Title: City of Pearl
Author: Karen Traviss
Length: 392 pages
Genre: sci-fi
Plot Basics: Environmental police Superintendent Shan Frankland agrees to go on a long-term mission to Cavanagh's Star, where a human colony was founded years before. She's given secret orders that will only be triggered in her memory once she finds something on the colony. But what Shan and her team of scientists and marines find when they land is an alien race, zealously committed to keeping Cavanagh's Star free from more human influence.
Banter Points: Word Nerd was in the mood to start a new sweeping series, something in the space opera family. While not quite space opera, Traviss' debut novel was an enjoyable read. More fiction and less science made for smooth reading (not a technical sci-fi novel). The plot picks up in the second half of the book
Bummer Points: Every so often, the plot jumped ahead in time without much in the way of transition. Also, some of the minor scientist characters were very 2D.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Peter Hamilton it's not, but that may actually make Traviss' work more accessible.
01 October 2008
22 September 2008
Book Banter Double Edition -- Yendi and Teckla
Welcome to a special double edition of Book Banter because Word Nerd is behind...
Titles: Yendi and Teckla (Vlad Taltos bk. 2 & 3)
Author: Steven Brust
Length: ~170 pages/each
Genre: Fantasy
Plot Basics: Smart-talking assassin Vlad Taltos is back in two very different stories. In Yendi, more of his past is uncovered as he became a small-time crime lord in the Jhereg organization. As he tries to take over more territory, he stumbles on to a huge set-up that puts his life in danger. In Teckla, the Vlad's story fast-forwards again to after Jhereg (bk. 1). His wife Cawti is getting involved with a rabble-rousing bunch of Easterners and Vlad wants to stop it. As he tries to keep her safe, she rebuffs his help. Moreover, Vlad starts questioning his chosen profession and his life precariously balanced between the House of Jhereg and his fellow, oppressed Easterners.
Banter Points: Of the two books, Yendi is a more fun read. There's more adventure and more excitment. That said, putting Teckla right after it is good planning because it juxtaposes Vlad's early relationship with Cawti with where they are later.
Bummer Points: There's too much politics and not enough action in Teckla.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Even though Teckla is a bit slow, it fits with the series overall which is a must-read for fantasy fans.
Titles: Yendi and Teckla (Vlad Taltos bk. 2 & 3)
Author: Steven Brust
Length: ~170 pages/each
Genre: Fantasy
Plot Basics: Smart-talking assassin Vlad Taltos is back in two very different stories. In Yendi, more of his past is uncovered as he became a small-time crime lord in the Jhereg organization. As he tries to take over more territory, he stumbles on to a huge set-up that puts his life in danger. In Teckla, the Vlad's story fast-forwards again to after Jhereg (bk. 1). His wife Cawti is getting involved with a rabble-rousing bunch of Easterners and Vlad wants to stop it. As he tries to keep her safe, she rebuffs his help. Moreover, Vlad starts questioning his chosen profession and his life precariously balanced between the House of Jhereg and his fellow, oppressed Easterners.
Banter Points: Of the two books, Yendi is a more fun read. There's more adventure and more excitment. That said, putting Teckla right after it is good planning because it juxtaposes Vlad's early relationship with Cawti with where they are later.
Bummer Points: There's too much politics and not enough action in Teckla.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Even though Teckla is a bit slow, it fits with the series overall which is a must-read for fantasy fans.
18 September 2008
Book Banter -- Jhereg
Title: Jhereg (Vlad Taltos, bk. 1)
Author: Steven Brust
Length: ~170 pages
Genre: fantasy
Plot Basics: Vlad Taltos is a human assassin, small-time crime lord and Baronet in the House of Jhereg (the house of thieves, criminals and assassins) in the city of Adrilankha. He's hired by one of the high-ranking members of the Jhereg organization to kill another lord who's walked off with most of the money in the Jhereg treasury. Taking the job means Vlad himself becomes a target and it will take all of his cunning, cleverness, contacts and quips from his familiar, Loiosh, to successfully complete his job.
Banter Points: This is Word Nerd's second trip through this series and she's really glad she went back to the beginning to refresh her memory (Brust just came out with book 11? in the series...) Vlad is a great character set in a well thought out world. Brust also does a good job with letting his readers into the world, having Vlad reflect on history where appropriate. Some things, so far, he just doesn't bother explaining. Moreover, he dumps the reader right into the middle of Vlad's life and hints at all sorts of things that have happened in his past, hooking the reader into wanting to know more about this character.
Bummer Points: None about the book itself... Word Nerd's just bummed she had to request this title through Inter Library Loan to be able to reread it.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Jim Butcher fans who like Harry Dresden's attitude toward the world would get along well with Vlad Taltos.
Author: Steven Brust
Length: ~170 pages
Genre: fantasy
Plot Basics: Vlad Taltos is a human assassin, small-time crime lord and Baronet in the House of Jhereg (the house of thieves, criminals and assassins) in the city of Adrilankha. He's hired by one of the high-ranking members of the Jhereg organization to kill another lord who's walked off with most of the money in the Jhereg treasury. Taking the job means Vlad himself becomes a target and it will take all of his cunning, cleverness, contacts and quips from his familiar, Loiosh, to successfully complete his job.
Banter Points: This is Word Nerd's second trip through this series and she's really glad she went back to the beginning to refresh her memory (Brust just came out with book 11? in the series...) Vlad is a great character set in a well thought out world. Brust also does a good job with letting his readers into the world, having Vlad reflect on history where appropriate. Some things, so far, he just doesn't bother explaining. Moreover, he dumps the reader right into the middle of Vlad's life and hints at all sorts of things that have happened in his past, hooking the reader into wanting to know more about this character.
Bummer Points: None about the book itself... Word Nerd's just bummed she had to request this title through Inter Library Loan to be able to reread it.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Jim Butcher fans who like Harry Dresden's attitude toward the world would get along well with Vlad Taltos.
14 September 2008
Book Banter -- Kushiel's Mercy
Title: Kushiel's Mercy
Author: Jacqueline Carey
Length: 643 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Plot Basics: (SPOILER ALERT)
Imriel and Sidonie, the Dauphine of Terre d'Ange, are no longer trying to hide their love for each other, despite the turmoil that it's creating in the kingdom. Queen Ysandre won't force the couple apart, but neither will she consent to their marriage unless Imriel returns his mother, the crafty and traitorous Melisanda Shahrizai, to Terre d'Ange to face her execution. Imri agrees to the quest, but before he can leave, a new and powerful enemy moves against the whole kingdom. Imri is the only one who can set the world back to right and reclaim Sidonie.
Banter Points: Word Nerd has spent a long time with this world, reading all 6 of Carey's books so far. This one definitely was one of the better ones. Though Carey suddenly inserted more magic into the book than has been present in her world before, it worked and it really heightened the stakes for Imriel to be going up against sorcery.
Bummer Points: It's sort of sad, for now, to leave this world and these characters behind. Carey is writing another trilogy set in this world, but Word Nerd really liked the Imriel character and is sort of disappointed that he won't be a major character anymore.
Word Nerd Recommendation: This series really is a must for fantasy fans.
Author: Jacqueline Carey
Length: 643 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Plot Basics: (SPOILER ALERT)
Imriel and Sidonie, the Dauphine of Terre d'Ange, are no longer trying to hide their love for each other, despite the turmoil that it's creating in the kingdom. Queen Ysandre won't force the couple apart, but neither will she consent to their marriage unless Imriel returns his mother, the crafty and traitorous Melisanda Shahrizai, to Terre d'Ange to face her execution. Imri agrees to the quest, but before he can leave, a new and powerful enemy moves against the whole kingdom. Imri is the only one who can set the world back to right and reclaim Sidonie.
Banter Points: Word Nerd has spent a long time with this world, reading all 6 of Carey's books so far. This one definitely was one of the better ones. Though Carey suddenly inserted more magic into the book than has been present in her world before, it worked and it really heightened the stakes for Imriel to be going up against sorcery.
Bummer Points: It's sort of sad, for now, to leave this world and these characters behind. Carey is writing another trilogy set in this world, but Word Nerd really liked the Imriel character and is sort of disappointed that he won't be a major character anymore.
Word Nerd Recommendation: This series really is a must for fantasy fans.
10 September 2008
Mulder's got competition from the "Fringe"
Word Nerd, from time to time, watches TV. And was she glad she turned on her set for the premiere of J.J. Abrams' new show "Fringe" last night.
Part "X-Files," part "Twilight Zone," this has got to be the coolest new science/investigation/science-fiction show to hit in the past few years. Word Nerd was completely hooked from the beginning of the show -- and the opening scenes of something going horribly wrong on an trans-Atlantic flight.
This show has all the makings to be wonderfully weird and people with captivating characters. Agent Olivia Dunham is neither Scully or Mulder. The Bishops -- crazy scientist dad Walter and son Peter, an equal genius -- have a great dynamic between them. Agent Broyles is like Rod Serling and the Cigarette Smoking Man.
What makes this show is that for all the introductory plot in last night's premiere, there was an equal level of character development. Who are these people and what motivates them to work in fringe science?
Word Nerd will definitely be watching future episodes.
Anybody else catch this show? Thoughts?
Part "X-Files," part "Twilight Zone," this has got to be the coolest new science/investigation/science-fiction show to hit in the past few years. Word Nerd was completely hooked from the beginning of the show -- and the opening scenes of something going horribly wrong on an trans-Atlantic flight.
This show has all the makings to be wonderfully weird and people with captivating characters. Agent Olivia Dunham is neither Scully or Mulder. The Bishops -- crazy scientist dad Walter and son Peter, an equal genius -- have a great dynamic between them. Agent Broyles is like Rod Serling and the Cigarette Smoking Man.
What makes this show is that for all the introductory plot in last night's premiere, there was an equal level of character development. Who are these people and what motivates them to work in fringe science?
Word Nerd will definitely be watching future episodes.
Anybody else catch this show? Thoughts?
09 September 2008
High Point
Two things have happened recently.
1. Word Nerd's been reading Jacqueline Carey's "Kushiel's Mercy" and has decided once again that this is one of the series that she wants her books to be like when they grow up.
2. Word Nerd's been editing chapters 20-22 of her book, which are smack dab in the middle of the book.
And this is what she learned from these two things.
Exciting things happen at the middle of books. In Carey's there were several huge chapters right at the halfway mark of the book, a sort of first plot climax for what had gone on in the first 300 pages.
In Word Nerd's chapters 20-22, exciting things happen! This was a thrilling discovery after slogging through rewrites on chapter 16 a few weeks ago. Realizing that Word Nerd's work did what Jacqueline Carey (and plenty of others did) was a huge boost, making her feel like she really does know she's doing.
It's like the writing equivalent of getting over Wednesday... the first part of the book, while exciting, is setting the stage, introducing the characters, building the foundation for the plot. Then, halfway through, there's a tipping point and everything starts racing toward the end.
Seeing this is Word Nerd's own work was a thrill and is inspiring her onward in the editing!
1. Word Nerd's been reading Jacqueline Carey's "Kushiel's Mercy" and has decided once again that this is one of the series that she wants her books to be like when they grow up.
2. Word Nerd's been editing chapters 20-22 of her book, which are smack dab in the middle of the book.
And this is what she learned from these two things.
Exciting things happen at the middle of books. In Carey's there were several huge chapters right at the halfway mark of the book, a sort of first plot climax for what had gone on in the first 300 pages.
In Word Nerd's chapters 20-22, exciting things happen! This was a thrilling discovery after slogging through rewrites on chapter 16 a few weeks ago. Realizing that Word Nerd's work did what Jacqueline Carey (and plenty of others did) was a huge boost, making her feel like she really does know she's doing.
It's like the writing equivalent of getting over Wednesday... the first part of the book, while exciting, is setting the stage, introducing the characters, building the foundation for the plot. Then, halfway through, there's a tipping point and everything starts racing toward the end.
Seeing this is Word Nerd's own work was a thrill and is inspiring her onward in the editing!
05 September 2008
Book Banter -- The Warlock in Spite of Himself
Title: The Warlock in Spite of Himself
Author: Christopher Stasheff
Length: 341 pages
Genre: Sci-fi/fantasy
Plot Basics: Space agent Rod Gallowglass lands on the planet Gramayre, the lost, long-ago colonized world with the goal of being like Elizabethan England. The world is in tact, but Rod discovers a group of noblemen intent on bringing down the monarchy and replacing it with anarchy. Of course, with all his space-age gadgetry, Gallowglass can do things the people on Gramayre can't and everyone begins to believe he's a warlock... a moniker he can't shake and must accept if he's to save the world.
Banter Points: Stasheff sure knows his political systems.
Bummer Points: Stasheff is overhanded with the political side of this book. Word Nerd was really hoping for a classic adventure (something along the lines of "Nine Princes in Amber") and what she got was more like a treatise on democracy with some elves, ghosts and poisoning attempts thrown in. And because the world is supposed to be stuck in a past time, the king's English used in the story is fraught with "thee's" and "thou's" making for unwieldy reading.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Some people really like this book and the subsequent serieses (Stasheff has written more than one set of follow-up books, following Gallowglass and his progeny). Word Nerd's not putting the rest of these at the top of her TBR list, for sure.
Author: Christopher Stasheff
Length: 341 pages
Genre: Sci-fi/fantasy
Plot Basics: Space agent Rod Gallowglass lands on the planet Gramayre, the lost, long-ago colonized world with the goal of being like Elizabethan England. The world is in tact, but Rod discovers a group of noblemen intent on bringing down the monarchy and replacing it with anarchy. Of course, with all his space-age gadgetry, Gallowglass can do things the people on Gramayre can't and everyone begins to believe he's a warlock... a moniker he can't shake and must accept if he's to save the world.
Banter Points: Stasheff sure knows his political systems.
Bummer Points: Stasheff is overhanded with the political side of this book. Word Nerd was really hoping for a classic adventure (something along the lines of "Nine Princes in Amber") and what she got was more like a treatise on democracy with some elves, ghosts and poisoning attempts thrown in. And because the world is supposed to be stuck in a past time, the king's English used in the story is fraught with "thee's" and "thou's" making for unwieldy reading.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Some people really like this book and the subsequent serieses (Stasheff has written more than one set of follow-up books, following Gallowglass and his progeny). Word Nerd's not putting the rest of these at the top of her TBR list, for sure.
04 September 2008
Book Banter -- Hiding in the Shadows
Title: Hiding in the Shadows
Author: Kay Hooper
Length: ~350 pages
Genre: thriller/mystery
Plot Basics: Investigative reporter Dinah goes missing. Faith wakes up from a coma with no recollection of who she is, but she's having memories that she doesn't think are hers. Faith teams up with Dinah's fiance, Kane MacGregor and FBI Special Agent Noah Bishop to get to the bottom of what's going on -- and figure out if her "memories" are really a psychic ability.
Banter Points: This second book in Hooper's Bishop/Special Crimes Unit series is a better than the first. Bishop gets more rounded out as a character and the overall storyline with Faith and Kane seems tighter.
Bummer Points: While Bishop is in the whole story instead of just dropping in like he did in the first book, he's still kind of 2D because Hooper's not giving the reader much to really hang him on as a character -- though in this one, there's some mention of a big project he's working on.
Word Nerd Recommendation: If you like the genre, it's an OK read.
Author: Kay Hooper
Length: ~350 pages
Genre: thriller/mystery
Plot Basics: Investigative reporter Dinah goes missing. Faith wakes up from a coma with no recollection of who she is, but she's having memories that she doesn't think are hers. Faith teams up with Dinah's fiance, Kane MacGregor and FBI Special Agent Noah Bishop to get to the bottom of what's going on -- and figure out if her "memories" are really a psychic ability.
Banter Points: This second book in Hooper's Bishop/Special Crimes Unit series is a better than the first. Bishop gets more rounded out as a character and the overall storyline with Faith and Kane seems tighter.
Bummer Points: While Bishop is in the whole story instead of just dropping in like he did in the first book, he's still kind of 2D because Hooper's not giving the reader much to really hang him on as a character -- though in this one, there's some mention of a big project he's working on.
Word Nerd Recommendation: If you like the genre, it's an OK read.
02 September 2008
August 2008 Bibliometer
Another month, another set of statistics:
9 books in August
3,443 pages read
avg. 111 pages/day
YTD
70 books
23,865 pages
avg. book length, 341 pages
9 books in August
3,443 pages read
avg. 111 pages/day
YTD
70 books
23,865 pages
avg. book length, 341 pages
25 August 2008
Book Banter -- The Ex-Debutante
Title: The Ex-Debutante
Author: Linda Francis Lee
Pages: 341
Genre: chick-lit
Plot Basics: Carlisle Wainwright Cushing goes home to her old moneyed life in Texas and gets sucked into her family's drama. She's representing her own mother in a messy divorce case, opposing counsel is none other than Carlisle's old flame Jack Blair, and she's been tapped to save the Willow Creek Symphony Debutante Ball. Carlisle didn't do so well at her own deb ball, and after school, ran to Boston to create a new life away from the Texas social scene. Nevertheless, Carlisle digs into all the projects and discovers you can go home again.
Banter Points: This was a very light read.
Bummer Points: This was a very light read and it had some problems along the way. Lee worked in a few flashback scenes where the transition from present day to past was so small that Word Nerd had to reread the scene to figure out what time period it was in. There were characters that had similar names (Carlisle's niece Morgan and another character was named Nellie Morgan).
Word Nerd Recommendation: Skip it. If you're hoping for something like Susan McBride's "Debutante Dropout" series, this isn't it (though Word Nerd thinks a few dead bodies could have helped this book... )
Author: Linda Francis Lee
Pages: 341
Genre: chick-lit
Plot Basics: Carlisle Wainwright Cushing goes home to her old moneyed life in Texas and gets sucked into her family's drama. She's representing her own mother in a messy divorce case, opposing counsel is none other than Carlisle's old flame Jack Blair, and she's been tapped to save the Willow Creek Symphony Debutante Ball. Carlisle didn't do so well at her own deb ball, and after school, ran to Boston to create a new life away from the Texas social scene. Nevertheless, Carlisle digs into all the projects and discovers you can go home again.
Banter Points: This was a very light read.
Bummer Points: This was a very light read and it had some problems along the way. Lee worked in a few flashback scenes where the transition from present day to past was so small that Word Nerd had to reread the scene to figure out what time period it was in. There were characters that had similar names (Carlisle's niece Morgan and another character was named Nellie Morgan).
Word Nerd Recommendation: Skip it. If you're hoping for something like Susan McBride's "Debutante Dropout" series, this isn't it (though Word Nerd thinks a few dead bodies could have helped this book... )
20 August 2008
Book Banter -- Big City, Bad Blood
Title: Big City, Bad Blood
Author: Sean Chercover
Length: 294 pages
Genre: mystery
Plot Basics: Chicago PI Ray Dudgeon is hired to protect a film locations manager who's now a chief witness against the Chicago Mob. As Dudgeon struggles to keep him safe, he ends up in the middle a full-blown Outfit turf-war and the stakes for both Dudgeon and his client living through the whole ordeal get higher and higher.
Banter Points: Word Nerd doesn't know why she waited so long to read this book. She met Chercover a few years ago and bought the book. And since then, it sat on her shelf while she's read tons of other books. But Word Nerd's determined to get through all the books she owns, and this was one of the ones she started with. This was a great new mystery with a complex PI character in Ray Dudgeon that readers will want to read more about in future books.
Bummer Points: There's a torture scene in this book that's a little tough to read.
Word Nerd Recommendation: If you like Robert Parker's Spenser, then Chercover's Ray Dudgeon is a guy you need to meet.
BONUS: Sean Chercover will be the Mystery Company in Carmel, IN, with fellow thriller writer Marcus Sakey on Oct. 23.
Author: Sean Chercover
Length: 294 pages
Genre: mystery
Plot Basics: Chicago PI Ray Dudgeon is hired to protect a film locations manager who's now a chief witness against the Chicago Mob. As Dudgeon struggles to keep him safe, he ends up in the middle a full-blown Outfit turf-war and the stakes for both Dudgeon and his client living through the whole ordeal get higher and higher.
Banter Points: Word Nerd doesn't know why she waited so long to read this book. She met Chercover a few years ago and bought the book. And since then, it sat on her shelf while she's read tons of other books. But Word Nerd's determined to get through all the books she owns, and this was one of the ones she started with. This was a great new mystery with a complex PI character in Ray Dudgeon that readers will want to read more about in future books.
Bummer Points: There's a torture scene in this book that's a little tough to read.
Word Nerd Recommendation: If you like Robert Parker's Spenser, then Chercover's Ray Dudgeon is a guy you need to meet.
BONUS: Sean Chercover will be the Mystery Company in Carmel, IN, with fellow thriller writer Marcus Sakey on Oct. 23.
18 August 2008
Book Banter -- Water for Elephants
Title: Water for Elephants
Author: Sara Gruen
Length: ~390 pages
Genre: Literary fiction
Plot Basics: Jacob Jankowski never intended to join the circus. But after a tragic event right at the end of his education to be a veterinarian, he has few options left and ends up with the Benzini Brothers circus during the height of the Depression. There, he tries to fit in with circus life -- not quite a hired-hand, not quite a performer either -- caring for the animals and along the way, caring for the circus performers themselves.
Banter Points: This books is fabulous. Gruen weaves the historical elements in with the plot in such a way that neither is garish. Jacob is a lovable narrator and protagonist and the rest of the book is populated with the colorful characters only a book about a circus could have.
Bummer Points: Nothing comes to mind...
Word Nerd Recommendation: Two thumbs up. Read it. Watch for it on Word Nerd's best books she read this year list.
Bonus note: Unrelated to the book, this is Word Nerd's 600th post. That deserves some sort of celebration right?
Author: Sara Gruen
Length: ~390 pages
Genre: Literary fiction
Plot Basics: Jacob Jankowski never intended to join the circus. But after a tragic event right at the end of his education to be a veterinarian, he has few options left and ends up with the Benzini Brothers circus during the height of the Depression. There, he tries to fit in with circus life -- not quite a hired-hand, not quite a performer either -- caring for the animals and along the way, caring for the circus performers themselves.
Banter Points: This books is fabulous. Gruen weaves the historical elements in with the plot in such a way that neither is garish. Jacob is a lovable narrator and protagonist and the rest of the book is populated with the colorful characters only a book about a circus could have.
Bummer Points: Nothing comes to mind...
Word Nerd Recommendation: Two thumbs up. Read it. Watch for it on Word Nerd's best books she read this year list.
Bonus note: Unrelated to the book, this is Word Nerd's 600th post. That deserves some sort of celebration right?
14 August 2008
Stuck in the middle...
This must sound like a never-ending tale of woe, what with Word Nerd writing another post about how she's still editing the middle of her manuscript.
But she still is. And right now, it may be manuscript 0, Word Nerd 1.
Yesterday, she spent a good 90 minutes working on 5 pages. 5. That's 18 minutes a page. That seems like a lot when sometimes she can work through an entire chapter in less than 90 minutes.
This chapter -- chapter 16, to be precise -- needs the serious work. Hopefully, the time spent is making it better. Word Nerd reworked most of the beginning of the chapter and is going to go back to it tonight to finish it off and make sure the whole thing works. Last night, she got rid of one huge info dump and hopefully punched up the level of conflict throughout the scene, hinting at part of the protagonist's past that should help the reader understand her a little better.
The word count fluctuator changes slightly, but keeps hovering between 126,000-127,000 words. Right now, Word Nerd's hoping to keep the story under 130K, though if it needs more, it'll get more.
But she still is. And right now, it may be manuscript 0, Word Nerd 1.
Yesterday, she spent a good 90 minutes working on 5 pages. 5. That's 18 minutes a page. That seems like a lot when sometimes she can work through an entire chapter in less than 90 minutes.
This chapter -- chapter 16, to be precise -- needs the serious work. Hopefully, the time spent is making it better. Word Nerd reworked most of the beginning of the chapter and is going to go back to it tonight to finish it off and make sure the whole thing works. Last night, she got rid of one huge info dump and hopefully punched up the level of conflict throughout the scene, hinting at part of the protagonist's past that should help the reader understand her a little better.
The word count fluctuator changes slightly, but keeps hovering between 126,000-127,000 words. Right now, Word Nerd's hoping to keep the story under 130K, though if it needs more, it'll get more.
08 August 2008
Book Meme
Word Nerd found this great book meme on Worderella's blog and decided she should play along.
Hardcover or paperback, and why?
Word Nerd is usually down with both. Hardcovers are nice because they are more durable, but they are heavy to lug around. (Have you schlepped any of the later Harry Potter books through an airport?) Paperbacks are nice for travel and are somewhat easier to curl up with. Word Nerd is a equally opportunity reader...
If I were to own a book shop I would call it…
No idea on this one. Word Nerd's aspirations have never been on the book-selling end of the spectrum.
My favorite quote from a book (mention the title) is…
"I'm not dead. A dim realization but an important one, because I should have died." -- from Nick Sagan's Idlewild.
The author (alive or deceased) I would love to have lunch with would be…
C.S. Lewis. Reading Chronicles of Narnia as a kid is what inspired me to be a writer. Of course, as an adult, Word Nerd has been moved by his writing on Christianity as well.
If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except from the SAS survival guide, it would be…
Watership Down by Richard Adams. Adventure. Community. Comedy. Loss. This book's got it all.
I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that…
Would automatically write down the quotes that really impress so there's no need to dog-ear pages or stop reading just to go find a pen.
The smell of an old book reminds me of…
The old library Word Nerd visited as a child. The building's been refurbished and doesn't smell right anymore.
If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), it would be…
Joanne Baldwin from Rachel Caine's Weather Warden series. She's a leading lady with a great fashion sense, a love of fast cars, a sweet supernatural power and a gorgeous guy. Of course, Word Nerd thinks it would also be a riot to be Harry Potter. Flying on brooms, doing magic, going to Hogwarts, etc. (maybe not the fighting Voldemort part...)
The most overestimated book of all times is…
Old Man and the Sea. It's 110 pages about a guy chasing a fish.
I hate it when a book…
Flips into the head of the serial killer when the rest of the book is from the POV of the detective/FBI agent/stalking victim etc. WHY put the reader in the killer's head when it would keep the suspense up more to just stay in the single POV of the main character.
If you do this book meme, post a comment with the link!
Hardcover or paperback, and why?
Word Nerd is usually down with both. Hardcovers are nice because they are more durable, but they are heavy to lug around. (Have you schlepped any of the later Harry Potter books through an airport?) Paperbacks are nice for travel and are somewhat easier to curl up with. Word Nerd is a equally opportunity reader...
If I were to own a book shop I would call it…
No idea on this one. Word Nerd's aspirations have never been on the book-selling end of the spectrum.
My favorite quote from a book (mention the title) is…
"I'm not dead. A dim realization but an important one, because I should have died." -- from Nick Sagan's Idlewild.
The author (alive or deceased) I would love to have lunch with would be…
C.S. Lewis. Reading Chronicles of Narnia as a kid is what inspired me to be a writer. Of course, as an adult, Word Nerd has been moved by his writing on Christianity as well.
If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except from the SAS survival guide, it would be…
Watership Down by Richard Adams. Adventure. Community. Comedy. Loss. This book's got it all.
I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that…
Would automatically write down the quotes that really impress so there's no need to dog-ear pages or stop reading just to go find a pen.
The smell of an old book reminds me of…
The old library Word Nerd visited as a child. The building's been refurbished and doesn't smell right anymore.
If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), it would be…
Joanne Baldwin from Rachel Caine's Weather Warden series. She's a leading lady with a great fashion sense, a love of fast cars, a sweet supernatural power and a gorgeous guy. Of course, Word Nerd thinks it would also be a riot to be Harry Potter. Flying on brooms, doing magic, going to Hogwarts, etc. (maybe not the fighting Voldemort part...)
The most overestimated book of all times is…
Old Man and the Sea. It's 110 pages about a guy chasing a fish.
I hate it when a book…
Flips into the head of the serial killer when the rest of the book is from the POV of the detective/FBI agent/stalking victim etc. WHY put the reader in the killer's head when it would keep the suspense up more to just stay in the single POV of the main character.
If you do this book meme, post a comment with the link!
07 August 2008
Book Banter -- Dead Beat
Title: Dead Beat (Dresden Files, bk. 7)
Author: Jim Butcher
Length: 393 pages
Genre: urban fantasy/paranormal
Plot Basics: Harry Dresden must save all of Chicago from a group of necromancers who plan on sucking the life (literally) out of the city on Halloween. Harry's only back-up? His half-brother, the vampire Thomas, Butters a bumbling medical examiner with an affinity for polka, and his dog, Mouse. Oh, and possibly a fallen angel...
Banter Points: Word Nerd had been eager to get back to the Dresden Files and see what was up with Harry and this book didn't disappoint. Again (and without too many spoilers) the stakes for Harry went higher as he continues to choose to put himself in danger to save others. Butcher also expertly brings in plot threads from other books to make this an intricate plot.
Bummer Points: Maybe it was Butters and the polka thing, or the fact that Murphy was not in this story, but this was not the best of the Dresden Files. A good entry in the series, but just not the best.
Word Nerd Recommendation: If you haven't gotten the message yet, this series is a great read.
Author: Jim Butcher
Length: 393 pages
Genre: urban fantasy/paranormal
Plot Basics: Harry Dresden must save all of Chicago from a group of necromancers who plan on sucking the life (literally) out of the city on Halloween. Harry's only back-up? His half-brother, the vampire Thomas, Butters a bumbling medical examiner with an affinity for polka, and his dog, Mouse. Oh, and possibly a fallen angel...
Banter Points: Word Nerd had been eager to get back to the Dresden Files and see what was up with Harry and this book didn't disappoint. Again (and without too many spoilers) the stakes for Harry went higher as he continues to choose to put himself in danger to save others. Butcher also expertly brings in plot threads from other books to make this an intricate plot.
Bummer Points: Maybe it was Butters and the polka thing, or the fact that Murphy was not in this story, but this was not the best of the Dresden Files. A good entry in the series, but just not the best.
Word Nerd Recommendation: If you haven't gotten the message yet, this series is a great read.
05 August 2008
Book Banter -- Breaking Dawn
Title: Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga, bk. 4)
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Length: 754 pages
Genre: YA paranormal
Plot Basics: Bella Swan is done with high school and ready to become Mrs. Edward Cullen in a lavish wedding. And as she prepares for forever with Edward, old and new challenges rise up to threaten their chance at happiness.
Banter Points: To avoid the risk of too many spoilers, Word Nerd will say that she liked how the series wrapped up. She's certain that much like the Harry Potter finale, other fans will be wickedly disappointed, but she's satisfied with what Meyer did.
Bummer Points: Liked the ending, yes, but not thrilled. Far from thrilled, because it's apparent that Meyer only has one story to tell. "Breaking Dawn" rang similarly to the end of "The Host." Meyer seems to have one story only -- add a love triangle, some creepy bad guys, a never-before seen thing, and a chance for a happy ending and BAM! One of her books is done.
Word Nerd Recommendation: This series is worth the read, but Word Nerd's seen interviews with Meyer where she's planning to do a bunch more writing. Word Nerd will approach her new stuff with quite a bit more skepticism.
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Length: 754 pages
Genre: YA paranormal
Plot Basics: Bella Swan is done with high school and ready to become Mrs. Edward Cullen in a lavish wedding. And as she prepares for forever with Edward, old and new challenges rise up to threaten their chance at happiness.
Banter Points: To avoid the risk of too many spoilers, Word Nerd will say that she liked how the series wrapped up. She's certain that much like the Harry Potter finale, other fans will be wickedly disappointed, but she's satisfied with what Meyer did.
Bummer Points: Liked the ending, yes, but not thrilled. Far from thrilled, because it's apparent that Meyer only has one story to tell. "Breaking Dawn" rang similarly to the end of "The Host." Meyer seems to have one story only -- add a love triangle, some creepy bad guys, a never-before seen thing, and a chance for a happy ending and BAM! One of her books is done.
Word Nerd Recommendation: This series is worth the read, but Word Nerd's seen interviews with Meyer where she's planning to do a bunch more writing. Word Nerd will approach her new stuff with quite a bit more skepticism.
04 August 2008
July 2008 Bibliometer
July was another bumper month for reading. Here's the totals:
July 2008
10 books
3100 pages
avg. 100 pages/day
YTD
61 books
20,422 pages
average book length = 334 pages.
YTD, Word Nerd is 10 books ahead of where she was in 2007.
July 2008
10 books
3100 pages
avg. 100 pages/day
YTD
61 books
20,422 pages
average book length = 334 pages.
YTD, Word Nerd is 10 books ahead of where she was in 2007.
01 August 2008
New books...
There are few things in life that make Word Nerd wish she was 16 or 17 years old again.
However, for once, the midnight release tonight of "Breaking Dawn" makes Word Nerd wish she was about a decade younger than she is.
As a whole, those were tough years of high school with a full slate of AP classes, college applications, high school newspaper staff, church youth group, drama practice and boys who were oblivious to the fact that she would have enjoyed doing something with them other than studying.
However, for once, the midnight release tonight of "Breaking Dawn" makes Word Nerd wish she was about a decade younger than she is. Like gobs of other people, Word Nerd can not wait to find out what happens in this book to end the series. The cover art is so darn cool. And getting to read more about Edward Cullen... well, here's where Word Nerd needs to be younger to feel like she can be this excited about a fictional teenage character. (Or, do his years as a vampire mean he's really older?)
If Word Nerd was 17, she might contemplate going to the midnight release party. As someone older than 17, it seems... what's the word here... inappropriate? Yes, she went to the midnight Harry Potter #7 release party, but she was in the company of cape-wearing, wand-waving children. (She was only encouraging them by wearing her robes...ahem.)
Back to "Breaking Dawn," she's got the book on hold at the Indianapolis library, number 21 of as of 8:45 this morning, 261 hold requests. The library's got some 40 copies or so listed as for purchase, so she's pretty hopeful she'll get the book either tomorrow or Sunday. Not matter when she gets it, she'll probably drop whatever she's doing and read it straight through, staying up late to finish, etc.
Sigh. It could be a good weekend. Or a bad one, depending on the ending.
Also in book news today, J.K. Rowling will have another book on the shelves in time for Christmas -- The Tales of Beedle the Bard. 
A bit more cynical in her old age, Word Nerd was waiting for this to happen -- all the Harry Potter ancillary volumes and spin-offs and such. That said, Beedle will likely go on her Christmas wish list.
31 July 2008
Proofreading is a necessity for everyone
A little life-lesson in why everyone needs a proofreader.
At Word Nerd's work, the summer interns found some old fortune cookies in a drawer and passed them out. The cookie was terrible but here's what Word Nerd's fortune said:
Right. She feels like the future is really opening up with that one.
At Word Nerd's work, the summer interns found some old fortune cookies in a drawer and passed them out. The cookie was terrible but here's what Word Nerd's fortune said:
Your luck has been completely changes today.
Right. She feels like the future is really opening up with that one.
30 July 2008
Book Banter -- Madhouse
Title: Madhouse
Author: Rob Thurman
Length: ~370 pages
Genre: paranormal/urban fantasy
Plot Basics: Cal Leandros and his brother Niko are asked to investigate a strange disturbance in at the Met in New York City. In addition to finding one technophile mummy, they discover that the ashes of Sawney Beane, legendary cannibal, have reformed a living creature and that Beane is far from human. Beane and his army of revenants (think zombies, but worse) start racking up a body count in the city and Cal and Niko decide they must stop the bad guy, even without pay. And making matters worse, their friend and ally, Robin Goodfellow, is on the top of someone's hit list.
Banter Points: Word Nerd is getting really impressed by this series. What started as fairly well-done series in "Nightlife" has hit its "monster-ful" stride with "Madhouse." Thurman has an interesting thing going with her half-monster-shoot-first-ask-questions-later-gun-slinging-wise-cracking hero Cal. "Madhouse" forces Cal to deal with some of his emotions and more of his heritage while wrapping a tight plot around a nasty bad guy.
Bummer Points: March 2009. That's when the next one comes out. And "Madhouse," be warned, leaves off at a cliffhanger.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Fans of Rachel Caine, Jim Butcher and grown-up Harry Potter fans, check out the magic, mayhem and destruction in this series.
Author: Rob Thurman
Length: ~370 pages
Genre: paranormal/urban fantasy
Plot Basics: Cal Leandros and his brother Niko are asked to investigate a strange disturbance in at the Met in New York City. In addition to finding one technophile mummy, they discover that the ashes of Sawney Beane, legendary cannibal, have reformed a living creature and that Beane is far from human. Beane and his army of revenants (think zombies, but worse) start racking up a body count in the city and Cal and Niko decide they must stop the bad guy, even without pay. And making matters worse, their friend and ally, Robin Goodfellow, is on the top of someone's hit list.
Banter Points: Word Nerd is getting really impressed by this series. What started as fairly well-done series in "Nightlife" has hit its "monster-ful" stride with "Madhouse." Thurman has an interesting thing going with her half-monster-shoot-first-ask-questions-later-gun-slinging-wise-cracking hero Cal. "Madhouse" forces Cal to deal with some of his emotions and more of his heritage while wrapping a tight plot around a nasty bad guy.
Bummer Points: March 2009. That's when the next one comes out. And "Madhouse," be warned, leaves off at a cliffhanger.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Fans of Rachel Caine, Jim Butcher and grown-up Harry Potter fans, check out the magic, mayhem and destruction in this series.
28 July 2008
Forced to edit
Word Nerd's new writers group met again on Saturday and it was great to really get into the critiquing. It's a neat bunch of people and Word Nerd's excited to be working with them.
And so Word Nerd said she would have pages ready to pass out at the Aug. 9 meeting. Which means that she needs to get pages ready to pass out at the Aug. 9 meeting.
For the last few weeks, Word Nerd has completely fallen off the revision bandwagon. Not that that is hard to do because Word Nerd doesn't like revisions. They are un-fun and require lots of thinking and evaluating and hard cuts to parts of the story that Word Nerd likes as a writer but that don't move the plot ahead.
But it's not getting done and Word Nerd's not going to make her goal of having it ready for an agent by early 2009 if she doesn't get a move on.
So the pages are going to the group.
That's the point.
And so Word Nerd said she would have pages ready to pass out at the Aug. 9 meeting. Which means that she needs to get pages ready to pass out at the Aug. 9 meeting.
For the last few weeks, Word Nerd has completely fallen off the revision bandwagon. Not that that is hard to do because Word Nerd doesn't like revisions. They are un-fun and require lots of thinking and evaluating and hard cuts to parts of the story that Word Nerd likes as a writer but that don't move the plot ahead.
But it's not getting done and Word Nerd's not going to make her goal of having it ready for an agent by early 2009 if she doesn't get a move on.
So the pages are going to the group.
That's the point.
23 July 2008
22 July 2008
The best laid plans...
So, Word Nerd decided she wanted to re-read all the Stephenie Meyer Twilight books before "Breaking Dawn" comes out on Aug. 2. That book she already has a hold on at the library.
Great plan? She owns "Twilight" and has started re-reading it and also owns "New Moon" and she can get "Eclipse" from the library too, right?
Wrong.
There are currently 81 holds on "Eclipse" at the library. 81. She will not get a copy before she gets a copy of "Breaking Dawn." She's only 16th on the list for that one.
She could buy "Eclipse" but wait, Word Nerd is poor and it's not out in paperback yet like the first two she owns.
Can anybody help? Loan her a copy or something?
Sigh.
Great plan? She owns "Twilight" and has started re-reading it and also owns "New Moon" and she can get "Eclipse" from the library too, right?
Wrong.
There are currently 81 holds on "Eclipse" at the library. 81. She will not get a copy before she gets a copy of "Breaking Dawn." She's only 16th on the list for that one.
She could buy "Eclipse" but wait, Word Nerd is poor and it's not out in paperback yet like the first two she owns.
Can anybody help? Loan her a copy or something?
Sigh.
Book Banter -- Treason's River
Title: Treason's River (The Reluctant Adventures of Lt. Martin Jerrold, bk. 3).
Author: Edwin Thomas
Length: 354 pages
Genre: Historical fiction
Plot Basics: Having upset many in the British admiralty with his last caper, Lt. Martin Jerrold is sent off on an errand to America by Mr. Nevell of the Post Office. His mission is to deliver a letter to a man in Pennsylvania, learn his plans and then stop them. Easy enough sounding, but Martin is realistic about his cowardice getting in the way of any actual heroics. The only redeeming part of the trip, Martin think, may be the company of the beautiful Miss Catherine Lyell as America itself is a hostile, uninviting place.
Banter Points: This is the best of the series, both in scope of adventure and the character of Martin Jerrold. His unwilling heroics are spot-on and funny and Thomas' look at a little-known piece of British and American history is fascinating.
Bummer Points: According to Thomas' website, this is the last of the Martin Jerrold books because the publisher pulled the plug on the series. Word Nerd's glad the series ended on a high note, but is really disappointed that there are no more.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Despite the brevity of this series, it's very much fun to read. Historical fiction/adventure story fans should be sure to pick it up.
Author: Edwin Thomas
Length: 354 pages
Genre: Historical fiction
Plot Basics: Having upset many in the British admiralty with his last caper, Lt. Martin Jerrold is sent off on an errand to America by Mr. Nevell of the Post Office. His mission is to deliver a letter to a man in Pennsylvania, learn his plans and then stop them. Easy enough sounding, but Martin is realistic about his cowardice getting in the way of any actual heroics. The only redeeming part of the trip, Martin think, may be the company of the beautiful Miss Catherine Lyell as America itself is a hostile, uninviting place.
Banter Points: This is the best of the series, both in scope of adventure and the character of Martin Jerrold. His unwilling heroics are spot-on and funny and Thomas' look at a little-known piece of British and American history is fascinating.
Bummer Points: According to Thomas' website, this is the last of the Martin Jerrold books because the publisher pulled the plug on the series. Word Nerd's glad the series ended on a high note, but is really disappointed that there are no more.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Despite the brevity of this series, it's very much fun to read. Historical fiction/adventure story fans should be sure to pick it up.
18 July 2008
Book Banter -- Feast of Fools
Title: Feast of Fools (Morganville Vampires, book 4)
Author: Rachel Caine
Length: 242 pages
Genre: YA paranormal
Plot Basics: SPOILER ALERT
Claire Danvers is trying to get over the arrival of parents in Morganville -- her own and vampire-leader Amelie's father Bishop and his scary lackeys. Her parents want her to leave Glass House and move in with them, but Claire doesn't want to leave her friends -- no matter how much danger living with Shane, Eve and the newly-vampiric Michael is. She keeps working with mad scientist vampire Myrnin, trying to find a way to cure the disease eating away at the vamps. But Bishop has other plans for the town and makes power play at special feast... that they would be fools to attend and maybe fools to miss.
Banter Points: Word Nerd loves Rachel Caine's books and this one is no exception. Caine is a master and continually raising the plot stakes throughout a series and while Word Nerd was into this book, there might have been a few unkind words muttered about how long she will have to wait for the next one and how unfair that is. What was nice about this book was seeing the character development of Michael and the Glass House mates in reaction to him. Also, the introduction of Bishop twisted the plot in interesting ways and kept the series fresh.
Bummer Points: See above and the unkind words about having to wait for awhile for "Lord of Misrule" to be released.
Word Nerd Recommendation: If you like YA fiction, or vampire fiction or YA vampire fiction (think Stephenie Meyer and the Twilight saga here), read the Morganville books. If you liked the boy wizard, read the Morganville books. Ok... if you like good books, read the Morganville books.
Author: Rachel Caine
Length: 242 pages
Genre: YA paranormal
Plot Basics: SPOILER ALERT
Claire Danvers is trying to get over the arrival of parents in Morganville -- her own and vampire-leader Amelie's father Bishop and his scary lackeys. Her parents want her to leave Glass House and move in with them, but Claire doesn't want to leave her friends -- no matter how much danger living with Shane, Eve and the newly-vampiric Michael is. She keeps working with mad scientist vampire Myrnin, trying to find a way to cure the disease eating away at the vamps. But Bishop has other plans for the town and makes power play at special feast... that they would be fools to attend and maybe fools to miss.
Banter Points: Word Nerd loves Rachel Caine's books and this one is no exception. Caine is a master and continually raising the plot stakes throughout a series and while Word Nerd was into this book, there might have been a few unkind words muttered about how long she will have to wait for the next one and how unfair that is. What was nice about this book was seeing the character development of Michael and the Glass House mates in reaction to him. Also, the introduction of Bishop twisted the plot in interesting ways and kept the series fresh.
Bummer Points: See above and the unkind words about having to wait for awhile for "Lord of Misrule" to be released.
Word Nerd Recommendation: If you like YA fiction, or vampire fiction or YA vampire fiction (think Stephenie Meyer and the Twilight saga here), read the Morganville books. If you liked the boy wizard, read the Morganville books. Ok... if you like good books, read the Morganville books.
17 July 2008
Book Banter -- Stealing Shadows
Title: Stealing Shadows
Author: Kay Hooper
Length: 356 pages
Genre: thriller
Plot Basics: Cassie is a psychic, with a scary gift -- being able to read the minds of killers. After a mistake when trying to help the San Francisco police catch a killer, she moves to North Carolina and the home her reclusive aunt owned. But she can't run away from her gift and when she gets a flash of a pending murder, she tries to convince the local sheriff and prosecuting attorney to take her seriously. As a string of local women are murdered, Cassie, Matt the sheriff and Ben, the attorney, have to trust her powers to stop the killings.
Banter Points: Word Nerd was pleasantly surprised by this title. It was recommended to her by a librarian at Central (THANKS!) during a discussion of good paranormal/urban fantasy/thriller type books (for the record, she didn't like Charlaine Harris either...) A psychic working with cops sounded good to Word Nerd so she picked up this first one in Hooper's Bishop series. The plot had a good pace, a good twist and was better-than-average writing for a paperback thriller. Also, while there's a love story between Cassie and Ben, it's not as over the top as the romantic suspense in Allison Brennan's book
Bummer Points: So, this is the first of Hooper's Bishop series... and Bishop himself doesn't show until halfway through the book and is not a well-rounded character at all for a series bearing his name, at this point.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Fans of Allison Brennan and the J.D. Robb 'In Death' series should check out Hooper. Word Nerd's planning on continuing reading.
Author: Kay Hooper
Length: 356 pages
Genre: thriller
Plot Basics: Cassie is a psychic, with a scary gift -- being able to read the minds of killers. After a mistake when trying to help the San Francisco police catch a killer, she moves to North Carolina and the home her reclusive aunt owned. But she can't run away from her gift and when she gets a flash of a pending murder, she tries to convince the local sheriff and prosecuting attorney to take her seriously. As a string of local women are murdered, Cassie, Matt the sheriff and Ben, the attorney, have to trust her powers to stop the killings.
Banter Points: Word Nerd was pleasantly surprised by this title. It was recommended to her by a librarian at Central (THANKS!) during a discussion of good paranormal/urban fantasy/thriller type books (for the record, she didn't like Charlaine Harris either...) A psychic working with cops sounded good to Word Nerd so she picked up this first one in Hooper's Bishop series. The plot had a good pace, a good twist and was better-than-average writing for a paperback thriller. Also, while there's a love story between Cassie and Ben, it's not as over the top as the romantic suspense in Allison Brennan's book
Bummer Points: So, this is the first of Hooper's Bishop series... and Bishop himself doesn't show until halfway through the book and is not a well-rounded character at all for a series bearing his name, at this point.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Fans of Allison Brennan and the J.D. Robb 'In Death' series should check out Hooper. Word Nerd's planning on continuing reading.
11 July 2008
Book Banter -- Dead Until Dark
Title: Dead Until Dark
Author: Charlaine Harris
Length: 292 pages
Genre: mystery/paranormal
Plot Basics: Sookie Stackhouse works as a cocktail waitress, doing her best to not let her "gift" -- the ability to read minds -- interfere with her life too much. It does make for hard times dating though, so when Bill, the very handsome vampire comes to the bar and Sookie realizes she can't hear him, she is interested. Other women in her small southern town start dying, however, and all indicators point to a vampire murderer and Sookie worries she may be next.
Banter Points: The scenes where Sookie "head-hopped" with her psychic abilities was a clever way to get into the minds of other characters.
Bummer Points: It's been a long time since Word Nerd really just didn't like a book. It was bound to happen. The plot for this seemed all over the map, Sookie was a bland character, Bill the vampire was even worse and though touted as a mystery novel, Word Nerd thinks it should have been labeled as a vampire romance with some dead people popping up inconveniently.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Word Nerd's not going to keep going with this series. Others love it, so you may just have to judge for yourself.
Author: Charlaine Harris
Length: 292 pages
Genre: mystery/paranormal
Plot Basics: Sookie Stackhouse works as a cocktail waitress, doing her best to not let her "gift" -- the ability to read minds -- interfere with her life too much. It does make for hard times dating though, so when Bill, the very handsome vampire comes to the bar and Sookie realizes she can't hear him, she is interested. Other women in her small southern town start dying, however, and all indicators point to a vampire murderer and Sookie worries she may be next.
Banter Points: The scenes where Sookie "head-hopped" with her psychic abilities was a clever way to get into the minds of other characters.
Bummer Points: It's been a long time since Word Nerd really just didn't like a book. It was bound to happen. The plot for this seemed all over the map, Sookie was a bland character, Bill the vampire was even worse and though touted as a mystery novel, Word Nerd thinks it should have been labeled as a vampire romance with some dead people popping up inconveniently.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Word Nerd's not going to keep going with this series. Others love it, so you may just have to judge for yourself.
10 July 2008
Writers Group Launch
Saturday is it.
Word Nerd's new writers group is officially starting.
She is excited and nervous about this all at the same time.
First, it's exciting because, hey! new writing friends to bounce ideas off of.
Second, it makes her nervous because hey! new writing friends who might hate everything she puts on paper.
So far, it's a small group which is a good thing. When Word Nerd helped launch the Oshkosh Writers Club, 40-some people came to the first meeting. This group has been by application only and it looks like a neat mix of people who have applied and are coming -- some memoirists, a few fiction writers and a poet or two.
If you are in the Indy area and want to know more, drop a comment with your e-mail. There's still some room in the group.
Word Nerd's new writers group is officially starting.
She is excited and nervous about this all at the same time.
First, it's exciting because, hey! new writing friends to bounce ideas off of.
Second, it makes her nervous because hey! new writing friends who might hate everything she puts on paper.
So far, it's a small group which is a good thing. When Word Nerd helped launch the Oshkosh Writers Club, 40-some people came to the first meeting. This group has been by application only and it looks like a neat mix of people who have applied and are coming -- some memoirists, a few fiction writers and a poet or two.
If you are in the Indy area and want to know more, drop a comment with your e-mail. There's still some room in the group.
08 July 2008
Editing
The Editing Meter over there --> shows that Word Nerd has edited half her novel-in-progress. This is deceptive.
What's been happening lately is that Word Nerd is going through all the chapters twice. While she's technically looked at and made some small fixes to Chs. 13-17, she really needs to go back and hit them harder.
Hopefully, this can start tonight, with printing out the chapters and at least getting through ch. 13 again with a much more intense level of scrutiny. The middle of the book is tough, because it needs to keep the plot moving along, build tension, but for this particular book -- be an interesting lull because the character grows complacent during this part of the story so that when she acts later, it's too late. (makes perfect sense, right?)
Anyhow, the middle of the book was also written while Word Nerd was going through a pretty big life transition of leaving her reporting job for a year in poverty 400 miles away. If the middle of the book feels like the author is keeping a big secret, it's because when she first drafted it, she was --that horrible time of knowing that she was sending out job applications and having interviews for other things that her current bosses knew nothing about. Ditto for the protagonist... only more of it for her is that she is the one being kept in the dark, that things are moving around her that she doesn't fully know about and can't stop.
This second-pass editing is where Word Nerd really rips chunks of the story out and inserts new stuff. Expect the Word Count Fluctuator to start jumping around soon.
This is such hard work. Word Nerd's new writing group starts Saturday and she's really looking forward to more community. More on that later...
What's been happening lately is that Word Nerd is going through all the chapters twice. While she's technically looked at and made some small fixes to Chs. 13-17, she really needs to go back and hit them harder.
Hopefully, this can start tonight, with printing out the chapters and at least getting through ch. 13 again with a much more intense level of scrutiny. The middle of the book is tough, because it needs to keep the plot moving along, build tension, but for this particular book -- be an interesting lull because the character grows complacent during this part of the story so that when she acts later, it's too late. (makes perfect sense, right?)
Anyhow, the middle of the book was also written while Word Nerd was going through a pretty big life transition of leaving her reporting job for a year in poverty 400 miles away. If the middle of the book feels like the author is keeping a big secret, it's because when she first drafted it, she was --that horrible time of knowing that she was sending out job applications and having interviews for other things that her current bosses knew nothing about. Ditto for the protagonist... only more of it for her is that she is the one being kept in the dark, that things are moving around her that she doesn't fully know about and can't stop.
This second-pass editing is where Word Nerd really rips chunks of the story out and inserts new stuff. Expect the Word Count Fluctuator to start jumping around soon.
This is such hard work. Word Nerd's new writing group starts Saturday and she's really looking forward to more community. More on that later...
03 July 2008
Book Banter -- Windy City
Title: Windy City
Author: Scott Simon
Length: 420 pages
Genre: literary/political fiction
Plot Basics: The mayor of Chicago is found dead, late one night, face down in the last of his pizza. Sunny Roopini, alderman of the 48th district, is the vice-mayor, and so is sworn in to be interim mayor until the council can elect a new mayor to fill out the rest of the dead mayor's term. Sunny, who has been thinking about getting out of politics, must try to keep order in the council and dodge the questions of a probing U.S. Attorney and make sure Chicago is left is competent hands after the vote.
Banter Points: Word Nerd loves Scott Simon during Weekend Edition Saturday. He's the voice of Saturday morning. He is also a darn good novelist and Word Nerd's sure this book will make her top 10 reads in 2008 list. SPOILER ALERT for what's next!
What amazed Word Nerd about this book was its subtlety. A reader can certainly look at how Sunny was elected mayor at the end because of his humility and humanity OR one can see how it was calculated and planned through the whole book.
Bummer Points: Word Nerd thinks she should have gotten it on audiobook if Scott Simon read it because a whole novel in that voice would have made in better.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Any one who likes politics, has written about politics, covered politics or just wants a good story should read this book.
Author: Scott Simon
Length: 420 pages
Genre: literary/political fiction
Plot Basics: The mayor of Chicago is found dead, late one night, face down in the last of his pizza. Sunny Roopini, alderman of the 48th district, is the vice-mayor, and so is sworn in to be interim mayor until the council can elect a new mayor to fill out the rest of the dead mayor's term. Sunny, who has been thinking about getting out of politics, must try to keep order in the council and dodge the questions of a probing U.S. Attorney and make sure Chicago is left is competent hands after the vote.
Banter Points: Word Nerd loves Scott Simon during Weekend Edition Saturday. He's the voice of Saturday morning. He is also a darn good novelist and Word Nerd's sure this book will make her top 10 reads in 2008 list. SPOILER ALERT for what's next!
What amazed Word Nerd about this book was its subtlety. A reader can certainly look at how Sunny was elected mayor at the end because of his humility and humanity OR one can see how it was calculated and planned through the whole book.
Bummer Points: Word Nerd thinks she should have gotten it on audiobook if Scott Simon read it because a whole novel in that voice would have made in better.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Any one who likes politics, has written about politics, covered politics or just wants a good story should read this book.
02 July 2008
Two-timing
Word Nerd's been two-timing with her characters lately.
She's still working on the edits for her WIP, but she's also been checking in with some old friends -- characters she first dreamt up in graduate school.
She does not feel bad about this.
The editing of the WIP is hard, hard work. It's tough to look that critically at what you wrote and fix bad things and throw good stuff out that just doesn't fit and add new scenes that, hopefully, aren't terrible. Hard work. There's certainly a sense of accomplishment when the scene truly is better later, but it's no fun getting there.
Word Nerd's been needing some writing fun and so she went back to two characters she first invented for a story in her creative fiction class in graduate school. They are two gentlemen thieves -- sort of Scarlet Pimpernel-ish -- who fight well, dance well, dress well, flirt well and do an equally darn-good job of turning the kingdom on its head. In short, it's been a while since Word Nerd spent any time with them and it's fun to see where their latest caper is taking them. (Right now, inside the Magistrate's castle...)
It's not that Word Nerd doesn't love her WIP characters still... she just needs someone else (or two someones in these two characters) right now to keep things fresh.
She's still working on the edits for her WIP, but she's also been checking in with some old friends -- characters she first dreamt up in graduate school.
She does not feel bad about this.
The editing of the WIP is hard, hard work. It's tough to look that critically at what you wrote and fix bad things and throw good stuff out that just doesn't fit and add new scenes that, hopefully, aren't terrible. Hard work. There's certainly a sense of accomplishment when the scene truly is better later, but it's no fun getting there.
Word Nerd's been needing some writing fun and so she went back to two characters she first invented for a story in her creative fiction class in graduate school. They are two gentlemen thieves -- sort of Scarlet Pimpernel-ish -- who fight well, dance well, dress well, flirt well and do an equally darn-good job of turning the kingdom on its head. In short, it's been a while since Word Nerd spent any time with them and it's fun to see where their latest caper is taking them. (Right now, inside the Magistrate's castle...)
It's not that Word Nerd doesn't love her WIP characters still... she just needs someone else (or two someones in these two characters) right now to keep things fresh.
01 July 2008
June Bibliometer
Here's the count for June:
10 books
2,874 pages
92/pages per day average
YTD:
51 books
17,322 total pages
10 books
2,874 pages
92/pages per day average
YTD:
51 books
17,322 total pages
30 June 2008
Book Banter -- Moonshine
Title: Moonshine
Author: Rob Thurman
Length: ~350 pages
Genre: paranormal/urban fantasy
Plot Basics: Cal Leandros and his brother Niko have taken up doing bodyguard/detective work in New York City, cleaning out monsters and working for the city's paranormal residents. They are hired to help one of the city's mafioso werewolves make a move against one of his competitors. The hit goes south and in retribution, Cal and Niko's friend -- Georgina -- is taken hostage. As they work to find and free her, Cal deals with his half-non-human side, a side that might save or destroy them all.
Banter Points: It had been a while since Word Nerd read the first book in this series, "Nightlife." Thurman gets a thumbs-up for nicely recapping the plot of book one without it feeling like an info dump. Also, Thurman writes good action sequences and nicely elevates the stakes in the plot throughout.
Bummer Points: Cal has a very sardonic voice through the book... while his insults are usually funny, the wry tone gets a little tiring.
Word Nerd Recommendation: If you like an author like Charles de Lint but would rather your urban fantasy be a bit grittier, this series is for you. Thurman has a third book out, "Madhouse" that Word Nerd will pick up sometime.
Author: Rob Thurman
Length: ~350 pages
Genre: paranormal/urban fantasy
Plot Basics: Cal Leandros and his brother Niko have taken up doing bodyguard/detective work in New York City, cleaning out monsters and working for the city's paranormal residents. They are hired to help one of the city's mafioso werewolves make a move against one of his competitors. The hit goes south and in retribution, Cal and Niko's friend -- Georgina -- is taken hostage. As they work to find and free her, Cal deals with his half-non-human side, a side that might save or destroy them all.
Banter Points: It had been a while since Word Nerd read the first book in this series, "Nightlife." Thurman gets a thumbs-up for nicely recapping the plot of book one without it feeling like an info dump. Also, Thurman writes good action sequences and nicely elevates the stakes in the plot throughout.
Bummer Points: Cal has a very sardonic voice through the book... while his insults are usually funny, the wry tone gets a little tiring.
Word Nerd Recommendation: If you like an author like Charles de Lint but would rather your urban fantasy be a bit grittier, this series is for you. Thurman has a third book out, "Madhouse" that Word Nerd will pick up sometime.
29 June 2008
Book Banter -- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Title: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Author: Mark Haddon
Length: 221 pages
Genre: literary fiction
Plot Basics: Christopher is a 15 year-old autistic boy. One night, he finds his neighbor's poodle murdered in her front lawn and decides to be like Sherlock Holmes and figure out who killed the dog. His quest lands him in trouble with his father and opens up family secrets that Christopher wasn't supposed to know.
Banter Points: All the hype that surrounded this book a few years ago when it came out was well worth it. Haddon's writing -- a first person narration from Christopher -- is inventive and accurate. Anyone who's worked with an autistic or special needs kid will marvel at Christopher.
Bummer Points: The ending, to me, seemed like a let-down. Word Nerd wanted a little bit more of a glimpse that Christopher was going to be OK at the end of the story.
Word Nerd Recommendation: A must-read for everyone to gain a better appreciation of the unique gifts and talents that those around us who are labeled as "special needs" really have.
Author: Mark Haddon
Length: 221 pages
Genre: literary fiction
Plot Basics: Christopher is a 15 year-old autistic boy. One night, he finds his neighbor's poodle murdered in her front lawn and decides to be like Sherlock Holmes and figure out who killed the dog. His quest lands him in trouble with his father and opens up family secrets that Christopher wasn't supposed to know.
Banter Points: All the hype that surrounded this book a few years ago when it came out was well worth it. Haddon's writing -- a first person narration from Christopher -- is inventive and accurate. Anyone who's worked with an autistic or special needs kid will marvel at Christopher.
Bummer Points: The ending, to me, seemed like a let-down. Word Nerd wanted a little bit more of a glimpse that Christopher was going to be OK at the end of the story.
Word Nerd Recommendation: A must-read for everyone to gain a better appreciation of the unique gifts and talents that those around us who are labeled as "special needs" really have.
24 June 2008
Book Banter -- The Dark Flight Down
Title: The Dark Flight Down
Author: Marcus Sedgwick
Length: ~250 pages
Genre: YA horror
Plot Basics: Now free of the magician Valerian, Boy finds himself taken in by the mysterious Kepler and separated from his friend Willow. When Boy goes to retrieve something for Kepler from Valerian's old house, he's taken by the imperial guards of Emperor Frederick. Frederick's right-hand-man, Maxim, thinks Boy's connection to Valerian could lead him to the book and help him aid Frederick's quest to become immortal.
Banter Points: A wonderful sequel to "The Book of Dead Days." It wraps up loose ends from the first one, but is enough of a story on its own, perhaps even more gripping than the first.
Bummer Points: The revelation about Boy's true identity seemed a bit predictable.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Read it.
Author: Marcus Sedgwick
Length: ~250 pages
Genre: YA horror
Plot Basics: Now free of the magician Valerian, Boy finds himself taken in by the mysterious Kepler and separated from his friend Willow. When Boy goes to retrieve something for Kepler from Valerian's old house, he's taken by the imperial guards of Emperor Frederick. Frederick's right-hand-man, Maxim, thinks Boy's connection to Valerian could lead him to the book and help him aid Frederick's quest to become immortal.
Banter Points: A wonderful sequel to "The Book of Dead Days." It wraps up loose ends from the first one, but is enough of a story on its own, perhaps even more gripping than the first.
Bummer Points: The revelation about Boy's true identity seemed a bit predictable.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Read it.
18 June 2008
May 2008 Bibliometer and 500th book
Word Nerd apologizes for this post being so late... she just kept forgetting to crunch the stats.
Here's the reading for May:
8 books
3,493 pages
avg. 113 pages/day
YTD:
41 books
14,538 pages
avg. book length: 354.6 pages
Also, Word Nerd has crossed the 500 book milestone since starting her list! It took a little better than five years, but she has now read 500 (actually, 501) books since March 2003.
The book to cross the 500 mark? The Book of Dead Days by Marcus Sedgwick.
Here's the reading for May:
8 books
3,493 pages
avg. 113 pages/day
YTD:
41 books
14,538 pages
avg. book length: 354.6 pages
Also, Word Nerd has crossed the 500 book milestone since starting her list! It took a little better than five years, but she has now read 500 (actually, 501) books since March 2003.
The book to cross the 500 mark? The Book of Dead Days by Marcus Sedgwick.
17 June 2008
Book Banter -- The Book of Dead Days
Title: The Book of Dead Days
Author: Marcus Sedgwick
Length: 273 pages
Genre: YA/paranormal/horror
Plot Basics: Boy spends his life as the famulus for the magician Valerian, assisting him with his stage show and doing his bidding, hoping to please the enigmatic man. During the dead days between Christmas and New Year's Valerian sends Boy on an errand to retrieve some vital information for him. When the errand goes awry, Boy, Valerian and Boy's friend Willow start a race against time to find a piece of knowledge to keep Valerian alive.
Banter Points: Gripping and un-put-down-able. Sedgwick keeps the tension high throughout the whole story but doesn't lose his wonderfully sparse and lyrical style because of it. One part "The Prestige," one part "The Gunslinger" and one part invention, Sedgwick delivers all around with "Dead Days."
Bummer Points: Word Nerd wishes this were actually an adult book instead of a YA title because she's interested to see how Sedgwick would have ramped up all the characters.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Grab a copy and read it in the bright light of the day because you won't want to read it in the dark!
Author: Marcus Sedgwick
Length: 273 pages
Genre: YA/paranormal/horror
Plot Basics: Boy spends his life as the famulus for the magician Valerian, assisting him with his stage show and doing his bidding, hoping to please the enigmatic man. During the dead days between Christmas and New Year's Valerian sends Boy on an errand to retrieve some vital information for him. When the errand goes awry, Boy, Valerian and Boy's friend Willow start a race against time to find a piece of knowledge to keep Valerian alive.
Banter Points: Gripping and un-put-down-able. Sedgwick keeps the tension high throughout the whole story but doesn't lose his wonderfully sparse and lyrical style because of it. One part "The Prestige," one part "The Gunslinger" and one part invention, Sedgwick delivers all around with "Dead Days."
Bummer Points: Word Nerd wishes this were actually an adult book instead of a YA title because she's interested to see how Sedgwick would have ramped up all the characters.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Grab a copy and read it in the bright light of the day because you won't want to read it in the dark!
16 June 2008
Book Banter -- Murder Melts in Your Mouth
Title: Murder Melts in Your Mouth (Blackbird Sisters mystery)
Author: Nancy Martin
Length: ~280 pages
Genre: mystery
Banter Points: Philadelphia amateur sleuth Nora Blackbird is trying to figure out who was responsible for the death of philanthropist Hoyt Cavendish. Unfortunately for Nora, all the signs point to one of two people -- either her father, mysteriously returned, or her best friend, Lexie. As the investigation continues, Nora discovers new things about her family and find the truth about Hoyt's murder, with the help of her off-again Mafia boyfriend Mick Abruzzo.
Banter Points: This was a good entry into a good series. It was nice to see Nora's parents as characters and this book had a little more depth for Nora and everyone else and less of the silly antics that pervaded the other ones. Martin also seemed to realize that Nora's repetitive fainting was getting old as a plot device and used it sparingly in this book.
Bummer Points: It'll be awhile before Martin comes out with the next one...
Word Nerd Recommendation: Thumbs up again for the Blackbird Sisters. Fans of Janet Evanovich, take note.
Author: Nancy Martin
Length: ~280 pages
Genre: mystery
Banter Points: Philadelphia amateur sleuth Nora Blackbird is trying to figure out who was responsible for the death of philanthropist Hoyt Cavendish. Unfortunately for Nora, all the signs point to one of two people -- either her father, mysteriously returned, or her best friend, Lexie. As the investigation continues, Nora discovers new things about her family and find the truth about Hoyt's murder, with the help of her off-again Mafia boyfriend Mick Abruzzo.
Banter Points: This was a good entry into a good series. It was nice to see Nora's parents as characters and this book had a little more depth for Nora and everyone else and less of the silly antics that pervaded the other ones. Martin also seemed to realize that Nora's repetitive fainting was getting old as a plot device and used it sparingly in this book.
Bummer Points: It'll be awhile before Martin comes out with the next one...
Word Nerd Recommendation: Thumbs up again for the Blackbird Sisters. Fans of Janet Evanovich, take note.
11 June 2008
Word Nerd Returns
Word Nerd is packing up her car tomorrow and heading back to the northern climes of Wisconsin to see her pals from her reporter days.
She is very excited about this.
She might even skulk about the Oshkosh Public Library a bit for old times' sake.
After this trip, Word Nerd also plans to return to some serious work on the book. It's been sorely lacking of late with major work deadlines and writing workshops to teach and travel. She also really hoping to return to doing author interviews to bring some regularity back to the blog. It's harder to do those since they aren't work related anymore, but far from impossible. (Maybe here's Word Nerd's public thanks to the authorsontheweb.com promoters who are keeping Word Nerd in review copies and interviews so far.)
Anyway... if you are a O-towner, keep your eyes open for Word Nerd and say hi.
She is very excited about this.
She might even skulk about the Oshkosh Public Library a bit for old times' sake.
After this trip, Word Nerd also plans to return to some serious work on the book. It's been sorely lacking of late with major work deadlines and writing workshops to teach and travel. She also really hoping to return to doing author interviews to bring some regularity back to the blog. It's harder to do those since they aren't work related anymore, but far from impossible. (Maybe here's Word Nerd's public thanks to the authorsontheweb.com promoters who are keeping Word Nerd in review copies and interviews so far.)
Anyway... if you are a O-towner, keep your eyes open for Word Nerd and say hi.
10 June 2008
Book Banter -- Blood Rites
Title: Blood Rites (Dresden Files, book 6)
Author: Jim Butcher
Length: 372 pages
Genre: urban fantasy
Plot Basics: Chicago's only professional wizard Harry Dresden accepts a case from Thomas, a White Court vampire who has helped Harry out in the past. The case is to protect an adult film director from a wacky, but deadly, entropy curse that keeps hurting people around him. Being Harry, however, his goals to do the right thing and protect women land him in much hotter water than he expected, going up toe-to-toe with a succubus, a nest of vampires, and undead lord and his own heritage.
Banter Points: Word Nerd really likes this series. Just to be clear, Word Nerd really likes this series. One of the biggest things that sets it apart is how Harry Dresden is forced to change through the series. By book six, it is very much not the same Harry readers were introduced to in book one. Butcher manages, however, to not only deliver a great character story, but his fight scenes and the book's action makes for a fast-paced, page-turner.
Bummer Points: Word Nerd was a bit disappointed with how Butcher did some pretty big info dumps in this book. They were thinly veiled as a confession from Harry's former mentor Ebeneezer, but all in all, still an info dump.
Word Nerd Recommendation: If you haven't become familiar with this other wizard named Harry, it's high time.
Author: Jim Butcher
Length: 372 pages
Genre: urban fantasy
Plot Basics: Chicago's only professional wizard Harry Dresden accepts a case from Thomas, a White Court vampire who has helped Harry out in the past. The case is to protect an adult film director from a wacky, but deadly, entropy curse that keeps hurting people around him. Being Harry, however, his goals to do the right thing and protect women land him in much hotter water than he expected, going up toe-to-toe with a succubus, a nest of vampires, and undead lord and his own heritage.
Banter Points: Word Nerd really likes this series. Just to be clear, Word Nerd really likes this series. One of the biggest things that sets it apart is how Harry Dresden is forced to change through the series. By book six, it is very much not the same Harry readers were introduced to in book one. Butcher manages, however, to not only deliver a great character story, but his fight scenes and the book's action makes for a fast-paced, page-turner.
Bummer Points: Word Nerd was a bit disappointed with how Butcher did some pretty big info dumps in this book. They were thinly veiled as a confession from Harry's former mentor Ebeneezer, but all in all, still an info dump.
Word Nerd Recommendation: If you haven't become familiar with this other wizard named Harry, it's high time.
03 June 2008
New Release
Today this book hits shelves.
It's the fourth book in Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampire series. The first three have been great reads and if the cover art is any indication, this one looks good too. Word Nerd may be making an emergency trip to Borders after work today to pick herself up a copy.
As if that wasn't enough, next Thursday, this one comes out. 
Since that picture is small, it's "Kushiel's Mercy" the sixth of Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel books, a top-notch fantasy series.
Too many good books. Not enough hours in the day.
02 June 2008
Book Banter -- My Swordhand is Singing
Title: My Swordhand is Singing
Author: Marcus Sedgwick
Length: 200 pages
Genre: YA horror
Plot Basics: In the old woods of Eastern Europe outside the village of Chust, Peter and his father Tomas work as woodcutters. As the deep of winter descends on the village, a rash of strange deaths reignites legends of the Snow Queen and perhaps a darker evil. With the help of gypsies, Peter and his father must face this menace in this retelling of an early vampire legend.
Banter Points: Word Nerd wonders if there's something about writers named Marcus... Sedgwick definitely takes his place in Word Nerd's mind as a writer to watch along with Marcus Sakey and Markus Zusak. Kudos to Sedgwick for once again making vampires scary, and not the almost-human type of character roaming around a lot of popular fiction. Word Nerd wasn't that familiar with this particular early vampire legend, but that didn't detract from the story. In fact, it rather helped to keep the story moving. It was the title of this book that got Word Nerd to pick it up and Sedgwick did a good job of waiting until the end of the story to make the title click.
Bummer Points: Word Nerd would have liked this book to be scarier, but perhaps for its intended YA audience, it's scary enough. Also, Sedgwick writes these ridiculously short chapters that broke the action up too much.
Word Nerd Recommendation: If you are a vampire fiction fan, try this one out. Or, if you like YA fiction with some substance, it's a good read.
Author: Marcus Sedgwick
Length: 200 pages
Genre: YA horror
Plot Basics: In the old woods of Eastern Europe outside the village of Chust, Peter and his father Tomas work as woodcutters. As the deep of winter descends on the village, a rash of strange deaths reignites legends of the Snow Queen and perhaps a darker evil. With the help of gypsies, Peter and his father must face this menace in this retelling of an early vampire legend.
Banter Points: Word Nerd wonders if there's something about writers named Marcus... Sedgwick definitely takes his place in Word Nerd's mind as a writer to watch along with Marcus Sakey and Markus Zusak. Kudos to Sedgwick for once again making vampires scary, and not the almost-human type of character roaming around a lot of popular fiction. Word Nerd wasn't that familiar with this particular early vampire legend, but that didn't detract from the story. In fact, it rather helped to keep the story moving. It was the title of this book that got Word Nerd to pick it up and Sedgwick did a good job of waiting until the end of the story to make the title click.
Bummer Points: Word Nerd would have liked this book to be scarier, but perhaps for its intended YA audience, it's scary enough. Also, Sedgwick writes these ridiculously short chapters that broke the action up too much.
Word Nerd Recommendation: If you are a vampire fiction fan, try this one out. Or, if you like YA fiction with some substance, it's a good read.
29 May 2008
Book Banter -- Book of a Thousand Days
Title: Book of a Thousand Days
Author: Shannon Hale
Length: ~220 pages
Genre: YA fiction
Plot Basics: Dashti becomes a lady's maid to Lady Saren, right before Saren is imprisoned in a tower by her father. Saren's father's plan is to imprison her in a tower for seven years as punishment for Saren refusing a rising war lord as her suitor. Dashti and Saren begin their imprisonment hopefully for the tower is stocked with food and built over a well. But as the days stretch on, the food goes too fast, Saren drops farther and farther into an unreachable melancholy and Dashti must figure out how to keep them both alive.
Banter Points: Word Nerd is so glad she stumbled on to this title. Walking around the YA section at her library, she spotted this book on the shelf and thought it looked intriguing and was it ever. Hale's resetting of this little-known Brothers Grimm tale into the steppes of Mongolia is a surprising but clever choice. Her language is picturesque and poetic in creating a fabulous story.
Bummer Points: Word Nerd can't really find one here, other than perhaps the fact that this book didn't get an award.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Get to the library or bookstore and read this one. For any parent wanting to give their teenage daughter a book that's not of the "Gossip Girl" variety, check this one out.
Author: Shannon Hale
Length: ~220 pages
Genre: YA fiction
Plot Basics: Dashti becomes a lady's maid to Lady Saren, right before Saren is imprisoned in a tower by her father. Saren's father's plan is to imprison her in a tower for seven years as punishment for Saren refusing a rising war lord as her suitor. Dashti and Saren begin their imprisonment hopefully for the tower is stocked with food and built over a well. But as the days stretch on, the food goes too fast, Saren drops farther and farther into an unreachable melancholy and Dashti must figure out how to keep them both alive.
Banter Points: Word Nerd is so glad she stumbled on to this title. Walking around the YA section at her library, she spotted this book on the shelf and thought it looked intriguing and was it ever. Hale's resetting of this little-known Brothers Grimm tale into the steppes of Mongolia is a surprising but clever choice. Her language is picturesque and poetic in creating a fabulous story.
Bummer Points: Word Nerd can't really find one here, other than perhaps the fact that this book didn't get an award.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Get to the library or bookstore and read this one. For any parent wanting to give their teenage daughter a book that's not of the "Gossip Girl" variety, check this one out.
21 May 2008
Book Banter -- The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao
Title: The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao
Author: Junot Diaz
Length: 459 pages (large-type version)
Genre: literary fiction
Plot Basics: Oscar Wao is a overweight sci-fi/fantasy nerd. The problem is, culturally, as a man from the Dominican Republic, he's expected to be very smooth with the ladies. Rather, Oscar is terrible, falling ridiculously in love with girls he cannot have. Oscar's failure with girls may be the result of a long family curse and it impacts all those around him.
Banter Points: Word Nerd read this book as her May title for her book club. It's not a title that she likely would have picked up, but she's really glad the club picked it. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008 and it's clear why. Diaz presents a great story in a unique voice. Also, Word Nerd enjoyed the story because of all the sci-fi references. Though Diaz pokes fun at genre fiction, he clearly knows it because the references are spot-on from Lord of the Rings to Robotech to The Matrix.
Bummer Points: Word Nerd wished she knew just a tad more Spanish. Diaz flips in and out of Spanish throughout the book and while she could decipher it many times, there were plenty of others when she had no clue.
Word Nerd Recommendation: This book is very worth the read. Tragically comedic and historically informative, Oscar Wao is a character that many people should get to know.
Author: Junot Diaz
Length: 459 pages (large-type version)
Genre: literary fiction
Plot Basics: Oscar Wao is a overweight sci-fi/fantasy nerd. The problem is, culturally, as a man from the Dominican Republic, he's expected to be very smooth with the ladies. Rather, Oscar is terrible, falling ridiculously in love with girls he cannot have. Oscar's failure with girls may be the result of a long family curse and it impacts all those around him.
Banter Points: Word Nerd read this book as her May title for her book club. It's not a title that she likely would have picked up, but she's really glad the club picked it. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008 and it's clear why. Diaz presents a great story in a unique voice. Also, Word Nerd enjoyed the story because of all the sci-fi references. Though Diaz pokes fun at genre fiction, he clearly knows it because the references are spot-on from Lord of the Rings to Robotech to The Matrix.
Bummer Points: Word Nerd wished she knew just a tad more Spanish. Diaz flips in and out of Spanish throughout the book and while she could decipher it many times, there were plenty of others when she had no clue.
Word Nerd Recommendation: This book is very worth the read. Tragically comedic and historically informative, Oscar Wao is a character that many people should get to know.
16 May 2008
One, Singular New Chapter
Word Nerd is finally finally done drafting the new chapter for her novel. The new Chapter Nine. This new chapter took far, far, far too long to write. There was the false start. And then there was the putting it off because she was reading Stephenie Meyer's "The Host." Done with that, Word Nerd thought last night it was high time to buckle down and finish this chapter.
Here's what she learned:
First. It's kind of tricky to get back into the rhythm of the characters and write full tilt. When doing the original draft, all the main characters -- Sedine, Taorin, Preben, Lefra, etc. -- were very alive in her head and so writing them was no big deal. Now, in the editing phase, their actual voices are quieter so that Word Nerd's internal editor can speak more freely. Adding in the chapter meant muting the editor and returning the characters to the forefront.
Second. The novel is better for having this chapter. Shocker. The gap between the original chs. 8 and 9 was too big, too much skipped information. Now, the original ch. 8 and now-chapter 10 hang together much better.
Third. The BIC writing plan works. (This being the butt-in-chair plan). This chapter took too long because Word Nerd wasn't making herself sit there and just write it. Ditto for the editing.
Fourth. The first revisions won't be done by the end of May. Now, sometime in June is the target date for the first pass through. Slower than hoped for, but not too bad. Given also that most TV shows end for the season next week, Word Nerd can't blame Bones or House or (ahem) American Idol for why she's not making progress.
Fifth. Word Nerd can't wait for her newly launched critique group to get underway because she needs some outside perspectives.
Here's what she learned:
First. It's kind of tricky to get back into the rhythm of the characters and write full tilt. When doing the original draft, all the main characters -- Sedine, Taorin, Preben, Lefra, etc. -- were very alive in her head and so writing them was no big deal. Now, in the editing phase, their actual voices are quieter so that Word Nerd's internal editor can speak more freely. Adding in the chapter meant muting the editor and returning the characters to the forefront.
Second. The novel is better for having this chapter. Shocker. The gap between the original chs. 8 and 9 was too big, too much skipped information. Now, the original ch. 8 and now-chapter 10 hang together much better.
Third. The BIC writing plan works. (This being the butt-in-chair plan). This chapter took too long because Word Nerd wasn't making herself sit there and just write it. Ditto for the editing.
Fourth. The first revisions won't be done by the end of May. Now, sometime in June is the target date for the first pass through. Slower than hoped for, but not too bad. Given also that most TV shows end for the season next week, Word Nerd can't blame Bones or House or (ahem) American Idol for why she's not making progress.
Fifth. Word Nerd can't wait for her newly launched critique group to get underway because she needs some outside perspectives.
15 May 2008
Book Banter -- The Winter Rose
Title: The Winter Rose
Author: Jennifer Donnelly
Length: ~700 pages
Genre: historical fiction
Plot Basics: India Selwyn Jones seems to be getting everything she wants -- graduating from medical school, getting a posting with a well-known London doctor and marrying an up-and-coming member of Parliament. But as India starts to practice medicine, she discovers that doctors could be doing much more to help the very poor of London's East End. The truth about the East End comes to light particularly when she treats the legendary criminal Sid Malone and sees his concern for the people. As the Labour movement sweeps through London as to cries to end crime, India and Sid are swept up in a series of events that brings them together and tears them apart, spanning years and three continents.
Banter Points: Donnelly again creates a sweeping historical epic with richly devised characters and a good plot. Sid Malone is an interesting character (particularly given his history revealed in "The Tea Rose) and it's nice to see a character struggle to grow as he did.
Bummer Points: In the last third of the book, Donnelly reintroduces the character of Seamie Finnegan and suddenly Seamie's got his own subplot. She puts him there to help Sid later but the whole story line feels a bit deus ex machina so that she can use Seamie later to advance the main plot.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Word Nerd has liked these first two books and will keep her eyes open in the future for more from Donnelly.
Author: Jennifer Donnelly
Length: ~700 pages
Genre: historical fiction
Plot Basics: India Selwyn Jones seems to be getting everything she wants -- graduating from medical school, getting a posting with a well-known London doctor and marrying an up-and-coming member of Parliament. But as India starts to practice medicine, she discovers that doctors could be doing much more to help the very poor of London's East End. The truth about the East End comes to light particularly when she treats the legendary criminal Sid Malone and sees his concern for the people. As the Labour movement sweeps through London as to cries to end crime, India and Sid are swept up in a series of events that brings them together and tears them apart, spanning years and three continents.
Banter Points: Donnelly again creates a sweeping historical epic with richly devised characters and a good plot. Sid Malone is an interesting character (particularly given his history revealed in "The Tea Rose) and it's nice to see a character struggle to grow as he did.
Bummer Points: In the last third of the book, Donnelly reintroduces the character of Seamie Finnegan and suddenly Seamie's got his own subplot. She puts him there to help Sid later but the whole story line feels a bit deus ex machina so that she can use Seamie later to advance the main plot.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Word Nerd has liked these first two books and will keep her eyes open in the future for more from Donnelly.
14 May 2008
Book Banter -- The Host
Title: The Host
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Length: 619 pages
Genre: sci-fi
Plot Basics: Sometime in the future, humans on earth become the host bodies for a race of sentient aliens. Most of the planet has been subdued, but there are a few remaining humans. Melanie Stryder is one of those... until she is captured and implanted with an alien "soul" named Wanderer. Most of the time, the souls take over the human so the human body cannot think, but Melanie is a fighter. And so Wanderer and Melanie inhabit the same body, Melanie's desires to be reunited to her brother Jamie and Jared, the man who was helping keep them safe, compelling some of Wanderer's actions and leading to discoveries that could start to change the planet.
Banter Points: Meyer proves she not just a one-series wonder with "The Host." Infused with the same rich level of emotion that her Twilight series is, the Host (like the alien soul) gets under your skin. Both provoking and moving, Meyer's twist on an "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" plot gives readers classic sci-fi (putting an ordinary person in an extraordinary circumstance) with an emotional tug.
Bummer Points: SPOILER (jump to the recommendation if you don't want to ruin anything)
The Melanie-Jared-Ian triangle seemed more than a little reminiscent of the Bella-Edward-Jacob triangle, particularly in view of how the two men respond differently to the heroine.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Read this one. The hype about Stephenie Meyer is well-deserved and this is an interesting and less sci-fi-techy look at what it means to be human.
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Length: 619 pages
Genre: sci-fi
Plot Basics: Sometime in the future, humans on earth become the host bodies for a race of sentient aliens. Most of the planet has been subdued, but there are a few remaining humans. Melanie Stryder is one of those... until she is captured and implanted with an alien "soul" named Wanderer. Most of the time, the souls take over the human so the human body cannot think, but Melanie is a fighter. And so Wanderer and Melanie inhabit the same body, Melanie's desires to be reunited to her brother Jamie and Jared, the man who was helping keep them safe, compelling some of Wanderer's actions and leading to discoveries that could start to change the planet.
Banter Points: Meyer proves she not just a one-series wonder with "The Host." Infused with the same rich level of emotion that her Twilight series is, the Host (like the alien soul) gets under your skin. Both provoking and moving, Meyer's twist on an "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" plot gives readers classic sci-fi (putting an ordinary person in an extraordinary circumstance) with an emotional tug.
Bummer Points: SPOILER (jump to the recommendation if you don't want to ruin anything)
The Melanie-Jared-Ian triangle seemed more than a little reminiscent of the Bella-Edward-Jacob triangle, particularly in view of how the two men respond differently to the heroine.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Read this one. The hype about Stephenie Meyer is well-deserved and this is an interesting and less sci-fi-techy look at what it means to be human.
12 May 2008
Book Banter -- Chuck Dugan is AWOL
Title: Chuck Dugan is AWOL
Author: Eric Chase Anderson
Length: 223 pages
Genre: adventure fiction
Plot Basics: Midshipman Chuck Dugan goes AWOL to try to stop his mother's remarriage to a shady character known only as "The Admiral."
Banter Points: The high point of this book is all of Anderson's drawings. Every chapter has a map of where the action occurs and throughout each chapter, smaller drawings are sprinkled as well. The maps definitely help give the action the right visuals because Anderson doesn't use a lot of description.
Bummer Points: The plot is pretty weak and Word Nerd felt like there was some information that should have been presented much earlier in the story than when it was revealed (like, oh, say that the story happens in the 1940/50s...explains WHY there's still a sailing German U-boat.)
Word Nerd Recommendation: Word Nerd borrowed this book from a friend. It's fun for a quick read, but if you are looking for substance and plot with pictures, this isn't the illustrated novel you're looking for.
Author: Eric Chase Anderson
Length: 223 pages
Genre: adventure fiction
Plot Basics: Midshipman Chuck Dugan goes AWOL to try to stop his mother's remarriage to a shady character known only as "The Admiral."
Banter Points: The high point of this book is all of Anderson's drawings. Every chapter has a map of where the action occurs and throughout each chapter, smaller drawings are sprinkled as well. The maps definitely help give the action the right visuals because Anderson doesn't use a lot of description.
Bummer Points: The plot is pretty weak and Word Nerd felt like there was some information that should have been presented much earlier in the story than when it was revealed (like, oh, say that the story happens in the 1940/50s...explains WHY there's still a sailing German U-boat.)
Word Nerd Recommendation: Word Nerd borrowed this book from a friend. It's fun for a quick read, but if you are looking for substance and plot with pictures, this isn't the illustrated novel you're looking for.
09 May 2008
Book Banter -- Kushiel's Justice
Title: Kushiel's Justice
Author: Jacqueline Carey
Length: ~700 pages
Genre: fantasy
Plot Basics: Back from university, Imriel no Montreve de la Courcel (third in line for the throne) agrees to a political marriage with a girl from Alba. But before he marries her, Imri's interest in his cousin Sidonie, the dauphine of the kingdom, sets him on a path of a dangerous affair and a love that threatens the entire kingdom. When he reaches Alba, Imri's secret love for Sidonie and the wild magic of Alba ensnare him in a plot that could bring down both that kingdom and Sidonie. To set it to rights, Imri exacts justice on the plot's mastermind and tracks him down across the vast winter of Vralia.
Banter Points: Carey knows how to write epics! This whole series, set in a Renaissance-like alter-Europe is rich in detail and character. Imri's heartache rings true and his quest keeps readers turning pages. The in-love-with-his-cousin bit might seem odd in light of current mores, but for the world Carey creates, it works with a very Romeo-and-Juliet "star-crossed lovers" feel.
Bummer Points: This book drags a bit in the middle when Imri is in Alba. It makes sense at the end to understand the changes in Imri as a character, but the process for getting there seems a little slow while in it.
Word Nerd Recommendation: The next book about Imri comes out this summer and Word Nerd cannot wait. Carey definitely deserves a spot in the list of fantasy greats, somewhere around George R.R. Martin, Robin Hobb and Stephen Donaldson.
Author: Jacqueline Carey
Length: ~700 pages
Genre: fantasy
Plot Basics: Back from university, Imriel no Montreve de la Courcel (third in line for the throne) agrees to a political marriage with a girl from Alba. But before he marries her, Imri's interest in his cousin Sidonie, the dauphine of the kingdom, sets him on a path of a dangerous affair and a love that threatens the entire kingdom. When he reaches Alba, Imri's secret love for Sidonie and the wild magic of Alba ensnare him in a plot that could bring down both that kingdom and Sidonie. To set it to rights, Imri exacts justice on the plot's mastermind and tracks him down across the vast winter of Vralia.
Banter Points: Carey knows how to write epics! This whole series, set in a Renaissance-like alter-Europe is rich in detail and character. Imri's heartache rings true and his quest keeps readers turning pages. The in-love-with-his-cousin bit might seem odd in light of current mores, but for the world Carey creates, it works with a very Romeo-and-Juliet "star-crossed lovers" feel.
Bummer Points: This book drags a bit in the middle when Imri is in Alba. It makes sense at the end to understand the changes in Imri as a character, but the process for getting there seems a little slow while in it.
Word Nerd Recommendation: The next book about Imri comes out this summer and Word Nerd cannot wait. Carey definitely deserves a spot in the list of fantasy greats, somewhere around George R.R. Martin, Robin Hobb and Stephen Donaldson.
April 2008 Bibliometer
Word Nerd forgot she hadn't done the April tally of things read yet.
Here it is:
7 books,
2614 pages
avg. 87 pages/day
April was a bit sparser than the first three months of 2008, but Word Nerd attributes that to being in fundraising school for a week. While the class was great, it was information overload and when Word Nerd would get home after class, the last thing she wanted to do was try to absorb more information (even if it was just the plot of a novel.)
Here it is:
7 books,
2614 pages
avg. 87 pages/day
April was a bit sparser than the first three months of 2008, but Word Nerd attributes that to being in fundraising school for a week. While the class was great, it was information overload and when Word Nerd would get home after class, the last thing she wanted to do was try to absorb more information (even if it was just the plot of a novel.)
08 May 2008
New Writers Group
Indianapolis blog readers!
Word Nerd and the Harrison Center for the Arts are setting up a new writers group.
Writers in any genre are encouraged to apply. For group information and application submission guidelines, e-mail HCAWriters@gmail.com for information.
Word Nerd and the Harrison Center for the Arts are setting up a new writers group.
Writers in any genre are encouraged to apply. For group information and application submission guidelines, e-mail HCAWriters@gmail.com for information.
07 May 2008
Whining
The new chapter Word Nerd's trying to add to her WIP is not going well.
It feels forced, disjointed and anachronistic.
Sigh.
It feels forced, disjointed and anachronistic.
Sigh.
06 May 2008
The May Plan
The plan for May had been to read only books that Word Nerd owned or had been lent to her.
So much for that plan.
Word Nerd's got a copy of Stephenie Meyer's new book, "The Host," on its way to her through the library system.
Somehow, Word Nerd didn't realize this book came out in May (or figured like normal, it would take the library a good six weeks between the release of the book and getting it to the people who had it on hold).
Anyway, it looks like the owned/lent pile project may get pushed back into June because with a Stephenie Meyer book actually written for adults on its way, there's no way Word Nerd will let that title wait for a while.
So much for that plan.
Word Nerd's got a copy of Stephenie Meyer's new book, "The Host," on its way to her through the library system.
Somehow, Word Nerd didn't realize this book came out in May (or figured like normal, it would take the library a good six weeks between the release of the book and getting it to the people who had it on hold).
Anyway, it looks like the owned/lent pile project may get pushed back into June because with a Stephenie Meyer book actually written for adults on its way, there's no way Word Nerd will let that title wait for a while.
05 May 2008
New Scene(s)
Word Nerd spent some time working on the WIP this weekend and hit the first place where she discovered she really needs to add some brand new material.
So far, there have been some small scene overhauls (ie, take out all the crappy dialogue and write better dialogue). There's also been one short scene addition. But this... Word Nerd discovered that in the original of trying to speed up the action, there was too much left out that couldn't be hinted at well-enough in short flashbacks.
This throws the revision schedule off because before moving forward, Word Nerd's stopping where she's at to add stuff. The additions include 1. moving one character's private room to a different section of the castle 2. A verbal fight. 3. Likely another verbal fight, with a different character. 4. Some sort of a scene to better set-up the romantic plot line that appears in the next chapter.
Word Nerd realizes these additions are not just a scene, but more like an entire new chapter. But she also knows the WIP will be stronger for it, so it's worth it to take this little revision detour.
So far, there have been some small scene overhauls (ie, take out all the crappy dialogue and write better dialogue). There's also been one short scene addition. But this... Word Nerd discovered that in the original of trying to speed up the action, there was too much left out that couldn't be hinted at well-enough in short flashbacks.
This throws the revision schedule off because before moving forward, Word Nerd's stopping where she's at to add stuff. The additions include 1. moving one character's private room to a different section of the castle 2. A verbal fight. 3. Likely another verbal fight, with a different character. 4. Some sort of a scene to better set-up the romantic plot line that appears in the next chapter.
Word Nerd realizes these additions are not just a scene, but more like an entire new chapter. But she also knows the WIP will be stronger for it, so it's worth it to take this little revision detour.
02 May 2008
Book Banter -- Atonement
Title: Atonement
Author: Ian McEwan
Length: 351 pages
Genre: literary fiction
Plot Basics: Thirteen year-old Briony Tallis sees a moment pass between her older sister Cecilia and Robbie Turner, the gardener's son, one hot summer day. Briony's active imagination makes her think she understands what she sees. But, her interpretation -- caught between a child's understanding and an adult's -- triggers a series of events that changes her, along with Cecelia's and Robbie's forever.
Banter Points: Word Nerd is generally a stickler for reading the book before seeing the movie. This time, though, she saw the movie first, and was reminded when reading the book why she has that rule in the first place. She enjoyed the story and the characters were well-developed, but the book lost something because she knew the twist from the movie. One thing she liked better in the book was the second half. Where in the movie it seemed to drag on, in the book, McEwan's change of tone for that part really propelled it along.
Bummer Points: The ending? Even knowing what was going to happen didn't make it any better.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Read the book before seeing the movie. Also, Word Nerd enjoyed McEwan's style, so she may pick up more of his books in the future.
Author: Ian McEwan
Length: 351 pages
Genre: literary fiction
Plot Basics: Thirteen year-old Briony Tallis sees a moment pass between her older sister Cecilia and Robbie Turner, the gardener's son, one hot summer day. Briony's active imagination makes her think she understands what she sees. But, her interpretation -- caught between a child's understanding and an adult's -- triggers a series of events that changes her, along with Cecelia's and Robbie's forever.
Banter Points: Word Nerd is generally a stickler for reading the book before seeing the movie. This time, though, she saw the movie first, and was reminded when reading the book why she has that rule in the first place. She enjoyed the story and the characters were well-developed, but the book lost something because she knew the twist from the movie. One thing she liked better in the book was the second half. Where in the movie it seemed to drag on, in the book, McEwan's change of tone for that part really propelled it along.
Bummer Points: The ending? Even knowing what was going to happen didn't make it any better.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Read the book before seeing the movie. Also, Word Nerd enjoyed McEwan's style, so she may pick up more of his books in the future.
25 April 2008
Book Banter -- The Learners
Title: The Learners
Author: Chip Kidd
Length: ~2250 pages
Genre: literary fiction
Plot Basics: A few years have passed since the end of Kidd's "The Cheese Monkeys." Happy, the protagonist, now goes to work for an ad agency where his beloved professor once worked. One of Happy's first jobs is to design an ad recruiting participants for an experiment run at Yale by Dr. Stanley Milgram. Happy later volunteers himself for the experiment and ends up on a journey about self-discovery and happiness and human capabilities.
Banter Points: Who all ever had to study Stanley Milgram in school and the ethics of his experiment? (Word Nerd raises her hand). This is by far the most intriguing look at this experiment Word Nerd's ever come across. Rather than just explaining what Milgram did, it delves into how the people who took it reacted to what they learned. Of course, Kidd's blend of graphic design lessons and over-the-top comedic characters helps too.
Bummer Points: The ending. Not what Word Nerd was expecting. Also, not quite as captivating as "The Cheese Monkeys."
Word Nerd Recommendation: Go pick up both "The Cheese Monkeys" and "The Learners" and see just how great of a writer Kidd is for yourself.
Author: Chip Kidd
Length: ~2250 pages
Genre: literary fiction
Plot Basics: A few years have passed since the end of Kidd's "The Cheese Monkeys." Happy, the protagonist, now goes to work for an ad agency where his beloved professor once worked. One of Happy's first jobs is to design an ad recruiting participants for an experiment run at Yale by Dr. Stanley Milgram. Happy later volunteers himself for the experiment and ends up on a journey about self-discovery and happiness and human capabilities.
Banter Points: Who all ever had to study Stanley Milgram in school and the ethics of his experiment? (Word Nerd raises her hand). This is by far the most intriguing look at this experiment Word Nerd's ever come across. Rather than just explaining what Milgram did, it delves into how the people who took it reacted to what they learned. Of course, Kidd's blend of graphic design lessons and over-the-top comedic characters helps too.
Bummer Points: The ending. Not what Word Nerd was expecting. Also, not quite as captivating as "The Cheese Monkeys."
Word Nerd Recommendation: Go pick up both "The Cheese Monkeys" and "The Learners" and see just how great of a writer Kidd is for yourself.
24 April 2008
Author Answers with Jill Davis
Word Nerd has been having trouble remember when Wednesdays are, so instead of waiting for another one to roll around, she's going to post this week's Author Answers column 6 days early (that sounds better than a day late, right?)
This week's author is Jill A. Davis, whose new book "Ask Again Later" recently hit shelves. For more info on Davis, check out her website.
WN: What was the inspiration for "Ask Again Later?"
DAVIS: I wrote a serialized novella for USA Today a few years ago called The Countdown. When I was finished writing that I really missed Emily. I had started writing other stories but I kept going back to her and feeling the story was incomplete. In the novella only her work life was written about. This is a comedy about growing up.
WN: You wrote for the Late Show with David Letterman. What's different about writing comedy compared to writing fiction? Is one harder than the other, and if so, what makes it more challenging?
DAVIS: Wait, wait. My fiction isn't comedic? Then I'm failing miserably. There are quite a few differences between writing for television and writing novels. When you write for television it has to be very short, punchy and you are writing in someone else's voice - a man's voice, in my case. As I wrote for him, I'd have to imagine him saying the words. This was excellent practice for novel writing in a way I couldn't have predicted. As you you write a novel you are constantly asking yourself "would this character really say this? would she say is this way?". Of course, a novel has a story to tell. So in that way, it's a different kind of commitment. It's less disposable than television. I love writing for TV and I love writing novels.
WN: Were you a reader as a kid? What turned you on to the idea of being a writer?
DAVIS: Huge reader. I would read and reread anything I could get my hands on. Sometimes this meant reading mom's mail - before mom read it. I would read age appropriate stuff and then I'd also read Sidney Sheldon at my grandmother's house when she wasn't looking. I can vaguely remember reading a biography of Shirley Temple when I was about 10. Whatever was on a shelf at her house was fair game. When I was a teen-ager I loved Hermann Hesse. I can remember stumbling upon him in the high school library and what struck me was that there were so many copies of his books. This was because the 4th year German students read his books as a class, but I didn't know that at the time. I was always a shy but funny kid. So the idea of expressing myself on paper somehow seemed easier than speaking. I never had a plan B, I always planned to write.
WN: What's next for you as a writer?
DAVIS: I'm working on a book now. But there are many things I'd like to do. I've love to write a play. I have an idea for novel for a young adults.
21 April 2008
The Revision Schedule
Word Nerd went through her WIP late last week to devise a plan for how to work through revisions. Tackling the 381-page manuscript seems to daunting when thinking about it all at once.
Word Nerd went through and added chapter breaks and her revision schedule roughly follows the chapters. All in all, it's 39 sections of about 8-12 pages each that she needs to tackle. Looking at revisions like this seems so much more do-able than thinking about the whole book.
To the right, you'll see new progress meters for revisions and the new "word count fluctuator." As Word Nerd revises, the total word count for the book fluctuates, so this seemed easier than always reposting the total.
With the 39 sections (3 down, 36 to go!) Word Nerd's hopeful that she'll be through the first draft by the end of May-ish. That should be cause for celebration!
Word Nerd went through and added chapter breaks and her revision schedule roughly follows the chapters. All in all, it's 39 sections of about 8-12 pages each that she needs to tackle. Looking at revisions like this seems so much more do-able than thinking about the whole book.
To the right, you'll see new progress meters for revisions and the new "word count fluctuator." As Word Nerd revises, the total word count for the book fluctuates, so this seemed easier than always reposting the total.
With the 39 sections (3 down, 36 to go!) Word Nerd's hopeful that she'll be through the first draft by the end of May-ish. That should be cause for celebration!
17 April 2008
Book Banter -- The Gun Seller
Title: The Gun Seller
Author: Hugh Laurie
Length: 339 pages
Genre: comedy/thriller
Plot Basics: Thomas Lang is a gun-for-hire. His latest job is to kill an American industrialist, but Lang decides to warn the man instead of pulling the trigger. His refusal launches him into a James Bond-esque adventure spoof with spies, counter-spies, beautiful women, ski resorts and the dangerous world of terrorism and international arms dealing.
Banter Points: Word Nerd picked this book up solely because Hugh Laurie wrote it (and it looked interesting...) Lang finally became an interesting character about halfway through the book when the plot also twists.
Bummer Points: The first half of the book is slow and rather uninteresting. Word Nerd contemplated putting it down more than once in this period. The book is also very British and depsite what the reviewers said, it is not full of the sort of British colloquialisms that Americans love; it is full of colloquialisms this American was unfamiliar with.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Forget that Dr. House writes books. While his novel is better than a lot of celebrity writing, Laurie should stick to playing an acerbic American doctor and leave writing spoof British spy novels to somebody else.
Author: Hugh Laurie
Length: 339 pages
Genre: comedy/thriller
Plot Basics: Thomas Lang is a gun-for-hire. His latest job is to kill an American industrialist, but Lang decides to warn the man instead of pulling the trigger. His refusal launches him into a James Bond-esque adventure spoof with spies, counter-spies, beautiful women, ski resorts and the dangerous world of terrorism and international arms dealing.
Banter Points: Word Nerd picked this book up solely because Hugh Laurie wrote it (and it looked interesting...) Lang finally became an interesting character about halfway through the book when the plot also twists.
Bummer Points: The first half of the book is slow and rather uninteresting. Word Nerd contemplated putting it down more than once in this period. The book is also very British and depsite what the reviewers said, it is not full of the sort of British colloquialisms that Americans love; it is full of colloquialisms this American was unfamiliar with.
Word Nerd Recommendation: Forget that Dr. House writes books. While his novel is better than a lot of celebrity writing, Laurie should stick to playing an acerbic American doctor and leave writing spoof British spy novels to somebody else.
16 April 2008
Book Banter -- Too Pretty to Die
Title: Too Pretty to Die
Author: Susan McBride
Length: ~350 pages
Genre: chick-lit/mystery
Plot Basics: Dallas debutante drop-out Andy Kendricks is dragged to a "pretty party" by her reporter-friend Janet. Pretty parties are the latest fad sweeping upper crust Dallas, replacing Tupperware with Botox and other cosmetic treatments. When Andy's old grade-school classmate, Miranda DuBois crashes a pretty party looking much worse for the cosmetic surgery wear, Andy volunteers to take her home. The next morning, Miranda is dead and while the police call it suicide, Andy just doesn't see why a former Dallas pageant winner would shuffle herself off.
Banter Points: Andy's detecting antics are top-notch again in McBride's latest offering in the Debutante Dropout series. The hilarity between her and her mother continues. And McBride keeps the whole book to to a tight time frame which is well-done and believable and prevents the action from sprawling all over.
Bummer Points: The Caviar Club plot twist seems to come out of nowhere like McBride was trying to hard for comedy and thought that scene would be funny. It's not.
Word Nerd Recommendation: On the whole, the series is good and this one is still up there, save for the Caviar Club bit.
Author: Susan McBride
Length: ~350 pages
Genre: chick-lit/mystery
Plot Basics: Dallas debutante drop-out Andy Kendricks is dragged to a "pretty party" by her reporter-friend Janet. Pretty parties are the latest fad sweeping upper crust Dallas, replacing Tupperware with Botox and other cosmetic treatments. When Andy's old grade-school classmate, Miranda DuBois crashes a pretty party looking much worse for the cosmetic surgery wear, Andy volunteers to take her home. The next morning, Miranda is dead and while the police call it suicide, Andy just doesn't see why a former Dallas pageant winner would shuffle herself off.
Banter Points: Andy's detecting antics are top-notch again in McBride's latest offering in the Debutante Dropout series. The hilarity between her and her mother continues. And McBride keeps the whole book to to a tight time frame which is well-done and believable and prevents the action from sprawling all over.
Bummer Points: The Caviar Club plot twist seems to come out of nowhere like McBride was trying to hard for comedy and thought that scene would be funny. It's not.
Word Nerd Recommendation: On the whole, the series is good and this one is still up there, save for the Caviar Club bit.
15 April 2008
Guest Blogger -- Worderella
Word Nerd's relinquishing her post today to welcome guest blogger, Belinda Kroll, also known in the blogosphere as Worderella, the mind behind Worderella Writes.
Belinda is an historical fiction reader/writer and so Word Nerd asked her to do a post on what good historical fiction is. Here's what she has to say.
An Introduction to Historical Fiction by Belinda Kroll
The standard is any book set before 1912 (or sometimes before WWI), is considered historical, and how an author relates the historical information defines the sub-genres. There are costume dramas, where clothing defines the historical context. There are comedies of manners, where social norms define the context and provide plot twists. Historical romance has romance as the main theme with a historical context, whereas a straight historical focuses on political intrigue and may have a romance as a plot thread. War historicals rely on particular wars as the underlying theme, paranormal historicals play upon previous sensibilities about life after death... There are more sub-genres than I can ever care to list, which is the best part of historical fiction, I think.
Above all, good historical fiction will make you more interested about the time period. Good historical fiction is good literature and good history. If the author manipulates historical fact, then some historians argue the novel is no longer a straight historical. Then again, some say historical fiction is as much for historians as supernatural fiction is for ghosts, or science fiction is for physicists. One of my favorite trends from the historical fiction genre is when authors have a note at the end discussing what actually happened and why they made a time-line tweak, if they did. These author notes often come with a list of suggested reading if the reader is interested in learning more about the actual event, and for an information junkie like me, that's about the best thing an author can do.
So how do you pick a good historical fiction? I begin with Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, Elizabeth Gaskell, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, etc., and branch out from there. Favorites in the genre are Ann Rinaldi (The Last Silk Dress, The Fifth of March, Wolf by the Ears, In My Father's House), Tracy Chevalier (Girl with a Pearl Earring), Philip Pullman (Ruby in the Smoke), Jane Yolen (Briar Rose), Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities), Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Scarlett Letter)...
I suggest talking to your local bookstore clerk to see what are the bestselling books in the genre, and add some of your own interests to the mix to see if there's a historical fiction book with your interest as a subplot. If you can dream it up, I'm certain some author, somewhere, did the same thing.
Belinda Kroll has a book published through Aventine Press. She writes the blog Worderella Writes at Siriomi Web Designs.
Belinda is an historical fiction reader/writer and so Word Nerd asked her to do a post on what good historical fiction is. Here's what she has to say.
An Introduction to Historical Fiction by Belinda Kroll
"Without historical accuracy, my books would be fantasy. With only historical accuracy, they would be textbooks. For historical fiction, there must be a story, accurate in detail but brought to life through imagination and creativity."- Karen CushmanI like to think of historical fiction as the first cousin of science fiction and fantasy, if only because all three genres depend on world-building. While science fiction and fantasy may borrow from the histories of our world, historical fiction is defined by extensive research of past eras. For many readers, historical fiction is a fun way (or only way) to learn about the past because it provides a human element to bone-dry textbook facts as the author attempts portray how life was.
The standard is any book set before 1912 (or sometimes before WWI), is considered historical, and how an author relates the historical information defines the sub-genres. There are costume dramas, where clothing defines the historical context. There are comedies of manners, where social norms define the context and provide plot twists. Historical romance has romance as the main theme with a historical context, whereas a straight historical focuses on political intrigue and may have a romance as a plot thread. War historicals rely on particular wars as the underlying theme, paranormal historicals play upon previous sensibilities about life after death... There are more sub-genres than I can ever care to list, which is the best part of historical fiction, I think.
Above all, good historical fiction will make you more interested about the time period. Good historical fiction is good literature and good history. If the author manipulates historical fact, then some historians argue the novel is no longer a straight historical. Then again, some say historical fiction is as much for historians as supernatural fiction is for ghosts, or science fiction is for physicists. One of my favorite trends from the historical fiction genre is when authors have a note at the end discussing what actually happened and why they made a time-line tweak, if they did. These author notes often come with a list of suggested reading if the reader is interested in learning more about the actual event, and for an information junkie like me, that's about the best thing an author can do.
So how do you pick a good historical fiction? I begin with Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, Elizabeth Gaskell, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, etc., and branch out from there. Favorites in the genre are Ann Rinaldi (The Last Silk Dress, The Fifth of March, Wolf by the Ears, In My Father's House), Tracy Chevalier (Girl with a Pearl Earring), Philip Pullman (Ruby in the Smoke), Jane Yolen (Briar Rose), Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities), Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Scarlett Letter)...
I suggest talking to your local bookstore clerk to see what are the bestselling books in the genre, and add some of your own interests to the mix to see if there's a historical fiction book with your interest as a subplot. If you can dream it up, I'm certain some author, somewhere, did the same thing.
Belinda Kroll has a book published through Aventine Press. She writes the blog Worderella Writes at Siriomi Web Designs.
10 April 2008
A Note on the Currently Reading title
Just in case you wondered, the Hugh Laurie who wrote "The Gunseller" is the same Hugh Laurie who plays Dr. Gregory House on "House."
Apparently, he's adding fiction writing to his resume.
Word Nerd wants to see how good he is at that. Two chapters in, the verdict is still out, but it's too early, really, to tell.
Apparently, he's adding fiction writing to his resume.
Word Nerd wants to see how good he is at that. Two chapters in, the verdict is still out, but it's too early, really, to tell.
03 April 2008
Book Banter -- Fighting Ruben Wolfe
Title: Fighting Ruben Wolfe
Author: Markus Zusak
Genre: YA
Length: ~210 pages
Plot Basics: The Wolfe family is in financial hard times and are losing status in the community. Brothers Cameron and Ruben start boxing in an underground circuit to make money and bring a reputation back to themselves and their families. Through fighting, they learn the true cost of being brothers, having family and what the value of a name really is.
Banter Points: This is the prequel to Zusak's achingly beautiful "Getting the Girl" which also features Cameron and Ruben. Nicely, though, you don't have to read one before the other. Again, Zusak captures the frustrated poignancy of teenage thoughts and tells a wonderful story about family. The boys have great moments of astute adult insight and head-shaking moments of teenage stupidity.
Bummer Points: Word Nerd's now read everything Zusak has written. He needs to get cracking on something new, she thinks.
Word Nerd Recommendation: If you have or know teenage boys, get them to read these books. If you like good books, no matter what your age, look into Zusak. He's young and likely has a long and *hopefully* prolific career in front of him.
Author: Markus Zusak
Genre: YA
Length: ~210 pages
Plot Basics: The Wolfe family is in financial hard times and are losing status in the community. Brothers Cameron and Ruben start boxing in an underground circuit to make money and bring a reputation back to themselves and their families. Through fighting, they learn the true cost of being brothers, having family and what the value of a name really is.
Banter Points: This is the prequel to Zusak's achingly beautiful "Getting the Girl" which also features Cameron and Ruben. Nicely, though, you don't have to read one before the other. Again, Zusak captures the frustrated poignancy of teenage thoughts and tells a wonderful story about family. The boys have great moments of astute adult insight and head-shaking moments of teenage stupidity.
Bummer Points: Word Nerd's now read everything Zusak has written. He needs to get cracking on something new, she thinks.
Word Nerd Recommendation: If you have or know teenage boys, get them to read these books. If you like good books, no matter what your age, look into Zusak. He's young and likely has a long and *hopefully* prolific career in front of him.
02 April 2008
March 2008 Bibliometer
Here are the March totals for this year, which are significantly higher than last year because of Word Nerd's whole appendix adventure and recovery.
March 2008
9 books
3307 pages
107 pages/day
YTD 2008:
26 books
8431 pages
March 2008
9 books
3307 pages
107 pages/day
YTD 2008:
26 books
8431 pages
01 April 2008
Book Banter -- Death Masks
Title: Death Masks (Dresden Files bk. 5)
Author: Jim Butcher
Genre: urban fantasy/sci-fi/paranormal
Length: ~370 pages
Plot Basics: Harry Dresden -- Chicago's only wizard-for-hire -- has to fight a duel, but this isn't the pistols at dawn kind of duel. Nope. He's got to go up against a major fighter for the Red Court vampires in an effort to stop a war between the Red Court and the White Court (of which Dresden is an unappreciated member). Meanwhile, he's also contacted by a rogue priest to find the stolen Shroud of Turin and hit men are taking shots at him. And his former girlfriend, Susan, is back in town still trying to deal with her near-vampirism (something else that could be blamed on Harry).
Banter Points: Butcher definitely hit his stride with this series around book 3 and each one since then has been improving. He throws everything he can think of at Dresden and forces the character to deal with it. It makes for some page-turning reads and it's fun to see character like Susan and Gentlemen Johnny Marcone come back after earlier appearances.
Bummer Points: The whole Red Court/White Court war is not Word Nerd's favorite plot point. It's getting a little convoluted and harder to remember who's on what side. Also, the Shroud of Turin? That part was a little too far flung for Word Nerd, even in a fantasy book.
Word Nerd Recommendation: This series is a must for urban fantasy/sci-fi fans.
Author: Jim Butcher
Genre: urban fantasy/sci-fi/paranormal
Length: ~370 pages
Plot Basics: Harry Dresden -- Chicago's only wizard-for-hire -- has to fight a duel, but this isn't the pistols at dawn kind of duel. Nope. He's got to go up against a major fighter for the Red Court vampires in an effort to stop a war between the Red Court and the White Court (of which Dresden is an unappreciated member). Meanwhile, he's also contacted by a rogue priest to find the stolen Shroud of Turin and hit men are taking shots at him. And his former girlfriend, Susan, is back in town still trying to deal with her near-vampirism (something else that could be blamed on Harry).
Banter Points: Butcher definitely hit his stride with this series around book 3 and each one since then has been improving. He throws everything he can think of at Dresden and forces the character to deal with it. It makes for some page-turning reads and it's fun to see character like Susan and Gentlemen Johnny Marcone come back after earlier appearances.
Bummer Points: The whole Red Court/White Court war is not Word Nerd's favorite plot point. It's getting a little convoluted and harder to remember who's on what side. Also, the Shroud of Turin? That part was a little too far flung for Word Nerd, even in a fantasy book.
Word Nerd Recommendation: This series is a must for urban fantasy/sci-fi fans.
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