We’re reading our way across America…one romance at a time.
Wisconsin: Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly
There aren’t a lot of books out there that have literally changed the world. Best-sellers—even massive best-sellers—come and go. True game-changers? Not so common. But in 1942, Maureen Daly, barely out of her teens, wrote a novel that did exactly that with her timeless tale of first love, Seventeenth Summer.
Not a lot of people read this ground-breaking book today, but many scholars and historians remember Seventeenth Summer as the very first-ever Young Adult novel. There were children’s books aplenty, of course, but very little fiction that was written specifically for teenagers and dealt directly with their rich interior lives. Seventeenth Summer changed that, and suddenly tales for and about teens exploded onto the scene. Daly’s immediate spiritual heirs include Janet Lambert, Rosamund du Jardin, and Lenore Mattingly Weber—and if you have never read any of their work, it’s pretty likely that your mother did. It’s hard to overstate her importance.
But—seventy-plus years out—how does the book hold up?
In a 2-part discussion (part 2 will be up tomorrow), Kate Nagy and Rachel Hyland talk their differing levels of interest in J.R. Ward's forthcoming Black Dagger Brotherhood novel, Lover at Last, which will focus on the relationship between Qhuinn and Blaylock (Qhuay).
Four Weddings and a Funeral is widely considered one of the classic romantic comedies of the 1990s. It’s also considered a movie that works in spite of, rather than because of, its leading lady’s charms. Fans and critics far and wide have swooned over Hugh Grant’s sweet, bumbling Charlie while expressing , let us say, a certain disdain for Andie MacDowell’s wooden and largely personality-free Carrie. Many if not most viewers have remarked upon the apparent lack of chemistry between the two leads, a shortcoming that is, all too often, laid directly at MacDowell’s slender feet.
Let’s say you met a really amazing man—sweet, intelligent, sensitive, and kind —and things are progressing really, really nicely. In fact, everything is perfect, with the exception of one small matter: He insists that he is, in fact, an accomplished time traveler. That would be tragic, wouldn’t it? Here you are, falling hard and fast, and he’s either the world’s most audacious liar or (the more likely scenario) clinically insane.
May old friends be forgot? We don't think so! We're celebrating our favorite reads with five days of the Best of 2012. We asked our bloggers for their favorite recommendations of 2012, with one stipulation, they had to be new to them and not necessarily new to 2012. We know we got a few recommendations to add to our to be read piles and it's a great way to feed those readers you hopefully got for Christmas!
The course of true love never did run smooth, but there are obstacles and there are obstacles. The person you love is a thousand-year-old vampire? That’s a problem. The person you love is married to another? That’s a BIG problem. The person you love is dead? Not dead sexy, not dying, not undead, not Dead To You, but pushing daisies from six feet under dead-dead?
We’re reading our way across America...one romance at a time. And, to make it even more fun, we’re doing it in order of incorporation into the United States.
It’s just possible that you’ve already heard: 
Baby, it’s hot outside. Where I live, we recently emerged from a record-breaking heat wave; as I write this, the temperature is expected to top 100F tomorrow…for the eighth time this year. All over the country, it’s been stifling and thoroughly gross. Now, maybe you love beach weather and can’t get enough fun in the sun, but if you can’t stand the heat, why not retreat? Why not escape into a romantic, beautifully-crafted tale that celebrates, among other things, the wild beauty of a winter storm?
As previous winners of the nationally televised battle to the death known as the Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark should be permanently excused from further participation. But this year is different. This will be the 75th Hunger Games, and to mark the occasion, the Capitol has something special planned. Katniss and Peeta will need to enter the arena again…and this time, it won’t just be inexperienced teenagers they’re up against. Meanwhile, Katniss and Peeta’s actions during the 74th Games have galvanized the downtrodden citizens of Panem, and Katniss begins to realize that she has become the unwitting symbol of a major rebellion.
We’re reading our way across America...one romance at a time. And, to make it even more fun, we’re doing it in order of incorporation into the United States.
A devastating civil war provides the backdrop for 
Knitting and romance novels: two great tastes that taste great together. It’s easy to see why: both are innately solitary but deeply satisfying endeavors that pair nicely with crackling fires, cozy slippers, and hot tea. And with both, getting bitten by the bug grants you immediate entry into a large, friendly sorority of like-minded women (with a few sterling males thrown in for good measure, of course).
