I love RWA as a super supportive writer's trade association, but with one main gripe: their definition of romance:
No, in a romance, the lovers are not necessarily "rewarded with justice and unconditional love." Romantic comedy is great, but not all romance is comedy. Just look at that romance of all romances, Romeo and Juliet. And what about The Time Traveler's Wife? Its ending is way more complex than RWA would like, but it's about the most romantic novel I've ever read.

I love me a happy ending, but tragedy or plain old sad is "emotionally satisfying" in its way. Otherwise, the star-crossed lovers would have stayed dead after the first performance. To exclude sadness, bitterness, grief from romance is to stunt romance (and oneself) emotionally.

Defining romance as having happy endings trivializes and limits a genre that already is trivialized and limited in the minds of many people. We're looking for respect, and this doesn't help.

bogwitch64 's post on reading reminds me that I haven't posted my reads for a while. (PS You're welcome re Mythago Wood!)

Me, too for The Magician's Assistant, by Anne Patchett. Satisfying, yes.

More Michael Chabon. That guy just kills me. He's so talented, he's a freak of nature.

A couple of Regency romances, which I'm sort of getting addicted to. I enjoyed Liz Carlysle's Wicked all Day alot. Didn't like Georgette Heyer (These Old Shades.) In fact, yuck. This is my second round with Heyer, so I guess I'll give up on her.

Dreaming Anastasia, a lovely YA by Joy Preble.

Fast Ships, Black Sails, ed Ann & Jeff VanderMeer. Arrrrrh! Favorites: Skillet and Saber, by Justin Howe. Not your usual foodie story, but still satisfying to a foodie. 68 07/ 15"N, 31 36' 44"W, by Conrad Williams.

Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini. It's taken me way too long to read Sabatini!

David Sedaris' When You Are Engulfed in Flames. I was at the airport on the way to Las Vegas for our family bash to welcome my sis back from Iraq. I bought this book to while away the flight. I knew it would probably embarrass me by making me chortle away to myself, but what the heck.

The cashier asked, "It's about smoking?"

"Well, not really," I said. "It's funny."

He gave a polite smile.

"Funny. Supposed to be funny. Looks like it's about smoking but not really. Funny."

I found myself speaking pidgin English because the guy, who spoke ESL, obviously did not get what was funny about an image of a skull smoking a cig and the title "When you are engulfed in flames."

"Supposed to be funny," I said again. He smiled politely and told me to have a nice day. 

It really is funny, though, despite appearances. 

Joshua Palmatier is posting six chapters from his book here.

It's been a while since I've snugged in with a good olde medieval book. What better than Elizabeth Chadwick's The Greatest Knight to throw the spell over me again. Kings, castles, noble nights, swords, destriers and palfreys (ye olde horses), wine by the barrel, mud by the bushel. Tourneys, too!

Some irritating stuff. The women are either whimpy pretty ineffectual or smart assertive beautiful AND bear sons first (daughters can come later). The hero is perfect, but I guess I should have known by the title of the book. The scattered POVs are a mixed bag. I'm not big on characters or narrators whose main role is to bolster the hero's glory. Chadwick's characters aren't quite that limited, though, and they do carry the story forward while their own backstories are skillfully woven into the narrative.

I felt like I was in the hero's head most of the time (not so much on her other POVs). She knows how to skip over the stuff that's boring (to me, anyway). Several times I braced myself for a long battle scene, and before I knew it, it was over. She pretty much jumps over his sojourn in the Middle East, which I was glad of, since by then I was more into what was happening in England and France. (I was also dreading that staple of crusader stories: the love affair with the dark-skinned dancing girl. Thankfully, it didn't happen.)

Her historical detail has tons of credibility and showed (among other things) that knights in tourneys were like today's rodeo circuit cowboys. Prizes, parties, a roving life. The details didn't feel contrived at all. For example, she doesn't obsess about body odor and shit on the streets (which medieval folk would presumably take for granted).

Anyway, if you're craving English medieval, this is a full potency dose.

Joanie Savage's (VP XI) story is up at Intergalactic Medicine Show. Not to brag or anything but I read this story in draft and it is really really a good read. And the artwork by Nick Greenwood is awesome. (Hope it's okay for me to repro it here...)
www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/cgi-bin/mag.cgi

Random, from The Yiddish Policemen's Union

A crook: "The Jew to the left is haggard, sleepless, sclerotic, straggly, with cheeks like two spoonfuls of sour cream, and two bright, mean little eyes."

A social club in the morning. "The place is as empty as an off-duty downtown bus and smells twice as bad. Someone came through recently with a bucket of bleach to paint in some high notes over the Vorsht's steady bass line of sweat and urinals."

A guy getting his kid ready for bed: ..."the uproar of bath and ass-powdering and a bedtime story that requires Berko Shemets to honk like a goose..."

Michael Chabon, I love you.  You make me know why I love to read. Cheeks like two spoonfuls of sour cream. You're killing me, man.

The Giver, by Lois Lowry. A YA that transcends YA. Thank you, bogwitch64 !
The Alchemyst, by Michael Scott; Storm Glass, by Maria V. Snyder. Two more YAs. I enjoyed them, but probably would have appreciated them more when I was YA myself.
Snake Agent, by Liz Williams. (mevennen ) Really fun; I'll be reading more by her.
Lightbreaker, by Mark Teppo. (markteppo ) Not to drop names or anything, but... a fellow VPXIer.

New author: Jade Lee. The author whose books I grab when I just, well, want to read. The Dragon Earl and Tempted Tigress. Historical romances. Lee's characters and story totally tweak stereotypes and the formulaic while falling in romantic genre expectations. I'm now reading Dragonborn, a fantasy romance. My only complaint is that she kills off a character (no spoiler; it happens right at the start) with a name very similar to mine. Lee brings her settings to sensuous (and sensual) life.

And soon! Very soon! I'll be reading The Song and the Sorceress, by Kim Vandervort. (writerknv ) Another VPXIer...

PS Links are to Powells, Nightshade Books and Hadley Rille Books

Anathem, by Neal Stephenson. Cool book, but I skimmed parts, especially the philosophical dinner scenes. When are we writers going to learn that dinner scenes are boring unless violence or sex is involved? But on the whole, this book kept me turning the pages--all 800+ of them. His world is complex and imaginative, but not in a way that leaves you flailing to make sense of it.

Fantasy Medley. Stories by Robin Hobb, Kelley Armstrong, CE Murphy and Kate Elliott. Made me want to read more by these authors (which I've done). It's sold out--hopefully Subterranean will reprint.

Women of the Humiliati, by Sally Mayall Brasher. Fascinating read for Medieval freaks, despite its dissertational tone. About a mixed-gender lay order in medieval times. Great stuff if you're looking for ways for your characters to live unconventionally right in the heart of society. Communal living. Women attaining authority. Alternative religion. Social activism.  Making the authorities squirm. Brasher has a knack for grasping the strands that make these kinds of societies so intriguing. Side note: why is the cover so ghastly on this book? When I first looked at it, I thought it was damaged from exposure to sunlight. It's in color, so why not use artwork, a duotone, even? I just don't get it. It's not more expensive to print an attractive vs ugly cover for a book. (edited later; not so fascinating as I first thought. In fact, pretty dry. The order itself is interesting but the book is really more a sifting of documentation. I misunderstood the intent through the first part.)

Travels of Marco Polo. It's not just where he went, it's when he went. His mind is in such a different configuration than people of today. Or at least, the people I know. He's an efficient merchant with one foot in the mythic. But then again, once a Venetian, always a Venetian.

* East of the Mountains, by David Guterson. This book breaks the rules. First, it's about someone who's old. Second, you know right up front that he's dying and that's that. Third, it's really slow moving. But it's a book I could read again and again.

The Line Between, by Peter S. Beagle. I loved the story "The Self-Made Cat." LOL cat story!

Storm Front (The Dresden Files, Book 1), by Jim Butcher.

The Devil's Eye: An Alex Benedict Novel, by Jack McDevitt. Odd book. I guess truly plot-driven. It only gave fleeting, but tantalizing glimpses of the characters, even though it's in first person POV. Maybe it would have felt different if I'd read the earlier books in the series first. Story was interesting and the settings, planet and ship side planted me right in the action.

* means starred review, so I can sound like an important reviewer. Also short for "a beautiful book"

From  NY Times blogger Errol Morris, on an ambrotype photo of three children, found in the hand of a dead Union soldier at Gettysburg. Whose Father Was He? Morris's series of posts is rich with reflections on seeing, sentiment, words, identity, and how we linger after death.