books

alligator

I listened to this on the Between the Covers podcast. The narrator was excellent.

While this book is well-written, I had a hard time connecting to the characters, except for Frank. He was the most likable character. The rest seemed either too selfish or one-dimensional.

The story is mostly setting up the circumstances, building until they quickly crash together and end. The end of the book comes very quickly after, without much of a wrap-up of the characters, their impacts on their environments, or those they leave behind.

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me! me! me! (and books)

The link circulating amongst many authors on Twitter these days is a blog post by Neil Gaiman in which he addresses a fan’s concerns over authors producing works on their fans’ schedules. In fact, John Scalzi addressed the very same concern in his blog a few months ago.

I’m not an author. I don’t pretend to be (unless you count those behemoths that I have to write in academia — which most people don’t). But I am a literary fan. Books have been my salvation, my joy, my escape, and my home since I was a young girl (I was that kid who sat at the breakfast table, and if I didn’t have a book in front of me, I read the cereal box over and over and over until I could practically recite it.).

The point is, I see books as a gift. Do I get excited to read an ongoing series if it’s done well? Hell yes. Do I expect it? No. It’s not really about me, is it? It’s about the validity of the books, their characters and stories, and if an author has it in himself or herself to continue with that particular theme. Do I wish that some books did have sequels? Sometimes. But I also think there is a deliciousness in not knowing, in allowing my own imagination to lead the character somewhere. I read books for a good story (and no, I’m not counting those books that I read for my degree), interesting (not necessarily likeable) characters, and the ability to let my imagination roam.

It’s a symbiotic relationship for me. The authors do all of the hard work, I get to enjoy it and take the story from there.

–

Willow, my amazing niece, likes books. Lately, she has taken to reading Edgar Allen Poe – did we mess her up somehow? I think she’s turning out to be odd just like her father and I are. Heh.

Anyway, I like to send her books. She likes it if I read them before I send them, so I usually do. The two most recent books I sent her (well, I sent her three — including Blueberry Girl (a delightful book) — but I’m only looking at two here) were John Scalzi’s Zoe’s Tale and Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book.

Zoe’s Tale

I’ll admit, I haven’t read other books in the Old Man’s War series, but have been reading Scalzi’s blog for quite some time. One of the reasons I picked up this book was because Scalzi said it could be read as a stand-alone, and because it has a teenaged girl as the protagonist. Since it is up for a Hugo (and I need to read those anyway), and it is geared toward young adults (remember, Willow is a precocious 10), I thought it might be a good read for her.

I liked it. It wasn’t a difficult read, but it was interesting and engaging. From what I understand, it tells the tale of The Last Colony from a different perspective, but you don’t get the sense that it is connected elsewhere while reading the book. Some of the dialogue seemed a bit simple given that these characters in their late teens, but overall it wasn’t distracting. The only point that did distract me is that Zoe’s boyfriend, Enzo, who is a rockstar poet from his planet, can write sestinas in an hour. I kept thinking, well, he’s a teenager, they probably aren’t that good — but he was invited on this adventure because of his poetry. A sestina in an hour? C’mon.

I do think Willow will like it, and it will be her first foray into more scifi type of writing.

The Graveyard Book

After having read Coraline (which I had gotten her for her birthday), seeing the movie, and then telling me how good Neil Gaiman is (smart girl), I thought she’d enjoy The Graveyard Book.

I kind of cheated on this one. Well, not really, but kind of. I read it — but I read it along with Gaiman. It was fun to hear the voices in his voice, but to read it with him. I stopped when each video stopped, making the book last the entire video series (which, honestly, was not easy at all). As in so many of his books, the graphics are absolutely delightful, gorgeous, and enhance the tale.

I fell in love with Bod. How can you not? He’s a sweet boy. He does his absolute best in trying to be a good boy — but still a boy nevertheless. He has to get into trouble.

The language is delightful. I could picture every scene in the book in full rich detail in my head.

It left me wanting more of Bod.

But even if I don’t get more, he will live on in the discussions Willow and I have about the book after she reads it. And, after all, that is the delight of reading.

aural intimacy

It began long ago. Isn’t that how this starts? Or, perhaps, not so long ago, but still far enough in the past that it’s becoming hazy and dimmer as the years go by. When you read this, those of you who know my voice, do you hear it? Do you hear the inflection, the pauses, the stutters, the sighs? Do you hear the way my voice rises and falls with thought and inspiration and consideration?

I’m sure many of us hear a “voice” when we read. It’s that voice we apply to a reading to give it character, to make it come alive. Often, for me, it’s not my “inside my head” voice, but the voice of some narrator type mixed in with character voices.

Where does this come from? Is it from the foundational readings we had as children when our parents read to us? In my case, I’m not sure. I don’t remember being read to very much. I remember doing a lot of reading, but not being read to.

What I do remember is that sometime in my mid to late 20s when my youngest brother, Shadow, and I worked together, we traveled throughout Arizona quite a bit. During a few of those times, we read Raymond Carver’s short stories to one another. I loved that. It was fun to listen to the stories while we drove to a town down a long highway.

I don’t remember listening to many books on tape. They just didn’t seem that good to me. There was something that was too distant, too removed to get me interested.

That changed when I joined an audio bookclub at my last job. While I didn’t like most of the books we listened to (that’s bound to happen in a bookclub since everyone has such different tastes), I did enjoy books that others recommended to me. The first book I remember listening to that turned me around was Neil Gaiman‘s American Gods. I already owned a few of his other print publications (the Stardust graphical novel, the Sandman series, etc.), but I was blown away by this audio version. I could not stop listening. This book came alive in the same intimate way that the readings with my brother came alive. It was rich and beautiful and amazing.

I figured I would stick with Gaiman for Neverwhere. This time it was even better. Gaiman read it, and was able to introduce the pauses and changes in speed in just the way it should be read. The underworld of London was right there, in my mind. I pictured the London above that I knew, and then translated it, through his storytelling, into the London below. It was, in a word, magical.

I know, I know: magical and Neil Gaiman. It’s not all that original, is it?

But what these two books did for me is open up an entirely new way of enjoying that aural intimacy of books that I had come to love. I have listened to hundreds of books in this format by now (a few favorites: Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake — Campbell Scott is an amazing narrator, Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto, Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns (I cried through both of them), Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go (haunting) and the Hugo Award nominee, multi-authored/multi-narrated METAtropolis).

While I haven’t liked everything I’ve listened to, nor have they all brought me that same intimacy, it is those books that do that allow me to be excited about “reading” again. I will never lose the love I have for holding a book, but I think that there is something to be said for listening, too. It allows you to open your mind to a different way of reading. An aural experience versus an optical experience is different. It is an intimate encounter to have someone reading a book directly to you, as if you were his or her only audience.

banned book week

See any favorites? I know I did.

anniversary

Today is my parents’ anniversary. Fourty-two years together, and still going strong. Before I delve in further, let me say that there aren’t any images with this blog post because my parents don’t like to be photographed much and don’t want to have their images plastered all over the Internet. Out of respect for them, I am not going to post photographs of them, much as I’d love to share them with you.

I’m still reading Three Weeks with My Brother by Nicholas and Micah Sparks. It is slow going because so much of what they write really resonates with my own thoughts about my family, our interactions, and how we deal with issues. I have to put the book down because I’ll be in tears or I need to digest what was written and process it in regards to what I’m thinking about my own family.

They write about the death of their mother, and how that impacted their family. They talk about their father, who estranged himself from his family, refusing to talk to his siblings or parents, who was angry with his children. This breaks my heart because I see the same thing with my parents.

My mom used to be a vibrant, amazing woman who was the life of the party. Everyone knew her. Everyone liked her. She even ran for mayor and did fairly well for being so new to local politics and running against a man who was firmly planted in Flagstaff politics and had lots of money to back him up. And while my mom and I have never really gotten along (I can’t remember ever getting along with her, not even when I was a young child), my friends would love to go to our house after school because she was there and she was the cool mom. She got along with my siblings very well for many many years. These days, she doesn’t talk to very many people at all, least of all most of her children.

I don’t really know my dad. I lived with him for eighteen years, but I don’t really know him. He has seemed angry most of my life. I’m not sure why. I don’t know what he thinks about, what is important to him, what he dreams of. I know he likes to ride motorcycles and that he’s an amazing artist when he acts on that impulse. I know that he has had a strong relationship with his mom and that his siblings like him.

But I don’t know my parents. I love them, but I don’t know them. For so long now, they have blocked themselves off from being a part of my life at any depth. I didn’t do the shopping thing with my mom and bond over that. I wasn’t a daddy’s girl who could bat her eyelashes and get what she wanted from daddy. I think I’ve always been a disappointment, someone who changed their lives, who forced them into something they may not have done otherwise: marriage.

So while today is a day of celebration, and I did send them a card, it’s also a day of sadness. These people do not celebrate in the changes that are occurring in my life. They do not understand that so much of what I’m able to do is because of how they raised me. As the Sparks brothers write,

“But you know, in the end, you have to give them both credit for being good parents simply because of the way their kids turned out. We’re happily married, successful, ethical, and we remained close as siblings. If your kids can say the same thing later in life, won’t you think you did a good job as a parent?”

“Without a doubt,” I conceded. (p. 247)

Although I doubt you will read this, I want to put it down. Dad and Mom, you have been good parents. Look how we turned out: a professor, a doctoral student, a fireman, and a telemetry technician, each a very good place to be in life. We’re all happy, ethical, and close to one another. We have accomplished things that we all only dreamed of, and it is because of the foundations you gave us that these were possible. We are not only reaching our dreams and goals, but surpassing them.

Be proud of us. Celebrate in these accomplishments. Bask in the knowledge that if we hadn’t had you as parents, we probably wouldn’t have been able to do these things.

Happy anniversary. I love you.

money for nothing and books for free

Most of my readers are bibliophiles in the most delightful sense of the word. I know that most of you absolutely adore your books and many of you do poetry, book, or article reviews and/or references on your sites. That being said, I wanted to share some sites with you.

My gift to you is places where you can either read or listen to books for free. As someone who listens to books on my iPod daily and who reads articles/websites/journals more often than I care to admit, finding these free treasures is a joy.

Many of you may have already discovered the Google Books site. I talked about it in a presentation I gave in May and quite a few people in that presentation already knew about it. I have used this site to find scholarly books on the issues I’ve been researching — anything from feminist studies to identity to rhetoric — and found plenty to keep me reading for years. In addition, you can find segments or whole books on a wide range of topics. Google Books opens a book up in a reader and you can read the book right on your desktop. You can even save the book to your library to return to later (I have done that for research).

One thing that I did find unfortunate is that when I put in key terms to search for in the books, they are all highlighted in the same color, unlike Google searches where each term has its own color. This is only a problem when you are searching for multiple terms, however.

DailyLit lists books that are more literature based. For instance, when I did a search for “rhetoric and identity,” I didn’t get any scholarly papers. Instead, I got books by D.H. Lawrence, Somerset Maugham, and Virginia Woolf (although I have to admit that the Descartes book did pique my interest).

DailyLit works by sending you pieces of the book on a daily basis either in email or through an RSS feed. It’s not meant for a “sit down and read this book all at once” type of setting (and I can’t imagine reading Descartes that way anyway).

Book Glutton is a new service that is still in beta. However you can sign up to take part in their beta testing. Or, alternatively, you can watch the video below and see if it’s something you’re interested in.

Say you don’t want to sit and read, though. You’re busy and on the go. How do you get your reading done (and be cultural) and still keep going? Audiobooks are great for that. There are pay services (just like there are for buying books) but there are also some great free sites, too many to list here. If you do a Google search, you can and will find thousands of sites (that link will take you to a search).

Out of the many audio book sites out there, my favorite is the Gutenberg Project. You can choose from human-read or computer-read books (and it does make a difference).

I have also listened to a few at Oculture.

Do you have any favorites you’d like to share? I’d love to hear about them.

heartbreaking

The Kite Runner

Rating: 4 out of 5

Author: Khaled Hosseini

Year: 2004

Publisher: Riverhead Trade

ISBN: 1594480001

I didn’t actually read the book but listened to it on my iPod. In any case, this is an amazing piece of literature. I laughed and cried, cringed and reveled. It is one of those books that is gripping and engaging and forces the reader (listener) to look within and address serious issues about humanity, self, and our interactions with others.

It is not a long book but it tackles serious issues like racism, classism, sexism, rape, adoption, and family structure.

If you haven’t read it, I urge you to do so. I was swept away. At moments, I didn’t want to go any further. It was that painful. But I think, in the end, it is worth it.

book review

naked on the internet: hookups, downloads, and cashing in on internet sexploration

Author: audacia ray

Year: 2007

Category: women’s studies

Publisher: seal press

ISBN: 1580052096

In her introduction to this book, Audacia Ray writes, “I was seduced by the ability to be myself — the person I am in my brain, not in my awkward social moments.” With this statement, Ray expresses the fundamental appeal of meeting, hooking up, and creating relationships via the Internet.

While she discusses the difficulties of being female online, the sexual innuendos, the disregard for women’s perspectives, and the vicious attacks on physical attributes (simply because one is a woman), she notes that women also feel a freedom by being online. They are, if somewhat disembodied (as if you’re not disembodied in online communities), treated as “one of the guys” until their gender is revealed (ala the current hoopla over Digby, the political wonk).

Ray interviews women, asking them their opinions on the usefulness of the Internet as a tool to make connections to others. She writes, “the Internet allows women to be picky in ways that are largely structured around personal deal breakers.”

Ray’s book runs the gamut from innocuous discussions / conversational exchanges online to porn to creating relationships (one-night-stands or long-term) offline. It is an interesting look into a woman’s perspective on relationships, sex, and love on the Internet.

summer entertainment season

black nano I enjoy watching television. That’s a bad thing to say these days, isn’t it? I’m sure someone will look down on me because of that. I rarely just sit and watch; I’m usually doing homework, working out, or doing other things (I’m writing this and the TV is on) while watching.

The majority of mainstream television is now on the summer season. That means a lot of reruns, reality TV, and game shows. I like reality TV but I don’t typically watch reruns or game shows (what’s up with all of these shows that are like American Idol — which isn’t very good to begin with–America’s Top Model, So You Think You Can Dance, etc.?). So, I look to HBO and Showtime to give me their summer series. Since I just got Showtime, I’m catching up on some of their series: Dexter, The L Word (which I have gotten through Netflix), and The Tudors. On HBO, I’m watching the final episodes of The Sopranos, Entourage, and waiting impatiently for Big Love to start next week. Both channels have some interesting shows coming up.

But what is a girl to do when she wants to fill the silence of the house with good old raucus television? Sure, sure, there’s Netflix. I’ve been watching the Battlestar Gallactica series and it has been pretty good. I get a few movies in-between the series.

This summer, though, I’ve decided to put my iPod to good use. I mentioned before that I belong to an Audible bookclub with some of my co-workers. I also got an account. I have a few books that I can listen to:

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Angel’s Rest by Charles Davis
Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

I’ve already listened to the Burroughs book. It was ok. It wasn’t as phenomenal as I thought it would be, given that it has gotten rave reviews from nearly everyone I talk to. Then again, I tend to be quirky and don’t like what others like to read. I rarely read mainstream top 10 books. They just aren’t my thing.

black earthumps I’ll also be adding to my podcast subscriptions. I currently have about 50 subscriptions (and this doesn’t even include the blog subscriptions that I read in Google Reader). I have a few vlogcasts but mostly podcasts. I’ll try to stay caught up on those.

I have these great Griffin Ear Thumps that block out a lot of the noise and that are more comfortable than the ear buds. They make my listening manageable. And yes, I bought black Ear Thumps to match my black nano…because I’m dorky like that.

Do you have any listening / viewing recommendations? I’d love to hear them.

new age

photo by me

I work in a department where most of us are pretty geeky. We get excited about things that most people roll their eyes at. Sometimes, it’s almost like we’re out-geeking one another.

Let’s learn a new language! PHP, SQL, whatever. It sounds good.

Oh! I want to do that in Flash — those slideshows you are doing are antiquated, don’t you know. (All said with a hint of one-upsmanship and a knowing geeky wink and nod.)

So, it’s not surprising that most of us have laptops. Some of us have tablet PCs. Some of us have PDAs. Some of us have iPods (no Zunes yet — but that’s probably wise since I’ve heard they are not all that great). Heck, we even had 2 co-workers bring in an XBox360 and a Wii so we could see the differences (and…uhhh…play with them).

What happens when you have an intelligent group of well-read geeks getting together? Well, of course, they’d want to start a bookclub. But it can’t be any ordinary bookclub, can it?

Oh, no.

We gather around and decide to have an audible bookclub.

Yes. That’s right.

We are all downloading books to our iPods and listening and then getting together in 6 weeks (I know, seems like a long time but many of us are in school, all of us work a lot, and we need time to actually read…uhhh…listen) to discuss the current book.

So, I have been listening to podcasts on my Nano for a long time. I listen to books from podcasts. But they are usually broken up by chapter.Â That makes it easy for me because I can choose exactly when to end it and come back to it.
I started listening to Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game last night. The file is large.Â Five plus hours for the first part of the book. And like a good book, I didn’t want to unplug. I was getting caught up in the story.

I listened on my way home from work. I listened as I did my household chores. I missed some things but I chalked it up to that phenomenon where I gloss over words when reading, too.

Still, it requires a bit of concentration that is like reading but also different. I think about things differently than I do when reading. I conjure up images differently.

I don’t think I’ll ever put books down. I like the smell of them and the feel of them in my hands. But this is a nice way to get some different reading in.