Once again I bought a book without reading the sample because it had a black woman as the heroine. I looked at the cover – which I really liked the playful, happy vibe it gave off – saw that it was a BWWM romance, read the blurb and saw that… Read more »
The Tale of the 1970s Fashion Apocalypse X is for X-Chromosomes: The Gender Binary (Part 1) – Resisting the urge to link all of Waite’s posts has been a Herculean effort. This post on gender essentialism in romance is particularly spot on. Many a romance novel mentions how the hero/heroine… Read more »
In light of recent discussions about romance lacking a literary canon and being a difficult genre for new readers to get started in, we’re attempting to compile a list of resources for readers fairly new to the genre. These are not necessarily endorsements. This is an ongoing project and obviously… Read more »
Cat in a hat. Le Sheikh C’est Chic? Not So Much! – Suleikha Snyder gets on her soapbox and lays into the sheikh romance. I’ve never been comfortable reading them and she puts her thumb right on it. Why aren’t sheikh romances tagged and shelved as interracial romances? Because, to… Read more »
The noble hound. Little Miss Crabby Pants Fires The Canon – There’s been a lot of reaction to Noah Berlatsky’s Salon article but I really liked this response from Wendy the Superlibrarian. First, no book anywhere is going to be universally loved. People being people after all. What canons should… Read more »
How to Give Dolls “Natural” Hair The genre debate: ‘Literary fiction’ is just clever marketing – Not the most coherent post, but I’d agree that genre definitions are often marketing distinctions rather than assessments of the books’ content. “Genre fiction” is a nasty phrase – when did genre turn into… Read more »
Free Speech Dear columnists, romance fiction is not your bitch – Kat Mayo is sick of all the facile dismissal of romance and tells writers that their lack of due diligence is on notice. To the surprise of no one except those who prefer not to perform a basic Google… Read more »
Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania’s diverse student body Gorgeous and Gritty: The Appeal of Gritty Romance in Skye Warren’s Wanderlust – This post by Cara McKenna is why I hate the term “gritty romance.” This book sounds like a fucking ode to rape culture. If that’s “gritty romance,” what am… Read more »
Definition of adding insult to injury… Can we talk about black women in stock photos? – Courtney Milan searches stock photo sites for women in wedding dresses that she can run through Photoshop for her book covers. When she went looking for a picture of a black woman, the results… Read more »
As many of you know, I’m an enormous hockey fan. I have cable TV only to watch hockey games. I own a Bruins “blanket with sleeves”. I’ve traveled out of state to go to away games. I’ve been made physically ill by particularly stressful games. I have a disease, and… Read more »
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