Welcome to September! The weather here is perfect for what, in my head, is really the true beginning of Fall. It's a marvelously crisp autumnal morning, and we have all the windows thrown open to let in fresh, cool air that lacks even a hint of the oppressive humidity that August brought. If Summer here only lasts one blistering month, I just might have to consider settling in for the long haul.
The other great thing about September is that it brings October, but in this case I'm not talking about the month of ghouls and candy corn--I'm talking about October Daye, the changeling (half-faerie, half-human) protagonist of Seanan McGuire's Rosemary and Rue, which releases today. At some point in the not-too-distant future, I imagine, her books will have a strict-on-sale date (which is usually imposed as an author becomes more widely known), but luckily for those of us who have been looking forward to this book, there was none for this release. I was lucky enough to find the book over the weekend; I devoured it on Saturday evening and have been pondering a review ever since.
This book is such an enormous amount of fun. Those who read a lot of fantasy--and especially the kind in which the magical world intersects with our own--will appreciate the author's technique. She's really done a fantastic job of fleshing out the world that Toby--short for October--lives in, but does so subtly, not bashing the reader over the head with the fantastic creatures and characters that pass in and out of her life. A lot of this has to do, I think, with a somewhat (wonderfully) nontraditional approach to the magical world she's introducing to us all. Many writers choose to have their protagonist also be a newcomer to the setting of their books, but McGuire's Toby is well-versed in the lore of her world--she's just been out of it for a while. It allows her to explain the rules to us by showing, not telling. It doesn't hurt that, much like the reader immersed in the book, Toby lives in both worlds--we can relate to her in this one and follow her into the other.
I appreciated the lack of stereotypical romance plots that many authors use to add another degree of conflict to their characters' lives. You know the kind: somewhere, a couple of pages before it happens, the dialogue changes ever-so-slightly, and already you're groaning because you can already tell that the author's going to throw these two characters together. I hope that if Toby is able to move on from some unfortunate events in her past, that things will continue to be reasonable in that regard, and not drag us through the Ranger, no--Joe, no--Ranger, no--Joe god-awfulness that Evanovich subjects her readers to every summer (and sometimes on holidays!). I think we can trust Seanan not to do that--she's altogether too clever at what she does for that tired trope.
I don't want to give a lot of spoilers here, so it's difficult to discuss the plot of the book, but I think it's fair to say that even if you think you know where the story's headed, you may be surprised to see how it gets there. Seanan is fearless. She doesn't put her characters up on some high shelf and make them untouchable. The bad guys don't suddenly develop Stormtrooper Syndrome when they're chasing Toby down a dark alley--and neither does anyone else. Bad things happen--though I have to admit, occasionally pushing the limits of plausibility in Toby's case, but then again she's a magical creature and has a lot of friends (and enemies) in high places, and so I was willing to accept the way things went in that regard.
There is such a high level of attention to detail in these books. Every character has a signature scent to their magic, which I find such a wonderful little tidbit, something that really enhances the world and my experience of it. We get a pronunciation guide to all the fun-but-obscure faerie names--and there are many types of faerie populating this universe. There are rose goblins--catlike creatures with thorns instead of fur--they're hypoallergenic! McGuire is clearly familiar with the realms, both mundane and magical, that Toby inhabits and gives us so much that it's so easy and enjoyable to climb on and go along for the ride.
One thing that I was left wondering about was the faerie world's sensitivity to iron, which is an established weapon against fae and their ilk both in and out of Toby Daye's universe. Iron is used in the book against magical creatures, even against Toby herself, to cause great harm, but Toby is also Daoine Sidhe and has some blood magic in her limited repertoire. Furthermore, Toby is part-human. Since iron is a fairly significant component of blood--at least, of human blood--it seems like there should be some problems there. I'm not sure if the signature copper scent of Toby's magic is supposed to be a hint that faerie blood is different, but if iron is such a powerful weapon against those of faerie, I'm curious how that might be resolved. Perhaps if faerie blood is different from human blood, the mixing of it would be one of the things that makes changelings weaker, and why Toby experiences painful backlash when she overexerts herself magically. I imagine that this will be addressed in future books--with several more already scheduled to come out or in the works (March and September 2010!) she can't put all her cards on the table just yet, after all!
Having read Seanan's blog posts for the past few years, it's easy to see how her personality really shines throughout the book, from the blaze orange text on the cover to Toby's real name, the dialogue's snarky wit and the appearance of wonderfully interesting takes on the typical faerie lore, not to mention the pair of Siamese cats and the San Francisco setting. She's done her research, added a fair measure of creativity, and stirred in a heaping helping of her own curious life; the result is completely captivating.
There's so much to talk about and I really don't want to give away too much, so I'll simply say this: if you enjoy urban fantasy, read this book. If you enjoy impeccably-crafted worlds rich with detail, read this book. If you like a main character you can relate to, read this book. If you love a good story, read this book.
While the "girl hero against the world" genre is ubiquitous, Toby Daye is no Stephanie Plum (though there was a car wreck that made me quirk my eyebrow--and doesn't Harry Dresden drive a Beetle?) and I don't expect to see the same formula but with different covers in future releases from McGuire. The October Daye novels show great promise, and I'm adding my voice to the already-growing list of reviewers shouting: read this book!
More about Rosemary and Rue can be found on Seanan McGuire's website, here, including a preview sample of the story. The sequel, A Local Habitation, is slated for March 2010.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Boy, time does fly. It's been three months since I started that new job, and while I like it, the schedule doesn't quite seem to jive with my early-bird nature. The good news (for this book-loving soul) is that I've definitely found a way to take advantage of all the new books in my life, not to mention the Half-Price Books just up the street.
Pretty much the entirety of my 45-minute lunch break is spent reading, nearly every single day. At first, I would do this in my little office cubicle, because the chair was comfy and the food I bring is pretty simple. Then a bigwig took up temporary residence in the conference room right opposite my cube--a conference room that we don't call "the glass fishbowl" for nothing. My boss rather discreetly told me that while she and everyone else knew I was on my lunch break and not just goofing off, that it would be better to sit out in the building's atrium area if I was going to read. That was, for the most part, fine and dandy. The only reason I hadn't gone out before was a) new-job jitters in an unfamiliar place and b) the construction.
Our building is currently in the process of being converted from a convention center to an office building. The floor that I work one was one of the first done, but now they're working on redoing the rest of the building--and it is loud. I'm happy to say that about ten minutes into my break, however, the construction guys (I haven't seen any girls, anyway...) all head home for the day--I work a later shift so my "lunchtime" is at 3:00. Usually by the time I'm finished eating, all is quiet and I have a good half hour to read before heading back into the office.
My roommate and I have also decorated our patio, covering every available surface with plants, and it's a lovely sanctuary where I've spent many summer Saturdays curled up with a good book, cat snoozing by my side.
In the past three months I've plowed through pretty much all of Piers Anthony's Xanth series, with the exception of some of the more recent ones. A friend was cleaning out her shelves in preparation for a move and offered to send me her collection because she thought I would like them. I did, although sometimes the puns and gimmicks got a little tiring. So I took a break from those and read other things for a bit.
I read through the Riftwar Saga, by Raymond C. Feist. Sometimes the books were so dense that I would realize that I had been skimming through the past few pages and put it aside for a couple of days until I was ready to jump in again. It's definitely more of an old-fashioned feeling fantasy, and although more of the sequels are available to me, it might be a while before I'm feeling up to plunging back in again.
I re-read 1632 by Eric Flint, which has always held a special place in my mental library, as the town the story is set in, Grantville, is based on a town right outside the one I grew up in, and the school, at least, I have visited and know well enough to smile at the descriptions.
I also re-read Christopher Stasheff's A Wizard in Rhyme books, which I read for the first (and only, until now) time back in college, and was pleasantly surprised to find out that while I remembered enjoying the books, I didn't remember much of what had happened. Essentially, it was like reading a brand new series but with the added bonus of knowing I'd be happy at the end.
My husband and I went to see Julie & Julia, which I enjoyed, and stopped at the bookstore not long after (I had a gift card I'd been wanting to use) to pick up Julie Powell's book. It was interesting, but the Julie portrayed by Amy Adams was certainly a more likeable Julie. I'm still planning on picking up Child's book, My Life in France, but haven't gotten around to it yet.
Finally, the most recent thing I pulled off my roommate's shelves was an unexpected pleasure--Goblin Quest by Jim C. Hines. The story of Jig left me giggling as the genre was turned on its head--in a good way. We have the second book in the series, Goblin Hero, which will be next week's lunchtime entertainment, but I've just today found out there's a third in the series, Goblin War, and that the author has another series in progress as well that sounds really exciting, so I see a trip to Half-Price in my near future.
So that's my whirlwind update. Stay tuned for something even more exciting very soon: I've gotten my paws on Seanan McGuire's Rosemary and Rue and I can't wait to talk about it!
Pretty much the entirety of my 45-minute lunch break is spent reading, nearly every single day. At first, I would do this in my little office cubicle, because the chair was comfy and the food I bring is pretty simple. Then a bigwig took up temporary residence in the conference room right opposite my cube--a conference room that we don't call "the glass fishbowl" for nothing. My boss rather discreetly told me that while she and everyone else knew I was on my lunch break and not just goofing off, that it would be better to sit out in the building's atrium area if I was going to read. That was, for the most part, fine and dandy. The only reason I hadn't gone out before was a) new-job jitters in an unfamiliar place and b) the construction.
Our building is currently in the process of being converted from a convention center to an office building. The floor that I work one was one of the first done, but now they're working on redoing the rest of the building--and it is loud. I'm happy to say that about ten minutes into my break, however, the construction guys (I haven't seen any girls, anyway...) all head home for the day--I work a later shift so my "lunchtime" is at 3:00. Usually by the time I'm finished eating, all is quiet and I have a good half hour to read before heading back into the office.
My roommate and I have also decorated our patio, covering every available surface with plants, and it's a lovely sanctuary where I've spent many summer Saturdays curled up with a good book, cat snoozing by my side.
In the past three months I've plowed through pretty much all of Piers Anthony's Xanth series, with the exception of some of the more recent ones. A friend was cleaning out her shelves in preparation for a move and offered to send me her collection because she thought I would like them. I did, although sometimes the puns and gimmicks got a little tiring. So I took a break from those and read other things for a bit.
I read through the Riftwar Saga, by Raymond C. Feist. Sometimes the books were so dense that I would realize that I had been skimming through the past few pages and put it aside for a couple of days until I was ready to jump in again. It's definitely more of an old-fashioned feeling fantasy, and although more of the sequels are available to me, it might be a while before I'm feeling up to plunging back in again.
I re-read 1632 by Eric Flint, which has always held a special place in my mental library, as the town the story is set in, Grantville, is based on a town right outside the one I grew up in, and the school, at least, I have visited and know well enough to smile at the descriptions.
I also re-read Christopher Stasheff's A Wizard in Rhyme books, which I read for the first (and only, until now) time back in college, and was pleasantly surprised to find out that while I remembered enjoying the books, I didn't remember much of what had happened. Essentially, it was like reading a brand new series but with the added bonus of knowing I'd be happy at the end.
My husband and I went to see Julie & Julia, which I enjoyed, and stopped at the bookstore not long after (I had a gift card I'd been wanting to use) to pick up Julie Powell's book. It was interesting, but the Julie portrayed by Amy Adams was certainly a more likeable Julie. I'm still planning on picking up Child's book, My Life in France, but haven't gotten around to it yet.
Finally, the most recent thing I pulled off my roommate's shelves was an unexpected pleasure--Goblin Quest by Jim C. Hines. The story of Jig left me giggling as the genre was turned on its head--in a good way. We have the second book in the series, Goblin Hero, which will be next week's lunchtime entertainment, but I've just today found out there's a third in the series, Goblin War, and that the author has another series in progress as well that sounds really exciting, so I see a trip to Half-Price in my near future.
So that's my whirlwind update. Stay tuned for something even more exciting very soon: I've gotten my paws on Seanan McGuire's Rosemary and Rue and I can't wait to talk about it!
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Home is where you hang your hat...
We rejoin our heroine in her new digs. In the past two months she's completely changed just about everything--left the cushy-but-occasionally-dull office job and the college town that's had the shine worn off for a few years now and headed into what John Green's protagonist Miles Halter might call "The Great Perhaps."
I'm back! Who knows how long it'll last this time, as I've had very little time to devote to reading whilst uprooting my life and settling in a new town.
The books are all unpacked, though, and beckoning. Our new/old roommate has a collection several orders of magnitude larger than mine, and I'm itching to get my fingers on them just as soon as I can get everything else sorted out.
The first order of business, replacing my wonderful former job. Check.
Check? Awesome!
More details to come...
I'm back! Who knows how long it'll last this time, as I've had very little time to devote to reading whilst uprooting my life and settling in a new town.
The books are all unpacked, though, and beckoning. Our new/old roommate has a collection several orders of magnitude larger than mine, and I'm itching to get my fingers on them just as soon as I can get everything else sorted out.
The first order of business, replacing my wonderful former job. Check.
Check? Awesome!
More details to come...
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Weehah.
Well, hey, looky there.
Life's changed for the bookwench. While she still loves reading, she no longer spends her days laboring over books and coffee. She's moved up in the world! Now her days are spent behind a desk in that cushy office job she always wanted, but turns out it can be pretty dull, too. The people she works with are much nicer, though, and the work more fulfilling aside from the whole lack-of-books thing. She's thinking about getting a library card since, in the six months since she left her old job, everything on her shelves has been read and re-read. She's starting to feel desperate, feel the itch for new words, new worlds.
A return? Who knows. But when the sun comes out the words may flow again.
Life's changed for the bookwench. While she still loves reading, she no longer spends her days laboring over books and coffee. She's moved up in the world! Now her days are spent behind a desk in that cushy office job she always wanted, but turns out it can be pretty dull, too. The people she works with are much nicer, though, and the work more fulfilling aside from the whole lack-of-books thing. She's thinking about getting a library card since, in the six months since she left her old job, everything on her shelves has been read and re-read. She's starting to feel desperate, feel the itch for new words, new worlds.
A return? Who knows. But when the sun comes out the words may flow again.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Not Dead Yet
Apologies for my recent absence--Fearless Fourteen almost scared me away.
I kid!
Not that the book wasn't relatively awful (thanks again for the warning, Liz), but I've been on vacation this past week, and since work is how I obtain my reading material, generally speaking, I haven't had anything new to read since this time last week.
My husband and I took the week off together, and spent a couple nights in Pittsburgh. I uploaded the pictures to Flickr, and they should be in the sidebar as soon as I get it working.
Once I head back to work (Monday, presumably; I don't have my schedule yet for this week.) I'll have more for you all!
I kid!
Not that the book wasn't relatively awful (thanks again for the warning, Liz), but I've been on vacation this past week, and since work is how I obtain my reading material, generally speaking, I haven't had anything new to read since this time last week.
My husband and I took the week off together, and spent a couple nights in Pittsburgh. I uploaded the pictures to Flickr, and they should be in the sidebar as soon as I get it working.
Once I head back to work (Monday, presumably; I don't have my schedule yet for this week.) I'll have more for you all!
Monday, June 16, 2008
The thunder rolls...
It's been a stormy day in bookwench land. When I went out earlier to run errands it was sprinkling, and by the time I got to the store it was simply pouring. Of course, I left my umbrella at work a few weeks ago, and so I did the best I could and parked close to the door.
When I got back home, the sun was shining again, and I curled up on the couch with the windows open to finish Bar Flower, which is a memoir of a young American woman who pursued her dream to live and work in Japan in order to become fluent.
I took Japanese as my foreign language requirement in college, and that certainly originally sparked my interest in this book. Oddly enough, something else that grabbed my attention was the book's size. While hardcover, the size is more similar to a trade paperback. It's just about the perfect heft and size for my hands.
Beyond that, I think I was drawn to this book because I know that never in a million years will I go and live in Japan, despite my interest in the nation's culture both past and present. I am far too "different" to feel comfortable spending extended periods of time amongst people who tend to emphasize sameness and fitting in. As Lea reminds her readers, the nail that sticks up gets hammered down. And I would certainly stick out like a sore thumb.
So, as in many things, I live vicariously through reading. It's certainly cheaper than travel, no?
Lea starts out teaching English to schoolchildren but loses her job after a particularly unsavory encounter with a psychologist who doesn't have to work under the same privacy limitations that she is used to. When all other options fail, she turns to the thriving bar scene and becomes a bar hostess: a strangely modern evolution of the Japanese geisha.
During my read of this book, I did often think about Arthur Golden's novelization, loosely based on the life of Mineko Iwasaki (whose book I also read and found to resonate perhaps more strongly than the fictional account) , but there were few intersections aside from some more obvious ones. Lea herself is preoccupied with geisha, so these connections are easy to make.
I was actually surprised by the rather abrupt end to Lea's narrative, but it certainly does align with her final exit from the stage of hostessing and addiction. I wish that this part would have been fleshed out a bit more. There were a lot of disorganized, chaotic parts (both in writing and in plot, possibly intentional and symbolic) that could have been more cohesive, and a lot of kind of random information that I wasn't sure where it was going. But this was a memoir and not a novel, and so I tend to be a bit more forgiving, I suppose.
Despite all that, I'm glad I read this one. It was engrossing and interesting and added a new facet to my knowledge of Japanese culture. And it reminded me that I haven't forgotten everything since college--which is always a good thing!
Thunderstorms are rolling through again tonight, so I'm going to wrap this up now and get it posted before the power drops. Tomorrow, Fearless Fourteen, which, thanks to Liz's comments in my previous post, I'll be reading with a grain of salt.
When I got back home, the sun was shining again, and I curled up on the couch with the windows open to finish Bar Flower, which is a memoir of a young American woman who pursued her dream to live and work in Japan in order to become fluent.
I took Japanese as my foreign language requirement in college, and that certainly originally sparked my interest in this book. Oddly enough, something else that grabbed my attention was the book's size. While hardcover, the size is more similar to a trade paperback. It's just about the perfect heft and size for my hands.
Beyond that, I think I was drawn to this book because I know that never in a million years will I go and live in Japan, despite my interest in the nation's culture both past and present. I am far too "different" to feel comfortable spending extended periods of time amongst people who tend to emphasize sameness and fitting in. As Lea reminds her readers, the nail that sticks up gets hammered down. And I would certainly stick out like a sore thumb.
So, as in many things, I live vicariously through reading. It's certainly cheaper than travel, no?
Lea starts out teaching English to schoolchildren but loses her job after a particularly unsavory encounter with a psychologist who doesn't have to work under the same privacy limitations that she is used to. When all other options fail, she turns to the thriving bar scene and becomes a bar hostess: a strangely modern evolution of the Japanese geisha.
During my read of this book, I did often think about Arthur Golden's novelization, loosely based on the life of Mineko Iwasaki (whose book I also read and found to resonate perhaps more strongly than the fictional account) , but there were few intersections aside from some more obvious ones. Lea herself is preoccupied with geisha, so these connections are easy to make.
I was actually surprised by the rather abrupt end to Lea's narrative, but it certainly does align with her final exit from the stage of hostessing and addiction. I wish that this part would have been fleshed out a bit more. There were a lot of disorganized, chaotic parts (both in writing and in plot, possibly intentional and symbolic) that could have been more cohesive, and a lot of kind of random information that I wasn't sure where it was going. But this was a memoir and not a novel, and so I tend to be a bit more forgiving, I suppose.
Despite all that, I'm glad I read this one. It was engrossing and interesting and added a new facet to my knowledge of Japanese culture. And it reminded me that I haven't forgotten everything since college--which is always a good thing!
Thunderstorms are rolling through again tonight, so I'm going to wrap this up now and get it posted before the power drops. Tomorrow, Fearless Fourteen, which, thanks to Liz's comments in my previous post, I'll be reading with a grain of salt.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Hah.
And once again, your friendly neighborhood Bookwench was consumed by the grind of real life. I offer my apologies.
I don't know what it is about retail that somehow manages to entirely consume your soul from time to time. I've experienced this feeling often around the winter holidays, but the past couple of months have been almost as bad.
My reading list has grown considerably since the last time I wrote, though unfortunately there were truly only a few books of note.
The first that comes to mind, Barbara Walters' Audition, was an unlikely read for me. My store sold out of it almost immediately when it was first released, but after a couple of weeks on the bestseller lists we had a fairly solid standing stock. I would have probably ignored it altogether, however, if it wasn't for the fact that Ms. Walters made an appearance on the Daily Show one night when I just happened to be watching. There was something about her sense of humor, that she would even go on Stewart's show, and the way she handled herself once there, that nudged me into seeing what all the fuss was about.
I'm glad I did.
While the memoir is not, of course, a great work of literature in the traditional sense (sometimes it gets a bit wordy and, dare I say, sentimental), it truly does justice to the extraordinary life that this woman has lived, and is living. If any of you out there are familiar with Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire, you might have a similar experience to mine: as I was reading I kept identifying bits and pieces of the book and song that matched up, and I was amused.
Barbara Walters has pretty much lived the last 50+ years of notable American and world history. For someone like myself, who often struggled with history classes in the traditional academic setting, this is a much more accessible and interesting way to gain a greater understanding of "what really happened."
It does seem to me that I've been leaning rather strongly towards nonfiction of late. I go through phases when all I want to read is fiction, and then suddenly nothing in that particular realm interests me in the least; it's as though the oasis had dried up without warning, and all that was left to browse were stones and dry leaves and nothing very interesting at all.
At that point I'm left wandering my usual alternative-reading haunts: biography and science. For me, science is a subject that, in various ways, I clearly did well at in school but once things got to a certain technical level (chemistry, physics) I generally became daunted by the math involved and gave up. So occasionally I'll stumble through those shelves and find something that I can relate to.
This coming week, however, I will allow myself to indulge in what I might normally dismiss as fluff. Honestly, in my most humble, bookwench-y opinion, there's a lot of fluff out there. A great deal of it is not, as they say, relevant to my interests. But Janet Evanovich has a new Stephanie Plum book, Fearless Fourteen, and as I got sucked into that series years ago by my best friend and fellow book-a-holic, I'll give this one a go as I do with each of Evanovich's yearly efforts.
Last year's title, Lean Mean Thirteen, actually made me wonder when the series was finally going to end, because if that was the best the author could do after all that time, surely it was time to call it quits. I know that, generally speaking, all the books have a similar scheme: Plum is desperate, Plum sludges through job, flirts with Ranger, hijinks with Lula and Grandma, gets into a situation more serious than she can handle, calls Joe, blows up a few cars, is rescued, spends a night with Morelli and his dog, eats dinner with parents and newlywed sister (and children), and eventually manages to save the day despite an unbelievable number of fumbles, and all with a spectacular amount of innuendo and humor. Usually these machinations are at least entertaining enough to be worth an hour of so of my time. Last time was the first time I can really say I felt disappointed by the end of the book.
However, I've had a sneak peek at the first few pages of Fourteen, and it seems to be much more promising. So I'm looking forward to that.
I'm also working on another memoir, Bar Flower, that is quite engrossing and will likely merit a post of its own once I finish.
For now, however, it's just about that time where I scuttle off to live amongst the tomes for an hour or eight.
Ta!
I don't know what it is about retail that somehow manages to entirely consume your soul from time to time. I've experienced this feeling often around the winter holidays, but the past couple of months have been almost as bad.
My reading list has grown considerably since the last time I wrote, though unfortunately there were truly only a few books of note.
The first that comes to mind, Barbara Walters' Audition, was an unlikely read for me. My store sold out of it almost immediately when it was first released, but after a couple of weeks on the bestseller lists we had a fairly solid standing stock. I would have probably ignored it altogether, however, if it wasn't for the fact that Ms. Walters made an appearance on the Daily Show one night when I just happened to be watching. There was something about her sense of humor, that she would even go on Stewart's show, and the way she handled herself once there, that nudged me into seeing what all the fuss was about.
I'm glad I did.
While the memoir is not, of course, a great work of literature in the traditional sense (sometimes it gets a bit wordy and, dare I say, sentimental), it truly does justice to the extraordinary life that this woman has lived, and is living. If any of you out there are familiar with Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire, you might have a similar experience to mine: as I was reading I kept identifying bits and pieces of the book and song that matched up, and I was amused.
Barbara Walters has pretty much lived the last 50+ years of notable American and world history. For someone like myself, who often struggled with history classes in the traditional academic setting, this is a much more accessible and interesting way to gain a greater understanding of "what really happened."
It does seem to me that I've been leaning rather strongly towards nonfiction of late. I go through phases when all I want to read is fiction, and then suddenly nothing in that particular realm interests me in the least; it's as though the oasis had dried up without warning, and all that was left to browse were stones and dry leaves and nothing very interesting at all.
At that point I'm left wandering my usual alternative-reading haunts: biography and science. For me, science is a subject that, in various ways, I clearly did well at in school but once things got to a certain technical level (chemistry, physics) I generally became daunted by the math involved and gave up. So occasionally I'll stumble through those shelves and find something that I can relate to.
This coming week, however, I will allow myself to indulge in what I might normally dismiss as fluff. Honestly, in my most humble, bookwench-y opinion, there's a lot of fluff out there. A great deal of it is not, as they say, relevant to my interests. But Janet Evanovich has a new Stephanie Plum book, Fearless Fourteen, and as I got sucked into that series years ago by my best friend and fellow book-a-holic, I'll give this one a go as I do with each of Evanovich's yearly efforts.
Last year's title, Lean Mean Thirteen, actually made me wonder when the series was finally going to end, because if that was the best the author could do after all that time, surely it was time to call it quits. I know that, generally speaking, all the books have a similar scheme: Plum is desperate, Plum sludges through job, flirts with Ranger, hijinks with Lula and Grandma, gets into a situation more serious than she can handle, calls Joe, blows up a few cars, is rescued, spends a night with Morelli and his dog, eats dinner with parents and newlywed sister (and children), and eventually manages to save the day despite an unbelievable number of fumbles, and all with a spectacular amount of innuendo and humor. Usually these machinations are at least entertaining enough to be worth an hour of so of my time. Last time was the first time I can really say I felt disappointed by the end of the book.
However, I've had a sneak peek at the first few pages of Fourteen, and it seems to be much more promising. So I'm looking forward to that.
I'm also working on another memoir, Bar Flower, that is quite engrossing and will likely merit a post of its own once I finish.
For now, however, it's just about that time where I scuttle off to live amongst the tomes for an hour or eight.
Ta!
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Hmm...
The bookwench returns!
For a moment I feared this project would fail before it even got off the ground, but then I recalled my determination to remain positive. And besides, it's really not all that difficult to hop on over and write when I'm already sitting here at the computer anyway.
In the past couple of days I've already digested a couple of new titles, unsurprisingly. In the book world, much as with most DVDs, CDs, software, and video games (though not movies in the theaters), new product hits the shelves on Tuesdays. Some things get shifted to more prominent dates (such as Harry Potter, which was conveniently on a Friday night/Saturday morning so that those lucky enough to have weekends off had plenty of time to dig right in without suffering much from their late-night adventures in Rowling's world) but the majority of new titles release on that one special day.
A quick bit of Googling (you'll find that Google is one of my best friends as I continue to seek out and absorb new and usually irrelevant information) seems to suggest that Monday is just too 'blah' for getting the interest of consumers, and by Friday (and through the weekend) people are more interested in going out and taking care of all they've put off during the week. This mindset, apparently, leaves people receptive on those three middle days, and Tuesday is just the earliest opportunity to get all the new and exciting things out there for buying and selling and, of course, tracking sales trends.
But I digress (hah).
Tuesday rolled around, and as I waited for the steady stream of regular coffee junkies to start streaming in for their morning hit, I browsed the cart of books that were set for release that day. One I was already aware of, Kate Mosse's Sepulchre; I'd actually started a stealth-read from the same new release cart a couple of days previous while taking a lunch break in the back room. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much given my lukewarm reception of her previous effort, Labyrinth. But I'm a sucker for those historical thrillers that parallel stories in the past and present, and there was an element of mysticism as well (a French Tarot deck features prominently in the plot) that appealed to me, so I figured I would give it a chance.
My plans for getting back to Sepulchre were immediately diverted, however, when I spotted a new Jim Butcher title on the other side of the cart. Could it be? A new Dresden Files book? It was! I generally try to keep on top of release dates for series that I've enjoyed, but I'd managed to miss this one completely. We'd only gotten five copies, as opposed to the rather formdiable quantity of Mosse's book, so I reasoned that I would get it out of the way first and then move on to the thicker book which was much less likely to sell out before I could get my hands on it. So I claimed a copy of Small Favor for myself, going so far as to sneak it over to the cafe, peeking inside and getting through the first couple of chapters rather furtively, between lattes.
There were a few other titles that caught my eye which I'll probably go searching after now that I've finished both of these other titles.
Yes, I've actually managed to get through both of them already; Sepulchre just this morning.
I can't say that either book was so compelling that I'll feel obliged to recommend it to friends or customers, but neither was a total disappointment, at that.
Both were, admittedly, fluff sort of reading. Nothing serious, just read for the sheer pleasure of reading, meeting new characters and spending time with old friendly ones.
Small Favor is going to be well-received by anyone who's a fan of the books already. My husband snagged it out of my bag while he was waiting for me to finish up a hair cut and he seemed interested even though he's never read any of the other books and has only seen a few minutes of the show, at most.
The plot might have been a bit crowded, as it seemed like a push to get all the story's threads woven together by the end of the book, but the universe that Butcher has created is a diverse and demanding one, and I didn't enjoy the book any less because of it. You wouldn't expect wizards, holy paladins, faerie minions, and vampires to adapt so well to modern-day Chicago, but as always, I'm entertained by the translation.
I did, however, finish it off in almost no time at all, and was ready to get going on Sepulchre by Wednesday morning.
The general opinion, after finishing, is a resounding 'meh.' Which...isn't at all unlike my reaction to Labyrinth. I think my own point of view is a bit less receptive, if only because I started out in the genre with Katherine Neville's The Eight, which, while not a perfect manuscript by any means, has always been my first true love. In fact, as I began reading Sepulchre, I couldn't help but to wonder if Mosse had spent some time reading Neville herself, as some of the settings and "gambits" of the story seemed to echo the earlier novel.
Some Googling (see, there it is again) turned up a lot of matches for people who were fans of both authors or had both on their reading lists, but that's to be expected when they inhabit the same story-space.
Anyway--the story is entertaining enough. Female protagonist seeking clues to a fogged past spends time in a new place, becomes entangled in multiple mysterious circumstances that eventually lead to the connection and clarification of all. Simultaneous backstory happens in same location but many years past, and runs forward to the culmination of events that lead to main character's foggy past. Mysterious artifacts (in this case, a deck of Tarot cards) and strange situations (demons, music, an old estate) are invoked, bad guys emerge, and eventually the characters find the artifacts, beat the bad guys, and unravel the heroine's history to find some sort of Happily Ever After.
I can't say that Katherine Neville didn't use the very same template, but she did do it more elegantly and with a greater complexity, and about twenty years ago, to boot.
(Katherine Neville's sequel to The Eight, The Fire, releases in October 2008. I'm looking forward to finding out if she's still got it after all these years.)
For a moment I feared this project would fail before it even got off the ground, but then I recalled my determination to remain positive. And besides, it's really not all that difficult to hop on over and write when I'm already sitting here at the computer anyway.
In the past couple of days I've already digested a couple of new titles, unsurprisingly. In the book world, much as with most DVDs, CDs, software, and video games (though not movies in the theaters), new product hits the shelves on Tuesdays. Some things get shifted to more prominent dates (such as Harry Potter, which was conveniently on a Friday night/Saturday morning so that those lucky enough to have weekends off had plenty of time to dig right in without suffering much from their late-night adventures in Rowling's world) but the majority of new titles release on that one special day.
A quick bit of Googling (you'll find that Google is one of my best friends as I continue to seek out and absorb new and usually irrelevant information) seems to suggest that Monday is just too 'blah' for getting the interest of consumers, and by Friday (and through the weekend) people are more interested in going out and taking care of all they've put off during the week. This mindset, apparently, leaves people receptive on those three middle days, and Tuesday is just the earliest opportunity to get all the new and exciting things out there for buying and selling and, of course, tracking sales trends.
But I digress (hah).
Tuesday rolled around, and as I waited for the steady stream of regular coffee junkies to start streaming in for their morning hit, I browsed the cart of books that were set for release that day. One I was already aware of, Kate Mosse's Sepulchre; I'd actually started a stealth-read from the same new release cart a couple of days previous while taking a lunch break in the back room. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much given my lukewarm reception of her previous effort, Labyrinth. But I'm a sucker for those historical thrillers that parallel stories in the past and present, and there was an element of mysticism as well (a French Tarot deck features prominently in the plot) that appealed to me, so I figured I would give it a chance.
My plans for getting back to Sepulchre were immediately diverted, however, when I spotted a new Jim Butcher title on the other side of the cart. Could it be? A new Dresden Files book? It was! I generally try to keep on top of release dates for series that I've enjoyed, but I'd managed to miss this one completely. We'd only gotten five copies, as opposed to the rather formdiable quantity of Mosse's book, so I reasoned that I would get it out of the way first and then move on to the thicker book which was much less likely to sell out before I could get my hands on it. So I claimed a copy of Small Favor for myself, going so far as to sneak it over to the cafe, peeking inside and getting through the first couple of chapters rather furtively, between lattes.
There were a few other titles that caught my eye which I'll probably go searching after now that I've finished both of these other titles.
Yes, I've actually managed to get through both of them already; Sepulchre just this morning.
I can't say that either book was so compelling that I'll feel obliged to recommend it to friends or customers, but neither was a total disappointment, at that.
Both were, admittedly, fluff sort of reading. Nothing serious, just read for the sheer pleasure of reading, meeting new characters and spending time with old friendly ones.
Small Favor is going to be well-received by anyone who's a fan of the books already. My husband snagged it out of my bag while he was waiting for me to finish up a hair cut and he seemed interested even though he's never read any of the other books and has only seen a few minutes of the show, at most.
The plot might have been a bit crowded, as it seemed like a push to get all the story's threads woven together by the end of the book, but the universe that Butcher has created is a diverse and demanding one, and I didn't enjoy the book any less because of it. You wouldn't expect wizards, holy paladins, faerie minions, and vampires to adapt so well to modern-day Chicago, but as always, I'm entertained by the translation.
I did, however, finish it off in almost no time at all, and was ready to get going on Sepulchre by Wednesday morning.
The general opinion, after finishing, is a resounding 'meh.' Which...isn't at all unlike my reaction to Labyrinth. I think my own point of view is a bit less receptive, if only because I started out in the genre with Katherine Neville's The Eight, which, while not a perfect manuscript by any means, has always been my first true love. In fact, as I began reading Sepulchre, I couldn't help but to wonder if Mosse had spent some time reading Neville herself, as some of the settings and "gambits" of the story seemed to echo the earlier novel.
Some Googling (see, there it is again) turned up a lot of matches for people who were fans of both authors or had both on their reading lists, but that's to be expected when they inhabit the same story-space.
Anyway--the story is entertaining enough. Female protagonist seeking clues to a fogged past spends time in a new place, becomes entangled in multiple mysterious circumstances that eventually lead to the connection and clarification of all. Simultaneous backstory happens in same location but many years past, and runs forward to the culmination of events that lead to main character's foggy past. Mysterious artifacts (in this case, a deck of Tarot cards) and strange situations (demons, music, an old estate) are invoked, bad guys emerge, and eventually the characters find the artifacts, beat the bad guys, and unravel the heroine's history to find some sort of Happily Ever After.
I can't say that Katherine Neville didn't use the very same template, but she did do it more elegantly and with a greater complexity, and about twenty years ago, to boot.
(Katherine Neville's sequel to The Eight, The Fire, releases in October 2008. I'm looking forward to finding out if she's still got it after all these years.)
Sunday, March 30, 2008
First post!
So, after a long absence from blog-land, here I am!
This is the first time I've blogged publicly under my own name; all of my previous attempts have been under various personas and identities I've assumed in my years on the internet (insert cane-shaking here), and it always seemed as though my content was targeted at those who knew me under whichever name I was wearing at the time. I guess I'm a little bit anxious about the disclosure this time around, but I have my reasons, and they're currently overriding any second or third thoughts that might pop into my head. Of course I'd love for people looking for me in The Future to be able to find out what a fascinating and wonderful person I am (wink wink), but then again I'll probably settle for being happy to find out that they've Googled me at all.
So. Who am I?
I am...
It sounds odd, but when I look at the job listings (I love my job but my feet and knees kind of...don't) in our paper, I know that there are a lot of opportunities out there that demand experience that I don't have. And yet, I know that given a smidgen of training and a bit of time to fiddle around with the system, whatever it might be, that I could make it work. Unfortunately these days a smiling face and a willingness to learn don't get you very far.
That's why I've finally decided to go back to school. This is complicated, of course. The degree--Master's in Library/Information Science--isn't available at the school where I got my B.A. in English. I'm not terribly bothered by the fact that I'm going to have to move, since we've been tossing around the idea for quite some time now. There are some hurdles, though. Both my family and my husband's primarily live in-state and get their feathers ruffled when we can't make various holiday visits thanks to our chaotic, unpredictable, and unforgiving work schedules.
My first inclination is to move across the country. I'm sure you see the problem.
Students and retail workers (the two things I currently have experience being) don't exactly have the earning potential or the freedom to travel cross-country at the drop of a hat, or even to get plane tickets all that often, if ever.
There is a school that offers the program nearer to here, but I really don't think I want to stay so close to home, because that feels hardly like leaving at all. Nonetheless, my husband and I have discussed moving to this closer city before, but I still have my misgivings.
Decisions, decisions.
One of the primary reasons I've started blogging again is because I need a place to think about these things, to plot and ponder and consider and look at my situation from all sides. Maybe I'll eventually pick up a few readers who care to offer insight and objective opinions. Or spam. I'll take some of the latter as long as I can have the former as well.
I tend to be a wordy wench, as you've probably noticed by now. I'm going to make an effort to keep things somewhat short and sweet, but please forgive me if I stray from time to time. I do like to talk, and sometimes it gets the better of me.
So here's to posting, and to figuring things out!
This is the first time I've blogged publicly under my own name; all of my previous attempts have been under various personas and identities I've assumed in my years on the internet (insert cane-shaking here), and it always seemed as though my content was targeted at those who knew me under whichever name I was wearing at the time. I guess I'm a little bit anxious about the disclosure this time around, but I have my reasons, and they're currently overriding any second or third thoughts that might pop into my head. Of course I'd love for people looking for me in The Future to be able to find out what a fascinating and wonderful person I am (wink wink), but then again I'll probably settle for being happy to find out that they've Googled me at all.
So. Who am I?
I am...
- 23 years old
- a barista and bookseller in a store that probably isn't the one you're thinking of
- a writer, when I feel like it
- a reader, voraciously, all of the time
- finally getting myself settled and thinking about getting back to school (I miss it!)
- married to a man I've known for almost seven years now
- companion to one crazy Siamese cat who disguises herself as a calico tabby
- more likely to recall pointless trivia than to remember to pay the bills
- capable of learning just about anything
- feeling stuck and trying to find a more productive life
It sounds odd, but when I look at the job listings (I love my job but my feet and knees kind of...don't) in our paper, I know that there are a lot of opportunities out there that demand experience that I don't have. And yet, I know that given a smidgen of training and a bit of time to fiddle around with the system, whatever it might be, that I could make it work. Unfortunately these days a smiling face and a willingness to learn don't get you very far.
That's why I've finally decided to go back to school. This is complicated, of course. The degree--Master's in Library/Information Science--isn't available at the school where I got my B.A. in English. I'm not terribly bothered by the fact that I'm going to have to move, since we've been tossing around the idea for quite some time now. There are some hurdles, though. Both my family and my husband's primarily live in-state and get their feathers ruffled when we can't make various holiday visits thanks to our chaotic, unpredictable, and unforgiving work schedules.
My first inclination is to move across the country. I'm sure you see the problem.
Students and retail workers (the two things I currently have experience being) don't exactly have the earning potential or the freedom to travel cross-country at the drop of a hat, or even to get plane tickets all that often, if ever.
There is a school that offers the program nearer to here, but I really don't think I want to stay so close to home, because that feels hardly like leaving at all. Nonetheless, my husband and I have discussed moving to this closer city before, but I still have my misgivings.
Decisions, decisions.
One of the primary reasons I've started blogging again is because I need a place to think about these things, to plot and ponder and consider and look at my situation from all sides. Maybe I'll eventually pick up a few readers who care to offer insight and objective opinions. Or spam. I'll take some of the latter as long as I can have the former as well.
I tend to be a wordy wench, as you've probably noticed by now. I'm going to make an effort to keep things somewhat short and sweet, but please forgive me if I stray from time to time. I do like to talk, and sometimes it gets the better of me.
So here's to posting, and to figuring things out!
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