Books you would have loved to author

There are those books that stay with me in my heart. Most are fiction, some non. But what have they given me?
Anya Seton gave me a love of well-written romance mixed with superbly wrought history. Katherine, especially, was definitive for me. I recently gave a copy of all her books to my daughter who is a devotee of all things Anne Boleyn and English queens and mistresses who conquer, mostly themselves.
Jacqueline Winspear writes a beautifully wrought series about a British nurse in World War I who becomes a detective and savant. Maisie Dobbs is every woman who survives tragedy and makes herself a better person for it. This interest in Winspear's World War I series complements my own fascination with it. Foremost among the non-fiction I prize is Niall Ferguson's The Pity of War and the memoir by VAD nurse Vera Brittain, Testament of Youth.
An author of mysteries myself, I prize those authors who give the reader the best of their talents and their research into forensics and procedurals for the period. Minette Walters, also British, writes complex mysteries. And Elizabeth George, an American who writes startlingly accurate mysteries set in Britain, always gives me a rush of excitement with her finely drawn characterizations. Do let's add Ariana Franklin, also British (am I on a kick here?) who pens a marvelous medieval mystery series set in Henry II's reign about a Spanish woman trained in medicine at Salamanca--and who becomes Henry's Mistress in the Art of Death. I am into her third in the series as I write...and applauding both women's talents!

What books do you treasure?

And why?

I would love to hear.

I have a bone to pick with Silhouette Nocturne

Books? Or Advertisements?

Today I received a book I ordered via Amazon, Vampire Vendetta, by Alexis Morgan. I like Alexis Morgan. Her Paladin series is a fun read. The alpha heroes make for a good quickie. I just finished her latest, Defeat the Darkness, and it was okay. It was good enough that when I received her email informing me she has a new vampire love story out, I thought - why not? I missed her first vampire book but I ordered Vampire Vendetta. I can tell it's going to be another quickie and I'm sure it will keep me entertained for a few hours.

So why do I have a bone to pick with the publisher, Silhouette Nocturn? Because stuck to the binding, between pages 160 and 161, was a thick packet of advertising. When I tried to pull it, thinking it might just be shoved in there or perforated for easy removal, I had to rip it out. Along came pages 160 and 161. The damn cardboard ads were glued to the book binding.

A. Do I really want advertising in my book? If a pub wants to advertise, print up the ads and stick them at the end of the book - I discovered ten pages of ads in the back of the book after the story ends, in addition to an ad on the inside of the back cover. At least those ads are printed on the same paper as the rest of the book and they don't interfere with my reading pleasure.

B. Don't stick cardboard in the middle of my book! How distracting! That's why I tore it out in the first place. I stupidly assumed it would be perforated and easy to remove. Silly me. Now I have a brand new book with a bent binding, a hole in the middle, ragged remnants of cardboard, and two taped pages. Dang!

This is the first time I've ever purchased a book that's had a big fat packet of advertising stuck in the middle of it. Has this happened to you?

Politically Incorrect!

The Emperor Has No Clothes

Where to begin? I'll start with a restaurant and segue into literature. Nowadays we have celebrity chefs...iron chefs...a whole lotta chefs...and a lot of us fall victim to the Emperor Has No Clothes Syndrome.

I have this restaurant rule - If I try a new place and my first experience is less than stellar, I'll give the place another try. Everyone has a bad day. Maybe the chef got sick or the sous chef was late or the pastry chef quit...having owned a restaurant myself and worked in and around restaurants since I was a kid (family business), I get it. If my second visit to a restaurant is mediocre or worse...I will not be back. Fool me once, shame on you...fool me twice...well...you can't fool me again...

So there's this restaurant owned by a famous chef. I've applied my two-tries rule and both times, the food has been, not just bad, but inedible. In fact, I was so appalled by my experiences that I got myself an identity on Chowhound and posted a review - and then the Emperor Has No Clothes Syndrome kicked into high gear and other posters climbed all over each other in their haste to call me an idiot, a raving lunatic, a stupid-head-dope, a weirdo, a druggie...they claimed I must have some personal vendetta against the chef - I don't even know the chef - they said I had no taste buds, no taste, couldn't tell the difference between gourmet food and fast food - I couldn't believe the creative insults posters came up with. I was about to delete my post altogether when a few quiet voices spoke up and said, cautiously, I agree with you - I ate at that restaurant and had a similar experience and I've been terrified to post about it - Hey, if what happened to me is any indication, of course they'd be reluctant to post! Shit...I'll never post on Chowhound again!

Now I'm getting into the scary part of my post - the Emperor Has No Clothes Syndrome as it applies to popular literature. I read. A lot. Always have, always will. All genres. I've been reading, literally, since I was eighteen months old. Yeah...rolling-eyes...precocious...I know. Over the past year, my sister has recommended two books to me that have been loved, adored, venerated, and promoted by New York literary critics. I checked out the reviews my sister mentioned and based upon those reviews, I thought, yeah, sounds good, haven't read anything all that great in a while - and I bought the books. Both of them sucked. I mean, they sucked eggs. And it left me wondering, what were the critics reading? What on earth was my sister reading? When I asked her, she came right out and said that she has more faith in critics than she does in her own brain.

I know that when it comes to literature, almost everything is a matter of opinion and personal taste - I'm clear on the concept. But when I did a bit more research on these two books in particular, I found a number of very quiet, cautious, even fearful hands raised by other literary critics saying what I believe to be closer to the truth - that the books were poorly written, but for some reason, the authors were the present day darlings of the publishing world and to write a critical review was to go against the grain, to fight against the current, to risk ostracism and name-calling similar to what I experienced on Chowhound. It would mean stating the obvious, that the emperor isn't wearing any clothes.

This is one of the few controversial posts you will ever read from me. I do not like controversy and I respect authors, legitimate literary criticism, chefs, food writers and food critics. There is a great deal to be learned from a critic who says - I didn't love the book and here's why...or I liked the book a lot but I wish...or I understood the author's intent but the expression of ideas was...

If I was a celebrity chef and somebody had a lousy experience at my showpiece, I'd want to know about it - and by the way - before I posted my review on Chowhound, I did call the restaurant to tell the manager, politely, how disappointed I was in my two experiences - experiences which involved sending multiple courses back to the kitchen to the vast irritation of our server. The manager's response? So what? Read the reviews. Everyone else loves us.