Do you have list of your Top Five Favorite Books? My highly-esteemed selections include, in order:
I was thinking about the romance novels I reviewed recently and how they do not compare to these all-time favorites. So where do romance novels fit? I believe that most genre fiction needs its own category to be properly represented.
When I was a teenager, I read anything that looked interesting, no matter the author. As I became more familiar with the genre and my own tastes, my preferences for particular authors became pronounced. Now I will not go near unknown writers for fear of finding myself in the middle of some unknown romance cesspool. Terrible, I know. I am probably missing out on some great reads! But on the (now) rare occasions when I go on a romance binge, I stick to tried-and-true storytellers.
So my Top Five Favorite (Romance) Books are, in no particular order:
A special nod goes to Santana Rose by Olga Bicos, because her books are entirely too hard to find. Perhaps she was too good for the genre (or got bored of it), because Santana Rose was tangled, complex, psychological, and sexy story of a masked bandit woman fighting to rescue sex slaves in the Louisiana bayou after the Civil War and the police detective sent to apprehend her. A quality honorable mention!
It has taken me almost fifteen years of searching through unfit novels to find quality romances that I can recommend without hesitation. So grab a glass of wine and enjoy some quality fluff. Or at least reveal your Top Five favorites!
- Atonement by Ian McEwan
- Dune by Frank Herbert
- Wuthering Heights by Charlotte Brontë
- A Very Long Engagement Sébastien Japrisot
- The Siege by Helen Dunmore or The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, depending on my mood
I was thinking about the romance novels I reviewed recently and how they do not compare to these all-time favorites. So where do romance novels fit? I believe that most genre fiction needs its own category to be properly represented.
When I was a teenager, I read anything that looked interesting, no matter the author. As I became more familiar with the genre and my own tastes, my preferences for particular authors became pronounced. Now I will not go near unknown writers for fear of finding myself in the middle of some unknown romance cesspool. Terrible, I know. I am probably missing out on some great reads! But on the (now) rare occasions when I go on a romance binge, I stick to tried-and-true storytellers.
So my Top Five Favorite (Romance) Books are, in no particular order:
- Apache Legacy by Janis Reams Hudson: A funny, daring match between two lovers on opposite sides of the Apache removal issue in 1880s Arizona
- The Mistress by Susan Wiggs: She is a pauper disguised as an heiress, while he is a gambler posing as the catch of the city, and they struggle for survival in the midst of the Great Chicago Fire
- Happy Endings by Katherine Stone: Contemporary double love story of glamorous men who save their wounded lovers only to find themselves saved in return
- Fire and Rain by Elizabeth Lowell: Contemporary romance has never been so wild as a modern-day cowboy must chose between the woman of his dreams and the ranch he loves
- Forever, Rose by Robin Lee Hatcher: An innocent dove of a woman needs to find her spirit in settlement-era Idaho, and the key to her future is a man who arrived in town on a dare
A special nod goes to Santana Rose by Olga Bicos, because her books are entirely too hard to find. Perhaps she was too good for the genre (or got bored of it), because Santana Rose was tangled, complex, psychological, and sexy story of a masked bandit woman fighting to rescue sex slaves in the Louisiana bayou after the Civil War and the police detective sent to apprehend her. A quality honorable mention!
It has taken me almost fifteen years of searching through unfit novels to find quality romances that I can recommend without hesitation. So grab a glass of wine and enjoy some quality fluff. Or at least reveal your Top Five favorites!
8 comments:
My top five books ever:
1) To the Lighthouse
2) Pride and Prejudice
3) Collected Works of Emily Dickinson
4) Jane Eyre
5) Hamlet (is that a book?)
#2 and #4 would be in my list of romances, even though they aren't romances in the genre sense. I pretty much never read romances or sci-fi; the only genre I read with any regularity is mystery.
And see, I don't read mysteries :)
Is Dune a romance novel? I've not read it but the film did come across as overly romantic.
Yes. "Spice" is actually a love potion.
Fav Romance
(1) Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
(2) Sonnets from the Portuguese, Elizabeth Barrett Browning
(3) Rose, Martin Cruz Smith
(4) A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare
(5)Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, Pablo Neruda
Tess, why are Jayne Eire and Pride and Prejudice not romance novels?
My English literature professor used to insist a lot about the distinction between *ro'mance* and *roma'nce*, the former being the Medieval epic ro'mance dealing with *courtly* love (see for example The Faerie Queen by Spencer as the last example of the declining epic ro'mance) as opposed to the modern novel narrating *erotic* love.
Of course Hamlet is a book. It is a theatre piece which can be read as well as watched. I personally prefer reading Shakespeare works.
In my top five most ardent love stories in Literature, I would include mainly theatre for the high level of pathos; and namely:
1. Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare;
2. Troilus and Cressida, both the Chaucer and Shakespeare's version;
3. Norvegian Wood by Haruki Murakami;
and its ideal sequel:
4. South of the Border West of the Sun;
5. No idea.
This is all I can think of at the moment. I am generally not a big fan of roma'nce novels because I have always been a bit skeptical about the quality of the contemporary ones, and like you, Lindsay, I do not venture myself into unknown writers unless recommended by friends. So, I may read one of the titles you recommend.
I have a long list of favourite love poems though and Neruda is in there. :o )
I mispelt your name, Lindsey. There is a girl at work called Lindsay. And I keep making confusions between the two. Sorry.
Don't worry about it - happens quite often!
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