Bad Decisions That I Paid Good Money For

January 31, 2013 Rebecca Nolen Leave a comment

Like you I buy books that seem to be something I will enjoy. Unlike you I sometimes buy a book because I like the cover. On more than one occasion I have regretted that decision.

Case in point, the other day I picked up a book at the library sale and it had a cool picture of a woman with a knife walking toward a distant castle – Looked like a great mystery. Nothing from the inside flap told me I was mistaken. I was mistaken. It was a book about demons. One too many mentions of pentagrams and potions had me tossing the book at the recycle bin by page seven. The book would better serve as a recycled paper box.

Next on this incredible list of silly buying decisions is a book I bought (paid full price) because the cover was pretty. I love the color aqua. Better still aqua when it has a shimmer effect like in the peacock’s tail feathers, or like the sheen of oil on the water. I hate to see oil on the water but that is how I would now describe this book’s cover-color. Another reason I bought it – the author wrote a fantastic first book (The Time Traveler’s Wife). This was her second book. A third reason I bought the book is the description on the cover flap was intriguing. A ghost story. I sometimes like ghost stories – especially if the story is from the ghost’s point of view – like in the movie “The Others“. Well, the story in Her Fearful Symmetry isn’t awful, just awfully written. Audrey Niffenegger tells more than she shows whenever there is any mention of ‘feeling’. For example “She felt tired.” It would have been just as easy to show me what “tired” looked like instead of just being lazy about it and telling me she was tired. Blah! I did get as far as the end of the book because the story wasn’t horrible, there were some good unanswered questions about the ghost, etc. The end result was satisfactory but not wonderful. The read through was a slog though. (Is that telling enough?)

I buy books from authors I love. I love P.D. James. I love Jane Austin. So put the two together and you have a book by mystery writer P.D. James called Death Comes to Pemberly. Sounds wonderful. It wasn’t. I tried to love it. Couldn’t. The writing feels forced and stilted. I know she was trying for a voice that sounded like someone writing like Jane Austin. P.D. James is usually one of the easiest author’s to read and enjoy. I’ve read every book she’s written and have loved them all until this one. I hope she writes more mysteries with the wonderful Commander Adam Dalgliesh to solve them and that she writes no more historical mysteries with an attempt to sound historical.

reviews

Books Written by People I Know (but wonder if they will know me after they’ve read this)

January 30, 2013 Rebecca Nolen 3 Comments

You may get the feeling that I only post about great books or that I think all the books I read are great books. That would make little sense. I read a lot of books. Most I’ve picked out because I think I will like them. I don’t always. Perhaps you think that I am posting good reviews for friends. Not so. I haven’t reviewed a friend’s book yet. Although that is fixin’ ta change y’all. Right here, right today, I’m going to review three books written by friends. And I’m going to throw in mention of a few books that I do not recommend just to keep things interesting.

Rodney Walther has written a good book about a boy and his father and baseball. If any writer can make me cry, it’s Rodney. Once I read a short story he wrote and in three pages I was bawling. He has hit a home run with Broken Laces. It’s about a man wrapped up in himself (I can’t imagine – how unrealistic, right?). Jack can’t get off the phone long enough to have any real-time with his sweet family. Then he witnesses his wife killed in a car accident. To top it off, he loses his job. He is lost. But the book isn’t about the loss. It is about Jack connecting to the part of his life that he hasn’t really ever understood, his young son. Broken Laces is well-written with a line of action that is straight forward and easy to follow. Anyone would like this book. Great read!

What happens when your imaginative child comes home from school and reports that her/his new teacher is a witch who wants to eat all the children? You laugh and tell your child that he/she will still be going to school in the morning. Right? Right. But what if it’s TRUE? Nikki Loftin has written a middle-grade novel called The Sinister Sweetness of Splendid Academy. In it little Lorelei’s school suddenly burns down. So a wonderful new school is built – in three days. It seems a little strange and that playground is definitely too good to be true. But Lorelei is dealing with a lot of troubles what with her dad marrying a terrible woman and Lorelei missing her mother so much. So she doesn’t consider the fantastic school with the darling playground sinister in any way. But when her friend Andrew goes missing she begins to suspect all is not what it seems. This fresh take on Hansel and Gretel is well-paced and has just enough page-turning suspense to keep a kid (like me) up all hours reading it. I was a little disappointed with what happens to the kitchen help but I loved the playground sand (because I’m ghoulish that way). Loved the book and I recommend to for all middle-school kids. Wonderful!

Want a little suspense, mystery, and Caribbean island yore mixed with that Bloody Mary? You must read Pamela Fagan Hutchins book Saving Grace. Katie Connel is a successful lawyer dancing daily with alcohol until she realizes that her one true love Nic doesn’t find her inebriated state very sexy. When she realizes that she has lost his respect and possibly any hope of snagging him, she does the only thing a girl in her situation can do. Get sober. Even if she isn’t an alcoholic. And how will she do that? On a Caribbean vacation of course. Except anyone who has ever been to the Caribbean knows that everyone on the islands drink – morning, noon, and night. But she is on a serious mission. She must find out why her parents went to the island on vacation the year before and while there, drove over a cliff and died. Her investigation proves only one thing, nothing is as it seems. But she does feel herself recovering from the alcohol (though she isn’t an alcoholic), and from Nic only to find herself head over heels for an abandoned shell of a mansion in the middle of nowhere. And possibly the house is occupied by a “jumbie”. The suspense keeps the pages turning with unanswered questions such as “Who is the P.I. she hires talking to and why does he keep denying it? Why was her non-drinking father drinking when he died? The novel is well paced, the action moving me forward through the story. I did question why a mysterious woman is seen at the mansion on p.61 but not mentioned again for some time later, the bee incident isn’t clear until afterward, and the finding of the ring is a little too coincidental but overall I was really wowed by the book. The action-packed, lean-forward-in-your-seat ending left me wanting a drink. Although I’m not an alcoholic. Buy the book!

With all these good books I’m going to leave the duds for tomorrow. Thank you for reading!

100 Best Children’s Books – Jumpy Jack and Googily | Babble (babble.com)

reviews, The Writing Life

And Now For Something Completely Different

January 23, 2013 Rebecca Nolen Leave a comment

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You only get that title if you remember Monty Python.

It is Book Review Wednesday at the Nolen house. Today’s totally different book review is on a non-fiction book. I read a lot of non-fiction books but I don’t usually review them here.

I started this book thinking it would be a quick read. I mean, look at it! Well, you can’t see it here. It is tiny. STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST or “10 Things Nobody Told You about Being Creative” by Austin Kleon. Who, by the way, lives in Austin, Texas and so does my fellow book-writer and friend Nikki Loftin (more on her fabulous book later). Nikki encouraged me to read this book. Thank you, Nikki! Should have been a quick read. This book is not a quick read for the simple reason that it is stuffed with good ideas that need to be mulled like spiced apple cider. Mulled apple cider is always better the day after. Yes, I said “mulled”. Or steeped inside that steamy caldron of a creative brain you carry on your shoulders. This is a fantastic book.

Also, I can’t believe I read a NYT’s best seller while it was still on the best seller list. That’s a first.

I don’t want to leave you wondering if I’ve lost it. Here are a few tips from the creative master Mr. Kleon: Don’t wait until you know who you are to get started. In other words, waiting for inspiration to hit you may see you old and gray before anything happens. I love his scribbles and multimedia artwork he uses to illustrate his points. He says “Fake it ’til you make it.” Great advice. You have to make some ugly art before the good stuff. If you’ve been to art school as I have and seen what you start with and then see what you end with on your “forced” projects you understand what this means. With writing it translates into the same thing. Some days what I have written is horrible. But Mr. Kleon says over and over – don’t ever throw anything away. He’s right. You never know when that “horrible” will spark something ingenious. All my work comes from ugly.

He quotes from Francis Ford Coppola — “We want you to take from us. We want you, at first, to steal from us, because you can’t steal. You will take what we give you and you will put it in your own voice and that’s how you will find your voice. And that’s how you begin. And then one day someone will steal from you.”

Another tip from the book: Write the book you want to read. I’ve always heard – write what you know. But I’ve always believed that you must write what you love AND what you want to read. If you write, you spend a LOT of time at it. You better love it.

One more tip from the book: Side projects and hobbies are important. How well I adhere to this! I can’t help it. I can’t help writing. Even if the writing is only in my head. I can’t help seeing the world around me with an artist’s “eye” although I haven’t touched a canvas in nine months. But life goes on and my projects may look to everyone else as though I’m sitting on my hands. They aren’t – my projects are brewing.

I don’t begin to do this book justice in a short review. I’m going to leave the other seven tips for you to read when you pick up a copy of “Steal Like An Artist”. You won’t be unchallenged, and unchanged if you do. I promise.

The stuff in the book may even be a sort of Holy Grail for writerly types.

Creative advice from Austin Kleon’s “Steal Like An Artist” (holykaw.alltop.com)
Sketchnotes are Fantastic (jenniferhartnetthenderson.wordpress.com)
From the SAY blog: How to Be Creative? Steal a Little (everything.typepad.com)

D.I.Y. House and Home

Collection Renovation

January 17, 2013 Rebecca Nolen Leave a comment

Last year I added all my vinyl records to my computer with an ION turntable. Most of the records I’d kept since I was 16 so there were quite a few. The job is complete. Now I’m wondering what to do with the turntable. My son taught me how to sync all my music to something called “Google Music Manager” which is in the CLOUD. All my documents and photos are also automatically synced and saved in Google Drive which is also in the cloud. Pretty exciting stuff that is. Now when my computer catches fire, or implodes in some way half expected every six months, it doesn’t matter! Whee!

The second job I set out to do in 2012 is complete now, too. I added all my audio cassette tapes to the computer with an ION tape converter. Life is amazing. I got rid of both my vinyls and my cassette tapes. I’m free! You would understand my elation if you were to glimpse the normal state of my work/art studio/study. I have a sign that says – This Mess Is A Place. It is what it is. I’m working on it.

My next state-of-the-world job is to convert all my slides to the computer. I have all my grandfather’s slides. He hand painted four-inch by four-inch glass plates with most of the stories of the Old Testament in pictures, and Pilgrim’s Progress in pictures. He was a missionary in South Africa where he would go into “the bush” to present the stories to the African people(Zulu). They loved him. It was illegal for him to do it (Apartheid) but there was nothing that quite defined him as much as the word ‘determined’. There was no electricity so he took a hand-cranked generator. The slide projector held the slides two at a time. One slide would be slid in front of the light, which cast the image upon the screen (a sheet). Then the slide was pulled out the other side as another slide was lit up. He had the glass panes converted to 8mm slides in the seventies. The glass slides were then sent to the Emmaus Bible College library.

Pilgrim’s Progress is one of the best books in the world for understanding life. Next to the Bible it is probably one of the most important books in the world. My favorite part in the book is the Slough of Despond. Pilgrim falls into it. I can tell you, I’ve fallen into that slough a few times, too. We used to live in a part of the country where swamps and wetlands were not uncommon. Sloughs (pronounced ‘slow’) are where extra water drains from the swamp or river when there is a lot of rain. So the slough often prevents floods. The thing about a slough is this – it’s dangerous, full of quicksand, or in Sugar Land full of quick-mud, which can be just as bad. Sloughs don’t look dangerous. The grass grows lush and green, the ground looks flat and safe to walk on. So in the book Pilgrim throws off his burden of sin to step forward toward the Celestial City. But that isn’t how it works. If you think you are making life easier by getting rid of stuff, there is always more and sometimes worse stuff to take its place. Christian (Pilgrim) falls in the slough up to his neck. Sometimes I can’t get away from feeling worthless, dejected, and stupid and I must cry out for help. Pilgrim cries out for help and he is rescued.

I could then skip ahead and talk about Castle Despair and the monster named Depression but I think you see what I mean. Read the book. There are newer versions that aren’t written in old English. There are picture versions. I will soon have one on my computer. I will likely publish it here so be looking for it! Meanwhile, on to getting set up to do it.

Eventually I want to check out how to convert paper files to the computer. Think of the room from getting rid of file cabinets! I’m a writer. I have file cabinets!

Thing is, I know that none of this is going to go without a hitch. There might be a slough or two. I’ll keep you posted.

Then I hope to learn how to convert VHS to DVD – and get rid of more dust collections.

When it comes to audio, vintage tech still rocks (digitaltrends.com)
“One must go through the Despond of Slough.” (youknewwhatimeant.wordpress.com)
Click, Hum, Whir: An Orchestra of Obsolete Technology (weburbanist.com)
10 Great Geek Hacks: Repurpose Everyday Objects & Get The Most Out Of Your Electronics (makeuseof.com)

The Writing Life

What Makes Suspense Work?

January 15, 2013 Rebecca Nolen Leave a comment

An illustration by W. W. Denslow from The Wond... — An illustration by W. W. Denslow from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, also known as The Wizard of Oz, a 1900 children’s novel by L. Frank Baum. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Although movies and books about monsters (or dragons or paranormal teen angst) aren’t something I normally read, I happened to pick up Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I read it, well, most of it. There is a lot of gore at the beginning. I’m not a fan of gore. So by now you might wonder why I read what I don’t normally read.

Stephen King in his non-fiction book Danse Macabre (a gem of a book) about horror movies and books and why we are so fascinated by being scared, and what makes us scared. He has condensed the reason. We are most frightened by what is behind the door, as long as the “it” of that thing is kept behind the door. Isn’t that true? Weren’t we as children most scared of what the wicked witch threatened to do to Toto in the movie Wizard of Oz because we didn’t know what powers she had? She actually didn’t do anything to Toto. Then we were scared of the castle because it was big and it looked like it was full or those hairy-coated ‘ooma’ guys. Then the witch dissolves in water. WHAT?!! The “door” was opened. As soon as the door is opened or we “see” what is behind the door – we are either a) no longer frightened, or b) disgusted, and no longer frightened. At that point it is up to the author to create suspense in some other way.

So the answer to the why I kept reading Relic is this – the authors knew to keep the monster hidden. I was nearly at the end of the book when I discovered the full reveal. They kept me curious. So I kept reading. Simple.

I skipped about half the book trying to get to that point. What were the parts I skipped? The scientists arguing about DNA, the scientists discussing DNA, the scientists blah, blah, blah. Who cares what the scientists think when there is a freak of nature eating people’s brains?

Someone once told me that Elmore Leonard Jr. said that he writes a book and then deletes all the parts that he didn’t want to read either.

His writing is succinct.

Of all the authors of the past fifty years his fiction will likely stand out in the top 10 most read.

So how do you make your writing suspenseful? You write and write and then delete, delete until you have left only unanswered questions such as – what will happen to the woman suspended above the bridge? or when will the poor child ever get to see her mother? And what happens to the puppy? So with these sorts of questions the reader can’t help but keep reading. The longer the answer is hidden, the more the reader wants to know the answer. That is the anatomy of suspense. The reader may come to the final reveal and it is not the answer they want. But the questions are answered. It is important to always provide an answer.

Conflict is not always a fist fight. Unanswered questions are conflict.

No one wants to read the boring stuff. If there is no conflict, there is no intrigue and therefore no reason to pursue the end of the book.

I saw a funny cartoon in the comics today. The prince and the princess are on horseback and the sign on the side of the road reads: “Happily Ever After, A place lacking all the drama and excitement that brought you together”. Well, the rest of the sign could have said “The sort of thing no one wants to read.”

reviews

My One Good Turn

January 12, 2013 Rebecca Nolen Leave a comment

Case Histories (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Kate Atkinson has written a great character in Jackson Brodie. I made the mistake of reading the four novels out of sequence. I wish there were somewhere in all the lists that I’ve seen where someone said “Read this one First” or something like that. Here, I will tell you which one to read first – Case Histories. In it you will learn about all the women that Jackson Brodie will get to know and you will recognize in novels to come. The author weaves the stories past and present into a work of art. There is at the core of the book the mystery of how three separate police cases over the course of thirty years can possibly be related. Rough-around-the-edges Jackson Brodie will put all the pieces together and it makes perfect sense.

They say no good deed goes unpunished and Kate Atkinson had a field day with what that means in One Good Turn. In it, Jackson Brodie is once more the receiver of bumps and bruises while only trying to HELP. Every character in the novel who tries to do something good gets in trouble in huge ways. With flying death-dealing dogs, a drowned girl who gets away, and a laptop computer as a weapon what else can I say?

Then on to When Will There Be Good News. This is the novel I read first. It didn’t hurt to do that except I would have enjoyed it much more if I’d read it third. In this novel a little girl named Joanna is walking in the country with her mother, sister and baby brother. A strange encounter turns her life inside out. Thirty years pass. Jackson Brodie is riding a train home until his ride ends dramatically. Little Reggie is a girl who is resourceful and full of life. All these people’s lives are on a collision course that seems so convoluted that you can’t imagine this is a work of fiction. These kinds of chance encounters happen in real-life. Sometimes we live to recover.

After reading When Will There Be Good News, I realized that I’d seen the movie. It isn’t called that but I can’t recall what the name of it is.

Lastly, Started Early, Took My Dog. In it the most unlikely thing is that Jackson gets a dog. It is so hilariously tragic in how he does it. After the last book and what happened to Jackson I couldn’t imagine that he would get beat up in this one but of course what would these books be like if he didn’t. However, he does get out of the altercation with less bruises this time. Of course his reputation doesn’t recover quite so quickly. There is a couple of tragedies in the character’s histories that make them do what they do – like stealing the girl. I especially loved the old woman who gets more and more muddled as the days pass. I kept thinking that she would be the spoiler. I kept hoping she would not be the spoiler. The way the book is written with one story weaving into another, and past and present and future all being melded into the strange quandary of what makes real life the way it is – brilliant.

So don’t get ahead of yourself like I did and read the books out-of-order. You’ll thank me for it.

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson (booksandreviews.wordpress.com)
http://www.kateatkinson.co.uk/jacksonbrodie/books.asp

Home and Family

Rainy Day Funday

Aside January 9, 2013 Rebecca Nolen Leave a comment

My usual morning routine is this: I haven’t got one. Monday through Friday I rise at 4:15 and stumble downstairs and then across a small yard to my daughter’s apartment above our garage. I get into her bed as she is off to save the world from micro-organisms that may be up at that hour also. The grand-girl is asleep. Well, usually. More usually (IS there such a phrase? Yes, at that hour, yes.) she wakes as soon as her mother leaves. I fix her a bottle and put her in bed with me. This sometimes gives me a few more winks, but sometimes I’m not able to go back to sleep and I lie awake planning all the things I could get done as soon as there is light to see.

Let me just say here. We have tried the cry herself to sleep business and it doesn’t work for her. More like cry-herself-to-throwing-up-her-supper is what happens. Let’s just say her mother doesn’t let her cry herself to sleep but perhaps for others that is an option.

The past few weeks the grand-girl has been waking at 9 AM (the real wake time is when she sits up and says “Hi!”, other times she wakes crying, she isn’t awake.) I have already made myself a cup of milky sweet tea and have drunk it. She is so adorable when she wakes. She crawls out of bed and brings me my crocs, one clutched under each arm. I change her and dress her and take her to my house to see Big Boy and think about what we will do for the day.

The past week it has rained, seems like nonstop, so we haven’t done much. Yesterday after her mother got home from work, we all went to Babies-R-Us to stock up on foods for her. I discovered Sam Moon imports next to Babies-R-Us. It is a big-box store full of really cheap designer knock-off purses, cheap, shiny jewelry, and wallets. I didn’t think I would get anything but I actually surprised myself and ended up buying a wallet.

Still rainy afterward, all night last night and mucho-much-more rain today.

She is asleep as I type this. So precious. Such angels when asleep, right? Here is a snippet of what we do on rainy days. I haven’t quite gotten the hang of loading a video, so – Hope it works for you.

http://atomic-temporary-16578203.wpcomstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/image00161.avi

Let crying babies lie: Study (sunnewsnetwork.ca)

reviews

The Next Great Reading Series

January 8, 2013 Rebecca Nolen 1 Comment

Anika Noni Rose as Mma Makutsi, Jill Scott as ... — Anika Noni Rose as Mma Makutsi, Jill Scott as Mma Ramotswe, and Lucian Msamati as Mr. JLB Matekoni (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Just finished the thirteenth novel in the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith. The novels are set in Botswana. Precious Ramotswe is the main character. She is a traditionally built, happy lady who starts a detective agency and becomes busy, not just with her cases but with all the characters she shares the pages with: Her secretary Mma Makutsi with her 97% typing skills and her talking shoes, her husband Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni with his two shop assistants Fanwell and Charlie and the trouble they get into or cause, just to name a few.

In The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection Mma Ramotswe meets Clovis Anderson, the author of her detective agency bible – The Principles of Private Detection. She has always used this book as her guide in her work. So when two of her favorite people in the world find themselves in terrible trouble, Mr. Clovis Anderson’s sudden appearance seems like a God-send.

But Mr. Clovis Anderson is not all that he seems to be. Or is he?

In this book we get to see Mr. Anderson’s POV, which leads me to believe he may be a returning character even though at the end of the book he is about to leave Africa for his home in America.

The book’s title (the academy of private detection) is hardly a subject within the story, but by the end of the book the reader will have to admit that the title is a mystery fit for any private detective.

If the reader follows Mr. Clovis Anderson’s advice to use COMMON SENSE then the reader will just have to be patient and wait for the next book to come out to discover the answer.

Good job Mr. Alexander McCall Smith. The book series is not hard-boiled, quite the opposite. These books will leave you feeling happy. For those hoping for another recommendation for a series. Here it is.