Katherine Nabity's Blog, page 233

Star Trek -a-thon

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Hulu has all of their Star Trek episodes available for free between now and March 31st. In a slight deviation from what’s usually on this blog, I’m going to post about what episodes I watch and add some notes if I have something to say. Probably won’t delve too deeply into Voyager or Enterprise, but I might give them a fresh try.

Star Trek: The Original Series

S1:E03  “Where No Man Has Gone Before” – The one with Gary Mitchell, who might have made a good reboot villain. I’ve really been pulling for Benedict Cumberbatch’s Into Darkness character to be Mitchell.
S1:E07 “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” – The one where Nurse Chapel is engaged to an android-creating nutjob. Quote: “Mind your own business, Mr. Spock. I’m sick of your half-breed interference! Do you hear?” Written by Robert Bloch.
S1:E16 “The Galileo Seven” – The one where Spock, Bones, Scotty, and four red shirts crash land on random class M world in the middle of nebula-like phenomenon. Who will survive, and what will be left of them? This entire episode is logic versus emotion as Kirk is pulled between searching for his crew members and a mercy mission to a plague-ridden planet. The emotional crew members marooned with Spock strike me as very annoying while Commissioner Farris’s rational arguments aboard the Enterprise are grating.
S1:E22 “Space Seed” – The one with Khan. Also Kirk at maybe his most Picard-like. When faced with a superior foe, Kirk resorts to talking. Until he beats the crap out of Khan.
S2:E01 “Amok Time” – The one with TMI about vulcan relationships. Quote: “It would be illogical for us to protest against our natures, don’t you think?” Written by Theodore Sturgeon.
S2:E7 “Catspaw” – The one where Kirk, Spock. and McCoy meet three weird sisters and a black cat. I’ve always enjoyed the Hammer horror feel of this episode. Written by Robert Bloch.
S2:E9 “Metamorphosis” – The first one with Zefram Cochrane.

Really enjoying the “remastered” original series episodes. The effect tweaks are nice. I have no particular method for picking which episodes I’m watching. Some, like The City on the Edge of Forever,” are good, but I’ve watched them too many times.

Throwback Thursday ~ The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl

Throwback Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books!

Noting that book blogging often focuses on new releases, here’s how Throwback Thursday works:

Pick any bookish or literary-related media (or non-media item) released more than 5 years ago.
Write up a short summary of the book (include the title, author, and cover art) and an explanation of why you love it.
Link up your post at The Housework Can Wait or Never Too Fond of Books.
Visit as many blogs as you can, reminisce about books you loved, and discover some “new” books for your TBR list!

The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl by Tim Pratt

As night manager of Santa Cruz’s quirkiest coffeehouse, Marzi McCarty makes a mean espresso, but her first love is making comics. Her claim to fame: The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl, a cowpunk neo-western yarn. Striding through an urban frontier peopled by Marzi’s wild imagination, Rangergirl doles out her own brand of justice. But lately Marzi’s imagination seems to be altering her reality. She’s seeing the world through Rangergirl’s eyes–literally–complete with her deadly nemesis, the Outlaw.

It all started when Marzi opened a hidden door in the coffeehouse storage room. There, imprisoned among

the supplies, she saw the face of something unknown…and dangerous. And she unwittingly became its guard. But some primal darkness must’ve escaped, because Marzi hasn’t been the same since. And neither have her customers, who are acting downright apocalyptic. (via Goodreads)

As I wrote back in 2008:

Rangergirl is probably the most fun I’ve had reading in a long while. Pratt uses the tropes of Westerns and how stories are “supposed to go” and subtly turns them on their heads. The characters, while not overly complex, are interesting enough. His writing is natural and deft. He keeps his plot and mythos internally consistent and brings it all to a satisfying conclusion.

A fun book that I need to reread one of these days.

Book 11 ~ Behind the Scenes with the Mediums

Behind the Scenes with the Mediums by David Phelps Abbott

There are those among us who cannot accept the promise of immortality on faith alone and require positive proof for any such belief. This volume discusses various types of Mediums; how they work, how some trick us, and how some do not use trickery. A sampling of the contents is as follows: spirit slate writing and billet tests; some modern sorcery; unusual mediumistic phenomena; materialization; relation of mediumship to palmistry, astrology and fortune telling; performances of the Annie Eva Fay type. (via Goodreads)

The cross-out above is my own. David Abbott (the cabinet performer above) was a skeptic during the heyday of spiritualism. He was not opposed to the idea of the survival of the spirit after death, but this book is a refutation and expose of the techniques used by mediums of the era. Abbott himself was a parlor magician, well-respected by his peers, but rarely performed magic outside his own home. He was not interested in profiting from his talents and was disdainful of mediums who took advantage of grieving clients. There really isn’t a portion of this book about mediums not using trickery. (In later years, Abbott did encounter a few things that he couldn’t explain. While newspaper coverage seemed to paint him as a believer because of this, his comments strike me as being on the cautious side.)

This isn’t a book for a “popular” audience. The majority of Behind the Scenes is about the nitty-gritty of slate and billet switching. These are the techniques behind “spirits” writing on blackboard slates and/or using a medium to answer questions asked on paper by sitters. No spoilers here; no spirits are involved. Instead it’s all a very skilled dance of information. The descriptions are repetitive and technical. I got a bit bogged down by it in the middle even though I find this stuff pretty interesting. The end portion, touching on other mediumistic phenomena like materializations, is a welcome change. I also finished up a few other of Abbott’s text in the last week or two. The photograph is from “Spiritualistic Materialization and Other Mediumistic Phenomena” an article published in The Open Court in 1919.

(As a side note, I’m going to share one of my favorite things I’ve read about David Abbott: In Houdini-esque style, before his death he told his wife that if  his spirit continued on, he would contact her or give her some sign. “Perhaps,” he suggested, “we should arrange some signal…so you can be sure I am the one talking.” Fannie Abbott replied, “After I’ve lived with you for 47 years I’ll know if it’s you.” [1])

Genre: Non-fiction

Why did I choose to read this book? Interested in the subject, writing a book featuring David Abbott.

Did I finish this book? (If not, why?) Yes. Took me a while, but yes.

Craft Lessons: Read for research.

Format: Scanned book. Not the best reading medium

Procurement: Most of David P. Abbott’s works are available for reading through Google books.

[1] Morrow, Edward. “David Abbott Dies; Would Seek ‘Return.’” Omaha World-Herald, Vol. 49, no. 244. June 13, 1934. pg. 1

Take Control of Your TBR Pile Read-a-thon

Hosted by Kimba @ The Caffeinated Book Reviewer

To help those who are taking part in the month long Take Control of Your TBR Pile Challenge (you can still sign up) and anyone else who wants to catch up on some of those reads collecting dust. Anyone can join in! The only requirement is that the books read must have been published before March 2013. Each day there will be fun challenges and prizes to help motivate you.

On twitter use hashtag #TakeControlRAT to share your progress follow others, and look for challenge updates. Here is the schedule post with links to daily challenges and our host’s goals.

I had too many ARCs in the queue to participate in a month-long clear-up of the TBR pile, but a weekend readathon is just right.

GOALS

I have two challenges, the 2013 Mount TBR Reading Challenge and the 2013 Translation Challenge, that I haven’t made any progress on. I’m going to shoot for knocking out a couple birds with one stone this weekend by picking a couple books from my shelves that are translations:

Leonardo’s Hands by Alois Hotschnig
Misreadings by Umberto Eco

Both are pretty short. I’m also done with my primary source reading for my novel research and I need to move on to Jim Steinmeyer’s Hiding the Elephant. I’m going to shoot for 300 pages.

PROGRESS

CHALLENGES & NOTES

Throwback Thursday ~ Much Ado About Nothing

Throwback Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books!

Noting that book blogging often focuses on new releases, here’s how Throwback Thursday works:

Pick any bookish or literary-related media (or non-media item) released more than 5 years ago.
Write up a short summary of the book (include the title, author, and cover art) and an explanation of why you love it.
Link up your post at The Housework Can Wait or Never Too Fond of Books.
Visit as many blogs as you can, reminisce about books you loved, and discover some “new” books for your TBR list!

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

Set in a courtly world of masked revels and dances, this play turns on the archetypal story if a lady falsely accused of unfaithfulness. Villainy, schemes, and deceit threatens to darken the brilliant humor and sparkling wordplay–but the counterplot of a warring couple, Beatrice and Benedick, steals the scene in Shakespeare’s superb comedy of manners (via Goodreads)

That above is a somewhat edited version of the Goodreads summary because otherwise the entire story is given away. This is my favorite of Shakespeare’s comedies. As many times as I’ve read it or seen it, it always amuses me with its language and its meta plot. Throughout most of the play, Shakespeare seems to be poking fun at himself. It has laughs. It has tears. It has a heroine named Hero.

The first version I saw was Kenneth Branagh’s 1993 film adaptation:

And I’m pretty stoked for the Joss Wheadon version:

I’d also like to mention Shakespeare in the Cinema: Ocular Proof by Stephen M. Buhler as an additional Throwback and a shout out to one of my favorite college professors.

His classes, even the one on Milton, were always a mix of popular culture, music, and general lit-geekery. I was very lucky in my education to have rarely encountered forbidding literature teachers. Most were willing riff on whatever themes students saw in classic works instead of forcing one interpretation on us. Dr. Buhler is one of them best of them.

Book 10 ~ Gone Girl

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy’s diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?

As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?  (via Goodreads)

I started this book right after I finished Carter Beats the Devil. The characters in that book were smart and witty and had genuine fascination for the world around them. If I ever throw a dinner party, they’re all invited. The main characters in Gone Girl? I loathe them. I’m not sure I’ve encountered characters that were as self-centered and as contemptuous of the world around them as Nick and Amy. (Bret Easton Ellis’ characters come close, but even Patrick Bateman shows appreciation for certain things.) Additionally, they’re non-communicative liars with poor decision making skills. I can’t say I enjoyed experiencing the train wreak that is their marriage, but it did make me appreciate my husband more.

What pulled me through this book was not the did-he/didn’t-he plot, but the reaction of the media and community to Nick. I dislike it when the media claims that a possible suspect is looking or acting guilty. The scope of human action includes more than what we stereotypically conceive of  and this book relies on the reader to make certain judgements because the narrators are utterly unreliable. It was an interesting enough stunt to keep me reading.

The main twist of the book was somewhat inevitable, but the execution was fairly well-done. It was a very quick read. Flynn’s writing doesn’t get int the way of the story, though Margo’s nickname of Go threw me off nearly every time she came into a scene.

Despite the utterly loathsome characters, this isn’t a bad book, but I’m not sure I can really recommend it either.

Genre: Psychological thriller

Why did I choose to read this book? Everyone else was reading it.

Did I finish this book? (If not, why?) Yes

Craft Lessons: If the reader doesn’t like the main characters, it’s probably good if other characters in the book don’t like them either.

Format: Kindle ebook

Thrown Against the Wall ~ The Lords of Salem

The Lords of Salem by Rob Zombie with Brian Evenson

From the singular mind of horror maestro Rob Zombie comes a chilling plunge into a nightmare world where evil runs in the blood…

THE LORDS OF SALEM

Heidi Hawthorne is a thirty-seven-year-old FM radio DJ and a recovering drug addict. Struggling with her newfound sobriety and creeping depression, Heidi suddenly receives an anonymous gift at the station-a mysteriously shaped wooden box branded with a strange symbol. Inside the box is a promotional record for a band that identifies themselves only as The Lords. There is no other information.

She decides to play it on the radio show as a joke, and the moment she does, horrible things begin to happen. The strange music awakens something evil in the town. Soon enough, terrifying murders begin to happen all around Heidi. Who are The Lords? What do they want?

As old bloodlines are awakened and the bodies start to pile up, only one thing seems certain: all hell is about to break loose.(via Goodreads)

I did not finish this book. I don’t give up on books easily. I’m human; I’m vulnerable to hope and the sunk cost fallacy. I want to believe that every book will get better and that I haven’t been wasting my time. But while I am human, I’m not a monkey. Experience tells me that a writer will not improve over the course of a book and there are too many other books to be read to spend even more time reading one that is disappointing. After reading half of Rob Zombie’s The Lords of Salem, I couldn’t justify spending more time on it.

I will admit, I like Rob Zombie’s music. I own all his solo albums as well the better portion of White Zombie’s small discography. I intend to check out Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor when it’s released in April. I like that Zombie is a horror film fan and incorporates that into his work. I haven’t been super thrilled with the movies he’s written and/or directed. House of 1000 Corpses has some great moments. It’s shot with enough cinematic craft that those scenes can stand with many classic exploitation-horror flicks. The rest haven’t impressed me much. Still, I was interested in reading this book. I haven’t read a decent horror novel in ages.

The novel starts with the murder of a pregnant woman and her newly caesarean-ed baby during a summoning ritual in late 1600s Salem. This should be an absolutely horrifying scene. Instead, it wasn’t and *that* was the disturbing part for me. There are many gory scenes in the first 50% of this book, but all of them lacked tension.  The writing, whether by Zombie or Evenson, is full of “seem” and “almost” and “something.” Things are “strange” or “different” or “weird.” All of these are weak words that mean very little and suck all the intensity from a scene. It’s lazy writing. As a writer, this might be the most important half book I’ve read. Through its lack, it’s reminded me of what writing should be and where I may fall short.

I have the feeling that Zombie’s vision of what’s going on wasn’t quite getting on to the page in any subtle manner. For example, it could be easier to short-hand Heidi’s addiction and recovery on-screen, visually, than it is to show it in the novel without saying “recovering addict.” I won’t talk much about the plot since I didn’t get further than what’s mentioned in the cover blurb. By the half-way point, I was no longer interested in how the story was going to play out.

The Lords of Salem is set to be released today, March 12th 2013, by Grand Central Publishing.

Genre: Horror

Why did I choose to read this book? Hoped to read a decent horror novel.

Did I finish this book? (If not, why?) No. By page 160 I didn’t care about how the story was going to play out. Was tired of vague writing.

Craft Lessons: I kind of fear that my own writing is vague, bland sometimes. Don’t use the word “something” more than once in a manuscript.

Format: Kindle ebook

Procurement: NetGalley

Throwback Thursday ~ A Sense of Where You Are

Throwback Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books!

Noting that book blogging often focuses on new releases, here’s how Throwback Thursday works:

Pick any bookish or literary-related media (or non-media item) released more than 5 years ago.
Write up a short summary of the book (include the title, author, and cover art) and an explanation of why you love it.
Link up your post at The Housework Can Wait or Never Too Fond of Books.
Visit as many blogs as you can, reminisce about books you loved, and discover some “new” books for your TBR list!

A Sense of Where You Are: Bill Bradley at Princeton by John McPhee

When John McPhee met Bill Bradley, both were at the beginning of their careers. A Sense of Where You Are, McPhee’s first book, is about Bradley when he was the best basketball player Princeton had ever seen. McPhee delineates for the reader the training and techniques that made Bradley the extraordinary athlete he was, and this part of the book is a blueprint of superlative basketball. But athletic prowess alone would not explain Bradley’s magnetism, which is in the quality of the man himself—his self-discipline, his rationality, and his sense of responsibility. Here is a portrait of Bradley as he was in college, before his time with the New York Knicks and his election to the U.S. Senate—a story that suggests the abundant beginnings of his professional careers in sport and politics. (via Goodreads)

From my original post, February 24, 2011:

I’m not a big sports fan. I didn’t grow up with sports. Attending UNL made me into a mild Husker fan. I’ve never been to a Nebraska football game, and I had never watched a basketball game at all until Eric decided to take me to one on a whim back when we were still on campus in 1998-ish. Incongruously, I had picked up a slight interest in professional tennis before I met Eric.

Moving to Arizona intensified my sports fandom. Partly because sports are a means of maintaining allegiance to my home state. Partly because I now play a sport and am around more people who are sports fans, Eric included. And part of it is also because sports have become my seasons. The move from NE to AZ meant no more seasons as I knew them. No falling leaves, no snow, no thaw, no bloomin’ spring, but lots of what a Nebraskan might consider summer. It started with football season becoming my fall. Tennis (French Open, Wimbledon, US Open) became my respite from the heat of summer. And basketball has become my winter. I’m a newbie fan to all these things. My history/knowledge of these sports only goes back a few years, so I pick up a sports book here and there.

I have always enjoyed a good sports story. I’m a total sucker for overcoming the odds and triumphs of the spirit and all the associated tropes. A Sense of Where You Are isn’t one of those sports stories. It’s a profile. Bill Bradley was an outstanding player. While he himself might have downplayed his physical abilities, he was not particularly handicapped in any manner. Growing up, he had support for his ideas and goals. From McPhee’s profile, it seems that Bradley took what ability and talent he had, worked damned hard, and became an outstanding basketball player. While he obviously had passion for the game, it wasn’t his end goal and that’s an interesting story in itself, but not one told in my edition of the book.

My edition, published 1967, only includes Bradley’s collegiate career. It is assumed, at the end of this edition, that Bradley will go on to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, utterly leaving basketball behind. This older edition kind of leaves off in the middle of the story. But still, I came way with a slightly better understanding of basketball and bit of its history. That was worth the quick read.

It’s March. The Huskers won last night by two. It was a great game filled with the extra drama and excitement of senior night and the last game played at the Devaney Center. I’m in a basketball mood and digging this review from the archives seemed appropriate. It’s a good thing, sometimes, to read outside your box.

Book 9 ~ Doctor Who: Devil in the Smoke

Doctor Who: Devil in the Smoke by Justin Richards

Madame Vastra, the fabled Lizard Woman of Paternoster Row, knew death in many shapes and forms. But perhaps one of the most bizarre of these was death by snow…

On a cold day in December, two young boys, tired of sweeping snow from the workhouse yard, decide to build a snowman – and are confronted with a strange and grisly mystery. In horrified fascination, they watch as their snowman begins to bleed…

The search for answers to this impossible event will plunge Harry into the most hazardous – and exhilarating – adventure of his life. He will encounter a hideous troll. He will dine with a mysterious parlour maid. And he will help the Great Detective, Madame Vastra, save the world from the terrifying Devil in the Smoke. (via Goodreads)

This novella was published back in December before last year’s Doctor Who Christmas special, “The Snowmen.” The episode set up the  Silurian Madame Vastra, her human wife Jenny Flint, and Sontaran Strax as investigators and Doctor-watchers in Victorian England. A running joke in the episode is that Madame Vastra is the true Great Detective, usually mistaken for Sherlock Holmes. It’s an interesting idea to a Holmes fan and I was intrigued to see a Doctor-less Vestra-as-Holmes fiction. How fun could a Holmes story with a Doctor Who twist be? Unfortunately, this tale is more of a very watered down Who episode. I kind of felt like this was written for a young audience. Although a murder mystery, the dead body is only seen “on screen” once, and while Vestra and Jenny’s relationship is prominent in the show, it isn’t mentioned at all in this fiction.

About halfway through this story, it occurred to me that Doctor Who doesn’t really obey the rules of Sherlock Holmes. While mysterious things happen, the causes are rarely explained by something in the “real” world. It’s usually a matter of the Doctor remembering some obscure bit of knowledge that the audience doesn’t have a chance of knowing. I’d say that while my love of Sherlock Holmes comes from solving the mystery, my love of Doctor Who comes from the presentation of the mystery. This story starts with a good presentation of a mystery: The dead body of a woman is  found in a snowman that two boys just finished making.

The solution, minus the Doctor, is actually very Holmesian. My problem with it is that it relies on a very improbable, probably impossible,  real-world physics. I was also rather confounded by how the characters acted. If you’re an investigator and you hear about a murder, do you go to investigate the body or do you have a bowl of soup? I have other examples of both, but I’ll say on this side of the spoilers.

Also, on the pet peeve side of things, I’m beginning to get tired of author not naming their nouns in an effort to be “mysterious.”

“We didn’t bring any heavy weapons,” Jenny pointed out.

“I may have some things that could be of use,” Strax replied. One of them turned out to be nose bags for the horses. Another was long, metallic, and very sharp.

Why not say “Another was a sword, long and metallic and very sharp.” There’s no reason to be mysterious about it being a sword. But, for a moment, I wondered if it was meant to be something other than a sword because Richards was being vague about it.

This was a quick little read. I took me about 90 minutes  and it was fun like a Doctor Who episode should be, but unlike a TV episode, I had too much time to think about all its faults.

Genre: Fantasy/Mystery

Why did I choose to read this book? Intrigued by the Doctor Who take on “The Great Detective.”

Did I finish this book? (If not, why?) Yes

Craft Lessons: If you’re working within the real world, you need to follow real world physics. Also, don’t be vague.

Format: Kindle ebook

Procurement: NetGalley

What Else in February

Writing Work

From “David Abbott’s ‘House of Mystery’”, The Omaha World-Herald, 28 Nov 1920, pg. 4.

My intention was to start my rewrite of One Ahead in February, but every time I started rewriting, I ended up researching instead. So, I gave in, got a 30 membership to Genealogy Bank, and have been wading through PDFs of Omaha newspapers every since. I have two more weeks to my subscription in which to solidify the time period I want to use (I think I’m going to move it from 1906-ish to 1912, after the death of Alice (Abbott) Rowe) and take a look at the Kirkendall family at around that time.

Query-wise:

# of submissions for Luck for Hire: 7

# of responses: 2

# of submissions for Model Species: 1

# of responses: 2*

# of other subs/responses: 1/1 – two different short stories

*Response numbers includes submissions made in previous months.

Other Life Stuff

February was a very social month for me.* Spring frisbee league started. There was the Superbowl Party at Laura & Josh’s, Tricia birthday gathering at Four Peaks, dinner with Tyler at Thirsty Lion, and the Skirt Chaser 5K. This was the fourth year I ran the Skirt Chaser. I turned in the worst time of my four years, but was actually more pleased than I’ve been the last two years. I’m currently 10-ish pounds heavy and hadn’t run much since the last Skirt Chaser, but still (barely) kept my time under 30min.

Pre-race – Me, Jeff , and Tricia
Photo by Casey Harrison, courtesy Jeff Gehring

*For an introvert, anything beyond hanging out with people one evening in a month is “very social.”

Books Obtained

The Kiss Murder by Mehmet Murat Somer

Brothers of the Snake by Dan Abnett

The first in a series featuring a transvestite sleuth and a the adventures of a group of Space Marines. That’s what I call diversity. Both from PaperbackSwap.

Other Stuff Read

In the land of short stories, I meant to start in on the Nebula nominees, but ended up finishing up The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes instead.

Other Books I Want to Read

At Goodreads:

Six-Gun Snow White by Catherynne M. Valente
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales by Yoko Ogawa

At the Greater Phoenix Digital Library:

The Mad Scientist’s Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke
The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar
Growing Up Dead In Texas by Stephen Graham Jones
The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O’Connor McNees