Candidates for Next Month's Read Showing 801-850 of 3,043

[K.Z.]

Well, I'm going to continue nagging all of you about . It would make for one hell of a discussion, and it's truly a superb book.

[Josh]

Antonella wrote: "Thank you for clarifying. I still have to understand properly all the differences, but at least you didn't mean it is m/f ;-)"

From my perspective m/m fiction is always romantic fiction. Its antecedents lie in fan fiction and it is a sub-genre of romance. If it is sub-sub genre, i.e. m/m mystery, the romance is always of equal importance to the genre-specific plot. It is often, but not always erotic.

Gay fiction is merely fiction that features gay characters embroiled in a plot focused on gay themes or gay concerns. It is not always a romance, in fact, the current trend in gay fiction (gay mystery, for example) is decidedly UNromantic in its effort to distance itself from m/m. A gay mystery, for example, will feature a gay PI and otherwise be a classic mystery novel. If there is romance it will be low key and probably non-erotic.

The difference would be Fatal Shadows and The Hell You Say versus The Dark Tide and Death of a Pirate King. Fatal Shadows & The Hell You Say are basically about Adrien and the mystery. TDT and DoaPK are as much about Adrien's romance with Jake as they are about solving the mystery.

[Antonella]

Thanks for explaining and also for the example.

Although IMO there are many people who are not very precise in talking about this, they mix up everything.


@ K.Z.: I suspect a unhappy ending and an excellent book and I don't know whether I want to go there just now ;-).

[Josh]

Although IMO there are many people who are not very precise in talking about this, they mix up everything.

There has been an ongoing push from some quarters to try and make the terms interchangeable. Maybe in an effort to give m/m more credibility with gay readers, maybe in an effort to level the playing field, maybe simply an effort to get rid of labels and the baggage that comes with them.

Personally, I don't think the terms are interchangeable, and I think it's more useful to readers and book buyers to label precisely.

Even though I guess I am in many ways philosophically opposed to labels. Labels are useful and practical.

[Anne]

Is there a March book decided yet? I second the suggestion of reading

[Sara]

Anne wrote: "Is there a March book decided yet? I second the suggestion of reading "

I'm putting my vote in for this one too.

[K.Z.]

Antonella wrote: "@ K.Z.: I suspect a unhappy ending and an excellent book and I don't know whether I want to go there just now ;-)."

I completely understand that, Antonella. No doubt many m/m romance readers have avoided the novel. It isn't exactly a light and fluffy read. ;-)

[Anne]

K.Z. wrote: "Antonella wrote: "@ K.Z.: I suspect a unhappy ending and an excellent book and I don't know whether I want to go there just now ;-)."

I completely understand that, Antonella. No doubt many m/m rom..."

As for me, that is why I believe it would be a good choice for this forum, then I can "force" myself to read a good book that I would otherwise buy and then not read because I would rather read something nice and sweet. :)

[Josh]

Okay, let's see -- Junction X has been seconded. Did we have seconds for Boystown and Two Hearts Two Spirits? If so I'll put these three in a poll and we can vote on them.

Also, although I am running waaaay behind, I still want to contribute to the February discussion. My offline life is very disrupted at the moment. It's not even my own life, it's the life of my family and friends which require things like watching kids, running folks to emergency rooms, writing letters (the ink and paper kind), etc.

How did I ever do so much writing before?

[Mtsnow13]

Josh wrote: "Okay, let's see -- Junction X has been seconded. Did we have seconds for Boystown and Two Hearts Two Spirits? If so I'll put these three in a poll and we can vote on them.

Also, although I am runn..."

I'd like to second Boystown. Thank you, Josh.

[Anne]

Josh wrote: "Okay, let's see -- Junction X has been seconded. Did we have seconds for Boystown and Two Hearts Two Spirits? If so I'll put these three in a poll and we can vote on them.

Also, although I am runn..."

Emergency room sounds bad, I hope everything is ok whith the person in question.

[Jordan]

Can't wait to see what we're reading next! I'm still voting for Two Hearts, unless no one seconds it. The others are still on my To read list anyway, so no loss there, really.

[Jordan]

I guess it's time to create a poll and vote? Or has most people already settled on Junction X?

[Sara]

Jordan wrote: "I guess it's time to create a poll and vote? Or has most people already settled on Junction X?"

I don't think anything's been settled yet. Can anyone create a poll or does it have to be Josh? He seems to be awfully busy atm, so can we help out, do you think?

[Reggie]

Poll's up

[Becky]

Looks like I'm throwing this out at just the wrong time, but if I don't say it now I'll never remember for next month. (My brain is particularly swiss cheese-ish right now.)

I just discovered that MLR has released a new edition of China House. I've wanted to read it ever since Jake looked at the cover in Fatal Shadows, and I was so bummed that it was only available in paper. Now it's digital, too!

[Jordan]

Wow, that's awesome that you remembered that title from the book! And cool that now it's in ebook so more people can read it.

[Becky]

I tried at one point to make a list of the books mentioned in the series, but I keep getting distracted by the story. :P I looked for the books Adrien found at the ranch in A Dangerous Thing, too, but no luck. I should probably see if those are available now, too. Of course, that means I'll need to read A Dangerous Thing again to find the titles. Oh, the hardship.

[Jordan]

LOL, I just had a blast rereading Death of a Pirate King, and loved the fact that I knew half the books/authors he was talking about. Awesomeness.

BTW, what are we reading this month? Has the poll been finished yet?

[Emanuela ~plastic duck~]

Tomorrow maybe?

[Josh]

The poll is still going -- it's a close race between Boystown and Junction X.

[Jordan]

hmmm... ok.

[Antonella]

I'm not taking sides. Dante would have probably put me in the the vestibule of Hell ;-).

[Josh]

Antonella wrote: "I'm not taking sides. Dante would have probably put me in the the vestibule of Hell ;-)."

HA! Like you don't already have that ringside ticket?

[Josh]

So our chosen read for March -- it was very close! -- is

[Antonella]

Great! I don't have to buy anything new and the Lent resolution is safe for the moment. Although I suppose that to prepare a list of books to buy after lent amounts to cheating...

[Josh]

Antonella wrote: "Great! I don't have to buy anything new and the Lent resolution is safe for the moment. Although I suppose that to prepare a list of books to buy after lent amounts to cheating..."

No comment. :-P

[Sara]

Antonella wrote: "Great! I don't have to buy anything new and the Lent resolution is safe for the moment. Although I suppose that to prepare a list of books to buy after lent amounts to cheating..."

Then your definition of cheating differs from mine :D

[Antonella]

BTW, I'm not a religious person, but I thought that one has to get help from every side to support a not exactly iron will ;-).

[Becky]

Antonella wrote: "BTW, I'm not a religious person, but I thought that one has to get help from every side to support a not exactly iron will ;-)."

I've been doing the Count Off challenge over in the Romance Readers Challenge group. The challenges run for about 2 weeks at a time, and as a reward the winner gets to buy a few books. If you buy books during the challenge, your count resets to 0. It's amazing how silly stuff like that helps me be more responsible about my book buying. I've actually read more books than I've bought so far this year!

[Emanuela ~plastic duck~]

Antonella wrote: "Great! I don't have to buy anything new and the Lent resolution is safe for the moment. Although I suppose that to prepare a list of books to buy after lent amounts to cheating..."

How does pre-order works in your scheme? You spend the money, but actually you don't have the book until later. Is it the spending or the possession that makes the sin? I'm trying to help you out of your insanity ;-P

[Jordan]

lol, I'd say creating a list of books to buy after lent is perfectly okay. I do stuff like that all the time. It makes me feel somewhat better because I know I can get them later, even if I can't get them now.

Right now, I've promised myself not to buy books this year unless they a) are for this book group and b) are books I want when I go to the Rainbow Book Fair in two weeks (Max spending limit $100). Of course, there are some exceptions I've made to that rule which include c) I have a new Kindle from Christmas, so of course I need to fill it with all of Josh and JCP's books I haven't read yet. DUH! d) books like JCP's The Starving Years that I read as it came out in the newsletter, that I can now own for real. And e) books like The Rifter series where so many people were so excited by it I had no choice. Besides, Ginn Hale is amazing with words. DUH.

And since joining the LGBTQ Fantasy group, I might have to buy some fantasy for that challenge, though I'm waiting to see what there is at the book fair that counts as fantasy, so I can kill two birds with one stone and spend less money.

Basically, it comes down to the spending of money, which I'm trying not to do, and the fact that I need to read what I already have before I go buy more. So no preordering a book unless I have a very good reason for wanting/needing it.

[Jordan]

On the other hand, Boystown is a book I haven't read yet, but I'm excited about it. It looks really good!

[Emanuela ~plastic duck~]

Jordan wrote: "Basically, it comes down to the spending of money, which I'm trying not to do, and the fact that I need to read what I already have before I go buy more. So no preordering a book unless I have a very good reason for wanting/needing it."

Mmmm, you have so many exceptions that I'd bet you're making them up as you go ;-P

[Jordan]

lol, yeah, that's kinda what happened. I started the year saying I would buy the initial bunch of books for the kindle, and only books for this group. Then I remembered I was going to the book fair, and how can you take a day trip to a book fair and not by any books? Then all of a sudden, The Starving Years came out and everyone was clammoring over The Rifter series. Though, granted, I haven't yet bought The Starving Years. I can still put that on a wishlist for next year.

I also wasn't planning on joining the fantasy group, so there's that. Basically, what I'm still preventing is me just searching for random books and buying what looks good just because it looks good to me. I need a very good reason to buy it. The Rifter series has a good reason, with so many people urging me to read it, and telling me I need to take vacation time to read it, and needing to take built of vaca anyway, why not? lol.

[Sara]

Jordan wrote: "Basically, what I'm still preventing is me just searching for random books and buying what looks good just because it looks good to me."

I know what you mean. I've seen so many recommendations since I joined this group that I don't need to look elsewhere for books, but I still find myself on Amazon, browsing. I'm not sure who opens that tab, but I wish they'd stop it!

[Josh]

We've tried to bolt those doors and lock them with a magical seal but the creature that lives within keeps bursting through with its shopping cart!

[Anne]

Josh wrote: "We've tried to bolt those doors and lock them with a magical seal but the creature that lives within keeps bursting through with its shopping cart!"

Finally an explanation that makes sense :)

[Becky]

Lou wrote: "The way I've been raised books are good an wholesome--like fruit. Nobody will say "Hey, you're eating too much fruit!" ;)"

Until someone takes a look at the grocery budget and says, "Hey, slow down on the fruit, will ya? We still need to buy toothpaste and toilet paper this month!"

[Antonella]

Emanuela ~plastic duck~ wrote: "Mmmm, you have so many exceptions that I'd bet you're making them up as you go ;-P"

I thought the same.

Anyway everything is all right as long as one decides it is all right. Mmh... that wasn't very clear. I mean, everybody should decide what's the best book-buying policy for her/him.

[Jordan]

Well, I'm no longer browsing on Amazon, and that was, at one point a bad habit. But now I just get reviews here. Plus, what helps is that I'm trying to read more YA books for work, so those are library books, free, and they take up time, so I have less time to read books I'd have to buy.

[Josh]

Lou wrote: "My kindle app is bursting with unread ebooks and excerpts. At least downloading excerpts from amazon is guilt-free. It's like cruising the supermarket (or Costco) for free samples."

At lunchtime.

:-D

[Jordan]

So what are we going to read next month? Here's what I'm suggesting: A Chip in His Shoulder

[Becky]

I nominate China House.

[Reggie]

Does anybody know about ? The second one was on the Lambda list... It's set in New Orleans, which is always an added bonus.

[Anne]

Reggie wrote: "Does anybody know about ? The second one was on the Lambda list... It's set in New Orleans, which is always an added bonus."

I have a sample of it on my Kindle but haven't gotten around to buy it yet, it looks interesting. I agree, New Orleans is a big bonus, I fell in love last autumn when I spent a few days there with my daughter. And also after reading Poppy Z. Brite's books about the two cooks G-man and Rickey :)

[Josh]

I love those Poppy Z Brite books! I wish she'd someday get around to doing that final book. Although I certainly understand that when the feeling isn't there, it just isn't there.

I've read two of Lennon's books. I thought Blue's Bayou was solid. The one before that, Second Chance, was embarrassingly amateurish and saddled with a plot that made no sense. A classic illustration of why it is not enough to hire a copyeditor.

One of his books actually won the Lambda for Gay Mystery. It might have been his first.

I think that often happens. A writer spends years working on and polishing that first novel. But then the subsequent novels don't have the luxury of years of thinking and rewriting.

[Murphy]

Their are four of the books! They are really good!

[Josh]

Becky wrote: "I nominate China House."

Oh there's an old favorite! It would be fun to read a classic.

[Josh]

Jordan wrote: "So what are we going to read next month? Here's what I'm suggesting: A Chip in His Shoulder"

Do we have a second for Chip on His Shoulder?