Katherine Nabity's Blog, page 248
May 17, 2012
Book #10* & Bout of Books Update
Bout of Book Update & Observations
I’m pretty happy with how Bout of Books is going, reading-wise. I’ve read three novellas and a anthology of short stories, about 380 pages altogether. For a slow reader like me, I’m happy with that. But, I should be writing more. I’m probably going to go “off list” and read a few things I checked out from the digital library. (“Read a few” is probably a gross overstatement.)
Which brings me to my first observation: Since yesterday I’ve seen tweets about “failing” Bout of Books. Failing? Really? A.) It ain’t even over yet! There’s plenty of time to get more reading done. B.) Why the consternation over something fun? If you’ve read one word more than you might have this week, that’s a total win.
Second observation: What a cool world we live in. Someone can ask for a recommendation, get one, and have the opportunity (in many cases) to immediately download the book. It’s a continuous reading experience. How is that not awesome?
The Two Sams: Ghost Stories by Glen Hirshberg
Hirshberg tells ghost stories like I like to hear ghost stories.
Each tale moves inevitably forward, from the normal to the strange, with Orphean clauses strongly intact. Don’t look back to see the thing rustling behind you! Hirshberg excels at aural details. You hear the environment he creates. Each story, with the exception of the title story, have very definite settings. The Pacific northwest. Hawaii. The New Mexico desert. And, my favorite, the prairies of eastern Montana.
This is a really cohesive collection of five stories. All five involve teachers and certain threads of detail weave from one story to the next. I didn’t expect them to be quite so homogenous (and similar in feel to “The Muldoon” from the People of the Book anthology), so I’m left wondering if all Hirshberg’s stories are like this. Regardless, I’ll probably read another of his books when I can.
In light of my comment above about downloading books (viola!), I ordered this paperback via Paperback Swap. After waiting the requisite amount of time for it to reach me, it was eventually marked “Lost.” I was surprised when it arrived Saturday via the US Postal’s Mail Recovery Center. The sender had addressed it to me, Apt #4, Tempe, AZ. No street address. Luckily, my married name is pretty singular and the post office was able to get it to me.
* I’ll write a review for book #9 after Bout of Books.
May 15, 2012
2011 Nebula Award Nominees
Every year I say I’m going to do it. Read all of the available Nebula nominated short works before the awards ceremony. Usually, I get through the short stories. Maybe a novelette or two. This year? Four novellas, five novelettes, seven short stories. I am totally counting this for the SpecFic Challenge.
Lists and links via SF Signal
Novella
“Kiss Me Twice” by Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov’s Science Fiction, June 2011) – A cyber-noir, if you will. Enjoyable, though I found the world-building aspects to be a bit lacking.
“Silently and Very Fast” by Catherynne M. Valente (WFSA Press; Clarkesworld Magazine, October 2011) – What if a program achieved sentience? What would they dream? What myths would they make? Could we still use it? I liked this more than I thought I would, though I’m not sure I want to read more if it. (This is part one of a series.)
“The Ice Owl” by Carolyn Ives Gilman (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November/December 2011)
“The Man Who Bridged the Mist” by Kij Johnson (Asimov’s Science Fiction, October/November 2011) – I think I would have liked this story better if it were a Western.
“” by Ken Liu (Panverse Three, Panverse Publishing) – Ken Lui should win something if only because he wrote this and “Paper Menagerie.” This story is as brutal as that one is sweet.
“With Unclean Hands” by Adam-Troy Castro (Analog Science Fiction and Fact, November 2011)
Novelette
“Fields of Gold” by Rachel Swirsky (Eclipse 4, Night Shade Books) – I was recently told by the editor of a magazine that stories about the afterlife are what beginners write. Yeah, whatever. Not my favorite of Swirsky’s stories, but still solid.
“Ray of Light” by Brad R. Torgersen (Analog Science Fiction and Fact, December 2011)
“Sauerkraut Station” by Ferrett Steinmetz (Giganotosaurus, November 2011) – Lots of “horrors of war” in this one. I do appreciate the female characters.
“Six Months, Three Days” by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor.com, June 2011) – I had read this story when it first premiered on Tor’s site. Or at least I started to read it; I’m not sure I finished it.Interesting little tale pitting choice vs. determinism.
“The Migratory Pattern of Dancers” by Katherine Sparrow (Giganotosaurus, July 2011) – In its plot points, its a very basic story. While I’m not a fan of dystopias, Sparrow’s worldbuilding in 10k of words is as good as many novels I’ve read. Often, less is so much more.
“The Old Equations” by Jake Kerr (Lightspeed Magazine, July 2011) – What if we embarked upon near-light-speed travel without knowing about relativity? But I don’t know why you’d send a married guy off into this…
“What We Found” by Geoff Ryman (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September/October 2011)
Short Story
“Her Husband’s Hands” by Adam-Troy Castro (Lightspeed Magazine, October 2011) – Creepy and disquieting. And another dystopia, this one with an ever-raging war.
“Mama, We are Zhenya, Your Son” by Tom Crosshill (Lightspeed Magazine, April 2011) – Definitely presents a pessimistic view of science. Told by absence of details.
“Movement” by Nancy Fulda (Asimov’s Science Fiction, March 2011) – An decent tale, socially poignant. Deals with a temporal autistic and the nature of being “fixed” or “evolved.”
“Shipbirth” by Aliette de Bodard (Asimov’s Science Fiction, February 2011) – This is from the realm of far-out SF. You just have to go with it. It really is amazing how much backstory/world building can be skipped.
“The Axiom of Choice” by David W. Goldman (New Haven Review, Winter 2011) – Another story about choice and determinism. I like this one better than “Six Month, Three Days.”
“The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees” by E. Lily Yu (Clarkesworld Magazine, April 2011) – Another tale that deals somewhat with evolution, but in a more social construct way.
“The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March/April 2011) – A sweet, fanciful, heart-string tugger.
Bout of Books Update & Day 2 Challenge
Day One
Day one went pretty well. I read about 72 pages, finishing “Silently and Very Fast” by Catherynne M. Valente, “Kiss Me Twice” by Mary Robinette Kowal. Only two more pieces of Nebula fiction to read. I wrote 370 words which better than the last couple of Mondays. I missed yesterday’s challenge due to my late Bout of Books start.
Bout of Books Day Two Challenge
Today’s challenge is hosted by Nyx Book Reviews: Book Confession This or That!
Physical book or eBook? Physical books have always been a great comfort and libraries are like church to me, but at the end of the day, it’s the story that counts. I don’t care what form it’s in as long as I can read the story.
Paperback or Hardcover? Both have their advantages. Paperback wins due to better portability. To digress back to the first question, the only problem I have with my eReader is that it’s too heavy to be comfortably held in one hand, but too small to really be held with two.
Reality or Make-believe? I prefer fiction, but I’ve been reading more and non-fic lately. What’s up with that?
Adult or Young-Adult? Adult.
Dog ears or Bookmarks? Bookmarks, if you can define bookmarks as random pieces of paper. (My favorite being a voter information post card from the 1996 presidential election.)
Breaking the spine or Barely open the book? CRACK!
Tea or Coffee? Coffee. … Good idea!
Reading in bed or On the couch? Couch.
Series or Standalone? Standalone. I’m too slow and too fickle to read many series.
Original or TV Adaptation? But both can be so good! (Original, if you put me to it.)
Defy motion sickness or Audiobooks? I space-out when listening to non-music. And I’ve never had motion sickness.
Author crushes or Who-was-that-guy-again? Author crushes. Current victim: Glen Hirshberg.
Interview or Guest post? From authors? Guest post.
Have I ever mentioned that I’m really bad at This or That? I feel the need to explain. Oh well. Happy reading everyone!
May 14, 2012
Bout of Books Read-a-thon
I’m joining a read-a-thon. On the fly. An impulse participation, if you will.
Shhh. Don’t tell my husband.
That last bit is a joke. Eric humors me.
Actually, participation in a Bout of Books feeds into something I was thinking about this morning. I was in a very quiet place yesterday. I felt productive and unhurried, getting some chores out of the way and thinking some mildly creative thoughts. Most importantly, the day seemed to stretch. What was the different about yesterday? I spent a good amount of time yesterday reading. Relatively unconnected. Like I used to be when I was a more productive writer. (Maybe I’m just as productive now; I haven’t looked at numbers. But I don’t feel as productive.)
Plus, my 24-hour read-a-thon was kind of a bust.
My Goals
This is an experiment of sorts. I want to read a bunch this week, but I also want to write a bunch. I’m going to include a word count in my update section. Basically, I want shift the time I spend doing nonsense online into reading and see where I end up.
Books To Read
I want to finish up the available Nebula Award nominees before the awards ceremony this weekend:
“Silently and Very Fast” by Catherynne M. Valente (WFSA Press; Clarkesworld Magazine, October 2011) – I have about 3 pages to go.
“Kiss Me Twice” by Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov’s Science Fiction, June 2011)
“The Man Who Bridged the Mist” by Kij Johnson (Asimov’s Science Fiction, October/November 2011)
“” by Ken Liu (Panverse Three, Panverse Publishing)
Also:
The Big Short by Michael Lewis
The Two Sams by Glen Hirshberg
Through Darkest America by Neal Barrett, Jr.
Updates
5/14
Number of pages I’ve read today: 3 so far.
Total number of pages I’ve read: 3
Books: Finished “Silently and Very Fast” by Catherynne M. Valente
Words written:
5/15
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5/16
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5/17
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5/18
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5/19
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5/20
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April 22, 2012
#Readathon Wrap-Up and Book No. 8
The Spring 2012 Read-a-thon was pretty much a bust for me. Hungover on 3 hours of sleep is not the best way to go into 24 hours of reading. Plus, a friend of ours has been a little worse for wear and, well, I’m the healer of our EQ2 group. I ended up gaming during the afternoon and evening. When we called it a night at 11pm, all I wanted was sleep. Continuing to read did not sound like fun at all.
I did finish one short book, a novelette, a few chapters of A Clash of Kings, and a bit of poetry. About 180 pages in all.
Book #8 – Heaven by Mur LaffertyHeaven is book one of Mur Lafferty’s Afterlife Series. I like stories that play around with theology. The initial premise of the Afterlife Series is that everyone has their personal heaven. And every religion has their own personal corner of the afterlife. Kate and Daniel, our two protagonists, become disenchanted with the usual concept of Christian heaven and take to the road, visiting other theologies and having adventures. And I really liked the first half of the book.
This series started its life as a podiobook serial with, I believe, a chapter or so being published in audio form every week or so as a “season.” As such, the plot has an episodic feel to it and a somewhat rough progression. The ending is very rushed, especially considering the leisurely early chapters, with quite a bit of exposition. It probably would have been better as a 230 page book instead of a 130 page book.
Halfway through the book, Lafferty changes from the first person POV of Kate to the first person POV of Daniel. Unfortunately, the character’s voices aren’t quite different enough to not be confusing. There is some necessity to the change, but it still doesn’t work particularly well.
April 21, 2012
Read-a-thon Update Post
Initial Notes: Betsy’s post-dissertation shindig was last night. I drank too many beers. And went to bed at 2am… Still feeling the beers. Anyway, this is the post I’ll be updating all day.
Introductory Questionnaire1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Tempe, AZ
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? Steven Millhauser’s The Barnum Museum
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? I think I might be able to convince my husband to go on a doughnut run when he gets up.
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I’m a writer by trade. I like ultimate frisbee. And beer. ;)
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? Read more short stories to change things up a little.
05:28, Saturday
Book: A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin, pg. 372
Food & Drink: Yesterday’s coffee (1/2 mug). Water.
Noise: Morning earworm – “Whole Wide World” by Wreckless Eric
Environment: Back room, overhead light.
Other Activity: Introductory Questionnaire (above), some Twittering
06:21, Saturday
Book: A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin, pg. 385 (This is a re-read, but, wow, I don’t remember *that* happening.)
Food & Drink: Ham, egg & cheese on an English muffin. Diet Sun Drop.
Noise: The city waking up. Birds.
Environment: Back room, overhead light.
Other Activity: Cooking.
07:53, Saturday
Book: “Sauerkraut Station” by Ferrett Steinmetz (Giganotosaurus, November 2011), Pg 8
Food & Drink: None
Noise: Nothing new.
Environment: Couch.
Other Activity: Nap! (Already. But I did only have three hours of sleep.)
09:03, Saturday
Book: “Sauerkraut Station” by Ferrett Steinmetz (Giganotosaurus, November 2011), Pg 28 (Yes, I’m a slow reader.)
Food & Drink: Robin Eggs, Coffee, Water.
Noise: I’d like to put on a soundtrack, but nothing’s coming to mind.
Environment: Back room, natural light.
Other Activity: Little bit of web surfing.
10:02, Saturday
Book: Reading a few poems from Minorities. I think I’ll hit Mur Lafferty’s Heaven next. (Picked it back up at pg. 11)
Food & Drink: Nothing new.
Noise: Nothing new.
Environment: Back room, natural light.
Other Activity: Turn to Page… Mini Challenge
11:05, Saturday
Book: Mur Lafferty’s Heaven. (Pg. 22)
Food & Drink: Popcorn, water.
Noise: Nothing new.
Environment: Back room, natural light.
Other Activity: Phone call from Chris, talked to Eric a little.
12:05, Saturday
Book: Mur Lafferty’s Heaven. (Pg. 40)
Food & Drink: Reese’s Peanut Butter Egg, water, coffee.
Noise: Nothing new.
Environment: Back room, natural light.
Other Activity: Nothing else.
13:11, Saturday
Book: Mur Lafferty’s Heaven. (Pg. 67)
Food & Drink: Water Diet A&W Cream Soda.
Noise: Listened to some Bernard Herrmann for a while.
Environment: Back room, natural light. Er…the bathroom.
Other Activity: Nothing else.
16:28, Saturday
Taking an EQ2/Dinner/Nap break.
19:11, Saturday
Book: Mur Lafferty’s Heaven. (Pg. 110)
Food & Drink: Carrot Cake Ice Cream, Pepsi Max
Noise: Nothing
Environment: Back room, natural light and overhead light.
Other Activity: Nothing else.
Page Count: 180
April 20, 2012
Dewey’s Read-a-thon, Spring 2012
Dewey’s 24-hour Read-a-Thon – Spring Edition!Now, I fully realize that it’s a bit silly to spend the whole day reading for no better reason than other people, mostly strangers, are doing it on the internet, but it is one of those hermity things that I very much enjoy. In fact, I look forward to it like kid looks forward to Christmas. It’s an excuse to relax, quietly, and read.
Starting at 5am tomorrow and going as long as possible, I’ll be reading. And probably blogging some, most definitely writing some (since I’m behind on my writing), and probably doing some random house cleaning as I stretch my stiff back.
The TBR List
From my usual weekly reading:
A couple of chapters of A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin.
At least a short story from Steven Millhauser’s The Barnum Museum (been looking forward to starting this anthology)
Read a few poems from Minorities
“Sauerkraut Station” by Ferrett Steinmetz (Giganotosaurus, November 2011),
And when I’m done with that I’ll move on to:
The Flight of the Eisenstein by James Swallow
The rest of the Nebula nominees.
Heaven by Mur Lafferty
Maybe some of The Two Sams: Ghost Stories by Glen Hershberg if I get it in the mail tomorrow.
And Poetry magazine’s April issue.
And who knows what else! I’m pretty bad at keeping to lists and I’m a slow reader.
My fridge is stocked with highly caffeinated beverages, left-over Easter candy, and pizza bread. Plus, I have a husband that will probably gather grub for me.
It should be a good day.
April 16, 2012
Book #7
My husband jokes that I bought this anthology only for the Peter S. Beagle story. This is, in fact, not entirely true. I had already read “Uncle Chiam and Aunt Rifke and the Angel,” but Beagle’s inclusion definitely gave this collection some weight. The deciding factor was Rachel Swirsky as co-editor. I’m not a huge reader of current fiction. If I get to a book within five years of it being published, that’s akin to traveling at light speed for me. The exception is my yearly attempt to read the Nebula and/or Hugo nominees before the winners are announced. Through this process, Rachel Swirsky’s short stories appeared on my radar and haven’t left.
I found the anthology to be strong on the whole, but there were a couple of stories, like Michael Blumlein’s “Fidelity: A Primer,” that seemed to lack speculative aspects. To me, speculative elements can’t entirely exist in a character’s mind. There has to be some…manifestation, or some true question about what’s real. Otherwise, it’s no different than literary fiction. I also would have like a little more future-set science fiction. Matthew Kressel’s sci-fi tale “A History Within Us” was a great way to end the anthology, but it made me realize what was missing.
Other outstanding stories:
“The Dybbuk in Love” by Sonya Taaffe – A beautiful, near-perfect short story.
“The Muldoon” by Glen Hirshberg – The creepiest thing I’ve read in a long while. I have Hirshberg’s The Two Sams heading my way.
“Golems I Have Known…” by Michael Chabon – A story is about being a writer. I remember now why I have The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay on my shelf, but I don’t understand why I haven’t read it.
April 8, 2012
Book #6
I had been following Jennette Fulda's Pasta Queen blog, about her weight loss, for quite a while when she revealed that she had a headache that wouldn't go away. She'd had it for months.
"Well, that's not good," was my silent understated response. I'd had manageable headaches, both sinus-related and migraines, since my teens. I knew how awful a headache could be. As a internet voyeur to her life, I was concerned and curious about her treatments and her stories about coping with it. Fulda is an entertaining, honest writer. She was amazingly sensible about her weight-loss. But blog posts about her headache were few and far between. It's a few years later now and I understand why, even before reading Chocolate & Vicodin, she didn't blog about it much.
Chronic pain is a difficult thing to savvy. Everyone has pain once in a while, but we *know* that it goes away. Except, sometimes it doesn't. Like really huge numbers, it's hard to wrap your brain around the concept of constant pain. This goes for sufferers and non-sufferers alike. We immediately want to know why the pain exists and what can be done to make it go away. The answers (if there are answers) are not simple, but we want them to be. Jennette writes about the anger, guilt, and depression that goes along with suddenly being thrown into a situation that's confusing and literally painful.* Well-meaning people, bent on finding solutions for her, do not really help. The nature of the internet is one of interaction; sometimes, it's counter-productive to be interactive. Plus, when you live with something that constantly takes attention, you don't really feel like mentioning it as much as you deal with it.**
Jennette also touches on the nature of narrative in this memoir, and I think maybe that's where human beings get stuck. We want an ending, preferably a happy one. Chronic illnesses don't have an ending. As far as I know, Jennette still has her headache. By the last page of this memoir, she's learned to deal with it somewhat, to use the good days, to not spend her time waiting for the headache to go away. But there's no real end to her story. Chronic is the antithesis of story and we're left dealing with how unnatural that seems.
This book was a quick read. Fulda is still entertaining, honest, and sensible.
* Unlike Fulda's headache, the arthritis pain I deal with has been slowly creeping up on me for the past fifteen years. I don't know if that's better or worse.
** I don't write much about my RA. It's boring to me to write about it.
March 30, 2012
Didn’t Finish #2
The title is huge and overly verbose. So is the book.
I made it to page 163 or so before putting it aside.
In 1992, a shipping container filled with plastic bath toys went overboard during a storm in the northern Pacific Ocean. In the years that followed, the toys washed up on beaches in Alaska, Australia, and the United Kingdom. How does this happen? Are plastic tub buddies even that durable? “Ocean currents” and “apparently so” seem to be the answers.
Donovan Hohn heard the story and became obsessed by it. Unfortunately, Moby-Duck is about Hohn’s obsession not the ducks, beavers, turtles, and frogs. His tale meanders, touching on science peripherally as he travels to Alaska and Hawaii (and other places that I didn’t get to). The narrative is awash in minutia, not of a scientific sort, but of the literary sort. Many of the reviews I read complained about the dense science material, but maybe I just didn’t get there. Instead, Hohn goes on about the boats and the landscapes, and blithely categorizes the people he interacts with. While I did learn a few things*, Hohn never goes into enough depth to keep my interest.
Abstruse Goose had a strip a week or so ago that seems applicable.
All in all, there was too much fluff and not enough crunch.
*For instance, cargo is lost overboard all the time. If shipping companies would actually cop to it, we could devise a very interesting portrait of ocean currents. The accident in 1992 was more well documented than most.
