I know, I know

I still owe you guys a new post, but I've been house-sitting and separated from my Lurlene books! I know you are probably shocked and appalled I don't just carry them around with you. Well, listen, I THOUGHT about doing you a solid and getting one of these lovely tomes from the library, but, look, the way I recap is by dog-earing pages and coming back to them, and that wouldn't be fair to the people who care about the pristine quality of Lurlene's books.

Ahem.

Anyways. I HAVE been reading a crap-ton the past week because I've also been waylaid by a sinus nastiness that has been a bit too disgusting to tell you about. My point is that my Goodreads has been updated a lot, so you should check it out.

Geez, I'm sorry!

Man, I totally disappeared again. I'm sorry! I KNOW. Trust me, I had worthwhile reasons, but I promise if I have upcoming downtime it will be dedicated to Our Lady Lurlene. I have books on my shelf! (Well, technically, not on my shelf, but in a box in my closet, ready to go!)

People Got a Lotta Nerve

Off-topic, perhaps, but from http://www.antilabelblog.com:

Today, we are especially happy to bring you “People Got A Lotta Nerve,” the first single from Neko Case’s forthcoming album Middle Cyclone (out March 3), because for every blog that reposts the song and/or iLike user who adds it to their profile, Neko Case and ANTI- will make a cash donation to Best Friends Animal Society.



The promotion will run from January 13 to February 3, 2009. Five dollars will be donated for every blog post and one dollar for every user of iLike that adds the song to his/her profile.

People Got A Lotta Nerve - Neko Case


I'll be back with a new blog post in the next day or so, everyone!

New Year's Resolution

Thanks to ihatewheat over at the Dairi Burger for the shoutout (and thanks to Genevieve for alerting me to it!). I definitely need to get back to blogging here, and so I'm making it one of my resolutions to do so (and unlike going to the gym more and saving more money I think I might achieve this one!). I know excuses are lame, but: grad school, work, major rewrites on novel (combined with enough querying to make your pretty little heads spin, trust me).

I continue to be alive!

One of my pet peeves is when bloggers spend more time blogging about how they should be blogging than actually blogging, so I feel like a real jackhole to be here again telling you guys I AM SORRY for the lack of posting activity, and I really do read all your comments and emails asking for new posts. And they will come!

It's absolutely a good news for me/bad news for you scenario, to be perfectly honest. My actual book is flying along right now (over 52k, when did that happen?) and I've been doing a ton of research for book number three, and those books, while not as groundbreaking as anything our beloved Lurlene has written for us, generally always take priority.

Anyways, there's a Lurlene book on my bedside table now (that's absolutely true, too, you can ask my roommate Dawn Rochelle to verify this and I'm sure she would report good findings), so I'll be back in business as soon as I can be.

Why was death so awesome?

Obviously none of us are here thinking there is quality lit in the Lurleneverse. That said, once upon a time, many of us would have said there was, or at least that we couldn't get enough of dying heroines and their dreams of white dresses.

So what is the appeal? Obviously there's quite a market for death-and-disease books in the YA genre, right? Lurlene's kind of got this market cornered, but it's not just her, and clearly kids want to read these. I would have read each and every one of these as a kid if I could have gotten my hands on them.

And let's see:

• I myself never suffered from a serious illness.
• No one in my immediate family suffered from a serious illness*.
• None of my friends or romantic prospects suffered from a serious illness.

So clearly it's not about that. Also, while I wasn't a heathen or anything back then, I wasn't scoping out "inspirational" fiction, so it wasn't that either.

The always-fantastic Tiny Pants sent me some information about the book Loving with a Vengeance: Mass-produced Fantasies for Women by Tanya Modleski, who said the following about gothic novels for women:

On the other hand, [death] endows the woman with something like 'tragic hero' status: "What can a heroine do?" asks Joanna Russ in pointing out that men have taken all the active plots. She can die. And in dying, she does not have to depart from the passive feminine role, but only logically extend it. On the other hand, death can be a very powerful means of wreaking vengeance on others who do not properly 'appreciate' us, and it is in this form that the fantasy of death can be found in Harlequin Romances, which, with their happy endings, seem on the surface to have nothing in common with the tragic Clarissa plot.

Considering that in many ways, Lurlene's books follow the trajectory of a simple teen romance novel (and many are in addition to being disease books), is this what's going on? Girls can land a big plotline, but only by doing something super passive like DYING.

Anyway, I am really curious to hear why you guys think you used to be so fascinated with these books, or - if you weren't - why others were... AND STILL ARE.



*at the time of my reading these books

I am still alive!

In case you guys were afraid I was off examining funny bruises or catching a case of the comas, I have just been really busy with in-town family, my book, and this newfangled idea where I have a social life. I'll have a new post up for you guys soon.

If you're really bored in the meantime, feel free to purchase this DVD and recap it for me. Kisses!

RSS = Really Sucky Syndication?

My lovable friends Kristy and Stacey have informed me that the RSS feed Stacey set up for LiveJournal is completely borked. Argh! It turns out my recaps are too long for the delicate nature of the feed.

I don't really know how to handle this; unfortunately Blogger doesn't offer a way to "cut" the entries at present, so it's either write less (all those who know me have got to be having a hearty chuckle over that) or move to another blogging provider, which I am seriously just not up to doing anytime soon.

So for now, I suggest if you read this blog via an RSS feed, check in occasionally here so, like Kristy, you don't miss a month's worth of entries.

Thanks, subconscious.

Last night I actually had a dream I was in a bookstore and there was an impromptu Lurlene autograph session/new book release. The book was in this fancy display box and cost me way too much of my [hypothetical dream] money. Also it was for adults or something? All the other people in line were like old business dudes. If that's ever Lurlene's core audience I will look around for flying pigs. Also Lurlene wasn't friendly, so I guess she had an inkling I was the one behind this blog?

Man, you guys, I was happy to wake up, because it sort of made me sad she wasn't nice to me in a kooky aunt sort of way. I hope none of the rest of you have had the Lurleneverse invade your unconscious.

Site Business

Thanks to one of my very favorite sites, the Dairi Burger, for linking here, and welcome to all the new readers. Seriously, to get through the Lurleneverse, it's good for all of us to hold one another and make our way together!

And in good news for me, bad news for you guys, I did receive a job offer, which means I will have a bit less time than during this beautiful month of March where it was always okay staying up into the wee hours of the night blogging my way through book after offensive book. But no worries, I'm dedicated! I will get you guys through the entire Lurleneverse IF IT KILLS ME*.




*Not really. But I'm gonna keep blogging!

Lurlene Quizzes

I hope to have the conclusion to the Amish trilogy up early next week, but I think I should probably devote this weekend to working on my own book, which is probably wondering if it should catch the cancer to get my attention. (Dear beloved book, no you shouldn't, xoxoxoAmes)

So in the meanwhile, please amuse yourself with these Lurlene quizzes I found! I am ashamed to say that even though I feel like I'm more of a thorough skimmer of Lurlene books than attentive reader (don't hate on me for the truth!) I somehow managed to get one hundred percent on the Amish/angels quiz. Imagine all the valuable information my brain has been depleted of to remember this trivia, and cry for me.

If you're not too proud (see what I did there??) do share your scores in the comments!

Publication Dates

I got a great suggestion in the comments that I should be including publication dates in the recaps, because it really does make a difference when you're comparing a book from the eighties to something published only two years ago. Since I am jumping around to books as I get them, and only paying attention to dates as far as getting through a series in order, this is a great idea. I have gone through all the old recaps and included a publication date, so now you know!

It is kind of strange to me she's a current YA author; when I compare her to the YA writers I really love, that sort of breaks my brain.

A handy list for your perusal

You guys! I have been getting some emails and comments asking if I'm going to recap this or that Lurlene book. My goal is truly to hit all of them, and the only thing really holding me back is finding them all dirt cheap. But I do have some waiting at home, and some other coming to me through the glory and beauty of a friend in the book biz and also, of course, eBay.

So without further ado I present a master list of all the Lurlene titles I plan on recapping! The ones already recapped merely have links to their recaps, while the titles I have (or will soon have) are marked as well. I plan on updating this list at least weekly, so feel free to check back with it whenever you'd like. And, yes, I will take requests, if it's something I have!

welcome, folks!

Oh, the internets! You have provided me with glorious individuals who are setting aside their own sanity to recap the books I loved as a child. How shall I repay you?

I suppose the answer is by tackling the mothership of death and disease, the woman who inspired countless cancer scares in young girls, the writer who loves nothing more than a good bible verse except a well-timed death.

That's right, internets. I'm recapping Lurlene McDaniel's books so that you don't have to.