The Year in Review - Books

With few days remaining in 2008, here is my list of reads for 2008. I attempted an 888 challenge, but didn't quite finish it. May try a 999 one this year. (The comments are from my postings over at librarything as I kept track of them during the year.)

1. The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks

As of this morning, I am at about the halfway point. There is definitely a Tolkien feel to this book, but still a good read so far.

2. "J" is for Judgment by Sue Grafton. My lunchtime reading because paperback easier to carry to work. Grafton's writing has definitely improved since "A". This series isn't what I would consider classic material, but still an enjoyable easy read.

3. Foundation by Isaac Asimov

This is the first Asimov book that I've read, but I can say that I'm hooked. I can see why he's one of the masters of science fiction.

4. Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov - not quite as good as the first book, but still an interesting read.

5. K is for Killer by Sue Grafton - finished this one on January 22nd. I'm a bit disappointed. I thought this one fell flat at the end. It seemed that Grafton couldn't decide who the killer should be, so she just picked someone without tying together the loose pieces at the end. Hopefully the next one will be better.

6. Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass - finished Jan. 27th. Not a bad read, but no earthshattering revelations. A good analysis of the elements in any "breakout" novel.

7. Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov - finished 2/3/08 - Not bad, but not my favorite of the trilogy.

8. Wicked by Gregory Maguire - This gets good reviews elsewhere, but for me it was just painful.

9. Maiden, Mother and Crone by D.J. Conway

10. The Once and Future King by T.H. White

11. L is for Lawless by Sue Grafton - I was rather disappointed by this one. It seemed like it was written in a hurry.

12. M is for Malice by Sue Grafton

13. N is for Noose by Sue Grafton

14. The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - I've been working on this one for a while.

15. Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

16. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. A great classic. Haven't read it since high schol.

17. Tombs of Atuan by Ursula Le Guin

18. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson - a quick weekend read. Quite an interesting story.

19. O is for Outlaw by Sue Grafton

20. The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin (Book 3 in the Earthsea Series)

21. P is for Peril by Sue Grafton

22. Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke

23. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje - not sure I like his writing style, but I'll give it a chance

24. Taliesin by Stephen R. Lawhead

25. Atonement by Ian McEwan - I struggled through the first part of this book, but I'm glad I kept reading. It's a fine story about how one innocent action can affect so many other people.

26. Angels Fall by Nora Roberts - not on my 888 list and not something I would normally choose, but all of my books were packed as we were moving and a friend gave it to me. This was a surprisingly good book. An easy read, but sometimes I just need to unwind and relax and not tax my brain.

27. To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer

28. The Fabulous Riverboat by Philip Jose Farmer

29. The Dark Design by Philip Jose Farmer. I've gotten caught up in this series. Need to get back to my 888 list. :)

30. Q is for Quarry by Sue Grafton

31. The Magic Labyrinth by Philip Jose Farmer - The first book in this series is still my favorite. There are many questions that I hope are answered in this book!

32. Merlin - Book 2 of the Pendragon Cycle by Stephen R. Lawhead

33. The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells

34. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

35. The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells

36. Ghosts of Cape May: Book 1 by Craig McManus

37. R is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton. I have now matched last year's number of books read. Only 13 to go to hit 50. . .could be tough, but I'm up for the challenge. ;)

38. Understanding Exposure (revised ed.) by Bryan Peterson

39. Landford's Starting Photography by Michael Langford and Philip Andrews

40. Thicker Than Water by Maggie Shayne

41. Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult

42. Arthur - Book 3 of the Pendragon by Stephen R. Lawhead

43. Freud: darkness in the midst of vision by Louis Breger

44. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

45. Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn by Robert Asprin

it's all in the genes

Lately, my writing has taken a back seat to another of my favorite hobbies - genealogy. I have worked on my family tree off and on for the last twenty years. When I bought my first computer and wandered around the internet I was thrilled to find a wealth of genealogical resources right at my fingertips! Until then, my search had consisted of writing letters and waiting, and waiting, and waiting. With both of my parents moving north, having been born and raised in Tennessee, I couldn't just go to my local library or historical society to search for information.

Over the last ten years, the number of historical resources on the web has grown exponentially. One of my favorite hangouts is ancestry.com, for the access to census records, if nothing else.

I have posted my family tree there, so that I can easily refer back to it while searching for something. One interesting "tool" within the family tree is the ability to search for "famous relatives". I stumbled across this one evening while playing around with the tree. You choose an individual and then hit the aforementioned "find famous relatives" link. Ancestry.com then searches through its OneWorldTree which compiles information from other trees submitted by other Ancestry members and provides suggested resources and other, similar trees.

My to my amusement, I found at least a dozen famous authors hiding in my family tree. On my father's side we have: John Milton (1st cousin, 10 times removed), Nathaniel Hawthorne (7th cousin, 2 times removed), James Matthew Barrie (3rd cousin, 10 times removed), Jack London (9th cousin), Jane Austen (7th cousin, 4 times removed) and Elizabeth Browning (11th cousin, 3 times removed). On my mother's side: Henry David Thoreau (5th/5x), Emily Dickenson (6th/4x), Mark Twain (6th/4x), D.H. Lawrence (7th/4x), John Steinbeck (8th/3x), Helen Keller (7th/5x) and George Orwell (11th/3x).

As a serious researcher, I don't take the above seriously - at least not until I can verify the information. I will boast to having a verified connection to Daniel Boone, but that's another story.

I hope that at least a couple of the cousins are looking over me. Perhaps giving some guidance to my muse. I would be forever grateful. It's a shame we can't have one big family reunion - just once.

where in the world, my dear Watson!

I am currently engrossed in The Complete Sherlock Holmes - the collective works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Last night I read The Red-Headed League in which a red-headed gentleman comes to Sherlock and co. for help. Mr. Wilson has been admitted to the Red-Headed League, and spends each morning copying the encyclopedia by hand (supplying his own pen, ink and paper, of course). He arrives one morning to find an empty office and a note which says that the league has been dissolved. Disturbed by the sudden loss of a steady income (he received four pounds a week for his efforts) he seeks out Mr. Holmes for assistance. Obviously, something nefarious is underway.

The "oh-my-gosh" moment came when reading the "advertisement" which brought Mr. Wilson to the Red-Headed League. It reads, in part: "On account of the bequest of the late Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. . ."

I know what you're thinking - where in the world is Lebanon, Pennsylvania. It's here:


View Larger Map

on the upper center of the map. Cheeky and family live south of Lancaster (the green arrow). Lancaster city has a population of approximately 55,000. The entire county population is right around 500,000. Lebanon, on the other hand, has 24,000 in the city and roughly 120,000 in the entire county. In 1880, 38,476 for the entire county. Yes, I had to look it up.

How in the world did Sir Arthur, sitting in the comfort of his writing parlor in the 1890's (the story was published in August 1891) discover Lebanon? Like Lancaster, the residents were predominantly German. It has no claim to faim that I'm aware of. (Ha, unlike Lancaster, which was capital of the colonies for one day - September 27, 1777 - but I digress. . .) It's barely a blip on the map compared to Lancaster. Perhaps friend or family of Doyle immigrated from Scotland. Perhaps there's an unknown manuscript buried somewhere in the old lebanon balogna factory. . .

It may forever remain a mystery, but it's still very cool to find a connection to dear Sherlock Holmes.

literary, classic, or just a darn good book?

I regularly visit a couple of writing forums. On both sites, there have been discussions about "classic" literature and "literary" novels. What has come out of these discussions is that there really is not a universal definition of either.

When I think of classics, I think of writers such as Fitzgerald, the Bronte sisters, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Dickens and Orwell. Trying to define the term, however, is a bit more challenging. I did a bit of research, which left me even more perplexed. Not being able to find a definition, I looked for lists (which is how I stumbled upon some of the lists I've mentioned in earlier posts). Lists vary just as much as the definition. There's the academic version and the commercial/publisher's version.

Cheeky's somewhat simplistic definition - classic literature is that which reflects the social, political, economic, philosophical and/or religious atmosphere, and may including a view of the change in said atmosphere, of the period during which is was written, generally pre-1900.

Literary fiction is a whole different ballgame. Literary refers to a genre, such as mystery, historical, fantasy, science fiction, but is a bit difficult to explain. In my opinion, literary fiction is more character driven and utlizes more literary devices than normal fiction. With the use of metaphors and similes, irony, symbolic epiphany, and even an abundance of sensory details, the story can be read and interpreted on multiple levels - the story as presented and the meaning of the story based on the meaning of the elements of the story.

Some people don't "get" literary fiction. It takes a lot to read and digest the full meaning of the story. It's not meant to be simple storytelling. I used to love analyzing fiction. I could spend hours peeling away the layers, looking for hidden meanings and wondering if that was what the writer really meant to convey. I don't have the time to do that these days, but I can still appreciate a good literary story.

Which brings me to the whole purpose of this post. What is good writing for me, may not be the same as another reader's definition. There's nothing wrong with having different opinions. The arts do not have objective meaning. . .it's all open for some degree of interpretation. The best we can do is offer opinions. Sometime we agree with the majority and sometimes we don't. In one of these online discussions, a reader stated that book X, generally accepted as a classic, was pure rubbish and shouldn't be considered a classic. I disagreed.

I am currently struggling through The Once and Future King by T.H. White. I really just want to toss the book in the trash. Robin Hood and King Arthur are not from the same time period and Merlin is depicted as being somewhat of a flake. But, my preference for Arthurian literature is more along the lines of Mary Stewart and Marion Zimmer Bradley. Most of the reviews I've read on various sites would have this be a classic. I don't see it yet, but I'll keep reading. Even if I don't agree with the classification, that's OK.

if only I had a thumb. . .

Meet Maddie. . .apparently she's taking over editing duties.

google me, sassenach

Google Analytics, to which I subscribe, tracks visitors to your website. I check it upon occasion to see if anyone actually visits here or if I'm just talking to myself. The latter would be fine - I've been known to have fabulous conversations with myself. But, it appears that I actually DO have visitors. Analytics also shows how visitors arrived at your website. Direct Traffic, Referring Sites and Search Engines.

The interesting information can be found in the Search Engines report. People have actually googled my name, which is freakishly interesting. But, they've also arrived here from other searches. The popular search recently has been "sassenach", which I previously defined here. I wish visitors would leave comments. I'd really like to know why they're searching one of my favorite words.

In writing news, I've discovered the forums on Absolute Write. Members range from novice writers to seasoned vets and the discussions can get quite lively. There's a wealth of information shared among members, for which I give it two thumbs up. Of course, the site can also suck up a lot of time if you're not careful.

I've added an entire chapter to the WIP - somewhere around 1600 words. When I started working on it again, I decided the story needed to start at an earlier point in time. I should have two, maybe three, chapters added to the beginning before I continue on where I left off.

smallpox, trews and arisaidh

One of the best parts of writing a historical novel is the research. I've done a good bit of research for this novel - everything from Scottish dialect to pagan rituals to the best ways to torture a witch so that she'll confess to whatever she's been accused of doing (think European witch hunts in the 17th and 18th centuries).

I'm glad that I'm back into writing this story. Over the last week or so I've written a brief synopsis, become reacquainted with my characters and sketch out a brief outline. In doing all of this I realized that I needed to start the story a bit earlier. I also realized that I needed to know the gory details of smallpox.

Did you know that smallpox has an incubation period of about 12 days? That the major symptoms are fever, muscular pain and the pus-filled lesions? These pustuals cause the upper layer of skin to separate from the underlying layers, causing severe pain. Smallpox has been virtually eliminated thanks to aggressive immunization. In 1796, Edward Jenner, an English doctor, realized that the cowmaids who had been mildly infected by the cowpox virus (similar to smallpox, but less intense) did not become ill when exposed to the smallpox virus. And so was born the modern vaccination.

As for the other two - trews are similar to a footed hose and were worn by wealthy Scottish men. The arisaidh is the woman's plaid, or cloak. Not to be confused with tartan, which is the correct term for the clan or district pattern of the cloth.

Fascinating stuff, eh?

Yep, welcome to my world.