Bibleeohfile

Teaser Tuesday

2011-04-27T10:04:00.000-04:00

Leo Mark's first encounter with Vera preceded his entry into SOE. As chief cryptographer, he dabbled in psychology and wrote one move script so grim that it was banned by censors. He would ask each girl who wanted to work on codes, “Do you do crosswords?” If they did, they were in. Leo’s explanations came later. He was the Jewish genius who invented a safer option to SOE’s old coding system. He produced one-time coding pads of finest silk, inserted in the lining of an agent’s clothes. Random numbers were printed on the silk; each line of numbers was used for coding one message only, and wa then cut off. If the Gestapo closed in, the silk vanished at the touch of a match. He silks gave an agent the chance to live a little longer, rather than swallow a cyanide pill to cheat the tortures. Later, Vera said that the agents worked “between silk and cyanide.”

Spymistress: The Life of Vera Atkins, The Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War II by William Stevenson, page 150.

Book Review: Twice a Spy

2011-04-16T12:31:00.000-04:00

Twice A Spy picks up two weeks after Once A Spy left off, with Charlie, Alice, and Drummond hiding from the Calvary (the super secret, off-the-books, black op group hunting them) in Switzerland. Alice spends the time trying to clear their names, while Drummond undergoes experimental treatment for his early onset Alzheimer's. Charlie, well, he's doing what he does best: dry, witty humor.

Things don't stay this peaceful for very long though; Alice is renditioned (kidnapped) by a group of men in black, and Charlie is told that if he doesn't trade one of Drummond's hidden ADMs, well, they're going to see just how many pieces Alice can be carved into. Starting with her face.

With that image in mind, Charlie and Drummond set off to Martinique, where Drummond has a hidden ADM. Maybe. Somewhere. Finding the ADM is only part of the problem though, as they also have to deal with a host of other problems, including the Calvary, the CIA, mercenaries, Drummond's not-always-there-ness, and being thrown into prison, to name but a few.

Thomson has once again written a clever spy novel, while turning the genre on its head by featuring a spy who can't always remember that he used to be a spy (but always knows how to hot wire a car), a brilliant, but clueless guy who thinks in betting analogies, and a Shaoliln kung fu master who is trying to keep them all alive. This is a great book for anyone who likes spy novels, dry humor, and excellent writing.

Teaser Tuesday

2011-04-12T09:17:00.000-04:00

You have no idea how much I'm enjoying this book.

"Drummond took two quick steps, wound back and threw something, some sort of shimmering white disk, too fast for Charlie to track.

The object struck the real estate man in the hip, then dropped to the deck with a clink.

A clamshell.

Glancing down, DeSoto smirked. "That's all you got?"

His smirk faded when, with one more step, Drummond launched himself into the air. He effectively flew, feetfirst, at Desoto."

From Twice a Spy, the sequel to Once a Spy by Keith Thomson, page 143.

Teaser Tuesday

2011-03-22T14:48:00.000-04:00

"Nothing but concern for Elizabeth could enable Bingley to keep his countenance. His sister was less delicate, and directed her eye towards Mr. Darcy with a very expressive smile. Elizabeth, for the sake of saying something that might turn her mother's thoughts, now asked her if Charlotte Lucas had been at Longbourn since her coming away."

Pride and Prejudice, page 43 (or so my Sony eReader says)

Teaser Tuesday

2011-03-03T09:47:00.000-05:00

(Never mind the three month gap in posts)

"Luther just swung his guitar around in an arc, sneering down at everyone in the audience. Then he went straight into 'Common People,' not caring that it was supposed to have a synthesizer or that it was about thirty years old and most of the kids in the Starlight had never even heard of Pulp."

The Replacements by Brenna Yovanoff, page 99 (on my Sony Reader).

Teaser Tuesday

2010-12-01T10:24:00.000-05:00

From The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide, page 711.

Black, roaring silences swam sickeningly through his shattered mind. He knew with a kind of resigned certainty that he would survive, because he had not yet been to Stavromula Beta.

I'm so close to being done with this series and I can't wait to find out how it ends.

E-books continue to impact the publishing world

2010-10-05T10:40:00.000-04:00

Four posts/articles of interest:

Authors Feel Pinch in Age of E-Books from the Wall Street Journal.

The Acquisition Editor via The Newbie's Guide to Publishing. Interesting "conversation" from the viewpoint of an author.

Two E-Books Cost More Than Amazon Hardcovers from The New York Times.

Special guest post by Neesha Meminger at The Rejectionist, on self-publishing and e-book publishing versus traditional publishing.

Interview with Emma Donoghue, author of "Room"

2010-09-13T09:31:00.000-04:00

Nice review of Emma Donoghue's Room over at The New York Times. I was lucky enough to get an ARC of this book at BEA and just fell head-over-heels in love with it. Just a fantastic story (and great cover art*, which was why I picked it up in the first place) and in my opinion it really deserves all of the attention it's been getting lately (reviews at Bookish NYC and Reading Matters, and it was shortlisted for the Man Booker 2010).

*my copy of Room has a white cover, with "Room" written in different colors, like a five-year-old would.

Links of interest

2010-09-09T10:44:00.000-04:00

The 16th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style went on sale September 3rd. I wonder how different it is from the 15th edition that I'm using.

English-speaking readers aren't just looking for new Swedish noir novels to read. "...there is a growing demand for new translations of European fiction and nonfiction from the years leading up to and including World War II."

Brooklyn is going to be inundated with book lovers this weekend. The Brooklyn Book Festival kicks off on Friday night with multiple events, including one I'd like to attend at Greenlight Bookstore. Saturday has a literary pub crawl, aptly named Lit Crawl--note, this is actually not in Brooklyn--and then Sunday is the actual book festival, where there is seemingly an event every hour I want to attend.

September is actually off to a good start

2010-09-08T21:50:00.000-04:00

It's only the 8th and I've already read five titles. If this keeps up (and it's highly unlikely), this might be my best month yet.

Monthly Update

2010-09-01T20:23:00.001-04:00

Sometimes I wonder why I keep trying to meet my self-imposed, impossible goal of reading 178 books this year. And yet, I keep trying.

In August I read seven books. Of those seven books, two were nonfiction--of which one was military nonfiction). The remaining five were fantasy, and two of them young adult novels.

Books read in 2010: 69
Books that should have been read in 2010: 112
Time I have to catch up: four very short months

Once upon my dystopian summer

2010-09-01T19:51:00.001-04:00

Leila has posted an amazing looking list over at her blog of ya dystopian books to read post-Mockingjay. Reading through it, I found that I haven't read most of these books, much less heard of them. The rock I've been spending my "free" time under had been particularly solid lately.

As I picked up Mockingjay at the NYPL this afternoon, I'll have to hold off new books until after I've had a chance to find out how this trilogy ends. (Will Katniss become the figurehead of District 13? Does President Snow really drink the blood of babies? Does Peeta survive? Will the drinking game--via Forever Young Adult--enhance the book or just ensure that I'm dehydrated?) I'm not going to let myself read it until the weekend, which will hopefully be nice and sunny (Hurricane Earl, if you're listening, please go away by Saturday night) so I can sit outside and enjoy the end of my summer.

*Update: I picked up Girl in the Arena last night at B&N. It was interesting...not quite what I expected though. Review to come.

And the Twilight saga continues

2010-09-01T10:03:00.001-04:00

Because Bella and Edward can't just go away or anything...

Cleolinda has horrifying news, which I found via bookshelves of doom:

So the tale of Nahuel is left on this really weird note, right before Bella and Edward run off to go have sex again unto forever, the end, with this half-vampire kid staring at the female Cullen-Swans. And now, today, we discover that BOTH HALF-VAMPIRE KIDS HAVE SEA MONSTER NAMES. How totally made for each other are these two? He's grown to full teenage maturity, she will grow to full teenage maturity, he never made out with her mom, it's perfect. Except that, no, Jacob has already imprinted on Renesmee, and, as Jacob explained all the way back in New Moon, everyone who gets imprinted on pretty much imprints back because "it's hard to resist that kind of love and devotion." (Yes, I can quote that direct, specific line from memory. That kind of bullshit gets burnt into your brain.) So we have what would be, in any other book, a blatant setup for a future relationship ("he'll have some competition"). Even at the time I gave it the side-eye, it stuck out so weirdly. Do you see what this means? Do you? IT DIDN'T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY, YOU GUYS. SHE HAD A PERFECT MATCHING HALF-VAMPIRE SEA-MONSTER LOVE INTEREST FOR RENESMEE! IT ACTUALLY MAKES SENSE! IT'S RIGHT THERE! But instead, ~Nessie~ is stuck whether she likes it or not--she doesn't have a choice to like it or not because SHE'S THREE MINUTES OLD--with her mother's ex-boyfriend who delivered her from Bella's bloody mangled body and nearly threw her out the window but instead imprinted on her irrevocably as his soulmate.

I just don't even know what to say.

PS: Apparently, there is this rumor that Meyers might write a fifth book? I don't know how I could have missed this before, except that my hearing must have shut down to preserve my sanity. If so, thank you, hearing!

Recent bits of interest

2010-08-25T11:39:00.001-04:00

Booksellers Brace for Mockingjay Landing, via the NYT. I'm waiting for a copy via my local library, which means I won't get to read this for at least a month.
eta: wrong, self, so wrong. I'm reading it this weekend.

E-Books Make Readers Less Isolated, via the NYT. Having strangers talk to me while I'm reading is something that really irritates me.

The ABC's of E-Reading , via the WSJ. I do have to say that I'm finding myself slightly tempted to get an e-reader these days; my trains have been absolutely packed lately and it's hard to juggle my bag(s), a book, and hold on to something.

The world of publishing

2010-07-26T16:54:00.000-04:00

Just gets more interesting every day. E-books are completely revolutionizing the publishing industry, and not just in the way books are produced. I'm not surprised at all that Wylie Agency wants to handle the e-book side of their titles exclusively; e-books are only becoming more popular (although I still don't believe Amazon's figures) and the market is huge. I am slightly surprised by Random House's reaction though. Refusing to do any future business with the Wylie Agency seems slightly drastic.

Reading in verse

2010-07-26T11:36:00.000-04:00

Recently, a few coworkers and I have started sharing books that we find interesting. It's worked out surprisingly well so far; we each have a chance to read something new and it doesn't cost us anything. While I've been loaning out the ARCs I picked up at BEA, my coworker loaned me Dante's The Divine Comedy, part 1: Hell. I'd never read it, despite always saying that I would, so when I saw that she was nearly done with it, I asked to borrow it.

I'd forgotten what a chore it can be to read verse. It's so much work! The best way, I found, was to read it like I was going to be reading it aloud, pausing only where there was a punctuation mark. That helped, and I found it much easier reading. (Note: that still doesn't mean it was easy reading. I think I understood maybe half of that whole story, even with the notes and illustrations at the end of each canto.) I'm hoping Part 2: Purgatory will be slightly easier reading. I know it'll be less depressing.

Externships

2010-07-22T10:07:00.000-04:00

I've never before heard of an externship, although I think it's a great idea, especially for nontraditional jobs that don't end at 5 p.m. every day. Via The New York Times.

Side note: Carleton College is the college that Pamela Dean based her fictional college, Blackstock College, on in Tam Lin.

More e-books sold than hardcovers?

2010-07-20T09:21:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I don't know that I really believe that. I usually see one ereader device in the morning, but I see ten books to that one device.

via The New York Times

Sweet!

2010-07-15T13:49:00.000-04:00

I write like
Arthur C. Clarke

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Adding to the TBR list...

2010-07-14T16:38:00.000-04:00

The rest of the Fairy Tale Series, edited by Terri Windling. I've read Pamela Dean's Tam Lin numerous times, including again this summer, so maybe it's time I branched out and read the other books in this series.

Damnit!

2010-07-13T14:20:00.000-04:00

I would love to go to Sebastian Junger's talk tomorrow about his book War at the Bryant Park Reading Room. Except it's at 12:30 and there's no way I can duck out of work for two plus hours without my boss noticing.

Book Trailers

2010-07-13T10:04:00.000-04:00

So, am I the only person who doesn't like book trailers, much less watch them? I honestly don't see the point of them.

The Author Takes a Star Turn, via NYT

Monthly Update x 2

2010-07-11T12:15:00.000-04:00

So I never got around to actually posting my May or June reads. Clearly, I'm failing as a blogger this year. It could be worse though, I could be failing as a reader. Oh wait..

In May, I read six books.Of the six books, only one was nonfiction, and it was something of a travel memoir.
In June, I read nine books. Of the nine books, five were books I picked up at BEA, one was a military nonfiction, and the other three were fiction.

Books read in 2010: 59
Books that should have been read in 2010: 84
Time I have to catch up: less than six months

Top 100 Science Fiction Novels according to Sci-Fi Lists

2010-07-09T15:29:00.002-04:00

Well, according to this list, I am not a well-read science fiction fan as I've only read fourteen of the hundred listed titles. And even if I crossed off the two books I started and hated (The Handmaiden's Tale and A Canticle for Leibowitz), my stats aren't much better.

Guess I know what I'm doing for the rest of the summer. You know, when I'm not rereading the Harry Potter series (WHICH ENDS JULY 31ST, SELF!), the military nonfiction titles I have stacked on the floor, or the YA books I keep requesting from the library.

So yeah, I'm sure I'll make it to fifteen out of ninety-eight in no time at all.

/sarcasm

Revamping Wonder Woman

2010-06-30T09:34:00.002-04:00

Oh, Wonder Woman. I dressed up as her one year for Halloween when I was six? seven? My parents made me wear clothes underneath, though; I was furious. If only her costume then had looked like it does now.

This 69-year-old superheroine, published by DC Comics, will don a new — and less revealing — costume and enjoy the publication of Issue No. 600 of her monthly series.

Via The New York Times.

Translations, aka, my reading list just grew

2010-06-19T10:20:00.001-04:00

I still haven't read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. I was iffy about the series and a friend of mine--we have similar tastes when it comes to fiction--told me not to bother with it. But several of my coworkers have read the whole thing and keep raving about it...so I don't know.

What I do know is that I'm thrilled we're going to see more Scandinavian writers translated into English. I love it when my reading horizon spreads just a bit more.

José Saramago, Nobel Prize-Winning Writer, Dies

2010-06-18T10:07:00.003-04:00

I read Blindness years ago for an online book club I joined. I had a hard time with it, because I wasn't quite sure how to describe how I felt about the book. I liked it, but it was something completely different from what I normally read. I always meant to read his backlist, but never found the time. Maybe this summer I'll pick up Seeing. Or, reread Blindness.

Article about his life, works, and death here at The New York Times.

Over at the NYT

2010-06-16T09:42:00.002-04:00

"Just as a single book offers something new to your different selves over time, my library catered to the different identities I have cultivated over the years."

So very, very true.

Justin Cronin, interviewed at the NYT

2010-06-08T11:18:00.003-04:00

While being interviewed about his upcoming new novel, The Passage, Justin Cronin had this to say about the difference between literary fiction (what he's known for) and commercial fiction:

"I think literary is shorthand for appreciated, and commercial is shorthand for sells."

Hee. That's the best description of the two that I've seen in a long time.

Summer reading

2010-06-07T11:14:00.008-04:00

I love reading the summer reading lists; so many new books to get excited over. Like:

Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World’s Stolen Treasures by Robert Wittman (Crown)

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender (Doubleday)

Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross (Knopf)

The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt (Hyperion)

The Outlander by Gil Adamson (Harper Perennial)

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)

Lost Illusions by Honore de Balzac (Penguin) (OK, so this one isn't exactly new, but whatever.)

In addition to keeping track of what genre I read and whether the book is one I purchased or borrowed, I'm also going to try and keep track of what publishers I'm reading. I don't think I have any favorites, but I am curious.

*Note to self: Hey, remember how you were going to reread the Harry Potter series this year? How's that going?

The haul

2010-05-27T16:50:00.003-04:00

I'm going on record as saying this was my best BEA yet.*

I walked away with five tote bags, one umbrella, and fifteen books. Yup, fifteen books. One of the senior editors at work chastised me a bit, saying that "books are for the buyers," but I ignored her. The way I see it, the books at BEA are for buyers and poor peons like me, the ones who get paid pennies, work long hours, and grab the perks where we can get them. And a free book is always a perk to me.

Out of the fifteen books I picked up, I've very excited about reading By Fire, By Water by Mitchell James Kaplan. I had read a review about it earlier this week and thought it sounded very interesting. By a fluke chance, I found myself at the Other Press booth on Wednesday, where they were not only giving away the book, but had the author signing copies. Totally fate. I queued up and got a signed copy. I've only read the first twenty pages or so, but I'm already hooked.

Other books from BEA that I'm (especially) looking forward to reading are The Holy Thief by William Ryan (Minotaur), Satori by Don Winslow (Grand Central Publishing), The Last Speakers by K. David Harrison (National Geographic), and The Wolves of Andover by Kathleen Kent (Reagan Arthur Books). Oh, and Poisonville by Massimo Carlotto (Europa Editions); it sounds like a modern version of Dante's Inferno and the cover art is just amazing.

*It was also my first BEA, but that's just a minor detail.

2010-05-26T17:34:00.002-04:00

So it seems that I did in fact burn out in April. I've read, hmm, six books this month. And I clearly haven't posted about any of them. Yet.

Coming up, reviews of Black Magic Sanction, Magic Burns, the Sebastian St. Cyr novels I devoured, and my haul from BEA. I've got some really great books this year and I can't wait to start all of them.

Monthly Update

2010-04-30T09:35:00.002-04:00

So April is the first month that I actually met (mostly) my monthly reading challenge. I read 14 books this month, but now feel the slightest bit burned out. I haven't wanted to read anything since finishing Silver Borne on Tuesday. (That will pass, right?)

As for the rest of my goals, well, I haven't touched any of the stack of military nonfiction I have piled up since, hmm, February, haven't started the Harry Potter reading challenge (although I have until the end of July to read the books), and I haven't finished Mere Christianity or Bleak House. I did pick up 2666 and read about four pages before putting it down. I just can't get into that book.

Books read in 2010: 39

Books that should have been read in 2010: 59

Time I have to catch up: limited

Realizing a truth can be interesting.

2010-04-28T10:57:00.003-04:00

It's slowly dawned on me that the novels I'm choosing to read have all been mysteries. It wasn't a conscious decision, but looking over the list of books I've read this year, there are only a handful that aren't mysteries.

I suppose I lulled myself into thinking I wasn't reading mysteries because they weren't the type of mysteries I had been reading, with police officers and private detectives. So much for branching out.

Still, I can't really complain about this, because if I didn't subconsciously sabotage myself into reading nothing but mysteries, I wouldn't have read the Julian Kestrel series by Kate Ross, or the Sebastian St. Cyr series by C.S. Harris. I wouldn't have read The Broken Teaglass by Emily Arsenault, which gave me words like editrix. And sentences like this, on page 320:

I tried not to despair too much in the notion that this holding pattern of identical days might eat up life while I waited for weekends.*

I would have read the Marilyn Todd titles, but I wouldn't have remembered her if I hadn't read the collection of short mystery stories, which I only read because it featured a story by Kate Ross. (And let's not forget that the Marilyn Todd titles are mysteries.)

So maybe I should just accept that I like to read mysteries and move on. To reading another mystery.

What? It's not like I don't have a stack of them waiting for me.

*Sadly, I find this sentence to be closer to my life sometimes than I'd like.

Victory is mine!

2010-04-27T08:58:00.002-04:00

Read Silver Borne yesterday, which brings my total books read for the month to fourteen!

I feel very, very accomplished right now.

Once again, I'm so close, so very, very close

2010-04-26T09:56:00.003-04:00

I just have to read one more book this month and I'll meet my goal of fourteen books in a month. Now, if only the weather would cooperate and not rain during my lunch break...

Via the NYT: New York Public Library Sorts Books By Scanner

Whereas in the past the volume of materials coming through frequently required him to hire temporary employees, now his permanent staff of 14 can easily sort 7,500 items per hour, or 125 a minute, he said. As a result, he added, the time it takes for a book to travel through the system has been reduced by at least a day.

Ha!

Long overdue book post...done

2010-04-21T11:10:00.002-04:00

The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan was nothing like the BBC adaptation. And the BBC adaptation--with Rupert Penry-Jones, aka, the reason I watched the adaptation--was the reason I read the book in the first place. It was a good book, but I wish it had followed the plot of the movie more. (And yes, I know how wrong that is.) (March)

**spoilers**

The Girl with No Shadow by Joanne Harris was not the sequel to Chocolat that I expected. For one, I honestly didn't care what happened. Two, I thought that Roux was supposed to be in love with Josephine and that's why Vianne left without telling him she was pregnant, not because she was in love with him and thought he didn't want to be tied down. Third, I really didn't care what happened. Very disappointed by that, because I wanted to like this book as much, if not more, than I liked Chocolat. (April)

Figures in Silk by Vanora Bennett; I think I saw this first on Danielle's blog, but I'm not 100% sure. I totally loved this story, except for the very ending. Isabel was such a great character and she stayed true to her character up until the very ending. I'm not going to spoil it for everyone who hasn't read this book, but her sudden "realization" that she can't imagine her life without this certain person in it just strikes me as false. I don't disagree with the actual ending, but this pairing at the end? Yeah, no. (April)

When Gods Die by C.S. Harris was an excellent continuation to the Sebastian St. Cyr mystery series. Sebastian is once again caught up in a woman's murder, only this woman--found dead in the Prince's arms--has an unexpected connection to his long-dead mother. He's a much darker hero than Julian (from Kate Ross' series) and his family life is very twisted. Secrets and lies, fake deaths, illegitimate children; it's all very, very good. I'm really enjoying this series, and this author. (April)

Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. I love Jelico Road, so every time I read something by Marchetta I have these incredibly high expectations. This is the first fantasy novel I've read by Marchetta--I think the only one she's written--and while it was good, it just wasn't great. I feel like it was missing something though. (April)

Dream Boat by Marilyn Todd is another book in the Claudia series that I discovered while I was living in London. Unfortunately, neither the NYPL or the BPL has all the books in this series. I think together they have 1/3 of the series. In this book, Claudia ends up trying to rescue her kidnapped stepdaughter, while also discovering who has been killing Roman citizens of an Egyptian cult. And Marcus, the Roman Security policeman, can't help her as he's under house arrest for discovering a corpse bricked into a wall in his house. Hee. (April)

Why Mermaids Sing by C.S. Harris (yes, I'm really tearing through this series) drops us straight into a murder investigation that began at the end of When Gods Die. Someone, for unknown reasons, is killing the children of wealthy men, savaging parts of their bodies, before shoving an object into their mouths. While trying to discover the why's and who's of these crimes, Sebastian is also reeling from the revelation of two long-buried family secrets, both of which effect him in different ways. (April)

The Mapping of Love and Death by Jacqueline Winspear was just kind of eh. I'm sad to say it, but I think I'm kind of over Maisie. Ever since An Incomplete Revenge, the fifth book in this series, I just can't seem to enjoy these stories. I'm actually quite saddened by this, because I used to love this character. Maisie is her usual brilliant self her, piecing together the truth about an American cartographer's death in WWI, while also tracking down his mysteries lover, preparing for the loss of a loved one, and finding herself in love again. (April)

Sour Grapes by Marilyn Todd (yup, another one) is (currently) the penultimate book in the Claudia series. It's also the last book that either library system here has. This book finds Claudia visiting her mother-in-law, chasing down murders and false gods, while also trying to stop a wedding--or two--and completely failing to avoid Marcus, who happens to be there for a couple of reasons, only one of which is Claudia. I'm incredibly frustrated that I can't get my hands on the last book in this series, because at the end of Sour Grapes, it really seems like Claudia and Marcus might *actually* be moving closer to, oh, I don't know, resolving all tension and mistrust and moving this part of the storyline forward already. But yeah, who knows? Not me. I don't have the last book. (April)

March update

2010-04-09T09:27:00.001-04:00

So close. So very, very close.

In March I read thirteen books. I was ONE book away from reading the required fourteen. I was so, so close.

I know it's early days and all for April, but I've read four books in eight days. April may be the month...

What Angels Fear by C.S. Harris

2010-03-26T12:52:00.000-04:00

What Angels Fear was exactly what I needed after finishing the last Julian Kestrel book; a rich, intricately-plotted tale with heroes who aren't heroes, ladies who take care of themselves, family secret after family secret, and at least five books in this series. (The last one might be my favorite part.)

Set in 1811, King George is soon to be replaced by the Prince of Wales. Powerful men make and break deals with powerful men. Bored soldiers, rakes, married men, and gamblers make their nights as amusing as they can by gambling away fortunes, fighting duels at dawn, and framing each other for murder.

Framed for the murder of a beautiful, young actress--who had more secrets than she did roles on stage--Sebastian St. Cyr eludes the constable in a desperate attempt to find out who framed him for murder. His search for the truth will take him from the London stage to masked balls, from political maneuvers to French spies, from secret to secret, until the truth is discovered. From family to friends, pickpockets and old lovers, nothing with stop Sebastian from finding out who framed him.

All in all, it was a fantastic story, I didn't see "it" coming, and I can not wait to read the next book in this series.

The Devil in Music by Kate Ross

2010-03-24T14:48:00.000-04:00

I held off reading The Devil in Music for as long as I could solely because it's the last book in the Julian Kestrel series and I knew I'd be heartbroken once it was over.

And you know what, I was right.

The final book in this series reveals more about Julian Kestrel and his life than the three previous books, satisfying my need to know something of his past, but ultimately it leaves more questions unanswered than answered. Back in Italy, for the first time in years, Julian finds himself caught up in a murder case that has been unsolved for five years. A young singer--whom only a few people have ever seen--has been assigned the blame, but Julian disagrees. Turning over one stone after another in his search, more questions are raised than answered. It will take everything Julian has to figure out the truth and lay rest to the secrets he has raised.

There's a huge cast of characters, from the beautiful widow, the envious brother, the emasculated son and his wife, her lover, political rivals, the missing tenor, the missing tenor's blind teacher, two traveling Englishmen, and a secret political organization, enough secrets to host an opera, and an ending that I honestly did not see coming. Seriously, I fell for the path Ross laid--hook, line, and singer--and just didn't see it coming.

And now it's over and I'll never learn the truth of Julian's past. Never find out all of his secrets. Never find out if Phillipa, the precocious twelve-year-old from the first book, grows up and fulfills her vow to marry Julian. Never find out anything more.

Except now I can reread the books and pick up on all the little clues I missed the first time. Who knows, maybe there's more of Julian Kestrel for me to discover.

The NYPL is working against me.

2010-03-23T10:57:00.002-04:00

I am so close to reading 14.8 books this month. So very, very close. You know what would help? If the NYPL would transit my books already. Seriously. Why does it take a week plus to get my books from one branch of the NYPL to another branch? If my father can mail me a letter via USPS from Silverdale, Washington, to Brooklyn, New York, in two days, why can't the NYPL get me my books within three business days?

Am I asking for too much? I don't think so.

Gentlemen & Players by Joanne Harris

2010-03-22T15:10:00.000-04:00

Wow.

I had forgotten how much I enjoyed Harris' stories. They're so beautifully written, with all of these little details that seem so unimportant and yet end up meaning so much. Her characters are real, complex, and never quite what they seem. The plots are straightforwardly full of twists and turns, and nothing ever happens quite like you think it's going to.

I used to love mysteries, devoured them in junior high and high school, but eventually lost my taste for them. The plots became stale, it was evident "whodunit," and I really felt that all of the characters had become the same. Thank God I didn't give up the genre completely, or I never would have read Gentlemen & Players. I can't decide which part of the story I liked the best, the small secrets that are slowly revealed, leading us to the truth, or the very real "players," of which only one knows the rules to this game.

Honestly, this book has it all; a cast full of old grudges and older secrets, an institution ripe for a fall, a town full of hate, and someone who has come back after fifteen years to settle an old score.

You'll never see this one coming.

The End of Publishing

2010-03-22T07:55:00.001-04:00

via Moonrat, a video about the end of publishing.

Brilliant, just brilliant.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!

2010-03-17T08:56:00.001-04:00

The education kids receive these days

2010-03-16T09:41:00.001-04:00

...is brought to them by a dentist.

Oh, Texas. How I will never raise children within your borders.

A brief update

2010-03-15T09:48:00.003-04:00

Once again, I don't have enough hours in the day.

I've only just now started editing my NaNoWriMo novel for NaNoEdMo--fourteen days behind--and I think I might end up with something workable. Maybe.

Of course, I also need to write about the six books I've read and haven't posted about, hold down a full-time job, read more books, and find time to sleep.

I wonder which of these I'll let fall by the wayside first?

Monthly Update

2010-03-05T10:42:00.002-05:00

And, just like last month, I did not meet my reading goals for the month. In fact, I read one less than I did in January.

Books read in February: 7
Books read total in 2010: 15
Books that should have been read so far in 2010: 28

NaNoEdMo

2010-03-01T11:20:00.002-05:00

Please don't expect to see me much in March. It's NaNoEdMo and I have a NaNoWriMo to edit.

I'm breaking my own promise

2010-02-24T11:33:00.004-05:00

Argh. Remember that time when I said I wasn't going to do any reading challenges this year? All of what, two months ago?

Yeah, I'm breaking it.

I've had this urge to reread the Harry Potter series for a month or so now and while I've been struggling to suppress it, it's not going away.

So, I figure I might as well join the Harry Potter Reading Challenge while I'm at it. It ends July 31, 2010, so I've got plenty of time to finish.

I cannot believe I broke on this so early in 2010. Shame. Shame on me.

Except, not really. It's going to be so much fun.

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

2010-02-18T21:06:00.004-05:00

Just read the entire book--thank you, NY MTA and my roommate--and I have to say as much as I loved the entire novel--and all the twists--would someone--Dennis Lehane, maybe--please resolve the last 3 1/2 pages for me.

I mean, I think I know what happened, fairly certain how the ending actually ends, but it doesn't say for sure, 100%, definitely. And that bugs me.

Damnit, am I going to have to see this movie?

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

2010-02-18T12:33:00.000-05:00

I knew next to nothing about Brooklyn, by Colm Toibin, before I started to read it. In fact, the only thing I knew about this novel was that it is set in the area of Brooklyn I live. I'm very glad I read it though; I found it to be a very detailed, beautifully written coming-of-age story.

From the publisher:

Eilis Lacey has come of age in small-town Ireland in the hard years following World War Two. When an Irish priest from Brooklyn offers to sponsor Eilis in America, she decides she must go, leaving her fragile mother and her charismatic sister behind. Eilis finds work in a department store on Fulton Street, and when she least expects it, finds love. Tony, who loves the Dodgers and his big Italian family, slowly wins her over with patient charm. But just as Eilis begins to fall in love, devastating news from Ireland threatens the promise of her future.

Having no idea what the novel was about, I was completely surprised by how much I enjoyed it and by how much of myself I saw in Eilis. From her trip alone across the Atlantic Ocean, how she forces herself to smile so she doesn't lose her job as a salesgirl, even the way she takes walks through the city on her lunch break, trying to see and explore more of her new home.

Eilis doesn't just have to learn how to survive on her own in Brooklyn, manage night classes and work, and dating, but she also has to deal with her ever-present sense of loss for the family she left behind. One day, after almost two years in Brooklyn, finally settling in, she is called home to Ireland to deal with a family crisis. Suddenly, Eilis finds herself in the position of having a choice; she can stay in Ireland with her family, working as a bookkeeper, and settle down, or she can return to Brooklyn, without her family, work as a shop girl, and eventually give up on her professional dreams to keep house and home for Tony, who wants to marry her.

Brooklyn is a beautiful story, not just because of the plot--which is good--but in the way that Toibin describes things in this novel, making each part seem so real.

On one morning, Eilis goes to work and finds there that the store is having its yearly nylon sale.

The morning was full of frenzy; she did not for one moment have peace to look around her. Everyone's voice was loud, and there were times when she thought in a flash of an early evening in October walking with her mother down by the prom in Enniscorthy, the Slaney River glassy and full, and the smell of leaves burning from somewhere close by, and the daylight going slowly and gently. This scene kept coming back to her as she filled the bag with notes and coins and women of all types approached her asking where certain items of clothing could be found or if they could return what they had bought in exchange for other merchandise, or simply wishing to purchase what they had in their hands.

As someone who has worked retail during a holiday sale, that exactly describes how I felt during my shifts. Body on automatic, mind somewhere pleasant.

Another true-to-life description is Eilis' take on her daily walk to work:

As she walked along, however, she knew she was getting closer to the real world, which had wider streets and more traffic. Once she arrived at Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn began to feel like a strange place to her, with so many gaps between buildings and so many derelict buildings. And then suddenly, when she arrived on Fulton Street, there would be so many people crowding to cross the street, and in such dense clusters, that on the first morning she thought a fight had broken out or someone was injured and they had gathered to get a good view.

That paragraph perfectly describes what my mornings--and evening--are like here in New York. Crowds of people, jostling to get closer to the street, forced to dodge them left and right... The whole book is like that; he just sucks you in. Now that I'm done with Brooklyn I'm looking forward to getting my hands on Toibin's other books.

Old favorites found

2010-02-17T16:15:00.002-05:00

I have no idea who Ellis Peters is, but I'm beyond grateful that someone--Maxim Jakvbowski--put together a memorial anthology of historic crime in honor of her. Dozens of authors--including my new favorite, Kate Ross--wrote short stories for this anthology. Surprisingly, Ross' story isn't my favorite; perhaps if it had been a Julian Kestrel story, it would have been. Instead, my favorite story is by Marilyn Todd, a British author I fell in love with ten years ago during a semester I spent in London.

Being rather poor--and London being rather expensive--I used to spend a great deal of time in the local library. I spent most of my time in the fiction section, completely enthralled by all of the new authors I "found." One of those authors--in fact the only books I can still remember--was Marilyn Todd, and her Claudia series. I was hooked the instant I started to read them. There were only four stories in the series (I think) at that time, and I read them all. Sadly, I didn't purchase the books before I left. Over the years, I remembered the series, but I forgot who the author was and therefore couldn't find the books here.

But thanks to this anthology--Past Poisons--all that has changed. The NYPL has some of the books from the series in stock and now that I've "found" the author again, I'll start tracking down the other books I missed.

I love it when books and my life come full circle like this.

The Annual & Awesome United Methodist Book Sale

2010-02-17T10:57:00.002-05:00

I missed this last year and was bitterly disappointed. I haven't been to a book sale since...fall of 2008? ACK!

2010-02-16T12:14:00.002-05:00

Ralph McInerny, a scholar of Roman Catholicism who taught at the University of Notre Dame for more than half a century and a prolific novelist whose books included the Father Dowling mystery series, died Jan. 29 in Mishawaka, Ind., near South Bend. He was 80.

I remember the Father Dowling series; I used to watch it on TV. I didn't know they were based on books though.

Once a Spy, by Keith Thomson

2010-02-14T15:36:00.000-05:00

I subscribe to several book newsletters, which I inevitably stop reading and just scan through. I try not to do this, because how am I ever going to find something new to read if I don't read the newsletters, but alas.

Still, every now and then something on the page will catch my eye and I'll stop, scroll back up, and read. In this case, it was a flashing advertisement for an ARC of Once A Spy, the debut novel by Keith Thomson. It looked interesting, so I filled out the request form* and several weeks later, received a copy in the mail.

I'm so glad I did, because this novel was fantastic. Absolutely fantastic.

From the publisher:

Drummond Clark was once a spy of legendary proportions. Now Alzheimer’s disease has taken its toll and he’s just a confused old man who’s wandered away from home, waiting for his son to fetch him.

When Charlie Clark takes a break from his latest losing streak at the track to bring Drummond back to his Brooklyn home, they find it blown sky high—and then bullets start flying in every direction. At first, Charlie thinks his Russian “creditors” are employing aggressive collection tactics. But once Drummond effortlessly hot-wires a car as their escape vehicle, Charlie begins to suspect there’s much more to his father than meets the eye. He soon discovers that Drummond’s unremarkable career as an appliance salesman was actually a clever cover for an elaborate plan to sell would-be terrorists faulty nuclear detonators. Drummond’s intricate knowledge of the “device” is extremely dangerous information to have rattling around in an Alzheimer’s-addled brain. The CIA wants to “contain” him--and so do some other shady characters who send Charlie and Drummond on a wild chase that gives “father and son quality time” a whole new meaning.

From the very beginning of this story, I was hooked. Drummond is fascinating, with his moments of lucidity and the slow revealing of his skills--usually with Charlie looking on completely flabbergasted--contrasted by the effects that Alzheimer's is having on him. He'll hotwire a car, talking to Charlie, and suddenly to him, Charlie is twelve and late for school. Charlie, meanwhile, was less endearing at first, although by the time he's rescued his father from the shelter, I'd started to warm up to him. By the end, when he's actively planning a mission, I've completely warmed up to him.

I was actually a bit disappointed by the ending--since the book doesn't end up resolving itself--but I've gotten over that as I recently (read, today) learned that Thomson is in the process of writing a sequel.

Seriously, this is the best spy duo since Mr. & Mrs. Smith. One completely untrained son. One former spy whose mind is being destroyed by Alzheimer's. Eight million dollars on the table--somewhere--and so many people who want both Charlie and Drummond dead.

How can you doubt a plot like that?

* Yes, this was an ARC, and one I requested. Blah blah disclaimer.

Wanting

2010-02-12T14:15:00.001-05:00

Postcards from Penguin

Why is everything I want always coming out later?

August 24, 2010, can't come soon enough

2010-02-11T12:35:00.004-05:00

Why, you ask?

Because that's when Mockingjay, the third book in the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins comes out!

See the cover here.

Updates

2010-02-09T09:27:00.002-05:00

Going to have to tweak that military reading list, again: A Well-Written War, Told in the First Person
Pricing war on e-books continued: Publishers Win a Bout in E-Book Price Fight
Comics are making a comeback, thanks to YA books: A World of Words Reinvented in Pictures

I triumphed at the NYPL last night when I found the book I was looking for. It had been horribly misshelved--no where near where it was supposed to be. But I was clever, I persevered, and I unwilling to leave without my book!
I'm no where near reading fourteen books this month. I think I've read two.
2666 is one of the books I'm reading (subway book) and I have no idea what it's about. I kind of want to look it up on Amazon--for the synopsis--but I'm worried that will just confuse me more. Anyone read it?
Apparently we're supposed to get between twelve and eighteen inches of snow tonight.
I am woefully behind on book reviews. WOEFULLY BEHIND.

2010 update

2010-02-02T09:09:00.004-05:00

Taking a leaf from Sassymonkey and her idea to post monthly on her reading goals...

1. Read 178 books. I read 8 books in January, 6 shy of my goal of 14 per month*. Only 170 to go!

2. I read 1 military nonfiction book and started a second.

Sadly, I did not do half of the posting I told myself I would do, despite bookmarking interesting articles and links. I'm also way behind on my reviews.

*Well, there will be some months where I need to read 15 books a month. I'll figure that out later.

I may have to tweak my reading list

2010-01-14T13:10:00.002-05:00

From J. Ford Huffman: The best military books of the decade.

via The Best Defense

Two takes on war

2010-01-11T20:24:00.005-05:00

First two books of 2010: a nonfiction view of life in the US Army--Love My Rifle More Than You by Kayla Williams--and a fictional view on the last few moments of John Kipling's life--Kipling's Choice by Geert Spillebeen.

Love My Rifle More Than You ... I've been trying to write this review for a couple of hours now, but it's coming out like crap. Saying I liked it feels wrong, and I don't know that you can like a book like this.

It's not a likable book. It's a demanding book. It's a hard book. It's a challenging book. It dares you to acknowledge things, issues, problems and then deal with them. It wasn't an easy book. Still, I think I liked it.

From the prologue:

A woman soldier has to toughen herself up. Not just for the enemy, for battle, or for her death. I mean toughen herself up to spend months awash in a sea of nervy, hyped-up guys who, when they're not thinking about getting killed, are thinking about getting laid. Their eyes on you all the time, your breasts, your ass--like there is nothing else to watch, no sun, no river, no desert, no mortars at night.

And her story just runs from there.

My back went up a few times, not because of Kayla's actions--OK, sometimes her actions, but more the situations she found herself in while in Iraq. I couldn't help but picture myself in those situations, trying to understand how I would have dealt with them. I honestly don't know what I would have done.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I linked to Colleen's review of Kipling's Choice above because her review was the reason I read this book. I really don't know much about Rudyard Kipling--I watched The Jungle Book cartoon, but that's about it--but a few months ago I happened upon a line from one of his poems and I decided it was time to read more.

As I understand, Rudyard Kipling desperately wanted to serve in the Navy, but couldn't because of his horrible eyesight. Despite all of his future successes, this failure would haunt him throughout his life. His son, John, had the same problems with his eyes, but at this point Rudyard had enough clout to get his son into the Irish Guards as a second lieutenant. Untried, untrained, and just days after his eighteenth birthday, John dies in a ditch somewhere, body destroyed by poison gas and mortar, his family left without word of his fate.

Kipling's Choice moves from the moments leading up to John's death to the days, weeks, months, and even years that lead him to that point. It's skillfully done, with John flashing back and forth, moving from moments spent with Daddo to letters home to tearing around the country side to leading him men into battle to lying flat on his back, bleeding, to smiling at a pretty girl, to letters home, to his days at school hunting ghosts to letters from his father.

The story's written incredibly well, in my opinion, both detailed, well-researched, and interesting. I've gone from knowing very little about Rudyard Kipling and his family to knowing a bit more and eager to read more.

Interview with Scott Stein, author of "Mean Martin Manning"

2010-01-06T09:00:00.001-05:00

A few months ago, I read a novel called Mean Martin Manning, the tale of a man who just wanted to be left alone--dammit--to eat his cheese and salami and to collect his ceramic frogs. Scott Stein, the author of that very funny, satirical novel, agreed to answer a few questions for me here.

Bibleeohfile: What gave you the idea to write this novel?

SS: I guess the initial idea was to jab at the “blank slate” view that some have of human nature and behavior—that it’s infinitely malleable, if only we have the right environment or program to improve people. I address the development of the novel in some detail here.

What do you think of what’s currently going on with some restaurants being required to post caloric information, the “war on obesity,” and the recent news that Mayor Bloomberg is trying to get smoking in New York City’s public parks outlawed? Were you foreshadowing with Mean Martin Manning, or just a coincidence?

SS: I wasn’t thinking specifically of the war on obesity, or Bloomberg. I wasn’t trying to foreshadow a particular policy direction. But it isn’t just a coincidence, either. As a writer of satire, I pay attention to the news, to emerging attitudes, and Mean Martin Manning, exaggerated though it is, was me addressing and making sense of what I saw happening: The redefining of individual behavior and personal choices as public concerns, and what enables a society to go in this direction, and what a toll this takes on the individual. I have addressed some of the specific policies you mention and current developments on my blog.

How did you come up with your main characters? Are there pieces of your personality in Martin? Is Alice based on anyone you know?

SS: Neither character is based on a real person. I don’t think I am much like Martin. We have some things in common. I don’t like being told what to do. I can be stubborn. I see absurdity.

I came up with Martin through writing. Without any ideas or premises in mind, I wrote an initial paragraph:

His mother would sing to her baby in his crib with the voice of an angel. But when the angel sang Martin wept, because Martin was a mean baby. Some might say that babies are neither mean nor nice, that babies simply are—like moldable clay or blank slates. But Martin was mean all right. A mean baby. Later, he was a mean boy, still later, a mean adult, and his meanness, like a garden well tended, grew with age. He was, at 83 years, meaner than in his youth, not the result of a hard childhood or bitterness at old age, but the predictable culmination of a life steeped in cruelty and uncaring.

That paragraph didn’t end up going anywhere – I shifted to first-person and the voice and tone changed dramatically. But I was just playing with words and sentences and got that paragraph, which set up the basic premise of his character. An old, mean guy. He became a bit younger in the actual book. And it’s debatable whether he’s really all that mean. But the opening paragraph got me started, anyway.

Some time later, a hint of a plot developed. Not only was he mean, but he was isolated. He hadn’t left his apartment in a long time. Working out why he was in his apartment, and what he did there, led to details about his character.

Pitney began as a plot device. Martin had to leave his isolation for the plot to develop. “What would get him to leave?” became “Who would get him to leave?” And Pitney was born and became his foil. She took on a life of her own. She was fun to write. Her developing character helped clarify to me that the book was a satire of a certain kind.

To me, some of the funniest parts of your novel were the scenes where you describe how Martin was going to get his revenge on Alice, Henry the dog man, the court, and then on the world. Did you have a favorite part?

SS: I loved writing that whole fourth part. It was fun to invent ways, relevant, appropriate ways, for him to go after those who’d wronged him. It was fast writing. I enjoyed letting Martin Manning loose and watching him do his thing.

Your bio says that you teach writing fiction, writing humor and comedy, creative writing, and freshman writing at Drexel University; do you find yourself drawing on things from your courses for your writing?

SS: I don’t draw on my courses for my writing.

Many writers describe themselves as "character" or "plot" writers. Which are you? What do you find to be the hardest part of writing?

SS: Fiction writing is all hard. Until it’s easy. Getting started, finding the right voice and pace, finding the approach that works for that book, that’s very hard for me. Once I’ve found that, it’s still intense, draining, but it’s fun, and easy in that it feels right and moves quickly.

I am a character and plot writer. I can’t separate them. For me, the character dictates the plot very, very early on. Who is the character, what would challenge him? That is the beginning of plot. Then the plot goes forward and shapes the character. How he responds to the challenges of the plot is what makes him the character he is. Character and plot feed off of each other.

What are your goals for the future? Do you have other ideas for novels that you'd like to write or do you plan to focus more on your online magazine, When Falls the Coliseum: a journal of American culture (or lack thereof)? (Personally, I hope you're writing another novel featuring Martin campaigning for president.)

SS: I am working on a new novel. I can’t say much about it except that I’ve got a long way to go. I plan to continue to work on When Falls the Coliseum. No sequel for Mean Martin Manning is in the works. If there were to be one, I don’t see Martin as a willing candidate for office.

As a reader, what do you enjoy reading? Any favorite authors?

SS: I read a bit of everything—history, biography, fiction, philosophy, and science. I don’t have a favorite author.

Do you read your reviews, and if so, what's the oddest one you've ever received.

SS: I do read the reviews. In publishing these days especially, authors have to be willing to do their own self-promotion. So reading reviews and trying to get press attention for your books is a part of the process that I participate in. I don’t know if I’ve had odd reviews. I can think of one where the reviewer didn’t get the book, didn’t appear to have read carefully, but I’ve been lucky. Most of my reviews were written by people who clearly read and got the books, and thought about them. Both the Philadelphia City Paper and The American Spectator reviews made the connections to the larger issues Mean Martin Manning addresses while still appreciating the humor and fun of the novel.

More of Scott's writings can be found online at his site, When Falls the Coliseum. His book, Mean Martin Manning, can be purchased online through his publisher, ENC Press.

Book 1 of 178, done

2010-01-05T07:38:00.003-05:00

Finished Love My Rifle More Than You by Kayla Williams on the subway yesterday. Actual review to come, but I'll say quickly that I liked it. It was a different take on the military and the war, with the additional trials and tribulations of being a female in the military.

One year ago

2010-01-04T11:02:00.000-05:00

...I broke down my reading for 2008. I'd read 168 books that year and my goal was to add ten books to that number in 2009.

I read sixty-eight books in 2009. Sixty-eight books. I can't even begin to wrap my head around this small, pitifully tiny number. Sixty-eight books.

Do you think I'll jinx myself (again) if I say I'm going to read 178 books in 2010?

_____________________________________________________________

Sassymonkey just posted her 2010 reading goals, which got me thinking about my own. I've already sworn off reading challenges this year, have already stated my desire to read more military nonfiction, need to finish reading the books I started last year (like Mere Christianity and Bleak House--actually, Bleak House should be started from the beginning, if we're being honest, it's been that long.), need to read 2666 (my roommate gave the set to me eleven months ago and I haven't started it), and I too should spend some time reading the books on my shelves.

That's good, right? I should be able to hit 178 books. That's only ... 14.8 books per month ... 3.7 books per week ... .5 books a day...

A look ahead to 2010

2009-12-30T20:46:00.005-05:00

Things you can anticipate from me in 2010:

Saying 20-10. Not 2000 & 10, but 20-10. Anyone else doing this?
Military nonfiction. Yup, you read that right. Lately, it seems that all I want to read about is the military. And not even military fiction; I burned through that genre when I was a teenager and I haven't looked back.* No, instead it's memoirs about serving, or following a platoon through boot camp, or a historical view on battles throughout history. I've come up with a list longer than you'd think of books I want to read on military conflicts, women serving throughout history, and--God forbid--politics. (And I despise politics.)

As it stands now, my reading list:

One Bullet Away--reread (Finished this one last week)
Love My Rifle More Than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army--finished 1/4/10
Generation Kill--reread
Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts: The American Military in the Air, at Sea, and on the Ground
Imperial Grunts: On the Ground with the American Military, from Mongolia to the Philippines to Iraq and
Beyond House to House
First to Fight: An Inside View of the U.S. Marine Corps
American Spartans
AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes from Military Service -- and How It Hurts Our Country
and finally, Fiasco

A complete avoidance of reading challenges. Seriously, I'm swearing off of them. (Note the irony in this statement when compared to the above point.)
A possible move. I'm becoming... tired of Blogger. Nothing wrong with it, but I'm kind of feeling like a change might possibly be in order. We'll see.
More posting. I'm putting myself on a schedule.

*I wish I could remember that book. It was about a platoon, two platoons, in Vietnam, the Double Deuces, or Double Aces, and the nurses at the camp. A guy died, I think his name was Ace, and Susan/Sue--one of the nurses--married the dead guy's friend, who was a the head of one of the platoons. And there a was a nurse named Jane who was sleeping with someone. If I recall, there was a sequel/second book too. Ugh.This is going to bug me now. If anyone wants to be, I don't know, psychic and tell me what book this was, my brain would really appreciate it.

Holiday Spirit

2009-12-19T13:34:00.002-05:00

Thank you, Penguin Books, for the four books the FedEx man just delivered to me! How did you know that was all I wanted for Christmas?

ETA: And thank you for the two more that arrived today!

Saddest thing I've read all day

2009-12-17T11:24:00.000-05:00

With a population of nearly a quarter-million people, Laredo, Texas, could soon be the largest in the nation without a single bookseller.

Yes, I'm still here

2009-12-13T20:05:00.001-05:00

Promise. Things are just very, very busy for me right now, so I'm taking a semi-hiatus. Posting--regular posting--to resume in the new year.

Winner, what I am

2009-11-30T21:29:00.002-05:00

With hours to go, I clocked in at 50,044.

Such horrible prose, such a wandering plot.

Such a pretty, pretty picture.

Things that shouldn't surprise me, but do:

2009-11-19T09:14:00.000-05:00

Philip Pullman, the author of His Dark Materials, has written his own
version of the New Testament in which the story of Jesus is given a
'different ending'

More than 1,000 people queued for up to 24 hours to have their books
signed on the first stop of Sarah Palin's tour to promote her new book

Because NaNo is consuming all of my time

2009-11-12T21:38:00.002-05:00

Links!

Orphaned books: the sad casualty of publishing layoffs

Connecting children worldwide, through books

Animal noir: and you thought people could be dangerous

Wistful

2009-11-10T15:34:00.002-05:00

Every month Colleen posts another list of books at Bookslut for teens and every month I wish (again) for more free time so I could just read them already.

So it's November

2009-11-10T07:38:00.002-05:00

And I think that no matter how much I want to post fun, interesting things, it's not going to happen this month.

I literally don't have enough hours in the day.

So instead: Teaser Tuesday

From The Light in High Places by Joe Hutto, page 89:

At Kathy's, a biologist can pull a plastic container from her refrigerator, casually sit down at the dinning room table, and spend two hours sorting through a hundred ziplock bags filled with fecal samples from bighorn sheep, mountain lions, and bears, and she will never bat an eye. "Make sure my cats don't get into that."

I know, a nonfiction book about biologists in Wyoming studying the Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep; so not my usual taste. But I'm branching out, or trying to anyway.

Disclaimer: No one asked me to read and review. And it's my book.

Reviews

2009-11-03T22:08:00.004-05:00

Dear Mr. Unabomber by Ray Cavanaugh wasn't quite what I expected it to be, but in some ways I think that made it better.

From the publisher's website:

In the best classical tradition, this epistolary novel strives to make sense of the world in which the letter-writer finds himself, alone and misunderstood by everyone.

Whom is a young man to call upon to share his yearning for a simpler, more natural life? The narrator appeals to the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, whose deranged Santa Claus image transfixed him as a boy and whose terminal anti-tech vendetta now captivates him in these ever-more-simulated days.

Having procured the Unabomber’s inmate address from the Internet, the narrator uncaps his pen and starts writing letters. Lots of them. Letters about college that feels like glorified obedience training; about the prospect of mediocre careerism sitting on his head like an obese girlfriend; about relationships guided by fashion-magazine tips; about the conservation land where he puffed his first joint being paved over for luxury housing; about his best friend gradually opting for more cyber-chat and less real-life interaction . . .

With humor, self-deprecation, and irony that are only intensified by despair, Dear Mr. Unabomber explores the barrenness and lavish conformity running ghostlike in circles of the MySpace hell. When you have no one else to turn to, Ted Kaczynski must become your BFF.

Although each letter starts off by "talking" with Kaczynski about how he can relate to his end goal, or reminiscing about how long it's been since he--Kaczynski--has touched a bomb (fourteen years), each chapter quickly moves from there to a whole range of subjects, including imagined IM conversations between Paris Hilton and Kaczynski, musings about what night classes are the easiest, failed attempts to find someone via Match.com, the letter writer's attempts at dating, and a whole host of other wild tangents. Choosing the Unabomber because he too yearns for a simpler, easier way of life (note: he really doesn't), he relates his adventures, missteps, and frustrations, seeing in himself someone who can relate to Kaczynski... (although he has no plans to do anything quite so drastic.)

Despite my misgivings about his character--and I mean the character's character, not Cavanaugh's creation--I liked him. He pointed out flaws that are readily apparent in modern society, although he couldn't seem to spot them in himself. He's lost, confused, but so sure he's on the right path--and that he's the only person who is. How can you not enjoy a character like that?

Content aside, it's a thought-provoking book about what happens when someone who can't relate to the modern world latches on to someone else who can't--or won't--relate. I have to say that I'm not quite sure where the letter writer is going at the end of the book, having graduated college but feeling like he failed anyway; it's got one of those ambiguous endings that get me thinking.

But then I sign onto Twitter. Things always become clearer then.

Disclaimer: I had to look up "epistolary."

Challenges

2009-10-29T21:06:00.002-04:00

I know it's still 2009, but I've started to ponder 2010. Specifically, book challenges in 2010.

I think I might not do any.

It's scary, saying that, because I love book challenges. I love reading something new, something in a genre I don't normally read, something I've never heard of before... but I never seem to complete them. Looking at my sideboard, I can see that I have finished one challenge, and only one. I didn't even start the challenge I made for myself!

So yeah, I'm thinking next year, I'm not going to do any reading challenges. I'll just track what I read and go from there.

So much to write about

2009-10-27T14:16:00.004-04:00

Like my thoughts on Dear Mr Unabomber, The Return, and Catching Fire, but my time is not my own.

And even if it was, I'm still fuming over this recent interview with Anne Rice.

It's like fate knew I was going to write something similar for NaNo.

Speaking of, I'm doing NaNo again; cheer me on?

Free book

2009-10-24T07:48:00.003-04:00

Remember when I raved over The Alphabet Challenge by Olga Gardner Galvin? A future U.S., where things like chocolate and salt were outlawed, where the needs of the few could completely outweigh the needs of the many? A place where it was perfectly OK to drive without a license or insurance?

Well I just found out the the publisher is giving away 100 free e-copies via LibraryThing. Have an account there? Curious what a future without salt looks like?

I'd love to hear what you thought of The Alphabet Challenge.

2009-10-21T18:42:00.003-04:00

This actually appeals to me, even though I know it's a horrible idea. There's no guarantee that anything uploaded to Wikipedia is correct and there have been several recent issues with the founders blocking people because they don't like what they have to say, but for some reason I kind of want to do this.

The founder of online encyclopedia Wikipedia said on Wednesday he had entered into a partnership with computer company Hewlett Packard that will allow users to create and print magazines.

Following on this trend, there is an interesting article at Bookslut today, which says that we are living in an era where anyone can--and does--publish, either in the more traditional forms or via social networking sites.

Also at Bookslut today, a link to a BBC article. It seems the Spanish government is preparing to exhume a mass grave where it's believed that the body of Federico García Lorca, poet, might be located. While normally this would not be something I'd jump on, one of the main characters in The Return is a fan of Lorca's work; there is a scene in the book where she goes on a tour of his home. I'd never heard of Lorca before, but based on what Hislop wrote, I think I'll have to add some of his poetry to my reading list.

From Bookshelves of Doom, Gentlemen by Michael Northrop; sounds too good to pass up.

New authors, old series

2009-10-20T09:07:00.007-04:00

So, first it was Sebastian Faulks, who wrote Devil May Care, a new book in Ian Fleming's James Bond series. Now we have Eoin Colfer, who was tapped to write the sixth book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.

What series and what author do you think will be next?

ETA:Sassymonkey wrote "[T]here's a new Winnie The Pooh book too (clearly not written by Milne)," which for some reason reminded me of all the Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice continuations (I won't read them, no matter how good you tell me they are).

ETA 2: Thank you Tor/Forge, for reminding me about The Gathering Storm, which has Brandon Sanderson finishing/completing Robert Jordan’s Book 12 in the Wheel of Time series.

ETA 3: Looks like I'm not the only person musing on this subject these days. Bookninja put up a post on this subject as well (found via Books, Inq.), which linked to a recent article written by the Washington Post.

Tuesday Teaser Times Two

2009-10-20T08:40:00.001-04:00

Hee, I love alliteration!

The Return by Victoria Hislop. I've only just started this, so my random page isn't going to be super random (I don't want to spoil myself!)

Page 49:

Purposefully, she strode toward the sunniest table and sat down. She hastily scribbled the postcard to her father and then began to read her guidebook. It seemed that the city had much more to offer than the famed Alhambra and its gardens.

Dear Mr Unabomber by Ray Cavanaugh. Again, a book I've just started reading, so I think this teaser will also be from the first third of the book.

Page 44:

I tried to console her, but then it dawned on me that I was supposed to be angry. I was actually getting a bit irritated by her histrionics. I went to her refrigerator and began helping myself to some of her food. There was a package of brownies I knew she liked, and I ate them all.

Librarians + Teamsters = Unionized Library?

2009-10-19T19:13:00.002-04:00

Telling her mother that she wanted to come to the aid of a library under attack, 11-year-old Sydney Sabbagha stood at the podium before the Oak Brook village board.

Mr. Xions, you totally have my vote. Seriously. Right after I jump off that cliff.

Sick, sick, sick

2009-10-19T12:11:00.001-04:00

Sick, sick, sick...

From over at A Work in Progress, Danielle is recommending her recent read, “We Were Young and At War,” which looks very good. I’m adding that to my library queue.

I finished my reread of “Good Omens” and I have to say that it was funnier the second time around. That dry, British humor gets me every time.

I’ve started reading two new books, “The Return” by Victoria Hislop—found this one on a newsletter I subscribe to—and “Dear Mr. Unabomber” by Ray Cavanaugh. I’ll be posting reviews this week, and snippets tomorrow!

I think I’m trying to cram everything I want to read—and can get my hands on—into October, because I know once November starts, I’m not going to have any free time left, not with NaNoWriMo taking up all my non-work and non-sleep time. Oh, the insanity that is NaNoWriMo.

I can’t wait!

Thoughts on the FTC

2009-10-16T15:17:00.004-04:00

I've been reading and rereading other people's posts on the announcement from the FTC regarding book bloggers and endorsements. There have a lot of thoughtful, detailed posts on the subject, ranging from bloggers who have said they will no longer review books received from publishers to those who say they already have a disclaimer on their site to the ones who think the whole thing is a joke and there is no way the FTC can actually enforce this ruling.

I'm not 100% sure what I think.

One the one hand, I do think that acknowledging where I got a book is fair. I'm fairly confident that I do that now with any ARCs I receive, although I suppose that I'll need to be extra sure going forward. As it stands, most of the books I read now are from the library (I read about a book on another blogger's site* or I saw it at B&N but didn't want to pay for it**). Do I have to acknowledge where I get books that aren't ARCs? Won them in a giveaway? Received as a gift? Borrowed from someplace other than the library?

And what about those of us who have no ads on our site? Or don't link the book to Amazon, etc.?
And also, an ARC--by nature--has no value, so how exactly am I supposed to value it? And I don't think anyone has touched on electronic copies of texts...

There's also the fact that blogging, even about books, is a hobby for a lot of people; we want to talk about books that we like with other people, who might also like the same books we like, that like a different book, or with people who just like books. It's not a paying job for us.

Really, I guess I'm left with more questions. I don't understand how the FTC will track this (requiring publishers to submit a list of all the people they've sent books to seems ridiculous and impractical) and I don't get how I--or any other non-paid book blogger--can be required to send back a book, especially when in some cases we haven't asked for it.

I just don't get it.

*I've actually been meaning to start this, because I always forget where I find books. But if I do that, am I endorsing someone else's endorsement?

**I know that they are worth it, but books are expensive! I have a really hard time justifying to myself the cost when I could spend that $22.95 on food for a week.

Ill, ill, ill

2009-10-14T22:50:00.002-04:00

And for this, someone must pay. I'm thinking... biblically.

Since my brain has been nothing but cotton wool for days now, bullets!

National Book Foundation has released the finalists for the 2009 award.
I read the last three books in the Sookie Stackhouse series over the weekend while on cold medicine.
Summers at Castle Auburn is as good around the eighth time as it was the sixith.
The FTC is not going away, although they are, because we bloggers are responsible people. (Thanks for the tip, Mr. Wilson.)
NaNo is getting closer and closer and I'm so not ready to write anything worth writing right now. (Stupid cold.)
Neil Gaiman is a very smart man: "When I was a child, adults would tell me not to make things up, warning me of what would happen if I did. As far as I can tell so far, it seems to involve lots of foreign travel and not having to get up too early in the morning. (From Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions)
Regarding above, I need new career goals. I miss sleeping in.

Picked up

2009-10-08T07:51:00.002-04:00

I swung by the library on Tuesday to return a few items and as I was leaving, spotted an old favorite on a shelf, Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn. It's has been a delightful read this time around--my sixth or seventh--and I enjoy it all the more for the slow way that Shinn gives us pieces of the overall plot.

I may read it again this weekend.

Sadly, I haven't read any of this year's Booker nominations

2009-10-07T08:33:00.001-04:00

"Being made to read 132 novels in four months may be some people’s idea of a cruel and unusual punishment..."

I think I'm in a slump

2009-10-06T08:25:00.000-04:00

Because nothing sounds good to me right now.

Hmm. Anyone have any recommendations?

What do you do with your books?

2009-10-05T20:08:00.003-04:00

This morning, the Federal Trade Commission announced that its Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials would be revised in relation to bloggers. The new guidelines (PDF) specified that bloggers making any representation of a product must disclose the material connections they (the presumed endorsers) share with the advertisers. What this means is that, under the new guidelines, a blogger’s positive review of a product may qualify as an “endorsement” and that keeping a product after a review may qualify as “compensation.”

These guidelines, which will be effective as of December 1, 2009, require all bloggers to disclose any tangible connections.

There's more at here at EdRants, including an interview with the FTC's Richard Cleland.

The part that really struck me was where Cleland said that book bloggers would have to send the books back, because keeping them was a form of compensation.

Yeah, that's going to happen. I can see it now.

Banned Book Week

2009-10-01T07:39:00.003-04:00

Every year, I tell myself I'm going to read the ALA's top ten banned or challenged books... and every year I don't. Well, that isn't exactly true. I've read The Kite Runner and the Dark Materials trilogy and liked them all.

Maybe going forward I'll just choose, at random, books from the list of the top 100 challenged or banned books.

Also, a reply to a would-be book banner by someone much more eloquent--and patience--than I am: Jamie at MYLIBBOG

Teaser Tuesday

2009-09-29T07:31:00.000-04:00

From "A Field Guide to the Western Birds" by Wallace Stegner, page 345.

Ruth gives me an absolutely expressionless, pleasant look in which I read some future unpleasantness, but what the hell, shall a man keep quiet while his lifework is trampled on?

"Would you admit," says Kaminski with his tight dogfish smile, "that an agent without an artist is a vine without an oak?"

As much as I really want to enjoy this collection of stories, I'm having a hard time getting into them. Wallace Stegner's style of writing is completely different from what I'm used to reading and it's causing me to read and reread these stories.

Also, he had one with really graphic descriptions of a boy killing gophers. I couldn't finish that one.

Review of the weekend's reading

2009-09-27T16:06:00.003-04:00

I finished two books over the weekend, Jacqueline Winspear's Among the Mad and Kate Ross's Cut to the Quick. I've been reading Among the Mad while riding the subway to and from my jobs, while Cut to the Quick has been my "before bed" book.

The fifth book in the Maisie Dobbs series, Among the Mad find Maisie and her apprentice Billy on Christmas Eve, 1931, heading out the door to deliver reports before going their separate ways for the upcoming holiday. Spotting a man who appears to be begging, both Maisie and Billy head over to give the man some money when Maisie has a feeling* and urges Billy to stay back as she moves closer. She isn't fast enough though, to stop the man from killing himself and injuring several others, including Maisie herself.

It turns out that the man's suicide is only the beginning, as there is a vast plot boiling away under the veneer of society and Maisie finds herself chasing after a very smart, dangerous man. One who plans to bring the city to its knees, if necessary.

After my disappointment with the last Maisie Dobbs novel, I was rather pleased to find that I enjoyed this one, although not as much I enjoyed the first three novels in the series. Maisie finds herself seconded to Special Forces, working with her maybe at one time, would have been suitor Detective Inspector Stanton, and working for the maverick Detective Chief Superintendent MacFarlane, head of Special Branch.**

It was a solidly plotted novel, with pieces of the story coming from all corners. Maisie does her investigations her usual way, following her intuition where it leads her (mental institutes, secret government buildings, to the country side and dank warrens where the poor, the displaced, and the forgotten live) and figures out the who's and why's behind the mad man's plot. She also pieces a bit more of herself back together, although the inclusion of her best friend Priscilla feels like a forced move to let Maisie do a bit of self-reflexion.

All in all, a good read for the subway commute.

I can't remember on which blog I read about Cut to the Quick, but whoever wrote about it sold me on it in an instant. A London dandy who investigates crime? Sold.

After getting in over his head at a gambling hall, Hugh Fontclair finds himself rescued by Julian Kestrel, an English dandy. Although he only saved Hugh on a whim, Hugh sees it as something more and invites Julian to be the best man at his upcoming wedding. Figuring it would be a good way to save money--always tight--and curious as to why he was picked, Julian agrees and sets off for the Fontclair's country estate, Bellegarde. Julian gets more than he expected on this trip, though, as it seems Hugh and his family are being blackmailed into the marriage, although no one is willing to say why. Not only that, but the dead woman found one afternoon in Julian's locked bedroom makes things especially interesting.

After proving that there is no possible way he could have killed the unknown woman, Julian is forced to prove his manservant's innocence; made slightly more difficult considering that Dipper is a former pickpocket. Long buried secrets are uncovered at every turn, as Julian leaves no stone unturned in his search for the truth. His search takes him through the past of everyone present at Bellegarde, from Mr. Craddock and Lady Tarleton bitter hatred for one another, to Colonel Fontclair's war record, to Guy, Hugh's cousin, and his fondness for the drink.

I really enjoyed Cut to the Quick, although I had to force myself to read very slowly so that I could savor each word. Ross had a very detailed way of writing, drawing attention to the little things that made the story feel more real. I also enjoyed how the story wasn't just from Julian's point of view, but from the other characters as well; it fleshed out the story in a way that would have been impossible from just one person's point of view. From Maud Craddock, the bride being forced into a marriage to a man she's come to love, to Hugh Fontclair, who is willing to fall on the proverbial sword to save the family's name, to Dipper, sent out on a fact-finding mission by Julian, each additional point of view was unique and enjoyable.

As much as I enjoyed Julian and the way he solved the murder (and subsequent mysteries), I have to say that my favorite character was Phillipa, the eleven year old sister of Hugh. She's a minor character in all of this, but an integral one.

Philippa had a poor opinion of authority and did not submit to it very well. When she was forbidden to do something she had set her heart on, she thought the prohibition over carefully, and if she decided it was unfair or unnecessary, she disobeyed it. Which was why, when her governess told her she could not meet Mr. Kestrel until tomorrow, she decided to slip away from the schoolroom and have a peek at him that evening.

and also,

"I'm sorry you're leaving," said Philippa. "I haven't half finished telling you things."
"It might be just as well to save something for the next time we meet," Julian pointed out.
"But that won't be for a long time, will it? Mama and Papa won't want to go to town, after everything that's happened, and I don't suppose you'll come to visit us here again."
"That might be awkward," he admitted. "At least for the time being."
"I hoped you'd come often, till you were quite one of the family. And then, when I was old enough, you might like to marry me. I shall have money, you know, and I am a Fontclair."
"If I were you, I should wait for a husband who cared for something besides my pocketbook and my pedigree."

and then, after assuring Philippa that it was better to be thought of as clever and interesting, instead of just merely pretty,

"No," she said slowly. "You are supposed to know about these things." She pondered. "I shall be eighteen in seven years. I suppose you'll have forgot all about me by then."
"It's you who'll have forgot about me," he said lightly.
"Oh, no," Philippa shook her head. "I have a very long memory."

How can you not love a character like that? She's so self-assured and knowing, as only an eleven year old girl can be. Most of the characters were great, and I look forward to seeing some of them in future books.

(Sadly, there are only three more and a short story, as the author died several years ago.)

Notes:

*I really wanted to type "one of her" feelings, but I feel like that would be unfair.

**I've got odds on Maisie finding herself seeing one of these men in the next book; better money on MacFarlane.

TGIF!

2009-09-25T07:35:00.002-04:00

Finished the most recent Maisie Dobbs book, Among the Mad, last night. I was hesitant to read it because I disliked the last one so much, but I was quite pleased with the latest story. I'll post a review this weekend.

Only about halfway through Cut to the Quick. I didn't get any reading done last night and it's killing me, having to wait to find out who those people were talking in the snippet I put up! I plan to finish the book this weekend.

I'm taking Collected Stories by Wallace Stegner as my new subway book. I have no idea who this man was, but I remember reading an article about his death in the NYT and decided check out some of his stuff. This collection looks quite promising.

Teaser Tuesday

2009-09-22T11:02:00.000-04:00

Gacked from Marg, of Reading Adventures.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Oh, I shouldn't be doing this, because now I want to read to the section I'm randomly opening too, but...

Cut to the Quick, by Kate Ross, page 211:

"It wasn't Mr. Craddock who told me. It was someone who overheard your conversation with him."

"No!" She flung herself at him, all but tore the lapels off his coat. "Who overheard us? What have you found out?"

And I'm only on page 47!

Labor Day by Joyce Maynard

2009-09-21T21:19:00.003-04:00

My roommate and I don't have exactly the same taste; I love science fiction, she dislikes that genre. She wants something long to read on the subway, I want to read something entertaining enough to make me forget I'm on the subway. I like fantasy, she likes reality. Sometimes I think the only thing we have in common--in regards to our reading preferences--is that we like quality.

So, when she handed me Labor Day, by Joyce Maynard, and told me she thought I'd like it, I was a little bit sceptical.

I'm publicly apologizing for doubting you, Nee. I loved Labor Day.

From Amazon:

With the end of summer closing in and a steamy Labor Day weekend looming in the town of Holton Mills, New Hampshire, thirteen-year-old Henry—lonely, friendless, not too good at sports—spends most of his time watching television, reading, and daydreaming about the soft skin and budding bodies of his female classmates. For company Henry has his long-divorced mother, Adele—a onetime dancer whose summer project was to teach him how to foxtrot; his hamster, Joe; and awkward Saturday-night outings to Friendly's with his estranged father and new stepfamily. As much as he tries, Henry knows that even with his jokes and his "Husband for a Day" coupon, he still can't make his emotionally fragile mother happy. Adele has a secret that makes it hard for her to leave their house, and seems to possess an irreparably broken heart.
But all that changes on the Thursday before Labor Day, when a mysterious bleeding man named Frank approaches Henry and asks for a hand. Over the next five days, Henry will learn some of life's most valuable lessons: how to throw a baseball, the secret to perfect piecrust, the breathless pain of jealousy, the power of betrayal, and the importance of putting others—especially those we love—above ourselves. And the knowledge that real love is worth waiting for.

When I started reading, I wasn't all that impressed. The story moves slowly, introducing us to Henry and his mother, but once I got into the story, I quickly became hooked. Adele, Henry's mother, has become a shut-in after too many disappointments; now she sells vitamins over the phone, teaching her son the fox trot, herself the cello, and explaining about sex and music and the truth about life while serving microwaved fish and chips.

"You never knew how my mother was going to react to things. There could be some guy going door-to-door with religious pamphlets, and she'd yell at him to go away, but other times I'd come home from school and there'd be this person sitting on our couch having coffee with her."

Then, there's Frank, who Henry first meets while looking over the magazines. Thirteen and curious, Henry really wants to open the Playboy, but settles for a book on puzzles instead. The man standing next to him strikes up a conversation.

"I fell out a window. He said it the way a person would if all that happened to him was he got a mosquito bite. Maybe this was why, at the time, this didn't seem like such an odd remark. Or maybe it was that everything seemed so odd back the, this comment in particular didn't stand out."

Everything moves very slowly in this story, with flashbacks to the time when Henry's father left them, to when Adele was able to interact with the outside world, intermixed with Henry's now. Frank and his mother connect on a level that leaves Henry both yearning and angry. For so long, Henry was his mother's world, but Frank comes into their lives one long Labor Day weekend and suddenly it's as though he's always been there and it's just the three of them in this perfect world.

And it would be perfect, if Frank hadn't been an escaped convict. The knowledge that the police are looking for him hangs over the three of them silently, softly coloring their decisions.

It's not until Henry meets Eleanor, though, that things really start to go pear-shaped. Feeling left out by his mother and Frank, Henry is looking for anyone to connect with. Sent to the library to do research, Henry spots a girl he's never seen before.

"I asked the girl if she went to school around here.

I didn't before, but I just moved here, she said. I'm supposed to try out living with my dad this year. The official reason is I have an eating disorder and they're hoping a new school environment will help, but really I think my mom just wanted to get rid of me so she can fool around with her boyfriend without me getting in the way."

You know, reading the story, that it can't end happily... except that in a way, it does. It didn't end at all the way I thought--and feared that it would--but it was a good, plausible, satisfying ending. Not the fairy tale ending, but a real one, with life and its truths echoing throughout Henry's life.

The Alphabet Challenge by Olga Gardner Galvin

2009-09-15T09:00:00.000-04:00

I've spent the past week reading The Alphabet Challenge by Olga Gardner Galvin and found it completely brilliant. From the publisher's website:

Set several decades in the future, the nearly unrecognizable Manhattan is made kinder and gentler by PeopleCare, an umbrella organization of myriad victims’ rights groups whose members work their fingers to the bone to make caring, compassion, and lowest-common-denominator equality a federal law, now that they have already fought for and won their campaigns for federal prohibition on smoking and obesity, among other unhealthy things.

Enter entrepreneur Howell Langston Toland, who has learned absolutely nothing in the seven years he’d spent in jail for failure to recycle empty bottles. To cash in on the prevailing zeitgeist, he creates a new category of victimization, which encompasses the broadest audience yet. Threatened by the brazen invasion of its turf and the sudden popularity of the new cause, PeopleCare mounts a counterattack against the upstart. Toland, meanwhile, succumbs to the more natural for him entrepreneurial mode of thinking, urging his annoying followers to become self-reliant so that he may cut them loose.

Vicious politics ensue . . .

One word: hysterical. Totally and completely hysterical. And I mean that in both the “haha, can’t stop laughing” and the “unmanageable fear” sort of way that my Merriam Webster describes.

In this future, people care. They care so much that you can’t do anything for yourself anymore, and why should you? You don’t know how to take care of yourself, but that’s OK, because that’s what PeopleCare is for. They’re there to make all your decisions and totally control every aspect of your life.

Think people who eat meat are insane? There’s a group for that (People for Complete Coexistence with Animals). Think you should be allowed to steal, beat, and rape? There’s a group for you (People with Different Moral and Ethical Values). Think recycling should be a choice? Sorry, that’ll get you five years in lock up. Think you should be allowed to park where you want, eat red meat, or educate your own children? Sorry, but no, you can’t do that anymore. It’s not fair to everyone else. It hurts them and the way they want to live. You’ll have to give up all of your wants and needs and personal rights for the greater good.

It’s OK though, because PeopleCare cares for people.

(In that future, I totally want to be their ad writer.)

Howell Langston Toland has finally had enough. Sentenced to a group home (Adjusted Environment Home) because his parents decided to home school him, and then sentenced to seven years in jail for not recycling and committing grievous bodily harm (tired of being robbed, Howell put cement on a window sill and stuck broken glass in it; poor thief cut himself trying to break in and immediately turned Howell in for his crimes), he decides that it’s time he gets his and starts the ABChallenge, a support group for those who have spent their entire lives being treated like lesser beings because their names start with a letter between N and Z. He’ll collect a small donation from everyone who has ever been treated unfairly because of where they fall in the alphabetical queue, make a fortune, and then run off to live in Australia, where it’s still legal to sunbathe, eat read meat, and have an opinion of your own.

I know, it’s got to be a joke, right?

Not in this future world, it isn’t. Most of America has been brainwashed into believing that it’s not their fault, no it’s the other guy’s fault and dammit, laws need to be passed against them so that you can have a fair shake. No matter that it’s asinine and stupid, it’s the way it has to be so that everything is equal.

As ridiculous as this novel is (and I mean that in a good way!), it’s frightening when you think about how things are changing here, now, ever so slightly starting to resemble things in The Alphabet Challenge. True, we can still make most of our own choices, but look at what’s going on in the food and restaurant industries. Health care. Education. Exercise. I’m not saying that I think all of the changes are for the bad, but I do think it’s a slippery slope we’re on and satire or not, this book has a point.

The day I wake up in America and find out chocolate has been outlawed, or God forbid, salt, I am totally moving to Europe, where they’ll still be allowing such hedonistic, evil, unfair things.

Read The Alphabet Challenge. Then join me in my consumption of chocolate and salt. At the same time. (They're totally delicious together.)

Posts to come: review of the Brooklyn Book Fair, what I have on my nightstand now, and the new challenges I've made for myself (because I'm not failing the ones I'm currently doing, or anything like that).

And recycle. A pox on you and yours if you don't recycle.

Cherry Blossom Designs Hair Accessories GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-09-13T14:08:00.000-04:00

Cherry Blossom Designs Hair Accessories GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

C'mon, it's literary inspired hair things for kids! I think my niece would love one of these.

(Soon to come, a post on the Brooklyn Book Fair, my recent discovery that I've read some of the NBA winners, and did you know they've made Jane Austen into a comic?)

On the Edge by Ilona Andrews

2009-09-10T20:38:00.005-04:00

Well, Tuesday night, after the misery that was a full day of work, I came home to find a package at my door. Right shape, right size, and yes! An advance copy of On the Edge by Ilona Andrews. I immediately went inside, dropped everything on the floor, and began to read.

I'm so glad I did.

Rose Drayton lives on the Edge, between the world of the Broken (where people drive cars, shop at Wal-Mart, and magic is a fairy tale) and the Weird (where blueblood aristocrats rule, changelings roam, and the strength of your magic can change your destiny). Only Edgers like Rose can easily travel from one world to the next, but they never truly belong in either.
Rose thought if she practiced her magic, she could build a better life for herself. But things didn’t turn out how she planned, and now she works a minimum wage, off the books job in the Broken just to survive. Then Declan Camarine, a blueblood noble straight out of the deepest part of the Weird, comes into her life, determined to have her (and her power).
But when a terrible danger invades the Edge from the Weird, a flood of creatures hungry for magic, Declan and Rose must work together to destroy them—or they’ll devour the Edge and everyone in it . . .

This story was a great, fun ride and I'm already looking forward to the sequel. Rose is a complex character, struggling to keep herself and her two younger brothers (Georgie is a necromancer, Jack turns into a cat) fed and alive. Her entire life becomes more complicated though, with the appearance of Declan, a blueblood from the Weird. He's turning Rose's life upside down in his pursuit... although what that pursuit is isn't as clear cut as Rose thinks. Making things more complicated is the big bad that's muscling it's way through the Edge. It's going to take everything Rose has to keep her head and her family together.

Tightly plotted, with plenty of twists, this is a great novel. Ilona Andrews did a fantastic job leading us down a plot path, only to plant a switchback right after the blind turn, so I totally didn't see things coming. Declan's reasons for being in the Edge, the real reason why William (who you meet in the story) won't talk to Declan, even the truth about certain articles of clothing. They were all nicely done and I'm happy to say that even after I reread the book (twice) I couldn't see any obvious signs of what was to come.

There is romance (hot), blood, feuds, power trips, evil hounds, cool bits of magic and cursing, and absolutely adorable little boys (Rose's two younger brothers). I want to steal Jack and keep him for my very own, that's how much I liked him. (Well, him and William; they were my favorites. Poor guy, he needs some chocolate.)

On the Edge will be released on September 29; I know, so far away. Lucky for you, Ilona is posting snippets here.

Hot off the press

2009-09-08T19:01:00.002-04:00

Hee! Not only do I have an awesome interview for you (see my previous post!), but I'm holding an advance copy of Ilona Andrews' On the Edge.

*wards off the grabby hands*

My day, it just keeps getting better.

PS: Thank you, Ilona, and thank you, publicist at Penguin.

Interview with Walt Maguire

2009-09-08T07:26:00.007-04:00

Where has my summer gone?

Well, in part, it's gone because of another author interview! Yes, I was lucky enough to set up an interview with Walt Maguire, the author of Monkey See, my book of the summer. Monkey See is about animal testing, job interviews (excerpt available here), and science experiments gone awry. Here’s what he had to say about the idea behind his genetically enhanced apes:

What gave you the idea to write this novel? Was it one article too many on animal testing or had the idea been mulling about in your head for a while and you decided it was time to put pen to paper?

I have a friend who completely falls apart when he hears a reference to talking monkeys. It’s actually a little frightening. But this started me thinking that there hadn’t really been a talking monkey book in almost fifty years, and the last one wasn’t all that funny.

So you wrote a book that you hoped would deliberately horrify your friend? (That's very funny to me, if so.) Did you give him a copy?

Oops! I meant he fell apart laughing. But I like the other version.

How did you come up with your main characters? Are there pieces of your personality in Ed, Chekchek, or Dr. Cogitomni? And where did you come up with your characters names?

The scientists and the militant chimp started out as stock movie characters—you just have to have them in a story like this, or people are distracted waiting for them to show up—but in writing they evolved (pardon the expression) into full personalities. I’m not sure where Ed came from—I sort of learned about him as I wrote him down. The funny part is people keep thinking Chekchek is based on a real person, but nobody ever agrees on who that person is. The names Ed and Chekchek just came to me, and I’m terrible at names generally, so I just accepted them gratefully. Cogitomni is very bad Latin for “Mr. Know-it-all,” which demonstrates just how bad I am at names.

To me, some of the funniest parts of your novel were the scenes where you describe how the reader can make their own monster ape at home, and then what to do once s/he has grown to large, escapes, and runs rampant without any control. Did you have a favorite part?

Thanks. I like the monster name guide, and the walk to town in the section on Wreckage.

What kind—if any—research did you do before writing Monkey See? Is there a monster-ape-hybrid in your basement?

There is. I left my cat alone in the basement for a week with some mice, paint thinner fumes, and a strange glowing mold, and the results were ugly. Though we’re no longer bothered by mice.

Your bio says that you write novels, plays, and articles; which of the three do you enjoy writing more?

The ones that get published.

Many writers describe themselves as "character" or "plot" writers. Which are you? What do you find to be the hardest part of writing?

Names. Also, plot. I usually start with some characters, some scenes, and a point, but the slow part is figuring out how to tie them all together. Once I do have a plot mapped out, it’s like a lighthouse leading my story across the darkness. Although you never want to steer towards a lighthouse or you would crash on rocks, so that’s a bad metaphor. Maybe it’s like a clothesline that gives me a place to string everything together.

What are your goals for the future? Do you have other ideas for novels or plays that you'd like to write or do you plan to focus more on your articles? (Personally, I hope you're writing another novel.)

I am starting on another novel, now you mention it. It’s monkey-free, but I hope to work in some equally bad career advice as I go.

Your website mentions some future titles that you might be writing, including: Letting Go: A memoir of getting far enough up Everest and A Good Walk Spoiled: How America’s love of dogs led us off our ruined sidewalks onto the Federal Highway System. Have you climbed Mt. Everest? Do you have a dog that regularly takes you for walks on the side of the highway?

I once climbed a steep hill in the hot April sun of a Greek day. It took me four hours, and when I reached the top I discovered the tram that ran up the other side every fifteen minutes to drop people off at the hilltop café. I don’t have a dog, but I used to dog-sit a lab that had a talent for peeing on drunken Mummers in spots I would have not expected to find Mummers during the Philadelphia Mummers Parade.

You mention on your website that you’re happy to explain yourself at a juggling festival; do you juggle?

I am completely uncoordinated and have twice dropped this computer while reaching for the mouse. But I know some jugglers, and I like taking bets on when they’ll hurt themselves.

As a reader, what do you enjoy reading? Any favorite authors?

I think I enjoy clever dialog, provided it’s not tied to a contrived story that’s trying very hard to pretend it’s not contrived. Lots of favorite authors: Tom Stoppard, Lorrie Moore, James Thurber, Peter Benchley, P.G. Wodehouse, Michael Chabon, Annie Proulx, Alexie Sherman, and whoever wrote “Rapunzel,” a story that makes less and less sense every time you read it. And yet it keeps popping up.

Do you read your reviews, and if so, what's the oddest one you've ever received?

I do read reviews. I haven’t seen many odd ones yet, though I do notice a temptation by the writers to reminisce about their own favorite talking-monkey memories. I hope Monkey See ends up as another one.

More information about Walt Maguire is available at his website here and here. His latest book, Monkey See, is available at ENC Press.

Quickly

2009-08-05T12:36:00.002-04:00

I cannot believe I jammed my finger again by playing (touch) rugby. Seriously, you'd have thought I had learned my lesson last time. (Sadly, I didn't. Maybe this time the lesson will stick.)

I used to love, love, love mysteries when I was younger; I devoured them, reading them through as quickly as I could before moving on to the next one. I used to hand them to my mother was done; I turned her on to A.E. Maxwell and J.A. Jance that way. Sadly, as I grew older, I became less interested in mysteries and turned towards science fiction; I can't figure out why. Is it because the mystery plots became outlandish or because after a while, they all sort of seemed the same? (Hmm, I think I answered my own question there.)

And now, science fiction is leaving me bored and I'm hunting for new things to read. Cycles, gotta love them. In an effort to inspire myself, reading wise, I've turned back to mysteries... and I really mean back. I'm going to read all the classics, things I've never read but should have, like Agatha Christie's "Miss Marple Series." (I don't think I'll read the other ones, featuring the french detective; he leaves me cold. Kind of like the guy on "Law & Order: CI." You know the one I mean, the white, brown-haired detective who ALWAYS figures it out. I don't like that character.)

Anyway... as I mentioned before, I'm a huge fan of the "Miss Marple Mysteries" on PBS and when I realized I had hit another reading rut, I thought why not read those books? True, I'll know how some of them are going to end, but there have been enough changes in the televisionization of the novels that even knowing whodunnit, it'll still be a new story to me. I'm starting with Murder at the Vicarage and Why Didn't They Ask Evans?. I also picked up a non-Marple book, The A.B.C. Murders. Hopefully they'll keep me occupied for a week, which is what I need, since I'm going home to visit family for two weeks after that.

(Note to self: Tap & Gown should be bought, and soon!)

Well, damn. Looks like I'm a liar, because The A.B.C. Murders features that french detective guy. Now what do I do? Suck it up and read the book anyway, or return the book unread because the french detective guy pisses me off?

(Yes, I know that the french detective guy's name is actually Hercule Poirot. I just like my way of naming better.)