Why you should ALSO read... Robert B. Parker

Okay, this is a romance related blog. I am a romance author and a romance reader. On the other hand, "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." You can't just read romance (although I know some of you try) which leads us to the latest segment of A Cold Cup of Coffee titled "Why you should ALSO read..." Today's ALSO read is Robert B. Parker. He's dead. It's tragic. His books live on.

Robert B. Parker was the dean of American crime fiction. That means he wrote hard core, hard boiled, gum shoe novels with more than a few high brow literary references thrown in. The man wrote his PhD thesis on the noir novel... and then he used that thesis as the template for his first noir novel The Godwulf Manuscript. His most prolific character was Spenser whose adventures as a gumshoe were turned into a television show... I hear (I'm too young to have seen it)... and whose girlfriend troubles mirrored Parker's own life. He also wrote about a studly small town police chief (currently played on television by Tom Selleck) starting with Night Passage, a spunky female P.I. starting with Family Honor, and a pair of gun fighting cowboys (Ed Harris and Viggo Mortenson in the movie, le sigh) starting with Appaloosa.

And those were just his more well known series. Robert B. Parker wrote over seventy books in his lifetime and each one of them is a fast paced joy to read... and reread. They're littered with literary references and inside jokes, and as I read more over my lifetime I always find something new to enjoy. (Of curse, you'll still love them even if you've never read The Faerie Queen).

That's why you should ALSO read Robert B. Parker.

Who else should you ALSO read? Post below in the comments!

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Why you should ALSO read... 50 Shades of Gray

I know, you're all like "Listen, I've heard about 50 Shades of Gray. Everyone's reading it. It's not a romance novel, and I don't read porn" unless you're like "Read it, loved it, recommend more porn."

Here's the thing about 50 Shades... I'm not recommending it as a romance novel. I'm recommending this under the 'humor' category and the 'fantasy' category. Let's be honest, the sex in 50 Shades may or may not be realistic (I'm trying not to crush anyone's hopes and dreams) but there's a heck of a lot about this book that still counts as farcically funny fantasy, starting with...

1. The main character just graduated from college and doesn't own a computer.

2. All the cars are Audis.

3. He tells her to eat all the time.

and

4. SHE DOESN'T HAVE A COMPUTER. Seriously, she wa s an english major. It's crazy.

50 Shades is polarizing. Some people love it, some people hate it, I stayed up all night laughing my ass off. I recommend that you pour yourself a drink, pull up a chair, and read it proudly while your internal cheerleader does jumping jacks in the corner.

That's why you should ALSO read 50 Shades of Gray.

Who else should you ALSO read? Post below in the comments!

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