Changes by Jim Butcher
Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente
Soon to read:
I Wonder What Human Flesh Tastes Like
Wise Man's Fear
Patient Zero
Saturday, December 11, 2010
dear Amazon.com.
I love you so much. I placed an order for five books on Thursday and got it before 24 hrs was up on Friday. They're all personal-books, but two of them are necessary for before one of the books I'm reviewing in the new year, so you're pretty much awesome. Especially at this time of year.
Love, me
Love, me
in-reading notes: palimpsest
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3973532-palimpsest
So far, it's beautiful and confusing and complex and both real and utterly unreal, like a dream and the real world crashing into each other because they're in love.
12-11-10:
This book is distractingly gorgeous. I want to blow through it and absorb it whole, but in certain sections, every page has such beautiful language that I keep having to stop to write it down so I won't forget it, and the lines strung together sound like poetry. It's fantastically absorbing, incredibly involving, and at the same time, impossible to read quickly, so it's probably going to go on hold again until after the next few books that I'm required to read.
None of this is at all a bad thing, I just don't have the schedule for leisurely reading any more-- I've become a book-eating monster who gobbles them up in a few big bites over the course of a few days, and this one just refuses to be taken that way.
(from my Goodreads pages)
So far, it's beautiful and confusing and complex and both real and utterly unreal, like a dream and the real world crashing into each other because they're in love.
12-11-10:
This book is distractingly gorgeous. I want to blow through it and absorb it whole, but in certain sections, every page has such beautiful language that I keep having to stop to write it down so I won't forget it, and the lines strung together sound like poetry. It's fantastically absorbing, incredibly involving, and at the same time, impossible to read quickly, so it's probably going to go on hold again until after the next few books that I'm required to read.
None of this is at all a bad thing, I just don't have the schedule for leisurely reading any more-- I've become a book-eating monster who gobbles them up in a few big bites over the course of a few days, and this one just refuses to be taken that way.
(from my Goodreads pages)
review: clockwork angel by cassandra clare
Clockwork Angel by Cassandra ClareMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
So far, every bit as beautiful and absorbing as her other books! I just wish I had the time to sink right in and not come up until it's done!
12-22-10:
SPOILER WARNING!
In the end, it was very much a first novel (in a series if not her's), and there was a sense that Cassie was trying to find her voice in a Voctorian world, which led to making parts of the book sort of stilted and strange. I think the love story suffered a little from not getting inside Wil's head nearly enough (it was much more organic with Jem). The plot couldn't quite decide if it was about Tessa's brother or about Mortmain, and how they fit together. Sometimes it seems like the story wants to go somewhere that the established history can't manage to allow, and has to be forced back-- and that always leads to awkwardness.
But you know what? For all that, I loved it. As soon as I had time, I devoured it, and it made me want to live in the ugly, deadly, dirty London of Victorian times, made me froth at the mouth a little bit at the thought of having to wait for the next one.
I expected it to be a little tighter because the Mortal Instruments series was so fantastic right off the bat, but there is nothing here that can't be explained away. The next book will likely be stronger for all the problems in this one being worked through, and now that the world is established, it's ready to go-- hopefully completely off the rails. And I love the idea that Valentine isn't the first one to start manipulating things he shouldn't have had control over. Maybe there were more before him, too, a whole line of wack-jobs he could draw on for his own purposes, and maybe all of them have stories like this to be told.
The book is beautiful, often charming, has all that wit and cleverness that we all have come to love from Cassie Clare, and really, I think, the problems all stem from figuring out how to put that wit and charm and *nowness* into something as alien as the Victorian era.
View all my reviews
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
the Recent Works of SF and F reading in the genre books list
Storm Front, Jim Butcher
Spin, Robert Charles Wilson
Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology, ed. James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Cory Doctorow (free in ibooks)
The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde
Boneshaker, Cherie Priest
Blindsight, Peter Watts
I've read Storm Front, but that was, like, eleven books ago and it'll be nice to read it again. I wanted to read Boneshaker anyway, and I've read another of Fforde's books and liked it. So overall, I think this is a good list!
Let's see what Kindle has for me... Kindle has all of them! All at roughly 10$, so a total of roughly 70$, which is 30$ cheaper than this term's RitG. I'll see what I can do about getting them through other / cheaper means, too, but this is pretty manageable as far as school books go, and I already have the All Read book for the res.
Sweet.
Spin, Robert Charles Wilson
Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology, ed. James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Cory Doctorow (free in ibooks)
The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde
Boneshaker, Cherie Priest
Blindsight, Peter Watts
I've read Storm Front, but that was, like, eleven books ago and it'll be nice to read it again. I wanted to read Boneshaker anyway, and I've read another of Fforde's books and liked it. So overall, I think this is a good list!
Let's see what Kindle has for me... Kindle has all of them! All at roughly 10$, so a total of roughly 70$, which is 30$ cheaper than this term's RitG. I'll see what I can do about getting them through other / cheaper means, too, but this is pretty manageable as far as school books go, and I already have the All Read book for the res.
Sweet.
reading meme
My total: 41
Of them, 24 were for school and 23 were for myself, which I think is a pretty good balance.
Also, though, I think Hamlet is included in the Complete Works and Lion, Witch, Wardrobe is included in the Chronicles, so I've actually read, according to the list, either 39 or something like two or three hundred. And I didn't count Lord of the Rings since I didn't finish it, or His Dark Materials, or the ones I have and haven't read yet, or the ones I claimed to have read for school and actually cliffs-noted. Because an English Major mostly teaches you how to BS.
The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.
Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you've read in their entirety and, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt. Tag other book nerds. Tag me as well so I can see your responses!
1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien (I've read one whole one and parts of the other two...)
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte (one of my favorite books, even with all the impenetrable Yorkshire)
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman (started this one and just couldn't do it. He comes across as so... condescending. If he doesn't care about his characters, why should I?)
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott (the actual and the condensed classics)
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hard13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (well, most of them...)
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald (don't remember much; it wasn't life-changing for me, apparently)
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Graham
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy (I was supposed to...)
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34 Emma – Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis (are there still people who haven't read this? really? I read it when I was 9, and again every year until I was, like, 16)
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Berniere
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez (loved it, in all it's confusing glory)
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving (did not like)
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery (and all of the rest of the series)
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville (Parts)
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens (I know I had to read this at some point in the UK school system, but I don't remember if I finished it)
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett (one of my favs of classic kidlit)
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson (love me some Bill Bryson)
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath (on the shelf)
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt (makes me want to be a full-time academic)
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro (I have this on my shelf, but I haven't read it yet)
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White (this was the first book with more than ten pages I ever read!)
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (in the Kindle)
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
Of them, 24 were for school and 23 were for myself, which I think is a pretty good balance.
Also, though, I think Hamlet is included in the Complete Works and Lion, Witch, Wardrobe is included in the Chronicles, so I've actually read, according to the list, either 39 or something like two or three hundred. And I didn't count Lord of the Rings since I didn't finish it, or His Dark Materials, or the ones I have and haven't read yet, or the ones I claimed to have read for school and actually cliffs-noted. Because an English Major mostly teaches you how to BS.
The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.
Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you've read in their entirety and, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt. Tag other book nerds. Tag me as well so I can see your responses!
1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien (I've read one whole one and parts of the other two...)
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte (one of my favorite books, even with all the impenetrable Yorkshire)
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman (started this one and just couldn't do it. He comes across as so... condescending. If he doesn't care about his characters, why should I?)
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott (the actual and the condensed classics)
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hard13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (well, most of them...)
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald (don't remember much; it wasn't life-changing for me, apparently)
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Graham
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy (I was supposed to...)
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34 Emma – Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis (are there still people who haven't read this? really? I read it when I was 9, and again every year until I was, like, 16)
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Berniere
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez (loved it, in all it's confusing glory)
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving (did not like)
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery (and all of the rest of the series)
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville (Parts)
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens (I know I had to read this at some point in the UK school system, but I don't remember if I finished it)
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett (one of my favs of classic kidlit)
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson (love me some Bill Bryson)
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath (on the shelf)
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt (makes me want to be a full-time academic)
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro (I have this on my shelf, but I haven't read it yet)
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White (this was the first book with more than ten pages I ever read!)
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (in the Kindle)
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Currently reading
Just finished Hard Love moments ago. A study in making an asshole relatable.
Still have to finish Clockwork Angel.
Just received ADiscovery of Wiches and I Wonder What Human Flesh Tastes Like for review.
In about a month, I'll have the list of the year's reading.
Still have to finish Clockwork Angel.
Just received ADiscovery of Wiches and I Wonder What Human Flesh Tastes Like for review.
In about a month, I'll have the list of the year's reading.
Monday, November 8, 2010
review: how to write science fiction and fantasy by orson scott card
I don't usually read craft books. I love language, but for some reason, books about how it works just bore the brain right out of my head. But I needed one for school and I'd read some of Card's stuff before, so I thought, this is as good as any, right?
It was. I'm so glad I wasn't disappointed. There aren't as many books specifically for sf / f writing as there are for writing in general, and I wanted to read one of them first, and this was a good choice. It's a little outdated, at least in the copy that I have, but it's clear, conversational, helpful, and it goes over a lot of the specific problems, shorfalls, common mistakes and details that a person writing genre has to think about.
Recommended.
It was. I'm so glad I wasn't disappointed. There aren't as many books specifically for sf / f writing as there are for writing in general, and I wanted to read one of them first, and this was a good choice. It's a little outdated, at least in the copy that I have, but it's clear, conversational, helpful, and it goes over a lot of the specific problems, shorfalls, common mistakes and details that a person writing genre has to think about.
Recommended.
link: Best Books of 2010
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/book-news/awards-and-prizes/article/45070-best-books-of-2010.html
I haven't read any of these, even with all the books I've read, but at least a few of them sound like they'd be interesting, and sometimes I feel the need to read something other than deep genre, you know?
I haven't read any of these, even with all the books I've read, but at least a few of them sound like they'd be interesting, and sometimes I feel the need to read something other than deep genre, you know?
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
I got this book because I'm sort of a sucker for the off-beat diet books, but this one is actually really smart. Not long, not complicated, but written by someone almost entirely outside the food / diet industry and loaded with facts about the basic things that influence how we eat: plates are bigger so servings have gotten bigger, and the real thing we need to do is relearn how to see what a real serving looks like and put it on a decent-sized plate to get out brains to think it looks like a real meal and not a skimpy mess.
Brilliant.
The only thing I found wrong with it is that there's not a single mention of seconds and slowing down your eating-- you should definitely eat smaller portions, but you also shouldn't eat three platefulls of them, and you should eat slow enough that while your brain is telling you you've had enough, your stomach has time to agree so you don't keep eating forever, despite the smaller plate size. It's the freest and most reasonable "diet" I've ever seen. And it's mostly about how culture has messed up all the comparisons, not at all about how food has gotten worse for us (even though it has) or how we all have become weak and stupid (which we probably haven't, mostly).
Highly recommended.
Brilliant.
The only thing I found wrong with it is that there's not a single mention of seconds and slowing down your eating-- you should definitely eat smaller portions, but you also shouldn't eat three platefulls of them, and you should eat slow enough that while your brain is telling you you've had enough, your stomach has time to agree so you don't keep eating forever, despite the smaller plate size. It's the freest and most reasonable "diet" I've ever seen. And it's mostly about how culture has messed up all the comparisons, not at all about how food has gotten worse for us (even though it has) or how we all have become weak and stupid (which we probably haven't, mostly).
Highly recommended.
Monday, November 1, 2010
In-reading notes: pegasus
This is what I most like about Robin McKinley books: all these shy, awkward girls get to do wonderful things, and the whole book loves them as they figure out how. There's always a longing in them-- the books and the girls, and they get to go after it with grace and joy and stubbornness.
first thoughts: paper towns by john green
I only finished reading it about seven minutes ago, so this will litereally be first impressions, in whatever order they want to come out:
- I love the idea that we all have strings inside. I'm a mugely visual person-- I'm also, as it turns out, a very visceral and tactile person, what with being almost legally blind. This means that I think mostly in images (and get inspired in images, but that's a post for another day, on the writing blog), but I trust how things feel more than how they look. And the strings make sense to both senses. It's true what the book says: it feels like we have strings. Mine have been kind of tightly wound this past week or so, and now I'm scared that they'll start snapping.
- I totally understand Margo's need to get away. I grew up traveling. I feel most of the time the way I imagine the Gypsies felt when they were told through the 40s and 50s and 60s that they need to settle-- confused, a little lost, vaguely resentful, restless-- very restless-- and like I could just leave at any moment, except that there's all these reasons why I shouldn't. If I was going to, I know the moment it should have been: after graduation, before I got news that I'd gotten that sholarship, in that one month window when my home life was less than happy, my boyfriend was a jerk, and I didn't have a plan for the rest of my future. I'm not sorry I went to school and have the life I have now-- it's infinitely better than it was then-- but sometimes I wish I had just gone, and I think this whole book is about what happens when you do, and when others have to pick up the pieces.
- I love that someone else who felt stuck in Orlando feels like that. It's like the book was written to tell me that that's how all of Orlando feels. This is probably the post-book-glow (it's like post-sex-glow, but a lot of times more pure because it's all how I interpret it) talking, but it really did go straight to several specific sore spots and longings in my own personal psyche, and that's unbelivably comforting.
- The whole thing is also amazingly romantic.
- I want to visit all these paper towns, the real ones from the end of the book, and write a book of my own about the experience. I want to pass on this book so others can read it-- maybe my neice who loves books as much as I do, or at least did, last time I talked to her*.
- I hope when we were in HS, we sounded as smart and creative and wonderful as Q and his friends.
*Maybe she can start a book blog herself. It would have been so awesome if I could have blogged about books when I was ten-- or when I was fifteen, and read over a hundred books in one year, because that's ALL I did.
- I love the idea that we all have strings inside. I'm a mugely visual person-- I'm also, as it turns out, a very visceral and tactile person, what with being almost legally blind. This means that I think mostly in images (and get inspired in images, but that's a post for another day, on the writing blog), but I trust how things feel more than how they look. And the strings make sense to both senses. It's true what the book says: it feels like we have strings. Mine have been kind of tightly wound this past week or so, and now I'm scared that they'll start snapping.
- I totally understand Margo's need to get away. I grew up traveling. I feel most of the time the way I imagine the Gypsies felt when they were told through the 40s and 50s and 60s that they need to settle-- confused, a little lost, vaguely resentful, restless-- very restless-- and like I could just leave at any moment, except that there's all these reasons why I shouldn't. If I was going to, I know the moment it should have been: after graduation, before I got news that I'd gotten that sholarship, in that one month window when my home life was less than happy, my boyfriend was a jerk, and I didn't have a plan for the rest of my future. I'm not sorry I went to school and have the life I have now-- it's infinitely better than it was then-- but sometimes I wish I had just gone, and I think this whole book is about what happens when you do, and when others have to pick up the pieces.
- I love that someone else who felt stuck in Orlando feels like that. It's like the book was written to tell me that that's how all of Orlando feels. This is probably the post-book-glow (it's like post-sex-glow, but a lot of times more pure because it's all how I interpret it) talking, but it really did go straight to several specific sore spots and longings in my own personal psyche, and that's unbelivably comforting.
- The whole thing is also amazingly romantic.
- I want to visit all these paper towns, the real ones from the end of the book, and write a book of my own about the experience. I want to pass on this book so others can read it-- maybe my neice who loves books as much as I do, or at least did, last time I talked to her*.
- I hope when we were in HS, we sounded as smart and creative and wonderful as Q and his friends.
*Maybe she can start a book blog herself. It would have been so awesome if I could have blogged about books when I was ten-- or when I was fifteen, and read over a hundred books in one year, because that's ALL I did.
Currently reading
This picture message or video message was sent using Multimedia Messaging Service.
To play video messages sent to email, Apple� QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required. Visit www.apple.com/quicktime/download to download the free player or upgrade your existing QuickTime Player. Note: During the download process when asked to choose an installation type (Minimum, Recommended or Custom), select Minimum for faster download.
Friday, September 24, 2010
sept 25 to oct 2 is banned books week!
To make up for all the books that get banned, limiting what people can read and learn about and damaging freedom of speech, this whole week, everyone should read as many banned books as they can get their hands on.
The ALA list of last year's banned books:
1. “TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs
2. “And Tango Makes Three” by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: Homosexuality
3. “The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Anti-Family, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide
4. “To Kill A Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee
Reasons: Racism, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
5. Twilight (series) by Stephenie Meyer
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group
6. “Catcher in the Rye,” by J.D. Salinger
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
7. “My Sister’s Keeper,” by Jodi Picoult
Reasons: Sexism, Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide, Violence
8. “The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things,” by Carolyn Mackler
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
9. “The Color Purple,” Alice Walker
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
10. “The Chocolate War,” by Robert Cormier
Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
2008's Books:
1.And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group
2.His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman
Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence
3.TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
4.Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
Reasons: occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence
5.Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
Reasons: occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, and violence
6.The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group
7.Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
8.Uncle Bobby's Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen
Reasons: homosexuality and unsuited to age group
9.The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
10.Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper
Reasons: sexually explicit and unsuited to age group
2007s Books:
1.And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, sexism, and unsuited to Age Group
2.The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
Reasons: offensive Language, sexually explicity, violence
3.Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit
4.The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman
Reason: religious viewpoint
5.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
Reason: racism
6.The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
Reasons: homosexuality, offensive language, sexually explicit
7.TTYL, by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
8.I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
Reason: sexually explicit
9.It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris
Reasons: sex education and sexually explicit
10.The Perks of Being A Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: homosexuality, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
Which mostly proves to me that the people trying to ban books are a) unimaginitive and b) scrabbling for a new top ten each year because, get this, most books aren't offensive, and the ones they pick aren't that bad, either.
And the 100 most banned books for the 2000s:
1 Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling
2 Alice series, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
3 The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
4 And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
5 Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
6 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
7 Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
8 His Dark Materials (series), by Philip Pullman
9 TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Myracle, Lauren
10 The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
11 Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers
12 It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris
13 Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
14 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
15 The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
16 Forever, by Judy Blume
17 The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
18 Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous
19 Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
20 King and King, by Linda de Haan
21 To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
22 Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
23 The Giver, by Lois Lowry
24 In the Night Kitchen, by Maurice Sendak
25 Killing Mr. Griffen, by Lois Duncan
26 Beloved, by Toni Morrison
27 My Brother Sam Is Dead, by James Lincoln Collier
28 Bridge To Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson
29 The Face on the Milk Carton, by Caroline B. Cooney
30 We All Fall Down, by Robert Cormier
31 What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
32 Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
33 Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson
34 The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler
35 Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging, by Louise Rennison
36 Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
37 It’s So Amazing, by Robie Harris
38 Arming America, by Michael Bellasiles
39 Kaffir Boy, by Mark Mathabane
40 Life is Funny, by E.R. Frank
41 Whale Talk, by Chris Crutcher
42 The Fighting Ground, by Avi
43 Blubber, by Judy Blume
44 Athletic Shorts, by Chris Crutcher
45 Crazy Lady, by Jane Leslie Conly
46 Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
47 The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby, by George Beard
48 Rainbow Boys, by Alex Sanchez
49 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
50 The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
51 Daughters of Eve, by Lois Duncan
52 The Great Gilly Hopkins, by Katherine Paterson
53 You Hear Me?, by Betsy Franco
54 The Facts Speak for Themselves, by Brock Cole
55 Summer of My German Soldier, by Bette Green
56 When Dad Killed Mom, by Julius Lester
57 Blood and Chocolate, by Annette Curtis Klause
58 Fat Kid Rules the World, by K.L. Going
59 Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes
60 Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson
61 Draw Me A Star, by Eric Carle
62 The Stupids (series), by Harry Allard
63 The Terrorist, by Caroline B. Cooney
64 Mick Harte Was Here, by Barbara Park
65 The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien
66 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred Taylor
67 A Time to Kill, by John Grisham
68 Always Running, by Luis Rodriguez
69 Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury (IRONIC, THIS ONE)
70 Harris and Me, by Gary Paulsen
71 Junie B. Jones (series), by Barbara Park
72 Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
73 What’s Happening to My Body Book, by Lynda Madaras
74 The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold
75 Anastasia (series), by Lois Lowry
76 A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving
77 Crazy: A Novel, by Benjamin Lebert
78 The Joy of Gay Sex, by Dr. Charles Silverstein
79 The Upstairs Room, by Johanna Reiss
80 A Day No Pigs Would Die, by Robert Newton Peck
81 Black Boy, by Richard Wright
82 Deal With It!, by Esther Drill
83 Detour for Emmy, by Marilyn Reynolds
84 So Far From the Bamboo Grove, by Yoko Watkins
85 Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, by Chris Crutcher
86 Cut, by Patricia McCormick
87 Tiger Eyes, by Judy Blume
88 The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
89 Friday Night Lights, by H.G. Bissenger
90 A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L’Engle
91 Julie of the Wolves, by Jean Graighead George
92 The Boy Who Lost His Face, by Louis Sachar
93 Bumps in the Night, by Harry Allard
94 Goosebumps (series), by R.L. Stine
95 Shade’s Children, by Garth Nix
96 Grendel, by John Gardner
97 The House of the Spirits, by Isabel Allende
98 I Saw Esau, by Iona Opte
99 Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume
100 America: A Novel, by Frank, E.R.
And several of these are about intollerance, restricting knowledge, racism, or about wht happens to the world when these things are allowed. Funny how that happens, isn't it?
Challenged Classics can be found here
The ALA website for Banned Book Week can be found here
The ALA list of last year's banned books:
1. “TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs
2. “And Tango Makes Three” by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: Homosexuality
3. “The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Anti-Family, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide
4. “To Kill A Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee
Reasons: Racism, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
5. Twilight (series) by Stephenie Meyer
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group
6. “Catcher in the Rye,” by J.D. Salinger
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
7. “My Sister’s Keeper,” by Jodi Picoult
Reasons: Sexism, Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide, Violence
8. “The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things,” by Carolyn Mackler
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
9. “The Color Purple,” Alice Walker
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
10. “The Chocolate War,” by Robert Cormier
Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
2008's Books:
1.And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group
2.His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman
Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence
3.TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
4.Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
Reasons: occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence
5.Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
Reasons: occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, and violence
6.The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group
7.Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
8.Uncle Bobby's Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen
Reasons: homosexuality and unsuited to age group
9.The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
10.Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper
Reasons: sexually explicit and unsuited to age group
2007s Books:
1.And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, sexism, and unsuited to Age Group
2.The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
Reasons: offensive Language, sexually explicity, violence
3.Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit
4.The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman
Reason: religious viewpoint
5.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
Reason: racism
6.The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
Reasons: homosexuality, offensive language, sexually explicit
7.TTYL, by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
8.I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
Reason: sexually explicit
9.It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris
Reasons: sex education and sexually explicit
10.The Perks of Being A Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: homosexuality, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
Which mostly proves to me that the people trying to ban books are a) unimaginitive and b) scrabbling for a new top ten each year because, get this, most books aren't offensive, and the ones they pick aren't that bad, either.
And the 100 most banned books for the 2000s:
1 Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling
2 Alice series, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
3 The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
4 And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
5 Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
6 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
7 Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
8 His Dark Materials (series), by Philip Pullman
9 TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Myracle, Lauren
10 The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
11 Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers
12 It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris
13 Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
14 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
15 The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
16 Forever, by Judy Blume
17 The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
18 Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous
19 Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
20 King and King, by Linda de Haan
21 To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
22 Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
23 The Giver, by Lois Lowry
24 In the Night Kitchen, by Maurice Sendak
25 Killing Mr. Griffen, by Lois Duncan
26 Beloved, by Toni Morrison
27 My Brother Sam Is Dead, by James Lincoln Collier
28 Bridge To Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson
29 The Face on the Milk Carton, by Caroline B. Cooney
30 We All Fall Down, by Robert Cormier
31 What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
32 Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
33 Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson
34 The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler
35 Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging, by Louise Rennison
36 Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
37 It’s So Amazing, by Robie Harris
38 Arming America, by Michael Bellasiles
39 Kaffir Boy, by Mark Mathabane
40 Life is Funny, by E.R. Frank
41 Whale Talk, by Chris Crutcher
42 The Fighting Ground, by Avi
43 Blubber, by Judy Blume
44 Athletic Shorts, by Chris Crutcher
45 Crazy Lady, by Jane Leslie Conly
46 Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
47 The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby, by George Beard
48 Rainbow Boys, by Alex Sanchez
49 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
50 The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
51 Daughters of Eve, by Lois Duncan
52 The Great Gilly Hopkins, by Katherine Paterson
53 You Hear Me?, by Betsy Franco
54 The Facts Speak for Themselves, by Brock Cole
55 Summer of My German Soldier, by Bette Green
56 When Dad Killed Mom, by Julius Lester
57 Blood and Chocolate, by Annette Curtis Klause
58 Fat Kid Rules the World, by K.L. Going
59 Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes
60 Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson
61 Draw Me A Star, by Eric Carle
62 The Stupids (series), by Harry Allard
63 The Terrorist, by Caroline B. Cooney
64 Mick Harte Was Here, by Barbara Park
65 The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien
66 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred Taylor
67 A Time to Kill, by John Grisham
68 Always Running, by Luis Rodriguez
69 Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury (IRONIC, THIS ONE)
70 Harris and Me, by Gary Paulsen
71 Junie B. Jones (series), by Barbara Park
72 Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
73 What’s Happening to My Body Book, by Lynda Madaras
74 The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold
75 Anastasia (series), by Lois Lowry
76 A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving
77 Crazy: A Novel, by Benjamin Lebert
78 The Joy of Gay Sex, by Dr. Charles Silverstein
79 The Upstairs Room, by Johanna Reiss
80 A Day No Pigs Would Die, by Robert Newton Peck
81 Black Boy, by Richard Wright
82 Deal With It!, by Esther Drill
83 Detour for Emmy, by Marilyn Reynolds
84 So Far From the Bamboo Grove, by Yoko Watkins
85 Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, by Chris Crutcher
86 Cut, by Patricia McCormick
87 Tiger Eyes, by Judy Blume
88 The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
89 Friday Night Lights, by H.G. Bissenger
90 A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L’Engle
91 Julie of the Wolves, by Jean Graighead George
92 The Boy Who Lost His Face, by Louis Sachar
93 Bumps in the Night, by Harry Allard
94 Goosebumps (series), by R.L. Stine
95 Shade’s Children, by Garth Nix
96 Grendel, by John Gardner
97 The House of the Spirits, by Isabel Allende
98 I Saw Esau, by Iona Opte
99 Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume
100 America: A Novel, by Frank, E.R.
And several of these are about intollerance, restricting knowledge, racism, or about wht happens to the world when these things are allowed. Funny how that happens, isn't it?
Challenged Classics can be found here
The ALA website for Banned Book Week can be found here
Monday, September 6, 2010
booklust
When I'm at work and I should be doing stupid, annoying, but necessary work things, I can think of a half dozen books I want to read. When I'm at home and looking at the little search bar on Amazon, I can't think of any of them. How is that fair?
But I will say this: Since they gave me that ipad, I've been totally won over by the Kindle App. Most books are available there-- eight of the ten for class, and about the same percentage of all books I've looked up since then*. The reading experience is clean and clear and lovely. You can hilight and comment, just like in a real book, but with better handwriting. And there are things that aren't in real books-- lines that lots of people hilight come up underlined in the e-copy, and if there's a footnote (which there tends to be lots of in the sorts of books I read), it comes up as a link in the text, and if you click on it, it loads it into the text itself so you don't have to go searching through the book to find the right note!
And best of all, Kindle is a boy-once place. If something happens to your iPad, you can download it again later because you've already bought it. If you get it for the iPad, you can also get it for your desktop. Short of losing all their servers, it's about as safe as a digital book can be!
And now I'm eyeing all my actual books and thinking, I could replace all these with digiversions. I could clear that whole shelf... I mean, I'll keep all the really old books, the ones I inherited from Papa and the Modern Library collection. I'll keep the ones I really love and have filled with notes and the ones that I return to over and over. But I could easily replace a lot of them that I want to keep around but don't go back to as often, if they're available...
*No PC Hodgell on Kindle, which makes me sad. More people should read her books so they can stay in print and at the same publishers. They're awesome, and I really need to get the next one in the series. If I can find it.
But I will say this: Since they gave me that ipad, I've been totally won over by the Kindle App. Most books are available there-- eight of the ten for class, and about the same percentage of all books I've looked up since then*. The reading experience is clean and clear and lovely. You can hilight and comment, just like in a real book, but with better handwriting. And there are things that aren't in real books-- lines that lots of people hilight come up underlined in the e-copy, and if there's a footnote (which there tends to be lots of in the sorts of books I read), it comes up as a link in the text, and if you click on it, it loads it into the text itself so you don't have to go searching through the book to find the right note!
And best of all, Kindle is a boy-once place. If something happens to your iPad, you can download it again later because you've already bought it. If you get it for the iPad, you can also get it for your desktop. Short of losing all their servers, it's about as safe as a digital book can be!
And now I'm eyeing all my actual books and thinking, I could replace all these with digiversions. I could clear that whole shelf... I mean, I'll keep all the really old books, the ones I inherited from Papa and the Modern Library collection. I'll keep the ones I really love and have filled with notes and the ones that I return to over and over. But I could easily replace a lot of them that I want to keep around but don't go back to as often, if they're available...
*No PC Hodgell on Kindle, which makes me sad. More people should read her books so they can stay in print and at the same publishers. They're awesome, and I really need to get the next one in the series. If I can find it.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
link: 13 Books Nobody's Read But Say They Have (PHOTOS)
13 Books Nobody's Read But Say They Have (PHOTOS)
So, I've read five of the books no one's read, and two of them were actually very enjoyable.
These lists should be a way for me to gloat since I have a whole degree based on reading behind me, but more and more, I think it's just exposing how good I got at entirely avoiding certain kinds of the cannon classics! I managed to read a minimum of Falkner and Hemingway in those six years, and I'm still kind of proud of that because I don't particularly care for their stories, but I feel more and more like I really should have read them, if only so I could more effectively complain. And be contrary.
Monday, August 23, 2010
in-reading notes: murder in vein
There's something off about this book. The story's fine, the mystery is interesting, but the main character feels... hollow. Like all she does is react, while at the same time she doesn't have much in the way of internal monologue exccept for what she's physically doing, and it makes her sort of Mary-Sue-ish. Like Bella Swan from Twilight, though this is meant to be an adult book and isn't really that sort of vampire novel at all. I just feel like I don't need an avatar in the book world; I know who I am, and I don't need to ride someone else and fill in the gaps. Just show me who you are, Madison Rose.
Other than that, it's pretty interesting, and I'm liking the plot. I like also that the vampires are a married couple, which is a nice difference from most, and I like the Detective who seems to never sleep. He reminds me of an amalgam of people from the Blood Ties stories, and hopefully he'll get more page time in the second half.
I still don't understand why people keep basing vampire stories in LA, though. Anyway. Pet peeve.
Review is due Sunday or before, and the book comes out Sept 1, so there's still time for the end to totally win me over.
Other than that, it's pretty interesting, and I'm liking the plot. I like also that the vampires are a married couple, which is a nice difference from most, and I like the Detective who seems to never sleep. He reminds me of an amalgam of people from the Blood Ties stories, and hopefully he'll get more page time in the second half.
I still don't understand why people keep basing vampire stories in LA, though. Anyway. Pet peeve.
Review is due Sunday or before, and the book comes out Sept 1, so there's still time for the end to totally win me over.
in-reading notes: black hole sun
The cover says it's like Mad Max, but it's totally not like that. It feels more like Firefly meets the down-fall side of 1984 or something like that-- the cleverness and moral ambiguity of Joss mashed up with the grey and crumbling distopias that are made of corporations and do their best to crush souls. Firefly if they were kids trapped on the Vogon homeworld by way of the Mars from Total Recall.
It's very interesting. My mind is already spinning off ideas for novels and histories and plotlines that could easily cover several books, and that's the sort of story I like best: the kind that sparks inspiration. Who wants a book that's closed and tells you everything? There's no room for your own ideas there.
I think this one will be done first (it's currently a rundown between this and Murder In Vein to see who gets read and reviewed first, but both are due by Sunday and come out on Sept 1).
It's very interesting. My mind is already spinning off ideas for novels and histories and plotlines that could easily cover several books, and that's the sort of story I like best: the kind that sparks inspiration. Who wants a book that's closed and tells you everything? There's no room for your own ideas there.
I think this one will be done first (it's currently a rundown between this and Murder In Vein to see who gets read and reviewed first, but both are due by Sunday and come out on Sept 1).
in-reading notes: wintergirls
This book is harrowing. Not just because it's meant to be and has that built in contradiction between what she's saying and what she's doing (and I really love the strike-out in the text to show the disjunction between what she's thinking and what she's telling herself)-- but also because of how close to home it hits.
I was never intentionally anorexic, but it was ingrained enough that reading this book is hard. It's bringing up old thought patterns and the newer patterns that developed to deal with them-- while she's talking about not eating, all I want to do is eat to prove that I'm not like that anymore. It might be in part because I'm currently trying to lose weight, and the whole calorie-counting and food-choice-making feels a little too like anorexia sometimes, but this book is just too much sometimes.
But it's fiercely good. And frequently very beautiful. Which is part of the problem, I think. If it was relentlessly horrible, it wouldn't affect me so much.
I was never intentionally anorexic, but it was ingrained enough that reading this book is hard. It's bringing up old thought patterns and the newer patterns that developed to deal with them-- while she's talking about not eating, all I want to do is eat to prove that I'm not like that anymore. It might be in part because I'm currently trying to lose weight, and the whole calorie-counting and food-choice-making feels a little too like anorexia sometimes, but this book is just too much sometimes.
But it's fiercely good. And frequently very beautiful. Which is part of the problem, I think. If it was relentlessly horrible, it wouldn't affect me so much.
omnitopia dawn by diane duane
This book... I really wanted to like it, but it just felt like so much of it was waiting for something to happen, that huge swathes of the book never actually did anything. It's past the half-way point before even the inkling of something happening happens, and then it really all doesn't come together until the second-to-last chapter. It's got a good idea, but it has trouble getting there, and I wish I was one of her advance-readers while she was writing it-- I think I could have convinced her to shift the focus and it would have been so much better. But maybe that's just my ego talking.
I'll probably pick up the next book in the series, but if it's similarly slow, I doubt I'll care much past that.
Side note:
The cover of the book calls it a 'thriller'. Does that word mean 'extremely backloaded so that most of the rest of the book doesn't really matter when it comes down to it'? Because Impact was also called a thriller, and though I found it almost insufferable, while this one was just dull, they have the same dragging in the plot, the same idea that most of the book is just filler. If that's how it is, I think I don't care at all about thrillers, and they're mostly lazy writing and sort of an insult to the scifi tropes they seem to want to steal all over the place lately.
Official review here.
PS: There doesn't seem to be much sense to where the links go in. I'll have to play around with that, I think...
I'll probably pick up the next book in the series, but if it's similarly slow, I doubt I'll care much past that.
Side note:
The cover of the book calls it a 'thriller'. Does that word mean 'extremely backloaded so that most of the rest of the book doesn't really matter when it comes down to it'? Because Impact was also called a thriller, and though I found it almost insufferable, while this one was just dull, they have the same dragging in the plot, the same idea that most of the book is just filler. If that's how it is, I think I don't care at all about thrillers, and they're mostly lazy writing and sort of an insult to the scifi tropes they seem to want to steal all over the place lately.
Official review here.
PS: There doesn't seem to be much sense to where the links go in. I'll have to play around with that, I think...
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
review: the charlatan's boy by jonathan rogers
This is one of those rare little books that is entirely charming. It's straightforward without being simple, and incredibly rich. I really loved reading it, and while doing my research for the turn in, I found out that there are more stories set in the same world-- a Trilogy called the Wilderking that also deals with feechies (which is now what I call my fish, and also what I think I'll call my children when I have them and they're being clever and wild).
It's worth the read. My full review is here.
And it has a lovely cover.
It's worth the read. My full review is here.
And it has a lovely cover.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
national geographic: july 2010
ancient human skull on the cover
table of contents here
Let me just say that I absolutely love NatGeo and I always have for as long as I can remember. Before I could read, I'd lay on my stomach on the floor at my Aunt Betty's house, looking at all the amazing pictures and being just stunned that the things in them were real, that one day I might get to see them for myself. Then, almost as soon as I could read, it seemed, I'd spend hours reading through the back issues that were always there, filling my head with information and big words and page after page of text. Maybe that's why I'm not afraid of text.
When I was maybe 17, I got my first subscription to them under my own name, and since then, I've had several. Not really consistent, since my income is not really consistent, but at least a year, at least every few years, and when I don't have a sub, I usually track down the new issues and get them individually at cover price. I've tracked down the issues from the years of birth for my entire immediate family (except my own, which seems to all be mythical). I've kept all the ones I've bought.
And my favorite ones are the ones that feature human history and archaeology. This issue doesn't disappoint, and it's beautiful. Well-written, told like the best story around, clear, informative, not too much slant that I can see (which either means it's pretty unslanted, or that my degree in anthropology slants in the same way and I don't notice it). Evocative. Exactly what I want from NatGeo. Even the little articles are amazing-- one about space junk, how it matters and how to deal with it-- a little one-pager about the worst places in America to be a pedestrian (with the top four all being in Florida!).
If I wind up working for a magazine, I want it to be NatGeo. I want to be able to say, 'I edited that to make it so pretty', or 'I wrote that article and it blends seamlessly with the 150 year history of the mag'.
I've got two more fresh issues to read, and another old one that I misplaced and never finished, and that right there is more than worth the time it takes to read a whole issue. It actually almost makes me wish I still had a two-hour each way bus ride to get to work!
Saturday, August 14, 2010
currently reading: week 33, first half of august
Any minute now, my reading load doubles, at least. By the end of this month, I'll be caught up with reviewing, and next week I need to start reading the books for school, so, yeah. As of this moment, I'm reading Charlatan's Boy, which I'm thoroughly enjoying, still reading How to Write SF and F, starting on Murder In Vein, and I've got Wintergirls lurking, waiting to start Monday. And I just picked up City of Glass, which finally hit QP and matches the rest, and Heatwave, which is thin and beautifully cliched... though who knows when I'll get to read those two!
Linkies!
The Charlatan's Boy isn't available yet, so here's it's preemptive link
Linkies!
The Charlatan's Boy isn't available yet, so here's it's preemptive link
Monday, August 9, 2010
migration by james p hogan
JP Hogan died recently, and it's sad that it means there probably won't be more of these stories of these people and their trip to another world for the first time in human history, but it's a pretty optimistic way to leave the fans, I think. We really can make things better.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Currently reading, secong half of July, 2010
Just started Migration by James P Hogan, and read about half of How To Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card, and I'm liking both so far. Probably starting on Wicked Lovely or Wintergirls or Leviathan tomorrow, because they're ones I've managed to get my hands on, and they're going to be required soon.
Dragongirl by Todd mccaffrey
I didn't want to hate this one, but I came very close. It was so hard to read. So very very hard. It took me longer to get through than almost any other book I've read-- I think the only thing I can remember suffering through with such a grim stubbornness was, like, Sphere, which I did wind up hating by the end. That one took me nine months to read. This one only took about three, and I read about four other books in the meantime, trying to escape it.
See, I gre up on the Pern books. They were the first adult books I read, after a ha dful of Victoria Holt novels that I quickly lost interest in, and I've followed the series since. When I turned sixteen, my dad gifted me with the whole series up to that point, and it's one of my favorite memories of that timeframe. All Anne McCaffrey's books affected me the same way-- they aren't the most literary scifi, or the most rigorously scientific, and they're often just thinly veiled romances, but they were interesting and complex and open minded and adult, and they always got me emotionally involved in the characters.
This one though, one of Todd's solo ones... It was like beating myself In the face with bad fanfic a lot of the time, and it was like a bad idea of making it into kid lit, but still letting polyamory be okay. It happens at a time in Pern history when we know things are going to end up pretty desolate, too. And worse of all, it sort of steals Lessa's thunder by making her less rare, and preempting some of the daring things she has done / will do. It makes her seem woefully undereducated. Which makes me very sad.
And then it suddenly gets pointed, the characters suddenly differentiate, the writing clarifies and makes morse sense, and it feels like a Pern book, not a poorly-made imitation of one. That's how it should have been all along. It was so refreshing and life affirming to get through that whole mess and find a good and stirring ending, but it was too little, too late... But it piqued my curiosity about the next book, which has no excuse not to be good after 300- odd pages of set up from this book.
Digital domains edited by Ellen datlowl
This is exactly what an anthology is for: a taste of what's out there, and a good sampling of different styles and takes on a variety of topics. There's fifteen stories in here, and all of them are amazing. I sobbed lIke a baby during The Monkey King's Daughter, I felt like I was dreaming during Pansolapia, I was sucked in to each and every story. And there's one from Kelly Link and one from Andy Duncan, and both are excellent writers. Best of all, there's a feeling that the stories, thought all very different, all lean toward the same ending feeling, that they all want to change around the furniture inside your head. It's exactly why I love anthologies, and it's exactly why I love Datlow anthologies.
Amaranth enchantment by Julie berry
This is exactly the sort of book I should have loved. Plucky girl overcoming hardship, clever rogue, handsome prince, evil government official, stranded alien, interesting alternate London and England sort of setting... But it comes out feeling flat and dumbed down, and I just didn't like reading it. It felt like a problem: she wanted the characters to do this and this and this, but they wanted to do their own thing, and so she forced them, and sections of the dialog and narrative are so forced I just hated reading them. And throughout the whole thing, I kept wanting to edit it hard- core, until the end, when I wanted to just rewrite the whole thing. It feels like it got lost in it's own setting sometimes, and like it was extremely dumbed down other times, like the whole book didn't trust preteen girls to understand things, while the plot demanded that the lead go to jail and face the gallows.
I can't abide being ken down to, even when I'm not the target audience, and if I was nine or ten, I'd still want more from this book. ::sigh:: it really does ace a great set up, too.
Shadow hills by anastasia hopcus
I read this one a bit ago, and it's sort of lingering with me, which is great. I could't find any definitive answer about whether it was the start of a series, but it defy itely could be, and I wouldn't even have to relegate it to the category of "guilty pleasure" to justify buying it. It's not perfect, but some of the most noticeable problems I had with it would be fixed if it were the start of a series-- like the fact that the most interesting ideas it brought up in my mind were not even touched upon, like whether there was a connection between Phe's parents and the exiles. And it's better than Twilight, while fitting firmly in the same genre: Phe manages to be in love without losing her identity, she has one to begin with, adults aren't two-dimensional idiots, she stays in school, the love affair isn't abusive, the metaphysical elements are rooted in so ethnic closer to actual lore, the quality of the writing is solid and realistic... I could go on.
The review should be up on NYJB soon. I'm looking forward to her next book!
Second thought: ain't she sweet
You k ow, I enjoyed reading this book, but after the fact, it kind of annoyed me-- to many romance conventions, too many broad strokes, too many southern cliches... And when we studied it in class, that kind of made me not ever want to read it again. J couldn't get over the horrible Geography, but what bothered me most was the end-- how after she reached that required point, what got her to the happy ending was manipulation. And we won't even get into the magical baby.
But I did like the metafictional feel of that end, even if it did feel a little like little women.
But I did like the metafictional feel of that end, even if it did feel a little like little women.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
gradschool: ain't she sweet?
This semester's required reading was Aint She Sweet by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.
I don't usually read romance novels any more (the first adult books I read were Victoria Holt's historical romances, but I transitioned very quickly to scifi, which I started at the same time), though I know the names of the main authors from my mom and from looking through my gramma's here-take-some-books bags. Oh, and A always had a huge selection of those twenty-something-working-girl-who-likes-to-shop books, but I've only read Bridget Jones and maybe one other. Did I read Devil Wears Prada, or just watch the movie eighty times? I don't remember.
Anyway, I meant to take a little time reading this book and post my reactions as I went, maybe every few chapters, but that sort of didn't happen. I read the whole thing in under twelve hours. That was my reaction.
A more official review:
Romance as a genre seems to have a sort of redheaded-stepchild opinion of it in the mainstream view, but this book proves that even a genre that contains things like the new-book-every-month Harlequin series can produce something fresh and strong that exists on it's own merit even if you take out the required love scenes. The romance, while the center of the story, is not the point of the narrative, but the result of it: Sugar Beth was not a nice person when she left home and now she's coming back to deal with all the heartache and ruin she left behind, and that's the point of the story. It's about how the past damages the future and how we get through that to where we need to be.
The characters are solid and distinct, for the most part (though the SeaWillows kind of blend together or come out a little one-note when they're all in the same room), and fit together the way real people do, in shifting hierarchies informed by everything that's come before and supported by mutual friendship and love, hindered by mutual grudges, changed by time but not rewritten. Fifteen years is a long time, and this book captures the distance covered in that time really well.
Additionally, as the story moves on, it becomes a little metafictional, which I always love: having a writer as a main character makes it easy, and even if the end had a little bit of a Little Women feel to it, it was the happy ending the genre requires, and it was suitable.
My only quibble is that the last third of the book went faster than the previous two-thirds, and it would have been nice to have as much time as the rest of the book got to react and ponder and guess outcomes... although that also would have meant wallowing in Sugar Beth's personal anguish, when a lot of the charm of the rest was that she doesn't really do that-- she's strong and stubborn and desperate and still manages to be principled and daring and responsible for her past actions. She's the sort of woman we kind of hope all horrible high school rich bitches can become, and she earns her happy ending.
I especially liked the characters of Sugar Beth and Colin-- even in the beginning when they don't even like each other, they fit together and draw together in a way that seems honest and organic, and the fact that they fall for each other makes perfect sense because of it.
The structure is the classic trial-of-the-heroine story, but it's handled in such a way that it seems like it's all free will-- you don't see the framework of the plot showing through and you believe the characters when they make their decisions and choose their paths. The inevitability of romance means they had to eventually wind up together, but nothing says it had to go this well or make this much sense. Nothing says it had to heal the whole town as it patched up the battered psyches of the two mains, either-- and that's what makes it above the rest of the genre and lets it cross over into something that could be labeled 'epic' almost, the fact that it's not just the story of these two people, but the story of the whole town and a little bit of the generation before them. It's aware of it's own context and it lets all that play out, while keeping it personal and realistic and intimate.
Good choice of a representative, Romance Division!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
