Happy TEA Week!
The only thing that can possibly annoy me this week – well, besides work, kittens who wake me up too early, two evening functions for work, mornings, work, etc, etc – is the fact that I will not technically be able to buy this book until Wed 12 Nov – stupid time zones *grumble, grumble*.
I guess this means that I’ll have to re-read MFC on Tuesday night – bummer! 🙂
At the time my younger brother was the same age as the boys in Lord of the Flies, and his name was/is Simon (one of the main characters in the story). As a 16 year old, I refused to believe that the events of the story could happen; that is, I didn’t want to believe them. I didn’t want to believe that a group of boys could behave with such savagery. I had nightmares about my brother being stranded on the island as well as the fact that such young children could lose their humanity and, in hindsight, their innocence in this kind of environment.
What made me remember Lord of the Flies was the book that I read last Friday night. This was Suzanne Collins’ YA novel The Hunger Games :
In the ruins of the place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister’s place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to death before – and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.
The Hunger Games, the first book in the series, is challenging and definitely not for the faint-hearted.
It is quite simply one of the best books I have read all year and certainly the best YA novel I have read for a long time.
It is equally as horrifying in content to the Lord of the Flies and in particular the way that the teenagers are forced to kill or be killed in a constructed environment by the Capitol’s gamekeepers; the Hunger Games being the punishment imposed upon the 12 districts subsequent to their defeat after an uprising against the central government.
It was thinking about children being forced into violent acts of survival through environment, which made me remember Lord of the Flies and my reaction to it. The similarities of both books in turn made me realise that what had changed about my response, besides my own maturity, was as a result of the context of the world in which I now live. Let’s face it – and trying not to be overly simplistic or dramatic – it’s a pretty scary world that we live in sometimes and quite frankly some of the ‘fiction’ I read which is set in the future becomes more and more conceivable every day.
Having said all this, it’s funny really, because even though I and the world around me has changed to the extent that the Lord of the Flies might be more ‘believable’ to me, I know that even after nearly 20 years there is no way in hell I could ever read it again.
Two words… ‘book pimpage’.
I said early on that I have recently discovered the blog sites of other reading addicts and how my curiosity (translation from Australian colloquialism = total lack of will power and any self control at all!) has meant that I now have lists of books that I must own/read. Well, it’s happened again… dammit!
For a while now I’ve been fighting bravely to curtail my interest in the references to Michael, Sir Pup and other characters made by the DIK Ladies and then they went and invited the author of this series to the island, didn’t they?!? Dammit!
What I did today:
+ 
= must have all the books in rest of series NOW, dammit!
I’ve said before that I’ve no intention of really getting into book reviews – mainly because I am just too damn lazy – but if you are the type who likes not-so-perfect, kick ass heroes and heroines, who do what it takes to fight the good fight then author Meljean Brooks is definitely for you!
Not really a spoiler: I definitely want a Sir Pup of my own. Not only will he bite all the people who seriously fuck me off, but I have a feeling that he will be able to keep my horrible-cute kittens in line (if he doesn’t eat them that is).
By the way, you reckon his cache is refrigerated?? Just wondering about lounging around reading and being able to ask for cold beers, wine, margaritas, etc. LOL.
I LOATHE mornings with an absolute passion. It kills me that at the moment I am having a whole lot of them because my adorable *through clenched teeth* kittens like to sit on my pillow/ bed/ me patting or licking my face to get me up to play (translation from kitten = eat).
My version of an early rising – something of which I am often accused, but these people obviously have no fucking idea – is to get up early enough before getting to work so that I have enough time to lounge around in my pjs trying to wake up slowly, drink a whole pot of black coffee trying to wake up slowly, attempt to read a book or catch up with the US blogs trying to wake up slowly, and generally potter around the house trying to wake up slowly. This is usually followed by a long, hot shower cos frankly there is no way in hell that I can face myself in the shower without having drunk a whole a pot of coffee.
So in honour of the fact that I am up so bloody early I thought I’d share a favourite scene from one of my recent reads, Lora Leigh’s Mercury’s War:
Ria shook the thought away. God, it was just too early for this.
“The beds are comfortable,” she muttered, stalking past him to the kitchen and the coffeepot she had prepared the night before.
“Yeah. They are.” His voice was cool, yet she couldn’t shake the feeling that the undercurrent she heard in it was more confusion than sleepiness.
She filled the coffeepot with water then turned back to him.
“Don’t touch the pot. Do not get your own coffee first. First cup is mine. Understood?”
His eyes narrowed, his gaze flicking from the coffee to her before he nodded cautiously. “Fine.”
“Good. I’m taking my shower. I need to go back to the office this morning.” She turned back to the bedroom.
“Why do you need to go back to the office? I thought you weren’t working on weekends.” The suspicion in his voice -hell, his voice itself- seemed to grate on her nerves.
She paused at the door.
“Don’t talk to me. Don’t question me. No comments, no nothing until I drink my coffee.” She shuddered at the effort it took to think. “Just… be invisible or something.”
The scene goes on, and needless to say that I became an insta fan of Ria’s after reading this. And how can you not love a man – Mercury – who recognises the wisdom of not bothering a woman before her morning coffee!
Well, now that I’ve had about 1/2 pot of my morning coffee, I shall attempt to do some ‘real’ work before eventually – say around 11.30am-ish – getting ready for a meeting that I have at 1pm.
The ABSOLUTE BEST thing about working for yourself = spending as much of the day as possible in your pjs!
So let’s explore examples of when this concept works – well, when I think it does anyway…
the storylines
##inspired by Lisabea – see previous post##
So when is it okay for a young man – and, yes, I am talking about m/m fiction – to become involved in a serious relationship in a story?
Is it okay when he is involved with someone his own age? Or is it the whole boy child and older man thing that some of us; myself included on occasion, have a problem with?
Three scenarios/stories for consideration~
Z A Maxfield’s Crossing Borders
Relationship: Tristan (19) and Michael (27-ish – although the cover makes him look a lot older – those damn covers again!)
K B Forrest’s Calor del Amor
Relationship: Gabriel (18) and Alejandro (late 20s/30s – old enough to be a detective)
J L Langley’s My Fair Captain
Relationship: Aiden (19) and Nate (mid 30s – and friggin’ hot with it!)
It’s a first time relationship for all of the young men and for all of them it is all-caps LOVE. There are other similarities, but what is or isn’t it about each of the books that makes us as readers think that the older/younger thing works in the story or doesn’t?
Is it the characters or development thereof, is it the plot itself or is it the personal beliefs of the reader? Perhaps it is as simple as the setting/sub-genre; that is, contemporary vs fantasy?
All I really know is that two of the books absolutely did it for me. I was totally engaged with the story and, when I finished them, I knew they wouldn’t be disappearing into the back-ups of my computer, but would be kept on my Iliad waiting to be re-read. The other… well, for me it was like reading a train wreck. Enuf said.
And for those of you thinking ‘love has no boundaries’ or some other sentimental crap – just get over it.
No, this isn’t a continuation of my last blog or even a review. I have no real intention of beginning to do ‘proper’ reviews of books, although the reviewing of reviews is very tempting indeed! (What a minefield that would be and likely to end up getting someone – namely me – lynched. *cough* That is, of course, if anyone was reading my blog to begin with. *sigh* Oh well…)
Anyway, today I want to talk about book covers.
Things I am going to take as givens:
Given 1~Whether any reader admits it or not, at some stage we have all come across a book and judged it – good or bad – by its cover. Call me a liar? Okay then how many of you have seen a book, liked the cover and turned it over to read the blurb? Ha! I rest my case.
Given 2~After reading the first chapter or two, you turn back to the front cover and think to yourself ‘isn’t he meant to be a blonde and she a redhead’ or ‘her hair is meant to be curly’ or ‘his description says he has the build of a runner not of The Rock!’ My personal experience is that historical romance book covers are the worst offenders of this. I realise that this has more to do with the publishing/marketing team than the author, but still… *gasp*… maybe they should have tried reading the book first?! Unrealistic of me, I know.
As I said, I think these are the givens. What I really want to chat about is the artwork on ebook covers in particular. Check this out:
Any clues yet as to what I might be referring to?? Besides the fact that one was published in about April and the other in October, they are from different publishers and by different artists. No? Let me give you another hint:
Now I can understand similar designs, using the same models, etc, but the exact same image?!? I can think of several covers where I’ve seen the same image 3 or more times.
The thing that most freaks me out though is when the same image is used for both m/m and m/f covers. Go on back up and take a look at those covers again. It’s just plain weird.
Now tell me this little tidbit about books doesn’t put you off from now on!
I have been thinking about the answer to this question for about a week or so now ever since I thought that I would like to discuss it in a blog.
In that week, I have read the results of the survey by Wave asking readers and authors the question ‘how do you like your m/m romance?‘ as well as a couple of interesting reviews: one by Lisabea and the second by Teddypig.
For me, these were especially thought provoking. Some of the comments had me nodding my head in agreement, and others found me fingers ready at the keyboard to take up defense. Above all else however, the blogs and the responses posted challenged me to articulate – in my own mind at least – what it was that I liked or disliked about a particular book or genre and just what was it I wanted in a ‘good’ story.
Yes, it’s the quality of the writing, the simplicity – or complexity as the case may be – of the plot, the depth of the characterisation, the point of view, the development of setting, whether the story or the people depicted in it are believable… it’s all that and much more.
I think one of the most important and exciting aspects about books is the attitude and belief system/s that the reader brings to them. This is one of the things I love about books/fiction more than any other medium is that the reading of the story is such a subjective and intensely personal experience. The fact that a book can be open to various interpretations and imaginations; sometimes in spite of what the author intended.
I guess what I am trying to say is this intangible aspect of a book; my reading of the story, is just as important to me if not more so at times than the actual writing of it.
I know when a story evokes an emotion or reaction within me – whether it be positive or negative, big or small – I have become so involved that at some level I have ‘enjoyed’ the reading of it. This makes it a good book to my mind.
Maybe this is too simplistic of me?? Who knows.
But ultimately the greatest kind of book to me is one when you get to the end, sit back and think ‘wow, I need to read that again’.
A couple of things occurred to me after posting my blog yesterday: the first is that I have no idea where I am going with this; and, the second, that if I don’t start getting strict with myself, I will (because I run my own business from home) get too distracted from work, therefore having no money to buy any books. Not really an option for me given my reading addiction 🙂
So, what to do…
I think that I will (try!) to post blogs Fri to Sun with a ‘Thought for the Week’ or something similar on Monday. As to what I will say in the blogs themselves… no idea… probably continuing my pontificating (ie ranting) re: all things books, probably sharing with everyone my top 5’s all things books, etc, etc.
Here it is then – my first ‘Thought for the Week’ (da di da dum… daahhh!) –
I think that someone (not me – I am an ‘ideas kinda girl’ – translation from Australian coloquialism = ‘lazy shit’) should do a survey about at what stage is it acceptable to let readers know when a new book is coming out:
(a) one year
(b) one month
(c) one week
(d) one day
(e) never ever – just give readers hints about WIPs and then surprise them with the exciting news that the book is being released that day – instant fan squees
FYI – This has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that many readers found out about a month ago that the second book in a certain sci fi regency m/m series was coming out in November, and when double-checked this morning – because, yay, Nov is coming up super quick – it is not coming out until the 2nd week of Nov. NOOOOOOOOOO!
Seriously, it’s not about this or about some people just being impatient bitches.
I really think both publishers and authors would find this kind of feedback useful… really I do…
… well, it will wile away the time at the very least…
Although I have only recently become a die-hard fan of the blogs of my fave authors as well as other readers, I can already tell that book pimpage is going to be a serious problem for me.
I had successfully avoided getting too crazy about having to buy every single book that I read a good review about when I got sucked in…
I am not certain if anyone else has had this kind of a moment, but for me it was Luisa Prieto’s favourite Halloween stories in octoberfest. After spending what felt like hours going through all her links to find out more about some of the stories/books that I hadn’t read, the one thought running through my head was ‘but we don’t even really celebrate Halloween in Australia!’
Clearly I was trying to grasp at anything that would save me and it worked (yeah, I know it’s pretty immature, but whatever!)… for a while… and then I read her secret vampire city. Besides being incredibly moved by her post, I became obsessed with trying to get a copy of L J Smith’s Nightworld series. On top of this, Stephanie Meyer on her website recommended a recent read called The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
Does anyone have any idea how friggin’ hard it is to get these kind of books in Perth?! *rant*
Let me give you a hint…
me (the teeny red dot)
vs
rest of the world (where the hell is that red dot??)
Beginning to get the idea??
Perth is said to be the most isolated capital city in the world and a number of us affectionately (?) refer to it as ‘wait a while’; eg,
Bookstore: you will have to wait a while to get the latest release of that author
Me: but it has already been released in the eastern states; in Sydney
Bookstore: yes, but Perth won’t be getting it for another two weeks
Me: fuck you then – I’ll order it myself from Sydney (rude, but oh so satisfying when I got it in the mail a few days later)
After failing at all local bookstores and with a list of the US print releases in my hand, I went to the most obvious place to get them – amazon. I was very excited until I found out that not only would it take 3-4 weeks to get them (on the cheapee option so that I could justify getting all 4 of the books that I wanted), but it would cost US$80 in postage. HOLY SHIT! This was triple what the books themselves cost!
Have no fear though, friends. Luckily enough I have a good (= 2yrs of spending lots of $$) relationship with Perth’s only specialist romance bookstore and was able to con/beg them to order some of the books for me, thus no shipping fees. Yay! However this was still reliant on whether the distributor/s that they buy from have the books in their catalogues.
So here I am feeling vaguely ridiculous/embarassed because of course I have had to purchase a few books (such as Ginn Hale’s Wicked Gentlemen – BTW – how glad am I that she just released an ebook via Loose Id) through amazon anyway. At least the shipping cost was not soooo much… *sigh*
And, to top it all off, I have just read Sarah’s top 13ish books on the DIK website (get it here), which means (a) I’m screwed because now I have another list and (b) I’m pissed because I wanna know how the hell she is getting books over the counter in NZ that I can’t get in Perth?! No fair!
 | Kayla on tasting ‘a note in the… |
 | Marcus Roche on maybe it’s me, but… |
 | ouaqquwcgk on my confession |
 | dkmhwgijnw on random awesomeness |
 | Kris on maybe it’s me, but… |
Kris + Books = Good. *Sometimes*. 
