Open Thread for Readers for October 2020
Misc / Need A Rec!book-pimp / Open Thread / Promotion14 Comments
Got a book you want to talk about? Frustrated with a book or series? In love with a new one? Found a buried treasure? An issue that keeps popping up in the books you are reading? Just want to chat about stuff in general?
I want to recommend the lovely & lyrical MY CHRISTMAS NUMBER ONE by Leonie Mack. It’s the type of book that I usually wouldn’t even have looked at: illustrated cover, Christmas story (and not even December yet), and sex scenes that (if they don’t qualify as fully closed-door) could be described as door ajar. All these elements aside, MY CHRISTMAS NUMBER ONE is a beautifully-written book about two musicians from completely different worlds and cultures: the heroine’s an English singer-songwriter who had some success on the indie circuit before having a breakthrough hit; the hero’s a Colombian ex-pat living in Miami who has won a string of Latin Grammys. They are thrown together when their record label wants them to record a Christmas song. The heroine is successfully managing anxiety, panic attacks, obsessive thoughts, and wearing a prosthetic leg; the hero hides his pain and loss behind a flirtatious facade and a misleadingly upbeat persona. Mack does not otherize or fetishize either of them: they are complete individuals. And I don’t remember reading another romance with musician MCs where what music means to them and how they relate to it was so key to the storyline and so much a part of who both of them are. Highly recommended.
@DiscoDollyDeb: How accurately was the music industry portrayed? That is an important factor for me.
Recently I finished Honeytrap by Aster Glenn Gray. It has a great setup—an FBI agent and a suspected KGB agent team up to solve a mystery (the attempted assassination on Soviet premier Khrushchev during his 1959 diplomatic tour. Sirius and I both liked it and I recommend it. Review coming this Friday.
I’m now reading Megan Whalen Turner’s upcoming book, Return of the Thief. I love that series so I am in heaven.
I just finished Different Senses by Ann Somerville. She’s an author from Sweden, I think? But in this book, her characters usually have Indian names–and their honorific is “Sri”. She writes of a planet where biologically-engineered human were created to be perfect to live there–they all have red hair, blue eyes, and many if not most, have ESP. They can sense the thoughts and emotions of others. Then the dominant race, the Black folks, moved in, took all of the best pieces of land, began to treat the local indigenous population as trash, etc. Someone commented to me when I spoke of the book, that he doesn’t want to read something that blames Black folks for being as bad as white folks are these days. But that’s not the point of the book–and you are led to feel empathy for all of the characters, no matter their color. It was published as a series of short stories, and I enjoyed them all. Now it’s a book, and the last chapter is the longest–mostly because it resolves the M/M tension that runs through all of the rest of the stories. It’s got lots of suspense, and a lead male who finds out his family line isn’t as pure as they had thought, when his ESP “turns on”. He’s shunned by his own family, and loses his police detective job, because having ESP is considered to be an invasion of other people’s thoughts–but it’s a part of him now, even as he despises it in himself. How he learns to accept himself as he is now, is a big part of the stories. He becomes a private investigator, and of course, he gets clients from the indigenous population, because he’s very good at what he does–also, he’s “one of them” now. I don’t usually read mysteries—I picked this up on Smashwords because of another author’s recommendation–and I’m so glad that I did.
@Janine: I can’t really speak to the accuracy of the portrayal of the music industry because I really don’t know much about that industry irl. The industry itself doesn’t feature too prominently in the book: the record company requires the h&h to record a Christmas duet. The couple then have to film an associated video and perform together at various promotional events during the Christmas season. All the while, the Christmas record is moving up the charts. But what I think Mack does capture beautifully is how musicians process and create music and the different ways various cultures celebrate Christmas.
@Fiona McGier: I believe Ann Somerville is from Australia. I have never read her books but I’ve heard good things about them. She used to be a frequent commenter here at DA and in other Romancelandia blogs and sites.
@DiscoDollyDeb: Thanks!
@Janine: I loved Honeytrap, easily one of my favorite books of 2020. Looking forward to Sirius’ review.
@SusanS: Yeah I have loved almost everything I’ve read by AGG. Interestingly Briarley, her most popular work, is my least favorite. But even that one was a B.
I recommend Sin Eater and The Testaments. Excellent, excellent!!
@Persephone: Who is the author?
@Janine: I have been waiting and waiting for Return of the Thief. I am so excited.
@K: I know! She is a slow writer but worth waiting for. I have an interview with her running October 7th, and a joint review with Jennie as well a separate thread for discussing the spoilery stuff on the 8th.
I’m looking forward to the reissue of Pam Rosenthal’s novella “A House East of Regent Street” which has been self-pubbed and has a stupendous spiffy cover. It’s a Regency-set erotic romance with a lot of heart and soul. It’s available for pre-order now, and here’s the Amazon link:
@Janine:
Sorry, I wasn’t able to give more info when I posted that.
So, Sin Eater is by Megan Campisi and it’s about a woman in Elizabethan times who eats food that symbolically stands for people’s sins when they die. Ultimately, it’s a wonderful story of female empowerment.
And then The Testaments is the new Margaret Atwood book that returns to the world of the Handmaid’s Tale.
@Persephone: Thanks! I am not interested in the Atwood because I thought The Handmaid’s Tale had a perfect and spare ending that I don’t want to see embellished. But I’ll take a look at Sin Eater, it sounds interesting.