the dilemma

Why is it
that the co-workers
I like most always
leave me? 
                 I suppose
the solution to this
problem is to stop
liking the bright,
competent, ambitious
ones, but
                I don't think
that's really possible
or even
a good idea.

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.

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.

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.

What I've been reading lately

The Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock: In this volume, DJ sort of dates this guy, and that ends badly.  Mostly she keeps dealing with her screwed up, silent family, as they deal with a real crisis or two.  I love this narrator's voice and the way she comes to realize things about herself and the people around her and starts to act on them in small but powerful ways.

Book Girl and the Wayfarer's Lamentation: So what does a book series do after it resolves what you thought was going to be its main conflict?  Well, I'll have to find out in the next volume because this was the volume where some big showdowns happened, and it gets pretty brutal.  There are a lot of reversals in this book as characters and motivations are twisted and shown to be not exactly what you were led to believe.  Lots of emotional tension and some great book-related information, as per usual.

Newton's Cannon by J. Gregory Keyes: Ben Franklin + Alchemy = pretty entertaining. Unless you're London.  At least he's really sorry.

Margaux with an X, Now Playing: Stoner and Spaz II, and Deadvilleby Ron Koertge: The endings are never cheaply happy.  Each protagonist is so unique.  All the books are united by their common excellence.  Not perfect, mind you, but great.  I am impressed by his ability to make convincing characters who so easily move the plot along while narrating in first person.  I need to study this; if done right, the books just seem to hum along even if there's not really much action.  I am also impressed by his ability to create realistic adult characters, use interesting family groups/dynamics, and seamlessly include characters with various kinds of disabilities.  Well done!

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis: This book is always an interesting read (especially if you're me and forget everything between readings).  Ponder once again these clear examples, this lack of theological buzzwords, the thought-provoking ideas grounded firmly in a time past.

Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson: If you are easily offended, this one is not for you; the language is frequently R-rated, as is the content (sometimes more "R" for ralph-inducing).  As the Bloggess, Jenny Lawson tells stories about her screwed up life.  And it is screwed up. 

People who think they grew up with quirky parents will be put in their places by this book.  There are baby racoons in jams, lessons in couch etiquette, more than you really wanted to think about cow artificial insemination, dead babies, saint-worthy husbands, feeling stabby, and more neuroses than you can shake a roadkill puppet at.  You will find that you really love your job (unless you work in HR).  You will be grossed out and offended for sure.  You might also laugh hard enough to have an asthma attack.  More than once.

Best served in small doses, this one nonetheless adds up surprisingly well into something akin to a memoir.  However, you really need to know what you're getting into when you read this, or you will be disappointed.  It's not Shakespeare, and it's not trying to be.  If you read it like a blog (a little bit every so often), you'll probably end up with a better opinion of it than if you try to read it like a normal memoir or novel.  If it starts getting tedious, stop reading and come back to it later when you need a really weird pick me up.

Keep flying, Yukikaze

I am stalled out reading Good Luck, Yukikaze, a collection of science fiction short stories as dark, tense, and talky as the first.  The problem is that I don't want it to end, especially since I know the third and final collection is preeeeetttttyy likely to never be licensed for English distribution.  Sad.

Anyway, I really like these stories, even though they are best read while sitting in a sunny place with birds tweeting and the sounds of happy children playing in the background to stave off the paranoia and depression.  I realize this probably does not sound terribly appealing, but it's meant to be an endorsement.  Really.

I love this stuff.  I loved the confusing, dark anime full of dark, silent soldiers, creepy aliens, aerial dogfights, and questions about the nature of humanity and its interactions with machines.  I loved the first book, and I loved its afterward. 

I sort of inhaled most of this one, too, even as the formerly silent and antisocial protagonist started to develop more humanity, but then, when I saw the end was near, I just . . . couldn't go on.  I need to finish soon, though, before I start losing all the threads of the plot.  Maybe this one will come to a decent close like the first one.  That's what I will tell myself. 

Two chapters and counting.  Tension mounting.  Must push through the pain . . . : )

Too Many Books (Never)

Ran across this exchange on a site I follow and found myself agreeing.  Maybe someday when the e-readers can use amazing projection technology to show the full color stuff and let me actually page back and forth and mark and underline with ease and not have a tiny screen and be only $20 I will possibly buy one.  Or if I have to go overseas for an extended time and can't bring my libraries with me.

"MICHELLE: It is, but the production on this series is especially lovely—one can unfurl the whole cover (French flaps and all) and get one long vertical scene of some lower-level buildings—and it’s a real treat to read a physical copy. Online just isn’t the same.
MELINDA: We’ll be relics someday, you realize… shaking our canes at those digital-obsessed kids, doomed to meet our demise under the weight of a thousand overstuffed bookcases. ;)
MICHELLE: Yep. I’m already feeling curmudgeonly because I honestly cannot tell you who a lot of current celebrities are. Who are Nick and Vanessa? Why does their engagement merit a headline on CNN? I have no clue.
MELINDA: The police will shake their heads, sadly, when they finally discover our bodies. “Too many books,” they’ll say, sighing heavily.
MICHELLE: At least we’ll have died happy.
MELINDA: Amen."

Amen, indeed.

What makes something worth revisiting?

I am sobbing right now.  You see, this character died suddenly and with little fanfare, and it's kind of rough.  Even though this is the fifth time I've seen the show.  In fact, this time, I started crying early, in the episode before, because I knew it was coming.

It reminds me of the way I cry earlier in The Warrior's Apprentice the more times I read it.  This is why I think I don't ever want to be involved with any prophecies of the future and stuff.  I'd be (more of) a wreck if I knew it was coming.  (Or maybe I'd get really stubborn about making a different future happen . . . :)

Anyway, all this crying and reflecting got me thinking about the topic of what gives a book good reread value (or a show/movie good re-watch value). 

Some books are harder for me to reread because of the tragedies (Mirror Dance); while the tragedies in other works are the things that make them worth revisiting.  Some comedies are great for one watch and then pointless while other funny works need to be appreciated over and over again (Hogfather).  One friend once said that he reads David Eddings' books just for the chance to hang out with the characters again, and some people reread the same mystery over and over because they love the plotting.


What is it for you?  What makes you revisit a work over and over again?  (How long do you usually wait?)  What works do you regularly revisit (and why)?

Why I adore Kristen Britten's First Rider's Call:

• The imperfect main character just keeps going until she can't go anymore, trying to do the right thing. 
• The main character respects herself enough not to get entangled in an affair with the guy who likes her (who she likes) who can't marry her.   (Rock on.)  
  
• She's decently smart and determined and stubborn. 
• She's surrounded by other great characters.

What came first? (identifying with characters)

There are different reasons people like books.  Some read for plot, some for characters they like or identify with.  I was reading a book recently, and I found myself playing the "if I were asked why I like this book, what would I say" game.  It's more like the "how I would justify liking this book if someone asked me" game.  I've been playing this game for years, but I've started wondering about it recently.

I start out liking the book.  If someone asks why, I have to give them something they'll understand, so I usually talk about characters.  It's almost like acting, where there's that school of thought that says to play a character, you have to identify something in you with something in the character first.

It could be completely true that there is something about a character that I really identify with, but that's not necessarily what makes me like a book or keep reading it.  Now I'm wondering what came first: liking the book or identifying with the character?


What makes you like books usually?  Plot?  Character?  Something else?

Something Great Someone Else Said about Procrastination and Recommending Books

I promise I'll stop doing this soon, but I wanted to share another link.  I promise when I do it's always relevant.  Somehow.  If you put a little thought into it.

Anyway, Patrick Rothfuss wrote a post about liking/recommending books that is more than vaguely related to something I wrote back in August, and I felt like sharing it.  It's nice to know I'm not alone in my particular procrastinatory habits.  Sometimes you like something, and you can't explain why, but that isn't very helpful to people unless they share your exact reading habits.

Do you ever not talk about something you enjoyed because you're afraid someone will ask why?  Anything you inexplicably loved and want to share here since you don't have to explain why you like it at all?  :)