Last night, I opened The Sheik, by E.M. Hull. I had no real knowledge of the book (I've said before that's part of the fun: going into these books pretty much blind). I'm not surprised it was made into a movie, but I've never seen it. I braced myself for the racism that was sure to be there ( Read more... )

We now pause in our regularly scheduled program, on accounta Lucy reached back a few days ago and grabbed one of her old potboilers off the shelf ( Read more... )

Hey, remember those old books I was going to post about regularly? Um, yeah. Didn't so much keep up with that. But! I figure as long as I'm semi-off work and not yet on baby duty, I'd give it a go.

The first, more or less randomly picked book was Beverly of Graustark, by George Barr McCutcheon, and is apparently the second in a series about ( Read more... )

In an effort to avoid going back and forth between moderate annoyance and seething rage (ah, fandom), I figured now was as good a time as any for a book discussion.

This week's book was Emmy Lou: Her Book and Heart by George Madden Martin, a pseudo of Mrs. Attwod R. Martin. The Amazon description lies, btw: the spelling bee that they make sound ( Read more... )

VividCon report will be forthcoming, but I wanted to write up a couple of book discussions while the books were still fresh in my memory.

This seemed to be the week for lesser-known books by authors of well-known books. Or something like that.

First is The Conquest of Canaan, by Booth Tarkington, better known as the author of The Magnificent ( Read more... )

Yes, I know it's only been one day since my last post, but I raced through this one, partly because I had long periods of sitting in waiting rooms today, and partly because it was just fun.

Before I begin, I want to direct you to the icon, which is the inscription found in this book (larger version here). I believe it reads "Luce - Lots of love ( Read more... )

One of the things that intrigues me about reading the old books I took from my grandmother's house is the chance to rediscover popular but forgotten writers. The first of these was EDEN Southworth, a bestselling American writer now remembered chiefly in the more obscure Women's Studies programs. This week's find is Marie Corelli, apparently the ( Read more... )

When debates about warning come around, as they always do, comparisons to pro lit seem inevitable. One side points out that books don't come with warnings, and the other points out that they do come with blurbs, and that almost no one reads a book with no more info than title and author. Interestingly enough, just as the latest warning debates ( Read more... )

I mentioned recently that I have several bookshelves worth of books from my grandmother's storage room (which means I have books from about four branches of my family). Among the second grade readers and early poems of Oliver Wendell Holmes are what I can only call potboilers: the Danielle Steel novels of their day. In fact, it's kind of ( Read more... )