Fuggaliciousness for All, Pt. 3: Heather & Jessica & BOOKS!
Fug & Dames Nation know: literacy is trés glamorous.
So, we knew we would be remiss if we let our Weekend of Damesing go by without discussing a coping mechanism that we share — namely, books. Losing yourself in the world of a diverting novel will always help what ails you. (And if you’re trying not to spend your feelings completely, many libraries are doing curbside pickups or work with apps that lend e-books. This still helps support the authors you love, and spreads your book dollars a bit further.) Some books we’ve read recently and loved are:
Party of Two by Jasmine Guillory. This is not a surprise! The collected works of Jasmine Guillory have been recommended here many a time. But if by some reason you have not yet read her latest: It is A DELIGHT, full of sexy, competent people, and it will soothe your troubled brow for at least a few hours.
Speaking of delights, also please see: Farrah Rochon’s The Boyfriend Project; One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London; Priscilla Oliveras’s Island Affair; Talia Hibbert’s Get a Life, Chloe Brown, and Take a Hint, Dani Brown; Most Likely by Sarah Watson; and, if you just want to laugh until you need your asthma inhaler (true story, Jessica has bad lungs), Samantha Irby’s wow, no thank you will absolutely complete you, as in fact will all of Irby’s works.
If you need a fat, epic trilogy about rich British people in olden times making terrible mistakes in their personal lives — the first book, for example, involves people packing for the maiden voyage of the Titanic! — we always recommend Penny Vincenzi’s No Angel trilogy, and we’re gonna do that again here.
Speaking of series, if you enjoy sexy, competent people (again, a theme), basically anything by Deanna Raybourn will bring you joy — but we particularly recommend her Veronica Speedwell series. Mysteries will be solved! Women will be feisty! Men will be charmed! And banter will be, uh, bantered!
On the mysteries tip, if you haven’t read either of Sujata Massey’s Perveen Mistry books, you should get on that! Set in early 1920s Bombay, they chronicle the adventures — legal and otherwise — of one of India’s first female lawyers. They’re extremely good.
Speaking of adventures, Jessica has just started Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and it is very diverting thus far. Laura Lippman’s Lady in the Lake just came out in paperback and is exactly that, as well.
And, finally Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half is as brilliant as you might guess from its perch on the NYT list. Maybe even more so. It’s worth the long wait at your library, if that’s how you’re mainlining your reads these days.
(Lady in the Lake also happens to be a very attractive book around which to coordinate one’s outfit)
And Say It with Us One More Time: Enter to Win The Heir Affair!
Honestly making a woman get “photo ready” this shortly after giving birth-- it should be outlawed in the Geneva Convention!!!
If you, like Dames Margaret and Sophie, found The Royal We to be an utterly delightful and enthralling read, today is your lucky day: fill out this handy dandy Google form, and you might be one of the lucky readers who wins a copy of the equally glorious sequel -- The Heir Affair, released earlier this month. It was such a treat to spend more time with Nick, Bex, and — of course — Freddie.
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