This is a quick update and notice that Ferguson Library is open and serving the community in a way that only libraries can. They have volunteers, including teachers, to help with the education of the students of Ferguson, who cannot go to class because the schools closed preemptively. They are taking book and monetary donations, which provides a tangible way for people outside to offer even small assistance. Check their Twitter feed and their website for more information.
Yay! Libraries FTW!
Heat Wave, the first book in the Nikki Heat series by Richard Castle, is a pretty good read. It’s a mystery/thriller novel, and it fulfills the conventions and expectations. I would be surprised if this novel is studied outside of a marketing class, but it’s a fun, summer read.
The novel follows the basic outline of a mystery: meet characters, murder presented, suspects introduced, fake out, fake out, wrong turn, sad moment, character figures it out, reader figures out murder(if you haven’t been trying), murderer arrested.
And I love the characters, though I’m not sure if that’s because I hear the actors voices.
Because Heat Wave is a pretty fantastic marketing ploy to get people to spend more money on the shows. You see, Richard Castle is the lead character of ABC’s television show Castle. And it’s a pretty successful one as far as I can tell.
Richard Castle follows around Kate Beckett as inspiration for the title character of this books, Nikki Heat. Fans of the show now have 2 volumes in the series, both supposedly written over the summer breaks in the show.
It’s a great marketing ploy and makes for an entertaining read. And if the characters feel like they’re missing something, check out the show. It’s even better than the book!
A couple of months ago FATED by S.G. Browne showed up on my doorstep. A friend I made online suggested that I review it, and a review copy headed to my house.
With the first chapter, I wasn’t sure how the listing the main character/narrator Fabio used to convey his meaning would work out. But I knew that I wanted to know what Fabio would experience in the course of the story.
See, FATED follows Fabio, the incarnation of Fate, as he navigates the practicalities of assigning fates to billions of people. He also has to navigate the interpersonal relationships with his fellow immortals, which leads to some entertaining public discussions. He has existed for millennia, and the novel opens with him battling a combination of ennui and apathy.
And then Fate falls in love. With Sara Griffen, a human.
The novel focuses predominately on Fabio as a character, so his falling in love functions as a catalyst for his concern about humanity to grow. But even if he didn’t fall in love, the novel is clear that it follows Fabio at a life changing moment. Fate is bored with his job and frustrated with humanity. And, because Fabio has a stubborn streak, he begins facing this crisis on his own.
Which speaks more to the point of the novel. The novel masquerades as a subversion of nearly every major mythology literature and Western society pull from, but the mythological elements are the mode Browne uses to communicate a larger point. Because, at its heart, FATED is about the desire and ability of humans to connect with each other and positively impact the world.
And it succeeds in communicating our need to create lasting bonds in order to make sense of the world. Fabio is lost until he truly connects with Sara, and though his connection makes him break the rules, he truly finds a purpose in his existence.
I really enjoyed reading the story because I quickly fell in love with Fabio. There’s an excerpt on S. G. Browne’s website, and you really should read that as you buy the book. It’s entertaining, thought-provoking, and definitely worth every moment of reading it.
I mentioned that sometimes you end up in the video for Scott Sigler’s feed in my post about his LA stop for the Ancestor book tour. I didn’t end up in the video for my shining personality; I won the 11th prize in his 10 prize preorder give away.
Well the prize arrived on my doorstep sometime yesterday and I opened it this morning. It’s a great prize with some great books. And without further rambling, here’s the video!
My copy of Scott Sigler‘s Ancestor arrived in the mail today!
After I stopped jumping up and down, I set the book down to get some water. Which is when the BlackandWhite cat made her move.
As you can see here, she’s stolen the book from me. She was more protective of her new book but never kept the pose when the camera came out.
I was prepared to fight her for my book, because I’ve been looking forward to this one for the last several months, but I remembered one important fact – She’s a cat.
So I waited her out. When she wandered away to get food (or take a bath, or plan the destruction of the FDO, or collude with aliens), I moved my book. And I’m thoroughly enjoying it!
Now I know not to leave The Starter anywhere near her when that shows up at the end of summer. There’s no way I’m sharing that one with her.
So I’ve just finished Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, and it’s fantastic. And by finished I mean that I just finished watching it here. He’s put video of himself reading his book on his book tour last week on his website (so many ‘his’ in that sentence). So when I found out that this book (that I’ve been excited about since I read a small bit somewhere on the web) was out, I had to listen to it immediately.
And it was like I was reading it.
Though slightly frustrating because he didn’t read quicker through the tense parts to get to the resolution of that action like I do. But as I listen to Gaiman read his story, I still felt as though I walked along side Bod through the course of his adventures.
Really though, I love Gaiman’s use of language and the way he blends these beautiful images and characters with the inanity and insanity of the life that I see everyday (which I find particularly astounding since he’s a middle-aged man born in England living in Minnesota). His characters talk in a way that I wish I could, and yet it sounds real. They talk in a very literal style and respond with acceptance of whatever circumstances the conversation presents. It’s a book for younger readers, that does not shy away from difficult topics, and the speech patterns seem to reflect that audience.
I can’t wait to pick it up and get to read it for my own self, and this is after listening to Gaiman read it completely. I love Bod and the way that he interacts with all of the characters, as well as the way the characters are and aren’t what I expected. I read a lot of fantasy and have a rather macabre view of life, and this story surprised me in several places and made me smile in others. Gaiman usually makes me laugh out loud at least several times while I’m reading, and The Graveyard Book definitely fell into that quite a lot. I also decided that I really need to read The Jungle Book because this apparently riffs on that story, just in a cemetery. I was describing this work to a friend as a mix between Tim Burton, Monty Python, and Douglas Adams, and I mean that as the best possible view since I love them all.
So there’s my nerdy share for the day. Enjoy this beautiful cemetery!
