Armchair BEA: Ethics & Non-Fiction

Heavy topics today!

So blogging ethics. Hm. Folks, once you put something on the internet it's out there for everyone to see. I try to use the think before you speak thing in blogging as well and frequently rewrite things to try and be a bit more even toned and such. If there's anything I'm a bit on the fence about, in terms of content or tone, I tend to remove it just to be on the safe side. I don't censor myself but I try to be aware of the potential issues that could crop up.

Plagiarism is a hot button topic. It's not something that I've had a whole lot of experience with - I post my opinions on books, there's not a whole lot of grey area there in my opinion. When I do post an image, a synopsis, or anything that's not my own, I link back to the source and I post the source as credit. Giving credit where credit is due is a courtesy at minimum. It takes, what, two extra seconds to add in a little bit of extra text? Good manners as well as covering all your bases. Ultimately, though, I guess I don't really put a whole lot of thought into it because I don't understand it. If you're blogging, I assume you're blogging for you (I am). So I can't wrap my head around someone who would try to pass off someone else's material as their own. There just doesn't seem to be any excuse.

As far as review ethics are concerned, I'm not sure what to say. Everything posted here on the blog is my own opinion but I do come from a bookseller background. What does this mean? It means that even if I dislike a book, I'm hard pressed not to find something positive about it simply because I understand that I may not be the right audience for the title. It doesn't mean that I give glowing five star reviews to books that I hate (and I rarely hate a book) but it does mean that if the writing is good and the story is interesting but doesn't quite hit the spot for me, that's what I'm going to say. I receive review copies. I'm not paid or pressured to write positive reviews. I am a very eclectic reader and I choose which titles I want to read out of my own stack of ARCs and purchased books, so I do generally enjoy what I'm reading. I'm not assigned books so there's less of a chance that I'm going to completely detest what I'm reading. If a book is terrible I might actually opt not to write a post. It's my choice.

Onto the genre topic: Non-Fiction

I'm incredibly picky when it comes to non fiction. First, I like non fiction that reads like fiction. A prose approach to the narrative itself, can't be too academic, and has to be entertaining.

My non fiction tastes extend pretty much to food related topics (food memoirs are super fun!), anthropology related topics, and virus related topics.

Some faves are:

Richard Preston's The Hot Zone. Holy moly! This book really does read like fiction and I've been tempted to pick up Preston's other non fiction titles as a result. I've yet to at this point (though I have read his one fiction release and I'm a big fan of his brother's work).

Jon Ronson's The Psychopath Test. Really fantastic and super funny (in a twisted sort of way). Definitely one I highly recommend.

Heather Pringle's The Mummy Congress. This one's been out for a while but it remains one of my favorite reads on the subject.

Armchair BEA: Giveaway and Literature

So today is giveaway day and the genre discussion is general literary fiction. This is going to be a tough one for me. I do enjoy quite a lot of books that I consider to be more literary reads. They are probably still very much genre fiction for a lot of serious literary readers, so I'm just throwing that out there and acknowledging it early :)

First for the giveaway. I've been cleaning my shelves and I'm offering up some themed two-fers. US only though since they'll be coming direct from me:

Summer Thriller Pack: Laura Lippman's And When She Was Good and Alafair Burke's Never Tell

a Rafflecopter giveaway




Summer Action/Adventure Pack: Matthew Dunn's Sentinel and James Rollins's Bloodline

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Summer Beach Reads Pack: Heather Barbieri's The Cottage at Beach Glass and Dorothea Benton Frank's Porch Lights

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Two of my recent favorites pack: Beth Gutcheon's Gossip and Liza Palmer's Nowhere But Home

a Rafflecopter giveaway



So to enter, just fill out the appropriate Rafflecopter before midnight, June 9. You can enter for multiple packs if you like. Please note that you do not have to be an Armchair BEA participant to enter to win. 

Now for the genre discussion. I'll be honest and say that I'm not even sure what literature is these days. I'm sure it's supposed to refer to a slightly higher brow, less dime store-esque type of work, but the lines have blurred so much in publishing that I think you might be hard pressed to find a truly accurate definition these days - and titles that back it up. If I'm honest, a lot of what's described as literature (genre-wise) doesn't really make it to my TBR.

My idea of literary fiction seems to lean these days to more serious genre stuff and I'm pretty generous with my "literary" tags. Justin Cronin's The Passage and The Twelve for example, are what I'd call literary horror. I consider Carol Goodman's work to be literary mystery while I generally tag Joanne Harris as literary fiction. I've tagged Katherine Neville's The Eight and The Fire as literary puzzles and Tom Rob Smith's Child 44 as a literary thriller. My tagging - and the reason I'm pretty liberal with my own genre descriptions - comes from being a bookseller and a desire to spread the "if you like this you should try..." love.

Armchair BEA: Blogger Development & Genre Fiction

Today's two part discussion begins with how we've developed ourselves as bloggers. I have been blogging since 2008 and the decision to do so stemmed from my desire to continue recommending books and talking about books after I'd left my job as a bookseller.

I review online for Bookbitch.com and have since 2006 but I wanted an outlet to talk about books and movies and tv shows and anything else I wanted to talk about. My primary reviews have always been for BB and I use my blog for extras - adding more personalization and discussion to my reviews (I write a separate review for my own blog).

Since last year's Armchair BEA, I've started doing blog tours with TLC as well as jumping on board with some of the publisher promoted blog tours, which has done a lot to pick up traffic to the blog. I've been hosting more giveaways - and started using Rafflecopter for that (love it!).

It's all fairly little steps but ultimately my desire is simply to share great reads.

Genre Fiction:

The second part of today's discussion is genre fiction. I lurve this topic!

Horror is still my number one favorite genre. I cut my teeth on it. The first book I read on my own and can say I truly enjoyed was a Jeffrey and the 3rd Grade Ghost title. I was hooked! I spent every cent I had on RL Stine and Christopher Pike books, eventually working my way through every horror-ish title I could get my hands on in the juvenile section of the bookstore.

And yes, I've branched out quite a bit in the years since. I read just about any genre you can name these days and I especially adore cross genre reads that incorporate elements from all over the literary landscape! My three favorite combos with horror are mystery/thriller (of course), fantasy (awesome!), and sci fi (I want more of this).

Some favorites:

Anything by Stephen King, of course! King incorporates a lot of fantasy elements into some of his stories (The Dark Tower series, for example).

Summer of Night by Dan Simmons - a truly fantastic coming of age horror story!

The Man From Primrose Lane by James Renner - not exactly horror but it is horrific. It's cross genre for sure and contains elements of sci-fi, mystery, thriller...

Stephen M. Irwin's The Broken Ones (sort of mystery/dystopian/horror)

Armchair BEA: Introductions & Classics

So for the intro portion of today's Armchair BEA post, I've chosen the following questions from the list:

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?

Yes! I participated for the very first time last year (and you can read my intro post from last year's event as well if you're interested). Since I still, sadly, have not been able to go to actual BEA, I definitely wanted to participate in Armchair BEA again. I think it's a great way to connect and discover new-to-me blogs and bloggers.

Where in the world are you blogging from? Tell a random fact or something special about your current location. Feel free to share pictures.

I'm blogging from just outside Denver, Colorado, which is (according to this Huffington Post article) the 5th most literate US city of 2012. And we'd have to be thanks to our great bookstores!

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

I am currently reading (because I'm pre-posting) Sarah Jio's The Last Camellia and Michael Logan's Apocalypse Cow. I know, it's a weird mix!

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

I majored in Criminal Justice with a double minor in English and Anthropology. But then I changed track a bit with a job as a bookseller and later attended the Denver Publishing Institute. 

Which is your favorite post that you have written that you want everyone to read?

I don't know that I necessarily have a favorite post but I certainly enjoyed showing off what a nerd I am for Game of Thrones here. I'm also loving the Top Ten Tuesday posts (hosted by The Broke and the Bookish) and would love if my post on authors I think deserve more recognition (here) turned some readers onto some of my favorite authors. I'm also quite fond of the interview posts I've been doing of late. This one with Paul Cornell is really fun and my husband put together a great video using my interview with Maureen Johnson and her recent Tattered Cover appearance here.

Classics:

The genre portion of today's post is classics. I have a love/hate relationship with classics. Generally a classic is something that has withstood the test of time. Why (or even if) these particular books have stayed relevant is anyone's guess in some cases.

I have not done well with a lot of the typical forced school reading. For someone who reads as much as I do my best guess is that a lot of the "classics" were introduced to me at the wrong age. I personally think I might actually enjoy Dickens these days. I don't really think I'd ever have much fondness for Hawthorne but who knows. Strangely, I was never required to read any Jane Austen, George Orwell, or anything else I might have considered fun in middle school and high school.

I had better luck with college courses, though, and a particular (and continued) love of gothic lit. I devoured Jane Eyre and read du Maurier's Rebecca on my own. As such, I definitely recommend the Brontes and du Maurier, particularly to readers who are looking for something deliciously atmospheric!