Books in January

Wow, kind of a lot of books in January.

I though Full Metal Alchemist volume 24 was going to wrap up the series, but now I guess it's volume 25. It's definitely building to a kick-ass climax. Also, I love the Flame Alchemist. Just sayin'.

Packing for Mars by Mary Roach is certainly an approachable book about the space program (or rather programs, as she also checks out what Japan is up to). It's not nearly as detailed, been-there-done-that, or witty as R. Mike Mullane. Her witticisms often rubbed me the wrong way; individual results may vary. But honestly if you're looking for a book about the space program written for everyone, I'd go with Mullane's Do Your Ears Pop in Space?

The Atheists Guide to Christmas is a UK book with the proceeds going to charity. Simon le Bon aside, I was more familiar with the scientists (including Richard Dawkins and Brian Cox) who wrote pieces for this than the pop culture celebrity types. I'm not sure if these people are on TV or what, but several of them are quite funny. Not a particularly meaty read, but amusing enough for the dollar I paid for it.

Zero History is of course the latest by William Gibson, with a plot about the fashion industry's relationship with military uniforms. But since this is Gibson it's really about all the little details that are just spot on and wonderfully described. I guess this wraps up his trilogy of books that are set so near-future they aren't really sci-fi. I've enjoyed them, and especially the women protagonists (who meet briefly in this one, a nice scene). It should be interesting to see what he does next.

Alchemy of Stone by Katerina Sederis had a wonderful setting. The main character is a clockwork woman; her creator keeps the key that winds her up. The society seems to be split between engineers and alchemists, two world views that don't overlap much, although our main character bridges them. But as the story progresses we start to see all the people who aren't either of those things: the farmers and the miners and that. I loved the worldbuilding, but the story just seemed to zip by too quickly. I'd have loved to read this at a more China Mieville length.

Among Others is the first book I've read by Jo Walton, although I've had her name down on my writers to read next list for a long time. I adore her column at Tor.com, and this book really feels like an extension of that. It's a book about books and why and how we love them. It's about how reading sci-fi matters even in the mundane world we all live in. It's so cool that now if anyone asks me "how can you read that stuff?" I have the perfect novel to hand them. This is why. (And bonus, I now have more names for my list of writers to read next).

I also read some urban fantasy, the first two books in two different series. Spellbent and Shotgun Sorceress (how awesome is that title?) by Lucy A. Snyder are set or start out in Columbus, Ohio, and hey! I was just there! So I had that geek factor going for me. The sequel starts in Ohio, but then finds its way to a Texas town being controlled by a Japanese demoness. Cool. I have a particular fondness for books where magic has a real cost, and boy does this main character pay a price. There's a large cast of well thought out characters (I have a particular fondness for the college boys the MC rooms with very briefly, although they likely won't turn up again, they were cool).

I also read Embers and Sparks by Laura Bickle, books set in Detroit. The main character is an arson investigator by day and a swallower of ghosts by night. She also has a salamander who is always with her, making trouble. He's not exactly a pet, more like a particularly precocious toddler, capable of destroying something the instant your attention is distracted. This is another one with a large cast of diverse characters; I particularly enjoy the ghostbusting team Anya works with. They have a wide range of world views that occasionally causes conflict but they manage to stay a team; I loved that aspect. Detroit I've not been to, but a few of the settings used in these two books I'd love to see firsthand, like the abandoned train station and the old salt mines.

It's a good month that has me finding two new series to follow. Below, the somewhat random collection of quotes, culled down from a much longer list (boy do I love the highlight feature on my Kindle).

There were cameras literally everywhere, in London. So far, he’d managed not to think about them. He remembered Bigend saying they were a symptom of autoimmune disease, that state’s protective mechanisms ‘roiding up into something actively destructive, chronic; watchful eyes, eroding the healthy function of that which they ostensibly protected. – Zero History

There’s also a lot to be said for Christmas. The high spirits, good food, bringing people together are excellent things for humans. Although anyone who says it is the greatest story ever told clearly hasn’t read Watchmen. – “110 Love Street” by Catie Wilkins, from The Atheists Guide to Christmas

“Bleed to death? How?” I stood up, frowning at him. “There aren’t any major arteries –“
“Dammit, I should not have to talk you out of sticking a spoon in your eye!” - Spellbent

A girl who wore combat boots was much better qualified to dress her than the pastel-clad biddy in the pink shop, Anya decided. – Embers

Various fine young Baptist rednecks regularly kicked the shit out of him because he was half Chinese, half Jewish, and 100 percent nerd. Worse, he was fussy enough to come across as utterly gay to everyone but the actual gay kids. – Shotgun Sorceress

“What are you, anyway? Are you the Charon? The guy fishing for dead souls on the river Styx? Or is that an affectation?”
She felt his muscles tense under her arms. “How about you?” he countered. “Are you the Ishtar?”
“Of course not.”
“We all inherit pieces of things that make us what we are, whether we want them or not.” – Sparks

There are some awful things in the world, it’s true, but there are also some great books. When I grow up I would like to write something that someone could read sitting on a bench on a day that isn’t all that warm and they could sit reading it and totally forget where they were or what time it was so that they were more inside the book than inside their own head. I’d like to write like Delany or Heinlein or Le Guin. – Among Others

Movies in December

Our first month with Netflix, which put way too many films at our fingertips. I was warned that it could get addictive, but I'm not worried. I only have a few times a week when I can even sit down in front of the TV, and that's all I'm expecting to do with that time anyway. It's a tight schedule I have, no possibility for cheating. I'm just enjoying all the options with the time I already have.

Like finally seeing An Affair to Remember. I already know the story from Sleepless in Seattle and from the Bollywood version of this movie (Mann). It holds up well; Cary Grant is of course awesome as hell, and the banter between him and Debra Kerr is top notch.

Oliver putting his own name in the search box brought us to the musical Oliver! with a very, very young Oliver Reed. So that's where that song came from...

The African Queen is another one I've been meaning to see since forever. I loved the little steam boat, and Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn were great.

The Maiden Heist stars Christopher Walken, Morgan Freeman and a super-buff William H. Macy as art musuem security guards who each have one specific work they adore. When a museum in Holland buys their obsessions, they turn thieves to steal what they can't live without. It's a quiet little movie, but has so many really wonderful touches about how subjective our reaction to art is. These guys can understand each other's obsession but can't quite get the focus of each other's obsessions (I love Morgan Freeman's attempt to replicate Christopher Walken's favorite painting - oh, he didn't get it at all).

Less compelling was the French film The Ultimate Heist. "Ultimate" here doesn't mean the heist to end all heists, it just means the last one. So I went in expecting one sort of film and got another. Still, Jean Reno reading a phonebook is worth watching once just to see.

Constant Gardener was about what I expected, a deserved Oscar winner but not a film I expect will be remembered much in ten years. (From my research on slums, it's my understanding that the slums of Nairobi are by far the worst place to live in the world, and this movie doesn't scratch the surface of what it's like. But then what it does show is harrowing enough).

Boondocks Season 3 was just as sharply written, just as lovingly animated, as the first two seasons. I love the way the old Peanuts cartoons' influence can be felt, especially in the music, and the intrusion of anime elements in a suburban setting always brightens my nerdy little heart. This is one of my favorite shows.

Toy Story 3 was not as good as the first two, but still a fun show. Mr. Potato Head left sans potato, making do with a tortilla, was brilliant, and the character of Ken was a great addition (they never say metrosexual, but it's implied). Some clever bits and the ending was just perfect, but the minimal influence of the original filmmakers was felt. Also finishing up a series was Shrek the Final Chapter, which also had some elements I liked (like Fiona rescuing herself, and she and Shrek sparring as a prelude to romance. Which it totally is). But on the final score, this is a series that's gone a bit past it's best by date. Time to retire it. It's a Trap!, the final of the Family Guy Star Wars parodies also feels less than fresh, although I loved the Seth Green jokes, and when Mon Mothma shows up and suddenly Leia is no longer the only woman in the galaxy. "I don't like her," she says. Yeah, that made me laugh.

Bollywood, y'all. Jawani Zindagi had pretty low production values, which was a shame because I really liked the story, about how dowries suck, and not just for women.

London Dreams had a cool premise: Amadeus done as two competing rock stars in the same band. Ajay Devgan (who was awesome as the lead in the Hindi version of Othello, Omkara) makes a delicious Salieri, and Salman Khan is the perfect choice for the never serious Amadeus. Sadly, a movie with a plot built around music and who makes it well and who doesn't needs to have really awesome music, and the songs in this one just didn't do it. The scene were Khan's character riffs on Devgan's snippet of song, playing it in several styles and improving on it a la Mozart, was good, but the songs they were performing before stadium crowds just weren't the sorts of songs that fill stadiums.

As opposed to Dabangg, which had awesome songs. Plus a sweet little love story, Salman Khan as a policeman with the universally recognized policeman's moustache, and action scenes that show just how much Salman Khan loved Sherlock Holmes and the Matrix. All that, and Malaika Arora Khan too. There was an episode of Friends where the guys were picking out the names of five celebrities they would sleep with if given the chance and their partners couldn't object because they were on the list (Ross laminates his, natch). My husband has just one name on his list: Malaika Arora Khan. And he insisted I put this song up on the blog (I was torn between this one and, well, every other song in the movie). It is a great number; Salman Khan looks like he's having all sorts of fun here.

Books in December

Lots of books read in December. Alas I still didn't meet my goal of 100 books read in the year, and actually read less than 2009. In 2011 I'll have to be sure to read more graphic novels to pad my numbers.

Lots of books by Backspacers this month. Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler has a great concept: an anorexic girl becomes the Horseman Famine. The details of being anorexic really brought this story to life, and although it was often sad there are some fun moments as well (like Kurt Cobain as Death; very cool). This feels like a standalone, but I'd love to see a whole Horseman of the Apocalypse series.

Twelfth Grade Kills by Heather Brewer finishes off the chronicles of Vladimir Todd. It's a good ending with lots of surprises, but it feels like there's more story here. Maybe Vlad will go to college.

Please Ignore Vera Dietz by AS King really got me at a gut level. Dealing with the death of a close friend on top of already dealing with high school and family issues - Vera Dietz was very really for me. Plus the writing is just top notch; this is another book on my Kindle with pages and pages of highlighted quotes. (This was all around a tough month to winnow down the quote list).

Stealing the Marbles by EJ Knapp is a great heist story with great score: the main character is aiming to steal the Elgin marbles from the British Museum so he can give them back to the Greeks. I love me a heist story, and this one had a lot of fun twists and details. This would make an awesome George Clooney movie (but an even awesomer Cary Grant one, if such a thing were possible).

Tongues of Serpents is the latest Temeraire novel from Naomi Novik, this time set in Australia. She really brought the geography to life; man, I'd love to go to Australia some day. The naval battle with the sea monsters - straightup awesome.

Two short story collections from M. Rickert: Map of Dreams has a lot of her stories that I'd originally read in FSF. They're just as engrossing the second time through. The only weak entry is actually the first piece, the title story. For me it took too long to get where I always figured it was going. But all of the stories in Holiday were darkly wonderful, and the structure of a year's cycle of a story for each holiday gave it a nice rhythm. Of course any book that ends with "The Christmas Witch" is doing something right. I don't think I've ever read a young child POV so convincingly written.

Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold is the latest Miles Vorkosigan novel and doesn't disappoint. Some old characters are back, but the new ones hold their own.

A Star Shall Fall by Marie Brennan is hands-down my favorite of that series so far. It might just be the time it's set in, but when science starts to come into its own, things get very interesting for magical creatures. I really love how Haley's comet is used, and the missing days from when the calendars were corrected. Very cool.

And now some of my favorite quotes, in no particular order:

She sipped, realizing that at least when food was involved, she was able to feel. Maybe the emotion was bitter and hateful, but it was better than the vacuum she otherwise seemed to dwell in. Food was real. Everything else paled. - Hunger

I turn to the pond and eye a bright pink fish the size of my forearm shimmering his way from shadow to shadow, and I toss in the penny and make a wish. I wish for world peace, because it’s about as likely to occur as anything else I can wish for. - Please Ignore Vera Dietz

Mulling this over, Vlad wiped her lip gloss from his lips with the back of his hand. Vampires, after all, didn’t sparkle. - Twelfth Grade Kills

Hell hath no fury like a woman whose boyfriend is tied to a chair and being tortured in a dingy garage. - Stealing the Marbles

Privately, Temeraire was forced to admit that Laurence was unreasonably deadly on the subject of superstition, even though it did not make any sense, as he was equally firm on the subject of the Holy Spirit; Temeraire did not see how one could deny other spirits, when you had allowed one. - Tongues of Serpents

Some say she had a glow about her, which, it is also reasoned, is no difficulty for the devil to conjure such a thing if the CIA can make the whole world believe that Russia is no longer a threat, then certainly it is no problem for them to make a girl glow. - "Angel Face" in A Map of Dreams

“She and that Escobaran medtech she married plan to pop their second kid from the uterine replicator any day now.”
“Not cloned, eh?”
“No, it was all done the old-fashioned way, an egg and a sperm in a test tube.” - Cryoburn

The sisters themselves looked like a pair of poetic country housewives, rendered in three-foot miniature. At least until Gertrude Goodemeade advanced on him with the demeanor of an overwhelmingly friendly army sergeant. - A Star Shall Fall

Movies in November

Finally I'm all caught up! Now if the same could just be said about the writing...

The Last Airbender was like a chilling wind blowing through my soul; I could feel the metaphysical frostbite and it burned, oh how it burned. How could he have gotten every single thing wrong? (Dev Patel and Shaun Toub were the one bright spot in an otherwise muddy mess of a film). I hope they aren't planning more, or at least they get a different filmmaker on board a la Harry Potter. I'd much rather see M. Night Shyamalan make another M. Night movie and not try to adapt someone else's story.

Vertigo was also a bit of a disappointment. I can see that it's technically stunning, and it has the lush look that says Hitchcock, but the story was just not doing it for me.

A classic that was just as fun as I'd hoped: The Sting with Robert Redford and Paul Newman. The boys enjoyed it as well.

Brick is the first film from The Brothers Bloom director Rian Johnson. It's a noir story set in a high school starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. And by nior I really am talking about the story: the characters and how they speak and the plot. Film visuals usually associated with noir are almost entirely absent. That gives an interesting effect. It might be carry-over from having watched The Brothers Bloom first, but in my mind it made the movie feel very literary. I liked this less than The Brothers Bloom largely because it was noir, though. I don't have a great interest in the seedy underbelly of society, or women who use their sexuality to manipulate men. Not my cuppa tea. Still, well done.

Mulholland Drive didn't make sense to me until I read on Wikipedia that it was intended to be a pilot for a TV series, and when he couldn't sell the series he crafted an ending to make it a film. I think it had potential to be a very watchable TV show, but as a film the first two-thirds feel nothing like the last third and it was interesting but not quite complete.

College is a Buster Keaton film. Buster is a scholar who is forced to take an interest in sports to get the girl he likes to notice him. He fails at everything he tries until his girl is in peril - the film ends with Buster running across campus, pole vaulting and leaping hedges and doing everything else he's been trying to do in the early part of the film. It wasn't as funny as some of his others, but the man was a genius of physicality.

Some more Madhuri Dixit films: Ram Lakhan was notable mainly for casting Amrish Puri as the bad guy (yea!). Prahaar took a very long time to get going (the first hour of the movie is guys training in the army in far too much detail), but once the story settled itself in a neighborhood overrun with gangs strong-arming the locals, and the army major who came in town for the funeral of one of his former protegees stays to clean things up. For a Bollywood movie, this had a lot of realism (no musical numbers, no makeup on the actors, and the fight scenes were very real). It was directed by Nana Patekar, who as an actor has done some very meaty, and often quite dark, roles. I wonder why he only ever directed the one film. It wasn't great, but it was an interesting first try.

Two French films which were musicals: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg wasn't the sort of musical that features songs. It was more like the actors sing-songed the entire script. Interesting, and I liked the story, but when I hear singing I want to hear choruses and verses, not just an endless sing-song. The Young Girls of Rochefort I liked immensely. It was an old-school musical with a double love story interrupted by songs. The costumes and sets were colorful and like a window back in time. And it has Gene Kelly in it - speaking French.

The Girl Who Played with Fire I liked better than The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, if only because it had fewer scenes that made me intensely uncomfortable. I'm not sure why they recast this part for the English language version (or, quite honestly, why they had to make an English language version). I'm going to have trouble believing any other actress in this part.

Dollhouse Season 2 wrapped up that story in a semi-satisfying way. Unlike, say, Firefly, I didn't get the feeling that there was so much more story left to tell. It was an interesting concept, but I'm not sure there was enough material to carry a show. I loved Topher, though, and Victor channelling Topher was hilarious - so spot on.

Finally, a documentary about guitar players. It Might Get Loud features three generations of guitarists: Jimmy Page, the Edge and Jack White. They have three very distinct styles and approaches to music, and individually talking about what they do and why I loved. But the scenes where the three tried to jam together in my mind mainly served to drive home just how individualistic these three musicians are. I found this documentary compelling enough to watch it twice. Aside from making me want to dig my guitar back out (which would be a very bad idea - no time!), a lot of what they are saying about music applies equally well to writing. I love listening to artists of any stripe talking about their craft.

Here's the trailer, in which you see one of my favorite moments: Jack White showing you don't need to buy a guitar:

Books in November

Only four books read in November (but wait until you see December...)

First off, I capped off my China Miéville marathon with his latest, Kraken. While this doesn't quite nudge Un Lun Dun off as my personal fave, it comes pretty close. Very readable prose, with such detail to the worldbuilding. I particularly like the magic-wielders who use sci-fi tropes for their magic. Who doesn't want a sonic screwdriver for a magic wand? It's so much cooler than a willow branch.

Behemoth is Scott Westerfeld's sequel to Leviathan, this time set in Istanbul. A fun read, the illustrations are quite good. All the talk of spices was making me hungry. And in the next book they are heading further east; should be interesting.

The Secret History of Moscow by Ekaterina Sedia is another book that's been around the house for ages in various To Be Read stacks. I loved the Russian details (particularly Father Frost, whom I've adored since the movie), but the story itself didn't quite suck me in as much as I'd hoped.

Drive by Daniel H. Pink also wasn't as engrossing as I'd hoped, mostly because a lot of his ideas come from Dan Ariely, and I've already read him. Not enough new here. On the other hand, if you've not read Ariely, this look at people's relationship to their work and what motivates us might be interesting (on the other, other hand, I'd really just recommend reading Ariely).

It's back to work for me; these stories don't write themselves, you know. In the meantime, a few of my favorite quotes:

Living a satisfying life requires more than simply meeting the demands of those in control. Yet in our offices and our classrooms we have way too much compliance and way too little engagement. The former might get you through the day, but only the latter will get you through the night. - Drive

She didn’t know what it was about subways – perhaps the fact that they were carved into a dark wet heart of the earth – that made them so magical. But she used to have an unshakeable conviction that they were the way to a hidden world where she could escape. – The Secret History of Moscow

“Sometimes you can’t get bogged down in the how,” Baron said. “Sometimes things happen that shouldn’t, and you can’t let that detain you. But the why? We can make headway with.” – Kraken

“My name’s not Rosencratz,” Eddie Malone said. “I wasn’t going to carry a message I didn’t understsand.” – Behemoth

Movies in October

Oh, the lateness. These movies are from October, dude. Let's see what I remember...

The Secret of Kells was a so-so story told with some of the most eye-catching animation I've seen in a while. It was kind of Samurai Jack-y; very cool. I particularly loved the snow that was little Celtic knots.

Van Helsing was just as bad as everyone said it was. *Sigh*. Nice hat, though.

Koyla, Mrityudand, and Sailaab were all Madhuri Dixit movies. Koyla had Amrish Puri as the bad guy, and that's always a good choice (non-Bollywood fans would recognize him as Mola Ram in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom but I love him best as the very Bond-villain Mogambo in Mr. India. Man, he was awesome in that). These three were all pretty forgettable movies, though.

Heroes, Season 4 was their last season. As much as the show never really found its footing, never got more than mildly interesting, I have to give it props for not tanking the ending like BSG or Lost. Maybe not having an end in mind and having to wrap everything up at the last minute because you've been cancelled can be a good thing.

The Venture Brothers, Season 4, Volume 1 was, of course, awesome. Particularly the first episode, told out of sequence with a number in the corner that keeps changing value. The minute I figured out what that number meant - that was sublime. (I also like the ep when Dean discovers the world of prog rock). The boys are moving through adolescence in a convincing, often emotionally moving way. For a show that's mostly about terribly inappropriate jokes, the details of this family are rendered with great love. Yes, I'm deeply admiring of this show.

And finally, how did I love the movie The Brothers Bloom? Let me count the ways.

• First off, the character names come from my all-time #1 favorite book EVAH, Ulysses. Brothers Bloom, you had me from the title.
• The prologue about their childhood told in verse? Pretty much clinched it. I was in love before the credits started.
• Rachel Weisz's character Penelope is so beyond awesome. She's a 30-something shut-in who collects hobbies by learning how to do things from books. (Of course I love her). She plays all these instruments, speaks all these languages, makes her own pinhole cameras - she even juggles chainsaws.
• You don't have to have read anything to get the movie, but the subtle way literary references are woven through the story was just delightful. But like Bloom says, his brother constructs cons the way dead Russians write novels.
• This was the movie that moved Mark Ruffalo in my mind from some guy who always looks familiar, like I've seen him in stuff, to an actor I instantly recognized. And just in time, as he's taking over the Hulk role from Ed Norton.
• This movie has one of the best, most perfect kisses in it. You realize some things about Penelope that no other moment could convey so well.
• The music is perfect for the scenes, too. I particularly loved the epiphany (because any movie that takes its title from a James Joyce novel has to have an epiphany) set to Cat Stevens. Man, perfection.
• The nearly Harpoesque Japanese demolitions expert Bang-Bang. Pay attention; when Stephen says she only speaks "like three words of English", you can start counting her dialogue. Karaoke aside, it's exactly three, well chosen, words.
• The message is pretty cool too. It certainly encapsulates my own philosophy of life.
• I've watched this movie more than a dozen times since. It might just be a case of one of those movies that feels like the writer went inside my own head and created my perfect thing, but I think it's pretty near perfect.

So, on that note, here's the trailer:

Books in October

October was an all China Miéville month. I re-read King Rat and Perdido Street Station, then moved on to the other books I've been dutifully buying ever since, but that got lost in my massive To Be Read stacks.

The Scar I'd started once before, but only reached the point when the pirates take the main character's ship, stopping before she even reached the floating city. Which is a shame, as that is just my sort of thing. I did like a lot of elements of this novel, and the language was China gorgeous as always, but it was a bit slow and the main character was so emotionally removed she was hard to relate to, a problem as a few random interludes aside, she was the only POV character. But the ending pulled it all together in a fantastically perfect way; I was glad I'd stuck with it this time.

Iron Council was also a bit unevenly paced for me. The beginning, with the group of city dwellers out in the wild, essentially on a quest, dying one by one: I loved that bit. And again, the ending is absolutely perfect (man, that light golem was cool), but there were other bits in between that slowed down.

Looking for Jake is a short story collection, some of which I'd read before. I particularly liked the story set in an Ikea; my boys love going to Ikea (all three of them).

Un Lun Dun is a YA novel, and edges out Perdido Street Station as my favorite. The worldbuilding is so detailed, with every chapter full of new creatures and characters doing something just a little askew - it reminded me of the first time I read Alice in Wonderland. Wonderful.

The City & The City is equal parts fantasy and a police procedural/crime story. I liked the fantasy bits, but the crime story bits not so much. I don't read much crime fiction, though. I'm sure a fan of both kinds of stories would find this novel awesome.

Kraken will be coming up in November. In the meantime, I've managed to winnow down my enormous collection of favorite China quotes to these few:



Scars are not injuries, Tanner Sack. A scar is healing. After injury, a scar is what makes you whole. - The Scar

In Spiral Jacob’s eyes Ori saw real derangement, a dark sea of loneliness, cold, liquor and drugs. But thoughts still saw there, cunning as barracuda, their movements the twitchings of the tramp’s face. - The Iron Council

They laid tracks on ground just smooth enough for their passage, on ties just strong enough, just close enough together. It was a just-railroad, existing in the moment for the train to pass, then gone again. - The Iron Council

The disease incubates for up to three years, during which time the infected patient suffers violent headaches. After this, full-blown Buscard’s Murrain is manifested in slowing failing mental faculties and severe mood swings between three conditions: near full lucidity; a feversigh seeking out of the largest audience possible, and a state of loud, hysterical glossolalia. Samuel Buscard infamously denoted these states torpor, prefatory, and grandiloquent respectively, thereby appearing to take the side of the disease. - from “Entry Taken from a Medical Encyclopaedia” in Looking for Jake

I will not call them evil. They are not evil. But I am afraid that they are capable of it. - from "Different Skies” in Looking for Jake

“Is it dangerous? Hmmm. Well, define ‘dangerous’. Is a knife ‘dangerous’? Is Russian roulette ‘dangerous’? Is arsenic ‘dangerous’?” He did the little finger-thing to show quotation marks, tickling the air. “It depends on your perspective.”
“I don’t think it does depend on perspective,” said Deeba. “I think that’s all definitely dangerous. I don’t think you need none of this...” She did the quote motion. - Un Lun Dun

“The thing is,” Deeba said, eying Mr. Speaker, “you could only make words do what you want if it was just you deciding what they mean. But it isn’t. It’s everyone else, too. Which means you might want to give them orders, but you aren’t in total control. No one is.” - Un Lun Dun

He walked with equipoise, possibly in either city. Schrödinger’s pedestrian. - The City & The City

Movies in September

What with going to the World Fantasy Convention and trying to wind one book down while also winding another book up has been a bit of a time suck. But as I'm getting dangerously close to being three months behind, let's play a little catch-up. Luckily, September was a light movie month.

Lost Season 6, the finale. *Sigh* Well, for me this was a bit like Harry Potter. I adored those books, read them over and over again, hoarded clues and constructed my own ideas about how it would all tie up in the end, spent so much time on it and finessed what was to me such a perfect ending that book 7 was horribly disappointing. But not as disappointing as the last episode of Lost. This one face-planted just at the end worse than Battlestar Galactica. I prefer the ending in my head; I'm going to pretend that's what it all was (my ending didn't leave a decorative fringe of loose ends, I tell you).

Shutter Island was way cool. I think we can label this the point where I started noticing Mark Ruffalo. Remember it; he's going to come up again (an intriguing choice for Bruce Banner/the Hulk. It almost makes up for tossing Ed Norton. Not quite, but almost).

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, in Swedish, natch. It made me grateful I hadn't read the book; women as victims is too uncomfortable-making for me and I barely made it through a few key scenes in the movie. I'm guessing the Finch version will be intense as well, although how any other actress could play the main character after this one so thoroughly defined it, and an unknown actress at that... I think they might have made a mistake there, but we'll wait and see.

Pukar I watched, but I'm having a hard time recalling it now. I'm remembering only really liking the songs, which were by AR Rahman, so no duh. Whatever Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit were up to is gone from mind now. Dream Girl is one from the late 60s or early 70s, with Dharmadendra and Hema Malini, whom I adore. This one had a song and dance number in Disney World, including an aerial shot of the park, which was mindblowing. There was nothing out there, just empty space around the Magic Kingdom.

Superman Returns I mostly remember as the movie where one lapdog ate another. The boys liked this one, and Kevin Spacey was a fun Lex Luthor, but the constant playing with the Superman as Jesus theme was tedious and the whole movie was just plain slow.

Finishing up with two Alfred Hitchcock movies: Dial M for Murder was apparently originally a 3D movie, but none of the 3D prints exist anymore. Which is a real shame; it looks like it was a gorgeous, layered popup book of a movie (as opposed to the shit poking out at you that 3D tends to devolve to in most films). Mr. and Mrs. Smith has no connection to the Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie film. It's about two people who discover that they were never legally married, and the wife decides that suits her fine, and her husband stalks her in a screwball comedy kind of way. People behaving badly tends not to tickle my personal funny bone (I'm looking at you, The Hangover), so I didn't really enjoy this, but it does have some wonderful shots that let you know it's still Hitchcock at the helm.

Well, that finishes off September. Hopefully I'll get the two October posts up before December hits, in all it's too much to do, too little time glory.

Books in September

Not much fiction read in September, and what I read was all Joe Hill. I mentioned his short story collection in August, which I liked, but the novels are even better. Wonderfully constructed with complex (often surprisingly loveable) main characters and endings that manage to slip into that narrow sliver where the circles of "didn't see it coming" and "satisfying happy ending" coincide.

Heart-Shaped Box is already being adapted into a movie with Neil Jordan as director. I can't wait to see it; his gorgeous use of color and all-around visual sense with this story where reality keeps getting all nightmarish and twisty, is going to be very interesting indeed.

But Horns was the novel I liked the best of the two. The way the story unfolded, and little bits of the past coming to life in a completely organic way, I thought it was just about perfect. And I loved the ending (and the double meaning to the title).

In nonfiction, I read another by Dan Ariely, The Upside of Irrationality. His previous book was almost a downer with its arguments that as much as people would like to be, we just aren't always rational. This book makes a nice companion: yes, we're not always rational, but there are ways to make irrationality work for you. Not as meaty as his first book, but still a good read.

And still doing novel research, Anger, Madness and the Daimonic by Stephen A. Diamond turned out not to be useful at all for my current novel purposes, but very eyeopening to some of the thematic elements in my last work. Outside of my own writing, it was a very interesting book that made me want to dive back in to my Carl Jung collection, and expand it. So many books, so little time.

People of the Lie by M. Scott Peck reminded me of a certain episode of Frasier, where he is backing a political candidate he really likes, until he finds out that the man is convinced he was abducted by aliens. I felt the same disconnect here, with how much I was right there with him in the realm of psychology, and how vast the chasm between us was when he started using words like "evil" and "Satan". Such is life.

This month's quotes, all from the fiction:



If hell was anything, it was talk radio – and family. Heart-Shaped Box

Horror was rooted in sympathy, after all, in understanding what it would be like to suffer the worst. Heart-Shaped Box

Talking to her now was like flailing his hands at a storm of hornets, It did nothing, and it stung, and yet he couldn’t stop himself. - Horns

Another story up!

I'm down to only three stories still looking for homes. It's nice to have all the sales, but it also means I really need to write more. Novels are so time-consuming.

The story is called "Tale of a Fox" and is up at Fly in Amber. Here is my little blurb about it from my website:

This is yet another story written for a contest at Backspace. The parameters were to write a story based, however loosely, on a song. The song I chose was "Shiki No Uta", the song that plays over the closing credits of the anime Samurai Champloo. The title means "Song of Four Seasons", although my story really only hits on three. I had wanted to write a story for some time that was set in Japan, and specifically that included a kitsune and an onmyoji. I hope to write more onmyoji stories in the future; I love the intricacies of Heian era Japan.

On the Importance of Naming: Asuka means "fragrance of the bright day" which I thought was just lovely. Masuyo means "to increase the world" which sums up his ambition well. Katashi means firmness, which I found very appropriate for him.

Books in August

In August I finished off the last volumes of Full Metal Alchemist, namely 13-23. I have 24 on preorder, but it's not out until January. I'm not sure if that will be the last or second to last, but it definitely feels like the story is coming to an end. It's so different from the anime series and movie I don't know what's going to happen next, but it's awesome.

Tamas by Bhisham Sahni is a novel set in the Partition, when Pakistan became a separate country from India with much religious rioting. I've read nonfiction books on the subject which were deeply upsetting, and I've seen more than a few Bollywood movies that were set at that time, or dealt with the fallout of it all (often a bit too shrilly overdramatic). In comparison, this novel written by someone who lived through it all, feels very emotionally remote. It's a good story and feels real, just muted.

Speaking of nonfiction, I picked up the book version of a DVD I've been working through when I can find the time (so, not often), Taijiguan, Classical Yang Style by Yang, Jwing Ming. I like Yang's writing, we actually have quite a few of his other books and I delve into them from time to time. Learning the form is probably much easier with the DVD than with the pictures in the book, but the book has a lot more information on the hows and whys as well as the history. Someday I'll have enough time to really devote to this, right?

Another nonfiction I picked up as possible novel #5 research, American Exorcism by Michael Cuneo. It wasn't quite what I needed for what I'm thinking of for novel #5, but was interesting in it's own right and I read the whole thing in two afternoons. Cuneo (who describes himself in a way I could also describe myself, as an open-minded sceptic) looks into exorcisms, both the old school Catholic and the kind done by Pentecostals and Evangelicals, also spending some time on the Satanic scares of the early 80s, something I remember happening from my childhood years and was tremendously interesting to put into a larger context.

I also finished off my Cory Doctorow kick with his last two novels, Makers, which I actually found a bit depressing (for its near future in which no one has any financial security or job stability), and For the Win, which has displaced Little Brother as my favorite Doctorow. FTW is set mainly in Mumbai and China, where kids are put to work in sweat shops playing videogames to rack up megacharacters and win all the rare prizes to be sold to lazy gamers in the US and elsewhere. The plot centers on these kids getting organized, getting unionized, across national boundaries (and joining forces with all the other exploited workers of Asia). Lots of ideas about workers and economics, with details that put you right there in the heat, smelling the food, hearing the roar of the computer fans. I'd highly recommend that one; I think Doctorow is at his best when he's writing YA.

I've had Joe Hill's books on my shelf for quite some time now, gifts from two Christmases ago plus his new one which I picked up when it came out. It seemed like a good time to dig into them now (yeah, I don't know why, sometimes I just get these urges). I started off with his short story collection 20th Century Ghosts, which was engrossing as hell. Clever stories with marvellously complicated characters, what's not to love? Here's a little taste of Books in September: his novels are even better.


Banto again fell silent. Argument can counter argument, but argument is helpless against faith. -
Bhisham Sahni


What Aunt Mandy would say about it is that she's still trying to figure out what it is she's supposed to be. What my father would say is Mandy is wrong if she thinks the question hasn't been answered yet - she already is the person she was always sure to become. - Joe Hill

Movies in August

I caught a lot of movies on cable this month; I'm not sure how that worked out. I saw the original Jane Fonda version of Fun with Dick and Jane, which made me wonder how badly the Jim Carrey/Tea Leone version would screw up its lowkey vibe. I'm afraid to find out. Dickie Roberts, Former Child Star was amusing, although not in the way that would be worth seeing twice. We Were Soldiers could have been the Vietnam War version of Band of Brothers, only it wasn't. I found it oddly not emotionally engaging at all.

Cop Out was directed by Kevin Smith, but not written by him. It's very obvious; it does not have any of his wit. I found the characters likeable, but there just weren't any jokes (unless you count the tagline on the DVD cover: "Rock out with your Glock out", which gave me a chuckle). Rope was our latest Alfred Hitchcock movie, and we enjoyed it. We always play Find Alfred, but for this one we also go to play Find the Hidden Cuts. It was seamlessly done, something all too easy to pull off with computers these days. There was a point when the camera followed the actors down the hall to the kitchen when it became clear that SteadiCams hadn't been invented yet, and yet it was no where near as jarring as that keeping-it-real hurky-jerky handheld camera stuff which got so popular a few years back (we hates it; it's distracting as hell). I liked his use of color too, and the cityscape looming out the window. Lastly in the category of films in English, Cold Souls, which stars Paul Giamatti as Paul Giamatti. It did feel like Being John Malkovich in a lot of ways, but it was a quieter story. Paul is working in a production of Uncle Vanya, but the angst of the play is getting to him, so he decides to let a new company remove his soul just until he's done with the play. But that has side effects and he quickly wants it back, only to find it's been stolen. He follows the trail to Russia, which has a burgeoning trade in taking the souls of Russian workers and selling them to Americans. The moment when he finds out who has his soul and what she's been using it for is priceless. A small but interesting film.

On to Bollywood then. New York is about the fallout of 09/11. John Abraham is an architecture student who is picked up for having pictures of the WTC on his camera after 9/11 and spends weeks or months held in an undisclosed location. When he's finally released, he vows revenge. Which to me, speaking in terms of story not legal definitions, doesn't exactly make him a terrorist; he's getting back at the people who specifically harmed him, the same as Mel Gibson would if you hurt his daughter, you know? The element of the story which I found most interesting, when he tries and then fails to reintegrate in society before deciding on revenge, is glossed over in a musical montage, and Katerina Kaif's character is criminally underused (there is a scene where she and Abraham are walking in Central Park and pass two randowm policemen and he starts to panic, but she holds his hand and walks him past the cops with such a fierce look in her eye; why couldn't the movie have had more of that?). Also the happy ending that comes out of nowhere feels really false; it relied on the three remaining characters having no real emotions about everything that just happened in the climactic scene and I felt a bit betrayed. This could have been a really good film but I'm afraid they flubbed it.

I had better luck with Wanted, another Salman Khan film which I had heard nothing but negative things about. Yes, it's a bit silly, another story of a cop undercover, the loose canon type who gets the job done never mind the risks or rules (Hollywood has plenty of those as well). I will agree that while the female lead is charming enough in her acting scenes, she can clearly just barely dance. I say this with great love, but it's an odd film where Salman Khan is your best dancer. But then this is not that film; Govinda turns up just long enough...




Aladin had Amitabh Bachchan as the genie of the lamp and Sanjay Dutt as a magician called the Ringmaster (he seemed to call himself that largely for one joke at the expense of a Chinese man). It was fun but not awesome. Kisna was an epic story set in the last days of British rule. It involved an Indian boy in love with a white girl, with the theme that duty comes before love. I felt bad for the Indian girl Kisna eventually married out of duty. I bet she had a fun life. Mehbooba was gorgeous with extravagant sets and the really big kind of song and dance numbers. I didn't really care for the ending here either, but at least the first three hours were entertaining.

Better was Lajja, a story about women and how society treats them. Which sounds preachy as hell, but this movie pulls all the tricks out of the bag (great dances, spot-on comic relief, a few really heroic male characters who get into fights but not ones which drag on forever) to make for a highly watchable movie which just also happens to have a message. Having seen Sita sings the Blues, the scene where Madhuri Dixit takes Sita to task for letting herself be tested by fire while performing her part in a play was awesome (it's a bit like someone playing Jesus in a passion play deciding to go off script and not get up on the cross, telling the audience they can all handle their own sins, thank you very much, and stop looking for scapegoats). This was from the same director as the very first Bollywood movie I saw: Andaz Apna Apna. I'd be hard pressed to come up with two more different films...

Movies in July

In July I got myself another big box of Bollywood movies. But first the non-Bolly.

Ocean's 11, the original Frank Sinatra version. The first half was aimless, the actual heist was better, but the ending was just depressing. The boys enjoyed this mostly as a glimpse to what Vegas used to look like (four casinos on a stretch of road, never out of sight of the desert, basically).

Speaking of George Clooney (well, we were inferring him above, yeah?), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind pretty much clinched my opinion that Clooney directs some great stories. Also, Sam Rockwell is awesome in everything. This movie was very strange but very interesting.

I finally saw Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and it has not been overpraised. Humphrey Bogart slowly losing it over a couple of sacks of gold dust is completely mesmerising.

The Warlords is a Jet Li movie that reminded me a bit of Scarface in that it involves a bunch of guys acting all gangsta until their entire world collapses around them. A cautionary tale. It also has Takeshi Kaneshiro, whom I saw recently in Red Cliff. Then I looked him up on Wikipedia and realized I'd seen him in all sorts of things from House of Flying Daggers to Chunking Express, so I'm a bit embarrassed it took me this long to really notice him. I like him; he's one of those actors who listens really well (giving speeches is easy; reacting to another actor giving a speech is much tougher to do in a captivating way, I'm thinking).

When the boys were at camp I went out to the movie theater twice, to see Inception and Salt. Inception is just as cool as everyone but the haters says it is. I also quite liked Salt, too. What a perfect name for a popcorn movie. Liev Schreiber seems to finally be getting lots of interesting work, which is cool.

One of the blogs I followed was on about Aguirre: The Wrath of God, only I can't remember which one. (Jerry Coyne?) At any rate, it's a strange movie that reminded me of a lot of other movies, only when I looked it up later it turns out it's actually a strange movie that inspired a lot of other movies. An interesting film, although not one I'm likely to watch again.

And then comes Bollywood: God Tussi Great Ho was just as bad as I had heard. It's the Bollywood version of Bruce Almighty starring Amitabh Bachchan as god, which sounds like it could be cool. Oliver watched this one with me, and when Salman Khan's character meets god for the first time, Oliver wondered how he knew which god it was. One of many potentially interesting questions the movie doesn't ask. The special effects were unbelievably hokey, but apparently ate the whole budget, as it looked like it'd been shot on video and not film. Plus, the songs weren't even any good.

Kambakkht Ishq is set in Hollywood and has appearances by Sylvester Stallone and Denise Richards plus that guy who's Justin Long's boyfriend in Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Sadly, it was one of those movies where the script was writing itself while they filmed, I'm guessing - silly and nonsensical and not very good. But Akshay Kumar is likeable even in crap films, and the title song is groovy:

Paa was interesting, with Amitabh Bachchan as a 12-year-old with progeria and his son Abhishek Bachchan playing his father. Abhishek's character is a politician trying to make a point about how politics doesn't have to equal corruption. Sadly, his whole plot line was dumped in the end, and I really wanted to see how all that came out.

Drona also stars Abhishek Bachchan playing a superhero who's really a mythological figure (think Thor, only he has a really shiny magic sword). He's also more laconic than Batman. The Big Bad in this one would have been creepier without the Ed Grimley hair-do. This wasn't really a great film, but I liked their story.

Veer I had heard was a bad film, and I went into it with low expectations, so low I was actually working on something else when I put it in and wasn't really reading the subtitles, just getting by on what little I could pick up by listening. By the end of the first dance number, I was completely sucked in and left my work undone to watch the next two hours. This movie is probably just as lovingly researched and historically accurate as, say, Troy. It's also as bombastic and fun as Troy, with one on one combat with swords and shields in front of massive city walls. It might be too lowbrow for the critics, but I loved it. Here's the first number which got my attention; check out all the little elements that make this so almost a Viking scene (like the big vat they keep filling their beer mugs from, and that carved pillar in the middle of the room):

Books in July

In my head, July was a month where I did nothing but write, write, write until I finished the rewrite on the novel. But apparently I was reading quite a bit as well. I remember the books, but I don't remember finding the time to read them. Writing warps my mind that way, I think.

In the world of, um, sequential art (OK, manga and comic books), I read volumes 7-12 of Full Metal Alchemist, which I love more and more the less it's like the anime series I've already watched three times. This story is so seriously cool. Perhaps I love it so much because as soon as I finish a volume I hand it off to Oliver and he devours it and then we geek out about it together. Good times.

I also finally picked up the Alan Moore I got with my Christmas money, volumes 3-5 of Promethea, which I think is my favorite of his. I can qualify that, it might not be my favorite story of his, but it's definitely my favorite art. It's just gorgeous (although the story and themes rock too). I also read two The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, namely The Black Dossier and Century:1910. It's like the coolest fan fiction ever, weaving in all the great fictional characters. But I've been getting less of that vibe as I go and the story moves more into modern times, and I'm beginning to wonder where he's going with all this.

I read one nonfiction book, the very interesting Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely. The book came out just as the subprime shit was going down, and the edition I read had some appendices where he discusses just how much what he was saying in the first place was borne out by everything that happened. It's just a shame he didn't get heard sooner. Apparently economics is driven by economists who believe that everyone behaves rationally when it comes to money, and that's something we can depend on, can take as a constant when doing the math, so to speak. This book is about how that is sadly just not true, with lots of examples from experiments he's done, although once he's stated his point it feels so intuitive it's hard to believe anyone could think otherwise.

I happened to read that book after it came up on Boing Boing, which is as good a segue as I'm going to get to Cory Doctorow. I've previously read Little Brother, which was teh awesome. In July I read his first two novels Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is set in a far off future where there is no reason to work since no one needs anything, but the economy is based on reputation so everyone is always looking to do something cool, like super-geek-out Disney World rides. A fun read, especially if you love Disney World (I do). Eastern Standard Tribe was darker, twisted and funny. Having since read a few more Doctorow, I would say his themes are generally variations of the conflict between those who make, and those who want to control what is made. Which I find terribly interesting, if at times almost depressing when it seems like a losing battle (more on that in Books in August).

Lots of Backspacers with new books out, which is always cool. Only the Good Spy Young by Ally Carter is a great next volume in the series. The plot thickens, the stakes get higher, new facets of some characters are revealed. I love this series.

Shades of Gray by Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge is also a sequel, although this to me feels more like the middle volume of a trilogy than another of a long series. It had that The Empire Strike Back kind of feel to it, anyway. The world building goes deeper, the characters form the sort of strange of-necessity alliances that are always the coolest thing in comics. I've waited forever for a cool novel about superheroes, and this and its predecessor are exactly what I longed for.

Moving out of genre to literary, I read Kings of the Earth by Jon Clinch. If Amazon.com wants to pull a 1984 a pull this back off my reader, I'm pretty well covered since I underlined almost all of it anyway. Yes, the language is that perfect. Every sentence demands to be read aloud. But I particularly loved the nonlinear sequence spread over multiple characters. First we're in 1990 and then we're in 1931. We're in Audie's head, then we're in his brother's, or his nephew's. There's not a thread that's being followed, at first it seems all over the place. It reminded me of when I was a kid doing one of those pictures you paint with water. I used to like to get the brush as wet as possible, then hold it over the page and let big, fat drops fall on a few different points of the picture. Then I'd watch as the drops spread, making the blues, reds and greens come to life, bringing out more and more of the picture until they started to spread into each other, to connect and eventually cover the page. The plot of this reveals itself like that. It was hypnotic, I couldn't stop reading it. Remember what I said above, about not remembering reading these books? Well this one I do remember, because I devoured it all in a day, accidentally clocking extra miles on the treadmill because I wasn't paying attention, serving dinner late because I was cooking with one hand and holding the Kindle in the other (and I need two hands to underline - sorry, dinner!).

Now I'm not sure what happened but some of the books seemed to have lost their underlining on my Kindle. Not sure how that happened (Kings of Earth is happily unaffected), so my closing quotes are a bit skimpy this go around:

Wouldn't economics make a lot more sense if it were based on how people actually behave, instead of how they should behave? - Dan Ariery

The side of the refigerator was mossy. The man from Syrcuse said his Boy Scout training must be failing him because he'd been given to understand that moss grew on the north sides of trees and this was the east. One of the troopers suggested that maybe the conventional wisodm didn't apply to iceboxes. - Jon Clinch

It is very hot, and I am turning the color of the Barbie aisle at FAO Schwartz, a kind of labial pink that is both painful and perversely cheerful. - Cory Doctorow (Eastern Standard Tribe)

Movies in June

Not much seen in June. Novel writing will do that to you. At any rate, I caught Quills, starring Geoffrey Rush as the Marquis de Sade. I've met writers who insist that they have to write, that if they don't write they will go mad. In this movie, de Sade is the extreme of that sort of writer. (I'm not that sort of writer. I love to write, but when life gets too busy and I don't do it, I don't go mad.) I liked the movie up until the final scene. There was no part of the conclusion that I was buying; it was like every single character did a complete 180.

Good Night, and Good Luck I've been meaning to see for a while. It was interesting, and visually gorgeous. Smoking in black and white movies just looks so moody and cool. As far as movies about the McCarthy era go, I would put this just after Woody Allen in The Front. Good movie, but without the rewatchability that The Front has.

Easy Virtue was amusing in parts, but a little too much a movie version of a play. Some of the dialogue sounded awfully artificial, particularly Jennifer Biel's dialogue. Not her fault, I think the playwright was using her character as the speaker of his philosophical ideas. I did like the use of music, music from the 20s but also modern songs redone as if they were from the 20s, and it's hard to go wrong with anything with Colin Firth.

And in the world of Cary Grant, we caught The Philadelphia Story, which is just marvellous. James Stewart makes the world's cutest drunk, and he and Grant and Katherine Hepburn are perfect together (sharply written dialogue helps).

Matador was another movie I wasn't sure what to make of from Pedro Almodovar. I do believe this is Antonio Banderas' first movie; he certainly looks puppy-young. There were a lot of likeable moments, but also a lot of disturbing ones and I'm not sure they sat together happily in my mind. I might have been too tired to watch this the night I put it in, though.

Lastly I watched the DVD Doctor Who, the Specials, filling in the gaps between the last series I caught on DVD and the one I've been watching on BBC America. The boys watched these too. "The Waters of Mars" in particular had a big impact on them (Oliver watched large chunks of it from between his fingers).

Books in June

I finally got around to reading the Full Metal Alchemist manga (by Hiromu Arakawa) I bought after watching the anime show. I read volumes 1-6 in June, and so far the show follows the manga pretty closely. I understand it's when Greed enters the picture that the two stories diverge.

After having read The Gangs of New York, I picked up another collection of New York anecdotes by Herbert Asbury, All Around the Town. These are not strictly about gangs and gangsters and some of the stories are quite amusing, like the breakdown in what it took to be a fashionable lady in the post Civil War period. Expensive, and a little on the ouch side.

Another nonfiction book I read was the latest from Ayaan Hirisi Ali, Nomad. I was sucked in with her life story in her last book, and here she has more reflections, about what everything she went through taught her, and how the western world should handle immigrants from the Muslim world in particular. A very thought-provoking read.

It sort of worked out that I ended up reading two books dealing with female genital mutilation. It's something that Ali went through, and it appears as a major plot point in Nnedi Okorafor's Who Fears Death. I loved this book, it deals with a lot of dark material but in the end has a feeling of pragmatic optimism about the future. There is wonderful worldbuilding here, and complex characters. I'd highly recommend this one, a great read.

Lastly, another book I finally got around to is the English translation of Saratchandra Chattopadhyay's Devdas. Having seen two film versions (of the dozens in various languages made), I can now say that the Dilip Kumar version does follow the book (novella, really) more closely, but nothing can match the visual splendor of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's version. He may have deviated from some details, but I think he got the soul of the book up on the screen. It's one beautiful bummer of a story.

And now back to my so nearly done novel. I'll leave you with a few of my favorite quotes:



He said first that since he resembled Queen Anne to such a remarkable degree, he occasionally donned skirts and paraded the streets solely that he might acquaint the colonists with the appearance of their sovereign, whom none of them would probably ever see. This explanation didn't seem to satisfy anybody, so His High Mightiness said that he sometimes dressed as a woman simply because he was the New World representative of the Queen, and he though that the people should be reminded from time to time that they were ruled by a woman. Colonial eyebrows were still lifted, so Lord Cornbury finally announced with considerable dignity that he had made a vow which compelled him to wear dresses one month each year. And if that wasn't sufficient for the citizens, he implied, they could concoct a few explanations of their own. - Herbert Asbury

To be something abnormal meant that you were to serve the normal. And if you refused, they hated you... and often the normal hated you even when you did serve them. - Nnedi Okorafor

It is the custom of the wise and the cautious not to pronounce judgment on anything hastily, or to jump to conclusions without considering the full implications of the matter. But there are human beings who are the exact opposite. They do not have the patience to reflect over anything or follow a matter through to its logical end. On the spur of the moment they decide that a thing is either good or bad. They make faith do the work of thorough soul searching. It isn't that such people aren't cut out for the world - in fact they often work out very well. If luck is with them, they can often be found at the pinnacle of success. But if luck doesn't favour them, they can be found in the deepest dregs of misery, wallowing in its murky depths, unable to get up, to rise above their circumstances. There they lie like lifeless, inanimate objects. Devdas belonged to this class of men. - Saratchandra Chattopdhyay

All human beings are equal, but all cultures and religions are not. - Ayaan Hirisi Ali

Movies in May

First off, a slew of Charlie Chaplin shorts: Sunnyside I don't really remember. Hot Finish had car racing and Chapin in a villain role. Pretty cool. The Immigrant was wonderful, starting on a rolling ship at sea and ending in New York in an awkward money situation in a restaurant. The Adventurer had some fun chases and a repeated gag of jumping from a second floor balcony. The Cure had the best drunk :run up the stairs always almost but not quite falling" I've ever seen, followed by a few "I feel like I'm still in the revolving door" spins. The man was a physical genius, no doubt about it. Easy Street about life in the slums was a good one as well.

One Bollywood movie: Izzat ki Roti. I'm only remembering flashes of it now, and I'm fairly certain I fell asleep before the end. I think it was another one of those where the whiplash changes from zany comedy to bloody violence just lost me.

All About my Mother by Pedro Álmodovar I really loved. It has such a big heart and shows so many complex but ultimately accepting family relationships. It was very sweet, in a good way.

The Imaganarium of Dr. Parnassus was The Awesome. Colin Farrel, Jude Law and especially Johnny Depp stepped in for Heath Ledger so wonderfully the film was almost an homage to him. But even outside of Heath, the wagon that transforms into a stage, the strange world behind that stage, everything was so cool. And every film I see Verne Troyer in, I love him just a little bit more. He makes a great foil for Dr. Parnassus here.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang I've been meaning to see, oh, since it came out in theaters. It was fun, with lots of great lines. Kilmer and Downey should totally do another buddy film together; they have great chemistry. (Now I'm wondering who Downey doesn't have great chemistry with...)

And a few biopics with lots of song and dance numbers: Beyond the Sea about Bobby Darin and De-Lovely about Cole Porter. They were both good. I'm going to score Beyond the Sea a touch higher for its use of music, but De-Lovely tops for story. Of course Darin died young, and Porter lived at least three lifetime's worth. Another version of Cole Porter's story was Night and Day with Cary Grant. A little less edgy (or true to life) than De-Lovely, but it's hard to beat anything when it has Cary Grant in it.

One more biopic I caught on cable, Valentino. This thing started at 11:30 at night and I stayed up to see it all the way to the end, and that's saying something. It had a strange quality to the directing, almost Gilliam-esque in places, but was interesting. Which reminded me that I've never really seen a Valentino movie all the way through...

Books in May

In May I wrapped up the last of the Bronte novels. Villette by Charlotte Bronte dragged a lot in the beginning, then got very engrossing near the end. I'm going to have to tackle all of her books again some day after I've learned a little French; she puts entire paragraphs in French and doesn't translate. A sentence or two I can guess the gist, but whole paragraphs? Emily Bronte only ever wrote Wuthering Heights, which I read back in my teens. It's a tickle to read it again post-Jasper Fforde. Anne Bronte was apparently the religious one of the three; Agnes Grey comes across to me as very moralizing. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall I liked better. You'd think a novel about the long-suffering wife of a narcissist alcoholic (and possible heroin fiend) would have even more heavy-handed moralizing than the story of a governess in charge of a bunch of ingrates, but I actually found it very human and with a still-contemporary feel.

After all that reading of books more than a century old, I gorged on new releases from some of my faves. The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman... well, what can I say? My Kindle version is underlined like crazy now, this book had so much wonderful writing in it. Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik is the latest Tremeraire novel. I liked it better than the last, which I felt wandered too much. This one has a stronger, more relentless plot: Napoleon invades England and the British army is driven back to Scotland. And the next book is set in Australia: I'm geeked already.

Helpless by MJ Pearson was all kinds of awesome. Oscar Wilde's trial makes the perfect backdrop for this story about the love that dares not speak its name, in this case a love triangle where someone is not to be trusted, but which one? And since this is Pearson, the historical details are delightful and perfect, and the secondary characters are rich and often laugh out loud funny. I had to wait awhile for this one to come out, but it was worth it.

Still reading about writing: Word Work by Bruce Holland Rogers was a fun read, more about process and lifestyle than about the mechanics. Rogers is one of my favorite short fiction writers, and the only short-short writer I consistently like; getting a little glimpse into how he approaches writing was enlightening. More work, but worth it, was The Rhetoric of Fiction by Wayne C. Booth. It took me a few months to get throught it, but mostly because there were so much here I needed to stop and let it soak in, really think about it. Anyone interested in the old show vs. tell debate, particularly if you like me are a bit cynical about rules cut in stone, I highly recommend this book to you.

And lastly, Hindi: An Essential Grammar by Rama Kant Agnihotri. A nice overview. Grammar, like math, I find I understand best if I have multiple people explain it from their own unique perspective (in case you're wondering why this seems like the fourth or fifth Hindi grammar I've read in the last year). This is thorough and points are clearly explained, but it's meant to be used in a classroom with a teacher; hence, none of the exercises have answers. So for the self-taught, I'm afraid RS McGregor is still the best bet.

And now for a few of my favorite quotes from the month:



No mockery in this world ever sounds to me so hollow as that of being told to cultivate happiness. What does such advice mean? Happiness is not a potato, to be planted in mould, and tilled with manure. - Charlotte Bronte, Villette

I'm part of the world, and I love every grain of sand and blade of grass and drop of blood in it. There might as well not be anything else, because these things are enough to gladden the heart and calm the spirit; and we know they delight the body. - Philip Pullman

And here am I, my hands red with blood and shame and wet with tears, longing to begin telling the story of Jesus, and not just for the sake of making a record of what happened: I want to play with it; I want to give it a better shape; I want to knot the details together neatly to make patterns and show correspondences, and if they weren't there in life, I want to put them there in the story, for no other reason than to make a better story. - Philip Pullman

"...he just doesn't talk much. He can, of course, he's not dumb or dumb, if you get my meaning, he just doesn't say much. But when he does-"
Douglas was amused. "It's bound to be wise and profound?"
"Oh no, absolute drivel, usually."
Donnie rolled his eyes and spoke at last. "Orange," he said. - MJ Pearson

He seldom deigned to notice me; and, when he did, it was with a certain supercilious insolence of tone and manner that convinced me he was no gentleman; though it was intended to have the contrary effect. - Anne Bronte, Agnes Grey

"It is I who left them," was the smiling rejoinder. "I was wearied to death with small talk - nothing wears me out like that. I cannot imagine how they can go on as they do." - Anne Bronte, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

What meaning would it have to say to Joyce that he has asked for "too much" cryptoanalysis in Finnegans Wake? Too much for you and me, perhaps, and we may find ourselves ultimately repudiating, on moral grounds, an author who excludes practically everyone. But not too much for Finnegans Wake. Who would bother about Finnegans Wake at all if it were not packed with Finneganswakism? - Wayne C. Booth

"Where does he live?" Temeraire asked, interrupting; he felt that anyone who did not have time for politics must be rather sensible. - Naomi Novik

Fantastical Visions V Update

My second short story sale was to Fantastical Visions V, an anthology from Fantasist Enterprises. They are currently doing a fundraiser to raise the money to get the publishing process started (damn you, economic downturn!). It works like public television: the more you contribute, the nicer the thank-you gift. All the details are on the Kickstarter page. I've also added a widget to this blog page to track how we're doing towards the goal.

The story I have in this anthology is one of my favorites of my early works, a sword and sorcery type fantasy tale where the magic is based on string theory. I intended it to be the first of three stories, with the second set in the present and the third in the future. Of course that's the thing, there are always more ideas than there is time to write. At any rate, I hope you will check out the link. Thanks!

Movies in April

Very busy, lots of writing getting done around these parts. Got a little sidetracked from the WIP by a flash fiction competition at SFFEditors, but I got a pretty cool little story out of it (and got to read some even cooler ones). I'm still on track to wrap this thing up by the end of June, provided I work very, very hard.

At any rate, I'm a bit late recapping the movies from April, but there weren't too many. In the Charlie Chaplin category, A King in New York was perhaps too didactic. Being written after he had left the US, it is a bit too much about how one can read and think about communist theories without being a communist, and reading and thinking about lots of things is good. There is a funny bit when the title character goes out to the movies and then to a dinner club. A Woman in Paris is another late Chaplin, one he wrote and directed but didn't appear in. It has a very Russian literary sort of feel. So, yeah, a bit of a downer. Limelight was wonderful. I do believe this is the last film he made before leaving the US; it's a story of a young panic-prone dancer and an old alcoholic comic. It also features a cameo by Buster Keaton. If only they'd done a whole film together, a buddy film. That would have been something to see. We also watched three shorts: The Good for Nothing, Charlie's Recreation and Work. Very much minor works, and one of them had been given a descriptive narration that just pissed me off. I can see what's happening here and can tell the characters apart all on my own, thank you very much. Not sure who's idea that was.

One more Hitchcock: Notorious. A film which up until now I only knew as the source for one of the scenes in Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. (Also, I think the little girl in The Lake House is watching it in her hospital room). You can't go wrong with Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant. We actually watched this twice; the first time through none of us spotted Hitchcock's cameo. So of course we had to watch it again to find him.

This is It, the Michael Jackson documentary of the tour that never was. It was like the special features for a really awesome concert DVD that never was. I felt bad for those young dancers, who came so close to sharing a stage with their idol and then had it snatched away.

Red Cliff is a Chinese film by John Woo, or rather two films that tell one story. And what a story it is, an epic battle in the three kingdoms period with gorgeous sets and costumes and one slow reveal of an enormous armada of ships that felt like John Woo one-upping Troy. More like ten-upping; it's an awesome shot. I also loved the fight scenes that just flirted with the beginnings of wu xia moves. No one did anything too unbelievable, but you could see where the soldiers watching the heroes fight would imbelish their feats in the telling. This is long but so worth seeing.

The Men Who Stare at Goats was delightful but strange. At the end of it I wasn't sure exactly what I had just seen, but I liked it. It has a Coen Brothers vibe but a lot more unanswered questions than the Coen Brothers usually leave.

Just one Hindi film, Pyaasa, from Guru Dutt, the director of Sahib, Bibi aur Ghulam. This shares that films gorgeous melancholy. It's like Southern gothic, only Indian, if that makes sense. Guru Dutt was the Orson Welles of India, writing, directing and starring in his films. It's a shame he died so young, he told some achingly lovely stories.

OK, wrapping up this month with a number from Swades, a movie I saw back in February, but this number has hung with me. Here's Shah Rukh Khan, teaching a village about astronomy and breaking down the segregation that divides them, all in one song and dance to an AR Rahman song: