I'm finally getting started!

About me--like the title says, my reading tastes are pretty omnivorous.  Generally I prefer genre fiction--SF, mystery, fantasy, romance, horror--to "literary fiction", although I would argue that more books cross between those divisions than is generally recognized.   Even the literary fiction that I read most tends to be very plot driven and linear.  I've read a very occasional book of Christian fiction but I tend to steer clear of it because I'm not a Christian and it doesn't interest me that much.  Like many, I read a lot more young adult books than I used to.  There's a true renaissance going on there.

In non-fiction I'll read practically anything except highly technical material.  I love biography, history, memoirs, science for general readers, and lots more.  I don't tend to read a lot of new age or self-help books.  I've developed a recent interest in business and economics books, an area of my education that I've always neglected beyond very personal finance.

In the past few months I bought a Kindle, which has greatly increased my reading, as well as the number of books on my virtual shelf.  Between free books and bargain books priced under $4.99, I could go years without spending more than $4.99 for a book, and probably months without paying for any books as there are heaps of public domain classics available for free.  But of course that doesn't stop me from buying other books.  And this will be a place to remember and talk about everything I've read.

In my real life, I'm middle-aged (I can say that at 44, can't I?), happily partnered, childless, and share the house with my partner and 4 dogs.  We also share a small flock of 6 backyard chickens with our next door neighbors, so don't be surprised to see a book or two about urban farming/self sufficiency pop up here!

That's enough to get things started, time to get back to reading!