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

The Kohl’s House provides living space for families of transplant families, who frequently spend months away from home during their child’s surgery, recovery, and follow-up care. When I was there this last time, they had quite a few kids’ books, but their selection of books for adults had dwindled to just one small bookcase. The Kohl’s House encourages families to take the books home if they haven’t yet finished (or if they just fell in love with it), so it’s not surprising that the collection has shrunk. In fact, it’s a good thing.

You don’t have to send a giant box full of books, but if you feel like dropping a few into the mail here is the address:

Kohl’s House
2422 N. Orchard
Chicago, Illinois 60614

I also checked with Michelle (manager) about any other wishes they might have, and she said that they are short on DVDs (kids or adult), and would also like VCRs as they just received a huge donation of VHS tapes, but only have one VCR for the house (each floor has a community TV, and a few rooms also have their own TVs).

Moreena, my biggest and strongest Smart Bitch wishes for your daughter and her new liver (Hi, new liver!) and my deepest thanks for a great opportunity. If you have ideas of places looking for fine, fabulous romances where they’ll do the greatest good, let me know. Or, fill a box and ship it over to Kohl’s. Happy Thanksgiving, y’all.

ETA: Moreena asked me to give folks the heads up that, while this may be an obvious thing, books should be as clean as possible because the folks undergoing care are being suppressed - in the immunological sense, not the Monty Python sense. So be conscious of the condition of the books as pertains to hair, mold, dust, etc. And as always, thank you for your generosity.

Pull my finger.

Wait, you want my love letter entry? Heh.

Back in college, before Hubby and I were officially an item, I met up with him at a New Year’s party during winter break of our freshman year. Hubby and I met in high school, and most of our mutual friends were at this party. I have no clear memory of writing a letter to him after that night, but at some point, I wrote a long, rambly, probably incoherent letter about how much I liked him and was attracted to him, and then, I mailed it. Seriously, this is not like me. I have no idea when I mailed it. But I did.

Surprise, surprise, Hubby wrote back. I received a printed out letter from him in Chicago (not handwritten; I’d never have been able to read it) when I returned back to school in South Carolina the following week. And while I don’t remember the specifics of the first paragraph, he admitted he really liked me too, he had always been attracted to me, but since we were 1000 miles apart, there wasn’t anything we could do about it anyway. Then came the memorable, romantic part, when he wrote:

“In other news, I’m going to change fonts. It’s really cold here. Today it was -40F with the wind chill. I almost froze my dick off.”

Ahh. Romance with Hubby. Nothing like it under the sun, or inside the wind chill.

The project is an absolute delight; as a long-time Nora fan I kind of get to turn my hobby into my profession, which is a blast.

Re paratextual analysis, what I’m looking at is how both the genre and the author are represented on the cover and how this changes as the position of the author changes within the genre and within (popular) culture in general. Very basically, if you look at original editions of Nora’s early categories, she’s published just like any beginning category romance author (back then) in a line. The books’ paratext is completely dominated by the line - to the extent that the individual author seems to not really matter; or at least, she’s not focussed upon. The book is presented and sold as “a Harlequin” or “a Silhouette” from a specific line - i.e. it is identified and categorized in terms of genre.

As Nora became more popular, her position within the genre changed. She started publishing single title romances and emerged as an individual author within the genre - which was reflected in the paratext: e.g. her name on the cover became bigger and bigger. The more popular she became - and becomes - the more the focus shifts to the author name ‘Nora Roberts’ instead of the line/publisher/genre - so, eventually the very same novels which were originally sold as romances in a partciular line, are now re-issued and presented as romances by Nora Roberts. Her readers no longer necessarily buy/read ‘a romance novel’ but ‘a Nora Roberts’.

To map and track this change and how it came about - e.g. the role of different publishers played in the process, Nora’s tendencies to write connected books - I want to compare paratexts of different editions of novels.  I’ll complement this analysis with a textual analysis - looking at Nora’s particular use of genre conventions, her renegotiating and changing some of those conventions, her tendency to mix in different genres while still respecting and skillfully using the romance framework, etc. In that way I hope to eventually be able to demonstrate how Nora Roberts has “outgrown” the romance genre - her name has become a brand name in itself - both in terms of what she writes, as how this is presented and sold to the reader.

That sounds like a very savvy project. I hope that’s very well received by your professors, An! So what’s the issue?

Well, since An’s in Belgium, and as a grad student, the fundage, it is limited. Hence An is looking for a number of things: “I want to buy all editions of all of Nora Roberts’ novels in English, published between 1981 and 2008. I have two questions: how do I determine which editions exist (I do have the Companion, but only covers reissues until 2003) and how do I get my hands on them?”

I recommended: Paperback Swap, AbeBooks, and Alibris.

Oh! And the Harlequin shop at Lughnassadh Books, which specializes in old Harlequins. If owner Derek Stafford doesn’t have the books you’re looking for, he might be able to find a source for it, or at least trace all the editions you may need.

Any other sources you recommend, Oh Wise Bitchery?