will work for books

I'm gonna sleep with this under my pillow

2011-05-05T15:44:00.000-05:00

Lookee! I had a conversation (well, a Twitter conversation) with Mary Roach! I don't have anything else to say about it. Just wanted to make sure that I kept some proof that it happened.

So Cold the Winter in Nebraska, I mean the River

2011-01-02T11:01:00.003-06:00

Author: Michael Kortya
Title: So Cold the River
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1 edition (June 9, 2010)
Format: Kindle Edition
ASIN: B0035IIBUA

A good twisty story that connects a creepy story from the past with current characters through the paranormal. You will find ESP, possession, and ghosts. The characters are vivid and I liked the main guy a lot. I thought I could tell a bit where things were going, but I liked the trip; there are great descriptions of architecture and setting. There's a nicely drawn older female character. The main guy, a failed movie maker whose marriage is on the rocks, is likeable, too. I thought this was scary enough to be unsettling but not so violent or gross as to be off-putting. A memorable read; I will track down more of this guy's books.

Lee Child, Worth Dying For

2010-11-29T10:55:00.005-06:00

Author: Lee Child
Title: Worth Dying For
Publisher/format: Delacorte Press, cloth
ISBN: 978-0385344319

I really respect Lee Child for not churning out identical Reacher books each year. This author has taken care to develop his character in interesting ways, and he has also taken him through various psychological twists and turns. The penultimate Reacher book, 61 Hours, ended with a cliffhanger that I wasn't expecting; also, it featured a more broken, uncertain Reacher, and fabulous descriptions of a barren South Dakota winter. Child has stayed in the middle of the country for Worth Dying For: here, he places Reacher in a rural, agricultural area of Nebraska--not near the larger cities of Lincoln/Omaha but somewhere in the west (but not, I think, the Sandhills, because the main occupation of the people is farming).

Child does a great job with the NE landscape, its wideness, starkness, and flatness, and he describes a certain kind of Nebraska woman--older, strong, no-nonsense, modest, conscientious, full of integrity, reserved--perfectly. He describes many of the rest of his Nebraskans as quiet, fairly passive go-along-with-the-flow sorts. (Many Nebraskans do seem this way to others, but I believe that the truth is that once you find the part in the flow that they refuse to go along with [which does, in fact, exist, but which they will not tell you about until you accidentally stumble onto it], they will be shockingly stubborn and unmovable.) Even the Nebraskan evildoers in this book have a certain amount of integrity and civility despite their psychopathic, horrid selves. The culture of civility and refusing to make waves is important in NE, but as I hinted before, not everyone here is as passive as the folks in Reacher's town.

Also suffering from this passivity, sort of, are the ten Cornhusker (I think ten) football players Reacher beats up at one time or another in the course of the book. This is very amusing in some ways, but these could not have been Blackshirts. Note that Child is careful to call them "Cornhuskers," and that the trademarked name for the team is "Huskers." He did not want to run afoul of UNL/trademarking/etc.etc., I bet (or his publisher did not want him to).

Anyway, this book is interesting in that it's kind of humorous in an Elmore Leonard sort of a way--criminals and Reacher showing up at the same time and same place without realizing it; comic timing and quick cuts, etc.etc. The nature of the evildoers is kept uncertain until late on. It is very, very horrible what they are doing--which is pretty shocking to the reader because you've been set up, so to speak, by the Elmore Leonard-type timing/humor, and it kind of falls away very quickly into horribleness. There's something of a revenge scene at the end that shocked me a bit in that it has a civilian being Reacher-like.

Reacher is especially hard and distant and killer-like in this one--scary again, despite the fact that he begins the book injured and presumably psychologically battered. Not much is mentioned about the unresolved cliffhanger from 61 Hours; Child is in no hurry to tell us what happened, and when he does, it's almost off-handedly. This I liked.

Anyway, this was a very satisfactory installment in the Reacher series, and I liked it a lot. My big problem is this: there was no shopping expedition for Reacher. I don't care that there are no stores in the middle of the country. I really, really missed the shopping, and I hope he will get back to it. Those are absolutely my favorite parts of the books.

The first two books in the bibliophile series by Kate Carlisle

2010-11-11T11:12:00.000-06:00

Homicide in Hardcover

Bibliophile series #1

by Kate Carlisle

Ebook (B&N)

9781440687655

Penguin

Rating (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best)

Plot: 4

Characters: 3.5

Writing: 3.5

Final: 3.66

Comments: Extra points were given to the plot category for setting the series in the world of book restoration. This series reminds me of Evanovich's Stephanie Plum mystery series. It's pretty goofy, but not quite as over-the-top ridiculous. It helps that the main character is actually good at her job.

Publisher's description

The streets of San Francisco would be lined with hardcovers if rare book expert Brooklyn Wainwright had her way. And her mentor wouldn’t be lying in a pool of his own blood on the eve of a celebration for his latest book restoration. With his final breath he leaves Brooklyn a cryptic message, and gives her a priceless—and supposedly cursed—copy of Goethe’s Faust for safekeeping. Brooklyn suddenly finds herself accused of murder and theft, thanks to the humorless—but attractive—British security officer who finds her kneeling over the body. Now she has to read the clues left behind by her mentor if she is going to restore justice . . .

If Books Could Kill
Bibliophile series #2
by Kate Carlisle
Ebook (B&N)
9781101184707
Penguin

Rating (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best)
Plot: 4
Characters: 3.5
Writing: 3.5
Final: 3.66

Comments: I'd love to see even more about book restoration. I hope that Carlisle doesn't let that part fade away as result of Brooklyn's improved financial circumstances. I'm finding the number of very attractive men she encounters ridiculous almost to the point of distraction. I think we have enough in there to keep her busy for a while. Please don't add any more.

Publisher's description

Murder is easy-on paper. Book restoration expert Brooklyn Wainwright is attending the world-renowned Book Fair when her ex Kyle shows up with a bombshell. He has an original copy of a scandalous text that could change history and humiliate the beloved British monarchy. When Kyle turns up dead, the police are convinced Brooklyn's the culprit. But with an entire convention of suspects, Brooklyn's conducting her own investigation to find out if the motive for murder was a 200-year-old secret—or something much more personal.

This is how far behind I am

2010-11-09T08:00:00.003-06:00

Sadly, I think I'm even missing some.

Books That Need to be Reviewed

Title (series, if applicable) Author

It Sucked and then I Cried by Heather B. Armstrong
The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag (Flavia de Luce, #2) by Alan Bradley
Homicide in Hardcover (Bibliophile series #1) by Kate Carlisle Update: reviewed here
If Books Could Kill (Bibliophile series #2) by Kate Carlisle Update: reviewed here
The Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr
Heat Wave (Nikki Heat, #1) by Richard Castle
Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich
Faithful Place by Tana French
The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession by David Grann
Strange Piece of Paradise by Terri Jentz
Lit: A Memoir by Mary Karr
My Fair Laz: One Reality Television Addict's Attempt to Discover If Not Being a Dumb Ass Is the New Black, or A Culture-up Manifesto by Jen Lancaster
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
Killing the Shadows by Val McDermid
Still Midnight by Denise Mina
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
Spooky Little Girl by Laurie Notaro
Hardball (V.I. Warshawski #13) by Sara Paretsky
Body Work (V.I. Warshawski #14) by Sara Paretsky
Sea Change (Jesse Stone #5) by Robert B. Parker
High Profile (Jesse Stone #6) by Robert B. Parker
Stranger in Paradise (Jesse Stone #7) by Robert B. Parker
Night and Day (Jesse Stone #8) by Robert B. Parker
Split Image (Jesse Stone #9) by Robert B. Parker
The Professional (Spenser #37) by Robert B. Parker
Blue Screen (Sunny Randall #5) by Robert B. Parker
Spare Change (Sunny Randall #6) by Robert B. Parker
206 Bones (Temperance Brennan #12) by Kathy Reichs
Spider Bones (Temperance Brennan #13) by Kathy Reichs
Going in Circles by Pamela Ribon
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach
Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner

Inklings cartoonist will be in #LNK Wednesday 11/10/10

2010-11-08T08:00:00.001-06:00

When Jeffrey Koterba was six, he started drawing his first cartoons, painstakingly copying from the Sunday Omaha World Herald’s funny papers and making up his own characters. With a pen and a sheet of white paper, he was able to escape into a clean, expansive, and comfortable refuge from the pandemonium surrounding him. The tiny house Koterba grew up in was full-to-bursting with garage-sale treasures and televisions his father repaired and sold for extra money. A hard-drinking one-time jazz drummer, whose big dreams never seemed to come true, Koterba’s father was subject to violent facial tics, symptoms of Tourettes Syndrome, a condition Jeffrey inherited. From the canyons of broken electronics, the lightning strikes, screaming matches, and discouragements great and small, emerged a young man determined to follow his creative spirit. Inklings is an exuberant heart-felt memoir infused with an irresistible optimism all it’s own.

You can see some of Koterba's favorite cartoons, read his blog, and more at his website. He'll be at the University Bookstore on Nov. 10 at 7:00 p.m. for a reading and signing.

I am a pathetic excuse for a book blogger

2010-11-07T12:40:00.000-06:00

Oh, man. I am shamefully, woefully behind on my reviews. So here's what I'm going to do:

list all of the titles that need reviews in one post
link to reviews as I finish and post them
vow to post at least one review per week

I don't have a good system for keeping track of what I've read, what I'm currently reading, what needs to be reviewed, and what's been reviewed. I had been managing this via Goodreads: everything on my "currently reading" list had at least been started but still needed a review, regardless of whether I'd finished reading it. That doesn't seem to be working for me any more. I think I'll try simple lists in text documents for a while. Got any better ideas? I would welcome any suggestions you might have.

Detroit 187 and Homicide: Life on the Street

2010-09-29T13:07:00.003-05:00

I was a huge fan of Homicide: Life on the Street. A few reviewers have noted that the new show Detroit 187 is very similar to H:LotS. Here are similarites/homages from the pilot alone:

1. Two guys searching for a shell casing in an alley. Joke is that they find many possibilities. This scene appears in both the first and last ep. of H:LotS.

2. Partnership with a young guy and an intense, brilliant, difficult-to-get-along-with older one who doesn't even want a partner. In H:LotS, this was Frank Pembleton (black, genius, veteran) and Tim Bayliss (white, innocent, rookie). Frank's a master interrogator in the Box (interview room). One of the hallmarks of some great H:LotS eps was seeing Frank be brillian in the box--and then later also Tim. We see the Michael Imperioli character being . . . interestign in the box in the new show. Also, the innocent newcomer in the Det. show is a black guy; the hardened genius veteran is the white guy, Michael Imperioli. Det. 187 is more about Imperioli so far, and I'm not sure the new partner will be in future eps. We'll have to see. I do know Imperioli has been given a great role and that I really loved his acting in the pilot.

3. Liutenant Gee, from H:LotS, spoke Italian, was Sicilian. In Det. 187, we have a female sergeant, perhaps also Italian? Have to see more.

4. The board where a record of cases are kept--red for open, black for solved--played a prominent role in H:Lots; camera often went to it for significant moments. In Det. 187, we have a significant board scene at the end. We'll see if they integrate it further.

Det. 187 has a long way to go, but mostly I felt very heartened watching it, and excited to think there might be another great police procedural show out there. We'll see if Det. 187 can do "service" to Detroit the way H:LotS did Baltimore; I know the latter was started by Barry Levinson (Bawlmer native) and was guided from a love of the city. We'll see if Det. has similar lineage/potential.

Fears for the Detroit show: will be too schmaltzy; will shy away from the grittiness. In this show, already, all the cops are basically good looking, probably too much so, and Det., a city in crisis, looked strangely pretty in some scenes. We'll see how it goes.

Lately

2010-09-29T01:34:00.005-05:00

Author: Lee Child
Narrator: Dick Hill
Title: 61 Hours

The problem with long-running series is that it's hard to keep them interesting, hard to avoid either becoming so repetitive you're putting people to sleep or so far-fetched it feels as if the characters/plots become unrecognizable. Anyway, Lee Child is a very smart guy and Jack Reacher has remained a very interesting hero, but I had started to feel some series malaise lately. In this book, Child takes Reacher in some unexpected directions psychologically. Maybe it felt too fast or neat in some senses, but I was mostly okay with it, very diverted. Reacher did not sleep with a woman in this book, which I found refreshing; however, he does still go on one of his patented shopping sprees, which I love most dearly. I pray to god in heaven he'll never stop *that.*

I listened to the audiobook for this one. Dick Hill, who I used to like, has lately become hard for me to take. I've noticed he tends to increase volume and decrease the pace of his reading to signify intensity, and to me in this book, it just felt too heavy. Maybe he's gone batty. Maybe I have. I don't know.

Author: Sarah Graves
Narrator Lindsay Ellison
Title: Trap Door (Home Repair is Homicide series)

I started reading this series around book 9, so I can't claim to have an extensive knowledge of it. I'll start with what I like most, which is the local color/detail about Maine (landscape, clothing, accents, food, etc.). I've been listening to the books and I enjoy Lindsay Ellison's Maine accent a lot. I find the heroine, Jacobia Tiptree, tiresome and not all that bright, and she's impulsive, which drives me crazy as a personality trait because it's so inimical to good home repair or good detective work. The supporting characters are more sympathetic and interesting. I do love the realistic plotline involving Jacobia's son Sam, who battles substance abuse; this is handled very well, because he doesn't *get* well at once; he has relapses, and the incredible every-day difficulty of staying clean is portrayed well. Just wished I found the heroine less annoying--more sensitive, more thoughtful--though she has her moments.

The Iliad

2010-09-23T13:05:00.003-05:00

I had no idea:

Patroclus rising beside him stabbed his right jawbone,
ramming the spearhead square between his teeth so hard
he hooked him by that spearhead over the chariot-rail,
hoisted, dragged the Trojan out as an angler perched
on a jutting rock ledge drags some fish from the sea,
some noble catch, with line and glittering bronze hook.
So with the spear Patroclus gaffed him off his car,
his mouth gaping round the glittering point
and flipped him down facefirst,
dead as he fell, his life breath blown away.
And next he caught Erylaus closing, lunging in--
he flung a rock and it struck between his eyes
and the man's whole skull split in his heavy helmet,
down the Trojan slammed on the ground, head-down
and courage-shattering Death engulfed his corpse.

That is seriously vivid and yuck, and yet it's got beautiful images. And think--this war lasted ten years!

Do men really talk like this?

2010-09-10T11:18:00.003-05:00

From John Sandford, Dark of the Moon:

"So here's the woman with the fourth-best ass in the state of Minnesota, right in your hometown, and not a bad set of cupcakes, either, from what I could see . . ."

The Sociopath Next Door

2010-09-06T05:11:00.000-05:00

Title: The Sociopath Next Door
Author: Martha Stout, PhD
Publisher: Crown Archetype (February 8, 2005) Kindle Book
ASIN: B000FCJXTC

This book investigates the ramifications of the fact that one in every hundred people has no conscience. It discusses how sociopathy might have formed from an evolutionary perspective; it outlines/defines the concept of having a conscience and what it might be like not to have one; it gives a few case studies of functioning (or not) sociopaths in society today; it indicates how to detect them in your own life. The text perhaps comes down a bit heavily on the benefits of conscience, love, and morality, but I can see why (esp. if this book is used as a textbook for colleges, which I imagine it possibly is). In the end, it's far better to be burdened by a surfeit of conscience than to lack one altogether.

Laura Lippman on Craig Ferguson's show

2010-09-01T15:25:00.000-05:00

She and Craig talk about their "bad urges." I can't wait to get her new book (can't believe I don't already have it). Should I get a print copy or ebook? I'm leaning toward the hardcover. I hope I like the jacket.

True Story, by Michael Finkel

2010-08-27T12:29:00.008-05:00

Title True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa
Author: Michael Finkel
Publisher: HarperCollins, 2005; HarperPerennial
ISBN: 0-06-058047-X (cloth copy I read, from the library); PB copy available now 978-0060580483

Michael Finkel was a writer for the New York Times magazine until he submitted a story about a main character he'd assembled from a composite of people (and did not tell the magazine that that's what he was doing). He was found out and then lost his job with the magazine.

Christian Longo was a guy with a wife and three kids; they were devout Jehovah's Witnesses. When he faced financial problems, Longo engaged in a series of crimes (check counterfeiting, theft) that made his life more and more complicated and unhappy--and he ended up murdering his wife and children. Following the murders, he went on the lam to Cancun, Mexico, where he decided to impersonate Michael Finkel. (He didn't know Finkel had lost his job; he was pretending to be a reporter/writer.) When Finkel, newly fired, found out about the story, he decided to write about it and to get to know Longo.

On some levels, True Story is about the commitment to "going straight" or "telling the truth." Finkel scrupulously establishes that he is verifying every fact he can. For his part, Longo insists (repeatedly, extravagantly, which is a sign in itself) on "absolute truth" in his interactions with Finkel. (We learn that throughout his life, Longo has had several "come clean" moments with his church and family where he promises always to tell the truth from that moment on--even though he never does.)

Of course both men still end up lying--as do we all (in varying degrees). This is because life is complex; because truth can be complex (often, contradictory emotional truths can exist, each with validity); and because the act of narrating/writing is always on some level going to be kind of a lie (when you put something into narrative, you retell it and reframe it; you exclude things that do not fit, etc.etc.; in so doing, you have altered it; narrative theory graduate school etc. blah). Another thing to consider is that human relationships might not always benefit from statements of unvarnished truth.

Anyway, the institutions Longo and Finkel are embroiled in--the profession of journalism; religion in the form of the Jehovah's Witness church; the legal system/courts--all devote themselves to establishing absolute truth for the record, whether spiritual or public (and then delivering final judgments such as guilty or innocent; headed to heaven or headed to hell). True Story reveals that these institutions (and the enterprise of storytelling/writing in toto) cannot completely or accurately comprehend the complexity of the situations that the people they are judging must face.

Longo and Finkel have already been judged in public and received a label: "disgraced" journalist; murderer. The reality of their stories as Finkel presents it in his book is more complicated, less understandable. Moreover, as the book progresses, it becomes even less reliable: throughout the narrative, Finkel obsesses about Longo's tendency to lie, and is warned by many others about being "taken in"; and Finkel himself ends up lying to Longo (though he does confess). We just don't know what the final truth is, absolutely. To make sense of the world, in all our judgements and acts of writing, we must siphon selected items from the overwhelming, unknowable field of reality. Always, something is left out. Always, something is canceled out or repudiated--even though its opposite might also hold true. Sometimes we leave things out because of self-interest or greed, but sometimes it's because of fear or genuine lack of comprehension/scope of vision. Sometime we think we're telling a better version of something even if it isn't strictly true. There's no way, ever, to tell it all.

In the end, then, this book must of course frustrate, since what it shows us is that the truth of any story, any crime, is ultimately too complex to be sewn up neatly, even though in our courts and moral/ethical decisions we must, nonetheless, make judgments about what we can establish to be true. It's a losing battle, I guess, one that always leaves one feeling unsettled and unfinished. However, on the "upside" (that is one revolting word, no?), that lack of fulfilment is precisely what produces language, narrative, and art, so we must also be glad for it--or at least able to admit to ourselves that it exists, even if it does not bring happy or simple narrative closure.

Strengths: weirdness of the two men's relationship as it develops, the fondness that grows between them

Weaknesses: Finkel could've done more with his own crime here. He "murdered," or at least erased, a real person in his false story; wanted to hear more about his response to that. Also, he tells us that on the day he sees the pix of the Longo's dead family (in Longo's trial), that is the end of their friendship--but he continues to engage with Longo and I'd liked to have seen more reflection on this point.

Abandoned Books

2010-08-02T08:00:00.132-05:00

I guess I'm a bit of a masochist. Writing this post makes me feel horrible—I feel guilty because these books don't deserve to be abandoned and also embarrassed because in the time that I didn't finish The Wordy Shipmates I did manage to read the entire Jesse Stone series. On the other hand, I'm really enjoying putting this post together—I like revisiting my lists of books and thinking about how I feel about each title. (By the way, Beth wrote a similar post a while back.)

I'm fighting the urge to explain too much but talking about why I didn't finish these makes me feel mean. I hope that you understand that just because I didn't like these doesn't mean you won't. And feel free to let me know how wrong you think I am.

Here are the books that I've truly abandoned:
The Little Book by Selden Edwards*. I picked it up last week, read a while and it just isn't for me. It didn't grab me or particularly interest me and there are too many other books that I know I want to read. It's also possible that the ridiculously gushy blurbs had an adverse affect (that happens to me sometimes).

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. I know, I know. This probably makes me a bad person but I completely lost interest after whatsername died.

Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron (Shades of Grey, #1) by Jasper Fforde. I'm still kind of mad about this one. I love Jasper Fforde. I wish he'd keep writing books about books.

The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil. I don't know what I was thinking with this one. Here's the description:

The Singularity is an era in which our intelligence will become increasingly nonbiological and trillions of times more powerful than it is today—the dawning of a new civilization that will enable us to transcend our biological limitations and amplify our creativity.

Oh my god so boring. Speculation about the future, no matter how well-supported, is almost never something I want to read about. Note to self: stick to science books by Mary Roach or on a creepy topic (preferably both!).

The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowel. This one is just temporarily abandoned. I honestly think I'll get back to it, I just need to be in the right mood.

I haven't "finished" these and I'm not exactly still reading them but I like them and I'll probably dip into them periodically:
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High by Kerry Patterson
Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin

*This was an unsolicited free advance copy from the publisher. I received it as part of a program where publishers send advances to staff at other publishing houses.

(Mostly) Bookish Links for July 25 - 31, 2010

2010-07-31T10:38:00.000-05:00

I knew there was a reason those sparkly vampires repulsed me (via BoingBoing)
June 30th was Penguin's 75th birthday. They've been posting all sorts of good stuff in celebration. (The Penguin Blog)
A federal judge ruled that it's ok to break DRM if you are not doing it to infringe on copyright (BoingBoing)
The Book Depository Live lets you watch people all over the world buy books. It's a lot more interesting than I just made it sound. (via TeleRead)
I want this pen (via BoingBoing)
The longlist for the Booker Prize was announced. (via GalleyCat)
Here's a list of the 100 best magazine articles ever. Makes me sad about David Foster Wallace all over again. (via I can't remember. It was on BoingBoing but I could swear I saw it somewhere else first.)
And now, a book trailer for the new book by the always delightful Mary Roach (Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void):

The Passage by Justin Cronin

2010-07-26T08:00:00.017-05:00

The Passage
by Justin Cronin
Ebook (B&N)
978-0-345-51686-2
Ballantine Books / Random House

Rating (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best)
Plot: 4.5
Characters: 3.5
Writing: 4
Final: 4

Comments: I bought this on a whim, and I can't remember which tweet or blog post piqued my interest. I'd seen a lot of both regarding this book, but one in particular pushed me over the edge and got me to buy it. I knew very little about it and I had no idea how long it was. To be honest, I don't know if I would have ended up buying it as a print book. I would have known right off the bat how long it was, and that can sometimes kill a whim. Most distressingly, I didn't know it was the first of a trilogy! I got to the end and thought "Huh. Either I really missed something or that was a pretty vague way to end that." (Obviously, I am a genius.)

I really enjoyed the story--it was suspenseful and creepy. Way too long, though. I can't believe there are two more whole books coming: on the one hand, like the idea of getting back into this world; on the other, I just think "Ugh. 800 more pages?"

See also the review by Bibliolatry: The long, mostly interesting (but very long) passage.

Publisher's description

“It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born.”

First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by fear—of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse.

As civilization swiftly crumbles into a primal landscape of predators and prey, two people flee in search of sanctuary. FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he’s done in the line of duty. Six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that has triggered apocalypse. He is determined to protect her from the horror set loose by her captors. But for Amy, escaping the bloody fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey—spanning miles and decades—towards the time and place where she must finish what should never have begun.

Link Roundup for July 18 - 24, 2010

2010-07-24T12:51:00.000-05:00

Here are the best (mostly book-related) things I saw online this week:

William Faulkner’s lectures have been digitized and are now online (via TeleRead)
Cast your vote for the top 100 thrillers ever written (via The Memory Project)
A Pictorial Tour of New York's Bookshops (The Penguin Blog)
The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements. Beautiful design and looks like a fascinating read. (via Book Covers Anonymous)
Artisanal Pencil Sharpening. Great gift idea for your favorite book blogger/nerd/office supply aficionado (via Beerorkid)
Amazon reports that the Kindle format is now outselling hardcovers (via Galleycat)(see also: TeleRead)
Booksquare summarizes the kerfluffle over Andrew Wylie's exclusive deal with Amazon
FlipBoard is a new kind of social media news reader (via Scobleizer). BoingBoing and Gizmodo wonder if it's legal. Here's what it looks like:

Dr. Weil

2010-07-20T13:20:00.002-05:00

Title: Healthy Aging: A Lifelong Guide to Your Physical and Spiritual Well-Being Unabridged version
Author/Narrator: Andrew Weil, M.D. Read by the author.
Publisher: Books on Tape, 2006
Format: MP3 audiobook (Also available in an abridged version, and in print)
ISBN: 0-7393-1599-4

You know you've made the big-time as a public health figure when you're known as "Dr. X" (like Dr. Spock)--no first names necessary, thank you very much; it's the inverse, doctorish version of Cher and Madonna, I guess. Because Dr. [Andrew] Weil advocates integrative or holistic health, he is perhaps not yet as widely trusted as Dr. Spock was, but I believe that if it is not yet here, that time is coming.

The integrative approach to health, as I understand it from reading Weil (and also Alice Domar's books), views health or well-being as the result of one's status in many areas: physical fitness is important, but so are sprituality, nutrition, exercise, and psychology. For Weil specifically (see link to book at end of post), the goal of being healthy/in optimum health is to gird the immune system, to make it as powerful as possible so that the body can fight disease on its own. This is the best, most effective way to heal. Modern medicine can step in when it is needed, but it's better to need it as seldom as possible.

Therefore, instead of reflexively reaching for Advil (but doing nothing else) to cure frequent headaches, the integrative approach to health would ask that you instead consider the problem in a wider context--physical, emotional, nutritional, and spiritual--to see if there are ways you can alter your practices in these areas to stave off the headaches to begin with. The goal is to strengthen the body's own defenses overall so the immune system can take care of many problems on its own. I really like the idea of acknoweldging the effects of psychology, spirituality, and interpersonal relationships on health, and it seems logical to focus on strengthening the immune system to forestall problems.

In Healthy Aging, Dr. Weil criticizes the excesses/harm caused by the recent antiaging trend (often pseudoscientific) of searching for treatments that deny, reverse, or outright halt the signs of aging; instead, he advocates an integrative approach to growing older that aims at "compressing" morbidity. This basically means living well and then dying fast: having an active old age without significant debilitation until one's last few years (months?), when the end comes. If suffering and major illness are limited for the most part to the end of the lifespan, then one can experience the positive aspects (wisdom, depth, perspective, reflectiveness, etc.) of growing older without being overwhelmed or immobilized by pain or chronic suffering.

In addition to questioning the usefulness of the desire to halt or eradicate aging entirely, Dr. Weil also discusses the positive aspects of growing older, looking at aging as an enriching, deepening process. He considers the aging of whiskey, wine, and cheese as positive examples. Rot and decay are involved in these processes, to be sure, but they can produce positive results, such as enhanced, complex flavor and depth of taste. Weil wants us to view the effects of human aging in similar fashion. Denial of aging is not useful; nor is pretending that one will not die or ignoring the process and effects of bodily decline that we all experience. To live openly and straightforwardly with the process--physically, spiritually, and emotionally--and accept both the gifts it offers and the costs it exacts is ultimately more rewarding, says Dr. Weil. I agree.

A note on the audiobook: it's read by Dr. Weil himself. When an author reads his/her own work, it's often illuminating in terms of tone, inflection, interpretation. For me, sadly, Dr. Weil was not the most effective narrator of his own book. He reads as if delivering a paper at an academic conference: rather dry, sometimes hurried, distant, and he pounces on "QUOTE" . . . "END QUOTE." At least he does not say "unquote," as some do. His voice can seem flat at times, a bit monotone, though it is possible to tell when his enthusiasm/intensity level raises. I think this text would've been better served by a professional reader, someone more skilled at using tone/modulation/expressiveness to retain reader interest. To listen to Dr. Weil read a URL aloud is a somewhat unpleasant experience. That said, however, no one's beard (see cover pix) is cuter than Dr. Weil's.

Weil explains his theory of integrative health and the act of strengthening the immune system in many books; the one I've got is:

Title: Eight Weeks to Optimum Health, New edition, expanded and updated
Author: Andrew Weil, M.D.
Publisher: Ballantine (orig. 1996; rev. ed. 2006)
Format: Trade paper
ISBN: 978-0-345-49802-1

A final note. It's expensive to be healthy. Organic foods cost more; vitamins can really add up (my own personal vitamin recommendation over at Dr. Weil's site would cost over a hundred dollars a month); and it is time consuming to prepare whole foods. Is this an approach to eating that can be adopted by busy people without much money? Will it appeal to more than the worried wealthy (or merely well-off) well? I hope so.

Link Roundup for July 11 - 17, 2010

2010-07-17T11:02:00.000-05:00

Here are the best (mostly book-related) things I saw on the interwebs this week:

#bookstorebingo on Twitter. If you've ever worked in a bookstore you'll be able to relate. For example, @Watermarkbooks "had a summer-long Jane Austen bookclub. Had someone ask when she would be there."
Read an excerpt of University of Nebraska Press's Palmento: A Sicilian Wine Odyssey by Robert V. Camuto (UNP blog)
Jeffrey Eugenides talks with his editor at Farrar, Strauss and Giroux about his next book (Work in Progress)
Video games inspired by literature: The Great Gatsby video game (via GalleyCat)
Ebooks are not subsidiary rights (Black Plastic Glasses)
A contest that will pick one person to live at Chicago's Museum of Science & Industry for a month (via BoingBoing)
Study like a scholar, scholar (via TeleRead)

Cozies and Louise Penny's Three Pines series

2010-07-14T12:58:00.006-05:00

Author: Louise Penny
Titles: Still Life (Mass-market paperback)
and
A Rule against Murder (Audiobook, read by Ralph Cosham)
ISBNs: Still Life: 9780312948559; Rule against Murder: 9781433251306
Publishers: St. Martin's (2007); Blackstone Audio (2009)

Detective: Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, at the Sûrété du Quebec
Setting: Three Pines, a fictional village in Quebec
Genre: Cozy but with psychological complexity that is rewarding. Series seems to focus on artists and the act of creation; generational miscues and attempts to communicate; group dynamics; psychological growth or entrapment

I'm confused by the "cozy" genre of mysteries. I guess they're supposed to make you feel cozy and happy . . . about murder? About not being murdered? Generally, they seem to produce "feel-good" murder stories. At their worst, they tend to kill off threats/scapegoats (not "nice" people) and preserve the strength of the community through the ultimate expulsion. On the positive side, cozies do not intend to glorify violence or crime; they show it as a tragedy and chart the subtle ways murder can affect a community and the psychological dynamics within it.

The cozies I've read feature close-knit groups of people who happen to live in places where many murders occur. That's where the genre gets a bit dicey for me. If these are such great places, why do so many people die in them? I am reminded of the TV show Murder, She Wrote. Why weren't people shunning Jessica Fletcher or running like hell from her? Why wasn't she banished from Cabot Cove? Nothing good happened while she was around.

In more seriousness, it is a worthwhile project to think about how crime affects a community, and in this, cozies excel. Often, mystery novels forget to trace the longstanding, painful effects of violent crime: how families/friends of victims, suspects, the police, and so forth all cope with the fallout. If some of the cozies I've read tend to idealize community ties and affluence, they also provide well-drawn and interesting characters and seem more psychologically astute than the standard plot-driven whodunnit.

Louise Penny's Armand Gamache series features a great main character and an interesting community in Quebec. I have learned much about the English/Quebecois relationship in Canada from the two books I've read. Penny is a great plotter and her mysteries have interesting twists and turns. She makes you feel exasperated and fond of her characters on alternating pages, and she does not idealize them. They are flawed and yet still likable. If these books tend toward a certain worship of Gamache, I have to sympathize, because he truly is a great character. Sometimes the denizens of Three Pines are a bit too talented, too progressive, too witty, too sensitive and artistic to be believable, but at the same time, the place seems appealing as well. Gamache is an outsider in a sense to the community, which is an important, useful device because this way readers, like him, can evaluate the positive and negatives in the community. I've found the plots very interesting and engaging; Penny is a good storyteller and does a great job of creating tension. The two books in the Three Pines series I've read, the first and fourth, are very interesting, and I'm going to keep reading the series. Louise Penny is a great find for me--I love character-driven mysteries, and hers are very engaging.

Blind Descent by James Tabor

2010-07-13T12:15:00.009-05:00

Title: Blind Descent: The Quest to Discover the Deepest Place on Earth
Author: James M. Tabor
Publisher: Random House, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6767-1 (cloth)

I am a huge fan of James M. Tabor's Forever on the Mountain, which tells of a disastrous mountaineering expedition in 1967 in which only five of twelve men survived an attempt to climb Denali (once known as Mount McKinley). That book gives a brilliant analysis of team dynamics and psychological conflict, and it provide a fascinating meditation on the nature of leadership and varying leadership styles.

In Blind Descent, Tabor moves from mountaineering to cave diving. The exploration of "super caves" is as dangerous as high-altitude mountaineering but provides unique challenges of its own. This book got me really interested in cave diving, though I know I'd never want to do it. As in his previous book, Tabor has chosen two contrasting leaders/expedition styles to follow. The American leader is Bill Stone; the Ukrainian is Alexander Klimchouk. Stone is fascinatingly flawed, alternately impressive and deeply annoying. Klimchouk comes off as more of a mystery and a private person, but an infinitely better leader, though it's more difficult for Tabor to trace the inner dynamics of K's expeditions because of the language barrier. Blind Descent provides less of a unified narrative because the quests of the two men/expeditions are not precisely parallel; their quests took place at different times, and Klimchouk was not even present physically on the final expedition of his team described in the book. Owing to this structure, the narrative has some difficulty sustaining head-to-head tension, so I do not suggest reading this book primarily to see who wins the "race." That's not its strength, and besides, as I discovered, one of the figure captions tells you anyway who won!

I felt that some of what made Forever on the Mountain so unforgettable was Tabor's analysis and comparison: in Blind Descent, I thought Tabor's interpretive voice was less present. I should say, however, that the book is extremely engaging and that I devoured it quickly. The stories are harrowing, and the near-misses and triumphs keep the reader very engaged. If it's less reflective, it's because the text is less an analysis than a primary source report. It should be noted that in Forever on the Mountain, Tabor was dealing with an expedition that took place years ago; that there were already several existing memoirs and interpretations of the event; and that all in all, the Denali expedition lent itself better to an account that focused on analysis. Blind Descent is more firmly located in the here and now, the explorers' present.

The book has some great images; unless you've got an e-reader that handles images really nicely, I'd go hard copy with this one. Watch out for the "spoiler" in the figure caption; I kid you not; it tells you right there. This is the book's way, probably, of discouraging readers from reading it primarily as a "race" book.

Two books that have been really helpful to me

2010-07-13T09:49:00.002-05:00

Title: Home Comforts
Author: Cheryl Mendelson
Format: Paperback reprint, 2005 (I have the cloth from 2001); Ebook, BN.Com
ISBN-13: 9780743272865

This book contains some of the only descriptions/discussion of housework I've ever encountered that does not make me want to pull my hair out or feel sullen.

Seen from the outside, housework can look like a Sisyphean task that gives you no sense of reward or completion. Yet housework actually offers more opportunities for savoring achievement than almost any other work I can think of. Each of its regular routines brings satisfaction when it is completed. These routines echo the rhythm of life, and the housekeeping rhythm is the rhythm of the body. You get satisfaction not only from the sense of order, cleanliness, freshness, peace and plenty restored, but from the knowledge that you yourself and those you care about are going to enjoy these benefits (10).

Housekeeping creates cleanliness, order, regularity, beauty, the conditions for health and safety, and a good place to do and feel all the things you wish and need to do and feel in your home. . . . It is your housekeeping that makes your home alive, that turns it into a small society in its own right, a vital place with its own ways and rhythms, the place where you can be more yourself than you can anyplace else (7).

Title:Be Happy without Being Perfect: How to Break Free from the Perfection Deception
Author: Alice D. Domar
Reader: Karen White
Format: Audiobook/MP3 file
Publisher: Books on Tape, Inc., 2008
ISBN-13: 9781415945650

This book has sane, smart suggestions on letting go of perfectionism, and lots of great relaxation techniques.

It gives an interesting list of the components of a healthy relationship, which I'll paraphrase:

--involves give and take
--partners compromise and take turns
--partners care about each other
--communication is open
--partners offer reciprocal gestures of caring
--partners benefit equally from [Ed. looks like I wrote "hord" here, but that makes no sense. Oh.] bond.

Also really good is Domar's Self Nurture.

The only way to heal old wounds that cause us to grasp for love or possessions is to recognize them, grieve for our losses, and nourish ourselves with compassion" (15).

Help! Do any of the book community sites have an iPad app?

2010-06-28T08:00:00.000-05:00

I don't find the iPad app store very easy to browse--for one thing, they don't list enough apps per page so you're forced to keep paging through the list rather than just scrolling down. I've tried searching specifically for the sites I know of, but haven't had any luck. I typically use Goodreads but they don't appear to have an iPad app (just iPhone/iPod). I also couldn't find an app for LibraryThing. Are there any I'm forgetting?

New Blog Design (courtesy of Blogger Template Designer)

2010-06-27T17:44:00.001-05:00

I finally got around to playing with the new Blogger template designer. My first thought is that while it's an improvement, they still don't have very many templates to choose from. They finally offer 3-column templates, though, and it is very easy to use. I also liked that it automatically maintained all of my sidebar links and gadgets.

More effing reduxes

2010-05-20T09:54:00.005-05:00

This essay has been sent around, linked to a lot by those in publishing, and I'm sorry for the repeat; I believe even Jana has linked to it! However, it explains the economics of pricing e-books and why Amazon would make the moves it does wrt cloth copies and pricing. Here. It explains the debate on pricing from the publishers' POV.

E-books, pricing, availability, frustration redux redux

2010-05-19T10:40:00.007-05:00

To combat (I imagine?) the newer publisher strategy of making some e-books available only in Barnes and Noble e-reader format (and not Kindle at all), I believe Amazon is selling cloth or paper versions of the books at Kindle prices.

Thus, the latest book in Ariana Franklin's Mistress of the Art of Death series is priced as follows:

Barnes and Noble
E-book: $12.99
Cloth: $18.68

Amazon
E-book: None available
Cloth:$9.99. Yes, that's NINE NINETY NINE.

Another example: Nora Roberts, Bed of Roses, paperback. Both sellers have the book in paper and e-versions, but Amazon's prices are still less expensive, and the paper version and e-version cost the same.:

Barnes and Noble
E-book version: $12.99.
Paperback: $9.36
ISBN-13: 9780425230077
Publisher: Penguin Group
Pub date: October 2009

Amazon
Kindle version: $7.35
"Deckle edge" paperback version: $7.35
ISBN-13: 978-0425230077
Publisher: Berkeley Trade [owned by Penguin Group] (October 2009; original edition)

I don't know what to say about this other than
1. E-book buyers could benefit from searching both Amazon and B and N, because there is a price war.
2. I've got the insanely cheap cloth version of the Franklin book at home now.

Finally, an article
"In some circles, the iPad was known as 'the Jesus tablet.'"
--Ken Auletta, Publish or Perish: Can the iPad topple the Kindle, and save the book business? from The New Yorker, April 26, 2010

Why oh whyyyyy? The New York Times Editors’ Choice iPad app

2010-05-13T09:33:00.000-05:00

I know a lot of people have already expressed their disappointment with this app, but the bits I've read have focused on the content: the fact that the app only contains a selection of articles from the paper (which is why it's called "Editors' Choice"). I wasn't thrilled about that, either. It's annoying that my iPod Touch app has more NYT content. But whatever. I can kind of understand the decision--I might not agree with it, but I can at least see a reason behind it. Also, a paid app is said to be forthcoming and if it's reasonably priced (not $20.00 a month!) I'll consider paying for it (but only if they address my concern below).

Here is where we get to the "Why oh whyyyyy?" part of my complaints:

Why oh whyyyyy have they taken away my ability to tweet stories? It makes no sense. Email as the only sharing option is downright archaic. Twitter and Facebook are by far my preferred ways to share articles (or blog posts). I find myself using this app less and less. Just last night I decided to give it another try, immediately found an article I wanted to share, became frustrated and gave up. And have obviously been stewing about it ever since.

Yes, I realize that I can go to their main website and tweet articles from there. I probably will end up doing just that (and deleting the app). But the app could actually be useful as (I think) it was intended: as a selection, a little snippet of the paper to read when you just have a few minutes (or are too lazy to read the whole thing). It just makes me angry that they came so close to making something useful then blew it by removing a key feature (and one that already exists! They didn't have to invent it or figure it out or anything! Gah).

Book review: Stuff

2010-05-12T14:58:00.005-05:00

Title: Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things
Authors: Randy Frost and Gail Steketee
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 978-0151014231
ASIN (for Kindle version): B003JAO0QI

Stuff treats compulsive hoarding and hoarders with integrity, giving them earnest, honest intellectual attention in an effort to understand how they see the world and feel about themselves. The authors spend time listening to hoarders, investigating their problems, seeing how they interpret the world, following their case studies--and, finally, treating them. The authors want to help people stop compulsive hoarding because it makes them (and those around them) miserable--but through it all, they continue to approach their patients with respect and compassion, not scorn. They even at some times propose that hoarders have a special and almost artistic vision of the world, that hoarders relate to color, for example, or combinations/arrangements of things in a different (and perhaps more artistic) way than the rest of us.

Clearly, hoarding is a topic of fascination for the authors, but this is a sustained intellectual fascination with the goal of helping the hoarders to be happier. The hoarders are offered the tools to free themselves of the clutter that may be harming their lives--if they want it. It's pointed out several time that forced cleanups and treatment tend not to work with hoarders. Anyway, I loved the approach and tone of this book's authors.

Stuff is a good antidote to our culture's (and my own) obsession with reality TV about hoarding and messiness. Like I said, it treats hoarders as individuals who matter in themselves. It is geared toward increasing their happiness and ability to function in the world. In reading this book, I got to think a lot about my own relationship to things and objects, and it has been very illuminating. Most of all, I think I realized that if one makes hoarders (or other reality show TV subjects) into objects, whether of scorn, fascination, or humor, instead of trying to see the complexity of their lives, then we are denying them the full range of respect we owe them as humans. Which, perhaps, they have already given up by choosing to be on reality tv. Who knows. It is still sometimes very hard not to get sucked in.

From the amazon page on Frost's book--links to photos that demonstrate levels of hoarding (from Amazon.com). What kills me about these is the language used for level of severity. We have small, mild, serious, severe, severe with impairment (really, very severe!!), and extreme (superhorribly awful severe!). For most people, once a certain level of severe is reached, they all look the same, more or less, but I get why the authors and researchers have wanted to classify/quantify this stuff. However, I hope extreme hoarding will never qualify as a sport in a future X Games.

Only a small amount of clutter
A mild hoarding problem
A very serious hoarding problem
A severe hoarding problem with substantial impairment
A very severe hoarding problem with substantial impairment
Extreme hoarding

The Three Weissmanns of Westport

2010-05-02T13:04:00.008-05:00

Title: The Three Weissmanns of Westport
Author: Cathleen Schine
Audiobook reader: Hillary Huber
Audio publisher: Blackstone Audio, 2010
Audio ISBN: 978-1441725189
Print publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010
Print ISBN: 9780374299040

This was a true pleasure, a smart, sad, funny audiobook with a great reader. The Three Weissmanns of Westport is a retelling of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. In nearly all ways, I found the updating to be true to the spirit and tone of the original book. This sort of thing is very, very often botched in current Austen retellings; here is one that gets it right. The alterations to the story have been done thoughtfully and for good reason, and they fit perfectly into the story. In other words, this is a retelling in the best of senses: the original story has been both honored and transformed.

Austen's original story is about youngish people who are about to embark on the first significant relationships of their lives. Schine's Weissmanns are in their late forties and fifties (the daughters), and their mother is in her sixties. These characters have already had had their first loves (and divorces), made their careers, and had children. To me, this is a significant, wonderful shift: I love how Schine shows us that women continue developing even after the "firsts" have been settled.

All too often in popular culture, stories end after "first love" is declared, and female protagonists often consider themselves old if they are in their thirties. In such settings, women who are over forty are either rendered invisible or consigned to set, stereotyped roles (admirable or soulless career woman; loving or cruel mother/grandmother; predatory cougar or sexually repressed nonentity). Okay, I just made a bunch of generalizations and I know that there are romances and stories for older women--but I do think there are not as many, yet, as I'd like to see. Anyway, I am so happy to have found a book that focuses on the stories, thoughts, relationships, feelings, and sexuality of women over forty. These women are not used as afterthoughts or background or sources of advice/wisdom; they are the main story.

In Jane Austen's novels, the most vividly described female-female relationships tend to be those between sisters or rivals; mothers in Austen's novels are, for the most part, either dead, distant, or used for comic relief. Motherhood is central to Schine's book, and she is particularly brilliant in her portrayal of Betty Weissmann, my favorite character. In Sense and Sensibility, Mrs. Dashwood is loving, funny, and flighty but not wise. Mrs. Weissmann is all of those things, plus, she gets the very best lines in the novel. One I've seen quoted often is her reaction to her husband when he (at the beginning of the book) asks her for a divorce because they have irreconcilable differences; she basically tells him: Well of course there are irreconcilable differences! What does that have to do with divorce? In Sense and Sensibility, little time is spent on Mrs. Dashwood's inner life; I really enjoyed that Schine took the time to develop Betty's so thoroughly.

This is one of those books that shocks you because it's so very, very smart, funny, and sad at the same time. The intelligence and insightfulness of the author seemed so vivid to me. It was great to read about characters who've already found--and sometimes lost, or rejected, or left--"the one" and are dealing with what comes next, looking at identity, career, and relationships from a more experienced perspective.

Anyway, a million thumbs up for this audiobook; the novel is also out in a print version (cover below) and an electronic version.

Wine, Writers, & Song Festival this weekend in Brownville, NE

2010-04-22T16:33:00.002-05:00

Every year, we spend the last weekend in April celebrating wine, literature, food, music and history with a program of fun events for all ages.

I'm super late posting this (sorry, Cinnamon!), but I don't think it's too late to get in on the action--it starts tomorrow. Check out the Brownville website for the full schedule and info about the authors and musicians.

There's a little more coverage on the UNP blog:

Several University of Nebraska Press authors--Paul Johnsgard, Beef Torrey, and Sean Carmichael and Maggie Pleskac--are participating in the festivities

Events include:
- a writers' workshop
- a songwriters' roundtable
- pairing food & wine program
- music by Jumpin' Kate
and much more!

Upcoming Book Signing for Captive Arizona, 1851-1900 on 4/28 #LNK

2010-04-22T16:04:00.000-05:00

UNL Professor Victoria Smith to read and sign copies of her newest book Captive Arizona, 1851-1900 at the University Bookstore on April 28th, 2010. Smith’s presentation on Captive Arizona, 1851-1900 will begin at 7:00pm Wednesday April 28th with a book signing to follow.

Captivity was endemic in Arizona from the end of the Mexican-American War through its statehood in 1912. The practice crossed cultures: Native Americans, Mexican Americans, Mexicans, and whites kidnapped and held one another captive. Victoria Smith's narrative history of the practice of taking captives in early Arizona shows how this phenomenon held Arizonans of all races in uneasy bondage that chafed social relations during the era. It also maps the social complex that accompanied captivity, a complex that included orphans, childlessness, acculturation, racial constructions, redemption, reintegration, intermarriage, and issues of heredity and environment.

This in-depth work offers an absorbing account of decades of seizure and kidnapping and of the different “captivity systems” operating within Arizona. By focusing on the stories of those taken captive—young women, children, the elderly, and the disabled, all of whom are often missing from southwestern history—Captive Arizona, 1851–1900 complicates and enriches the early social history of Arizona and of the American West.

What's it to you, punk?

2010-04-21T12:46:00.008-05:00

Title: Honor Your Anger: How Transforming Your Anger Style Can Change Your Life
Author: Beverly Engel
Publisher: Wiley, 2003
Format: Kindle
ASIN: B000VA30HO

I've been reading books on expressing and dealing with anger, and this is one of the best ones I've found so far. This book asks a lot of readers. You must be prepared to take many quizzes, do exercises, and think. If you are up to that (or even only part of it, as I was), the book provides a great analysis/discussion of various styles people use in expressing anger. You learn whether you tend to internalize ("anger-in") or externalize ("anger-out") your anger, and then you determine which anger style you tend to use and evaluate how it's working for you. There are primary and secondary anger styles, and all are connected as well to one's communication style. It is acknowledged that you may have more than one style depending on context or situation.

Anger styles that work: the assertive anger style (calmly state your problem, use I-based statements, etc.) or the reflective style (think about it all before moving to assertion). Anger styles that do not work include: aggressive, passive or avoidant, passive-aggressive, and projective-aggressive. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE, people--or, if you do not, this book can help you figure it out. I found it illuminating to see the many drawbacks that come of not acknowledging anger. This does not make you un-angry; you just channel the anger into probably not so awesome behaviors and patterns.

The author starts the book with a revealing discussion of her own problems with anger, and I liked her much better for this honesty. It also showed that she was perfectly suited in some ways to write this book.

About all those exercises: she asks you to do lots of reflecting on how anger got/gets expressed in your family of origin, and then how you use it as an adult. Readers are invited to write an anger autobiography; analyze the way anger was handled in one's family and by one's parents; and so forth. The exercises also include the writing of "anger letters" to those who have made you angry. Note: you do not necc. send these. You just try to collect your thoughts in them. Also, the author asks readers to consider forgiveness and apology or "letting it go." She manages to make that sound not stupid or annoying, and I found truth in what she said.

Anger can, Engel points out, motivate us, make us goal-oriented, give us energy and inspiration--or it can make us depressed, resentful, trapped, and immobilized. I found lots of insightful things in this book, though I must confess I was not up to doing the extensive amount of work suggested in the exercises. Perhaps I will go back to it later.

Me = anger-in; tending to the passive aggressive or avoidant; but other times also aggressive, if I know you well enough. Am free, however, to go into rage over smaller things: I might become enraged if the "l" key on my keyboard were not working properly.

[link] Dear Author's iPad eBook App Roundup

2010-04-19T09:53:00.000-05:00

Dear Author did a nice comparison of the currently available iPad eBook apps:

There are several ebook reading applications. There is no perfect reading app despite the iPad having multiple advantages over eink devices.

I haven't used Kindle on the iPad yet. And I'll continue to not use it if it insists on displaying everything right justified. I've read a little bit on the iBooks app, but not enough to have an opinion on it yet. All I can say is that nothing has annoyed me so far. I'm really waiting for the Barnes and Noble eReader app which, according to Dear Author, is awaiting approval from Apple.

Loot, by Sharon Waxman

2010-04-09T23:31:00.005-05:00

Title: Loot: The Battle over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World
Author: Sharon Waxman
Publisher: Henry Holt, 2009
Format: Paperback
ISBN-13: 9780805090888

Fascinating book about the ethical dilemmas posed by the fact that many of the world's ancient treasures/archaeological finds have been "looted" by other nations, usually Western ones such as the United States, United Kingdom, or France. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, treasures in Greece, Egypt, Italy, and Turkey were taken by either private individuals or museum buyers. France basically ran the department of antiquities in Egypt for years, overseeing the removal of artifacts from Egypt to other countries, and Egypt was not an equal partner in these decisions. Lord Elgin in the United Kingdom simply took the frieze at the top of the Parthenon in Greece. He believed he was saving it. Gilded Age capitalists/philanthropists in the United States used their wealth and power to obtain antiquities overseas to stock the museums they were building back at home.

The countries where these artifacts were originally found (which is not always the same thing as the culture or civilizations that created them) have always had much to say about these practices, but only lately have they been able to make the raiding countries actually respond to them. As a result, the notion of repatriation--the process of returning artifacts to their regions of origin--has been hotly debated for much of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

In Loot, Waxman considers the issue from the perspective of the various groups who believe it is their mission to maintain and preserve ancient artifacts and cultural heritages: the tourism industry; museums (the Getty, the Met, the Louvre, the British Museum); people in government antiquities departments (such as those of Egypt and Greece); museum curators and directors; and antiquities dealers. Needless to say, these groups cannot agree entirely on anything; their beliefs about the core concepts at stake (history, antiquity, museums, and preservation) are too often in conflict.

Some of the main questions the book addresses are:

1. If the country of origin of an artifact is in disarray and cannot "properly" care for (security wise; preservationwise) its own artifacts/history, does it cede the right to gain (or reclaim) its artifacts?
2. If a museum has artifacts that were obtained using questionable methods, but a hundred years ago or so, to what extent should the museum be public about it? To what extent should the country where the artifact is stored (or the museum) be expected to return the artifact?
3. Who owns objects of art? The region where they were made? The museum where they have been for years? The "human community"? Who should be stewards of them?
4. What should the role of museums be in preserving culture, history, and artwork?

There are no easy answers to these problems, but all parties concerned feel very passionately about the issues. As a result, this book contains lively profiles and memorable stories, and it is very fun to read. (It made me either want to become an art historian or travel.) I had not thought much about the politics surrounding antiquities, or museums, and I liked the way Waxman showed how complicated many of these problems are.

One of the most compelling stories she tells is of the "Lydian Hoard," a group of objects that were obtained under cagey circumstances by the Met. Ultimately, after much agitation from Turkish newspaper writers/activists, the museum agreed to return them to Turkey in the 1980s:

For two years the treasures of the Lydian Hoard were displayed in the Anatolian Civilizations Museum in Ankara, before being transferred in 1995 to Usak, to an aging one-room museum in the town, whose population had grown to one hundred thousand. Not only was the return of the Lydian Hoard a source of undeniable pride in Usak, but it also made restitution a popular cause . . .

But that consciousness didn't translate into broad viewership of the hoard. In 2006 the top culture official in Usak reported that in the previous five years, only 769 people had visited the museum . . .

That was bad enough, but the news soon turned dire. In April 2006 the newspaper Milliyet published another scoop on its front page: the masterpiece of the Lydian Hoard, the golden hippocampus, the artifact that now stood as the symbol of Usak . . . was a fake. The real hippocampus had been stolen from the Usak museum and replaced with a counterfeit.

I can't get this story out of my head. Returned at last, only to be stolen!

New York Times on e-books, iPads

2010-03-31T23:01:00.004-05:00

Today's New York Times contains David Pogue's funny review of iPad: The Apple iPad is basically a gigantic iPod Touch. The review is in two sections: one for tech-heads, one for "regular people." The upshot seems to be that while regular people will probably love the iPad, tecchies are less enthusiastic. (Perhaps this is true of all things in life.) Some quotes from the review follow.

On the iPad book reading app, from the tech part:

There’s an e-book reader app, but it’s not going to rescue the newspaper and book industries (sorry, media pundits). The selection is puny (60,000 titles for now). You can’t read well in direct sunlight. At 1.5 pounds, the iPad gets heavy in your hand after awhile (the Kindle is 10 ounces). And you can’t read books from the Apple bookstore on any other machine — not even a Mac or iPhone.

The book reading app, from the regular person part:

The new iBooks e-reader app is filled with endearing grace notes. For example, when you turn a page, the animated page edge actually follows your finger’s position and speed as it curls, just like a paper page. Font, size and brightness controls appear when you tap. Tap a word to get a dictionary definition, bookmark your spot or look it up on Google or Wikipedia. There’s even a rotation-lock switch on the edge of the iPad so you can read in bed on your side without fear that the image will rotate.

I want to fast-forward three to five years ahead, when the little bugs are fixed and the price is low and I can just go get one of these. Or, you know, an iPhone. It's hard waiting for technology to smooth out!

Another NYT article, this one on how since e-books have no discernable covers when you are reading them (all an onlooker can see is the device you're using to read), the e-book thus takes away a certain instant visual marketing/advertising component from publishers. It's here.

I can say that I've had several conversations with people who have Kindles, mostly on planes. Usually, we are discussing how much we enjoy the device, or how much we like the other person's carrying case or whatever. What we're reading at the time tends not to get mentioned.

I have to say, I love trying to see the covers of other people's books. Perhaps e-book readers need a back window, one that shows the cover or title of the book you're reading. Or not. As much as I love seeing what other people are reading, I love even more the fact that e-book readers enable me to "anonymously" read or buy any old trashy thing I feel like. In general, I probably shouldn't worry about that kind of thing, but that's another topic for another day.

Current Obsession: iPad

2010-03-31T17:04:00.000-05:00

Just look at Kobo on the iPad:

Kobo on iPad from Kobo on Vimeo.

I have the Kobo app on my iPod Touch, but I don't really use it. It's nice for browsing books and it has a very pretty interface. Browsing is nice because there are so many categories: what they call browse is all arranged by subject, where discover has all sorts of interesting categories like what's new, NYT bestseller, in the news, hidden gems, and many more. However, I haven't actually read anything with Kobo.

And here, of course, is the iBooks app (image from Apple):

I mean, am I really supposed to be able to resist this?

Current Obsession: Tiny Art Director

2010-03-27T11:29:00.000-05:00

I can't shut up about this. It's pure genius: great idea, perfectly executed.
Tiny Art Director

More about Tiny Art Director

The Politician

2010-03-25T13:52:00.004-05:00

Title: The Politician: An Insider's Account of John Edwards's Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down
Author: Andrew Young
Reader: Kevin Foley
Publisher: Tantor Media
Format; Unabridged,MP3 - Unabridged CD edition (February 22, 2010)
ISBN-10: 1400166500
ISBN-13: 978-1400166503

Andrew Young was an aide to John Edwards during his senate run and then through his presidential campaigns. I do not know the standard rules for being someone's political aide, but I can tell you that as Young and the Edwards family worked it, the important boundaries between employer and employee were completely breached. Granted, the relationship between an employer and an assistant, or a celebrity and a handler, or a politician and an aide is not standard or easily defined. Fame complicates things, making both parties likely to idolize the famous person and give him or her much latitude in conduct. Strange ego and personality issues dominated the Young/Edwards relationship. Young ended up buying furniture and taking care of house decorating and maintenance tasks for Edwards and his wife--he then ended up being the go-between between John Edwards and his mistress Rielle Hunter. In the end Young went so far as to actually claim that Hunter (now pregnant with Edwards's child) was HIS mistress and went into seclusion with her--and his family. Clearly, this is insane. Why did Young fall so far? How did he lose sight so completely of himself and his own set of ethics? (I won't even attempt to answer these questions for Edwards. I cannot understand anything he did.)

Young's book suggests the following reasons for his insane devotion to Edwards:

--Successful politicians are consummate people persons who are manipulative and able to "work" people, whether or not they intend to. They may be so charismatic that they simply do not realize their effect on others. Since Young was not a seasoned campaign worker or political person, he was startstruck by the Edwardses to begin with. He also came to love Edwards the man, and Elizabeth Edwards, and considered them close friends. The Edwardses returned that affection, often referring to Young as "family." All lines between friendship/admiration/hero worship/the workplace were blurred.

--Politics attracts the idealistic. Young states repeatedly that he loved Edwards's political messages and thought he should be president despite his personal failings. The bottom line for Young was that it was worth it to support Edwards because in the end, he'd do the right thing for the country. (Greater good for the greatest no. of people.)

--The desire to be near power or associated with power and fame makes people lose sight of themselves.

--Young's sense of his own identity as an adult was fuzzy and incomplete.

Why did Young not walk away early on? He says he ended up feeling trapped in a situation that kept worsening. Edwards kept raising his salary, and he wanted Edwards in office, and he kind of ended up having to hang around until that happened, I guess. I'm not sure. At the end, Young hints about his complex relationship with his own father, who had also committed adultery, and points out how people who are flawed and fail can recover if they are honest.

Young did a lot of awful things. He helped Edwards conceal his affair from his wife, who was suffering from cancer. This is almost too horrible to be believable. Edwards claims Elizabeth was "in remission" at the time his affair with Hunter began. Whatever.

Young also claims that Elizabeth Edwards was difficult, obstructive, unpleasant, and close to crazy by the end. He suggests but does not say outright that she pretended her cancer was worse than it was to gain media attention and support.

Obviously, Young is resentful of the Edwardses, who cut him off after he was used horribly. He does attempt to take responsibility for his own culpability. I am amazed his wife, Cheri, put up with his behavior, because in effect, Young ignored his own family to serve the Edwardses for years on end. He even ended up helping the Edwardses decorate for Christmas and purchase presents--instead of helping his own family. At one point, his mother in law simply turns her back on Young in fury and disgust. This was definitely the kind of thing he deserved!

This book provides an interesting look at Edwards, although since it is clearly tinged with resentment and hurt feelings, it must be taken with a grain of salt. I would like to hear Elizabeth Edwards's take on some of these things; I did find it a bit hard to believe she was as crazy and shrewlike as Young potrays her.

I was disgusted thoroughly with Edwards before I read this book, and after reading it, I still am, though I feel some small sympathy for him. However, I'm mostly really glad he did not make it to a serious position of power. Young, I hope, will not become anyone else's personal assistant or aide. He is not the type of personality to function well in such a role, the book shows. I found Young's refusal to see the truth of his situation very frustrating--but who of us has not had huge blindspots in life, or times of denial. I can only hope my own never lead me to enable (or engage in) behavior like Edwards's.

The audiobook is read by Kevin Foley, who has a nice, booming voice that is pleasant to the ear. I am not fond of the southern accent he adopted for Edwards, and I haven't heard Edwards speak enough to know if it was accurate. In places, Foley gets the emphasis of sentences wrong/misreads a bit--but all in all, the book is good to listen to.

Judith Warner, We've Got Issues

2010-03-24T14:37:00.005-05:00

Author: Judith Warner
Title: We've Got Issues: Children and Parents in the Age of Medication
Publisher: Riverhead
Format: Kindle book
ASIN: B0030CVQLW

I first became aware of Judith Warner through reading her posts at the New York Times's online Opinionator blog. I am sad to see she has stopped contributing to the blog. Warner wrote on politics and society and gender and class, but her focus was often on parenting and motherhood. I am not a mother, so I did not read her posts regularly, but when I come upon them, I usually found them witty and pithy, well worth reading. In general, I like the way she thinks. She is not afraid to go out on a limb, or to be wrong, and sometimes, she changes her position on issues as years go by. I really appreciate that kind of intellectual flexibility and courage.

Warner's recent book, We've Got Issues, demonstrates perfectly her ability to revisit past positions. (Part of this tendency may be because a lot of the brainstorming/initial writing for the book was online, for the NYT blog; as a result, Warner received lots of feedback/comments and was far less isolated from the effects her arguments had on readers.)

In chapter 1, she tells us that the book she initially intended to write was conceived of as "UNTITLED on Affluent Parents and Neurotic Kids."

It was supposed to explore "fashionable children's diagnoses"--like Asperger's disorder, dyslexia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, anxiety disorders, and bipolar disorder. . . . Its central argument was going to be that children were, by and large, being overdiagnosed and overmedicated.

What Warner found as she researched and read further was that in general, parents of children with mental disorders would vastly prefer not to medicate their children, or to have them diagnosed. In the end, they have done so only because they have had to; because their children were suffering (and the whole family was suffering) and the parents were at wit's end. In these cases, medical/psychiatric intervention turned out to be the only thing that would work. Ultimately, these were last-resort measures, for the most part, not frivolous or lazy decisions.

Therefore, instead of being critical of parents (and I have to admit, it is very, very easy to be disgusted with some of the more popular excesses that get bandied about) and claiming that the sickness of our culture creates mentally ill people (instead of these things being something we do not control), Warner ultimately comes from the issue with a sense of compassion for the struggles of the parents and children who suffer mental disorders. She notes how our society tends to ignore or stigmatize mental illness as a whole, and in children in particular, and how these parents and kids often get overlooked because of this stigma or indifference.

The idea of showing concern instead of scorn for these kids/parents strikes me as exactly the right direction to take. If we blame the kids who suffer these disorders, we only hurt them further; if we blame their parents, call them "bad parents" instead of "people whose kids need help," then we paralyze them with shame and make it that much harder for them to get help for their familites.

Warner points out repeatedly that while our society talks incessantly about how many children are overmedicated and overdiagnosed, when she spoke with the actual doctors, parents, and teachers who worked with these kids, she rarely found anyone who felt the medications/therapy were being dispensed frivolously. Whether or not one agrees with this, I definitely support Warner's belief that kids with mental disorders (and their parents) deserve compassion, attention, and care, not scorn.

The book feels less tightly organized than I'd like; I feel that the chapters wander a bit and they kind of melded together in terms of purpose and topic. However, I like Warner's narrative persona and I appreciate very much the amount of research she did for the book.

The problem with many of these issues is that we simply do not yet have longterm information on the effects of psychotropic drugs, or enough information on what causes mental disorders. Warner points out that the field of child psychiatry is very small--it is extremely difficult even to find doctors who want to study it. Given these difficulties, it's hard to find the right path to take in regard to these issues, but again, I absolutely support Warner in her sense that it is good to feel compassion for these children/families.

Finally, as per usual with Kindle books, the formatting is a nightmare. The design is ruined; the spacing is not attended to; there are typos introduced into the text. This was a more expensive e-book--one of the ones at $14.00, and I have to say it burns a bit to purchase an e-book so ridden with formatting errors. It cannot be that hard to write macros to clean files before they are put into e-book format, can it? Someone in publishing must be able to do it!

Silver Wedding by Maeve Binchy

2010-03-08T08:00:00.000-06:00

Silver Wedding
by Maeve Binchy
ebook
978-0-440-33760-7
Delta / Random House

Rating (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best)
Plot: 3.5
Characters: 3
Writing: 3.5
Final: 3.33

Comments: I had read a couple of Ken Bruen books in a row and was in dire need of a little Binchy.

Publisher's description

There was never any question that Deirdre and Desmond Doyle would celebrate a gala twenty-fifth anniversary. Naturally, their daughter Anna, would plan their grand affair. Of all three Doyle children, Anna knew exactly what their mother wished--even as she lived her own secret life. Will Brendan, the rebellious son, even bother to return to London? Will Helen, the hapless would-be nun, embarrass them all? This is Deirdre’s day, a triumph for a woman obsessed with keeping up appearances, her silvery revenge after “marrying down” twenty-five years ago. She’s determined to show them all: the maid of honor, still unmarried, still gorgeous, now a successful London business woman . . . the best man, once Desmond’s close friend, now his boss . . . their reluctant priest, who harbors his own guilty secret.

As family and friends gather, a lifetime of lies takes its toll. But what begins as a family charade brings with it the transforming power of love--and truth.

The Guards by Ken Bruen

2010-03-05T08:00:00.000-06:00

The Guards
by Ken Bruen
ebook
0-312-32027-2 (paperback)
St. Martin's Press

Rating (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best)
Plot: 4
Characters: 4
Writing: 3.5
Final: 3.83

Comments: As you can see, I'm reading the Jack Taylor novels completely out of order, thanks to my inability to consistently find them as ebooks. What's even worse, I had to read the Kindle edition of this one and the formatting was so horrible. I've never seen formatting any where near this bad in either eReader or Barnes & Noble eReader editions. Check it out below: I know it's blurry (it's a picture of my iPod Kindle app taken with my Pre), but you can still see the huge gaps between the words, which means you're constantly turning the page. And that brings up another complaint: I hate having to "swipe" the screen to turn the page. Such a hassle. Why not allow me to just touch the screen like every other ereading app? Come on, Kindle. Help a girl out.

Publisher's description

Jack Taylor's life is spiraling downward. Dumped from the Garda Siochana ("the Guards"), Ireland's elite police force, he now passes his days drinking in a friend's bar. Enter Ann Henderson, a woman searching for her missing daughter. Jack agrees to take on her case, learning about Ann's daughter as well as other young women who have recently disappeared . . .

Macmillan speaks

2010-03-04T23:16:00.001-06:00

Macmillan's CEO on e-book pricing, availability, etc.: here.

The Dramatist by Ken Bruen

2010-03-03T08:00:00.002-06:00

The Dramatist
by Ken Bruen
ebook
97-8-142-99023-6
Minotaur / St. Martin's Press

Rating (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best)
Plot: 3.5
Characters: 4
Writing: 4
Final: 3.83

Comments: Don't read Ken Bruen if you don't want your heart broken--his books hurt. This one actually made me gasp audibly at the end.

Publisher's description

The impossible has happened: Jack Taylor is living clean and dating a mature woman. Rumour suggests he is even attending mass . . . The accidental deaths of two students appear random, tragic events, except that in each case a copy of a book by John Millington Synge is found beneath the body. Jack begins to believe that "The Dramatist," a calculating killer, is out there, enticing him to play. As the case twists and turns Jack's refuge, the city of Galway, now demands he sacrifice the only love he's maintained, and while Iraq burns, he seems a step away from the abyss.

Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell

2010-03-01T08:00:00.001-06:00

Beat the Reaper
by Josh Bazell
ebook
978-0-316-04030-3
Little, Brown and Company / Hachette Book Group

Rating (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best)
Plot: 4.5
Characters: 4.5
Writing: 4
Final: 4.33

Comments: Super fast-paced, foul-mouthed, with graphic descriptions of violence and medical procedures. Fun!

Publisher's description

Dr. Peter Brown is an intern at Manhattan’s worst hospital. He has a talent for medicine, a shift from hell, and a past he’d prefer to keep hidden. Whether it’s a blocked circumflex artery or a plan to land a massive malpractice suit, he knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.

Pietro “Bearclaw” Brnwna is a hit man for the mob, with a genius for violence, a well-earned fear of sharks, and an overly close relationship with the Federal Witness Protection Program. More likely to leave a trail of dead gangsters than a molecule of evidence, he’s the last person you want to see in your hospital room.

Nicholas LoBrutto, aka Eddy Squillante, is Dr. Brown’s new patient, with three months to live and a very strange idea: that Peter Brown and Pietro Brnwa might--just might --be the same person . . .

Now with the mob, the government, and death itself descending on the hospital, Peter has to buy time and do whatever it takes to keep his patients, himself, and his last shot at redemption alive. To get through the next eight hours--and somehow beat the Reaper.

10 Questions with Josh Bazell (on Goodreads--I'm not sure if you need to be a member to see this)

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

2010-02-26T08:00:00.001-06:00

Sharp Objects
by Gillian Flynn
ebook
978-0-307-35148-7
Shaye Areheart / Crown / Random House

Rating (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best)
Plot: 4
Characters: 3.5
Writing: 3.5
Final: 3.66

Comments: Something about this book just didn't quite work for me. There are some interesting ideas and images here, but there was just too much--too bad Tim Gunn wasn't there to tell her to bring her editing eye to this project. In the video below, the author describes intending the book to have a fairy-tale quality to it so maybe that explains the excess.

Publisher's description

WICKED above her hipbone, GIRL across her heart
Words are like a road map to reporter Camille Preaker’s troubled past. Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, Camille’s first assignment from the second-rate daily paper where she works brings her reluctantly back to her hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls.

NASTY on her kneecap, BABYDOLL on her leg
Since she left town eight years ago, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed again in her family’s Victorian mansion, Camille is haunted by the childhood tragedy she has spent her whole life trying to cut from her memory.

HARMFUL on her wrist, WHORE on her ankle
As Camille works to uncover the truth about these violent crimes, she finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Clues keep leading to dead ends, forcing Camille to unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past to get at the story. Dogged by her own demons, Camille will have to confront what happened to her years before if she wants to survive this homecoming.

Linchpin Winner

2010-02-25T14:08:00.001-06:00

Thanks so much to all who entered my first ever giveaway. This was fun--I think I'll have to do more of these, maybe as a way to weed out some of my books.

And now, the results:

Debbie at My Mind on Books has won the free copy of Linchpin by Seth Godin! Congratulations Debbie. I'll get it in the mail to you asap.

Last Day to Enter Linchpin Giveaway

2010-02-24T14:00:00.001-06:00

You have until 10 p.m. today to enter the Linchpin giveaway. Just go to this post and leave a comment.

The winner will be chosen randomly and will be announced tomorrow. Good luck!

U of Nebraska Press in the 2010 AAUP Book, Jacket and Journal Show

2010-02-24T08:00:00.007-06:00

Judging for the 2010 AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal Show took place January 28-29 at the AAUP Central Office in New York City. Approximately 281 books, 286 jacket and cover design entries, and 8 journals were entered. From this pool of excellent design, the jurors chose 56 books, 1 journal, and 40 jackets/covers as the very best examples.

Included in the show are four entries from the University of Nebraska Press:

	In the Scholarly Illustrated category: One Hundred Summers: A Kiowa Calendar Record by Candace S. Greene Designer: Roger Buchholz Production Coordinator: Alison Rold Acquiring Editor: Gary Dunham Project Editor: Joeth Zucco
	In the Trade Typographic category: How to Cook a Tapir: A Memoir of Belize by Joan Fry Designer: Ashley Muehlbauer Production Coordinator: Alison Rold Acquiring Editor: Heather Lundine Project Editor: Ann Baker
	In the Reference category: Jim Harrison: A Comprehensive Bibliography, 1964 - 2008 by Gregg Orr and Beef Torrey Designer: Ray Boeche Production Coordinator: Alison Rold Acquiring Editor: Ladette Randolph Project Editor: Joeth Zucco
	In the Jackets/Covers category: Sting Like a Bee: The Muhammad Ali Story by José Torres Designer: Ashley Muehlbauer Production Coordinator: Carolyn Einspahr

Linchpin Giveaway Ends Tomorrow

2010-02-23T08:00:00.000-06:00

Don't forget to leave a comment on this post to enter the giveaway for Seth Godin's Linchpin. You have until 10 p.m. central time tomorrow (Wednesday, Feb. 24).

Reminder: Linchpin Giveaway

2010-02-22T08:00:00.003-06:00

Don't forget to leave a comment on this post to enter the giveaway for Seth Godin's Linchpin.

Giveaway: Seth Godin’s Linchpin

2010-02-21T11:11:00.003-06:00

I do most of my reading before bed. It helps me to stop thinking about things I should have done today or need to do tomorrow. Linchpin makes me think too much about not only what I should do tomorrow, but whether I’m thinking about the things I should be thinking about. In other words, not good bedtime reading. However, it is good enough that I'm willing to carry it around with me so I can read it during the day (I rarely do this with books any more--I usually have an ebook or two on hand for daytime reading).

I received my first copy Linchpin for “free” for donating to the Acumen Fund. To my surprise, I received a second copy of Linchpin. As one Squidoo reviewer said

How perfectly Seth Godin that he sent a 2nd copy for free as an unexpected gift, trusting his audience to know how to market and distribute his book.

So, I now have an extra copy of Linchpin that I’d like to give away. If you’d like a chance to win it, just leave a comment (make sure you leave an email address so I can notify you if you win).

Edited to add: DEADLINE for entries is 10 p.m. central time on Wednesday, Feb. 24.(Ha! Can you tell this is my first giveaway? I don't know what I'm doing.)

#LNK Book Happenings

2010-02-19T11:14:00.000-06:00

A Novel Idea Bookstore is currently having Cinnamon's "annual" 29th birthday party where all books are 29% off. It started yesterday and runs through Sunday, Feb. 22.

Indigo Bridge Books is having their annual sale next weekend: Saturday, February 27th 8 am-10 pm, & Sunday, February 28th, 12-8 pm. 35% off select books!

The UNL Bookstore has a book club that meets once a month. Apparently there are cookies! Here are the upcoming dates, times, and books:

March 24th 7:00pm Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
April 21st 7:00pm Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
May 18th 12:30pm Local Wonders by Ted Kooser (Summer meetings will be during the day)
June 22nd 12:30pm American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld (she'll be on campus the week before for NSWC)
July 20th 12:30pm Sing Them Home by Stephanie Kallos

E-books, pricing, availability, frustration, redux

2010-02-08T08:00:00.000-06:00

Lifehacker has a poll up asking How Much Would You Pay for an E-Book? I chose the answer, "Like dead-tree books, it completely depends on the book." Sure, I like paying less for books, but I'm not stuck on the $9.99 price. The way I think about it is if it's a book that I would be willing to pay hardback prices for in print, I'm willing to pay more for the e-book. If it's something I'd read as mass market in print, I want to pay less. Other things that matter to me are quality (I hate to see a badly formatted e-book, no matter what I paid for it) and I'd love to be able to lend e-books.

The availability thing really annoys me, though. Here's what happens if a book that I want as a e-book isn't available in that format: I find one that is. And who knows if I will remember to check again later to see if that book is now available? There are a lot of books out there, and I want most of them. So you're going to make it harder for me to get yours? Fine. There are plenty of others.

My frustration with availability isn't just about publishers holding e-book releases of new titles. It's also very frustrating when a couple of titles in a series are available as e-books and the rest aren't. Please, publishers, pay attention to this sort of thing. If I like an author, I'll happily blaze through an entire series. But so many ridiculous obstacles get in my path. My advice:

somewhere, somehow, on your site (and within the books, whether print or e-) make it so that I can see the books in a series listed in order (and make it clear that they are listed in order).
make all of the titles in the series available in the same formats. And when moving to a new format (such as e-book), consider starting with the first one. I guess I could see why you'd want to publicize the new format for the latest one, but when you do it would be great if the previous titles were also available.

What do you think? Is it $9.99 or nothing for you? Any book-buying (e-book or print) pet peeves you'd care to share?

Robert Parker/Jesse Stone on TV and in audio

2010-02-05T15:42:00.007-06:00

Title: High Profile
Author: Robert B. Parker
Reader: Scott Sowers
Publisher: Random House Audio
ISBN-10: 0739318683
ISBN-13: 978-0739318683

CBS's Jesse Stone series: Thin Ice

TV
Usually, I don't get the TV my mom chooses to watch. When I was in Ohio one time minus the last time, we saw an episode of Gray's Anatomy in which all plot lines were sad and everyone was dying or failing at their job, and I kid you not, I believe every single character cried at one point or another. The whole thing was just so very, very depressing that at the end of the episode, I was moved to yell, though tears, "Why do you watch this?" at my also-crying mother. NOT the ideal TV experience for me. So, when I was home this past Christmas and my mom and dad seemed excited about the "Jesse Stone" show that was coming on TV, I was very, very dubious.

In CBS's Jesse Stone series, Tom Selleck plays Jesse Stone; the episode I saw was called Thin Ice. I expected it to be awful, but instead I loved it, and I'm grateful to my mom and dad for pointing it out to me.

Tom Selleck plays Stone in the series, and he's really perfect, I think. Once in a while--though hardly ever--a fictional detective is cast perfectly in a TV series. The last really great (and probably unparalleled) example of this would be the inimitable Jeremy Brett in the BBC's Sherlock Holmes series.

Jeremy Brett was Sherlock Holmes.

Now, I can't make the same claim for Selleck/Stone because at this point I've only read a few of the Stone mysteries (and still have seen only one of the TV shows), but I feel that Selleck really nails the essence of Stone (in my opinion): he's great at the restrained delivery required to make Stone's deadpan brand of humor come off successfully on screen. He also does a fabulous job of communicating Stone's world-weary, thoughtful approach to police work. The other main roles are cast very nicely, too: I liked the guy who plays Suitcase a lot, and Kathy Barker, who plays Molly, is wonderful also (though I believe we are to think she is younger in the books, I actually prefer her to the book version). At any rate, the TV show was quite a surpise, in the best of ways.

Audio
Since I'd liked the TV show so much, I started listening to the audiobooks, and I think those are also well worth the time. It's a rare gift to me to find a great detective series I hadn't known about before, and this series has many of the components I love most: a complicated, introspective, flawed but likable detective; intelligence and humor in the dialogue and the story, but also a respect for the horror of crime/homicide; strong supporting characters; crimes that are resonant and upsetting. In addition, Stone is in therapy, and I enjoy how Parker portrays his therapist, Dix. It's an excellent example of how even a macho guy can be thoughtful about his emotions and moral behavior.

The audiobooks are read by Scott Sowers, and he does (to my Ohio/Nebraska ears) a fine job with the New England area accent of the locals (Suitcase and Molly in particular). The audiobooks are really addictive; thus far, I've listened to High Profile, Night and Day, and Sea Change. All of these audiobooks are available for download from the Lincoln City Library's downloadable audiobooks page. It has revolutionized my life, that service.

I have yet to actually read a Stone mystery from a physical book. That's my next goal. I was quite saddened, like Jana, to see that Robert B. Parker recently died, particularly (for selfish reasons) since I just discovered him and was hoping for many more Stone mysteries. I will have to try the Spenser books, perhaps.

If there is one thing that rankles a bit in the Stone books, it has to be the portrayal of him as devastatingly attractive to most (if not all) women, and also, his addiction to a bad, bad relationship with Jen, who is an interesting if fairly irredeemable character. Women like Jen--beautiful liars who sleep their way to the top--don't really exist, I always thought; they are mostly a sexist stereotype. Now, I could be wrong, but I hope I'm not. But like I said, Jen is at least marginally interesting, though Stone's blind devotion to her is puzzling. (He is working it out in therapy, of course!) Finally, there is a healthy level of on-the-job sexual innuendo at the Paradise Police Dept., and while mostly that makes me smile, sometimes I feel sorry for Molly, the lone female in the department.

If you are reading fairly hard-boiled detective novels, you're going to encounter stereotypical portrayals of women; that is a given. The great writers end up making these women compelling characters nonetheless, and my early impression of the Stone books is that Parker manages to do so successfully.

One of the most common lines of the Stone stories I've read is "Jesse smiled." He usually does this in an interrogation when he's helping someone hang themselves. Here is a photo of Selleck doing "Jesse smiled" to perfection:

(from the CBS site for the Stone series)

E-books, pricing, availability, frustration

2010-02-01T16:14:00.005-06:00

Here. Amazon wants its publishers to continue to offer all new e-books for $9.99. Macmillan decided it needed to charge more, from 12.99 to 14.99. Initially, Amazon took Macmillan titles off its site and stated that it would stay the course and not raise its prices--but ultimately, Amazon capitulated.

I am not going to lie. One big reason I went with Kindle over nook was because I preferred the lower prices offered by the Kindle. It is very frustrating to me when new books (such as The Swan Thieves, as I mentioned before), are not available electronically on their pub dates. (You have to wait three mos. or around there for some new titles to be available.)

But would I pay more to get a new e-book title on time? I don't want to. It depends on the book. Maybe. If I have to, I guess I will, but it makes me angry. It's frustrating as a user to see a good deal slipping away, whether or not it's a good thing for publishing as a whole.

Finally, in preparation for the future, I am trying to fight instinctive revulsion response to the name "iPad," but the struggle is a hard one.

How do you decide which sites you link to?

2010-02-01T08:00:00.023-06:00

A recent tweet from @booktweeting inspired some thoughts about how I choose which online selling sites I link to on this blog. But first, I'm curious about how you decide. Is it based on brick & mortar stores you like? Do you always choose indies? Do you prefer going directly to the publisher? Do you make your decision based on how you feel about the website itself?

Here's what I typically do:

1. Google the title and look at various sites to find a cover image I can use -- I want the front cover only, cropped (no white space around it), at a decent size/resolution. This is where Amazon loses me right off the bat -- their cover images always seem to have extra junk on them (white space, "Look Inside!" logo, etc.). I also stumble across all sorts of interesting content, such as other reviews, related articles in the media, etc., through simple searches.

2. My general preferences, in descending order, are

publisher's site: I find that the publisher sites often have interesting additional content (like videos or author background) that I can use and the cover images meet my needs. Of course, I work for a publisher, so I tend to pay special attention to other publisher sites. :)
Powell's: I've always been a fan of indies and they're the king.
non-Amazon chains such as B&N: Not Amazon for reason #1 and also because their site has become such a mess over the years. B&N also often has neat additional content (like the B&N Studio). However, they sometimes shoot themselves in the foot by making it hard to use (sometimes can't be embedded or isn't easy to find).

3. Another factor for me is the website itself. As I mentioned, it's another reason I rarely link to Amazon -- I just don't like the jumbled mess that their site has turned into. But if, for example, I start noodling around on a publisher's site and find it difficult to navigate I might not link to it even if they had a good cover image.

Well, that's it in a nutshell. What about you?

J.D. Salinger

2010-01-31T11:27:00.001-06:00

I don't even know what to say about the death of J.D. Salinger. The Catcher in the Rye is one of my all-time favorite books and has been since I read it in my freshman year of high school. I like what John Hodgman said

I prefer to think JD Salinger has just decided to become extra reclusive

And here are some links to people who are more articulate on the subject than I:

From the Washington Post: Publisher Roger Lathbury recalls book deal with J.D. Salinger that went south
From the Guardian's Books Blog: JD Salinger: A tribute roundup
From The New York Times: J. D. Salinger, Literary Recluse, Dies at 91. See also the list of related articles.

The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan

2010-01-29T17:34:00.004-06:00

The Lightning Thief
By Rick Riordan
Publisher: Disney Hyperion (May 5, 2009) Kindle version
ASIN: B00280LYIC

This is the first book in the Percy Jackson series, which incorporates elements of Greek mythology and the classics into the adventures of a twelve-year-old boy. The book is narrated from Percy's point of view, and I have to say I am finding him extremely likable and funny. This book is actually laugh-out-loud funny in some places; the author has a great, wry sense of humor, and he's given it to the narrator as well. The reader feels empathy for Percy from the start: he is at his umpteenth boarding school after having been kicked out of each of them for suspicious "incidents" that he does not fully understand. As the book goes on, he figures out what makes him unique, finds others with similar problems, then engages on a quest. A heroic quest! For real! Lots of great, great juxatpositions as the ancient world merges with that of a twenty-first-century kid from New York city.

The best character (adult) so far is Mr. D.:

"A lucky thing, too," Mr. D. grumbled, playing a card. "Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with boys who don't even believe!"

He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine.

My jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked up.

"Mr. D," he warned. "Your restrictions."

Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise.

"Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!"

Robert B. Parker

2010-01-19T15:59:00.003-06:00

I started reading the Spenser novels in high school. My mom started reading them first and recommended them to me. I couldn't get enough of them. My friend Heather and her mom loved them, too. I even convinced my family to name our dog Spenser.

At some point I stopped reading Parker, but in the last few years I've started up again. It's such a cliche, but I thought he'd always be around, that the Spenser books would just keep coming. I really hate the thought that some day I'll have read them all.

Here's a nice roundup of tributes (from Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind).

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, redux, and The Swan Thieves

2010-01-15T23:05:00.013-06:00

Pies
Jana spoke of Alan Bradley's TSATBOTP earlier, and since I just finished it myself (read her copy, in fact), I'll share my thoughts quickly: it's a fun mystery with interestingly drawn characters--lots of fabulous English eccentrics. Nice melancholic postwar feel (truly moving on shellshock and postcombat trauma); nice potrayal of how grief affects families; nice analysis of the British tendency to repress emotion. Also, the author does a fine job of portraying the delicate balance between violence and affection that exists among sisters. Finally, the wildness, intelligence, and scariness of Flavia are great; it's great the author was unsentimental and clear-eyed in his portrayal of the positive and negative aspects of girls around 12-13 years of age. In sum, the book is a lot of fun to read; am looking forward to more books in the series.

However, I have a query. In conversation with Flavia, Inspector Hewitt quotes something:

"'Unless some sweetness at the bottom lie,
Who cares for all the crinkling of the pie?'"

Crack research reveals that this is from William King, The Art of Cookery (1708). Crack research does not reveal exactly what the quote means, however. Merriam-Webster's collegiate defines crinkling as follows:

intransitive verb
1 a : to form many short bends or ripples b : WRINKLE
2 : to give forth a thin crackling sound : RUSTLE *crinkling silks*
transitive verb : to cause to crinkle : make crinkles in

Unless there's sweetness at the bottom of the pie, who cares if -- it's ornately fashioned and crinkled? Who cares if it's a fancy, pretty pie if it's not sweet? There's no point in thinking a pie is going to be good just because it looks good? I do not know. Neither Flavia nor I can parse this.

[ETA: I went and reread the "boring" part of the definition: the etymology:

Etymology:Middle English crynkelen; akin to Old English cringan to yield
Date:14th century

So, perhaps: If the pie yields no sweetness, what's the point of it? Er. I need an OED at home.

Swans
I'm reading Elizabeth Kostova's The Swan Thieves, and I'm enjoying it a lot so far. Two things that have nothing to do with the book itself (I'll save those thoughts):

1. Release date was January 12. I was in a local discountish type store on January 8 or 9, however, and to my JOY, JOY, JOY, I saw the book on the shelves. I have been waiting for this book for a while. I loved The Historian; I really like Kostova's precise, measured descriptions; they have lots of lovely detail but never feel out of control or overdone. So when I saw the new one in the store, I was, again, elated. However, when I got it to the cash register, a message flashed on the screen: "Not to be sold until January 12." I said to the cashier, "But can't you just type in the price?" (Okay, no, it was not right to try to pressure her to sell the book, I do know that, but you see, I WANTED IT VERY MUCH), and she said in return that she did not know how to type in the price. Readers, let us assume she was telling a white lie intended to make me STFU and not that she was truly incapable of the feat of typing in a price and a 30 percent discount.

Anyway, at this point, the manager was called, and as we waited for her to arrive, everyone in line behind me thought about how very, very much (I imagine) they hated my guts. Finally, the mgr came over, and I waited to hear what would be decided. The mgr mumbled some things to the cashier, tucked the much-coveted book under her arm, and then began to sidle away. I thought I heard a dim "I'm sorry . . ." coming from her direction, but I'm not sure, since she made no effort to establish eye contact with me or to speak directly to me. That annoyed me, so I said, "Wait a minute, wait a minute--what's with the 'I'm sorry's? What's going on?" just to force her to talk to me. Finally, it was explained that I could not yet buy the book owing to blah blah blah etc. etc. Publication dates as they relate to agreements between vendors and publishers was probably what she was talking about, but it was hard to understand bec. I was too busy being annoyed and embarrassed and sad, because I had held the book in my hand and now it was being taken from me!

Anyway, when the explanation was over and it was official and obvious that they were not going to sell the book to me, there was nothing else to say except, "Well, then, I suggest that you TAKE THE BOOKS OFF THE SHELVES, BECAUSE THERE ARE A LOT OF THEM OUT THERE," and this idea was met with agreement. As I left the store, the non-eye-contact-loving manager already was on the phone with the offending dept.

Yes, I know. They really could and should not have sold the book. I feel bad for the person who made the mistake and put the book out too early; she or he might be in trouble now. We all make mistakes. A stitch in time saves nine. Life is a vale of tears. It's just that I held it in my grubby, covetous hands, and I could have had it early, and then it was taken away. That was hard.

2. So I went straight home and decided to pre-order the book on Kindle (to arrive on the 12th). But lo and behold, readers, there is a wrinkle in e-book paradise: Publishers are sometimes NOT making new releases available until a few mos. after the release date of the hard copy. Thus, I could not get Agassi's Open on time; thus, I could not get The Swan Thieves until April. I'm very glad to have it now (in hard copy), however.

Barnes & Noble Ebook/Ereader Survey

2010-01-12T08:39:00.005-06:00

Part of the B&N survey

I stumbled across this survey yesterday. It's a Barnes & Noble survey they link to from their main site. Here is the link. In case that doesn't work, you can find it from the Barnes and Noble ebooks page: look for the "Send Feedback" link in the list on the lefthand side.

What a smart thing for them to do! I love it when I have something to say as a customer and a company makes it easy for me to say it.

Now everyone please go over there and ask them to add a Pre app. :)

books I'm reading and enjoying

2010-01-07T13:29:00.005-06:00

The Age of Comfort, by Jean DeJean
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Hardcover, 304 pp. Color photo gallery, many illustrations--I would not recommend an e-book for this reason. I don't think it's available in electronic format, even.
ISBN-13: 9781596914056

Many of the things we now expect in the course of daily life--comfortable sofas, easy chairs, flush toilets, heated rooms, clothing that does not restrict movement--were first popularized in France in the 1670s and 1700s. All of this happened in a burst of creativity fostered by a few architects, designers, and decorators in response to demands from Kings Louis XIV and XV and other tastemakers such as their many rich relatives and associates (including famous mistresses such as Madame de Pompadour). Also,interestingly, a few capitalists/business people began influencing taste as well since they had gained the money that gave them access to the decorators and architects. This book covers the development of the various innovations as they emerged, and of the evolving concept of "comfort": there are chapters on inventions in heating, flush toilets, comfortable chairs, sofas, and then some on interior decorating, smaller rooms (bedrooms, boudoirs), and the idea of making space/rooms private. Used to be, you went to the bathroom in front of everyone (as the kings did), and people felt no need (and had no opportunity) to be alone during the day. With the advent of comfort, smaller rooms, and private spaces, expectations about everyday living (and privacy/subjectivity) changed radically--people began to expect comfortable things and clothing, and the idea that we all require privacy became essential to subjectivity and to house design. It's a fascinating shift in history, and this book traces it really well for a general reader like me. It is very nicely written, has pretty color plates and lots of illustrations besides. It's made me interested in furniture, architecture, interior design, and toilets. Who knew? I am really enjoying it; highly recommended.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog
By Muriel Barbery. Translated by Alison Anderson

Publisher: Europa Editions
ISBN-13: 978-1933372600
Seems to be no e-book edition, alas.

"Madame Michel has the elegance of the hedgehog: on the outside, she's covered in quills, a real fortress, but my gut feeling is that on the inside, she has the same simple refinement as the hedgehog: a deceptively indolent little creature, fiercely solitary--and terribly elegant" (143).

Two narrators: (1) Madame Renee Michel, the concierge in a ritzy hotel/apartment building in Paris, who has a rich inner life but works hard to seem perfectly bland and uninteresting on the surface; and (2) Paloma, a young girl, age 12, daughter of one of the tenants in the building. Paloma is brilliant but hides it from her family and is saddened/troubled by the apparent meaninglessness of life. She plans to commit suicide at age 13. Paloma and Mme. Michel become friends with each other and the newest tenant in the building, M. Ozu, who is Japanese. Great interior monologues, character sketches, very pleasurable reading. The Paloma parts are meant to begin with haikus--and I bet they are, syllable-wise, in French--but they are not translated as haikus in the English, so some of that poetry is lost. However, I bet it's not linguistically possible to translate them directly and preserve the syllables/etc. without rewriting them, so no fault on the translator.

Espresso Book Machine

2010-01-06T10:58:00.003-06:00

I have conflicting feelings about the Espresso Book Machine. On the one hand, I want one in my living room. On the other hand, I don't want anyone else to have one. Thoughts (other than about what a selfish person I am)?

Books I Can't Seem to Finish

2009-11-29T16:01:00.011-06:00

One theme that has played out repeatedly in my life is a tendency to start things but be unable to finish them. No one (myself included) wants to think about the many reasons why this happens to me in general, but I will say that when it comes to books, I've realized that it's not always the book itself that makes me stop. Sometimes, I'm too busy to read, or I find that I'm just not in the mood for a certain kind of book, or it becomes apparent that I just can't concentrate for whatever reason, and so forth.

However, there are occasions when I can't finish a particular book because of the book itself, and one recurring issue I have in this regard is with books that are (IMO! always IMO!) unnecessarily long.

The sordid history
Many eons ago, when I was in grad school, I tried to read Samuel Richardson's Clarissa, or the History of a Young Lady (Penguin Group [USA], 1536 pp.; ISBN-13: 9780140432152), which has about 1,500 pages or more, depending on the copy you use. I wanted to finish this book--I even really liked the pages I managed to read--but no matter how I tried, I could not keep going with it. Ultimately, I took the somewhat drastic step of joining an informal reading group devoted entirely to Clarissa--we read nothing else, talked about nothing else--but still, I could not finish it. I just could not.

As a TA, I was very intolerant of the excuse "it was too long," and for the most part, I still am. I have read and loved many eight-hundred-page Victorian novels, for example, and even some eighteenth-century ones, such as Frances Burney's Camilla (Oxford University Press, 992 pp.) and The Wanderer; or, Female Difficulties (Oxford University Press, 957 pp.). But Clarissa? No.

Clarissa was different. For a variety of reasons better not gone into, being unable to read Clarissa became a huge failure for me, and I have to admit that I'm still weirdly ashamed of it. Maybe, readers, you will go read the entire novel. Perhaps that might expiate my guilt.

Anyway, as a result of the failure with Clarissa, when it comes to contemporary books, I now have this tendency to say, "If you are not better than Clarissa, I have no right to waste a single moment reading you." In other words, I became unable to devote any time at all to a thousand-pager unless it was as significant to literary history as Clarissa. As a result, I never even tried to read David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest (Little, Brown, 1104pp.) or Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow (Penguin Group [USA], 768 pp.). Well, okay. There may have been a few other reasons (those are very, very difficult books to read), but let's not go into that. Let's not even talk about the obvious craziness of the Clarissa syndrome. (There's no point.) Let us just know that it is there, always, in the back of my brain.

Lest I seem too too, I will say that I have from time to time actually read and enjoyed other long books. I should also mention that although I also never got through Fielding's The History of Tom Jones (Penguin Group [USA],
1024 pp.], I felt not a single microsecond of guilt; I hated that book so much that I just couldn't feel too bad for dropping it.

The Reviews
Therefore, and completely unsurprisingly, when it comes to popular contemporary fiction, I believe that most if not all baggy novels could and should be streamlined and edited. If I'm to read a thousand pages, I need to believe that all thousand of them had to be there--and in my opinion, the books I'll mention now would should not be as long as they are.

1. Anathem
By Neal Stephenson
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Format: Hardcover, 960pp
ISBN-13: 9780061474095

Why I started
Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash and The Diamond Age are two of my favorite science fiction books ever. Ever! I think I want to read those again, but his career has taken a bit of turn and he's been focusing on alternate historical fiction. I tried Cryptonomicon, the first in what he called The Baroque Series, but couldn't get into it; plus, it was about 900 pp. long, and I just did not have the stamina. Then, I saw he was starting a new universe in Anathem, and although it was again 900 plus pages, I thought it seemed very interesting.

Why I stopped
It was interesting to me, very interesting, until the main character leaves the convent/monastery, and then it became more of an adventure story/picaresque thingy, and the quirkiness I knew I would usually enjoy was not enjoyable to me--for no good reason I can come up with. It's probably bec. I just want him to rewrite the novels I mentioned above--over and over again. I can't fault him for not doing that, though!

2. Drood
By Dan Simmons
Publisher: Little, Brown
Format: Hardcover, a billion pp.
ISBN:9780316007023

Why I started
The novel's narrator is Wilkie Collins, and I enjoy his novels, and I wanted to see what Simmons would make of him. I will confess that I could never finish or even like Hyperion (I think I never got over the cover), so perhaps I did not go into this one with the best faith. However, I did find it interesting a good half to two-thirds of the way through.

Why I stopped
I felt the narrative got a bit out of control; the main character's craziness/opium addiction got less interesting to me, and the tension/fear associated with Drood diffused as (IMO) the character got less horrifying and more silly. Collins is an unreliable narrator in the book, which I usually like, but he does not even know what has happened to himself, much less others, as the book progresses, and I found myself less willing to travel along. Plus, he became so deeply unsympathetic that I did not care.

In closing, N.B.
I must say that many others have read and loved the Simmons and the Stephenson books above; they appear on best seller lists and I think Stephenson's book won the Hugo--and all of my problems may come from the Clarissa Syndrome. But part of me does not believe this.

The first person to comment "tl;dr" on this post (it'd be justified; oh, the humanity!) will receive my own unread copy of Clarissa.

David Levien's Frank Behr series, books 1 and 2

2009-11-18T00:26:00.009-06:00

City of the Sun

MP3 book/audiobook read by Scott Brick
Books on Tape, Incorporated
ISBN: 1415945543

Where the Dead Lay
Kindle book
Doubleday
ASIN: B002DBIOE8

Books 1 and 2 in the Frank Behr Series, by David Levien

General comments on the series thus far
I'd call this hard-edged detective fiction that is actually about a PI (who was *formerly* a detective). The strengths of the series are that the main character, Frank Behr, is tortured and self-hating while also being smart and able to get out of his own misery (mostly). He has been wounded emotionally by the death of his child, so he has the tortured psyche thing going. He misses his work on the police force (he was let go), so he has the "I am a fuck-up who has nothing to lose" thing going. He's observant, thoughtful, ruthless, quiet, and sad--all of which makes for, to me, a very interesting character; he sounds like a lot of others, but I did not find him stereotypical or wooden.

Series takes place in Indianapolis, which I like because it's city without many pretensions to grandeur--and yet there are compelling stories to be told, etc. The book draws from the nonentity-ness of Indianapolis in a way; what I mean is, it doesn't rely on the well-known image of a certain place (NYC, LA) to carry itself. It provides its own world-building.

The series focuses alternately on Behr, the victims of the crimes he is investigating, and the perpetrators, so you get multiple points of view on the crimes/investigations. In the the first book, City of Light, Behr works with a father/mother whose child has been kidnapped. In Where the Dead Lay, he works on two cases, one of which involves someone he knows.

What is great about the series?
The books are impossible to stop reading/listening to; the author is great at suspense and dialogue, IMO. Frank Behr is extremely likable and interesting in his self-hatred. The author is sensitive to racial tension/class tension and seems to be interested in what causes people to act criminally. The crimes are so horrific as to be unforgettable.

What do you not like so much about it?
The crimes are so horrific as to be unforgettable. The worst crimes are inevitably perpetrated by lower-income "redneck" racist white people--it'll emerge later on whether that is the case throughout. The author does try to portray these people in all of their hateful complexity. The books have big "movie" finishes--I see that the author was a screenwriter, and so this makes sense. But with great characters like Behr, it's not always necessary to have a big violent payoff--IMO. Not all who read crime series feel the same.

What about the audiobook in particular?
It's read by Scott Brick, who is one of the best readers out there.

What about the Kindle version in particular?
A couple of spacing issues/typos. I get the sense this is a Kindle formatting issue, not a print publisher problem, but I don't know.

Will you read more in the series?
I will. I found the first book more compelling/focused in tension and plot, but I liked part of the second. The series could be at a turning point: some fairly formulaic character development things happened in book 2, and I'm interested to see how the author will respond; in my opinion, he'll either keep his character interesting or stereotypify him.

These are great crime novels, I have to say--it's great to find a new series that has such promise. I hope the author keeps them strong/interesting.

Sally Goldenbaum, Death by Cashmere

2009-11-17T23:58:00.006-06:00

Death by Cashmere by Sally Goldenbaum
Trade paperback
ISBN: 0451225538

What is the book about?
A group of wealthy people who live in Cape Cod and like to knit. The main characters are Nell and Ben, a couple in their sixties, and Izzy, their niece, who owns the Seaside Knitting Studio. Izzy was once a high-powered lawyer at a firm in Boston but gave it up to run the knitting studio. She is a knitting genius and loves creating patterns and making lovely window displays in the store. Nell and Ben do nothing but go to meetings for charitable foundations and buy art. They may be retired now. Anyway, above Izzy's knitting store is an apt. She rents it to her friend Angie, who is found dead. The Seaside Knitters (I think the town is called Seaside) end up solving the case.

What works best about the book?
Setting/atmosphere. The descriptions of yarn and food are quite sumptuous and lovely. Also, there are great descriptions of the beach and the summer. The author has created a community where everyone knows everyone, and they try for the most part to help each other out. The book paints a nice picture of belonging/comfort/beauty.

What doesn't work so well about the book?
The characters are sheltered, clueless rich people who live in a bubble. No one has money problems. No one is ugly. No one is mean. No one is African American. It's a bit creepy in its cluelessness. The fantasy itself--carefree, happy, well-off white people on the seaside--isn't really a dream I can really get into. The other part of the fantasy, however--a world where people are constantly either knitting beautiful things with beautiful yarns and or talking about how pretty the yarns are--worked for me.

In sum
The book is as annoying as it is comforting if you are bothered by the insularity of the community and the characters. If you can let that go, you'll find it all very lovely--but you will probably hate yourself for it later.

That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo

2009-10-28T08:00:00.003-05:00

That Old Cape Magic
by Richard Russo
cloth
978-0-375-41496-1
Knopf

Rating (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best)
Plot: 4.5
Characters: 5
Writing: 5
Final: 4.83

Comments: This book deviates a little from the usual Russo formula where the small northeastern town is treated like an additional character. I happen to really enjoy that formula, but I liked this one, too.

Griffin has been tooling around for nearly a year with his father’s ashes in the trunk, but his mother is very much alive and not shy about calling on his cell phone. She does so as he drives down to Cape Cod, where he and his wife, Joy, will celebrate the marriage of their daughter Laura’s best friend. For Griffin this is akin to driving into the past, since he took his childhood summer vacations here, his parents’ respite from the hated Midwest. And the Cape is where he and Joy honeymooned, in the course of which they drafted the Great Truro Accord, a plan for their lives together that’s now thirty years old and has largely come true. He’d left screenwriting and Los Angeles behind for the sort of New England college his snobby academic parents had always aspired to in vain; they’d moved into an old house full of character; and they’d started a family. Check, check and check.

But be careful what you pray for, especially if you manage to achieve it. By the end of this perfectly lovely weekend, the past has so thoroughly swamped the present that the future suddenly hangs in the balance. And when, a year later, a far more important wedding takes place, their beloved Laura’s, on the coast of Maine, Griffin’s chauffeuring two urns of ashes as he contends once more with Joy and her large, unruly family, and both he and she have brought dates along. How in the world could this have happened?

Home by Marilynne Robinson

2009-10-26T08:00:00.000-05:00

Home
by Marilynne Robinson
cloth
9780374299101
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Rating (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best)
Plot: 5
Characters: 5
Writing: 5
Final: 5

Comments: I'm not going to be able to do this book justice. The two words that keep coming to mind are beautiful and devastating. It gave me a feeling I don't experience much any more--I don't know how common this feeling is, so this might not mean much to you. Particularly throughout my childhood, in that indefinable period of stillness between late afternoon and evening (generally on Sundays) I would be overwhelmed by what I can only describe as a crushing, suffocating sense of melancholy. This book gave me that same feeling. However, lest you get the wrong idea, I loved it. I couldn't put it down.

Hundreds of thousands were enthralled by the luminous voice of John Ames in Gilead, Marilynne Robinson's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Home is an entirely independent, deeply affecting novel that takes place concurrently in the same locale, this time in the household of Reverend Robert Boughton, Ames's closest friend.

Glory Boughton, aged thirty-eight, has returned to Gilead to care for her dying father. Soon her brother, Jack—the prodigal son of the family, gone for twenty years—comes home too, looking for refuge and trying to make peace with a past littered with tormenting trouble and pain.

Jack is one of the great characters in recent literature. A bad boy from childhood, an alcoholic who cannot hold a job, he is perpetually at odds with his surroundings and with his traditionalist father, though he remains Boughton's most beloved child. Brilliant, lovable, and wayward, Jack forges an intense bond with Glory and engages painfully with Ames, his godfather and namesake.

Home is a moving and healing book about families, family secrets, and the passing of the generations, about love and death and faith. It is Robinson's greatest work, an unforgettable embodiment of the deepest and most universal emotions.

Marked and Anita

2009-10-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

Jana and Bethann's recent postings on Kellerman and Evanovich inspired me to review a couple of series I've recently read part of . . .

I'd like to think I'm just not the demographic for the Young Adult novel anymore, and that maybe I never was. I fancy myself too cynical and jaded. Admittedly, I read the entire Twilight series. I'll even cop to staying up all night to read the first one and seeing the movie with my Twi-hard co-workers. It was a nice diversion, but in the end I wanted more biting and fighting. I vowed to move on.

But, here I am again in the middle of another too young vampire series--the House of Nigh t novels. Initially, the moralizing asides against pot smoking, underage drinking, and sex was pretty annoying. Fortunately, this seems to abate as there series gets rolling. The mother/daughter team of P.C. and Kristin Cast write from the first-person perspective of Zoey Redbird, a 16 year-old girl marked as a potential vampire with unusual powers for a "fledgling." She is shipped off to the House of Night, a vampire boarding school in Oklahoma for training, nocturnal living and the usual trials and tribulations of high school life. The stories themselves are zippy and move best when Zoey is exchanging lively quips with her friends. The matriarchal vampire society is a nice touch, and the relationships between vamps and humans, friends and enemies, is growing in complexity without being too melodramatic. By the end of book 2 the action is hopping with a nice mix of--dare I say--Buffy-esque humor and friend power. Book 3 beckons. Maybe this is my demographic.

I did look for more adult vampire adventures in Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series. Blood Noir started out interestingly enough with Anita having sex with two hunky young werewolves for FIVE CHAPTERS. However, the incessant (and exhausting) sex scenes were interrupted by waaaay too many issues. Admittedly, I came into the series in the 16th book, but as the narrative was fairly non-existent, I still have no idea what the heck. In short, Anita agrees pose as the girlfriend of one of her lovers to visit his dying father. What ensues is a mess of mistaken identity, sex with random stripper werecreatures (yes, stripping werewolves and weretigers), TMI on the post sex clean-up, and talk, talk, talk, talk about sex and feelings and feeling bad about the sex. Oh, Anita also has some "metaphysical ardeur" that needs feeding with sex (Aristotle is feeling bad about abuse of the term "metaphyscial" in this book). Ugh! I leave with an excerpt that captures the essence of it all: I just held up the pills. "Guess."

He looked stricken, like someone had hit him in the gut. "Mother of God."
I nodded. "I had sex with three men for two days and I've missed the pill."
"You didn't use the condoms?" he asked.
My body chose that minute to remind me that what goes in comes out. I shook my head. "We were all metaphysically mind-fucked, so no, we didn't take precautions. I need some privacy."
"Anita..."
"I need to clean up, Richard, okay?" I fought not to cry or scream at him. I wasn't mad at him. I was too confused to be angry with anyone.

P.S. No vampires were hunted or slayed in this novel. One vampire was briefly talked to on the phone.

Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs

2009-10-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

Devil Bones
by Kathy Reichs
ebook
978-1-4165-7983-4
Scribner (Simon & Schuster)

Rating (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best)
Plot: 3
Characters: 4
Writing: 4
Final: 3.66

Comments: Not to be confused with Devil's Bones (no wonder I kept thinking I'd already reviewed this). The mystery, while fine, was less interesting to me in this one than the developments in Temperance's personal life. I do love a flawed main character.

In a house under renovation, a plumber uncovers a cellar no one knew about, and makes a rather grisly discovery — a decapitated chicken, animal bones, and cauldrons containing beads, feathers, and other relics of religious ceremonies. In the center of the shrine, there is the skull of a teenage girl. Meanwhile, on a nearby lakeshore, the headless body of a teenage boy is found by a man walking his dog.

Nothing is clear — neither when the deaths occurred, nor where. Was the skull brought to the cellar or was the girl murdered there? Why is the boy's body remarkably well preserved? Led by a preacher turned politician, citizen vigilantes blame devil worshippers and Wiccans. They begin a witch hunt, intent on seeking revenge.

Evil at Heart by Chelsea Cain

2009-10-19T13:12:00.000-05:00

Evil at Heart
by Chelsea Cain
ebook
978-0-312-36848-7
Minotaur Books (St. Martin's)

Rating (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best)
Plot: 4
Characters: 4
Writing: 3
Final: 3.66

Comments: Cain hasn't run out of twisted ways to torment Archie yet. I wonder how long she can keep it up. Currently, though, Susan is my favorite. I'm so glad she has become a recurring character. Here is one of my favorite Susan bits where she is casually tossing around her Lewis & Clark knowledge:

"Go Pioneers," he said.
"They should have gone with Seaman," she said.
"Excuse me?"
"They should have made the mascot Seaman. After Lewis's Newfoundland. He was right there with them, blazing the Oregon Trail."

And now, please to enjoy author Chelsea Cain with Archie & Gretchen, Episode 1: Valentine's Day

Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor

2009-10-18T12:25:00.003-05:00

"Where you came from is gone, where you thought you were going to never was there, and where you are is no good unless you can get away from it."

I was introduced to Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood in college for a course called American Humor. The professor, who was as memorable as the books he chose, had thin grey hair that hung pin straight around a smiling round face punctuated by a large mole and thick lips. It was impossible to take your eyes off of him in class. Those books are still some of my favorites today. As a bonus, he also introduced my friends and I to the word "incongruous" which we used with zeal throughout the semester.

Wise Blood stuck with me throughout the years, and recently, a friend inspired me to go back. The book follows Hazel Motes, a man scarred by his fire and brimstone upbringing--rejecting a cruel, stalking Jesus, but terrified to do so just the same. Motes "saw Jesus move from tree to tree in the back of his mind, a wild ragged figure motioning him to turn around and come off into the dark where he was not sure of his footing, where he might be walking on the water and not know it and then suddenly know it and drown." After four years in the service, he moves to the city to throw God and sin behind him, in a jolyless embrace of sex and the Church Without Christ. His mission leads him to a cast a characters, all on their own missions of some sort of faith including a lost and unlovable young man named Enoch Emery, Asa Hawks the un-blind preacher, his bastard daughter Sabbath Lily, and the opportunistic huckster Hoover Shoats who sets up competition.

In a forward written by O'Connor, she states that the book is about integrity--the integrity of Hazel's refusal to shake his shadowy saviour. But, it seems to also be a book about our basic instincts. The many animals in Wise Blood are caged and abused, base creatures cut off from nature and any way to act instinctually. Human needs, basic needs, are held in low, sinful regard. Enoch Emery and Hazel are driven to animalistic actions that free them both. In fact, true happiness only comes--if but for a moment--to Enoch after he dons a gorilla suit.

Wise Blood is a dark comedy, although its so easy to get caught up in Hazel's dark world its easy to forget. Thankfully, Enoch and Sabbath are there with earnest, but crazed thoughts to bring us back into a satirical state of mind. O'Connor's struggle between old time religion and contemporary culture, is kind to neither, but it is a fine reminder that we cannot deny who and what we are. We always rear our true selves in the end.

If, after Wise Blood, you're still in the mood for some old time religion, but need a bit more levity--watch Night of the Hunter. Robert Mitchem rocks as the murderous, knuckle tattooed preacher Harry Powell (he's creepy and humorous).

File this under "Duh"

2009-10-12T14:26:00.003-05:00

After spending three hours trying not to throw up on a flight recently, I had to face the fact that I just can not read on a plane. Should not. Ever. Try to read on a plane.

"Whatever will I do?" I ~~whined~~ wondered, "I guess I'll just spend the time staring blankly into space. Because there is no other possible option."

Not four days later I came up with a solution: audio books! I'm so quick, so clever at solving problems. (Especially when you consider how often my co-blogger has written about audio books lately. I'm a genius.)

Rage, by Jonathan Kellerman

2009-09-24T02:46:00.005-05:00

Have listened to a couple of Jonathan Kellerman novels, most recently one called Rage, which is something I feel I know a little bit about.

Pros
The crimes are horrifying.
I like Milo Sturgis, the second main character.
Interesting to have a psychologist as the main character.
I usually can't figure out the mystery.

Cons
The main guy is named "Alex Delaware"
The idea that someone named "Alex Delaware" would be attractive to two women at the same time--or any woman, at all, ever.
Having to hear Alex Delaware's perceptions of what other people look like. The books are set in L.A., and I just think the character has been driven crazy by all the plastic surgery and obsession with looks. Kellerman's descriptions are merciless and detailed and obsessive. He is also partial to partial sentences, which drives me crazy. Here's a descriptive passage from Therapy:

A pretty young girl in low-riding, skintight jeans that looked oiled and a black midriff blouse exposing a flat, tan abdomen stood in the doorway. Two belly-button pieces, one studded with turquoise. [N.B. THAT IS NOT A SENTENCE.] Over her shoulder was a black silk bag embroidered with silk flowers. She wore too much makeup, had a beak nose and a strong chin. Her hair was long, straight, the color of new hay. The blouse revealed luminous cleavage. [QUERY: WHAT IS LUMINOUS CLEAVAGE?] A big gold "K" rested in the cleft.

His love for detail extends to clothing. Here is Alex Delaware describing the clothing of a woman he's with:

When I reached Allison's office building, she was waiting out on the sidewalk, dressed in a sky-blue cashmere cowl neck sweater and a long, wine-colored skirt, drinking something from a cardboard cup and kicking the heel of one boot. Her black hair was tied back with a clip.

This man can identify cashmere on sight. This man knows what a cowl neck is. This man should be working in fashion, not delving into murder cases.

One more, because I just can't stop:

A blonde, a brunette, both in their late thirties. Big hair, heavy in the hips and bust. The blonde wore a black tank top over epidermal jeans. [QUERY: WTF] The brunette's tank was red. Backless high-heeled sandals gave them both a mincing, butt-jiggling walk. Alcohol added some wobble.
Faces that had once been pretty had been paved over by bad decisions.

I have made fun of/been terrified by these descriptions, but I will say that the crazy characters and situations make these books fun to listen to; I've enjoyed them even if they make me a little bit giddy and unhinged.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

2009-09-21T08:00:00.001-05:00

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
by Alan Bradley
cloth
ISBN 978-0-385-34230-8
Delacorte Press

Rating (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best)
Plot: 5
Characters: 5
Writing: 5
Final: 5

Comments: Perfection.

In his wickedly brilliant first novel, Debut Dagger Award winner Alan Bradley introduces one of the most singular and engaging heroines in recent fiction: eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison. It is the summer of 1950—and a series of inexplicable events has struck Buckshaw, the decaying English mansion that Flavia’s family calls home. A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath. For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”

To Flavia the investigation is the stuff of science: full of possibilities, contradictions, and connections. Soon her father, a man raising his three daughters alone, is seized, accused of murder. And in a police cell, during a violent thunderstorm, Colonel de Luce tells his daughter an astounding story—of a schoolboy friendship turned ugly, of a priceless object that vanished in a bizarre and brazen act of thievery, of a Latin teacher who flung himself to his death from the school’s tower thirty years before. Now Flavia is armed with more than enough knowledge to tie two distant deaths together, to examine new suspects, and begin a search that will lead her all the way to the King of England himself. Of this much the girl is sure: her father is innocent of murder—but protecting her and her sisters from something even worse . . .

Listen to author Alan Bradley talk about the main character, Flavia de Luce:

Google Audio Widgetgreat free widgetsWidgetbox

Plum Lovin' by Janet Evanovich

2009-09-20T13:22:00.004-05:00

Plum Lovin'
by Janet Evanovich
cloth
ISBN 0-312-98536-3
St. Martin's Press

Rating (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best)
Plot: 2
Characters: 3
Writing: 3
Final: 2.66

Comments: This was not a wise choice on my part--I picked it up because I was too impatient to wait for the new title in the Stephanie Plum numbers series. This was just too silly for me (the regular Plum series is about as silly as I can take). Since I haven't read any other books in the "Between the Numbers" series I can't tell you how this one compares, but I'd guess that if you like the others, you're likely to enjoy this one, too.

Mysterious men have a way of showing up in Stephanie Plum's apartment. When the shadowy Diesel appears, he has a task for Stephanie-and he's not taking no for an answer. Annie Hart is a "relationship expert" who is wanted for armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. Stephanie needs to find her, fast. Diesel knows where she is. So they make a deal: he'll help her get Annie if Stephanie plays matchmaker to several of Annie's most difficult clients. But someone wants to find Annie even more than Diesel and Stephanie. Someone with a nasty temper. And someone with "unmentionable" skills. Does Diesel know more than he's saying about Annie Hart? Does Diesel have secrets he's keeping about Stephanie and the two men in her life-Ranger and Morelli? With Stephanie Plum in over her head, things are sure to get a little dicey and a little explosive, Jersey style!

Most Important Feature in an eReader

2009-09-15T16:21:00.002-05:00

If I had to choose just one feature as the most important in an eReader . . .

Would it be a logically and thoughtfully designed interface? Or ease of purchase (aka Project Don't Make Jana Get Out of Bed)? Or a large quantity of available content? Or price? All of these matter to me.

But I'm going to have to go with a logically and thoughtfully designed interface. I keep trying to give my Kindle (v1) a try, but the clunkiness of the object itself combined with the rotten navigation scheme keep sending me back to my iPod Touch.

Of course, having "the whole B&N ebook catalog at my fingertips" wouldn't hurt, either.

This post is part of a contest through BBAW (sponsored by IREX) to win an IREX eReader.

BBAW Interview: Florinda from The 3 R's Blog

2009-09-15T08:17:00.005-05:00

I'm participating in the Book Blogger Appreciation Week interview swap. I was paired with Florinda from The 3 R's Blog: Reading, 'Riting, and Randomness (It's Not Just a Title, It's a Mission Statement) and we conducted our interviews via email. I edited these answers very slightly, and mostly just added some links.

Florinda posts frequently and has a very relatable style, so pay her a visit--you're bound to find something you like. In addition to her blog, you can find Florinda on Twitter and LibraryThing.

What is the history of your blog? When and why did you get started?

My first blog post was March 16, 2007. For several months, I had been using an online organizing program to keep a record of what I was reading, but as it started to get more detailed, I thought maybe a blog would be a better way to do it. My first few posts were summary reading lists with short descriptions of each book and a few comments, but after a couple of months I began doing individual posts after each book I finished.

Has your blog evolved over time?

I realized pretty quickly that my blog probably wouldn't be just about books. Most of the blogs I read early on weren't book blogs--it actually took me some time to start finding those. But I'd find things to think and write about on other blogs, and sometimes I'd even write about things that happened in my life. That mix is still there, and that's the third R (the "randomness").

I participated in NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) during November 2007, which got me into the posting-every-day habit--and I liked it. I still post five or six times a week (most of the time). I have a loose editorial calendar in which certain types of posts appear on specific days. And I think my book reviews have improved a lot :-).

It looks like you are much better than I am at having recurring features on your blog. What's your secret? Do you think this is more work for you or does it seem to make it easier?

I actually think it's easier. It helps give my blogging some structure (I'm an accountant--my brain operates better with structure). I also try to write most of my posts at least a few days in advance. The two features that probably look the most work-intensive--the TBIF book-related round-up on Fridays, and the Weekend Review linkfest on Saturdays--really aren't, since they're basically works in progress all week. (Google Docs is my very good friend.)

What is your favorite blogger meme/game and why?

I don't do a lot of memes, and I try to concentrate them into just one or two posts a week, even though that means some of the daily ones don't go up on their "official" day of the week. I've most consistently participated in Booking Through Thursday, and I like doing the Friday Fill-ins just because they're fun. But my favorite one may be Tuesday Thingers, because it's really helped me learn more about using LibraryThing.

What is your all-time favorite book (feel free to list more than one if you'd like)?

I usually avoid this question like the plague, because it's JUST TOO HARD! And since I've gotten out of the habit of re-reading, it's become even harder. But here are three that rank very, very high on the list (and that I've read more than once):
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon

Cloth, paper, or ebook? Have your book buying habits changed over time?

I probably buy more books now than ever :-) --nearly always trade paperbacks. I rarely buy hardcovers. I got a Kindle a couple of months ago, and I like it much better than I ever expected to, but it's not going to replace books on paper for me. However, it does give me a way to get new books sooner--I don't have to wait for the paperback, and they're cheaper, too!

What are some of your favorite blogs/websites?

Again, it's just too hard to play favorites :-)! I maintain three separate blogrolls--one for book blogs, one for blogs by authors, and one that's a hodgepodge of all the other types of blogs I read. But since it's Book Blogger Appreciation Week, here are a few book blogs I really like:

Devourer of Books
Everyday I Write the Book
Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'?
Musings of a Bookish Kitty
Rebecca Reads
She Is Too Fond of Books
Sophisticated Dorkiness
The Betty and Boo Chronicles
The Boston Bibliophile

And, to steal from you, ask and answer any one question that you wish I had asked.

Q: What time of day do you do most of your reading?

A: I nearly always read at breakfast, and again before I go to sleep, although I don't really get through many pages in the morning, and the amount I read at night depends on how long I can stay awake! My favorite reading time, though, is the weekend mornings when I take myself and my book out to Starbucks.

Thanks, Florinda!

Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner

2009-09-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

Best Friends Forever
by Jennifer Weiner
ebook
ISBN:978-1-4391-6549-2
Atria Books (Simon & Schuster)

Rating (scale of 1-5, with 5 being the best)
Plot: 2.5
Characters: 4
Writing: 3.5
Final: 3.33

Comments: The beginning of this felt very much like a Jodi Picoult book to me--like there was going to be some big twist ending. Maybe that threw me off because I never really got into the story. The characters, though, were very believable.

Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher

2009-09-10T15:15:00.000-05:00

Wishful Drinking
by Carrie Fisher
ebook (which was a mistake--go for the real book on this one)
ISBN: 978-1-4391-5380-2
Simon & Schuster

Rating (scale of 1-5, with 5 being best)
Plot: n/a
Characters: n/a, but I'm going to give it a 5 anyway
Writing: 4
Final: 4.5

Comments: As I mentioned above, I read this as an ebook but I recommend you buy a real book for this one so you don't feel like you've missed out on the photos (they are in the ebook, but they never come across very well on the screen).

In Wishful Drinking, adapted from her one-woman stage show, Fisher reveals what it was really like to grow up a product of "Hollywood in-breeding," come of age on the set of a little movie called Star Wars, and become a cultural icon and bestselling action figure at the age of nineteen . . . It's an incredible tale: the child of Hollywood royalty--Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher--homewrecked by Elizabeth Taylor, marrying (then divorcing, then dating) Paul Simon, having her likeness merchandized on everything from Princess Leia shampoo to PEZ dispensers, learning the father of her daughter forgot to tell her he was gay, and ultimately waking up one morning and finding a friend dead beside her in bed.

Firefly Summer by Maeve Binchy

2009-09-08T08:00:00.000-05:00

Firefly Summer
by Maeve Binchy
ebook
ISBN: 978-0-440-33759-1
Dell (Random House)

Rating (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best)
Plot: 3
Characters: 4
Writing: 3.5
Final: 3.5
Comments: This is an older Binchy--from 1987 or 1988--and the parts where she switched perspective or jumped forward in time felt very disjointed to me. I wonder if there were design/typographic cues in the print editions that didn't make it into the ebook?

It was a summer of warmth.... Kate Ryan and her husband, John, have a rollicking pub in the Irish village of Mountfern... lovely twelve-year-old twins... and such wonderful dreams.... It was a summer of innocence... but all that is about to change this fateful summer of 1962 when American millionaire Patrick O'Neill comes to town with his irresistible charm and a pocketful of money... when love and hate vie for a town's quiet heart and old traditions begin to crumble away.... It was a summer of love that would never come again.... A time that has been captured forever in Maeve Binchy's compelling family drama... a novel you will never forget.

Bones of Betrayal by Jefferson Bass

2009-09-07T17:00:00.001-05:00

Bones of Betrayal
by Jefferson Bass
cloth (borrowed from my mom)
ISBN: 9780061284748
HarperCollins

Rating (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 best)
Plot: 3.5
Characters: 3.5
Writing: 3
Final: 3.33

Comments: My favorite thing about the Body Farm novels is all of the scientific detail you get about skeletons and the process of putrefaction.

Dr. Bill Brockton is in the middle of a nuclear-terrorism disaster drill when he receives an urgent call from the nearby town of Oak Ridge—better known as Atomic City, home of the Bomb, and the key site for the Manhattan Project during World War II. Although more than sixty years have passed, could repercussions from that dangerous time still be felt today?

With his graduate assistant Miranda Lovelady, Brockton hastens to the death scene, where they find a body frozen facedown in a swimming pool behind a historic, crumbling hotel. The forensic detectives identify the victim as Dr. Leonard Novak, a renowned physicist and designer of a plutonium reactor integral to the Manhattan Project. They also discover that he didn't drown: he died from a searing dose of radioactivity.

Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich

2009-09-07T15:42:00.005-05:00

Finger Lickin' Fifteen
by Janet Evanovich
cloth
ISBN: 0312383282
St. Martin's Press

Rating (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best)
Plot: 2.5
Characters: 4
Writing: 3.5
Final: 3.33

Comments: Good, silly fun. Not the best in the Stephanie Plum series, but not the worst.

Stephanie Plum is working overtime tracking felons for the bonds office at night and snooping for security expert Carlos Manoso, A.K.A. Ranger, during the day. Can Stephanie hunt down two killers, a traitor, five skips, keep her grandmother out of the sauce, solve Ranger’s problems and not jump his bones?

Review: The Lost City of Z, by David Grann

2009-09-05T15:15:00.005-05:00

I just listened to the audio version of The Lost City of Z,by David Grann, which is read by Mark Deakins. I really liked it. Because I am lame, I will provide the summary (not written by me) from Barnes and Noble:

Percy Harrison Fawcett (he went by "Colonel," although he was only a lieutenant colonel) was among the last of the gentleman explorers, the generalists who set out with machete and sketchbook to fill in the blank spots on the globe. Born in 1867, Fawcett, a wiry teetotalling Englishman who seemed immune to malaria, did this work better and faster than anyone believed was possible: in 1906–7 he mapped the border between Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil, an inhospitable jungle river; in the seven years that followed he was all over the Amazon, sometimes following rivers, sometimes hacking his way overland, always with only a small party to help him. His surveying trips won him a medal from the Royal Geographical Society and a certain amount of fame (although never any money); but the expedition for which he is best known is the one he undertook in 1925, accompanied only by his son Jack and Raleigh Rimmell, Jack's boyhood friend. They were looking for a legendary city, which Fawcett referred to in his notes as "Z." None of them ever returned.

So, we have Victorian/Edwardian explorers combined with the burgeoning field of anthropology; the background for all of this is the sordid history of British imperialism and the Spanish conquistadors. Can anyone really see the Amazon at all given this history of oppression and conquest? Why do we persist in lionizing such imperialists/conquerors as heroes? This book starts to provide some interesting answers to such questions. Fawcett was, to be sure, a madman, but he was an intriguing one, and he actually developed, in his own way (the book shows), a method of approaching/negotiating with the indigenous peoples he encountered that was less horrible and disgusting than that of many of his peers. Does he get rewards for that? Probably not. It's worthwhile, however, to consider the psychology of the explorer, and the obsession/madness that leads him to act as he does.

I really enjoyed this book. The physical/mental privations of being an explorer are simply incredible, and it's fascinating and horrifying to see how these folks portrayed the Amazon and surrounding areas, even as it's equally annoying to see their attitudes. I suppose it is fitting that in the end, Fawcett was probably killed by the same people he was obsessed with--but very sad that he took along his son and his son's friend for the ride.

The author does a great job of paralleling his own obsession with the Amazon with Fawcett's, and I really enjoyed hearing about the emerging field of anthropology and the decline of the "amateur" explorers like Fawcett. Fawcett was a fascinating train wreck of an individual; he did, however, serve nobly in World War I and it obviously also took huge courage to do the exploration work he did. He was part huckster, part serious lover of the Amazon; I thought this book did a really nice job of sketching out the complexity of his character.

Mark Deakins is a good reader and I listened almost compulsively to this book--it really kept me engaged.

[link] TeleRead: How THIS e-book fan buys

2009-09-01T10:10:00.002-05:00

A Sony Reader user from Canada reviews some ebook sites, including Fictionwise, eReader (one of my faves), Smashwords, and Baen Books.

How THIS e-book fan buys | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Nero Wolfe

2009-08-18T03:06:00.006-05:00

Good things about Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe books I've listened to or read thus far
1. excellent dry tone, lovely sense of humor
2. Nero Wolfe = sublime eccentric character. Anyone who is afraid to leave the house, loves to eat, and reads all the time is a friend of mine.
3. Archie Goodwin is a great narrator, very funny/clever/gallant. Dreamy.
4. The always-angry Inspector Cramer

My boyfriend has suggested that I ditch my normal style of profanity and start to swear like Nero Wolfe. This would involve:
Pfui!: sounds like "phooey," seems to mean the same.
Confound it!: for when frustrated
[Accusing someone of] FLUMMERY: I would use this a lot. People are always trying to trick me, I feel. Webster's Collegiate lists "MUMBO JUMBO" as a synonym. Brilliant.

The very best thing NW does, however, is simply bellow NO! when he does not want to do something. Most of us had to discard that communication strategy somewhere in the terrible twos. I think the time is very ripe for a revival.

Wolfe on TV
I checked out some of the episodes of the Nero Wolfe TV program starring Murray Chaykin and Timothy Hutton; they're very enjoyable. They use a repertory theater model for minor parts, so the same people appear repeatedly in different roles. The guy who plays Inspector Cramer is brilliant. Timothy Hutton is immensely good-natured/darned adorable as Archie. Chaykin does a fabulous job of portraying Wolfe's eccentricities. Sometimes the pace is frenetic and the plots make no sense; soemtimes, the episodes fall apart. This does not matter, somehow.

Dear god, people: THERE IS A MEGA SET
So, somewhere between eighty and ninety dollars' worth of Nero Wolfe. Buy now!

Wolfe Audiobooks:
Family Affair This one is read by Michael Pritchard; he's got a great voice for Wolfe and makes Archie Goodwin very likable.

[link]8 Apps for iPhone readers

2009-08-13T11:41:00.001-05:00

eBook Roundup: 8 Apps for iPhone readers

2007 also marked the introduction of the iPhone; it took about a year for eBook apps to appear on the iPhone. Now there are so many of them that finding the right one for your purposes can be a confusing prospect. I would like to clarify all this a bit by categorizing the four types of eBook apps, at least so far, and letting you know what you can expect from each.

(via tuaw)

[link] Interview with Mimi Smartypants

2009-08-06T11:48:00.002-05:00

Fiction Writers Review >> [interview] Type type type: A Conversation with Mimi Smartypants

I experienced what Margaret Lazarus Dean describes here while reading her description of it:

Rather, what I experience sometimes when I read her diary is that strange phenomenon that first brought me to fiction as a child, and has kept me here all these years: the eerie way in which another human’s mind can reach across all gaps of time and distance and stranger-dom into your own mind and stir a feeling that had never been stirred there before. That sense of seeing something described that you had never seen put into words, that you would have assumed could never be put into words, yet finding that seemingly singular and resistant thing rendered perfectly specific and clear, even sonorous, and, maybe even funny.

If you don't already read Mimi Smartypants, you should start now.

Article link--Baker on Kindle

2009-07-27T01:07:00.002-05:00

Can the Kindle Really Improve on the Book? by Nicholson Baker, from The New Yorker. Positive on iPod Touch; negative on Kindle.

OR Books, a new progressive publisher, will try e-books and POD to bypass bookstores | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

2009-07-22T11:45:00.001-05:00

OR Books, a new progressive publisher, will try e-books and POD to bypass bookstores | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Very exciting: I love the model and the list of authors they've worked with is very promising as well.

OR Books from OR Books on Vimeo.

Vladimir Nabokov discusses “Lolita" - Boing Boing

2009-07-20T14:35:00.001-05:00

Vladimir Nabokov discusses “Lolita" - via Boing Boing

Part 2:

Ebook Reader Roundup, part 1: Devices

2009-07-20T08:00:00.001-05:00

Let's start by looking at the dedicated reading devices . . .

Kindle 1: Here is my original Kindle review. I’d also add that the more I think about it, the more I am opposed to carrying an extra device just for books. It says a lot about the coolness factor of the iPod Touch that I’m willing to carry an extra thing around (and I know that it is a multi-purpose device—I just happen to use it primarily for books). It also helps that it is very small.

Sony Reader: I’ve only ever seen one and I didn’t really read anything on it, but I flipped through a book on it. From what I could tell, though, it has many of the drawbacks of the Kindle. Primarily, to me, the fact that it’s only good for reading.

However, I could see my parents using something like a Kindle or Sony Reader. Particularly my dad: he likes to read newspapers (currently reads some online, some in paper) and books and mainly does so at home.

Time for some multi-purpose devices . . .

Palm Treo: I have been reading on my Treo for years. My current one is a 700p (I'm looking to upgrade, but can't pull the trigger on the Pre yet). The biggest selling point for this approach is that I always have a book with me, because I always have my phone with me. Since the eReader mobile site launched, I don't even need my computer—I can purchase and download directly to my phone. The downsides are the very small screen (which doesn't bother me, but I know it matters to many people) and the poor text resolution (which I didn't notice until I started reading on the iPod, but I'm getting ahead of myself).

iPod Touch: My new favorite thing—so pretty, so shiny. As I just mentioned, the screen on this thing is just gorgeous: it's big and both text and images look great on it. Also, there are so many great books and book apps available for the iPod/iPhone—and many of them are free! Makes my little heart flutter just thinking about it. By far my favorite reading device to date. It's also great for social networking (I use the Facebook and Tweetdeck apps), and the browser is quite nice. But are there any downsides? Yes. For one, I'm at the mercy of wifi availability since I have an iPod and not an iPhone. Also, (again, since it's not the iPhone) it's an extra thing to carry around.

Coming soon . . .
Ebook Reader Roundup, part 2: Apps

Judging a Book by Its Cover: Columbine

2009-07-19T10:57:00.004-05:00

...by Henry Sene Yee Design: Columbine

Designer Henry Sene Yee blogs about designing the cover for Columbine (recently reviewed by Beth).

I thought that like 9/11, this was a regular day in the life of a regular high school. I wanted to depict the banality of school life . . .

Book Blogger Appreciation Week : September 14-18, 2009

2009-07-19T10:48:00.003-05:00

Book Blogger Appreciation Week : September 14-18, 2009

Check it out: there will be awards, prizes, and giveaways. Nominate your favorite book blog; follow BBAW on twitter; be a part of the book blogging community.

I think I need this book

2009-07-19T10:42:00.002-05:00

Itty Bitty Kitchen Handbook
(Reviewed by Unclutterer)

The Egyptologist, by Arthur Phillips

2009-07-16T00:38:00.009-05:00

The Egyptologist, by Arthur Phillips, is canny, smart, funny, and a bit heartbreaking. It's really nicely written. It's an epistolary novel with two deeply complicated, unreliable main narrators (though they are not writing to each other). One character is Ralph Trilipush, an Egyptologist working in 1922 to excavate the tomb of the (possibly false) pharaoh Atum-hadu (whose erotic poetry RT has already translated and published)--he is digging in Egypt right near where Howard Carter is about to discover the tomb of Tutankhamen. The second main character is an Australian private detective; he is in a nursing home and writing in 1954 (I think) about the events of 1922 when he was hired to hunt down the Egyptologist, whom he believes was a confidence man. Each character is complicated, alternately likable and disgusting, and very worthy of attention.

The book made me think about:

1. authenticity: What makes a person acceptable and accredited, bona fide? How can we identify people who are shams, or all we all shams? To what extent can we reinvent ourselves and transcend our past history? Is identity always a sham/temporary guise?

2. academic competition/classism: The novel reveals how social class/upbringing/going to the right schools could either set one up or sink one, particularly in the 1920s, when archaeologists relied on funding and patronage through an old boys' network of sorts.

3. immortality: The novel details various ways people seek it--Egyptian pharaohs through their tombs; academics through their work; archaeologists through their finds; collectors from the items they've assembled.

4. self-invention: The book is full of retellings and reinventions--both of personal history and of historical figures/history more broadly; at the end, the two intertwine in very funny, very horrible ways.

Really, this novel is so nicely executed, in my opinion. Others have compared it to Nabokov's Pale Fire; I'll have to read that.

Author has an excerpt of the book at his Web page. Also, apparently, a new Phillips novel, The Song Is You, is out.

Sock Innovation by Cookie A; Country Weekend Knits by Madeline Weston

2009-07-11T12:40:00.005-05:00

Cookie A is a great sock designer. She brought us one of the most popular and fun sock patterns of all time--Monkey--and now she has an entire book of creative designs, Sock Innovation. She is known, I think, for doing very interesting, cool things with cables; she also has a real talent for writing patterns very clearly, which I love. Sock Innovation has socks for a range of skill levels; the hardest ones are way beyond anything I'd dare attempt at this point, but there are several I feel willing to try. In fact, I have tried one pattern, "kai-mei," and I thought it produced some very pretty socks.

At the beginning of the book, Cookie A includes design information--you can learn how to design your own socks or how to alter the sizes/patterns for the one's she's provided here. Each pattern in the book is named after someone she knows, which gives the socks personality, and which I really like. All in all, a great sock book; I highly recommend it. The irony: hardcore knitters, all of them, probably already own the book!

Madeline Weston's Country Weekend Knits is exactly the kind of knitting book I love: it presents classic styles (in this case, from the British Isles, including Aran, Gansey, Fair Isle, and Shetland lace) and a brief history of each type of knitting. The sweaters are just gorgeous, and I am longing to knit a gansey soon. Have not yet tried any patterns, but they seem very easy to follow. The photography in the book is as beautiful as the sweaters.

Columbine, by Dave Cullen

2009-07-11T12:16:00.006-05:00

I just finished listening to the audio version of Columbine, by Dave Cullen, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Previously, people had believed certain myths about the tragedy, primarily, that Harris and Klebold were outsiders who attacked because they had been bullied and persecuted. In this work, Cullen debunks that myth and others, in part because he has had access to the crucial primary sources: the boys' diaries; the "basement tapes" in which they videotaped themselves in the weeks leading to the shootings; interviews with their friends and other students, and several survivors. The book thus presents an excellent, sad portrait of Eric's and Dylan's mental states as they worked themselves up to the act of committing mass murder. The boys, it seemed, were driven primarily by Eric, whom Cullen diagnoses (following the lead of FBI profilers and analysts) as a budding psychopath; Dylan was more prone, it seems, to suicide than mass murder, but he got swept along with Eric. The thing that was most powerful to me was how impossible it is to know anyone--even one's own children. Klebold's parents in particular (who have talked more to sources) appear as very kind, good people who were totally shocked and overwhelmed by their son's actions, and in the Harris family, Cullen traces a long series of diary entries from Eric's father that indicate the various disciplinary strategies and ideas they were implementing with him. Furthermore, the boys had had contact with various mental health and legal professionals. They should have been caught and stopped beforehand--this book definitely shows that--but I just don't think anyone (and Cullen shows this) was actually able to believe that these kids would really do what they did.

The book also traces the stories of several survivors and their parents; these tales are poignant as well because they demonstrate the complex relationship between grieving and anger, and also describe very convincingly just how hard it is to recover from trauma.

The reader of the audiobook, Don Leslie, has a commanding bass voice and he does a good job of rendering teen anger and angst and speech patterns. As always seems to happen with male readers, his voices for women sometimes climb into the falsetto and thus become grating, but Leslie is definitely a talented reader, and he made the audiobook quite compelling.

In conclusion, I'd just like to say, FIFTEEN GRAND SLAMS LOOKS GOOD ON YOU, ROGER:

Reminder: David Sedaris Reading is Tomorrow!

2009-06-19T09:51:00.005-05:00

Bestselling author David Sedaris will read from his latest book, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, at 7 p.m. on Saturday, June 20 (tomorrow!) at the University Bookstore. He will sign copies of all his titles after the reading. Come early to get a good seat and enjoy music and stand-up comedy beginning at 2:30 p.m. For more information, contact the store at 472-7300.

From what I've heard, the plan is to issue numbers to customers as they arrive and the number will correspond to a seat. I'd suggest getting there early!