tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28951115799122805382024-03-13T05:05:53.518-05:00Story gushIliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.comBlogger49125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2895111579912280538.post-79074586756664949632012-04-30T09:56:00.002-05:002012-04-30T09:56:40.241-05:00Z: Scalzi<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Wow,
Z, am I glad to see you. I wasn’t sure I would make it all the way through the
challenge, but here we are!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I’ll
have to cheat for the last day. Otherwise my only option is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zucchini Warriors</i>, a book I last read in
the fourth grade. So, I’ll write about John Scal<span style="font-size: large;">Z</span>i (no, he doesn’t spell it
with a random capital in the middle). More specifically,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<strong><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Old Man’s War</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> by John Scalzi<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></strong></div>
<strong><span style="color: #073763;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Genre:
Science fiction</span></span></strong><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aZUOsyaMFZQ/T56l7DXPTnI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/tVVN8WFcHmk/s1600/OldMansWar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aZUOsyaMFZQ/T56l7DXPTnI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/tVVN8WFcHmk/s200/OldMansWar.jpg" width="125" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
can’t top the publisher’s description:<span style="color: black;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">John Perry did two things
on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the
army.<br />
<br />
The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad
news is that planets fit to live on are scarce--and alien races willing to
fight us for them are common. So: we fight. To defend Earth, and to stake our
own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on
for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding.<br />
<br />
Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity's resources are in the hands
of the Colonial Defense Force. Everybody knows that when you reach retirement
age, you can join the CDF. They don't want young people; they want people who
carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You'll be taken off Earth
and never allowed to return. You'll serve two years at the front. And if you
survive, you'll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our
hard-won colony planets.<br />
<br />
John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea what to expect.
Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can
imagine--and what he will become is far stranger.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">When I read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51964.Old_Man_s_War" target="_blank">Old Man’s War</a></i>,
I had this strange feeling of delight, and it took a while to recognize it as
fulfilled nostalgia. I read books like this as a kid – moon bases, life on
Mars, space expeditions using telepathic twins for communication,
space battles against aliens, etc. I’m guessing they were written in
the forties and fifties, before the average person realized how alone we are in
our solar system. These books went out of style as hard science and
reality pushed out the entertainment factor, but they’ve made a comeback, and
they’re even better now, without the racism/sexism of books written
in previous decades. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And that's it for Z! ~breathes sigh of relief~</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>Iliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2895111579912280538.post-66048348795167380112012-04-29T21:20:00.000-05:002012-04-29T21:20:18.300-05:00Y: Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded & You're Not Fooling Anyone<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"><em><strong>You’re
Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop to a Coffee Shop</strong></em> by John Scalzi</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dqt5UGlALEA/T53yEaciE5I/AAAAAAAAAZo/37NLnHmVf2E/s1600/YoureNotFoolingAnyone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dqt5UGlALEA/T53yEaciE5I/AAAAAAAAAZo/37NLnHmVf2E/s200/YoureNotFoolingAnyone.jpg" width="128" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #073763;"><em>Your
Hate Mail Will Be Graded</em></span><span style="color: #073763;"> by John Scalzi</span></span></strong></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WrkIkkizB7k/T53yI6bv2xI/AAAAAAAAAZw/wdnwONUvUgI/s1600/YourHateMail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WrkIkkizB7k/T53yI6bv2xI/AAAAAAAAAZw/wdnwONUvUgI/s200/YourHateMail.jpg" width="132" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">John
Scalzi is one of my favorite authors. He’s a rare writer who
actually makes a nice full-time living from writing AND is willing to talk numbers.
He also writes one of the oldest, most-visited blogs on the internet. I believe
the chapters in both these books are pulled from his blog, so theoretically you
could read them there. That’s significantly more involved than just getting the
books, though. As you can tell from the titles, they’re about writing, and
they’re both amusing and insightful. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Because
he’s just that awesome, John has a regular feature called <a href="http://whatever.scalzi.com/category/big-idea/" target="_blank">The Big Idea</a>, where
authors talk about “the big idea” behind their new book. Considering his blog
got something like 5.4 million visits last year, that’s a lot of publicity. Based
on Big Idea posts, I’ve read:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Starters</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> by Lissa Price<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Fair Coin</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> by E.C. Myers<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Count to a Trillion</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> by John C. Wright<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Ready Player One</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> by Ernest Cline<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Hounded</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> by Kevin Hearne<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The Cloud Roads</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> by Martha Wells<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The Desert of Souls</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> by Howard Andrew
Jones<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Of Blood and Honey</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> by Stina Leicht<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The Hundred Thousand
Kingdoms</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">
by N.K.Jemisin<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><em>And</em>
other books that were profiled, but which I discovered elsewhere. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I’ll
read tons more when the A to Z Challenge is over. </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">John
Scalzi’s work is everywhere: science fiction books, TV shows (he was a creative
consultant for <em><a href="http://stargate.mgm.com/" target="_blank">Stargate: Universe</a></em>), nonfiction of all kinds, articles, blog
posts, movie reviews, and his latest project – mobile games from Industrial
Toys, a new video game company. I’ve even seen <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">him</i> on television – the <a href="http://science.discovery.com/" target="_blank">Science Channel</a> did a pretty cool “what if”
program called <em><a href="http://science.discovery.com/tv/are-we-alone/alien-encounters.html" target="_blank">Alien Encounters</a></em> (on what it might really look like if aliens decide
to visit Earth), and Scalzi was one of the people interviewed, along with Nick
Sagan (Carl Sagan’s son), Neil Degrasse Tyson (director of the Hayden Planetarium),
Jill Tarter (director of the SETI Institute), David Brin (astrophysicist & SF author) and other people in science research and entertainment. Scalzi also tours and does the big conferences. Paramount Pictures announced last year that it's making a movie of Scalzi's first book, <em>Old Man's War</em>, directed by Wolfgang Petersen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">For
anyone, this is a lot. For a guy still in his early 40s, one has to wonder when
Scalzi sleeps.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
think I first encountered his writing in the famous article on <em><a href="http://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/" target="_blank">Being Poor</a></em> that
he wrote in response to “But they were warned, why didn’t people just hop in
their cars and drive away?” comments that were everywhere after hurricane
Katrina. I’m not sure where I read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Being
Poor</i> (lots of media carried it), and didn’t know who he was at the time,
and didn’t immediately connect the article with him when I discovered his
fiction a few years later. His blog is truly entertaining – whether you want to
read about books, science fiction movies, publishing industry news, interesting
technology, occasional commentary on politics (or politicians), see great
pictures of his cats, or anything else that’s caught his interest that day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Since
his name has a Z in it, I’m going to cheat and discuss his fiction for the next
entry…</span></div>
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<br /></div>Iliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2895111579912280538.post-49194114391085984302012-04-29T18:42:00.000-05:002012-04-29T18:42:32.234-05:00X: X-Men<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Ah, X. Such slim pickings. Well, my choices were the
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xanth" target="_blank">Xanth</a> books, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xanadu_(film)" target="_blank">Xanadu</a>, and X-Men.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">So we’ll go with the one I encountered most recently. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"><strong><em>X-Men</em></strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;">Genre: movies, science fiction</span></strong></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9DF-T1IaTGY/T53J_ZiUAzI/AAAAAAAAAYk/gky0zDA_H9M/s1600/xmen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9DF-T1IaTGY/T53J_ZiUAzI/AAAAAAAAAYk/gky0zDA_H9M/s200/xmen.jpg" width="135" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I liked this <a href="http://marvel.com/characters/bio/1009726/x-men" target="_blank">Marvel</a> franchise just
fine when I saw it in the theater. Enough that I saw <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0290334/" target="_blank">X2</a></i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376994/" target="_blank">X-Men: The Last Stand</a></i>,
as well as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0458525/" target="_blank">X-Men Origins: Wolverine</a></i>.
But not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1270798/" target="_blank">X-Men: First Class</a></i> yet. I
keep going back and forth over whether James McAvoy’s presence is enough reason to watch it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Considering how many of them I’d seen, you’d think I’d be
less…lukewarm about it. But this is one franchise I’ve watched more for
special effects and the caliber of actors than for the
story. The first one was pretty cool, though. I guess I'm in a <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/" target="_blank">Matrix</a> situation here. I keep watching them, hoping one will come along that will match the first.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In the meantime, I watch <em>X-Men</em> for these folks: </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g8sUpqbFEu0/T53LG7EJQEI/AAAAAAAAAYs/UkFzUGnUykU/s1600/hughjackman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g8sUpqbFEu0/T53LG7EJQEI/AAAAAAAAAYs/UkFzUGnUykU/s200/hughjackman.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hugh Jackman</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aYNMY2EhqQY/T53LPXJxDOI/AAAAAAAAAY0/zBrigib7JRQ/s1600/halle_berry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aYNMY2EhqQY/T53LPXJxDOI/AAAAAAAAAY0/zBrigib7JRQ/s200/halle_berry.jpg" width="149" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Halle Berry</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IJz-risQwbk/T53LWfyjf3I/AAAAAAAAAY8/GERp63Rh0zQ/s1600/patrick_stewart_ian_mckellen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="209" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IJz-risQwbk/T53LWfyjf3I/AAAAAAAAAY8/GERp63Rh0zQ/s320/patrick_stewart_ian_mckellen.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Patrick Stewart & Ian McKellen</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DLaUQdItrmA/T53LjR6GEEI/AAAAAAAAAZE/tbzK5vKPNZo/s1600/RebeccaRomijn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DLaUQdItrmA/T53LjR6GEEI/AAAAAAAAAZE/tbzK5vKPNZo/s200/RebeccaRomijn.jpg" width="159" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rebecca Romijn</td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-coEEC88M9Kk/T53L1TCQ4rI/AAAAAAAAAZM/UsGnYOd9fJA/s1600/james_mcavoy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-coEEC88M9Kk/T53L1TCQ4rI/AAAAAAAAAZM/UsGnYOd9fJA/s200/james_mcavoy.jpg" width="165" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">James McAvoy</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BReXB3rlDXY/T53MDu5r99I/AAAAAAAAAZU/uEJZgnz2gBg/s1600/james_mcavoy2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BReXB3rlDXY/T53MDu5r99I/AAAAAAAAAZU/uEJZgnz2gBg/s200/james_mcavoy2.jpg" width="132" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">James McAvoy again</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3isgwLzy4HQ/T53MOfOpHEI/AAAAAAAAAZc/4_JikMJbwyo/s1600/james_mcavoy3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3isgwLzy4HQ/T53MOfOpHEI/AAAAAAAAAZc/4_JikMJbwyo/s200/james_mcavoy3.jpg" width="173" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oh, what the hell. One more. :)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Hmm. Maybe I’ll watch <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">First
Class</i> after all. </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>Iliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2895111579912280538.post-36707047171876326592012-04-26T23:13:00.000-05:002012-04-26T23:13:04.959-05:00W: White Collar<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">HBO
has been getting all sorts of accolades for its shows over the last few years.
But for me, the network that truly hits the spot is USA. <a href="http://www.usanetwork.com/series/burnnotice/" target="_blank">Burn Notice</a>, <a href="http://www.usanetwork.com/series/royalpains/" target="_blank">RoyalPains</a>, <a href="http://storygush.blogspot.com/2012/04/s-stranger-space-between-us-suits.html" target="_blank">Suits</a>… fun stories, awesome actors, great scripts, and a minimum of
bloodshed. By far my favorite is <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p><span style="color: #073763;"> </span></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">White Collar<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #073763;">Genre:
television</span> <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TlOu6zxJ9f4/T5oa0RmhckI/AAAAAAAAAYQ/MZvKQEt5oGk/s1600/MattBomer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="168" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TlOu6zxJ9f4/T5oa0RmhckI/AAAAAAAAAYQ/MZvKQEt5oGk/s200/MattBomer.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Matt Bomer...~sigh~</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Neal
Caffrey is a charming criminal with exquisite taste in clothes and contraband (art
theft, bond forgery, jewelry heists, etc) who finally got caught by his FBI
nemesis, Peter Burke, head of the FBI <a href="http://www.usanetwork.com/series/whitecollar/index.html" target="_blank">White Collar</a> Crime Unit. But three months
before his sentence is up, Neal breaks out of maximum security prison hoping to
catch his girlfriend before she disappears. It earns him another four years. In
exchange for not going back to his prison cell, he wears an ankle monitor and teams
up with Peter to track down other (usually) white collar criminals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5yQ2EEPLaoc/T5oa6CMFe3I/AAAAAAAAAYY/IztXPAZQQzA/s1600/Dekay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="149" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5yQ2EEPLaoc/T5oa6CMFe3I/AAAAAAAAAYY/IztXPAZQQzA/s200/Dekay.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim DeKay</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Neal
(Matt Bomer) and Peter (Tim DeKay) have amazing onscreen chemistry. They’re
like brothers, coworkers, rivals and friends all rolled into one relationship. The
conflict between the honest law man and the wily criminal who truly know each
other (and often trust each other against their better instincts <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i> their associates’ advice) is just delicious.
While I feel like this is one of many places where they could have had a show
starring women that would have been brilliant, I have to say I really love
these two guys in these roles. Television doesn’t get much better than this.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>Iliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2895111579912280538.post-89821055382671210612012-04-25T20:23:00.000-05:002012-04-25T20:23:22.882-05:00V: Valentine's Day on This American Life<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;"><em>Valentine’s Day</em></span> <span style="font-size: large;">on <em>This American Life</em></span></strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><strong><em>Genre: radio</em></strong></span><br />
</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZzuNHPhFQpc/T5ifcYsDPlI/AAAAAAAAAX8/gga6tY57mlo/s1600/TALlogo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZzuNHPhFQpc/T5ifcYsDPlI/AAAAAAAAAX8/gga6tY57mlo/s200/TALlogo.png" width="96" /></a></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Another <em><a href="http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/349/valentines-day-2008" target="_blank">This American Life</a></em> episode for V. Rather than
cover the idea of <em>falling</em> in love and the overwhelming emotion of it (which is
normally the story we get in books or movies or when a couple’s telling us how
they got together), this episode is about stories that happened to couples “decades
after the moment their eyes first meet.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In Act Two, Veronica Chater interviews her parents. They’d
been married for 45 years, and in that time had never gone on vacation, and never
been apart for more than two days. As her dad put it, “I detest shopping. I
detest eating out. I detest motels. I detest beaches. I detest anything having
to do with what most people go on vacations for. For me it’s the opposite of
having fun. It’s a purgatory.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">So when Veronica’s mom decided to go off to a Mexican
resort with a friend, Dad (a former cop and corporate security consultant)
prepares for the vacation as if she’s going to a war zone. He’s completely
convinced that “two naïve women” are just asking for trouble going to Puerto Vallarta by
themselves (as they talk, it’s hard to tell whether his wife is more amused or
insulted, but you can tell she’s been dealing with this quite calmly for years).
He gradually works himself into a frenzy as the day gets closer and closer, even
getting to the point where he invites himself along. He writes to the Mexican
authorities to inform them he plans to come into their country armed, and wants
to know what’s legal. When his friends tell him that was a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i> bad idea, he decides to stay home after all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Mom prepares for her vacation by shopping, packing, writing
out her itinerary, and preparing meals for Dad to eat while she’s gone, as he
doesn’t cook. She’s more worried about how he’ll cope without her, which he
thinks is ridiculous as <em>she’s</em> the one going off to another country. As she hands him the list of chores to do while she's gone, he's instructing her on how to jam her hotel room door shut with a chair.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IK1sIajdMVU/T5ih4bcl1BI/AAAAAAAAAYE/3ZGFZB56K3k/s1600/valentine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IK1sIajdMVU/T5ih4bcl1BI/AAAAAAAAAYE/3ZGFZB56K3k/s200/valentine.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I’m sure you can see where this is going. </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">
</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I’m the one in my marriage who’s super-vigilant about being safe, and it was
fascinating and a bit uncomfortable hearing my viewpoint taken to such an
extreme.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Act Three is about monogamy, narrated by a 39-year-old man
who starts out by talking about the couple across the street, who have sex in
their living room and can be heard from outside (and he’s not the only man in
the neighborhood who knows and arranges to be outside at around that time).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s funny and thought-provoking. Somewhere in the middle
he says:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">That's why monogamy has such a bad reputation. It's boring. Monogamy is the
habit of not acting on what you want. I even hate the word itself. It sounds so
staid, so bourgeois. Monogamy, like a board game, the approximation of
excitement.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Sometimes, of course, I hear about open marriages. Jung had one, Sartre had
won, Henry Miller, Dickens, Freud. I hear about open marriages, and they seem
like some fabulous, exotic city that I've always wanted to visit but never seem
to get to. Istanbul, open marriages are like Istanbul. Some ancient, mysterious
place where there are minarets and strange music, where one entire civilization
suddenly ends and a whole new stranger one begins, a whole new religion even,
the mysterious east. I've always wanted to go to Istanbul</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN;">.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Despite the quote, he ends up at a
rather interesting conclusion, a different way of looking at monogamy than he
did at the beginning. And it wasn’t the way most people look at it (whether
they’re for it or not). Which is why I love <em>This American Life</em>. They always
find new perspectives on familiar subjects. Of course, reading a transcript is not the same as listening to the story they've built using peoples' voices and music and whatever else. I highly recommend streaming <em>This American Life</em> online if you don't live in an area that has it on the radio.</span></div>
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<br /></div>Iliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2895111579912280538.post-24954723144773787592012-04-24T12:31:00.000-05:002012-04-24T12:31:08.479-05:00U: Unveiled<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">As they’re all one series, I’m recommending ALL of <a href="http://www.courtneymilan.com/" target="_blank">Courtney Milan’s</a> books starting with U (three novels and a handful of novellas). One of many things I love about her books is the heroes. Nary a brooding duke nor randy rake in the lot. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Courtney Milan is not only an expert in Georgian/Regency/Victorian-era English law and law court decisions (and is (or was once) a lawyer in her day job), but she writes the most intriguing characters working through gut-twisting situations. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CUb8t-FKTL8/T5bcYCu0v9I/AAAAAAAAAX0/9clx1hH3jK4/s1600/Unlocked.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CUb8t-FKTL8/T5bcYCu0v9I/AAAAAAAAAX0/9clx1hH3jK4/s200/Unlocked.jpg" width="133" /></a><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">This series follows three brothers (mostly). Their deranged mother abused them relentlessly. They couldn't go to anyone for help because their mother was the respected widow of the local lord, and very charitable, besides. She let their sister die because it was "God's will". She named them each for Bible verses. Not Biblical characters. VERSES. Of course they all go by shortened versions - Ash, Smite, and Mark.<br />
<br />
When Ash takes off for India to make his fortune, their mother tries to kill Smite by starving him in the flooded cellar. Mark rescues him, and they run away, surviving on the streets of Bristol before their brother comes back and finds them. Ash returns a rich man, determined to give his younger brothers everything he wanted and didn't have - an education at Eton, big houses, power. But Smite and Mark have now formed a bond that seems to exclude Ash, no matter what he tries. This is all backstory, but Milan does some awe-inspiring story-spinning with the psychological damage they've suffered.<br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BdN7xgc-QKY/T5bael5rYPI/AAAAAAAAAXM/YLvn-0CBSvQ/s1600/Unveiled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BdN7xgc-QKY/T5bael5rYPI/AAAAAAAAAXM/YLvn-0CBSvQ/s200/Unveiled.jpg" width="126" /></a></div><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> Ash's story is <em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8663392-unveiled" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Unveiled</span></a></span></em>. As relentlessly ruthless as he is cheerful, he's set himself a mission to destroy the wealthy distant relation who refused to help them when they were in need. His love interest? The daughter of that family, who is equally determined to save her family from social and financial destruction.<br />
<br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BMpMc2L2DOw/T5bblQC49cI/AAAAAAAAAXk/U6XoPhRb098/s1600/Unclaimed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BMpMc2L2DOw/T5bblQC49cI/AAAAAAAAAXk/U6XoPhRb098/s200/Unclaimed.jpg" width="126" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Mark's story is <em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10301090-unclaimed" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Unclaimed</span></a></span></em>. Mark is a sincere, funny, likeable guy who writes a hugely popular book on chastity. His love interest? A courtesan who's been hired by a political rival to take him down.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ahb0YF7zazE/T5bbvcBS7xI/AAAAAAAAAXs/9eMlqUjDU7k/s1600/Unraveled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ahb0YF7zazE/T5bbvcBS7xI/AAAAAAAAAXs/9eMlqUjDU7k/s200/Unraveled.jpg" width="133" /></a><br />
Smite's story is <em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11100750-unraveled" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Unraveled</span></a></span></em>. He is a dedicated magistrate. His love interest is a runner for the local crime boss.<o:p></o:p></div></div></span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">There’s nothing contrived about the conflict between the two main characters in each book. Just look at that list! It makes me want to read them all again...</span></div>Iliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2895111579912280538.post-28348032496459725712012-04-23T23:22:00.000-05:002012-04-23T23:22:39.532-05:00T: Timeline & Testosterone<strong><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Timeline</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> by Michael Crichton<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Genre: historical, SF, suspense/thriller</span></span></span></strong><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DeEY9_jN0ak/T5Yk45RK2PI/AAAAAAAAAWc/YOx5JsimTkA/s1600/Timeline.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DeEY9_jN0ak/T5Yk45RK2PI/AAAAAAAAAWc/YOx5JsimTkA/s200/Timeline.jpg" width="108" /></a></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;">Gen</span><span style="color: #073763;">eral premise</span></strong> A group of archeology students goes back in time to rescue their professor from 14<sup>th</sup> century France, and find out that medieval times were even more brutal and ruthless than they’d thought.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It’s a typical Michael Crichton book – brilliant scientists with little common sense, backed by corporations with dollar signs in their eyes, and a bunch of well-meaning, highly-educated people stuck in the middle. Crichton is pretty much the only author I admire who did zero character development. At least, that’s what I remember of his books – thrilling stories, cardboard characters. <o:p></o:p></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4ibZAbCOBJ8/T5YlqZifs0I/AAAAAAAAAW0/OSzPX6szUJ0/s1600/Gerard3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4ibZAbCOBJ8/T5YlqZifs0I/AAAAAAAAAW0/OSzPX6szUJ0/s200/Gerard3.jpg" width="136" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gerard, looking hot <br />
and mysterious.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I saw the movie first. It was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">terrible</i>. It shouldn’t have been – I still don’t get how they messed this up. BUT. The premise was so intriguing that I thought, “I’ll bet <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7669.Timeline" target="_blank">the book</a> is just incredible.” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And</i> it was my introduction to Gerard Butler, looking ridiculously hot in 14<sup>th</sup> century period costume. </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">There’s a jousting tournament in the book, so I’ll put in a quick plug here for the History Channel reality TV show <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.history.com/shows/full-metal-jousting" target="_blank">Full Metal Jousting</a></i>. It’s exactly what it sounds like – a bunch of guys competing in a modern-day jousting tournament for $100k. When I first heard of it, I thought, “You can’t be serious!”<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And then I immediately set the DVR to record it. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I loved it. The guys came from all sorts of active backgrounds – one firefighter, one polo player, a couple of marines, a couple of rodeo cowboys, and then a handful of horse trainers, show jumpers, and a whole bunch of Medieval Times knights. That last bunch, oddly enough, were apparently at a disadvantage, because even though they were the only ones to have handled a lance before, theatrical jousting is not about eliminating your opponent. It’s about looking great in a saddle and falling dramatically out of it without getting hurt. They had to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">un</i>learn how they sat, how they held the lance, what to do when they got hit.<o:p></o:p></span></div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sJxFZdQOxyM/T5Yl-0PFqwI/AAAAAAAAAW8/AFnILcBPI6E/s1600/FMJ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="166" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sJxFZdQOxyM/T5Yl-0PFqwI/AAAAAAAAAW8/AFnILcBPI6E/s320/FMJ.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The horses were awesome. So gorgeous. So much personality. They ranged from those that were dependable but kind of staid, to those that took off like bullets, but constantly fought their riders for control. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And I loved the modern take on medieval armor.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Speaking of “manly men”…<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Testosterone</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This American Life</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></strong></div><strong><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Genre: radio<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></strong><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FhC84l89oKI/T5YmpuNjj_I/AAAAAAAAAXE/0I6gwx08GRQ/s1600/TALlogo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FhC84l89oKI/T5YmpuNjj_I/AAAAAAAAAXE/0I6gwx08GRQ/s200/TALlogo.png" width="96" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.thisamericanlife.org/about" target="_blank">This American Life</a></span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> is hosted by Ira Glass, one of the best story creators of our time. I don’t know of anyone else doing quite what he does. His radio show puts stories together around a theme for each episode. I’ve heard Ira Glass speak live twice, I’ve listened to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This American Life</i> for years, but it wasn’t until I tried to analyze how they put together such enthralling stories around usually-normal situations that I truly began to appreciate his genius, and the subtlety of it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I could spend all day recommending specific TAL episodes, but for “T” I’ll stick with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/220/testosterone" target="_blank">Testosterone</a></i>. The First Act was an interview with a man whose body stopped producing testosterone for four months before the doctors figured out what was wrong with him. He talks about how lack of testosterone meant lack of desire for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anything</i>. And how unexpectedly pleasant it was, because if you don’t want anything, then you don’t psychologically want <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">for</i> anything.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> Act Two was about Griffin Hansbury, who started out as a woman, but got testosterone injections and now lives as a man. This one’s particularly interesting, because you can hear the interviewer’s horrified fascination as Hansbury “confirms” pretty much every stereotype you’ve ever heard about men vs women, and, as the interviewer puts it, sets gender relations back about a hundred years. I put “confirms” in quotes because the testosterone injections meant that for a while, Hansbury (who is 5'4" and smallish) was walking around with the testosterone levels of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">two</i> linebackers, and so I’m assuming the effect was somewhat exaggerated. Hansbury talks about everything from the change in his interest in science to how hard it is to concentrate around women. But he also talks about how he’s gone from being this really cool woman everyone admired to being a nerdy-looking guy who’s now caught up in this very male fight for dominance every time he steps out on the street.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Act Three follows the staff at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">TAL</i> after they decided to get their own testosterone levels tested for the show. First they ranked each other, guessing who would have the highest levels. Everyone agreed on which woman would have the highest (except that woman), but for the guys it was a toss-up, because they each had traits that tend to go with high testosterone (one of them created the show and was the boss, one of them was muscular and balding, one of them played lots of sports, etc), but none of them considered themselves to be “manly men” (like NFL football players or whatever). And as the day of the results grew closer, more and more of them agreed that this had been a terrible idea and it would forever change the way they related to each other – but they still wanted to know who “won”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Iliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2895111579912280538.post-92130912612906491092012-04-22T22:40:00.000-05:002012-04-22T22:40:45.801-05:00S: The Stranger, The Space Between Us, & Suits<o:p><span style="font-size: large;"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The Stranger</span></i></strong><strong><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> by Albert Camus</span></strong></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></o:p><br />
<strong><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Genre: literary</span></strong><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fY4_5iuct8s/T5TB2pk8g-I/AAAAAAAAAWE/Jh_oBvy2yT8/s1600/Stranger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fY4_5iuct8s/T5TB2pk8g-I/AAAAAAAAAWE/Jh_oBvy2yT8/s200/Stranger.jpg" width="128" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It was written in French. I’m recommending Matthew Ward’s translation, done in 1988 or so (as opposed to what I believe was the more common translation, done by an Englishman in the late 1940s). I think the publisher’s description best sums it up: An ordinary man unwittingly gets drawn into a senseless murder on a sundrenched Algerian beach.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span><br />
<strong><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">How it starts:</span></strong><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> "Maman died today. Or yesterday, maybe. I don’t know." <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It’s relatively rare that I come to a classic as an adult, without it already having been ruined for me because I had to write a paper on it for a teacher who saw all sorts of things in it that I didn’t. But I found this book to be more interesting than many classics. At least, until it was “reinterpreted” for me at my book club meeting as representing Albert Camus’ relationship with the philosophy of existentialism (though I’ve since found out that Camus strongly refuted this idea). But I recommend it anyway, as a fascinating story in its own right. This is not a particularly likable protagonist, so if that’s important to you, you should probably skip it. But the way events spiral is, to me, a mark of good storytelling. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><em><b><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The Space Between Us</span></b></em><strong><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> by Thrity Umrigar</span></strong></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<strong><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Genre: general fiction</span></strong><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iYVVNrOn33Y/T5TCiNVRenI/AAAAAAAAAWM/1kSkhFAsFQU/s1600/SpaceBetweenUs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iYVVNrOn33Y/T5TCiNVRenI/AAAAAAAAAWM/1kSkhFAsFQU/s200/SpaceBetweenUs.jpg" width="133" /></a></div><u1:p></u1:p> <br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218357.The_Space_Between_Us" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">The Space Between Us</span></a></span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> centers around Sera, an upper middle class housewife of an abusive husband, and Bhima, a poor woman who has worked in Sera’s household for over twenty years. A life-changing event connects the two of them, and they're forced to make choices they never imagined. The story is set in Bombay, India (Or Mumbai, if you’re below a certain age).<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">For most of the world outside Europe and the USA, having household staff seems to be the norm, and the relationships between people who know each other as well as family but are most definitely <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> family is complicated and sometimes painful. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<strong><i><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">Suits</span></span></i><u1:p></u1:p></strong><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<strong><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Genre: Television</span></strong><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This is a fairly new show – <a href="http://www.usanetwork.com/series/suits/" target="_blank">the second season</a> will be on television in June. <strong><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Basic premise:</span></strong> Mike Ross has a photographic memory, and since being kicked out of law school, mostly makes a living by illegally taking the LSAT for people. While doing an (also-illegal) favor for a friend, he stumbles into a job interview for a prestigious law firm, and impresses the attorney so much that he’s offered the job, even though they both know the firm only takes Harvard grads.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So far the show is doing a lot less with Mike’s photographic memory (which was what attracted me to it to begin with) and a lot more with the web of lies he and his boss have spun. Still, I’m looking forward to the second season. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hqnx1ICxA00/T5TJsKVkomI/AAAAAAAAAWU/lHONglxbt14/s1600/Suits2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hqnx1ICxA00/T5TJsKVkomI/AAAAAAAAAWU/lHONglxbt14/s320/Suits2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Awesome tag line: "Two lawyers. One degree." <em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">And</span></em> Gina Torres (Zoe from <em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><a href="http://storygush.blogspot.com/2012/04/f-false-prince-firefly-and-freakonomics.html" target="_blank">Firefly</a></span></em>) plays a founding partner of the law firm. </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><u1:p></u1:p><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</div>Iliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2895111579912280538.post-59303800728075770692012-04-20T00:05:00.000-05:002012-04-20T00:05:42.612-05:00R: Ready Player One<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I don’t remember the <em>actual</em> 1980s, but where I grew up must have been a little behind the times, because I totally got the nostalgia factor of this book. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><strong><span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"><em>Ready Player One</em> by Ernest Cline</span></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;">Genre: SF</span></strong> </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RPZi3OjBPLo/T5DajWAt8zI/AAAAAAAAAV8/WC7Baa5J_uo/s1600/ReadyPlayerOne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RPZi3OjBPLo/T5DajWAt8zI/AAAAAAAAAV8/WC7Baa5J_uo/s200/ReadyPlayerOne.jpg" width="131" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9969571-ready-player-one" target="_blank"><em>Ready Player One</em></a>, it's 2044, and the road to riches is paved with '80s trivia - books, movies, music, and of course, arcade games. It's also peppered with modern geekery like Firefly and World of Warcraft, and namechecks classic and modern authors like Heinlein and Scalzi. Even if you've never heard of Duran Duran, or have no idea what a Commodore 64 is, you'll still be fascinated by how much pop culture Cline can cram into a fast-paced plot. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;">General premise</span></strong> An eccentric billionaire named Halliday creates a virtual reality universe and hides an Easter egg (one of many video-game terms explained in the book) on one of thousands of virtual planets. In a video clip that enthralls the world, he leaves his $240 billion fortune to the first person who solves all the clues, survives all the quests, claims all three keys, and finds the prize. The announcement video is a collage of clips from John Hughes movies and '80s music videos, a clue in itself. <br />
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Wade Watts, an orphan living in the crime-ridden, global-warmed, poverty-stricken post-apocalyptic future, is the first gunter (short for egg-hunter) to win the Copper Key, level one of the three-level quest. Overnight, he becomes a celebrity. <br />
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His achievement draws the attention of IOI, villains in the form of corporate gamers. Honest gunters have to know the trivia and solve the clues themselves, while braving dangers typical of FPS games. The cheating IOI employees, also known as Sux0rz, use proprietary software that allows them to work in groups as well as share knowledge, weapons and armor. This way (and unlike for everyone else), their avatars never really die. <br />
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IOI tries to recruit Wade, bringing his avatar to their blinged-out planet (even virtual riches cost real money) to impress him with offers of untold wealth. When Wade refuses, they come after him in the real world, intent on eliminating him so he doesn't win the money first. Wade is suddenly on the run in real life, complicating his ability to logon and continue his quest. <br />
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Much like with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://storygush.blogspot.com/2012/04/an-abundance-of-katherines.html" target="_blank">An Abundance of Katherines</a></i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://storygush.blogspot.com/2011/11/and-prize-for-best-magic-system-goes-to.html" target="_blank">The Black Prism</a></i>, for months after reading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ready Player One</i> I recommended it to anyone who spoke to me for more than three minutes. It has everything - evil villains who will stop at nothing, unrequited love, people who aren't what they seem to be online, and a bright but lonely boy who must find his prize before his enemies find him.<o:p></o:p></span>Iliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2895111579912280538.post-70702646449733020662012-04-19T11:33:00.000-05:002012-04-19T11:33:05.623-05:00Q: All the Queen's Men<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: large;"><em>All The Queen’s Men</em> by Linda Howard<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></span><br />
<strong><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Genre: romantic suspense</span></span></span></strong><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0TGhdTqVnLA/T5A7kKNFPcI/AAAAAAAAAV0/GgYeISt1l8E/s1600/AlltheQueensMen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0TGhdTqVnLA/T5A7kKNFPcI/AAAAAAAAAV0/GgYeISt1l8E/s200/AlltheQueensMen.jpg" width="123" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Linda Howard is an immensely popular writer - as you can tell from the size of her name vs the name of the book. Like many famous genre women (Janet Evanovich, Nora Roberts/JD Robb, etc), she started out in Romance (the only genre where, traditionally, being female wasn’t an obstacle to getting published), and eventually shifted into her own niche. She was a charter member of <a href="http://www.rwa.org/" target="_blank">Romance Writers of America</a>. Her first book was published in 1980, and she’s been pretty prolific – she has over fifty books in print, and a ton of short stories. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Linda Howard will always be one of my favorite authors, though for me, her last few books (entertaining as they were) don’t have quite the same unique freshness of most of the books she wrote in the late ‘90s through about 2007 or so. She seems to be moving into paranormals, though, so maybe she just got bored. She’s still an incredibly skilled storyteller, and I’ll still buy any suspense she writes, just in case that special spark comes back.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Anyway!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;">General premise</span></strong> The last time Niema Burdock met John Medina, she and her husband were part of John’s team on a CIA Black Ops mission to Iran. It went terribly wrong, Niema’s husband was killed, and afterwards Niema transferred to a stateside desk job.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Even though John is sure Niema blames him for her husband’s death, he can’t help keeping tabs on her. When he’s assigned to stop a French arms dealer who is supplying terrorists, he insists Niema is the only communications expert with the background and skills to help him infiltrate the dealer’s circle and plant surveillance bugs…<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/420738.All_the_Queen_s_Men" target="_blank">All The Queen’s Men</a></span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> is my favorite of Howard’s books. I liked the hero, the heroine, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i> the villain. But I would also recommend <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/255679.Up_Close_and_Dangerous" target="_blank">Up Close and Dangerous</a> </i>(a sabotaged private plane crashes on a snow-covered mountainside in the middle of nowhere), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/255681.Cover_of_Night" target="_blank">Cover of Night</a></i> (the bad guys decide to hold up an entire “frontier” town), and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104678.White_Lies" target="_blank">White Lies</a></i> (this is kind of an older one, so the hero is a bit, um, harsh, but the concept, far-fetched as it was, was well-executed).<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
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</div>Iliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2895111579912280538.post-80592869225829439932012-04-18T16:59:00.000-05:002012-04-18T16:59:20.837-05:00P: The Pillars of the Earth & Prison Break<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><strong><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: large;"><em>The Pillars of the Earth</em> by Ken Follett<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></span><br />
<strong><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Genre: historical</span></span></span></strong><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hCs6WbUcGUY/T481WMD_7zI/AAAAAAAAAVc/MYjjm_0CkRs/s1600/PillarsoftheEarth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hCs6WbUcGUY/T481WMD_7zI/AAAAAAAAAVc/MYjjm_0CkRs/s200/PillarsoftheEarth.jpg" width="128" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Calling this an unusual book is a bit of an understatement. Ken Follett was already immensely popular for his political thrillers. And then he changed tracks, bringing everything about his previous books (fast-paced suspense, a deep understanding of human nature, unflinching violence, intricate political and family intrigue) to a book about building a 12<sup>th</sup> century cathedral. It's been on bestseller lists ever since. Who would have thought?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I’ll quote the <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5043.The_Pillars_of_the_Earth" target="_blank">Goodreads</a> description: </span></div><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">This book tells the tale of a twelfth-century monk driven to do the seemingly impossible: build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has ever known. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">Everything readers expect from Follett is here: intrigue, fast-paced action, and passionate romance. But what makes <em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The Pillars of the Earth</span></em> extraordinary is the time—the twelfth century; the place—feudal England; and the subject—the building of a glorious cathedral. Follett has re-created the crude, flamboyant England of the Middle Ages in every detail. The vast forests, the walled towns, the castles, and the monasteries become a familiar landscape. Against this richly imagined and intricately interwoven backdrop, filled with the ravages of war and the rhythms of daily life, the master storyteller draws the reader irresistibly into the intertwined lives of his characters—into their dreams, their labors, and their loves: Tom, the master builder; Aliena, the ravishingly beautiful noblewoman; Philip, the prior of Kingsbridge; Jack, the artist in stone; and Ellen, the woman of the forest who casts a terrifying curse. From humble stonemason to imperious monarch, each character is brought vividly to life. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">The building of the cathedral, with the almost eerie artistry of the unschooled stonemasons, is the center of the drama. Around the site of the construction, Follett weaves a story of betrayal, revenge, and love, which begins with the public hanging of an innocent man and ends with the humiliation of a king. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">At once a sensuous and endearing love story and an epic that shines with the fierce spirit of a passionate age, <em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The Pillars of the Earth</span></em> is without a doubt Ken Follett's masterpiece.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><strong><span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"><em>Prison Break</em></span></strong></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;">Genre: television<o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CQbsgmHEhfE/T482WlDPHlI/AAAAAAAAAVk/pyEi8Ms6bY8/s1600/PrisonBreak.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CQbsgmHEhfE/T482WlDPHlI/AAAAAAAAAVk/pyEi8Ms6bY8/s200/PrisonBreak.jpg" width="135" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Lincoln Burroughs, already a felon with a lengthy record, is accused of murdering the vice president’s brother and incarcerated at Fox River Penitentiary. The evidence is clear (fingerprints on the gun, surveillance video, bloody clothes), and his execution is fast-tracked through the system. His younger brother, Michael Scofield (a brilliant, successful, and squeaky-clean structural engineer), believes Burroughs is innocent and is being framed for the murder of someone many high-powered people wanted to kill. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">So Scofield comes up with an elaborate plan to break his brother out of prison, has the plans (and the blueprint for the state penitentiary) worked into a tattoo that covers his entire upper body – and then holds up a bank and discharges a weapon, to ensure that he ends up in the same place as his brother.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6PIld8ygPHY/T482fVVB-eI/AAAAAAAAAVs/hOQTZ1ndYtg/s1600/scofield.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6PIld8ygPHY/T482fVVB-eI/AAAAAAAAAVs/hOQTZ1ndYtg/s200/scofield.jpg" width="130" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Because one can't have too <br />
many pictures of<br />
Wentworth Miller. :)</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This show has some of the best antagonists/villains I’ve ever seen. I love John Abruzzi the crime boss (played by Peter Stormare), and Robert Knepper does an amazing job as Theodore “T-Bag” Bagwell. I love how Scofield’s ridiculously well-laid plans keep taking left turns as he meets up with real-world complications, and as the number of people breaking out of prison with him gets larger and larger.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This show has many things I eat up in fiction – ensemble cast, politics, intrigue, humor, wit, and super-smart people on opposite sides of the same issue. It won a stack of awards while it was on air. The second and third seasons were filmed in Texas. Lots of celebrity sightings around here. </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>Iliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2895111579912280538.post-51950805270427756492012-04-17T00:27:00.003-05:002012-04-17T00:28:48.308-05:00O: One Dance with a Duke<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Time for a romance novel! <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="color: #073763;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;"><em>One Dance With A Duke</em> by Tessa Dare<o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></span></div><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #073763;"><strong>Genre: Regency romance</strong></span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G_Gzfq_czII/T4z78RJ-cRI/AAAAAAAAAVU/NPpcn_n9HA0/s1600/OneDance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G_Gzfq_czII/T4z78RJ-cRI/AAAAAAAAAVU/NPpcn_n9HA0/s200/OneDance.jpg" width="140" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;">General premise</span></strong> Spencer Dumarque, the handsome and mysterious Duke of Morland, is also known as “the duke of midnight”. He shows up at balls right at that hour, asks one of the young debutantes to dance (usually a gorgeous teenager awed into silence by his presence), and then escorts her in to dinner and disappears. Unlike her younger friends of marriageable age (and their mothers), Amelia d’Orsay isn’t impressed. <span style="color: #073763;"><strong>Page 4 quote:</strong></span> “What other ladies saw as intriguing and romantic, she took for self-indulgent melodrama. Really, an unmarried, wealthy, handsome duke who felt the need to command <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">more</i> female attention?” <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">This time, though, when the duke arrives at the ball and reaches out for the girl next to her, Amelia grabs his hand, seizing the opportunity to spend several uninterrupted minutes with him so she can insist he forgive her brother’s gambling debts. This leads to a heated conversation on the patio, the arrival of unexpected bad news, and a midnight ride away from the ball. The next morning, the duke finds himself accused of the murder of an acquaintance, and (much to her chagrin) Amelia finds herself engaged to the arrogant duke to avoid scandal following their midnight disappearance.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Despite my love of Regency romances, the two most common “hero-types” in the sub-genre irritate me. That’s probably a charitable way of putting it. Anyway, there’s the brooding duke (the superior, rude, rich guy hiding a dark past and a heart of gold) and the romancing rake (the witty, handsome, ne’er-do-well who sleeps with lots of willing, attractive widows/actresses and is constantly in and out of trouble and gambling halls, but becomes monogamous and angelic once he meets his virginal true love).<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Generally when I love a Regency romance, it’s because the love interest doesn’t fit either of these tired and tiresome tropes. Oddly enough, Spencer Dumarque definitely fits brooding duke-mode. But because we’re in his point of view for parts of the book, we know why he’s that way fairly early on, and it makes all the difference in the world for me. Not to get all spoilery, but when he finds out from Amelia that society views his midnight dance as the height of social excitement and mystique, his response is pure astonishment. But you’ll have to read the book to find out why he does the midnight dance. </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6809488-one-dance-with-a-duke" target="_blank">One Dance with a Duke</a> is the first book of the Stud Club series. Yes, the name is a wink and nod for us modern readers, but the stud in question is actually a legendary stud horse called Osiris. The founder of the club is a popular member of society (genuinely liked by everyone because he’s thoughtful and friendly as well as rich, good-looking and well-connected) who created ten brass tokens giving access to this horse. The tokens can only be won, not bought, creating all sorts of excitement as men gamble for these tokens. The series is built around solving the mystery of who murdered the club founder.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">History, mystery, romance, and horses. Works for me!<o:p></o:p></span></div>Iliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2895111579912280538.post-88367138307470800202012-04-16T10:28:00.001-05:002012-04-16T10:30:46.032-05:00The Night Circus<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #073763;"><b><i><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Night Circus</span></i></b><b><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> by Erin Morgenstern</span></b></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"> </span></span><b><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #073763;">Genre: literary/magical realism</span></span></b><br />
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x6bD_MJzXuk/TzA7mJmF76I/AAAAAAAAAOo/EVmp2R7eRTk/s1600/NightCircus.jpg"><span style="color: #2288bb; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: yes; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><v:shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"> </v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:formulas> <v:path gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect" o:extrusionok="f"> <o:lock aspectratio="t" v:ext="edit"> </o:lock></v:path></v:stroke></v:shapetype><v:shape alt="Description: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x6bD_MJzXuk/TzA7mJmF76I/AAAAAAAAAOo/EVmp2R7eRTk/s200/NightCircus.jpg" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x6bD_MJzXuk/TzA7mJmF76I/AAAAAAAAAOo/EVmp2R7eRTk/s1600/NightCircus.jpg" id="Picture_x0020_1" o:button="t" o:spid="_x0000_i1025" style="height: 150pt; mso-wrap-style: square; visibility: visible; width: 98.25pt;" type="#_x0000_t75"> <v:fill o:detectmouseclick="t"> <v:imagedata o:title="NightCircus" src="file:///C:\Users\diverguy\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.jpg"> </v:imagedata></v:fill></v:shape></span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Celia and Marco have trained their entire lives for an epic duel set up by their instructors, and the black-and-white <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9361589-the-night-circus" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Night Circus</span></a> is the magical battle field. Despite their growing love for each other, leaving the fight is physically impossible, and only one of them can win.<br />
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This is one of very few books I've read that hurtled towards such a terrible ("terrible" as in "depressing", not "badly-written") end that I couldn't even begin to imagine how the author would resolve it. And then she did, and it wasn't tragic or ridiculous or eye-roll-inducing. It just made perfect sense. The world-building was amazing. And the magic seems to have no discernible rules, and yet feels completely believable. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Night Circus is…enchanting. There’s a magical quality to the writing that fits the story and makes it all feel otherworldly. I hesitate to say too much, because the beauty of this book is so specific. It’s not going to appeal to everyone, but it will probably appeal strongly to the people who like it. I think it deserves the accolades, but as evidenced by Goodreads and other places where people write reviews, many people read the accolades first, assumed it would be like other books that have made waves in recent years, and then read it and thought, “Really? <em>This</em>?” </span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So I highly recommend this book, but no description is going to be quite right. It’s set in the late Victorian era for the most part, but it’s not really <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">about</i> historical or steampunk elements. It’s got magic in it, but it wouldn’t fit on a fantasy shelf. We watch Celia and Marco grow up, but it’s not a coming-of-age novel. It’s just beautiful, absorbing, and wholly its own story.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Tangent: I've heard a lot about the tortured artists who supposedly make up the bulk of the writing world, the people who suffer for their craft and whatnot. I have to say <a href="http://erinmorgenstern.com/blog/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Erin Morgenstern</span></a> is <i>my</i> idea of what a writer would be if I were making one up. She's quirky and adorable and takes cool pictures and says cool things and does cool stuff. Authors tend to be very...normal. Which is not at all surprising. It just doesn't fit with the popular narrative. Oscar Wilde and J.D. Salinger and the like were so unusual that they've come to define what people picture when they think "writer". I'd rather picture people like Morgenstern.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In a recent <a href="http://erinmorgenstern.com/2012/03/on-time-and-the-not-having-of-it/" target="_blank">blog post</a>, she wrote this passing comment:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;"><blockquote class="tr_bq">In two hotel rooms on my tour the concierge left a bottle of wine and two glasses. I still cannot decide if it would be more or less depressing to have a single glass. Which one is a harsher reminder that you’re alone?</blockquote></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Something about that comment reminded me of how I felt while reading portions of her book. It made me smile, it made me think, and it made me sad.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></div>Iliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2895111579912280538.post-45975039565200397822012-04-14T02:17:00.000-05:002012-04-14T02:17:11.500-05:00M: Mistakes Were Made (but not by me) & Mirror Of Her Dreams<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="color: #073763;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;"><em>Mistakes Were Made (but not by me)</em> by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson<o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Genre: nonfiction, psychology</span></span></strong></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Just looking at this book makes me want to read it again. The subtitle describes it better than any description I can come up with: "Why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts".<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Written by two psychologists, it delves into all sorts of reasons why people dig in and defend beliefs or opinions even when they're clearly wrong and everyone involved knows it (e.g. why law enforcement officials might continue to insist someone is guilty or innocent because they originally labeled them as such, or why politicians make excuses and tell lies even when the amount of attention being paid is so intense that it’s only a matter of time until the truth comes out). It has chapter names like "Knaves, Fools, Villains, and Hypocrites: How Do They Live with Themselves?", "Cognitive Dissonance: The Engine of Self-justification", and "Pride and Prejudice...and Other Blind Spots".<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This is a book I can safely recommend to everyone. It's easy to read, it's fascinating, and you'll never approach disagreement (or your own memory) in quite the same manner again.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #073763;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;"><em>The Mirror of Her Dreams</em> by Stephen R. Donaldson<o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></span></div><span style="color: #073763;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Genre: fantasy<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aoM_MQ-WlSo/T4khY0lNeCI/AAAAAAAAAVE/pSYPQEHdvC4/s1600/MirrorofHerDreams.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aoM_MQ-WlSo/T4khY0lNeCI/AAAAAAAAAVE/pSYPQEHdvC4/s200/MirrorofHerDreams.jpg" width="131" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Terisa Morgan lives in a fabulous New York apartment paid for by her neglectful-yet-overbearing father. When Geraden comes crashing through her wall-sized mirror looking for a champion to save his land, he insists she's the one he came to get. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This is one of my favorite books. It bucks the current (and I must say, IMO, very American) trend of super-active single-protagonist books. I know we like to read about people <i>doing</i> things and taking control of their own destiny...but there are other stories, too. Terisa spends most of the story being dragged into things she would never have done if given a choice, and it makes her story no less fascinating for me. I like books about cautious introverts. They're so rare in fiction now. Every time I hear that a recently-published book has an introvert for a protagonist, I know in a few pages that character will just turn out to be an extrovert who was having a quiet day and soon shakes it off.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://aliettedebodard.com/2011/08/31/on-the-prevalence-of-us-tropes-in-storytelling/"><span style="color: blue;">http://aliettedebodard.com/2011/08/31/on-the-prevalence-of-us-tropes-in-storytelling/</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This blog post is by Aliette de Bodard, winner of the Writers of the Future Contest, finalist for the <a href="http://www.writertopia.com/awards"><span style="color: blue;">John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer</span></a> , nominated for the Hugo and the Nebula, etc etc. She states what I feel (perhaps more strongly than I feel it), but in short, there are lots of valid stories out there. I remember feeling such relief as I read her post, because for many years now I'd feared the world had moved on without me. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I'm happy reading stories about individuals who control their own destiny, people who save the day, people who lead. But I'm also happy reading group stories, stories of people who aren't immediately equipped to deal with what life throws at them, stories where violence has lasting consequences for everyone involved, stories where someone isn't becoming a larger-than-life superhero in order to deal with problems. There's room for all of it on my bookshelf!<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Think of the movie <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139654/" target="_blank">Training Day</a>. His first day on the job as a narcotics officer, Jake (Ethan Hawke) is assigned to accompany Alonzo (Denzel Washington), and what follows is the most horrifying day of Jake’s life. Despite the awards they won (Denzel won best actor, Ethan Hawke best supporting actor), from a storytelling point of view, it’s Jake’s story we’re invested in, his thoughts, fears, and decisions that are the focus of the story, which makes him the protagonist. He spends most of the movie being dragged into things by Alonzo. I'm not sure he makes a single active decision until near the end of the movie. And yet it's one of the most thrilling, edge-of-my-seat movies I've ever seen. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I want more stories like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that</i>. Because while I’m entertained by people who always rise to the occasion, say the wittiest possible thing and do the best possible thing to resolve the current situation, I <em>identify</em> better with someone who’s overwhelmed by situations they’re not equipped to deal with, and have to muddle through solving problems, sometimes with the help of other people. As long as it’s written well, I see no reason why every single action that moves the story forward has to be the protagonist’s.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And that's it for M!<o:p></o:p></span></div>Iliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2895111579912280538.post-42808227276537293252012-04-13T16:30:00.001-05:002012-04-13T16:32:11.234-05:00L: Lord of the White Hell, The Lion of Senet, & The Lost Painting<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong><em>Lord of the White Hell</em> by Ginn Hale<o:p></o:p></strong></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: small;">Genre: fantasy</span></span></strong></span></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Kiram is a mechanist prodigy, and the first of his people admitted to the prestigious Sagrada academy. Because he's not a native, he's bullied and ostracized, and also forced to room with a popular guy everyone else is afraid to sleep near - Javier Tornesal, whose family is powerful and rich, but cursed. Kiram is instantly attracted to Javier, and Javier seems to return the sentiment. But the relationship, acceptable in Kiram's land, is forbidden in Javier's, and it could get them killed - if the White Hell doesn't kill them first.<br />
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Stellar world-building, danger, adventure, forbidden love, and the pain of not belonging. Good stuff all round.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><strong><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: large;"><em>The Lion of Senet</em> by Jennifer Fallon<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></span></div><strong><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Genre: fantasy<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></strong><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VyyQzXadhI4/T4hZ-uwqjrI/AAAAAAAAAUk/cN3yMe8Gi0k/s1600/LionofSenet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VyyQzXadhI4/T4hZ-uwqjrI/AAAAAAAAAUk/cN3yMe8Gi0k/s200/LionofSenet.jpg" width="121" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">My favorite fantasy novel of all time: A brilliant mathematician calculated when the second sun would disappear, vital information for keeping the religious establishment in power. In the midst of war, he vanished without telling anyone when the Age of Darkness would begin. But High Priestess Belagren has found another gifted mathematician in seventeen-year-old Dirk Provin, and even though Dirk's mother is a political dissident who hates the High Priestess and everything she represents, Belagren's determined to have him.<br />
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This is probably my favorite fantasy of all time (oh, did I say that already?). It influenced my tastes so strongly that I no longer feel magic is a necessary element in fantasy, while I'm less likely to pick up a fantasy novel if it doesn't contain intrigue at high levels (politics or religion). I also love that “the fate of the world hangs in the balance” – and no one cares because they’re fighting to be in charge <em>after</em> the big catastrophe. Jennifer Fallon always takes tropes and turns them on their heads. Sometimes really upsetting people with her choices, as with the ending of her “Immortal Prince” series. But that’s a different discussion.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Dirk Provin is my favorite character under 30 (Alan from the Demon’s Lexicon books comes a close second, but we’re never in his POV, so I can’t count him.). Dirk is definitely a scholar (studying medicine) and not a warrior. He's also witty, brilliant, in serious trouble, and ten steps ahead of everyone, projecting confidence even when he's quailing inside (which makes the rare times he <em>can't</em> project confidence that much more powerful), thinking on his feet when things go wrong.<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> If I recall correctly, <a href="http://www.jenniferfallon.com.au/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;">Jennifer Fallon's</span></a> premise for him was "How many bad things can a character do and still be sympathetic?" That surprised me, because there's obvious logic in all his decisions, and I was rooting for him the whole time. I've</span> probably read this book once a year for the last ten years.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">One more L book: <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><strong><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: large;"><em>The Lost Painting</em> by Jonathan Harr<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></span></div><strong><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Genre: literary? Suspense?</span></span></span></strong><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s about an Italian student and an art restorer tracking down a painting by my favorite Old Master artist, Caravaggio. Caravaggio, a 16th century painter, would have fit in quite well with some of our modern celebrities. When he wasn't annoying the religious establishment by painting the saints as uneducated bumpkins with dusty feet or using local, well-known prostitutes as his models for female religious icons, he was constantly breaking the law and getting into fights. Most of what we know of his life comes from criticisms written by contemporaries and a detailed police rap sheet.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">He killed someone (over a tennis match or a girl, no one’s quite sure) and fled Rome, spending the rest of his life painting on the run (and making tons of money doing so). He was taken in by the Knights of Malta, until he pissed one of them off, and they started chasing him, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Caravaggio was only 39 when he died (possibly from complications of being wounded by someone trying to kill him, though lead poisoning from his paints is also a likely culprit), but he left a lasting impact on the art world unmatched by many of the artists people can name.<o:p></o:p></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Zt6zdGFXq94/T4iW0skJzxI/AAAAAAAAAU0/zFc6zYdwk-U/s1600/TheCardsharps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="227" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Zt6zdGFXq94/T4iW0skJzxI/AAAAAAAAAU0/zFc6zYdwk-U/s320/TheCardsharps.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Cardsharps, just across town at the Kimbell Art Museum.<br />
Caravaggio made genre paintings immensely popular at a time <br />
when most paintings were religious or mythological in subject.<br />
But the Church is where the money was, so most of his later <br />
paintings were religious.</td></tr>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The book takes place in modern times and is more about the history of one of his paintings than about his own story. But I liked the book, and I love Caravaggio.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #222222;">I've seen a handful of Caravaggios in person, and there's a luminous, storytelling quality to them that doesn't come across on the internet. This one is of an innocent boy being cheated by cardsharps. A large number of 16th and 17th century artists from all over Europe made their own versions of this painting.</span></span></div><br />
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</div>Iliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2895111579912280538.post-90024409581304547892012-04-12T01:01:00.000-05:002012-04-12T01:01:18.421-05:00K: Katniss, Katsa and Kira<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">My original choices for K were a book I haven’t actually read yet, though I’m looking forward to it (<em><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7923006-the-kingdom-of-gods" target="_blank">The Kingdom of the Gods</a></em> by N.K. Jemisin), a book I loved last time I read it - as a freshman in high school (<em><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/78983.Kane_and_Abel" target="_blank">Kane and Abel</a></em> by Jeffrey Archer), and a movie I genuinely recall liking, though I no longer remember why (<a href="http://www.kingsspeech.com/" target="_blank">The King's Speech</a> - Colin Firth might have had something to with how much I liked it). So, cool as these probably are, I decided to go with characters again.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;"><em>The Hunger Games</em> by Suzanne Collins<o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Genre: YA dystopian</span></span></strong></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I’m sure Katniss needs no introduction. Other than her bone-deep devotion to her younger sister, I’m not sure I have all that much in common with her, but I loved reading about her very, very much. Considering I assumed I wouldn't like these books and only read them after catching an excerpt by mistake, it's ridiculous how many times I've reread them since then. Love me some Katniss!<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><strong><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: large;"><em>Graceling</em> by Kristin Cashore<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></span></div><strong><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Genre: YA fantasy<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></strong><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Katsa probably needs no introduction, either, but just in case:<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;">General premise</span></strong> Katsa is the king’s niece. Because she’s graced (has a rare magical ability that comes with having different-colored eyes) with extreme fighting skills that make her unbeatable, her uncle has used her since childhood to torture and punish people who have displeased him. While trying to atone for her brutal actions by secretly helping people, she meets Po, who is graced with combat skills that actually make him a challenging sparring partner for her. As their friendship develops and she realizes someone with similar skills is living a dramatically different life from hers, she begins to question whether she actually has as little control over her destiny as she’s always assumed.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><strong><span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"><em>Open Minds</em> by Susan Kaye Quinn</span></strong></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #073763;"><strong>General premise</strong></span> Kira Moore is a zero. The ability to mind-read develops in early adolescence, but Kira’s never did. Since people (classmates, teachers, bus drivers, everyone she encounters) have to speak out loud to her because they can’t read her thoughts, they view her with suspicion and revulsion. But when she accidentally controls the mind of the boy she loves and nearly kills him, she draws the attention of people who want to use her <em>and</em> those who want to imprison her. That’s when she realizes her problems are even bigger than she thought. I <em>love</em> the tag line for this book:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“When everyone reads minds, a secret is a dangerous thing to keep.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">So in short, in dramatically different worlds, each teenage girl here fights against overwhelming governmental authority (and terrible odds) to change her destiny. These three characters make me very, very happy.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
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</div>Iliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2895111579912280538.post-43658322218517005862012-04-11T00:13:00.000-05:002012-04-11T00:13:14.398-05:00J: John Grey<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="color: #073763;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;"><em>Lord John Grey series</em> by Diana Gabaldon<o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Genre: historical mystery<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This is more about a character than an individual book, since I’m recommending every book he’s in. Lord John Grey is my favorite character over the age of 30. In him, Gabaldon combines every trait I eat up in fiction – brilliance, wit, caution, bravery, a certain level of reserve, and built-in conflict.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">John Grey is the younger brother of a duke who (for reasons entwined in the plot of one of the books) prefers to use his father’s lesser title, something that occasionally leads to awkward moments during introductions. John is rich, cultured, good-looking, and a commissioned officer in the English army, everything a man wants to be in mid-18th century England. Being an English soldier is a core part of his identity.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iWD-6D1d23o/T4UL1iUPqTI/AAAAAAAAATs/sl5n2aX53_Q/s1600/LordJohnPrivate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iWD-6D1d23o/T4UL1iUPqTI/AAAAAAAAATs/sl5n2aX53_Q/s200/LordJohnPrivate.jpg" width="121" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Grey is also gay, at a time when “homosexual activity” is punishable by death. <em>And</em> he’s in love with Jamie Fraser, a married (and hetero) Scotsman who was an officer on the opposite side during the Jacobite Rebellion (or Jacobite Rising). They get to know each other (no, not in the Biblical sense) when Grey is put in charge of Ardsmuir Prison, where Fraser is a prisoner for some time.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Grey is a minor character in the <em><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10964.Outlander" target="_blank">Outlander</a></em> series by Diana Gabaldon, where (to me) he takes over every scene he’s in despite sharing pages with some of the most dynamic characters I’ve had the privilege of reading about. He’s the protagonist in the <em><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10990.Lord_John_and_the_Private_Matter" target="_blank">Lord John</a></em> books, solving mysteries that bring him in contact with different branches of several militaries, different echelons of society, and in and out of Jamie Fraser’s presence.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NHJeZIdRO3Y/T4UL-HjnvoI/AAAAAAAAAT0/5RPuDD0wusI/s1600/LordJohnHand.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NHJeZIdRO3Y/T4UL-HjnvoI/AAAAAAAAAT0/5RPuDD0wusI/s200/LordJohnHand.jpg" width="131" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">We first meet Grey in the <em><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5364.Dragonfly_in_Amber" target="_blank">Outlander</a></em> series as a sixteen year old. Attached to his older brother’s regiment, he’s captured by the Scots, and would rather have the laird in charge shoot him than answer any questions. But believing the English woman with the Scots is also a prisoner and in imminent danger, he offers information in exchange for a guarantee of her safety, information that leads to the Scots finding and attacking his own regiment. That laird was Jamie Fraser, and that English woman was Fraser’s wife, Claire (who is the point-of-view character with her own <em>amazing</em> story in <em><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10987.Voyager" target="_blank">Outlander</a></em>, and one of several POV characters in the rest of the series).<o:p></o:p></span></div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JcNmE39WLBg/T4UMGP3ZKmI/AAAAAAAAAT8/GAiK5BWVzkI/s1600/Outlander.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JcNmE39WLBg/T4UMGP3ZKmI/AAAAAAAAAT8/GAiK5BWVzkI/s200/Outlander.jpg" width="136" /></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I actually prefer the <em><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10988.Drums_of_Autumn" target="_blank">Outlander</a></em> books (I’m not as much of a mystery genre reader, and the <em><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10967.The_Fiery_Cross" target="_blank">Outlander</a></em> books are more historical fiction with a dash of fantasy and lots of medical emergencies, covering pretty much every war England was involved in at the time), but I recommend both series. More John Grey is better for everyone. </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>Iliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2895111579912280538.post-29428432772660685272012-04-10T01:47:00.000-05:002012-04-10T01:47:44.199-05:00I: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? & I Do Not Come To You By Chance<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">My “I” titles are super long!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><em><b><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?</span></b></em><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"> <strong><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">by Mindy Kaling</span></strong></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><br />
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Mindy Kaling is an actor (and a writer and producer) for the American version of the TV show <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.nbc.com/the-office/" target="_blank">The Office</a></i>. I've only watched the British version (which the American version is based on). Still, the title and cover grabbed me, and the book was sooo worth it. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Kaling talks about everything from being bullied by the popular Senagalese boy in her (Cambridge, MA) high school class to accidentally breaking her best friend's nose during a play, only to have the producer force them back on stage to perform the last ten minutes for the horrified audience. She describes a guy as being really cute, in a "hottest guy in AP-calculus kind of way." <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10335308-is-everyone-hanging-out-without-me" target="_blank">READ. THIS. BOOK.</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">For a rather awkward segue, I’ll throw out that Mindy Kaling says she was conceived in Nigeria, which happens to be the setting of the next book…</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="color: #073763;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;"><em>I Do Not Come To You By Chance</em> by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani <o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></span></div><span style="color: #073763;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Genre: general fiction<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TfrDVZZhEoY/T4PTisbU0TI/AAAAAAAAATc/1iWBencX780/s1600/IDoNotComeTo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TfrDVZZhEoY/T4PTisbU0TI/AAAAAAAAATc/1iWBencX780/s200/IDoNotComeTo.jpg" width="123" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Kingsley graduates from university in Nigeria with an engineering degree, and struggles to find a job in a terrible economy. But then his father, who had been ill for years, dies in the hospital. The family is left with hospital bills they can’t pay, and as the oldest child Kingsley is now expected to support his mother and help clothe, feed and educate his younger siblings. Kingsley also wants to get married, but his girlfriend’s parents aren’t interested in her being with someone with no income or prospects. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">So Kingsley takes up his uncouth cousin’s offer to become a 419 scammer (419 is the </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">article of the Nigerian Criminal Code </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">against financial fraud), and starts spending his days sending scam emails (with just the right number of misspellings and grammar mistakes) off to foreigners. He becomes a rich man. And then his troubles really begin…</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I was so impressed with <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6265288-i-do-not-come-to-you-by-chance" target="_blank">this book</a>. Nwaubani managed to make Kingsley sympathetic without ever sugarcoating the fact that he was a criminal. </span><span class="readable"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Kingsley, Cash Daddy (the uncouth cousin), and the other 419ers are villains to their victims, heroes to those they help, irredeemably tainted to their more honest acquaintances – and altogether very human in their struggles.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><em>And</em> the book is funny!</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>Iliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2895111579912280538.post-57595954314915552102012-04-09T00:24:00.001-05:002012-04-09T00:27:52.849-05:00H: How To Ditch Your Fairy & Hounded<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This may say more about my reading habits than about what’s actually available, but today’s books have concepts I haven’t seen some version of a million times…<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><strong><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #073763;"><em>How To Ditch Your Fairy</em> by Justine Larbalestier<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></span></div><strong><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #073763;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Genre: MG/YA fantasy<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></strong><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Charlie (short for Charlotte) goes to a sports high school, and has a personal fairy, like most people she knows. Unlike Freedom's good-skin fairy, or Rochelle's clothes-shopping fairy (the perfect outfit's always on sale), fourteen-year-old Charlie has a parking fairy. <span style="color: #073763;"><strong>Page 17 quote:</strong></span></span></div><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">I'm always being borrowed by Mom, or one of her sisters, or her best friend, or Jan, or Nana and Papa, or just about everyone in our neighborhood, whenever they're going to the doctor's, or grocery shopping, or anywhere that parking might be a problem. Every single day of my life someone asks me to get in their doxhead car. I hate cars. I hate drivers. I hate their little squeals of joy when they find a parking spot. But mostly I hate my benighted parking fairy.</blockquote></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Each chapter begins with stats: how many days since she's been in a car, the number of demerits she's racked up for being late now that she's trying to walk everywhere, the public service hours she's done to work off her demerits, how many times she's spoken to Steffan (the hot new guy with a get-away-with-anything fairy). But when Charlie teams up with Fiorenze (every-boy-will-like-you fairy) who is also on a quest to get rid of her fairy, she finds herself in far more trouble than before.</span><br />
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</div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I like this lighthearted book. It's out-of-the-box, but still within range of why-didn’t-I-think-of-that. I love that it’s set in our current world, but on a continent that doesn’t currently exist. Frankly, I’m surprised there isn’t tons of fantasy like this. After all, we have alternate histories. We have portal stories. We’ve told stories about Atlantis for at least a couple thousand years. I’d love to see more fantasy set in current times, but not having to fit itself into the way currently-existing places have actually developed.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;"><em>Hounded</em> by Kevin Hearne <o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Genre: urban fantasy<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DS4Z6irfzeA/T4Ji9to9xKI/AAAAAAAAATM/30zotQJAvfc/s1600/Hounded.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DS4Z6irfzeA/T4Ji9to9xKI/AAAAAAAAATM/30zotQJAvfc/s200/Hounded.jpg" width="121" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I usually write my own summaries because too often whatever the publisher decides to put on the back cover seems to have little to do with the actual plot. But in this case, I think the publishers came up with the best possible description of the book, so I’ll quote it:<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Atticus O’Sullivan, last of the Druids, lives peacefully in Arizona, running an occult bookshop and shape-shifting in his spare time to hunt with his Irish wolfhound. His neighbors and customers think that this handsome, tattooed Irish dude is about twenty-one years old—when in actuality, he’s twenty-one <em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">centuries</span></em> old. Not to mention: He draws his power from the earth, possesses a sharp wit, and wields an even sharper magical sword known as Fragarach, the Answerer.<br />
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Unfortunately, a very angry Celtic god wants that sword, and he’s hounded Atticus for centuries. Now the determined deity has tracked him down, and Atticus will need all his power—plus the help of a seductive goddess of death, his vampire and werewolf team of attorneys, a sexy bartender possessed by a Hindu witch, and some good old-fashioned luck of the Irish—to kick some Celtic arse and deliver himself from evil.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">”<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This is probably the first story I’ve read where the protagonist is pretty much perfect and invincible (he’s witty, he’s cute, women of all ages fall for him, he wins most fights, he adores his dog, etc) <em>and it actually makes sense</em>. Usually irresistible, all-powerful fictional men who can do no wrong make me roll my eyes. But in this case, with twenty one centuries of experience behind him, as a druid who draws his power from the earth, it would just be silly <em>not</em> to make him pretty close to unbeatable, and it makes his weak moments that much more powerful. I think the author handled that extremely well. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And</i> it’s funny. Good stuff all round.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Iliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2895111579912280538.post-72904424907875208892012-04-07T01:21:00.000-05:002012-04-07T01:21:45.559-05:00G: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, The Ghost Brigades, The Giant's House<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This is becoming a (bad) habit. I dug through all my print books, then realized just before midnight that the reason I couldn’t find my print copy of <em><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2728527-the-guernsey-literary-and-potato-peel-pie-society" target="_blank">Guernsey</a></em> was that I don’t have one. But I <em>do</em> have an archived ebook. Grrr.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><em>Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society</em> <span class="by">by<span itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"> </span>Annie Barrows</span> & Mary Ann Shaffer</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></div><strong><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #073763;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: small;">Genre: historical, general/literary</span></span></span></span></strong><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SP6kyMiSenk/T3_VGxSaFaI/AAAAAAAAASs/PGSz2xNjpRw/s1600/Guernsey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SP6kyMiSenk/T3_VGxSaFaI/AAAAAAAAASs/PGSz2xNjpRw/s200/Guernsey.jpg" width="131" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This book combines elements I wouldn’t have thought <em>could</em> be combined in one book. I certainly would never have picked it up on my own, but my “literary” book club read it, and I’m glad we did. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;">General premise</span><span style="color: #073763;">:</span></strong> In a series of witty letters, it tells the story of some Guernsey folk who formed a book club while under Nazi occupation. Guernsey is an island between England and France, and I believe was the only part of the United Kingdom actually occupied by the Germans during WWII. Much like the kids in the <em><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/search?query=narnia" target="_blank">Narnia</a></em> books (I'm assuming people are more likely to be familiar with those than with English history), the kids on the island were evacuated to live with strangers in England just before Guernsey was attacked. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The word I’ve heard used most often to describe this book is “charming”. And it is. It’s amazing that one could maintain such a lighthearted, humorous tone in a book about people trying to hold onto something approaching a normal life while starving alongside ill-supplied invading forces and watching their neighbors be carted off to concentration camps. I’m not describing it very well. Just give this amazing book a shot.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><em> </em></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><strong><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #073763;"><em>The Ghost Brigades</em> by John Scalzi<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></span></div><strong><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #073763;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Genre: SF<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></strong><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IjkUkOEL6G0/T3_WBLERdYI/AAAAAAAAAS0/HfECF8Yiovc/s1600/GhostBrigades.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IjkUkOEL6G0/T3_WBLERdYI/AAAAAAAAAS0/HfECF8Yiovc/s200/GhostBrigades.gif" width="122" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;">General premise</span></strong> Jared Dirac is a member of a unique military unit nicknamed the Ghost Brigades, cloned from the DNA of dead recruits and then <em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">seriously</span></em> genetically enhanced. Unlike the others, Jared was cloned from a living person, Charles Boutin, who has defected to the enemy with secrets the Colonial Defense Force is desperate to keep. At first Jared seems like a failed experiment as he has none of Boutin's memories, but slowly they start to filter into his brain, creating conflict between the viewpoint he inherited with his DNA and the soldier he has to be.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><em><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/239399.The_Ghost_Brigades" target="_blank">The Ghost Brigades</a></em> comes after<em> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51964.Old_Man_s_War" target="_blank">Old Man’s War</a></em> and is one of my favorite SF books. I believe it’s the only SF that’s made me cry (and no, that’s not why I love it). When people who have never really read science fiction ask for recommendations, I suggest <em><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/375802.Ender_s_Game" target="_blank">Ender’s Game</a></em> (profiled <a href="http://storygush.blogspot.com/2012/04/e-enders-game-and-enders-shadow.html" target="_blank">earlier</a>) and <em>Old Man’s War</em>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><strong><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #073763;"><em>The Giant’s House</em> by Elizabeth McCracken<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></span></div><strong><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #073763;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Genre: literary/general fiction</span></span></span></strong><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gsTxPeM-bSY/T3_XKNUBybI/AAAAAAAAAS8/Uwh8mh7NnZ0/s1600/GiantsHouse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gsTxPeM-bSY/T3_XKNUBybI/AAAAAAAAAS8/Uwh8mh7NnZ0/s200/GiantsHouse.jpg" width="132" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The <strong><span style="color: #073763;">general premise</span></strong> is daring – a twenty-five-year-old librarian named Peggy (who fits all the stereotypes of a librarian, except for her sly wit) falls in love with one of her students. James, like Peggy, is a lonely misfit. When she first meets him, he’s eleven years old, already 6’4”, and would never stop growing. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">There are plenty of stories about men falling in love with inappropriately-young women. Very rarely do we see the reverse, and the author wrote a fascinating story without going anywhere gross with it, focusing more on the growth and tragedy both characters experience over the course of a decade as giantism takes its toll on James. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
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</div>Iliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2895111579912280538.post-81903242340490704572012-04-06T00:24:00.000-05:002012-04-06T00:24:28.933-05:00F: The False Prince, Firefly and Freakonomics<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;"><em>The False Prince</em> by Jennifer A. Nielsen<o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Genre: fantasy<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CjzmPnrjA3w/T35xCoBoUPI/AAAAAAAAASU/VjVx-M9DJtY/s1600/FalsePrince.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CjzmPnrjA3w/T35xCoBoUPI/AAAAAAAAASU/VjVx-M9DJtY/s200/FalsePrince.jpg" width="131" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I actually bought this in hardback while browsing through a store last week. I don’t remember the last time I bought fiction that way (I still buy print books, but usually nonfiction for research, sometimes from <a href="http://www.bookins.com/" target="_blank">Bookins</a> (a book swap website), but I loved the concept of <em><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13552930-the-false-prince" target="_blank">The False Prince</a></em> so much I was afraid I would get home and find out it wasn’t available on kindle. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">First the <strong><span style="color: #073763;">General premise</span><span style="color: #073763;">:</span></strong> The royal family has been murdered, and soon the nobles will no longer be able to keep it a secret. To avert a civil war, a nobleman named Conner finds four orphans who look like the younger prince (who disappeared many years before, believed to have been ambushed and killed by pirates). Connor’s plan is to train all four to impersonate the prince. Whoever does it best will gain the throne and a life far beyond what a child from an orphanage can imagine. The others won’t live long enough betray the plot.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Jennifer Nielsen didn’t disappoint, y’all. She handled her plot (and her plot twists) deftly, and the book is imbued with all the fast-paced freshness one expects of young YA. YA has gotten <em>really</em> dark lately. That’s fine, but that makes books like this so much more special. I highly recommend it.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">And then there’s <o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">Firefly</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"> created by Joss Whedon</span></span></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #073763;"><strong>Genre: Television SF</strong></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Joss Whedon is, of course, the creator of <em>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</em>, <em>Angel</em>, and <em>Dollhouse</em>. He also wrote and directed the movie adaptation of <em><a href="http://marvel.com/movies?nav=1" target="_blank">The Avengers</a></em>, coming out later this year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_(TV_series)" target="_blank">Firefly</a></em> is the greatest television show <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ever</i>, so amazing that even after it was canceled, overwhelming fan support led to <em><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379786/" target="_blank">Serenity</a></em>, a movie based on the show. According to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_(film)" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a> (the only place I could find all the awards listed together), “</span><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Serenity</span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> won film of the year awards from <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Film_programme" title="The Film programme"><span style="color: blue;">Film 2005</span></a></i> and <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FilmFocus" title="FilmFocus"><span style="color: blue;">FilmFocus</span></a></i>. It also won <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IGN" title="IGN"><span style="color: blue;">IGN Film</span></a>'s Best Sci-Fi, Best Story and Best Trailer awards and was runner up for the Overall Best Movie. It also won the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebula_Award_for_Best_Script" title="Nebula Award for Best Script"><span style="color: blue;">Nebula Award for Best Script</span></a> for 2005, the 7th annual "User Tomato Awards" for best Sci-Fi movie of 2005 at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotten_Tomatoes" title="Rotten Tomatoes"><span style="color: blue;">Rotten Tomatoes</span></a>, the 2006 viewers choice <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacey_Award" title="Spacey Award"><span style="color: blue;">Spacey Award</span></a> for favorite movie, the 2006 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Dramatic_Presentation,_Long_Form" title="Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form"><span style="color: blue;">Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form</span></a> and the 2006 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus_Award" title="Prometheus Award"><span style="color: blue;">Prometheus Special Award</span></a>.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“ </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">And, IMO, <em>Serenity</em> wasn’t even as good as the TV show it was based on (or maybe I’m just mad at Joss Whedon for killing off my favorite character in the movie).<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I would say more, but thinking about the fate of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0303461/" target="_blank">Firefly</a></i>, which was canceled before its first season even ended, depresses me (for comparison, the reality TV show<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <a href="http://www.mtv.com/shows/jersey_shore/season_5/series.jhtml" target="_blank">Jersey Shore</a></i> is entering its sixth season. <em>Sixth</em>. Words fail me). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Besides, the very fact that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.browncoats.com/" target="_blank">Firefly</a></i> couldn’t be reduced to a pithy sentence or two was the beginning of its marketing problems. So I’ll just post a picture of <em><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/70110.Firefly" target="_blank">The Official Companion, Volume One</a></em> (it has the scripts, which I reread when I’m looking for something with great dialogue) and give it a tearful moment of silence…</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JSDkwBqKEt8/T35yA8sBpnI/AAAAAAAAASc/2m01NkY5ICY/s1600/Firefly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JSDkwBqKEt8/T35yA8sBpnI/AAAAAAAAASc/2m01NkY5ICY/s320/Firefly.jpg" width="245" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yes, that's Nathan Fillion, currently starring in <em>Castle</em></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">…There.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">One more F book!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #073763;"><strong><em>Freakonomics</em> by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner</strong></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #073763;"><strong>Genre: nonfiction (economics/psychology)</strong></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oOediVXWLzA/T35yxFTlRlI/AAAAAAAAASk/ol8DXNSYzls/s1600/Freakonomics.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oOediVXWLzA/T35yxFTlRlI/AAAAAAAAASk/ol8DXNSYzls/s200/Freakonomics.jpg" width="131" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Written by an economist and a journalist, it was getting lots of press when I read it a few years back. What I liked most about it was the authors’ way of looking at the same scenarios as everyone else, but seeing them from a completely different perspective. It wasn’t necessarily the conclusions they drew (which were always unconventional) but the process they went through to arrive at those conclusions that fascinated me. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Some of the questions they addressed: Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? How did the legalization of abortion affect the rate of violent crime?<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> And that's it for F!<o:p></o:p></span></div>Iliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2895111579912280538.post-77883636343733518192012-04-05T00:39:00.001-05:002012-04-05T00:40:20.791-05:00E: Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I’m a sucker for books about brilliant, analytical kids. I also love books that cover the same plot and characters from dramatically different points of view, which is what we get today.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">As it turns out, I can't find my copy of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Enders-Game-Ender-Book-1/dp/0812550706/ref=pd_sim_b_1" target="_blank">Ender's Game</a></i>. That's all right - it's probably the most famous "accessible" science fiction novel (as opposed to famous SF books written by people clearly more interested in physics and engineering than in garnering a large readership), so I don’t need to say much about it. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I do, however, have <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Enders-Shadow-Ender-Book-5/dp/0812575717/ref=tmm_mmp_title_0" target="_blank">Ender's Shadow</a></i> in front of me - in print, no less. I'm the only person I know who prefers <em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Ender's Shadow</span></em> to <em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Ender's Game</span></em>. Still, I (and many millions of readers) think they're both great books. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Now that <em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2767052-the-hunger-games" target="_blank">The Hunger Games</a></span></em> has managed to put kids killing kids on the big screen and get a PG-13 rating, maybe we'll finally see an <em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Ender's Game</span></em> movie. Though as far as I know, Orson Scott Card didn't intend <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ender's Game</i> to be MG or YA. It ended up being marketed as such because of his writing style and the age of the protagonist.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #073763;"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Ender’s Game</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> by Orson Scott Card<o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #073763;"><strong> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: small;">Genre: science fiction<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YGxgwWJMeF4/T30YJJVy4HI/AAAAAAAAASE/i8gQcDhj0LU/s1600/EndersGame.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YGxgwWJMeF4/T30YJJVy4HI/AAAAAAAAASE/i8gQcDhj0LU/s200/EndersGame.jpg" width="136" /></a></div><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Ender's Game</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> doesn't need much introduction, but I'll give it a shot: Earth has been warring with a hostile alien race for about a hundred years, and needs to decisively end the conflict before the aliens come back and wipe out the population. As part of the plan, the smartest kids on the planet are selected for Battle School (in a ship orbiting the earth - though I guess it's technically a satellite if it's permanently in orbit? Wow, this is hard to do when I can't just flip through the book). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Ender is the smartest of those kids, but he's also among the youngest and smallest, making him an easy target for bullying. And while he's up there playing battle games and figuring out how to save everyone, his older brother and sister (also very young and ridiculously smart) are back home, setting themselves up to take over the world.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Ugh. That's the last time I sum up a book I can't look through to refresh my memory.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Fortunately! I also have<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Ender's Shadow</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> by Orson Scott Card<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: small;">Genre: science fiction<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></strong></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Zj00hSOwCg0/T30YN9h3ZAI/AAAAAAAAASM/Ybijo7-a3kE/s1600/EndersShadow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Zj00hSOwCg0/T30YN9h3ZAI/AAAAAAAAASM/Ybijo7-a3kE/s200/EndersShadow.jpg" width="136" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Maybe I liked this book better because I read it right after reading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ender's Game</i>, when it was in fact written over a decade later. I felt like it filled in and fleshed out all sorts of things that were just alluded to in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ender's Game</i>. The two books cover the same time period, but...<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="color: #073763;">General premise</span></span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> Bean, an orphan surviving by his wits on the streets of Rotterdam, is discovered by a recruiter and selected to be part of Earth's plan to defend itself from enemyaliens. Bean is easily the most brilliant student at Battle School. Too brilliant to be trusted to follow the rules and toe the line the way most of the other kids are doing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">While Ender is more preoccupied with his personal and philosophical struggles, Bean wants to know why they're all there and what the adults are hiding from them. And unlike Ender, Bean knows how to look for the truth, because he's already spent most of his life fighting for survival.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I paused to get details from the book, and now I’m 124 pages into <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ender’s Shadow</i>. Must…resist…temptation…<o:p></o:p></span></div>Iliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2895111579912280538.post-14180660125555896092012-04-04T01:15:00.000-05:002012-04-04T01:15:11.367-05:00D: The Demon's Lexicon and Dragon Bones<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I think this officially marks the highest number of blog posts I’ve ever made in a week, so yaaay for the A to Z Challenge!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now on to t</span>wo of my favorite "D" books:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #073763;"><em>The Demon’s Lexicon</em> by Sarah Rees Brennan<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></span></div><strong><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #073763;"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #073763;">Genre: urban fantasy<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></strong><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-onON-RXOMEs/T3vc_4NeBWI/AAAAAAAAAR0/HOM1Lc72dX0/s1600/DemonsLexicon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-onON-RXOMEs/T3vc_4NeBWI/AAAAAAAAAR0/HOM1Lc72dX0/s200/DemonsLexicon.jpg" width="131" /></a></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><br />
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;">General premise</span></strong> Nick and his older brother Alan have spent their lives running from magicians who want the charm keeping their mother alive. When Mae and Jamie arrive on their doorstep looking for help, Nick wants to kick them out, but Alan's attempt to help leads to his being marked by a demon. Now the only way to save his life is to fight the magicians hunting them.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">And<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: large;"><em>Dragon Bones</em> by Patricia Brigg<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></span></div><strong><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #073763;">Genre: fantasy<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></strong><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GeGBwTHLlqQ/T3vdXcApV1I/AAAAAAAAAR8/gzdXQz6HYPA/s1600/DragonBones.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GeGBwTHLlqQ/T3vdXcApV1I/AAAAAAAAAR8/gzdXQz6HYPA/s200/DragonBones.jpg" width="125" /></a></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><br />
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;">General premise</span></strong> For most of his childhood, Ward pretends to be less intelligent than he is, so his father won't accuse him of treachery and kill him. When his father dies and Ward becomes ruler, he learns the family secret about the power available to him from the ghost that isn't a ghost. But Ward's also played an idiot for so long that he's now a target for nobles who think he's incapable of ruling.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
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</div><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I love both of them, but these two protagonists couldn’t be more different. Nick seems like a psychopath at first glance. I believe the <a href="http://sarahtales.livejournal.com/" target="_blank">author</a> of <em><a href="http://storygush.blogspot.com/2011/11/siblings.html" target="_blank">The Demon's Lexicon</a></em> said that her idea with Nick had been to write the hot, bad boy that is so common in fiction, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">without</i> giving him a fairy-tale heart of gold (even though everyone around him wants to think he has a hidden, softer side). Unlike true psychopaths, Nick never lies (and therefore always keeps his word and never makes excuses), and he loves and protects his older brother Alan wholeheartedly. With Nick, what you see is what you get. At least, until you start to understand him. At which point what you see is still what you get, but now there’s nuance and shading to the stark lines of his personality and world view. <o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Ward, on the other hand, spends a good chunk of the book sacrificing himself for other people, and has cultivated a persona of being both nice and a little slow, so that no one ever actually knows what he’s really like. People don't think he's smart enough to have hidden his real self all those years, and he finds out the hard way that getting a reputation is much easier than <em>changing</em> one.</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Both books have humor to balance dark circumstances, great sibling relationships and fascinating family problems. And Patricia Brigg’s unique take on the “family ghost” in <em><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123408.Dragon_Bones" target="_blank">Dragon Bones</a></em> deserves special mention. Writing this reminds me how long it's been since I reread it. If I didn't have a bunch of blog posts to write (and a few letters to read books for asap - K, P, Q, X, Y, and Z, to be exact), I'd reread <em>Dragon Bones</em> right now...</span></div>Iliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2895111579912280538.post-36038173970649487322012-04-03T01:23:00.000-05:002012-04-03T01:23:03.908-05:00C: The Cloud Roads<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Another favorite! <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><strong><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: large;"><em>The Cloud Roads</em> by Martha Wells<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></span></div><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong> </strong><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Genre: fantasy </strong></span></span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EQ3m5TAPH5k/T3qPIdWMUvI/AAAAAAAAARs/--4iDF6KcOI/s1600/CloudRoads.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EQ3m5TAPH5k/T3qPIdWMUvI/AAAAAAAAARs/--4iDF6KcOI/s200/CloudRoads.jpg" width="132" /></a></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span class="readable"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Most Fantasy novels have pseudo medieval-European settings. That's fine, but <a href="http://storygush.blogspot.com/2012/01/third-culture-kids-in-fantasy.html" target="_blank"><em>The Cloud Roads</em></a> is nothing like that, and it's brilliant. Along with an awe-inspiring world, <a href="http://marthawells.livejournal.com/" target="_blank">Martha Wells</a> captures perfectly the pain of being lonely and different. And how being surrounded by others who are "just like you" (who really don’t understand you at all, and who <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i> certainly don’t understand) can make that pain so much worse.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span class="readable"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;">General premise</span></strong> Moon’s learned the hard way not to trust anyone. In</span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> his flying form, he looks too much like the Fell, who destroy cities and eat their inhabitants. When his neighbors stake him out for death, he's rescued by Stone, the first person he's met who looks like him. Not only can Stone answer all of Moon’s questions about himself, but Stone truly seems to want him around, a rare experience in Moon’s life. Intrigued and relieved not to be alone anymore, he agrees to move to Stone's settlement. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But <em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">looking</span></em> like his kind doesn't mean Moon fits in. He doesn't know the things he should, doesn't do the things they do or like what they like. Worse, Stone led him to believe he was a warrior-type, but Moon finds out in an epic showdown that he's actually a consort. The reigning queen hates him for tipping the balance of power in her young rival's favor, and the challenger keeps leaving gifts for him that he's afraid will mean he owes her something it will cost him too much to repay. Moon isn't interested in power struggles - he has enough problems of his own. But the Fell intrude on his new life, too, and fighting them is the only option.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This series (the second book is <a href="http://storygush.blogspot.com/2012/01/best-world-building.html" target="_blank"><em>The Serpent Sea</em></a>; <em>The Siren Depths</em> comes out in January 2013, and I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i> hope that's not the last) pulls together the things I love best about the major “grade levels” of books. Middle grade books are written for an audience that hasn’t yet restricted its imagination and possibilities and gender into rigid boxes. YA deals exquisitely with emotions and coming-of-age stories. Adult fiction doesn’t shy away from pain or suffering or other difficult themes. Martha Wells combines all these in the Books of the Raksura, and does it in a way that just leaves me awestruck. </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>Iliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2895111579912280538.post-25003705328021869602012-04-02T00:09:00.000-05:002012-04-02T00:09:28.633-05:00B: The Black Prism & Bitterblue<span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>The Black Prism</em> by Brent Weeks</span></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;">Genre</span></strong> fantasy</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Lm9mNHcI4VM/T3keeicE0qI/AAAAAAAAARc/SXuvyL2-j54/s1600/BlackPrism.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Lm9mNHcI4VM/T3keeicE0qI/AAAAAAAAARc/SXuvyL2-j54/s200/BlackPrism.jpg" width="123" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve blogged about this book </span><a href="http://storygush.blogspot.com/2011/11/and-prize-for-best-magic-system-goes-to.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">before</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, but you can't recommend a great book too many times. If you’re looking for what the Fantasy genre does best (Adventure! Politics! Magic!) <em>without</em> the things Fantasy has depressed us with too many times (Predictable quest! Misogyny! Racism!), this is the book for you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;">General premise</span></strong> Kip’s village is attacked, and just before his mother dies, she gives </span>Kip an exquisite dagger and tells him to avenge her. On the other side of the world, Gavin Guile, the most powerful drafter (or color magician) in the world, learns he has a son, and swoops in to save Kip from certain death. Now Gavin has to protect his new-found son from political enemies, placate his irate fiancé, keep his other secret from coming out, and stop the lands from falling back into a world war. Kip has his own decision to make: obey his mother’s wishes and kill the father who abandoned them, or help his father save the lands from destruction.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"><em>Bitterblue</em> by Kristin Cashore</span></strong> </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5_mqVqUsCd8/T3kfHPTPtBI/AAAAAAAAARk/-qAgpsMWHQg/s1600/Bitterblue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5_mqVqUsCd8/T3kfHPTPtBI/AAAAAAAAARk/-qAgpsMWHQg/s1600/Bitterblue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5_mqVqUsCd8/T3kfHPTPtBI/AAAAAAAAARk/-qAgpsMWHQg/s200/Bitterblue.jpg" width="132" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="color: #073763;">Genre</span></strong> fantasy</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1in; mso-add-space: auto;"></div><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I read <em><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3236307-graceling" target="_blank">Graceling</a></em> (Kristin Cashore’s first book – <em>Bitterblue</em> is her third, set in the same world), I loved it so much I flew across the country to attend a conference where Kristin Cashore was speaking. I’m the kind of introvert who prefers to stay home with the curtains drawn, pretending I didn't hear the phone ring, so this was quite an undertaking.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Incidentally, I’ve been to the </span><a href="http://www.sirensconference.org/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sirens Conference</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> three times now, and they've done a brilliant job with each year's theme: <em>Warriors</em>, <em>Faeries</em>, <em>Monsters</em> (2012 will be <em>Storytellers</em>). If you want to meet authors, editors, readers and writers of fantasy by and/or about women, at a conference that’s not so large that you’re constantly lost, yet not so small that it feels like you’re the only one who doesn’t know everyone else, this is the one for you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since I haven’t read <em><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12680907-bitterblue" target="_blank">Bitterblue</a></em> yet (available May <span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1<sup>st</sup></span></span>, for those of us not lucky enough to have ARCs<span style="font-size: small;">), I’m borrowing the publisher’s description from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bitterblue-Graceling-Kristin-Cashore/dp/0803734735/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333336075&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Amazon</a>:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Eight years after </span><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3236307-graceling"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Graceling</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, Bitterblue is now queen of Monsea. But the influence of her father, a violent psychopath with mind-altering abilities, lives on. Her advisors, who have run things since Leck died, believe in a forward-thinking plan: Pardon all who committed terrible acts under Leck's reign, and forget anything bad ever happened. But when Bitterblue begins sneaking outside the castle--disguised and alone--to walk the streets of her own city, she starts realizing that the kingdom has been under the thirty-five-year spell of a madman, and the only way to move forward is to revisit the past.<br />
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Two thieves, who only steal what has already been stolen, change her life forever. They hold a key to the truth of Leck's reign. And one of them, with an extreme skill called a Grace that he hasn't yet identified, holds a key to her heart."</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><blockquote class="tr_bq"><blockquote class="tr_bq"></blockquote></blockquote></span>Iliadfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09493266923216940390noreply@blogger.com4