Overview: June Reading

Reading Overview & Genre Breakdown

Books read in June: 19
Books read YTD: 93

Fiction Titles: 

• 16 (9 contemporary romance, 5 historical romance, 1 paranormal romance, 1 romance anthology)

Non-Fiction Titles: 

• 2 (History)

Other:

• 1 Poetry

Noteworthy Novels

• The Lawrence Browne Affair by Cat Sebastian
• Small Change by Roan Parrish
• Hard Hitter by Sarina Bowen
• Famous by Jenny Holiday (Release Date: 11th July 2016)

Noteworthy Non-Fiction

• Romanov: The Last Tsarist Dynasty by Michael W. Simmons

Noteworthy Settings

• Sugar Pie Guy by Tabitha True - 1977 Cleveland
• The Chocolate Thief by Laura Florand - contemporary Paris

Kick-ass Characters

• Small Change by Roan Parrish  - Heroine Ginger is not good at letting people get close, and it's lovely to see a spiky heroine and the hero who loves her.
• The Lawrence Browne Affair by Cat Sebastian - the way the heroes were kind, caring and thoughtful to each other was absolutely my catnip.

From the Internet this Month

Romance

• Romance in the Age of the Trigger Warning: Do Readers Need to be Warned? by Robin Lovett at Heroes & Heartbreakers

Literature, Craft and the Publishing Industry

• Turning Pages: How reading is still popular in Australia despite everything by Jane Sullivan at The Sydney Morning Herald
• Thomas Keneally: 'Cultural appropriation is dangerous' by Naaman Zhou at The Guardian Australia
• Vintage Photos of Travelling Libraries by Anika Burgess at Atlas Obscura
• 11 Things You Might Not Know About Looking for Alibrandi by Jenna Guillaume at Buzzfeed Australia

Other Media

• Blackface in a white nation by Morgan Godfrey at Overland Journal - On Chris Lilley's Jonah from Tonga, with reference to both Australia and New Zealand, where Maori TV has been receiving criticism for its decision to screen the show.
• My Soul Looks Back and Wonders: A Critical Examination of the Wonder Woman Movie by Son of Baldwin on Medium
• A Brief History of Steven Moffat Saying Why He Never Picked a Female Doctor Who by Beth Elderkin at i09
• Rotten Tomatoes, Netflix and A Perfect Storm That Dooms Hollywood by Scott Mendelson at Forbes

Women & Feminism

• Why Are We So Afraid of Female Desire? by Carol Dyhouse at Literary Hub

Review: Ride Baby Ride by Vivian Arend

2 stars

Ride Baby Ride by Vivian Arend was a trope buffet: brother's best friend, amnesiac heroine and surprise pregnancy, to name the biggest three. But it's like when you arrive to the breakfast buffet 15 minutes before it closes, and are forced to make do with the one remaining crossiant, congealed baked beans and some tinned peaches, because that's all that's left. Not a particularly great combo, especially when you have to put them on a single plate, because they've started packing the dishes away. To unpack that terrible metaphor, I basically just felt like there were lots of different tropes and elements all smushed into one short novella, and they didn't have enough space to breathe. 

When Katy breaks up with her low-life boyfriend Simon, Gage Jennick - a close friend of Katy's family - decides to make his move. It's far from ideal timing - he's  just about to leave for a gig on a oil field - but they spend the night together, and promise to continue the relationship when he returns. Except that, in the meanwhile, Katy has a car accident and loses her short-term memory, forgetting her night with Gage and situation with her ex-boyfriend. When she finds out she's pregnant, both step foward and claim to be the baby's father. Katy has to fit the pieces together, but that's hard to do when Gage is determined to win her back and prove to her that he doesn't just want her, but the baby and a long-term future as well.

There was a marked lack of development of Gage and Katy's relationship. At first, Katy is trying to hold him at bay and figure things out and and then, WHAM, they're going to spend their lives together. This was - at least in part - due to the time jumps littered throughout. Those also fell victim to my pet hate when it comes to time jumps: instead of 'two months later' or similar at the top of the chapters, it says 'November', thus requiring you to remember the month named at the previous time jump. For someone with a goldfish brain like mine, this is pretty much impossible, and I ended up skim-reading the first few pages after each time jump, looking for clues - like how much Katy's pregnancy had progressed - which would allow me to establish how much time had passed. 

There was also some toxic masculinity that interfered with my enjoyment of the story, as did the gigantic suspension of disbelief required to buy the way the external conflict comes to a climax. I'm not gonna spoil that, mainly because it's just so crazysauce I wouldn't even know where to begin, but there are some Goodreads reviews that talk about it if you are interested. 

Overview: May Reading

Reading Overview & Genre Breakdown

Five months in I'm really starting to see the value of tracking my reading like this. For example, I never realised before how, in the normal run of things, I read more contemporary than historical romance, but switch to pretty much 100% historicals  as soon as my stress levels start to go up. I wonder if it has to do with the fact that historical romance - obviously - bears less resemblance to me everyday life, and therefore is more escapist? Or is it because historical romance was my first love and gateway to the genre?

Books read in May: 14
Books read YTD: 76

Fiction Titles: 

• 11 (8 historical romance, 3 contemporary romance)

Non-Fiction Titles: 

• 3 (1 memoir/social history, 2 history)

Noteworthy Novels

• Clean Breaks by Ruby Lang
• By the Hour by Roni Loren
• Unseen Attraction by K J Charles
• Seven Minutes in Heaven by Eloisa James
• A Dangerous Madness by Michelle Diener

Noteworthy Non-Fiction

• Talking to My Country by Stan Grant
• Bombing the Rainbow Warrior by Michael King

Noteworthy Settings

• The Philippines - Prep & Prejudice by Miren B. Flores

Kick-ass Characters

• Unseen Attraction by K J Charles - Neuroatypical hero & neurotypical hero unite to solve a crime threatening their home and businesses
• Clean Breaks by Ruby Lang - heroine Sarah is feeling angry and threatened due to a melanoma diagnosis and the reappearance of the hero in her life, which brings up memories of a long-ago teenage scandal.

From the Internet this Month

Romance

• Romance Isn't the Reason for Singledom by Andie J. Christopher at Heroes and Heartbreakers
• STEM Heroines in Romance: the Master List by A.J. at Lacy Literacy
• On Romance and Pre-Existing Conditions by Cat Sebastian at Open Ink Perspectives
• The #DisRom Project by Dr Ria Cheyne at The Pink Heart Society - exciting project about disability in romance novels & the romance community

Literature, Craft and the Publishing Industry

• More than the N-Word: How a 'tense' Paul Beatty interview raises bigger questions by Steph Harmon at The Guardian - On a session at the Sydney Writers' Festival, which revealed much about how Australia deals with race.
• Classic, Colonization and a Call for Change by Padma Venkatraman at Nerdy Book Club
• Tina Makereti: Stories Can Save Your Life at e-Tangata - On assembling a Maori, Pasifika and multicultural New Zealand canons of literature
• Antisemitism and The Girl Who Wouldn't Die by Katherine Locke on Medium - On a grossly antisemitic YA novel published this month
• Is "Show, Don't Tell" a Universal Truth or Colonial Relic? by Nammrata Poddar at Lithub
• What Really Happens When Women Writers Ask For More Money by Brittany Stalsburg at The Establishment

Other Media

• On Race and Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale by Max S Gordon
• The Doctor Who Episode 'Thin Ice' is a Allegory for Slavery by Liam Hogan on Medium
• 'I am sunk in lust and lechery': The History between ITV Encore's 'Harlots' by Kate at Whores of Yore

Women & Feminism

• 'Fear of the Clit': A Brief History of Medical Books Erasing Women's Genitalia by Suzannah Weiss at Broadly
• How a Frog Became the First Mainstream Pregnancy Test by Ed Yong at The Atlantic