Lady Audley’s Secret

Posted by melydia on January 22, 2009 No comment

Lady Audley’s Secret: I often seek out film versions of books I’ve read, so when I discovered this TV movie was available on Netflix I immediately added it to our queue. First off, I’d like to say that this movie was gorgeous. The sets, props, and costumes were simply breathtaking. Unfortunately, it looks like the budget all went towards the visuals instead of hiring a good screenwriter and decent director. The acting is wooden, the dialogue silly, the blocking stilted. The changes from the book were unnecessary and didn’t add anything to the story whatsoever. In fact, I’m not entirely sure I would have been able to follow much of what was going on had I not read the book first. In short, don’t bother with this film. If you’d like a good costume drama, try Shakespeare in Love.

Give Me a Break by John Stossel

Posted by melydia on January 21, 2009 No comment

Give Me a Break by John Stossel: This is a quick read. I enjoyed Stossel’s conversational tone and his no-nonsense way of addressing the issues. And in general I agree that government needs to shrink, lawsuits need to be reduced, and there’s no virtue in being a victim. His anecdotes were a mixture of humorous and maddening, as most stories of government stupidity are. Unfortunately, I don’t see this book as convincing anyone with firmer beliefs than the most tenuous of fence-sitters. As a reporter, Stossel knows how to break down complex issues into bite-sized chunks. Unfortunately, that means his evidence is a collection of soundbites from interviews rather than papers and studies you can go look up yourself. Interviews are a good source of information, but I am always wary of nonfiction books lacking a bibliography or at least a “further reading” section.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Write on Wednesday

Posted by melydia on January 16, 2009 No comment

This week’s Write on Wednesday is a short survey. I know I’ve been horrible about actually doing these on Wednesday, but ehh, whatever.

1. What’s your favourite genre of writing? — Humorous fiction, often with a fantastic bent.
2. How often do you get writer’s block? — I don’t really believe in writer’s block. Sometimes I have more trouble with a story than others, but I’ve never been like “OMG I can’t write anything!” I can always blather aimlessly on paper. The trick is turning it into something worth reading.
3. How do you fix it? — Blather aimlessly on paper until my brain stops farting around and gets down to business.
4. Do you type or write by hand? — Both. Freewriting is better by hand, for me, but when I’m really cooking on a story I prefer to type because I can do it far more quickly.
5. Do you save everything you write? — Yeah. I don’t always look at it again, but it’s all there, either on a drive or in a box.
6. Do you ever go back to an old idea long after you abandoned it? — Yup. Never turns out how I’d expected it to back in the day, but it’s always interesting.
7. Do you have a constructive critic? — My sister is helpful in general. Unless you mean Inner Critic, in which case not just no, but hell no.
8. Did you ever write a novel? — Only if you count NaNoWriMo, but I don’t.
9. What genre would you love to write but haven’t? — Historical fiction. My problem is that I get so excited when I first start a new project that I lack the patience to do the research, then once I get into the research I’ve lost momentum on the story. I’m kind of self-defeating that way.
10. What’s one genre you have never written, and probably never will? — Political drama (science fiction or otherwise).
11. How many writing projects are you working on right now? — Actively? Uh, I guess two. An interesting project on Swap-Bot and the next chapter of Animal Faith.
12. Do you write for a living? Do you want to? — I write for pleasure. I tell myself I would love to get paid for it, but deep down I suspect that harsh deadlines would turn it into a chore.
13. Have you ever written something for a magazine or newspaper? — It was a college magazine, but yeah. Some awful piece on Hare Krishnas.
14. Have you ever won an award for your writing? — Not unless you count a minor poetry award on Artella.
15. What are your five favourite words? — I don’t have favorite words, though an old boyfriend was convinced my favorite word was “obnoxious”.
16. Do you ever write based on your dreams? — I’ve tried but it never comes out very well. So instead I write down my dreams and occasionally take some of the imagery from them, rather than trying to turn the mess into something coherent.
17. Do you favour happy endings, sad endings, or cliff-hangers? — Happy endings. I don’t like going to all the bother of reading something only to have it be a cliff-hanger, nor do I enjoy making an emotional investment in characters only to be disappointed in the outcome. After all, there are more than enough sad and unresolved endings in real life.
18. Have you ever written based on an artwork you’ve seen? — Yes, and the artist loved the story. I kept meaning to write based on other stuff but haven’t gotten around to it yet.

Brother Odd by Dean Koontz

Posted by melydia on January 15, 2009 No comment

Brother Odd by Dean Koontz: The third of the books about Odd Thomas, a man who sees the lingering dead, witnesses demon-like creatures that thrive on violence, and can find anyone via “psychic magnetism.” Here, Odd is on sabbatical at a local monastery, figuring there shouldn’t be much death or violence in the area. Of course he’s wrong, or we wouldn’t have a story. But he’s wrong in a terribly contrived and unconvincing way. I guess I probably should have stuck with the first book and not bothered with the others, but Koontz does occasionally churn out a real gem (like, for instance, the first Odd Thomas book) and hope springs eternal. But the characters were flimsy, not to mention the preachy theology mixed with the obnoxiously earnest pseudoscience really got on my nerves. The whole thing felt really forced.

I know I shouldn’t get irritated with an author for using quack science to further the plot of a novel that already starts with a pretty outrageous premise, but it still annoys me because so many people think it’s true. Say it with me now: human will does not alter reality, even on a subatomic scale. Sure, it makes for an easy out in fiction, but I’d much rather people gave it up entirely.

All in all, I think I’ll skip any further Odd Thomas books, as there are sure to be more, unless someone recommends it highly. I’m tired of being disappointed.

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

Posted by melydia on January 12, 2009 No comment

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill: It’s been a while since I last read a good old fashioned ghost story. Here, aging heavy metal rock star Judas Coin purchases a dead man’s suit, purported to be haunted, just for laughs. Unfortunately, it turns out to be indeed haunted by the spirit of the stepfather of an old flame of Jude’s. The writing was deliciously spooky, the rock star angle was refreshingly different, and the ending was satisfying without feeling too tidy. I’ll have to keep Hill in mind next time I’m in the mood for a scary good time.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

EXIT Stage Left

Posted by melydia on January 10, 2009 No comment

I’m not much for webisodes, but I’d like to recommend one anyway. It’s a comedy called EXIT Stage Left, about a guy struggling to put on a play and all the bizarre characters he has to deal with. I heard of it because it stars the lovely and talented Annamarie MacLeod, whom I know through her work with Sine Fine Films. I encourage you to check it out; it’s very well done – and quite funny to those who have worked in theater.

On that note, if you enjoy it – or any webisode, for that matter – be sure to nominate it for a Streamy, the new award for online video entertainment.

The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean

Posted by melydia on January 9, 2009 1 comment

The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean: When my pharmacist caught sight of this book, he asked if it was a thriller. That is one thing this book is not. It is, however, a slew of other things. Though it began more or less as Orlean’s interest in the trial of one John Laroche, a Florida man caught poaching ghost orchids off park land with a trio of Seminole Indians, it rapidly blossomed into a full-scale investigation of the orchid-loving life. Evidently people go mad for these plants, sort of a “gotta catch ’em all” attitude for the floraphile set. And considering there are tens of thousands of orchid breeds, many costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars and meticulous care, it can become quite the costly and timely pursuit. Sound boring? Surprisingly, it isn’t. Perhaps the most fascinating part for me was not the unexpectedly vehement passions of orchid enthusiasts, but rather Orlean’s bald-faced judgementalism. It said a lot about her attitudes, and rather than being an impartial observer, she was clearly flabbergasted by the entire orchid culture – indeed, about any passion of that magnitude for anything. Without that air of “OMG look how weird this is” permeating throughout the story, this would have been rather dull. I didn’t know the orchid world was so cutthroat, but after you’ve spent time with sports fanatics and anime fanboys, you realize that there are many things in this world that interest people far more than they do you, and nothing is too unusual to obsess over.

If you want to get a taste of the many orchid varieties, check out the sampling at Orchid Court.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

The 2008 BookCrossing Top 100

Posted by melydia on January 7, 2009 No comment

Courtesy of BookCrosser stinalyn, I bring you The 2008 BookCrossing Top 100. (Actually it’s the top 120, due to some mega ties.) I’ve bolded the ones I’ve read. Sorry for the long entry; I linked to my reviews where I could, but sometimes I just had to comment.

1. Harry Potter (series) by JK Rowling – Though the quality declined somewhat as the series progressed (my favorites remain books 1 and 4), I have no objections to this choice.
2. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien – My husband’s all time favorite.
3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
5. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
6. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
7. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
8a. The Stand by Stephen King
8b. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
10a. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
10b. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
12. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
13. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell – Read this years ago. I remember liking it, though I’m not so sure I would were I to read it now.
14. The Chronicles of Narnia (series) by CS Lewis – I’ve read the first book, thought it was kind of meh, never bothered with the rest.
15. Discworld (series) by Terry Pratchett – I’ve read The Colour of Magic but have thus far not been inspired to seek out any of the other books.
16a. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
16b. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
16c. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (series) by Douglas Adams – Excellent. One of the few series I’ve read multiple times.
19a. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien – It gave me narcolepsy, hence my reluctance to tackle LOTR.
19b. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
19c. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
19d. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott – Received this in a gift exchange in fourth grade. Everyone else got toys. I was so disappointed I never even read it. (This was before I started reading for pleasure with any regularity; that wasn’t until college.)
19e. Atonement by Ian McEwan
19f. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
25. His Dark Materials (series) by Philip Pullman
26. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
27. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
28a. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
28b. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
30a. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
30b. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd – On my TBR pile.
30c. Watership Down by Richard Adams – This was on my TBR pile for many years, but I could never get into it.
30d. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
34a. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
34b. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
36a. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
36b. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
38a. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
38b. Persuasion by Jane Austen
38c. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller – One of the few books that actually so engrossed me I literally gasped in one place.
38d. Twilight (series) by Stephenie Meyer
42a. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams – Interesting that this book singly appears on the list as well as the series as a whole.
42b. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger – I read this for a class and enjoyed it. I’m not sure I would now; I think it’s something you have to read by a certain age to really appreciate.
42c. Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
42d. Anne of Green Gables (series) by Lucy Maud Montgomery – I read the first book back in grade school. I remember liking it okay.
42e. Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
42f. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
48a. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery – Uh, see above.
48b. Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
48c. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
48d. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley – Very good, but then, I’ve got a thing for dystopia novels.
48e. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
48f. Stephanie Plum (series) by Janet Evanovich – I read the first and second books and while they were reasonably entertaining, I felt no desire to read any more.
48g. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
48h. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll – Excellent. I’ve read both Alice books at least three times.
48i. Les Mis̩rables by Victor Hugo РI confess I read the abridged version, but I really liked it.
57a. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
57b. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
57c. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
57d. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
57e. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer – I’ve read Everything is Illuminated and it was pretty meh, but I hear EL&IC is much better.
57f. L’Etranger by Albert Camus
57g. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie – Honestly, after reading The Satanic Verses, I’m not all that interested in reading any more Rushdie.
57h The Dark Tower (series) by Stephen King.
57i. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
57j. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
67a. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown – I wonder how many people were annoyed by this book’s presence on a “best of” list.
67b. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind
67c. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley – On my TBR pile.
67d. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
67e. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens – Read this in high school and hated it.
67f. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
67g. The Little House Books (series) by Laura Ingalls Wilder
67h. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank – Read this in high school and loved it. Very sad.
67i. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
67j. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
67k. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
67l. Thursday Next (series) by Jasper Fforde – See my comments above. I wish this list didn’t include series and their first books separately.
67m. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
80a. Artemis Fowl (series) by Eoin Colfer – Only read the first book. It was okay.
80b. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
80c. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
80d. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury – Good book, but the movie is terrible.
80e. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
80f. Emma by Jane Austen
80g. Outlander/Cross Stitch (series) by Diana Gabaldon
80h. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
80i. The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
80j. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas – Weird. I was positive this was on my TBR pile but, looking at the bookshelf, it evidently is not. It should be.
80k. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
80l. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernières
80m. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
80n. PS, I Love You by Cecelia Ahern
80o. The Giver by Lois Lowry – Read this while visiting a prospective graduate school and was so sucked in I finished it in a single day (unheard of for me at that time), and had to pick up another book at the airport because I hadn’t expected to run out of reading material so quickly!
80p. The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
96a. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card – I read this years ago and enjoyed it. I now have the rest of the series on my TBR pile, so I’ll be rereading it soon.
96b. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman – On my TBR pile.
96c. Dune by Frank Herbert
96d. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
96e. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
96f. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
96g. Wicked by Gregory Maguire
96h. Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding – I got a huge kick out of this book.
96i. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen – Read this in high school and remember enjoying it.
96j. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain – Very good. Huck is awesome.
96k. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
96l. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
96m. Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood
96n. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
96o. Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier – The movie was pretty boring, so I doubt I’ll be reading the book any time soon.
96p. Dracula by Bram Stoker
96q. Earth’s Children (series) by Jean M Auel
96r. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg
96s. It Had to Be You by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
96t. Marley and Me by John Grogan
96u. Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up by JM Barrie
96v. The Green Mile by Stephen King
96w. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards
96x. The Vampire Chronicles (series) by Anne Rice – I quit after The Tale of the Body Thief. I enjoyed them, but the quality noticeably decreased with each successive installment.
96y. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

The Romance Reader by Pearl Abraham

Posted by melydia on January 2, 2009 No comment

The Romance Reader by Pearl Abraham: Rachel is the teenaged daughter of a rabbi in a cloistered Hasidic community. She’s quite the rebel: she gets a library card, reads romance novels, wears sheer stockings, goes out without a kerchief, and wants to wear a swimsuit while working as a lifeguard (as opposed to an ankle-length dress). This book would have been much less frustrating had the rest of the family been more sympathetic. Everyone was so spiteful and self-centered, ready to sell out their kin in an instant to make themselves look good in front of the neighbors. It was frankly sickening. The ending was moderately uplifting, but by that point I was so tired of the petty bickering that I was just ready for it to be over. It was interesting to learn a little bit about Orthodox Jewish customs, such as the various things they cannot do during Shabbat and their wedding rituals, but mostly I wanted to take everyone in this family by the shoulders and give them a good shake.

Note: All comments in this review refer exclusively to the characters and situations in this novel. None of my comments are meant to apply to Hasidic culture or the Jewish community in general.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Books read in 2008

Posted by melydia on January 1, 2009 2 comments

1. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austin
2. Getting in Touch with your Inner Bitch by Elizabeth Hilts
3. Dear Jane Letters by Amanda Hamm
4. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
5. Death Note, vol. 2 by Tsugumi Ohba
6. Stories by O. Henry
7. Death Note, vol. 3 by Tsugumi Ohba
8. A Calculated Risk by Katherine Neville
9. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
10. Death Note, vol. 4 by Tsugumi Ohba
11. Dracula by Bram Stoker
12. The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult
13. The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
14. Barry Trotter and the Unauthorized Parody by Michael Gerber
15. Dragons by Catherine M. Petrini
16. Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
17. Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore
18. Get Your Tongue Out of My Mouth, I’m Kissing You Good-bye! by Cynthia Heimel
19. The Invisible Heart by Russell Roberts
20. She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb
21. The Big Bento Box of Unuseless Japanese Inventions by Kenji Kawakami
22. The Great Fetish by L. Sprague de Camp
23. Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
24. The Hammer of God by Arthur C. Clarke
25. Best-Loved Short Stories by various
26. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
27. What Do You Care What Other People Think? by Richard P. Feynman
28. James Herriot’s Cat Stories by James Herriot
29. Broca’s Brain by Carl Sagan
30. Faerie Tale by Raymond E. Feist
31. This Book Will Change Your Life by Benrik
32. The Martian Way by Isaac Asimov
33. Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
34. Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips
35. Sudden Fiction edited by Robert Shapard
36. Waiting for Gertrude by Bill Richardson
37. George W. Bushisms edited by Jacob Weisberg
38. What Goes Around Comes Around by Con Lehane
39. Nation by Terry Pratchett
40. Kingmaker by Alexey Braguine
41. The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart
42. Stiff by Mary Roach
43. Steering the Craft by Ursula K. Le Guin
44. The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov
45. Scum Manifesto by Valerie Solanas
46. The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
47. Cancer Vixen by Marisa Acocella Marchetto
48. We Thought You Would Be Prettier by Laurie Notaro
49. The Myth of You and Me by Leah Stewart
50. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
51. Kiss Me Like a Stranger by Gene Wilder
52. Brush Up Your Mythology! by Michael Macrone
53. If Chins Could Kill by Bruce Campbell
54. Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
55. Why Don’t Your Eyelashes Grow? by Beth Ann Ditkoff
56. The Romance Reader by Pearl Abraham
57. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

Books listened to in 2008
1. The Client by John Grisham
2. Velocity by Dean Koontz
3. The Firm by John Grisham
4. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
5. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
6. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
7. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
8. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
9. Sepulchre by Kate Mosse
10. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
11. The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking
12. From the Corner of His Eye by Dean Koontz
13. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
14. Freakonomics by by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
15. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
16. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
17. Candide by Voltaire
18. The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant
19. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
20. Valhalla Rising by Clive Cussler (abridged)
21. On the Beach by Nevil Shute
22. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris
23. Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
24. Forever Odd by Dean Koontz
25. The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde
26. The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
27. Lady Chatterly’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
28. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
29. On Beauty by Zadie Smith
30. Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig
31. Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
32. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
33. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass

Books started but not finished
* Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (skipping audiobook)
* The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell (uncle!)
* Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King (horrible audiobook narrator)
* Where Wizards Stay Up Late by Katie Hafner (boring)
* The Plot Against America by Philip Roth (horrible audiobook narrator)
* Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much by Anne Wilson Schaef (too busy)
* Cleopatra VII by Kristiana Gregory (boring)
* Jack the Bodiless by Julian May (boring)
* A Writer’s Time by Kenneth Atchity (not what I was looking for)
* The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (no sympathy for the main characters)
* Fiction Writer’s Workshop by Josip Novakovich (not what I was looking for)

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