Splinters of a Fractured Mind

And the 52nd book has been read! I actually completed my personal challenge and it feels good.

... I'm also now free to re-read books if I like. Which is lucky because I need to do my annual reading of A Christmas Carol. I'm trying to decide if I should do this again next year. Maybe even up the ante and read more than 52!

52) Ophelia by Lisa Klein - A rather neat take on a very worn-out play (worn-out in terms of pretty much everyone who has ever written a paper on Shakespeare has written about Hamlet - I know I did... Twice.) With Ophelia being such a passive sort of character, a victim of circumstance, and a short-hand symbol for ineffective trapped ladies, it was interesting to read a version of the familiar story told from her point of view. More so when the writer is someone who has actively taught the play at college-level and has studied Elizabethan works as her dissertation. For the most part, I liked this Ophelia - though she sometimes rang with a bit too-forceful grrl-power. She was human and intelligent and, while she was still trapped to some extent, she fought it and, in the end, coped and adapted. I also admit that I really liked Horatio in this. Poor bastard always got the raw end of the stick, I thought. Gertrude was also much more interesting and realistic. Of course, a lot of this would come just from the fact that you're not looking at events through a decidedly biased Hamlet's eyes.

My main complaint, really, was the ending. It wasn't bad, per se, and I was rather happy with the idea of the ending but it felt rushed. Like a deadline was looming and she had to wrap it up. One part of the equation had groundwork laid for the ending but the other half... Not so much. It knocked Ophelia down a wee notch or two in my estimation. Silly, fluffy moment.

48) Dine Bahane: The Navajo Creation Story ed by Paul G Zolbrod - One of the reasons I love the randomly named Sellers Used Books shop up in Jim Thorpe is for treasures like this (and the fact that he recognizes me now and so gives me 15% off instead of the usual 10%). You find the most amazing, out of the way books there. Including something like this. It's very straight forward, not at all adorned or made "literary," and the stories are transcribed with the same cadence and repetition that an oral tradition would have. There are also copious notes in the back (which I mostly ignored because I wanted the rich mythology, yep)... And it was amazingly reasonable. Looove it.

49) Whose Body? by Dorothy L Sayers - I have FINALLY found and read the first Lord Peter mystery and, I have to admit, it's for the best that it wasn't the first one I read. I still enjoyed it deeply, though, but it read more like a first novel than I expected out of someone who seemed so polished as DLS. It also amused me to find that she spent more time on descriptors in this book more descriptions about what the various characters looked like. Also a less focused, isolated view point. In her other books, she tends to pick one and stick with it (usually following around Peter, naturally) but this one had sections clearly told from the shoulders of other characters. (The book with Miss Climpson's input is an outlier but it is necessary to do it in that manner.)

And I finished Nano. I can't say it's brilliant but I wrote and I wrote hard. I also managed to finish my RTH SeSa well in advance and read a bit throughout the month, too. And go to Anime USA as you do in November.

43) Creole Folktales by Patrick Chamoiseau - Not NOLA Creole, mind you. These are folktales interpreted and retold from the author's childhood in Martinique. Another rare and delicious find from Half Price Books. The stories are eloquent and picturesque and revealing as all the best folk and fairy tales are.

44) Social Life in Old New Orleans by Eliza Ripley - This one took me a bit to get through, mostly because it was written by a non-writer around about 1912. There's precious little logical flow and it's written more in a conversation style, following the wanderings of an elderly lady's mind as she retells her child and young adulthood. For all that, it's still interesting and the details and unfiltered lens a change of pace. And I do mean unfiltered - some of the word choices were made long before the concept of PC or even equality settled into the preferred norm.

8 books away from my 52 for the year. This is GOOD because next month is Nano and Yuletide and RTH Secret Santa and Anime USA and part-time at the Moravian Bookshop and...

I'm home, btw, because my office actually, unbelievably closed today due to the threat of Sandy. Everyone in the path of this bitchy lady... Please be careful! I love you all.

37) Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L Sayers - It's Lord Peter. What can I say? I love the man for all his flaws and the painful sort of way he carries through with his own moral code. The plot centered at an advertising agency is only more clever when you remember that Sayers herself spent about a decade as a copywriter (her most notable work being the "zoo" series for Guinness - think the Toucan poster, all). Though I could have done without the detailed cricket match. I've never understood the game and so it flew right over my head. Luckily, there was very little in that scene that affected the plot. Anyway, it was good to read it after having seen the BBC adaptation and feeling that they did right by it (Oh, Ian Carmichael, you're too, too Wimsey).

38) Badass: The Birth of a Legend by Ben Thompson - A Half-Price Books find that I couldn't resist and, for a fiver, not feeling too guilty about it. It's a fast, fun read and mostly well-researched. I rolled my eyes at some of the lightness and flippancy when it got to be a bit much but, considering the tone and the fact that (unsurprisingly) the writer is an on-off staffer for Cracked... It was pretty good and it was charming to read a book that ranges all the hell over the place. Start with Anubis and end with Daleks? Okay, buddy. Also he gets points for even knowing who Oya is - even if the write-up lacks one of my favorite myths.

39) Lowcountry Boil by Susan M Boyer - A GoodReads advanced reader gift copy. I really must write a proper review of it for the site. I meant to do that before the book was fully released (9/18) but... Life. Sigh. Anyway, it was a fairly charming read with some wonderful detail in the setting and a clear love for the setting. The plot is fairly strong, too, with minimal holes to it and it had good flow once you got into it. There were a few things, though, that got to me. Firstly, the brand-name dropping and gadget-mentioning felt like someone at work who flashes their Rolex when you ask the time - a bit pretentious and sure to date the book before too long. Not offensive but definitely noticeable. Secondly, while the motives and threads were all finally tied together there was more than a dash of Soap Opera to parts of it. You needed to suspend some of that good common-sense disbelief. Thirdly... Was the supernatural gimmick really bloody necessary? But the heroine is kinda charming and I have an immense and strangely abiding love for her poor beleaguered brother.

... And I swear I'll do a proper update on my life and the past trip to CA soon. Promise. I know I'm boring the hell out of you all.

32) An Improper Aristocrat by Deb Marlowe - A cute enough romance with a good turn of action and some definite heat. It read easily and enjoyable. The hero and heroine were even charming and a lot of the side characters amusing. On the other hand, if you stopped to think about it, you were knocked on your ass by the complete and total amount of belief you had to suspend to buy the convergence of so many tropes and regency stock ideas... But really cute, anyway. Just don't think too hard. It was also totally worth the quarter I paid for it.

33) More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Pennsylvania Women by Kate Hertzog - A nice selection of stories, definitely in the style of most books like this. AKA just enough to get you interested in reading more about the person. Some of them were a bit more tenuous in their PA connection and it was written in a fairly haphazard manner but I still got some food for thought and interesting new people to look up.

29) The Rum Diary by Hunter S Thompson - My first Hunter S Thompson, loaned to me by a co-worker. I'm a little ambivalent on it, really. It was a fast read with lots of momentum and emotion and some really vivid imagery. So I liked that. But most of the characters felt very cartoon-ish, pure caricatures. Which was less fun because I like to know a bit more about the people running around... Especially if they're bloody nuts and heavily defined by their alcohol tolerance.

But I do like him better than Hemmingway. Ssssh, don't tell what'shisnameteacher.

26) Dracula in London edited by PN Elrod - Perhaps it's because I've never read the source material (how I haven't managed yet is a wonder to even me) but this anthology lacked a certain punch. A number of the pieces were very well written and interesting but I'm not inspired to keep it. The ones that played with the theatrical links of Bram Stoker were the most amusing and, by and large, the best. The last piece, focusing on Renfield, was just sensationalist, experimental meh. The one or two that featured Dracula as being kind to orphans and such... Expected. Well-written but inadvertently giggle-inducing.

21) The Chick Is In The Mail edited by Esther Friesner - Another in the "Chicks in Chainmail" series and still, by and large, containing more hits than misses. Which is a rare but good thing to say about an anthology. There are some familiar faces, some new ones, and very little darkness. If you want a fun, light read, this series is it. Brooding and emo and torment are strictly checked at the door. Just what the doctor ordered for a rainy day.

22) Flatlanders and Ridgerunners: Folktales from the Mountains of Northern Pennsylvania by James York Glimm - While technically a scholarly treatment of regional folk tales, remedies, and superstitions, Glimm makes a point to try and capture the speech patterns so you get an interesting arrangement of words and colloquialisms. Also stunningly short and to the point tales. The sort of thing you can read and imagine knowing by heart and sharing amongst others who, most likely, know the story but not the details. Different than the old coal country tales/flavor I'm most familiar with but definitely still with the same ancestors. It was also interesting picking up the themes and recognizing the original root tales which gave birth to these, the stories that circulated and came over with the immigrants... And, okay, I got a kick out of seeing mention of Azilum and knowing the backstory. Geek cred, ahoy.

So 2 internship positions came up at work for the scheduling and reconciliation department. I put my name in, sent my resume. Found out today that I'm not getting an interview for it. But, you know, I shouldn't have let myself get excited over the possibility. Even if I'm damn qualified for it, there were only 2 slots and I haven't even been in my current position for a year so... Yeah, and 35 applicants. Hm. Anyway...

17) The Book of Vices: A Collection of Classic Immoral Tales edited by Robert J Hutchinson - Not keeping it but it was an interesting conglomeration of bits and bobs. I can't say I follow some of the logic in classifying some of the choices as one vice or another but you get what you get. At the very least, it got me reading a bit of various authors I've yet to get around to sampling fully - Jane Austen, Seneca, Moliere, etc. It also reminded me that I actually own Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure and should read it someday... Not just let it function as a nifty floating bookshelf.

18) The Science of Sherlock Holmes: From Baskerville Hall to the Valley of Fear, the Real Forensics Behind the Great Detective's Greatest Cases by E J Wagner - Sooo much fun. Not quite as much Holmes as you'd think but definitely worth a read. A really fun take on the history of forensics and with more depth than most "layman" books have, this one is a keeper.

13) The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L Sayers - It's Lord Peter so naturally I'm biased. I love that demmed foolish man and his sensible sidekick (or stabilizing force, you make the call). Strangely, I had seen the BBC adaptation of this ages ago but never got around to actually reading it. I must say the adaptation was very close and very brilliant. Even if Edward Petherbridge looks rather more like Peter should, Ian Carmichael will forever be my favorite for his Silly Elephant's Child ease. Anyway... Good, solid mystery with a varied cast of characters. Rather a product of its time in some ways at how it approaches certain topics. Rich detail like always, a very clever little death based on timing, and a fast read despite/because of Sayers' definite way of writing. Also featuring one of those moments where Peter is true to himself no matter what, proving that there's more to him than meets the eye. PS if he didn't end up with Harriet Vane, I was rooting for Marjorie Phelps. I love that lady.

14) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - I'm not even going to touch on the "did she or didn't she" argument re: Battle Royale (mostly because when I first heard of the series that's the first thing that came to mind) but I will say this - I enjoyed this more than that. Katniss is a remarkably interesting (and flawed) female lead and she is not sugar-coated which makes me extra happy. There is no author slight of hand to excuse her behaviors/thoughts. Girl is fucked-up, yo, and you know why but it's not presented as a preferred status (ahem, Miss Swann). I also like a lot of the other characters and the detail put into the mechanics of surviving were choice. (Yes, I read the Little House books for the details on cooking and foraging. Sue me.) I also might have teared up a bit at one point. Also... points for making me really really enjoy reading a first person POV.