Dana Swier Huff's Blog, page 67
July 2, 2011
The Future for Amazon Associates
I have mentioned many times that I'm an Amazon associate, and I have been very happy with Amazon. It look me years to build up to the point at which I regularly received a commission that allowed me to buy books, but I persevered. I still usually earn between $20-30 a month in gift certificates to Amazon, excepting the odd really good month, but that allows me to buy two or three books each month.
Some of the states have begun passing laws that require online retailers to charge sales tax, and as a result, Amazon is dropping associates in all of those affected states. I haven't heard of any pending legislation in my home state of Georgia, but I admit the trend has me worried. Being an Amazon associate is what keeps me in books and allows me to run this blog. Affected states include California, Colorado, Illinois, North Carolina, Rhode Island, or Connecticut—and soon, Arkansas. Massachusetts is also considering a law. If I were ever to move to any of these states, Amazon would drop me as an associate after more than 10 years. According to this New York Times piece, Amazon doesn't have any fulfillment warehouses, corporate offices, customer service, or other facilities in Georgia, so I might personally never be affected, but it does have such facilities in Arizona, California, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, and it does not collect tax in any of these states. Amazon collects sales taxes in Kentucky, New York, Washington, North Dakota, and Kansas.
If Amazon is not willing to work with associates in states with these tax laws, then I hope they are at least informing associates when impending legislation is being considered in their state legislatures so they can choose whether to write their representatives or drop their affiliation with Amazon. A lot of associates are understandably angry and feel Amazon is throwing them under the bus. Amazon has indicated they plan to challenge the new law in California.
You can read more about the issue at The Los Angeles Times and NPR.
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Post © Dana Huff
The Future for Amazon Associates
July 1, 2011
Friday Finds—July 1, 2011
July already? Really? My summer is going to be gone in the blink of an eye (sigh).
I managed to find a few interesting looking books this week. I claimed Garden Spells and The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen on PaperBackSwap, and they should be arriving in my mailbox shortly.
I think The Map of Time by Félix J. Palma crossed my radar some time ago, but I hadn't added it to my to-read list yet. It's there now. Looks like fun.
Did you discover any interesting books this week?
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Post © Dana Huff
Friday Finds—July 1, 2011
June 30, 2011
The Dream of Perpetual Motion, Dexter Palmer
Dexter Palmer's novel The Dream of Perpetual Motion is a steampunk reimagining (of sorts) of William Shakespeare's play The Tempest. The protagonist, Harold Winslow, is a greeting card writer from Xeroville. He writes his memoir while trapped aboard a zeppelin—the good ship Chrysalis—with only mechanical servants and the disembodied voice of Miranda Taligent to keep him company. His life becomes inextricably linked with that of Miranda and her father Prospero Taligent's at the age of ten, when he spends all of his money at the Nickel Empire carnival to obtain a whistle that will secure him an invitation to Miranda's tenth birthday party. At the birthday party, Prospero promises each of the 100 boys and girls their heart's desire. Harold becomes Miranda's playmate until Prospero catches them kissing and banishes Harold from Miranda's fantastic playroom.
Almost 3/4 through the book, Harold says,
Perhaps you know the kind of man I am, dear imaginary reader. I have never felt as if I have known anyone well. I have never had that sense of instinctive empathy that I am told comes to lovers, or brothers and sisters, or parents and children. I have never been able to finish a sentence that someone else starts. I have never been able to give a gift to someone that they have liked, one that surprises them even as they secretly expected it.
Whenever I looked into faces and tried to discern the thoughts that lay behind them I had to make best guesses, and more often than not it seemed my guesses were wrong. (location 5167 on Kindle)
I think that is the crux of what I didn't like about the book. The characters were not terribly likeable. They were entertaining, especially Prospero and his servants Gideon and Martin, but no one else brought out my empathy as a reader (excepting Harold as a boy, but he sheds that quickly in the novel). I have no quibbles with Palmer's writing, which is funny and tragic and at times had me highlighting choice phrases, but the most important thing to me about any book, almost without exception, is the characters. If I do not like any of the characters, it's hard for me to like the book. The plot of the novel is weird, but I could have let that go if I had been able to empathize with Harold.
Another criticism I have for the book is this sort of underlying misogyny that I see sometimes in science fiction and fantasy. Palmer's women characters are, without exception, unpleasant and untrustworthy. Shakespeare's Prospero is concerned with Miranda's virginity, which is a theme that Palmer takes up in this novel. Prospero seeks to prevent his daughter from becoming sexually active, but when she does, he sees her as ruined. Harold never explicitly says so, but he gives the impression that he agrees with Prospero on that account—sex ruins women, and the proof is in his description of every female character in the novel.
The book improves slightly toward the end as the action picks up the pace, but over all, I can't say I liked it. The narrative was complex and difficult to follow at times, and the characters did not redeem the story.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
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Post © Dana Huff
The Dream of Perpetual Motion, Dexter Palmer
June 29, 2011
WWW Wednesdays
To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…
• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you'll read next?
I am currently reading The Dream of Perpetual Motion, and frankly, I'm not liking it much. It has a few interesting moments (so far), but I am not finding the characters interesting or likable. The plot is weird. I am still reading it for two reasons 1) I have had it on my Kindle for a long time, and I bought it, so I feel compelled to read it; 2) I can't get any new books right now, and the ones on my to-read list that I'm itching to read most are books I don't have.
I recently finished The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen (review) and The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (review), both of which were amazing books. It could be that The Dream of Perpetual Motion is suffering by comparison.
The next books I really want to read are Jennifer Donnelly's The Tea Rose, The Winter Rose, and The Wild Rose. The Wild Rose hasn't been released yet, but I scored a copy at NetGalley, and I would like to read the other two first, as I understand it's a sort of generational saga. I loved Jennifer Donnelly's Revolution (review). It's the best book I've read this year.
Yesterday's post about websites and apps proved lucrative for me because I learned about NetGalley and PaperBackSwap from the post by The Broke and the Bookish. I know—where have I been and all of that. You can see my PaperBackSwap profile here, and feel free to friend me. I'm going to check out the posts by some of the other participants and see what other great book websites and apps I might have been missing out on.
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Post © Dana Huff
WWW Wednesdays
June 28, 2011
Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Bookish Websites and Apps
I love book blogs, but there are other places I hang out with my books. Here is my top ten list of go-to websites and apps.
Goodreads: Goodreads is an excellent social network for readers. Had Goodreads been around when I started this blog, I might have just posted all my reviews there. As it is, I do use Goodreads to connect with other readers, read reviews (they tend to be more critical than Amazon), scout for giveaways, keep track of my to-read list and let my friends know what I'm reading and have read, and play trivia games. Goodreads also allows users to add as many books as they like, whereas similar sites like LibraryThing limit free users to 200 books.
Shelfari: Shelfari is a pretty site, but it has a long way to go before it's as good as Goodreads. I have spent some time writing up book pages, and I do like the wiki user-generated aspect of the site. Goodreads allows you to do this if you become a librarian (which I have done), and you must meet certain criteria. Shelfari does not allow HTML in its reviews, which I think stinks. Until recently, it was better than Goodreads at tracking reading goals, but Goodreads has added a feature that allows for that. I spend more time on Goodreads, but I like to have a Shelfari profile just to connect with readers who may not be on Goodreads. I also do like the pretty shelves, I admit.
DailyLit: I mostly interact with DailyLit through my email, as I am always subscribed to a book in my inbox. I love DailyLit. I have read several books I do not think I'd have ever read if not for DailyLit.
Guardian Books: I have the Guardian app on my iPhone, and I've customized it so that the books section is the first one I see. I like to read their articles about books. Users in the UK have to subscribe to read The Guardian via this app, but because The Guardian is trying to increase American readership, content in the app is free to US users.
Twitter: Believe it or not, Twitter is a great reading website. A lot of people I follow are readers and are always tweeting about what they are reading or want to read, and I have discovered some great books that way. Also, a lot of authors are on Twitter, and it is fun to interact with them. I am still waiting for Judy Blume to reply to one of my tweets, but it will probably make my year when or if it happens.
Amazon: As an Amazon affiliate and customer, I spend a lot of time on the site. I tend think the reviews are not as critical as on Goodreads, but I do read them and compare. I also like to see books that are similar to others that I've searched for and have discovered some very interesting books both that way and through their recommendations for me.
Any New Books: I just discovered Any New Books this year, and I subscribed to their newsletters based on my interests. I have found quite a few excellent books through their weekly newsletters, which come out just in time for Friday Finds.
Kindle iPhone app: I love my Kindle, but I can't read it in the dark. When I have to shut out the lights, but I still want to read, I turn to my Kindle app. One thing I've noticed is that real page numbers seem to have come to the Kindle app on the iPhone, but not to the Kindle 2. I don't know why Amazon hasn't updated the firmware for the Kindle 2 so that readers can have real page numbers, but it's nice to check my Kindle app sometimes and see where I am in terms of pages.
Audible app: I subscribed to Audible and receive a book each month with my subscription. I used to download the books into my iTunes, sync them with my iPhone, and listen to them in car. Then I discovered the Audible app, which has a few features that I like. First of all, I was nervous it wouldn't remember where I left off, but it does. I can also access Audible's store from the app, which is a nice time-saver. It also has a social aspect in that I can connect to Facebook and Twitter and share what I'm reading.
Shakespeare app: This app has all of Shakespeare's plays and poems as well as some fun extras like a quote generator (just shake the phone to get a new quote), a great glossary, a search feature, and even a help section on scansion. Note: This app has gone up considerably in price. I think I paid $2.99 for it. There is a free version that has all the texts but none of the extras.
So do you have any recommendations for good bookish websites or apps? I thought The Broke and the Bookish had a pretty good list.
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Post © Dana Huff
Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Bookish Websites and Apps
June 27, 2011
Musing Mondays—June 27, 2011
Have you ever read a book that inspired you to take up a cause? What book was it, and what is/was the cause?
I have never exactly taken up a cause because of a book, but I have changed my opinions or practices because of a book. Barbara Kingsolver is one author who has changed the way I think about things on a couple of occasions. Robin Bates wrote about the issue of illegal immigration recently, and I left a comment on his post about how Kingsolver's novel The Bean Trees helped me understand the issue is not black and white. In the novel, the character Mattie helps illegal immigrants sort of like a stop on the Underground Railroad, and it is through Mattie that Taylor, the protagonist, meets Estevan and Esperanza, who are illegal immigrants from Guatemala. Estevan and Esperanza came to America to save their lives. Had they gone through the proper channels, they likely would not have been allowed to come to America, but if they hadn't left Guatemala, they would have been killed. Sometimes, it won't work to just request asylum. The novel shows how an issue that is usually portrayed as black and white—illegal immigrants are breaking the law—becomes more complicated. We don't necessarily know the whole story behind why someone chooses to enter the country illegally, and we don't know what they are leaving behind.
Kingsolver's novel The Poisonwood Bible, one of my favorite books, examines the role America played in pillaging Africa. The British have examined this colonial role in their own literature, but Americans like to think that because they had no colonies, they were well out of it. It's a gorgeous book. I can't recommend it highly enough.
While not revolutionary, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe's book Understanding by Design changed the way I teach and assess students on their learning and has continued to be influential in my life. I can't compare it to a cause, really, but I have taken to trying to convert as many teachers as I know to backward design.
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Post © Dana Huff
Musing Mondays—June 27, 2011
June 26, 2011
Music and Reading
This week's Booking Through Thursday prompt asked about music—"What, if any, kind of music do you listen to when you're reading? (Given a choice, of course!)."
I missed writing about it on Thursday because I posted a review of The Paris Wife, and I didn't want to post twice that day, but I've been thinking about it since then and decided I still want to write about it, even if I'm late to the party.
Music is really important to me—as important as books are. I love music, all kinds. I have been a musician, but it is true that I haven't picked up an instrument in years. Picking up instruments usually wasn't too hard for me, but I never became a master at any of them. The two I played most were flute and guitar, but I tried out French horn, clarinet, and violin.
This topic is kind of timely for me. I have always been a music fan, and I will not say I am always on the cutting edge. I have pretty much always "discovered" artists long after their bands have broken up, or at least long after they started making music. So I cannot claim to have any sort of pulse on the modern music industry. However, I did recently go through a dry spell, listening to the same stuff I had listened to forever, it seems. I hadn't listened to anything new, and I had decided that it was my age—I'll be 40 in September—and that after a certain point, pretty much everyone just stops seeking out new music. I never thought I would do it, but I did. I was even listening more to podcasts or books than music when I drove. Then I watched It Might Get Loud, mainly because I am huge fan of Led Zeppelin and U2. But the movie opens like this:
Click here to view the embedded video.
Which made me a fan of Jack White. I have been discovering his catalogue, which has prompted me to listen to other artists like him. Pandora Radio is great for discovering new artists. Through my Jack White Pandora station, I've discovered the Black Keys, Patrick Sweany, and many others. I rediscovered Leo Kottke; my guitar teacher used to play his song "Vaseline Machine Gun" and would teach it to you if you would sit with him and watch, but I had trouble learning music that way—I needed either tablature or sheet music.
My point in bringing all of this up is that I might have answered the prompt differently a few months ago, but I'm listening to music again after not doing it as much for quite a while, and I'm listening to it while I read (sometimes). The answer to what I listen to is that it depends. Sometimes I just let Pandora take care of it for me. Other times, I listen to whatever is in my iTunes. Lately, that mostly means Jack White, but I do get in moods for other things, such as St. Vincent or T. Rex or Led Zeppelin, or the Black Crowes.
Another impetus for all the new music in my life was Jennifer Donnelly's book Revolution (review). Andi, one of the protagonists, is a music omnivore. She loves everything. All the music references prompted me to check out some of Andi's favorite music. And Donnelly was kind enough to share Andi's playlist on her website.
When I study, which I haven't had to do since I graduated from VA Tech (master's in Instructional Technology last December), I listen to classical music, like Mozart. I actually downloaded this album (iTunes link) for the purpose of studying. It may have been psychosomatic, but it seemed to work.
I'm always listening to a lot of music as I write, which is really something I've always done, but the soundtrack has changed a bit. It's a lot of fun to feel like I at least have an idea about modern music, which isn't something I've felt for a while.
Some things never change, though. I still don't care much for pop music (such as Lady Gaga, although she's a shrewd marketer, and I do admire that about her). I think music was constantly going in my teenage years, and it's fun to feel that I am in some way recapturing that. I missed it.
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Post © Dana Huff
Music and Reading
June 25, 2011
The Peach Keeper, Sarah Addison Allen
Sarah Addison Allen's novel The Peach Keeper is the story of the unlikely friendship of Willa Jackson and Paxton Osgood, who are linked through shared family history and not much else. Willa's great-great-grandfather built a house called the Blue Ridge Madam in Walls of Water, North Carolina. In 1936, Willa's family lost the house. Years later, she feels oddly drawn to the Blue Ridge Madam, now in the hands of the Osgood family. Paxton Osgood is the president of the Women's Society Club and is planning the unveiling of the newly restored Blue Ridge Madam at the society's gala. She asks her twin brother Colin, a landscape architect, to come home to Walls of Water to landscape the Blue Ridge Madam. A family secret binding the Osgoods and Jacksons is unearthed when Colin's crew removes a peach tree and begins digging deeper to plant a live oak and finds a suitcase, a frying pan, and a skull belonging to a magic man named Tucker Devlin.
I could barely put this one down. It's hard to describe it. It's part chick lit, I suppose, but also part magical realism, ghost story, mystery, and romance. It's a perfect summer read. Allen's characters are well-drawn and likeable. The setting of small-town Walls of Water with its tourists and shops alongside ancient town families was pitch perfect. I think perhaps no one does gothic like Southern gothic, and though Allen's writing style is completely dissimilar, this book is an oddly cogent mashup between William Faulkner and Joshilyn Jackson. Family secrets, grand old Southern mansions, friendship, and devilish charmers are good building blocks for stories. I liked both Willa and Paxton as protagonists, and I found Colin, Sebastian, and even Tucker Devlin charming. I would definitely read more of Allen's books. I picked this one up after reading Stephanie's review. Darlene at Peeking Between the Pages has another good review.
I'm not sure this book is for everyone. Some readers will be turned off by the chick lit aura or the magical realism, but I found it utterly charming and completely Southern. Parts of it reminded me of a book I have deep affection for called I Am One of You Forever by Fred Chappell. If you are a fan of Sarah Addison Allen's, give Fred Chappell's novel a try. It's harder to find and was published by a smaller press, but it's a gorgeous book.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
This book has enough of the macabre to qualify for the Gothic Reading Challenge.
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Post © Dana Huff
The Peach Keeper, Sarah Addison Allen
Sunfire Romances
When I was in eighth grade, I discovered the Sunfire Romances. If you were a girl in the 1980′s, you probably know what I'm talking about. These are all out of print now, but they can be found online at places like eBay and in used bookstores. All of these novels had the following characteristics in common:
The teenaged protagonist's name was the title of the book.
They were historical romances, each one set during a different period in American history.
Each protagonist had to choose between two guys flanked on either side of her on the cover (usually with 1980′s haircuts instead of historically accurate ones). Both of them loved her—one was rebellious and dangerous, while the other was safe, dependable, and boring. Guess which one the protagonist almost always chose.
Aside from teaching me exactly how romance was supposed to work—two guys would inevitably fight over me, the question was would I be brave enough to choose the hot bad boy when my parents wanted me to choose the nice, safe one—these novels also taught me a thing or two about the time periods in which they were set and quite possibly are the reason I became interested in historical fiction—a genre which remains my favorite.
The first one I read was Cassie.
The eponymous heroine of Cassie was kidnapped by Indians when she was four, but she was raised as one of their own, and in her heart, she feels like one of the Iriquois tribe who adopted her, despite her flowing blond locks and sparkling blue eyes. She has much more grrl power than you because she can ride and hunt like any warrior, and she totally looks like she's 15. Check out the cover. One day, she meets Joshua, a fur trapper who figures out somehow that she's not one of the tribe and takes her back to the town where she was born. As she transitions almost seamlessly into colonial life after being brought up by Indians, which makes complete sense, she has choose between Joshua and family friend Benjamin. Yeah, you see it coming a mile off because she never displays the slightest interest in Benjamin. Sorry if I ruined the book for you. Wikipedia reminds me that this one is set in 1755.
I know I read the rest of these books, but after Cassie, I'm not sure of the order.
Susannah takes place during the Civil War and is mostly a rip-off of Gone With the Wind. I didn't like it at the time because I had read GWTW in 7th grade, but if I hadn't read GWTW first, I might have liked Susannah better. Susannah lives in Virginia and is engaged to a Confederate soldier. Her family owns a plantation and many "servants"—yes, they are really called that in the book, which is a worse white-wash of slavery than GWTW. Susannah's unfortunate fiancé winds up being killed in the war, along with her brother, so she never really has to throw him over for the Yankee soldier Caine Harding, but she totally would have.
Victoria was one of my favorites. Set during the Texas Revolution, Victoria taught me that if you wanted ice in 1835, you had to wait for a hailstorm. I had never given much thought to what people did for ice in history, but that is one of the most important lessons I learned from this book. Victoria must choose between wealthy Mexican landowner Luis Arista or Texas Ranger Cade Riley. Like Cassie, Victoria never shows the slightest interest in the safe guy her parents like, so the ending will not surprise as much as the lengths one had to go to procure ice in 1835 Texas.
Danielle was my favorite. Danielle lived during the War of 1812 (actual date, 1814) New Orleans on a sugar plantation that actually paid its workers. I know, right? Danielle's daddy liked to buck the system like that. Anyway, Danielle's boring fiancé Paul is in the navy, and Danielle finds herself yearning for something more exciting, which shows up in the form of Geoffrey, a pirate who happens to be Jean Lafitte's nephew. It totally looks like Danielle is going to throw Paul over and join up with the pirates when she discovers, to her utter shock and amazement, that pirates are kind of mean. Still, this book did have me scouring my Encyclopaedia Britannica for articles about New Orleans and Jean Lafitte as well as scanning maps looking for Lafitte's hidey-holes. If I read it it now, I'd probably hate it, but I liked it at the time because Danielle totally didn't pick the guy I thought she'd pick.
These are the only ones I remember reading, but the series is much longer. Goodreads has a list compiled. I feel totally gypped because I missed out on Nicole. I love Titanic stories and games. And how did I miss Darcy? That was the name of my best friend in 8th grade, for crying out loud. Plus how did I miss Elizabeth? I have been mildly obsessed with the Salem Witch Trials since elementary school when I saw that episode of Scooby Doo called "To Switch a Witch," which is not about the witch trials, really, but is about Salem witches. You can watch that on YouTube. I totally didn't get distracted from finishing this blog post to watch it. And in not watching it, I was reminded of William Faulkner's assertion that the "past isn't dead. It isn't even past." Also, the gravedigger has an amazing memory. And that episode is not as great as I remember it being, much like the Sunfire romances, but it's not nearly as historically accurate as those YA novels. See? I tied it back together in the end.
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Post © Dana Huff
Sunfire Romances
June 24, 2011
Friday Finds—June 24, 2011
I found a lot of interesting books this week! My department chair recommended Jennifer Donnelly's The Tea Rose, which happens to be the first in a trilogy—the other two books are The Winter Rose and The Wild Rose. I can't wait to read these books.
Amazon sent me a mailer recommending some historical fiction that looks interesting. The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama has over four stars on Goodreads after thousands of ratings. That looks promising, even if some of my Goodreads friends didn't care for it. A reviewer said of The Lotus Eaters by Tatiana Soli that if you've never read a book about the Vietnam War, this is a good one to start with. Sounds good to me. Alan Brennert's Moloka'i is about the leper colony in Hawaii and also has a high rating on Goodreads.
I can't decide if The Yellow House by Patricia Falvey us up my alley or not. It's set in Northern Ireland during the Revolutionary period, and I would like to read more about that time, but it also features a main character torn between an Irish political activist working to help Ireland achieve independence from Britain and the black sheep son of a wealthy Quaker family that owns the mill where she works. It reminds me a bit of the scenario presented in all those teen historical romances published by Sunfire in the 1980′s. The girl almost always chose the guy who was more rebellious and dangerous. The only exception I can think of is in the novel Danielle (Sunfire, No 4). I quit reading the novels after a while because they were too predictable—even if I did learn a lot about history from them. In fact, I probably have them to thank for my love for historical fiction. I need to write a Life in Books post about those novels soon. I am suddenly overcome by a wave of nostalgia.
After reading The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (review), I sought out A Moveable Feast and discovered a newly restored edition published in 2009. I am interested to read it after reading the story of the Paris years from Hadley's point of view.
Browsing around on Goodreads for books set in Paris, I found Paris: The Secret History by Andrew Hussey. It's not about Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. It's more about the prostitutes, street urchins, opium addicts, and artists. Looks really good.
So did you find any good books this week?
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Post © Dana Huff
Friday Finds—June 24, 2011
