I come from a big Italian family. Holidays at our house are–as I’m sure you can imagine–crazy. It’s loud, rowdy…and filled with love.
Our little romance community is much like that, I think. We have fights and drama, but we also have a lot of love. Books brought us together, but the love is what keeps us going. Love of reading, love and mutual respect for each other. We might have fights now and again (or as I like to call them..debates) but at the end of the day we’re all here for one common purpose: To share our love of books.
This week, we wanted to remind everyone that it’s all about the love.
In honor of the romance community, Book Binge and The Good, The Bad and The Unread have teamed up to bring you Bingeaduckia!!
We hope you’ll join us in celebrating the online romance community. We’ll have games, excerpts, book reviews, guest spots and giveaways. Did I mention the giveaways?
In keeping with our “together” theme this week, we’re featuring anthologies. To kick things off, I want to know:
Do you read anthologies? Why or why not? What are the best anthologies you’ve read this year? What anthos are you looking forward to in the upcoming months?
The celebration is going on until next Wednesday. Be sure to come back and play with us as the week progresses.
Seriously, I’m an anthology ho. They’re also the only books I tend to “impulse buy.” I’m a slow reader by nature, and this year in particular has been a real slog for me. I’ve read several very good books – but my mojo has been drifting in and out of my life. Anthologies have been a good way for me to kick start my aimless reading habits.
The best ones? I’m a sucker for the Harlequin Historical anthologies. I really enjoyed The Magic Of Christmas by Carolyn Davidson, Victoria Bylin and Cheryl St. John. I also liked the Blaze anthology that was out this summer – What I Did On My Summer Vacation by Thea Devine, Debbi Rawlins and Samantha Hunter.
I’ve never been much of an anthology reader. I tend to find the short length unsatisfying.
But lately I’ve had a short attention span. Anthologies have been hitting the spot, because the story is done before my mind begins to wander.
I’ve had good luck with a couple of Christmas anthologies. I particularly liked Snowy Night with a Stranger.
I love anthologies. Some favs are by Janice Maynard, Charlene Teglia and Bad Boys Ahoy by Sylvia Day. I have to find the stories romantic and sexy. Looking forward to Cheyenne McCray’s March 09 anthology, and want to check out Lacy Danes’ writing too. Look foward to other posters’ recommendations!
I do like anthologies, especially Christmas ones. The Harlequin Historicals put out wonderful Christmas anthologies, the last two ones have Cheryl St. John one of my favorites in it. There was one from years ago called Under the Boardwalk with Linda Howard, Jillian Hunter and several other authors. This is one of my favorites, I read it in a day at the beach.
So, who wrote the post? Holly?
I especially love Christmas anthologies, and I read several every year. Harlequin usually has some good ones.
Yes, Gwen, twas me. Don’t yell about the formatting – I’m format challenged. 😛
Wendy, I’m so with you. The HH anthos are always great and I really like the Blaze, too.
Maureen,
I have the Under the Boardwalk antho and re-read it every summer, too. I think it’s a great collection by a wonderful group of authors.
No no – I was just curious which of us came from the big Italian family. I had never been to anything more chaotic, loud, and fun as when I went to Christmas dinner at Shirley Filardi’s house back when I was in middle school. Very fond memories.
Gotcha. Yes, my family is huge. My mom has 6 brothers and sisters who have spawned 42 cousins for me between them. Of those, 5 have children of their own. We don’t all get together as often as we used to (we’re too spread out geographically now) but when we do…shwoosh. Talk about a madhouse.
See, I have such a small family, as my sister are the only grandchildren on my dad’s side. And I have three first cousins on my mom’s. I’ve always wondered what a huge family gathering would be like.
Fights? Who fights?
I come from a big gypsy family. Can I have your Italian family, please? They sound relatively sane!
I don’t read many anthos, and I usually buy them when they have an “episode” from a favourite series. But there are a few that work for me, and some lovely stories. I find writing that short really hard to do, and I know other authors do, too.
I like anthos, though I read more SF than romance. Dreaming Again (ed Jack Dann) was my favorite this year. On the romance side, I really want to buy Wolfsbane and Mistletoe which came out in . . . October? Man, I need to get on that.
I like anthologies a lot but I’m so far out of the current publishing loop, I don’t know which ones I’m most looking forward to! Anthologies I have enjoyed include Irresistable Forces, My Big Fat Supernatural (Wedding, Honeymoon), Mysteria, Best of Science Fiction & Fantasy (an audiobook), and Elemental Magic. I also adore that Carla Kelly anthology “Here’s to the Ladies”.
I tend to like them best when they have stories of varying lengths — seems like too often the novellas (esp. in NY romance anthologies) are condensed novels but short stories feel more whole unto themselves, if that makes sense.
I’ve participated in the equivalent of two “integrated” anthologies where the stories by the different authors are related to each other, and that’s a hoot as well.
I enjoy reading anthologies. The best anthologies I’ve read this year include “To All A Good Night,” “Rescue Me,” “Unwrap Me” and “Everlasting Bad Boys.”
My favorite anthology this year wasn’t a romance one, it was Wolfsbane and Mistletoe and was awesome.
Nicole, you’re making me want it more. I need to get out to the bookstore soon.
I love anthologies, too. I love how I can knock off one story in little more than an hour and feel satisfied. Some of my favorites include the “Bad Boys” line. But I also loved those annual Signet Regency Christmas anthos. I miss those. I know there’s a “new” one on the shelf this year, but all 4 stories are reprints.
I loved the Magicial Christmas Cat antho with Lora Liegh and am reading Sherilyn Kenyon/JR ward’s new anotho as we speak. I found Kresley cole through an antho amoung other great authors. Wonderful way to try out new authors.
Holly, my father’s side is Italian, my mother’s German and Irish, and the Irish know how to party and get rowdy, and one grandmother is one of 12, the other one of 10, so I know all about madhouses at Christmas and holidays – I feel lost if somewhere quiet at Christmas, lol.
I do like anthologies because I tend to read a book in one sitting, hate to start/stop, so they are great when I don’t have time to read something longer. I liked Sylvia Day’s Bad Boys Ahoy (esp. Lucien’s Gamble) and the first Alluring Tales Anth, haven’t read the newest yet. Just got The Magical Christmas Cat in the mail today, going to start off with Nalini Singh’s story in a bit, and that reminds I liked her story and Maggie Shayne’s in last year’s , An Enchanted Season (pretty cover).. I haven’t read all of the First Blood anthology yet, but I did read Meljean Brook’s story related to her series, my favorite short story of the year right now, a great short story. If I wasn’t already reading her series, that one would have had me looking. On the Prowl (Briggs, et al), was another one I enjoyed a lot, No Rest for the Witches (Kresley Cole, et al).
Snowy Night with a Stranger was good. I always like those yearly Regency Christmas ones that used to come out, especially those incuding Balogh and Carla Kelly. It Happened One Night was another I like, especially Candice Hern’s contribution. I liked last year’s Holiday with a Vampire from Harlequin, haven’t read this year’s yet. Another older Christmas one I liked was Mistletoe Kisses, stories by Elizabeth Rolls and Rachel Lee in particular. You can see I read a lot of them, I can whip through these shorter ones taking breaks from doing other things I have to do when I’d rather be reading. If I pick up a full-length, that work and chores and stuff won’t get done, lol.
lvoe it getting to know new authors love the blaze
Yep gwen as it does say written by holly ::ducks::
and none of my many names are Italian 😉 heeeeeeeee
geeze how perfect is it that I am late to my own par-tay
Totally agree with wendy, HH has FAB anthos. I find that somewhat shocking when HH is short to begin with so it really takes a great author to write a tight story in such a short space.
Much like Devon my attention span has been zero lately so anthos have been great to read.
And I do adore many of the Bravo Bad Boy books… fave novellas lately would have to be LL’s in The Magical Christmas Cat and Cheryl St. John’s story in The Magic Of Christmas.
Lynne,
We could alternate holidays. One year with yours, one year with mine. heh
Pam,
I know exactly what you mean about nothing getting done if I pick up a full length book. Not that much gets done anyway…
Sybs,
Oh, you finally decided grace us with your presence? ::ducks::
heeee
I just bought Dead After Dark featuring Sherrilyn Kenyon, JR Ward, Susan Squires, & Dianna Love.
I usually dont like anthologies because you can’t sink your teeth into them bc they are so short.
I hearts teh antho’s. Generally I want the novellas to be LONGER but you know, win some lose some. Of course I like some more than others – but I have no idea what I’m looking forward to. 😛 Evil/selfish but I was thinking a few nights ago I hope no good books come out this summer so I’m not distracted.
Just finished reading Nalini’s story in The Magical Christmas Cat, loved it, Zach is a very playful cat.
I don’t bother with anthologies, as they rarely have the depth of character and relationship development that I crave. Intensity is important to me in a romance, and the stories in anthologies never seem to give enough of that.
Hey Julie
Do you even skip them by your favorite authors or if they are in a series you are reading? And you said rarely, can you think of any that ever worked for you? I bet many readers agree with you so those few that did work for you might work for them.
thanks for commenting 😉
I just checked out a Christmas anthology from the library, Montana Mistletoe (I think…..). I like anthologies with a holiday theme. That makes it easier to put up with the shorter length. (I also realize they’re harder to write than longer books, simply because they don’t have as much time to get all that emotion in there!)
I do read anthologies… sometimes because the theme pulls me in (like the holiday, vampires, etc.) other times it’s because a favorite author wrote one or more of the stories. But I don’t specifically look for them. And I find that I usually don’t read them straight through. I read one story and moths later, I try another. And it’s mostly because of that (though not entirely – my poor memory is also to blame) that I cannot pinpoint any particular anthologies.
“Secrets of a Perfect Night” is my favorite anthology I’ve read this year, partially because it has one of my favorite authors, Rachel Gibson. I found that I liked the diversity of the stories in it, as well. And, yes, I like reading anthologies. They are perfect to have when you want to read in short bursts because the stories in them tend to be shorter and to develop more quickly. Therefore, when I’m waiting for my husband at the bus stop, I can make significant progress in one of the stories.