About this title: A guide to the most popular--and maligned--fiction genre, this hilariously sarcastic but always affectionate study of romance novels is perfect for hardcore fans and dabblers alike. b&w illustrations throughout.
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Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Fireside
Date Published: 2009-04-14
ISBN-13:9781416571223ISBN:1416571221
Description: Very good. Very minimal damage to the cover (no holes or tears, only minimal scuff marks), in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, minimal to no highlighting/under. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Fireside
Date Published: 2009-04-14
ISBN-13:9781416571223ISBN:1416571221
Description: Like New. May be shiny, in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, no damage to binding, may have a remainder mark. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Fireside
Date Published: 2009-04-14
ISBN-13:9781416571223ISBN:1416571221
Description: New. New, unread, unused & in perfect condition with no damaged or missing pages. This is a paperback with same cover and publisher stickers. This book is the same isbn, but is a paperback. Great Copy. Ships Lightning Fast. read more
Description: Like New. 2009-Paperback-May contain minor shelf-wear. Otherwise, volume un-read and in "As-New" condition. -Used-Like New-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Description: Fine. 1416571221 Ships next business day. NEW/UNREAD! ! ! Text is Clean and Unmarked! --Be Sure to Compare Seller Feedback and Ratings before Purchasing--Has a small black line on bottom/exterior edge of pages. May have light shelf wear to cover from storage, if any. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Fireside
Date Published: 2009-04-14
ISBN-13:9781416571223ISBN:1416571221
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9781416571223. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Fireside
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9781416571223ISBN:1416571221
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
"it's a book about the cultural phenomenon & assorted genre staples of the romance novel, written by two big-time romance novel readers who also seem to have a pretty solid grasp on feminism & lit crit. personally, i am not into romance novels. i think i have read exactly one, when i was taking an advanced genre fiction class in college & had to read a romance novel & write a paper about it. i read a book called the sheik's ransom, predictably all about a white explorer lady abducted by an angry mideastern sheik who intends to hold her for ransom, i think so cultural anthropologists will stop disturbing his subjects or something. but of course he falls in love with her, & she resists until she can resist no longer & they make sweet cross-cultural desert music in his tent or something. my paper was about the way the first gulf war influenced the characterization of mideastern characters in romance novels & the sudden new specialty industry that sprang up to support books about swarthy, demanding sheiks.
my other connection to romance novels is that i used to be responsible for maintaining the romance novel selection at powell's flagship store in portland, oregon. i spent eight hours a day for an entire year facing out the latest johanna lindsey books & shipping huge stacks of sandra brown books out to languish at the airport store. i really wish i could have read this book when i was working there (even though it didn't exist yet) because it taught me a lot about the romance novel industry & what different authors specialize in. i would have been so much better-equipped to field customer questions! i was regularly paged to talk to women who told me how much they loved the most recent maeve binchy & was there something similar i could recommend? i was just guessing based on the cover designs & i cringe to think how many women i directed to authors who specialize in erotic romance when they were after something that was more likely to be turned into a feature film starring minnie driver.
there were A LOT of aspects of this book that i just didn't get because i am not a romance novel reader. there were a lot of inside jokes & certain topics seemed to be culled directly from the wider world of online romance novel fandom. as such, i was confused, couldn't follow the text that well, & couldn't help but feel that the authors were grinding a not-terribly-important axe sometimes. then again, i'm not the target audience & i'd probably feel quite different if i was. one extra little treat for me was that some of the book's illustrations were drawn by a woman i was friendly with when i lived in portland, a good friend's girlfriend. i didn't realize that until i read the authors' acknowledgments, but when i looked at the drawings again, i recognized her style right away."
"I am a relatively new convert to SBTB followers. I only picked up on the site about a year ago and wasn't sure what to make of it. I wasn't a closet romance reader--I've always been very open about reading romances, even when I was thirteen years old toting around a bag full of 80's Harlequin titles with subject matter most 13 year olds wouldn't think about in relation to 'romance' (like revenge sex, never heard of that until I read Harlequin). When my friends would deride me for my tastes in reading material (amongst everything else they chided me about) I'd just shrug and ask them what they knew about romance.
To say I enjoyed reading this book is an understatement. When I picked it up at the bookstore to flip through a few months ago I was texting my twilight friends the definition for 'vampire' before I got to the last word, storing away information about the various archetypes of heroine to compare against my favorites and thanking god that I knew enough about the female anatomy before I read my first romance that I never believed in the magical hymen that every romance heroine has.
There were some portions that I skimmed over quickly--parts of the chapters labeled 'Corset' (about heroines) and 'Codpiece' (about heroes), 'Bad Sex' (about rape in romance) and 'Love Grotto' (about sex scenes) had sections where I just skipped them to the next header for whatever reason. Like any other Fandom meta-essay analysis book (which if you're into the Buffy, Battlestar Galactica, or Star Trek fandoms you will have read at LEAST one meta-essay book, in my case I read them like a thirsty man needs water) some of it can just be very dry and 'well I knew that'.
This book though I think is good for anyone who has a friend (male or female) who constantly teases them for liking books about 'women who swoon at men's feet and have sex willy-nilly' (I hear this a lot). Now you can pull this book out, flip to the section they just accused you of enjoying and have them read just how wrong they are. This isn't a comprehensive guide to romance books, this is a guide for the genre itself told in a witty, intelligent and easily understandable way. There's illustrations (of Mavis, the romance reader stereotype), ridiculous 'Create the Perfect Title for Your Lordly Hero' (because every historical hero needs a title that conveys his dark, brooding self) and the 'Oh Honey What's Your Problem?' (involving some of the more ridiculous reasons heroines are still virgins) games and best of all--its funny. It takes its subject matter seriously, but makes fun of all the tropes, stereotypes and plots that make the genre hard for outsiders to swallow."
"Thanks to Angie for sending me an article about intelligent women writing, reading, and applying literary criticism to romance novels; it mentioned this book, and of course I had to read it. I found much of it hysterically funny - if you've ever read even a couple of romance novels, then I think you'd enjoy it, too. The authors operate a Web site and blog, and the book's style is heavily influenced by the language of the Internet, but I was quite pleased to note that the book actively embraced the vocabulary of the Internet, but did not part company with the norms of capitalization and punctuation that I - and the editors of the Chicago Manual of Style - passionately believe have a vital place in the English language. I'm going with four stars largely because there was too much profanity for my tastes, but I definitely think it's a great way to get many readers of romance to open their minds to thinking more seriously - critically - about what they're reading, which, to me, adds to the experience. I'm sure lots of people would disagree with that, but, as a PhD-wielding historian, I have learned to embrace and celebrate Outlier status."
"Genre: Nonfiction? Comedy? Analysis of the Romance Genre? Some of all of the above?
A lot of this book is a very tongue-and-cheek look at the romance genre of the last 20 years or so, including many of the tried and true tropes of the genre - such as the innocent (and 99.9% of the time virginal) heroine and the playboy hero who gets one taste of the heroine and swears off his wicked ways in favor of luv tru luv. There is a lot of raunchy language in the book - along with much talk about the hero's Wang of Mighty Loving (she comes every time, and it's always ready for more!) and the heroine's Magical Hoo Hoo (once you have it, you'll never be satisfied with anything else ever again, amen.) which had me rolling on the floor laughing. On the more serious side, there is an entire chapter looking at the history of rape in the genre and it's whys and wherefores (which always bothered the heck out of me, and left me scratching my head about what it was doing in books about romance, especially when it's not usually the villain doing the raping, it's the hero. Go figure.) The chapter on nit-picking the clinch covers is pure fun - plus I finally understand why there are so many scantily clad large-breasted women on the covers of the novels - originally it was to sell them to the (then) predominately male distributors and wholesalers, not to the actual purchaser.
I was amused by the choose-your own adventure at the end (or at least the punch line for the paranormal romance version - but then, I've read enough of that sub-genre to really _get_ what they were poking fun at). However, I could have done without the other joke sections, like the mad-libs style write-your-own-romance and the coloring book page. I agree with one reviewer I read who really would've liked a list of all the novels they mentioned - as there were a number of pointers to books I might enjoy reading (based on heroine archetypes, plot trends, favorite heroes, etc.) but they're so scattered though the book that it's hard to find 'em again to create a list of books I might want to read.
If you enjoy romance novels, and you don't mind raunchy language (I'm not sure how else they could talk when discussing the nuts and bolts of a sexually explicit genre...) this is a hilariously funny read that I highly recommend."
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