Overview: October Reading

Books read in October: 23
Books read YTD: 204 (Goodread Reading Challenge completed. YAY!)

Fiction Titles: 

• 21 (12 historical romance, 8 contemporary romance, 1 paranormal romance)

Non-Fiction Titles: 

• 1 (Travel/History)

Noteworthy Novels

• Take the Lead by Alexis Daria
• Temporary by Sarina Bowen and Sarah Mayberry
• Hamilton's Battalion by Courtney Milan, Rose Lerner and Alyssa Cole
• Bountiful by Sarina Bowen
• Midnight Feast by Emma Barry and Genevieve Turner
• An Unsuitable Heir by K J Charles

Noteworthy Non-Fiction

• In the Greece of the East: A Journey through Jewish Urkraine Now and Then by Stefan Weidner

Noteworthy Settings

• Starling by Virginia Taylor - enjoyed the historic South Australian setting, but you can read my thoughts about the rest of the book here. 
• Midnight Feast by Emma Barry and Genevieve Turner - I am continually surprised by how Barry and Turner can make me buy the HEAs in this series, while at the same time showing the sexist and hypermasculine environment of the 60s. 

Kick-ass Characters

• Take the Lead by Alexis Daria - Professional dancer Gina Morales is a heroine who has set her professional boundaries, and doesn't take kindly to people who think that these are negotiable. Inspiring. 
• Hamilton's Battalion by Courtney Milan, Rose Lerner and Alyssa Cole
•  - literally every main character in this anthology deserves a mention. Just read it. 
• Bountiful by Sarina Bowen - small business owner and single mother Zara has to decide if she should take a risk and open her heart to the father of her child. 
• Midnight Feast by Emma Barry and Genevieve Turner - I'm still in awe at the authors' nuanced portrayal of a marriage gone sour, particularly their ability to imbue both characters with completely relatable and reasonable struggles, and the way that silence can become so full and heavy with preconceptions, misunderstandings and everything left unsaid. 
• An Unsuitable Heir by K J Charles - The love story and discussion about gender and sexual identity (sans 21st century terminology) between non-binary protagonist Pen and his partner, Mark were really something.

This Month on the Internet...

Please be aware that some of the links this month discuss abortion, sexual assault and rape. I have added content warnings to the articles that deal with these themes. 

Romance

• Romance Novelist Beverly Jenkins Talks Normalizing Diversity in Her Genre by Gina Mei at Shondaland
• The Ripped Bodice 2016 State of Racial Diversity in Romance Publishing Report by Bea and Lea Koch at The Ripped Bodice
• Here's How Not to Critique Romance Novels by Kelly Faircloth at Jezebel
• 11 Things the New York Times COULD Write About Romance by Robin Lovett

Other Literature, Craft and the Publishing Industry

• Why Can't We All Just Get Along: The Literature Edition at The Pantograph Punch - on racism and the legacy of colonialism in New Zealand literature
• Was Emily Bronte's Heathcliff Black? by Coleen Fowler at The Conversation
• Tudor, English and Black - and not a slave in sight by Bidisha at The Guardian

Other Media

• All the Ways that Taika Waititi Pushed for Indigenous Representation on the Thor: Ragnarok Set by Marykate Jasper at The Mary Sue

Women, Sexism and Feminism

• How a Harrowing Photo of One Woman's Death Became an Iconic Pro-Choice Symbol by Amanda Arnold at Broadly (CW: discussion of back-alley abortions)
• Why the Typewriter was a Feminist Liberation Machine at Radio National, with illustrations by Freda Chiu
• How Men Like Harvey Weinstein Implicate their Victims in their Acts by Jia Tolentino at The New Yorker (CW: sexual violence, rape)
• Bodies in Trouble: on sexual violence and the problem with hashtags by Melody Paloma at The Overland Journal (CW: sexual violence, rape)
• Stop Mentioning Your Daughters When You Denounce Harvey Weinstein by Hunter Harris at Vulture (CW: sexual violence)
• The Problem With Our "Good" Men by Sady Doyle at Elle - on progressive men, feminist "allies" and the appropriation of feminist language (CW: sexual violence)
• 
  

Weird, Wacky and Wonderful

• Buzzkill: Vibrators and the Victorians by Kate Lister at Whores of Yore - debunking the myth that Victorian doctors used proto-vibrators to treat female hysteria. 

Review: Starling by Virginia Taylor

2 stars

This is a case where my reading experience and thoughts about the book differ greatly. I read Starling obsessively over the course of a single night, caught up in the crazy-sauce plot and the plucky heroine fighting for a better future. However, even as I did so, I was aware that the whole thing was steeped in toxic masculinity and the Madonna/whore complex. If Starling had been the old-school romance it so much resembles, I probably could have given it a bit of leeway, but it's not and my rating had to reflect the fact that this is a book - published in the Year of Our Lord 2015 - with some serious unchallenged on-page misogyny. 

So, the crazysauce plot is this: Starling Smith is fired from her new job at Seymour's Emporium because her male supervisor - who doesn't believe he needs female employees - tells the owner, Alisdair Seymour, that she is "annoying the customers". However Alisdair offers her another position: posing as his wife. He's had word from his sister that she will be visiting, with a mystery woman in tow. Desperate to avoid her matchmaking, he offers Starling 40 pounds for two weeks of pretending to be his newly-wedded wife, only to have his plan misfire when it turns out that the mystery woman is Lavender, the childhood love who left him to marry another man. As Alisdair's new plan - to use Starling to make Lavender, his real wife-of-choice jealous - also unravels, he realises that neither woman is what he thought, and that he feels much more for Starling than he anticipated. 

The whole thing was set up so that the women were continually played off against one another: Lavender against Starling, but also Lavender against one of Alasdair's maids, because Lavender is your classic immoral, manipulative slut who has to steal everyone's man, even if that man is a gardener. In contrast, Starling is such a shining beacon of pure and good white womanhood she could have stepped right out of a Victorian morality tale. She's orphaned, inexplicably graceful and ladylike despite her rough upbringing, and martyrs herself in silence, declining to defend herself when Alasdair repeatedly lays false accusations at her feet. 

Taylor makes it explicitly clear that Alasdair means to let Starling "set the limits" of  their physical relationship and would never "take her" without her consent, and yet there were several scenes that bordered on rape-y. Since he believes Starling to be an ex-prostitute, there's a lot of "I could have her, she's a whore, she wouldn't stop me"-type thoughts, and times where Starling says 'no', but Alasdair takes a while to respond, or reflects afterwards that she didn't really mean it:

Her fist thumped his shoulder and she tightened her face. He leaned forward and trued to take her mouth, but she turned her head away. "Stop. Let me go."The uncaring beast angled his hips and teased partway into the woman he didn't give a shake of his head for, while outside in the hall, separated from him only by a door, his family and his beloved Lavender made their way to their respective bedrooms.  Starling gasped. Using a whisper of repressed rage, she said, "Any further and I'll charge you five sh...pounds." His eyes flitted over her face. She could see him consider. Efficiently, as though he'd judged the price too high, he buttoned his trousers. (loc. 2490)

Throughout the book, there are practically big, flashing neon signs that point out Alasdair is actually Mr. Rapey McRapeculture. He spends a ridiculous amount of time slut-shaming Starling - either mentally or to her face - and, sometime after the above excerpt, Starling even says to him resignedly "You don't understand the word 'No'. You never have. To you the word means later." (loc. 2831). He is such a catch, even excluding the way he intends to marry Lavender and make Starling his mistress. 

At this point, my rating might seem a bit incongruous, but I gave Starling 2 stars for two reasons. The first was that is was so well-written and engaging, I shamefully almost didn't care about any of this stuff until I thought it over after finishing the book. Secondly, I really enjoyed the historical Australian setting, and historical romances set in Australia are unfortunately few and far between. Despite my overwhelming hatred for him, Alasdair's connection to the Ballarat goldfields has stuck with me, and sparked a desire to read a romance set against the multicultural backdrop of the 1850s and 60s Victorian or New South Wales goldfields. If anyone knows of one, please let me know - I can only think of MG/YA novels: some of Kirsty Murray's Children of the Wind books and A Banner Bold in the My Australian Story series from my childhood, and the newer The Night they Stormed Eureka by Jackie French, and of Zana Bell's gold rush romance Fool's Gold, which I really enjoyed, but which is set on the South Island of New Zealand. 

Three on a Theme: Romance Novels for Outlander Fans

For some completely incomprehensible reason, Season 3 of Outlander is currently on a 2-week hiatus, so I thought I'd post a few Outlander-esque romance novels to get us all through this mini-drought. 

You can also use these as alternatives to actually reading the Outlander books, if you love the TV show but also don't want to directly give Diana Gabaldon your time and money, given the way she bites the romance-reading hand that feeds her. 

All three of the recommendations here are rich in history, setting, characterisation and plot. Two are set - or partially set - in Scotland, while the last incorporates the time-travel element but has an enticingly different setting. 

1. Midnight Honor by Marsha Canham

In terms of content, Midnight Honor is by far the closest to Jamie-era Outlander, as it features the Forty-Five Jacobite Rebellion (including Culloden, just in case your heart hasn't been ripped out enough already!). It's a poignant romance based on the true story of Lady Anne Moy, and her husband Angus, chief of Clan Chattan: he fought for the British, and she for the Jacobites. I suppose because it's set in the same difficult time, it has that same sense of hard-won and potentially transitory HFN/HEA as Outlander (although there is a definite HEA here, don't worry), as do the other two books in the same series, The Pride of Lions and The Blood of Roses. 

2. Highland Rebel by Judith James
Highland Rebel is set during the Glorious Revolution when the Stuart King James II was deposed in favour of his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband William. While campaigning in Scotland, English spy Jamie Sinclair marries Highland lass Catherine Drummond to keep her safe. As the Revolution unfolds, Jamie and Cat must navigate shifting political and religious alliances, as well as the finer points of their marriage. Jamie can be a bit of an alpha-hole at times, but it has the same saga-like feeling as Outlander, as well as the Scottish and Stuart elements. 

3. Beautiful Wreck by Larissa Brown
Since the previous two have adhered pretty closely to Outlander's Scottish setting, Beautiful Wreck is a bit of an outlier. But it has time-travel and a very Gothic, slow-burn vibe that I find very reminiscent of the first season of the TV show. It's set between the 22nd century, and 10th century Iceland, with the heroine being thrown back in time as she tests a machine that simulates the past. Brown conveys the harsh life and inhospitable environment faced by the early Icelandic settlers extremely well, as well as the sense of adapting to a new life. 

If anyone else has some more suggestions for Outlander-esque romances, hit me up! I'd love to hear from you. 

Overview: September Reading

Books read in September: 25
Books read YTD: 181

Fiction Titles: 

• 24 (11 historical romance, 7 contemporary romance, 5 speculative fiction romance)

Non-Fiction Titles: 

• 1 (History)

Noteworthy Novels

• Beauiful Wreck by Larrisa Brown
• A Taste of Honey by Rose Lerner
• Heart of the Steal by Avon Gale and Roan Parrish
• A Queen from the North by Erin McRae and Racheline Maltese
• Snowspelled by Stephanie Burgis

Noteworthy Settings

• Beauiful Wreck by Larrisa Brown - this does double duty with cool settings. First is an futuristic Earth, where people are grouped by which era of the past they choose to emulate. Then the heroine is accidently sent back in time to 10th century Iceland, where the weather and isolation make for hard living. The whole thing feels wonderfully Gothic. 
• Deep Diving by Cate Ellink - short, cute story about two professional athletes who meet while on holiday on Australia's Lord Howe Island. 
• A Queen from the North by Erin McRae and Racheline Maltese - Set in a alternate England where the Yorkist/Lancastrian enmity of the War of the Roses continues into the present day. A young woman of the Yorkist nobility is given the opportunity to marry the Prince of Wales (although I'm not sure that title still holds) and thus improve the lives of Northerners. There were some elements of worldbuilding that I questioned, or that didn't quite work for me, but it was fun and inventive nonetheless.
• Snowspelled by Stephanie Burgis - Another alternate England this time based on the premise that Boudicea fought off the Romans and established a world in which women deal with politics, and men with magic.

Kick-ass Characters

• A Taste of Honey by Rose Lerner - I've consistently loved the way this series shines a spotlight on the lives of Regency-era middle and lower classes, but Betsy and Robert struck a particular chord. They had very different ways of approaching everyday business concerns, and watching them figure this - and each other - out both charming and poignant. 
• Snowspelled by Stephanie Burgis - After losing her magic in an attempt to prove herself worthy, Cassandra is adrift, but by no means powerless.

From the Internet this Month

Romance

• The New York Times Book Review Looks at Romance by Sarah at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books
• Welcome to the Romance Resistance by Rachel Kramer Bussel at Salon
• The Lack of Black Characters in Time-Travel Romance by Jessica Pryde at BookRiot
• All the Dumb Things You Can Say About Romance Novels, In One Convenient Place by Ron Hogan

Other Literature, Craft and the Publishing Industry

• My Absolute Misogyny: Male Authors Are Still Profiting From Women's Pain by S. E. Smith at Bitch Media
• 25 Aussie YA Books That Influenced Every '00s Teen by Isha Bassi at Buzzfeed Australia

Other Media

• What To Do When Nazis Are Obsessed With Your Field by David M. Perry at Pacific Standard - on Neo-Nazi fetishism of the medieval era, and how scholars must contrdict the narrative of the white, utopian Middle Ages

Women & Feminism

• Women Aren't Nags - We're Just Fed Up by Gemma Hartley at Harper's Bazaar - on household chores and emotional labour
• Inside the Death Positive Movement by Christine Colby at Bust Magazine - looks at dying and mortality through a feminist lens, and the movement that has developed around this. 

Weird, Wacky and Wonderful

• The Mystery of the Lost Roman Herb by Zaria Gorvett at BBC