Wed Reading Meme...
Oct. 28th, 2015 10:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatContinues to fascinate me how two people can read the same book yet have opposite reactions to it. MD, who ironically recommended Boys in the Boat for the book club, disliked it and is struggling to get through it. While I loved it. She found it to be overly sentimental and manipulative. About a boring topic that seemed to not matter all that much. I felt the exact opposite, I found the book to be compelling, and satisfying on multiple levels.
Reactions to my own book have surprised me as well. While my two publishing contacts did not like my book, two separate book clubs, various co-workers male and female of varying ages, friends and acquaintances of my mother, including her hairdresser, two online friends, and a few family members have loved it. Strangers and people who know me. I have discovered that it is in part a writing style issue - people who prefer a more minimalistic writing style, with less description and detail, didn't like the book as much (such as my father whose favorite writer is a toss between Ernest Hemingway and Raymond Chandler), while folks who love details, and description, adored it. My mother told me tonight that her hairdresser loved my book so much that she gave it to a friend. She then asked how it was doing in sales - and my mother said, well it's difficult since so much of it is by word of mouth. True. So very true.
For anyone who has read my book, various characters were inspired by real people, actually. And I can't remember the name of the blind guy dating Hope in the book. I just blanked on the name. That character is based loosely on a friend of cjl, who I never met, but cjl used to talk about. He lost his vision as a teen, and loves to watch Looney Tunes cartoons for the the sound effects and score.
Tom and Jerry as well. Fiske is loosely based on a guy that I met at cocktail party who was a card counter in Vegas, along with a few other characters in my head at the time, including Spike. Caddy is based on various people, as is Hope. Many of the things that happened in my book, actually happened to me - the job interviews, all of them, are based on real interviews. The robbery of the lap-top actually happened. And the rock concert in Farmingdale is loosely based on a James Marsters concert I attended and various gossip regarding what went on back stage at the concerts. And the emergency room bit -- was based loosely on my own experiences in that emergency room both as a patient and assisting a friend.
John Grisham stated recently that he can't read any of his own books. He tried once. And decided never to do it again. Once they are out there, he's finished with them. I think that's true. I find it difficult to read stories or things that I've written. I've moved on. Makes me wonder if other writers feel much the same way? And possibly, like me, forget things they've written. Readers and television watchers assume the writer knows and remembers the story better than they do, because well it came out of them or they wrote it. But here's the thing about story-telling, it's a bit like channeling, once it comes out of you -- you forget it. It's gone.
Sort of makes one wonder why we bother with reading or writing book reviews. I think a good book review gives you a sense of whether you might be interested in or enjoy the book, regardless of what the reviewer thought about it.
As you know, when it comes to culture, I'm really not a snob. And my taste varied.
Anywho...
1.) What I've just finished reading?
* Dark X-men/Dark Avengers: Utopia - this is basically a chess match of battle strategy between Cyclops and Norman Osborn. Cyclops outwits Osborn, or so it seems. It also depicts how Cyclops has increasingly stepped across the line in order to ensure the safety of mutants, going against everything he was taught, believes, and holds dear. It's a wonderful character arc, if somewhat unevenly written.
Pulp often has great story and ideas but sloppy execution. Well literary fiction often has mundane ideas or repetitive ones but great execution. I don't know why literary writers often suck at story (seriously how many World War II stories do we need?) but excel at writing, while pulp writers excel at story but suck at the execution. Not all. But generally speaking.
What's interesting about the arc and why it's good -- is it shows why the character does what he does and the moral ambiguity of it. Over time, he crosses more and more lines. Starts out innocently enough, I'll just do this one thing - and his friend and colleague, Wolverine, agrees he has to make the call and agrees to do it - thinking if he does it, he'll be able to keep Cyke's hands clean and out of it. But it's Cyke's decisions and people are damaged by his decisions. It shows how a General's decisions regarding his soliders lives affect him or her.
Then you jump back a bit...and you see why he makes them, and wouldn't do it differently. He's for one thing been trained since a child to be a solider, to put the needs of many first. Even above his own. Then, he's basically lost everyone he's cared about in various ways. And more than once. Plus lost various people under his care through no fault of his own -- watching people be murdered and slaughtered regardless of his intentions. While trying to save lives, he's been painted an outlaw and a villain. Hated by the very people he saves. The man has had his back literally pushed against the wall.
On top of all of that - his consciousness was merged with an ancient warmongering evil entity, think the spirit of War times a billion, who he'd fought and almost lost his son to. This experience changed how he saw the world and himself. After it - he is more willing to make big sacrifices and cross the line. And his flaw -- which is an inability to control optic blasts that come from his eyes due to trauma as a child.
So the writers go there - they see how dark they can take the character, yet maintain a hero, a somewhat gritty, tough, badass, dark hero. Boyscout to anti-hero. The execution isn't bad but could have been better.
The plot is basically a chess game of battle strategy between Cyclops and Norman Osborn, who is head of a homeland security agency. Osborn wants to sap the mutants of their powers. Empowering his own team of mercernaries to keep the peace. It's basically a power-play. But Cyclops tactic is to get his people out of California and on a rock out on the coast, away from US laws and mandates. And to do it without getting them killed. Too many difficult to follow battles. And too many characters, I lost track of a few of them. And didn't care about most of them.
The Legend of Lyon Redmond by Julie Anne Long - similar problem to Utopia. Clumsy execution.
It's about a pair of star crossed lovers. They come from rival families. The boy wants to marry the girl. His father threatens to disown him if he attempts it. The boy requests that the girl run away with him, leave her family, etc. She refuses, because she's about 17 and scared. He takes off.
Five years pass. He returns to England, finds out she's getting married, decides to get her back.
Much chaos ensues. In the meantime, he's become a pirate whose managed to kill the Triangle slave trade, a ballad has been written about him. And she keeps hearing the silly ballad.
It's fun. But sort of falls apart around the ending. Also the epilogue doesn't work. After the hero and Heroine get together, make love, etc in Spain at his estate, he returns her to England, where she proceeds to go through with the wedding to the guy she's engaged to. And he's a nice guy. She goes all the way to the vows until, whoops, she decides not to go through with it. The hero is disguised as a beggar in the congregation. He gets up when she calls off the wedding. And shows her who he is, then leaves. She bolts after him. Alarming everyone. They end up together. And we get a bit of the family reunion and parental issues somewhat resolved. But not quite. The epilogue takes place today, in 2015, with the great-great-great-great niece of the heroine and hero, who stumbles upon a guy in England as she investigates her roots. They recount the story of their families and how each descendant lived on to become insanely successful, famous, and powerful. (Seriously?) It was boring and beyond belief. So good up to the last 30 pages.
Also, I can't help but wonder if the writer just did not have a good line editor at her disposal? In a way it was reassuring, she had more typos than I did. Every page. Actually every five paragraphs. And it was mostly pronoun placement. "He" and "she" and "his" and "her" pronouns were in the wrong places. I kept rewriting the sentences in my head. I'm wondering if she self-published on the cheap? Line editing costs about 5-10 cents per word, or close to $2,000 for a 200-300 page book. And the line editor doesn't make the changes, they just do track changes, and it costs more to have them look at it a second time. Nor do they format or print without additional cost. So, I don't really mind typos that much. The writers who don't have them - either could afford a good line editor or had several provided via their publisher.
2.) What I'm reading now?
Tall, Dark, and Wicked by Madeline Hunter - who sucks at titles and covers, but is a good writer, who excels at historic accuracy, plot, and character development. She also doesn't have that many typos.
This book takes place in the early 1800s, around 1819 or thereabouts. Padua teaches mathmatics at a progressive women's school. She approaches Ives, a barrister, to help her get her father out of Newgate Prison. Only to discover that Ives is prosecuting her father. She has no idea what he did.
Ives is fascinated by Padua who is taller than most women he's met. Ives also has some kinky sexual tastes and is, ahem, hunting a new mistress. Sex for him is a business arrangement.
Nation X -- I think that's next in the series. It's either that or Second Coming. It's about the Magneto and Kitty Pryde returning to the X-men.
I'm basically reading pulp fiction written by women and men. I love pulp. It requires little concentration. Is comforting. And quite cathartic.
3) What I'm reading next?
One in the Heart by Sherry Thomas -- Sherry Thomas's attempt at contemporary romance, which is admittedly a genre that I'm not all that found of. But Thomas focuses on family issues better than most.
Uprooted by an author whose name I can't remember -- about a girl who enters a dangerous forest to become a wizard's apprentice, only to fall for him.
X-Men - Second Coming - the return of Cable and Hope to the X-men.
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
And whatever book my book club decides on next. I'm supposed to come to the club on Friday with three selections. Right now, mine are:
1. Station Eleven - a sci-fi dystopia novel about a traveling theater group
2. Euphoria - a story about three anthropologists in a love triangle, in Africa, with cannibals
3. The Birthday Boys - a non-fiction novel about a doomed expedition to antartica
Reactions to my own book have surprised me as well. While my two publishing contacts did not like my book, two separate book clubs, various co-workers male and female of varying ages, friends and acquaintances of my mother, including her hairdresser, two online friends, and a few family members have loved it. Strangers and people who know me. I have discovered that it is in part a writing style issue - people who prefer a more minimalistic writing style, with less description and detail, didn't like the book as much (such as my father whose favorite writer is a toss between Ernest Hemingway and Raymond Chandler), while folks who love details, and description, adored it. My mother told me tonight that her hairdresser loved my book so much that she gave it to a friend. She then asked how it was doing in sales - and my mother said, well it's difficult since so much of it is by word of mouth. True. So very true.
For anyone who has read my book, various characters were inspired by real people, actually. And I can't remember the name of the blind guy dating Hope in the book. I just blanked on the name. That character is based loosely on a friend of cjl, who I never met, but cjl used to talk about. He lost his vision as a teen, and loves to watch Looney Tunes cartoons for the the sound effects and score.
Tom and Jerry as well. Fiske is loosely based on a guy that I met at cocktail party who was a card counter in Vegas, along with a few other characters in my head at the time, including Spike. Caddy is based on various people, as is Hope. Many of the things that happened in my book, actually happened to me - the job interviews, all of them, are based on real interviews. The robbery of the lap-top actually happened. And the rock concert in Farmingdale is loosely based on a James Marsters concert I attended and various gossip regarding what went on back stage at the concerts. And the emergency room bit -- was based loosely on my own experiences in that emergency room both as a patient and assisting a friend.
John Grisham stated recently that he can't read any of his own books. He tried once. And decided never to do it again. Once they are out there, he's finished with them. I think that's true. I find it difficult to read stories or things that I've written. I've moved on. Makes me wonder if other writers feel much the same way? And possibly, like me, forget things they've written. Readers and television watchers assume the writer knows and remembers the story better than they do, because well it came out of them or they wrote it. But here's the thing about story-telling, it's a bit like channeling, once it comes out of you -- you forget it. It's gone.
Sort of makes one wonder why we bother with reading or writing book reviews. I think a good book review gives you a sense of whether you might be interested in or enjoy the book, regardless of what the reviewer thought about it.
As you know, when it comes to culture, I'm really not a snob. And my taste varied.
Anywho...
1.) What I've just finished reading?
* Dark X-men/Dark Avengers: Utopia - this is basically a chess match of battle strategy between Cyclops and Norman Osborn. Cyclops outwits Osborn, or so it seems. It also depicts how Cyclops has increasingly stepped across the line in order to ensure the safety of mutants, going against everything he was taught, believes, and holds dear. It's a wonderful character arc, if somewhat unevenly written.
Pulp often has great story and ideas but sloppy execution. Well literary fiction often has mundane ideas or repetitive ones but great execution. I don't know why literary writers often suck at story (seriously how many World War II stories do we need?) but excel at writing, while pulp writers excel at story but suck at the execution. Not all. But generally speaking.
What's interesting about the arc and why it's good -- is it shows why the character does what he does and the moral ambiguity of it. Over time, he crosses more and more lines. Starts out innocently enough, I'll just do this one thing - and his friend and colleague, Wolverine, agrees he has to make the call and agrees to do it - thinking if he does it, he'll be able to keep Cyke's hands clean and out of it. But it's Cyke's decisions and people are damaged by his decisions. It shows how a General's decisions regarding his soliders lives affect him or her.
Then you jump back a bit...and you see why he makes them, and wouldn't do it differently. He's for one thing been trained since a child to be a solider, to put the needs of many first. Even above his own. Then, he's basically lost everyone he's cared about in various ways. And more than once. Plus lost various people under his care through no fault of his own -- watching people be murdered and slaughtered regardless of his intentions. While trying to save lives, he's been painted an outlaw and a villain. Hated by the very people he saves. The man has had his back literally pushed against the wall.
On top of all of that - his consciousness was merged with an ancient warmongering evil entity, think the spirit of War times a billion, who he'd fought and almost lost his son to. This experience changed how he saw the world and himself. After it - he is more willing to make big sacrifices and cross the line. And his flaw -- which is an inability to control optic blasts that come from his eyes due to trauma as a child.
So the writers go there - they see how dark they can take the character, yet maintain a hero, a somewhat gritty, tough, badass, dark hero. Boyscout to anti-hero. The execution isn't bad but could have been better.
The plot is basically a chess game of battle strategy between Cyclops and Norman Osborn, who is head of a homeland security agency. Osborn wants to sap the mutants of their powers. Empowering his own team of mercernaries to keep the peace. It's basically a power-play. But Cyclops tactic is to get his people out of California and on a rock out on the coast, away from US laws and mandates. And to do it without getting them killed. Too many difficult to follow battles. And too many characters, I lost track of a few of them. And didn't care about most of them.
The Legend of Lyon Redmond by Julie Anne Long - similar problem to Utopia. Clumsy execution.
It's about a pair of star crossed lovers. They come from rival families. The boy wants to marry the girl. His father threatens to disown him if he attempts it. The boy requests that the girl run away with him, leave her family, etc. She refuses, because she's about 17 and scared. He takes off.
Five years pass. He returns to England, finds out she's getting married, decides to get her back.
Much chaos ensues. In the meantime, he's become a pirate whose managed to kill the Triangle slave trade, a ballad has been written about him. And she keeps hearing the silly ballad.
It's fun. But sort of falls apart around the ending. Also the epilogue doesn't work. After the hero and Heroine get together, make love, etc in Spain at his estate, he returns her to England, where she proceeds to go through with the wedding to the guy she's engaged to. And he's a nice guy. She goes all the way to the vows until, whoops, she decides not to go through with it. The hero is disguised as a beggar in the congregation. He gets up when she calls off the wedding. And shows her who he is, then leaves. She bolts after him. Alarming everyone. They end up together. And we get a bit of the family reunion and parental issues somewhat resolved. But not quite. The epilogue takes place today, in 2015, with the great-great-great-great niece of the heroine and hero, who stumbles upon a guy in England as she investigates her roots. They recount the story of their families and how each descendant lived on to become insanely successful, famous, and powerful. (Seriously?) It was boring and beyond belief. So good up to the last 30 pages.
Also, I can't help but wonder if the writer just did not have a good line editor at her disposal? In a way it was reassuring, she had more typos than I did. Every page. Actually every five paragraphs. And it was mostly pronoun placement. "He" and "she" and "his" and "her" pronouns were in the wrong places. I kept rewriting the sentences in my head. I'm wondering if she self-published on the cheap? Line editing costs about 5-10 cents per word, or close to $2,000 for a 200-300 page book. And the line editor doesn't make the changes, they just do track changes, and it costs more to have them look at it a second time. Nor do they format or print without additional cost. So, I don't really mind typos that much. The writers who don't have them - either could afford a good line editor or had several provided via their publisher.
2.) What I'm reading now?
Tall, Dark, and Wicked by Madeline Hunter - who sucks at titles and covers, but is a good writer, who excels at historic accuracy, plot, and character development. She also doesn't have that many typos.
This book takes place in the early 1800s, around 1819 or thereabouts. Padua teaches mathmatics at a progressive women's school. She approaches Ives, a barrister, to help her get her father out of Newgate Prison. Only to discover that Ives is prosecuting her father. She has no idea what he did.
Ives is fascinated by Padua who is taller than most women he's met. Ives also has some kinky sexual tastes and is, ahem, hunting a new mistress. Sex for him is a business arrangement.
Nation X -- I think that's next in the series. It's either that or Second Coming. It's about the Magneto and Kitty Pryde returning to the X-men.
I'm basically reading pulp fiction written by women and men. I love pulp. It requires little concentration. Is comforting. And quite cathartic.
3) What I'm reading next?
One in the Heart by Sherry Thomas -- Sherry Thomas's attempt at contemporary romance, which is admittedly a genre that I'm not all that found of. But Thomas focuses on family issues better than most.
Uprooted by an author whose name I can't remember -- about a girl who enters a dangerous forest to become a wizard's apprentice, only to fall for him.
X-Men - Second Coming - the return of Cable and Hope to the X-men.
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
And whatever book my book club decides on next. I'm supposed to come to the club on Friday with three selections. Right now, mine are:
1. Station Eleven - a sci-fi dystopia novel about a traveling theater group
2. Euphoria - a story about three anthropologists in a love triangle, in Africa, with cannibals
3. The Birthday Boys - a non-fiction novel about a doomed expedition to antartica