Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

Thanks to Natasha for the heads up:

One of the last awesome, crazy-funky bookstores in my city only to find out that it is going out of business. Sadly, that is a tired old tune, but in this case perhaps the bitchery can benefit. In a desperate bid to keep the store open, the owner, (a delightful rambler in the way that only old scottish guys can be) is trying to GIVE the store away. Seriously, if all you have is sweat equity, he’ll take it.

The place is floor-to-ceiling full, nearing fire hazard scale and contains an absolute jewel of a romance section. I couldn’t even look through the whole thing properly because most of the shelves were blocked by additional boxes of books. I saw scads of decades-old harlequins/mills boon/etc. The potential cover snark material was dizzying.

The bookstore is called, (appropriately) Booklovers in North Vancouver. He says he got so much inventory by being the bookstore equivalent to a bottle return depot.

According to Natasha, the bookstore itself is for sale, and interested parties can talk to the current owner, who should be there all weekend moving inventory. So if you’re in Vancouver (and if you are I am so jealous) stop by and get yerself some books, matey. 

On 5 June, romance writer Barbara Lantz passed away at the age of 82. Today, 3 July, the Arizona Daily Star published an obituary for Ms. Lantz, and this one obituary article about the founder of the Tuscon Saguaro Romance Writers does a considerable amount to raise the profile of and reveal the real people behind the genre. I think, from reading this article, Ms. Lantz would want it that way.

Barbara Lantz was a romance writer.

Not the bodice-ripping, Fabio-loving, heroine-in-need-of-rescue type of romance writer. Turns out the slender pulp paperbacks with swooning women and muscular men on their covers were more the fantasy of the men who published them than the women who wrote them.

Lantz wrote sweet, believable American tales about capable women who, in the course of their lives’ adventures, met honorable men worthy of their love....

Members of the Saguaro Romance Writers agree the genre has gotten a bad rap over the years, mostly due to silly marketing ploys and cheesy book covers. In reality, they say, romance is a respected, well-read and lucrative genre.

“It’s the most feminist of all literature because it’s the only form of literature where women are guaranteed to win and come out with an emotionally satisfying finish,” [Maureen] Caudill said.

Well played, Ms. Lantz. Well played.

From the “Now See Here, Motherfucker, We Work Hard On Those Reviews” department comes word of an eBay store swiping the reviews written by other users on Amazon and review blogs, and posting them on their own book listings under their own name.

The EDson Financial Group has posted over 220 reviews on eBay, and according to a few online sources, including Joyfully Reviewed, those beefy reviews were swiped from other sources, usually from among Amazon featured reviews.

Kathleen Gilligan has posted about it and has started notifying reviewers on Amazon via the comment feature that their writing has been thieved for eBay without attribution.

For example: a review for “Charm!” “by” Kendall Hart posted on 23 February 2008 matches identically a review by Carol “Avid 20-something reader” on Amazon.com, posted 18 February 2008.

From the “If I Had a Bodrillion Dollars and Free Healthcare” department comes my pondering of a “more better documentary” about romance – one that started at RT and kept going to RWA, The Romance Slam Jam, and some of the more awesome chapter conferences and reader events. Alas, my million has not rolled in so I’m left to dream.

But this month’s letter from RWA President Sherry Lewis reveals her year as “The Face of Romance” - a title that made her cringe, as she is not normally, as she puts it, a “bona fide introvert.” Lewis, who declines all interviews no matter how many times I say “Pbbbblease?” represented RWA at the Public Library Association’s National Conference with Allison Kelley and Stephani Fry (all of whom are very cool, says I) and her experience proves that there’s some genuinely active and eager people out there looking for romance to read (and not necessarily man titty to grope along with it):

Thanks to Kari, who directed me to this article, we have news that the Indiana law that “required booksellers and others to pay a fee for selling ‘adult’ material” was overruled by a Federal judge. Sarah’s Succinct Legal Commentary: “Thank God and thank judges named Sarah.”

U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker ruled that the law “burdens First Amendment rights and is unconstitutionally vague and overly broad.”

I’ll give you a moment to celebrate before pointing your attention, as Kari directed, towards the comments, specifically one by “Phred” who lovingly states,

As someone else said, you didn’t need to be a Harvard Law grad to see the folly in this “law.” And by the way, if you want to read some really explicit stuff, check out some of the “romance” novels at your local Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library branch. They make the letters in Penthouse Forum seem tame!

I think it’s time I ran for Queen. And when I am Queen, it will be none of anyone else’s goddam business what I read, what’s in what I read, where I buy it or where I borrow it from. Same goes for you, Phred. And if you can’t tell the difference between Penthouse Forum and a romance, you need to avail yourself of that library some more, and stop reading so much of the Forum to begin with before you start passing judgment on what is and what isn’t explicit.