Timing, reading and writing

Have you ever noticed that some books take longer to read than others? Sometimes I just blaze through a book in six to eight hours or two long reading sessions, and other books that are the same length take several days instead. And usually I can't tell any major obvious difference between them. The ones that go quickly tend to be more humorous, an urban fantasy book with a lot of banter perhaps. But not always. It certainly isn't a reflection of the quality of writing, some of my very favorite writers fall into the category just mentioned, skilled beyond my ability to describe, so the fact that I blaze through their books is both fun and frustrating because the joy is over way to quickly. Of course sometimes the shortness of the reading experience it is a reflection of one of my big pet peeves, when publishers these days sell a book with huge margins, blank pages between chapters and double spaced text, so a hardback book sold for full price is really the length of a novella, but that's an obvious problem. Does anyone have any ideas about this? What makes a book read quickly or slowly for you?

And how come some reviews are so easy to write, and others are such bears? Again, this isn't in any way a reflection on the quality of the book either, in fact sometimes it's the opposite. Sometimes the easiest reviews to write are the ones where the flaws in the book just jump out at me. Unfortunately, the ideas for the review seems to flow more easily that way. But when I've loved a book the ideas tend to be so much more complex and layered. There is so much that I want to say and I can never say it the way I want to, so I wrestle with the review and it never turns out quite the way I want it to. It can take hours to labor over these reviews, but it's still some of the most satisfying and rewarding time that I spend these days. I don't really enjoy pointing out the bad stuff in the books I read. I do it because I think I should; as a reviewer I think my friends and people who read my reviews are looking for honesty from me, so I try to tell it like I see it. I really try not to be mean, just as honest as possible. But I do really enjoy sharing the good stuff, especially when it's an author that I've been following for a long time, or a new author who's just starting out. It's a chance to express myself and my thoughts on the book, to support their careers a little bit, and to maybe turn a friend onto a super cool book that they might not have read otherwise. And the Internet and blogging gives me a chance to get feedback and to find out if I'm having a little bit of an impact, which is really rewarding. When a friend on Twitter says that she's going to read a book because I recommended it, it's just a really satisfying feeling. Or when I get an email that says that someone has "liked" one of my Goodreads reviews. Or when I see that I'm starting to get hits on this blog for my reviews. So thank you, everyone, for your support. And I'd love to see any comments you have about what makes reviews easy or hard for you to write, or what you think makes books read quickly or go really slowly.

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Review: Fool's War by Sarah Zettel

Fool's War by Sarah Zettel

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I really loved this book. I found it because the SciFi and Fantasy Book Club read When Gravity Fails and one of the discussions that came from it was a search for other science fiction books featurning Muslim and Arab characters. I really enjoy books with international or intercultural storylines and the descriptions of this one really caught my attention. A female Muslim captain certainly seemed like a different perspective that would be pretty fascinating if done well, it sure isn't something you see a lot of in fiction or non-fiction! And done well it was, I was really pleased with almost every aspect of this book.

The cultural aspects were quite interesting. Katmer Al Shei, the chief engineer and part owner of the Pasadena, basically the captain, is a very devout Muslim. She and her cousin, Resit, the ship's lawyer, wear kijabs (what we call hijabs, the head coverings many observant Muslim women wear), although Al Shai covers her mouth and Resit does not because she says that no one would trust a lawyer who doesn't show her face. The women are both very observant, attending prayers several times each day and following as many rules of their faith as possible while traveling in space. In addition, it was interesting to see the author's vision of how Muslims might be perceived in the future. In this version of the future there was a castastrophic event called the Slow Burn 300 years ago that the Muslims were blamed for. They scattered across the setteled space, along with other cultural and religious groups, but there is still a lot of negative feeling toward them. It's pretting upsetting that a book written in 1997 was already so prescient about so many people's inability to forgive and forget. But I have to say that it felt realistic, it wasn't written in dramatic way, or like it was trying to illustrate a lesson in any way other than in a way that good literature does. It just felt like a natureal part of the landscape as it was presented, a piece of the bigger puzzle.

Other than the Muslim religion, there wasn't a lot of other traditional Earth culture presented, but there were several other interesting cultures that were central to the story. The most interesting was the Fools. This was such a neat idea right from the start. People who are traveling around in tiny ships for months to years at a time are under a tremendous amount of stress, so they need pressure valves, entertainers, confidants, clowns - Fools. And of course these Fools have to be untouchable or the people who do will get blackballed, how else can the Fools have the freedom to do their jobs properly?

Other than the Fools there was also the Freers, people who think that true freedom can only come from humans living in space and building environments to suit their growing needs. If they had it there way human would never touch another planet again. They also think that AIs are born when they capture the souls of dying humans and do everything they can to fostor that happening, even though to this point no one has ever figured out what has caused an AI to become independent.

I found this book to be completely engaging from beginning to end. By the middle it got really tense and exciting, with a big twist that really surprised me and changed things around completely. But what made it work most of all was the characters. I can see why some of the reviews I saw compared it to Star Trek, both because of the multicultural cast and the well-rounded story, but it also has quite a bit of Firefly as well. These guys are more on the up-and-up (although Al Shei's partner certainy isn't!) but they're independent operators trying to make it in a system that isn't always so friendly.

All right, I can't say too much more without giving anything away. Read it, it's just a great novel all around, smart and entertaining.



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Review: The Mortal Bone by Marjorie M. Liu

The Mortal Bone by Marjorie M. Liu

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I love the series. I might be a bit hesitant about all of the different pieces of Maxine's heritage that we keep finding out about, it's getting to seem a bit much. In addition to the major story about "the boys," and Maxine and her mother's line being their prison for over one thousand years, she also has some scary dark power inside her (a god?), Jack is her grandpa, and now there's this stuff with her dad. The stuff with her dad in this book is really interesting and it does explain a lot going right back to the beginning of the series with the labyrinth and the armor, it's fun to look back and see how the pieces fall into place. So far Liu does seem to be pulling it together in a way that makes sense and feels logical and very much planned and not like one of those authors that gets so caught up in having cool monsters and demons and gods and stuff that she just throws everything into the book whether it serves the story or not. Liu has always been thoughtful and masterful in her storytelling, so I'm going to trust that she's taking me somewhere terrific and just go with it.



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Linking Goodreads Reviews

Well it looks like I'm going to have to start linking my Goodreads reviews. I didn't realize that NetGalley lets you download their ARCs to your nook (or kindle, iPhone, etc.), and that they have ARCs from great authors like Stacia Kane, and publishers like Angry Robots, and now I really want to work with them! So I'm going to start linking all of my reviews to my blog so they can see that I read and publish a lot, and do have quite a few followers. Plus I read and reviewed 231 books last year, that's probably quite a few more than most reviewers and bloggers. Most of my friends usually see my reviews either directly from Goodreads or by following a link from Twitter, so I haven't really focused on the blog too much, but I have had some ideas for posts that I haven't pursued as well, so maybe it's a good time to do that as well. In fact, I had something that I wanted to say yesterday that I wrote on Tumblr because it was easier to do it on the iphone, so I'll try to figure out what the mobile updates option for the blog is that I saw suggested when I signed in and then keep everything centralized through this location from now on. Thanks for the inspiration, NetGalley!

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New Author Challenge

I've decided to participate in the New Author Challenge at Literary Escapism. I tend to get so wrapped up in the series that I love so much that I may be missing out on a lot of great books and authors that are new to me. I'm challenging myself by going for 50 new authors in 2010. I'm not going to include new authors I've read only in anthologies; those are just teasers to me, intended to get me to read the author's novels. Plus it's too confusing for me to keep track of on Goodreads, since I'm not planning to start posting reviews on this site. I'm looking forward to seeing how I do! Check my shelf for this challenge on Goodreads to see how I'm doing.

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The Challenge That Started It All

I never intended to have a blog. I participate at Goodreads frequently, so I didn't see a need for a separate book blog. And I didn't think I really have much else to say, unless it was to post pictures of my beautiful dogs. But I mostly just email them directly to the most interested (so I think) parties, and I thought I'd leave it at that. Then I started Twittering. And occasionally I found something I wanted to post for my friends to see that took more than 140 characters. I tried Tumblr, but it's pretty limited, including not allowing visitors to make comments. This became a big issue when I wanted to participate in a readathon. I quickly set up a very basic free blog, had fun during the readathon, and figured that was that.

Except I became friends with a lot of book bloggers on Twitter. And discovered some intriguing aspects to the process. Of course, if you really work the system you can get a lot of free books. But then you HAVE to read and review them. I have so many books I'm eagerly anticipating already, plus several Goodreads groups in which I like to participate. I just don't want to have to read a bunch of books that I might not have chosen otherwise, or have to read them first if I have some new releases or a series that I'd rather focus on.

But what really caught my eye was the ability to participate in reading challenges. Now that's fun! Some of my Goodreads groups do various monthly challenges, but those usually have rules that cause the same dilemma of requiring me to read books I'm not as excited about. But annual challenges, that's right up my alley! And I was off and running, plunging head first into the blogging life.

And the blog that brought all of this into focus? Book Chick City  and her Speculative Fiction challenges. I'll be participating in 2.

The fantasy fiction genre challenge at the Obsessed - 24 book level. This will be very easy for me, considering my current obsession with urban fantasy. I'll stick to adult and YA books for this challenge, no juvenile or graphic novels. Check out my progress on Goodreads.



And the science fiction genre challenge at the Addicted - 12 book level. This will be a challenge for me, as I've been sadly neglecting my sci-fi roots for urban fantasy lately. I hope this will encourage me to explore new authors and to revisit some old favorites. Check my progress here.


Thank you Book Chick City! I'm looking forward to the fun of the challenges, as well as to my future as a blogger. I owe it all to you!

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I'm not a book blogger

Although this blog will probably end up having a lot to do with books and reading, it is not a book blog. I use Goodreads extensively. It started as a place to help me find books to read beyond just browsing the shelves at the library or bookstores. I'm lucky to live in a suburban city that has some of the top-rated libraries in the nation. Our little libraries are terrific for browsing, they have a really extensive collection. I read primarily science-fiction and fantasy and these collections are by no means less cared for and updated than more "mainstream" books. But there is still only so much that one library can hold. I read a lot, and sometimes it feels like I've already read everything of the shelves that really excites me. In addition, due to my health situation, going and browsing can be exhausting. Finally, I love a series and when I get one book, I usually immediately or soon after want the rest of the series. All of this leads to placing requests for books. An additional benefit our wonderful local libraries is that they are linked in a consortium of 31 library systems across 9 counties. This gives me access to more than ten million items. Very nearly any book I want will be delivered to my local branch, often within days, and held for me to pick up at my convenience. But there is one catch. I have to know what to ask for.


Which leads back to Goodreads. I started by browsing, and seeing which books people who'd read a book I liked also liked. Which lead to entering in all of the books I'd ever read into "shelves" on the site for easy access. I loved the idea of having a record of what I've read. As much as I love owning books and have many (many), most of my reading over my lifetime has been through the library or borrowing books from friends. It can be hard to remember which authors or series I want to follow, or to make recommendations to friends. And it's just plain satisfying to see it all of the information gathered in one place.

Then as I began to enter new books as I was reading them, I was getting better and better recommendations popping up and a long to-read list was forming. Yay! I get anxious when I don't have a pile of books waiting to be read. What if I'm in sick for a while, or it snows, or the world is ending, what would I do without a stack of books? I'd go insane! My to-read list is a great comfort to me, it helps prepare me for the worst disasters imaginable.


When I started with Goodreads I had no intention of writing reviews. I thought of that as something for the pros or for people who were so interested that they make book blogging a major part of their lives. I was wrong (not for the first time). I really enjoyed seeing the reviews of books I was contemplating reading, all written by regular people, users of the site. It gave an insight into the books that was very personal and fresh, just the kind of info I wanted. And if I liked reading what they had to write, maybe they'd like reading my thoughts as well. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of reporting on my opinions of the books I was reading. It's satisfying. It's fun. Sometimes it starts a conversation. And it might encourage other people to read books and authors that I thought were great.


So voilà, I was a book reviewer. I also ended up using Goodreads for groups discussions of books by genre or topic, making friends, entering contests, etc. But finding, reading and reviewing books is the heart of the site for me. Therefore, why would I need to post reviews to another site? I like Goodreads centralized reviews, being able to quickly scroll down a number of reviews about a book I'm interested in. Although I enjoy reading reviews posted by friends on their own sites, I don't necessarily want to spend hours a day browsing through hundreds of sites to find the books I'm interested in. I also don't have the energy or interest in writing full-out book reviews with proper structure or content. I like just making comments on what interested me. Finally, although I like the idea of getting free books, I don't want to have to read a book that isn't on my already extensive to-read list and I want the freedom to read in whatever order I like. If I start a series and want to keep reading the rest of it, I don't want to feel pressure to stop and read the advanced copies a publisher gave me in order to get info about those books out there before its release. So book blogging isn't for me. But talking about books on this blog, that's a guarantee.

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A blog? Who'd a thunk it?

No one is more surprised than I to find out that I’m now a blogger. It’s amazing what loving to read has gotten me into. First Goodreads, then Twitter, now blogging! The Internet is an amazing tool for making connections. I started this blog because I wanted to participate in a readathon. I needed a place to make reports where other participants could also make comments. Then I wanted to participate in a few reading challenges. And one thing just lead to another... And now I'm a blogger!

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