Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Armchair BEA: Genre Fiction


Julie's Genres
Click to read of our
Historical Fiction Reviews
I read so many different genres but for this I'll pick Historical Fiction. I love reading about it because I feel like I get the narration along with experiencing something about that time period. Most of the time I end up learning something a long the way as well. I'm going to give you 3 recommendation in case this isn't your genre of choice or you are looking for a good one in it:

A Good American by Alex George
The Distant Hours by Kate Morton (anything by her is a great bet)
Hemingway's Girl by Erika Robuck

Enjoy!


Jenn's Genres
I've actually been thinking about this a lot lately, why I read what I read.  I don't enjoy most contemporary fiction.  There's way too much reality (illness, drama, death) for me and that's what I read to escape. Oddly my love of history keeps me from enjoying most historical fiction... I'm a stickler for the facts. 

I love crime and thrillers because I love a good puzzle (Meg Gardiner, Kathy Reichs, and Iris Johansen to name a few favorite authors in this genre).  But my first love will always be YA, especially paranormal and fantasy. And I'll talk more about it later in the week...

Click to read some of
our Food-lit Reviews
However, my other love is food-lit.  Everyone inevitably asks me what food-lit is, and as I'm pretty sure I made up the term, it's no wonder why.  I love food centric books, probably because I love to cook.  I think cooking is pretty magical in and of itself, depending on who's in the kitchen, so books that incorporate it are pretty high on my list.  The epitome of food-lit is Sarah Addison Allen.  Her books are the standard to which I hold all food lit, so if you're looking for a place to start, check out her work...  and if you're really interested, I love to give recommendations...


Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
The Girl Who Chased the Moonby Sarah Addison Allen
The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen
The Kitchen Daughter by Jael McHenry
The Love Goddess' Cooking School by Melissa Senate
The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister

That should keep you hungry!


Alice's Genres
Click to read some of
our Romance Reviews
I think I am the absolute opposite of Jenn when it comes to why I read.  I love contemporary fiction.  I love the reality of it.  I read with my heart, I am an emotional person and I love books that evoke my emotions.  I like that ache in my heart, those tears in my eyes, the sadness and joy I feel when I read about someone who conquerors cancer or loses a loved one.  I also love Chick-Lit as long as the Chick in question isn't a twenty-something year old fresh out of a relationship determined to make it on her own only to realize that cute, sexy neighbor is her true love after all.  I prefer my Chick-Lit about a thirty-something year old divorcee with kids who is starting a new adventure.  

My other favorite genre is memoirs, which I will tell you about late this week.

My favorite genre's have evolved as well.  When I was younger and still believed in true love, I loved a good romance novel.  I was a faithful reader of Johanna Linsdey, Jude Deveraux, Amanda Quick, and LaVyrle Spencer.  I loved reading about how two seemingly mismatched people, always at odds found a way to love each other in spite of their difference. I believed that's what love was, stronger than any other thing there is but so worth fight for.  Now I'm a bit more cynical and realize that all those romance novels probably gave me a grossly inaccurate view of love.  I still believe love conquers all, however it's a lot less dramatic as it is in romance novels.  The major drawback of my cynicism is that I no longer read romance novels like I used to.  

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10 comments:

Mel@Thedailyprophecy said...

Oh, thanks for the 'food-lit' recommendations. My sister loves cooking and she has many, many cooking books. She might like these! :)

Development + Fiction - Mel@thedailyprophecy.

Jenn said...

You're welcome! Let me know what she thinks. :)

Lauren @ Books, Tea & Me said...

I second that! I love to bake and cook and relish any novel that takes place in a kitchen or centres around cuisine of some kind. Thanks for the recommendations!

Christine said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Christine said...

Hi there! I used to think I would hate historical fiction because I'm like you, Jenn. I love history and thought that reading historical fiction would seem a bit unrealistic, in a way. I recently read MAID OF SECRETS by Jennifer McGowan--my first HF novel--and surprisingly fell in love with it. It was not what I was expecting at all. I'm much more willingly to give others a try now :) My all time favorite genre is YA, though. I ended up rambling way too much about all the sub-genres in it on my post. For YA day I'll have to come up with something that I didn't already mention haha!

Have a great week and hope you ladies are enjoying ABEA!

Christine @ The Bookish Daydreamer

Lindsey said...

Jenn, I love Food-lit. Maybe we can get Amazon to make it a new genre. LOL. I've read some really great food centric novels. I think I love them because I get to live vicariously through those stories. I have several food allergies that prevent me from eating some of the yummy things I read about.

I'm also a Chick-lit fan, but only to a certain extent. I am by no means a girly girl, so if it gets too much, I stop reading.

Great post!

My Genre @ Lindsey Gray

Anonymous said...

Awesome post! So many great genres and books listed! I'm going to bookmark this post so I can add some to my TBR! I love historical fiction but need to read more! And I haven't read a lot of food lit but I've read some books about baking and chocolate so I think food lit sounds really interesting! I also love chick lit! I will really read anything if it seems interesting to me!

my armchair BEA post

Jenn said...

I've tried a few historical fiction, Christine, and I start ticking off historical inconsistencies and fact checking and that makes for a slow, not so enjoyable read.

The only ones I've really loved, aside from The Book Thief is, Winds of War and War and Remembrance.

Oddly, I don't hold movies to the same high standards. I wonder what's up with that?

Anonymous said...

I'm a huge Historical fiction reader and love anything to do with Women's literature. However, I have never heard of Food-Lit!! That sounds quite interesting and has now made me crave a key lime pie slice;)

Leanne Yang said...

I totally love contemporary fiction! I haven't actually read historical fiction before. I get what Jenn means by reading to escape, but I love the emotions that contemporaries put me through. I kind of want a book that makes me cry, I read to escape, but I escape in other's worlds as well. :)

Leanne @ Escaping With Books