50 Blushes

You can't even describe 50 Shades of Grey in terms of flying off the shelves.  Its popularity rivals that of Suzanne Collin's Hunger Games trilogy.  I think we add a new person to the waiting list every day.  The excitement over these books has been generated by media attention, controversial or critical reviews, and recommendations from friends.  The bad news is that there are so many holds on this trilogy people are going to be waiting quite a while before they get their books.  The GOOD news is  there are a multitude of other books about romance and relationships to tide you over.

Laurell K. Hamilton writes two series that are somewhat similar in nature.  The main character in both series is a woman who is surrounded by strong, alpha males (as romance authors would describe them) who are used to being in charge.  In the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series, Anita is a necromancer who lives in an alternative reality St. Louis, MO.  She has a complicated personal life which involves romantic entanglements with vampires, werewolves, and others.  Through the course of these activities, she gradually acquires various supernatural powers as she become more deeply involved in the underworld.  Hamilton's second series focuses on Merry Gentry, a faerie princess turned private investigator who is attempting to live a human life.  Her attempts are short-lived when it is revealed that she could be the heir to the throne of her aunt (who is a queen in the realm of faeries) if she can conceive a child before her cousin.  The series follows the many assassination attempts on Merry's life while she negotiates intricate alliances with faeries (and other creatures) while attempting to conceive a child.  Be forewarned, these books are not for the faint of heart.  The romantic encounters are graphic and involve characters who are supernatural creatures with more than human appetites. 

For an engaging romantic read that has more to offer than the traditional "bodice-ripper", there are several outstanding authors to choose from.  Lisa Kleypas, Jude Deveraux, Stephanie Bond, and Rachel Gibson write contemporary romances that feature unique characters, entertaining situations, and snappy dialogue.  Linda Howard, Karen Robards, Jayne Ann Krentz, Elizabeth Lowell, Sandra Brown, Beverly Barton, Catherine Coulter, Jennifer Crusie, Julie Garwood and Suzanne Brockmann are some of the premier authors of romantic suspense.  Their stories often feature a hapless couple that is pulled into an life-threatening situation and the male character usually (but not always) saves the day. 

And what is so wrong or embarrassing about reading a historical romance (bodice-ripper)?  There are many authors who offer a creative storyline or a twist to the standard romantic formula.  Mary Balogh has created several series using an extended family and a recurring group of friends.  Lynsay Sands writes excellent historical romances featuring unique leading characters and hilarious dialogue.  Other notable historical romance authors include Claudia Dain, Julia London, Suzanne Enoch, Julia Quinn, Johanna Lindsey, Mary Jo Putney, and Eloisa James.
Finally, for the mature Twilight fan, Deborah Harkness has developed an outstanding fantasy world in her Book of Souls trilogy.  In Discovery of Witches, the modern world contains witches, vampires, and daemons who must work together for their own safety but are not permitted to have romantic ties with one another.  This precarious balance is upset by a witch named Diana (who has vast untapped powers) and a vampire named Matthew (whose bloodlust for Diana is exceeded only by his carnal desire for her).  This first book focuses on the courtship of the two main characters as fate leads them to defy the rules.  In the second book, Shadow of Night, the two use Diana's new found powers to travel in time back to Elizabethan England.  There they interact with many of the leading literary and historical figures of the day.  The author creates an authentic historical world which leaves the reader wishing that the characters did not have to journey back to modern times.  It is in the second book that Matthew and Diana's relationship advances to the next level. 
Are all of these titles going to be exactly like 50 Shades of Grey?  For the reader's sake, let's hope not.  People may express the opinion that if you've read one romance, you've read them all but that would imply that every romantic relationship in the world is the same.  Those readers who enjoy escaping into a good romance will tell you that each relationship is vastly different and the enjoyment comes from the author's ability to create something new from what some would describe as recycled material.

 

Degrees of Separation

Featuring retired homicide detective Baruch "Buck" Schatz

Sometimes you can read a book and it will lead you to another book (or movie) that may make sense to no one but you.  For example, I recently finished a book called Don't Ever Get Old by Daniel Friedman.  The title alone sounds like a self-help book aimed at helping you turn back the hands of time with diet and exercise.  Don't be fooled by the title.  It's a convoluted, comedic mystery set in the south whose protagonist is a cross between "Pop" from Grumpy Old Men and Clint Eastwood's character Walt Kowalski from Gran Torino.  The mystery is layered with stolen Nazi gold, interspersed with flashbacks of a German POW camp, and topped off with a present-day serial killer.  Throughout the book, there is a sense of profound personal loss intertwined with laugh-out-loud moments as Buck interacts in his unique way with the other characters, particularly his grandson "Tequila".

From here we segue into the next book recommendation.  In the course of expounding the many virtues of the above book to one of my coworkers, we started discussing WWII memoirs and how memories blur after a number of years.  The book Treblinka had been recommended to me years ago by a friend.  It has since become a book that I go back to every few years in between my other reading pursuits.  This is the kind of book that will stay with you after you turn off your light at night.  Ever since our library held a book discussion on The Seamstress by Sara Tuvel Bernstein, the two of us have had an ongoing conversation regarding accuracy in memoirs and general historical writings.  (The core of the discussion being, if someone makes themselves or their life events sound too good to be true, then it may not be completely accurate.)  Memoirs can be tricky that way.

This leads me to the next volume, Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard.  The writing is so overly dramatic (at one point they describe Abraham Lincoln as "traipsing" down a hallway) as to be ridiculous.  They attempt to assign various feelings and motivations to different characters with little actual proof to back up their assumptions.  As a reader of non-fiction, I prefer that an author let the facts speak for themselves.  Comments, quotations, and writings by contemporaries of the time period are always helpful but the discerning reader of history must remember that there will be an element of human fallibility in those writings as well.  When the author interjects too much emotion into the historical event, I become a very skeptical reader.Finally, this leads to one of the best Abraham Lincoln books that I have read recently.  Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith is packed with action and adventure as it follows the life of Abraham Lincoln.  The author does an excellent job of using historical detail to lend his vampire tale authenticity.  Abraham Lincoln is a noble, larger-than-life hero who sets out to avenge the death of his mother at the hands of a nefarious vampire.  The vampires will continue to be the bane of Abraham's existence throughout his life since they are also the cause of the American Civil War.  Thank heavens Old Abe was so handy with an axe!

Also by this author-Pride and Prejudice and Zombies



That is how you get from a mystery featuring a grumpy old man to a fictional vampire hunter in just a few books.  Have a book conversation with another reader.  You'll go from dystopias to politics to adventure to romance in the blink of an eye.