Thursday 10 February 2011

Quick links - romantic, funny or serious

The short list for the Romantic Novelists' Association awards has now been published.  Congratulations to all. I enjoyed Jan Jones's Fortunate Wager and Christina Courtenay's Trade Winds, and look forward to reading others. Besides the Romantic Novel of the Year, there are awards for Historical novels, Comedy and shorter Romance.
Over 200 books were submitted for the Romantic Novel of the Year. The shortlist of six titles have been selected by a panel of 85 readers from the general public. The winner will be chosen by three independent judges – Amanda Craig, author and book reviewer; Foyle’s War actor and contributor to the blog Vulpes Libris, Jay Benedict, and fiction buyer for Waterstone’s, Janine Cook. The shortlist, in alphabetical order by author name, is:

To Defy a King Elizabeth Chadwick, Sphere
The Golden Prince Rebecca Dean, HarperCollins
Kissing Mr Wrong Sarah Duncan, Headline Review
The Jewel of St. Petersburg Kate Furnivall, Sphere
Amazir Tom Gamble, Beautiful Books
The Last Letter From Your Lover JoJo Moyes Hodder & Stoughton

TV: Absolutely loved the One Ronnie and Harry Enfield sketch about the blackberry, apple and dongle. Laughed until tears ran down my face.  If you haven't seen it do watch.

On a serious note, here is a moving and inspiring clip about a man with no arms or legs who achieves amazing things.

2 comments:

Jan Jones said...

Thank you for the name check, Susie!

And as you say, a very moving clip.

Karen said...

I enjoyed Jan's novel too, plus a couple of the others shortlisted.

That's an amazing clip; in fact they both are in very different ways!