ARRC update

The Australian Romance Readers Convention is less than two weeks away, and as part of the lead up to this event, the ARRC committee has been running a Reader Challenge. If you’ve registered for the convention, don’t forget to drop by the ARRC Lounge, read the entries, and vote for your favourite (hopefully one of ours *g*). You’ll need to be signed up to the ARRC Lounge to vote. This week’s round ends tomorrow, and next week is the final round, so if you’re planning to enter, you need to get your reviews in to Bek this weekend.

The ARRC website also has a guest blog for authors supporting the convention. It seems everyone is jealous of our summer. All I can say is that I hope nothing happens to the air conditioning that weekend! (more)

The Spaniard's Baby Bargai by Helen Bianchin (Modern Romance)

Realising that I haven’t made a dent in the The Harlequin/Silhouette Romance Reading Challenge, I made it a point to grab a handful of HMBs on my last library visit. I picked up The Spaniard’s Baby Bargain by Helen Bianchin because it’s part of the Modern Romance imprint (to which the Rugby Union related books will belong), it’s set in Sydney, and it’s written by a New Zealand author. I was disappointed by the awkward prose and hugely contrived set-up of the story, but there were moments in the second half of the book that I thought were done well, so it wasn’t a total write-off.

When Ariane Celeste interviews billionaire (AUD or USD, I wonder?) Manolo del Guardo for a TV documentary, she finds herself staying on as a temporary nanny for his daughter. But Manolo finds the arrangement so satisfactory that he asks her to marry him–he gets a wife and a mother for her child, and she gets the child she’s always longed for and his protection against her stalker ex-husband. (more)

Kiss of a Demon King by Kresley Cole (Immortals After Dark, Book 6)

Rydstrom is the deposed King of Rothkalina, kingdom of the rage demons, who lost his kingdom centuries ago to Omort, the evil baddie who can’t die. Rydstrom has been trying to recover his kingdom ever since, with the help of his brother Cadeon, who is supposedly responsible for his loss of said kingdom.

Sabine, Queen of Illusions, is Omort the evil baddie’s half-sister. Thanks to a special hold he has over her and her sister Lanthe, she is stuck living with him,  to all appearances supporting his evil desires while at the same time plotting a better future for her and her sister.

Omort has been told via prophecy that Sabine is the destined mate of the King of the Demons and their son will be destined to unlock the secrets of the Well of Souls, a font of power within the castle that the Demons were created to protect before Omort usurped them all.  Rydstrom, as per the last book in the series, had just become aware that someone has supposedly created a weapon that could finally kill Omort.  On his way to get it, he is trapped by Sabine who is determined to seduce him and bear his child so that the prophecy can come to pass NOW. (more)

A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole (Immortals After Dark, Book 1)

There are some books that you re-read and remember and, as you begin again, wonder why you read it. This is one of them. While I love the Immortals After Dark series dearly, I remember only starting it because I had heard wonderful things about book 3 and I had to get there. So I started it. I’m glad A Hunger Like No Other was not my first Kresley Cole book—I had read her historicals before—or else I might have gone, Whut? and hurled the damn thing.

Lachlan, leader of the Lykae Clan, has been imprisoned for 200 years. While chained underground he scents his mate, manages to find the strength to bust free, and goes off to find her. Emmaline is half vampire, half Valkyrie and about as innocent as Britney Spears would have liked you to believe she was when she still sang Sometimes I run, sometimes I hide… Anyway, he semi convinces, seduces, abducts, you can call it anything, her and tries to get her to Scotland before the full moon.

What I liked: The world building and the riotous adventure,  constantly wondering what would happen and what Cole would decide to unfurl next. While it starts out as a battle between a semi-deranged Lykae and an innocent virgin, (more)

First, the navel-gazing: Book Bizzo will now be coming out weekly. The posts will be shorter, but I think that probably works out better for everyone. Also, if you prefer monthly updates on what’s new at Book Thingo, I’ll be posting monthly summaries on our Facebook page.

Book launches, events, and authors

The ARRC has launched a guest blog for authors attending the convention.

I was sent a link to Second Chance for Romance, an online secondhand bookseller. Check out their catalogue on the website, and you can also e-mail them your wishlist. Secondhand stores for lazy people. I love the Internet.

Nalini Singh confirms the release date for Angel’s Pawn: February 24. (more)

Stack of Old Books by Darren Hester (via Flickr)

This post is a continuation of yesterday’s post exploring the issues around parallel importation of books in Australia. To recap, part 1 talks about the 30/90 rule and summarises the arguments for and against the current legislation. Now I’m going to talk about my personal opinion regarding the issues.

Support for current legislation

Initially, I was against any change to the current legislation. I do most of my book shopping in brick and mortar stores and I never compare prices online. I figure, if I can’t afford the book on the shelf, then I ought to save up until I can or just get it from the library. As SMH journalist Malcolm Knox puts it:

A book’s real value lies in the hours it gives us in enjoyment or insight and the surprising ways it can open our hearts. A book can be a terrible rip-off at $9.99 or a bargain at $60. (more)

Stack of Old Books by Darren Hester (via Flickr)

Last week, the deadline passed for submissions to the Productivity Commission’s study on the copyright restrictions on the parallel importation of books to Australia. I had intended to read the submissions and give a full summary of the pros and cons, but there are way too many for me to get through. I also haven’t decided where I stand on this issue, and tomorrow I’ll talk about why.

The 30/90 rule

The Copyright Act includes an amendment commonly known as the 30/90 rule. When a book is first released anywhere in the world, the Australian publisher who owns local rights must publish an Australian version of the book within 30 days. If the local rights holder makes the book available within 30 days of its first release anywhere, all Australian booksellers must buy the book from the Australian publisher; they can’t import the book from an overseas publisher.

If the publisher fails to publish the book within 30 days, booksellers may import legitimate copies without the permission of the local rights holder—in effect, the publisher loses exclusive rights. (more)

The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain by María Rosa Menocal

When I was in my first year of university I had to take a medieval history class with a crusty old Jesuit from the midwest who taught me one of the most important lessons I would ever learn: “It doesn’t matter if you know what you’re doing. What matters is that you sound like you know what you’re doing.” He also took to teaching us about medieval life using an old but probably still accurate book on medieval history that possibly is no longer being published. While he covered all the standards–crusades, western expansion, the dark ages, the evolution from Germanic tribes, the black plague–he also got me started with my love for architecture, flying buttresses, arches and how that all came together in the beautiful city of Cordoba.

Where the hell is Cordoba?

Not a lot of people have heard of Cordoba. Nowadays it’s a pretty but quaint town-like city in southern Spain. Back in the day, it was a thriving centre of learning ruled by the Islamic Umayyad empire, a place where different cultures could mix, where Jews, Christians and Muslims lived together (more)

Book Bizzo is a fortnightly omnibus of news items, events, and other interesting tidbits related to books, and especially the Australian romance book industry. You can find past Book Bizzo posts here.

A quick bit of navel gazing first. Book Thingo now has a Facebook page. If you “become a fan”, you’ll receive (ir)regular updates and news, plus we’ll post monthly summaries of blog posts for those of you who prefer monthly digests rather than feeds. Feel free to post on our Wall and introduce yourself, give us book recommendations, or tell us what you’d like to see more of on the blog.

We’re also on Twitter. I’m playing around with different ways we can liveblog the Australian Romance Readers Convention in February (more)

Dance with the Devil by Sherrilyn Kenyon (Dark-Hunter, Book 4)

While I am an avid Dark-Hunter fan, I haven’t read anything Dark-Hunter in a while. In fact, I haven’t even read Acheron despite receiving a copy before the US release date, thanks to being in Australia (yes, I know it’s blasphemy). I don’t remember why I read everything in order except for Zarek but that’s what I did, so I only read it now.

Dance with the Devil by Sherrilyn Kenyon features Zarek, a former Roman Slave who was made a Dark-Hunter. Generally deemed insane and irredeemable, he lives in the middle of nowhere in the Alaskan wilderness after being banished for an unspeakable deed he did about a thousand years ago or thereabouts. After fucking with a bunch of gods in the previous novel, Acheron, effectively his boss, and Artemis, the “bitch goddess” who founded the Dark-Hunters, argue about whether or not he should be executed. To maintain impartiality they send the goddess Astrid, baby sister to the Fates, to judge him guilty or innocent.

Astrid has never found anyone innocent in all the years she’s been sent to judge a Dark-Hunter. (more)