You can find a list of all the books I’ve reviewed here.

You can find an archive of all posts here.

It was fun while it lasted. Cheers.

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Auf Wiedersehen

It’s like this: graduate, quit job, find job, work, camp, new niece, camp bus falls off the highway (seriously), back from camp, work, more camp, back from camp, work, travel, more travel, camp again maybe, other camp after that maybe, BAM! September. (For those of you following along at home, I am currently in stage “work”, coming up on “more camp” tomorrow.)

And, you know, there’s not a huge amount of time in there for blogging. Or rather, there is, but I find myself more and more unwilling to make it. This, coupled with the fact that I’m not reading much*, plus all of the above where I’ll be travelling or in a cabin or otherwise unable to do that internet thing, has led me to declare the great blog hiatus of 2009. I will be posting regularly once again in the fall — and of course, my archives are up to date and available for browsing — by date or by author.

*Actually, I’m reading a lot. But it’s all War and Peace, and after a while there’s not much to say about that. I don’t want to write a bunch  of “Still reading Tolstoy! A-yuhp!” posts and I suspect that few would want to read them.

Anyway. I hope that everyone has an excellent summer, and I look forward to jumping back in here in Sept.

Post from: She Reads Books

Summer Hiatus

For some of this:

With some of these:

I love girls’ camp.

Be good while I’m gone. There’s food in the fridge and grandma has an extra key. Oh, and try not to break anything. I’ll be back next Saturday.

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Bye, Kids!

It bears repeating: although I like a lot of Canadian literature, I don’t like it because it’s Canadian, really. And some of it I don’t like. Actually, a lot of it kind of sucks. There’s this one book in particular, As for Me and My House by Sinclair Ross, that is probably in the twenty worst books I’ve ever read. Nobody likes it — but it’s still on syllabi everywhere because it’s So! Canadian!, and so we have to read it even though it’s terrible.

That’s silly. And I think that it does a disservice to the amount of books out there that are written by Canadian authors and are really darn good. Things like Fall on Your Knees, for example, or Tigana, or Life of Pi. I wish more of the Canadian lit studied in school was less self-conscious, and more well-written.

What brought this up, you may ask? I just started reading Hammered, by Elizabeth Bear, and I am so very excited because it’s full of Toronto, which is where I live. It’s full of streets I’ve eaten on, or shopped on, or gone to school on — streets I’ve walked almost every weekday, although hers are set in 2062 and are no doubt different in some crucial respects. But still: it’s neat. And E. Bear is American and lives in Connecticut or something like that, and so it is doubly charming.

Of course, this probably wouldn’t have charmed me as much as it did, had I not received a very peculiar piece of mail earlier in the week, of which I have provided a photo:

Yup. “Canada”. Canada, the magical fairy land that may or may not exist, hence the dubious quotation marks. I live in “Canada” — allegedly.

Now, normally I wouldn’t make fun of Phenix & Phenix (blog/company site) at all, because they are staffed with very nice publicists who often send me very interesting books. But come on: this is silly. I know that Canada is rather far away from Texas (and, like, a millionty times BIGGER than it, don’t even get me started) but I feel compelled to assure everyone that, yes, it does exist. Also, a lot of the rumours are true: we have a Queen, two official languages, a socialized healthcare system that mostly works, and we eat poutine (the food of emperors). We do not typically live in Igloos.

(Yes: I know. This was probably someone’s hurried addition to the envelope, since the CANADA part of the address was initially left off. Honest mistake, etc. I’m still going to laugh at it.)

It makes me wonder, though — and this question is for you, Americans, et al — what do you notice if/when books are set in Canada? Do you notice? Do cultural references sometimes leave you hanging? I know that I am often called upon by my American cousins to explain points of governance or culture — are you inclined to call up an Canuckian friend for clarification, or do you just let things be?

And does anyone else get excited when they read things set in their hometown? I am lucky; Toronto‘s a big city and there’s lots written about it. But I wonder about smaller cities. Does anybody write about Toronto, Ohio, population 5676?

Maybe they should. Authors, I bring Toronto, Ohio to your attention. But if you’d rather write about the original, that’s definitely fine with me!

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Home and Native Land

Homonym abuse is the problem. Homonyms — words that sound alike but are spelled differently and mean different things — have taken a terrible beating lately. It is of course easy to mis-type in the heat of the moment, but serious and persistent errors must be addressed. The excellent thing about homonyms, however, is that if you simply take a moment to memorize which is which you will rarely be confused thereafter.

Their / They’re / There:

• Their is a possessive word, as in “That is their idea”.
• They’re means “they are”, which may handily be seen as a contraction because of our friend the apostrophe’s signal. The apostrophe is replacing the letter “a” in “are”.
• There is a direction, as in “over there”.

Its / It’s:

Again, our friend the apostrophe can help us out, as it signals a contraction:

• “It’s” means “it is”, and the apostrophe is again taking the place of an initial vowel. If you mean to describe something, use “it’s”.
• If you are referring to a possession — “The cup sat on its saucer” (that is to say, on the saucer belonging to the cup) — omit the apostrophe. This will seem counter-intuitive at first, since we say things like “Christine’s chocolate” or “Canada’s national sport” and use an apostrophe in this case. But IT is different, and if you take care, you will soon get used to it.

Your / You’re:

This one drives me particularly crazy because, as with the examples above, it’s really quite simple to learn and then to memorize. Grammar, mostly, is not difficult — it’s merely tedious, but that’s enough to put people off it. I am digressing, however. Here’s the distinction:

• The word “your” is possessive. “Your boots” are the boots that you own. “Your crazy” is the crazy that you own.
• “You’re” has an apostrophe in it, once again signalling a contraction. It means “you are”, and so you can say “you’re special” or “you’re happy”.
• Mixing these two up can be disastrous. Consider the difference between “your nuts” and “you’re nuts”, by way of brief example.

Miscellaneous evils:

• Sight/Site: The first is one of your five senses. The latter is more of a place, like a camp site or a web site.
• Coarse/Course: Coarse means rough. Course might mean something like path. It is also used in the phrase “of course”.
• To/Too/Two: The first is probably the most commonly used, forming part of the oft-used “to do” — if you are going to the store, or off to do the dishes, or intending to give me lots of money, use this word. The middle version means “as well” or “also”. The last is the number that we all know and love.
• Effect/Affect: The former is the result of the latter. You affect something in order to have an effect on it.
• Bored/Board: Bored is what you are when there’s nothing to do. A board either comes from a tree, has -game attached to the end of it, or holds periodic management meetings.

Did I miss any obvious ones? Out them in the comments!

(Note: Anyone who comments about how grammar is obsolete — and that as long as you can be understood, even with errors, everything’s good enough — will be summarily executed. Yes, I can understand you, with effort, if you say things like “Your going too have a bad affect”, but I won’t assume you’re clever. I spent four hours copy-editing yesterday; don’t cross me.)

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In the Spirit of Public Service

Here’s the back cover:

Criminal defense attorney Harrison J. Walker, better known as Jaywalker, has just been suspended for using “creative” tactics and receiving “gratitude” in the courtroom stairwell from a client charged with prostitution. Convincing the judge that his other clients are counting on him, Jaywalker is allowed to complete ten cases. But it’s the last case that trule tests his abilities — and his acquittal record.

Samara Moss — young, petite and sexy as hell — stabbed her husband in the heart. Or so everyone believes. Having married the elderly billionaire when she was an eighteen-year-old former prostitute, Samara appears to be the cliched gold digger. But Jaywalker knows all too well that appearances can be deceiving. Who else could have killed the billionaire? Has Samara been framed? Or is Jaywalker just driven by his need to win his clients’ cases — and this particular client’s undying gratitude?

So there’s the basic setup. Jaywalker is working with an over-90% acquittal rate, when he is hired to defend Samara Moss Tannenbaum, who has been charged with his murder. But it’s not the first time that they’ve met: Jaywalker defended Samara over a traffic charge six years ago, and he’s been smitten ever since. He is determined to win her case, not just for the sake of his own record, but in the hopes of winning Samara as well. The trouble is, the evidence against her is air-tight: she was alone with her husband the night he died, was heard arguing with him, initially lied to police investigating the case, and to top it all, a bloody steak-knife was found hidden in her apartment. Samara insists that she’s innocent, and Jaywalker has little choice but to believe her.

This is the first installement of a planned series of books by Joseph Teller, himself a former criminal defense attorney. This novel, at least, is fairly heavy on the exposition: a lot of pages are taken up with explaining the ins and outs of the legal system in New York, at least so far as that system relates to Jaywalker’s last case. It doesn’t interfere with the story — indeed, I found it interesting — but I do wonder as to how that will be handled in future books, when the reading audience might be presumed to need less explanation as the plots move along. The exposition didn’t get in the way in The Tenth Case, but I can easily see how it could eventually get wearisome.

The other thing in this book that I found intriguing in terms of the writing is the question of who, exactly, is narrating? It appears to be a limited-omnicient third person narrator — that is to say, the narration is in the third person, and the narrator has full access to the protagonist’s thoughts, but no access to anyone else’s. But the narrator is clearly outside of Jaywalker, which is slightly more unusual, and he(?) often breaks the fourth wall to talk about something that Jaywalker is doing, or about certain points of law or trial procedure that may not be clear to lay readers. There’s a certain amount of comments along the lines of “Wasn’t it strange that Jaywalker was doing such-and-such? Actually no, because blah-de-blah…” and the feel is a bit as if Teller is explaining the law to the reader, with Jaywalker’s story sort of thrown in as an illustration of how things work. It’s an interesting dynamic — again, not intrusive, but unusual — and I look forward to seeing how it changes (or doesn’t) in subsequent books.

As to the story itself — the plot, I mean — it’s well-written, enjoyable, and well-plotted. It’s primarily a legal drama, so there are relatively few gruesome details to deal with. And the ending is rather deliciously ambiguous, which is sometimes the way I like my murder mysteries. Highly recommended.

4 stars.

Post from: She Reads Books

Review: The Tenth Case, by Joseph Teller

“i’ll start purging at school” Honey, don’t. You’re not going to keep it a secret there, either, and you’re not doing yourself any favours. Eating disorders — what I assume this is about — are a nasty business. You can find more information here.

stroke insight cookie Erm, what? Maybe I missed something because I didn’t finish the book, but I’m really not seeing the connection. Can anyone give a girl a little help?

firefly lane badly written kristin hannah You said it, not me! Oh wait. I said it too.

peter wimsey fanfic sex I’m sorry, but I cannot help you. Consider writing your own. And then keeping it to yourself.

got it sorted out I’m so very glad to hear that. Are you the “is this sorted” person from last time? Or are you two people secretly sending messages through search terms aimed at my blog? Are you secret agents? Am I your dupe?

how to recycle hardcover books Depending on where you live, your municipality may take them in your blue bin or its equivalent. Otherwise, the best way — I am given to understand — is to remove the hard cover and recycle the inside pages as you would normal paper. The cover may be recycled or thrown out, depending on its materials and what your municipality collects. Of course, you should consider first whether the books might be read by someone else; there are lots of ways to get rid of used books that don’t involve their destruction.

how long is dr. jekyll book It’s about a hundred pages. Now get cracking.

go jill taylor Go where?

she books Unless she’s a police officer, I question the validity of this statement. Just so you know.

step children book I can’t help you specifically. But here’s a list of books tagged with “step-children” on LibraryThing. There are not many.

second hand bookshop no point No point buying books there? Or no point selling books there? On the first point, I heartily disagree — I think that second-hand bookstores rock. But I understand if you mean that there’s no point selling books there. It’s true that most of the time you won’t get very much money for your discarded tomes (especially if they’re going to be re-sold for a dollar or fifty cents, you have to be prepared to get very little back). It depends on what the final goal of selling your books is: are you in it for the money, or do you just want to have some more space on your shelves? If the latter, consider settling for those low prices — or even donating them somewhere.

web mail yellowknife golf club Oscar big blue templeton ocean!

chapter summaries of the book an abundance of katherines I’d actually be up for this except that I can’t find my copy of An Abundance of Katherines anywhere. This is one of the hazards of deciding to organise your books and then stopping halfway through: you are left with three or four lovely & organized shelves, and everything else is just giant piles of chaos.

novels with swim(ming) in the title Again, LibraryThing is our friend. Here’s a list. They’re not all novels, though; you’ll have to do some refining on your own.

christine book blog 5 stars You’re too, too kind. I’d like to thank the Academy, of course.

twilight the light from the sky between full night and sunrise or between sunset and full night produced by diffusion of sunlight through the atmosphere and its dust; also:a time of twilight. Also, a really crummy book series by Stephanie Meyer that I refuse to read. You know, on account of the crummy.

why is charlotte crossing the atlantic ocean If you’re talking about Charlotte Doyle, she’s crossing the ocean to return to her family’s home after being at school in England — also because without that little plot device, the whole story couldn’t happen. If you’re asking about other Charlottes, I can’t help you.

r.b.mitchell = castaway kid Good math, googler! Rob Mitchell did indeed write Castaway Kid. Also he is the aforementioned kid who was cast away. I probably wouldn’t have thought of using the equals sign myself… so I’m going to assume that you’re a big nerd. Hope that’s okay!

swimming pool sunday book report Call me a crazy old coot (and they do) but I really think that you kids ought to start writing your own book reports. And pull up your pants. And get off my lawn.

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March Search Terms!

The answers to these questions will serve to further our knowledge of Jack London and his particular interpretation of Darwinism, as portrayed in The Sea Wolf. They will also enhance our understanding and appreciation of London’s novel as a carefully constructed social statement, as well as an excellent seafaring tale.

What I wanted to write in my paper proposal:

The fate of the known universe is at stake, and this paper will make everything finally okay. The prose shall be so luminous, the insights so great and so witty, that even AIDS patients will have but to look on it to be cured. I will not only answer questions about The Sea Wolf and Charles Darwin, but solve humanity’s oldest puzzles, about the universe and our place in it. You will have to invent a new grade to give this paper, because even A+++ will not cover it. Read it out loud, and prepare to hear birds fall from the trees, stunned by my magnificent observations and conclusions. Watch in amazement as the very face of all scholarship will be changed forever. And make sure that you have a box of kleenex available when you reach my momentous, unexpected, and wholly stirring conclusions.

Or, alternatively:

Let’s be realistic: absolutely nothing is at stake here. I am going to expend a great deal of effort writing a paper that will be read by one person. My analysis will be thorough but utterly boring. My conclusions will be unsurprising. I will soon forget what I said, and so will you. I will receive a grade that is decent: neither abysmal nor spectacular. My graded paper will be relegated to a folder in my room with dozens just like it, where it will remain, unread, in perpetuity. And by and by I will graduate, and as my essay gathers dust, so will my memories of this place, where I learned a great many things that will probably make no discernible difference to my future life. Now please excuse me while I go shrivel up.

Le sigh.

Post from: She Reads Books

Can I Graduate Now?

benazir bhutto in swiming pool haha, what? Some kink I don’t know about?

boy rotating He must be getting dizzy. How long has he been rotating, anyway? Somebody get this boy a bucket.

old cloocks back then I believe that they told time.

heretic’s daughter why capital letters Gosh, I don’t know! I’d assume that you were talking about the title proper, The Heretic’s Daughter, the capital letters are because that’s simply what we do with titles. Otherwise, I don’t think that I can help you. If you’re interested, though, you can find my review of said novel here, and an interview with the author here.

the difference between books and movies I’m going to assume that this is a philosophical inquiry rather than a factual one, because I hope that we can all tell the difference between textual media and visual ditto. Anyway, I talk about that some here.

i prefer second hand books Me too! Here’s why.

lists of all books archive All books? A list of all books? Like, ever? Dag, that’s a tall order, and I wish you the best of luck in your futile, futile quest.

what’s the old kid show with the clock I think that The Polka-Dot Door had a clock in it sometimes. Or are you thinking of The Big Comfy Couch? And what I really want to know is this: is a search term this vague actually working out for you? Because, you know, I’ve got my doubts.

widow header All black?

qanta ahmed wrote a boring book If you say so. I liked it, although I have to point out that the prose is purple and neither Qanta Ahmed nor her editor seem to know what the word “belies” means, or how to use it.

is this sorted I’m going to go with yes!

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Search Terms: You Delight Me

“Apostrophes denote possessions that are no longer accurate, and are not needed,” he said. “More importantly, they confuse people. If I want to go to a restaurant, I don’t want to have an A-level (high school diploma) in English to find it.”

Can we look at those last two sentences for a moment? Are apostrophes really that difficult to understand? Is the difference between St. Paul’s and St. Pauls so vast as to require a high school diploma? I did French Immersion when I was in public school, so I can’t answer this question, but aren’t things like this taught in grade school? You know: See Dick’s bike! and all that?

Now, I have been called a bit of a punctuational purist in the past and I will largely stand by that designation (despite my affection for using parentheses even when unnecessary, as in this example). But this strikes me as going beyond casual misuse of punctuation and running straight into the loony bin. You might not get all nerded up over the semicolon, but I think that most people will, when pressed, admit that correct and standardized punctuation is a useful and necessary beast.

A letter to the editor in the paper today perhaps says it best:

Re: Apostrophe’s loss has purists up in arms, Feb. 5

Im a high school teacher and many of my students agree that apostrophes arent needed because they cant use them anyway and its like a lot of punctuation if you dont use it its proof its not needed.

For other students, however, it’s a matter of clarity, precision and finesse; in the most literal sense, they’re punctilious in their punctuation.

To whom does the future belong?

- John Caryl, Toronto

To whom, indeed? Somehow I feel that the future does not belong to the good Councillors of Birmingham. What do you think?

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The Gentle Art of the Apostrophe