Book review time

After sharing my thoughts, and finding fellow Georgette Heyer lovers out there... my favourite Heyer is... A Civil Contract. Why? Because it doesn't fit the traditional romance mould. Adam, newly made Viscount, has returned a hero from the Peninsular War (standard so far). Because he's trying to rebuild his family's fortune, his love match is denied and he must marry for money. His first love's father puts him in the way of Jonathan Chawleigh who has a daughter, Jenny, he wants to marry into the gentry. Adam makes the best of things. Jenny isn't lithe, she isn't beautiful, she doesn't glide - none of the qualities of his first love - Julia - at all. However, by the end of the book, it is obvious they have all made peace - even though Adam knows how he feels for Jenny isn't how she wants to be loved - he still loves her and appreciates her good qualities, and they share a sense of humour and genuine affection. He has also come to realise that a life with Julia wouldn't suit him at all - in alt at every moment!
The little character studies are gems - Adam's youngest sister is a delight. Jenny's father is so terribly a cit. And the glimpses into social mores are interesting - Julia offers to become Adam's mistress once they are both married, and Adam declines as Jenny has been raised with different expectations and behaviour.
A book to be savoured and reflected upon.

Fandom mashing

Herewith... Johnny Cash - the Muppets - and Me First & The Gimme Gimmes (thanks to glorifiedpixels who made me go to the concert last night... and the one who gallantly picked me up & drove me home)

Needed steel caps I think at the show - and maybe some oxygen... haven't been that close to an asthma attack in years! But worth it! Even if my inner fogginess meant I didn't join in the pogo dancing
PS - listening to Alice as DJ again... last week admitting to liking Burt, this week - the Carpenters! And playing "My Sharona".

Then and now

Call me odd but am I the only one who can see the similiarities between these two bands?

Then.. T-Rex...

Random stuff

They did it! Go India!

And, if I was still doing that whole 23 web.20 thingy... fav tech thing... streaming radio live. First radio sport... now... Hauraki - currently listening to Nights with Alice Cooper - who, as I type, has admitted to being a huge Burt Bacharach fan.

This, while I'm working on the Storylines year book (yay also for handy-dandy flash drive) and double-checking references and making sure names are correct and all that stuff. Now... is it HarperCollins or HarperCollinsPublishing? Is it Bloomsbury or Bloomsbury Press? Shesh... continuity's a pain.

PS - still no bunnies at Western Springs

And my comic reading buds understand my rant... knew they would. Have also received support via email. Yes, I did read it - and am trying to think of any authors to recommend. PS - my sister is currently going through a Lackey phase - mainly 500 Kingdom series. I like the Elemental Masters series, myself.

Karma...

or, even the greatest in the world are susceptible to brain explosions...
How else to describe Australia's first innings in the third test?

PS short entry to make up for the previous two long, and bloody long, entries.

Ranty McRanty #4 part 2 (another long one)

or... further confessions of a reader of 'crap'.
My history of reading popular, 'crap' fiction started early. Dr Seuss' Green eggs and ham, for example (now a classic and exemplar of beginner readers). Got sucked in to the Blyton thing - Famous Five (couldn't stand the Secret Seven) and Six cousins of Mistletoe Farm. Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators. Trixie Belden (still hunting the elusive last book in the series - have up to #38. Used to buy one a week with our groceries, if I'd been good $1.99 at Three Guys). Couldn't stand Nancy Drew. Asterix (not Tintin).
Then secondary school... in came the romance novel. Barbara Cartland and Georgette Heyer, courtesy of my mum. Still re-read Georgette. Harlequin romances (big sister's collection) - not Mills & Boons (too tame). The Sweet Valley books started coming in around this time - but I'd already moved on to some other hefty tomes. Satanic rituals? Barbara Cartland's occasional dabble with the occult had nothing on the Dennis Wheatley novels I borrowed from mum's shelves.
Kids books I still have - The trolley car family by Clymer. The Little White Horse by Goudge (mentioned in my previous entry). This even won the Carnegie Medal. Boston's Green Knowe books - still have a boxed set.
On the subject of medals/awards... I'm with Robin McKinley, who has won a few and whose books I treasure and re-read... extracted from an online essay
Do you remember Newbery books from your childhood?
In fifth grade well-intentioned librarians tried to force me to read Newbery Medal books because they felt I had reread The Black Stallion quite often enough and my horizons needed broadening. My utter loathing of anything with a sticker on the cover dates from then. I grew up knowing that stickers on the cover meant Grown Ups Think This Book Is Good For You But It Will Bore You To Death. I still can't recall Hitty: Her First Hundred Years without blanching.
What was your response to learning you had won?
And therefore, my first reaction to being told that I'd won the Newbery was, Oh, no! No child in his or her right mind will ever pick up Hero again! (Or, for that matter, Sword, which was an honor book and so had a sticker too.) I have been told, severely, that the Newbery has changed since I was in fifth grade. I have read a lot of more recent Newbery winners and honor books and it's true, they have changed, but I'm sorry, I still approach anything with a sticker on the cover with caution.
I like reading children's and teens' books - and 'formulaic' genre fiction like romance and fantasy - because the authors aren't so tied up with showing off their writerly skills. A child review once said/wrote in a review for the library - enough will all the adjectives, just get on with the story. Yep, I agree. I read description, description, blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, YAY action! Story! Finally! No - more description.
It's all in how it's handled. Robin McKinley can go off on tangents - but they're not writely, showing off tangents - they're more stream-of-consciousness, written from the first person and giving a real insight into the inner workings of the character's mind.

Ranty McRanty #4 (very long...)

Apols you lot - sorry, I didn't mean for the rant to get this out of hand... it started a lot shorter & then grew... so I've gone to itty bitty font...

So anyway, something made me think about this issue. I mean, it's an issue I've thought about a lot over the years. But I've decided enough is enough! It's time to come out of the closet, as it were, to the general public (and not just selected people - well, not KNOWING who I'm confessing to). BTW why does feel like I need to come clean & confess? That there is there is something wrong/bad to confess to?

My preferred reading material is often perceived to be 'crap'.

I like genre fiction. I read romance novels. I read popular fantasy novels. I read children's books and teen books - for fun!

And I'm tired of people judging me by the books I take out. I'm tired of feeling vaguely guilty when I pick my holds up from the issues desk. I'm tired of worrying what fellow library staff will think of me when I place my hold, issue my books, carry them around.

Enough! I agree with the Smart Bitches - embrace your bad taste!

And, you know what... I have me some little letters after my some little letters after my name which says I should be a literary snob... BA and MA Hons (English). I'm well educated - I have three degrees - two at masters level.
For this, for year years I read popular fiction. From Beowulf through to Frankenstein - then a leap to the 20th century. [None of that 18th and 19th century stuff for me - leaves me dead. So, no I've never read Austen et al - never seen the movies/adaptations - and I don't care. Mr Darcy - meh. Now, Eugenides from Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief - that's another story.]
I read/translated Beowulf. I read Chaucer. I read King freaking Alfred! I read parts of the Anglo-Saxon translation of Bede. I read Robin Hood tales from the Middle Ages. I read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I read Margaret Mahy. I read Robyn Donald. I read Shakespeare. I read Ngaio Marsh. I read Raymond Chandler. I read Malory. I read Confessio Amantis. I even read/translated bits of Julius Caesar in Latin! All popular, mass market appeal in their day.
Get over your prejudices! Those classic authors, those taught at uni as the best of the best - were all populist novelists! Every single novel you read is considered a romance in Europe! That's because they're all made up! Dickens - he was a serial novelist - with chapters published in newspapers. So was Conan Doyle. Austen, et al, well only poorly educated girls read such trashy novels in the Regency period. Shakespeare? Now he'd be a script writer for Coro Street.

All you literary snobs out there - own up to the less than literary books you read. Or magazines. Who cares - and who has the right to care and judge - if you prefer to read Who weekly, rather than The Listener. Or, conversely TLS rather than Good reads. Do I criticise you for your tastes?

In the past I've been asked how I know so much shit - especially historical stuff - and most of it sure is hell isn't from the history I studied at school and uni - it's from reading historical romances.
Georgette Heyer rocks! Read her and learn! This is the woman who did an incredible amount of research for all her books. So much so, a lecturer at Sandhurst Military Academy offered her a guest lectureship, upon overhearing her detail the Battle of Waterloo to a relative attending the school.

Yes, some of the writing is formulaic and the research pretty zero. Yes, some of the covers suck! But it's not all like that.

Anything that makes you think. Anything that lets you escape for a while. Anything you enjoy. Anything that makes you FEEL. Got to be good. Who cares where you find it (as long as it's legal and doesn't hurt people...).
So what! We all have differences. Different tastes in music, tastes in movies, tastes in foods. No one has the right to judge someone because of their personal tastes.
I prefer big budget action flicks rather than art house movies. So, no - don't bother ask me what I'm going to see at the film festival - I don't care. Not interested. But I don't comment on you going. I just think it's your thing.
I don't like chick lit. But I don't look down upon those I know who read it. Or judge. Or try to change their reading habits.
I like heavy metal, old school - if I listened to music radio, it would be Hauraki, but I don't - I listen to Newstalk ZB and RadioSport. Don't know 'modern' music - don't really care. Wouldn't know music theory or criticism if it bit me.
I like medieval music, too - just don't ask techie questions about it. My fav Christmas music - medieval and the Rat Pack. Like classical too, no sopranos for me. Just don't expect to converse intelligently about it. I just like it (sopranos hurt my ears, though).
Because I know what some of my workmates knowledge base is - I don't review CDs or DVDs for work. But, maybe I'll start. Not everyone reading our librarians' choice reviews IS a music/film buff - they're just an average joe who wants something to tune into to/out with for a while. To escape. I'm your populist!

Sometimes I need to clear my head space. Sometimes I'm stressed and I don't need to read stuff that adds to the crap I'm feeling/thinking - so I'll pick me up some 'crap' romance - probably with a little label saying 'warning sexually explicit content'. And, if there's vampires or werewolves or some other paranormal shit - all to the good. (Except that series were they're genetically engineered cat/human hybrids with penises that have cat-like spurs... ick).
Then, if that's not enough and I'm really close to break down - I'll re-read my David Eddings collection (Elenium & Tamuli - not a fan of Belgariad or Mallorean). Then Anne McCaffrey - sometimes all the Pern novels (I cry when Telgar heads to her death in Dragonsdawn, every damn time), then the Doona books, then Restoree. Maybe a little Petaybee. Don't do the Crystal singer books - or Acorna - nor the Ship sequels (The Ship who Sang, hell yeah). They're just not me.
Last ditch effort to keep me together - Anne of Green Gables series (crying copious tears when baby Joy dies - God that's well done! sometimes I skip that book) and The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge.

But, you know what. Sometimes my head is clear. Then I read things like A brief history of time by Stephen Hawking (yes, I own a copy - been a while since I read it - so don't ask me questions Dr Allfrey!) Like In cold blood by Capote.
I'm a true crime addict. I love science. I love history. Not that into biographies. The surgeon of Crowthorne is fascinating though.
Making faces - a book about forensic and archaeological facial reconstruction - wonderful.
[I used to be a science geek, until my brain changed at 17 and I became 'unbalanced'. Trust me, before that I was equally good at science and wordy subjects. Then, suddenly, I couldn't add very well. I went from getting over 70% in 6th form physics & maths to failing in 7th form physics, and scrapping by in calc. A shock to the system - and farewell dreams of being a civil engineer!]

If you've survived this far through my rant - the upshot is - don't you dare judge me by the books I'm reading.
My goodread buds - be prepared... next step is actually taking the time to chronicle ALL my reading on there... yep, fronting up and being honest.

You know what - New Year's Resolution and all that crap (normally don't make them) - I don't care what you think now. I'm being true to me - and you just deal with your prejudices. I don't give a monkeys. Snigger behind my back if you want. I'll still join you in commenting on the covers and titles of romance novels when we're sectioning there - but honestly guys - I think I have the better right to do so.

Rain...

Rain
I can hear you
making small holes in the silence
rain

If I were deaf
the pores of my skin
would open to you
and shut

And I
should know you
by the lick of you
if I were blind

the something
special smell of you
when the sun cakes
the ground

the steady
drum-roll sound
you make
when the wind drops

But if I
should not hear
smell or feel or see
you

you would still
define me
disperse me
wash over me
rain

-- Hone Tuwhare

Because I'm not going to get to Wellington

... something to ponder on... (check out Jack!)

Hiya Hoya

Meet one of the best buys of my life...

Years ago - about 25, I think (which dates me terribly!) - at my old primary school fete I bought a sad little plant with 2 leaves for 20 cents. It looked like it needed love and attention. Over the years it has received this care - my mum, and now my flatmate have looked after it well (I have black fingers, not green) and now...

Musings

Summer = cold

Why is it that, with air conditioning, you put more clothes on in summer than in winter when you're inside? It takes over 30 minutes for me to have warm fingers after being inside at work.

Why is it that, with air conditioning, it's warmer OUTSIDE the bus in winter than it is INSIDE...

Bunny rabbits AWOL

Call me weird (I'm used to it), but one of the joys of busing to work is going past Western Springs and trying to spot bunny rabbits. And I haven't seen any in MONTHS. Were they poisoned in March, along with the birds?

I know they're a pest. I know they should never have been introduced to New Zealand. But, come on! They're not exactly devastating farm land in Western Springs! And, besides, pukekos can be just as fatal to plants (and more fatal to ducklings, I've heard...)

It's true!

Unshelved always know what they're talking about... a little gem from the archive

Happiness is...

holding a copy of Read Responsibly, knowing you can take it home & cherish it for a month.

It's raining!

which means... I got to use my Charlie & Lola umbrella for the first time!
Yes, there's a downside... it IS a kid's umbrella - but my face & shoulders stayed dry!
But, come on!, the rain was so heavy, no umbrella would have done much better.
On the positive side... I looked good with it - and my matching backpack!
PS my extremely very important diary is working! I always have it with me - so it's moments for me to find out what's going on in my life, and the bookings for the family bach, rather than waiting and hunting...

Sporting eh what?

Seanfish wanted to add this video to my comments... Olga Korbut on the uneven bars...
Thanks matey! Spot the gender difference in our preferred videos!
I loved the commentary! 'Has that been done before, by a girl?' 'Never! Not by any human that I know of'... classic!



And, yep Fiona - Radio Sport rocks! Unfortunately I'm sure I'll get in trouble listening to the streaming from the site... I have to sneak a peak at cricinfo every once in a while instead. As I discovered yesterday... AM does not get picked up in our building...

Just to confirm my fogey-ness - the radios in my house have Newstalkzb on FM and Radiosport on AM...
At this precise moment (lunch of the NZ v Bangladesh test) I have the Australia v India test on TV in the lounge (down the hall) and - thanks to Fiona - am listening to the commentary, via live streaming, of the Auckland v Otago in the State Shield. Ready at any moment to leap up and watch replays of action with the test (I can just hear the TV commentary from up the hall)...
Years and years ago my then flatmate (a girl) was confused about why I watched cricket (especially test match) so I introduced her to the joys of cricket watching... You're really tired and don't want to do much over the weekend so, if you're invited somewhere, you say 'sorry, I was going to watch the cricket - big fan, you know'. Then you turn on the TV just before it starts... staying in your pyjamas optional... and sit there with a good book, junk food, and chill out - and watch the replays of big scoring shots and wickets, as necessary. She was convinced (although she didn't watch too many replays)...

Call me old fashioned...

but the reason it took me so long to bother opening my new mp3 player is... I like listening to my radio... AND I really like my little radio because... it gets AM as well as FM (and it's not one of those horrible FM scanning things!)... and I like AM because that means... RadioSport... and it's summer... and that means cricket! And, sometimes (but not lately while NZ's playing), a good match to listen to.
And, sometimes, I even make sure that the station is just slightly off so that you get that static/weird effect - just like listening to the cricket tests from the other side of the world at night (when you should be asleep)...
Ah, the days before 24 hour & pay TV!
In the old days... I used to have a little 'portable' black & white TV I was allowed to have in my room to watch the gymnastics at the 1988 Olympics... for some strange reason, that Olympics it was mainly the men's events I followed... the rings especially... and this guy in particular...

In 1984 my cousin and I argued over who was better - she liked MaryLou Retton - I liked Ecaterina Szabo

More Youtubing!

Thanks Seanfish for the heads up!

Merry New Year...

Conversation in my lounge, Thursday 27 December:
Flatmate: where are you going?
Me: work
FM: on purpose?!
Me: yeap
FM: why?
Me: because we're open... because I'm not on leave...

So - Merry New Year to all of us who have worked through the 'holiday' period...
And boo hiss nyah nyah to all of my friends who work in schools/unis, other places that shut down for a couple (or more) weeks...