Sunday Soup - April 13 Edition

Sunday Soup is... a little of this, a little of that, not too much work, and hopefully a tasty result.

Soup Dish:  book people are talking about...
I'm not actually sure what people are talking about this week, but here are some links that caught my eye.

✽Stupid Lies About Vaginas, from Victoria Dahl. I do love this woman.
✽Roving Auto-Article Generator.

The press will print each PDF, which will be saddle stitched on the spot before being distributed for free.

I can't help but feel like this has to be a hoax.  I hope. The saddle-stitching detail seems like it puts it over the top.

✽Amazon is dead-freaking serious about drone deliveries. I find this kind of bemusing, and the sheer scope of the logistics on the ridiculous side, but then that's what everyone thought about building cell phone towers every 5 miles (give or take) in the 80s. So who knows?

✽The concept of peak content.  Hmmm. It is true that there seems to be a more viable business model as a content aggregator than a content producer... but what happens if everyone is aggregating and no one is producing? Could that even happen?

✽Newest blog on my radar: The Passionate Reader.  I love this blogger's voice and I'm looking forward to meeting her at RT!


What I'm reading
I've been on a great roll this week, catching up on some authors that have been on my list forever, plus finishing up this one by Victoria Dahl:

✽Too Hot to Handle. I don't know if I'm getting old or what, but I cannot for the life of me keep the titles of this mini-series straight. I finally figured out which one to read next and finished this contemporary Western.  I pretty much always likes me some Dahl, but I will say there were a few times with this heroine's awkwardness was almost off-putting, like I could almost see the author's hand cranking up the discomfort.  But since she has one of the best "I am woman, hear me roar" speeches ever, I can forgive:

"You think I'm someone sweet and nice and sunny? You look at me and you see someone who wants an apology? Someone who'll forgive you?

"That's what I hope, yes. I'm sorry, Merry. You're special. I know we don't have a permanent thing, but--

"I'm *special*?" she snarled. "Am I cute, too? And funny and kind?

"Um..." He finally seemed to recognize that his smile may have been premature. "Yes?"

Merry poked a finger into his chest, hard. "You don't know me. You don't know anything about me. You know *nothing, do you understand?"

He stepped backwards, hands raised.

"If I'm sweet, it's because I choose to be. If I'm ridiculously positive, it's because life is easier that way. A *hard* life is easier that way. I am not stupid, Shane."

She goes on to pretty much tear him a new one and give him a Black Moment to be remembered.  It is an EPIC scene.

✽Red-Headed Stepchild, by Jaye Wells. Unsurprisingly, I loved this kick-ass half-breed vampire/mage heroine. And yes, I know that "half-breed" is an offensive term with regards to real humans of mixed race parentage, but in a paranormal trope, I am using it deliberately. The "half-breed" is a classic romance device, posing a huge amount of potential conflict and character development. I actually got quite tired of it in the 80s, as every other hero of the American Western historical seemed to be either half Native American or half Mexican - "a foot in each camp, respected by the opposing societies, but belonging to neither." It was like a stock line on the blurb. But more recently, I've seen some much more nuanced treatments and I'm rather enjoying the new twists on this old theme.  Here, it's an important element to the story as Sabina is marginalized by the family that raised her because of her mixed parentage. At the end of the first book, it remains to be seen if her other heritage will treat her better.

✽A Perfect Darkness, by Jaime Rush. I first got wind of this author via the Avon Addict program, but I was reluctant to start in the middle of the series, and I never got around to tracking down the first book. Until now, and I'm very glad I did.  I found the paranormal elements here quite plausible and the suspense really kept me turning the pages. I won't say there weren't a few flaws -- the three protagonists basically take out a CIA operation which seemed a little bit unlikely, and the villain here is disappointingly one-dimensional, but the world is intriguing and I love the characters, so I'll be going back for more.

Outlander Watch... Och. I canna wait for Jamie and Claire onscreen.

✽I really want to dive into a re-read of Outlander, but I'm holding off until after RT. I'll keep you posted.


✽New eye candy, er, I mean, casting news-- Deadline.com says:

[Steven] Cree, repped by Tom Reed at Lou Coulson Associates, will play Ian Murray, Jenny’s husband and Jamie’s best friend since childhood, who lost part of his leg during battle with the English. Cree’s film credits include 300: Rise Of An Empire and The Awakening. He also will be seen opposite Angelina Jolie in Maleficent.