BlogCatalogue has asked that bloggers unite today to talk about the hope that world hunger can be ended. 'Unite for Hunger and Hope' will be mentioned all around the internet today and hopefully this will generate some really worthwhile action towards decreasing the number of people who die of hunger each year.
BlogCatalogue has some shocking statistics posted on their website:
‘Right now, more than 500 million people are living in "absolute poverty" and more than 15 million children die of hunger every year.
World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the population is underfed and another third is starving.’
World hunger is an issue I find really hard to get my head around. I’m so used to being able to pick up food whenever I want it that it’s hard to comprehend not physically being able to get food. How does a community become so impoverished that its members can not afford the sustenance that keeps them alive? How does it become impossible to plant and grow your own food? These are just not issues most of us will ever have to deal with, whether you have to buy bargain brands or bulk bags of rice we all feel we will always be able to afford food and that the supply of food will never run out. Below I’ve highlighted a couple of especially bookish ways in which you can help someone else feel this way.
Heifer International , an organization which is heavily involved with ‘Unite for Hunger and Hope’, works with communities to provide long term solutions to hunger. They are solely concentrated on eradicating hunger and instigating community projects that help people to provide food and income to buy food, for themselves. During April they held ‘Pass the Gift’ month where they highlighted a way in which their work had helped people fighting hunger each day. Honey day will be of most interest to bookworms, as author Laurie R King is involved – buy anything from her Cafepress store or Amazon store during her 15 weeks of bees tour and the proceeds go to Heifer.
FreeRice is an online vocabulary game which donates ten grains of rice every time you correctly guess what a word means. The game starts at a low level but the difficulty increases as you get words right.
This last project isn’t related to books but it’s fricking fun.The Bread Art Project donates $1 to Feeding America for every piece of bread art submitted to their site. You get a virtual piece of toast to play with and can experiment with lots of graphical techniques that let you ‘burn’ an arty image into your toast. There’s a massive gallery to give you some ideas.
I’ve donated quite a bit to charity this month (and I actually have another donation to make for someone at work) so my financial contribution will be quite small but I’ll be dropping by Heifer to donate today. If you can afford to donate a little something to end world hunger please do. If you can’t afford to give cash this month please spend a couple of minutes at one of the sites I’ve talked about or make your own blog entry about BlogCatalogue’s efforts today.
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
Monday, 27 April 2009
Weekly Geeks - 2009-15
This week Weekly Geeks goes all cute and cuddly:
‘We are surrounded by our fellow creatures and often our lives are enriched by their presence, whether it be sharing our homes with them or simply being blessed to see them in passing.This week you are asked to share books (fiction or nonfiction) and/or movies which center around an animal or animals.’
When I was younger I loved novels about animals. I think it stemmed form my petless state (I had fish for a while but I found the way fish die very traumatic so the experience was never repeated). I still like books that focus around animals but it’s hard to find really good ones for adults that aren’t sap fests. Like most teenage girls I was horse mad and I loved 'The Saddle Club series' . Carol, Lisa and Stephanie always seemed to be having so much fun riding, dating and pulling pranks.
There are quite a few other horsey books that I loved but I can’t remember the titles now. ‘My Friend Flicka’, ‘Black Beauty’ and ‘The Silver Brumby’ all still sit on my shelves but titles like something I think was called ‘The Midnight Stallion’ are missing. It’s impossible to find now, mostly because Walter Farley’s books dominate any web search for books about a black horse. It’s a shame because thinking about it brings back nice memories of shopping at my school’s book fairs.
I really enjoyed Colin Dann’s books. He wrote 'The Animals of Farthing Wood' series but he also wrote some lovely independent books about a vagabond troupe of cats, a wandering herd of sheep and some escapees from a pet shop.
I still have quite a few of Brian Jacques 'Redwall' books about an animal society that lives at Redwall abbey. They’re the kind of fantasy books you would think would lead me to like ‘The Lord of the Rings’ but sadly that hasn’t really caught on with me yet.
'The Song of Pentecost' by WJ Corbett was probably the first book I ever cried over. Small inspirational mouse leader takes animal friends on a quest for a new home, making friends with a fox along the way but he meets an unfortunate end.
Finally how could I forget the excellent, dark 'Deptford Mice' trilogy , which still haunts me a little to this day. Robin Jarvis is a scary man. Mice are caught up in intrigue and evil magic.
I recently read two really popular books about animals that were written for adults ‘The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle which I adored (you can see me reviewing it here ) and ‘Marley and Me’ by Josh Grogan, which almost made me blub.
A good adult pick from a long time ago would be 'Frost Dancers' by Gary Kilworth, a book about one hare’s attempt to get home after being snatched up for hare coursing. No one should live their life without reading Richard Adam’s ‘Watership Down’ , which is so much more complex than people give it credit for. The same goes for Dodie Smith’s ‘A Hundred and One Dalmatians’. I reread it until my copy fell to bits.
I have just the one animal book on my current list which is ‘Dewey, The Library Cat’ but I’d love to find more – any recommendations?
‘We are surrounded by our fellow creatures and often our lives are enriched by their presence, whether it be sharing our homes with them or simply being blessed to see them in passing.This week you are asked to share books (fiction or nonfiction) and/or movies which center around an animal or animals.’
When I was younger I loved novels about animals. I think it stemmed form my petless state (I had fish for a while but I found the way fish die very traumatic so the experience was never repeated). I still like books that focus around animals but it’s hard to find really good ones for adults that aren’t sap fests. Like most teenage girls I was horse mad and I loved 'The Saddle Club series' . Carol, Lisa and Stephanie always seemed to be having so much fun riding, dating and pulling pranks.
There are quite a few other horsey books that I loved but I can’t remember the titles now. ‘My Friend Flicka’, ‘Black Beauty’ and ‘The Silver Brumby’ all still sit on my shelves but titles like something I think was called ‘The Midnight Stallion’ are missing. It’s impossible to find now, mostly because Walter Farley’s books dominate any web search for books about a black horse. It’s a shame because thinking about it brings back nice memories of shopping at my school’s book fairs.
I really enjoyed Colin Dann’s books. He wrote 'The Animals of Farthing Wood' series but he also wrote some lovely independent books about a vagabond troupe of cats, a wandering herd of sheep and some escapees from a pet shop.
I still have quite a few of Brian Jacques 'Redwall' books about an animal society that lives at Redwall abbey. They’re the kind of fantasy books you would think would lead me to like ‘The Lord of the Rings’ but sadly that hasn’t really caught on with me yet.
'The Song of Pentecost' by WJ Corbett was probably the first book I ever cried over. Small inspirational mouse leader takes animal friends on a quest for a new home, making friends with a fox along the way but he meets an unfortunate end.
Finally how could I forget the excellent, dark 'Deptford Mice' trilogy , which still haunts me a little to this day. Robin Jarvis is a scary man. Mice are caught up in intrigue and evil magic.
I recently read two really popular books about animals that were written for adults ‘The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle which I adored (you can see me reviewing it here ) and ‘Marley and Me’ by Josh Grogan, which almost made me blub.
A good adult pick from a long time ago would be 'Frost Dancers' by Gary Kilworth, a book about one hare’s attempt to get home after being snatched up for hare coursing. No one should live their life without reading Richard Adam’s ‘Watership Down’ , which is so much more complex than people give it credit for. The same goes for Dodie Smith’s ‘A Hundred and One Dalmatians’. I reread it until my copy fell to bits.
I have just the one animal book on my current list which is ‘Dewey, The Library Cat’ but I’d love to find more – any recommendations?
Friday, 24 April 2009
Weekend Away
I'm off to Cardiff tomorrow for a friend's birthday, which means a substantial train journey with a book (I think it's going to be Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian but that's not set quite yet). Before I go I wanted to post up this lovely blog award given to me a while back by one of my three loyal followers desertrose (thanks so much):
Pretty no?
Now I have to pass it on to some people. There are tons of people who deserve this award but I'm going to limit myself to five (otherwise I will get linking cramp) and hand it out to:
EroticHorizon (my first ever follower and so nice when dropping by, she's making me think about getting some romance books)
Bookgirl's Nightstand (I've been reading Illiana's blog for over five years now, plus it's so pretty)
Reviewer X (A pretty amazing level of output and I love seeing YA authors guest post)
The Bibliobrat (Great design and she always seems to be around helping out the book blogging community)
A Work in Progress (Again I've been reading Danielle's blog for a long time now, she loves lists as much as I do and her blog design is simple yet elegant)
See you next week. I'll probably be saying something about never drinking again (don't listen to me it will be lies).
Ten Cents a Dance - Christine Fletcher
Ruby and her family used to live in a nice house, without a care in the world. The Ruby’s dad died, her mother went out to work and they moved to a house in The Yards, close to the packinghouse where her mother worked. At fifteen Ruby begins working in the same packinghouse, putting pigs knuckles into brine filled jars, when her mother develops severe arthritis and loses her job. She keeps her family afloat but she sees her and her younger sister’s prospects disappear.
Then one night, after being thrown out of a dance for fighting, she catches the eye of local tough guy Paulie and he tells her about a job that will change her life. Ruby takes a job as a taxi dancer, renting her self to lonely men who frequent The Starlight for a nickel a dance. Soon Ruby has everything she dreamed of while packing pig’s knuckles, but she also learns plenty of things she never wanted to know.
Every time I went to pick up ‘Ten Cents a Dance’ I was excited. I could not wait to get back to it and I was glad it was a little longer than some YA books, because that just meant there was more of it to enjoy. The book is set largely in taxi-dancing clubs, which are an area of American history I’d never heard about before. I’ll be looking into it now because the history of taxi-dancing seems to contain everything I love about the 1940s, like jazz, sleaze, back street glamour and gangsters.
Christine Fletcher brings the taxi-dancing world alive and although the industry has some pretty obvious parallels with pro she makes it sound like like a fun, glamorous lifestyle. That’s what it must have seemed like to girls used to earning a pittance in box factories and packinghouses. The gowns and presents Ruby buys for herself and others weren’t overly described but they still sounded like gorgeous treasures.
The sections set behind the scenes of the dance floor are full of cattiness and camaraderie, creating a claustrophobic, yet vigorous picture of female crowding and competitiveness. There is the kind of rivalry and gossip you might have found in any job where masses of women were fighting for pay and prestige. The back stabbing is deliciously bitter and the friendship Ruby forms with Peggy is full of those illicit conversations we all keep from our mother. All of this added to the back street glamour of the book, where the intriguing darkness of seedy situations produced excitement and fun times for the characters.
There’s a lot of conflict in the novel. Ruby’s not afraid of a fight and her spunky, uncompromising attitude causes many of the brawls. Probably the most well drawn instance of tension is the sustained one between Ruby and her mother. Despite being decidedly grubby sometimes, taxi-dancing gives Ruby a measure of independence and thrusts her into adult situations. She earns her own money, stays out at night and gets involved with men her mother would never approve of. When her mother remarries she’s instructed to return to her old way of live, as a dependent child who goes to school. Readers may expect Ruby to be excited about returning to education and innocence but Ruby has grown to love her independence and her lifestyle. Ruby’s mother refuses to see that her experience in the world of work (she tells her mother that she works as a telephone operator) will have changed her and she expects her to give up her freedom when the family no longer needs her wage. The complexity of the mother daughter struggle for control of Ruby was extremely realistic. Ruby’s mother is also slightly hypocritical, at times she seems to know Ruby isn’t working at the telephone connection yet she continues to take her wages until she finds a different solution. This elevates her character above the stereotypical saintly and shamed mother and it allows the reader to empathise more with Ruby. Ruby’s created her own set of values which stem from her mother’s moral teachings, but which would never be acceptable to her mother, for example in Ruby’s mind she remains a ‘good girl’ because she doesn’t sleep with her customers but when her mother finds out what Ruby has been doing that fact doesn’t matter to her.
There’s a cracking plot that picks up power towards the end as Ruby’s life dancing at The Starlight is disrupted by her mother’s changing circumstances and the second world war changes everything. Racial tensions rise(Ruby’s non-preachy gradual acceptance of different races was actually one of my favourite elements of the book), Ruby realises Paulie is not the man of her dreams, which I started to think as soon as he suggested she dance at The Starlight, and a new romantic possibility begins to emerge. All this is guaranteed to have readers racing through the chapters to see what happens, but it’s important to make an effort to slow down because Fletcher’s forties world is so rich in detail that it would be a shame to miss anything.
Reviewer X has a fab guest post where Christine Fletcher talks about why she's backing historical heroines every time. If you've reviewed 'Ten Cents a Dance' please leave a review link here and I'll post it under my post.
Other reviews
Fledgling
Then one night, after being thrown out of a dance for fighting, she catches the eye of local tough guy Paulie and he tells her about a job that will change her life. Ruby takes a job as a taxi dancer, renting her self to lonely men who frequent The Starlight for a nickel a dance. Soon Ruby has everything she dreamed of while packing pig’s knuckles, but she also learns plenty of things she never wanted to know.
Every time I went to pick up ‘Ten Cents a Dance’ I was excited. I could not wait to get back to it and I was glad it was a little longer than some YA books, because that just meant there was more of it to enjoy. The book is set largely in taxi-dancing clubs, which are an area of American history I’d never heard about before. I’ll be looking into it now because the history of taxi-dancing seems to contain everything I love about the 1940s, like jazz, sleaze, back street glamour and gangsters.
Christine Fletcher brings the taxi-dancing world alive and although the industry has some pretty obvious parallels with pro she makes it sound like like a fun, glamorous lifestyle. That’s what it must have seemed like to girls used to earning a pittance in box factories and packinghouses. The gowns and presents Ruby buys for herself and others weren’t overly described but they still sounded like gorgeous treasures.
The sections set behind the scenes of the dance floor are full of cattiness and camaraderie, creating a claustrophobic, yet vigorous picture of female crowding and competitiveness. There is the kind of rivalry and gossip you might have found in any job where masses of women were fighting for pay and prestige. The back stabbing is deliciously bitter and the friendship Ruby forms with Peggy is full of those illicit conversations we all keep from our mother. All of this added to the back street glamour of the book, where the intriguing darkness of seedy situations produced excitement and fun times for the characters.
There’s a lot of conflict in the novel. Ruby’s not afraid of a fight and her spunky, uncompromising attitude causes many of the brawls. Probably the most well drawn instance of tension is the sustained one between Ruby and her mother. Despite being decidedly grubby sometimes, taxi-dancing gives Ruby a measure of independence and thrusts her into adult situations. She earns her own money, stays out at night and gets involved with men her mother would never approve of. When her mother remarries she’s instructed to return to her old way of live, as a dependent child who goes to school. Readers may expect Ruby to be excited about returning to education and innocence but Ruby has grown to love her independence and her lifestyle. Ruby’s mother refuses to see that her experience in the world of work (she tells her mother that she works as a telephone operator) will have changed her and she expects her to give up her freedom when the family no longer needs her wage. The complexity of the mother daughter struggle for control of Ruby was extremely realistic. Ruby’s mother is also slightly hypocritical, at times she seems to know Ruby isn’t working at the telephone connection yet she continues to take her wages until she finds a different solution. This elevates her character above the stereotypical saintly and shamed mother and it allows the reader to empathise more with Ruby. Ruby’s created her own set of values which stem from her mother’s moral teachings, but which would never be acceptable to her mother, for example in Ruby’s mind she remains a ‘good girl’ because she doesn’t sleep with her customers but when her mother finds out what Ruby has been doing that fact doesn’t matter to her.
There’s a cracking plot that picks up power towards the end as Ruby’s life dancing at The Starlight is disrupted by her mother’s changing circumstances and the second world war changes everything. Racial tensions rise(Ruby’s non-preachy gradual acceptance of different races was actually one of my favourite elements of the book), Ruby realises Paulie is not the man of her dreams, which I started to think as soon as he suggested she dance at The Starlight, and a new romantic possibility begins to emerge. All this is guaranteed to have readers racing through the chapters to see what happens, but it’s important to make an effort to slow down because Fletcher’s forties world is so rich in detail that it would be a shame to miss anything.
Reviewer X has a fab guest post where Christine Fletcher talks about why she's backing historical heroines every time. If you've reviewed 'Ten Cents a Dance' please leave a review link here and I'll post it under my post.
Other reviews
Fledgling
Thursday, 23 April 2009
The Eco Reading Challenge
Chris over at book-a-rama continues to feed my challenge addiction by creating a cool, socially responsible reading challenge that I just must join. The Eco Reading Challenge ties in nicely with the Planet Earth Challenge (which I'm unofficially trying to complete).
Chris explains what to do at her blog:
'It's simple. Part One, pick 5 books with a Environmental theme and read them in 5 months.'
She also challenges you to link your reading and your new education about environmental issues to some real life action:
'Now for Part Two. If you are Canadian you probably know who George Stroumboulopoulos is. He is a news show host on the CBC. Last year, he started a campaign called One Million Acts of Green, asking people to commit to one thing to help the environment. He reached 1 million but is working toward 2 million. I'm not George but we can start a little project here on book-a-rama where we commit an Act of Green Reading.
For example:
*buy used books or books made from recycled materials whenever possible
*take reusable shopping bags when buying books
*replace light bulbs in reading lamps with compact fluorescent ones
*move to window or outside to read instead of turning on lights
*wear a sweater when reading instead of turning up heat
*plant a tree to read under'
I'll be taking up the first point above. I'm going to try to use resources like Bookmooch and EcoLibris has some good information about this on their blog).
Here's some things I might read:
Planet Earth - Alastair Fothergill
Captivity - Debbie Lee Wesselman
An Inconvenient Truth - Al Gore
The Animals of Farthing Wood - Colin Dann
If you have space for more book challenges go over and join up :)
Chris explains what to do at her blog:
'It's simple. Part One, pick 5 books with a Environmental theme and read them in 5 months.'
She also challenges you to link your reading and your new education about environmental issues to some real life action:
'Now for Part Two. If you are Canadian you probably know who George Stroumboulopoulos is. He is a news show host on the CBC. Last year, he started a campaign called One Million Acts of Green, asking people to commit to one thing to help the environment. He reached 1 million but is working toward 2 million. I'm not George but we can start a little project here on book-a-rama where we commit an Act of Green Reading.
For example:
*buy used books or books made from recycled materials whenever possible
*take reusable shopping bags when buying books
*replace light bulbs in reading lamps with compact fluorescent ones
*move to window or outside to read instead of turning on lights
*wear a sweater when reading instead of turning up heat
*plant a tree to read under'
I'll be taking up the first point above. I'm going to try to use resources like Bookmooch and EcoLibris has some good information about this on their blog).
Here's some things I might read:
Planet Earth - Alastair Fothergill
Captivity - Debbie Lee Wesselman
An Inconvenient Truth - Al Gore
The Animals of Farthing Wood - Colin Dann
If you have space for more book challenges go over and join up :)
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
Nation - Terry Pratchett
Step back, I’m about to get evangelical here.
After finishing ‘Nation’ I felt like I should be waving it at everyone around me, while shouting ‘Why aren’t you reading? You’re missing it!!” Actually I felt like that all the way through the book, but shouting and waving would have stolen too much reading time. Good job I have a blog, specifically set up for shouting about books!
Mau is paddling back from The Boy’s Island to his home island, The Nation, when an enormous wave capsizes his canoe. He survives and floats back to The Nation, only to find that everyone on the island has been killed by the wave. At the same time an English girl called Ermin…Daphne finds her ship picked up by the wave and tossed on to the island. The crew is killed and Daphne finds herself stranded with only a foul mouthed parrot for company. When the two teenagers find each other they save each other from despair and death by beginning to build a new civilization, where they care for the strays that wash up on the island.
One of the things I love about Pratchett’s books is that his characters are individual creations, not manifestations of parts of his own personality. Both Mau and Daphne are channels that he expresses his ideas through but they each have their own personalities, which never feel as if they can be traced to the author’s voice or biography. Despite the humorous footnotes and the third person narrative Pratchett is probably one of the most absent authors I can think of, giving his characters space to be themselves. At no point did I think Mau or Daphne sounded like characters from his previous books, although sometimes they think about themes that have often been discussed in the Discworld books. Even death, an entity which Pratchett has made into a very solid celebrity in the Discworld books, has been entirely reincarnated in ‘Nation’ as the more ethereal Locaha.
Mau is the most revelatory character in this book. He gives a tangible form to the struggles that all boys face as they grow up. When he is hit by the wave he is in the process of completing the traditional journey that turns a boy’s soul into a man’s soul. His transformation into a man will only be officially completed by meeting his family on the beach and receiving his tribal tattoo. By passing the test of escaping from The Boy’s Island Mau moves from boyhood but with no one left to complete the rituals he is kept from manhood in his own mind and in the minds of people from other islands. His actions in burying his people, battling with pigs to feed a hungry child and restoring the island, shape him into a man in a much more meaningful way, but although the reader sees the change in Mau, he sometimes struggles to see what he has become. Mau’s journey from boy to man is a substantial examination of what really makes a man. Before reading ‘Nation’ I’d never given these ideas proper consideration but Mau’s pain at the bleak discovery he faces on reaching his island made me feel instantly connected to him and his journey.
Now for the bits that any Discworld fan will know to expect. Pratchett’s world building is once again superb. The island traditions are bought in simply, without heavy signaling that ‘LIFE IS DIFFERENT ON THIS ISLAND’. The history is well formed, the creation story is clear and the complex matter of multiple worlds and timelines is dealt with in a way which is easy to understand and promotes hope. ‘Nation’ is funny and contains an extremely odd animal, which I think of as the Pratchett trademark (in this case a swearing parrot who delights in hurting other birds). As in all his books there are lots of deep, important ideas contained in this book, like the problems of believing in gods and the troubles that accompany colonization. Pratchett puts the words of each side succinctly, so they can not be misunderstood or ignored. He also fills this book with light humour, brought about by the confusion of two cultures trying to communicate.
‘Nation’ is, in my opinion, one of the best books Terry Pratchett has ever written. If you want proof that I am the product of uber-exposure to Pratchett please ask to see ‘the shelf’.
Go see what GuysLitWire had to say about 'Nation' , or if you've reviewed it please leave a link in the comments.
Other Reviews
Nymeth
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
anothercookiecrumbles
After finishing ‘Nation’ I felt like I should be waving it at everyone around me, while shouting ‘Why aren’t you reading? You’re missing it!!” Actually I felt like that all the way through the book, but shouting and waving would have stolen too much reading time. Good job I have a blog, specifically set up for shouting about books!
Mau is paddling back from The Boy’s Island to his home island, The Nation, when an enormous wave capsizes his canoe. He survives and floats back to The Nation, only to find that everyone on the island has been killed by the wave. At the same time an English girl called Ermin…Daphne finds her ship picked up by the wave and tossed on to the island. The crew is killed and Daphne finds herself stranded with only a foul mouthed parrot for company. When the two teenagers find each other they save each other from despair and death by beginning to build a new civilization, where they care for the strays that wash up on the island.
One of the things I love about Pratchett’s books is that his characters are individual creations, not manifestations of parts of his own personality. Both Mau and Daphne are channels that he expresses his ideas through but they each have their own personalities, which never feel as if they can be traced to the author’s voice or biography. Despite the humorous footnotes and the third person narrative Pratchett is probably one of the most absent authors I can think of, giving his characters space to be themselves. At no point did I think Mau or Daphne sounded like characters from his previous books, although sometimes they think about themes that have often been discussed in the Discworld books. Even death, an entity which Pratchett has made into a very solid celebrity in the Discworld books, has been entirely reincarnated in ‘Nation’ as the more ethereal Locaha.
Mau is the most revelatory character in this book. He gives a tangible form to the struggles that all boys face as they grow up. When he is hit by the wave he is in the process of completing the traditional journey that turns a boy’s soul into a man’s soul. His transformation into a man will only be officially completed by meeting his family on the beach and receiving his tribal tattoo. By passing the test of escaping from The Boy’s Island Mau moves from boyhood but with no one left to complete the rituals he is kept from manhood in his own mind and in the minds of people from other islands. His actions in burying his people, battling with pigs to feed a hungry child and restoring the island, shape him into a man in a much more meaningful way, but although the reader sees the change in Mau, he sometimes struggles to see what he has become. Mau’s journey from boy to man is a substantial examination of what really makes a man. Before reading ‘Nation’ I’d never given these ideas proper consideration but Mau’s pain at the bleak discovery he faces on reaching his island made me feel instantly connected to him and his journey.
Now for the bits that any Discworld fan will know to expect. Pratchett’s world building is once again superb. The island traditions are bought in simply, without heavy signaling that ‘LIFE IS DIFFERENT ON THIS ISLAND’. The history is well formed, the creation story is clear and the complex matter of multiple worlds and timelines is dealt with in a way which is easy to understand and promotes hope. ‘Nation’ is funny and contains an extremely odd animal, which I think of as the Pratchett trademark (in this case a swearing parrot who delights in hurting other birds). As in all his books there are lots of deep, important ideas contained in this book, like the problems of believing in gods and the troubles that accompany colonization. Pratchett puts the words of each side succinctly, so they can not be misunderstood or ignored. He also fills this book with light humour, brought about by the confusion of two cultures trying to communicate.
‘Nation’ is, in my opinion, one of the best books Terry Pratchett has ever written. If you want proof that I am the product of uber-exposure to Pratchett please ask to see ‘the shelf’.
Go see what GuysLitWire had to say about 'Nation' , or if you've reviewed it please leave a link in the comments.
Other Reviews
Nymeth
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
anothercookiecrumbles
Monday, 20 April 2009
Name my regular feature
It’s finally here – the regular feature will begin next month. Yes after several months of development (read messing about and making tiny notes on post its) my regular feature idea is ready to launch. All it needs is a name…I’m bad at names and all my ideas involved way too much alliteration. Since this is going to be an interactive feature which anyone reading this blog can participate in it seems only fair to let you guys name it. So read all about the new shiny, monthly feature that will begin at the end of May and if you’re feeling creative please suggest a name for it in the comments.
My regular feature is kind of a monster, born of many parents. It was inspired by the collaborative element of The Bookworms Carnival, the awesome subject matter of Carl’s Once Upon a Time challenge and the read-a-long element of The Slaves of Golconda. It started out small and simple, only to emerge from the cavernous book-womb as a week long feature, covering probably too wide a subject area. Here’s the main idea of what I plan to do in the last week of every month for as long as it’s fun:
Pick out an original fairytale, myth, legend or story of folklore (this is where Carl’s inspirational jazz comes in) and read it.
Of course that original idea was way too simple, so I started getting fidgety and gluing extra bits on. I’ve now decided to also:
Present my ideas about the story before I’ve actually read it. I find that fairytales, myths, legends and folklore are so ingrained into culture (both everyday and artistic) that many will feel they know the stories without ever having read the original. This leads people to have some odd ideas about the stories and I’m sure my head is full of skewed ideas just waiting to be exposed.
Read the story and talk about the story as it was actually written. Radical I know.
Look around for other interpretations of the story, especially anything Angela Carter had written up. Delve into contemporary fiction that references the story or reinvents it.
But what fun would it be for you if I just talked away during my regular feature? It needed to become interactive in some way. So I invite you to:
Read-a-long with me as I dip into the original tale (I’ll try to find online versions as much as possible). Discuss what you thought about it either in the comments or at your own blog (see there’s the Slaves element).
Leave me links to your reviews books, films or theatre that you think reuse/reinvent the original and I’ll add them to the bottom of my post on the story (and that’s the Bookworms element, plus the review linking element of a recent Weekly Geek post).
As a final, visual touch I’ll put up:
Links to crafty items I find inspired by the stories (because I like pretty things).
Now all this monster idea needs is a name to keep it at this blog forever. Think long and hard a name will stick.
In May I’ll be reading ‘Cinderella’ but I’d love to know what stories you’d like to see featured here in the months to come. Leave me a comment telling me which traditional folkstories, fairytales, legends or myths you think are the most important or the most enjoyable and I’ll start making a list.
My regular feature is kind of a monster, born of many parents. It was inspired by the collaborative element of The Bookworms Carnival, the awesome subject matter of Carl’s Once Upon a Time challenge and the read-a-long element of The Slaves of Golconda. It started out small and simple, only to emerge from the cavernous book-womb as a week long feature, covering probably too wide a subject area. Here’s the main idea of what I plan to do in the last week of every month for as long as it’s fun:
Pick out an original fairytale, myth, legend or story of folklore (this is where Carl’s inspirational jazz comes in) and read it.
Of course that original idea was way too simple, so I started getting fidgety and gluing extra bits on. I’ve now decided to also:
Present my ideas about the story before I’ve actually read it. I find that fairytales, myths, legends and folklore are so ingrained into culture (both everyday and artistic) that many will feel they know the stories without ever having read the original. This leads people to have some odd ideas about the stories and I’m sure my head is full of skewed ideas just waiting to be exposed.
Read the story and talk about the story as it was actually written. Radical I know.
Look around for other interpretations of the story, especially anything Angela Carter had written up. Delve into contemporary fiction that references the story or reinvents it.
But what fun would it be for you if I just talked away during my regular feature? It needed to become interactive in some way. So I invite you to:
Read-a-long with me as I dip into the original tale (I’ll try to find online versions as much as possible). Discuss what you thought about it either in the comments or at your own blog (see there’s the Slaves element).
Leave me links to your reviews books, films or theatre that you think reuse/reinvent the original and I’ll add them to the bottom of my post on the story (and that’s the Bookworms element, plus the review linking element of a recent Weekly Geek post).
As a final, visual touch I’ll put up:
Links to crafty items I find inspired by the stories (because I like pretty things).
Now all this monster idea needs is a name to keep it at this blog forever. Think long and hard a name will stick.
In May I’ll be reading ‘Cinderella’ but I’d love to know what stories you’d like to see featured here in the months to come. Leave me a comment telling me which traditional folkstories, fairytales, legends or myths you think are the most important or the most enjoyable and I’ll start making a list.
Saturday, 18 April 2009
Prize Announcement
Thanks to everyone who played along at my mini-challenge. I was so excited to see what you came up with and I always love hearing that I've been a little creative with my thinking. I loved the entries and who was going to win kept changing throughout the three hours. You can see all the entries below (sorry about the exposed linkage but coding would have meant no announcement for another hour as my blog hates code):
Nise http://nisefunpages.blogspot.com/2009/04/jodies-mini-challenge.html
Alisonwonderland http://books4alison.blogspot.com/2009/04/read-thon-mini-challenge.html
Kathrin http://cozymurders.blogspot.com/2009/04/first-mini-challenge.html
Kristi http://booksandneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2009/04/readathon-mini-challenge-1.html
Debnance http://readerbuzz.blogspot.com/2009/04/hour-2-mini-challenge-at-book-gazing.html
Callista http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com/2009/04/hour-2-mini-challenge.html
Nfmgirl http://cerebralgirl.blogspot.com/2009/04/read-thon-mini-challenge-by-book-gazing.html
I Heart Monster http://www.iheartmonster.com/2009/04/book-gazings-hour-2-mini-challenge.html
Shari/Irish http://ferrywoman.livejournal.com/2703.html
A Striped Armchair http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/2009/04/18/hour-three-eva/#comment-8664
Rhinoa http://rhinoasramblings.blogspot.com/2009/04/read-thon-mini-challenge-1.html
Jessica http://jeskareads.blogspot.com/2009/04/read-thon-update-2-and-jodies-mini.html
InfoGoddes http://infogoddess54.blogspot.com/2009/04/hour-3.html
Trish http://trishsbooks.blogspot.com/2009/04/read-thon-hours-3.html
Amanda http://agignac.blogspot.com/2009/04/read-thon-hours-3-4.html
Ali http://worducopia.blogspot.com/2009/04/readathon-update-855.html
Sarah http://bookwormsarah.blogspot.com/2009/04/read-thon-hour-4.html
I've made my final decision and the winners are Eva at A Striped Armchair and Shari/Irish at Ferrywoman . Eva made a snow puritan and anyone who goes out into the snow for a mini-challenge should win something. Shari/Irish made her dog an emergency wedding dress, which left her looking super cute, despite the absence of a groom. Eva wins the package with 'The Juliet Club' in it and Shari/Irish wins the package containing 'Stardust'.
I want to give honourbale mentions to Callista who mocked up a version of 'Dewey, the library cat', perfect for Dewey's read-a-thon and Amanda who got me very excited by posting a picture of 'The Life of Pi' - how will she accomplish that I thought? Sadly there were no real life tiger cubs, but I loved how she got her own cobs involved and how she made the sea :)
Thanks for playing along everyone. I'll see you later for some more cheering.
Cheered Out
I've been cheering non stop for 2 hours now and I need a little eye break. I'll be back in 1 hour to announce the winners of the mini-challenge so keep the entries coming until the end of hour 4. Happy reading (or if you can't keep off the computer until them go visit the three read-a-thon participants who could land you in a prize draw!
Mini Challenge - Read-a-thon
Just to make it clear the mini-challenge is open until the end of Hour 4!
Give me a R, E, A, D,E,R,S - what does it spell? Well, I'm sure you guys can work it out for yourselves :)
Welcome to the Bookgazing mini-challenge, part of the fun of Dewey's 24 hour Read-a-thon. I took part as a reader last year and got absolutely caught up in the fun, frolics and challenges that go with trying to read for 24 hours. I remember sneaking away from my book to look at all the mini-challenges last year, as well as reading Dewey's blog as the read-a-thon progressed. I'm so glad to see that although Dewey is gone the community she helped to build continues to exist. I think that we all hope to leave a lasting monument behind us (books are certainly a writer's way of doing that) and Dewey has left such a warm, human reminder of herself behind in all the online friendship builders she created.
I wanted to do something a little bit quirky with my mini challenge, so get ready to play around and have some little kid fun over the next 2 hours.
First look over at your read-a-thon pile o' books. Isn't it gorgeous, don't you just want to pet it?
Look through the pile and take a picture of the cover you like the best, for whatever reason. It can be the prettiest, the oddest, the brightest...
Flip the book over and look at the blurb (or look on the inside of the jacket). Now here's the fun, little kid part - recreate the blurb anyway you want. What I'm looking for is some kind of tableau that expresses the main thrust of the book's plot (which the blurb should hopefully capture). You can recreate it using action figures, poppets, stuffed toys, lego creatures, models made from bluetack and paper clips, anything you can find around the house. If you're feeling really ambitious you can get people to help you out - dress them up and take a picture of them acting out the main idea behind the book. Mock it up quickly and have fun doing it :) Snap a picture of whatever you create. The challenge runs from 2pm - 4pm (GMT), so it starts at hour 2 and ends at hour 4.
Post both pictures somewhere for the world to see. Then leave a link to your post in the comments of this post.
What can you win you ask?
There will be two winners, so two prizes and the winners will be chosen based on awesomeness of entry.
You can win either:
The Juliet Club - Suzanne Harper (hardback)
Changeling - Steve Feasey
Becoming Jane - Jon Spence
A handmade, beaded bookmark made by me
or
The Journal of Dora Damage - Belinda Starling (hardback,)
Stardust - Neil Gaiman
Mistake were made but not by me - Carol Travis
A handmade, beaded bookmark made by me
Give me a R, E, A, D,E,R,S - what does it spell? Well, I'm sure you guys can work it out for yourselves :)
Welcome to the Bookgazing mini-challenge, part of the fun of Dewey's 24 hour Read-a-thon. I took part as a reader last year and got absolutely caught up in the fun, frolics and challenges that go with trying to read for 24 hours. I remember sneaking away from my book to look at all the mini-challenges last year, as well as reading Dewey's blog as the read-a-thon progressed. I'm so glad to see that although Dewey is gone the community she helped to build continues to exist. I think that we all hope to leave a lasting monument behind us (books are certainly a writer's way of doing that) and Dewey has left such a warm, human reminder of herself behind in all the online friendship builders she created.
I wanted to do something a little bit quirky with my mini challenge, so get ready to play around and have some little kid fun over the next 2 hours.
First look over at your read-a-thon pile o' books. Isn't it gorgeous, don't you just want to pet it?
Look through the pile and take a picture of the cover you like the best, for whatever reason. It can be the prettiest, the oddest, the brightest...
Flip the book over and look at the blurb (or look on the inside of the jacket). Now here's the fun, little kid part - recreate the blurb anyway you want. What I'm looking for is some kind of tableau that expresses the main thrust of the book's plot (which the blurb should hopefully capture). You can recreate it using action figures, poppets, stuffed toys, lego creatures, models made from bluetack and paper clips, anything you can find around the house. If you're feeling really ambitious you can get people to help you out - dress them up and take a picture of them acting out the main idea behind the book. Mock it up quickly and have fun doing it :) Snap a picture of whatever you create. The challenge runs from 2pm - 4pm (GMT), so it starts at hour 2 and ends at hour 4.
Post both pictures somewhere for the world to see. Then leave a link to your post in the comments of this post.
What can you win you ask?
There will be two winners, so two prizes and the winners will be chosen based on awesomeness of entry.
You can win either:
The Juliet Club - Suzanne Harper (hardback)
Changeling - Steve Feasey
Becoming Jane - Jon Spence
A handmade, beaded bookmark made by me
or
The Journal of Dora Damage - Belinda Starling (hardback,)
Stardust - Neil Gaiman
Mistake were made but not by me - Carol Travis
A handmade, beaded bookmark made by me
Friday, 17 April 2009
Day Off - Posty, Posty
I’ve been taking a lot of time off lately because my joy in my job is coming to an end (if it every really began). When my employer agreed to pay for a college course I decided I’d stay at least a year after qualifying and having qualified I find myself on the slow countdown to leaving at the beginning of next year. Marketing work seems to get delayed a lot, while it waits for authorisation, so I often don’t have much to do. I’ve discovered that I hate having nothing to do at work, so I spend lots of time getting frustrated and thinking about what I’d be doing if I wasn’t sitting trying to think up busywork tasks for myself to do. All this boredom has led me to take a couple of days off right after the long bank holiday weekend. I’ve actually only been at work two days this week, which has been so lovely. I feel free to do whatever I want and I don’t have to go to bed at the same time every night, so that I can get up at 6:30. Today I went to have lunch with a friend (who is a teacher on half term) and there were cocktails! Oh the wonderfulness of conversation and cocktails in the afternoon. I really hope work is going to pick up because I’m running short on holiday dates now.
Taking time off has meant I’ve been able to do quite a bit of reading. I finished two books during Easter weekend (I also saw ‘The Boat that Rocked’, ate out quite a bit and spent a few evenings in the pub) and yesterday I finished ‘The Virgin Blue’ by Tracy Chevalier. I dislike the majority of books that switch between two times continually, mostly because I’m usually more interested in the historical storyline, but I gave ‘The Virgin Blue’ a go because I’ve enjoyed a few of Chevalier’s other novels, ‘The Girl with the Pearl Earring’ and ‘Burning Bright’.
Both storylines kept my attention and I was as interested in the modern heroine Ella as I was in the historical heroine Isabella. I’m finding it hard to describe why I enjoyed it, it was natural and easy going – will that do? I know terrible opinion, try harder next time. I think I tend to compare every book that is set in France, uses two timelines and has two female heroines with a big blockbuster that features all those elements. This was entirely unlike that book; it wasn’t contrived, at no point did I want to smack the heroine in the head and the modern storyline wasn’t struggling to be a more intellectual version of The Da Vinci Code. ‘The Virgin Blue’ was just a simple story of two women living in different times, linked by family, and yet it still managed to have drama, passion and doubt. It was a successful rendering of life.
I thought about jumping into some historical fiction straight straight after but instead I’ve decided to opt for something from the ‘Once Upon a Time’ pile. It contains some of my favourite authors, so it seems like the best way to continue my happy reading streak. My next book could be:
Liberation – Brian Francis Slattery
Nation – Terry Pratchett
Making Money – Terry Pratchett
Magyk – Angie Sage (I actually saw a poster for the new Septimus Heap book today – is it a sign?)
Once Upon a Time in the North – Philip Pullman
Or I could finally read that last Harry Potter book (snort yeah ok I’ll go do that right now).
Tomorrow is Dewey’s Read-a-thon. Good luck to everyone taking part. I’ll be cheerleading for part of the day and I’ll also be running a mini-challenge at some point.
Just a quick heads up on what’s happening with the YA bracket competition, Nerds Heart YA. The judging spaces are filled now and the longlist closes today I think. So soon there will be brackets and opinions flying around like sherbet filled saucers.
I think I’ll crack on with watching The Wire now (what sort of crazy scheduler puts the entire thing on in the UK, one episode every night after 11? I have so many DVDs to catch up on.)
Oh one last thing - I finally decided what my regular blog feature is going to be! Look out for a post all about it and how you can get involved :)
Taking time off has meant I’ve been able to do quite a bit of reading. I finished two books during Easter weekend (I also saw ‘The Boat that Rocked’, ate out quite a bit and spent a few evenings in the pub) and yesterday I finished ‘The Virgin Blue’ by Tracy Chevalier. I dislike the majority of books that switch between two times continually, mostly because I’m usually more interested in the historical storyline, but I gave ‘The Virgin Blue’ a go because I’ve enjoyed a few of Chevalier’s other novels, ‘The Girl with the Pearl Earring’ and ‘Burning Bright’.
Both storylines kept my attention and I was as interested in the modern heroine Ella as I was in the historical heroine Isabella. I’m finding it hard to describe why I enjoyed it, it was natural and easy going – will that do? I know terrible opinion, try harder next time. I think I tend to compare every book that is set in France, uses two timelines and has two female heroines with a big blockbuster that features all those elements. This was entirely unlike that book; it wasn’t contrived, at no point did I want to smack the heroine in the head and the modern storyline wasn’t struggling to be a more intellectual version of The Da Vinci Code. ‘The Virgin Blue’ was just a simple story of two women living in different times, linked by family, and yet it still managed to have drama, passion and doubt. It was a successful rendering of life.
I thought about jumping into some historical fiction straight straight after but instead I’ve decided to opt for something from the ‘Once Upon a Time’ pile. It contains some of my favourite authors, so it seems like the best way to continue my happy reading streak. My next book could be:
Liberation – Brian Francis Slattery
Nation – Terry Pratchett
Making Money – Terry Pratchett
Magyk – Angie Sage (I actually saw a poster for the new Septimus Heap book today – is it a sign?)
Once Upon a Time in the North – Philip Pullman
Or I could finally read that last Harry Potter book (snort yeah ok I’ll go do that right now).
Tomorrow is Dewey’s Read-a-thon. Good luck to everyone taking part. I’ll be cheerleading for part of the day and I’ll also be running a mini-challenge at some point.
Just a quick heads up on what’s happening with the YA bracket competition, Nerds Heart YA. The judging spaces are filled now and the longlist closes today I think. So soon there will be brackets and opinions flying around like sherbet filled saucers.
I think I’ll crack on with watching The Wire now (what sort of crazy scheduler puts the entire thing on in the UK, one episode every night after 11? I have so many DVDs to catch up on.)
Oh one last thing - I finally decided what my regular blog feature is going to be! Look out for a post all about it and how you can get involved :)
Sunday, 12 April 2009
Stardust - Neil Gaiman
It feels a little odd to call a book in which a unicorn dies a horrendous death ‘lovely’, but it was. It reminded me of all the best funny, fantasy stories I read when I was growing up, the ones I remember passages and stories from but can’t name. It was soft, it was treacherous, it was inventive and brave. It had one of the most believable and effortlessly created magical worlds I’ve ever read. Finally it was just a little bit sad at the end, even though most things had worked out well for the good characters, which I always think is the mark of a well thought through story.
The fact that ‘Stardust’ is able to survive the death of one of the most beautiful, mythical creatures points out that it must be a very wonderful book. The interview with the author at the back of the book actually includes the question ‘How could you kill a unicorn?’, a question which sounds playful and irreverent but also very, very angry. Neil Gaiman has an enchanting answer to the question:
‘I loved my unicorn: I was very, very fond of that unicorn and I was sorry that it died. But on the other hand it seemed a really interesting way to try and remind people that this wasn’t necessarily a fairy tale for children. That and one rude word in incredibly small type.’
I think that’s really what makes a good fairytale for grown ups, not all the magical creatures survive and not all the evil witches get punished because these stories are not written by grownups for children. They aren’t stories to be used as a warning, or as a way of keeping kids in line, or even for reassuring little ones that everything will be alright. They are stories that help adults to see the magic in their own world, where terrible things often happen, and to see that even magical worlds aren’t ideal.
The fact that ‘Stardust’ is able to survive the death of one of the most beautiful, mythical creatures points out that it must be a very wonderful book. The interview with the author at the back of the book actually includes the question ‘How could you kill a unicorn?’, a question which sounds playful and irreverent but also very, very angry. Neil Gaiman has an enchanting answer to the question:
‘I loved my unicorn: I was very, very fond of that unicorn and I was sorry that it died. But on the other hand it seemed a really interesting way to try and remind people that this wasn’t necessarily a fairy tale for children. That and one rude word in incredibly small type.’
I think that’s really what makes a good fairytale for grown ups, not all the magical creatures survive and not all the evil witches get punished because these stories are not written by grownups for children. They aren’t stories to be used as a warning, or as a way of keeping kids in line, or even for reassuring little ones that everything will be alright. They are stories that help adults to see the magic in their own world, where terrible things often happen, and to see that even magical worlds aren’t ideal.
Saturday, 11 April 2009
The Other Hand - Chris Cleave
‘The Other Hand’ is a book you’ve probably heard plenty about. It’s the book with the blurb that says ‘We don’t want to tell you what happens in this book’. It’s a clever piece of marketing that not only makes the book seem more mysterious, but also makes it possible for anyone to pick it up without prejudging it. The blurb is meant to make you think the book is special, that it stands out from all the other stories you could choose. Of course my cynical take on the world made me wonder why the book needed such creative marketing.
‘The Other Hand’ is a book that’s going to make people want to get involved with political issues. It would be hard to stand back after hearing Little Bee’s positive, vigorously practical story and seeing the extreme damage done to her by her flight from violence. Her voice is articulate, warm and straightforward. She can be bitingly confrontational, but these moments are surrounded by an extremely generous and spirited narrative so that readers do not feel alienated by extreme anger. She is the right kind of character to make readers engage with the problems of refuges, as her story encourages action rather than pity. There is also a certain amount of middle class heckling and some smug, placid western characters that will irritate people into action, just to prove they are not smug and placid. ‘The Other Hand’ is a valuable book, because it is a novel that compels people to change their behaviours to benefit the whole human race.
However while ‘The Other Hand’ is undeniably powerful I found the quality of its narrative a bit mixed. Some details made me feel like Chris Cleave really inhabited the skin of the female characters he created:
‘Learning the Queen’s English is like scrubbing the bright red varnish off your toes the morning after a dance. It takes a long time and there is always a little bit left at the end, a stain of red along the growing edges to remind you of the good time you had.’
Did he wear and remove nail varnish himself, or is he just super observant? It’s these miniscule things that amazed me and made me feel like Cleave was a guy who knew how to wholeheartedly write another gender.
Then he would switch to Sarah’s narrative and her thoughts seemed clumsily written; the maleness of the author started to intrude. In fact whenever the book switched to Sarah’s narrative, in about the first 180 pages, I got twitchy. Her narrative in these pages often seemed self-conscious, or falsely self pitying:
‘I wish I was a woman who cared deeply about shoes and concealer. I wish I was not the sort of woman who ended up sitting at her kitchen table listening to a refugee girl taking about her awful fear of the dawn.’
Apparently Sarah is the only person in the whole of middle class England who cares about the rest of the world. She is certainly the only western woman in this book portrayed as being interested in substance. She realises she hates the suburbs. She has to make a stand against the shallow magazine she’s created. She likes to make sure the reader remembers how she is not like other people. I think she is suppoused to be a woman struggling to regain her soul and as the book progresses she grows as she questions her existence, but the time spent in her company up until she relives a taunt, violent encounter on a Nigerian beach is extremely frustrating. After this scene Sarah’s sections become more alive and by the end of the book I was almost as interested in reading about her as about Little Bee.
‘The Other Hand’ is a book that’s going to make people want to get involved with political issues. It would be hard to stand back after hearing Little Bee’s positive, vigorously practical story and seeing the extreme damage done to her by her flight from violence. Her voice is articulate, warm and straightforward. She can be bitingly confrontational, but these moments are surrounded by an extremely generous and spirited narrative so that readers do not feel alienated by extreme anger. She is the right kind of character to make readers engage with the problems of refuges, as her story encourages action rather than pity. There is also a certain amount of middle class heckling and some smug, placid western characters that will irritate people into action, just to prove they are not smug and placid. ‘The Other Hand’ is a valuable book, because it is a novel that compels people to change their behaviours to benefit the whole human race.
However while ‘The Other Hand’ is undeniably powerful I found the quality of its narrative a bit mixed. Some details made me feel like Chris Cleave really inhabited the skin of the female characters he created:
‘Learning the Queen’s English is like scrubbing the bright red varnish off your toes the morning after a dance. It takes a long time and there is always a little bit left at the end, a stain of red along the growing edges to remind you of the good time you had.’
Did he wear and remove nail varnish himself, or is he just super observant? It’s these miniscule things that amazed me and made me feel like Cleave was a guy who knew how to wholeheartedly write another gender.
Then he would switch to Sarah’s narrative and her thoughts seemed clumsily written; the maleness of the author started to intrude. In fact whenever the book switched to Sarah’s narrative, in about the first 180 pages, I got twitchy. Her narrative in these pages often seemed self-conscious, or falsely self pitying:
‘I wish I was a woman who cared deeply about shoes and concealer. I wish I was not the sort of woman who ended up sitting at her kitchen table listening to a refugee girl taking about her awful fear of the dawn.’
Apparently Sarah is the only person in the whole of middle class England who cares about the rest of the world. She is certainly the only western woman in this book portrayed as being interested in substance. She realises she hates the suburbs. She has to make a stand against the shallow magazine she’s created. She likes to make sure the reader remembers how she is not like other people. I think she is suppoused to be a woman struggling to regain her soul and as the book progresses she grows as she questions her existence, but the time spent in her company up until she relives a taunt, violent encounter on a Nigerian beach is extremely frustrating. After this scene Sarah’s sections become more alive and by the end of the book I was almost as interested in reading about her as about Little Bee.
Thursday, 9 April 2009
Nerds Heart YA
I take back everything I said about Twitter last week. Twitter is the foundation of all that is good about social networking because it brought me to a fantastic new project, called Nerd Heart YA . Renay from YAFabulous has decided to try hosting a bracket style contest for some of the wonderful YA books that haven’t had the same level of publicity this year as other YA books. She’s set up a Google Group to bring together people interested in YA, people who like reading and people who’ve always dreamed of being power crazy judges. She needs judges who can commit to reading two books, book recommendations and organizers. With them she will set up a competition to find the best, under publicized YA novel. Go sign up to help now before I get going on my post about ‘issues’.
Renay’s not saying that big hype books don’t deserve their space in the sunshine, she just thinks there are other titles out there that could do with a little extra light. I agree, for reasons which I will now illuminate. I’ll try to keep the length under control but no foolish promises.
If readers crowd around one great book publishers are going to see this as a reason to publish more books like that one. Basic economic theory tell us that publishers need to make money to survive, so they’re going to publish books they think can make them money based on market trends. Lots of publishers want to print great books, but what they dream about is finding those well crafted books that are also universally popular cash cows.
So, let’s say they find this well written book that takes off in a major way, for now lets call it ‘All Aboard the Ghost Bus’, and let’s say it’s a tale of magic and adventure written by a writer with three previous books that were reasonably successful. Everyone starts buying it, talking about it, blogging about it so the publisher starts looking around for ‘the next ‘All Aboard the Ghost Bus’’, written by another author. They also buy in more from the same author as the publisher now have a great deal of proof that books from this author will probably be popular/saleable. Other publishers notice the trend and they follow it, putting out books from their lists that have similarities to ‘Ghost Bus’. Now in one way that’s great for the reader, they get to see plenty of well written tales of magic and adventure and they get to read more of books written by a great author. They start seeing these books everywhere, they buy these books because they sound like fantastic stories, plus they probably appear in three for two promotions. Surely well written, bargainous books make the world a lovely place.
However this ream of publicity focused on one book, and extending to similar books can be quite awful for the reader in other ways. Publishers start putting their money into books that are similar to ‘All Aboard the Ghost Bus’, these books start to take over the bookstores and everywhere readers turn they see tales of adventure and magic that fit the newly developed ‘Ghost Bus’ mould for success. This is fine until they want to read something else. By this time there is sadly less of everything else getting published. The diversity of the book market has been reduced because the publishers only have so much money to use and their sensible economic strategies tell them to back the sure winners. It makes little economic sense for publishers to put their money into books they don’t know will sell. Although, this does still happen, being the basis for the trend-setting some publishers pull off, readers have to stop expecting publishers to be the single driving force in a reading revolution. That is our job.
I will always read the books that have been publicized if they sound interesting and I want to pass on my opinions at my blog. However I’m starting to think this needs to be tempered with some publicity for wonderful books that no one hears about because if someone doesn’t start reading them and talking about how splendiferous they are no one will ever know about them. Eventually we won’t have the option of reading these books (unless we brave the self publishing sites). We need to show publishers that there is a market for all the other stuff we like, besides the books currently selling well. We can really only do this by using our purchasing power and our voices.
I realize reading ‘unknown’ books is a risky venture for readers. It involves putting money into something you’re not sure about and most importantly giving your time to something you may not like. It’s also hard, as everywhere you turn there’s yet another review of a well publicized book. However if we don’t wander into new territory soon we’ll be complaining even more about the paucity of what’s published (and I feel the complaints are coming pretty often and loud in the blogging community already).
Agree, disagree – be sure to let me know in the comments…
Renay’s project seeks to generate some new readers (judges must obtain their own copies of the books they judge after all) and some publicity for books that haven’t yet had much attention. She wants them to be worthy of attention, so they have to be strong books. Mostly she just wants people to read some more fantastic YA books alongside the big hitters. So go join in, or if you don’t have time to take part try passing the message on at Twitter.
Renay’s not saying that big hype books don’t deserve their space in the sunshine, she just thinks there are other titles out there that could do with a little extra light. I agree, for reasons which I will now illuminate. I’ll try to keep the length under control but no foolish promises.
If readers crowd around one great book publishers are going to see this as a reason to publish more books like that one. Basic economic theory tell us that publishers need to make money to survive, so they’re going to publish books they think can make them money based on market trends. Lots of publishers want to print great books, but what they dream about is finding those well crafted books that are also universally popular cash cows.
So, let’s say they find this well written book that takes off in a major way, for now lets call it ‘All Aboard the Ghost Bus’, and let’s say it’s a tale of magic and adventure written by a writer with three previous books that were reasonably successful. Everyone starts buying it, talking about it, blogging about it so the publisher starts looking around for ‘the next ‘All Aboard the Ghost Bus’’, written by another author. They also buy in more from the same author as the publisher now have a great deal of proof that books from this author will probably be popular/saleable. Other publishers notice the trend and they follow it, putting out books from their lists that have similarities to ‘Ghost Bus’. Now in one way that’s great for the reader, they get to see plenty of well written tales of magic and adventure and they get to read more of books written by a great author. They start seeing these books everywhere, they buy these books because they sound like fantastic stories, plus they probably appear in three for two promotions. Surely well written, bargainous books make the world a lovely place.
However this ream of publicity focused on one book, and extending to similar books can be quite awful for the reader in other ways. Publishers start putting their money into books that are similar to ‘All Aboard the Ghost Bus’, these books start to take over the bookstores and everywhere readers turn they see tales of adventure and magic that fit the newly developed ‘Ghost Bus’ mould for success. This is fine until they want to read something else. By this time there is sadly less of everything else getting published. The diversity of the book market has been reduced because the publishers only have so much money to use and their sensible economic strategies tell them to back the sure winners. It makes little economic sense for publishers to put their money into books they don’t know will sell. Although, this does still happen, being the basis for the trend-setting some publishers pull off, readers have to stop expecting publishers to be the single driving force in a reading revolution. That is our job.
I will always read the books that have been publicized if they sound interesting and I want to pass on my opinions at my blog. However I’m starting to think this needs to be tempered with some publicity for wonderful books that no one hears about because if someone doesn’t start reading them and talking about how splendiferous they are no one will ever know about them. Eventually we won’t have the option of reading these books (unless we brave the self publishing sites). We need to show publishers that there is a market for all the other stuff we like, besides the books currently selling well. We can really only do this by using our purchasing power and our voices.
I realize reading ‘unknown’ books is a risky venture for readers. It involves putting money into something you’re not sure about and most importantly giving your time to something you may not like. It’s also hard, as everywhere you turn there’s yet another review of a well publicized book. However if we don’t wander into new territory soon we’ll be complaining even more about the paucity of what’s published (and I feel the complaints are coming pretty often and loud in the blogging community already).
Agree, disagree – be sure to let me know in the comments…
Renay’s project seeks to generate some new readers (judges must obtain their own copies of the books they judge after all) and some publicity for books that haven’t yet had much attention. She wants them to be worthy of attention, so they have to be strong books. Mostly she just wants people to read some more fantastic YA books alongside the big hitters. So go join in, or if you don’t have time to take part try passing the message on at Twitter.
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
Weekly Geeks: 2009-13
Too much going on
To follow on a train ride.
Sadly I got lost.
It is mostly my own fault that I have been struggling through ‘The Court of the Air’ for nearly two weeks. The book is packed full of steam punk technology, sci-fi and fantasy which form an extremely complex world and plot. I now realise that this book is not suited as a lunch time book, nor is it a book for trains with quiet carriages full of small children playing learning video games. It needs big chunks of weekend reading time set aside for it and by failing to do this I’ve turned my reading experience with this book into a bit of a mire. I seem to have forgotten some crucial things about the main characters and not being able to follow what’s happening is kept me from picking up the book in my free time.
I haven’t quite finished this book yet and I’m sort of thinking about putting it back on the shelf and trying again later in the year. In fact, yes I’ve decided that’s what I’m going to do. So instead of a full review I’m just offering up the above haiku to tie in with Weekly Geek, where this week one of the options is to write a review in haiku style (see emilyreads for some awesome examples of creativity). What’s above is not a review but it’s the best I can do, as I can’t honestly remember much of what I enjoyed about the book. Anything I disliked could just be down to the incompatibility of the book with the fractured way I was reading.
I can tell you that:
The world Stephen Hunt has created is highly political and this vaguely reminded me of the world of ‘Wicked’.
I couldn’t stop thinking about a recent Dalek storyline from Doctor Who at one point.
The main orphan characters Will and Molly are excellent and even as their quest span out of control I really felt connected to them.
Violence = well done, shocking and surprising every time
I dislike robots who speak as if they are from some kind of odd ye olde time and have ye olde, cutesy robot names
Stephen Hunt’s world is fleshed out to the max – races, politics, back history, monarchy, magic, settings all make up an intriguing knot you want to spend all day unraveling
So back on the shelf it goes. Something else will have to be my first read for the Once Upon a Time Challenge.
I’d love to hear how everyone else’s reading is going, so if you’re feeling creative please leave me a comment in haiku form (that’s three lines with the first line made up of five syllables, the second of seven syllables and the third of five syllables) about your reading experience so far this week.
To follow on a train ride.
Sadly I got lost.
It is mostly my own fault that I have been struggling through ‘The Court of the Air’ for nearly two weeks. The book is packed full of steam punk technology, sci-fi and fantasy which form an extremely complex world and plot. I now realise that this book is not suited as a lunch time book, nor is it a book for trains with quiet carriages full of small children playing learning video games. It needs big chunks of weekend reading time set aside for it and by failing to do this I’ve turned my reading experience with this book into a bit of a mire. I seem to have forgotten some crucial things about the main characters and not being able to follow what’s happening is kept me from picking up the book in my free time.
I haven’t quite finished this book yet and I’m sort of thinking about putting it back on the shelf and trying again later in the year. In fact, yes I’ve decided that’s what I’m going to do. So instead of a full review I’m just offering up the above haiku to tie in with Weekly Geek, where this week one of the options is to write a review in haiku style (see emilyreads for some awesome examples of creativity). What’s above is not a review but it’s the best I can do, as I can’t honestly remember much of what I enjoyed about the book. Anything I disliked could just be down to the incompatibility of the book with the fractured way I was reading.
I can tell you that:
The world Stephen Hunt has created is highly political and this vaguely reminded me of the world of ‘Wicked’.
I couldn’t stop thinking about a recent Dalek storyline from Doctor Who at one point.
The main orphan characters Will and Molly are excellent and even as their quest span out of control I really felt connected to them.
Violence = well done, shocking and surprising every time
I dislike robots who speak as if they are from some kind of odd ye olde time and have ye olde, cutesy robot names
Stephen Hunt’s world is fleshed out to the max – races, politics, back history, monarchy, magic, settings all make up an intriguing knot you want to spend all day unraveling
So back on the shelf it goes. Something else will have to be my first read for the Once Upon a Time Challenge.
I’d love to hear how everyone else’s reading is going, so if you’re feeling creative please leave me a comment in haiku form (that’s three lines with the first line made up of five syllables, the second of seven syllables and the third of five syllables) about your reading experience so far this week.
Monday, 6 April 2009
Blog Improvement Project - Week Six
Week six of blog improvement was the beginning of social media month, where we had to try a new social networking tool/use one you’ve neglected. I decided to try to twitter it up more but I failed in a big way. I did clear out my following box and remove all the people who use twitter just to flog wares. I also started following some new people, people whose blogs I started to read and few author twitters as well, but I’m still not sure I feel the love for twittering.
I’m just not developing a relationship with Twitter, although I love the idea it’s still not my go to networking site. 90% of the people I want to talk to in real life are on Facebook so even though I am officially over it I’m often drawn there to check up on plans for going out/away and checking out people’s pictures. If I want to connect with people I don’t know I direct them to the blog (this week actually made me realise how much I love having a place where I can write out my thoughts in long hand). I read the blogs of most of the people I care about seeing on twitter, sow hile it’s nice to learn a little bit more about their day to day lives how much can you pick up from a tweet? If I could think of a really original way to use Twitter I would visit more but as it stands it’s a place for people to see my blog link and follow on through.
I’ve still got my thinking hat on (I imagine it would be an elegant crocheted skull cap affair – what would your thinking cap look like?) and am determined to think of fun things to do with my tweets but for now Twitter continues to baffle me. It provides a safe space to vent quickly, but it’s little else for me at the moment.
I promise there are book related things coming soon. I’m just in a bit of a book bind at the moment. Bear with me for 150 pages or so and I’ll be back with opinions.
I’m just not developing a relationship with Twitter, although I love the idea it’s still not my go to networking site. 90% of the people I want to talk to in real life are on Facebook so even though I am officially over it I’m often drawn there to check up on plans for going out/away and checking out people’s pictures. If I want to connect with people I don’t know I direct them to the blog (this week actually made me realise how much I love having a place where I can write out my thoughts in long hand). I read the blogs of most of the people I care about seeing on twitter, sow hile it’s nice to learn a little bit more about their day to day lives how much can you pick up from a tweet? If I could think of a really original way to use Twitter I would visit more but as it stands it’s a place for people to see my blog link and follow on through.
I’ve still got my thinking hat on (I imagine it would be an elegant crocheted skull cap affair – what would your thinking cap look like?) and am determined to think of fun things to do with my tweets but for now Twitter continues to baffle me. It provides a safe space to vent quickly, but it’s little else for me at the moment.
I promise there are book related things coming soon. I’m just in a bit of a book bind at the moment. Bear with me for 150 pages or so and I’ll be back with opinions.
Thursday, 2 April 2009
I Suck at Challenges - April
It’s time for all us bad challenge addicts to talk about how our challenge reading is progressing. This month I’ve got something to shout about as I’ve finished the Victorian Challenge’. I’m still a little disappointed that I didn’t read any books actually written in the Victorian era but I think I should have grabbed Dickens during the more wintery months as his writing just seems to go better with freezing fog than trees breaking into bud. My house is still littered with contemporary novels set in Victorian times so it’s possible I may read a couple more this year if I find any space in amongst the challenges.
Let’s see what else did I read for challenges? I started Reading Dewey’s Books and the Art History Challenge by reading ‘The Birth of Venus’. I completed my fifth book for the YA Challenge which was ‘The Juliet Club’. I officially finished the Vampire Challenge when I read ‘Changeling’, which heavily featured vampires, but I can’t imagine I’ll stop at two with this challenge.
Oh and I started a new challenge….again…. I always knew it was going to happen because Carl runs two wonderful challenges every year and I’m unable to resist them. So as you can see I’m involved in the Once Upon a Time Challenge for the next three months and I’m currently in the middle of two books for it. One has possibly the most saccharine army scene ever but has managed to freak me out so much I can’t have it in my room at night and the other is intriguing, sometimes ponderous but highly imaginative.
So it’s really just the non-fiction challenges that have faded into the background. I also sort of forgot I was doing the Olympic Challenge but I have until 2012 to finish that so I’m sure I’ll get around to it, y’know next year when I vow not to work on any other challenges.
Let’s see what else did I read for challenges? I started Reading Dewey’s Books and the Art History Challenge by reading ‘The Birth of Venus’. I completed my fifth book for the YA Challenge which was ‘The Juliet Club’. I officially finished the Vampire Challenge when I read ‘Changeling’, which heavily featured vampires, but I can’t imagine I’ll stop at two with this challenge.
Oh and I started a new challenge….again…. I always knew it was going to happen because Carl runs two wonderful challenges every year and I’m unable to resist them. So as you can see I’m involved in the Once Upon a Time Challenge for the next three months and I’m currently in the middle of two books for it. One has possibly the most saccharine army scene ever but has managed to freak me out so much I can’t have it in my room at night and the other is intriguing, sometimes ponderous but highly imaginative.
So it’s really just the non-fiction challenges that have faded into the background. I also sort of forgot I was doing the Olympic Challenge but I have until 2012 to finish that so I’m sure I’ll get around to it, y’know next year when I vow not to work on any other challenges.
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