Feb 24 2012
Imitation of Life (1959) Genre: Melodrama Grade: B Our reviewer John is the one who urged me to see this film. A weepy with a wardrobe for the principal star that is to die for. Though I’m not a fan of melodrama, especially the grand 1950s ones, the clothes aspect drew me in, shallow creature [...]
Feb 10 2012
Blazing Saddles (1974) Genre: Comedy/Spoof Grade: A- “He rode a blazing saddle, he wore a shining star. His job to offer battle to bad men near and far. He conquered fear and he conquered hate. He turned dark night into day. He made his blazing saddle a torch to light the way.” It’s been a [...]
Nov 16 2011
First up are deals from Avon. These books are all priced at $4.99. Some retailers aren’t reflecting all the reduced prices but within the next week or so, this should be corrected. The deals are good for US and Canada and at Amazon, BN, and Kobo. Any Man of Mine by Rachel Gibson * $4.99 [...]
Nov 1 2011
Sarah Wendell and I had a lively debate via email on the topic of inclusion or getting it right. The Mahajara’s Mistress by Susan Stephens recently reviewed at Smart Bitches features a heroine who has an eye patch due to the loss of an eye and is scarred in her face. She dresses like a [...]
Feb 9 2010
File this under “where have I been” but apparently Paramount is engaged in some egregious whitewashing in the Airbender movie. Aspiring author, Ellen Oh, writes about how whitewashing is racist. There is a site devoted to the Airbender casting fiasco (all the heroes are white and the bad guy and secondary characters are ethnic characters). [...]
Feb 2 2010
see more Lolcats and funny pictures Straight off the top of your head, do you think that authors have any ethical or moral responsibilities beyond the book? I'm guessing that the vast majority of you answered this question the same way I did for a long time, with a fully articulated, deeply resounding NO. As [...]
Dec 1 2009
Reader Karen brings this great deal to readers: I found this holiday code at Scooper Speaks blog. Today (and yesterday), all of the books on Dorchester’s site are 70% off. The promo code is Holiday70. (http://www.dorchesterpub.com/) There’s no indication on the site that the sale exists. I called their 800 number to confirm before creating [...]
Oct 27 2009
Cultural Appropriation in Romance Earlier in this year of 2009, there was a Great Cultural Appropriation Debate, dubbed racefail09, that centred mainly around the SF/F genres. If you clicked on that link, it leads to a set of many, many, many links about race, racism, cultural appropriation and white privilege. (If you’ve never heard of [...]
Feb 20 2009
Dear Ms. Pappano, One thing I’m trying to do this year is expand my reading horizons. I usually stay within my favorite genres of fantasy, paranormals, and young adult, but sometimes you need variety to keep things interesting. So when I was glancing through the eHarlequin website earlier this month, your book caught my eye [...]
May 20 2008
more cat pictures During the past couple of weeks, the Smart Bitches and Karen Scott’s blog hosted heated debates regarding the state of African American romance fiction. For the most part and with few exceptions, romance books written by African Americans are shelved with African American books. To some authors, this is a regressive trait [...]
May 8 2008
Borders, who financially might be on its last legs, is not going down without a fight. It opened a new store a few weeks ago and is now launching a new Latina book club (does the Latina instead Latino mean that the book club is just for women?) Does this mean that there will be [...]
Nov 7 2007
An article in Seattle Weekly today explores the lack of a multi cultural presence in the billion dollar romance industry. Author Edwina Martin-Arnold relates her experiences with Greater Seattle chapter of the Romance Writers of America, “I went to one [GSRWA] meeting, and it was extremely uncomfortable. It was a clique. Seattle’s local chapter is [...]
Jul 31 2007
In a high school in Jena, Louisiana, a beautiful shady tree became a symbol of the racial tension. The high school allowed the school property to be coopted by the whites and it was known as a “whites only” place for students. A black freshman decided he would like to sit there and went to [...]
Jul 30 2007
In a case of either monumental stupidity or poor judgment (or both), Intel choose to run an ad for its new Core Duo processor by showing six black men (who all look the same) in a crouched position with one Dockers clad white middle management wank in the middle. The black men are supposed to [...]
Jul 6 2007
There is an infamous vampire romance series called the Black Dagger Brotherhood penned by author, JR Ward. This series propelled Ward to top spots on the New York Times bestseller list. The series is about a race of vampires struggling for power against soulless “lessors”. It’s a full of ridiculous names: Phury, Thorment, Vishous. It [...]
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