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Articles by Jessica Tripler
Some Like It Hot: The Literary Function of Sex Scenes in Romance
One-handed reading. Mommy porn. Naughty books. Guilty pleasures. As a romance reader I’ve heard it all. I wonder if critics realize how those terms demean women’s sexuality and (further) colonize women’s fantasy lives. Or if they understand there’s no sex in a lot of romance fiction. Or that it’s 2015 and if a woman wants porn she’ll get, you know, actual porn. Or that if some readers do use romance for stimulation, it’s zero business of theirs. All of those are important things to say.
5 (Short) Philosophical Books for These Challenging Political Times
Like most people, I’m watching the US presidential primary season with a mixture of emotions, most of them negative. The press, the candidates, and the voters have contributed, to varying degrees, to name-calling, mudslinging, lies, threats, and even physical violence. As kind of an antidote, I’ve been dipping into some philosophical books that have something to say about the tenor of our times. These are all based on lectures, so they are readable and short.
Buy, Borrow, Bypass: Romance Heroines Appalled by the Idea of Marriage
Three books with women main characters who are allergic to marriage: “Don’t you want to marry, Portia?” “Not particularly, but if I do, he’ll have to be an exceptional fellow who loves me for my intelligence and business acumen, not for how I perform on my knees. ” In Breathless, the second book in Jenkins’ Old West series, Portia Carmichael is a hotel manager who has worked hard to gain a position of respect in her town near Tucson in the Arizona Territory.
100 Must-Read Historical Romances
While we at the Riot take some time off to rest and catch up on our reading, we’re re-running some of our favorite posts from the last several months. Enjoy our highlight reel, and we’ll be back with new stuff on Tuesday, January 3rd. Regency England is probably romance’s best known setting, but historical romances span the centuries and continents. With this list, I tried to represent that breadth, but I barely scratched the surface. If you don’t normally read romance, consider trying one of these.
Books to Teach You Hand Lettering and Calligraphy
This was the year I ditched my digital organizing system and started using lovely planners with thick, smooth paper. I bought my first fountain pen and some gel pens and started appreciating the really beautiful lettering I saw other people using as a way to turn bullet journals, calendars and planners into art. I’ve learned that calligraphy is more about beautiful writing while hand-lettering is drawing. In lettering, you build up and draw letters, using a gel pen, brush pen, or Sharpie.
10 Terrific Titles to Grab from Harlequin's $1.99 sale
The good news: Harlequin is having a massive sale until October 25! 18,000 ebooks for $1.99 each! The bad news: Harlequin is having a massive sale until October 25! 18,000 ebooks for $1.99 each! Harlequin lines tend to run shorter than single title romances (around 200 pages). Lines are kind of like imprints, and are distinguished by factors such as heat level, plot, setting, and characters.
Dudes in Distress: Romantic Suspense Where the Hero’s in Danger
Romantic suspense traces its roots at least back to the Gothic romances of Mary Stewart, who wrote smart and resourceful heroines who nevertheless often found themselves in dangerous situations with inscrutable, but impossibly attractive, men. Intertwining threads of vulnerability, fear, excitement, desire, and danger still characterize romantic suspense today.
Picture Books for Budding Philosophers
What does “philosophy book” make you think of? Probably something very long, very complicated, and very dense. In other words, not a book that will interest the youngster in your life. In some ways, philosophy and childhood have a lot in common. As children, we ask “why”. We question authority, we doubt received wisdom. Children interrogate, disrupt, and deny. Children’s questions come from a sense of openness and wonder about the world, a sense that philosophers retain.
Boo! Halloween Romances from Spicy to Scary
Finding Christmas-themed romance books is easy as pie. Halloween romances, not so much.
Danger! Romantic Suspense Through the Decades
This post is sponsored by Deadly Silence by Rebecca Zanetti. Full of twists and turns you won’t see coming, DEADLY SILENCE is New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Zanetti at her suspenseful best. The Lost Bastards Investigative Agency Ryker Jones opened up with his blood brothers has lost a client in a brutal way. The past he can’t outrun is resurfacing, threatening to drag him down in the undertow.
Why Romance Readers Love Digital Books
If you listened to the 7-25-2016 Book Riot Podcast, you heard Jeff and Rebecca talking about a presentation at the Romance Writers of America annual conference. It was on romance readers’ book buying habits, called Romancing the Data, by AuthorEarnings.com.
Buy Borrow Bypass: Steamy Romance
It’s August. It’s hot. You might as well give in and read some steamy romance. Sparks fly when a plumber and a personal trainer find themselves on the same roller derby team. Tina Durham’s wife left her and she’s trying to rebuild her life in Lake Lovelace, Florida. Roller derby gives Tina the chance to develop female friendships, a first since her transition. Coach Joe Delario didn’t realize she would fall for Tina when she recruited her, and doesn’t want to hurt team morale.
Bookish Accessories for your Erin Condren, Filofax, or Day Designer Planners
Last year I realized that planning apps, while great for scheduling, weren’t helping me with bigger goals or daily tasks. I needed a digital-free space to reconnect regularly with not just what I was doing, but why. I loved getting back into pen and paper, but after a few months of black pen on white planner pages, I dipped a toe into the “planner girl” world on YouTube.
100 Must-Read Historical Romances
Regency England is probably romance’s best known setting, but historical romances span the centuries and continents. With this list, I tried to represent that breadth, but I barely scratched the surface. If you don’t normally read romance, consider trying one of these. Be aware that in a genre romance novel, the focus is on the relationship, and the setting has to serve that. I think the best historical romances offer a vibrant, evocative setting that conveys the spirit of the age.
Nine Things I'm So Over in Romance Novels
While we at the Riot take some time off to rest and catch up on our reading, we’re re-running some of our favorite posts from the last several months. Enjoy our highlight reel, and we’ll be back with new stuff on Monday, July 11th. Romance is my favorite literary genre. I read 4-6 a month. But here’s a list of things I’d like to see receding in my reading rear-view mirror: Building up the heroine by tearing down other women.
On Outlander, Romance, and Diana Gabaldon
I’m a romance reader, and I came to Outlander through my online romance reading friends. I still remember reading it one summer about eight years ago at a gathering of my college friends on the coast. I hid up in the kids’ sleeping loft, hoping nobody would miss me, as I devoured the love story of Jamie and Claire.
It’s Not You, It’s Me: Nine Things I’m So Over in Romance Novels
Romance is my favorite literary genre. I read 4-6 a month. But here’s a list of things I’d like to see receding in my reading rear-view mirror: Building up the heroine by tearing down other women. This typically involves comparing her favorably to either the hero’s ex or his faceless army of sexual conquests. When her positive attributes only show up against the backdrop of all the lying, gold digging, narcissistic, and promiscuous women he’s ever known, I learn a lot more about him than her.
Why I Didn't Love ME BEFORE YOU
WARNING: SPOILERS for Me Before You ahead Me Before You is very much in my reading wheelhouse. I love women’s fiction, I love romantic themes, and I love the first person perspective. I might have loved this story about a small town English woman, Louisa, whose life was stunted by an overbearing family, a neglectful boyfriend, and an unacknowledged sexual assault. About how she learned, through a special relationship, to trust herself again and embrace the possibilities of being alive.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Coming to HBO
Did you know that if you have surgery, your doctor can use your de-identified discarded tissue for research? Sounds ok, right? I mean, what were you going to do with it? But what if your doctor discovered that your cells are “immortal,” that they can be cultured, grown indefinitely, frozen, and shared among scientists?
10 Painless Ways to Stick to Your Book Buying Ban
It’s January, and you’re trying to hold off on buying new books for a while. If you’re like me, you went a little overboard buying books for the holidays. Maybe you needed a new book for your vacation, or an excuse to retreat from the family for a few hours, or because those “Best Of” lists and year-end deals were impossible to resist. Or maybe your TBR pile is just guilt-inducingly large.
Why We Need More Abortion Stories in Our Fiction
I read a lot of novels with adult women protagonists. But I hardly ever come across abortion in my reading, even when there’s an unintended pregnancy. Or if a character has an abortion, she’s frightened, ashamed, and suffers devastating consequences. But one in three women in the US will have an abortion in her lifetime. Abortion is one of the most common medical procedures.
10 Upcoming Romance Books to Get Excited About
I’m just back from my first trip to the annual Romance Writers of America National Conference (RWA). So many authors, books, and so much buzz. Here are 10 upcoming romance books I was most excited to hear about: Lisa Renee Jones has a new dark romance series, Careless Whispers, beginning with Denial on November 24. It’s a standalone spin-off of her Inside Out series, which is soon coming to a TV near you.
Why I'll Wait to Read GO SET A WATCHMAN
This post is part of our Harper Lee Reading Day: a celebration of one of the most surprising literary events of our lifetime, the publication of her new book, Go Set a Watchman. Check out the rest right here. I loved To Kill A Mockingbird and like most readers I wanted another Harper Lee book. But now that one exists, I’m not sure I’ll read it. I’m worried about the circumstances surrounding the publication of Go Set A Watchman.
Hanukkah Books for Children
The first night of Hanukkah, the eight day “festival of lights”, is December 16. Hanukkah is a minor holiday in Judaism, but culturally, at least in the U.S., it’s taken on more importance thanks to its proximity to Christmas. As Jewish book-loving parents we sometimes found it challenging to find Hanukkah books. So here’s a list of recommended Hanukkah books for younger children.
Top 10 Literary References in Friday Night Lights
This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Even a die-hard Friday Night Lights fan like me has to admit it was not exactly a literary show. There are probably more bookish references in a couple of episodes of Mad Men than in five seasons of FNL. Heck, when the coach’s wife attends her first book club meeting, she’s told “We don’t really read the book” and spends the evening dodging questions about her husband’s game strategies.
Reading as a Kind of Meditation
This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. “Books don’t offer real escape, but they can stop a mind scratching itself raw.” — David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas Digital reading is a boon and a bane. The convenience of reading on my phone or tablet means I can read anywhere, but it also means more interruptions. Popup notifications are a series of attentional hurdles to resist or give in to.
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