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

It’s Friday, and you know what that means: Be the first to guess the correct author, title and name of the heroine (don’t! forget! the! heroine!) and find yourself the proud owner of a totally awesome, totally biodegradable and totally Energy Star compliant Smart Bitch aristocratic title.

Love in the Dark

SWF, rich as freakin’ Croesus, on my way to France for an arranged marriage that I’m totally not into. Hey, the lights on my ocean liner just went out. Want to fool around a little? OK, a lot. Hot Arabs preferred.

I made the mistake of reading this on Tuesday night. It was late for me--about 11 p.m.--and I was dog-tired, but I’m the kind of girl who needs a book to lull her to sleep.

This book did not lull me to sleep. Despite knowing everything that happens, courtesy of the movie, the book firmly attached itself to my fingers and refused to let go until I turned the last page. Even then, I started over and re-read several pages before I looked at the clock, realized that 1 a.m. was sidling up on me and my alarm clock was going to ring in five hours.

Those of you who watched the movie know the story already: Marv, a big, ugly psychotic (and psychopathic) killer spends a drunken night of pleasure in the arms of a gorgeous woman named Goldie. When he wakes up, Goldie is dead, and police sirens are ringing.

Someone wanted Goldie dead. Someone wants to frame Marv for her murder.

The rest of the book traces Marv’s obsession with finding Goldie’s killer and avenging her death, no matter what the cost. The results are a visceral--and I mean that in a literal sense--blood-soaked rampage through Sin City.

Marv is quite possibly one of the most perversely appealing fictional characters I’ve run across, barring Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. Unlike the latter, however, there’s a side to Marv that’s tender, even sweet. Frankly, he reminded me quite a bit of Don Quixote. OK, the good Don wasn’t an overgrown lug who wasn’t satisfied until his victims screamed. But Marv’s worship of a woman he barely knows, his refusal to hurt dames, his relentless quest for her killers, the confusion over what’s real and what’s not and his willingness to take on a task despite the overwhelming odds because dammit, it’s the right thing to do made me think of Don Quixote more than once. This is a psycho with an unwavering moral code, and goddamn, I liked him for it.

And the artwork--what can I say about the artwork? The black-and-white panels are stark, crude and beautiful. The play of shadow and light and the creative way Miller framed many of the panels means it sometimes takes more than a quick glance to figure out exactly what’s going on, but I like that aspect of this book. Some of the drawings, like the panels of Marv walking in the rain, or leaping through the windshield of a cop car, gave me goosebumps. Giving me goosebumps right now remembering them, actually.

I can’t recommend this graphic novel highly enough. If you liked the movie, you’ll love this book. If you like ultra-violent noir, you’ll love this book. If you like comics in general--well, shit, you’re probably sneering at me for waiting this long before getting my mitts on a copy of this classic. Anyway, what can I say? Go. Read it. Laugh. Cringe. And glory in the seedy, insane world that is Marv.

For those of you who haven’t found out about this site on Maili’s blog, go check out Lovespace. It’s a blog dedicated to Futuristic and SF romances, with lots of listings, excerpts, covers (ahhh, new fodder for Covers Gone Wild!) and space for reader reviews and ratings on the books.

I’ve visited the blog several times, but I just end up drooling over the banner instead of checking out excerpts.

I’ve been completely self-absorbed lately. More than usual, I mean. We’re moving out in a few weeks, and I’ve been going into panic mode. And now, all of a sudden, I have decided I need to see if we can afford to buy a house.

In short: my insularity has shot up to sky-high levels. (Not to be confused with my insulin, though given how much weight I’ve put in the past few years, I probably need to worry about that, too. Crap.)

Anyway, I somehow missed the fact that a huge-ass hurricane called Katrina has wreaked holy hell along the southern coast of the US. And I found out today from Alison Kent’s blog that Larissa Ione is one of the many people who have been affected by this disaster. Please check Alison’s page for a list of ways you can help Larissa, and stay tuned for an upcoming auction on her behalf.

I’m a day late, but at least I’m not a dollar short.

Those of you who are interested in donating money for disaster relief, check out these usual suspects:

Red Cross

Mercy Corps

Catholic Charities

And don’t forget the companion animals! When disaster strikes, pets can be affected just as badly--if not worse, since most disaster shelters won’t take animals--as people. Some people who are helping out our furry/feathered/scaly/chitinous (hey, many people own arthropods as pets!) friends:

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

The Humane Society of the United States

American Humane Association

Noah’s Wish

And for any and all charity donations you might wish to make, check out how your prospective recipient disburses their revenue at Charity Navigator.

So Sarah and I successfully broke our adserver, then successfully resurrected it. It’s working now. If not, we’re ready to kick, bludgeon and otherwise violently punish it until it behaves again.

We’ve also created a spiffy terms and conditions page. Just click on the Ads button up above. Or click on the button you see shilling our ad space off to the right. Or click on this link.

One more thing: Is the ad breaking anybody’s layout? Emma, are you still having issues with the sidebar appearing at the bottom? I’ve tested this on three different browsers (IE, Firefox and Netscape) running on Windows 2000, but more feedback would be good. Let us know of any problems in the comments.