Wed Reading Meme...

[Am somewhat irritable today - I blame the shift in weather, having a sick headache, and work. Last night entertained myself with the ice dancing - which was good. Weirdly, my favorite pairing was the Russian couple who came in third and got the Bronze. Yes, I know I should be happy the American team from Michigan won - but honestly? I don't care if the Americans win any medals. Yep - I'm about as patriotic as a stone, actually I think the stone is more patriotic. Also, no one came close to the emotional energy and pull of the great UK ice dancing team of Torvelle and Dean. ]

1. What I Just Finished Reading?

Beguiling the Beauty by Sherry Thomas - which I reviewed here. And suffers from the same problem that all of Thomas' novels appear to suffer from - which is a hasty ending, and a tendency to over-do it in regards to the angst separation factor - to the extent that the reader wants to throttle either the hero or the heroine for being a harebrained jerk. shipperx and I have a lengthy and rather spoilery chat about this in the comments to my review- apparently Thomas also does it in the sequel to this novel, Tempting the Bride.

That said, Thomas is amongst the better writers in this genre, and I enjoy her deconstruction of tropes, smart savvy heroines, and concentration on relationship over sexual hijinks (which gets old after a bit.)

2. What I'm Reading Now?

Still plodding my way through The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood - which is beautifully written and has a fascinating narrative device. Right now - I'm somewhat obsessed by narrative structure and narrative devices. I find them cool. But unfortunately, and this appears to be a problem with most of Atwood's novels, it's depressing and a wee bit on the preachy side.

I don't know why this is - but literary writers tend to describe life as rather bleak. And seem obsessed with pathetic or depressed characters.

Also reading Judith Ivory's The Proposition - which is gender flip on My Fair Lady. Granted, Ivory's more into the sexual foreplay and teasing than either George Bernard Shaw or Lerner and Low ever were. But that's hardly surprising - it is a romance novel. That said - we do get a lot of information on linguistics and speech pathology. Tempted to rec to my mother, who was a speech pathologist once upon a time. She might get a kick out of it.

In this historical romance novel, the heroine is a linguist and speech pathologist of sorts (they call it something else - that I can't quite remember and don't feel like looking up.) The hero is a rat-catcher - who agrees to let the heroine coach him over the space of six weeks on how to become a Gentleman, in particular a Viscount, in return for a 100 pounds. Two snooty brothers have engaged the heroine and the hero in a bet. One of the brothers, Jeremy, bet the other one, Emile, that the heroine can pass the hero off as a Viscount at the Duke's ball. The heroine agreed for two reasons, one - they are going to pay her for her trouble, and two - the Duke in question is her annoying and snooty cousin who inherited her home and wealth. The ratcatcher/hero agreed because of the 100 pounds and he's sweet on the heroine. The heroine is described as tall and lanky, while the hero is classically handsome (without his mustache). It takes place during the Victorian Age - they reference Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

3) What I'm Reading Next?

Eh, I never know.

I'm flirting with the Courtney Milan trilogy - Unveiled, Unclaimed...and Unraveled. Mainly because I like Courtney Milan. Or Kim Harrison's latest Rachel Morgan - which I may buy for my birthday. (It's more expensive). Or Luckiest Lady, Ravishing the Heiress, and Tempting the Bride by Sherry Thomas (although based on my discussions with shipperx I'm thinking Milan is probably the better bet.)

Also flirting with Meg Wolistzer's The Interestings - which my mother loved and told me that I'd identify with, or Life After Life (aka the book that appears to be confusing but fascinating my mother at the moment due to its intriguing but potentially confusing narrative structure) - while the narrative structure is definitely intriguing, it may annoy me due to poor character development (according to Good Reads reviews) and the time period (I am not a fan of books set during WWI and WWII...burned out on that period ages ago, and as you know I'm a character girl, if the characters aren't developed or emotionally compelling? I get bored.). Also still flirting with the books my brother gave me for Xmas that I have yet to read. Too many books, not enough time.

Stupid broadcast television...

I hate it when networks do this - they order eight episodes of a series...you get into the series, then they decide to cut it to six - and skip over two episodes, showing just the finale one. Which would work fine if the series is well Law and Order or episodic story like Castle, but not if it has evolving characters and an on-going story in the background.

That's what they did with Killer Women - they slashed it from eight to six, ignored the fact that it had an intriguing serial plot line - it's a hybrid: episodic and serial.
Clearly whoever scheduled this didn't watch the series.

At any rate the last episode was a cliff-hanger, Billy, the heroine's brother was just caught by her DEA agent boyfriend drug smuggling. I tune in this week - and we've skipped ahead to the season and series finale. The middle two episodes are gone.

This is sort of akin to watching a movie and missing 30 minutes of it. Or reading a book, and discovering the publisher for no apparent reason removed two key and very vital chapters.

How hard would it be to show all three episodes?

See? This is why people are fleeing by the droves to streaming services, cable channels and DVD. It's the stupid broadcast networks own fault - they've sold their souls to advertisers and ratings. If you can't trust the network to show you the entire story - why bother trying it?

Eh...going to bed. Stupid annoying day. Won't bore with details. But world you win, I give up.