AAR

[Linda in sw va]

[xina]

[xina]

Just now, I saw a suggestion for Dakota Fanning as Ana. Yikes!!! Please no, no, no! It that's the case, let's just sign up Danielle Radcliffe as Christian. What a pair they would make! hee
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"As you wish"
~The Princess Bride

[Linda in sw va]

[kris]

Here's another article from The Awful Truth.
BTW......I'm about half done the first book......very interesting

http://ca.eonline.com/news/the_awful_truth/why_does_filthy_fifty_shades_of_grey/307082
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Behind every successful man is a surprised woman.

[mirole]

[xina]

[Kayne]

Does anyone know what EL James is working on next?

[xina]

I found this on The Windsor Star. It is a good point as to why so many picked up this book where the new or non romance novel reader is not attracted to so many books in the romance genre.

"And unlike most works of erotica, it has a non-sexual cover: no hot, half-naked man and woman, which attracts some readers but puts others off"

Eric Selinger (sort of well-known around the online romance novel reading community.)

Many authors wonder...why not my book, it is better written anyway. It's the covers initially. So many don't want the covers. Even digitally. Fifty has a very subdued cover...very simple and it doesn't scream sex.
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"As you wish"
~The Princess Bride

[Nicole]

I finally tracked down a copy of this. I had a friend who had Master of the Universe, and she sent it to me so I could read this book. (Still not willing to pay $10 for an ebook, although I might after I read it if it's good.) I'm not very far into it, and I think it's alright so far. I do notice that it is freaking long. I remember seeing the chapter 4 heading and looking down and my kindle and it still said 1%. I'll post my reactions when I finish it, but I like it well enough so far.
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She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain. -Louisa May Alcott

[Nicole]

Apparently the copy of MOTU that I have is both the first and second Fifty books. Thank goodness, I thought it was twice as long as it was. I'm taking a break before I go onto read Fifty Shades Darker.

I was curious about reading this book after seeing how polarized reactions to the book were. I have to admit to feeling negative about this book with out reading it, but that was because I don't like the way the media is covering it. I really wanted to be happy about a romance getting a lot of attention making so much money, but the coverage seems to be focused on how amazing it is that women like books with erotic content. It drags the conversation away from how great the genre is to snickering about housewives and their “mommy porn” which grated on my nerves. I'm glad that I got to read it, and I tried to separate those negative feelings about the media coverage from the book. I think for the most part I was successful. Anyways onto what I thought of the book.

I know you ladies mentioned that you didn't see the similarities to Twilight, but I actually really did. I noticed resemblances in the development of characters and their backgrounds. I'm thinking maybe a lot of what I noticed was edited out of the later editions or I was just more sensitive to it because I knew going in that it was twilight fan fiction. The plots of the two books were very different from one another so I guess seeing the similarities didn't hamper my reading experience. I can see how readers would think it was questionable for the author to use Stephanie Meyer's work in this manner, but I don't see how anyone is getting hurt from this being published so I'm really not that outraged.

I've noticed in reviews that people say the writing is bad. I didn't think it was. It had flaws, but it wasn't horrible. There were lots of things that were repetitive, but a good edit could have helped with that. The best example of the repetitiveness was the constant references of a somewhat odd struggle Ana had with her “inner goddess” and subconscious. Put me down in the camp that did not care for that. I also noticed a ton of ellipses, but that's just a matter of personal taste. Ellipses do not offend me, perhaps because I'm guilty of their overuse as well. The author did a good job of portraying the emotions of the characters, and plot had a lot of built in tension which makes the reading fast. For me the bottom line was she told the story, not perfectly, but it was still a pretty good job in my book.

As for the story itself, there were things I liked and others I didn't. For some reason it's easier for me to articulate the things I didn't like so I have more, but for the most part they were minor annoyances. I had a hard time suspending my disbelief about the 21 year old virgin heroine that has never masturbated or had a romantic relationship despite being very attractive and who has lots of interested would be male suitors. I understand why authors use this set up, but I'm so busy scoffing at it's believability that it fails to do what it is intended to which is to make the relationship between the hero and heroine feel special and sparkly and new. I don't think James should be raked over the coals for using it though because this cliche runs rampant in the romance community. Another thing that I found distracting and made me roll my eyes was that Ana was a consummate pro at fellatio first try. Yeah, that happens in real life. I also didn't like all flaunting of Christian's wealth. It felt sort of like look at all this crazy stuff money can buy. I'm not sure I buy that there are gynecologists out there willing to make house calls. Also massages in the first class lounge at the airport?! There is no way I believe that really happens. I've seen first class, the seats are a little bigger but that it.

One of the things I liked about this book was Ana's responses to Christian being overbearing. I think she handled him in a really charming way, and I liked that she challenged him by pushing back. I also liked the email exchanges. I felt like they brought out a playfulness between the hero and heroine. They were very honest so they worked to develop the leads relationship, and I think they cut some of the tension of all the sexing and angsting happening during the face to face encounters. I enjoyed the BDSM elements of the book. I know some people had concerns about how the lifestyle is portrayed in the book, but I think people's sexuality is their own thing and there isn't one correct way to do BDSM.

I didn't think the book was amazing, but it also wasn't terrible. I think it's a decent book, but it didn't invoke a strong reaction out of me either way. If I had to rate it I'd say C+.
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She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain. -Louisa May Alcott

[Linda in sw va]

[xina]

[Linda in sw va]

Fifty Shades of Yay!

E. L. James tweeted a link to this review, apparently it does not bother her if people (men in particular) want to call it mommy porn. So here is another 'man's review of this book, in contrast to the vulgar one posted earlier.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/jim-moret/fifty-shades-of-yay-one-m_b_1418226.html?ref=tw

Linda
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"The Bookshop has a thousand books, all colors, hues and tinges, and every cover is a door that turns on magic hinges." ~ Nancy Byrd Turner

[xina]