#Read26Indy Book Roundup - Books 19-21

This is not a #ThinkKit blog. This is a #Read26Indy blog. Apparently this is the year of the hashtag.

I've knocked out three more books - 5 more to go but I'm in the middle of a couple so I may hit 26 just under the wire. We'll see. But first, here are the three I finished in the last month or so:

Book #19: Slow River by Nicola Griffith

"Don't you see? Everything works in layers: jungles, cities, people. Each layer has its predator and prey, its network of ally and foe, safe place and trap. Its own ecosystem. You have to get to know the land."

Lore is the daughter of an extremely wealth and high profile family, but our story begins as she is dropped off in a city, naked and wounded, after having been kept captive for ransom. Afraid to go home, she is rescued by a con artist that becomes her teacher and lover. Lore struggles to find out who she is on her own, and what happened to her.

Earlier this year I bought a big batch of books that were nominated or won Lambda Literary awards, because finding good LGBT literature seems much harder than it should be. This book was sitting on my shelf looking at me for months before I finally picked it up, and I enjoyed it. Unfortunately I saw the big twist coming a mile off, and it just rang false when it was finally revealed. But I enjoyed turning the pages, and reading a story where the character's sexuality wasn't what the story revolved around but instead was just one aspect of her personality. The other thing I found particularly interesting was the incredibly detailed description of how a futuristic wastewater treatment facility might work. The author clearly did her research. I'm not an engineer but I've done work related to wastewater treatment in the past, and from what I know her descriptions were pretty darn close to how things actually work. A large portion of the book takes place in a wastewater treatment plant - something you don't see too often in novels. I always appreciate works that look at where our waste materials go and how it's disposed of. We often don't think about that at all, since it's out of sight out of mind.

I'll definitely pick up some of her other books in the future.

Book #20 Yes Please by Amy Poehler

"Authors pretend their stories were always shiny and perfect and just waiting to be written. The truth is, writing is this: hard and boring and occasionally great but usually not. Even I have lied about writing. I have told people that writing this book has been like brushing away dirt from a fossil. What a load of shit. It has been like hacking away at a freezer with a screwdriver."

I was on the waitlist to get this book from the library for a long time, so when they finally notified me that the e-book was ready for me, I dropped everything else I was reading and started reading this instead.

My favorite part of the entire book is the first chapter, because it's a chapter about writing. That's what I quoted from above. I loved this chapter so much, as an aspiring writer, because it gives me permission to write crappy stuff sometimes, and concurs that writing is not this beautiful arty thing that just flows (I'm talking to you, Finding Forrester).

But this isn't a book about writing. It's one of a number of memoirs that have come out in the past few years by comedians, like Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling, all of which seem to follow the same basic formula. They are incredibly funny in parts, and trace their beginnings from childhood through beginning improv, and their eventual success. They have great moments of humor and many more moments of banality. Probably much like a comedian's life. They all also seem to spend some time bemoaning having to read the book they are writing, something that was a little funny back in Ellen Degeneres's first book, but has gotten a little old, especially when we all know they get paid large sums to write these books that are about everything and nothing at once. It's obvious that the publishers go to them and ask for a book, any book, about whatever, because they know the name behind it will sell it.

That's not to say this isn't a good book. It's got some great, funny parts, and it shows that to be successful it takes incredible drive and commitment, not just some nascent talent. For that alone, I think it's a good lesson in a world where we think success comes overnight from some natural ability that doesn't need to be refined. She talks a lot about success, and she also talks about Deuce Bigalow, Male Gigolo being her first big movie part. So it's all relative, really.

Book #21 Countdown City by Ben H. Winters

“Respectfully, sir, the asteroid did not make you leave her. The asteroid is not making anyone do anything. It's just a big piece of rock floating through space. Anything anyone does remains their own decision.”

This is book two of a trilogy, which makes it a little hard to review until I finish the third one, which is ready and waiting at home for me to crack it open. Mild spoilers below if you haven't read the first book.

...

When we left our hero, Detective Hank Palace, he had been let go from the police force. Now he has a new mystery to solve. His childhood babysitter has enlisted him to find her missing husband, who from all evidence has left of his own accord, something that has become very common as the asteroid coming destroy the earth gets closer. So while society is falling apart, Hank will follow clues to track down this man and try to convince him to come back to his wife.

Hank has to turn to his sister Nico for assistance. Nico, who believes she is part of an underground network dedicated to combating a secret government conspiracy, carrying out a plan she believes could stop the asteroid. Hank has no time to worry about conspiracies, or ridiculously implausible plans to divert the end of the world. The asteroid is coming. It's unavoidable. But he has to find the missing man anyway. Even Hank knows it's pointless, but he can't help himself, he needs that small amount of order in a world that is falling apart around him.

I'll let you know if the ending of this trilogy is satisfying. It's hard to say where it's all going, but I look forward to finding out.

I have half a month to finish 5 more books (well, 4, because there's one I finished that I didn't include here). So I better get to it. See you soon.

Sugar (#ThinkKit Day 14)

Day 14 Prompt:

Look Outward, Look Inward

By telescope or microscope, or no scope at all – what did you discover? A new aspect of yourself? A favorite artist, musician, or variety of cheese? Did you discover something about a loved one? A familiar or new-to-you place? Be broad, be narrow, or be surprising.

Let's talk sugar here for a minute. That's what I call books or TV shows that are pure enjoyment, little nutrition. We all need some sugar along with our fine literature or Oscar-worthy entertainment.

This year I fell in love with the TV show Nashville. It's a country music soap opera, a description that normally would make me turn the channel immediately. But I'm totally hooked - I burned through the first two seasons earlier this year on Hulu, and now it's the one show I watch every single week. It's worth it for the times that Scarlett and Gunnar sing together, and for everything Juliette Barnes, amazingly played by Hayden Panettiere. I'm a total fangirl over this show.

Written (#ThinkKit Day 13)

Day 13 Prompt:

Put Down Your Blog...

And pick up a pen! Or pencil. Heck – we'd settle for a crayon.

You don't have to stay in-between ruled lines, but we do want you to write something by hand. Sure, a letter comes to mind. But so does a recipe you discovered this year. A poem. A series of tweets that is a poem. A contract with yourself – or someone else. Whatever you get on paper – write it, then photograph & blog it. Cursive or manuscript, we promise not to grade on penmanship.

Do-Over (#ThinkKit Day 12)

Day 12 is another guest blog by a fictional character:

Mulligan

 

We've put another quarter in the slot – free play! Hit the reset button on a moment this year: what would you do over? Whether or not you analyze your actions – how would you act differently? Would the outcomes shift, or stay the same? From a single sentence to a whole day (and everything in-between), feel free to explain your choice, from how you felt immediately after the moment passed, to any thoughts that ran through your mind beforehand. Take a mulligan! 

If I could do one thing over, I would never have got on this spaceship.

It seemed like the only option at the time. I had no job prospects, and I needed to get off that stupid rock. The ship needed a botanist, and I'd worked enough in the vertical farms back home to fit the bill.

I signed the travel contract, of course. You have to before they'll let you on board. But no one really expects to have to follow through on the fine print.

I didn't really care where the ship was going, but it was headed to a new colony, one that had only been settled a decade or so before. Pretty new in terms of worlds.

When we got close, I could tell something was wrong. They shuttered all the windows on the ship, blaming some kind of solar flare, but I knew they didn't want us to see. Then something hit the ship, hard, and the warning sirens blared.

The announcement came on: "Everyone please proceed to gather up arms. We are now at war."

I never wanted to fight anyone. But here I am, holding a gun in my hands and waiting for whoever the enemy is to come down the ship's hall to where I am.

I wish I'd never got on this ship.

#ThinkKit Day 11 Is Total Fiction

I'll be honest, the last couple of days I've been struggling to write a #ThinkKit post. I wondered: was I running out of steam? Had I run out of things to say? And then it hit me - I was totally tired of writing about myself. Not that my life isn't fascinating (I could write 500 words right now about the scarf I just knit) but in the end, I'm just not all that interested in writing about me.

So today, I decided to bring in a pinch hitter, and have my post guest written. By a fictional character. That's a sane person thing to do, right? Either way, here we go.

#ThinkKit Day 11 Prompt:

Hi, I'm ______

Nametags and punchbowls aren't necessary (but we're okay with that!) – who did you meet this year? Was it awkward? Enlightening? Was your first impression correct? Was it accidental & meant to be, pre-arranged, or somewhere in-between? Whether you found a soulmate, held a new baby, or finally trusted someone to style your hair just so, write about a new person (or people) in your life.

So I met this guy yesterday. I was on my way to visit my grandma, and it takes forever to get there because I have to walk the whole way. I want to point out up front that I don't usually talk to strange guys, unless they're really cute. But I was so bored. I mean, you can only look at trees and birds and stuff for so long before your brain goes numb.

I was already annoyed because my mom was making me visit Grams and take her a batch of crappy food when I'd wanted to go out to a party with my friends. So, yeah, I was probably not quite in my right mind when this older, almost attractive, yet really hairy, guy started talking to me on the trail.

He seemed nice enough at first (don't they always?). He said he was traveling a couple towns over from where I was going, and he offered to walk with me to make sure I was safe. He said he had a daughter a few years younger than me so he was always a little concerned about ladies traveling on their own. Maybe I'm naive, but I believed him.

He told me stories about the places he'd traveled, and said he thought I was pretty, that I'd be gorgeous when I hit 20. He even complemented my red cape - you know, the one with the hood - which I love even though mom says it makes me look like a harlot. Mainly though, he just asked me about myself and it was so nice to have someone paying attention to me for a change. He asked me about school, about my friends, my family, about how my grandma was doing, and if she had anyone with her to help take care of her.

I did notice that he seemed a little skittish, jumping any time we heard noises. A couple times we heard gunshots way off in the distance, and he seemed ready to bolt every time one would ring out. But it's hunting season, so as long as we didn't get too far off the path, we would be ok.

A couple times he suggested that we take shortcuts - he said he'd traveled this way so many times that we could shave a whole hour off the trip if we took one. Now look, I may be cute, but I'm not totally dumb, and I'm not following some guy I just  met into the woods unless he's Channing Tatum.

Anyway, when we got about an hour away from Gram's house, he said he had to go another way and I'd have to walk the rest on my own. I thought it was strange, since the path would have taken him pretty close to where he said he was going, but he swore he had a shortcut and that he was running late. He gave me a hug before he left, which I really wasn't all about - he was super hairy, and it was itchy when he hugged me. As he walked away, I noticed something bulky in the back of his pants. Weird, but I didn't give it a whole lot of thought.

By the time I finally got to Gram's it was getting dark, and she didn't have any lights on inside. Great, I thought, all this was and she's already asleep. What an awesome Friday night.

When I opened the door I could see a little candle burning next to the bed. I rolled my eyes - not that she could see me - she could totally burn down her little house falling asleep with that thing burning. But she was cheap - I mean thrifty - and she hated having to spend money on firewood from the woodsman when she could climb under all her blankets to keep warm instead. She must have put on all the blankets at once because she lay in an enormous fabric lump.

I started unloading all the parcels mom had sent me with: bread, cheese, sauerkraut (ew), when I heard her stir behind me.

"Sorry, Gramma, I didn't mean to wake you up."
"It's ok sweetie," she said, but her voice sounded like gravel.
"Whoa, Gram, you sound like you need a lozenge."
"Yes, I'm feeling a little under the weather. Could you make me some herbal tea?"

Great, I thought, she's going to make me sick. But I'm a good granddaughter, so I made her some tea. As I took it over to her, I noticed she had the covers pulled all the way up past her nose. In the flickering candlelight, I couldn't see much, but something looked... off... about her eyes.

"Gramma, what big eyes..." I started to say, when she flung off the covers. "Oh crap!" I yelled. It was the guy from the woods, laying there in Gram's bed, wearing her nightgown and the cap she wears to keep her roller set hair in place at night. I had just a moment to notice his distended belly before he lunged out at me and... everything went black.

When I came to, everything was pitch black, warm, and wet. I started to panic and thrash around until I heard a familiar voice say, "Calm down, child."
"Grandma?" I asked. "Where are we?"
"Best I can tell, we're in the belly of a wolf."
"Oh." I paused. "What happened?"
"Well, you know I don't usually let strangers in my house after dark, but this fella here said he was a friend of yours. He knew a lot about you."
I hissed in my breath. "Oh. Oh no."
"I think you need some better friends," she said flatly. I'd long ago learned it was better not to argue with Grams, or to try and explain. Instead I simply said "Yes, ma'am".

We sat there silently for awhile. I tried to squirm around but there wasn't much room. I could hear the wolf snoring. It's a weird thing to hear snores from inside someone.

"What are we going to do?"
"I've been trying to figure that out, dear. I can't say I've ever been in a situation like this one before. Not even during the war." The last thing I wanted to do was to get her started on one of her war stories.
"Wait, Shh! Do you hear that?" We'd been pretty still, so I knew our captor must be asleep. And I thought... yes, I could hear someone's voice in the distance!
"Who is that, grams?" I whispered, careful now not to wake up the wolf.
"Oh, yes! I nearly forgot. The woodsman was supposed to drop off another cord of wood on his way home tonight."
"Well if we can get his attention, maybe we have a chance!"

We came up with a plan, or as much of a plan as you can pull together in 30 seconds in the belly of a wolf. We had to move fast before the woodsman left. I could feel a burning sensation on my skin, which I suspected was me beginning to be digested. I could hear some sounds that I assumed were him unloading the lumber. Grams said that he would probably stop in for payment afterward, and that would be our chance.

"Did you lock the door behind you?" she asked me.
"Um... no, I forgot." I could almost hear her frown.
"Well, at least it works for us this time."

A few moments later, I heard a knock on the door. Unfortunately, so did the wolf. He sat straight up in the bed, sending me and grams colliding together. If I could have seen anything, I probably would have seen stars. As the door creaked open (and thank god for the rusty hinges) the wolf leapt to his feet. I don't know exactly what happened then, other than there was a terrible fight that gave me such motion sickness I nearly puked. And this was our time - in a moment of relative quiet, Grams whispered "Go" and we both screamed, as loud and as long as we could, and started kicking at the wolf, trying to keep him distracted and off balance. Then we were thrown backward, hard, hitting the floor of the house.

This was it - we would survive, or get an axe through us. I squeezed my eyes shut, terrified. And then... I heard a ripping sound and felt air against my face. I looked up, covered in guts and gore, and saw the face of the woodsman, a knife in one hand, holding back the wolf's sliced belly in the other.

And you know what? He was totally cute.

Road Tripping (#ThinkKit Day 10)

#ThinkKit Day 10 - I'm calling in a lifeline for the first time and going with this one:

Road Stories

Getting places. Tell a story about transportation, about getting from Point A to Point B – whether it's a road trip, a long bus ride, or bicycling nowhere in particular.

I had meant to blog about my trip over the summer but got busy, and then thought maybe it was too late for it to be interesting. But no - it was just waiting for today!

A friend of mine invited me to come up to Minneapolis in August for the Square Lake Film & Music Festival. I decided that I didn't want to drive, so I took the MegaBus up. I frikkin' love the MegaBus. It's affordable, clean, quiet, and I can knit and charge my phone while letting someone else do the driving. I took the late bus to Chicago, and then would take another one from Chicago to Minneapolis. The only catch was that there was a 5 hour window in between. In Chicago, on a Thursday. In the middle of the night, from midnight to 5 a.m. I kind of assumed that Chicago was always going, that I would be able to easily find somewhere to spend the time. I asked a friend who lives there where I could cool my heels for a few hours in the middle of the night, and it turned out the only place in walking distance that was open all night was a McDonald's.

I usually avoid McDonald's. The only thing I can eat there might be the fries and I've been wary of them since they admitted years ago that they cooked them in beef tallow. But McDonald's it was, and it was kind of fun. I got coffee and grabbed a booth to camp out until sunrise. It was amazing people watching. I made friends with the security guard, who seemed like a nice older man. He treated the people there kindly, letting them stay for hours unless they fell asleep at the table. I watched two guys dressed like preppy businessmen come in around 4 a.m., wide awake, and it made me wonder about all the people out there who operate on completely different schedules, and what it must be like to be up all night and sleep all day. I read my book and drank coffee and chatted with the security guard for several hours, and then I was off on my next bus ride.

Several hours later we arrived in Minneapolis. My friend was still at work, so I threw on my giant backpack and hiked over a couple miles to the Sculpture Garden and hung out by the giant spoon. Then my friend came by and picked me up. It's so nice to have those friends that you may not see for years, but who you're immediately comfortable with when you see them again.

Saturday morning we (my friend, his partner, a friend of theirs, and myself) were ready to head to the festival. The majority of the people who attend ride bikes there - about a three hour bike ride one way. I was slightly nervous about being able to keep up, but I was determined not to slow anyone down. We threw our bags and tents in a big van and headed off with a group of cyclists. We wove through Minneapolis and onto a long, paved path that headed out of the city. I found it amazing that this incredibly long path existed and led out into the countryside. I managed to keep up the whole way without killing myself, which I count as a victory.

They had warned me that at the end of our ride there was a huge hill. I was determined that I would make it up the whole way on my bike. So tired near the end of the ride, I finally saw the hill, my nemesis. It was enormous, and ridiculously steep. Who cares that I was already worn out? I was going to do it. I gritted my teeth and began to pedal. And then... hey, I was walking! My brain decided to override my legs and without even realizing it I'd jumped off the bike and started walking it up the hill. You win this time brain, I thought.

We were in the first wave of people to arrive, so we had our choice of places to set up the tent. When they'd said the festival was on a farm, I wasn't sure what to expect. This was quaint, and really neat. It was behind the family's house, with a small stage built behind. A large barn further back would serve as a second performance and film area.

Once we tented, we broke our bikes back out to go swimming at a nearby pond. I glared at the hill as we went down, but it wasn't intimidated. At the pond, two of us did the slow dip into the water while the other two ran and jumped in full force. When we were finally all in, bobbing up and down, someone said something that sounded incredibly wise at the time: "There are two kinds of people in the world - those that get wet gradually, and those who just jump in." I wasn't sure I liked being the toe in the water type.

On the way back to the festival, I once again faced the hill. It would not beat me this time. I gritted my teeth and began to pedal. And I pedaled, slower than I have ever pedaled in my life. Slow enough I wondered if I had enough momentum to stay upright. And it felt like it took an hour, but I beat that damn hill. Victory!

We spent the rest of the day lounging on a blanket as various bands took the stage. I dozed off and on, having left all my energy on the bicycle, and I woke up to three guys in a drumline. Pretty awesome, I think. The festival was really relaxed, I think because everyone had biked three hours to get there. I hope I'll get to go again next year, or the year after. It was the perfect road trip.

2015 Will Be... More of the Same, and That's Awesome (#ThinkKit Day 9)

#ThinkKit Day 9:

Just Can't Wait

 

The calendar still says 2014, but let's push forward. What are you looking forward to in 2015? Is there an event, special occasion, or reunion that you're counting down the days until? Planning a trip? A life change? A move? Or maybe it's the simple pleasures – the release of a movie, something or someone hitting a stage near you. ? Is there an event, special occasion, or reunion that you're counting down the days until? Planning a trip? A life change? A move? Or maybe it's the simple pleasures – the release of a movie, something or someone hitting a stage near you. 

It's funny - I nearly always have something on the horizon that I'm looking forward to - a trip, or a concert, or the culmination of some big crazy goal. But when I read the #ThinkKit prompt this morning I realized that what I'm most looking forward to in 2015 is continuing the things I love. Nothing huge, nothing flashy. 

2014 was a huge year of change for me and I am ready for some calm. I'm ready to hunker down and build on the things I've started this year to make them great, to improve upon them. Like: 

Running - This year I ran a marathon. I don't have anything quite that ambitious planned for 2015, at least not yet. But I have signed up for something that sounds really fun - next May I'll be traveling to Cape Cod with a team of vegan runners to do a 200 mile relay race. It'll be awesome to get to know other folks that care about the same things that I do, and to run somewhere I've never been before. 

Outside of that race, I'm looking forward to training to get faster, and to running distances more smoothly. It's an odd thing but I still don't feel quite right calling myself a runner since I've only been doing it regularly for the last 6 months. I look forward to being able to call myself a runner without hesitating or adding a qualifying statement.

Writing - This year I finally started writing on a more or less consistent basis and I look forward to keeping that going, and working out my pattern so that it's something I naturally do every day. I'm looking forward to finishing the first draft of the novel I started this year. I've promised myself a unicycle when I finish that first draft, so I have an incentive. I should probably up my health insurance in preparation. 

Music - This is where I confess my very bad habit of buying musical instruments that I never learn how to properly play. I have a violin sitting in it's case, but at least I took lessons on and off for a couple years so it sounds slightly less like a cat in heat when I fiddle around with it. I also have a guitar, on which I can play exactly one Jewel song and nothing else. I have a mandolin, a fiddle, and a keyboard that I can't play at all, yet I refuse to get rid of. So when some wonderful and wise friends saw me eyeing a banjo earlier this year they intervened and lent me their banjo instead. I've played around with it a little, but I'm determined that in 2015 I will actually learn to play a few songs. 

I'm sure that next year will throw me some curveballs, but for now I'm looking forward to making it the year of improvements and building.