And so it goes

So, hey! Summer! I can't go into great detail, obviously, but my supervisor at work quit right before our first of three summer camps started. The leaving wasn't entirely unexpected, but the timing was and I suddenly found myself on the hook for planning and running three weeks of day camp instead of one. Two are done (and went really well) and one is planned out and starting tomorrow. One more week! Let's do this thing! Anyhoodle, it's gone about as well as possible considering the complete lack of lead time, but it has seriously eaten my brain. Then after work there's the kids and whatever needs to be done at the house and washing at least half of this by hand (or all of it every other day)...so by the end of all that, I'm just done.

I've also been reading actual books again, which I didn't realize I missed so much until I started doing it again. I've read and enjoyed Cinder by Marissa Meyer, A Curse as Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C Bunce, Hidden America by Jeanne Marie Laskas, The Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. There might've been another one in there somewhere. I also went to Nashville on July 10 and saw Neil Gaiman on his book tour. It was seriously incredible. You wouldn't really read his books and think of him as a funny guy, but he is so funny. He read from the new book (which I had already read and really liked), answered pre-collected questions from the audience, read from another new book, and then signed for all 1700 people in attendance. The signing was kind of the least cool part of the whole thing just because there were so many people that he literally just had to sign the books and move on, but I am glad we stayed. We were only allowed to have one thing signed other than the new book so I had him sign my copy of Odd and the Frost Giants to both Nico and Elliott. I guess they'll have to fight over it one day. If I could do it all over again, I'd stay overnight in Nashville instead of making the drive back afterward so late at night, but otherwise, no complaints. It was a fantastically cool experience. Here's part of the reading that someone posted online:



The boys are awesome, awesome. Elliott charted in the 90th percentile for weight at his three-month well baby visit and was off the chart for height (17 lbs 11 oz and 28" tall). He's SO big, basically the size of some people's one-year-olds. He's still the happiest and most sunshiney baby on Earth. He can roll back to front and then eventually gets mad that he's stuck on his tummy. He's grabbing toys with purpose and putting them into his mouth. He has also figured out how to bounce his own bouncy chair and will do so with great enthusiasm.





Nico seems to have shot up several inches just in the past few weeks. His ankles catch serious breeze in pajamas that have fit him forever and (sadly) in his very favorite bright orange pants. The other day MB let him wear his orange long-sleeved car shirt, the one he wore on his first day of preschool in January, and the sleeves were a good two to three inches too short. He still constantly asks me "what happens if" and the scenarios are getting more complex and more fun to hear. The other day he asked me, "What happens if I was the grownup and you were the kid? What happens if I put you in the car and buckle you in and then I buckle me in and I start the engine?" He has finally started building with Duplo blocks and is really good at assembling cars from the pictures in a kids' K'Nex set he got for his birthday. He's still stubborn and resistant to change and I'm still feeling a little sulky over the swimming lesson debacle, but for the most part Nico is pretty great.

I took both boys to a reptile encounter yesterday and then to the children's museum. It was the first time Elliott has shown any interest in the goings-on, and when I put him on my lap in front of the Duplo table he was very keen on getting his hands on the blocks. Nico was very sweet and brought him a little pile to play with before turning his attention to building and embellishing his own car. (This reminds me of the other day when he built a very elaborate vehicle with very obvious and deliberate wings. "Oh, look! You built a plane!" one of us exclaimed. Witheringly, Nico said, "It's not a plane. It's a flying truck." OBVIOUSLY, geez.) Eventually Elliott fell asleep, exhausted by the intense workout of flailing excitedly at blocks, and Nico and I puttered the rest of the afternoon away. I didn't get a single thing done at the house, and I don't regret it one bit.

This happened the other night and it made my heart hurt with happiness:

And look! Look! Finally a photo proving that my bald baby does actually have a tiny bit of hair growing in...I'm not sure how I feel about how much he looks like a non-baby kid in this one, though.

I hope everyone is having a nice summer...hopefully it won't be autumn before I'm back here again.



Reading:  Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O Frost and Gail Steketee

Playing:  the Brave soundtrack

Five minute book reviews

I used to have time to write book reviews, but these days I'm lucky if I can find the time to read books, so the reviewing has fallen by the wayside. I've read a few good ones since recommending Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, though, and thought it would be fun to do some super-quick reviews, written in five minutes or less.


Hunting Unicorns by Bella Pollen

I started this one, didn't get hooked into it, and ended up putting it aside to read Miss Peregrine. I picked it back up after my detour, though, and ended up really liking it. I was initially thrown for a loop by the quick dispatching of one of the two brothers the flap copy promised the book would feature, but don't worry…the story manages despite the slight difficulty of one of the main characters being dead. This is one of those books where now that I'm done with it I can't articulate exactly what it was about it that made me like it so much, I just remember that I was very happy to have read it once I finished. I suppose that's not exactly a ringing endorsement, but really - give this one a try.


The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

This was a lovely story, if very sad through much of it. There were parts involving an infant that were hard to read (no abuse, just some difficulties), but the ending was happy if not perfectly idealized. I feel like some parts of this hit me harder than they would have before I had a child of my own, and while reading it I ended up thinking all kinds of introspective thoughts about being adopted since a failed adoption played a pivotal role in the main character's life. I found it somewhat reminiscent of Sarah Addison Allen's fiction - just a touch of magic and mysteriousness in an otherwise realistic story - though her work tends to be a bit lighter.


Snuff by Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett is easily one of my favorite authors of all time, and I will read and re-read his Discworld novels for the rest of my life. Though there have been a few other contenders, Sam Vimes has always been my favorite Pratchett character, and I have hoped ever since the tragic announcement of the author's condition that there'd be a few more Vimes books before the curtain falls. A new Pratchett book almost always feels like a gift anyway, but that feeling has definitely been amplified of late. Snuff did not disappoint, though it would probably be a hard first read for anyone not familiar with the Vimes arc, since events from earlier books (especially Thud) factor heavily into some key plot elements. If you're new to the Discworld and love a good cop story, start with Guards! Guards! and work your way through. It'll be worth the journey, I promise.


The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

Having read and loved Maureen Johnson's 13 Little Blue Envelopes and The Last Little Blue Envelope, my curiosity was piqued for her new novel, The Name of the Star. Well-written paranormal YA fiction is such fun, and this book definitely falls into that category. Teenage protagonist Rory is funny, smart, and a believable teenager without ever being insufferable, a feat in itself. It doesn't hurt that the story is fresh and left me looking forward to the next installment at the end. Not a Deep Thoughts book, but a good one. I ended up staying up until 2 AM to finish it, so you know it must've been good.


Reading:  Mastiff by Tamora Pierce

Playing:  Howl by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Otherwise occupied

Green Books Campaign: The Coke Machine

This review is part of the Green Books campaign. Today 200 bloggers take a stand to support books printed in an eco-friendly manner by simultaneously publishing reviews of 200 books printed on recycled or FSC-certified paper. By turning a spotlight on books printed using eco-friendly paper, we hope to raise the awareness of book buyers and encourage everyone to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books.

The campaign is organized for the second time by Eco-Libris, a green company working to make reading more sustainable. We invite you to join the discussion on "green" books and support books printed in an eco-friendly manner! A full list of participating blogs and links to their reviews is available on the Eco-Libris website.


For the second year in a row, I was invited to participate in the Green Books Campaign, which has been expanded this year to include 200 bloggers posting reviews of 200 books printed in environmentally-responsible ways. (You can read last year's post here.) I chose and received a copy of The Coke Machine:  the dirty truth behind the world's favorite soft drink, written by Michael Blanding. My book is printed on FSC certified paper.

The Coke Machine delves into the history of the Coca-Cola company, beginning with the birth of the company and examining its meteoric rise to become one of the dominant companies in the US and the world in a relatively short span of time. It also explores some pretty dark allegations, including:

>> Coke exploited school systems' need for money in order to tie schools into exclusive contracts and introduce Coke products into the daily lives of even the youngest US children.

>> Coca-Cola at best ignored and at worst incited violence against union organizers at bottling plants in South America, especially in Colombia, as recently as 2004.

>> Coke inflicted severe ecological and environmental damage upon several regions in India through the actions of its bottling plants.

I wish I could say that these accusations were shocking, but unfortunately the stories are all too common. It seems inevitable that large multinational corporations are going to have quite a few skeletons in the closet, especially when they do business in Third World countries with lax worker protection and nonexistent or easily-ignored environmental regulations. I'm not qualified to comment on the larger issues at stake when capitalism and a global economy intersect with very poor people in very poor or unstable nations. I am not naive enough to think that it's unusual for large US companies to outsource work to these countries in order to keep expenses low and profits high. I realize that the American consumer benefits from this practice in the form of lower prices on products that are produced by low-paid labor forces. I find it deeply sad, though, that a company able to spend upwards of 2 million dollars on a 30-second Super Bowl ad stands accused of putting profits so far ahead of people.

The book is a little grim, but it's also quite interesting. I love to read about the early stories of common brands, and Coke certainly has a colorful history. The biggest surprise for me was that the majority of organizing on college campuses against "Killer Coke" was done during my years as an undergraduate. I was heavily involved in environmental activism at my school during the years of the heaviest battling against Coke, and yet I never heard a word about it. It's kind of fascinating to realize that while our environmental group was wrapped up in lobbying to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, there were other students just like us in other parts of the country equally wrapped up in lobbying against Coca-Cola and who knows how many other diverse and worthy causes.

I won't say that the book convinced me to give up Coke - and I believe Michael Blanding himself admits in his author's blurb that he drinks a Coke every now and then - but it definitely made me devote some thought to the complicated politics and morals of consumer products. If you enjoy books like Elizabeth Royte's Bottlemania and Garbage Land, you might also like The Coke Machine.

In an effort to keep my bookshelves manageable and to engage in a little bit of recycling, I would like to give away my copy of The Coke Machine. If you're interested, please leave a comment on this post by midnight CST on Tuesday, November 30 and include a valid email address. On December 1 I'll use random.org to select a winner. Residents of the US and Canada only, please!


Disclosure:  I received a free copy of this book to review as part of the Green Books Campaign. The opinions in this review are my own.

This is a cross-post from my book blog.

It's Book Blogger Appreciation Week!

For BBAW 2010 I'm hoping to post something every day on my book blog. This is a cross-post from over there:

Today is the kickoff of Book Blogger Appreciation Week 2010. I hope to have a new post up each day (and some will include giveaways) to celebrate. The official theme for Monday is First Treasure, but instead of writing about the first book blog I discovered, I'm going to write about a blogger's first book.

I began reading Alexa Stevenson's blog Flotsam in late 2007, just before her son Ames died and the tense wait for her daughter Simone's early birth began. Even though I've been following the story of Alexa and Simone -- now a healthy two year old -- since then, Alexa's memoir is so much more than a rehashing of things she'd already written. Half Baked:  the story of my nerves, my newborn, and how we both learned to breathe is an enveloping page-turner of a book, the kind that actually merits the statement "I couldn't put it down." Even though I knew the beginning and the end of the story, I found myself wrapped tightly in the weaving of the tale.

After several miscarriages and a struggle with infertility, Alexa and her husband conceived twins via IVF. She found herself uniquely qualified for the heightened worry of pregnancy after a lifetime of anxiety and an adulthood spent developing the ability to over-research anything. But as the back-cover writeup admits, Alexa had spent most of her life preparing for the wrong disasters. At 22 weeks and 2 days, after having been told the sexes of her babies and that they looked "ideal," Alexa received the devastating news that Ames had died. For three more weeks, the goal is to keep Simone inside and healthy as long as possible. Then Simone is born, and Alexa is plunged into a motherhood she never expected.

She finds that the personality quirks that once left her nervous and paralyzed have left her uniquely equipped for the numbers and stats that dominate NICU life. The ups and downs of Simone's long hospital stay are relayed with stark honesty and surprising humor. One doesn't usually expect to laugh out loud while reading a story of a very early baby, but Alexa has written that kind of book. The good and the bad, the transcendent and the mundane, the heartbreaking and the unexpectedly funny, Alexa lays it all out and turns it into a fantastic and immensely enjoyable read.


Because she's awesome, Alexa is going to send one commenter a signed copy of Half Baked. For a chance to win, leave a comment on this post (or on the book blog copy) before midnight CST on Sunday, September 19 Thursday, September 30. In the spirit of BBAW, please include a link to one of your favorite blogs so I can discover some new great sites! Residents of the US & Canada only, please.

Summer of love

When the Lady Gaga episode of Glee aired, I finally succumbed to my Twitter-fueled curiosity and watched it. Even though I felt like the vocals in the big musical numbers were rather over-produced, I liked it enough that I set up a series recording for the remaining episodes. My friend bibliophile81 saw me talking about Glee on Twitter, and she put the DVDs of season one on hold for me at the library. I ripped through season one and found it sharper and much funnier than I'd expected. And so quotable! So now I'm totally that obnoxious person going around reciting lines from a show that everyone else geeked out over ages ago. (But seriously, you guys. "Cross over to my side of this black shiny thing." "That's called a piano, Sue.")

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When Jonniker started The Book Lushes a few months ago, I was ridiculously excited. I've been waiting forever to be invited to join a book club. (And anyone can join! You should!) I have to say, so far these ladies have not steered me wrong. I skipped the first book, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, because Nico was brand new and I didn't get it from the library's hold list until nearly the end of the month. The second book was The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which I liked so much that I immediately checked out and read the sequel and put my name on the list for the third one. I skipped The Year of Magical Thinking because I wasn't feeling up for a book dealing with the mortality of a spouse and child. Next we read Olive Kitteridge, which I expected to merely tolerate and ended up sort of loving. This month we are reading The Red Tent, another one I expected to not like much and really, really enjoyed. I'm so impressed with the Book Lush track record that I went back and got a copy of The Help and started it at work this week. And holy crap, it's soooooo good.

While everyone else was reading The Year of Magical Thinking, I finally got around to reading Watership Down (which my friend Tamsyn has been reminding me to read for years) and it was wonderful. I managed to find time to re-read American Gods for the 1 Book 1 Twitter project, though their reading / commenting schedule turned out to be way too slow for me and I gave up on the discussions after the second week when everyone else was talking about chapter five and I had already finished and moved on to something new. The bibliophile has also sent me some really excellent books, and I can wholeheartedly recommend Sarah Addison Allen's The Girl Who Chased the Moon and Brunonia Barry's The Map of True Places. So far 2010 has been a very good book year. Even though I've been crap at keeping up with reviews over on my book blog, I do keep a list of what I've read each year going back to 2006 in case anyone wants to look. I love peeking at other people's book lists. I am finding that I have plenty of time to squeeze a book or two in between each Book Lush selection, so if there's a book you think I should read, let me know!

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The baby, God, he's so cute. But also sometimes pitiful. Upon stirring from naps, he often turns and rubs his face on his blanket or my shirt before truly waking up. It's really stinking cute. Unfortunately right before he did it the other night, he spit up and I didn't know it, so when he turned his face to rub it on his blanket, he landed snout first in a pool of milkbarf. So then he was lying there crying pitifully, half awake and all spit-uppy. I managed to wipe most of it off his face, but as I was reaching for another flannel, he went for a second comforting blankie rub and found an additional splort of milk that I'd missed. Poor kid. It was so gross and yet impossibly funny. Infants...full of adorable Darwinian fail.

I did an outreach program at the library today (We made slime! It was great!) and as I was walking out through the children's room afterward I decided to browse a little and ended up checking out four books -- Nico's first library books! I'm way more excited about this than I should be, but I can't help it. When I was a kid, my mom took us to the library every week. She had a giant red and white canvas tote bag (seriously, large enough that I could sit in it when I was little), and we would fill it up with ten books per kid. Back then library books still had a card in a paper pocket glued inside the cover which the librarian would stamp with the due date. Mom collected all the due date cards and kept them in the china hutch so that when we went back the next week she knew exactly how many books we had to dig up. These days the library gives you a printed receipt listing all your checked out items, so I will tape Nico's receipt into my planner to remind me to return his books. A librarian I know tried to talk me into signing him up for the summer reading program this year, but since we usually just read the same two books every night (Bear Snores On and Guess How Much I Love You, we'd never make our goal for the summer. Plus I'd kind of like his first official summer reading year to be one in which he can participate by helping to pick out his books and such. I hope he'll love the library as much as I do.

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"I'll have you know I have my PhD." "You got it online, Sue!"

How about Team No-Plot-Holes?

I kid, I kid...I don't actually advocate burning of the Twilight books. Unless, of course, I'm freezing to death. Or just really chilly. Now, like the guy in the above photo, I admit that I haven't actually read the series. I watched a bunch of people I follow on Twitter react with derision after reading the final book, and have heard from many sources that the writing is pretty abysmal. I may eventually read them, but don't hold your breath. Also? Robert Pattinson is really, really not attractive. Sorry. And watching someone while they sleep? That's not romantic and sexy. That's stalking, and it's both creepy and the reason we have restraining orders.

So! I thought it would be fun to post about five books that I recommend instead of Twilight, or to pick up if you've read Twilight and need another vampire / werewolf story to feed your addiction:

5. Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett
I put this one at number five because while I did find it enjoyable, I think it's one of the Discworld books that works better if you've read some of the others. Some of the books in the series can almost stand alone, and others are a bit more meaningful if you've already been introduced to the characters. That said, I don't think any Discworld book is totally inaccessible as a first encounter with the series.

4. Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause
I like that in Blood and Chocolate, the girl is the werewolf, and the boy she falls for is the human. Main character Vivian isn't completely without flaws, but I didn't have trouble putting up with her. The story has a little less impact to it than the ones I placed above it, but I do remember that I liked the book. I haven't seen the film version, but the wikipedia summary leads me to believe that the screnwriters took a lot of liberties. Might be a fun one to watch for creeps, though.

3. the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris
Also known as the Southern Vampire Mysteries, this series served as the inspiration for the HBO series True Blood. I wrote a review of the first book, Dead Until Dark, back when I read it:  "The heroine, Sookie Stackhouse, is no Sunshine, but she's a good character. In some ways, she's similar to Sunshine, in that both are pretty ordinary girls--not geniuses, not knockout babes, not karate champions. Where Sunshine had a magical heritage, Sookie has a magical talent--she can read people's minds. Because of this, she has few friends and zero romantic experience. When she meets an "out of the coffin" vampire, things change, and before long, Sookie's trying to solve a mystery and stay alive long enough to figure out whether or not a vampire boyfriend is what she really wants.

My only objections to this story: unnecessary (in my opinion) murder of a family member, even more unnecessary murder of a pet, and a vampire named Bill. My friend Tamsyn, who gave me the book, pointed out that Harris was likely trying to create an alternate take on the stereotypical vampire tale. Instead of femmy glam vampires named Lestat or whatnot, she created a vampire who represented a typical 1870s American Southerner. I'm okay with that, but wish she'd called him Will or Liam or even William. I just don't dig the name Bill, having once had a horrible coworker by that name.

Pressing through my misgivings about the name turned out to be worth it, and the story was really enjoyable. I was surprised but not incredulous when the murderer was revealed, which is always really nice in a mystery. There was also one really unexpected and funny moment where it is revealed that a certain extremely famous, dead but occasionally still spotted singer still kicks around as a creepy pet-fancying vampire. I'm definitely going to look for the second book in the series the next time I'm in the mood for a sexy mystery."

Possibly best of all -- if you're looking for something to carry on with now that Twilight is over -- there are now nine books in the series. I sent my friend Rachel the first book and she called me a crack-pusher for getting her addicted.

2. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
I read this book on the recommendation of the fabulous Kerri Anne, and I loved it. LOVED it. The book makes a significant but not unwelcome change to the archetype, featuring werewolves whose transformation is triggered not by the full moon, but by the coming of winter. Unfortunately, the werewolves in question live in Minnesota, where winter doesn't screw around. Fantastic, believable characters and a tightly-woven plot made for a serious page-turner. I had this book with me the day I had to sit in the waiting room at the lab for four hours to have blood draws done, and the time flew. If that's not a hardcore endorsement, I don't know what is.

1. Sunshine by Robin McKinley
I absolutely loved Sunshine. Not only is it my favorite vampire book ever, but it's also probably on the top ten list of books I've read in the past few years. There's a slightly more extensive review over on my book blog, which concludes thusly:  I usually don't go for vampire stories, but I enjoyed this one immensely and would recommend it to anyone. It's got enough magic and undead for the sci-fi / fantasy fan and more than enough down-to-earth, believable characterization for those who tend to prefer non-fantasy fiction.


If you've read any other great vampire or werewolf books, please leave a comment. I'm always open to suggestions for new books to read!

Green book review & giveaway

This review is part of the Green Books campaign. Today 100 bloggers are reviewing 100 great books printed in an environmentally friendly way. Our goal is to encourage publishers to get greener and readers to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books. This campaign is organized by Eco-Libris, a a green company working to green up the book industry by promoting the adoption of green practices, balancing out books by planting trees, and supporting green books. A full list of participating blogs and links to their reviews is available on the Eco-Libris website.

Back in September, I was offered a chance to receive a green book for review in conjunction with a campaign to raise awareness about environmentally-responsible books. Not only were many of the books about green topics, but most were printed on either recycled paper or paper made from sources certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. Participants were allowed to pick a first and second choice from the list of 100 books, and I was selected to review my top choice, A Walk for Sunshine by Jeff Alt.

My book is printed in compliance with the green press initiative on FSC-certified 100% post-consumer content paper. Recycled paper is a cause close to my heart, having spent several years in college in an environmental club that devoted some time to the Sierra Student Coalition's campaign to convince major paper companies to adopt sustainable forest management practices and increase the use of post-consumer content in their products.

I also have some first-hand experience with how difficult it is to convince businesses (and schools) to use recycled paper. In her fantastic book Garbageland, author Elizabeth Royte relays her experiences related to the cause. She asked her publisher to consider printing the book on recycled paper using soy ink, but they were unable to accommodate her and produce what they considered a cost-effective product. Knowing this, I appreciate even more a book that is printed on the best paper possible for the environment.


A Walk for Sunshine is author Jeff Alt's memoir of his 1998 thru-hike of the 2160-mile Appalachian Trail. A lifelong lover of the outdoors, Alt conceived the idea of an AT thru-hike as a fundraiser for the Sunshine group home where his disabled brother Aaron has spent most of his life. Alt spent a year preparing, researching, and recruiting sponsors before undertaking the five-month hike from Springer Mountain, Georgia, to Mount Katahdin, Maine. He would eventually raise $16,000 for the Sunshine home and inspire a yearly fundraising walk in Sunshine's hometown of Toledo, Ohio.

But the book is mostly about Alt's experiences on the trail, and it is a great adventure tale. From the skunk who curled up on his feet on a cold night in Georgia to the bear who charged him on a wooded stretch of trail in Maine, from the thru-hikers he bonded with to the civilians who provided him with "trail magic," Alt weaves a light-spirited, bighearted tale that kept me turning pages from beginning to end. An AT thru-hike is a bit of a Holy Grail of outdoor experiences, something many nature lovers dream about but never attempt, let alone complete. Alt is refreshingly honest about the physical and mental hardships of the trail, but never stops feeling grateful for the experiences he is having on his journey. I found his optimism and good nature enjoyable.

Alt is not afraid to poke gentle fun at himself, and even chooses a trail name based on a silly rookie mistake -- he dubs himself Wrongfoot after spending his first day on the trails with his arch supports in the wrong boots, resulting in blistered feet. The book moves along at a good pace, and short chapters make for easy reading. Each chapter is preceded by a map of the Appalachian Trail with an arrow marking Alt's progress, a nice detail that keeps the reader rooted in the geographical significance of this truly epic walk.

I enjoyed the book very much, even though it did make me feel a bit sheepish about my own somewhat brief encounter with the Appalachian Trail. In the spirit of sharing, I'd love to pass on my copy of A Walk for Sunshine. For a chance at it, go visit the cross-posted version of this review on my book blog and leave a comment there sharing a favorite hiking memory or a goal for something major you want to accomplish. For an extra entry, tweet with a link to the giveaway and leave a comment for me that includes your Twitter ID. I will accept entries with a valid email address (over there, not here!) until midnight on Sunday, November 15. US & Canada only, please!

One more book giveaway

Click here.

Bookworms unite!

I'm planning to do a few giveaways on my book blog in celebration of Book Blogger Appreciation Week. The first book you can win is Homer's Odyssey:  a Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned About Life and Love With a Blind Wonder Cat.

Click here to see my review and comment to win!

I wish I knew how to quit you

I have been a fan of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series for years and years. The books can be sexy, entertaining, scary, and sidesplittingly funny when Evanovich is on, and for many years she produced hit after hit with a rare miss or two that I can recall. But lately, things just haven't been working for me. I do mostly enjoy the "between-the-numbers" books, even though on its face the premise of superhero-like Unmentionables is a little silly. In fact, it may be that silliness that keeps the holiday-themed books fun. In the early days of the Plum books, they were fun because you never knew what to expect. Now, as I told my friend the bibliophile one day when we were talking about the Plum books, I feel like Evanovich is almost trapped by her fan base. She can't play around with the characters as freely as she once did, because so many people are SO invested in them. She can still play around with the holiday books, because by definition she is outside the strict boundaries of the normal Plum universe.

I said in an email to the bibliophile, I also see a problem in that the numbered books always follow the same formula -- a bad guy or main case is introduced, Stephanie decides to track down fugitive, has some slapstick moments, has sex with someone, and then eventually catches the fugitive. There's only so many ways you can tell that story before it starts to get old. After I read Fearless Fourteen, I found myself thinking about giving up on the series. I honestly can't even remember why I was so disappointed, that's how bland it was. But then the new book, Finger Lickin' Fifteen, appeared on my library hold list, and I told myself I might as well give the series one more try. Happily, FL15 was much more enjoyable than its immediate predecessor, enough so that when the inevitable #16 comes out, I'll probably read it, too. Reading it also helped me refine my difficulty, I suppose, as it brought into focus the things about the series that just don't work for me. There are really only two big issues.

First, there's the apparent fact that in all her prior fourteen (or eighteen) books of bounty hunting, Stephanie has really not learned very much. I'm okay with her not carrying a gun, and I could buy it if she had a quirk where she constantly forgot her taser. Or, I could deal with that stuff if that were the only things that hadn't changed since the early books. But she still handcuffs people and then has to watch them run off. She still lets cornered bounties go to the bathroom before running them down to the police station, only to have them slip out the window and escape (that happens twice in book 15). She still takes Lula with her on jobs, and Lula still freaks out and knocks Stephanie down in a spazzy moment, allowing the target to escape. Now, I realize that Evanovich has chosen to follow a very loose progression of time, and I've heard that's she's stated on record that she's not going to move ahead years in time. I'm okay with that, especially since it means we probably won't have to suffer through the age-related death of Grandma Mazur (or Rex the hamster), or Morelli's retirement. But really, even if the span from the beginning of one book to the next was only a month (unlikely), that would mean she's been a bounty hunter for 15 months. And she's still letting people escape out bathroom windows while she stands around waiting for them to come back?

Secondly, I feel like character development has pretty much stalled out. Most of the minor recurring characters have been dropped entirely (Valerie the sister, Moon Man the stoner and occasional bounty, Sally Sweet the drag queen). The main characters really haven't changed much in several books, and Morelli barely made an appearance in book 14. Again, I have to wonder if the huge fan base and associated expectations are trapping Evanovich. It would be great to see Morelli and Ranger and especially Stephanie continue to change and evolve, but how would fans react if their old favorites suddenly developed along new storylines? I gotta say, I doubt I'm the only fan who would be happy to see some new direction.


How about you guys? Any Stephanie Plum fans out there? How do you feel about the books lately?



Reading:  Red by Ted Dekker

Playing:  Bringing Down the Horse by the Wallflowers

A special giveaway

Today is a very good day, because today I get to give away a book written by someone I know and love. My homegirl Stephanie Snowe, also known as That Chick Over There, is officially a Real Live Author. Her first book is entitled Meeting Mr. Wrong:  the Romantic Misadventures of a Southern Belle, and it's available on Amazon for the ridiculous bargain price of $9.95.

Of course, I encourage everyone to go buy Steph's book, but you can also leave a comment on this post for a chance to win a copy. To enter, you can either tell me a funny bad date story, or go check out Steph's blog and then tell me about an entry that made you laugh. If you do both in two separate comments, I'll give you two entries in the random drawing.

For a review of the book, go here. For a sneak peek at the first four chapters, go here (it's in PDF form). You may not want to read the sneak peek at work, unless your coworkers are used to you snorting with laughter at your desk.

Steffus, my sista-chica, I am so! damn! proud! of you. SMOOCHES.



Details:  This is cross-posted from my book blog. I'm giving away one book, and you can comment here or there. The contest is open to everyone (everywhere) and closes at midnight on February 2nd February 4th. The book comes out on February 3rd, and I'll ship the winner's copy as soon as it arrives from Amazon. If you decide to buy a copy for yourself (which I hope you will), you can still enter to win and pass the book on to someone else or give it away on your own blog. And if you don't win, please buy the book, because everyone needs to read the chapter about the guy with the pet birds. TRUST ME.

Just call me Spaz McGee

Okay, so does anyone else have feast-or-famine library book problems? It seems like I've either got nothing to read, or piles and piles of books. Because of this, I sometimes bring a book home, keep it for three weeks, use up my two allowable three week renewals, and still have to return the poor thing unread. My good friend the bibliophile works at the local library, and she often acts as Library Fairy for the rest of us, putting books on hold that she thinks we'd like. Ages ago, she put All the Clean Ones Are Married on hold for me, and I didn't get around to reading it. She must've been confident that I'd like it, because she sent it over again recently. It sat on my book stack for a few weeks while I read a few other things. I took it to work today and started it on my lunch break, and was immediately hooked. Another score for the Library Fairy!

After work, I went by the library to drop off a big stack of books I'd finished. I also had to find a place to buy firewood and pick up some stuff for cooking tomorrow, so my mind was not supremely focused on what I was doing. I read while I waited for the last of my coworkers to leave, then set the alarm and headed for my car. I had two books in my hand when I got in the car:

     

When I got to the library, I grabbed Larry and the Meaning of Life and my bag of books, went inside and picked out a few more books, and returned what I had with me. I drove to a gas station near our regular grocery store, went inside and paid for a rack of wood, and came back out to move my car over to the firewood. As I went to put the car in gear, I looked down and saw Larry and the Meaning of Life sitting there on the tray between the seats. CRAP. In the dim library parking garage, I'd grabbed the wrong white-covered book to return.

I called the library, and even though official policy is that a returned book has to sit on the shelf for 24 hours before the same person can check it out again, the clerk said I could have it back if she could find it. I got my groceries and went back to the library, but alas...they had not been able to locate my mistakenly abandoned book. Weepcakes! Luckily I have other books waiting in the wings, but still...bummer!



And, just because it made me laugh:



Reading:  All the Clean Ones Are Married by Lori Cidylo  Deerskin by Robin McKinley

Playing:  Gregory Alan Isakov and the Decemberists

Book giveaway!

(a cross-post from my book blog)

A somewhat embarrassingly long while back, I received an email from someone at a marketing firm, asking if I'd like a copy of Beth Gutcheon's Good-bye and Amen to review on the oft-neglected badgerbooks. She assured me that I had no obligation to write anything specific, or even to only say positive things, so I happily agreed. I must admit that upon first opening it, I was a little concerned. Good-bye and Amen is written as a series of short passages in the voices of a cast of nearly four dozen characters, as if an unseen interviewer has asked them questions. I decided to give it my best try, and before long I was completely wrapped up in the story of Eleanor, Monica, and Jimmy, the grown and recently-orphaned children of a brilliant, quiet father and a brash, domineering mother.

The secondary characters -- a majority of the cast -- faded into the background a bit, and helped to flesh out the town of Dundee, Maine, site of the family's beloved summer home, Leeway Cottage. Through the course of the book, the three main characters examine their childhoods and growing-up years, their relationship with their parents, and their parents' relationship to each other. The framework of the story is a last summer at Leeway, where the three siblings and their spouses struggle to divide up their parents' possessions while remaining civil with each other. Old hurts are laid bare, new wounds are laid open, but ultimately all the characters discover they still have some growing up to do and that they love each other in spite of the emotional hardships of their upbringing.

The plot device of interview and remembrance was so well done that at least a half-dozen times I found myself flipping to the front cover, just to make sure it really said, "A Novel" under the title. The illusion was furthered with the clever inclusion of a section of "family photographs" in the middle of the book, complete with captions. (Incidentally, I am dying to know who all the people in the photos are, and whether the photos inspired the story or if the author just put them in later to shore up the believability.) Even without that, this would've been a deeply engaging book, sweetly told and rather beautifully rendered.

I only had two small issues with the story. First, there are passages in italics that seem to be written in the voices of people watching the action unfold from their afterlife in Heaven. For the most part, I was not sure who these people were supposed to be, or how their observations really fit into the larger story. They did provide a way to offer a bit of exposition here and there, but overall I didn't feel like they totally fit into the larger tale. Secondly, I didn't realize it until I'd started the book, but Good-bye and Amen is a sequel. Since I hadn't read the first book, there were a few things that took me longer to work out than they probably should've. That said, I really enjoyed Good-bye and Amen, and would definitely recommend it.


Once I'd finished it, I was quite curious about the first book, Leeway Cottage. I really liked the characters (well, except for Norman, but I won't give anything away), and was curious to see where they'd come from. I also wondered if reading the first book would give me any insight into the characters who seemed to be watching from the great beyond. Deciding to go out on a limb, I emailed the person who had contacted me, and asked if there was any way I could get a copy of Leeway Cottage to review here as well. She agreed, and the book landed on my doorstep days later.

Leeway Cottage is written in a more traditional style. It begins during the childhood of Sydney Brant -- mother of Eleanor, Monica and Jimmy -- and more or less tells the story of her entire life, all the way up until her death, which sets in motion the events of Good-bye and Amen. A reader approaching these books in the proper order would no doubt go into the second one with an understanding of where the characters have come from, and with sympathies firmly in place for some of them. I had a bit of the opposite experience. I read first about the cold side of Sydney, and about her husband Laurus as a quiet and almost meek man, and only later got to see the pair fleshed out and living their own lives. Sydney's treatment of her children is no less regrettable after knowing about her own awful mother, but it at least is a bit more understandable.

My favorite aspect of Leeway Cottage was getting to meet Laurus Moss, the young virtuoso pianist who weds Sydney and then leaves her to birth and raise their oldest daughter alone while he works for the Danish resistance during World War II. I'm not much for period dramas for the most part, but the tales of Laurus's war years -- and the story of what happened to his sister Nina to turn her into the frail shadow of a woman she is in Good-bye and Amen -- were captivating. Leeway Cottage is engaging and well-written, with a scope that has to be respected -- almost an entire life laid out with both sympathy and unflinching honesty. The reader can see Sydney for the flawed woman she grows up to be, but is never prodded to despise her, or even really to pity her. The characters are not neat, pat creations. They are rounded and rough-edged, imperfect and typical, and I think that's why they came across to me as such realistic, believable people.


I liked these two books so much that I hate to give them away. I'm pretty sure I'll want to pick these up and read them again before long (especially since I'm still working out the observers-from-beyond angle). But when I asked for a copy of the second (or first, really) book, I promised I'd do a giveaway when I was done to drum up interest in the reviews.

If you're interested in winning my copies of Leeway Cottage and Good-bye and Amen, click over to the book blog and leave a comment on this post about your favorite summer vacation memory. Don't forget to include your email address so I can get in touch with you if you win. The giveaway is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada, and ends at midnight on December 5th.

Psst

New post and book giveaway at the book blog.

The Idea of North

What's your daemon? Go take the quiz and find out!

Also, Golden Compass reviews are up at the book blog.

A PSA for booklovers

I was going to start this post with "Would you like to earn free book money?" but then I realized ( A ) it would sound like a bad infomercial and ( B ) that's pretty much the most rhetorical question ever.

So, here's how to get that free money for books.

First, get a Borders Rewards card. It's a membership thing, but you don't have to pay dues, and it doesn't give you a discount. Don't worry, though...the discount part comes later.

Now, just for getting the Rewards account, you'll be signed up to get coupons via email. The lowest value coupon I've ever had was 20% off one item, and I get those at least once a month. Around the holidays, they send out 30% and even 40% ones on a semi-regular basis.

To get the free money, sign up at e-Rewards.com to take online surveys. Yes, the surveys can be slightly annoying, but you get to tell them how many you want to receive per month, and I believe there's an interest survey at the beginning. You'll only make a bit of money at a time (usually 50 cents a survey, but I've seen them go up to $7.50), but it adds up. I only started doing the surveys every time I got one around the beginning of the year (and I only get 1 - 2 surveys per week), and I cashed out my first $15 reward in November and still have $19 in my account.

The rewards can be used at lots of places, but the reason I signed up--and the reason I'm writing this entry--is to get Borders Bucks. It looks like you can only get $15 in a given month, but $15 of books is still pretty sweet. I used my $15 in Borders Bucks and a 25% off coupon and got the Dark is Rising box set for just under $8, which was a steal.

I'll admit that at times the surveys can be irritating. My main complaint is that the majority of the surveys I get offer $5 and then tell me about halfway through that I don't fit the demographic they're looking for. Even partial surveys give you 50 cents, though, so I figure if I keep plugging away I could earn another box set in no time. So what are you waiting for? Go get free books!



Reading:  The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

Playing:  Maybe This Christmas, Too?

Ten Literary Characters I Would Totally Make Out With If I Were Single and They Were Real But I’m Not, Single I Mean, I Am Real, But I’m Also Happily Married and Want to Stay That Way So Maybe We Should Forget This.

I swear, I did not make that title up. The hilarious Radioactive Jam tagged me for this back in early October, but I wanted to save it for NaBloPoMo (for obvious reasons).

So, here goes:

1. Macbeth, Thane of Cawdor, from the Scottish play

I can't really explain this one, other than to admit that it's probably based less on the actual play than on the fact that the actor who played Macbeth in the production I saw as a junior in high school was FREAKING HOT. That guy made crazy look so terribly sexy.


2. Pyetr Kochevikov from Rusalka by CJ Cherryh

I've long been a sucker for the bad boy with a heart of gold, and I've had a crush on Pyetr since I first read this book around age twelve. Too bad he ends up married to a wizard who could kill me with her mind.


3. Thomas from Something Rising (Light and Swift) by Haven Kimmel

Speaking of bad boys with mysterious pasts...


4. Borrible Jones from Spirits in the Wires by Charles de Lint

Hot mysterious tinker with a great sense of humor. What's not to like?


5. Geordie Riddell from Charles de Lint's various Newford books

He's a fiddler who plays at faerie revels and is sweetly and deeply devoted to his best friend and secret flame, Jilly. A date at a faerie revel?? Hell yes.


6. Bonanza Jellybean from Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins

Yowza.


7. Jesse, the hottie ghost from Meg Cabot's Mediator series

Tall, dark, and handsome; great body; sexy accent...sign me up. Okay, okay...so he's also a 19th-century murder victim. Details, details.


8. Shadow from American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Not sure I'd care to meet his dad, though.


10. Jamie Fraser from Diana Gabaldon's Outlander / Dragonfly in Amber / Voyager

Tall, strong, loyal, handsome, Scottish accent, and good in bed. Um, yes.


10. Sam Vimes from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series

HEART!


I am tagging the bibliophile, Megs, Blogapotamus Rex, and anyone who needs good blog fodder.


Reading:  Greenwitch by Susan Cooper

The Boy Who Lived (No Spoilers)

I was a little late joining the Harry Potter party. When the first book came out in the US in September of 1998, I was a senior in high school. I don't even remember hearing about Harry Potter much at all until college, when my education-major roommate decided to read the first book to see what all the hype was about. When the first movie came out in 2001, I went to see it with my mom and sister, and found it interesting enough to ask for the first three books for Christmas. It was all over after that, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was never unseated as my favorite book of the series.

I've never been an overzealous fan of the series, never spent any time on Harry Potter forums or written any fanfiction or spent hours dissecting every last plot point, speculating how the whole thing would end. I was content to read and re-read, quietly contemplate, and then wait happily for the next book to come out. I never pre-ordered the books, or even bought any in hardcover, since I like my sets of books to match, and had received paperback copies of the first three.

That said, I really enjoyed the midnight release party for book 7 that I attended with Evilducky, the bibliophile, and Danger. It felt like a rock concert for book nerds, and it was fabulous. From the little bitty kids dressed as witches and wizards--some so young I wondered if they are ready for the darker stuff that happens in the later books--to the white-haired clerk who dressed up as the lady from the Gryffindor Tower portrait, to the 40-something woman in witch robes with a Hedwig puppet, for the brief time we were together, I loved them all. Hundreds of people, packing a bookstore and staying up to a ridiculous hour, standing in line for 30 minutes for a cup of coffee or a cookie, running around doing HP-themed scavenger hunts...all of them were there because they love a series of books enough to spend a Friday night being complete geeks.

I love that I had a chance to witness and to some extent participate in a cultural phenomenon that involves reading. Usually it's bad pop music or weird fashion trends or reality TV that gets people all wound up, so to see the same fervor directed toward books was very cool. I love the idea that a kid might see one of the movies and then be elated to discover that there is a denser and even more magical version of Harry's world to be experienced through the books. There's something very encouraging a series that appeals to such a broad range of people. Nerdy bookish kids, popular kids, parents, grandparents, college students, twenty-somethings--just about every demographic seems to have embraced some degree of Harry Potter fandom.

There really is some magic in it after all, I think. Probably my favorite element of the entire Harry Potter thing is the way that it introduces a shot of imagination and "what if" into the world. Just like lots of kids spent several years opening wardrobes and closets, hoping to get into Narnia, just like I always wished for a Terabithia of my own (without the dying at the end of the story), I have a feeling a lot of kids will spend some magical hours daydreaming about receiving their first letter from Hogwarts, about meeting Hagrid and riding on the Hogwarts Express, about going to Transfiguration lessons and Quidditch practice instead of math class and PE. It's been a long and enjoyable journey, and though I'm a little sad that it's basically over (though two more forthcoming movies do ease the sting a bit), I'm grateful that I was in the right place at the right time to participate, and I'm looking forward to re-reading the entire series from beginning to end. And secretly, I think I'll always hope that someday I'll run into Professor McGonagall...or at least a tabby cat with spectacle markings around her eyes.

Procrastination

I finally got around to compiling a list of all the books I've read so far this year (that I can remember, anyway), and then I did one for 2006. They're over on the book blog if anyone is interested.

Of course, doing this meant yet another day has gone by without posting anything of substance, and without talking about Harry Potter. Better luck tomorrow, I guess.