Wanted: Recommendations

[thefourthvine]

Dear, dear people: REC ME SOMETHING, PLEASE. Two things, actually. One for the earthling, one for Best Beloved.

Classical Music

The earthling listens to classical music for about two to four hours each evening; it helps him go through his evening routine and get ready for bed. It has to have certain characteristics:

• It can't be super super slow (because he eats to it, and he tends to suck in time to the music, and evening feedings take long enough without something slowing him way down); kind of slow is fine and even welcome.
  
• It can't be too fast (because see above about eating, plus, this is night-time music).
  
• It can't be too varied (it needs to kind of all go together); no Surprise Symphony or anything.
  
• It needs to have, at minimum, several instruments (like, three or more is fine, but one is not - his attention is just not caught by, say, a piano without any other instruments).

For my sanity, it also needs to have these characteristics:

• It needs to be, overall, pretty long (many individual bits is fine, but they all need to add up to something fairly long).
  
• It needs not to be by Ravel or Rachmaninoff. I’m sorry. It just does.

As examples, here are the three things we listen to:

• Handel's Water Music
  
• Some Schubert
  
• Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons (The earthling really likes the violin in this.)

I have heard these pieces so many times that I find myself walking in time to them when they aren’t even on. I hum them all day long. I wait patiently for the bits I still like, and think increasingly hostile thoughts about Handel and Vivaldi. I realize repetition is good for a baby, but it is making me crazy. And yet I do not know enough about classical music to know what else might interest a baby who likes these three pieces.

So, if you do know about classical music - can you rec me some stuff? Ideally, it will be available via Amazon’s mp3 service, because I can preview it for the earthling there and see his reaction before I buy it.

Romance Novels

I have presented Best Beloved with a challenge: I will pick romance novels based entirely on their titles (usually in themed sets around a certain word or concept - I am nothing if not theme-oriented), and she will read them and review them on GoodReads. This has provided many hours of entertainment in our household. Except. I have apparently done some terrible, terrible things to her with this. I’ve happened upon some good ones (Nalini Singh, for example, or Lisa Kleypas), but I’ve also managed to pick out some things that caused the blood to drain from her face as she stared at them. She’s starting to twitch when the books come in.

So: have you read any good romance novels lately? I just need a few recs, ones I can build a theme around, so that there’s a cookie or two waiting for her in the seas of badness, so her will doesn’t break. (I don’t want them all to be good - the bad ones provide the most entertainment on GoodReads! But, as has been proven, I can find the bad ones without trying at all; it’s the good ones I need help with.)

Unfortunately, I can’t tell you what she likes in a romance novel (although I can link you to her GoodReads account). I can tell you that she does not like:

• Anything with a secret baby. She’s also made geechy by, for example, blackmailing a pregnant woman to get revenge on her dead husband. (The actual plot of one of the ones I found for her. No, really. I was not at all kidding when I said I had no trouble finding bad ones.)
  
• Anything that comes in trade paperack only. Apparently these are...special. One of the early ones she read featured a protagonist with two cocks. It scarred her. She now makes very sad noises when I buy her trade paperbacks, especially if they have warnings on the cover, or those covers that feature Sims-looking people. If you can recommend a good trade paperback one, I’ll get it for her, but I’ll need some help motivating her to read it.
  
• Anything that is really really short and has a title like The Basque Renegade’s Blackmailed Love Child’s Farmer Bride’s Cousin Georgina. I get wounded looks when I get these for her. I don’t know why.
  
• Anything where there’s lots of talk of God and devotion and someone dies at the end.
  
• Anything featuring rape or domination (like, the hero is the master of the heroine, kind of thing) - what she would term “old school” romance.

If you read romance, your input would be greatly appreciated.

Comments

[wyomingnot.livejournal.com]

Alas, my music rec doesn't meet one of your criteria.

The Goldberg Variations. Bach. Solo piano. But it's friggin' gorgeous, and I love it for wind-down music, even though there are parts that aren't particularly restful.

[umbo.livejournal.com]

How about the Bach Brandenburg Concerti?

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I don't read romances or listen to music much, but.

There's Smart Bitches, Trashy Books (http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php) which reviews romance novels and it's just plain a lot of fun to read, too.

And they'd agree with your Beloved's requests, I think.

And try the Earthling on Bach.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

And I just now read the preceding comments and, huh.

We seem to be unanimous on Bach.

[serrana.livejournal.com]

I am big into Telemann right now.

[in-interval.livejournal.com]

Adding to the chorus for Bach - how about The Art of Fugue?
You can sample on Amazon here:
http://www.amazon.com/J-S-Bach-Die-Kunst-Fuge/dp/B00000270V/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1229545499&sr=8-6

I very much agree with the Brandenburg Concerti though - if the
Earthling likes The Four Seasons, he'll like that.

[bleedtoblue.livejournal.com]

I am scarred just reading about the romance novels. @.@ Yet, entertained.

I'm also sorry not to be useful about classical music. I like loud and dramatic classical pieces, and opera.

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

Ah -- I see everyone is already saying Bach. Well, in for a penny... I was going to say I think the Earthling would like the Violin Concertos.

I listen to a lot of choral music, but I'm not sure how the Earthling feels about heavily singy stuff. Anyway, I've got a very soft spot for Vivaldi's Gloria, if you can still bear to read the man's name!

I know nuffink about romance.

[monroe-nell.livejournal.com]

er, romance novels. *ponders* I like nora roberts, diane palmer and linda howard?

(of course, I adore secret marriages, secret babies, babies on doorsteps, plucky woman with dead car about to go in labor escaping from abusive marriage and is rescued by a rancher. ERRRRR)

ANYWAY. Uhm. I like bad romance novels, myself?

As to classical music - how about just instrumental? Trans-Siberian orchestra? (they did do beethoven too...)

[catwalksalone]

Bach Brandenburg Concerti are good for sure.

Try Corelli - I'm listening to the Christmas Concerto right now.

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

If she reads Regencies, I'd recommend Georgette Heyer, Carla Kelly, Barbara Metzger, Loretta Chase, Jo Beverly, Mary Jo Putney and Mary Balogh. Not everything by all of them, but generally speaking they are enjoyable.

And maybe you could try Mussorsky's Pictures at an Exhibition or Bach's Brandenburg Concertos? Maybe some Tchaikovsky? The ballets are lovely.

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

Oh wait, scratch Gloria - probably far too fast.

[dramaturgca.livejournal.com]

For Romance Novels, I like Nora Roberts's work. Modern, little bit of magic, and the women tend to be at least a little butt-kicky.

For Classical Music, Copland's Appalachian Spring is my absolute favourite, Phillippe Saisse's interpretation of Air on a G-String (and it has a funny title), Pachebel's Canon in D minor, Shostakovich's Hypothetically Murdered Suite and VI Waltz 2. Also, it's a little non-traditional and possibly too commercial but Disney put out two discs of Disney music in the styles of classical composers, Heigh-Ho, Mozart and Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Bach. I find them entertainingly witty.

[shadowvalkyrie.livejournal.com]

I refused to fall asleep to anything but Mozart as a child -- or so my grandma is fond of telling me. I can't remember myself. *g*

As to Romance novels... I refuse to go near those, so no recs there.

[villainny.livejournal.com]

Shostakovich is pretty shiny for the quick and the attention-garnering, I have to recommend Concerto Fatto Per la Notte Di Natale by Corelli because it's... kind of slow, yes, but lovely, and Mendelssohn steals my imaginary soul with awesome.

[giglet.livejournal.com]

I like this (although it never worked for *my* kid -- we sang him to sleep with murder ballads)
http://www.amazon.com/Bach-Bedtime-Lullabies-Still-Night/dp/B0000041E0/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1229545327&sr=8-1
However, a lot of these are concertos, which might focus too much on a single instrument.

Have you considered Copland? (Actually, Copland might have too many dynamic changes for Earthling, and I don't know how you or he feel about dissonance. Hm, maybe not.)

Good luck!

[oddmonster.livejournal.com]

Holst's The Planets, I always find soothes my dogs. But um...they're not babies. Ymmv. Skip Mars just before bed, I'm guessing.

Um, these romances. Are we talking slash or het or just yes?

Het? I'd have to go with Sitka by Louis L'Amour. There's no actual boddice-ripping, but there is an awful lot of smoldering. And a fun history of the West Coast! Woo!

Or, for the paranormal lovers, After Dark by Jayne Castle. A lost world, psychic phenomena and--and this part's key--killer dust bunnies with six legs.

No, it's all true.

[marthawells.livejournal.com]

I really like Loretta Chase, especially "Lord of Scoundrels." The hero tries to be masterful, only the heroine is unimpressed. Also, the first Amelia Peabody book by Elizabeth Peters, "Crocodile on the Sandbank," is a great funny historical romance for people who don't like historical romances.

[syredronning.livejournal.com]

Romance novels - I love Georgette Heyer. IMHO so many of them have a great quality.

[joyfulseeker.livejournal.com]

Romance novels: Jennifer Crusie is funny, as is Eloisa James. I also like Laura Kinsale a lot, her books have a surprising amount of depth and substance.

[thornsilver]

-I adore Mary Balough staff, though sometimes it gets trifle too emo.

-Also Liz Carlyle regencies are pretty good. I have not read her contemporaries, so cannot comment.

-I have fond memories of Susan Robinson's books.

-And Jennifer Crusie books are for some reason are not shelved in romance shelves. But they absolutely delicious.

[dine.livejournal.com]

I completely support the Earthling in his musical tastes. when I was a kid, I flatly refused to go to sleep without Toscanni Plays Light Classics playing - every night, without fail, my mom had to cue up the record.

I'd totally recommend Telemann, and second the rec for Bach - Brandenburg Concerti and Art of the Fugue are superb. I'm also a huge sucker for Mozart - his violin concertos and the Jupiter Symphony are faves.

I also urge you to check out Smart Bitches - they review tons of books in a wide variety of 'types' and their cover snarks are fabulous.

[fictionbya.livejournal.com]

I think the only romance novels I have read are the first few in the Outlander (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlander_(novel)) series by Diana Gabaldon. And I totally devoured them and loved them, but then for whatever reason, I haven't picked up any beyond the first three.

They are really long books. There is of course, Our Heroine and Her Brawny Scottish Man. Also, time travel, but not much time travel. I thought they were well-written.

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

I second the Bach (I loved Bach when I was a toddler). Otherwise - I love everything by Holst. The Planets is awesome and I really like his Suite #1 in E-Flat (might not be long enough alone).

I was going to recommend Flairck - they're a Dutch....folk? band. All instruments and they do some really cool stuff. But their music is not easy to track down and is probably too lively for what you want.

[snowpiratess.livejournal.com]

I recommend Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov. It has pretty violins in the manner of the Four Seasons, so might be to the taste of the Earthling. Also, it's 45 minutes long.

Absolutely no idea on the romance novel front, though, sorry. I stick to fanfic!