Mal: I call you back? Wash: No, Mal. You didn't. Zoe: I take full responsibility, cap.

'Out Of Gas'


Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.

There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."


Matt the Bruins fan - Feb 09, 2021 10:38:55 am PST #26398 of 27912
"You should never say bad things about the dead, only good… Joan Crawford is dead. Good.” —Bette Davis

Oooo, I still remember how creepy that "The Crowd" episode of that series was decades after last seeing it.


amyparker - Feb 09, 2021 10:47:57 am PST #26399 of 27912
In the end it's only ever been one step, and then the next.

. . . and that reminds me of Bradbury 13, and tearing across campus after my last class finished to listen to the broadcast in the auditorium at the Harris Fine Arts Center. The radio drama bug got me early.


-t - Feb 09, 2021 6:03:04 pm PST #26400 of 27912
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

So, I’ve been reading the Bridgerton books and...I don’t know. I wouldn’t say I like them. The plots are pretty contrived and I have read other romances with similar plots that I liked better. Many of the characters I’m supposed to like I don’t. The premises of how people are and so forth don’t fit my worldview. But I cannot stop reading them.


Toddson - Feb 10, 2021 5:23:36 am PST #26401 of 27912
Friends don't let friends read "Atlas Shrugged"

I got about half way through the first one and gave up. I think I remember people commenting about the sparkling banter between characters ... and I didn't notice that. Didn't finish and don't plan to read any others.


-t - Feb 10, 2021 6:24:33 am PST #26402 of 27912
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

I can’t recommend them but they have a definite “bit more cheese” quality that I cannot explain


Sophia Brooks - Feb 10, 2021 7:06:53 am PST #26403 of 27912
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here

I read them before, but I didn't even figure it out while watching Bridgerton until the sex episode, where she talks to the maid.


Jessica - Feb 10, 2021 7:39:02 am PST #26404 of 27912
If I want to become a cloud of bats, does each bat need a separate vaccination?

Do the books have more...plot than the show? I generally prefer romances where the characters have shit going on in their lives other than the main romantic arc (where the conflict is more "we can't be together because our lives are so complicated" and less "we can't be together because we have for some reason chosen never to talk to each other about what we want"), and Bridgerton-the-show was very much all about the pairing up with not much else going on.


Toddson - Feb 10, 2021 8:13:38 am PST #26405 of 27912
Friends don't let friends read "Atlas Shrugged"

I thought the Lady Whistledown bits were the best parts of the book. I read through all of those, but skipped the main parts of the book after I'd given up.


meara - Feb 10, 2021 9:54:40 am PST #26406 of 27912

Hah I feel like one of the reasons I have a hard time with modern romances (as opposed to historic) is I have so much less patience in modern ones with “omg just fucking tell him your issue” or “use your fucking cell phone!”, but if there are more significant issues, it’s hard to have a way to fix them reasonably! Like, either it’s something dumb (“I can’t tell you my deep secret about how I hate mushrooms”) or it’s something bigger (“I hate small town life and want to go join Doctors Without Borders and not live in this small town, but you are the mayor and love it here”) that isn’t easily solved (“oh never mind! I love this town too!” negates all your character development, or shows it wasn’t all that important anyway? Whereas historical romances I have more tolerance for not talking to each other or being forced to marry because of manners or whatever.


Amy - Feb 10, 2021 10:11:23 am PST #26407 of 27912
Because books.

All of the Bridgerton books are pretty frothy, if I remember right. I think when they were initially published, Quinn's light, modern voice was a real change, but that's hardly the case anymore.

I suggest Tessa Dare's books if you want fun historical with a bit more plot, and a decidedly feminist sensibility (especially the Spindle Cove books).