The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde.

The Gist: Nursery Rhyme characters are real! (And so are Greek gods, and aliens.) Humpty Dumpty has a great fall and the Nursery Crimes Division, headed by DCI Jack Spratt and assisted by DI Mary Mary, is called in. Turns out Mr. Dumpty didn’t just fall. He was shot! It was murder!

Status: Read cover to cover.

Summer Escapism: A

Strength of Writing: B

Stimulation of the Little Grey Cells: B (It helps to have access to Mother Goose Rhymes as a reference. Fun!)

Social Relevance: Uh… er… OK! C+

General Reaction: You already know I love Jasper Fforde if you read my reviews of The Eyre Affair and Shades of Grey. While reading this first Nursery Crimes mystery, I often thought that Fforde was trying to hit the reader with too much weirdness. But weirdness is what Fforde is all about. The Greek gods and aliens don’t add anything to the main plot, but they do make for some great laugh-out-loud moments. Despite the gimmick-taken-to-extreme nature of the book, the mystery itself is solid, and just when you think it’s all solved, there’s the weirdest last reveal you could imagine. Priceless Fforde.

Tigers and Devils by Sean Kennedy

The Gist: Gay romance centering on the outing of a Australian Football player. Oh, and… boy meets boy, boy loses boy, boy gets boy back; the basic formula, except this time with rainbows.

Status: Read cover to cover.

Summer Escapism: B

Strength of Writing: C (You know there may be a problem when the writer has the football-crazy protagonist ask why an injured player has to travel with the team. For team support, doofus! Even I knew that.)

Stimulation of the Little Grey Cells: C (Well, it did inspire me to learn a bit about Aussie Football.)

Social Relevance: A (Lots of talk right now about gay athletes in pro sports, so, yeah, it was pretty relevant.)

General Reaction: I’ve read plenty of gay novels, but I had never read a gay romance. It’s interesting to see this variation of the classic romance formula. See if you recognize it: Protagonist is sarcastic and a loner, thinking he doesn’t need love, but he really does. Meets Mr. Wonderful. Mr. Wonderful pushes all the right buttons but seems too good to be true. Personalities clash during a crisis. Mr. Wonderful has faults! Love is slipping away. The idea of love lost puts the crisis in perspective. Love is reaffirmed. Fireworks. Happy ending.

Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear

The Gist: Mystery and terror on a generational space ship. Our narrator is awakened from a deep sleep to find himself naked and freezing inside a giant spaceship. He is having trouble recovering his memories, and some of the monstrous creatures around him want him dead.

Status: Three-quarters of the way through!

Summer Escapism: B

Strength of Writing: B (This book is turning out to be a fast read, but it takes a bit too long to really get started, despite the intriguing set-up.)

Stimulation of the Little Grey Cells: A

Social Relevance: B (Poses the intellectual, ethical and moral questions you expect from good Sci-Fi.)

General Reaction: I’ve never reviewed a Bear novel on Okie Reads, but his Blood Music is a favorite Sci-Fi classic of mine. Although I’m still reading Hull Zero Three, I can tell you that the revelations to the mystery thus far are as big, strong and provocative as you would expect from this master of the genre. Three-quarters of the way through, I’m very pleased with this book. I’ll certainly let you know if it falls apart for me in the end.

OK, that’s what I’ve been reading. What have you been reading during this late spring/early summer heat wave?

I’m almost through with a Pamela Morsi I bought, Doing Good. This novel falls under what I think of as Contempory Romance or Women’s Fiction. Strong women characters, trying to work their way out of one dilemna or another. Doing Good is about socialite Jane Lofton finding another meaning to her life after almost being killed in an automobile accident.  Her daughter, Brynn  is an absolute mess and really nasty to her Mom. Her husband is all about golf and his new girlfriend. The story is  how our selfish, dare I say self-centered, ambitious, social climbing character turns herself and her life around as she meets and responds to people as a result of her “near death” promise of “doing good”.  Doing Good is not as easy as it seems.

It’s a quick read, and I would read more Morsi after reading this one. The back cover says Morsi is a librarian, so I’m throwing my support to one of my colleagues. Nice first pick out of my truck of booksale booty.

The new release list from the Oklahoma Romance Writers of America (OKRWA), offers something for everyone and every taste.

Need a little elegant romance in your life, try Amanda McCabe’s well researched, The Shy Duchess.

Christine Rimmer, Vickie McDonough, Tina Radcliffe and Linda Goodnight bring us the sweeter side of romance. I’ve noticed (since I’m a new NOOK owner) that several of Christine’s books are available for download.

Debra Cowan has a new historical romance set in 1886 West Texas. Debra also writes romantic suspense.

And speaking of suspence,  Sharon Sala ‘s Blood Stain looks fantastic. I love the trailer, with just the music and words.

Want your Romance to be hot and steamy, with a touch of the bad boys? Check out the new titles by Jaci Burton, Myla Jackson and of course, Gena Showalter.

And very exciting, Merline Lovelace has a new Samantha Spade book I haven’t read yet called, Catch Her If You Can.

The holiday is over (and for some of us none too soon), but the Romance continues. . . .

Recently someone questioned my reading romances. Just when you think everyone has gotten past that sort of silliness. So I was talking to one of my romance reading colleagues about this and she didn’t get it either. Here’s why we think women continue to read romance (and the statistics prove it);  the women are always strong characters, they don’t settle for second best.  They usually have a good sense of humor, and interesting jobs.  The men are strong and good looking, but once caught are devoted to the one girl. (no off to Argentina with a soulmate for these guys) They are not afraid to be romantic. And we know It’s all going to work out in the end, the right girl, the right guy. Nothing wrong with Happily Ever After.  If you need unhappily ever after just turn on the television, pick up a celebrity rag or surf the net.

I do get the reality of relationships, I just like to take a break. So for those scrooges of romance,  here’s my favorite poem by Marge Piercy.

What’s That Smell in the Kitchen?

All over America women are burning dinners.
It’s lambchops in Peoria: it’s haddock
in Providence; it’s steak in Chicago:
tofu delight in Big Sur; red rice and beans in Dallas.
All over America women are burning food they’re supposed to bring with calico smile on
platters glittering like wax.
Anger sputters in her brainpan, confined but spewing out missiles of hot fat.
Carbonized despair presses like a clinker
from a barbecue against the back of her eyes.
If she wants to grill anything, it’s
her husband spitted over a slow fire.
If she wants to serve him anything it’s a dead rat with a bomb in its belly ticking like the
heart of an insomniac.
Her life is cooked and digested,
nothing but leftovers in Tupperware.
Look, she says, once I was roast duck
on your platter with parsley but now I am Spam.
Burning dinner is not incompetence but war.

What have you been reading these last dog days of summer?

Here’s what’s on my nightstand:

• Supersense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable by Bruce Hood (Beyond culture and the handing down of beliefs, Hood thinks there is something inherent in our nature that makes us believe the unbelievable.)

• The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (An adventure in an alternate world, where people really–I mean, *really*–value literature. What kind of drugs is this author taking?)

• The Great Fables Crossover by Bill Willingham. (Latest installment of maybe the best comic/graphic novel series ever!)

(If you’ve been following this blog, you may be interested to know that Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land is no longer on the nightstand!)

And what has been taking up Miss Kitty’s time?

• No Going Back by Lyndon Stacey (An ex-cop and his retired police dog solve a crime.)

• Women, Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything by Geneen Roth (It’s about our relationship with food.)

• The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe (A modern-day woman discovers she has a connection to the Salem Witch Trials.)

Plus, Kitty says she’s so fed up with this weather she’s getting ready to read a Christmas romance: Scrooge and the Single Girl by Oklahoma’s own Christine Rimmer.

OK, now it’s your turn. What have you been reading this hot, hot season?

Hmmm… with all these titles, I wonder how many categories I should tag? Let’s see…

Look at this new summer reading  bookclub for Romance readers at Smart Bitch. And I’m so excited because my library just got a copy of their first read. One Dance with a Duke by Tessa Dare.

I mean how can you pass up something with the series title, Stud Club Trilogy, Book One.

You can either taste the romances through ebooks,  paperbooks or taste the conversation with Sarah’s Lemonade; any way you want to hop into summer romance.

So while we’re on the topic of Summer Reading, Nancy Pearl did a program at the Public Library Association meeting out in Seattle this March called Book Buzz. Here’s her recommendations, you can’t go wrong with this readaholic library lady. 

It looks like the Brits get that we need a Summer of Science Fiction Reading. May 10th, wish I could have been there.

So start getting your lists ready, temperatures are rising, days are long and television reruns stink.

Stacia Kane throws many twists and turns in this book. It’s not just your standard, girl meets demon, girl makes love to demon, girl lives happier ever after. Even her minor characters, Malleus, Maleficarum and Spud, demon bodyguards are clever and endearing. Megan has to confront her own personal demons, save her lover, learn to be friends with a witch and stay true to her real self.

I’m sure you can tell I thought this was a very good debut novel. Looking forward to the next in the series, Demon Inside. My bad self borrowed this from the interlibrary loan stack of a fellow co-worker (my own personal demon made me do it) and I promised her I would get us both the next in the series.

There seems to be this controversy about the book whether it falls under Urban Fantasy or Paranormal Romance. I think we all get a little crazy with these subjective category labels. Does it really matter? I mean are there some hard and fast rules which is which. I just went to an event in Tulsa presented by nine romance writers and it seemed clear from the discussion they feel comfortable using elements of any category that work for the novel at hand. (See previous post by Young Bill Young)

Just the facts:

Author: Stacia Kane

Publisher: Juno Books

Date of Publication: 2008

Series: Megan Chase

For a complete list of other titles by Stacia Kane, go over to her website, http://www.staciakane.net/books/printable-list/

Author blog: http://www.staciakane.net/blog/

Love makes the world go around. No one knows that better than the authors and readers of Romance, one of the most popular genres of fiction. In fact, Romance is the king of the publishing world right now, outstripping sales of most other categories of books in this uncertain economy.

Many Oklahoma writers are riding this wave of success in the Romance field, and librarians and readers enjoyed a chance to meet nine of these authors at Romance in the Stacks last Thursday at Hardesty Regional Library. The event was sponsored by the Oklahoma Center for the Book.

Tulsa authors participating were Laura Marie Altom, Margaret Daley, Peggy Fielding, Jackie King, Vickie McDonough and Susan Shay. Jaci Burton of Claremore, and Jordan Dane and Malena Lott of Edmond were also on hand.

These are just a handful of the many Romance writers who call Oklahoma home. We’re lucky to have so many talented Romance scribes in the state, and Oklahoma and the rest of the nation is also blessed to have so many Romance readers. According to a New York Times article: Nielsen Bookscan, which tracks retail sales, says Romance sales were up seven percent in 2008, while most of adult fiction remained flat. Barnes and Noble, the country’s largest book chain, expects book sales to fall between four to six percent this year, but Romance sales are up.

InfoTrends, Inc. reports that 74.8 million people read at least one Romance novel in 2008, and that there is a core market of 29 million regular readers of the genre. In addition, the percent of Americans who read Romance has increased from 21.8 percent in 2005 to 24.6 percent in 2008.

The continuing and growing popularity of Romance plays out everyday in libraries according to Hardesty Regional Manager Louix Escobar-Matute. “I would estimate that one out of every three fiction books checked out at this library is a Romance novel,” Escobar-Matute said.

The fact that there are so many writers, and so many different types of Romance stories, means there are always plenty of titles to recommend to people who like a particular style or setting, Escobar-Matute said. That keeps readers coming back for more.

The genre ranges from inspirational Christian Romance, to steamy tomes, and everything in between. Settings range from the Wild West, to modern day suburbia, to historical scenes, to science fiction and fantasy worlds.

But the cental element of all of these books is the universal story of romantic love. Afterall, who doesn’t love a happy ending?

Young Bill Young, here. I’m working with the Oklahoma Center for the Book, arranging an event in Tulsa to celebrate Oklahoma’s romance writers. Obviously, we wanted to invite authors representing different genres within romance: i.e. Christian romance, romantic thrillers, historical love stories. It was interesting that our invitation list did not include any African American romance authors who call Oklahoma home.

During my search, I did come across some interesting information. For example, the incoming president of the Romance Writers of America is African American. In fact, RWA will have its second black president this decade. The news comes from Angela T and her blog, Saving Black Romance. Angela T is also a contributer to Romancing the Blog, and she offers this recent column on the marketing of African American romance novels. (Be sure and read Angela’s related posts and the comments to get a better gist of this issue.)

Love stories are universal, and they are relevant in all cultures and times. Michigan’s Beverly Jenkins (whose book “Captured” illustrates this post) specializes in African American romances set during the 19th Century — a time rife with all kinds of political, social and, er, lustful possibilities. And just think about the kinds of black romance novels that could use Oklahoma history as a backdrop, a history that includes black slaves coming to Indian Territory, the movement of black families into the Territories, the Green Corn Rebellion, the lunch counter sit-ins. No matter the times, places or situations, love finds a way.

So does this white boy want to read a steamy black romance? Maybe. I could always use a break from my sci-fi stories and geeky graphic novels. My Twitter friend Literary Nobody in Tulsa is a writer who’s always looking for different subjects and issues to address. Hey, LN: want to write us a love story?

And, of course, if you’re a black romance author in Okieland, or you know one, I’m depending on you to set me straight!