Genre Fiction - it's my thing

Back to Armchair BEA and today we are talking about genre fiction.  Not sure what they mean?  Here is what the site says for today:

Genre fiction is kind of wide category. Science fiction, fantasy, horror, crime, romance. Though often dismissed or ridiculed by the more “literary” minded, these novels often deal with complex themes and issues and some of the world’s most beloved authors write in these categories. Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Anne Rice, Deborah Harkness, Douglas Adams, P D James, J R Ward and George R R Martin to name a few. Genre fiction can take us to places we never imagine, experience scenarios we’ve always dreamed of and open up new worlds to explore. 

 If you’re a reader of genre fiction do you have a favourite author or series? And what keeps bringing you back for more fantasy/sci fi/horror etc? And if you don’t read one (or more) of these genres what is it that deters you from those sections of the bookstore? I’m also curious to hear why you think these genres often don’t get the recognition they deserve.

I am a HUGE reader of genre fiction, huge I tell you.  Many years ago (and no, I won't say how many), I was enlightened after reading 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King.  My favorite author to this day, this wonderful writer opened my eyes to genre fiction.  Would I classify him as horror?  I would sometimes, but while reading his books you realize that it is about so much more.  The depth of character is to be rivaled.  For instance, in IT, as scary as the book itself is, the bond between the friends is what always leaves me in awe.  And let's be real, The Stand?  Hard to beat as an all around book if you ask me - thankfully I'm not alone.

I've also read the entire Interview with a Vampire series by Anne Rice, many of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward, The Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz, I will read just about anything paranormal, Mary Higgins Clark again is one of my fav's, and so is Suzanne Collins.  Diana Gabaldon...absolutely!  So, genre fiction?  It is certainly my thing.  I guess I would ask, what isn't genre fiction?  I am maybe a little confused because it seems like they try to shove everything into some kind of genre, I am not sure what non-genre fiction would be.  I'd love to know.

Thanks so much for visiting my site, I look forward to reading what some of you have to say!

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Paths to Becoming a Better Blogger - Armchair BEA Day 2

Here we are - Day 2 of Armchair BEA.  Here is today's discussion:

Today, we're inviting you to talk about approach. Have you branched out into your community? Do you partner with other bloggers? Have you gone "pro" or tried generating some income through your blog? If you're a long-term blogger, how has your online personality developed over the years? 

Tell us about things you've done to expand your blogging horizons, and the things you'd like to do but haven't managed (or figured out) yet. Come back here to link up your post, and then go see what other participants have to say. Let's foster our development as bloggers and learn from each other!

9 years ago I started blogging about books.  It all started after I had my oldest daughter and decided I needed to start documenting the books that I have read.  While I was pregnant and on bed rest I re-read a few books that I had no intention of re-reading.  I just didn't remember that I had read them. So, it was then I knew it was time.

I also joined sites such as Shelfari and Goodreads (as I became aware of them) and quickly made other bookie friends.  I was so excited.  So, I hung out in the blogging community, kinda like I do now, and started to follow lots of bookie blogs.  Not only did I get book recommendations, but I made some great friends.

This lasted a few years and I was getting ARC's from publishers, and just loving life in general. That is when I was contacted to participate in my first virtual book tour.  I wasn't really sure what this was (remember, this is almost 7 years ago) but I thought it sounded like fun so I said sure thing.  And I participated in more with this company and really enjoyed it.  5 1/2 years ago the owner of the company asked if I wanted to join them and I said yes, yes, yes.  So, that is when I started working for Pump Up Your Book  To this day I absolutely LOVE what I do, and after doing it so long (we have been around a LONG time), I have learned so much.  It is great to see how much things have changed.

My blogging personality hasn't changed much, except I do have more than one book blog.  This is my newest 'creation' because I wanted a place where I could just talk a little more.  One of my sites is going to start being for reviews only (although those reviews will be mirrored here as well).  I just hope to continue to find new blogs to read and keep enjoying the old ones I already to.

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The Classics Courtesy of Armchair BEA

So, since I am participating in Armchair BEA I will be blogging about all different things this week.  How fun!  Today the discussion focuses on classic literature.  I have to admit, there is so much classic literature I have yet to read.  But, let's see if I can't discuss some of my favorites.

I was always in advanced English classes, and when I was a Sophmore in High School we had to pick a classic author and read much of their work (it was the first semester of the class) and then we had to write a thesis on them and their writing.  To be honest, I wasn't sure who to pick but I decided to choose Kurt Vonnegut.  Up until that point I hadn't read anything by him, and I wanted to expose myself to his work, some of which I had been told was really out there.

To pick a favorite book by him is almost an impossible task.  I wasn't prepared when I picked up Slaughterhouse Five (the first book of his I read) to fall in love with an author's work like I did with his.  Have you read Slaughterhouse Five? If not, here is some information:

Adapted for a magnificent George Roy Hill film three years later (perhaps the only film adaptation of a masterpiece which exceeds its source), Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) is the now famous parable of Billy Pilgrim, a World War II veteran and POW, who has in the later stage of his life become ""unstuck in time"" and who experiences at will (or unwillingly) all known events of his chronology out of order and sometimes simultaneously. 

Traumatized by the bombing of Dresden at the time he had been imprisoned, Pilgrim drifts through all events and history, sometimes deeply implicated, sometimes a witness. He is surrounded by Vonnegut's usual large cast of continuing characters (notably here the hack science fiction writer Kilgore Trout and the alien Tralmafadorians who oversee his life and remind him constantly that there is no causation, no order, no motive to existence). 

The ""unstuck"" nature of Pilgrim's experience may constitute an early novelistic use of what we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; then again, Pilgrim's aliens may be as ""real"" as Dresden is real to him. Struggling to find some purpose, order or meaning to his existence and humanity's, Pilgrim meets the beauteous and mysterious Montana Wildhack (certainly the author's best character name), has a child with her and drifts on some supernal plane, finally, in which Kilgore Trout, the Tralmafadorians, Montana Wildhack and the ruins of Dresden do not merge but rather disperse through all planes of existence. 

Slaughterhouse-Five was hugely successful, brought Vonnegut an enormous audience, was a finalist for the National Book Award and a bestseller and remains four decades later as timeless and shattering a war fiction as Catch-22, with which it stands as the two signal novels of their riotous and furious decade.

This is not the only Vonnegut book that really caught me off guard.  As much as I love Slaughterhouse Five, it does have some competition.  Welcome to the Monkey House has a few stories in it that I would rank as some of my favorite reading of my lifetime (and I have read A LOT).

Do you know the story Harrison Bergeron?  If not, I strongly encourage you to read this one, as it will really blow your mind.  If you do know the story, what do you think about it?  Do you think that in the future the government might try to control us in this way?  You already see some evidence of things like this, just in a different way: cloning, lasik surgery, plastic surgery...will we all be 'equal' in the future, none better than the other?  Here is the information on the book as listed on Amazon:

This short-story collection Welcome to the Monkey House (1968) incorporates almost completely Vonnegut's 1961 "Canary in a Cathouse," which appeared within a few months of Slaughterhouse-Five and capitalized upon that breakthrough novel and the enormous attention it suddenly brought.

Drawn from both specialized science fiction magazines and the big-circulation general magazines (Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, etc.) which Vonnegut had been one of the few science writers to sell, the collection includes some of his most accomplished work. The title story may be his most famous--a diabolical government asserts control through compulsory technology removing orgasm from sex--but Vonnegut's bitterness and wit, not in his earlier work as poisonous or unshielded as it later became, is well demonstrated.

Two early stories from Galaxy science fiction magazine and one from Fantasy & Science Fiction (the famous "Harrison Bergeron") show Vonnegut's careful command of a genre about which he was always ambivalent, stories like "More Stately Mansions" or "The Foster Portfolio" the confines and formula of a popular fiction of which he was always suspicious. Vonnegut's affection for humanity and bewilderment as its corruption are manifest in these early works.

Several of these stories (those which appeared in Collier's) were commissioned by Vonnegut’s Cornell classmate and great supporter Knox Burger, also born in 1922.

There are so many classic books out there I could and would recommend, here is just a partial list (as I could go on and on):

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (quite possibly my favorite book of all time)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (really need to re-read before I see the movie)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - how can you go wrong?
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
last but not least, ANYTHING by Edgar Allen Poe, lol!

I can't wait to see what you say your favorite classics are.  There are so many out there, and many I have yet to read.  Maybe it's time to make a pact, when I was younger, every third book I read was a classic.  Seeing as how I have read many, maybe I'll weave them in every fifth or so.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

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A little about me

So, as part of Armchair BEA we are asked to share a little about ourselves...a get to know you of sorts.  So, here is some info about me: 

Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging? 

My name is Tracee and I have been part of the book blogging community for many years.  I started as a reviewer and now I am the Vice President of Pump Up Your Book.  I have been blogging in some form for over 9 years and it all started as a way to keep track of the books that I had read so I didn't re-read them, lol!

Have you previously participated in Armchair BEA? What brought you back for another year? If you have not previously participated, what drew you to the event?

This is my first year participating.  I have wanted to go to BEA for quite a few years but never had anyone to go with.  So, I had been sitting home pouting when I came across Armchair BEA halfway through last year.  I knew this would be for me and am so happy I am here!

What are you currently reading, or what is your favorite book you have read so far in 2013?

I am reading Daughter of Smoke and Bone.  I have read so many fantastic reviews of it, I knew I just had to pick it up.  Loving it so far!

Tell us one non-book related thing that everyone reading your blog may not know about you.

I am an advocate for helping raise awareness for Congenital Heart Defects.  My oldest daughter (who is 9) had open heart surgery as a baby to fix a heart defect she was born with that wasn't detected until after she was born.  She actually has 5 defects and will probably need additional surgery at some point.  1 in 100 children are born with a heart defect, and they kill more children than all forms of childhood cancer combined.  Yet, most people don't know much about the.  I certainly hope this changes in the very near future, as it is really necessary.

I also LOVE to cook and collect recipes.

If you could eat dinner with any author or character, who would it be and why?

I am going to answer this question by choosing one of each.  As far as author is concerned, this one is easy for me.  It would be Stephen King.  He has been my favorite author for over 25 years and each time I pick up a book I his I am in awe of his writing.  Don't get me wrong, I don't love every book of his, and some I haven't even really liked.  But, I don't believe anyone can weave a story quite like he can.

As far as characters are concerned, I think I would choose one of two.  Either Jericho Barrons from Karen Marie Moning's Fae series, or Jamie Fraser from the Outlander series.  Do I really have to choose just one? Lol!

Well, I guess that's all for now.  Can't wait to see what the rest of you choose to answser.

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Armchair BEA

So, as you can probably deduce from the title of this post, I will not be going to BEA this year.  Each year I say I am going to go, but it never seems to happen.  Life just gets in the way, as do expenses.  But, I'm ok with that.  As much as I would love to go, I found a site that will make my heart break a little less:

Armchair BEA

Really, you should head over and check this site out because it sure looks like it is going to be a lot of fun, with tons of other cool sites/people participating.  Hope to see you there and Happy Friday!

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