Almost Like Being in Love by Steve Kluger

Title: Almost Like Being in Love
Author: Steve Kluger
Publisher: HarperCollins (2004)

Travis, a slightly OCD nerd, and Craig, a successful athlete, meet during a production of Brigadoon in high school and fall in love towards the end of their senior year. After spending the summer together they attend colleges on opposite sides of the country and eventually lose touch. Flash forward 20 years to 1998 and Travis, a slough of unsuccessful relationships behind him, wonders if the love of his life is still Craig. And, oh yeah, is Craig still thinking about him?

Almost Like Being in Love is a really sweet story. I mean a really, really sweet story. In fact, it'd be a little over-the-top saccharine if not for the fun style and Kluger's obvious sense of whimsy and humor. The story is presented via newspaper clippings, assignments, journal entries, library research requests and even trial transcripts. It makes the story a fun puzzle but don't worry it's never confusing. It's also laugh out loud funny most of the time. Like on p. 157 when Travis, a history professor, presents an extra credit question to his students regarding the best way to track down Craig. Remember, Travis is a stickler for order and correctness. Student Chuck Navarro answers:

I vote for St. Louis because you're ready to handle it. Know how I know? Go back to multiple choice (a). "There's laws against stalking." Wrong. "There ARE laws against stalking." Welcome to the Human Fucking Race.

Or on p. 251 when Travis's friend, who's writing a screenplay based on the whole fiasco, says:

I'm running into a little snag. I thought it'd be more realistic if Craig had a boyfriend--but I think I've written myself into a corner. How do I keep Travis from giving up?

This is that obvious sense of humor of Kluger's because right around this time, as a Reader, I was like, "Hey, Mr. Kluger, how are you going to get out of this without making Travis look like a jizzwad?" I had to laugh as Kluger clearly knew what I was thinking.

But then you'll also run by a section that has some real meat to it. On p. 233, in a nice Kids Say the Darnedest Things way, 11yo Noah asks (condensed):

"They won't let you and Clayton get married, right?"
"Right."
"And a long time ago, they wouldn't let Rosa Parks sit in a bus either--right?"
"Right."
"And now everybody thinks the people who arrested her were skanks, right?"
"Right"
"So how come they don't know that in a hundred years we'll think the same things about the skanky guys who won't let you get married?"

(I love the excellent use of skank.)

(I also hope it's less than a hundred years.)

Travis and Craig are great protags to root for and the supporting cast isn't bad either. Gordo, Travis's roommate in high school and present day, ended up being a huge surprise. When he was first introduced I had no idea he was going to become so interesting. He's also a great friend to Travis which is always good. However, the supporting characters did sometimes fall into a few cliches I could have done without. Like in Gordo's case, why does there always have to be a slutty friend? Is it just me that's missing out on a ridiculously slutty friend? If I were a character in a book would I then have a slutty friend? I fully support anyone's right to do the sweaty tango as often as they like with as many people as they like but it's just so often overdone in books.

Also, I found the characterization to be a bit flawed. Sometimes I'd be reading a journal entry and forget whose perspective it was. Character voice over-lapped quite a bit. I really liked the characters so it didn't bother me too much but I still think they should have been more distinct.

The book reminded me yet again how awesome the webbie be! Holy crap, it's so much easier to do research (read: stalk the world) in the age of the internet. I've assimilated so well into this age that I have relegated my pre-internet life to a dark corner of my brain so I don't think about it much but holy shit the world wide web is fucking awesome!

rating: 3 of 5 stars

Shadow Prowler by Alexey Pehov

Linky Love

Skipping around the webbie I came by this article. I thought it was interesting.

Quotable

"The freethinking of one age is the common sense of the next."

                                                     -- Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)

Freakonomics and Agnes and the Hitman

Odd pairing, I know. As far as I can tell the list that follows comprises what these two books have in common: they were published in English, they have two authors, I read them in the same week, neither elicited a strong enough response from me to actually want to give them a proper review. So instead, just a little blurb on each.

Title: Agnes and the Hitman
Author: Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer
Publisher: St. Martin's Press (2007)

Holy hell I can't remember the last time I saw italics used so extensively. I think my brain actually started to fizz like pop rocks due to the italics. I eventually had to mentally edit them out as I couldn't take it anymore.

Crusie's books have always been sort of hit or miss with me. I don't know if it's all of her books or just the ones I've read but the courtships are always so fast; that never works for me in contemporary romance. What did work for me in this one was the hilarity that was Agnes's anger problem and the awesome supporting character of Carpenter.

rating: 3 of 5 stars (without italics) 
            2 of 5 stars (with italics)


Title: Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Author: Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Publisher: William Morrow (2006)

This book is chock full of interesting information and I can see why so many people have read it. I didn't care that it didn't have a 'unifying theme' but I was often struck by how random even the individual topics were at times. Analogies were used that I thought would be explained later but were really just as random as they appeared. Seriously, through the whole thing I was like, you're not going to say any more about the pantyhose than that?

My favorite bit from the book was this (p. 89 of the paperback edition):

It was John Kenneth Galbraith, the hyperliterate economic sage, who coined the phrase "conventional wisdom." He did not consider it a compliment. "We associate truth with convenience," he wrote, "with what most closely accords with self-interest and personal well-being or promises best to avoid awkward effort or unwelcome dislocation of life. We also find highly acceptable what contributes most to self-esteem." Economic and social behavior, Galbraith continued, "are complex, and to comprehend their character is mentally tiring. Therefore we adhere, as though to a raft, to those ideas which represent our understanding."

I was once in a friendly debate with someone and they kept saying something that I really didn't think was true. However, at that time, I didn't have evidence to back up my position. I decided it was time to finally get some evidence. I did extensive research on the topic, compiled dates and numbers, proudly organized it all and then presented my shiny new evidence. I was so thrilled with what I was able to find because some of it was even a surprise to me. I thought how great it was that we were going to have some hard facts to talk about. You can imagine my flabbergastation when this happened:

sgwordy says - Look at all my shiny evidence. Can you believe that this is what is actually going on?
someone's response - I don't care what the numbers say that isn't how it works.

I was, to say the very least, stunned - and not just because gathering that evidence required reading over some DOD budgets (ugh!) and I was a bit put out that my effort was not rewarded. I was truly stunned that someone could be so stuck on the "conventional wisdom" that s/he would not even entertain evidence to the contrary. Galbraith's words describe so succinctly what I could not understand. I think I'm going to have to look him up for some future reading.


rating: 4 of 5 stars

Invisible Library

Well this is just all kinds of fun. Click here for an article on the Invisible Library blog and how it got started. I noticed this right off:

"The genesis of the library was very simple," says Stahl. "I happened to read Nabokov's The Real Life of Sebastian Knight and Graham Greene's The End of the Affair in quick succession, and was struck by the number of nonexistent novels mentioned, and at times even described in each book."

Since I've been going through Nabokov's works recently I'm going to use this as the deciding factor for his next book to put to the top of the TBR pile.

Click here to go straight to the Invisible Library blog.

(hat tip: Schmells)

The Cake Is a Lie!

She's baaaaaaaaack! And Still Alive!

Mr M recently downloaded the Xbox LIVE arcade game Portal: Still Alive. Portal has been featured here at sgwordy before and for good reason. This game is more awesome than Captain Awesome (though it can't compete with his abs)! The reasons are too numerous to list here (maybe our resident gamer can link to his thoughts on Portal in the comments so you all can learn those reasons) so I'll just focus on GlaDOS. (And yes, it is the GlaDOS of quotable fame at the top of this blog header.)

GlaDOS' part in this game is to screw up things for the test subject as she tries to escape. Part of GlaDOS' strategy is to talk lots of shit in an attempt to demoralize the test subject. She's damn funny and just one of the details that sets Portal above and beyond the typical video game. For instance, take this scene featuring the demise of the Weighted Companion Cube (btw, I luuuuuuuuurve the Weighted Companion Cube).



*sniff*

But joy! I came across this video saving the Weighted Companion Cube!

In Addition to Basic Fairness

Same-sex marriage appears to prevent divorce! Click here for a simple statistical rundown on divorce rates per state as compared to the state's same-sex marriage policy.  A short quote from the article:

As is somewhat visually apparent, those states which have tended to take more liberal policies toward gay marriage have tended also to have larger declines in their divorce rates.

Of all the weak-ass arguments against same-sex marriage, preserving the "sanctity" of heterosexual marriage has always been the worst fucking one (how people I don't know getting married is supposed to affect my own marriage is a mystery that continues to confound). And yay! Now there appears to be data that show just how stupid that argument is! It's important to note though, that, in the end, it really doesn't matter: whatever data are uncovered and however they are presented current laws are unfair and that's the real problem.

(hat tip: Mr M)

Mary by Vladimir Nabokov

Title: Mary
Author: Vladimir Nabokov (translated from the Russian by Michael Glenny)
Publisher: McGraw-Hill International, Inc (1970)

Mary was the first novel written by Nabokov (so the cover tells me) and originally published in 1926 (so the introduction tells me). This is the second of Nabokov's books that I have read and it won't be the last. I didn't like this title (or the other for that matter) as much as I wanted to but the writing keeps me turning pages. The characters have only been just engaging enough to keep me interested and what I'm really waiting for is a plot I can get excited about. Hmm, a plot... why don't I get to that.

Mary is set in Berlin at a lodging house that caters to Russian expatriates. We get to know all of the lodgers but the story mainly centers around Ganin. Ganin is in his mid-20s, not currently working, and dissatisfied with his relationship with his girlfriend. He has tried to leave her several times but is apparently incapable due to his lack of initiative - or maybe follow-through, it was hard for me to decide which. A surprise revelation by one of his housemates triggers his memories of a childhood sweetheart eventually leading to an upheaval of his inertia-controlled life.

One can probably gather from what I said above that it is Nabokov's writing I find so appealing. He has a very distinct style that I can't quite find the words to describe. Instead I will describe how I feel when reading. Often times there's a definite rhythm that I find myself pulled into, then a smirk finds it's way to my face and all of a sudden I find myself laughing out loud at a situation that would not normally make me laugh. So I stop and try to figure out why I'm laughing. Am I laughing at the character, the words, a private joke, laughing with the character? Honestly I can never really decide and I find that fascinating.

One beef I have is that sometimes a huge, jizztastic wrench is thrown into the whole business by a complete loss of rhythm in the writing. And do believe me, I mean a total loss! There were several times where I experienced a serious mental lurch that completely tossed me right out of the story. I found these to be mostly when the POV or situation was changed. Rather than a smooth transition taking the reader to the next locale, it's about three paragraphs of confusion until you figure out just what the heck is now going on. I'd rather demonstrate with a quote but it'd be almost page-length so instead I'll try to describe one of these bizarre "transitions."

We meet Klara, a lodger and friend of Ganin's girlfriend, for the first time at the top of a paragraph that immediately follows a section about Ganin and his girlfriend in the girlfriend's room. Klara is not in this room, or indeed even in the building, but we are suddenly in her head as she thinks about the girlfriend recounting her dates with Ganin. This moves immediately into her crush on Ganin which would all be very well and good but then we move on to the lunch seating assignments in the lodging house and the landlady's tendency to be quiet during lunch and simply ensure that the cook brings the correct dishes to table. Next paragraph Ganin is entering the dining room at lunch, on a different day, mumbling something to his fellow lodgers and where the heck Klara is at this point is anyone's guess. It made my brain fizz a bit. During these oddball transitions it's much like all the walls in Berlin have a stream-of-consciousness output that Nabokov tuned in for and then used periodically in the book.

I'm hoping that the aforementioned lurches are due to this being a first novel and that subsequent books will be a bit more polished. As I said, the writing is so intriguing to me that I'll definitely read more of his books even if this one did not blow me away story-wise. I even think the characters can be improved with a bit more polish. Nabokov does an excellent job of fleshing them out but just when I felt I was really getting under their skin suddenly I was going through one of those stilted transitions and so I had to stop thinking about the characters and try to sort out where I was now located in the story. I'm hoping this aspect of his writing is limited to this book so that I can look forward to his entire backlist for my future reading.

rating: 3 of 5 stars

GMOs: To Eat or Not To Eat

Tip of the hat to Schmells for sending me this article describing "new" data that indicate GMOs (genetically modified organisms) might be bad for your health. Here's a link also to the 2009 International Journal of Biological Sciences paper (pdf format) upon which the news article is based. Schmells asked for my scientific opinion on the article's validity and, for what it's worth, sgwordy
(whose background is not in this topic) says...

So the first thing I'll say because I think it's the most important, pertinent, and relevant is that the last paragraph (unfortunately last as most people don't read to the bottom of an article) is the thing we need to be thinking about the most:

"...ecological effects are also in play. Ninety-nine percent of GMO crops either tolerate or produce insecticide. This may be the reason we see bee colony collapse disorder and massive butterfly deaths. If GMOs are wiping out Earth's pollinators, they are far more disastrous than the threat they pose to humans and other mammals."

This, to me, is way scarier than any implications for human health. I'm personally not that worried about the health effects of GMOs but I'm for damn sure worried about the collapse of ecosystems as I'm pretty sure that'd be pretty fucking bad for my health.

Second thing: I don't think the news article made clear that the researchers in the IJBS journal only RE-EVALUATED previous data. The opening of the article is pretty much straight-up bullshit:

"In what is being described as the first ever and most comprehensive study of the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers have linked organ damage with consumption of Monsanto’s GM maize."

Maybe it's being described that way but I would imagine only by someone that did not actually read the journal article. The 2009 article does NOT include raw data collected by the researchers. And the experimental design for the raw data under re-evaluation is terrible! I mean, awful! That shit would not fly if it was to be published in a high-impact, peer-reviewed science journal. (I'm not entirely surprised by this since I gather a lot of money can make up for bad data when one is trying to bring something new to the market, call me jaded but that's my opinion.)

So what does this mean? It means that the conclusions of both parties (Monsanto and the 2009 researchers in the journal) are pretty much useless. Monsanto could be right that there are no problems or the new researchers could be right (which they do admit in the 2009 journal article). The salient point being made by the 2009 journal article is that these data are shit and properly designed experiments need to be conducted. As in, they would like the three strains of maize to be taken off the market until proper experiments can be done.

Lessons in French by Laura Kinsale

I've said before that there's no such thing as a bad Laura Kinsale book and with Lessons in French the streak continues! I got my hot little hands on this book Monday and couldn't put it down. Ah well, getting enough sleep is overrated... especially when the alternative is a delightful cover-to-cover read of the latest Kinsale.

It's pretty bold of me to attempt a review after only one reading (a Kinsale can rarely be fully appreciated without at least two readings) but I'm gonna give it a go.

ETA: Ah, the hubris! You really can't do one of these after just one reading and now that I've finally finished my second read-through I'm back to make some changes. Actually, additions as it feels like cheating to change what I originally said but I think my interpretation was off. It's part of the spoiler stuff though so I'm adding it at the end of the post under cover, scroll down and highlight if interested.

Title: Lessons in French
Author: Laura Kinsale
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca (2010)

Callie is a shy and awkward heiress more comfortable with cattle than with people. She's been engaged three times and each time her fiance has backed out. She's accepted her future as a Singleton and is happy enough in that role as long as she has a place to keep her animals. Trev, her childhood sweetheart (and partner in mischievous deeds), has returned to England after a nine year absence to care for his ailing mother. Callie has kept close ties with Trev's mother and continues to help upon his return. When the pair find themselves partners in yet another scheme (involving a wayward bull, local law enforcement and the county fair) their feelings for each other are rekindled. But Trev has secrets he must keep and neither of them are who they were nine years ago so they are each determined that this will be one final escapade together before they part again.

The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte

Title: The Club Dumas
Author: Arturo Perez-Reverte (translated from the Spanish by Sonia Soto)
Publisher: Vintage (1998)

I think The Club Dumas was supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the popular serial form used by Alexandre Dumas. As a Dumas fan, I was pretty excited to read this. Admittedly, it’s been a few years since I read The Three Musketeers, which is the Dumas book this title references most often, but I’m pretty sure this book falls quite short of the goal. The serial was originally intended for popular consumption of light entertainment with an exciting – and possibly contrived – event occurring at the end of each portion of the serial. Characters were often larger than life, twists were almost expected, and heroes were easy to identify. The Club Dumas was extremely amusing but I don’t think the author was hoping the reader would be laughing at the book rather than with it. The only reason I finished this book was because I couldn’t believe it could get any shittier. Yet, it continued to do so and thus became a source of light entertainment. Since this author clearly did not work very hard on his book,* I am also going to take the lazy route with a bullet-point style rundown.

I miss FJM

And so to sooth my achey breaky FJM-missing heart I'll just trundle over here to read my favorite FJM post again!

Enjoy!

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

I thought I might try to be a little more consistent in my layouts when I do reviews (excepting of course when I'm doing mass reviews of awesomeness:) for a little more structure in those posts. To that end, please enjoy this review with the new format.


Title: Prodigal Summer
Author: Barbara Kingsolver
Publisher: HarperCollins (2000)

Prodigal Summer is set in Zebulon County in southern Appalachia and tells three stories as they occur over one summer. Each story unfolds as the season progresses, the protagonists connected by the relentless demands of nature and the farming community in which they live.

A bountiful summer serves as the backdrop for the characters' lives whose stories are woven seamlessly with a wealth of natural science. The language is rich and evocative. Kingsolver is also able to introduce people in a way that immediately engages one's curiosity. She beautifully parallels the blossoming of the natural world in the slow unfolding of a character's personality and desires.

Getting to know the women in this novel was a treat. That's too tame, actually. Getting to know them was like a fresh, delicious chocolate croissant that flakes perfectly on your tongue and leaves traces of butter to be licked up on your fingers. I especially loved Deanna in contrast with Lusa. Deanna has a pretty good idea of who she is and what she wants but then has an unexpected encounter. Lusa is learning how to reconcile what she thought she wanted, and who she thought the people around her were, with the reality of her new situation. It is fitting to the theme of nature's beauty and bounty that we meet these women with partners and see how their lives are changed because of them.

The perfect descriptor for this novel is sensual. There is such a powerful sense of the raw magnetism of nature, and its relentless drive to reproduce and survive, that the reader is caught up in an almost erotic sensation of relentless tension. But at the same time that the novel elicits a visceral response it is candidly scientific. The beauty of nature's cycles are equal parts worshiped and dissected.

While I definitely give this book a sound recommendation it does have a few flaws that some readers might find more annoying than I did. It only takes a couple chapters to figure out how everything will end. I am not sure if that was deliberate or not but I found the end to be pretty obvious. Of course, it can be a comfort to know exactly where a story is going (and in another parallel to nature, the outcome of any life is pretty obvious). Also, the science works well with the story but there is a preachy sort of tone at times. I think too, depending on one's background, a lot of the science will not be new so the long preachy sections might become tedious.

rating: 4 of 5 stars


Additional comments:
I loved reading the farming arguments between Nannie and Garnet. I particularly liked Nannie's argument that "modern" farming [in this case, natural pest control, fertilization, etc] is really just "original" or "old-fashioned" farming. It's a lovely reminder that new and synthetic are not always superior to simple solutions in concert with nature. Now, I'm no Luddite (obviously:) and am thrilled with technology and innovation but not at the expense of longevity and sustainability. Technology and innovation are useless without vision and careful application.

A Powerful Message

I've said it before and I'll say it again because it can never be said too often: never forget to fight for equality in all things!




(hat tip: American Irish)

Laura Kinsale - The B and C Teams

It's back to All Kinsale All the Time, folks! Huzzah!

Today we'll debut the B and C Teams. Lest we forget, there's no such thing as a bad Laura Kinsale book! The Kinsale awesomeness, it overflows, but it was requested that I rank them in some manner and so I chose to do teams. Click here if you missed out on the A Team.

For clarification I'll explain how a book might not end up on the A Team (you know, those bundles of perfection in book form:). I put any book on the B Team to which I had some sort of reaction that took me out of the story. I don't feel like this is a reflection on the book but on myself as a reader. I put any book on the C Team that I felt had a minor flaw** in craft that took me out of the story.

**flaw in a Kinsale novel???? sgwordy, surely you jest!!!! ^^


And now to the teams:


The B Team (listed in no particular order):

Uncertain Magic - Roderica can read minds which makes her family a bit wary of her and makes her a bit wary of crowds. She's led a relatively sheltered life due to this and is convinced she will follow in the footsteps of her forebears that have had this gift/curse and live isolated with her family. At a horse race she meets the "Devil Earl" and is tickled pink when his mind is closed to her. He's got a reputation to make Lucifer squick but Roderica feels it's her only chance at a family of her own. The "Devil Earl" can't believe a (really! rich) heiress will have him with his reputation but he's jumping at the chance before she can change her mind.

This is a great pairing of protags and Kinsale perfectly captures the doubts these two would have in each other. I really enjoyed watching them develop trust for each other and how hard they worked to rebuild his manor. In fact, I enjoyed the manor building bit so much that the challenges they faced in that became just as heartbreaking for me as the tension between them personally. What took me out of the story is totally spoilerish so highlight if interested: "Devil Earl's" mom was definitely intriguing to me - and I thought made for a great history with the mystery regarding his father - but that she then spent the rest of her son's life following him around causing his blackouts and then pinning nefarious deeds on him was a bit much for me.

My Sweet Folly - Despite herself Folie falls for Robert via their correspondence while he is in India. They have never met in person and it is only by chance that they begin to write. When she is left a widow she has hopes for a possible future with him but there is more to Robert than the whimsy of his letters.

If for no other reason this book must be read for the letters. Holy heroin, they be some major crack! (and the epilogue - sigh:) And I quite enjoyed the mystery of just what the shit was going on with Robert. Folie has a great sense of, well, life really and has such a fun outlook on things that I almost always smiled while she was making her observations on what went on around her. I really liked getting to know more about Robert as he had encounters with the people from his past but the wild plot connections took me out of the story. They weren't contrived, just really ambitious and for some reason weren't smooth for me.

The Hidden Heart - Tess is making her way back to England after years with her father in the Amazon. She's returning to fulfill the promise she made to him before he died of making a good marriage. Captain Gryph is to transport her and her samples home and, bizarrely, is tasked with keeping an eye on her suitors for eligibility. Gryph is a little torn on this as he's quite taken with Tess himself but does not feel he can court her himself. Their friendship grows but is tested when Gryph discourages a match between her and a man Gryph knows to be psychopathic fuckwit.

This is an absolutely sweet love story and I love Tess's determination. Gryph is more inclined to passively take what comes his way but Tess works pretty hard to get what she wants. It's fun to watch her interact with Gryph since they approach situations so differently. What took me out of the story here was Gryph not using his spine when it came to telling Tess about the aforementioned fuckwit. I mean, seriously, this guy was bad news and Gryph let what I would consider a misunderstanding of decidedly non-epic proportions completely floor him when he should have explained about the psychopath.

Shadowheart - The intriguing Allegreto from For My Lady's Heart is back. He's exiled from his home but about to make an aggressive return. Into his path is thrown the Princess Elena. Through her he makes an even bolder claim to his homeland. It turns out Elena is much more than a pawn to be used in political games, she's a woman more than willing to make plans of her own and do whatever it takes to enact those plans.

This book is a total mind-blower. Holy shitballs it will throw you for a loop, and just when you've got your stomach settled it's time for a few more loops. Buckle up, folks, it's safer if you do. I would never have thought there could be a match for Allegreto but Elena is incredible. In fact, there's too much to say about these two so I'm going to let them have their own post (and the illustration of the value of the feminine AND masculine working together in this book is so fucking awesome that that will be part of the other post as well) so for here I'll just say this book only very barely didn't make the A Team. It's a 100% failing on my part as the reader because Kinsale hits it out of the park with the awesome writing and characterization here. Anyway, it was the BDSM that took me out of the story. I didn't think it was offensive or anything, in fact, it was so totally dead-on for the characters that I can't imagine the book in any other way but it still bumped me out of the story.


The C Team:

Midsummer Moon - Absent-minded Merlin is a genius inventor and only wants to be left alone to work on her flying machine. Ransom is one pompous Duke in His Majesty's service with very specific instructions where Merlin is concerned. Merlin really couldn't give two shits for what Ransom says she has to do but after some funny "salt" leaves them in a compromising situation Ransom now has two reasons to officiously order her about.

This is a lighthearted book with, again, two well-matched protags. Their interactions are hilarious and fun, even if the Duke has a corn cob up his butt most of the time. I love how he is constantly ordering Merlin about and she is constantly ignoring him. And the hedgehog pet that Merlin keeps is worth his weight in comedic gold - and might just be the best "hero support" of all time. The supporting characters are fantastic and interesting additions to the story. There's also some wonderfully quotable lines in this book. Merlin has this tendency to make direct and honest observations that really make you stop and think. She's so much fun (I think she and Folie would have been great friends). For all this yumminess, though, the book is too long. Comedy is so much harder to sustain than drama (so extra kudos here for making a comedic romp work) and if the book had been shorter it would have been absolutely bang-up. However, the length makes the plot drag a bit so you want to start skipping to the end.

The Dream Hunter - Zenia has been raised by her eccentric English mother in the desert. She dreams of a home in "green" England and hopes to go there after her mother's death. Without resources she ends up having to guide Lord Winter deep into the desert, somewhere she really doesn't want to go again, in exchange for passage to England. Lord Winter isn't a total dick, Zenia's dressed as a "Bedui boy" as a disguise and so he thinks he's taking a boy of the desert as a guide.

I like Lord Winter as a hero and I think his character is a very interesting contrast with Zenia and his family in England. It's incredible to see the way he faces things in the desert in comparison to how he faces up to his filial obligations at home. Zenia never evened out for me. I found her to be passive with incredible endurance in the desert but when in England she became belligerent and shrill. I couldn't reconcile her earlier passivity with her later obstinacy. Her behavior constantly took me out of the story [Further comments spoilerish so highlight if interested: It's quite possible if she hadn't been so shrill and so damn batshit crazy about the child I might not have found such fault with the inconsistency but batshit crazy due to child is one of my least favorite tropes. Also, her suddenly turning into her mother didn't work for me as an explanation because it had so often been described earlier that she was conditioned to serve due to her upbringing. I think the batshit crazy due to child was supposed to have affected the change but I just didn't buy it].



Sadly, that's the lot of them. *sniff* It's hard to be out of Kinsale... but I can always re-read and her newest, Lessons in French, will be out in February. Can't wait!
[ETA: Actually, I think this will be out the end of Jan so even better!]


I'd also like to take just a moment to send out a cyber THANK YOU to Kinsale for all the hours of enjoyment I've had with her books!

Tales of Vesperia

As Mr Musacha and I navigate the twisting turns of political intrigue in the latest Tales installment my response thus far can be summed up in one sentence:

sgwordy says... "I'm trying to be indignant but I'm so fucking bored."

Laura Kinsale - The A Team

It's a good day, People. I'm wrapped in my Christmas quilt - sipping a Dark and Stormy - while the tree lights twinkle on a mild evening. Could anything make this day better? Oh, it appears I'm surrounded by piles of Laura Kinsale books, so yes!

After many requests from Mr Musacha I'm finally getting to my mass review of Kinsale novels. Since I've spent the last two months completely immersed in reading and rereading (and rereading) her titles it's about time I got around to saying a few words.

First off, there's no such thing as a bad Kinsale book. These things are like crack and just when you think you're free it's suddenly "holy shitballs I didn't notice that the first time around!" I really think it takes two readings to truly understand her characters and sometimes three. It's part of the crack - you're reading going WHY WHY WHY is this character doing that and then it finally comes clear at the end and you have to start reading all over again so as to analyze what you missed the first time around now that motivations have become clear. Ah, lovely!

Within the awesomeness, though, there is a bit of variation. So to divide the novels (and this post) up in a manageable way I'm doing A, B, and C Teams. (anybody else having a flashback to middle school sports?) So without further ado let's get started on the largest of the teams:


The A Team (listed in no particular order).

Flowers from the Storm - A rake of a Duke with mad math skilz suffers a stroke-like ailment resulting in loss of physical coordination and possibly his sanity. In the hospital, Maddy - who has a previous connection with the Duke through the mad math skilz of her father - becomes his nurse. When his family is ready to give up on him she believes he can recover and works hard to assist him in that.

I love these two characters and their relationship with each other. Kinsale portrays the helpless frustration of Jervaulx to such a degree that I felt my limbs stiffening in sympathy when he was trying to perform simple tasks. Further, Maddy's struggle to reconcile her Quaker upbringing with her feelings for the Duke (and his lifestyle) is easily understood and, more importantly, maintains a believable tension between our protags. It's easy to see how the two would see problems in a totally different way and so imagine completely different solutions for those problems. Watching them find a middle ground upon which to connect has brought me back a few times for a re-read.

This book also has one of my all-time favorite lines (quoted loosely): Christian smiled. This was something perfectly familiar - a woman who ought not but very likely would.


The Prince of Midnight - Leigh has lost her family and seeks the skilz that will help her exact revenge. To this end she seeks out the Prince of Midnight, a famous highwayman of the Robin Hood variety. Unbeknownst to her he has suffered a debilitating injury leaving him depressed and isolated. Despite his injury, and Leigh's obvious scorn, the PoM is determined to help her.

I love this book because I fell for the PoM right away - and damn hard - and couldn't figure out what the fuck was up with Leigh. How could she resist this guy? In fact, I was so hardcore fawning over this dude that upon the first reading I felt Kinsale was making Leigh start fights just for the sake of some tension. But that's the beauty of Kinsale, what is sometimes not clear right away to the reader becomes clear as you get to know the characters better. Leigh is way smarter than me! I was totally taken in by the image and the dream world that the PoM maintains but Leigh was one smart cookie. She knew what kind of man he was and the life he would choose over his declarations of love. But since this is the romance world and we know we're getting our HEA, rest assured that our hero comes to see the unsustainability of his dream world. [Spoilerish, highlight if interested: And I love what Leigh needs from our hero. When she asks at the end for him to give her joy again I had a huge smile. It seems like such a small thing but Leigh was so torn after losing her family and the PoM was just the person to revive her joie de vivre].


Seize the Fire - Olympia, raised in England, is the rightful heir to a small kingdom whose people seek independence from the monarchy. She's happy to abdicate her throne but wants to ensure the freedom of her people rather than a family member from taking over the throne. As luck would have it, an acclaimed navy captain has returned home and is her neighbor. She goes on a visit to ask for his assistance, little does she know that he's dead broke, not much of a hero and has no scruples about swindling a princess.

This book is 500 kinds of intriguing because our hero insists on acting decidedly unheroic. He's seen more battles than he ever wished to, knows them for the ugly things they are, and is suffering from PTSD. In fact, he spends most of his time trying to avoid trouble (like a revolution sponsored by the individual being rebelled against) which becomes difficult when Olympia, who is completely naive about the world, trundles after trouble with the innocence of a baby going after shiny objects.

One could argue that our heroine is not much better. She's pretty meek and her naivete makes her gullible but she has a goal and the ability to observe what is going on around her. She is so out of her element that she makes plenty of mistakes and learns slowly but when able she will try to seize a moment to her advantage.

I love this book but I find it a hard read. The weighty subject matter and the challenges our protags face (not least of which are internal) make my little heart ache at times. But the special chemistry between Olympia and Drake make it worth it and I can't stop reading because I just have to get to the HEA.


For My Lady's Heart - Lady Melanthe is trying to orchestrate a daring escape. She's playing her greatest enemies against each other, lying to them both and just trying to reach her home alive. The Green Knight is an accomplished fighter and admired by those around him. When Melanthe sets him against his liege lord he is torn between the loyalties he has set for himself. Banished by his lord, he now finds himself tasked with Melanthe's safe travel but he has no knowledge of her dangerous plans.

Getting to know the Green Knight is an especially compelling part of this book. He seems quite the simpleton compared to the complexity of Melanthe's life and history. But as we get to know him his life and history are as intriguing as that of Melanthe but in a completely different way.

There's nothing fantastical about this book but it holds the most fairy tale like aspect for me of all of Kinsale's books (even when compared to Uncertain Magic - I know, riddle me that!). The English dialogue incorporating Middle English whenever possible lends quite an atmosphere to the reading. Additionally, the Green Knight's code of chivalry puts me in mind of fairy tales and knightly deeds. And now I need to go dig out my copy of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight for a reread.


The Shadow and the Star - Leda's got a bit of a problem. She's an orphan who was taken in for a gently-bred raising but now finds herself without money or the ability to find a respectable job. Luckily (?) an enigmatic gentlemen (who's done a little creepy night prowling) offers her a job as his secretary. She's aware of the endless opportunities for improper interactions and works very hard to avoid them (as she knows full well her erstwhile guardian would have expected) but Samuel practically thumbs his nose at propriety consistently making Leda uncomfortable.

Even if this book wasn't awesome in all ways it would still launch immediately to the A Team for the simple fact that our hero is a Whitey McWhiterson NINJA in Victorian England. NINJA! in Victorian. England. And it works! How is that even possible? Oh it is!

Samuel's history makes for an extremely hard adulthood. He has immense shame over his past and the way he envisions "making up" for something that is not his fault is a little bizarre. He's world-weary and completely naive all at the same time (and a ninja, don't forget that). Wonderfully contrasted by this is Leda. I've heard a lot of people don't care much for Leda as a heroine but I think she kicks all kinds of ass. Her determined straightforwardness and infuriatingly strict etiquette made me laugh out loud more times than I can count. On the surface this makes her pretty simple but like all good romances she's the perfect - the only - heroine that can match our hero. She's loyal, steadfast, observant, sympathetic, loving, honest, and surprisingly flexible when it comes to those around her. You wouldn't think it at first due to her Miss Manners attitude but it's absolutely true. I can see how these characteristics might not come through as the most exciting but if you remember Sammy from The Hidden Heart you know that Leda is exactly what he would need.


And that's my A Team. Check back for the B and C Team post and, in the meantime, find yourself a Kinsale novel to read; it's time well-spent!

Verbs

This article waxed a bit poetic for my taste but I loved the section on verbs:

The passive voice in particular was a crisis. “Was” only told you that something existed—this was not enough. And on this topic, I remember one of her fugues almost exactly:

You want vivid writing. How do we get vivid writing? Verbs, first. Precise verbs. All of the action on the page, everything that happens, happens in the verbs. The passive voice needs gerunds to make anything happen. But too many gerunds together on the page makes for tinnitus: Running, sitting, speaking, laughing, inginginginging. No. Don’t do it. The verbs tell a reader whether something happened once or continually, what is in motion, what is at rest. Gerunds are lazy, you don’t have to make a decision and soon, everything is happening at the same time, pell-mell, chaos. Don’t do that. Also, bad verb choices mean adverbs. More often than not, you don’t need them. Did he run quickly or did he sprint? Did he walk slowly or did he stroll or saunter?

The Great Debaters

Another successful foray into cinema for sgwordy - huzzah! The Great Debaters was inspired by the true story of the debate team at Wiley College in the 1930s. Their coach was Melvin B Tolson, an American poet, and they became famous for crossing racial lines by debating - and winning - against prestigious white schools.

I thought the movie was really well done. I give it a very high recommendation not only on its merits as a movie but as an introduction to an important part of American history. I say introduction because, like many other movies based on real events, the Great Debaters parts company from true history for inexplicable reasons. The essence of the story is there but for whatever reason the movie makers decided to make changes that I saw no need for. It's interesting to me when this happens because it's often something that seems to make very little difference. It would be just as interesting and easy to tell the true story but instead changes are made. Hollywood! I'll never understand it.

Regardless though, it's a movie worth seeing and a topic well worth researching. Also, I had not heard of Tolson before and I look forward to looking into his writing.