2014 Reading, Books 64-66

Incidentally, I'll go back to food/cooking blogging once the following two conditions have been met:

1) Our dishwasher has been repaired (part is on order, Sears repair person scheduled for July 5).

2) I've turned in the edits on my 2015 historical romance, now titled The Freedom to Love. They ended up more extensive than expected, since the editors want me to add material I'd planned to make part of a sequel, and they're due July 14.

But I'm still reading, at least.

64) Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon

(I'm not counting this one toward my summer reading competition, mostly because it took me about 45 minutes to read it, but also because a certain daughter of the house needs to get her butt in gear and start finishing books already, and I don't want to get so far ahead she gets discouraged. But it will count toward my year's tally, because, dang it, I'm still shooting for 150.)

My husband, who's also a creative type (UX designer by trade, but also an occasional blogger and regular podcaster) loaned me this quick little set of essays on creativity. Much of it resonated with me--the idea that ALL work is derivative in the sense of having antecedents, but our uniqueness arises in how we combine our lifetime of influences into something our own, along with combining analog and digital processes, since despite my love for my computer, part of my writing process always involves notebooks and index cards and whiteboards.

65) Saints by Gene Luen Yang

This is part of a two-book set of graphic novels telling the story of the Boxer Rebellion from both sides...and I read it out of order, since apparently the other book, Boxers, gives fuller context. But my daughter had this one with her at the baseball game today, I started paging through it while waiting for the game to start...and here we are. 

It's a moving story of an unwanted child who finds refuge in a Christian community. I thought it handled the character's faith especially well, managing the tricky balance of neither being preachy nor Christian-bashy (yes, I know that's not a word).

66) Boxers by Gene Luen Yang

The other part of the Boxer Rebellion graphic novel set. While it definitely gives you the fuller context of the story, I think Saints is the one I'm more likely to re-read, since Vibiana in that book is a more relatable and sympathetic character than Bao in this one, who does terrible things even though I completely understood the motivation behind them.

2014 Reading, Books 61-63

61) The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan

A rambling yet absorbing look at the lives of the women--and some of the men--who helped develop the atomic bomb, focused heavily on Oak Ridge, TN, but with occasional side trips elsewhere. I'd never paid much attention to this aspect of WWII. Most of my interest, such as it is, has focused on the war in Europe and the Holocaust.

Growing up I was taught that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were necessary to end the war because Japan just wasn't going to surrender, that the only other alternative was invading Japan at the loss of maybe 100,000 American lives. Now...well, I don't suppose I should be surprised to learn that this history wasn't as simple as I was taught in school and at my very patriotic mother's knee when nothing else is, either. Those weren't the only two alternatives--to name just one simple possibility, there was at least some talk of having Japanese envoys see a test of a nuclear weapon so they'd know what we could do. I suppose once the science was out there, development of atomic bombs was inevitable, and I'm pragmatist enough to accept that meant America had to have its own arsenal. For all the madness of it, Mutually Assured Destruction did keep the Cold War from going hot. But we could've won WWII without unleashing it.

That's not what this book is really about, though. It's a story about young women coming of age and building a community in a time of crisis, and I admired them and their spirit. Still, I set the book down sputtering about how there was a better way, not to mention my indignation at the account of testing the effects of radioactive materials on a patient who neither knew nor consented to such a test (NATURALLY a black construction worker at the site who'd come into the Oak Ridge hospital with broken legs but otherwise healthy), along with disbelief that the general in charge of the project recommended that the bomb's first target be Kyoto.

What a brilliant and appalling species we are.

62) The Lucky Charm by Beth Bolden

I tend to be wary of both self-published books by authors without a traditional publishing background and sports romances. Too many of the former don't even have a nodding acquaintance with grammar, and too many of the latter don't seem driven by the love of the game itself. I've read baseball books where the author apparently didn't grasp how a pitching rotation works, and I've read reviews of football books where I'm not sure the author had ever watched an entire football game, much less one featuring the extremely famous team she was writing about.

But this book was talked up a few weeks ago on the Dear Bitches Smart Author podcast, and since I trust Jane and Sarah, I decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did. It's a sweet, engaging romantic comedy about a reluctant sideline reporter and a second baseman desperate to get the (obviously fictional) Portland Pioneers to a playoff spot for the first time. As a fan desperate to see the Seattle Mariners make it to the World Series for the first time, I found the premise entirely relatable, and the baseball felt real enough that I was never thrown out of the story as a serious fan.

63) Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

I live in an entire household of introverts. I'm not the most extreme introvert in the world--and am arguably the most extroverted member of my immediate family--but I still come home every night exhausted from all the social engagement in my very pleasant job with fun coworkers that happens to be in a noisy, open-plan office. This book is a lovely affirmation of who introverts are and how challenging it can be to function in extroverted Western culture.

Risky Regencies sampler now available!

Along with the other bloggers from the Risky Regencies site, I'm participating in a sampler where you can download a chapter or two of our work for free! Try out some new authors and get a feel for how you like our voices.

Get your sampler here.

Announcing A Christmas Reunion

My 2014 Christmas novella from Carina has a title at last--A Christmas Reunion--and a release date of 11/24/14. Watch this space for more details as the release date draws closer, and in the meantime you can check out an excerpt at my website!

2014 Reading, Books 58-60

58) That Weekend... by Jennifer McKenzie

A nice, light contemporary romance that won my affection by being set in a big city (Vancouver) and having a character briefly return to his hometown (ANOTHER big city, namely Toronto), only to decide to come back to Vancouver as part of the happy ending. Yay big cities! Yay happiness being found outside of one's hometown! True, I could see the characters' Big Misunderstanding coming a mile away and wanted to scream at them to communicate already, but did I mention BIG CITY? In a contemporary romance?

59) The War in the Peninsula: Some Letters of a Lancashire Officer by Lt. Robert Knowles

This brief volume of letters written home by a British officer serving under Wellington in the Iberian Peninsula from 1811 till his death in battle in 1813 at the young age of 24 was originally published in 1913. The letters themselves aren't especially interesting--if you're looking for primary sources on the Peninsular War, you'd be better off with Harry Smith, Private Wheeler, Rifleman Costello, Wellington's own dispatches, and so on. Lt. Knowles wasn't given to vivid descriptions of his surroundings or the battles he fought in, so the letters are basically, "Dear Dad: Took a minor wound, don't worry about me, tell everyone hi and my brothers and sisters I love them, and, oh, by the way, send money because our pay is still behind." Only in early 19th century English, of course.

No, the most interesting thing about this book is the 1913 framing describing the battles and explaining what took place in between each battle. It's so clearly a document of its time, contrasting with both the mentality of the Napoleonic Era and our own with its fulsome praising of British glory and manhood and its assurances of the valor, honor, and cleverness of the French enemy. It's as if, oh, I dunno, the two nations had become allies in the interim, and everyone could see another war coming and was, like, foolishly spoiling for a fight.

60) His Uptown Girl by Liz Talley

Another big city contemporary romance, this one set in New Orleans. The hero is a musician looking to open a jazz nightclub across the street from the heroine's antique store, and she fears a nightclub will be bad for the classy, secure atmosphere their street has been trying to establish for itself...but that's the least of their conflicts. Both still bear scars from Katrina, and the heroine in particular is burdened with a ton of family baggage from her late husband's demise. A good book on hope and new beginnings.