Last night’s Jennifer Byrne Presents special, in place of ABC’s regular First Tuesday Book Club, was an interview with author and controversial political activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali. If you haven’t heard of Hirsi Ali, she has written two memoirs, Infidel and Nomad, and has been called the feminist counterpart to Salman Rushdie.
Hirsi Ali talks about the evolution of her ideas and the experiences that influenced her. Here’s the excerpt from the transcript, in which Hirsi Ali talks about the empowering ideas she found in romance books (any emphasis is mine):
JENNIFER BYRNE: But you did have exposure to European things, your father had been educated there.
But also, you started reading English books. Things like Enid Blyton and Barbara Cartland, which I just found hysterical to think were considered completely challenging to authority. How could Barbara Cartland be challenging to authority?
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In anticipation of the next book in J. R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series, Decadence has been hard at work updating the ever popular BDB cheat sheets. The cheat sheets summarise what we know so far about the Brothers and their world, based on the books already published.
We’ll be republishing the updated cheat sheets over the next two weeks, starting Monday. I’ve also created a page summarising all BDB-related posts on this blog.
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First of all, a big congratulations to the winner of our Covet giveaway … *drumroll* … angela! To win, Angela had to tell us her deadliest sin, and this was her comment:
Greed…for we are all greedy to some extent but my greed extends from clothes to stationary to bags and especially books. I’ve been collecting books since i was 12, after feeling an intrinsic connection to the world of literature. My aim? To buy a house with rooms that can act as my bookshelf for my sizeable collection.
I think I’m guilty of that sin, too. Angela, your book is in the mail!
Moving on … I got this idea from Marg at The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader (formerly Reading Adventures). Dymocks recently conducted a survey of Australia’s favourite books, and here’s the top 101 list, annotated with my thoughts.
1 The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer – read books 1 (reviewed) and 2
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Source: perfect gift 1 by lusi via stock.xchng
But first, a big congratulations to the winner of our Solace & Grief giveaway…*drumroll*…Mary Preston! To win, Mary had to tell us what mysterious door she’d like to open and where it would lead, and this was her comment:
My Grandmother had a back room we were never allowed to enter. It was kept locked & no-one would say why. A solid old door locked with a key that lay heavily in my hand. As a child it was always a source of intrigue for an overactive imagination. I think now it would just lead me to – the skeletons in the closet.
Mm, delicious! Mary, please send me your mailing address and I’ll post the book out to you.
For those who missed out, don’t forget that we’re giving away a copy of Covet by J. R. Ward (click on the link for details and Decadence’s excellent review of the book).
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Book Worm Bot by ittybittiesforyou (via Flickr)
Happy new year, everyone!
First of all, a reminder that our Desperate Duchesses giveaway ends next week. To enter, tell us what chess piece you’d be and why, post your answer as a comment to this post.
To kick off 2010, I thought I’d list the reading challenges that we’re joining this year. We’re paring down our challenge list because, as we found out last year, it can be stressful trying to keep track of them all!
So for 2010, I’m doing the Aussie Author Challenge and the Book Binge Challenge in April, if MaryP hosts it again. Wandergurl is doing the Year of the Historical Challenge. She also wants to read more steampunk novels.
I’m planning to host the Books Alive Challenge in September … and to do a better job of hosting it this year!
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Today’s post is our first ever guest post at Book Thingo, written by Keira, who runs Love Romance Passion, a romance book review blog for readers by readers. She’s been reading romance since she was a teenager and began blogging about romance so she could share her passion for her favourite genre. She loves reading paranormal, Regency, historical America, and highlander most of all, and completely adores blind and wounded heroes.
Kat asked me to tell her about my top 10 books from September (so far anyway) to go with the Books Alive 2009 Reading Challenge. These books are not all romance—some are young adult—but they’re all new to me.
1–5. Artemis Fowl (Books One, Two, Three, Four, Five)
Listening Library and Random House are my heroes. Love Nathaniel Parker’s voice. He’s so amazing. The story fairly leaps out of the speakers. Book 5 shows a hint of future romance as Artemis hits puberty, but it’s not a main feature of the series at all.
6. Lucky in Love by Carolyn Brown
Very funny contemporary Western romance. I loved the phrases and sayings
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In the spirit of the Books Alive Reading Challenge, I present to you, from my neverending TBR pile, my must-reads (I swear) by the end of the year.
As I also review non-romance books, I’ve listed 5 romances and 5 non-romances (in no particular order):
1. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
Shantaram is the story of a man known as Lindsay, who made his way to Bombay from Australia. Throughout his life he’s been a prisoner, a slum doctor, a forger, gun runner, mafia guerilla, among other things. This massive novel has received rave reviews and has a possible movie adaptation, featuring Johnny Depp, in the works. Everyone that I know who has read this autobiography (yes, it’s based on a true story) has been totally sucked in and hasn’t been able to put it down, despite it being 944 pages. (Maybe I’ll read this one last!)
This book is listed in The Guide. If you buy it from a participating bookshop during the Books Alive campaign, you can get a free book with your purchase.
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See more Lolcats and funny pictures
1. I don’t trust you. Emailing a customer mailing list with your political agenda is dodgy. Also dodgy is pretending to be something other than a group of chain retailers lobbying the government to change the law so you can increase your profits.
2. We don’t need to change copyright law to buy cheaper books. Readers can buy online. Not only do we take advantage of cheaper prices overseas, but we don’t have to pay GST. The Book Depository doesn’t even charge for shipping. I don’t see you lobbying to have the GST removed from books, or to have the government enforce the GST on overseas companies. Maybe it can’t. That’s not my fault.
3. Not everyone buys books according to price. The experience of being in a bookstore is what I want when I go into a bookstore. Otherwise, I’d buy online. I like seeing a book, touching it, reading the blurb and maybe a few pages. I can’t do that online.
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Victorian Bushfires by Jessica Parker (via sunrise7 at Flickr)
I try to keep Book Thingo posts related to books, but I think it would be remiss of me not to mention the bushfire tragedy that the state of Victoria is experiencing. Last I heard, the death toll is at 173, which is more than double that of the Ash Wednesday fires that, until now, had been considered the worst in Australian history.
Just this morning, I was listening to news reports of the devastation that has occurred and may possibly continue. One of the segments was an interview with a psychologist on how to help survivors cope with their loss. One of the suggestions was to just let people tell their stories, because that the act of articulating their experiences helps in some way to make sense of and deal with it. And it was obvious from seeing news footage that in fact many people are just looking for some human contact and to be able to express to another person what they went through.
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books in a stack by austinevan (via Flickr)
Wandergurl and I have decided to take on some reading challenges this year. We’re doing some of them as blog-wide challenges, and we’re doing some as individual challenges. I guess it’ll depend on how lazy we get during the year. We reserve the right to be lazy.
You can find the list of challenges on the Reading Challenge page (link on the main menu at the top of the page).
We’re also tossing up whether or not to do the Paranormal 999 Challenge. We’re not sure if we can read 81 paranormals in one year (even split between the two of us and maybe a few guest posts), and more importantly, if we can actually afford such a challenge. Nevertheless, we’ve had some fun coming up with potential categories:
1. Brooding demons OR Demons with a perpetual scowl
2. Shapeshifters on whose shoulders rest the fate of the universe
3. Vampires with a substance abuse problem
4. Virgin vampires
5. Angels out of nowhere
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