Musing Mondays

Musing Mondays—July 4, 2011

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Musing MondaysThis week’s musing asks…

Below is a link to an NPR discussion about the simple fact that there’s no way you can read, see and experience all the things that are available to be experienced. The two methods for dealing with it are culling (i.e., cutting out certain genres that don’t interest you, etc.) or surrender (i.e., just making peace with the facts and enjoying what you can in the time that you have).

http://www.npr.org/2011/06/27/137451477/you-cant-possibly-read-it-all-so-stop-trying

So, do you cull, or do you surrender? Or do you do both?

I think I do a bit of both. I am very selective about which books I will read in certain genres. For instance, my nonfiction reading is almost exclusively limited to history, education, and literature, although if a book looks interesting and doesn’t fall in those narrow confines, I will read it. I am fairly selective about fantasy and sci-fi. I don’t read a lot of it, but I am careful about what I do choose to read in those genres. My favorite genre is historical fiction, so I tend to broaden my scope and will often read historical fiction, even if I don’t think I’m interested in the subject. I have too often discovered that I can become interested if the book grabs me.

I set a goal to read 50 books this year. I keep a to-read list. I can feel the pressure to read as much as I can before I can’t read anymore, but I have also accepted that I just won’t be able to get to everything that is good and worth reading. So I also have made peace with the idea that the article calls “surrender.” Life is too short to read bad books, but I am determined to enjoy the ones I have time to get to.

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The Tea Rose, Jennifer Donnelly

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[amazon_image id=”0312378025″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” class=”alignleft”]The Tea Rose: A Novel[/amazon_image]Jennifer Donnelly’s novel [amazon_link id=”0312378025″ target=”_blank” ]The Tea Rose[/amazon_link] is the story of Fiona Finnegan, poor but relatively happy with her fiancé Joe and her boisterous Irish family in Whitechapel. But a murderer is stalking their midst. A man known as Jack the Ripper is murdering prostitutes. Fiona’s world is shattered when her father is killed for attempting to organize a union in the tea company he and Fiona work for. In the wake of his death, Fiona loses almost everyone and everything that matters to her and makes her way to New York where she engineers an incredible rags-to-riches story and climbs to the top of the world tea trade.

OK, this book is really, really, really improbable, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying it a great deal. Sure I rolled my eyes at the over-the-top coincidences and unbelievable turns of events, but it was a great ride. The plotting is fast-paced; it was difficult to put down. Set against the backdrop of Jack the Ripper’s Whitechapel and Edith Wharton’s Old New York, the book brings together many areas of personal interest for me: tea, the Whitechapel murderer, and the Gilded Age. Fiona has spunk, as we are constantly being told by the characters, all of whom adore her on sight for her shrewd business acumen and forthright manner. Donnelly brings the era and settings to vivid life. In the bargain, the reader, through Donnelly’s characters, rubs shoulders with everyone from Gilded Age robber barons and Mark Twain to up-and-coming artists Monet and Van Gogh. It’s an epic sweeping story, but doesn’t try to be anything other than good escapist reading. I can’t wait to read the next two books in Donnelly’s generational saga: [amazon_link id=”1401307469″ target=”_blank” ]The Winter Rose[/amazon_link] and [amazon_link id=”1401301045″ target=”_blank” ]The Wild Rose[/amazon_link] (I was able to obtain a galley from NetGalley, even though the book won’t be released until August). I won’t say I loved it as much as I loved [amazon_link id=”B003F3PN0Q” target=”_blank” ]Revolution[/amazon_link], but it was a gripping summer read. I would recommend it to fans of Diana Gabaldon’s [amazon_link id=”0440423201″ target=”_blank” ]Outlander[/amazon_link] series.

Rating: ★★★★★

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The Future for Amazon Associates

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George is Keeping an Eye On You!

I have mentioned many times that I’m an Amazon associate, and I have been very happy with Amazon. It look me years to build up to the point at which I regularly received a commission that allowed me to buy books, but I persevered. I still usually earn between $20-30 a month in gift certificates to Amazon, excepting the odd really good month, but that allows me to buy two or three books each month.

Some of the states have begun passing laws that require online retailers to charge sales tax, and as a result, Amazon is dropping associates in all of those affected states. I haven’t heard of any pending legislation in my home state of Georgia, but I admit the trend has me worried. Being an Amazon associate is what keeps me in books and allows me to run this blog. Affected states include California, Colorado, Illinois, North Carolina, Rhode Island, or Connecticut—and soon, Arkansas. Massachusetts is also considering a law. If I were ever to move to any of these states, Amazon would drop me as an associate after more than 10 years. According to this New York Times piece, Amazon doesn’t have any fulfillment warehouses, corporate offices, customer service, or other facilities in Georgia, so I might personally never be affected, but it does have such facilities in Arizona, California, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, and it does not collect tax in any of these states. Amazon collects sales taxes in Kentucky, New York, Washington, North Dakota, and Kansas.

If Amazon is not willing to work with associates in states with these tax laws, then I hope they are at least informing associates when impending legislation is being considered in their state legislatures so they can choose whether to write their representatives or drop their affiliation with Amazon. A lot of associates are understandably angry and feel Amazon is throwing them under the bus. Amazon has indicated they plan to challenge the new law in California.

You can read more about the issue at The Los Angeles Times and NPR.

photo credit: peasap

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Friday Finds

Friday Finds—July 1, 2011

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Friday FindsJuly already? Really? My summer is going to be gone in the blink of an eye (sigh).

I managed to find a few interesting looking books this week. I claimed [amazon_link id=”055338483X” target=”_blank” ]Garden Spells[/amazon_link] and [amazon_link id=”0553384848″ target=”_blank” ]The Sugar Queen[/amazon_link] by Sarah Addison Allen on PaperBackSwap, and they should be arriving in my mailbox shortly.

I think [amazon_link id=”1439167397″ target=”_blank” ]The Map of Time[/amazon_link] by Félix J. Palma crossed my radar some time ago, but I hadn’t added it to my to-read list yet. It’s there now. Looks like fun.

Did you discover any interesting books this week?

[amazon_image id=”055338483X” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Garden Spells (Bantam Discovery)[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0553384848″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Sugar Queen (Random House Reader’s Circle)[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”1439167397″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Map of Time: A Novel[/amazon_image]

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The Dream of Perpetual Motion, Dexter Palmer

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[amazon_image id=”B003A7I2PU” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” class=”alignleft”]The Dream of Perpetual Motion[/amazon_image]Dexter Palmer’s novel [amazon_link id=”B003A7I2PU” target=”_blank” ]The Dream of Perpetual Motion[/amazon_link] is a steampunk reimagining (of sorts) of William Shakespeare’s play [amazon_link id=”0743482832″ target=”_blank” ]The Tempest[/amazon_link]. The protagonist, Harold Winslow, is a greeting card writer from Xeroville. He writes his memoir while trapped aboard a zeppelin—the good ship Chrysalis—with only mechanical servants and the disembodied voice of Miranda Taligent to keep him company. His life becomes inextricably linked with that of Miranda and her father Prospero Taligent’s at the age of ten, when he spends all of his money at the Nickel Empire carnival to obtain a whistle that will secure him an invitation to Miranda’s tenth birthday party. At the birthday party, Prospero promises each of the 100 boys and girls their heart’s desire. Harold becomes Miranda’s playmate until Prospero catches them kissing and banishes Harold from Miranda’s fantastic playroom.

Almost 3/4 through the book, Harold says,

Perhaps you know the kind of man I am, dear imaginary reader. I have never felt as if I have known anyone well. I have never had that sense of instinctive empathy that I am told comes to lovers, or brothers and sisters, or parents and children. I have never been able to finish a sentence that someone else starts. I have never been able to give a gift to someone that they have liked, one that surprises them even as they secretly expected it.

Whenever I looked into faces and tried to discern the thoughts that lay behind them I had to make best guesses, and more often than not it seemed my guesses were wrong. (location 5167 on Kindle)

I think that is the crux of what I didn’t like about the book. The characters were not terribly likeable. They were entertaining, especially Prospero and his servants Gideon and Martin, but no one else brought out my empathy as a reader (excepting Harold as a boy, but he sheds that quickly in the novel). I have no quibbles with Palmer’s writing, which is funny and tragic and at times had me highlighting choice phrases, but the most important thing to me about any book, almost without exception, is the characters. If I do not like any of the characters, it’s hard for me to like the book. The plot of the novel is weird, but I could have let that go if I had been able to empathize with Harold.

Another criticism I have for the book is this sort of underlying misogyny that I see sometimes in science fiction and fantasy. Palmer’s women characters are, without exception, unpleasant and untrustworthy. Shakespeare’s Prospero is concerned with Miranda’s virginity, which is a theme that Palmer takes up in this novel. Prospero seeks to prevent his daughter from becoming sexually active, but when she does, he sees her as ruined. Harold never explicitly says so, but he gives the impression that he agrees with Prospero on that account—sex ruins women, and the proof is in his description of every female character in the novel.

The book improves slightly toward the end as the action picks up the pace, but over all, I can’t say I liked it. The narrative was complex and difficult to follow at times, and the characters did not redeem the story.

Rating: ★★½☆☆

 

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WWW Wednesdays

WWW Wednesdays

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WWW WednesdaysTo play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

I am currently reading [amazon_link id=”B003A7I2PU” target=”_blank” ]The Dream of Perpetual Motion[/amazon_link], and frankly, I’m not liking it much. It has a few interesting moments (so far), but I am not finding the characters interesting or likable. The plot is weird. I am still reading it for two reasons 1) I have had it on my Kindle for a long time, and I bought it, so I feel compelled to read it; 2) I can’t get any new books right now, and the ones on my to-read list that I’m itching to read most are books I don’t have.

I recently finished [amazon_link id=”0553807226″ target=”_blank” ]The Peach Keeper[/amazon_link] by Sarah Addison Allen (review) and [amazon_link id=”0345521307″ target=”_blank” ]The Paris Wife[/amazon_link] by Paula McLain (review), both of which were amazing books. It could be that The Dream of Perpetual Motion is suffering by comparison.

The next books I really want to read are Jennifer Donnelly’s [amazon_link id=”0312378025″ target=”_blank” ]The Tea Rose[/amazon_link], [amazon_link id=”1401307469″ target=”_blank” ]The Winter Rose[/amazon_link], and [amazon_link id=”1401301045″ target=”_blank” ]The Wild Rose[/amazon_link]. The Wild Rose hasn’t been released yet, but I scored a copy at NetGalley, and I would like to read the other two first, as I understand it’s a sort of generational saga. I loved Jennifer Donnelly’s [amazon_link id=”B003F3PN0Q” target=”_blank” ]Revolution[/amazon_link] (review). It’s the best book I’ve read this year.

Yesterday’s post about websites and apps proved lucrative for me because I learned about NetGalley and PaperBackSwap from the post by The Broke and the Bookish. I know—where have I been and all of that. You can see my PaperBackSwap profile here, and feel free to friend me. I’m going to check out the posts by some of the other participants and see what other great book websites and apps I might have been missing out on.

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Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Bookish Websites and Apps

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Top Ten TuesdayI love book blogs, but there are other places I hang out with my books. Here is my top ten list of go-to websites and apps.

  1. Goodreads: Goodreads is an excellent social network for readers. Had Goodreads been around when I started this blog, I might have just posted all my reviews there. As it is, I do use Goodreads to connect with other readers, read reviews (they tend to be more critical than Amazon), scout for giveaways, keep track of my to-read list and let my friends know what I’m reading and have read, and play trivia games. Goodreads also allows users to add as many books as they like, whereas similar sites like LibraryThing limit free users to 200 books.
  2. Shelfari: Shelfari is a pretty site, but it has a long way to go before it’s as good as Goodreads. I have spent some time writing up book pages, and I do like the wiki user-generated aspect of the site. Goodreads allows you to do this if you become a librarian (which I have done), and you must meet certain criteria. Shelfari does not allow HTML in its reviews, which I think stinks. Until recently, it was better than Goodreads at tracking reading goals, but Goodreads has added a feature that allows for that. I spend more time on Goodreads, but I like to have a Shelfari profile just to connect with readers who may not be on Goodreads. I also do like the pretty shelves, I admit.
  3. DailyLit: I mostly interact with DailyLit through my email, as I am always subscribed to a book in my inbox. I love DailyLit. I have read several books I do not think I’d have ever read if not for DailyLit.
  4. Guardian Books: I have the Guardian app on my iPhone, and I’ve customized it so that the books section is the first one I see. I like to read their articles about books. Users in the UK have to subscribe to read The Guardian via this app, but because The Guardian is trying to increase American readership, content in the app is free to US users.
  5. Twitter: Believe it or not, Twitter is a great reading website. A lot of people I follow are readers and are always tweeting about what they are reading or want to read, and I have discovered some great books that way. Also, a lot of authors are on Twitter, and it is fun to interact with them. I am still waiting for Judy Blume to reply to one of my tweets, but it will probably make my year when or if it happens.
  6. Amazon: As an Amazon affiliate and customer, I spend a lot of time on the site. I tend think the reviews are not as critical as on Goodreads, but I do read them and compare. I also like to see books that are similar to others that I’ve searched for and have discovered some very interesting books both that way and through their recommendations for me.
  7. Any New Books: I just discovered Any New Books this year, and I subscribed to their newsletters based on my interests. I have found quite a few excellent books through their weekly newsletters, which come out just in time for Friday Finds.
  8. Kindle iPhone app: I love my Kindle, but I can’t read it in the dark. When I have to shut out the lights, but I still want to read, I turn to my Kindle app. One thing I’ve noticed is that real page numbers seem to have come to the Kindle app on the iPhone, but not to the Kindle 2. I don’t know why Amazon hasn’t updated the firmware for the Kindle 2 so that readers can have real page numbers, but it’s nice to check my Kindle app sometimes and see where I am in terms of pages.
  9. Audible app: I subscribed to Audible and receive a book each month with my subscription. I used to download the books into my iTunes, sync them with my iPhone, and listen to them in car. Then I discovered the Audible app, which has a few features that I like. First of all, I was nervous it wouldn’t remember where I left off, but it does. I can also access Audible’s store from the app, which is a nice time-saver. It also has a social aspect in that I can connect to Facebook and Twitter and share what I’m reading.
  10. Shakespeare app: This app has all of Shakespeare’s plays and poems as well as some fun extras like a quote generator (just shake the phone to get a new quote), a great glossary, a search feature, and even a help section on scansion. Note: This app has gone up considerably in price. I think I paid $2.99 for it. There is a free version that has all the texts but none of the extras.

So do you have any recommendations for good bookish websites or apps? I thought The Broke and the Bookish had a pretty good list.

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Musing Mondays

Musing Mondays—June 27, 2011

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Musing MondaysThis week’s musing asks…

Have you ever read a book that inspired you to take up a cause? What book was it, and what is/was the cause?

I have never exactly taken up a cause because of a book, but I have changed my opinions or practices because of a book. Barbara Kingsolver is one author who has changed the way I think about things on a couple of occasions. Robin Bates wrote about the issue of illegal immigration recently, and I left a comment on his post about how Kingsolver’s novel [amazon_link id=”0061765228″ target=”_blank” ]The Bean Trees[/amazon_link] helped me understand the issue is not black and white. In the novel, the character Mattie helps illegal immigrants sort of like a stop on the Underground Railroad, and it is through Mattie that Taylor, the protagonist, meets Estevan and Esperanza, who are illegal immigrants from Guatemala. Estevan and Esperanza came to America to save their lives. Had they gone through the proper channels, they likely would not have been allowed to come to America, but if they hadn’t left Guatemala, they would have been killed. Sometimes, it won’t work to just request asylum. The novel shows how an issue that is usually portrayed as black and white—illegal immigrants are breaking the law—becomes more complicated. We don’t necessarily know the whole story behind why someone chooses to enter the country illegally, and we don’t know what they are leaving behind.

Kingsolver’s novel [amazon_link id=”0061577073″ target=”_blank” ]The Poisonwood Bible[/amazon_link], one of my favorite books, examines the role America played in pillaging Africa. The British have examined this colonial role in their own literature, but Americans like to think that because they had no colonies, they were well out of it. It’s a gorgeous book. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

While not revolutionary, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe’s book [amazon_link id=”0131950843″ target=”_blank” ]Understanding by Design[/amazon_link] changed the way I teach and assess students on their learning and has continued to be influential in my life. I can’t compare it to a cause, really, but I have taken to trying to convert as many teachers as I know to backward design.

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Music and Reading

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Clave de sol

This week’s Booking Through Thursday prompt asked about music—”What, if any, kind of music do you listen to when you’re reading? (Given a choice, of course!).”

I missed writing about it on Thursday because I posted a review of The Paris Wife, and I didn’t want to post twice that day, but I’ve been thinking about it since then and decided I still want to write about it, even if I’m late to the party.

Music is really important to me—as important as books are. I love music, all kinds. I have been a musician, but it is true that I haven’t picked up an instrument in years. Picking up instruments usually wasn’t too hard for me, but I never became a master at any of them. The two I played most were flute and guitar, but I tried out French horn, clarinet, and violin.

This topic is kind of timely for me. I have always been a music fan, and I will not say I am always on the cutting edge. I have pretty much always “discovered” artists long after their bands have broken up, or at least long after they started making music. So I cannot claim to have any sort of pulse on the modern music industry. However, I did recently go through a dry spell, listening to the same stuff I had listened to forever, it seems. I hadn’t listened to anything new, and I had decided that it was my age—I’ll be 40 in September—and that after a certain point, pretty much everyone just stops seeking out new music. I never thought I would do it, but I did. I was even listening more to podcasts or books than music when I drove. Then I watched [amazon_link id=”B002RVZV9K” target=”_blank” ]It Might Get Loud[/amazon_link], mainly because I am huge fan of Led Zeppelin and U2. But the movie opens like this:

Which made me a fan of Jack White. I have been discovering his catalogue, which has prompted me to listen to other artists like him. Pandora Radio is great for discovering new artists. Through my Jack White Pandora station, I’ve discovered the Black Keys, Patrick Sweany, and many others. I rediscovered Leo Kottke; my guitar teacher used to play his song “Vaseline Machine Gun” and would teach it to you if you would sit with him and watch, but I had trouble learning music that way—I needed either tablature or sheet music.

My point in bringing all of this up is that I might have answered the prompt differently a few months ago, but I’m listening to music again after not doing it as much for quite a while, and I’m listening to it while I read (sometimes). The answer to what I listen to is that it depends. Sometimes I just let Pandora take care of it for me. Other times, I listen to whatever is in my iTunes. Lately, that mostly means Jack White, but I do get in moods for other things, such as St. Vincent or T. Rex or Led Zeppelin, or the Black Crowes.

Another impetus for all the new music in my life was Jennifer Donnelly’s book [amazon_link id=”0385737637″ target=”_blank” ]Revolution[/amazon_link] (review). Andi, one of the protagonists, is a music omnivore. She loves everything. All the music references prompted me to check out some of Andi’s favorite music. And Donnelly was kind enough to share Andi’s playlist on her website.

When I study, which I haven’t had to do since I graduated from VA Tech (master’s in Instructional Technology last December), I listen to classical music, like Mozart. I actually downloaded this album (iTunes link) for the purpose of studying. It may have been psychosomatic, but it seemed to work.

I’m always listening to a lot of music as I write, which is really something I’ve always done, but the soundtrack has changed a bit. It’s a lot of fun to feel like I at least have an idea about modern music, which isn’t something I’ve felt for a while.

Some things never change, though. I still don’t care much for pop music (such as Lady Gaga, although she’s a shrewd marketer, and I do admire that about her). I think music was constantly going in my teenage years, and it’s fun to feel that I am in some way recapturing that. I missed it.

photo credit: wakalani

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The Peach Keeper, Sarah Addison Allen

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[amazon_image id=”0553807226″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” class=”alignleft”]The Peach Keeper: A Novel[/amazon_image]Sarah Addison Allen’s novel [amazon_link id=”0553807226″ target=”_blank” ]The Peach Keeper[/amazon_link] is the story of the unlikely friendship of Willa Jackson and Paxton Osgood, who are linked through shared family history and not much else. Willa’s great-great-grandfather built a house called the Blue Ridge Madam in Walls of Water, North Carolina. In 1936, Willa’s family lost the house. Years later, she feels oddly drawn to the Blue Ridge Madam, now in the hands of the Osgood family. Paxton Osgood is the president of the Women’s Society Club and is planning the unveiling of the newly restored Blue Ridge Madam at the society’s gala. She asks her twin brother Colin, a landscape architect, to come home to Walls of Water to landscape the Blue Ridge Madam. A family secret binding the Osgoods and Jacksons is unearthed when Colin’s crew removes a peach tree and begins digging deeper to plant a live oak and finds a suitcase, a frying pan, and a skull belonging to a magic man named Tucker Devlin.

I could barely put this one down. It’s hard to describe it. It’s part chick lit, I suppose, but also part magical realism, ghost story, mystery, and romance. It’s a perfect summer read. Allen’s characters are well-drawn and likeable. The setting of small-town Walls of Water with its tourists and shops alongside ancient town families was pitch perfect. I think perhaps no one does gothic like Southern gothic, and though Allen’s writing style is completely dissimilar, this book is an oddly cogent mashup between William Faulkner and Joshilyn Jackson. Family secrets, grand old Southern mansions, friendship, and devilish charmers are good building blocks for stories. I liked both Willa and Paxton as protagonists, and I found Colin, Sebastian, and even Tucker Devlin charming. I would definitely read more of Allen’s books. I picked this one up after reading Stephanie’s review. Darlene at Peeking Between the Pages has another good review.

I’m not sure this book is for everyone. Some readers will be turned off by the chick lit aura or the magical realism, but I found it utterly charming and completely Southern. Parts of it reminded me of a book I have deep affection for called [amazon_link id=”0807114103″ target=”_blank” ]I Am One of You Forever[/amazon_link] by Fred Chappell. If you are a fan of Sarah Addison Allen’s, give Fred Chappell’s novel a try. It’s harder to find and was published by a smaller press, but it’s a gorgeous book.

Rating: ★★★★★

This book has enough of the macabre to qualify for the Gothic Reading Challenge.

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