Holy cats, has it ever been bad. The last two days the computer system has crashed for nearly all of day shift. So, working afternoons, we are burdened with two shifts' worth of work with our skeleton staffing.
I am exhausted, my entire body aches, and I think my blood pressure is out of control from the stress (I keep getting dizzy). Throw in a bad cold, and I will be very glad when this week is over!
Long weekend! My Bilbo! Only two more nights to get through!
Most of the day yesterday I was not able to keep anything down other than water. So in the middle of the afternoon, hoping to feel better before heading to the Tigers game, I took a long nap. Normally I would watch the Michigan Wolverines play football, since I did have season tickets there when I was a student, but I figured they had no chance against Joe Pa and Penn State, so just headed to bed (feeling truly rotten and all).
I was really surprised when Steven and Dan got home and woke me up with the news that Michigan was winning!
We headed to Comerica, and got there just after the game started, as there was some bad traffic heading to Detroit.
We followed Detroit Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios into the ballpark. It was cool seeing him - and Detroiters, cool and classy as we are - just enjoyed seeing him, and no one bothered him or asked for autographs or any such nonsense. Let him enjoy the beautiful night at the ball game, too! (If it was not Chris Chelios, it was his identical twin!)
Perfect fall evening! More like football weather than baseball weather - or bonfire/campfire weather, but I surely will not complain. Crisp and cool and clear as a bell. Great for walking around Detroit and hanging out at Comerica! The moon was breathtaking in its beauty over downtown Detroit.
The Tigers lost the game, which made me sort of sad, since it might be Kenny Roger's last home start as a Tiger (his contract is up, and with his age and health problems, who knows whether or not the Tigers will resign him). But Curtis Granderson was wonderful, and Magglio Ordonez was a baseball god - five times at bat with four hits and a fielder's choice.
And it was just fun to go to the game, and cheer for our beloved team. What team COULD have gone to the playoffs this year with so many key injuries?
With my stomach problems, we did not go out to dinner, but I was able to keep some cotton candy (blandest food known to humanity) and half of a giant pretzel and a bit of lemon aid (first vendor with non-beer beverage to go through our section) down, so all of the sleep must have helped.
Today I made it into work, though it was a trial. made it all the way through, too!
Tonight I orderedconcert tickets for dates with Dan. It is sort of hard, as I have to try to make sure nothing interferes with soccer, wrestling, or school events/breaks. Also avoiding midweek concerts so I will not be tempted to use up my vacation time attending them. So that leaves only Friday and Saturday nights that do not interfere with soccer, wrestling, and school stuff.
So here we go:
October
Dianne Reeves (jazz diva with a glorious voice)
http://www.ums.org/s_current_season/artist.asp?pageid=404
March
Detroit Symphony Orchestra et all performing Bach's St. Mathew's Passion
http://www.ums.org/s_current_season/artist.asp?pageid=436
April
Chick Corea, Bobby McFerrin & Jack DeJohnette
http://www.ums.org/s_current_season/artist.asp?pageid=444
May
Detroit Symphony Orchestra performing Mahler's Ninth Symphony
http://www.detroitsymphony.com/main.taf?erube_fh=dso&dso.submit.getEvent=1&dso.eventId=1899
June
The Mambo Kings
http://www.detroitsymphony.com/main.taf?erube_fh=dso&dso.submit.getEvent=1&dso.eventId=1984
As always, it was difficult just settling on a few! There are so many great musicians coming through Ann Arbor and Detroit, but trying to limit things by only Friday and Saturday nights, as well as nothing during the sports seasons and school events, does help narrow things down quite a bit!
This morning was certainly NOT festive, as I threw up my breakfast before I even finished eating it. Yuck. Thank God Dan and Steven were not home to fuss over me. My stomach feels better now, so I am going to try to go upstairs and eat a very light lunch, and take my medicine.
And then I am going to take a nap. My period started yesterday, and I am very tired and achy and crampy. So I will go to sleep with a good comfort book.
Tonight we will head to Detroit for a good dinner (which will hopefully stay down) and a Tigers game. Kenny Rogers will be the starting pitcher! YAY!!! WOO HOO!!!
Read a book between naps and fits of housekeeping yesterday. It is called Hounding the Moon and is a fantasy debut novel by P. R. Frost. Best selling fantasy novelist and young widow Tess Noncoire has a second secret identity as a warrior for an order that specializes in protecting the Earth from demons. She is life bonded to a sarcastic and farty runty little imp named Scrap. It was more than over the top occasionally, but it was still good enough that I will be glad to read future work from this new author. I especially like how she managed to weave in Native American legends into the story.
Last night at work was bad. The work itself was not bad, even though they took down the computer system for a couple of hours. It was bad because this coworker who has anger management issues cornered me yet again to scream at me for a long time. Always makes me sick when she does that, and she does that at least every few months, and sometimes a lot more often than that. And whenever she does it, it is always because of something that has nothing whatsoever to do with me and that I have no control over. It is always something (usually no more than annoying, certainly nothing to fuel such rage) that someone else did or said that she feels the need to vent about. But her venting is usually pretty close to insane ranting. And she always picks a time when I am isolated away from witnesses - and she always places herself between me and the door so I cannot get away without physically moving her. And she will not let me out, no matter what I say, until her ravings are over. I honestly wish I could call the police (yes - it can be that bad) - or other coworkers to help me. But it is usually not near a telephone, either. And how can I make a formal complaint when she is so careful to do this when no one else is around? No witnesses, no case.
God help me, this has gone on for years now. And Dan wonders why I have high blood pressure and am sick all of the time from stress. If it is not male coworkers stealing clothing from my locker in the women's room and taking it home for weeks, it is other people cramming their emotional problems and unwarranted rage down my throat in a loud and ugly way.
God help me.
I have been reading a lot of short novels this week. A nice break from ten volumes of a thousand pages each that fantasy works have started to become in this day and age!
The Mournful Teddy by John J. Lamb was a great deal of fun! A medically retired San Francisco homicide detective and his wife have moved to rural Virginia, where she grew up. There she has started to design and make artisan teddy bears. He takes a keen interest in the soft little things ,and who can blame him, after the horrible things he has seen in his career as police officer in a major urban area? The mystery in the book revolves around crooked cops, a murder, and the theft of one of the most valuable teddy bears in the world. If this is one of a series, I would be very happy to read the other books.
On What Grounds by Cleo Coyle is the first book in Coffeehouse Mysteries series. It was set in an historic coffee house in my favorite area of New York City, Greenwich Village. Clare Cosi is the former and future manager of Village Blend. It was run to the ground in the meantime, and the owner is bringing her back in an effort to rescue the business. Unfortunately, it means that she must share the duplex apartment that comes with the job with her ex-husband, son of the owner...and even more unfortunately, first thing in the morning, she finds the assistant manager, a hard working girl named Anabelle, horribly hurt at the foot of the stairs. Did this talented dancer slip and fall - or was she pushed? Promising start to a mystery series, and while I have never developed a taste for coffee, I do love the Greenwich Village setting.
A Secret Rage by Charlaine Harris was a very difficult book to read. It was well written - I have yet to run into a bad novel or story written by Harris - but the content was difficult. It tells the story of a woman who decides to move home to small town Tennessee and go back to school, after a modeling career in New York City. But the peace of the small town is being interrupted by a brutal serial rapist. Very likable women are being attacked through no fault of their own. Some of the victims decide to team up to figure out who the criminal might be. Searing descriptions of rape and other violence. I believe that this is a stand alone novel, and not part of any series.
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury just failed to grip me, and I have been trying to read it for over a week before finally finishing it this morning. The last time I fell asleep so many times while reading a book was for Steven Erikson's Midnight Tides, and since I thought that book was not very good, that is certainly not a good sign. I usually love Bradbury, so maybe I just wasn't in the right mood for this particular book. Anyway, a carnival from hell comes to small town Illinois in a story set many decades ago in a much more innocent time. Two boys become involved, and are hunted down by the freaks and demons...
I am kind of down. Since having even that little bit of contact with Mr. Grinch, I have been sick, as usual when I have any sort of contact with that creep. So I have been having stress diarrhea and have been throwing up. Yuck. This is a bad time of year for allergies, too, so for the last week or so, my head has been feeling as if it has been stuffed with cotton or perhaps old newspapers.
And the Detroit Tigers probably blew any hope they had of making the playoffs in the last two nights against the Cleveland Indians. And the losses coming from our two greatly talented and beloved young pitchers, Joel Zumaya and Justin Verlander, it hurts even more. (Yes, I know that Zumaya technically did not get the loss in Monday's game - but he blew a big lead in the late innings, and set up things for the loss to occur).
I knew that it would take a miracle for the Tigers to get to the playoffs this year, given how the team has been decimated by injuries - but it is still depressing. Man, they came so close!
I am still looking forward to going to the game on Saturday at Comerica, and plan to cheer my head off for my team.
At least work has been quiet this week. Less stress is always good! Even managed to finish up another book on my breaks and lunches:
Holy Guacamole by Nancy Fairbanks is the sixth book in her Culinary Mysteries series. In the previous books in this series, Carolyn Blue and her professor husband Jason Blue, have traveled to exotic locations in the US and Europe - he on business, her to get ideas for her food/travel column. In this book they stay home in El Paso - a large city on the border with Mexico. A music teacher at the university who has just gotten done directing a very controversial opera with the local opera guild dies after the post-production party. Has he died from food poisoning or has he been murdered? Or was the food poisoning murder? What are his connections with the Mexican drug lord and with the white slavers? The more Carolyn tries to get to the bottom of the death, the more complications and confusion arises.
Last night I stayed up really late, and thought I had gotten caught up. Then this morning I realized that I had lent something I had read to a coworker, so should type that one up, too, even though it sucked. Oh well. I would have probably had trouble getting to sleep last night anyway, after the Tigers relief pitchers blew a key game to Cleveland...
Puss 'n Cahoots by Rita Mae Brown is one of her Mrs. Murphy Mysteries. The previous two (maybe even three) books in this old favorite series have been really bad. I was getting ready to give up on this series, and this is the book that pushed me over the edge.
Why?
I think that the author's heart just isn't in it anymore. She has changed the personalities of the characters. The main character is a woman who has always prided herself on her independence. Suddenly she quits her job over something ridiculously stupid (she cannot take her pets to work with her anymore - I mean, give me a break - how many people would be allowed to take their pets to work with them in the first place?). So she quit her job for sheer stupidity, and immediately hooks up with her ex husband, whom she broke up with because he was cheating on her with a friend. And of course, now that she needs to be supported, she goes around telling everyone that the ex was male and did what came naturally to men (huh?????) and that she had been immature to react like that to his adultery. Let me puke now.
But it gets even worse. The friend the ex cheated with is a middle aged woman and widow, and is something of a town bicycle. All of the men got a ride. And then she suddenly realizes that she is a lesbian. Give me a freakin' break. She had no clue for forty years of life that she was attracted to other women? Not even as a horny teenager? This is not a highly religious woman who stayed in the closet so deeply that not even she had a clue. This is the most sexually active and adventurous character in the series. Spare me.
And the books themselves became stale. Rather than having cool little mysteries in a charming little small town in Virginia, they became...just plain bad. They did not build on each other anymore. In one book, suddenly everyone in town had season tickets to the local university's women's basketball team and everyone was a basketball fanatic. This was made to look as if it has been the case all along - but no one had ever cared in the slightest about basketball (women's or men's) previously. And do not even get me started on every character in the book suddenly plowing up prime farm land on their horse farms to plant wine grapes.
Since the setting was a small town in Virginia, within the first few books you knew that all of the crime victims and criminals were all from the new characters...so why bother getting attached to any of them?
And the preaching. The last few books have been filled with the author preaching about politics and current affairs and controversies.
God, I hate preachy writers.
So what made this particular book so bad that I am giving up on the series, even though the last few have been bad?
It was the honeymoon for the main character and the husband she has just remarried.
They bring along the pets.
They seem more like brother and sister than newlyweds. Why did these two even get married again, other than the woman needing to be supported after her own stupidity about her former job?
They go to a big horse show in Kentucky, and the book is filled with a bunch of horse trainers who have so little development as characters that you have to go back to the character list to even attempt to keep them straight.
These are supposed to be animal lovers, yet they take their two cats and dog to another state (on their honeymoon!!!) and then let them roam freely around the horse show grounds, with all sorts of strangers and high strung horses milling around.
There is no attempt to solve the mystery. At all.
Tons of more preaching from the author, on everything from drug usage in sports to illegal immigration.
Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck.
Just plain bad book - and the third (or fourth, I might have blocked some badness there) in a row in this series. Time to move on...
Both of these books are part of the Culinary Mysteries by Nancy Fairbanks.
In the three earlier books in the series we meet Carolyn Blue - the wife of a university chemistry professor. Jason Blue likes having a traditional wife, and Carolyn has been one for all of these years as the children have been growing up. Now that they are both college aged, she feels free to become a little less traditional. While she is an accomplished cook, she would rather cook than eat. So with her love of both food and history, a new career involving a regular syndicated newspaper column about food and travel seems like a natural choice.
Now then, Carolyn and Jason Blue are both WASPs to the most stereotyped degree you can imagine. He is a stuffed shirt, a very conservative snob and self centered workaholic. She is prissy and sheltered and opinionated. The author likes to have fun with the stereotypes and it is very funny to me to see Carolyn's eyes being opened up to a bigger world with more diverse people than she runs into at meetings for college faculty wives.
The three previous books took place in New Orleans, New York City, and France. Filled with not only mysteries, but with delightful descriptions of food, these books always make me hungry. Normandy was especially tempting, with its apple liquor and apple pastries...
Chocolate Quake is the fourth book in the series. Jason has a conference in San Francisco, so Carolyn tags along to visit some good restaurants, and get material for her column. The last thing she expects is to find her mother-in-law in jail for murder. Jason just sort of dumps the problem on her while he is busy at the conference. With the help of a gay former professional football player turned private detective, Carolyn tries to find the real murderer, to get her awful witch of a MIL out of jail. She also manages to eat some pretty fine sounding meals. Amusing like the first three novels, but Jason was sort of irritating and self centered...
The Perils of Paella is the fifth book in the series. Jason has yet another conference in Spain, so Carolyn travels to Barcelona to meet with an old friend while Jason is giving his paper in another Spanish city. The last thingshe is expecting is to find the corpse of a murder victim in the museum where her friend works. Throw in a missing runaway teen, a couple of snooty nobles, and a group of weird artists, and you have the recipe for a fun mystery in an exotic setting.
The Good Husband of Zebra Drive by Alexander McCall Smith is the eighth book in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency mystery series. How I love this series of books, with their warmth and gentle humor. The recurring characters all have their little flaws, but they are all people you would like to have as friends. Precious Ramotswe owns and operates a detective agency in the capital city of Botswana. While she is not a college educated woman, she has great wisdom, and has become a detective to help people with their problems. And there is a huge problem this time - a series of mysterious deaths in the hospital in Mochudi.
Variations on the Fantasy Tradition - Stephen R. Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by W. A. Senior is an in-depth look at the fantasy classic. I am a long time fan of the writings of Donaldson, and this book gave me a lot of food for thought. In fact, I might reread certain sections soon, as Donaldson's next book is due out next month...
Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann, translated by Anthea Bell, is a very different mystery story. When their shepherd is apparently murdered, his flock of sheep decide to solve the mystery and bring the criminal to justice. (The sheep can talk to each other, but not to humans). Swann does a good job of giving distinct characters to the various sheep. She also does a great job in showing the world through the other senses other than vision - particularly taste. The sheep - led by the intelligent Miss Maple, the huge young ram Mopple the Whale, who remembers things for the flock, and the badass black ram Othello - go on sleuthing missions in the town, and do their best to bring about justice over the death of their shepherd. Very different, and very enjoyable!
Troy Shield of Thunder by David Gemmell is the second book in his Troy trilogy, a masterpiece of historical fiction and historical fantasy.Tragically, the author died before completing the third books, which has been finished by his widow in the time since he passed. Gemmell did his research - he places Troy in its proper place, as revealed by the Imperial Hittite archives and the latest archaeological research, as its place as the capital of an important Hittite allied state. He also places it in its place as an important trading hub in the greater Mediterranean world - a world dominated by two super powers (the Hittites and Egypt) with some new-comer barbarian pirates trying to grab some wealth and power - who would someday be called Greeks. In this, the second book of the trilogy, tensions are heating up between the Trojans and the Mykenes (Greeks). Agamemnon is looking for any excuse to go to war. All of the main players in the war to be travel to Troy for the wedding of Andromache and Hector. It will only take one match to explode the powder keg...
Baltimore or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden is a blood chilling horror story that begins on a frozen battle field in the hell known as World War 1. Lord Baltimore, a British captain, leads his men into an ambush, and he is the only survivor. Then the vampires some to feed on the human carrion. Baltimore manages to awaken the wrath of their leader. He not only gains a hellish enemy, this meeting will unleash a plague that will decimate Europe. In the end, only Baltimore will stand between the ultimate evil and mankind. It is almost refreshing running into vampies that are evil rather than sexy in this day and age. This book made my run blood cold, and is even illustrated by creepy wood prints.
A Crazy Little Thing Called Death by Nancy Martin is the sixth novel in the Blackbird Sisters Mysteries. The Blackbird family is an old one, and fairly high up in Philadelphia High Society. But the family has been cursed since colonial times - each of the family's daughters will love bad boys and become young widows. The three daughters of this generation of the Blackbird family have all fallen under the curse - they are all attracted to bad boys, and are all young and beautiful widows. They are also impoverished, as their parents spent off the family fortune and fled overseas, leaving he girls with multimillion dollar tax bills and nothing to pay them with. The sensible and sensitive red headed sister, Nora has agreed to marry her Mafia prince. Eldest sister, the blonde earth mother Libby, wants to plan the wedding of Nora's dreams, but is only being a pain. And dark haired sister, the horse crazy and athletic Emma, has started taking strange phone calls from men at all hours, leading her sisters to wonder if she has turned to the world's oldest profession to make ends meet. In the midst of all of this family madness, a movie star from a famous Philly society family vanishes and is declared dead. She leaves Nora a very interesting bequest. And her family makes the Blackbirds look normal. Did they kill her? Where might she possibly be - either dead OR alive?
Undead and Uneasy by Mary Janice Davidson is the seventh novel in her Queen Betsy series about vampires in the Twin Cities. Betsy Taylor, beautiful blonde former model, and lover of designer shoes, is the Queen of the vampires. She is all set to marry Eric Sinclair, even though Eric believes them to already be married. But as the wedding evening comes ever closer, one by one, Betsy's entourage of friends and family members seems to vanish. And all of a sudden, for the first time, since becoming a vampire, Betsy is alone and having to take care of matters with her own two undead hands.
I have always enjoyed the good natured books about Queen Betsy, who is rather silly and vain, but very devoted to her friends, and who always tries to do the right thing. This one was more serious than the others, so there are fewer laughs. But it was good seeing Betsy finally taking some responsibility and acting like a Queen.
The Lark's Lament by Alan Gordon is the sixth book in the wonderful Fool's Guild Mystery series. The premise behind the series - that the fools, jesters, and troubadours of Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages were all part of a Guild that worked behind the scenes to promote peace - is a wonderful one. Gordon continues the story of one Shakespeare play in one of the novels, and tells the "real" story behind another play in a different novel. So the books are wonderfully intelligent, as well as being filled with great banter and huge amounts of interesting history. In this particular novel, our favorite family of fools (Theo, Claudia, their baby Portia, and their apprentice Helga) are traveling around the south of France in the year 1204. They have been sent to find a former troubadour, now abbot, and ask him to intervene on behalf of the Guild with the Pope, who is cracking down on the Guild. The very night they reach the abbot's monastery, a murder occurs. The abbot tells them to find the killer if they want his help. Finding clues in old songs, they compete with the killer/s to find the people who can help them solve the mystery.
Well, on last Friday the weather cleared up before game time, and it was a gorgeous autumn afternoon. So Dan came home and we headed to Riverview together.
And we could not find the soccer field.
The directions at our high school's web site took us directly to Riverview High School - but the game was not held there.
We drove around Riverview for over an hour, and could never find the game.
This really sucked, as it is the second time in recent weeks this has happened - the first being St. Mary's Catholic Central in Monroe. The directions posted at our high school's web site in both cases took us to the opposing high school, but the game was not held there, or anywhere near it.
When we asked Steven he said that the Riverview game had been held in a park "deep in a neighborhood", nowhere near the high school.
And it is not like either Monroe or Riverview is a short drive from the Ann Arbor area, either.
Dan and I were both pretty upset both times.
So the weekend was off to a bad start, and could have been better.
And then this morning I am checking the main discussion board I go to, and find out the bad news that fantasy writer Robert Jordan had passed on - and I found out the news from Mr. Grinch. Since that man (Mr. Grinch) has told me innumerable lies (both from commission and omission) I was hoping it was yet another lie from a completely untrustworthy person. But, after checking around the Internet, it turned out to be true. <sigh>
I know that he (Robert Jordan) had been very ill, and getting experimental treatments from the Mayo Clinic. But he had been so upbeat and determined to beat his very serious and painful medical condition, that this was still an ugly shock. And it has to be tragic and horribly painful for his wife and family and personal friends.
When the Wheel turns, may his next life be filled with happiness and love - and may this former war hero have a very long and peaceful life, with plenty of time to create things! May none of his stories be left unfinished...
There will still be a pile left when I get this batch typed up - but it is getting nearly down to manageable proportions now! Maybe I will be done early next week, and can just type up brief descriptions of books as I read them, from that point of time onwards.
Long Time Listener, First Time Werewolf by Carrie Vaughn is an omnibus with her three Kitty novels (Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Kitty Goes to Washington, and Kitty Takes a Holiday) along with the short story called "Kitty and the Band".
Kitty Norville is a pretty little twenty-something girl, who is a fairly recent college graduate, a midnight shift radio DJ, and a werewolf. She was attacked in recent years, and is still getting used to her new life and all of its implications. Which is cool - because, as she learns about her new life, we, the readers, can learn right along with her. But the main thing about Kitty is that she is a nice girl - whether she is human or wolf. There is a basic decency to Kitty, and that makes the books well worth reading, beyond the funness of the plot.
I have been reading a lot of crappy paranormal fantasy/horror type stuff lately - so thank God for authors like Vaughn, Armstrong, and Briggs - who make the genre fun and worth reading!
False Colours by Georgette Heyer is a Regency romance centered around a man named Christopher (Kit) Fancot. Kit is the younger twin, but the more responsible one. Everyone wishes that he, not his older twin brother, was the heir to the family title and fortune. But the birth order cannot be changed, so Kit becomes a junior diplomat abroad while his brother stays at home and raises trouble. When Kit comes home on leave and discovers that his brother has mysteriously vanished on the eve of announcing his engagement to a serious young lady, Kit feels forced to take his place (with and by the strong encouragement of his very irresponsible beauty of a mother). When the missing twin does not immediately return, Kit's life becomes very messy.
Bite Me If You Can by Lynsay Sands is a chick lit little novel about the Argeneau vampire family. Most of the books in this series are rather alike - lonely vampire meets the boy/girl of her/his dreams, they fall in love, and the lover eventually becomes one of the family. This book is no different. I will give the author a lot of credit, though, in that she usually keeps things light and fun, in a genre that sometimes takes itself much too seriously (coughLaurellKHamiltoncough) (coughAnnRicecough). And she tries to make a logical scientific explanation for vampirism. You have to give her credit for trying to do that!
Mouse Guard Fall 1152 by David Petersen is one of the most beautiful graphic novels I have ever encountered. I am in love with the artwork in this lovely book! Set back in the European Middle Ages, mice go about having the normal careers and lives you would expect humans to have in that time period. But mice are vulnerable little creatures, so they have the Mouse Guard to protect them. The Guard not only protects towns, but also travelers on their journeys, etc. Three of the Mouse Guard's bravest in Lieam, Saxon, and Kenzie discover a traitorous plot and all sorts of excitement follows...
I loved The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, but I think that I love this story even more.
It follows the lives of two Afghan women through decades of warfare and turmoil in that country. Each of them suffers horrible abuse and pain. And it shows how, through their unlikely friendship - the love (platonic!) that they learn to feel for each other helps them be prepared to face anything.
Mariam is the bastard daughter of a rich businessman. While still young and virginal, she is married off to a creepy man more than old enough to be her father.
Laila is the orphaned daughter of a middle class household. She has a choice to marry the creepy neighbor old enough to be her grandfather or sell her body on the streets after her family is killed.
The two - with Mariam old enough to be Laila's mother - end up as cowives to a cruel and horribly abusive man. The essential goodness of both women is shown in that they learn to love each other and the children very deeply. These women would die for each other or for the children of the family.
While the plight of Afghan women and children is heart and gut wrenching - the beauty and strength and goodness of those women shines through in this - at times difficult to read - but very moving story.
This is another of this year's Hugo nominated novels, and one that I thought was the best of the lot (though it pains me a bit to say that, as I love the Novik book so much)!
It interweaves two storylines - one set in the near future, and the other in Germany in 1348.
The present/near future storyline involves some advanced graduate students. Tom studies history, and finds an anomaly in Germany. A village was never resettled after the Black Death despite its idyllic location. By every standard of history, this town should have been rebuilt - which it has never been through all of the centuries since. What in the blazes is so special about Eifelheim? Tom and others begin an intensive study of any and all records that they can find to solve the mystery.
The other storyline tells of a kind priest named Father Dietrich, and how he takes in a frightened band of pilgrims after their starship crashes on Earth back in 1348. Needless to say, there are all sorts of problems, as the two species are different physically, mentally, emotionally, culturally, technologically, etc.
Two cool stories woven together - and a wonderful underlying message underneath all of the grimness.
No matter how deep the gulfs of distance, space, time, and misunderstanding - the light of trust, faith, friendship, love, and faith will shine forth forever.
I am going to say this right out in front - I do not think that I have enough general knowledge of Jewish religion and culture (particularly Yiddish culture) to have gotten full meaning and value out of this book. But I did enjoy it anyway!
The novel is set on an alternate Earth, where after WW2, the new Israeli state failed. The US set aside a part of Alaska for a new Jewish homeland for some sixty years. When the story begins, the sixty years are nearly up, and the millions of Jewish people who live around Sitka are living in fear over what the future holds for them, and their future as part of the state of Alaska rather than the Federal District of Sitka.
A divorced police detective named Meyer Landsman has a lot of problems - especially since his new boss in homicide is the only love of his life - his ex-wife, whom he feels he let down in the worst possible way. His beloved sister died in an accident. He is working on drinking himself to death. He really doesn't want to investigate the murder of a bum living at the same seedy hotel as himself.
But the investigation starts to get interesting when he discovers that the murdered man just may have been that generation's messiah; that the victim had ties to the most important and corrupt people in Sitka; that there might have been an international conspiracy centered around him; that there might even be ties to his sister's death...
Now if only Landsman can survive performing the investigation...
A really interesting genre bender!
Still working my way through the stack of books I read this summer, in order to give brief reviews...
Tales from the Detroit Tigers Dugout by Jack Ebling. This is a book detailing the 2006 Detroit Tigers AL championship season - with plenty of anecdotes about the managers and players. It also has a decade by decade history (more than a hundred years) of the team and its greatest and/or most colorful players. Did you know that Ty Cobb once had an unassisted double play from the outfield? Neither did I, until I read this book.
Glasshouse by Charles Stross was one of this year's Hugo nominees for best science fiction novel. I try to read the nominated novels each year, and I approached this one with trepidation, as I strongly disliked last year's nominated novel by Stross, Accellerando. I was very relieved that this one was much better - particularly that it did not have a graphic and disturbing rape scene and subsequent long term romantic and disturbing relationship between the rapist and the rapee. This one borders on cyberpunk, a genre I tend to dislike, but it was still fairly enjoyable.
Sometime in the far future, following a time of war, Robin wakes up in a clinic with most of his memories missing, and soon finds out that people are trying to kill him - probably for something his earlier self knew. Trying to find a good hiding place, Robin volunteers to be art of a unique experiment that will isolate him from society at large. The experiment randomly assigns new identities to the volunteers and has them live in a primitive culture (in this case - one a lot like ours). But Robin does not realize that his hiding place will be a trap which will put him at the mercy of the experimenters, his fellow volunteers - and his own unhealthy mind...
Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge is another of this year's Hugo nominees - the winner, in fact, though it was the one I liked third best out of the five. I thought that this one was a lot of fun - but lacking in depth. In the near future, they have discovered a way to bring back Alzheimer's patients to full health - but then the former patients have to go back to high school to get the remedial high tech skills to be able to function in society.
Robert Gu, a former world class poet, is one of those former patients. While he was renowned for his poetry, he was a complete creep to his family, to say the least - emotional abusive and a first class arrogant jerk. But now he has to start over, with less than the skills of a high school student. And then he gets sucked into a conspiracy involving UCSD and the high tech labs associated with it - by a mysterious being named Rabbit.
Will Robert ever be able to be a poet again? Will the challenges Robert faces turn him into a nicer, better person? Is Rabbit the avatar of a real person, or is Rabbit an artificial intelligence, a sort of God for a new culture and new society?
Fast paced, fun, and fluffy...
Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs is the second book in her Mercy Thompson fantasy series, following Moon Called. Mercedes (Mercy) Thompson is a hard working small business owner - she owns and works in a small garage which fixes German imports. She is half Native American, and inherited something pretty interesting from the father who died before she was born - she is a walker - which means she has the ability to change forms between human and coyote at will. She was born this way - she is not a were of any sort - and it is not dependent upon the moon.
Mercy has friends and neighbors and customers who have other supernatural abilities - though none of them are walkers. Some are fae, others werewolves, and some are vampires.
Now then, when vampires first came to North America from Europe, they warred against the walkers. Walkers apparently had some sort of abilities (of which Mercy is completely ignorant) that made them very dangerous to vampires.
So when a huge threat arises against the local vampires - a demon possessed sorcerer which some vampire has been stupid enough to turn - Mercy's friend Stephan asks for Mercy's help.
What results will bring huge danger to everyone - from the humans to the vampires to the werewolves - and especially to one little coyote lady...
Went into town early, went shopping for Steven's school supplies (and also got myself some very cute ballet flats that were on sale at Target). Met Dan for lunch at the Noodles & Company at Arborland Mall. Work was busy, but that wasn't so bad. Did not have to clean up any dog messes until I got home - he was pretty good yesterday.
And - best of all - it is autumn now! Nice and chilly! Great sleeping weather! I had to pull a comforter out from under the bed last night when I got home.
Today I think I will also leave a bit early. I will drop by the bookstore for a couple of short mysteries, then hit the salad bar at Whole Foods.
Thank God it is my Friday.
Tomorrow, on actual Friday (and my day off), we will head to Riverview to see Steven play soccer. On Saturday, I will do laundry and work on cleaning the house some more.
Haven't even gone to work yet, but it is already another one of those days. The poor old dog has diarrhea once again (three times last week, first time for this one).
I am beginning to think that extreme old age is like pregnancy - the physical discomforts get you ready for the next stage. In the case of pregnancy, it is the horrible pain of labor and then a wonderful baby. In the case of extreme old age, it would be the mystery and journey of death. But when every moment of every day is spent in discomfort, after awhile you are ready to move on.
I know that the dog cannot help it - if he were human he would probably be well up into his nineties. After all, he is a Labrador retriever who is over fourteen years old now. But the daily grind that the last few months have become - the daily cleaning up of multiple accidents of both pee and poop - the constant stench and mess of it. Not being able to go on a vacation, or leave the house without at least one human present for more than an hour or two...it is just really starting to get to me. And no matter how much I scrub the floor, the house still smells. Bill has promised me that he will rent a power washer and clean the floors really well for me once the dog passes, as well as hauling every inch of carpeting to the dump, and I only hope that even something that extreme will work.
Listen to me. I am just so worn down now...both physically and emotionally.
Doesn't help that it is Sept. 11 - and like most Americans, I think I will feel sad on this date every year for the rest of my life.
I wasn't sure if I wanted to read this book, going by the awful and ugly cover. But many people at Amazon were raving about it, so I decided to take a chance.
I am very glad that I did, as I found it to be very enjoyable.
Mercedes (Mercy) Thompson is half Native American, and has an interesting legacy from her father - she is a walker. This means that she is a shape changer and can can change between human and coyote forms at will. While she is supernatural, she was born that way - she is not any sort of were, and her abilities are not tied to the moon.
She is a small business owner, and works hard. She owns a small garage in eastern Washington state, where she repairs imported cars, primarily German brands.
She lives a quiet a life as possible, given that some of her customers and neighbors are werewolves and vampires. She attends church regularly, though she dislikes the symbolism of the crucifix (as a form of torture and execution), and wears a necklace with a sheep pendant rather than a cross - for the Lamb of God.
She is working away at her garage one day, when a polite runaway teenager wanders in, looking for a temporary job. He also happens to be a werewolf. When she decides to help him out, she has no idea that this will involve her in quite a mess...
Today rather than throwing up from stress, I only had my usual diarrhea.
Work was busy.
I did a lot of housework, but as usual, the house still looks filthy.
In a few minutes, I will take a shower and head to bed.
But at least the Jeep is fixed (it ended up needing a new battery).
http://www.quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=81424N
| Which "a song of ice and fire" character are you? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| You scored as a Eddard Stark | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tou identify with Eddard Stark. You are loyal and honorable, and take action in a crisis. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Dan had wanted to jump start the Jeep yesterday and drive it to the dealer, with me following in the truck. He was then going to drop me off at work, picking me up at midnight.
We were unable to jump the Jeep, so he just dropped me off and picked me up work.
He got the Jeep towed to a dealer this morning, and supposedly it might be as simple as needing a battery. We will find out soon...
Lots of housework today. I sorted out several loads of clothes, and am about to go put them away. And I cleaned up all of the dog poop all over the floor, which is a daily task anymore...though it never becomes less disgusting.
I threw up yesterday before work. I think it was because of stress over the Jeep and other things. But I seem to be fine so far today...
Responsible. Respectable. Dour. That’s not shit coming out of your ass--it’s honor. You are clearly of House Stark.
You are a submissive personality, meaning that you are more than willing to relinquish control to someone more qualified; you will unflinchingly accept any responsibility that is thrust upon you, including servitude. Unfortunately for you, your unending patience and accommodating nature often make people look to you for a leader. In essence, you are the perfect leader: someone who has no desire to lead, yet is substantially well-qualified to do it.
You are also introverted, which means that people sometimes have difficulty understanding your thought process. Your dependable nature makes you predictable, but you’ve probably got all sorts of emotional dysfunctions when it comes to more intimate relationships. There are very few people whom you trust unwaveringly, and you’re not the type to confide in other people. So cold, so aloof--so Stark.
Finally, you are trustworthy--the very definition of the word. All secrets are safe with you. All of your vows are unbreakable. True to your name, you world is a stark place; there is black, and there is white. Your rigidity tends to undercut your overall value as a friend and ally. Honesty such as yours is hard to come by, which is easy to understand when you consider how easily manipulated you are by less decent individuals. Essentially, you’re the nice guy, and you’ll always finish last.
Representative characters include: Eddard Stark, Jon Snow, and Sansa Stark
Similar Houses: Frey, Lannister and Tully
Opposite House: Baratheon
When playing the game of thrones, you play it with one sword in your hand and another up your ass.
http://www.okcupid.com/tests/8620850236700535300/Song-of-Ice-and-Fire-House
Scent of Darkness by Christina Dodd is the first book in her erotic fantasy series called Darkness Chosen. A warlord in the Ukraine, 1000 years ago, made a deal with the devil. He and all of his male descendents could change their shapes into those of predators at will, and in return the devil can have all of their souls. Flip to the current day in the USA. A man has escaped from that family - the first in all of those centuries to marry and to sire a daughter (along with three sons). The deal with the devil is breaking down because this man has rejected his birth family and established his own family and filled it with love. The extended family, still based in the Ukraine, decide to reseal the hell pact, by tracking down and killing this new branch of the family tree.
Ann Smith loves her boss, Jasha Wilder, and follows him (uninvited and unannounced) to his coastal retreat in the Pacific Northwest. She is shocked when he changes shape in front of her (he can be human or wolf), and is even more shocked when the two of them have to run for their lives from shape changing assassins. Running through the wilderness with periodic pauses for sex (which seemed pretty ridiculous to me under those circumstances), they eventually recover a holy artifact that once belonged to the family, kill the assassins, have a lot of sex, and eventually make it back to his family.
I really did not like this book very much. I do not mind sex scenes as such, but want them to be a realistic part of the story - and these were not. I also hate stories where a woman has a make over of some sort (loses weight, new clothes, new hair style - whatever) and suddenly has the man who has ignored her all along fall head over heels in love with her. Men like that would be so shallow in real life who would ever want them? And while the whole deal with the devil stuff was sort of interesting, the way the holy object suddenly turns up under their noses with no effort on their parts was just dumb and cheap.
Touch of Darkness by Christina Dodd is the second book in her Darkness Chosen erotic fantasy series. I hated the first book, and would not have read the second except for having gotten them at the same time. (Believe me - they are both going straight into the donation bin!) I was surprised that this one, while still dumb, managed to be a lot better than the first. Not better enough that I will ever bother with the third or fourth (or however many more will come), but it was an improvement of sorts. This one deals with the second son of the family (human and hawk), Rurik Wilder, and his lover, Tasya Hunnicutt. At least in this one, they have already been lovers before the story begins. And they have to work hard to find their holy object. But they still pause to have sex when being chased, and in other inappropriate and downright stupid times. Come on - I know it is erotica - but does it have to be stupid????? And the part with the unexpected princess - spare me such a Mary Sue moment, please!
Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson is supposedly based on a couple of safe deposit boxes of notes and outlines left behind by the late (and great) Frank Herbert. This book is supposed to be the culmination of the entire science fiction saga that started with Dune. While it was not as downright irritating as these two author's earlier Houses series of Dune books, it still had its irritating moments. You could tell when they were inserting material for their upcoming Paul of Dune, for example. And how can Alia possess the ghola of her grandfather, the Baron Harkonnen, when he is her ancestor, and not vice versa? And how can one bene tleilax master develop a new sort of sand worm that can live in the ocean and produce a super spice in a secret lab in what seems like a couple of weeks, when people have been trying to develop alternate sources of Spice for thousands of years? So there was a lot that just made no sense, though it was rather nice to see a happy ending for many of the characters. I hope that the younger Herbert will release his father's notes and outlines someday, so Dune fans can separate the wheat from the chafe!
The Sagan Diary by John Scalzi is a little novella that is made up of the thoughts of one of the important characters in his science fiction trilogy made up of Old Man's War, The Ghost Brigades, and The Last Colony. We get to hear Jane Sagan's thoughts on such broad subjects as love, death, and sex. They are often interesting - and charming. A nice little addition to a truly great science fiction trilogy.
The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman, is a fun and fluffy little science fiction novel about an MIT graduate student named Matt Fuller who discovers an accidental one way time machine, that no one can ever really figure out. He keeps getting into trouble, and keeps running away into the future, at one point gaining a pretty virginal companion from a Christian theocracy named Martha. Fluffy and fun, but we rarely know what is going on because Matt very rarely can ever figure out what is going on. Pleasant little read, but lacking depth - which is what can happen at times when you have an unreliable main character as the focus of your book.
Interworld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves is a great little YA fantasy novel set in a multiplex of Earths. One end of the multiplex is being conquered by hard core scientists, the other by hard core magic users. The worlds in the middle are being protected by an army made up of various versions of one kid - some are male, some female, some are human, some are not. This kid from our world is named Joey Harker. He is best known for always getting lost. Then one day he gets lost in his own house, and realizes that he is walking between worlds...a whole lot of fun, as you would expect from Neil Gaiman!
Wizard by Trade by Jim Butcher is an omnibus containing the fourth and fifth books of his Dresden Files fantasy series, Summer Knight and Death Masks. In these two installments, Harry Dresden, Chicago's only openly practicing wizard, gets involved in a war between the summer fairies and the winter fairies - and if he cannot stop the war, the balance between summer and winter will be destroyed, causing destruction of the Earth's climate. He also must enter a deadly duel with a vampire war lord (in a hilariously described Wrigley Field, which is pretty obviously not the one in our world) - and hunt down a stolen Shroud of Turrin, which has been brought to Chicago by unknown persons for unknown reasons. Other people are also hunting the Shroud - to start the Apocalypse!
Wizard at Large by Jim Butcher is an omnibus containing the sixth and seventh books of his fantasy series called The Dresden Files. These books are called Blood Rites and Dead Beat. Harry Dresden is the only openly practicing wizard in Chicago, and all sorts of weird stuff gets thrown his way. But in the first of these two books he gains a great friend and ally in Mouse, a stolen Buddhist temple pup, of great and mysterious powers. He also discovers that he has an actual living relative - something he has not thought to have since his father died when he was still very young! Harry is hired on a weird case - to protect an adult film shoot from evil curses. And then dangerous necromancers converge on Chicago to find and gain power from a dangerous book of necromancy which has turned up. In order to fight them, and save his city, Harry must use necromancy himself - using the most famous corpse in Chicago!
Wizard Under Fire by Jim Butcher is an omnibus containing the eighth and ninth books in his The Dresden Files fantasy series. The books are called Proven Guilty and White Night. Harry Dresden is the only openly practicing wizard in the city of Chicago. As such, he gets involved in all sorts of very weird and bizarre cases, which often threaten to destroy the city and everyone in it. In these cases, Harry has to try to find the new practitioner of dark magic in the city - and when he discovers who it is, he must try to save them against the power of the White Council, who put all dark magic users to immediate death. He also has to figure out why movie monsters are coming to life and murdering people at a local horror convention. As if that is not enough, he is sent on a very dangerous mission to Fairy to find out why the winter court will not help the wizards in their war against the vampires. And - he has to track down the killer/s of the witches of Chicago and confront the White Court of the vampires - the ones who feed off of sexual and emotional energy...
This series of little fantasy books is not high or serious literature by any stretch of the imagination. But they are fast paced and fun - and Harry and his friends are charming and often they (and the hilariously erroneous descriptions of Chicago and environs) make me laugh!
No Humans Involved by Kelley Armstrong, seventh book of her Women of the Otherworld dark fantasy series. In this book, the necromancer, Jaime Vegas, takes center stage. Jaime, a second (or perhaps) third tier celebrity, who has long given fake stage show seances, has been hired for a weird reality show with two other mediums. They are living together (in a sort of Big Brother scenario) in Brentwood in an old house, and are supposed to be doing a series of seances, to culminate in raising the ghost of Marilyn Monroe. The odd thing is that Jaime, despite her faked stage shows, actually is a necromancer, and actually does have powers over the dead. In the gardens of the Brentwood house, Jaime finds the tattered ghosts of children. With the help of some supernatural friends, Jaime desperately searches the seedy underworld of LA, to find the serial murderers of all of the poor kids - who have been killed in black magic rituals. Ditzy Jaime is always quite funny, and finally has to learn how to accept and use her darkest powers to stop the killers.
Wizard for Hire by Jim Butcher is an omnibus of the first three novels in his Dresden Files fantasy series - Storm Front, Fool Moon, and Grave Peril. These three novels introduce the alternate earth Chicago setting and some pretty important characters in this fun fantasy series, though IMHO, the author doesn't really start hitting full stride until the third book. Harry Dresden is the only wizard listed in the Chicago yellow pages. He works primarily as a private investigator, and helps out the Chicago police department as a consultant. He was once an apprentice to a very dark wizard, and if the White Council catch him breaking any magical laws, they will immediately execute him. His contact with the Chicago police department is the spunky and dedicated Karrin Murphy, his girlfriend is the beautiful tabloid reporter Susan Rodiguez, and one of his best friends is a literal Knight of the Lord, Michael Carpenter. He shares his little apartment with a horndog spirit who lives in a skull named Bob and his huge tomcat, Mister. In these first three books, Harry must face down an evil mage who is using storms to kill people, face down a variety of different kinds of werewolves (befriending a werewolf named Billy and his pack, called the Alphas along the way), and begins a war between the wizards and the Red Court of the vampires. And he has to face off against the local mob boss, Gentleman Johnny Marcone, while he is at it. All in a day's work for Chicago's only openly practicing wizard...I love these books. They are funny and Harry and many of his friends are very endearing.
Yesterday afternoon Steven had a soccer game. I got there a little before halftime, just before a thunderstorm moved in, and the rest of the game got canceled.
Today Steven had an all day soccer tournament in Willamston, near Lansing. I had never been to Williamston before, and was glad to see that it is a very charming and pretty little town. Steven had a big break between games, so we took him out to lunch at Old Chicago in the Lansing suburbs. The food was good, but it was sort of strange for a family of die hard Michigan Wolverines fans to spend the lunch hour in a sports bar packed with Michigan State Spartans fans!
After Steven's last game, Dan and I headed home in my Jeep. (Steven was on the school bus with his team mates). We stopped quickly at the outlet mall in Howell. We went to the Adidas store to buy Steven some more soccer socks. We went back out to the car, and it was dead as a doornail. I called AAA, and the (very nice) tow truck driver got there within 15 minutes. He gave us two charges (it died again after the first one) and we came home. The drive was creepy, because you could tell something was wrong with the electrical system - the clock and the odometer were both flickering on and off. We got home, and the Jeep died again in the drive way. Dan went down to the high school to pick up Steven - the bus had beaten us back by 15 minutes.
Supposedly the Wolverines lost badly again today, and two important player are out with injuries. I am not sure - we were afraid to listen to the radio on the way home! They are working on perhaps having the worst football season of my lifetime!
But the Tigers won tonight, to stay in playoff contention for the wild card! YAY!
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