Another independent gone

Olsson's, a local chain of independent bookstores, has closed its doors. I used to be a semi-regular patron of the store in Penn Quarter, back when the office was located a block away. When we moved? Eh, not so much unless I happened to be over that way for something else, usually happy hour or the theater. When Olsson's was nearby, I patronized because it was convenient to walk over on my lunch break, but their selection of fiction was light on the popular fiction and heavy on the literary fiction, and the staff was...not particularly genre friendly. I don't just mean toward genre romance but toward any genre fiction. Still, I'm sorry to see a local bookseller go under.

September's reading

The reading for this month: 19 books total; of those, 3 were DNF and 1 was a reread. Actually 19 books, while up from last month, is rather low if you consider that the bulk of those (twelve) were read on vacation, when I alternated between staring at the waves and staring at the pages.  Remove those and you are left with a measley 7 books.  Down, way down. 

The real hits for the month were...not genre romance but mystery or suspense.

1. Line of Scrimmage by Marie Force. This was not just a DNF but an F. Hated the self-centered, arrogant prick of a hero and the spineless, dumb, whiney heroine.

2. Wanderlust by Ann Aguirre. B-. This series works much better for me as straight SFF; it works least when the narrative is focused on the relationship between Jax and March, which I just don’t buy.

3. The DeSantis Marriage by Michelle Reid. D. Reid wrote an older HP that is a keeper for me, Marriage Meltdown, which addresses the seven year itch and what lack of communication can do to a marriage. In a HP! Really! But this book, eh. It needed some editing, because several sentences made absolutely no sense. The old fashioned alpha hero with punishing kisses was a flashback to 80s romance. And something that is rapidly becoming a huge pet peeve for me: husked. This is a verb only in the sense of removing the outer shell of something. When a hero “husks” in a romance novel (which they seem to do a lot of in HPs) that he wants the heroine, I imagine him gazing lustfully at a freshly steamed ear of silver corn. Yeah, tasty but not really romantic.

4. In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures by Helen Mirren. B-. Memoir of sorts. Interesting but with huge gaps and a lot of meandering tales.

5. HeartSick by Chelsea Cain. A-. Contemporary mystery/suspense. Loved this book. It reminded me vaguely of Darkly Dreaming Dexter, but only in the sense of being macabre but still fascinating.

6. Delicious by Sherry Thomas. B-. Victorian historical. I liked this book better than her debut, but I’m still not sold on this author. I love the food as romance/love theme, but was better done by Anthony Cappella in The Food of Love. By the end of the book, I was bored by the angst, the hiding as a plot mechanism, and the “intrigue” that was picked up and dropped and pretty much wasted. Felt like I was told that the h/h had loved each other forever, but it read more like sexual obsession only.

7. The Pajama Girls of Lambert Square by Rosina Lippi. B+. Contemporary. I loved that the majority of the narration was from John Dodge, who still managed to remain a bit of a cipher.

8. Sweetheart by Chelsea Cain. A-. I had to go buy a copy of this while I was on vacation because I was so impatient to read Cain’s follow up to HeartSick. My main criticism of this book is the short shrift given to the “main” mystery. But as Keishon points out, the series is all about Archie and Gretchen, so that’s to be expected. Archie and Gretchen are even more twisted that I originally thought.

9. Stealing Heaven by Elizabeth Scott. DNF. Bought a copy after reading the review over at SBTB, but I couldn’t be arsed to finish it. Which is saying something, when you consider how much reading I did while lounging on the beach.

10. My Fair Captain by J.L. Langley. C. Space regency, M/M. Talked about this book here.

11. The Ideal Wife by Mary Balogh. C. Reissued traditional regency. It was sweet, I suppose, but lost my attention because the whole conflict could’ve been resolved if the h/h had just spoken to each other honestly.

12. Silent in the Sanctuary by Deanna Raybourn. B-. Victorian mystery. I’d read this earlier in the year but never posted a review; after Ms. Raybourn won a Rita (tm to RWA) for her first “Silent” book, I re-read and posted here.

13. Shades of Dark by Linnea Sinclair. B+. SFF. This is the sequel to Gabriel’s Ghost. Ms. Sinclair is an author that I want to love, because she writes original stories, but her more recent stuff has been hit or miss for me. I enjoyed this book, as well as its prequel and Finders Keepers. Maybe this is a sign that I should keep trying with her new stuff :)

14. When Demons Walk by Patricia Briggs. B-. Fantasy. Enjoyed this book, despite the frequent "as you know, Bob" moments. I think this is a relatively early book by Briggs, and that her craft has improved.

15. Snow Blind by Lori G. Armstrong. A-. Mystery. I want to read more about Julie and Martinez, and am wondering where the series will go next, assuming that it continues. The ending could be a good stopping place, though, and I’m not sure if it will continue. But I have to admit that I read this series despite some poor copy editing and grammar. The type setting has improved since the first book, but the occasional continuity error pops up still, sometimes glaringly so. Mentioned here and here.

16. The Proposition by Kate Bridges. DNF. Canadian historical. Part of the TBR Challenge

17. The Darcys & The Bingleys by Marsha Altman. C. Very nice binding. If I pretended this book wasn’t peopled with Austen characters, it was a sweet, lovely read. But they weren’t the Darcy, Lizzie, Jane and Bingley that were introduced in P&P.

18. Queen of Babble Gets Hitched by Meg Cabot. C-. For reasons mentioned here, this book did not work for me.

19. Uneven by Anah Crow. M/M, ebook, BDSM. B. This was a very thought-provoking book for me, and I’m still mulling over some stuff that came up (but that’s TMI, frankly). Torquere’s website is horrendous, and the editing here was a little lacking, but the story itself was fascinating. Joan/SarahF’s review over at DA is much better than anything I can put together.

Supreme Court meme

From The Biochemist:

As was demonstrated in an interview with Katie Couric, Sarah Palin is unable to name any Supreme Court Case other than Roe v. Wade.

(Even in secondary schools, US history classes teach about landmark Supreme Court cases. This appalls me more than I can express.)

So. The meme: Post info about ONE Supreme Court decision, modern or historic, to your LJ to spread the fun. Any decision, as long as it's not Roe v. Wade. Or comment with one.

My response to her: Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, in which the court said that there was no inherent executive authority in the event of national emergencies; the only powers held by the executive are those enumerated in the Constitution or delegated by Congress.

Griswold v. Connecticut, in which the court established the privacy right, despite the absence of the word in the Constitution, via the penumbra of other constitutional rights.

Afterthoughts: the embarrassing cases, like Korematsu (internment camps and racial discrimination are okay!), Plessy (separate but equal), Bowers v. Hardwick (consensual sodomy is bad!), and Dred Scott.

And then: Miller v. Albright, which addresses equal protection against gender discrimination in the immigration context.  (The statute treating the natural-born children of citizen-mothers and citizen-fathers differently did not violate the Fifth Amendment because of the parental relationship and heavier burden carried by the unmarried citizen-mother.)  I disagree with the reasoning of the majority, because I think it is based on an outdated gender stereotype.  But this was the first case I ever saw argued before the Court and I remember it fondly.