Various and Sundry

No karate tomorrow, as the Jazzercise people are taping for TV - something they do every couple of months. The weather is pretty, so I'm going to try to break out the weaponry and do some kata practice in the front yard. Also, a morning run would be good. Actually keeping busy in general would be good as I need to go back in the afternoon and have them redo the mammogram on one side with the radiologist present, and I'd rather not think about it until after I have something more concrete to worry about (or not) than I currently do.

Rob made it home safely, if with somewhat more excitement than necessary. He opines (and I thoroughly agree) that he could have lived very happily without finding out what a jumbo jet sounds like when being flown without engines. Fortunately after having an engine overheat and die, the pilots attempt to shut everything down and restart worked as intended and the plane landed safely back in Edinburgh under power. He got home about 18 hours later than intended, but all in one piece, which is how I like him. He brought birthday presents with him - a tartan shawl with brooch, a pair of gorgeous dragon-wing earrings, a butterfly pin from the Royal Botanical Gardens, a Hunting Ross tartan sash, and an assortment of lovely cheeses. The boys got Nessy stuff, which they're all excited about. Two books have also arrived from Bill (Thank you, Bill!), a book on designing knitwear, and a biography of Madeleine L'Engle. I'm already making inroads on both.

The other things I'm reading are a pair of books I found while down with my parents. They're quite similar in concept - study books on karate from an older well-regarded Japanese instructor. One is based in Shotokan, and one in Gojo-ryu, so neither is completely applicable to Isshinryu, but I'm finding a lot of useful exercises and technique tips. After all, just because we punch differently doesn't mean that I can't learn more about a roundhouse kick from a Shotokan instructor. Part of the difficulty of being in such a small and isolated dojo is that comparative to Isshinryu students in areas with several dojos, we end up with a much less broad range of experience. Sensei TJ tries to travel to outside seminars and broaden his experience as much as possible, but most of the time I can't do that, so I'm aiming for the written word. (Shocking, I know)

Boys and dogs are all doing well, as is Aoi (the lizard), but I managed to kill off most of the population of Rob's smaller salt-water tank, by not figuring out that there was a short in the filter on the tank next door that kept throwing the breaker. There are half-a dozen survivors, but one of the puffers and the beautiful giant batfish both died, along with a bunch of other fish. Fortunately I did manage to keep the freshwater tank oxygenated enough for all the fish to survive until the electrics got sorted out, even if they weren't exactly happy.

Massive Updatery

Okay, I've been seriously lax, for which I apologize. My excuse is that about three million things have happened since my last post and I've been running around like a mad thing. My computer is beginning to make sad, forlorn noises at me, probably from the sheer neglect. I'll give the overview here, and then try to make more specific posts on each topic over the next few days - it should provide enough material for some time.

In roughly chronological order:

Nicky is not doing very well. He took a turn for the worse just before I left for my trip, and had slid even more by the time I got home. At this point he has no use of his hind legs, and frequently doesn't even twitch them when walking with his hind end supported. He's got some bad sores from scraping skin off dragging himself around the house (They're healing since I got home, and I'm not terribly pleased with my cadre of doggie watchers for letting them get so bad.) A lot of his fate is going to depend on if and how much he recovers, especially since is front end is so deformed (puppy-ricketts) that I doubt it will hold up for very long under the extra strain.

The World Tournament, on the other hand, went very well indeed. I brought home one very large trophy (3rd place kumite), and am generally pleased with how things went both for me, and for our dojo. Sensei appears to concur.

Visits went quite well, despite (and occasionally because of) their whirlwind nature. We got to spend another overnight in the Boston Museum of Science, which is all kind of cool, and was much more comfortable for Mommy this time, with a sleeping bag and a mat - bare floors with no pillow or covers was not a winner the previous time. I got to see my friend Beth preach, which I had not gotten to see before (she was ordained last spring). That woman can preach! I can safely say she's gotten over her fear of public speaking.

Our church organist's father died while I was gone. This was not unexpected. The timing was absolutely horrible for him, but actually pretty good for me (which makes me feel rather guilty). Because I wasn't there, I didn't have to do an emergency service - which I am not ready for - and because he is moving right now, he is in town more than he was intending to be in the aftermath, and therefore I'm not having to half-ass my way through any services, but will just be playing some individual pieces, which is not a problem. I expect it will be another six months to a year before I really feel comfortable taking over a series of services - I.e. able to play all relevant service music, and learn a service's worth of hymns in one week, plus enough of a repertoire of pre- and postludes to last several weeks.

The family reunion starts a week from tomorrow, and Rob did no laundry while I was gone, so I'm in a mad scramble to catch up from the trip and then get us ready to go again. I'll get to see both brothers, which is awesome, and I should get to go over my katas with my cousin Jim (a black belt in two different disciplines), which I'm much looking forward to.

And last, but definitely not least THE BOOK IS OUT!!!!!! Alien Hand Syndrome and Other Too-Weird-Not-To-Be-True Stories has hit the bookshelves. My mother reports that Borders (at least in her area) has it in stock. I have two articles, my first ever paid & published articles, in it. It's fun stuff so you should all run out and buy yourselves copies!

And that's the current rundown. I'll give each of these the full post it deserves over the next few days, but at least now you know what's going on.

Out of the Depths

Well, I survived the holidays! Actually, I had a lot of fun, even though it was a tremendous amount of work. One of the downsides of being fundamentally introverted is that even when you're having a good time with other people, you're still using energy being with them. Friday and yesterday were largely spent falling over and recovering. Today, Rob decided to do some furniture rearrangement. He cleared out his desk in the basement (which he hasn't used in about two years), and we brought it upstairs to be used as a computer/homework desk for the boys. With some luck, this will enable him to get his computer back (the boys have been using it quite a bit).

It may give you an idea of just how swamped I've been feeling if I note that in the first week of 2009, I read one, and only one, book. And I wouldn't have read that one, except that my temp. neighbor brought it over and handed it to me, having taken it out on his library card. The only other week in which I can remember not wanting to read at all was during a week-long whitewater kayaking class one summer almost two decades ago. Then it was up at dawn, eat, hit the river, work insanely hard until dark, eat, fall over until dawn. I was too tired to read.

Wait - that explains it.

Books Read: July - December 2008

This time I kept a running list, so it is both accurate and complete. I was so interested in the patterns showing in the first list that I thought I'd try it again. Rereads are marked with an (R). My personal impression is that I read somewhat less than average this last six months, due to spending a good deal of time working on writing instead. (If you count book-length things "I" wrote, then I also read through Ghost Dancer some unknown, but large, number of times, and this year's Nano some other large, unknown number of times.) If anyone wants my impression of any of these books, let me know in comments and I'll put up a review.

1. Jade Darcy and the Affair of Honor - Stephen Goldin & Mary Mason(R)
2. Eragon - Christopher Paolini
3. Magic Steps - Tamora Pierce(R)
4. Trickster Queen - Tamora Pierce
5. Eldest - Christopher Paolini
6. Mastery - George Leonard(R)
7. Jhereg - Stephen Brust(R)
8. White Knight - Jim Butcher
9. Small Favor - Jim Butcher
10. Best Karate: 2 Fundamentals - Nakayama
11. When the Air Hits Your Brain - Frank Vertosic (R)
12. Gaia & God - Rosemary Ruether
13. The Spriggan's Mirror - Lawrence Watt-Evans
14. Crystal Dragon - Sharon Lee & Steve Miller (R)
15. New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One - Cat Bordhi
16. Knitting Over the Edge - Nicky Epstein
17. Sister of the Dead - Barb & J.C. Hendee
18. Sliding Scales - Alan Dean Foster
19. The Lady on the Embankment (short story) - Lois McMaster Bujold
20. Wild Magic - Tamora Pierce (R)
21. Wolf-Speaker - Tamora Pierce (R)
22. Emperor Mage - Tamora Pierce (R)
23. The Realms of the Gods - Tamora Pierce (R)
24. Cry Wolf - Patricia Briggs (x2)
25. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert Heinlein (R)
26. Speed Training - Loren Christensen (R)
27. Night Life - Caitlyn Kittredge
28. Where We Stand - bell hooks
29. Dust - Elizabeth Bear (R)
30. Fledgling - Sharon Lee & Steve Miller (online- in draft form)
31. Saltation - Sharon Lee & Steve Miller (online - in draft)
32. Dzur - Steven Brust (R)
33. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (R)
34. Living the Martial Way - Forrest Morgan (R)
35. Life in Cold Blood - David Attenborough
36. Journey to the City of the Dead - Alan Dean Foster (R)
37. Fellowship of the Ring - JRR Tolkien (R)
38. The Gift of Fear - Gavin de Becker (R)
39. Iron Kissed - Patricia Briggs (R)
40. Ill Wind - Nevada Barr
41. The Mummy Case - Elizabeth Peters
42. The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights - John Steinbeck
43. Reserved for the Cat - Mercedes Lackey
44. Yoga Body, Buddha Mind - Cyndi Lee
45. The Serpant in the Crown - Elizabeth Peters
46. Winter Study - Nevada Barr
47. The Curse of Chalion - Lois McMaster Bujold (R)
48. The Paladin of Souls - Lois McMaster Bujold (R)
49. Low Port - Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
50. Balance of Trade - Sharon Lee & Steve Miller (R)
51. The White Dragon - Anne McCaffrey (R)
52. Backup - Jim Butcher (x 2)
53. Beyond Black Belt - Hanchi Duessel (R)
54. You Know You're A Writer When... - Adair Lara
55. Karate-do: My Way of Life - Gichin Funakoshi (R)
56. The Complete Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (R)
57. When Demons Walk - Patricia Briggs (R)
58. A Hole in Space - Larry Niven (R)
59. All the Weyrs of Pern - Anne McCaffrey (R)
60. Mister Monday - Garth Nix
61. Grim Tuesday - Garth Nix
62. Drowned Wednesday - Garth Nix
63. Making Money - Terry Pratchett
64. Storm Front - Jim Butcher (R)
65. The Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler
66. On Writing - Steven King
67. Good Omens -Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
68. My Son, The Wizard - Christopher Stasheff
69. On The Prowl - Patrica Briggs et al (novella compilation)
70. My Stroke of Insight - Jill Bolte Taylor
71. Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell
72. Magic or Madness - Justine Larbalestier
73. Crystal Rain - Tobias Buckell
74. Emotional Awareness - the Dalai Lama & Paul Ekman
75. The Miracle Workout - W. Jackson Davis, Ph. D.
76. Ragamuffin - Tobias Buckell
77. Cry Wolf - Patricia Briggs (R) (x2 - yes again)
78. Graceling - Kristi Cashor
79. Mr. Popper's Penguins - Richard & Florence Atwater


The stand-out book of this lot (non-fiction) was Outliers, which I mentioned in an earlier post. The fiction selection had a lot of good ones. Obviously by the repeats, I'm currently obsessed with Cry Wolf, but I'm not quite sure why. Don't get me wrong, it's good - very good - but not inherently more wonderful than several others on the list - I'd probably be rereading Graceling right now if I hadn't had to give it back to the library.

A Matter of Time

I ran into this article in the Guardian on-line, thanks to Erin of A Dress A Day (excellent site for anyone interested in sewing).

It's a summation of the notions in a new book by Malcolm Gladwell called Outliers: The Story of Success. It was so fascinating that the book went on my Amazon wishlist before I'd even finished reading the article.

The summary of the summary would be essentially: there is no such thing as inherent genius. There are bright people, certainly, and talented people, but what makes a genius is opportunity, perseverance, and time - 10,000 hours of time, to be precise. And all of it boils down to that time.

The opportunity is what allows somebody to spend 10,000 hours perfecting a skill - that's not a trivial amount of time. Working eight hours a day, five days a week - I.e. making your desired skill your full time job - it would still take five years to put in 10,000 hours. And how many of us are truly working at improvement every minute for a whole work day, even if we're lucky enough to be making a living at our skill? A would-be designer working as a dressmaker or a writer actually having a day-job that requires writing would generally be considered exceptionally fortunate. Most genius comes from middle and upper classes, simply because people lower down the economic ladder don't have that kind of time to devote to perfecting skills - they're too busy keeping afloat.

Perseverance is the will and desire to keep pushing at your desired skill, to keep working at it and loving working at it for years.

Both of which add up to - more time spent learning, perfecting, and pushing the limits of your skill.

Apparently the thresholds run as follows: if you want to be better than average - but no great shakes - you need to spend about 4,000 hours perfecting your skill. For really good - but not genius - about 8,000. For genius - 10,000 and up.

This would jive with my experience of my skill levels in various things, thus far. My one, true, genius-level skill, would be my reading ability. I read fast, voraciously, and continuously. Hard reading material doesn't slow me down much - and I retain what I read, often to the point of being able to tell you position on a page for a given bit of information.

Timewise? Well, I learned to read independently somewhere between two and three. I puttered around in children's books until I hit five years old. I can still remember the day, a few days after the end of kindergarten, when I was bored silly. I was past the children's books and board books. I had read all the intermediate books we had (not many) to death , and Mom and Dad's books were still beyond me. I was kicking around the house, desperate for something to read, and my eyes lit on this row of blue hardback books in the den, just to the right of the fireplace. These were books my brothers read, and maybe, just maybe they weren't beyond me? So I pulled one down and looked. It was a Hardy Boys book, and it had pictures - not many, about six for the whole book, but enough to convince me it wasn't a scary adult book. So I took it off and read it. It took me a few hours, but I liked the story, and went straight into the next one.

Long story short - I read the entire set of Hardy Boys that my brothers possessed at that time (32 plus the dectectives handbook, and two random Nancy Drew books) in the summer between kindergarten and first grade. By the end of the summer it was taking me less than two hours to make it through a book, and I never looked back. In fourth grade at Christmas, my eldest brother gave me some Fantasy for Christmas (Dragonsong, Night Mare, and Ogre, Ogre). By middle school I was reading three or four hours a day every day - more on weekends. On one notable occassion, I killed off the entire Lord of the Rings set, plus The Hobbit in one 27 hour reading marathon. On another I checked 27 horticulture books out of the library on a Friday, and returned them, read, on Monday after school - though this was a bit of a cheat, since the material was often very similar book-to-book.

So I put in those 10,000 hours reading and then some. Small wonder I'm a bibliovore.

Singing on the other hand, I probably log in at the 4,000-6,000 mark - and indeed, I'm a good , strong singer. I stand out a mile in the average church choir - but I'm not even professional performer level, let alone a genius at it. And these days I don't push my skills singing. I just sing at the level I am and enjoy it - so I doubt the time I spend now accrues.

Which brings me to my current most desired skills - karate and writing, which is what I've been pondering since these links came my way. Here, I'm still short of even the 4,000 hour better-than-average range. My best figuring would put me at about 1,000 hours total practice in karate - perhaps bolstered somewhat by the sheer amount of time I spend visualizing and reading and thinking about karate. Still a long way to go. Years, most likely. Likewise for writing, where I come in slightly higher - but not very much - perhaps 2,000 hours.

Which is followed by the next thought - do I want these skills badly enough to put in the 10,000 hours required? Or, presuming I persist in both these pursuits over the years, how many years is it going to take me?

Writing seems more doable - more related to reading, perhaps. I can see myself spending multiple hours a day, every day, writing - even if that's a rarity right now (well, not right now, it is NaNo month, after all). I have trouble seeing myself putting in that kind of daily effort into karate - daily practice, yes, but not hours and hours of it.

On the other hand, it wasn't all that many years ago, I couldn't see myself doing karate at all. Only time will tell.

Books Read: 1st Half of 2008

I've posted some book reviews up before, but this time I thought I'd just do a list of every book I can remember reading so far this year. I'll undoubtedly forget some, but I should get most of them.

1. Curse of Chalion - Lois McMaster-Bujold
2. Paladin of Souls - Lois McMaster-Bujold
3. The Hallowed Hunt - Lois McMaster-Bujold
4. Goblin Quest - Jim C. Hines
5. Goblin Hero - Jim C. Hines
6. Harrowing the Dragon - Patricia A. McKillip (short stories)
7. Genesis Quest - Donald Moffitt
8. Red Seas Under Red Skies - Scott Lynch
9. To The Power of Three - Laura Lippman
10. In Big Trouble - Laura Lippman
11. Blood Child - Octavia Butler (short stories)
12. Dawn - Octavia Butler
13. Imago - Octavia Butler
14. Scardown - Elizabeth Bear
15. Worldwired - Elizabeth Bear
16. Dust - Elizabeth Bear
17. Undertow - Elizabeth Bear
18. Knitting Rules! - Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
19. Poems of Color - Wendy Keele
20. Alanna: The First Adventure - Tamora Pierce
21. In the Hand of the Goddess - Tamora Pierce
22. The Woman Who Rides Like a Man - Tamora Pierce
23. Lioness Rampant - Tamora Pierce
24. Old Man's War - John Scalzi
25. The Ghost Brigades - John Scalzi
26. The Last Colony - John Scalzi
27. The Android's Dream - John Scalzi
28. The Wizard's Dilemma - Diane Duane
29. A Wizard Alone - Diane Duane
30. So You Want to be a Wizard - Diane Duane (3-novel omnibus)
31. Karate-do My Way of Life - Gichin Funakoshi
32. Beyond Black Belt - William Duessel
33. One Foot in the Grave - Wm. Mark Simmons
34. The Longevity Diet - Brian M. Delaney
35. Melusine - Sarah Monette
36. The Lightening Thief - Rick Riordan
37. The Chains That You Refuse - Elizabeth Bear (short stories)
38. Passage: The Sharing Knife, book 3 - Lois McMaster-Bujold
39. The Mad Scientist's Club - Bertrand R. Brinley
40. New Amsterdam - Elizabeth Bear
41. Blood Bound - Patricia Briggs
42. Iron Kissed - Patricia Briggs
43. Dragon Bones - Patricia Briggs
44. Steal the Dragon - Patricia Briggs
45.When Demons Walk - Patricia Briggs
46. The Titan's Curse - Rick Riordan
47. Off Armageddon Reef - David Weber
48. Knitting for Anarchists - Anna Zilboorg
49. Mastery - George Leonard
50. Komarr - Lois McMaster-Bujold
51. The Golem's Eye - Johnathan Stroud
52. Ptolemy's Gate - Johnathan Stroud
53. Orca - Stephen Brust
54. Dzur - Stephen Brust
55. For Us, The Living - Robert A. Heinlein
56. The Fire Rose - Mercedes Lackey
57. Crossroads and other tales of Valdemar - Mercedes Lackey, ed. (short stories)
58. Knit Three Ways - Melissa Mathay
59. Grave Peril - Jim Butcher
60. Blood Rites - Jim Butcher
61. Fool Moon - Jim Butcher
62. The Way of Aikido - George Leonard
63. Shards of Honor - Lois McMaster-Bujold (on audio)
64. Barrayar - Lois McMaster-Bujold (on audio)
65. Learner English: A Teacher's Guide to Interference - Michael Swan & Bernard Smith
66. Survey Research Methods - Floyd J. Fowler
67. Blood Lure - Nevada Barr
68. The Cup of Morning Shadows - Rosemary Edghill
69. The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
70. What Not to Wear - Stacy London & Clinton Kelly
71. Sai - Karate Weapons of Self-Defense - Fumio Demura
72. Bo - Karate Weapon of Self-Defense - Fumio Demura
73. Tonfa - Karate Weapon of Self-Defense - Fumio Demura

It's felt like I haven't gotten much reading time this last six months, but as you can see, that doesn't mean I don't read, just that I slow down some. I know I'm missing some - mostly non-fiction, but at least one fiction book (new author, a werewolf detective, no idea of the book name). With non-fiction, though, I tend to absorb the information without paying too much attention to the author or book title. Which has led in the past to buying multiple copies of the same book because I knew I was interested in the topic, but didn't remember I'd read the specific book. The list also contains some books I read to my kids, and some I read out-loud for a friend doing thesis research.

As you can tell, I read heavily in SF and fantasy, moderately in mystery, and a decent assortment of non-fiction. I usually read more theology stuff than is showing up in this list, but my non-fiction gets read in topical clumps more than my light reading. Right now I'm running heavy in the martial arts, due to impending eligeability for black belt. I really wish our local library had more martial art books - most of them aren't very good, and the library and bookstores have so few of them I can't look them over to see which ones I ought to be ordering. (If anyone has any suggestions for don't miss MA books, please let me know. My personal favorites are Mastery by George Leonard, and Living the Martial Way by Forrest Morgan.) Also, if anyone wants an opinion on any book listed above, just ask and I'll give you a review.

Books not read

Apparently these are the books most frequently listed as "Not Read" on librarything. Italicized is read but not finished. Bold is finished. Bold and asterisked is read for school.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian: a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath*
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno (and Purgatory and Paradise)
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest*
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye*
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity's Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers


Hmm. There's a lot of books there on my "intend to read but haven't quite gotten there yet" list. I'd better get cracking! Also more books then I expected that I started and didn't finish. Not finishing a book I begin is pretty darned rare for me. I suspect it's because many of these books I started to read because they were "great books" and I thought I should read them - and then discovered they didn't interest me in the slightest. The first few times that happened, I slogged through because they were "great books", and wound up having wasted my time reading a book I loathed (Madame Bovary is a classic example here). So since then, I'll give a book a solid try (at least three chapters) if it's on the great book list, but if I still can't get anywhere with it, I'll stop. Though there are some books that I petered out on that I do intend to come back to. Such as Beloved, where I suspect my ability to read outside my own experience simply wasn't well enough developed yet when I attempted it the first time.

Book Comments

As promised, I'm finally getting around to my periodic book review. I've read all the Christmas stash at long last, except for Dzur. It took quite a while, but I promised Rob that I wouldn't read his books before he did, so I had to wait for a lot of them. So without further ado:

The Jenny Trilogy - Elizabeth Bear

This series consists of Hammered, Scardown, and Worldwired. I was only so-so on Hammered when I first read it, but when I finally got around to reading books two and three, I loved them, so I had to go back and read Hammered again. I think my problem was that it feels like throat-clearing to me. It's the book that introduces the important characters, gives you the background (Which is complicated - these are people with histories.), and sets the stage for the second and third books, which seem to be the story that eBear really wanted to tell. This may or may not be true, but it's how Hammered read to me. Though I will say I found it much more interesting on the second read, after I knew how things went forward. Scardown and Worldwired, on the other hand, had no such problems. I was particularly fond of the perspective of older people towards teenagers saving the world (I won't specify more, it would be too spoilery). So many books have young people saving the world, it's pretty much a book industry in-and-of itself, but none of those books seem to really address what that looks like to those protagonists parents, aunts or uncles, grandparents - all the older people to whom they really are youngsters and far too young to be burdened so. All of the characters, good and bad, are nicely complicated without those clean dividing lines so many people are fond of that never occur in real life. Plus, aliens who really are alien, both to us, and to each other, and Richard Feynman as an AI - what more could I want in an SF adventure? Highly recommended.

Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades - John Scalzi

These are two of four books set in the same universe (The other two are The Sagan Diaries and The Last Colony.). Old Man's War starts the set. It feels a lot like an old-school (Heinlenesque) military SF, with a number of twists and a truly trenchant sense of humor. Humankind is at war with what feels like half the galaxy. They battle back using super-soldiers - they recruit the elderly from Earth, give them seriously souped up bodies, and send them forth to do battle. The book follows John Perry, new recruit, as he is trained and deployed. John Perry is a fun character, the plot is pretty straightforward (none of eBears twistiness here), and all-in-all it's a good, but not particularly deep thinking read.

The Ghost Brigades begins to change that. From the fairly cheerful war outlook of Old Man's War, The Ghost Brigades begins to introduce doubt that all this war is really necessary, or that the Colonial Union really knows what it's doing quite as much as they think they do. There's also much more introspection about identity, personality and self-determination in this book - though all as a pretty organic outgrowth from the situation as set up in Old Man's War. For plot, humankind has discovered that - thanks to a human traitor - three alien races are collaborating against humans. If the plot succeeds, humanity won't stand a chance. So they attempt to recreate the traitor using cloning technology and an untried technique for personality downloading. The apparent failure of the attempt, and the subsequent thrusting of the clone into the wars as a supersoldier (one of the ultra-elite Ghost Brigades, literally born and bred for war), shows us a much more complex view of Scalzi's universe. By the look of the preview for The Last Colony, that may well continue the trend - I certainly intend to find out!

The Android's Dream - also John Scalzi

The Android's Dream is SF comedy/adventure. I mean how serious can a book be when it opens with an interplanetary incident set off by farting? Comedy gold continues with electric blue sheep, assasination attempts foiled by what amounts to super-duper basketball shoes, a serious church started by an acknowledged con (acknowledged by the church's adherents, that is), and a man-eating alien who's really just on a religious quest. Things are happening in several directions at once, and it all comes together at the end with what could easily have felt like a series of completely improbable coincidences, but instead felt like watching an episode of James Burke's Connections. It's rare for a book to have me howling with laughter repeatedly and still be a good adventure yarn with good pacing, great characters, and a twisty, but not too twisty plot. The Android's Dream pulls it all off with a bow on top. Well done, Mr. Scalzi!

Thin Air - Rachel Caine

This is the latest installment (6th?) in Rachel Caine's Weather Warden series. I like the series. I like the heroine. I intend to keep reading. That said, I'm beginning to get a little worn down. Joanna Baldwin has been under the gun since the opening paragraph of book 1. She started off under a death sentence, and things have only gotten worse since then. By now all of humanity has been at stake for about three books. Joanne seems to be suffering from the Honor Harrington problem - with each book the stakes get higher and the heroine gets more power - but you can't raise the stakes forever, and eventually the breathless pace starts to get to your reader. I haven't hit diminishing returns yet, but I really hope she starts to slow her book pacing down just a tad here somewhere.

Blood Bound - Patricia Briggs

This is the second book in the series that starts with Moon Called. Modern fantasy - our protagonist is a skin-walker (turns into a coyote at will), auto-mechanic named Mercy Thompson. She's the only one of her kind with an interesting relationship with her local werewolf pack, a friend among the vampires, and a serious nose for trouble. Mercy is an interesting character, the plots tend toward the mystery end of things, though they're not formal mysteries per se. I could well see this as a continuing series without the same escalation troubles as Rachel Caine's books, and it looks like Ms. Briggs is thinking of it the same way - so yay for that. The books aren't terribly introspective, but they're deep enough to be interesting for multiple reads, and light enough for when you're not in the mood for depth. Candy with some substance to it.


I'm currently reading The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker, and Off Armegeddon Reef by David Weber. Both seem pretty good so far. The Gift of Fear is seriously informative - I may end up joining the evangelical chorus of people who think everyone should read it. The Weber book is entertaining, but I would like to a) register my annoyance with naming everyone normal names only with extraneous a's and h's everywhere (seriously, Ahrnahld?) and b) This is (depending on how you count), the third or fourth Weber book with aliens that want nothing more than to wipe humanity off the face of the universe. And at least the third where said aliens nearly succeed. How depressing is the inside of David Weber's head?

Home Again

Sorry to go dark for so long. I was expecting to do some posting from my parents' house, but for some reason, Blogger wasn't willing to let me log in while I was down there. When combined with the lovely two-finger typing of a Qwerty keyboard (I use Dvorak), I just couldn't seem to figure out how to post.

We had a lovely long visit with Mom and Dad. Rob spent a lot of time with Dad at the glider field, and got a surprising amount of flight time in - he has a log book and everything, and is now very interested in gliding. Unfortunately for his ambition there are no gilder ports or soaring clubs in this area (Unfortunately for him, fortunately for our bank account. Gliding ain't cheap.) It was generally a very unambitious vacation for us - much sitting around playing computer Scrabble, reading, or watching TV. I did yoga a few times, and practiced Kusanku (both Sai and not) as far as I've learned it a few times, but otherwise backed off on the exercise, which seemed to be a relief for my joints - my left knee and right ankle had both become constant low-grade aches - and I hope I can ramp the exercise back up without bringing the aches back.

Mom turned out to have quite a few interesting books in her collection (she always does). As a consequence, I now know a great deal more about nutrition specifically for insulin resistence than I did, which is going to result in some dietary tweaking in the next few months. We'll see how it goes. Plus, she had an excellent book (which I didn't finish, rats!) on reading like a writer. I barely even got started on reading all the cool books I got Rob for Christmas (the haul includes two John Scalzi books, the most recent Stephen Brust, a Patricia Briggs, and a history of Plumbing). I received no books for Christmas - possibly a first. Instead I got some lovely jewelry - an orchid earring and pin/pendant set from Rob, silver dangles and gilded green glass elephants from Dad, an opalescent fake amber pendant from Aaron (pretty, but very odd looking), and a big round colored glass/silver necklace from Robbie. Also a very pretty small brocade purse from Aaron (for occassions when the big hobo bag just won't do), and the requisite embarrassing gift from Rob (slipper socks - neon green frog, and hot pink kitty ones). Fortunately I was spared the Tweety Bird pajamas because they weren't in stock in my size (THANK YOU WAL-MART!!). Maybe I'll actually get the chance to kill off my last set of embarrassing pajamas (Scooby-Doo), and buy myself some warm pj's I actually like before next Christmas. I can hope, anyway.

Since a Christmas without book just won't do, I wandered out to a local bookstore and picked myself up a few. The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker has by now been recommended by so many different people from so many different places, that I could no longer excuse avoiding it, so home it came. In a more fun vein, I picked up the second and third of Elizabeth Bear's first series (Scardown and Worldwired - the first book was Hammered). I'm about halfway through Scardown, and I'm really happy I got them. Hammered was a mixed bag for me. I like Bear's writing and the particulars of her characters, especially Jenny who is just all kinds of cool. I mean, how often do I get to read a book about a character who is my gender, older than me, more battered than me (both physically and psychologically), and yet still kicks ass in spades? Yet, somehow, I just didn't connect with the book in any intense way. Scardown still has all the stuff I like, and adds in that connection. Suddenly I care about what happens to all these people in a way I didn't before, and it's a whole different experience. Hammered I read in two days because I'm just a fast reader. Scardown I started last night and got halfway through before I could bring myself to put it down, even knowing we had a twelve-hour drive today. I'm having to crawl off to bed tonight without even picking it up (Crud!), because if I do, I'm not putting it down again until I'm done, and I've got tons to do tomorrow (return car, retrieve dog, unpack, get to bank, get to grocery store - and that's just starters). Tomorrow afternoon though, I'm sticking something long and slow on the stove (stew anyone?), and crawling in. I'll comment on the other side.

Book Report/Basset

I'm reporting on a couple of kids' books this time around. The boys' elementary school just had their semi-annual book fair, and Robbie brought home two books which he promptly devoured.

The first is Ferno: The Fire Dragon, the first book in the BeastQuest series. Robbie liked it a good deal, and is intending to look for the next one. It's not the best of this kind of book by a long shot, though. You know the wish fulfillment is running heavy when even your eight-year-old finishes a chapter (wherein the 11-year-old protagonist is chosen by the king to save the kingdom from a fire-breathing dragon), looks up and says "But Mommy, he's never trained with a sword!" There were several such moments in the book. Plus the foreshadowing was running heavy. As in being dropped on by a backhoe. I'm 90%+ certain I have the surprise ending of the series figured out. I figured it out in chapter three. That's a bad sign. I guess my final say on this one is: for what it is, it's a decent read for a kid, but it makes me think of the Opus's line "Foreshadowing: your guide to quality literature."

The second book fared much better. The Sea of Monsters is the second book in the adventures of Percy(Perseus) Jackson, half-blood son of Poseiden and a mortal woman. Set in the modern day, where the Greek Gods have followed the heart of Western civilization and come to America (the Empire State Building is now Mt. Olympus). I won't say too much because this is one of those books that makes little sense by description unless the listener is already familiar with the world. Nonetheless, this book is entertaining enough for me to sneak off and read it on my own. It also stands alone pretty well, though both Robbie and I intend to find the first book (The Lightening Thief) and read it ASAP.

And finally, the Basset. We spent an entertaining night (midnight to 3am) at an emergency vet clinic when we discovered about bedtime that Nicky couldn't get up. His forelegs had no muscle tone. They couldn't support his weight. He'd thrown up a couple of times in the afternoon, which we attributed to a morning garbage raid, but otherwise he'd been behaving normally. The vet was puzzled. He showed no paralysis, just muscle weakness. The X-rays showed no problems with his spine, and were equivocal about his front legs - puppy rickets have left them short and twisted even by basset standards, so their hard to read. She decided evetually that he must have strained them with the vomiting, gave us a painkiller and told us to rest him.

By this morning, Nicky's hind legs weren't working either. Since he seemed in no other distress, breathing well, not in any discernable pain, cheerful, we put him out on the lawn with water, so he wouldn't have to move at all, and kept an eye on him. We seem to have made the right call. After sleeping the whole morning away, Nicky was able to get his forelegs under him for just a few seconds somewhere around 2pm. By dinner time, he was able to stand up for about ten seconds. We still have no clue what hit him, be it infection or some kind of toxin, but at this rate of recovery, he should be back to normal in another day or so. I wish I could have saved the nearly $500 the vet visit cost, but we couldn't take the chance that he'd injured his spine or gotten into something that needed immediate treatment (like anti-freeze, which needs very rapid treatment, and presents in much this way). Sigh. That's what emergency funds are for anyway.