I have had a crush on Sam Shepard since I saw him in the movie Frances in 1982. Then I fell in love when he played Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff. So, when I discovered his books, full of prose and poetry, I became a die-hard reading fan as well. I’m pretty sure you don’t want me gushing all over the blog about an old heart throb of mine, so, on to the book - Day out of Days by Sam Shepard.
Just know this - Sam Shepard is one of the most honest writers I have ever read. I will compare him to one of my all time favourite authors and successful short story writers Annie Proulx. Shepard is a little rougher but there is a sincerity in that roughness that makes his stories all the more authentic. I like my men, writers and otherwise, rugged and flawed. Sam Shepard fits the bill. I think that most short story writers polish a piece to within an inch of its life. Shepard lets the scuffs and scratches lay where they are.
It is not really fair to call this collection a book of short stories. Shepard has written pieces – 4 or 5 page stories, 2 page essays, 1 page thoughts, and poems. I can picture him sitting in a rundown cafe out the back of nowhere writing a thought on a napkin or a scrap of paper and sticking it in his flannel shirt pocket, which then became a short piece in this collection of thoughts. I’m sure there was some editing, but the magic of that original writing, the rawness of a first draft, still flavours these pieces.
Something I love about Shepard’s writing is that it causes a physical response from me. I smile, I frown, my eyes widen and my mouth twists. I love the fact that I feel I am part of each little story, mentally and physically, and that he has invited me in so thoughtfully.
I am smitten enough to read all of his pieces and I know, that if he was with me while I read, that he would start off by offering me a cup of coffee and we would get down to a good whiskey by the end. And because I know his voice and gestures so well from the movies I can hear him talking to me as I read. I’m sure that you don’t need Shepard’s actual voice in your ear while you read this to fall in love, just like me.
I have lived in the places he writes about and I can feel the bleakness and the richness of his sets. I have met people who have lived on the land in a small country town all their lives and I can hear their voices in his writing. I have walked along the same rivers and driven the same long stretches of road. He assumes we are there with him right from the beginning of each piece whether you have lived there or not, and he’s right. I could feel the cold, smell the coffee, taste the dust and the tears as I read.
I have read all of his collections and plays and Day out of Days is one of his best. If you haven’t read any of Shepard’s works this is a good place to start.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Bleed for Me by Michael Robotham
I haven’t read a crime novel for years, but in the midst of studying for uni exams I decided that I needed something light to read myself to sleep at night. So off I went to the box of 50 books I wouldn’t be able to put down that was so kindly sent to me by the ABC and I picked up the first mystery book that was in the pile.
Now, like I said, I’m not a big mystery or detective fiction reader. And now that I am writing this I realize that it’s not for any particular reason. I think I just read a few crime novels that were too alike and I got bored. I have friends that can’t wait to pre-order the next to-be-published Ruth Rendell or Barbara Vine or whatever she calls herself? I have one friend who chats constantly about the latest Val McDermid and I have enjoyed watching the Blood in the Wire series on TV (a little gruesome sometimes, but good). But, I had never even heard of Michael Robotham. Nevertheless, I picked up Bleed for Me and began to read it.
Well, for two days I couldn’t put the damned thing down. Stuff the studying, I wanted to find out who done it! Hah! I hear you die hard crime novel readers smugly smirking at me right now. Yes, OK, it was great. There, are you happy now?
Robotham is good! He is clever, witty, thorough and devilishly teasing. Bleed for Me has the iconic flawed detective (who is actually a psychologist who can’t help himself), the seemingly innocent who is accused of a crime, the greedy, the suspicious, the mean and the downright despicable characters. But Robotham gets in to all of his characters psyches in way that is so intriguing you feel like you know them far better than any other character in the book does. Very clever! He sets a tone and a pace that is just fast enough to keep you off balance but not too fast to run you over. He stays in a constant style (I’m not sure how to say that in literary theory terms but I will look it up) which is difficult when you have many personalities to keep track of and a lot of seemingly random events all happening at once. He twists and turns but by the middle of the book you have fallen under Robotham’s spell and you start to just trust the process. Well into the story, as he added more characters and the plots thickened, as they say, I was ready – Bring It On! I trusted Robotham to take care of me, as the reader, by that point, and I knew he would not leave me hanging once I was sick of hanging.
If you don’t like reading about the seedier side of humanity then you don’t read crime fiction and you won’t really care that some of the characters in this book are the dregs of the worst. Even Miss Marple and Agatha Raisin had to deal with the darker side of human kind, but in the end of their stories everyone went back to being just how they were before the tragedy. Michael Robotham doesn’t insult his readers by making believe that everything is OK for the characters in this book after the crime has been solved. I fact, I believe that he builds on the residual wounds of his main characters in subsequent books. I like that.
I believed this book. I couldn’t stop reading it. I stayed up late into the night to finish it. I gave it to a fellow serious reader. I did all the things that signal to me that this book is a good book. I have faith in Michael Robotham now, and I will read another of his novels.
Rhonda
Now, like I said, I’m not a big mystery or detective fiction reader. And now that I am writing this I realize that it’s not for any particular reason. I think I just read a few crime novels that were too alike and I got bored. I have friends that can’t wait to pre-order the next to-be-published Ruth Rendell or Barbara Vine or whatever she calls herself? I have one friend who chats constantly about the latest Val McDermid and I have enjoyed watching the Blood in the Wire series on TV (a little gruesome sometimes, but good). But, I had never even heard of Michael Robotham. Nevertheless, I picked up Bleed for Me and began to read it.
Well, for two days I couldn’t put the damned thing down. Stuff the studying, I wanted to find out who done it! Hah! I hear you die hard crime novel readers smugly smirking at me right now. Yes, OK, it was great. There, are you happy now?
Robotham is good! He is clever, witty, thorough and devilishly teasing. Bleed for Me has the iconic flawed detective (who is actually a psychologist who can’t help himself), the seemingly innocent who is accused of a crime, the greedy, the suspicious, the mean and the downright despicable characters. But Robotham gets in to all of his characters psyches in way that is so intriguing you feel like you know them far better than any other character in the book does. Very clever! He sets a tone and a pace that is just fast enough to keep you off balance but not too fast to run you over. He stays in a constant style (I’m not sure how to say that in literary theory terms but I will look it up) which is difficult when you have many personalities to keep track of and a lot of seemingly random events all happening at once. He twists and turns but by the middle of the book you have fallen under Robotham’s spell and you start to just trust the process. Well into the story, as he added more characters and the plots thickened, as they say, I was ready – Bring It On! I trusted Robotham to take care of me, as the reader, by that point, and I knew he would not leave me hanging once I was sick of hanging.
If you don’t like reading about the seedier side of humanity then you don’t read crime fiction and you won’t really care that some of the characters in this book are the dregs of the worst. Even Miss Marple and Agatha Raisin had to deal with the darker side of human kind, but in the end of their stories everyone went back to being just how they were before the tragedy. Michael Robotham doesn’t insult his readers by making believe that everything is OK for the characters in this book after the crime has been solved. I fact, I believe that he builds on the residual wounds of his main characters in subsequent books. I like that.
I believed this book. I couldn’t stop reading it. I stayed up late into the night to finish it. I gave it to a fellow serious reader. I did all the things that signal to me that this book is a good book. I have faith in Michael Robotham now, and I will read another of his novels.
Rhonda
Sunday, December 5, 2010
The Passage by Justin Cronin
If you like your vamp lit endings all tied up in a neat blood-stained bow, then The Passage might not be your cup of True Blood. On the other hand, if you are sick of the same-o same-o vampire love stories and want something with a bit more true grit, then this might just be the book for you. I am happy to say it was the book for me – albeit a bit too long (again!).
Alert: This is the first part of a trilogy.
I have two big bugbears when it comes to books. Wait, wait, stop the wedding! Where did that word ‘bugbear’ come from? I think my mother-in-law used to say it. It is a word for a bogeyman according to Wikipedia, but is also mean something that is annoying or a pet peeve. I like the word a lot. It is a word that conveys the fact that it refers to something you don’t like but it has softness to it as well, so it isn’t something that you will go to a doctor to get removed. It’s just a little thing that gives you the shits.
Bugbear number one: my old fiend the under-edited novel. Seriously, I can think of 4 chapters in The Passage, just off the top of my head, that didn’t need to be in this story. They didn’t add to the plot, story line or develop the characters. So why does this book have to be 784 pages? It seems to me that novels are going the same way as movies – the longer the better. I like a big meaty book I can spend a bit of time living in. But I could live happily in this book if it was pared down to 500 pages or so. But, hey, it’s my very own bugbear.
Bugbear number two has nothing to do with this book so I will be saving that for another time.
This novel sits on the border between Fantasy Land and that literary nation of many states – Fiction. Now, fantasy readers wear many different hats. Some like Fairy-tale type fantasy books where there is a beginning and a satisfying ending with a moral in between. Some pretend to be intellectuals and have long involved conversations about the meaning of life according to Robert Jordan. I have met each of these. The Passage is a different kettle of fantasy altogether.
This is an intriguing book. It is half vampire fantasy and half adventure thriller novel. The story revolves around a young girl, Amy, an adolescent when it starts and early teens when it ends over 100 years later. A kind of no-life has been imposed upon her for a reason that is not clear. There are people who desperately care about her but they seem to be controlled by either her or another outside source. And there are people who want to use her for some pretty evil reasons. No one who comes in any kind of contact with her is ever the same. Sometimes they do everything they can to rescue her and sometimes they kill themselves. It’s a little confusing here but it is a testament to Cronin’s fine writing skills that it does not seem very odd at all, in the book.
The other characters in the book are interesting individuals but they are all just playing their parts in the story of Amy. They are driven by forces that have been set in place long ago but they are totally unaware of them. The beginning of the book is set in current time and is quite disturbing due to the fact that ‘it could happen!” Yes, I know that it won’t happen, that it couldn’t happen and you squints out there will explain it all to us later. But, ‘it could happen!” This part of the story comes to its conclusion and then the timeline skips to a place 100 years or so into the future. Life is completely different due to a catastrophe of epic proportions. But the people alive now have never known any other life.
There are problems in this time period though, that have no solutions, like long-term battery life slowly dying, food sources for both sides are dwindling and dissatisfaction of the human condition setting in. I don’t want to give too much away but there is a definite ‘us versus them’ quandary in this novel. Humans v Virals. The 12 v the One. Love v Duty.
All in all this is a thoughtful novel about the human condition, about the thoughtlessness of the advance of technology, about loyalty, courage, faith and hope. It is also a Vampire Story, which makes it all a lot more fun than just a story about all that other stuff. If you are drawn to doomsday sagas with heroes and villains, love stories and triumph of the human spirit in the face of adversity then read this book.
Happy Reading, Rhonda
Alert: This is the first part of a trilogy.
I have two big bugbears when it comes to books. Wait, wait, stop the wedding! Where did that word ‘bugbear’ come from? I think my mother-in-law used to say it. It is a word for a bogeyman according to Wikipedia, but is also mean something that is annoying or a pet peeve. I like the word a lot. It is a word that conveys the fact that it refers to something you don’t like but it has softness to it as well, so it isn’t something that you will go to a doctor to get removed. It’s just a little thing that gives you the shits.
Bugbear number one: my old fiend the under-edited novel. Seriously, I can think of 4 chapters in The Passage, just off the top of my head, that didn’t need to be in this story. They didn’t add to the plot, story line or develop the characters. So why does this book have to be 784 pages? It seems to me that novels are going the same way as movies – the longer the better. I like a big meaty book I can spend a bit of time living in. But I could live happily in this book if it was pared down to 500 pages or so. But, hey, it’s my very own bugbear.
Bugbear number two has nothing to do with this book so I will be saving that for another time.
This novel sits on the border between Fantasy Land and that literary nation of many states – Fiction. Now, fantasy readers wear many different hats. Some like Fairy-tale type fantasy books where there is a beginning and a satisfying ending with a moral in between. Some pretend to be intellectuals and have long involved conversations about the meaning of life according to Robert Jordan. I have met each of these. The Passage is a different kettle of fantasy altogether.
This is an intriguing book. It is half vampire fantasy and half adventure thriller novel. The story revolves around a young girl, Amy, an adolescent when it starts and early teens when it ends over 100 years later. A kind of no-life has been imposed upon her for a reason that is not clear. There are people who desperately care about her but they seem to be controlled by either her or another outside source. And there are people who want to use her for some pretty evil reasons. No one who comes in any kind of contact with her is ever the same. Sometimes they do everything they can to rescue her and sometimes they kill themselves. It’s a little confusing here but it is a testament to Cronin’s fine writing skills that it does not seem very odd at all, in the book.
The other characters in the book are interesting individuals but they are all just playing their parts in the story of Amy. They are driven by forces that have been set in place long ago but they are totally unaware of them. The beginning of the book is set in current time and is quite disturbing due to the fact that ‘it could happen!” Yes, I know that it won’t happen, that it couldn’t happen and you squints out there will explain it all to us later. But, ‘it could happen!” This part of the story comes to its conclusion and then the timeline skips to a place 100 years or so into the future. Life is completely different due to a catastrophe of epic proportions. But the people alive now have never known any other life.
There are problems in this time period though, that have no solutions, like long-term battery life slowly dying, food sources for both sides are dwindling and dissatisfaction of the human condition setting in. I don’t want to give too much away but there is a definite ‘us versus them’ quandary in this novel. Humans v Virals. The 12 v the One. Love v Duty.
All in all this is a thoughtful novel about the human condition, about the thoughtlessness of the advance of technology, about loyalty, courage, faith and hope. It is also a Vampire Story, which makes it all a lot more fun than just a story about all that other stuff. If you are drawn to doomsday sagas with heroes and villains, love stories and triumph of the human spirit in the face of adversity then read this book.
Happy Reading, Rhonda
Monday, November 22, 2010
Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden
I’m not going to review this book – it has been review so many times in the past 18 years since it was published that I’m sure you could find someone far more capable than I to tell you how good this book is. I am really looking forward to reading the rest of the series and then passing them on to my mega-reading nephews. I meant to read this book when it first was published in the early 90s. I watched as sequel after sequel hit the book stands but just never picked one up. I recently saw the movie and was so pleasantly surprised by the storyline, action and dialogue that I renewed my interest in reading the books. And so far, I have not been let down.
I am interested in Young Adult (and Junior to a lesser extent) fiction. Good writing is good writing, in my book, no matter what shape or form it takes. I am interested in what elements need to fit together to make a successful YA literary novel. The primary issue is writing a story that is about what teenagers think they are about.
Let’s see if I can say that differently.
In the highly successful (go figure!!) Twilight series the protagonist is a teenage girl about 16 years old, who has fallen in love and is ready to give up her life for a 100 year old vampire in a 16 year old boy’s body. Now any 16 year old girl will tell you that it is possible for a teenager to fall truly, madly, deeply in love. As adults, it is hard to take teenage love seriously. I do have a couple of friends who met when they were in their teens who are still happily married to this day but as any adult will tell you, their relationships didn’t really develop until they were older and more mature. But a teenager does not know that. Stephenie Meyer has taken a typical teenage romance (bordering on a teenage suicide story) and thrown in a couple of presently-popular vampires and wha-la, a best seller. Anyone would want a boyfriend like Edward – handsome, broody, strong, master-protector who would never cheat or grow old. Who wouldn’t? But would any girl who found herself the amorous object of such a one’s love give up her life to join him in living death?
OK – back on track!! As you can see I don’t really think these books are very good. But, teenage girls love them. So, lesson number one in writing for teens – write like teens feel. And John Marsden does just that. He writes with a very authentic voice. Ellie is country girl – a strong girl who has all the foibles of teenage angst, teenage sexual feelings and teenage unreasonableness (is that a word?). The other characters are also strong and constant voices and develop just as any teenager would – they just happen to be teenagers defending their homes from foreign occupation. Their emotions are high and sometimes out of control but they stay in character and they seem real.
Lesson number two – don’t talk down to readers just because they are primarily teenagers. Marsden uses Ellie’s voice to tell the story – she is keeping a journal – and so the voice feels very true. He is really good at writing as a young woman would speak. As a young adult fiction writer you need to find that voice and keep it close to you throughout the process. Anything else and you will lose the attention of your reader. I know that every parent out there has seen the glaze come over their own children’s eyes as soon as they start to preach, instruct, tell off or ask them to do something. As a writer you can’t do any of these things or your readers will just stop reading. Period.
Lesson number three – if the protagonist of your story is a teenager, let them do something either really dangerous or seriously romantic. I have read all genres of youth fiction – fantasy, realism, mystery, action – all of them, and in all of them the main characters are super-human in some aspect. They either save someone or something, have special powers, link romantically with someone very interesting, or go on a fantastical adventure that tests their will and integrity. As adults, we can learn a lot from these kids in books. They kids in Tomorrow When the War Began do all of these things except for the special powers. This book is realistic but these kids have to live completely out of their own comfort zones and capacities to save their own existences. They link romantically together, they save each other, they care about each other and they learn that family is far more important than they previously thought. They fight, they cry, they love and they do it all while trying to save a way of life that they believe is vitally important.
Well, I guess I did sort of review this book. As I write this I am at the end of the second in the series and I am enjoying it just as much as the first. I find I care about these kids and I am cheering for them. I am also concerned that they will become jaded and sour. But that is the adult in me. The teenager in me is totally wrapped up in the adventure, the danger and the excitement. Give it to your kids to read and then read it yourself. You’ll thank me.
I am interested in Young Adult (and Junior to a lesser extent) fiction. Good writing is good writing, in my book, no matter what shape or form it takes. I am interested in what elements need to fit together to make a successful YA literary novel. The primary issue is writing a story that is about what teenagers think they are about.
Let’s see if I can say that differently.
In the highly successful (go figure!!) Twilight series the protagonist is a teenage girl about 16 years old, who has fallen in love and is ready to give up her life for a 100 year old vampire in a 16 year old boy’s body. Now any 16 year old girl will tell you that it is possible for a teenager to fall truly, madly, deeply in love. As adults, it is hard to take teenage love seriously. I do have a couple of friends who met when they were in their teens who are still happily married to this day but as any adult will tell you, their relationships didn’t really develop until they were older and more mature. But a teenager does not know that. Stephenie Meyer has taken a typical teenage romance (bordering on a teenage suicide story) and thrown in a couple of presently-popular vampires and wha-la, a best seller. Anyone would want a boyfriend like Edward – handsome, broody, strong, master-protector who would never cheat or grow old. Who wouldn’t? But would any girl who found herself the amorous object of such a one’s love give up her life to join him in living death?
OK – back on track!! As you can see I don’t really think these books are very good. But, teenage girls love them. So, lesson number one in writing for teens – write like teens feel. And John Marsden does just that. He writes with a very authentic voice. Ellie is country girl – a strong girl who has all the foibles of teenage angst, teenage sexual feelings and teenage unreasonableness (is that a word?). The other characters are also strong and constant voices and develop just as any teenager would – they just happen to be teenagers defending their homes from foreign occupation. Their emotions are high and sometimes out of control but they stay in character and they seem real.
Lesson number two – don’t talk down to readers just because they are primarily teenagers. Marsden uses Ellie’s voice to tell the story – she is keeping a journal – and so the voice feels very true. He is really good at writing as a young woman would speak. As a young adult fiction writer you need to find that voice and keep it close to you throughout the process. Anything else and you will lose the attention of your reader. I know that every parent out there has seen the glaze come over their own children’s eyes as soon as they start to preach, instruct, tell off or ask them to do something. As a writer you can’t do any of these things or your readers will just stop reading. Period.
Lesson number three – if the protagonist of your story is a teenager, let them do something either really dangerous or seriously romantic. I have read all genres of youth fiction – fantasy, realism, mystery, action – all of them, and in all of them the main characters are super-human in some aspect. They either save someone or something, have special powers, link romantically with someone very interesting, or go on a fantastical adventure that tests their will and integrity. As adults, we can learn a lot from these kids in books. They kids in Tomorrow When the War Began do all of these things except for the special powers. This book is realistic but these kids have to live completely out of their own comfort zones and capacities to save their own existences. They link romantically together, they save each other, they care about each other and they learn that family is far more important than they previously thought. They fight, they cry, they love and they do it all while trying to save a way of life that they believe is vitally important.
Well, I guess I did sort of review this book. As I write this I am at the end of the second in the series and I am enjoying it just as much as the first. I find I care about these kids and I am cheering for them. I am also concerned that they will become jaded and sour. But that is the adult in me. The teenager in me is totally wrapped up in the adventure, the danger and the excitement. Give it to your kids to read and then read it yourself. You’ll thank me.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
The Room by Emma Donoghue
I can picture myself as an author thinking about my next book. No inspiration has lit a fire under my ass. I haven't been struck by creative lightning. I check out the successful (meaning high sales) writers that I admire and see what they are writing about. I read the papers to see if anything strikes me as novel-worthy. I want to write something socially meaningful. I want to be taken seriously. I read a news story about a man who holds his daughter captive in a basement for 24 years and fathers her children. This could be a novel! Jodi Picoult has made a credible name for herself writing book after best-selling book about curly social issues. Lionel Shriver wrote an immensely popular book about a boy who commits a school massacre from the perspective of his mother. D.B.C. Pierre won a Booker Prize, for heaven sake, writing a story about boy mixed up in a multiple killing rampage. I could write a book about the atrocities committed by a man who kidnaps and encages a woman. But it needs a twist so I will write it in the voice of the small boy who is the child of the keeper and the kept. Fingers on keyboard I begin.
The Room feels just this calculated right from the beginning. It is clever but there is no passion in it. There is a lack of oomph, a lack of intensity that this story needed to keep my interest. The first few pages were interesting but as soon as I needed the story to rise up, pick up pace, ripple, rock and roll it let me down by staying level.. I didn't feel like at any time the story took over from the author's intentions and it never spread its wings and soared.
I love a story that surprises me, that takes me along on an unexpected ride. I don't need shoot-em-up or knock-me-down action. I love words that create moods just as much as I love a character that moves through its novel life with its own personality. The characters in The Room were predictable and measured.
Oh, I have made this novel sound like a huge bore. It’s not. It was short listed for the 2010 Booker Prize so several people think this book has excellent merit. As I have said, it is a clever premise and competently written. It is a little scary saying that a novel that attacks such a sensitive and tricky subject is not up to my snobbish standards. But it’s not.
Donoghue, to her credit, writes a consistent voice in the 5 year old boy, Jack, which grows with his journey from a confined space with no outside influence to the big bad world. He sees his world through innocent eyes and it is sad to watch those eyes lose their innocence slowly. Donoghue covers all the bases of this tricky subject with this novel – the child, the abuse, the escape, the afterlife, the family, the punishment. I just wish it hadn't felt like an interview in a journal. I wish I could have been sucked into the story and spat out the other end. I wish I could have had a much deeper empathy with both mother and child. I wish, by the end of the novel, I knew what it felt like to be locked in a room for all of my life. I would have liked this book to take me to the darker side instead of just showing me where it was.
The Room feels just this calculated right from the beginning. It is clever but there is no passion in it. There is a lack of oomph, a lack of intensity that this story needed to keep my interest. The first few pages were interesting but as soon as I needed the story to rise up, pick up pace, ripple, rock and roll it let me down by staying level.. I didn't feel like at any time the story took over from the author's intentions and it never spread its wings and soared.
I love a story that surprises me, that takes me along on an unexpected ride. I don't need shoot-em-up or knock-me-down action. I love words that create moods just as much as I love a character that moves through its novel life with its own personality. The characters in The Room were predictable and measured.
Oh, I have made this novel sound like a huge bore. It’s not. It was short listed for the 2010 Booker Prize so several people think this book has excellent merit. As I have said, it is a clever premise and competently written. It is a little scary saying that a novel that attacks such a sensitive and tricky subject is not up to my snobbish standards. But it’s not.
Donoghue, to her credit, writes a consistent voice in the 5 year old boy, Jack, which grows with his journey from a confined space with no outside influence to the big bad world. He sees his world through innocent eyes and it is sad to watch those eyes lose their innocence slowly. Donoghue covers all the bases of this tricky subject with this novel – the child, the abuse, the escape, the afterlife, the family, the punishment. I just wish it hadn't felt like an interview in a journal. I wish I could have been sucked into the story and spat out the other end. I wish I could have had a much deeper empathy with both mother and child. I wish, by the end of the novel, I knew what it felt like to be locked in a room for all of my life. I would have liked this book to take me to the darker side instead of just showing me where it was.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
My E-book Reader v My Books
I love a book – the actual, physical book. I love to hold a book and run my finger down the cut pages. I love a book tossed casually on my bed and lots of books piled haphazardly on my desk. I love the feel of a book in my bag as I go off to town or to uni. I love the smell of a new book as well as a well read, well loved book. I love to look at books in my home and in a book shop.
I love my e-book reader. I love that I have over 100 books in my hand at once. I love the fact that just by plugging in my e-book reader I can download another 4 books without actually having to get on my bike, ride to the book shop, buy the book, and ride home again – what a waste of good reading time!
But before I can compare books and e-book readers, I think a definition of a Book is due. A book can take many different forms. It can be an 800 page hardback tome (OK, don’t worry, I’m not going to go on and on about the size of Fall of Giants again). It can also be a 40cm by 40cm so-called Coffee Table Book (What? You don’t read your Coffee Table books? I have stayed up till the wee hours of the morning entranced with a very large book about the making of maps many nights! You should try it). A book can be a normal paperback of any size, mostly easy to hold and carry around. A book can be very small filled with philosophy or poetry. It can even be a comic book sized, very soft covered graphic novel (of which I am just beginning to appreciate).
A book gives its reader clues about the story just by its physical presence. When the action starts heating up and you can see that there are 200 pages left to go, you know this is a build up to the intermission, so to speak. If there are only 25 pages left to go you know to ignore the ringing phone and the cries of hungry children and keep reading. An e-book gives you no such clues – you have to take this increase in tension just as it comes, on faith, and go with it. When a book starts to bog down or get a bit boring, you can see that that there is still the majority of the story to come and choose to give it the flick, or see that there are only a few pages left and persevere hoping that it comes good in the end. With an e-book reader – no such luck. You have to decide to continue by pure stubbornness or quit because it just feels right to quit! This sort of reading takes practice, but the learning can be quite thrilling.
You can slam a book closed when you get angry or frustrated with the plot or a character. You can push the off button really hard on an e-book reader but it’s not the same (obviously). You can lovingly place in a book mark that your friend just brought you back from her trip to Turkey (so jealous) and close your book with the sweet anticipation of starting again as soon as you get home from work. Or you can push the off button. You can bend the page to mark your place, stick a post-it note on a page that you want to read to someone, write in the margins and photocopy your favourite bits of a book. E-book reader – you can push the off button. You can lend a book. E-book reader – well you get the picture.
But, and this is a big but, as I said before, with my e-book reader I can carry 100 books with me in my small handbag. I can decide I don’t want to read the book I am reading and, with a flick of a button, be reading another book within a few seconds. I can go on a holiday and have more room for shoes and clothes so I don’t have to wear the same pants for three weeks and wear my heals out for a walk on the beach because I had to make room to bring the latest Alice Munroe in my suitcase (or Steven King which would mean leaving the shampoo at home as well – not such a great idea).
If someone sees you reading a book they generally leave you alone. E-book readers, at the moment, invite conversation. Now, this may be a good thing or a bad thing. When you are sitting on a bench in the park, right in the middle of Pip’s adventures, a passerby stopping to ask about your e-book reader is not always a welcome thing. But a handsome, inquisitive, ring-less stranger interrupting your coffee and Mr Darcy could be the start of something wonderful. OK, that’s a little silly but hey, stranger things have happened. And until everyone has one, an e-book reader is still a novelty and having one makes you a little more popular!
Both of these ‘holders of pages of wonders’ have a place in my reading world. I still love books. Why do I have to stop loving the physical book just because I also read novels on my e-book reader? There is not one reason that I can think of. Why do I have to hide my e-book reader when I’m with my snobby, intellectual and highly judgemental bookish friends (really I do love them)? I won’t. And if the media stories are true concerning the sales of e-books, then everyone will have one soon. I’ll just be able to say something like ‘oh, yes, I bought my first e-book reader in 2010 – I was one of the first!” Then I can be an e-book snob, as well.
I love my e-book reader. I love that I have over 100 books in my hand at once. I love the fact that just by plugging in my e-book reader I can download another 4 books without actually having to get on my bike, ride to the book shop, buy the book, and ride home again – what a waste of good reading time!
But before I can compare books and e-book readers, I think a definition of a Book is due. A book can take many different forms. It can be an 800 page hardback tome (OK, don’t worry, I’m not going to go on and on about the size of Fall of Giants again). It can also be a 40cm by 40cm so-called Coffee Table Book (What? You don’t read your Coffee Table books? I have stayed up till the wee hours of the morning entranced with a very large book about the making of maps many nights! You should try it). A book can be a normal paperback of any size, mostly easy to hold and carry around. A book can be very small filled with philosophy or poetry. It can even be a comic book sized, very soft covered graphic novel (of which I am just beginning to appreciate).
A book gives its reader clues about the story just by its physical presence. When the action starts heating up and you can see that there are 200 pages left to go, you know this is a build up to the intermission, so to speak. If there are only 25 pages left to go you know to ignore the ringing phone and the cries of hungry children and keep reading. An e-book gives you no such clues – you have to take this increase in tension just as it comes, on faith, and go with it. When a book starts to bog down or get a bit boring, you can see that that there is still the majority of the story to come and choose to give it the flick, or see that there are only a few pages left and persevere hoping that it comes good in the end. With an e-book reader – no such luck. You have to decide to continue by pure stubbornness or quit because it just feels right to quit! This sort of reading takes practice, but the learning can be quite thrilling.
You can slam a book closed when you get angry or frustrated with the plot or a character. You can push the off button really hard on an e-book reader but it’s not the same (obviously). You can lovingly place in a book mark that your friend just brought you back from her trip to Turkey (so jealous) and close your book with the sweet anticipation of starting again as soon as you get home from work. Or you can push the off button. You can bend the page to mark your place, stick a post-it note on a page that you want to read to someone, write in the margins and photocopy your favourite bits of a book. E-book reader – you can push the off button. You can lend a book. E-book reader – well you get the picture.
But, and this is a big but, as I said before, with my e-book reader I can carry 100 books with me in my small handbag. I can decide I don’t want to read the book I am reading and, with a flick of a button, be reading another book within a few seconds. I can go on a holiday and have more room for shoes and clothes so I don’t have to wear the same pants for three weeks and wear my heals out for a walk on the beach because I had to make room to bring the latest Alice Munroe in my suitcase (or Steven King which would mean leaving the shampoo at home as well – not such a great idea).
If someone sees you reading a book they generally leave you alone. E-book readers, at the moment, invite conversation. Now, this may be a good thing or a bad thing. When you are sitting on a bench in the park, right in the middle of Pip’s adventures, a passerby stopping to ask about your e-book reader is not always a welcome thing. But a handsome, inquisitive, ring-less stranger interrupting your coffee and Mr Darcy could be the start of something wonderful. OK, that’s a little silly but hey, stranger things have happened. And until everyone has one, an e-book reader is still a novelty and having one makes you a little more popular!
Both of these ‘holders of pages of wonders’ have a place in my reading world. I still love books. Why do I have to stop loving the physical book just because I also read novels on my e-book reader? There is not one reason that I can think of. Why do I have to hide my e-book reader when I’m with my snobby, intellectual and highly judgemental bookish friends (really I do love them)? I won’t. And if the media stories are true concerning the sales of e-books, then everyone will have one soon. I’ll just be able to say something like ‘oh, yes, I bought my first e-book reader in 2010 – I was one of the first!” Then I can be an e-book snob, as well.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Fall of Giants by Ken Follett
I will not read an eight hundred page (plus) novel again! What are the publishers thinking of when they publish an hardback book that is 851 pages? Don't they realize we will get bored at some point, even if the book is interesting? I know that there is a lot to say about World War One, and I know that Ken Follett is probably the author to say it. But honestly, I get antzy and want to move on to something else by page 542 of any book.
An 851 page book is also impossible to hold in my preferred reading position - in bed on my side. Do most people read sitting up in a chair or with the book on the table in front of them? I don't think so unless you are studying and this is not a studying type of book. I think that Ken Follett has earned the right to make his books any damn length he wants to, but please, publishers and editors, talk him out of it next time. It's too big a commitment for any but the most loyal fans.
My dad, who sadly passed two years ago, was a most loyal fan and would have cherished this book. I'm sorry that he didn't get to read it. Follett has, again, written a most readable book with an historically accurate story. And I did persevere for my father's sake. No - 'persevere' sounds like it was a struggle and it most certainly was not. If anything is was a pleasure to read this book. There was no 'a-ha' moment in the end but there was good and honest story telling.
The book begins by developing some supremely likeable characters in some very real situations. There is an Earl and a Coalminer, an Earl's sister and a Housekeeper, an upper-class American, an upper-class German and a lower-class Russian. Their lives intermingle and twirl around each other as WWI heats up, begins, plays out, and ends in all its glory and horror. A couple of years ago I read 'Paris, 1919' by Margaret MacMillan, which is about the six months of peace talks involving Wilson, Lloyd George and Clemenceau. It was an engrossing expose (that's an e with an accent) on the history of peace negotiation and the high cost of war. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the foundations of politics on a global scale. Follett takes these events and turns them into a very readable popular fiction novel.
There are real historical characters in this book and the fictional characters have much to do with them and are in their confidences. This is a great way to make history real to readers who know nothing about WWI. It was a devastating event and it does not have a prominent place in school lessons any longer. Follett is obviously passionate about the politics and economics surrounding WWI and has not pulled his punches when it comes to aiming squarely in the right corner of who is to blame for the absurdities of this war. He obviously means no disrespect to the soldiers who fought and died in this war but means all disrespect to the military, political powers and bankers who kept it going for so long with such a devastation loss of life.
And I must say something about Follett's descriptions of 'place'. The landscapes, big and small, in a novel are most important to me. If I cannot feel the place the author is placing his characters in, if I cannot smell and see and hear the surroundings of the people I am reading about, then the book doesn't work for me. Follett does situate his characters in places that speak as much as those characters do. In the depths of the coal mine you can feel the lack of air and the damp. In the trenches of France you can smell the foulness of the air and feel the mud squishing around army boots. In the small apartments of St. Petersburgs in winter you can hear the wails of hungry children and feel the desparate cold. Follett is a master of setting a scene without intruding on his own storyline.
Ken Follett takes on a big project in writing this book and covers every step of the way with love affairs, personal tragedies, and families as the fore-front subjects in this novel. He skillfully shows how the war affects them all by bringing people together and separating them forever. Read this novel. It will teach you about a place in history that should have taught us bigger lessons than it did, while entertaining you with people that you will feel fondly for and remember long after the reading has ended. And if you like this novel you must read 'Pillars of the Earth' as well. But that is for another Book View sometime.
I will not harp on about this but...Nancy Pearl, Seattle Librarian Extraodinaire, said that once you reach 50 years of age you only need to read 50 pages of a book before you decide to continue or stop. The first 50 pages of this book were good enough to keep me going. But from now on I will not even pick up a book that is too thick to fit comfortable under my pillow when I fall asleep at night. I may miss out on some fabulous books and I may break this vow occassionally but this is going to be my rule of thumb (and I can safely say this now that we know for sure that there will be no more Harry Potter books (smilely face)).
Happy Reading, Rhonda
An 851 page book is also impossible to hold in my preferred reading position - in bed on my side. Do most people read sitting up in a chair or with the book on the table in front of them? I don't think so unless you are studying and this is not a studying type of book. I think that Ken Follett has earned the right to make his books any damn length he wants to, but please, publishers and editors, talk him out of it next time. It's too big a commitment for any but the most loyal fans.
My dad, who sadly passed two years ago, was a most loyal fan and would have cherished this book. I'm sorry that he didn't get to read it. Follett has, again, written a most readable book with an historically accurate story. And I did persevere for my father's sake. No - 'persevere' sounds like it was a struggle and it most certainly was not. If anything is was a pleasure to read this book. There was no 'a-ha' moment in the end but there was good and honest story telling.
The book begins by developing some supremely likeable characters in some very real situations. There is an Earl and a Coalminer, an Earl's sister and a Housekeeper, an upper-class American, an upper-class German and a lower-class Russian. Their lives intermingle and twirl around each other as WWI heats up, begins, plays out, and ends in all its glory and horror. A couple of years ago I read 'Paris, 1919' by Margaret MacMillan, which is about the six months of peace talks involving Wilson, Lloyd George and Clemenceau. It was an engrossing expose (that's an e with an accent) on the history of peace negotiation and the high cost of war. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the foundations of politics on a global scale. Follett takes these events and turns them into a very readable popular fiction novel.
There are real historical characters in this book and the fictional characters have much to do with them and are in their confidences. This is a great way to make history real to readers who know nothing about WWI. It was a devastating event and it does not have a prominent place in school lessons any longer. Follett is obviously passionate about the politics and economics surrounding WWI and has not pulled his punches when it comes to aiming squarely in the right corner of who is to blame for the absurdities of this war. He obviously means no disrespect to the soldiers who fought and died in this war but means all disrespect to the military, political powers and bankers who kept it going for so long with such a devastation loss of life.
And I must say something about Follett's descriptions of 'place'. The landscapes, big and small, in a novel are most important to me. If I cannot feel the place the author is placing his characters in, if I cannot smell and see and hear the surroundings of the people I am reading about, then the book doesn't work for me. Follett does situate his characters in places that speak as much as those characters do. In the depths of the coal mine you can feel the lack of air and the damp. In the trenches of France you can smell the foulness of the air and feel the mud squishing around army boots. In the small apartments of St. Petersburgs in winter you can hear the wails of hungry children and feel the desparate cold. Follett is a master of setting a scene without intruding on his own storyline.
Ken Follett takes on a big project in writing this book and covers every step of the way with love affairs, personal tragedies, and families as the fore-front subjects in this novel. He skillfully shows how the war affects them all by bringing people together and separating them forever. Read this novel. It will teach you about a place in history that should have taught us bigger lessons than it did, while entertaining you with people that you will feel fondly for and remember long after the reading has ended. And if you like this novel you must read 'Pillars of the Earth' as well. But that is for another Book View sometime.
I will not harp on about this but...Nancy Pearl, Seattle Librarian Extraodinaire, said that once you reach 50 years of age you only need to read 50 pages of a book before you decide to continue or stop. The first 50 pages of this book were good enough to keep me going. But from now on I will not even pick up a book that is too thick to fit comfortable under my pillow when I fall asleep at night. I may miss out on some fabulous books and I may break this vow occassionally but this is going to be my rule of thumb (and I can safely say this now that we know for sure that there will be no more Harry Potter books (smilely face)).
Happy Reading, Rhonda
I won a contest!
My first post.
A little fun thing - I won a contest on the ABC - The Books Alive Suggest a Read contest. I wrote a little review of Wolf Hall and won! . Last week I recieved a box full of the the 50 books that were recommended by Books Alive as the 50 books you can't put down. (Some I can't even pick up!!)(oh, I know, I'm a snob but I am over 50 and I am not wasting my time on bodice ripping romances - sorry!) So now my next to the bed pile has grown considerably.
Here is my entry taken from the ABC website -
31 August, 2010 6:02PM
Recommended reads in Recommend a ReadYour most talked about books.
If you had to recommend just one book to someone, which is it? We asked you to tell us about a book that changed your life, or one that you could not live without, and the response was terrific
We had two packs of 50 books You Can't Put Down; one for an individual and one for a book club.
Our panel selected Rhonda Nichols review of Hillary Mantel's Wolf Hall and Marie Huttley-Jackson for her recounting of the discussion created when St Judes Book Club tackeled Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Rhonda will receive one pack of 50 books as will the St Judes Book Club.
Their winning reviews are below, along with a couple of Highly Commended entries. All the reviews we recieved are here.
Winning review
Wolf Hall - Hillary Mantel (Reviewer: Rhonda Nichols)
Within the first 50 pages of Wolf Hall I knew that this book was magic. The retelling of the court of King Henry the Eighth from the point of view of Thomas Cromwell takes a common story into a new and uncommon attitude. Hillary Mantel's writing is sublime, smooth, intense and unyielding. Every sentence was a delight in which I, as the reader, needed to pay attention and become totally immersed in the characters, plot and setting. This is one book that I savoured and selfishly devoured at the expense of the family and the pets. I think the saying 'didn't want the book to end' is appropriate here. Usually, while reading a good book I can't wait to get to the end to see what happens, but with Wolf Hall I wanted the experience to go on and on. I would give this book to friends and enemies, family and strangers and I would defy any of them to not love becoming a member of the English court in the 1520's, with all its intrigue and drama, through the reading of Wolf Hall
A little fun thing - I won a contest on the ABC - The Books Alive Suggest a Read contest. I wrote a little review of Wolf Hall and won! . Last week I recieved a box full of the the 50 books that were recommended by Books Alive as the 50 books you can't put down. (Some I can't even pick up!!)(oh, I know, I'm a snob but I am over 50 and I am not wasting my time on bodice ripping romances - sorry!) So now my next to the bed pile has grown considerably.
Here is my entry taken from the ABC website -
31 August, 2010 6:02PM
Recommended reads in Recommend a ReadYour most talked about books.
If you had to recommend just one book to someone, which is it? We asked you to tell us about a book that changed your life, or one that you could not live without, and the response was terrific
We had two packs of 50 books You Can't Put Down; one for an individual and one for a book club.
Our panel selected Rhonda Nichols review of Hillary Mantel's Wolf Hall and Marie Huttley-Jackson for her recounting of the discussion created when St Judes Book Club tackeled Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Rhonda will receive one pack of 50 books as will the St Judes Book Club.
Their winning reviews are below, along with a couple of Highly Commended entries. All the reviews we recieved are here.
Winning review
Wolf Hall - Hillary Mantel (Reviewer: Rhonda Nichols)
Within the first 50 pages of Wolf Hall I knew that this book was magic. The retelling of the court of King Henry the Eighth from the point of view of Thomas Cromwell takes a common story into a new and uncommon attitude. Hillary Mantel's writing is sublime, smooth, intense and unyielding. Every sentence was a delight in which I, as the reader, needed to pay attention and become totally immersed in the characters, plot and setting. This is one book that I savoured and selfishly devoured at the expense of the family and the pets. I think the saying 'didn't want the book to end' is appropriate here. Usually, while reading a good book I can't wait to get to the end to see what happens, but with Wolf Hall I wanted the experience to go on and on. I would give this book to friends and enemies, family and strangers and I would defy any of them to not love becoming a member of the English court in the 1520's, with all its intrigue and drama, through the reading of Wolf Hall
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