The end of a writing tradition

On Monday, the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper announced that it would no longer be endorsing candidates for president.

It will continue, it says to cover campaigns, and post candidate questions and the like. But as for endorsements, they say, "We have come to doubt the value of candidate endorsements by this newspaper or any newspaper, especially in a day when a multitude of information sources allow even a casual voter to be better informed than ever before."

I suppose that's true. Maybe an endorsement isn't going to really change anyone's mind in this deeply, divided, partisan time. But, as writing goes, the candidate endorsement is a staple, the most sought-after piece and anchoring opinion piece in a newspaper.

It is a statement by a organization that "This is what who we believe in, the course we think is right and best." Are we so worried about offending people that opinion pages aren't going to say "This is who we want?"

During my college newspaper days, we endorsed during the 2000 presidential campaign-turned-debacle. We went against the grain for the campus, endorsing the other guy because we really believed he was the better choice.

It was our stand, against a tide of sentiment on campus that leaned the other way. Did it matter to the candidate that a small, weekly, college paper endorsed him. No, not really. Did we change any voters minds? I don't know. I hope somebody read it and gave it some thought. Twelve years later, I'm still really glad I wrote it, that it was our mark of belief.

This makes me sad, as a writer, to see this bastion of journalism starting to disappear.

It's unfortunate that the editors have so little faith in their readers to find it useful and so little faith in themselves to stand for something.

Book Banter: Blood Fever

Title: Blood Fever
Author: Karen Moning
Genre: Fantasy
Length: approx. 350
Where Stacie's Copy Came From: A friend's library

Plot Basics: Mac was thrust into a war between Dark and Light. The Lord Master knows she exists and has the same sidhe-seer powers as her deceased sister Alina. Now Mac wants to learn more about her bloodlines. Her life, and that of humankind, depends on it.

Banter Points: I really am getting a kick out if this series. It has a great balance between light and dark, between Seelie and Unseelie. The good guys cannot always be distinguished from the bad guys. The tensions between Mac and Jericho Z. Barrons (or at least that's his name this time) are more than the sexual tensions typically found in novels. Mac knows that there is a very real possibility that Barrons is one of the bad guys. But he is a connection to her sister's killer. Barrons views Mac as a means to finding the Fae Objects of Power, specifically the Book known as the Sinsar Dubh.

And Mac has to wonder which side she is on.

Bummer Points: The story speed picks up in this book. The writing is good. The one thing that is distracting me from the story and throwing me out of it are the out of date references. Not a big thing, but it can be jarring. And since the rest of the story is somewhat timeless, it makes me wish the editors had thought of it. The story is dependent on the setting; I cannot imagine it taking place anywhere other than Dublin. The rest of it is not dependent on a specific time.

Stacie's Recommendation: Definitely an entertaining story and while turning off the television for.

Readers are weird

I spent several days last week with my new-ish co-workers during a three-day planning retreat. We had a chance to pound out fundraising strategies for the next few months, and get to know each other better.

At some point, we were discussing some past-time activity about which I was ambivalent (swimming, I think), and one co-worker turns to me and says, "What is it that you do like to do, Bethany?" (Somehow, I think they think I'm ambivalent about everything...)

"I read books." No questions about what my favorite book or author was or anything. Just quiet. I thought about adding that I read in the neighborhood of 85-100 a year, but decided in the silence that maybe I should just keep that bit of information to myself.
Cut to the next morning at breakfast.

I was in the hotel cafe, already up and having eaten and was working on writing things. I checked my email one more time before we switched gears and I saw an email from Simon and Schuster.

"Yes!" I said. "They are sending me galley copies." Blank looks around the table. "Galleys," I explained. "Review copies of books that aren't out yet."

Nope, nothing.

The meeting started then, but I was just struck anew with how weird we readers are to the rest of the world. Getting excited about books. Some that aren't even published yet.

I know one of my co-workers at least reads on airplanes -- we talked about Michael Connelly's Lincoln Lawyer series and I promised I wouldn't give anything away. But... I guess for those that aren't so bookish, those of us proclaimed Word Nerds really are a bit obsessed.

What about you? Any times you've been struck by how odd it is to the rest of the world that you like to read?

Book Banter -- Queen of Swords

Title: Queen of Swords (Wilderness series bk. 5)
Author: Sara Donati
Length: 546 pages (ebook version)
Genre: historical fiction
Plot Basics: The adventures of the the Bonner family continue, picking up right where Fire Along the Sky ended. Hannah Bonner and her half-brother, Luke Scott, are pursuit of Jennet who has been captured by pirates. In a desperate trade, Jennet has given her and Luke's new baby boy to a seemingly-prominent New Orleans family to care for, hoping it will keep the boy safe. Reunited with Luke and Hannah after a rescue attempt, the three go to New Orleans to get the boy back. But, the city is on the cusp of war and racial tensions also run high. It will take all the cunning the family and their allies posses to keep together, stay safe and hope of returning to their beloved New York Lake in the Clouds home.

Banter Points: Finishing this series is one of my reading goals for the year and I decided to get with it right away. The book, like the others in the series, is sweeping in scope, bringing life to what could otherwise be a dusty history lesson about the War of 1812. Coming back to the characters is a bit like seeing distant family, people you are glad to reconnect with once a year or so and everybody's got great stories to tell of everything that's happened in the interim.

Bummer Points: Several times in the narrative, Donati broke away from the main characters and wrote whole chapters in italics from the points of view of minor characters or people who can witness the action when the protagonists couldn't. While once might have been effective, the multiple uses of this device just felt cheap and like the author got stuck in how to move the plot forward any other way. The whole book seemed to be a lot more "showing" instead of "telling." I don't think I envy historical authors, because this has to be a hard pitfall to overcome when there's so much about the activities and actions that are foreign to modern readers.

Word Nerd Recommendation: I still like the series and fans of big history series books should pick this up. It's also nice to see the setting in a different period (not Revolutionary or Civil Wars.)

Book Banter: Dark Fever

Title: Dark Fever
Author: Karen Moning
Genre: Fantasy
Length: approx. 350
Where Stacie's Copy Came From: A friend's library

Plot Basics: Fun, pretty, MacKalya has life brutally thrust upon her when her sister, Alina, is murdered while study in Dublin. Alina's final message reveals that her death is more than what the Garda believes it to be. Mac is determined to figure out what the cyrptic message means and heads to Ireland to investigate.

Banter Points: I actually picked up this title several years ago when it was first released in paperback. I thought it was weird and didn't finish it. Fast forward to 2012 (and several fantasy novels later) and I really liked it. It does require some knowledge of fantasy, even though Mac does not actually have any either. For example, one of the Fae she meets during the course of her investigation is gorgeous and the sort of Fae that a woman will die to have sex with. Literally die. In most novels with Fae, this is a normal convention and part of their story. To someone who hadn't read any Fae based novels, it seemed weird.

Amazing how knowledge changes perception.

Bummer Points: The story is a little slow and has a cliff-hanger ending. Thankfully, the series is complete and I have novel number two in my possession.

Stacie's Recommendation: Try it out. It reminds me of Laura K. Hamilton's series Merry Gentry Series.

Books as Commodities, part II

I'm still thinking about the "books as commodities" argument and our attitudes to volumes of the printed word.

On Friday night, I went to my first ever "Friends of the Library" bonus sale event as a new Friend of the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library system. The doors of the sale were scheduled to open at 5:30. I pulled into the parking lot about ten minutes early and there was a line snaking back from the door. In the dusk and about 20-degree temperatures.

Most of the participants carried either plastic milk crates or reusable grocery totes to carry around their finds. As the doors opened at 5:30, the line poured in, veering in to the sale room and their favorite sections.

I don't want to say chaos ensued, because it was slightly more organized that that, but only slightly. I'm not sure I've ever seen such a rush for books, not even the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Unfortunately, in this sense, the books were commodities. People wanted to find the best thing they can, at a used price, because they didn't want to pay the full retail for them. Yes, they are probably regular library users and all are donors to the library, putting financial support behind their use. But, in light of the commodities argument, they were proving it true.

I only bought three things -- A Jack Reacher novel in paperback for an upcoming trip instead of checking it out in hardback, a YA hardback that I'll likely read and pass on to my high school student mentee, and an "important" book -- The Magnificent Ambersons -- which is a feat in itself, me buying a classic. When I reached the checkout line, the volunteer almost couldn't believe it that I was only getting three things, especially since everyone around me was acting out of a scarcity model.

Maybe books are changing formats. Maybe ebooks are making the publishing landscape different. But so long as we don't pull a Farenheit 451 and start burning them, books aren't scarce.

Even when we have the opportunity to pick up copies for cheap, we need to remember why the printed words is worth valuing and not devalue them to commodities.

How do you pronounce "Karamazov" ?

 Since I've said I'm going to read this book this year, I figured I should look up how to pronounce it.
There are long discussion boards about it (like this one) where Russian and non-Russian speakers weigh in.

It also makes me remember an old Square 1/Mathnet episode where they made jokes about the last name... is the Brothers KARE-a-ma-zaf or the Kare-a-MAHH-zof? (Anybody else remember this show??)

It seems like the consensus is "Ka-ra-MA-zaf" and now that means I can't delay figuring out my reading schedule for this book.



This is the Komsomolskaya metro station in Moscow. Since Dostoevsky
was exited to Siberia, an "underground" photo seemed appropriate.
Also, I've been there. This metro station. Not Siberia.



The Barnes and Noble Classic edition (for Nook) has good product reviews, so I'm likely going that route. It's far easier to do long classics as ebooks so I don't have to lug around the giant, physical tome. Some say it's not the best translation ever, but I know that I'll do better with it than 1000 pages of paper.

I started Anna Karenina last February and read two sections of it each month through May. BK is also divided into four parts, so I'm thinking the same kind of schedule unless, of course, I can't put it down.