Garden Goodness and The Hum and the Shiver

One of the benefits of actually being home this spring/summer? Getting to be here for the growing season... flowers aplenty, and veggies out the wazoo. Zucchini, anyone? Weeds?

 

 

Speaking of gardens in the woods, a book I read recently (and enjoyed) was The Hum and the Shiver. Ignore the cheestastic tag "In this valley, songs kill," it's not about a bunch of killer fiddlers... it's not about much, really. Well, it is, but there's not a whole lot that happens, not a lot of action. And it works.

 

 

 

What it's about is a broken (in the literal and metaphorical senses) young woman returning from war in Iraq to her home in rural Tennessee, and how she adjusts to being labeled a "hero," and seeking to find her place in life again... with mixed success. She also happens to be a Tufa, a race that may or may not be exactly human.

One of the things which I enjoyed about this book that made me giggle a little, was that it could kind of be summed up as being about a group of "faeries,"  fond of drink and sex and internal bickering, misunderstood by the other locals, who live just outside of Cookeville... just off highway 70... near Cripple creek.

If you don't know, I live in a rural community... of self-described faeries... in central Tennessee... just outside of Cookeville... off of highway 70 (some of us, anyways)... near Cripple Creek. It make me wonder if the author (who is from Memphis) heard about "the faeries" in the area (or perhaps visited) and just kind of ran with the idea.

Regardless, the book is enjoyable, pick it up!

The Hum and the Shiver

 

The Monthlies

That's what I should change the name of this blog to, I suppose, as that's about as often as I update it these days. Last time was exactly one month ago today... assuming I finish this post tonight, that is. (I didn't. It's now the following day) What can I say? Phoenix took it out of me. It drained me. It's weird to leave a physical place and realize that you're also leaving a dark emotional place as well. One you only kinda-sorta realized you were in. Phoenix was/is an abomination, one I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy (okay, I would actually wish it on them) and I can't tell you how glad I was to see it in the rear-view mirror as we left it behind on monday.


This is what was happening the evening before we left... The haboobs were cute the first few times. By the end (after just having washed the car) I was pretty over them.

Monday. SOOOoooo long ago. Three days ago. Three days of driving ago, to be exact. Quite the haul, even for someone used to a lot of travel. The first day was pretty easy... I think it was just the joy of being out of that shit-hole. The second day was long, but okay. The third day was... hmn... let's say "painful." Skinny little asses like mine suffer after sitting on poorly-cushioned car seats for that long. I was longing for some booty. Thankfully, after those three days, we find ourselves in Dayton, Ohio. This weird, magical place where water falls from the sky, and breezes that don't feel like you're inside of a convection oven blow. It's even actually kind of cool outside right now. Amazing. (except all the clothes we have with us are designed for triple-digit-weather, but oh well. We can deal.)

We saw a whole lot of country in those three days. Some of it really beautiful... specifically New Mexico... unfortunately I was driving during that portion, and didn't get any photos. When I was in the passenger seat, which was rarely as I prefer to drive, I did snag photos out the window at 75mph...

                                                                         El Dorado

                                                                Liberal, Kansas

                                                                   Hooker, Oklahoma

All righty... reviews! Other than sit there and think about how sore my ass was and take pictures out of windows, I did some reading.

Railsea, by China Mieville, to be exact. I'd been reading it for more than a month, but, despite liking it, just couldn't get into it. I blame Phoenix. I would read a bit here, a bit there, but that was it. My concentration wasn't present. The car solved that. Now, I do have to admit to being somewhat biased when it comes to China Mieville. See, he's my Other Boyfriend. He just hasn't acknowledged it yet. See, if you're not familiar with him, he's insanely handsome, crazily smart, lectures at feminist conventions, is a fan of socialism, and, did I mention... he's sexy as fuck?

But this is where my Mea Culpa comes in... his last few books I just haven't been able to get into. The City and The City, while it had an interesting premise (two cities that co-exist literally within each other, but whose respective residents aren't allowed to interact with each other... think Israel/Palestine) just felt like socio-political lecturing to me. I didn't make it past the first chapter. Kraken also had some interesting concepts (Competing manufactured apocalypses, anyone? Giant squid gods?) and held my interest a bit more. I still set it aside 400 pages in. Someday I'll finish it off, I suspect, just not right away.



But I'm not speaking of those books, am I? I'm speaking of Railsea. A return to what I originally found intriguing about his works... excellent world-building, a layer (or more) of philosophy, and some action thrown into the mix for good measure.

The story follows Sham ap Soorap, a young man who works and lives upon a train captained by a woman hunting her philosophy. (that's not a mis-speak on my part, that really is what she's hunting, literally) Over the course of the tale, we see him discover there are other things out there, mysteries of the Railsea to be solved, and is own philosophies to be hunted. If you've never dove into a Mieville book, this is an excellent one to start with. Not too heady, not too weird, not too dark.

The Drowned Cities

Okay, Bacigalupi is the author who finally makes me take a stand and say "It's not a fucking YA book just because some of the central characters are youths." He started pushing it with Ship Breaker, but this is the one that goes all the way over.

Will older kids (read: Teenagers) be cool with it? Yes. Will some (not all) of the younger ones? Yes. Hell, I was reading King and his ilk by the time I was 10, and I'm not overly-damaged. The violence is fairly constant, and not in any way sanitized.

But will they grasp some of the messages within it, regarding fanaticism, indoctrination, loyalty and the like? I'm not sure. Though I'm also not sure if they need to. Maybe taking it in solely on the level of "Tool is a badass" (to quote another reviewer) is enough... and maybe it'll stick with them enough to warrant a future rereading of it.

While I both loathed and loved it, in a Dancer in the Dark kind of way, I hope Bacigalupi plans an eventual return to what's both a horrifying and intriguing place... the world of the Drowned Cities. A world that is, sadly, all too believable.

Ship Breaker

Another of those books where I wonder if it got slapped with a YA label simply because of the age of the main characters. There's violence on par with The Hunger Games, possibly even exceeding THG, as, unlike with Katniss, these characters aren't horrified by their potential for violent acts, violence is part of who they are, part of their daily lives. Regardless of whether I think it's miscategorized or not, it's still an excellent, quick, read. There's nothing all that deep to it, but it still doesn't feel like fluff. It definitely snags you up into the story immediately, and races along without pause... it could've been a one-day-read, had I not had to do that whole Sleep Thing, so it got stretched into two days instead.

The realism of the post-environmental-apocalypse world in which they dwell was quite nice. There's no need for explanation or backstory, really... if you watch the news, you know how things got to be the way they are. (Global warming, anyone?) The cultures and societies that have built themselves up afterwards make sense as well. While little of the story actually involves ship-breaking, since the action quickly moves from there, what little you do see is both interesting and, in a way, horrific, as ship-breaking yards exist in reality, scattered around the globe.

I particularly enjoyed the specific location/setting along the Gulf coast, as it's one I'm familiar with in real life, having grown up there, but that's just an added personal bonus. Who doesn't enjoy when stories set in areas that are known to them?

You can read more about the book here...
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10798814-ship-breaker

Complete and Utter Randomness

First off, thanks going out to Amy for putting together the blog crawl! Met lots of nifty folks, and I think it has given me a kick in the pants as far as keeping my blog updated.

Anyhoooo.... randomness!

This little guy is cute, but he needs to go away. Bird seed is expensive, and he throws 3/4's of it on the ground as he rummages around, filling those little cheek pouches up. Plus, the birds aren't that happy with him, as you can see.

Per request from my friend Carol, one of several of my Old Skool Boyfriends. I need to start scanning them.

A gift from a friend, several years ago. I forget their names now, but they were quite famous in their time. And now it's going to bug me, trying to remember.

Cat in a box. I was going to throw the box away, but now I can't bring myself to do so, as both cats love it so much. When one is already in there, the other will walk up, and look at the one inside with great disdain.

Another But is it Art WIP... "Urban Legends." I need to break out the sewing machine soon so I can start moving these on to their next phase.

Meet Randall, who came to live with me in Tennessee. He was made with a lot of love and weirdness by Sharon Dorsey. You can check out more of her weirdness over at her blog.

http://yaysockpuppet.blogspot.com/

I love him, though some in our household find him a little creepy, apparently.

Okay, if you read, you need to read this book. Seriously. Especially if you were That Weird Kid in school. It's categorized as "young adult/fantasy" but it's so much more than that. It was sent to me as a birthday gift from a friend last week, and I picked it up one night with the intent of just getting a taste of it... and ended up having to set it down hours later so I could get some sleep. (Coincidentally, it just won the Nebula Award for Best Novel on sunday)

"Startling, unusual, and yet irresistably readable, Among Others is at once the compelling story of a young woman struggling to escape a troubled childhood, a brilliant diary of first encounters with the great novels of modern fantasy and SF, and a spellbinding tale of escape from ancient enchantment.

Raised by a half-mad mother who dabbled in magic, Morwenna Phelps found refuge in two worlds. As a child growing up in Wales, she played among the spirits who made their homes in industrial ruins. But her mind found freedom and promise in the science fiction novels that were her closest companions. Then her mother tried to bend the spirits to dark ends, and Mori was forced to confront her in a magical battle that left her crippled--and her twin sister dead."

All righty, that's all the randomness for now! Hope everyone's week is off to a good start!

Hungry for the Games

I'm sure many of you are tired of hearing about The Hunger Games, but tough patooties. We (Charlie and I and a few friends) finally got around to seeing it, so here's another round of it!

I have to confess to being a bit leery of the movie, after hearing several "meh" reviews of it. I'm quite a fan of the books, and the societal/class commentary contained within them. If, somehow, despite constant media bombardment, you're still unfamiliar with the books, the basis is (and here I click over and steal from Wikipedia):

"The Hunger Games takes place in a nation known as Panem after the destruction of North America by some unknown apocalyptic event. Panem consists of a wealthy Capitol and twelve surrounding, poorer districts under the Capitol's hegemony. District 12, where the book begins, is located in the coal-rich region that was formerly Appalachia.^[9]
As punishment for a previous rebellion against the Capitol in which a 13th district was destroyed, one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 from each district are selected by annual lottery to participate in the Hunger Games, an event in which the participants (or "tributes") must fight in an outdoor arena controlled by the Capitol, until only one remains. The story is narrated by 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, a girl from District 12 who volunteers for the 74th annual Hunger Games in place of her younger sister, Primrose. Also selected from District 12 is Peeta Mellark, a baker's son whom Katniss knows from school" 

I wish I could say I had  different review than the "meh" one, sadly. Or not... actually, I liked the movie for the most part, though certain aspects of it left me wanting.

First and foremost, the editing and filming style were annoying. I can forgive the fact that they don't delve too deeply into the story, but the pacing of the movie was just off. It was like the Games on Xanax. You KNOW you're supposed to feel something, but you're not quite getting there.

The camera-work. Well, let me just say that if I had a Time Machine, I'd quite happily go back and remove from the gene pool whomever it was that introduced the "shake the camera around and maybe that'll produce tension" style. Seriously. Like, for real. It frequently makes it to where I literally can't watch a movie, as I'm getting nauseous. And enough with the extreme close-up constantly, as well.

Having earlier said that I can understand not going too deep into the backstory, a critical element of the books is classism, leaving it out of the movie altogether, or only *barely* mentioning it, does the series an extreme disservice, as that's THE ENTIRE THEME OF THE BOOKS. (okay, maybe not the entire theme, but a main one) When you "get" that children are putting their names into the drawing for tributes more than once in order to possibly win food/wealth for their families, it brings that class/poverty/social-strati thing right to the forefront. The kids from well-off families aren't in there but once. Yes, it's mentioned in passing, but it's not explained.

The sanitized violence... that's a big one for me, though, again, I understand why it was done that way for the movie as far as ratings. I don't feel that it needed to be gory, by any means, but cleaning it up again removes the point(s) of the books. It IS horrific, what they're being forced to do. Making it less so, well, makes it less so.  The books made me cringe and at times set them aside for a moment, not because they were gross or explicit (they're not) but because you still grasp how tragic/horrifying it is. Only a few scenes in the movie made me realize I had stopped breathing... one of which didn't even involve any fighting. (that one being the final 30 seconds before the Games began)

On the plus side!

Jennifer Lawrence. She nailed it. I'm not sure what it says about her as a person, but she's good at playing the emotionally-detached young woman. (See: her character in Winters Bone, as well as her role as Mystique in X-Men: First Class) She manages an excellent likeable, but somewhat removed, personality. She has a heart, but there are walls around it, and lord help you if you fuck with her.

Effie Trinket. Oh, Effie. I'm not sure why, since I've never had aspirations to live in a bustling metropolis, nor for glamour, exactly the opposite in fact... but she was one of my favorite side characters, both in the books and in the movie.

And visually, she was spot-on... especially at The Reaping, where she somehow combined clueless and menacing, which is perfect for where she's at in the first book.

(She may also be my new drag role-model)

While my dislikes may seem to outweigh my likes, that really isn't the case. I *did* enjoy it, I just had a few issues with it. Which is entirely to be expected when dealing with excellent source material. It did exceptionally well in the theatres, which means the next ones will be made (yes, there was some doubt)... and they've already started looking for a different director, the short-list for which is quite intriguing, which can (probably) only help them as a franchise. And as they go further into the books, they'll have to start bringing up and dealing with some of the larger themes dealt with in the books.

So, if you haven't seen it, go see it.... but read the books first. Or don't! My friend Jen saw it, not having read the books, and loved it... but once she heard some of the discussions about it, and realized what she was missing, is now going to read the books.

your choice, I suppose!