Katherine Nabity's Blog, page 250

Book #21

When the Women Come Out to Dance by Elmore Leonard

To my knowledge, I had never read Elmore Leonard previously. I'm familiar with movies based on his works, notably Get Shorty,  Jackie Brown, and 3:10 to Yuma. There's also The Big Bounce and  Be Cool, both of which I haven't cared for. It was the TV series Justified that lead me to this anthology. The book will be re-released in January as Fire in Hole, named after the short story of the same name that is the basis for the series.  It was a search for Justified on Amazon that led me to the anthology and I picked it up from my library's digital collection under its original name.

I'm pretty firmly in the love/hate category with Leonard. His characters are all very slick. The talk a certain way, act a certain way. Sometimes, I buy it. Sometimes, I don't. His female characters sometimes feel like a cut-out noir femme fatale. At other times, as with the story "Karen Makes Out," the female protagonist is tough, vulnerable, and admirably drawn. All in all, Leonard's fiction dwells in a sort of heightened reality, one that's sort of Hollywood. But the stories are also subtle. Not many end with a big bang. That's one of the things I like about his writing. I'd like to read one of his novels in the near future, possibly one of his Westerns.

Getting back to the name of this blog, what follows are notes I took while I read:

Dialogue is definitely Leonard's strong point. Still, occasionally, the voices of characters sound the same.  And sometimes, I'm not sure I buy the slick way everyone talks.

All red heads have flawless pale skin. All women wear straight skirts, just above the knee.

"…still a size six approaching thirty…"

I do like how his characters reference movies and actors.

Really, really enjoyed "Karen Makes Out."

There is something quite endearing about Leonard's stories. They often end in a small way, not with a huge finale.

Drops a lot of "to be"s from his language. Is this a regional speech thing (in the speech of his characters), or an Elmore Leonard thing?

Of course, most of the women are a bit evil… Leading poor men astray.

On one hand, I like how Leonard's characters have a multitude of thoughts going through their heads and he uses this internal narrative to present us with details, not just background. On the other hand, sometimes I doubt that anyone would be thinking of X when Y is happening immediately around them.

Fall Into Reading Wrap-Up

Tomorrow will have 3 seconds more daylight than today. What does that mean? Among other things, that Fall Into Reading is at an end. Where did autumn go? I don't know, but luckily it will be back in nine months. ;)

I have to thank Katrina at Callapidder Days for the challenge, the weekly questions (which I didn't participate in nearly often enough), and the wrap-up questions below!

Fall Into Reading 2011 Summary: Finished 5-ish Books! (I counted the comics and graphic novel as one book.) 5 short stories.

Did you finish reading all the books on your fall reading list? If not, why not? I didn't finish everything on my original list. I knew I wouldn't!  I'm a slow reader and I play too much EverQuest 2. And also…

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 books. The next shiny one that comes along gets all my attention. I ended up reading two books that were not on my original list.

What was your favorite book that you read this fall? Least favorite? Why? I'm going to have to go with A Game of Thrones as my favorite. Despite his faults, Martin creates a compelling world and I appreciate that he's an author that wants to tell a story without being nice about it. Least favorite would have to be Farthing. It bored the heck out of me.

Did you discover a new author or genre this fall? Did you love them? Not love them? Both Erin Morgenstern and Randsom Riggs were new to me. I liked the books well enough, but I probably won't go out of my way to read more of their works.

Did you learn something new because of Fall Into Reading 2011 – something about reading, about yourself, or about a topic you read about? Not sure I learned anything new, but it reiterated that I'm really bad at sticking with a reading list! It does make me really *want* to stick to a challenge, though. Maybe in 2012.

What was your favorite thing about the challenge? I like breaking up experiences into smaller pieces. It will be nice to remember Fall 2011 for the moody, fantastical books I read. Having demarcation points is important to me. (And ultimately, that *is* something I've learned about myself .)

From my original plan:

I read:

Old Friend from Far Away by Natalie Goldberg

New X-Men, Ultimate Collection Book 2 by Grant Morrison

The Sandman: Endless Nights by Neil Gaiman

I finished:

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

(I'll starting A Clash of Kings in the new year.)

I didn't get to:

Indigo Springs by A. M. Dellamonica

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Flight of the Eisenstein by James Swallow

I put aside:

Finishing Jo's Girls ed. by Christian McEwen

I'm still working on:

Last Call by Tim Powers

(The odds of me finishing this one are slim.)

I couldn't finish:

Doc by Mary Doria Russel

Farthing by Jo Walton

And at least a dozen short stories! (I read five, and am currently reading Dickens' A Christmas Carol.)

Read, not as a part of the plan:

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

2011 TBR Moratorium

It's time to call a moratorium on 2011′s To-Be-Reads and wipe the slate semi-clean.

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin – This was February's Women of Science Fiction pick. I believe I didn't get to it until my plane ride to Omaha in late April. I didn't hold my interest for more than a few pages. This is probably a re-list on Paperback Swap.

Indigo Springs by A. M. Dellamonica  – This was August's Women of Fantasy pick. Started this book. It wasn't bad, but I got distracted by other things. It's been too long, so I'm going to pull the bookmark on this one and shelf it.

Jo's Girls ed. by Christian McEwen – Got maybe 1/3 through this anthology. I'll probably write a blog post about the nature of tomboys in literature at some point, but I'm not sure I'll finish this book. Too many other better things to read at the moment. Leaving the bookmark, but shelving it.

Last Call by Tim Powers – I'm currently reading this and plan on finishing it by the end of the year.

The Flight of the Eisenstein by James Swallow – Started it, but kept getting sidetracked by Women of… lists and trips to the library. Pulling the bookmark (I'm on page 3 or so) and keeping it around.

God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert – *sigh* I still haven't gotten to the fourth Dune book. Keeping it around.

People of the Book, edited by Rachael Swirsky & Sean Wallace – I read the first two stories in this anthology as a pallet cleanser between Farthing & Miss Peregrine's and whatever I chose to read next. I'll probably dip into this anthology from time to time as I read short stories in the new year.

Haven't gotten around to the following and am going to re-shelve them. All would have been re-reads.

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie

The Call of Stories by Robert Coles

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

In 2011, I learned that I'm not very good or very happy with set reading lists. Again I marvel that I made it though 7 semesters of English lit classes. Of course, it was my habit in college to revert to Star Trek novels during dead/finals week. Call it my rebellion against Clarissa and Victorian poetry.

Farthing by Jo Walton

Farthing is another book that was part of the Women in Science Fiction book club and, uh, the third from that club that I didn't make it through. I decided to call it quits at page 264. Why then and not before? I wanted to give it, one of the few alternative histories I've tried, a fair shot.

I'm not sure I really understand alternative histories. Historical fiction, sure.  Historical fiction are simply stories set in a "historic" setting and might involve a famous personage. Alternative history? That's tricky. There are so many factors that go into and result from events that I'm not convinced that alternative history can be done convincingly. I suppose, in a way, it's the same as science fiction. Honestly, I'm not sure anyone does science fiction really well either when it relies on prognostication. On the other hand, history is so rich and *it's already there.* Why not use that instead of changing it? Weirdly, when all is said and done, I might be more of a history buff than a science fiction fan.

On the writing end, I didn't find anything particularly compelling about the story or the writing. I understand that much of a mystery/investigation ends up being related instead of shown, but the telling was boring. At pg. 264, I had long since stopped caring about the characters and the book had become a chore.

Book # 20

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

A mysterious island.

An abandoned orphanage.

A strange collection of very curious photographs.

I've been seeing this book around. Blog posts, reviews. This and that, here and there. While trolling deals on Amazon, I wondered if this would be a good book to buy my niece for Christmas. Since I was unsure, I figured I'd give it a read.

The first third of the book intrigued me. After the death of his grandfather, Jake is left searching for the truth about his grandfather's flight from Poland during WWII and the wild fairy tales that Jake was told as a kid. Were monsters just his grandfather's replacements for the Nazis? How literal are the stories of the ever-sunny orphanage? What is the bird in the loop? I could see some interesting possibilities and, considering the dark tone of the first third of the book, I hoped that the story would continue down that path.

Unfortunately, this book can be carved into thirds, likewise: interesting potential, utterly predictable, shoe-horned conclusion that will lead to sequels.

Spoilers, perhaps, follow.

If you think about the title, Miss Peregin's Home for Peculiar Children, you will find that it bears a striking resemblance to a phrase from another genre. In the middle third of this book we are treated to the expected hi-jinx when Jake meets the peculiar children. There's Budding Romance, and the wheels of Impending Doom are set in motion. Of course in the last third, things must go wrong. My main contention is that the bad guys, wraith and hollows, are vaguely fleshed out in a way that lends itself to ease of if-needed revision in potential sequels. Add to that the concluding action is unnecessarily cinematic. If we're dealing with fantastic elements in a real setting, it's important to be *real* in reality. Pistols have an effective range. Large objects displace water. I'm just sayin'.

Aside from the story potential shown in the first portion of the novel, the best thing about Miss Peregrin's is its main character. Yes, Jake is the semi-cliched "not special" kid that is integral, but that's a pretty basic trope of the genre. Rigg's gives Jake enough vulnerability that he's not arrogant, but enough teenage devil-may-care that he's not a putz. Alas, he's not compelling enough to get me to read any potential sequels.

The Heaven, Hell, and 2 Ducks Reading Challenge

I'm going to resist the urge to join more challenges (including the very tempting Telling Tales Challenge) because I do have a couple other things in mind for 2012.

I'd like to average a short story a week and a poem a week. That's not so much is it?
I've won four books in my lifetime and I haven't read any of them! One of them, Heidegger's Glasses by Thaisa Frank, is on my Mixing It Up list already. Obviously, Arthur Rimbaud's Illuminations can do double duty as well in the poetry category. Likewise, Black Light by Patrick Melton, et. al., and Decent by Jeff Long can do in the horror category.
Honestly, the Mixing It Up Challenge shouldn't be too hard for me. I already read from plenty of different genres, but I realized that I've never read a Western. I've read some prairie literature and histories. I've read No Country for Old Men, which could arguably be called a modern Western, but no actual Old West Westerns. I'm adding that as my own Mixing It Up category.
And lastly, my own challenge:

I know four jokes well enough that I can tell them without much thought. One involves Heaven, one involves Hell, and the other two include ducks.  Yep. That's it. I created a graphic for a challenge that involves four books.

Heaven: (TBD – I've unfortunately already read Peter Stanford's Heaven.)
Hell:To Reign in Hell by Steven Burst (Though this one might actually be my heaven book. It remains to be seen.)
Duck:Moby Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea… by Donovan Hohn
Duck: (TBD – This is where the challenge comes in.)

If anyone wants to join me in my slightly random, slightly absurd challenge, leave a comment.

Good Stuff, Late November Edition

League Finals

Quan took this great picture of the sidelines during league finals the weekend before last. My team lost both games on Saturday, but we played well and had fun. Honestly, I'm not sure there's a better outcome. Playing two enjoyable games of ultimate and then retiring to the sidelines for burgers and beer (Kiltlifter!) and watching your friends play more ultimate is hard to beat.

Impromptu 4 Mile Hike

Eric's parents are in town, staying with his brother in north Phoenix. We went up for dinner on Thursday and the football game Friday morning. After 24hrs of turkey and trimmings, and pie, pie, pie, we decided to go for a walk. The nieces were adamant about going "into the wilderness." I hadn't wore shoes conducive to the wilderness, but I burrowed a pair that were a half size too big from Hailey. (Yes, the 6th grader has bigger feet than I do. Fear her inevitable growth spurt…) Plus, my back and other joints weren't feeling marvelous. Nevertheless, I went. There are some hilly mountains near Mark's development and we (Eric and I, Eric's dad, Mark, and the two nieces) hiked one of the tails, a modest 400ft altitude change. It was a gorgeous day and the walk did me good.

New Abney Park Album
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Abney Park has a new album called Off the Grid. When I first stumbled across Abney Park, they were a "goth" band with a healthy amount of electronics and sampling. Off the Grid is an unplugged album and shows how far the band has come in the last decade. There are a few remakes of old songs as well as some new post-apocalypse-inspired tunes. I'm enjoying it quite a bit.

Filed under: Arthritis, Disc, Life, Music Tagged: good days

2012 Challenge #2 – Spec Fic Challenge

"Content" level of participation: 12 books

This will be my second year of participation in the Speculative Fiction Challenge.  Since I generally read spec fic anyway, it could be argued that it's not that much of a challenge. This is my way of kinda-sorta keeping on task, as it were, as a spec fic writer.

All the details can be found at Adventures of 2.0. Lisa is picking up the challenge torch, and we are glad!

2012 Challenge #1 – Mixing It Up

Undeterred by my lack of 2011 challenge success (only 4 re-reads? really?), it's time to turn my sight to 2012.

The first challenge that has caught my eye (via An Armchair by the Sea) is being hosted by Ellie at Musings of a Bookshop Girl. It is the Mixing It Up Challenge! The goal: read books of different genres. Push reading boundaries, explore new frontiers!

There are 16 categories:

Classics – David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

Biography – Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby

Cookery, Food and Wine

History – In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

Modern Fiction – Heidegger's Glasses by Thaisa Frank

Graphic Novels and Manga

Crime and Mystery – A Place of Execution – Val McDermid

Horror – Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Romance

Science Fiction and Fantasy – A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

Travel – I See by My Outfit by Peter S. Beagle

Poetry and Drama – Minorities by T. E. Lawrence

Journalism and Humour

Science and Natural History

Children's and Young Adult – The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins

Social Sciences and Philosophy

I'm going to shoot for the "Mixing Bowl" level of participation and read from 9-12 categories. I know how fickle I am. I've filled in some titles, but those are tentative.

For more info, visit the Mixing It Up Challenge sticky page!

Book #19

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

This is a re-read. I meant to get through a slew of re-reads this year and haven't. I decided to start a re-read of Martin's Song of Fire and Ice series for a couple of reasons.

One, I had bought A Feast for Crows (book 4 of the series) when it came out and never got around to reading it. It's not that I decided I didn't want to read it, it's just that other books got in the way. I'm a slow reader (I think I've mentioned) and while I don't have a terribly short attention span, I find it difficult to spend thousands of pages in a story, go away from it for several years, and then step back in. All while other stories are waiting to be read.

Two, the TV show. I have a fascination for retellings. Translations, cover songs, books to movies (and movies to books) are all interesting to me. What gets kept? What gets truncated or removed? How does form or language affect the telling or even the story itself? Interesting stuff for a writer. A Game of Thrones, the TV series, is a good adaptation. It streamlines the story, and it is a story (like The Lord of the Rings) that needs streamlining. Gone are the paragraphs describing the details of everyone's heraldry. Gone are the lineages. Do these things add to the story? Well, yes. They add detail and scope to the world. Do they hinder the narrative? Well, yes. Sometimes in Martin's writing it's hard to pick out the important details. In a visual adaptation, it only takes a few minutes to show these things. As viewers we are left with a vivid world where only the important people get close-ups.

Three, Tor.com is doing a read-through. Actually, Leigh Butler isn't finished with A Game of Thrones, but I went ahead a week ago and finished on my own. Even if I don't read Bulter's Eep!-and-Sqee! review of chapters, the read-through keeps me reading steadily. Not the fastest way to read books, but I'm not the fastest reader (as I think I've mentioned).

In all, the book isn't quite as good as I remembered. Some of the characters are a tad bit caricature. Some of the institutions are a little less than realistic. There are lots of names and lots of details and occasionally these detract from the story. Still, I'll dive into A Clash of Kings with a sense of enjoyment when the time comes.