My 2006 Reading in Review

My mother got much sicker but now she's better. I hope she's passed her genes onto me! And I hope you all had a great festive season.

I keep a diary of what I read in the year. I usually put a one word description next to the title to remind myself what I thought of the book. This year, not surprisingly, I read a lot of romance but more surprisingly, not much erotic romance. What I did read, I didn’t like much. There is a sameness about erotic romance and not much risk taking. I mean risk in relation to story and characterization not in relation to unusual sex. When I read a book like Judith Ivory’s Black Silk or Susan Elizabeth Phillip’s Fancy Pants, which are romances full of complexity and interest, with well depicted characters full of human flaws, I go looking for those stories in the erotic romance world and don’t see them. It makes me think about what I'm writing and I see I'm not taking many risks either.

There is a belief that erotic romance is about fantasy and readers don’t want reality, but that’s been said about romance too. But in fact there is a wide range of types of romances out there from sweet category to more realistic slice of life romances. I think it’s time erotic romance started to get more diverse and interesting. Alpha males with washboard stomachs and big cocks start to all blend into each other as do feisty dames who suddenly develop the desire for anal sex and submission. Where’s the humor? Where are the interesting plots? Why can't erotic romance engage with the real world in the way that good romance does? Not that I have anything against fantasy but when I hear over and over again that only alpha males have a place in erotic romance, I know it's becoming stale and moribund.

The following books are ones I put an excellent or very good against. I read a lot more that I thought were good, but these ones, for me, were just that bit better. You can see that 2006 was a catch up year for me. I read a lot of romances that were published in the 1990's and early 2000's. And I seem to like historicals more than I thought I did.

Romance
Black Silk, Judith Ivory
Beast, Judith Ivory
Untie my Heart, Judith Ivory
The Lions Daughter, Loretta Chase
Lord Perfect, Loretta Chase
Flowers from the Storm, Laura Kinsale
Passion, Lisa Valdez
Fancy Pants, Susan Elizabeth Phillips
The Devil’s Waltz, Anne Stuart
The Diamond Secret, Ruth Wind

Literary
We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lionel Shriver
Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
Brooklyn Follies, Paul Auster
Unless, Carol Shields
Bell Canto, Anne Patchett

Fantasy/Paranormal
The Northern Lights, Philip Pullman
The Compass Rose, Gail Dayton
Daughter of the Forrest, Juliet Marillier
Shadow Touch, Marjorie M Lui
Lynn Viehl's Darkyn Series

Crime/mystery/suspense
Rubdown, Leigh Redhead
Monkeewrench, PJ Tracey
Black Ice, Anne Stuart
Origin In Death, J D Robb

Erotic Romance
Almost a Gentleman, Pam Rosenthal
Ice Queen, Joey Hill

And a small book that probably fits into the horror genre "Come Closer" by Sara Gran.

What did you like?