What else are you reading? (June 2010 - May 2013) *closed* Showing 2,551-2,600 of 13,523

[Sylvia]

Lauraadriana wrote: "Cleon wrote:Cleon Lee (CleonLee) | 214 comments Guys & gals, walk No... RUN to read this marvelous fic:



Cleon! if one of the BEST things I've read this year...."

I'd love to read the PDF-file, sounds like a great story. Can you send it to me? Sylvia.Pietersma@gmail.com

[Becky]

Lauraadriana wrote: "Cleon wrote:Cleon Lee (CleonLee) | 214 comments Guys & gals, walk No... RUN to read this marvelous fic:



Cleon! if one of the BEST things I've read this year...."

OMG-- I spent the afternoon reading this, and it's fantastic! The ending is a little cliche, but the relationship between Kevin and Dani is amazing. At the end I totally buy that it's 16 years later and they're still together. Must go pimp this to everyone I know now.

[Merith]

Lauraadriana wrote: "Cleon wrote:Cleon Lee (CleonLee) | 214 comments Guys & gals, walk No... RUN to read this marvelous fic:



Cleon! if one of the BEST things I've read this year...."

If you have it in PDF, so much the better! Please, share? merith@cox.net

[Calathea]

Merith wrote: "If you have it in PDF, so much the better! Please, share? "

There is this wonderful tool 'Story Master', that allows you to download (or, more precise, send per e-mail) whole stories from fanfiction. net or fictionpress. com in a number of formats.
klick here

[Cleon Lee]

Dropped the first book for judging after 30 pages, will pick up later after I swallow my disbelief upon reading professing love less than 24 hours after 1st meeting. At least the book can stand on its own.

Picked up second book. Sex scene from 1st sentence on, and with dirty talk too. Set aside for later.

The 3rd book, the book I am currently reading, is apparently 3rd in the series. Thrown into the middle of nowhere and struggling to make sense of it. Well, apparently it's part of a storyline where guys were raped & videotaped by a gang of people. Ouch! Sounds like no fun read in the future. Will read more tomorrow, that's all I can take for today.

Not good guys, not good at all. How can I score these books if I don't want to read them past first few pages? sigh...

[Anne]

Cleon wrote: "Dropped the first book for judging after 30 pages, will pick up later after I swallow my disbelief upon reading professing love less than 24 hours after 1st meeting. At least the book can stand on ..."

Ugh.

[Jordan]

That's soooooo not realistic. Oiy. Good luck getting through it!

[Merith]

Cleon wrote: "Dropped the first book for judging after 30 pages, will pick up later after I swallow my disbelief upon reading professing love less than 24 hours after 1st meeting. At least the book can stand on ..."

Good luck, hon. :) I've only read 1 of my 1st three so far and while it had some unbelievable parts in it, it is good and I did enjoy it immensely.

[[deleted user]]

Calathea wrote: "Merith wrote: "If you have it in PDF, so much the better! Please, share? "

There is this wonderful tool 'Story Master', that allows you to download (or, more precise, send per e-mail) whole storie..."

Tried storymaster and worked LIKE A CHARM!! Thanks so much Calathea!

[ns]

Monday night reading: Ben Monopoli's Cranberry Hush.

I accidentally hit upon a review of this book on GR and it mentioned the fact that a MC had synesthesia. Well, I promptly stopped reading the review and shot off like a nuclear rocket to read the book, naturally.

Unfortunately, it turned out to be the other MC (not the PoV), and it was little more than a minor prop to explain the title and color in the MC. There really was no exploring of this at all. No fictional Born on a Blue Day here, sadly.

Vince is a comic book store manager and Griffin is currently living off his inheritance, and a little (ok, a lot) lost after his college days. These aren't Type A folks, ambitious and driven. Vince dithers about asking his current (tenuous) love interest (and subordinate employee) Zane to come over for cocoa. Griffin seems excessively child-like in his bewilderment over life and its purpose. It's sweet bordering on rather pathetic.

It was well-written enough that I felt interested in what was going to happen to these characters, however I felt about them.

Back when I first started reading M/M, a whole 3 months ago, it felt like every second story was a boy + school/college roommate / first crush reunion story, and the first was charming, the 35th, assuredly less so. I wondered at first if all the gay lovelorn in the country were exercising their romantic right to wish fulfillment at the time. Now I know better.

Cranberry Hush is slow paced, engaging. A well written novel that takes a break from all the self-indulgent "gay all along", or "gay for me" tropes. That's refreshing.

However, I couldn't help rolling my eyes at the eventual tack the book takes. Soulmates, best friends, what's in a name, right? It still doesn't get very far away from self-indulgent wish fulfillment. You'll have to decide for yourself.

I hate talking about a book without being able to get into anything that might be a spoiler here (I might have already said too much).

The only reason I'm even writing this is to clear up any confusion that this book is about synesthesia.

I should have written my comments after my reading of the book, perhaps, because I might have been a bit more enthusiastic, but it was 2am. This is why I don't write book reviews (how do people get the TIME?).

My impression of this book is severely colored by the book I read in the intervening 20 or so hours, namely JCP's Hemovore, which renders Cranberry Hush rather insipid and shallow in comparison, twenty hours on. When I finished Hush, I was certainly thinking, "ok, not bad, quite sweet." I can't summon up even that level of enthusiasm, post-Hemovore.

This is why I don't rarely write reviews.

[Cheryl]

Charming wrote: "Agreed, and it really illuminates Crash's abilities and attitudes too. "

I think Crash threw his psych test and we'll find out he's a little higher than a strong level one, which is, I believe, what we're told. I love seeing the softer side of him and I really hope she writes more of him. I also hope she hooks him up with someone who likes to clean because reading about his apartment gives me the willies, and I'm not a neat freak by any means.

[ns]

Tuesday night reading: JCP's Hemovore

Hemovore, good grief, where does one start with this? I was expecting another Psycops-type party, all oddball characters and fun doings. Or perhaps a softer, sweeter story like Sympathy. What I got was a bomb exploding inside me.

My experience of reading the book was of having my insides blow up all over the place, of watching the fragments of my entrails fall slowly to the floor, stick to the walls, in slow motion, with shock and a soundless blast zone rocking me to my core every couple of pages.

Set in a world where the HHV virus is rampant, with survival rates low, there is much that's a parallel to the specter of AIDS in its infancy. Abraham Verghese in My Own Country writes very movingly of the disease in the bible belt, in its early days, before we knew all we know about the dreaded disease. Echoes abound of the plight of families, loved ones unable to touch each other, the hate and the isolation, the fear -- all so very heart-breaking, and effortlessly captured by Hemovore.

Jonathan is an HHV-positive vampire making a successful living as a painter, Mark is his assistant, ordinary, 40ish, tall and refreshingly out of shape and flabby (a rare occurrence in the m/m world). They spend most of the book on the run from the law, from a formidable enemy, from their desire for each other.

There's a moving moment of profound sadness when the protagonists get to share a bed -- cleaved in half by a plastic curtain to prevent the infection of one partner by the other. That's life, in HHV world.

How to explain to such a culturally different audience the intense significance of not being able to touch? Having grown up in a culture where I had relatives who weren't allowed to touch me on certain days, who endured various purification baths several times a day in order to simply do household things, it's impossible to explain this giant hate, this giant fear, this seizing up of the lungs and arteries in painful flashbacks at hateful things, hateful things. I think that was my solar plexus, there on the floor bleeding at that curtain scene.

Hemovore achieves grandiose themes, whether the author intended them or not. In places it felt intense and dystopian, all Atwood in Handmaid's Tale, and in others so very Midnight Cowboy and Ellison in "I have no mouth and I must scream" in its despairing intensity. Yes, much of this experience is my own baggage that I brought to bear on it. You will likely not feel anything remotely like this.

Her prose is the tightest, cleanest that I've read in a long time, and I'm hard pressed to recall many books in any genre as cleanly written. JCP doesn't necessarily grace it with the lovely, lyrical flourishes a la Harper Fox and Tamara Allen, but it was simply lovely, melodically speaking. There have been very few books that have kept up a consistent gorgeous rhythm to their sentences that make my brain rush like this did.

And I don't normally think of her as having emotionally deep and moving dialogue (brilliant though she is at so many other facets of writing), but here she is Lanyonesque:

Jonathan is in desparate need of blood, but he's never resorted to having the human variety. It feels undignified, to him, sleazy. Mark has to pursuade him to take his blood (via injection, of course) in order to survive:

"Look. If there were no vampire virus and no HIV," I said, my voice pitched low, and I met you at a club, and we talked and danced and had a few drinks and ended up slipping away somewhere private so I could suck you off..." I watched his eyes go wide. "...I'd swallow." Jonathan blinked and then closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. "You don't play fair."

Ah, love. Love means you're never undignified, doesn't it? What an upside down world. I think that was my right ventricle getting lacerated on the floor, right there.

Arrrrgh. This is already too long and ridiculous a post as it is, and I haven't even touched on a quarter of the electricity that's still rattling around in my head about this book. How does one stop this train once it's been fired up like this?

This is why I don't rarely write reviews.

[Cleon Lee]

ns wrote: "Tuesday night reading: JCP's Hemovore

Hemovore, good grief, where does one start with this? I was expecting another Psycops-type party, all oddball characters and fun doings. Or perhaps a softer, ..."

I always always LOVE your review, even if sometimes we have different taste or opinion. Please don't stop writing them.

*adds Hemovore to the to-buy list* My credit card is weeping, I tell you! Weeping bloody tears, pun intended!

[Murphy]

I loved Hemovore, also. I wish she would write a sequel. I really enjoyed the whole story.

[Anne]

ns wrote: "Monday night reading: Ben Monopoli's Cranberry Hush.

I accidentally hit upon a review of this book on GR and it mentioned the fact that a MC had synesthesia. Well, I promptly stopped reading the r..."

I'm not familiar with Born on a Blue Day. What's the interest in synesthesia for you?

I wondered at first if all the gay lovelorn in the country were exercising their romantic right to wish fulfillment at the time.

What is it about revisiting that first love? I'd never want to hook up with my first (through fourth) love(s). I have characters that do, though.

[Merith]

Cleon wrote: "My credit card is weeping, I tell you! Weeping bloody tears, pun intended! "

Mine gave up a long time ago and inserted a direct link to all my favorite m/m ebook sellers. ;)

[Merith]

ns wrote: "Tuesday night reading: JCP's Hemovore

Hemovore, good grief, where does one start with this? I was expecting another Psycops-type party, all oddball characters and fun doings. Or perhaps a softer, ..."

Wow, it's been a couple of years, but I don't think I had that strong a reaction to the story. But, I do remember some pretty strong emotions. It also struck me as a parallel in events with the spread of AIDS. Mark and Johnathan make wonderful protagonists, sympathetic and charming in different ways, but oh so flawed. JCP writes nifty tales with dark themes and, despite the paranormal aspects, believable ones.

[Anne]

So, I finished The Girl For Me at 2am this morning. The Husband came home from a business trip at 11 last night and I was like, "Oh, hi. How was your trip? That's too bad. Shh, I'm reading."

It was really engrossing, and I loved the way the subject was approached. One of those books where I actually learned something (in spite of all my attempts to the contrary).

OTOH, there were some plot points that I just found surreal, and the ending was shaky. Not bad, just a little shaky.

But wow, the way the characters and story were revealed through dialogue was great. Overall, I approach "Loved it" on this one.

ETA: For anyone reading the other thread, it's possible the Husband won't miss me if I electrocute myself with the e-reader in the tub if I continue to tell him to shut up so I can read. There's hope!

[Merith]

Anne wrote: "So, I finished The Girl For Me at 2am this morning. The Husband came home from a business trip at 11 last night and I was like, "Oh, hi. How was your trip? That's too bad. Shh, I..."

I can honestly say that was one of the best TG stories I have ever read, and I've read a lot of them. It was very sweet, but had that 'real' feel (if at times it broke itself.)

[ns]

Cleon wrote: "I always always LOVE your review, even if sometimes we have different taste or opinion. Please don't stop writing them."

Cleon, you are extraordinarily kind, thank you!

[ns]

Anne wrote: "I'm not familiar with Born on a Blue Day. What's the interest in synesthesia for you?

Born on a Blue Day is the autobiographical account of Daniel Tammet, a gay man who is a synesthesia sufferer - and a savant of many talents. His story - a real life Rain Man, if you will, is truly remarkable. It's especially fascinating if you are at all interested in the working of the human brain, human intelligence, memory, and various other related subjects (extremely fascinating to me on many levels, science and personal). Recommended reading for anyone who has an autistic child, as well, or knows someone who is.

"What is it about revisiting that first love? I'd never want to hook up with my first (through fourth) love(s). I have characters that do, though."

Which begs the question: "Why?" I should be asking YOU! :)

[ns]

Wednesday night reading: JCP's Striking Sparks.

A *lot* of people have raved about Striking Sparks. And, for that matter, I've raved within the last 24 hours about the Magnificent Ms Price. So what could go wrong, right?

Sigh. I'm going to be in a minuscule minority here, I know, but it wasn't really to my taste at all. I dig her talent. She has a way with words. It was well written. But it was one long sex scene.

This was all lust, all heat. No love, no heart. I was sort of left cold and alone and an embarrassed third wheel getting in their way. I wanted to walk outside and sit by myself on the sidewalk, despite the drizzle. Sizzling seduction...Qu'est-ce que c'est? Je ne sais pas. Je ne sais pas.

[ns]

Thursday night reading: Elizabeth Bishop's Complete Poems.

OK, it's not m/m. It's not even fiction. But I saw her on a list of America's 50 greatest poets a while ago at GR, and had to rectify the fact that I hadn't even read her.

So, somewhat appropos for this list, I hope you agree:

"Casabianca:

Love's that boy stood on the burning deck
trying to recite "The boy stood on
the burning deck." Love's the son
stood stammering elocution
while the poor ship in flames went down.

Love's the obstinate boy, the ship,
even the swimming sailors, who
would like a schoolroom platform, too
or an excuse to stay
on deck. And love's the burning boy."

Qu'est-ce que c'est? Love.

Je veux...Je veux...

[Cleon Lee]

ns wrote: "Wednesday night reading: JCP's Striking Sparks.

A *lot* of people have raved about Striking Sparks. And, for that matter, I've raved within the last 24 hours about the Magnificent Ms Price. So wha..."

Thanks for the info, ns! I'm gonna skip this one. Sex without love or at least affection, is not my cup of tea either.

[Cheryl]

ns,

I'm sorry you didn't like Striking Sparks. I love the way JCP writes sex scenes, so I didn't mind the "one long sex scene" aspect. Given that one of the characters was so severely closeted and unsure of his sexuality, I don't think there was much room for emotional bonding. I did get the feeling the Crash wanted to be more affectionate to Andrew, but Andrew just wasn't into that, for whatever reason. And the parts where Crash was being a little softer than his usual brash, assholish self just had me melting. Anywhoo, if you didn't like this one, absolutely do not read Many Happy Returns. It's another of Crash's flings, and there is absolutely no emotion in it at all, just a quickie sex scene, and where Striking Sparks seemed more like a fantasy/wish fulfillment/coming out moment for Andrew, Returns left me feeling lonely and maybe even a little bit used.

[Jordan]

I have to agree with Many Happy Returns. It was one long sex scene. Well written, but not my style. I know I read Striking Sparks, but off hand, I can't remember what happened so I can't comment on that one specifically. For some reason, Returns just got stuck in my brain. But, it was still well written, and just like something Crash would do. For those who enjoy that kind of thing, it's perfect. And not everyone does, but there are enough people out there who do to warrent writing it if you like writing that sort of thing.

[[deleted user]]

Read last night and ABSOLUTELY loved it, it was perfect little book. Great comedy and the MCs were just so right for each other, they were a delight to read.

Started this morning :O)

[Cleon Lee]

Read by Rick R. Reed. Remember Josh's words about grim realities & gay authors in general? Well, it shows here. I still like it, but it's depressing as hell.

[Jordan]

Cleon, that means I might like it! lol. I'll have to check it out.

[Anne]

Merith wrote: "Anne wrote: "So, I finished The Girl For Me at 2am this morning. The Husband came home from a business trip at 11 last night and I was like, "Oh, hi. How was your trip? That's too..."

Merith, I would love recommendations for TG stories.

[Cleon Lee]

Jordan S. wrote: "Cleon, that means I might like it! lol. I'll have to check it out."

It's only 0.99 $ on ARe and counts to your purchasing credit. :D

[Anne]

ns wrote: "Anne wrote: "I'm not familiar with Born on a Blue Day. What's the interest in synesthesia for you?

Born on a Blue Day is the autobiographical account of Daniel Tammet, a gay man who is a synesthes..."

I know quite a few kids with synesthesia (common in the int'l adoption community), and I think I'll be adding the book to my list.

"What is it about revisiting that first love? I'd never want to hook up with my first (through fourth) love(s). I have characters that do, though."

Which begs the question: "Why?" I should be asking YOU! :)

If I knew, I would tell you, I swear. Something about the idea of it, regardless of the reality. God knows I'm not writing about reality.

[Anne]

ns wrote: "Wednesday night reading: JCP's Striking Sparks.

A *lot* of people have raved about Striking Sparks. And, for that matter, I've raved within the last 24 hours about the Magnificent Ms Price. So wha..."

Seduction and sex without the emotional component? Meh.

[[deleted user]]

Anne wrote: "Merith wrote: "Anne wrote: "So, I finished The Girl For Me at 2am this morning. The Husband came home from a business trip at 11 last night and I was like, "Oh, hi. How was your tr..."

This is one of the best stories I've read just perfect! These are great too if you like teenage angsty stuff Just Friends Just Hit Send The Introspective Debate of Owen Brody

[Anne]

Lauraadriana wrote: "Anne wrote: "Merith wrote: "Anne wrote: "So, I finished The Girl For Me at 2am this morning. The Husband came home from a business trip at 11 last night and I was like, "Oh, hi. Ho..."

Thanks!

[[deleted user]]

Anne wrote: "Lauraadriana wrote: "Anne wrote: "Merith wrote: "Anne wrote: "So, I finished The Girl For Me at 2am this morning. The Husband came home from a business trip at 11 last night and I w..."

let me know if you like them I've got TONS more :O)

[Anne]

Okay, I might know what it is about the first love thing. Does anyone remember what you thought love was going to be like before you found it? I think the fantasy of getting it right the first time, of having that pubescent fantasy of love turn out to be real and you find the perfect soul-mate and stay together forever is almost irresistibly alluring.

God knows, in reality, I wouldn't want it that way, because a.) I wasn't really in love with the, um, jerkwad, and b.) think of all the fun I would have missed.

The best fantasy, IMHO, is when you had the unrequited love in high school, and you get that second chance. And, of course, he's still THE ONE *heavenly chorus*.

[ns]

Cheryl wrote: "Given that one of the characters was so severely closeted and unsure of his sexuality, I don't think there was much room for emotional bonding.

Agreed. Crash was someone I was somewhat emotionally invested in and curious about, however. I didn't feel I knew him at all. Why did he seduce Andrew, for instance?

o Did he see him, like his looks, feel any attraction?
o Did he have some moment of clairvoyance? Was this some significant act of fate where he alters Andrew's life?
o Did he just want to get laid, and Andrew happened to be there?

We get no insight into Crash's motivations. He remains a mysterious stranger to us. We learn nothing from Andrew, either, from whose point of view the story is told.

I feel I have a clearer picture of Andrew in my head -- closeted, weak, struggling to suppress what he wants. I say that charitably, because he offers no real resistance whatsoever, does he? Seeing the opportunity to acquire some mental video porn for himself, something he'd have access to whenever he wanted and wouldn't have to hide --how sad is that?

I didn't get the feeling this was a seminal moment in Andrew's life, a facing-reality, coming-out kind of life-changing moment. I got the feeling he was going to walk out that door, get married and spend his life in sad, suppressed, closeted indifference.

With a name like Crash, you'd expect something more impactful to happen, wouldn't you? :). When two objects collide, they exchange energy (momentum). The displacement from their original trajectories is a function of, among other things, the shallowness of the angle of incidence. This was no head-on collision, clearly. No derailment to speak of. Just a shallow tangential vector. The perfect metaphor, eh? Leave it to Newtonian physics to provide us answers, as usual.

if you didn't like this one, absolutely do not read Many Happy Returns.

Ah, thanks for the tip!

[ns]

Anne wrote: "God knows, in reality, I wouldn't want it that way, because a.) I wasn't really in love with the, um, jerkwad, and b.) think of all the fun I would have missed.

Chuckle...less than perfect, was our laddie? :)

The best fantasy, IMHO, is when you had the unrequited love in high school, and you get that second chance. And, of course, he's still THE ONE *heavenly chorus*."

The heavenly chorus of ringing cash registers certainly supports that theory!

[Becky]

I've been in a weird mood the last couple of days, so I've been rereading for comfort instead of anything new. And apparently nothing says comfort to my weirdo brain like reading series books out of order. First I reread Strawberries for Dessert, then Promises, then The Dark Tide, and now I'm reading Death of a Pirate King. I don't plan to read The Hell You Say-- I'm either too depressed or not depressed enough, one of the two. But depending on how I'm feeling tomorrow I may reread A Dangerous Thing.

[Cheryl]

I think Crash's motivation was a mixture of all three, and we already know he is a slut. Maybe "coming out" was a poor choice of words, more like acknowledging that side of himself and finally going with it instead of suppressing it. He might have seen it as a once in a lifetime opportunity, his last chance to be with another man before his wedding, which I feel had snowballed around him (as weddings often do) until he felt that he couldn't back out. Or maybe the encounter opened his mind to possibilities beyond marriage. I guess we'll never know. I actually felt quite sympathetic toward him and wondered what happened after his encounter. So I did feel it was a seminal moment for him, but I agree that he probably did go on to get unhappily married. I found it ironic that he wanted to see the fortune teller so badly when Crash was the one who really held the answer for him. I think JCP could have worked this into a bigger story if she had wanted to, but I still really enjoyed it for what it is. I kind of want a follow up, but i don't see Andrew as being ready to come out anytime soon, and Crash values honesty too highly to get too deeply involved in that level of self-deception. So while I really really really enjoyed it for the porn aspect, I also thought she packed a lot of tension, pathos and potentialities into a short story. The shorts about Crash also get me thinking how awesome sex must be for him as an empath, and how things must happen on a different level for him than for regular people. It kind of explains his promiscuity a bit, at least to me.

Anyway, I still feel bad for recommending something you didn't enjoy. Does anyone else stress over their recommendations?

[Cheryl]

Becky, I often re-read a series out of order. I already know the whole story, so it can be fun to go back and look at things from a knowing perspective. Sometimes I just read my favorite part of a series and then when that is finished I go on to my next favorite, then the next favorite, and so on to try to satisfy my craving for whatever it is I love about the series.

[ns]

Cheryl wrote: "Anyway, I still feel bad for recommending something you didn't enjoy. Does anyone else stress over their recommendations? "

Good grief!!! You should absolutely on no account feel ANY guilt about that at all!!

Firstly, for what it's worth, I almost certainly would have read it anyway, I had already bought it (JCP is an auto-buy).

Secondly, by the time I did read it, about 20 odd people had raved about it all over GR and Amazon (the only two places I go). It was certainly not just YOU!

Thirdly, I read stuff I don't like ALL the time :). I'm a book slut :). I bought and READ 100 books in January, and 82 in February, 61 in March, and liked about a grand total of 15% of them. Yeah, that was all by my lonesome self.

And noone, noone, noone in the Universe predicts and recommends winners ALL the time. It feels like every time I say something nice about a book someone comes back and tells me they HATED it. It's in the book recommender's code, apparently.

So thanks for pointing me to it, not that I was paying very close attention :). Seriously, I appreciate ALL the book recommendations I get. Whether they turn out to be books I like or not. Don't let my negative reviews fool you, I enjoy myself, regardless. Really.

So DON'T STOP with the BOOK TIPS!!

[ns]

Cheryl wrote: "The shorts about Crash also get me thinking how awesome sex must be for him as an empath"

This is a truly great, truly CLASSIC line, btw. An m/m reader to the core...It had me rolling... :)

[Cheryl]

I didn't really think you were reading it solely on my recommendation (that makes me super nervous), but I'm glad to hear you had already purchased it. I can't help fretting about book recommendations. I recently started a new job, and one of my coworkers was making a general request for book recs and I practically hid behind a table, I was so afraid of making a bad book recommendation my second week on the job.

I'm currently re-reading The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby, which I enjoyed more than his fiction. It's basically a monthly diary of his reading experiences, with lists of books bought vs. books read, mini reviews, and even a few excerpts. His writing is very approachable and engaging, and the books are incredibly varied, everything from classics to genre fiction to sports memoirs. At one point he actually had me wanting to read a book about soccer.

[Cheryl]

ns wrote: "Cheryl wrote: "The shorts about Crash also get me thinking how awesome sex must be for him as an empath"

This is a truly great, truly CLASSIC line, btw. An m/m reader to the core...It had me rolli..."

I think that might one of the reasons we don't get anything from Crash's point of view. One sex scene and we'd all be overwhelmed and faint dead away. Damn, I hate when I'm jealous of make believe people!

[ns]

Cheryl wrote: "I'm currently re-reading The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby, which I enjoyed more than his fiction."

Oh, I love Nick Hornsby! I've read quite a lot of him, but not The Polysyllabic Spree, actually. I'll take a look! I shouldn't admit to this, but I've actually read several books about baseball. Soccer couldn't possibly be more [CRITICAL ADJECTIVES REDACTED]...

[Jordan]

Cheryl, OMFG, ROTFL!!!! You've got a good point there about all of us fainting away if there was ever a story from Crash's pov involving sex. Now I'm wondering what it would be like from his pov, and I'm not quite sure I want to know! lol.

We do need to take into consideration that these are short stories after all. I mean, mega short. And even when they seem to be mostly full of sex with Crash, they still pack a punch. JCP is an auto-buy for me too, and she writes so well that even shorts like that will get read by me. I can at least get a good laugh out of Many Happy Returns, even while I'm blushing red, because I can't believe Crash did that, while knowing full well that he WOULD do that. As long as I'm not getting a whole novel that's all sex and no plot, I can be ok with it. Besides, my curiosity would bug the heck out of me until I read it, even if someone told me all it contained was sex. I mean, he's a character I know well, in a series I love, otherwise I wouldn't bother. But yeah, that's just me.

Becky, I always reread books for comfort. (or even my favorite old fanfic) Even just my favorite parts of specific books. In the M/M genre, that seems to be Slave Boy that gets picked most. The scene in the beginning when Haven saves Wren from his life as a sex slave is always a comforting read, as is the totally awesome romantic ending!

I just finished two non-M/M books: A Dog Named Slugger (Awesome book, yet a tear jerker at the end when the dog dies... why do my parents keep buying me books for Christmas where I ball my eyes out at the end?) and My Invisible Boyfriend. The second one is a YA novel about a girl who invents an invisible BF to feel like she belongs with her friends who have all shacked up with each other. The funny thing that I found though, was that of all the couples that started out together, the only couple to stay together, and even grow as a couple was the single gay couple. And man, they were soooo cute and adorable together! lol. And yeah, the girl gets the right boy in the end, of course.

So, now I've got about three days until Three Wrong Turns shows up and I have yet to pick a book to fill that time. But, the fifty still on my coffee table leave me with plenty to choose from! Aside from the one I'm supposed to be writing too!

[Anne]

ns wrote: "Anne wrote: "The best fantasy, IMHO, is when you had the unrequited love in high school, and you get that second chance. And, of course, he's still THE ONE *heavenly chorus*."

The heavenly chorus of ringing cash registers certainly supports that theory! "

One can hope. :)

[Cleon Lee]

On the road the whole day and used this time to finish . Simply amazing story set in an obscure Indian tribe in 1910. Beautiful language, characterization, Indian spirituality, and use of Indian mythology. Helki's devotion to Igashu is so palpable, although Igashu had his doubts. He truly loved Helki, but he felt reluctant to choose Helki because his sense of duty and his desire to be a warrior.

This is truly a romance set in other culture that is so poignant without even a single kissing scene or sex scene. A must read for everyone who is bored with the same setting over and over again.

Warning though, the way it is written feels like the telling of an Indian folktale at times. The author tried to stay true to the way an Indian feels or thinks, so some readers might find it difficult to relate to the characters at times.