The Zen Leaf

Displacement, by Lucy Knisley

Posted on February 19, 2015 by Thistle

When Knisley’s elderly grandparents sign up for a Caribbean cruise, her family want some one to go with them, as they require constant care. Knisley volunteers, knowing that she doesn’t have a lot of time left to spend with them. The job, however, will be extremely difficult, dealing with the deterioration of both her grandparents’ mental and physical health.

This is my fourth book by Knisley. While I was slightly disappointed with the last one, I adored her first two, and the moment I read the description of Displacement, I knew I would love it too. (Short review: I did.)

I’ve been on two cruises, both through the Caribbean. Both times, it wasn’t the cruise itself I was interested in, but the locations the cruises traveled to. I would have loved to be able to travel to all those places without the touristy claptrap of a cruise, but yeah…can’t afford it…so I did the whole travel-light thing. This meant that while I enjoyed seeing all those places, I was also intensely aware of the whole mall/casino-on-a-boat feel. I loved some things, hated some things, laughed at a lot of things, and, well, raised my eyebrows a lot. And nearly everything I experienced, Knisley addressed in one way or another in Displacement.

(Oh my god I experienced exactly this…)

I laughed my way all through this book, and got teary in places as well. Knisley did an amazing job of contrasting the absurdity of cruising with the seriousness of taking care of loved ones. Frivolity goes hand in hand with mortality and the impending death of loved ones. An incredibly wide range of emotions was sketched into this one week of travel. This is Knisley at her best. Highly recommended.

Posted in 2015, Adult, Visual | Tagged cruise, humor, nonfiction, psychology | 11 Comments

Sunday Coffee – Bookish Valentine 2015

Posted on February 15, 2015 by Thistle

Amanda over at Fig and Thistle hosted a really fantastic Bookish Valentine Swap this year. I hadn’t participated in a book swap in probably 3-4 years before this one. It was too good to resist!

This week, I received my swap package from Jennifer of The Relentless Reader. I think I was lucky to get it, to be honest, because we had a major snow storm come through this past Sunday/Monday (third one in three weeks – not to mention the blizzard going on right now…) and the package must have arrived sometime between checking the mail Saturday and checking on Monday. In other words, when I stepped out to see if our mail carrier managed to get to our house Monday afternoon (they hadn’t), I found a box half-buried under snow on our porch. !!!

I’m glad I found it before it got completely buried, haha! Especially because the contents were just wonderful! Jennifer got me not one but two books from my wishlist – Landline by Rainbow Rowell and All Joy and No Fun by Jennifer Senior. Additionally, she sent me some local coffee (that is very yummy), some delicious chocolate bars (that no, didn’t survive the first night, heh), a card that looked like an old library checkout slip (!!!), and the most adorable hedgehog keychain (squee!!!).

(Notice the A for Amanda!)

She was waaaaaay too good to me with this package! Thank you so much, Jennifer! And thank you, Amanda, for hosting this swap!

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged Sunday Coffee | 6 Comments

Beyond Binary, by Multiple Authors

Posted on February 13, 2015 by Thistle

Subtitled: Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction
Edited by: Brit Mandelo

Okay. I’ve never been good at reviewing short story collections, so I’ll just start out by saying why I chose to read this book. For the past few months, I’ve been actively seeking out fiction with nonbinary themes or narrators. Specifically, I’ve been looking for books with agender, intersex, gender fluid, and/or asexual narrators and main characters. These are ridiculously hard to find, and I was glad to come across this book. In the introduction by Brit Mandelo, it says that the collection contains representations of “a broad range of gender and sexual identities, not only those exploring a spectrum but also those who occupy spaces outside of it.” The introduction also admits that there is a “lack of alternative pronouns and…of intersex folks as tellers and protagonists.” So, not everything I am looking for, but at least a good start.

I don’t read a lot of story collections, for two reasons. First, I’m picky about short stories, and generally only like those written by short fiction masters. Second, when I read story after story, I tend to end up in fiction-fatigue, where I don’t have a chance to ponder one story before the next begins. For the first of these, I just took a gamble with this collection. For the second, I chose to read only one story per day, to give my brain time to adjust between them. I therefore read the collection of 17 stories over the last few weeks.

In terms of enjoyment, I’d say that I liked about half the stories presented – which, for a collection, is a pretty high mark for me. I would never expect to enjoy every single writing style or plot or character, and normally I think I enjoy only around a quarter of a collection except in rare cases. My primary interest in reading this was for exploration, however, not necessarily enjoyment (though that’s a great side benefit!). In terms of exploration, I found the collection…okay. Perhaps that was due to my expectation going in. I expected far more nonbinary narrators, a far wider range of sexualities, and – because of the subtitle – far more speculative fiction. (There were quite a few stories that weren’t speculative at all, and more only minimally.) In looking at other reviews of this book, I see many have the same complaints, particularly regarding the lack of nonbinary gender identities and speculative fiction.

That’s not to say that neither were there, or that this isn’t a collection worth reading. It is, and many of the stories were very well-crafted. As a work of general LGBTQ fiction, it hits the mark. As a work of Q speculative fiction, however, it’s sort of hit-or-miss. Again, though, as I said above, it wasn’t everything I was looking for, but it really was a good start. It introduced me to authors I want to see more from, and the introduction talked about other works of fiction that I now want to seek out. It’s the kind of collection I wish was more widely read, and I highly recommend it to those seeking out extremely diverse LGBTQ fiction.

PS – My favorite stories were Sex with Ghosts (Sarah Kanning), Bonehouse (Keffy R.M. Kehrli), Eye of the Storm (Kelley Eskridge), and Sea of Cortez (Sandra McDonald).

Posted in 2015, Adult, Prose | Tagged collection, gender studies, LGBTQIA | 4 Comments

Firefight, by Brandon Sanderson

Posted on February 12, 2015 by Thistle

Firefight is the sequel to Steelheart. I’m not going to summarize it because I don’t want to give away series spoilers. A good series opening summary is available at that link. Note: There are major book spoilers after that summary.

Back in 2013, Brandon Sanderson released two YA books, Steelheart and The Rithmatist. Prior to reading them. I’d devoured half a dozen of his adult books. Several of them had become all-time favorites, and Sanderson had earned his way into my top authors list. My kids had all read his children’s series (the Alcatraz books), but I hadn’t read them. I didn’t know how well Sanderson would transition from adult to younger audiences.

In 2013, when I read those two YA books, my initial impressions were that 1) The Rithmatist was very young, more like middle grade fiction, without the meatier depths I preferred, and 2) Steelheart was much older, on the cusp of adult, and by far the superior book of the two. In the 18 months since, a strange thing happened. When I look back at those two books in my memory, while Steelheart stands out as the better quality book, it’s The Rithmatist that I really remember distinctly. Notably, this is most likely because Jason and I spent weeks reading The Rithmatist aloud to our boys, whereas I read Steelheart in two days. I’ve many times discovered that for me, reading a book fast leads to a distinct lack of longterm impression.

Therefore, I wasn’t nearly as excited when Firefight was released as I thought I’d be. Don’t get me wrong – I was definitely excited – but I was, for example, willing to wait to read it until after I attended an event at the end of January on Sanderson’s Firefight tour. (Sadly, due to weather, the event had to be cancelled, and I still haven’t met one of my favorite authors. Grr.) And when I did finally get around to reading it, it didn’t impress me nearly as much as Steelheart had. In fact, I felt a lot like I did about The Rithmatist – that it felt a lot younger than the characters’ actual ages. It wasn’t a bad book, not at all. It was quite good, and I even spent several nights dreaming about it. But it lacked the meatier depths I’d wanted in that moment. (Really, I just need to stop putting it off, and sit down to read Words of Radiance. That will give me all the depth I want.)

Despite my mild disappointment, I have to note that Sanderson’s imagination and world-building is ever-brilliant. The bulk of Firefight takes place in the new version of NYC. (Steelheart was set in Chicago.) The city has been purposely flooded, so that the “roads” are now canals, like Venice. In addition, there is strange glowing spraypaint everywhere, and jungle-like plants that grow inside all the buildings that produce glowing fruit (and, sometimes, fortune cookies, which is frickin’ awesome). The city has been renamed Babilar, or New Babylon, and it’s this strange mash-up of Venice and the legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Love!

So it was a mixed experience, and it’s likely that if I’d read the book at a different time, I would have enjoyed it more than I did at this moment, when I’m craving thicker, meatier books. I’m definitely still planning to read the end of the trilogy when it releases next year, and look forward to seeing how Sanderson concludes this very fascinating dystopian world.

Posted in 2015, Prose, Young Adult | Tagged dream-invader, place-character, speculative | Leave a comment

Top Ten Romance Likes and Dislikes

Posted on February 10, 2015 by Thistle

Today’s topic is an interesting one – things we like, dislike, and/or want to see more of in fictional romance. While I don’t really read straight romances, I do love a good love story, and I definitely have strong opinions on things I like/dislike/want more of in them. In no particular order:

1. Super Hot Love Interests – This one grates on my nerves. Why must every love interest be extraordinarily hot, especially in books with paranormal or supernatural elements? There’s always an excuse for why they’re hot, I know, but it’s just dull as sticks. Give me an ordinarily hot love interest, or better yet, an average-looking or not-so-good-looking love interest who grows beautiful to the one who falls for them.

(photo credit)

2. Threatening “Sexy” Behavior – Not talking about consensual play here. Talking about deliberately-intended threatening behavior that for some god-awful reason, the person threatened finds “sexy” instead of “terrifying.” Away with the creepy stalkers that sneak into your room and watch you sleep. Away with the superstrong creatures who “show” their love by forcing you into total powerlessness in order to “prove” that you ought to be grateful to them because they could crush you and choose not to. Eww.

3. Instantaneous Love – Get real. Love at first sight is a great romantic idealistic idea, but it’s not at all realistic and I admit that I’m sick of seeing it. Crushes at first sight, sure! But overwhelming, lasts-forever love? No. You don’t even know that person! It’s not possible to truly love them! I’d love to see more slow, gradual periods of time that lead up to romance and/or love.

4. Love Triangles – I can totally get behind a solid love triangle. People do sometimes crush on two (or more) love interests, with varying degrees of strength, for many different reasons. What I don’t like is love triangle for the sake of love triangle, with unrealistic waffling for no real reason. To care for more than one person is painful, and I would love to see a narrator really struggle with that internal situation, rather than struggling with who to choose (which isn’t the real issue). I would also love to see more stories where a person has interest fade in one person as interest grows in another. Not a love triangle, but a love directional change.

5. All-Important Passion – A few years back, I read a book where two love interests were so engrossed in their all-consuming new love (ie lust) that it wouldn’t go away even for a second – even when that second involved one of them being near-fatally injured by bullets. If one or both partners are injured, they probably aren’t going to be obsessed with sex and easily able to ignore the injuries. Priorities, people. Love isn’t always the most important thing.

(photo credit)

6. Queer Romances – We need more of these. There aren’t enough around. And we need more of them where the focus is purely on the romance and not on the gender/orientation of the people involved.

7. Friendship – Friendship is also sadly lacking in the world of love stories. Actually, friendship is often lacking in fiction in general, with focus being on intense relationships. I would love to see more friendship in general, and especially between future partners. This sort of echoes what I said above about longer periods leading up to romance.

8. Small Gestures of Longing – I’m a sucker for anticipation and first kiss scenes, but I don’t just mean that. Little gestures, not sexual at all, that say I love you and miss you and wish we could be nearer. Not grand gestures, which are a frequent part of fiction. Just little things. If it weren’t a spoiler, I’d give you an example from the early pages of Blue Lily, Lily Blue. It’s one of my favorite small-gesture-scenes ever.

9. Diversity of Feeling – Embarrassment, shame, anger, fatigue, jealousy, etc – all these emotions, even when mild, can drown out a crush, or take temporary precedence over it. The more realistic the characters, the more realistic the romance. People in love are not free or exempt from all the more banal and unpleasant emotions out there, and very few fictional love stories seem to acknowledge this. I’d love to see it more often.

(photo credit)

10. Long-Lasting – So many love stories focus on the beginnings of romance. The story ends when the couple gets together. While I have no problems with that, I would love to also see more romances that focus on long-lasting relationships. I’d love to see the obstacles that longterm romances run up against, and to experience the struggles of those couples as they work to keep love alive.

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged lists | 12 Comments

Sunday Coffee – Struggling for Balance

Posted on February 8, 2015 by Thistle

Sometimes balance is so hard. I’ve gotten much better about blog-balance in the last few years, but every time I have a major life change, I struggle to get my life back into balance. And 2015 has brought along some major changes.

I’ve begun studying for a paralegal course through UT Austin. It’s a self-paced certification course, one of the best in the country, and I have a year to complete it. I would like to complete it in half that time, however, by the time my kids leave school at the end of June. I need to put in 360 hours of studying, so that takes a lot more of the time I used to have for other interests.

In addition, I’ve begun studying Spanish. I’ve always been interested in languages, and spent much of high school and college in intensive French courses (including some study abroad). I’ve tried to keep up with French in the years since, especially reading books in French, though I admit that I’m not nearly as proficient as I used to be. I also have some basic knowledge of Italian and German. Most useful to me is Spanish – especially given that my youngest son is pretty much fluent after five years in a dual-language elementary school, my two older sons are both in intensive Spanish courses in middle school, and my husband knows a little Spanish as well. I got a great Groupon deal on five volumes of Rosetta Stone for Latin American Spanish this past fall, and I’m enjoying the learning process. But again, it takes up time.

I’m cooking more, because I’m trying to eat paleo-style most of the time. My body reacts well to this way of eating, and I feel better, sleep better, and have more energy when I’m eating properly. But it does take a lot of prep work and cooking. Jason does most of the cooking in our house, but no one else here eats this way, so I have separate meals and can’t just expect him to cook additional food for me all the time!

Plus, I’m still a stay at home mom, taking care of the kids, taking care of the household, which takes a lot of time and energy. Plus, I’m still trying to exercise. Plus, I’m trying to write and submit manuscripts. Plus, I’m trying to spend some time to myself, reserved for reading and relaxing, for my sanity’s sake. These things – kids, household, fitness, writing, submitting, me-time – were already enough to take up my full 24/7 schedule. With the extra cooking and all that studying taking up an additional 5-6 hours every day…well, let’s just say that some parts of my life are getting the shaft, and I haven’t yet found a good balance for everything.

I’ve tried simply eating what everyone else is eating, and forget eating the way I need to eat to be healthy. That’s resulted in a lot of depression, fatigue, and general unhealthiness. I’ve skipped exercise for weeks now. Not good. I’ve barely written a thing all year, or started submitting my work. The housework and spending time with the boys is getting skimped on as well. Sigh. At least I still have audiobooks as I clean, cook, and exercise (when I manage to clean, cook, or exercise…).

I’m sure I’ll get that balance back soon. I spent a few hours last week making a healthy food and fitness plan for February, which has helped. I’ve tried to better organize my day in time blocks. I’m trying to rely more on audiobooks for my reading pleasures. And I’m finding ways to push myself to write. In particular, I have two very good beta-reader friends who are going to be reading my current manuscript chapter by chapter as I go along, so push me into self-imposed weekly deadlines. Hopefully soon, after a month of floundering, I’ll get myself back on track!

Posted in Personal, Wellness | Tagged Sunday Coffee | 8 Comments

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke (audio)

Posted on February 5, 2015 by Thistle

This book is way too long and multi-plotted for me to try to describe on my own. I’d paste in the Goodreads synopsis, but that’s also extraordinarily long, so instead, if you don’t really know what this book is about, you can check it out at that link. Generally, it’s about the restoration of English magic, the rivalry of two magicians, and the ways in which English magic can affect (both good and bad) the people of England. And it’s built on the mythology of the Raven King, which is kinda cool, considering that my favorite series of 2014 was also built on that same mythology. I like the symmetry.

So I have an interesting story to tell about this book:

*****
Back when Ms. Manda first started blogging, she got involved with a group called Fill in the Gaps. She doesn’t believe the group is still running, but the basic premise was a personal reading challenge with no end date or deadline. You chose 100 books you felt you needed to read, and then as you read them – over as many years as you pleased – you marked them off. Ms. Manda had seen Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (hereafter known as JS&MN) all over the place. A bedrock of modern fantasy, on all of those “must read” lists. She had this vague notion that she needed to read it, despite not knowing one thing about the book. So she put it on her Gaps list.

In the summer of 2009, she found this book at her local used bookstore and bought it. The size was intimidating, and the cover art didn’t really do anything for her. [Seriously. Look at it.] When she tried to read it, she found the text dull from the very first word. She didn’t get very far. Like, maybe only a few paragraphs. Sadly, she decided the book was not for her, and re-donated it to the used bookstore.

[Okay. So this story isn’t interesting yet. I know. Bear with me.]

Fast forward a little over four years, to the fall of 2014. Ms. Manda goes walking around the audiobook section of her local library and chooses a bunch of potential listening materials. On a whim, she picks out JS&MN. It has stuck in the back of her mind as one of those books always on the “must read” lists, and she figures, hey, she’s always been more tolerant of books in audio format. Besides, in the four-plus years since she first tried to read this, she’s grown to really enjoy fantasy. Plus, she’s heard great things about the narrator, Simon Prebble. Might as well give it a chance!

Now, this audiobook is 26 disks long. There is no way Ms. Manda is going to upload all 26 disks only to give up on the audiobook in the first five minutes. So she’s smart. She uploads one disk, and previews it. And this time, she’s hooked from the very first sentence. This time, she devours the book and loves every single minute of it. This time, she wants to acquire a physical copy, in spite of the dull cover art, because she’s heard there are illustrations inside, and that would make the entire experience even more complete.
*****

Okay. I’m done telling stories. Honestly, I don’t know what happened between 2009 and 2014. I don’t know if I was just ready this time, or if it was the audio format (Simon Prebble was fantastic), or if my reading tastes have just changed a ton, or if the book was far less intimidating now that I’m no longer crossing it off an arbitrary list. Probably a combination of all those things. One way or another, I enjoyed every single word of this audiobook, and loved all the weeks I spent listening to its 32+ hours. That really doesn’t tell you anything about the book itself, but I don’t know that I could really tell you about the book itself. It’s more than a story. It’s an experience, one totally worth having!

PS – I am so looking forward to the upcoming BBC mini-series!

Posted in 2015, Adult, Prose | Tagged audio, favorite, historical, memorable, RIP-worthy, speculative | 18 Comments

Top Ten Unread SF/F Classics

Posted on February 3, 2015 by Thistle

Over the last three years, I’ve developed a strong love for SF/F, especially fantasy. Having said that, there is a huge gap in my reading. There are very few SF/F classics that I’ve read, and I probably ought to read more of them. They scare me, though, and so these ten remain on my top ten “I should read them but haven’t” list.

1. Dune by Frank Herbert – Honestly, I really doubt I will like this book. It just doesn’t sound like my kind of book, and people who know my tastes say they don’t think I will like it. It’s so influential, though, and I feel like I should read it.

2. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card – As I’ve said in the past, I’ve avoided this one because I don’t like the author. But I have a feeling I’ll like the book, whenever I do finally cave to the pressure to read it.

3. The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin – Actually, anything by this author will do. She intimidates me. Though recently I heard more about The Left Hand of Darkness, and considering I’m specifically looking for non-binary fiction, I might just have to get to that one sooner rather than later.

4. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett – My first experience with Pratchett was children’s book and way too young for me. I should put aside that first impression and try to get into Discworld.

5. The Hobbit (+) by JRR Tolkien – Like Dune, all of Tolkien’s books have been so influential and are ones I should read, though I doubt I will enjoy them. Of all the books on this list, this is (or, these are) the ones I feel most guilty about skipping.

6. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov – Again, any Asimov will do. But he intimidates the snot out of me.

7. the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan – Technically, I’ve read the first of the series. And didn’t get much out of it. Still, I want to keep going with it, both because it’s so influential, and because Brandon Sanderson wrote the last few books, and I adore Sanderson…

8. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman – I tried reading this once, and quit reading on the first (vomit-related) scene. Books that open with that kind of scene are automatically no-nos for me. But I’ve heard it’s really good, and the rest of the book doesn’t follow on the same Manda-phobia paths, so I really ought to suck it up and try again.

9. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon – I imagine this would be a love-or-hate kind of book for me. And honestly, I’m a little worried about ending up on the hate-side. So I’ve avoided it thus far.

10. anything by China Mieville – Another author that intimidates me so much. But I ought to get over it and read him anyway.

What do y’all think? Any of these I ought not to be afraid of? Or biased against?

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged lists | 11 Comments

Sunday Coffee – Wrapping Up January

Posted on February 1, 2015 by Thistle

Can I just exclaim a little at how happy a reading month I had in January? I finished five books – a steady, comfortable speed for me, especially considering I’d started one of those books in the last week of 2014. Two were audiobooks. Two were nonfiction (unusual for me, but I loved them both). My three fiction reads were all speculative (figures!) and I’d count three of five books this month as diverse. All five were new-to-me authors. All five, if I still rated books, would be 4+ stars. While it was really hard to pick a single favorite from a group of five wonderful reads, I’d have to say that All Joy and No Fun beat the other four out by a tiny margin.

In addition to having some really excellent reads this January, I did a lot of work on purging my TBR and to-investigate piles, cutting 20-25 books from those lists and making them both feel far more manageable. I also sorted my TBR into already-published and not-yet-published piles, so that the latter doesn’t bloat up my TBR and make me hyperventilate. Yes, I know, I’m weird. But it works for me.

I didn’t get nearly as much progress forward as I wished to on my loose 2015 goals, but it’s early days still, right? I have plenty of time, and I’m definitely working toward those things. Balance is proving to be difficult at times. More on that next Sunday.

Keeping it short this week. How was everyone else’s January? What was your favorite read of the month?

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged Sunday Coffee | 5 Comments

The Zen Leaf

Displacement, by Lucy Knisley

Top Ten Book-Related Problems

Sunday Coffee – Bookish Valentine 2015

Beyond Binary, by Multiple Authors

Firefight, by Brandon Sanderson

Top Ten Romance Likes and Dislikes

Sunday Coffee – Struggling for Balance

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke (audio)

Top Ten Unread SF/F Classics

Sunday Coffee – Wrapping Up January

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