This and That and the other thing

Starting out with this post, I suspect it'll be a bit rambly, and not only because I just took a head first dive into a door frame (frozen corn thaws way too quickly).

Here's one of my stressors these days:

There's pretty much NO WAY I'm going to read seven books by the end of December. It doesn't help that my next BookClub book is The Stand, which is apparently 17,000 pages long.

I've been wrestling with my WIP for months now and it just doesn't want to cooperate. I love the idea. I love the characters. I love the story. But it won't get out of my head into my computer. So I've shelved it... It is my full intention to come back to it because the idea that the story does not come out is very sad to me... It needs to be read, there's a magical, life force to it that is demanding an existence, but right now it's not breathing.

In it's place I've started another idea. I write long fiction because I don't come up with ideas easily or frequently. This one popped into my head a week or so ago and I figured it was worth listening to. I'll see where it goes.

Four days left on the Indiegogo campaign to preorder It Should Have Been a #GoodDay! Check it out, as there are options available for Christmas presents too!

Off to get more frozen veggies for the egg on my head :D

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Historical Fiction

I love history but I find nonfiction books to be tedious and hard to read. It's difficult to relate to dates and numbers and descriptions that aren't anchored in anything relatable.

Historical fiction is a magical tool for me. I love how it transports me back into another time and/or place. I mean people are the same right? so the characters and their situations are mostly familiar and relatable, at least at the most fundamental thoughts and feelings. By the grace of God I don't have the sweetest idea what it felt like to be a slave in North Carolina, but I know what it feels like to be scared, to be lonely... I'm reading The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd. So far it's fantastic. I love the voices. I love the droplets of history in every scene - the mentions of clothes, chores, household goods, routines, songs, political expectations...  Someday I want to write a historical fiction story - take my emotions and experiences and transport them back to a time I can research and paint into the novel.

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Story vs Story telling

I just finished February by Lisa Moore and am trying to figure out how to explain it to you.

I can't tell you the story. Is there a story? I think it's the epitome of a literary work - the characters are the story. It's about Helen, a mom of four who is widowed when her husband dies on the Ocean Ranger, a rig off the coast of Newfoundland that sank in 1982. The narrative switches among 1982, flashbacks of her husband before his death, and times afterwards up to present day with her grown children and grandchildren. The story... story? just is.

It is a piece of art. It's like an impressionist painting that you can stare at in parts and appreciate the colours, the textures, the lines. It's like a piece of music that sweeps you up and makes you close your eyes and concentrate on only the music. It's like a chocolate cake that you let slowly melt in your mouth to savour it. The story is less important, just like the scene of the painting is secondary to the colours and brushstrokes.

Lisa Moore does interesting things with her words. She does things that are against the rules: omits quotation marks, uses run on sentences, uses passive voice, uses repetition of words and phrases... all the things that would be 'wrong' in an edit of someone else, someone lesser of a writer. It's beautiful and it works but it creates an air of inaccessibility... that this is a higher form of art not attainable or
accessible for typical readers and writers. I can't decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing?

I enjoyed reading it, it's a beautiful novel, but I'm happy to slip back into something narrative and story based for now.

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Book Review: The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen - Susin Nielson

Sooo, you know when you finish a book and you're lying awake at 2am because you laid awake reading until well past any normal bedtime and you're so blown away by the book and the story that you want to talk to SOMEONE about it but it's 2am and every sane person in your timezone is asleep?

And then the next day you try to start a new book, but you can't figure out what to read because every book you try to read will be so sad and pathetic in relation to the book you just finished so you don't really even feel like bothering?

I just finished THIS:

It's hard to summarize because one of the coolest features of it is the delicate and natural way the backstory unfolds. This is the written journal of Henry as he processes his emotions - reluctantly because he's been encouraged to by his councillor. Counsellor? Geez. He has just moved to Vancouver after a pretty ugly stretch in his family life and he's dealing with the fallout of everything that happened and everything that is happening at school.

There are parts of the book that were physically painful for me to read. There were parts where I laughed out loud (and at 1:53am that's kind of creepy). Overall it's a real and raw story of real and raw characters and life as it happens. It's amazing. Add it to your TBR.

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What do you read?

I'm now TWO books behind in my 2015 Reading Challenge with GoodReads.

... but that is because I've spent this month wrangling a thick non-fic about the Kennedy assassination:

I am fascinated by this topic and go through cycles when I read anything I can get my hands on. Now with YouTube and the internet there's a never ending source. 

Of course, as Abe Lincoln warned, you have to be careful of the source of internet information, it's not always reliable. I recently watched a two hour presentation done by a gentleman named Jim Fetzer. It was captivating and sound, excellent information to support a believable conspiracy theory. I googled his name to see what other works he had available (a book, another lecture, etc) and found his site where he promotes his theories that both 9/11 and the holocaust were hoaxes. Well there goes pretty much all respect I had for his credibility. 

When I'm interested in a topic I love to soak in the non-fictional information that's out there. I love learning through reading, so much so that it's hard to say which I like better - fiction or non-fiction. But I need to go back and forth with it... and the non-fiction is much longer for me to read. Once I get through this one, I'll have to find some quick, light, happy reads to catch up to my Challenge!

What do you like to read better? and what non-fic do you enjoy?

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Shakespeare

My kids participated in a Micro Musical, a programme sponsored by the provincial government to bring 30min musicals to elementary students. They LOVED it. They spent the week learning songs, lines and choreography and put on a show Friday night. The play was awesome and they had the best time.


What's better though is the experience has prodded an interest in Shakespeare. They want to read the plays! They're 10 and 9 years old so I figure I shouldn't throw my beautiful Complete Works from University at them just yet, but I found this series in Chapters. The original Shakespeare plays are on the left side of the page, an updated language script on the right so you can read in old or current English. My kiddos picked Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet and I added A Midsummer's Night Dream thinking maybe they might need some light in their Shakespeare exposure.

Who knows if they'll actually read it? I'm so excited that they're aware of them and interested. I love sharing passion with them - hockey, reading, art - I love seeing them gain happiness and excitement from something that I love. 

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A House in the Sky - Review

I'm intrigued by memoires, and some of them have been some of my favourite books. To date my life has been too boring - not enough excitement or conflict to warrant a memoir, but after reading this book, I'm thinking that's a good thing.

Amanda Lindhout had a difficult childhood and escaped as soon as she could to a life of travel. She'd work six months or so making good money as a cocktail waitress then spend months backpacking around foreign countries in South America, Asia, Europe, Africa... it all sounded very exciting. With or without travel mates, she'd make up her schedule as she went, not tied down to dates or commitments, travelling from one place to another based on whims and suggestions of other travellers she met along the way. I gotta admit, I was kind of envious of her existence for the first part of the book.

Then she went to Somalia.

Lindhout describes well her carefree invincible character that brought her there... knowing what the rest of the story is about, I was trying not to yell at her through the pages and time to tell her 'don't go!' but I could understand how she made a different choice. On her second day there she and her friend, Nigel, and their tour guides and security are kidnapped by, really, a bunch of kids. There are a few adults in the mix, but most of the guards are teenagers, hyped up on fanatical religion and violence.

Lindhout's description of her 460 days in captivity is harrowing and difficult to read. The way she writes details without melodrama and with a compassion that makes all of the characters human instead of innocent and monsters is phenomenal. It's not an easy book to take in, but a worthwhile one.

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Molly Miranda Thief for Hire - Review

I was excited to be included in the Blog Tour for this book! I'd heard good stuff about it and I get childish pleasure at reading ARC's before everyone else can! Here is Jillianne Hamilton's Molly Miranda, Thief for Hire.

Molly, the narrator is unique and intriguing, sets up the opportunity for a totally different story. Hamilton writes with details that make Molly's escapades believable and easy to tag along. It also makes one wonder, how did she do her research?

My favourite part of this story was the voice. Molly's first person narrative with her side comments had me laughing out loud. The use of contrast between the readers' knowledge and Molly's is hilarious. Hamilton does a fantastic balancing act between suspense and humour, tossing in a laugh at *just* the right place.

Another aspect of the story that impressed me was Hamilton's creation of likeable characters. Presenting a main character that lives outside society's rules can challenge the readers to like the person at the most basic level. A square like me is challenged to give someone who steals from other people the benefit of the doubt - ever. Molly comes with her own flaws, but with a well laid out and consistent moral compass that allowed me to forgive her for her profession and like her as a person. Her relationship with Nate is challenged by their differing scruples but Hamilton composes their interactions in a way that allows them to be different, not right and wrong.

Rhys was the weakest character for me... which is hard to explain without giving up the deets. I found he was less consistent than the other characters, which left me questioning him at times.

(As an added bonus, I learned from this book to spell 'thief' correctly, after spellcheck redlined my repeated 'theif' attempts... I know, I know, "I before E, except after C" and all that.)

Overall Molly Miranda is a fun read with some good messages of self awareness and identity laced through the humour and suspense. The ending (and I'm not giving anything away) eluded to this story being the start of a series which made me smile big on the last page! I'd love to read more of Molly's adventures!

Happy New Year

Happy 2015!!!

I ran away to Disney World with my family the past couple of weeks... we had a fantastic time riding rides and seeing shows. Though I feel now that we've all seen it, we've seen it... it was fabulous, but no need to go back again - our next family vacay will be a different adventure.

I thought I'd read a tonne of books while I was away! In fact, I loaded up my Kobo with several I've been meaning to read. I finished one. And got part way through another. I guess I just picked big books.

I finished All the Light we Cannot See, which was wonderful. It was poetic and sad, uplifting in parts and unpredictable in a way that most WWII stories are not. Very good, pick it up if you get a chance.

I also made headway in Far from the Tree, which is a non-fiction a client shared with me some time ago. It's heavy and slow but fascinating - a discussion about how difference (including disorders and such) can drive unique identity and how those identities contribute to our world. It's LOOOONG, each chapter is over 100 pages! But interesting on every page.

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2014 Reading Challenge

I finished my GoodReads 2014 Reading Challenge last night!!! In December of last year, I set a goal to read 35 books in 2014 and I finished my 35th last night. Doesn't sound like much, does it? I mean that's not even one book a week... but it's more than one book every two weeks and three of those books were monsters: The Goldfinch, A Cruel and Shocking Act and We Are Water were all hefty tomes. (Yes, I did look up that word to make sure I was using it correctly).

 What's interesting about this collection of books is the increased number of local authors who I've met... I've shifted the way I find books. I used to go into Chapters (a favourite place) and peruse the shelves (looked that word up too) for my next favourite book. Usually I'd end up following Heather's or Oprah's suggestions. A huge number of the books I read this year were authors whom I've had the pleasure to meet, talk to, work with... it's such a different experience to read words written by someone you know. There's a whole new dimension to the story, a depth of seeing the reasons behind some of the words. I love it.

I've also learned that there are fantastic books and stories out there that are on par or even surpassing the books that get the accolades and best seller status - something that gives me hope and encouragement as I embark on my self-publishing experiment... I mean if I figured out that the small books are awesome, hopefully other people will too? Maybe this year if you buy books for people try to get a small selling book, from a publisher like Fierce Ink Press or from a local author him/herself.

What was your favourite read of 2014? I've been staring at these covers trying to decide what was mine and it's honestly nearly impossible to do so. I'd recommend any of these if you're looking for a good story (I didn't finish the ones I hated). And don't forget, reviewing a book on GoodReads or on the store's webpage is a much appreciated way to respond to the author's efforts.

Happy Reading!

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Kissing Frogs - Alisha Sevigny

I'm so excited to be a stop on the Kissing Frogs tour! Partly because I got to read it waaaay before any of you poor saps, but also because I love talking about books.

At first glance, Kissing Frogs is a cute, light-hearted romance. A teen is 'forced' to go on a conservation study trip with a different group of kids while her own gaggle of friends heads to Florida for a party-filled vacation. So not fair, right? 

What's worse? Her old nemesis is there too - the boy who teased her in her past life when she was a clumsy nerd. She has worked hard to shed her past and who she used to be, and there he is to bring it all back. Oh and, instead of partying with her boyfriend she has to clean the poop out of the aquariums of ickily gross frogs. 

Can you guess what will happen?

What's not apparent before you read Kissing Frogs is the depth of character and the gentle reminders of the value of integrity, independence and being true to yourself. Sevigny delivers realistic characters. Her main character, Jessica, has a fantastic voice (and I don't mean singing) with laugh-out-loud one liners and on point sarcasm. She develops through the story as she learns who she is, who she wants to be and figures out how to get there. She takes the readers along in a gentle, here's-the-clues-figure-it-out-yourself way instead of the crash over the noggin other books often use to hammer home a message. 

Sevigny's description of the setting and landscape was beautiful, leaving me wanting to learn more about Panama and the animals that live there. 

As a mom, some of the um, adventures? the kids get into made my toes curl - surely teens wouldn't do THAT in a foreign country, right? But I doubt those without dependents would find fault with their  escapades. I'm just an old mother hen, now. While the outcome of the story is somewhat predictable, the way the characters get there, is not. Their week in panama is full of twists and turns and surprises that kept me intrigued.

As a mom, this is one I'll keep for my daughters' bookshelves, so they can hear Jessica's experience. I'd recommend this book to anyone who needs a breath of fresh air and a happy, feel good book.

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PS Don't forget the giveaway!!! Canadian residents are eligible to win a free eCopy of Kissing Frogs. To do so, comment here or leave a message about Kissing Frogs on Twitter @NSampson17 !

Goooood Monday Morning!

I'm dragging today... after very little sleep.

I stayed awake until after 2:30 to finish The Goldfinch. I was determined to get it done. Some books I like to soak in and read more and more slowly as the end nears because I don't want to be finished with them. This was not one of them. I liked the book, I actually liked it a lot, but (Dr. Phil says a 'but' there repudiates anything said before it but I don't agree) but I found it a very hard, slow, trudging read. Not slow in action, there was lots in there, but slow to get through. I started on August 23 and read til September 7 - well, early hours on the 8th. That's over two weeks for one book? And not pick up here and there, I mean an hour or more a day (well, in the middle of the night) of reading. Way longer than usual for me. And what about that Pulitzer? I mean, it may sound like sour grapes, but I didn't think it was Pulitzer worthy. But it was good and I'm glad I read it.

I think I struggled with my own naivety. There was a lot of drugs and petty crimes in the book, stuff that was just par for the course in the story, but it really bothered me. I wanted the MC to raise above it, even if that would have created more of a fairy tale than a true story. I guess I like clean lines and happy endings. Because of their choices, I struggled to empathize with the characters and at points really didn't like them very much.

The characters were well developed and well defined. Perhaps my favourite part of the book was Boris' dialect and grammar... very true, very consistent, I could hear him talking in my head. For him alone, this book might make a good movie.

Read it if you get the chance!

Ten Book Challenge

There is a challenge going around FB wherein the recipient lists ten books that "have stayed with you in some way. They don’t have to be ‘right ‘ books or great works of literature." 

I thought it would be interesting to post them here:

 


Is your favourite on this list??? The strange thing is it sounds daunting to write a list, but once I got rolling I could have listed many more. 

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Diary of Anne Frank

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I read these books written by people involved with the family of Anne Frank. Of course I read Anne Frank's diary as a teenager, but reading the other memoirs made me want to re-read her story to see if I could draw the connections - looking at the same story from different points of view. 

Is it okay to dislike a 12 year old persecuted child? Probably not, eh? Okay I admit it, I wasn't a fan of Anne Frank at the beginning of her diary. For the first third of the book I was worried by my opinion of her - snotty, conceited, ungrateful child... but aren't all children at some point? 

I think the power of this story is the growth of the girl, in spite of (or because of?) her circumstances. As she grows and writes her perception of herself, of her family and others hiding with her, of her circumstances grows and becomes so well thought out, so well articulated, it reminded me of the uni course I took studying the Transcendentalists. This child, who was so real and authentic that she still complained about the inequities of being a teenager, also wrote about spirituality, sexuality, politics, societal interactions, truth and justice and peace. It makes me wonder who she would have become had she been given the chance.  It is truly a gem of history. 


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Multiple Perspectives and Super Powers

In the past couple of months I've read these three books:

      

The Book Thief I discussed in my review here. The second and third are memoirs written by women who knew Anne Frank. Reading them were like looking at a single sculpture from different sides, different angles. And next I'm going to reread Anne Frank's diary itself.

Some books are important as escapes, some drive the imagination, some make us think or make us laugh. I think these are important as reminders, as humans to empathize and realize. When Gies is talking about her struggles to find food for her family, walking hours under fear of detection for a few potatoes or beets, I was thinking about my Tim's drive through trip for my hot sausage and cheese on a biscuit, the expired food in my fridge that just went bad because we were too busy to eat it this week.

And it's not outdated. We can read these books and gasp at the unimaginable atrocities, wonder how it's possible it could have happened and forget it's still happening now. Words have power, and written stories give their writers a super power Long after the Germans surrendered and pulled out of Holland these stories remain. The way time passes, the people who died would have been old enough now to have passed even if they had survived... but these stories can still be shared and can still have impact. Their super power is immortality, maybe.

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Lazy Days

During the summer I try to plan 'Adventures' for the kids and I to do when I'm off work. It gets us out of the house, active and learning something about NS. Nothing grand, just little day trips. Today I had a few ideas, the waterfront, Uniake house, a beach, the Oval... but in the end we had a lazy day at home. I tried to peck out a few words on my cantankerous WIP, the kids invited their fiends over and have bounced around from the garage to the basement to their bedrooms to the lake (so I had to go lifeguard and read)... I prepped supper and am watching the clock until we have to leave for hockey (if you thought hockey was a winter sport, you didn't know about SUMMER hockey for the obsessed and crazy Canucks). Rookie is snoring at my feet. Sometimes it's great just to stay home.

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To prove the point made above, it took me six tries and several minutes to get this 'casual' snapshot.

Our Thirteen Book Challenge!

Today I finished up the Thirteen Book Challenge I did with PJ's and Mrs. Laurie's third grade class. Every Monday I went in to read a picture book to the class, one from each province and territory in Canada in support of Amy's Marathon of Books (she's reading a novel a DAY).

Here's what we found:

British Columbia - Go Away Unicorn by Emily Mullock
Alberta - The Lime Green Secret by Georgia Graham
Saskatchewan - I Know Here by Laurel Croza
Manitoba - This is Not my Hat by Jon Klassen
Ontario - Something from Nothing by Phoebe Gilman
Quebec - The Hockey Sweater by Roch Carrier
New Brunswick - Penelope's Imagination Runs Wild by AJ Funn
PEI -  Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery, abridged by Barbara Greenwood
Nova Scotia - There were Monkeys in my Kitchen by Sheree Fitch
Newfoundland - Johnny and the Gypsy Moth by Deannie Sullivan-Fraser
Nunavut - Unikkaaqatigiit edited by David Natcher, Mary Ellen Thomas, Neil Christopher
NWT - A Promise is a Promise by Robert Munsch and Michael Arvaarluk Kusugak
Yukon - I am a Fox by Olga Majola

I was very impressed by the kids' ability to sit and listen attentively, then draw from the story to make their own connections to the books. They were bright and thoughtful and humourous and kind in their responses. We all had a great time. At the end they gifted me with their own creation, inspired by our Saskatchewan pick I Know Here.



Here's the cover and the cover page, then my own PJ's contribution that, while starts a bit gloomy, is really sweet and provides quite an intimate view of her perspective.

Thanks so much Amy for leading us on our adventure! It was an excellent way to explore Canadian authors - I found a few new favourites!

If you have a moment, and maybe an extra dime, please consider supporting Amy in her Marathon of Books fundraiser here.

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Finally...

Finally is a good title for this post b/c it's LONG over due.

FINALLY the third book of the Madgeburg Trilogy was finished.
FINALLY I got to read it (before all'o yous :P)
FINALLY the cover was released so FINALLY I can post my review!!!

 One of the reviews of Game Plan started with an advisory that the reviewer didn't typically like contemporary YA. I appreciated the review she wrote because it meant she went out on a limb to read it, so I offer up the same advisory: I don't typically read fantasy. I don't typically read about fairies or vampires or monsters or werewolves... but the Madgeburg Trilogy is different. Kat Kruger cements the world in such well researched science that I'm almost convinced it's NOT fantasy at all, but absolutely possible given all her explanations.

The Night is Found is the closing novel, following The Night Has Teeth and The Night Has Claws. Connor Lewis, the sorta loser-ish, mostly lost foreign student at a Paris high school has followed his fate and found his place in a world he never knew existed. Through the first two books he made friends and enemies and decided where he stood in the controversy escalating around him. Everything comes crashing together in the final story, The Night is Found. Kruger's characters are consistent throughout the three books, which isn't true for every series. They change and grow but do so in ways that are understandable and realistic given the challenges they face. This third book answers all the questions and brings resolutions that are not always perfect for the characters or preferred by the readers but are believable and congruous with Kruger's effort to present a realistic and conceivable world.

I thoroughly enjoyed each of the books, but think the third might have been my favourite. My eleven year old son is insanely jealous that I got to read it first and is anxious for the release of The Night is Found in July. Definitely a book to check out!

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Up Super Late Reading THIS:

I finished a little after one last night - this morning? Not that long ago. My copy is the movie picture release that was super cheap at Costco, I like this cover better.

Is there anyone out there who hasn't heard of this story? It came out as a movie in November though apparently I totally missed that fact and had planned to go see it when it was released now that I'd read the book. At least I'll save money if I watch it from home.

I find books about the Holocaust hard to read. Gripping and intriguing but hard to read. This was no different. The story is told by Death, who is a sad, exhausted, empathetic creature who seems truly heartbroken over what is happening in WWII Europe. The main character, Liesel, first loses her communist parents to Hitler, then her brother dies on a train. She settles into a new life with foster parents Hans and Rosa, spends her time learning to read and playing soccer with her best friend Rudy and the kids on Himmel Street. She keeps the secret of Max, a Jewish man hidden in the basement and steals books by climbing into the Mayor's house through the library window.

The story is a haunting balance between the reality of daily existence for any ten year old and the devastating way Nazi Germany tainted the lives of everyone. Early in the story Liesel is embarrassed and bullied because of her poor reading skills. Her foster father teaches her to read, building both her skill and their bond. Books, both reading and writing, become a central part of Liesel's life. She recognizes the beauty of words in the stories she reads, the books written for her by Max and ultimately her own story written in the basement and kept by Death. At odds with that appreciation is Liesel's realization that words are what give Hitler his power and his dominance. In WWII Germany words are used to pelt hate and perpetrate fear. What's truly magical is Zusak's creative use words to build images and express emotions.

So if you're looking for a book to read, and you've read Game Plan once or twice, this is a good choice. It took a while for me to work through but it wasn't laborious, I was careful to pick up every detail and appreciate each trick of the words.

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Fantastic Friday

It seems that Unproductive Writing days come in clumps. Last week my Dudes had a PD Day on Friday which meant they were home and I did nothing. Monday was a holiday in Canada and I hoped to hide on the couch and write but ended up in the kidlet ER instead (everyone's okay, eyes aren't that important, that's why you have two). Today is my Writing Friday but my future NHLer has two hockey games (yes, they have hockey during school hours... this is Canada where hockey is All Important). It's probably more likely that he'll get rich playing hockey than I'll get rich writing books so it's an investment to leave my desk for the rink, really. I've coerced a friend to pick him up with hers and take them the hour early they're supposed to be there but I've gotta cut my writing day short to actually SEE the game. Missing kid sports is painful for me. I intend to Pack my Mac in my supercool Etsy bag and take it with me, but chances are I'll end up gossiping with the other hockey parents instead of writing between games.

Ah well, there's always Monday.

On the reading front, I just finished The Night is Found by Kat Kruger. OMG you guys... such a great third to a trilogy... I dunno 'bout you but lots of times when I read a trilogy the third book seems kinda like a tack on, either they had a good story for two and needed to squeeze a third out, OR they had the three books but rushed to finish the third on time (or totally lost interest)... but this was totally the climactic ending of a great series... it picks up on the energy of the first two, ties all the ends together and... well, I can't REALLY review it 'til I have a cover so that's all I have to say about that... for now.

Now I'm onto The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom. (It's my pick for book club that I'm hosting on Tuesday which means I have to read the book AND clean the house... unless I just host on the deck with the black flies?) It's really poetic in a magical way, he has this way of writing prose that sounds fluid and lyrical and artistic. I love it so far.

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