Covers, 2

Back to Vanora Bennett in our discussion of the differences between covers geared for different markets.

The first book of hers I read was Figures in Silk; I took it out from the library, but I first saw the book with the (hard)cover at left: clearly historical fiction, but the image doesn't "read" trashy to me.  I do not think I would have noted down the title, and then looked it up, if I had seen the paperback cover,  below, or the British cover (with cheesier title, Queen of Silks).  And why?  Bosoms.  A low-cut bodice is a beautiful thing - of all people, I am the last to deny that - but it has nothing to do with the quality of the book, and I really am pretty sure there is some kind of mathematical relationship, where the more cleavage is showing on the outside of the book, the less brains will be evident on the inside - this is, of course, clearly different from real life, and real women. 

Viva la cleava!

I suppose rather than complaining, I should take a lesson, that just because I might be a little embarassed to take a book up to the register, it doesn't mean it's not a good book.

And maybe I should just get the hell over myself, since I suppose this could all be some sort of intellectual snobbery on my part.  I mean, I am sure I have enjoyed some of those books by that lady, that they made a movie of, the Tudor escapades...lalala, can't think of her name now...Philipa Gregory!  Anyways.  Trashtastic covers, yeah, but a) doesn't mean they're trash books, and b) maybe even the fact I am calling them trashtastic is just me being super judgy, which is not cool.  But...in argument FOR judging, tell me I'm wrong:

Do these look like the same book at all???  I saw the cover on the left, and grabbed for it, before I even recognized the name/subject.  The cover on the right, okay, not too showy, but still - would have maybe been something I picked up for a plane ride, MAYBE, but it would have been something I casually flipped over, in passing, along with lots of other stuff, versus catching my eye & making me take note.  And, okay, yes, this is SO shallow, but if one is going to spill out of my bag at work, which one do I want my Pulitzer-Prize-winning historian boss to see?  Yep.  Ha - speaking of that, I saw this thing online, book covers that say "War & Peace," etc., in big type (obv fake) for your pink-covered books on the subway.  Cute.

International Covers: Or, "What Up With the Covers Being Bosom-ified to Catch the Stupid People Audience?"

I was just on Vanora Bennett's website, and was noticing how different the covers for the UK and US, not to mention hardcover and paperback, versions of her books are, and I thought it would be an interesting (for me, anyways) topic to explore and then talk about here.  Then, not even thinking about it, I went to Lauren Willig's website, and when I was reading about her upcoming book tour stops, I noticed she had a blog posting of her own about the ways the covers of just one of her books have changed based the audience they're being marketed to.  Really, really interesting.  I hate to say it, but it's all about snob factor, I think.  Which I just remarked in the comments on Willig's blog, whoops!  Hope she does not remember I emailed her a while ago, because the covers only disappoint me because I think they don't even HINT at the awesomeness inside...maybe I should have written that, lol!
I think the whole cover issue becomes even more convoluted when you have genre-crossing books, like Willig's - historical fiction, mystery, contemporary fiction, romance.  And they do seem to emphasize the "romance" (a/k/a bosoms and beads) on the covers of the paperbacks and mass-market offerings.
Let's take a look.
This is the version of the Secret History of the Pink Carnation that I first picked up years ago, at the little bookstore kiosk in South Station, while I was on my way to D.C. for a work trip (I think).  I remember being drawn to the matte cover, as I always am, and liking the old-fashioned illustration, and the title line with the parchment & seal kind of look.  When I turned it over and read the back, I was hooked when I heard "graduate student," even though the romance parts made me a little wary, but I wouldn't even have turned the book over in the first place if the cover hadn't caught my eye while I was casually browsing.  If, however, I had seen the cover below, which will be the "mass market paperback" cover (October, 2010 release), I wouldn't even have paused - I would have thought "romance schlock" if I had thought anything at all about it, and kept moving on.  Plus, I mean - it looks Victorian, so how are the spies supposed to be fighting Napoleon??

Chick-lit follow-up

So, last night I had a really wonderful time doing absolutely nothing with T, my dear, dear friend and former roommate.  We sat around on my couch and talked about serious matters and inconsequential fluff, watched the season premiere of America's Next Top Model, and had prosecco & creamcheese brownies from the Black Sheep (yes, I brought them from Amherst to Boston, and it was totally worth it!).  F***ing phenomenal.  And, of course, with a friend who knows you as well as T knows me, and who you are as open & comfortable with as I am with her, the serious things can be dealt with in a light way that makes them easier to process, and serious insights can be found in the fluffier chats.
I also finally got to give her her Christmas present, which included The Monsters of Templeton, which I have already declared my love for in this blog.  I am so excited for her to read it, and I was also really happy because she told me how much she had liked The Flamenco Academy (which, again, I originally read the same weekend as Monsters of Templeton), and even passed it on to a friend.  Some books I read and never think about again, or they're just good for a break from real life once in a while, but some books have a bigger impact, and I think the best sign of a book is if you recommend it to someone you care for and respect.  I've said it before, but these are two books I just thought were fantastic, and I am so, so excited that someone I love thought so too!
They're both novels by women, about women, and both - in some ways - about growing up and finding your (female) self, but if they're chick lit, they're chick lit in the best way.  I was thinking about them again last night, because I gave one (so now both) to T, but also because I have been really bothered by this currently chronic leg/back pain that I assume is a result of the surgery I had in December.  At first I was trying to escape the pain by reading really "light" books, thinking I wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything too serious or well-written, but these were two books that I thought were very well written, and end up dealing with some quite serious emotions and situations, but they're so compelling and real that as a reader you just get dragged in, and that makes a real escape possible.  Heresy's really not cutting it for me in that sense right now (although a combo of prosecco & chocolate-coma, Heresy, tylenol pm, and CVS-brand muscle rub are somewhat helpful - minus the fact my apartment now smells minty/mentholy-fresh all day long!), but I am going to try to scope out my shelves for a weekend winner. 
Have La Salle, by John Vernon, with me today: I needed to bring a book because I am going to the doctor's to get checked out, and need waiting room reading, but I'm too close to the end of Heresy, and it's too heavy, to bring it with me and finish it in ten minutes, so La Salle was the lightest book I could grab quickly.  Don't even remember when I took it out from the library or why, but at least it will be a surprise, even if it's not great!

Carole Nelson Douglas' Irene Adler series

While g-chatting with C today - since, obviously, there is no reason why I would be actually working - the subject of Harlequin romance novels came up.  I suspect I would not enjoy those all that much, but goodness knows the Pink Carnation books (Lauren Willig) are solidly in the romance category, as much as I would love to deny it.  And that made me think about my first introduction to romance novels - the Irene Adler series by Carole Nelson Douglas.  I have loved those books since my mom gave me the series opener, Good Night, Mr. Holmes, to read after she was done with it - and defended the quality of the book to my 7th grade teacher, who thought any book with cleavage on the front was not appropriate for a book report (looking back, it was a really restrained cover, compared to some, but Whalen was an idiot, we all knew that).
The series is narrated (at least at first, but I will get to that later) by Nell Huxleigh, the naive parson's daughter from the English countryside (or something like that) who is adrift in Victorian London and gets caught up with Irene Adler, pre-affair with the Prince of Bohemia and the resulting tussles with Sherlock Holmes.  Along the way, the two meet up with Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, and Anton Dvorak, as well as a minor character or two from the Holmes canon.  The books are simply fun, and, I think quite well written.  Nell and Irene's characters are both well-drawn, and they feel like real people.  Nell, in particular, I just wanted to be an older sister or something.  And they run around solving mysteries, occasionally with dashing gentlemen - and plots turning on Liberty silks and Worth gowns.  There is actually almost an annoying amount of detail given to their "costumes" as they were callled, and I wonder if that has been removed from the new releases.

The second book was called Good Morning, Irene when I read it, but is now in print as The Adventuress - I don't know why they changed the name, except maybe to sex it up, or if the text has been revised at all.  Sarah Bernhardt comes charging in as a series regular which is tons of fun.  Irene at Large has been tranformed into A Soul of Steel (I guess ditto on the sex-ing up, but really?  Who uses a Conan Doyle quote for that?  And, now that I'm thinking about it - is he cited as Conan Doyle?  Or Doyle?  The former, I think, but I will have to check with M).  Regardless of what title to use, this one is a favorite of mine (and J.T.'s!) because it introduces the character of Mr. Quentin Stanhope - who is, natch, a dashing British gentleman!  Who was a spy in India and Pakistan!  And has unconventional ideas on women's abilities to think for themselves (they can) and corsets (not necessary)!  Exclamation points abound!!!  And he gave my beloved dog a name, so I will always adore the character for that.  But, seriously, he's a heartbreaker.  Then maker.  I'm swooning a little thinking about him :)

There was a long gap, as I recall, between Irene at Large and the next book, Irene's Last Waltz, which is now known as Another Scandal in Bohemia.  Here the author or publisher, or both, are just totally drafting on Conan Doyle, but I'm fine with that.  Less fine with the fact, though, that this was the last really good book in the series.  There was an even longer pause, and I do not know what the f*** happened, but all of a sudden it was like CND had a traumatic personality split, and the fetishy side came out.  Annoying characters (AHEM, fictionalized Nellie Bly, girl muckraker) and totally gratuitous sexually based crimes drag the whole thing down with the last four volumes.  To be fair, I guess when one, Chapel Noir (Number 5) is about Jack the Ripper, you kinda can't avoid that.  But they went from books I read over and over again from my pre-teens on (numbers 1-4) to books I read half of, and skimmed half of, and then never picked up again.  After Chapel Noir there was Castle Rouge (yeah, BRILLIANTLY imaginative titles there) which concluded a two-parter.  Those were followed by another set, Femme Fatale and Spider Dance (Lola Montez lives?!)  Maybe I will try them again...like next time I have strep and if I end up at my parents' house...it kills me, because 1-4 are SO f***ing good, but I just can't handle 5-8 - that said, I will totally buy 9 if another one ever comes out.  Because I'm a book wh*re :)

Great "chick lit" for a rainy, lazy weekend indoors

So, this year I went on a little single-book-shopping spree and bought 4 copies of the same book: one to keep for myself, and the rest to give away as Christmas presents.  I first read The Monsters of Templeton, by Lauren Groff, as a library book last fall.  I adored it, and devoured it curled up under my big down comforter one rainy weekend.  I loved the little nods to history (the town, Templeton, is clearly inspired by Cooperstown, NY) and literature (lots of references to  James Fennimore Cooper character, as well as his stories).  It also had several great characters who were fully, and finely, drawn.  When I saw it on the remainders table at the Harvard bookstore around the holidays I knew it was meant to be - a great book that I would be happy to read again and had no hesitations about recommending, on sale???  Of course, I was simultaneously thrilled to be picking up each copy for around $5 and totally pissed off that such a great book had ended up on the remainder table at all - in my world, this book should be flying off shelves everywhere. Only problem is that I haven't seen half the people I intended to give the book to, so I still have multiple copies on my shelf.  Need to remember to do something about that soon.

I remember being especially pleased with Monsters of Templeton because the other book I had taken out of the library that Friday, and started on the bus on the way home from work, was Sarah Bird's The Flamenco Academy.  That one had been an incredibly engaging (for me) exploration of personal growth and how we construct, and re-construct our identities...complete with a hot Flamenco guitarist, yum.  The exotic lure of flamenco music, dance, and culture for the main character translated to the reader too, and I got sucked in.  I loved Flamenco Academy, just as much as Templeton, albeit for different reasons.  When I was done with it I actually regretted that the experience of reading it was over, and worried that the next book I had to read (Templeton) would be tainted by its predecessor's awesomeness - like when you eat a really delicious peach, juicy and ripe, and then bite into another one and it's all hard and flavorless, or you have a perfectly crisp, tasty apple, and then the next one is mealy and gross.  But Templeton more than held its own, and the two made for a really fantastic rainy weekend.


They may not really be "chick" lit in so much as pink-covered novels, and an engagement ring is not the heroines' goal, but they have wonderfully drawn female main characters, and both explore the way women grow up and how they veiw the world around them as they do so, so I think they are chick lit in the best sense of the term.