utter randomonium

ATC Sunday

Posted by melydia on April 1, 2012 No comment

Fire Baptized by Kenya Wright

Posted by melydia on March 30, 2012 No comment

Fire Baptized by Kenya Wright: For decades, supernatural beings – vampires, fairies, werewolves, etc. – have been forced to live in walled-off areas, separate from normal humans. Lanore is a mixed-blood, shunned even by the other supernaturals. When she witnesses a grisly murder, Lanore takes it upon herself to solve the case before she becomes the next victim. Meanwhile, Lanoreâ€™s were-cheetah roommate MeShack and mixie revolutionary Zulu are both rather violently attempting to claim her as their own. (Seriously, itâ€™s like neither of them can show desire without tearing her clothes.) Though supernatural beings are all the rage in YA fiction at the moment, Fire Baptized is unquestionably for adults. Itâ€™s quite graphic in terms of both violence and sex. Still, itâ€™s a good read. Lanore is smart and interesting, and while I wasnâ€™t too impressed with her choices in male companionship, I still enjoyed watching her figure things out and, ultimately, save the day. The world itself is pretty cool as well, with each personâ€™s supernatural status branded on the forehead and the changes to human history their existence has manifested. I donâ€™t know that Iâ€™d go out of my way to read the rest of the Habitat series, but this first installment certainly was quite the adventure.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

Posted by melydia on March 27, 2012 2 comments

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester: One might think that the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary would be a dry read, but it most certainly is not. This is mostly due to the fact that one of the most prolific contributors turned out to be an American inmate in an asylum for the criminally insane. Seriously. True, you should have at least a passing interest in linguistics – or at least vocabulary – to get a lot out of this book, but in a lot of ways this nonfiction book reads like a novel. This is the sort of history book I enjoy. Definitely recommended for lovers of words.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

ATC Sunday

Posted by melydia on March 25, 2012 No comment

The Spenser Collection: Volume II: Back Story and Widow’s Walk by Robert B. Parker

Posted by melydia on March 23, 2012 No comment

The Spenser Collection: Volume II: Back Story and Widow’s Walk by Robert B. Parker: (unabridged audiobook read by Joe Mantegna): This is sort of a silly way of doing things, as Widowâ€™s Walk came out a year before Back Story and very clearly happens earlier in time, and yet appears on the latter half of this audiobook. Luckily, I was warned to listen to discs six through ten first, so I was not confused. In Widow’s Walk, a lawyer friend hires Spenser to help prove the innocense of a woman accused of murdering her husband. In Back Story, Spenser is hired to solve a 28-year-old murder and soon discovers the trail went cold due to a massive cover-up. And you know, I really enjoyed these. Spenser – and his friend Hawk even moreso – is absolutely hilarious. Mantegna was clearly having a ball. It took me a while to get used to his cadence but once I did, I had a great time. The random asides and interjections amused the heck out of me. Even better, though there’s a long series of Spenser novels, I never once felt like I needed to have read any of the previous books.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Black Bodies and Quantum Cats by Jennifer Ouellette

Posted by melydia on March 20, 2012 No comment

Black Bodies and Quantum Cats by Jennifer Ouellette: A series of essays about various milestones in the history of physics from Leonardo da Vinci to string theory. If you are a hardcore physicist, you will probably find this too dumbed down to be entertaining. However, though I was already familiar with all the concepts presented here, I was drawn in by the historical anecdotes surrounding the discovery and development of these various ideas. The pop culture references, while occasionally amusing (I hadnâ€™t known, for instance, that Fabio once killed a goose with his face), could have been cut. They were not always relevant and the connection often felt forced. Still, I genuinely enjoyed reading this book and will have to find some other science history texts in the future.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

ATC Sunday

Posted by melydia on March 18, 2012 No comment

My birthday is tomorrow. Guess what Pisces trait I exhibit most strongly!

Ugly to Start With by John Michael Cummings

Posted by melydia on March 16, 2012 No comment

Ugly to Start With by John Michael Cummings: A more or less interconnected collection of short stories about Jason, a boy growing up in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. I decided to read this out of a love for that particular area of the country, but was soon turned off by the characters themselves. Now, characters donâ€™t necessarily need to be likable (if they did, no one would ever read Faulkner), but I found Jason to be a spiteful little bully without any real compassion. This was not helped by the lack of resolution in most of the stories; none of the characters ever seemed to change. Now, thereâ€™s a distinct possibility that Iâ€™m misinterpreting; the scenes are capably written, even if they donâ€™t seem to go anywhere. The Scratchboard Project was probably my favorite: the characters arenâ€™t pointlessly cruel to each other, and I found Shanice interesting and complex. All the same, I found the rest of this slim volume a bit of a struggle. Perhaps I would enjoy Cummingsâ€™s longer fiction better.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

On Composition and Negative Space

Posted by melydia on March 13, 2012 1 comment

When drawing something simple like a stark still-life, composition – that is, the placement of the object in the frame – becomes very important. For example, when drawing an iris, it would be wise not to create something that looks more like a wilted cabbage in the process of fainting.