Katherine Nabity's Blog, page 247
June 21, 2012
Spring Reading Thing Wrap-Up
Did you finish reading all the books on your spring reading list? If not, why not?I did not finish all the books on my initial list, but I did pretty well regardless.
I kept up with the Clash of Kings read-along as well as my weekly short story and weekly poem goals. I did indeed finish People of the Book: A Decade of Jewish Science Fiction and, with the help of the Bout of Book read-a-thon, read all of the available Nebula nominated short stories, novelettes, and *novellas*. Thus far, I’ve only read one story from the Millhauser collection. His writing hasn’t clicked with me.
From my list, I read:
Bad Luck Officer by Suzie Ivy
Heaven – The Afterlife Series I by Mur Lafferty
Chocolate & Vicodin by Jennette Fulda
Through Darkest America – Extended Version by Neal Barrett, Jr. (Still in progress)
I didn’t get to The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr and I gave up on Moby Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea… by Donovan Hohn.
Did you stick to your original goals or did you change your list as you went along?
I’m a magpie when it comes to reading. Any shiny thing sets me off in another direction. Books that I read that weren’t on my list:
The Two Sams by Glen Hirshberg
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
The Pirates!: And Adverture with Scientists by Gideon Defoe
Asgard Stories: Tales from Norse Mythology by Mary H. Foster & Mabel H. Cummings
The Snowman’s Children by Glen Hirshberg
What was your favorite book that you read this spring? Least favorite? Why?One of those shiny things that distracted me was the short story “The Muldoon” by Glen Hirshberg from The People of the Book anthology. It is the creepiest thing I have read in a long time and it set off a Hirshberg binge. My favorite book of spring was The Two Sams, an anthology of his short stories. Since I didn’t finish Moby Duck, it is obviously my least favorite. I really wanted it to be more science and less travel log.
Did you discover a new author or genre this spring? Did you love them? Not love them?
Of the distinct authors I read, Donovan Hohn, Susan Hill, Gideon Defoe, Mary H. Foster & Mabel H. Cummings, and Glen Hirshberg were all new to me. Glen Hirshberg is the only one I’m utterly taken with. It was also good to get back to some subtle horror.
Did you learn something new because of Spring Reading Thing 2012 – something about reading, about yourself, or about a topic you read about?
SRT 2012 reiterated that I don’t do too well with reading lists, but I shouldn’t beat myself up about it. If I just go with the flow, I get more reading done. I’m also pleased to find that I can still really like a specific author. It’s been a while since I’ve wanted to consume everything written by a particular author. It’s hard to do sometimes as a writer. Ego and the critical eye both get in the way.
What was your favorite thing about the challenge?
Even though it’s been a decade since I moved from Nebraska to Arizona, I still like things that delineate seasons. Spring Reading Thing girds me for the long summer to come.
June 20, 2012
#WWReadathon Day 1 Challenges
Hosted by Rebecca @ Kindle Fever
“A wildfire is quickly coming your way! What thing(s) do you grab when you only have a few minutes to make it out?”
(I’ve saved any people or pets in there already!)
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I’d pop out the data drive from my husband’s computer. It currently houses all my writing backups. (Okay, realistically, I’d have him do that because I would just end up grabbing random computer parts. It wouldn’t take long, his computer sits on the table, open-cased.) I’d also grab any backups and documents I have stored in the refrigerator. And my wallet. ID and a credit card might come in handy. Sadly, books really wouldn’t be on the top of this list. I have some old ones, I have some signed ones, but the important part of books are the stories in them. I don’t have any that don’t exist somewhere else. Come to think of it, I’d grab the couple things I’ve had published from off the shelf. Those might actually be had to find. And maybe I’m a little bit vain.
Challenge #2 – Slake Your Thirst
Hosted by Kimberly @ The Caffeinated Book Reviewer
Share your favorite drink recipe and the cover of your favorite/most anticipated summer read!
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I will dub my drink of choice the Lemon Cherry Zoom. And since there is some controversy about mixing alcohol and energy drinks I will echo Kimberly — Always enjoy responsibly! The Lemon Cherry Zoom is simple: In an 18-20 oz glass, add lots of ice, 1 oz-ish of cherry vodka (UV is my brand of choice), and a 16 oz can of Rockstar “Recovery” (the yellow lemonade kind). Stir. Drink. Personally, I wouldn’t drink a second one. No matter how easy it goes down, the energy drink ingredients alone would wig me out.
My anticipated summer read is Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury. I haven’t ordered this book yet, it hasn’t been released yet, but it’s been in my Amazon shopping cart for months now. (I did just sign up to win it on Goodreads. Fingers crossed.) It’s a great collection of writers celebrating a great writer.
Wicked Wildfire Read-a-thon (#WWReadathon)
Oops, I did it again…
Hosts: Rebecca @ Kindle Fever | April @ My Shelf Confessions
Read-a-thons just might get me through the summer without a major case of the blahs. Again, I’m going to keep track of my writing progress as well.
“Goal” List
These are all in-progress.
Modern Fairies, Dwarves, Goblins and Other Nasties by Lesley M. M. Blume & David Foote
My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me, ed. by Kate Bernheimer
Poetic Edda
From the Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury
Through Darkest America by Neal Barrett, Jr.
Might decide to finish off Clash of Kings
Updates
6/20
Number of pages I’ve read today:
Total number of pages I’ve read:
Books: Finished
Words written:
6/21
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Words written:
6/22
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Total number of pages I’ve read:
Books: Finished
Words written:
6/23
Number of pages I’ve read today:
Total number of pages I’ve read:
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Words written:
6/24
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Words written:
June 19, 2012
Book #14
This book is not what I expected from Hirshberg. It has no supernatural elements, which puts it more in the realm of literary fiction than horror fiction. (Bret Easton Ellis’s Lunar Park has a great deal more WTF going on than The Snowman’s Children.) Thankfully, though, Hirshberg’s signature brand of foreboding creepiness is there, because childhood is often an unsettling place to be.
Roughly, half the book is set in 1994, the other in 1977-78. In the winter of ’77-78, Mattie Rhodes innocently does something terrible that affected his family and friends in a profound way. In ’94, he returns to his childhood home to gain closure. As a good writer should, Hirshberg doesn’t tell us what Mattie did until the last 100 pages.
As with the stories in The Two Sams, the physical setting is very evocative. Michigan, October-March, is a landscape of snow and ice and slush. I’ve trick-or-treated in my winter coat and trudged over March snowbanks. I know this kind of winter. This might be the perfect book to read in Arizona in June-July.
The chronological setting is also very important. I’m a little tempted to compare this book to some of Stephen King’s stories, such as “The Body,” but King’s childhood settings are a sort of easy mode. He expects us to view the late ’50s and early ’60s with rose-colored glasses and then shows us the cancer in the bud. Hirshberg puts us down in the late ’70s when, with the advent of rabid nation-wide news media, it became a little scary to be a kid. The eponymous Snowman is a fictionalization of the Oakland County Child Killer that struck Michigan in ’76-’77. I’m too young to remember that, but closer to home I do remember Johnny Gosch from Des Moines, IA who disappeared in ’82. (This was after, more nationally notable, Adam Walsh’s disappearance.) What Hirshberg does is take that grim environment and show us that kids remained kids. Trick-or-treating became more of a thrill, games like “murder in the dark” became de jure.
In many ways, the character of Mattie is a bit of a psychopath. He’s very selfish in his actions while claiming to help and totally lacking comprehension of consequences. I’m not sure if that was Hirshberg’s intent, but that what I read and I like it. The weakest part of this book was showing the immediate fallout from Mattie’s childhood actions. It’s a few interstitial scenes that I know are hard to do. On the other hand, Hirshberg doesn’t rush the end of the book, something I appreciate as a reader and writer.
Format: Hardback
Procurement: PaperbackSwap
Bookmark: The shipping info from the PBS transaction (it was a perfect fit folded over) and the dustcover.
June 18, 2012
It’s Monday, What Are You Reading?
This meme is hosted by Book Journey — Happy 3rd Blogiversary, Book Journey!
This Week I’m Reading:
Thr3e by Ted DekkerEnter a world where nothing is what it seems. Where your closest friend could be your greatest enemy.
Kevin Parson is alone in his car when his cell phone rings. A man calling himself Slater offers a deadly ultimatum: “You have exactly three minutes to confess your sin to the world. Refuse, and the car you’re driving will blow sky high.” Then the phone goes dead.
Kevin panics. Who would make such a demand? What sin? Yet not sure what else to do, Kevin swerves into a parking lot and runs from his car. Just in case.
Precisely three minutes later, a massive explosion sets his world on a collision course with madness. And that’s only the first move in this deadly game. (Goodreads)
I’ve heard that Dekker is a really good thriller writer. I need to read more thrillers. This book is jumping the queue since it’s a hold check-out from the Greater Phoenix Digital Library. I’ll give it a try.
Modern Fairies, Dwarves, Goblins, and Other Nasties: A Practical Guide by Miss Edythe McFate by Lesley M. M. Blume, David Foote (Illustrator)Perhaps you think fairies are figments of the imagination, or even relics of an ancient past. You may even think all fairies are lovely winged creatures, who dance in bluebell fields, granting wishes to anyone who should encounter them.
You would be wrong on all counts.
Fairies are very much alive today, and they are everywhere—in our cities, our backyards, and even our kitchen cupboards. Some of them are indeed the sweet-tempered, winged creatures of folklore, but the fairy family also includes goblins, trolls, brownies, and other strange creatures, some of which are revealed to humans in this book for the very first time. While many fairy breeds are harmless, others can be quite nasty or even dangerous. (Goodreads)
My visits to physical libraries have always been governed by how many books I could physically take with me. I lack upper body strength. The digital library gives me ten checkouts. Ten! So, I might have, you know, checked this out as I…uh…browsed the shelves. I’m already a few pages in.
Short Story of the Week:
I’m going to read stories from My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales edited by Kate Bernheimer. It’s another library check out.
The Usual:
I’m a chapter ahead on A Clash of Kings, so I only have one chapter to read this week remain caught up. For poetry, I’m adding the Poetic Edda.
What I Read Last Week:
Asgard Stories: Tales from Norse Mythology by Mary H. Foster & Mabel H. Cummings (Review)
The Snowman’s Children by Glen Hirshberg (Review coming tomorrow.)
“There will come soft rains” by Ray Bradbury
“What the Dragon Said: A Love Story” by Catherynne M. Valente
“Cat in a Box” by Valerie Valdes – Valerie is one my favorite poets. She’s awesome, and on-line!
June 13, 2012
Book #13
Decided to become more familiar with Norse mythology after being exposed to the Marvel version of Thor. I previously knew a little, but I’m not as familiar with the goings-on in Asgard as I am the soap opera that is Olympus. I certainly wasn’t offered half a dozen classes in Norse mythology in college. Which is a shame.
Foster & Cummings point out in this slim volume’s preface that Norse mythology rings truer with northern children than “southern” mythologies. I’ve experienced my share of pretty cold winters, so I see their point. These myths are not concerned with making war over a pretty face, but with surviving until spring. Battles cost resources; instead the Aesir generally hold contests of strength and wits to gain from the frost giant, the dwarves, each other. Sacrifice is rewarded and united fronts are the order of the day. These are the stories made by people struggling against the elements first and reflect those morals. Of course, if you’re too busy surviving, you don’t don’t have the leisure time to grow a civilization the way the Greeks, etc. did.
This isn’t saying that Asgard doesn’t have it’s soap-operatic moments. Seems like every frost giant wants an Aesir bride and Loki always manages to provide. Gods are always people in the end. No storyteller yet has managed to not anthropomorphize god(s).
My main criticism of this book is that it’s clearly written for children. While I’m not accusing the authors of bowdlerization, I feel that probably the most didactic stories were chosen. I’m hoping that it’s a good jumping off point for the Poetic Edda, which I’ve been meaning to read.
Point of interest: I had never heard of Ellewomen, or huldra, before. This is an intriguing concept to me.
When these women first came to her, Iduna was surprised to see that they were not ugly or stern-looking, and, when she looked at their fair, smiling faces, she hoped they would be friendly and pitiful to her in her trouble. She begged them to help her, and, with many tears, told them her sad story; but still they kept on smiling, and when they turned their backs, Iduna saw that they were hollow. These were the Ellewomen, who had no hearts, and so could never be sorry for any one.
Cummings, Mabel H.; Foster, Mary H. (2011-10-09). Asgard Stories Tales from Norse Mythology (p. 68). . Kindle Edition.
June 11, 2012
It’s Monday, What Are You Reading?
Lately, I enjoy “book blogging” much more than any other sort of non-fiction writing, so I think I will do some of that on a more regular basis.
Sheila at Book Journey hosts the weekly meme “It’s Monday, What Are You Reading?” Since I’d like to be a little more focused with my reading list, I’m going to give it a try.
This Week I’m Reading:
The Snowman’s Children by Glen HirshbergThe Snowman’s Children tells the story of an incident from one man’s childhood in the 1970s, when a serial killer called The Snowman stalked the streets of suburban Detroit. The incident, a result of good but woefully misguided juvenile intentions, forced his family to leave their home, and eventually forced him, at age twenty-nine, to return to his hometown in search of three old friends. (Goodreads)
Glen Hirshberg is my current writer crush. If I had money, I’d tentatively work my way through his back catalog one Amazon purchase at a time. Since I’m poor, I’ve been trolling Paperback Swap for whatever I can get. This is Hirshberg’s first novel. I’ve previously only read his short stories and I’m eager to see how this tale will run its course over 300 pages.
Short Story of the Week:
Probably one of the following:
“In the Dark” by Ian Nichols
“There will come soft rains” by Ray Bradbury
Or something from the Steven Millhauser anthology
The Usual:
A poem & two chapters of A Clash of Kings.
What I Read Last Week:
Worked on Through Darkest America by Neal Barrett Jr. and started From the Dust Remembered by Ray Bradbury. I’ll get back to them after I swoon like a love-lorn teenager over my crush. The short story I read was “Eisenheim the Illusionist” by Millhauser. It’s the kernel of a story upon which the movie The Illusionist is based. Millhauser does a lot of work not saying things in his stories. I find him intriguing, but tiring. Savvy Verse & Wit featured a poem by Christopher Merrill which makes me wish I could be poetical about ultimate frisbee.
What I’m Giving Up On:
Good Night, Mr. Holmes by Caroline Nelson Douglas. I started this book at the end of last year, read 69 pages, and put it down. When I picked up again a couple weeks back, I just couldn’t bring myself to weave through the prose again.
May 22, 2012
Book #9*
At the age of 45 Suzie Ivy survived the police academy. Now she needs to learn the lessons that only working as a cop on the streets can teach her. She is the first female officer in Small Town, Arizona and the town has some adjustments to make as well.
One of the problems I have with social media and the internet now-a-days is that I often don’t remember where I “meet” people. For instance, I don’t remember how I came to read Suzie Ivy’s blog. I’m pretty sure it was due to Twitter, but I don’t remember the exact chain of connections. I started reading sometime in 2010 or 2011, when Suzie was posting about her experiences at the police academy. The first ten of those posts are still online. Those and the rest have been collected in Bad Luck Cadet. Obviously, if I had read that far, I was going to enjoy Bad Luck Officer (and I’m looking forward to Bad Luck Detective).
Bad Luck Officer is new content. On one hand, that’s a great thing. On the other, I missed rereading my favorite posts of last year. No, I’m not really complaining. And if you clicked over to read that anecdote, you’ll have tasted the humor and compassion that are part of Suzie Ivy’s policing and writing style. Recently, a literary agent on some other blog commented that the intrinsic part of a memoir was that the person writing it had to have done something. I’m sure there are other small town cop memoirs, female cop memoirs, mid-life crisis memoirs. I’m not a connoisseur of these genres, but I’m going to venture that none of them quite combine these aspects so wonderfully.
From a writer’s perspective, write-what-you-know often defaults to write-what-you’ve-seen-on-TV. It’s great to get some non-glamorous inside dish on what police work is really like. If nothing else, check out the CSI rant.
These books are self-published, through Smashwords, Amazon, etc. There were a few funkinesses of punctuation and format, but otherwise, the book was clean and quality.
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*I had skipped reviewing Book #9 due to a Bout of Books.
May 20, 2012
Books #11 & #12
I ended up perusing the Greater Phoenix Digital Library on Wednesday and checked out a few books. (What, I was supposed to keep to a list?) Since the data drive on this computer is horked up and, therefore, Adobe Digital Editions is more arduous than normal, I read these books on Amazon’s Kindle Cloud Reader app on my PC. I still don’t know what Amazon has against page numbers, but otherwise the formatting was good.
The Woman in Black: A Ghost Story by Susan Hill
After The Two Sams, I was still in the mood for ghost stories. The Woman in Black ended up being much different than I expected. For some reason, I was expecting it to be more romantic. It is, in fact, a straight-up old-fashioned ghost story. And if it was the first ghost story I had ever read, I’d have a higher opinion of it. It is derivative and meant to be so. Hill opts for the gothic novel contrivance of a framing narrator/story, though I’m not sure it’s particularly necessary. The storytelling is methodical and detailed. Maybe even a little slow. Don’t get me wrong; I like these sorts of novels. I wrote one, in fact! It wasn’t the perfect read on the heels of Hirshberg’s more visceral style, but it wasn’t a hardship to read either.
The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists by Gideon Defoe
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this one either. I had seen the trailer for the movie and heard Mark Kermode reviewing it, but otherwise, I didn’t know too much about the book itself. I was under the impression the it was a kids book along the lines of The Name of this Book is a Secret. While I haven’t read that book, I’m sure it’s not as dark or bawdy (or salty, if you will) as The Pirates! It does seem to have a similar brand of absurd silliness. I don’t mind absurd or silly, but there has to be a dollop of clever as well. The Pirates! didn’t have enough clever in my opinion. Or, I just might be a grump…
May 18, 2012
Bout of Books Mini-Challenge: Book & Shoes
Hosted by the Reading Housewives of Indiana
What do books and shoes have in common you might be asking? Not much, but I know that people obsess over books and they obsess over shoes. Why not put them both together?!
My Book of choice is:
The shoes that the character might wear:
Schmendrick the Magician
Molly Grue
Mommy Fortuna
Prince Lir
Lady Amalthea
Thanks, Jacinda, for putting together a super-fun challenge!
