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Newly Published, From the Birth of Hip-Hop to Elena Ferrante

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Newly Published, From the Birth of Hip-Hop to Elena Ferrante

ULYSSES, by James Joyce. (Folio, $795.) With illustrations by John Vernon Lord, this extravagant version of 500 copies celebrates the novel’s a centesimal anniversary.

BEATRIX POTTER: Drawn to Nature, edited by Annemarie Bilclough. (Rizzoli Electa, $45.) The accompanying catalog for an exhibition on the Victoria and Albert Museum in London collects the “Peter Rabbit” creator’s drawings, photographs and letters.

YO! The Early Days of Hip Hop 1982-84, images by Sophie Bramly. (ArtBook, $49.95.) Pictures documenting the start of hip-hop in New York seem alongside texts by Fab 5 Freddy, Girl Pink, Run-D.M.C. and extra.

YVES SAINT LAURENT MUSEUM MARRAKECH, by Studio KO. (Phaidon, $49.95.) A “candid diary” of the 1,423 days it took for the architects to conceive and construct this monument to the Parisian designer and his associate, Pierre Bergé.

QUIET PLACES: Collected Essays, by Peter Handke. Translated by Krishna Winston and Ralph Manheim. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $30.) This assortment by the 2019 Nobel Prize winner consists of essays on the refuge of loos, the varied manifestations of human exhaustion and the story of “the mushroom maniac,” a buddy who disappears in a match of obsession.

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THE TEARS OF A MAN FLOW INWARD: Rising Up within the Civil Warfare in Burundi, by Pacifique Irankunda. (Random Home, $27.) On this transferring memoir, Irankunda remembers dwelling by way of a 13-year civil battle that upended his life in Burundi when he was solely 4 years outdated and contemplates the lack of his nation’s tradition and custom to the violence.

WORLDS OF EXILE AND ILLUSION, by Ursula Ok. Le Guin. (Tor Books, $19.99.) This omnibus assortment gathers the primary three novels of Le Guin’s celebrated Hainish collection, together with “Rocannon’s World,” “Planet of Exile” and “Metropolis of Illusions,” and is launched by the E-book Assessment’s fantasy and science fiction columnist, Amal El-Mohtar.

IN THE MARGINS: On the Pleasures of Studying and Writing, by Elena Ferrante. (Europa, $14.99.) Ferrante displays on type, her literary influences, the “arduous journey” of girls in literature and particulars the struggles she’s confronted as a fiction author on this crisp essay assortment.

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Book Review: ‘Animals, Robots, Gods,’ by Webb Keane, and ‘The Moral Circle,’ by Jeff Sebo

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Book Review: ‘Animals, Robots, Gods,’ by Webb Keane, and ‘The Moral Circle,’ by Jeff Sebo

Several vignettes stand out. Keane cites a colleague, Scott Stonington, a professor of anthropology and practicing physician, who did fieldwork with Thai farmers some two decades ago. End-of-life care for parents in Thailand, he writes, often forces a moral dilemma: Children feel a profound debt to their parents for giving them life, requiring them to seek whatever medical care is available, no matter how expensive or painful.

Life, precious in all its forms, is supported to the end and no objections are made to hospitalization, medical procedures or interventions. But to die in a hospital is to die a “bad death”; to be able to let go, one should be in one’s own bed, surrounded by loved ones and familiar things. To this end, a creative solution was needed: Entrepreneurial hospital workers concocted “spirit ambulances” with rudimentary life support systems like oxygen to bear dying patients back to their homes. It is a powerful image — the spirit ambulance, ferrying people from this world to the next. Would that we, in our culture, could be so clear about how to negotiate the imperceptible line between body and soul, the confusion that arises at the edge of the human.

Take Keane’s description of the Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori, who, in the 1970s, likened the development of a humanoid robot to hiking toward a mountain peak across an uneven terrain. “In climbing toward the goal of making robots appear like a human, our affinity for them increases until we come to a valley,” he wrote. When the robot comes too close to appearing human, people get creeped out — it’s real, maybe too real, but something is askew.

What might be called the converse of this, Keane suggests, is the Hindu experience of darshan with an inanimate deity. Gazing into a painted idol’s eyes, one is prompted to see oneself as if from the god’s perspective — a reciprocal sight — from on high rather than from within that “uncanny valley.” The glimpse is itself a blessing in that it lifts us out of our egos for a moment.

We need relief from our self-centered subjectivity, Keane suggests — hence the attraction of A.I. boyfriends, girlfriends and therapists. The inscrutability of an A.I. companion, like that of an Indian deity, encourages a surrender, a yielding of control, a relinquishment of personal agency that can feel like the fulfillment of a long-suppressed dream. Of course, something is missing here too: the play of emotion that can only occur between real people. But A.I. systems, as new as they are, play into a deep human yearning for relief from the boundaries of self.

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Could A.I. ever function as a spirit ambulance, shuttling us through the uncanny valleys that keep us, as Shantideva knew, from accepting others? As Jeff Sebo would say, there is at least a “non-negligible” — that is, at least a one in 10,000 — chance that it might.

THE MORAL CIRCLE: Who Matters, What Matters, and Why | By Jeff Sebo | Norton | 182 pp. | $24

ANIMALS, ROBOTS, GODS: Adventures in the Moral Imagination | By Webb Keane | Princeton University Press | 182 pp. | $27.95

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How a Super Bowl blackout in New Orleans nearly altered Ravens and 49ers history

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How a Super Bowl blackout in New Orleans nearly altered Ravens and 49ers history

“This is Steve Tasker, sideline reporter for the Super Bowl 47. If you’re expecting to hear our friend Jim Nantz, it may be a moment before he gets on.”

When the audio of Super Bowl XLVII between the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens suddenly cut out early in the third quarter on Feb. 3, 2013, the millions watching the CBS broadcast might have suspected something was amiss.

When Tasker, assigned to work the 49ers sideline, was the first voice anyone heard, it was confirmed. There was no power in the broadcast booth, elevators and escalators ground to a halt and so did the game — for 34 minutes.

“Half the power in New Orleans stadium, the Superdome here, is out,” Tasker announced to the world.

For some Ravens players, the stoppage was suspicious. Jacoby Jones had returned the second-half kickoff 108 yards for a touchdown, Baltimore was leading 28-6 and the Ravens had just sacked 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick on second down. The Super Bowl was about to be a rout and then the lights went out? Linebacker Ray Lewis smelled a rat.

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“You cannot tell me someone wasn’t sitting there, and when they say, ‘The Ravens (are) about to blow them out. Man, we better do something,’” he said in an interview for NFL Films’ “America’s Game” later that year. “That’s a huge shift in any game, in all seriousness.”

The actual explanation was more mundane. A newly installed device called a relay automatically cut power to the stadium when the amperage hit a certain level because the factory settings were too low.

Entergy, the local electric company, vows that won’t happen Sunday when the Super Bowl returns to New Orleans for the first time in 12 years. The company no longer uses the equipment responsible for the blackout, there are better redundancies for electrical flow and the stadium has hosted more than a decade of New Orleans Saints games and concerts since without incident.

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From Super Bowls to ‘last resort,’ Michael Jordan to ‘No mas,’ the Superdome has seen it all

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Those concerts, significantly, have included Beyonce, whose halftime show in 2013 preceded the blackout, and Taylor Swift, who brought 200,000 fans to the Caesars Superdome over three nights in October.

“Some called that weekend the ultimate tabletop exercise,” Entergy said in a statement.

While the 49ers laugh at Lewis’ conspiracy theory — “We had the same delay they did,” offensive tackle Joe Staley said — there’s no question they benefited from the reset.

They barrelled into their locker room at halftime intent on fixing everything that had gone wrong in the first half, quickly going over the tactical changes they’d make. Then they had nowhere to go.

A Super Bowl halftime is twice as long as a regular-season version and because there was so much staging equipment, the players couldn’t get onto the field. Instead, they were cooped up in the locker room.

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The 49ers note that the Ravens got away with a holding penalty against fullback Bruce Miller on Jones’ kick-return touchdown to start the third quarter. But there also was a sense that the long halftime had an effect.

“I remember coach (Jim) Harbaugh coming up and asking, ‘Were we warmed up?’” the 49ers strength coach at the time, Mark Uyeyama, recalled. “And I go, ‘Uhhh — clearly (Jones) was.’”

The 49ers then ran two plays — a 29-yard pass to Michael Crabtree and a 3-yard run by Frank Gore — before Kaepernick was sacked by Arthur Jones. Following that play, color commentator Phil Simms was in mid-sentence when the broadcast went silent at 7:37 p.m. local time.


The 49ers had the ball trailing 28-6 when the power suddenly went out in the Superdome. (Dilip Vishwanat / Getty Images)

An attack? A shooter? Those thoughts flashed through everyone’s mind. The Sandy Hook shooting had happened a month and a half earlier and the 49ers had been on hand at a game in New England where the victims were remembered.

“The first thing that went through my head is an act of terrorism,” then-49ers offensive coordinator Greg Roman said. “And what’s coming next? First, they cut the power. And now what? My whole family’s there.”

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“I honestly thought it was a terrorist attack initially,” said Wink Martindale, then the Ravens’ inside linebackers coach. “You just didn’t know. Right away, you’re looking up where you know your family is sitting and everything else to make sure everyone was OK.”

After a few moments, those thoughts dissipated. There was an initial groan from the crowd, but there was no panic or commotion. The Superdome was quiet.

“To their credit, everyone remained calm,” Tasker said in a phone interview.

He said everyone’s first task was to find out what happened and how long the game would be delayed. The sideline reporters had stopped using wireless microphones six years earlier during rainy Super Bowl XLI because those mics had gone out. Tasker had a cable attached to his mic in New Orleans that stretched only as far as the numbers on the field. The league officials he wanted to interview were safely huddled at midfield and didn’t want to be interviewed on camera. So he strolled to midfield, got as much information as he could, then was approached by Jim Harbaugh on his way back to the sideline.

“He wanted to know what they told me,” Tasker said.

The 49ers had an advantage in that they’d gone through something similar the year before when a transformer blew outside of Candlestick Park, causing two delays during a “Monday Night Football” game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Uyeyama said he reminded players how well they’d handled that wait on the sideline.

“We were better prepared than we were against Pittsburgh,” Uyeyama said. “And we’d put (Ben) Roethlisberger on his back all game. So we were walking around and communicating with the guys, ‘Remember, Pittsburgh.’”

The teams initially were told the game would resume in about 15 minutes and that everyone should remain on the field. They heard the same refrain — 15 minutes — when they checked in later.

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“The longer it went, you had to get yourself back in coaching mode,” Martindale said. “It was like, ‘Holy s—, we have to start stretching.’ We knew we were in trouble. I know analytics say there’s no such thing as momentum, but that’s bulls—. The lights going out changed the momentum of the game. We were killing them when the lights went out. We had an older team than them and it really took us a while to get loose again and get going.”

Said 49ers safety Donte Whitner: “Football is a game based on momentum. And whenever you have a lull like that, it’s a good opportunity for the team that’s not playing well to regroup and recover.”

He said linebackers Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman discussed strategy. Justin Smith, the elder statesman of the defense, made sure everyone stayed focused and calm.

“I remember vividly hearing Dashon Goldson continue to say, ‘Not today. Not today. We’re too good. We’re too great of a defense,’” Whitner recalled. “And what he was referring to was, ‘Let’s not make the simple mistakes that will beat us.’”


The blackout officially last 34 minutes and seemed to lead to a huge momentum swing for the 49ers. (Jamie Squire / Getty Images)

On offense, Roman made only a quick visit to the locker room at halftime. The 49ers had scored only two field goals at that point and he needed to rework the entire game plan. Roman spoke briefly to the players, then approached Harbaugh.

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“I just said, ‘Hey, Jim, I’ve gotta get upstairs and get things figured out,’” Roman said.

He was back in the coach’s booth before Beyonce began her show and felt good about the alterations he’d made.

“Then they returned the kickoff and it was like the price of poker has changed even greater,” Roman said. “It was like, ‘Oh my God. Now we’re in quite a hole.’”

He made even more adjustments after the stadium lost power. The radio headsets connecting him and defensive coordinator Vic Fangio to the sideline didn’t work and in fact were one of the last things to come online before the game resumed.

So Roman bounced plays and ideas off of receivers coach John Morton. The 49ers would run the ball occasionally to keep Lewis and the Ravens defense honest. Otherwise, they’d attack through the air.

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“We were gonna be ultra-aggressive,” Roman said. “We had so much talent on the team, it was only a matter of time.”

He was right. The 49ers punted immediately after play resumed but scored on a 31-yard Kaepernick-to-Crabtree pass when they got the ball back. Then they scored on their next three possessions, cutting Baltimore’s lead to 31-29 with just under 10 minutes to play. It was as if the blackout had created two distinct games.

“It was like a track meet from that point forward,” Roman said.

But while the Ravens scored once more — on a Justin Tucker 38-yard field goal — the 49ers offense got bogged down deep in the red zone in the final minutes.

San Francisco seemed to have a great shot for a go-ahead touchdown after Gore’s 33-yard run to the 7-yard line with 2:39 to go. That carry, however, left Gore — one of the best short-yardage runners in the NFL — winded and his replacement, LaMichael James, was stopped for a 2-yard gain on first down.

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A quarterback keeper that likely would have scored a touchdown was wiped out when Jim Harbaugh called a timeout to avoid a play-clock violation. When the last of three throws to Crabtree in the corner of the end zone sailed over the receiver’s head, the Ravens knew they had finally halted San Francisco’s momentum and hung on for the win.

“If we would have lost that game, I would have walked away saying, ‘It was because the power went out and the long delay,’” Martindale said. “We were just killing them otherwise.”

Said Roman: “Unfortunately, it just wasn’t enough. That was a bizarre day in our lives, for sure.”

Despite being the lone face and the voice for the Super Bowl broadcast for a few uncertain minutes, Tasker said he didn’t receive much attention following the game. Instead, his phone started blowing up six days later when “Saturday Night Live” — with Taran Killam playing Tasker — spoofed the blackout with a cold open.

“That’s when I knew I’d finally made it,” Tasker said with a laugh.

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(Top photo: Dilip Vishwanat / Getty Images) 

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Classic Romance Novels: A Starter Pack

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Classic Romance Novels: A Starter Pack

Every now and again some starry-eyed optimist tries to craft an all-time best-of romance canon, and the gods laugh and make popcorn for the ensuing discourse fiasco. Romance is a slippery genre — in so many ways — and frequently there’s a seismic shift in the conversation that instantly dates everything that came before. Any individual reader’s perspective is therefore tangled in the cobwebs of time: A Kindle Unlimited reader is going to have a wildly different journey than someone who stole Violet Winspear from the shelves of their mothers and grandmothers. This is true of any genre, of course, but romance has a nonstop fire hose of material.

But the very worst thing about a best-of list is that it’s fatal to the joy of discovery. “Best of” implies that once you’ve read those titles, it’s all downhill from there.

So this list is simply a place to begin. Think of it as a chef’s selection, designed as a balanced meal. All of these books have some quality I consider emblematic of great romance — an archetype or a setting or a lavishly bonkers sensibility.

Whisk me away to the glamour of midcentury Paris

Under the Stars of Paris by Mary Burchell (1954)

One of the charms of older category romances is that they now read like they’re historicals. Mary Burchell’s heroine in Paris is a midcentury couture model — a mannequin, as they were known — heartbroken over a faithless former fiancé and in thrall to a stern couturier whose gruff manner hides a gratifying amount of passion. This is a taffeta world of photographers, fabrics and cocktail parties, where a wine spill could ruin a girl’s career.

If you read it and love it, try … Emma Barry and Genevieve Turner’s “Fly Me to the Moon” series, Cat Sebastian’s midcentury “Cabots” series or one of Carla Kelly’s books.

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I want a real bodice-ripper

The Windflower by Laura London (1984)

One of the most riotous of bodice-rippers, with an immortally weird opening line: “Merry Patricia Wilding was sitting on a cobblestone wall, sketching three rutabagas and daydreaming about the unicorn.” An innocent American is kidnapped by British pirates during the War of 1812, and then — well, then things just keep happening. This is less a story than an experience, garlanded in some of the most dazzlingly purple prose ever spun.

If you read it and love it, try … a book by Bertrice Small, Johanna Lindsey or Stephanie Laurens.

Give me a hot, hot, hot historical

For My Lady’s Heart by Laura Kinsale (1993)

If you only pick one author from this list, let it be Laura Kinsale — and if you only pick one Kinsale, this is the one I’d suggest. We meet Ruck in all his medieval splendor: a self-denying itinerant knight compelled to serve the coldhearted Princess Melanthe, who once saved his life and now needs his protection journeying from France to her English estate. Their epic road trip bristles with bandits, birds of prey, plagues and assassins — and a growing passion hot enough to burn down the entire world.

If you read it and love it, try … “Agnes Moor’s Wild Knight,” by Alyssa Cole, or a book by Joanna Bourne or Julie Garwood.

Got any slow-burn romances that grapple with historical trauma?

Indigo by Beverly Jenkins (1996)

They say the big draw of historical romance is escape, but some escapes are more literal than others. This early Beverly Jenkins banger stars Hester Wyatt, a formerly enslaved woman whose hands are permanently stained by indigo dye. Now she works to help others reach freedom, hiding fugitives in the cellar until they can move onward to freedom. One of those fugitives is Galen Vachon, a famed Underground Railroad conductor nearly beaten to death by slave catchers. The slow build of tension while Galen heals from his injuries is classic hurt-comfort stuff, and the meticulous historical research in the background lets their chemistry shine like a jewel in a custom setting.

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If you read it and love it, try … Alyssa Cole’s “Loyal League” series, or a book by Piper Huguley or Kianna Alexander.

I’d like a gender-bending story with sparkling banter

Lady Rogue by Suzanne Enoch (1997)

Cross-dressing heroines are something historical romance pilfered from Shakespeare and absolutely ran with, for better and for worse. Kit Brantley is disguised as a man and sent by her father to spy on the Earl of Everton, but the earl immediately discovers the ruse — and then buys her a bespoke masculine wardrobe so she can swan about London with his rakish friends, charming the debutantes and breaking everyone’s hearts. That includes, of course, the heart of the earl, who is not nearly as sinister as Kit’s father has made him out to be. Queer-adjacent, sparkling with banter and perfectly overdramatic.

If you read it and love it, try … a book by Lisa Kleypas, Julie Anne Long or Erica Ridley.

I want to linger inside a gorgeous, slow-burn love affair

The Proposition by Judith Ivory (1999)

A possibly controversial choice, but the gorgeousness and strangeness of Judith Ivory’s prose is irresistible. This is a gender-swapped “My Fair Lady,” where the linguist Lady Edwina Bollash (prim, traumatized) accepts an aristocrat’s bet to pass off the Cornish-Cockney rat-catcher Mick Tremore (earthy, adorable) as a viscount at her cousin’s upcoming ball. There’s nothing more quintessentially romance than the section where Winnie offers to show Mick her legs if he’ll shave his mustache: Negotiations take three full chapters and you’re on the edge of your seat every minute.

If you read it and love it, try … a book by Sherry Thomas, Mary Balogh or Elizabeth Hoyt.

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Give me a domineering Scottish laird matching wits with a feisty English lass

Ransom by Julie Garwood (1999)

Scotland as Julie Garwood presents it is a strange otherworld of warrior men and the beautiful women who terrify them with their fire and endurance. While “The Bride” is my favorite book of hers, this one is more intricately plotted. Between the Scottish clans and English barons, our main couple are caught in a constant back and forth of raids, kidnappings, escapes and betrayals. Our captivating heroine, Gillian, is resourceful, resentful and in one scene handles pain so fearlessly that she leaves a half-dozen burly Scots trembling in existential horror.

If you read it and love it, try … a book by Elizabeth Boyle, Theresa Romain or Karen Hawkins.

I’d like a suspenseful love story set in Victorian London — with magic, if possible

Second Sight by Amanda Quick (2006)

Before romantasy, there was paranormal romance, and goodness did we have fun with it. Amanda Quick’s series about psychics and magic-users in Victorian London begins with Venetia Jones, a photographer who sees auras, and who is passing herself off as the widow of a man she shared one spectacular night with before his demise. But her “husband,” Gabriel Jones, is alive and well and stunned to find he has a wife — and now the same psychically powered enemies who tried to kill him are coming for Venetia and her family.

If you read it and love it, try … a book by Ilona Andrews, Isabel Cooper or Zoë Archer.

I want an over-the-top, thrilling rom-com

Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer (2007)

For contemporary romantic comedy, Jennifer Crusie is unparalleled — and this book’s significant body count means it has aged spectacularly well for a time when murder books are hot again. Agnes is a cookbook author and new homeowner suddenly harassed by criminals who think she’s in possession of a secret, so her beloved Uncle Joey (a former member of the mob, which turns out to be relevant) sends Shane, the best hit man he knows, to protect her. Agnes’s secret violent side (the frying pans!) and Shane’s hidden vulnerable heart turn out to be a perfect pairing, and keep the story sweet even as the bodies pile up.

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If you read it and love it, try … a book by Kate Clayborn, Lucy Parker or Helena Greer.

Give me a tortured hero

Beau Crusoe by Carla Kelly (2007)

This book may be slim, but so is a razor blade. Our heroine is a botanical illustrator during the Regency, and our hero is a celebrated adventurer, lauded for surviving after a shipwreck. But while society swoons over such thrilling exploits, our hero is haunted by them. Why? Because he survived by eating his shipmates. That’s right, this romance hero is a cannibal, and he’s not OK about it. Bold and bright and unforgettable.

If you read it and love it, try … a book by Karen Harbaugh, Jeannie Lin or Bronwyn Scott.

I’m looking for enemies-to-lovers

The Spymaster’s Lady by Joanna Bourne (2008)

Ever since Baroness Orczy disguised an English lord as the Scarlet Pimpernel, spies have been showing up as heroines and heroes. “The Spymaster’s Lady” is a particularly adept example of the archetype. A gritty view into the dark side of the Napoleonic Wars, it pits two agents of enormous intelligence and power against a backdrop of more than the usual amount of peril. Rich and dark, with the kind of lush psychological characterization that makes everyone feel larger than life.

If you read it and love it, try … a book by Grace Burrowes, Cecilia Grant or Mia Hopkins.

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I want something lush and sensual — bonus points for espionage

Your Scandalous Ways by Loretta Chase (2008)

Loretta Chase’s “Lord of Scoundrels” deserves all the hype it gets — but it’s also better appreciated if it’s not the first romance a reader picks up. For a starter I’d offer this Venice-set story of Francesca Bonnard, a jaded courtesan, and James Cordier, a spy who seduces women on behalf of the British Empire. There are stolen rubies and shady ladies and two people who have come to see sex as merely a mode of business — and who are more surprised than anyone when earnest affection takes root in their neglected hearts.

If you read it and love it, try … a book by Erin Langston or Rose Lerner, or Cat Sebastian’s “Regency Impostors” series.

Give me a juicy, Sapphic vampire love story

Better Off Red by Rebekah Weatherspoon (2011)

Look, if you don’t perk up at the phrase “vampire sorority,” then what are we even doing here? There is a direct bloodline — ha — from the lesbian pulps of the postwar era to the sexy e-book boom of the early 21st century, when once-niche authors could find mass readership like never before. This juicy, messy, thirsty little romance about a new college student and the blood-drinking immortal she falls for during vampire orgies was published by Bold Strokes Books, whose founder took the name Radclyffe as a nod to the trailblazing lesbian author Radclyffe Hall.

If you read it and love it, try … a book by Katrina Jackson, Tiffany Reisz or Sierra Simone.

Got any great rivals-to-lovers books?

A Gentleman Undone by Cecilia Grant (2012)

Some romance writers have backlists in the hundreds; others blaze briefly across the readership like a comet before vanishing. Grant’s four books dazzled when they first appeared, and people still wistfully whisper her name and yearn for her to return. Will Blackshear is a Waterloo veteran grappling with trauma and shame; Lydia Slaughter — one of the top-tier romance heroine names — is another man’s mistress, who enjoys sex partly for pleasure, partly for profit and partly out of a self-destructive compulsion that matches Will’s own.

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If you read it and love it, try … a book by Scarlett Peckham, Sherry Thomas or Carrie Lofty.

Transport me to Tang-dynasty China

The Jade Temptress by Jeannie Lin (2014)

The most recent romance on the list is an absolute stunner. Mingyu is the most celebrated courtesan in Tang-dynasty China, her favors sought after by warlords and scholars alike. Constable Wu Kaifeng is stubborn, unmannerly and poor: He pursues justice single-mindedly because he can’t afford to do anything else — even if it means having to torture beautiful, intelligent courtesans in the course of his job. The only reason this isn’t my favorite romance of all time is that Garwood’s “The Bride” has a 20-year head start.

If you read it and love it, try … a book by KJ Charles, Courtney Milan or Meredith Duran.

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