Books

Am somewhat between books at the moment, struggling to find a new one that sufficiently captures my imagination enough to sink my teeth into. Brain is far too fried from work for it to be anything well that requires much concentration, so literary novels are out. I tried a few romances, "Lady and the Vamp" and "All Together Dead", but it turns out that my brain is not quite that fried and has a low tolerance for sacchrine and idiotic banter. A bit more snark, a bit less stupid chatter, thank you very much. The problem with current romance writers is they don't have much of an ear for witty banter. Everyone sounds like Anna Karenia, which would be fine if you were actually writing something along the lines of Anna Karenia.

Got much amusement scanning the negative reviews of Stephanie Meyer's popular teen vampire books. Have you seen these? I can't believe someone actually published Twilight, let alone the sequels, no wait, knowing what I do about the current state of the publishing industry racquet, I'm not really that surprised. Meyer makes Danielle Steel look like Edith Wharton in comparison. Have to admit, the young adult romance genre has never been exactly stellar. No idea why that is. And I know enough about the publishing racquet to know that the people who actually acquire these books? Don't read them. Okay, they scan them, see a marketable idea that fits into a nitch market and run with it. They don't have time to read most of the books they publish. If they say otherwise? They're lying. Twilight is basically a teen romance between a girl and a supernatural creature - not unlike half the fanfics online at the moment. Going to the book stores yesterday depressed me a bit - too many books like Twilight decorating the shelves. I did locate Elizabeth Bear's Whiskey and Water hiding amongst them, and bought that one - realizing it may be a long while before I see it again.

Having said that, it's a bit ironic that the book I've decided to read now is actually a young adult/children's fantasy novel - entitled Inkheart by Cornelia Funke, which is an interesting name all by itself. The book's gimmick is fairly original in concept, or rather I haven't read a plot gimmick similar to it before - which does not mean it doesn't exist, I'm well aware there is no such thing as an original idea. At least not in this day and age. Inkheart is about a little girl and her father who have the uncanny ability to bring characters in a novel to life by reading aloud. One evening, while reading a story to his daughter, aloud, the main villain suddenly breaks free of the pages of the novel into our world. The story starts with the father and daughter on the run from the villian. Except the little girl, our protagonist and whose pov the story is in, does not remember this happening. She only knows that they move around alot, and that her father will no longer read anything to her aloud. Am going to try it for a few days and see if it captures my attention.
If it doesn't I'll leap to Haruki Murakami's Dance, Dance, Dance or Bear's Whiskey and Water.

Am a moody reader - no matter how good a book is, if I'm not in the mood for it, I won't be able to read it. Even so, there are some books I don't think I can ever bring myself to read -not that I'm not unhappy they have gotten written and published, after all if Stephanie Meyer can get published, than so can I, some day, in the not too distant future. Hope lives eternal.

Continued Ponderings on a controversial theme

Racism, is a topic that appears to continue to permeate my life, in an at times insidious manner and others more overt one. I think it does everyone's lives to some extent. Some clearly more than others. Much as homophobia, chauvinism, sexism and misogyny often do. It's a particularly annoying one, because I'm no longer sure it can be resolved or rather not in a manner that does not involve a great deal of sacrifice and change from people who do not want to change or sacrifice anything, including or especially how they think and what they value.

That said, I must say, we've made a lot of progress. Anyone born after 1980, probably can't see it - because they weren't alive during the period in which it was a huge deal to have minorities in lead roles on tv and film. Or to see someone who was a woman or a black man in a position of authority. It wasn't until I hit my teens that I began to see it more. The idea of a woman and a black man running for president, let alone being a viable canididate for president, was not something I thought I'd live to see in my lifetime.

Living in NYC is a bit like living in a community on the fringe of class/race war, yet somehow manages to back away from it at the last minute. The anger is certainly there - I feel it constantly, on my way to work each morning, on my way home, walking around the park at work, at work, on the streets around my apartment. After a while you learn to shut it out, you have to, in order to function.

Some people appear to be oblivious to it. I'm not sure if this is due to where they work and live or if they are just able to shut it out better.
( Sean Bell )

( Obama )

( racism in television shows - where to begin... )