Meant to post before we left, but didn't.
We're in Indiana for a double funeral.
Highlights from the trip so far:
Hourly updates on Jane (our dog) from our fantasticly fantabulous friend.
We haven't seen any 'WASH ME's written on the back of tractor-trailers -- however, we've seen two 'Jesus's. That was a new one for me.
Did you know that some hotels offer bereavement rates? I had no idea.
If there's a John Green sighting, I'll let y'all know.
The Nashua Board of Education recently voted 7-1 to require parental notification if elementary school teachers plan to use The Giver in classrooms. They also voted 5-3 against removing it from the elementary school libraries. The challenge came about after a teacher read the book to a fourth grade class and a parent objected.
Fourth grade does seem a bit young to me for that one, especially as a classroom book -- I would think that the students who would be mature enough for it would be in the minority. Obviously, I'm glad it stayed in the library -- that way the kids who're up for it will have easy access, too.
Lois Lowry is of the same opinion:
When asked about the school board's decision Tuesday, Lowry said she agreed with it. She recommends the book for children in sixth grade and up and said she has a grandson in fourth grade and couldn't picture him reading it."I do think fourth grade is too young," said Lowry, in a phone interview from her barn in Maine.
...
Lowry said she would never support removing the book from the elementary school libraries.
"Every parent has the right to monitor what their own child reads, but I don't think any parent has the right to supervise the reading of other peoples' children," she said.
I continue to prefer Door #3, in which Bella grows a spine and ditches them both.
Shortly thereafter, Edward and Jacob finally come to terms with their true feelings for each other and head off into the sunset together holding hands. (Or they could skip the sunset and the hand-holding and just get a room.)
From the Independent:
Dr Mark Jacobs, a research fellow at Nottingham Trent University who has spent two decades studying 700 letters he received from Laura Riding Jackson as well as her literary works, said when she discovered the uncanny similarity in his texts she condemned her former lover as a "robber baron".
Gosh.
Speaking of Big Read-ish things (sort of), I've been toying with the idea of doing another one sometime this summer -- and maybe using Twitter... If those of us reading Twittered about it (instead of or in addition to posting), it might make the conversation more fluid. Thoughts?
Sovay takes its title (and the events chronicled in its first chapter) from an old folk song*:
Sovay, Sovay all on a day
She dressed herself in man's array
With a brace of pistols all by her side
To meet her true love, to meet her true love, away she'd ride.
As she was riding over the plain
She met her true love and bid him stand
'Stand and deliver, young sir,' she said
'And if you do not, and if you do not, I'll shoot you dead'
The big difference between the song and the story is this: In the song, Sovay is putting her lover through a simple test, and he passes -- in Celia Rees' book, Sovay is pretty positively sure that her lover is untrue, she sets out to find out for sure, and in so doing, humiliate him. Sovay, as you may have guessed, is not your average seventeen-year-old girl, in 1794 or any other year:
She stopped and looked directly at him. A frank gaze, challenging and insolent, as direct and unwavering as if she was a young man.
'The real answer is no. I do not like to look at myself.'
The painter laughed. 'All women like to look at themselves, young or old.'
When she is informed that there is a Bow Street runner on the way with a warrant to charge her father with, at the very least, sedition, she once again dons her brother's clothing and begins robbing coaches. Her aim isn't to get rich -- it's to get hold of the evidence against her father, in an effort to save her family and her home.
First, the positive: It's simply written, but with lots of detail, which makes the characters, settings and events very easy to picture in your mind's eye. It's chock full of action, with some very effective exciting bits (Explosions! Poison gas! A hot air balloon!). It made me want to read more about the French Revolution and its effect on neighboring countries, about Bow Street runners (who also pop up in the Darkside books), and I'm always up for reading more about secret societies! In short, it's extremely readable.
I haven't had very good luck with my reading lately. I was very much looking forward to this book, and I was, for the most part, disappointed. On to the less positive: I never developed any sort of rapport with or affection for the characters. Sovay was brave, headstrong, bright, etc., etc., etc., and I found her adventures entertaining and exciting, but never really cared about her. Or about the others, excepting maybe Captain Jack Greenwood. (I'm a sucker for the highwayman type.)
I felt like the book was populated with stock characters -- the brave, adventurous, headstrong girl who has grown up without a mother and has therefore never developed an interest in the domestic arts, the steadfastly loyal servant(s) who have grown up with their mistress, the dashing highwayman, the whore-with-a-heart-of-gold (though there's a twist there -- the WWAHOG is Toby, who works for Mother Pierce, a madam who runs a brothel that provides male prostitutes to male clients) and, of course, the totally over-the-top sadist villain. When I say over-the-top, I mean Over-The-Top. Suddenly, halfway through the book, there is a section that wouldn't be at all out of place in a parody of a Gothic novel. The Big Bad even has a torture chamber in his basement and an evil genius-type laboratory in a tower. And an evil laugh! That actually made me wonder if maybe it was supposed to be a parody, but the rest of the book didn't really read like that, so if it was, it totally went over my head.
There were also a lot of moments that felt like they wouldn't have been out of place in a stereotypical romance novel, and almost every handsome young man Sovay meets (and wow, are there a lot of them) seems to immediately under her spell. When reading the book, I found it difficult not to imagine Keira Knightly's Elizabeth Swan. It would make a rip-roarer of a summer blockbuster, for sure, but I was hoping for something more than that. Maybe I'd have been less disappointed if I'd gone into the book with no hopes for anything in particular...
For older teens and adult readers, I'd highly recommend Ellen Kushner's The Privilege of the Sword instead -- more depth, stronger characterization, a believable love story and characters that you will root for, just plain lovely and just as much of a rip-roaring adventure. (For those who object to the brothels and whatnot in Sovay, though, you'll probably want to give PotS a miss, though...)
*There's a full version here, though it should be mentioned that the lyrics I'm linking to are a bit different than the ones in the book. There's another version here. Google 'female highwayman lyrics' if you want more.
In Darkside, Jonathan Starling discovered the existence of a secret part of London ruled by the descendants of Jack the Ripper and populated by werewolves, vampires and other creepy-crawlies, as well as human criminals of every imaginable type -- blackmailers, thieves, con men, cat burglars, bounty hunters.
Now, in Lifeblood, a gruesome murder has Jonathan and Carnegie, his PI werewolf friend/mentor/protector on the case. They quickly discover that their investigation is connected to the Ripper family and may also shed light on Jonathan's mother's disappearance twelve years ago. Just as quickly, they discover that there's someone out there who will kill to prevent them from solving the case...
Lifeblood is a strong follow-up to Darkside. It's heavy on the action, awash in gallons of blood and features a fight scene every three or four pages. The descriptions of the different parts of Darkside continue to be imaginatively gruesome and easily, the highlight of the book. Definitely recommended to fans of Darren Shan's Cirque du Freak novels.
While I've totally enjoyed both books currently available to those of us in the US, what I find most interesting about the books isn't actually the story -- it's the story behind them. According to an article I found via Oz and Ends, the storyline and the ideas behind it didn't come from the author, but from focus groups:
It's similar, I think, to what book packaging companies like Alloy do, and even to what the Stratemeyer Syndicate used to do -- but it seems like Hothouse has gone a step further. I'd love to know what you all think of the idea.Hothouse uses a market research company to put story ideas to children, who are observed from behind a one-way mirror. Using dummy covers, short excerpts and blurbs to prompt conversation, researchers ask the children their opinions on which characters, plots and ideas they enjoy most. Each child is also visited at home by a researcher, who finds out what kind of books they already own and read. Drawing on this research, Hothouse commissions a team of writers accordingly.
Previously:
(cross-posted (with some tweaking) at Guys Lit Wire)
The find of all finds -- images very, very NSFW.
I hope he donates the lot of 'em to Dirty Found.
(via Bookninja)
Huh. Well, first, I'll tell you what Triskellion is not about. This:
Upon arriving in the English village and realizing that a mysterious force has taken over the entire community, twins Rachel and Adam fear for the condition of their grandmother and so begin to look into the mystery of the bees--unearthing a dark secret.
"Mysterious force taken over the entire community"? Nope. "Fear for the condition of their grandmother"? Nope. "The mystery of the bees"? Nope. I don't know where Baker & Taylor got that description. It certainly wasn't from reading the book. I love the CATS Booking Ahead announcements, but now I know to take 'em with a grain of salt. Sheesh.
Okay, the book is actually about this:
Due to their parents' estrangement, 14-year-old American twins Rachel and Adam Newman are sent to their mother's childhood home, Triskellion, to spend the summer with their grandmother. They arrive at an empty train station and make their way into town -- which they find deserted. Kind of:
A cloud had begun to slide rapidly across the sun, and the line of shadow moved behind them as they walked, chasing them along the pavement and catching up with them as they reached the post office a hundred yards further up the street. Inside, it was dimly lit, but at least there was a sign on the door reading OPEN.
"We can probably get some candy in here," Rachel said.
Adam almost barged his sister out of the way. "I'll take everything they've got," he said. Laughing, they lunged for the door together, only to see a pale hand emerge from the gloom inside and flip the sign over: CLOSED.
Shortly thereafter, they are accosted by some young thugs and Adam is punched in the face.
A few chapters later, while exploring the local forest, they witness the same young thugs get tied to a tree and get a serious beating by a group of men who are wearing rags, furs and in some cases, antler headdresses. When the Green Men pull out a chainsaw, Adam and Rachel make a break for it.
Clearly, Triskellion is not your average sleepy English village. In addition to the strange scene in the woods, they notice the triskellion symbol everywhere, and have a run-in with an extremely unfriendly vicar. Also, there seems to be a feral boy about town as well as a decades old secret, a centuries old mystery and a prophecy.
I was so looking forward to this book. It just sounded SO COOL.
I was, for the most part, disappointed. There are some spoilers below.
In brief, my issues are: a lot of the dialogue didn't ring true, I never saw the main characters as people, the ending completely fell apart and the whole thing felt like the author was making it up as he went along. Also, it reads like someone was hoping for a a movie deal. (I'm not saying it wouldn't make an entertaining, creepy movie -- but it would be nice for a book to read like, you know, a book that feels like the author wanted to tell a decent story rather than create some sort of licensing bonanza commodity thingie.)
As for the making-it-up-as-he-went-along feeling, the bit that really got to me was (spoilers ahead) this: So, Rachel has visions. Okay. She has visions. We find that out around page forty. Then, fifty pages later, we learn that not only does Adam have visions too, but that they often share them, and that this has gone on "since they could remember". Wouldn't that have been worth mentioning back when she had her earlier vision? And THEN, twenty pages later, we find out that not only do they have regularly occurring shared visions, but that they are semi-telepathic. So, yes. That didn't work for me.
Oh, and this?
He had falling writhing to the floor as every exposed inch of his flesh--his face, his eyelids, his lips, his ears and his hands--was covered with a throbbing layer of bees, stinging him repeatedly.
Honeybees can't sting repeatedly. They have barbed stingers, so they sting once and die. It's certainly possible that the author meant that as they stung him, they died, dropped off and other bees moved in, but it sure doesn't read like that. It's also possible, I guess, that these are special magical repeat-stinging Triskellion honeybees, but, unlike Adam and Rachel Newman, I'm not a mind-reader.
I'm not going to go into the ending, as I really am trying to avoid big spoilers. I really felt that it didn't jive with the atmosphere of the rest of the book. Not only that, but I didn't find it remotely satisfying.
This one is completely my own issue, but I'll tell you about it anyway. I was put off by a few moments near the beginning that reminded me of Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising sequence -- the big one being less than ten pages in, when the Newman twins are on the train. They share their compartment with an older lady who is knitting, and "her needles clicked on in time to the clatter of the train". While I doubt that it is actually a reference to the "intothedarkintothedark" bit in Silver on the Tree, it's certainly the first thing I thought of -- and that just didn't work for me. If I'd liked the book, I probably would have felt differently, but as it was, I found it distracting.
The book was not a complete and total wash -- there were some effectively creepy moments, and again, I loved the basic premise. Overall, though, I'd give it a pass.
It should definitely be noted that all of this is based on reading a reviewer's copy, so things may have changed.
From the Telegraph:
A Welsh Government minister has apologised after announcing the wrong winner of the Wales Book of Year at an awards ceremony in an embarrassing gaffe.
From the Telegraph:
Mrs Heermann asked her head teacher if she could use it in lessons last autumn and, with the backing of nearly 150 parents, was granted permission.
But when the matter came before the Perry Meridian high school board for final approval it was rejected, allegedly because a single member objected to swearing in the book.
From the Guardian:
Heermann and the union say there was no explicit ban on the book when she handed it out to pupils on November 15. But later that day she received an email from the board advising her not to teach the book. "That was the pivotal moment of my life, when I saw how my students were taken with the book, how they loved it, and then I am told not to let them read it? I said no," she said.
She's been suspended for either one year or eighteen months without pay (I've read both, not sure which is correct) for 'insubordination' and 'neglect of duty'. Now. I understand why the board accuses her of insubordination (neglect of duty, not so much) -- but I don't understand why the school board took issue with The Freedom Writers Diary when the teacher had already asked for and received written permission from almost 150 parents. If the parents were good with it and supported the use of the book, why would the school board start this uproar?
There's also an essay by the director/screenwriter of the movie about the situation at the Huffington Post.
I mean, aside from the whole "it's bad for the spine of the book AND the patron left it in there" thing...
And using established film and TV writers means that the path back to Hollywood for screen adaptations may be easier for these properties, “because they’re being written by people that [the studios] know can produce great scripts for them,” Kurtz added.
More later, maybe -- hopefully I'll actually have time to write about some, you know, actual books that I've actually read recently!
Awww. Major Briggs. Scully's dad. A bazillion other authority figures. There are obits at GateWorld and Solutions.
From the Guardian:
Gravett's computer skills are largely self-taught and she talks knowledgably about them. But after blinding me with science on the subject of electronic collage, she reveals that much of the work here was done by her daughter's pet rats - she needed a lot of nibbled effects, so she painted the relevant areas with yoghurt and the rats obliged. They also generously supplied urine samples which, in combination with more conventional watercolour techniques, have created some very authentic stains. Like all the best picture books, Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears invites and rewards endless exploration at all levels of understanding, and aside from rats' urine these pages are full of inventive, creative ideas for aspiring artists - look at the "fear of being eaten" page (Phagophobia) to see how feathers can be scanned in and graphically manipulated. Readers are encouraged to explore their own anxieties, and to add their own artwork - librarians had better watch out.
Earlier article about the urine! Whee!
1946. Alamogordo, New Mexico:
When the war ended, life in America was supposed to go back to normal. It hadn't. After Hiroshima, everyone in the world knew about the atom bomb, the secret "gadget" that the Gordons and her papa had worked on at Los Alamos. Now it was the Bomb, with a capital B, as if it were the only one, ever. People were afraid, every day, that they might all die in an instant, without any warning.
The post-war atmosphere is only one of the many changes Suze Gordon and Dewey Kerrigan have to deal with -- the girls are in a new town, making new friends, developing new interests and discovering the horrors of Home Economics. White Sands, Red Menace is the best sort of sequel: It continues a story about characters I know and love, but the problems and issues they face are very different and because they have grown and are still growing, they themselves continue to change as the story progresses, as does their relationship.
In The Green Glass Sea, Dewey Kerrigan and Suze Gordon had to learn to live together in the same house, in the same room, as roommates. In White Sands, Red Menace, they are learning to live together in the same house, in the same room, as part of a family. Suze is suddenly no longer an only child. Even if Suze never acted jealous and propriatorial, Dewey would still be unable to feel completely comfortable, settled in and safe with the Gordons. She is well aware that at any minute, someone could take her away. Because, as far as she knows, her mother is still out there somewhere, and Dewey is with the Gordons in a very unofficial capacity. And, due to their vastly, passionately differing opinions about the continuing experimentation with atomic power and rockets, the adult Gordons are facing a changing relationship as well.
As in the first book, the era and the physical setting (the landscape, the town and even, sometimes, the buildings) act as characters as important and as interesting as the people the story follows. As I did while reading the first book, I found myself jotting down lists of things to look up and read more about: Spinthariscopes! A good tamale recipe! A biography of Wernher von Braun! As with the first book, I found myself thinking about aspects of the era I hadn't really considered before. This time, I found myself thinking a lot about how the war -- and the end of the war -- would have affected womens' roles at home, in the workplace, in society.
While I love both Suze and Dewey very much, it's Dewey who has stuck with me more. This, from very early on in the book, just made me deliriously happy:
Life was pretty swell. She was thirteen--and a half--just an ordinary teenage girl sitting in an ordinary American drugstore. She smiled as she sipped her chocolate malt, then opened Fundamentals of Mechanical Physics and began to read.
Once again, as with The Green Glass Sea, highly, highly recommended to adult readers as well as younger ones.
The quotes I pulled are from a review copy -- the book comes out in October. No complaining! It gives you time to re-read the first one (or read it for the first time and THEN re-read it!). Get moving.
Previous Klages:
Which literary character most resembles you?
I think all Englishmen resemble, in character, one of the four animals from the The Wind in the Willows. I'm definitely Mole.
The list includes Frankie (hooray!), Benedict #2 (hooray!) and Generation Dead (meh for me, but I think it'll have some big fans).
(link via The Reading Zone, but I found out about the segment originally at Sarah Dessen's blog)
Death Proof:
Words can't describe how much I loved this movie. Well, they probably could, but I'm lazy. A lot of squealing would be easier. I'm planning on watching it at least five hundred times before I return the DVD to my father.
Conversation with my poor, poor co-worker:
Me: Blah, blah, blah, Death Proof, blah, blah, awesome, blah, Kurt Russell's best role ever, blah, blah, car chase, blah blah, marry Quentin Tarantino, blah, blah, severed leg, blah, blah, exploitation, blah, blah, girl power.
PPCW: Hmmm. I think we look for different things in movies.
Me: Blah, blah, squeal squeal squeal.
PPCW: What was the name of this movie again, so I can be sure to never, ever watch it?
Junebug:
Amy Adams was pretty darned fantastic in this. The thing I liked best was that nothing was really explained -- there was obviously a huge backstory (as there is in any family), and there was a ton of weirdness between the characters, but they didn't have some big ridiculous talk about it so that the audience would understand exactly what all the issues were. It felt real.
Club Dread:
We just watched this one for Bill Paxton. As that was our sole reason for watching it, we weren't disappointed. V. silly slasher movie spoof by the same guys who made Super Troopers.
Confessions of a Superhero:
Documentary about the people who dress up as movie characters and have their pictures taken by tourists (they work for tips) outside of Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. Reminded me, as moments, of both Trekkies and American Movie -- a mix of funny and heart-breaking.
Oh, and Maureen Johnson has posted a Guide to Summer Movies, so don't miss that.
Well, hell.
If this doesn't spur me to dig out and read my copy of City of Saints and Madmen, I don't know what will.
A livejournal community* devoted to 'em.
(via Deborah Fitchett)
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*Not to be confused with the Book Inscriptions Project, which is also fun.
And the winner is... Phillip Reeve, for Here Lies Arthur.
Those of us in the States who've been wanting to read it for ages and ages and ages* will have to wait until November. Because that's when it's coming out. Unless, of course, you break down and order a copy from the UK.
At this point, I'm seriously considering it. I hate waiting**.
___________________________________________________
*What do you mean, bitter? I'm not bitter, I SWEAR.
**And I've been waiting forever. Of course, instead of complaining on and on, I could do something productive -- sit down and finally start reading that other Arthur book I've been meaning to get to...
I want to read Sovay even more:
The Bookwitch review, with Celia Rees' response in the comments section
The Guardian blog entry sparked by the conversation at Bookwitch
A bit on the brothels (but more on the song the book is based on) at A High and Hidden Place
All I knew about it before was that it was about a young, female highwayman -- but now all this business about brothels and whatnot! I'm so there. And the Bookwitch review mentions The Red Necklace, which I still haven't read, though I've been wanting to for ages. Must get on that.
