Bookish Things

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

I have 30 minutes of listening left to The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. I think I’m safe to review it.

I liked it a lot. It’s not quite as good as the Harry Potter novels, but it was fun to listen to and it kept my interest. I enjoyed the challenge of remembering my Greek mythology education and have to admit to doing online research to be better reminded of the mythology of some specific characters. I found Percy Jackson to be written a wee bit more mature than I’d expect a 11-12 year old to be in real life, but that didn’t detract from the story at all.

The narrator was excellent. He has a youthful quality to his voice that was perfect for the first person telling of the story and his voices, while not as good as other narrators, were still pretty good.

I plan to read the rest in the series. I’d like to see the movie as well, but I’m nervous about it as well given how royally Hollowood can screw up a good book adaptation.

The Lightning Thief gets 4 stars out of 5.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

1. Mel Gibson needs prayer and help. And that’s all I will say about his latest foray into the tabloids.

2. Which is Better: Darcy or Knightly?

3. I’m listening to The Lightning Thief and I need a serious refresher of my Greek mythology education. Also, it makes me want to rent Clash of the Titans. But the question is, which one? 1981 or 2010? The 2010 verson doesn’t come out on DVD until next month, though.

That said, I’m really enjoying The Lightning Thief. The narrator is excellent.

4. We’re slowly recovering from the stomach virus that took over our house over the weekend. I’d rather be hit by a car than deal with that. I’m not kidding.

Friday, July 09, 2010

Months ago, Jared Wilson posted a prayer from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers. I think it was actually the prayer called The Valley of Vision. I liked the prayer and promptly put the book on my wishlist as a gift idea for Beau.

To my happy surprise, I received a copy for my birthday back in March. We have been slowly reading through it as a bedtime devotional on the nights that we are actually able to go to bed at the same time. Lately, that has been rare because of the kids or one or the other of us being utterly exhausted. But on the night’s that we’re able to read one of the prayers, I have been struck by the beauty of the language, the total submission to the authority of God, and the simplicity of the gratitude and understanding of God’s grace and mercy.

God is God and He is good and His mercies endure forever.

In Prayer

O Lord, in prayer I launch far out into the eternal world, and on that broad ocean my soul triumphs over all evils on the shores of mortality. Time, with its gay amusements and cruel disappointments never appears so inconsiderate as then.

In prayer I see myself as nothing; I find my heart going after Thee with intensity, and long with vehement thirst to live to Thee. Blessed be the strong gales of the Spirit that speed me on my way to the New Jerusalem.

In prayer all things here below vanish, and nothing seems important but holiness of heart and the salvation of others.

In prayer all my worldly cares, fears, anxieties disappear, and are of as little significance as a puff of wind.

In prayer my soul inwardly exults with lively thoughts at what Thou art doing for Thy church, and I long that Thou shouldest get Thyself a great name from sinners returning to Zion.

In prayer I am lifted above the frowns and flatteries of life, and taste heavenly joys; entering into the eternal world I can give myself to Thee with all my heart, to be Thine for ever.

In prayer I can place all my concerns in Thy hands, to be entirely at Thy disposal, having no will or interest of my own.

In prayer I can intercede for my friends, ministers, sinners, the church, Thy kingdom to come, with greatest freedom, ardent hopes, as a son to his father, as a lover to the beloved.

Help me to be all prayer and never to cease praying.

Amen.

Thursday, July 08, 2010

I finished listening to The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova last night on my way home from having dinner with some of my small group friends.

Late one night, exploring her father’s library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to “My dear and unfortunate successor”, and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of: a labyrinth where the secrets of her father’s past and her mother’s mysterious fate connect to an inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history.

The letters provide links to one of the darkest powers that humanity has ever known, and to a centuries-long quest to find the source of that darkness and wipe it out. It is a quest for the truth about Vlad the Impaler, the medieval ruler whose barbarous reign formed the basis of the legend of Dracula. Generations of historians have risked their reputations, their sanity, and even their lives to learn the truth about Vlad the Impaler and Dracula. Now one young woman must decide whether to take up this quest herself, to follow her father in a hunt that nearly brought him to ruin years ago, when he was a vibrant young scholar and her mother was still alive.

What does the legend of Vlad the Impaler have to do with the modern world? Is it possible that the Dracula of myth truly existed, and that he has lived on, century after century, pursuing his own unknowable ends? The answers to these questions cross time and borders, as first the father and then the daughter search for clues, from dusty Ivy League libraries to Istanbul, Budapest, and the depths of Eastern Europe. In city after city, in monasteries and archives, in letters and in secret conversations, the horrible truth emerges about Vlad the Impaler’s dark reign, and about a time-defying pact that may have kept his awful work alive down through the ages.

I’m not a huge fan of the vampire genre, but I had seen some good reviews of this novel.

Generally, I liked it. It has a slower pace than much of what I normally read and it is thick with history albeit fictionalized. The audio version has two narrators, male and female, which makes it easier to follow the first person telling of the story.

I do not love this book, though. I found it plodding at times, especially toward the end. The letter format of the story-telling was slightly tedious, especially toward the end. And I found the climax to be anti-climactic.

Do I recommend the book? Yes, as I said, I enjoyed it generally. I give The Historian 3.5 stars.

So what am I reading now? My mp3 player is running The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. My nightstand holds Bloodthirsty by Marshall Karp.

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

I finished reading a fun book yesterday. Chris at Rude Cactus mentioned it a couple of weeks ago and since I’ve tried books that he’s mentioned in the past and thoroughly enjoyed them, I thought I’d try this one, too. I quickly looked it up at the library website, saw that it was not available in an audio version and promptly put the hardcover on hold.

The first novel of Marshall Karp, The Rabbit Factory is a fun detective novel in the classic sense.

Welcome to Lamaar Studios. Once a small Southern California animation house, it has grown into an entertainment conglomerate encompassing movies, television, music, video games, and a sprawling theme park called Familyland.

When an actor portraying Familyland’s beloved mascot, Rambunctious Rabbit, is brutally murdered on park grounds, Lamaar executives fear that their idyllic image of ‘50s America will be shattered. Feeling pressure from the studio, LAPD Detectives Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs must conduct their investigation while avoiding the public eye.

But as more murders are committed, Lomax and Biggs uncover a sinister plot. Someone has a vendetta against Lamaar, a vendetta worth killing for. With the media closing in and political pressure mounting, the partners must race to discover the Lamaar-hating madman before he brings the family entertainment giant to its knees.

The mystery is intriguing and takes several surprising turns as the story progresses. The characters are colorful and hilarious and touching. The dialogue is very witty. I highly recommend the book. I’m looking forward to reading Karp’s 3 other novels. I give this one 4.5 stars.

Warning: There is adult and sexual content and language.

Bonus Material: Karp has a blog - Lomax & Biggs - that I’ve added to my list in the sidebar because I have a feeling I’ll be visiting often.

Thursday, July 01, 2010

Dune. I’m talking about the book, not the movie.

Yes?

No?

Friday, May 14, 2010

I love this insight into The Hobbit.

We’ve been part of this adventure with Bilbo from the beginning. We’ve found ourselves comfortable in the Shire and suddenly thrown, partially against our will, into an adventure with a band of dwarves and a quirky wizard. We escaped trolls, goblins, Gollum, spiders, and wood-elves; we’ve discovered a magic ring and a sword. At this point, about 2/3 of the way into the book, Tolkien makes a very deliberate story transition: “…we are now drawing near the end of the eastward journey and coming to the last and greatest adventure, so we must hurry on” (end of chapter 9, “Barrels out of Bond”).

From here, we step into Lake-town, a small wooden village of people (not elves or dwarves) a few days from Dale and the Lonely Mountain. Dale is the town and the Lonely Mountain the dwarf dwelling places that were destroyed by the dragon Smaug, and the reason for the whole adventure: The dwarves are returning to reclaim their treasure and defeat Smaug. In Lake-town, a fascinating little legend (or fairy tale) had been told for many years that the Dwarf kings Thror and Thrain would return “and gold would flow in rivers through the mountain-gates, and all that land would be filled with new song and new laughter.”

In other words, a land plunged into darkness by an evil dragon would be returned to a state of glory by the return of a king. Sound familiar?

Go read the whole thing. Makes me love The Hobbit even more.

[via Brandywine Books]

Thursday, May 06, 2010

This is who The Pioneer Woman missed out on the other night.

Shame to miss that cuteness, no?

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

The Pioneer Woman was in town yesterday as part of her cookbook tour. The shindig was scheduled to start at 6pm. I had a plan - I was going to leave work early in order to have time to get home to freshen up a bit and pick up Molly and get to the bookstore by 5pm. I figured I’d be home by 7:30 or maybe 8pm.

I got home in record time. Molly was just waking up from her nap, which was perfect. I got my stuff together, which included a fully loaded bag for Molly with diapers, milk, snacks, and even jarred food for just in case; and my tote bag with my cookbook for signing, MP3 player for the car, Blackberry, wallet, and the box containing the earrings that I made for her, see my crappy camera phone picture below. I did take better shots with my real camera, but I haven’t downloaded them yet.

OK, so we’re at the bookstore and I am waylaid by an employee asking if I’m there for the book signing. I confirmed that I was and after also confirming that I had my book already I was given a neon green slip of paper with a sticker that was now my ticket for the signing. I headed to the coffee shop to get a snack for myself and a cold beverage and then headed in the direction of the chattering magpies who had already assembled in the back corner. Here’s where I got my first sign of foreboding - they had only set up about 30 chairs and all were already occupied. And there were about 50 other people gathered around those chairs. I maneuvered around to a place at the left side, in a row of stacks to stay out of the way of the employees who were marching up and down this narrow path. Since I had the stroller I was super conscious of space and the potential for annoying people.

And then The Waiting began. Not too long into the wait I saw my friend Kris and waved her over. Having her with me helped keep time moving - we had a nice conversation. Molly was well-behaved and charming to the ladies around us. You can sort of see the growing crowd in this shot, also taken with my phone because I figured with Molly there was no way I could actually use a real camera so I didn’t bring it.

This is just about 1/3 of the crowd at that point, maybe 5:45pm or so. To the left of that shot is the rest of the crowd, the seating, and the podium. And more were pouring in. I speculate that there were about 300 people there. I was told that each color group of tickets was 50 people. They easily had about 7 color groups of tickets and maybe more that I didn’t see.

Promptly at 6pm, Ree arrived. Everyone started taking pictures and she grabbed her camera and started taking pictures of us. Here’s the one shot I got of her doing just that.

She spoke for about 2 minutes then took questions for about 5 minutes and then they took her to the opposite end of the store to set her up for the signing while they then started organizing the masses by the colors of their tickets. Yellow was lucky - they went first. Then I think it was orange, purple, biege, magenta (Kris was that color), and then my color was called.

The employees were smart and used the stacks to weave us through the store to get to Ree. I got in line at about 6:30pm about 2 sets of stacks away (closer to the signing end) than where I had been standing for the first part. It took an hour to get a little less than halfway. It was at this point that I started to consider bailing because of Molly.

She was a trooper. Despite not being able to feed her any kind of dinner she held up really well. Add to it the stifling heat - it had to be 90 degrees in our corner of the store because of all the bodies and talking. And Molly wanted to be held, which made it even hotter for both of us. Fortunately, the gals in line with me were very sweet and tried to help keep her happy. A friend from my church was two people behind me with another friend of hers. And it turned out that one of the two directly behind me also went to my church so the 5 of us enjoyed our time in line together, talking about church stuff, TV, books, shoes, etc.

At about 7:30pm I noticed that Beau had called me so I called him back. He asked how it was going and I explained that I was only about halfway through the line and that Molly was done. He asked if I wanted him to come get her. I was reluctant (she was my conversation prop for when I got to the signing table, but I’ll explain more about that in a minute), but she was so miserable that I said yes. About 20 minutes later I saw Beau and Jesse headed my way. The ladies around me all kind of swooned at my rescuing hero. It was hilarious. They all said he gets major brownie points for coming to get Molly. I agreed. And they cooed over Jesse’s cuteness, too. At that point I considered asking them to stay, but I knew that Jesse would get too antsy, so they left. And I felt naked without Molly.

What was I going to do when I finally got to the table? I was counting on having her there to help with the small talk. I stink at small talk. I’m too shy and I stumble and I have a hard time making eye contact and I’m a complete dork in these kinds of situations. I was doomed.

By 8:45 I was next in line. I had my book out and ready and my little jewelry box, too. So I get up to the table and ham-handedly place the box on the table. “This is for you,” I said to the table. Ree thanked me sweetly and started to sign my book while I stumbled around for something to say. “So you flew in yesterday?” I asked, already knowing the answer because she said that at the beginning! D’oh! “Yes, and I fly out tomorrow,” she replied. “But I’m coming back in September with the family to do some home school touristy stuff!” I told her that’s a good time to come because it isn’t as hot. Really? That’s the best I could do? Where’s Molly? Then my friend Kris came to the rescue with her camera - she took a picture of me with Ree and then I think (hope!) I thanked Ree and I walked off.

I am a total dork. But my cookbook is signed and Ree couldn’t be more lovely and gracious. The line behind me went back to where I had started so I think she had about 90 minutes to 2 more hours of signing to get through. She took time with each person who wanted pictures, took several of her own, and smiled through the whole thing. Her face must hurt after all of the smiling she does at one of these things.

Later, in the car, I thought of the perfect thing I could have said to her, “Ree, thank you for helping my family to eat really well during our 3 blizzards this winter.”

[UPDATED]: Here are better pictures of Ree from my friend Kris.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

I finished listening to Steig Larsson’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo this afternoon. It was highly recommended to me by a friend with whom I seem to share identical taste in books. I’ve read quite a few authors that she recommended and was pleased with all so far. And I liked this book, too, but I didn’t love it as much as others seem to.

The story and characters are interesting. The mystery was puzzling and well worked out (although I did figure it out about halfway through). The side plot was nearly forgotten by me though. I got to the solution to the mystery on Friday and was surprised when I saw that there was still 3 hours of listening. But it turned out that I forgot about the side plot. Silly me.

I plan to listen to the sequel, which takes up the story of Lisbeth Salander again. She’s a fascinating girl so I’m sure I’ll enjoy that novel as well.

TGwtDT gets 3.5 stars out of 5. I take away 1 star because of the extremely graphic sexual abuse portrayed. It was pretty severe.

Monday, March 22, 2010

I shared about the blog with my small group tonight. We’re reading Jared Wilson‘s Your Jesus is Too Safe together and they asked how I knew him. Since I have never met Jared in real life, I had to explain the blog.

What amazed me is to remember that I’ve been blogging since August 2002. I first met The Thinklings sometime before their infamous What Color is This Liquid? post. I was comment #61, posted on May 6, 2003, asked to chime in by Bill. I was the first non-Thinkling (unless you count Bird’s and Bill’s wives), to post a comment. It was all downhill from there in blogland.

It’s yellow, by the way.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

I subscribe to The Goldberg File - Jonah Goldberg‘s email newsletter, which is hilarious.

In his latest missive, he mentions his appreciation for the vampire ouevre:

I can understand why John Miller wants the culture to move on to werewolves, Frankenstein, mummies, or whatnot, but I don’t think that’s likely. Vampires are better literary devices for, I think, obvious reasons. Werewolves are nice people who turn into mean animals. Mummies are zombies wrapped up in Ace bandages. Frankenstein is a DIY zombie with a slightly better operating system. (Note: Lord knows I’m not dissing Zombies. But two points need to be made on that score. Individual zombies are not particularly scary or interesting. For zombies to work cinematically, pretty much the whole word has to go zombie. Second, even then it’s not like there are a huge number of plot innovations for zombie themed movies). Meanwhile, vampires are smart and wise (thanks to their age) and they can have sex and so on. Oh, and they’re subversive: They live among us.

He then expands on a thought I’ve had myself, which is why I never read the sequels to Twilight (aside from the terrible movie, which is the other reason I won’t be continuing with the stories in either dead tree or celluloid versions).

But I do have a problem with the vampire mania sweeping pop culture. There’s something gross about it.

In Twilight, the romantic lead is Edward Cullen, who’s about 120 years old and falls in love with a 17-year-old girl.

In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel was born in the 1700s, and he’s in love with Buffy, who’s 16 or so when the relationship starts.

In The Vampire Diaries, Stefan Salvatore is about 160 years old. His girlfriend seems to be about 17.

In True Blood, Bill Compton is roughly a century-and-a-half old, and he seduces a woman in her early twenties.

Anyone see a trend here?

Put True Blood aside, since it’s intended for adults. Imagine if the 17-year-old girls in Twilight, Buffy, or Vampire Diaries were being seduced by 65-year-old guys. That would be gross. But when the teenage girl is seduced by a guy two, three, four times as old, it’s like-totally-OMG-super-romantic. Why?

The explanation, according to the girls, seems to boil down to: Because he’s good looking. Because he’s mature. Because he’s mysterious (“I’ve never met anyone like him!”). And because he’s at war with his urges.

The problem is that if you take away the good-looking part, you’re describing a run-of-the-mill dirty old man. If you keep the good-looking part, you’re describing a slightly younger but really, really sleazy dude who cruises high schools looking for jailbait.

Ick.

Friday, February 05, 2010

I finished listening to Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell yesterday. As I said on FB:

*In my best British accent* Mere words cannot express how much I love the lovely writings of Miss Gaskell. My esteem for dear Miss Matty knows no bounds, which I believe was the aim of Miss Gaskell in the telling of the Cranford Amazons. *British off* This will be a favorite above all others for a very long time. In addition to the greatness of Miss Gaskell’s writing is the narrative perfection of Ms. Porter. She is unmatched.

5 stars out of 5.

And I see that Miss Gaskell wrote two other Cranford stories, so I’m off to see if there are audio versions of them as well. If not, I’ll just have to find the time to sit with the dead tree versions.

Monday, November 02, 2009

My small group is doing Battlefield of the Mind next. I don’t know anything about Joyce Meyer. For those who are fans or familiar with her, what can you tell me about her theology?

Thursday, October 22, 2009

I’ve gotten a lot of books read on the commute lately. The last two were outside of my normal reading materials and I thought I’d mention them in case anyone is looking for something new to read.

A Duty to the Dead by Charles Todd - the author was recommended by a librarian friend who seems to enjoy reading the same things I do. We compare favorite authors a lot, so when she sent me a list of authors that I had not read yet, I thought I’d give them a try. Todd came up to bat first.

The winning first in a new WWI series from the bestselling mother-son Todds (A Matter of Justice and 10 other Inspector Rutledge mysteries) introduces Bess Crawford, a resourceful British army nurse who’s injured when her ship is sunk in 1916. While convalescing in England, Bess is tormented because she’s put off delivering a message from Arthur Graham, a dying soldier under her care for whom she’d developed strong feelings, to his family. Her own brush with death prompts her to travel to Kent and transmit Arthur’s cryptic last words to one of his three brothers.

I chose this particular novel because it is a stand-alone. Todd has a series of novels featuring a certain Inspector and because I couldn’t get the first one in audio format, I went with the stand-alone instead.

I liked the book very much. The story was compelling, the characters well written, and the narrator was excellent. 4.5 stars.

The Attack by Yasmina Khadra - This was on sale at Audible.com a few weeks ago, so after becoming intrigued by the plot synposis and thinking that I needed to branch out in my reading I bought it.

Dr. Amin Jaafari, an Arab-Israeli citizen, is a respected, dedicated surgeon at a hospital in Tel Aviv. He has learned to live with the violence that plagues his city and works tirelessly to help the victims brought to the emergency room. But one night, a deadly bombing in a local restaurant takes a horrifyingly personal turn, when his wife’s body is found among the dead, bearing injuries that match those typically found on the bodies of fundamentalist suicide bombers.

As evidence mounts that his wife, Sihem, was responsible for the catastrophic bombing, Dr. Jaafari must face the inescapable realization that the beautiful, intelligent, thoroughly modern woman he loved had a secret life that was far removed from the comfortable, assimilated existence they shared.

I had several problems with this book. First was the narration - either the translation from French to English was poor or the writing was weirdly stilted in areas or the narrator was just a bad reader. I was never able to pin it down. There were parts where the prose was lyrical and beautiful. There were parts where the prose was overly cliched. And there were parts where the prose made no sense. At one point I looked up my account to make sure I had gotten the unabridged version of the book because I felt like I had missed whole parts of the story somewhere - I had the full version, so there was some bad writing/translation in there.

My other issue was the story itself. I know the author was trying to present a mostly non-partisan view of the goings on with Israel/Palestine, but I don’t think it worked. And there was no light. It was dark from the beginning to the end. It was morose. Then again, the subject matter is not light-hearted either so maybe I shouldn’t have expected any lightness.

That said, my general impression was that I liked it. 3 stars.