Thank god, there’s nothing like someone’s cheesy 20-min PowerPoint “toast” to take the party atmosphere down a couple of notches.

Om nom nom cheese!

That’s extremely suspicious. Did she secretly hate you or something?

My MIL’s is “I can’t cope,” which is still the most English thing I’ve ever heard. And passive-aggressive, because she only ever says it at people.

Every wedding I’ve been to that had fruitcake also had a cheese selection. That’s the perfect combo.

I’m not surprised, David Niven was a stone cold fox when he was younger. And he still had that suave English charm going for him, no matter his age. He wrote a couple of really funny memoirs about his time in Hollywood, ‘The Moon’s a Balloon’ and ‘Bring on the Empty Horses’ which are worth a read, although he probably…

Thatz not okay.

Also literal catnip, since a couple of the characters have psychic alien cats as pets.

That sounds like a completely horrific situation, but thank you for making me laugh so hard. I’m sure causing a stranger on the Internet to laugh until they cried totally makes up for living through that experience. If it helps, I feel almost like I lived it too. The phrase “shit and puke filled tube” is particularly…

I’m flying with my one-year-old this weekend (combined flight time: ten hours) and the comments are especially disheartening, with the judginess and the anecdotes about other passengers’ dickishness. I already have a decent resting bitch face, but I’m going to need to up my game to get through this.

Sonali Dev is amazing! For all my fellow Britishers, the Kindle version of A Bollywood Affair is £1.89 on Amazon UK. You have no reason not to buy it. It’s like they’re giving it away!

I just wish they’d actually say, ‘This guy’s hair is bright orange and he has freckles eeeeeeeverywhere.’ ‘Flaming bonfire’ is fine for the ladies (because they have fiery tempers!), but the guys are always auburn or ‘black with red lights when the sun lovingly caresses his manly locks.’

Mothers are people too! It’s not a hard concept to get, but sci fi authors generally don’t. Always glad to see another Bujold fan!

Johanna Lindsay was pretty much all I read as a teen, and she did write at least one Irish hero. But he was a cowboy in Montana and also (maybe?) had been kidnapped as a baby, so he wasn’t culturally Irish.

It always perplexes me when I read criticism of a Heyer book which goes, “Cut out these subplots and get rid of those secondary characters because they’re annoying!” Yes, they’re annoying, and it’s hilarious. Heyer had a deft hand for farce, which I really admire because it’s so difficult to set up all those pieces…

Yeah, I get that. The first October Daye was (I think) her first published book and it shows a little. Plus the main romance is extremely slow burn (like, six books’ worth of UST).

So I just recommended you stuff upthread, but then I saw this and wanted to mention a sci fi book, because Lois McMaster Bujold is the best ever. Her Vorkosigan saga has a male protagonist with physical disabilities, and there are interesting explorations of sex, gender identity, strategy, and ethics along with all…

You’re so right! Do you also read sci fi romances, because if you do I’d love a recommendation. The only one I really love is Games of Command by Linnea Sinclair, because the heroine is a captain named Sass and the love interest is a stern admiral whose taciturn exterior hides a gooey chocolate centre.

Have you read Seanan Mcguire? She’s not romance romance, but she usually includes romantic subplots. Her October Daye series is excellent Urban Fantasy, but her Incryptid series is about a family of cryptozoologists. The most recent two books feature a male character as the lead.

Ah! Thanks for that, now I have a proper explanation for why they are terrible.