Day 20: Favorite Romance Book
Gianna:
I know what you’re thinking. "Gianna is going to choose a Nicholas Sparks novel. She’s an old softy, plus she loves the beautiful prose of a master." True. However, just for kicks, I am going to go with a writer I am sure Mr. Sparks has read for inspiration again and again: Edith Wharton. Yes, and now you’re thinking what we’ve all been thinking for years, “Where is Nicholas Sparks’s Pulitzer?”
Gianna:
I know what you’re thinking. "Gianna is going to choose a Nicholas Sparks novel. She’s an old softy, plus she loves the beautiful prose of a master." True. However, just for kicks, I am going to go with a writer I am sure Mr. Sparks has read for inspiration again and again: Edith Wharton. Yes, and now you’re thinking what we’ve all been thinking for years, “Where is Nicholas Sparks’s Pulitzer?”
The Age of Innocence
will rip you’re damn heart out (Liz, obviously this does not apply to
you). Ellen Olenska is a righteous babe,
a fearless broad, and a sistah’s sistah (well, you know, for the most
part). She was a woman ahead of her
time, a bit of a free spirit, and not completely down with the class system.
Oh, and she had the balls to leave her cruel ("cruel" is old timey speak for
douche) husband. It is a story of a forbidden (not the lesbian kind unfortunately, now that’s a book I can get
behind!) and doomed love affair that wasn’t meant to be. Sigh.
Runners up, by the way, The French
Lieutenants Woman, The English Patient, Rebecca, Remains of the Day and the
really sweet novel from last year, Vaclav
and Lena. Huh, I have inadvertently listed these in order of depressiveness, so if you’re like me, you will want to read them in this order.
Liz:
Since it's me, when I think romance, I think regrets. And sadness. And possibly psycho-pharmaceuticals. One of the biggest regrets I've had in my professional career came when I saw a book sitting on a local author/self-published shelf in a bookstore and I didn't buy it. The cover copy even told me that if I bought one book before I was raptured, it should be that one. I didn't listen. Thus, I may never read I Fell in Love With My Rapist.
My back-up pick, though, is The Night Circus. When I think of romance, I think of Gianna love, but also escaping from reality for a period, and the last time I felt so transported into another world by a book was when I read Gianna's diary Erin Morgenstern's novel. Two fated lovers pitted in a duel created by their parents who use their magic to create a wonderland circus--who doesn't want to live in that world for awhile? Marco and Celia woo each other through an ice garden and a cloud maze and a circus so grand that people charmed by their magic follow them around the world. It's grand.
Liz:
Since it's me, when I think romance, I think regrets. And sadness. And possibly psycho-pharmaceuticals. One of the biggest regrets I've had in my professional career came when I saw a book sitting on a local author/self-published shelf in a bookstore and I didn't buy it. The cover copy even told me that if I bought one book before I was raptured, it should be that one. I didn't listen. Thus, I may never read I Fell in Love With My Rapist.
My back-up pick, though, is The Night Circus. When I think of romance, I think of 
Rebecca got props. Peace out!
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