Saturday, Not at the Movies

No movie talk today (well, sort of. Postulating post on BBC's amazing White Heat miniseries, which will come later) but as my Second Life avatar ponders her world, (click to embiggen, and that is a theater behind her, so it sort of counts)I got pensive.

The northeast US is currently boiling in the sixth or seventh (I have lost count) heat wave of the summer, and the humidity level is at "swimming pool." DH wasn't up to attending our friends, Mary and Brian's, renewal of vows today, which was gorgeous and spiritual and romantic and intimate. I am declaring that we sat at the fun table for the reception, and I got to be a reception rock star by lending a set of multicolored highlighters to the six year old seated next to me (yes, this was a grownup table)so she could draw and color page after page of scary heart shaped guys. I have great hopes for this kid and her awesome aunt. Plus the bride insisted we have seconds on cake, and one cannot say no to the bride.

After the reception, my friend Linda and I headed to Barnes and Noble, coming away with a knitting magazine for her, the new issue of Where Women Create for me (which I first noticed because my brain said "Tessa got the cover, awesome!" Yeah, brain goes straight to Highlander shipping. Can you spot the romance writer here? No, that was not HL's Tessa nor her actress, Alexandra Vandernoot, but that's beside the point.) and of course a historical romance novel we will share, because that's what friends do. This time around, it was Persuasion by Brenda Joyce, which I will devour soon, but I may first want to wallow in Almost a Scandal by Elizabeth Essex.

I finished that in the wee hours of the morning and still want to marinate in the excellence. Scandal avoided, believably so, heroine disguised as male in a seagoing story, British navy, love the heroine's surprise sister-in-law/friend; all good stuff. I still have another of her books at home yet to read and need to go nab one more.

My humidified brain asks me where I was going with this, but I can tie it in. Mary and I first met and then bonded over a shared love of historical romance, so it was only natural I went straight to the bookstore after the reception. All of which puts me in the right mood to go home, shove DH over so I can sprawl on the bed in front of fan and air conditioning and fill my historical romance well, because there's a new work week coming, and I can't wait.

Oh, and that mist? It's swirling. I like swirling mist.

How's your weekend going?

Sunday Rambles: Of Missing Comments, Nick Hornby and Matters of Voice

First, comment issue should be fixed now. Though I have read about a bug with Blogger, I'm going to take responsibility with this one; I'd had my text and background colors too similar to see a difference. In short, the link was there, but invisible, which is not terribly helpful. Many thanks to those who clued me into the glitch.


To prove that I do actually read books, this weekend, I finished my a relisten (audiobook) of Juliet, Naked, by Nick Hornby. I first discovered Nick Hornby through the movie, About a Boy, which led me to track down the book, which led me to A Long Way Down and How To Be Good and his first YA novel, Slam. I have yet to read High Fidelity or his memoir, Fever Pitch, and while I'm aware of the US movie versions of both, I'm going to pass and hold out for the books.

I have my reasons. While there are Americans in some Hornby novels - JJ in A Long Way Down, Tucker from Juliet, Naked - Nick Hornby's voice is such an integral part of these stories that to see things transposed to a different continent and culture would be too much of a paradigm shift. Possibly along the lines of Gilbert Gottfried reading Fifty Shades of Grey. Which ties in with reason two, that, although I do love movies and TV, one of the very few things I like about the summer season is that the dearth of new programming does allow for more reading time.

Nick Hornby is not a romance novelist, though there are some memorable romances in some of his books, and Juliet, Naked, fits that bill. Not a romance, but a love story, and one which covers different sorts of love. Romantic love, successful and not, parental love, love of work (yes, really) and what makes me want to hug the author the hardest, love of fandom. No surprise, as his first work, Fever Pitch, is about his devotion to the Arsenal football team, and while the object of the fannish affection can change, fandom is fandom, and Nick Hornby gets it.

In Juliet, Naked, Duncan's devotion to reclusive former singer-songwriter Tucker Crow eclipses and eventually fractures his devotion to his longtime girlfriend, Annie, whose exception to this leads to her finding her own voice and the man behind the myth. Anyone who's been involved in internet fandom will understand the trolls, the bulletin boards, the fanon and that moment when what 'everybody knows' isn't what really is.

Given that one of my musical interests right now is tracking down acoustic versions of favorite songs, I'd love to be able to play the fictional albums, Juliet (in the story, an iconic 80's rock album) and Juliet, Naked, the acoustic demo version that fractures the fandom and the lives of our protagonists and the artist himself, and judge for myself which version I liked better. My best guess: apples and oranges. Both have their own merits, and when one, as Annie does in the book, goes straight to the source, the truth is somewhere in between. As a writer, I get that.

So. Rambling here, but on a Sunday afternoon, I'm allowed. What about you, faithful readers? Have you read Nick Hornby? What writers' voices ring true to you? Leave a comment, because now you can.