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

I found this amazing and inspiring article on the Yahoo!News Book/Publishing News page, which lately is about as full of good news as the Dow Jones industrial average. A young man in Albuquerque raised over $6000.00 to help build a library in Ethiopia as part of a nonprofit charity’s efforts to improve literacy in that country. Ethiopia Reads has built 30 libraries and aims for 100 by 2010.

Tobyn Pulice raised the money by selling “Shout Outs” for .25c during morning announcements at school, which brought in $1800, and then helped organize a community golf tournament.

Ethiopia Reads was founded by Yohannes Gebregeorgis, who grew up with a complete lack of books to the point that “he can remember each one he read until he was 19 years old.”

Pretty awesome, right? Ok, now for the fun section. This is the part that nearly knocked me out with the giggles:

I lift myself form turkey coma to link you to snortworthy cartoons. I want those stickers, like, now.

[Thanks to Beth for the link.]

I’m thankful for many things, especially for you. For you who send me links to Large Water Butts and disgusting cookbooks and weird Friday Videos and all the man titty I could ever wish for, and for you who come and read every day, perhaps never commenting but always stopping by.

Back when Candy and I started our site, we had four readers: her, me, Hubby, and her friend in Singapore. We never expected that we’d have this incredible growing readership, or the community of stabbingly sharp, smart women who adore romances as much as we do, who argue respectfully yet gleefully embrace our love of ripe cussing, and who make our site better for your presence.

Our site amazes us every day because of you, so thank you. Thank you very, very much for making our site a part of your tour-de-Internet.

Enjoy your turkey. 

It’s that time of year - when lights are on the houses, when the days are shorter, when the long, chilly nights are full of the promise that you get to read sex scenes out loud.

Why? It’s time for the Literary Review’s Bad Sex Award . Oh, the things we have to be thankful for. A throbbing, turgid congratulations to Rachel Johnson’s Shire Hell.

You can read more about the short listed books in last week’s Guardian article. The shortlisted excerpts are majestic to say the least. My fave of the excerpts:

There was nothing but obliterating sensation as we contorted like origami creations for the next hour....

Origami? Like Pornogami? Word up!

[Thanks to Rebecca, Becca and Phyllis for the links.]

So many of you have forwarded me the Questionable Content cartoon for today entitled, ‘I love you, Sandra Hill.’ Have a look.

Perhaps your blood pressure will rise a bit at the “just a shitty romance novel.” And again at “Girl-porn.”

But look closer - she who casts the stone of “Girl-porn?” In the next frame she’s grabbing that paperback and then reading it. And even as the girl who calls her novel “shitty hilarious girl porn” sneers at it, she’s totally into it. I’d like to know where she falls on the Dear Author Apologia Scale.

Haj wrote, “I must know if there is, indeed, a romance novel about a time-travelling Viking who becomes a Navy SEAL.” I don’t know if he becomes a SEAL, but there is no time travel viking like a Sandra Hill time travel viking, hence Ms. Hill’s name on the cover.

As near as I can tell, this book is Viking Unchained.

So a slap on the wrist for Questionable Content for the girl porn/shitty romance double-punch. And yes, time traveling viking Navy SEALS is totally mock worthy. But as a merry fan of The Very Virile Viking, I say to Questionable Content: