Trashy red-haired heroines!
Oct. 30th, 2009 05:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnFor a while there I wasn't really feeling up to reading much meaty. I was in fact craving trashy-but-not-completely-badly-written novels. My usual go-to for that is to reread Judith Krantz's Mistral's Daughter, which has oodles of trashy romance, not to mention three generations of gorgeous professional-model red-haired Mary Sues. It's not even horribly badly written (for example, I can no longer physically read the Sidney Sheldon I scarfed down as a kid, it's that bad), though note I am not particularly recommending it to anyone here. So, I finished that and was still casting around for something. I decided to reread that trashy-but-usually-not-unacceptably-badly-written long-novel with gorgeous model-quality heroine and hyper-masculine red-haired Gary Sue. Yes, The Fountainhead. I love that book! It is so deliciously trashy, what with the frigid heroine melting when Her Man shows up, the total bonding of Peter Keating (whom, by the way, I totally love) to his alpha male, the wife swapping, the total manly-man Roark-Wynand friendship and love triangle. (Note also that I intensely despise most of Atlas Shrugged, which tries to be bombastic rather than deliciously trashy, thus losing all the charm of Fountainhead. And is depressing to boot.) Yes, I know Ayn Rand is turning in her grave at being compared to Judith Krantz... bonus!
This all led to a conversation with D in which a reorganization of our bookshelves was proposed. They are currently organized in a Byzantine system involving a) how much we like the book (horizontal depth and partial vertical placement), b) category of book (room and vertical placement), c) height of book (inter-shelf placement), and d) author last name (intra-shelf placement). The new proposed system: a) hair color, and possibly b) eye color.
Besides Mistral's Daughter and Fountainhead, on the red-haired shelf would go Bujold's Cordelia books, Hero and the Crown, Heinlein's To Sail Beyond the Sunset (the only reason I own this one is because of the heroine's marked resemblance to my awesome high school junior-year roommate)... Cordwainer Smith's stories about C'mell... probably more I can't think of off-hand. I'm a little shocked, actually, at how much red hair there is around, given how few people I know in real life with red hair, though I suppose I shouldn't be.
(Also, I recently picked up one of the Alanna (Tamora Pierce) books from the library because I was feeling nostalgic, and was horrified to find that Alanna has red hair and purple eyes AND a sentient cat. Who also has purple eyes. (D thought this was hilarious, mind you.)
Does anyone else have trashy but still compulsively readable fic they would be willing to recommend? For reference, besides Krantz, I like in this category Maeve Binchy and Agatha Christie (well, I don't think of her as trashy, but she is not exactly literary).
This all led to a conversation with D in which a reorganization of our bookshelves was proposed. They are currently organized in a Byzantine system involving a) how much we like the book (horizontal depth and partial vertical placement), b) category of book (room and vertical placement), c) height of book (inter-shelf placement), and d) author last name (intra-shelf placement). The new proposed system: a) hair color, and possibly b) eye color.
Besides Mistral's Daughter and Fountainhead, on the red-haired shelf would go Bujold's Cordelia books, Hero and the Crown, Heinlein's To Sail Beyond the Sunset (the only reason I own this one is because of the heroine's marked resemblance to my awesome high school junior-year roommate)... Cordwainer Smith's stories about C'mell... probably more I can't think of off-hand. I'm a little shocked, actually, at how much red hair there is around, given how few people I know in real life with red hair, though I suppose I shouldn't be.
(Also, I recently picked up one of the Alanna (Tamora Pierce) books from the library because I was feeling nostalgic, and was horrified to find that Alanna has red hair and purple eyes AND a sentient cat. Who also has purple eyes. (D thought this was hilarious, mind you.)
Does anyone else have trashy but still compulsively readable fic they would be willing to recommend? For reference, besides Krantz, I like in this category Maeve Binchy and Agatha Christie (well, I don't think of her as trashy, but she is not exactly literary).
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Date: 2009-10-31 01:12 am (UTC)If you want less-trashy, more meaty, still not heavy reading, try Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson books (werewolves and such, but believably - example, the heroine reflects on morning that in the books she reads, the protagonist doesn't have to get up and go to work after a long night hunting things that go bump. Then Mercy gets up and goes to work). On the more trashy but in the same vein end of things, there's Jennifer Rardin's Jaz Parks books (vampire CIA agents). I also like Suzanne Enoch's Addison and Jellicoe books, starting with Flirting with Danger (art thief meets millionaire, gets set up for attempted murder, chaos ensues. The sex scenes are skippable.)
Or, really, you could just poke around my Library Thing catalog, especially stuff tagged "2009" - trashy and compulsive is about all I've managed since finishing grad school.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-31 01:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-31 01:31 am (UTC)Others, hrm. I randomly attempted an Amanda Quick historical a few months ago, quite possibly on a nod from LMB. It was so unspeakably awful I couldn't even make fun of it. Perhaps Heyer's The Grand Sophy, though I've had far less luck with anything else of hers. If you want the Y-chromosome version, try Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series. Orphan boy grows from childhood torments through assorted fantasy military adventures to be the long lost prince of the realm with great powers and righteousness, oh and he's pretty too. Boring romance, though, and epically but pleasantly brainless. I would rec Anne Bishop here for utter WTFery, but I physiologically can not bring myself to rec Anne Bishop to another human being, so take that as you will.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-31 01:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-31 06:27 am (UTC)I have not attempted any Rand.
Hmm...Julie Kenner, at least the California Demon books -- I have a few of her others, but haven't read them yet. Meg Cabot, _Size 12 Is Not Fat_ and sequels -- chick lit mysteries, not horrid, just cheesy. I went through a Phyllis A. Whitney phase when I was younger, but haven't read any recently enough to say how well they hold up to adult judgment of writing quality. Carrie Vaughn's Kitty books are fun, too. The first 6-8 Anita Blake books are good, but when it starts getting bad, stop -- it won't get better. (Different readers place the stop point differently, but usually in that range.) Charlaine Harris. Mom likes Dick Francis and P.D. James, on the mystery side; I haven't read them.
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Date: 2009-10-31 11:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-04 03:47 pm (UTC)Ah, Meg Cabot! Yay chick lit! I tried Anita Blake without great success, unfortunately; maybe because I started with a later book. I checked out a Kenner and was sort of mystified, because it turned out I think I got a later book in the series... I should start again at the beginning.
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Date: 2009-10-31 09:19 am (UTC)In your new filing system, it'll be under hair: red.
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Date: 2009-11-02 03:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-04 03:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-04 03:53 pm (UTC)I didn't like the Arthurian trilogy nearly as much (though it was still fun to play the game, maybe even more fun because I know quite a lot of Arthuriana). I haven't kept up with her since then -- hasn't she written other stuff? Have you read it?
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Date: 2009-11-04 05:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-06 02:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-07 06:21 am (UTC)and then the younger son of the psionic ruling family ran away from home to start a rock band on Earth under an assumed name
kind of makes me want to try it anyway.