Due to recent bestseller trends, I've been hearing a lot about all the shiny new erotica and erotic romance releases, and it always amazes me how people seem to talk about it like this is a new phenomenon. Look, we've had erotica as long as we've had writing utensils. Even the repressed Victorians had erotica. So, y'know, all this acting like ( Read more... )

You know what drives me nuts? When a book is uneven. You're reading along, and the book's made a strong start. It's engaging, you're wrapped up in the characters and the conflicts and you just can't put the thing down. Even that part of your brain that demands petty things like food and sleep shuts up, because you're so deeply trapped in this ( Read more... )

Fair warning: This is not a post about books and reading, or at least not directly. This is me getting long-winded on the subject of gender and sexuality, the way it's depicted (or the way it isn't depicted) in the media, and societal reactions. This does, of course, extend to books, but if you came here today in search of literary-specific ( Read more... )

So judging from a few recent comments, it's been long enough since I did a big full rant on my dislike of headless book covers that people have either forgotten or not had a chance to read it. The epidemic of cover models with bodies but no heads continues to spread, and continues to annoy me, so let's have it out here.

Look, I know exactly why ( Read more... )

About a month ago, I did a post about gender and cover art in the urban fantasy genre. I'm not sure it's something I can sum up in just a few words, but someone on twitter rightfully commented that my choice of language covered it all: men are in stances, women are in poses. Men are portrayed as strong, confident, and competent. Women are sexy ( Read more... )

And here it is! The very long and image-heavy post nobody asked for, but that's what you get today. But look, it took me forever to put together and hurt my back and I did it all for you, so you should at least humour me and glance over it, right? Right.

As mentioned yesterday, I took some inspiration from Jim C Hines's Striking A Pose blog ( Read more... )

Earlier today I had a conversation with a friend of mine about books, which as you can guess, happens occasionally. She was talking about how the last book she'd read made her angry and ranty, and having been known to indulge in a bit of book ranting myself, have a tendancy to encourage that sort of thing. She started with a disclaimer, though, ( Read more... )

My name is Anna, and I like to read. I read a lot of books, but the vast majority of my literary diet consists of speculative fiction and romance. And you know what? I have a pretty good grip on reality. No, reading genre fiction hasn't affected the expectations for daily life in my tiny female brain. It sounds impossible, I know, but my mind ( Read more... )

I don't think anyone's going to argue with me when I say the way something is marketed is incredibly important. When it comes to books, most of us have certain types and genres we gravitate to. It might be a broad spectrum, but the book has to appeal to us in some way before we'll pick it up. So when the book's marketing makes me think "ooh, ( Read more... )

Dear Publishers ( Read more... )