March 2009 - What are you reading?

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Wed March 11th, 2009, 2:01 pm

[quote=""gyrehead""]I finally read willig's first book. The Secret History of the Pink Carnation. Wow was that bad. No attempt at plausibility or even really a real plot. The characterization was appalling sexist as the females read like a mix of Bridget Jones's vapid stupidity and a Barbara Cartland heroine breathless and with heaving bosom, natch.[/quote]

Hee, I wish you could be a guest poster at my Wall Bangers List at Amazon

princess garnet · Post by **princess garnet** » Wed March 11th, 2009, 6:10 pm

Finished reading Marie-Therese by Susan Nagel

diamondlil · Post by **diamondlil** » Wed March 11th, 2009, 7:22 pm

Today I am starting Angelique and the Sultan by Sergeanne Golon. The cover is quite interesting on this one! Maybe it should have been called Angelique looking sultry!

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Wed March 11th, 2009, 7:26 pm

Heavens! What a cover. Are you going to take that with you on the train?

diamondlil · Post by **diamondlil** » Wed March 11th, 2009, 7:28 pm

Yes I am!

I actually hadn't thought of that until you said it!

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Wed March 11th, 2009, 7:57 pm

[quote=""diamondlil""]Yes I am!

I actually hadn't thought of that until you said it![/quote]

I had one with a cover like that and I took it in to a hair appointment before it occurred to me what others might think..

Probably wouldn't be so bad if you were really reading a bodice ripper romance.

diamondlil · Post by **diamondlil** » Wed March 11th, 2009, 8:01 pm

Maybe the other commuters will think I am reading a guidebook to burlesque and wonder about my secret life?

Kasthu · Post by **Kasthu** » Wed March 11th, 2009, 9:46 pm

[quote=""gyrehead""]I finally read willig's first book. The Secret History of the Pink Carnation. Wow was that bad. No attempt at plausibility or even really a real plot. The characterization was appalling sexist as the females read like a mix of Bridget Jones's vapid stupidity and a Barbara Cartland heroine breathless and with heaving bosom, natch.

The writing and plotting and characterization so bad that I didn't even care about the historical accuracy. Though I did howl at the expense of Willig and her Harvard education that has her historical heroine, supposedly well versed in classical literature and history, breathlessly and in supposedly brilliant insight, declare how the proof of ties between Ancient Greece and Egypt lies in the fact that Antigone takes place in Thebes. Yes. Apparently Willig never bothered to figure out that Thebes in Greece, a rather famous and significant city in classical Greek studies, is rather different from Thebes, capital of Egypt fame.[/quote]

Finally! Someone who agrees with me on this one. It degenerated into a bodice ripper in parts, and I couldn't believe that any heroine could be as dumb as Amy was.

Currently reading, and enjoying, Sarah Bower's The Book of Love. Lots of sex in it (as you might expect from the Borgias), but it's more tastefully done than most.

gyrehead · Post by **gyrehead** » Wed March 11th, 2009, 10:22 pm

[quote=""EC2""]I was quite entertained by this one. You had to put your serious head aside and cut it some slack. There are a couple of reviews of it in the Reviews category on the forum.[/quote]

I went in just wanting a good read and came out feeling used and somewhat betrayed as there wasn't even a scintilla of such made available to me by Willig. I didn't have a bar raised too high or have my "serious hat on; mainly because I don't have a serious hat. I can't remember the last time I approached a book with expectations other than wanting to be entertained; wiating until I read the book completely or at least enough to the point of figuring out the tone and the author's intended style. Quite simply I picked this book up and opened it wanting a good read. Can be silly, can be irreverant (something in fact I adore) can be tongue in cheek. All I want is good. This was bad enough I made a point of also tracking down who exactly her editor is and what other works other than Willig's I need to avoid. Because anyone that didn't make Willig go back and fix the historical plot's resolution and let those last ten chapters exist in the form published deserves to be avoided just as vehemently as I plan to avoid Willig's work. If I cut Willig any more slack than I did, I might as well hire Michael Jackson as a "manny" for my young sons.

The one silver lining in Willig's popularity is that maybe someone else will do the obligatory knockoff of Willig's own wretched knockoff and actually pull it...(sorry) off. I would love to read a modern updating of the Scarlet Pimpernel theme. Especially one with a clever and sly modern sensibility. And a strong female character who isn't riding the short carriage to the ball the entire book.

Just finished Dave Duncan's third Alchemist book, The Alchemist's Pursuit. This is by no means my favorite series of Duncan's. It is a little flat compared to some of his other work. He even pushes Venice back into a rather flat role as setting; something that puzzles me to an extreme. But it is still fast paced and readable and I suspect anyone who loves this series will be very happy with it. I much prefer his straight fantasy work though and hope he has something on that horizon soon.

I've now started Adrian Goldsworthy's How Rome Fell. But I know I will be reading this in bits so have packed Jo Graham's Hand of Isis and have been promised a copy of Jacqueline Carey's next book in arc form as I swing through NYC on my way east.

Amanda · Post by **Amanda** » Wed March 11th, 2009, 11:04 pm

I have just started The Piano Teacher by Janice YK Lee