Tuesday, December 31, 2013
The wasp diaries, Conclusion/Epilogue
With the aid of some extremely toxic wasp killer, my painting, my broom, my shoe, and a lot of hands-shaking-in-mortal-fear that somehow did not manage to dislodge the damn wasp (thank goodness, but was it growing ROOTS or what?!), I almost killed it and then, like the coward I am, left it to suffocate and die in agony in the hallway while I ran into my room and locked the door.
Yes, I did cry a few hysterical tears.
No, I did NOT stuff anything under the gap in the door because even though my imagination gets a little feisty sometimes, I didn't really believe that it would claw it's way down 10 feet of hallway and into my apartment and then lie on the floor outside my bedroom door, stinger up, so that I would step on it with my bare feet in the morning.
Yes, I did keep checking the hallway every time I absolutely had to use it to make sure the thing was 1) still there and 2) dead.
Eventually, it was. But I still couldn't bring myself to retrieve the corpse and flush it down the toilet. Because of reasons. That are not rational at all.
THE END.
For now . . .
The wasp diaries, part 16
Even though you are being very well-behaved, I'm sorry, but you just have to go. If you won't remove yourself from my painting so that I may kill you, I will be forced to move you and then kill you. Don't make me do this. You have 24 hours.
The wasp diaries, part 15
I wonder if I'm starting to suffer from some sort of Stockholm Syndrome. The longer you live here with me, the more I start to feel sorry for your dark fate. How can I be both the prisoner and the executioner? Oh, wasp, please die of natural causes in your sleep. Really soon. So I don't have to add your blood to my bloodguilt for your 33 kin, slain in 2011.
The wasp diaries, part 14
Maybe this whole experience is a sign. Maybe it's a metaphor. Maybe it is a symbol. I just wish that's all it was an not also an actual, physical wasp. Metaphors can be very powerful, but they can't sting you. Not literally, anyway. And they can't send you to the hospital with anaphylactic shock.
The wasp diaries, part 13
You are not going to turn into a butterfly, no matter how much you do that thing where you sit there, breathing and pretending you are wrapped in a chrysalis or whatever it is you are doing that is not moving to a place where I can ruthlessly slay you.
The wasp diaries, part 12
I have to tell you I'm praying for you, wasp. Specifically for your sudden death (involving your body falling in an obvious place where I can find you, collect you, and give you a burial at sea). You should know this is not normally how I pray for folks who are not uninvited, stinging-insect guests. I would hate for you to judge me.
The wasp diaries, part 11
What does it do all day?! Part of me hopes it just sits there, dying, not moving, but that must be insanely boring. For some reason, I imagine it waiting until I lock the door, giving a huge, waspish, $#!%-eating grin, and then licking everything it can while I'm gone. Methodically. One thing at a time until it has licked everything.
Do wasps even have tongues? If not, I imagine it doing the wasp equivalent of drooling or putting boogers on everything, like babies or small children. I think maybe this wasp is negatively affecting my mental state. I should probably kill it soon.
The wasp diaries, part 10
You have good taste in art, probably literally because you seem to have decided to live out the rest of your natural life on my painting. I feel a little bit of guilt when I see you there because I wonder if you are aware that it is the site of a massacre of your fellow wasps, perpetrated by the maintenance guy in my absence even though I asked him not to crush any of your fellows on my painting since I didn't think random, wasp-internal-goo colors matched the overall aesthetic.
I wouldn't have known about the slaughter if he hadn't told me he did it. Proudly. The way cats bring you dead mice. Sigh.
I wonder if their ghosts haunt your dreams.
I wouldn't have known about the slaughter if he hadn't told me he did it. Proudly. The way cats bring you dead mice. Sigh.
I wonder if their ghosts haunt your dreams.
The wasp diaries, part 9
Maybe it is a pilgrim wasp. When it first came, it had a few random, wasp-like episodes of buzzing around and bouncing off the ceiling, with special attention paid to the smears of goo that are the only evidence left of the Waspocalypse, so maybe it was on a tour of famous wasp death spots in our apartment building, but now it seems to be meditating deeply on the main showpiece in my apartment: my precious painting, which it has turned into some kind of icon to contemplate. I hope it learns its lesson or whatever SOON and can then die enlightened and happy and in an obvious place where I can find it and dispose of its earthen vessel with all due ceremony.
The wasp diaries, part 8
I'm really glad you're very mellow and all for a wasp once you get settled in someone's apartment, but I can't help but think it means you're plotting something.
The wasp diaries, part 7
I know, rationally, that you have a tiny insect brain and are not some sort of wasp ninja, but when I leave my sealed bedroom in the morning, the first thing I do is look for you to be sure you're not sneaking up on me. And you're not.
You never are.
You are just sitting there.
On my painting.
Where I can't kill you.
The wasp diaries, part 6
Is it a monk wasp? After being forced to face its own mortality, is it now--in stillness and cold silence--contemplating the nature of the universe of my painting?
The wasp diaries, part 5
I really hope you appreciate the money I'm wasting keeping the apartment cooler than I usually do for my comfort, wasp. To be honest, though, it's really all for my benefit in the end. Cold wasps are less angry and less agile and mobile. Which, damn it, is probably why you are just sitting there and not having little wasp flipouts anymore. But I don't want to be hot and cranky (and scared out of my mind)any more than you do.
The wasp diaries, part 4
You seem to be a fan of the post-apocalyptic genre of anime, wasp. I can't say I'm surprised. But are you really going to watch the ending with me? Seriously? It's going to be brutal. And it might give me ideas.
The wasp diaries, part 3
This is like some sort of Mexican standoff (probably not if I look up the actual definition of Mexican standoff, which I would do if I wasn't afraid to use my computer since it puts you at about 110 degrees relative to my position and thus just out of my peripheral vision).
The wasp diaries, part 2
Are you some sort of new, tiny, ground-surveillance drone? If so, you must be bored out of your skull.
The wasp diaries, part 1
It is an anti-muse really. Difficult to be creative while also trying to watch out of the corner of my eye and be ready to dive out of the way should it go off like a stinging firecracker. The fly trapped in here with us makes things orders of magnitude worse because every time I see or hear the fly, I bolt until I identify it as the fly, think dark thoughts at it, check to be sure the wasp hasn't used the distraction to close in on me, and sit gingerly back down to "create." With hair-trigger reflexes.
The wasp diaries - July 2013 Introduction
One day in late summer, on the day I got my wonderful, new, comfortable chair, a single wasp entered my apartment. And though I knew it was only an insect with a tiny insect brain and no evil motives, I really resented that it had invaded and was laughing gleefully as it prevented me from relaxing in my chair.
I was determined to kill this wasp immediately, using all of my wasp-slaying expertise, hard-won during the http://themiles2go.blogspot.com/2011/08/irrational-fear-of-wasps.html Waspocalypse http://mooninautumn.blogspot.com/2011/10/waspocalypse-2011-continues.html of 2011, a mysterious plague of wasps I survived by learning to put aside mostly irrational fear and using my cork-sandal as a wasp-slaying weapon that would insulate me from their wrath long enough for me to totally crush them. Wasps 0, me and the maintenance guy: 33. (I called him in especially when they came in multiples.)
For the first day, my new, unwanted houseguest would have the occasional, seemingly random freakouts that wasps have. It would start buzzing like a tiny, angry power tool and would bounce off walls and ceilings, never quite landing, so I could slay it. Jerk. And then, as they all do eventually, it settled to sleep on my prized piece of art, a lovely blue and black floral painting done by a former roommate. And it didn't leave. Until I finally gathered the guts to kill it even though it hadn't really threatened me since that first day. Yes, I totally felt like an evil jerk. Because that's what they do to you: they mess with your head until you can't think straight anymore!
The following posts are excerpts of my thoughts as I dealt with this singular infestation.
I was determined to kill this wasp immediately, using all of my wasp-slaying expertise, hard-won during the http://themiles2go.blogspot.com/2011/08/irrational-fear-of-wasps.html Waspocalypse http://mooninautumn.blogspot.com/2011/10/waspocalypse-2011-continues.html of 2011, a mysterious plague of wasps I survived by learning to put aside mostly irrational fear and using my cork-sandal as a wasp-slaying weapon that would insulate me from their wrath long enough for me to totally crush them. Wasps 0, me and the maintenance guy: 33. (I called him in especially when they came in multiples.)
For the first day, my new, unwanted houseguest would have the occasional, seemingly random freakouts that wasps have. It would start buzzing like a tiny, angry power tool and would bounce off walls and ceilings, never quite landing, so I could slay it. Jerk. And then, as they all do eventually, it settled to sleep on my prized piece of art, a lovely blue and black floral painting done by a former roommate. And it didn't leave. Until I finally gathered the guts to kill it even though it hadn't really threatened me since that first day. Yes, I totally felt like an evil jerk. Because that's what they do to you: they mess with your head until you can't think straight anymore!
The following posts are excerpts of my thoughts as I dealt with this singular infestation.
Monday, December 30, 2013
Picadilly (Anna Mae Wong)
You know how sometimes you are looking something up for a good reason, and then you are dragged down the copious bunny trails of wikipedia and end up somewhere completely different and unexpected, and you write poetry about it? Okay, maybe you don't write poetry, but maybe you've gotten dragged down the link black hole. That's how I got to this movie. Rudolf Valentino -> Sessue Hayakawa -> Anna Mae Wong. (Surviving decent films that Netflix had.)
One thing that drives me nuts about silent films is that they don't have cards for all the dialogue. The characters on the screen have a long, intense, obviously important exchange, and they they post, like two lines of dialogue, and you just want to rage because you want to know what they said, and there's no way to find out. The music also tends to drive me bonkers because it's usually cheap, synthesizer-created music, and I remember when I was working at a bookstore when a lonely, old customer kept me on the phone for over an hour talking about his glory days playing the organ is silent movie theaters, when that's how they provided the music.
Picadilly is long, a bit scattered, and incredibly soapy, but Anna Mae Wong's power as an actress is very much on display. I find myself really wishing she could have been allowed to act in The Good Earth, not because I feel that her heritage would necessarily have allowed her to show a more accurate portrayal but because I think she should have for once gotten some reward from Hollywood out of her ethnic heritage (and her guts, dedication, and hard work). I've no doubt her performance would have been just as Oscar-worthy as the Caucasian woman who was given the role because the male lead was white, so he couldn't kiss a woman of Chinese descent. Not that I'm bitter. Not nearly as bitter as those "ethnic" actors and actresses during the bad old days of anti-miscegenation laws . . .
I am also puzzled by the naked breasts on the movie cover because the version I saw did not involve any such image (thankfully). I guess even in the 20s, it was a sad truth universally acknowledged that nudity sells.
One thing that drives me nuts about silent films is that they don't have cards for all the dialogue. The characters on the screen have a long, intense, obviously important exchange, and they they post, like two lines of dialogue, and you just want to rage because you want to know what they said, and there's no way to find out. The music also tends to drive me bonkers because it's usually cheap, synthesizer-created music, and I remember when I was working at a bookstore when a lonely, old customer kept me on the phone for over an hour talking about his glory days playing the organ is silent movie theaters, when that's how they provided the music.
Picadilly is long, a bit scattered, and incredibly soapy, but Anna Mae Wong's power as an actress is very much on display. I find myself really wishing she could have been allowed to act in The Good Earth, not because I feel that her heritage would necessarily have allowed her to show a more accurate portrayal but because I think she should have for once gotten some reward from Hollywood out of her ethnic heritage (and her guts, dedication, and hard work). I've no doubt her performance would have been just as Oscar-worthy as the Caucasian woman who was given the role because the male lead was white, so he couldn't kiss a woman of Chinese descent. Not that I'm bitter. Not nearly as bitter as those "ethnic" actors and actresses during the bad old days of anti-miscegenation laws . . .
I am also puzzled by the naked breasts on the movie cover because the version I saw did not involve any such image (thankfully). I guess even in the 20s, it was a sad truth universally acknowledged that nudity sells.
Born Into Brothels: you have probably never seen the cycle of povery this clearly
This is a hard documentary to watch for a lot of reasons. Sure, the subtitles are not always there, rendering much of the experience of watching difficult and the experience of comprehending impossible, but one of the hardest reasons is because it forces you to face the fact that some parents do not, in fact, want what is good for their children: they do not want their children's fortunes to improve, for their children to have better lives than they have had. Some parents want their children to have the same lives they have had. Some parents want their children to suffer as they have; some parents don't see a reason why their kids should have better lives than they have had to endure. This is a very hard truth to be faced with.
Maybe, to be fair, the truth is more that some parents think that what's good for their children is to have the same lives they've had, no matter how awful and crappy said lives are. Maybe the truth is that the tradition, the repetition of the historical pattern is what they value, and that they think anything that seeks to change that is, in fact, bad. Maybe, even though the caste system was abolished last century, its hold and its basic idea that people are born into their station and to desire anything else is wrong still grip the people hard. Maybe this is one of those painful cultural differences not explained very well because it's not part of the story the creators are trying to tell.
But after watching this documentary about a small group of kids born in brothels and how the intervention of a journalist with cameras changes (and doesn't change) their lives, I'm angry and more likely to be fired up by the former than the latter. This is violent, brutal, tragic, powerful stuff well worth a watch if you haven't come from the kind of crushing, cyclical poverty it brings to life. Do yourself a favor: slap yourself in the face by watching this; realize how hard life is for folks who live very different lives from yours, and then find some ways you can help make things better somehow. (I recommend child sponsorship because it helps the whole community and usually doesn't involve sending kids away from their families.)
Just keep a lot of tissues on hand if your compassion runs to the weepy variety (and if the subtitles work).
The ad copy talks about how inspiring and uplifting it is. I can't say that's not true at all. There is much to rejoice at: the way that kids can live terrible lives and still have an eye for beauty, still have curiosity, still have hope. There are even some who triumph and escape (at least temporarily). But I was left haunted by the way many of these kids are trapped and prevented by their parents from finding freedom and better lives.
Some folks got angry because they saw the film narrative as "westerner comes and tries to save the backwards non-westerners by taking their children away," but, frankly, I don't know how anyone could live in that environment and not get pulled under by it because of their love for their family. Sometimes letting someone go is the only way for them to get the training they need to become a doctor or an engineer or a scientist or a photojournalist or a writer or some other career that requires a lot of concentrated work and in the end might allow a family to not have to resort to prostitution to keep itself afloat. (I think here of folks like John Scalzi, who had to get a scholarship to a boarding school that let him get away from his crushing childhood poverty in order to help himself HAVE a future outside of it.) Poverty exerts its own gravity,no matter what culture you live in, and sometimes extreme measures are the only way to escape it and do good in the end.
Basically, I don't recommend watching without your critical faculties engaged, because documentaries are carefully crafted pieces of creative nonfiction. Some of the one and two star reviews on Amazon bring up some good points and make me want to go get some other perspectives, but what I managed to pull out of my viewing of this film stirred me to action, and I think that's not a bad thing.
If you've seen the film, what was your stronger reaction?
Maybe, to be fair, the truth is more that some parents think that what's good for their children is to have the same lives they've had, no matter how awful and crappy said lives are. Maybe the truth is that the tradition, the repetition of the historical pattern is what they value, and that they think anything that seeks to change that is, in fact, bad. Maybe, even though the caste system was abolished last century, its hold and its basic idea that people are born into their station and to desire anything else is wrong still grip the people hard. Maybe this is one of those painful cultural differences not explained very well because it's not part of the story the creators are trying to tell.
But after watching this documentary about a small group of kids born in brothels and how the intervention of a journalist with cameras changes (and doesn't change) their lives, I'm angry and more likely to be fired up by the former than the latter. This is violent, brutal, tragic, powerful stuff well worth a watch if you haven't come from the kind of crushing, cyclical poverty it brings to life. Do yourself a favor: slap yourself in the face by watching this; realize how hard life is for folks who live very different lives from yours, and then find some ways you can help make things better somehow. (I recommend child sponsorship because it helps the whole community and usually doesn't involve sending kids away from their families.)
Just keep a lot of tissues on hand if your compassion runs to the weepy variety (and if the subtitles work).
The ad copy talks about how inspiring and uplifting it is. I can't say that's not true at all. There is much to rejoice at: the way that kids can live terrible lives and still have an eye for beauty, still have curiosity, still have hope. There are even some who triumph and escape (at least temporarily). But I was left haunted by the way many of these kids are trapped and prevented by their parents from finding freedom and better lives.
Some folks got angry because they saw the film narrative as "westerner comes and tries to save the backwards non-westerners by taking their children away," but, frankly, I don't know how anyone could live in that environment and not get pulled under by it because of their love for their family. Sometimes letting someone go is the only way for them to get the training they need to become a doctor or an engineer or a scientist or a photojournalist or a writer or some other career that requires a lot of concentrated work and in the end might allow a family to not have to resort to prostitution to keep itself afloat. (I think here of folks like John Scalzi, who had to get a scholarship to a boarding school that let him get away from his crushing childhood poverty in order to help himself HAVE a future outside of it.) Poverty exerts its own gravity,no matter what culture you live in, and sometimes extreme measures are the only way to escape it and do good in the end.
Basically, I don't recommend watching without your critical faculties engaged, because documentaries are carefully crafted pieces of creative nonfiction. Some of the one and two star reviews on Amazon bring up some good points and make me want to go get some other perspectives, but what I managed to pull out of my viewing of this film stirred me to action, and I think that's not a bad thing.
If you've seen the film, what was your stronger reaction?
The Broken Crown: bringing the epic beginning after 5 prequels
The Broken Crown by Michelle West (The Sun Sword Book 1 of 6): Yeah, it's much more like the Hunter duology than The House War. I lent these books to a friend of mine, and, though she said they were really hard to get into, she read them all and liked them in the end. My respect for her has grown because I have no idea how she did that. I mean, seriously. If I didn't know from 5 other books what I do, I don't think I could follow the stories at all (or trusted the author to pull everything together in the end, for that matter). The brief interactions and relationships between these people wouldn't have been as rich and poignant, and I would have been left with dry pieces wanting to know more.
Maybe I sell myself short and my natural curiosity (and slowly increasing mental abilities) would have compelled me to read on to see if they author followed through, the same way I pushed through the Hunter books. I'm glad I didn't have to find out, glad I waited and stumbled serendipitously into things in chronological order just as she is finishing up with these characters for now. There are so many new characters and plot threads here, which is expected, and the appearances of cross-over characters make such sad and rich sense. This early in, I've no real idea of where things are ultimately going, but I really trust this author to give me a great story and multi-dimensional characters I will crave to know more about. I'll probably look around for short story scraps after I finish the books because I will snap up any additional information about these characters.
What a gift this author has with characters, with making even the ones who appear briefly come alive as real people with pasts and (sometimes) futures, not just characters who interact with each other to push the story forward. Too bad they take so much mental effort and time to get through.
My main complaint at this point is that the cast of characters is not helpful. People you need to look up later aren't on it, and people you don't know/care about/haven't met are in the most awkward and poorly organized way. If the character is important, he or she should be listed in alphabetical order, with only the information you've learned in the book. If the character is not important, the character should probably not even be named in the narrative and definitely shouldn't take up space in the cast list.
However, the cover art is a triumph. I adore cover art that actually reflects the books content, especially when it shows events that happen late in the book, because then I can keep looking at the cover and wondering what it's depicting, and then, when the event happens, I can know it's the exact one on the cover. Lovely and significant: excellent combination.
Maybe I sell myself short and my natural curiosity (and slowly increasing mental abilities) would have compelled me to read on to see if they author followed through, the same way I pushed through the Hunter books. I'm glad I didn't have to find out, glad I waited and stumbled serendipitously into things in chronological order just as she is finishing up with these characters for now. There are so many new characters and plot threads here, which is expected, and the appearances of cross-over characters make such sad and rich sense. This early in, I've no real idea of where things are ultimately going, but I really trust this author to give me a great story and multi-dimensional characters I will crave to know more about. I'll probably look around for short story scraps after I finish the books because I will snap up any additional information about these characters.
What a gift this author has with characters, with making even the ones who appear briefly come alive as real people with pasts and (sometimes) futures, not just characters who interact with each other to push the story forward. Too bad they take so much mental effort and time to get through.
My main complaint at this point is that the cast of characters is not helpful. People you need to look up later aren't on it, and people you don't know/care about/haven't met are in the most awkward and poorly organized way. If the character is important, he or she should be listed in alphabetical order, with only the information you've learned in the book. If the character is not important, the character should probably not even be named in the narrative and definitely shouldn't take up space in the cast list.
However, the cover art is a triumph. I adore cover art that actually reflects the books content, especially when it shows events that happen late in the book, because then I can keep looking at the cover and wondering what it's depicting, and then, when the event happens, I can know it's the exact one on the cover. Lovely and significant: excellent combination.
The House Name: the joy of secondary characters
The House Name by Michelle West (The House War Book 3 of 5?): We're in the thick of the events of Hunter's Death now, and this book leaves off right around where the events of that book do, but now we're in possession of a lot of information and characters we didn't have/need for the story of the Hunter duology. 16 years pass between this and the beginning of the Sun Sword series. The entire Sun Sword series takes place before the 4th book of The House War series.
I find myself hoping that The Sun Sword is written in a narrative style much more like The House War, but the timing makes me think it will be more like the complicated, multi-POV sprawl that was the Hunter books.
At this point, I'm so invested, I don't care. I just want to know more about these characters and what could cause there to be an epic 6-book series after the new facts this book revealed about what seemed to be the victory at the end of Hunter's Death . . .
City of Night: How long can you make me cry over the upcoming death of a character?
City of Night by Michelle West (The House War Book 2 of 5?): He's not dead yet, so you know that each page you read brings you closer to the monster at the end of this book, er, the death of an increasingly complex and beloved character or two, but you can't stop reading because you have to know what happened, to honor their deaths, rendered more full and significant and important here in this series. Oh, the agony.
I think one of my favorite things here is the way the events in Hunter's Death are expanded on so beautifully. Not only are events from that book seen from other points of view, but the spaces between them are filled in by new characters and detailed scenes that you only realize were missing when you read them. This kind of technique takes some serious skill.
When I was reading Hunter's Death, there were no missing pieces; everything was crafted and fit together to advance the narrative. Sure, I wanted more details about all the awesome characters, but that was because they were awesome and multi-dimensional, not because there were holes in the plot or the story. When I read this book, the addition of characters who never made an appearance in Hunter's Death didn't feel tacked on (and doesn't make Hunter's Death seem cagey and manipulatively selective); they just felt whole for the current story being told, which, while it does have some parallel time covered with Hunter's Death, is not the same story. I hope I am conveying just how difficult this sort of seamless interweaving is. If not, sorry. Because it's incredibly tricky and managed here seemingly effortlessly.
Oh, Rath. You are one of my favorite kinds of protagonists: the ones who think they are scummier than they really are, the kind so damaged they can't really allow themselves to acknowledge that they might be doing great things for good reasons, the sort who don't share these deeds with the people they care for because they would hate for those people to think well of them. It hurt so bad to get to know you, and it was a privilege.
I think one of my favorite things here is the way the events in Hunter's Death are expanded on so beautifully. Not only are events from that book seen from other points of view, but the spaces between them are filled in by new characters and detailed scenes that you only realize were missing when you read them. This kind of technique takes some serious skill.
When I was reading Hunter's Death, there were no missing pieces; everything was crafted and fit together to advance the narrative. Sure, I wanted more details about all the awesome characters, but that was because they were awesome and multi-dimensional, not because there were holes in the plot or the story. When I read this book, the addition of characters who never made an appearance in Hunter's Death didn't feel tacked on (and doesn't make Hunter's Death seem cagey and manipulatively selective); they just felt whole for the current story being told, which, while it does have some parallel time covered with Hunter's Death, is not the same story. I hope I am conveying just how difficult this sort of seamless interweaving is. If not, sorry. Because it's incredibly tricky and managed here seemingly effortlessly.
Oh, Rath. You are one of my favorite kinds of protagonists: the ones who think they are scummier than they really are, the kind so damaged they can't really allow themselves to acknowledge that they might be doing great things for good reasons, the sort who don't share these deeds with the people they care for because they would hate for those people to think well of them. It hurt so bad to get to know you, and it was a privilege.
The Hidden City: Oh, Rath, you are awesome
The Hidden City by Michelle West (The House War Book 1 of 5?): So I turned to the internet to find out if I could read more about the Hunter series characters, and the Internet did not disappoint. It told me that I should read the first three books in the author's newest series (The House War), then the entire Sun Sword series, then the next books in The House War series. And so, I steeled myself to read more complicated, interwoven narratives with multiple points of view and narrators.
Apparently, the author got over that as she aged and gained experience as a writer because the 3 points of view are clear, distinct, smooth, and never needlessly mysterious. (The key seems to be staying out of Evayne's head, which--to be fair--might only be possible because the author established Evayne in other books.) I read with an air of sad anticipation because several characters in this book had died or were not around later (in the Hunter books), so you knew they were doomed. You knew they died; you just weren't sure how or when, so it was kind of like Hunter's Oath all over again (waiting for the guy to die while trying not to like him).
The author made this endeavor easier by making some of the minor doomed characters less distinctive and endearing. (She has learned focus, oh yes, she has.) Rath, however, came alive breathtakingly, as did a major doomed character who was both harder and easier to love the more you got to know her. If you can handle the impending, nasty doom of characters you grow interested in, you will probably love this book for the new light it sheds on some of the characters mentioned in Hunter's Death.
Apparently, the author got over that as she aged and gained experience as a writer because the 3 points of view are clear, distinct, smooth, and never needlessly mysterious. (The key seems to be staying out of Evayne's head, which--to be fair--might only be possible because the author established Evayne in other books.) I read with an air of sad anticipation because several characters in this book had died or were not around later (in the Hunter books), so you knew they were doomed. You knew they died; you just weren't sure how or when, so it was kind of like Hunter's Oath all over again (waiting for the guy to die while trying not to like him).
The author made this endeavor easier by making some of the minor doomed characters less distinctive and endearing. (She has learned focus, oh yes, she has.) Rath, however, came alive breathtakingly, as did a major doomed character who was both harder and easier to love the more you got to know her. If you can handle the impending, nasty doom of characters you grow interested in, you will probably love this book for the new light it sheds on some of the characters mentioned in Hunter's Death.
Hunter's Death (Revenge of the Shiny Cover)
Hunter's Death (Hunter Book 2 of 2) by Michelle West: When last we left this author, I was irritated that the book I thought was going to be a standalone--one I could use to test the waters for this author beloved of a beloved former co-worker before I committed to the massive 6-volume epic saga my co-worker friend adored so much--was, in fact, not a standalone. Despite my irritation with this deception, I knew I was going to read the sequel, not just because it had a shiny cover but also because, knowing this main character was going to buy it in a horrific way and still getting to like him anyway, I felt (book nerds out there probably understand this) like I owed it to . . . someone . . . to see him through to the bitter, tragic end.
Which did not come at the end of the book, like I sort of expected, but somewhere closer to the middle, causing some nice folks at the gym to be a bit concerned even though I kept my reaction to just copious tears and not actual sobbing or anything. Maybe I should get some shirts that aren't threadbare and 15 years old if I am going to keep reading sad books at the gym because it's hard to blot the tears and snot with something that isn't actually absorbent . . .
Anyway, the plot threads all came together, as a new protagonist was added to the mix in the second book (probably to make up for the impending loss of the nice guy protagonist). Things between all the plot lines began to tighten their weave as the book progressed, and the ending was horrific, sad, and complete for the story being told. What made it even better was finding out that characters from this story are woven into two other series, one that is currently in progress (maybe just ended).
One thing the author really does well is creating living, breathing characters that you are desperate to know more about. And then she writes more about them in other series. Sure, the chronology is snarly and complicated and woven through all the series, but I don't really care because I get more time with the characters who are still alive (and even some who died). More about that in reviews to follow.
Which did not come at the end of the book, like I sort of expected, but somewhere closer to the middle, causing some nice folks at the gym to be a bit concerned even though I kept my reaction to just copious tears and not actual sobbing or anything. Maybe I should get some shirts that aren't threadbare and 15 years old if I am going to keep reading sad books at the gym because it's hard to blot the tears and snot with something that isn't actually absorbent . . .
Anyway, the plot threads all came together, as a new protagonist was added to the mix in the second book (probably to make up for the impending loss of the nice guy protagonist). Things between all the plot lines began to tighten their weave as the book progressed, and the ending was horrific, sad, and complete for the story being told. What made it even better was finding out that characters from this story are woven into two other series, one that is currently in progress (maybe just ended).
One thing the author really does well is creating living, breathing characters that you are desperate to know more about. And then she writes more about them in other series. Sure, the chronology is snarly and complicated and woven through all the series, but I don't really care because I get more time with the characters who are still alive (and even some who died). More about that in reviews to follow.
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Copper River
b Copper River by William Kent Krueger: . . . which leads us to this book, which starts just a short while after the previous one left off. For the first time, Cork's story takes place mostly outside of Tamarack County in Michigan's UP, where the author experiments with point of view (positively) and also with the situation of the protagonist being mostly immobilized for the duration.
Some folks didn't like this one because the main characters were a couple of teenagers, and Cork couldn't do a whole lot of, you know, action since he couldn't actually stand up for the first half, but I still found it interesting, mysterious, and full of unexpected twists and turns. It does end the saga started in the last book sadly and conclusively.
Some folks didn't like this one because the main characters were a couple of teenagers, and Cork couldn't do a whole lot of, you know, action since he couldn't actually stand up for the first half, but I still found it interesting, mysterious, and full of unexpected twists and turns. It does end the saga started in the last book sadly and conclusively.
Mercy Falls
b Mercy Falls by William Kent Krueger: Again, it sort of sucks to be married/related to the main character of a mystery series. Anyway, there's a really grisly murder, and Cork must figure out what the heck is going on.
Eventually, they will run out of past loves for his wife, but, until then, they're always an interesting thing to throw in the mix. Twisted family relationships and people who don't really understand love, a lot of suspects, and a sort-of mob boss make this one pretty wild.
The author starts the book off with a present tense amnesiac scene prologue and then goes way back and then takes you up that point where events unfold very differently from the first perception you have starting the book cold. In an interesting twist, this book ends on, well, not exactly a cliff-hanger, but there is no real resolution the way there has been in the past.
Eventually, they will run out of past loves for his wife, but, until then, they're always an interesting thing to throw in the mix. Twisted family relationships and people who don't really understand love, a lot of suspects, and a sort-of mob boss make this one pretty wild.
The author starts the book off with a present tense amnesiac scene prologue and then goes way back and then takes you up that point where events unfold very differently from the first perception you have starting the book cold. In an interesting twist, this book ends on, well, not exactly a cliff-hanger, but there is no real resolution the way there has been in the past.
Blood Hollow
b Blood Hollow by William Kent Krueger: What a heart breaker. Seriously. Like, really seriously. Reservation heartthrob and troublemaker is accused of the murder of his former rich, white girlfriend who left a party drunk and disappeared right before a blizzard. Before turning himself in to face trial, he goes on a vision quest and meets Jesus. Rumors that he's a miracle worker after his Jesus vision start circulating, and things become a circus. No one is really willing to believe he's turned his life around except Cork. Things hidden are revealed, and they are so sad and dark. The denouement was relentlessly heart-breaking, especially with the final epilogue. Man, I wish things could have shaken out better.
The funniest (unintentionally) review I read of this book complained of relentless product placement. I realized later that she thought that what we writers call telling details were product placement somehow. Oh, lady, product placement is when they pay you to do it. A telling detail, as I understand it, is when you choose something that locals recognize because that choice says something that deepens the character and brings him more to life. I am nearly certain that Minnetonka Moccasins did not pay Krueger to make it the butt of an amusing, recurring joke made by the natives, and he probably doesn’t have corporate sponsorship from Leinenkugels.
The funniest (unintentionally) review I read of this book complained of relentless product placement. I realized later that she thought that what we writers call telling details were product placement somehow. Oh, lady, product placement is when they pay you to do it. A telling detail, as I understand it, is when you choose something that locals recognize because that choice says something that deepens the character and brings him more to life. I am nearly certain that Minnetonka Moccasins did not pay Krueger to make it the butt of an amusing, recurring joke made by the natives, and he probably doesn’t have corporate sponsorship from Leinenkugels.
Purgatory Ridge
b Purgatory Ridge by William Kent Krueger: Man, it sucks to be the family of the main character. Bad things are just guaranteed to happen to you. In this case, Cork's wife and son are sort of accidentally kidnapped, and Cork finds himself in the unlucky position of sheriff investigating kidnapping of rich lady and son (and his family members) while also being the husband and father of some of the victims. The main antagonist (the one who gets the most page time) is a dark, sad, and beautifully drawn character who makes bad choices with good-ish intentions due to bad company, and I was really on the edge of my seat right up the unexpected ending. This one was remarkably tense. Also, it's tough to be the main character, 'cause Cork really ends up in the hospital after this one.
Much Fall of Blood: History with added dragons!
b Much Fall of Blood by Lackey, Freer, and Flint: Dragons! And Mongols! I had no idea we were going here. None at all. We follow the knights way far east, where we meet a Mongol princess in disguise doing her best to save the life of her brother (heir to the khanate [khan-ship?]) and teaming up with our favorite prince of the Holy Roman Empire (who really is slowly and realistically turning into a really good man) and his awesome Icelandic bodyguard (and a stupid, young rascal from the Middle East).
Meanwhile, there's this guy named Vlad, some shape-changing wolf people, a couple of dragons, and some super-evil folks, one of whom unexpectedly totally dies. Strategy, tactics, awesome practical jokes, possessions, a wedding, an unexpectedly useful female secondary character, hordes of Mongols, blood, weddings, good and evil, and dragons. Good stuff.
Meanwhile, there's this guy named Vlad, some shape-changing wolf people, a couple of dragons, and some super-evil folks, one of whom unexpectedly totally dies. Strategy, tactics, awesome practical jokes, possessions, a wedding, an unexpectedly useful female secondary character, hordes of Mongols, blood, weddings, good and evil, and dragons. Good stuff.
This Rough Magic
b This Rough Magic by Lackey, Flint, and Freer: Well, Benito went a bit crazy. Not that I blame him because I'm kind of angry at Maria for her choice at the end of Shadow of the Lion. I thought Benito was really starting to pull it together and would have been great . . . Well, anyway. Maria chose to marry someone safe and uninvolved (i.e. not Benito), which is sad because you know from page 1 of this book that this husband will surely die, so you don't want to like him. (That is not really a spoiler because it is SO obvious, even if precisely when he's going to die is up in the air).
It's horrible for me as a writer/reader because I know he needs to die because Maria and Benito are frickin' destined to be together, and I feel bad about that because he really is a nice guy, and then when he did die, I was sad but also happy. It's complicated. And not really a spoiler.
The location for this chapter of the story is Corfu; there's a new ancient land power lurking in the background, Maria has a baby, and you do find out whose it is. Other highlights include a character unexpectedly falling in love (and falling really hard), betrayal, a siege, and terrible and evil people doing very bad things.
It's horrible for me as a writer/reader because I know he needs to die because Maria and Benito are frickin' destined to be together, and I feel bad about that because he really is a nice guy, and then when he did die, I was sad but also happy. It's complicated. And not really a spoiler.
The location for this chapter of the story is Corfu; there's a new ancient land power lurking in the background, Maria has a baby, and you do find out whose it is. Other highlights include a character unexpectedly falling in love (and falling really hard), betrayal, a siege, and terrible and evil people doing very bad things.
Shadow of the Lion
b Shadow of the Lion by Lackey, Freer, Flint: This is a narrow but epic historical fantasy sort of thing. Written by a team of three authors (some with a better grasp of punctuation than others) with tons of characters and complex, interweaving narratives, Shadow of the Lion is not for the faint of heart. It is pretty awesome, though. The complexity made this a slow stop-and-go event for me that dragged on over several months, but I am a sucker for alternative-historical fantasy in general but especially when the emphasis is more on the historical.
Sometimes the world-building in this sort of book is a tad muddy; we're not precisely sure where history diverged, and we're not sure what the fantasy elements are. This book makes these things pretty clear from the word GO, and the changes are inspired. Magic is real and given a certain amount of respect and acknowledgement by the church. When this change is made, a lot of the crazy things the monastic knights did and many of the wacky superstitions of the time actually make sense. It's a very nice trick: to make history more sensical by adding fantasy elements to it (just like that word I made up there).
There is intrigue, action, betrayal, drinking, whoring, church, state, old land Spirits, good and evil, hidden identities, danger, madness, and a ton of characters of all kinds that kind of make you hate it every time the point of view changes. Centered in medieval Venice (and the lion of St. Mark legends). Good stuff.
Sometimes the world-building in this sort of book is a tad muddy; we're not precisely sure where history diverged, and we're not sure what the fantasy elements are. This book makes these things pretty clear from the word GO, and the changes are inspired. Magic is real and given a certain amount of respect and acknowledgement by the church. When this change is made, a lot of the crazy things the monastic knights did and many of the wacky superstitions of the time actually make sense. It's a very nice trick: to make history more sensical by adding fantasy elements to it (just like that word I made up there).
There is intrigue, action, betrayal, drinking, whoring, church, state, old land Spirits, good and evil, hidden identities, danger, madness, and a ton of characters of all kinds that kind of make you hate it every time the point of view changes. Centered in medieval Venice (and the lion of St. Mark legends). Good stuff.
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Using the Best Medicine, Part II
Whether you have fibromyalgia, chronic pain, mitochondrial fatigue or some other exhausting and painful long-term health condition, the doctors agree on this: laughter is important. Keeping your sense of humor exercised is as important as keeping your body exercised. Here are some of the books I've been reading lately to keep my laugh muscles limber. (Slightly longer reviews are linked, if they exist.)
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: This one's cheating because it's not really a book. I mean, it is. It started out as a comic in Japan, but what I saw was the first two seasons of the animated cartoon. I cannot recommend it blanketly because if you try to watch it unprepared, you will stop speaking to me. Random, tasteless ultraviolence collides with unlikely poses, highly questionable costume choices, and 500% teenage testosterone SHONEN SHOUTING!!!! It's loud, dumb, definitely bizarre, and sometimes it makes me laugh so hard I can't even figure out how to respond. It is somehow both incredibly predictable and highly dependent on non-sequiter at the same time. The mind boggles. At least the anime is slightly less over-the-top with the nipples than the manga. In fact, one traumatized friend pointed out that this was one of a handful of fighting anime where the females wear way more clothing than the males. For whatever that's worth.
Confessions of a Teen Sleuth: I had to ban this one from the gym (where I read while exercising) because it kept making me fold up in helpless laughter in the middle of stair climbing, and I was afraid I would 1) hurt myself or 2) be kicked out of the gym for extremely weird behavior. If you love and adore Nancy Drew (or Hardy Boys) books and think they are the finest literature ever, you will not like this book. If you enjoyed your time with Nancy, the boys, Tom, Trixie, the Bobbsey Twins, etc.--but you are aware they were not exactly high art--and you have a sense of humor and a tolerance for sensationalist confessional novels or parodies of these things, you may need to ban it from the gym, too.
Hyperbole and a Half: I kind of want to teach a writing class based on this book: a hilarious, profanity-laced, essay-writing class perhaps. If you don't "get" Allie Brosch's style of crude and ugly illustrations combined with sharp wit, dumb physical comedy, self-deprecating insight, and superb story telling, you will not like this book any more than you like her blog. If you don't mind the way she can go from incredible comedy to serious tragedy, and if you don't mind longer-form essays, you may have to join me by rationing your consumption of this book to avoid reading too much, laughing too much, and having trouble with your asthma.
Using the Best Medicine, Part I
Whether you have fibromyalgia, chronic pain, mitochondrial fatigue or some other exhausting and painful long-term health condition, the doctors agree on this: laughter is important. Keeping your sense of humor exercised is as important as keeping your body exercised. Here are some of the books I've been reading lately to keep my laugh muscles limber. (Slightly longer reviews are linked, if they exist.)
The Unlikely Disciple: Yes, it's hardly a laugh a minute, but as someone who attended a similar institution, imagining the awkward situations Kevin Roose got himself into as an undercover journalist sometimes reduced me to helpless giggles (usually alternating with embarrassment at some of the subculture shenanigans those evangelicals get up to).
Let's Pretend This Never Happened: Another blog turned book, this one isn't quite as successful at the transition as Hyperbole and a Half because it's a regular, short form blog, not actual essays like Hyperbole. However, it is still a hilarious, sometimes heart-breaking, always profanity-laced, self-deprecation fest that made me laugh and cry (usually at the same time, which is so dangerous) The fact that I kept reading despite the danger should tell you how compelling it was. Then again, when you can't seem to get more than a couple of hours of sleep a night, and you use this book to keep you company until you can't keep your eyes open anymore, I'm not sure the book itself necessarily has to be compelling.
Axe Cop: I cannot really tell you how wrong this comic is. It is so, so wrong. And so, so accurate if you have ever dealt with small children and the weird and horrible stories that they produce (even if their parents don't let them read fairy tales). "Written" by a 5-7 year-old and drawn by a 28-30 year-old brother, Axe Cop started as a web comic, but Dark Horse has incarnated it in physical form. I have to ration it because too much in one sitting is a bad idea (starts to seem less funny in large quantities). (Sort of like small children, actually . . .)
The Unlikely Disciple: Yes, it's hardly a laugh a minute, but as someone who attended a similar institution, imagining the awkward situations Kevin Roose got himself into as an undercover journalist sometimes reduced me to helpless giggles (usually alternating with embarrassment at some of the subculture shenanigans those evangelicals get up to).
Let's Pretend This Never Happened: Another blog turned book, this one isn't quite as successful at the transition as Hyperbole and a Half because it's a regular, short form blog, not actual essays like Hyperbole. However, it is still a hilarious, sometimes heart-breaking, always profanity-laced, self-deprecation fest that made me laugh and cry (usually at the same time, which is so dangerous) The fact that I kept reading despite the danger should tell you how compelling it was. Then again, when you can't seem to get more than a couple of hours of sleep a night, and you use this book to keep you company until you can't keep your eyes open anymore, I'm not sure the book itself necessarily has to be compelling.
Axe Cop: I cannot really tell you how wrong this comic is. It is so, so wrong. And so, so accurate if you have ever dealt with small children and the weird and horrible stories that they produce (even if their parents don't let them read fairy tales). "Written" by a 5-7 year-old and drawn by a 28-30 year-old brother, Axe Cop started as a web comic, but Dark Horse has incarnated it in physical form. I have to ration it because too much in one sitting is a bad idea (starts to seem less funny in large quantities). (Sort of like small children, actually . . .)
Friday, December 6, 2013
The Lesson Is . . .
I thought the moral of the story was going to be this: See, if you are kind to yourself and don't push yourself by trying to carry too much, your shoulder will hurt less! Instead, the lesson appears to be: HAHAHAHAHA, your trunk is frozen shut, and you can't get to your toilet paper when you need it even though you bought it ahead of time for once!
I guess that's a corollary to the one I've been learning every day for the last nearly 11 years (to quote a lovely, tired, anonymous employee at OWCP): "Sometimes you do everything you're supposed to, and you still get screwed." Can I be done learning that lesson yet? Please? : /
Anyway, now the lesson is self control because if I flip out and start kicking and yanking at the trunk door, I will hurt myself and probably still not get the trunk door to open. The other lesson is toilet paper conservation. Breathe in, breathe out . . .
I guess that's a corollary to the one I've been learning every day for the last nearly 11 years (to quote a lovely, tired, anonymous employee at OWCP): "Sometimes you do everything you're supposed to, and you still get screwed." Can I be done learning that lesson yet? Please? : /
Anyway, now the lesson is self control because if I flip out and start kicking and yanking at the trunk door, I will hurt myself and probably still not get the trunk door to open. The other lesson is toilet paper conservation. Breathe in, breathe out . . .
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
How to Save a Life (epigraph by Flannery O'Connor)
How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr (audiobook): And this, THIS, is why I read fiction. Because I can read the quote about how we need to be kind to everyone because they're all fighting battles, and I can nod and feel that twinge of sympathy, of empathy and compassion like a kick in the tail to remember to try a little tenderness. But this story, alternating between two voices transforms that gentle kick in the butt into a brutal punch in the gut. THESE ARE THE KINDS OF BATTLES PEOPLE ARE FIGHTING. Their anger is not about you. Your kindness matters. Your restraint when you could start yelling in frustration at the customer service lady matters. Because people are dealing with things like this and worse every day, and you never know what odd behavior is a result of these terrible things you know nothing about, love, kindness, tenderness, and grace are never wasted when you give them to others as a gift. They say the sermons we preach the most are the ones we need to hear the most. Amen. I need to hear this a million times a day, every time I open my mouth, every time I sit down to write. I need to write it on my forehead and bind it on my wrist, etc.
As for the audiobook itself,
well done. Had a few minor problems with the production, but overall it was very good. They had different readers play each of the POV characters. This worked very well
because the voices were very different and appropriate for their parts.
As for the audiobook itself,
well done. Had a few minor problems with the production, but overall it was very good. They had different readers play each of the POV characters. This worked very well
because the voices were very different and appropriate for their parts. - They don't let you know when a disk is over, so it just goes from the last track back to the first one, and you loose the thread of the story.
- They didn't always make it clear whether something was thought versus said aloud, which in this story was VERY important and the lack of clarity was often very confusing. (When I read my copy of the book some day, this will not be a problem, and I will have their voices in my mind, which will be a win.)
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Playing Catch Up with NaNoWriMo 2013!
Wow, do I ever have a lot of catching up to do here. What with all the stuff I've had to do revolving around healthcare this year, I have had to cut back lots of other activities, and one of those I ended up dropping was blogging. I had originally intended to do National Novel Writers Month again this year, but I think I will do my own version, so I can reward myself for feeling better while catching up on writing/crafting/posting to eliminate the mathematical guilt I feel when I see how far behind my (super-idealistic) goal I am with two months to go in the year. So I will write and post up a storm this month, and if I have any words left over, I know which novel I want to do some more drafting on . . . (The Napkin Epic has been much on my mind this autumn.) Starting tomorrow, we will commence with the catch-up on these four blogs. Be ready for it!
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Requiem for a stalled audiobook
For L and P, who probably need a laugh right now
Interviewer (I): So, I hear you're stalled out on another audiobook. Care to share?
Me: Well, you know, I've hit that point.
I: What point?
Me: The one where if it's written well and consistently, it will end horribly as a tragedy where the evil triumph and the righteous suffer and die horribly, and I cry a lot, and when I get out of the car with my reddened eyes and tear-ravaged face, people look at me with concern.
I: And if it's not well-written and consistent?
Me: Then it will have a sappy, inconsistent, probably literally deux-ex-machina sort of happy ending where everyone who deserves it is miraculously saved and all the evildoers are punished and they all live happily ever after (the people who are alive, anyway) until they die young because it's 14th century Europe.
I: And that would be bad?
Me: Kind of.
I: ?
Me: Then I will feel bad because I will be happy about the ending even though I have an advanced degree in creative writing and should have standards.
I: But you don't.
Me: Nope. I have no real standards to speak of. And I will feel a tiny twinge of guilt because I don't feel as badly as I should about the ending being crappy from a literary standpoint.
I: But no one will stare at you in the parking lot.
Me: Well, not for the tear-stained ruin reason.
I: Ah. Well. You could always punish yourself by reading a piece of highly-acclaimed literary fiction.
Me: True. I might be willing to take that one for the team, so to speak.
I: Many folks online seem to think that the book in question is NOTHING LIKE THE AWESOME PILLARS OF THE EARTH, which is also in medieval Europe and has a cathedral, so maybe you could try that one.
Me: Sounds promising. However, I would know nothing about finding spoilers on the Internet. I am actually testing my self-control because I really want to go to the library and spoil the ending for myself, so I will know whether I should listen to the last discs in the comfort of my own home where I can throw things, not cause traffic accidents, and cry for hours while experiencing a work of fiction and having no one look at my in a judge-y way unless I time things badly and have to do laundry.
I: That sounds very . . . um, twisted of you.
Me: Thank-you-I-think.
I: I note how you carefully said you would know nothing a bout finding spoilers on the Internet, but you didn't say anything about looking for them. I take this to mean the Internet failed you in the spoiler department?
Me: Yes! Complete Internet Fail! Curse you, Internet! You are full of spoilers I really don't want to see, but when I am actively searching for spoilers, there are none to be found in the English-speaking world only willing to spend half an hour looking. If I spoke Spanish, I bet I would totally know everything and already be done with the dratted thing. Maybe I should ask my Spanish-speaking friends to go look for me.
I: Okay. So you've been in withdrawal for the last couple of weeks?
Me: Indeed. I will be sad when I no longer get to hear people talking in awesome (but incorrect) Spanish-accented English every time I get into my car.
I: There are always the voices in your head.
Me: True. They are a comfort.
I: And Princess Bride if you really need it.
Me: Also true.
I: You could go get it at a library if you're that determined to spoil it.
Me: The library book will not speak in awesome Spanish-accented English.
I: Drawback for sure. Well, let us know if you ever find out how this thing ends. I mean, it's not like you already spent 19 hours listening to it or anything and stalled out a couple discs from the end.
Me: Yeah. Thanks for rubbing that in.
I: Until next time, keep up the good work!
Me: Thanks! I'll, um, try.
I: So, audience, has this ever happened to you?
Interviewer (I): So, I hear you're stalled out on another audiobook. Care to share?
Me: Well, you know, I've hit that point.
I: What point?
Me: The one where if it's written well and consistently, it will end horribly as a tragedy where the evil triumph and the righteous suffer and die horribly, and I cry a lot, and when I get out of the car with my reddened eyes and tear-ravaged face, people look at me with concern.
I: And if it's not well-written and consistent?
Me: Then it will have a sappy, inconsistent, probably literally deux-ex-machina sort of happy ending where everyone who deserves it is miraculously saved and all the evildoers are punished and they all live happily ever after (the people who are alive, anyway) until they die young because it's 14th century Europe.
I: And that would be bad?
Me: Kind of.
I: ?
Me: Then I will feel bad because I will be happy about the ending even though I have an advanced degree in creative writing and should have standards.
I: But you don't.
Me: Nope. I have no real standards to speak of. And I will feel a tiny twinge of guilt because I don't feel as badly as I should about the ending being crappy from a literary standpoint.
I: But no one will stare at you in the parking lot.
Me: Well, not for the tear-stained ruin reason.
I: Ah. Well. You could always punish yourself by reading a piece of highly-acclaimed literary fiction.
Me: True. I might be willing to take that one for the team, so to speak.
I: Many folks online seem to think that the book in question is NOTHING LIKE THE AWESOME PILLARS OF THE EARTH, which is also in medieval Europe and has a cathedral, so maybe you could try that one.
Me: Sounds promising. However, I would know nothing about finding spoilers on the Internet. I am actually testing my self-control because I really want to go to the library and spoil the ending for myself, so I will know whether I should listen to the last discs in the comfort of my own home where I can throw things, not cause traffic accidents, and cry for hours while experiencing a work of fiction and having no one look at my in a judge-y way unless I time things badly and have to do laundry.
I: That sounds very . . . um, twisted of you.
Me: Thank-you-I-think.
I: I note how you carefully said you would know nothing a bout finding spoilers on the Internet, but you didn't say anything about looking for them. I take this to mean the Internet failed you in the spoiler department?
Me: Yes! Complete Internet Fail! Curse you, Internet! You are full of spoilers I really don't want to see, but when I am actively searching for spoilers, there are none to be found in the English-speaking world only willing to spend half an hour looking. If I spoke Spanish, I bet I would totally know everything and already be done with the dratted thing. Maybe I should ask my Spanish-speaking friends to go look for me.
I: Okay. So you've been in withdrawal for the last couple of weeks?
Me: Indeed. I will be sad when I no longer get to hear people talking in awesome (but incorrect) Spanish-accented English every time I get into my car.
I: There are always the voices in your head.
Me: True. They are a comfort.
I: And Princess Bride if you really need it.
Me: Also true.
I: You could go get it at a library if you're that determined to spoil it.
Me: The library book will not speak in awesome Spanish-accented English.
I: Drawback for sure. Well, let us know if you ever find out how this thing ends. I mean, it's not like you already spent 19 hours listening to it or anything and stalled out a couple discs from the end.
Me: Yeah. Thanks for rubbing that in.
I: Until next time, keep up the good work!
Me: Thanks! I'll, um, try.
I: So, audience, has this ever happened to you?
Praying for fictional characters
Have you ever prayed for a fictional character while you were reading a book? I wonder if that's why I like reading stories set in universes where there is room for God: because then my prayers are not necessarily in vain.
Monday, August 26, 2013
Peace Like a River - Have you read this book yet? Go, get it, and start reading now!
b Peace Like a River by Leif Enger: This book. Wow. It has been on my list for a long time, and I will not waste time kicking myself for not reading it when it first came out or in any subsequent years. It is amazing, and I love it. There is something so incredibly kind about it that makes me want to go out and read it again as soon as I finish because I don't want to let the characters and their voices go. There were things about the audiobook that I wasn't fond of, but on the whole, the reading of the story was very good. Chad Lowe helped to bring each character to life with a different, distinct voice, and his narrator's voice just made this a wonderful story to listen to.
The characters were wonderful. They didn't always do the right things, and the consequences were often hard to swallow. I got angry, I laughed, I cried. The plot wove together beautifully, and the stories just rolled out. I loved the journey; I really didn't want it to end. And then what an ending. Holy cow.
I liked what it had to say about miracles, about how they intrude and make people uncomfortable because they overturn the natural order of things. This God is not tame or predictable, and His people suffer.
I wish I could communicate to you how much I loved listening to this book. There was a sale at Half-Price Books while I was finishing it, and I went to 4 different stores before finding a good paperback copy. I want to see if the physical reading experience is as good as I think it will be. I suspect this will be a book/audiobook I will revisit many times over the coming years.
The characters were wonderful. They didn't always do the right things, and the consequences were often hard to swallow. I got angry, I laughed, I cried. The plot wove together beautifully, and the stories just rolled out. I loved the journey; I really didn't want it to end. And then what an ending. Holy cow.
I liked what it had to say about miracles, about how they intrude and make people uncomfortable because they overturn the natural order of things. This God is not tame or predictable, and His people suffer.
I wish I could communicate to you how much I loved listening to this book. There was a sale at Half-Price Books while I was finishing it, and I went to 4 different stores before finding a good paperback copy. I want to see if the physical reading experience is as good as I think it will be. I suspect this will be a book/audiobook I will revisit many times over the coming years.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Middlesex - no wonder it won the Pulitzer and the Audie
b Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, read by Kristoffer Taboli: The problem with listening to a really good audio book is that for a while, every other audiobook you listen to will make you kind of sad because of its wasted potential. Middlesex is the story of three generations of a family starting in a Greek-occupied area of Turkey and moving to Detroit in the 20s and then all the way up through maybe the 90s in Germany. It follows three generations and covers some history of the Greeks in Turkey and a lot of the history of Detroit. It made the recent problems with Detroit declaring bankruptcy hit home a lot more to me.
I knew absolutely nothing about the city of Detroit, even though it was rather close to where I grew up. Eugenides grew up there, and he brought the city's history to life brilliantly. (All of that stuff about the beginnings of Islam in America were just fascinating. This book covers a ton of unexpected ground in an interesting way.)
The story is epic but deeply personal. It dragged in the third quarter for me (I find stories of blooming sexuality uninteresting, even when they are complicated with hermaphroditism), but I really liked the smooth weaving of the timelines together by the omniscient narrator. I also liked Cal's narrative voice in general. The balance of humorous foreshadowing (always referring to Cal's brother as "Chapter 11") and down-played pathos was well done. I found myself sympathetic to characters I didn't think I would.
This is just a great ride, especially when performed by an amazing, 110%-engaged narrator who brings each character to life separately and pulls you in. (Especially great if you only paid two dollars for it.) I don't know if the physical book-reading experience would be comparable, so if you have long drives, give this audiobook a try. Just don't listen to any other audiobooks for a couple of months. Maybe then you'll be able to avoid the feeling of being let down by lesser audiobook narrators. : )
I knew absolutely nothing about the city of Detroit, even though it was rather close to where I grew up. Eugenides grew up there, and he brought the city's history to life brilliantly. (All of that stuff about the beginnings of Islam in America were just fascinating. This book covers a ton of unexpected ground in an interesting way.)
The story is epic but deeply personal. It dragged in the third quarter for me (I find stories of blooming sexuality uninteresting, even when they are complicated with hermaphroditism), but I really liked the smooth weaving of the timelines together by the omniscient narrator. I also liked Cal's narrative voice in general. The balance of humorous foreshadowing (always referring to Cal's brother as "Chapter 11") and down-played pathos was well done. I found myself sympathetic to characters I didn't think I would.
This is just a great ride, especially when performed by an amazing, 110%-engaged narrator who brings each character to life separately and pulls you in. (Especially great if you only paid two dollars for it.) I don't know if the physical book-reading experience would be comparable, so if you have long drives, give this audiobook a try. Just don't listen to any other audiobooks for a couple of months. Maybe then you'll be able to avoid the feeling of being let down by lesser audiobook narrators. : )
Monday, August 19, 2013
Hungry Monkey: Making Me Wish I Had a Cook
b Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater by Matthew Amster-Burton: This was a fun little book about this dad who wanted his child to be a foodie from birth, not a picky eater like all those other kids. Reality is a bit different, but it doesn't stop him from trying. Each chapter deals with food in a different context (eating out, farmer's markets, preschool snacks, etc.), and each chapter (except the first) contains recipes, some of which I really want to try eating sometime. Mmmmm, food.
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Hunter's Oath - the pretty cover makes up for the publisher's lies
b Hunter's Oath by Michelle West: I must admit: I bought this book for its cover. Well, I found it because of its author (a buddy from my bookstore days really loves this author), but I adored the cover colors enough to get it when I had a coupon for the used bookstore. It has blue and green and every combination of them both, and I am a sucker for those lovely jewel-tone colors. Of course, before I bought it, I looked everywhere to make sure it was a standalone novel. There was no indication on the back cover, any of the inside covers, or at the end of the book that this was anything but a standalone novel.
It's a fantasy with some fascinating mythology and one of those characters I usually adore who has pretty much sacrificed everything for some higher purpose and is somewhat miserable. (This is a repeating theme.) You're pretty sure it's a good purpose, but she has to be ruthless to stay on task, and there are some devastating moments, as a result. She doesn't live in/experience time like everyone else, so most of the time, her early experiences are confusing and (needlessly?) mysterious. Things start to build and come together slightly more coherently by the end when the plot threads begin to intertwine. The other main protagonist is a nice guy, and you're pretty sure he is totally going to get the short straw in the end. The occasional foreshadowing seems to support this theory, which may be why it was so hard for me to get into things in the beginning. I mean, if you're told this guy is going to die horribly by the end of the story, the nicer of a guy he is, the less you want to get attached.
It's not brilliant or anything, and it's a bit difficult to get into (I am told this is kind of typical for this author), and it uses some techniques that I'm not fond of in my current less-than-mental-best state, but it's pretty compelling once you get involved with a lot of the characters. I used it as an exercise book (book to read while exercising), and that backfired a bit in the beginning when it was hard to get attached to, but towards the end, it was causing me to extend my exercise time unwisely. And then, it just ended.
I was wondering for about the last quarter of the book how it could possibly end satisfyingly in just that book, but there were no indications it had a sequel or was part of a series. By the end, I knew there had to be another book. This fact was pretty irksome. I don't like being deceived like that. But I'm still reading the sequel. I'm not sure what that says about me. The sequel has a shiny cover. I'm so weak.
It's a fantasy with some fascinating mythology and one of those characters I usually adore who has pretty much sacrificed everything for some higher purpose and is somewhat miserable. (This is a repeating theme.) You're pretty sure it's a good purpose, but she has to be ruthless to stay on task, and there are some devastating moments, as a result. She doesn't live in/experience time like everyone else, so most of the time, her early experiences are confusing and (needlessly?) mysterious. Things start to build and come together slightly more coherently by the end when the plot threads begin to intertwine. The other main protagonist is a nice guy, and you're pretty sure he is totally going to get the short straw in the end. The occasional foreshadowing seems to support this theory, which may be why it was so hard for me to get into things in the beginning. I mean, if you're told this guy is going to die horribly by the end of the story, the nicer of a guy he is, the less you want to get attached.
It's not brilliant or anything, and it's a bit difficult to get into (I am told this is kind of typical for this author), and it uses some techniques that I'm not fond of in my current less-than-mental-best state, but it's pretty compelling once you get involved with a lot of the characters. I used it as an exercise book (book to read while exercising), and that backfired a bit in the beginning when it was hard to get attached to, but towards the end, it was causing me to extend my exercise time unwisely. And then, it just ended.
I was wondering for about the last quarter of the book how it could possibly end satisfyingly in just that book, but there were no indications it had a sequel or was part of a series. By the end, I knew there had to be another book. This fact was pretty irksome. I don't like being deceived like that. But I'm still reading the sequel. I'm not sure what that says about me. The sequel has a shiny cover. I'm so weak.
Monday, August 12, 2013
Guardian of the Dead: the first book I've read with an important asexual character
b Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey: You know, mythology is so R-rated. I forget that sometimes because the United States' national myths are kind of weak in the violence and weirdness department. (Not that I mind.) This book is set around a boarding school in urban-ish New Zealand. Ellie is 17, a bit overweight, and apathetic. Her best friend Kevin has just told her that he's asexual, and she has an increasing crush on Mark, the school's dark and odd mystery boy. Then there are these murders and this extremely creepy woman and the fact that Ellie starts seeing things no one else seems to see.
Those things are out of this world. I like reading books that involve myths (real or fictional, as in the Queen's Thief books by Megan Whalen Turner). These kinds of stories peoples tell about themselves are a fascinating way to learn about other cultures. There is the added interest here in that the mythology is from the aboriginal culture, and Ellie in particular is from the culture that conquered the old one. I am coming at it from a totally different culture, but it's a conquering culture as well, so there is an echo for me of the richness of the native cultures that were over-run when mine took over.
Mostly, this is just a weird fantasy adventure. I found out about it in the comment thread of a publisher's weekly post about the need for diversity in YA literature. (I wrote 5 responses to it, starting here.) I was surprised there were any books that featured important asexual characters. That this one's asexuality was actually central to part of the plot impressed me. At first it just seemed like a clumsy attempt to tack on an unusual sexual orientation, but then it was necessary, and I was more impressed. And then kind of taken aback by the mythology, which was, well, as dark as some of the really dark European stuff and way more explicitly sexual. Definitely an interesting read with some real tragedy mixed in.
Those things are out of this world. I like reading books that involve myths (real or fictional, as in the Queen's Thief books by Megan Whalen Turner). These kinds of stories peoples tell about themselves are a fascinating way to learn about other cultures. There is the added interest here in that the mythology is from the aboriginal culture, and Ellie in particular is from the culture that conquered the old one. I am coming at it from a totally different culture, but it's a conquering culture as well, so there is an echo for me of the richness of the native cultures that were over-run when mine took over.
Mostly, this is just a weird fantasy adventure. I found out about it in the comment thread of a publisher's weekly post about the need for diversity in YA literature. (I wrote 5 responses to it, starting here.) I was surprised there were any books that featured important asexual characters. That this one's asexuality was actually central to part of the plot impressed me. At first it just seemed like a clumsy attempt to tack on an unusual sexual orientation, but then it was necessary, and I was more impressed. And then kind of taken aback by the mythology, which was, well, as dark as some of the really dark European stuff and way more explicitly sexual. Definitely an interesting read with some real tragedy mixed in.
Thursday, August 8, 2013
The Clockwork Princess or how can I cry during this much of a single book?
b Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare: If I thought the last book was full of sad and heartwrenching, it was light, fluffy cake compared with this final book. I think there were maybe, oh, 35 pages I read while I was not crying. Even Magnus Bane's awesomeness could not keep the tears from falling.
More of the past is revealed, and pretty much none of it is happy. There are some touching redemptive sacrifices and some satisfying deaths. There is a nicely surprising resolution to the evil plot. Many other loose ends are tied up. There is a happy ending, and then there is a lovely epilogue that I totally also cried through. The epilogue is apparently tied in with the last book of the Mortal Instruments series, which is coming out next year, so I guess I will have to re-read them all again when that one comes out. Oh, darn. Maybe I won't get so dehydrating on the second reading . . .
When I was online trying to find out when the last Mortal Instruments book would come out, I found out that there will be a book of short stories. Oh, Magnus Bane, you are awesome. Finding out that you will get your own book of short stories makes me happy. Short stories seem the right amount to showcase what makes you great without you getting on my nerves.
Also, there will be a new series with different characters from Mortal Instruments. And there will NOT be a love triangle. Whether that means there will not be romantic geometry is a bit unclear. I'm looking forward to it anyway.
I've read online reviews claiming that this series isn't worth reading because it is exactly like The Mortal Instruments because it has Shadowhunters, Downworlders, and a love triangle. Seriously, people? Of course there are similiarities. It's a prequel. It's supposed to be connected to the later-in-time MI series. And love triangles are at the dramatic heart of any number of stories through the ages. And the construction of the two triangles are very different. The resolutions are really different, too. I appreciate the idea that one can love two people equally, and I'm glad that particular triangle worked out eventually into a happy sort of ending. Anyway, maybe you just need to space the readings out to not get burned out on the same author's works?
The story was compelling, the characters were interesting, there was humor and drama and a good mix of interesting elements. I was glad it was a trilogy and that things wrapped up well in that time frame.
More of the past is revealed, and pretty much none of it is happy. There are some touching redemptive sacrifices and some satisfying deaths. There is a nicely surprising resolution to the evil plot. Many other loose ends are tied up. There is a happy ending, and then there is a lovely epilogue that I totally also cried through. The epilogue is apparently tied in with the last book of the Mortal Instruments series, which is coming out next year, so I guess I will have to re-read them all again when that one comes out. Oh, darn. Maybe I won't get so dehydrating on the second reading . . .
When I was online trying to find out when the last Mortal Instruments book would come out, I found out that there will be a book of short stories. Oh, Magnus Bane, you are awesome. Finding out that you will get your own book of short stories makes me happy. Short stories seem the right amount to showcase what makes you great without you getting on my nerves.
Also, there will be a new series with different characters from Mortal Instruments. And there will NOT be a love triangle. Whether that means there will not be romantic geometry is a bit unclear. I'm looking forward to it anyway.
I've read online reviews claiming that this series isn't worth reading because it is exactly like The Mortal Instruments because it has Shadowhunters, Downworlders, and a love triangle. Seriously, people? Of course there are similiarities. It's a prequel. It's supposed to be connected to the later-in-time MI series. And love triangles are at the dramatic heart of any number of stories through the ages. And the construction of the two triangles are very different. The resolutions are really different, too. I appreciate the idea that one can love two people equally, and I'm glad that particular triangle worked out eventually into a happy sort of ending. Anyway, maybe you just need to space the readings out to not get burned out on the same author's works?
The story was compelling, the characters were interesting, there was humor and drama and a good mix of interesting elements. I was glad it was a trilogy and that things wrapped up well in that time frame.
Monday, August 5, 2013
The Clockwork Prince: Vindication of the demon pox theory
b Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare: Demon pox totally exists! So, bad stuff happened at the end of the first book. There are those within the Shadowhunters who decide to use that as a reason to try to kick Charlotte out as leader of the London Institute. Lots of politics and intrigue get thrown into the mix of action, romance, drama, and mystery. There are some unexpected betrayals and some unexpected loyalties. Tessa learns more about who she is, and some of the Shadowhunters suck even more in this book. There were certainly some stinkers among them in the Mortal Instruments series, but I feel like a lot of these folks are even more vile, sometimes making me hope they have terrible deaths. Then I feel bad about that.
I expected the choice from the love triangle to be dragged out, but it resolves itself in a horribly messy fashion in the second book. For now. Oh, it's heart-wrenching.
I haven't read the other series in a while, so I don't always remember names, but there are some that I just seem inclined not to trust from the beginning. And some that confuse me (wait, wasn't that the name of a bad guy later, but this guy seems really good?). A lot happened in this volume, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it all concludes in the last volume. There are a lot of unhappy people at this point, and I really want them to be happy in the end. Right now, it doesn't seem possible.
I expected the choice from the love triangle to be dragged out, but it resolves itself in a horribly messy fashion in the second book. For now. Oh, it's heart-wrenching.
I haven't read the other series in a while, so I don't always remember names, but there are some that I just seem inclined not to trust from the beginning. And some that confuse me (wait, wasn't that the name of a bad guy later, but this guy seems really good?). A lot happened in this volume, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it all concludes in the last volume. There are a lot of unhappy people at this point, and I really want them to be happy in the end. Right now, it doesn't seem possible.
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Reading the Clockwork Angel again
b Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare: I read this first book in the trilogy when it was released. Then I waited for the rest of the series to come out. Will is a Shadowhunter with a bad attitude; his parabatai Jem does his best to keep Will's recklessness in check while dying from an addiction to a demon drug that he can't live without. Tessa is an unfortunate American who came to England at the behest of her brother Nate after the death of her only other living relative, her Aunt Harriet. Upon arriving, she is forcibly picked up by two very creepy individuals and forced by them to learn how to control a power she never even knew she had. She is rescued by Will and Jem and then taken to the London Institute where she learns about Shadowhunters (in all their ugliness and glory) and Downworlders while trying to discover who (and what) she really is. And who she loves.
Magnus Bane is awesome. There are a lot of other good characters in here with familiar names (if you've read the Mortal Instruments), and things are rather mysterious. There is amazing loyalty alongside awful betrayals, action, adventure, mayhem, and manners in an interestingly steampunk-tinged Victorian England. I liked it.
Magnus Bane is awesome. There are a lot of other good characters in here with familiar names (if you've read the Mortal Instruments), and things are rather mysterious. There is amazing loyalty alongside awful betrayals, action, adventure, mayhem, and manners in an interestingly steampunk-tinged Victorian England. I liked it.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Boundary Waters
Boundary Waters by William Kent Krueger: The second book of the mystery-adventures of former-sheriff Cork O'Connor in northern Minnesota. In this book, there's a missing country star and numerous parties trying to find and/or kill her. Cork is ultimately on the team trying to keep her alive. At least, he is trying to keep her alive. There are doubts about some of his teammates. (Except for the poor little hostage kid and his dad. They're legit.)
I have had this book for years. Therefore, I did not have to make sad faces about not having the audiobook available when I finished the first book in the series. I just launched straight into this one.
I don't think I will end up marathoning these books in my traditional book-binge sense (read them all in a row with nothing else in between). I think I will have to spread them out. There is a lot of darkness in them because they deal with tough relationships and situations and the darker sides of people and what they will do when cornered. I can't have too much concentrated darkness without sufficient humor to leaven it. (Thought I laughed pretty hard both times the phrase "Monkeys will fly out of my butt" made an appearance in the series.)
It's sort of weird to be reading books by someone I went to church with. I sang with his wife in the choir. I adored his aging father, who, if I remember correctly, was an atheist and the church custodian. I went to a high tea he spoke at, and I loved his practical view of writing and his advice and his life stories. I find myself glad the books are living up to their hype, and I do recommend them to people who like the landscape to be a character in the book and to those who like very human mysteries.
I have had this book for years. Therefore, I did not have to make sad faces about not having the audiobook available when I finished the first book in the series. I just launched straight into this one.
I don't think I will end up marathoning these books in my traditional book-binge sense (read them all in a row with nothing else in between). I think I will have to spread them out. There is a lot of darkness in them because they deal with tough relationships and situations and the darker sides of people and what they will do when cornered. I can't have too much concentrated darkness without sufficient humor to leaven it. (Thought I laughed pretty hard both times the phrase "Monkeys will fly out of my butt" made an appearance in the series.)
It's sort of weird to be reading books by someone I went to church with. I sang with his wife in the choir. I adored his aging father, who, if I remember correctly, was an atheist and the church custodian. I went to a high tea he spoke at, and I loved his practical view of writing and his advice and his life stories. I find myself glad the books are living up to their hype, and I do recommend them to people who like the landscape to be a character in the book and to those who like very human mysteries.
Dykstra's War
Dykstra's War by Kooistra: This was a solid, (mostly) standalone sci-fi novel. Like a lot of old sci fi, the ideas carry the day (not so much the plot or execution). There were some guns hanging on the walls unused at the end, making it seem like the author might have written (or intended to write) a third part. Which I would totally read if it exists because I really want to know what happened to . . .
Well, anyway, the main protagonist is an aged genius physicist enjoying his retirement but a bit bored when some aliens decide to attack, and the government finds that none of their folks can get the job done. They've been ignoring Dykstra, thinking him over the hill and worthless, but he's still got some life (and a lot of brainpower) in him, and he gets deeply involved. There are a decent number of characters, most of them very likeable and none of them with names like Smith or Jones. I kind of appreciated that a lot. It was done so effortlessly and practically. I also liked how a lot of the conflict arose from plain old miscommunication.
One of the pleasant surprises of the book was the way that some of the characters were just allowed to be Christians, and that was treated as a natural part of their characters. (Some Evangelicals might actually take offense because these are mostly Mainline Protestants/Catholics.) There's not a lot of this room-for-God-and-people-who-believe-in-Him-in sci-fi nowadays, which I find sad. This is not any kind of theology book. It's not C.S. Lewis' Space trilogy or Ender's Shadow. It's just a world where people of faith can do science and muse about the implications as they try to figure out how to save the world from an alien species they simply can't communicate with.
Well, anyway, the main protagonist is an aged genius physicist enjoying his retirement but a bit bored when some aliens decide to attack, and the government finds that none of their folks can get the job done. They've been ignoring Dykstra, thinking him over the hill and worthless, but he's still got some life (and a lot of brainpower) in him, and he gets deeply involved. There are a decent number of characters, most of them very likeable and none of them with names like Smith or Jones. I kind of appreciated that a lot. It was done so effortlessly and practically. I also liked how a lot of the conflict arose from plain old miscommunication.
One of the pleasant surprises of the book was the way that some of the characters were just allowed to be Christians, and that was treated as a natural part of their characters. (Some Evangelicals might actually take offense because these are mostly Mainline Protestants/Catholics.) There's not a lot of this room-for-God-and-people-who-believe-in-Him-in sci-fi nowadays, which I find sad. This is not any kind of theology book. It's not C.S. Lewis' Space trilogy or Ender's Shadow. It's just a world where people of faith can do science and muse about the implications as they try to figure out how to save the world from an alien species they simply can't communicate with.
This Rough Magic
This Rough Magic by Lackey, Freer, and Flint: More magic, mystery, treachery, and mayhem in a Renaissance alternate history world where Christianity and magic are intertwined. (And fewer obvious seams where the authors split the story.) We venture away from Venice and to an island with its own magic and its own problems. There's piracy, sieges, satanic rituals, witches, bitches, babies, ill-tempered goats, sword fights, sacrifices, heroism, love, politics, etc.
I have to say that the tension in this book was frequently unbearable. There's this woman who decided to choose a safe marriage for her coming baby. The husband is a really nice man, very stable, very kind, very dedicated to his work and his new family. And you feel terrible because for all that, you are sort of waiting--slightly hopeful and vaguely guilty--for the ax to fall, so she can get back together with the person you suspect is the father of her baby, the man she really loves, the man who went to the far edges of young, stupid, wild, and unstable when she chose the other guy out of left field. He's still off balance, but he's growing up, becoming a responsible person, the kind of person who can do what's best for the people he loves even if that doesn't lead to his own personal happiness.
I have to say that the tension in this book was frequently unbearable. There's this woman who decided to choose a safe marriage for her coming baby. The husband is a really nice man, very stable, very kind, very dedicated to his work and his new family. And you feel terrible because for all that, you are sort of waiting--slightly hopeful and vaguely guilty--for the ax to fall, so she can get back together with the person you suspect is the father of her baby, the man she really loves, the man who went to the far edges of young, stupid, wild, and unstable when she chose the other guy out of left field. He's still off balance, but he's growing up, becoming a responsible person, the kind of person who can do what's best for the people he loves even if that doesn't lead to his own personal happiness.
Lady Knight
Lady Knight: One of the things I love about this series is the truth that being entrusted with protecting people is hard, dangerous, often unglamorous work, and the people you're sacrificing yourself for are frequently, er, ungrateful at best. Then there's the youth aspect. Kel is relatively young to be given the responsibility that she is given. It's a really tough job, honestly, but those who have been helping her train and watching her grow know that she can handle it. She's been dealing with hostility for her gender for quite a while, so having people be hostile more because of her age is somewhat novel. Her development as a good leader is compelling even as her road is hard. And in the end, her commitment to protecting the small ones who cannot protect themselves is what saves everyone.
Squire
(Protector of the Small) Squire: Oh, Raoul. You still crack me up every time you give variations of your little speech about the glory and glamour of being a knight (that there really isn't much, and it's a lot of hard, dangerous work, and nobody really thanks you for the slogging part of it). I love the way the characters in the Tortall universe cross over. It's been a while since we last met Raoul, and he has done a lot of living in between the Alanna books and these. I really want to know what happened in between, but in a lot of ways, these book series are a woman's world (at least as far as the author usually goes), so it remains a mystery. And that's okay because Raoul is great.
I love that the skills that Kel has been developing and the talents she has start to shine publicly here as she grows up. Jousting. Sigh. No way.
I love that the skills that Kel has been developing and the talents she has start to shine publicly here as she grows up. Jousting. Sigh. No way.
Page
(Protector of the Small) Page: No more special (bad) treatment for Kel. She's a legitimate page, and she's still taking on the protecting of the small (the new squires, animals, maids, etc.). Neal is still great, though his constant crushes are wearing. Kel continues to be practical, laconic, self-contained, and heroic.
I don't find myself thinking that so much about the Protector of the Small books. Their more compact length sort of fits Kel. She's very reserved but also somewhat straightforward; she gets to the point and then finishes. She doesn't say any more than she has to. She just lets her actions speak. As a result, the briskness of her books does not necessarily bother me. They don't feel as abridged as Alanna's books. I love reading an author's books in order and watching the author progress. : )
"It's just--"she shrugged. "No place is perfect."Whenever I read the Alanna books (Pierce's first series), I sometimes find myself wondering how awesome they would be if she re-wrote them now in this time of YA bounty when she's allowed to write a single book longer than the Alanna quartet. How rich the characterization, how lively the world would be!
---
"She had trouble nodding off that night. She couldn't get rid of her anger with Vinson and with a world in which servants didn't matter. It wasn't right."
I don't find myself thinking that so much about the Protector of the Small books. Their more compact length sort of fits Kel. She's very reserved but also somewhat straightforward; she gets to the point and then finishes. She doesn't say any more than she has to. She just lets her actions speak. As a result, the briskness of her books does not necessarily bother me. They don't feel as abridged as Alanna's books. I love reading an author's books in order and watching the author progress. : )
Yes, I seriously read the Protector of the Small books again
(Protector of the Small) First Test: I like Kel. She's just so practical. About everything, really. She understands choices and consequences. And then she grits her teeth, makes the choices, and takes the consequences, no matter how unfair. I like that some of the villains are really villainous for reasons that make sense. I like that some of the good guys have to make tough choices they don't like because of politics. And I like that one major antagonist is just a war hero who really thinks he's doing the right thing. I like that Kel succeeds because of who she is (how she was raised, her innate skills and talents and guts, and her willingness to work hard).
Thursday, July 11, 2013
My first mystery in a long time: Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger
b Iron Lake: I had forgotten the reason why it is bad for me to listen to audiobooks: I can't stop. With books, I have to stop. I mean, you can't sit at your cube at work reading a book instead of doing your work, but you CAN listen to the audiobook disc that you had to stop at an awkward moment at the end of your commute. And then the next one. And maybe the next one. It's a long day, you're doing tedious work that doesn't require much of your brain, and you can handle it. And you actually have the book, so when you get home, you can binge and read it. Sigh.
This was a compelling read. Don't believe the back of the book, because it is full of lies. It follows a former-sheriff protagonist who's kind of reached rock bottom. He's lost his job, his best friend is dead, he's separated from his wife and children, he's committing adultery and feeling guilty about it, and Christmas is coming up. And then someone ends up dead and someone else ends up missing, and even though it's not his job, Cork O'Connor can't seem to stop trying to find out the truth, no matter how painful it is.
Throw in a lot of tension between the whites in the town and the local native Americans on the reservation, politics, betrayal, murder, adultery, mistrust, and a Catholic priest nicknamed St. Kawasaki, and you have a book full of rich characters, landscapes, history, and culture that is pretty outstanding for a first novel. I might actually recommend that you try to check out the audiobook because a lot of the names and words will be difficult to pronounce correctly without it. Also, you may learn the correct pronunciation of words you've been pronouncing wrong for years.
This was a compelling read. Don't believe the back of the book, because it is full of lies. It follows a former-sheriff protagonist who's kind of reached rock bottom. He's lost his job, his best friend is dead, he's separated from his wife and children, he's committing adultery and feeling guilty about it, and Christmas is coming up. And then someone ends up dead and someone else ends up missing, and even though it's not his job, Cork O'Connor can't seem to stop trying to find out the truth, no matter how painful it is.
Throw in a lot of tension between the whites in the town and the local native Americans on the reservation, politics, betrayal, murder, adultery, mistrust, and a Catholic priest nicknamed St. Kawasaki, and you have a book full of rich characters, landscapes, history, and culture that is pretty outstanding for a first novel. I might actually recommend that you try to check out the audiobook because a lot of the names and words will be difficult to pronounce correctly without it. Also, you may learn the correct pronunciation of words you've been pronouncing wrong for years.
Saturday, June 15, 2013
accidental shoes
I am now the accidental owner of a single, cute pair of shoes. (The accident is the cute part, not the shoes.) I blame aquarobics. In my ongoing saga of trying to build strength and flexibility without accidentally making injuries worse, I started doing some water aerobics. It reminded me of my days in pool PT (just me and the elderly ladies) except that there were some elderly men, as well.
I figured I'd be okay because I was in a colder pool than the PT pool where I did therapy for an arm and discovered that my injured left foot HATES hot water. Well, it seems like my foot just hates water because it was seriously hating on the pool. Since the pool is kind of my last hope for strength exercises, I was getting a bit discouraged when I found myself wondering if I could get cheap, water-proof tennis shoes and put my orthotics in them.
I looked at some catalogs and discovered that water-proof tennis shoes are NOT cheap. This was a bummer. An increasingly painful bummer. And then I asked one of the ladies in the class where she got her shoes because I was starting to want to skip classes (more than usual), and she said she got hers at a sporting goods store.
So I went to a sporting goods store, thinking I could find some nice, sturdy shoes, probably men's shoes since they're a bit wider and might be able to fit my orthotics. And the only shoes I could find in my size were these strappy, cute black ones. Alas. So now me, my old lady swimsuit, and my cute shoes will be in the pool 2 days a week (most weeks).
At least they were (relatively) cheap. And they work. So no more excuses.
I figured I'd be okay because I was in a colder pool than the PT pool where I did therapy for an arm and discovered that my injured left foot HATES hot water. Well, it seems like my foot just hates water because it was seriously hating on the pool. Since the pool is kind of my last hope for strength exercises, I was getting a bit discouraged when I found myself wondering if I could get cheap, water-proof tennis shoes and put my orthotics in them.
I looked at some catalogs and discovered that water-proof tennis shoes are NOT cheap. This was a bummer. An increasingly painful bummer. And then I asked one of the ladies in the class where she got her shoes because I was starting to want to skip classes (more than usual), and she said she got hers at a sporting goods store.
So I went to a sporting goods store, thinking I could find some nice, sturdy shoes, probably men's shoes since they're a bit wider and might be able to fit my orthotics. And the only shoes I could find in my size were these strappy, cute black ones. Alas. So now me, my old lady swimsuit, and my cute shoes will be in the pool 2 days a week (most weeks).
At least they were (relatively) cheap. And they work. So no more excuses.
Friday, May 31, 2013
trusting authors and being rewarded
I am an easy reader, a trusting reader. When I start a book, I have a shining, innate belief in the skill of the author. Every dangling bit will be addressed somehow in the end. This question I have, or this line of dialogue that just doesn't make sense in the world of the story: these are here for a reason. I trust the author! It is really gratifying when that trust is rewarded. And pretty rare.
I've been reading this series for a while, and there were these moments of jarring incongruousness, flashes of something that just didn't fit, moments of unanticipated tenderness that really threw me for a loop in the midst of this incredibly dark and intensely brutal story. And this time I had the gratifying experience of watching things play out in accordance with those observations I had made. I was thrilled. It wasn't the twist I was anticipating, but it was a twist (two actually, by golly, and they were doozies!
Of course, I immediately went back and re-read everything in the light of each new set of revelations (not a time-consuming task since we're early in the prologue, still, apparently), and it was really glorious. There are still lots of questions (so many questions), but I feel like I can trust this author to sensibly address them in the future.
Not that I'm expecting perfection. I can fully trust an author right up until they totally bungle the ending and still feel pleased with the overall experience (if exasperated that the ending funked). I am not looking for the perfect book, the flawless author. Or maybe I am, and that quest is what keeps me reading the varying degrees of successfully-told stories around me. Maybe I should say I don't demand perfection all the time, but I love it when I see it. So I keep looking for it and finding brilliant flashes of it, and that is why I keep reading.
I've been reading this series for a while, and there were these moments of jarring incongruousness, flashes of something that just didn't fit, moments of unanticipated tenderness that really threw me for a loop in the midst of this incredibly dark and intensely brutal story. And this time I had the gratifying experience of watching things play out in accordance with those observations I had made. I was thrilled. It wasn't the twist I was anticipating, but it was a twist (two actually, by golly, and they were doozies!
Of course, I immediately went back and re-read everything in the light of each new set of revelations (not a time-consuming task since we're early in the prologue, still, apparently), and it was really glorious. There are still lots of questions (so many questions), but I feel like I can trust this author to sensibly address them in the future.
Not that I'm expecting perfection. I can fully trust an author right up until they totally bungle the ending and still feel pleased with the overall experience (if exasperated that the ending funked). I am not looking for the perfect book, the flawless author. Or maybe I am, and that quest is what keeps me reading the varying degrees of successfully-told stories around me. Maybe I should say I don't demand perfection all the time, but I love it when I see it. So I keep looking for it and finding brilliant flashes of it, and that is why I keep reading.
Revenge of the Big Brother (how toddlers and babies help illustrate pain)
Once I explained the chronic left arm pain like this: imagine a small child who randomly taps you on the arm. You ask the child what it wants, and the child says, "Nothing." Repeat. Ad Nauseum. For years. It's exhausting.
For years, this pain was the ascendant one. But recently, there's a new pain on the block, one that has been growing up until it takes up more of my attention. I took it to the doctor, and it turns out that it's complications from a college racquetball dislocation injury. For months, I've been babying it, using my left arm more than usual to give some rest to my right.
I was sort of exasperatedly thinking of my left arm pain as the older brother in the pain family. When a new baby comes, the parents and all the adults have to pay attention to it because it's loud and demanding. And the older siblings have to put up with it. They have to be good big brothers and sisters and protect the baby. And my left arm has been behaving. Surprisingly well. Like a good big brother.
There usually comes a time, though, when the older sibling (especially if said sibling is a preschooler) has enough and snaps and throws a tantrum and demands attention in all manner of ways. Last week, big brother pain snapped. And how.
I felt it coming on for a couple of days; the signs aren't subtle at all, not surprising. I tried to put some more weight on the right shoulder, but that only delays the reckoning. It hit when I was trying to close the trunk after work. Holy cow. And then the next day at work. Wow. Stabbing, breathtaking, whiteout pain that just stops you cold in your tracks.
Not that I could really hold this attack against it. I mean, it really was being a trooper of a big brother for a while there. Maybe for long enough that I've started getting the maverick younger brother right shoulder under control. We can hope. We'll see.
For years, this pain was the ascendant one. But recently, there's a new pain on the block, one that has been growing up until it takes up more of my attention. I took it to the doctor, and it turns out that it's complications from a college racquetball dislocation injury. For months, I've been babying it, using my left arm more than usual to give some rest to my right.
I was sort of exasperatedly thinking of my left arm pain as the older brother in the pain family. When a new baby comes, the parents and all the adults have to pay attention to it because it's loud and demanding. And the older siblings have to put up with it. They have to be good big brothers and sisters and protect the baby. And my left arm has been behaving. Surprisingly well. Like a good big brother.
There usually comes a time, though, when the older sibling (especially if said sibling is a preschooler) has enough and snaps and throws a tantrum and demands attention in all manner of ways. Last week, big brother pain snapped. And how.
I felt it coming on for a couple of days; the signs aren't subtle at all, not surprising. I tried to put some more weight on the right shoulder, but that only delays the reckoning. It hit when I was trying to close the trunk after work. Holy cow. And then the next day at work. Wow. Stabbing, breathtaking, whiteout pain that just stops you cold in your tracks.
Not that I could really hold this attack against it. I mean, it really was being a trooper of a big brother for a while there. Maybe for long enough that I've started getting the maverick younger brother right shoulder under control. We can hope. We'll see.
Blurry glasses and crying books
The other day, I put
on my glasses, and they were just blurred beyond belief. I was like, "What on earth?! I just washed these a couple of days
ago." Then I remembered, "Oh,
right. And then I read that book where I
cried for roughly 350 pages." At the
beginning, I remember wondering, "Is she seriously going to make me cry
through this whole book? Like, seriously
the entire time?" And she didn't. She gave me a bit of a reprieve after I thought the character had died and everyone had started to grieve and deal with other life-threatening matters at hand, and that other character I hated finally, finally died, and then more sad things of different varieties happened, and then there was that fan-pandering (but believable-within-the-world) happy resolution which involved more, additional crying. For Pete's sake . . .
It's possible the problem was that I haven't read many books lately, and I needed the crying (no matter how slim the justification). : )
chilli dreams in spring
Did you ever wake up
from one of those dreams where you were eating really good chilli with
indeterminate loved ones? What is that
all about?
What I mean when I post something on Facebook
What I mean when I post something on Facebook: I found this
interesting.
What I don't mean
- I totally agree with everything about this.
- You will totally agree with everything about this, and it will not require any critical thought.
- Your friends from your church will totally agree with everything about this, and it will not require any critical thought.
- This didn't offend me at all.
- This won't offend you at all.
- This won't offend any of your friends from church at all.
(I'm just cranky about how many things I don't share because I know I'd get another late-night call from my mother because she doesn't like the title of the picture I shared.)
The Merry Month of May (Hiatus)
Sorry, I've been on
a bit of a blog hiatus this month. I was
putting together a personal health record (PHR) by trying to pull together all
the information from my various health care providers over the recent (sometimes nightmarish) years. How did I survive 2009? Seriously.
It's been . . . challenging to say the least. To all the folks who use one of these blogs
to be sure I'm still alive (ha ha), sorry if May was a white-knuckled month for
you. In June, we shall hope to be back
to our regularly scheduled blogram.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Jenny Lawson, partner in insomnia
You know what's good to read when you are having one of those Really Bad Nights where sleep is just not happening at all? Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson. Maybe it's not, actually, a good book to read in that situation because it is hilarious (if you are of Jenny's bent) and will make you laugh, and this will do chemical things that make you happy and awake. But that's just it: if you are going to be awake all night, you might as well be happy about something. Then, as an added bonus, when you are having difficulty with your impulse control the next day due to sleep deprivation, you can just start giggling randomly about something she said that was laden with profanity and thus unsafe to repeat at work. Several times. Just try not to do it in meetings.
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