Last Month in Review: May 2014

I'm guessing that Garrison's favorite song is Lean On Me

Garrison Keillor's trademark red sneakers

If you've visited my blog any time in the last month, you could be forgiven for assuming that I've been trapped under something heavy. You could also be forgiven for assuming that maybe my lack of posting was because I was feverishly reading LOTS of books.  Sadly, despite the fact that I only posted once in May, and that was write the super-easy Last Month In Review post for April, I was neither trapped under something heavy nor feverishly consuming books.

I was, however, very busy with work (Garrison Keillor!).  And don't ask me why, but for some reason I felt myself compelled to watch the movie Pitch Perfect and most of season 2, and then all of seasons 3 and 4, of Glee, a tv show I stopped watching after season 1 when it became less about the musical, geeky experience and more about the flashy guest stars and musical performances never to be believed of a high school.  

I didn't even read that much in May, but here it is.  June will be better by about 200%, I expect, because I'll start my vacation some time that month, and that means READING ALL DAY.  Plus there's the mini-thon, which I'm looking forward to in a way that rivals the feelings Persephone must have looked forward to her time with Demeter after being trapped in the underworld.  Tika, I salute you for hosting it at just the right time!

1. Lucky Us by Amy Bloom.  I love this cover, and I enjoyed a lot about the book, but the author commits the cardinal sin of the epistolary form: she puts in the letters too much information that the recipient would already know, and therefore is just trying to tell the reader.  That might be acceptable in YA books, but not in literary fiction.  

          

Fan art from Goodreads

2. and 3. The Way We Get By and Drop Dead Gorgeous by Mistful.  Oh, yeah.  I also read some long Harry Potter fan fiction.  This is Harry/Draco, where they are auror partners and where Draco has many cunning plans and is the only one who can resist Harry's part-veela allures. Shacklebolt may or may not be a robot who enjoys his sexy times with house elves.  In other words, these two stories are VERY funny and really well written.  They're also really long--about 400 pages for the pair.

4. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.  This was a re-listen of the audio book, which incidentally I seem to prefer to the written book.  Reading all of that Harry/Draco fanfiction inspired me to listen to this audio again when I had run out of un-listened-to audio books. I also fell in love with Levi again.

5. Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique.  This is one of only two actual books that I read last month.  Go, me.  It's a debut novel set in the US and British Virgin Islands, spanning from the ceding of the USVI from the Danish up through the 1960s.  I liked it a lot.

6. The Great Greene Heist by Varian Johnson.  Those of you who are on Twitter might recognize the #weneeddiversity buzz that has been surrounding this book.  A deplorably low percentage of children's  books published in the US have main characters of color, much less feature them on the cover of the books.   My coworkers at Odyssey Bookshop and our colleagues at Eight Cousins have challenged other indie booksellers to sell as many copies of this book as we can to help put it on the bestseller lists. It's super fun, a quick read, and an homage to popular heist films like Oceans Eleven. Any readers of As the Crowe Flies (and Reads) who order the book from my bookstore will get a free ARC (or two) thrown in with your order.  Just mention it when calling (413.534.7307) or going to our website.

In a nod to Alley at What Red Read, here are some stats:

Men/Women: 16%/84%
White authors/writers of color: 68%/32%
Real books/fanfiction: 68%/32%
Books for adults/books for middle grade or YA: 32%/68%

Coming up soon: my recent trip to BEA, wherein I met lots of nifty people and had encounters with a rather surprising number of celebrities.

What did y'all enjoy reading last month?

Ways To Procrastinate, Or: Fanfiction, YouTube, and My Own Private Eucharist

August was such an outstanding reading month for me that I suppose that it should come as no surprise that September finds me in a bit of a slump. My two days off each week are generally Friday and Saturday, and when I'm being good, in between various household chores, I spend those days reading, book and/or travel blogging, enjoying beverages of the adult variety, and watching bad TV with my friend. When I'm being bad, it means that I'm reading fanfiction, watching bad TV on the computer all day long, and consuming almost an entire loaf of freshly baked bread and almost an entire bottle of Bordeaux.

One of the best cheeses ever

Don't judge me, peoples. Bread & wine is a classic combination, and if you happen throw a little salted butter and a wedge of St. Andre cheese into the mix, then it practically counts as a meal.  If it was good enough for Jesus's last meal, it's good enough for me.

It helps that my husband has been away for a few days.  Though I always miss him when he is away, I also kinda like it, because it provides me an opportunity to lapse into my single ways: sloven laziness and an utter disregard for nutrition. The unwashed wineglasses pile up in the sink, I stay up late eating Goldfish crackers, Snickers, hummus, pretzels, cheese, apples, Golden Oreos, After Eight mints, and anything else I have to hand; drink beer, wine, rum, and bourbon;  and sleep until my dogs makes it very clear she has urgent and imminent needs.

Lest you think I'm a total lazeabout, I hasten to add that I multitask, at least while I'm eating and drinking: I played the Google pinata thingy about 50 times, I watched Joss Whedon's genius in the form of Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, AND I got a little transfixed with Felicia Day (who is one of the stars of Dr. Horrible), making my way through her filmography on Netflix, then scouted for YouTube videos of her either singing or playing the violin (she's actually quite good), THEN working my way through her Flog, which I loved. How was it that other vaguely recognizing her from Season 7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I didn't suspect her wonderfully geeky existence? Seriously, how adorable is she?

Pretty adorable.

I also watched the first episodes of Portlandia, Breaking Bad, and How I Met Your Mother. I think I really like Breaking Bad and will make encourage my husband to watch the rest with me.  I hear from family and other bloggers that the series finale is coming up soon, so I might as well jump on the bandwagon now.

I also read fanfiction.  Specifically, Harry Potter fanfiction.  More specifically, Hermione/Snape. There's one that's quite good called The Fire and the Rose, where Neville has an accident in potions that causes his cauldron to explode, and the polyjuice potion he was brewing becomes something else entirely: Hermione and Snape find themselves looking like each other, and the effects take months to wear off, not an hour. I usually skim it for the naughty bits but this time I've been reading it straight through.  It's interesting watching Hermione learn how to wield authority like a professor and watching Snape learn how to interact with Harry and Ron without becoming apoplectic. It's a solid piece of fanfiction, better written than average, with a conceit that plays out well. There aren't that many naughty bits--I think they occur in only two chapters--so if the thought of Hermione/Snape leaves you squicked, you could skip them.

Mina, aka The Grey Ghost

Him is the handsomest furry, purr-y, Murray boy, him is. 

Last, but never least, I made sure to spend plenty of quality time with my animules.  For my cats, that means lots of cuddles in bed. For my dog, however, that means going for rides in the car.  She's at her happiest with her nose stuck out the window, and it's the perfect time of year for enjoying a short ride in the car after work. Autumn has always been my favorite time of year and it's the only season in New England I particularly like. September and October are pretty glorious around here:

Looking over the Connecticut River valley, just up the road from my house

And here's Roxie, in all of her glory.  Don't you just love that ear action?  She's a dog, so she likes most things in life.  But of all the things she really likes, riding in cars is at the top of her list:

Roxie in the car

And that, my friends, is how I procrastinated.  All. Weekend. Long.  What did you do? 

Last Month in Review: May 2012

 May seems to have been an average month of reading for me: some adult novels, one YA, and an audio.  I didn't complete any nonfiction this month, but I'm still plugging along, a few pages at a time, with two nonfiction books and I'm in no rush to finish them, so that's fine.  In chronological order, here is what I read in May:

1. Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Green/Matthew Dicks (for some strange reason, the author writes under one name in the US and a different one in the UK). I listened to this audio on my daily commute and it was awful.  Not the reader, but the story.  Review is here. 

2. The Vanishing Act by Mette Jakobsen.  Not yet published and not yet reviewed (at least by me), this book is something special. Hopefully I'll have the time to review it one of these days. I read the manuscript at the request of one of my sales reps.

3. Black Heart by Holly Black. This book concludes her Curse Workers trilogy, and it worked well both as a standalone and as a conclusion to the series.  Though I have to say that I *hate* the new cover designs for this series.

4. Y: A Novel by Marjorie Celona.  Also not yet published, and also a manuscript that I read at somebody's request.

5. The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde.  Hands down, the most fun I've had reading a book all year.  Review here.

6. Evel Knievel Days by Pauls Toutonghi. I read this book for work and enjoyed it very much. Review here.

7. The Jewel of the Nile by Anna.  This is a novel-length work of Harry Potter fanfiction that I've read many times before.  The writing is excellent, including the sexy times.  In fact, most of the time I think Anna is a far better writer than Hermione's creator. Curious?  Read it here.

8. Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson.  Utterly interesting debut novel featuring religion, politics, and hackers set in an unnamed Middle East country. Review here.

9. The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian.  The downer subject (Armenian genocide) couldn't keep me from tearing through this one.  I think it's Chris's best book.  Review here.

Started but didn't finish: Jonathan Franzen's Freedom on audio and several books that I'm saving for my vacation later this month. Have to test drive 'em, you know, so to avoid getting stuck with duds.  These books have to earn their way into my suitcase!

Demons and Zombies and Books, Oh, My!

You know it's a grand year when not one, but two, major Jane Austen pop cultural events occur. Sometime this summer, moviegoers will be treated to Pride & Predator, a film about filming yet another version of Pride & Prejudice, when the unthinkable happens--an alien invasion! I'm very excited about this prospect. I like both films and movies--don't make me choose among an adrenaline-filled espionage thriller and the thoughtful, quiet, character-driven subtitled story from Argentina and the sweeping historical epic or the arty costume drama. I want 'em all. Pride & Predator should promise the best of all worlds. Popcorn & Raisinettes will complete my happiness.

But even that movie can't compare to my excitement over the new book published by Quirk Books this week-- Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, by Seth Grahame-Smith. At first I wondered why the author didn't choose a classic more suited to the gothic & the macabre to introduce zombies. Wuthering Heights seemed the most natural choice. Even Jane Eyre had the nifty plot device of the mad woman in the attic. If you're going to start with Austen, Northanger Abbey might seem more logical. But then I read what prompted the author: why was the regiment stationed in Meryton when they were actually needed to fight on the continent? Could it be...that zombies had invaded the town and that the residents' lives were in danger?

I'm eagerly awaiting the comp copy that my sales rep promised. But if it doesn't arrive by the weekend you can bet that one of the store's copies will be going home with me.

In other news, I finished another book last week that is forthcoming from one of my favorite fanfiction writers. Sarah Rees Brennan is so far best known on the internet for her fabulous Harry Potter stories, predominantly featuring the Harry/Draco pairing. Very soon she'll be as well known for her teen fiction, the first of which is The Demon's Lexicon. In the spirit of not spoiling anything, I'll make my comments as wide as possible. Overall I thought it was a good first effort but it was not as polished as her later fanfiction tended to be. Those readers who've enjoyed her dialogue, particularly Draco's laconic snarkiness, will still find evidence of that in her new book, particularly in the brother-sister team who seek out help from the Alan and Nick, two brothers born into a family constantly on the run from magicians.  One early example: '"Rituals with the dead," Jamie repeated in a faint, stunned voice.  Nick turned and looked at him coldly. "I mean," Jamie said, and swallowed, "how interesting and not at all creepy!  Please go on."'

 The pacing was a little uneven, and I'm not crazy about this new style of writing that names a concept or character on one page but doesn't explain it to the reader until pages or even chapters later. Since I tend to skim things when reading, this tactic makes me go back and re-read paragraphs to make sure I didn't skip something crucial--when inevitably the explanation show up later in the book.  Still, there was a major twist in the end that I didn't call correctly, though like a good mystery writer, Rees Brennan had strewn clues and red herrings throughout (unlike much of her fanfiction, where I correctly anticipated many of her plot twists). The end left me wanting to pick up the next book in the series right away, which means I'll have to wait at least another year or so for it.