the only good thing......

..........about being home with a very bad back, is that I'm getting some reading done. It turns out I have pulled a ligament in my back, which is twisting my spine slightly. So I'm home all this week - not that I can do much other than read! And now that daughter is better (March break over of course), youngest son is now down with the fever virus. Today we napped together on the couch all afternoon. All in all, the house is a disaster since I can't bend or twist or do much, but kids are getting comforted, and I'm getting books read :-D When I can manage it, I will be doing book reviews, but for now, sitting for longer than 20 mins at the computer is very painful, so I'll just be popping in and out for now.

Books read so far: Watchmen, finished. Book of a Thousand Days, finished. Briar Rose, Finished. Blue Girl, started.
Tylenol 3 taken: lots.
Doctor's note to stay home from work: priceless.
Back pain: how did people manage 100 years ago without tylenol etc?

Castle Waiting by Linda Medley and catch-up

So I have been home for a day now - I put my back out on Monday taking my asthma medication of all things! - and yesterday I stayed home to heal my back, and watched tv. Today is a bit better, but I still don't trust sitting in my chair at work - there are no comfortable seats right now anywhere in the house!! - so I'm home again. The good news I can finally catch up on some overdue book reviews, the bad news is, it's not too comfortable in this chair either.

Castle Waiting by Linda Medley - a library book for my challenge! And Nymeth already has the Bad Blogger point awarded for it, since it was her review that brought it to my attention. And please, since she does such a good job describing all the characters, go read her first. I'm going to talk about the storyline, and the art, since it was my first experience of a graphic novel. At least, I think it qualifies as a graphic novel. None of the art is in colour, it is all black-and-white ink drawings. Before you think eeewww, how boring, let me say, it is riveting. The characters are so well drawn, with changes of expression in each box, that the story doesn't need colour. It's hard to describe why Linda Medley can get away with not having colour, whereas Watchmen does need to be colourful. I think it has to do with the kind of story being told. Watchmen is set here and now - 1985, New York City - and it is telling the kind of story that is enhanced by colour and shading, which adds nuances without words. Castle Waiting is a fairy tale, and the ink drawings remind me of what fairy tales were like before Disney came along and colorized them. There is so much action, so much that is said by the characters, that colour would risk distracting from the story. That's how good Castle Waiting is. It doesn't need it.

What's so good about Castle Waiting, you ask? Well, other than the many salient points Nymeth brings up about the various characters, and the setting - mostly the castle in Sleeping Beauty after the prince awakens the princess with the kiss - the prince and princess don't stay there. It uses fairy tales we all know, as its starting point, and it's fun to pick out references to different ones that Medley introduces. But the castle exists, and it's the story of who stays, and who comes to the castle. It's an interesting premise, kind of like the castle at the end of the world. Like Nymeth, I ended up loving Lady Jain, and her odd-looking child, then there's the stork butler, the nuns - the 'sisters' - who help keep the castle going, and especially, Sister Peace. She becomes the star of the book, along with Lady Jain. They are both strong-willed, independent characters, who are attempting to escape their fate their parents have chosen for them. Sister Peace ends up in a circus because she has a beard, and eventually finds a place where she is accepted for herself. To say any more would spoil the delightful funny haven she finds. I can say I completely relate, as do most women who own a pair of tweezers and aren't teenagers anymore. Castle Waiting is mostly about friendship, kindness to strangers, and bonds that are deeper than blood. It's about looking past the oddness of the outward person to the inner beauty, so it's about Beauty and the Beast, too. It's about finding the place you belong, when the place you are born into doesn't fit. Castle Waiting is a collection of the first issues in the series, so I was very happy to read that the second volume of Castle Waiting is due out soon. I plan to read it - I must know what happens to the castle and its inhabitants! Surely Lady Jain's husband will find her eventually.... I really want to know all the other stories not told yet, like the stork butler's.....more about the Castle itself, which is haunted and has a library!! I think Castle Waiting is the castle we all go to in our minds when we want to hide out from life for a while. It's well thought out, funny, amazing artwork, clever, and I highly recommend it. Plus, it's in book form, so if you don't want anyone to know it's really a very long comic book, you can pretend it's a new retelling of Sleeping Beauty. As an introduction to the graphic novel, I can't think of a better one.

Castle Waiting Other Book Reviews:
Nymeth
Eva
Kailana

Library Loot: I missed Monday's Library Loot posting, so here's an update of what I have out from the library over the past week:

-Muletrain to Maggody - Joan Hess - one of my favourite mystery series, starring Arly Hanks, sherriff of a dying town in Arkansas, filled with inbreeding and stupidity. Brother Verber, is a hoot, as is Hizzoner the mayor who keeps threatening to remove Arly from her post.
- Damels in Distress - Joan Hess - her other mystery series starring Claire, the owner of a bookstore, her soon to be husband police lieutenant Peter, and moody teenager daughter Caron. Hometown spun, not gory mysteries, and also funny.
-Adventures in Time and Space with Maxwell Merriwell - Pat Murphy. I just read her first book, The Falling Woman, which won a Fantasy award when it was published quite some time ago. I thoroughly enjoyed it (it takes in Mayan curses on an archealogical dig and is haunting and bittersweet). Besides, who could resist that title?
-Newton's Wake - Ken MacLeod - on Locus's recommended reading list for 2008.
- Little Red riding Hood in the Big Bad City - ed Martin Greenberg - who can resist a fantasy collection retelling fairy tales set in New York City? With authors like Tanya Huff, Alan Dean Foster, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Jody Lynn Nye?
-Book of a Thousand Days - Shannon Hale. Finally!!! Only reviewed glowingly so many times by bloggers over the past year! I think I'm the only one who hasn't read this yet!
-The Coffin Trail - Martin Edwards.
- The New Space Opera - ed Garner Dozois - thanks, Carl! and Sci Fi Experience!
- Tender Morsels - Margo Lanagan - I blame Nymeth and Locus's best books of 2008!
Now to find time to read them all!


My Sci Fi Experience Wrap-up:
Carl's Sci Fi Experience was not a reading challenge, it was a reading opportunity. I sadly did not fill my personal expected quota of science fiction books to read! I did read:
-Horizons by Mary Rosenblum,
- Doomsday Book by Connie Willis - review here
and am half-way through Ursula K. Leg Guin's collection of Essays, The Language of the Night, which I've been reviewing on my blog during the experience.
What did I think of this experience? That I used to read a lot more science fiction in my younger years, and I would like to read more now again.

Here is my quick review of Horizons (I told you this was my catch-up post!):

I really enjoyed this book. Mary Rosenblum has been author I've enjoyed since her book Drylands came out 15 years ago.
Horizons is set on a platform above earth; the space around earth has been colonized by the continents below: thus, New York Up is the colony for North America, the world is run by the World Council (kind of like an expanded and much more powerful UN, which Rosenblum says faded away, powerless), there are earthside families and clans, and most of the world population still lives on the planet, but on the different platforms are a growing population of people who have been there for several generations of people now. Part of the plot revolves around what happens to people when they live their entire lives in micro G gravity away in the centre of the platform, - people who don't live in the 80% gravity forcefield that most of the station creates and uses.

As always, I am fascinated by what our writers forsee happening in our future. This novel is set in Earth's near future. Could we have platforms above us in space? why not? Would they be run by the countries making them? Of course. Rosenblum takes it further, by having the earthers not really understanding what those who live on the platforms want : freedom. In the midst of political tension, Ahni comes in, looking for her brother's murderer. She's a Class 9 Empath, which means she can read people's body language and intentions almost as quickly as the person thinks them. She also has a chip implanted in her when she was in her mother's womb, that lets her connect to schematics and download information like a computer. Her brother is a clone of their father. There are no robots, there are ID chips that everyone is supposed to have implanted also. It's a very interesting future, and once I got past the new terminology of the space station, I was intensely involved in the story. The idea of the space station breaking away is not a new science fiction plot, but the future as presented here is, about how Earth could evolve, and what would happen to us if exposed to micro g long enough.

There is also a love story that develops, and family connections, that ground the book into concerns we can relate too. This is something I think science fiction has begun to recognize, and that the best science fiction writers follow: science without people, is not an interesting story. Science with people and emotions, can be fascinating and intelligent.

Horizons is a fun read, and I'm very glad I read it for this reading experience.

I also read two short stories for the mini challenge Carl hosted, and of course I have now gotten a library book out because Carl brought it to our attention!

For anyone looking for new science fiction and fantasy titles or authors to try, or for author interviews, Locus magazine (this is the link to their online site) has been the best information put out monthly in magazine format for over 20 years
now. You can order back issues of your favourite authors - Charles de Lint, Robert Jordan, Orson Scott Card..... - and the reviews are excellent. Here is a link to their 2008 Recommended Reading list. And here is an excerpt Locus has online from a recent interview with Ursula k. LeGuin. They link to author interview on other sites, cover what's new and selling in book stores, and generally are one of my touchstones for the field of science fiction and fantasy.

This is the cover of the latest magazine, which just arrived in my mailbox. I am busy circling all the books I want by Christmas!
Titles like:
-A Dance With Dragons - George RR Martin, expected Oct 09;
-Boneshaker - Cherie Priest, expected Nov 09;
- A Time to Cast Away Stones - Tim Powers, May 2009;
- Muse and Reverie - Dec 09, and
- Mystery of Grace- March 2009 - both by Charles de Lint;
- Dragon Keeper - Robin Hobb (Oct 09); and
- Hunting Ground - Patricia Brigg, Aug 09.

So, that's my catch-up for today. It's pouring rain outside, and I'm going to try sitting on the sofa now. Watchmen calls, as does Polysyllabic Spree (which I'm almost done now).

Happy reading, Gentle Readers!

Books, books, books, and more books

This is me, outside Piccadilly Circus, carrying a Hatchard's bag and a new tote bag. Hatchard's is London's oldest bookstore. Both bags are bulging with books; however, I just thought I was picking a few books up here and there.....

It was unpacking through all yesterday and again this morning, that I came to a realization: I am a bookaholic. I went to the city that is the center of fashion, I was even on Regent Street, on Piccadilly, in and around Hyde Park, and did I buy any clothing? Nope. Nada. Nothing. I bought books. I bought a lot of books. I bought more than even I knew, until this morning when the last bag was finally unpacked and I found more books stashed away at the bottom. Here, forthwith (having spent 3 weeks in England, I now talk like a person straight out of a novel!), is my list of books bought during my holidays:

- Cats' Miscellany - Lesley O'Mara
- Stolen Child - Keith Donohue
- A Residence At the Court of London - Richard Rush *second-hand bookshop *diary
- A Quiet Belief in Angels - R.J.Ellory
- The Butcher of Smithfield - Susanna Gregory
- The Hollow Crown - Miri Rubin *second-hand bookshop ** history
- The Suspicions of Mr Whicher - Kate Summerscale *history - DONE
- The Complete Pollysyllabic Spree - Nick Hornby *essays - reading
- Not in the Flesh - Ruth Rendell
- The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
- Serious Concerns - Wendy Cope *poems
- The Fabric of Sin - Phil Rickman - DONE
- The Cup of the World - John Dickinson *second-hand bookshop
- Fingerprints - Colin Beavan *second-hand bookshop **non-fiction
- Women's Rites, Women's Mysteries - Ruth Barrett *non-fiction
- The Grandmother of Time - Zuzanna Budapest *non-fiction
- Good Food Magazine's 101 One Pot Dishes - BBC Books *non-fiction
- Case Histories - Kate Atkinson
- Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day - Winifred Watson (Persephone Books, thank you again Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings, for bringing this publisher to our attention!)
- Poetry in the Making - Ted Hughes *non-fiction, poetry
- Tea and Coffee in the Age of Dr Johnson - ed Stephanie Pickford *non-fiction
- Mean Time - Carol Ann Duffy *poetry
- The Hawk in the Rain - Ted Hughes *poetry
- A Plague on Both Your Houses - Susanna Gregory
- A Novel in Year - Louise Doughty *essays on writing
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows - A big shout out to all of you bloggers who mentioned this book in the months before Christmas, because otherwise I would have totally bypassed this book. It looks wonderful, about a group of book readers who correspond during Guernsey's occupation by the Germans in 1946. THANK YOU, MY GENTLE READERS!
- Un Lun Dun - China Mieville (it was out in paperback in England at least!)
- I Never Knew That About London - Christopher Winn. *Non-fiction. A historical guidebook to London. It's how I found out the history behind buildings in London. Who went where to church, who lived where, anything of note or of interest. Essential in my view. I wish I'd had this years ago! But then it wasn't out then...
- London's Strangest Tales - Tom Quinn *non-fiction. I've only peeked into it, but full of strange, quirky tales about eccentric people and laws. Again, essential for reading every night before exploring the streets of London the next day. Historical London especially comes alive, and if you are like me, and like to imagine what the streets and the city was like in times gone past, this book will help you imagine it.
- Beauty and the Beast - Max Eilenberg, illustrated by Angela Barrett. I had seen this book reviewed - I think on Endicott studios before it closed? somewhere online, and had been looking for this for quite some time. There, in the last bookstore I went into, on New Year's Eve, in a Borders off Charing Cross Road, I found it. It is hardcover, and the illustrations are gorgeous, moody and fantastical and full of wonder. I love it. It's a child's version with very grown-up drawings, and I wish I had had this growing up. It would easily have been my favourite book. I can hardly wait to read it to Holly-Anne, though I have to admit that I'll only be sharing it with her, I love it too much to give it away! It's a present for me!

So how many books was that? Er...30. I bought 30 books on my holidays!!! So in this new year of 2009, I proudly say that yes, I would rather buy books than almost anything else in the world!!!

To continue with the debate begun back in my post about what books to bring, to catch you up, here is what I did bring with me on Dec 15, on the airplane: Mistress of the Art of Death, and The Wood Wife. I did get a few pages of The Wood Wife read, but only 3 or 4. I just couldn't get into it. This period of not being able to settle down into it, or any other book I picked up, finally came home to me when I was in York on the weekend of Dec 19, and I was in the Borders bookshop, and I suddenly knew that I couldn't settle down because I had left Middlemarch half-read, and I desperately wanted to finish it! I looked around in the store for a cheap paperback copy, and they didn't have any. Only a hardcover version, which I wasn't going to bring back in my luggage! Then I found Phil Rickman's latest Merrily Watkins mystery in paperback, and I knew I could read it, and still hold where I was in Middlemarch in my mind. It's a trick I haven't used in ages, and one I learned long ago in university - how to stop reading at a point in a book and be able to pick it up some time later and finish it. It is a trick, because it involves many things for me, which includes thoroughly enjoying the book so I am immersed in it, and being able to contain the story in my head while I read something else. It just sits there in the background until I can get back to it. I can't do this with everything, and certainly if too much time goes by, I have to go back to the beginning and start over again. I think it is a trick that most of us who read, use, since so many of us have more than one book on the go! I am happy to say it worked this time, and Monday night, as soon as the kids were in bed, I read a few pages, and then more yesterday as I settled down into being back home. This means I will be able to continue with my updates!

The sad news is that I did not read much until after Christmas, so I did not complete any more books before the end of the year. I did finish The Fabric of Sin on Jan 1, so my husband said, why don't I add it to my 2008 totals? I said no, shaking my head. That would be cheating. I finished it today, so it counts for this year. So the good news is, it is Jan 7, and I have read two books already!!!

I will do book totals another day, I still have more putting away of things to do. I haven't written much about my trip yet because I am still getting pictures sorted and letting the trip settle in my mind. I will say that I love London, which I didn't quite know for certain until I realized that every time I was in the city I was taking deep breaths like I was breathing it in!

York, as always, was breathtaking for me. It is where I am most at home in the world. There is something about the view as I enter the city walls from the train station and see York Minster rising from the city centre, that makes me whisper 'home' to myself, every time I see it. The picture below was taken along the city walls (York still has its original city walls around most of the city). This is one of my favourite pictures so far:


So as soon as i get my favourite pictures chosen, I'll post some on here. For now, I hope you are enjoying some new books in this new year! And as soon as I can, I will be coming by to say hello and catch up on what you've been reading while I've been away, Gentle Reader....

It's good to be home!